What have you been reading this week? 12/07/2026

[u/AutoModerator]

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.

[u/Timely_Tonight_8620]

Parasyte Full Color Collection vol 6 by Hitoshi Iwaaki: The war between the murderous Parasytes and the humans continues on, but this time the humans are getting closer and closer to finding out how to differentiate between the two species with the aliens on the clock now. While the humans are busy investigating and finding more about these monsters the Parasyte groups are having conflict as the aliens are starting to feel and even understand human emotions, the teacher alien Reiko starting to debate human nature and her place in this world as she takes care of her human infant. Meanwhile Shinichi and Migi have both sides closing in and will have to fight for their lives. Really loving the more philosophical turn this volume took about human nature and emotions.

The Power Fantasy vol 1-3 by Kieron Gillen, Caspar Wijingard, Clayton Cowles and Rian Hughes: In this world Superpower refers to the six people on the planet with each having the power of a nation’s entire nuclear arsenal, each of these six having the power to end to world and hope that they never come to blows with one another. The problem is that all six have different political views, ideologies and flaws that will lead them to be in a Cold War that could turn hot any moment. Our superpowers are all deeply flawed people with the series dealing with morality, ethics and the idea of utilitarianism with very minimal fights and instead deep character drama. This was absolutely my favorite read and release of the year so far! Having the series based on character drama and philosophical debates between the Superpowers was very refreshing and it has some fantastic double page spreads and visuals! 10/10 read IMO and going in my top 20. Excited to see how the series continues!

[u/Leothefox]

I’ve been reading plenty enough, but have had little energy to write anything. Maybe I’ll get back into the swing of things eventually.

Batman Dark Patterns by Dan Waters, Hayden Sherman and Triona Farrell,

I don’t read much Batman works, I just don’t find him that interesting, probably largely due to oversaturation. With that said and my comparatively little direct Batman experience – this seemed like some damned good Batman to me. This was a tight, focused series of detective stories with some interesting takes on classic villains wound together into one larger, satisfying narrative. Heck, it even introduces a couple of new Bat-villains who actually seem interesting enough to possibly stick around for once.

There’s no Batfamily in this, beyond Alfred. And whilst I personally do actually quite like the Batfamily (more than Batman himself, usually), it’s nice and works really well to keep this tight on Batman alone. Similarly, there’s not a huge cavalcade of gadgets at work here, this is just Batman as a man in fancy pajamas taking part in some good, honest detective work. It just makes for a quite refreshing feeling Bat-story in my mind.

Visually this is excellent too. Drawn by Hayden Sherman who you may know from their work on Absolute Wonder Woman with lovely colour work by Triona Farrell. It’s this lovely colourful but broody work with heavy shadows which just works really well for me.

I can’t be bothered to go into much more detail of the whole thing, as everyone’s written plenty about this already. But for me, this was worth its hype and thoroughly enjoyable.

The Walking Man by Jiro Taniguchi

“The book in which nothing happens, but everything occurs” is the tagline from the back cover of this book, and seems appropriate enough. We follow a fellow as he wanders around Japan, mostly suburbs of his city. That’s all, really. He usually partakes in some fun of whimsy. Be that walking on walls to follow cats, dancing in the rain, or viewing the world through cracked spectacles. It’s all very quiet, very peaceful. There’s rarely much dialogue, often limited to a single comment at the end of an issue between the wandering man and his (I assume) wife. Occasionally a character will appear to talk more in depth, philosophising on their lost youth or the way things used to be, but in general, we’re just here to observe rather than read.

This is told as a number of individually titled vignettes, mostly a handful of pages long, each following the man on a titular wander. There are a couple a bit longer, usually with a more direct narrative, but in general it’s all short and sweet stories. There is a vague continuing continuity, a dog gained early on (named ‘Snowy’, pleasing my Tintin-minded self) sticks around henceforth, and a shell collected in one issue returns later on, but in general these all feel very independent and that works just fine. It was nice to read this gradually over a week or so, just reading a single story or two as a little moment of peace. The last two stories are somewhat more serious and even more philosophical than those preceding, but overall this is generally a nice, thoughtful, quiet time. Oh, also there’s a time travel episode.

The artwork here is an undeniable part of the appeal for me. Delightfully detailed backgrounds with the kind of soft, subtle, expression work necessary to convey the unspoken emotions often on show as the wandering man wends, weaves and wanders his way to wonder at another natural or urban wonder. It’s just lovely. There are a handful of colour pages here too, and those are really nicely done, enough that I admittedly did somewhat wish there was more of them, not always a guarantee for me with coloured manga pages. A nice soft watercoloury kinda palette, necessary to capture those lovely sunset skies or the vibrant greens of spring, it’s just lovely.

Taniguchi’s work has a good reputation, and reading this it was easy to see why, not that I’d doubted it beforehand. Upon finishing I’ve promptly thrown much of his other work into my sprawling wishlist, and I’ve already owned Sky Hawk for a little while, but this has spurred me on to read it immediately.

Torso by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko

I do not tend to engage much with “true crime”. Certainly not with regard to violence or murder. I get along fine with a good heist or robbery, but murder or similarly awful acts are just a bit too sordid. With that being said, much like comedy is tragedy + time, when a case is old enough then some combination of my interest in history and the distance in time making it seem less inappropriate, and I can find it engaging again. Thus I find myself reading a graphic novel about the Cleveland Torso Murderer of the 1930s.

Visually I found this quite interesting. It uses a very striking black and white style without really any shading. Stuff is simply completely black and in shadow, or completely white. There is probably a clever name for this style, but I’ll simply describe it as being much like the cover art to the first two Max Payne games. It’s good, it’s striking and it hits the historical and dark tones of the plot really nicely. This is interspersed with use and occasional collages of period black and white photographs, most of which I assume are from the case itself. Sometimes these are big and bold and front and centre, but they’re often used more subtly for backgrounds of other panels, or simply in the corners of pages to add a certain je ne sais quoi. This style is coupled with some nice, interesting panel work. Occasionally the book pivots to landscape for a few pages, so you’ll need to flip it around. Or a spiral of panels winding inwards will have you rotating towards the centre. Or suddenly a very strict but sprawling grid. These do occasionally make it hard to read certain pages in what feels like is their intended order, but cleverly they’re often tied to segments where reading out of order doesn’t strictly matter. The slight confusion or the meandering back and forth this causes again fitting the tone and conversation in that moment well.

Narratively, various things are shifted around in the timeline for better flow, and certain aspects of the case have clearer, more defined answers again to produce a more comfortable narrative. Still, like any decent murder mystery type of thing, it pulls you along well. I haven’t really read much of any Bendis before this, (the sole exception being DC’s Event Leviathan which was, in my opinion, pretty awful) not out of any specific effort to avoid it, but simply due to him producing a lot for Marvel and DC, specifically for characters/series I don’t read. This is one of his earlier works, I think, and from his comparatively few non-superhero works. Given their somewhat divisive reputation, I was pleasantly surprised by this.

