When you’re a young artist, with more ideals than money, your day job a prime indicator (barista, bookseller, movie usher), you know what you’re in for: your life is full of like-minded souls; and, heck, maybe you’ll get caught up in some clumsy attempts at overthrowing capitalism. That’s the vibe to Reel Politik, the hilarious comic strip by Nathan Gelgud, about a ragtag group of employees hanging on by their fingernails at a local indie movie theater. You can catch up with the latest post on Gelgud’s Instagram and you can enjoy a new collection published by Drawn & Quarterly.
Gelgud’s comics about movies, and the arts in general, appear in The New York Times, The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. This new book of his Reel Politik comic strip gives you a handy and fun way to jump right into it all. You’re getting a special view of the whole moviegoer scene from someone who’s tracked it from various vantage points: projectionist, video store clerk, movie critic and, of course, as a cartoonist.
When you’re young, just starting out, you’ve got a whole plethora of defense mechanisms. The go-to shield for all manner of artists, from poseurs to die-hard bohemians, is to take on the role of an expert. Sometimes this works out really well, especially if you’ve actually read the book or viewed the movie you’re pontificating about–or maybe you’ve at least listened to a podcast on the subject at hand? Ah, standards have plummeted under the guise of being mired in privilege. Anyway, Gelgud provides delicious portraits of various cinema/activist purists among his characters such as Sandra, who believes a pure cinema experience includes going to a movie theater without knowing what film you’re about to view. This is not just a quirky philosophy for her but something she imposes upon her innocent customers.
A really good comic strip takes on a life of its own and is open to various interpretations. Gelgud, in the tradition of great cartoonists, is a keen social observer, ready to poke fun at the culture-at-large and its critics. A case in point is well into the narrative, once the movie employees have taken over and freed cinema of its capitalist shackles. Sandra is rejoicing over how cinema is now free and For The People. No one is enslaved to the strictures of the past–the hierarchy imposed by the Criterion Collection. Someone points out a man who has been put in a cage. Sandra shrugs and admits some people are less equal than others. The man in the cage is serving time for having scratched a copy of a beloved classic film! We’ve been brainwashed by a consumer culture but we’ve also been brainwashed by a slogan-heavy activist class.
Well, the politics in Reel Politik never gets too heavy. If you can’t take a joke, then maybe you’re part of the problem, no? Overall, this is a comic strip full of whimsical humor, biting satire and guided by a true love for a couple of often misunderstood art forms: cinema and comics!
Unbeknownst to me, a sister-brother creative team, comic artists Maria and Peter Hoey, have been dipping into a kind of Surrealism (by their own account) in their Coin-Op series. This short-book-length issue recalls immediately the themes of loneliness in modern life, dramatized in the work of Chris Ware and among others, the Canadian artist who calls himself Seth. Their comic panels exude cold, the coldness of a vanished era of popular culture.
From Coin-Op #10: Wet Cement.
I do not think that Ware, who has done a lot with the Superman mythos— more or less merging it with absent-parenthood—or Seth have ventured far into the realm of Surreailsm. But this is an issue deserving more discussion in the Hoeys’ work and Surrealist history-at-large.
Dadaists famously put scraps of daily life into new patterns, opening up the art world in new ways. Surrealists, distancing themselves from their precursors (with some personnel overlap), placed the dream and the unconscious at the center or their own vision of art and the possibilities that it raised for changing society dramatically…and for living differently as part of the change.
The opening chapter of Surrealism famously ended by 1941 or so, when Fascism spread world war and the Popular Front, very much supported by Communists, took over the job of fighting behind the lines. Surrealism no longer seemed so new or so interesting. And then again, a slew of Hollywood films, some of the best of them written by Communists, developed the themes of what French critics (some of them former Surrealists) would hail as film noir.
From Coin-Op #10: Wet Cement.
Noir made vivid sense in the post-war world, especially post-war America, where the idealism of wartime seemed to drain out and be replaced by cynicism, materialist individualism, and corruption. Detective and crime novels published earlier, those of Daniell Hammet in particular, offered a hard-boiled look that invited film adaptation (Hammet himself was teaching at the Jefferson School, a veritable red academy, after mustered out of the Service). Non-political and even right-wing writers and directors reached the same artistic solutions to the alienation of modern life. Even It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), the Christmas classic, could be seen as noir with a happy ending and the banker-swindler of the town as the concentration of everything wrong and corrupt in the wake of Fascism’s defeat.
Decades pass, Surrealist paintings win top honors at global art shows while the revolutionary vision seems ever more obscure, held in literal form by individuals and small groups mostly unrecognized. A new wave of interest, around 1960, is mostly concerned with form and not content, although it serves as a venue for gay and lesbian artists to emerge with their own visions alongside Pop and other influences of the day, shaped in part by the emerging Counter Culture.
