Category: Other Publishers

Written by Xavier Dorison
Art by Christophe Bec
64 pages, color
Published by Humanoids Publishing

Oceans are, in many ways, the last great unexplored frontier of this planet. We’re constantly discovering new species existing under the waters, each time with the knowledge that there is still much more to find. Maybe that’s what the initial attraction to Sanctum was; the idea of a massive temple hidden under the water is just too cool. Of course, what you hope for and what you find are two very different things, as the crew of the U.S.S. Nebraska discovered…

Continue reading “Sanctum Vol. 1-2”

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Kieron Dwyer
104 pages, sepia and white
Published by AiT/Planet Lar

The problem with hype is that it’s almost impossible to live up to. So unless you’ve been under a rock for the last couple of months, you’d know that AiT/Planet Lar was publishing a graphic novel called Last of the Independents by Matt Fraction and Kieron Dwyer. You’d also know that according to the hype, it’s supposed to be excellent. And it’s more than understandable if as a result of all of this you’re feeling more than a bit wary. Having now read Last of the Independents, I feel that I can say that when it comes to the hype… it was actually dead-on correct.

Continue reading “Last of the Independents”

By Mike Dawson and Chris Radtke
20-32 pages, black and white
Published by Mike Dawson Comics

One of the great things about mini-comics is that it lets creators hone their talent not by practicing, but by creating. With much lower costs than higher-end publishing, you can get your comics out to people, build an audience, and hopefully keep getting better in a way that you wouldn’t if you only drew for yourself. That seems to be just what Mike Dawson and Chris Radtke are doing with their Gabagool! comics—just keep getting stronger and stronger while getting their comics out to more and more people.

Continue reading “Gabagool! #1-3”

By Gary Spencer Millidge
32 pages, black and white
Published by Abiogenesis Press

Good things come to those who wait. There are some books for which a new issue is reason to celebrate, like Jason Lutes’s Berlin or Daniel Clowes’s Eightball. Another book that’s definitely on that list is Gary Spencer Millidge’s Strangehaven; if a trade-off for a speedy frequency is intensely high quality, I don’t mind that one bit. It just makes the payoff all the sweeter.

Continue reading “Strangehaven #15”

By Troy Little
24 pages, black and white
Published by Meanwhile Studios

Some people wear their influences on their sleeves. Early work by Bryan Hitch, for instance, showed off a lot of influence from Alan Davis. The big question ultimately becomes, will the creator find their own voice? It’s a question I found myself wondering when I first encountered Troy Little’s work on Chiaroscuro; as the series progressed, would the book move beyond an extremely skillful Dave Sim pastiche?

Continue reading “Chiaroscuro #1-7”

By Rhode Montijo
black and white
Published by Abismo

Years ago, I explained to a friend that all writers have an Aztec story just lurking inside of them, waiting to get out. It’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the heart of the matter is that the Aztec culture was a rich and intriguing one, full of story possibilities. Maybe that’s why I was so instantly captivated by Rhode Montijo’s Pablo’s Inferno, his self-published mini-series where we get to see a much more interesting version of the afterlife than what most popular media presents to us.

Continue reading “Pablo’s Inferno”

Written by Jai Sen
Art by Seijuro Mizu, Umeka Asayuki, and Shino Yotsumoto
304 pages, color
Published by Shoto Press

Last year, Jai Sen and Rizky Wasisto Edi’s Garlands of Moonlight was a genuine breakout hit, earning an Eisner nomination and great amounts of critical praise. Now, not only do Sen and Edi have a sequel hitting stores this summer, but Sen is also responsible for a brand new book, The Golden Vine… and history might just be about to repeat itself.

Continue reading “Golden Vine”

By Ezra Claytan Daniels
96 pages, black and white
Published by Dream Chocolate

One of the things I love the most about comic book publishing is the wild diversity. I’m not talking just about content, but presentation. Once you get away from most of the books published by the “big” publishers, you end up with a wide array of shapes, sizes, and even paper stock. Take, for instance, The Changers. Printed in digest format using green ink and looking like a training manual, its look alone will stay with you.

Continue reading “Changers Book 1”

By Marjane Satrapi
160 pages, black and white
Published by Pantheon Books

It’s hard to be compared to a legend. Advance word on the translation of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, the story of her childhood growing up in Iran, was pretty positive. So positive, in fact, that the comparison of Persepolis to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus was one I kept hearing get thrown around. The problem with being compared to something that powerful is that if the comparison isn’t completely accurate, it’s going to make the new work look poor in comparison. Now, I don’t know if this is the new Maus… but this sure is an awfully powerful book in its own right.

Continue reading “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood”