I don’t think anybody actually tries to actually sell actual comics, actually

I’ve tinkered around a bit with Goshenite, which I use to pre-order American comics. I like pre-ordering, because then there’s less of a chance of me buying the same thing over and over again — I’ve got the memory retention skills of an easily distracted squirrel.

(This is for mainstreamey comics only — the stuff you find in bookstores and the like. The really good stuff is to be found at Domino Books, of course.)

The reason I wrote Goshenite in the first place is because everything sucked, but now things are so bad that even Paul Gravett’s reliable overview of good upcoming books (that I consult in addition to Goshenite, just in case I missed something) is down to being a shadow of itself. He only lists six (6) books this month! Presumably because he has no idea how to find out what’s coming out these days.

The two major distributors are Penguin Random House (which has DC/Marvel, as well as other, largerish (or bookstore-oriented) publishers), and if you have the patience to look through things there, I applaud you. But it’s actually a pretty nice web site to extract data from (but you have to use Selenium to find the links), so that works fine for me (via Goshenite).

Lunar has most of the publishers that PRH presumably said no to distributing, and that web site is just about unbrowsable. Each individual book doesn’t even have a web page, so you can’t even google stuff reliably. The closest you get is this janky search page.

(And try looking at the book info there — it’s impossible to say who the publisher is?)

For the publishers that are so small that even Lunar won’t carry them, there’s Philbo. And they have basically no web pages at all — just a PDF catalogue, so none of those are scrapable, so I can’t put them on Goshenite at all. *slow clap*

And all the places that actually sell comics have web sites that suck. Midtown is probably the best — they do a good job at carrying everything — but it’s slow and janky:

But worse is the just absolutely horrible way to look at preorders — if you enjoy scrolling through nine hundred variant covers (four at a time) to perhaps find something you’re interested in, well… you’re in luck:

Goshenite displays all variants of an issue on one page:

In short — everything sucks, and after Diamond went belly up, it’s even worse than before, and I didn’t think that would be possible.

But I think Goshenite still pretty much works, even though there’s suspiciously few books listed there. I don’t have total confidence that my scripts are finding everything, but…

Perhaps everybody’s just slowly going bankrupt because nobody is able to buy anything?

Book Club 2025: The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry

I’ve read this book before — probably back in the 90s? I have another edition:

But I bought this new edition, because it looked really handsome. But I didn’t re-read it when I got the new edition back in 2017. Now’s the time.

And it’s as fantastic as I remembered. It’s brimming over with emotion — it’s impossible to read these stories/vignettes/scenes without being affected. So it’s very much akin to her comics work — distilled, vulnerable little scenes that feel like they’re the most important thing in the world.

The new edition has an overview of various musical styles… and while I like the artwork, this feels pretty random, and doesn’t add anything to the book. It’s like wat.

But there’s also an afterword that clarifies that the book is pretty much autobiographical, which makes a lot of sense. It certainly feels that way when reading it.

If you’re into her comics, you should read this book, too. (But if you’re buying it used, I’d recommend the original edition, really. It feels less random.)

The Good Times Are Killing Me (1988) by Lynda Barry (buy new, buy used, 4.2 on Goodreads)

Book Club 2025: The Gob by Samuel Hasler

Wow, that’s a reflective cover…

Anyway, back in 2017, I bought a whole bunch of stuff from Landfill Editions — I’d been really impressed by some stuff they’d published, like Mould Map 3. So I didn’t know anything about this book, and I ended up not reading it at the time. But no time like the present.

It’s kinda interesting — the schtick is that we’re listening to a late night radio show — you know the kind; a guy is telling us a long story and playing some songs in between. You’d sometimes stumble onto those in the 80s/90s at studentey radio stations and the like.

Hasler tells a familiar story about growing up and stuff, and parts are engrossing, but then again there’s a lot of faffing about. So even if this is a short book, it feels like it could have done with a bit of editing down, really.

But I kinda liked it anyway. It’s got a mood going.

And this is one of those super rare books that doesn’t seem to have a Goodreads page! *gasp* It cannot be!

