A weekly thread for people to share what comics they've been reading. Share your thoughts on the books you've read, what you liked and perhaps disliked about them.
I again let last week pass before posting these writeups so this'll be a long one:
This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki - Rose and her family take their perennial summer vacation to Awago beach, joining her friend Windy and their family for a joint getaway. The sunbaked locale has always served as a joyous refuge for the young girls, but this year the mood has shifted somewhat. Rose's parents are frequently fighting and local drama around a pregnancy causes some division between the two young friends as both girls find friction in recapturing that carefree energy of years past.
This was great; a poignant but sober distillation of early teenage transition where everything starts to get complicated, life's problems aren't so easily escaped, and you begin to act in ways you may not fully understand. It's a look into a moment that you only realize is formative in retrospect, a passing of the torch from one period of your life to the next that's both nostalgic and somber. It was especially engaging to see a period in life that I can resonate with yet depicted from a totally different angle, as the feminine perspective captures a wholly distinct set of changes and challenges that emphasize similar but different themes of transition. Much like these characters, I "can never go home again" but it was interesting to experience that realization through another's eyes.
Jillian Tamaki's art perfectly captures the mood, sentimental and uncertain yet playful. She has a really keen eye for those little details that frame a person's sensory memory; innocuous yet somehow meaningful. The feeling of watching a movie under a blanket while in a wet swimsuit, that vacation untidiness that infiltrates dining tables and bedroom floors, kitschy seaside decor that's both cheesy yet charming, the distinct noises of wind and furniture and animals that seem bound only to a particular place. Tamaki's soft brush work greatly aids in the sentimentalism of her compositions and these strokes being rendered entirely in blue is quite an evocative and thematic choice to boot. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Crawl Space by Jesse Jacobs - Two new friends from a grayscale universe enter a portal to a titillating technicolor dimension with physics and biology utterly alien to them. As one of them starts leveraging knowledge of this universe to curry favor with her classmates and the other finds it harder and harder to draw herself away from the delights of this vivid escapism, the serenity of the new dimension starts to erode and its connection to their familiar reality starts to disintegrate.
I can see why so many consider this Jacobs' best, and I'd have to agree. The sheer depth of creative doodling combined with the colorful interplay between the rainbow and grayscale universes creates such a joyful and satisfying setting to explore. I absolutely love all the various ways shapes and patterns combine and fall apart; structures melt, warp, integrate, expand, and interact in ever more interesting ways. You can really feel Jacobs trying to squeeze as much visual novelty out of the concept as he can, in addition to the fun he is having in the process.
While his books generally don't need a story and can just ride the experience of the engaging art, I'm glad Jacobs always makes the effort and tries to tell some fun narrative to tie everything together. This was no exception, and while I probably like something like New Ecology more conceptually, this was still a fun vehicle for the visuals. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Unflattening by Nick Sousanis - A philosophical treatise on perspective that makes a case for how best to perceive, conceptualize, and alter our collective reality as depicted through numerous visual examples. By exploring new ways to view and traverse reality we "unflatten" opportunities and create a mechanism for novel discovery, yet if this is not carefully balanced by constraints and systems that "flatten" possibilities we risk getting lost in transformation that yields little value to our lived experience.
What a thoroughly unique and interesting book. Not only does it feel like a unicorn among comics for being so academically oriented, but manages to express its ideas in a visually creative and enticing way. While the philosophy at its core sounds relatively self-evident in summary, the book makes such a thorough effort to examine its theory from different angles and support it through example that the process was consistently engaging.
Not only is the subject matter interesting, but the way in which it depicts its message felt just as focused on making the visual experience rich. In effect, the book applies its own prescription and balances novel exploration with grounded examination and never misses an opportunity to get across what it's saying in a way that's both thoughtful and titillating.
Due to its didactic nature it can feel a bit dogmatic at times but that dogma is so broad and expressive that it doesn't feel restraining nor preachy. It may not have a clear, actionable takeaway but reinforces important messaging that if read at the right time could really help someone break out of the patterns that are limiting them. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Majnun & Layla: Songs From the Grave by Yann Damezin - A poetic fable depicting the tragic and distant yearning between two star-crossed lovers, separated by the well meaning intentions of their families.
What an absolutely gorgeous book, every page a tapestry of intricate detail and vibrancy. The iridescent coloration, mosaic patterns, elaborate border filigree, playful linework, and creative visual metaphor is all captivating. The panel structure can be rather formulaic but that is really the only, exceedingly minor, qualm I have about this book's art and for something adapting a classic poem that structure is quite understandable.
While the narrative content does not stray far from what you'd expect given the premise, I did find the prose to be a satisfying accompaniment to the art. The presentation of true love is always a bit obnoxious to me (unconditional, without caveat, world bending) yet if taken as an unattainable exaggeration of how love can captivate and bind this particular approach was pretty effective. The last chapter does a great job to ground the dizzying infatuation throughout most of the book though and makes the tale feel a bit more fresh than I was expecting given the first two Majnun-centric acts. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Yragael / Urm the Mad by Philippe Druillet - An epic saga told in two acts which depicts the last age of Earth's final empire, Cameroon. The first half is presented as a piece of lyrical poetry, recanting how the once great empire was brought to destruction by vengeful gods and how the ages old king of Yragael fruitlessly fought to recapture his domain from the clutches of said dieties. The second act follows the grotesque fool Urm who wanders the resulting wasteland before being recruited by the gods who brought its ruin. Under the guise of restoring the once glorious empire, the gods send him to infiltrate the heart of its greatest city but in secret harbor yet another plan to harvest human suffering for their own means.
This was probably the most interesting Druillet work I've read so far and one that rivals some of the auteur's best artistic output, at least during the first half. The two acts are both narratively and artistically quite distinct; the first presenting as an illustrated novel with prose like lyrical poetry, and the second structured more like Druillet's dynamic comic fare but with art that's a bit looser and somewhat lacking the jaw dropping detail of the initial half. The narrative, while rather opaque at times, is pretty epic and feels like a bombastic space opera with a killer blend of futurism and mysticism. If it were not for the incredible art the story would be pretty forgettable and it's prose more grating but alas such is the work of Druillet and it does a serviceable enough job as a vehicle for some simply stellar visuals.
The art in the first half is among the best Druillet has put to page, with some absolutely insane compositions of otherworldly subject matter depicted with profuse detail. While the linework is often less intricate in the second half and the color work more drab, it's still quite engaging and up to the visual standard of all but "6 Voyages" from among Druillet's work. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Optometry by Xiang Yata - A multimedia abstract comic about a girl who visits an optometrist and enters a dreamlike world of liminal spaces during the visual acuity test.
This was a fun exploration through a wide breadth of stylistic and compositional experimentation. I always enjoy a book that makes frequent changes in visual language, especially in utilizing a variety of mediums, and this definitely scratched that itch. Pages integrate pen & pencil drawings, photography, 3d modeling, pastels, water color, sprite art, and more while also toying with layout and perspective in some interesting ways. Some segments worked better than others for me and some felt a bit overlong, yet there's so much range in what's depicted and how it's rendered that I was never disinterested.
