Earthling Aisha Franz (w, a), Helge Dascher (translator) Drawn & Quarterly November 4, 2014
Noragami, a Tale of a Stray God and a Cat-Tailed Girl
Noragami: Stray God volumes 1-4 Adachitoka (mangaka); Alethea Nibley & Athena Nibley (translation); Lys Blakeslee (lettering) Kodansha, September 2014-April 2015 Note: this essay contains mild spoilers; review copies provided by Kodansha. You’ve got a sassy small god who wants to be a big god. You’ve got a girl who sometimes has a catlike tail. You’ve…
Making Manga is Hard—and Funny: Manga Dogs Reviewed
Manga Dogs, vols. 1–3 Ema Toyama (mangaka); William Flanagan (translation); Jennifer Skarupa (lettering); Phil Balsman (cover design) Kodansha What do you think of comics artists and writers? Okay, I can probably answer some of that: if you’re reading this, you’re probably not among the camp who thinks of them as weirdos. Or maybe you do,…
Attack on Titan’s Gargantuan (Sales) Impact
Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人, Shingeki no Kyojin) is a force to be reckoned with. And no, I’m not talking about the monstrous, human-eating, gigantic Titans that represent chaos and xenophobia for the series’ protagonists. I’m talking about pure, cold, hard capitalism here. Numbers, numbers, numbers, money, money, money.
Barakamon: A Slice of Japanese Island Life
Barakamon, Vols. 1 – 4 Satsuki Yoshino Translation/Adaptation: Krista Shipley, Karie Shipley Lettering: Lys Blakeslee Yen Press Take one hotshot young calligrapher from Tokyo and put him in a fishing village with a bunch of quirky locals and what do you get? It’s called Barakamon, and it’s great.
Short & Sweet: iZOMBIE, My Little Pony, Agame ga Kill! and more!
iZOMBIE #1-28 Chris Robinson (W), Mike Allred (A) Vertigo (Re-release) Now is a perfect time to revisit the series since the CW just released a new series based (loosely) on the comic. ComiXology has it for .99 cents as of this writing! The comic is a little different. Gwen’s a grave digger, not a ME…
Star Spangled Stories: Milkyway Hitchhiking
Milkyway Hitchhiking, Vol. 1 & 2 Sirial Yen Press November, 2014 & January, 2015
Short & Sweet: Orphans & Angels
Orphan Black #1 Graeme Manson, John Fawcett, Jody Houser (W) Szymon Kudranski (A), Mat Lopes (C) IDW February 25, 2015
Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires: Battling in (Hair)Style
Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires Koei Tecmo Omega Force February 26, 2015 Okay right off the bat my favorite part of this game — introduced to me by my lovely roommates — is the customization feature. There’s nothing more enjoyable than sitting around your living room with a group of friends dissecting each part of your…
Why I Cringed During the Agent Carter Finale
Let me start by saying that I’ve had a blast watching Agent Carter. There are many reasons why the show is fun and important and awesome and all those good things. Others (including the amazing Rachel Edidin) have already done a great job outlining the good stuff; there are some good critiques out there too,…
Short & Sweet: Star-Lord, Sandman, and Silk!
Legendary Star-Lord #9 Sam Humphries (W), Paco Medina (A) Marvel Comics February 18, 2015
Bitch Planet #3 Review: Bitches Be Like….
Bitch Planet #3 Kelly Sue DeConnick (W) Robert Wilson IV (Guest Artist) Image Comics February 18, 2015 Third issues are hard. DeConnick mentioned in the previous BitchFest (the first afterward that follows the comic itself) that they plan for Bitch Planet to be roughly 30 issues collected into five trades. While comics writers are masters…
