On the last newsletter update of the year, more irreverent puns and satire on The Shapes, I have a lot of news to announce, and do a top 10 roundup of my favorite comics of 2024!
If you read last week’s update, you saw the mouthful of events I’m doing for the month, and I still have a few more left to highlight.
Grinch Market
This afternoon, I’m vending at Tampa Local Market’s Grinch Market at Magnanimous Brewing Co. from 1-5 PM selling comics, stickers, and prints!
Hey! Market
A block away at Cafe Hey right afterward, I’ll be at Hey! Market from 6-10 PM! I did it last month, and it was a fun (and lucrative) time filled with vendors (particularly artists) of all sorts and live performances. If you can’t make it to Grinch Market, there’s always this one.
Bananas Market
If you’re too busy today, there’s always tomorrow because on Sunday night from 7-10, I’m tabling at Bananas Market at the Bananas Records shop in St. Pete.
Anthology Features
A few of The Shapes comics have been featured in these fine anthologies.
Substrate #2
This zine contains various writings and art from St. Pete/ Tampa-area locals. You can find and download it for free on zine coordinator Cort Hartle’s (they/them) linktree.
ANTI Zine #4: All About Consumption
Also featuring local talent is Mia’s (they\/them) newest issue of their anti-capitalist periodical ANTi zine, which can be downloaded for free on the zine’s webpage.
Sammy the Critic
Top 10 Comics of 2024
As another chaotic year comes to a standstill, the time comes for another roundup of my favorite comics, which includes a record number of self-published titles alt comix spanning different genres and subject matter.
10. A-T Walker #1 & #2 by Micah Liesenfeld (self-published)
Five years ago, Micah’s wife Aisha gave birth to their daughter Eva, who was diagnosed with ataxia-telangiectasia (AT or Louis-Bar Syndrome), an incurable neurogenerative disease. This harrowing and informative mini-comic series dives into the couple discovering and processing said diagnosis. I go into more detail about it in my review reviews of #1 and #2.
9. Shifting Ground Vol. 1 by Joe Walsh (self-published)
This debut one-man anthology from Cincinnati-based artist Joe Walsh is a profound psychedelic journey into the metaphysical and philosophical featuring deconstructive themes that are challenging on both ruminative and presentational levels experimenting with sequential storytelling conventions. Not everything is a hit, but when it is, you bet it’s a home run! I discussed my thoughts further in a full-length review.
8. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath (IDW)
I originally read this as single-issues when it got nominated for the much-coveted Eisner Award, but now, the entire series is available in trade paperback format for your comic shop-averse normie to enjoy. In an idyllic small town, everything is fine and dandy except for one anomaly. Brown bear Samantha is a serial killer who regularly drives out of town in the big city in search of the next victim. The comfort of her double life is jeopardized when a series of murders occur in town.
What can I say? Dexter and Richard Scarry make for a compelling mystery mix! I elaborated on my thoughts on my Top 11 Eisner Nominees list.
7. PeePee PooPoo #1 (Silver Sprocket)
Caroline Cash keeps pumping hit after hit with every PeePee PooPoo issue that comes out, and this is no exception. For the unacquainted, Cash’s anthology series uses random issue numbers like #420 or #80085, so chronology has no relevance here. Not unlike, with the previous installments, you get a good mix of funny autobio shit like everyone recognizing her when she moves to Philly as well as just random and observational shit that could happen such as a conversation about a doughnut looking like poop.
I also went into greater detail about this comic in its dedicated review.
6. Everything Sucks: Noah's Millions (Silver Sprocket)
Michael Sweater’s hilarious series is back with a fifth issue filled with more fun shenanigans to entertain everyone. While slacker worker Noah is on shift at the burger shop, he finds an abandoned duffel containing $1 million! Will this be the story of someone who goes from rags to riches and riches to rags from cartoonishly hedonistic pursuit? Yes, but not quite. One thing that can be said is that there’s a lot of foreshadowing of things to come, which I discuss in a Shelfdust article.
5. Peepshow #15 by Joe Matt (Fantagraphics)
Finally, an entry that I haven’t previously yapped about. A year ago, Joe Matt tragically died at his drawing desk from a heart attack. Matt was never a very prolific cartoonist; his most recent work before this was Peepshow #14 in 2006, and the series, in general, had wide gaps between issues, a habit referenced throughout the comic. However, there was one almost complete issue Matt had shelved, which his fellow cartoonist friend Chester Brown inked the remaining pages of for all of us to witness.
What we get is something between a regular issue and one that marks a transitional period in Matt’s life. Taking place mostly during the early to mid-2000s, Matt is getting older and moves from Toronto to LA after HBO options Peepshow for a television series (Gee, imagine a world where that materialized!). At the same time, he’s still the lecher with an insatiable sex drive and ego we love to be shocked and disgusted by.
In an age where autobio comics are more prolific than ever but more sanitized to generic relatable content or sympathy-pleading lamentations due to vigilant social scrutiny, it’s refreshing to read such unabashed candidness about the subject worst characteristics without any preachy self-reflection. Some highlights include Seth reading a parting speech before Matt moves out, Matt’s ill-fated relationship with a young fan he meets at a convention, and his talks with HBO.
