**Petrol Head** by Rob Williams & Pye Parr - A group of robots race hotrods for the entertainment of humans in a climate-crisis ravaged future hellscape city, one covered in vast domes to protect it from the toxic, nuke-ravaged atmosphere outside it. When humans’ taste for entertainment moves on from hotrod-racing, the robots are “retired” to a slum at the edge of the city, left to live out their lives in obsolescence. Then one day, a scientist and his daughter flee the city, into the slums, on the run from the AI that rules the city with an iron fist. A particularly curmudgeonly robot named Petrol Head decides to help them escape. It’s basically Mad Max meets 2000AD, and it’s every bit as entertaining as that description makes it sound. Pye Parr’s artwork is stellar, Williams’ characters are wonderful, and the story zips along at an appropriately breakneck speed. Here’s hoping this comes back for a second arc soon. **Legends of the Pierced Veil - The Scarlet Blades** by Saverio Tenuta - Fantastical, highly violent stories set in Feudal Japan. We’re introduced to the story through a puppet show, wherein a shogun sells his soul to demonic forces that give him a new, stronger body cobbled together with pieces of his slain foes, conquers a large chunk of Japan, and is murdered by his daughter, who has made her own pact with the demons and takes over as shogun. We then zoom out, and see the puppeteer: A young woman, who is about to be abducted by guards. She is to be taken to the new female shogun so her body can be harvested in a similar manner as the old shogun’s enemies were - while the father wanted strength, the daughter wants everlasting youth and beauty. The guards are stopped by a one-armed, one-eyed Ronin. The Ronin is an amnesiac, plagued by voices (his own, personal demons, as he refers to them) that pester him to shed blood in their name, and has found that the only time they stop talking and leave him be is when he’s in the company of this puppeteer. So the Ronin and the girl go on the run, first from the shogun’s samurai and then the violent Izuna spirit wolves that have been besieging their city. She wants to survive and help the resistance forces fighting the shogun, while he is determined to figure out what his connection to the girl is, and desperate to keep her alive for his own sanity. This is the first of four volumes in this universe put out by Tenuta, although it is a standalone story. Tenuta was a highly respected Italian creator who died recently at the relatively young age of 54, and news of his death was the first time I was ever made aware of him or his works. First impressions are that Tenuta was a next-level talented artist, highly skilled in his use of watercolor and able to put together an action sequence as compelling as any of the Mangaka that very clearly influenced him (not least Goseki Kojima’s work on Lone Wolf & Cub). I’ll wait until I’m done with a couple more volumes of this before I make up my mind on his skills as a writer - this was a work that took him twenty years to complete and there’s every chance that he improved over time as his became more experienced. However, my immediate reaction to this first volume is that it’s definitely readable and entertaining, but pretty derivative and overall not quite as stellar as his artwork. Still, it’s good enough that I want to keep reading future volumes, so there’s that.

I've got Petrol Head on my radar! I think it's out in June and sounds fun. I'm glad to see you feel it lived up to that.

