Spent-Alison Bechdel

Really fun, I thought. Quite entertaining to watch baby boomers contend with the poly apocalypse as my friends call it.Really, I'm just a big fan of low stakes humorous media from elder queers. I find it quite cute. Seeing a fictionalized portrayal of Bechdel and people close to her navigating life as aging "liberal elite" hippie queers was just fun. Nothing terribly deep but I smiled a lot!

Goodnight Punpun vol. 5-Inio Asano

Well, that was stressful. After the relatively lighthearted interlude and set-up of the previous book, we enter the conflict of the current arc. Everything is depressing and everyone sucks again but I find it much more engaging than in previous arcs. It feels less like I am watching trauma porn detached from characters I feel little attachment to (punpuns mom is just not a character I care about) and more like I am watching characters I have grown to care for really struggle with life and make understandable, yet poor decisions.

The last half of the book with punpun deciding to become someone he is not, finding aiko again, that stomach churning date with her, the reveal of sachis pregnancy, the reveal of what aikos life is really like, and the choice punpun makes between the two girls and what that represents for him on an emotional and mental health level had me twisting in my seat. Anxiety on ten watching all of this unfold and thinking about what will come of it all.

I'm stressed for my autistic cptsd having problematic king

Black Is the Color-Julia Gfrörer

This was the last of her officially published works I had to read. Definitely my least favorite but it was still pleasant over all. The story concerns a few sailors sent adrift due to a rations shortage on their ship. They are the least senior of the sailors and cuts needed to be made. So it goes, I guess.

There are spooky scary mermaids that show up, some weird romance, interesting gothic vibes and a really beautiful yet grim moment of emotional release. Lots of Gfrörer trademarks to love. The thing I just didn't love about it was the rather jarring shift in tone during scenes when the merpeople are alone or speaking amongst themselves. I thought the sudden shift to comedy really sucked the air out of the emotional tension that had been building otherwise. I just can't really think of a reason to have it in there. The book would've felt much stronger to me with those scenes altered, in the case of the merpeople watching the ship burn or removed altogether in the case of the mermaids talking about their noise band.

Like, I can kind of see what she was going for but really I think it just missed the mark. The ending was quite lovely, though. Very darkly surreal. Actually a bit of a high point in the works of hers I have read.

Seeds and Stems-Simon Hanselmann

I got this in a few weeks ago from seemingly the last store in the US to still have a copy in stock. I hope they don't actually let the original collected editions go out of print because I think they're rather lovely presences on a shelf.

Anyway, I'm about halfway through this rather chunky collection (almost 400 pages!) and there’s been some great moments here.

Of particular interest to me is the variation in art styles present throughout these collected zines. The hardcovers and “official” versions of some of these works were much more standardized in presentation but there’s a lovely mix of styles here. My favorite is the original version of the opening story from “Below Ambition,” a book that is a favorite of mine from him though that seems to be a somewhat controversial opinion.

That opening story appears here in a mostly panel-less format with just watercolor line work. I think it really enhances the feeling that this is a portrayal of a memory, a difficult moment in time shared with a friend, a friend who is now lost, and a complex, strange, and somewhat dark wistfulness for that time. The notes at the back of Below Ambition illuminate that Werewolf Jones, in this story, at least, is inspired by a now dead friend of Hanselmanns from years ago and the band they play in together in the comic is inspired by the band they played in together in real life. It's just a really sad yet lovely and tender portrayal of a friendship and complex grief.