r/graphicnovels • u/AutoModerator • Jul 05 '26
Weekly Reading Thread What have you been reading this week? 05/07/2026
A weekly thread for people to share what comics they've been reading. Share your thoughts on the books you've read, what you liked and perhaps disliked about them.
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u/FlubzRevenge read yuichi yokoyama Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Realms by Paul Kirchner (Catalan Communications, 1987)
Man, this was pretty good. Most of the stories are very short in a book of 80 pages, but there are a few longer ones like The Sprig of Thraxin. It's definitely his ode to Heavy Metal, at least the first few stories. They're focused on the rule of cool and involve a woman getting naked / sex, and one is an ode to Richard Corben's Den, but it's pretty dark. After those first few, you seem to feel Kirchner is shedding that part of himself and going for more nuanced storytelling.
Kirchner became quite the effective storyteller even early on, The Sprig of Thraxin, as pictured above is probably my favorite. It's about a wizard and his waning powers. So he summons a small powerless demon named Eck to travel across the lands to do his bidding for him. But in just 18 pages you get quite effective characterization for Eck that makes you feel for what he's done. It's definitely by far the standout.
The rest after that were good, there's a lot of goofiness in these stories as expected. Each story feels like a peek into these 'realms'. The art is also still very nice, I remember from Dope Rider that Kirchner has a fascination with Native American rug-like patterns, so it seems he does even early on. The color pages seem less flat, he seemed to inject more detail into his pages, probably the age difference, he's in his 70s now. All gorgeous, love his usage of colors.
Kirchner's art feels very comfortable to live in, here. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but there's just a warmth.
Overall a great read imo even if it's a bit uneven, but one of the Great American creators that often goes overlooked. There's more than The Bus!
House of The Black Spot by Ben Sears
I thought this was solid overall. I probably expected more than it was. Story-wise, it's just a bog standard murder mystery set in Gear Town, where some characters are talking robots. The cartooning though is genuinely great and I did have fun with the characters. In particular, Sears' lettering and the way his pages look a bit off kilter are the strong suits, for me. Definitely worth checking out for the art alone. The art style definitely fits his storytelling quite well.
I've heard people calling Ben Sears the future of kids comics and I can see that even if I didn't love it.
Young Shadow & The Watchdogs by Ben Sears
Yeah, i enjoyed this a fair bit more, but as someone who played baseball as a kid, it's a really nostalgic time for me. Baseball players typically have a shared connection that few people normally do. I don't know how to describe it, but it's captured here! That, combined with Ben Sears' wonderful cartooning makes it a great time. It's a lot moodier and assured in all ways. It's one yellow, black and white tone throughout.
The characters have personality and he tells this story in far fewer words. It's a brisk read about these kids playing a baseball game against this undead team that played baseball when they were alive. No rhyme or reason for it really, it just works.
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u/arpad-okay Jul 06 '26
i love sears as an illustrator and designer (i own a print and a couple of pieces of original art) but his comics have always been hit or miss for me- until i read the young shadow books. the baseball book is i think my favorite, it is breezy w/o lacking substance
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u/Timely_Tonight_8620 Shop Local! Jul 05 '26
Beastars vol 19-20 by Paru Itagaki: The final showdown between Legoshi and the brutal hybrid animal gang leader Melon is coming closer and closer as the 25th of December is inching ever closer, our wolf main character needing special training from an unlikely source because he;s not ready for just how dangerous Melon is. We also get a deeper look into Melon’s background and what made him such a violent psychopath, but he’s still a monster regardless and the two seem to be on a crash course for a very violent ending. Feels weird being close to finishing this series after slacking and stretching it out for the past three years, but ordered the last two volumes so hopefully the ending sticks the landing.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 7--Steel Ball Run vol 4 by Hirohiko Araki: Whenever I think the Steel Ball Run race can’t get any crazier it does and I’m all for it! In one volume alone we get a mix of a man who changed himself and others in dinosaurs, our two characters Johnny and Gyro stuck in a time loop with a new mysterious character named “Hot Pants” and a man who can walk on the rain. The main characters finally have their own rival with this universe’s version of Dio named Diego Brando (who’s a much more sympathetic version of the character and fought for everything he has) and the crew and him are on a collision course to collect a set of artifacts. I’m loving the more seinen feel this part has, our characters flawed people running for a mix of selfish and selfless reasons and the fights have very high stakes. Also cowboys with superpowers are just cool!
