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  Paperxi (paper 11) is an OLD web comic created by Dan Kim (@clone.manga on Twitter) This 2003-2005 webcomic is a completed series and a nightmare to interpret, though well worth any speculation. Premise: 14-year-old Maya survives a terrible train accident only to find herself in a strange world where people, places, and souls are made of paper. Now, hunted and alone, she has 11 days to find the bodies, reconstruct the accident, and return home. This blew my mind a bit.. it is basically impossible to talk about.. this was a beast unto itself.. I do not know that the premise is a fair description. Maya survives, but nowhere in the plot is there any indication that ‘souls are made of paper’ or that Maya needs to find bodies.. does she find some? Absolutely, but i would be hardpressed to say it was on purpose. The comic is primarily in black and white, with some red added in later frames. The contrast is so harsh that on some pages, you question what you are even looking at...

  Tara O’Conner via Oni Press - ‘The Altered History of Willow Sparks’ Pretty good graphic novel, clocking at 154 artful pages. Doubtful it will rank in your best of all time list, but you won’t regret reading it either. Willow Sparks picks up the well worn concept of rewriting history. Willy, as her friends call her, finds a secret room in the public library where she works. Finding a book with her name on the spine, she realizes that editing the book edits reality. Willy then uses the book to do exactly that, losing friends and succumbing to social pressures in the process. Stand out artistic concept here is the revenge of the book, making skin take on black inky veins and permanent discoloration when abused. Big props to the author for including draft art, showing the evolution of her designs. Also, for her authoring soundtrack and a hilarious count of coffee consumption.

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys - graphic novel collection of six singles, The Big Lie follows the trend of taking wholesome juvenile characters and drag them into a darker shadow. We saw this with archie and others, all well done. I believe that #anthonydelcoln, #wertherdelledera , and Dynamite Comics have produced another great schism in the trend. The Big Lie tracks the Hardy Boys as they are interrogated and blamed for the murder of their father. Shortly after, we see Drew has suggested they purposeful enter the limelight in an attempt to flush out evidence. The comic continues down the path as the trio break into a police dept to steal evidence, join forces with drug dealers, and influence scenarios leading to another murder. Drew and the Hardys are officially in legal gray space, operating under the guise that they are beyond the law until the law can be trusted. The art was amazing, seeming to focus a bit more detail on Nancy while the Boys were left typically in a grimier and...

  Ehrm…. Huh.. Nope. It wasnt a bad book, it was just a bit meh.. The only reason I finished reading The Bully by KJ Kwon was that it was suuuper short. Clocking in at 66 pages, I buckled down and just finished it since it was in my hand. Guy (I do not believe a name was ever used) works in an AD agency. His boss, Director Dabin Huh, is overbearing, emotionally abusive, and good at hiding it to her own bosses. After avoiding Dabin’s sexual advances, Guy feels like he is haunted by a terribly abrasive and unreasonable boss as well as after hours by a devil. Story has paranormal elements for sure, but it felt crazy rushed and difficult to justify the pace. Arc copy, wouldnt have bought this. zoom of the cover, not sure what it is yet.

  James Bond 007 in Black Box Dynamite Comics 2017 release has James Bond working to collect a hard drive of international leaks, secrets that will sink every superpower and give the owner of the data the power to corrupt any government. Currently it is in the hands of a Japanese tech mogul with ties to the Yakuza. This graphic novel, a collection of singles, was pretty good, but great would be a stretch. Maybe I am growing out of my interest for 007, or perhaps it doesn’t translate well to comic. I enjoyed it, the art was pretty great, but what would normally be a 2+ hour film was a diluted plot with a sub par enemy, and a recurring faceless antagonist that all felt watered down. More interesting than the comic was an interview provided The Oregonian (newspaper) and a sample of the first issue original storyboards and script (better than the comic) Worth reading, but don’t shuffle your TBR Pile Review based off a copy received for review purposes

  The Princess and the Clown, a novella from Ian Thomas Malone was an outstandingly fucked up book. Not a fan of Bizarro fiction? Maybe stay away from this one. While not explicitly Bizarro, it is a hair’s breadth away and we shall not be fickle in description. Not to be confused with the children’s book by the same name, or the mid 1920s French film, Malone’s work is a drug and sex fueled social wreck set in between children’s birthday parties and drunken bar time. Jango (Ralph) is a forty-something once famous clown, smoking - drinking - stealing pills from bathrooms at his gigs. Strangely enough, Princess Aurora (Jules) is also a 40ish drunk druggie pill thief. Circumstances introduce them while the kiddos finished up a piñata or something… Jango ends up in face first in stifling Southern California heat, layers of tulle and Jule’s thighs. Things ‘go down’ pretty fast from there as both individuals attempt to forget their depression and self loathing while attempting to make a ...

Mishadra .. It took some looking around to understand the parenthetical title (H). In A rabic  misadra = "S eizure"  and mishadra = "I c annot" A fitting and incredibly nuanced title for Iasmin Omar Ata’s deep dive into pain and despair felt when a person perceives themselves as alone, burdensome, and dismissed by the medical community. Phenomenal Graphic Novel Isaac, an Arab American college student, is five years deep into his new norm with epilepsy. Each day he gets further and further removed from his friends and family. Isaac’s epilepsy is visualized as strings of pearls with knives and eyeballs. Anytime he is triggered (dehydration, exhaustion, stress) the blades come out in a menacing, but pseudo protective way. Early in the book, the implied violence gains a footing as Isaac loses an eye during a seizure. Mishadra follows the mental turmoil of Isaac as he struggles to cope and pushes to retain his new friendship with Jo, the only person he has ever honestly...