The occasional Surrealist writer had been among the enthusiasts of animation, jazz, blues, and comics since the early 1950s. With Franklin Rosemont at the center of the Surrealist group, and revival in Chicago during the middle 1960s, the interest in popular culture and black culture (at the veritable center of Blues culture) emerged anew and with vigor.
Rosemont devoted himself, in critical/celebratory essays, to the likes of Chester Gould (Dick Tracy), Bill Holman (Smokey Stover), Basil Wolverton (Powerhouse Pepper) and, above all, Carl Barks (Donald Duck and family) among other comics artists, and to the great animation creators in Hollywood, above all, Tex Avery. It is intriguing that no avowed Surrealist in Rosemont’s circle or elsewhere actually became a comic artist, even as a wide circle of “Underground Comix” notables could, for instance, take part in a Surrealist theme, the one-shot Mondo Snarfo (1978) comes to mind. There, R. Crumb, Bill Griffith, Art Spiegelman and others, including comic publisher-editor-artist Denis Kitchen, here tried their hand at Surrealist ideas and images detached from anything like a formal Surrealist allegiance.
The Hoeys, arguably, have made the connection in Wet Cement. Not with the radical politics and dream-like claims of Surrealists, as such, but with the noir sensibility of the disconnections to reality. Their work, if made as individual comic panels transferred to studio art, could fit comfortably in the Surrealism exhibits that have re-emerged since the 2024 centennial of the founding of the movement in Paris.
From Coin-Op #10: Wet Cement.
It is difficult to make much narrative sense of the Hoeys’ saga of brainwave transmissions (something more and more believable) of secret authorities with sleep walkers’ dreams recorded. Not much more so with a loose plot about an imprisoned lover freed by a techno-marvel, following an insight mysteriously received in a movie theater. And so what.
From Karl Marx Bolan.
An earlier comic in their series, Karl Marx Bolan, has dead Rock ’n Roll stars Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent magically saving a protagonist from an otherwise deadly car crash, prompting the young Bolan into a musical career that overturns the global order and makes him the PM of the United Kingdom! At last, the abysmal Labour Party is overthrown the right way, with left-wing hero Jeremy Corbyn sure to be close at hand.
The Hoeys’ Coin-Op Comics Anthology, 1997-2017 (Top Shelf, 2018) is regrettably out of print, most regrettably because some adventures in prose throw light on their other work. Their repeated treatment of jazz musicians, including the Paris music scene between the Wars, the site of experiments and exiles, is revelatory. Two Hollywood legends, Orson Welles and Nicholas Ray, are also treated with sensitivity, if determinedly avoiding the high days of the Hollywood Left and the consequent Blacklist that shaped and reshaped cinema, from Golden Age to Noir.
In Perpetuity by Maria Hoey and Peter Hoey, 2024.
The Shadower, from Top Shelf Productions, March, 2026.
For classic Surrealists, the plot is overrated anyway. The purposeful flatness of the art, the sense of the unbelievable becoming ordinary works effectively to send the reader into a kind of dreamscape. Just where the artists wish.
A close look at Snafu suggests what is behind the behindess of popular culture in its pulp-industry glory days, just before professors discovered the paperback market for their prospective (or imagined) best-sellers. A dozen versions of Seventeen or other magazines for adolescent girl-readers; more dozens for the home-bound household drudge, mostly short fiction; Hollywood glamour mags by the dozens; Men’s Magazines with adventures and salacious fiction of semi-nude women, alongside lion-hunting and such-like manly fantasies. Not to mention Hot Rod specials, Wrestling specials, big-selling Sci-Fi magazines with wonderfully crazy covers. All this miles below the respectable (and then still numerous) slicks like the Saturday Evening Post.
MAD #6, 1953.
Mad Comics (1952-55), notoriously the brain child of Harvey Kurtzman, drawn by a handful of the greatest satirical artists of the age and best known for skewering the morals and manners of modern culture was also….a huge hit. So huge that it evoked, as its more hugely popular successor Mad Magazine would evoke, a not-so-small army of imitators. The best of them by a long stretch was Panic (1953-55), using many of the same artists but without the avant-garde “feel” expressed, for instance, in the April, 1955 Mad Comics satire of art history including abstract expressionism, seen through the imagined artistic life of Willie Elder, Kurtzman’s most intimate collaborator. Nobody else would even think to go that deep, although when I asked Kurtzman about this most striking and unusual feature, he responded “it is amazing what you can do if you have pages to fill.” He was joking, I think. Maybe.
PANIC #1, 1954.
