New review today for This Years is Next Year’s Last Year by Christopher Sperandio. Would you believe that this might not be the last of the comics I have to review from Cartoon Crossroads last years? It’s possible that I buy too many comics!
Sperandio, C. – This Year is Next Year’s Last Year
April 15, 2025
This Year is Next Year’s Last Year
It’s trickier than I thought to find this comic online, but since I got this from Christopher at Cartoon Crossroads last year (that would be 2024, readers in the future. Sorry about the mess!), I’m going with the theory that you can either request a copy through his website or when you see him at the next convention. If not, I linked to Spit and a Half for their single copy, so whoever is fastest gets the comic! Christopher is an expert at repackaging vintage comics and making his own stories out of them, or at least that’s my conclusion after reading a couple of his comics. Which is great for gags (and boy howdy are there a lot of gags in this one), but I was impressed with how well he was able to put together a coherent narrative using these materials. The basic story is that there’s a ghost who is confused about how they died, who they were and just what was happening to them. It turns out that they attended the insurrection back in 2021 and were killed, and Christopher takes great delight in spending the bulk of the issue going over the people involved, their overall mindset, even the planning that went into it. But in a funny way, which is a tricky thing indeed when going over a riot that, you know, ended up completely destroying the country. Um, spoilers if you haven’t been watching the news, I guess. Then there’s the story of Casper the Friendly Non-Viable Fetus, and this time around he plays an ectopic pregnancy, which could never be viable and could only kill the mother. Hijinx ensue, and somehow that is true! As always around these parts, if you’re a conservative you probably won’t like the comic, but I also can’t imagine that you’d like much of anything that I have to say, so I don’t know why you’d stick around here to begin with. Other highlights include the many fake ads (they aren’t all funny, but with this many gags he still managed an impressive hit to miss ratio) and several articles about a fake board name called Croatoan. There’s some really great stuff in there, and I’d recommend getting your hands on this if you’re able. The race to get the single copy for sale that I saw online starts… now! $20
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/9/25
April 9, 2025New review today for The Fifty Flip Experiment #33 by Dan Hill, as I once again try and fail to stay focused while writing one of his reviews. Maybe next time!
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Posted by Kevin
Hill, Dan – The Fifty Flip Experiment
April 9, 2025
Is it bad that I sometimes link to the complete comic online for free? If so you should give Dan money for a subscription to alleviate my guilt. Sure, subscriptions are a sucker’s game for a lot of comics, but look at the productivity of this man. #33! That’s longevity you can count on. And as much as I hate to sully my website with an all caps message, forgive me for this, peaceful readers: DAN HAS GONE TO FULL COLOR. He mentions this nowhere that I could see in his comic, merrily going about his comics day, as if switching to full color 33 issues in wasn’t a thing to be trumpeted to the heavens. With many, probably most, black and white comics, I see them merely as black and white and think of them in no further colors. The Fifty Flip Experiment though? My brain would automatically translate many if not all pages into vibrant colors, with the haunting thought that I could never be sure if my colors were “right.” Well, I don’t have to worry about that anymore, and neither do you! Dan also sent a nice letter along with this, welcoming me back to Urbana Illinois, even though he’s in Chicago now, but it’s all Illinois, am I right? Could I wrap things up here without ever mentioning what’s in the comic? Yes! …it took everything I had to keep typing after that. What a perfect exit! Alas, my sense of duty to the readers of this website and comics all over the world is too strong. This one starts off with another introduction from Dan, explaining his thought process in making the comic, so don’t go saying that you couldn’t figure out where he was coming from. In this issue, Larry Fine and Scarlet Johansson finally have the team-up that the world has been demanding, as they are needed to live in a haunted house for three days to save some orphans. Larry Fine is a woman and Scarlet Johannson is Jughead. And I’m sorry, but every time I flip through this comic to talk about specifics, I’m dazzled by the colors again and can’t remember what I wanted to say. Do the nipples of one of the orphans place a crown on Larry Fine’s head after a job well done? I’d say, but you know how I hate spoilers. Look, it’s another triumph and now it’s dazzling to boot, so your excuses for not buying this comic series are over. Get to it! $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 4/7/25
April 7, 2025Back to the reviews after the election, and assuming I stick with this job it’s my last election until next year, so reviews should be back to normal for the foreseeable future. Assuming we keep having elections, ha ha ha I guess? Oof. Hey, it’s a new review for Midville High #7 by Matt Blair! Which was a welcome excuse to edit a couple of my older reviews of his comics, as the formatting for those got wonky somewhere along the way. One of these days I’ll get around to fixing all of them! (I will probably never get around to fixing all of them)
