ICYMI -- Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 1/24/16 to 1/30/16

Highlighting some great comics criticism being published, as well as other random things that have caught my eye over the past week.

COMICS CRITICISM

* Andy Oliver on Tille Walden's I LOVE THIS PART
* Austin Lanari on Gene Luen Yang's BOXERS AND SAINTS 
* Austin Lanari also wrote about Richard McGuire's HERE
* Chase Magnett on THE VISION #1-3
* Greg Hunter on Suzette Smith's CE/ZE
* Paul Mirek on Carlos Gonzalez's TEST TUBE
* Mark Dickson on AFTER THE GOLD RUSH #1
* AJ McGuire on Lale Westvind's HAX
* David Fairbanks and Mark Stack on LUCIFER #1
* Kyle Garret is still writing about Morrison's ANIMAL MAN

WHATNOT

* Alenka Figa on JANE: DOCUMENTS FROM CHICAGO'S CLANDESTINE ABORTION SERVICES 1968-1973
* Dustin Illingworth on THE PERPETUAL RELEVANCE OF MISS LONELYHEARTS
* David Fairbanks on WHY CRITICS MATTER
* Andrew Yates interviews GILBERT HERNANDEZ
* Noah Berlatsky on the 1997 film AS GOOD AS IT GETS 
* Ryan Ottley sketches a BICORNACLOPS!
* TWO POEMS by Jenna Cardinale

The Bubblemen Are Coming

ICYMI -- Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 1/17/16 to 1/23/16

Highlighting some great comics criticism being published, as well as other random things that have caught my eye over the past week.

COMICS CRITICISM

* Annie Mok on SOLDIER'S HEART by Carol Tyler
* Chris Gavaler's ABSTRACTION BINGO WITH BILL SIENKIEWICZ
* Nick Hanover on Ted McKeever's PENCIL HEAD
* Broken Frontier's 6 SMALL PRESS CREATORS TO WATCH IN 2016
* Pete Redrup on a WHOLE BUNCH OF GREAT BOOKS
* Kyle Garret is still writing about Morrison's ANIMAL MAN
* Scott Cederlund on PLANETES OMNIBUS VOLUME 1

WHATNOT

* Keith Silva interviews David Hine and Alberto Ponticelli about SECOND SIGHT
* Richard Gehr interviews EMILY FLAKE
* TWO POEMS by Laurie Sewall
* HOW INTERSECTIONALITY MAKES YOU STUPID
* Britney Stigler on THE FILMS OF CHANTAL AKERMAN
* Announcing the Broken Frontier SMALL PRESS YEARBOOK

Jürgen Becker's BLACKBIRDS IN SEPTEMBER Silently Stalks the Oddities of Consciousness

I step out of my comics criticism niche and review the selected shorter poems of Jürgen Becker, BLACKBIRDS IN SEMPTEMBER, translated by Okla Elliott and published by Black Lawrence Press.

READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW HERE

There is much to enjoy in Blackbirds in September. Becker’s quiet oddities of consciousness and his quiet celebration of moments don’t come at the expense of the realities of chaos and destruction. He acknowledges the transience of beauty and, in that, elevates its precious nature.

For such an attitude to have come from someone so inured to destruction so early in his life, Jürgen Becker shows his audience the infinite capacity of the poet for creation and understanding.

ICYMI -- Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 1/10/16 to 1/16/16

Highlighting some great comics criticism being published, as well as other random things that have caught my eye over the past week.

COMICS CRITICISM

* Nick Francis Potter's graphic review of Sam Alden's NEW CONSTRUCTION
* Sequential State has been running a great list of COMICS THAT CHALLENGED ME: 2015
* Alexander Lu on SANDMAN: THE KINDLY ONES
* Andy Oliver on TILLIE WALDEN
* Thomas Powers on Garrett Price's WHITE BOY
* Kyle Garret is still writing about Grant Morrison's ANIMAL MAN
* Jason Wilkins on Lovern Kindzierski and GMB Comichuk's UNDERWORLD

WHATNOT

* The Venture Brothers Creators talk about BOWIE
* A.G. Moore's MOURNING A BLACKSTAR: BOWIE AND THE PERFORMANCE OF SELF
* Dangerous Minds on BOWIE
* Tom Ewing on discovering BOWIE
* Tracy K. Smith's poem "DON'T YOU WONDER, SOMETIMES?"
* Sarah Larson's GROWING UP WITH DAVID BOWIE
* Chris Thompson and Michael Shields' BOWIE'S FINAL ALCHEMY
* Momus on BOWIE
* Christian Hoffer on BOWIE'S LASTING INFLUENCE ON GEEK MEDIA
* Lou Anders' tribute to BOWIE

Review: Derek Van Gieson's ENOUGH ASTRONAUT BLOOD TO LAST THE WINTER

Over on Wink, I wrote about Derek Van Gieson's new book, ENOUGH ASTRONAUT BLOOD TO LAST THE WINTER, published by Fantagraphics Underground.

