Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Tag: recommended

  • Review: Libby’s Dad by Eleanor Davis

    Review: Libby’s Dad by Eleanor Davis

    2016 was a year for Eleanor Davis comics. First it was Frontier #11: BDSM,which I reviewed in February last year. Then a big pile of pages from her cross-country bicycle trip, which are now being collected by Koyama Press. Davis’ latest, Libby’s Dad, is a 40-page full color saddle stitched comic from Retrofit. When Retrofit…

  • Review: Blammo #9 by Noah Van Sciver

    Review: Blammo #9 by Noah Van Sciver

    I’ve been reviewing Van Sciver’s work for a while now. His “A Lizard Laughed,” now collected in Disquiet, was one of my first reviews published on this platform. I’ve been following Van Sciver’s comics very closely since 2013, and one of the great joys of being a “long-time” reader is to see an artist advance. It’s…

  • Review: Someone Please Have Sex With Me by Gina Wynbrandt

    Review: Someone Please Have Sex With Me by Gina Wynbrandt

     Part of 2dcloud’s Spring Collection, Someone Please Have Sex With Me is Gina Wynbrandt’s debut graphic novel, a collection of satirical, semi-autobiographic short stories. There’s been plenty of talk about Wynbrandt’s work. One of the selections, “Big Pussy,” got Wynbrandt nominated for a Promising New Talent Ignatz in 2015. That comic, riso printed in fluorescent pink, was a favorite…

  • 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…

  • Review: Handbook by Kevin Budnik Kevin Budnik’s Handbook is a mixed narrative, one of anxiety and disordered eating, and another of relationships in a post-recovery world. In a 2×2 grid that I’ve come to associate with Budnik’s autobiographical work, we see him navigate the present as he contends with a past that is part ghost,…

  • Review: End of a Fence by Roman Muradov End of a Fence is a pair of firsts; it is @kushkomikss‘ first book in the kuš! mono series, a longform work from a publisher that has traditionally focused on its international comics anthology s! and its mini kuš! comics. It’s also the first fully digital work of…

  • Review: Frontier #11 – BDSM by Eleanor Davis I’ve reviewed a few other Frontier monographs from Youth in Decline, either in my Comics That Challenged Me series or in long-form, and I’ve liked or loved many of them. But none of those comics have caused me to have such a quick and visceral reaction as…

  • Review: The Beauty Theorem by Beatrix Urkowitz

    Review: The Beauty Theorem by Beatrix Urkowitz

    One of my favorite comics from 2015 was Annie Mok and Sophia Foster-Dimino’s Swim Thru Fire, which was published on Hazlitt Magazine’s website. Under the guiding eye of Anshuman Iddamsetty, Hazlitt has cultivated an impressive portal for alternative comics art, one of the latest of these is Beatrix Urkowitz ’s new comic The Beauty Theorem.…

  • Review: Generous Bosom Part One by Conor Stechschulte

    Review: Generous Bosom Part One by Conor Stechschulte

      We’re getting towards the end of the year, and I have been thinking about books that I’ve really enjoyed in 2015. One of those was the first issue of Conor Stechschulte’s Generous Bosom, a book that likely made a few 2014 best-of lists. 2014 seemed like a breakout year for Stechschulte with the release…

  • Review:  Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia I’ve been mulling over Liz Suburbia’s recently released graphic novel published by Fantagraphics. A big softcover book, 312 pages of black and white comics, Sacred Heart is the kind of book you could hurt someone with if you had to. The root of the story is the tangled web…

  • Review: Sea Urchin by Laura Knetzger

    Review: Sea Urchin by Laura Knetzger

      There are some comics you struggle with, not because you can’t find their strengths or their meaning, but because you can’t find the exact way to say what you want. Laura Knetzger’s Sea Urchin from Retrofit Comics is like that for me, and I’ve been working through my thoughts on this comic since I read…