The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 14

I’m so glad to get another volume of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service! (The previous book, volume 13, last appeared at the end of 2012.) Although it’s horror, it’s one of my favorite manga series, with each volume featuring creative deaths and victim quests that say something about the modern human condition. And The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 14 was well worth the wait, with two unique takes on the corpse-assisting team.

The first story incorporates a hypocritical, corrupt politician, a conspiracy website that’s begun writing about the Corpse Delivery Service, a smartphone app that reveals the thoughts of the dead, and a group pretending to be the team we know. Amusingly, the imposter group, which charges to make body problems go away, are better at making money than the real thing. It’s a suspenseful story, with the reader following along with the team as they try to figure out who’s impersonating them and why. The final showdown, with a zombie uprising, is amazing.

(Frequent readers of this site may be wondering why I like this series so much if it involves walking corpses and other horror elements, since I don’t care for the genre in general. It’s because the concepts are so interesting, and the theme of wanting justice is universal, both expressed with a black humor. Plus, the characters — made outcasts by their abilities to find or communicate with the dead or their knowledge that there’s more in the world than most people know — are sympathetic in their desire to find their place and way to contribute to making things right.)

There’s an interesting undercurrent, mentioned in passing, of the surveillance state, with everyone assumed to be on camera whenever they’re in public. Sasaki, their hacker, finds this convenient for her work, of course, but it’s something the others are surprised to have brought to their attention.

My favorite story in this volume is the one that inspired the cartoony headshots on the cover. Someone has made a Hollywood-ized cartoon version of the team, only their cover is pizza delivery guys in Los Angeles. It’s all drawn in a style reminiscent of the Batman animated series, which I found hilarious. Parody can be tricky for new readers, but in this case, the group is defined through contrast — their behavior shows how they’re not like the imposters or the cartoon version. And I think this volume has everything you need to know, revealing key points through action.

The final story returns to politics, with misuse of public funds, a younger politician trying to clean up corruption, and a museum dedicated to execution and torture devices. And as always, there are the best endnotes in comics, with editor Carl Gustav Horn not only explaining references but elaborating on cultural differences.

If a new reader doesn’t want to start here, the first three volumes of the series will be re-released in an omnibus this August. The endnotes mention that sales on that volume will likely affect the release schedule for future series volumes, so I encourage people to sample the series, either now or then, if they’re interested. The publisher has posted some preview pages.

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The Cartoon Guide to Algebra

It amazes me that Larry Gonick is still turning out such interesting cartoon science guides. I remember reading my first one, The Cartoon Guide to (Non)Communication, back in the early 90s, and here, over 20 years later, I’m still learning things from him.

The Cartoon Guide to Algebra covers a topic I should know, given that I passed high school math, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover how much was new to me. (Starting with an overview of number theory helps.) It takes a few chapters to get into algebraic expressions proper; before then, there are explanations of natural numbers, fractions, negative numbers (particularly necessary for algebra), and the basics of arithmetic, making for a helpful refresher.

A cartoon volume allows particularly well for visual demonstrations of what numbers mean, so readers can grasp concepts, not just rules. I was also pleased to note that Gonick’s illustrative figures have expanded beyond his stereotypical wacky professor —- they’re diverse in size, gender, color, and figure type, demonstrating math for everyone.

There’s a lot of content in this volume. As always, the humorous drawings make the lessons more memorable, providing visual reminders of the concepts. Each short chapter ends with a set of exercises making the book suitable for use in a class.

However, those problems were my biggest source of frustration with the book. Solutions are only provided to selected problems, which makes it tricky to be sure you’re understanding the material if you’re playing along. And I found several errors in the answer keys. (I’m not sure that’s because of typos, mismatched labels, or that I don’t understand the concepts as well as I thought I did. It looks to me like maybe one section (either problems or solutions) was updated without making sure the other was in sync. Regardless, it’s disconcerting.)