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Posted by Kevin
Blair, Matt – Midville High #7
April 7, 2025
Do you know what gets me every time, even (getting pretty close to) 24 years after I started this comics review website? Seeing new comics from people that I first reviewed ages ago, or in this case 2009. Which, yes, is very much “ages ago”. I got a couple of comics from Matt in late 2009 (the review date says 2010, but that’s because that’s when I remade the website, losing a lot of the original review dates and zzzzz), reviewed them both in the same month and seemed to like them just fine, and then can’t recall seeing his name again. According to his website he made two more comics at the time but only released them relatively recently, but this issue looks like it’s hot off the presses. Am I ever going to get around to talking about the actual comic? Yes, right now! On the inside front cover of this comic we see the main characters, and in a single image we get their names and a general personality type for each of them. Bravo, it’s best not to assume with a #7 that everybody has been along for the ride, especially if you’re coming back to comics after so long away. The story here details the way that school worked in the old days, roughly when I was in school it looks like, so that was a little chunk of nostalgia for me. The heart of this comic deals with a poster project, which was essentially an assignment that a teacher could give a student to keep them occupied for a week. If you guessed it involves making posters, well, it’s right there in the name, so don’t congratulate yourself too hard. But our hero Kyle both wants to be a magician (the story also deals with being “assigned” a future profession after taking a test) and is trying to get his hands on some new Funyon type snacks. He makes the poster himself, but he talks his friends into following a lead into the forest about the snacks, and ends up finding something he’d rather not know about them. There, no spoilers. It’s a fun, lighthearted comic, which is exactly what I needed today. Welcome back to comics Matt! Unless you never left, in which case welcome back to Optical Sloth I guess? $1
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/27/25
March 27, 2025New review today for Career Shoplifter by Gabrielle Bell, and considering how many comics/books I’ve read from her over the years, it’s odd that this is only the fourth one I’ve reviewed. Yeah surprise, I read all kinds of comics that I don’t review. Also there’s an election coming up on 4/1. Yes, again! Meaning that I most likely won’t have any reviews up next week, but if you live in one of the many states having an election, please participate. If it’s not obvious yet, there are a whole lot of things that we take for granted in this country that are rapidly disappearing, so exercise that right while you have it, won’t you?
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Posted by Kevin
Bell, Gabrielle – Career Shoplifter
March 27, 2025
If you’re middle-aged and making comics, you’re going to get a lot out of this one. Or reading comics, or talking about comics, etc. Still, this is Gabrielle’s story, and as one of the best that this field has to offer, it’s disheartening to see that she (in a big picture way, not in totality) considers her life a failure. Money is still always an issue, there’s little to no security if things go wrong; you know, what most of us are dealing with in this life. Speaking purely for myself, there’s a great injustice in the world when somebody with her talent has to worry about these things, but that’s part of the deal of life, I guess. Yeesh, I did not mean to start things off so maudlin. Hurray, a new comic from Gabrielle! That was what I said when I saw this on John’s Spit and a Half page. Sure, it’s a couple of years old, but it’s still always good news to see new stuff from her, and one of my big “will probably never get around to it” comic projects is to go back through all of her books and comics over the years and read it all in chronological order. It’s the story of her life, after all, or at least the parts that she shares in her strips. This book is 60ish pages of strips and sketches (mostly strips), with a lot of time spent with her drawing in cafes. Or I think one cafe in particular, mostly, as it never seems to go all that well when she tries to shift locations. There’s the eavesdropping (always good fun at cafes), joining in on random conversations, trying to sketch people without getting caught (and what happens the few times she does), hanging out with friends, dealing with spending so much time alone, trying to work at home versus in the cafe (too isolating, it turns out), and several stories of some really fascinating dreams. And a lot more, obviously, but there’s no point in me trying to describe her riveting writing style, the emotional swings you get while reading her stuff, and how thoroughly captivating the whole thing was. My plan was to read a few strips on my lunch break, and I ended up having to apologize for getting back late because time as a concept just made no sense to me while I was reading this. John describes her as a master cartoonist at this point in her career, and there’s not much I could say to add to that. $8
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/25/25
March 25, 2025New review today for Santos Sisters #8 by Greg and Fake Petre, and hey, the collection of the first five issues is available from Fantagraphics now if you want to get caught up.
