Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Lucy Knisley and her mother went to Paris for a month in 2007, and the result was French Milk, Lucy’s drawn travel journal. The two women were each facing their own turning points. Her mother was going to be 50, and Lucy was turning 22 and facing the questions of adulthood. Her preparations demonstrate her youthful view of what’s important: she barely learns the language, but she succeeds at taking up smoking, to better hang out in cafes. She’s struggling […]
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Erika Moen has self-published the first collection of her webcomic DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary (NSFW link), collecting her strips from 2006-2008. Although there are plenty of webcomic diary strips, this one is like none other. First, it’s remarkably bawdy and explicit. Erika is not shy about dealing with bodies, her own or others, and physical functions like sex or farting. Her portrayal of these are both funny and honest. You’ll know from the first few strips […]
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I enjoyed Guy Delisle’s Shenzhen, so I was eager to try his earlier Pyongyang, in which he journeys to North Korea. I’m glad I did, because I found it to be an ever better book than the other, largely because the country is so much stranger. As in Shenzhen, Delisle is working in North Korea for a couple of months as a supervising animation director. The opening scene, in which he’s taken to worship at a giant statue of President […]
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Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China captures Guy Delisle’s culture shock in visiting a country so very different from his own. Shenzhen is in Southern China, near Hong Kong. He’s been sent to this commercial city in the late 90s to supervise an animation crew. For three months, he’s got to deal with inferior work, a lack of other foreigners, and the things that are common to all big cities: dirt, noise, smells. There aren’t many translators, and those that are […]
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Rick Geary is best-known these days for his true crime stories exploring historical murders, such as his recent The Lindbergh Child. In The Adventures of Blanche, he tackles similar past settings — three world cities during the early 1900s — but the action is definitely fictional. Geary’s traditional pen-and-ink style, with its thick lines and distinctive caricatures, does a wonderful job building a different world for the reader. As Blanche writes home to her parents, we see through her eyes […]
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The horror Western Strangeways: Murder Moon combines cowboys and werewolves in a moody tale faithful to both genres. Seth Collins is taking the stagecoach to the frontier town of Silver Branch in response to his estranged sister’s plea for help when the vehicle is attacked by a giant wolf. The sheriff keeps rumors down and the town under his control by lying about what happened, but the wolf always leaves at least one survivor to tell the tale, suggesting a […]
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Seekers Into the Mystery reprints the first third of the 1996 comic series written by J.M. DeMatteis. That may sound like a while ago, but since “The Pilgrimage of Lucas Hart” is set in 1987, it’s almost become timeless. The content, revolving around the search for meaning in the face of death and self-abuse, is certainly applicable in any year. The majority of this tale of a washed-up screenwriter finding spiritual recovery is illustrated by Glenn Barr. The last chapter […]
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Following their releases from last spring and fall, Toon Books has two new titles out this spring. Both are 32-page hardcovers for $12.95, aimed at grades K-2, and they’re the best Toon Books yet. Luke on the Loose by Harry Bliss Luke runs away from his dad while chasing pigeons and journeys through New York City, from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge. The opening page, where two adults are engaging in, according to the dialogue, “(boring dad talk)”, tickled […]
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