Will Eisner: A Comics Biography

 Will Eisner: A Comics Biography by Stephen Weiner and Dan Mazur (2025) 300 pages 

Having read some of his autobiographical graphic novels (or autobiographical notes included in books that are not autobiographical works) I knew about his WWII service and his daughter dying leading to his crisis of faith. Otherwise, I wish there was more here. Eisner's youth and early career were full of interesting stories. I ate that part of the biographical comic up! Chapter 4, going into his business partnership with Iger, also kept the behind-the-scenes nuggets very interesting. Beginning with Eisner creating The Spirit, a private detective hero without a circus costume, the details become more slim. Through his later life, having a wife and kids and inventing the term "graphic novel," I wanted to know more, much more! The art style does a great job of giving multiple homages to Eisner.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Anaïs Flogny (2024) 240 pages 

Cinematic and expansive. Parallels some of the Godfather trilogy organized crime milieu, but with a gay man at the center. Closeted gay men, who are both immigrants in America, find the underworld of importing and selling alcohol and, later, other drugs to be their way to success and power. Jules, the younger protege, and Adam are scrappy. The story moves from 1930s Chicago to 1940s New York. Eufrasio is a more violent and ambitious partner from the Mafia family in New York who comes between Jules and Adam. Jules begins to hate himself as he confronts betrayal and guilt.

Bootblack

 Bootblack by Mikaël (2022) 128 pages

I enjoyed the realistic art. Ultimately Al is a kid who is so patriotic, claiming his American-ness, that he turns his back on his immigrant parents. When they die and he ends up an orphan on the streets of New York City in the '20s, he becomes a bootblack with a gang of young friends. He develops a young crush. He further develops his hatred for newer immigrants. He moves money for organized crime families. He goes to prison then gets out just before WWII. All these stories are told as flashbacks from G.I. Al serving overseas in Germany. There are some details from his life that connect in unexpected ways, but fate is cruel and his life ends ironically.

To Broadway

 To Broadway by Maurane Mazars (2025) 248 pages

This is historical fiction set in the late 1950s about a young gay German man studying modern dance who dreams of Broadway or Hollywood in America. The watercolor art is brilliant. We ride the ups and downs of Uli's career, love life, and friendships. Fantastically emotive with the use of visuals without too many words. And the Epilogue reveals some of the real people involved in the story. Translated from French.

What Will People Think?

What Will People Think? by Sara Hamdan, 336 pages

Mia Almas is a quiet Muslim young woman who works as a fact-checker for a media corporation and harbors a longtime crush on her boss. However, when she leaves the office, before heading home to her grandparents' basement apartment, Mia often indulges in her secret hobby — standup comedy. She's been secretly honing her act for five years when a few of her coworkers stumble upon her performance, one of them writes a profile of her, and suddenly Mia is going viral. Afraid of what this will mean to her undocumented grandparents — both in terms of their living situation and their opinion of her — Mia's thrown into a panic, something soothed only by her grandmother's scandalous journal of her youth in Palestine.

Set in 2011 in New York City, this story takes place during an era that wasn't quite as culturally sensitive as we try to be today, and Hamdan shows that well in the book. Really, though, the story of Mia's grandmother is much more compelling than Mia's more modern crisis — I would've happily read a whole book about her history! An entertaining book however, and definitely worth a read.

The Girl from Greenwich Street

The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig, 352 pages

In December 1799, Elma Sands left her cousin's home/boarding house, planning on eloping with a rich beau. A week later, her body was fished out of a nearby well, and one of the boarders was arrested for her murder. The crime swiftly became a shocking and famous event in the early days of the U.S., with handbills accusing carpenter Levi Weeks of Elma's murder as gossip about both parties ran rampant through New York City. But when his wealthy brother calls in Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton to defend Levi, the investigation becomes a chance to solve the crime but also wield some political influence.

Based on the first murder trial in U.S. history, this book is thrilling, engrossing, and keeps you guessing, despite its events taking place more than 200 years ago. It's also a brilliant look into the early days of the criminal justice system, which is fascinating from a historic perspective. Well worth a read, though be warned that you will probably have some of the songs from Hamilton stuck in your head as you turn the pages.

