2022: Comics (and other readable publications)

Alright, so I was originally going to go into as much detail with my thoughts about everything on this list, but after a few days of work and aching flanges, I scrapped it all and decided to just go "Blurb Mode" for the entirety of this list. It was as tough decision, but one that I think benefits this wrap-up over all. Besides, I'm not being paid for this and at one point I had way too much written about Mr. Boop. How embarrassing is that?

There's over 100 items on this list and, if I'm being honest, I don't remember a whole lot of them (even the ones I like!) and there are going to be several entries with nothing underneath them at all. I've also probably missed some and if you see the gaps let me know. I don't actually know how you'd know that I read something that I didn't know about, but my point still stands. Anyway let's get started with some "real" novels!

i hate the internet by Jarett Kobek

Contains some decent commentary about the decline of San Francisco, the exploitative history of the comics industry, and why the internet is a hellish nightmare. The framing narrative I don't think is all that great, and I doubt that anyone working in comics would be famous enough to go viral outside of a bubble of comics fans Also, while the over-explanatory prose style is pretty funny, starting off, it can get tedious by the end.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Somehow much more bleak and depressing than the film Stalker. That's just the Soviet Union, I suppose. It gives a lot more context for the content of the film, and reveals new horrors that never made it in: slime that dissolves bones, the stalker's daughters devolving, and the dead being reanimated and just sort of hanging around. The central "Roadside Picnic" metaphor that describes the zone is also pretty great and throws away any notion of anthropocentricsm in the structure of this sci-fi world.

Fooday by Ian Mackay

West Coast Soft Boys by Matt Goldberg and Ian MacKay

Gnocchi Gnocchi: Who's There? by Anna Haifisch and Stefanie Leinhos

A love letter to Pasta. What's not to like?

Noah Van Sciver

My Hot Date (and Other Embarrassments)

Blammo: Issues 1-5

I always enjoy looking at some of the early work of any artist, and this is definitely that. There's some more "edgy" comics reminiscent of the underground stuff of the 70s, but you can tell where Noah's strength and true interests are, especially with the "The Spider Man of Denver" comic. Also, I'm certain that I'm the only fan of "Chicken Strips."

Nitnit and the Pink Lambda Mystery by Valium

A lot of people throw the term "trippy" around willy-nilly, but this is a work where that adjective is a lot more appropriate. Nitnit, who resembles a certain Franco-Belgian journalist, has to solve the evil plot that is turning all the men gay. I think. It's great, with overlapping, repeated imagery in a way that works well in a way that doesn't confuse or distract paired with a certain foul-mouthedness that is more charming than offensive.

Enigma: the Definitive Edition by Peter Milligan, Duncan Fegredo, Sherilyn van Valkenburger, and John Costanza

I'm a big fan of Enigma, and this is a beautiful hardcover edition with some good extra stuff thrown in into the back. But I'm always wary of re-release like this as I feel it's a precursor to a terrible adaptation being on the way. I don't need that in my life.

Lupin the Third: Greatest Heists by Monkey Punch

I had never read Lupin III before, but then again, it was all published by Tokyopop back in the day, and they were never great at… well, publishing. I was surprised at how so much of the artwork looks like it's straight from contemporary MAD Magazines. It's a great blend of gentleman thief stuff and slapstick comedy. The first chapter where everyone reunites, but disguised as everyone else sets the tone for the rest of the collection. It's fantastic.

 

Please, give me the entire series run sometime in the future. You can even just do crappy omnibus reprints of the Tokyopop work. I shouldn't put that out in the world. Really, what I want more are the Italian Lupin III comics, each issue of which is handled by a different artist.

Osamu Tezuka

The godfather of manga. this year was all about his more… """""ADULT"""" works (aside from Dororo, of course) and how they're… odd, for the most part.

MW

Dark, weird, but I didn't hate it. It almost starts to feel like Tezuka thinks bisexual twinks are inherently evil (not entirely wrong), but barely avoids it.

Dororo

This was a re-read for me, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Although, now, more than anything else I'd like to read Search and Destroy, a reinterpretation of the series from Atsushi Kaneko.

The Book of Human Insects

This is where I got an inkling that Tezuka might have a bit of a strange view of women in general. Does it have something to do with this work centering a fraudulent creative who steals of her most famous works and has a disturbing relationship with a wax statue of her mother? Possibly.

Ayako

I hated this. I got what it was going for, but what can I say; it just had a little too much rape and incest for my taste. Feels unnecessarily cruel at time. It made me look on The Book of Human Insects much more favorably, so I guess that's something.

Ode to Kirihito: Omnibus Edition

A criticism of the politics inherit in the Japanese medical community, that doesn't feature nearly as much rape as Ayako. It's solid and unlike Ayako doesn't feel like it's trying too hard to be "for adults." Man, I really didn't like Ayako.

The Sky Is Blue with a Single Cloud by Kuniko Tsurita

This is a great collection of the first and most prominent female contributor to the legendary alternative manga magazine Garo. And it's pretty damn great to boot. 

Ursula by Lane Yates and Erika Price

Doomed lesbians on a ship of the damned. Am I being too simplistic? "How cliche!" It's very well written and the art is weird, oddly-detailed, and compelling. It's not the sort of thing I would usually go for, but I recommend it, nonetheless.

Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater

I've always preferred Toriyama's more adventure-focused, humorous work, and that's most of what Manga Theater collects. Not all of it is great (Go Go Ackman!  is a low point for me), but there's so much more to appreciate here, and is an enlightening read if you've only ever been exposed to Dragon Ball Z.

Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma

This feels like it was printed on much cheaper materials than the old ADV versions of this manga, but unlike that version, they don't have Miss Yukari teaching Spanish for the first quarter of the series. I understand if you're disappointed by that. Some of the new translations also seem weirdly harsh. Kagura is more foul-mouthed than I remember and refers to someone as "retarded" a couple of times when I don't think the original ADV versions translated it that way.

 

Despite my misgivings, I would say that while I didn't love it as much as I did when I first read the series, there's still some great cartooning and solid gags throughout.

BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad vols. 17- 23 by Harold Sakuishi

This is the year I gave up on trying to get all the way through BECK. There's a neat idea here; tracking the rise of the first Japanese rock band to have sustained international success is an idea that has some legs, but it ends up feeling like just another Shonen manga, but with martial arts replaced with… nu-metal? First off, if we've learned anything in recent years, the only Japanese music with international crossover appeal is City Pop, and you can't touch Mariya Takeuchi. Too much time is spent on the band's various enemies as opposed to actually making music. I lost interest and looked at the ending, deciding that the steps that it would take to get there wouldn't be worth ti.

Bad Weekend by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips with colors by Jacob Phillips

Goes by Luke Kruger-Howard

I think that a men's holding group would be a net good in real life. And hey, I got this book for free. You can learn more about this business model here!

Motel Universe by Joakim Drescher

Turn Loose Our Death Rays and Kill Them All!: The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks edited by Paul Karsik

Who doesn't love Fletcher Hanks? Wait, let me rephrase that. Who doesn't love the works of Fletcher Hanks. Despite his amazing and bizarre Golden Age comics, the man himself was an asshole: an abusive husband and father; a belligerent alcoholic, a man who deserted his family, etc. Luckily he froze to death in 1976, so he won't collect any royalties on his work getting reprinted. And trust me, you want this work: it's a must-have. There' something wrong on every page, whether it's in the writing, drawing, or morality. You won't be able to put it down, I swear.

 

Parallel Lives by Oliver Schrauwen

Loved it. I especially liked the story of people in the future finding a TV monitor that an Oliver tried to use to communicate messages to the future and eventually makes a drunken ass of himself when he realizes no one has bothered trying to get in contact with him.

Rocketo: Journey to the Hidden Sea Volume 1 by Frank Espinosa with Maria Taylor

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. It's throwback to old adventure comic strips, and the art is pretty great. The biggest drawback, I feel, is that it can get way too busy at times, and a little hard to follow. I still think it's solid enough work, and I'm always going to be on the side of any series that was cancelled before it could get through everything that was planned for it. I don't know that Rocketo Volume 2 concludes everything, but it doesn't make sense to me that it would.

Chronicles of Some Made by Felix Tannenbaum

The Eternaut by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López

What, you need me to tell you The Eternaut is great? Don't you already know that by now?

Michael DeForge

The great thing about Michael DeForge is that he makes Michael DeForge comics, and these are no exceptions.

Heaven No Hell

Ant Colony

Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero

Carbon Books One through Three by Justin Madson

My intro to Justin Madson's work was Breathers which I liked the first time I read it. I was hoping that Carbon would also be similarly enjoyable, but I found it exposed too many of Madson's weaknesses as a cartoonist. It's about magic people whose discrimination is a stand-in for real-world prejudice. It doesn't work (IT NEVER WORKS!) largely because of the same problem X-Men falls short. It is also not helped by the facial expressions that Justin Madson uses for his characters. There's nothing wrong with simple designs, but they are incapable of conveying much in the way of emotion.

Umma's Table by Yeon-Sik Hong

There's some commentary here about how people are punished for being poor and how it can literally destroy your life, but mostly it's about making kimchi. There are some great emotional moments, but I didn't really think much of it over all.

Cyclopedia Exotica by Aminder Dhaliwal

World Map Room by Yuichi Yokoyama

Nothing I've seen looks like this: pages are dominated by onomatopoeia, panels are angled in extreme ways, and all the characters are stiff and expressionless. I love it.

Taiyō Matsumoto

Sunny

Who doesn't love a plucky bunch of Foster kids? Well, their parents, as it turns out. Sunny isn't as focused on the tragedy of these characters lives as it could be, and is more just getting through the day to day life in a way that feels grounded and interesting. When it does hit the gas on the drama it absolutely destroys.

No. 5

Matsumoto lets his weird side come out in full-force. A post-post-apocalyptic world that is lorded over by a group of artificially-manufactured superhumans that are starting to go to war with each other. There's a lot more to it than that (duh) and it can be a lot funnier than that description would make you think.

Tales Designed to Thrizzle Volumes One and Two by Michael Kupperman

Legitimately, one of the few cartoonists who can regularly make me laugh out loud. Kupperman is the King of comedy comics and everyone knows it. Uh, except book publishers, I guess. Hey, did you know he has a patreon? Why not go throw a few bucks his way.

Shaman King Omnibuses 4-11 by Hiroyuki Takei 

It's sort of embarrassing to admit that Shaman King means a lot to me, but it's true. When the American edition of Shonen Jump was just getting going, this was the one that called out to me more than anything else. It's got a chunky, grafitti-ish art-style and a laid-back protagonist that's more concerned with hanging out than being the best Shaman in the world; it's a nice change of pace.

Röhner by Max Baitinger 

A horror comic about an annoying guy who won't leave your house. Terrifying.

