Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Laurianne Uy is clearly manga-influenced, but her first graphic novel, a Xeric Award winner, is enjoyable for any comic reader. Polterguys is the story of Bree, a focused college student who has a dream of becoming a doctor that takes the place of having any friends. Her roommates drive her crazy, so she moves off-campus to an old house that turns out to have five inhabitants — ghosts, all boys. (According to the author, it’s inspired by “reverse harem” shojo […]
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I can pretty much guarantee you missed knowing that Detention even existed, which is a shame. Although I hate horror films, I enjoyed this mashup of teen movies, high school slasher flicks, and parodies. The more you know about any of those types, the more you’ll enjoy this film, which never stops moving and is jam-packed full of references to everything else, just like the modern world. You definitely need to pay attention to get everything that’s going on — […]
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As I said when the DVD was announced, I wanted to see The Dark Knight Rises mainly because of Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman, um, Selina Kyle. I didn’t catch it in theaters, because I find these spectaculars too dark for my taste. I don’t even recall if I ever saw The Dark Knight (because I was upset by Heath Ledger’s passing), and I was three years late on Batman Begins. So this is something of a naive writeup. Plus, at 2 […]
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One of Digital Manga’s last print releases before their announced hiatus, Start With a Happy Ending by Risa Motoyama is an odd but comforting selection for the end of the year. I found its message, to take more joy in life and make more rewarding choices for yourself, memorable and needed. It’s a single volume, and the short chapters all have a similar premise: someone who died suddenly is reincarnated as a cat to handle any unfinished business … but […]
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Have you seen Alison Wilgus’ A Stray in the Woods? It’s a webcomic about a cat — always a good choice — but she creates each new installment based on user input. You can start at the beginning and catch up fairly easily. There’s something creepy going on, with a dark forest and a deserted house. Update: Adding a better link for the now-completed webcomic.
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Only in Japan. This bizarre historical fantasy by Mari Yamazaki finds similarities between the bathhouses of the ancient Romans and the public bathing culture of modern Japan. Lucius is a Roman architect seeking new designs for a public bath. He’s just been fired for having “antiquated ideas” in his modern day of 128 AD. When he seeks to relax by bathing, he gets sucked under water and comes up in a Japanese bathhouse. After the expected culture clash, he returns […]
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Continuing their pattern of bringing out significant manga in substantial hardcovers, next month Fantagraphics will release The Heart of Thomas, an important work in the history of shojo. It’s by Moto Hagio, whose A Drunken Dream and Other Stories was published by them two years ago. The Heart of Thomas is one of the first “boys’ love” manga (shonen-ai, which doesn’t have the sexual content of yaoi), originally published in 1974. Thomas is a boy at a German boarding school […]
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A new Owly book never disappoints, and the oversized hardcover children’s book format just provides more room to explore Andy Runton’s lovely visions of the animal friends. In this followup to last year’s Friends All Aflutter!, Runton is playing with art in shades of purple and black, as Owly and Wormy use their new telescope. You can’t see the stars well from most homes, especially if your house is a tree covered in leaves, so the two go camping, after […]
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