Blair, Matt – Midville High #9

October 29, 2025

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Midville High #9

Matt’s taken time off comics here and there (go to his website, he’s very clear about the release dates for his books), so it’s heartening to see that he has a release schedule now and he’s clearly sticking to it. Two comics in two months is impressive in the small press comics world, but he’s clearly planning on keeping these monthly, and I don’t see much reason to doubt him. This one is mostly about our hero Kyle getting into a jam of not finishing his third of a joint school project (which leads to the promise of bodily harm from the other two participants if he doesn’t get his act together) and trying to get out of it. Along with many, many jokes, which I guess some people might not like, but I appreciated the commitment to the bit if nothing else (and OK fine, I also laughed at more than a few of the jokes). Anyway, Kyle hears about an old hoax involving a picture of dried up corpses of fairies that were found in the woods decades ago and decides to make that his contribution to the project. But time is running short and, to put it mildly, Kyle has trouble focusing on his schoolwork, which of course leads to some shenanigans by the end. It’s another fun story, and my only complaint about the book is the fake newspaper story on the back cover of the comic. Not the story itself, mind you, just that my copy (or maybe all copies?) ended up so faded that I couldn’t really read it. It’s a minor thing, and it didn’t effect the story, but I am one of those people who watches all the bonus content for things that I like, so I would have liked to have read the whole story. Oh, the problems I have. Check it out why don’t you, give the man some incentive to keep up that monthly schedule! $1

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Posted by Kevin

Johnston, Hannah Jill – With You, Without You

October 27, 2025

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With You, Without You

I’m doing my level best to stay focused on this comic, but did you know that she has a comic on her website that’s made entirely out of felt, encased in a felt cheese grater? Granted, it was purchased for a book collection and is not for sale, but wow is that thing ever impressive. It looks like Hannah is working on her first graphic novel at the moment, but she does have a few other comics available, so it’s not like she’s brand new to this. And the bags she has available for sale! OK, I’m wandering far away from this comic, but seriously, check out her website. This is a flip book that’s also an accordion comic, meaning that each of the covers above depicts a different time in her life, and that you need to pull the comic out like an accordion to read it. Kids, accordions are musical instruments that… nah, I don’t have the energy for that. If you can’t picture it, you’re already on the internet, so I’ll bet you know how to find a picture of one. The comic is a snapshot of moods, one where she’s surprised at how casually she ended up with a girlfriend living with her and another by how much better her next relationship is by comparison. It’s a shortie, so there’s not a whole lot to say about it other than it’s universally relatable to everybody who’s ever thought they had it good only to finally find the real thing. The craftsmanship of this book is impressive too; part of my reviewing so many comics over the years means that I’ve reviewed several accordion comics by now, and they inevitably seem to start falling apart after a few reads. This sucker is sturdy and would take some serious effort to pull apart (not that I recommend trying). After reading this I’m very curious about her upcoming graphic novel, so you can expect that to be reviewed here after next year’s Cartoon Crossroads (or sooner if I see it at Chicago Comics or something). $20

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Posted by Kevin

Finch, Scott – Introverts Illustrated #1

October 15, 2025

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Introverts Illustrated #1

Was I expecting something autobiographical after seeing that title? Reader, you know I was, but this is actually a dream comic. Scott sent along a big bundle of his comics (21 issues I think?) in this series, and they’re arranged by theme. The first five issues are dream comics, but what am I going to do, NOT review the first issue in the series? Madness. Maybe it would have made more sense to review the first five issues as a chunk, but I’m committed to this one now, so maybe don’t be shocked if the next four issues are a bundled review. Trivial information for people who didn’t ask! Scott does dream-like comics very well, and this issue is no exception. Forms are constantly splitting and merging, perspective changes, reality is in doubt, and there’s a general sense of wondering what you just read after finishing it. I mean that in the best possible sense! Trying to describe any kind of dream comic is a fool’s errand, but I’m just that kind of fool. Things start off with a gorgeous sequence of images attempting to coalesce into a theme before finally settling on driving down a highway towards a town named Rapunzel. The car shifts into him being one (or two) stray dogs who had to sing for their supper, which is what he had always been. Their supper was lettuce, which was guarded by witches flying kites. Of course, he never was a dog, which he also figures out eventually. There’s more, but I think you get the general sense of it, and I don’t want to spoil even a dream. More to come, so I’ll have a more informed opinion as I go, but this was intriguing and I’m curious to see more comics in this series. So far I’m only seeing this for sale as a bundle of the first five issues for $25.

