Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Tag: review

  • Review: mini kuš! #31 It’s Tuesday by Amanda Vähämäki I’m still working through Kuš! komiksi’s latest batch of minis, and one I’ve been mulling over recently is a comic by Finish cartoonist and illustrator Amanda Vähämäki. North American readers will recognize Vähämäki from The Bun Field, an 80 page comic published by Drawn & Quarterly…

  • Review: Vacancy by Jen Lee I first came across Lee’s comics via the web and Lee’s animated web comic Thunderpaw; a remarkably expressive view of the post-apocalypse through the eyes of two dogs, in bright colors. Vacancy, a book that exists in the same shared universe with its own set of anthropomorphic animals is Lee’s first…

  • Review: MOTHER #1, by Céline Loup Céline Loup’s comic HONEY #1 from 2013 made last year’s “Comics That Challenged Me” list for the way it made me interrogate my own privilege as a white man. Now Loup is back with a parallel story, MOTHER #1, a 28 page black and white comic with color cover.…

  • Review: An Entity Observes All Things by Box Brown

    Review: An Entity Observes All Things by Box Brown

    An Entity Observes All Things is 152 pages of perfect bound science fiction short stories, some of which have been published previously as mini comics (including New Physics, a review of which you can find here). The collection uses a limited color palette; each story uses 3-4 tones, mostly block primary colors, with some lavender and fuchsia…

  • Review: Ley Lines #3 – Thank God I Am In Love by Cathy G. Johnson Earlier this week, I published an interview with Kevin Czap and L. Nichols, the publishers of the Ley Lines series. Thank God, I Am In Love by Cathy G. Johnson is the third issue of the quarterly publication, which engages…

  • Review: For as Long as it Rains by Zviane Part of the Pow Pow Press Kickstarter, For as Long as it Rains is one of the publisher’s first English offerings; it and a series of 5 other books were released for the first time in English at TCAF this year. For as Long as it…

  • Review: mini kuš! #33 – BFF by Marie Jacotey

    Review: mini kuš! #33 – BFF by Marie Jacotey

    Kuš! komiksi sent over a new set of minis in mid-April, and I’m just now getting around to reading them. I’m running quite a bit behind – I haven’t even gotten to most of my TCAF haul yet. This latest batch has some intriguing work, including BFF by Marie Jacotey. Like all mini kuš, BFF is a 28…

  • Quick Picks #3 – Bugs and TCAF

    Quick Picks is an occasionally written series of microreviews of books I’ve read over the past two weeks. Here’s a selection of books I’ve been thinking about over the last two weeks. Last of the Sandwalkers by Jay Hosler A recent release from First Second, Last of the Sandwalkers features a family of extraordinary beetles as they…

  • Review: The Oven by Sophie Goldstein  The Oven is a book I’ve written about briefly in the past – starting out as a serialized black and white comic in the Maple Key anthology, it was published earlier this year by AdHouse as a 2 tone black, white, and orange perfect bound book with orange gilding.…

  • Review: Shoplifter, by Michael Cho It seems like the last week of June is the week where I talk about books that focus on people who are displaced or struggling; on Monday I reviewed Noah Van Sciver’s Saint Cole, and today, Michael Cho’s debut graphic novel Shoplifter, a 96 page two-tone comic from Pantheon about…

  • Review: LYDIAN, by Sam Alden Sam Alden is known for beautifully rendered graphite comics (for examples, check out my reviews of Alden’s Wicked Chicken Queen from Retrofit Books retrofitcomics and It Never Happened Again from Uncivilized Press uncivilizr ). But for a little over a year, Alden has been using low-resolution full-color pixel art as…