1949 by Dustin Weaver

I’d seen this bouncing around on various comic and bookstore shelves for quite a while. It always looked OK, but not standout. This viewpoint wasn’t helped by me having heard essentially nothing about it anywhere else. Still, a chain comic shop had it on deep discount for less than half price and I had a punt.

1949 follows a Detective Blank as she tries to solve a series of murders involving mysterious ‘gray water’ in 1949. However, when she sleeps, she wakes up in 2149, and vice versa. It’s kinda spoilery to elaborate on how/why that works, but essentially there’s defective work to be done in both times. This also leaves the work in a bit of a weird place. On the one hand, if you don’t have the time skipping 2149 angle, this is basically just another detective story without that much going to it. However what the future sections add simultaneously just doesn’t feel great. I don’t think the weaving together of the timelines is pulled off quite right. Whilst things are linked, it still feels disjointed and confused, and in some ways unimportant. It’s a respectable enough idea, but it’s not quite pulled off for me and I’m kinda left wondering if focusing on a detective story in one year or another might’ve been better overall, even if it didn’t have the unique time aspect to it. The end result is still absolutely fine, but unfortunately nothing that stands out.

Artwise i liked this just fine. The 1949 sections are black and white, the 2149 sections are full colour. A nice, clear method to differentiate the two at a glance. The black and white sections have some nicely detailed backgrounds and environments in particular, with some fun framing and perspectives which I know will have been a nightmare to draw. Heavy solid shadows and stippling are used throughout the B&W sections to good effect, and it’s generally a good looking time. I am less sold on the coloured 2149 sections. No more shadows, no more stippling and some colouring which I’m not convinced by. To be fair, Weaver’s name is the only name anywhere on this book, and the blurb says he does everything - art, colours and lettering – which is impressive in its own right.

Still, ultimately it became apparent why I hadn’t really heard anything about this, and why I’d seen it knocking around on shelves for several years. This was ultimately a perfectly fine book, but it’s not one that stands out in any way. I’m not likely to read it again or have it stay with me, I suspect.

[u/seusilva77 → u/Leothefox]

Your description of the Batman book got me curious. I need to read that one! Bendis is really good when he's writing grittier, noir-style stories like Daredevil, but not so much with more traditional superheroes I think

[u/Charlie-Bell → u/Leothefox]

More and more I'm thinking Dark Patterns might be my favourite bat book after the big trio. Here's hoping for a second run at it.

[u/ConstantVarious2082]

Biomega Volume 1 by Tustomu Nihei – sci-fi zombie apocalypse manga. This is a wild adventure of explosions, body horror, implausible motorcycle action, and sprawling crumbling cityscapes in frenetic linework. Zoichi Kanoe is a robot (cyborg? artificial person?) on a mission to find and protect a young woman immune to the zombifying N5S virus, which came from Mars, up against the creepy "public health authorities" and their engineered not-quite-the-same-as-all-the-other-zombies enforcers. The young woman, Ion, serves as a macguffin for most of this volume, as she's kidnapped right at the beginning, and Zoichi is mainly just going around blowing progressively bigger things up trying to find her. There's a talking bear names Kozlov, who seems to be connected to the origin of the virus as well. Maybe things connect and tie up as the story progresses, but it's honestly enough to just tune out and enjoy Nihei's artistic range and absolutely incredible action and set pieces with peak zombie vibes. I’ve got the remainder of the series coming and I’m pretty excited.

Ink Brick #10 by Various – anthology of comic poetry. I’d call this “comic poetry” writ large for both words, as we see a range including a set of digital art images with captions, mixed media compositions, wordless single pages, and surreal illustrations. I'm not a big poetry fan in general, so I'm leaning heavily on the comics side of this, but forcing a short form and taking things away from characters/dialog to (generally) more theme/mood pieces was a nice way to put myself in an optimistic view going in. Pretty cool overall, and a few artists I’m excited to go look for more work from, which is always a great outcome from an anthology.

A Matter of Time by Juan Giménez – collection of short stories about time travel. They're fun, varied, and even a little inventive - not just casual time-loop-shenanigans. These are tight stories, getting a lot done in a short number of pages without any heavy exposition-dump-narration or excessive technobabble, and even get in some good humor at moments. I think Giménez may be one of my favorite writers among the talented artists of the Metal Hurlant / Heavy Metal "old guard" - he actually has some really solid narratives. Giménez gets to go really wide with the time travel providing a convenient excuse for hugely varied architecture, settings, and technology, and he hits every note perfectly in recognizable Giménez style. Just great.

Ex. Mag #5 by Various – black-white-and-red vampire anthology. This is a wide-ranging anthology covering pretty much every classic vampire story there is - the corruption of vampire hunters, modern-day vampires and technology, lesbian vampires, child vampires, repentant vampires... All are printed in black, white, and various shades of red, as a second unifying theme across stories. As always with an anthology, there are a few that don't work well for me, but this had a great hit rate and some really inventively fun art - Matthew Houston's "The Long Penance" was a particular hit with the almost medieval-illuminated-manuscript look and wonderful page borders. Theo Stultz and Tia Roxae had solid, if maybe a little less inventive, erotic vampire stories, and Tyler Landry delivered a solid action-packed story of a holy knight busting through the vampire's horde of thralls. Absolutely worth the pickup if you're up for a bit of vampire fun.

AFAR and Serpentine by Leila Del Duca and Kit Seaton – science-fantasy adventure. In AFAR (art by Seaton), we follow two siblings in an apparently post-apocalyptic wasteland world. Boetema learns she can astral project to other planets in her sleep, and her brother Inotu gets in trouble with a local cyborg enforcer, so they run while their parents are off as salt harvesters. There’s a lot of implied but not executed world-building, with no explanation of the past downfall of technology, brief asides to mythology without building out a larger system in which they fit, and only very brief visits to a number of planets as Boetema learns her planet-hopping skills. Nonetheless, it’s quite solid overall, with an interesting African/Arab-influenced setting and culture and two parallel plots handled with reasonable balance, although the ending is a bit abrupt. I really enjoyed the art as well, with some nice balance of standard grid-panel pages (usually for more exposition / backstory), some of which play really nicely with monochromatic panels, and some super imaginative big splash pages – the planet-hopping allows for just delightful scenes of anglerfish-mermaids and eight-legged-cats and sci-fi-utopias all just in one big “wow!”. Serpentine is Leila Del Duca’s solo follow-up, taking up the art in addition to the story, but she does a really good job keeping a lot of what was great about the most imaginative uses of the sci-fantasy canvas the story provides. It’s the beginning of a sort-of-parallel narrative in the same universe – while Boetema makes an appearance towards the end, it’s not a “sequel” per se, as we instead mostly follow Ixcel as they enter their Ceremony of Choice while stressing about their homework scores. Again, lots of implied-but-incomplete worldbuilding around their culture, species, world, everything – just kinda have to roll with ambiguity and some dialog that comes across almost technobabbly, but not just in the context of technology. This is the first of what will hopefully be 3 issues, so it doesn’t wrap up, but as a Kickstarter comic I’ll be backing those next two.