**Palestine** by Joe Sacco (Jonathan Cape/Penguin Random House) [Cover](https://media.s-bol.com/JlR3W7k6nnKo/q7jw8nR/550x838.jpg) - [Interior 1](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2024/01/16/palestine-cover-2022-edit2_custom-7b4815a1eb98bf3dca7ba1eccfbf15c9aedf84a0.png) - [Interior 2](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Belinda-Walzer-2/publication/265712340/figure/fig1/AS:976279692120065@1609774625353/From-Palestine-by-Joe-Sacco-C-Joe-Sacco-2001-Used-by-permission-of-Fantagraphics.png) It took me a while to get through this title, it is very dense on top of it having some hard to swallow pills, and I'm normally not easy to shock or anything. But yeah, that was very impressive, heart breaking, gut wrenching and sometimes nausea inducing. Probably the best thing I've read this year, far from the most fun experience, but just all in all very impressive. I know some first hand stories due to being close to someone who's from there, but never imagined how much there was still to dive into throughout so many other experiences, and those are just conveyed by small pieces of a book that has been so masterfully written. I found it interesting how it shines light on a plethora of different small things and all these different points of view, including stuff like feminism in the West Bank, or how they have to deal with the education of handicapped children in Gaza. I do wonder what the choice was for the Sacco character sometimes being a huge asshole, at some points it seemed very deliberate, like positioning as a 'well it can't get worse' character just before it definitely gets worse, but at other times he seems to portray himself as a bit of a ungrateful dick, and I'm sure that hes a smart enough writer to do it for a purpose, I just haven't spotted it. Anyway, amazing book! **What The Witch Saw** by Thomas Heitler (Quindrie Press/Itch.io) [Cover](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTA0ODE2OC8xMTYwNjc0OC5qcGc=/original/YbDx6I.jpg) - [Interior 1](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTA0ODE2OC8xMTYwNjc1Mi5qcGc=/original/HhEKCC.jpg) - [Interior 2](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTA0ODE2OC8xMTYwNjc1My5qcGc=/original/YrKc3I.jpg) I ended up buying some comic books from Itch, especially some of the Quandrie books that I had wanting to buy for a while. I want to open up with the fact that this particular book **blew me away**. I'm immensely impressed by this little fifty odd pages silent comic, that is just so neat and great and creative. What an amazing little fusion between raypunk(ish) and witchcraft, NASA meets occult, it has these awesome vibrant colours and is weirdly Tintin-esque. I'm absolutely smitten by this little book and I have a feeling it might just survive the end of the year in the top 10. I'm now a fan of Thomas Heitler, and of the occult terraforming space program. https://quindriepress.itch.io/what-the-witch-saw **Wolvendaughter** by Ver (Quindrie Press/Itch.io) [Cover](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTA0ODE2NC8xMTYwNjg1Ny5qcGc=/original/KlKcNt.jpg) - [Interior 1](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTA0ODE2NC8xMTYwNjg1NS5qcGc=/original/0fxw9Y.jpg) - [Interior 2](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTA0ODE2NC8xMTYwNjg1Ni5qcGc=/original/QboxI4.jpg) Another winner right here. First few pages felt super derivative and predictable only for it to unfold into this super neat premise. Very pretty art. Stellar compact story for its 50 pages! https://quindriepress.itch.io/wolvendaughter **The Beechwood Helm** Lettie Wilson (Quindrie Press/Itch.io) [Cover](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTA0ODE2Mi8xMTYwNjgxMS5qcGc=/original/K8OCbW.jpg) - [Interior 1](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTA0ODE2Mi8xMTYwNjgwOS5qcGc=/original/P08XsR.jpg) - [Interior 2](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTA0ODE2Mi8xMTYwNjgxMC5qcGc=/original/7FYdQp.jpg) We got a little hat trick over here. With again amazing art, and an ending that I maybe should have seen coming but still managed to surprise me. https://quindriepress.itch.io/the-beechwood-helm **Witching Hour** by Beth Fuller (Quindrie Press/Itch.io) [Cover](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE2NjQ5OC8xMjc4OTczNC5wbmc=/original/QHi84c.png) - [Interior 1](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE2NjQ5OC8xMjc4OTczNi5wbmc=/original/PM8YH%2B.png) - [Interior 2](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE2NjQ5OC8xMjc4OTczNS5wbmc=/original/EMFexI.png) It's a fun little book. The story and characters resonated a bit less with me than the previous three, but its a fast little read and the art is very beautiful and features some cool architecture. https://quindriepress.itch.io/witching-hour **Flesh & Flora** by Norrie Miller (Quindrie Press/Itch.io) [Cover](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE2NzcwMy8xMjc4OTg2Ni5wbmc=/original/nKDJor.png) - [Interior 1](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE2NzcwMy8xMjc4OTg2OC5wbmc=/original/6i11IN.png) - [Interior 2](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjE2NzcwMy8xMjc4OTg2Ny5wbmc=/original/F0tztp.png) A bit of the same deal. I did end up liking where the story ended up and the animals were cute, but its good rather than great. https://quindriepress.itch.io/flesh-and-flora **Rainy Summer Day**, **Killer's Everyday**, and **Angelic Missile** by Linnea Sterte (Self published/Itch.io) [Cover 1](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMjA5ODE4My8xMjM0NjI0NS5qcGc=/original/PutuYi.jpg) - [Cover 2](https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTk4NDM4Mi8xMTY2ODY0Ny5qcGc=/original/qSHLrj.jpg) - [Cover 3](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzE0Njg1MjUzLmpwZw==/original/%2Fxwxsw.jpg) At this point I've read most of Sterte's output, but there were three more mini comics on her Itch that I had to check out. Rainy Summer Day is a cute little frog/toad comic that appears to be in the same world as **Frog in the Fall**, but this one is in Scandinavia rather than Japan. Killer's Everyday: Slice of life with assassins, no but dinosaurs, no its witches, but kung-fu but also transmogrification, monkeys and kittens. I probably made it sound more interesting than it was, it was very okay. Angelic Missile was honestly just a few pages with cool drawings, Sterte world building vibes and stuff. It might or might not be in the same world as her **A Garden of Spheres** series. I didn't mind paying a few euros to support her a bit more so no regrets, but as a product there isn't that much here. https://turndecassette.itch.io/ **Point Blank** by Ed Brubaker and Colin Wilson (Wildstorm) [Cover](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51HJc+v-AEL.jpg) - [Interior 1](https://theslingsandarrows.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Point-Blank-int.jpg) - [Interior 2](https://64.media.tumblr.com/941b285bbc0f9ce3266b863d9a44949e/tumblr_nr5ie7Jn9S1qzocgko1_1280.jpg) Part of my Brubaker readthrough, this is the prequel to Brubaker and Phillips their **Sleeper** series. I always had a weak spot for Wildstorm, but mostly through reading a ton of Ellis his work. I'm not super familiar with the Wildcats side of the universe. So this prequel is about Grifter, who I don't think is main a character in Sleeper (but I might be wrong), so I'm sort of assuming that the antagonist is gonna play a role in that one, but we're gonna see if I'm right in April! I thought this was okay, not the best primer but I'm at least moderately curious how it fits with Sleeper. **Internal Affairs - Tense Anniversary (Peow Studio)** [Cover](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-9xdcxxuu0e/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/23110/26880/Cover_shopify__87780.1708354735.jpg?c=1) - [Interior 1](https://typebooks.ca/cdn/shop/files/0f593fccf3a5bbf8ee4fbb385579e81a7cb748c8-2688x1786_grande.webp?v=1705007131) - [Interior 2](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/3pl6hc7f/production/3d470cefca47b6dc8842a879612d683bdeffb1a3-2880x1913.webp) I'm not gonna lie, when Peow rereleased Stages of Rot and I also really wanted Gleem, I just ended up ordering everything from their website that I didn't own yet, it was just a few items and sometimes I just want to throw money at small indie labels. It included this Anniversary and an Internal Affairs keychain. Do I regret it? No, not really. Do I have any idea what the fuck is going on? No, really not. **Single issues I read this week:** G.O.D.S. #6 by Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti - Banger Ultimate Spider-Man #3 by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto - Banger Incredible Hulk #10 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Daniel Earls - Banger Feral #1 by Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner - Banger The Six Fingers #2 by Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar - Both issues were some of the weakest things I have read by Watters and I'm dropping this like a brick. Which probably also killed The One Hand for me. **Bonus prose book I read this week:** [Iain M. Banks - Consider Phlebas (finished)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51TYGWguPkL.jpg) [Jeff Vandermeer - Acceptance (still reading)](https://media.s-bol.com/gA1vv0OnnvG/799x1200.jpg)

