Harkness, M.S. – Crime and Punishment

May 27, 2025

Website

Crime and Punishment

Here I was thinking that M.S. was probably working on another graphic novel after the revelation that was Time and Tension, but my visit to Columbus for SPACE proved me wrong, because The Laughing Ogre had both a collection of six new mini comics of hers along with this single mini. She’s a comics making machine, and the comics world is better for it. This one is basically a travel comic, as M.S. was invited to the Angouleme comic show in France and took Emi Gennis along with her. So half travelogue comic and half buddy comic? Roughly, yes. If you’ve read this website for any length of time you already know my thought about Emi’s work, and if you’re new here I’ll make it simple and just say to buy some of her comics immediately. Anyway, this one starts off with M.S. in a good place; she’s recently engaged and is enjoying life in Columbus. They get to France and immediately check out the work of Julie Doucet, which is pretty much exactly what I would have done if given the opportunity. From there the two of them see the sights, M.S. tries to get one of her minis into a french shop (a saga in and of itself that I don’t want to say much about, but man what a satisfying conclusion to it), debated going to the Louvre, hit up a day spa, and of course went to the catacombs of France. You know, the ones that are full of stacked bones and I have to keep reminding myself that they’re real whenever I read about them or see them. I’d recommend this comic for the conversation between Emi and M.S. alone, but I also learned a few things about France and its architecture, so if you could even put this into an educational comics pile if you were so inclined. Anyway, read this and all of her other comics why don’t you? $6


Knickerbocker, Sean (editor) – Rust Belt Review #1

June 3, 2021

Website (for Sean Knickerbocker)

Rust Belt Review #1

Hooray for a big old comics anthology! And by “big” I mostly mean the size of the actual comic (which wouldn’t fit entirely on my scanner) rather than the page count, which is still more than respectable. This has stories from six artists, about half of which I’d read before. I should also point out that the second issue is coming out in a couple of weeks (6/14/21, readers of the future), so for all of you skeptics that think series like this rarely get beyond the first issue, in your face! One of Sean’s goals (from his introduction) is trying to find a way for artists to diversify their income, as this issue was done in a time when in-person cons wasn’t an option, and it’s not like that’s generally a big moneymaker for the artists anyway. First up is a story by Andrew Greenstone about a cult that kidnapped 100 people and forced them to compete in trivia and games, with death being a very real possibility if you get something wrong. I want to quickly complement the layout of this book: the artist’s name is at the bottom of every other page and the title is on the opposite page, so there’s not the danger you get in some anthologies of stories with similar art styles briefly running together. Next up is Caleb Orecchio’s series of short pieces (that all tie together beautifully) dealing with a group of children, their animal pals and their bullies. And one poorly timed erection, but I don’t want to spoil anything. MS Harkness’s piece about a bank robbery is so amazing that I don’t want to give a thing away about it, so I won’t, but I will say that it got a literal “lol” out of me. Juan Jose Fernandez has a more contemplative piece about yearning featuring some haunting video game-esque imagery. Sean has a couple of stories with the same dirtbag characters; in one the losers are given an ultimatum to clean up their act, and in the next they receive an unexpected windfall while nefarious forces plot in the background. Yep, that one is obviously of the “to be continued” variety. Finally there’s Audra Stang telling a story that connects to her overarching narrative in her mini comics, further cementing the need for a complete edition when it’s all said and done. This is a damned solid anthology, and after looking at the list of artists in the second issue it’s looking like that one should be great too. There are a few pieces that look to be continuing in the next issue, which is a solid way to keep people coming back for more. I hope this works out; there are too few ongoing comics anthologies for my tastes. $10