What comics are you reading, April to June 2021?

Starting a new three month thread...

After a comics hiatus I've started making my way through Jeff Lamire's Sweet Tooth which I'm enjoying so far. I wasn't aware beforehand that it takes place in a post-pandemic wasteland....sigh.

Come Home, Indio is a powerful memoir about growing up half Native American half Irish American, with alcoholism on both sides. Well told and well drawn in black & white. I see influences of Nate Powell, Will Eisner and Bill Griffith.

Finished reading The Last of the Innocent by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips. A nice mash-up of Archie and the noir genre.

>3 brianjungwi: I think Brubaker is possibly the best writer out there for crime/noir comics.

Next up on my list is the new Gene Luen Yang book, Dragon Hoops.

>4 Euryale: Especially combined with Philips. Brubaker with any artist is usually good; the two of them are something else entirely.

>5 AnnieMod: Agreed! They're a dream team.

>4 Euryale: Another rec for Ed Brubaker's noir from me. I don't usually read thrillers/espionage/crime/mysteries at all but Brubaker's spy series Velvet was excellent.

I read The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia, by Mary M Talbot and Bryan Talbot, which is a biographical sketch of French feminist anarchist utopian Louise Michel, concentrating on the Paris Commune of 1870-71 and her imprisonment on New Caledonia from 1873-80. It begins with quotes by Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett, a dedication to Iain (M) Banks, and an extended cameo appearance by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. What more could any intellectual utopian want even in the best of all possible worlds?! And, of course, being by the Talbots it has Bryan's stunning art backing up Mary's punchy script, with the addition of two pages of source texts and fourteen pages of Mary's annotations (the story works perfectly without these so I read them afterwards). Although the addition of four pages about Franz Reichelt seemed a bizarre choice of framing story as Louise Michel had been dead for seven years when Reichelt achieved lasting fame for his spectacularly foolish death. 4*

Oscar Wilde: "A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not even worth glancing at".

Samuel Beckett: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

>1 brianjungwi: They released a teaser of Sweet Tooth's Netflix series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_5E1b55cY

9> I saw that! My wife isn't a big comics person, but I think I can convince her to watch a series

8> This sounds fascinating, will keep an eye out for it.

>10 brianjungwi: When they team up to make comics together the Talbots are never less than interesting (and sometimes award winning, such as for Dotter of her Father's Eyes), although I did spot a numerical error in the annotations for The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia where 20,000 had been misprinted as 30,000 (not that it makes much difference in impact tbh). Some of Bryan's solo work requires a bit more reading stamina as it ranges from the psychedelic to the didactic. The art's always good though.

For some reason graphic novels about historical women anarchists seem to have been a fashion and there are several but the only other one I've read and can recommend to comics fans for the art is Red Rosa although I think a reader would need to be interested in the biographical story too, whereas the art in Red Virgin is worth looking at even as single panels.

Louise Michel's funeral, 1905, from The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia, by Mary M Talbot and Bryan Talbot:

I read The Dark Matter of Mona Starr, by Laura Lee Gulledge, which is a semi-autobiographical exploration of depression and anxiety in comics form, aimed at young adults. I love Gulledge's art, and the stories in her three books so far have all been well-meaning. This one also includes tips on self-care. 4*

I read Aetheric Mechanics, by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani, which is a metafictional, late Victoriana, science fiction / detective comic. The early mentions of Ruritania and Grand Fenwick (roar!), and "intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic", etc, clued me in to what the story would be about although not the precise detail of the plot twist ending. However, I'm aware of the existence of Sexton Blake, and Doctor Who, and other fictional metatemporal detectives, in addition to Sherlock Holmes, so it wasn't as much of a surprise as many readers seem to have experienced. 3.5*

>11 spiralsheep:
This panel seems inspired by Jacques Tardi. I will check this book.
Thanks for the tip.

>14 apokoliptian: Bryan Talbot and Jacques Tardi are about the same age and working at the same time, often in similar genres. I would be surprised if they hadn't seen each other's work.

Likewise Pagliarani's art in >13 spiralsheep: Aetheric Mechanics is presumably influenced by both Jacques Tardi and also Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright comics.

