Ed Piskor (1982–2024)

The third volume of Piskor's simplified and consolidated retelling of the X-Men's convoluted and lengthy history presented in a decidedly "indie" style is, yet again, far more fresh and entertaining than it has any right to be.

I never really got the appeal of torture porn horror movie franchises like Saw and Hostel, but here's one for comics. Much gore and very graphic human mutilations occur over and over again in this world of dark web snuff films. Creator Ed Piskor states repeatedly that he is much influenced by the storytelling of David Lapham's Stray Bullets, so the stories are told out of order with recurring characters stalking to the front or shuffling into the background.

The basic set-up is that there are show more four clandestine movie studios competing for anonymous viewers' bitcoins, trying to one-up each other with the best and most theatrical killers disfiguring and murdering the most appealing victims. There are a couple of clever little twists and tributes to EC Comics and other influences, but it's mostly all about the gore. Gore, and more gore, until it's a bore.

Not sure I would bother with future installments. show less

An interesting fictionalization of the life of Kevin Mitnick that relies a bit too heavily on the use of straw men.

This is a must-read for anyone who read Joe Sacco's tale of war in the former Yugoslavia, "Safe Area Gorazde". "Macedonia" is the chronicle not of war in the Balkans, but the tenuous job of preventing armed conflict in an ethnically diverse Balkan state. Told through the point of view of an American graduate student, we follow her progress in trying to uncover how Macedonia has kept the peace. That this country has managed to keep the peace is surprising, as her visit finds Macedonia rife show more with ignorance and mistrust between the ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians. If I could change anything about this book, it would be for the artist to give us more panoramic views of the country in bigger splash panels. show less