There’s never been anything in comics like Larry Marder’s Beanworld, before or since, and although the last collection came out in 1999, it’s still very much missed. Marder combined his original symbology with elements of Native American myth, the influence of Marcel Duchamp, and thoughts on ecology, community, and the nature of art. There wasn’t always a story so much as an exploration of some sort of philosophy, and much of it remains unexplained. That might be why it’s still […]

The creative team behind Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden — story by Dave Roman; art by John Green — went even wackier with this minicomic series. The tagline says it all: “The ANGST of being a teen — the THRILL of being a boat!” There’s not much more to it. Teen Boat goes to school, has a crush on the new girl, and has to put up with the local bully. Being able to turn into a small yacht […]

Subtitled “a queer romance”, this simple soap opera tells of a holiday party where David meets Ethan. They share an attraction and a love of The Simpsons but Ethan isn’t quite what he appears to be. The figures in this minicomic are flat and basic, but the storytelling is quite confident. The first page turn ends on a cliffhanger that’s bound to keep the reader involved, eager to find out more. The next two-page spread manages to keep four threads […]

The immensely talented Stuart Immonen (Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman: Secret Identity, Nextwave) doesn’t draw sketches at conventions any more, and he’s not too fond of attending shows, either. This self-published mini-paperback collects his fifty reasons why, reprinting four-panel strips that originally ran as webcomics. Comic artists and their fans often have a love/hate relationship. The new eight-page introduction puts the strips into that context, explaining that these experiences, weird as they might seem, aren’t terribly unusual on the convention circuit. […]

Wahoo Morris is the story of a band from Craig A. Taillefer, someone who clearly knows what that’s like. Sebastien, the guitarist, has a crush on the new singer, Alicia, an animal lover with an interest in the occult. He’s trying to figure out how to get to know her better (after an aborted attempt at a kiss) while balancing the band, his work inking comic books, and his day job at a grocery store. Meanwhile, Chas, his childhood friend […]

Action Philosophers by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey makes the history of philosophy fun. Profiles cover nine figures — Plato, Bodhidharma (inventor of both Zen Buddhism and Kung Fu), Nietzsche, Jefferson, Saint Augustine, Ayn Rand, Freud, Jung, and Joseph Campbell — using the vocabulary, both visual and verbal, of action-adventure comics. Exaggerations and modern language are used to make points in memorable fashion. Characters have plenty of attitude, making long-dead historical figures easier to relate to from the modern […]

Matt Madden’s love of playful formalism, explicitly on display in 99 Ways to Tell a Story, here takes the shape of fiction. Odds Off is a graphic novel about young adults making key relationship and life decisions. Under it all is the exploration of how communication works, or more often, doesn’t work. At a New Year’s party, Shirin wants to leave, but her boyfriend Morgan decides to stay. Shirin’s studying for the MCAT while working a cubicle job. She wants […]

Pizzeria Kamikaze postulates an unusual afterlife. Those who’ve killed themselves wind up in a world that looks and behaves just like this one, only with even less purpose and even more boring. The only difference is that some of the inhabitants bear scars, based on their method of death. Our narrator, Mordy, works at a pizza joint in this generic afterworld city. He goes to a bar to relax in the evenings, where he meets new friend Uzi. The two […]