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Posted by Kevin
Petre, Greg & Fake – Santos Sisters #8
March 25, 2025
Look at that cover! Sorry, “don’t judge a book by” and all that, but come on, that’s a thing of beauty. I also couldn’t help but notice that this is their first (I think) time also offering a variant cover, so that’s an option if you think this one is too “busy”. As for the comic itself, if you thought that them getting a book published by Fantagraphics meant that they were going to coast a bit, you were completely wrong. That book came out in March 2025 (very recently, unless you’re reading this in the future), and they’ve already put out three issues after that collection. Is it odd that they’ve also stopped putting their names on the comics? Am I using outdated information when I’m including “Petre”? Eh, who cares when there’s a comic to talk about! Things start off with a story involving Todd joining a militia, kind of, which also has the introduction of a few new characters that probably won’t be back. But who knows! There’s always room for big burly dudes that make Dirk look tiny. It also has the return of 8-Ball and her obsession with Todd, and would you believe that she didn’t even make the cover? Anyway, it’s a solid addition to their ongoing story, which could still go in any number of directions. Next up is the conclusion of the three part story “What Time Is It?”, as we meet some new characters and finally learn what happens to that mysterious briefcase. Sort of. Then there’s a pile of ads, where once again I kinda want to throw all of them a few bucks to dig into the current state of small press comics, then I forget all about it until the next issue. Don’t be like me! I was also a bit surprised to see that Dave Sim is offering a download of the entirety of Cerebus for $99, which is a ridiculously cheap deal for 6000 pages of comic, but I’m getting distracted again. Note: never diagnosed with ADHD, but my reviews would probably make a compelling case for it. Finally there’s a story involving the sisters and their tia and tio (aunt and uncle, for anybody who’s taken zero Spanish classes in their lives) and the problem of an infestation of ludes ruining the lives of several people in their retirement community. A fairly straightforward tale compared to the others in this issue, but there’s still some great stuff in it. Greg and Fake are also going on a l’il tour of California comic shops, if you’re reading when I’m writing it, so maybe check out their website for details if you’re in the area? Overall they’re still getting better and better. And they started off strong, so just imagine the level they’re working at now! $5
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Posted by Kevin
“Update” for 3/23/25
March 23, 2025I had a couple of things to announce and no good place to put them, so how about right here and now? I’ve been doing reviews on this here website for almost 24 years now, and in that time I’ve reviewed a whole lot of autobiographical comics that people may have concerns with later in life, for whatever reason. None of my business why, really! I mention this because I just took down a couple of reviews at the request of an artist, so I wanted to make it clear to everybody: if you’d like me to remove one or more of your reviews, just ask me! I’m always happy to do it. Sure, I like to think of this as a big historical archive, but let’s be honest here. This is a website. If society goes away, nobody is going to find a copy of this in the ruins. In other news, if you’re reading this at some point in the next several hours, a big Fantagraphics sale snuck up on me, the one they do where they give you a $50 gift card for every $50 you spend. So it’s basically a half off sale, with the only difference being that the “half off” comes later. With the books they’ve already put out this year, and the books yet to come, this should not be missed. OK, reviews coming later this week, bye!
