“Did a single finger of yours need to be compensated by over fifty lives?” Xue Yang actually considered this seriously. “Of course,” he replied, as if it were an odd question. “The finger was mine, but those lives belonged to others. No number of lives would’ve been enough.”

This quote never fails to crack me up. Xue Yang is such a well-written villain: the perfect picture of an obsessive, sociopathic piece of trash.

This volume can be considered split into two halves: Yi City and Golden Carp Tower. The Yi City arc hits hard, and it’s incredibly detailed for a subplot! I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that many readers would gladly read a spin-off just to follow the characters left behind.

A transitional volume, but the Sunshot Campaign flashback is just around the corner, ready to answer many of the questions this one plants.

While I can understand why Save the Cat had such an impact when it was published, I don’t think it holds up particularly well today.

If you look at the method itself (its approach to genre classification and the beat sheet) it’s solid in its straightforwardness. I can see how it might be useful as a loose guideline, or as a tool to use alongside others.

Unfortunately, the execution of the book is extremely superficial, and it drowns the reader in a list of unbreakable, arbitrary rules. It also relies on outdated examples and focuses almost exclusively on standalone commercial movies. Nowadays, you can find countless better and more up-to-date resources online to study this method.

Furthermore, some passages are problematic or outright wrong. At one point, the author advertises a critique service offered by a friend of his, for the modest sum of $500. In another passage, he criticizes Raimi’s Spider-Man, claiming it’s confusing because the hero and the villain obtain their powers in “too different” ways—something that’s simply untrue. He then goes on to dismiss the entire comics industry with the line: “I hate when they break this rule. It’s sloppy. It’s a product of moronic creativity. Yet in the world of comic books, you’re sort of excused.”

If he lost his suspension of disbelief after seeing the Green Goblin, I lost mine right there.

The first thing I noticed about this BD was undoubtedly the art. I instantly fell in love with the art style, both in the backgrounds and the characters, and I feel like I could have enjoyed the read even if it were about something atrociously boring, like fungi classification.

Luckily, that’s not the case. This is a very strong introduction to what seems to be a fantasy romance inspired by Studio Ghibli and Labyrinth, and I’m all for it. Given the format’s limits, there isn’t much going on yet, but the pieces are set very nicely, and I’ll definitely read the sequels.

This graphic novel/BD portrays a very dark part of history. Since it’s based on real events, I’ll share trigger warnings at the end.

It was a very interesting read. I didn’t know much about this part of history, and the premise really drew me in. It doesn’t follow a single protagonist, but rather focuses on the entire village community where the story is set. It follows Prudence Crandall and her students, but also the white villagers and their abysmal words and ways of thinking—I think it does a great job depicting the ugliness of it all.

This work feels more like a broad portrait of the time than a linear story: it doesn’t go very deep, but I believe that’s intentional. Some parts work better than others, but I still found myself thoroughly hooked.

I also really appreciated it on a visual level. It’s a painting-like comic, with strong compositions and atmospheric lighting. I’ll definitely look for more work by the same illustrator.

Trigger warnings: racism, misogyny, violence, murder, attempted SA.

“If you just write the kinds of stories you think others will want to read, you’ll be competing with cartoonists who are far more enthusiastic about that kind of comic than you are, and they’ll kick your ass every time.”

While Understanding Comics is for enthusiasts and artists alike, this one is definitely just for the latter. It’s a handbook about making comics—one of the very few that exist, I’d add. Mind you, it’s not a manual on how to draw Spider-Man: it’s about the job itself—tools, storytelling, emotion, and how to communicate clearly what you want to express through drawings and words. And honestly, I’ve never seen a better book on the topic.

My only real pet peeve is that it’s quite outdated when it comes to tools. It was written twenty years ago, so it doesn’t cover contemporary solutions. That said, this part is still very useful for people who want to make comics traditionally. I’d love to see an updated edition by the author… one can only hope!