The Gob (2017) by Samuel Hasler

Comics Daze

It’s been months since I had a comics reading day (I mean night; my sleeping patterns are Not OK at the moment), and I’ve got stacks to read. But in a way it’s surprising that there’s not more? I’ve read nothing about this on whatever passes for news in comics circles these days, but it seems like everybody is cutting down drastically, as well as a lot of smaller publishers just vanishing after the Diamond bankruptcy/fake Swindle Diamond resurrection?

If I go to Midtown and look at the preorders for, say, Fantagraphics, I get the above. 11 books. And of those, 6 are Disney things, and two are facsimile reprints.

Drawn & Quarterly — only five books for preorder.

Uncivilized — two books.

What’s going on? Is everybody going under? The number of comics I’ve bought the last half year has to be, like, half of what I was buying in the same period in 2024. Or a third, perhaps.

Kid Spatula: Joozy

03:17: King-Cat #84 by John Porcellino

But at least there’s John Porcellino.

Hey, that’s not very zen!

This is a more minimal than usual issue, because things have happened, but it’s a good issue.

Jenny Hval: Iris Silver Mist

03:38: Reelpolitik by Nathan Gelgud (Drawn & Quarterly)

OK, this is a collection of single page gag strips? About working in a cinema. And movies.

The jokes are bad, and they’re of the kind I hate the most — referential humour designed to make the reader go “I know that reference! I’m cultured!” and then click “share” on Facebook. I mean Insta. Somehow I hate this genre even more when I know the references like here.

Oh god, I can’t take this any more. It’s not just the smugness, but it’s how long time Gelgud takes to get to his awful punchlines. If these had been more snappy, they’d at least have been inoffensive, but reading this book is just painful. So I ditched it after these two jokes.

03:53: Dogtangle by Max Huffman (Fantagraphics)

Has this been published before? It’s about Hypermutt, and I seem to remember buying a bunch of minis with that name, but this is totally unfamiliar to me.

I really like Huffman’s artwork, but the storyline here is very… er… vague? It doesn’t quite seem to cohere.

But there’s some good jokes along the way.

Herbert & Momoko: Clay

04:08: The Stenographer by Susan Kaplan

Hey, this is a pretty cool little book.

I like it.

04:11: My Gorilla Family by Iijima Ichiro (Living the Line Books)

Eh… I haven’t been impressed by the Japanese comics published by Living the Line. But let’s see.

Well, he can’t really draw people, but it looks pretty good otherwise.

The stories are extremely violent, and most end in complete horror.

I can’t say that I liked reading this book, but I guess it’s got something.

jasmine.4.t: You Are The Morning

04:50: Prima Materia by Kade McClements (Desert Island)

I like the artwork — the vague linework coupled with the slabs of colour.

And the story is both totally engrossing and utterly original. Really good stuff.

05:04: Orphan and the Five Beasts: Bath of Blood #1 by James Stokoe (Dark Horse)

Stokoe’s artwork is impossibly detailed.

Ooo, may I guess what that poor woman is pregnant with?

Anyway, it’s a good start to another story arc — I don’t actually remember the previous one, but I kinda remember that it was pretty good? But the art is the real attraction.

05:14: Black Cat #1-2 by Wilson/Melnikov (Marvel Comics)

I’m always on the prowl for a new monthly book — it’s nice to have a few serialised comics that just arrive regularly. But it’s an almost impossible ask these days: If it’s something that I actually enjoy, it’s usually cancelled after a half dozen issues.

But here we go again.

This is pretty amusing. The artwork is very Marvel 2025, but… better? A bit, at least?

The storyline is contrived and convoluted, but I guess that’s just what super-hero comics are like these days. It’s entertaining enough, though — I’ll keep reading. So I guess this’ll be cancelled by issue five.

ganavya: Nilam

05:32: The Mortal Thor #1-2 by Al Ewing/Ferry/Hollingsworth (Marvel Comics)

The last time I started buying a series credited to a writer called “Ewing”, it wasn’t Al, so I made triple sure this time around.