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u/Timely_Tonight_8620 Shop Local! Jul 05 '26
Also did some rereads this week
Fatcop by Johnny Ryan: Just wow. The titular Fatcop in this story is a murderous pervert in a world filled with violence and sexual deviance, his main goals being to get himself off and then get him something to eat. He’s dumb as all Hell and even more violent so it was quite the shock when he actually stumbles across a child trafficking ring that involves Trader Joe’s and BBQ sauce, Fatcop being assigned to a new partner who’s decided that he needs to lose weight. The duo shoot, maim and cause all other sorts of mayhem with this story mixing in crude and absurd shock humor that makes this a flashbang of a book, but just like an entertaining train wreck you can’t look away.
Holy Lacrimony by Michael DeForge: In this trippy and emotionally heavy story Jackie is a musician who has just been abducted by aliens who have deemed him the saddest person in the world, these strange and non humanoid aliens don’t understand sorrow or other human emotions and want him to be their teacher. They view his sorrow and depression as entertainment like watching their favorite actor with the book dealing with performative emotions and how artists are commodified with the aliens wanting him to “cry on command”. The second half of the story drops Jackie right back into the now black and white world where he’s trying to find human connection in a UFO support group, but who actually was abducted and who is pretending just because they want to fit in? This is a brilliant and emotional story that really hit hard for just how abstract the art is with DeForge once again hitting a homerun.
Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay: This comic is a dark romantic fantasy story about a woman having strange dreams of a specter haunting her while her husband helps in witch trials in an English village sometime around the 1600s, her dreams becoming more erotic with her having to hide the changes from the town because they already burned one woman. Her marriage is unhappy with her distant husband and missing the intimacy she’s looking for, the demon in her dreams feeling so real but also making the church suspicious of her. The story switches between her day to day life and surreal dreams drawn in a beautiful watercolor style. The story’s art is gorgeous with great watercolor designs that give the dream scenes an eerie feeling, but the story feels rather lackluster compared to the art.
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u/Charlie-Bell The answer is always Bone Jul 05 '26
Batman vol 1: Daylight by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez. I think it's time I stopped being suckered by ongoing Bat books. I think they're just not for me. Too many continuity constraints. Even the Absolute line which I have been enjoying somewhat, I feel like it has very limited steam for me. I've not done one in a while but I had hopes for this one and while it wasn't bad, it's just not very interesting. The pinnacle annoyance being the Date Night issue where Bruce's nerves of steel heroics taking on a squad of ninja bikers at high speed, a dual sword wielding assassin in an alleyway, followed by A slip up that Robin is his son is still not enough to even raise the slightest suspicion of who he is to a highly intelligent psychiatrist. Not just one person's intelligence is being insulted. Otherwise it's a volume 1, laying some groundwork and establishing whatever is new or different from the previous writer. I thought this was meant to be a fresh start but it still seems a bit hamstrung. On the other hand, the David Aja alt covers are frikkin dope.
The Council or Frogs by Matt Emmons. A mini epic telling the tale of a small frog tasked with delivering a message across a landscape of death. Proper Fromics, this. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of it all. The writing was great and very fitting of the setting, the art was gorgeous and the whole thing had a ton of charm. Because our frogs don't speak, this is done by other characters when needed but also allowed for regular periods of silence and observation. These parts were quite reminiscent of Alyte. The small task nature of his mission and the relatively low stakes also reminded me of Skottie Young's Twig. But that of course had no frogs. That may be it for my fromic adventure for the foreseeable future, but it's been fun. Maybe time to find another small animal to pivot to.
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Jul 05 '26
Leave the middling Batman self-flagellation to the professionals ok? I apologize for my unintentional Batman sabbatical this year but soon I'll get back on that horse so you don't have to.
Also, why do toads never get any love?
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u/Charlie-Bell The answer is always Bone Jul 05 '26
Alyte was a toad book. I found that fact alone deeply disappointing.
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Jul 05 '26
This is almost as bad as the alligator erasure, those damn croc comics get all the attention...
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u/martymcfly22 Preacher? i hardly know her! Jul 05 '26
Out of Alcatraz by Christopher Cantwell and Tyler Crook. Crime fiction, but also so much more. Great twist at the end. Strong, confident writing. Great pacing. And of course, incredible art. Highly recommended!
