Category: Black Eye
TBE2023: The Mundane Adventures of Dishman
(December 6, 2024)The Mundane Adventures of Dishman (2023) by John MacLeod As the indicia notes, this was originally (mostly) published in the 80s. I had some of those minis back then, so they had an abnormally wide distribution as minis go. But it doesn’t mention that Eclipse Comics reprinted the first six (I think?) issues, so if … Continue reading TBE2023: The Mundane Adventures of Dishman
TBE2022: That Distant Fire
(December 3, 2024)That Distant Fire (2022) by JR Hughto and Curt Merlo This is the first non-Jay Stephens book the resurrected Black Eye published, so I was really curious to read this — I haven’t read it before. It’s a very handsome hardcover book. And we get an introduction (in Futura) that explains that this started as … Continue reading TBE2022: That Distant Fire
TBE2021: Jetcat & Friends
(December 1, 2024)Jetcat & Friends (2021) by Jay Stephens Nice endpapers. When I read a contents page like this, my heart sinks a bit — “so this is just gonna be a random collection of random stuff!?!?” But nothing could be further from the truth. This book is a masterclass in smart sequencing — while many of … Continue reading TBE2021: Jetcat & Friends
TBE2020: Dwellings
(November 29, 2024)Dwellings (2020) #1-6, Dwellings (2024) by Jay Stephens This blog post is a couple days late because I couldn’t find the Dwellings issues. I finally found the three first issues in a box of unsorted comics from 2022, but I didn’t find the sixth issue. On the other hand, I’ve got the collected edition, so … Continue reading TBE2020: Dwellings
TBE2019: Dejects: Life Is Hard and Damned Unfair
(November 26, 2024)Dejects: Life Is Hard and Damned Unfair (2019) by Jay Stephens All of a sudden this blog series is in 2019! The previous post was about a book published in 1998, so we skipped ahead 21 years. Black Eye is totally unique (I think) in rising from the dead like this — and certainly after … Continue reading TBE2019: Dejects: Life Is Hard and Damned Unfair
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