“Stay Here with Me: A Memoir”
“I had a really great poetry teacher in school. Funny. Smart. Great bullshit detector. Seriously, almost frighteningly attuned to suss out if you were full
“Marvel 2-In-One, Vol. 1: Fate of the Four”
“I had a LONG star debate on this one. Maybe it should be 4. Because it IS, after all, a Fantastic Four book. Then I
“Secret: Never Get Caught”
“I had a hard time telling the faces apart at times. Which makes a spy thriller thing pretty weird. I like the art and the
“Weathercraft”
“I guess most people who read a Jim Woodring book know what they’re getting into. I’d read a couple of his short comics before, but
“The Point of Pointless Work”
“I guess I didn’t read the description well enough. This is mostly a book about Almossawi’s publishing process. In somewhat excruciating detail. I thought I
“Daredevil, Volume 5”
“I got off track on this one, which I regret. How awesome. I’m told that the Netflix show is pretty great. I haven’t seen it
“The Ask”
“I got about 200 pages in and just wasn’t feeling the momentum. I was super excited to read this one after hearing Lipsyte on Marc
“The Encyclopedia of Early Earth”
“I get very nervous when the library world is all atwitter over a graphic novel. 9 times out of 10, it’s something that has a
“Snow Crash”
“I finally finished it! Cue hip-hop horn. Cue parade. Commence shredding up ticker tape and throwing it from the windows of skyscrapers! No time to
“Postal (Boss Fight Books, #23)”
“I feel two ways about this book because there are two books here. There is the book by Brock Wilbur, which is more focused on
“Mage, Vol. 4: The Hero Defined, Book Two Part 2”
“I feel like it’s almost cheating to review these all as separate books. It’s one long story, so it’s not like by this point, volume
“Mazebook”
“I feel like everyone thinks they’re good at mazes. Is there anyone who thinks they’re bad at mazes? I can hardly navigate the island of
“Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive: The Kingpin of Wakanda”
“I feel like every time the Kingpin shows up, he’s gotta demonstrate that he can kick ass even though he’s a fatso. It’s like, we
“The Long Walk”
“I feel like an idiot because for the last few weeks I’ve been walking around saying, “This Stephen King character can really spin a yarn!”
“The Strange Library”
“I expected this one to be weirder. You see it on lists of unusual books, books with atypical structures like House of Leaves or something,
“Dragon Ball, Vol. 1 (Dragon Ball VIZBIG Edition, #1)”
“I enjoyed the hell out of this. Which I guess could be a sorta problem. Here’s the thing. There’s some pretty weird, sexist stuff in
“Penny Nichols”
“I ended up kinda loving it! Penny is a 20-30-something lady who is sort of a scumbag, but in that charming way where she’s not
“Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play”
“I dug this, but the third act is all one big musical number, and reading those on a page is pretty tedious. I totally get
“Beautiful You”
“I dug it. On the one hand, not a perfect book. But I wanted to know what happened, and I wanted to keep reading, and
“The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country”
“I don’t think I remembered how ugly these books were. I think it came about because that was [Abe Simpson voice] the style at the
“Chew, Vol. 7: Bad Apples”
“I don’t take a lot of time to talk about the art in comics. What can I say, I’m a words guy. But I just
“Berserk, Vol. 27”
“I don’t REALLY want to talk about the rape theme that runs through this series, but I’m going to. Here, buried in volume 27. For
“Half a Life”
“I don’t really know how to rate this. Not because it’s a bad book. It’s a really good book. It feels weird to rate it.
“The Star Wars”
“I don’t normally explain a rating. It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine. “This is really a 3.5”. Great. In this case, an explanation
“Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir”
“I don’t mind saying it brought a tear to my eye. The story of the lonely kid who grew up to be Stan Lee. Pretty
“Revival, Vol. 1: You’re Among Friends”
“I don’t know, seemed like there were about 15 different characters, but none that were all that interesting. The book felt a little disjointed to
“The Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk”
“I don’t know why I’ve never reviewed this, but I just re-read it. It’s so good. It is. If you don’t read comics, read this
“Heart and Brain: An Awkward Yeti Collection (Volume 1)”
“I don’t know what to do with this review, so I’ll do the mature thing, play that Marry/Fuck/Kill game. Brain, heart, and I guess Stomach
“Spider-Gwen, Vol. 0: Most Wanted?”
“I don’t know what it was about this book, but I just did not give two fucks. Okay, I kinda know what it was. I’m
“The Walking Dead, Vol. 22: A New Beginning”
“I don’t know what it says about me that I walked into this volume sort of ready to hate Walking Dead. As I have for
“Uncomfortably Happily”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever read a Korean comic before. This one is weird.There’s a lot of “We ate this, we went here, we
“The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 3”
“I don’t know if I expected the ending to be awesome, but you know what? It was pretty good. A lot of these stories seem
“Mage, Vol. 3: The Hero Defined, Book Two Part 1”
“I don’t know if a series has ever been published in so many different configurations. Book II part 4, Volume 3, Book 2.7. Damn, if
“The Dam Keeper: World Without Darkness (Dam Keeper, #2)”
“I don’t know how much story is happening in this volume, but I’ll look at these pictures all day. Kind of the same opinion people
“The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 1”
“I don’t know how Japan reacted to The Hunger Games, but I have to imagine it was not nearly as shocking as it was here
“Through the Woods”
“I don’t have the hardon for this one that a lot of other folks seem to. The art is nice, but the stories are fairly
“Night Trap”
“I don’t have much to say. It’s pretty straightforward slasher stuff. So what I’ll say is why I think the plot of Friday the 13th,
“American Vampire Omnibus 1”
“I don’t dig vampires. I just don’t. I don’t find them terribly interesting. They’re done to (un)death. There aren’t a lot of places for the
“Berserk, Vol. 10”
“I donât think liking this series as much as I have been means I MUST now dress up and design enormous foam swords for conventions.
