Last week, Ngozi Ukazu revealed on socials that Check, Please!: Year Five, a brand new volume of Check, Please! will be serialized in 2026. With the popularity of MM hockey romance, driven by Heated Rivalry, this is perfect timing, and there’s clearly an audience for it. The strip is charming. The first collection of the webcomic came out in 2018, and I had the pleasure of chatting with Ukazu at this year’s Small Press Expo. You can view that panel [...]

This chunky biography by José-Louis Bocquet and Catel Muller (translated by Edward Gauvin) from SelfMadeHero tells the life of Alice Guy, the first female filmmaker. At the end of the 1800s, she was writing, directing, and producing movies. She had her own production company in the US in 1912! And yet few have ever heard of her. Alice Guy: First Lady of Film covers from 1873 to 1968, the full span of her life, in an immensely welcoming, readable style. [...]

In Creaky Acres, by Calista Brill and Nilah Magruder, Nora is upset at having to move. She’ll miss her riding lessons and her friends at the barn where she boards her horse. She’s a dressage champion, but her parents are moving her out to the country, where things are a bit more casual. And they don’t care much about competition events. The new riding school, Creaky Acres, has possums everywhere and a ragtag group of riders. Nora doesn’t fit in, [...]

I wrote two posts about the British A Ghost Story for Christmas short TV film series for the Beat (because Heidi indulges me). The first is a brief overview of the history of A Ghost Story for Christmas. The second is about this year’s entry, The Room in the Tower, which I got to see earlier this month at the BFI preview showing, and I thought was the best yet.

The first six Enola Holmes novels were turned into comics and collected in two graphic novel volumes a few years ago. Now, with the third movie due out next year, comes news that there will be a third comic collection! Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels Volume 3 will collect three stories: The Case of the Black Barouche, The Case of the Elegant Escapade (I liked reading that novel!), and The Case of the Mark of the Mongoose. Art is by [...]

An overview of some mystery manga titles. Let’s start with the original detective. Manga Classics: Sherlock Holmes – A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted by Crystal S. Chan, art by Julien Choy Manga Classics, $19.99 The first appearance of Sherlock Holmes is presented in full color. The storytelling and language are authentic, although the characters are drawn in manga style, with outrageous hair (Sherlock has a ponytail!) and dramatic outfits (including a bare-chested Holmes at breakfast!). There [...]

I love comics. I love Mycroft Holmes. There is only one comic starring Mycroft, and you’d think I’d enjoy the combination. However, Mycroft Holmes and The Apocalypse Handbook is terrible. People ask me, whenever it comes up, why I think this, and I become incoherent. I don’t like the plot, the art, the characters, the storytelling, the cliches… So this piece is a way to finally lay out why it’s so disappointing. The comic, published in 2017, is a tie-in [...]

The nice thing about the explosion in modern romance titles, particularly with those demonstrating more diversity and geek acceptance, is that you can find a book that makes you squeal “it’s for MEEEEEEE.” Such as Role Playing by Cathy Yardley. Maggie is a newly empty nester, divorced, and generally grumpy, with some social anxiety. She works from home, and she games online. Her two best friends are someone she went to school with that she talks to every couple of [...]

The Manga Classics line has released its first full-color title, and it’s one dear to my heart, as it’s the first Sherlock Holmes story. Manga Classics: Sherlock Holmes – A Study in Scarlet, originally written by Arthur Conan Doyle, is adapted by Crystal S. Chan and illustrated by Julien Choy. It’s faithful to the source material, with authentic language and setting, although the characters are, obviously, manga-styled. Sherlock Holmes’ wild hair, as seen on the cover, is often in a [...]

Well, this justified staying on that crowdfunding mailing list, I guess. I have been notified that a new Sherlock Holmes comic called Holmes Undead is in the works. It’s created by “career martial artist and former professional wrestler Casus Belli”, written by Thomas Pugh, and illustrated by Virgilio Calgagno. In Holmes Undead, the vampire Moriarty bit Holmes, and now, in the modern day, the immortal detective works with Gionne Watson, descendent of John, in a story billed as “blood-soaked… gothic [...]

Rea Irvin’s The Smythes is a prestige hardcover from New York Review Comics reprinting a Sunday comic from the 1930s. Although I didn’t finish all the reprinted comic strips, which were much of a similarity, I found the historical information surrounding them fascinating. Rea Irvin is best known for creating Eustace Tilley, the snob with the butterfly who was on the first cover of The New Yorker and has become the mascot of the magazine. Irvin’s art style, appeal, and [...]

Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library is an adorable modern cozy with a strong sense of history. Tory Van Dyne is part of a rich New York family. Due to past trauma, her life has become small — she lives in a family home in Manhattan and restores old books. Don’t feel too sorry for her, though, because that building, thanks to her eccentric grandmother, also includes a perfect recreation of Agatha Christie’s home library, including the books she [...]