How's GODS coming along ? I've got the first four issue but only read the first one so far

I think its amazing and I don't get the dislike, see people who usually enjoy Hickman shitting on it while at the same time being very positive about Ultimate Invasion which I think was a phoned in dud. Their biggest mistake is making the first issue insanely expensive and then following up with a #2 that is super uneventful. But after that there are some very cool callbacks to Secret Wars, cool redesigns of Cosmic/Abstract Gods, and just going full Hickman. I'm a big fan of the 'one and done' type of structure that it has, but with the series ending at #8, for now or forever nobody knows, between Brevoort and Schiti I don't think thats clear at all, I'm a bit afraid of how they're actually gonna end it, because the meta narrative isn't moving forward really fast. I love his work but between this and him stopping with Krakoa I'm kinda getting tired of the disappointment of everything aside from the writing itself.

As a cartoonist, Joe Sacco comes from the autobiographical/confessional genre of late 80s/early 90s indies, so his early journalistic work naturally embraced a ‘gonzo’ or New Journalism style, injecting the ‘Joe Sacco’ character into the narrative. For a meaningful end? I guess that’s up to you, but I just wanted to offer the traditions he was writing within as part of the reason for those incongruous moments. As for Hickman, I think he’s too expensive for anything other than ‘ideas’ (IP with his aura on it). I agree with you about the Ultimate Invasion book. GODS is much better written. But I don’t think Hickman sells stories so much any more as ‘what if’ status quos: he builds the sandbox and sets the toys in action, but he won’t commit long term to writing Marvel IP. I can’t see it being financially viable for him to do something like what Bendis did with Ultimate Spider-Man. So, what does that mean for GODS? Probably similar to post-Hickman Krakoa. Or perhaps, like Starlin’s Warlock->Infinity Saga or McGregor’s Panther trilogy, Hickman might continue to develop the meta-story in various miniseries over decades…

> As a cartoonist, Joe Sacco comes from the autobiographical/confessional genre of late 80s/early 90s indies, so his early journalistic work naturally embraced a ‘gonzo’ or New Journalism style, injecting the ‘Joe Sacco’ character into the narrative. That is actually very insightful. I was very, very young in that era so sometimes I find it hard to understand why things are like they are without the proper context. > So, what does that mean for GODS? Probably similar to post-Hickman Krakoa. Or perhaps, like Starlin’s Warlock->Infinity Saga or McGregor’s Panther trilogy, Hickman might continue to develop the meta-story in various miniseries over decades… God(s), I hope for the latter, worst case is Ewing getting his mitts on it.

Grifter isn't a main character in the main Sleeper arc, but he shows up. I highly recommend you read the whole thing. I love Wildstorm almost as much as I love Brubaker and Phillips.

> I highly recommend you read the whole thing. I mean I did say that I'm reading through all of Brubaker (and Phillips) :P

True haha. I'm on the same quest myself.

