Review by David Zhang
If you like Tekkonkinkreet (Black & White), this book will surely satisfy.
Review by David Zhang
Wilhelm Reich was the a protege of Sigmund Freud who came up with some rather unorthodox psycho-social theories. According to Reich, repressed sexual energy make people more susceptible to fascism. He goes on to explain how the rise of the Nazi party was made possible by the patriarchal, sexually repressed culture of early 20th century Germany - as much of a factor as Goebel's propaganda or Hitler's black magic.
Review by Keenan Reed
This is one of my favorite non-fiction books ever! The title pretty much says it all. Not surprisingly the CIA is directly involved in more than a couple instances, ruining people's lives without thought or remorse. Gird your loins for some seriously depressing reality. WOO-HOO!
Review by Emily Bergstrom
I concur with the other review- this book is my favorite of all works by Palahniuk! Extremely descriptive, imaginative, and slightly disturbing in only a way that Chuck can pull off, I adore RANT.
Review by Emily Bergstrom
This collection of stories is pretty graphic and made my stomach churn, but I just couldn't put the book down. Some of these stories will haunt you long after you're done reading them, in a good way.
Review by Kyle Banks
When I first picked up 100 Bullets, I only did so because the author is currently writing Wonder Woman for the New 52. And after reading it, he has gained a new hardcore fan!!
100 Bullets brilliantly combines the constantly colliding worlds of justice vs revenge, while mixing in modern day life from the hood. Witty, in your face, it kept me on edge with every turn of the page. And the art just makes it even more spectacular!
Review by Future Man
Very excited to see where this new series goes!
From Brian K. Vaughan, the same creator that brought some of the most undeniably fun comics of the last 10 years, including the post-apocalyptic feminist adventure, Y: The Last Man, and the alternative superhero history of New York City circa the early 2000's, Ex Machina.
With this series he steps into deeper realms of science fiction and fantasy. The world is very inventive and the politics seem realistically complicated.
Review by Future Man
I love reading RAW, and this is one of my favorite books of his. The format of the interlocking mini-essays which build upon each other is pulled together so well here.
After reading the first Cosmic Trigger book all about aliens from Sirius, Nicola Tesla's Colorado experiments and similarly far-out anecdotes, this volume, aptly titled 'Down to Earth' was way more my speed. Focussed on similarly strange historical moments or people, but who's own work took them to a far less cosmic scope and instead dealt with Earthly matters. In this volume, RAW explores James Joyce's wordplay, Joseph Campbell's theory of the monomyth, and Buckminster Fuller's life's work toward his own utopian vision. Wilson manages to pull together seemingly unrelated talks from his personal favorite thinkers and create a cohesive book by the end that finds intersectionality between all the factors it brings together.
Review by Future Man
What more can I add? This book is an amazing little exploration of the pitfalls of collective group organizing and the things to look out for that can get in the way of our work. An indispensable aid to those of us trying to create groups where everyone's voice can be heard and respected.
Review by Future Man
This is the earliest published work from Lynda Barry, originally printed in Evergreen College's newspaper. These comics are gloriously primitive!
I would not recommend these comics as a first exposure to Lynda Barry, because they really are kind of artistically crude, however folks who have read What It Is or her Marly's comics and want to see the artistic ground she treaded earlier will love this document of her earliest work.
I'm so inspired by Lynda Barry and this book is no different for me on that level. Her included reflections on this older work provides a great perspective to the art community that her generation grew in. Praise the USPS! Her sense of humor and realism is so refreshing in a world of digital art and mass media.
Review by Future Man
The finest volume of Powr Mastrs yet! This book is probably the most far out in terms of story telling. Much of this book finds CF working more in the realm of design to immerse us into the story on an emotional level rather than through straight-ahead narrative development. New characters are introduced and I am only more intrigued as to where this is going.