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Posted by Kevin

MacFarland, Matt – Cookies & Herb

October 13, 2025

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Cookies & Herb

This is a delightful story about an aspect of childhood that is often overlooked: your relationships with the older non-relatives in your life. Maybe this isn’t as much of a thing currently; I don’t have kids and I’m not a kid, so it’s entirely possible that families rarely if ever interact with their neighbors any more. But back in the day! Back then (I’m a couple of years older than Matt, meaning that we both had our childhoods in the 80’s), it wasn’t at all odd to knock on the doors of elderly neighbors asking for candy or cookies, maybe hot chocolate if it was cold, to use their phone to call the parents to check in (and try to get more time before you had to come home), etc. That, if you haven’t guessed yet, is the “Herb” in the title. Matt’s first memory was actually at Herb’s house, after his wife had come home from a trip to the hospital. Matt and his family were chatting and joking with them before Herb’s wife took a drastic turn for the worse right in front of them, leaving Herb all alone in that house. Matt’s family got him a dog pretty quickly after that, and Matt would often stop by for cookies or just to watch tv and hang out with Herb. His family eventually moved a few miles away from Herb when he was about 10, which at the time basically meant that he lived on the other side of the world to Matt at the time. There was also the whole going through childhood, then puberty, then college thing (which distracts us all), meaning that Matt only saw Herb one other time. Herb wasn’t doing well at the time and Matt mostly wanted to get out of there, but years later he dug into Herb’s life to try to solve the mystery of what he was really like. This book is much more than just that story, as Matt also goes into detail about his reactions to his upcoming brother (conflicted, to say the least), his intentional (and unintentional) attempts at being a daredevil, his obsession with The Greatest American Hero, his relationship with his high school girlfriend’s mother… a life, basically. With plenty of bits skimmed over, because this isn’t a full autobiography, and he does a solid job of not straying too far from the overall theme. No shockers here because I’ve been a fan of his work for awhile now, but this is maybe his best comic (that covers a lot of ground, so it gets a qualifier) and it absolutely is worth checking out. $15

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Posted by Kevin

Knickerbocker, Sean – Best of Three

October 9, 2025

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Best of Three

I finally met Sean for the first time at Cartoon Crossroads this year (or at least it seemed to both of us like it was the first time meeting; it’s always possible we met briefly at a previous con and then forgot) and he’s delightful, in case anybody was wondering. When he told me that this book was a collection of previous stories from his anthology Rust Belt Review (up to #7 as of this writing, and for anybody who wondered why I stopped reviewing them after the first issue, I just haven’t seen any more out in the wild) I figured it would be a collection of unconnected stories, but since I’ve liked his other comics I had no troubles with that. Reader, this is a graphic novel, and a damned good one at that. It flowed seamlessly, with no indications that it was previously released in serial form in his anthology series. I actually reviewed the first maybe dozen pages years ago, and it’s after that that things really start getting good. The basic story is that there’s a slacker named David living at his friend’s house, going nowhere in life, until his friend decides to move back and gives David an ultimatum to move out. That’s right around the time that David’s father reportedly died, leaving him $20,000, which is what he needs to maybe work on his dream of starting a landscaping business. But of course he throws a party first, and that’s where the reader sees that he’s under surveillance. The cast of characters just keeps growing from there, as we quickly learn that a large amount of money was stolen by David’s father (closer to millions than $20,000), the people who had the money stolen are trying to track it down, his father’s old partner is also trying to track it down, and Sean keeps up an admirable pace with this heist story. Well, not heist, I guess, more of a “getting the money after the heist” story. Is there a word for that? Anyway, it keeps you guessing throughout, Sean spends the time necessary to make every one of these characters feel believable and real (with their own quirks and problems), and it all comes together beautifully in the end. Thoroughly recommended, give it a shot why don’t you? $20