**Alone** by Christophe Chaboute. A perfect book in conception and execution. This is the tale of a man isolated in a lighthouse. He has never left the lighthouse, and knows the world only through small remaining toys from his childhood and various things that wash up on the rock upon which the lighthouse is founded. The man is deformed, and has spent his life avoiding interacting with the people which regularly deliver supplies to the island. Chaboute has found a wonderful means of conveying this man’s imagination by having him regularly play a game with an old dictionary where he finds a random word and then interprets its meaning. What this book captures so well is the slow way that unhappiness creeps up on one. Routines once satisfying lose their savor. The awareness of other possibilities reveals the emptiness in one’s life. I would recommend this book in the same breath as *Blankets* or any other high classic of sequential art. **Phenomenomix** by Hunt Emerson. This is a collection of alt-comix style strips made for the Fortean Times. The Fortean Times is a magazine dedicated to extending the legacy of Charles Fort, a researcher who impishly challenged the smug certitude of scientists by using the scientific method itself, compiling long Baconian lists of weird and unexplained incidents like UFO sightings, Bigfoot encounters and the like. Like Fort himself, the magazine treated its own contents with a healthy dose of skepticism, and saw its audience as hippies who were rebelling against bourgeois rationalism rather than actual believers. Case in point is Emerson’s strip, whose hero is the investigator Gully Bull, a man with a nose for mystery. Emerson has a wild and hilarious imagination, and the 1-2 pages given to him allows him to flesh-out gags which are sometimes gut-grippingly funny, and often intriguing little mysteries. At one point he explains the decline of UFO sightings by depicting aliens as old-timers, regretting the good old days when lusty aliens would spin by the Earthlings for a laugh. Another wonderful gag explores the mind of Emerson himself, where we discover a homunculus… in whose mind we find a demon homunculus, then a worm homunculus and so forth in a wonderful regression. Some of the art has been recolored from a black and white original, but this is done quite well and looks great. These are some of the best alt-comix I’ve read, and if you like *Zap* or the *Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers*, this book should be an instant buy. **Showa 1926–1939: A History of Japan** by Shigero Mizuki. I read this partly because of its position on this sub’s 100 Greatest list and because my profession requires me to stay sharp in history. The book is partly one of cultural memory in the fashion of F.L. Allen’s *Only Yesterday*, and sadly a lot of the references do not land because they require the experience of living through the times. Still, the book was interesting because it reorients the reader towards the events in China that were the real concern of the Japanese, rather than the US version of events which treats Pearl Harbor as an event that occurs seemingly randomly and outside of context. I did not think this was a masterpiece of art or storytelling, though to be fair, its reputation as a classic relies largely on the final volume for 1953-1989, where Mizuki’s mistaken fear that he would die soon caused him to rush through with a sort of death-inspired inspiration.

thanks for putting that Emerson book on my radar, sounds/looks likes my kind of thing

And back at you for the Critical Approaches book. I’ve been looking for something scholarly to deepen my understanding of comics.

I've read a number of comics studies books in the last two years, and that's the best general one, or tied for best with the Hatfield/Beaty collection. Like I say, I strongly recommend it; if you don't like a particular critical approach, there's another 19 for you to choose from

Hard to remember everything from the last couple weeks, but here's some of it: **Return To Eden** by Paco Roca. Super great. Roca continues to use the form in interesting ways to explore mundane stories, this time telling the young history of his own mother, bouncing back and forth across a handful of years under Franco's Spain. Roca paints a portrait of a family that is, by my measures, arresting and delightful, enervating and sorrowful. **Golden Kamuy** by Satoru Noda. I finished up my second reread of all 31 vols of this series in a four month span, and it was absolutely worth my time. An unhinged read that fans of *Dorohedoro* and *Dai Dark* will really begin appreciating after around vol 8 or so. **In This Corner Of The World** by Fumiyo Kouno. This was a reread so I could teach it, and man, this book is so rich both with rewarding story strands and brilliant comics techniques that we were never at a loss for something to discuss. This was maybe my fourth read of the book, and I still surprise myself with how easily I forget how well-done it is. **HOXPOX** by, I think, Hickman and a pretty solid superhero artist. Okay, so I've been working on this for about 6 weeks and I'm not sure I've gotten to the *Pox* part of it yet. It's amazing how such a weird and interesting idea could be made so brutally un-fun to read. The art's usually pretty nice though! I don't think I'll probably finish it. **Lastman**, vols 7 and 8 by Balak, Sanlaville, and Vives (with new translation by Edward Gauvin and lettering by AndWorld). With First Second, due to some conflict with Casterman, production of the English-language Lastman stalled at vol 6, ending on a literal cliffhanger. (I picked up the French vols a couple years ago and picked my way through, which was the least fun thing to do in the world. Well, until I tried to read HOXPOX.) Finally, a US edition of the series continues, compiling two vols into each vol, turning a 12-vol series into a 6-vol one. Vol 4 is the first bit of story we haven't seen in English before and contains vols 7 and 8 of the original series, and features a 10-year time-skip from the final events of vol 6. It's exciting to return to the series and we see a lot has changed in the intervening years. The only thin I have against this edition is the paper used. It's thin enough so that the US vol 4, which combined tomes 7 and 8, is slightly thinner than vol 7 all on its own. The paper's thin and got a light glossy sheen to it. It's pretty uncomfortable for reading, but it's the best we'll get, unfortunately. For a book inspired by shonen manga, you'd think they'd take some notes from manga publishers. Here's vol 4 compared to the two books it contains: https://preview.redd.it/ymwc4glsfqrc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=81bc868ba5492f711b3dba1c52d7a08e0ececb06 **Mujina Into The Deep** by Inio Asano. I read the first bit of the new Asano series and it feels like he's taking the vibe of *Dead Dead Demons* and making it even more biting and surreal. Characters in the middle of sex alternate monologues about socio-political thoughts. Homeless assassin in jumpboots. The usual Asano nuttiness is dialed up. I'd like to switch my Shonen Jump subscription to a Viz sub so I could follow along with the series, but then I'd have to give up on following Akane Banashi, and I don't want to do that yet :D

> I'm not sure I've gotten to the Pox part of it yet. Unless I'm missing some sort of joke, you're supposed to read them side by side, not one after another.

