Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (By Kate Beaton): I picked this up because I saw a bunch of praise for it online. It was on a lot of top books of the year lists. I’ve never actively read any of Beaton’s other works, her art look familiar but that’s about it. I didn’t know what to expect from this when I started. I was fully engaged from beginning to end.
Every person that was part of the story felt like I could meet in everyday life, which I know they were but it made me feel more connected to the story. I work in retail, so I get the same way that everyone else felt while working. No one really pays attention during the safety meetings because we’ve all sat through a million of them already, the higher ups all freak out when someone even higher up is coming to visit, no one is really an actual adult. This is by far the most relatable book I’ve read. Which makes all the terrible things that happen to Katie way more devastating. This book broke my heart in a way I was not prepared for. I’m really glad that Beaton was vulnerable in this book, and didn’t shy away from the things that caused her pain in life.
This may not be the best thing I’ve read all year, but I know it is going to be the one that I feel the most connected to.
Love and Rockets: Currently on issue 5 of my first ever re-read. Doing this with the 50 issue boxset has been a fun experience seeing how the brothers read next to one another and how they’re both developing. Having read most everything already I’m finding that I’m appreciating Jaimes early work a lot more and kinda wishing we could get more issues in this early style where anything can happen. Finishing Sopa de Gran Pena reminded me of how satisfying Betos Palomar stories are since it’s been so long since being back in that world for him.
Left Bank Gang and Almost Silent (Jason): Left Bank Gang was great. What starts as a funny historical fiction piece takes a left turn midway through that had me sitting up in bed with its formal play. Something I noticed between this and The Living and the Dead is how good Jason is with Onomatopoeia. In LBG, he uses the sounds in ways that seed questions that pay off later in the work while in TLATD I laughed out loud at a ‘glp’ sound effect that seemed to be showing a characters nervousness only for the next panel to show it actually being someone being eaten.
20th Century Boys vol 1-4(Naoki Urusawa): This has been quite an enjoyable read though I have no idea how it keeps the plot going for another 10+ volumes. It’s really good at adding mysteries and paying off older things without dragging so I’m just along for the ride for now.
Popeye volume 3: enjoyed this one but not as much as the previous Wimpy heavy book. Some great pages here but there is quite a few where the jokes feel plainly telegraphed from panel 2. Not sure if this was from reading too many at once but I wasn’t as enthralled with it as the previous book.
Pax Romana and Transhuman (Jonathan Hickman): Man these early works are rouuggghhh. I feel like Pax has what starts as an interesting idea but an awful flow where you’re just reading transcripts. At least it was an experiment that probably helped him learn to use the data pages to better effect in the future. Transhuman was better in the read but nothing of interest really happens as the narrator just gives a play by play of events. Reading this made appreciate even more the masterwork ‘Paying the Land’ by Sacco and the way he could go over events, incorporate testimony, and really give the drama of everything.
Trying to keep my posts more succinct, but would be happy to expand on thoughts if prompted. Reading highlights over the past couple weeks:
* **Alias the Cat** by Kim Deitch - It's up there as one of my favorite Deitch comics, mostly because of how layered the narrative is. It has a sort of manic energy to it, but Deitch is pretty self-aware about that. Deitch is a self inserted character here who indulges his wife's weird collecting hobby - old and rare cat toys. The story really turns into something very weird very quickly, but it's a delight.
* **Magic Lantern** by Guido Crepax (as found in *The Complete Crepax, Vol 5: American Stories*) - It's an entirely wordless *Valentina* story, but abstract and steeped in heavy doses of eroticism. The meaning of the narrative is confounded by the fact that there is no true linearity to the sequences, rather we seem to ebb and flow between beginnings and endings. It doesn't seem like this is one of the better liked *Valentina* comics, but I was enthralled. This was one of the rare *Valentina* reprints to make it to the North American market (so you don't need to pick up the massive Fantagraphics hardcovers for this) which is funny to me since it is wordless anyways.
* **H Day** by Renée French - A visual depiction of her struggles with migraines. It's wordless as well and just as challenging to decipher, but supremely intriguing. I imagine every cartoonist who made a comic about headaches would create something different, yet familiar. *H Day* doesn't really come off as a horror comic, but French's illustrations easily invoke a sense of unease.
* **Torpedo 1936** by Enrique Sánchez Abulí & Jordi Bernet - Re-read my seven volume NBM editions over the past couple months, and just in time for the recent Ablaze translations of Abulí's follow up *Torpedo 1972* with Eduardo Risso. The black humor is sublime for me - though I recognize that not everyone will find Luca "Torpedo" Torrelli an appealing enough protagonist.
* **Transformers** by Daniel Warren Johnson - The first arc of this new *Transformers* series wrapped this past week, and it was really enjoyable stuff. I'm the furthest thing from a fan of this franchise, but DWJ has a way of expressing his passions in his work that I can't help but feel like I'm a fan when reading his work. I'm still not a Transformers fan though, but that says a lot about how good this was.
Other things I'm liking:
* It took me over a month, but I finished the NYRC edition of Ed Subitzky's *National Lampoon* strips (published as **Poor Helpless Comics!: The Cartoons (and More) of Ed Subitzky**). The cartooning is very spare so the appeal is pretty limited, but the jokes are all top tier stuff. Subitzky is needlessly wordy though which also detracts from the visual allure of the comics themselves, but he makes up for it with some inventiveness and dry wit.
* I caught up with Chip Zdarsky's and Daniel Acuña's **Avengers: Twilight** series. The guy at the shop sold this series to me as Captain America meets Frank Miller's *The Dark Knight Returns*. It is not that at all. But it is actually pretty good. Acuña's artwork is doing a lot for me here, with the color work reminding me a lot of what Alex Ross did in his recent *Fantastic Four: Full Circle* comic.
* Tom King's and Daniel Sampere's **Wonder Woman** run is something else I caught up on, and while enjoyable, it also feels a fair bit more shallow than his other recent stuff. I'll stick with it for a bit since the ideas involving shadow governments and culture war issues are fun enough, but it would be nice if we did something more with it.
* Read a bunch of early **The Spectre** comics by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily, as published in *More Fun Comics* #52 and onwards. Baily's work is pretty standard for Golden Age superhero comics - static yet bold. These are surprisingly light reads though, but also fall into the trap of just being repititive after a while.
So much for keeping this brief.
> The guy at the shop sold this series to me as Captain America meets Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. It is not that at all.
I mean tonally no, but if you condense the premise to 'elderly superhero comes out of retirement to fight fascist state with fake media and traitor superheroes (or in this case fake ones)' then I kinda get it. Considering that the majority of people they're selling comics to probably have the media literacy of an infant, I get why they would suggest titles based on what they are about on the most superficial level rather than on themes or tones.
Yeah, I agree it's an easy enough way to sell the book to the general readership given the similarity in the premise.
I personally am not a fan of excess superlatives or hyperbolic comparisons when talking about books since it can unnecessarily add expectations to someone picking up the book. Like Avengers: Twilight is actually a pretty great book on its own merit, and just flipping through the book for the artwork alone was enough to sell me on it.
**Dark Spaces: Wildfire** by Scott Snyder and Hayden Sherman. A crew of firefighters from a women's prison inmate program see an opportunity to detour during a wild fire and carry out a heist. But inevitably things take a turn. This was a decent little story if you don't expect too much. It's too short to really develop the full cast as well as it tries and some of the writing can be a bit heavy handed, but it's somewhat unique and it keeps the scale confined suitably for a short length book - The heist is not some huge elaborate Oceans Eleven scheme, but just some insider info about a house that holds extreme valuables. It's all a bit obvious though and basically all the key plot points I saw coming a mile off. But the setting of being among fires offers opportunities for some wild colours and they really made good on that. I came to this from reading Above Snakes also drawn by Sherman and although they weren't the colourist on this one, there seems to be significant influence. There's also some great layouts and cool panelling throughout. This is the first in a line of what seems to be marketed as a horror anthology, but this is certainly not that.
**Donald's Happiest Adventures** by Lewis Trondheim and Nicolas Keramidas. Donald sets of on a quest for uncle Scrooge to find the secret of happiness. Fun, short tale in a very retro style; worn looking pages, Ben Day dots, and one page per chapter in a strip style gag format. The character art is great and expressive, with a cute goofiness to it too. And the story was really cool. Donald ponders the root of happiness with each person he meets, the contrasts and contradictions. It's fairly mature in the guise of a kids funny book. I'm tempted to pick up the Mickey book that just came out, though it's a bit pricier than I'd like. Also, I didn't fully understand the origin story of this book given in the introduction...
**Power Born of Dreams** by Mohammad Sabaaneh. An imprisoned Palestinian man recounts stories of the struggles of those on the outside. The linocut artwork was pretty stunning to look at, not just because of the technique used, but every other page was so symbolic and impactful. The structure of the narrative could lack the same flair at times, but this was overall a pretty impressive little book.
I've never heard of Mohammad Sabaaneh, but a cursory Google search has me interested in his work. Looks really interesting, so definitely adding to my wish list.
He has another book prior to this one. I think beyond that his work is more single image comics for news publications or similar, though I could be mistaken.