The Swamp by Yoshiharu Tsuge

Thigh High: Reiwa Hanamaru Academy Volumes 1 and 2 by Kotobuki

There's really not much here aside from the premise of high school boys acting and dressing like Japanese schoolgirls. It is generic, and gets old quickly, but to give credit where it's due; at no point is there any character who questions why all the boys in all the high schools all wear blouses, dresses, and bikinis. It doesn't revolve around a new transfer student who butts up against having to suddenly wear girls uniforms, which is good. It just isn't good enough in any other way and, honestly? It's not homoerotic enough.

I Think Our Son Is Gay Volumes 1-4 by Okura

A charming and cute story of a mother who, through observation, figures out that her oldest son is likely gay, and her efforts to support her son without forcing him into awkward situations or forcing him to ever come out. The mom is great, and never indulges in any negative thoughts about her sons sexuality. It helps that her son, Hiroshi, is also very endearing and you want him to succeed and find happiness just like his mom does. The mangaka is currently working on the fifth and final volume and I can't wait for Square Enix (yeah, I didn't they published any books (and in America?) either) to bring it out over here. They had better, if they know what's good for them…

Gambling Apocalypse KAIJI Volume 3 by Nobuyuki Fukumoto

Ron Regé, Jr.

This is the year I got real into the work of ol' RRJ(no one calls him that). I love all of it. I love the art style, I love all the weird mystic stuff, I love the math stuff, I love it all. Definitely one of the modern greats.

Halcyon

Against Pain

The Weaver Festival Phenomenon

Skibber Bee-Bye

The Awake Field

Metax by Antoine Cossé

Lynda Barry

Frankly, there have been huge, embarrassing blind spots in my history of comics reading, and Lynda Barry is one of the bigger ones. For whatever reason, I had just never bothered reading any of her work. Probably because I'm an asshole.

One Hundred Demons

This is more explicitly autobiographical in it's format and has some great stuff like a strip about dating Ira Glass (which perhaps doesn't put him the greatest light (which I like, I hate This American Life)). There's one strip that knocked me out about the resiliency of children. Even now, when there's so much championing of examining and portraying trauma, I think it's rarely done in such an honest way.

The Freddie Stories

This collection of Ernie Pook's Comeek centers on Freddie, a weird, sensitive, but kind boy who might be gay. He's just like me as a kid! Oh god, no. This contains some of the darkest stuff I've seen from Ernie Pook's Comeek with a big traumatic incident leading to a lot misunderstandings, hallucinations, social withdrawal, and dissociation. I've never experienced a big traumatic incident like Freddie (to be fair, I have little memory of my childhood, so maybe there's something I'm repressing) but I definitely have memories of suffering in secret and hoping that adults could help me out instead of just seeing me as an inconvenience. This really hit me hard, what can I say. At the very least, I think Freddie does find some release in letting his freak flag fly and embracing be a weirdo at the end, but it's definitely got some heavy stuff.

The Greatest of Marlys

This is a great starting spot for Ernie Pook's Comeek and it's most famous character: Marlys. It's good stuff and I would recommend it before getting into something like The Freddie Stories. This is just the order I read them in (which was maybe a mistake).

Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book

This is the most comprehensive meditation I've found on drawing: what motivates us to draw; why it's so much easier to do as a child; what makes us stop drawing; and ways in which to start drawing again; and how to enjoy it. It has made me think about my creative output in a much more serious, but ultimately positive way. I often go months without drawing a thing and find myself unmotivated to continue with it, and this has helped more than nearly anything else. I have stopped stressing so much about whether or not my drawings are amazing and try to enjoy the process. I'm still not 100% out of my head, but it's become easier to get going and incorporate this into my practice. I wish I had read this back in art school. Also, the meta comic of Arna going through this book is pretty great.

Blabber, Blabber, Blabber: Everything, Vol. 1: Collected and Uncollected  Comics from 1978-81

I said this earlier, but it's worth reiterating how much I enjoy seeing the early works of an artist. You can see the seeds of everything that's more in Ernie Pook's Comeek as well as weirder, somewhat meaner comics that otherwise would've languished without this collection.

Kyoko Okazaki

pink

I enjoyed it quite a bit; it's much lighter than something like Hleter Skelter, and I like most of the characters, especially the crocodile.

Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly

I liked it a lot better than the first time I read it and that ending is amazing. 

Onwards Toward Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki

This treats war with as much respect as it deserves: none! At different points in the manga, nearly every single character ends up singing "Why am I stuck working this shitty job?" Everyone knows how pointless this struggle is, no one really cares about winning this tertiary battle in a war that , at this point, they are clearly on the losing side of. It is largely unserious about people dying (the first death is a man comically choking on a fish) until it needs to be and when it does, its incredibly effective.

Child Star by Brian "Box" Brown

I;ve always found Box Brown's nonfiction work to be a little too dry to be enjoyable. It might sound stupid to say, but I think he focuses a bit too much on all the factual information and sticking too hard to events that can be proven than making an interesting overarching narrative. So, I was excited to see what he would do with a fictional work: I really enjoyed An Entity Observes All Things. To my disappointment, though it is a fictional work, it was structured like Brown's nonfiction, and I found it just as dry and uninteresting. There was maybe a point about Hollywood exploitation or parasocial nostalgia, but it just didn't come through strongly enough to stick in my mind. I would like to see more experimentation from Brown, but also this stuff has really worked out for him, so who am I to say?

