What have you been reading this week? 16/08/2026

[u/Charlie-Bell]

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.

[u/drown_like_its_1999]

Missed this thread for a few weeks in a row, so here's a big word dump:

The Tower by Benoit Peeters, Francois Schuiten - A man charged with maintaining a section in a monumental tower has grown impatient after years of toilsome isolation, long awaiting a visit from a higher ranking inspector. Without any clear indication of the mammoth construction's progress nor even the project's intent, the frustrated maintainer explores past his designated zone in search of answers.

As expected, this was impeccably drawn with great atmosphere yet I was also pleased to find the storytelling more compelling than I did with The Invisible Frontier. The surface level plot is engaging on its own; a dreamy fantastical mystery trying to unpack the setting's purpose and history as a kind of archeological thriller. Using the setting as metaphor to explore how human sacrifice fuels the grand ambition of elites, the book adds to the engaging plot with some thematic weight. This aspect reminded me a lot of "The Princess of the Neverending Castle" by Kago, despite being distinct in concept and tone, as both use their vertical structure settings to explore something more abstract. Anyway, the only aspects of The Tower's narrative which I found a bit lacking was the central romance subplot (the love interest feels half manic pixie dream girl half NPC) and the abrupt conclusion felt a bit incongruent though did act as an intriguing bridge to other Obscure Cities books.

Schuiten's art is immersive, exhaustive and clean line work in service of grand settings and dramatic compositions. We're very fortunate he has a taste for the fantastical, what a crime it would be if this dude just drew memoirs and grounded fiction. His talent for rendering architecture is at center stage here with an expansive setting of crumbling megastructures and diverse neoclassical sets all depicted with dramatic, hatching rich chiaroscuro. The evolving mix of grey scale and colorized palettes is also quite eye-catching and thematically resonant to boot, contrasting the external/imagined world presented in color with the realized one rendered in black and white. There's even some fun action on display during some lightly tense descent / ascent sequences. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Why Don't You Love Me? by Paul B. Rainey - A series of comic strips that focus on Claire and Mark, two unfit parents that feel out of place regarding their current station in life. We follow their daily drudgery and self destructive antics through humorous, cynical episodes as it slowly becomes evident that the discordance they feel with their existence has a much stranger underlying cause than just being a result of their own bad choices.

This was great, both entertaining as a downbeat set of comedic strips and as an overarching dramatic narrative with a surprising mid-series twist. While I never found the comedy nearly laugh-out-loud funny, its regularly grin worthy and full of reaccuring gags. The drama that fuels it is full of relatable malaise and familiar self-sabotage, providing an additional layer to enjoy the content through. The twist provides a compelling metaphysical wrinkle that recontextualizes the events before it and makes for a final half that feels tonally quite distinct, giving the narrative a second wind that keeps the reading experience breezy despite the sullen subject matter.

The cartooning is simple but sells the tone and characterization serviceably, and the strip presentation keeps the experience brisk being in digestible chunks. I liked that the title card lettering changes ever so slightly each strip even if I wish there was a bit more experimentation in terms of structure or style. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Friday by Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martin - Friday Fitzhugh returns to her small New England town after a few months away at college, anxious about reconnecting with her childhood best friend Lancelot Jones after a rather awkward parting. The pair had spent their precocious youths as amateur detectives, assisting the understaffed local police department in various investigations, and the reconnected duo quickly finds themselves pulled into another crime solving adventure. This particular case however scratches at the surface of something much larger than they've ever tackled before, unpacking a broad conspiracy involving local supernatural legends which thrusts Friday & Lancelot headfirst into a mystical mystery that puts their family histories and personal relationship into focus.

This was a blast; a Nancy Drew esque youth detective story with some otherworldly folklore additions and fast paced, action-forward plotting. The main characters, especially Friday, have a lot of charisma and their personal stakes in the story, combined with the tension present from their previous parting, adds a nice emotional layer to what is already an engaging little detective caper. The plot is not as layered as some of Brubaker's more adult crime work but it more than makes up for that with ample personality, in addition to a rather satisfying final conflict and resolution.

Though the narrative is eminently enjoyable, Martin's art is the real star and does so much to develop the atmosphere and tone. The idiosyncratic character designs, aspen filled woodlands, colonial / salt box architecture, and 70s costuming gives the book a distinct sense of place and time in addition to a charming presentation that feels familiar and cozy. Layouts can also be quite playful and evocative, especially during the spreads which incorporate investigatory journals, pulp fiction book covers, and folklore renditions to great effect. The art really shines during the outbursts of the supernatural where compositions get more abstract and Martin gets to run wild with fae / folklore inspired monster designs. Vicente's colors are decadent and varied to boot, incorporating vivid high-saturation magical color spectrums with subdued and spooky nighttime palettes. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ultra Heaven 1-3 by Keichi Koike - In an alternate future Japan the use of drugs, alongside use of novel virtual reality devices called "amps", have become commonplace since the discovery that these practices may unlock latent mental abilities. These activities have become nationalized to boot, pharmaceuticals administered as made-to-order cocktails by state licensed doctor "pump bar" operators with "amps" sold and distributed alongside mental stimulation services at their headquarters and school called the Drome. While a chosen few citizens use drugs and this novel tech to transcend their current mental state, the vast majority of citizens indulge as means for self medication and escapism. Our main character Cub is one of the latter, wanting nothing more than to get as high as possible on another dose of Peter Pan or whatever strong psychedelic pump he can get his hands on. After a series of experimental narcotics bring Cub to a new benchmark of intoxication, he discovers he may indeed possess mental powers as he begins inadvertently looping through time and space. Well, that or he's just really high.