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Posted by Kevin

Frank, Emma Jon-Michael – I Never Found You

October 7, 2025

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I Never Found You

I’ve started this new tradition at cons where if I get to the table for Floating World Comics while I still have money to spend, I’m getting a random graphic novel. Sure, I could spend five minutes going through them to make it less random, but then I’d inevitably want to get half a dozen of them, and since they mostly sell graphic novels and my billionaire benefactor has yet to appear, this seems like a bad idea. I mention all of this to say that I didn’t know a thing about Emma’s work before reading this book, and flipping through it at home made me wonder why I picked it. At first glance the art is crude, but after reading it I’ve revised my opinion of the art upward (it’s sparse, but lush when it needs to be, and it’s not like the many panels of Egbert thinking about his lot in life need lavish backgrounds). But the story more than makes up for anything else I might think is lacking. This is the story of Egbert, a thoroughly miserable dude who only finds meaning in his bird-watching habit. But he’s terrible at that too, consistently being the one with the fewest sightings in his club. Even in his club of kinda sorta societal rejects he stands out as pathetic, and he’s consistently unpleasant enough that he doesn’t evoke any kind of sympathy from his peers. We spend a whole lot of time with Egbert in his (completely alone) home life, where he actually puts himself through “training” to become a better bird watcher (I’m not going to spoil this wonder by revealing his methods), talks a lot about (and to) his “online therapist,” and falls in love with anybody who’s even slightly nice to him (but he doesn’t seem to have much of a idea of what love is). I was settling in for another comics tale of a sad sack loser when something happens that changes the whole dynamic: Egbert finds a severed hand in a tree. Suddenly he has the respect of his peers, has an interview scheduled on the news, and overall thinks this is his big chance to make a splash. And, predictably, it fizzles out; there was never a realistic chance of the evening news airing a long interview with a guy who found a hand. But now Egbert has the itch and knows what he has to do to get attention, so how far will be go to chase that high? It’s a genuinely funny book on top of all of that; the recurring gag of him being called a creep because he was walking around everywhere with binoculars surprised me several times, as did his habit of completely forgetting that he owned a cat. I wouldn’t call it a laugh riot, but it’s an engrossing and balanced read, and Egbert even gets the confrontation he was dreaming about by the end. Check it out, it also turns out that Emma has several other books available, so my graphic novel purchase might be a little less random next year. $20

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Posted by Kevin

Jayne, Emma – Trans Girls Hit the Town

October 3, 2025

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Trans Girls Hit the Town

I was so hoping that this would be a light romp about some friends talking and having a fun night out on the town, but considering the subject matter (and the country) involved, I guess that was never going to happen. There’s still plenty of humor, love and insight, but there’s also terror and threats possibly coming from every direction. I should backtrack a little: this came out in 2019 and won the Ignatz award, then won the Prism award in 2020, so plenty of people knew all about this, it’s just new to me. There’s even a sequel (Trans Girls Hit the Field) that I’m all kinds of curious about. I bring this up because the reality on the ground is probably even more grim now than it was in 2019, so I don’t know why I was expecting all sweetness and joy. Well, hoping, not expecting. Still! I’m an optimistic dummy sometimes. This one is all about Cleo and Winnie going out on the town, obviously. Cleo is new to transitioning and is incredibly self-conscious about her appearance and whether or not she’s “passing,” while Winnie has been at this for awhile and is the one encouraging Cleo to keep going with their planned fun night no matter what they run into. Reading this also really highlights the genuinely terrifying list of threats that you have to clock if you’re trans on any given night. Why is that dude on the train staring at you? What’s the best way to react to getting casually called a “gentleman”? There’s also the sheer terror of having to use a public restroom and the relief of finding one that just contains a single toilet. Still, I don’t want to spend too much time on the negatives (if I haven’t already), because the heart and soul of this comic is the joy and the conversation. Winnie always being a source of comfort and courage (even though it’s eventually revealed that that’s mostly because she’s been through exactly what Cleo is going through and knows that it does in fact get better), Cleo pushing ahead in spite of it all, and them managing to have a mostly wonderful time out, assholes be damned. Flipping through this again, it’s the joy that stands out, and that’s what makes up the bulk of the comic. It’s a comic that pulls no punches, but it’s also a hell of a read. Check it out, is what I’m saying. $7