By the end of the book, I had a thorough understanding of algebraic equations, the use of exponents, rates and averages, and a reminder of how to solve quadratic equations. It was a pleasant educational read. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

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War of Streets and Houses

Sophie Yanow’s War of Streets and Houses is a difficult graphic novel to approach, but a rewarding one. I picked it up because it was described to me as about urban planning, as well as student rebellion during strikes in Montreal in 2012, and my brother is a civil engineer, so I thought he might find it interesting.

The concepts rely on the reader to bring herself to the work, as do the images. The art is sketchy and minimalist, sometimes relying on blank space to indicate concern and disconnection. It can be more of an outline for a book than a fully realized explanation, but I liked how much it shared and how it made me grapple with concepts foreign to my experience.

Yanow is ambivalent about participating in the student strikes against rising tuition. Like most people, she’s afraid of being hurt or arrested. She ponders the differences between urban and rural living, sprawl, how cities are designed (or spread), police tactics, urban warfare, and paranoia.

There are a lot of big ideas in this little volume, and I’m not sure an illustrated essay wouldn’t have been a better choice. There are moments when her images show the experience — as when she gets off the metro to a huge crowd of hooded figures — but others where the art is much more abstract, as when her figure, pondering city living, is shown small in an otherwise empty panel. This isn’t a story so much as a loose connection of related concepts and memories.

As the end notes explain, the title comes from a pamphlet written by a French officer sent to suppress resistance in Algiers in the 1840s, adding historical context to these conflicts. It’s rare to see such deep ideas about the ways we live and build explored in such a clear way. “How do we own our spaces?” is a fascinating question that I’m glad this book raised to me. You can see sample pages in this interview with the artist.

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Why Murder Mysteries Are Enjoyable

Andrea Tsurumi’s “Murder Mystery Superfan” is a webcomic that explores the appeal of murder mysteries, subtitled “Why I love bodies in the library.” I share this enjoyment. Tsurumi has some great observations about appealing detectives and the need for order.

“Someone has to die”

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How Much Do I Want to Meet Nathan Fillion?

Wizard World has begun sending out guest announcements for Wizard World Comic Con Chicago, to be held August 20-23, 2015. I don’t normally go in for celebrity sightings, but I am intrigued that this show will include the following faves:

• Nathan Fillion (Serenity, Castle)
• Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye in The Avengers)
• Stephen Amell (Arrow)
• Billie Piper (Doctor Who)
• Arthur Darville (Doctor Who and the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow)

Sadly, Adam Baldwin will also be there. (They also announced comic guests in this press release, a nice balance, but I’m not as excited about Neal Adams or Gerhard or others from that generation. The artists who may be appearing that I’ll be excited about usually aren’t “big name” enough to qualify as special guests, so I’ll keep watching the site lists.) The show runs Thursday through Sunday, but guests only appear on selected days. The VIP experience for Nathan — which includes early admission, a photo op, and a signature — is $350. So I guess I need to figure out just how much I want to shake his hand.

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Saved by the Bell (The Comic)

Since I didn’t care at all about Saved by the Bell (the TV show), I only took a look at Saved by the Bell (the comic) because part of it was drawn by Chyna Clugston Flores, whose comic Blue Monday I adored. (Although I couldn’t tell you which parts, exactly, since the advance PDF I got of the upcoming paperback collection lacked credits. The PR said that the other artist was Tim Fish, and the book is written by Joelle Sellner.)

Sadly, while Clugston’s figures were cute teens, the content of the stories read like sub-par Archie. Zack frames Slater into detention so he can hit on Kelly. Lisa wants to win a fashion contest. Screech creates a dating site. Kelly wants cheerleading taken seriously as a sport. This was all horribly boring, and nothing’s done to establish the characters for readers new to the concept — it’s almost entirely reliant on nostalgic readers who already know the personalities. Yet the setting is modern, with video blogs and without Zack’s brick of a mobile phone.