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

While not a graphic novel in the traditional sense, Enough Astronaut Blood to Last the Winter is still narrative. The reader understands mood more than movement, but even in this there is still a beginning, middle, and end. So many of Van Gieson’s inky portraits have a surreal sense of disconnect, as much as they convey discontent. His subjects mostly look away, askance, from the viewer, or have their eyes covered completely by hair or by shadow. Many of the photographs are of his subjects caught in the midst of liminal moments, between this and that, indecisive and unsure of how to proceed. And his prose-poems further the sense of unbecoming that suffuses the book as a whole. They are often grounded in the experience of the day-to-day, yet twist out into hypnagogic landscapes and scenarios, as if the “now” only leads to the impossible and the reality of the minute is unfathomable as it stands.

ICYMI -- Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 1/4/16 to 1/9/16

Highlighting some great comics criticism being published, as well as other random things that have caught my eye over the past week.

COMICS CRITICISM

* Justin Giampaoli (proving you can't keep the greats out of the game) reviews NOW NOWHERE 
* Zainab Akhtar gathers some really smart people for ONE LAST THING: REFLECTING ON COMICS 2015
* Rob Clough on Raina Telgemeier's SISTERS
* Paul Tumy's 20 COMIC FAVORITES OF 2015
* Sarah Horrocks on Hiroaki Samura's DER WERGELDER
* Luke Geddes on THE HUMANS: VOLUME 1
* James Kaplan on PAPER GIRLS
* Sequential State has the first two parts of COMICS THAT CHALLENGED ME IN 2015
* Kyle Garret on Grant Morrison's ANIMAL MAN
* Guy Thomas' TOP TEN FAVORITE COMICS OF 2015

WHATNOT

* Nate Chinin's ON DAVID BOWIE'S BLACKSTAR, TURNING TO JAZZ FOR INSPIRATION
* Ryan Dombal's review of BLACKSTAR
* Amy Lam interviews EBIN LEE
* Alexi Worth on the work of JACK KIRBY for Art in America
* Jeffrey J. Williams on how TOM LUTZ AND THE LA REVIEW OF BOOKS SET OUT TO CREATE A NEW MODEL OF LITERARY REVIEW
* Sarah Winifred Searle interviews MIRANDA HARMON
* LETTER BEGINNING WITH TWO LINES by Czeslaw Milosz
* Dan Moore's HOW LIFE IN SAN FRANCISCO WILL CHANGE AFTER THE TECH BUBBLE BURSTS
* Sandy Lerner's THE SEASON OF THE WENSCH
* THE ART OF HEAVY DRINKING
* Here's a good idea: Cities Look at Subsidized Housing to Stem Teacher Shortages

Adding To More BEST OF Lists: Loser City

Co-mingling is the nature of this Best Of game, as the Loser City crew asked me to name the Best Of which led me to re-purpose and co-mingle my already Best Of for their Best Of leading to another Best Of featuring some of my Best Of and some of their Best Of for a whole new Best Of Experience.

It's the best BEST OF yet.

READ IT HERE

ICYMI -- Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 12/28/15 to 1/3/16

Highlighting some great comics criticism being published, as well as other random things that have caught my eye over the past week.

COMICS CRITICISM

* Keith Silva's review of Charles Forsman's REVENGER ... IS TRAPPED
* Alenka Figa on Laura Pallmall's SPORGO NO. 1
* Rich Barrett's THE 25 BEST COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS OF 2015
* Noah Berlatsky on BDSM in Morrison and Paquette's WONDER WOMAN: EARTH ONE
* Alex Hoffman on Dasha Tolstikova's A YEAR WITHOUT MOM
* Scott Cederlund on LOW VOL 2: BEFORE THE DAWN BURNS US
* Kyle Garret on WHY SO MANY PEOPLE LOVE DICK
* Shawn C. Baker's FAVORITE COMICS OF 2015

WHATNOT

* RJ Casey's final ARTIST OF THE WEEK is Mequitta Ahuja
* Matt Taibbi's IN THE YEAR OF TRUMP, THE JOKE WAS ON US
* Chris Gavaler's ANALYZING COMICS 101: VISUAL SENTENCE VS. PAGE LAYOUT
* While not a gamer myself, I did enjoy clicking some links on Critical Distance's THIS YEAR IN VIDEOGAME BLOGGING
* Christopher M. Jones interviews LAURA KNETZGER -- also, check out the comic they did together, NOTES ON A MISSING PERSON
* Dave McKean animates THE DIARY OF A 13-YEAR-OLD SYRIAN REFUGE
* EDUCATION IN 2015 VISUALIZED
* David Fricke on Bowie's new album BLACKSTAR
* Robin James notes the similarities between Adele's "Hello" and the Trump phenomenon
* Philip Smith on DONALD BARTHLEME
* Brian Hibbs' Tilting at Windmills: TROUBLE ON THE HORIZON?