Review by Future Man
Obviously some of Pope's earliest work, but pretty cool to see his evolution of craft through the couse of this book. The first story in here, The One Trick Rip Off, is a sort of magical realist crime story that was originally serialized through Dark Horse Presents in the early nineties. The later half is made up of various short stories. These are really what grabbed me about this collection. Towards the end, Pope's style becomes much more refined and closely resembles his work in 100%
Review by Future Man
A greatly informative and fun collection. The theme here being to explore under-appreciated or 'dead' literary forms. The editor of this issue has included one classic example plucked from history to represent each of the forms and then follows it with work from modern authors experimenting within the boundaries of that form. Each new work also includes annotations from it's respective author noting how they have attempted to follow the conventions of the form they are imitating.
Some of the forms in this are really inspiring and fun to read. I especially like the biji, a classical Chinese form which is characterized by a rambling or ranting style often containing anecdotes, quotations, random musings, philological speculations, literary criticism and indeed everything that the author deems worth recording.
Review by Future Man
A very well articulated and comprehensive overview of the deep green philosophy. This starts off by drawing the distinction between liberal and radical environmentalism as philosophical standpoints, drawing all on the foundation that liberal philosophy sees the individual as the basic social unit, while radical philosophy recognizes humans as inherently social beings and therefore the basic social unit as a social group.
From that basis it explains how this liberal individualist perspective contributes to the environmental disassociation that our society experiences now and in turn prevents us from creating the drastic social and cultural change that is needed to derail us from the path of environmental destruction that we're on.
The authors cover so much ground here and at around 500 pages, this book is rarely repetitive. With distinct chapters first outlining the philosophical/intellectual basis and then getting into specific strategies for creating a multi-faceted culture of resistance to oppose the oppressive systems of society.
There are definitely some moments of this that could be left aside, but the good bits more than make up for having to sift through some overly emotional tangents and questionable conclusions.
There has been a lot of controversy around the DGR philosophy lately and its particularly uncompromising view of gender which has even caused one of the coauthors, Aric McBay, to split from the group. While I don't agree personally with the stance they've taken, I wouldn't discredit their work and philosophy presented here. If you haven't already heard the rumblings of controversy, it may be better to explore this first on its own.
Review by Alex Morrow
James Stockoe is a favorite of mine as far as art goes, and I have all the more respect for him as an artist and a writer after reading this one. He depicts a truly unique fantasy setting. Something I haven't seen in ages. The sort of bio-technology angle is rarely used and more often abused, but he approaches it well.
Overall: Funny, quirky, beautiful. Doesn't strike me as "deep", but doesn't have to be.
Review by Helios Wilson
This is a pretty fantastic book. I would change a few things in the aesthetic and lyrical flow of the words, but overall, no complaints. Sophisticated language and concepts combined to tell a story of human engineering, both purposeful and natural, sex and politics set in our future. Excellent imagery and super scifi ideas. I laughed a lot, later I almost cried. The layout of this story is effortlessly elegant, in as far as the way pieces of timeline are strewn together. the very last paragraphs were a bit dissapointing, but whatever. most writers cant figure out endings. I think YOU should read this book.
Review by Alex Morrow
I picked this book up as a huge fan of the Sandman series, and was not disappointed. It's everything you can expect from Neil Gaiman, with some particularly great art and emotional attachment. It reintroduces characters previously used in Sandman, Foxglove and Hazel, and tells a story about their deal with Death.
Review by Alex Morrow
This was a wonderfully engaging sci-fi story. A bit trippy in atmosphere, ala Space Odyssey, which kept me interested. Because the art style varied from chapter to chapter, it was a tad hit and miss. But significantly more of the former than the latter, especially where Brandon Graham was concerned.
I was especially pleased with the portrayal of alien diversity. It portrayed a well-fleshed-out universe.
Review by Alex Morrow
This one was very surprising me.
I'm typically a pretty picky person when it comes to the visual aspects of a graphic novel, so before I had given this book a proper chance, it rubbed me the wrong way. The color scheme grated on me, and the style just seemed sort of base and unrefined. But once I'd really started getting into it, I realized that the art style was perfect for its purpose, and actually went from disliking it to loving it.
As others have said before me, to summarize the plot, it's a retelling of many classical creation myths. It's also absolutely hilarious. It has my kind of vulgarity.
Review by Zach Sylvester
This volume lays the foundation for what's to come. Spider begins covering the presidential election and the competing candidates are both great characters.