Roar Comics is promoting itself as a line for all ages, particularly suitable for kids seeking digital comics (or their parents who want something perceived as safe), so I’m confused why their material so far consists of retreads of 80s favorites. (Their other major title is Punky Brewster.) Their target market likely never heard of these shows. However, it’s a subsidiary of Lion Forge, which is also depending on 80s licenses, including Miami Vice, Airwolf, and Knight Rider.

The content here was previously released as digital issues, which is probably why every page could be cut in half horizontally, into two “screens”. It makes the storytelling feel even clunkier than it is. I hate to be so negative — for all I know, fans of the show would love this book — but I found it forgettable and a waste of time.

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So Cute It Hurts!! Volume 1

So Cute It Hurts!! is one of those “only in manga” setups. Megumu (girl) and Mitsuru (boy) are twins. Neither has yet found true love, because she plays history games and he’s a player. He’s sporty and adored while she’s a bit of a fan-geek.

He’s flunking history, so he badgers his sister into pretending to be him for the makeup test while he dresses as her. His ego isn’t affected by this at all, which is where the title comes from: his first day in a skirt, he thinks, “I’m so cute it hurts.”

That doesn’t help him when he’s smitten with another girl, someone being bullied by the school’s “star model”, who’s beautiful but nasty. Meanwhile, Megumu is chased by a jealous boyfriend whose girlfriend Mitsuru had poached. While hiding on the roof, she bumps into a gorgeous guy who smells of lavender and wears an eye patch.

Thus begins a parallel story of first loves. As drawn by Go Ikeyamada, the characters are cute, as they need to be. The events are highly emotional, elevating the pedestrian events with layers of teen angst.

I found the boy’s story, with the girl bully, more interesting than the more exaggeratedly dangerous boys’ school Megumu has to face. Particularly once the unique quality of Mitsuru’s crush is revealed, adding some depth to his situation.

However, in both cases, gender stereotypes are exaggerated for drama. The queen of the girls is a beautiful bitch who uses wiles to get her way. The king of the guys is the top fighter in the school. When Mitsuru is dressed as a girl, he still promises to protect the schoolmate he has a crush on (and occasionally swings a practice sword). When Megumu is pretending to be a boy, she still gets to see her love object look adorable surrounded by cats. Weirdly, the bad girl is made fun of for coming onto someone as a way to get what she wants, but when Mitsuru does it, it’s seen as part of his outgoing personality. In other words, she’s punished for trying to use sex as a weapon, while he does the same thing without penalty.

Although most of this volume is setup, the characters are appealing enough that I’d like to read more with them. Particularly given how self-possessed Mitsuru is. His egotism is weirdly inspiring. (The publisher provided a digital review copy.)

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Bravo for Adventure

Alex Toth is rightly recognized as a genius artist, with a particular facility for dramatic black areas. Bravo for Adventure was an aborted comic series about pilot Jesse Bravo, a swashbuckling adventurer, with everything related to it collected here in a handsome, oversized hardcover.

The presentation is everything a history buff could ask for. Editor Dean Mullaney’s introduction lays out the project’s checkered past (with plans to publish interrupted) for those readers, like me, who’ve never heard of it before. A four-page history by Toth lays out the character’s life story as 1930s charter pilot, stunt flier, world traveler, former Navy pilot, and Hollywood socializer.

The main story here, intended as a graphic novel for the 1970s European market, is full of cliches. Bravo’s air charter business is in financial trouble. Bravo doesn’t take to being told what to do by anyone, let alone a gambling mogul’s henchman. Bravo doesn’t like cheaters who sully the name of his dead friends.

Toth’s lettering is an essential part of his work, but it becomes wearying to read in such large chunks as sometimes land on the page (particularly when a long line across the full page is interrupted by art). Toth seems to have had more in his head about this character than ever made it to the page, so when given a chance, lots of it spills out. It’s telling, not showing. And the dialogue, meant to evoke 1930s adventures, can be inadvertently laughable. It’s overwritten and could have used tight editing. A couple of examples:

“You’ve ben had, not once, but twice — by a 200% phony!”
“Think this is dirty money, eh? Sure it’s from suckers who drop it on my tables…. That parts the shekels from the suckers!”

