Unicorn Bowling

Unicorn Bowling is the ninth in the Phoebe and Her Unicorn series. (I’m behind; there have been two more books out since this one: The Unicorn Whisperer and Camping with Unicorns.) Most collect the comic strips; a couple are original, longer stories, but this isn’t one of them. That means this book is 170 or so pages of everyday witticisms, with a continuing theme following through at most four or five strips. It’s welcome light entertainment, particularly given how fresh […]

Read more

New Japanese Laws Criminalize Unlicensed Manga Downloads

Not much to say about this, since I know very little about Japanese law, but I did find it interesting enough to note. According to TorrentFreak, Japan’s parliament passed new copyright amendments Friday that ban the unlicensed downloading of manga, magazines, and academic texts from the internet, in line with the previously outlawed media categories. In common with the penalties already available for movies and music, those illegally downloading publications from the Internet now face a theoretical sentence of two […]

Read more

Yotsuba&! Volume 14

The thing about Yotsuba&! is that I could pretty much repeat the first half of my review of the previous volume, because the series is that consistently good. It’s still the reading equivalent of really well done comfort food. There’s still a number of years between releases. It’s still about a child’s imagination mixed with humor and good feeling and family and the occasional moment of poignancy. The main difference with Yotsuba&! volume 14 comes in the activities Yotsuba and […]

Read more

DC Super Hero Girls: Search for Atlantis

DC Super Hero Girls: Search for Atlantis is the last of the graphic novel line by the original pair of creators, writer Shea Fontana and artist Yancey Labat. It’s also the first tie-in release, as the first few pages, introducing Mera to the school for superhero students, reference the animated movie DC Super Hero Girls: Legends of Atlantis. (In short, Mera was a bad guy, manipulated by her sister Siren so she can obtain the magical Book of Legends.) In […]

Read more

Baking With Kafka

Tom Gauld’s second book of collected cartoons, after You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, is Baking With Kafka. As with the previous volume, these comics are funny, all the more so for tackling literary and cultural topics. There are plenty of daily life strips out there, where the humor comes from a shared recognition of everyday behavior, but sometimes they feel a little easy. Gauld’s work aims in a different direction. I love it in part because it entertains […]

Read more

Action Presidents Return in Color!

I love non-fiction comics, particularly those that manage to both educate and entertain. I thought Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey’s Action Presidents! books were an excellent example of that when I reviewed them in 2018. Next month, there will be even more of their humorous history to enjoy. The two existing books, covering George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, will be reissued in color, and two new Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, will join the series. I was […]

Read more

More Drops of God Available Digitally

Kodansha Comics has rescued The Drops of God and released new volumes, never before available in English, digitally. With last week’s update, half the series is now available. Vertical previously put out the first four volumes of The Drops of God in print in 2011-2012 (ending with chapter 77), along with a jump-ahead volume, The Drops of God: New World (which included chapters 210-227). It’s about a competition to identify 12 outstanding wines pitting the son of a noted wine […]

Read more

Marvel Shutting Down Their Digital Comic Website

Marvel Comics seems to be streamlining their digital comic presence. They sent out an email notifying users that “the Marvel Digital Comics Shop at comicstore.marvel.com will be closing on June 2, 2020.” The associated help file has more detail: Digital comic purchases should be made through the Marvel Comics app for iOS or Android or through ComiXology.com. Basically, the Marvel website where you can buy and read online comics won’t be supported after this month. Also, preorders and series subscription […]

Read more
1 65 66 67 68 69 618