Kurtzman, resigning from Mad when his insistence that he own 51% ownership was turned down, famously tried to duplicate his success in Trump, Humbug and the final shot, Help! Simply to name all the other Mad knockoffs during the 1950s-70s would be impossible, but they definitely include Eh!, Snafu, Frenzy, Cracked, Thimk, Loco,Frantic, Grump, Drool and Crazy. Cracked outlasted the rest by winning reader loyalty as a serviceable if second-rate Mad. Sick!, more literary pulp than comic, stands out as a kind of avant-garde response, an imitation Lenny Bruce on the page, easily adopted from the lesser stand-up comics of the day.
Kurtzman, when I pressed him for precursors of Mad Comics, suggested that the college humor magazines, especially in their post-war phase where censorship and political restraint wavered, had offered a model of sorts for what he wanted to do with something new. He and his artists would take on the world. The GI Bill generation that launched campus cinema clubs to see European art films and sometimes protested racial discrimination wanted something more than a handshake from the society that sent them to war. Through the 1950s and a bit further, college magazines continued to appear with issues banned for their sarcastic political commentary as well as overly sexualized prose and cartoons.
SNAFU #3, 1956.
Snafu, like nearly all of the other Mad imitators, had no such ambition, although repeated, not-very-humorous references to violence may indirectly reflect wartime memories and unintentionally express PTSD. “The Funniest Magazine in the World” (an overly ambitious claim, to say the least) lasted two years in the middle 1950s, the normal run for a Mad Comics imitator. And it had several veterans of Kurtzman’s project, mainly artist John Severin and his sister Marie, a letterer who could obviously go beyond her domain to produce parody photo manipulations.
HELP! #12, 1960.
The expansive introduction by Michael J. Vassallo may itself be worth the price of the book to scholars. Both meticulous and incisive, at least when the fannish generosity of appreciation does not get in the way, it tells us what we need to know. We learn that businessman-publisher Martin Goodman, known earlier for the formative Timely Comics, is in charge here, if doubtless preoccupied by the wider scope of his empire. For a while, Stan Lee clocked in as an executive employee and continued in the boom years to reign over dozens of titles with a small army of underpaid contributors. Jim Warren would publish Kurtzman’s Help!. Andkill it for the crime of low revenue.
Goodman, familiar with many of the comic artists and writers who had seen military service—most of them in non-combat roles as educator/editors, identified with the sentiments of the Warner Brothers famed 1946 animated feature, “Private Snafu.” Famously, the phrase “situation normal, all fucked up” was a familiar expression of ordinary soldiers none too fond of the Brass that lorded over them, especially because the overlording so often got in the way of whatever really needed to be done. This movie cartoon had been created by some of the animation greats, including Chuck Jones, Fritz Freeling, Bob Clampett and Frank Tashlin, “voiced” by Mel Blanc, and for millions of GIs, offered a much-needed laugh and some mental solace.
SNAFU #2, 1956.
Then, seven years later, came Mad. As popular among young adults as kids, its readership included plenty of GIs, many of them already familiar with Kurtzman’s bravely realistic, arguably antiwar war comics. It was apparently Stan Lee, still hardly a name outside of the comics industry, who came up with a knockoff of Mad for the growing Goodman empire.
RIOT #1, 1954.
Snafu closely followed teen and funny-animal humor of the same company, published under titles like Millie the Model, Patsy and Her Pals, The Monkey and the Bear, Girls Life, Homer and the Happy Ghost and My Girl Pearl. Among them, Wild, Crazy Comics and Riot all imitated Mad, but none with the energy or success of Snafu. A comics art veteran, Joe Maneely, was chosen along with John Severin to carry the serious artistic weight, issue after issue, with Mad veteran Russ Heath among others on the side.
SNAFU #1, 1955.
Vassallo comments that the humor writing in the comic aspires to be at Mad level, but “unfortuntely, Lee is no Kurtzman,” and “sometimes very funny, but frequently juvenile” (p.xx). This is an understatement of considerable weight. The cover of the volume—a young woman in panty girdle and bra, seen from the back but clearly holding onto a subway loop, with an all male cast in the foreground reading Snafu rather than looking at her— already suggests juvenile humor of boys turning toward sexual interests a little nervously, as funny or strange. Very very Snafu.
THIMK #3, 1958.
The art, numerous steps downward from the EC standard, looks rushed, the gags pretty obvious. Albeit sometimes contemporary: “Good News for Men Over 40…Who are Frequently Tired and Worn Out. You’re Draft Exempt!” A Korean War joke or a memory of WWII? Sometimes the jokes are a bit worse, as in “TV Programs This Week”: “Evelyn runs away from reform school because [her] boy friend is always smacking her with the palm of his hand. She finally finds true love with Jack Gonng, prize-fighter, who hits her only with a closed fist.” (p.15, November 1954.)
WILD #1, 1954.
On the last page of the introduction, Vassallo asks why these highly ephemeral efforts failed and were, so to speak, never heard from again. He reiterates that Mad really was the original, attracting the best artists with the best editors and production, while Snafu and others in the Goodman barn could never, by their nature, be more than imitations.
