How I Make Comics by Kim Deitch Review

How I Make Comics is basically about anything but how Kim Deitch makes comics!

The book is made up of random, some loosely-connected, stories, with of course Waldo making his usual appearance, none of which were that interesting to read or gelled together into a memorable narrative, let alone explore Deitch’s creative process in any meaningful way.

Betas by Nick Maandag Review

Xavier, Doug and Tim are three single men living together and working in the same local restaurant - Xavier and Doug are short order cooks while Tim is a dishwasher, aspiring to become a cook. The book follows their attempts at dating in modern-day Canadia.

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo Review

After his mother’s death, a man goes to a village to find out who his father was - a strange journey that will take him through the past and the afterlife.

Partisan Review (Garth Ennis, Steve Epting)

Aleksandra is a married mother of two living the life of a Russian peasant on their farm - until the war begins and her husband is drafted into the Red Army. And then the Nazis arrive. After helping her Jewish neighbour, Aleksandra and her kids must escape into the woods where they discover the Russian resistance to the German invasion: guerrilla fighters made up of non-army Russians called Partisans. So begins Aleksandra’s war where she does things she would never tell her husband… if she ever sees him again.

Call for the Dead by John le Carre Review

British Intelligence Agent George Smiley interviews a potential candidate for a role in the Foreign Office but decides against hiring the chap. The man, apparently mortally upset at being turned down, offs himself that night, blaming Smiley’s decision in his suicide note! When Smiley visits the man’s widow the following morning he picks up the phone for a call intended for the deceased - but why would a man choosing to end it all that night then arrange for an early morning wake up call?

Batman, Volume 1: Daylight Review (Matt Fraction, Jorge Jimenez)

In a weird tag-team move, Matt Fraction has taken over Batman from his Sex Criminals co-creator/artist Chip Zdarsky, so both the artist and writer of Sex Crimz have written Batman runs one after the other! What’s that aboot!?

Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera Review

Makina’s brother crossed over to America - “the Big Chilango” - chasing a spurious land deal. Gone for a while, she now makes the Mexico-USA border crossing herself in search of him, with a message from their mother. Will she find him - is he even still alive?

The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch Review

Marian, a young teacher, arrives at remote Gaze (heh) Castle believing she is to act as governess to a wealthy family’s children - only to find that there are no children and that she is meant to be the companion to the lady of the house, Hannah Crean-Smith. But why is she so isolated and… trapped? And where is her husband?

In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut Review

Damon Galgut recounts three journeyings he went on at different times during his adult life in In a Strange Room - and they’re all mostly kinda meh!

The first one sees a young Damon meeting a handsome young German chap while hiking in Greece. They decide to meet up again and attempt a much longer, more arduous hike in Lesotho - but will their tenuous friendship (and possible romance) survive the gauntlet?

A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz Review

The first Hawthorne & Horowitz novel, The Word is Murder, is being adapted into a movie - but someone’s moidered the actor playing Hawthorne! Whodunit?1

Who cares?? is the better question. A Deadly Episode - the sixth novel in the Hawthorne & Horowitz series - is a sign that the series has run its course. That or Anthony Horowitz should really take a break from it until he has a worthwhile story to tell, because A Deadly Episode is absolutely fucking awful - boredom physically manifested in book form.

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie Review

After a lifetime of playing fast and loose with anything and everyone in her way, Babs’ devil-may-care attitude for her latest drug-dealing scheme is going to blow up in her face: infringing on the opioid turf of a Canadian gangster known only as Ogopogo sends a dangerous emissary her way in the form of The Man. Meanwhile, her wayward youngest daughter Sis has gone missing at a time when her years-long plans to rejuvenate her dead former industrial town of Waterville, Maine, are about to possibly bear fruit with significant investment funding. Enemies near and far mass, violence is everywhere and a righteous fire threatens to engulf them all.

The End of the Arab of the Future: A Youth in the Middle East Volume 1 by Riad Sattouf Review

It’s 1992 and an adolescent Riad Sattouf is living in West France with his French mother and two younger brothers. His parents’ marriage is over, though they haven’t divorced yet, and his Syrian father has done something despicable: kidnapped his baby brother Fadi and gone back to Syria with him!

