I picked this up after spotting it in last year’s Best of list (link).

This is apparently a semi-autobiographical book about Lynda Barry, her childhood and her teenage years.

Turns out it’s also a book about me, my childhood and my teenage years. How can that be? After all, Lynda Barry and I, we are nothing alike - we grew up in different places, in different time periods, we have different nationalities, ethnicities and genders; we look and dress differently and our families are different.

And yet, this book is one of the most personal that I have read in a long time. Reading the funny and poignant stories within surfaced deeply personal recollections from my own childhood and teenage years. I remembered friends, places, events and objects that I had not thought of for decades - and yet which form a part of me in a way that things from a week ago never will.

And while I wasn’t there when my partner was growing up, I intuitively know that this book is about her too. About things that she either did or experienced. Likewise, I am sure that this is a book about YOU, dear reader, too.

There are many works that can transport you to another world. An imaginary world. This is a rare work that can transport you to the semi-imaginary world of your own past. Just let Lynda Barry, with her wisdom and kindness, show you the way there.

My rating: 10/10 Highly recommended

In this dark fantasy you will encounter:

• Knights! - It’s incredibly cool to see so many detailed scenes of armoured knights fighting. The sheer scale of these battlefield scenes is mind-boggling.

• Motion! - The art throughout is both beautiful and technically masterful. The way motion and speed are conveyed through multiple renderings in the same panel is especially delightful.

• Humour! - It’s a surprise there is any humour at all in such a grim story, but it’s there. Guts even has a comedy sidekick (not pictured).

• Monsters! - Now mostly the monsters in Berserk are horrific abominations (I think Kentaro Miura had H.P. Lovecraft, H.R. Giger and H. Bosch as his assistants). But there are also some classic tropes, including the loveable skeleton horde.

• Feels! - All of the craft would be for nothing if it didn’t grab you emotionally. If even Guts gets the feels, you will too.

Some of you will probably be wondering whether a series as lauded as Berserk even needs a post like this. Well, I personally slept on it for years. I think what held me back were the uninspiring covers and the daunting length of the series. Fortunately, it is quite feasible to take a break after the Golden Age arc which concludes in the 5th Deluxe volume (which is where I am right now, so please no spoilers beyond that).

I had also looked at the first few pages of Volume 1 and got the impression that it was just a schlock horror tale. After all, the series starts off with a throwaway scene of the main character having sex with a demon. But actually that opening is a very helpful litmus test. If you know you are too young or too sensitive for that scene, then don’t read on! If “The Golden Age of Science Fiction is Twelve” then the “The Golden Age of Berserk is Eighteen Plus”.

Berserk is certainly a very dark series… but the horror is not taken lightly and it’s not all grimdark, as my examples show. It’s a story about love and trauma, following a leader and finding your own path, the cost of ambition and the burden of revenge.

Neat indeed, huh?

I realised that my current favourite release of 2025 is by an author who seems largely unknown in the English-speaking world.

La Ville (French for “The City”) is a wordless graphic novel I picked up while on holiday in France. I was fortunate to have it recommended to me in a French comics shop. I had never heard of Nicolas Presl, but the book looked interesting. Back home, I looked him up and found virtually no coverage in English-language spaces, despite him being quite prolific and his works being wordless and therefore universal. It feels like a major oversight! Based on the quality of La Ville, he deserves to be widely known.

Visually, Presl’s style here feels to me like a crazy mix of cubist Picasso and Charles Burns. It is stylised but always clear. In terms of the content, the story is a cross between George Romero and Michel Houellebecq. I read somewhere that zombies tap into a fear of the masses of the poor, the underclass and the alien. This comic takes that concept and relentlessly shambles forward with it. Each chapter reveals more of the world and repeatedly throws a spanner into the lives of the main characters. There is sex and violence, surprises and twists, with the whole story morphing from one thing into another - and the main characters actually undergo genuine changes. I loved it!

Actually getting hold of Presl’s books could be a challenge. Probably the best place to start is the website of Atrabile, his Francophone Swiss publisher: https://atrabile.org/catalogue/livres/la-ville/. There are generous previews of each book on there. His books have also been released in Poland, and since they are wordless, it shouldn’t matter which edition you get.

I have already got hold of his previous book - La Jungle - and am looking forward to reading it.

• The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean “Mœbius” Giraud (8/10)

• Un Océan d’amour by Wilfrid Lupano and Grégory Panaccione (transl. “A Sea of Love”) (8/10) (not pictured)

• La Réparation by Nina Bunjevac (my transl. “The Repair”) (8/10) (not pictured)

• Arzach by Jean “Mœbius” Giraud (7/10) (not pictured)

• Вор Теней (Thief of Shadows) by Kirill Kutuzov, Alexey Volkov and Alexey Gorboot (7/10)

• Search & Destroy vol 1 by Atsushi Kaneko (6/10)

• Captain Momo’s Secret Base vol 1 by Kenji Tsuruta (3/10)

Here are some thoughts on the books:

The Incal

I envy those who read this back in the 80s. I can only imagine how mind-blowing, innovative and revolutionary The Incal would have been then! These days it remains very impressive, but there are so many more works of the imagination available now (including works likely inspired by The Incal - see for example, the art of the Monoist faction in MtG’s Edge of Eternities) that the effect is reduced.

It goes without saying that Mœbius’ art is amazing and is the main draw. But I also want to give a shout-out to the three colorists who worked with him (Chaland, Beaumeney-Joannet and Janjetov) because the colours are beautiful, with the most incredible shades of green in particular.

I feel it’s held back by Jodorowsky’s limitations as a writer. I’ve read his Metabarons and had the same impression. He is wonderfully creative and visionary, but there is not enough structure to his stories - it feels like just one episode after another. Apparently, Jodorowsky did not have an overall script - and it shows! Sure, there are many mini-twists, but nothing gut-wrenching, because I never got the pause needed for a deeper connection with the characters.

Still, the story is enjoyable and playful. The pacing is brisk, and it feels like the creators were just having fun inventing one outlandish scenario after another. I wonder if they played D&D at all, because their meandering tale feels like an old school D&D adventure - unstructured, impromptu, one thing leads to another, with overarching connections being discovered along the way, rather than planned out in advance.

There are various spiritual and occult references, with the protagonist combining the Fool, the Hanged Man and John Dee in his Futuro-Elizabethan dress. Themes of reincarnation, cosmic love and mystical impregnation abound, but honestly I’m not sure if these references have genuine depth or are just stage props.

The influence of Dune is unmistakeable - and no wonder, given that the creators worked on a Dune film before this. I also wonder if they had access to the UK’s 2000 AD and the visions of Mega-City One there. If anyone can help me fill in the details, that would be appreciated!

Reading The Incal unlocked a personal achievement for me - I have now read all of the top 10 of r/graphicnovel’s Top 100 list (link). It’s a great list and I’ve read about half of it in total.

A Sea of Love

This is a charming, wordless adventure that’s both funny and surprisingly dramatic. The story takes delightfully unpredictable turns, yet everything makes sense because the art does all the work, especially in showing the characters’ emotions. It’s a wonderful story: heartfelt, silly, and full of warmth. Good sailing, good fun.

La Réparation

Can your adult self go back in the past and give courage and reassurance to the child you were? Can a child look forward to that?

This is a wordless comic in which the author as an adult revisits her childhood trauma. It is poignant and to the point.

I particularly loved the image in the endpapers of the caduceus - with the staff replaced by a fountain pen.

Why not a higher score? It felt too short. I get that it was intentionally a short book, part of a series of short wordless comics. But I’m currently reading Lynda Barry (spoiler: it’s superb!) and any single chapter there feels just as heartbreaking and personal.

Thief of Shadows

This is a Russian comic, so I’m not sure if or when it will become available in translation. It has a great cover - showing the pyramid as a literal portal into the weirdness lurking behind the grey humdrum reality.

The main appeal is Alexey Gorboot’s pulpy artwork, with its bold lines and vivid colours. His style is very recognisable and was recently featured on the cover of Wyrd Science, a wonderful UK magazine about rpgs and tabletop games (link).

Having said that, I actually think Gorboot’s earlier black and white fantasy works (Necromancers of Zothique and Erekshigal) are his best, but they will be even harder to track down.

The story itself is fine, but nothing special. It feels like a very light version of something that Grant Morrison could have written back in the 90s.

Arzach

Four wordless stories, increasingly less coherent, about a pterodactyl rider.

Alright, maybe having Jodorowsky on writing duties wasn’t such a bad idea? This starts off as a fun sword & sorcery tale with a twist (reminiscent of early Armies stories by Dionnet, Picaret and Gal). But by the third tale, it unravels into psychedelia.

Mœbius’ drawings are gorgeous, of course. The desolate, post-apocalyptic landscape is vivid and the chunky pterodactyl is cute. This didn’t engage me much, but honestly, a book can’t be too bad if it features a pterodactyl rider!

Search & Destroy vol 1

Search & Destroy is a retelling of Tezuka’s Dororo (similar to how Pluto reimagined Astro Boy). I haven’t read all of Dororo, but its beginning (the preview on Amazon is very generous) maps to the beginning of the Search & Destroy series. Unfortunately, the comparison does the new version few favours.

I liked the art direction here, with its mix of vagrant androids and quasi-Soviet sculpture and brutalist architecture.

However, the changes in the narrative structure were unsuccessful.

Dororo started with a clear protagonist, created an “impossible” situation for him and then piled on threat after threat. Tezuka’s approach immediately created sympathy and tension.

Search & Destroy flips that script by starting with the villains and treating the main character as a mysterious executioner figure. The intention must have been suspense, but it creates distance instead. I felt little sympathy or connection with the anonymous part-machine hunting other part-machines. Especially as her targets are just not as interesting as Tezuka’s demons.

Captain Momo’s Secret Base vol 1

I’ve been meaning to read Emanon, but got this instead on a whim. A story about a lonely and naked space captain didn’t sound too bad! Unfortunately, this was deeply disappointing.

It’s a boring non-story about a boring and bored main character. She has the kind of opportunity to explore and discover that we readers can only dream of, but she’s too cool to care. I know it’s meant to be funny, but it just comes across as a sad and low-effort take. Maybe if space travel ever become mundane, this will have some relevance. But until then, I think an interest in discovery and science should be encouraged, and a lack of curiosity should be unfashionable.

This was a waste of the artist’s talent.

I want to share pictures of the full contents of the very first Sorcery TCG Beta Booster Box that I opened.

I bought this a year ago and I remember being unclear on what exactly I would be able to build with the contents of one Booster Box. I hope seeing this will be helpful for anyone thinking about getting into the game and wondering about what to buy.

I was very happy with the box and can confirm that the box opening experience was great! Now, I did get very lucky with my pulls, but I think you will agree that all of cards look lovely, with borderless art and a consistent old school fantasy theme.

Some things to note:

1. Foils. The foils are particularly vibrant (especially Wall of Fire), but the photos don’t reflect this, unfortunately. I usually dislike getting foils, because I have no interest in collecting them and certainly in MtG they are unplayable due to curling. These ones do not curl and are sufficiently different and beautiful, with full art on the reverse, to be nice collector pieces.

2. Box Extras. As well as the 36 boosters, there is also a fixed packet containing a foil Sorcerer Avatar, a Rubble card, an artists checklist and a set of mini-card tokens. This is a really nice touch and ensures you have the essentials for play.

3. Avatars. You are guaranteed one foil Sorcerer Avatar in the fixed packet mentioned above. Additionally, you are very likely (but not guaranteed) to get more Avatars within the booster packs themselves.

4. Sites. Having enough Sites is a key consideration for deck building. Almost all boosters contain one Ordinary Site (with a few having an Ordinary Avatar instead). Boosters may also contain Exceptional, Elite or Unique Sites. The official minimum for constructed decks is currently 30 Sites. In a Beta Booster Box, you will get approximately 36 Ordinary Sites total (about 9 per element), plus some higher rarity Sites. Each element has three Ordinary Sites, so 12 maximum in a deck. This distribution means you will almost certainly not get enough Sites from one Box to build mono-element decks. You will likely have enough for two dual-element decks if you run 20 Sites per deck (below the current official minimum), but you probably won’t have enough for a legal constructed deck with 30 Sites. To reach 30 Sites for constructed play, you will need to supplement with Precons, singles and/or cards from other sets (AL, Gothic). Note that the distribution of Sites was different in Arthurian Legends boosters (they have Ordinary Sites in the Ordinary slot, so there are more Sites on average per pack). I don’t know whether Gothic will follow the Beta or the AL approach.

