Category: Comic Books

Death by Field Trip: A Foxtrot Collection by Bill Amend

I’m still torn between purchasing anthologies of my favorite comics or to purchase the smaller “Themed” collections that invariably come out. Either way you will end up missing *some* of the work. It’s a nuisance and just needs to be decided which you’d prefer.

It’s certainly more cost effective to buy the larger anthologies, it seems that you get plenty more comics for your buck. But there is charm and completeness in the smaller collections as well.

Unfortunately this nice little collection was almost completely contained within one of the other Foxtrot anthologies that I already own. So I can’t really say too much about it except to say that I’d *really* prefer it if the book producers would just make it easier for us to purchase the product without imposing the penalty of overlap on us…

This is another great web comic that I’ve enjoyed for over a year now. It touts itself as “A comic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language” and it is all that.

I definitely don’t “get” all of the comics – although I suppose that’s true of any artform – but I do like and appreciate most of them. Especially if you like science you’ll enjoy this comic.

Make sure to hover your cursor over the comic after reading it. There is usually some additional background in the tool tip that will appear. Sometimes the tooltip can be a little long so Firefox users will need the “Long Titles” extension to get around a bug in that browser to let you see the whole thing.

Suddenly Silver : Celebrating 25 Years of For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston

I always enjoy “For Better or For Worse”. You don’t get this book to see new material, much of it I’ve already seen in Lynn’s other works. Instead you get it because of the commentary and perspective that it puts on a comic that has not only been around for 28 years (as of this posting) but has grown and matured as I have over the past 3 decades.

There are insightful mini-essays from folks near and dear to Lynn that help to give you some insight what it must be like living in the same circles as someone who can produce such great work. I get the sense that she’s not the easiest person in the world to be around sometimes, but for all involved those less than rational moments seem to be more than outweighed by the wonders and tribulations expressed by this “parallel family” from Lynn’s mind.

The comic is still as fresh as it ever was and I still look forward to reading the strip each evening.

I stumbled on this web comic a few months ago and have been slowly working my way through the archives. There is a little philosophy, a little insight, some playfulness and a whole lack of detail in these comics that make them very appealing to me.

The main character is a quasi-cynical quasi-loser – to over-use the “quasi” thing – who shall remain nameless (really!) encountering a rich array of secondary characters. There is continuity of experience from comic to comic which I greatly appreciate and which lends a sophistication to it that has me always anticipating the next offering.

Be sure you read the author’s note at the bottom of each comic. Often the insights are as amusing or revealing as the comics themselves.

Check it out – Minimalist Stick Figure Theater

I highly recommend going back to the beginning and reading at least the first dozen or so. In addition to the growth of the characters, it’s truly fascinating to follow the maturing of Jeph’s artistic skills. Something you’ll see immediately when you contrast the current comic with the earlier ones.