Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Molly Knox Ostertag presents a timely tale in a fantasy setting. She previously illustrated Shattered Warrior, but I believe this is her first long-form work both writing and drawing. The Witch Boy shows us how the teenage Aster doesn’t fit in. In his family of magicians, girls are witches and boys are shapeshifters who fight demons — and you can tell from the title the struggle Aster faces. He wants to do magic, and he doesn’t have the signs of […]
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You’ve likely seen the piece where Jim McLauchlin complains about not being able to buy a new comic by a friend when it came out. “Wednesday, September 27 was release day for Fu Jitsu #1 from Aftershock Comics. Not the biggest of debuts, but hey—it’s written by Jai Nitz, who’s a buddy.” Now, the entire premise of this column shouldn’t have happened, because McLauchlin has been around the comic industry a long time, and he should know that if you […]
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Generations is the first graphic novel by Flavia Biondi translated from Italian to English, and it’s a strong debut. Matteo ran away from home three years ago to Milan, but now he’s slinking back to his small country town to live with his grandmother and his three aunts. He’s embarrassed that his life hasn’t been working out as planned, he feels like a failure, and he hasn’t spoken to his father because Matteo doesn’t believe dad accepts his coming out […]
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Hi-Fi Fight Club is Lumberjanes meets Empire Records with a strong overlay of first girl crush and a sprinkling of Scooby-Doo. (The series was renamed Heavy Vinyl after the first issue and for the collection.) It’s 1998 New Jersey, and 16-year-old Chris has her first job at the record store Vinyl Mayhem. She’s uncertain and worried about what’s cool, but since everyone she works with falls in that category, she’s loving the situation. Maggie is cute and friendly; Dolores tough […]
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When comic art works well, sometimes it becomes invisible, making it easy for readers to concentrate on the events of the story. When it doesn’t work, though, the comic falls flat, and readers may not even realize why. I liked the first Slam! series, written by Pamela Ribon and illustrated by Veronica Fish. It had character-driven action and an intriguing cast. Then the series was restarted with a new artist, Marina Julia. Unfortunately, as seen in Slam!: The Next Jam […]
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The panel below is from Bombshells United #6 (digital version), art by Luciano Vecchio, written by Marguerite Bennett. The story involves Wonder Woman vs. Clayface, who represents “land and blood” bigots. I thought this statement, My shame is that I could not know compassion for those unlike me… not unless I saw what they saw, felt what they felt, and beheld it through their eyes. spoken here by the reformed Baroness Paula von Gunther, was particularly timely. Although set in […]
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In our world of prolonged adolescence, it’s refreshing to read a comic about people having to grow up. (I’ve said before that this is one of the many things I like about Giant Days, that it’s “exploring what it means to be an adult and take care of yourself”.) Previously, Susan, Esther, and Daisy set up housekeeping together, moving out of college dorms, but now it’s been a year, and in Giant Days #32 (written by John Allison; pencils and […]
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Next spring, a Lumberjanes book collection will reprint the three special issues they’ve released so far: Beyond Bay Leaf (2015) by Faith Erin Hicks and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell turns a night stargazing into a quest to help a ghost pony. Makin’ the Ghost of It (2016) had two stories: the one by Jen Wang and Christine Norrie starts with a ghost story about an axe murderer in the gold rush mining camp days, while Kelly Thompson and Savanna Ganucheau show Ripley […]
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