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/19/25
March 19, 2025New review today for When to Pick a Pomegranate by Yasmeen Abedifard, and I think I’ve finally typed “pomegranate” enough times now where the spelling makes sense. Huzzah for personal growth!
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Posted by Kevin
Abedifard, Yasmeen – When to Pick a Pomegranate
March 19, 2025
One thing that became clear to me while setting this page up? I have no idea how to spell “pomegranate.” And I’m usually decent with spelling! But that looks weird no matter how I type it. Not relevant, you say? OK, sure, but… yeah, moving on. This is a collection of short pieces by Yasmeen, and as sometimes happens with the best of these collections, the stories are distinctive but they also join together into a more coherent whole. On the surface this is the story of a woman and a pomegranate (nope, still looks wrong) who are tied together no matter what either of them might wish. But all kinds of themes are explored in this story, as sometimes the woman (Guli) is put on a pedestal, which is profoundly unwelcome, and sometimes the fruit (Anar; enough with the constant spelling test) is just trying not to be eaten. Things start off with the two of them coming to awareness, just starting to get a handle on what’s happening to them and then being unceremoniously dumped into the world by a higher power. Does Anar exist just to be eaten? As the higher power says, “no time for questions,” so they’re both forced into the world. Stories deal with their being trapped on an unending wheel of life, death and rebirth, Guli trying to “help” Anar into personal growth, Anar going through the act of being consumed, self-doubt and their mutual ruin, and finally a summary of what they’ve learned through the higher power. Is there a lot more than that going on beneath the surface? Reader, you’d better believe it, and I’m sure the fancier reviewing sites can walk you through all that step by step. Me, I’d prefer that you discover all that for yourselves and not wait to be told what it all means. Or I’m a lazy reviewer. Pick your preference, I’m not the boss of you. This is one of those books where your brain is going to be going back over bits of it for days; it was in my “read but maybe not review” pile before I realized that I couldn’t get it out of my head. Check it out, says I. $15
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/17/25
March 17, 2025New review today for The Big Red Machine, Grandma, and Me by Terry Eisele and Brian Canini. It’s one of the books that Brian sent me ages ago and I’ve been meaning to get to for just as long. Does this mean that I’m getting closer to reviewing all of the books that he’s sent me? Ha ha no. But I’m trying!
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Posted by Kevin
Eisele, Terry & Canini, Brian – The Big Red Machine, Grandma, and Me
March 17, 2025
The Big Red Machine, Grandma, and Me
If you’re also indifferent at best to sports these days and were scared off by that title, don’t fret! It’s not a particularly sporty comic. If you’re unaware that “the big red machine” even referred to sports, let alone which one, then feel free to ignore me. This is the story of Terry’s younger years, and if you’ve been around this website for any length of time you’ve seen Terry’s work (With Only Five Plums and Far tune being his two series, both of which I’ve raved about, to give you some clue on how this review is likely to go). This one starts off with Terry as a young boy of 6 in Columbus and his parents getting divorced. After his dad moved too far away to visit Terry starting spending a lot more time with his grandma, and we go back a bit to learn about her history and how she was forced to be a single mother after World War II. No, the father didn’t die, they just didn’t seem to be a particularly good fit. This all led to Terry having a unique upbringing, as he was exposed to shows and culture at a young age that he wouldn’t otherwise have seen. This also led to comics, and we probably wouldn’t be reading this review if it wasn’t for that exposure. I appreciated his two pages of images from shows that he watched as a kid; he was nice enough to reveal what they were at the end, but it gave the reader time to guess for themselves. I’m thinking that if you’re not of a certain age they’ll be impossible to guess, but who knows what’s survived and is currently popular with the kids. The end of the book deals with what’s become a recurring theme around here lately, the unreliability of memory, as Terry tries to piece together with his mother what were actual memories and what just couldn’t have happened. And yes, sports fans, the Reds teams from the 70’s were mentioned. It was a nice peek into the history of Columbus and a thoughtful story about his past and formative years. Brian also did an excellent job of illustrating, as always. Maybe those two facts together mean that you should give this one a shot? $5
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/13/25
March 13, 2025New review today for Fascination by Fran Lopez. And just putting this on the radar for everybody, as I’ve forgotten more than a few times in recent years: SPACE in Columbus is going to be the last weekend in April. It’s always a solid comics show, so take the weekend and visit it, why don’t you?