Blue Giant Omnibuses 1-2 through 9-10 (this is the official numbering, I know it doesn't make sense, leave me alone) by Shinichi Ishizuka

I was a little apprehensive going into this, as I was expecting another shallow experience like BECK. But I was delighted by the sincerity of this series. More than anything it's about a love of jazz, and it comes through in the main character and all the people he touches with his music. He's not the best jazz saxophonist in the world, but he has so much emotion and potential that it's undeniable to everyone around him. The way his music tutor puts it is succinct and accurate: "Your sound can crush people." High recommendation. I hope Seven Seas starts publishing the sequel series soon.

Berlin by Jason Lutes

Well drawn, and gets the feeling right without resorting to gratuitous use of narration and text boxes to tell you the exact historical context for everything that's going on. It succeeds in giving enough information for you to piece together, and most readers are likely going to have a nice amount of basic knowledge to fill in the rest. That being said, it never really grabbed me as hard as it could have.

Black Hole by Charles Burns

I've been hearing about this for a while and it didn't disappoint. It's the 70s, it's the PNW, and there's an STI that causes mutations that all the teens are getting. It's pretty straightforward and, thankfully, told well enough to not seem like a morality play. The STI aspect never feels preachy or anything like that and the characters act in ways that you would expect actual humans would; everyone knows that they're putting their life and their looks at risk, but teenagers are going to fuck no matter what you do. It is also gorgeous to look at.

Slum Wolf by Tado Tsuge

I think I prefer Tadao's work to Yoshiharu, if only for the much rougher aesthetics.

Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures by Yvan Alagbé

As far as I know, this contains the most accurate depiction of living as an African immigrant in France. Also, I loved the heavy and rough use of black linework in this.

Trots and Bonnie by Shari Flenniken

Hilarious and ahead of it's time: a must-read! It's another humor book that actually made me laugh out loud.

The Last of the Mohicans by Shigeru Sugiura

Alright, but part of me felt like I didn't fully "get" it.

Vapor by MAX

Zegas by Michel Fiffe

Heaven or Las Zegas? That's the question posed by-

 

Zegas is a great story about siblings who are dealing with trying ot make in a city while navigating their love lives, their work lives, the estate left behind by their parents, and freestyle music. I wasn't expecting so much conversation about freestyle music, but here we are. There's a small amount of magical realism that I was worried would go full Scott Pilgrim at some points, but it thankfully remains grounded and enjoyable (note: I haven't re-read Scott Pilgrim in a while, I'm sure it's fine, but I still hate the movie).

The Most Important Thing and Other Stories by Graham Chaffee

Crossways by Phil Woollam

Gilbert Hernandez

Loverboys

Really rubbed me the wrong way. This almost feels like a parody of Gilbert's Palomar stories. All the elements of those stories are here, but they're remixed in a new way that feels like a weak retreading. Hard pass. 

Marble Season

Both Gilbert and Jaime are great at making kid characters fun, interesting and well-rounded. There's an alternate world where they made competing syndicated newspaper strips that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Bill Watterson. Anyway, this is a kid character growing up around the time Gilbert grew up and it's great!

Bumperhead

This follows the entire life of a guy who grows up in a California town, gets involved in the punk scene, but doesn't really go awnywhere in his life. It was okay, but not amazing. I did like the conceit of one of his friends anachronistically having an iPad in a way that's hand-waved as just a weird toy. It's also sayas a lot about our main character taht he only goes all-in on punk rock when his friend looks up a band on wikipedia and learns that he'll be on the right side of history.

Love and Rockets Books by the Hernandez Brothers

It wasn't until last year that I actually started reading Love and Rockets. I knew how lauded it was, and how much everyone in the comics community loved it, but I just couldn't muster up the effort. I skimmed through the books and dismissed them; in my mind Gilbert used it as an excuse to draw women with gigantic boobas, and Jaime's work was just some very clean linework of pin-up girls. Honestly, I was kind of right on the money with this. It didn't seem particularly appealing to a gay man (hey, that's me!). Now, I see that these are bullshit excuses. They were back then. I knew that they were bullshit excuses back then! Like I said before, I 'm sort of an idiot, and kind of an asshole.

Ofelia by Gilbert

Okay, so I made a huge mistake. The only other Gilbert L&R collection I read before this was Heartbreak Soup: the first collection of Palomar stories. Going from that to this is… rough to say the least. I couldn't keep track of who was who, nor their relationships. It felt weirdly way too sexual and at times almost incestuous, but again, I had a hard time telling who most of these characters were and I certainly didn't recognize the ones I knew before. Who was Pipo again? Who was she before? I couldn't remember! This was so off-putting, and it was hard to not have some distaste for it. In particular, I hated Luba's sister Fritz. I think she's just kind of a shitty person. I did like Petra, her daughter, and her boyfriend throughout the book so it wasn't all bad.

Luba and Her Family by Gilbert

This was a much easier book to get into than Ofelia. Yes, it's still the America stories, but it's less high drama and more low-key slice-of-life stuff. It was never as serious as Heartbreak Soup, and I felt it tapped into Gilbert's comedic side a bit better.

Comics Dementia by Gilbert

Speaking of Gilbert's comedic side, that's largely what this is. But, wait a minute, almost none of these comcis were ever featured in a Love and Rockets publication! Fantagraphics, you lying sacks of shit. Anyway, I think Gilbert is better at being funny than Jaime. It wasn't ever as laugh-out-loud as some other cartoonists on this list, but I think he's really great at making gags. Plus, this features Roy. Roy is the best character.

Maggie the Mechanic by Jaime

I had no idea that the title Love and Rockets was at one point very literal. Honestly, I would've like more sci-fi, but I also find the way that the "Mechanics" story  is told  to be a bit clunky. It revolves around diary entries that are so text heavy that I was glad to see them gone. What is great is that Maggie, Hopey, Penny, and Izzy (the best one) are all established pretty quickly. They were fully formed in some of their earliest appearances, and that's no small feat.