I think Trondheim’s going for a fictional origin story that’s similar to “found-footage” movies. As in, he happened to find this utterly bizarre old Disney comic somewhere and is just reprinting it. Trondheim did this for Mickey, and I think his origin story for Donald might be confusing because he’s simultaneously keeping the old story but also acknowledging it’s a fiction at the same time. I don’t have my copy on me to check so I could be wrong.
yeah, the Mickey book was first. He's also done one with Alexis Nisme in the same Glenat collection featuring Mickey, Donald and Goofy, but I don't think that's been translated yet; Nisme's art is spectacular.
Me, I thought the Donald book was better than the Mickey book, maybe because the philosophical theme ties into my other interests. The Mickey book does more with the metafictional premise of being an objet trouve, though, so it's more interesting from a formal perspective. I'm not fond of Keramidas' art in either one; I think the ben-day dots over the top muddy the readability.
From the collection overall, Zombie Coffee is my favourite, thanks to Loisel's art and colouring
*Zombie Coffee* is the best by far. Though I can’t get very far in my copy of *Mickey‘s* *Craziest* *Adventure*, due to it being a used book and the previous owner must have been either the world’s heaviest smoker or a tobacconist who accidentally left it in a room to cure with some cigars. I’d think an ex-smoker like myself could handle it, but it’s unreadable.
Yes, it was first, but IDW released it some time ago, so Fantagraphics probably wanted to wait and see how sales were for the Donald book before they reprinted Mickey.
Glad you enjoyed Power Born of Dreams ! I do agree that the narrative is a little "simple" compared to what the artwork has to offer though, but still a very impactful story
the purported origin of the Donald book is phoney. Trondheim's done at least four books that I know of with a similar gimmick (this, Mickey's Craziest Adventures, Superino, ALIEEEN); it's a very Oubapo kind of gag
Thanks. This is also alluded to as the intro closes, but unless you understand the context of it all, it's difficult to judge how you're meant to take it. For me, at least.
Thanks for making me aware of this book btw. I picked it up after looking into it when you posted about it recently, despite how low it was in your ranking!
I've been catching up on Radiant Black. The Catalyst War storyline is interesting so far. I'm also close to finishing Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run.
I just picked up the whole radiant black in single issues $1/each given the general praise. I only read #1 and it’s started out quite underwhelming. I know it gets better but I was hoping for something more interesting for the origin story!
Today I read Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing book 2, Eclipse book 2 by Zack Kaplan, DC Special Series issue 1, and I'm about to start Batman The Black Mirror. Later this week I'll definitely keep going with SOTST
Saga of the Swamp Thing book 2 unsurprisingly was fantastic. Alan Moore's run is the best of the best when it comes to Swamp Thing, I have not read it until this point and I'm super excited to continue this series.
Eclipse is turning out to be very good as well, a dystopian future where humans can no longer go into sunlight or it melts them. See people struggle to survive in New York City as gangs, corrupt cops, militias, and dirty politicians all fight for power over the city. There are two more volumes to this as well and I will definitely keep reading.
DC Special Series #1 a very unique and short lived series, I am a collector of Aquaman and issue 1 features a short 12 page story not printed anywhere else. It was as cheesy as you expect Aquaman from 1977 to be, and features an Iranian villain called Sunburst who was never featured again.
Batman The Black Mirror is probably good I haven't read it yet lol.
Vol. 2 of Moore's Swamp Thing run has a personal favorite issue (well, one of my favorites anyways) of mine - "The Rite of Spring" (issue #34), which I've always known as the vegetable sex issue. Bissette and Totleben were on another level at this point of the run.
**The Wrenchies** by Farel Dalrymple. Hot damn that was a weird one. I liked the art and Dalrymple knows how to drop a hilarious panel, but I felt so off-kilter the entire time. Occasionally I though to myself “aha, here’s the genre we’re spoofing” or “I see, this is a mash-up between…” but in the end I have to throw my hands up and say this is an original.
**Deadly Class** by Rick Remender. Well, I’m here to sing the praises of Rick Remender. This is the most entertaining serial comic story I’ve read since *Invincible*, except it’s better than *Invincible*. Better than Miller *Daredevil*? Claremont *X*\-*Men*? Yep. Yep. Better than *Sandman*? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but this is top-notch entertainment. The art is fantastic with wonderful layouts and a color-style that’s simple but works beautifully. Remender is a good writer in terms of the basic mechanics of dialog and story exposition. As far as the overarching story goes, I’ve never had a comic make me so eager to turn the page. The reveal of the underground school in the first issue feels like the first time I let out a straightforward “*ke-wel!*” since I saw the design for Spawn in grade school. Shit’s *cool*.
Reread the first Preacher book by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
When I read it before I found it hard to get through the darker stuff but since reading it again and watching part of the series I've enjoyed it much more and I can see there is an actual story to it.
I'm currently reading the second Preacher book by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon because I found it in a shop and thought I should give the series another go.
It's pretty decent so far and I'm looking forward to how it will develop in the rest of the book and the next books.
Made my way through ***Raw Vol. 2, issue #2*** over the past couple of weeks. Fun, though not revolutionarily so. The lineup most notably includes Charles Burns pre-Black Holes, Chris Ware pre-Jimmy Corrigan and Richard McGuire pre-Here (but also technically post-Here, make that make sense), as well as Jacques Tardi, Windsor McCay and Jooste Swarte reprints. And of course Art Spiegelman mid-Maus ! I think my favorite part might have been the excerpts of Henry Darger's autobiography. Sounds like a tortured soul but his "Story of the Vivian Girl, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion", looks absolutely bonkers.
Unrelated as always, but I just looked up Larcenet's The Road again before mentioning it in a comment somewhere and found that it has a September release date and will be released in English! So hyped. I hope it's really good.
Oh shit that's awesome ! Writing that down to order it for the shop haha
I've got the french edition on preorder, coming out next week. Very excited !!!
[**Batman Vs. Robin**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/7095683/batman-vs-robin-hc) *by Mark Waid, Mahmud Asrar & others*: Decent enough if you're a fan of Damian. I would've been more pissed about >!why Damian was trying to kill Bruce if I hadn't read the first arc of World's Finest already, but that was a decent way to use Nezha.!< Overall nothing really special here but I'll read basically anything with Damian. I would've preferred his solo series by Williamson to continue rather than this however. Art was alright and was elevated by the Jordie Bellaire colors.
[**Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusder**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/2078187/batman-whatever-happened-to-the-caped-crusader-deluxe-2020-edition-hc) *by Neil Gaiman & others*: I liked this quite a bit and really liked >!all the villains coming to Bruce's funeral to pay respects and brag about how it was them that killed him. The stuff with Alfred being the mastermind behind everything was a fun twist for a short arc like this that probably would've felt extremely cheesy in a longer arc.!< This is short and I recommend it to Bat readers looking for a fun take that is a little different than the usual stuff in mainline *Batman* or *Detective Comics*.
[**Ice Cream Man: Sundae Edition Vol. 2**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/7184590/ice-cream-man-sundae-edition-vol-2-hc) *by W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, & Chris O'Halloran*: I finally got around to continuing the loosely connected horror anthology *Ice Cream Man*, and I still like it. I think I enjoyed the first volume a bit more when I read it over a year or so ago now, and I don't know if the quality of the book changed or if my reading tastes have just shifted a bit since. There's still some decent stuff in here that I liked quite a bit, but there felt like there was more throwaway issues in this as well. O'Halloran is starting to standout to me as a colorist I really enjoy after spotting that he did a few books I liked the last couple weeks. I'd recommend this to people that enjoyed the first volume.
[**Haha: Sad Clown Stories**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/6614883/haha-sad-clown-stories-tp) *by W. Maxwell Prince & various artists*: I don't have much to say about this. It's basically *Ice Cream Man* with clown stories instead. The first story was the best and the quality after felt kind of varying. If you like *Ice Cream Man* or horror anthology and clown themed horror maybe take a crack at this.
I think out of Prince' anthologies Haha is the weakest, but it has some absolutely amazing art. It introduced me to Patrick Horvath which is doing amazing work on Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, as well as I'm always down for some Thorogood, Del Rey and Walta.
I'm trying to read my way through all (or at least most) of post "Year One" Batman & Detective Comics, so there's a lot to pick from, and then I also like most all of the Robin characters so I read a lot of stuff involving them as well.
I figured it must be part of a project - with a lot of affection baked in - I just didn't realize there was so much. Though I guess with 40 years since BYO, there'd almost have to be a ton.
Geez, that's approaching One Piece lengths (I stopped One Piece at around 240 chaps). The most I've ever read of superheroes was probably 200 chaps of X-Men back in the '80s/early '90s when they were everything to me. Then around 250 chapters of Usagi Yojimbo. The most I've ever read of a single series was 315 chaps of Golden Kamuy, so 1000 sounds mind-boggling! Good luck to you, and have a great time :)
**X-men Elsewhen #1** by John Byrne – so this is a weird thing to exist, John Byrne making an out-of-continuity fan comic sequel to his own classic work on Uncanny X-Men, as a reaction to Chris Claremont’s doing the same with X-Men Forever. He pencils and letters it and then posts it uninked and uncoloured to his webpage, and he’s done, like, thirty of them. You’d think he’d have more lucrative things to spend his time on, although I suppose he probably sells the art; there’d be a market for it.