5. Curios. I was fortunate enough to pull a Curio! It appeared as an Elite card in an unexpected position - specifically in the first Ordinary slot after the Unique/Elite slot, rather than in the Unique/Elite slot itself. This unusual positioning is how I noticed it (I likely wouldn’t have caught it otherwise). I’m not certain if Curios always appear in this position or if they could be elsewhere among the Ordinary cards, but I now pay extra attention to the first card after the Unique/Elite slot. For those hunting Curios, it’s worth checking the list of all discovered ones here: https://www.collectorarthouse.com/collectors-corner/curiocards

Given the Site distribution limitations for constructed play, I’d recommend new players consider starting with a Precon, or supplementing a Beta box with an additional box of another set and/or singles if you want to build legal constructed decks immediately. However, if you’re interested in collecting, casual play with relaxed Site requirements, or just enjoying the incredible art and opening experience, a Beta Booster Box delivers a fantastic experience.

The Extras:

The stars of the show:

Gallery:

I’m currently on holiday in France. My French is basic, so I have picked up the following wordless comics:

• Arzach by Mœbius

• Un Océan d'amour by Wilfrid Lupano and Grégory Panaccione (transl. “A Sea of Love”)

• 3" (aka 3 Secondes) by Marc-Antoine Mathieu (transl. “3 Seconds”)

• La Réparation by Nina Bunjevac (this isn’t out in English, but presumably it would be “The Repair”)

What I like is the wide range in the subject matter here. We have a surreal fantasy about a pterodactyl rider, a charming and funny adventure, a glimpse at a murder mystery and a healing of a childhood trauma.

What is also cool is that there are a lot of French wordless comics and they are often grouped together in comic shops. It’s very convenient that all you have to do is mumble something resembling, “Avez-vous des bandes dessinées sans texte?” and you’ll be pointed to the relevant shelf!

What are your experiences with wordless comics (French or otherwise)? Do you have any recommendations?

Link to reddit discussion here.

In July, I continued my manga reading. Some brief thoughts and ratings below:

Berserk Deluxe vols 2-5 by Kentaro Miura (9.5/10) - I finished The Golden Age arc and it was just as good as everyone says! Dark fantasy perfectly executed. It’s gut-wrenching emotionally, and I’m taking a break after the Golden Age arc, but I’m very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Golden Kamuy vols 11-31 by Satoru Noda (9/10) - I finished Golden Kamuy and it really was a wild ride! Some of the best craziness, action and humour that I’ve come across (in any medium).

Insomniacs after School vols 1-2 by Makoto Ojiro (9/10) - I decided to take a little break from the intensity of Berserk and read something a bit lighter. I picked this up after reading Seth’s recommendation. It was delightful, beautiful and romantic, with stunning artwork that superbly captures the full gamut of emotions and effortlessly moves between cartoony, naturalistic and romanticised.

Reading volume 1 was a blissful experience. But also I caught myself thinking that I am going to flip out if all this ends in tragedy! I don’t want any Inio Asano-style angst here, please - I just want this to stay feel-good and optimistic. I just want to be happy for this boy, girl and cat!

So it was with some trepidation that I picked up vol 2. Fortunately, it largely carried on in the same cosy tone. But it also didn’t add that much to vol 1.. So I’ve actually decided that I don’t want to read any further because, in this instance, I don’t want any drama and I don’t want any change. I want these characters to permanently stay in their happy bubble, always on the cusp of falling in love (even if they don’t know it yet). They are fictional characters, so they can do that!

Pluto vol 5 by Naoki Urasawa (8/10) - This series got overshadowed by Berserk, but I will come back to finish it off.

Tower Dungeon vol 1 by Tsutomu Nihei (7/10) - I love the setting of this new fantasy series - a huge floating tower, teeming with undead and weird monsters. The first volume is very much an intro to this tower crawl, and there’s not much drama to get attached to yet. The art is awesome in some places and confusing in others. I look forward to further volumes and hope the setting will get increasingly weird and the story will become more character-driven.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run vol 1 by Hirohiko Araki (7/10) - I’ve seen this rated as the second best manga ever (behind Berserk), but this volume was good, but far from great. I imagine it will improve as the series progresses..

Dogsred vol 2 by Satoru Noda (7/10) - Seems to have lost some of the momentum of the first volume. The main character’s quirky (and strong) personality is carrying this.

The Bugle Call: Song of War vol 1 by Mozuku Sora and Higoro Toumori (5/10) - I was keen to try another fantasy series, and saw this praised and described as a fantasy version of the X-Men. I was looking forward to it, but was left disappointed. The story elements were very derivative, and the characters were neither convincing nor interesting. Also, I hated the aesthetic designs - especially the whistle helmet and the representation of sound as a Tron-like circuit line.

Link to reddit discussion here.

This is a narrative report of a playthrough of The Vaults of Volokarnos, a level 1 B/X adventure by Gabor Lux (aka Melan) from his zine Echoes from Fomalhaut issue 9. Here is a link for the zine on Gabor’s shop (currently offering a 30% discount until 20 June!), and a link for the pdf on drivethrurpg. I initially discovered this module thanks to Bryce Lynch’s review on tenfootpole.

*Major spoilers* This adventure is a fine example of the “orcs in a hole sauna” genre, but do not read my report if you want to experience this module as a player!

Please note that there is A LOT more to the module than what was encountered in our game. Further, the report reflects my own DMing decisions, additions, house rules and misrules!

Please also note this report was not written to be enjoyed as fiction. It has no literary flourishes and makes no attempt to leave out irrelevant things and accentuate the exciting parts. On the contrary, it is intentionally meticulously detailed because I wanted to record everything that happened while it was still fresh in my mind, so that I could then carry out a detailed gaming post-mortem on it.

Eventually, I plan to put up two more posts about this game. One will be about how I prepped for the game - important because I don’t consider myself an experienced DM and two out of the three players were playing an RPG for the first time in their lives. The other will contain my thoughts on my decisions as DM and on the game as a whole.

Introduction

Three characters in search of adventure and gold arrived early in the morning by ship from Adelfia to the island city-state of Arak Brannia. They were Professor Leonardina, a magic-user and scholar, Clara the Cleric and Quintus, a thief, also known affectionately as Pickus Pocketmus.

Quintus was rumoured to be a descendant of a great hero of old who drove the Purple Worms away from the Kassadian Empire. Who knows if that was true, but Purple Worms had not been seen for many generations and Quintus was in possession of a dagger named “Purple Pain” which it is said would vibrate if a Purple Worm approached.

The Professor had received a letter from a colleague who had gone missing with the following cryptic text:

She also had a map of a small island but did not know if its significance.

Clara believed in respecting the gods and was tolerant of all of the gods, which fitted in well with local customs.

On approaching Arak Brannia, they saw crowds cheering and partying in the streets. As their ship was boarded by the harbour guard, they learnt the cause of the celebrations - the gods had decreed that Arak Brannia’s hated rival, Thisium, would soon be destroyed! The rulers of Arak Brannia, the Councilmen, had accordingly announced a weeks-long festival.

The guard inspected the ship for smuggled goods and demanded 1gp payment for entry to the city, which the adventurers reluctantly paid. In good cheer, the guard advised them that they could find lodging at the Seven-Headed Cat situated on the Street of Particular Pleasures.

Entering the inn, they were made welcome by the innkeeper, Giacomo Gatto, a wily man in his mid 40s. Before they could place an order though, a herald of the Councilmen entered the inn and announced that the Councilmen, having heard of the infestation by orcs of the fabled Vaults of Volokarnos, had decreed that anyone who would drive the orcs out could keep their loot.

At this point, Giacomo made it clear to the adventurers in no uncertain terms that this was an opportunity of a lifetime for them to make their fortune, for no one would be able to tell which treasures the orcs had in fact looted. He encouraged them to make as many trips as needed. In fact, he was so enthused by the prospects of the party, that he positively insisted that they take up food and lodgings at his inn for free, in exchange for a small, undefined cut of any treasure recovered.

Though distrustful of his intentions, the party could not resist Giacomo’s strength of character. As a retired adventurer himself, Giacomo took them under his wing and strongly encouraged the young heroes to recruit additional companions for their venture. Giacomo was also forced to scold Quintus in thieves’ cant after the enterprising rogue scoped out the premises for prospective valuables to steal.

Preparations

In the inn, the following characters stood out as suitable for recruitment (most of the other patrons already being too drunk): a string looking northman warrior, a sickly looking but well armed lady, four crossbowmen playing cards and a street urchin lurking by the entrance. The party liked the look of the northman and wanted some muscle in their group, so approached him first. He was Wulf the Heavy, a survivor of the dungeons beneath Arak Brannia, and was quickly recruited.

Quintus was skeptical about the need for additional help, as he was slow to trust others and taken aback that the recruits would each require a share of the treasure in addition to their fixed fees. He almost persuaded his companions that the four of them should go alone, before Giacomo intervened, assuring the team that in his experience delves were dangerous and the bigger the team, the better.

Clara spoke with the sickly fighter, being the only one unafraid of her coughing. She was Lucille the Seeker - a fighter in search of a cure for her malady. Perhaps the healing waters of the Vaults would aid her malady?

The four crossbowmen were Antonio the Steady, a competent looking fellow, Blotus the Half-Empty, a cynical sort, Claudia di Fortunata, who seemed to be winning the card game, and Donazello the Tangled, an agile young man, frequently wistfully looking at a locket with a picture of the beautiful Menodora.

Finally, the urchin was Venicius the Delver, a local kid with an odd accent, eager to join the expedition, offering to carry a torch for them and to direct them to the Vaults in the first place.

Quintus recruited Wulf and Venicius, Clara took pity on Lucille and Donazello, and Leonardina paid the remaining three crossbowmen to be her bodyguards.

The party was now ready to depart. But at this point Giacomo strongly suggested to the adventurers that they would profit from talking to some old locals to get some additional information on the Vaults. Sceptically, especially after discovering that the locals would only get talkative after 1gp of ale or 2gp of wine, they nonetheless chatted to two such old men. They learned that the wondrous baths were once very close to the entrance, and the vaults would be beyond those. They also learned that not long ago, a group of dwarves had set out in search of a royal tomb in the vaults, but had not been seen since.

As the party was finally about to head off to the dungeon, Giacomo advised popping over to the Temple of the Gods of the City on the way. There they met the Arch-Priest Pomponio Sera and were assured that they could rely on his services, including raising the dead - for a price, of course. Looking around at the images of the local pantheon, Clara was drawn to Irlan of the Shining Lamp, Leonardina to Rualgar, god of the keys, and Quintus was enthused by Zeltar, the god of adventurers. With that done, they finally proceeded along the road out of the city and into the Vaults of Volokarnos!

First Expedition

The party followed the road out of the city, walking for two hours amidst abandoned until they reached the entrance to the Vaults. Here they agreed on a marching order: Quintus, Venicius and Wulf in the front rank, Antonio and Claudia in the second, Leonardina and Blotus in the third, Clara by herself in the fourth, and Lucille and Donazello guarding the rear. Venicius and Leonardina carried torches.

They inspected the entrance cavern and found an ancient mace buried in one of the dried up fountains, giving it to Claudia to use instead of her dagger.

They party went through the east door, marked No Entry. They spun the obelisk and with the dagger sign facing the north, the north door swung open, revealing an empty corridor. The party spun the obelisk a few more times. When nothing happened, they searched the room and found a secret alcove in the south. While picking up the gold, the back row was surprised by two giant carb spiders who had crawled along the walls and ceiling out of the northern passage. The spiders were fast, but Lucille and Donazello dodged their attacks. Quintus, as the fastest member of the team swung round and pushed his way closer to the front, so he could unload his crossbow at the spiders. Unfortunately, his shot was wildly inaccurate and the bolt hit Donazello square in the back, killing the unlucky retainer outright. The spiders attempted to drag Donazello’s body away, but the other team members were more accurate, Antonio the Steady in particular, and soon both critters were dead. After a short debate, the party agreed to leave Donazello’s body hidden in the alcove and collect it on their way out of the dungeon.

