Kiss Him, Not Me Volume 12

I don’t have much to say about this volume except to note that, for those hanging on through the series, a major turning point occurs, as Kae finally chooses one of her suitors to focus on in a relationship. Kiss Him, Not Me volume 12 continues directly with the consequences from the previous book,...

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Dismissed

I’ve been enjoying watching Cole Sprouse as Jughead on Riverdale. I was only vaguely aware that he was previously a Disney kid actor with his twin brother, so when offered the chance to check out Dylan Sprouse’s role in Dismissed, I thought I’d enjoy it. Particularly since it seemed like a modern take...

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Bingo Love Now Available for Preorder

If you missed out on the super-successful Kickstarter, never fear. You can get the adorable queer black romance Bingo Love from Image Comics on February 14, 2018. Written and created by Tee Franklin and illustrated by Jenn St-Onge (Jem and the Holograms: The Misfits: Infinite), Bingo Love is an 80-page...

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Neo Parasyte f

This is a new one on me. When I heard of Neo Parasyte f, a tribute volume to Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte manga series with stories by other manga creators, I thought it would bring back fond memories of the original. Although it’s horror, I liked it a lot when I read it almost ten years ago. With such...

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The Plot Is Murder

The first in a new line of Mystery Bookshop mysteries, The Plot Is Murder is predictable but good-hearted, a welcome diversion for fans of cozy mysteries. I liked that, while our middle-aged heroine Sam is newly on her own and starting a new business, she wasn’t divorced from a cheating ne’er-do-well...

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A Treasury of Victorian Murder Compendium Volume 1

Rick Geary’s classic series A Treasury of Victorian Murder becomes more approachable and affordable with this paperback reprint of the previous hardcover collection. As that earlier release (now out of print) did, A Treasury of Victorian Murder Compendium Volume 1 contains two of the most famous cases...

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Next Lumberjanes Novel Now Available for Preorder

When the Lumberjanes young adult novel series was announced, they made clear that they were planning to put out four books. The first, Lumberjanes: Unicorn Power!, came out last month. (I thought, after a slow start, it was pretty good at capturing the appeal of the comic.) Now Amazon has a listing...

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Harley Quinn Gets Her Own Animated TV Show

I guess Warner was pretty happy with how the Batman and Harley Quinn movie did, since Deadline is reporting that “26 episodes of [a] half-hour adult animated action-comedy series” titled Harley Quinn has been ordered to run on the upcoming DC digital subscription service. The “adult” is worrisome, since...

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That Wolf-Boy Is Mine!

If you like the idea of a girl helping out a family of shape-shifters, but you aren’t interested in committing to the length of Fruits Basket, then That Wolf-Boy Is Mine! is the manga series for you. In only four volumes, Komugi discovers the secret of the school heartthrobs and shows them a new way...

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Time and Vine

When Them Zahler announced his newest project, Time and Vine, I called it “drunk time travel” to be silly, but the series turned out to be much different than I expected. Zahler is best known for his creative takes on romance (superheroes in Love and Capes, travelers in Long Distance, cursed geeks in...

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The Gods Lie

In looking over the manga I’ve read from Vertical, I’ve come to realize that they specialize in challenging works. With the exception of their two longest-running series — the heart-warming What Did You Eat Yesterday? and the weirdly comic My Neighbor Seki — the stories in Vertical releases are generally...

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Wizard World May Not Last Through 2018

As reported by ICv2, the Wizard World convention company is not doing very well. It lost $1.3 million during the third quarter of this year on its shows. Although the conventions brought in over $5 million, the cost of making that revenue and operating expenses resulted in a negative balance. The cost...

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Batman: Gotham by Gaslight Announced

Watching the sneak peek for Batman: Gotham by Gaslight on the Batman and Harley Quinn disc made me anticipate it more than I have any of the original DC universe animated films in a while. Comic fans know the story, originally told as an Elseworlds by Brian Augustyn and‎ the well-chosen Mike Mignola:...

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Sequel to Ground-Breaking My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness Announced

Seven Seas had a surprising success with this year’s My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi. The manga broke through to new and crossover audiences with its autobiographical tale of a young woman coming to terms with her sexuality after a series of struggles, including hiring a prostitute....

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The Manga Guide to Microprocessors

I was surprised at the subject of this latest title in the Manga Guide series. Many of the other volumes have been more general in scope, focusing on branches of science or math. The Manga Guide to Microprocessors is more specialized, with details about how a computer CPU works at the most basic level....

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Dennis the Menace in Hawaii

Back in the day, there were a few special comic books that were so popular (and timeless) that they stayed on the stands for years through multiple printings. Dennis the Menace in Hawaii was one of them. First published in 1958 (before Hawaii was a state!) as a hundred-page special, it stayed in print...

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New Newlevant Work Coming Next Year

I’m thrilled to hear that we’re going to get a collection of Hazel Newlevant’s No Ivy League. Publishers Weekly reports that Lion Forge (where Newlevant is an associate editor) will be publishing the 200-page graphic memoir in late 2018. I’ve read the minicomics out so far, and I’m eager to see what...

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Sugar Town

Hazel Newlevant’s Sugar Town is just the kind of lightweight but meaningful happy romance I needed. Hazel meets Argent at a party. Hazel’s already in a relationship with a guy, but they’re “open, or poly, or whatever”, and Hazel is fascinated by Argent (and her work as a dominatrix). A new date is just...

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Killer Fashion: Poisonous Petticoats, Strangulating Scarves, and Other Deadly Garments Throughout History

The main thing that surprised me about the various ways clothes can kill you that are shown in Killer Fashion: Poisonous Petticoats, Strangulating Scarves, and Other Deadly Garments Throughout History was the sheer number of them that involved catching on fire. Wigs, artificial fabric, and shirt cuffs...

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Be Your Own Backing Band

Be Your Own Backing Band is the latest collection of Liz Prince‘s autobiographical comics. (She’s previously created Tomboy, Alone Forever, and the Ignatz-winning Will You Still Love Me If I Wet the Bed?) The comic strips here are about music, specifically her love of punk rock. That subject should...

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Dreamin’ Sun Volumes 2-4

I’ve been catching up on Dreamin’ Sun by Ichigo Takano, and reading a whole bunch of it may not have been the best choice. I like Shimana, the confused young lady at the center of the story, but too much at once just reinforces how indecisive she is, particularly when it comes to who she’s crushing...

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Maria and Me: A Father, A Daughter (and Autism)

Maria and Me is a short illustrated scrapbook capturing a father’s trip with his 12-year-old autistic daughter on a beach vacation. The content is slight in terms of events, but the significance comes in attempting to build understanding about how it feels to take care of a child with autism. The upscale...

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Incredible Doom, 90s BBS Comic, Using Every Model Possible

There are so many options for creators to attempt to make money off their comics today, and smart ones use whatever they can. Take, for example, Matthew Bogart, who last month launched Incredible Doom (co-written with Jesse Holden). As soon as I heard that the comic was “about ’90s kids making life-threatening...

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App for Comic Collectors (Remember Them?) Focuses on Key Issues

Until I got a request for coverage about this new app, I’d almost completely forgotten that the comic industry used to be driven by collectors, speculating on which comics were worth more money and which would increase in value. I’m only interested in reading them these days, which has become much easier...

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Funko IPO Has Worst First Day in 17 Years

A lot of people were surprised when ICv2 reported that Funko, the makers of those cute little blank-eyed pop culture figures, had sales that were “nearly the size of the entire comics and graphic novel business”. They did over $200 million in the first half of this year, although they ultimately ran...

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