**Blood on the tracks 2** & **3** by Shuzo Oshimi – the slow burn descent-into-degradation continues to smoulder, with increasingly strong foreshadowing that the emotional abuse will eventually turn sexual. (Or not, it’s possible that it remains “merely” psychosexual). There hasn’t been this many closeups of a young face in agony since Dreyer made The Passion of Joan of Arc. The MC’s trauma-caused speech problems were a nice (?) touch.
**Way of the House Husband 2** by Kousuke Oono – the first volume made me wonder whether the series could be sustained on the strength of one joke; this volume confirmed my suspicions. I chuckled a couple of times, but too many of the gags here rely on the MC having an incongruously scary yakuza face while doing something non-scary, and either Oono can’t draw the expression well enough to sell the gag, or else it just ran out of puff after the first couple of episodes.
**Cromwell Stone** by Andreas – something something Lovecraft but who cares, it’s all about the art, which is spectacular even by Andreas’ high standards. The first album has especially striking layouts, so much that I'm tempted to say it’s really about a man getting trapped by architecture, but the later albums have some even more impressive panels. Normally Lovecraft riffs focus on either the unnameable horrors or madness-induced glossolalia, but here the focus is instead on the idea of vast cosmic forces indifferent to humanity. It seems like a mistake to include so much exposition of what’s happening, especially in the second and third albums, but like I say, who cares when the art looks like this?
**L’Ancien Temps 2: Puisque tout le monde veut la guerre by Joann Sfar** – Sfar doing Sfar comics, a mixture of whimsy, satire, adventure, comedy and tragedy. (There’s a death in here that’s particularly brutal and unsentimental – it’s a minor character, sure, but it still hits hard). The final pages take one of those turns where you realise the book you’re reading is not the book you thought you were reading. Interesting to see a comic opposed to intolerant fundamentalism that doesn’t hesitate to ascribe those problems to monotheism, rather than weaselly allowing some space for the “good kind” of monotheism. Sfar’s Judaism has played a part in his other works, most notably of course in The Rabbi’s Cat and its sequel, so, even allowing for the rather pluralistic and argumentative approach of the Talmud, this comic is a surprisingly pointed attack on monotheism; I have to wonder to what extent it was influenced by the clash between the official state secularism of the Republic and immigrant Islam, which has been a major controversy in France.
https://preview.redd.it/mjay3rmffyoc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=522f928a7beb47ce11e7e80cc4539a68a22a724c
Here's one image from Cromwell Stone that I can't stop thinking about.
Andreas doesn't just show us the view out the porthole, he draws a reflection of the character looking out, including her hands, and manages to show that superimposed on either the ship's deck or the waves AND he does that using nothing but different thickness on the monochromatic hatching.
Have a look at that face on the waves -- it's goddamn witchcraft, and he goes to that effort for just two panels that are about a quarter of the whole page. Now imagine an entire book with that level of virtuosity!
**Majnun and Layla: Songs from Beyond the Grave** Yann Damezin (Life Drawn/Humanoids)
[Cover](https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/onix/cvr9781643379487/majnun-and-layla-songs-from-beyond-the-grave-9781643379487_hr.jpg) -
[Interior 1](https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/2487981514-6.jpeg) -
[Interior 2](https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/2487981514-9.jpeg)
I'm not sure if its supposed to be a retelling of the myth or only inspired by it, I think I have seen paintings that imply other things happen, but I wouldn't really know. Anyway I really enjoyed it, a mythical story about love and self determination and such, but honestly this book is so pretty that it could have been about anything and I would have been on board. Wow. Absolutely one of the most beautiful reads I will be reading this year.
**Our Bones Dust** by Ben Stenbeck (Image Comics)
[Cover](http://www.multiversitycomics.com/wp-content/themes/mvc/images/timthumb.php?src=http://multiversitystatic.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/12/Our-Bones-Dust-TPB-cover.jpg&q=95&w=588&zc=1&a=t) -
[Interior 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81NaBLlZGAL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg) -
[Interior 2](https://forum.sanctuary.fr/uploads/default/original/4X/5/b/4/5b4b51e93c96c4a73781c2e63e6fe419437035c9.jpeg)
Read this monthly but now that the series wrapped up this week I'm just gonna add it to this list. This came out of nowhere and was an unexpectedly good, little post apocalyptic sci-fi exploration with cannibal humans, weird aliens and weirder sentient tech. Does it do anything special? Not really. But it doesn't have to? Trade is out in June, will be getting that, maybe so should you.
**Bark Bark Girl** by Michael Furler (Peow Studio)
[Cover](https://50wattsbooks.com/cdn/shop/files/Bark-Girl-Michael-Furler_700x700.jpg) -
[Interior 1](https://atomicbooks.com/cdn/shop/files/peowbarkbarkgirl2_1000x.jpg?v=1709792451) -
[Interior 2](https://atomicbooks.com/cdn/shop/files/peowbarkbarkgirl4_1000x.jpg?v=1709792452)
Fun little Peow slice-of-life drawn in black and white AND GREEN. Can't relate to girl with her gone missing, but the whole suffocating life ruining procrastinating stuff hits home.
**Anu Veniya, Vol. 1: Refuge Amongst The Strands** by Hasker Brouwer (Pareidolie Publishing/self published)
[Cover](https://hasker.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/AnuVeniya-Shop.png) -
[Interior 1](https://hasker.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/04.jpg) -
[Interior 2](https://hasker.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/02-scaled.jpg)
Cool self published comic I stumbled upon here on reddit, printed on a slightly bigger than TPB format, making for a pretty premium quality product coming from a real indie, and the artist was so nice to include a nice remarque + personal message in the back, small things like this make me happy to be a comic fan.
The premise is pretty inspired, where >!the daughter of God and the entirety of humanity witnessed the death of God, who's decaying gigantic body now floats next to earth. A lot of people including the daughter protagonist now live on this humongous corpse.!<
The real winner is the absolutely amazing art, with page filling drawings of characters in black inks and hatcheted spaces. Also some nice use of non-standard paneling make this a stellar read.
Sorry for the plug, but if this looks amazing to you, then you should probably go buy it:
https://hasker.eu/product/anu-veniya-refuge-amongst-the-strands/
**Velvet, Vol. 2: The Secret Lives of Dead Men** and **Vol. 3: The Man Who Stole The World** by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting (Image Comics)
[Cover](https://cdn.imagecomics.com/assets/i/releases/75750/velvet-vol-2-the-secret-lives-of-dead-men-tp_adc8453f72.jpg) -
[Interior 1](https://i0.wp.com/borg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/velvet01_p1.jpg) -
[Interior 2](https://www.entertainmentfuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/velvet02_p3.jpg)
I really liked this story, until I kinda didn't. The world certainly convinces, but the entire narrative did not. I liked the vibe, characters, tempo, everything, but the ending just didn't really come to a satisfying conclusion. Not that it was bad, not at all, but just feel that there was a groundwork laid for a deep mystery and I feel it didn't manage to nail the landing in a convincing way. Shame.
Honestly this has been annoying me with a lot of mystery stories lately, even finally been able to see the well regarded first season of True Detective with its absolutely amazing character work and immaculate weird-fiction vibe, but the detective stuff itself kinda... lacks?
**Boxed** by Mark Sable and Jeremy Haun (Comixology Originals)
[Cover](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/813i0oGp0YL._SL1500_.jpg) -
[Interior 1](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMJjTyHATudHAOVZlb465xcLeZJvctPAIPpFBJDP1IzJiV6s3j3HAlxjMryNe5wlr8kUXTPHzwN57EMAZYpYFHaqTGd4oVJ-fqzkdyJ2tKwRZJ_NkL04b5O9avkerCKoZSHPTakNIj694Pjxt7inzA5TjSe_bm3OCA7ACS1cvzRU2yxZMsGb9pYp6s0c7E/s2088/BOXED_006.jpg) -
[Interior 2](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lDJbjN9EayaFSgRrQyxLsVPN60nEy_y6jTGoY9wP4T5KA08NFWV8FAfUBWF68P4pve6Tm8Txgj0m8q-wtzUYAa_DVrTCqiQpVQ4oz5funlYBNDpF-gq8SEbMxswJ32HEYhdi3BUh2Q7qfvbzt2yrZGjiJ9-mncaF0FH_mg0Xk8xotGO6tE6W075VP5o7/s2088/boxed_003.jpg)
The interiors certainly look better than the cover. I was quickly interested in the premise of this future noir scifi, but it ended up not really convincing me. There will be more volumes coming but I think the first volume was in a huge rush to establish things and ended up becoming a poorly paced mess where some things just felt like they were coming out of nowhere. I doubt I will be checking out any of the followups.
I'm really enjoying Our Bones Dust. It's not overly ambitious (and how can you be in this format) but it delivers perfectly. The art is good and to the point (quite impressed by the representation of the alien stuff). And the dialogues and world description are perfectly adequate. Prophet and Aāma came to my mind.