SNAFU Issues 1-3.
There is much to be said for this interpretation. Yet, as Vassallo insists, the seriously talented Severin obviously labored under rushed conditions and tight deadlines, turning out visual gags. We wince at the Burlesque Show jokes, the “Squaw” gags with pretend-Indians and the assorted gender jokes that would not survive “Me Too” complaints of a later day. Snafu does a lot better, arguably hits a high point, with one repeat feature, well-drawn imitations of famous cartoon artists’ work, from the Saturday Evening Post to the New Yorker, not to mention 1000 Jokes and other low-class pulps that would disappear from the news stands before 1970 or so. The various artists who created these pages obviously did their homework.
Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang, #188, 1934.
Seen from another standpoint, the repetitive sex-joke format of Snafu issues may seem further from Little Annie Fanny (Kurtzman and Elder, later on in Playboy) and closer to the tradition of Captain Billy’s Whizbang of the 1920s-30s. Updated to suburban life and its consumer pleasures with built-in frustrations, it loses the old sex-crazed undergraduates—often male and female alike—of the campus and the sailors, not to mention the naughty talking parrot of the college landlady. Snafu offers, one might say, a last look backward on another time and another world of comic art.
BUNK #1, 1956.
With two issues of Snafu under his belt, Goodman launched Bunk!, made up almost entirely of retouched photos and gag commentaries, as if the butt of the joke is actually Confidential, just then a new hit in the exploitation trade. Then comes Riot, soon dumped and then revisited in short order, itself spun off to monster-satire features like Melvin the Monster. Still other, seemingly endless spinoffs follow until Atlas itself implodes. The lead artists of these efforts evidently go on, but not, I think, to greener pastures. Some made it to advertising, a long-wished goal of comic book artists, at first barred or limited by their Jewishness, and then less so. By then, the golden age of printed satire is over. At least, according to this critic.
Tales of Paranoia. R. Crumb. Fantagraphics. 2025. 36pp. $5.99.
A lot of the public has caught up with cartoonist-provocateur R. Crumb. More people than ever are ready to do some of their own provoking. But don’t count the master out. Fantagraphics is releasing, Tales of Paranoia, Crumb’s first new comic book in 23 years. A show featuring original pages from the book is on view (and for sale) at David Zwirner gallery in Los Angeles thru December 20, 2025. The leading cartoonist of the Sixties underground, one of the greatest ever, Crumb’s influence cannot be overstated. Whenever you see the work of a comics artist that features an alter ego stand-in for the creator, commenting and complaining about life’s foibles, you can thank R. Crumb. He single-handedly invented the one-person comics anthology with the launch of Zap Comix in 1967, a progenitor to the whole “autobio comics” genre that was to evolve into the “alternative comics” scene into the 21st century. Following the Crumb tradition of a Larry David-like anti-hero are countless cartoonists, including such notables as Julie Doucet, Gabrielle Bell, Julia Wertz and Noah Van Sciver. With this in mind, it is no small feat to have R. Crumb yet again hold his own—and at the age of 81!
Everything you could expect in a R. Crumb comic book can be found in this new book. I have read Tales of Paranoia a number of times and I am thoroughly impressed with how well it all holds together, one story blending into the next, not an easy thing to do well with a collection of short works. I’m delighted right away to see that distinctive, and consistent, lively drawing line. Crumb is a sui generis cartoonist: a one-of-a-kind artist who is highly accessible; sort of inviting other cartoonists to join in but most likely leaving them creating lesser replicas of his work. For the reader, Crumb is casually inviting you into his world: creating an illusion that you have entered an inner sanctum, whether it is the human condition, the national psyche or what may or may not be his own mind.
Reading every crumb of Crumb.
It is important to process every crumb of Crumb. He has written and rewritten, formatted and reformatted, to the point that he’s amassed layers of meaning, leaving room for argument and counterargument and further interpretation. Like any artist, he has absorbed the current zeitgeist and reflects it back to the reader. This leaves me wondering about his current batch of rants and riffs, as much expressions of his beliefs as a satire of how we collectively express ourselves: begin with the outrage and go from there, just like one podcaster emulates another podcaster, ad infinitum. Or, if you wish to take a longer view, it’s all about finding a way to tell the most compelling story, going back to the first stories ever told.
Crumb’s hobby horse of choice in this book is the potentially nefarious background attached to the Covid-19 vaccine and the cottage industry that has grown around it. This is not the only subject that Crumb sinks his teeth into but it is definitely at the top and provides a structure for further “ranting.” As any good storyteller knows, it’s all in the pacing. Like a good conversationalist, Crumb eases into this or that fact, gently but firmly citing his sources. Crumb makes his case for Big Pharma’s track record of corruption and encourages the reader to do their own research. Crumb finds nuggets of wisdom from a wide range of books and publications that he dutifully cites. He also includes such controversial figures as Joe Rogan and RFK Jr. which gives me pause. That said, Crumb insists you don’t have to like or agree with them but be open to what is coming from their corners. I conclude, if it is information resonating with the public, then it takes on a value, at the very least, for doing that.
