Aisha Franz, Shit is Real (Drawn & Quarterly, 2018), $24.95, pb. This book continues and expands upon many of the themes Franz explored in her previous work, Alien (published in English as Earthling), here focusing her exploration of loneliness and the alienation of modern life through the eyes of Selma, a young adult adrift in a vaguely […]
Max de Radiguès, Wauter Mannaert, Weegee: Serial Photographer (Conundrum, 2018). $18, pb. Instead of attempting to tell the story of Weegee’s life from his childhood immigration to the U.S. through his final years in Hollywood and Europe, de Radiguès and Mannaert choose to focus on a slice of the life: his final years working the streets of […]
Gary Groth, ed., Sparring With Gil Kane: Debating The History and Aesthetics of Comics (Fantagraphics, 2018). $22.99, pb. Sparring with Gil Kane is a book of conversations, but its title suggests a contest or bout, as if intellectual disputation were a knuckle-bruising donnybrook or prizefight—or perhaps the equivalent of a few rounds among friendly but formidable partners. […]
Ander Nilsen, Tongues #1 (No Miracles Press, 2017). $15. An eagle wings over a mountain and across a dry, flat, stretching plain, then alights on a scene of human catastrophe: armored cars overturned, the ground cratered as if from a bombing, and a sprawled, broken-looking man’s corpse lying nearby. The eagle frees a frantic skittering monkey […]
Bob Batchelor, Stan Lee: The Man Behind Marvel (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017). $22.95, hc. Ask any true believer who Stan Lee is and you’ll get the following responses: • The face of Marvel Comics. • The creator of The Fantastic Four, X-Men, and The Avengers. • The old man appearing in the Marvel superhero films. Stan […]
Michael Kupperman, All the Answers (Gallery 13, 2018). $25, hc. For those who are familiar with Kupperman’s previous work, All the Answers will be a very different thing in terms of both style and substance. Compared to the belly laughs (and spit-takes) of his Tales Designed to Thrizzle, this is a fairly sombre and deeply earnest book. And […]
Nicolas Wild, Kabul Disco: How I Managed Not to Be Abducted in Afghanistan (Humanoids, 2018). $19.95, pb. Originally published in France in 2007, Kabul Disco tells the story of Wild’s experiences working for a communications organization in Afghanistan in 2005—a job he took on a whim when his housing in Paris suddenly evaporated. Despite the subtitle, Wild […]
Experiences of immigration, migration, exile, and diaspora have a long and rich history in global comics, as we will hear from a variety of presenters at the inaugural CSS conference in August. Recently, the Executive Board has been discussing what, if any, should be our collective and individual responses as comics scholars to the growing […]
The Comics Studies Society’s founding president just finished his term in office, somehow finding time in his final months in office to also start a new review site, KinderComics, devoted to “the intersection of comics studies, childhood studies, and children’s publishing.” We sat down for a (virtual) chat about his new project… What inspired you […]
Ellen Forney, Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice from My Bipolar Life. Fantagraphics, 2018. $19.95. Rock Steady begins with an energetic welcome: “Hi! I’m Ellen Forney, bipolar cartoonist.” The word “bipolar” is wedged between Forney’s name and occupation. This labelling suggests an ownership of her mental illness that is a far cry from the uncertainty and franticness of […]
Doug Wagner & Nicholas Nic Rummel, The Hard Place (Image Comics, 2018), $16.99, pb. I love crime comics, but I am pretty religiously a trade-waiter these days, so I had to wait my turn to get ahold of this book, which launched in floppies late last summer. It was pretty much worth the wait—an exciting, well-crafted […]
Box Brown, Is This Guy for Real?: The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman (First Second, 2018). $19.99, pb. Growing up in the 1970s there were many things that confused me: OPEC, Watergate, and vinyl jumpsuits being just a few. But nothing confused me more than Andy Kaufman. I mean, I thought I got his early schtick on […]