The Socialite's Guide to Murder

The Socialite's Guide to Murder by S.K. Golden (2022) 306 pages

The socialite is Evelyn Elizabeth Grace Murphy, a young woman whose father owns the Pinnacle Hotel. Evelyn hasn't left the hotel in 14 months and rationalizes that she has no need to do so, for everything she could want is in this upscale hotel. It's 1958 and she's the "girlfriend" of Henry Fox, a gay actor who is her best friend. She has another good friend at the hotel‒Mac‒who's a bellhop who walks her dog Presley and helps to pick locks for her snooping, as needed.

The hotel is the site for a party for artist Billie Bell, who plans to unveil his latest masterpiece, but when the drape is removed, the painting is missing. Later, Evelyn discovers the artist himself has been murdered. Evelyn, who reads Agatha Christie and other prominent mystery writers of the time, is determined to solve the theft and the murder and to win over Police Detective Hodgson, who has failed to appreciate her at all.

The novel portrays agoraphobia in the self-obsessed (and dog-obsessed) title character believably. I'm not sure whether I'll read other titles in the Pinnacle Hotel Mystery series, but maybe...

Promise Me Sunshine

Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone, 416 pages

Since she lost her best friend and roommate to cancer, Lenny has been adrift in her grief, unwilling to go back to her apartment on most days, refusing to return her mom's calls, and only able to hold down temporary babysitting jobs. But recently, she's gotten a really fantastic job as a nanny for a single mom and her precocious daughter, Ainsley, though the near-constant presence of Ainsley's grumpy uncle Miles certainly puts a damper on things. However, as Lenny gets to know Miles, she learns that he knows more about grief than she thought, and if she helps him become the kind of uncle he wants to be, Miles will help her through the "live again" list Lenny and her best friend made together. And if they happen to fall for each other, well, that's just gonna happen, right?

The problems that Lenny and Miles face individually are realistic and compelling, and I liked the development of their relationships with each other and Miles' relationship with his sister and niece. A few of the new friendships Lenny creates felt a bit sudden, and I definitely questioned Miles' real estate situation (he had a fully furnished second apartment in Manhattan that he just left sitting empty? No subletting?). This is billed as a romance novel, and yes, that element is definitely there, though I kept wishing we'd get both sides of the developing relationship instead of just Lenny's. That said, I'd recommend this to fans of Emily Henry's personal growth-heavy romance novels. Just be ready to cry. A lot.

Holmes is Missing

 

Holmes is Missing by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (2025) 322 pages

In modern day New York City, Auguste Poe and Margaret Marple continue running their detective agency while Brendan Holmes is battling his addictions. This is where we left off at the end of Holmes, Marple and Poe, the book that started this series. Poe has continued his relationship with Helene Grey, a NYC detective. Grey brings them into a case where six newborn babies have disappeared from the maternity ward of a hospital, in spite of the babies wearing security devices that are supposed to alert staff to a baby leaving the ward. The security camera footage has been disrupted, too. Poe and Marple decide that Holmes's input is needed, so they bring him back to work from rehab, although he insists he wants to leave the detective business. Maybe he'll just go to one more meeting, maybe one more case.

Meanwhile, Helene Grey gives Poe some news that he's not ready to process, and Oliver Paul, a clockmaker, shows up at an event that they are at, seeming to be a groupie of Holmes, talking about Holmes's mother, who Holmes was told had died when he was a child. Paul also talks about a series of deaths of mothers that happens every year on the same day, which always look like accidents, rather than murder. The date is getting near again.

There's a lot going on in this novel, on both sides of the ocean. London has perhaps a related child-snatching situation as well. The most important question is will the children be located in time? But other questions are pressing as well.

Everything for Everyone

 

Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 by M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi (2022) 256 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla narrated by Charli Burrow and Soneela Nankani. The authors have written this as if they are the oral history interviewers. This is speculative fiction about the near future, but it is in the style of nonfiction. It feels a bit dry, but very real. With the current developments of late-stage capitalism the future presented here is very probable. Many of the people interviewed about their part in the growth of communes in New York city are people of color or queer. We hear from many people who understand activism, abolition, collectivism, and mutual aid as tools to survive the collapse of the old systems. If you are interested in dystopian fiction that is closely tied to reality like Octavia Butler's Parable books or Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, you'll probably enjoy this. It has a hopeful message.

