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Graphic Novel 'Big Black' Is a Stunning Depiction of the Attica Prison Uprising
Fifty years ago Attica prisoners rose up for justice -- and were slaughtered. Graphic novel Big Black: Stand at Attica is a powerful story from a survivor's point of view.
15 Apr 2020
Books
John Pham's J&K - It's a Matter of Perspective
In J&K, John Pham explores perspectives in the psychological sense. Like Picasso, he views things from more than one angle.
31 Mar 2020
Books
The Two Worlds of Graphic Novel Umma's Table
Where fiction typically emphasizes plot, Yeon-Sik Hong's Umma's Table emphasizes a rich layering of events that creates the artful impression of memoir-like fiction.
11 Mar 2020
Books
'Year of the Rabbit': How Quickly Cruelty and Genocide Can Become the Norm
Tian Veasna's superb yet harrowing graphic portrayal of the Khmer Rouge regime, Year of the Rabbit, conveys what damage a living nightmare can do to a country and its people in a mere four years.
02 Mar 2020
Books
Striking for Its Art, 'New World' Is a Magic Parable of Resistance, Guilt, and Forgiveness
David Jesus Vignolli's graphic novel, New World, chronicles Indigenous resistance to European monsters in gorgeous art and mythic undertones.
24 Feb 2020
Books
For All Governments: Gendry-Kim's Graphic Novel, 'Grass'
The powerful graphic novel Grass documents the atrocities against WWII "comfort women" through the recollections of a survivor. This is an incredibly powerful and urgent work that, frankly, should be read by the governments of all nations that must face, admit to, and begin real reparations for their country's atrocities.
12 Feb 2020
Books
Tsuge's 'The Man Without Talent' Is a Perfect Manga Parable on Capitalism's Failed Dreams
In The Man Without Talent, Tadao Tsuge captures the element of fantasy reflected in the childish utopianism of free market capitalism and the committed entrepreneurs who are its happy-go-lucky evangelists.
07 Nov 2019
Books
Jaime Hernandez's 'Tonta', Hit Men, and High School Shenanigans
Jaime Hernandez conveys an exuberance and vitality in his characters that make them easy to relate to and sympathize with. This is no less so in his latest graphic novel, Tonta.
24 Oct 2019
Books
Size Matters in Eleanor Davis's 'The Hard Tomorrow'
Award-winning graphic artist Eleanor Davis likes to accent key moments in Hard Tomorrow through panel size. Big moments are literally bigger. Layout is a way of making meaning.
15 Oct 2019
Books
Compelling Grotesquery in Graphic Novel 'Vivisectionary'
In Kate Lacour's graphic novel of imagined medical oddities, Vivisectionary, the viewer is the main character and the images the deranged antagonist.
15 Aug 2019
Books
Box Brown Takes on the Ultimate Weed Killer in 'Cannabis'
As cannabis legalization spreads, Box Brown's graphic novel, Cannabis, examines the sordid and racist history of how it became demonized in the first place.
17 Jun 2019
Books
Trapped by Circumstance: 'Guantánamo Kid: The True Story of Mohammed El-Gharani'
Jérôme Tubiana and Alexandre France have created a powerful work in Guantánamo Kid that brings attention to the humanity of people who are accused as terrorists.
20 May 2019
Books
'Blame This on the Boogie' Blurs the Lines between Graphic Novel and Songbook
Passion defines Rina Ayuyang's life as Blame This on the Boogie explores the pleasures and pitfalls of pop culture devotion.
08 May 2019
Books
Graphic Novel 'Is This How You See Me?' Carries on the Legacy
The Hernandez Bros.' Love and Rockets graphic fiction series has created a community of misfits filled with as much anger as warmth, with as many mistakes as wisdom, and with as much sadness as joy.
23 Apr 2019
Comics
Manuele Fior's 'Red Ultramarine' Evokes Picasso -- to a Point
While Manuele Fior's Red Ultramarine is far from abstract expressionism, it is a pleasure to find an artist-writer who regards the art of his images to be equal to the narrative they convey.
17 Apr 2019
Books
Michael Cho's 'Shoplifter' Showcases What He Does Best
Existential loneliness and small comforts are perfectly conveyed in three simple colors in Michael Cho's graphic novel, Shoplifter.
17 Jan 2019
Books
Graphic Novel 'The Beatles Yellow Submarine' Is Pure Delight
Bill Morrison's The Beatles Yellow Submarine mixes its psychedelia to fully represent the strange combinations found in George Dunning's 1968 film.