The party opened the door to the east and then came up to a richly decorated door with a gilded lock. It looked complex and consisted of various gears. Quintus got down to inspect the lock. The rest of the party stood in formation, with Clara and Lucille staying put in the t-junction, noting that the corridor to the east was damp and concluding that the thermal springs were that way. Inspecting the door, Quintus also noticed a small stud that could be slid down. Choosing between the handle and the stud, he pushed the stud and a secret door in the northern wall opened up.

The party abandoned the door with the gilded lock and went down the long-abandoned passage. After a few turns, they heard the musical notes of a harp, swiftly followed by arrows in flight. Unable to see further down the tunnel Quintus was convinced that they had set off a trap and the party debated how to remove it. The sound of further arrows galvanized them into action and they made haste towards their assailant. They discovered a living statue and instead of attacking it, they cut the strings of the harp. The statue was left mindlessly continuing its motions, unable to let loose.

The party saw that to the south there was a lever for opening the hidden door out. They listened at the door first and heard the sound of stomping and numerous orc voices. They made out something about following the orders of Brutus. They debated their options - return along the passageway and explore the long corridor to the east, which presumably led to the orcs’ lair or burst through the secret door and surprise the orcs. They were about to launch their attack when they heard a loud and commanding voice amongst the orcs, demanding to know if there were any reports from the looters at the outpost in the west, telling the orcs to prepare for the shipment in three days’ time and talking to someone named Jacopo. The party guessed this leader was Brutus and decided to go west to seek out the orcs there.

As they rounded the corner, they noticed a lever for operating a secret door which they had previously gone past. They also heard voices by the entrance into the tunnel. The mage recognised the language as the halfling tongue and could understand that the halflings had followed the party and discovered the secret passage. Deciding to trust the little folk, the party spoke out to them. The halflings were barefoot and each had a lucky platinum piece tied on a string around their neck. They were friendly, explaining that they too were adventurers, but were not strong enough to take on the orcs. Learning that the passage led to the orc camp, the halflings decided to explore eastwards. The party meanwhile decided to pull the lever and go through the door to the west.

The first room they entered was a burial niche, but it was clear that it had already been looted. They went west again, barging through the door. On the other side of the door they rushed into eight orcs, busy with looting a burial ground beneath a huge dolmen. The orcs also had five large wolves behind some portcullis doors in a corner, who began to howl and gnash their teeth, eager to be let loose. One orc rushed to open the wolves’ cage with a set of keys, while the others rushed at the adventurers.

The party decided that now was a good time for a Sleep spell and sent four of the orcs to sleep, including the key bearer. They also joined combat and started shooting up the orcs, quickly leaving just two alive. In a dramatic twist, Venicius the torchboy rushed to grab the keys off the floor, but slipped in a pool of blood, sending the keys flying before the feet of an orc, who promptly managed to open the wolves’ cage. A long battle of attrition commenced, but with the remaining orcs and the wolves hemmed in and the party making good use of ranged fire, including a lucky throw of a rock by Venicius, the party eventually triumphed, bloodied but with no casualties.

The party inspected the room and the sarcophagus in the wolves’ den. Uninterested in the rusty armour within, they noticed that the bottom of the sarcophagus seemed to move when they disturbed the armour. Expecting the worst, they readied themselves and moved the bottom further - to reveal a glorious horde of 3,000 gp! They collected this as well as the orcs’ loot and decided that this was a sensible time to return to town. They decided to go back along the route they already knew and not risk any new rooms, even though they could guess at some of the connections. Just as they were about to leave the room, they heard a soft snore from one of the enchanted orcs. Without hesitation, they slit the necks of the sleeping orcs.

They encountered no one on their way to the exit and were about to leave the dungeon when suddenly they remembered about poor Donazello. The other retainers grumbled at the thought of leaving his body behind, lest the same befall one of them. Reluctantly, the adventurers ventured back and collected Donazello’s body from the alcove. On their way back, right in front of the exit they met four cloaked men, their leader introducing himself as Erasmus. They did not appear threatening and said they were explorers, but noted the sacks of loot and quizzed the party in detail, including their names and where they were staying. The party was mostly honest, but at the last minute, Quintus gave them directions to the Five-Headed Dog tavern. With that over, the party returned to town and divvied up the loot.

Each retainer other than Venicius received a half share of the loot. Claudia also revealed that she had won 400 gp from gambling and used this to buy herself a suit of plate mail. The party spent some of their funds on upgrades, with Quintus buying a longsword, Clara buying plate mail and Leonardina an extra throwing dagger. The retainers frittered their gains away and the heroes were generally reluctant to pay for any upgrades for them.

Finally, arrangements were made for Donazello’s funeral. His half-share was used to cover the expenses. Arch-Priest Pomponio did offer to raise him from the dead, but the party baulked at the stated price of 5,000 gp. Word was sent round that the young man who had been so in love with Menodora was soon due for burial. But just as his coffin was about to be lowered, a courier arrived and pushed a large money pouch into Pomponious’ hands. It contained exactly 5,000 gp and the attached envelope simply said “Bring him back. Menodora, Pirate Queen”. Incredulous, the party retired for the night.

Second Expedition

The following morning, just as the party was about to set out for the Vaults for their second time, they heard that the halfling settlement just outside of the city walls was in commotion. They had received a platinum piece on a string, covered in blood, with a message that unless the orcs’ treasure was returned, each day another halfling would be killed. The party resolved to rescue the halflings, as well as explore the western part of the dungeon.

Donazello was back in the team, although slightly more frail. “Did I die a good death?” he asked. “All I can remember is a sharp pain in my back.” The party assured him that he died bravely, stung from behind by a giant spider. Along the way to the Vaults, they met a shepherd, who told them that he has heard that inside is a lake and those who look into it shall turn into a salt statue!

From the cavern entrance, the party went north, admiring the frescoes on the walls and pocketing a chisel. They were once again lured by the “No Entry” sign on the eastern door and entered the skull crypt, which connected to the previously explored areas, as they expected. Seeing the thick cobwebs, they expected an attack from a crab spider and killed it off easily. They searched the room and found the pottery with 900 gp. They also retrieved the shield from the dead orc in the room, which was painted purple and bore the symbols of the Imperial Legion IV. The shield was given by Clara to Lucille.

As the party was about to return to the hallway, the door opened and eight humans walked in. They claimed to be merchants and when pressed, admitted that they wanted to talk to the orcs about doing business. The adventurers were suspicious and unimpressed and told them to leave. On their way out, Quintus quietly pickpocketed one of them, but only got 8 gp.

The party returned to the hallway and continued north, entering a steaming room of bubbling pools. They were extremely wary of the pools, remembering the warning of the shepherd! They were not in the room long before a spear was thrown at them from the room to the east and ten orcs charged towards them. The orcs accused the party of stealing their treasures and warned that they would not let Brutus down. The party had time to meet them in melee in the connecting passageway, limiting the ability of the orcs to leverage their numbers. Moreover, the party’s crossbowmen took position on the flanks, just behind the pools (but careful not to step in them). The party felt the odds were in their favour, declining to cast Sleep on the orcs. The orcs did manage to knock Lucille unconscious, but she was healed back up by Clara.

A few rounds in to the combat, the party heard banging on the door in the south room of pools and cries for help. Realising that the halflings were held there, the party ordered Venicius to open the door, which he could not, as it was locked. At the same time, Erasmus and his three companions were spotted rushing up to the fight from the entrance passage. “It is I, Erasmus, come to help” cried the human’s leader and proceeded to stab Blotus, while his companions picked out and stabbed Venicius and Donazello. Venicius and Blotus fell unconscious, while Donazello’s soul once again departed his body. “Return our treasure!” demanded Erasmus.

Now it was time to cast Sleep, agreed the party, and Leonardina obliged, knocking out the four bandits, then helping Antonio bandage up the wounds of Blotus and Venicius. The orcs fought on to the death, and were eventually slaughtered. Antonio once again proved that he was steady and efficient, while Quintus and Wulf struggled to land any blows. After the battle, they decided to test the effects of the pools and Clara threw a dead orc body into one of them. It turned soggy, but did not turn into salt.

Searching the dead orcs, the party also found the keys to the storeroom and released the nine surviving halflings. The party debated all heading back to town to heal up, but then decided to ask the halflings to carry the unconscious but stable Venicius and Blotus and the very dead Donazello back to town.

They then noticed the orcs’ cart and coffer of coppers in the adjoining room and locked this up in the storeroom. Heading north they entered the second obelisk room and, like before, they spun the obelisk around a few times and waited. Nothing at all happened. They proceeded to search the room and discovered a secret alcove to the west. They collected the coins there and Wulf appraised the brazier itself as potentially being worth something. The brazier was difficult to carry however, so they went back to the cart and decided to return to town, catching up with the halflings.

Back in town, Donazello was buried. This time there was no last minute rescue by Menodora. The party divvied up the loot and healed up. They also received 100 gp each from the grateful halflings. Quintus and Clara were very close to levelling at this point, while Leonardina trailed them significantly. It was also not obvious what they could do with all their gold at this stage, although Quintus did acquire studded leather armour fr himself and delighted Venicius with a set of leather armour, while Leonardina upgraded Antonio and Blotus’ chain mail to banded armour. “I wonder if there any other ways we could get some experience?” mused Leonardina.

Such an opportunity now presented itself. The famous tradition of carousing presented itself. Quintus was the first to go all in, selecting the fines wines, whiskeys and even the famous ale of the Black Friars and drinking himself silly. Clara and Leonardina were sceptical about the process, but were pressured to go along, with Quintus lending Clara the money she needed. The next morning Quintus awoke with an awful hangover and even tried to postpone the expedition. Nonetheless, both Clara and he now felt more experienced and ready to handle more dangers. Meanwhile, after her drinking session, Leonardina received a vision from Rualgar requesting her to seek out and seal up the Shrine of Chaos, whatever that meant.

Third Expedition

The party set out for the third time and again bumped into the same shepherd along the way. He mused that there is no way the orcs are acting on their own and that they are perhaps getting help from within the town. He also enquired about anyone turning to salt. The party were not impressed and quickly bid him farewell.

They went along the northern passage again and again walked straight into an ambush. This time five orcs attacked from the eastern room, but as the party turned to face them, five more orcs jumped out of the bubbling pools behind them. Furthermore, out of the sixth pool jumped out a particularly large half-orc. “Hello, Brutus!” they greeted him. Brutus offered to spare their lives in exchange for his treasure, but the party was ready to fight. Sleep was cast immediately and Brutus himself slumped to the floor, just after grazing the mage with his battle axe. The rest of the battle was short - the orcs killed Blotus, Leonardina slit Brutus’ neck and took his set of three keys. Disheartened by their losses, the orcs soon surrendered.

The party tied up all the orcs but one and locked them up in the storeroom, together with Blotus’ body. The orc they held on to, Trevus, promised to guide them to the orcs’ lair in the east. They questioned Trevus about the timing of the next shipment, but he was not of much help, other than to say that Berto the Ogre is the one due to arrive. First they went north, avoiding the cobwebbed room. They stopped to survey the Legate’s mausoleum, admiring the walls and statues. Clara considered putting the statues together and even tried a few bits, but Quintus was convinced they should hurry and that there was nothing of interest in this room..

They left the room through the east door and entered the catacombs passage. They touched the tomb of the Northerner, but the unnatural chill scared them off. They discovered that the body of Gualtieri Calderara was but an illusion. They refused to go anywhere near the magnetic sarcophagus of Magnetto Barozzi.

They continued south, then turned east into the hall of giant columns. At this point Trevus the orc made a run for it, shouting to his comrades. From behind the columns appeared four orcs who threw flasks of oil at the party. Meanwhile, from the other side of the hall, five more orcs appeared including some with burning arrows. Clearly they wanted to set our heroes alight! However, the party (other than Quintus and Wulf) proved to be much better shots than the orcs and quickly reduced their numbers until they too surrendered and were tied up.