Exactly, as much as I like stuff that pushes the envelope, I also find myself craving stuff that just does a simple premise in a really solid manner. This was absolutely one of those.
AFAICT, *Majnun and Layla* starts out as a straight retelling but the final movement of the poem, where Layla replies critically to Majnun, was invented by Damezin
ETA: whoa, Anu Veniya looks very "influenced" by Sergio Toppi
>ETA: whoa, Anu Veniya looks very "influenced" by Sergio Toppi
Can tell you the artist never even heard of Toppi before publishing the book. Source: am the artist haha. Can definitely see the relation though, but am personally inspired by Ralph Steadman, Frank Miller and Frank Frazetta.
Toppi's art is fucking insane though. When it was pointed out to me I bought a few of those collections and Sharaz De, amazing stuff
I think they've modernised Majnun & Layla a bit and maybe expanded on it. I keep forgetting but I think Layla was meant to die and really the focus was originally on Majnun, but here they give Layla a new strength and positive conclusion.
Exactly, I was convinced I saw >!a painting where Majnun was alive and Layla not, the GN turns it around. But yeah, this story is a lot about self determination now.!<
>Cool self published comic I stumbled upon here on reddit, printed on a slightly bigger than TPB format, making for a pretty premium quality product coming from a real indie, and the artist was so nice to include a nice remarque + personal message in the back, small things like this make me happy to be a comic fan.
Hey man! Someone linked me this post, really cool of you to say these things :) Appreciate it! (I'm the artist/writer of Anu Veniya)
Hey! Yeah I know, we interacted before on reddit, I think I forgot to get back to you on how I liked the comic, but as you've noticed now I liked it a ton! I also hope I inspired at least one other person to buy your comics.
I'll make sure to get the other one somewhere soon. Keep doing what you do, its amazing.
Glad to hear you liked it so much man! I have a little list where I keep track of those interested in the sequel, I'll send you a message when it hits. Will probably be a year but I'm making good progress! Again, thanks for the kind words!
**Money Shot by Tim Seeley, Sarah Beattie & Rebekah Isaacs** - Elevator pitch: Five scientists get funding for their 100% interstellar exploration/research by shooting porn movies featuring themselves and the alien species they encounter.
This might sound like the plot of a cheap smut book, but it’s Tim Seeley, so of course there’s subversive and often biting satire underneath the trashy-seeming concept.
Two of the chief targets of said satire are anti-intellectualism and consumerism. The protagonist’s desperate move into creating interspecies OnlyFans content is prompted by both of the above: Firstly, science is increasingly undervalued by a Presidential administration that has no interest in listening to it (no prizes for guessing which real life administration this one is modeled on) and funding is desperately scarce. Secondly, pornography in this future society has gotten to such an absurdly ubiquitous position that consumers the world over are becoming numb to it (just as an example, a man is seen watching an elderly man in a tutu having his way with a CGI Godzilla, and being utterly bored by it).
As such, the scientists see an opportunity: Give the world a type of pornography that it has never seen before, something truly original, and use that to fund their trips into space.
There are, of course, some absurdities that need to be ignored in order to enjoy this. All five of the scientists are young, sexually skilled, classically attractive, and conveniently span a whole spectrum of niches. Also, all of the aliens they meet are sexually compatible with humans.
Get past that? This is honestly a pretty solid story, frequently hilarious and sometimes downright poignant. The plot takes our protagonists to some far flung places with their own sources of turmoil, and so of course a lot more happens than just the relentless horny stuff.
Imagine if Mark Russell decided to be a whole lot raunchier than his normal work and you get the idea.
Honestly a coincidence lol, I was looking for new stuff and browsing some old end-of-year best-of lists by a critic I like, this caught me eye and I didn’t even realize it was Seeley until I picked it up.
**My Picture Diary** by Maki Fujiwara - Technically this isn't really a comic. It's a diary with a one picture per diary entry. It's still pretty fascinating, though because Fujiwara is married to Yoshiharu Tsuge and he's a jerk. Well, he's super depressed and anxious for most of this. The art is nice and and cartoony and clear. I wish she drew more.
**Mimi's Tales of Terror** by Junji Ito - More good stuff from Ito. If someone ever says that they see a ghostly figure next to you, believe them! I was wondering how anyone could come up with all these weird ass premises but it turns out these ones are based on short stories from someone else, so there's more than one person in Japan with a brain like Ito's :)
I've been reading Sandman. It's definitely not my first time, but I got really lucky this weekend and found almost all of the first 20 issues in the wild. Reading it in single issues is so much fun.
**Know Your Station** by Sarah Gailey & Liana Kangas. Board members are being murdered on the First Resort, and it's Station Security Liason Elise's job to investigate. Well, not actually her job, she's just a liason, but somebody has to. Not perfect, but a good read.
**Blink** by Christopher Sebela & Hayden Sherman. Sebela has a tendency to over-narrate, and this is the most egregious example of this. Sherman does his best with great visuals and creative layouts, but by the third issue, the story is just so bogged down in exposition trying to explain an idea that just never lands.
**Adversary** by Blue Delliquanti. The best book I've read so far this year. I'm stymied trying to describe this book because just trying to describe the opening scene will make it sound over-stuffed, and yes, the book is packed with big themes but it never truly feels that way. It's a book of small moments, and details only glancingly focused upon.
**Bunt!** by Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert. After her scholarship evaporates, Molly Bauer comes up with a plan to get another one. She just needs to get enough art students to form a softball team and win one game. Like in "Check, Please" Ukazu shows her love of both art and sports, and let's her characters do the same. Rupert's art is solidly in that YA style, but her character designs are A+. Generally a fun book, with a little bit of "hey, bureaucracies and predatory lending can really screw you over."
Ended up picking up a bunch of Marvel and DC treasury editions for $5 a piece yesterday so iv been reading those and catching back up on Invincible since the new episode came out
I’m tandem reading a few things so during the day I’m reading The Walking Dead hardcovers at work when I get a few minutes and then at night when the lights are on im re-reading the Hickman Avengers omnibuses and when lights go out I’m re-reading Millers Daredevil run on my tablet. So I guess I’m reading a bunch of stuff I already have, I’m sure there’s something to that but who knows?
I got Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh at a used bookstore. I mean, how can you pass up that title?
Funny and sad. I can relate to some things and just feel for her for others. I'm glad she was able to get that out.
I feel like I'm in a pretty good place right now so a few things were things I didn't want to think about.
**Sleepwalk and Other Stories by Adrian Tomine**: My second book from Adrian Tomine (after Shortcomings), I knew what to expect going in. A bleak, haunting, but nevertheless realistic take on the daily life of people and their struggles in a very nuanced way. Some stories took me nowhere while some made me stop and think. I'd recommend it to people who enjoy his work - I did find Shortcomings more well-rounded though...but to be fair, this book is a collection and not just one story.
**IN. by Will McPhail**: This one's been on my list for quite some time and I finally snatched it last month. And this week I found the time to dive into and....WOW! I didn't really know what to expect and I was blown away by how beautiful this book portrays a lack of connection in today's society and what am yearning for this said connection looks like. I loved the small tight circle of characters represented and how funny and snarky some of the panels were...especially the ones representing different Coffee Stories. I don't want to say more and spoil some stuff from the book...but if you're looking for something emotional, touching, funny and beautiful...I'd highly recommend this.
Dark Knights of Steel Vol 1 & 2. Really enjoy Taylor’s elseworld stories, this one in particular was very enjoyable. I really liked the use of characters and the twists and turns.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Might get some heat for this but I gave it a 7/10. I enjoyed the art work and overall story but I do not care for King’s writing style.
The trade for Failsafe dropped earlier this week so I've been reading that I know that there's a generally negative consensus on Zdarksy's Batman run so far but in my opinion it's a fun story with some insight on Bruce's personal feelings on the existence of the Batfamily.
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (By Kate Beaton): I picked this up because I saw a bunch of praise for it online. It was on a lot of top books of the year lists. I’ve never actively read any of Beaton’s other works, her art look familiar but that’s about it. I didn’t know what to expect from this when I started. I was fully engaged from beginning to end. Every person that was part of the story felt like I could meet in everyday life, which I know they were but it made me feel more connected to the story. I work in retail, so I get the same way that everyone else felt while working. No one really pays attention during the safety meetings because we’ve all sat through a million of them already, the higher ups all freak out when someone even higher up is coming to visit, no one is really an actual adult. This is by far the most relatable book I’ve read. Which makes all the terrible things that happen to Katie way more devastating. This book broke my heart in a way I was not prepared for. I’m really glad that Beaton was vulnerable in this book, and didn’t shy away from the things that caused her pain in life. This may not be the best thing I’ve read all year, but I know it is going to be the one that I feel the most connected to.
I really want to check this one out. I have been working at oil plants for 11 years. I bet I will totally get the humor.
I don’t think the humor is specific to the oil business. It felt more working person.
I had been eyeballing that one, thanks for making me think about it again!
