Hectic Planet: The Bummer Trilogy

This one-shot collects three love stories, previously printed in Dark Horse Presents #118-120: “5 Years and Counting”, “Shot on Goal”, and “Love You Madly, Elsie; or, Scumbag of Oz”. They’re modern takes on romance conventions. The stories turn on promising to meet five years after a separation; locking eyes with a mysterious stranger across a crowded dance floor; or finding an ex-boyfriend’s gift and trying to get back in touch with him. As expected, the art is the usual Evan […]

Read more

Archie #565: Wrong About Manga

What an odd mix of stories. First, Archie’s featured in a magazine picture, and his new role as “teen model” goes to his head. Betty and Veronica teach him a lesson by convincing him to make himself look like an idiot. They get their payback, though, when he ditches them for a couple of other random girls. Next, Archie and Jughead fight because Jughead thinks Archie should go out with Betty and Archie wants to call Veronica. Everyone’s scowling at […]

Read more

Little Star

Andi Watson’s Little Star continues in the slice-of-life vein of his works Breakfast After Noon and Slow News Day. (The characters from BAN even make a cameo here; Rob’s a stay-at-home dad and Louise has a second on the way.) It’s the character-driven story of a father coming to terms with life choices: balancing work and home, buying the right house, and raising a child. Daughter Cassie is old enough to talk, and she’s beginning to develop her own personality. […]

Read more

Scary Godmother

Young Hannah Marie is afraid of monsters, so her older cousin Jimmy has promised to take her trick-or-treating this Halloween. She’s excited about going out with the big kids for the first time even though they’re not happy about having to wait for her. They decide to scare her to make her go home, but the tables are turned when Hannah meets her Scary Godmother and her monster friends. Scary Godmother is a witch in a black tutu, purple- and […]

Read more

Past Lies

Trevor Schalk was an aviation millionaire who was murdered 25 years ago. Before his death, his hypnotherapist tried to make it so he’d remember his previous life in his next. Now, an up-and-coming closeted actor thinks he has Schalk’s memories, and aspiring private eye Amy Devlin is hired to find out what’s going on in Past Lies, a mystery graphic novel written by Christina Weir & Nuncio DeFilippis and drawn by Christopher Mitten. The situation allows for the dynamite line […]

Read more

Borrowed Time

I knew the concept of Borrowed Time going in — a reporter goes to the Bermuda Triangle and returns to find his life changed and his girlfriend missing — and I thought it had potential. Unfortunately, this first book of a planned series pretty much establishes just that, and the reader is required to take a lot on faith. I very much appreciate Oni trying new things: in this case, attempting to establish a format for the serialized graphic novel. […]

Read more

Stuck Rubber Baby

Stuck Rubber Baby tackles two of the most challenging struggles America has faced over the past half-century: equal rights regardless of race and regardless of sexual orientation. Like author Howard Cruse, Toland Polk is a white boy growing up in Alabama during the 1960s, and this novel covers his coming of age during the civil rights movement. As he observes and experiences the fear and justice of that time, he also comes to accept that he’s gay, sending him through […]

Read more

Love and Capes #1

Thom Zahler has an appealing, cartoon-influenced style that’s just right for the romantic superhero comedy Love and Capes. Mark is the Crusader, a Superman-like hero. Abby is a detail-oriented bookstore owner who somehow has missed figuring out his secret identity. They’re in love, so he decides to stop hiding things from her. I love the way he shares his secret with her — when taking off his clothes to reveal his costume, she ignores what it means until he sits […]

Read more
1 146 147 148 149 150 166