The party now entered the secret dock. Wearily, they made their way to the orcs’ barracks. Searching the room, they found a man hiding under one of the tables. This was Jacopo, who explained that he was forced to help the orcs out with numbers and such. All he said about the Shrine of Chaos was that the orcs paid tribute to them, but he did not know how to get there. The party did not trust him and tied him up. Asked about the orcs’ treasure, he said that he would be happy to share it with the party. This enraged Quintus who was ready to torture Jacopo. Seeing his intent, Jacopo cried out that the treasure was in Brutus’ room to the west.

Quintus picked the lock to Brutus’ room and the party entered the room. They found Brutus’ chest and Quintus attempted to unlock it, but failed. They then decided to smash it open with the old mace they found at the start of the adventure. Of course the old mace broke apart upon impact! At last, Leonardina remembered that she had Brutus’ keys and unlocked the chest. Inside, amongst other things, they found a spellbook with Jacopo’s name written on its front. Jacopo begged for its return, but Leonardina told him he could have it back only once she was done with it. In the meantime, they were intent on taking him to prison in Arak Brannia, although somewhat softened their view of him after the spellbook’s discovery.

The party were not overawed by their haul this time. They had a sense that they were missing something more. Indeed, they were certain that there were further passages south and that there was a secret door somewhere here. They searched and did indeed discover that behind the south wall there was a secret stairway down, but this ended in a dead end. Somewhat disappointed, the party headed for the exit using the secret passageway, entirely forgetting about Blotus and the captive orcs.

Just as they were about to leave the dungeon, Leonardina noticed how the set of keys from Brutus jangled as though animated and then she received a vision from Rualgar saying that she she has missed something, but should forget about the Shrine of Chaos. At this point, Quintus realised with a flash that the merchants must have been on a pilgrimage to the Shrine. He was ready to extract a confirmation of this from Jacopo, but he begged that he did not know the Chaos worshippers. The keys pulled Leonardina back in the direction of the orcs’ lair. The party retraced their steps, discovered the looted goods by the dock and then, opposite the exit from the secret passageway, a secret door was revealed to them. Inside was the orcs’ real loot! Quintus took the sword, Clara took the potion and Leonardina picked up and immediately read the scroll.. A swirling portal appeared, ready to take the party to a new adventure!

Phew! I hope anyone who got to the end of that found it enjoyable! Stay tuned for my follow-up posts on my prep for the game and an analysis of how it all went.

• Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida (9/10)

• Golden Kamuy vols 4-10 by Satoru Noda (9/10 bears)

• Berserk Deluxe vol 1 by Kentaro Miura (9/10)

• Pluto vols 2-4 by Naoki Urasawa together with Astro Boy: The Greatest Robot on Earth short story by Osamu Tezuka (9/10)

• Look Back by Tatsuki Fujimoto (8/10)

• Dogsred vol 1 by Satoru Noda (8/10)

• Goodbye, Eri by Tatsuki Fujimoto (7/10)

• Kaiju No.8 vols 1-2 by Naoya Matsumoto (7/10)

• Yotsuba&! vol 1 by Kiyohiko Azuma (7/10)

• Night Drive by Richard Sala (6/10)

• What the Witch Saw by Thomas Heitler (6/10)

This month was again mostly about exploring manga. Something that I had not appreciated before is how long successful manga series can go on for. I was very impressed with Claremont’s 16 year run on the X-Men and Bendis and Bagley’s 111 issue run on the (original) Ultimate Spider-man. But when I finished Dorohedoro, it struck me that it was written and drawn by the same person for 18 years and had 190 chapters (counting the Extra Evil bonus chapters)! And it’s not even that long a series by manga standards. I’m very curious as to how manga stories evolve and change (or maybe stay consistent) despite the over such large amounts of real time.

What I am also finding is that the first volumes often have just the basic outlines of the setting and main characters, with further important characters and complications being rapidly introduced at an exponential rate in subsequent volumes. This was definitely the case with Dorohedoro, which for all its originality, did not grab me until vol 3. Once it got going though, it was impossible to stop!

Dorohedoro was pretty special. The characters get up to some brutal stuff, yet they care about one another and are so endearing, that I couldn’t help but care for them too. It manages to be both a gory and grotesque horror story and a heart-warming tale of friends and family coming together to eat some delicious gyoza (or mushrooms). It’s a weird mix, it probably shouldn’t work if you think too much about it, but it does work and kept me reading through to the end. It’s very inventive, fast-paced and if you like heavy metal aesthetics, you’ll love this.

I won’t say too much about Golden Kamuy or Berserk for now as I’m busy reading the series and dodging spoilers. Really enjoying them both and, so far, they are only getting better.

Pluto vols 2-4 is a slower and gentler seinen than the above. When I started it, I wasn’t actually aware that it was a remake of Tezuka’s short story Astro Boy: The Greatest Robot on Earth. When I learned that it was written for a Japanese audience with the expectation that readers would be familiar with Astro Boy: The Greatest Robot on Earth, I decided to read that too. I am now enjoying reading Pluto much more because a lot of the enjoyment is in seeing how Urasawa is riffing on the original and playing with readers’ expectations.

Speaking of expectations, Fujimoto is an expert at building up readers’ expectations before flipping those expectations on their head! In fact, I learned that there is a Japanse and Chinese narrative structure called Kishōtenketsu that emphasises the plot twist. Look Back and Goodbye, Eri are fun one-offs, showcasing Fujimoto’s mastery of Kishōtenketsu.

Dogsred vol 1, Kaiju No.8 vols 1-2 and Yotsuba&! vol 1 were all good fun, but not amazing. However, as mentioned, I am wary of judging manga without reading at least three volumes or so.

Both Night Drive and What the Witch Saw had nice art and hinted at interesting settings, but lacked story, although in different ways. Night Drive simply didn’t have enough panels of sequential art (i.e. actual comics). Its one panel scenes were tantalising glimpses, but little more. This may be ok for existing fans of Sala, but as someone unfamiliar with his work and who was hoping for a good introduction, this was disappointing. What the Witch Saw did have a story, but it suffered from frictionless resolution - there are two problems in the main character’s life (a personal one and a practical one), and they both get effortlessly solved with the introduction of another character. There’s no tension, no choices, no decisions, no twists.. I am grateful for the experience though, because in trying to figure out why this felt so lacklustre, I had to read up on things like progressive complications and rising action.

Link to reddit discussion here.

The month of May was mostly about manga for me.

• Chainsaw Man: Part 1 (vols 1-11) by Tatsuki Fujimoto (9.5/10)

• Ping Pong by Taiyo Matsumoto (9/10)

• Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba (9/10)

• Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo (9/10)

• A Girl on the Shore by Inio Asano (8/10)

• Dorohedoro vols 2-3 by Q Hayashida (rapidly improving to 8/10)

• Golden Kamuy vols 2-3 by Satoru Noda (rapidly improving to 8/10)

• 17-21: Tatsuki Fujimoto before Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto (8/10 for Love is Blind, 7/10 for the rest)

A few months ago I decided that I wanted to explore manga a bit more. I had read some before, mostly samurai-related manga from about 20 years ago, and I wanted to see what was available now.

On a whim, on Free Comics Book Day, I picked up a copy of Chainsaw Man vol 1. Five days later I had read all 11 vols of Part One and sat shell-shocked by the experience.

Now I get it. Now I get why the Chainsaw Man subreddit has 1.4 million members (for comparison, the Batman sub has half that many!). Now I get why the manga sections in book stores keep expanding and get more space than Western comics. Now I get why great review sites such as u/TheDaneOf5683’s goodokbad.com praise manga so much.

I hope to do some in-depth reviews in the future to explain what exactly struck me about the titles I read. But in the meantime, if you are at all serious about quality comics, you can’t sleep on manga.

The one non-manga title I read in May was Daytripper and it was also outstanding. I think it’s one of those rare books that I could recommend to anyone. It’s entertaining, but also might just change your life.

Link to reddit discussion here.

The Menu: As good as The Many Deaths of Laila Starr?

I was deeply moved by The Many Deaths of Laila Starr and was keen to try something else by the same creators. I guess that set quite high and specific expectations, and that’s rarely a good frame of mind in which to read a book. In contrast, I had zero expectations about The Many Deaths of Laila Starr and knew nothing about it going in, and I think that really allowed it to pleasantly surprise me.

Also, don’t mistake Rare Flavours for a semi-cookbook! I saw from a preview that it included some recipes, so I thought it would make a nice gift for my partner, who loves cooking. While she did enjoy the book, I have to tell you that the recipes are not for dishes you will realistically make at home (unless you happen to be in India).

***SPOILERS*** from here on

The Main: Slightly over-cooked

This quote from the comic itself can be used to describe it: “Full of colour, sharp tastes, and generous flavours”.

The art here is delicious! The lines are often wavy, alive and rippling. The colours are rich and abundant. I would say that the art here struck me more than the art in Laila Starr, in that I frequently caught myself just gazing at the art and simply appreciating Andrade’s technique.

The writing however, in contrast to Laila Starr, was more dense, primarily due to the narrator describing and commenting on the events through letters to a third party. It mostly does work, but at times the narrator’s tone was laborious. At times this approach undermines the principle of show, don’t tell. At times, it comes across as too self-indulgent, too keen to reveal and revel in its own profundity (how much of that is Ram V and how much the narrator is open to debate). Unexpectedly, a few grammatical typos appear here and there (which can hardly be attributed to the narrator).

In trying to squeeze out every last insight about the significance of food, the narrative voice somewhat over-cooked the story. I often felt that it was trying to appeal to my head too much, whereas it should have tried to go for the heart - or indeed for my stomach (appropriately, the ancient Greeks believed that emotions were generated in the stomach). Still, the tale is well-plotted, features interesting characters and the plot develops nicely.

The Aftertaste: Please, sirs, can we have some more?

The central message that I came away with was an appreciation for human craft - the book focusses specifically on cookery, but I think it can be applied broader - to whenever people devote themselves to producing genuine quality. This is in contrast to production which is just a means to an end - be it basic sustenance for the consumer or a quick buck for the producer. It is a call to actually care about what you produce and what you consume.

I also came away with an appreciation of and a bit more knowledge of Indian culture. I certainly had not appreciated the complexity and variety of Indian foods. I had not known that such care and craft could be applied to food, with treasured recipes being developed and passed down through generations.

Interestingly, the book shows that culinary delights are not the bespoke preserve of the leisure class. The cooks featured in the books are often simple street vendors. But their pride in, and attention to, their creations gives them dignity and nobility, even if relentless market forces and mass production and mass consumption ultimately squeeze them out.

This book is definitely a good one and it successfully goes into areas largely unexplored by modern comics. But it also does not feel like the masterpiece that was Laila Starr. I know it’s unfair to judge this relative to Laila Starr (although I note that the spines were made to sort of match (same colours and style), but the Boom signs are different), but it really is overshadowed by the raw emotional impression that Laila Starr left on me. I don’t think it would be fair to say that this suffers from second album syndrome, but I certainly went in with overly high expectations and left a little bit unsated.

I will add that I do intend to re-read this at some point, and I wouldn’t be surprised if on a re-read it opens up and reveals more. I will also definitely look out for any further works by Ram V and Filipe Andrade - they have a great thing going.

My Rating: 8/10

Link to reddit discussion here.

Why I read this

I discovered Gareth Brookes through the graphicnovels subreddit. I had not heard of him before, but the subject matter of his books seemed unique. This book in particular caught my eye.

The story is about Myriam, an old-age pensioner in England who starts to see things. And when I say things, I mean really far out psychedelic things!

Brookes is also fascinating because of the unusual media that he uses to create his books. “A Thousand Coloured Castles”, for example, was drawn entirely with wax crayon.

Before reading, I did have some concerns that this might be one of those alternative comics that eschews drama, plot twists, character development etc in favour of a quirky artistic vision, which for me is rarely enough. I’ve been disappointed by things like some of the stories in Kramers Ergot - where there was lots of inventiveness and unusual techniques on show, but not enough actual narrative.

If you haven’t read the book and sshare the same concerns, let my high rating reassure you. But I will say no more to prospective readers, because I think this book really is best read without any further information.

***SPOILERS*** from here on

How was the experience?

The wax crayon artwork is both unique and thematically appropriate. The hazy details (eg characters do not have facial features) parallel Myriam’s failing eyesight. Everything is somewhat blurry, as if in a fog. Outlines only, the small details must be filled in by memory. Form and content work together, which I love to see.

