Oh my goodness it's a busy day here.
We have Frank Santoro with an abbreviated column. Then on to Shaenon Garrity with a full column of web comic capsule reviews, and then Dominic Umile with a review of Look Straight Ahead:
The Canadian comics writer and artist began putting rough concepts together for a webcomic before she was awarded one of the last self-publishing grants from the Xeric Foundation, which has since shifted from bestowing grants upon the comics community to a strict diet of charity donations. In her now-print story, Will follows seventeen year-old budding artist Jeremy Knowles through the halls of his high school, where he battles a swiftly deepening identity crisis, hallucinations, and the detrimental sense of ignorance of his mental illness that awaits him at every turn. Owing to the struggles that Will has experienced since she was a kid, the wealth of hurt in Look Straight Ahead gathers like a storm in the frames dominated by Knowles’s shouting, frustrated father and in his dealings with typical schoolyard bullies. “It’s bad enough that everyone I go to school with hates me and wants to kill me,” Jeremy explains when finally ushered to a medical facility. His serial defeats, under the great weight of a disorder, are palpable and heartbreaking while Will’s pens dazzle.
Phew. What else is out there?
The Fantagraphics Kickstarter as covered by The New York Times and some commentary on it from Tom Spurgeon.
Sean T. Collins on a page from a comic by Leah Wishnia.
A nice think piece on digital lending and Charles Burns.
Thoughts on Alan Moore from his biographer, Lance Parkin.
Here's a good list for any purpose -- this one for what to look for at the upcoming Short Run Festival in Seattle.
Incidents in the Night reviewed in The Washington Post.
Finally, a bit about The Brownies.