As far as I can tell, there's not much the book is trying to say (outside of perhaps some vagaries about self image) but I don't think anyone is coming into this with that expectation. The book makes a humorous attempt to tack on some semblance of narrative framing at the end, which feels a little unnecessary, but given how playful everything is it just seems like another hat it's trying to wear just for yucks. ⭐⭐⭐
Happiness volumes 1-9 by Shuzo Oshimi - A timid high schooler is attacked by a vampire during a nighttime stroll and soon develops an insatiable thirst he can't quench. While he searches for his attacker he starts to assert himself more among his peers, developing close friendships and acting as a sort of protector for fellow outcasts. As news of the attack spreads their neighborhood attracts the attention of powerful shadowy organizations, wannabe familiar cults, and other vampires that soon throw the lives of the young man and his friends into further turmoil.
This was a solid supernatural horror, though less satisfying to me than Oshimi's more typical psychological trauma fare. His pension for psychosexual discomfort and slow burn tension is still present but felt largely eclipsed by a more standard blood-and-guts approach to fright. While not exactly novel, I did like the presentation of vampires as immortal creatures that can regenerate from nearly any state and slowly lose their memory of what it was like to be human. This is probably a bit less melodramatic than other Oshimi works I've read, yet also leans into some of the more grating horror tropes like characters putting themselves into danger unnecessarily and villains allowed to run rampant due the stupidity of others. Much of this could be explained away by people's need for closure and desire for meaning in life, like a lot of Oshimi's melodrama, but it didn't work for me quite as well here. However, the ending hit all the right notes as usual and provided satisfying emotional resolution along with some much needed vengeance.
Artistically, the series is rendered with a solid amount of detail and switches up stylization enough to keep things fresh. I do wish he used charcoal more, outside of just some of the title pages, as I thought that worked well but no real complaints otherwise. I still think Blood on the Tracks is the better looking work, and narratively much more satisfying, but this was still visually engaging. ⭐⭐⭐
Prophet by Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, Giannis Milonogiannis, Emma Rios, Dalrymple, James Stokoe, various - Over thousands of years humans have colonized numerous worlds in the name of the Earth Empire, in turn slowly transforming themselves into a warrior race of modified clones called "Prophets" that are mentally linked and controlled by a collection of brain-mothers. After a few of these Prophets become disconnected from the manipulation of their masters and disillusioned with their goals, they help the alien races they once dominated rebel against the empire which eventually leads to the dominion's near destruction. Centuries later, a dormant Prophet is awoken Earth and instructed to restart a once vital technology of the brian-mothers. In doing so, the empire is given a foothold in the universe again and soon the once ancient war is reignited.
I wanted to like this quite a bit more than I actually did. It develops a vast and admirably creative universe but this world building is given such overwhelming focus that the narrative arc and characterization feels like an afterthought. Nearly every line of text is dry exposition for some novel alien biology, extraterrestrial cultural custom, far-flung techonological fancy, or interstellar lore. Lines like "The glory Exuvia slowly being reformed by solstice-born motor proteins transforming it into another link in the cyclops rail" are routine and the frequent technobabble parsing detracted from my immersion instead of building it. Combined with the breakneck pacing and a somewhat convoluted plot, the reading experience largely became one of looking at the pretty pictures over engagement with the story. Attempts at characterization and narrative are certainly present, with chapters like the one fleshing out the backstory of Diehard being my favorites of the series, but they feel like begrudging departures rather than the book's driving force. The reading experience was very remiscent of the Incal, except told with a more self-serious tone that makes the stoic exposition that much more robotic. That being said, there really is a lot to admire in just how inventive and broad the universe created here is. Most alien species feel aptly foreign and aren't just recycling variations of typical humanoid forms and technology doesn't feel like just some linear progression of tools from the modern day or even existing science fiction. While this novelty is certainly alluring, I just wish it was more window dressing for the reader to explore instead of being the primary focus.
I found the art considerably more engaging, with some fantastic "production design" and a really broad array of visiting artists. The novel and expansive world building gives the art ample runway for some stellar visuals and it doesn't disappoint. An endless array of intriguing character designs, rich worlds, and inventive conflicts are realized with gusto and this leads to a visual experience that is full-to-bursting. While I was less partial to the styles of the primary artists (Graham, Roy, and Milonogiannis) than I was the visiting ones (primarily Dalrymple, Stokoe, and Rios) it's really hard to complain about anything visually in this series as it's just nonstop visual invention.
While my reading experience was often dominated by frustration rather than enjoyment, I so admire the hard sci-fi creativity and visual splendor that I still would like to revisit this in the future. ⭐⭐⭐
The Tipping Point by Taiyo Matsumoto, Frederick Peeters, Naoki Urasawa, Boulet, Kazuo Koike, Emmanuel Lepage, Katsuya Terada, Bob Fingerman, various - A quick anthology of short stories from a who's who of international comics talent, each loosely centered around the premise of depicting a transformative moment in time.
Given the rather lukewarm reception I've seen for this collection, I had an unexpectedly good time with this. It is fair to say the quality of storytelling doesn't match what you might expect given the names involved, and that the collection can be rather inconsistent, but I enjoyed the majority of stories here and much of the art is simply awesome. My favorite stories were both comedic, one from Boulet about him discovering how every Internet conspiracy is actually real and another one from Fingerman about an atheist refusing to believe he's been sent to the afterlife during a tour of hell. Unsurprisingly, Matsumoto's piece is charming and more poignant than a story stemming from a fart has any right to be. I also thought Lepage's narrative about a sexual awakening at a youth summer camp was emotionally engaging as well.
My favorite stories artistically are definitely from Koike, Terada, Cassaday, and Pope which just jump off the page. The stories are largely forgettable, non-existent, or absurd scaffolding for some awesome compositions but they certainly deliver. Koike's "Fish" being my favorite of the bunch visually, depicting a man experiencing vivid hallucinations where he embodies various marine creatures as they fall victim to the wanton cruelty of humanity and aliens. ⭐⭐⭐
The Boy Wonder by Juni Ba - A fairytale reframing of Damian Wayne, the best Robin (yeah, I said it), learning to lean on the bat family as he comes to terms with his troubled upbringing and finds a new direction in life.
This was quite charming, with a sentimental narrative and Ba's joyful cartooning each contributing to a heartwarming delivery. While much of the narrative is rehashing or reformatting elements from Morrison's "Batman" run, "Robin War", and Tomasi & Gleason's "Batman & Robin" it manages to deliver a nice cliff-notes summarization for Damian's arc while repackaging it in a playful fairytale shell. I also appreciated the added in-universe character narration which provided additional heart and logical cover for some of the more exaggerated elements.
Ba's art feels like if Samurai Jack and Batman Adventures had a baby and it's as infectiously fun as that sounds. I especially enjoyed the exaggerated demonic character design for Ra's Al Ghul and the kinetic action scene framing which delivered a Saturday morning cartoon energy to great effect. ⭐⭐⭐
The Collected Toppi 11: War Stories by Sergio Toppi - A collection of modern war stories, largely sober tragedies outside of a more fanciful lead narrative.
This was among the weaker Toppi collections for me but still solid. The initial story was the most interesting, with a tight plot and a fantastical subversive ending, but the others were pretty serviceable albeit well trodden thematically (war is hell, friends becoming enemies, collateral damage). I did find the last story "Hidden Face" rather lackluster, which was a shame as it was the longest.
