Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
The Big Kahn has an immediately gripping concept — at his funeral, a beloved rabbi is revealed to not be Jewish. He’s a con man who 40 years ago fell in love and decided to become what he was pretending to be. His long-lost brother appears to say his final goodbyes, telling everyone the truth. His family — the widow; his son Avi, a rabbi following in his footsteps; his daughter Lea, previously non-observant; and the youngest child, Eli — […]
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Janet is a character type many readers can identify with: She’s only got a few close friends. She spends a lot of time by herself or with her best friend and roommate, a ghost named Paul. She’d like to have a relationship, but she’s unsure she’s ready to put in the work involved or whether she’s found the right guy to be worth the effort. When her friend Freya sets her up on a blind date with Derek, the two […]
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The latest Toon book maintains the high quality of their line of hardcover comics for kids. The situation in Little Mouse Gets Ready is simple: a mouse needs to get dressed so he can go to the barn with his family. He puts on his clothes, one piece at a time, sharing the struggles many kids do — getting the arm in the sleeve right, making the buttons match. The sneakers are Velcro, so no need to tie bows any […]
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When I first opened this coffee table book, I expected more text, fewer comics, but it’s not that kind of retrospective. Instead, The Best of Simon and Kirby is a sampler of the many types of work Joe Simon and Jack Kirby produced over their long career in comics, with over two dozen comic stories reprinted. Grouped by genre — heroes, science fiction, war and adventure, romance, crime, western, horror, and sick humor — each section has an introductory essay […]
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Zot! changed my life. The 36-issue comic series by Scott McCloud ran from 1984 to 1991. It started as a manga-influenced light-hearted superhero series, but by the end, McCloud was telling powerful stories about everyday life as a teen. McCloud is better known today as the author of Understanding Comics, a non-fiction exploration of the format; its followup, Reinventing Comics, which examines technology; and a how-to book, Making Comics. But he originally started with this series, an homage to the […]
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It’s an unusual project, but one uniquely suited to the talents involved. Darwyn Cooke (The New Frontier, The Spirit) is adapting Richard Stark’s Parker novels into comic form; The Hunter is the first of four planned graphic novels. I haven’t read any of the original books myself, but since Cooke clearly has a great affinity for retro-styled works, and since crime/noir stories of this type work best with that kind of timeless feel, I expected an excellent match. This brief […]
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With the popularity of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, many readers wanted to see more work by her. Her earlier series, Dykes to Watch Out For (DTWOF), is good reading, but hard to catch up on, with 11 books released over two decades, some of which are out of print. Thus, this omnibus edition. In addition to 330 of the previously published strips (out of 457, or about 3/4 of them), The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For contains an additional […]
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In this penultimate volume of the indy favorite series, Scott Pilgrim continues the path he began in the previous book: becoming an adult and growing up. Along with that comes relationship struggles and the need to make decisions instead of coasting through life. As Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe opens, Scott turns 24. He and his friends are getting bored with their perfect little lives — the parties are trying too hard, the band is “recording” instead of playing gigs, […]
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