u/ConstantVarious2082

The Thousand Demon Tree by Jeffrey Alan Love, published by Flesk Publications

Summary: A man is goaded into a heroic quest by a sword and crows. As he journeys, he transforms and becomes more and more terrifying – but will it be enough to allow him to defeat the Thousand Demon Tree? This is a silent story illustrated mostly in black-and-white, although some color comes in towards the second half of the book.

Why I think it’s great: It tells a story quite well without words, but it’s absolutely dripping with mood – there’s a “resigned terrible fate” overhang that is palpable, and I think it takes great skill to convey that. I think the large scenes and scale built over sometimes multiple pages really contribute to that feeling. I love the art, and the incredible variety of textures within the black-and-white. While it’s generally light on detail, the way it’s built within texture is pretty impressive.

You might not like it if: It’s a very specific art style that I personally like, but the breadth of texture coming at expense of giving us many character-driven moments through faces could definitely not work for some people. While the story proceeds pretty clearly, it leaves a lot of setting that would normally be built with dialog or narration to the imagination and could feel “vague” if you like having a more thoroughly realized world.

What you should read next: Love’s The Last Battle at the End of the World is similarly moody and in his characteristic art style, although it does feature some dialog. That’s also great. I think The Ark (by Stephane Levallois) is another really good book that, while artistically very different, might be a good next one after this for a similar emotional feel of kind of doomed inevitability and gradual exploration.

Previous Entries: Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, Coda, Mabel & Francine, Porcelain, We Don't Kill Spiders, The Bus

The Bus by Paul Kirchner

Summary: Surreal silent black-and-white comic strips. A man waits at a bus stop, or boards the bus, and something gets… weird. These play with perspective, movement, and basic passenger etiquette, rendered in clean black-and-white linework.

Why I think it’s great: It uses the medium so well, with great beats between panels, and moving between perspectives by shifting foreground, background, and interior details. There’s tremendous variety from wildly surreal situations to truly bus-centric humor – and I never could have imagined laughing at something correctly described as “bus-centric humor”. It’s honestly impressive how well Kirchner squeezes something new and clever out of such a narrow premise in each strip.

You might not like it if: It’s a collection of single-page strips. Want a story, characters, continuity? This isn’t it. That being said, this is a great opportunity to try something new – and you can do so free online at https://www.tanibis.net/en/livres/the-bus/ebook/

What you should read next: In my mind, The Bus is in a league of its own, quality-wise. Some of the best pages in Cheat Sheets hit near the highs, but it’s a much less consistent collection. 20 km/h has some similar vibes and surreal perspective-warping strips, but without the conceptual constraint that I think makes The Bus particularly noteworthy. If the perspective-warping is your favorite part, I think Mister Invincible is a fun light-hearted comic playing more directly on comic structures. Beyond those, there’s certainly a variety of great classic strips that can veer surreal with high-quality cartooning – Krazy Kat, Little Nemo in Slumberland, and more. There are more recommendations from when I asked this question before and I haven’t had the chance to go through them all, but check them out.

Previous Entries: Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, Coda, Mabel & Francine, Porcelain, We Don't Kill Spiders

We Don’t Kill Spiders by Joseph Schmalke, published by Midnight Factory Press

Summary: Gumshoe-noir meets fantasy Vikings as a viking detective is called to a village to investigate several mysterious deaths, with the clear suspect the witch who lives outside the village. The investigation begets deeper mysteries and brings the attention of dark gods…

Why I think it’s great: This premise is played very well. There’s a wonderful incongruity of the trope of “I’m a man of LOGIC and REASON not SUPERSTITION” followed by zombies and werewolves and soul-eating magic. Schmalke keeps a great pace building the characters and stakes with reasonably spaced flashbacks, action, and dialog. It’s really solid execution of a nice set of standard story beats and themes in a fun setting. The art is pretty stylized but we get appropriately gruesome dark moments and some really nasty demons. A wide variety of color washed across pages keeps things interesting.

You might not like it if: Fundamentally, the mystery is not “deeply rewarding” in the sense of something the reader can endlessly puzzle over – it’s a vehicle for a fun story, but the twists don’t come out as ultra-creative in my opinion. So, the “mystery” premise could be a little bit of a let down if you really are in it for that genre. Art’s always a personal preference, there’s a snow/spatter effect used pretty liberally and I know that can really not work for some people.

What you should read next: There’s a follow-up in progress (Season of the Witch), although I’m not up to date on that, and I definitely also recommend Schmalke’s ongoing “grimdark Harry Potter” series Seven Years in Darkness which keeps a similar tone and art style. A very similar noir/viking-fantasy mashup premise appears in one of the Sirens of the Norse Sea collections from Humanoids, so if that really tickled your fancy you can get it again played a little straighter and in more classic BD art style, although I liked We Don’t Kill Spiders much more.

Previous Entries: Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, Coda, Mabel & Francine, Porcelain