I blink for a minute and now I’ve got two volumes of “Thunderbolt” to review.  That’s not a bad thing as vols. 11 & 12 represent a major turning point in the narrative.  It’s clearly seen in vol. 11 which focuses exclusively on Darryl and his comrades as they defect from Zeon to Sojo Levan […]

Hey, it’s me again.  The guy who reads graphic novel adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft’s works rather than the original stories.  I know I’ve said I’ll get around to reading them eventually, but today’s not that day. Instead, I’m here to talk about the latest Lovecraft adaptation from Gou Tanabe.  Dark Horse had previously brought over […]

As far as titles go, this is probably the most straightforward one you’ll see this year.  It’s about Honda-san. She’s a bookseller. She’s got a human skull for a face. That’s not as strange as it sounds when you consider that her co-workers have paper bags, gas masks, and knight helmets for faces themselves.  It’s […]

I was kind of holding out hope that this current storyline was saving its craziest stuff for last.  As it was involving some Japanese practitioners of Christianity and we all know how Japan has treated that religion with nothing but the greatest respect over the years.  Regrettably, that doesn’t happen as the juiciest stuff winds […]

The ideal review for this volume would be a .gif of me shaking it with the words “MAKE IT BETTER” flashing at regular intervals.  Three volumes in and this series has managed to distinguish itself from mangaka Tsutomu Nihei’s previous work in that it’s the most conventional and straightforward thing he’s done to date.  That […]

This has been a penultimate-y year for volumes, it feels like.  “Black Science,” “Paper Girls,” “The Wicked + The Divine,” “Curse Words,” “Prison School,” “East of West,” and “Happiness” are all series that have seen their next-to-last volume released this year.  You can now add “I Am A Hero” to that list and it’s one […]

I don’t know how I wound up with two volumes of manga from different series by mangaka Shuzo Oshimi in my “To Review” pile.  I wasn’t planning on reviewing both of them in one go either. Except some of the manga titles in my “To Review” pile are coming up on a month old and […]

This is one of the most satisfying volumes I’ve read in this series after a while.  Not because of any one thing it does. No, this volume is a case of mangaka Satoru Noda throwing a lot of stuff at the wall, plot-wise, and having it all turn out pretty well.  I’m talking about bits […]

Well, um, you see… About “‘Prison School’s’ darkest secret” I mentioned in my last review:  Somehow I had heard and/or gotten it into my head that the main storyline with Kiyoshi, Gackt, Shingo, Joe, and Andre was going to wrap up here.  It would have them leaving the school only to be replaced by a […]