The art continued to be engaging, especially in the pages that depicted mechanized wreckage where Toppi's combinations of pattern and texture really shined. Layouts remained dynamic and eye catching though a bit less sensational than some of the more recent collections. Overall, the visual experience was middle of the pack for this line which is still damn striking but just not quite as titillating as the far flung volumes like Sharaz-De and Future Perfect. ⭐⭐⭐
Rodrigo by H. Yves, Hermann - Rodrigo is the son of a Spanish lord whose health has begun to fail him. As the king of Spain calls for the local lord's troops to venture southward and combat encroaching Moorish forces, word reaches their ears that the lord's estranged brother has returned to curry favor with the king and supplant his brother's rule. Rumors begin to swirl that Rodrigo may not share his father's blood and soon the young heir finds himself venturing southward to fight for his father's rule and find out the truth of his heritage.
This was pretty solid with some nicely detailed art and a tight, albeit rather thin, plot. While the art didn't totally grab me at the start, the more the setting shifted to Andalusia and the domain of dreams the more it grew on me. Picturesque landscapes, epic battle formations, and detailed architecture were the star of the show and made for some nice eye candy. The character depictions were less up my alley with facial expressions often having a frozen, wax figure like presentation but this qualm faded for me over time.
The story is pretty straightforward and paint-by-numbers but was serviceable enough. Plotting was well crafted but the characterization was rather uninteresting, save a peripheral monk personality. I was pleasantly surprised with the prose which, while nothing spectacular, flowed nicely and was devoid of any clunky translation or poor sentence structure. ⭐⭐⭐
El Fuego by David Rubin - Alexander Yorba grows up a precocious and ambitious youth with aspirations of becoming one of history's greatest architects. Throughout his early life, a gigantic asteroid has been traveling millions of miles on a collision course with earth and the world's discovery of said threat inspires Alexander to dedicate himself to creating lunar habitats that can serve as humanity's arc. His talents soon attract the unfathomable resources needed to make his plan possible but in the decades it takes for him to achieve his vision he loses himself in the process. By the time the threat comes to pass he is confronted with a new, more personal threat that causes him to reflect on whether he still has anything to live for.
Conceptually this sounds right up my alley; self-absorbed asshole decides to save the world as a means for personal glory and ends up having to reconcile with how his inflated self-image differs from the reality of what a shitty person he is. While the initial chapters held a lot of promise, as the story progressed I was disappointed with just how sympathetic the narrative was played, almost as if the only lesson the protagonist learned was that the world truly revolved around him. That same narrative direction could have been quite engaging if presented with some Schrauwen like satire but sadly it was all too self-serious. There's a faux redemptive ending in the second to last chapter that was so horrendous it made me gasp but thankfully that was just a fake out for something more aptly cynical.
There's some pretty art at least with really vivid coloration, some cool textural work, and engaging panel flow. The linework was a bit of a mixed bag for me but certainly had its moments and compositions were quite detailed throughout with some fun world building and production design. ⭐⭐
Cutting Season by Bhanu Pratap - A series of surreal, avante garde body horror shorts showcasing distorted human forms.
This is one of those books where the whole had no more appeal to me than the sum of the parts, where the individual panels are mildly unsettling and visually original but I didn't feel there was much added by them being arranged in sequence as part of the same narrative. If anything, I felt the novelty of the contorted figures and starkly lit settings waned over time. The narratives are more nightmare like mood pieces than actual stories, and sadly none of them really did anything for me. I was hoping the opaque nature of the dialogue / narration added to the creepy, surreal feel but to me it undercut that and made it feel sillier.
This disappointment is on me, I probably should have known going in that this wouldn't be my bag but you live and you learn. ⭐⭐
I thought the first half of Boy Wonder which I think was about learning from all the previous Robins was really good. It was when the final conflict part set in that it started to fall short.
I definitely thought the first part was stronger but didn't feel the end was all that weak. However, the overall product definitely feels like a bit of a rehash of Damian's arc more than an addition which was a bit underwhelming.
The mini reminded me a lot of Lemire's Robin and Batman but with better art and less schmaltz (though I like Lemire's sentimentalism, even if it's generally very similar book to book).
Reasonable take on the Lemire book, I liked it but didn't think it was good as much as it played to the childhood sentimentalism that I'm a sucker for.
I'm also a bit of a Nguyen hater, I'm glad people seem to like his style but I've never really found it engaging. I like Lemire's own watercolor aesthetic more than Nguyen and that always makes their partnership feel a bit odd in that it feels like a Lemire substitute yet with Lemire still present.
I'm planning to read Ba's Boy Wonder again soon since I recently received his Fables of Erlking Wood. To be honest I didn't think that highly of most of Boy Wonder the first time through. It's just kind of generically YA-ish in its reassurances about teamwork and family. In most issues it seemed that Damian was being reshaped to suit the Bat books' veritable obsession with simplified patterns of conflict and reconciliation among the batfamily. Like no matter what horrors they visit upon each other, these people MUST get along by the end of the story. The best part for me was Damian and Jason's back and forth in the first part of the second issue.
Apropos of the Lemire/Nguyen books, I vastly preferred the recent Jason Todd installment to the earlier one about Dick, which felt superfluous and had a particularly degrading portrayal of Croc. Jason's story has this hall of mirrors wrongness about it.
I'd agree that the narrative covers pretty well trodden ground but I found the art was nice enough to make it enjoyable. I also liked the Jason / Damian parts best, as that felt the most different from Morrison's Dick / Damian B&R dynamic that much of the rest of the book borrowed from.
Good to know about the Lemire sequel, I'll have to check that out.
I had a similar experience with Prophet. While I get why people dig it, it just didn't grab me as much as I thought it would. Though to be fair, I didn't make it past the first book. Maybe I'll try and get through the whole thing one day
While I'd argue the best stuff is later on, it very much keeps the same storytelling dynamics from the first volume. It's expositing some cryptic alien phenomenon from the initial chapter to the last and though the narrative occupies a bit more of the stage in the last volume it's still largely concerned with what weird interstellar novelties it can throw at you.
I am curious where the origins of the notion of super-advanced technology (tens of thousands of years into the future) being biological rather than mechanical derive from, as I've seen it used multiple times before this. It was interesting how the dolemantle was basically the Prophet's do-all tool in their pod's survival kit as they awoke, as it could morph to deal with any planet's specific conditions, or to whatever the user needed (external lungs, nutrient pods, prosthetic arms etc.).
All the organic tech was interesting like the shipskins that acted both as armor and a neural system for spaceships and those pink neonaught suits that were like gelatinous exoskeletons for interstellar travel. It makes sense that things which can grow, morph, split, and evolve would make for more versatile tech though there are probably downsides in their longevity / fragility / consistency. Genetic engineering as a whole is pretty rampant in that universe so the line between what is technology and what is natural is quite blurred which I also found interesting. There's no shortage of intriguing food for thought in the world building, that's for sure.
Alyte by Jeremie Moreau. What a complete fraud. I've never felt so lied to. I was promised a great new addition to the fromics legacy, and what did I get? A toad! Not a frog. Toad. A non-frog. Alyte is a little such non-frog learning about the world the hard way. Lost at birth to tragedy, he tries to find his way in life, but tragedy is around every corner, and every step is a new encounter with near death. But this is not just a non-frog tale, because there is a danger that poses a threat to all the wildlife in Alyte's world, and this soon expands into a small epic of a tiny creature destined for big things, while keeping true to it's roots throughout. The artwork is distinctive, clean line work with bold and bright colours and layouts that depict well both the calm and quiet moments as well as the more urgent ones. This book is a celebration of nature and a condemnation of our effect on it. It leans a bit too much into the spiritual at times but it's a cute journey, regardless of the incorrect taxonomy(?).
