Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Tag: review

  • Review: Soon We’re Both Screaming by Dakota McFadzean

    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…

  • Review: The Worst by Molly Mendoza

    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…

  • Review: Skin to Skin by Jia Sung

    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…

  • Review: A Cat on the Chair by Heo Jiyoung

    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…

  • Review: Life Can (Not) Exist Here by Vreni Stollberger, Iasmin Omar Ata

    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…

  • Review: Propagation and Seed Dispersal of Human/Plant Hybrids on 625B, by Lando

    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…

  • Review: The Pervert, written by Michelle Perez, illustrated by Remy Boydell

    Review: The Pervert, written by Michelle Perez, illustrated by Remy Boydell

    I’m getting back into the swing of reviewing, and recently read an advance copy of The Pervert, a new graphic novel from Michelle Perez and Remy Boydell. The book will be released by Image in May, and the story features a trans woman living in Seattle doing sex work alongside other odd jobs. The comic…

  • Review: Spirit Circle V 1-2 by Satoshi Mizukami

    Review: Spirit Circle V 1-2 by Satoshi Mizukami

    The writing here at Sequential State has been a bit sparse – apologies if you’ve been waiting for the latest update. I took a little time off over the last few weeks to decompress and get some reading in. I’ve been doing a lot of prose reading, and getting through some zines and library borrows…

  • Quick Picks #10 – mini kuš! #63-66

    Quick Picks #10 – mini kuš! #63-66

    Quick Picks is an occasionally written series of microreviews of books I’ve read over the past two weeks. The latest batch of mini kuš comics came in the mail earlier this week, and as always it’s an interesting set. mini kuš #63 – Nausea by Abraham Díaz The first, most noticable quality of Díaz’s comic is how messy…

  • Review: Before the Rain by Anne Pomel

    Review: Before the Rain by Anne Pomel

    One of the things I like about reading small press comics is the hunt. Despite there being distros across the US and a few good bookstores that have online storefronts, so much of what gets published in the small press community is isolated to a single website. That means if you’re trying to find new…

  • Review: Chicken Boy by Vinnie Neuberg

    Review: Chicken Boy by Vinnie Neuberg

    Hi folks! Welcome back! I’ve been running on an empty tank, so apologies for the lack of writing over the past few weeks. We call extended hardships winters, and that feels especially true this year, in this season. In an effort to get back into the swing of writing, I’ve decided to dig into some…