Familiar Face HC - GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW

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By Zack Quaintance — All of us living right now are undergoing something extraordinary. It’s easy to miss in the moment, but technology has begun to accelerate at an unprecedented, exponential rate. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen in human history, and you can tether it to whatever theory you like, with Moore’s Law perhaps being the easiest touchpoint for wrapping your head around this. Another easy touchpoint is to consider that the iPhone was a new product as recently as 2007, and now we walk around tethered to it, our abilities to navigate the world influenced by the debut of new apps, processing systems, and even small tweaks. This, in its simplest form, is what writer/artist Michael Deforge’s Familiar Face HC (published in March by Drawn & Quarterly) is about.

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Ghostwriter by Rayco Pulido - GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW

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By Kirin Xin — Hotshot detectives. Gangsters in sportscars. Guns. Booze. Dames. That’s what most people would think of when visualizing the word ‘noir,’ not a housewife-centric 1940s radio program. However, in Fantagraphics upcoming OGN, Ghostwriter by Rayco Pulido, that is the exact start of a deceptively simple mystery that creeps up on you, knife in hand.

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Eight-Lane Runaways - GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW

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By Bruno Savill De Jong — Coming across a “manned kite to the moon”, the runners of Eight-Lane Runaways ask if he could scout for the train-lines where they will rendezvous with the rest of their group. From his overhead view, we can see the geometric clusters of tennis courts, people log-vaulting to make firewood for the orphanage, and the curving pathway that runs through these dense environments. Such aerial views are common in Eight-Lane Runaways, overlooking the unique blueprints of the delightfully absurd world which unfolds through Henry McCausland’s fantastic graphic novel. The flowing running-track hosts eight runners, who in their travels encounter an arm-repair workshop, and algebra dog, a juice factory (which features an ultimate juice-drink that includes “every fruit ever discovered”, including the poisonous ones), and a bush which looks just like their friend Tomás.

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REVIEW: Godkillers #3 succumbs to the ordinary

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By Benjamin Morin — Godkillers is a series that has flown under my radar since its launch earlier this year, and Godkillers #3 brings it back from its brief hiatus. Our story continues to follow Abdul Alhazred and his team's encounters with ISIS's mythological threats. At its best, it takes inspiration from similar monster hunting works such as Supernatural, Grimm, and Challengers of the Unknown; at its worst, it comes off as another generic action/horror tinged comic.

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REVIEW: Once and Future #8 returns with a slow issue

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Keigen Rea — Once & Future isn’t a book that would normally appeal to me. I don’t really like stories about knights unless they are of the Jedi variety, and King Arthur doesn’t boost my interest either. Despite my feelings about the premise, however, I’ve enjoyed the series from the start as well as every bit along the way. The creative team has taken an idea I wouldn’t typically go for and turned it into a must-read title, a favorite of mine among the many great series running today.

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DIE #11 beats the war drum - REVIEW

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By Benjamin Morin — Die remains a wonderful surprise each and every time it hits the shelves. I never would have guessed this series would become one of my most anticipated releases — even over the Big 2 — yet, here we are at the kick off of volume three. Die Vol. 1 set the stage for this grand adventure, and Die Vol. 2 delved into every main character in order to give them some much needed depth. Here at the start of volume three, Gillen takes all the groundwork previously laid and hurtles the story off to an epic war of fantastical proportions.

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BLACK AF: AMERICA'S SWEETHEART - Graphic Novel Review

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By Ariel Baska — Continuing in the universe of BLACK, Volume 1, by the same authors, this story picks up further into a future where Black people with superpowers are taking on the media and the government agencies that see them as a threat to be neutralized or experimented on. Where BLACK was centered on a male protagonist named Kareem aka X, and his discovery of his superpowers and their political implications, BLACK AF: America’s Sweetheart takes a different approach.

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Sleeping Beauties #1 - NEW COMIC REVIEW

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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.

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That Texas Blood #1 - NEW COMIC REVIEW

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By Jacob Cordas — Comics are not a quiet medium. It’s not fair to say that they don’t lend themselves to it. It’s more that the market itself is so heavily composed of the bombastic. Odds are you pick up any comic, regardless of publisher, and you’ll find a story featuring lots of action, quips galore and a thundering pacing that steam rolls through to the end. That Texas Blood #1 is not that.

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The Cloven Book One - REVIEW - Fantagraphics

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By Zack Quaintance — The Cloven: Book One has a great first line, a great first page, and a great first opening sequence…and this work just evolves from there, keeping the level of graphic sequential storytelling quality high throughout. It is, perhaps, fitting that the book reads as rapidly and smoothly as it does, given the nature of the subject matter. On its surface, The Cloven: Book One — out July 28 via Fantagraphics from writer Garth Stein and artist Matthew Southworth — is the story of a new type of humanity, in which individuals essentially have goat-like traits (furry hind legs, hooves, hard heads) and are being ostracized by the wider world in turn.

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A Letter to Jo - GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW

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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.

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GRYFFEN: Galaxy's Most Wanted Collection - REVIEW

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By Zack Quaintance — The other day I sat down to read Gryffen: Galaxy’s Most Wanted by Ben Kahn, Bruno Hidalgo, James Penafiel, and Sal Cipriano. This book from publisher Starburns Industries Press, had been on my list for some time. I read all 12 issues basically as fast as I possibly could.

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REVIEW: Family Tree #6, this book is growing strong

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By Jacob Cordas — If you had told me that there’d be a mini movement of amazing plant-centric comics, I’d have told you that was an incredibly specific and confusing prediction. But here we are halfway through 2020 and we have several excellent, plant-centric comics, including Farmhand, No One’s Rose, and basically the entire X-Men line. But no comic is better able to mine this imagery for horror than Family Tree.

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REVIEW: Tartarus #3 is expert stylized sci-fi

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By Gabe Gonzalez — Man, oh man. What can I say about Tartarus that hasn’t already been said? This book is just a complete explosion of vibrant color and excellent storytelling rolled up into a single, oversized package of comics goodness. I mean, I thought the first two issues of Tartarus were some of the most spectacular comics to hit the shelves, and yet the third issue still manages to keep the quality at such an unreal, phenomenal level.

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A Man Among Ye #1 - REVIEW

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By Jacob Cordas — I need to start this review with a disclaimer: I love pirates.* Sky, space, sea? Doesn’t matter. I love it. “But Jacob,” you may ask, “What about modern pirates versus high seas pirates?” Well first, thank you for asking. And second, doesn’t matter. I love it all. The personal joy I get out of pirates is hard to explain. I think it boils down to the beauty of the metaphor for freedom they inherently stand for.

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It Eats What Feeds It #1 - REVIEW - Scout Comics

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By Mike Donachie — A young man arriving at a big, spooky house to work as a handyman for an older lady sounds like somebody combined the tropes of horror movies and adult films. But, if you let yourself get a few pages into It Eats What Feeds It, this book will seduce you, much like what happens to its protagonist.

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Canopus #3 REVIEW - You are not ready

By Wesley Messer — I went into Canopus knowing little to nothing about it. I’d seen some preview images here and there out of context, and that’s it. The neat part is that the small amount I saw, simply did not prepare me for the experience of actually reading this title. This book is deceptively simple: it’s about Helen Sterling and her robot companion Arther exploring an unknown planet. As you go from the first issue to now, this third issue is where the mind-bending but fascinating journey takes a whole new dimension.

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