It’s a shame that such a gorgeous package contains such pedestrian material. The fundamental importance of comics to me is what does the art and text communicate? In shorthand, how’s the story? And what we get here is overly familiar, particularly if you’ve ever seen a noir film or an Errol Flynn movie.

The only woman won’t take no for an answer. She’s spoiled, daughter of a powerful man, used to getting what she wants, but Bravo won’t kowtow to her demands. (My gracious, it’s catching!) She charters a plane to follow Bravo to a movie location, only to have her downed vehicle on a deserted desert highway hit by a car. (This, at least, is fresh, if a tad ridiculous.) Soon there are all kinds of groups chasing after each other to recover money or escape, pulling guns and yelling at each other.

The art is fabulous, even if the story is exaggeratedly dramatic in accidentally humorous ways. Weirdly, though, the main characters dress in the (then) modern style, with Bravo in what looks like a polyester suit with open-necked shirt (and later, a turtleneck) and the girl in a pantsuit. After her fiancé is disposed of, she cuts her hair into a curly pixie. With her Peter Pan collar, she looks like a grown-up Little Orphan Annie.

The second story, from 1982, has Bravo get conked on the head and wander through psychedelic images telling him “life is nought but illusion”. Way too self-indulgent a read for me, and something else that’s been done elsewhere many times. That’s followed by extras: examples of colored pages of the story (the meat of the book is printed black-and-white) and promotional material and sketches. As I said, it’s a terrific package, showing how this kind of thing should be done, but the content doesn’t live up to the presentation, particularly for today’s reader. Then again, the likely customer for this already is familiar with the cult of Toth and just wants to see the art.

There are preview pages at the publisher’s website.

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The Princess and the Pony

Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant) created a children’s book, and for many of you, that’s all you need to know.

Having actually read The Princess and the Pony, though, I can tell you that it’s cute, thought-provoking, and overturns expectations, all the qualities that make Beaton’s comics so entertaining. As in her history strips, she takes a familiar-ish setting and puts a distinctly modern spin on it. Although aimed at 4-8-year-olds, it’s got enough in it that the adult reading the book to the kid will also find interesting elements (particularly in the backgrounds of the large scenes).

Princess Pinecone comes from a family of warriors, and she wants a big, strong horse for her birthday. Instead, she gets a fat little pony. She tries to train it, but it falls down and farts a lot. (The page with the pony having fallen down, just as happy to be upside down as it is to be standing on its feet, is adorable.)

Beaton goes bonkers creating all the various warriors in her fantasy kingdom, with a ton of expressions and types and caricatures. It’s great to see such diverse, imaginative portrayals. Plus, the idea of Pinecone wanting to be fierce, as is her birthright, and nothing being wrong with that is inspiring.

I’m not going to spoil the ending, but I thought it was a terrific, unexpected change up. The message that victory can come in unexpected ways is a good one, particularly for this modern world. I’d love to hear how actual kids take to it. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

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Secret Volume 1

In a departure from previous series Doubt and Judge by Yoshiki Tonogai, this book doesn’t have students locked in a booby-trapped warehouse and told to kill each other one by one. Instead, they’re in their classrooms, which makes the whole thing creepier, by keeping them in the setting of daily life.

A small group of students have been in counseling because they were the only survivors of a bus crash that killed many of their classmates. On the last day of their treatment, their counselor announces that in their group of six, three of them are murderers. They have a week, and then he will turn the evidence over to the police. In the meantime, they are supposed to find a way to “answer for their crimes”.

