Category: book review

638 results.

Graphic Novel Review: The Perineum Technique

By Gene Ambaum on August 6, 2019 at 11:21 am

The Perineum Technique by Florent Rupert and Jérôme Mulot. Fantagraphics, 2019. 9781683961833. 104pp. JH becomes a bit obsessed with Sarah, who he meets on a dating app. They’ve had Skype booty calls, but he wants to meet in person. They finally do, at a masked swingers party where he falls asleep in her lap. Afterward she tells him about the perineum technique, which, through contracting a muscle, will allow him to stop ejaculating but still have an orgasm, and then continue having sex. JH starts practicing the technique while working on his videos (he’s an artist). Via text Sarah tells him that if he doesn’t ejaculate for four months she’ll see him again when she’s back from a trip to Las Vegas. JH practices the technique, gets hornier and hornier, and as he becomes more and more obsessed with sex images inspired by Sarah that start to take over his video work. I laughed so many times while reading this […]

Graphic Novel Review: Tyler Cross: Angola

By Gene Ambaum on August 1, 2019 at 10:21 am

Tyler Cross: Angola by Fabien Nury, art by Brüno. Translated by Tom Imber. Titan Comics / Hard Case Crime, 2019. 9781785867316. 104pp. Publisher’s Rating: Suggested for Mature Readers. – Tyler Cross left his beach house and his chica to help with an insurance scam, and he ended up in Angola. The prison is unforgiving — he has to do hard labor as part of a chain gang, and the Sicilian gang inside puts out a contract on him. After a cop tries to kill him, he needs to form an escape plan. Step 1: Befriend the man who is spending time with the prison Captain’s wife. Step 2: Scoop out someone’s eyes. (It’s not the most straightforward of plans.) – I’ve enjoyed Brüno’s art in two graphic novels, Nemo (a beautiful adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and a western titled Junk (still only available in French, I think). His drawings always look a bit more cartoony than gritty, […]

Graphic Novel Review: Cannonball

By Gene Ambaum on July 30, 2019 at 11:50 am

Cannonball by Kelsey Wroten. Uncivilized Books, 2019. 9781941250334. 264pp. – Recent art school grad Caroline Bertram seems to be going nowhere. She’s trying to write but is not satisfied with the results. Her gig copy-editing medical textbooks is shitty, and so is her attitude, but she doesn’t want to apply for a better job. She takes in a cat, befriends her bro neighbors, and finds a new hero, a champion woman wrestler called Cannonball. She does finally finish writing a book, which sets up the hilarious second part of the book. – I absolutely love Wroten’s art — every page is great, and it switches to different styles to show us some Caroline’s works in progress. It’s a great example of a simple-looking drawing style used to its fullest potential, and the coloring is magnificent. My favorite things about the book: the casual, occasional nudity, the frequent rants, Caroline’s dad chewing her ass (I never want to be like that […]

Graphic Novel Review: Sea Sirens

By Gene Ambaum on July 25, 2019 at 10:51 am

Sea Sirens (A Trot & Cap’n Bill Adventure) by Amy Chu and Janet K. Lee. Viking, 2019. 9780451480170. 144pp. – Trot surfs Huntington beach with her cat, Cap’n Bill, while her grandpa fishes. Her grandpa has dementia, and after he wanders off, Trot’s mom says they both have to stay home when she’s not around. But Trot sneaks out to go surfing when her grandpa is taking a nap. Cap’n Bill falls off their board, and then, under the waves, he helps some mermaids battle a group of serpents. (After Trot goes to look for him they are both granted the ability to breathe underwater.) The sea sirens are all quite taken with Bill — they’ve never seen a creature like him — and they give him the power to speak, too. Soon Trot, Bill, and their new friends are on a rescue mission to the deepest trench in the ocean. – The story is more fun and dreamlike than […]

Book Review: Bloody Rose

By Gene Ambaum on July 23, 2019 at 9:00 am

Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames. Orbit, 2018. 9780316362535. 560pp. This is a sequel to one of the funniest fantasy novels I’ve ever read, Kings of the Wylde. Unlike the first book in the series, it’s not about a bunch of middle-aged adventurers getting back together; instead it’s an epic fantasy novel that’s got a lot to say about family. (The first book did, too, but it’s a much stronger element here.) Click on the comic below to see a larger version.  

