review by Karol Kovalovich Weaver Julian Hanshaw’s Space Junk tells the story of four people on a planet whose inhabitants must abandon it for a new planet. A timely work, the graphic novel paints a picture of environmental degradation, social breakdown, and personal trauma. Despite these heavy subjects, Hanshaw shares a message of hope, encouraging readers not to be weighed down by their pasts and the challenges that they face. Four main characters, Faith, Hoshi, Pieter, and Steve, inhabit a planet set to be abandoned. The remaining residents work to pack up food supplies, remove usable buildings, and cull livestock,… Read More
Past Tense – Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself in Therapy
by Liz Argall Contains confronting topics in a sensitive, non-graphic way, including sexual assault, incest, and CSA. Summary Sacha Mardou and her family went through some pretty awful shit that they endured in a stoic, push your feelings down kind of way. Despite a profoundly destabilizing childhood, Mardou has worked to make a pretty impressive life for herself. She’s an acclaimed cartoonist, has a loving husband and an adorable child. So why, with all this going on, does she find herself crushed by anxieties, suddenly plagued by midlife acne and fears for her kid? She tries a variety… Read More
After Lambana – Myth and Magic in Manila
By Martha Cornog In this magical realist fictional tale set in Manila, a young man struggles against a parasitic illness. Conrad’s X-ray shows a tiny bud invading his heart—a parasitic growth that will flourish like a cancer to become full-bloom flower within his body that kills him. But in this folklore-driven urban noir from award-winning speculative fiction novelist Victoria (Dwellers), such fantastic “spontaneous diseases” can be cured only by magical beings. Yet soliciting their help can be even more convoluted than getting Medicare to cover some unusual, deadly condition. And not just convoluted but illegal. Twenty-something Conrad will die… Read More
Sin Titulo
awaiting review
Medical Mentions Book Review VII
Medical Mentions is a group of graphic works. The graphic works reviewed here are books whose primary topics are not medical, and yet they cover a medical topic with some depth at some point in the work. The rest of the work might be fictional or nonfictional, while the medical portion is often technical and five pages or more. The reviewer will usually neither recommend nor discourage reading the work, except when the rest of the work is deemed outstanding or terrible, respectively. Typically, six graphic works will be part of the review with one paragraph for each. Prior Medical Mentions… Read More
How to Make a Monster
awaiting review