We have gone from a tradition of “serious people” in high office and places of authority (John Kerry, Robert Reich, Hillary Clinton) to this current Trumpian transgressive period of unqualified “unserious people” in places of power (Kash Patel, Kristi Noem, RFK Jr.). Midway through the book, the comic “Deep State Woman,” points out that even a “highly qualified” person isn’t always your best bet. Here, Crumb can ease up on his “paranoid” character and simply focus on presenting a compelling portrait of a dangerous career bureaucrat.
With a nod to the mind-boggling complexity of all the world’s machinations, Crumb, more than once, looks upward and pleads for some words of encouragement from a higher power. Crumb depicts himself asking for some clarification from God and receiving the bare minimum for his efforts. All we can do is try. It’s nice to see that Crumb hasn’t given up.
Macabre Valley #1. w. Zack Quaintance. a. Anna Readman. 30pp. Comics Bookcase.
Macabre Valley #1 is a 30-page horror comic by writer Zack Quaintance (Death of Comics Bookcase), artist Anna Readman(2000AD, Peachfuzz), colorist Brad Simpson (Local Man, Coffin Bound), Eisner-nominated letterer Becca Carey (Absolute Wonder Woman, Exquisite Corpses), and designer Jared K. Fletcher (Paper Girls).
This is one of those comic books that will speak to anyone looking for a blast of good authentic fun. You know, the good stuff. Comics and horror go hand in hand and Macabre Valley does not miss a beat. There’s a cool story behind this comic which I’ll get to in a moment. For now, just think werewolves done right. I see that the Kickstarter campaign (thru 10/15) attached to this comic has done very well. Let’s take a closer look.
Welcome to McCobb, Texas, “home of the Macabre Valley.” If that sounds ominous, that’s because it is. Okay, so the cool thing to know about this comic is that its writer, Zack Quaintance, has tapped into his own experience as a young intrepid reporter and built upon that to structure his own horror story. This is a shaggy dog story, complete with gumshoe tropes and offbeat humor, reminiscent of classic EC Comics.
This is the story of the gruesome murder of a border patrol agent out in the middle of the desolate badlands of South Texas. A young reporter happens upon the scene and is abruptly brushed away by local police who plead with him to just let this one go. Of course, that’s the last thing that our hero is going to do. So, now the chase is on to solve the mystery of a savagely murdered border patrol agent. The trail leads the reporter to a maverick pastor with a soft spot for rehabilitating stray dogs. That’s all well and good until that night he confronts something less dog-like and more monster-like.
This quirky story, its whole premise, reminds me of the cult classic TV show from the 1970s, Kolchak: The Night Stalker. In that series, Kolchak is a gumshoe reporter, played by character actor Darren McGavin. Each week, by incredible luck (good or bad?) Kolchak confronts a supernatural creature: of course, he “stalks” the creature; goes all-out Columbo (another ’70s TV classic) on the monster until he cracks the case. So it goes with this highly entertaining comic book.
I got to read a shorter version of this story which was part of Zack’s comic book anthology, Death of Comics Bookcase. You can read my review of it here. This 30-page full-bodied version allows for a richer experience and far more breathing room for the talents of the whole creative team, named at the start of this review. You get all sorts of opportunities for expansion like the beautiful greeting card two-page spread. Zack gets to play with various narrative nuances, including some strategic humor inserted at just the right time to pause before consuming more grindhouse gore. One thing to remember about Zack Quaintance is that he’s someone who really cares about the details. He demonstrates that with all of his work, notably his own review of comics which, these days, you can find over at Comics Beat. So, you can rely upon his being a perfectionist when it comes to delivering the goods here with this exceptional horror comic book.
Lastly, keep in mind that this comic book is the result of a Kickstarter campaign so refer to the campaign for details. That said, this comic book will be embarking upon a journey akin to a salmon run where it will endure a challenging journey on its way to spawn for future glory. So, keeps an eye out. Follow this comic book’s journey in all the usual places, including Zack’s hub, Comics Bookcase.
The King’s Warrior. Huahua Zhu. Bulgilhan Press. 2024. 65pp. $15.00.
From the cover, all the way through, I am completely swept into the exquisite world that Huahua Zhu has created in her new comic. I love fantasy when it works for me and this does. Recently, I was browsing through a bunch of zines at a certain shop and I was struck by the art on the cover, the delicate and ethereal lines holding up a bold eccentricity.
