Comics Anthology Review: I Feel Machine

I Feel Machine. Edited by Krent Able and Julian Hanshaw. SelfMadeHero, 2018. 9781910593554. 128pp.

Hanshaw and Able edited and contributed to this anthology of short comics centered on technology. Somehow I wasn’t aware of it, despite the A-list contributors, until I found it on my library shelves last week. Box Brown’s “Uploading,” a story about a future in which, after 1000 years of life folks upload themselves to a central server, is worth picking up the book for. (Uploading really reduces the lag time for gaming!) Shaun Tan’s pencils for his “Here I Am” are amazing, as is the tale itself, which centers on a little girl living in a world with creatures that, to others, might seem weird and horrific. (When a visitor like her tries to rescue her, to convince her that place isn’t her home, she doesn’t buy it.) Tillie Walden’s “Contours” is about a world in which, when technology became self-aware, it did what it was designed to do and tried to fix the problem it saw. Great story! And Walden’s coloring is, as always, stunning. The tale by Swedish artist Erik Svetoft is a weird techno-heist story (I love the way he draws faces); Hanshaw’s story is so strange I’m still puzzling over it (and the creator’s chicken, Joanie); and Able’s contribution puts a violent and horrific exclamation point at the end of the book.

All in all this is an entertaining comics anthology featuring creators using a diverse range of art styles whose work you may might want to try or already want to see more of.

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