This setup is obviously artificial, but I was drawn into it, in part due to the unlikely nature of half of a group of survivors being killers. And there’s something cleverly demented about a kid using a tragedy to get his or her own desired revenge. With the discussion of the bus crash and the deadly aftermath, I was frequently reminded of Limit, or more recently, on the American side, No Mercy.

As if the crash wasn’t enough, we’re also told another student committed suicide after the event, something else for the reader to speculate about. The media are hounding the students, partly because one of them had a burgeoning idol career, a profession in jeopardy due to her injuries. She wasn’t supposed to be on the trip, due to preparing to shoot a movie, but she wanted to have one last regular school experience.

The flashbacks are my favorite part, as that’s how we learn more about the relationships and motivations of the surviving students. It’s odd to see those so young having so much nostalgia for how things used to be, before the crash, but with such a traumatic event, it makes sense that they’d be overemotional and regretful.

Secret volume 1 is dense, with a lot of background. I ended up reading it more than once (in part because artistically, many of the students look similar and I wasn’t sure I was distinguishing them sufficiently). By the end, we’ve already found out about one killing and the circumstances behind it, although it leads into another death cliffhanger. If the series continues to move at this pace, it’ll be a thrilling read.

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Judge Volume 6

The series by Yoshiki Tonogai about kids forced to murder each other concludes in this volume, and that’s pretty much all you need to know, that here’s where the story ends. I wrote about the first couple volumes of Judge, but I quit talking about — and paying attention to — the intervening books, because it was just about spinning out the suspense, which wasn’t very effective.

I’m trying to recall if the three twists in this volume were foreshadowed at all in previous books, and I can’t come up with anything. (Then again, it’s been a while since I read the previous volumes.) “Surprise! It’s really…” works best if there’s been some kind of hint prior, so the reader can connect up the strands, but that approach would be too subtle for this kind of series.

There are a lot of revelations here, as though quantity of shock reveals can make up for the ham-handed way they’re dumped on us. There’s a whole other group of victims mentioned in passing, as well as a major conspiracy of corruption as motive for the entire setup. It’s a lot of information to take in, all the more so since it’s delivered in large chunks of exposition. Character motivations don’t always match up once the secrets are out, but I don’t think anyone’s going to be looking back and analyzing this series in depth. It’s odd, though, that we’re supposed to believe whatever a character says, even though we know at least one of them is a liar and murderer.

Since Judge, like most manga, was originally serialized, the surprises do make sense, structurally, as cliffhangers between chapters and teases to bring readers back. It’s not great reading in one big chunk, although if I had tried to read this series chapter-by-chapter, I’d be even more lost, particularly once the double-crosses are revealed.

No one comes out looking good in this series, least of all the reader for sticking with what is ultimately a pointless exercise in reveling in sadism.

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Cool-Looking Comics Due in August

Hey, it’s Previews time again! Orders are due to your local comic shop by June 18 if you’re interested in committing to buy anything from the current catalog. Here are some items I found interesting-looking.

Zodiac Starforce #1 (JUN15 0045, $3.99) — a four-issue miniseries from Kevin Panetta, Paulina Ganucheau, and Dark Horse. Previously a webcomic, this series should appeal to fans of Sailor Moon and Steven Universe, since it features teen girls with magic powers.

The Eltingville Club #2 (JUN15 0051, $3.99) — the final issue of the long-running series by Evan Dorkin finally appears (it was originally expected last year). It’s a horrible place to start, but if you remember anything about this savage parodies of the worst of fandom, you’ll likely want to find out how these guys react when they reunite ten years later at the San Diego Comic-Con. I’m curious to see if the time jump allows Dorkin to illustrate how much fandom has changed or contrast modern fans with these idiots.

This Damned Band #1 (JUN15 0081, $3.99) — Dark Horse sold me with the tag line “Spinal Tap meets Ghostbusters”. Paul Cornell writes and Tony Parker illustrates the six-issue story of a rock group who played with Satanic allusions in 1972 only to find out that it was all real. It’s a good comedy premise, and I hope it’s as funny as I expect. It’s so hard to tell with humor.