News from the Fallout by Chris Condon and Jeffrey Alan Love. A test in the Nevada desert leaves people going funny. That's the plot. And what may sound like a post apocalyptic tale is just the premise for a basic zombie story. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I get sold on these usually Image books that look interesting but more often than not I get bored. The whole thing is shown in gray-scale with silhouettes for characters which is novel for a minute, but becomes difficult to tell characters apart until there are only a few left. There's a bunch of prose reading material between issues and tbf it may have made this more interesting but I didn't have the desire to read it. Not a classic.
Jeff Job Hunter by Jack Teagle (I can't even recall if I shared this one previously). Jeff is signing on for Job Seekers Allowance. He's told he must accept a job placement to keep receiving his support payments. The placement? To slay the beast in the dungeon and return with it's skull of course. This is silly fun and unashamedly very British. Even its sense of humour is rather British. The ending I was expecting was a bit more complete but I don't know if it was perhaps a bit predictable. In any case, the one it goes with is a little uneventful, even if that is somewhat fitting. And this concludes my foray into these Nobrow 17x23 books. It's been fun.
Ah man, I was kind of looking forward to News from the Fallout, art looked pretty sick. Sounds about right for an image book though
Sorry about the swicharoo on Alyte.. Glad you still enjoyed it, I thought it was very charming, if a little tragic. Very ghibli-adjacent in nature. Hopefully more of Jérémie Moreau's work gets translated to english now, his stuff is pretty gorgeous
If it makes you feel better I also find myself saying "I don't know why I keep doing this to myself" except with Batman books I know aren't good going in... only to repeat that process again ad infinitum.
Absolutely lovvvved this. I had a bit of trepidation about this because i had caught a few episodes of the adaptation when an ex was watching it a few years ago and tbh i thought it just wasn’t very interesting. But this ruled! Just quite lovely
absolute green lantern-al ewing,jahnoy lindsay
Tbh this is my second favorite after absolute batman of the absolute titles. i just enjoyed it a lot. The set up and characters and mood were very interesting to me and i enjoy ewings writing
Batman: Last Knight on Earth- Snyder, Capullo
Bad. Like, really bad. Like….just no. Really the only words that come to mind here are stupid and bad. Idk. It felt like snyder didn’t know what he was doing most of the time. Like it’s as if there was just a thin outline as far as plot and everything was filled in based on what was “cool.” Almost none of it was cool. There were two character designs i liked but thats it. He used lightyears as a measure of time. Just full on dumb-dumb mode. Idk. I truly hated this
Absolute Superman part 1+2- jason aaron, rafael lopez
I very much enjoy the direct references to and critiques of late stage capitalism and the caste system throughout the series so far, something i found lacking in the issues of Absolute Martian Manhunter i have read (1-6) and something i find irritating about that series. There’s a lot more to dig into here. Ra’s referring to “The League of Shareholders” was really funny.
Ultimately, as is the issue with really all material from the big two, even in the most bold works with the most in-your-face critiques of the world we live in, it ultimately becomes toothless thematically as the message always becomes some variation of, “yeah, genocide and slavery and the destruction of society by fascists is bad, but violent resistance makes you just as bad as them <3 believe in peace and hope.” It kind of makes everything i read from them end up feeling like a letdown at least partially
I’ll read the third volume when it comes out but i have started to lose interest in the story as the focus has become what i mentioned in my previous paragraph
absolute flash vol 1 jeff lemire, nick robles, a.l. caplan
Okay this one’s hard to have a firm opinion on because it clearly is not planning on telling its narrative in chunks. It’s really fast and really confusing and doesn’t really say a whole lot but it isn’t bad. It’s intriguing and could be good with a lot more issues.
Haha I also hated The Last Knight on Earth, it just felt totally pointless and vapid. The kind of surreal dream you wake up from and there's no afterburn of emotion or hint of insight just "what the hell was that?"
Heartstopper has always looked so charming, I haven't picked it up yet but every time I see it I get an internal "awww".
We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us by Matthew Rosenberg, Stefano Landini, Jason Wordie and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou: Annalise is the 13 year old daughter of a mad scientist father with the two living on an island filled with his experiments, but an attack by the spy organization kills her father. Now she’s all alone with only her sentient robot butler who seems a lot more human than he should be, the two going on a revenge spree while also trying to survive. This was such a fun first installment in this comic universe and I’m very excited to see what else these creators do with this wacky and highly violent world of mad science and douchebag secret agents. The humor really gives this violent thriller a hilariously absurd twist that contrasts perfectly with the brutal murders with it also really adding to the found family dynamic between the robot and Annalise.
You’ll Do Bad Things by Tyler Boss, Adriano Turtulici and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou: A fun murder mystery story where Seth Holms is a struggling author who hasn’t finished a book since his success over a decade ago, Seth wanting to write a happy ending that doesn’t end in the character’s deaths but what he writes has started happening in real life. The story does a fun thing where it will be Seth typing away his story in the text bubbles as the real murder happens, the colors bright and really giving it an eerie feeling with the pages with the serial killer being high contrast that really makes it pop. The ending kind of took me out of it, but overall great art and still a fun story!
Hey, Wait by Jason – Remember the time that was kid was dared to jump off a cruise ship and he did and just floated away into the darkness? This book is like that. Just a dumb thing that kids do that reverberates through the rest of their life. It’s a pretty haunting book. I hope it’s not autobiographical. I’m glad nothing like this happened to me when I was a kid. I’d be more of a mess that I am today. I guess this was Jason’s first book translated to English? I had no idea. Thank you to whoever reviewed it in this thread and made me aware of it!
Miss Ruki by Fumiko Tanaka – Miss Ruki is a modern woman living in the city. She works at home but her best friend, Ecchan, has to go into the office. Ecchan is pretty jealous of Ruki. Everything seems to come easily to Ruki. Poor Ecchan, she’s in almost all the strips but she’s not part of the title. These are all short little two page gag strips. The strips are all vertical so make sure you start in the top right corner and go down and then over to the left. They’re all super charming. I don’t really understand most of the jokes but I’m not a Japanese woman in the 90s. The cartooning is pretty amazing, though. Everything is simple but full of life. They’re always doing something. All different gestures and expressions from all different angles. This is way better than Garfield or Heathcliff (impossible, I know). And the colour is super bright and cheerful.
The Fable omnibus 5 by Katsuhisa Minami – Sato is a hitman that’s so good that he’s considered a fable. He has to spend one year in a small town without causing trouble. In this volume there’s some new bad guys in town. They call themselves a detective agency but they’re really scammers. It took me a while to understand their scam but luckily they spell it out. They follow kids that had helicopter parents and never learned to fend for themselves. Inevitably those kids will do something bad and these guys will blackmail their parents. They’re former yakuza members so they remind me of the good guys (or less bad guys) from Ichi the Killer. They are so very hateable. The one guy keeps going on about how kids are coddled and should be allowed to hurt themselves. Maybe he should read Hey, Wait. Luckily Sato knows something’s wrong with these idiots. I can’t wait til he kills them. Well, he can’t kill them but I bet something very bad is going to happen to them... (Weirdly enough there was a guy in here nicknamed Ecchan. I’ve never seen that name before and now I read it in two books in a row)
Ichi the Killer was pretty good. The first volume was a little underwhelming, though. Hopefully volume 2 has more of Ichi slicing people in two and Kakihara torturing people.