“Little Robot”
“I donât know what it is with me and robots. If I ever needed to cry for a movie or something, Iâd just watch the
“The Discipline: The Seduction”
“I donât hate the sex and the flat characters so much (thatâs a pun if you read the bookâs intro!). I just thought this was
“Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?”
“I do give this one all the credit in the world: I’m sure the temptation to just have letters and reports and shit in plain
“The Legend of Luther Strode (Luther Strode, #2)”
“I dig it. The art is really great. Some people can’t draw people, some people can draw faces and suck at action. This book has
“Berserk, Vol. 30”
“I didn’t think I was going to make my 2023 reading goal, but thanks to Berserk, it’s possible. Just need to don my Berserker armor
“Bitch Planet, Vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine (Bitch Planet Collected Editions, #1)”
“I didn’t like the first issue, which I bought at the comics shop when it came out, but I picked up the trade at the
“The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 3: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now”
“I didn’t like it as much as the previous volumes for one reason that can be expressed in two words in all caps with an
“Kill or be Killed, Vol. 4”
“I didn’t get into this one nearly as much as everyone else.The mature (pronounced “ma-tour”) thing to do would be to say something like, “Well,
“Atomic Robo: The Flying She-Devils of the Pacific”
“I didn’t absolutely love this one the way I did the last couple Robo books, but it still had its charms. If nothing else, Robo
“Hulk: The End”
“I did not realize this was two things slapped together: Hulk: Future Imperfect, and then a sort of ending to that story. So I skipped
“Ito Junji’s Cat Diary”
“I did like the manic faces Junji Ito pulls when he’s in love with cats, basically horror manga faces that really do express the loving
“The Complete Hate”
“I did it, and damn it, I should get credit for each of the three volumes individually, GOODREADS. How am I supposed to meet my
“The Outsiders”
“I decided to come up with 12 Theories For Demolition Man. These are theories that could easily be true regarding the film Demolition Man, are
“Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form”
“I couldn’t finish it. I’m sorry. The author enjoyed playing with the line breaks like so: At their hems that seem to map out coastlines
“Nightwing, Vol. 1: Better than Batman”
“I could do this, but…isn’t the whole Owls guys and their deadly maze the same thing we got from Batman during the New 52? I
“The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye”
“I complain from time to time about people who pick up a book and don’t get what they wanted because they were too stupid to
“The Walking Dead: Compendium One”
“I can’t tell you how tempted I am to count the individual volumes on these instead of the compendiums. Same comics, but there would be
“Oblivion Song, Vol. 4”
“I can’t remember which volume it happens in, but it looks like people eat poop blood bags that pop off weird animals. They say they
“How to Be a Great Wife . . . Even Though You Homeschool”
“I can’t help but notice that the other reviews come along with a 5-star rating. There’s some justification to be done, I reckon. Although I
“B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth, Vol. 6: The Return of the Master”
“I can’t decide if I’d like to work at the BPRD office or not. On the one hand, you’d meet some interesting characters. You’d have
“Oblivion Song, Vol. 1”
“I can dig it, we’ve got a premise, we’ve got characters who make sense, and it feels like we’re getting into this story at the
“Dermaphoria”
“I bumped this one up a star on a second reading to prepare my (sad, weak, and pathetic) body for Mother Howl! I think I
“The X-President”
“I barely remember this, but I do know it involves Bill Clinton and time travel in order to avert world disaster. It’s stuck in my
“Wild Animus”
“I barely read it. I mean, it doesn’t seem like it’s for me. Way too mystical. I DID write a pretty long column about just
“Batman: Last Knight on Earth”
“I at least mostly understood what was going on in this one, which is a change of pace for me and Scott Snyder. What I
“Farmhand, Vol. 1: Reap What Was Sown”
“I appreciate the art from Guillroy, who you might know from Chew. Although I prefer the zanier art of Chew (I just heard that word
“Joker”
“I applaud this book for attempting something: answering the question of why someone would be a henchman to the Joker. But basically, it seems like
“Berserk, Vol. 22”
“I am thoroughly enjoying the super long epic names to each story arc in this series, sometimes only lasting maybe a couple sections of one
“Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again”
“I am fully prepared to be objectively wrong about this: I kinda liked it. I mean, it’s no Dark Knight Returns, which I consider one
“Groot”
“I am a stupid motherfucker. For some reason, I have not learned my lesson about flipping through a comic. Even one that I’m taking home
“Sidekick, Vol. 1”
“I always thought the best thing to be in a rock band would be the bass player. Well, I didn’t ALWAYS think that. Of course,
