Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
The DC Super Hero Girls line launched in Fall 2015 with web content, dolls, Lego toys, graphic novels, and videos. Here’s a list of the comics, starting with the graphic novels: Finals Crisis written by Shea Fontana; art by Yancey Labat 2016 Hits and Myths written by Shea Fontana; art by Yancey Labat 2016 Summer Olympus written by Shea Fontana; art by Yancey Labat 2017 Past Times at Super Hero High written by Shea Fontana; art by Yancey Labat, Agnes […]
Read moreThis list covers new stories featuring the classic version of the Sherlock Holmes character, arranged by original publication date. In 1979-1980, there was a 24-episode TV show called Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson starring Geoffrey Whitehead as Holmes and Donald Pickering as Watson. The Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson Annual was published in 1979, featuring four comic stories with the actor’s likenesses (as well as various show photos, two illustrated stories, and two articles on real-life Victorian detectives and villains). […]
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Lights, Planets, People! is a graphic novel adaptation of Molly Naylor’s play, illustrated by Lizzy Stewart. Yet it manages to use the comic format beautifully to show us multiple levels of communication. Maggie is an astronomer. We see her giving a lecture to inspire young women to pursue science, alternating with her flashbacks to her lifetime of work, from days where she was the only woman to the outcome of the project she spent years on. She’s also seeing a […]
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Darryl Cunningham‘s latest is a well-done, depressing read. Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful combines three brief biographies: the stories of Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers, and Jeff Bezos, key players in our new gilded age. Cunningham wants to examine the changes the super-rich have made in our politics and our world, for the worse. Murdoch’s media empire started as an inheritance from a privileged background. He expanded from Australia into UK newspapers (made popular through “sex, scandal, […]
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What can I say about more Phoebe and Her Unicorn books other than the strip is still funny?! (I last recommended Unicorn Bowling last summer, and I was behind in reading them then.) The idea is simple — Phoebe is an oddball kid who has a real, live, magical unicorn for a friend. Her parents and a couple of her classmates know about Marigold (the unicorn). Their different perspectives make for all kinds of humorous moments, whether it’s Phoebe reacting […]
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In September 2016, ComicMix Kickstarted a Star Trek parody in the style of Dr. Seuss called Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go!. The book, written by David Gerrold and illustrated by Ty Templeton, never was published, though, as Dr. Seuss Enterprises sued to stop it. In March 2019, ComicMix won a court case on fair use grounds. Now, in a federal appeals court, that victory was overturned, as judges declared that the publication failed to meet the required standards for […]
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Thanks to the good folks at Just Watch, who provided this data, I found out what the most popular genres are for streaming movies and TV shows in several countries. Comedy ranks highest in the US, UK, France, Spain, and Italy. (That’s common — 28 out of the 60 surveyed countries had comedy rank first.) It comes second in India, after Thriller. The top five genres, in order, in the US are Comedy Horror Action Family Science Fiction The UK […]
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Department of Mind-Blowing Theories is the latest collection of Tom Gauld’s cartoons. I’ve loved his literary-themed comics, because they’re funny and smart. (Drawn & Quarterly has put out two previous collections, You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack and Baking With Kafka.) There are plenty of cartoons out there about family life, for instance, but Gauld really emphasizes the life of the mind, whether it’s writers and their solitary pursuits or gags that require knowledge of literature (or at least […]
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