Charlie Milverton and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories
If you’d like to read five classic Arthur Conan Doyle mystery stories, modernized in tawdry, tabloid fashion, Charlie Milverton and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories by Charlotte Anne Walters is the book for you. For me, it was an excellent piece of evidence that putting a present-day Holmes story in print doesn’t automatically make it better than the free fic you can read on AO3. In fact, I would have enjoyed this more online, as there I would have been more […]
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Graphic Science: Seven Journeys of Discovery
Darryl Cunningham has a unique style for his non-fiction comics, which include How to Fake a Moon Landing (a collection of arguments for science and against popular myths) and The Age of Selfishness (about Ayn Rand and the international financial crisis). His graphic journalism would, without the pictures, work effectively as essays, although the images contribute to the ease of reading and the compelling arguments. His pages manage to combine passion and facts over panels of remarkably blocky people and […]
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Arsenal FC: The Game We Love
I was curious about Arsenal FC: The Game We Love because I know very little about football (as most of the world terms it; “soccer” to us US heathens). After reading this loving tribute by Philippe Glogowski, I don’t know much more about the sport or how one wins a game, but I do feel that I’ve been introduced to all the best and favorite moments of the past twenty years or so for this team (dating from 1996-2016). It’s […]
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Over My Dead Body
Over My Dead Body by Dave Warner has an irresistible concept (at least for me): what if Sherlock Holmes was frozen in his plunge over the Reichenbach Falls and woken in the current day? And what if he wound up working with a female descendent of Dr. Watson? It’s not an original idea, of course — there are at least two TV movies with the same premise. (The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987) also uses cryogenics; the better Sherlock Holmes […]
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Adler (Collection)
The Adler miniseries, promoted as a “League of Extraordinary Gentlewomen”, has now been collected. It’s written by Lavie Tidhar and illustrated by Paul McCaffrey. I was not fond of the first issue. The story didn’t substantially change in future issues, but I was more entertained by it, read all at once. The action careened from one ridiculous happening to another. In one issue, that felt slight; as one longer ride, it was less annoying to me. Plus, there were more […]
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Sherlock: The Great Game Manga, Original and Translated
Given that I don’t read Japanese, it’s rare I get to make direct comparisons between an original manga volume and its English translation. So I was excited to see how much I could find out about Sherlock: The Great Game. This is the third, concluding volume in the manga series telling the story of the BBC show Sherlock‘s first season. It was published in English by Titan in 2018. I have a copy of the original Japanese printing of the […]
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Becoming Brianna
Terri Libenson’s latest in the Emmie & Friends series — after Invisible Emmie, Positively Izzy, and Just Jaime — follows the same model, alternating copiously illustrated diary sections with large-panel comics. In Becoming Brianna, the diary pages describe the past, while the comics show the present. Brianna is Emmie’s best friend, and as we saw in Positively Izzy, she’s subject to stage fright. That makes what she’s doing more of a challenge for her — she’s celebrating her bat mitzvah. […]
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Chéri, My Destiny!
Chéri, My Destiny! LOOKS like a cute food manga about two young men falling for each other while making sweets, but by the time we reach the final chapter (of four) in the story, it’s well earned its Mature (18+) rating. Sakura manages a shop that sells Western-style chocolates and desserts near a confectionary that sells Japanese-style treats. Sakura gets competitive, so he checks the other place out, where he sees that they’ve got lots of young female customers. Sakura […]
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