Satellite CMYK is a sci-fi tale of a bewildering multi-level world, where people’s lives are controlled by a big “them,” and a “Rebel Alliance” works to undo their control. Three men, possibly clones, their lives depicted in monochrome, are assaulted on the same day for a mysterious transfer.
Usagi Yojimbo presents a difficulty for us as editors of BAC. Every issue is strong, and they form such a tapestry when read one after another that it’s difficult to pull out any one bit and say, “this is the best Usagi.” “Traitors of the Earth” has the advantage of being a relatively short, self-contained story, and “Saya” is even more so. Both are compulsively readable, and good places to start if you’re not already reading the series.
Jan was in an accident and has a trade-in robot body while his real one is in the shop. It might be connected to terrorists. That’s the crux. But it’s also drawn with great elegance in pen and ink wash, and told in a naturalistic, confident, cinematic mode. The dialogue is strong and believable. It’s just a stand-out all around, and I hope there’s more where this came from.
Jesse Reklaw’s Ten Thousand Things To Do gives you an over-the-shoulder look at the day-to-day life of a cartoonist of a certain age and it’s not very glamorous, though the existence of the very work itself is a testament to the passion Jesse brings to cartooning.
In Henrik Rehr’s book-length abstract comic you can detect traces of brush and pen lines and conventional marks—such as cross-hatching and drybrush—that are associated with representative art, but there is no clear narrative to be found. Instead, Rehr’s pages take us on a voyage of constantly mutating layouts where even the rectangular panels are skewed, overlapped with other panels, or almost overwhelmed by stormy, heaving backgrounds.
The central character, Ruth, has an enormous collection in bugs in jars that she obsessively rearranges, and Perry, her brother, is compelled to obey a small wizard he hallucinates. The thing that sets this book apart, though, is the sensitive and deep understanding Powell conveys of mental illness. He’s long worked with developmentally disabled people, and his experience and empathy show.
Office 32f is a more-rare outing for Park, a piece of pure fiction. It reminds me of Gabrielle Bell’s work where she spins off from autobio reality in the midst of a story and heads into surreal fiction. Here, Park allows her insecurities about her work habits and productivity to take concrete form as she imagines a tiny office hidden behind her baseboard full of tiny people whose job it is to observe and report on her. Or is it?
Jason Overby is a true original—at a time when our medium is cranking out all kinds of diverse and innovative work—whose comics take the form of a meandering essay on the uses and meanings of comics, art, and life.
Webcomics can be very hard to get into mid-stream so it’s great to have this collection of Chris Onstad’s Achewood which you gives you a complete arc as an introduction.