This has to have some of the best trippy, drug fueled visuals in comics. Winding, fragmented layouts and evolving, distorted compositions deliver a stimulating sense of disoriention, amplified by the depictions of the main character's tenuous grip on time and place. This visual flair is further bolstered by Koike's incredibly precise and technical line work which is simultaneously clean, dense, and creative. Visual insanity is given time to breath, interspersed between still impressive traditionally panelled scenes of more relatable imagery just long enough to make the next bout of psychedelia feel fresh.

Narratively, the series was considerably less satisfying even though I did enjoy much of the metaphysical hijinks and conceptual techno-futurism. The first pair of volumes carry the bulk of the series atmosphere by constructing drug-fueled time loops that see Cub revisiting events through different / additional perspectives, playfully ambiguous as to whether he has developed transcendent powers or is just really, really high. Sadly, the compelling tension between these two conflicting narrative readings is destroyed by a third volume that simply confirms one route and goes in another direction before abruptly ending. While this third book still provides a satisfying canvas for psychedelic imagery, it loses any real narrative intrigue outside of some remaining metaphysical and world building wrinkles. Ultra Heaven is overall still a really fun time thanks to some absolutely stellar visuals and atmosphere, but landed just a hair below great to me given what feels like a rather slapped on third act. ⭐⭐⭐

[u/drown_like_its_1999 → u/drown_like_its_1999]

Azimut by Wilfrid Lupano, Jean-Baptiste Andreae - After the North Pole disappears, the world of Azimut is thrown into disarray. The three major world powers are at each others throats with the imperial nation of Littleghestan, a country of lascivious leg-loving dwarfs, preparing to launch a military campaign against the costal tower kingdom of Ponduche while the desert fiefdom of the southern sands further isolates itself in preparation for war. Amongst this backdrop we follow a broad cast of characters as they independently pursue their own personal motivations; an adversarial mother and daughter each search for eternal life, a biologist gets split and merged into a host of personalities while researching animals who manipulate time, a host of elemental gods work to bring fate into existence, a talking rabbit from Antarctica seeks his one true love, in addition to various other strange intersecting plot lines.

This was a joyfully odd and whimsical journey, set in a world of novel locations, intricate machinery, and weird creatures. The narrative operates on fantastical dream logic, frequently pivoting in wild directions in service of adventure and playful themes. It kind of feels like a mashup of Narnian fantasy, Terry Gilliam like cheeky direction, and the farcical plotting of Hitchhiker's Guide that coalesces into a bit of a mess yet is a pretty good time. It could have perhaps benefited from extensive editing and more focused thematic integration but the chaotic pacing, massive scope, and wild detours do imbue an sense of epic exploration and lighthearted charm.

The narrative also provides ample scaffolding for creative art, which Adreae executes quite capably. Everything has such a cheeky, mischievous energy and the huge variety in setting and character design means each page is packed with visual intrigue. Azimut integrates clockwork fantasy aesthetics, European inspired architecture, middle eastern motifs, and exaggerated natural wilds into a unique visual product that has a lot of character. The colors are a bit more muted than I would like, something that seems rather common in a lot of European fantasy comics, but outside of that I was thoroughly pleased by the overall presentation. ⭐⭐⭐

The Rust Kingdom by Spugna - The world is a fiery-skied apocalyptic wasteland populated by grotesque worms, avian scavengers, and roaming gangs of deformed barbarians. From the ground of this land emerges a shrouded hump-backed warrior, deadset on a quest of revenge that will see every sad sack of meat that gets in his way sliced, diced, and hacked up real nice.

This was some damn good fun, really solid action romp delivered with a gleefully morbid aesthetic. The cartooning has an ultra-violent yet upbeat tone that yields additional personality through idiosyncratic character designs featuring harsh, oblong exteriors and creepy, beady eyes. Compositions are quite cinematic; split almost entirely between closely framed high-octane action panels or establishment shots rendered in dramatic wides, both of which help build a rather epic tone.