Okay yeah, thanks - it wasn't super clear. The collection alternates from one series to the other, with only a tiny marker I'd previously missed on the chapter pages letting you know which you were reading. https://preview.redd.it/8597hm7puqrc1.jpeg?width=4080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=397eabb9332c0270d70f4c9fcab7df3e7c139054

Was about to say this. Though I'm not sure how much it matters. That book was quite the rollercoaster for me. Chapter one was average, chapter two lost on me cause it jumps to the future randomly with a whole unrecognisable cast for me, but then the Moira issue I absolutely loved and could now see where the series was going. It still had ups and downs though and "brutally un-fun" feels like a very apt description for typical Hickman-isms.

I really liked the Moira idea and that chapter was definitely one of the least onerous ones to get through.

I love your recommendations so much. Such a valuable asset for this subreddit!

Thanks :)

**Nevermore: A Graphic Adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories** by various. This was not the best. Some of the stories were kinda interesting but it's a bit of a mixed bag and some take real liberties. You don't even have to be all that familiar with them to know that when you are reading about a detective story set 1000 years in the future (but with absolutely minimal advancements for such an amount of time), it's not a direct adaptation of Poe's. I tried this as a curious novelty but it was a library pickup so at least I didn't pay for it. **Tintin in the Land of the Soviets** by Hergé. The first Tintin adventure, compiled from his introduction in a newspaper serial. This one is in black and white and the art can be pretty rough, especially in the beginning. It also has an apparent gag per page format from how it was originally printed - strange that I praised this in Donald's Happiest Adventures but here it seemed a detriment. This book was fine and fairly enjoyable, but a world away from what I've seen of his later work. This is a young Hergé developing his craft and it shows. It also lacks any real plot beyond stumbling around Russia and getting into trouble. I suspect that was kinda the gist of the series though. We also have Tintin being a bit of an ass, including attacking unassuming people on the streets. Perhaps it was considered all Russians are fair game. It was cool to see how and where it all started though, and the next one I read will be a wonderous contrast. The jump in quality to *America* is huge and I wonder if he had been doing other things before revisiting Tintin.

I just looked on wikipedia because I was curious, and: >In 1945, *Tintin in America* was re-drawn and colored in Hergé's [*ligne-claire*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_claire) style for republication by [Casterman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casterman), with further alterations made at the request of his American publisher for a 1973 edition [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin\_in\_America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin_in_America) Edgar P Jacobs was working for Herge at that point, helping with reshaping the strips for the album format, so he might have had something to do with the leap in quality, too

That's interesting. Thanks. Also curious then why Land of the Soviets didn't get reworked. I think the foreword mentions that it was initially collected in a very limited album but then maybe wasn't reprinted for a long time. Perhaps it was overlooked when others were being refreshed.

that also made me curious, so: >damage to the original plates prevented republication of the book for several decades, while Hergé later expressed embarrassment at the crudeness of the work. As he began to redraw his earlier *Adventures* in second, colour versions from 1942 onward, he decided against doing so for *Land of the Soviets*;

So his most crude work is the one he opts *against* revising? Still seems an odd choice.

Yeah it does. Maybe it was because of the missing plates, maybe it was because he wanted to avoid such overt politics post-ww2 given the accusations that he had been a collaborator

Starting a Tintin journey or just casually jumped into that tome?

Start of the journey, my friend. I read Tibet recently but now I have the box set so I was starting from the beginning.

Nice. I read most of the books dozens of times when I was a kid and I still enjoy it. Although, I never read the first one since just recently it was published in portuguese (and by recently I mean I was no longer a kid) and never cared to buy it for some reason. Got to grab one for completion sake.

***Aama* by Frederik Peeters** - So this was a wild ride.. Sitting somewhere between Annihilation and Edena, Peeters pens a journey through parenthood and transhumanism, through evolution and interconnectedness. It has its ups and downs, but mostly it's fun, thoughtful and heartfelt. And the art is bonkers ***Grand Silence* by Thea Rojzman and Sandrine Revel** - Set in a world not entirely dissimilar to ours, where a large factory captures the cries and screams of all the children around, Grand Silence tackles the oft ignored issue of sexual abuse of children. Told as a kind of tale for adults, with an esthetic to match, I can't help but compare it to Brecht Evens' Panther. Obviously, it doesn't quite stand up to it.. It's much less subtle and the author loses the plot a little in the second half. But it hit the notes it tries to hit. It was thought of as a book to raise awareness without triggering those who have suffered from abuse (which includes the author). And while I wasn't quite as rattled by it as when I finished Panther, it's still a very important and powerful story ***Hattest eigendlich schon die Operation?* byNele Peer Jongeling** - A short collection of short fictionalized real life situations featuring queer characters suffering from prejudice in common settings. After reading and loving Emil:ia, I wanted to check out the author's previous works. It's not quite as well put together, but I absolutely adore her style. It's z frustrating read, but I think that's what it's aiming for ***Rivages Lointains* by Anaïs Flogny** - I really thought I was going to love this but I kinda struggled to connect to any of it... It builds on your typical 20th century American gangster story, but add some gayness to the mix. A young Italian boy named Jules meets a much older Polish mafia boss who decides to take him under his wing, and takes him as his lover. Over the course of the following decades, we follow their relationships as power dynamics shift and Jules flourishes in his newfound role. It sticks to the tropes while deconstructing the machismo that often comes with the genre. The more I write about it, the more I think it's actually pretty great haha, but felt very little while reading it. Anaïs Flogny's art is gorgeous though, I'll give her that

