TBE1998: Black Candy

(November 25, 2024)

Black Candy (1998) by Matt Madden Matt Madden! That’s a name I sort of vaguely remember, but have extremely positive vibes about… I don’t remember this book at all, though. Oops! Do I remember how to censor things on this blog… This blog was censored from linking from Facebook for over a decade, and that’s … Continue reading TBE1998: Black Candy

TBE1997: Paradise Sucks

(November 24, 2024)

Paradise Sucks (1997) by James Kochalka This is another book that’s somewhat unusual for Black Eye to have been publishing. I bought it at the time, but it’s not until I got prepared to do this blog series that I realised that it wasn’t an Alternative Comics (or something) book. It’s printed on pleasingly off-white … Continue reading TBE1997: Paradise Sucks

TBE1997: A Complete Lowlife

(November 23, 2024)

A Complete Lowlife (1997) by Ed Brubaker This is an odd book for Black Eye to be publishing. First of all, it a (partial?) reprint of a series published by Mu and Caliber, which isn’t something Black Eye used to do. But more importantly, this is autobio comics, which Black Eye had shied away from … Continue reading TBE1997: A Complete Lowlife

TBE1996: The Sands

(November 22, 2024)

The Sands (1996) #1-3, The Sands (1998) by Tom Hart I read the first three issues back in the 90s, but I have not read the collected edition before. I have fond memories of the issues, though, so I’m looking forward to finally reading the whole thing. Ah, this is explicitly presented as a work … Continue reading TBE1996: The Sands

TBE1996: Berlin

(November 22, 2024)

Berlin (1996) #1-4 by Jason Lutes There are few comics that all well-stocked comics shops feel that they have to have — perhaps just a dozen that you can expect to find anywhere? Maus, Persepolis, Fun Home… and perhaps Berlin? Of those perennials, it’s definitely less well known than the ones I mentioned, but it’s … Continue reading TBE1996: Berlin

TBE1996: Dear Julia

(November 19, 2024)

Dear Julia (1996) #1-4 by Brian Biggs When reading comics from the 90s, it’s striking how many talented creators did basically a handful of books and then left comics forever. Biggs is a case in point: He did Frederick & Eloise over at Fantagraphics, and then a few appearances in anthologies, and then he shifted … Continue reading TBE1996: Dear Julia

TBE1995: A World of Trouble

(November 18, 2024)

A World of Trouble (1995) #1-3 by Jeremy Eaton Oops! I claimed in a previous entry in this blog series that Black Eye (after a certain date) didn’t publish anything in the standard US comics format, but I’d forgotten about this series. Sorry for the fake news! Anyway, I’ve read quite a few books by … Continue reading TBE1995: A World of Trouble

TBE1995: New Hat

(November 17, 2024)

New Hat (1995) by Tom Hart I’ve always loved Tom Hart’s comics, but like many of his cohort, they’ve been frustratingly rare. He burst on the scene with Hutch Owen’s Working Hard, I think? (A Xeric grant winner.) I always thought of him as coming from a similar place as, say, Jon Lewis and Megan … Continue reading TBE1995: New Hat

TBE1995: Jar of Fools

(November 16, 2024)

Jar of Fools (1995) #1-2 by Jason Lutes Lutes had had a few appearances in a few anthologies before Jar of Fools was published, but the book took people by surprise: He self-published (using a Xeric Foundation grant; i.e. Teenage Mutant Turtle money) the first volume — and it was a 70 page book, which … Continue reading TBE1995: Jar of Fools

TBE1994: The Land of Nod

(November 15, 2024)

The Land of Nod Treasury (1994), The Land of Nod (1996) #1-3 by Jay Stephens Up until now, Black Eye had published all their comics in standard US comics size (except for the two magazine-sized issues of Sputnik). So the Land of Nod Treasury represented something of a rupture in Black Eye’s publishing, because from … Continue reading TBE1994: The Land of Nod

TBE1994: Dance Me Outside: The Illustrated Screenplay

(November 14, 2024)

