Praise for Hip Hop Family Tree #1
“Hip Hop Family Tree not only has a terrific story to tell, but it tells it with great style. The pages of the book are textured to look like an old, three color print comic, which has the visual effect of the pops and crackles on a vinyl record….It’s accessible and enthusiastic without ever being pedantic or condescending, to the reader or to the book’s subjects, coming off ultimately as exactly what it should be- a labor of love documenting an important and underrepresented portion of history in a way that almost any reader can get something out of.”
Read more at Comixology
“Hip Hop Family Tree #1 creates an in-depth and incredibly satisfying look at the history of hip hop as a narrative…Piskor’s love of hip hop sizzles off of the page. There are so many ideas and so much content packed into this issue the staples could pop…The painstaking attention to detail rewards those who appreciate comics as a multi-sensory medium as Piskor dips back in comic book culture as well to create weathered-looking pages, using a limited four-color palette that would have been the only color options available to artists at that time. His lettering, also reminiscent of graffiti artists, draws the readers’ attention to important dialogue and rhymes, emphasizing key words and syllables in an emcee battle to let readers in on the rhythm of the page….Readers will be rewarded by a journey through an American cultural landmark led by the talents of a wildly confident artist who has taken on a tremendous responsibility.”
Read more at Comic Book Resources
Watch an interview with Ed Piskor on CBR TV
And learn more about the announcement of Hip Hop: The Animated Series at The Seattle Review of Books
Mental Floss calls Mox Nox and If You Steal “The Most Interesting Comics of the Week”
Mox Nox By Joan Cornellà is “hilarious and often horrifying…Cornellà paints each cartoon, and they are surreal and at times disturbing and shocking…deeply weird play on the reader’s expectations that makes his comics work.”
If You Steal By Jason
“Jason is one of the most interesting artists to ever work in this medium…this is a must-have for fans of smart comics.”
Read more at Mental Floss
Praise for Not Funny Ha-Ha
“Upfront, conversational and helpful, breaking down medical terminology into easy to absorb language; the graphic novel format lends itself to the comforting tone of the book…like an open, warm conversation about something potentially hard and scary.”
Read more at Salon
“With clarity and compassion, she walks readers through the emotions and medical decisions involved in having an abortion…The drawings throughout are affecting and vulnerable… but always manifest on the page with reassuring solidity….every mark of her hand is set to paper with pure empathy.”
Read more at The Globe and Mail
Praise for Chicago
“Head’s comics style ties right into the Underground setting of the late 1970’s that he’s exploring, and with innovative stylistic choices, Head manages to take us inside the psychological perceptions and reactions of the youthful protagonist to create an emotional and unfailingly truthful narrative.”
Read more at Bleeding Cool
Read an interview with Head at Paste Magazine
Praise for Bright-Eyed at Midnight
“Stein’s clamorous, colourful pages swoon between childhood memories and anecdotes of daily life, or between dreamy impressionist doodling and full-on action-painter freak-outs. The results read like Kandinsky illustrating Virginia Woolf – less a conventional diary than a stream of consciousness brought vibrantly to life…fluid and evanescent, remarkably true to the texture of actual experience.”
Read more at The Globe and Mail
Leslie Stein illustrates her review of the film adaptation of Diary of a Teenage Girl
Read at TCJ
Praise for The Complete Peanuts 1993 to 1994
“These timeless strips are sure to bring a smile to your face….If you could use a relaxing, funny way to end the day, The Complete Peanuts 1993 to 1994 makes for good bedtime reading!”
Read more at Inside Halton
Eleanor Davis, Ed Luce, Dash Shaw, Noah Van Sciver, Marguerite Van Cook and James Romberger receive nominations for this years Ignatz Awards
Read more at SPX
Fantagraphics and Comixology expand deal to the Kindle Store
Read more at Publisher’s Weekly
Geek Girl Pen Pals picks Ghosts and Ruins as a perfect comics for campfire stories
Read more at Geek Girls Pen Pal Club
City Lights Bookstore celebrates Zap
“There scarcely was an underground comics world before Robert Crumb’s classic solo first issue of Zap in 1968. By Zap #2, he had begun assembling a Seven Samurai of the best, the fiercest, and the most stylistically diversified cartoonists to come out of the countercultural kiln. All of them were extremists of one sort or another, from biker-gang member Rodriguez to Christian surfer Griffin, but somehow they produced a decades-long collaboration: a mind-blowing anthology of abstract hallucination, throat-slashing social satire, and shocking sexual excess, that made possible the ongoing wave of alternative cartoonists like Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, and Charles Burns…Zap is the most historically and aesthetically important comics series ever published.”
Listen at City Lights Podcast