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien Review

A one-legged farmowning orphan obsessed with an obscure ye olde dead (and fictional) philosopher teams up with his employee to solve his money woes by murdering an old man with a box full of money. Years pass and they seem to have gotten away with it. So they go to dig up the box of money - only to find the old man somehow still alive and the box of money missing. Wha hoppen? So begins a bamboozling journey for our protagonist to report the missing money box to the local police - a duo of fat bicycle-obsessed lunatics who mumble numbers at one another and want to hang someone, anyone. Who is the third policeman?

Uncle Scrooge: Earth's Mightiest Duck Review (Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar)

Aliens have come to Earth to steal all of its treasures including its greatest: Scrooge’s coin bank. Scrooge and pals gotta send them and their robot army on their way.

Statues by Junji Ito Review

Statues is one of Junji Ito’s worst story collections. Each of the ten 30-page comics are very weakly conceived and told in an almost comedically contrived, consistently sloppy way, to little or no effect - certainly not one of horror, or even vague interest.

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie Review

Ian Leslie’s nonfiction book John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs reveals the intangible yet powerfully real love the two musicians had for one another, told through the songwriting that began with the legendary Lennon-McCartney partnership that made The Beatles the greatest band of all time and continued past it into their solo careers.

Adventuregame Comics, 3: Samurai vs. Ninja by Jason Shiga Review

19th century Japan and your poppa gives you a choice: become a samurai or a ninja. And then: you must remove a magical bracelet from the evil Lord Touma. The only trouble is breaking into his heavily guarded castle and finding him - without getting caught!

Palookaville #25 by Seth Review

Like Norwegian cartoonist (and similarly mononym’d) Jason, Seth is a great cartoonist whose more recent work has gone from being published straight to paperbacks into fancy hardcovers with a higher price point. And, also like Jason, Seth’s work has gone from being superb back then (1990s-2010s) to boring now (2020s - although this probably has nothing to do with the fancier publications, it’s just an odd pattern I noticed).

Trust by Hernan Diaz Review

Hernan Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Trust is a puzzlebox story wherein four different characters tell you their version of the same narrative and it’s up to the reader to decide which character they “trust”... even though it’s pretty obvious what is the right interpretation (and y’know also “trust” as in money).

Metropolis by Philip Kerr Review

Berlin, 1928. Hyperinflation may be over but the effects from the First World War are still lingering in the broken people who live in Berlin and the fractured German psyche. The Weimar government clings tenuously to power, communists and the rising Nazi party clash daily in the streets for the future of the country, and decadence is everywhere. Amidst the chaos operates a serial killer who is murdering and scalping prostitutes - borderline alcoholic and newly-promoted homicide detective Bernie Gunther is on the case!

The Smaller Sky by John Wain Review

Arthur Geary, a married father of two with a good job, leaves it all behind one day to go and live on Paddington Station in London. But why?

Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill Review

Dept. of Speculation is the story of a relationship between an unnamed man and woman told from the perspective of the woman. They meet, they date, they get married, they have a kid, etc.

Service by John Tottenham Review

Sean is a 48 year old LA bookseller and frustrated writer. When he’s not loathing customers and dodging debt, he is often staring at a blank screen while zonked out on pills, urging himself to finally finish writing a book. Sean is also John Tottenham. And he did it with Service - bravo!

The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot Review

So here I go again on my own (goin’ down the only road I’ve ever knoooown) personal annual humiliation ritual where I read some poetry to see if I get it yet - it’s a new year and, nope, still don’t “get” poetry!

Dear Historian by Joff Winterhart Review

Margaret Crypt, an historian in her 70s, is approached by Lucy, a TV producer in her 30s, to make a series of history programmes with her production company. The two become fast friends despite the age gap - but will their TV project reach fruition?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Volume 2: NYC vs. TMNT Review (Jason Aaron, Juan Ferreyra)

An evil district attorney has somehow replaced the NYPD with Foot and somehow turned the city against the Turtles! The boys have to battle Foot nightly while saving innocent civilians - but they will have their day in court for stupidity’s sake. Splinter’s still dead, Casey’s in a coma, and April finds herself drawn to a new persona because nonsense. Meanwhile, the boys are still divided - can they reunite for the good of the city? Duh.

