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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.…

The Haunting Twists and Moral Unease of “Parasocial”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/the-haunting-twists-and-moral-unease-of-parasocial/

Published: December 1, 2024 11:00

A little over a year ago in this very space, I wrote about an original graphic novel from writer Alex de Campi and artist Erica Henderson titled Dracula, Motherf**ker! With impressionistic art and a revisionist take on a familiar story, de Campi and…

“The Hunger and the Dusk” and the Art of Subtle Horror

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/the-hunger-and-the-dusk-and-the-art-of-subtle/

Published: November 24, 2024 12:00

Sometime during the pandemic, I ended up sitting down to play The Banner Saga trilogy of games, due in no small part to Luke Plunkett’s writing on the series. The games are about a series of unlikely alliances between different cultures to avert an…

The Perpetual Battles of “Golden Rage”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/the-perpetual-battles-of-golden-rage/

Published: November 14, 2024 12:00

The cover artwork for Golden Rage is immediately striking: two hands dripping with blood, with a bracelet reading “GRANDMA” around one wrist. That combination is not a dream, not a hoax, and not an imaginary story; once things are underway, Jay — who…

Metafictional Cosmic Horror: Reading “Where Black Stars Rise”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/metafictional-cosmic-horror-reading-where-black/

Published: October 31, 2024 10:00

What does it mean for an author’s surname to become shorthand for a certain method of storytelling? “Lovecraftian” has taken on that quality; even people who wouldn’t recognize a shoggoth have a broad understanding of what it means. “Chambersian” doesn’t…

Apocalyptic Friendships and Other Ends of the World: On “Boys Weekend”

https://buttondown.com/komiksoj/archive/apocalyptic-friendships-and-other-ends-of-the/

Published: October 6, 2024 11:00

Does science fiction, as a genre, play well with others? The comics medium is more open than most to smashing together genre tropes and plot devices. I’m not just talking about superhero shared universes, where a tech genius and a magician might team up…