Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson Review

Woman meets tech billionaire who immediately proposes. Woman cheats on naive tech billionaire on her hen night - doesn’t tell him. Honeymoon time! On a weird island - something’s up…

Julian in Purgatory by Jon Allen Review

Julian is unemployed and unemployable, sitting around all day watching TV and doing drugs. And then his long-suffering girlfriend Dana decides enough’s enough and kicks the deadbeat out. With no money and no place to go, Julian wanders around - the only thing he knows: get more drugs!

A Lonely Man by Chris Power Review

A writer struggling with his second book happens across a ghostwriter of celebrity autobiographies - with quite the story to tell. Hired to write the autobio of an exiled Russian oligarch - one of Putin’s many enemies - the oligarch has been found dead of an apparent suicide. But the ghostwriter is convinced that Putin is behind the death and that his assassins are hunting down all associates of the oligarch - and he’s next.

Stillwater, Volume 1: Rage Rage Review (Chip Zdarsky, Ramon K. Perez)

Down-on-his-luck Daniel receives a letter informing him of a great-grand-aunt passing and leaving him something in her will. So he heads out to the small town where she lived: Stillwater. Except it’s a small town with a secret: something happened there many years ago and the town’s inhabitants stopped physically aging and can’t die, so long as they stay within the town limits. Any injuries they have get healed super-quick, Wolverine-style. And now that Daniel knows the town’s secret, he can never leave…

Ninth and Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver Review

Jamal Davis is a young man buying a gun from a local gangbanger. Adam Rangel is an alcoholic vet with suicidal tendencies. Arthur Fromm is the cliched old cop just weeks away from retirement. Lanie Stone is a married woman with a secret fella. Carlos Sanchez is a man with something valuable in a bag. Brett Abbott is a family man deep in debt and eager to perform well on his probation for his new boss. All their lives will converge at once on Ninth and Nowhere, Pulp Fiction-style, but how - and what will happen?

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel Review

Alison Bechdel’s latest is - in theory - about her lifelong love of exercise. In theory. And it is about that. In part. But it’s mostly this rambly, vague, wishy-washy, truncated autobio with many pointless literary diversions that turns The Secret to Superhuman Strength, at nearly 250 laborious pages, into a test of the strength of the reader’s attention in making the superhuman effort to make it to the end. I hoped this was going to be another Fun Home rather than another Are You My Mother? but, in actuality, it turned out to be the latter unfortunately so I didn’t like this one very much.

Ultraman, Volume 1: The Rise of Ultraman Review (Kyle Higgins, Francesco Manna)

Marvel have acquired yet another licence: Ultraman, a famous (in Japan) superhero franchise, that they’re softly rebooting with this first book, The Rise of Ultraman, for a new Western audience. This one really tugged on my nostalgia strings because I grew up with Ultraman - I had the toys, the stickers, the books, and a whole raft of merch crap that’s long gone (sobs) - so I really wanted this one to be great, even though I’ve yet to come across a genuinely good Ultraman comic. And I’m still waiting unfortunately!

Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide by John Cleese Review

Who better to tell us a few things about creativity than John Cleese, the beloved award-winning writer of Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and a ton of other great stuff, eh?

Everything, Volume 2: Black Friday Review (Christopher Cantwell, INJ Culbard)

I really enjoyed Christopher Cantwell/INJ Culbard’s first Everything book so I was a bit worried to see no comics being published for nearly a year after the fifth issue - would the story remain untold? So I was delighted to see the second, and final, volume pop up seemingly outta the blue - apparently Dark Horse decided to release the last five issues as a graphic novel rather than individually before the trade.

Under-Earth by Chris Gooch Review

In a hollowed-out landfill sits a horrific prison city teeming with prisoners and Stormtrooper-esque guards. The latest inmate, the hapless Reece, luckily stumbles across a friendly giant, Malcolm, and the two become friends - but will their friendship withstand the brutal prison culture? Elsewhere, a pair of thieves plan one last heist for a map out of this place in a desperate attempt at freedom.

Superman Smashes the Klan Review (Gene Luen Yang, Gurihiru)

I know DC’s recently started focusing more on their YA books, as well as making sure they’re full of wokeness, so I’ve been staying away from that stuff because I know they’re not for me; YA is generally boring and woke stuff is embarrassing to say the least. But Superman Smashes the Klan sounds like it might be fun in a corny way, and I have enjoyed some of Gene Luen Yang’s comics in the past and Gurihiru’s art is always good, so I gave it a shot. Well, I should’ve just listened to my instincts and not bothered - this was exhaustingly tedious to read.

The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor Review

 CJ Tudor’s The Burning Girls is one of those books that’s loaded up with a lot of stuff that looks like a story but isn’t and what it adds up to is a whole lotta poop! Boring poop. CJ Turd-or. Whahaha! Ah…

Batman: Black and White #2 Review (Tom King, Mitch Gerads)

The second issue in this latest run of the award-winning Batman anthology series Black and White is thankfully better than the first - though it’s still not that great.

Wicked Things Review (John Allison, Max Sarin)

Some spoilsies ahead!

When life gives you lemons, god opens a window - or however that thing goes. Because, while my beloved Giant Days ended, John Allison and Max Sarin started a new series set in the same world: Wicked Things. Hurrah! … right? Disappointingly, no - Wicked Things turned out to be a boring mess.