But hey, this also introduced me to the best character in the entire series: Roy Cowboy (mistakenly listed as "Row Cowboy" in the back of the book). It's no wonder that Gilbert went out of his way to make his most iconic character in Comics Dementia named "Roy." He was trying, desperately, to catch up to his brother's success.

The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. by Jaime

There's a moment in this where Maggie, on the bus, is reading an issue of "Mechanics" and dismisses it as junk, formally severing the science fiction element from the rest of the Locas stories. Again, I'm a fan of science fiction, but I think that Jaime's work is better off without that stuff in it, focusing more on interpersonal stories. And it's pretty good. And yeah, "The Death of Speedy" is just as good as you've heard.

Human Diastrophisim by Gilbert

"The One with the Serial Killer in Palomar." Well, that's how it was explained to me, anyway, but it is much more than just that. Really, it's more about the rest of the world intruding in on Palomar; the serial killer; an archaeological dig; monkeys; Tonatzin's newfound political ideology; and two surfer dudes from America have showed up (they're my favorites; I can't help but love some goofy morons who fall ass-backwards into the plot). Lives are upended, relationships are severed, some turn their back on Palomar, and the ending is still as shocking as it was back in the day. When you see who's under the Heraclio's ghost tree, you know something bad is about to happen.

The rest of the book serves as a send-off to Palomar, as it covers the last of the stories for Volume 1 of Love and Rockets with Luba's half-sisters coming in as Palomar is destroyed while whisking Luba and family back to America with them. Pretty good stuff.

Perla la Loca by Jaime

Similarly, this is collection marks the last Locas stories in L&R Vol. 1. The thing that most surprised me was how much of the story Maggie was just absent from. Actually, Hopey isn't around much either in this section. It's an interesting change of pace, and let's Maggie and Hopey define themselves outside of their on-again, off-again Lesbian relationship. And hey, I was happy to see the return of Rena Titanon. There's a moment where Jaime threatens an "It was all a dream ending," but it's luckily a fake-out. That would've been awful!

Amor y Cohetes

This, more or less, collects all the stories from L&R Vol. 1 that weren't part of the Palomar or Locas stories including the work of the oft-overlooked Mario. To touch on Mario's work, I have to say I love the way it looks; It's nice, chunky, and expressive. The actual story, I could take or leave. I would love to see more work from him (I know it exists!).

But boy, it sure does seem like Gilbert dominates this collection, just from a quantity perspective. Maybe I'm biased, and was looking for more Gilbert work, but that's the way it seemed to me. Also, I liked his version of a Locas story more than Jaime's version of a Palomar story, and both are collected here. I can't not like a scene where gender-swapped Maggie and Hopey are fucking doggy-style and (I think?) Hopey is wearing boxing gloves as she (they still use female pronouns, so I will too) fucks Maggie. Also, they end up confronting Jaime at one point, which is just photocopied pictures of Jaime (this is always funny and if you want to include yourself as a god/creator, do it this way).

As great as the Palomar and Locas stories are, it always feels like a special treat to see the brothers' other works.

The Tipping Point edited by Alex Donoghue and Tim Pilcher

Ups and downs across the board: some stories are great (read: written and drawn by Keiichi Koike), and some stories feel like some of the more intolerable comics in Heavy Metal. It is, at least, notable for the inclusion of multiple mangaka (Naoki Urasawa, Keiichi Koike, Taiyo Matsumoto), and collects unique works that haven't been seen anywhere else.

Wally Gropius by Tim Hensley

Perfectly nails the artsyle, the vibe, and the pacing of all those old Harvey comics aobut teenagers with a cynical Richie Rich bent. What I mean is: It funny. You can't top a scene of a girl romantically stating her dream ot perform the national anthem before a baseball game on the mound while subjected to the same  electrical torture prisoners at abu-gharib were subject to.

Monster, Perfect Edition Volume 1 by Naoki Urasawa

Master Keaton: The Perfect Edition Vol. 1 by Naoki Urasawa,  Hokusei Katushika, and Takashi Nagasaki

You can't help but love Master Keaton, the character. He's such a lovable goofball with a survivalist streak and one that Allah smiles upon (that's established in this book).

Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks

A love letter to comics themselves! At it's heart, Horrocks imagines a world in which every cartoonist gets to complete the magnum opus they never got a chance to do in real life. That's as specific as I'll get with it. The surrounding narrative is alright, but the protagonist can be kind of a dickhead. I don't know. I like what Hicksville is going for more than what it actually does.

Triple X by Pander Bros.

I love the artwork of the Pander Bros. (it looks like Aeon Flux!) and I think this has some interesting ideas at work, but my actual experience and real world events paint this as a little more naive than it might've been when it was originally published. An underground newspaper is going to save Amsterdam? I don't know about that, man.

Grip by Lale Westvind

Lesbians can shape the world with their hands. I buy that.

The Grot by Pat Grant

UNFORGIVABLY AUSTRALIAN. Other than that, I think it's a solid tale of some naive rich kids getting scammed in the post-apocalypse. The post-apocalypse is a nice change of pace from the usual, with a large amount of people trying to strike it rich in a giant chemical swamp. It's also somewhat obvious that this was supposed to be a volume 1 situation, but the series was cancelled before it could get furhter than the ending point of this book. I'm always going to treasure something like that.