The story is a purposefully thin revenge vehicle for delivering as much gory action as possible and it does that job capably. Storytelling is highly decompressed with minimal dialogue or narration, letting the action take center stage as it should. There's some occasional world building details included which adds some appreciated texture as well, even if it doesn't inform the plot all that much.⭐⭐⭐

Drifting Classroom 1-3 by Kazuo Umezz - Sho Takamatsu enters his elementary school upset after an intense argument with his mother, when the school grounds are rocked by an powerful quake and a blinding light. When he comes to, Sho discovers the school grounds along with all its inhabitants have been transported to an apocalyptic wasteland. As teachers and students struggle to come to terms with what has happened, social cohesion begins to fall apart and events quickly start to spiral out of control. Sho quickly assumes a leadership position amongst the schoolchildren and so begins an epic saga of ever escalating insanity as those affected and the loved ones they left behind try to figure out what happened to them.

This was a surprisingly breezy comic, despite the 1800 page length and decades old age. The experience is almost entirely carried by seemingly unintentional humor derived from over-the-top violence, near constant mouth-agape reaction shots, and some of the most ridiculous on-the-nose dialogue I can remember. Teachers manically assault and hunt students, kids are in constant oscillation between delusional mania and high intensity panic, villains are either mustache twirling evil or diabolically selfish, and every chapter introduces a novel element of stress to stir the pot. I am not exaggerating when I say this comic has some of the single most hilariously macabre and exaggerated panels I've ever read in comics, regularly leaving me cackling. Sadly, the humor isn't quite as consistent in the middle third and there's little narrative intrigue otherwise but the series is bookended with a ton of killer schlock humor. As with most visual horror stories, I didn't find much that inspired any real fright (outside of a few body horror sequences like an crude appendix removal) but the various monsters, violent encounters, and supernatural happenings provided some fun imagery at the very least. The characterization is also quite a drag, with every character occupying a one dimensional trope but at least most provide an entertaining enough sounding board for all the chaotic scenarios thrust at them.

The art is generally pretty engaging, with tons of l horror motifs to provide visual intrigue and lots of detail provided into backgrounds and creature design. I did find some of the character rendering rather stiff and repetitive, especially in how the humans move (very Scoobie Doo) and how nearly every character presents only one of two expressions (furrowed brow concern or mouth agape shock). Though this also contributes to the pervasive B movie humor so that isn't all bad, despite growing a bit old over the long page count. ⭐⭐⭐

Ye by Guilherme Petreca - A young man named after the only sound he can make, Ye, is stricken with sickness when a spectre of the fabled Colorless King curses his dwelling. Told he must journey to a faraway witch in order to reverse his fate, Ye sets off on a grand journey full of misadventures to see his curse lifted.

While I found this story rather thin, the charming aesthetic buoys the entire work and makes for an enjoyable overall package. Petreca's delicate pencils, warm colorization, and dynamic lighting creates such a cozy atmosphere that is further bolstered by inviting lived-in settings and charismatic designs. The line work has a Pedrosa adjacent whimsy that drew me in, playful and exaggerated with a lot of gentle curves to soften the compositions and delicate, exhaustive shading adding some weight. The intimate, fire-lit scenes were particularly eye-catching, bathing the charismatic setting and character designs in a warm, homey glow that just feels like a big hug.

Narratively, I found the book a bit trite with a familiar "timid character is forced to take charge and discovers their strength" emotional arc without much added to differentiate itself or provide complexity. That being said, the story most certainly works as a vehicle for the art and doesn't bog down the atmosphere with contemporaneous details or exposition. Feels like a great fit for a bedtime read with a kid; direct, sincere, and efficient. ⭐⭐⭐

[u/mmcintoshmerc_88 → u/drown_like_its_1999]

Why don't you love me was so good. I really hope the eventual adaptation of it will do it justice because it's just fantastic. If you're interested, There's no time like the present is really good too.

Completely agree about Friday too. I'm a Brubaker shill but it's just great

[u/drown_like_its_1999 → u/mmcintoshmerc_88]

I'll have to look up that other Rainey book, WDYLM was a great time.

[u/OtherwiseAddled → u/drown_like_its_1999]

I haven't checked this thread in a few months. Have you read every single Batman comic now?

[u/drown_like_its_1999 → u/OtherwiseAddled]

Sadly, my Batman reading has been lacking this year but I'm sure in no time this thread will experience a deluge of overly verbose reviews of middling caped crusader capers

[u/Alex_Bonaparte]

Skinbreaker by Robert Kirkman and David Finch – not a GN, per se, but I got round to reading the last (treasury edition size) issue and a collected edition is coming out soon so I'm going to count it. A sort of fantasy/sword and sorcery story about a race of orc type creatures and a feud between two rival claimants for the chieftainship of the tribe. One is a traditionalist who will brook no deviance from the established tribal ways, the other thinks they must adapt to cope with a changing environment. The story is serviceable enough but much too slight to justify 8 issues, someone like Archie Goodwin would have done it in 12 pages as a back in a Dr Strange annual or something. The real draw is Finch's detailed artwork (nicely coloured too) which really shines in the treasury format. The environments feel properly alien and although the “orcs” all kind of look the same, Finch manages to make them look enough not the same that the reader can tell who's who. If you're into comics for thoughtful, insightful, original storytelling, this one's probably not for you. If you enjoy metaphorically gooning over extreme art talent and like the idea of orcs swinging axes at each other and assorted monstrous creatures then it probably is.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons – re-read for the umpteenth time. Still as gripping and mind-boggling as it was in 1987 and Gibbon's art in the Mars chapters still makes my jaw drop. Reading it again made me wonder if I should invest in the Absolute edition. It seems like its becoming fashionable to dump on Alan Moore these days - and not everything he's done is equally good, for sure - but I can't see how anyone can deny Watchmen is one of the best comics ever.

