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A Response to Critical Jam #11: Scanlations
pebblesandjamjam: Welcome to Critical Jam, J.A. Micheline’s monthly column on criticism. I don’t write about unlicensed Japanese comics. I’d like to. There are some incredible BL cartoonists and books that I’d like to tell you about, for example, but the thing is: no English-language publishers have picked them up for translation, so as far as…
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Review: Ancestor by Matt Sheean & Malachi Ward
Imagine a world where the internet lived inside your head – where you would see a person’s name and their life history in your visual field as you were introduced, where you can share memories with a thought, and you can run programs to perform physical tasks to the utmost perfection. This is the introduction…
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Comic Review: A Zoo In Winter by Jiro Taniguchi
A little over a month ago, reports from Japanese sources announced the passing of Jiro Taniguchi. Taniguchi was a master draftsperson and cartoonist whose work has been championed by the small publisher Fanfare (in partnership with Spanish publisher Ponent Mon). They have been publishing his work since the mid-00s. Taniguchi’s best-known works have been characterized…
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Review: Burrow by Marnie Galloway
Everyone tells you that having a child will change your life. What they don’t generally mention is the physical pain of it, that unique and special torture called sleep deprivation. Depression and anxiety grow unchecked, your ability to remember fades. You see things that aren’t possibly there. You recede into yourself, and your animalistic lower…
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Comic Review: Starseeds by Charles Glaubitz
I took last week off to recover from a nasty cold, which gave me the chance to catch up on some reading, including an advance copy of Charles Glaubitz’s Starseeds from Fantagraphics. Glaubitz, a Mexican multimedia artist, is known for his art and illustration work, and Starseeds is Glaubitz’s first graphic novel. In it, the mystical Starseed Children…
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Review: Insel Paradies II by William Edmonds
I’ve been working through some work that I recently picked up outside of the convention circuit. There are a few US-based stores and distributors that carry books from Hato Press, and I was lucky to pick up a few things from the publisher in early winter. I’ve been reflecting on Insel Paradies II by William Edmonds (aka…
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Review: mini kuš! #46 Everyone Is Hungry by Anna Sailamaa
There seems to be an oscillation in the nature of the mini kuš! comics I’ve read over the last three years; some are wildly imaginative while others tend toward the understated and naturalistic. Anna Sailamaa’s Everyone Is Hungry falls firmly in the later camp. Its plot could be easily summed up in one sentence –…
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Review: Michael by Stephen Maurice Graham
Space Face Books was fairly quiet in 2016, but one of its few releases last year was a collection of Stephen Maurice Graham’s Michael comics, originally published online at Vice.com. It’s clear that the folks at Space Face and Graham put some thought into the design of the book – Michael is a 56-page full color paperback…
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Review: Yazar & Arkadaş by Lale Westvind
I was first introduced to Lale Westvind’s comics with Breakdown Press’ recent release of HAX, a remarkable silent comic with an intensity I’ve not seen in other recent work. Yazar & Arkadaş is a 28-page risograph comic with navy ink on pink paper and a two color risographed cover on heavy cream-colored paper. A writer, Yazar, is…
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Review: Giant Days, Vols. 1-2, written by John Allison, illustrated by Lissa Treiman and Max Sarin, colors by Whitney Cogar
If you’ve been keeping an eye on webcomics at all over the past 10 years, John Allison is a name that is likely to sound familiar. Allison is creator of Scary Go Round, Bobbins, and most recently Bad Machinery, all of which have had various levels of success. I came across Allison’s comics late in…
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Review: Escape Route by Daniel Zender
During CXC I picked up a stack of new mini comics from Uncivilized Press, including Escape Route by Daniel Zender. I’ve been slowly working through those books, but I’ve fixated on Zender’s work, which I’ve seen before in the New York Times. These illustrations are remarkable for the way Zender blocks out color and spaces, and the…
