Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Category: Essays

  • Comics That Challenged Me in 2017: The Complete List

    Here’s the complete list of comics that challenged me in 2017. You can find links to the write ups for the list below: | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Full List | What is a Glacier?, Sophie Yanow, Retrofit Comics River Sonnet, Madeleine Witt, self-published Anti-Gone, Connor Williamson,…

  • Comics That Challenged Me In 2017: Part 3

    Today is part 3 of a 4 part list of comics that challenged me in 2017. Here’s a link to the first part of the list and here’s the link to the second. This part of the list has a few more books I’ve already reviewed, but part of the reason I reviewed them was because…

  • Comics That Challenged Me In 2017: Part 2

    Today is part 2 of a 4 part list of comics that challenged me in 2017. Here’s a link to the first part of the list. Hope you enjoyed the first installment! Links to the rest of the list: | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Full List | Language Barrier by Hannah K. Lee; published by Koyama Press Hannah K. Lee’s…

  • Comics That Challenged Me In 2017: Part 1

    It’s been an annual tradition at Sequential State to run a series of articles, microreviews really, that are built around a list of comics that challenged me in that calendar year. This list is a list of books that challenged me as a reader, although the definition of challenge is nebulous, and the only requirement…

  • Your Webcomic Isn’t a Good Book

    Your Webcomic Isn’t a Good Book

    I’ve been reading a lot of comics this month as I prepare for my “Comics That Challenged Me 2017” feature that will run at the end of December and the beginning of January. In an attempt to have a better rounded understanding of the publishing output of 2017, I’ve enlisted the help of the local…

  • 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…

  • Truth Zone Antics: Thoughts on Portrait and Simon Hanselmann’s Recent Feud/Roast Comics

    Truth Zone Antics: Thoughts on Portrait and Simon Hanselmann’s Recent Feud/Roast Comics

    Truth Zone Antics: Thoughts on Portrait and Simon Hanselmann’s Recent Feud/Roast Comics Simon Hanselmann is one of alternative comics’ foremost gossipmongers and roasters; his Truth Zone comics, using his Megg, Mogg, and Owl characters, are comics as criticism; they show his take on recent events, his opinion on specific creators and their work, and goings-on…

  • A Response to Critical Jam #11: Scanlations

    pebblesandjamjam: Welcome to Critical Jam, J.A. Micheline’s monthly column on criticism. I don’t write about unlicensed Japanese comics. I’d like to. There are some incredible BL cartoonists and books that I’d like to tell you about, for example, but the thing is: no English-language publishers have picked them up for translation, so as far as…

  • 2016 Year in Review

    I did a year in review for Sequential State in the year 2014 & 2015, so this is yet another blogging tradition for Sequential State. Consider this your stakeholder’s meeting minutes. Some quick metrics for the interested: Posts: 68 Books Reviewed: 70 Interviews: 3 Con Reports: 2 Audio & Video Content: 5 Followers:  1317 Shows:…

  • Thoughts on Virtual Candle and No Visitors #1, Two Works by HTML flowers

    Thoughts on Virtual Candle and No Visitors #1, Two Works by HTML flowers

    A lot of this Fall has been about slowly revisiting works published around TCAF this year. Top of the stack is Virtual Candle, a 132 page full color paperback book from Space Face Books. Published as the first major collected edition of Grant Gronewold’s comics and illustration work (under the nom de plume HTML flowers), Virtual…