I loved Alison Bechdel's latest memoir, The Secret to Superhuman Strength. Ostensibly about her obsession with various exercise fads throughout her life, it has the same multi-layered depth as her previous memoirs, incorporating literature (the early Romantics, the Transcendentalists, the Beats, Adrienne Rich), her relationships & work life, family drama, societal moments and spiritual trends. If you liked Fun Home or Are You My Mother?, don't miss this one.

>16 edgewood: It's already on my wish list, although I'll probably wait until I can borrow it from the library. :-)

I've finished Marvels X, the prequel to Earth X. I think that it was weak and unnecessary. The Well-Bee emulates some art styles like Old Marvel or John Paul Leon but the story doesn't hold.

I read Dotter of her Father's Eyes by Mary M. Talbot (Author) and Bryan Talbot (Illustrator), which is an autobiography and biography in comics form revolving around Mary's relationship with her father, a scholar focussed on author James Joyce, interwoven with a biography of Lucia Joyce and her relationship with her father. It sounds complicated but the differing art separates the three time periods covered, cleverly using full colour for Mary's adult life, sepia with coloured highlights for her childhood, and black & white for Lucia's history. 4.5*

Winner of the 2012 Costa Book Award for Biography. A formidable achievement for a comic!

>19 spiralsheep: Thanks for the recommendation, sounds intriguing! I just reserved it at my local library.

>20 edgewood: I hope you enjoy it.

> I read Flake, by Matthew Dooley, which is one of those "graphic novels" beloved by people who don't usually read comics: all the text is easy reading, all the pages are divided into multiple easy to follow rectangular panels, all the panels are filled in similar ways with familiar faces and places, and there's absolutely nothing in the presentation or content requiring any effort from a very average reader. This from a country that in real actual history produced the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars because truth is stranger than fiction, especially if your chosen fiction is par for the course, middle of the road, safe comforting reading for tired grey centrist dads. I'm feeling generous as this is the artist's first published long form so: 3*

Someone reminded me it's LGBT pride month (or LGBTQQIA+ or whatever) so I dug this 2019 book out of my To Read pile.

I read Sensible Footwear: a girl's guide, by Kate Charlesworth, which is an autobiography of Kate Charlesworth and her perspective on British lesbian history from 1950 to 2019 in comics form, with some gay / bi / trans history and biographies included. The history is very focussed on white lesbians and middle class lesbians and their respectability politics. The art employs various styles and some of them appeal to me more than others but they're all chosen for reasons, whether it's collage for the history, or girls' own for Kate at school, or the nods to Alice in Sunderland, or etc etc. 4*

I read Sally Heathcote: Suffragette, by Mary M. Talbot, Kate Charlesworth, and Bryan Talbot, which is history presented as historical fiction in comics form. The history is extremely accurate as expected from Mary M. Talbot. There are also twenty pages of notes on historical sources at the end, although reading these is a bonus and not necessary to understand the story.

The novel revolves around a fictional working class Manchester girl who becomes involved with members of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1898, and then the WSPU itself after a move to London. The story continues until 1916 but there is a brief framing story taking us as far as 1969. The plot doesn't sacrifice either the protagonist's personal story or the surrounding history and both are fleshed out.

Another comic worth reading from Mary M. Talbot and team. 4.5*

>21 spiralsheep: Dotter of her Father's Eyes read & enjoyed. Thanks again for the rec!

>24 edgewood: You're welcome, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

> I read Steeple, by John Allison, which is a comic about two young women in a small Cornish town filled with Allison's trademark wit and weirdness. Billie is a much-needed new curate in the Anglican parish, while Maggie is a trainee priestess at the Church of Satan down the road, and both of them are realising they might have taken a few wrong turnings on their paths through life. 5*

This first book is a satisfyingly complete story arc, and Steeple 2 with new stories is due for publication at the end of August 2021.

I haven't read many comics this past couple of months ... my only recent reads are Debbie Tung's cute Book Love and Mat Johnson's Incognegro: Renaissance.

And dang, just like that the year is half over.

I've finished Monsters which is a tour-de-force by Barry Windsor-Smith. This is book in which BWS has worked on for years and he put emphasis on both Graphic and Novel portions. It shows a guy that enters a military experience for the production of a Super-Soldier, in a story that traces back to WWII and has unexpected mystical elements.
BWS's art is at his top, but it loses some steam in the last part of book, but it is still a great book.