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

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

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

Thoughtful speculation

This is a small-format, short, perfectly-formed science-fiction story. Its basic premise would probably be quite implausible technically, if it was … More

Stoke-on-huh?

Sam Wade’s Stoke (published by the fabulous ShortBox) is set, presumably, in Stoke. Given that the place-name element ‘stoke’ means … More

Realistically surreal

Is the reality we construct for ourselves from our sensory inputs an orderly one in which every phenomenon is readily … More

Only connect…

This short comic by Sophia Foster-Dimino is about relationships. ‘Relationships’ is such a debased and overused word that it has … More