Heh. Norwegian. But that should be “være” and not “vaere”. TSK TSK I DEMAND MY NO-PRIZE!

The artwork’s quite attractive, and the storyline seems interesting — it’s about evil capitalists and stuff. I’m in. (It’ll be cancelled before ten issues, though.)

Poor Creature: All Smiles Tonight

05:47: Hybred by Francesca Filomena and Jamie Mustard (Street Noise)

This is a pretty strange book. I starts off as one of those gritty books about growing up destitute…

… but then turns into a kinda-sorta super-hero story, and then… er…

I quite enjoyed the first three fourths of this book, but…

06:23: Weed Comics by CF

Heh heh. I got this from here.

And I think the advertising is true?

It’s very.

Hm, perhaps I should eat something… I’m getting very terse…

Pile: Sunshine and Balance Beams

06:31: Fruit Salad by Cathon (Pow Pow Press)

Hey, this is really funny. The artwork is charming, and the comedic timing is on point.

Heh heh heh. This is fantastic. I’ve laughed out a bunch of times. Especially the unexpected bits where you get a callback to a previous gag have a cumulative effect where everything just gets funnier and funnier.

It’s so silly!

Hey! I read that book a week ago!

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by Cathon before? I’m fixing that — I’ve now bought most of her books.

Marie Davidson: City Of Clowns

07:26: Nulteliv 3 by Espen Friberg & Fredrik Larsen (No Comprendo Press)

The first two volumes of this were hilarious — it’s about a bunch of kids in the early 90s.

But instead of being the usual nerdy stuff, it’s about kids being assholes and stuff. Which is refreshing.

Unfortunately, the artwork has either regressed, or the storylines have become more ambitious — because it’s frequently pretty much impossible to tell what’s supposed to be going on. Unless you read the pages over again a couple times, which ruins the jokes.

It’s a shame, because it feels like it could have been a solid instalment, but instead it’s just kinda lame for the most part. There’s some solid jokes, but…

07:59: Jaywalk #5 edited by Floyd Tangeman and Austin English (Domino Books)

This issue has all these people.

And it’s great! It’s a good mix of shorter pieces…

… and longer things, and more narrative…

… and more abstract.

And funnier things.

It just works so well as an anthology. Too bad this is the final issue, apparently.

You can order copies from Domino Books.

Matmos: Metallic Life Review

08:27: Mon cul by Danny Steve (Les requins marteaux)

This is an oversized collection of mostly wordless strips.

I like it. It’s got a mood going on, and it’s pretty funny, too.

Exventory: Pinhead Leaks

08:37: The Mongoose by Joana Mosi (Pow Pow Press)

This book has an interesting narrative structure — we’re told extremely little about what’s going on (or even what country we’re in), so we have to figure things out ourselves a lot, even if things are explained more towards the end.

And I like that sort of thing in general, but here it’s mostly just frustrating. And the protagonist is meant to be a frustrating person, too, but that just adds to the discomfort of reading thing.

The art style chosen here is also really limiting. For instance, it’s not at all clear in scenes like the above whether that’s supposed to be a living cat, or whether that kid killed it, or whether it’s a toy… mongoose?

Which may be an artistic choice, but it’s like uuuungh!

09:22: Wish We Weren’t Here by Peter Kuper (Fantagraphics)

Oh deer. I’ve been a fan of Kuper’s comics since the 80s — he can be incisive, funny and interesting. And of course, the artwork has always been striking.

But… this is just… trite. Sorry! Sorry!

It takes headlines and illustrates them in the fashion above. Sorry; I didn’t last more than thirty pages before I had to give up.

Kuper’s heart is, as always, in the right place, but as a book, this just doesn’t work.

09:30: Monster Fan Club #3 by Shaky Kane (Floating World Comics)

Very abstract…

And then the rest isn’t, really, but it moves between these monster comics, and then about reading monster comics as a child, and unexpectedly comes to a rather moving conclusion. Class!

Debbie Friday: The Starr of the Queen of Life

09:39: The End

But now it’s getting light outside, and I have some errands to run, so I think I’ll call it a day. That’s enough comics for today anyway.