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Posted by Kevin

Baskin, Glenn – Untitled (2024)

October 1, 2025

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Untitled (2024)

I mean, I was VERY tempted to call this “Oh Peas and Carrots,” but I doubt very much that that’s actually the title of this mini. Which led me to conclude that there probably wasn’t a title at all, so here we are! This is a delightful comic, which folds out to show different excuses for calling in sick for every day of the week. I doubt very much that any of them would work in a practical sense, but they were funny, and hey, if you’re on your way out at your job anyway, try a few of these out to see what happens! There’s also a recipe for hot dog sauerkraut casserole, which sounds horrific to me because I can’t stand sauerkraut, but honestly? The rest of it sounds pretty damned good. Which overall makes this comic pretty practical, right? Excuses for getting out of work and a workable recipe. His art style reminds me slightly of Max Clotfelter, mostly because of those densely penciled black backgrounds, but Max still has a leg up on him for sheer sordidness (which I mean in the best possible way). I managed to grab a few more of Glenn’s comics at the con and it doesn’t look like any of them have a title, so it’ll be fun trying to keep these all straight in the weeks ahead. Oh well, reviewer problems, I guess. One comic in from the guy and I’m intrigued, so check this out if you get the chance. $2 maybe?

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Posted by Kevin

Carter, Ruby – Bogue #5

September 29, 2025

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Bogue #5

So last year at Cartoon Crossroads I got Ruby’s graphic novel “bird comic.” (that’s how it’s always listed), but I got it from her publisher, not her directly. So this year I got an issue of Bogue, but didn’t make any connections to the previously mentioned graphic novel, since I didn’t get it from her. Which is a shame, because I loved that book, and would have happily made a fool of myself gushing about it to her in person. Oh well, I’ll have to find some other way to embarrass myself, I reckon. But hey, what’s the deal with Bogue? Well, she had several issues of this series available, and I got this one more or less at random. Which actually turned out to be fine; it’s not the usual case at all where I’m lost by jumping into the middle of a story. Each issue is basically a fashion show for various types of bugs, sprinkled with some funny bits and (in this issue at least) a sneaky but warranted bit of social commentary. I’m about as far away as possible from being any kind of a fashion expert, but this is adorable and some of these bugs would absolutely benefit from some cute outfits. The hats alone on that first page were a perfect look for those bugs. There doesn’t seem to be a simple way to actually buy these comics at her website, but if you send her an email I’ll bet the two of you can figure it out. For fashion lovers this is mandatory, for the rest of you, be honest: you’ve always been curious about bugs wearing clothes, right? This is a safe space, you can admit it. Well, here’s your chance! $5 (if I’m remembering correctly)

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Posted by Kevin

Ballard, Tim – The Canine Revolution Part 1: The Book of Yinlod

September 25, 2025

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The Canine Revolution Part 1: The Book of Yinlod