Green River Killer: A True Detective Story (JUN15 0088, $19.99) is now out in paperback. I didn’t like it as much as I hoped so I’m mentioning it just to link to my review.

DC Book and DVD/Blu-ray Sets — You know, this isn’t a bad idea. Six of the best-known of the original DCU animated movies — Superman: Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight, Batman: Year One, Justice League: War, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, and Wonder Woman — are each available in a combo package where you can watch the movie and read the source material. Best of all, they’re listed at $26.99 each, which makes them about the price of the movies when they originally came out. Or you can get all six in a slipcase for $146 as the DC Comics Book & DVD Slipcase Set.

The Fuse #13 (JUN15 0501, $3.99) — The science fiction mystery series I like from Antony Johnston, Justin Greenwood, and Image Comics starts a new arc. Now, given my lack of memory for comics month to month, I save them up and read them in bunches, so I can follow the twists more easily, but if you haven’t tried this unconventional procedural, this is a good place to start. In this arc, the police are coping with the day the space station is closest to the sun, which is apparently a recipe for chaos.

Girl Genius: The Second Journey of Agatha Heterodyne Volume 1: The Beast of the Rails (JUN15 0881, $25, Airship Entertainment) — It’s true what they say, every starting point is also a jumping-off point. I have the first 13 volumes of this webcomic series, and the last two have sat on my “to read” shelf for a year. I like the concepts, but the story is so sprawling and never-ending that I can’t keep up. I think it’s a great idea that Phil and Kaja Foglio are restarting the numbering, for new readers, and I hope it means that volume 13 actually wrapped up in satisfactory fashion.

Sanctuary (JUN15 0907, $14.95, Amaze Ink/SLG) — The Disney-styled animal murder mystery by Stephen Coughlin has been collected, so you can find out who killed the panda. The scientists at the sanctuary are crazy and the animals, beautifully cartooned, are tormented by guilt and other human-like emotions. It’s a weird, only-in-comics story that starts stronger than it ends but is still an interesting read.

Ink for Beginners: A Comic Guide to Getting Tattooed (JUN15 1061, $4, Big Planet/Retrofit) — I wrote about this minicomic by Kate Leth here. Lots of good basic info on a subject many comic readers are interested in (since you know, it’s art). Rare to see these kinds of small-scale, one-off publications in the catalog, but it fits, since it’s a well-done, color book, and it deserves a bigger audience.

Sleepy Hollow: Providence #1 (JUN15 1074, $3.99) — Boom! tries again with another four-issue miniseries, this time written by Eric Carrasco, who’s described as a “Sleepy Hollow team member”. (He was a writers’ PA, or assistant. This interview says he mostly did research, but it makes the comic, particularly the Amish wizards, sound neat.) The story involves a mystical artifact sought by a demonic bike gang, but what matters to me is whether they get the interplay and voices of the characters correct. I’d like to have a good story with this cast, since I found the second season very disappointing.

Melody: Story of a Nude Dancer (JUN15 1278, $22.95, Drawn & Quarterly) — Sylvie Rancourt created what’s billed as the first Canadian autobiographical comic book, reprinted here from seven issues originally released in the mid-1980s. It’s about her days stripping and living with a loser of a boyfriend, a thief and drug dealer. There are two disturbing elements of the book — that there isn’t much of an ending or resolution, since (according to the comprehensive text pieces) she just stopped publishing once the newsstand returns began piling up, and that her style is very primitive, which contrasts oddly with all the naked girls and sex scenes portrayed, as you can see in the lengthy preview at the publisher’s website. It’s a nice package of historical interest, but I found the content repetitive and ultimately unsatisfying.

Sunny Side Up (JUN15 1375, $12.99, Graphix) — Jennifer and Mathew Holm, well-known for their Babymouse series, are putting out a semi-autobiographical graphic novel of which little information has yet been revealed. It seems to involve a love of comics, though, as a girl is sent to stay with her grandfather for the summer, and I’m curious to find out more.

