FukuFuku: Kitten Tales Volume 1

Missing cat manga now that Chi’s Sweet Home has concluded? Never fear, author Konami Kanata has a new series with an adorable kitten. FukuFuku: Kitten Tales has an advantage over the previous series, in my opinion: the cat here doesn’t have an internal monologue in a cutesy dialect. In that way, it’s...

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Master Keaton Volume 3

I was concerned about this in my review of volume 2, but Master Keaton volume 3, aside from a couple of brief nods to archaeology, has turned Taichi Hiraga Keaton into a globe-trotting adventurer, which makes the stories more generic and seemingly more of their time. Several times while reading through...

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Will Eisner’s The Spirit

After the various attempts at revamping Will Eisner’s classic Spirit character, I was leery of another. He’s a tricky property, well-known but without much substance. His backstory is too simple to do much with, his supporting characters must be handled carefully to overcome their background as stereotypes...

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The Sequential Artists Workshop Guide to Creating Professional Comic Strips

Out later this spring is a specialized guide of value to those interested in what some consider a nostalgic craft. The Sequential Artists Workshop Guide to Creating Professional Comic Strips is by Tom Hart (Hutch Owen), who founded and runs the Florida art school whose name this appears under. He also...

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My Neighbor Seki Volumes 5-6

It’s interesting to see how Takuma Morishige’s My Neighbor Seki, based on a classically simple premise, has changed over its run. Previously, Rumi used to observe the crazy things Seki did during class, narrating to the reader in a way that added stories and context to his activities. Seki operated...

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Kiss Him, Not Me! Volume 3

The new character briefly introduced at the end of volume 2 becomes a new friend in Kiss Him, Not Me! volume 3, and her presence is a welcome addition for shaking up the relationships with a bit more conflict. Although Kae first met Shima at a comic convention where Shima was cosplaying, it turns out...

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Unethical Reviewers Pulled From Amazon

Amazon has a lot of people posting reviews at their site. Anyone can review anything they sell… although those who have purchased the item from Amazon get a “verified purchase” tag. Amazon uses these reviews, among many other factors, to determine search rankings. Vendors have figured that out, especially...

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Image+, Comic Market Preview Magazine, Launches in May

Image Comics has announced that they will be shipping Image+, a monthly add-on promotional magazine to the Diamond Previews catalog, beginning in May, free with the catalog. If you don’t buy Previews, you can get Image+ by itself for $1.99 an issue. The 64-page magazine, aimed at both retailers and...

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Wizard World Madison Returns With Doctor Who Guests

Wizard World Madison, in its second year, moves to April (a much better time to come to Wisconsin). And they’ve begun announcing some special Special Guests. Doctor Who stars David Tennant (Saturday only), Matt Smith (Saturday and Sunday only), and Alex Kingston (Saturday and Sunday only) will all be...

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Private Beach to Conclude, 20 Years After It Started

What a world we live in! There’s no need to give up on a project you once loved, because it just might always come back. David Hahn (whom you may know from his work on Bite Club, Fables, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, or Batman ’66 Meets the Man From UNCLE) originally broke into comics with the small press...

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Wandering Star to Return This Summer as Omnibus

Dover Publications, which specializes (in the comic field) in reprinting works that deserve to be better known or have gone out of print, will be bringing out a terrific science fiction comic epic this June. Teri S. Wood’s Wandering Star originally ran 21 issues from 1993-1997. (The first 11 were self-published,...

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The New Guy (and Other Senior Year Distractions)

Coming in early April is a fun YA read that combines ideas about fame (and losing it), overachievement, first love, and whether newspapers are still relevant in the age of new media. I know, it sounds ambitious, but Amy Spalding pulls it out through the lead character of Jules. As The New Guy (and Other...

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Sweaterweather

Sara Varon’s Sweaterweather is more than a reprint. It includes the material from the 2003 Alternative Comics volume of the same name, her first book, but it’s now twice the size, with more charming encounters among simple, cute creatures (similar to her Bake Sale). I particularly appreciated the short...