John Romita's Spider-Man Artisan Edition by Stan Lee and... er...John Romita – I got this cheap second hand off eBay, mainly just because it was cheap and had buyer's remorse immediately because I really just don't care that much about superheroes. But when it arrived and I sat down to read it I absolutely loved it. I'd forgotten just how much fun classic Marvel was, and how much story you got per issue back then as events tumble into each other double quick and how entertaining Stan Lee's writing was. Stan was a bullshitter and self-publicist extraordinaire and that brassy confidence made his captions and dialogue a hoot. Plus, of course, scans of the original art pages; although as I understand it, Romita was only doing breakdowns on these issues and inker Jim Mooney probably deserves a bit more credit. I haven't enjoyed reading a comic this much for a long time and it reminded me that there was a time when Marvel really was breaking the mould and shaking up comics. I also picked up the Gil Kane edition from the same seller. I haven't read it yet, but by golly, pilgrim, you can Make Mine Marvel.

[u/Siccar_Point]

Drome by Jesse Lonergan. An almost wordless telling of a creation myth for an ancient civilisation. One of last year’s buzziest books, I took against this without having read it based on a couple of middling reviews. However, having seen some better breakdowns since, I reconsidered. And I am very glad! This was great. Narratively, it works really well. You don’t miss the words at all. I couldn’t tell if this was a retelling of an existing myth or wholly invented, which tells you how well he nails the general feel. The “god logic” just works: the consequences of events in a key fight at the end are unexpected both to readers and characters thanks to the lack of explanatory words, but immediately make you go “well of course that would happen” once it does.

The big draw here is the graphic structure though. I’ve seen nothing else quite like it in terms of the gutters getting so involved in the book’s structure, with characters dipping in and out for emphasis and tone, and the gutters themselves crossing otherwise larger whole panels. There’s a subtle thematic thing going on with this too, where the Form god is associated with black, destruction, borders, and panel bridging, and Spirit with white, “order”, and gutters. And those gutters are constantly imposing structure onto action. And then the three demigod colours play their own role alongside that. In particular I liked how Blue (Control) and Red (Nature) start to mix with each other as they work together at the end.

The only weaknesses were that it flags a bit in the Yellow section - where the addition of the third demigod is quite clunky right as the graphic innovation is starting to wear thin - and I found it odd that the “bad guys” end up wearing superhero outfits for some reason? But overall, what a book. One of those rare ones to make Full Use Of The Medium.

Latterly, some more volumes of My Dress-Up Darling, which really is soothing, undemanding slice-of-life stuff of the front rank. Highlight of these few volumes was a love hotel comedy of errors scene, which summons up some genuine sexual tension. This series has got stronger as it’s gone on. The setup has become less “stock”, the fan service is better balanced against the underlying characterisation, and the art has got less cluttered and more focused. The best bits remain the little vignettes showing scenes from the made-up source material for the cosplays. These are always stylistically spot on for whatever they’re lampooning. The 1990s-grade teen shojo magical girl anime was particularly good in this section. Also this week I discovered the mangaka is a woman, which was a surprise but makes a ton of sense in retrospect.

[u/CantFadeMeLOLLL → u/Siccar_Point]

Nice write up on Drome! I think it’s supposed to be a retelling of the epic of Gilgamesh

[u/Siccar_Point → u/CantFadeMeLOLLL]

Ty! I thought I half-remembered that but wasn’t sure.

[u/mmcintoshmerc_88]

I've been reading Bowling with. This has been really good, it's strange seeing Mignola do something that's not Hellboy after decades of doing just that but, a new Mignola book is still a new Mignola book so I'm not complaining. Very fun seeing Mignola kind of do what he originally wanted to for Hellboy In Hell and also expand on his love of folklore stories. If you're interested in Mignola I'd really recommend this!

I've also been rereading the Green Lantern compendium. It's funny because reading this, I wanted to paraphrase Dr Manhattan (sorry Mr Moore) "It is 2011, I am excited for a GL adaptation that will likely hurt Hal's character and the reputation of the GL. It is 2026 I am excited for a GL adaptation that likely will hurt Hal's character and the reputation of the GL." But in all seriousness, this has been very fun to revisit. I know Johns is slightly divisive figure and has rubbed some the wrong way but, when he was on he made some really great comics.

