Alec Longstreth Launches Isle of Elsi, All-Ages Fantasy Webcomic

Alec Longstreth has announced his new all-ages fantasy webcomic with a comic strip! Isle of Elsi will, apparently, involve palindromes as well as magic. A new page posts every Thursday. The comic goes on beyond what I’ve excerpted here, with a flashback and information on why it’s for kids and free....

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KC’s First Podcast: Beau Smith on Wynonna Earp

I edited my first podcast! While traveling from Virginia back to Wisconsin after the holidays, KC and I stopped off to have lunch with old buddy and comics maven Beau Smith. KC asked him some questions about his creation Wynonna Earp, soon to be a TV show, I recorded them, and the result became a 16-minute...

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How Times Have Changed: The Graphic Novels Amazon Is Promoting

It’s just past Christmas, so time to get people to spend those gift cards! Amazon sent out an email this morning promoting Graphic Novels, and I found their organizational system fascinating. There were six categories listed: Media Tie-In Graphic Novels Religion & Spirituality Graphic Novels Educational...

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Master Keaton Volume 1

Naoki Urasawa is a modern manga master, well-known here for his works Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Pluto. That reputation means we get the pleasure of seeing his earlier, more adventure-oriented stories in Master Keaton. Urasawa was the artist here, with story by Hokusei Katsushika and later, Takashi...

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Yowamushi Pedal Volume 1

Yowamushi Pedal volume 1 seems like it might be a sports manga, with its focus on cycling, but it’s really about a loner guy learning how special he is. Sakamichi is a meek nerd. He regularly rides his “mommy bike” a long distance over hilly roads to get to Akiba, where he can buy limited-release DVDs...

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Shonen Jump Plus Manga Contest

Shonen Jump Plus (a free digital publication in Japanese) and MediBang (which “provides free digital painting apps and software to illustrators and comic book artists worldwide”) are holding a manga contest to discover new artists. Unlike other manga auditions, this contest is set up to translate English,...

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Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: The Underground Abductor

Nathan Hale is extraordinary at not only bringing history to life, but also including well-researched bits of the story most people aren’t aware of. The latest entry in the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series is also outstanding in another way. The Underground Abductor is the first of the stories to...

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So Cute It Hurts!! Volumes 3-4

The twins’ gender-switching is over, and everyone is trying to deal with whether their relationships will continue now that the truth is known. This series is so fluffy it’s a great escapist read. But it does leave me with odd questions. Like… Megumu’s crush Aoi is one of those only-in-manga tough guys...

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A Bride’s Story Volume 7

As expected, I greatly enjoyed A Bride’s Story Volume 7, although my recommendation comes with caveats. Kaoru Mori’s artwork is as lovely and detailed as always, but much of it this time around is dedicated to drawing women at the bathhouse, which means lots of lovingly illustrated naked breasts. Americans...

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Idol Dreams Volume 1

Idol Dreams puts a clever twist on a typical manga situation, that of becoming famous in show business. Only Chikage is a 31-year-old office worker, unpopular, lonely, and nervous around men. She’s having a mid-life crisis, feeling she peaked when she graduated high school. She attends her class reunion,...

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Kiss Him, Not Me! Volume 2

I enjoyed Kiss Him, Not Me! volume 2 more than the first book, since the harem of guys are developing distinct, recognizable personalities. Fangirl Kae has four admirers, and here, they go on a series of dates in expected manga situations. First, there’s the school festival, and due to the cosplay theme,...

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Emma Volume 3

Emma Volume 3 is where William and Emma’s relationship really gets interesting. But first, there’s a charming digression that establishes essential background information about William’s family. (See Volume 2 for more history.) William’s father Richard Jones had money but no background. His attempts...

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The Manga Guide to Physiology

It’s been three years since the last Manga Guide, but it’s a pleasure to see the series continue with The Manga Guide to Physiology. I always learn things reading these volumes. It’s a shame, though, that this came out so close to Human Body Theater, which tackled a similar topic — how the body is put...