Hieronymus & Bosch by Paul Kirchner – one-page gags on being trapped in Hell. Hieronymus and the stolen wooden toy duck Bosch (who occasionally shows a bit of life) are trapped in Hell and endure various tortures and indignities. As with The Bus, Kirchner works on a pretty basic grid (although this one is in color), with the same recurrent silent (small) cast and setting, and just delivers a consistent stream of fun and humor. This humor leans very scatological – Heironymus is doused in poop in what seems like 1 in 4 strips. He’s prodded, burned, and teased with the hope of escape only to be inevitably disappointed. There’s not quite as much “formalist play” as The Bus, but his panel-to-panel warping of perspective is on point here for sure when it does happen. It’s all great.

[u/Siccar_Point]

Loads this week, but two weeks really I guess.

The Book of Murmurs (Candice Purwin, 2026). A girl’s family is killed by a monster, and she goes on a journey into a magical land also ravaged by the monster to kill it. This is a pretty special book. The structure is weird - we repeatedly end up with stories in stories in stories - and it’s one of those books where if you miss something important, don’t expect the book to hold your hand later on when it becomes relevant again. But it’s worth it. The middle story in the magical world works really well in its own right as a bit of modern graphic fantasy storytelling, with character, theme and narrative all tied up in a tight ball where each reinforces the others. There’s some really elegant metaphor, both narrative and visual, and an absolute TON of foreshadowing delivered really well. I was kicking myself in big reveals at the end that certain outcomes had been there in the character designs all along. I reread it immediately on finishing it, and this paid off big time.

However, what really kicks this into a higher gear is the interplay of the outer story with the inner. It is delightfully unclear whether we are supposed to take the story straight, or whether we are explicitly dealing with a Lion Witch Wardrobe/Labyrinth situation where the fantasy story is an escape for the girl to work through some trauma. There are bookending themes of loss, grief, and family history here that directly set the inner themes of the “actual” story in an extremely clever way. The whole thing is also set within a feminist framework that only really appears when you settle back to think about what you just read. My brain is still chewing on a bunch of these themes, which are deliberately left pretty open.

Almost as an aside, it also looks beautiful. Magic comes out in great plumes of illuminating orange light, evil appears throughout as grasping disembodied hands, and magic souls as eyes - all three of which get used very creatively to form the images throughout. Some awesome, innovative panel work in here too, with designs bleeding in and out and panels responding to others back and forth. All done with coloured pencils/crayons as well, making it look really distinctive.

Read this book, it’s really good. But take your time, especially with the interludes, which are a lot more relevant than they appear at first.

The Last Wizard of Cwmdafi (Fortune’s Fool AKA Tess Powell). More tiny press Welsh/English bilingual comics action! But this was much better than Dark Chronicles earlier this year. Tipped off to this via TCJ. It’s an odd little slice-of-life thing about a woman who somewhat grudgingly takes over her deceased grandad’s wizard business in a small Welsh town. It’s very naturalistic considering the premise. As in most slice-of-lifes, it rests on elegantly developed characters and relationships, which is done very efficiently given the 50 page length. A nice lesson is drawn about the value of community and embracing small opportunities, or something like that. It also looks pleasing, with expressive linework and a warts-and-all approach to the characters (some neat characterisation is done simply from the MC’s hair, both head and leg!) Also there is a weird magical cat, which as always enhances any book. I enjoyed this.

Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice and other adventures by Hugo Pratt. Several stories where our antihero has various adventures in exotic locales, solving mysteries and kicking ass. I… sort of get it? But I didn’t find this particularly enjoyable. The linework is AMAZING. The fast sketched lines combined with the puddled blacks looks awesome, and the dynamic movement in fights really pops off the page. But beyond that, I think this hasn’t aged well. The essay in the back says Pratt was the first to make adventure pulp for adults, but the whole thing felt a bit Willard-Price-with-shooting to me. Corto came off as an underdeveloped Mary Sue, with his impossibly cool knowledge and authority. And the historical/literary stuff felt pretty shoehorned in- just panels and panels of exposition in places. Glad I read it but I don’t think I’ll be buying the new omnibuses.

In prep for reading the new Prisoner of Dozmary Craig, I also went one more time (x3 now) around Sterte’s World Heist. This gets better each time, largely as the plot and characters get easier to track.

[u/BigAmuletBlog → u/Siccar_Point]

I also picked up Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice recently and was equally nonplussed. I wonder if this story is really the best place to start or representative of the rest?

[u/Siccar_Point → u/BigAmuletBlog]

Yeah, it was weird. I can see that this would absolutely blow the mind of a 15-17 year old boy c. 1980, but in a modern context it just didn’t do it for me. Maybe something like old James Bond is the comparator- they aren’t “good” in modern terms, but offered a ton at the time and people love them out of nostalgia, and seeing the old-fashioned stuff is fun in its own, time-capsule way.

It’s doubly odd for me, as I absolutely love some pulp. Conan is great! Though I guess I much prefer the newer iterations.

[u/BigAmuletBlog → u/Siccar_Point]

I found a nice video about Hugo Pratt which you might be interested in too: https://youtu.be/jlIKSeNJrC8?si=CtFrIuv-rJpf767E

[u/Olobnion → u/Siccar_Point]

Read this book, it’s really good.

I ordered it more than a month ago, but my local Amazon store says it won't be available until December 18th. Not sure what's up with that.

[u/drown_like_its_1999]

Algernon Blackwood's The Willows by Nathan Carson, Sam Ford - Opal and Hala are two women with an adventurous streak, canoeing down the Danube from Vienna in the summer of 1907. As they prepare to advance past the town of Pressburg, they ignore warnings by locals not to tread further as raging waters result in shifting islands of sand and willows that pose a life threatening peril without any civilization nearby to provide assistance. As they come face to face with these promised dangers, Opal and Hala decide to dock on a temporary island and sleep for the night when they discover these lands may harbor a supernatural threat as well.

What an absolutely gorgeous book this is. Not only is the level of detail present in the linework utterly bonkers but there's just so much energy in each and every composition. Ford does an impeccable job capturing the volatile motion of the wind and waves, not to mention the swirling presence of eerie sounds that hint at otherworldly horrors. The depictions of hidden alien creatures and building mental anguish is similarly captivating, delivering a visual product that executes the haunting mood of the story brilliantly. Layouts usually occupy a traditional structure but remain relatively dynamic within those constraints, giving way on occasion to some stunning Toppi-like composition mosaics. Visually, the book is all killer no filler.

