Staff Picks Category: Comics

Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld [Graphic Novel]

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This book will tickle the funny bone of readers and writers alike.

Alienation by Inés Estrada [Graphic Novel]

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Alienation is a cinematic and upsetting vision of humanity’s immediate future after climate collapse. In this sci-fi body horror, the colonizers and capitalists of today own the biotechnology that allows Eliza and Carlos to all but exist physically in a vast virtual world. The so-called non playable characters of this virtual reality seem to be evolving past artificial intelligence. Estrada’s monochrome illustrations, beautiful and appropriately mind-bending, feel like the perfect means to explore body sovereignty in a world where technology is created by and for those in power.

A  cautionary and escapist tale.

Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques [Online Resource]

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Questionable Content is a long running, slice-of-life, web comic focusing on a large cast of humans and robots living in a small college town which resembles Northampton to an extent that cannot be ignored. (Scenes are occasionally set at the Smif College library, and a number of characters have been Smif College students or employees. And there are a lot of scenes set in coffee shops and bars.)

The comic includes sci-fi elements, as evidenced by the many artificial intelligences amongst the cast, but the plot is driven by the interpersonal relationships and struggles you would expect in a college town. Dedicated readers return to the comic again and again to follow the evolving story of favorite characters such as Marten, Faye, Dora, and Hannelore and their struggles which include workplace romances, anxiety, addiction, sexual identity, poverty, social awkwardness, and difficult family dynamics.

Despite these weighty topics the tone is generally light. The humor can be crass (Jeff Jacques has a fondness for jokes about sex toys and farts), but is never unkind.

Given the evolution of the strip, I can’t recommend you start at the beginning unless you feel absolutely compelled to do so. New reader’s might instead start with Number 1719 in which Hanelore begins working at Coffee of Doom or Number 2201 just before the introduction of the new library interns Emily, Claire, and Gabby. There are currently well over 4000 comics, so that still leaves plenty to read, and dedicated fans of the comic can always backtrack to explore the comics roots.

The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks [Graphic Novel]

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New graphic nonfiction by Italian comics artist Igort!
Over the past few decades only a small handful of Igort’s work have been translated into English, despite his status as an award winning graphic novelist and the founder of esteemed publishing house Coconino Press, so a new arrival of his to our shores is always a reason for excitement.
For his newest graphic novel Igort spent two years in Ukraine and Russia collecting stories from survivors and witnesses of life under Soviet rule. Focusing on the government sanctioned famine of 1932, and the assassination in 2006 of journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, this collection of deeply affecting interviews is rendered in Igort’s stark yet compassionate illustrative style. A single opening panel just telling the year can pack as much emotion and connotative information as some other artist’s entire novels, simply through his layering of images and line work — a true master of the craft.
Definitely not an easy read in terms of its direct depictions of human atrocities, but certainly one of the most important graphic novels of the year, humanizing events that have mostly been told through a skewed western lens, while also connecting current turmoil in the region to its tumultuous past, helping create a more complete and honest history.

Krazy Kat: the Comic Art of George Herriman [Book, Graphic Novel]

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Krazy Kat was a remarkable and hugely influential daily comic. Found in newspapers around the country for over 30 years, from 1913 and 1944, it would influence comics greats such as Charles M. Schulz, Will Eisner, and Bill Watterson. Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman provides an overview of the life and works of Krazy Kat creator George Herriman, and includes a large collection of beautifully reproduced daily and Sunday Krazy Kat strips.

Herriman’s astonishing Sunday Krazy Kats are reason to pick up this book alone. Giant, free form, brightly colored affairs, unconstrained by the rigid panels of today’s strips, it is the surreal landscapes and innovative design of the Sunday strips for which Herriman is best know, and with good reason. (Fans of Calvin and Hobbes will immediately recognize the influence of these strips on Bill Waterson’s Spaceman Spiff strips.)

Krazy Kat is not particularly funny, but I love reading it. Krazy Kat is dreamlike and poetic, a little bit difficult, and very much worth your while. Full of characters and images you will not forget, this is a bit of comics history you should definitely check out.

Understanding comics by Scott McCloud [Book, Graphic Novel]

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The first book in Scott McCloud’s influential trilogy of comics about comics, “Understanding Comics” is both entertaining and informative. Anyone interested in art and storytelling would enjoy reading this fascinating book.