Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson: Race to Death Valley

Review by KC Carlson “MY GOSH!! What cheese! If only I had a bottle of beer!!” –Mickey Mouse (1930) A few days later, in the midst of the “Mickey Mouse in Death Valley” continuity in the then-freshly minted Mickey Mouse newspaper strip, Mickey’s girl Minnie — held captive by her shyster lawyer and Black Pete — is treated to the sight of a silhouette of a hanged (and obviously dead) Mickey. She screams. Jeez, this sure isn’t the same Mickey […]

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Stardrop

Mark Oakley is one of those workman creators who puts out terrific work over a long period of time but whom you may not be familiar with, because he’s never had that breakthrough moment. His fantasy comic series Thieves & Kings has been going since 1994. Turns out he’s also been drawing a charming comic called Stardrop for a Nova Scotia newspaper for the past few years, and he runs it biweekly on his website. There’s a book version of […]

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The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti

Consistency is a wonderful thing in a comic series. Once a year, out comes another chapter of Rick Geary’s A Treasury of XXth Century Murder, and each is an informative, impressively crafted read. Moving into the more modern era (after his previous Victorian murder series) has allowed Geary to expand his approach to explore different facets of killings. The first two books were relatively well-known single cases (the Lindbergh kidnapping, a famous director’s murder), but the third explored a place […]

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Too Small to Fail: A (Th)ink Anthology

The prolific Keith Knight, in addition to his daily comic strip and weekly comic panel, also puts out an editorial-style comic commenting on politics and current events called (Th)ink. Too Small to Fail is the third (Th)ink collection, after Red, White, Black & Blue and Are We Feeling Safer Yet?, and the first including cartoons created post-Bush. The over 120 panels cover such topics as the election of President Obama the recession, unemployment rates, and other economic concerns military presence […]

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Bake Sale

How cute is it that a cupcake runs a bakery?!? With Bake Sale, Sara Varon has created a modern fable, telling a tale of urban life in a world populated with walking, talking food items. Cupcake’s an accomplished baker who wins awards and satisfies his neighborhood customers. He and friend Eggplant also play in a band together. When Cupcake finds out that Eggplant’s Aunt Aubergine (hee!) knows famous pastry chef Turkish Delight, the two friends plan a trip overseas to […]

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Love and Capes: Wake Up Where You Are

The third Love and Capes collection reprints the five-issue Ever After miniseries and the 2010 Free Comic Book Day issue (aka #13), but that’s not the important thing. What’s important is that, in Wake Up Where You Are, Abby and Mark are now married. This book covers them starting their life together — after a world-spanning Hawaiian honeymoon. You see, Mark is the Crusader, a superhero, and Abby knows his secret — and enjoys some of the perks, like having […]

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Chester 5000 XYV

This is the kind of book that makes me ecstatic to read comics. Just the fact that it — a wordless porn comic about a Victorian woman and her robot lover — exists is a wonder. That Chester 5000 XYV turns out to be quite accomplished in its art is even more pleasant. (Note: this is an adults-only book with explicit illustrations.) Although story isn’t the point, the premise is simple enough: a scientist’s wife is indefatigable in bed. Since […]

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Freeway

Mark Kalesniko spends the 400 pages of Freeway telling us that getting your dream job, if your dream is to work in animation for a huge franchise-building corporation, may be soul-crushing. This is not news to anyone out of their 20s. We’ve all heard about the monkey’s paw, “be careful what you wish for”, and we all know that companies that exist solely to merchandise toys aren’t in it for the art. Alex is a dog-faced artist stuck in a […]

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