I reviewed four fall comics collections and graphic novels for The Minnesota Star Tribune:
In her classic graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (the book which, more than any other, introduced the graphic novel into the literary canon), Alison Bechdel uses numerous literary references (Proust, Henry James, Greek mythology) and allusions when describing her upbringing and members of her family.
As Bechdel explains in the book, this was not a tactic for distancing or adding importance to mundane matters. Viewing her life through an artistic framework was just what came naturally:
I employ these allusions to James and Fitzgerald not only as descriptive devices, but because my parents are the most real to me in fictional terms…
My round-up of four fascinating new graphic novels just ran in the Minnesota Star-Tribune:
Four new graphic novels cover a gamut of subjects, from a serious-minded study of Charles M. Schulz’s artistic legacy to the quiet, creatively turbulent life of Jane Austen and a pair of memoirs, one about a trauma-haunted love life and the other about growing up in Wisconsin’s ginseng capital…
One of the best, most welcome surprises of 2014 was James Gunn’s first Guardians of the Galaxy. I revisited that as part of a 10-year retrospective at Eyes Wide Open:
There’s a lot to appreciate — and maybe even love — about the original Guardians of the Galaxy. The eager-to-please sprawl of Gen-X references, from Mom’s ’70s pop music mixtape to hero Peter Quill (Chris Pratt, surfer-dude sly) romancing the green-skinned assassin babe Gamora (Zoe Saldana) by referencing the “legend” of Footloose. Banter threaded slyly through the action instead of airdropped in by producers demanding test-screening-approved humor beats. A talking raccoon skilled in jail-breaks and bomb-making. A genocidal villain thwarted by a dance-off. The two-hour running time, practically unheard-of brevity for modern blockbusters. David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream”. Howard the Duck…
Myself and a number of other (far more estimable) writers were asked to vote on the best graphic novels of the year for Publishers Weekly.
For the second year in a row, the top spot on PW’s annual graphic novel critics poll is shared by two titles. The debut graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls (MCD) and the graphic novel Victory Parade by Leela Corman (Schocken) both received a total of five votes from PW’s panel of 11 critics. These powerful works, while distinctive in style, are remarkably similar in theme, with both delving into the inheritance of trauma across generations, particularly depicted through the fraught dynamics of mothers and daughters…
My latest graphic novel roundup for the Minnesota Star-Tribune ran over the weekend:
Four new graphic novels showcase a range of approaches and subjects, from deadpan horror comedy to a subversive retelling of an American classic, a fantasy adventure about a magical world next to our own and an odds-and-ends collection from an American master that is more than the sum of its parts…
On my way to last week’s New York Comic Con, I overheard an attendee telling a non-geek civilian that it was “bigger than San Diego.” I silently scoffed. Then I arrived at Javits.
Not sure how the final attendance numbers worked out in this comic East Coast-West Coast beef, but given the thousands of people swarming the booths, inhaling chicken fingers on the go, running for all the exclusive collectible sales, and taking pics with various roaming cosplayers (plenty of Ghostbusters and Lady Deadpools, along with the odd Darth Maul and Son Goku), New York is clearly giving San Diego competition.
I was there covering the annual ICv2 state of the industry talk (2023 numbers are down a bit from 2022 but still substantially up from pre-COVID) and related panel discussions (when in doubt, get Keanu Reeves to lead your comic Kickstarter campaign) for Publishers Weekly.
I interviewed cartoonist Charles Burns (Black Hole) about his new graphic novel Final Cut and the creative block that led up to it for Publishers Weekly:
Whenever he tried to start a new project, it fizzled out. “I went for months and years,” Burns, 68, says via phone from Philadelphia. “This is shit,” he remembers saying to himself. “I should know how to do this.” Facing what he calls the worst creative frustration of his career, he found himself thinking, “Maybe this is it. Maybe I don’t have anything at all.”
So, to prove he still had something in the tank, Burns set himself a small goal: finishing a seven-page story. If he couldn’t do that, he told himself, he’d have to start doing something else…
Final Cut comes out in September.
When we think of Snoopy and writing, we think of that determined beagle hammering away at his sentences, trying to figure out how to follow his opening line, “It was a dark and stormy night.”
Not an easy task.
But he also had to face rejection. One of the great Peanuts strips showed Snoopy writing a response to a publisher’s rejection letter.
I think there might have been a misunderstanding. What I really wanted was for you to publish my story, and send me fifty thousand dollars.
Is your story worth fifty thousand dollars? Maybe yes, maybe no. But acting like it is never hurt.
A round-up of some great new graphic novels ran in this Sunday’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
These four graphic novels tell compelling stories, from a girl navigating life’s chaos through horror comics to a compilation of often misunderstood comic strips and from the meta-comedic struggles of a compulsively self-referential novelist to a frank memoir of historical trauma and familial re-connection…
Publishers Weekly‘s annual critics poll of the year’s best graphic novels came out today. I was one of the lucky contributors who put in their two cents. Happily, some of my favorites made the cut, such as:
I covered a quartet of great new graphic novels out this winter for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
Four graphic novels, among the many fascinating titles hitting stores this winter, delve into a range of subjects: the stark politics and emotional legacy of the Mariel boatlift, a family’s fraught experiences with digital reincarnation, thrilling exploits of hip-hop’s pioneers and a graphic adaptation of a beloved Italian book series…
My latest graphic novel roundup was published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
If you think graphic novels tend to focus on people who get superpowers from spider bites or radioactive experiments gone wrong, think again.
Four of this summer’s best graphic novels cover topics as wide-ranging as the sexual exploits of writer Anaïs Nin, “the talk” Black parents have with their kids in an attempt to keep them safe, the race to build an atomic bomb and, OK, super-heroic He-Man. The illustration styles are as varied as the subject matter of these four titles…
I interviewed Zippy the Pinhead creator Bill Griffith about his new book on the mastermind behind the comic strip Nancy. Griffith is speaking about the book, Three Rocks, with Matt Groening at San Diego Comic Con.
My interview ran in Publishers Weekly:
How do you feel about going to Comic-Con?
It’s not my turf—I don’t find too many readers who are doing Spider-Man cosplay. Although I would love it if somebody did Nancy and Sluggo cosplay while I’m in San Diego. Then I would forgive them all of their transgressions.
I recently had the great honor of talking with the great David Simon (The Wire, Treme, Generation Kill) about policing, writing, crime, and the graphic novel adaptation of his classic study of a Baltimore detective unit, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.
A part of my interview with Simon is at Publishers Weekly:
… They took a vote and only three guys wanted me to be there. The rest thought it was a terrible idea. But, it not being a democracy, they put me in the unit anyway. Nobody was hostile. They got used to me. One guy, Terry McLarney, we were drinking at the bar and he said, “I see what you’re doing. This isn’t really about the cases. This is about us.” I said, “Don’t tell anyone” …
Chris Barsanti 
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