It has been a great couple of years to be a tarot reader. The rise in popularity of self published decks has been amazing and some truly talented artists have undertaken the extraordinary task of illustrating all 78 cards. My latest tarot obsession is comic artist Isabella Rotman’s This Might Hurt Tarot Deck, a modernized…
Benji Nate’s Lorna is Cute, Violent and Relatable
Lorna Benji Nate Silver Sprocket May 2019 A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Lorna is a comic about a girl who loves knives, loves to threaten boys, collects skeletons, and maybe is the reason those skeletons are available to be collected. It is about…
Fluid, Urgent, and Sensual, Isadora Sings with Life
Isadora Julie Birmant (writer); Clement Oubreie (artist) SelfMadeHero September 17th, 2019 Isadora is a beautifully drawn and elegant erotic graphic novel for adults which does a fantastic job reimagining the life of the famous dancer, Isadora Duncan, who both conceptualized modern dance and led a colorful, storied life. From the loss of her two children…
Insta Made Me Read It: Random Chat & The Croaking
Insta Made Me Read It is a column zoned in on the webtoons that get repped by the official Instagram account of Line Webtoon. I think it’s interesting and telling which titles get real support from the platform, and what that tells us about the target audience for this tremendously successful comics app. Random Chat…
Dead Legends #1 Wants to Test Your Might
Dead Legends #1 Ryan Ferrier (letterer), James Maddox (writer), Gavin Smith (artist) A Wave Blue World October 9, 2019 Descending a long staircase buried deep in a lush forest, competitors bring their medallions to the registration table, marking their names to become part of the Dead Legends fighting tournament. Winners become legends. Losers become, well, dead…
The Nib: An Outstanding Series
At the Ignatz Awards this year, The Nib’s print magazine won the prestigious award for Outstanding Series, and both the Death issue (published September 2018) and the Family issue (published January 2019) were individually nominated in the category Outstanding Anthology. They were both strong contenders for the prize, as they offered a wide range of…
Apocalyptic Blues (and Pinks, and Oranges) in Ben Passmore’s DAYGLOAYHOLE
DAYGLOAYHOLE # 1-3 Ben Passmore Silver Sprocket 2018-2019 In Ben Passmore’s Ignatz-nominated DAYGLOAYHOLE, the apocalypse has already happened. Cities are destroyed, people incinerated … it’s a bad time. But of course it wouldn’t be any kind of time without someone to interpret it, bringing us to the bespectacled and underwear-clad Ben. Passmore’s partial self-insert, Ben is…
Walking Distance and The Tower in the Sea Lead Avery Hill’s Fall Debuts
Avery Hill takes pride in being a London-based publishing company “that helps aspiring creators reach their potential and is a home to the geniuses that the mainstream has yet to recognise.” This fall, they welcome several new titles to their roster, including Lizzy Stewart’s Walking Distance, as well as the third installment of B. Mure’s Ismyre…
Are You Listening? Is a Road Trip Through Wistful, Empty Roads
Are You Listening? Tillie Walden (artist & writer) August 7, 2019 First Second Content warning: This work contains references to sexual assault. “The guidebooks play deception; oceans are A property of mind. All maps are fiction, All travelers come to separate frontiers.” -Adrienne Rich, Itinerary When two young women face a chance encounter on the…
Insta Made Me Read It: Fluffy Boyfriend and Little Matcha Girl
This week, I’m looking at once comic I saw on the Webtoon Instagram, Little Matcha Girl. It wasn’t a promoted post, but it was a video advert for a new release—notable production investment. The other, Fluffy Boyfriend, was suggested for me by the Webtoon app based on the comics I subscribed to (i.e. the comics…
Cheshire Crossing Is Rightfully the Messy Fanfic It Knows It Is
Cheshire Crossing Andy Weir (writer), Sarah Andersen (illustrator), Alison George (colors) July 9, 2019 Ten Speed Press Time and time again, writers explore the what-if’s and rhetorical epilogues of iconic, fantastical worlds in classic literature. How did Alice’s experiences in Wonderland affect her? How does Dorothy Gale fare back in Kansas after leaving the wonderful…
Hope Nicholson on the Bonds of Comic Conventions and Having Different Perspectives
We have covered Dark Horse Comics’ Pros and (Comic) Cons at Women Write About Comics in the past, but when I got the opportunity to speak to editor Hope Nicholson at Fan Expo Canada, I couldn’t pass up the chance to chat with her about her own comic convention experiences, the process behind putting Pros…