This week’s entry: Candy Desk

The current Black Panther title is a fascinating sci-fi remix of Wakandan concepts and characters, taking readers away from Earth as T’Challa finds himself in the middle of an intergalactic war with no memory of his past. He’s surrounded by new versions of significant figures from his past, and he’s getting closer to…

Cartoonist Emily Carroll is a master of imbuing beautiful images with terrifying menace, using a graceful line and luxurious design sensibility to lure readers into stories that highlight the darker aspects of humanity. Carroll’s new Koyama Press graphic novella, When I Arrived At The Castle, spotlights this skill as…

Summer can be isolating season if you’re cut off from your friends and stuck at home. Harriet Flores and her parents recently moved to Chicago, ending her summer camp tradition and leaving her desperate to reconnect with camp friends who don’t respond to her postcards. Sarah W. Searle’s new Graphic Universe YA graphic…

Comics are a valuable tool for getting children to read, and the comic strip is an ideal starting point for readers developing comprehension skills. Comic strip cartoonists present both textual and visual information in contained sequences, depicting clear courses of action across strips that follows a mostly regular…

When I first started dating my girlfriend, I asked her about past boyfriends and she said she hadn’t met the right guy yet. After dating for nine years, I found out about a past boyfriend and looked through her emails. I found out she dated her married boss for three years. She broke up with me for looking and for…

Ted Naifeh has told a lot of different stories in various genres over the years, but he excels most when he’s exploring coming-of-age narratives for outsiders who are steadfastly true to themselves. Courtney Crumrin and Princess Ugg both focused on young girls who constantly clashed with the world around them, and…

Adaptations can be a difficult to wrangle under the best of circumstances, attempting to reframe and reshape a complete work so that it can fit into another medium. Adapting a much-beloved and acclaimed story adds another layer of complexity, and adapting something that’s already been adapted is even more difficult.…

There’s an odd contrast between the organic and inorganic at the heart of Pola Oloixarac’s writing. The Argentinean author relishes in teasing out curlicues of digital code that execute far-reaching programs, or producing dizzying passages in which the macro scale of global economies and political systems are…

The current line-up of Vertigo titles covers a wide range of genres. The Sandman Universe books spotlight different approaches to fantasy, American Carnage offers a politically charged crime yarn, and Goddess Mode and High Level give readers stylized sci-fi stories with bold aesthetics. Written by former Nine Inch…

The beauty of the podcast medium’s continuing growth is how it catalyzes show creators to innovate, winning the interest of listeners by transporting them somewhere they’ve never been before. Utilizing a unique, boundary-pushing approach, this new show from production house The Owl Field turns this traditionally…

In Sally Rooney’s Normal People, the follow-up to her excellent and very popular debut novel, Conversations With Friends, the writer once again turns her attention to exceptional Irish students. Like Bobbi and Frances from her first novel, Connell and Marianne navigate a complicated tangle of class and social dynamics…

In our monthly book club, we discuss whatever we happen to be reading and ask everyone in the comments to do the same. What Are You Reading This Month?

Legacy has been a part of superhero comics since heroes of the Golden Age like The Flash and Green Lantern passed their mantles on to new characters in the Silver Age, but few characters represent the idea like Hawkman. Carter Hall has been reincarnating as different heroes for millennia, embodying the spirit of…

Given that she’s a teenager still living at home, Kamala Khan has had to deal with a lot of parental drama during her time as the superhero Ms. Marvel. A big part of that drama is her secret identity, and while she told her mother about her alter ego when they thought the world was ending, Kamala still hasn’t told her…

I’m a heteroflexible married cis woman in my 40s. I’m also a POS cheater and a catfish. I really fucked up. One year ago, I met an older man in an online fetish forum. He sent me an unsolicited PM, and we have talked for hours every day since then. My husband, whom I’ve been married to for more than 20 years, does not…

For the last three years, spring has been the season for new Ben Sears graphic novels from Koyama Press, chronicling the delightful adventures of Plus Man and Hank as they make their way through vibrant, playfully designed landscapes. It’s that time of the year again, and next month, Sears’ duo is back in House Of The…

Everyone’s talking about Thomas Merton again—Merton, the peripatetic would-be poet who decided to reject the noise of mid-century America to become a Trappist monk. In 1948, seven years into his stay at Kentucky’s Abbey of Gethsemani, Merton published his autobiography, a “spiritual rejection of the world.” The Seven…

Calling Darkness’ comedy-horror relies on a blend of hyperbolic personalities all trapped together and the exaggeration of common tropes, balanced with tension and grotesque sound design—all of which have the effect of making the scenario feel too close for comfort. Six women, participating in an acting retreat at a…

The Wonder Twins have been a long-time superhero joke since their initial appearance in The All-New Super Friends Hour, functioning as goofy teenage sidekicks to the titular superhero team. They eventually made their way into comics, but they’ve never had their own series until now, with writer Mark Russell, artist…