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Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step

Top Secret Recipes Step-by-Step: Secret Formulas with Photos for Duplicating Your Favorite Famous Foods at Home isn’t just a fun idea for a cookbook; it’s also a portrait of how, and what, we choose to eat. Todd Wilbur calls himself “America’s #1 food hacker”, and he’s made a career out of dissecting...

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School-Live! Volume 1

The premise of School-Live! Volume 1 is amusing, but I found reading the book frustrating. It’s got too many hints, too little actually happening or explained. Four girls are living in their school after a zombie apocalypse. Thankfully, the school has a well-stocked science lab, a school store for consumer...

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L♥DK Volume 1

Sometimes there’s a place for a completely unchallenging formula story. They can be relaxing or comforting, as events play out as expected. That’s the best way I can describe this shojo manga. L♥DK gives us a hard-working girl who gets involved with the good-looking “school prince” due to their living...

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Alison Wilgus’ Next Graphic Novel From Tor

According to a brief mention in Publishers Weekly, Alison Wilgus, author of A Stray in the Woods and Apartment Hunting, will be publishing a new graphic novel called Chronin with Tor. The book is described as “a science fiction historical adventure about a college student named Mirai Yoshida who winds...

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The Tithe #5

Well, Top Cow’s got balls. I thought the first storyline, issues #1-4 of The Tithe, was gutsy, taking on mega-churches and criminal preachers, but this one goes even further. This time around, the subject is Muslim terrorists. Issue #5 kicks off a new story arc with the bombing of St. Patrick’s Cathedral...

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The Beauty #1

Jeremy Haun, aided by Jason A. Hurley on story, has come up with a doozy of a premise. There’s a sexually transmitted disease that makes its victims beautiful — skinny, clear-skinned, and glowing — so people want to catch it. I was intrigued by the kinds of stories that could be told with this idea,...

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KC Talks Comics in 1981

Memories by KC Carlson Well, this is odd… What we have here is an interview that I did for a local Eau Clare, Wisconsin, television show called “Thirteen Interview” sometime around 1981. The interviewer is Geoff Welch, a old classmate of mine at the University of Wisconsin — Eau Claire, which I attended...

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Reality Check Returns as Kickstarter

I first read Super Information Hijinks: Reality Check! when it was a comic book series back in 1997, written by Rikki Simons and illustrated by Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons. (It was self-published, then it ran 12 color issues from Sirius Entertainment.) It’s the story, set in the then-future of 2012, of...

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Oni Press Reissues Wet Moon: Feeble Wanderings

Wet Moon is a series of graphic novels by Sophie (née Ross) Campbell about a group of art students in a Southern town. The first volume, Feeble Wanderings, debuted in 2005, with the most recent sixth book appearing in 2012. (A seventh volume has been delayed but is still planned.) Now that Campbell...

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Hank Ketcham’s Dennis The Menace Volume 1: The Cult-Classic Comicbooks by Al Wiseman & Fred Toole

Review by KC Carlson Dennis the Menace, the classic American comics panel by Hank Ketcham, debuted in 1951, introducing tiny terror Dennis Mitchell (based on Ketcham’s own four-year-old son) and his family: father Henry (sometimes “Hank” — who remarkably resembled creator Hank Ketcham), mother Alice,...

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Platinum End From Death Note Creators Available as Digital Chapters

The newest series from Tsunami Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the creative team behind Death Note and Bakuman, is Platinum End. It’s available in English digitally, with a new 99-cent chapter monthly. You can get it on the Viz Manga app, at VIZManga.com, through the digital Weekly Shonen Jump, or at ComiXology....

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School Judgment Gakkyu Hotei Collection Due February

I enjoyed the chapters of School Judgment Gakkyu Hotei I read in Weekly Shonen Jump last year, so I’m glad to see it will be collected. I should have known that was inevitable, since the story is drawn by Takeshi Obata, who’s well-known on these shores for Death Note and Bakuman. The premise, as written...

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