Retro-styled pulp adventure has become something of a trend these days. With its hero being a stage hypnotist, Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks falls into this category, but the story is a modern one in its telling, and highly enjoyable. We meet Archer hypnotizing cats, so he can communicate with them. He explains, “The truth about hypnotism is not that you convince people or creatures to do what they already can do…. The reality of hypnotism is that […]

Buzz! shows how comics can make any competition exciting, including a spelling bee. Webster is off to his first day of high school when he stumbles into a back-alley spell-off. The Outlaw King, who’s been kicked out of the official spelling circuit, and the Black Queen are only two of the extreme personalities involved in the field. Webster gets manipulated into competing in the regionals in order to take down the Spelluminati, those trying to control the show. The visuals […]

The problem with anticipation is that it makes a perfectly fine read seem like a let-down. I very much enjoyed Natalie Nourigat’s art in her diary comic Between Gears, and I’ve loved Jamie Rich’s relationship writing for years now. Yet A Boy & A Girl didn’t spark for me. I enjoyed reading it, but I wanted more from it. Perhaps that’s a compliment, a sign that I was involved in the world and with the characters so much that only […]

The much-praised Stumptown series (first story published 2009-2010) returns on Wednesday with a new storyline written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Matthew Southworth. Portland private eye Dex takes on “The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case”, involving a stolen guitar. It’s Miriam Bracca’s favorite, and it’s a vintage Les Paul. The monologue where Mim explains the importance of tools to an artist, backed by images of typical rock journalism, is worth reading all on its own. The […]

Green (book one), blue (book two), and now pink. But not a baby pink, more like Pepto-Bismol, suitable for treating the feelings Gurgazon the Unclean Pit Demon might raise in the weak-stomached. I was thrilled to see that the book opened with a sketch showing us how one of the other inhabitants of Ms. Llewellyn-Vane’s mansion for captured spirits and ghostly curiosities came to be part of the living museum. We haven’t seen enough of their histories for my taste, […]

The first Possessions book, Unclean Getaway, was a pleasant surprise for me last year. I didn’t expect to like a kids’ book about a demon possessing a little girl and its ghostly friends, but the story was told with such energy and humor by Ray Fawkes that I was charmed. Where the previous book was done in black, white, and “sickly green”, The Ghost Table is highlighted in bluish turquoise. The demon Gurgazon is an inhabitant of the House for […]

From a few years’ perspective, Ivy’s struggles are heartbreaking. I alternated between wanting to shake some sense into her, to listen and hug her, and wishing this was a Choose Your Own Adventure book so I could show her how alternate decisions would have been so much better. Ivy is a teen artist, struggling with the uncertainties of high school friendships and where to go to college and how to separate from her single mother. She’s one of the most […]

written by Jen Van Meter; art by Christine Norrie, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Chynna Clugston Flores, Ross Campbell, Andi Watson, Vera Brosgul, Becky Cloonan, Mike Norton, Tim Fish I already owned the three books — Hopeless Savages, Ground Zero, and Too Much Hopeless Savages — plus the one-shot, The B-Sides, contained here. I’ve read them and loved them. But the release of a one-volume catch-up collection was a wonderful excuse to re-read and remember just why I adored this series and […]