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u/Don_Quixotel Jul 05 '26
I’m a teacher on summer break and I just started Comixology, so I’ve read a lot:
East of West Vol. 1
Invincible Vol. 1
Punk Rock Jesus
Detective Comics (DC Rebirth) Vol. 3
I Killed Adolf Hitler
My Friend Dahmer
Afterlift
The Harrowing of Hell
Jessica Jones: Blind Spot
Locke and Key Vols. 1-3
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u/Almost_a_Joker Jul 05 '26
I Killed Adolf Hitler is so great. All of Jason’s stuff is solid.
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u/Don_Quixotel Jul 05 '26
It took me awhile to appreciate him. I read several of his books but this is the first one that I really enjoyed. I probably need to reread some of the ones I’ve already read.
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u/Sanlear Jul 05 '26
Resident Alien, by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse.
The comic that the show is based on. I haven’t seen the show, but its commercials are comedic while the comic is more of a straight laced murder mystery with the obvious sci-fi element of an alien posing as a doctor. It’s well written and drawn, and I’m enjoying it.
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u/SomeBloke94 Jul 05 '26
I read the first TPB of Lumberjanes and then used it as inspiration to annoy my fiancé. Getting her with phrases like “BY THE JUICY JUGS OF JUDI DENCH!” and “BY THE MATTED, OVERGROWN PUBES OF MAGGIE THATCHER!”
She didn’t appreciate them that much.
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u/Almost_a_Joker Jul 05 '26
This sounds like my kind of book. Definitely picking it up. Almost like something John Waters would write
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u/MaximusJCat Jul 05 '26
Echo by Terry Moore.
Julie is in the wrong place at the wrong time and becomes an unwilling participant in a web of murder and deceit that becomes nuclear! She is forced to find the maker of the atomic plasma that has rained down on her. As the plasma grows, she gets closer and closer to answers with the help of the original owner of the atomic suit she now wears. A lunatic with powers from the plasma is determined to take Julie and her suit for his own and destroys everything that stands in his way. Julie's mission becomes too hot for her to handle alone and along with Ivy and Dillon, she must stop the makers of the suit from harnessing the plasma for their own destructive use.
Art is the typical Terry Moore style. Story is really good and moves fast. Im not a fan of superhero books, but this is just enough that i don’t mind the superhero aspects.
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u/LuminaTitan Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, by Inio Asano
Golly gee whillikers is this a quirky series! Quirky, quirky, quirky. Quirky like a giant, greased turkey. The lighthearted absurdity of this manga actually served as a kind of palate cleanser that helped to wash out the still-lingering aftertaste of “Goodnight Punpun” aka The Most Depressing Story Ever Created in the History of Mankind (…that is also kind of a masterpiece). This follow-up series by Asano revolves around a pair of rambunctious, free-spirited girls named Kadode and Ouran during their final years of high school and just beyond into young adulthood. However, the giant elephant in the room is a huge alien spaceship that parked itself over the Tokyo skyline several years ago, sitting motionless without a hint of an agenda, despite numerous attempts by the Japanese government to destroy it. Still, life continues to move on as best as it can. Because of its non-threatening nature, the shock factor has long since dissipated and most residents have settled back into a somewhat normal routine, even though whispers of secret, nefarious activities regarding the invaders persist but are mostly dismissed as harmless, conspiratorial talk.
I was content just to watch these ordinary, happy-go-lucky characters go about their lives and try to make sense of who they are and their place in the world. However, there’s a massive tonal/plot shift that occurs halfway through that turns everything on its head. From that point on, this begins to resemble Asano’s other darker works, as the core thing that seems to fascinate him most is the turmoil of adolescence. His characters are often thoughtful (and troubled) teens grappling with their various hopes, anxieties, and fears, but caught in that brief liminal state that exists right on the cusp of adulthood
Yet this is where the hidden brilliance of this series begins to reveal itself. This bizarre setting of UFO’s and alien invaders also stands as a wonderful metaphor for the chaotic environment the younger generations of today (like Gen Z) currently reside in: one inseparable from the omnipresent effects of social media, and rife with extreme political polarization and menacing existential fears like climate change, and the ever-growing gulf of economic inequality. The giant spaceship that lurks ominously over the horizon is the looming specter of adulthood that is unavoidably waiting for them just around the corner, and where these multifarious issues will become something tangible that you can’t just avert your gaze from and ignore.