The Collected Regrets of Clover

The Collected Regrets of Clover by Milli Brammer (2023) 314 pages

Clover is a death doula -- she spends time with people who are dying. Sometimes she is the only person who visits them; other times she helps the family of the patient, as well as the patient. While comfortable being with dying people, Clover is less comfortable with the living. For the times when she doesn't have a job, she hangs out in her apartment with her pets and binge-watches romantic movies. 

Her parents died when she was six; after that she was reared by her grandfather. But now she's 36 years old and he's been dead for 13 years. She hasn't ever dated and she does everything she can to avoid being around people, other than her grandfather's friend Leo, who lives in her apartment building. Sometimes, though, she needs a people-fix, and she gets these in a kind of anonymous way, by going to death cafés, gatherings where people can talk to each other, ask questions, and maybe get advice. She runs into a guy named Sebastian at two different death cafés, and she can't believe that he seems interested in her. That terrifies her as much as it inspires her. When he asks her to meet his dying grandmother, Claudia, a woman who has not been told that she is dying, Clover is conflicted, but agrees. Claudia was a photographer who gave up her work when she got married. She is still a spunky woman, one of the highlights of the novel.

The reader is expecting that Clover's life is going to change, and it does, just not in the way it seems to be heading. The book emphasizes really living, and it also showcases regrets people have had about what they did (or didn't do) when they had the chance. It's a thoughtful book.

Holmes, Marple & Poe

Holmes, Marple & Poe by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (2024) 339 pages

Three modern-day private investigators with mysterious backgrounds come together to solve crimes in New York City. Mysterious indeed: two have the surnames of famous fictional detectives, and one has the surname of a famous writer of detective stories, horror and poetry.

The three—Brendan Holmes, Auguste Poe, and Margaret Marple—almost immediately make enemies with the mayor and the police commissioner. They have a somewhat more nuanced relationship with Detective Lieutenant Helene Grey. The group has its foibles to add interest: Holmes has a drug problem and Poe has a lost love. Marple, on the other hand, seems to have her head together just fine. The group has a number of cases underway at once, and the novel flows quickly for a good escapist experience, good enough for a sequel, it appears.

A selection of May graphic novels

 The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (2005) 498 pages

The original publications of the three books in this set were in 1978, 1987, and 1995. Not a fan of the first three short stories in A Contract with God, even though they each have good moments. Loved "Cookalein" with its strong literary characterizations and bringing multiple threads with adult themes together in a satisfying way. Eisner explains in his preface that Cookalein is a Yiddish-English word that means "cook alone." Instead of bed and breakfasts, farms in upstate New York offered summer holiday stays with bed and kitchen. Multiple families had access to the kitchen so the mothers could cook for their own families. The second novel in this graphic novel trilogy, A Life Force, is excellent! It starts in the Great Depression and explores the meaning of life through Jacob Shtarkah's family and neighbors as well as his observations of a cockroach. Again Eisner is brilliant at probing the depth of characters. He brings the novel to graphic novel with many subplots on the side and real history affecting the characters at the center. All of these stories take place around the fictional Dropsie Avenue in the Bronx, NY. The third novel, Dropsie Avenue, traces the history of this neighborhood beginning in 1870 when this part of New York was still farmland. The story moves quickly through all the changes of ethnicities that call this neighborhood home throughout the century. It is an immigrant story and a microcosm standing in for many small towns that turned into big cities. The story is full of tearing down and building up, politics and business deals, tragedy and celebration, biases and prejudices. Year after year, decade after decade, with certain characters getting older, Eisner again illustrates our very real world.

Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice by Eddie Ahn (2024) 208 pages

This memoir covers a lot as indicated by the subtitle. The author/artist strangely is a bit distant in revealing his personality. It comes through in certain moments, but in describing the facts of day to day work and repeatedly trying to explain his career to his parents, who do not understand, Eddie remains elusive. I liked the realistic art, which is like a photo album. The different color tints help distinguish different times and places. I wish the book went even more in depth about environmental justice efforts.

Orbiter by Warren Ellis with art by Colleen Doran (2003) 104 pages

Short and intriguing. Perhaps too short to let you really get to know the characters. Set in a dystopian near future that imagines NASA's space program ended after shuttle Venture burned up on launch. Inspired by the loss of Challenger. But 10 years later the shuttle reenters the atmosphere and crash lands near the Kennedy Space Center. Scientists whose careers ended are put on the case by the military to solve the mystery. There is a lot of science-y speculation to explain the condition of the shuttle and the one surviving astronaut. Pretty fun adventure like a Michael Crichton thriller. Somewhat dark and gritty art.