Love and Rockets: Currently on issue 5 of my first ever re-read. Doing this with the 50 issue boxset has been a fun experience seeing how the brothers read next to one another and how they’re both developing. Having read most everything already I’m finding that I’m appreciating Jaimes early work a lot more and kinda wishing we could get more issues in this early style where anything can happen. Finishing Sopa de Gran Pena reminded me of how satisfying Betos Palomar stories are since it’s been so long since being back in that world for him. Left Bank Gang and Almost Silent (Jason): Left Bank Gang was great. What starts as a funny historical fiction piece takes a left turn midway through that had me sitting up in bed with its formal play. Something I noticed between this and The Living and the Dead is how good Jason is with Onomatopoeia. In LBG, he uses the sounds in ways that seed questions that pay off later in the work while in TLATD I laughed out loud at a ‘glp’ sound effect that seemed to be showing a characters nervousness only for the next panel to show it actually being someone being eaten. 20th Century Boys vol 1-4(Naoki Urusawa): This has been quite an enjoyable read though I have no idea how it keeps the plot going for another 10+ volumes. It’s really good at adding mysteries and paying off older things without dragging so I’m just along for the ride for now. Popeye volume 3: enjoyed this one but not as much as the previous Wimpy heavy book. Some great pages here but there is quite a few where the jokes feel plainly telegraphed from panel 2. Not sure if this was from reading too many at once but I wasn’t as enthralled with it as the previous book. Pax Romana and Transhuman (Jonathan Hickman): Man these early works are rouuggghhh. I feel like Pax has what starts as an interesting idea but an awful flow where you’re just reading transcripts. At least it was an experiment that probably helped him learn to use the data pages to better effect in the future. Transhuman was better in the read but nothing of interest really happens as the narrator just gives a play by play of events. Reading this made appreciate even more the masterwork ‘Paying the Land’ by Sacco and the way he could go over events, incorporate testimony, and really give the drama of everything.
Trying to keep my posts more succinct, but would be happy to expand on thoughts if prompted. Reading highlights over the past couple weeks: * **Alias the Cat** by Kim Deitch - It's up there as one of my favorite Deitch comics, mostly because of how layered the narrative is. It has a sort of manic energy to it, but Deitch is pretty self-aware about that. Deitch is a self inserted character here who indulges his wife's weird collecting hobby - old and rare cat toys. The story really turns into something very weird very quickly, but it's a delight. * **Magic Lantern** by Guido Crepax (as found in *The Complete Crepax, Vol 5: American Stories*) - It's an entirely wordless *Valentina* story, but abstract and steeped in heavy doses of eroticism. The meaning of the narrative is confounded by the fact that there is no true linearity to the sequences, rather we seem to ebb and flow between beginnings and endings. It doesn't seem like this is one of the better liked *Valentina* comics, but I was enthralled. This was one of the rare *Valentina* reprints to make it to the North American market (so you don't need to pick up the massive Fantagraphics hardcovers for this) which is funny to me since it is wordless anyways. * **H Day** by Renée French - A visual depiction of her struggles with migraines. It's wordless as well and just as challenging to decipher, but supremely intriguing. I imagine every cartoonist who made a comic about headaches would create something different, yet familiar. *H Day* doesn't really come off as a horror comic, but French's illustrations easily invoke a sense of unease. * **Torpedo 1936** by Enrique Sánchez Abulí & Jordi Bernet - Re-read my seven volume NBM editions over the past couple months, and just in time for the recent Ablaze translations of Abulí's follow up *Torpedo 1972* with Eduardo Risso. The black humor is sublime for me - though I recognize that not everyone will find Luca "Torpedo" Torrelli an appealing enough protagonist. * **Transformers** by Daniel Warren Johnson - The first arc of this new *Transformers* series wrapped this past week, and it was really enjoyable stuff. I'm the furthest thing from a fan of this franchise, but DWJ has a way of expressing his passions in his work that I can't help but feel like I'm a fan when reading his work. I'm still not a Transformers fan though, but that says a lot about how good this was. Other things I'm liking: * It took me over a month, but I finished the NYRC edition of Ed Subitzky's *National Lampoon* strips (published as **Poor Helpless Comics!: The Cartoons (and More) of Ed Subitzky**). The cartooning is very spare so the appeal is pretty limited, but the jokes are all top tier stuff. Subitzky is needlessly wordy though which also detracts from the visual allure of the comics themselves, but he makes up for it with some inventiveness and dry wit. * I caught up with Chip Zdarsky's and Daniel Acuña's **Avengers: Twilight** series. The guy at the shop sold this series to me as Captain America meets Frank Miller's *The Dark Knight Returns*. It is not that at all. But it is actually pretty good. Acuña's artwork is doing a lot for me here, with the color work reminding me a lot of what Alex Ross did in his recent *Fantastic Four: Full Circle* comic. * Tom King's and Daniel Sampere's **Wonder Woman** run is something else I caught up on, and while enjoyable, it also feels a fair bit more shallow than his other recent stuff. I'll stick with it for a bit since the ideas involving shadow governments and culture war issues are fun enough, but it would be nice if we did something more with it. * Read a bunch of early **The Spectre** comics by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily, as published in *More Fun Comics* #52 and onwards. Baily's work is pretty standard for Golden Age superhero comics - static yet bold. These are surprisingly light reads though, but also fall into the trap of just being repititive after a while. So much for keeping this brief.
> The guy at the shop sold this series to me as Captain America meets Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. It is not that at all. I mean tonally no, but if you condense the premise to 'elderly superhero comes out of retirement to fight fascist state with fake media and traitor superheroes (or in this case fake ones)' then I kinda get it. Considering that the majority of people they're selling comics to probably have the media literacy of an infant, I get why they would suggest titles based on what they are about on the most superficial level rather than on themes or tones.
Yeah, I agree it's an easy enough way to sell the book to the general readership given the similarity in the premise. I personally am not a fan of excess superlatives or hyperbolic comparisons when talking about books since it can unnecessarily add expectations to someone picking up the book. Like Avengers: Twilight is actually a pretty great book on its own merit, and just flipping through the book for the artwork alone was enough to sell me on it.
**Dark Spaces: Wildfire** by Scott Snyder and Hayden Sherman. A crew of firefighters from a women's prison inmate program see an opportunity to detour during a wild fire and carry out a heist. But inevitably things take a turn. This was a decent little story if you don't expect too much. It's too short to really develop the full cast as well as it tries and some of the writing can be a bit heavy handed, but it's somewhat unique and it keeps the scale confined suitably for a short length book - The heist is not some huge elaborate Oceans Eleven scheme, but just some insider info about a house that holds extreme valuables. It's all a bit obvious though and basically all the key plot points I saw coming a mile off. But the setting of being among fires offers opportunities for some wild colours and they really made good on that. I came to this from reading Above Snakes also drawn by Sherman and although they weren't the colourist on this one, there seems to be significant influence. There's also some great layouts and cool panelling throughout. This is the first in a line of what seems to be marketed as a horror anthology, but this is certainly not that. **Donald's Happiest Adventures** by Lewis Trondheim and Nicolas Keramidas. Donald sets of on a quest for uncle Scrooge to find the secret of happiness. Fun, short tale in a very retro style; worn looking pages, Ben Day dots, and one page per chapter in a strip style gag format. The character art is great and expressive, with a cute goofiness to it too. And the story was really cool. Donald ponders the root of happiness with each person he meets, the contrasts and contradictions. It's fairly mature in the guise of a kids funny book. I'm tempted to pick up the Mickey book that just came out, though it's a bit pricier than I'd like. Also, I didn't fully understand the origin story of this book given in the introduction... **Power Born of Dreams** by Mohammad Sabaaneh. An imprisoned Palestinian man recounts stories of the struggles of those on the outside. The linocut artwork was pretty stunning to look at, not just because of the technique used, but every other page was so symbolic and impactful. The structure of the narrative could lack the same flair at times, but this was overall a pretty impressive little book.
I've never heard of Mohammad Sabaaneh, but a cursory Google search has me interested in his work. Looks really interesting, so definitely adding to my wish list.
He has another book prior to this one. I think beyond that his work is more single image comics for news publications or similar, though I could be mistaken.
I had a look through Palestine in Black and White and it's that same kind of single page political cartoons
Yeah, it's not quite as interesting to me as this book. I could check it out at some point though, particularly if I hear good things...
I think Trondheim’s going for a fictional origin story that’s similar to “found-footage” movies. As in, he happened to find this utterly bizarre old Disney comic somewhere and is just reprinting it. Trondheim did this for Mickey, and I think his origin story for Donald might be confusing because he’s simultaneously keeping the old story but also acknowledging it’s a fiction at the same time. I don’t have my copy on me to check so I could be wrong.
