Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
A description of the premise, while intriguing, doesn’t do the project justice. Nelson is a multi-creator anthology in which each artist shows us a day in another year in Nelson’s life, from her birth in 1968 to what she’s doing in 2011. Along the way, we see how attitudes and lifestyles change in the UK over the decades, while noticing the patterns that repeat themselves as people grow up, struggling against becoming their parents. It’s a wonderful glimpse of the […]
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It’s difficult to review this series, because it’s been so desired for so long that I’m simply thrilled to finally get this reprint. Sheldon Mayer’s classic kids’ series features two toddlers, Sugar and Spike, who speak to each other in baby talk. While they can understand each other, the adults don’t know what they’re muttering about. Often, their conversation involves their amusing misinterpretation of how the grown-up world works. The result is hilarious comedy, beautifully and skillfully cartooned. Bill Schelly’s […]
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Available to order now from Previews is the first issue of a new indy series from Ardden Entertainment, Mixtape, written by Brad Abraham, art by Gervasio and Jok. It’s the story of a group of friends, about to be high school seniors, and the choices they make. Issue #1 takes place at a party on the last Saturday of summer 1990. Jim is giving Adrienne a ride. She spent the summer in London, broadening her horizons and losing a good […]
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Review by KC Carlson Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes is the first in a new series of books collecting the comic book stories of Carl Barks, “The Good Duck Artist”. Barks is thought by many to be not only one of the greatest writer/artists to work on the Disney Ducks, but also one of the greatest comic book storytellers of all time. The book series itself, called The Carl Barks Library (although this designation does not prominently […]
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Derek Kirk Kim’s Same Difference was originally self-published in 2003 (with the aid of a Xeric Grant) and distributed by the now-defunct Alternative Comics. Then Top Shelf picked it up and republished it in 2004. Now, First Second has brought the story back into print in an attractive hardcover edition with a distinctive dust jacket of transparent plastic. (In the book cover, shown here, the fish are printed on the overlay, with the figures on the book itself, giving a […]
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I’m pleased to see that Marjane Satrapi, best known for her autobiographical Persepolis, continues to write and draw stories beyond her own experience. (Too many cartoonists who put out comics from their own lives are expected to continue in that vein instead of branching out.) From telling us about her female relatives to an unbalanced uncle, now she’s moved completely into fable and folktale with The Sigh. With a beginning that will remind the reader of Beauty and the Beast, […]
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I love the internet. I don’t remember how I first heard of Breena Wiederhoeft or her work, but I visited her website, where she put the full first chapter of this book online as a PDF preview. After reading it, I knew I needed to know more about what happened to these characters. Click, pay, and here was a chunky (over 250 pages) volume ready for me to read. Picket Line is one of the last Xeric Award grant recipients. […]
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I knew Larry Gonick did excellent illustrated histories, but I had no idea that he knew so much about math. (Although co-writing The Cartoon Guide to Statistics might have been a hint. Turns out he used to teach calculus at Harvard.) In The Cartoon Guide to Calculus, “the mathematics of change”, we begin with brief history (Newton and Leibniz), but quickly, we’re into formulas and functions. However, even those are accompanied by cartoon kibitzing, which makes the material come alive […]
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