The Best of Milligan and McCarthy by Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy

Brendan McCarthy's artwork is absolutely wild, and Milligan's writing compliments it well. McCarthy should get top billing, I'm sorry, but that's just how it is.

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibuses 2-5 by Eiji Otsuka and Hosui Yamazaki

I love this series. Omnibus 5 was released this year, and only 7 years after the publication of the last volume. Fuck me. I think they also reprinted the other omnibuses in the series when they did this, but it's still so irritating. Nothing will make you hate Dark Horse Comics more than their weird publishing practices

 

It's a black comedy horror series and it exceeds on all accounts while even diving into taboo subjects like Unit 731 and Japan's suspiciously high conviction rate. What I'm getting at is that I don't think that there's going to be an anime adaption to encourage Dark Horse to release the rest of the manga anytime soon.

Natsume Ono

Danza

House of Five Leaves

Masa and Yaichi come so close to fucking, but never do. -100/10. It did teach me that the mass production of white rice led to widespread vitamin B deficiency, which is neat. I'm selling this series short, but my fingers are starting to hurt.

Tesoro

La Quinta Camera: The Fifth Room

Really like this one; all the men are cute characters and it's funny the way they characterize the American exchange student as constantly leaving oily messes and eating fries all the time. Although if Ono wanted to be accurate, he'd be eating cheeseburgers.

Ristorante Paradiso

Women do be horny for distinguished older men with glasses, tho. 

Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso

Neon Genesis Evangelion 3-in-1 Edition Volume 1 by Yoshiyuko Sadamoto

I wanted to check this out as I've gathered it's a very different adaptation when compared to the anime series. I don't like the anime series and I also liked the FLCL manga adaptation, so I thought I might enjoy this. It's kind of hard to say at this point, though. I do like that, so far, Shinji is less whiny and more apathetic than anything else. He doesn't really seem to care about what's happening. This is a good sign, but again, I don't know where this goes. I mean, aside from where the anime goes, generally speaking. I sound like an idiot talking about this.

Sazan and Comet Girl by Yuriko Akase

This manga oozes charm. It looks like it's an adaptation of a forgotten early-80s anime sci-fi movie, and in full color to boot! It's a throwback, but one that understands what works about those old stories and iterates on it in a way that's original. High marks for this one.

El-Hazard: The Magnificent World by Hidetomo Tsubura

Bat Kid by Inoue Kazuo

The Pits of Hell by Ebisu Yoshikazu

panpanya

panpanya is now one of my favorite mangaka working today; I can't recommend their work enough. It's funny and absurd, and it has a style all it's own. I like the stories in An Invitation from a Crab a bit more, especially the power plant story, but it's all really great.

An Invitation from a Crab

Guyabano Holiday

Soursop nectar is pretty great, but I don't think I'd fly that far to get my hands on the actual fruit. 

What a Wonderful World! Volumes 1 and 2 by Inio Asano

Syrup is the best character. I will not expound on that.

Robo Sapiens: Tales of Tomorrow by Toranosuke Shimada

Another one of these books that I hadn't hear about before seeing in the wild. I took a chance and was delighted by what I saw. This is a collection of stories that have a surprisingly queer bent (I've found that Japanese media hasn't always been good when it comes to alternative gender expression) and a deeper exploration of what it means to exist and what it means to be human a robot , period. The ending is also oddly comforting in a way that I'd rather not spoil. I would love to see more from this mangaka in the near future!

Susumu Katsumata

None of these really grabbed me as much as I hoped they would. I think the stories about working at the Fukushima power plant is very good, but the rest just okay. I just don't care about kappa. It's not bad, but it's not my thing either.

Fukushima Devil Fish

Red Snow

City of Glass by Paul Auster, Paul Karasik, and David Mazzucchelli

Ambient Comics by Nadine Redlich

Laurels of Xenon by Ryan Dodgson

F by Imai Arata

What if Northern Japan was taken over by ISIS. That is the most reductive way I can think of to describe F, but is not really an accurate summation of it. If you know who John Cantlie is, you'll find his story recreated here, only instead of Syria, it's the Touhouku region of Japan shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. And instead of ISIS, it's a terrorist group called "F." The propaganda videos are still, disturbingly, the same as the ones Cantlie made for the Islamic State. Good stuff in here.

Heaven's Door by Keiichi Koike

A fanatic collection of stories from japan's preeminent psychonaut. I doubt many of these stories were available in any official capacity until this collection came out, and it's a shame, because these are all amazing to look at.  The only weak bits are the4koma-style comedy strips that are much more hit-and-miss.

Dear Mother & Other Stories by Bhanu Pratap

I don't think I've ever encountered drawings of bodies in ways that are as expressive as Pratap's work is. I love it!

Horror Hospital Unplugged by Dennis Cooper and Keith Mayerson

I was a little disappointed here as the only thin gI had ever heard about Dennis Cooper was from the hosts of the scum cinema podcast  Live at the Death Factory  where they describe his stories as all revolving around teenage boys fucking and killing each other. Oh sure, it centers around young men fucking, but they only kill each other indirectly (spoiler). The art style is wildly varied, but it helps keep the story going.

Max Huffman

Max Huffman is incredible, you should buy all of his work. Go do that.

Whisnant Number 1

Quote a line more iconic than "My mom was a Rayman and my Dad fucked a Rayman!" You can't.

