It’s not always safe to say that a series is definitively over – writers, like life, find a way to come back – but when a third book came out five years ago and the creator has moved on to other projects, it’s clear that what we have is a trilogy and we can treat…
Just reading two books by a creator doesn’t make you an expert: let me say that up front. I read Juan Berrio’s lovely wordless Kiosco earlier this year, and was happy to see his name again when browsing through my library’s app. (Either the app itself or the publishers putting work into it are not…
So Gilbert Hernandez makes his regular comics stories – I almost said “normal,” but that’s not the right word here – with continuing characters set in a real world. They get pretty rococo; Hernandez is fond of overcomplication and of turning his theme-amplifier knob up to eleven and then trying to twist it up even…
Guy Delisle’s new book last year – his first graphic novel since 2021’s Factory Summers – was something of a change of pace. Delisle, to this point, had mostly had two strands of his career – the short books of funny strips like the four “Bad Dad ” collections and some early work , and…
If you knew nothing else, and heard that Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud had made a graphic novel together under the title The Cartoonists Club , what would you think? Most of us would say something flippant like “Oh, it must be Understanding Comics, but for pre-teens, and in Telgemeier’s art style!” And…that’s pretty much…
One of the standard kinds of nonfiction is the “here’s a trend; what does it mean?” book. It can be serious or tabloid-y; breezy or deep; based on research or vibes. But I don’t think it’s been presented in comics form much, if at all. Kristen Radtke, though, seems to be carving out that as…
I like reading short stories much more than I like writing about them. And I don’t read short fiction all that much, so maybe I don’t even enjoy even reading them as much as I think I do. That’s complicated math, so I’ll leave it there. Jordan Crane has been making comics for thirty years,…
Iron Man: Super SmashBy Dean Hale and Douglas Holgate96 pages/Abrams Fanfare/$12.99 The team behind the entertaining Iron Man: Something Strange is back with a new graphic novel for younger readers, this time pairing Shellhead with the jade-jawed giant himself, the Hulk. In this whimsical adventure, Iron Man senses the Hulk has something against him, and…
The British Are Coming Vol. 1By Rick Atkinson, Nora Neus, and Frederico Pietrobon320 pages/10 Speed Graphics/$35 Adapting prose storytelling to a graphic novel is tricky. Sure, it’s easier to visualize colonial America than describe it in words, but you also need to ensure readers know what they’re looking at and why. In this adaptation of…
Mike Mignola seems to be settling into his “Lands Unknown” for an extended stay; that’s a good thing for those of us who enjoyed the light touch and quirky bits of folklore – not to mention the pure joy of storytelling evident throughout – that he brought to the first “Lands Unknown” book, Bowling for…
We Are Pan By Andre Frattino, Yasmin Flores Montañez, and Fabi Marques184 pages/Top Shelf Productions/$19.99 One of the best parts of mainstream publishers widening the breadth of graphic novels now available for readers of all ages. One of the hottest categories seems to be creating nonfiction, exploring memoir, and little-known tidbits of history. I was…
Comics do at least half of their storytelling through images – but sometimes I wonder if some creators think their images can communicate deep, complex concepts that are clear and crisp in their own minds, even when they don’t embody those ideas in words. Max Huffman’s graphic novel Dogtangle brings up those thoughts: it’s obviously…
