Review by Kyle Beckhorn

Beautiful book... The Tao Te Ching is a wonderful book. Some translations are better than others... Stephen Mitchell's translations are THE BEST. This particular version has great art on every page too. "The Master" would be proud...

Review by Future Man

Comic book meta-fiction is at its finest here. This reads as a sort of ode to the golden-age of Marvel and other superhero/horror/adventure comics. While Bulletproof Coffin seems to be largely inspired by golden-age comics, it brings in other elements from all over the spectrum of comic cultures that wouldn't seem to overlap to any redeeming end, but the story that spins from the minds of David Hine and Shaky Kane develops to a beautifully postmodern result. Imagine combining the reality twisting down-the-rabit-hole adventure of Grant Morrison's Animal Man with the pop-surrealism of Mike Alred's Madman, but drawn by Jack Kirby and you have a rough idea of what's going on here. This story is fantastic, can't wait to read the sequel. I hope to see more from both of these guys soon!

Review by Future Man

I just discovered Quentin Tarantino and I'm loving his movies! This is the second one I've seen and I really enjoyed it. I've avoided his movies for a long time, because I'd heard they were very violent and I'm usually turned off by that. However, in watching them, the extreme-violence seems to exist through a magical realist lens where it is experienced as real for the characters and for you witnessing it, but the rest of the fictional world around them goes on as normal, taking little notice. Somehow this removes it from the realm of reality just enough that it is accepted as non-gratuitous in the context of the story. The events of Pulp Fiction take place over the course of two days with the plot meandering non-linearly around through time, pulling you along through each scene with awesome dialogue that builds the characters to become these scummy archetypal heroes by the end. When it was all finished, I felt drawn into the story so much that I could have easily continued to watch these characters for another 2 hours. I'll definitely be watching more of Quentin Tarantino's movies!

Review by Future Man

This is a great collection of what would be considered classics or some of the early defining pieces of science fiction writing. Most of these stories were published in old science fiction pulp magazines and are noticeably less polished than I'd suspect from some more recent collections. While the writing is very pulpy, the concepts taken on in these stories are what really shine and in many cases these stories could be categorized as horror stories within the conventions of science fiction, illustrating the fears and anxieties of the time. This book serves most interestingly in this way as a social study, through this (at the time) very popularly read media, of our culture's suspicions or worries during the times that these were written. All that aside, there are many fine stories throughout this collection from some of the luminaries of science fiction's early days.

Review by Future Man

Chippendale is a maniac! He's most recognized for his role as the drummer in the noise rock band Lightning Bolt, he was also a founding member of the Fort Thunder art collective. This book is huge and in your face with Brian's bright color prints, manic scribbling and actual child drawings from when he was a kid. This whole book stems from the comics that Brian drew when he was 7 years old of a nondescript ninja doing battle and collecting loot from 'the bad guys'. These stories are then brought to a more psychedelic sense of completeness when broken up with recent comics drawings interspersed, featuring the same hooded ninja. Reading this comic transports you to the same bizarre world as the best Lightning Bolt songs. Simultaneously surrealistic child art noise comic art book. I love it!

Review by Kryssanne Adams

Several of the drawings in this book are hilarious, but overall it's one big self-indulgent inside joke. Vasquez writes vague stories, then Goldberg illustrates them resulting in numerous incoherent stories that are too random to be entertaining. On the sides of each comic, Vasquez takes advantage of the space to talk about himself. I don't know what else I was expecting.

Review by Kryssanne Adams

Written in a style that falls somewhere between poetry and narrative, this gripping tale offers a vivid picture of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Life is bleak for the unnamed father and son duo, yet something brings them to continue scavenging the remnants of a dead civilization. The story's dialogue is minimal and redundant in a way that highlights an interesting disconnect between the two, each from a different world.

Review by Future Man

This is a great guide to signing. It has a ton of signs and has yet to fail me when looking to construct a sentence. This is essentially a dictionary of signs and doesn't really attempt to tackle ASL grammar. It is an older book and so some of the signs are older and have evolved or taken on new forms since the writing of this book. I've found this in practicing conversation and running into stumbling blocks with the person I'm signing with. This is a nice hardcover and is really durable, so it doesn't much mind being packed around in my backpack to practice and review throughout the day.

