INDIE VIEW: Frantz, Czap, and Gébé find meaning in different landscapes

01/30/2019 4:00 pm by John Seven Leave a Comment

Reviewed: Maria Frantz’s The Chancellor and the Citadel, Kevin Czap’s Four Years, and Gébé’s Letters To Survivors.

Review: ‘Sovereign Traces Vol. 1’ propels Native American voices brilliantly with no artistic compromise

01/25/2019 5:00 pm by John Seven 1 Comment

This recent anthology from Michigan State University, Sovereign Traces Vol. 1, edited by Gordon Henry Jr. and Elizabeth PaPensee, presents work from a number of Native American cartoonists paired with Native American writers to bring their work into sequential form. As the title to the collection hints, so many of the stories have to do […]

YALSA Announces the 2019 Great Graphic Novels for Teens List!

01/24/2019 9:00 am by Torsten Adair 1 Comment

“The Golden Age of Science Fiction is 12.” —Peter Graham The Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, has announced the titles of their Great Graphic Novel for Teens list for 2019! Dating back to 2007, YALSA has listed the Top Ten titles, as well as a (very) long list of […]

Review – The Disappointment of Roman Muradov’s Vanishing Act

01/09/2019 4:30 pm by Philippe Leblanc

The Disappointment of Roman Muradov’s Vanishing Act

Review: Humankind never learns in ‘Fraternity’

01/07/2019 5:00 pm by John Seven

There’s something about North America that has inspired multiple stabs at utopianism.

Review: Mortality from all sides in ‘In The Future, We Are Dead’

11/21/2018 5:00 pm by John Seven

Death is a multi-faceted subject and German cartoonist Eva Müller’s In The Future We Are Dead gives it the treatment it deserves. Müller comes at the subject from a number of vantage points that range from the intensely personal to the delightfully informational. Her focus is autobiographical, but she makes some interesting creative decisions in her […]

Review: Brotherhood as artistic evolution in ‘Piero’

11/07/2018 5:00 pm by John Seven

Edmond Baudoin is a relatively obscure figure in America, looming under whatever radar we have that detects French cartoonists. As explained in Matt Madden’s excellent introduction to Piero — Madden also did the translation of the story — Baudoin specialized in autobiography and was really an early and important practitioner of that form in French […]

Review: As ‘Alt-Life’ shows, even limitless virtual pleasure has its downsides

10/24/2018 5:00 pm by John Seven

Human beings have always wanted to believe in a re-set. In more traditional terms this has taken the form of an afterlife, but as technology has progressed, some form of virtual reality alternative to the physical universe has become desired. Well, apparently. I don’t think I know anyone who thinks seriously about packing it all […]

Review: ‘270°’ and ‘To Build A Fire’ honor different aspects of nature in beautiful packages

10/23/2018 5:00 pm by John Seven

Is nature our friend or our enemy, or maybe a little of both? Perhaps it’s not even measurable against the human experience, since we are the only creature that has willfully left it behind to craft our own world, and are certainly the only creature that could be characterized as its potential destroyer. I’ve read […]

Interview: Liana Finck is surprised she’s relatable, but she’s getting used to the idea

10/17/2018 12:00 pm by John Seven

Since 2015 Liana Finck has been a rising star in her role as a New Yorker cartoonist thanks to her singular presentation and sensibility, but also thanks to a boost that most cartoonists never get. Finck was a prominent figure in the documentary Very Semi-Serious, which captured the cartoon department at the magazine just at […]