Jeff Lemire’s (Roughneck) latest series concludes with this issue, which I appreciated for its acknowledgement of adult choices and how we settle down. The publisher describes Royal City as follows: Royal City charts the lives, loves, and losses of a troubled family and a vanishing town across three decades. Patrick Pike, a fading literary star who reluctantly returns to the once-thriving factory town where he grew up, is quickly drawn back into the dramas of his two adult siblings, his […]

Unnatural #1 attempts to justify its soft-core porn by tossing in some platitudes about how beings should be allowed to love whom they love. But it’s still all about drawing the eye lingeringly over images of a well-endowed topless woman. Leslie is a pig girl, which means she has a turned-up nose and a little bitty curly tail at the top of her butt, which we see plenty of. She’s having erotic dreams about a wolf-man lover, even though it’s […]

Sleepless has continued to be a satisfying fantasy series that wraps together themes of family, devotion, and politics. This latest issue concludes the first arc with several surprising twists around the relationship between the princess and her sleepless knight protector. Writer Sarah Vaughn provides depth to the royal machinations beyond the obvious motivations. I really feel for Poppy, placed in an untenable position due to the death of her father the King, as she tries to navigate between attempted assassinations […]

It’s not really fair to judge a comic by its first issue. That’s the one everyone spends extra time and effort on to make a great first impression. So when I find a great second issue, that bodes well for enjoying a comic for the long run. Sleepless #1 set up the basics of the premise; in this second issue, Sarah Vaughn and Leila del Duca expand on the premise by showing us Princess Poppy trying to find out who’s […]

I’m going to give one of those backhanded compliments. Sleepless, a new fantasy comic by Sarah Vaughn (Alex + Ada) and Leila del Duca (Shutter), was interesting enough to overcome my antipathy towards the genre. I know there’s nothing wrong with fantasy stories — and goodness knows I understand why they might be attractive in today’s culture — but I just don’t care much for knights and quests and wizards. Sleepless puts a fresh spin on at least the first […]

Samaritan: Veritas #1 is a followup to The Tithe, an eight-issue 2015 series that’s part of a bigger world Matt Hawkins is building. And you’ll find out about them if you read this first issue, since there are footnotes, that unloved comic-book helper, included. Don’t get me wrong, this works perfectly well as a stand-alone, but there are more stories an interested reader can explore, much the same way the superhero universes used to work. (Hawkins calls it the Edenverse, […]

The digital series The Double Life of Miranda Turner, which ran nine issues from October 2013 to April 2016 (at 14 pages or so an issue), is now available in a print collection. I’ve already talked about why I liked the series, so before everyone forgets about it entirely, I wanted to point out that it’s available in a more permanent form. Jamie S. Rich wrote and George Kambadais drew this story about a girl taking on her dead sister’s […]

The Saviors collects the five-issue miniseries written by James Robinson and illustrated by J. Bone. It’s the story of a slacker who discovers and tries to stop an alien conspiracy to conquer the earth, or as Robinson puts it, “a pro-marijuana series, neatly wrapped in an alien invasion comic.” Tomas works at an auto garage in a small town where his friends all got out. He lives for simple days and getting high. Then he sees the sheriff talking to […]