It looks like this, plus a bunch more. Here’s the latest from Rosemary Mosco, Faith Erin Hicks, Gene Yang and Mike Holmes, Tillie Walden, Ngozi Ukazu, Gigi DG, and more. That’s not to mention the books I’ve already got from Drew Weing, Tony Cliff, Jerzy Drozd … and all of that is only from :01 Books. I’ve also got the new boo from David Morgan-Mar (PhD, LEGO®©™^etc), Minna Sundberg, and more.

What I am saying here is two-fold:

1. Expect a lot of book reviews for the next while.
2. There is no way to keep up with this pace.

I read a bit of commentary from about TV not long ago — I can’t remember where, but it was probably from either The AV Club or Film Crit Hulk¹ — that noted with the many, many original series on broadcast, cable, and streaming, it becomes literally impossible to not only watch all of it, it’s impossible to even watch just the good stuff. I would suggest that comics and graphic novels are in the same place.

Which is why the persistent presence of bad-faith actors who insist that comics are in dire need of protection from those who would sarcastic-air-quotes ruin them is baffling. I have got literally thousands of pages of backlog to get through, and these dipshits are worried that somebody who’s less cis-male, less straight, less melanin-deprived than them will get a chance to write something? So much so that they have to try to silence and ostracize those that they perceive as standing in their way?

I’ve spent most of the time that this blog has existed working from a POV of celebrating work I think should be seen rather than giving brainspace to work I dislike. I think you can count the number of negative reviews I’ve run on one hand. But I’ve also spent the the past year and a half going on record against terrible people who think the world is bettered by shitting on anybody different from them, and while a lot of that has been critiques of those in power, I don’t see any reason to sleep on those who are trying to climb their way to positions of power.

So this is on the record: the disingenously named “Diversity And Comics”, the inexcusable sealioning Comicsgate crusaders², the excreble individuals like Ethan van Sciver and Cody Pickrodt (no links on any of them, look ’em up if you haven’t heard about their deals) have already failed. The vision for comics that they want has already been swept away. If they’d just kept making, buying, and reading the comics they like in silence, none of us would have ever noticed their absence from our discussion because there’s so much left over for us once they isolate themselves in their own corner of the culture.

But that’s the point of all their noise. It’s not that we have this cornucopia of work, big enough for anybody to find something that they love, it’s that they can’t just ignore stuff that isn’t for them. It’s that they can’t tell us, no you are only allowed to read and like what I like and it’s driving them bonkers. They can stand anything except not being the center of attention.

Well, congrats, fuckboys. You’ve got our attention, now you get our scorn and dismissal and contempt, but some day you may work all the way up to our pity. You’ll excuse me if I don’t spend any more cycles on you, but as you can see, I’ve got comics to read.

Spam of the day:

your Garbage Disposal repairers are covered (And then some!)

Man, I love it when repairers are covered, but I don’t actually own a garbage disposal. Is that a problem?

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¹ Yes, yes, I said TV and Hulk mostly talks about film, but Hulk is also a deeply insightul writer about all kinds of media, including the single finest piece of GN analysis I’ve ever read, on Hope Larson’s adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time.

And for those who prefer FCH to both write in all-caps and Hulk-speak, may I recommend HULK WATCH EAT, PRAY, LOVE FOR YOU ASSHOLES, which would be the best piece of movie writing since Roger Ebert died, except Ebert was still alive when it was written?

² That almost makes them sound like a small-town high school sports team, but is way too grandiose for what they’ve accomplished. I imagine they’ve got a banner out front that reads Home Of The Brigading Sockpuppets.