ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 10/30/17 to 11/5/17

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

* Brian Salvatore pens this short review of MIS(H)ADRA by Iasmin Omar Ata.

* Keith Silva and David Fairbanks write about KATIE SKELLY AND THE VAMPIRIC PRINCIPLE OF SELF-DISCOVERY over on Loser City, looking at Skelly's My Pretty Vampire and what makes it tick. It's a deep-dive good read that even uses the term, "gestalt default".

* Anna Sellheim on MARLYS by Lynda Barry.

* Whit Taylor presents an excerpt from MK Czerwiec's TAKING TURNS: STORIES FROM HIV/AIDS CARE UNIT 371, "believed to be the first graphic memoir created by a nurse."

* Jenny Robins on A SMALL REVOLUTION by Boum. "This elegantly sketched small world in which our anti-heroine lives and loves deeply holds our complex, unromantic, individualistic world accountable to a simple child's perspective on justice."

* John Seven has this quick review of B. Mure's ISMYRE from Avery Hill Books.

* Jason Sacks reviews DUST ELVES: MISTAKEN IDENTITY by Gordon Harris, in which Harris "creates a world of small secrets and shared imaginations, a miniature universe inside kids' heads where children show their complexity and readers feel a curious mix of nostalgia and empathy."

* Alex Thomas writes down his thoughts on Tillie Walden's SPINNING.

* Henry Chamberlain reviews Julia Wertz's TENEMENTS, TOWERS, AND TRASH: AN UNCONVENTIONAL ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY published by Black Dog and Leventhal, "a dazzling book collecting a treasure trove of insight and information and making it all feel like a carefee conversation."

* Christine Ro writes this short piece called, 3 INTRIGUING COMICS THAT PLAY WITH FORM.

* Over on The Quietus, Pete Redrup and Jenny Robins do short reviews of a veritable shit-ton of great small press comics on their OCTOBER COMICS ROUND UP COLUMN. 

* Speaking of round-ups (which is what you do in a round-up column, I guess), Ottawa's own Phillipe LeBlanc has his round-up over on The Beat called SMALL PRESS AND INDIE COMICS GALORE, which may be the only place you'll find a round-up of Ottawa Comics News on the internet???

WHATNOT

* Mike Dawson and Zack Soto interview TILLIE WALDEN on Process Party, and talk "fiction vs autobio, writing and drawing process, her compulsion to work, career thus far, CCS, subtweeting, trauma, memory, the cruelty of teenagers, and, of course, a little bit about ice skating."

* Alex Dueben interviews GARETH HINDS about his new book, Poe, from Candlewick Press. Poe "adapts a number of Edgar Allan Poe's stories and poems into comics form".

* Kim O'Connor pens AN OPEN LETTER TO DAN DIDIO.

* Monica Uszerowicz reviews Rindon Johnson's new book of poems, SHADE THE KING, published by Capricious, and illustrated by Ser Serpas.

* Last week's MUST-READ is this comic by Ben Passmore: WHOSE FREE SPEECH? BLACK LIVES MATTER, THE ACLU, AND RESPECTABILITY POLITICS.