Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Month: October 2017

  • Sarcasm is Dead: Thoughts on Tom Gauld’s Recent Strip Comics

    Sarcasm is Dead: Thoughts on Tom Gauld’s Recent Strip Comics

    I reviewed Mooncop by Tom Gauld late last year, and I found that I enjoyed that comic quite a bit. Gauld has a new book out with Drawn & Quarterly, Baking with Kafka, and I recently read a short review of it at The Comics Journal. Annie Mok was pretty scathing in her review, but I found…

  • Review: Children of the Whales V.1 by Abi Umeda

    Review: Children of the Whales V.1 by Abi Umeda

    Today’s manga review is the upcoming Children of the Whales from Viz Media. Running in their Viz Signature line, this is Abi Umeda’s debut in English. The first volume will be released on November 21st – a digital advance reading copy was provided for this review. Images used in this review are © 2013 ABI…

  • Review: Sukibito Diary by Chu Nap

    Review: Sukibito Diary by Chu Nap

    I’m starting to dig deeper into the comics I got at SPX this year, and one in particular has been stuck in my craw. Carta Monir, a fellow critic and previous collaborator, recommended I pick up a copy of Sukibito Diary, a 120-page perfect-bound softcover book from Chu Nap. Nap is a Toronto-based cartoonist and…

  • Review: Stages of Rot by Linnea Sterte

    Review: Stages of Rot by Linnea Sterte

      The SPX pile is slowly getting smaller, and I’m starting in on some of the bigger books from the show. One of those is Linnea Sterte’s Stages of Rot from PEOW Studio. The book is 152 pages in full color, with french flaps and spot gloss. Sterte works mostly in cool pastel colors, and…

  • Review: Sound of Snow Falling by Maggie Umber

    Review: Sound of Snow Falling by Maggie Umber

      Maggie Umber is one of the unsung heroes of art comics. Her status as the assistant publisher at 2dcloud led to the expansion of an anthologies-based print collective to a significant force in alternative comics publishing. The micropress is a bustling, risk-taking enterprise that wouldn’t exist without Umber’s hard work. Over the course of…

  • Review: I Hear the Sunspot by Yuki Fumino

    Review: I Hear the Sunspot by Yuki Fumino

    One Peace Books occasionally sends me a review copy of new comics they have recently released, and one of their latest is I Hear The Sunspot, a comic about two young men, one with a hearing disability, and the other, a brash interloper who agrees to take notes for this classmate in college in exchange for…

  • Review: I’m Not Here by GG

    Review: I’m Not Here by GG

    I’ve been following GG’s work since her minicomic Semi-Vivi appeared in the 2014 Comics Workbook Composition Competition, taking second place in that year. GG’s work has continued to bloom over the past few years, but I’m Not Here, a new 104-page graphic novel from Koyama Press, is her longest published work to date.   In…

  • Review: Poppies of Iraq by Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim

    Review: Poppies of Iraq by Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim

    I’ve been having a hard time finding graphic memoirs that I truly love. I reviewed Tillie Walden’s Spinning earlier this week, which, while captivating, left me a little cold. I recently took the plunge on Brigitte Findakly and Lewis Trondheim’s Poppies of Iraq, which was published in English by Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly. The book…

  • Review: Spinning by Tillie Walden

    Review: Spinning by Tillie Walden

      Tillie Walden is one of the youngest celebrated cartoonists currently working. Her comics have been acclaimed by critics and readers alike. Her first three books, published by Avery Hill, have garnered her two Ignatz wins and an Eisner nomination. Her longest work to date, Spinning is a 400-page memoir of her life starting at…