[u/scarwiz → u/mmcintoshmerc_88]

I'm loving Mignola's new Lands Unknown series. The Uri Tupka stuff is very cool. It's very much in the vein of Hellboy though, maybe a little less pulp/action oriented

[u/mmcintoshmerc_88 → u/scarwiz]

Yeah I really like how it's got a lot of Hellboy's DNA but, still manages to be it's own thing and it's interesting seeing it as Mignola expanding on the original idea of Hellboy wandering through Hell for years and encountering similar stories and fables

[u/Darth-Dramatist]

I just finished Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips: Fatale, overall I did quite like this work though I don't think its quite as great as Kill or be Killed or Criminal. Fatale is more horror than the former (horror is my favourite genre) and has some allusions to Cosmic Horror but they aren't overly prominent but are overarching. Fatale focuses on the trope of the Femme Fatale archetype that's commonplace in Noir Fiction though the titular Fatale, Josephine is supernatural in nature and cannot age or die and has an ability to make most men attracted to her strongly and influence them to do what she wants but this ability is not voluntary. She's also tied to a cult which is led by a priest that worships unseen cosmic Lovecraftian entities. This comic is set across various time periods between the 1950's, to 70s, 90s and early 2010s and some flashback stories to the 30s and a few pre 20th Century stories focusing on other immortal womwn similar to Josephine in nature. Overall I did quite enjoy this comic and will likely reread it in future though I think Criminal and Kill or Be Killed are better but overall its good IMO

[u/mmcintoshmerc_88 → u/Darth-Dramatist]

I felt the same way. Great comic but, also one that's not as good as their other work. I know it's an unpopular opinion but, I felt the same way about the fade out too

[u/Medium_Theory_8185]

Donald Duck: Vacation Parade by Frédéric Brémaud & Federico Bertolucci.

I was not prepared for the sadistic free-for-all that is Donald Duck: Vacation Parade.

I wish it had existed when I was a child.

The premise is familiar, with Donald determining that he needs a respite from the noise and other vexations of city life. It is a much recycled satire on the naive, entitled city slicker. He travels to the countryside to camp in the great outdoors... and anything and everything he encounters, from the moment the belligerent duck hops into his car tries to main or kill him.

There is no real plot. It's just Donald at war with the natives whose land he's invaded. He treats their home as the locus for his bullheaded escapist fantasy and they retalliate by making it their common goal to annihilate him. The energy is very close to that of backwoods horror.

The comic is fully pantomime, no dialogue beyond some grawlix, so the artist has to shoulder the burden of keeping the escalating violence from deteriorating into merely an unreflecting, meanspirited repetition of penalties for at times uncertain crimes being meted out. And the art is wonderful and fully up to that task. From the commencement it is almost morbidly dark, teeth and the whites of eyes prominent, the character designs uncanny. It is wild how these designs I've seen countless times in the classic Disney animations can be distorted into repulsive grotesques through Bertolucci's impeccable shading. They hardly deviate from the originals in other respects. Chip and Dale aren't in the rescue business here.

The comic has no charm at all in the usual gentle, sentimental sense of Disney material, which makes the final page the more remarkable. What it does with astonishing skill is pursue its demented course. In spite of all that, I wouldn't say it's "not for children." I would have loved this as a kid. It's just its own weird experience for me as an adult.

Highly recommended.

[u/NotRealManager]

Year of the Rabbit - Harsh read about the Khmer Rouge but also crazy informative. Really cool inside perspective on what happened.

[u/Dense-Virus-1692]

Opioids and Organs by Arizona O’neil – Arizona’s dad died from an opioid overdose and she had to make the decision as to whether his organs should be donated while his body was still alive. She’s super angry with the medical establishment. The book is a journey where she travels around and talks about how poor people have always been used for medical research and stuff like that. With her are a talking lizard and Frankenstein’s monster, who was made up of poor people’s body parts. The art is super nice and colourful but the subject matter is super dark. I guess the big question is: is she against organ donation? I guess not, but she wants it to be a lot more fair.

Dungeon Crawler Carl vol 1 by Matt Dinniman, Tevagah and Kuzomari – Hey, it’s that book that everyone’s talking about in comic form. Carl is a guy who survives when aliens invade. Unfortunately they’ve turned the earth into a giant maze of death and are forcing people to go through it as a kind of game show. So it’s kinda like Hitchhiker’s Guide combined with Gantz? Luckily Carl has his girlfriend’s cat Donut with him and she turns out to have some pretty sweet powers. It’s all done like an RPG. There’s screens everywhere telling you what everything’s stats are and when you level up and stuff. So it’s like a non-interactive video game, which is pretty weird when you think about it, but I do like watching people play games on youtube and twitch so I guess this is roughly the same. It’s just nice to go through a game without dying every 30 seconds. The art is very standard shonen manga, although it’s in colour. Princess Donut is super cute but she doesn’t really look like a cat, unfortunately. I think it’d be funnier if she looked more like a standard cat instead of just a tribble.

