Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Tag: comics

  • Review: Golemchik by William Exley

    Review: Golemchik by William Exley

    I recently picked up another book from Nobrow Press’ 17×23 line. The series is a great introduction to new cartoonists, so I was pleasantly surprised with William Exley’s Golemchik, a modern take on the ancient golem story. In  Golemchik, the main character Kevin is a little boy all alone as his friends go off to…

  • Review: Be Good by John Martz

    I reviewed Be Good for last year’s Selections #2, a zine of comics criticism I passed out at SPX 2015. Since then, Be Good has been nominated for an Ignatz award at SPX 2016. I also realized I never posted this original review to the website. The review as originally printed has been reformatted to meet…

  • Review: The Meaning of Life by Anja Wicki I picked up a few books from Matt Davis, owner/operator of Perfectly Acceptable Press, at TCAF this year, and I’ve recently gotten around to reading them. Anja Wicki’s The Meaning of Life is a 40 page pamphlet stitched book, red and blue risograph on cream colored paper. It’s…

  • Review: Breaking Is Opening by Sab Meynert Sab Meynert sent over a copy of Breaking Is Opening earlier this year, and I’ve been so in awe of this book I’ve been putting off a review, trying desperately, foolishly, to come up with the perfect things to say. But I’m coming to terms with my procrastination…

  • Review: Beverly by Nick Drnaso I’m trying to push through some writer’s block on a pile of newish comics. The first on the list is Beverly, the debut work of Chicago-based cartoonist Nick Drnaso. Beverly was published in the Spring by Drawn & Quarterly in trade paperback. There’s a sort of malaise to Beverly that…

  • Czap Books takes a big step: my thoughts and a short interview with the publisher

    Kickstarter is becoming more and more a part of alternative and independent publishing for comics. Anthologies and collections of webcomics have been running successful Kickstarter projects for some time now, and Iron Circus Comics in particular does a majority of its fundraising through Kickstarter. There is a recent trend, likely generated by the folks at…

  • Review: Fourteen Euros at Primark by Sarah Bowie Sarah Bowie recently sent over a copy of her new comic Fourteen Euros at Primark , which debuted at ELCAF this year. This is the first work I’ve seen from Bowie, who is an illustrator, cartoonist, and cofounder of The Comics Lab in Dublin. The storytelling of Fourteen Euros…

  • Comic Review: In The Sounds and Seas by Marnie Galloway

    I’ve known One Peace books as a manga and light novel publisher for some time – they did recent reprints of Crayon Shin-Chan and are bringing the popular yuri series Maria Holic back to print after the demise of TokyoPop and CMX. They recently sent over a copy of Marnie Galloway’s first graphic novel In…

  • Review: mini kus! #40 – 1944 by Hanneriina Moisseinen A few times each year, Kus, the Latvian comics publisher, puts out a collection of mini comics. These mini-kus are by creators from around the world, and I’ve reviewed a few of them over the past two years. And while many of those comics were good,…

  • Thoughts on My Hero Academia and Transcending Genre

    I just finished reading Nell Zink’s Mislaid, a family drama set in the 1960-1980s South. Long-listed for the National Book Award last year, it’s a novel so confident in its voice that it is at times, utterly transcendent. Zink’s Mislaid has an unmistakable clarity and strength, and it captured me as a reader. It is…

  • Thoughts on Josh Cotter’s Skyscrapers of the Midwest Cotter’s most recent project is Nod Away, the first of what is expected to be a many-volume series. I picked up Skyscrapers of the Midwest and Driven by Lemons as an introduction to his work, prior to reading Nod Away. The collection is a dense hardcover with…