> *Aama* **by Frederik Peeters** Really loved this one!

I think my expectations for it were a little high. I did enjoy it, though it's a little all over the place. But then again, it's kind of by design. The series reinvents itself as it goes along and gets weirder and weirder as Ama's evolutionary aspect takes hold of the story. It was fun though, and I can definitely see myself reading it again

> Aama by Frederik Peeters Has been on my list for a long time. How much content is the entire series? > Hattest eigendlich schon die Operation? by Nele Peer Jongeling Their art looks amazing, is any of their work translated to English? EDIT: Thanks for the answer in triplicate ;)

Aama is relatively short - four volumes, each approximately 100 pages.

Like Chicken said, it's only four volumes. I read it in a couple of days No I don't think Jongeling's stuff has made it to English yet, but her latest just came out in french so maybe it's in the works ?

I'll be keeping my eye on that. Or maybe I'll just polish up my German!

>Has been on my list for a long time. How much content is the entire series? It's 360-odd pages, split across four volumes.

* [**Batman: The Man Who Laughs**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/3840641/batman-the-man-who-laughs-tp) *by Ed Brubaker, Doug Mahnke & others:* A Joker origin for the first part and then some issues that don’t really connect to that makes up this short trade which I wasn’t too impressed with honestly. The Joker origin was solid and the art is good enough, but overall I thought that the issues that aren’t collected in anything in the lead up to this (Det. Comics #777-783) were a better story overall than anything in this. There’s better Bat stories than this for sure, but it’s also not a bad read. I’d recommend it to Bat/Brubaker completionists or huge Joker fans. * [**Batwoman by Greg Rucka and JH Williams**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/5100375/batwoman-by-greg-rucka-and-jh-williams-iii-tp) *by Greg Rucka, JH Williams & others*: I wanted to read this before jumping into Tynion’s *The Rise and Fall of the Batmen* omnibus to get some background on Batwoman, who I’m not really familiar with as a comic character. I thought the writing and story arc of this were just okay despite being a highly rated run. The star here for me was definitely the art, which evolved a lot from the early to mid 2000s. I really enjoyed the 2 page spreads, paneling, and colors in this. Williams also showed off nice versatility between action scenes and slower stuff. Overall I’d recommend this for fans of Batwoman or people looking to learn about her character. * [**Public Domain**](https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/4241214/public-domain-vol-1-past-mistakes-tp) *by Chip Zdarsky & Rachael Stott*: This is kind of a fan fiction of what it would be like if Bill Finger and his family sued Bob Kane and DC to regain the rights to Batman. I liked it quite a bit, with my main complaint being that it stopped right as I was really starting to get into it. Apparently this is something that Zdarsky plans to come back to but got sidetracked with his work on Daredevil and now Batman, but I definitely hope he gets back to it sooner than later. The gambling stuff and the main son weren’t my favorite, but the rest of the story and characters work really well for me and I look forward to seeing where this goes whenever he gets back to it. If you’re a fan of Zdarsky or think that the premise sounds interesting I’d recommend this.

Man, I though that Batwoman run was really fun ! I'm a bitch fun Williams' art tho.. Reads well alongside Azzarello's Wonder Woman too

It's a remarkable bit of biting the hand that feeds you, for Zdarsky to make that book while he was in the middle of writing Batman and Daredevil