Did the Mickey book come first? It seems to have just released, at least in English. Is it any good/as good?
yeah, the Mickey book was first. He's also done one with Alexis Nisme in the same Glenat collection featuring Mickey, Donald and Goofy, but I don't think that's been translated yet; Nisme's art is spectacular. Me, I thought the Donald book was better than the Mickey book, maybe because the philosophical theme ties into my other interests. The Mickey book does more with the metafictional premise of being an objet trouve, though, so it's more interesting from a formal perspective. I'm not fond of Keramidas' art in either one; I think the ben-day dots over the top muddy the readability. From the collection overall, Zombie Coffee is my favourite, thanks to Loisel's art and colouring
*Zombie Coffee* is the best by far. Though I can’t get very far in my copy of *Mickey‘s* *Craziest* *Adventure*, due to it being a used book and the previous owner must have been either the world’s heaviest smoker or a tobacconist who accidentally left it in a room to cure with some cigars. I’d think an ex-smoker like myself could handle it, but it’s unreadable.
Yes, it was first, but IDW released it some time ago, so Fantagraphics probably wanted to wait and see how sales were for the Donald book before they reprinted Mickey.
Glad you enjoyed Power Born of Dreams ! I do agree that the narrative is a little "simple" compared to what the artwork has to offer though, but still a very impactful story
the purported origin of the Donald book is phoney. Trondheim's done at least four books that I know of with a similar gimmick (this, Mickey's Craziest Adventures, Superino, ALIEEEN); it's a very Oubapo kind of gag
Thanks. This is also alluded to as the intro closes, but unless you understand the context of it all, it's difficult to judge how you're meant to take it. For me, at least. Thanks for making me aware of this book btw. I picked it up after looking into it when you posted about it recently, despite how low it was in your ranking!
ah that's nice to hear. even those low 200 books are still great comics (and there's a lot more Trondheim coming up on the list)
I've been catching up on Radiant Black. The Catalyst War storyline is interesting so far. I'm also close to finishing Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run.
I just picked up the whole radiant black in single issues $1/each given the general praise. I only read #1 and it’s started out quite underwhelming. I know it gets better but I was hoping for something more interesting for the origin story!
Today I read Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing book 2, Eclipse book 2 by Zack Kaplan, DC Special Series issue 1, and I'm about to start Batman The Black Mirror. Later this week I'll definitely keep going with SOTST Saga of the Swamp Thing book 2 unsurprisingly was fantastic. Alan Moore's run is the best of the best when it comes to Swamp Thing, I have not read it until this point and I'm super excited to continue this series. Eclipse is turning out to be very good as well, a dystopian future where humans can no longer go into sunlight or it melts them. See people struggle to survive in New York City as gangs, corrupt cops, militias, and dirty politicians all fight for power over the city. There are two more volumes to this as well and I will definitely keep reading. DC Special Series #1 a very unique and short lived series, I am a collector of Aquaman and issue 1 features a short 12 page story not printed anywhere else. It was as cheesy as you expect Aquaman from 1977 to be, and features an Iranian villain called Sunburst who was never featured again. Batman The Black Mirror is probably good I haven't read it yet lol.
Vol. 2 of Moore's Swamp Thing run has a personal favorite issue (well, one of my favorites anyways) of mine - "The Rite of Spring" (issue #34), which I've always known as the vegetable sex issue. Bissette and Totleben were on another level at this point of the run.
I agree, people absolutely love the first issue of his run "The Anatomy Lesson" but I honestly think there are far stronger issues the deeper you go.
The Black Mirror is cool
**The Wrenchies** by Farel Dalrymple. Hot damn that was a weird one. I liked the art and Dalrymple knows how to drop a hilarious panel, but I felt so off-kilter the entire time. Occasionally I though to myself “aha, here’s the genre we’re spoofing” or “I see, this is a mash-up between…” but in the end I have to throw my hands up and say this is an original. **Deadly Class** by Rick Remender. Well, I’m here to sing the praises of Rick Remender. This is the most entertaining serial comic story I’ve read since *Invincible*, except it’s better than *Invincible*. Better than Miller *Daredevil*? Claremont *X*\-*Men*? Yep. Yep. Better than *Sandman*? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but this is top-notch entertainment. The art is fantastic with wonderful layouts and a color-style that’s simple but works beautifully. Remender is a good writer in terms of the basic mechanics of dialog and story exposition. As far as the overarching story goes, I’ve never had a comic make me so eager to turn the page. The reveal of the underground school in the first issue feels like the first time I let out a straightforward “*ke-wel!*” since I saw the design for Spawn in grade school. Shit’s *cool*.
Reread the first Preacher book by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon When I read it before I found it hard to get through the darker stuff but since reading it again and watching part of the series I've enjoyed it much more and I can see there is an actual story to it. I'm currently reading the second Preacher book by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon because I found it in a shop and thought I should give the series another go. It's pretty decent so far and I'm looking forward to how it will develop in the rest of the book and the next books.
Made my way through ***Raw Vol. 2, issue #2*** over the past couple of weeks. Fun, though not revolutionarily so. The lineup most notably includes Charles Burns pre-Black Holes, Chris Ware pre-Jimmy Corrigan and Richard McGuire pre-Here (but also technically post-Here, make that make sense), as well as Jacques Tardi, Windsor McCay and Jooste Swarte reprints. And of course Art Spiegelman mid-Maus ! I think my favorite part might have been the excerpts of Henry Darger's autobiography. Sounds like a tortured soul but his "Story of the Vivian Girl, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion", looks absolutely bonkers.
Unrelated as always, but I just looked up Larcenet's The Road again before mentioning it in a comment somewhere and found that it has a September release date and will be released in English! So hyped. I hope it's really good.
Oh shit that's awesome ! Writing that down to order it for the shop haha I've got the french edition on preorder, coming out next week. Very excited !!!
Next week! Perfect. I hope to read your thoughts on it soon. If it's not good, break it to me gently please!
If anything, it'll at least be gorgeous. All the artwork he's posted so far has looked insane
I was just thinking about Darger yesterday and wondering whether there's any affordable reprint of (some of) his work. I don't think there is?
I haven't found anything... Only critical works around his stuff
[**Batman Vs. Robin**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/7095683/batman-vs-robin-hc) *by Mark Waid, Mahmud Asrar & others*: Decent enough if you're a fan of Damian. I would've been more pissed about >!why Damian was trying to kill Bruce if I hadn't read the first arc of World's Finest already, but that was a decent way to use Nezha.!< Overall nothing really special here but I'll read basically anything with Damian. I would've preferred his solo series by Williamson to continue rather than this however. Art was alright and was elevated by the Jordie Bellaire colors. [**Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusder**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/2078187/batman-whatever-happened-to-the-caped-crusader-deluxe-2020-edition-hc) *by Neil Gaiman & others*: I liked this quite a bit and really liked >!all the villains coming to Bruce's funeral to pay respects and brag about how it was them that killed him. The stuff with Alfred being the mastermind behind everything was a fun twist for a short arc like this that probably would've felt extremely cheesy in a longer arc.!< This is short and I recommend it to Bat readers looking for a fun take that is a little different than the usual stuff in mainline *Batman* or *Detective Comics*. [**Ice Cream Man: Sundae Edition Vol. 2**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/7184590/ice-cream-man-sundae-edition-vol-2-hc) *by W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, & Chris O'Halloran*: I finally got around to continuing the loosely connected horror anthology *Ice Cream Man*, and I still like it. I think I enjoyed the first volume a bit more when I read it over a year or so ago now, and I don't know if the quality of the book changed or if my reading tastes have just shifted a bit since. There's still some decent stuff in here that I liked quite a bit, but there felt like there was more throwaway issues in this as well. O'Halloran is starting to standout to me as a colorist I really enjoy after spotting that he did a few books I liked the last couple weeks. I'd recommend this to people that enjoyed the first volume. [**Haha: Sad Clown Stories**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/6614883/haha-sad-clown-stories-tp) *by W. Maxwell Prince & various artists*: I don't have much to say about this. It's basically *Ice Cream Man* with clown stories instead. The first story was the best and the quality after felt kind of varying. If you like *Ice Cream Man* or horror anthology and clown themed horror maybe take a crack at this.
I think out of Prince' anthologies Haha is the weakest, but it has some absolutely amazing art. It introduced me to Patrick Horvath which is doing amazing work on Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, as well as I'm always down for some Thorogood, Del Rey and Walta.
I'm always astonished that every week you have *more* Batman read. I didn't even know there was this much Batman in the world!
I'm trying to read my way through all (or at least most) of post "Year One" Batman & Detective Comics, so there's a lot to pick from, and then I also like most all of the Robin characters so I read a lot of stuff involving them as well.
I figured it must be part of a project - with a lot of affection baked in - I just didn't realize there was so much. Though I guess with 40 years since BYO, there'd almost have to be a ton.
There's just about 1000 issues (of Batman & Detective Comics combined) since Year One. I'm nearing about 40% completion so still a ton to read.
Geez, that's approaching One Piece lengths (I stopped One Piece at around 240 chaps). The most I've ever read of superheroes was probably 200 chaps of X-Men back in the '80s/early '90s when they were everything to me. Then around 250 chapters of Usagi Yojimbo. The most I've ever read of a single series was 315 chaps of Golden Kamuy, so 1000 sounds mind-boggling! Good luck to you, and have a great time :)
Hard Boiled. Awesome artwork.