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Posted by Kevin
Lopez, Fran – Fascination
March 13, 2025
When I started reviewing Fran’s comics, should I have done that thing I sometimes do where I review several comics from the same artist in the same week? Looking back and seeing how all of these stories seem to tie back to each other in ways great and small, and seeing as how I’m not currently seeing all of the connections because of time spent between reviews, I’d say yes! Still, we’re dealing with the brain that I have and the decisions that I’ve made, not what I retroactively wish had happened, so you’re getting a review for this particular comic with a warning to the reader: if you buy a few of Fran’s comics, do yourself a favor and read them all at once, eh? Anyway, as that cover suggests, there are two stories in this one. First up is the story of a young woman who had a famous catch phrase in a commercial years ago and is getting recognized on the street for it. The only trouble is that she can’t exactly recall filming the commercial, and if it only aired for a week decades ago, why are so many people coming up to her and shouting her catchphrase at her now? Next up is a story called Waiting, in which a mother has a lot of spare time as her newborn sits in an incubator. She talks to the baby about how she came about, and it involves a discovery from space (that looks suspiciously like a satellite from this planet), how she met the baby’s father at an event celebrating the discovery of the space item (and how the rest of their society had more or less moved on by then), and what eventually ended up happening with the father. It’s another solid addition to the world of Fran’s comics, and if and when Fran puts out another comic, assuming it’s set in this same shared universe, I’m going to go back and put the pieces together to see exactly how it all fits together. $6
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/11/25
March 11, 2025New review today for Exits by Daryl Seitchik, also from the Spit and a Half store. Did you guess correctly and buy yourself a copy before the review?
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Posted by Kevin
Seitchik, Daryl – Exits
March 11, 2025
Did I pick a wildly unrepresentative sample image this time around? Kind of! If you read the book you’ll see why I decided to go that route. If you haven’t read it and you’re only continuing to read the review until I explain it (weirdo), it’s because the quiet sense of barely existing was difficult to convey on one page, as there was a slow build throughout the book. Maybe I should get into the book, huh? Things start off with Claire working in a mirror store, miserable and sick of her boss. Her life isn’t great, to put it mildly, until one day she’s chased down the street by a literal man-baby who has some definite bad intentions. She ends up fading away while escaping, which lets her get the upper hand on the guy… but it also leaves her completely invisible to the outside world. Everybody has their “what would I do if I was invisible” fantasies, right? Well, Claire spends a lot of time doing exactly what she wants to do, with the overall problem being that this all ends up with her even more isolated and alone than before. She is found out by a dog and bitten eventually, which at least helps the reader keep better track of where she is on the page (after she bandages her hand). We also get flashbacks to some of the events that led her to this state, and she does eventually make an attempt to go back to at least parts of her previous life. But how much can she really do if nobody can see her? The overwhelming feeling I got from this comic was “melancholy,” but it was also riveting, and it was entirely too easy to see that Claire didn’t have a lot of great options and was overall maybe better off as invisible. Still, “riveting” should be your takeaway from this review, and I was happy to see that Daryl has plenty of other comics available, so they’ll instantly go on my personal “hey dummy, don’t forget to check on this artist” list so I can periodically check to see what else they’ve been up to. You can buy a copy through the link on the title, or if you hurry (as of 3/11/25) it’s on sale at John Porcellino’s Spit and a Half shop for half off. Whatta deal! $15 (or $7.50 if you hurry)
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Posted by Kevin
Update for 3/7/25
March 7, 2025New review today for “A Monty” by Zak Sally. Even though this was Spit and a Half week here, I bought enough comics from John’s shop that I’ll probably have at least a couple more of them. Why don’t you buy a bunch of comics from his store and see if you can guess which I bought and will be reviewing soon? What fun!
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Posted by Kevin