Timoleon Vieta Come Home by Dan Rhodes Review

Timoleon Vieta is a mongrel dog with pretty girl’s eyes living in the Italian countryside with his besotted owner, an exiled British composer called Cockcroft. Unlucky in love, with a history of falling hard for the various lovers that cross his path, Cockcroft’s latest boyfriend is a mysterious young man known only as “the Bosnian” - except he doesn’t care for Timoleon Vieta. Cockcroft must make a terrible choice of companion - Timoleon Vieta or the Bosnian?

Absolute Superman, Volume 2: Son of the Demon Review (Jason Aaron, Rafa Sandoval)

Ra’s Al-Ghul’s Lazarus Corp is using its Peacemaker army to do bad things because it’s an evil corporation. Superman and the down home gosh darn salt of the earth folk of Smallville stand in its way. Superman’s also invincible and can do anything so whichever side he’s on is gonna be the winning one. Bored yet? You will be.

Karma Doll by Jonathan Ames Review

Happy Doll has ripped off an LA gangster and has to leave town for Mexico to hide out and get a new face. Getting tired of the rough and tumble life of a private detective, Doll decides to wait out the pandemic by continuing to study up on Buddhism and getting right with his karma. Though Doll may be done with violence, violence isn’t done with him and fate and his own sense of justice send him back to LA to begin building up more bad karma.

Strange Buildings by Uketsu Review

Unusual deaths, child murderers, a bizarre cult for very specific couples, and, of course, lots and lots of weird floor plans of Strange Buildings - it can only be another of Uketsu’s unique brand of murder mystery stories.

Driving Short Distances by Joff Winterhart Review

Sam is 27 years old and, having dropped out of university multiple times and suffered a breakdown, he’s moved back in with his mum. While trying to find his feet again, he’s offered a job by his dad’s cousin, Keith Nutt. Without any other prospects and deciding to temporarily put aside his artistic dreams and focus on a real job, he becomes Keith’s apprentice - to whatever Keith does all day. Which seems to be mainly driving short distances visiting local businesses.

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan Review

Set in 1970s England, Serena is a young Cambridge-educated mathematician recruited into MI5 and finds herself working as part of Operation Sweet Tooth. The op is to bankroll writers whose politics mirror those of the state - West/Capitalism good, East/Communism bad - in the hope that the fiction they produce will sway the minds of the populace. And then Serena falls for her writer target, Tom. Dawww! Love in a cold (war) climate indeed.

Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector Review

I’ve heard of Clarice Lispector, the arty farty Brazilian author with the cool name, for some time now and a year or two ago I tried her book The Hour of the Star, and just couldn’t get on with it. Then I found out it was her final book and I thought I’d give her another chance - maybe Hour was bad because it was written at the end of her life when her artistic powers might’ve been diminished, and not be representative of her best work?

The Hotel by Daisy Johnson Review

Haunted hotel gonna haunt!

That’s basically the premise and the entirety of Daisy Johnson’s The Hotel. It looks like a short story collection - 14 stories (all impressively almost exactly the same length each) about this creepy hotel, some of which loosely tie into one another, to create a novel(ish).

Paradais by Fernanda Melchor Review

Franco is a fat middle-class incel kid who’s obsessed with the hot wife of a wealthy local businessman. Polo is his working-class “friend” who uses Franco for booze and who may or may not have impregnated his cousin. Franco’s obsession is tipping over from sad sex fantasies into violent reality as he enlists Polo in a mad scheme to break into the local businessman’s house and finally have sex with the wife.

The Mating Season by PG Wodehouse Review

‘Tis Spring, aka the mating season, and love is in the country air with one upper class character secretly pining for another upper class character who secretly pines for, etc. etc. Meanwhile, thanks to a boozy night out culminating in an impromptu dip in the Trafalgar Square fountains, Bertie Wooster must pretend to be his chum in the slammer - but when said chum makes it out and back to Bertie, he must pretend to be Bertie and Bertie must keep up the ruse. Oh, the plummy merriment of it all - Jeeves to the rescue!

Howards End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill Review

Lifelong bibliophile and author (always in that order) Susan Hill decides to have a year of not buying books and reading only the many, many books that she already owns instead. So begins Howards End is on the Landing, although the book becomes more than a gimmick/book of reviews quite quickly, morphing into a quasi-biography and random extended musings on all aspects of literature.