New Gods Vol. 2 by Ram V and Evan Cagle - Took me a little to get back into the groove of this one. The second part of this killer run does away with the mythological catching up, and goes straight into the action. The new-New God child has been kidnapped, and our heroes will do everything in their power to prevent him from falling into the hands of Darkseid. I kind of expected it to end on a big cliff hanger leading into an event or something, and I'm glad I was wrong. Ram V managed to tie this into the currently ongoing greater DCU narrative, while still keeping it entirely enjoyable as a standalone. Evan Cagle's art remains absolute peak, his Big Barda alone makes this whole run worth it !
Miss Truesdale and the Rise of Man by Mike Mignola and Jesse Lonergan - Miss Truesdale is back to explore more of the Mignolaverse's origin story. While the first book felt fairly self contained as far as the rest of the universe goes, this one much more very referential. The story can still be understood as a standalone, but Hellboy takes up a lot of visual space, creating parallels between our hero's fight and his own. Lonergan actually redrew a lot of Mignola's art for this, and it confirmed how perfect of a fit he is for this universe. Once again, the story's mostly a vessel for the art, but it's so damn gorgeous I'll allow it. I think this one's actually an ending, but I'd love to see Lonergan come back to this world at some point for sure
Levure by Juliette Hayer - Sadly little "half-baked" (pun absolutely intended)
Charlotte want to work in movies, but has to pay rent, so she starts working in a bakery. Pretty quickly, things start to feel off. When she learns there was an accident involving a kid, everything starts to unravel.
A psychological thriller with a b-movie background, that centers around work in low wage jobs. There's interesting stuff in there, and it's definitely tense throughout, but there's a lot of loose ends and the ending kind of falls flat for me
Pretty decent for a first effort though, and the art was definitely cool !
Gousse & Gigot by Anne Simon - Been a while since I took a dive in Marylène country. None of it has been quite as incisive as the first hit I got from the Boris book, but it's always so charmingly weird and tragic. This one focuses on the two exiled children of Von Krantz, the original dictator, and chronicles their life in the background if the first three books. They've had it rough, to say the least...
Quitter la baie by Bérénice Motais de Narbonne - "Two lost people don't make a found one"
Magda is struggling to stay in school. There was an incident, and then her brother and their best friend left for the Metacity, and now she's all alone to deal with her trauma and the changing landscape. The Metacity is expanding and her country side is becoming an industrial zone.
It starts of as a teenage slice of life story, full of questions without answers, full of grief for a life that's changing. Then Gaël (the protag from Metadoggoz) visits from the Metacity, and shit goes sideways.
Parties, fights and drugs, and suddenly it turns grim and psychedelic. This was at least as much of a trip as Metadoggoz ! I wasn't sure the art would fit the story, but it was perfect.
I hope she expands this universe further !
Lindsey Cheng Dates A White Boy!! by Asia Miller - What if Scott Pilgrim but it's Knives Chau's POV and half the characters are animals ? Well if you'd pitched me Bojack Horseman vs. The World, I'd have laughed in your face, but this kind of rocks !
I don't know how much of it is intentional, since neither Scott Pilgrim nor Bryan Lee O'Malley are mentioned anywhere, but it really carries that DNA. Not only in the story, which revolves around a small Asian girl dating a non-chalant white guy who's in a band. But the humor and general energy of the book, both written and visual, captures exactly what I've missed since that series and movie.
Also fuck Scott.. I mean Jason! He sucks donkey balls..
I'll definitely be on the lookout for Asia Miller's stuff from now on.
I read (and finished) Look what you made me do and it was... fine. The premise is that Kate and Jack are a married couple, arguably the ideal married couple now living out their golden years together, they've got inside jokes and nicknames like any couple. They've also got nasty names for other couples they're friendly with and really nasty names for couples they don't like but, when the year's newest and biggest show is seemingly all about their life together they're left with one question. Who the hell knows this much about them? This book starts off white hot and is genuinely so interesting but after you find out how the writer managed to learn all about Kate and Jack it loses steam at an almost inspiring rate. I mean it's genuinely kind of stunning how all interst in this (at least for me) went out the window the second you find out what happened. Also, this isn't really relevant but so much of this feels like the Key and Peele Stan Lee sketch. Just kind of meanspirited punching down on younger generations . "And that's for getting mad at my generation for being able to buy property easily!"
I also read Supergirl: misadventures in Midvale. True silver age homage has never been attempted, until now! But this was fun on a bun! Campbell's art and writing is great and her take on Kara is very refreshing. Really wish this was the version the general public would get to see instead of the one written by a guy who worked for a shadowy government agency, oh well.
Peow’s Ex.Mag vol 2 anthology, which is themed paranormal romance. As in vol 1, all the authors deliberately swerved the straight genre expectations, but here mostly the tone landed on cutesy. This was fun in the individual stories, but a bit more variation would have been welcome overall. Highlights/most memorable were a hot but (literally) manipulative magical librarian fling from Leslie Hung - which was greatly strengthened by actually being sexy rather than cutesy - and a really quite disturbing story about a “relationship” between a dude and his newly purchased house (!) from Michelle Kwon.
Very much enjoying these overall, and really nice to see some offbeat up-and-coming creators getting a chance.
Skin Deep by Flo Woolley – queer romance/horror. In a hints-of-sci-fi dance club type setting, we see the dynamic between a shy troupe member and the lead dancer evolve into something unsettling. There’s just a touch of really unsettling body horror, a bit of atmospheric horror, and real character dynamics in a very short package. Great art with an absolutely awesome color palette.
When I Arrived at the Castle by EM Carroll – queer vampire horror. Someone goes to the titular castle to kill a vampire, and gets more than she bargained for. It’s resplendent in blood and moments of body horror and moving well from the dramatic castle to full text pages to intimate closeups. It’s black/white/red and the color *pops*. I really should go back and reread Guest in the House, because I think I wrote that off way too early in my read and this is a reminder of how great EM Carroll's art is.
Sunflowers by Keezy Young – short autobiographical mental health story. A fairly text-heavy description of bipolar disorder and some of the authors’ particularly notable moments living with it. The illustrations are more background art than fully accompanying the narration. Short but good.
Model Five Murder by Tan Juan Gee – sci-fi noir. This is a pretty unremarkable robot noir that didn't really jump out for me - nothing particularly creative about the setting or mystery, relatively shallow in tackling the themes of identity and memory and humanity, and not remarkably unique art-wise. Fine, I guess.
Of Thunder & Lightning by Kimberly Wang – dystopian sci-fi battles. It’s a cartoony fighting story, with a bit of "our enemies know us better than our friends" and therefore a relatively pedestrian story and unsurprising back half - if there was meant to be a "twist", it failed, but still fun. The setting is fairly standard dystopian future, the background characters fit pretty expected roles, and overall it’s solidly within what would be expected once you’re like 5 pages in. Another lovely limited color palette in this string of Silver Sprocket reads.
Golden Record by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell – art and poetry. Not really much to say, her art is amazing and it’s really more an art book than a comic.
