Takane & Hana Volume 6

I read Takane & Hana volume 6 about a month late. It came out at the perfect time, at the beginning of December, for its content, which starts with a Christmas chapter and continues to New Year’s Eve. I gave up reading the series because we were supposed to believe the businessman and the teenager...

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Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits Volume 1

After reading Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits volume 1, I made the following list of cliched elements it has that I’d seen before: A nondescript but kind-hearted girl Takes pity on a mysterious handsome guy Who kidnaps her to a demon realm where he’s the leader And demands she marry him Because...

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After Hours Volume 3

The Viz yuri manga series After Hours concludes here as it started — with an emphasis on feeling instead of plot, and prioritizing club life over love. I find in general that yuri series are more elliptical than others. I suspect those looking for that kind of content (or to see characters finding themselves...

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The Manga Guide to Cryptography

When I was a kid, I found codes and cyphers interesting, because the idea of communicating secretly was appealing. Now, with business conducted on the internet, they’ve become even more important. The latest in the Manga Guide series tackles the subject. The Manga Guide to Cryptography is written by...

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The Family Trade

I found The Family Trade, written by Justin Jordan & Nikki Ryan and illustrated by Morgan Beem, a fairly standard story about a teen assassin working to save her fantasy world. It’s distinctive only due to its art and coloring. The Free Republic of Thessala, aka the Float, is an independent city-state...

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Tony Stark: Iron Man Volume 1: Self-Made Man

I know why many comic publishers aren’t very good at selling books to movie fans. There are a whole variety of reasons, ranging from selfishness (“I want comics like I read when I was a kid!”) to idiocy (“why would we want more women and other people reading comics?”) to simple inertia (“the way we’ve...

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Wakako Zake

Wakako Zake is a digital-only food manga that concentrates on just that. There’s little characterization or extended storytelling, only descriptions of tasty dishes and the alcohol that goes with them in short (4-8 page) chapters. Wakako likes to eat alone and drink a lot. She resembles a grown-up Yotsuba,...

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Tokyo Alice Volume 6

When Tokyo Alice began, it was about a shopaholic and her friends looking for love. As the series by Toriko Chiya continued, the romantic ups-and-downs have taken more focus, but Tokyo Alice volume 6 gets back a bit to shopping as the four women decide to go to Hawaii together. As the book opens, Fu...

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Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? Volume 2

When I wrote about Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? volume 1 — the digital-only manga series by MAKIHIROCHI about finding single women the right neighborhood and place in which to live — I found it “formulaic but effective.” However, I had a slight concern that the series might become repetitive...

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Book Love

I wasn’t familiar with the work of Debbie Tung until I read and enjoyed Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert’s Story. Next week she has a followup coming out. Book Love is what it sounds like, a collection of cartoons for those who love reading. The single-page strips aren’t particularly punchline-driven...

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Next Lumberjanes Original Graphic Novel Promoted for Free Comic Book Day

Expanding from the comic series, collections, and prose books (and even a film in development — that would be a fun casting game), Boom! Box put out a Lumberjanes original graphic novel, The Infernal Compass, recently. Now they’ve announced a second, The Shape of Friendship, by the same creative team,...

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Wizard Renames Parent Company

While the conventions will remain Wizard World (wherever), the parent “pop culture events company” has decided to rename itself Wizard Entertainment. CEO John D. Maatta said, “Wizard Entertainment is a name that more appropriately captures the breadth of initiatives we are planning as we head into 2019....

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My Boy in Blue Volume 1

A schoolgirl falls in love with a policeman in My Boy in Blue, a silly, slightly off-putting romance by Maki Miyoshi. Sixteen-year-old Kako gets dragged to a singles mixer in order to fill out the numbers. She’s supposed to pretend to be a young-looking 22-year-old student (which is complicated by the...

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Will I Be Single Forever?

I enjoyed Suppli, one of the rare josei manga series releases in the US, so when I heard that Viz was putting out a digital-only release of a single volume by artist Mari Okazaki, I knew I had to check it out. Will I Be Single Forever?, based on an essay by Mami Amamiya, mines the familiar territory...

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Aquaman

I saw Aquaman last night, and as expected, it was big dumb action fun. The best thing about the movie, I thought, was the immersive visuals of the seascapes, from immense glowing underwater cities to abandoned gathering places with giant decaying statues. That’s why I was glad I saw it in the theater,...

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Krypton First Season Announced for Home Video

Since I cut cable, I keep forgetting that there’s another comic place show beyond Gotham and Riverdale. Krypton airs on SyFy and is set two generations before the Superman story we know, following the adventures of Superman’s grandfather, Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), who is faced with a life and death conflict...

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Wild Ocean: Sharks, Whales, Rays, and Other Endangered Sea Creatures

The Wild Ocean anthology, edited by Matt Dembicki, was produced with PangeaSeed, an ocean conservation organization, so it’s got an obvious message — ”to showcase 12 iconic endangered ocean animals” in order to encourage changes in human behavior when it comes to pollution and overfishing — but the...

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Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu Volume 2

With a simple structure for this series — we saw in volume 1 how each chapter consists of a simple Japanese dish solving a problem by being so delicious — there’s a risk of it growing monotonous. Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu volume 2 avoids that by introducing new characters. One is a classically sympathetic...

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Action Presidents: George Washington! and Abraham Lincoln!

The team behind Action Philosophers! — writer Fred Van Lente and artist Ryan Dunlavey — have returned with an entertaining look at key men and events in American history, beginning with the two most famous Presidents. The attitude behind the series is apparent from the beginning. As narrated by Noah...

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Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor Collection Out Now

Out now is the collection of the Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor miniseries from Titan Comics. “Operation Volcano”, written by Andrew Cartmel and illustrated by Christopher Jones, collects the three previous issues. Optimistically, it’s subtitled Volume 1. I’d like it if there were more. As I said in...

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Comic Book Clubs (TCAF Panel)

At the 2018 Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), I had the pleasure of attending a panel on “How to Launch a Comic Book Club”. I am part of a comic club in Madison, Wisconsin, so I was curious to see how this was similar and different. Led by Philippe Leblanc, the panel was more of a discussion group,...

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Jim McClain’s Solution Squad

Jim McClain, a middle school math teacher, loves comics, so he made his own super-team to teach mathematical concepts. The first Solution Squad comic story introduces the team members: La Calculadora – fast computation and team leader Absolutia – changes temperature to demonstrate absolute value Equality...

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Maker Comics: Bake Like a Pro! and Fix a Car!

I adore First Second’s Science Comics line. Most all of them are terrific true-life graphic novels about interesting topics. Not only are they educational, they’re entertaining, and well worth reading. Now the publisher has expanded their non-fiction line with the new Maker Comics, which are similar,...

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Well, That Was Quick! Venom Now Available for Home Viewing

Venom seemed like a crazy idea for a stand-alone superhero film, but it’s doing quite well. It’s a top 10 movie in domestic take for 2018, and it shows that Sony/Columbia doesn’t have to team up with Marvel Studios (as they did for Spider-Man: Homecoming) to make an enjoyable Spider-Verse movie. What...

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Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 1

Review by KC Carlson It’s been a while since I’ve watched (and reviewed) any vintage Popeye cartoons. But Warner just sent me the first new Popeye set in a long while. Plus, it’s the first restored Popeye on Blu-ray, which is a big deal! Popeye the Sailor: The 1940s, Volume 1 contains 14 recently restored...

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