Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Which 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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
The final issue of Lumberjanes has just been solicited for a December release in comic shops. End of Summer #1 can be ordered now with Diamond code OCT20 0902 (cover by Kat Leyh), OCT20 0903 (cover by Harriet Moulton), or OCT20 0904 (cover by Tillie Walden). It’s $6.99 for 48 pages. The contents are written by Shannon Watters and Kat Leyh and illustrated by Brooklyn Allen (artist on the first story) and Kanesha C. Bryant. The series has been running […]
Read more
Dash, the retro gay private eye noir comic, had a successful Kickstarter this past summer. Now that the book is going to exist, you can order it through your local comic shop. Dash Volume 1: The Case of the Mysterious Zita Makara will be in stores in December and can be pre-ordered with Diamond code OCT20 1498. It contains six issues’ worth of story with 40 pages of new stories and an introduction by Steve Orlando. You can read a […]
Read more
One of the reasons I have been very pessimistic in the past about Kickstarters and crowdfunding is how some projects never deliver. I’ve got a few on my tracking list that have been there, undelivered, for years. Don’t get me wrong, many people are responsible, but the ones that aren’t are the ones that stick in people’s minds, and poison the well for others. So I want to congratulate Rikki Simons and Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons. They funded a reprint collection of […]
Read more