Peplum
Trying to survive the after-effects of an encounter with sublime beauty is the madness that permeates Blutch’s Peplum. The question of how to negotiate desire in the face of the thing which destroys all other desires; how to live after … Continue reading
Sick
Sick, the belated follow up to Gabby Schulz’s Ignatz Award-winning graphic novel Monsters, is an uncompromising, autobiographical look at the horrors of being severely ill, impoverished and uninsured, in modern day America. Continue reading
Gorgeous
If, as J.G. Ballard wrote in 1973, the car crash is a fertilizing rather than destructive event, the central car crash in Cathy G. Johnson’s Gorgeous yields fertile, if shaky, ground for an up-and-coming artist. The heart of Gorgeous’s story … Continue reading
An Olympic Dream
Biography, memoir, and autobiography are possibly the trendiest genres of book-format comics; one cannot even list the titles that have been published since the recent boom in the early 2000s. Some say that there are too many graphic biographies and … Continue reading
What Is Obscenity? The Story of a Good for Nothing Artist and Her Pussy
Artist Rokudenashiko, arrested in Japan in 2009 on obscenity charges for her vagina (or Manko)-inspired art, relates the the experience in all its absurdity in this manga memoir. Continue reading
Wonder Woman: Earth One
DC Comics’ long awaited Wonder Woman: Earth One graphic novel, written by Grant Morrison with art by Yanick Paquette, opens with a triumphant Hercules standing over a kneeling Queen Hippolyta, bound in chains, as he exults, “Queen of the Amazons! … Continue reading
The Complete Wimmen’s Comix
Tackling a body of works published in a form fundamentally different from its original iteration – like the newly released two-volume hardcover, The Complete Wimmen’s Comix – can feel a bit daunting. The collection, which comes in at 700 pages, … Continue reading
Rules for Dating My Daughter
Mike Dawson delivers an uneven collection of personal essay-style memoir comics, occasionally thoughtful, but often thoughtless in its concern for others. Continue reading
