Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Category: Features

  • Episode234-1 sequentialstatement: Episode #4: Our Endless Numbered Days Alex and Nick talk about Halloween ComicsFest. Music by Today’s Man. Reviews of: Ikebana by Yumi Sakugawa @yumisakugawa – Retrofit Comics @retrofitcomicsPaper Girls Issue #1 – Art by Cliff Chiang and Matt Wilson, Story by Brian K. Vaughan – ImageNot Funny, Ha Ha: A Handbook for Something…

  • Review: Plain by Bailey Sharp

    Review: Plain by Bailey Sharp

    One of the subscriptions I got last year that I really enjoyed was the Minicomic of the Month Club. Like it says on the tin, you get a mini comic mailed to you every month. It’s a nice surprise letter in the mail when the new mini comes, and it’s an easy way to see…

  • Review: mini kuš! #30 – Logbook, by Terhi Ekebom Finnish cartoonist Terhi Ekebom is one of the latest artists to work with Kuš komiksi’s mini kuš! project, each artist delivering a full color 4”x6” minicomic that clocks in at 24 pages. Ekebom’s comic is a somber and eerie vision of death and remembering. Within Logbook,…

  • Episode20233-1 sequentialstatement: Episode #3: Call Me Norgal Alex and Nick talk about SPX and CXC. Music by Today’s Man. Reviews of: Daredevil Vol. 5 Written by Mark Waid, art by Chris Samnee and colors by Matthew Wilson – Paolo Rivera and Javier Rodriguez BIO-WHALE by Ville Kallio from PEOW! Press Head Lopper #1 by Andrew…

  • Transmissions from: SPX 2015

    It’s a week out from SPX 2015 and I’ve had a chance to compile my thoughts from last weekend’s show. Overall, I had a wonderful time, probably the best time I’ve had at a comics show yet. Having a majority of the people you are interacting with staying at the same place is pretty unique…

  • Microreview: Concupiscence by Vincent Stall One of 2dcloud‘s mini comics from their fall 2014 season, Concupiscence is seemingly slight. At only 8 pages, the book is easy to miss in a table full of other work. But Stall has created a blobby, vicious world where violence and sexual desire are magnets drawn to one another. A woman,…

  • I was planning on keeping this piece wrapped up under lock and key until folks could read it in my new zine, Selections #2, which will debut at SPX, but I think that it might be useful to folks who are still making buylists for the show.  Hundreds if not thousands of books will be…

  • Episode232-1 sequentialstatement: Episode #2: Hot Archie?? :3 Alex and Nick talk SPACE 2015, including a really strange run to buy supplies;  Music by Today’s Man. Reviews of: Archie #1 & #2 – Art by Fiona Staples, Written by Mark Waid, Colors by Andre Szymanowicz w/ Jen Vaughn, Letters by Jack Morelli The End of Summer…

  • Manga is a tricky type of comic. There’s a higher barrier to entry due to the flipped pages, cultural cues that may not be easily understood or explained, and there’s a lot of chaff available on the market. It’s hard to know where to start. In this on and off again feature, I’ll be presenting…

  • Review: Mighty Star and the Castle of the Cancatervater by A. Degen Previous work by A. Degen has shown up on my 2014 “Comics that Challenged Me” list, and so when Koyama Press announced it would publish Mighty Star and the Castle of the Cancatervater as part of its Spring 2015 lineup, I was immediately…

  • Your 2015 SPX Nominees (And a Few Thoughts From Me)

    This year’s Ignatz Nominees were announced on Tuesday, and a large majority of the books selected this year are books I’ve reviewed. The Ignatz awards are juried by cartoonists and critics, this year by Lamar Abrams, Cara Bean, Robyn Chapman, Sophie Goldstein, and Corrine Mucha. But attendees are the people who vote for the winning…