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Comix Creatrix Show Sampler Available From Sequential

Through May runs in London the art show “Comix Creatrix: 100 Women Making Comics“. Leaving aside the too-cutesy title (I thought we’d got rid of aviatrix and the like back in the 1940s), it aims to be “the UK’s largest ever exhibition of the work of pioneering female comics artists”. The show features...

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Sherlock Manga Coming to English

Back in 2012, a manga adaptation of the Sherlock TV show starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman began running in Japan. Now, that comic comes to English for the US and UK via Titan Comics. Sherlock: A Study in Pink will debut in June. They’re describing it as “a manga comic series”, so I’m...

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The Fix #1 Debuts in April

Writer Nick Spencer and artist Steve Lieber worked well together on The Superior Foes of Spider-Man during their 17-issue run from 2013-2015. Under them, a villain team-up book became a wacky heist series with a sardonic tone and imaginatively outrageous occurrences for its team of losers. However,...

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Come See My Panel at C2E2 and Mailed Tickets Deadline

I will be moderating a panel at next month’s C2E2 show in Chicago. It’s called “How to Get Press for Your Comic“, and here’s the description: You can’t be successful in comics without being talked about, and in the right way. Three accomplished comic creators discuss getting coverage for your comic....

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Last Day for Discounted SuBLime Titles at Right Stuf

In honor of the just-passed Valentine’s Day, yaoi publisher SuBLime has made its print titles 40% off at the web retailer Right Stuf. That means instead of the normal $12.99 price for the titles, they’re now $7.79. That’s today only, since the sale ran from February 12-17. Here are a few SuBLime titles...

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Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus Volume 3 Contains Good Starting Point Stories

Due out tomorrow, The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Book Three Omnibus contains a few stories that make for great starting points as it continues the omnibus collected series. This book reprints volumes 7-9 of the gruesome (but insightful) manga series written by Eiji Otsuka and drawn by Housui Yamasaki....

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Tips on Pitching to Comic Anthologies (in Comic Form)

Melanie Gillman, one of the editors of the queer paranormal romance anthology The Other Side (Kickstarting soon and launching this spring), has posted a set of comic strips covering “tips about pitching to comic anthologies”. They start with the obvious, “follow directions”, but they also cover the...

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There’s Nothing Wrong With Wanting Attention

The immensely talented Roger Langridge has published a short comic strip debunking the idea that people create in a vacuum and emphasizing the importance of connecting with others. His statement that “without an audience, any creative act is a complete waste of time” is a provocative one, and I’m curious...

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Girl Genius: The Beast of the Rails: The Second Journey of Agatha Heterodyne Volume 1

The Girl Genius series of print collections has restarted its numbering after hitting 13 books. The new number one is titled Girl Genius: The Beast of the Rails: The Second Journey of Agatha Heterodyne, but the foundations were laid in that 13th book, Agatha Heterodyne and the Sleeping City. (I last...

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Beasts of Burden Returns in One-Shot Comic

Although I’m a fan of book-format comics, such as the beautiful Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites collection, sometimes, you need to buy the comics. In this case, it’s unclear how many more Beasts of Burden stories there will be in future, but there’s at least one more one-shot coming. Beasts of Burden:...

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Girl Genius 12: Agatha Heterodyne and the Siege of Mechanicsburg

Agatha Heterodyne and the Siege of Mechanicsburg is the 12th volume in the Girl Genius series. I last talked about that comic with the sixth volume. In the five books in between, Agatha has been journeying through her ancestor’s fabled castle, a self-aware creation with a plethora of deathtraps and...

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The Fuse #17

I haven’t talked about this science fiction mystery series in a while, because once the situation was established, the middle issues just made it all more interestingly complicated. But I wanted to make sure to check in on The Fuse #17 as we work towards the solution to all the crimes taking place during...

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