Putting animal heads on the characters in cartoons is a widespread and long-established device—as I very recently noted with respect … More
Category: Comics
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
A moment
This small, landscape-format book contains a lot of landscape, and a lot of episodes in which people engage with landscape. … More
Other truths in the shadows
I got stressed out reading Logicomix. About halfway through the book there is a discussion of Russell’s paradox, a self-contradictory … More
A pamphlet in disguise
A book is illustrated if it has pictures in it. A history is illustrated if the events it constructs are … More
So long and thanks for all the comics
The silver Swan, who, living, had no Note, when Death approached, unlocked her silent throat. Leaning her breast against … More
Life grooves
Jaime Hernandez often uses techniques that seem cinematic; in fact they are no more proper to cinema than they are … More
A gently chromatic narrative
The Island is a short and beautiful allegory. It’s a simple exploration of solitude, of withdrawal, of re-engagement, and of … More
Mutually constituted histories
British commercial comics have always been an idiosyncratic little world, in comparison to the vast American scene with its division … More
