Zainab Akhtar at ShortBox is really the acme of independent comics editors: she just gets it. Everything she puts out … More
Category: Comics
Eyes the same size as her stomach
Luchie (as illustrator and cartoonist Lucie Bryon likes to call herself) was apparently blessed with extremely large eyes as a … More
A book to sort you out apiece
A viral disease is sweeping the world, killing indiscriminately. Well, nearly. Its fatal impact is concentrated in a particular minority, … More
Abstract affective allegory
Like all the books published by ShortBox, Jonathan Djob Nkondo’s After Laughter is a beautiful object, printed to a high … More
Habitable insouciance
I haven’t seen a great deal of James Stokoe’s work, but what I have seen has been right up my … More
Good hair days
I keep threatening to cut my hair short. Spouse forbids it. Sometimes though, it feels like such a hassle wearing … More
No fable
Once you’ve made the hole the central metaphor of a lengthy work of fiction, you’re going to have to resign … More
Animal friends
Putting animal heads on the characters in cartoons is a widespread and long-established device—as I very recently noted with respect … More
Beautiful, beautiful violence
Many comics today feature anthropomorphic animals, or animal-headed humans, as do animated cartoons, prose fiction and other media. Anyone writing … More
A dark, involute surface
Monstress is pretty much the only commercial comics series I’m following, other than 2000AD and its associated properties. I enjoy … More
Insightfully commonplace
I was initially underwhelmed by Michelle Theodore’s Cavity. Where were the insights? Where was the peek into an unfamiliar experience? … More
Dwelling together
A labyrinth can be a lonely place. In a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, Asterion, the most famous of … More
Complex simplicity
This sweet-natured, simple tale of friendship and love is as straightforward as comics get – except that it’s completely backwards. … More
A fable for the devouring
This book smells great. It’s a slim, perfect-bound volume, in a tall, narrow, custom format, printed to a very high … More
Oliver Arditi 