Update for 8/31/26

August 31, 2026

New review today for Plastic People #22 and 23 by Brian Canini! Also the 25th anniversary fundraiser/attempt to get me to SPX this year is still ongoing, but after a nice start there have been a couple of weeks of a tumbleweed blowing across my screen. Are the stats of the number of unique daily visitors site incorrect? Are people just broke and/or only supporting fundraisers that are actively keeping people alive? Kind of difficult to be mad about that one, if true. But to the shy billionaire that enjoys my ramblings, stop being so miserly! Don’t you want me to do a whole lot of driving over a weekend to come back with a pile of comics? Anyway, give me a few bucks if you can, it’ll get transformed directly into comics. Work is starting to get crazy again so I’m not sure about reviews for the rest of the week, but if I can’t manage anything, take a wander through the archives! 25 years is a whole lot of reviews to scroll through.

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Update for 8/27/26

August 27, 2026

New review today for Santos Sisters Fun Special #1 by Greg & Fake Petre along with Bob Burden. Yes, that Bob Burden! Also their second hardcover volume of Santos Sisters will be out soon from Fantagraphics, so stay on the lookout for that. Also yes, I’m still doing the fundraiser for the website’s 25th anniversary/attempt to get me to SPX this year, so just scroll down a bit to find it. I’d put it here, but it’s too full of Santos Sisters plugs!


Update for 8/25/26

August 25, 2026

Hey look everybody, it’s a new issue of Womp Womp (#4) by Brandon Lehmann! Yes, of course I reviewed it. Also I’m still doing the fundraiser to maybe get me to SPX this year for the 25th anniversary of Optical Sloth, and after a promising start things seem to have stalled. I get that everybody is broke, so no hard feelings (I can always buy a clump of mini comics online instead), but if you appreciate my rambling about comics every week for that long and have any money to spare, go for it!

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Update for 8/21/26

August 21, 2026

New review today for Dog Love by Lily Herring, one from the CXC pile last year that drifted out of the review pile. Hey, speaking of conventions and buying comics, I’m running a fundraiser for the 25th anniversary of this website and so that I can buy a hefty pile of comics to review at SPX this year. Look, here’s a link to throw a few dollars my way if you want to and/or can afford it!


Update for 8/19/26

August 19, 2026

New review today for Midville High #10 by Matt Blair. And hey, scroll down a bit if you’d like to contribute to the 25th anniversary fundraiser I’m running. No, not for something practical like the costs of keeping the website running, it’s just so I can buy more comics at SPX this year.


Update for 8/17/26

August 17, 2026

New review today for Cruisin Along Route 66 by Turtle House Comics (or possibly Danny Ferbert). Also thanks to the people who donated to the GoFundMe I’m throwing for the 25th anniversary of this website and/or getting me to SPX this year with as much money to buy comics as possible. If you have a few bucks to spare (seriously, even $5 gets me a mini comic or two), here’s the link again:


Update for 8/12/26

August 12, 2026

New review today for Night Shift by Various Artists (mostly from Washington, edited by Kelly Froh). Am I going to mention the ongoing 25th anniversary celebration/fundraiser for me getting to SPX after all of the reviews this month? Sadly, the answer is “probably.” So scroll down a bit to donate, if you’re so inclined and financially able!


Update for 8/10/26

August 10, 2026

New review today for Eyeland #12 by Nick Forker! Also my 25th anniversary “celebration” is going on all month, so if you’re at all interested in helping me celebrate by making it possible for me to buy more comics at SPX this year, scroll down a bit and hit that fundraiser.


“Update” for 8/7/26

August 7, 2026

So way, WAY back in the day, at roughly the start of August in 2001, I started Optical Sloth. I even wrote 100 reviews before I posted the website online just so it would never look like a blank mess, and look at it now! It’s more of a… severely cluttered mess. Anyway, I had various thoughts for how to celebrate this milestone, but at the end of the day I’ll stay with the general feel of the website and keep it simple: I’d like to go to SPX on September 12 and 13th next month, but I always end up having to pass up a whole lot of comics because I can’t afford everything. But hey, what if I COULD practically afford everything this year? That’s right, I’m starting a fundraiser. If it ends up getting little or no money, well hey, people are broke all over, no hard feelings, and I’ll just buy a bunch of stuff from Spit and a Half or another online comics shop. But if it actually makes it into the several hundreds of dollars? Well, all of those dollars will be spent on comics at SPX. If you’ve been a regular over the years thanks for reading, and if you pop in every half a decade or so just to say “wow, you’re STILL writing comics reviews?” then thank you too. Here’s the link to the fundraiser!


Update for 8/3/26

August 4, 2026

New review today for Everybody Dies! by Kelly Froh. You know, it’s a big anniversary for this website, and I’ve been thinking about what to do about it. By the end of the week (or maybe next week, let’s be honest) I’ll be announcing something or other. Vague teaser!


Update for 7/30/26

July 30, 2026

New review today for Pixie Lice by Amanda Vahamaki. Who also did a mini kus comic that I enjoyed thoroughly over a decade ago, which is not something I remembered until I searched my own website for her name. The process of this website replacing my own brain is almost complete…


Update for 7/28/26

July 28, 2026

New review today for How I Leave You by Sydney Heifler. Sorry about the week off, but I’m in anther one of those constant states of having very few comics on hand to review. I’ll buy more soon, or if you have a new comic, this is also another one of those cases where there will be very little wait for a review of a comic that makes it to my mailbox…


Update for 7/15/26

July 15, 2026

New review today for Ukestadli by Cole Pauls, and if I’d ever figured out how to use umlauts and that various symbols that can go over letters that title would look much different.


Update for 7/13/26

July 13, 2026

New review today for Random Short Stories by a Future Bestseller by Brian Canini, and could it be? Am I actually caught up with his comics? I’m just going to assume that he’s fallen behind in posting new books in his online store…


Update for 7/8/26

July 8, 2026

New review today for Woodrow Comics #2 by Chris Auman, in which things take a turn and I try to discover the workings of my own brain. Also there’s a comic review in there somewhere.


Update for 7/6/26

July 6, 2026

New review today for Uncle Andy’s BLT Baby by A.T. Pratt and no, I can confirm that this baby does not know how to make a BLT sandwich.


Update for 6/30/26

June 30, 2026

New review today for A Self-Defense Study Guide for Trans Women which, considering the terrible Supreme Court decisions, feels important. It’s not like they’re going to help anybody…


Update for 6/25/26

June 25, 2026

New review today for In the City Part Five, the finale of the series by Karl Christian Krumpholz. Based on past reviews, who can guess what I thought of it?


Update for 6/22/26

June 22, 2026

New review today for I, Candy by Ruby Carter, and it looks like this is a “comics that came in the mail” review week. That’s because those suckers get top priority, just in case you have any new comics coming out that you’d like me, in my own l’il way, to help bring before the eyeballs of the comics community (who read this website).


Update for 6/18/26

June 18, 2026

New review today for Bury Me Already, the new graphic novel by Julia Wertz. Which also prompted me to clean up the random characters from some of her old reviews, because that’s how long I’ve been reviewing her stuff here.