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Why Not Both? On Keezy Young’s “Hello Sunshine”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/why-not-both-on-keezy-young-s-hello-sunshine/

Published: April 26, 2026 11:00

Keezy Young’s Hello Sunshine focuses on a disappearance: a young man named Alex, who vanishes from his small town one summer. The question of what happened to Alex, and the efforts of his friends and boyfriend Noah to find him, loom over the proceedings.…

Permutations of an Investigation: On “The One Hand & The Six Fingers”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/permutations-of-an-investigation-on-the-one-hand/

Published: February 8, 2026 12:00

There’s a moment of deep narrative dissonance early in the story of The One Hand & The Six Fingers, and what’s most notable about it is the way it isn’t commented upon at all. The story is, at its core, a science fiction procedural, about a hard-living…

The Reading Is the Curse: On "The Mortal Coil Shuffle"

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/the-reading-is-the-curse-on-the-mortal-coil/

Published: January 15, 2026 11:44

Despite the fact that it appears to be Very Much My Shit, I hadn’t yet sat down with a full volume of writer W. Maxwell Prince and artists Chris O’Halloran and Martín Morazzo’s Ice Cream Man. This might have been due to the presence of a lot of…

An Epic Tale Expertly Retold: On “A Wizard of Earthsea”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/an-epic-tale-expertly-retold-on-a-wizard-of/

Published: November 19, 2025 12:00

Some great works of science fiction and fantasy have lent themselves well to adaptations in other media. Others can become cautionary tales. In a 2004 essay for Slate, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote about a recent television adaptation of her Earthsea novels,…

A Monster Mash(-Up): On “Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/a-monster-mash-up-on-godzillas-monsterpiece/

Published: August 17, 2025 11:00

Originally this series of pieces on comic book adaptations of novels was set to be four installments long. Then IDW sent over a review copy of Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre, from writer/artist Tom Scioli. I’ve read a couple of his other projects over the…

A Very Jersey Apocalypse: On “Freaks’ Amour”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/a-very-jersey-apocalypse-on-freaks-amour/

Published: July 13, 2025 11:00

The sheer array of talent involved in adapting Tom De Haven’s 1979 novel Freaks’ Amour into comics form is staggering. Phil Hester and Andre Parks are responsible for the searing art found within; Charles Burns illustrated the cover, which features an…

The Minimal Apocalypse Gets Baroque: Reading "The Road"

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/the-minimal-apocalypse-gets-baroque-reading-the/

Published: April 21, 2025 10:15

Continuing in a series of comics adapting prose; previously: Secret Life. There are a number of choices that must be made when adapting fiction into another medium. Among those are the overall fidelity to the source material, but it can go deeper than…

The Branch Office Goes Feral: On “Secret Life”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/the-branch-office-goes-feral-on-secret-life/

Published: March 20, 2025 10:01

A quick housekeeping note: in an effort to try to get this newsletter back on a more regular schedule, the next few installments — probably four total — are going to be thematically linked. More specifically, they’re going to be about graphic novels…

The Indescribable Horror of “The Second Safest Mountain”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/the-indescribable-horror-of-the-second-safest/

Published: February 2, 2025 11:01

I’ve been thinking about horror a lot lately. Some of that comes from writing about the genre more and more; some of that comes from writing stories that draw more and more on horror. I think about how the idea of horror is very subjective as well — for…

Comic Books Vs. Mystery Boxes: On “We Called Them Giants”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/comic-books-vs-mystery-boxes-on-we-called-them/

Published: December 29, 2024 12:00

Discussed: We Called Them Giants. Kieron Gillen, writer; Stephanie Hans; artist; Clayton Cowles, letterer; Becca Carey, designer; Image Comics, publisher. There’s been a lot of writing this year about the 20th anniversary of the first episode of Lost.…