And Mankind Created the Gods: A Graphic Novel Adaptation of Pascal Boyer's Religion Explained by Joseph Behe (2024) 368 pages

This is dense with a lot of complex ideas. Fascinating to think about. It is based on Pascal Boyer's book Religion Explained. Pascal appears in the graphic novel leading a philosophical dialogue. Picture Plato exchanging ideas with a group of people. For visual learners the black and white illustrations of the dinner party conversation, world cultures, and the workings of our minds are very helpful. It is difficult to sum up. You just have to dive in and explore with Pascal's dinner guests yourself.

You Should Be So Lucky

 You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian, 400 pages.

Mark Bailey hasn't felt up to doing much since the partner he isn't allowed to talk about died more than a year ago. Mark may be able to live somewhat openly as an arts reporter, but being gay wasn't an option for lawyers in the 50s, so he was forced into secrecy for his partner's sake anyway. Openness is also not an option for Eddie O'Leary, professional baseball player turned professional disappointment. Eddie's been having a terrible season since his surprise transfer to New York, made even more terrible because both his team and all of New York hate him for badmouthing them in front of reporters when he found out about his transfer. When Mark is (reluctantly) forced into writing diary entries for Eddie for his newspaper the two are forced into proximity, and sparks fly immediately. Soon a relationship starts to develop, even though the path forward isn't obvious. 

This is loosely a sequel to We Could Be So Good which I wrote about a couple years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't find this book as compelling as that first book set in midcentury NYC. There wasn't anything wrong with the characters or the plot, but there also weren't any surprises. I found the supporting cast pretty flat, and there weren't any moments that really stood out to me. Not a bad book, but I don't know that I would call it a great one either. 

Emily and Einstein

Emily and Einstein by Linda Francis Lee (2011) 356 pages

Emily is just 32 when her husband, Sandy, dies after being struck by a car. After Sandy's death, Emily begins to learn things about him that she didn't know—for one, that he had cheated on her. 

Both of their points of view are told in alternating sections. The story grabbed my interest from the start, but when it was clear that Sandy was now giving his points of view from the body of a dog, I wasn't sure that the author could keep my interest. But she did. Somewhat weird, but the story is otherwise quite believable. I needed to find out what would happen in this fast-paced novel set in New York City.

The Stolen Queen

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis, 352 pages

Charlotte Cross was an archaeology student in the 1930s when she helped discover a female pharaoh's tomb in Egypt. Fifty years later, she's helping curate the arrival of an exhibit of King Tut's riches at the Met when a necklace from the female pharaoh's tomb — a necklace previously thought lost in a horrific accident — reappears at the Met on loan from an anonymous source. Pair that with the theft of an important Egyptian artifact and Charlotte's own research (both stolen during the Met Gala, no less!), and Charlotte is forced to confront her own past in an attempt to salvage her career and find the missing artifacts.

I'm a sucker for both Egyptology and the Met Gala, and I read this book with high hopes that it would deliver on both fronts. Instead, it was kinda meh, and focused more on the relationships than on the historical elements. (Also, it drove me nuts that, just for fun, the author created a red carpet for the 1978 Met Gala, when it didn't have one at all — and then told us exactly that in the afterword.) There are better historical fiction titles out there.

Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder

Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder by Bellamy Rose, 256 pages

Spoiled heiress Pomona Afton is living her best socialite life — attending galas, racking up charges on the credit card that her grandmother pays off, club-hopping with her friends Opal and Coriander, etc — when the rug is pulled out from under her. Her aforementioned grandmother, head of Afton Hotels, has been murdered, and recently added clause in her will stipulates that none of her beneficiaries get anything until her murder is solved. So with the help of her new roommate, Pomona is out to catch the killer, while she also learns how to live without a penthouse and service staff.

As I read this, I felt like I was experiencing some weird Gossip Girl episode where Serena and Dan cosplayed as private detectives. While she's supposed to be a vapid socialite at the start, it took a bit too long for her to become a likeable character, for me to really care about Pomona getting her life back. It was OK, but nothing to write home about.

*This book will be published March 18, 2025.

