Emma Vieceli writes (with co-writer Malin Ryden) and draws the webcomic Breaks, which can be described as “what if Archie and Jughead starred in a boys’ love manga?” It’s been running for four and a half years and is still going, updating weekly. The first storyline has been collected by Soaring Penguin Press, which is how I was introduced to the series. I was glad to meet these characters, but I found the book not quite as satisfying as I […]

I’ve enjoyed the relatively recent boom in graphic memoir and biography, particularly those stories that cover the lives of artists and creative people. Unfortunately, too often we see that those who make long-lasting works struggle personally, and The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television by Koren Shadmi is no different. What sets it apart, though, is its setting in the relatively modern era. The book has four major sections, tied together with a framing story that will […]

Rick Geary’s latest release is The Wallace Mystery, second in the new line Little Murder Library, following Chester & Grace. The subject is the 1931 death of Julia Wallace in Liverpool, England. Her head was bashed in, and her insurance agent husband William was arrested. The night of the murder, he was decoyed away from home to an address that didn’t exist. His case presented an interesting legal twist, and Geary has his own suggestion for the guilty party in […]

This substantial history makes for an impressive graphic novel. Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm alternates chapters between the story of the Apollo 11 moon landing (in full color) and topics related to spaceflight (in monochrome). Those latter range greatly, involving a lot more than a technical memoir, including a survey of historical astronomers, a history of rocketry, astronaut training, designing the spacesuits, and the symbolism of the moon to various cultures. It’s well-drawn, straightforward […]

“The future is female,” they say, and nothing demonstrates that better than Sanity & Tallulah, a science fiction adventure by Molly Brooks about two smart, daring girls living on a space station. Super-creative Sanity has genetically engineered a three-headed kitten named “Princess Sparkle, Destroyer of Worlds”. Having a pet is a rule violation in such a tightly controlled environment, particularly one that’s a science experiment created using untested equipment, and Tallulah’s mother, the senior scientist on the station, grounds them […]

One of my favorite TCAF discoveries was The Pineapples of Wrath by Cathon from Pow Pow Press. I knew nothing about artist, publisher, or book, but it was a fun, escapist read with a distinct, unusual sensibility. Once I checked it out, I kept sending other people over to get some pineapples. In a small Quebec city with the “world’s largest Hawaiian neighborhood”, Marie-Plum bartends at a tiki bar but keeps getting distracted by the latest mystery she’s reading. She […]

Coming in July is a graphic novel that sounds quite promising but turns out to be terrible. The writer of The Martian, Andy Weir, has unearthed Cheshire Crossing. This early project, originally a webcomic, has Alice, Dorothy, and Wendy (from Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan, respectively) put in an asylum together where they escape for battles with each other’s traditional enemies. Since he explains in the introduction that he can’t draw, the publisher, Ten Speed […]

As regular readers know, I’m a huge fan of Rick Geary’s work. His precision linework and fascination with famous murders and infamous people make for compelling reading. There have been nine stories told in his series A Treasury of Victorian Murder, which can be found in two volumes, Compendium 1 (including classics Jack the Ripper and H.H. Holmes) and Compendium 2 (with Lizzie Borden, Lincoln’s assassination, and three other tales). Then he moved a bit forward in time with seven […]