Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Category: Features

  • The Rest of the Best

    The Rest of the Best

    As you know, SOLRAD is up and running full steam. My list of the Best 20 comics of the decade is now live over there, so I’d encourage you to check it out. One of the things I said in my intro is that there was a final pass list of over 100 books, which…

  • Kickstarter Feature: The Seas

    Kickstarter Feature: The Seas

    I have the pleasure this week of featuring a new Kickstarter project called The Seas, a 49-page anthology by UK-based cartoonist and comics critic Iestyn Pettigrew. Pettigrew has brought together an eclectic group of cartoonists, each contributing 2-4 pages to an anthology that explores the idea of what it means to be human when the…

  • Update: New Review at TCJ

    Update: New Review at TCJ

    Hey there! It’s been a little on-again off-again here at Sequential State as I wrap up some bigger non-comics projects, but if you haven’t already seen it, I have a new review of Guillaume Singelin’s PTSD from First Second up over at The Comics Journal. I hope you check it out, but if not, it…

  • Kickstarter Feature: Naked Body

    Kickstarter Feature: Naked Body

    Brooklyn-based small press Paradise Systems has been publishing comics since 2017, with a focus on bringing work from the Chinese alt-comics scene to an English-speaking audience. Their first large collection, an anthology titled Naked Body, is currently going through a funding round on Kickstarter. I got in touch with Paradise Systems’ publisher R. Orion Martin to…

  • Comics That Challenged Me in 2018: The Complete List

    Comics That Challenged Me in 2018: The Complete List

    Individual Write-ups: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Full List Ley Lines #14: Skin to Skin – Jia Sung (Czap Books & Grindstone Comics, 2018) Cry – Yang Cong (Paradise Systems, 2018) We Come From A Desert – Gloria Rivera (self-published, 2017) Fluorescent Mud – Eli Howey (2dcloud, 2018) Bad Friends – Ancco (Drawn &…

  • Comics That Challenged Me In 2018: Part 4

    Comics That Challenged Me In 2018: Part 4

    Welcome back, dear reader! Today is the last installment of The Comics That Challenged Me in 2018. I hope you found the list interesting – let’s get right into the last five books. 2018 List Write-ups: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Full List The Mouse Glass– Anna Haifisch I’ve got a lot of artists…

  • Comics That Challenged Me in 2018: Part 3

    Comics That Challenged Me in 2018: Part 3

    Welcome back, dear reader! Hopefully you’ve had a good weekend and are ready to jump back into the Comics that Challenged Me in 2018 – if this is your first look at my annual year-end wrap up, please head back over to parts 1 and 2 to check the first 10 entries in the list.…

  • Comics That Challenged Me in 2018: Part 2

    Comics That Challenged Me in 2018: Part 2

    We’re back today with the second of four posts of the Comics That Challenged Me in 2018. What were your thoughts about the first five books? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or over on Twitter. The first part of the list had some fantastic books, and so does the second. Let’s…

  • Comics That Challenged Me in 2018: Part 1

    Comics That Challenged Me in 2018: Part 1

    It’s been tradition at Sequential State to run a series of microreview articles at the beginning of each calendar year. These articles are my “Comics That Challenged Me” lists, and they’re a function of how I think about the end of the year wrap ups that so many sites run during December as a way…

  • Five Recommendations for TCAF 2018

    Five Recommendations for TCAF 2018

    Hi everyone! The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is this Mother’s Day weekend, and is one of the headlining comics shows of the spring season. I’m a little down on comics shows right now, but there are great comics debuting at the festival by some of my favorite cartoonists. But one of the joys of…

  • New Review of Anouck Durand’s Eternal Friendship on The Comics Journal

    New Review of Anouck Durand’s Eternal Friendship on The Comics Journal

    The title says it all – my first review for The Comics Journal was published this morning. The book is Anouck Durand’s Eternal Friendship. The book was originally published in France as Amitié Éternelle, and translated by Elizabeth Zuba for the small US-based publisher Siglio Press. In it, Durand uses official and personal photographs from Albanian state…