When a comic sparks my curiosity, that’s a very good sign. The best fantasy will do that: somehow turn the genre on its head, give you something refreshingly new and will its own reality. By simply jumping into the story, in just the right understated manner, Zhu has achieved this. One wonders what led up to this moment while, at the same time, ready to follow along.
The two leading characters are rather enigmatic: a brother and sister with elfin ears. All we know, at first, is that this is a world of monsters, especially dragons. Zhu’s approach is to not give too much away. The first page is a trio of close-up panels depicting a slaughter of dragons. This is followed by a couple of pages of combat. And then a page featuring a castle and an inset close-up panel that only shows part of a craggy face. A textbox below dares someone to come and kill him. Finally, the next page has our leads, Mara and Echo: an animated page of various panels that gently introduces the siblings with light hints of yellow and blue watercolor.
An ambiguous and fanciful tempo is kept up all the way to the end of this book. The connections between characters are not altogether clear hinting at a larger backstory. There is no apparent reason why the actions of one character should determine the fate of another but that seems to be the point. Mara and Echo have both ended up being kidnapped by a mysterious queen who won’t set them free until a warrior has completed his task of assassinating a wizard. Once this chain of events has been set into motion, more things are triggered and there’s no turning back.
Zhu has a wonderful way with drawing horses, dragons, gnomes, elves, wizards, all the stuff of fantasy, including a magical golden coin. The trick is to not bring out the big swords too often or all at once. Good fantasy, or any good story, is made up of a number of well-timed moments, constantly moving forward, toward something greater than its parts. This Zhu does well. I buy it in every quiet scene she’s conjured up with the mighty warrior and Growl, his chimera sidekick. Yes, Zhu manages a bit of humor. This is an ideal work of comics fantasy, both spooky and enchanting.
The Once and Future Riot. Joe Sacco. Henry Holt & Co. 2025. 144pp. $27.99
India was once a confident and reliable ally of the United States. Lately, due to the Trump administration’s belligerence and blundering, India has leaned deeper into Russia and China’s orbit. India is simply not enough on the radar of the average American, without some tie to India, to really know or care one way or another but, as Joe Sacco’s book makes clear, there are undeniable universal truths that India has to share with the rest of the world. Once again, Joe Sacco lays out the essential, and ever elusive, truth.
The elusive truth, lost in an instance. At its core, this is what Joe Sacco’s new book is about and what all of his comics journalism books are about. You don’t think you can relate to India, or to Palestinian genocide in Gaza at the hands of the Netanyahu administration? Well, think again. We live in a world where up is down and down is up and, all too often, we fight shadows and ignore the substance. In the case of this new work, Sacco focuses on the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India. Some would say it is irreparable. Others would say it is a manufactured conflict that favors those in power who gin up the public, stoke the flames of hatred, exploit resentment and distrust.
Sacco interviews a Muslim cleric during his travels in India who plainly lays it out: The media is responsible for the hostility between Hindu and Muslim. “You start telling a lie again and again to make it a truth. TV channels have done it. TV channels are liars. They keep telling lies 24 hours a day.” Where there once was a friend, now there is a demon.
India, it must be stressed is a democracy, with a federalist framework similar to the United States. What happens in India is not from some distant and remote region. The world grows smaller every day, as it is. And India reflects this in a powerful way. Joe Sacco’s book lays out the dynamics that led to the bloody 2013 riots in the streets of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous and diverse state in India. What caused the violence is misinformation that fueled a mob mentality. It can happen again in India. It can, and is, happening in the United States. And it can happen anywhere.
“I was crying. Like anything . . .”
As easily as the United States can experience a collapse of order by the insurrectionists on January 6, 2021, so can a region of India once celebrated for harmony. The lethal power of demagoguery can not be overstated, despite what others who traffic in misinformation may say. We live in dangerous times with no sign of it letting up in our collective lifetimes. As long as there are people in power with the time and money but no wisdom or integrity, we remain in an endless cycle. Well, this should be painfully obvious. Sacco does not beat one over the head with the obvious but steadily covers the specifics of a specific moment in time. The reader gets to know particular people. The reader is guided along as these individuals confront their struggles, some needlessly to die. And it is through this specificity that Sacco reaches the universal.
When will this horror end?
It is within this calm and steady approach that Sacco builds up to the horror and tragedy of the riots in Uttar Pradesh. In one incident that Sacco documents, Muslims ambush droves of Hindus attempting to flee. The Muslim attack is relentless. Hindu farmers attempt to hide behind their trolley trucks only to have their vehicles ransacked. They are attacked with guns, rocks, swords and knives. One man witnesses his son bludgeoned and tossed off a truck. When he attempts to help him, he is overwhelmed by an oncoming mob. He calls out to the police who manage to get his son to a hospital, where he dies. It begs the question, When will this horror end? It is a question that perpetually begs for an answer.