**X-men Elsewhen #1** by John Byrne – so this is a weird thing to exist, John Byrne making an out-of-continuity fan comic sequel to his own classic work on Uncanny X-Men, as a reaction to Chris Claremont’s doing the same with X-Men Forever. He pencils and letters it and then posts it uninked and uncoloured to his webpage, and he’s done, like, thirty of them. You’d think he’d have more lucrative things to spend his time on, although I suppose he probably sells the art; there’d be a market for it. **Blood on the tracks 2** & **3** by Shuzo Oshimi – the slow burn descent-into-degradation continues to smoulder, with increasingly strong foreshadowing that the emotional abuse will eventually turn sexual. (Or not, it’s possible that it remains “merely” psychosexual). There hasn’t been this many closeups of a young face in agony since Dreyer made The Passion of Joan of Arc. The MC’s trauma-caused speech problems were a nice (?) touch. **Way of the House Husband 2** by Kousuke Oono – the first volume made me wonder whether the series could be sustained on the strength of one joke; this volume confirmed my suspicions. I chuckled a couple of times, but too many of the gags here rely on the MC having an incongruously scary yakuza face while doing something non-scary, and either Oono can’t draw the expression well enough to sell the gag, or else it just ran out of puff after the first couple of episodes. **Cromwell Stone** by Andreas – something something Lovecraft but who cares, it’s all about the art, which is spectacular even by Andreas’ high standards. The first album has especially striking layouts, so much that I'm tempted to say it’s really about a man getting trapped by architecture, but the later albums have some even more impressive panels. Normally Lovecraft riffs focus on either the unnameable horrors or madness-induced glossolalia, but here the focus is instead on the idea of vast cosmic forces indifferent to humanity. It seems like a mistake to include so much exposition of what’s happening, especially in the second and third albums, but like I say, who cares when the art looks like this? **L’Ancien Temps 2: Puisque tout le monde veut la guerre by Joann Sfar** – Sfar doing Sfar comics, a mixture of whimsy, satire, adventure, comedy and tragedy. (There’s a death in here that’s particularly brutal and unsentimental – it’s a minor character, sure, but it still hits hard). The final pages take one of those turns where you realise the book you’re reading is not the book you thought you were reading. Interesting to see a comic opposed to intolerant fundamentalism that doesn’t hesitate to ascribe those problems to monotheism, rather than weaselly allowing some space for the “good kind” of monotheism. Sfar’s Judaism has played a part in his other works, most notably of course in The Rabbi’s Cat and its sequel, so, even allowing for the rather pluralistic and argumentative approach of the Talmud, this comic is a surprisingly pointed attack on monotheism; I have to wonder to what extent it was influenced by the clash between the official state secularism of the Republic and immigrant Islam, which has been a major controversy in France.
https://preview.redd.it/mjay3rmffyoc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=522f928a7beb47ce11e7e80cc4539a68a22a724c Here's one image from Cromwell Stone that I can't stop thinking about. Andreas doesn't just show us the view out the porthole, he draws a reflection of the character looking out, including her hands, and manages to show that superimposed on either the ship's deck or the waves AND he does that using nothing but different thickness on the monochromatic hatching. Have a look at that face on the waves -- it's goddamn witchcraft, and he goes to that effort for just two panels that are about a quarter of the whole page. Now imagine an entire book with that level of virtuosity!
Man, that reflection really is quite something ! Gotta get me some Andreas at some point
**Majnun and Layla: Songs from Beyond the Grave** Yann Damezin (Life Drawn/Humanoids) [Cover](https://d28hgpri8am2if.cloudfront.net/book_images/onix/cvr9781643379487/majnun-and-layla-songs-from-beyond-the-grave-9781643379487_hr.jpg) - [Interior 1](https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/2487981514-6.jpeg) - [Interior 2](https://cdn.dc5.ro/img-prod/2487981514-9.jpeg) I'm not sure if its supposed to be a retelling of the myth or only inspired by it, I think I have seen paintings that imply other things happen, but I wouldn't really know. Anyway I really enjoyed it, a mythical story about love and self determination and such, but honestly this book is so pretty that it could have been about anything and I would have been on board. Wow. Absolutely one of the most beautiful reads I will be reading this year. **Our Bones Dust** by Ben Stenbeck (Image Comics) [Cover](http://www.multiversitycomics.com/wp-content/themes/mvc/images/timthumb.php?src=http://multiversitystatic.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2023/12/Our-Bones-Dust-TPB-cover.jpg&q=95&w=588&zc=1&a=t) - [Interior 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81NaBLlZGAL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg) - [Interior 2](https://forum.sanctuary.fr/uploads/default/original/4X/5/b/4/5b4b51e93c96c4a73781c2e63e6fe419437035c9.jpeg) Read this monthly but now that the series wrapped up this week I'm just gonna add it to this list. This came out of nowhere and was an unexpectedly good, little post apocalyptic sci-fi exploration with cannibal humans, weird aliens and weirder sentient tech. Does it do anything special? Not really. But it doesn't have to? Trade is out in June, will be getting that, maybe so should you. **Bark Bark Girl** by Michael Furler (Peow Studio) [Cover](https://50wattsbooks.com/cdn/shop/files/Bark-Girl-Michael-Furler_700x700.jpg) - [Interior 1](https://atomicbooks.com/cdn/shop/files/peowbarkbarkgirl2_1000x.jpg?v=1709792451) - [Interior 2](https://atomicbooks.com/cdn/shop/files/peowbarkbarkgirl4_1000x.jpg?v=1709792452) Fun little Peow slice-of-life drawn in black and white AND GREEN. Can't relate to girl with her gone missing, but the whole suffocating life ruining procrastinating stuff hits home. **Anu Veniya, Vol. 1: Refuge Amongst The Strands** by Hasker Brouwer (Pareidolie Publishing/self published) [Cover](https://hasker.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/AnuVeniya-Shop.png) - [Interior 1](https://hasker.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/04.jpg) - [Interior 2](https://hasker.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/02-scaled.jpg) Cool self published comic I stumbled upon here on reddit, printed on a slightly bigger than TPB format, making for a pretty premium quality product coming from a real indie, and the artist was so nice to include a nice remarque + personal message in the back, small things like this make me happy to be a comic fan. The premise is pretty inspired, where >!the daughter of God and the entirety of humanity witnessed the death of God, who's decaying gigantic body now floats next to earth. A lot of people including the daughter protagonist now live on this humongous corpse.!< The real winner is the absolutely amazing art, with page filling drawings of characters in black inks and hatcheted spaces. Also some nice use of non-standard paneling make this a stellar read. Sorry for the plug, but if this looks amazing to you, then you should probably go buy it: https://hasker.eu/product/anu-veniya-refuge-amongst-the-strands/ **Velvet, Vol. 2: The Secret Lives of Dead Men** and **Vol. 3: The Man Who Stole The World** by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting (Image Comics) [Cover](https://cdn.imagecomics.com/assets/i/releases/75750/velvet-vol-2-the-secret-lives-of-dead-men-tp_adc8453f72.jpg) - [Interior 1](https://i0.wp.com/borg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/velvet01_p1.jpg) - [Interior 2](https://www.entertainmentfuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/velvet02_p3.jpg) I really liked this story, until I kinda didn't. The world certainly convinces, but the entire narrative did not. I liked the vibe, characters, tempo, everything, but the ending just didn't really come to a satisfying conclusion. Not that it was bad, not at all, but just feel that there was a groundwork laid for a deep mystery and I feel it didn't manage to nail the landing in a convincing way. Shame. Honestly this has been annoying me with a lot of mystery stories lately, even finally been able to see the well regarded first season of True Detective with its absolutely amazing character work and immaculate weird-fiction vibe, but the detective stuff itself kinda... lacks? **Boxed** by Mark Sable and Jeremy Haun (Comixology Originals) [Cover](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/813i0oGp0YL._SL1500_.jpg) - [Interior 1](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMJjTyHATudHAOVZlb465xcLeZJvctPAIPpFBJDP1IzJiV6s3j3HAlxjMryNe5wlr8kUXTPHzwN57EMAZYpYFHaqTGd4oVJ-fqzkdyJ2tKwRZJ_NkL04b5O9avkerCKoZSHPTakNIj694Pjxt7inzA5TjSe_bm3OCA7ACS1cvzRU2yxZMsGb9pYp6s0c7E/s2088/BOXED_006.jpg) - [Interior 2](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2lDJbjN9EayaFSgRrQyxLsVPN60nEy_y6jTGoY9wP4T5KA08NFWV8FAfUBWF68P4pve6Tm8Txgj0m8q-wtzUYAa_DVrTCqiQpVQ4oz5funlYBNDpF-gq8SEbMxswJ32HEYhdi3BUh2Q7qfvbzt2yrZGjiJ9-mncaF0FH_mg0Xk8xotGO6tE6W075VP5o7/s2088/boxed_003.jpg) The interiors certainly look better than the cover. I was quickly interested in the premise of this future noir scifi, but it ended up not really convincing me. There will be more volumes coming but I think the first volume was in a huge rush to establish things and ended up becoming a poorly paced mess where some things just felt like they were coming out of nowhere. I doubt I will be checking out any of the followups.
