Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sandsby Kate Beaton Like many, I was completely smitten by Kate Beaton after being exposed to Hark! A Vagrant. Like many, I was also very intrigued by whatever project she had been working on since moving back to Nova Scotia and starting a family (what’s she building up there?). The answer is putting the finishing touches on Ducks: an autobiographical graphic novel about Beaton’s two years working in the oil sands of Canada. The...
The Incalby Alejandro Jodorowsky & Moebius It’s still strange for me to think about how the documentary Jodorowksy’s Dune changed my life. It made me appreciate Dune and Jodorowsky as a filmmaker. Now, I’m a fan of both and I have that little documentary to thank. As the film made me start a slow deep dive into Jodorowsky, I knew that eventually I would have to come to The Incal. I dove in with high expectations. The big thing to...
Kent State: Four Dead in Ohioby Derf Backderf Take a really good look at this book and know that to look into Derf Backderf’s Kent State is to look at the real potential in comics. I used to drink the cool-aid just like everyone else and thought that comics meant Batman and Superman, or even worse, just DC or Marvel. But eventually I put on my big boy pants and realized that comics are just a form of expression and...
Dog Days of Snakepit by Ben Snakepit It’s easy to understate the subtlety of Ben Snakepit’s work. He’s like a centaur: a comic book artist torso powered by a punk rock body. There is no doubt that punk rock has shaped who Ben is and his perspective on life. The man has been in more bands that I either of us can count and I am a proud owner of his music. He’s also an all-around beloved guy. But maybe...
Empowered Vol. 11by Adam Warren Reckon with the man Adam Warren and his works! Especially Empowered. I gotta say the only thing that’s gotten worse about the Empowered series is that they don’t come out as often as they used to. Is it a superhero comic? A parody of superheroes? A manga? A sci-fi story? It’s really all of those things. Adam Warren has been able to grow and mature his little baby which started out as short “sketches” of...
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, Nick Bertozzi It’s comic books like these that I love writing about. Partly because it helps fuel the fire of the flame I’m stoking about how mainstream superhero comics are now irrelevant. Also, because The Good Earth is a fantastic book that I want to tell everyone about. Yes, I know it was a novel long before it was a comic book, so hold your horses. Instead of dealing with flying capes and...
The Weirdo Years by R. Crumb: 1981-’93 Robert Crumb is THE man in indie comics. Having been around for so long and having put out material of such high quality, and having been such an influence on not just other artists, but other writers and on pop culture in general, it’s imperative that everyone even remotely interested in art (any art) should check out R. Crumb’s work. But where to start? Like I said, R. Crumb has such a...
Ape-Men of the Apocalypse by Brad Dwyer I finally was able to understand the Cosmic Superhero Epic genre when I read Joe Casey’s G0DLAND. Until then I had only read Jack Kirby’s Fourth World series and was thoroughly shocked by it. Shocked because it was so terrible. Honestly, there’s bad and then there’s embarrassing. The dialogue and story and characters were so laughable that I thought I was reading the wrong comics. Then G0DLAND came along and I understood the...
The Story of My Tits by Jennifer Hayden It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly makes Jennifer Hayden’s book The Story of my Tits so beautiful. Perhaps it’s the art itself which is childlike and charming, perhaps it’s the fact that she managed to fit so much story into this book, or perhaps it’s the fact that Hayden here expertly delivers a personal and relatable story arching her entire life (so far). Perhaps it’s all of these things. The Story of...
A critical evaluation of The Best American Comics 2015 (Best American Comics) by Jonathan Lethem (Editor) and Bill Kartalopoulos (Editor). The Best American Comics series are simply imperative reading. Comics (note the editors don’t need to yank anyone’s chain like they do in the mainstream and substitute the words “graphic novelâ€) are undoubtedly a booming art form. More comics are being written, drawn and produced than ever, and lucky for us, Bill Kartalopoulos has the monumental task of finding the...