The Pineapples of Wrath

One of my favorite TCAF discoveries was The Pineapples of Wrath by Cathon from Pow Pow Press. I knew nothing about artist, publisher, or book, but it was a fun, escapist read with a distinct, unusual sensibility. Once I checked it out, I kept sending other people over to get some pineapples. In a small...

Read More

Bad Luck Chuck #1

Bad Luck Chuck caught my attention due how interesting the premise was. It kept my attention by wrapping the concept in intriguing layers of story. It’s written by Lela Gwenn and illustrated by Matthew Dow Smith. Chuck Manchester has really bad luck. Like “the building burns down around her” bad luck....

Read More

Captain Marvel Now Available on Home Video

Turns out a lot of people disagreed with me about the Captain Marvel movie — it was a blockbuster success! It made over a billion dollars in ticket sales! And it’s now available for home viewing. Captain Marvel launches today on your favorite digital platform, with the disc version coming on June 11...

Read More

Book Marketer Behind DC Zoom and Ink Leaves DC for Humanoids

Just saw an article about changes in the sales and marketing department for Humanoids, the publisher working on expanding beyond its traditional reprints of European sci-fi graphic novels. They’ve brought in an experienced person as new director of sales and marketing, but this is what struck me about...

Read More

Melanie Gillman’s Desert Diary

Melanie Gillman (As the Crow Flies, Stage Dreams) is currently publishing their experience at a wilderness artist residency in a series of diary pages at TCJ.com. Gillman is known for their colored pencil work, and the soft shades work well with the sparse desert landscape. The first page was May 20,...

Read More

F+W Media, Owner of Krause, Bankrupt

This happened a couple of months ago, but I just found out about it. I don’t know that it will have much practical effect, but there’s an historical component that made me nostalgic. F+W Media is a publisher of hobby and specialist magazines, books, and price guides, including Writer’s Digest, Goldmine,...

Read More

Just Jaime

The third in Terri Libenson’s series of connected middle school graphic novels, Just Jaime tackles the difficult question of how to react when “friends” decide they don’t want to hang around you any more. As with Invisible Emmie and Positively Izzy, the format is unique, with interspersed chapters alternating...

Read More

Phoebe and Her Unicorn in Unicorn Theater

The eighth book in the imaginative series by Dana Simpson about a girl and her unicorn best friend is also the second original graphic novel (after Phoebe and Her Unicorn in the Magic Storm; the others reprint comic strips), making it a never-before-seen longer story. In Unicorn Theater, Phoebe is headed...

Read More

Square Enix Launching New English-Language Manga Imprint

Square Enix, best known in the US as the video game company behind Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, Kingdom Hearts, and Space Invaders, has announced that they will be launching “a new line of English-language manga, novels, and art books” this coming fall. Previously, they have licensed their manga titles...

Read More

An Enola Holmes Mystery: The Case of the Missing Marquess

From 2006-2010, Nancy Springer wrote six YA mysteries about Enola Holmes, the younger sister of Sherlock. The Case of the Missing Marquess from IDW’s EuroComics imprint adapts the first. Enola has been living with her mother, Lady Eudora, in the country. On her 14th birthday, her mother disappears....

Read More

DC Comics Super-Villains: 100 Greatest Moments

Review by KC Carlson DC Comics Super-Villains: 100 Greatest Moments: Highlights From the History of the World’s Greatest Super-Villains is the third such book written by former DC Comics Editor (amongst many other DC Comics duties) Robert Greenberger (better known in the DC offices as “Bob”). The other...

Read More

Comic Market Driven by Kids’ Books and Manga

If you’re interested in the comics business beyond just the superhero-focused direct market of dedicated comic shops, Dallas Middaugh’s look back at 2018 graphic novel sales is a must-read. When you combine Diamond’s unit numbers with those of NPD BookScan, which tracks sales in the general book market,...

