Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
I am leery of anyone who uses the phrase “true fan” unsarcastically, since judging whether or not anyone’s level of fandom is sufficient is a stupid thing to try to do, but I was interested in finding out what DC was promoting as key reading these days. Here’s the video from their DC All Access YouTube show, entitled “Top 10 DC Books Every True Fan Needs”, a list of “undisputed classics”. As expected, it’s superheroes, with the two best-known Vertigo […]
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Sarah Winifred Searle has a simplified, comfortable art style that belies the honesty she’s willing to express in her work. You may have seen her art illustrating Ruined in the Fresh Romance anthology, and she has an original graphic novel coming from Iron Circus next year. In the meantime, though, she’s recently published two striking works online. At the Nib, “The Price of Acceptance” tackles the topics of struggling with dangerous ways to lose weight in order to feel accepted. […]
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This coming Tuesday, the forgettable TV movie Sabrina Down Under will be available on DVD. (Why? Probably trying to cash in on interest in live-action Archie properties now that Riverdale has launched.) This 1999 film was the second companion to the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV show, which ran for seven seasons from 1996-2003. Both of the TV movies aired on The Wonderful World of Disney. This one consists of Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) going to the beach and learning […]
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It’s rewarding to see how comic creators who didn’t grow up in the medium can take long-running characters (who often have been dragged in so many directions over the years that there’s no personality left, or they’re a mass of contradictions) and find fresh, modern new approaches to them that make them fascinating. That’s precisely what Chelsea Cain does with Bobbi Morse, Mockingbird, in this five-issue collection. Mockingbird: I Can Explain contrasts hugely with the cash-grab Mockingbird: Bobbi Morse, Agent […]
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The digital series The Double Life of Miranda Turner, which ran nine issues from October 2013 to April 2016 (at 14 pages or so an issue), is now available in a print collection. I’ve already talked about why I liked the series, so before everyone forgets about it entirely, I wanted to point out that it’s available in a more permanent form. Jamie S. Rich wrote and George Kambadais drew this story about a girl taking on her dead sister’s […]
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Now that the girls, in their second year of college, are living off-campus, the stories by John Allison, Max Sarin, and Liz Fleming are less about college hijinks and more about trying to grow up. As shown here by that terror of adulthood, the dinner party. Susan’s sick and refuses to take care of herself, Esther’s waiting to hear about a job at the local comic shop, and Daisy’s spending more time with her girlfriend. So to cheer everyone up, […]
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Talk about catching the hottest wave in culture! The four-issue miniseries Ladycastle tags into several current areas of debate, protest, and wishful thinking. As written by Delilah S. Dawson and illustrated by Ashley A. Woods, it’s an adventure fantasy in which almost all the men have disappeared. We open with the famous concept of a princess trapped in a tower. She even sings! She’s a bit snarky, though, with a pet snake and dreams of anarchy. The other women — […]
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Dirty Diamonds, the self-described all-girl comic anthology, has just wrapped up distributing its seventh issue, themed “Imagination”. (Previous volumes included “Beauty” and “Comics”.) They’ve also announced that issue #8 will focus on sex — but not the way you might think. They want to publish semi-autobiographical stories that explore the thoughts behind the act, with such questions as What’s something you wish you could have told your younger self? How does sex make you feel about yourself? About others? What […]
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