Reviews and Comments

These volumes were originally self-published as a webcomic. A Man and his Cat was subsequently serialized in Japan in 2018 before being translated to English in 2020; they were published by Square Enix Manga in both countries.

Content notes for loss of a spouse.

Not much online about the mangaka. Pen name I assume?

What kinds of keywords came to mind? outsiders, found family, grand piano, love and total cuteness.

The synopsis for volume one is "A kitten languishes in a pet shop, unwanted and unloved. Even as his price drops with each passing day, no one spares him a glance unless it's to call him names. Having practically given up on life, the kitty himself is most shocked of all when an older gentleman comes into the store and wants to take him home! Will the man and the cat find what they're looking for..in each other?"

A nice break from many of the longer and more serious titles I've been reading of late, A man and His Cat is pretty pitch perfect. But not one of those series to binge all at once, but rather metered out as one's spirits need lifting. The relationship between this lonely cat and widower is so incredibly wholesome and heartwarming! The art is very on point and there are some good to know facts about cat ownership sprinkled in.

Representation, in contrast, was pretty much a wash overall. Well, unless you count having an older protagonist I suppose.

For what it is I still ended up rating it four out of five stars for volume one, and three out of five stars for volume two. There's nothing quite like a volume one in this case, when you first come across a cute series premise. There's at least eight volumes as far as I can tell; I'll certainly be picking these books up as I feel like.

Definitely one of my favourite reads of 2023, I initially picked this graphic novel up as part of my Palestine/Palestinian TBR.

Content notes for body horror, eyeballs, struggling with medical side-effects, drinking, rashes, unhelpful family, and low self-esteem.

A fictional story based off of their own medical experience, Iasmin self describes as "an intersectional comics artist, illustrator, and game designer. Iasmin focuses on creating art centered around the themes of coping with illness, understanding identity, and dismantling oppressive structures." I've already read their other recent title, Nayra and the Djinn (so look forward to that review soonish) and apparently they also contributed to the very enjoyable Be Gay, Do Comics anthology from The Nib. Would highly recommend you check out that flip through review. Scrolling through their twitter account it seems like they are pretty keen on Sonic the Hedgehog as well.

What kinds of keywords came to mind? knives, dots, anime hair, contrast, multi-dimensional, and vibrant.

Jumping straight into the art, it was beautiful, it was creative, it was poppy, and expressive; it communicated the story in ways that felt novel and I just really really loved it. There's lovely use of halftone, sketching on coloured pages, and expressive lines.

Looking at the character designs, I also really loved the way Ata drew everyone and their fashion sense was pretty on point - but the shifting colors did leave me second guessing who people were a couple of times.

Writing wise, I also found this graphic novel really different and interesting. Reading their interview with Comics Journal, Ata described the creation of this comic as sort of like art therapy, and how writing about Isaac helped them come to terms with their own diagnosis.

I'm more then a little biased because while I do not have epilepsy, my own university experience involved a four year low grade migraine and undiagnosed adhd. So I was never able to keep up with my meds and felt like I had gerbils nesting in my brain almost all the time. The dagger imagery and constant internal battles felt pretty visceral and real to me even all these years later.

I really appreciated the amount of ill intent and stigma that we see others putting on Isaac. Not because I think that's cool obviously, but because it's so real. Isaac's classmates think he's being deliberately lazy or constantly high; his doctors think he is selling his prescription and his family (while caring) clearly doesn't understand his life at all.

Getting a tad bit spoilery, when we open Isaac has very low self-esteem and self sabotages. He struggles to participate in community and he assumes that everyone sees him as a burden. As the story continues on Ata goes into a lot of emotional detail. As we reach the end however, Isaac makes a crucial connection with a friend, Jo, who shares their similar medical journey and encourages Isaac to value themselves more. With the addition of this critical sense of disabled community Isaac is able to conclude on a more hopeful note - and we get a glimpse of what it would mean for him to feel more normal in his own skin.

Looking at the intersections and identities I try to highlight in each of my reviews:

Disability is obviously pretty central and something we've already discussed pretty extensively.

Because of the unrealistic coloration of the graphic novel, racial diversity is not super obvious. There does appear to be some diversity in character design, our main character is racialized, and we do have hijabi representation.