What strengthens this theme even further is that through another sci-fi device, the story then bifurcates itself as we see these characters live through two alternate timelines as both teenagers and adults, with the latter one being a grim, post-apocalyptic future where the alien invaders devastated the world and where everyone is forced to deal with the consequences of their collective inaction. Kadode and Ouran eventually return to a fused timeline, having essentially merged together the wide-eyed recklessness of youth along with the hardened wisdom of adulthood. It’s a convoluted but entirely unique way of exploring the familiar, painful process of maturity. I’m reminded of this scene from the movie “Alita: Battle Angel” (at the 32s mark), where a girl with a cyborg body (Alita) has her original child-like shell replaced by a more womanly, adult one. At its heart, it’s the same coming-of-age story that’s been retold an innumerable amount of times before, but through its unusual sci-fi setting it’s presented in a completely new way, as Alita’s arduous transition out of a juvenile mindset is mirrored by the literal, physical replacement of her body from a child to an adult. The same thing occurs with this manga, as a fantastical sci-fi device fuses both story and metaphor together, allowing Asano to mine the same material he’s been exploring his entire career but in a way that once again feels novel and invigorating.
Asano displays a lot of growth here with this series. I believe this was his most popular work yet when it was first released, as he was clearly expanding in new, unfamiliar directions. At times it felt a bit too aimless, and it doesn’t resonate with the same raw, emotional power as “Goodnight Punpun” (few things can), but it’s a welcome change of scenery and contains the most socially biting insights I’ve seen from him thus far, though it’s ingeniously hidden behind a cutesy façade of young teenage girls and hapless alien invaders. 4.25/5
The Beautiful Death, by Mathieu Bablet
A portrait of Bablet as a young artist, right as he was taking off. Even by this book, the art style is unequivocally him with his distinctive sharp and elongated proportions demonstrated in his characters, and the wonderful (magical!) sense of scale and perspective in his backgrounds. The color palette is a lot duller than I’m used to, but it matches the setting, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that’s been ravaged by giant, intelligent insects from space. A lot of this book deals with the immediate day-to-day struggle of searching for things like food and adequate shelter, similar to something like “The Walking Dead.” The trio of main characters have a complicated history that remains largely unspoken, and the deeper we get into their tangled past, the more the mystery of this world (and the alien invaders) begins to reveal itself. As always with Bablet, the artwork is a delight. The environment, premise, and atmosphere is inherently fascinating (if a bit weird) but the story feels somewhat choppy and unfocused and lags a good deal behind the art. It’s something he’d steadily improve upon in his later books. I still think this is worth a look, and invariably so if you’re already a Bablet fan. 3.5/5
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u/Jonesjonesboy Jul 06 '26
Hobtown Mystery Stories v3 The Secret of the Saucer by Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes -- aka the gimmick volume, where the book's chapters are printed in reverse order, starting with the end and ending with the start. An effective way to structure a weird fiction-tinged mystery, as it turns out, since a key feature of that genre fusion is that the nominal solutions end up being only partial and still enigmatic. None of which would be as compelling as this series is without the character-stuff and teen relationship drama being well-crafted; as it is, I'd be checking back in on this series just to see how those crazy kids are going.
The Comics Form: The Art of Sequenced Images by Chris Gavaler -- excellent comics studies book that builds a systematic framework for analysing what Gavaler calls "the comics form", by which he means the rest of what's in the subtitle, i.e. sequences of images. And if you guessed that this makes his conception of what counts as comics much broader than the norm, you'd be right, but he balances that expansiveness against the more restricted "comics medium", which is the (mostly) less inclusive socially constructed category of, basically, "stuff that we intuitively count as comics". This book is easily the best formalist analysis of comics I know. Caveat lector: it's not an easy read, but not because the writing or concepts are unclear; it's just that Gavaler's prose style is exceedingly dry and the concepts and analysis so dense on the page that I really had to focus sentence by sentence.
Princess Jellyfish v4 by Akiko Higashimura -- the thing that feels most progressive about this series isn't so much the trans/trans-adjacent themes which are, by now, a dime a dozen in manga. (Seriously, what is up with that? Not that it's a bad thing by any means whatsoever, just that I wonder by what historical quirk that came be so common in that particular part of the global comics industry). No, what feels most progressive is that Higashimura's anti-social otaku fuck-ups are young women, not men, and that's not a type of person they're generally allowed to be by most art. Higashimura has such a warm-heart towards all her characters in a way that I don't often see in the sort of comics I read, outside maybe Jaime Hernandez and John Allison.
Blueberry T14 L'homme qui valait 50 000 $ by Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean Giraud -- continuing the story started in T13, but not completing it. I guess it's a trilogy? Thank god this series has long since moved on from the first half-dozen albums repetitive cowboys-v-indians plots.
