I don’t recall which convention I found this at — probably SPX — but I’m glad I did. It’s an excellent argument for making webcomic books. I wouldn’t have looked twice at the minimally illustrated webcomic, but as a book, I could flip through, find some wisdom, and decide to buy, where I could read it at my own pace. Now I’m signing up to subscribe to the strip online. Ryan Dow calls his work “introspective comics”, and so they […]

My favorite young adult soap opera webcomic, Questionable Content, has finally been collected! The strip by Jeph Jacques has been running since 2003, publishing more than 1700 comics so far. I don’t remember when I started reading it, but it was long after its beginning, so I’m thrilled to get a chance to see the start. The book is available direct from TopatoCo; Questionable Content volume 1 is $18 (plus shipping). It collects the first 300 strips with artist commentary […]

Scott Chantler (Northwest Passage) created Tower of Treasure, an all-ages fantasy adventure first in the “Three Thieves” series. The thieves are Dessa, a teen acrobat with a traveling show who’s seeking her lost brother; Topper, a juggler from a blue, troll-like race; and Fisk, the big purple strongman. Dessa’s found a makeshift family in her troupe of entertainers, but she’s not thrilled with how they make their money. While she performs, her fellow travelers pick the pockets of those distracted […]

The best-known webcomic about movies, Multiplex by Gordon McAlpin, will release its first book collection this week. Enjoy Your Show is available for order from the website. It contains the first 102 strips (which ran July 2005 – November 2006) with some art revisions and cleanup, plus a new 12-page story set on the opening night of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (authorized by Lucasfilm, according to the author). The bonus comics previously available in the PDF ebooks McAlpin sold are […]

Keith Knight‘s first successful* comic strip was The K Chronicles, running in alternative weekly papers. (*I’m judging success here by longevity, running for over a decade, and that it’s usually quite funny.) In May 2008, Knight added to his repertoire, which also included the editorial-style (th)ink, a more traditional newspaper comic strip, The Knight Life. Like K Chronicles, the daily Knight Life is autobiographical. Chivalry Ain’t Dead contains the first year and four months of the strip in over 200 […]

Abby Denson continues exploring the themes of fitting in and coming out she tackled in Tough Love: High School Confidential, only with more symbolism in Dolltopia. Kitty is a ballerina doll who wants to take charge of her own life instead of being manipulated by others. She and a renegade soldier doll set out for Dolltopia, where they can be themselves. They learn to appreciate their independence, their unwillingness to fit in, and their unique fashion sense. Dolls who aren’t […]

Girls With Slingshots is one of those rare soap-opera webcomic strips that’s built up a significant backstory but still remains new-reader-friendly, due to its gag-a-day structure. In other words, while capturing the adventures of a group of young adults, artist Danielle Corsetto still remembers to give each strip its own punchline. I admit, I’m still following the gang in part because the ridiculous things they do intrigue me. Often, when reading about a particularly embarrassing dating fiasco, I find myself […]

One of my favorite C2E2 purchases was the latest volume from Lucy Knisley, reprinting over 200 pages of her black-and-white diary comics in Make Yourself Happy. It’s the followup to Radiator Days, similar in content but more recent, covering the past two years. In it, she reprints her hourly comics from 2009 and 2010. (Every Wednesday in January, she draws two-panel comics every hour to show how her day is progressing.) There are also a number of references to French […]