Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Murder Is a Must by Marty Wingate is the sequel to The Bodies in the Library. As with the first, the mystery is set in a library dedicated to female mystery authors, and the murder is loosely connected to a classic mystery. In this case, it’s Dorothy L. Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise. I loved the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, and Murder Must Advertise is one of the best, as he’s at his most whimsical in it. The dilettante peer has […]
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No one cares about this any more, with everything else going on, but just for historical purposes: Back in March, I asked “what will happen to Free Comic Book Day?” At that time, they were expecting that they’d have to reschedule from May to later in the year once the pandemic was under control. As we know now, due to idiots who think “freedom!” can contradict scientific fact and a ridiculous lack of political leadership, we’re still in it. So […]
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I tried The True Adventures of Sherlock Holmes because of a recommendation from someone in my Sherlockian group. I enjoyed it so much I went wandering through the rest of the books publisher Gasogene Books has put out and decided to try a more straightforward story with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Watson Chronicles by Anne Margaret Lewis, subtitled “A Sherlock Holmes Novel in Stories”, was another great read. Six stories tell of how John Watson, a fifty-year-old in […]
Read moreWhich is a good thing, if you ask me. Because I like older movies. And to me, a “classic” is 1940s, not 1980s, as I’ve seen it used recently. Courtesy of JustWatch.com comes this infographic. You’ll note that the studio streaming services — Disney+, Peacock, and HBO Max — are the newer kids on the block but have a longer tail and thus an older average content age. But then, the companies behind them have been around a lot longer […]
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Turns out that the trilogy that began with A Study in Charlotte now has four books. I read A Question of Holmes, the final, in the hopes that it would resolve some of the many tangles built up so far. (The cast became too large in the second, The Last of August. I think I read the third, The Case for Jamie, but I don’t recall much about it and definitely didn’t like it.) I was distinctly disappointed. The characters […]
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In December, Fanfare Presents will be publishing Lunatic by Dan Mazur. It’s a 200-page hardcover where every page is a wordless single image, combining into the story of a woman who loves the moon. Dan put out this video to show and tell about the book, which uses a variety of art styles. I wish more people explained their projects so clearly and directly, with plenty of sample pages. The word “lunatic” derives from Latin, meaning “of the moon” or […]
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I adored I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider. If you liked You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack or Book Love, you’ll love this. The cartoons are all about being a reader or a writer or both. Overall, the message is how books can and will change your life. I alternated among thinking “how wise”, “how inspiring”, and “how surprising”. Starting with this opening spread. I thought it was a manifesto for the book — which […]
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The Barnaby comic strip by Crockett Johnson (Harold and the Purple Crayon) is amazingly creative. Fantagraphics began bringing this 1940s classic to modern readers in 2013. As I said in my review of volume 1 (which reprints strips from 1942-1943), Barnaby is a typical boy who’s visited by the world’s strangest Fairy Godfather. Mr. O’Malley wears a hat and trenchcoat and is never seen without his cigar (which he calls his magic wand). It’s unclear, at times, whether he’s really […]
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