ICYMI -- Small Press Comics Criticism and Whatnot for 11/617 to 11/12/17

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 

* Rob Clough reviews Anders Nilsen's TONGUES, which he says has "the potential to be Nilsen's best work yet" -- which, if you know Nilsen's work, is high praise indeed.

* AJ Frost writes this really great review of CARTOON CLOUDS by Joseph Remnant, "a testament to the art of the subtle, as well as a bold thesis about the inanities of the millennial experience."

* Carta Monir introduces us to TITTYCHOP BOOBSLASH by Higu Rose, "an extremely good, extremely trans comic" that could be "an excellent resource for any young trans person navigating the healthcare system."

* Shea Hennum reviews RUN FOR IT: STORIES OF SLAVES WHO FOUGHT FOR THEIR FREEDOM by Brazillian cartoonist Marcelo D'Salete (translated by Andrea Rosenberg) about the Brazillian slave trade. Hennum writes, "D'Salete constructs a space of immense humaity. That is, characters and communitess are here afforded depth, complexity, and a multituted of simultaneous emotions. He peoples his stories with love and loss, joy and struggle."

* Phillipe LeBlanc reviews STAGES OF ROT by Lienna Sterte, which "creates a fully realized world just odd enough for us to feel destabilized, yet familiar enough to understand it."

* Angelica Frey writes about I'M NOT HERE by GG from Koyama Press, a book whose "relative visual silence and quiet emphasize the sense of uneasiness that seeps from the pages."

* Tom Baker reviews two books from Glasgow-based small press publisher O Panda Gordo (which has to be one of the best named small press publishers in Glasgow), MONEY WORRIES #1 by Joao Sobral and SPARE ME by Disa Wallander in a piece with a headline that includes  the phrase "Adventures in Capitalism and an Escape in Nature".

* Someone over at Pipedream Comics pens this plot-heavy, open-faced review of GEIS BOOK 2: A GAME WITHOUT RULES by Alexis Deacon, which I link here not for the quality of the review, but because Geis is series more people should know about.

* Ryan C. is genuinely surprised by how much he enjoyed Brian Canini's THE BIG YEAR and does a pretty good job here explaining why. Ryan also features some interesting books on his WEEKLY READING ROUND-UP, notably Mark Beyer's Ne'er-Do-Wellers and Plastic People by Brian Canini.

* Robert Kirby has mini-reviews of the latest four releases of MINI KUS! COMICS which "underscore what makes this publisher a unique, exciting, and valuable branch of the indie comics scene."

* JK Parkin previews Josh Simmons and Patrick Keck's TWILIGHT OF THE BAT.

* Sean Edgar previews the final volume of Jason Shiga's DEMON from First Second.

WHATNOT

* Mike Dawson and Zack Soto interview SARAH HORROCKS about her new series, Goro, plus "her writing and drawing process, philosophy of pacing both within a story and a page, mark making vs. legibility, and staying true to the emotional content of the work over traditional styles of representation."

* Matthew James-Wilson interviews JESSE JACOBS about his new book, Crawl Space, as well as "nature, drugs, religion, and how to avoid making the same work twice."

* Hillary Brown interviews BRIGITTE FINDAKLY and LEWIS TRONDHEIM about their book, Poppies of Iraq.

* Over on the Comics Alternative, Derek interviews JOSEPH REMNANT about his new book, Cartoon Clouds.

* Alex Dueben ALSO interviews JOSEPH REMNANT about Cartoon Clouds.

* Tom Spurgeon has this brief interview with the new CAB co-curator MATTHEW JAMES-WILSON.

* The Spring 2018 lineup from CONUNDRUM PRESS seems to be filled with some interesting books. Check it out.

* Lucy Bourton talks about the amazing ANIMATION ABOUT BI-POLAR DISORDER created by Uncle Ginger for TedEx.

* Phyllis Chesler puts forth this amazing bit of writing on Angela Sells' new book, SABINA SPIELREIN: THE WOMAN AND THE MYTH, "a case history of pathological patriarchy, anti-Semitism, Stalinism, Nazism, and genocide. It is also the story of an incredible pioneering thinker whose ideas were freely 'borrowed' by the Great Men of Psychoanalysis whose followers conspired in defaming and demonizing Spielrein's character and all traces of her subsequent 30-year history of intellectual and clinical work."