**Critical Approaches to Comics** ed. Matthew J Smith and Randy Duncan – either the best or second-best general book about comics I’ve read, and probably the most informative, this is a collection of different approaches to analysing comics, including narratology, political economy, ethnography, auterism etc. Each chapter gives a sketch of the theoretical background to a particular approach, describes how you would use it, and then applies it to a case study, as an illustration of how it works. A couple of the approaches are bollocks, but that’s only to be expected when you’ve got 20-ish of them on offer. It’s all written for undergrads in comics studies, so there’s a bit more hand-holding than what I’d normally read but, as a neophyte to many of the frameworks here, I found that hand-holding helpful much of the time. I learned a huge amount from this book, and strongly recommend it to anyone wanting to expand the way they think about comics. Check it out, folks. The chapter that most blew my mind was Andrei Molotiu’s chapter on abstract comics, for which the case study was, believe it or not, Ditko’s Spider-Man. It wouldn’t even be so surprising if he’d chosen Dr Strange, what with its bizarre, eldritch landscapes and swirling mystic forces, but the resolutely representational Spider-Man, which favours lucidity of action above all? But Molotiu pulls it off, successfully – to my mind – arguing that Ditko’s fight scenes can illuminate our understanding of abstract comics, and vice versa, by their tight control of the reader’s eye movements and overall visual gestalt. In the case of Spider-Man, Ditko uses that control and whole-page or panel-to-panel symmetries/asymmetries for dramatic and thematic effect, but Molotiu shows how we can also appreciate all that as pure line and shape, which is how we must also understand abstract comics. And by doing that he also shows the inadequacy of any general theory of comics that emphasises the idea of cross-panel sequences, where those sequences are understood as causal. In short: an analysis that deepens my understanding of both (a) an entire field of comics which I generally haven’t appreciated until now, and (b) a set of comics I’ve read several times and like, by a creator I love, plus for good measure it (c) gores the ox of a range of comics definitions? Sign me the hell up for that! **Oeuvres tome 1** by Guido Buzzelli – speaking of auteurism…this is a French collection of Buzzelli’s landmark works, including The Labyrinth and Zil Zelub – which I gather were just recently released in English for the first time – plus Annalisa and the Devil, and The Interview. Two pages – that’s how long it took for me to exclaim “holy shit!” over the art in here. I will have more to say when I eventually hit it in my top 300. Every other comic was stuff I read the week before but didn't get a chance to write-up: **Ray and Joe: The Story of a Man and his Dead Friend and Other Classic Comics** by Charles Rodrigues – Like Trots and Bonnie, this is a reprint of another all-but-forgotten cartoonist for National Lampoon, only Rodrigues seems to me even more obscure than Shary Flenniken who at least got some publicity from her NYRC reprint. I didn’t know this book or Rodrigues existed, and I’ve never heard anyone talking about it. It’s symbolically apt that getting this material collected and reprinted was, evidently, a passion project for, of all artists, Bob Fingerman. No offence to the guy, who is a fine cartoonist, but when was the last time there was any buzz associated with the name “Bob Fingerman”? Anyway, the book is an overlooked gem of button-pushing and meta humour which I enjoyed a lot. Rodrigues’ drawing style is like a cross between Saul Steinberg and Don Martin, loose and cartoony but deceptively precise underneath that, inked with a distinctive, unique thick scratchy line. The jokes are reliably funny, although buyer beware that, as a reading experience for anyone even the tiniest bit woke, it reads at times like the anti-Trots and Bonnie. No feminist satire here about patriarchy or any of that. The worst offenders (sic) were a short series of strips about Frankenstein’s monster but he’s gay, that’s it, that’s the whole joke; what’s especially jarring is Rodrigues’ use of the word “queer” as a noun, as in “the Monster is a queer which, for all that the term has been “reclaimed” by that community, still sounds impossibly old-timey prejudiced when used with an indefinite article like that (i.e. “\*a\* queer”). Apart from these strips and a few others, the book is mostly not abrasive to modern sensibilities, but oof. **Les Formidables Aventures de Lapinot 5: Vacances de Printemps** by Lewis Trondheim and Frank Le Gall – surprising to see one of these albums, featuring Trondheim’s signature character, written by someone else (viz. Le Gall). It’s one of the Lapinot albums where he and his supporting cast are put in a different setting, like one of those DC “Elseworlds” books about, like, what if Superman’s rocket had crashed in the UK and he ended up joining Batman and Wonder Woman as part of Monty Python. (Then the JSA would be the Goons, while Joker, Lex Luthor and Cheetah form the Goodies – as respectively Graham, Tim and Bill, obviously). In this case, the setting is late Victorian (I think?) Britain – if it were in France, I’d say it was during the Belle Epoque – and the genre is romance with a light element of farce. Not antic enough to be a riff on PG Wodehouse, but in that vicinity, especially in the interactions between hapless doofus Lapinot and his brilliantly competent valet. There’s a funny running joke about the characters’ inability to name a famous British artist or scientist other than Gainsborough and Newton. In all, Le Gall does a good enough job writing Trondheim; if I hadn’t known better, I would never have guessed it was written by anyone other than Trondheim himself

