Even if I don’t immediately warm to the subject matter, I have a fondness for works that play with formalism and make me ponder how we define comics. Neil Dvorak’s Easy Pieces is the latest example. Eschewing the paneled page, he’s posted a set of short pieces that ask philosophical questions, executed as single line-art images symbolic of his text ponderings. It’s all rather mind-boggling, yet certainly, as a combination of art and words to convey a message, it’s all […]

Look Straight Ahead does something a bit different for webcomics — it tackles a long-form dramatic story with real-life implications. Elaine Will began the strip six months ago, and she describes her series as follows: The story concerns a high school student named Jeremy Knowles and follows his journey through a severe mental breakdown…. it focuses on what a mental breakdown actually feels like, as well as other situations going along with the experience — the social stigma, the side-effects […]

Every Tuesday, Gavin Aung Than posts a comic adaptation of an inspirational quote or poem at Zen Pencils, and they’re quite good. The most recent, with an excerpt shown here, is from Stephen Fry. This particular comic is an important life lesson as well as a small story in itself. The series overall makes for a great collection of thoughts on, as the author puts it, “science, art, literature, and history”. The archives are labeled by subject and person quoted, […]

While I’m preparing a review of The Avengers on Blu-ray, I thought I’d share these adorable book hedgehogs dressed up like the team! They’re by Robin Brenner and courtesy of the Public Library of Brookline, Massachusetts. They’re made from books that are going to fall apart and would otherwise be discarded, and the accessories are colored duct tape. You can see a lot more of them at the link above. (Impressive shield and bow!) Here’s how to make a basic […]

To go along with their picking up the amazing Finder series, Dark Horse is re-releasing one of the best story arcs, Talisman, in hardcover. I’ve previously praised the story for so beautifully capturing the love of books and the wonders of storytelling. On October 3, this release is available in regular or limited signed edition that replicates the book at the center of the story. Dark Horse has provided the following four pages to give you a taste of Carla […]

Normally, I don’t consider “we didn’t print enough copies to satisfy demand” (usually phrased as “our first print sold out!”) newsworthy enough to cover, but I applaud the way IDW announced that in relation to the Comic Book History of Comics (published in single issue form as Comic Book Comics) by Fred van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey. The two created the following one-page comic. It’s not the first comic press release, but I hope more creators follow their lead in […]

I’m about a month late in pointing this out, but I just stumbled across the website of Kate Leth, and this is one of the prints she has available for sale (link no longer available). So cute! Poor Nick Fury, and the glasses. Adorable Hulk and his little legs sticking out!

The immensely talented Melanie Gillman has posted the minicomic created to celebrate graduation from the Center for Cartoon Studies. I’ve loved her work, especially her use of colored pencils, since I stumbled across her Smbitten last year; she’s currently working on a new webcomic called As the Crow Flies. I was one of those lucky enough to get a print copy of this mini, and I treasure it and its message. I’m thinking that this might be a fun new […]