Dance Me Outside: The Illustrated Screenplay (1994) adapted by Nick Craine I remember seeing this book in the stores at the time, but I didn’t pick it up because I though “eh, if there’s one thing I hate, it’s comics that read as if they’re movie scripts”, and this is presented as an adaptation of … Continue reading TBE1994: Dance Me Outside: The Illustrated Screenplay

TBE1994: Human Remains

(November 13, 2024)

Human Remains (1994) by Darren Raye and Sean Scoffield This comic seems to place a lot of weight on appearing serious. “Sophisticated”. So we open with… … a bunch of title pages, and now that the reader is in a properly serious state of mind… … it’s a story (in three parts) about a guy … Continue reading TBE1994: Human Remains

TBE1994: Atomic City Tales

(November 12, 2024)

Atomic City Tales (1994) #1-3, Atomic City Special (1995) #1 by Jay Stephens Oops! I messed up. I have to copies of Atomic City Special #1, but no copies of Atomic City Comics #1. So this blog series is going to be less than complete, but I’m not fixing that, because I already covered this … Continue reading TBE1994: Atomic City Tales

TBE1993: Sputnik

(November 11, 2024)

Sputnik (1993) #1-2 edited by Michel Vrána Vrána had edited the (very good) Reactor Girl anthology, and here he’s starting a new one. Reactor Girl was quite unassuming, but Vrána seems to want to class things up here. We have “Departments” and “Features”, but no “Manifesto”. And it’s magazine sized, and is printed on aggressively … Continue reading TBE1993: Sputnik

TBE1993: Sin Comics

(November 10, 2024)

Sin Comics (1993) #1-2 by Jay Stephens The Sin series ran for five issues over at Tragedy Strikes Press, and now we have Sin Comics. It’s not really explained why the book was renamed/renumbered — Pickle continued with a #2 at Black Eye, after all. But perhaps it’s just a reflection of Stephens’ restlessness — … Continue reading TBE1993: Sin Comics

TBE1992: Pickle

(November 8, 2024)

Pickle (1992) #1, Pickle (1993) #1-11 by Dylan Horrocks With this blog post, we get to the first actual Black Eye book, and Black Eye is the subject of this blog series, so it’s about time. The first issue of Pickle was published by Tragedy Strikes Press, and then moved to Black Eye when Michel … Continue reading TBE1992: Pickle

TBE1992: Sin

(November 7, 2024)

Sin (1992) #1-5 by Jason Stephens I have to admit that I wasn’t quite sure whether “Jason Stephens” was the same guy as “Jay Stephens” — I mean, it would have been quite a coinkidink for Tragedy Strikes/Black Eye to publish two people with almost the same name, but Jason’s style seems so different from … Continue reading TBE1992: Sin

TBE1992: Way Out Strips

(November 5, 2024)

Way Out Strips (1992) #1-3 by Carol Swain I re-read these books last time when I did the Fantagraphics blog series, but I wanted to read them again now, so here we go. Hey, foreword by Paul Gravett that gives some background as to how Swain started doing comics. Hm, perhaps I should do something … Continue reading TBE1992: Way Out Strips

TBE1991: Reactor Girl

(November 4, 2024)

Reactor Girl (1991) #1-6 edited by Michel Vrána Oops, I’m only on the second post in this blog series, and I’m already three days behind schedule… Typical. I really enjoy a good anthology magazine. And for a publisher it can function as a tent-post publication if you can get it published regularly: While anthologies rarely … Continue reading TBE1991: Reactor Girl

TBE1991: The Cheese Heads

(November 1, 2024)

The Cheese Heads (1991) #1-5 by Nick Craine Let’s see whether I remember how to do these blog posts… it’s been a while. Err… is that white balance correct? Perhaps it was a mistake to use a green background here… But let’s read the first four pages together. So, OK, very mysterious. And this seems … Continue reading TBE1991: The Cheese Heads

Total Black Eye

(November 1, 2024)

Winter is coming, so I think it’s time to do another blog series about old comics. I did have some problems deciding what comics publisher to go for this time. Eclipse Comics was in many way the ideal publisher for this sort of thing — a wide variety of comics in various formats and genres, … Continue reading Total Black Eye