Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda, First Second
“An award-winning graphic novel grapples with the unthinkable. Deogratias, a Hutu youth barely out of his teens, now appears as a shambling wreck in ragged clothes, drinking steadily and barking like a dog. But a series of seamless flashbacks reveals a younger, happier Deogratias, remarkable only for his mundanity. Despite poverty, prostitution, and racial condescension, his friends enjoy a lively multiethnic culture: Deogratias romances a Tutsi girl while secretly yearning for her mulatto half-sister. Meanwhile, a steady background drumbeat of ethnic hatred builds to a horrific crescendo in the genocide of 1994, when 800,000 Rwandans are butchered by their neighbors. Neither hero nor villain, Deogratias tries to spare himself and his loved ones, trapped in a shocking spiral of violence, betrayal, and madness. While Stassen’s simple layout and spare images may appear static at first, the uncluttered art, reminiscent of jewel-toned woodcuts, serves to underscore the erupting brutality. Only a few of the panels depict the actual massacre, still, the ghastly subject matter, sexual themes and coarse language, along with the elliptical narrative structure, restrict this title to a mature audience. Nonetheless, the importance of the story and the heartbreaking beauty of its presentation make it an essential purchase.” – Kirkus Reviews

Krazy & Ignatz: 1937-38, Fantagraphics
“Written in a cracked phonetic babble (in one strip, Krazy is upset over atomic warfare — ‘sign tisks … smeshing that poo l’il adam’), it forces readers to absorb it slowly. And what’s really worth lingering over is the broad, desolate background behind Herriman’s kat-and-mouse pas de deux, the desert’s expanses broken only by a gnarled cactus or a half-carved-out twist of orange and green that stands in for the moon.” – New York Times Book Review

Nat Turner Encore Edition Vol. 1, Kyle Baker Publishing
“Baker begins his nearly silent story with a kind of action setpiece as a slaving party in Africa captures villagers to be sent to American shores, Baker’s storytelling is magnificent and he really lets the story breathe. Rarely using more than three panels per page and designing lots of white space to give the book a unique, non-comicbooky look. Further setting the book apart from other Baker projects such as Plastic Man or Birth of a Nation. Each panel is drawn in a pencil/charcoal style that makes the eye linger on each page. An excellent book.” – Variety

Never Made to Last: Stories of Suburban Folklore, Ourobor Books
“Steven Walters’ Suburban Folklore is an emo-ish emotional drive that vaults you into the minds, hearts, and souls of its suburban characters. There’s nothing that make the five main characters special, there is no standout, there is no too funny for everyone smartass who everyone grows to love. It’s not a sitcom and the book feels just like real life because we all know most of the time we usually stand around thinking about things while not actually saying them. That’s what impressed me the most when I read Suburban Folklore the first time around and now I’m very glad to see a trade paperback collecting the entire great series.” – Newsarama

Tokyo Tribes Vol. 5, TokyoPop
“The team of Santa Inoue (creator), Alexis Kirsh (translator), and David Walker (adaptation) has an excellent collective ear for dialogue; where the book could have truly come unstuck, it really shines. The characters, through their dialogue, power this book, and are compelling enough for me to come back for further installments.” – Manga Life