The Well by Jon Allen Review

Veronika gets a desk job at a company that makes energy drinks or herbal supplements or… something. It’s a murky operation and what’s in their products is murkier still. With her new colleagues Persephone and Dave, they set off to find out the secrets of the company deep down in… The Well!

In Utero by Chris Gooch Review

A young girl on a summer holiday program in an abandoned shopping mall meets Jen, a mysterious older girl with a secret. In the flooded basement car park is a giant egg and elsewhere in the building are hundreds of tiny brains. Somehow it’s all connected to a massive explosion that took out twenty city blocks 12 years ago - and whatever caused it is back to do it again…

But You Have Friends by Emilia McKenzie Review

Emilia and Charlotte became high school best friends in 1999 and stayed close for nearly 20 years until Charlotte killed herself in 2018 at the age of 34. Emilia McKenzie’s book, But You Have Friends, is a celebration and a memorial of their friendship.

The Delicacy by James Albon Review

A pair of farming brothers, Rowan and Tulip, living on a remote Scottish island, come into a substantial inheritance and decide to use it to seek fame and fortune in London by opening their own restaurant. Alas, things don’t go so smoothly and the restaurant is soon foundering - until a mysterious mushroom growing on the brothers’ new property turns their fortunes around! But what makes it grow - and why only on their grounds?

Free Pass by Julian Hanshaw Review

Huck and Nadia are a highly sexual couple working for a tech/social media giant (basically Google/YouTube). Though their group-sex experimentation fantasies remain just that, a friend one day gifts them a prototype sex doll that can morph into a number of set models. And then Nadia hacks the menu so that anyone with images on the internet can be turned into their sex doll. Oh, the depravity of the future!

Under-Earth by Chris Gooch Review

In a hollowed-out landfill sits a horrific prison city teeming with prisoners and Stormtrooper-esque guards. The latest inmate, the hapless Reece, luckily stumbles across a friendly giant, Malcolm, and the two become friends - but will their friendship withstand the brutal prison culture? Elsewhere, a pair of thieves plan one last heist for a map out of this place in a desperate attempt at freedom.

Cloud Hotel by Julian Hanshaw Review

In Julian Hanshaw’s brief intro he mentions that Cloud Hotel was inspired by an incident in 1980 where, as a kid, he and his family encountered a spaceship in the English countryside. For realsies. O-k...

Look Back and Laugh by Liz Prince Review

Filling the void left when James Kochalka ended his brilliant daily diary strip American Elf is Liz Prince with Look Back and Laugh. The book collects all of her daily comics from 2016, originally available only to her patrons on Patreon – and it’s really good! 

Bottled by Chris Gooch Review

Twentysomething Jane wants to move out of her increasingly-toxic parents’ house but doesn’t have the cash for a deposit. Then her bestie from high school turned rich’n’famous H&M model, Natalie, comes back to town and, following some shocking revelations, Jane begins plotting a dark and bitter plan to get what she needs…

Moving Pictures Review (Kathryn Immonen, Stuart Immonen)

The Nazis looted a buncha art from France during the Occupation. Museum Curator Ila, along with others, hides as many pieces as she can – “Moving Pitchers” around, oooohhh, I gets the title now!! – before she’s caught and interrogated by her German Nazi boyfriend - or someone anyway. And then the book’s over… ?

I didn’t rate Kathryn Immonen as even a halfway-decent writer before and she hasn’t changed my mind with her badly-written comic drawn by her hubby Stuart, Moving Pictures. This book is poo. 

120 Days of Simon by Simon Gardenfors Review

Swedish cartoonist Simon Gardenfors comes up with the kind of gimmicky book concept Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace used to do back in the day: he sets up a website where strangers can sign up to offer him food and shelter for a night. He’ll travel around Sweden for 120 days staying with different people every night. The 120 Days of Simon is his account of the experiment - and it’s an ok comic. 

Maddy Kettle: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch by Eric Orchard Review

Maddy’s parents have been turned into mice by the Thimblewitch so she sets off on a magical adventure to find her to turn them back. 

Eric Orchard’s Maddy Kettle: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch is a delightful kid’s book that even a (supposed) grown-up like me enjoyed! 

Love Addict: Confessions of a Serial Dater by Koren Shadmi Review

Freshly dumped K gets signed up to online dating site Lovebug by his rambunctious roommate to lift his spirits. What starts off as a series of disastrous dates leads to an extremely active sex life as K discovers a world of women ready to fool around with him. But where will all of this temptation lead our once-meek protagonist?

March Book Three Review (John Lewis, Nate Powell)

I swear I’m not doing this to be “contrarian” or any of that bullshit, I’m just being honest. Don’t take my less-than-stellar rating to mean that I’m racist and against equal rights or think little of the efforts of the Civil Rights Movement. I know most of you aren’t that dumb but, y’know, this is Internetland, where stupidity knows no limit!

BB Wolf and the 3 LPs Review (JD Arnold, Rich Koslowski)

You know the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf fairy tale? Prepare to be bored as it gets reimagined - yes, it’s one of those books from the tiresome revisionist fairy tales subgenre - with the roles reversed as the Wolf is being put upon by the Three Little Pigs. 

The Homeland Directive Review (Robert Venditti, Mike Huddleston)

I bought a buncha Top Shelf comics recently and I’m really coming to appreciate how bad some of their catalogue is. The Homeland Directive is yet another jaw-droppingly shite piece of work that I’m stunned anyone read and thought “That’s AMAZING - people need to read this, let’s publish it!!” 

Tim Ginger by Julian Hanshaw Review

Hey guys, did you know that some of us don’t have or want kids and that’s ok? I had no idea anything quite so obvious needed to be stated but see how quickly I did that, Julian Hanshaw? Didn’t need a 150 page book to draw that shit out! 

Three Fingers by Rich Koslowski Review

Rich Koslowski’s Three Fingers is an alternate history of movie toons – characters like Mickey Mouse, Porky Pig, etc. all with their names changed of course – from the Golden Age of Hollywood presented as a documentary/talking heads-style comic. And it suuuuuuuuuuuuucks!

Johnny Boo, Book 7: Johnny Boo Goes Like This! by James Kochalka Review

Yeah yeah yeah, I knows Johnny Boo is for the kiddles and isn’t for (supposedly) grown-up men like me but I still read it anyway. I’ve been a James Kochalka fan for years now and one thing that could definitely be called his style is the innocent, child-like look and tone of his comics whether he’s writing them for the youngs or the olds. That means that, if you’re a fan like me, you’ll always get something out of reading his comics, whatever audience he’s aiming for as they’re always pure Kochalka. 

The 10 Best Comics of 2015

Lotta great comics came out this year so whittling down my favourites to a manageable ten was tough. Image, the third biggest comics publisher in the world, continued to be the main counter-programming to Marvel/DC’s superhero stranglehold on the market with some amazing, original titles.