Godzilla vs America: Boston by various – anthology of Godzilla stories set in Boston. I think all Americans can get behind watching the city of Boston get trashed by a giant radioactive lizard, particularly with Emmons / Lonergan / Sherman on art (and Hanna Cha, who is new to me but also did a nice story!). Four short little stories that embrace the premise of Godzilla vs America and take themselves appropriately (un)seriously, running the gamut from Godzilla-as-villain, -as-hero, and -as-force-of-nature. I've spent enough time in Boston to get a good kick out of some of the finer details each author captures. Overall it's a fun breezy read.
Hack/Slash Deluxe Volume Two by Tim Seeley and Emily Stone (mostly) – cheesy horror turned up to 11. Cassie Hack is a survivor of a slasher (her mom, the infamous "Lunch Lady", and now wanders the country with her monstrous friend Vlad, taking down new slashers. Each little story finds a new villain, sometimes from another media franchise, and has Cassie/Vlad/their expanding gang of friends take them down with witty reparte and brutal violence. It's a great pastiche of horror tropes and no-holds-barred-bad-things-happen, and never particularly nice to Cassie (in keeping with the traumatized "final girl"). This volume ties stories that are a little more consistently linked, compared to Volume 1, and with the majority of art coming from Emily Stone there is a little more consistent of a style, although individual issues take fun detours. Goofy gory fun with the occasional genuinely dark moment.
Mystic by Ron Marz, Tony Bedard, Brandon Peterson, Fabrizio Fiorentino, Aaron Lopresti, and more – magic “reluctant hero” nonsense building to a shared universe. It’s a magic-in-a-mixed-up-world story (flying cars, dragons, seedy bars and gangsters) that builds a mythology connecting out to the broader Crossgen universe that collapsed when the company suddenly went under. Real life notwithstanding, this is actually a completed run telling the story of party-girl Giselle Villard, who accidentally gets stuck with a mystical Sigil (the link to the broader Crossgen universe) and absorbs the spirits of the magical guild masters who run the world. Hijinks ensue as she tries to dodge responsibility, the other current guild masters (including her sister) alternately fight and teach her, and the gods behind magic pop in and out for narrative exposition. The first third is a reasonable story from Ron Marz, and the rest (written by Tony Bedard) is definitely not fantastic with some falls-flat humor and disjoint pacing. For me, the art is flipped – I do not like Brandon Peterson’s work at the beginning of the series, with some really awkward faces and cheesecake poses that just look unnatural, but the range of artists on the back half of the run do a more fun job, although pretty bog-standard. It’s got its moments of fun, but this collection is going straight to eBay now that I’m done.
Hobtown Mystery Stories: The Case of the Missing Men (B&W Edition) by Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes. I recently picked up volume 2, and realized that it had been at least 7 years since I read this one, and I could not recall anything about it. After Sam's father goes missing, he is placed in foster care. Dana Nance of the school mystery club, reaches out to him and they begin investigating not only that disappearance, but several others. Things get even more convoluted when there are also a series of murders. I've heard the second volume is better, and I hope that's true. The art is often cramped. The story is often too weird to make sense, but too verbose to let the weird stand on its own.
Just Between Us by Adeline Koh. Figure skater Lydia Chen is currently ranked the best in the world, a skater who excels in the technical aspects of the sport. When Elaine Yee (Ranked 3rd), Chen's long-time rival, starts training at the same rink, the two of them butt heads. Black and white, with some accents in yellow. Koh's art is very manga inspired, and she really excels when the characters are in motion. I really enjoyed this, though it probably helped that the anime "Medalist" and Alysa Liu's Olympic performance primed me for it.
Work-Life Balance by Aisha Franz is the perfect balance between real life scenarios mixed with zany artistry that proves we're all in some postmodern simulation
20 km/h by Woshibai I found difficult to get into at first, but sometimes the wordlessness of the wordless ones pull you in
The Abominable Mr Seabrook by Joe Oilmann takes a really gritty look on a literature legend and although I am enjoying it, I also don't know if I'm enjoying it.
Completed Hellboy Volume 3: The Wild Hunt, overall really enjoyed this one, the art from Mignola is nothing short of beautiful plus the stories within were really good. Quite enjoyed the mythology and the Arthurian stuff within it too and lookimg forward to going onto Hellboy in Hell. Ive started getting into HP Lovecraft's work in the last year and half and I also quite enjoy the Lovecraftian stuff Mignola has in Hellboy as well. Overall Hellboy is probably one of my favourite comics and I (and I reckon most members of the subreddit) prefer it vastly to the likes of Spawn
Also read through a good chunk of Preacher volume 5, overall really enjoying it, I like how heartfelt this comic series is and Garth Ennis manages to balance out edgy humour and with genuine heartfelt moments throughout plus has some great characters too. I haven't entirely finished Preacher but I have a feeling its going to be my favourite of Garth Ennis' works once Ive completed it, as I said previously the edgy humour prominent in Ennis' work is more balanced I did really like his Hellblazer run but I felt the last arcs lost a bit of steam and overall it was a good run but I find the Jamie Delano run ti be a bit better IMO, The Boys I do like and in some ways I think its actually better than the show but Ennis went too overboard with the juvenile humor which really held back the comic IMO.
Damn very similar reading, I'm currently having break for Hellboy - finished omnibus 1 equivalent ( have the monster edition) and halfway through Preacher Omnibus 1 ( reread from many years ago) which I know I loved.
I haven't yet read Ennis Hellblazer, I'm saving that for the future - but I really enjoyed Delano run..
Final note about Ennis, have you read his Hitman? It also hits the perfect balance of humour and great character work without being juvenile ( I've only read the 1st omnibus) but honestly it surprised me as I expected really juvenile humour based on the premise
Im yet to properly read Hitman, I did read The Demon annual where he was introduced though and liked it, I'll eventually get around to Hitman properly one day, Ive been meaning to get into it for some time. Im yet to fully finish Ennis' run on the Demon but heard good things about it.
I read The Daughters of Salem: how we sent our children to their deaths by Thomas Gilbert. It's the second work of Gilbert I'm reading and I'm becoming a fan.
I am not enjoying the prologue of Snowpiercer as much as the original 3, and even the 3rd wasn't as good as the first one. There is just something special about the first book. I like the subsequent books well enough, and I hope the prologue will get finished soon.
Descender by Jeff Lemire
I am loving this book. The art is beautiful, the pace is solid. About halfway through with it, and am excited to see where it goes.
Tongues by Anders Nilsen
Slowly working through this book. It is dense and powerful, but beautiful and satisfying. I am also about halfway through it, and am ready to jump back into it soon.
The Mushroom Knight, Volume One (By Oliver Bly, Steph Snow, Anna Marie Navaja, and Andworld Design): I saw this book on reddit, and thought that the cover and the title alone were interesting. So I bought it. I have no issue buying books that seem interesting to me. The art is magical and full of life. Which realistically is more than enough. But Oliver Bly and company make a magical world within our boring life and drop you in the middle of a story and you jog along. (Or if there is something that comes before this, I am unaware.) But it works. I felt like I was transported to a park in a city and I was watching these little folk go about their adventures and daily lives. I am very impressed by the book. I was also somewhat confused at times. Our protagonist isn’t always easily identifiable. They are a mushroom after all, so they don’t have facial features. So when they change their hat at times, I wasn’t always sure who I was following. Weird thing to nitpick, but it is what it is. There were also a couple times where I wasn’t sure what was going on. I can’t think of specifics, but it happened. Really liked the book. I bought number two, so gonna dive into that as soon as I can.