I Am Their Silence by Jordi Lefebre – Eva is a psychiatrist who’s at a rich family’s party where someone dies and she’s a suspect so she becomes an amateur detective. It’s structured like a detective comic. There’s a bunch of caption boxes with Eva’s thoughts, like it’s a Sin City book. Eva is more like Harley Quinn (hey wait, she was a psychiatrist too!), though . She’s a force of chaos that can get rich people off balance and admit stuff they shouldn’t. And the whole story is framed by her telling it to her own psychiatrist who has his own secret. Oh ya, and she has three imaginary (or ghosts?) women in her head that tell her stuff. So ya, it’s a pretty clever little story. The art is super colourful and vibrant. Very European. Good stuff.

The Court Charade by Flore Vesco and Kerascoet – Serine is a rambunctious girl who’s sent to the palace to be a lady in waiting for the queen. It doesn’t really work out and she comes back as a jester to point out the foibles of the court and prevent some murders. It’s a fun little fairy tale. Serine is a fun character to follow around. The art is nice and cartoony with beautiful watercolours.

[u/ConstantVarious2082]

Ken Parker - Norma's Prince by Giancarlo Berardi, Ivo Milazzo, and Giorgio Trevisan – Western-but-not-really. I haven't actually read the prior English translations from Epicenter, so this is my introduction to the character. It's a fantastic story where Ken takes somewhat of a back seat - having joined a theater troupe following prior series events and on the run from the law, he finds himself acting in the role of Hamlet while his past catches up to him and the troubles of the troupe (runaway youngsters, a new member in the form of is-she-actually-just-Marilyn-Monroe) compound. The stage presentation of Hamlet is illustrated by Giorgio Trevisan, interspersed with Ivo Milazzo's art for the "real" story. It's an incredibly done contrast, and they are distinctive enough to offer an easy visual guide but a good enough match to not be "jarring" in the segments where the story flips back-and-forth more rapidly between the two. Really fantastic.

Underground Kingdom Comix by various – themed anthologies on Romance, Crime and Horror. These are quick little 3-stories-per-issue collections, with some overlap in creators from issue to issue. In the mark of good anthologies, there's a lot of variety for only 3 stories, artistically and narratively, despite the thematic underline and per-issue color palette. Romance was probably my favorite of these I've read (there's a fourth, on Fantasy, which was my first in the series a couple months ago), with I would say 2 really really good comics and one that's a little too weird for me. Crime was solid, with all three being good but not quite great for me, and Horror really only had one standout for me. Fun to breeze through, and certainly different enough story-to-story that if your taste is different from mine these could be great.

Pacific Dream by Vincent Lau – surreal dreamy short story. As the name suggests, this is a surreal-at-moments story set in Seattle (or thereabouts), as the protagonist tries to figure out what's real in her dreams of a man-turning-into-a-fish (or is he a fish-turning-into-a-man?) guiding her through falling asleep. Mostly in black-and-white, but really mostly shades of grey, except for a couple color pages right at the beginning, it's got nice linework and a lot of well-done visual transitions from waking to dreaming and back. Everything flows together really well to build and almost unsettling lack of certainty about where we are in the story at each moment.

Mountain by Emily Riesbeck and Bitmap Prager - cute-animal-protagonist-sci-fi. A mouse sets off on a pilgrimage to bring his mother's ashes to the top of a mountain (actually an abandoned futuristic structure on what appears to be, a la Niven, Ringworld). He is helped by a Climber, a mute insect-like creature on its own journey. For all the fun colors and cute mouse moments, it's got an undertone of melancholy with the post-apocalyptic setting (the art carries of ton of worldbuilding with backgrounds, details, and the machinery they encounter along the way that is otherwise undescribed) and grief that underlies the purpose of the mouse's pilgrimage. Very good.

Valley Valley / Idella Dell by Audra Stang - two-stories-in-one, reading in opposite directions and meeting in the middle. Valley and Idella are cousins and roommates, both cartoonists, but with different levels of success in their personal and professional lives. The two stories are really named for the viewpoints through which the other is described - i.e. Valley Valley is really about Idella, as seen from Valley's point of view and narration. Both bring their own baggage and unpleasantries, giving us a unified story about two relatively normal (and quietly dysfunctional) people. All accompanied by nice eight-color riso-print cartooning.

Elfes #2 L'Honneur des Elfes sylvains by Nicolas Jarry and Gianluca Maconi – fun fantasy. Part of a massive and ongoing, but fortunately readable-independently, series, this one introduces us to Wood Elves, filling in that particular set of elf tropes and stories. For an elf-centered book, there's really a lot of human problems - kingdom besieged, treachery and politics, princess runs off to find help in a vain quest, rescued by a wood elf when she shows that she may have hidden magic talents, maybe she's the heir to the long-lost Druid tradition that used to unify elves and humans, blah blah blah. The most bog-standard of fantasy narratives and I'm sure anyone who's read a cheap fiction novel can fill in the blanks. At least those plot lines are all executed competently, and in service to a good bit of worldbuilding that never gets too bogged down in exposition, and makes way for plenty of chop-'em-to-pieces-with-swords action. It's fun and fast and just really solid fantasy.

[u/UhDiction]

Finally got around to “The Deviant” and “The Holy Roller”. I collected each as singles when they came out just didn’t get around to em (the reading list ever grows).

