ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 1/23/17 to 1/29/17

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

COMICS CRITICISM

* Keith Silva takes a long journey through HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE NORTH by Luke Healy. There are many spectacular sights along the way, though one of the best is: "It takes a Dylan-type like Healy, a storyteller, to remind us of our complexity and how the human capacity to inspire and endure runs counter to our need to destroy and to fuck up everyone and everything. It's a wonder we survive at all."

* Rob Clough calls Will Dinski's TRYING NOT TO NOTICE "one of his best" that features "a tricky, disturbing narrative," and I couldn't agree with him more.

* Alex Hoffman reviews JOYRIDE by Zoe Taylor, and says, "If anything presents itself fully in Joyride, it's the raw emotion of the work, the joy, sadness, and regret of the characters."

* I can't say enough good things about the work that Sally Ingraham, Sam Ombiri, Aaron Cockle, Juan Fernandez, and the rest of the gang over at COMICS WORKBOOK are doing with their Daily News. They've introduced me to so much spectacular stuff over the last few months and continue to do so nearly every day.


WHATNOT

* If you haven't been following Andrea Leigh Shockling's web comic THE BEST YEAR OF MY LIFE, this past week's installment is especially beautiful and poignant and heartfelt and understated and strong. Check it out.

* Mike Dawson and Zack Soto chat with NOAH VAN SCIVER over on Study Group's Process Party Podcast. There's a lot of talk about Van Sciver's current work, as well as BLAMMO #9 and the "Golden Age" of Alternative Comics.

* Shea Hennum interviews FRANCOISE MOULY and NADJA SPIEGELMAN about RESIST! -- the arts anthology featuring illustrations and comics from women all around the world, unified under the common theme of resisting fascism, bigotry, and injustice in all its forms. 

* Izabella Tabarovsky's piece for Tablet called THE FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST: THE FILMS OF BORIS MAFTSIR.

* Swapna Krishna's TO PUNCH OR NOT TO PUNCH A NAZI? THAT IS NOT THE QUESTION takes on a number of issues other than the rhetorical question the title asks, including the ideas of privilege and power. 

* Speaking of punching Nazis (something I could be speaking about all day), the fact that Andrea Grimes has to put a disclaimer on her NAZIS, IT'S TIME FOR A COMMON SENSE APPROACH TO NOT GETTING PUNCHED IN THE FACE worries me a little.