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Casanova #1-2

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Gabriel Ba
20 pages, two-color
Published by Image Comics

So many books being published right now seem to be taking the wrong tactic to hook readers. The current trend seems to be “decompressed” storytelling, giving yourself additional space to slowly let everything unfold. The problem is that if you aren’t really good at this technique, it backfires and gives the reader an impression of nothing happening. I think what initially grabbed me about Casanova is that this book seemed to almost be flipping decompression the proverbial bird, reminding people that there’s another tactic waiting to be taken. Just how much can you pack into a single comic?

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Cancer Made Me A Shallower Person

By Miriam Engelberg
144 pages, black and white
Published by HarperCollins

One of the hazards of writing comic reviews is that you can end up with a stack of books that are waiting to be read, and never getting around to them. Interesting book after interesting book gets thrown onto the pile, all with the best intentions because they all look genuinely interesting. And slowly but surely, the amount of paper gathered together continues to grow. Conversely, every once in a while you find a book that you figure will go into the stack, but you open it up to a random page and suddenly it’s two hours later and you’ve read the entire book. That, to me, is exactly what happened with Miriam Engelberg’s Cancer Made Me A Shallower Person.

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Hector Plasm: De Mortuis

Written by Benito Cereno
Art by Nate Bellegarde
48 pages, color
Published by Image Comics

The problem with horror comics, I think, is that people are spoiled these days by special effects in television and movies. Horror becomes in the audience’s mind something continually moving, never letting you catch your breath. With the static nature of images in comics, that’s not the case at all. It’s a very different kind of horror, much more subtle—and if executed properly, in some ways superior.

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Antique Bakery Vol. 1

By Fumi Yoshinaga
200 pages, black and white
Published by Digital Manga Publishing

Some books just defy any neat sort of categorization. That’s definitely the case with the first volume of Fumi Toshinaga’s Antique Bakery. Is it a romance? A workplace comedy? A series of mysteries? Well… apparently, the answer is that it’s whatever Toshinaga feels like at that given moment. And oddly enough, once it gives up trying to fall into a single style or category, that’s when it begins to shine.

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Love The Way You Love Vol. 1

Written by Jamie S. Rich
Art by Marc Ellerby
64 pages, black and white
Published by Oni Press

One of the genres of comics that I’m always happy to see make an appearance is romance. Romance comics, while common in other countries, don’t seem quite so big in the English-language market. While I don’t have a problem reading translated comics to get my fill of this type of comics (thank you, Japan!), it’s always nice to see a homegrown take on the idea. And it’s with that in mind that I was quite happy to see Jamie S. Rich and Marc Ellerby’s Love The Way You Love.

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Wonderland #1

Written by Tommy Kovac
Art by Sonny Liew
24 pages, color
Published by Slave Labor Graphics

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are two novels that have spawned so many adaptations, unofficial sequels, and works inspired by Carroll’s creations that I don’t think I could even begin to count them all. With such a large number available, it’s easy to be picky about which ones to seek out and avoid. In the case of Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew’s Wonderland, though, I think it’s well worth your time.

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Love and Capes #1

By Thom Zahler
24 pages, color
Published by Maerkle Press

Some characters in comics are for all intents and purposes archetypes, the basic ideas and concepts that people look to. As such, it’s not uncommon to see analogues of these characters show up in other comics, especially ones like Superman and Wonder Woman. Reading Thom Zahler’s Love and Capes, however, reminded me that just because you’re using an archetype doesn’t preclude you from having a really good comic.

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Tales of the Closet Vol. 1

By Ivan Velez Jr.
104 pages, black and white
Published by Planet Bronx Productions

Over a decade ago, the Milestone Media title Blood Syndicate debuted. I was familiar with one of the two writers of that first issue, Dwayne McDuffie, but who was this Ivan Velez Jr. guy? After doing a little research (thanks in no small part to both McDuffie and Velez being on the now-defunct GEnie computer network) I found out that he’d also written and drawn a book called Tales of the Closet. I remember receiving the first four issues in the mail soon afterwards, and as silly as it sounds, if one could read a comic until the ink wore out that’s exactly what would’ve happened. Now Velez is collecting the entire series into three trade paperbacks, and I for one am delighted that a whole new audience will be able to find this series.

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Strangetown #1

Written by Chynna Clugston and Ian Shaughnessy
Art by Chynna Clugston
32 pages, black and white
Published by Oni Press

Over time I’ve learned that with a new Chynna Clugston comic, there are three things I should prepare for: memorable characters, slick art, and the unexpected. With her new book Strangetown (with co-writer Ian Shaughnessy), it’s nice to see that all my expectations were met—including that one about the unexpected.

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Tree of Love

By Patrick Atangan
48 pages, color
Published by NBM

Patrick Atangan’s comics debut, The Yellow Jar, was a beautiful retelling of ancient Japanese folk tales using the ukiyo-e art style of Japan. With his latest graphic novel, Tree of Love, Atangan’s tackling the Rajput Polyptich art of India and the end result is just as visually stunning.

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