I have to imagine that most people reading this would be at least open to dogs taking things over at this point. How much worse could they do, really? This series sure feels like it’s heading in that direction, but since this issue is mostly setting the stage, we’ll have to wait a bit for the actual revolution. Tim explains in his introduction that this story was originally intended to be a background story for a graphic novel he’s working on, but a concept like that was always going to get out of hand and now he’s torn between keeping it as a short series or making it a graphic novel of its own. As you may have guessed from that cover, this story is told as a recap to a younger generation of dogs who have only known the world after the revolution. Things start off with our hero gaining awareness in a cage, trapped in a terrible and hopeless place. I originally thought it was a PetSmart or one of those places where they keep the cats and dogs caged in tiny rooms, but it’s even worse, as you can tell if you read the sample page below. Yinlod escapes, enjoys his freedom for a bit, and finally digs up a bone with mysterious writing on it. This causes him to have a vision, and I’m assuming we’ll get more information on that the next time around. Tim also included the first chapter from the graphic novel that this story was originally meant to be part of, which was maybe kinda sorta autobiographical up to a point? He mentions in his introduction to that story that he was suffering through a breakup while writing it and the character was suffering through a breakup, so maybe I’m just assuming over here. That one goes along like you might expect for a few pages, before his dog gets up on his hind legs and makes him breakfast. I’m not going to lie, I’m also very curious about the direction that that story is taking. Also I hear you cat people, especially since I’m more of a cat person myself, but let’s be honest: cats could never get organized enough to take over the world. Smack it around like a ball of yarn, sure, but not run it. Two future graphic novels (probably), small bits of each included, I’d strongly recommend giving this issue a shot. Even if it isn’t up on his website quite yet, but if you get ahold of Tim he has copies available (unless he ended up selling out at Cartoon Crossroads). I think this one was $8 maybe?

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Posted by Kevin

G., John – Tales to Demystify: The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich

September 23, 2025

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Tales to Demystify: The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich

Go ahead, get your arguments ready in your head. I thought I’d have quibbles with whatever ingredients John ended up using in this comic, but in the end he won me over. I see you, bacon fans, eyeballing that sausage patty and perhaps not seeing any bacon anywhere on that sandwich. Bacon is a wonderful thing, that’s one of those universally acknowledged truths (except for vegetarians, and most of the ones I’ve been friends with liked bacon, they just didn’t eat it for moral reasons). But a sausage patty is the perfect shape to cover a bun, so it’s always going to be the clear winner here. But wait, am I really not going to list John’s suggested ingredients? Reader, I am not. That’d basically be spoiling the whole thing! You can make an educated guess from the image, but you’ll get at least one of the ingredients wrong. The only thing I take issue with is that he puts the jam UNDER the cheese, which goes against decades of training on my part, but considering the cheese he uses I can see the whole thing working out really well. I knew this would happen, but now I have to go get a breakfast sandwich. I do want to mention that John has been making comics for many years (I even reviewed one of his book before the great website rebuild of 2010, see if you can find it!), and in hindsight I would probably have been better off getting one of his heavier autobiographical comics. But I’m always going to walk away from Cartoon Crossroads wishing I’d picked up more comics, and this one was a lot of fun. It’s not on his website yet, but I think it was $3?

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Posted by Kevin

Minkoff, John – The Bible Drawings Part One

September 4, 2025

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The Bible Drawings Part One

My initial impression after reading this was that there’s not a book out there that calls for this kind of artistic treatment more than the Bible, but looking through John’s old work shows that this is kind of his style. Not always, as he’s clearly changed his style over the years, but fairly often. This is the part where I point out that I’m not any kind of an art scholar or student, so I can only hope that nobody is reading these reviews for that kind of viewpoint. If anybody had they would have long ago failed out of art school because of me and would have taken me out in a fairly brutal fashion as revenge, so I’m going to keep assuming that never happened. But the image below, for example, shows Adam and Eve hiding out after eating the forbidden fruit. You can make them out, and you can even (to me) see the fear on their faces, along with a barely defined figure peering around looking for them. In the chaotic lines around it, what else can you make out? This is where things get subjective in a hurry, so consider that a rhetorical question. Other images depict different scenes from the first book in the Bible: there’s Adam being molded from the dust, his getting placed in Eden, the first time he’s shown animals, the woman being made from the rib of Adam, and more; these all come from Genesis, so maybe you can guess what he chose to draw. But each image had me flipping back to it after finishing, looking for details in the din and seeing new things each time. So it was a rewarding experience for me and am curious to experience the next book (which John was nice enough to send my way). It’s well worth checking out, assuming you have an interest in the subject matter. $13

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Posted by Kevin

Auman, Chris – Maps

September 2, 2025

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Maps

Generally speaking, there are two types of people who read books with maps heavily featured in them. There’s the type who obsess over the details and gladly call out the author if the movements they describe wouldn’t make any sense in their own maps (hello Game of Thrones!) and the readers who ignore the maps. Chris, as he makes very clear in his introduction, is the former type, even going so far as to say that he’ll read books specifically because they have maps in them. This comic is a natural outgrowth of that obsession (and a companion to his Cities comic). Maps let you wonder what life would be like on different sections, where (if it’s not accompanied by a global map) they could be placed on a planet, what the environment might be like, etc. The sample image gives the game away a bit, but the rest of the comic is close-up images of different sections of the map, and it wouldn’t make much sense to use one of those images with no context. This is one of those cases where whether or not you should check out this comic is a simple question. Are you obsessed by, or at least interested in, maps and speculating about what might be going on in there? Or do you ignore the maps? Folks who are the former type, come on down! Probably should go ahead and get the set of this along with Cities so you have full context too. $6

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Posted by Kevin

Canini, Brian – Bootleg Ninja

August 28, 2025

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Bootleg Ninja

You don’t see them very often these days, but I do love a tribute comic. This is Brian’s homage to the Ninja comics of his friend Michael Anthony Carroll, who I reviewed a fair amount back in the day (before the great website update of 2010), and then apparently stopped reviewing for some reason? Odd. I’ll have to grab some of ninja comics the next time I see him at a con to catch up/get some context for this one. Not that you need much context, because: ninjas! Everybody knows ninjas. This one starts off with a brief explanation of the concept, then it’s on to the “training video” portion. Other stories include a listing of their weapons, Godzilla dressed as a ninja, a very vocal movie critic who’s not having a good time watching a ninja movie in a darkened theater, and of course Franken-ninja. I also couldn’t possibly avoid talking about probably the longest story in here, about a silent fart who takes up ninja tools and goes on a rampage. I thought it was funny, but if your eyes just rolled out of your head, maybe this one isn’t for you. Which is fine; very few people have as many comics to choose from as Brian does. I found the whole comic to be a hoot, even if I was probably missing some context, so if you’re up for some ninja mockery I’d say you should give this one a shot. $5

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Posted by Kevin

Neal, Andrew – No Raccoons in Hell

August 26, 2025

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No Raccoons in Hell

Hey everybody, it’s a new Val Cannon mystery! OK, that’ll wrap up this review, as… huh, you probably want me to talk about this a bit more than that. This is considered to be #30 of the Meeting Comics series, which I’ve been praising for ages, so you can probably guess where this review is going to go. But fine, I’ll go into some detail. This one is set in 1997, back in the younger days of Val. When we last saw her she was having sex with every one of her 5 of so roommates, first one by one and then (when they all found out about it) as one big group. But this issue has a bit of a “morning after” vibe from all of them, as they’ve each had time to think about what they might want in the future, and oddly it might not involve a daily orgy. To each their own, I guess! Still, that can’t possibly be the attitude of 1997 Tori, right? Also, doesn’t the title allude to a mystery? It sure does! Their house raccoon has gone missing, along with the trap they use to take it to the vet for checkups. Unfortunately they all blacked out the night before, and since this is before the age of ubiquitous cell phones, photographic evidence is a bit hard to come by. Still, they’re able to piece together enough information to get a good idea where to check out next, and they get to be in disguises to do it. Will they be discovered? Will they figure out what happened to their raccoon? Will everybody change their minds about the orgies? I genuinely don’t know, as this is the first of a two part story. I reckon we’ll find out next time though! $9

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Posted by Kevin

Hill, Dan – The Fifty Flip Experiment #34

August 22, 2025

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The Fifty Flip Experiment #34

