Manga and Comic Reviews
Above-the-Board Recommendation: Grandville Integral HC Unfortunately this isn’t a new installment in Bryan Talbot’s excellent series of graphic novels set in a late 19th Century steampunk world where humans are second-class citizens compared to the anthropomorphic animal individuals who run the show. “Integral” is just a fancy way of saying that this is an omnibus […]
If you’ll recall (from last week, when I finally remembered to post my review), the first volume of this series didn’t make the best impression on me. Much of it felt like self-parody as mangaka Shuzo Oshimi tried to cultivate an air of sinister intent in a way that felt more ham-fisted than suspenseful. It […]
True Story: When I was looking over what I’d written and recorded for 2020, I noticed that I’d posted my review of “Gigant” twice in April. That was embarrassing enough, but I couldn’t figure out what I had passed over in order for that to have happened. Well, I finally solved that mystery. Expect reviews […]
Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve talked about Meguru’s (and Maki’s) efforts to work his way to the top spot in the Nationals. You can chalk that up to a mix of digital titles being somewhat “out of sight, out of mind” when it comes to reviewing them, as well as the inherent predictability […]
Imagine if you’re Mob at the start of this volume. You’ve just been defeated by the members of a secret organization of super-humans who are out to use their powers to take over the world. You’re currently trapped in a room with your brother and a former rival. Some of the other kids who were […]
Above-the-Board Recommendation: Orphan and the Five Beasts #1 (of 4) It’s a tale as old as time: A warrior sets out on a quest to kill the corrupted disciples of her former master, spurred on by his dying words. What makes this version of the tale special? The fact that it’s being written and illustrated […]
Do you know who we haven’t seen a whole lot of over the course of this series? The humans from the Inside, that’s who. That changes here as the King who almost sacrificed Shiva in the previous volume gets a lot of page space as he reckons with his infirmity in failing to go through […]
This final volume arrived a couple months back and it’s been sitting, buried, under other, objectively better comics after I finished reading it. BUT NO LONGER! The craziest train in comics deserves to have its final volume recognized in some form. Even if I’m going to be recounting a lot of the insanity that makes […]
Conventional wisdom dictates that “Kaguya-Sama’s” best days are behind it now. After all, Kaguya and Miyuki are now a couple so all of the romantic tension is deflated along with the “Will They or Won’t They” shenanigans. If fourteen volumes of this series have told us anything, it’s that “Kaguya-Sama” laughs in the face of […]
It took a while, but “Diamond is Unbreakable” finally realized its main plot and actually steered a couple of its principal characters into a conflict with Stand-wielding serial killer Yoshikage Kira. However, the characters in question were Jotaro Joestar and Koichi. In other words: “Guy Who was the Protagonist in the Last Arc” and “Best […]