Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Giant Days remains one of my favorite ongoing comics, and these days, that’s bittersweet. I want Susan, Esther, and Daisy to keep having college adventures for a long, long time, but time won’t stand still for them. Creator John Allison has them growing up and preparing to venture into the “real world” — or he has the world infringing on their university bubble. Giant Days #48 is illustrated by Allison, who normally writes. To my eye, that makes everyone look […]
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The Science Comics line is a wonderful marker for quality educational comics, and who better to teach about The Brain than a mad scientist? Science Comics: The Brain: The Ultimate Thinking Machine is written by Tory Woollcott and illustrated by Alex Graudins. Fahama is helping her crazily determined younger sister sell cookies door-to-door when she stumbles into the lair of Dr. Cerebrum, an ambulatory brain in a jar. To keep him from removing her head, she asks him questions, learning […]
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Lorena Alvarez has followed up her beautiful Nightlights with this sequel. Hicotea: A Nightlights Story goes with Sandy, the young artist in the first book, on a school field trip. To what’s almost a literal field — they’re in nature, down by the river in the wetlands. There, Sandy has a fantastic journey into a glorious museum found inside a turtle’s shell. It’s a symbolic way of indicating just how much knowledge there is out there, how even shells or […]
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Katie O’Neill, author of The Tea Dragon Society, returns with a graphic novel bound to satisfy her audience. Aquicorn Cove has the same beautifully colored images, the same confident, sometimes wordless storytelling, similar relationships with unusual creatures, and a corresponding message about the necessity for balance with nature. As you can see in the preview pages below, Lana and her father have come to visit her Aunt Mae in a coast-side town cleaning up after a substantial storm. Lana’s mother […]
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In Sheets, Marjorie is trying to keep the family business, a laundromat, together. Her mother passed away, and Dad has mostly checked out. She has to cope with self-centered customers and a pushy, smarmy neighborhood businessman. Then the ghosts appear. The spirits all look like the classic children’s image, white sheets with a rounded top for a head. But they go to support groups to try and accept how they died, and their world is notably less colorful than Marjorie’s. […]
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As regular readers know, I’m a huge fan of Rick Geary’s work. His precision linework and fascination with famous murders and infamous people make for compelling reading. There have been nine stories told in his series A Treasury of Victorian Murder, which can be found in two volumes, Compendium 1 (including classics Jack the Ripper and H.H. Holmes) and Compendium 2 (with Lizzie Borden, Lincoln’s assassination, and three other tales). Then he moved a bit forward in time with seven […]
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Now that we’ve seen a few issues, I thought I’d take a look at the Wonder Comics imprint from DC Comics. Wonder Comics is “curated” by Brian Michael Bendis and features four titles that star teenage heroes. One hasn’t appeared yet. Dial H for Hero, about the magic dial that grants its wielder superpowers for an hour, launches at the end of the month. It’s a six-issue miniseries (originally announced as an ongoing) written by Sam Humphries and illustrated by […]
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Writer G. Neri has a cousin, Gail Ruffu, who’s an opinionated horse trainer working to make racing a more ethical sport. She was also the first person in 150 years to be charged with Grand Theft Horse, taking her case for rescuing an injured thoroughbred all the way to the California Supreme Court. Here he tells her story, illustrated by Corban Wilkin. It’s a gripping tale of dedication and a real-life fight for justice. This graphic biography is all the […]
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