Read More

What’s Coming for DC Ink and Zoom

DC’s younger reader imprints are off to a mixed start, but there are plenty more titles to come. DC Ink is for young adult readers, ages 13 and up. The line launched with Mera: Tidebreaker, followed by Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale, promoted on Free Comic Book Day and out now. Coming up next, as described...

Read More

Lion Forge and Oni Press Plan to Merge

File this under a “wow, never saw that coming” label, similar to the IDW/Top Shelf acquisition news four years ago. The New York Times is reporting that Lion Forge and Oni Press will announce later today that they plan to merge as an example of how “smaller publishers are adopting new business strategies...

Read More

Lafayette! (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales)

The latest installment (the eighth!) of the popular graphic history series Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales returns to the setting of the first book, the US Revolutionary War. Spy Hale is still telling stories to prevent being hanged by the Hangman and a British redcoat. This time, it’s the story of the...

Read More

New Mutants Movie Delayed Again

It’s got to be hard, merging two major movie studios. No matter how bad it will eventually be for the customer, Disney is plowing ahead with its acquisition of Fox, and one of the results seems to be not knowing what to do with The New Mutants movie. Originally produced by Fox as part of the X-Men franchise,...

Read More

The League of Regrettable Sidekicks

Jon Morris is back with his third book on the forgotten corners of superhero comics. After The League of Regrettable Superheroes and The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains comes The League of Regrettable Sidekicks. As with the first book, the material is handsomely presented, with each little-known...

Read More

Where to Find Me at TCAF

It’s TCAF Time this coming weekend! If you’ll be in Toronto May 11-12, 2019, come by the Toronto Comic Arts Festival! I will be moderating two panels: It’s Science! in Comics (Saturday, 12:15 PM) — She blinded me… with science comics? On the contrary, graphic non-fiction is enlightening, particularly...

Read More

Enter to Win a Set of Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu

Thanks to the generosity of Udon Entertainment, I have a set of Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu volumes 1 and 2 to give away to one lucky reader. Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu is a charming manga series about a modern-day Japanese restaurant that somehow appears in medieval Germany, where everyone is amazed by...

Read More

End of Giant Days Coming Later This Year

I really enjoy the Giant Days series by John Allison and Max Sarin from Boom! It’s about three university girls learning about life and keeping up with friends while occasionally, odd things happen. Given that the last few issues have been dealing with the impending end of college days, it shouldn’t...

Read More

Cheshire Crossing

Coming in July is a graphic novel that sounds quite promising but turns out to be terrible. The writer of The Martian, Andy Weir, has unearthed Cheshire Crossing. This early project, originally a webcomic, has Alice, Dorothy, and Wendy (from Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Peter Pan, respectively)...

Read More

Free Comic Book Day 2019: The Best of the Silver Comics

Following up my thoughts on the gold comics from today’s Free Comic Book Day giveaways, here are the handful of silver titles I recommend. A Sheets Story (Lion Forge) — A short story in the world of Brenna Thummler’s Sheets graphic novel, about a laundromat girl and her ghost friend. Marjorie, her father,...

Read More

Mera: Tidebreaker

My review of Mera: Tidebreaker is now posted at Good Comics for Kids. Short version: I liked it. As the first DC Ink release, launching their line of young adult graphic novels, it’s a good showing (and a lot better than Super Sons: The PolarShield Project, the first DC Zoom title for middle grade readers)....

Read More

The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy’s Big Day

The sixth installment of the super-popular Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel series revolves around a major, life-changing event. Kristy’s mom is getting married, which means Kristy is moving to a new, bigger house in a different neighborhood. The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy’s Big Day is by Gale Galligan,...

Read More

Free Comic Book Day 2019: Thoughts on Gold Comics

Tomorrow, May 4, is this year’s Free Comic Book Day. Visit a participating comic shop near you to get one or many free comic books (depending on the store) from a selection of over 50 choices. As Diamond Distributors says, Founded on the belief that there is a comic book for every person out there,...

Read More