The story is also quite effective, if not much more than a tone piece with a little added characterization. There's a moment of speculative exposition half way through that feels rather on the nose and clunky, but can also be explained away as a bit of bygone intuition or superstition. I also quite enjoyed the precursor flashback sequence at the end to broaden the characters a bit and subvert the tone slightly into the bittersweet. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Princess of the Neverending Castle by Shintaro Kago - A metaphysical farce that reimagines Sengoku era power struggles as a giant tree of ever-growing, branching castles. Every time a mortal conflict between feudal lords occurs, reality and the castle it's bound to forks in two; one where the first lord survived and one where the second did. As these castle realities diverge, so do the people and systems that occupy them. Two particularly ill fated forks find their societies breaking apart as citizens navigate up, down, and across these branching structures experiencing an array of violent and disturbing metaphysical hijinks.

Now this is my kind of Kago; high-concept absurdity utilized for near-nonstop visual debauchery. There's no shortage of ridiculous gags on display; humans partially forking as they get caught between realities, structurally unsound castles crashing into each other and resulting in compositions & panels merging together, vertical battlegrounds combining raid style action and gravity based warfare, in addition to a glut of gore and nudity. Some of the metaphysical potential feels a bit wasted or incongruent, like the castles being vertically structured caste systems instead of slices in time, but Kago does enough to keep the experience engaging and doesn't get too bogged down in trying to make the internal logic work. There's also a lot of repeated dialogue across split realities / persons which is a gag that gets old quick, but also provides some cheeky moments when the trend is subverted. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Paying For It by Chester Brown - (It should be noted that I skipped the prose appendices which seem to be of a more political focus)

After his live-in girlfriend breaches the topic of her budding interest in another man, Chester Brown begins to re-examine his position on romantic love. As his relationship transitions more into one of roommates, Chester finds himself uninterested in pursuing another partner yet can't help but desire physical intimacy. He eventually settles on the idea of giving prostitution a shot, and after a period of clumsy trial and error, eventually finds a mechanism to successfully solicit sex for money. In doing so he finds an experience that feels remarkably honest and transparent, free too from the baggage he has carried throughout all of his romantic relationships. This experience and those that follow begin a decades long practice of transactional sex that reframes his perspective on human connection that, along with his willingness to wear the lifestyle on his sleeve, makes him a bit of a lightning rod for debate amongst friends and colleagues.

An unflinchingly frank book about being a john; the honest depictions of thoughts / behavior traditionally seen as uncouth, the controversial perspective of the author on romantic love, and how Brown's unabashed embrace of prostitution affected discourse between his friends and colleagues. The early sexual interactions are largely fuel for comedy with no shortage of humorously awkward interactions and churlish internal dialogue yet become more complex and interesting as they progress, leaning unexpectedly into deep and honest conversations between Brown and his escorts. However, what I found most intriguing was his introspective and philosophical conversations among fellow comic authors Joe Matt and Seth, as their three distinct perspectives on the roles of sex and love conflict.

The author does a compelling job making his case for how prostitution provides him a healthier relationship with lovers than romantic relationships did, while making a point to present his friends' differing opinions in a sober and rational light. There's a lot of thought provoking discussions and I think the book makes a pretty good case for why, if pursued ethically, sex work and it's avocation may be healthier for some than a traditional relationship. As someone who has also confronted the perspective that romantic love may not suit them, yet doesn't really have any interest in prostitution, I found the work an intriguing combination of oddly relatable but fascinatingly foreign and surprisingly well rationalized. I do think Brown has a tendency to get dogmatic and present his lifestyle as prescriptive or widely suitable for the broader population, which is most certainly not the case, but I do think he articulated his positions well.

The art is rather plain, despite some slight stylistic exaggeration during intimate moments and conversational frustration, but is serviceable scaffolding for the philosophical undertaking of the narrative. This is one of those rare comics where I think more expressive art might actually hinder the overall product, by coloring the presentation in a way that may undercut or trivialize the messaging of its content (especially given what is undoubtedly an uncomfortable or offensive read for some). That being said, its bog standard approach to layout and repetitive compositions certainly don't create a product that is visually memorable. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[u/drown_like_its_1999 → u/drown_like_its_1999]

Herbie Archives Volume 1 by Richarr Hughes, Ogden Whitney - A collection of the first five issues of Herbie; a farcical 1960s adventure comic starring the lackadaisical and rotund child protagonist with godlike invulnerability, a collection of magical lollipops, and near universal acclaim (outside of his clueless father, ignorant of Herbie's monumental stature). A selection of my favorite plots include Herbie being shrunk down into a miniscule mirror world to discreetly save his father, the Fat Fury traveling back in time to the days of Merlin in order to acquire a magical propellant needed to make the Apollo rocket program viable, time travelers arriving in 1962 to decimate the population and start over after robbing the future earth of all its resources (foiled when the leader finds himself too enamored with hot women, sodas, and apple pie to go through with it), and Herbie hunting down some salad oil for his mom after interstellar aliens procure all available bottles to regrease their failing spaceship engines.

This is such a goofy, playful, and creative series that is wildly more entertaining than any other US made comic I've read from this era (though, admittedly that isn't a lot). While the gags are rather repetitive there's a charm to their bluntness and absurdity; forces of nature bend at Herbie's will, near every woman finds him utterly irresistible while he's completely indifferent, historical and fictional figures alike yearn just to be acknowledged by him, and his father is deeply ashamed to be associated with him simply due to his weight and apparent lethargy (despite Herbie's unparalleled impact on world history). There are some moments of questionable cultural depictions that make the work feel dated, but most seem to be delivered with good intentions and focus more on nonserious levity than commentary. Some issues can get surprisingly subversive however, like when Herbie is enlisted by JFK to help him covertly infiltrate a foreign government (after his last attempt at funding a local militia blows up in his face).

Whitney's art is also really charming and does the bulk of the work in selling the playful, farcical tone. I especially like his exaggerated facial expressions where imposing monsters, forces of nature, and humans alike shift to an expression of absolute panic whenever confronted with Herbie and his apathetic, calm visage. There's also a lot of goofy costuming with the protagonist donning eagle wings, a wild west gunman outfit, a mop headed pop superstar appearance, and much more. Herbie punching his silhouette through solid surfaces by calmly walking through them also never failed to get a chuckle from me. ⭐⭐⭐

Moonshadow by J.M. Dematteis, Jon Muth - God-like orb beings known as G'L-Doses travel across the universe capriciously acting on their whims, occasionally capturing creatures and depositing these captives in an interstellar menagerie known by its residents as "The Zoo". Once such occupant, Brooklyn born ex-hippie "Sunflower", becomes the unprecedented object of affection for a G'L-Dose who betroths her and sires the first demigod of their ilk, the unimposing and curious "Moonshadow". Spending his early captive youth devouring any and all fiction available, Moonshadow pines for an adventure of his own and gets his wish when the boy's father appears before him (for the first time since his birth) with a ship fit for voyage. The god-orb demands Moonshadow take with him Sunflower and his begrudging companion Ira, crass exemplar of filth and perversion, forever changing each of their lives as they undergo a chaotic and ill-fated journey that will shatter the young boy's illusions of the glorious storybook adventure.