Absolute Batman, Volume 2: Abomination Review (Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta)

Batman’s pal Matches Malone tells him about a black site called Ark M where a mysterious company called JK run by a man in white (gee I wonder who that could be) is conducting evil and highly illegal Dr Moreau-style experiments on people. As Batman investigates, he encounters his most lethal foe yet: Baaaaaane!

The Tin Can Society Review (Peter Warren, Francesco Mobili)

Johnny Moore is a genius born with spina bifida. He makes friends with a small group - or “society” if you will - at school who help him come up with revolutionary tech that enables him to walk. Then they bury a tin can time capsule so that the book has its title.

The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson Review

Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford appears to be a pretty uninteresting man who does his job well in his small Texas town and lives a quiet life - but who actually harbours a dark past and nature that is reawakened when he begins an affair with a local prostitute. The killer inside Lou stirs and the murders begin in earnest…

The War Review (Garth Ennis, Becky Cloonan)

A group of young New Yorkers sit around discussing the Ukrainian war - it would never escalate to all-out nuclear warfare, right?

Five Gears In Reverse: A Criminal Book Review (Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips)

Ricky Lawless owes a bookie big so he takes on a risky job to pay him back: rip off a high roller after a casino poker game. Ricky’s a fuckup so he fucks up the job and suddenly he needs to do a riskier job for a mob boss to make up for it. Guess how well that goes for Ricky the fuckup? And so it goes, five chapters of Ricky and his girl Mallory trying to get out of dodge and getting deeper and deeper into shit - instead of moving forward, five gears in reverse.

Batman: Night Cries Review (Archie Goodwin, Scott Hampton)

Someone is killing child molesters in Gotham - and, according to one of the child victims, it’s Batman! Has everything the Dark Knight’s seen finally tipped him over the edge into becoming a murdering vigilante?

The Liminal Zone, Volume 2 by Junji Ito Review

Junji Ito’s second Liminal Zone book collects four stories, none of which are especially good, though they all contain great art and the occasionally entertaining scene.

Demon King of Dust is set in an abandoned hotel in an abandoned city involving a convoluted story of generations of actors doing evil things to their housekeepers - demonic forces inevitably come into play!

Absolute Flash, Volume 1: Of Two Worlds Review (Jeff Lemire, Nick Robles)

Flash might be my least favourite superhero. I’ve never read a good Flash comic and the character itself is so dated. He runs fast and can travel through time/across dimensions. So what - so do numerous other (better) characters. He looks like a parody of a superhero. His rogues gallery stinks: a psychic gorilla, a guy with an ice gun and a guy with a boomerang? THEY seem like parodies of supervillains! Flash has always been bad and yet DC keeps trying to make people care about this antiquated, feeble superhero.

Miss Ruki by Fumiko Takano Review

Miss Ruki was a comic strip in the Japanese women’s magazine Hanako which was serialised from 1988 to 1992 - this edition collects all of the strips that were published. It’s about a young woman called Ruki and her best friend Ecchan as they go about their lives as single women in Tokyo. It’s very… “Japanese”. In the popular media representation of Japanese people sense. As calm, quiet, sensible people who go about their lives calmly, quietly and sensibly, but with the occasional quirk to their days.

Goblin Girl by Moa Romanova Review

Goblin Girl is Moa Romanova’s debut memoir comic about a time in her young life when she found herself involved with a famous TV person, several decades older than her, via Tinder, and struggling with her mental health (depression, anxiety).

Filmish: A Graphic Journey Through Film by Edward Ross Review

Have you ever wanted to read the most elementary first year film course communicated to you by a man with no personality - in comics form, drawn in a bland, lifeless style? Then Filmish is for you!

The Accident by Elie Wiesel Review

A man is involved in a car accident and hospitalised. While recovering, he muses on god, religion, the meaning of life, and his relationships, with a variety of (mostly doctor) characters. Also the Holocaust is mentioned.

Absolute Green Lantern, Volume 1: Without Fear Review (Al Ewing, Jahnoy Lindsay)

An alien ship arrives above the small town of Evergreen, covering it in a green energy dome, stopping anyone from going in or out of the town. A god-like alien calling itself The Abin Sur descends to pass judgment upon the townspeople - which include friends Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Jo Mullein, and Guy Gardner. What does judgment entail? To be Without Fear.