This week's pre-Comic-Con warmup of Online Commentaries and Diversions:
Review: How to Be Happy by Eleanor Davis
"This collection of short stories about people desperately trying to suppress or embrace or just somehow deal with all the difficult emotions careening around in their brain just underscores what those who have seen Davis’ work in scattered anthologies already suspected: that she is a tremendous talent, and one of the smartest voices working in comics today." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
Review: Pirates in the Heartland: The Mythology of S. Clay Wilson edited by Patrick Rosenkranz
"Ultimately, Wilson is a perfect representative of the dark side of the '60s. His work crackles with the viciousness that was the flip side of flower power. If he has any message to convey, it's that the world is falling apart: that (to quote Yeats by way of Joan Didion) 'the center cannot hold.'" – Etelka Lehoczky, NPR
Review: Bomb Run and Other Stories by John Severin, Will Elder, Harvey Kurtzman, et al.
"What's striking about these 34 stories, written by Harvey Kutzman and illustrated with bold, deft confidence by Severin, is their range of tone. Sure, there are the expected heroics of American soldiers fighting in the relatively contemporary war zones of WWII and Korea; there are strong-jawed sergeants, good-natured grunts and daredevil flying aces. But there is also plenty of cowardice, irony, shame and sheer wastefulness–elements that must surely be part of any large-scale conflict, yet are often excised from their comic-book portrayals." – David Maine, Spectrum Culture
Review: The Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio et al.
"The Heart of Thomas works in several different themes, many revolving around the concept of love. It asks the questions, what does it mean to love or be loved? What will we do to be loved or to help the one we love? Is it okay to accept another’s love? While asking all these questions, Hagio doesn’t put any conditions on them… The feelings are portrayed so genuinely that gender becomes meaningless, and just seeing the characters happy are all that's important in the end." – Lori Henderson, School Library Journal
- Interview: Ben Humeniuk interviews Lane Milburn, whose new book Twelve Gems just came out earlier this month, over on The Comics Journal
- Commentary: The LA Times put out a list of "12 vital comic and graphic novel creators to watch." Among the names are Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, and Ed Piskor.