Wake Now in the FireBy Jarrett Dapier and AJ Dungo464 pages/Ten Speed Graphic/$38 (hardcover) $24.99 (softcover) For several years, I taught Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis in my high school English classes, a chance to introduce readers to the graphic novel storytelling style while helping see what people their age endure in other countries. Last year, after…
A Brief History of a Long War: Ukraine’s Fight Against Russian DominationBy Mariam Naiem, Yulia Vus, and Ivan Kypibida112 pages/Ten Speed Graphics/19.99 As the horrific Ukraine War continues, nearing its fourth anniversary, along comes this wonderful graphic novel. A Brief History of a Long War: Ukraine’s Fight Against Russian Domination niftily blends a contemporary account…
In a city somewhere, there’s a tall man, bald on top. We don’t know his name. We don’t know his job, or if he has one. We know he lives in a small apartment, plagued by a mouse he keeps trying to catch, and that he eats some kind of canned food, maybe exclusively, and…
I knew I was going to be writing this post on Thanksgiving morning, so I picked an appropriate book. Of course, since time flows forward, you’re reading this much later, untethered from any holiday (unless you celebrate Three Kings’ Day, in which case, go you), but that’s the reason for it. Jim Henson was the…
Naomi Nowak published three graphic novels in the Aughts – I missed the first one, Unholy Kinship, but covered the second one, House of Clay, for ComicMix at the time. And now I’ve finally found my way to the third book, 2009’s Graylight . At the time, I referred to her as “a cartoonist resident…
Most lives don’t have a specific story. People do things, they live and die, and it doesn’t form any particular shape. Famous people are more likely to have stronger story elements – there’s at least a rise, possibly a fall, probably phases or eras – but that only means better raw materials for a biographer….
Hey everyone! With so many nonprofits needing a helping hand during this crazy pandemic, today is a special #GivingTuesday! It’s a day to shine a light on charities and remind us all to show them some love through donations (which, by the way, are usually tax-deductible). If you have the funds and whant to help…
Making Nonfiction ComicsBy Eleri JHarris & Shay Mirk272 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$29.99 There are numerous books available on how to write comics (I co-wrote one and am editing another), as well as on how to draw, letter, and color comics. However, no one really focuses on content like this excellent volume, which concentrates entirely on the growing…
Globetrotters: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s World TourBy Julian Voloj & Julie Rocheleau184 pages/Abrams ComicArts/$25.99 Elizabeth Jane Cochran liked to write under various names, beginning her journalism career as “Lonely Orphan Girl” for the Pittsburgh Dispatch before adopting the more familiar name Nellie Bly. As Bly, she checked into New York City’s Women’s Lunatic Asylum…
When a creator you like turns to creating works for younger readers, you have two choices: follow him along, and check out the new stuff, trying to have an open mind, or to avoid the new stuff and grump about how creators should keep doing the things you discovered them for, grumble grumble. OR –…
This was Richard Sala’s first book; this edition is (at least for the moment) Richard Sala’s last book. Sala died in mid-2020, alone at home, of what turned out to be a heart attack. He didn’t die of COVID, but I have to believe he’s one of the many, many people who would have had…
Comics are about sex less often than most artforms. Call it a lingering prudishness, the hangover from long decades seen as a medium just for kids, or just the fact that drawn sex is inherently a bit more fleshy than the written kind. But it’s true: comics avoid sex a lot of the time, and…