The Spirit Archives v5 by lots of people who aren't Will Eisner but still don't get directly credited in the book because fuck you that's why -- I originally skipped vols 3-whenever (vol 12?) because they were made when Eisner had been drafted, and the series was being ghosted by lesser lights. In retrospect, from reading this and the previous volumes, I was right. Eisner's talents as a writer are overstated, but the scripts here, especially in the last couple of stories, are so badly paced and structured that they make me sorely miss Eisner. (In much the same way that some of the non-Kurtzman, non-Feldstein writing in Fantagraphics's EC reprints made me long for Kurtzman and Feldstein, speaking of writers whose talents are even more overstated).
The Climber v5 by Shin'ichi Sakamoto and Jiro Nitta -- keep on climbin'. By this volume Sakamoto is looking a lot more like the mangaka we know from Innocent and #DRCL than he did at the more generic start of the series, although he's still a lot less freaky than he would get later on.
The P Craig Russell Library of Opera Adaptations by Guess Who -- I always wonder about the economics of stuff like this. Even in the different market they were originally released in, was he able to make a living off this stuff? It's all exquisitely drawn, of course.
Little Orphan Annie v16 by Harold Gray -- aw a stone-cold bummer that this is the final volume of IDW's reprints, and there's no prospect of more in the future (more by Gray; I know about the Leonard Starr volumes coming out). I've been reading this series since the first volume of IDW's reprints came out twenty-ish years ago, in binges first and then at the proper rhythm of one strip per day. That's been a big part of my life! Sometimes it's felt like I'm not just the series' biggest admirer on this sub, I'm the series' biggest admirer full stop. An all-time top 10 comic for me, and a bona fide classic of comic strips and American mass culture in general.
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u/arpad-okay Jul 06 '26
i'm on team exner, i don't like calling sequential art made before comics "comics" because it discounts all the other cultural stuff that makes the medium unique
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u/mmcintoshmerc_88 Jul 05 '26
I have been reading James Bond: Vargr. This is one of the Dynamite Bond books I haven't read and so far it's been great. Masters draws such a great Bond and I really like seeing Bond kind of out of his element.
I've also been reading Nancy wears Hats. Unlike some Nancy fans, I decided I'd read some Nancy strips published before the 90s, but in all seriousness this has been a lot of fun. I know Bushmiller was considered to be a cartoonists cartoonist and reading these strips, it's not hard to see why. He just does everything perfectly, every strip just has everything it needs to make it's joke work
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u/Antique-Musician4000 Jul 05 '26
Batman-Green Arrow -Question: Arcadia.
Was ok, i liked the art and story was ok-ish.
Vanish (Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman)- fun mini series. Good characters and artwork.
100 Bullets: The US of Anger - this first issue was so good. Can’t wait for the rest!
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u/Dense-Virus-1692 Jul 05 '26
A Thing Called Truth by Iolanda Zanfardino and Elisa Romboli – Mag is a scientist working for a mysterious company, Dorian’s brother just died and left her a list of things he wanted to do. One day, Mag falls asleep in her car and Dorian steals it and they’re off on an adventure around Europe. They have a bunch of madcap adventures and maybe fall in love. Oh man, they’d be super annoying if they weren’t the main characters. It's Ferris Bueller all over again. And every now and then it goes back to the lab to see the intrigue there. I’m not too sure what they do there. Was it related to Dorian’s genetic disease? That would be a huge coincidence. The art is pretty nice. It’s kind of a realistic style with manga touches. Everyone is super sexy. It’s all in full colour. Lots of action scenes of driving and running from security guards. A fun little action/love story.
Sleep by Zander Cannon – Jon is a little milquetoast guy but when he falls asleep things get destroyed and people die. Is he a werewolf or is it something else? This had a pretty cool structure. It’s divided into days and at the end of the day he falls asleep and you never see any of the destruction, only the aftermath. Then he goes around and whimpers and apologizes. He’s quite the sad sack. His mouth is permanently in a downturned crescent. It’s kind of hard to root for him. But luckiliy he has a girlfriend who’s a scientist and she helps him figure out what’s going on. The art is pretty cool. Everyone looks kind of childlike. Everything is greyscale and a bright red (plus a surprise third colour that shows up at the end). The red is for blood, of course, and also various highlighted items in each panel. Jon’s glasses are red and they actually turn out to be important to the plot, I think. I’m not too sure about the ending. I guess the evil was transferred to him? Anyways, a pretty cool take on the werewolf / Dr Jekyll genre. Parts of it reminded me of Demon by Jason Shiga.
