It’s been eight years since Mr. Negativity came out, the volume previous to this collection in chronology, and four years since I’ve read an issue of Supernatural Law, so I was worried that I’d have forgotten too much to catch up. Wrong. Batton Lash’s characters came right back to me, helped by the classic formula of their stories and a new 12-page prologue that reintroduces the concept and the cast. The situations aren’t particularly deep or subtle, but the appeal […]

Darryl Cunningham previously wrote Psychiatric Tales, stories of his time working with mental patients. Now, he turns his graphic journalism to bigger topics with Science Tales: Lies, Hoaxes, and Scams. As in his previous book, the chapters take distinct points of view. These are essays, meant to convince, not just reporting. Topics covered include current hot buttons — climate change, evolution, denial of the facts discovered by the scientific method — as well as older areas of debate, including chiropractic, […]

I hadn’t previously heard of Amanda Cohen, owner and chef behind the Dirt Candy vegetable restaurant in New York City, but that’s not surprising, since I’m primarily a carnivore. However, I was familiar with the outstanding work of artist Ryan Dunlavey, most recently on the impressive Comic Book History of Comics. He’s a wizard with the presentation of non-fiction material in comic format. Given how a cookbook is a natural for visual presentation — showing techniques, for example, or what […]

Thought-provoking and disturbing, Unterzakhn shows us the lives and options available to young Jewish girls in an early 1900s New York slum. Although the twins look identical, Fanya is considered the smart one, and so she begins helping a “lady doctor”. This bitter woman helps others deal with unwanted pregnancies during an era when birth control was illegal and a homemade abortion risked killing you. The doctor also teaches Fanya to read, a skill she’s not otherwise thought to need. […]

Silent Partner is based on a novel originally published in 1989, the fourth in the Alex Delaware series by Jonathan Kellerman. Delaware is a child psychologist who solves murder mysteries, and the newest book in that series, Victims, comes out the same day as this graphic novel adaptation, for cross-promotion purposes. I haven’t read the novels, but I’ve been a fan of Ande Parks’ crime writing since Capote in Kansas. He does an excellent job making this feel like a […]

Andy Warner is a student at the Center for Cartoon Studies who emailed me out of the blue to look at his comics, and I’m glad he did. He’s got a bunch online, but the newest are these: The Man Who Built Beirut is a non-fiction exploration of Middle Eastern politics through the story of the murder of Rafik Hariri, former prime minister of Lebanon and construction mega-mogul, and the demonstrations that followed. Warner lived in Beirut in 2005 and […]

A description of the premise, while intriguing, doesn’t do the project justice. Nelson is a multi-creator anthology in which each artist shows us a day in another year in Nelson’s life, from her birth in 1968 to what she’s doing in 2011. Along the way, we see how attitudes and lifestyles change in the UK over the decades, while noticing the patterns that repeat themselves as people grow up, struggling against becoming their parents. It’s a wonderful glimpse of the […]

Available to order now from Previews is the first issue of a new indy series from Ardden Entertainment, Mixtape, written by Brad Abraham, art by Gervasio and Jok. It’s the story of a group of friends, about to be high school seniors, and the choices they make. Issue #1 takes place at a party on the last Saturday of summer 1990. Jim is giving Adrienne a ride. She spent the summer in London, broadening her horizons and losing a good […]