Alphabetical Index of NBM / Papercutz

Breaking the 10

An intriguing concept is ruined by no conclusion or resolution in Breaking the 10. Sean Michael Wilson has a habit of this — his The Story of Lee came out in two volumes, four and a half years apart — so I wish I hadn’t fallen for it again, but I think prospective readers should be aware that this partial story will be highly unsatisfying. That’s not the only misleading element. Wilson cheats the difficult parts of his tale. It’s […]

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Girl in Dior

With most graphic novels, I’m driven by the story (or in the case of non-fiction titles, the information). I love reading comics as a blend of words and pictures, using both sides of my brain at once, and too many problems with one or the other will interfere with that enjoyment, but if I have to pick the part I respond to most strongly, it’s most often the text content. Girl in Dior is a departure for me, in that […]

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Thoreau: A Sublime Life

This gorgeous hardcover graphic biography tells the life of a classic philosopher with an eye to modern concerns and context. Thoreau: A Sublime Life is written by Maximilien Le Roy with art by A. Dan. Le Roy’s Foreword establishes his perspective, to show the various aspects of Henry David Thoreau’s life as “the father figure of civil disobedience”: pacifist, abolitionist, philosopher, naturist, but one who sought to live his ideas “in concrete, everyday experience.” By subsuming the reader in Thoreau’s […]

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Cruising Through the Louvre

The latest graphic novel from the international series set in the Louvre Museum is by David Prudhomme. In Cruising Through the Louvre, instead of a story centered on the many works of art the museum contains, he focuses on those who come to see it. The pages appear to be reproduced from pencils, giving everything a smudgy look, without strong definition between the viewers and the art viewed. That’s part of his point, but stylistically, the eye doesn’t have many […]

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Hank Ketcham’s Dennis The Menace Volume 1: The Cult-Classic Comicbooks by Al Wiseman & Fred Toole

Review by KC Carlson Dennis the Menace, the classic American comics panel by Hank Ketcham, debuted in 1951, introducing tiny terror Dennis Mitchell (based on Ketcham’s own four-year-old son) and his family: father Henry (sometimes “Hank” — who remarkably resembled creator Hank Ketcham), mother Alice, and oversized mutt Ruff. Before long, there was also a whole neighborhood of kids, frightened-for-their-life babysitters, and exasperated neighbors (mostly just George (“Mr.”) Wilson… his wife Martha quite liked Dennis and constantly provided freshly-baked cookies). […]

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Louise Brooks: Detective

Rick Geary, the artist behind the acclaimed Twentieth Century Murder true-crime graphic novel series, takes a side step into fiction with a strong historical flavor in Louise Brooks: Detective. In real life, the distinctive actress, who starred in Pandora’s Box and popularized the severe dark bob hairdo, returned home to Wichita, Kansas, to run a dance studio in 1940. Her Hollywood career was over, for a combination of reasons, including her dislike of the industry. And the country had changed […]

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Fires Above Hyperion

Fires Above Hyperion could have been impressive to read, but poor design choices and overly familiar material make it a waste of time. The color scheme is lovely, with rust, deep turquoise, olive, and the occasional purple. However, by choosing to use black type on these saturated colors, the book is often difficult to read, with the text blending into the background hue. You can see some of what I mean in this preview page, but it doesn’t show later […]

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Lulu Anew

Lulu Anew tackles a topic not often seen in the young adult male-focused American comic industry: the soul-sucking mundanity of life as a housewife. Lulu leaves a job interview knowing that she didn’t get the position. Her time away from the workforce to raise three children makes her undesirable. Instead of going home, she realizes how unhappy she is and how she’s taken for granted, so she wanders to the coast, where she spends time with a man she meets […]

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