Praise for Chicago by Glenn Head
“A titillating, brutal comics memoir… There’s always something pornographic about a good memoir. Even if there’s no actual sex in the tale, we’re still drawn to the forbidden thrill of seeing behind closed doors and witnessing parts of the human experience we’re not supposed to discuss in polite society. We crave the sweet release of seeing someone else be as shitty and stupid as we fear we might be. In his breathtaking new semiautobiographical graphic novel, Chicago, Glenn Head is the best kind of emotional-smut peddler, offering a mouthwatering medley of humiliations, obsessions, jealousies, and poor decisions…. It’s about as fun as despising someone can get.”
Read more at Vulture
“Hilarious and harrowing… Cartoonist Glenn Head has been telling exceptional stories that have been recognized by indie comic enthusiasts and left-of-center appreciators for years. This is a palpable tale of what happens when you stray off the beaten path of life. It’s offensive and gritty, while still maintaining its wholesomeness and reality. A definite must read for those looking for something different than typical.”
Read more at Comicosity
“A breath of fresh air and a revelation.”
Read more at Freaksugar
“Cartoonist Glenn Head is a comics lifer, with a sensibility filtered through the undergrounds and decanted into the best of 90s alternatives.”
Read more at Comics Beat
“Head came of age during the heyday of Crumb’s underground comix movement, and this book looks very much like an homage to that bygone era of trippy transgression and cross-hatched inking. But what it’s really about is showing what happens after you’ve come back from the underground.”
Read more at Mental Floss
“Glenn Head’s autobiographical tale moves away from the recent trend towards issues-oriented memoir and explores two of comics’ strengths in the area: the ability to depict small details of everyday living and the opportunity to display flashes of interior life along with those physical moments.”
Read more at Comics Reporter
Read Glenn Head’s Comic Diary at TCJ
And check out Glenn Head’s 13 favorite sketches from R. Crumb in honor of the artists 72nd birthday at 13th Dimension
Praise for Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia
“Accessible while addressing complex themes, like the demarcation between childhood and adulthood, faith and religion, love and sex. Suburbia’s black-and-white illustrations recalls the punkish light and shadow of Los Bros Hernandez, as well as the ‘80s-anime aesthetic of creators like Kat Verhoeven or Faith Erin Hicks.”
Read more at Paste Magazine
“A relatable, terrifying and an incredible portrait of adolescence.”
Read more at Comic Book Resources
“For all her punky aesthetic Liz Suburbia is a creator of vision as well as style.”
Read more at Broken Frontier
Panels picks Liz Suburbia as a comic to watch in September
Praise for The Complete Eightball by Daniel Clowes
“By reprinting each issue to match the original printing as closely as possible, The Complete Eightball traces Clowes’ (and his publisher’s) rise in popularity by showing how the physical form of the comic changed from 1989 to 1997. The pages go from black-and-white newsprint to a glossier, colored paper stock, and toward the end of the series, the covers are printed on a thick card stock that lends the book an air of prestige. This tactile element tells its own story, detailing the rapidly shifting landscape of alternative comics in the ’90s through touch as the reader feelsEightball’s upgrade in production values.”
Read more at A.V. Club
Praise for Black River by Josh Simmons
“A brilliant story that shows where true horror lies: not in monsters, but in our own fear and desperation.”
Read more at Publisher’s Weekly
Praise for Fante Bukowski
“Told in short funny chapters, Van Sciver deadpans his lunkhead through a series of embarassing encounters with other writers, celebrity book agents, and friends from his old life. It’s a funny short read and perfectly captures the kind of blind drive and self delusion that any artist probably needs to accomplish anything.”
Read more at Librarie D + Q
Praise for Wandering Son Vol. 8
“Shimura Takako’s award-winning, internationally lauded manga series gently and insightfully reflects the gender spectrum on the page. Read the whole series to better understand that while some of the experiences here might be unique, these are all just kids learning to navigate, confront, adapt to swiftly changing feelings and bodies, hearts and minds.”
Read more at the Smithsonian Blog
Jason’s If You Steal
“Jason’s work predominantly explores themes of isolation, loneliness and the difficulties of human interaction through his trademark dry wit and offbeat mastery of dark comedy. Some stories leave you smirking and laughing, others heartbroken and devastated. The majority of them, both.”
Read more at Bleeding Cool
“Jason paces his pages—sometimes cross-cutting between the future and the past, reality and surreality—without once infringing on the fluidity and clarity of his storytelling demonstrates the potential of his disarmingly simple aesthetic and is exemplar of how finely he’s honed it. This stoic, stilted style has the same power as a Wes Anderson tracking shot—the two-dimensional, flat aesthetic of live theater is recreated to charming effect. Part and parcel of this effect is Jason’s use of opaque, relatively muted colors, which recalls the mid-century work of Hergé and Joost Swarte, and this color palette plays into the very understated, innocuous atmosphere that he works hard to create and sustain.”
Read more at A.V. Club
Leah Hayes’ Not Funny Ha-Ha is a New York Times bestseller!
Watch Johnny Ryan in an interview with CBRTV about the leap from Prison Pit to Nickelodeon
The Inkstuds podcast sits down with Robert Gooodin