Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Category: Features

  • Review: FLOCKS #1-4 by L. Nichols, from Retrofit Comics (#1) and Grindstone Comics (#2-4) I’m in the midst of what’s turned out to be a multi-week holiday that officially ends the day after the United States’ Memorial Day, so apologies for the sparse updates. I’ve been working through some of my TCAF spoils, and some…

  • TCAF (The Toronto Comics Arts Festival) torontocomics is less than 3 days away, which means yet again I’m looking at books that are set to debut at the show. This year’s a little different than last – I’ve been prepping a bit more than last year, but that means more books I’m interested in. I…

  • Review: Heaven’s Dream Town! A VR RPG by Wren McDonald We’re a week away from TCAF, and I couldn’t be more excited about that – getting out on a convention floor means discovery, new cartoonists, new comics, and the thrill of finding something new and unique. Wren McDonald’s work is also a recent discovery, fueled…

  • Review: Lemon & Ket by Natalie Andrewson We’re getting closer and closer to TCAF – expect a “to buy” list coming in the next few days or so. In the meantime, I’m trying to get my hands on books that premiered at MoCCA and won’t be readily available at the Canadian show. PEOW! Studio came…

  • Thoughts on Blacksad and Its Portrayal of Race

    In light of the recent Comic-Con announcements and Blacksad receiving yet another Eisner nomination, I thought now might be a good time to bring to bear a piece I’ve been thinking about for quite some time. Blacksad is a very popular noir comic featuring the titular detective John Blacksad. Throughout the series of comics, John…

  • Review: Last Man: The Stranger by Balak, Michaël Sanlaville, and Bastien Vivès As manga continues to become a larger part of comics in the West, it’s no surprise to see manga-influenced comics becoming more and more the norm. We’re starting to see this already as manga-reading kids are growing into comics-making adults. Last Man is…

  • Review: Let’s Dance a Waltz Vol. 1 by Natsumi Ando This week is a week of manga reviews at Sequential State; the next on the pile is Natsumi Ando’s Let’s Dance a Waltz, a 3-volume shojo series originally published in Kodansha’s Nakayoshi manga anthology. Ando is known best in the United States for her titles…

  • Review: Your Lie in April Vol. 1 by Naoshi Arakawa Kodansha USA has licensed a few “off the beaten path” comics in the past 12 months, and next week, one of those titles sees the light of day. Your Lie in April, a title from Monthly Shounen Magazine, is a music-based manga; the category doesn’t…

  • Review: Frontier #7 – SexCoven by Jillian Tamaki If I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – as far as indie comics goes, 2015 may very well be remembered as the year of Jillian Tamaki. With This One Summer receiving the Caldecott in February, Tamaki has had a great start to the year. And…

  • Review: BORB by Jason Little Comics convention season has officially begun with RIPExpo two weekends ago and MoCCA coming up in this weekend; the latest comic on my docket is a MoCCA 2015 debut from Uncivilized Books, Jason Little’s BORB. Clocking in at 98 pages of black and white comics drawn in a style reminiscent…

  • Review: Old Ground #1 by Noel Freibert Part of the challenge of comics criticism is the piece of work that redefines the way you think about comics. We have our own little buckets we put things in; art comics, autobio, speculative fiction, etc. and it’s easy to get wrapped up in the trappings of those…