by Eden
I want to be honest about not being a particular fan of Adrian Tomine. I liked the collection of his Optic Nerve minis, 32 Stories, but everything after that has left me cold. His art is good, if a little stiff sometimes, but it also feels like it’s too closely copying fellow cartoonists who inspired him. Likewise, his stories don’t feel like they’re populated by real people.
The Kitchen, written by Ollie Masters, with art by Ming Doyle and colors by Jordie Bellaire, definitely feels like it was another case of being conceived as a screenplay first and then adapted into a comic to sell the film rights. Except worse than that, it feels like the outline of a screenplay.
I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly (writer) and J. M. Ken Niimura (artist) definitely feels very personal and I am happy to be a bit charitable because of that. It’s compassionate toward its characters and the mix of fantasy danger and real-world trauma works to an extent. I just feel like it all comes together in too obvious of a way.
Too much of The Coldest City feels like it was conceived as a screenplay and then changed into a comic to make it an easier pitch to Hollywood. Johnston has good ideas here but the twists and turns don’t offer anything unexpected.
Kim W. Andersson brings all the heightened emotions without many nuances to Alena. It doesn’t need nuance, particularly, though. This is going to be a story that ends badly because that’s how all these stories end.