Review by Matthew Nielsen 750 Years in Paris by Vincent Mahé is a unusual graphic novel: a series of illustrations that depict a single point within the city of Paris that is shown again and again throughout different points in history. Starting from the 13th century, we are taken through medieval, […]
Review by Matthew Nielsen Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayaeo Miyazaki present a world in which several centuries ago, great god-warriors roamed the world and engulfed everything in flames. When the flames faded, a vast poisonous forest appeared, guarded by enormous insects. Humanity’s numbers have dwindled severely, and […]
Review by Matthew Nielsen Available as both two volumes or a complete edition, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran before, during, and after the Iranian Islamic Revolution of the late 1970s. The book covers many years of Satrapi’s life, from her as a young child through to […]
Review by Matthew Nielsen Larry Gonick has written numerous educational comic books, including The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry, The Cartoon Guide to Calculus, and even The Cartoon Guide to Sex. But this review focuses on his most famous work, the six-volume Cartoon History of the Universe. To give an idea of […]
Review by Matthew Nielsen Maus by Art Spiegelman is among one of the most famous graphic novels of all time. Available in either two volumes (Maus I & Maus II) or as The Complete Maus, this book is truly something special. This autobiography has Art Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, recounting the hardships […]
Review by Matthew Nielsen 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style by Matt Madden is an exercise in taking a simple one-page comic and reinterpreting, reinventing, and even reincarnating it in many different ways. The template comic is 8 panels long. It depicts a man working at his […]
Reviewed by Matthew Nielsen Palestine by Joe Sacco takes place in occupied Palestine and is set over the course of two and half months in the winter of 1991-1992 (around the end of the Second Intifada). This graphic novel is a fusion of journalism and comics that explores the country […]
Review by Matthew Nielsen This time we’ll take a quick look at the 24-page comic book Kicking at the Darkness by frequent Cloudscape contributor Colin Upton. It is a piece of nonfiction set on the European western front of World War II during 1944-1945, at the very end of the […]
Review by Matthew Nielsen Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier (writer/artist) and Braden Lamb (colorist) centers around Cat (Catrina), a preteen, moving with her family from sunny southern California to gloomier, rainier northern California. The move is due to Cat’s younger sister, Maya, having been born with cystic fibrosis; the climate is […]
Review by Matthew Nielsen The Finnish characters the Moomins have been featured in numerous comics, novels, animated shows, and even theatrical performances. However, the book we’ll be looking at today is from the original newspaper comics by the Swedish-speaking Finlander Tove Jansson. Moomins are creatures that somewhat resemble hippopotamuses, and […]