Book Review: Perfect Little World

By Gene Ambaum on July 18, 2019 at 9:00 am

Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson. Ecco, 2017. 9780062450326. 352pp. This is an amazing novel about a strong young woman who finds herself pregnant, and then joins a research project to try to create a perfect childhood for her kid. Below is a wordless, visual booktalk for the book.  Click on the image to see a larger version.  

Graphic Novel Review: Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me

By Gene Ambaum on July 16, 2019 at 9:00 am

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell. First Second, 2019. 9781626722590. 304 black and white and pink pages. – Frederica “Freddy” Riley is 16, lives in Berkeley, and is in love with Laura Dean, who doesn’t treat her very well. As in, Laura Dean keeps cheating on Freddy and then dumping her and then getting back together. It’s a bit of a disaster. Luckily Freddy has supportive friends, but it’s clear she’s alienating them, too — they’re tired of helping her pick up the pieces, and of dropping them whenever LD offers her a little attention. And it’s not like Freddy doesn’t realize there’s a problem — she’s writing to an advice columnist for help — but she doesn’t seem able to help herself. – I loved everything about this book, from the way the characters’ sexual orientations were mostly a non-issue to the artful use of pinkness throughout. This is an entertaining, complicated […]

Graphic Novel Review: Bad Gateway

By Gene Ambaum on July 11, 2019 at 9:00 am

Bad Gateway by Simon Hanselmann. Fantagraphic, 2019. 9781683962076. 176pp including a number of beautiful paintings of Meg that capture Hanselmann’s love for her, and an uncolored, two-page summary to catch you up on the story of Meg (a green witch), Mogg (her boyfriend, a cat), and Owl (their “friend” and now former roommate). – The rent is due, and without Owl around Meg and Mogg and Werewolf Jones are in trouble because they’ve spent all their money to get high. Mogg gets a job at a cat cafe. Werewolf Jones pitches a plan that involves hiding in a fake arcade cabinet and getting a hand job. Meg heads for the welfare office where she puts on a spectacular “presentation” about why she needs benefits. All that is over by page 48, and if you haven’t laughed out loud by then you should probably close the book. I could fill this pitch with grim details, but it wouldn’t do the book […]

Graphic Novel Review: Through a Life

By Gene Ambaum on July 9, 2019 at 9:00 am

Through A Life by Tom Haugomat. Nobrow, 2018. 9781910620496. 184pp. – Nobrow’s books are always beautiful, but this one wowed me. Each two-page spread is a moment from a year in the life of a red-haired dude named Rodney, starting when he’s in the womb (1955) (in Ketchikan, Alaska), to an incubator (1956), then a crib (1957). With little variation, the left page is Rodney, looking out of wherever he is, and on the right is what he sees (usually in a window or something window-like). I loved it from the moment I saw the Star Trek posters on his wall (in high school), when he watched Planet of the Apes on TV, and then saw Alien in a theater (like I did, even though I was much younger than him when that happened). There’s personal and newsworthy tragedy woven in as Rodney’s interest in space pushes him to study it, and then enter NASA’s astronaut program. The drawings are […]

Graphic Novel Review: The Iliad

By Gene Ambaum on July 4, 2019 at 9:00 am

The Iliad: A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds. Candlewick Press, 2019. 9780763681135. 272 pp. including author’s notes, a map showing where the armies gathered at Troy came from, a prologue, page-by-page notes, and a bibliography. – Hinds’ graphic novel adaptations of classics are always beautifully painted and worth reading. They remind me of things I’d forgotten (or, more often, they teach me the truth of what I saw in movies). Reading this I learned that The Iliad doesn’t include the entire siege of Troy, or even Achilles’ death. Instead it ends with Hector’s burial, after Hector’s father Priam begs Achilles to let him return his son’s body to Troy. All of this happens after Achilles not only kills Hector but drags his bloody body behind his chariot for a fair while, by leather straps threaded through Hector’s heels. And that is after the Achaeans gather around and stab Hector’s body, after a fight to the death. This book’s most entertaining […]