Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami Review

As you might expect for a 700+ page novel, a fair amount of stuff happens in Killing Commendatore but the story is actually quite easy to summarise: there isn’t one! Which is a large part of what makes it such a frustrating read.

Die!Die!Die!, Volume 1 Review (Robert Kirkman, Chris Burnham)

The moon is hollow, aliens live among us, hidden Sesame Street phrases make you shit your pants, and the US government is fighting secret shadow wars across the world - well, I guess not everything’s made up in this comic! Also sounds very much like an Alex Jones rant, no?

A Very DC Valentine's Day Review (Paul Dini, Mark Russell)

You know what a very DC Valentine’s Day would really look like? A pop in the chops by Batman wearing heart-shaped knuckle dusters. And that’s basically how it feels to read this book! So very DC - you want to like them, you hope they’ve changed and they’ll treat you nice, and then they just fuck you up instead.

Mean Business on North Ganson Street by S. Craig Zahler Review

After his smart mouth inadvertently lands him in hot water, Detective Jules Bettinger finds himself and his family exiled from the warmth of Arizona to the frozen wasteland of Victory, Missouri - a charming place littered with pigeon bones, dead cats nailed to posts and faeces-covered signs. His first case? A serial necrophiliac. But before he can kick himself into oblivion for fucking his career up so badly, a war between the gangsters who run the town and the shady police, hardly much better themselves, is about to erupt. And then the cop executions begin. Mean business indeed… !

DC Meets Looney Tunes Review (Tom King, Lee Weeks)

DC Meets Looney Tunes: makes sense from a financial standpoint as I’m sure a bunch of people will check this out for the sheer novelty of it. From an artistic or entertainment perspective though? Gawd no - these some shitty comics!

The Parade by Dave Eggers Review

Two (probably American) contractors have to pave a new road across the blighted, war-torn landscape of a Third World shithole (probably in Africa) so the new regime can have a parade on it. A novel about road paving. And it’s as exciting to read as it sounds!

Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live? Volume 2 by Makihirochi Review

Tomiko and Miyako help a divorcee, an artist just moved back from Brooklyn, a girl looking for a non-haunted property and an aspiring novelist all find new apartments in and around Tokyo while they plan to renovate their own place.

Cassandra Darke by Posy Simmonds Review

I haven’t done one of these in a while but I felt like I needed to because nobody’s calling this crap out on the book’s listing and I’m not going to waste my time reading the rest of this garbage to give it a “proper” review!

Terrific Mother by Lorrie Moore Review

For years I’ve heard the likes of Nick Hornby and David Sedaris gush over Lorrie Moore but, for no real reason beyond lethargy, I’ve never read anything by her. Having now read Terrific Mother, I can definitely see why she gets praised - this is a gem of a story!

Catwoman, Volume 1: Copycats Review (Joelle Jones, Fernando Blanco)

Spinning out of Tom King’s Batman, specifically #50, the wedding issue, is this new Catwoman series - and, if she’s going solo now, you can probably guess how well the wedding went!

The Walking Dead, Volume 31: The Rotten Core Review (Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard)

The shitshow that is The Walking Dead staggers on for yet another volume in the aptly named, Volume 31: The Rotten Core. Who knew that the Commonwealth, an authoritarian group obsessed with hierarchy enforced through an overbearing police presence, would turn out to be gasp kinda evil oh right everyone duurrr?!

Fence, Volume 1 Review (C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad)

Fencing: a sport nobody cares about for a reason - it boring! Does Fence make me like it any more? Nuh to the uh uh!

All-Rounder Meguru, Volume 1 by Hiroki Endo Review

All-Rounder Meguru is so very middle-of-the-road for me - it’s all-round mediocre! - that I find it hard to even muster up the energy to review it as I didn’t feel strongly about it either way. Eh, let’s give it a shot anyway - I like a challenge!

By Night, Volume 1 Review (John Allison, Christine Larsen)

I’m a huge fan of John Allison’s Giant Days - I read a lot of comics and this one is, in my mind, the best comic in the world - but strangely everything else of his I’ve read outside of that title, like Bad Machinery and his Shelley Winters one-shots, is mediocre at best. Unfortunately, Allison’s latest series, By Night, is firmly among his lesser efforts.