Gender and sexuality felt similarly not particularly discussed, but also not boxed up into cis hetero boxes either. Each character's gender expression felt pretty relaxed and honestly not pairing everyone up right away sometimes feels a bit queer in and of itself.

Class felt the most off screen.

Wrapping things up, obviously I already hinted at how much I enjoyed this book. Five stars. Graphic medicine continues to be something I'm always hungry to read more of.

Keywords that came to mind reading this book: nonfiction, simulation, classroom, organization, protest, direct action, power, intersectional, and international.

A book packed full of information, it certainly covers a vast swath of time and space. Much to the frustration of some reviewers, although I feel like it falls pretty squarely into a fairly typical overview style book aimed at the younger set. Similarly, the somewhat random premise of a classroom being walked through a simulation of history accompanied by what I assume to be an AI reminds me of several middle grade graphic novels similarly focused on history.

That said, fully aware that it is much easier to be an arm chair critique then to actually create things, I do feel we could have spent less time trying to cover a million individuals and put more emphasis on people working together in groups and movements. Not to say there was none of that covered, but I am more then a little tired of the parade of so called great men of history, and turning it around to only include women isn't more then a few points of improvement. Similarly, while it is fairly standard, I feel like it would have been nice if the idea of none cis-gender people and/or disabled women was a bit more integrated throughout - rather then left for the final modern act.

You see, one of the main premises of the book is to disabuse the reader of the idea that the struggle for women's rights is only a recent and/or so called white thing or even a thing that has developed in a linear fashion. Kendall instead works to show the reader how the rights of women have been more or less realized throughout time and around the globe in many cultures. This I agree is an excellent and important motive. Kendall also does an excellent job pointing to times and people in history that have been working for one worthy cause (such as the rights of women) while still being racist, for example. Although I do feel like the word choice leans a bit towards the glass half full end of things - although I might also just be overly jaded by the apparent trajectory of bodily autonomy in the states right now.

Anyway, circling back, this sort of nuance does bring the lack of outright trans and disabled inclusion until the very end into more striking contrast. But perhaps I am asking too much.

Otherwise, the art is very good, although I would note that I found it strangely hard to figure out which parts were two page spreads and which were not from time to time.

The deliberate international focus was extremely refreshing and brought a lot more racial diversity into things then I find is average in these sorts of books. Although I am unconvinced that, of all things, we needed to re-create anti-Japanese posters directly on the page.

To conclude, I think this book achieves its aims of being a jumping off point to reconsidering history. I certainly would have appreciated being exposed to this level of nuance earlier in life, even if in my elderly thirties I wish it went a tad bit further. Four out of five stars.

A thick read, I picked up this urban fantasy title as part of trying to read more books from the middle east for reasons I hope are pretty obvious. My goal is to post in the comments a list of my reviews so far in this TBR.

Content notes for loss of limbs, smoking, imprisonment, harm to children/death of children, spousal abuse, and needles.

Leaning into the fact that it was originally written in Arabic, much like most manga these days Shubeik Lubeik is read (even in this English edition) from right to left.

Keywords that came to mind reading this volume: speculative, urban fantasy, alternative presents, philosophy, family, and education.

Looking at their website's about page, Mohamed was inspired to write this comic by their undergraduate thesis that involved them researching the history of Egyptian comics. They've also been working for a while on a superhero webcomic titled Qahera that definitely sounded very interesting.

Flipping through the artwork, I was really impressed with the carefully curated variety of color selection and styles. Every choice building up the story more and more until it basically jumped off the page. Another one of those comics that is a bit of a master class on visual communication honestly. Mohamed also integrates a large selection of infographs that build up the story in some very creative ways.

The writing was also super interesting and unlike anything else I had really read before (as far as my poor muddled brain can remember anyway lol). Practically an undergraduate thesis on wishes honestly. aka a deeply thought out speculative look at what the world might look like if wishes were real. Taking into consideration the implications of class, disability, gender, sexuality and race. We watch as international treaties and local laws develop around wishes and we follow a number of characters who end up being criminalized in relation to wishes. A very philosophical comic, Mohamed also seamlessly integrates characters speaking a number of different languages; religion of the Islamic and Christian variety were highlighted in ways I don't usually expect in my comics consumption and must grapple with the implications of wishes; Shubeik Lubeik features a wide variety of grumpy but endearing elder characters. Which was also nice.