4. Wine Ghost Goes the Hell by Sage Coffey (Iron Circus Comics)
I suppose a more appropriate title would be Wine Ghost in Hell since that’s where the entire graphic novel takes place. Either way, we follow the titular buoyant protagonist who’s helping her old bestie Sebastian find an apartment. Wine Ghost runs into conflict as antics and hard feelings ensue that challenge her relationships and ways of dealing with them. There’s plenty of good vibes, humor, heart, and bizarre imagery to go around! I went into more depth about the book’s visual elements in a review I wrote over a year ago when I was given this as an advanced reader copy.
3. Hable Con Ella by Lxtrr (self-published)
Premiering at this year’s Tampa Zine Fest in February, Hable Con Ella is Lxtrr’s first published comic, and boy, does it leave a great impression! Chibi-inspired, this introspective work centers around the author’s self-sonna, who hides behind a ski mask out of self-shame, and her confronting said shame. This is one of those comics that takes advantage of the abundant white space and simplistic art style to convey a wide emotional range to full effect. I analyzed those strengths more in a full review.
2. Sunflowers by Keezy Young (Silver Sprocket)
At the risk of looking like a bigger lazy SOB, what I’d say would just be a paraphrasing about the same length as the recap I gave on my Top Ignatz Nominees list, so here are my quoted thoughts:
Tens of millions of people worldwide have bipolar disorder, yet it’s still misunderstood and stigmatized by the general public. Keezy Young is one of those people living with it using this comic book as a cathartic outlet to articulate their complex feelings on the matter while hopefully informing readers and dispelling misconceptions, which it succeeds at in all aspects.
Artistically poetic with muted colors and abstract visuals that are simultaneously vibrant on a presentational level, Young’s writing is plainly honest about their experiences leaving no stone unturned in describing their hypomania episodes even acknowledging, from an outsider’s perspective, how most people would view them as insane. Unlike some disorders, there aren’t many aspects people can relate to even to a small extent, so the written word is probably the best medium for conveying that information as it provides the space for a reader to process and empathize. The entire comic can be purchased or read for free on Silver Sprocket’s site.
And for number one, dum, dum, duuumm…
1. The Audra Show #7 by Audra Stang (self-published)
Ok, if you read the Ignatz article, then you already saw this coming, but if ya didn’t, then surprise! Having recently read The Collected Audra Show Vol 1. containing #1-6, I can still confidently state I found this issue to be Audra Stang’s strongest effort yet. The previous installments could be described as small-town slice-of-life with ambient paranormal elements. Throughout these stories, the cast is wrapped up in their own personal drama that said aspects are just another part of the parcel, creating an uncanny dissonance between the chiefly mundane and paranormal.
By comparison, #7 might not seem that remarkable as it leans fully into the series’s mundanity without the eerieness, but as someone who gravitates toward a good slice-of-life story, I loved how Stang put her realism writing skills on full display. If you grew up and went to school in a small town (I can’t vouch for myself. I was a mostly homeschooled big-city kid), you’ll probably get a pang of nostalgia from reading the Star Valley middle-schoolers’ day-to-day happenings and gripes alongside Audra’s autobio comics about her teen years in Greensboro, NC. The American Idol one was a real highlight.
In Retrospect
The previous three years of this decade have set a high caliber of quality that’s tough to match, particularly 2022 and 2023, which brought us modern classics like Shubeik Lubiek, Ducks, It’s Lonely at the Center of the Earth, and Funny Things among many. The Audra Show #7 is the only entry I see going down in my top 10 best of the decade thus far, but some of the other entries could definitely crack the top 20-30 if I ever did one of those. That said, even if 2024 didn’t have as many all-time highs, I felt it was more consistent than 2020 or 2021. I’ll admit, however, that my reading habits have changed a lot in these past two years as I’ve been increasingly consuming more small press and self-published material that, years prior, I had very little to no awareness of, so there’s that knowledge gap that inevitably influences my perception.
In the children’s and YA literature domains, there were some incredible releases. The former category had gems like The New Girl (Cassandra Calin), Dungeon Club: Time to Party (Molly Knox Ostertag), and Lunar Boy (Jacinta & Jessica Wibowo). And I can’t forget to mention The Baby-Sitters Club graphic novels. While those may not be as “sophisticated” as the adult-oriented fare I normally discuss here, they’re always oodles of fun and still have genuine creative thought put into them.
In real life, I do have a few bones to pick with YA lit (mostly personal gripes), but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. As with the children’s books, many of them are very entertaining and even cover some complex themes that challenge their target audience. My favorites include The Deep Dark (Molly Knox Ostertag), Bunt! Striking Out on Financial Aid (Ngozi Ukazu & Mad Rupert), and Homebody (Theo Parish).
Overall, this is my info-dumpy way of saying that 2024 was a solid year for comics, and I can only hope the same for 2025 despite all the chaos that seems to be coming our way.
The newsletter will be on a break from now to January 11. Until then, try to have a holly jolly holiday!
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