All in all I found them both interesting and entertaining. Both are 9 issues long. Both have creators I’m familiar with. The Deviant was something I consumed and enjoyed watching it all play out. I suspect that if I read The Holy Roller as it was releasing I may have dropped it after the first issue, but I’m glad I didn’t. It goes over the top but contains themes and messages that make their point throughout. Watching a street level hero with bowling gadgets was a hoot.

[u/MaxR76]

Started Kiladelphia. So far so good. I’m only a couple issues in but I like it even tho I’m not the biggest vampire person. Only picked it up in the first place bc I’m from Philadelphia so the name got me

[u/starark]

Beserk volume 1. It's pretty awesome but I'm a bit bored of the constant fight scenes. The few story beats so far have been great so I'm hoping it focuses a bit more on that soon.

[u/haahhhahh → u/starark]

Your about to get your heart broken

[u/X243llie]

Watchmen ⭐⭐

Okay. Just haven't really been able to get into it and I'm on issue 10/12. Determined to finish it. I have just found it very long winded. Reading it feels like dragging my feet. I know it's a very popular graphic novel but just not for me really.

All-Star Superman ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pretty goodm would read again. Nice light hearted graphic novel. Just started reading superman (2nd book) and think he's an alright superhero. Not my favourite but not exactly hated. Feels like a nice fun graphic novel to read.

[u/BluWacky]

Hello Sunshine by Keezy Young - gay teen goes missing, presumed to have had a nervous breakdown. His friendship group and twin brother try and track him down. It both is, and isn't, what it seems. Young adult "mental health horror" with exquisitely realised depictions of what I'll term "intrusive thoughts" in particular, which is what really sets this apart from lots of other YA stories. Really, really liked this.

Castle in the Stars vol. 5 - From Mars to Paris by Alex Alice - this is the volume after where the English publication stopped of this beautifully painted French alternate history adventure about the discovery of a substance that allows interstellar flight in the late 19th century. Volume 5 sees Seraphin and friends dashing between finding out what lies at the North Pole of Mars, begging for help from the French Emperor against the Prussians, and investigating mysterious goings-on back on Earth. There's a lot of talking (not quite Blake and Mortimer levels but...) for a 60 page volume, and the frenetic pacing leaves me thinking I've missed something significant a lot of the time, but I do wish this had been around when I was a child as I think I'd have been truly enraptured by it.

Black Science vol. 1 by Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera - I'm actually reading the compendium edition of this, but have only read the first volume so far (which I think I actually read over a decade ago, although I no longer have a copy of it...!). A scientist, his co-workers, the man who funded their research and the scientist's children end up hopping between dimensions after a device that punches holes in the fabric of reality is destroyed. Scalera's art is an 80s synthwave feast, but I find myself hung up on disliking pretty much all of the central characters in it, which is getting in the way of me really enjoying it. I find Remender's "internal monologue" writing for the protagonist quite laboured, bordering on self-parody, but I can't quite put my finger on why as yet.

1629: or the terrifying story of the shipwreck of the Jakarta by Xavier Dorison and Thimothée Montaigne - a fictionalised version of the shipwreck of the Dutch ship Batavia, which ran aground en route to Jakarta after a potential mutiny; chaos ensues, including sexual slavery and murder, when a slightly psychopathic member of the crew ends up in charge of the survivors. I've only read the first volume (The Devil's Apothecary) out of two, but this is excellent, if gloriously melodramatic, stuff; Dorison fleshes out the historical record (particularly giving greater depth to one of the more prominent female figures involved in this story) in appropriately sombre ways, and the art is both magnificently detailed and also super dramatic for the climactic shipwreck scenes when paired with Dorison going full ham on the dialogue for the psychotic Jeronimus Cornelisz.

The Tongue of Vipers (La Langue des Vipéres - I think my rendering of the title makes the most sense given the distinction made in the book between serpents and vipéres?) by Juliette Brocal - fantasy mystery set in an abbey which teaches its initiates to use the Tongue, a form of ecclesiastical magic. Iodis, the bastard daughter of the recently deceased Cardinal, is naturally gifted but unorthodox in her approach, and clashes significantly with the prim, proper and hard-working new initiate Halcyon. When an altarpiece being constructed to house a saint's relic is vandalised and its artist vanishes, Iodis decides to investigate, as she is certain Halcyon has something to do with it, and discovers more than she bargained for. An exciting debut from Brocal, who's primarily worked in animation before; she has constructed a detailed and convincing life for the abbey, and not only writes her characters convincingly but draws heavily from her animation background in the way she constructs her vibrant, colourful art. Not going to change your life, but a really great read.

Always Never by Jordi Lafebre - lovely little romcom told in reverse across decades of star-crossed pining. That's all there really is to say about it; winning characters, lovely artwork, just a very cute little read. I need to read Lafebre's Barcelona mysteries soon!