I also always love when comics use different colours and/or formats for different contexts or characters. This was beautifully done here.

The book balances mystery and poignancy with humour. Myriam’s husband Fred stands out as a person that’s comically grumpy, small-minded and entirely unimaginative. There are many revealing details about their relationship with each other, and with the outside world.

My initial skepticism of there being an actual story in the book paralleled the scepticism with which Myriam’s condition is met. I was initially dismissive of the artist, wrongly thinking that he was merely playing around with his psychedelic drawings, just as Myriam’s visions were wrongly dismissed as nothing real or serious.

I was delighted that there was an actual solid plot to the story, and indeed the final reveal was enlightening, especially if you go in with a minimum of background knowledge.

What stayed with me?

I read this in the same month that I read a number of superhero graphic novels (Catwoman: Lonely City, Batman: Haunted Knight and Wonder Woman: Historia) and it raised an unexpected question. Can an elderly lady be a more interesting protagonist than Catwoman, Batman or Wonder Woman? In the context of those other books I read that month, Myriam is more lonely than Catwoman, more haunted than Batman and certainly older and ultimately more heroic than (baby) Wonder Woman.

It’s worth noting that the main character is female, elderly and disabled, but her story never feels like a checkbox exercise to satisfy a diversity requirement. No, her story feels genuine and she is portrayed with dignity and agency.

Ultimately, Myriam’s story is poignant. How do we treat our relatives and the elderly in general when they start to cognitively deteriorate? There are no easy answers here for us, other than to try to remain decent human beings.

Fred is also a fascinating character. He made me consider that an eager imagination can indeed be harmful. A lack of imagination keeps one grounded. Keeps one interacting with the “real” world, rather than with one’s own imagination. Of course, that too is perception - the unimaginative are just as prone to be trapped in their own little worlds.

The Dan Clowes of middle England?

In terms of my comparison of Brookes with Dan Clowes, obviously their art styles are completely different. But I think they are both interested in similar themes.

They both home in on awkward, shy people and their mannerisms, as well as people who lack any self-awareness. I think they are both fascinated by the small and everyday weirdness. The weirdness that’s so minor that it blends into the day to day, goes unnoticed, gets brushed away. They are adept at spotting and capturing the subtleties and ironies of human interactions.

Issue 8 of Eightball had a very telling scene in Grist for the Mill where the cartoonist flees the opportunity to cover obviously dramatic events, saying “I’m looking for more.. you know.. human interest kinda stuff.. smaller scale-like.. y’dig?” For all their cultural and technical differences, I think Brookes is on the same page as Clowes on this.

Finally, it would be remiss to not mention Gareth’s website: https://www.gbrookes.com There are some very interesting books of his there that may be hard to find elsewhere.

My Rating: 9/10

Well, I don’t know about you.. but I need a cup of tea after all that excitement.

PS Link to reddit discussion here.

• Swamp Thing by Alan Moore (9/10)

• Perla la Loca by Jaime Hernandez (9/10)

• Heartbreak Soup by Gilbert Hernandez (9/10)

• The Black Project by Gareth Brookes (9/10)

• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight - Blaze of Glory by Will Pfeifer and Chris Weston (8/10) (not pictured)

• World Heist by Linnea Sterte (7/10 if standalone, 8/10 if there will be more)

• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight - Irresistible by Tom Peyer and Tony Harris (7/10)

• Black Hammer Library Edition vol 1 by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston (7/10)

• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight - Terminus by Jaime Delano and Chris Bachalo (7/10) (not pictured)

I have to eat humble pie for doubting Alan Moore.. while I still maintain that for me vol 1 of Swamp Thing was not the best, wow does the series pick up! As well as being a riveting and at times genuinely terrifying read, showcasing Moore’s imagination in a myriad of forms, it was also illuminating to finally discover the real foundations of Vertigo. So much of what I had previously associated with the Sandman (theme, characters, art direction) had in fact first surfaced in the Swamp Thing.

Both Love & Rockets and Gareth Brookes continue to really impress.

I also read a few select Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight issues. I picked them up after being very impressed by the dedication of another redditor (u/drown_like_its_1999), who read the entire Legends of the Dark Knight run and wrote up an excellent review for every issue (link).

Link to reddit discussion here.

• The Complete Eightball by Daniel Clowes (9/10)

• Animal Man by Grant Morrison, Chas Truog, Doug Hazlewood et al (8/10)

• In by Will McPhail (8/10)

• Golden Kamuy vol 1 by Satoru Noda (7/10 for now)

• Pluto vol 1 by Takashi Nagasaki (7/10 for now)

• Dorohedoro vol 1 by Q Hayashida (7/10 for now)

• Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross (4/10)

I added some manga to the mix in March, but I’ve parked the ratings for the three books for now. I wasn’t blown away by these first volumes tbh, but I will probably try a few more. I was actually surprised to realise that I have over a dozen different manga titles in my collection, but Nausicaa is the only series that I collected and read right through to the end. I have no idea why that is.

Link to reddit discussion here.

Why did I read this?

I like to read reviews and previews online, but when it comes to reading the full book, I always try to get a hardcopy. I am also a sucker for anything rare or hard to get hold of. So when I saw a post on reddit about Gosh (London comics shop) getting Linnea Sterte's books in stock, I did a quick bit of research on both Sterte and her books, saw that they were both rare and often recommended on the r/graphicsnovel subreddit, and was quickly off to Gosh!

*SPOILERS* from here on

How was the experience?

The book has an unusually exposed spine and comes in a wrapper box. Not sure if it will last longer than ordinary bindings, but it looks distinctive and feels special to hold. The book is also unusual in that it has a landscape layout and very spacious full-page panels. Most pages are a panel in themselves and occasionally both pages combine to form one large panel. Turning these single panel pages felt meditative.

The art is lovely, with a Japanese setting and echoes of manga. The tale blends different elements - animal, human, modern, ancient - creating something entirely whimsical and charming. it’s a deceptively simple story that’s often very funny, occasionally sad, but overall has an upbeat mood. It's a tender and magical journey that will fill you up with kindness and warmth - and it will cheer you up if you are down.

While it’s not specifically aimed at children (and there is one naughty word in there), I think this would be a book that you would absolutely treasure if you got it as a child.

What stayed with me?

I think this book has two secrets.

The first secret is that if you ever feel that the world is getting you down, you can take a read of the Minor Frog's journey. His tale won't fix the world, but it will show you something beautiful. Like petting a cat, it's a reassurance that there is goodness, delight and beauty in the world.

We've all been the Minor Frog. We've all gone from "I am very young and nothing this bad has ever happened to me" to venturing beyond the edge of the known world to facing certain death to returning to the comfort of home a changed person. We've all done it. Countless times.

Possibly we can't remember it all now, covered up as they are by the winters and worries of adulthood (especially if you're an ancient turtle of 43 years!). It requires the genius of an artist such as Sterte to remind us of it.

We are told we have a reptilian brain at our core. But perhaps the scientists are mistaken and it takes an artist to recognise that at our core is the Minor Frog brain. It remembers your first snow, your first waves. As long as you can still hear the sound of the sea in a seashell, you'll be ok. As long as you long to join the vagrants toads, there's a world still out there for you to explore.

All I’m going to say about the second secret is that the very pages of this book are magical - every time you pick this book up, no matter how carefully you had read it the last time, the details of a new page or two will reveal themselves to you. Try it!

My Rating: 9/10

(Check out here for my ratings criteria)

Link to reddit discussion here.

• Sunday by Olivier Schrauwen (10/10)

• A Thousand Coloured Castles by Gareth Brookes (9/10)

• A Frog in the Fall (and later on) by Linnea Sterte (9/10) (blog | reddit)

• Rare Flavours by Ram V and Filipe Andrade (8/10)

• Stages of Rot by Linnea Sterte (8/10)

• Ice Cream Man Sundae Edition vol 1 by W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo and Chris O’Halloran (7/10) (blog | reddit)

• Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay (7/10)

• Catwoman: Lonely City by Cliff Chiang (7/10) (blog | reddit)

• Batman: Haunted Knight by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (7/10)

• Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, Nicola Scott et al (7/10)

• Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Perez (5/10)

TLDR: 8 or above = recommended, 7 or below = use your discretion.

When I started out blogging, I had ambitions of posting individual reviews for everything I read over the course of the following month.

I also wanted to try structuring my reviews as three part mini-essays. Part one would be about why I actually decided to read a particular book and what my initial expectations were. Part two would be about the experience of the read. Part three would be about my thoughts and impressions after I had finished the book. This sort of structure (Anticipation / Enjoyment / In Retrospect) is used for the ratings and summaries in Little White Lies, an excellent UK film review magazine.

Well, fairly soon I found that I had a massive backlog of books to review. There was no chance of doing detailed reviews in one month of everything I had read in the previous month. Unless I wrote reviews instead of reading new books.. and I wasn’t going to do that!

So my new approach is going to post a round-up of everything I have read during a month, together with my ratings. I will post in-depth reviews as and when, and will link them in the list on my blog.

Here are my current ratings criteria:

10/10 - Meaningful masterpiece. Essentially flawless. Very ambitious. Delivers extreme peak experiences. Leaves a powerful impression at the end. Definitely not a waste of my time.

9/10 - Same as above, but held back either by some minor flaw(s), or just lack of scope / ambition (i.e. Needledick one-pager may have made me laugh, but it’s not getting a 10/10 - sorry, young Dan Clowes!)

8/10 - Same as above, but held back by some major flaw(s) and/or does not have the same scope or ambition. Offers fewer or less intense peak experiences. But I have no regrets about reading this.

7/10 - Decent in the grand scheme of things, but average in comparison to the above. Serious and/or numerous flaws. Possibly overrated. Readable, but also forgettable. Could nonetheless be a bestseller or someone’s favourite book.

6/10 or below - This is either actually bad or it just didn’t click with me. If I can’t even get into a book, it’ll end up here.

I expect most books to be around 7/10 because that establishes a baseline. But this baseline is actually above average because I do a reasonable amount of pre-selection. I am not picking books up at random. If I picked up books at random, the average would be 5/10.

I recognise that creating anything is already an act of courage. All earnest creative works deserve some respect and recognition because genuine creativity is very hard. As such, I have no intention to put down other people’s works or tastes.

At the same time, it cannot be that everything is equal in quality. It’s worth maintaining high standards simply because there are far too many books out there to read in a lifetime.

If this seems harsh, I encourage you to contemplate Sturgeon’s Law. Also, if you are interested in OSR RPGs, check out Bryce Lynch’s blog tenfootpole.org. His approach of looking for the Best in his reviews, rather than simply dishing out praise, while recognising that most things are going to be average (by definition), was a real eye-opener and inspiration for me.

In practice, maintaining a ratings system, but still staying curious and willing to try new things, has led me to discover more fantastic books than I would have otherwise!

PS Link to reddit discussion.

My Rating: 7/10

1. Expectations: He sounds nice!

I first heard about this series on ComicBookHerald, where it regularly gets a lot of praise from Dave, in particular for the consistently inventive approach of each monthly issue.

The name alone made me chuckle and think of Monty Python’s Bicycle Repair Man. But before you rush to add it to your kid’s order of Dog Man, I should flag that there’s a gap between the funny name and the actual content.

This is in fact a very creepy horror comic! Knowing that, I was expecting some thrills and chills.

*spoilers from here on*

2. Experience: Soo many flavours to choose from

Straight away, I could see what appealed to Dave so much. Pretty much every issue is a separate tale, with delightfully surprising variations in theme, structure and doomed characters each time. It’s an approach that echoes tv horror anthologies like The Twilight Zone.

The stories can be so creative because the main focus is rarely the titular Ice Cream Man, but his victims. Indeed, sometimes the ICM barely features other than to meet his hapless target and set the plot in motion.

The creative variation extends well beyond just the plot from issue to issue, and seeps into the structure of the stories in inventive and innovative ways. The triptych issue is the best example of this, but I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that I could follow a comic in Spanish!

The visual language of the series is very well designed. Names, themes, even colours, all constantly link up to the ice cream motif. The art is neat and precise, and the colours are cheerful, regardless of whether what’s depicted is suburban normality or gory brutality. This accentuates the message that these states are separated by a very fragile line.