Prison Island: A Graphic Memoir (JUN15 1686, $16.99, Zest Books) — Colleen Frakes grew up on McNeil Island, the last prison island in the US, and she’s telling her story in this graphic memoir (at least part of which previously appeared in minicomics). It’s fascinating, all the weirdness of a small company town made more so by the literal isolation. Great idea for a comic.

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Someone at Archie Took the Summer of 2013 Off

KC’s been indexing the Archie digests, and he ran across this oddity. Can you tell the difference between these two copies?

The one on the left is B&V Friends Double Digest #233, published June 2013. The one on the right is #234, published August 2013. The contents of each are different, as are the back cover and spine design, but someone really wasn’t paying attention to the cover art.

On ComiXology, #234 has been given a different cover. I have no idea if a reprinted version was ever offered.

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Non-Fiction Minicomics From TCAF

I love non-fiction comics, and I got a handful of great ones from various creators at TCAF last month. Here are the quick descriptions.

Trepanation: Elective Surgery You Need Like a Hole in the Head by Emi Gennis. Turns out this reprints a comic that appeared at The Nib, so you can read it yourself. (Only online is in color, so more red for blood.) And if you’re not already familiar with the odd practice of trepanning, putting a hole in one’s skull to supposedly reduce pressure, cure depression, and achieve an altered state of consciousness — be prepared to be amazed at what people will do to themselves.

Ink for Beginners: A Comic Guide to Getting Tattooed by Kate Leth. Available on Amazon in print or ComiXology digitally. It’s a beautifully colored guide that aims to answer the common questions, including how much it hurts, how to choose the art, and how to take care of it afterwards. Leth includes comments by professionals, too, for more perspective.

The Film Empire Records From Memory by Cyn Why? The inside page explains that the author was on codeine after having her tonsils out and decided to draw what the title explains. I discovered this just before I left the show, and since I also adore the film, and since I was kind of punchy after two comic-filled days, we enthused about it together. The commentary is hilarious, particularly the running theme of “seriously, how the hell do these people retain their jobs?”

Not on My Watch: A Bystanders’ Handbook for the Prevention of Sexual Violence by Isabella Rotman. She’s created several health, wellness, and safer sex comics as a way to substitute for the usual dry pamphlet and reach college-age kids. This one came with a button proclaiming the wearer part of the “Consent Cavalry”; her You’re So Sexy When You Aren’t Transmitting STDs comes with a condom on the back. Not on My Watch is a substantial, text-heavy, 40-page handbook with lots of wisdom on consent, fighting rape culture, and speaking out included.

The Man Who Built Beirut by Andy Warner reminded me how old I am, since it features a pull quote from me on the back that I didn’t remember at all — but it is the case that I did like the comic three years ago.

3 travelogue comics by Neil Slorance. Another memory-jogger, but this time I remembered the Scottish author, who’d sent me one of his previous comics. These three — “Nine Lines of Metro”, “Seven Days in Berlin”, and “Let’s Go to Bordeaux” — are sketchier, closer to diary comics, but the feelings and experiences are neat to share, particularly since they wind up telling one big story. “Metro” has him visiting a friend in Barcelona; “Berlin” follows it with a potential love interest in Germany; and “Bordeaux” involves visiting a girlfriend’s family in France. It’s deceptive, but I feel like I know him better after reading them, and I hope the best for him.

Florodora: The Forgotten Drink of Broadway Showgirls! by Bill Roundy, noted bartoonist. After explaining the history of the drink, introduced in 1901, the recipe (here’s a similar version) finishes up the comic. Turns out that it’s named after the musical that first introduced a chorus line of beautiful women, all of whom married millionaires. I’d love to see more comics like this, with drink history!

from Comics Worth Reading http://ift.tt/1GCayeT


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