“Flowers for Algernon”
“I almost suggested this book as a community read for a college. Then I was thinking, waitaminute, isn’t the lesson of this book that being
“Kathleen Hale Is a Crazy Stalker”
“I ACTUALLY READ THE BOOK! In case youâre curious to read a review by someone who actually read it and knows what is contained within
“Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End”
“I accidentally read an important book! I’m a big fan of Dr. Gawande, and this might be his best. It’s a very honest look at
“Hench”
“I absolutely loved the first half. The book answers the question, “Why would anyone be a henchman for these crazy-ass villains?” Which is a valid
“Andre the Giant: Life and Legend”
“Hulk Hogan on Andre the Giant: …people don’t get it. There was never a fork or a knife, even a bed! There was never a
“Trees, Vol. 1: In Shadow”
“Huh. This isn’t one that I would rail against, and I probably still won’t, but I see a lot of people I follow on Goodreads
“Super Mario History”
“Huh. I didn’t even know this was on here. As far as I can tell, this is the booklet that comes packaged in the Super
“Essential Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 5”
“Huge, giant review here because I’m too lazy to post pictures on goodreads: https://www.helpfulsnowman.com/?p=5579 “
“Tough Shoot: a short essay”
“Howdy All, This is the short essay I wrote for Tom Spanbauer’s November workshop. You always could and still can find it on my web
“Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Two”
“How it hurts my heart to say this. Purple prose out the ass. This book, like the first volume, has some great moments. Even incredible.
“This Wild Darkness: The Story of My Death”
“How do you even begin? The book is a slim diary from Brodkey’s last days. He had AIDS, which killed him in 1996. At the
“Tumor Fruit”
“How do I feel… Tricked. Sort of. While not as bizarre as Mellick’s other books, I gotta say this one had parts that were emotionally
“Ronin Island, Vol. 1”
“How come every time there’s like a shogun or a king or whatever, it’s like a petulant little 17 year-old asshole? How about like a
“Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 1: Walking the Path”
“Honk shoo. Okay, Iâm calling a couple tropes we donât need anymore in sci-fi. 1. The Space Fighter Pilot Who Knows a Bunch of Moves
“Spider-Man/Deadpool, Vol. 2: Side Pieces”
“Holy Toledo, bad. Listen, people who don’t write comics need a comics-writing buddy to help them write comics. It almost never works. Even really good
“The Hero, Book 1”
“Holy shit, what a blast! Picked it up because the artwork is so good. Very alive, colorful, and when you’ve got a book with action
“Die Hard: An Oral History (Kindle Single)”
“Holy shit, read this instead of Nothing Lasts Forever. Way more entertaining. Also, further proof that nobody knows what the fuck they’re doing. Nobody thought
“The Phantom of the Opera”
“Holy Phanking Shit. Terrible. Every so often I’ll get into a classic. I guess because I feel like writing a really nasty review. Classics are
“A Drifting Life”
“Holy lord, that bastard was long. I mean long. I mean like [Apatow joke] long. This epic graphic novel follows the life of Yoshihiro Tatsumi,
“Chew, Vol. 8: Family Recipes”
“Hmm. Okay, let’s just get into the problem I have here. Keeping in mind that these are great comics and the art is so stylish
“Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life”
“Hmm…even as a big fan of stand-up, this book wasn’t all that interesting. And if you aren’t into stand-up, interested in the way acts are
“Spidey, Vol. 1: First Day”
“Hmm…Hmm…Hmm… Last year I wrote an article that was critical of comics’, especially Marvel’s, tendency to de-age their characters. They’ve made some diversity movements, and
“Dad Is Fat”
“Hmm, where to come down on this book. Jim Gaffigan is a really funny stand-up, and he doesn’t sound like anybody else. Okay, he talks
“Kill or be Killed, Vol. 3”
“Hmm, Russian mob? A mysterious illness gripping our main character? Is this book prophetic? I mean, no. Not at all. Donât you hate when people
“Warriors And Kings”
“Hinton’s books are a little on the edge sometimes, but this one REALLY pushes the boundaries of what can be called a “book.” The entirety
“The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1: Squirrel Power”
“Hilarious. It’s goofy as all hell, but I dig it. I like this superhero who is horrible at keeping a secret identity. And I like
“Evil Bigfoot Monster”
“Hilarious, and it answers a tough question: Can something be bad on purpose and still be good-bad? The answer is a definitive: Maybe Kinda! Let’s
“She-Hulk, Volume 1: Single Green Female”
“Hilarious sitcom-style premise:She Hulk, you can come work at my prestigious law firm, but no-a-turnin’ into that She Hulk, okay? I would now like to
“Good Poems for Hard Times”
“Hey, what are you going to do? Itâs an anthology. The problem with every anthology is that itâs not going to please everybody all the
“Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Vol. 1”
“Hey, this is really good! [he says 400 years after everyone else] Spider-Man, Peter Parker, is hands-down my favorite comic book character. And I add