Partisans: A Graphic History of Anti-Fascist Resistance. Editors: Raymond Tyler & Paul Buhle. Between The Lines. 2025. 148pp. $34.95.
A bold statement is asserted in the introduction to this book: “History does not repeat itself. But the example offered of the Partisans’ courage must not, cannot, be forgotten in our time. We must find our own creative ways, individually and collectively, to rise to the challenge.” This is a collection of short works in comics that chronicle the fight against fascism leading up to and all through the Second World War. I don’t know what to make of the relatively calm assertion that history does not repeat itself when, each day, it looks like history is repeating itself. The best I can come up with to reconcile this statement is to say that we must embrace the calm before the storm, even seek it out during the storm. Each story here offers some moments of contemplation, featuring stories from survivors with their own set of insights.
“Freedom or Death: The French Partisans” by Daniel Selig
For these sort of works in comics, especially a collection such as this, I believe the most compelling work cuts to the chase. This is why I find the straightforward piece by Daniel Selig, known in Europe for this work with Éditions FLBLB, so compelling. He sets out to outline the evolution of French Partisans and does exactly that. There’s even a quick and precise nod to the creative and intellectual contingent on one page featuring Jean Paul-Sartre, Paul Eluard and Elsa Barraine. Food for thought as we engage with our own times.
“The Hungarian Resistance” by Sander Feinberg and Summer McClinton
There are a number of more traditional depictions of testimony coming from the average person. In that vein, some examples: David Lasky‘s rendering of diary entries from Eastern Europe; Trina Robbins and Anne Timmons honoring teenage Paritsans in Holland; and Sander Feinberg and Summer McClinton‘s tribute to the Hungarian resistance. Each work brings the struggle down to the human scale in very distinctive ways in terms of style and approach.
“Andartiko: Fighting Fascism in Greece” by David Lester
Another more straightforward approach focuses on the fight in Greece. David Lester, known for his historical graphic novels with a dramatic flair (Revolution by Fire: New York’s Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741) , offers a study of the Andartiko Partisans, with roots going back to the Ottoman Empire. His approach is gritty, bold and dynamic and really keeps the narrative moving.
“Piccola Staffetta” by Isabella and Franca Bannerman
What each piece in this book has in common is that urgency to connect the dots from the past with the present. The most explicit example comes from long-time World War 3 Illustrated contributor Isabella Bannerman. In her piece, she depicts the words of her mother, Franca Bannerman, who grew up during the rise of Mussolini and can’t help but see a distinct similarity between that fascist dictator and our current U.S. president. Well, someone had to say it and this one hits the nail on the head. So, where do you go from here? Days, let alone months, even years, can go by and the future remains murky and sinister. One thing is for sure, we can all use as much calm contemplation as we can get.
Molly and the Bear: An Unlikely Pair and Molly and the Bear: Campers Beware. By Bob Scott and Vicki Scott. Simon & Schuster. (ages 8-12) 240pp each. $14.99 each.
Molly and the Bear is a syndicated comic strip by Bob Scott with a wide fan base going back to 2010. Bob Scott is a highly regarded cartoonist and animator who has worked with many of the greats in the comics industry including Jim Davis as well as with such high profile animation studios as Warner Brothers, DreamWorks and Pixar. Molly and the Bear is about an 11-year-old girl and her best friend, a very sensitive 800-pound bear. In partnership with his wife, Vicki, Bob turned this webcomic into a middle-grade graphic novel series. It is a wonderful collaborative project by two respected creatives in the world of comics and animation. The first two books in the series have just come out and I’m thrilled to share with you such a wildly inventive work.
“An Unlikely Pair”
Both of these books are coming out together and so make a perfect pair. That leads me to the title of the first book, “An Unlikely Pair,” which acts as an entry point, especially if you enjoy seeing two characters meet for the very first time. A big point I need to stress is that I’m always intrigued and overjoyed to see just how much quirky, artful and original storytelling is found within the pages of a book that has a younger demographic of readers. In this particular case, I firmly believe that Bob and Vicki Scott have achieved that classic “all-ages” appeal, and that has a lot to do with Bob’s refined sense of meeting the demands of a comic strip, traditionally meant to be enjoyed by any reader, whatever the age. This first book opens with Molly’s parents off to enjoy a drive and trusting their daughter to mind the home alone. This leads to Molly exchanging text messages with her pal, Harper, followed by her just dancing and enjoying a little freedom. But then, suddenly, a huge bear crawls in from an open window. In short order, Molly discovers this bear has some serious issues with living outside–and inside: he’s a complete mess who needs help. Molly decides to let him stay and just hope for the best. Of course, she will have to deal with Bear’s intricate system of worries. For instance, he’s afraid of heights, especially “mid-level heights.” Enough to boggle the mind of any therapist. And there’s your very unusual and funny premise.
