December 24, 2006 Johanna HarperCollins One comment

The Cartoon History of the Modern World

Larry Gonick’s books are impressive: they’re wickedly funny, culturally insightful, and more educational than some college classes I’ve attended. His latest series, following up from the The Cartoon History of the Universe books… well, I’ll let the PR explain it: Cartoon History of the Modern World Part I covers the history of ancient Mexico, the Spanish conquests, the Portuguese empire in Asia and Brazil, national and religious upheavals in Europe and India, the colonial ventures of France, Britain, and the […]

December 24, 2006 Johanna Archie Comics 4 comments

Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Magic Revisited

It’s about time! Archie finally got around to collecting the first four issues of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch revamp, Sabrina #58-61 (2004), as a digest. Although the content is strongly manga-influenced, as written and drawn by Tania del Rio, it has little else in common with that format — this book is color, it’s only 112 pages (a little more than half the length of most manga), and it’s priced halfway between Tokyopop’s young readers price point ($6) and […]

December 22, 2006 Johanna Other Publishers Leave a comment

Love and Capes #2

I really enjoyed the first issue, and I’m thrilled to see that there’s more. It’s even better for being a Christmas issue. After Abby and her boyfriend Mark (who’s also the Crusader) attend a friend’s wedding, we get to the meat of the issue: What should Mark get Abby for Christmas? And how will holiday family visits go? Although the situations can be familiar, the humor stays fresh. Actually, it probably works so well because the reader sortof kindof knows […]

December 21, 2006 Johanna First Second 2 comments

The Fate of the Artist

Eddie Campbell’s latest, The Fate of the Artist, is more experimental than his previous works. It’s something of a grab bag, with comic pages, fake strip clippings, prose pages with inset doodles, and photo comics, among other techniques, suggesting the detritus of a cluttered, but fascinating, mind. The reader may not be sure what to make of the title page subtitle and caption: “His Domestic Apocalypse: An Autobiographical Novel, with Typographical Anomalies, in Which the Author Does Not Appear as […]

December 20, 2006 Johanna HarperCollins 7 comments

Fun Home

Alison Bechdel has been writing and drawing the lesbian soap opera Dykes to Watch Out For for decades. Her comic strip characters are true to life, with one in particular resembling her and her attitudes closely. In her new book, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, she sets aside the fictionalization to present a memoir of her childhood. The book revolves around her relationship with her father. As she describes him, he was an obsessive redecorater, consumed with the 18-year historical […]

December 18, 2006 Johanna NBM / Papercutz Leave a comment

Unholy Kinship

This odd little book could appeal to many of the various readers that make up the comic audience: It’s manga-sized (although fewer pages and in color) with bizarre talking animals. The style is European-influenced, and the art crowd will appreciate the dream logic and symbolism. Unholy Kinship is ambitious in its themes, and it’s a debut work from a young Swedish woman, Naomi Nowak. Sadly, this boundary crossing means that it’s likely that few readers will give the book a […]

December 17, 2006 Johanna Image Comics 2 comments

Hawaiian Dick: The Last Resort

Hawaiian Dick: The Last Resort is a welcome followup to Byrd of Paradise, the story that introduced island private eye Danny Byrd and his police officer friend Mo Kalama. This time around, Byrd has been hired by Italian mobsters trying to open a resort hotel. They’ve been running into all kinds of glitches. They think it’s sabotage from their Irish competitors, but the locals say it’s sorcery, that the white men are getting what they deserve. And they might be […]

December 17, 2006 Johanna DC / Vertigo One comment

Batman/The Spirit

After Absolute DC: The New Frontier, I will check out anything Darwyn Cooke does, even if it’s written by a mega-hack like Jeph Loeb. And I found that that was the key — look at the pictures, ignore the hackneyed text. For instance, Batman’s introductory splash page is marred by an unnecessary and pointless “I’m coming for you, Joker!” Those visuals, though… mmmmm. Commissioners Gordon and Dolan commiserating in front of a huge hearth in a men’s club room populated […]

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