I liked that the story got more complex and weird as it went on, with an overarching story and mythos both starting to take shape by the end of this collection, connecting the separate stories.

3. Aftertaste: Disgusting!

I definitely appreciated the creativity of this series intellectually. It’s hard not to be impressed with so many variations on what at first seems a rather simple theme. However, with any anthology there is a risk of inconsistency. This was the case here as not every story gripped me emotionally.

A bit too often the horror here was not allowed to mature - rather than being sustained, it would descend into gonzo territory with freaky monster stuff taking over. Obviously, this sense of dark humour is part of the mutant DNA of this title.

But too frequently for my liking, I was left with an unpleasant (but thankfully brief) aftertaste, rather than a sense of true dread. For comparison, my favourite example of lingering psychological horror in comic books is 24 Hours from the Sandman.

This collected edition has a great Afterword from Price - it is appropriately bleak, but still striving for the light (although in the comic itself, such striving is consistently squashed).

Also, it turns out that the individual comics had unique vector designs on their front and back covers. They are shown at the back of this book, but it’s a real shame and a missed opportunity that they were not used for the chapter divider pages in the collected edition.

There were at least five issues which really stood out (the drugs issue, coffin trap issue, triptych issue, TV issue and the sci-fi issue), but the collection as a whole wasn’t quite consistent enough for me. Interesting to hear if Volume 2 raises the bar. In any case, I do also plan to check out Price’s Swan Songs.

PS For all of my denial of the horror elements, freaky ice cream did turn up in one of my dreams a few days after finishing this, so be warned if you are impressionable!

PS Link to reddit non-discussion here.

My Rating: 7/10

1. Expectations: Mature treatment of a mature Catwoman

After reading a lot of Marvel over the last couple of years, I wanted to catch-up on what modern DC has to offer. I picked up Catwoman: Lonely City plus a few other DC books which I saw getting a lot of praise. In particular, this got 5/5 on Slings & Arrows (https://theslingsandarrows.com/catwoman-lonely-city/). They do not frequently give out top marks to modern superhero comics, so that really encouraged me. It was also a DC Black Label release, which has been referred to as the new Vertigo.

Catwoman is undoubtedly an amazing supporting character. I loved her very first appearance as the Cat in Batman #1 (1940). As an aside - the very first Batman stories, as collected in Batman: The Golden Age are a delight and I recommend checking them out. Robin calling out Batman for letting the Cat escape is priceless and effectively sets the characters up as the femme fatale, the over-eager pre-teen do-gooder and the grown man who has to somehow manage them and his day job.

Moving on from those largely innocent times, Catwoman’s teasing relationship with Batman (in and out of costume) added a lot of passion to The Long Halloween. Beyond comics, I personally liked Michelle Pfeiffer’s version of a more deranged but very alluring Catwoman in Batman Returns.

However, I have not read a standalone Catwoman title before. There is no question that she is a great supporting character. But can she be the main hero? Or is she destined to be always defined by her on-off relationships with the world’s greatest detective? More broadly, what happens to a femme fatale when she ages? Is there a compelling story in that transformation, or is it best to let such characters just gracefully exit the stage? Lonely City attempts an answer and in my review I attempt to assess this.

My expectation was that this would be a mature treatment of a mature Catwoman. Presumably all alone. In a city! Jokes aside, this suggested a somewhat melancholy, grown-up and noir-inspired mood.

It is worth noting in hindsight that this would have been classed as an Elseworlds book in the past - i.e. it is a re-imagining of the characters and is not set in the official continuity. As such, you don’t technically need to get any other books in order to understand the context of the story. I’m flagging this, because at times, this wasn’t actually clear to me while reading and I wondered if I needed to look into the DC continuity for the backstory.

Having said that, while the story is standalone, it features many characters from the Batman and broader DC mythos. Here’s a quick test: do you know who Harvey Dent is? Barbara Gordon? Ever heard of Killer Croc? If you don’t know who any of them are, I would suggest reading some other Batman titles first.

*spoilers from here on*

2. Experience: Catwoman & Friends

Chiang's artwork is the book's undeniable strength - elegant, stylized, and consistently impressive. His approach evokes Golden Age aesthetics with contemporary sensibilities. It has a softness to it that is bordering on cartoonish, but it remains consistently stylish and very pleasing throughout. The art is very easy to follow, with very precise drawings and lush colours.

The story was fun and quick to read. It combined a super-team heist plot with moments of introspection. The structure is particularly effective in its use of flashbacks, which gradually reveal the details of this alternative world and what has happened to its Batman.

There are many homages to Catwoman’s history. Even on the cover you can see a collage of her various past costumes. There is no doubt that Chiang is familiar with her history and has an affection for the character. He takes a modern approach to both her visual design (eg her sporty trainers) and the overall messaging. He is careful to take a respectful and non-exploitative approach to the character.

However, “Catwoman: Lonely City”? “Catwoman & Friends” would be much more accurate!

The title is frankly misleading. She’s lonely without Bats, I do get it. But the story revolves around her encountering and recruiting a huge cast of characters, essentially going through a full roster of Batman’s rogues’ gallery. Now to be fair, showcasing Batman’s rogue gallery with unique twists is usually a popular move (one of the first Batman comics that I read was Knightfall). But it also clashed with the initial premise of the story - but I will reflect on that in the Afterthoughts.

Like Catwoman herself, the other characters are re-imagined and aged. Most of the re-imaginings are great. Killer Croc in particular was the standout. His hero’s journey was both hilarious and genuinely moving. I also liked Two-Face, and felt sad that his transformation was only skin deep. Cobblepot maturing into the Emperor Penguin was just funny.

Not all re-imaginings were done well. In particular, the Riddler no longer being a psychopath polymath, but just a chill middle-aged guy, felt really boring.

The bat police were great, with their menacing red eyes. On the other hand, the book has one of the worst Bat suit designs, with a chin protector that looks like a goatee.

There is also an unwelcome appearance of the Etrigan (I’ve already shared my thoughts on this guy when reviewing Saga of the Swamp Thing vol 1 last month). I mentioned above that a knowledge of Batman’s mythos is helpful - and for a Catwoman comic I think that’s something one can expect. Having the Etrigan and then Klarion running around also requires knowing a bit of the broader DC mythos to appreciate, which honestly I do not have, and would not have expected for a Catwoman comic, so this was frustrating.

Actually, given how frequently I’ve been bumping into the Etrigan / Jason Blood recently (this, Swamp Thing, Animal Man..), I am wondering if I should track down a copy of Kirby’s Demon and go straight to the source to eke out some appreciation for this character.

Also a bit frustrating was the introduction of entirely new characters such as Ogbeast and Winston Tsai. Nothing wrong with them as characters, but I was presuming that these were also reworkings of existing characters from Catwoman’s previous appearances and it was confusing to learn that these were entirely new sidekicks.

3. Afterthoughts: Are we sure that was Catwoman?

Two competing themes run throughout "Lonely City" without successfully integrating. The first - examining maturity, change, and loss - shows genuine promise. There were some very poignant and touching flashbacks. Catwoman's feelings for Batman are developed sensitively throughout the book. There was definitely a melancholy mood and a dystopian vision to the book at the start and the first chapter in particular had tremendous story potential. Unfortunately, this was not sustained.

Instead, the story fairly quickly devolved into the second theme, which was fairly standard super-team fare. This largely runs on rails. Even more disappointing are the magical elements at the end of the book, which feel completely out of place and further undermine what could have been a serious and deep character study.

The fundamental problem is that these two themes - personal journey and team superheroics - are not properly integrated. They exist in parallel without informing each other. We see prison flashbacks showing Catwoman alone and isolated for years, brutally punished for any hint of altruism or attachment. But then in the present, she's busy forming and then effortlessly leading a team, training and fussing over her protégés like a Mother Cat herding her kittens. This disconnect isn't just jarring - it’s like stroking a cat against the direction of her fur and goes against the character's essential nature.

There is a lot of feel-good and wholesome charm to the book, which didn’t quite work for me in terms of my expectations - I had hoped for something more intense. I like Catwoman as someone that every now and then appears in Batman’s life and messes up Batman’s emotions and life. That unpredictable catalyst quality is completely absent here.

Character transformation narratives are very powerful - the loner learning to trust, the selfish becoming selfless, etc - but they require careful development to be convincing. For a character shift to feel earned rather than imposed, we need a credible explanation of how the character went from A to B. This is especially crucial for someone like Catwoman, whose appeal has always been rooted in her independence and moral flexibility.

The narrative fails to show a believable evolution from loner to leader. While the book carefully depicts Catwoman’s physical struggles, training and improvement, her psychological transformation happens almost instantaneously. One moment she's the solitary cat burglar we've always known, the next she decides to not go it alone and immediately transforms into a competent team leader, effortlessly managing team dynamics with no learning curve whatsoever. It is very jarring to see someone who has spent all their life as a loner, including ten solitary years in prison, suddenly leading a group and handling it so very well.

Similarly, she is also an entirely altruistic team player here - there is no mystery about this Catwoman, no hint that she’ll grab the jewels and leave the team in the lurch.

I said at the start that there is an interesting question being posed here: What happens to a femme fatale when she grows old? If the answer is that she becomes a great team leader, count me as not convinced. This is of course not due to gender, but to how Catwoman is presented here. Poison Ivy’s managerial growth, for example, was convincingly presented and she would have made a credible team-lead. Her reimagining was not very dramatic, but it was believable, unlike Catwoman’s.

I suppose one has to consider whether Catwoman as a character is inherently suitable for such a transformation. There are some characters that work better as loners and should stay loners, no matter how admirable “team-players” or “team-leaders” are thought to be in real life.

The best comic re-imaginings seize on something essential about the original character and focus on that. To use some famous examples: Batman: Arkham Asylum - focusses on Batman’s obsessive co-dependence with his baddies, The Dark Knight Returns - on his unrelenting nature as he keeps returning to his relentless vigilantism, Batman & Dracula: Red Rain - on his “creature of the night” terror tactics.

What made Catwoman so compelling was her unpredictability, her moral ambiguity, and her fierce independence. She wanted riches beyond her wildest dreams and had ambitions both on Gotham’s top superhero and wealthiest bachelor. In contrast, this version of Catwoman is ready to resign to a life of premium mediocrity.

While wholesome, even cosy, narratives certainly have their place in comics, they risk sacrificing the intensity and drama that make characters like Catwoman so compelling in the first place. The tension between Batman and Catwoman in The Long Halloween, for example, was electrifying and fun to read. Swapping that excitement for a quiet and mumsy life with the boring version of Riddler may be realistic, but hardly makes for compelling reading.

Ironically, the strongest part of the book is Catwoman’s relationship with Batman. As such, I don’t think that this book succeeds in showing that she can escape from his orbit and be a credible standalone hero.

So to answer the original question: Does this book prove Catwoman can stand on her own as a protagonist? Quite the opposite, I’m afraid. Despite Chiang's gorgeous artwork and an intriguing premise, the story ultimately reinforces that she remains defined by her relationship to Batman. By stripping away her moral ambiguity and independence in favour of traditional team leadership, the book removes precisely what makes her fascinating. This Catwoman may have grown up, but in doing so, she’s lost what made her Catwoman in the first place.

In fact, this isn't actually a grown-up Catwoman - it's someone else entirely wearing a cat costume.

Link to reddit discussion here.

Since the idea is that each month the top 10 list may be updated with new favourites, I decided that as well as tracking my reading and writing down my impressions, I needed my own numerical ranking system. I am trying this out now, but it is not set in stone yet.

I have tried to avoid any big spoilers, but some degree of spoilerage may be inevitable.

Contents:

1. The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. by Jaime Hernandez 10/10

2. American Flagg the Definitive Collection vol 1 by Howard Chaykin 8/10

3. Armies by Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Picaret and Jean-Claude Gal 8/10

4. Gleem by Freddy Carrasco 8/10

5. Elektra Lives Again by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley 8/10

6. MIND MGMT Field Report vol 1 by Matt Kindt 7/10

7. Nimona by ND Stevenson 7/10

8. Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee and Scott Williams 7/10

9. Transformers: Robots in Disguise by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer 7/10

10. Saga of the Swamp Thing vol 1 by Alan Moore, Stephen Bisette and John Totleben and Maggie the Mechanic by Jaime Hernandez (tie) 6/10

1. The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. by Jaime Hernandez

I’ve had this and Maggie the Mechanic (see the review below) sitting on my shelf for about fifteen years. I was utterly blown away when I finally read this over the Christmas break (hence this made it into my Top 10 Comics read in 2024 list on reddit too).

