September 11, 2023 Johanna Other Prose Leave a comment

Once Upon a Rind in Hollywood

I loved the concept of Once Upon a Rind in Hollywood: 50 Movie-Themed Cheese Platters and Snack Boards for Film Fanatics, and I loved it even more when I read it. (The photographs, which are glorious, are credited to Rachel Riederman, and I think she wrote the text as well, based on the about page, but the text is copyrighted to the publisher, Ulysses Press, although the recipes are credited to Riederman. Modern books are weird.) For each famous movie, […]

August 30, 2023 Johanna Comic News Leave a comment

Small Press Expo 2023

I find myself able to attend the Small Press Expo 2023 (Saturday only — but given how there were more people that wanted rooms than available in the hotel, that’s maybe easier to handle this year). It’s held September 9-10 in Bethesda, Maryland. I’m most interested in the debut books, as a convention is a terrific place to find material new to me. Some of the biggest name books in that category — but there are tons more — are: […]

August 27, 2023 Johanna Art 2 comments

Lost Legion of Super-Heroes Art by Stuart Immonen

The below, I’ve been told, was intended to be one of the pinups for the oversized Legion of Super-Heroes #100 (which was cover-dated January 1998 and was one of the last issues of the series KC Carlson edited). It did not run, I think, because it was thought to be TOO close in style to Archie Comics characters. I was reminded of it when chatting with someone who referenced the “Archie Legion”, a name I don’t care for, but hey, […]

August 23, 2023 Johanna First Second Leave a comment

Science Comics: The Periodic Table of Elements

The Science Comics line continues with The Periodic Table of Elements: Understanding the Building Blocks of Everything, an introduction to the basics of chemistry by Jon Chad. Mel is anxious about her upcoming chemistry test on the elements, because pressure makes her nervous. She dreams herself into the Land of the Elements, where the elements take on the forms of various blobby creatures. Her help is needed to defeat the Elemancer, who wants to destroy the world, and — what […]

August 16, 2023 Johanna Abrams / Amulet One comment

Washington’s Gay General

Two of the biggest trends in graphic novels over the past few years are graphic memoir (biographies and autobiographies in comic format) and non-fiction comics (particularly those about scientific topics or history). I love both, as I find them both educational and a terrific use of the combined textual/visual nature of comics. Nothing gives you a better way of sharing someone’s experience or understanding new material. I thought Washington’s Gay General, by Josh Trujillo and Levi Hastings, was going to […]

August 14, 2023 Johanna Other Leave a comment

Kiss Number 8

We not only live in changing times, but we live in quickly changing times. Kiss Number 8 came out in 2019, and as the story of a girl realizing she’s gay, complicated by the unspoken family history she discovers, it already feels a little like a period piece. (Not enough of one, though, given current events.) To be fair, the author’s interview in the back makes that point as well, based on how long the book took to write and […]

August 12, 2023 Johanna Other Publishers Leave a comment

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Deya Muniz’s The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich is a wonderfully silly romance with plenty of cheese puns. You probably already know from that description whether you’d like it or not, but let me elaborate. Count Camembert has a daughter, but she cannot inherit. So the two of them decide to have her become a man, since she doesn’t want to marry because she doesn’t like men that way. With the aid of beloved servant Feta, the young Count […]

August 12, 2023 Johanna Tokyopop Manga Reviews Leave a comment

Why I Adopted My Husband

I’m glad to see more manga memoirs coming out. Comics is such a great format for nonfiction true-life stories, as they show what happened in such approachable fashion, including the emotional affect. The trend seems to have started with My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness (2017), with more recent examples including Until I Meet My Husband, Until I Love Myself, and Embrace Your Size. Why I Adopted My Husband by Yuta Yagi is the true story of his relationship (and the […]

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