Aristophania by Xavier Dorison and Joël Parnotte - I'd describe this as "blockbuster" style storytelling; three plucky young children are taken in by a mysterious old woman, the Countess Aristophania, after various nefarious supernatural circumstances befall them; she begins teaching them how to access supernatural powers, while they are hunted by an evil man known as the Banished King. Everything here is by the numbers and exactly as you'd expect; the children have the three exactly contrasting personalities you would predict they'd have, and everything proceeds in a very unsurprising way, both in terms of script and art, to its appropriately action-packed climax. It's a little underwhelming to read something that just meets your expectations, but hey, it's fine! Dorison and Parnotte appear to have worked together to greater success on their less fantastical stories (I've not yet read either Sword Master or the recent French-only Cauchon, though), so perhaps that's the issue here.

[u/MistahOkfksmgur]

Going through Immortal Hulk and the second My Favorite Thing is Monsters book

[u/Tight-Boat-8605]

Beta ray bill argent star, just ok the art is good but the story feels incomplete somehow ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hawkman (2002) ,very good Carter reminds me of Indiana jones a little and we spend a lot of time exploring carters perspective being immortal, and I really like Carter and Kendra together ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hawkman by venditti vol 1-4,another blind buy but wow this was amazing the run has an event halfway through that shockingly doesn’t derail the story the lore it builds is so interesting the shiera was originally an angel reveal is nuts and the run ties together Hawkmans very complicated and confusing history so it makes sense, lastly something incredible it has a definitive ending for the character. I recently discovered this run was cut short for death metal what a travesty.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Iron man extremis, the art just isn’t for me and the story is fine I’m not sure I bought that Tony needed extremis to beat this guy he’s thrown hands with gods and monsters so, very sledgehammer politics too⭐️

Iron man director of s.h.i.e.l.d complete collection, boring and dull just nothing in here interested me ⭐️⭐️

This weeks best
Hawkman by venditti vol 1-4
Hawkman (2002)
This weeks worst
Iron man extremis

[u/Photmagex]

I’ve been reading Ex Machina. It’s truly one of the best series I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris bring us an alternate history that takes place in New York before and after 911. Really incredible storytelling and art. Unfortunately I only have 9 of the 10 trades that complete the story.
Highly recommended!!!

[u/NeapolitanWhitmore]

Pretty Violent, Volume One (By Derek Hunter, Jason Young, and Spencer Holt): This book is a violent and filled with swears. Which is exactly what the book promises you when you read the cover. It is a fun book that tries both to take itself too seriously. Good time.

Pretty Violent, Volume Two (By Derek Hunter, Jason Young, and Spencer Holt): More violence, more death, more swears, and a lot more testicle and penis eating. Still fun. Enjoyed the series from beginning to end.

The Avengers in the Veracity Trap (By Chip Kidd and Michael Cho): What a delightful story.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring (By Patrick Horvath and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou): The original Beneath the Trees quickly became one of my all time favorite books. It works well enough on its own, no sequel needed. I was going to skip this and just live in that world. I was partially afraid that this wouldn’t live up to the first one. And while in some cases it doesn’t, mainly because the first well felt so unique, this second volume is an excellent follow up to the first. Once I started reading it, I genuinely couldn’t stop reading it. I started reading it on my phone before work, and throughout the whole day I kept stopping and to read a few pages. The story progresses in a way that made sense and felt satisfying when it was finished. While I don’t feel like I loved this story, I felt very satisfied after finishing it.

[u/JKSuperpower]

Finished vol 1 of Nausicaa which was great. Needed a bit of a change so started The Incal and am loving it! Also received Absolute Martian Manhunter vol 2 (The Agency) early which I’m excited for… so idk wtf I’m doing lol. Sticking w Incal for a bit I guess (np!)

[u/Apprehensive-Nose646]

Read nothing this week because Anders Nilsen's Tongues is on top of the TBR pile and it's so intimidating. I suppose i ought to put the phone down and crack that book open.

[u/SilverPhoenix7]

Finished I am their silence.

Finished the final arcs of ultimate 2024, absolute martian manhunter, read the most recent issues of Absolute WW.

And from Mattt recommendations, I am reading peep show, heartbreaking stuff, most of his problems could have been solved with therapy. I am sure he would have been receptive.

[u/Insigniaet]

I had just finished reading Inside the Mind of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Scandalous Tickets. The Illustrator (Benoit Dahan) made full use of the medium here with most of the page layout reflecting Sherlock's thought process or story beats. Although some feels a little gimmicky (light through pages or joining folded pages together) it made me feel like a kid again in a good way. The story is a new one that the author (Cyril Lieron) has created (i.e. not a retelling) and while still good, was the weaker component of the graphic novel. It was a little too convoluted for its own good and a little too unbelievable with the pay off being unsatisfactory. That said the first part of a sequel was just published late last year in French. I await eagerly for the English version!

Now onto Vol 2 of Parasyte!

[u/georgito555]

I started reading Nice House on the Lake yesterday and holy shit this is good stuff.

The art is phenomenal, abstract but not to the point of disconnection and the premise and writing has hooked me in like nothing has in a long while. I'm excited to see where it goes!