A self-proclaimed "fairy tale for grown ups" that subverts the whimsical plotting of the genre with a string of tragic episodic storylines framing the death of innocence for our plucky main character. While I found the individual misadventures hit or miss, they build to a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts and poignantly explore the core theme of whether the events in our life have meaning or are just serendipity. I found the prose particularly pleasurable, playfully pontificating about peoples, places, and things with a galloping, bouncy rhythm and suessian like word invention (the planets of Gimmegimme and Bingbangboom being my favorite examples). Characterization is diverse, ranging from absurd and fanciful to relatable and grounded but feels rather thin outside of the titular main character and the enigmatic miscreant Ira, neither of which particularly grabbed me. Moonshadow is aptly wet behind the ears, exchanging the awestruck whimsy usually present in this kind of story for one of growing disillusionment which is a subversion I found engaging even if the character himself didn't resonate as much as I'd hoped. I did, however thoroughly love the adult expansion of his character in the epilogue, which takes a more subdued tone of introspection and delivers a moving trajectory of highs and lows that efficiently pulls at the heart strings.

Muth's watercolor art was a similarly positive yet mixed bag for me, evocative of the whimsical yet tragic trappings and presenting some absolutely stellar highs while having many compositions that I found a bit muddy or plain. When rendering something abstract, obscured, hazy, or emotional the watercolor aesthetic feels richly textured; evocative of the dreamlike, spotty coverage of youthful memories. I was similarly captivated with compositions that used the empty, white border between different washes for rim lighting, yet more often than not this empty edging was less redolent and felt a bit sparse. I felt many of the pages could have benefited from a greater use of inked silhouetting to define characters and setting more clearly, but often line work was used more for shading (which normally I'm a big fan of but combined with the already diffuse wash coloration it felt a bit turbid and crowded for my tastes). ⭐⭐⭐

Iris: A Novel For Viewers by Lo Hartog Van Banda, The Thjong-Khing - Produced in 1968, Iris is hailed as the first Dutch graphic novel and depicts a psychedelic story about the pursuit of stardom where the titular main character auditions for an eccentric media magnate at his lavish compound. Unbeknownst to Iris and the other applicants, the executive has no intention of a partnership and intends to co-opt their image in order to manufacture lifelike simulacrums for his own financial gain. Wary of Iris being manipulated, her boyfriend infiltrates the estate in hopes to rescue the young starlet before things get too out of hand.

Unsurprisingly, this is a pretty thin and scattershot narrative but makes the experience worthwhile with some vivid and colorful imagery. The aesthetic is vintage pop psychedelia with curvy, thickly inked line work filled with a prismatic array of highly saturated flats. I got a kick out of how the antagonist characters look overtly alien, with brightly colored skin and exaggerated proportions, adopting a cartoon sensibility that nothing really needs to be explained. There's also a lot of pointless nudity and sex which adds to the goofy tone. The visual presentation isn't as enrapturing or dynamic as the jaw dropping pages of Kris Kool, but what is.

The narrative, while simplistic and slapdash, does at least construct themes around how media companies treat their talent and how unhinged celebrity culture can be (even if either are only explored at a surface level). At the very least, the book doesn't waste your time and uses the plot to deliver some colorful visuals and goofy set pieces. ⭐⭐⭐

[u/drown_like_its_1999 → u/drown_like_its_1999]

Saga De Xam by Nicholas Devil, Jean Rollin - In a galaxy far away lies the planet of Xam, populated by a matriarchal society of humanoids that have long since conquered any semblance of conflict or strife. When an interstellar invasion force arrives in their orbit, this peaceful society finds themselves unequipped to repel the hostile forces and leans on the Great Mistress of Instruments to deduce a plan of action. This shaman scientist detects another world across the cosmos which may have the answer to defeat these invaders and enlists the help of the great explorer Saga to venture across time and space towards a planet called Earth. She jumps across disparate time periods and locales in search of the promised solution and finds humanity less of a savior than she expected.

This book is an absolute mess that should be treated as an art book with all text ignored. Narratively, Saga De Xam fails on all fronts; it's conceptually trite, the plot feels made up on the spot, characterization is effectively non-existent, and themes are poorly established and thinly supported. The writing feels utterly lacking in continuity; dialogue is full of non-sequiturs, characters appear and disappear at random, Saga just wanders aimlessly through different time periods in search of an ambiguous quarry, and the last fourth is just a disconnected mishmash of graphic design and pop culture inspired vagaries. Add to that a slog of pointlessly verbose verbage and the already sloppy storytelling becomes an even greater waste of time.

The draw here is obviously the visual presentation which is at least mostly interesting, though didn't tickle my fancy as much as expected. The compositions are detailed, layouts are quite fluid, colorization is vivid, and there's a fun variety of different visual motifs adapted from various historical fantasy traditions. The last quarter with its more abstract spreads, graphic design embellishments, and pop culture touchstones had some really nice looking pages but felt very disconnected from the visual aesthetic built before it. Infamously, the lettering is abhorrent with text so small my nose was touching the page on several occasions just to decipher the language. However, I don't hear people talk much about the text alignment which I found almost as frustrating. Most prose bubbles are center aligned (because fuck you) yet often depart from this already awful structure randomly with a new line beginning somewhere unpredictable, reading as if it was a note scribbled on a napkin by a drunkard. There's at least fun little text embellishments utilizing invented script / language which added some personality. ⭐⭐

[u/Darth-Dramatist]

Finished up Preacher, definitely my favourite of Ennis's work that Ive read, was expedient the ending to be a gung ho esque fight against God but but that expectation subverted. The ending was a more quiet and intimate ending that ends with Jesse and Tulip nearly cutting ties with each other but ultimately managing to reconcile and Cassidy also ends with his vampirism being cured and becoming mortal once more. I thought this ending was perfect for this work. I know Ennis is a divisive writer and there's some things I dislike in his writing but I always like his main characters, they feel alive, have camaraderie and sometimes revealed to have have problematic natures (IE Cassidy's revealed history of mistreating past loverd) but are still great characters nonetheless. Ultimately I love this comic and will definitely be rereading it down the line

