Spectacle

There are good mash-ups, and there are great ones, ones that make you wonder “how terrific! why haven’t I seen this combination before?” Megan Rose Gedris’s Spectacle is great, combining life in the circus, steampunk touches, a ghost sibling, and a murder mystery. Anna is the practical twin, creator of a steam-driven conjecture engine that can predict future events using statistics to 78% accuracy. Ironic, then, that she tells fortunes, knowing that they’re trickery. Kat is the twin liked by […]

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The Young Master’s Revenge Volume 1

Meca Tanaka’s previous series, Meteor Prince, was a goofy take on “love with a supernatural creature” manga. Here, she tackles the “we knew each other as children and now meet again” genre with similarly silly results. The Young Master’s Revenge stars Leo Tachibana, returning to Japan to start high school. The decade he spent out of the country, he fixated on revenge on Tenma, whose family has suffered a decline. While Leo’s father’s fashion business has since made them rich, […]

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New Shoes

Many comic artists have moved into creating children’s books, including Ivan Brunetti, Kate Beaton, and Andy Runton. There’s not that much difference between the two formats, mostly a matter of whether the words appear in balloons or as captions. Children’s books tend to be shorter and focus on the images. Sara Varon has also put out children’s books, which isn’t surprising, since her style is so welcoming and she tends to draw humanoid animals or ambulatory treats. Her newest book, […]

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Gothic Tales of Haunted Love

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love is Hope Nicholson’s (The Secret Loves of Geek Girls) latest Kickstarted anthology, now available for order through your local comic shop. And it’s a great concept — inspired by the short-run early 70s comic genre of gothic romance, which featured spooky old houses, tragic young women in danger, and the potential of ghosts, a variety of creators have created new stories with today’s attitudes. There are 20 stories included, co-edited by S.M. Beiko, plus some […]

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It’s Never Too Late to Say Sorry: Artist Apologizes for Work on Marvel Mangaverse

Would that more people had the willingness to reexamine their past actions and recognize changed viewpoints… Lea Seidman Hernandez (Cathedral Child, Rumble Girls: Silky Warrior Tansie) drew an exoticized revamp of The Punisher for the Marvel Mangaverse event back in 2002 (when comics were $2.25!). Those event books have recently been reprinted (although I can’t imagine why anyone thought that would be a good idea; people have been asking for Marvel to better support the bookstore market for years, but […]

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Sleepless #2

It’s not really fair to judge a comic by its first issue. That’s the one everyone spends extra time and effort on to make a great first impression. So when I find a great second issue, that bodes well for enjoying a comic for the long run. Sleepless #1 set up the basics of the premise; in this second issue, Sarah Vaughn and Leila del Duca expand on the premise by showing us Princess Poppy trying to find out who’s […]

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Win Cool Craft Swag From Comet TV

That terrific young witches movie The Craft is showing on Comet TV this coming weekend — Sunday, January 21, at 6E/5C/6P and Monday, January 22, at 8E/7C/8P. If you’re unfamiliar, four teens — played by Robin Tunney, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, and Fairuza Balk — experiment with witchcraft, but when they start taking revenge on those who’ve wronged them, things get out of control. Here’s the trailer: And an oral history of making the film, which came out in 1996. […]

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Audubon: On the Wings of the World

Audubon: On the Wings of the World — written by Fabien Grolleau and illustrated by Jérémie Royer — is a handsome historical hardcover that gives a stunning portrait of the American wilderness in the early 1800s. It also reminds us what artists may suffer when driven by creativity, as well as the sacrifices of those around them. John James Audubon is still known today for his gorgeous paintings of the birds of North America. Instead of the stiff scientific art […]

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