Best of 2018
London-based retailer Gosh! Comics have selected its best comics of 2018 and Michael DeForge’s Brat makes the Adult list and Ben Sears’ The Ideal Copy makes the Kids list!
On Brat
“DeForge is one of the great chefs of comic books, a brave, experimental force of creative nature that has rarely misstepped.” — Gosh! Comics
On The Ideal Copy
“Grand adventure in the tradition of Tintin and the like, all told with aesthetic somewhere between Maurice Sendak and Wallace and Gromit.” — Gosh! Comics
PopMatters Reviews Space Academy 123
PopMatters reviews the “pleasantly un-novel-like graphic novel experience” Space Academy 123 by Mickey Zacchilli.
“Like most genre fiction, sci-fi is riddled with clichés, ones highlighted by Zacchilli’s aggressively generic title. But rather than delivering her school-in-space tropes in standard futuristic detail, her scribbled artistic and literary style undermines expectations to entertaining, if chaotic, ends.” — Chris Gavaler, PopMatters
Read the whole review right here!
Acker Award to Fiona Smyth
Inspired by the intellectual and theoretical beliefs of Kathy Acker, the Acker Award “celebrates the long-standing creative achievements of local artists of every disciplines whom we recognize for their ground-breaking, unconventional, cutting edge, nonconforming, risk-taking, and community/culture oriented accomplishments.” One of the recipients this year was Fiona Smyth who recently released her career spanning collection Somnambulance. Find out more about the awards right here!
Roaming Foliage Reviewed
Your Chicken Enemy reviews the “romp seemingly unbound by time and space” Patrick Kyle’s Roaming Foliage.
“Profound and silly, abstract yet story-driven, Roaming Foliage encompasses all of the nuances of the wildly talented Canadian comics artist Patrick Kyle… this is Kyle at his finest, using abstract imagery alongside goofball character antics to tell a larger story about friendship and the importance of community.” — John James Dudek, Your Chicken Enemy
Check out the whole review here!
Old Ground Reviewed by Diabolique
Just in time for Halloween, Diabolique magazine reviews Noel Friebert’s freaky Old Ground.
“Friebert finds horror in the desecration of tradition and humor in the face of death’s uncertainty.” — Klon Waldrip, Diabolique
Check out the whole review here!
Chlorine Gardens is on of PW’s Best Books of 2018
Publishers Weekly selects the Best Books of 2018 and Keiler Roberts’ Chlorine Gardens is one of the five best comics of the year!
“The genius of her staccato narrative style is how aptly she conjures both the weight of a major medical diagnosis and a child’s tantrum; the weirdness of her work manages to be both profoundly earthbound and out of this world.” — Publishers Weekly
Check out the whole list here!
Brat Reviewed!
The New York Journal of Books reviews Michael DeForge’s latest: Brat.
“Michael DeForge’s wonderful new graphic novel Brat mocks both celebrity culture and performances of rebellion.” — Annette Lapointe, New York Journal of Books
Check out the whole review here!
Patrick Kyle Interviewed
The Comics Journal is hosting a series of interviews conducted by comics critic Kim Jooha in which they want to “explore the question: What makes Toronto [our hometown!] a great comics city?” The most recent interviewee is Patrick Kyle who recently released Roaming Foliage.
“Kyle’s new book, Roaming Foliage, is his most innovative work yet in page design, style, and structure. He is already significantly influential among young cartoonists.” — Kim Jooha, The Comics Journal
Read the whole interview here!
Roaming Foliage Reviewed
The New York Journal of Books reviews Patrick Kyle’s “Brechtian” Roaming Foliage.
“Kyle’s visual style is as resistant to the mainstream as his publishing approach. While many artists produce anime-influenced, color-saturated worlds with stable rules and characters, Kyle pushes at the boundaries of acceptability.” — Annette Lapointe, New York Journal of Books
Read the entire review here!
Chlorine Gardens Reviewed
Your Chicken Enemy reviews Keiler Roberts’ latest “brutally honest,” but equally funny Chlorine Gardens.
“The key to understanding [Roberts’] work is that though she talks about subjects that are sometimes quotidian and sometimes deeply personal and serious, Roberts always thinks like a performer. However deadpan she might be on a page, she tends to think of whether or not an audience might find this interesting or funny.” — Rob Clough, Your Chicken Enemy
Check out the whole review here!