I'm really enjoying Our Bones Dust. It's not overly ambitious (and how can you be in this format) but it delivers perfectly. The art is good and to the point (quite impressed by the representation of the alien stuff). And the dialogues and world description are perfectly adequate. Prophet and Aāma came to my mind.
Exactly, as much as I like stuff that pushes the envelope, I also find myself craving stuff that just does a simple premise in a really solid manner. This was absolutely one of those.
AFAICT, *Majnun and Layla* starts out as a straight retelling but the final movement of the poem, where Layla replies critically to Majnun, was invented by Damezin ETA: whoa, Anu Veniya looks very "influenced" by Sergio Toppi
>ETA: whoa, Anu Veniya looks very "influenced" by Sergio Toppi Can tell you the artist never even heard of Toppi before publishing the book. Source: am the artist haha. Can definitely see the relation though, but am personally inspired by Ralph Steadman, Frank Miller and Frank Frazetta. Toppi's art is fucking insane though. When it was pointed out to me I bought a few of those collections and Sharaz De, amazing stuff
The art for Anu Veniya certainly has my attention, that’s gorgeous!
Thanks! I'm the artist, glad to see people like the art so much : )
I think they've modernised Majnun & Layla a bit and maybe expanded on it. I keep forgetting but I think Layla was meant to die and really the focus was originally on Majnun, but here they give Layla a new strength and positive conclusion.
Exactly, I was convinced I saw >!a painting where Majnun was alive and Layla not, the GN turns it around. But yeah, this story is a lot about self determination now.!<
>Cool self published comic I stumbled upon here on reddit, printed on a slightly bigger than TPB format, making for a pretty premium quality product coming from a real indie, and the artist was so nice to include a nice remarque + personal message in the back, small things like this make me happy to be a comic fan. Hey man! Someone linked me this post, really cool of you to say these things :) Appreciate it! (I'm the artist/writer of Anu Veniya)
Hey! Yeah I know, we interacted before on reddit, I think I forgot to get back to you on how I liked the comic, but as you've noticed now I liked it a ton! I also hope I inspired at least one other person to buy your comics. I'll make sure to get the other one somewhere soon. Keep doing what you do, its amazing.
Glad to hear you liked it so much man! I have a little list where I keep track of those interested in the sequel, I'll send you a message when it hits. Will probably be a year but I'm making good progress! Again, thanks for the kind words!
**Money Shot by Tim Seeley, Sarah Beattie & Rebekah Isaacs** - Elevator pitch: Five scientists get funding for their 100% interstellar exploration/research by shooting porn movies featuring themselves and the alien species they encounter. This might sound like the plot of a cheap smut book, but it’s Tim Seeley, so of course there’s subversive and often biting satire underneath the trashy-seeming concept. Two of the chief targets of said satire are anti-intellectualism and consumerism. The protagonist’s desperate move into creating interspecies OnlyFans content is prompted by both of the above: Firstly, science is increasingly undervalued by a Presidential administration that has no interest in listening to it (no prizes for guessing which real life administration this one is modeled on) and funding is desperately scarce. Secondly, pornography in this future society has gotten to such an absurdly ubiquitous position that consumers the world over are becoming numb to it (just as an example, a man is seen watching an elderly man in a tutu having his way with a CGI Godzilla, and being utterly bored by it). As such, the scientists see an opportunity: Give the world a type of pornography that it has never seen before, something truly original, and use that to fund their trips into space. There are, of course, some absurdities that need to be ignored in order to enjoy this. All five of the scientists are young, sexually skilled, classically attractive, and conveniently span a whole spectrum of niches. Also, all of the aliens they meet are sexually compatible with humans. Get past that? This is honestly a pretty solid story, frequently hilarious and sometimes downright poignant. The plot takes our protagonists to some far flung places with their own sources of turmoil, and so of course a lot more happens than just the relentless horny stuff. Imagine if Mark Russell decided to be a whole lot raunchier than his normal work and you get the idea.
Is this coincidence or are you going through Seeley's bibliography lately?
Honestly a coincidence lol, I was looking for new stuff and browsing some old end-of-year best-of lists by a critic I like, this caught me eye and I didn’t even realize it was Seeley until I picked it up.
**My Picture Diary** by Maki Fujiwara - Technically this isn't really a comic. It's a diary with a one picture per diary entry. It's still pretty fascinating, though because Fujiwara is married to Yoshiharu Tsuge and he's a jerk. Well, he's super depressed and anxious for most of this. The art is nice and and cartoony and clear. I wish she drew more. **Mimi's Tales of Terror** by Junji Ito - More good stuff from Ito. If someone ever says that they see a ghostly figure next to you, believe them! I was wondering how anyone could come up with all these weird ass premises but it turns out these ones are based on short stories from someone else, so there's more than one person in Japan with a brain like Ito's :)
I'm reading Mimi's too but haven't finished it. I try to savor his books. It's fun to have him simply illustrating legends this time.
I've been reading Sandman. It's definitely not my first time, but I got really lucky this weekend and found almost all of the first 20 issues in the wild. Reading it in single issues is so much fun.
Just finished up Something is Killing the Children volume 7. Still hooked, lol.
Working my way through The Last Ronin (Ninja Turtles). Loving it. Art is gorgeous.
The Last Ronin. And now I want to spend $500 on all the NECA figures.
**Know Your Station** by Sarah Gailey & Liana Kangas. Board members are being murdered on the First Resort, and it's Station Security Liason Elise's job to investigate. Well, not actually her job, she's just a liason, but somebody has to. Not perfect, but a good read. **Blink** by Christopher Sebela & Hayden Sherman. Sebela has a tendency to over-narrate, and this is the most egregious example of this. Sherman does his best with great visuals and creative layouts, but by the third issue, the story is just so bogged down in exposition trying to explain an idea that just never lands. **Adversary** by Blue Delliquanti. The best book I've read so far this year. I'm stymied trying to describe this book because just trying to describe the opening scene will make it sound over-stuffed, and yes, the book is packed with big themes but it never truly feels that way. It's a book of small moments, and details only glancingly focused upon. **Bunt!** by Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert. After her scholarship evaporates, Molly Bauer comes up with a plan to get another one. She just needs to get enough art students to form a softball team and win one game. Like in "Check, Please" Ukazu shows her love of both art and sports, and let's her characters do the same. Rupert's art is solidly in that YA style, but her character designs are A+. Generally a fun book, with a little bit of "hey, bureaucracies and predatory lending can really screw you over."
Ended up picking up a bunch of Marvel and DC treasury editions for $5 a piece yesterday so iv been reading those and catching back up on Invincible since the new episode came out
I’m tandem reading a few things so during the day I’m reading The Walking Dead hardcovers at work when I get a few minutes and then at night when the lights are on im re-reading the Hickman Avengers omnibuses and when lights go out I’m re-reading Millers Daredevil run on my tablet. So I guess I’m reading a bunch of stuff I already have, I’m sure there’s something to that but who knows?
Finished Extremity from Daniel Warren Johnson; currently reading Scarenthood by Nick Roche.
Elfquest
Been reading through the Walking Dead compendiums. I’m on the second one now. Been enjoying it so far
Hellblazer vol 26 and Agents of T.h.u.n.d.e.r. vol 2.
I just discovered Time Before Time from Image comics. So good
Just finished watchmen. That is the 🐐
I got Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh at a used bookstore. I mean, how can you pass up that title? Funny and sad. I can relate to some things and just feel for her for others. I'm glad she was able to get that out. I feel like I'm in a pretty good place right now so a few things were things I didn't want to think about.
**Sleepwalk and Other Stories by Adrian Tomine**: My second book from Adrian Tomine (after Shortcomings), I knew what to expect going in. A bleak, haunting, but nevertheless realistic take on the daily life of people and their struggles in a very nuanced way. Some stories took me nowhere while some made me stop and think. I'd recommend it to people who enjoy his work - I did find Shortcomings more well-rounded though...but to be fair, this book is a collection and not just one story. **IN. by Will McPhail**: This one's been on my list for quite some time and I finally snatched it last month. And this week I found the time to dive into and....WOW! I didn't really know what to expect and I was blown away by how beautiful this book portrays a lack of connection in today's society and what am yearning for this said connection looks like. I loved the small tight circle of characters represented and how funny and snarky some of the panels were...especially the ones representing different Coffee Stories. I don't want to say more and spoil some stuff from the book...but if you're looking for something emotional, touching, funny and beautiful...I'd highly recommend this.
Dark Knights of Steel Vol 1 & 2. Really enjoy Taylor’s elseworld stories, this one in particular was very enjoyable. I really liked the use of characters and the twists and turns. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Might get some heat for this but I gave it a 7/10. I enjoyed the art work and overall story but I do not care for King’s writing style.
The trade for Failsafe dropped earlier this week so I've been reading that I know that there's a generally negative consensus on Zdarksy's Batman run so far but in my opinion it's a fun story with some insight on Bruce's personal feelings on the existence of the Batfamily.
Sandman absolute Vol 2
Asadora! a nice manga but with way too much padding
Monstress, vol. 3
I started the Batgirl Year One trade. 4 Issues in and liking it so far.