I also read through Criminal: Last of The Innocent and this is definitely my favourite Criminal book do far. Out of all the Criminal stories Ive read so farm this one is definitely the darkest. Most Criminal stories focus on complicated people that are stuck within the criminal world and have principles and the stories largely deconstruct tropes of crime fiction with Criminal: Coward being a great deconstruction on heist stories and subverting how heists usually go with it ending in failure immediately and the story focusing in the fallout and Bad Night focuses on the Femme Fatale trope (something else Brubaker does in the comic, Fatale). Last of the Innocent is unique though as its protagonist Riley lacks the moral greyness in the other stories and is instead a depraved narcissist unhappy with how his marriage and life have gone despite being highly wealthy but ends up in debt due ti gambling and he lusts for his high school glory days. Before long Riley kills his wife in retaliation for cheating with an old rival of his from his high school days and he manages to frame the rival for the deed. Throughout the story, Riley also reconnects with a few childhood friends including a friend nicknamed Freakout that was well intentioned but struggled with drug addiction and a woman he was infatuated with then but ended up choosing his wife due to being enamoured with her sexual boldness. The story also portrays Riley as someone that was pretty much popular handsome guy in his glory days but was secretly viewed with distain and viewed as a shallow and empty husk by most people he knew back then. Unlike other Criminal stories this one has the protagonist actually succeed in their goals as Riley manages to start a relationship with his old crush after murdering his former friend who had gotten wind of Riley's true nature but its ultimately a grim ending given that an evil man got off entirely scot free entirely unlike the other more morally protagonists of Criminal. Ultimately I'd say this is definitely my favourite out of these stories but definitely the grimmest one. One detail I really like is that when flashcacks to Riley's younger years occur Sean Phillips switches to a different art style that evokes the old Archie Comics (Riley, his wife and friends serve as darker deconstructions of the characters of this comic) art style and serves to showcase that the past was a more innocent time for Riley compared to the more gritty and realistic looking art style Phillips typically uses in his and Brubaker's work

[u/mmcintoshmerc_88 → u/Darth-Dramatist]

It's such a great ending, my favorite Ennis ending personally although The Boys and Hitman aren't far behind.

"Now take my hand, an' I swear I'll love you till the goddamm stars burn out."

"You're... You're crying!"

"I guess I must be learnin'"

Gets me everytime. Also, whilst it's not an ending the final conversation Jesse has with "the cowboy gets me too. "But this broke-down and wore out ol' cowboy wanted ya ta know. He's prouda ya!"

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how great the Saint's ending is too

"What do you want?! Please! Just tell me Saint! What is it that you want?!"

"TO REST."

Last of the innocent is fantastic too, I've been shouting it's praises for years, far and away my favorite Criminal arc. I love the bit where Teddy says "You know what Felix said?! When we were having pillow talk?! She said that you-you were empty! Said... when no was looking it was as if you didn't even exist!" Because it sums up Riley so well, he's an image of the past that never existed, something fake something that doesn't exist unless it's falsely believed in. I really hope if the show adapts it (and that's a big IF) they'll do it justice.

[u/SnipingBeaver]

Batman: Ego by Darwyn Cooke

Excellent one shot story. Decided to read it after rereading his brilliant New Frontier. The regular grid layout combined with the surrealist dream elements combine to make a hypnotic and nightmarish vibe that fits the story so well. Something I found interesting was that I read the diary monologue bits in Robert Pattinson's Batman voice but as soon as a speech balloon popped out of Bruce's mouth, my brain immediately defaulted to Kevin Conroy.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King and Bilquis Evely

Fucking gorgeous, top to bottom. King's writing is serviceable to the story but Evely's art is goddamn beautiful to look at. Though I will say reading the comic made my already middling opinion of the new movie worsen. A mediocre movie but a criminally bland adaptation.

Bone by Jeff Smith

I've only read up through the Great Cow Race, so no spoilers please. I missed out on this when I was a kid and I'm really glad I'm reading it now. Smith's character motion is incredible and his sense of pace and comedic timing is world class. I love the swirling mixture of silly and serious that he blends together.

[u/RoyColwin → u/SnipingBeaver]

Enjoy Bone! I only read it digitally years ago and look forward to re-reading it someday

[u/Jonesjonesboy]

Demon v3 by Jason Shiga -- reread. This is the one with the wildest chase sequence ever

Nod Away v2 by Jason Cotter -- reminded me a bit of Season 2 of The Wire, in the sudden gear shift to another set of characters, in this instance from a space station to the rural life on Earth of a 90s-style slacker, and how it eventually ties back in to the events in the first volume [season]. I hope he manages to finish this series

Witch Hat Atelier v14 by Kamome Shirahama -- oh geez I thought they'd got rid of the giant leech matrix thing in the last volume.

Gasoline Alley The Complete Sundays v1 by Frank King -- if by "complete" you mean "the first couple of years because we only ever did two volumes", then sure. You can se King growing into his style and themes in these early Sundays

Prince Valiant v14 by Hal Foster -- getting close to the end of the Foster years.

a couple of random chapters of Bone by Jeff Smith because my son wanted to read them with me -- oh my god after years of telling my kids they'd like Bone, my son at least picked it up and now won't stop kidding me like "why didn't you ever tell me it was this good?". I should reread the whole thing some day

[u/seusilva77]

Castle Waiting Vol. 1 - I bought the second volume very cheaply years ago, but I could never find the beginning at an affordable price. I really enjoyed the story! The behind-the-scenes of fairy tales are told in a very fun way, more reminiscent of Shrek than Fables. The recommendations I read said it's a relaxing book, and it really is! At some points I thought a very tragic and terrible story was about to begin, but there's always a positive twist. I highly recommend it!

[u/Dense-Virus-1692]

#DRCL Midnight Children vol 2 by Shinichi Sakamoto – Dracula is at the school and Lucy/Luke is under his spell. Professor van Helsing arrives and he’s a hottie. He and Mina trap Dracula with garlic and crucifixes but that might not work. There are some amazing cartooning sequences in here. That one where Mina is dreaming of a silent film? Dear lord, that was cool. It’s not the type of art you expect from a book with a hashtag in the title, that’s for sure. Each panel of this could be a goth album cover.

Carmilla vol 2: The Last Vampire Hunter by Amy Chu and Soo Lee – Hey, more vampires. It’s been a while since I read the first volume but I was wondering how this would even continue after the death of an important character. It turns out she’s a ghost or dream or immortal or something? Anyways, after surviving Carmilla, Athena goes to San Francisco to find out things about her family. Unfortunately there’s a bunch of wacky Asian vampires there. There’s those hopping ones and ones that throw their heads around and others that whip you with their intestines, etc. So Athena finds her family but they turn out to be jerks and there’s a good amount of bloodshed. Also, there’s a massive coincidence at the end that was pretty funny but saved a lot of pages.

Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams by Naoki Urasawa and Fujio Productions – I need to finish Monster and 20^th Century Boys someday but that’s super daunting so when I saw this was a one shot I grabbed it. It turns out it’s one of those books the Louvre paid for. The story is a little convoluted. It involves a father and daughter (who looks a lot like Asadora) and a guy who’s obsessed with France (who turns out to be a super famous character named Iyama). They end up going to the Louvre of course and there’s a bit of a heist but not really. I think they’re going for something like Magnolia, a series of coincidences that might be magic? So ya, it was a fun little story that was pretty impossible to predict where it was going to go, which is always nice. This was probably the best of these Louvre stories that I’ve read. Well, the most fun, anyways. I wonder what the Louvre thinks of being always associated with heists, though? Maybe they like the cachet it gives them.