I’ll admit it, there are times where I zone out when there are large blocks of text in a comic. If I’m reviewing it I fess up (as I’m somehow always guilty about it), but yeah, sometimes all the text gets me to tune out. I mention that mostly so I can say that Dan has another one of his delightful… stories? Calling it stream of consciousness rambling sells it short, as he clearly sticks to his own plan throughout. Whatever you’d call it, this time around it’s four pages instead of the usual one or two, and after reading it my brain got the clear signal that I had just read a piece of art and it was time to ramble about it myself on my website. It wasn’t until I sat down and logged in that I realized that I hadn’t read the actual comic yet. Oh laughs! It really is possible to have them by myself while reading comics and then writing reviews! So basically yes, the four page story alone is worth that measly $5. But there’s also a whole comic that comes with it! He’s sticking with full color, and I’m a fan of the idea. This one is all about Lily, the goth girl from DuoLingo (not familiar myself, but I looked it up and she’s real) getting transported to a cave of evolved dinosaurs. In this case “evolved” means “walking upright and talking,” not telepathic dinosaurs, if you were thinking about that for some reason. He goes to great lengths to mention that this story is about the real Lily, so it’s now canon that that lady has lived with dinosaurs in a cave. We see her on a beach, we see her wash her pits in a bathroom, we see her join the civilization of the dinosaurs and return to her own world. But not all is as it seems! In fact none of it is, but I’m not going to get into specifics. Here’s to another 34 issues at a minimum of this constantly delightful series! $5

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Posted by Kevin

Crane, Jordan – Goes Like This

August 20, 2025

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Goes Like This

Jordan Crane! He’s one of those people who got me into the small press comics back in the day; if you look up his name on the website his reviews are mostly from the 2001-2004 era, where all of the “site news” posts have vanished so I’ll never know exactly when those reviews were first posted. And oh, past me, to complain about an $8 graphic novel. So young and dumb! Anyway, in my world, he put out two amazing graphic novels, several years later put out a kid’s book, and then vanished. In reality, he put out five issues of a series from Fantagraphics, was working on a graphic novel that took him 20 years to complete (Keeping Two, which I’m shocked I never reviewed), and never stopped contributing stories to anthologies. Which, and sorry to take so long to get to the point, is what this volume contains. Despite my admiration for Jordan’s work, I still honestly wasn’t expecting to be blown away by this because hey, anthologies, am I right? Some good stories, some bad, many so-so. Allow me to murder any suspense that you may be feeling: this is one of my favorite books of the year. Top to bottom, with no qualifiers for “some of the stories were just OK.” Nope! This is a book I’ll be returning to on a regular basis. I have to mention the design of the book, as it very quickly moves into the realm of being one of the prettiest books that I own. And good lord, do I ever own a lot of books. The thick pages mixed in with the thin, the vibrant (and there should be a word stronger than “vibrant” for this) colors, the single or double page silent drawings between the stories (which often feel like padding but in this case masterfully raise or lower tension between the stories)… if there’s an award available for book design and he doesn’t win it, what are we even doing here people? Perhaps now you’re curious about the contents, or not willing to take my word for it. Well, I’m not going to walk you through all of it (this is a dense volume), but things start off in fairly wacky fashion, with a thief in old timey prospecting times trying to get a locked briefcase off of the handcuffed wrist of a dead man. And I was set for wacky times, I’m so fine with that! But the images in between stories told the tale and set the mood, leading to the quiet claustrophobia of “Keep a Light Out.” Then the stories shift to black and white (but not the larger drawings), with a heartbreaking story of a relationship dying a slow death, mixed with images of it when it was just getting started, which also continues later in the book. And you know what? That’s all you get from me. A solid chunk of the joy of reading this is not knowing what to expect after every page/story, and I’m not going to ruin that any more than I have to. Again, one of my favorite books of the year, and if you like comics at all (and what would you be doing here if you didn’t?), this one is mandatory reading. $39.99