Even if you are a highbrow comics connoisseur, I ask that you put on your white gloves, monocle and top hat and examine this work for yourself, just as you would any number of other works with a mass media following created by industry professionals (Carl Barks, Ernie Bushmiller, etc.). I think you’ll find the waters you swim here to be rather pleasant. Not only are the gags set up with precise timing but the compositions are consistently compelling. There is a level of skill here that can go underappreciated because it doesn’t call attention to itself but it’s there in every well-rendered figure and face, every well-established interior and exterior. I’m really charmed by the example above. Molly is luring her new best friend Bear to the safety of her bedroom with some ice cream, having him climb up a few stairs that he’s been terrified over. She manages to navigate a close call with her parents. By the next page, she races up the same stairs to check in on his progress and finds he’s overcome with a really bad case of stress-shedding. You see on these two pages Bear go through a roller coaster of emotions: from an all-time high to a lowest low.
“Campers Beware”
I actually read the second book first and only later went back and read the first book second. And I’m glad that I just leapfrogged into the material. Again, it’s all very polished and professional work with a certain subversive edge to it, just the sort of thing you find in all the old favorite animated TV shows like The Jetsons and The Flintstones. In the case of “Campers Beware,” Bob and Vicki deliver a hilarious story involving Bear beside himself attempting to befriend Dad while battling his fears of the great outdoors–and other bears. Really priceless stuff. Seek it out!
The Horrors of Being a Human: A Cola Pop Creemees Comic. Desmond Reed. Microcosm Publishing. 2025. 270pp. $19.99.
Desmond Reed is a rising talent in the world of comics. His latest book makes that clear. Years of dedication to the making of comics has resulted in his design being sharper, his insight being keener and, heck, the guy knows how to put on a good show. It is that focus on storytelling, as well as development of character, that leads us to such a smooth and pleasing comics experience. As Reed explains, he has five characters, the Cola Pop Creemees, who, among other things, represent different emotions and different aspects of himself, or yourself. I can see that this comic is very relatable, in the spirit of such groundbreaking work as BoJack Horseman. Let me just say from the get-go, the Cola Pop Creemees are very different and original, and if you see them turned into an animated series someday, well, you heard about it here first.
Cartoonist and Publishers.
The world of cartoons and comics has always dealt with far more than might meet the eye, depending upon where you venture off to. In the world of Desmond Reed, you enter a kaleidoscopic world of the real and surreal. For instance, our heroes live in a house in the shape of a hand. There is plenty to be anxious about in the real world, and this comic manages to tackle many of these issues within its quirky borders.
Cartoonist and Comics Festivals.
Desmond Reed has set the stage and, from there, he can modulate the tone. Stories vary in length with some far-out zany and others more contemplative. Reed’s most serious and ambitious work to date is one of his longer stories, “Memories,” winner of a 2022 MICE Mini-Grant. Here, he focuses on his most madcap character, Wallace T.J. by allowing for a careful look back at his development and the darker side to his life.
“Memories”
Life is quite a journey with plenty of bumps in the road and that’s where a daring artist like Desmond Reed steps in to create art to defy even the most challenging of times. Believe me, there’s always room for another valiant artist to lead the way, especially one as gifted as Reed. It all comes down to the reader getting a chance to know the work–and so I encourage you to seek out this highly inventive work and let it speak for itself. I can tell you that Reed has a magic touch, with his pared-down whimsical style, when it comes to addressing some very serious issues like addiction and depression.
The Cola Pop Creemees live inside a hand.
Desmond Reed is not afraid to go down to depths of despair and come back up with a tear and a smile. It is a combination of a pared-down style and a direct straightforward narrative. Think of it as a friend who sets you down and needs to tell you something. Maybe there will be some humor thrown in that both of you share. But then you get to the story, without pretense, and you just get it. That is what is happening here. Reed has constructed characters that you can tap into in the very best spirit of comics. You can say that the lodestar guiding us cartoonists in such matters is Peanuts, and, I dare say, there’s some of that Peanuts DNA in the Cola Pop Creemees gang.
Some much said within a special world.
What irony there is to be found here is subverted by a persistent vision of perseverance. That is not an easy thing to achieve and it has everything to do with Reed following his own instincts and staying true to his authentic self. That’s where you get original work and not some trendy “next big thing” that is aping some previous “next big thing.” Yes, it is possible for comics to be funny, sincere and have some redeeming quality that will speak directly to you.
It was a lot of fun to get to chat with Desmond about his new book and sharing thoughts about the cartoonist life. I hope you feel the same. So, please do check out the above conversation on the Comics Grinder YouTube channel and please view, LIKE and COMMENT directly on the channel. Every bit of input and engagement helps us continue.
Keep up Desmond Reed here. And be sure to visit Microcosom Publishing here.