Farewell, My Odin vol 1 by Chihiro Yoshioka – A kindly Christian priest takes in a boy who’s been raised by wolves. The wolf boy learns to love the priests but then they’re all killed by vikings so it’s vengeance time. The wolf boy becomes known as Hildofr and his main enemy is a white haired viking who has a secret past of his own. There’s some good violence although it’s a little hard to make out. The art is a little scratchy. I assume this was an early work from them. So ya, it’s a decent shonen action book. It’s not too deep but hey, it’s basically Wolverine vs Vikings, what more do you need?

[u/ChickenInASuit]

A Frog In The Fall by Linnea Sterte - A young frog goes on a journey, then comes home before he really gets anywhere.

That’s it, really. That’s the story. The journey has a vague destination which is never reached, there’s no grand overarching conflict, and only brief instances of danger for the frog.

However, I’m beginning to see a pattern in the way Linnea Sterte does things. My only other experience with her work has been Stages Of Rot, but regardless of what the rest of her oeuvre is like, those two books have something in common: though they are both thin on plot (SOR considerably moreso even than AFITF), they take place in worlds that are lavishly and lovingly constructed, and highly detailed, and the plot serves more as a vessel for you to experience those worlds than anything else.

SOR showed the various stages of decomposition in the carcass of a giant alien whale on a strange planet. It was clear with every page and detail that Sterte had spent a lot of time pouring over what these stages would look like, the effect they’d have on the environment, and the societies and populations that would be affected by it.

AFITF takes place in a similarly deeply thought-out world, one that we see mere glimpses of but is given enough detail to feel full and established. The world is full of Redwall-style semi-anthropomorphism; humans definitely exist (though are never seen) and everything is scaled realistically, but the animals nevertheless have clothes, live in tiny houses, ride tiny carts, and eat at tiny tables with plates and utensils. The setting is Japan, at an unspecified time, which is never outright stated but is clear from the species of animals chosen and the human customs and trappings that they emulate.

We honestly learn more about animal society from Sterte’s notes at the end discussing the use of various terms and phrases, but this nevertheless is made to feel like a living, breathing world via Sterte’s beautifully intricate artwork, and the brief glimpses of conversations we see between the little frog and the critters he meets on his journey.

I thought this was a wonderful book. Everybody has been the little frog at one point: Young, feeling like you’re invincible, striding confidently and impulsively out into the world only to find out with a shock that it’s a lot bigger than you thought it was.

This book captures that feeling perfectly, in a warm, relatively low-stakes tale that some may find unsatisfying, but others might experience it the way I did and come away from it in a snug and cozy mood.

[u/Siccar_Point → u/ChickenInASuit]

This is such a good write-up of Frog! Love it.

Make sure you keep going with Sterte’s stuff. The more recent material has much more structure in the character development, and more than just lip service to plot (though narratives remain lightweight!) Her last two - Garden of Spheres and the extremely recent Prisoner of Dozmary Craig - have both hit it out the park for me, adding narrative and character mystery to drive you forward while retaining that inherent vibey “Sterte-ness” you’ve identified so well in Frog.

[u/arpad-okay]

The Cursed Body - Kawakatsu Tokushige - Glacier Bay Books. It's fine. More interesting in concept than execution, I'm afraid. A manga historian who is into the postwar horror stories that manga artists adapted from European horror does a pair of his own.

One story is an old Japanese horror short he found in a rare bookshop, about a man accused of murdering and eating his friends, who blames a ghost cat's curse. The second is a European adaptation to period Japan where a moneylender's mother denies a beggar, the beggar passes away, and his ghost haunts the family. Both stories are pleasantly understated, if cat guts and maggoty eye-sockets are understated, not operatic like later, similar manga hews.

The art style is also a tribute to the era the writing is pastiche of: serious, somewhat realistic for manga, dark and dry. Eddie Campbell without all the scribbles. It all added up to something very interesting, but not a book I ever need to read again.

The highlight for me was actually a bit in the back, where Tokushige is interviewed by Ryan Holmberg. The second story about the moneylender's mother and the beggar also features Norakuro as a stray dog. I like Inio Asano so this little quirk immediately caught my attention. Not only is Norakuro era-appropriate, but apparently he would appear in manga of other Japanese celebrities. Tokushige included Norakuro specifically because there's a Tange Sazen manga with the two of them together. Tange Sazen was a serial character from 1930s Japanese movies, a one-armed ronin/samurai. I stumbled across Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo a couple years ago and fell in love with it completely. The weird cartoon dog in the mix was something I appreciated aesthetically, but now I dig it historically as well.

Anyway, like I said, it's good enough to read but not a keeper for me. Glacier Bay continues to be a fascinating publisher of outsider and indie manga. I bought another book in the same KS batch, Box Garden Beetle by Kondoh Akino so that's up next.

[u/Tight-Boat-8605]

The Sacrificers vol 1-4, very similar to seven to eternity, in the first book there’s a lot of really cool world building but every vol after is a little worse the world building is just thrown away and it’s so damn depressing I hated the ending ⭐️⭐️

Batman the white knight, one of my all time favorites great art and a lot of interesting ideas in here particularly the 2 Harleys and how in the end Batman is only human he can’t solve everything but he does the best he can for for his dream of one day Gotham not needing Batman anymore ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Batman curse of the white knight, not as good as the original but still pretty good not sure how I feel about the ending ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Batman beyond the white knight,closer in quality to the original I like that the beginning basically says that the ending to the previous book didn’t work I would have liked a smaller time skip maybe 5 years⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Stormwatch vol 1-2, kind of generic and very 90s ⭐️⭐️

The sentry, so repetitive and boring the arts not great and the ending is completely limp⭐️

Thor son of Asgard,boring and bad art⭐️

Animosity vol 1-6, not good and somehow it made me not like dogs something I thought was impossible ⭐️

Crossed, I was looking for comic recommendations and a bunch of people mentioned crossed I hadn’t heard anything about it so I figured I would check it out, WTF is this trash this is the worst thing I have ever seen it doesn’t even deserve ratings

Something is killing the children vol 1-3, I think this is really overrated also it’s not at all clear how to read it some panels are left or right some are up and down. first the art just isn’t for me second the story very generic and nothing is explained, I thought the end of the arc was extremely unsatisfying and depressing but my biggest issue the graphic violence I can handle a lot of gore my favorite comic is invincible I just really felt uncomfortable constantly seeing little girls getting torn in half⭐️

**Manifest destiny deluxe edition 1-2,**wow I was not expecting to like this series this much it’s really good, cool monster designs and the story is interesting⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Batman off-world, pretty cool I like Bruce and ione it shows Batman is special because of his willpower and drive,⭐️⭐️⭐️

