Oh sure, NOW I get a bunch of comics to review in the mail. Sorry folks, it’s going to be Cartoon Crossroads time around here for at least a few more weeks, but I’ll get to them. New review today for Bogue #5 by Ruby Carter!
Carter, Ruby – Bogue #5
September 29, 2025Website
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)
Leave a Comment » | 
Reviews | Tagged: Bogue, Ruby Carter | 
Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/25/25
September 25, 2025New review today for The Canine Revolution Part 1: The Book of Yinlod by Tim Ballard. This is one of the first two books that I got at the convention that were both about dogs, but sadly I couldn’t keep that up for the entire convention. Some people made comics about things other than dogs, can you even imagine?
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Ballard, Tim – The Canine Revolution Part 1: The Book of Yinlod
September 25, 2025
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?
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: The Canine Revolution, Tim Ballard | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/23/25
September 23, 2025Back from Cartoon Crossroads, which was great once again, thanks for asking! One of these years maybe some kindly rich person (since they’re oh so common out there) will give me enough money to buy a copy of every comic at the con, but I did the best I could! New review today for Tales to Demystify: The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich by John G.
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
G., John – Tales to Demystify: The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich
September 23, 2025
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?
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: John G., Tales to Demystify, The Perfect Breakfast Sandwich | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
“Update” for 9/19/25
September 19, 2025To round out the week I’m linking to my reviews for Steve Steiner, and I’m really hoping that he has some new editions of his giant newspaper comics at Cartoon Crossroads this weekend. Come to the con why don’t you?
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
“Update” for 9/18/25
September 18, 2025If anybody in the world is a fan of my especially long and rambling reviews, all of Nate Powell’s work that I’ve reviewed has been graphic novels, and I do go on when it comes to those.
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
“Update” for 9/17/25
September 17, 2025Today I’m linking to a newish favorite around here, Karl Christian Krumpholz! And yes, since I’ve been doing this for 24 years, somebody that I’ve only been reviewing for 9 years does count as “newish.”
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
“Update” for 9/16/25
September 16, 2025Today I’m posting the reviews for somebody who’s a featured guest at Cartoon Crossroads this weekend, but I started reviewing his stuff when he was still doing mini comics: Matt Madden! Crikey, look at the text formatting on some of these oldies…
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
“Update” for 9/15/25
September 15, 2025It’s a trick! There are no actual reviews this week, but I am going to post a link to all of my reviews for somebody who’s going to be at Cartoon Crossroads this weekend every day. Watch how they/I evolve over the years! Probably more them then me, honestly. I’m mostly still the same old dope I’ve always been. Anyway, let’s start things off with reigning champ of the website (i.e. the person I’ve reviewed the most) Brian Canini!
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/4/25
September 4, 2025New review today for The Bible Drawings Part One by John Mitkoff. I wasn’t able to get to Chicago this weekend as planned, meaning my options for review comics until Cartoon Crossroads in a couple of weeks are just about gone. Will I get enough comics over the next week to write reviews next weekend? Probably not, but maybe!
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Minkoff, John – The Bible Drawings Part One
September 4, 2025
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
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: John Minkoff, The Bible Drawings | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 9/2/25
September 2, 2025New review today for Maps by Chris Auman, as I’ve somehow ended up with maybe the dumbest theme week around here yet: double page spread as a sample image week! Ugh, that needs a catchy name in the worst way.
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Auman, Chris – Maps
September 2, 2025
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
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Chris Auman, Maps | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 8/28/25
August 28, 2025New review today for Ninja Bootleg by Brian Canini, and you wouldn’t believe how low my Canini comic reserves are getting. The plan is to get to Chicago this weekend and stock up at Quimby’s, so we’ll see if that’s what actually happens!
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Canini, Brian – Bootleg Ninja
August 28, 2025
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
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Bootleg Ninja, Brian Canini, Michael A. Carroll | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Update for 8/26/25
August 26, 2025Hey everybody, Andrew Neal has a new comic out! Review today is for No Raccoons in Hell by that guy I just mentioned.
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Neal, Andrew – No Raccoons in Hell
August 26, 2025
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
Leave a Comment » | Reviews | Tagged: Andrew Neal, Meeting Comics, No Raccoons In Hell | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
Not really an update for 8/23/25
August 23, 2025Fantagraphics lost a whole lot of money/books when Diamond publishing went out of business (long story), so they’re having a big old 30% off sale through 8/25. If you’re looking for suggestions, well I just reviewed Jordan Crane’s latest and you may have noticed that I had very nice things to say about that. Or you can do what I do and just get another book from Jason every time you order (I’ll get them all sooner or later). Or the newest Hate series by Peter Bagge was just collected, or you must have missed at least one of Simon Hanselmann’s books, or maybe one of their big old hardcover collections that always seemed too expensive is now affordable for you, etc. Help them out and get some great books in the process!
Leave a Comment » | Site News | Permalink
Posted by Kevin