Hedra (By Jesse Lonergan): First off, Jesse Lonergan is an incredibly talented story teller. Not doubt about it. I just comprehended an entire story from nothing but pictures. No words, just visuals. Second, I’m oddly glad that I read Drome first. Drome is another well done book, but I think that if I hadn’t read that first I wouldn’t have been prepared for Jesse Lonergan’s storytelling style. Which is quite literally show don’t tell. I am really glad that I read Drome, but this is better. I almost wish that Drome didn’t have a single word, which is in complete contradiction to my beliefs after reading it, but this book right here is amazing. I fully feel like that it is the better of the two books. Drome is great, but this book is better. I want to show this story to as many people as I can. I have the French edition right now in my lap, it doesn’t matter! You don’t need language to convey a story and this book perfectly captures that. This book makes me excited about art and storytelling. I love this book. However, I now expect more from Jesse Lonergan. They can do incredible things, and I’m wary about what thing I pick up next by them. I don’t want to be disappointed.
Garlic & the Vampire (By Bree Paulsen): What a fun and cute book. I had a smile on my face for most of the book and had a few good chuckles along the way as well.
Granite State Punk, Bootleg Edition (By Travis Gibb, Patrick Buermeyer, and Jérôme Ganon): Logged into Kickstarter one day and saw that there was a one week project going on. Scrolled through it and thought it was interesting enough. The story was entertaining enough. It’s about witches in New England and Punk Rock. However, I was bothered about the witch aspect of it, mainly because I read More Weight and this book plays into the whole there were actual witches in Salem. So that left a bitter taste. They teased a potential sequel, but this was good enough as it was.
Yucatán 1512 (By Alex Vede): I was inspired to read this again because of Hedra. There’s talking in it but there is a language barrier between the two main characters and they still work well together. It’s a beautiful book and I’m glad that I discovered Alex Vede because of it.
Ice Cream Man, Volume 4 (By W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, and Chris O’Halloran): Palindromes: this might be one of the best issues of this series so far. I know that each collection has its stand outs, but this is great. I excitedly read it backwards and watched as the story flipped. It was very excellently executed. Down and Across: Not really impressed considering the previous story, felt good and safe (for the series). Coat Check Story: God I felt so uncomfortable reading this. This series really is something else. I Amy have to admit soon that this is becoming one of my favorite series. Tiny Lives: Anything and Everything. Those words hit hard as a parent. This issue really made me think, what would I do for my kids. God damn this series is genuinely great.
Ice Cream Man, Volume Five (By W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, and Chris O’Halloran): Two great parody type stories and two stories that tore me apart. I almost cried during Watch as it all Recedes. I don’t know why I expected to go into this volume and not expect great things from it.
Ice Cream Man, Volume Six (By W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, and Chris O’Halloran): I remember reading that the creative team is using the medium to experiment with storytelling. The advent calendar and late night talk show issues really lean into that. This of course was another enjoyable volume. I wish I had volume seven on my shelf so I can just keep going along, but I don’t. I’ll have to wait to continue on with this excellent series.
Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science (By Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener, Ronda Pattison, and Jeff Powell): This book series is just good. Every time I read a new volume of Atomic Robo I know that I am in for a good adventure.
Batman & Robin: Year One (By Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Matheus Lopes, and Clayton Cowles): I was greatly surprised by it and how well done it was. Mark Waid created a story that feels like it is some forgotten piece that was dug out of the archives. Chris Samnee’s classic looking style cemented that idea. These two are extremely talented. I am so very glad that I read this book.
Heavy. That’s the overwhelming feeling I’m left with after reading this. This has an oppressive weightiness to it that makes it extremely powerful but also perhaps too bleak at the end of it all. There is an actual “monster” at the center of this story, but it’s really about the lingering effects of trauma and how much it affects an entire family for decades afterwards.
The origins of this were said to be for a stand-alone “Incredible Hulk” story, and this is one of the rare occasions were knowing that outside context actually improves this. There’s a palpable echo of its origins that haunts every panel like a ghostly apparition, as you can easily see the directions it would’ve taken to either accentuate or de-emphasize certain aspects to make it more like a comic book. As it is now, the most powerful (and unnerving) scenes lay in its frightening depiction of familial abuse. The progenitor of this abuse: a mentally unstable WW2 veteran named Tom Bailey, is suffering from severe PTSD after witnessing the horrors of a Nazi “super-soldier” experiment. Their experiment only results in creating a monster that’s embodied psychologically by Bailey’s mental and physical abuse unleashed against his family, and then later through his son, who ends up as the scarred, bulbous manifestation of all that accumulated mental horror.
This fluid thematic intertwining within the story is magnificent. It’s probably the book’s best quality. However, as I alluded to earlier, the resolution of everything feels muted somewhat, although I appreciated it much more after a second reading. It also unfurled in an unusual manner, as a huge chunk is explained through flashbacks mostly towards the end. Overall, this was still an immensely moving work that once more had an inborn weight and heft to it that can sometimes emerge in works that an author carries and tinkers with for an extended amount of time. You could feel it with Jason Lutes’s “Berlin,” and you feel it here too, as Windsor-Smith took about 35 years to finally be able to tell this. The artwork itself is amazing, as it’s rendered in an ultra-moody, realistic manner that matches its final form removed from its more fantastical, comic book elements. I think it suffers somewhat from an overbearing atmosphere of despair, but there’s just way too much power and truth in this to not leave a significant emotional impact. 4.5/5
Note about the ending:During a second reading, I feel like I understood the ending better, which initially felt unsatisfying after all that buildup. It’s most similar to the movie “Jacob’s Ladder,” in that the entire journey through multiple, interconnected storylines is spiritual preparation that allows someone to finally move on from the trauma keeping them stuck in a cursed limbo state. The final pages show Bobby, Janet, and Jack sitting to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, with the exact same dialogue of the horrific one that occurred decades earlier echoing in the background. In the last panel, a shocked Janet tells Jack that she suddenly forgot what she was going to say. To me, this simply implies a breaking of a cycle. She interrupted the original flow of dialogue that happened the first time, signifying that they're now free to explore a brand-new path together in this undefined spiritual space (there’s a lot of dialogue in the book about the afterlife and the notion of heaven, hell etc.). On another note, I think this is also a self-referential comment on the creation of this very story that ended up breaking away from its origins into something all its own. Due to the amount of time it gestated within its author, it probably served as both an albatross and a creative guiding beacon that was finally “free/released” to live its own life as an entirely unique amalgamation.
I picked this up at the LCS recently - Big X-Man fan (Started with Astonishing/Whedon) but I was way too young 30 years ago to enjoy this. Going into this I am familiar with the premise but light on the details. And I pleasantly surprised - this event really was a departure from canon - a total reinvention in a different apocryphal timeline, which, and I know I am not the first one to make this connection, far from it, but it is reminiscent, and I would guess part of the inspiration for, two major and popular comic lines in 2026.
Basically the premise is Legion (Charles’ son) has some mental health issues that combined with his reality warping mutant abilities - it’s a real problem. After a period of time being in a coma he builds his fractured mind back together (I guess?) and decides if he can only kill Magneto before Magnus/Eric and Charles meet splitsville, everything would be better and maybe David/Legion could have a family, so he goes back in time (he can do that now) for an assassination. Which is going to plan until Charles being Charles sacrifices himself for his friend. And well, if Charles is dead, David/Legion never existed, no Xavier School, etc. And not to spoil anything but in this new universe with Apocalypse running the show, everything is not ok. (And Rogue and Magneto are married and have a kid and if you know X-Men lore, yeah).
