-
Review: Pink, by Kyoko Okazaki In the summer and fall of 2013, Vertical Inc. published a selection of work by prominent women mangaka whose work defined a generation of further work. One of those artists was Kyoko Okazaki, whose minimalist design work and love of controversial subjects paved the way for mangaka like Asumiko Nakamura…
-
Review: Cat Dad, King of the Goblins by Britt Wilson Koyama Press has recently entered into the world of kid’s comics with two spectacularly different books – the hardcover A Cat Named Tim and Other Stories by John Martz is described as a picture book for younger readers, while the softcover Cat Dad, King of…
-
Review: Debbie’s Inferno by Anne Emond Anne Emond’s cartoons are relatively new to me – I found Anne’s work through comiques earlier this month while looking up tumblr blogs to follow. Emond’s comics are wry and introspective, often autobiographic in nature, discussing things that happen on the train and feeling like a slug. From that…
-
Review: Dear Amanda by Cathy G. Johnson One of the great joys of SPX for me this year (despite not getting to be there) was to see great cartoonists be recognized through the Ignatz Awards. Cathy G. Johnson is the winner of this year’s Promising New Talent Ignatz award on a slate of really great…
-
Review: Never Forgets by Yumi Sakugawa Yumi Sakugawa took the internet by storm in 2012 with the crushingly adorable I Think I’m In Friend-Love With You, now a book from Adam’s Media, and I’ve been following her work recently, especially since her minicomic Never Forgets was nominated for an Ignatz. Sakugawa’s keen eye for isolation in a social…
-
Review: SF: Liquid Planet Beta-14 by Ryan Cecil Smith Rarely do I use the word “joy” to describe a comic. Certainly there is satisfaction in reading a well-constructed comic, and there’s a certain joy in reading good literature, but rarely are comics joyful. The major exception is Ryan Cecil Smith’s SF series. I featured SF…
-
Taiyo Matsumoto has a penchant for writing stories about children. He examines the world through a child’s eyes, a child’s hopes and dreams, and most importantly a child’s questions. Questions are how Matsumoto starts his latest English release, Sunny, published under Viz’s Sig IKKI line. Not with panoramas or images of far-fetched monsters like his…
-
Review: In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang “Anda’s Game” is a short story collected in a 2007 book by Cory Doctorow titled Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present, one of Doctorow’s books published under a creative common’s license. The license encourages remixing and sharing, provided proper credit is given and the same…
-
Review: New Physics by Box Brown I jumped into a lot of comics subscriptions this Spring. I wanted to get an idea of the current small press landscape, I wanted to push my own boundaries as a reader, and I wanted to read work from people I hadn’t seen before. One of those subscriptions is Yeah Dude…
-
Review: It Never Happened Again by Sam Alden Earlier this year I did a review/thoughts piece on Sam’s Wicked Chicken Queen from Retrofit. I was thoroughly impressed with Alden’s mastery of graphite and the thoughtfulness of the book. Uncivilized Press has recently released a book with two collected stories, “Hawaii 1997” and “Anime,” the first…
-
Quick Picks #2
Quick Picks is an occasionally published feature of a set of three microreviews of stuff I’ve read the past two weeks. I’m still working through my stack of minis, which includes some micropublisher work, a few subscriptions, and even a Kickstarter project or two. Bastard #1, by Max de Radiguès Max de Radiguès is kicking…
