Posts tagged comics

Hey all! This Wednesday I had a chance to review a bunch of books for one of Toronto’s best comic shops, the Silver Snail. I’ve decided to do a little bit of a roundup for your Friday afternoon reading, just in case you missed them.

• The Unwritten #37 [link] - “I like sequences like this because they serve almost like a break from the narrative; it’s like we’re training for a marathon and this is one of our rest periods.”
• Secret Avengers #27 [link] - “I remained a little skeptical of this issue because Mar-Vell’s return has been something that’s bit Marvel in the butt before. Having him “come back” in Chaos War and Civil War seems to have dampened the shock a bit; why should we be any more impressed this time?”
• Mind MGMT #1  [link] - “While saying something about how the main characters’ bills were overdue, then illustrating an envelope with a big “PAST PAID” red stamp on it, I couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t trusting us to form that connection.”
• Astonishing X-Men #50  [link], which I went into detail on this blog yesterday - “When Jean-Paul got down on one knee, I cringed: not because he was gay, but because as a person, his proposal was ill-timed and looked to serve as a quick-fix to things that needed to be taken care of first.”

For the last little while I’ve been hitting up Toronto’s The Beguiling for a few graphic novels here and there. Since money’s pretty tight, I’ve been trying to go for “sure things”, and Black Blizzard happened to be one of them.

My first exposure to the book’s author, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, was when I read his memoir, A Drifting Life. I think that’s what kicked off my recent obsession with autobiographical (or well, “life story” books); it was simple, but well-told.

And that extends to Black Blizzard. Click the “Read More” button to find out why.

As usual, if you like what you’re reading, reblog and show the love! Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter/Facebook!

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So, Tuesday on ABC’s The View, Marvel Comics came on to announce that Northstar, one of the first openly gay superhero, would be proposing to his boyfriend in Wednesday’s issue of Astonishing X-Men. Then, after applause from the audience, they left, taking no questions - clearly this was more of an advertisement than an opening to discussion.

Which is fine. This is how marketing works. But now that Wednesday’s come and I finally have the book in my hands, how did it actually hold up? Click Read More to see! As usual, spoilers are abound.

As always, if you like what I’m writing, reblog and show the love! Follow me on Twitter/Facebook if you want, too!

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Today’s comic review comes at us from Natalie Nourigat, a lovely Oregonian (is that the way you’re supposed to say it?) whom I met at TCAF and ended up interviewing for this piece on Torontoist.

I picked up her book, Between Gears, primarily because the art style instantly appealed to me; I’m a big fan of a “cartoony, but not too cartoony” flair to my books, and Natalie’s fit that to a T. Her book is about her final year of college, and reads like a personal diary: because I’m going through a similar time in my life (graduating on the 8th!), I figured I’d enjoy the read.

And damn, I did. Read on for the full scoop.

As always, reblogging helps me out a whole bunch. Consider recommending this post to a friend if you liked it! Also, follow me on Twitter and Facebook for more updates!

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Hey all! It’s your friendly-neighborhood Matt Demers here with a bit of a giveaway to help jump-start my new bloggy-blogs. If you haven’t noticed lately, I’ve been trying to keep my site pumped with new reviews (almost) every day, from Korra to graphic novels to video games and music. 

This is all awesome, and I’m pretty happy that I’ve managed to make a schedule out of it, but the nature of Tumblr means that text posts don’t really share as well as image/art posts do. I’d really like to expand my reader base, and I figure the best way to do that would be to ask you guys to reblog and recommend me to your friends!

So, herein lies the giveaway.

I will be giving out three (3) copies of Bastion: Soundtrack Edition for Steam over the next couple months. For this giveaway, one is up for grabs, and I’ll be choosing the winner randomly from the reblogs of this post.

If you can, writing a  recommendation would make my day, as well :). I’m not really sure of a way to include people who don’t have Tumblr (as it’s hard to track both Twitter and link sharing); I’ll take suggestions for the next time I do this.

I’ll be keeping a list of the usernames of the people from the Notes list for this post, and draw on Sunday, May 27. Keep in mind that in order to be considered, you can’t change any of the text in this post (including below this line). That’s just for people who don’t want to read the mushy stuff as to why I’m doing this.

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But anyways, thank you. It’s been my dream job to write about what I’m passionate about, and have people enjoy reading it. I don’t feel right outright asking (*cough* begging *cough*) for recommendations, so this will have to do for now.

If you already read/like/reblog my stuff already, thank you. I wouldn’t be here without you. If you’re new to me and my writing, come in and stay awhile; you’re sure to find something you like.

Thanks for reading.

The first Jeff Lemire comic I read was Essex County, his huge (and I mean huge) tribute to rural Canadian life. As a guy who grew up on the cusp of the community that Essex portrayed, I felt a little bit of attachment to it; in the long haul, it’s one of my favourite graphic novels to read start-to-finish,and I can definitely recommend it as essential Canadian lit.

Lemire’s style isn’t one I thought I’d end up liking, but now I have an appreciation for how much emotion he can pack into panels that are the opposite of sharp, clean lines. Below is my review for his earlier title, Lost Dogs, which I had a chance to pick up at TCAF 2012. Click the read more link to see it.

As always, if you enjoy my stuff, feel free to give me a like/reblog, follow me on Twitter, or Facebook.

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I don’t really remember when I first came across Becky Cloonan’s art. To be honest, it probably came from seeing her work with Brian Wood, one of my favourite comic writers; their work on Demo really inspired me as to what indie comics could be.

Recently, she’s been putting out her own comics; one called Wolves, and the other called The Mire. I picked up both at TCAF 2012, and was fortunate enough to get them signed by her. I sat in one a writer’s panel the next day, and got to hear Becky talk about her perspective as both a writer and artist, and it was just interesting to hear that point of view.

I really liked her books; hit the “Read More” link below to read what I thought in detail. If you enjoy what I’m writing, give me a like, reblog, Facebook like, or recommend me to a friend! You can also follow me on Twitter. 

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I’m not sure why, but for the last little while I’ve been on a pretty big kick when it comes to autobiographical comics.

Perhaps it’s because I’m going through some pretty big changes in my life right now, and seeing what other people are going through/have gone through acts like a bit of a salve. Being able to relate to a story really increases my enjoyment of it, and stories rooted in personal journeys (not necessarily non-fiction) tend to resonate especially well.

I picked up Jeffrey Brown’s Unlikely at TCAF this year after looking at the back and determining that this might be something I could dig. It reads:

250+ pages of young love, sex, drugs, heartbreak & comedy.

How could I say no to that, right?

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