Doctor Who: Whographica

I had a brilliant time reading Doctor Who: Whographica. It’s colorful and fun and full of ridiculous detail. It has twelve chapters, one per Doctor. (Published in 2016, the book only covers through 2015, or two-thirds of the way through the Twelfth Doctor’s run, ending with “The Husbands of River Song”.)...

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The Official Batman Advent Calendar: Christmas in Gotham City

I don’t know why I’m so into advent calendars this year — perhaps it’s because of the odd timeless nature of the world lately, where days pass so quickly and yet don’t seem to change at all, and I need more help keeping track of the date. Anyway, last year I had great fun with the OPI mini nail polish...

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Friday Foster: The Sunday Strips

I really love this job. I get to check out books I would never have otherwise seen and learn about little-known but impressive work. Take, for example, Friday Foster: The Sunday Strips, a reprint collection due from Ablaze next month. Friday Foster was a comic strip created and written by Jim Lawrence...

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Yotsuba&! Volume 15

It’s been three years since the previous volume, but one of the many charms of Yotsuba&! volume 15 is that it feels timeless. Yotsuba’s wonder at the world, her interest in creating and exploring and learning new things, is soul-restoring. I want to feel like that, and for the amount of time I’m...

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Superman: The Complete Animated Series Out on Blu-Ray

KC reviewed Superman: The Complete Animated Series when it came out on DVD in 2009. The studio was kind enough to send us a copy of the new release, Superman: The Complete Animated Series on Blu-ray with digital copy. It comes out on Tuesday for the show’s 25th anniversary — the show debuted in September...

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Ponies Solve the Silver Blaze Mystery

One of my favorite recent discoveries (recommended to me by the story’s author, Thom Zahler) is My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic #83. Because it features the ponies redoing the classic Sherlock Holmes horse story “The Adventure of Silver Blaze”, with art by Kate Sherron. Since our heroes are horses...

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Beast Complex

The single volume Beast Complex collects six stories by Paru Itagaki, the creator of Beastars. They’re set in her world where anthropomorphized carnivores and herbivores try to co-exist, in spite of one type of being wanting to eat the other. It’s a potent metaphor. Characters are constantly under threat...

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The Most Popular Kids’ Halloween Movies

I like Halloween, but I don’t like being scared. Spooky’s neat, though, so I was interested to see this information about each state’s Top Kids Halloween Movie. I have quibbles, of course — Scooby-Doo, although the most popular, isn’t really a movie, while I’m not sure E.T. is in the same genre as the...

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Voyagers! Was the Anti-Doctor Who

As a bit of nostalgia, I bought the Voyagers! The Complete Series DVD set this summer. The series ran for one season, 20 episodes, from 1982-1983. I loved the concept — a befuddled time traveler, part of a group fixing mistakes in history, lost his instruction book (a popular concept of the time) and...

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What Defines a Pro?

The latest installment of Andi Watson’s newsletter raises a good question: How do you define a professional? Different people have different ideas of what makes you a pro. It could simply be an attitude of taking pride in doing a good job regardless of the circumstances. It could be getting published...

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Wildflowers

Wildflowers, by Liniers, is the Argentine cartoonist’s third Toon book inspired by his girls, after The Big Wet Balloon and Good Night, Planet. This is the oddest of the three, but the bizarre story eventually reveals itself as a comfortable reminder of the power of imagination. Three girls, inspired...

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The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #7

The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #7 is exactly what I want from a superhero comic — adventure, humor, and a refusal to take itself too seriously. (I understand that that is not a popular approach these days, but I know what I like.) It’s rare for me to laugh out loud at one, but there’s a joke...

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Stuck Rubber Baby 25th Anniversary Edition

Howard Cruse’s Stuck Rubber Baby, I have no doubt, has changed lives. It changed mine. It’s the semi-autobiographical story of Toland Polk, a young man hiding from his homosexuality in the southern US in the 1960s, as the civil rights movement becomes more important. Toland is raised by well-meaning...

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Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu Volume 8

I haven’t written about this series in a while, but I’ve kept enjoying it. It’s a quiet pleasure, particularly as we continue to rotate through moments in the life of its recurring cast of customers and guests. The Japanese restaurant continues to serve basic dishes from that cuisine to medieval Europeans...

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Sherlock Holmes: Playing the Game

(I have begun reviewing Sherlock Holmes books for the website belonging to I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, the premier Sherlock Holmes podcast. This review originally appeared there.) Sherlockians know that “playing the game” means considering Arthur Conan Doyle’s role as Dr. John Watson’s literary agent....

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My New York Comic Con 2021

I wrote about my time at the 2021 New York Comic Con for the Beat. Heidi, Brigid, Deb, and I recorded a new episode of “Four Women in a Hotel Room” talking about the show. (I also guest-starred in Heidi’s first day writeup. So good to see con friends again!) Most of my pictures are of meals or buildings....

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What Did You Eat Yesterday? Volume 16

What Did You Eat Yesterday? volume 16 continues in the consistently appealing mode of this Fumi Yoshinaga series: small stories about mature life experiences, all revolving around making food. For example, Shiro is going to meet his boyfriend Kenji’s family — his mother and two sisters — for the first...

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Scenes From Isolation

Cathy Guisewite is back cartooning! Scenes From Isolation is a collection of single-panel cartoons she originally put on Instagram capturing frustrations and annoyances during pandemic quarantine. As with any book of this type, some of the recurring themes, particularly the compulsive baking and germophobia,...

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Mixology and Murder

Mixology and Murder: Cocktails Inspired by Infamous Serial Killers, Cold Cases, Cults, and Other Disturbing True Crime Stories is a rather unique bartending cookbook. You can gather how from the subtitle. Kierra Sondereker has assembled a set of variants on classic cocktails themed around famous true...

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Scaredy Cat

Ready for the spooky season? I found a lovely little treat called Scaredy Cat by Heather Franzen. You can read it on her website at that link, or she sells a minicomic version (a panel a page, and the whole thing just about fits in the palm of a large hand). It’s not exactly a Halloween story, but it...

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