Big Drink

Hypermutt  Issues One-Four

Plaguers International

(Cover Not Final): Crime Funnies

Funky Dianetics No. 3

Prison by Līva Kandevica

Barrage by Nicolas Nadé

Tales to Demolish Number 1 and 2 by Eric Haven

Salt by Coyote Jacobs

The Marchenoir Library by Alex Degen

Oh, that wiley Alex Degen, up to his old tricks again! This book consists of a collection of the front and back covers of the Marchenoir comic series. Only there isn't a Marchenoir series. There's a primer of all the characters, the world they inhabit, and a summaries of each comic, but you'll have to connect the dots themselves in a way that is fun and engaging. If J.J. Abrams saw this mystery box, he'd jizz himself until he died (too vulgar?). But wait a minute, I follow Alex Degen on twitter, and I've seen that he's working on pages of an a real Marchenoir comic. What a betrayal! How dare you make me use my imagination when you were fully capable of using your own!

Mr. Boop by Alec Robbins

More like Mr. Poop! That might be a bit much, but I really didn't care for this. It feels like an insincere recreation of those weird outsider art comics like Tails Gets Trolled, but seemingly by someone who hasn't actually read said comic and just sort of went off what he assumed happened in it. If Robbins was really dedicated, he would've shown full penetration and had allusions to an incoherent political ideology. The first comic in this collection is funny by itself, but the fact that it continued after that isn't. And then The End of Evangelion is overtly referenced for some reason.

Horny & High Vols. 1 and 2 by Ed Firth

Sometimes you can have a great time at a drug-fueled gay orgy. Sometimes people die and you end up wandering the streets of your hometown penniless and nearly naked after witnessing someone die. Pretty good and harrowing stuff.

Twilight by Howard Chaykin, José Luis García-López, and Steve Oliff

The Adventures of Tad Martin: Average American Teenager Omnibus by Casanova Frankenstein

How goddamned great is this?! There are moments when I thought this was threatening to become Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, but at no point did I feel embarrassed to be reading Tad Martin, so it's a marked step up.

Reporter by Dylan Williams

War of Streets and Houses by Sophie Yanow

Sumo by Thien Pham

I haven't re-read this in a long time, but I thought it was pretty good. I can't help but love a sad big man and hope for the very best for him.

Mudman Volume 1 by Paul Grist

The Retreat by Pierre Wazem and Tom Tirabosco

It's a solid story of mourning your friend, but I didn't feel it was fleshed out enough.

Go For It, Nakamura! and Go For It, Again, Nakamura! by Syundei

The first story became something of a meme, but I can tell you that the inside of it is a perfectly charming story of a closeted high schooler who's in love with a boy in his class. Also, it looks like Rumiko Takahashi, and if you've ever enjoyed anime you're under obligation to enjoy Ranma 1/2. The sequel feels a little like a retread, but it's still nice to see the story advance, and it seems like Nakamura is getting tantalizingly close to getting his crush to like him back. But also, what's the next one going to be called? Go for It Yet a Third Time, Nakamura!?

Roughneck by Jeff Lemire

Climbing Out by Brian Ralph

Getting Out of Hope by James Cadelli

The cartooning is deceptively naive and it holds a nice story about escaping a town you feel stuck in. We've all felt that way. Solid for what it is.

Nicolas by Pascal Girard

The Eternaut 1969 by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Alberto Breccia

Bizarre retreading of the original that ends way too abruptly (for complicated reasons, of course). The artwork is a nice change and the explicit naming of America as the aliens earth-based allies who gave them the global South in a deal is a pretty great, but it's so weird and rushed that I would recommend sticking to the original.

By the way, there is an official sequel written by Oesterheld with Lopez, but it's never been localized. It is also right around the time Oesterheld was disappeared, so I'd be interested in seeing what was actually in the comic. Get on that, someone.

BodyWorld by Dash Shaw

Soulwind by Scott Morse

I like Soulwind more in theory than I do in practice. I like having an ambitious complicated story that's only makes sense by the end, but I also hated the bookends.The zen monk stuff is boring and a little orientalist. The rest I like, and It's nice to see a comic where someone was really dedicated to the idea on display, but it just falls just short of the finish line.

The Last American by John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Mick McMahon

I love the premise of this, and the artwork has a distinct blocky quality that's great to look at, but the execution is a little inconsistent.

Ulysses S. Pilgrim (I see what you did there) is a soldier whose life sentence is commuted in exchange for being cryogenically frozen until after an apocalypse-level nuclear war with the directive to lead and rebuild America. He quickly finds that everyone is dead and that there isn't an America to rebuild. Sort of the opposite of Death Stranding, in a way. The series is one extended existential crisis about the pointlessness of patriotism and the loneliness of being the (very likely) last person on earth. It's not perfect and the second issue's "musical number" doesn't work for me, but if you can get past that, you're in for a solid read.

The Wild Kingdom by Kevin Huizenga

I know from my real life experience that Kevin Huizenga is a funny person, but I feel that can often get lost in his Ganges comics, so this was refreshing change of pace. "Kev the Bev" Huizenga is in full effect here. The only problem I have is that I doubt Huizenga would appreciate the nickname "Kev the Bev."

Achewood, Vol. 2: Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar by Chris Onstad

Everyone loves Achewood and so do I. I'd like to get my hands on more print volumes, but I'm not holding my breath.

Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton

Puke Force by Brian Chippendale

It takes a little while to get used to the snake-around panel style, but it's worth the effort. It's weird, it's explosive (visually), and funny. 

Nancy: The John Stanley Library Volumes 1-3 by John Stanley and Dan Gormley

Let's get this out of the way: John and Dan are no Ernie Bushmiller. This isn't a bad thing and for the most part, o think they manage to capture the feel of the comics strips quite well, even if they do alhavr to rely on secondary characters a bit more. Sure, the stories where Nancy goes to Oona's house and has run-ins with the yo-yos are a bit much and it gets repetitive. But this is also for children in an era where you were expected to throw away a comic book once you were done with it, so I can let that slide.

