Optical Sloth

New review today for Finding Harmony by Carlo Carino, and it’s too cold out for me to even try and say anything clever here today.

Send review comics to: Kevin Bramer 2405 Meadow Spring Circle Columbus, OH 43235

Web banner design by Cailey Tervo

New review today for Mill Girls by Caitlin Cass. So do you think we’re all going to have to learn Russian when Putin’s puppet gets put into office in a month and a half? On the bright side, I’ve always wanted to read Dostoevsky’s books in the original Russian…

Send review comics to: Kevin Bramer 2405 Meadow Spring Circle Columbus, OH 43235

Web banner design by Cailey Tervo

New review today for Beef With Tomato by Dean Haspiel, and I’m still collecting thoughts and opinions on the new look of the website. No, I don’t like all the empty space on the sides either, so I’ll see what I can do about it. Cailey Tervo did the new banner (and is available for freelance work, hint hint), and here’s my contact info for review purposes:
Kevin Bramer 2405 Meadow Spring Circle Columbus, OH 43235

New review today for Blammo #9 by Noah Van Sciver. Still soliciting opinions/suggestions on the new look for the website, you should still ask Cailey Tervo about any illustration work you need doing (she did that amazing new banner), and here’s my contact info for reviews:
Kevin Bramer 2405 Meadow Spring Circle Columbus, OH 43235

Hey look everybody, I’ve changed the website around! And broken it in a few places, as I’m not sure how to fix the menus and my tech guy is out of the country for a few weeks. That new banner image is by the delightful, talented and incredibly patient (believe me, she had to put up with some serious delays on my end with all the work I was doing for the election) Cailey Tervo, and you should really think about hiring her for your illustration needs before she gets too famous to bother with freelance work. New review today for Everyone is Hungry by Anna Sailamaa, and since my contact information has mysteriously vanished I’ll just post it in these messages every day until I figure out how to fix it. Comments or suggestions (or tech advice), please let me know!
For reviews:
Kevin Bramer 2405 Meadow Spring Circle Columbus, OH 43235

New review today for Scorched Earth by Tom Van Deusen, and can you believe that this miserable year is almost over? What other horrors can 2016 crap out before it ends?

New review today for What Happened by Simon Moreton. Don’t forget to shame a Trump voter today!

That’s right, an actual update! Mostly because this is my first day off in a month. New review today for The Plunge by Emi Gennis! As far as the recent election goes, I’ve had some time to think it over (even if my job requires me to relive the trauma every day by looking at ballots), and I’m torn between wanting to go down fighting and wanting to flee the country entirely. So if there are any single ladies in Europe or Canada who are looking for access to a ridiculous comics/graphic novel collection that spans 20+ years of small press comics from all over the world, get in touch with me! At this point I may even be OK with a loveless marriage just to get to a country that isn’t turning into a banana republic in a couple of months.

New review today for Our Mother by Luke Howard. Also if you’re reading this on the day that I’m posting it and happen to live in or near Columbus, Garry Trudeau is in town for that comic convention I mentioned earlier in the week. Yes, THE Garry Trudeau. And if you miss him today, not to worry, as Raina Telgemeier and Charles Burns (and so, so many others) are here for the rest of the weekend.

New review today for the collected Ohio Is For Sale by Jon Allen. What, you haven’t read the series up until now. Boy, are you in for a treat.

I am very much trying to avoid these long breaks between reviews, but life and work are both cuckoo bananas right now, which doesn’t leave much time for me rambling about comics. But there is a big old convention in Columbus this weekend with all kinds of great people attending, so in theory I should have a lot more comics to talk about in the near future. Assuming I can get away from my job long enough to go, that is. Anyway, new review today for A Witch Named Koko #3 by Charles Brubaker.

New review today for Teaching Comics Volume One by Alex Nall. I’m posting this before the debate, but Trump looked really stupid, didn’t he? And he said about a dozen things that should disqualify him from being considered human, let alone a viable presidential candidate, right? I’m really going out on a limb here, I know.

Yes, sporadic reviews probably will be the norm through the end of this year, as the upcoming election slowly eats me alive. Sorry about that. New review today for Cassie Chadwick: Queen of Cleveland by Caitlin Cass.

New review today for Flying Sausage Academy #1 by Rob Jackson, happy birthday Kathie!

New review today for Forever and Everything by Kyle Bravo, and I am back to doing weird future reviews as I get busy at work with elections stuff again.

New review today for Libby’s Dad by Eleanor Davis. Maybe I can do reviews every other day and keep that consistent? Sure, let’s work with that theory and see what happens.

New review today for She’s Not Into Poetry by Tom Hart, which is a collection of all of his early mini comics. So yes, you now live in a world where this exists. Congratulations, you’ve made it!

Sorry about the sudden absence, but all is right with the world: I have a working scanner again. Now if I could just figure out how to use it… eh, who has time to read the instructions. New review today for Magic Whistle 3.0 #1 by Sam Henderson and a few other artists. In theory reviews should now be back to normal, at least until the upcoming election removes me from humanity entirely for a few months. But the next week or so should still be good!

OK, that’ll do it for the nostalgia tour. Back to regular reviews next week, meaning sporadic and based on free time. But I did put in an order for a new scanner, so that shouldn’t be a problem for much longer. I’m pretty sure that 15 years makes me something like 100 in internet years, but it has been a lot of fun much more often than not, and I know that I helped at least a few people out along the way. As for how much longer I’ll keep doing this? How about this: at the exact moment when I’m not excited to see what comics are in the random package I just got from Kiev, or Ireland, or Brooklyn, or Chicago, or Denver, or where-the-hell-ever. It’s clear to me that I make a poor proper adult, so that time probably won’t come for several years yet. Now if only I could find the time to fix all the typos from the old articles, update all the contact info, put the review dates back to their original dates, fix the online store, replenish the stock in said store with books that’s weren’t all from the aughts, start interviewing comics creators again… Which reminds me, if there’s an eccentic millionaire out there who wants access to all the old mini comics in the world, get in touch! I’d quit my day job in a second. Thanks for reading everybody!

Grant Reynolds

Rafer Roberts

Johnny Ryan

Steve Seck

Katie Skelly

Steve Steiner

Dan Taylor

Esther Pearl Watson

Julia Wertz

Jeff Zwirek

OK fine, so there are a LOT more of these than I was anticipating. It’s a pleasant surprise. And that’s without me including people who have been doing this for 15+ years while I’ve only reviewed one or two of their books, or people whose books I’ve never reviewed because I frankly didn’t feel worthy to do it. Los Bros Hernandez, Dan Clowes, Eddie Campbell, Chris Ware, all of those people have shaped my views on comics to an immeasurable degree. But smarter than people than me can talk about them in any kind of critical detail.

Kris Lachowski

Dave Lapp

Jeff LeVine

Carrie McNinch

Tom Motley

Kelli Nelson

Anders Nilsen

PANEL Anthologies (Columbus Ohio convention books)

Marcos Perez

John Porcellino