REVIEW: A very human robot story returns with THE KILL LOCK - THE ARTISAN WRAITH #1
This book continues some of the ideas in the first story, just taking them in entirely new directions with new robots who add to the world.
Read MoreGRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: FREE PASS by Julian Hanshaw
The book follows a couple that share a shape-shifting sex robot, and how this arrangement complicates their relationships at work in the days leading up to a major election.
Read MoreREVIEW: Bermuda #1 is straightforward, simple and that's just fine
Bermuda #1 from writer John Layman, artist Nick Bradshaw and team is a relatively simple, straight-forward adventure comic. And you know what? That’s just fine.
Read MoreREVIEW: Canto III - Lionhearted #1 is as good as you expect
Yep, Canto III: Lionhearted #1 is as good as this series has been from its start. At this point, there are few series in all of comics that are of as consistently high quality as Canto.
Read MoreGRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: Onion Skin by Edgar Camacho
Onion Skin by Edgar Camacho is a new graphic novel about a pair of plutonic business partners who decide to run a food truck and come perilously close to self-actualization along the way.
Read MoreREVIEW: The Comic Book History of Animation #1
The Comic Book History of Animation #1 is informative without being boring. It is only the first chapter of a series, but it still delivers a complete part of the narrative.
Read MoreREVIEW: Sea of Sorrows #1, 'read it while wearing a life preserver'
Sea of Sorrows #1 is an excellent and horrifying start to a new four-part series that plumbs the depths of the ocean and comes back up with big scares.
Read MoreREVIEW: Scarenthood #1 puts our reviewer in a somber mood (in a good way)
Scarenthood #1 extrapolates some of the intense feelings and fears that come along with being a parent into a horror story that feels poignant and singular.
Read MoreREVIEW: Be Gay, Do Comics from The Nib
By Jacob Cordas — Queer culture has often had a contentious relationship with comics. Our existence being there in metaphor, but as an unstated one. We were treated to stories that hinted at our truth or stories that leaked from editorial boards showing how close we nearly got.* In the last few years we’ve had gay characters pop up here and there in the mainstream but even they have often been sidestepped and ignored. Sure, there were indie comics you could try to find or the rare big name that was dedicated to more progressive representation - but it never lasted.
Read MoreREVIEW: Locke & Key - In Pale Battalions Go #1
By Larry Jorash — Set nearly one hundred years prior to Bode, Tyler, and Kinsey moving to Lovecraft, we are finally introduced to Chamberlain, Locke’s eldest son John. In a cold open sequence we catch up to the teenager attempting to hop the border into Canada so that he can enlist in the Great War; only to be foiled by Chamberlain and dragged home. Through conversations and long walks across Keyhouse circa 1915 we uncover the curious landscape of this universe’s unique history and culture. For fans of Locke & Key much of this will be fascinating and quite familiar; but we have guests this time around. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman Universe in a subtle move makes it’s debut in a crossover with Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s cult classic Locke & Key.
Read MoreREVIEW: Canto II - The Hollow Men #1
By Jacob Cordas — In the interim between the releases of Canto and Canto II: The Hollow Men, they released the excellent one shot Canto & The Clockwork Fairies. I was supposed to review that as well but ended up not having time. Working with a few amazing people, I was unionizing my work place. We succeeded as much as we were able to, which, if I’m being frank, wasn’t enough. We fought hard but it only got us so far.
Read MoreREVIEW: Eve Stranger, the final book from Black Crown at IDW
By Bruno Savill De Jong — The narration in Eve Stranger is in the second person. It opens the comic telling the protagonist “your name is Eve Stranger. You wrote these words last night. You don’t remember”. So, the narration is also in the first person, a diary from a past version of Eve to update her ‘present’ self (alongside the audience) of her current circumstances.
Read MoreREVIEW - Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes
By Bruno Savill De Jong — Over 30 years later, the events in Tiananmen Square still hold a powerful resonance. Those widespread protests seem particularly resonant given the current resurgence in support for Black Lives Matter. Even if Tiananmen Square’s demonstration are not exactly comparable, they still function as an important cautionary tale. Often the protests are only remembered for their tragic end, when the Chinese government violently dispersed the gatherings and continued to eradicate them from their official history. But in Tiananmen 1989, Lun Zhang, with assistance from journalist Adrien Gombeaud and artist Ameziane, provides a first-hand account of the inner-workings of the protests, detailing the political tensions within Beijing as youthful hopes for reform were dashed against the hardened and uncompromising state.
