February 21, 2021 Johanna Art Leave a comment

How to Study Comics & Graphic Novels

Here’s a brilliant free read: How to Study Comics & Graphic Novels: A Graphic Introduction to Comics Studies by Enrique del Rey Cabero, Michael Goodrum, and José Morlesín Mellado, available online at Issuu (found via Ben Towle). It’s put out by the Oxford Comics Network, part of TORCH, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities. And it’s wonderful, a comic that’s chock-full of information on how to read comics. It covers terminology (comic or graphic novel?), specialized terms (panel, gutter, […]

February 18, 2021 Johanna Manga News 2 comments

Mangasplaining Podcast Launches

In the new Mangasplaining podcast (updated weekly), some comic and manga heavyweights — Deb Aoki, David Brothers, and Christopher Butcher — try to convince Chip Zdarsky to read manga by talking about great titles. The first episode covers Akira volume 1. I’m eagerly waiting for the second episode, about Delicious in Dungeon.

February 17, 2021 Johanna Other 8 comments

Site Update: An Explanation

There are a number of reasons why posting around here is intermittent at best. The most recent, and most frustrating, is medical. I haven’t been able to accurately read on screen since fall of last year. I thought I was just overdue to get my glasses prescription adjusted, but after several exams and lenses, I am still seeing double and fuzziness when I try to focus on text. As someone who prides themselves on great proofreading, this is particularly annoying. […]

February 13, 2021 Johanna Abrams / Amulet Leave a comment

A Fire Story

In October 2017, Brian Fies (Eisner Award-winning artist of Mom’s Cancer) lost his home (one of over 6,000 destroyed) to a California wildfire. A Fire Story captures the events and their aftermath. This is my favorite kind of graphic novel. It gives the reader an empathetic understanding of an experience that they hopefully will never have to live through themselves, and it does a terrific job conveying the feelings and choices that go along with it. The book shares, directly […]

February 13, 2021 Johanna Other Prose Leave a comment

Bond Vs. Bond: The Many Faces of 007

Released almost a year ago, Bond Vs. Bond: The Many Faces of 007 is an updated reissue timed to tie into what was going to be the release of the 25th James Bond movie, No Time to Die. Obviously, what with the shutdown of movie theaters, that didn’t happen, but the book is still here. I was looking forward to it as a retrospective on one of the most famous characters in British popular culture. It is that, but it’s […]

February 11, 2021 Johanna Movie Reviews Leave a comment

Locked Down

I was interested in this pandemic picture, available on HBO Max, because it was promoted as a heist flick with Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor that took unique advantage of the real-life lockdown to film in a deserted Harrod’s. The plot is that the two are an estranged couple who are splitting up but are trapped together in the same house in London. They hatch a plan to take advantage of the circumstances to steal luxury goods from Harrod’s when […]

January 26, 2021 Johanna DCU Original Animation Leave a comment

Batman: Soul of the Dragon

Batman: Soul of the Dragon is a team adventure that serves as an R-rated animated love letter to 70s exploitation entertainment. (The studio sent me a review copy; I otherwise likely wouldn’t have watched it, as I’m not a fan of the period martial arts movies that inspired it.) We’re introduced to Richard Dragon (Mark Dacascos) during a mostly wordless James Bond-ian heist sequence. We spent a few minutes figuring out whether it was retro or modern day, until the […]

January 20, 2021 Johanna Art Leave a comment

Patience & Esther Comes Next Week

Out January 26 is Patience & Esther: An Edwardian Romance, an adults-only graphic novel by S.W. Searle that’s absolutely adorable. I know, weird adjective for explicit erotica, but nevertheless… it’s the story of Patience, a servant girl finding love and herself in Edwardian England. Her partner, Esther, introduces her to pleasure and progressivism, as they encounter suffragettes and changing times.

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