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Post by commond on Jun 29, 2024 21:35:00 GMT -5
Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland This loving homage to Winsor McCay's Nemo won the 2015 Eisner for Best Limited Series. Written by Eric Shanower and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez, it tells the story of what happened in the years after McCay's strip finished. Similar in tone to Shanower's OZ work, it's an all-ages delight that any comics enthusiast can enjoy. I would have preferred Shanower to illustrate it himself, however my appreciation for Rodriquez' work grew in leaps and bounds as the series progressed. The background work was exquisite and the design work outstanding. Filling McCay's shoes is an impossible task, but where Shanower and Rodriguez excelled was in crafting new adventures that were full of respect and reverence for the original source material. If, indeed, they managed to introduce new, younger readers to the world of Nemo then the book was a resounding success.
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Post by commond on Aug 31, 2024 20:28:38 GMT -5
The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil
 This was a light and entertaining graphic novel that presented a modern fairly tale reminiscent of the work of Roald Dahl. It's a story about a beard that keeps growing.. and growing... and growing if you couldn't guess by the cover. Collins' artwork was similar to a lot of cartoonists from this era with its simplified line, and may not be to everyone's tastes, but I read the novel in a single sitting and found it to be thoroughly pleasant.
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Post by commond on Aug 31, 2024 20:31:19 GMT -5
I also finished The Wicked + The Divine, which started strong, sagged in the middle, picked up for the finale and had a middling coda. Which is pretty much par for the course for an Image series.
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Post by commond on Sept 15, 2024 19:10:04 GMT -5
Through the Woods
 I probably should have saved this for October, but honestly I didn't know it was going to be a collection of horror stories. This won the 2015 Eisner for Best Graphic Album — Reprint, though I believe it contained mostly original stories. It qualified for the reprint category on the basis of adapting Carroll's popular webcomic, His Face All Red, into print for the first time. Carroll also took home a second Eisner in 2015 for Best Short Story, which I think I'll save for the Halloween season. Carroll's success at the Eisners was representative not only of the growing stature of female creators in comics but also an acknowledgement of webcomics as a new and valid form of comic book storytelling. As with most graphic novels from the 2010s, the stories are brisk and easy to read. You can easily finish the novel in a single sitting without tiring. The artwork is similar to a lot of other cartoonists from the era. I'm not sure why the cartooning from this era feels so similar, but at first glance I confused her work with Isabel Greenberg. Having just attended an exhibition of Japanese horror master, Junji Ito, the stories fell short in the horror department, aside from one tale called The Nesting Place, that had some gruesome imagery that even Ito would have been proud to draw. Instead, it felt like the stories were heavily influenced by dark European fairytales. Not bad, just not where I get my horror kicks. Carroll as a strong following, though, and there are plenty of people out there who enjoy her brand of horror. Check it out for yourself this Halloween.
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Post by commond on Oct 3, 2024 8:56:36 GMT -5
This web comic from Jason Shiga was the most fun modern comic I've read in a while:  It's the story of a regular, run-of-the-mill bloke who discovers that he can't die. Instead, when he dies his mind possesses the body of the closest person to him. This leads to a outrageous story with numerous plot twists. It totally wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be some indy slice-of-life comic, but instead it was like Ricky and Morty on crack. It threatened to go off the rails at certain points but kept me engaged throughout. Like most stories of this ilk, I liked the early parts of the story best before the story got too big and convoluted, but overall it was an impressive effort for a web comic, and cute seeing those cartoony-looking figures maim and disfigure each other. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 3, 2024 10:04:50 GMT -5
Shiga is really creative and knows how to spin a good tale. I highly recommend Bookhunter (from 2007) - it's a really fun read. |
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