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  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • Creaky Acres Johanna
    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, [...]
     

Creaky Acres

31 December 2025 at 23:13

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, [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • Rea Irvin’s The Smythes Johanna
    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 [...]
     

Rea Irvin’s The Smythes

3 May 2026 at 22:15

Rea Irvin's The Smythes header image

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 [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • Role Playing Johanna
    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 [...]
     

Role Playing

5 April 2026 at 19:00

Role Playing cover, showing an Asian woman in a sweater cuddled up on a sofa with a ginger bearded man in a plaid shirt

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 [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • Green Manor Johanna
    Sherlockians make the best recommendations. I saw this mentioned in a fan group and as soon as I heard the concept, I knew I’d enjoy it. Green Manor is a translated French comic, published by Cinebook Espresso, about an English club in the late 1800s where men gather to talk over vengeance and murder, or even to commit same. It’s a Victorian gentleman’s murder club. The series has two volumes, Assassins and Gentleman and The Inconvenience of Being Dead. (The [...]
     

Green Manor

8 April 2026 at 02:43

Green Manor 2: The Inconvenience of Being Dead cover

Sherlockians make the best recommendations. I saw this mentioned in a fan group and as soon as I heard the concept, I knew I’d enjoy it. Green Manor is a translated French comic, published by Cinebook Espresso, about an English club in the late 1800s where men gather to talk over vengeance and murder, or even to commit same. It’s a Victorian gentleman’s murder club. The series has two volumes, Assassins and Gentleman and The Inconvenience of Being Dead. (The [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt Johanna
    The sequel to The Great British Bump-Off, a very British humor mystery comic I very much enjoyed, is now out. The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt is also set among crafters who behave in a very quirky, local, entertaining way. It’s written by John Allison with art by Max Sarin. Amateur detective Shauna Wickle is bidding farewell to a group of friends before setting off on a slow summer holiday on her uncle’s canal boat. (The group of [...]
     

The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt

19 December 2025 at 02:31

The Great British Bump-Off Kill or Be Quilt header

The sequel to The Great British Bump-Off, a very British humor mystery comic I very much enjoyed, is now out. The Great British Bump-Off: Kill or Be Quilt is also set among crafters who behave in a very quirky, local, entertaining way. It’s written by John Allison with art by Max Sarin. Amateur detective Shauna Wickle is bidding farewell to a group of friends before setting off on a slow summer holiday on her uncle’s canal boat. (The group of [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • A Ghost Story for Christmas Johanna
    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.
     

A Ghost Story for Christmas

26 December 2025 at 14:42

The Room in the Tower promo photo with Joanna Lumley and Tobias Menzies

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.
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • New Sherlock Holmes/Moriarty Comic Crowdfunding Johanna
    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… got
     

New Sherlock Holmes/Moriarty Comic Crowdfunding

29 December 2025 at 22:54

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 [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • Mycroft Holmes and The Apocalypse Handbook Johanna
    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 [...]
     

Mycroft Holmes and The Apocalypse Handbook

21 October 2025 at 01:38

Cover to Mycroft Holmes and The Apocalypse Handbook

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 [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • Why I Can’t Read Nero Wolfe (aka The Real Archie Goodwin) Johanna
    I can’t read Nero Wolfe mysteries, because of Archie Goodwin. But not for the reason you may think. I belong to an historical mystery book club, reading classics of the Golden Age. We tried our first Nero Wolfe last year, And Be a Villain, because someone wanted to read the one with “Wolfe’s Moriarty”, Arnold Zeck. I know several Sherlockians who are Wolfe Pack members, and I’ve been exposed to the theory that the detective is Mycroftian (a favorite character [...]
     

Why I Can’t Read Nero Wolfe (aka The Real Archie Goodwin)

27 March 2026 at 00:46

Archie Goodwin, comic book writer and editor

I can’t read Nero Wolfe mysteries, because of Archie Goodwin. But not for the reason you may think. I belong to an historical mystery book club, reading classics of the Golden Age. We tried our first Nero Wolfe last year, And Be a Villain, because someone wanted to read the one with “Wolfe’s Moriarty”, Arnold Zeck. I know several Sherlockians who are Wolfe Pack members, and I’ve been exposed to the theory that the detective is Mycroftian (a favorite character [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • Mini Mysteries Series Continues With Nancy Drew Johanna
    I’ve talked before about the Mini Mysteries series of kids’ picture books — the first two featured Hercule Poirot, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Mystery of the Blue Train. Now comes the third, with a new detective. It’s The Secret of the Old Clock: A Nancy Drew Detective Story, written by Marci Kay Monson (who also wrote the previous two) and illustrated by Ryan Wheatcroft. It’s been a long time since I’ve read Nancy Drew, but Wikipedia tells [...]
     

Mini Mysteries Series Continues With Nancy Drew

5 April 2026 at 22:41

Cover to The Secret of the Old Clock: A Nancy Drew Detective Story

I’ve talked before about the Mini Mysteries series of kids’ picture books — the first two featured Hercule Poirot, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Mystery of the Blue Train. Now comes the third, with a new detective. It’s The Secret of the Old Clock: A Nancy Drew Detective Story, written by Marci Kay Monson (who also wrote the previous two) and illustrated by Ryan Wheatcroft. It’s been a long time since I’ve read Nancy Drew, but Wikipedia tells [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • Check, Please! to Return With New Material; Interview with Ngozi Ukazu Johanna
    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 [...]
     

Check, Please! to Return With New Material; Interview with Ngozi Ukazu

29 December 2025 at 23:44

Check Please! promo art by Ngozi Ukazu

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 [...]
  • ✇Comics Worth Reading
  • The Superhero Sherlock: A Presentation in Chicago Johanna
    I will be presenting on “The Superhero Sherlock”, discussing whether Sherlock Holmes is a superhero and showing some of his encounters with the more traditional comic types, in Chicago on March 28 at 6:30 PM. It’s at the quarterly meeting of the Torists International, which requires a reservation and payment for the dinner at the Great Escape restaurant (9540 Irving Park Road, Schiller Park, Illinois). Email toristintss@gmail.com for more information, or PayPal that address $40 to attend ($35 if
     

The Superhero Sherlock: A Presentation in Chicago

15 February 2026 at 18:15

I will be presenting on “The Superhero Sherlock”, discussing whether Sherlock Holmes is a superhero and showing some of his encounters with the more traditional comic types, in Chicago on March 28 at 6:30 PM. It’s at the quarterly meeting of the Torists International, which requires a reservation and payment for the dinner at the Great Escape restaurant (9540 Irving Park Road, Schiller Park, Illinois). Email toristintss@gmail.com for more information, or PayPal that address $40 to attend ($35 if it’s [...]
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Comics Worth Reading