No, really my big problem with this series is that Dan Gormley, the artist behind these comics, is not credited anywhere on the cover. You have to actually look for the small text at the beginning of each these collections to find him listed. I realize thos is in an effort to create cohesion in Drawn and Quarterly's series of John Stanley books, but in my mind it's just not giving due credit. I realize this isn't a D+Q thing and is indicative of the comics industry's tendency to favor writers over artists, but that still doesn't make it okay.

Dirty Plotte: The Complete Julie Doucet

To give you a basic idea of what Dirty Plotte is like, "Plotte" is a French-Canadian slang for vagina. Alright, that makes it sound much more crass than it is. I mean, it is crass, but it's also funny. I do enjoy the amount of dreams that Doucet documents and I would like to see more people do it besides her and John Porcellino. This collection also contains some great longer-form works including a harrowing experinece of moving to New York and dealing with a shitty and emotionally manipulative boyfriend as well as a Montreal Murder (no) Mystery. Most impressively is how well it all works together, as there's no moments that I would say result in any major tonal whiplash.

Zach Hazard Vaupen

Combed Clap of Thunder

How many licks does it take to suck off God? That's what's at the core of-

This sis agre3at little collection of some Vapuen's work, which looks like nothing else. I would recommend it at that, but the actual writing is pretty great too.. That's all a bit reductive, but that's what I got.

Pixel Dog's Purgatory in Hell Collection 1: Strips 1-500

If you're not reading Pixel Dog in Hell on Instagram, you are making a fatal mistake and will eventually be punished for your crimes. This is a great way to get a little bit caught up on the  the series in a handsome soft cover volume that you could conceivable cause some grievous bodily harm with. I'm not saying I recommend doing that, but I'm saying that the possibilities are there. 

Keeping Two by Jordan Crane

More like Crapping Poo! No, it's not that bad. Solid cartooning at work, but the story gets kind of repetitive in a "I get it, you've got anxiety," type of way. The sequence with the car crash is pretty great, but there's not enough of that. 

The Mermaid and the Prince by Tada Yumi  m,nnhjnh

Dear Sara, 1997, Summer by Ohuton

A cute story with a sci-fi twist. Yeah, you can see what's coming, but it's still executed well.

The Karman Line by Mistuhashi Kotaro

These are some great stories with some explorations of strange worlds in a way that eschews horror or adventure, mostly working to instill wonder in the reader. The art is strangely calm: it's all soft and blue. It's just a pleasant experience, over all.

False Stars: Red Riding Hood's Wolf Apprentice by Sayaka Mogi

From This Flame by Oumi Konomi

Ripples by Hagiwara Rei

A beautiful watercolor manga about interacting with dead people. More or less.

Rabbit Game by Miyoshi

Weird story about that's about why you shouldn't so be so eager to take strange game consoles that are given to you by the weirdest girl you know.

Children of Mu-Town by Madumura Jūshichi

Everyone's hometown gets worse throughout their life, it's just a matter of how. In this manga it's all about the population aging out and hte few remaining young people trying to either save or exploit that to varying results. Another hting hta teveryone can relate to his having a friend with a painted-on mask that goes around causing trouble and making htier life and the surrounding community worse at a constant rate.

Invisible Parade by Mississippi

Another charming collection of short comics that blend the fantastical and mundane with simple, but effective art style.

Glaeolia Vol. 3 edited by Emuh Ruh and zhuchka

This is probably the best anthology I've ever read; there's a whole lot of talent on display and barely anything I didn't like. Also, I just really loved the character design of the character Sou in "The Invisible Woman Vs. The Master Swindler" by Nishimura Tsuchika. It's the closest I've come to simping for a comic character and it's one no one would recognize. I also really loved "Baby, It's You" by Fukitsu Reiji. Again, all fo this great and I think there's something for everyone. The only comic I'm a little hesitant about recommending is "Rain in Nakasu" by Hadena Kangofu which features a, to put it lightly, uncomfortable scene.

 

But it's all collected in a beautiful volume, and there's a lot extra info about each artist in the book. It's a must-read.

Wild 7 Vols. 1 and 2 by Mikiya Mochizuki

In my mind the manga seciton of the Jason Street warehouse location of Mile High comics is infamous for being neglected for at least 20 years. Seriously, I've never seen so many series that got are completely out of print by defunct publishers. In other words, it's a goldmine to people like me. That's where I picked up Wild 7 published by a company called comicsone. I haven't heard of them before or since.

This series is crazy. It's a product of the late 60s where, like in America, there were lots of student protests and left-wing activism. This feels like ti's heading in a wildly reactionary direction, as the story revolves around an extra-judicial motorcycle gang that was created by a government official to, specifically, hunt down and kill criminals because he feels like the cops don't have enough power. You see what I mean? Wild 7 sticks to killing off yakuza for these first two books, but there are hints at more political enemies down the line with a mention of the Yakuza being behind the student riots to create a distraction for the police to go after.

Also, this is just a weird localization thing, but at one point a character demands "3,000,000 Japanese Dollars," which feels like a total haphazard translation. If your translation also still acknowledges that it takes place in Japan, why not go with Yen? It's not like people don't know what yen is. Unless you're referring to the money that the Japanese money that JapanFit printed for other the countries they occupied before and during World War II. Sorry, I just couldn't leave that alone.