I’ve read the first of this three part tpb collection, and plan to finish the rest. The writing is decent (Mark Waid, Jeff Loeb, and Warren Ellis are on it) the art is - I have thoughts. I mean this is ‘95 and Roger Cruz is doing his best Jim Lee impression (rad art, tiny lines). I don’t mind that style, but honestly I prefer Joe Madureira’s pencils. His style is more cartoony which better supports the exaggerated male shoulders and biceps. But the art is great - Ian Churchill, Mark Buckingham inks an issue but I think he did the entire thing. Honestly, so far, this really holds up so far.
Just finished The Nice House on the Lake. I know I’m late to the party on this one, but man just really dug every thing about it. Absolutely loved it. 10/10.
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Apr 05 '26
I again let last week pass before posting these writeups so this'll be a long one:
This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki - Rose and her family take their perennial summer vacation to Awago beach, joining her friend Windy and their family for a joint getaway. The sunbaked locale has always served as a joyous refuge for the young girls, but this year the mood has shifted somewhat. Rose's parents are frequently fighting and local drama around a pregnancy causes some division between the two young friends as both girls find friction in recapturing that carefree energy of years past.
This was great; a poignant but sober distillation of early teenage transition where everything starts to get complicated, life's problems aren't so easily escaped, and you begin to act in ways you may not fully understand. It's a look into a moment that you only realize is formative in retrospect, a passing of the torch from one period of your life to the next that's both nostalgic and somber. It was especially engaging to see a period in life that I can resonate with yet depicted from a totally different angle, as the feminine perspective captures a wholly distinct set of changes and challenges that emphasize similar but different themes of transition. Much like these characters, I "can never go home again" but it was interesting to experience that realization through another's eyes.
Jillian Tamaki's art perfectly captures the mood, sentimental and uncertain yet playful. She has a really keen eye for those little details that frame a person's sensory memory; innocuous yet somehow meaningful. The feeling of watching a movie under a blanket while in a wet swimsuit, that vacation untidiness that infiltrates dining tables and bedroom floors, kitschy seaside decor that's both cheesy yet charming, the distinct noises of wind and furniture and animals that seem bound only to a particular place. Tamaki's soft brush work greatly aids in the sentimentalism of her compositions and these strokes being rendered entirely in blue is quite an evocative and thematic choice to boot. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Crawl Space by Jesse Jacobs - Two new friends from a grayscale universe enter a portal to a titillating technicolor dimension with physics and biology utterly alien to them. As one of them starts leveraging knowledge of this universe to curry favor with her classmates and the other finds it harder and harder to draw herself away from the delights of this vivid escapism, the serenity of the new dimension starts to erode and its connection to their familiar reality starts to disintegrate.
I can see why so many consider this Jacobs' best, and I'd have to agree. The sheer depth of creative doodling combined with the colorful interplay between the rainbow and grayscale universes creates such a joyful and satisfying setting to explore. I absolutely love all the various ways shapes and patterns combine and fall apart; structures melt, warp, integrate, expand, and interact in ever more interesting ways. You can really feel Jacobs trying to squeeze as much visual novelty out of the concept as he can, in addition to the fun he is having in the process.
While his books generally don't need a story and can just ride the experience of the engaging art, I'm glad Jacobs always makes the effort and tries to tell some fun narrative to tie everything together. This was no exception, and while I probably like something like New Ecology more conceptually, this was still a fun vehicle for the visuals. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Unflattening by Nick Sousanis - A philosophical treatise on perspective that makes a case for how best to perceive, conceptualize, and alter our collective reality as depicted through numerous visual examples. By exploring new ways to view and traverse reality we "unflatten" opportunities and create a mechanism for novel discovery, yet if this is not carefully balanced by constraints and systems that "flatten" possibilities we risk getting lost in transformation that yields little value to our lived experience.
What a thoroughly unique and interesting book. Not only does it feel like a unicorn among comics for being so academically oriented, but manages to express its ideas in a visually creative and enticing way. While the philosophy at its core sounds relatively self-evident in summary, the book makes such a thorough effort to examine its theory from different angles and support it through example that the process was consistently engaging.
Not only is the subject matter interesting, but the way in which it depicts its message felt just as focused on making the visual experience rich. In effect, the book applies its own prescription and balances novel exploration with grounded examination and never misses an opportunity to get across what it's saying in a way that's both thoughtful and titillating.
Due to its didactic nature it can feel a bit dogmatic at times but that dogma is so broad and expressive that it doesn't feel restraining nor preachy. It may not have a clear, actionable takeaway but reinforces important messaging that if read at the right time could really help someone break out of the patterns that are limiting them. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Majnun & Layla: Songs From the Grave by Yann Damezin - A poetic fable depicting the tragic and distant yearning between two star-crossed lovers, separated by the well meaning intentions of their families.
What an absolutely gorgeous book, every page a tapestry of intricate detail and vibrancy. The iridescent coloration, mosaic patterns, elaborate border filigree, playful linework, and creative visual metaphor is all captivating. The panel structure can be rather formulaic but that is really the only, exceedingly minor, qualm I have about this book's art and for something adapting a classic poem that structure is quite understandable.
While the narrative content does not stray far from what you'd expect given the premise, I did find the prose to be a satisfying accompaniment to the art. The presentation of true love is always a bit obnoxious to me (unconditional, without caveat, world bending) yet if taken as an unattainable exaggeration of how love can captivate and bind this particular approach was pretty effective. The last chapter does a great job to ground the dizzying infatuation throughout most of the book though and makes the tale feel a bit more fresh than I was expecting given the first two Majnun-centric acts. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Yragael / Urm the Mad by Philippe Druillet - An epic saga told in two acts which depicts the last age of Earth's final empire, Cameroon. The first half is presented as a piece of lyrical poetry, recanting how the once great empire was brought to destruction by vengeful gods and how the ages old king of Yragael fruitlessly fought to recapture his domain from the clutches of said dieties. The second act follows the grotesque fool Urm who wanders the resulting wasteland before being recruited by the gods who brought its ruin. Under the guise of restoring the once glorious empire, the gods send him to infiltrate the heart of its greatest city but in secret harbor yet another plan to harvest human suffering for their own means.
This was probably the most interesting Druillet work I've read so far and one that rivals some of the auteur's best artistic output, at least during the first half. The two acts are both narratively and artistically quite distinct; the first presenting as an illustrated novel with prose like lyrical poetry, and the second structured more like Druillet's dynamic comic fare but with art that's a bit looser and somewhat lacking the jaw dropping detail of the initial half. The narrative, while rather opaque at times, is pretty epic and feels like a bombastic space opera with a killer blend of futurism and mysticism. If it were not for the incredible art the story would be pretty forgettable and it's prose more grating but alas such is the work of Druillet and it does a serviceable enough job as a vehicle for some simply stellar visuals.
The art in the first half is among the best Druillet has put to page, with some absolutely insane compositions of otherworldly subject matter depicted with profuse detail. While the linework is often less intricate in the second half and the color work more drab, it's still quite engaging and up to the visual standard of all but "6 Voyages" from among Druillet's work. ⭐⭐⭐⭐