Wrapping things up, I would rate this book five out of five stars and generally highly recommend. Despite how grimly the story gets at point I will say I was pretty amused by how things wrapped up at the end.

A largely wordless comic, it was almost to the point where I wasn't sure if this could count as a translated work, but there are a few more word heavy sections in this originally French comic so we are good.The art is certainly an incredibly strong part of the book. Colourful and dynamic, a lot is communicated through very few words. There's vintage feel that I can't quite outline. Gender was something that bothered me a bit for the first half of the book. Spoiler alert, this plot involves Betty being persecuted for not having two breasts before transitioning to how Betty discovers a better life in a new crowd. The first part just dragged on much longer then I thought was necessary and it was honestly a bit hard to follow everyone's obsession with breasts = women not knowing what would happen next. Of course once things turn around and the creators let Betty find acceptance and celebration for her less then "perfect" body I was a lot more comfortable, although I could see it still not being super fun for many. The book also includes a lot of playful and often none-sexual nudity, which is a huge plus. In the later part of the book we pass through a metaphorical vale and things become much more diverse when it comes to gender expression and sexuality. There was a bit more race diversity, but in the crowds of extras there was only a dash so I feel like there could have been more pretty easily. The one note I would say about the apparent queerness at the end of the book, is that since Betty appears to remain pretty cis and straight otherwise, it could be seen as kind of the gay best friend sort of dealio. Queerness to the service of making straight and CIS white women feel good. I felt like the very strong contrast between before and after, combined with the total celebration of queerness two thirds of the way in, left me feeling pretty positive about the representation. It being a wordless comic, we don't get much traditional character development of anyone, except maybe Betty herself. But I would be interested in how y'all feel. It's not going into my next A to Z of queer lit video for sure. Class was erased in this book and money never comes up. People are just magically able to live fairly comfortable middle class lives. As far as ability vs disability, while my understanding of the term doesn't seem to indicate that Betty is disabled, the book is exploring what happens when certain bodies are less then perfect. Ability and sexuality are often tied together in ways that are pretty toxic and I would say this is a nice push back against that. Reading this book digitally probably also made the first part feel longer, as I had no idea how far I was through the book at any given time. But it ended up being pretty fun and something I could see many people enjoying. The way the story is communicated mostly sans word was beautiful and so very playful. Four out of five stars.

2017 review: A really surprising reread, most of the most unique and edifying aspects of this volume 1 flew right over my head the first time around. That is not to say that I don't think this story could be enjoyed by none SJW's like myself, but rather that at that particular moment I was feeling incredibly anti-romance because of some friends telling me that this was intellectually a better relationship then Twilight. Unfortunately, while I was mostly over any interest I had ever had in Twilight, I had not yet developed the vocabulary and maturity to see what they were talking about. So I was feeling kind of stupid and defensive as a result.

At least that is what I seem to recall happening, but it is all rather fuzzy.

Otherwise, I think the relationship in this volume is a good example of one of the ways in which a romance can eliminate a lot of problems around consent, manipulation, and having romantic interest save the damsel from her own boringness, without necessarily sacrificing all titillation as a result.

While Kazehaya certainly helps draw Sawako out of her shell, he seems to be doing so purely out of the fact that he genuinely likes her and wants her to be more appreciated by their classmates. Unlike in my very guilty pleasure, Paradise Kiss, Kazehaya is not spending a lot of time using Sawako's attraction to him against her. The two are very equal and have a lot of mutual admiration for one another. Not only that, but Kazehaya does not seem particularly bent on having Sawako all to himself, in a lot of highly manipulative romance novels the main romantic interest is highly jealous and possessive of the heroin (because we readers have low self-esteem) which feels like it steps beyond harmless fantasy into perpetuating toxic masculinity.

The only real issue I had with the story is that the text was pretty hard to follow at different points. Despite this relatively small, if persistent, flaw, I have put in a request for the next few volumes and look forward to getting through them as soon as possible.