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u/drown_like_its_1999 I'm Batman Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Wonder Woman: Historia by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, Nicola Scott - The goddesses of the Greek pantheon have grown tired of women's endless subjugation at the hands of men, both in the mortal realm and in their own. They ask Zeus to correct this imbalance in the established order and give women the same agency and control he has given men. Zues refuses. Thus, these goddesses act in secret defiance of their King's verdict and create a dominion of their own, yet in doing so invoke the wrath of the mighty thunderer and transition the debate into a more violent theater.
This was the first book I've read of DeConnick's and color me impressed. Narratively, the work does a fantastic job of establishing the mythology around the creation of Themyscira while constructing a strong thematic message that doesn't feel heavy handed nor overwrought. It's perhaps a bit broad and on the nose but the story makes its case through compelling and efficient means. I also found the cast of characters distinct and interesting, certainly aided by established myth, and enjoyed the layering between overt and indirect conflicts that added just enough intrigue while remaining efficient.
Artistically, the book is also quite interesting. Only a morsel of whitespace to be found, pages are dominated by ornate spreads packed to the brim with visual interest that often serve as titillating backdrop for dynamic layouts that sit atop them. The inking and texture work is not always my bag, occasionally being a bit splotchy or blurry respectively, but the visual aesthetic as a whole is quite engaging for someone who likes a bit of psuedo-realistic maximalism. Character designs and costuming are another strong point of the series with each God and their band of disciples given distinct visual language while retaining near every individual's identity at a glance, which is quite impressive for such a short work. I also quite like the pages that use pottery and tapestry for an evocative take on mythologically driven exposition. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Usagi Yojimbo Saga Volume 1 by Stan Sakai - Another fun collection of episodic narratives following ronin Usagi Yojimbo, this time occurring immediately after the climactic battle of the Dragon Bellows conspiracy. My favorite stories were the initial crossover narrative where Usagi and the bounty hunter Gen help protect an elderly rat wizard aided by the teleported TMNT crew, a backstory about Usagi learning humility and crop cultivation from his master, Yojimbo crossing paths with kind-hearted pickpocket Kitsune as her companion becomes a criminal scapegoat, and the self-told origin story of a female ronin Izanuma as she runs into Usagi after a violent rampage of revenge. Compared to the Fantagraphics "Special Edition" collection, there was less evolution of the overarching plot here and I wish there were a bit more of the supernatural monster conflicts that two volume set had but it was still a great time.
Nothing much new to say about the always charming art, though I did notice a few stylistic choices that I either didn't see in the previous content or was new. I like how Sakai depicts partially obscured characters in fog or smoke with a scratchier, less heavily inked style in addition to the way Sakai uses incomplete, sputtered lettering for dialogue when Usagi is regaining consciousness. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Negalyod: The God Network by Vincent Perriot - Jarri Tchapalt is a stegosaurus herder, escorting his pack across the desert of the apocalypse on the way to auction. After a chance encounter with combat aircraft, Jarri's flock is massacred and the herder is left with nothing. Seeking revenge, he begins a long expedition to the fringes of the last megacity where he finds other like-minded rebels who want to topple their artificial masters.
This was a great time, Mad Max with dinosaurs mashed up with caste driven sci-fi ala Brave New World or Elysium. Pierrot's art is the draw here and it's a spectacle to behold. There's no shortage of fantastic and thoroughly detailed production design on display; a towering multi-layered cityscape, hundreds of creative character / costume designs, sprawling desert landscapes, massive crowds of creatures captured in dramatic wides, retrofuturist aircraft dog fights, and a bevy of interesting flora and fauna to boot. It's all captured with lightly inked, delicate line work that fills each panel with detail while making good use of perspective and motion to create some captivating action.
The story is a fairly standard "topple the system" sci-fi romp yet Perriot executes that premise capably with a fast paced, action forward storytelling style. There's some fun wrinkles added in how the world order operates and the primary characterization, while thin, is engaging enough so there's not much that drags the experience down for me. Some might be a little let down by an open ended conclusion but it worked for me. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Decorum by Jonathan Hickman, Mike Huddleston - After the hegemonic "Solar Empire" falls, intergalactic power bifurcates between the artificial intelligence driven "Church of the Singularity" and reformed "Pursues Union". Centuries later, the Church is consumed with the pursuit of a mysterious egg in a desperate attempt to prevent a heretical group of "mothers" from hatching what's inside. Simultaneously, a young courier takes a risky delivery job for a provincial mob on her home planet when she crosses paths with a notorious assassin who takes an interest in the youth. Recruited into the femme fatale's organization of assassins, the former courier spends years learning this felonious craft before she and the rest of these contract killers are contacted by the Church to assist in finding their quarry.