The main praise I can give this is that as soon as I reached the end, I immediately started to genuinely miss the characters. They absolutely feel like real people with whom I have lived a shared experience.

This effect is partly due to character narratives not being confined to any single story. Instead they are masterfully intertwined, so that something casually mentioned in one story turns out to be crucial to later events in another story, while elsewhere an offhand comment will actually concludes a plotline. I think this is probably the best ongoing use of foreshadowing, background exposition and off-stage narrative I have seen.

What is wonderful is that this is a masterful use of the medium of comics. I think it would be much harder to do something like this in a novel or a movie, where getting the reader / viewer “up to speed” after a change of context requires more effort than in a comic.

The narrative is complex, and there are lots and lots of characters. Incredibly, time and time again someone who you think is just a background figure turns out to have a deep and involving character arc of their own. The characters are also fun - larger than life, sexy, passionate, rebellious, and messed-up.

The stories capture change and development in a way that feel authentic and sometimes bittersweet. You literally feel “No, don’t do that because things will never be the same” - and it’s true - characters make decisions and things are never the same again. And it doesn’t feel like the big superhero kind of “Things will never be the same again!” which is really code for the status quo returning in six months.

The big changes are sometimes consequences of the small things, the small decisions, and they are not loudly telegraphed in advance, but once they happen you look back and think “Yeah, the signs were there”. This feels authentic - in real life we do sometimes get a premonition of big changes to come, but most of the time, it’s the small decisions or even actions-not-taken that add up to make a difference.

The art is gorgeous and the layouts are extremely well structured and thought through.

The only downside? It sets a very high bar for everything else. I honestly caught myself thinking, “What’s the point of reading anything inferior to this?” and I do generally advise being very ruthless with one’s reading choices (you’ll never read everything, so focus on the best). Nonetheless, I have a big backlog and I’m determined to get through it before buying too much else, so there will be some variety in my reviews for the foreseeable future.

Plus perhaps Love and Rockets will get worse? Or could it get even better? I am itching to read the next instalment, as well as to read Gilbert Hernandez’s side of things.

Rating: 10/10

2. American Flagg the Definitive Collection vol 1 by Howard Chaykin

I don’t recall where I found it, but many years ago, I got hold of a copy of The Swords of Heaven, the Flowers of Hell by Howard Chaykin and Michael Moorcock. That book felt magical to me, and ever since I have wanted to read more by Chaykin.

American Flagg is bold, stylish and sexy. The setting is a satirical dystopia reminiscent of Judge Dredd. It is very masculine, at times sleazy, but not at the expense of its female characters who are hardly damsels in distress. It is full of irony and humour, although some of the politics is a bit too real-world. It has great use of panel layouts and sound effects. Theres is a constant background media presence with ads and news reels.

It has a great Foreword by Michael Chabon (I love great Forewords in graphic novels - the good ones focus on adding insight into how and why the works were made, the bad ones are just congratulatory back-slapping) which convincingly argues that the release of this very confident non-superhero indie comic for adults in 1982 paved the way for The Dark Knight Returns and The Watchmen.

Unlike those latter works though, it retains a core of optimism. Flagg lives in an absurd and corrupt world, but it does not overwhelm him, and he is able to make a difference while remaining a decent human being. Miller and Moore naturally develop their settings to the point where the individual do-gooder must severely compromise their do-gooding to even have a chance of making a difference.

In places it feels oddly modern. Red caps, calls to bring back the real USA, the effect of mass media, climate change, refugee crises, neo-Nazis trying to seize power.. Only the references to the USSR give its age away.

To be honest, it starts to flag (pun intended) towards the end and I doubt I would seek out the second volume, but overall this was very enjoyable.

My copy is signed and numbered. It also has this annoying wrapper ribbon thing - why do publishers do this?

Rating: 8/10

3. Armies by Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Picaret and Jean-Claude Gal

The book opens with a few short vignettes about armies of fantasy pseudo-Roman legionnaires tasked with a constant quest of conquest. Gradually, the stories become longer, more confident. The second half of the book is a single extended tale.

The fantasy setting calls back not to medieval times, but to the dawn of time. To an unknown prehistory. Looking at the art feels like looking upon some ancient Babylonian sculpture and being sucked in by it and transported back in time. A fascinating and mysterious world is hinted at, but never over-explained. It also reminds me of the implied underworld of early D&D - all statues, carvings and dark places.

The stories are a cross between gothic stories with unhappy endings (like Edgar Allen Poe) and Conan-style sword & sorcery. Moral fables from a cynic who has given up on traditional morality. Tales of grand ambition foiled by nature, magic, folly or simple instinctive self-preservation. Overall, I think I preferred the shorter stories to the longer story about Arn. This genre benefits from a lack of familiarity. The more time spent with specific characters, the more that mundane issues and logic start to encroach on the bombastic. The longer tale is a bit meandering plotwise, but along the way it gets to showcase some incredible art (including dungeons, palaces, deserts, mountains, snowfields and infernos).

It also has a great Afterword (the next best thing after a great Foreword) by Pat Mills, who is one of my favourite writers, in which he explains how Armies helped define the art direction for Slaine.

A couple of names made me think of parallels with classic sword & sorcery fiction: Conan and Arn Ronan. Imerose and Erekose.

Rating: 8/10

4. Gleem by Freddy Carrasco

This contains three very loosely connected short stories. The third story was described by Dave at ComicBookHerald in his Best of 2024 list as “what it’s like for bored kids to do future-drugs at the coolest rave I’ll never get invited to”! I then saw a preview of the first story on Amazon and the images really stuck with me. This opening piece, about a child's otherworldly experience during a church service, ultimately proved to be my favourite.

The artwork reminded me of Number 5 by Taiyo Matsumoto with its rounded, curved style. It has a manga-like quality with excellent flow between panels. Often there are just one or two panels per page, allowing the reader to soak in the art. Several bold and lingering visuals stand out. Dialogue is minimal.

While Cassasco masterfully conveys psychedelia, I would have liked a bit more story in the mix. This feels like an author to watch - if he can combine his striking artwork with tighter plotting, he'll create something truly magical.

The physical book has a cool dust jacket with a cool cut-out - publishers should do this more often.

Rating: 8/10

5. Elektra Lives Again by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley

Having loved Frank Miller’s Daredevil: Man Without Fear, the Omnibus with his main run on Daredevil and Daredevil: Born Again (read specifically in that order), I was excited to discover this. Unlike Elektra: Assassin (which is incredible, but not about Daredevil and is on another wavelength altogether), this book is purportedly about Elektra, but actually focussed on Matt Murdoch’s imagination of her. I hoped that this would join the core Daredevil collection, but I’m afraid to say that it is not essential canon since it adds little to Daredevil’s story. Indeed, I’d argue that this doesn’t really have much of a story as such.

What we get instead is a collection of Murdoch’s fevered dreams, memories and visions.. of past.. and perhaps present? And what visions they are! The art and colours here are outstanding. It is a treasure trove of striking imagery.

As expected, Miller demonstrates his mastery at drawing Elektra (nipple shuriken aside). He also does an amazing job with his ninjas. Miller’s ninjas were always great because he morphed their traditional look into creepy undead ghouls. Here this style reaches its pinnacle - with the ninjas being disproportionate, clawed, faceless horrors.

I wasn’t keen on Bullseye’s appearance here because I liked the “conclusion” to his story in Miller’s run, but I can accept that he would feature in this context.

I view this as an art book first and foremost.

Rating: 8/10

6. MIND MGMT Field Report vol 1 by Matt Kindt

I really liked Matt Kindt’s Revolver, so I went in with high expectations. While I really appreciated the effort and craftsmanship that went into MIND MGMT.. ultimately it was not as satisfying as I had hoped for.

I found I really couldn’t get into the first couple of issues, both in terms of the art and the story. I forced myself to keep going and the book definitely picked up and improved as it went on.

Matt Kindt’s art was frustrating at first - I confess to thinking early on that he would have been better off letting someone else do the drawing, which feels like an awful thing to say. But his style definitely has its limitations. In particular, because his faces are too similar, characters need significant differences (different colour and styles of hair, props such as glasses etc) just so you can to tell different characters apart.

Yet as I kept reading, I felt a greater sense of admiration for the detail that Kindt does include, and especially his use of colours and watercolours. There are some great splash pages in there which really impressed me. Interestingly, by the end of the book, I had been won over by the art, all thought of turning it over to someone else had gone, and I would actually say the art was in fact the strongest element.

The structure of the story is also very impressive. It is very interesting how the story is told - in snippets (like the reader themself is decoding intelligence), in flashbacks, in revelations. Less successfully, it also involves these running texts along the left side of each page. Trying to read each one as you go is just an exercise in frustration as you’ll need to keep turning the book sideways. Eventually, I decided that I don’t have to read the margins on each page - instead, having read an entire issue, I would go back and read all of the marginalia in one go. They do add to the story, but I didn’t feel they were essential.

Comparisons to The Invisibles are inevitable. But unlike The Invisibles, in which the reader starts following the story through a character’s eyes, in MIND MGMT, you are from the outset relying on snippets of “official/objective” information. As such, the main story is not self-contained and you learn that there are psychics about from a background story on page 1, whereas in the Invisibles you are led along the path of enlightenment by the narrative itself.

Warning - the story is best enjoyed without any spoilers at all, but my criticisms below inevitably do have some spoilers.

*spoilers*

The overall story is presented as one about psychics, but because of the way Kindt stretches the logic of what can constitute a psychic power, what we really get are full on superpeople (X-Men, if you will) but without the masks and capes.

The main source of disappointment for me was that the main characters are too mysterious and too vague to really care about. I wasn’t at all interested by Maru, who seemed largely just along for the ride. I didn’t identify with her experience and I didn’t find her an interesting personality. Again, compare this with Morrison, whose characters ooze personality.

Kindt appears to be quite romantic and gentle-hearted (a bit too kindt perhaps), positioning the need to be loved as his characters' primary motivation. They could remake the world, especially working together, but instead are moping that their love lives aren’t as exciting as they could be. The end of this first volume was sappy and I can’t shake off my suspicion that the ending of the overall series will be the same. Sure, there might be threat or loss, but the end will still feature love and marriage and living happily ever after.

Ultimately, cliched love themes for characters that I didn’t particularly care about is what undermined the experience of reading this for me. What is the point of such beautiful and innovative narrative structures, and of peeling away all the mysteries like an onion, if the core is disappointing? I am reluctant to dive deeper into this series only to find that it concludes with a damp squib. With more focus on the underlying motivations of the cast this could have been an incredible masterpiece.

*end spoilers*

Given these thoughts on Vol 1, I still wonder if it is worth reading Vol 2 and Vol 3? Given the structure of 6 chapters of 6 issues each, I can imagine that there could be four more layers of reveals to come - is that so or is it more straightforward after issues 1-12?

Rating: 7/10

7. Nimona by ND Stevenson

This is a cute and charming comic with a nice mix of fantasy, sci-fi and contemporary life.

It was a very quick read, helped by the nice episodic structure. I don’t really have too much to criticise, but I do think it could have been more.

It starts off really strong. The premise and initial third of the book were fantastic. But once the characters were all established, the plot largely proceeded on rails. The resolution (such as it were) went on for too long. I was also disappointed that the main baddies were not explored at all

I would have liked a bit more humour (a good example would be the Dungeon / Duck Heart series) and/or a bit more depth beyond the obvious subversion of tropes.

Rating: 7/10

8. Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee and Scott Williams

I have a soft spot for Batman. When I first started reading graphic novels, he was the only superhero that I followed.

This was a book of two halves. The first featured techno-gadget Batman, the second, a rather sentimental Batman.

I was reading this as a follow-up to Loeb’s The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. In comparison to them, Batman here has definitely been modernised. He is no longer a loner but is supported by an entire team. I know this is the modern take, but I think the “feel” of The Batman as a primal force of terror gets lost amongst all the gadgetry and team chat.

