Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
It doesn’t surprise me that Tom Haugomat has an animation background, since Through a Life is broken up into tiny, cinematic moments about seeing. It’s a unique format. Most two-page spreads consist of a small image establishing the setting on the left, with a date and place line showing where Rodney is and what he’s looking at, and then on the right, a picture of what he sees. (The format is occasionally opened up for a particularly important image that […]
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Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Witch Boy was a wonderfully fresh take on the idea of being raised by a family of magic users. Aster learned to be a witch even though boys were supposed to be shape-shifters, and that breaking of gender-determined roles made the story modern and relatable. I liked the sequel, The Hidden Witch, even better. Now that the background and characters have been established, Ostertag has more space for story, and this one touches on some deep […]
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The Science Comics series is generally outstanding, but Rockets: Defying Gravity by Anne Drozd and Jerzy Drozd is one of the best. An exciting subject is made understandable though our charming hosts, a series of educated animals with connections to space exploration. The first chapter (as you can see in these preview pages) covers physics, or as it’s put, “What Makes Rockets Go?” Lewis the pigeon tells us of early experiments in hilarious fashion, calling a wooden, steam-powered bird his […]
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Review by KC Carlson People tend to forget that the Beatles (as a group) were only together for 10 years and only recorded together for eight. But once they got started, they composed and recorded more than 200 songs, and at least 12 albums, throughout the 1960s. (The album count is a little dicey, since many of their albums in England differed from their albums in America in both content and number of songs.) John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, […]
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This gorgeous, oversized picture book will create new appreciation for nature, obviously, but also for cultures around the world. Under the Canopy: Trees Around the World is written by Iris Volant and illustrated by Cynthia Alonso. Each page describes a particular type of tree — such as willow, coconut, birch, or eucalyptus — accompanied by a lovely illustration of a legend or key moment associated with them. The apple tree, for example, gets a picture of Isaac Newton thinking about […]
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I know it’s ridiculous for me to be talking about Catwoman/Tweety and Sylvester Special #1. It’s a silly event tie-in that came out four months ago. I bet no one even remembers it. But it’s a really good comic that shows what a skilled creator can do with even the most ridiculous premise. Gail Simone writes and Inaki Miranda draws the team-up, which starts off by pairing Catwoman with the “puddy tat” Sylvester. She’s shocked he talks — complete with […]
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What would Batman be without his butler? In Batman Annual #3, by Tom Taylor and Otto Schmidt, the answer is suggested to be “dead on the street”. I enjoyed this focus on a necessary but often overlooked aspect of Batman’s life, butler Alfred Pennyworth — and I say Batman because there’s nearly no Bruce Wayne here. It would make a good start for anyone interested in the upcoming Pennyworth TV show, although this comic is about Alfred now, and the […]
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Giant Days #46 does something that’s surprisingly hard to do: tell a stand-alone story as part of a long-running series that’s satisfying on its own while faithful to the appeal of the title. Writer John Allison and artist Max Sarin have been working on Giant Days for most of the run, so that’s not surprising. What did surprise me was how geek-focused but affectionate this issue was. As shown in these preview pages, Susan has decided to find out who’s […]
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