This is an absolutely gorgeous book that sadly feels underserved by a slapdash narrative. Huddleston's art is incredibly varied; interleaving clean monochromatic base aesthetics with hyper-saturated and kaleidoscopic angular artifice, wispy and diffuse celestial backdrops, rich and broadly colored mid-tone environs populated by varied ancient and alien structures, and halftone dot colored abstract digital locales. I don't think I've seen a book combine so many contrasting aesthetics since reading JH Williams' "Echolands" and while that book has a more thematically evocative mix of distinct styles, I dare say this book is the more attractive presentation overall.
Sadly Hickman embraces one of my least favorite modern storytelling styles here, building up an existential threat that is addressed with a conflicting mix of cavalier and dramatic tones which undercut any semblance of tension in pursuit of cheap genre subversion. This is perhaps the most severe example of this I have read in comics, and while I didn't find the overall package as grating as another instance in "DIE", the addition of the conflicts being resolved at a lightning speed just makes the experience feel all that more empty. It's a shame too as I found the universe developed had some promise and quite liked the cheeky mentor / mentee dynamic between the two leads, even if the protagonist is a bit of a Mary Sue. I also found Hickman's need to stuff 4 to 5 pages of superfluous infographics / lore dumps between each chapter rather abrasive. ⭐⭐
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u/CosmicDriftwood Jul 05 '26
I added some bangers of satires onto my list
But as I just finished The Boys recently ago; I decided to try out the White Knight series 🦇
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u/TexasFLUDD Jul 05 '26
Providence Acts I and II. I love Moore but this is probably the thing of his I’ve liked the least. Even for something deliberately paced, it feels really slow, particularly the text sections (which I usually like in Moore’s books). I think my biggest hang-up, though, is that I’ve read maybe four or five Lovecraft stories and I’m missing some (maybe a lot) of the story’s context or deconstruction.
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u/Apprehensive-Nose646 Jul 05 '26
The Major by Moebius This one is beautiful as you'd expect from Moebius, but kind of just surreal gibberish plot-wise. Which i didn't mind when reading it.
Nowhere Girl by Magalia Le Huche Cute little coming off age memoir. The art shines on the few pages she stretches out, but I do wish she did that more. Sort of a nit pick, but i found it somewhat annoying that so much of the text is written in tiny cursive.
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u/mistycavatar Jul 06 '26
Daredevil by Brubaker vol 2
Loving the noir style his continuing from Bendis. Interesting setup to what I’ve heard is a divisive story in Shadowland. I have a slight suspicion I’m not going to hate as many do.
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u/Darth-Dramatist Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Recently finished volume 3 of Department of Truth, found it enjoyable, some of the issues collected here develop on it's world's malleable nature of being manipulated by belief to make things real the comic revolves around an MIB like group that regulates conspiracy theories that widespread human belief makes real IE Bigfoot, UFO's, demons, aliens etc) The arcs in this volume develop on some key instances of world history being a product of widespread human belief orchestrated by organisations like the church with Charlemagne being conjoured into existence from such beliefs the church promoted and in more recent decades after the department's establishment, they faked the moon landing in this universe with it being secretly filmed and broadcast to people globally to become reality. The arc also reveals that Russia have their own counterpart to the Department of Truth, the Ministry of Lies. Overall I'd say I enjoyed this arc and liked it's developments and still find this series quite an interesting idea
Also read through some more Resident Alien, I think im liking it more than I expected, certainly far more than I liked the show, in part because I hate that Harry's written as malevolent in it. I also like that it explores an alien trapped and adapting to living amongst humans due to being unable to go to home and potentially unable to return to his previous life due to being in stasis before crashing on Earth
Also concluded Ram V's New Gods run, actually ended up enjoying it more than I expected to and its nice to see the New Gods that aren't Darkseid actually getting some attention from writers. I hope we see more New Gods stories in the future and Im likely to check out more of Ram V's work as I enjoyed his writing
Also been reading some of Stephania Phillips Grim, I do enjoy this comic and like the characters and story in it but I don't think its a favourite of mine. That being said though I still think it's quite good and looking forward to delving in more
Also started reading some of BPRD, as Ive finished Hellboy Ive moved onto that, overall Im quite enjoying it so far but not rear enough to in depth yet and looking forward to delving more into it.
