Noelle Stevenson’s Illustrated Year in Review

What a story! Noelle Stevenson has posted an illustrated look back at 2012. In that year, she went from someone who “hadn’t made a comic longer than four pages” to having a book deal with HarperCollins for her webcomic Nimona. She also, last year, interned at BOOM! Studios, drew some terrific movie satire cartoons, went to her first San Diego Comic-Con … and turned 21. My gracious. That’s a year to brag about for anyone, let alone someone so young. […]

Read more

Peter David Has Stroke on Vacation; Some Thoughts on Stroke Recovery

I have been unsure whether to talk about this, because the news hit very close to home and every time I think about it, I tear up. On Sunday, noted comic writer Peter David posted that he had had a stroke that affected his vision and caused him to lose control of the right side of his body. Long-time readers will recall that my husband KC had a mini-stroke almost four years ago. Every time I hear news like this, […]

Read more

Dick Tracy on Blu-ray

Dick Tracy was released on Blu-ray last month. I saw the movie when it came out, and I was impressed by the cast. I also liked the limited palette, with only a few shades of bright colors used to give the movie a comic-strip look. For instance, early on, a set of oil barrels are red, green, and yellow, and suits are similar crazy shades — emerald, purple, and so on. It looks like someone spilled their crayon box all […]

Read more

Best Graphic Novels of 2012

Here’s what I thought were the best graphic novels of 2012, in order, based on what affected, entertained, and enlightened me. For more information on any of the following titles, the links take you to my reviews. This may be the first time in years that I’ve managed to review all of the titles I’m recommending before this list was due! Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me by Ellen Forney Drama by Raina Telgemeier Friends With Boys by Faith Erin […]

Read more

The Infinite Wait and Other Stories

The Infinite Wait and Other Stories is Julia Wertz’s followup to Drinking at the Movies, her collection of autobiographical comics about moving to New York. Her art style hasn’t changed, although here it’s often more ambitious in the contents of her panels, with more detailed backgrounds and complex staging. She still draws herself with spaghetti arms, saucer eyes, and helmet hair, though, which provides a comfortable familiarity. What’s different is how she’s framing her stories. This book has three “comic […]

Read more

A Wrinkle in Time

The highest praise I can give an adaptation is that this graphic novel version of the classic science fiction fantasy novel by Madeleine L’Engle gave me new insight into the beloved story. Meg Murry struggles at school, for social and academic reasons. She’s too bright for the other kids to be comfortable around her, she’s too distracted to care about class, and she doesn’t even bother trying to fit in. Her younger brother, Charles Wallace, is thought to be “just […]

Read more

Drama

Raina Telgemeier’s Smile, about her adolescence, was one of my best graphic novels of 2010. Now, as she moves into fiction, she’s put out another outstanding title. Drama is one of the best graphic novels of 2012. It’s the story of Callie, who’s the set designer for the school play. She’s got a crush on her friend Greg, but after telling him of her feelings, he starts avoiding her. (Kids. Easier not to talk about something than face the difficult […]

Read more

Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man & Donald Duck: A Christmas for Shacktown

Review by KC Carlson I’ve been somewhat lax in reviewing these, intending to talk about them earlier in the year. I’ve been incredibly selfish in wanting to find quality time in my impossible schedule to really do them justice. Most months, I’ve only had an hour here or 15 minutes there, and that’s just not enough time to take to really read these quality-packed volumes of classic Carl Barks duck stories. (I’m having similar problems with the massive wave of […]

Read more
1 396 397 398 399 400 619