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Usagi Yojimbo (Volume 41) – Ten Thousand Plums

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by Kevin Wolf   I never thought I’d be reviewing an Usagi Yojimbo volume for www.graphicmedicine.org. This long running series (1984 to present; Issues 1 – 284+; 41+ graphic novel collections; in Japanese the title of the series means “rabbit bodyguard”) tells the story of an anthropomorphic samurai rabbit named Miyamoto Usagi who wanders the countryside of medieval Japan during the Edo period (early 17th century) on a musho shugyō (warrior’s pilgrimage). Some supernatural Japanese mythologies, samurai stories, romance, and spoofs often accompany Usagi in his wanderings. I’ve been reading Usagi’s story since at least the 1990s and have collected… Read More

Precious Rubbish

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by Kevin Wolf Content Advisory: This book contains a fictional suicide, self-injury, alcohol use. The crisis Lifeline number in the U.S. and Canada is 988, in the U.K. it’s 999; and for elsewhere go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines. Content Advisory: This book includes domestic violence, rape, incest. National Domestic Violence Hotline in the United States is 800-799-7233; text 988; or use this weblink, https://www.thehotline.org/   Precious Rubbish is full of bad taste, out-of-place cartoony drawings seemingly from old comics, and a real-life horror story. This is a difficult review to write, because I’m not going to leave out (only) some horrors of… Read More

Guardians of Being – Spiritual Teachings from Our Dogs & Cats

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by Kevin Wolf This will be the shortest review that I’ve done (to date). Our pets, in particular our dogs and cats, can support our well-being and teach us to be well. That’s the premise of Guardians of Being – Spiritual Teachings from Our Dogs & Cats written by Eckhart Tolle with Mutts comic strip illustrations by Patrick McDonnell. Pet therapy (aka, animal-assisted therapy) periodically appears as news stories or as part of the “feel-good” segment at the end of a newscast. We’ve learned about support animals for people suffering from PTSD or dogs visiting adults and children in hospitals…. Read More