Definitely Better Now

Definitely Better Now by Ava Robinson (2024) 341 pages

Emma, a young woman working in the marketing department of a financial consulting firm, has been going to AA meetings three times a week. She's ready to mark one full year of abstinence from alcohol and is now trying to figure out how to navigate the next part of her life. In her crisis years, she needed alcohol in social situations. Since she's been in recovery, her social life equals AA. The only people who really know her are her mother and her AA sponsor, Lola. She has been mostly estranged from her father, who is an alcoholic himself.

Emma feels split between being "Work Emma," the responsible employee who shares only selective bits of her personal life and who does not go to Friday Happy Hours with her coworkers versus becoming a person who shares her life, opening the possibilities of honest conversations and gaining real friendship.

I find this story to be a thorough telling of the trials of recovery, concerns about backsliding (as well as dealing with others who fear that you may backslide), and the difficulty in dealing with people, especially when one's self-doubts continually resurface.

A selection of January graphic novels

 Battlefields: The Night Witches by Garth Ennis with art by Russ Braun (2009) 79 pages

It is fascinating that Russia did have women pilots in their air force during WWII. Half the story is following a German squad pushing into Russian territory with one conscientious young man as our narrator. The other half focuses on just a couple of the women pilots who fly night missions dropping bombs. One in particular, Nadia Anna, achieves the rank of Captain and is a survivor despite a brief romance with heartbreak and her plane going down. The story succeeds in showing the horrific tragedy of war. The art work is a bit cartoon-y, but not far-off in portraying the gritty realism.

Hokusai: A Graphic Biography by Giuseppe Latanza and Francesco Matteuzzi (2021) 128 pages

I really enjoyed the art and the biographical story. Like Hokusai making woodblocks to stamp multiple prints of his art, some of the graphic novel's images are repeated. In between the story of his life there are full pages of text with historical background about Japanese art, or explaining terms and historical periods. Some of this felt repetitive, unfortunately, like a different author had lost track of what had previously been explained. However, this did not drastically lessen my enjoyment. I thought the book was aimed at teens at first, but it does mention and show a bit of the erotic art that Hokusai made during one part of his life.

The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel (2021) 240 pages

I loved this even more than Fun Home. Bechdel is even more revealing about herself, and explores engrossing related topics. Exercise trends through the second half of the 20th century, Romantic poets, Transcendentalists, Kerouac, Zen Buddhism are all connected. She explores mountains as a symbol for human achievement. The aphorism "it is about the journey, not the destination" comes across.

Will Eisner's New York: Life in the Big City by Will Eisner (2006) 421 pages

I've read a couple of his other realistic graphic novels and highly recommend this one as well. "New York: The Big City" consists of short vignettes. "The Building" tells the backstory of four ghosts who hang around a particular intersection where a historic building has been torn down and a new one constructed in its place. These stories reveal the tragicomic world Eisner is drawn to portray. "City People" is filled with more observations in mostly one or two page vignettes. A longer tragic story is told in Collisions. "Invisible People" contains three longer stories. Sanctum tells the sad story of Pincus Pleatnik. The Power tells a symbolic story of a healer named Morris. Eisner says of Mortal Combat, "In relating the story of Herman, who became the unwilling prize in a clash of wills, I hoped to evoke the helplessness of a person caught in an intersection of the traffic of life."

Past Tense: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself in Therapy by Sacha Mardou (2024) 336 pages

A courageous memoir. I picked it up at my new comic shop because it is by a local St. Louis author. Her journey to overcome her anxiety and unpack her childhood trauma is fascinating. She specifically delves into a therapy model called Internal Family Systems (IFS) because she finds it helpful after some initial skepticism. Mardou's art style is a bit loose, but expressive. Freeing herself from generational trauma reveals truly healthy outcomes.

Sylvia's Second Act

Sylvia's Second Act by Hillary Yablon, 344 pages

Sylvia has never been happy living in Florida after she and her husband retired, and when she walks in on him in flagrante with the neighborhood bimbo, she's done. Sylvia and her best friend Edie pack their bags and with a bit of spunk, determination, and very little research or cash, move to New York City to live out their Sex and the City dreams. Before long, Sylvia has a part-time job assisting a wedding planner, and things are looking up, even if her daughter thoroughly disapproves of her new lease on life and her ex is being a jerk.

There are a million books about women of a certain age taking life by the horns and trying out new things. This definitely fits well in that pile, though I'm not sure I'd put it at the top of my list of that type of book to recommend. It's funny, but there's no real emotional depth. It's not great, not horrible, just kinda there.