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Review: Perfect Hair by Tommi Parrish
Today I have the pleasure of publishing a review of Tommi Parrish’s Perfect Hair by noted small-press critic and art collector Shawn Starr. Shawn originally brought my attention to Tommi Parrish’s work, so I’m happy to have host some of his writing here on Sequential State. If you are interested in having your writing published on…
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Review: Runaway Hearts by Sean Christensen
I recently picked up a selection of work from Berlin-based publisher Colorama Press. One of the more curious pieces is a graphic novella by Sean Christensen titled Runaway Hearts. Christensen is a part of the performance and zine collective Gridlords, based in the Pacific northwest. Runaway Hearts was published in early 2017 in an edition…
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Review: Mechaboys by James Kochalka
James Kochalka is one of a handful of hyperproductive cartoonists working in small press comics. His recent output has rotated between Johnny Boo comics, which target a younger subset of readers, and comics like Superf*ckers Forever, which are more teen & adult oriented. Kochalka’s latest graphic novel Mechaboys is firmly in that later camp. Published in…
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Review: The Weaver Festival Phenomenon by Ron Regé
When I first started reading art comics, Ron Regé’s work was a cipher to me. I didn’t get what he was doing, and I didn’t really know what to do with it. But there was always something magnetic about his comics – despite not understanding why, I kept coming back to his work. That magnetism,…
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Review: The Strange by Jérôme Ruillier
There are some books that demand attention – not because they are flashy, or because they are written by a well-known author, but because they describe perfectly the current moment in time. The Strange by Jérôme Ruillier is that kind of book. In The Strange, Ruillier documents the story of an unnamed undocumented immigrant and his journey to try…
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Review: Soon We’re Both Screaming by Dakota McFadzean
I know Dakota McFadzean best for his strip comics and his work on the IRENE anthology. McFadzean has a wry sense of humor; his comics are dark, sinister, and sit on the line of creepy and funny which is unlike much of the work I see in comics that follow the same formal patterns. McFadzean…
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Review: The Worst by Molly Mendoza
Molly Mendoza is a real talent. Her illustration work has a divine sense of color and grandeur, and The Worst from Short Box falls comfortably in that same scope. One look at the striking cover of The Worst, a deep block of blood red with a superimposed panel of a shark right before it bites…
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Review: Skin to Skin by Jia Sung
The new Ley Lines books from Czap Books and Grindstone Press are starting to come out, and Jia Sung’s Skin to Skin is the first release of 2018. Jia Sung is a name I associate with Guernica Magazine – her illustrations for that website have always struck me as being simultaneously fragile and fierce. Drawing…
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Review: A Cat on the Chair by Heo Jiyoung
I occasionally have the opportunity to import comics from around the world. Generally I’ve had more success with cartoonists and shops based in Europe, but I recently got a few new books from South Korea, which is a first. One of the comics I was immediately drawn to was from the SSE Project. The…
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Review: Life Can (Not) Exist Here by Vreni Stollberger, Iasmin Omar Ata
Life Can (Not) Exist Here is a collaborative zine self-published in 2016 by Vreni Stollberger & Iasmin Omar Ata. The title is both a wink and nod towards the recent remakes of the Neon Genesis Evangelion film franchise, but the comic is a meditation on the transience and fragility of life. Life Can (Not) Exist…
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Review: Propagation and Seed Dispersal of Human/Plant Hybrids on 625B, by Lando
The title is a mouthful, but Propagation and Seed Dispersal of Human/Plant Hybrids on 625B is a reprint of UK-based cartoonist Lando’s 2014 comic of the same name, printed in Mould Map 3. Decadence Comics did a self-contained reprint of that story at the end of 2017, and I recently picked it up from a…