Read MoreA Radical Shift of Gravity - Graphic Novel Review
By Bruno Savill De Jong — As the first pages of IDW / Top Shelf’s graphic novel A Radical Shift of Gravity remind us, perspective is a funny thing. It begins with journalist Noah Hall interviewing people, finding how “where they were when ‘it’ happened” shapes their entire worldview afterwards. ‘It’ is an inexplicable selective “Shift” in human’s gravitational pull (other objects being unaffected), reducing it to roughly the same as the Moon.
Read MoreParker: The Martini Edition by Darwyn Cooke - REVIEW
By Bruno Savill De Jong — After completing a job, Parker undergoes an overwhelming need for sex. Parker (first name not provided) is always composed and monosyllabic, treating his criminal missions with ruthless efficiency and professional determinism, stonewalling against outside interference or desires. But in the aftermath, Parker allows “his emotions the only release he permitted them”, letting the withheld thrills and animalism wash over him, until his lust subsides and he’s ready to resume work. Buried beneath Parker’s ice-cold demeanor and the narration’s straight-plank prose lies a demented rot at his core.
Read MoreThe Lab by Allison Conway - GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW
By Ariel Baska — This is a harrowing and relentless debut from Allison Conway, and it follows a newly-minted big-headed biped on a twisted journey through a sinister lab. Notably, the narrative is completely silent of commentary, except for the pathos wrung from our protagonist’s small, pained eyes. Those eyes are the first lights we see in the cross-hatched gray and black nothingness from which the vision of the lab emerges.
Read MoreSleeping Beauties #1 - NEW COMIC REVIEW
By Wesley Messer — Let’s call this the case of I’m woefully unfamiliar with the book this comic is based on. Yet, I always find it interesting to see comics based off of novels come to life. Comics and novels are two completely different languages storytelling-wise. Coming into Sleeping Beauties, I know of Stephen King and Owen King from the get-go, so that helps. The concept of this story — a sleeping sickness that only affects women — also intrigues me. So, overall this is a new experience for me in reviewing something like this. I’m excited to say that this experience was a rewarding one, so please join me on my journey through the realm of Sleeping Beauties.
Read MoreA Letter to Jo - GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW
By Bruno Savill De Jong — For many the past is another country, and war is a different world. WW2 is a thoroughly-documented period, but one fast fading from living memory, remaining unknowable to those not there. Joseph Sieracki adapts his grandfather Lenny’s real-life letter home from the frontlines in A Letter to Jo, a January graphic novel from IDW / Top Shelf. Sieracki does so to revive WW2 from being a historical artifact and illustrate his frontline experiences, becoming a bridge across time and continents. Lenny had only just graduated high school before he enlisted, as well as gotten engaged to Josephine, Sieracki’s grandmother and the letter’s recipient. Like these young men, A Letter to Jo is admirable but also premature, taking readers to the frontlines of warfare, but not crossing beyond them.
Read MoreRASCAL by Jean-Luc Deglin - TRADE RATING
By d. emerson eddy — Let's get one thing out of the way, I am thoroughly biased when it comes to approaching this review, because I love cats. I spent my early years growing up on a farm, so I love all animals, but I really love cats. At any given time there could be ten to twenty of them and I loved every single one of their mewling, furry little faces. I still love cats. And have one currently staring at me expectantly to mention her here. Or she wants food... Yeah, probably that latter. Anyway, I love cats. Which makes reading Rascal by Jean-Luc Deglin (translated by Edward Gauvin and lettered by Tom B. Long), a tale about a woman who receives a cat from her mother, an enjoyable and relatable undertaking. Published here by Top Shelf, Rascal is an English translation of the first book in Deglin's series Crapule, published in French by Dupuis.
Read MoreCorto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salty Sea - REVIEW
By Zack Quaintance — I am, I must admit, somewhat of a neophyte when it comes to European comics. This is not deliberate, to be sure, and I’ve certainly enjoyed the few experiences I’ve had with European comics, specifically thinking here of The Incal by Jodorowsky and Moebius. But I do have to note that those experiences have been too few.
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