That Box We Sit On Richie Pope (Art &Words) I came across Richie Pope’s Ignatz-winning comic That Box We Sit On while I was moseying through the Comics Twitterverse. A story about two black kids hanging out, sitting on the same box my siblings and I would sit on when we didn’t want to play,…
Ignatz Alert: How to Be Alive
How to Be Alive Tara Booth 2017 Retrofit Comics/Big Planet Comics How to Be Alive turns a collection of Tara Booth’s gouache vignettes into a complicated, intense look at Booth’s everyday life that swings from hilarious to saddening in the turn of a page. From dragging on the layers required to face a cold day…
Ignatz Award Winner Mis(h)adra Shares An Accurate Depiction of The Seizure Disorder Experience
When the graphic novel Mis(h)adra was first released in October 2017 and I heard about the personal story of a young man named Isaac who deals with epilepsy, I knew I had to read it. It is a semi-autobiographical tale written and illustrated by creator Iasmin Omar Ata. In Mis(h)adra, Ata explores their past struggles with…
My Ideal Librarian: A Review of Bug Boys
Bug Boys: Volume 1 Laura Knetzger Czap Books 2015 Critics often ask ourselves how we can approach a review with as little bias as possible. Can you truly be unbiased about a piece that hits on themes related to your own identity? Regardless of how your views fall, I’ll warn you now: this is an…
You Yourself Are an Obsolete Computer: Reading Carta Monir
“Virtual intimacies were failures before the fact. If you had to get online to get it, it couldn’t be the real thing. But what is the real thing, what is real intimacy?” —Shaka McGlotten Before it spirals out into freaky chatroom horror, Carta Monir’s Secure Connect takes the familiar and comforting form of a memoir…
Hell is for Lovers: Pinky and Pepper Forever
Pinky and Pepper Forever Ivy Atoms Silver Sprocket June 18, 2018 A review copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Pinky and Pepper are two artists in love. They’re both students trying to refine their craft and find their audience, but neither one feels like they’re having…
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…
Choosing Comics for Choice: An Interview with Editor Hazel Newlevant
Comics for Choice is a black and white comics anthology that features 60 contributing artists and writers, 41 stories, and is raising money for the National Network of Abortion Funds. You might recognize the publisher and co-editor Hazel Newlevant from her book, If This Be Sin, or her previous crowdfunded anthology, Chainmail Bikini: The Anthology of Women…