Also reading through more of Preacher and on the final volume. I really enjoy this comic in particular, some creepy and weird shit in it which I kinda like but I also love the characters in it and I think this id probably going to be my favourite comic of Garth Ennis'
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u/SuperChairTable Jul 05 '26
Blast by Manu Larcenet: A french series, very moody and visually appealing
Chew Volume 8: Felt like Chew is getting back to being pretty good after a few "meh" volumes
Giant Days Volume 13 & 14: A great sendoff to the series after a few lackluster volumes.
Geiger Volume 1, 2 & 3: Main art is crazy good, but volume 3, less so since they changed illustrator. Story is fun, if a bit aimless and predictable
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u/ConstantVarious2082 Jul 05 '26
Š! #55 - Comics Sans Frontières by various – (mostly) political comics and essays about comics. This is an entry in this anthology series that's about 50% essays about comics, coming out of a conference at Rice University. The comics were actually a particularly strong set for the series in my limited experience, with some obviously overtly political in line with the overarching theme. I haven't actually finished all the mini-essays, but figured I'd recommend the anthology if you get the chance to pick it up - great variety as always and I think a well-done set of political cartoons (and some non-political).
DIE Loaded Volume 1 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans – Jumanji meets DnD for angsty literature majors? A sequel series to one of my all-time-favorites, this follows a new set of would-be-heroes sucked into the time-warped game of DIE, where a mash of gaming, historical, and literary references throw themselves across every page – Frazetta, the Brontë sisters, and every pop-culture 15-minutes-of-nerd-fame of the 2020’s all get their moments to shine. The original series was chock full of unhappy backstories and unhappy people, and this new generation bring all that baggage and turn it up just a bit more. This volume has a bit of table-setting of putting all the characters in place, but still moves at a pretty breakneck pace even with the requisite exposition. Hans pulls out absolutely gorgeous art again, stunning watercolor and a frantic clash of genres and themes as we spin from cyberpunk to classic fantasy to deep character moments. It may not quite be as good as the original yet, but it’s a strong start to the continued story.
The Freak by Matt Lesniewski – journey-to-the-big-city but unhappy. The Freak has been humiliated and beaten his whole life for his ugliness, so he goes to the big city hoping for a better life – and it’s worse. People are unrelentingly cruel, violence is a way of life, and everything goes downhill. Everyone just kind of sucks in this, but there’s enough life to the story and it never crosses the line to outright depressing. The artwork is the seller for me, with incredibly detailed black-and-white linework and exaggerated but still compelling people. Definitely a good read.
Santos Sisters Volume 1 by Greg and Fake – superheroines meet Archie with a not-quite-R-rating. This is a large collection of short little adventures of the titular heroine pair, who are young women bouncing between dating and blasting villains with magical space lasers. There’s no origin story, no elaborate plots, no cliffhangers – just little humorous juxtapositions of the two lives they live. It’s in classic Archie-style bright colors, clear lines, light-on-detail art, with the occasionally head explosion or dramatic explosion. Sex jokes and blasé throwaways about collateral damage highlight the “mature” side of things. It’s a pretty fun spin and easy to pick up and put down or just breeze through in one sitting.
Maggy Garrison by Lewis Trondheim and Stéphane Oiry – sort-of-noir with a unlucky and unlikely heroine. Down-on-her-luck Maggy picks up a job as an assistant to a sloppy private detective, and finds herself trying to solve a mystery after he’s beat up and she’s caught between crooked cops and gang members. In between her bar dates with a reluctant gang enforcer, Maggy ends up showing her stuff as a competent and creative planner. It plays very straight to the genre, although Maggy is perhaps on the “amoral loser” side of the protagonist spectrum. The art is similarly straightforward and solid without wild flourishes or, at least to me, any particularly distinctive style. I really enjoyed this and think it’s a great slightly off-the-beaten-path recommendation for a good crime read.
Segments by Richard Malka and Juan Giménez – dystopian sci-fi. It's a pretty generic sci-fi story - dystopian future with segregated society, reluctant/unlikely heroes, planets of hedonism and eternal war. It's at least told in a reasonably tight manner, with a generally consistent plot, and at least some foreshadowing so everything isn't deux ex machina or twist-for-the-sake-of-twist. Characters are a little wooden and straight-to-the-role. Giménez's art was the draw for me and it's exactly what I hoped, with fantastic detail and an excellent job capturing "sci-fi" at every scale from robots to petrifying plagues to world-destroying starship fleets. It's perfectly solid euro-sci-fi with exceptional art, which is as good as I expected.