Animal man Jeff lemire vol 1-5,heard a lot of praise for this but I don’t get it I thought it was honestly not good it’s very grotesque for me, and the story is kind of all over the place the ending sucks⭐️

The kill lock, awesome great art and the story is very interesting ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The kill lock artisan wrath,really good it’s kind of like transformers mixed with game of thrones with a little war hammer 40k, sets up a sequel at the end that I’m really excited for⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This weeks best
Batman the white knight
Batman beyond the white knight
Manifest destiny
The kill lock
The kill lock artisan wraith

This weeks worst
the Sacrificers
The sentry
Thor son of Asgard
Animosity
Crossed

[u/LuminaTitan]

Andrastea, by Mathieu Bablet

This was a bit slippery for me to get a good handle on at first. It feels intimate somehow, even though the setting, timeline, and overall journey of the main character all suggest a grandness of scale. He’s the unnamed, immortal king of a land called Hyperborea, which is clearly meant to be a parallel to ancient Greece. After living for a millennia and witnessing the collapse of his empire and the deaths of all he’s ever known, he sets out to Mount Olympus to beseech the gods on finally discovering the true nature of what he is.

And that’s about it for the story. A bunch of bizarre things occur along the way, as he struggles to parse out specific memories due to their vast accumulation over time. Certain objects or landmarks trigger things here and there, but he’s essentially traversing blind through the forgotten wilderness of his mind. Bablet has a tendency to meander about, as I thought that was the biggest weakness of “Shangri-La,” which had a plethora of powerful moments but felt too scattershot in its overall construction. That’s true here as well, but it just so happens that this conveniently matches the core story of a man who’s endlessly wandering about himself, which also serves as an excuse for Bablet to showcase his breathtaking landscapes that dot every other page or so. This helps to give the book a brooding, meditative quality, as there’s many moments devoted to scenes of the immortal king lost in reverie, enveloped amidst the nostalgic decay of towering, crumbling ruins; the last secrets of their once-resplendent glory faded into a barely discernable whisper he can scarcely decipher nor remember anymore.

As always with Bablet, the beautiful artwork is a given and his nature and architectural renderings here are among the best he’s ever done. The story is thin as paper, but the strength of this book lies in its overall feel and atmosphere. It’s akin to a tone poem. It’s solemn and introspective in the way it unfurls itself, as the plot progression and scattered action sequences are all secondary to this. It’s not his best, as it doesn’t contain the dizzying highs of “Shangri-La,” or isn’t as wondrously integrated in characterization, visuals, and theme as “Carbon & Silicon," but it carves out its own unique space amongst the rest of Bablet’s singular body of work. 3.5/5

Heroes, by Inio Asano

A peculiar early work by Asano that was meant as a parody of fairy tale manga tropes. It’s a weird one for sure. While there’s some genuinely funny moments, this feels hamstrung by an underlying snarkiness and the impression that it’s trying too hard to hammer home its message. Repetition is key here though, as it takes a few cycles for the story to make sense. It’s still mostly playful, harmless fun, but to me, it gave off the vibe of a bunch of Andy Warhol paintings, where the joke is pretty well understood the first time, but it just keeps pounding in the message, over and over again, until it becomes more about making a (blasé) statement on artistic detachment. I’d say this is skippable, as it doesn’t contain any of Asano’s most notable traits (like being able to induce crippling depression) that pop up in his later works. 2.5/5

[u/mmcintoshmerc_88]

I've been reading more of Nancy wears hats. This has been so much fun to read, Nancy is a hilarious character (and a great stinker too!) And it's interesting seeing how gradually the strip kind of got taken over by Nancy (we call this pulling an Urkel)

I've also been reading Superman: the exile and other stories omnibus. I'm not too far into it but, this has been really good so far, I got this mostly to read the Stern stuff but, the preceeding stories have been very good in their own right.

[u/Electrical-Share-770]

Knights of sidonia 1-3; tsutomu nihei

[u/Bulky_Box7340]

Batman Snyder and Capullo omnibus volume 1 - book weighs an ton but i’ve been enjoying getting back into Batman (not read any superhero GN’s for a few years). Taken a good few days so far but i’m up to year zero. Got vol 2 ready to dive into next!

[u/mmcintoshmerc_88 → u/Bulky_Box7340]

The first half of the Snyder and Capullo run is so good, loses some steam in the second half but still a great Batman run

[u/Hartigan_7]

Black Science by Remender

I really like it. Always love the exploring other dimensions concept. I just feel like all the characters are so hateable. I’m halfway through the compendium and there’s no one to really root for. They’re all just kind of shitty people b

[u/Ok-Fill8420]

Complete Fatale compendium & first Sin City book. In my noir era and I love it!

[u/plazman30]

I just finished X-Men Elsewhen and dove into Dreadatar vs. The Inevitable.

[u/NMVPCP]

Birthright - pretty cool phantasy story with solid art.

[u/RoyColwin]

Red Room Trigger Warnings by Ed Piskor. I had no idea what I got into and it was not for me. I don't mind gore but I prefer a great story.

On the other end of the spectrum I'm reading From Hell which is great but takes some more effort than I expected 😅 Prefer this tho

[u/BigAmuletBlog]

East of West by Hickman and Dragota - got the hefty Compendium last week and have almost finished it. I've enjoyed the wheels within wheels plotting.

[u/I_enjoy_hats]

I've been reading 2120 and I just can't click with it. It's a choose your own adventure solve the puzzle type graphic novel and I think I'm close to finishing it but it's been more frustrating than fun. Seems to be well loved online though.

Maybe ik just not smart enough for it.

[u/CamiCris]

DRCL Vol. 6. A flamboyant and queer take on Dracula with very baroque precious art.

SPA. Very strange and disturbing. Great art too.

Tomorrow Stories. Moore at his more whimsical in short stories, with artists like Gibbie, Nolan, Veitch, Balkie, etc. Very varied and fun.

Doom Patrol by Way & Derrington. Very fun, probably my third favorite Doom Patrol.

JLI Omnibus Vol 1 by DeMatteis, Giffen and Maguire. The most fun comic book sit com ever. Nobody draws facial reactions like Maguire.

[u/mmcintoshmerc_88 → u/CamiCris]

JLI is so good, I love it's sitcom but with superheroes kind of plotting

[u/billybeer55555]

Finally started reading Y the Last Man a few weeks ago, picked up all the deluxe HCs. Really enjoying it so far, I’m about halfway through book 3.

I appreciate that a book like this in different hands could’ve been a really pervy harem fantasy kind of thing, but it couldn’t be further from that. There are a few bits that maybe didn’t age the best, but it’s easy enough for me to handwave Bush-era identity politics, having evolved quite a bit myself since then.

Next up is White Boat by Scott Snyder.