(or you are that roommate) The transition of a webcomic to print is always exciting for me; it often showcases how a cartoonist’s skills have improved over time, be they narrative, visual, or both. Even for veritable pros in comics, the tangible progression of a collected series shows off how artists experiment with new techniques,…
Roundtable: Kate Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
Here at WWAC, we’ve been fans of Kate Beaton for a long time, so we were especially excited for the publication of Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, Beaton’s highly anticipated memoir of her time working in the isolated Alberta oil-mining camps. At over 400 pages of Beaton’s distinctive intimate and emotional style, Ducks…
Humour in Times of Crisis: How Satire Can Lead to Self-Reflection and Social Action
Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal was introduced to me in March of 2020 by a highly valued friend and mentor, just as the world was locking down for the first time. It has become my comfort read throughout this wild journey we have been on in the past year as the post-apocalyptic collection of skit-esque…
Clyde Fans Is Old and Tired and Racist
Whilst researching the history of Clyde Fans and its author, I found that the Guardian ran two separate reviews of the book a week apart this past spring. Both were glowing pieces hailing the book’s somber melancholy, one going so far as to praise its author, the mononymous Seth, as a genius. Other outlets have…
WWAC’s Free Comic Book Day Favorites!
Free Comic Book Day! One of the best days of the year for comic book fans, FCBD is perfect for discovering new books, hooking little or novice fans, or getting to know your local comic community. (And, if you’re in my neck of the woods, getting a free shaved ice in honor of the day…
The Countryside is no Picnic in Uncomfortably Happily
Uncomfortably Happily Yeon-Sik Hong Drawn & Quarterly June 13, 2017 A graphic memoir by Korean artist Yeon-Sik Hong, Uncomfortably Happily is the tale of an artist-couple who moves from the hustle and bustle of Seoul to the relative peace and quiet of the countryside. Or so they think. Those of us who live in big cities often dream…
Mimi Pond’s The Customer is Always Wrong is Just Right
The Customer is Always Wrong Mimi Pond (Writer and Artist) Drawn & Quarterly August 9th, 2017 Mimi Pond’s The Customer is Always Wrong captures that time of carefree youth, when everything seems to last forever and yet, with a creeping certainty, the consequences of one’s actions are slowly making their first marks. The graphic novel presents…
Leslie Stein’s Present is an Abstract Treasure
Present Leslie Stein (Writer and Artist) Drawn & Quarterly October, 2017 Leslie Stein’s Present has garnered the kind of praise that an artist can only dream of. “Like Kandinsky illustrating Virginia Woolf” reads a blurb by The Globe and Mail on the back of the book. Everyone everywhere, from Paste magazine to The Comics Journal…
Berliac: Sadboi Drawn and Quartered
On May 31st, Drawn and Quarterly announced they would be publishing Argentinian cartoonist Berliac’s Sadboi, a graphic novel following the exploits of an immigrant to Norway stigmatized and denied the opportunity to integrate into Norwegian society. Within 48 hours, the publisher withdrew plans to publish Sadboi and issued an apology for not doing their due…
Fire!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story Misses Its Target
Fire!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story Peter Bagge (Writer and Artist) Drawn & Quarterly March 2017 When a call was put out asking who would like review the new graphic novel, Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story, my response was “Who wouldn’t?” Zora Neale Hurston was a remarkable female anthropologist, folklorist and writer. She was…
Review: R. Sikoryak’s Terms and Conditions
Terms and Conditions R. Sikoryak Drawn & Quarterly TPB March 7, 2017 Disclaimer: Terms and Conditions was reviewed with a copy provided by the publisher. Many elementary school students, when confronted with a chunk of text beyond their previously experienced reading level, are advised to break up said text in order to make it easier…
What is Journalism? A Review of Rolling Blackouts
Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq Sarah Glidden Drawn + Quarterly October 2016 A review copy was provided by the publisher. What is journalism? This is the primary question cartoonist Sarah Glidden pursued while traveling through Turkey, Iraq and Syria in 2010. Glidden’s friends and co-founders of The Seattle Globalist, Sarah Stuteville and…