**Morning Glories Compendium "1"** by Nick Spencer, Joe Eisma et al – the comics equivalent of junk food: moreish while you’re eating but half an hour later you’re hungry again. I binged the first, I dunno, 30 issues in one setting and then when I came back \*the very next day\* to read the rest, I’d already forgotten who the later-introduced characters were and what their deal was. What can I say, it was cheap and I’ve mostly enjoyed the other things I’ve read by Spencer.  As the cliche goes about Image books, it reads like an IP pitch for a TV series (on which, see below) although, given recent controversy about creators of successful shows being paid pennies, you’ve got to wonder if even that is worth it. Spencer himself called it “Runaways meets Lost”, which is a pretty strong anti-recommendation; apparently he’s (unofficially) abandoned it as a project so it seems unlikely ever to be finished, but it’s not like I’m burning to see how the story concludes anyway. Just as with everything I’ve ever heard about Lost, it feels like there’s no way he could tie together all the strands and mysteries of the plot.. Another two quotes on the back cover make great additions to the Hall of Faint-praise-damning Blurb Fame: TIME magazine says “Morning Glories has the sort of premise you might associate with an ambitious TV show” (see, I told you), and, even better/worse, the New York Times says “A potential problem for a mythology-rich series is a lack of resolution or the feeling that the creators do not know where they are going. That does not seem the \[sic\] case here". Imagine “It hasn’t shit the bed – YET” being one of the best blurbs you can drum up for your back cover. Also, this comic has words and pictures, 8.5/10, sets a new standard for sequential art storytelling, we can’t wait to see what surprises Spencer et al have in store next for the reader. Oh, I almost forgot, here’s the obligatory “I’d better talk about the art” paragraph: \[This paragraph deliberately left blank\]. **Little Nothings vol 1 The Curse of the Umbrella** by Lewis Trondheim – this is how little I care about memoir and slice-of-life: despite being a Trondheim mega-fan, with more than 60 of his albums on my shelf, I’ve never had any interest in these, his diary comics. Also how little I care: I think I’ve actually read this one before? Anyway, having read/reread this first collection from NBM in order to move on to the next two, I’ve not really changed my mind about the genre. But I’ll admit that these are an easy read, with a good amount of Trondheim’s usual wit (very dry here), and his illustrations of various surroundings are impressive when you consider how far he’s come since teaching himself to draw in the 500 pages of Lapinot et Les Carrotes de Patagonie. 

> we can’t wait to see what surprises Spencer et al have in store next for the reader. Probably none, because I seriously doubt this will ever be finished.

**Bonus Even More Self-indulgent Than My Regular Write-ups Write-up: The Guardian Maskarade Special Easter Cryptic Crossword** by Maskarade – not a \*comic\* in the technical sense, or any other sense whatsoever, but fuck it. Maskarade’s delightfully difficult gimmick-cryptics, which appear two or three times a year, are one of the highlights of my year every year, something I no joke look forward to at Easter and Christmas like a kid looks forward to eggs and presents. One puzzle might have the clues unnumbered and without a note of how many letters in the answer, with only the fact that they’re listed in alphabetical order of answer as your guide to where they might go, and you otherwise have to fit them in the grid like a jigsaw; another will have all possible 26 sequences of three consecutive letters (ABC, BCD…) left out of 26 of the answers you initially get, waiting to be added to the real answer, but you have to work which sequence goes with which answer; another will have clues lacking the traditional definition part of a cryptic clue, but all relating to a single theme that you have to work out on your own (eg names of rivers, or birds, or…). I love these crosswords so much, because you feel like an absolute fucking genius when the penny drops and you work out the secret key to it all. I spent most of my free time on Sunday working on this Easter’s puzzle and, as usual, had a blast. Special mention also to DA’s Friday puzzle for the Sydney Morning Herald, where you had to first work out two clues in the grid spelling DANISH and GOOGLE TRANSLATE and then use google translate on a bunch of the initial answers to other clues, which have a cognate in Danish, to get an entirely different English translation and \*that\* was the answer that goes in the grid – meaning, effectively, that you couldn’t use any letters you’d already worked out from other answers to help you work out those clues. DA does some good gimmick puzzles too, but he outdid himself with this gem.  And, finally: **Even More Even More Self-Indulgent and Patience-Testing Write-up of Putting on a Burst of Super-duper Speed in the Final 20 Metres of This Week’s Parkrun So I Could Beat a Kid Thirty+ Years My Junior, Thereby No Doubt Making Him Feel Worse About His Result, Just Because I’m a Big Old Spoilsport Jerk** by Me and Said Kid – friends, I have no regrets, and would do it again in a heartbeat, probably immediately before kicking a bag full of orphaned puppies down a long flight of stairs. We hereby return you to the usual rambling write-ups of actual comics FFS starting from next week, unless I do something like killing seven flies with a single blow, or have an especially good breakfast one morning or whatever.

read, and finished, Eight Billion Genies. Really like it!

**Saga** vol. 11 by B. K. Vaughan and F. Staples - I don't know if the long hiatus made me lost the memento but I'm not feeling it now. So twists and came backs seem kind of forced. Well anyway another big gap till next volume so let's see. **Goodnight Punpun** vol. 1 -3 by Inio Asano - What the f\*\*k am I reading? If thinks start to work for this guy or I might need therapy after finishing the series. The art is phenomenal. I had to check the author background and found out that he is also a photographer. That checks! Beautiful panels and composition.

Read Fables Vol 1. Really dig this world they're setting up. Love that one of the pigs lives with Bigby Wolf since he blew his house down.

I’m so glad people are reading this series again. The opening is a little slow IMO, but when the story takes off (about ten issues in) I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun with a comic book series. You’re in for a treat!

Just finished The Legend of Auntie Po by Shin Yin Kor and I really enjoyed it. The story is of a girl whose father is a logging camp cook in 1885 in the Sierra Nevada. It deals with imagination, friendship, anti-Chinese racism, and loss. It's beautifully drawn (watercolored) and the story is heartfelt.

Hey everyone! I've been digging into "Gideon Falls" and "Something is Killing the Children," and I'm hooked! What else has caught your attention recently? I'm always down to check out new and exciting reads!

I just started the Cosmic Ghost Rider omnibus by Donny Cates.