The tacticool team-Batman elements recede and by the middle of the book are replaced with a focus on Batman’s emotional states. Unfortunately, the writing gets really laborious, overexplained and tedious. Being spoonfed, with no nuance at all, just became irritating.

Throughout, the art is gorgeous, with sexy Jim Lee ladies being the obvious focus. The rogues gallery of villains approach is fun, although at times it almost felt like we weren’t going through Batman’s rogues gallery but his Pirelli calendar. This is not a complaint - the complaint is that seductive art should not be relied on to carry the story.

The art and story feature a lot of homages / call-backs to previous Batman books, especially Frank Miller, Knightfall and Loeb’s own works. If you’ve read The Long Halloween, you’ll figure out who the villain is.

One particular sequence deserves mention, though I'll avoid specific spoilers. It involves two big reveals. But instead of them being dealt with separately and getting big splash pages for the culminating images, they are dealt with in parallel, with six small panels each. Running two stories in parallel is a classic technique, but there needs to be something tying them together for it to work properly. In this case, what ties them together is that they are both significant reveals that would normally get splash pages devoted to them! Intertwining them does not generate any synergy, especially for the bigger reveal. I don’t know if this approach was intentional or resulted from timing / editorial constraints. Who knows, but it’s a surprising misstep from Loeb, whose previous Batman works (especially The Long Halloween) demonstrated masterful control over pacing and atmosphere.

Rating: 7/10

9. Transformers: Robots in Disguise by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer

I got this after seeing so much hype for it and the Energon Universe as a whole. What can I say? It’s a good comic.. for a Transformers comic. It’s a fun and quick read, and sets the scene well, but the story is nothing special.

It is full of action scenes which are very well drawn - very physical and clearly inspired by wrestling moves. The sound effects are very well done as well. There are some fun splash pages and overall the art is very good.

I think there is a natural limit on how much can be done with this franchise. The best bits are clearly the robots! However, they all transform into human-usable vehicles, therefore humans have to be involved somehow. So the humans end up largely running around and getting in the way. They have to be shoehorned into fairly predictable cameo roles - being distractions, little helpers pushing this or pulling that, getting into trouble or sacrificing themselves. Maybe for some readers the human element is actually enjoyable, but for me it’s an artificial restraint to the story. Honestly, I would much prefer seeing the Transformers in a post-human, post-apocalyptic Earth (and I have vague memories of Transformers comics from my childhood where they were all just fighting each other in space).

Optimus Prime as an overly sentimental leader who appears to have never heard of utilitarian ethics didn’t really work for me. In any case, there is not enough time between the cool battles for any character development of substance. I mean there is an appearance of character development, but it is basic, forced and occurs at jumps as required by the plot (mistrust the robots upon seeing the bad robots, trust the (good) robots upon seeing the good robots forms the core logic).

I didn’t understand why the covers were neither included between the issues or in a cover gallery. That seemed very poor form for Image.

Rating: 7/10

10. Saga of the Swamp Thing vol 1 by Alan Moore, Stephen Bisette and John Totleben and Maggie the Mechanic by Jaime Hernandez (tie)

Before accusations of insanity arise, I totally acknowledge the historical importance of both these works and of Alan Moore and Jamie Hernandez in general! I am well aware that these are the start points of some of the most influential series of all time. Nonetheless, I explain my reasons and my ratings are a measure of my own reactions to the works. It is an imperfect criterion, but the best I have and the most valuable for me.

Saga of the Swamp Thing vol 1 by Alan Moore, Stephen Bisette and John Totleben

This was frustrating, because I do generally like Moore’s works and I love the look and concept of the Swamp Thing. But this is the second time I have tried reading this volume and the second time that I have found that I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped.

I think the main issue for me is that I found the main villains - the Floronic Man and The Etrigan - to be hugely annoying characters. The first is set up as an uncool counterpart to Swamp Thing, but I didn’t think his connection to flora was meaningfully fleshed out and he is basically just a generic whiny bad guy. The other is a yellow demon in red pants who speaks in forced rhymes.

This might not have been critical, but in this book Swampy mostly just wants to vegetate - so the bad guys get a fair bit of focus because their narrative onus is to force Swamp Thing out of his swamp. Hence there’s a lot of attention on two subpar characters, which made the book pretty unsatisfying.

Also, for a horror comic, it did not affect me much at all, unlike for example, the first volume of Moore’s Marvelman which was terrifying, or the creepy early volumes of the Sandman. As an aside, reading Swamp Thing does drive home how the Sandman was built on the foundations that Moore had built.

The art and colours are great, and there are some nice touches (Tubers! The fly) - it is Alan Moore, after all. But the perfect comic? Not even close.

I do recognise that this is just the first book in the series, and I do intend to eventually read the rest as I assume that it picks up.

My rating is not of the craftsmanship or the historical interest or the way that a character was reinvented - but the impact it had on me, reading it now in 2025, having read lots of other things by Moore and all the people he in turn inspired.

The thing about the 7/10s is that although they are flawed, I largely enjoyed the process of reading them, whereas too often this felt like wading through a swamp. Perhaps in the future I will return to this and it will speak to me more, but for now I can’t rate it higher.

Rating: 6/10

Maggie the Mechanic by Jaime Hernandez

I’ve had this and The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. (see the review above) sitting on my shelf for about fifteen years. Do you know why they have sat on my shelf for so long? Maggie the ****ing prosolar mechanic is why.

I knew that Love and Rockets was a lauded series, and was happy to get the two collections back in the day. But when I started reading Maggie the Mechanic, the vaguely sci-fi melodrama did nothing for me. I think it was meant to be funny and it does have some charm due to the lovely art, but the stories were very wordy, slow and without any payoffs. The dialogues and stories seemed to tread water. Eventually, I just gave up, assuming that it may be one of those high-brow works which are respectable but not very fun to read.

My mistake was in assuming that the entire series would continue to feature the prosolar mechanics stories as a focus. It’s really annoying, but with a name like Love and Rockets, you can see why I’d think that.

Seeing it high up on the graphicnovels subreddit Top 100 List reignited my curiosity. Perhaps there was something there that I had missed? The breakthrough came when I found a thread or two suggesting skipping the entirety of this first volume and starting with The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. instead. This was very reassuring as I usually hate skipping stuff, plus there were a lot of characters and I was worried that I needed to track each and every one of them to stay in the loop.

I am extremely glad I moved on to The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S. and recommend it wholeheartedly.

I have since read the view that skipping all of the stories in Maggie the Mechanic is not ideal, because these early stories have some of the first appearances of a lot of the major characters and contain some quality developments. I think this has some merit, so here is my suggestion: Get both books and start with Maggie the Mechanic, but feel free to skip any of the stories with Mechanic, Mechanics, Mechan-X, Mecanicos etc in the title. That includes Las Mujeres Perdidas. Skip them and don’t worry that you don’t know who all the characters are - it will all start to come together soon enough. Once you’ve got into the series properly you can always revisit these early stories.

A book that blocked my reading of Love and Rockets for so long is going to get a low rating, even if it does contain 100 Rooms.

Rating: 6/10

That’s it for the January 2025 reviews.

Please do let me know if you have any comments. In particular, did you enjoy the sample pages or were they unnecessary?

Link to reddit discussion here.

One of my favourite fantasy amulets, and an inspiration for the name of the blog, is the big amulet that Conan finds in the Tower of the Serpent in Conan the Barbarian (the 1982 film).

The big amulet is simply called an “object of bronze” in John Milius’ screenplay, which sounds unassuming, but in fact, it is central to the film’s narrative.

2. Conan the Barbarian

First, a quick general intro to the film. To be clear, I am referring to the 1982 film with Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is not to be confused with the childish Conan the Destroyer (1984) follow-up or the dull 2011 remake with Jason Momoa.

I first saw Conan the Barbarian by chance on TV when I was just a kid - way below the official 18+ recommended age rating, but the best age for watching fantasy. I remember being mesmerised by the mythic start to the film, then being gobsmacked by the speed and brutality of the following scene, and after that, I was hooked for the rest of the film and for the rest of my life.

I consider Conan the Barbarian a masterpiece and I can happily watch and watch it again. From the opening Nietzsche quote (how many blockbusters start with quotes from philosophers?) to the incredible soundtrack by Basil Poledouris, just about everything about the film is great. Even the special effects largely still hold up. Sure, the dialogue is minimal, but what is said is extremely memorable and quotable, and Arnie plays the strong and silent Conan perfectly.

Arnie’s Conan is earnest and sincere - he is no pantomime character, quipping his way through a genre film with a knowing wink and a nod to the audience. This Conan does not know that he is a fictional character. He does not know whether he has plot armour or not. He cares not for metaphysics, but is prepared to bargain with his deity (in his own way).

Deservedly, the film made a star our of Arnold. I actually read Be Useful, Arnie’s semi-autobiographical/semi-motivational book, and was pleased to learn that his film career was propelled by the success of Conan the Barbarian. It is pleasing that he still clearly loves and respects that role and the film, and indeed still has Conan’s sword in his office.

Frankly, if you have not seen Conan the Barbarian yet, stop reading and go watch it.

Once you’ve seen it, not only will you have enjoyed a fantastic film, but you will not need to heed the *SPOILERS* warning.

*SPOILERS* from here on!

3. The Big Amulet

The role of the big amulet in the film is as a reminder of Conan’s past and as a key to his future, allowing access to the further steps on his path of revenge, opening the way to both his setbacks and his ultimate victory.

After many years of slavery, gladiatorial combat and martial training, Conan discovers freedom. He has not forgotten the butchery of his parents and people, and is determined to find revenge, his only clue being the snake symbol he saw as a child.1 But finding Thulsa Doom after all those years is no easy task – the big bad has apparently moved on to other things, relocated to warmer climes and had a rebranding, such that his old logo is all but forgotten.

Perhaps Conan too would have ultimately forgotten the trauma of his past and just left it buried deep. But discovering the big amulet at the bottom of the Tower of the Serpent (aka Tower of Set) is a tangible confirmation to Conan that his past is not just childhood memories, but a very real wrong, still unavenged.

He is so distracted by the amulet that he gets ambushed by a giant snake. This foreshadows the fact that he will be unable to succeed on his mission alone, and will need help from his friends and lover. Also, the amulet will not bring Conan happiness, but it will give him purpose.

As Conan and his companions travel and discover the delights of civilization, stealing their way to riches and pleasures, his sense of mission becomes obscured by his success, lost in a haze of shisha smoke, black lotus, red wine and revelry. But having acquired the amulet as reminder, it weighs on his conscience and he knows he cannot ignore its call for revenge and go back to the simple life of a thief. He lets go of his companions and carefree life to seek out Thulsa Doom.

Here the amulet is again key, because it grants Conan access to Thulsa Doom, serving as his pass past the numerous cultists on his way up the Mountain of Power. Once there though, the amulet leads to Conan’s capture, since it is also recognised by Thulsa Doom and his henchmen. It is a link to their past too and therefore a link to the shared past of Conan and Thulsa Doom.

As plot device, the amulet leads to Conan’s capture and crucifixion. But not before appearing in the interrogation of Conan by Thulsa Doom, featuring a brutal meditation on the Riddle of Steel.

The amulet is like a memory lodestone – it triggers Conan’s memory, then later it triggers Thulsa Doom’s memories of his pet snake and then, during his conversation with Conan, about his own past as a warrior raider. It is telling that when Thulsa Doom later rides against Conan, his old standard is on display again.

After Conan’s crucifixion, the amulet plays no further part, having been returned to Thulsa Doom. It had given Conan purpose and led him to his lowest point, from which only friendship and love could bring him back. Reborn thanks to Valeria’s sacrifice and fueled by his own force of will, Conan goes on to kidnap the Princess, to stand against many and to finally overcome Thulsa Doom.

4. Conclusion

Ultimately, the amulet is essential in establishing Conan the Barbarian not just as a fantasy film, but as a revenge film. I think its success is due in part because it is not a pure “genre” fantasy film, but is a revenge film in a fantasy setting. It is easy with fantasy to put the setting and the trappings first. The best works focus instead on human passion and drama, which are timeless.

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