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Posted by Kevin

Yokoyama, Yuichi – Sandbox

August 18, 2025

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Sandbox

I briefly thought that there was a printing problem with this issue, as the title and author is on the back cover, before I figured out that it’s more like a manga. A tip for you, gentle reader, so you maybe don’t fumble around as much as I did. Or at least part of the story is, while the rest starts from the usual (in America) front of the book. Although you can kind of read that part right after the initial story on the side with the title and author and it’ll still work in that order. OK fine I’ll fess up! This one didn’t completely click for me. Blame it on the manga aspects (I still haven’t read enough of that for it to feel natural to read a story in the “wrong” order), I’ll absolutely accept the blame for that. There’s still a lot to like here, even if I feel like I’m missing the big picture. The haunting cadence of a whole lot of the dialogue, the absolutely otherworldly sandy area where they’re all trapped, the inhuman masks on the walls (and how they may or may not tie in to the rest of the mystery), all that kind of stuff. And Yokoyama has put out all kinds of books, so it’s not like he’s some new artist which, once again, proves that I’m the dummy here. These things happen! On the other hand, what a great opportunity for you to just get the bundle of four comics instead of just one. You may find this one a headscratcher too, but even if you do, you’ll have the three other latest mini kus books to keep you entertained. $8 for this, or $22 for the bundle.

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Posted by Kevin

DiPasquale, Tony – Spirit

August 7, 2025

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Spirit

Was I expecting to get my heart broken while reading the latest Nugget comic? Reader, I was not. I mean sure, Tony’s work is getting better with each issue of Nugget, and it had already started off strong. But generally speaking my overall mood after reading one of his comics has been more “what did I just read” and/or “oh, so THAT’S what he was going for,” and this one… but hey, I’m getting ahead of myself. There are two stories in this issue, one very short to start things off followed by the much longer piece. Things start off with Nugget taking a walk in the woods with his mother, where he eventually finds and takes home a caterpillar. Anybody who’s done that themselves knows what’s coming next, and that’s the shocking discovery of that caterpillar somehow being replaced by a cocoon, and then a butterfly. It’s a sweet story about the inevitability of change and accepting it when it happens, which serves to make the next story all the more devastating. It’s told mostly (though not entirely) in alternating panels or pages, and it’s not apparent what’s happening for a couple of pages. One panel will depict Nugget’s mother in a variety of scenarios raising young Nugget, then the next image will show adult Nugget taking care of his visibly older and frailer mother. It’s relentless and the end of the story is inevitable; Tony has really stepped up his game with the facial expressions to really take the reader on a journey. Nugget was clearly trying his best but overwhelmed and so very sad, his aged mother was often terrified, confused and embarrassed, and the images of some of the best moments of his childhood juxtaposed with the heartbreaking reality of those final days and months of a life were just brutal. But not completely, because there was still so much love and joy in the memories of their younger days. It was reckoning with a complete life, good and bad, and it’s probably Tony’s best work. Plenty of people will find parallels to events they’re experiencing with their own parents and family, that’s for sure. If you’re looking for more mayhem I’d recommend some of his other issues, but the overall best issue is probably this one. $10

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Posted by Kevin

Fabi, Giovanna – Perfect Love

August 5, 2025

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Giovanna Fabi – Perfect Love

Just so you know, l’il reader, I used the Google translate option to link Giovanna’s website in English. If it doesn’t actually work that way you can do the same thing, or if you know Italian (or want to learn) there’s always the original version. The clues for this story are visible on the very first page, which makes it yet another one of those comics that’s tricky to talk about without giving too much away. Should I give up on my “no spoiler” stance? Maybe assume that 90% of the people who come to this website just click on the link for the artist and don’t bother reading any of this nonsense? Eh, I kind of have to assume that people do read this, so you all once again get to witness me dancing around a comic without saying too much about it. It went in directions that I didn’t expect, including an ending that smacks the reader right between the eyes, is what I can say without giving anything away. Things start off with <spoiler>, then we shift to a rapturously happy couple in bed. There’s a sudden strangeness in the air that they both notice, then one of them leaves, as that person obviously knows exactly what that strangeness signified. A plea is made and heard for more time together, and that’s right around the part where their partner also decided to leave the bedroom and find out what was going on. I thought that the little boxes all over the pages really added to the sense of claustrophobia of the whole thing, but it looks like Giovanna uses it in a lot of her work, proving once again that “what the heck does he know anyway?” is always a valid response to my reviews. Anyway, yes it’s worth a look, and as always the better deal is getting four of these mini kus books at once for $22 rather than just one for $8. But I’m not the boss of you!

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Posted by Kevin

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