Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:
• Review: "[King of the Flies Vol. 2:] The Origin of the World, as its title… signals, is a little more mature in its provocateur stance, but there’s still plenty of envelope pushing. The characters have grown richer and more varied… and the narrative more focused, with fewer bodies to keep track of. The art, certainly a highlight of the last book, features some clever use of color to indicate fantasy and the supernatural, both of which appear more extensively this go-round. Consider it, on the whole, analogous to Friday the 13th Part II: a step in the right direction and an improvement on the original rather than a boring retread." – Hillary Brown, Paste
• Review: "If you’re of a mind for the ugly side of humanity, the despondence of hopeless lives, you won’t find a better comic than Pirus and Mezzo’s King of the Flies. The dialogue crackles, the artwork’s astonishing, and every character’s swirling the drain of life – like a car crash, you won’t be able to look away." – Michael C. Lorah, Newsarama
• Review: "The 'ice-punk' story [The Arctic Marauder], which nods to Jules Verne and his 19th-century forward-thinking compatriots, starts out more like Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret—short on text, long on pretty pictures and old-timey atmosphere—but gradually moves toward mental." – Hillary Brown, Paste
• Plug: "FLOG!, the official Fantagraphics blog, has posted a preview of R.I.P.: Best of 1985-2004, being a collection of two decade's worth of out of print and uncollected stories by Thomas Ott. I have to admit that I'm not at all familiar with the work of Thomas Ott, but the solicitation text makes this one sound really intriguing, and the artwork in the 19-page preview is pretty astounding! I can imagine that I'll probably be ordering a copy…" – Edward Kaye, Hypergeek