Read About Comics

By Jason Shiga
144 pages, two-color
Published by Sparkplug Comics

I don’t really understand how Jason Shiga’s mind works, but I’m always impressed. His comic Fleep was a brilliant mathematical puzzle combined with the ultimate locked-room mystery of a man trapped inside a phone booth encased in rock, and in some ways it’s one of his more standard creations, with books like Meanwhile and Hello World being interactive creations with a myriad of possibilities. When I saw that his new book, Bookhunter, was a pretty standard story I was prepared to be disappointed. What I got, though, was anything but disappointment.

Continue reading “Bookhunter”

By Jeff Smith
32 pages, black and white
Published by Cartoon Books

It’s probably safe to say, these days, that Jeff Smith can do just about whatever he wants in comics. His first major series, Bone, was a massive success in both the self-publishing world as well as being picked up for color editions by Scholastic Books. Now, having finished a long-promised Shazam! mini-series for DC Comics, Smith could have certainly taken his new project to any published he wanted. Instead, he’s returned to self-publishing and in a serialized format. And somehow, that seems like just the right approach.

Continue reading “RASL #1”

Adapted by Rick Geary
Based on the novel by Charles Dickens
56 pages, color
Published by Papercutz

I remember as a child reading some of the original Classics Illustrated books at my library. It’s a simple but brilliant concept, adapting classics of literature into comic books, as a way to get younger readers exposed to great works in a slightly easier fashion. There have been a number of incarnations over the years, and the latest is Papercutz’s line, kicking off with Rick Geary’s Great Expectations. And in terms of a first book for the line, I can’t help but think that the choice is a little odd.

Continue reading “Classics Illustrated: Great Expectations”

Written by Steve Parkhouse and Alan McKenzie
Art by John Ridgway
168 pages, black and white or color
Published by Panini Books

People who know me well can easily name my favorite two forms of entertainment—comic books and Doctor Who. With all that in mind, you’d think that with all of the various comic book version of Doctor Who out there, I’d be a happy camper, right? The reality, of course, is that just like most other media tie-in comics, the end result can be hit-or-miss at best. With Panini Books reprinting the comic strips to appear in Doctor Who Magazine over the years, though, I can say that there’s one reprint in particular I was overjoyed to see, and that’s Doctor Who: Voyager.

Continue reading “Doctor Who: Voyager”