Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation sees the creative team of writer Damian Duffy and artist John Jennings translating Octavia E. Butler’s iconic work to comics.
Read MoreCrossover #1 is a a great-looking book with a novelty concept that might be a lead in to a secret industry-wide crossover event, but some of the metaphors in this first issue feel off and disjointed.
Read MoreVampire The Masquerade - Winter’s Teeth #4 is the issue where some of the excellent past plot threads start to come together in really exciting ways. Read our full review now.
Read MoreRed Atlantis #1 is a spy thrilled comic that manages to deftly take the anxiety and fear folks are collectively feeling over the 2020 election cycle and turn it into a stellar comic.
Read MoreBANG! #5 is the end of the first story arc of BANG!, and we are happy to report that this book — which is essentially action hero trope Avengers — goes out with a BANG!
Read MoreThompson Heller: Detective Interstellar #1 is a wonderful combination of detective procedural storytelling with fantastic sci-fi ideas and artwork. Our review…
Read MoreBy Benjamin Morin — In a comics landscape that is continually flooded with new indie sci-fi books, it can be difficult to stand out. Books like Tartarus, Ascender, We Only Find Them When They’re Dead, and many more tend to occupy the frontrunners for the genre, which unfortunately leaves titles like X-Ray Robot in the more niche categories. X-Ray Robot is the kind of book that seems written for a very particular audience yet should be widely read and experienced. I personally went in with no expectations other than a passing acknowledgement of the name Mike Allred and came out pleasantly surprised.
Read MoreBy T.W. WORN — It is a crisp Autumn night in 2018, and turbulent psychedelic rays of light bounce above the sweating crowd of a busy bar on a busy night. The thumping bass of the speakers leaks onto the ground, the patrons bobbing in the rhythm as they wade through fellow patrons to the bar. I am sitting, in a suit, next to my friends. The sound of laughter slinks through my ears, echoes in my head, and pours out my mouth along with the rest of the group. The music in the bar shifts in tone, no longer a grooving anthem of eternal adolescence. It is slow and sinister. The cold frequency of a pipe organ. I look over to the DJ, confused. They say something about how he has finally arrived for us, and laughs. I tilt my head in confusion.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Blue in Green — a new graphic novel from writer Ram V., artist Anand RK, and letterer Aditya Bidikar — feels first and foremost like a comic for other people who make comics. By this I mean that from the first page it is an absolute tour de force in comics craft, a book in which it feels like each member of the amply-talented creative team is working to one-up each other. As someone who makes my own comics, I was blown away upon each page turn to see how the writing, artwork, and text would connect and cohere. It almost felt like my brain (and perception of what’s possible with the medium) was slowly expanding.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Publisher First Second has, to my mind, published the most interesting fantasy comics this year. First came The Golden Age by writer Roxanne Moreil and artist Cyril Pedrosa, an allegory that translated modern issues of class and income inequality (as well as gender dynamics) to a fantasy setting. Next was Kairos by Ulysse Malassagne, which subverted traditional damsel in the distress fairy tales in favor of a meditation on the spiderwebbing nature of violence. And now comes a third book that fits into the publisher’s fantasy subversion trend for the year — The Daughters of Ys by writer M.T. Anderson and artist Jo Rioux.
Read MoreBy Bruno Savill De Jong — Jesse Lonergan’s Planet Paradise is foremost an experiment of layouts and design. In this book, the sequential storytelling of comics is rearranged with large blank-spaces and innovative panel juxtaposition, reveling as much in ‘where’ the images are placed as ‘what’ is in them. It’s appropriate for a comic about a woman, Eunice, whose tourist space-ship heading for the titular pleasure planet gets knocked off-course onto a hostile world; her pre-arranged settings and plans have been displaced. Once there, Eunice fights off alien lifeforms and cares for the crotchety spaceship captain as they wait to get the passengers (still safely in hyper-sleep) back on-track.
Read MoreBy Keigen Rea — Between its elaborate non-conventional format and sporadic shipping schedule, I feel like November hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves as one of the finest comics of 2020. Which to a certain degree also feels disingenuous. Any mention of it has been positive, at least from what I’ve seen, but it feels like people are over emphasizing writer Matt Fraction’s role, and, crucially, under-emphasizing artist Elsa Charretier.
Read MoreBy Keigen Rea — Stillwater’s second issue falls into some common problems of issue twos, but ultimately proves itself as one of my favorite comics of the year. Picking up after last issue’s cliffhanger, this issue is dialogue and exposition heavy, as second issues tend to be. We meet The Judge, a town cop, and are reacquainted with the kids from last issue.
Read MoreBy T.W. Worn — I'm going to write this review a little bit different than normal. I usually like to make a few jokes, or have a wacky set up for my review but The Scumbag deserves so much more than that. It deserves an honest review because no matter what I write, it will never be as batshit insane as this comic. Now mind you, the comic as a whole is not that crazy, but its the combination of good-bad taste and spy thriller that makes this comic so incredible.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — This week’s prequel comic, Dune House Atreides #1, is much more than your usual film tie-in comic. It’s much more than an afterthought or attempt to cash in on a forthcoming film adaptation (which, let’s face it, might remain forthcoming for a while due to pandemic). It’s a clear and evident addition to Dune cannon, penned by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, the stewards of all things Dune following original creator Frank Herbert’s death some years ago.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — Two Dead is a recent crime noir graphic novel from writer Van Jensen and artist Nate Powell, set in Arkansas post WW II and based on an actual case that Jensen essentially uncovered and wrote about during his time as a crime reporter at a newspaper in Little Rock. Powell — a towering talent who has a stack of comics and literary accolades to his name — drew the book over a period of a few years while working concurrently on work such as Come Again and March, a three part graphic memoir about the life of the late Rep. John Lewis.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — For a book determined to malign and dissect the very idea of sequels, A Dark Interlude #1 sure knows how to do a sequel right. Whether you want to call it a sequel or go along with narrator Henry Henry and shun the phrase, A Dark Interlude #1 is the first issue of a followup to Fearscape, which ranks as a singular and impossible-to-classify title within the diverse and excellent Vault Comics stable.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — The second issue of The Lonely Receiver — an artificial intelligence breakup comic by the team of writer Zac Thompson, artist Jen Hickman, and letterer Simon Bowland — is past needing to dole out exposition, which was done and done well in the debut. With orienting readers out of the way, this second issue can get to the core of what this book is really about — capturing the utter devastation of losing a long-term relationship.
Read MoreBy Gabe Gonzalez — So, I’m just going to get right to it: I really enjoyed Vampire The Masquerade Winter’s Teeth #3. This is a third issue that demands attention on every panel and every page, doing so with a careful balance of world-building, intrigue, and fantastic narrative flow. The book continues utilizing the modern gothic-horror at its foundation while also bringing in ideas and new spins on creations from the genre’s past. The creative team continues the impressive work of taking a sibling drama spliced with a coming-of-age story and embedding it into a world of crimson chaos.
Read MoreBy Zack Quaintance — There is an uncanny sense of assuredness within cartoonist Katie Skelly’s new book Maids, a supreme narrative confidence that is present from the start, perhaps even from the dedication, which simply reads To My Sister. Maids — published this month by Fantagraphics Books — tells the true (crime) story of the Papin Sisters. I won’t go into much detail about who the sisters are or what they did, noting that they were French maids entangled in a crime in the early 20th Century. The events in this book will surely be unknown to most readers, although they are of wide enough interest to have garnered their own entry on Wikipedia.
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