16 Nov 2018
Books
Zacchilli Sketches the Future One Day at a Time in 'Space Academy 123'
Mickey Zacchilli's scribbled artistic and literary style undermines expectations.
02 Nov 2018
Books
'Undocumented' Is a Paean to America's Embattled Migrants
The struggle for recognition and rights assumes heroic proportions in Duncan Tonatiuh's innovative graphic novel, Undocumented: A Workers Fight.
29 Oct 2018
Books
Nick Drnaso's 'Sabrina' and Affronts to Truth
Drnaso's Sabrina explores how isolation, both psychic and social, fuels the evolution of tragedy into social paranoia and a dehumanized narrative of fraud.
17 Oct 2018
Books
Really, Really Loving the Beatles: Carol Tyler's 'Fab4 Mania'
Tyler's excitement and seemingly never-ending thrill from the point of view of her younger self as a Beatles fan nearly leaps from the page.
20 Aug 2018
Books
'Red Winter' Weathers the Heartbreaks of Communism
Swedish graphic novelist Anneli Furmar paints a bright window into a gray corner of political history.
10 Jul 2018
Books
Stage to Comics Page: George O'Connor's Adaptation of Adam Rapp's Dystopic Play, 'Ball Peen Hammer'
Adam Rapp's characters have to kill and bag children to earn their keep. How does one depict that on stage and on page?
07 Jun 2018
Books
Michael Comeau's Winter's Cosmos Explores the Fringes of the Comics Universe
If Winter's Cosmos is Comeau's Alpha Centauri, I look forward to what fruits his new planets will bear next.
24 May 2018
Books
'Carnet de Voyage' Is a Perfect Bridge Between Craig Thompson's 'Blankets' and 'Habibi'
Travel is inherently marked by moments of beauty, mundanity, exhaustion, and connection; comics artist Craig Thompson shows it all.
18 May 2018
Books
Renée French's 'H Day' Is a Surreal Exploration of Narrative Ambiguity—or Maybe Not
While migraines are known for their staggering (if temporary) disabling of the sufferer, some artists, like French, fearlessly explore the fantastical element of the migraine experience.
27 Apr 2018
Comics
'Magritte: This Is Not a Biography' Is Playful in Its Visual Riffs
This tribute to surrealist painter Rene Magritte reveals more about the comics form than the artist.
16 Mar 2018
Books
'Yellow Negroes' Draws the Plight of Undocumented Lives
The liminal state between immigrant and citizen becomes the permanent experience of undocumented people.
23 Feb 2018
Books
'Blue Is the Warmest Color' Is Better As a Comic
Julie Mahor's hand is deft in so many ways, producing a visually and emotionally complex tale of coming-of-age love uniquely grounded in the comics form.
19 Jan 2018
Comics
Graphic Novel 'I, Parrot' Presents a Children's World Inhabited by Grown-ups
Although Unferth's family-oriented plot and Haidle's style sometimes evoke children's illustrated books, this is for grown-ups—and the intentionally simplistic rendering is more than surface details.
22 Dec 2017
Books
'Black Dog: the Dreams of Paul Nash' Gives Chaotic Reality to the Dreamscapes of a War-haunted Painter
While no imitator, Dave McKean shares kindred tastes with Nash and creates a fictionalized memoir and dream journal of Nash's WWI experiences.
04 Dec 2017
Books
Paul Madonna's 'On to the Next Dream' Sketches out a Rapidly Changing San Francisco
Progress -- that is, gentrification -- marches on in San Francisco, for better and for worse, in this fantastical narrative from the creator of All Over Coffee.
06 Apr 2017
Books
Culture and History for the Age of Trump
History doesn't always tell us how to get it right. It sometimes warns us of the cost of getting it wrong. Art steeped in that history, like John Lewis' graphic novel trilogy, March, can remind us, if we're paying attention.
05 Jan 2017
Books
A Kick Ass/Kick Arse Depiction of the Stylish Mods in '60s England
Jim McCarthy and Kevin Cross, writers and graphics artists from either side of the Atlantic, join forces to create a candid tale of the Mod scene.
04 Oct 2016
Books
Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie
The new Agatha Christie biography is a graphic novel in form but a mere flipbook in narrative.
28 Jul 2016
Books
Drawing Disaster: Comics, War and Trauma
Hillary Chute's Disaster Drawn reveals that comics may be the most useful form for witnessing war and trauma.
05 May 2016
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