Review by Future Man

This is a great collection of Isaac Asimov's short robot stories. By juxtaposing us with robots, there are some great philosophical questions raised about the nature of humanity. Often times in showing the humanity that machines are capable of, the reader is brought to question their own free will. We are made to feel uncomfortable by the blurring line between ourselves and the machines. While many of these stories were written at the dawn of science-fiction as a genre, they are still so incredibly potent today, and perhaps raise entirely different questions than the author intended at their writing. Since we have so much more thoroughly integrated with our technology and most of humanity is continuing to blur that line between man and machine, these stories will continue to take on new meanings for our still developing post-human society.

Review by Jasmine (Jammys) Chang

More raw, queer, and heartbreaking than the first two, and I therefore enjoyed more. Schrag takes it to a deeper emotional level and touches on some pretty heavy duty queer, gender & teen issues. However, her witty, sarcastic and charming voice is still present. She also experiments with different art styles; the dream sequences incorporate a realist style, adding a completely new element and feeling to her work. Her drawings have clearly developed as has her storytelling as she grows older and becomes more experienced. As always, her work's awesome.

Review by Jasmine (Jammys) Chang

The humor and subject matter get progressively darker & weirder as the story goes on. Tony Mllionaire is a bizarre fellow. The world he creates is fantastical and unpredictable, with caricatured characters and wild monsters, topsy-turvy science and magical inventions. The art seems reminiscent of old, classic 50's cartoons such as the original Loony Tunes, Mickey Mouse or Popeye, augmenting the story's eeriness.

Review by Jasmine (Jammys) Chang

The art's absolutely stunning, as is the story content. Mystical & mind-altering, this book reminds one of what is was like to be a child & sense magic glistening in everything. The dialogue reads like poetry, and the ideas and questions the story provokes will stick with you.

Review by Jasmine (Jammys) Chang

One of the first comics I ever fell in love with. Wowww..the art is beautiful and stylized to emphasize cool concepts, it's ripe with symbolism. The characters are vivid and the plot is intricately woven and clever. Heartfelt and carefully crafted.

Review by Jasmine (Jammys) Chang

Wow! Currently my favorite book. Dreamlike and mystical, ironically tragic and humorous, totally intriguing and beautifully crafted. Clowes takes you on the strangest adventure imaginable. If you enjoy dabbling in the provocative and bizzare, read it. Heck, regardless, just read it. It's one of a kind.

Review by Rose Reichlin

This is a great graphic novel about Emma Goldman's life. A lot of history books are quite dry and boring which makes learning about revolutionary past a painstaking task. However this book makes it exciting, relateable, easy to understand and awesome. Read this book if you care about anarchist revolution!

Review by Future Man

Taiyo Matsumoto's Tekkonkinkreet has deep connections to something magical that cannot be easily pinpointed. It seems to spring from a mythology born out of today's Japan, in the wake of modernization, combining elements from a diverse set of sources. At the center of the story are a couple of homeless children named Black and White, who's eyes we see the story through. With this childrens' filter, the city of Treasuretown becomes a magical landscape with as much character itself as any other in the book. And in many ways the heart of the city is what is truly at stake as the outside developers come in to change things. The art perfectly communicates the energy of the city as it moves and changes around them. Changing perspective and drawing our eyes in close to the action, we are wrapped up in a swirling psychedelic romp with an often ambiguous morality.

Review by Future Man

I picked this book up knowing nearly nothing of Louis Riel or Canadian history and without being familiar with the comics of Chester Brown. By the time I'd finished, I'd not only gained a newly informed perspective of Canadian colonization and the resistances to that force, but I'd also found a new cartoonist to seek out more work from. This story was such an engaging and highly political adventure, I caught myself so pulled into the experiences and struggles of the characters that I had to continually remind myself that this was a historical account and not some modern action story. In fact, Chester Brown did considerable research for the writing of this book and includes his bibliography and notes on the story and the artistic liberties taken, page by page.

Review by Zach Sylvester

I've slowly been making my way through this book and I've loved every story so far. The art is chaotically real.

Review by Jasmine (Jammys) Chang

The characters are snarky and clever, yet vulnerable and relatable as they transform and grow. Daniel Clowes paints an accurate portrayal of young women in America with insight, humor and heart. This book is a very distinct experience from the movie it inspired.

Review by Jasmine (Jammys) Chang

Rich with story, art, emotion and raw human nature, this anthology captures the perks and problems queer and trans folk experience in everyday life while celebrating the beauty & strength of our community. Creativity and magic emanates from each page.