Review: “Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?”

Review: “Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?”

“Did You Hear What Eric Powell Done?” New graphic novel from Goon creator Eric Powell matches his formidable skills with one of the foremost serial killer biographers to chronicle one of the most infamous crimes of mid-20th century America  It’s not an exaggeration to compare discovering...

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Review: The Strange Tale of Panorama Island

Review: The Strange Tale of Panorama Island

The Strange Tale of Panorama Island (Panorama-tou Kitan) — Last Gasp, 2013 Now-classic manga novel from Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show creator Suehiro Maruo echoes the decadent era in which its source story by Hirai Taro (aka ‘Edogawa Rampo’) was originally written, while anticipating one of...

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Free Comics College With Stephen R. Bissette

Free Comics College With Stephen R. Bissette

Wow Cool is proud to welcome Stephen R. Bissette to our roster of contributors this month, and we can guarantee that things will be extra Halloween freaktastic. After that, things might really run off the rails! Look for his first review for us in just a few hours. In the meanwhile, set your...

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Derf’s True Stories Volumes 3 and 4

Derf’s True Stories Volumes 3 and 4

In his True Stories comics, Derf has been going further back in time with each issue. In volume three, he covers 1996-2001, which was the height of alt-weekly newspapers. This is years before his career-defining comic My Friend Dahmer and his switch over to long-form storytelling. His stock in...

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Trevor Alixopulos’ Mine Tonight

Trevor Alixopulos’ Mine Tonight

Those that follow the minicomics scene will observe that geography plays a large part in forming artist support groups. These groups provide encouragement and critique for young artists and play a part in their development. The recent development of a sustained book publishing beachhead in the...

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Katriona Chapman’s Follow Me In – Review

Katriona Chapman’s Follow Me In – Review

Follow Me In is Katriona Chapman’s debut book from UK publisher Avery Hill. It details a transformative trip to Mexico with her then-boyfriend and focuses on the details of the trip as well as her ambivalence toward her boyfriend thanks to his alcoholism. Best known for her autobio...

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Hellen Jo’s Jin & Jam – Review

Hellen Jo’s Jin & Jam – Review

There’s little that’s quiet about Hellen Jo’s Jin and Jam, a Sparkplug Comic Books release. In the tradition of cartoonists like Charles Schulz, she’s clearly exploring different aspects of her self through her various characters. Jo’s characters are very much...

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Liz Suburbia’s Egg Cream #1 – Review

Liz Suburbia’s Egg Cream #1 – Review

Note: This review contains major spoilers for Egg Cream and for the proceeding work Sacred Heart.  Egg Cream #1 is Liz Suburbia’s compromise between working non-stop on a new book and doing a one-woman anthology on the side. This series will anthologize the follow-up to her book Sacred...

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David King’s Danny Dutch – Review

David King’s Danny Dutch – Review

In small press comics, the output from a publisher tends to reflect their own personal aesthetic, even when they exert no editorial control over them. That shows through in things like design and format, creating a sort of house style, especially when a publisher puts out a limited number of...

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K. Thor Jensen’s Cloud Stories – Review

K. Thor Jensen’s Cloud Stories – Review

If Red Eye, Black Eye was K. Thor Jensen’s version of a comics senior thesis, then his short story collection Cloud Stories was his PhD. dissertation. The former had all that young cartoonist energy, for good and ill, especially as a work of autobiography. There were plenty of times where...

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K. Thor Jensen’s Red Eye, Black Eye – Review

K. Thor Jensen’s Red Eye, Black Eye – Review

K. Thor Jensen’s Red Eye, Black Eye (Alternative Comics) is the work of a young cartoonist. That is literally true, as the book was published in 2007 after being serialized online, but the tone and content is very much of a man in his mid-20s trying to figure out his life. As such, a...

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Jason Shiga’s Bookhunter – Review

Jason Shiga’s Bookhunter – Review

One reason why I love comics is that I occasionally run into a creator producing art that would only work as comics. I prefer not to use reductive terms like “pure cartooning”, but I have a great appreciation for many artists who rethink this idea of making marks on paper for a...

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Eleanor Davis’ Stinky – Review

Eleanor Davis’ Stinky – Review

Eleanor Davis’ first book was Stinky, which was released in 2008 by Toon Books. It won a number of awards and deservedly so, because it’s brilliant on any number of levels. What’s interesting about her kids’ and YA books is that they are chock full of eye...

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Julia Gfrörer’s Flesh And Bone – Review

Julia Gfrörer’s Flesh And Bone – Review

Revisiting another Sparkplug classic, here’s my original review of Julia Gfrörer’s debut book, Flesh and Bone, from 2010. Julia Gfrörer’s Flesh And Bone  takes fairy-tale and folk legend tropes and both turns them on their heads and gets at their true roots.  The plot of the...

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