To the extent that I understand the term, a tulpa is an independent thoughtform created by a person that shares their brain but has thoughts, feelings, etc. of its own. Tibetan monks were — and may still be — big on these things, and David Lynch’s interest in their teachings and traditions undoubtedly played a big part in their inclusion in Twin Peaks : The Return, but he added the twist of giving them actual, physical reality by means of rather standard hair-and-blood magickal conjuring. That’s how we ended up with three different versions of Special Agent Dale Cooper. But I guess that’s neither here nor there for purposes of this review, as the one in the comic we’re here to take a look at, Seattle-based cartoonist Grace Kroll’s self-published Tulpa, exists purely within her mind — and isn’t exactly the most welcome of guests.

A kind of…

So here’s the thing — I’ve reviewed this comic on this site already. But I haven’t reviewed this comic on this site already.

I realize that demands an explanation, so by way of such : Casanova Frankenstein self-published a “rough cut” of the book that would later become Tad Martin #7 in the form of something called The Adventures Of Tad Martin Super-Secret Special #1 about a year or so back and, being a junkie for all things featuring comics’ most endearing junkie character, I jumped on it right away, loved it every bit as much as I was figuring I would, and gave it a glowing write-up — that I’d actually prefer you not to read, hence the absence of any link to it.

The reason for that is simple : this is the way this comic was meant to be experienced. Austin English’s Domino Books pulled out all…

The comics world has been understandably and justifiably reeling since news broke of the untimely death of Tom Spurgeon on Nov. 13th, 2019 at the far-too-young age of 50. The tributes that have been pouring in on twitter and facebook have run the gamut, with everyone from indie luminaries to guys who inked a few pages for Marvel or DC once upon a time paying their respects, and taken in total all of them show the remarkable reach Mr. Spurgeon had in every corner of the industry. I don’t have any personal anecdotes about him to share, never having met him in face to face, but we did correspond online occasionally and I found him to be more than helpful and encouraging in my early days of comics criticism, as well as sharp and insightful in his plainly-stated suggestions for improvement. He called it like he saw it at all…

Single-panel comics are a tough game to make a go of it in — especially if you’re going for something more, or at least other, than a quick laugh — but in his second self-published collection of them, the just-released One Minute To Wonderland, Denver-based cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz builds on the strong foundation he established in his previous go-’round, The City Was Never Going To Let Go, and manages to do something quietly extraordinary : breathe real depth, character, and dimension into people and situations we meet for only the briefest of moments.

Not that you wouldn’t be well-advised to spend at least a bit of time lingering over his expressive, intuitively-intricate illustrations, mind you : already well-established as arguably the definitive delineator of the modern socio-economic urban landscape in sequential form, Krumpholz is fast learning to translate those skills into “one-off” drawings — all of…

Where I come from, drugs were always considered to be pretty fun — and, for the record, I feel that if consumed responsibly they are — but who are we kidding? Kicking them can be a real motherfucker, and it’s not like the path of recovery isn’t perilous in its own right. And when you’re in recovery, or attempting to begin recovery, on the social and economic margins, the entire enterprise is a hell of a lot trickier than it is for, say, some ne’er-do-well rich kid forced to walk the 12 steps after trashing daddy’s yacht.

Geographically speaking, at least, cartoonist Lance Ward is himself from “where I come from” — that being the Twin Cities, for those not in the know — but he’s clearly had a vastly different “drug experience” than I have, and in his new Birdcage Bottom Books-published original graphic novel, Blood And Drugs

Here’s the thing a lot of purportedly more astute commentators than myself seem to consistently miss : we don’t just live in absurd times, or troubling times, or even dangerous times —we live in grotesque times, and the current occupant of the Oval Office is a living caricature that embodies more or less every ugly aspect of the national character we used to at least have the nominal decency to attempt to sweep under the rug, or to even go so far as to pretend didn’t exist. Now, however, the mask is off : the anti-intellectualism, racism, xenophobia, sexism, self-centeredness, and genuflecting at the altar of violence both casual and savage that at least appeared to be on the way out, or viewed as unfortunate aspects of the past well worth being ashamed of, are back with a vengeance, and celebrated with a kind of gleeful abandon by the former…

Four new number ones stood out on LCS racks this week, all from DC, and all from the new(-ish) Black Label imprint. Did someone say something about diluting the market with too much product? Well, that’s what the “Big Two” have been doing for decades now, and we’re all still here, so why the hell would they stop? Marvel’s doing it with their X-books, and DC’s doing it with this ostensible successor line to Vertigo, so let’s see what they’re giving — or, more accurately, selling — us:

After three failed relaunches featuring a watered-down iteration of John Constantine, DC finally realized what they used to know : people want the real thing, and so here we finally have it with the one-shot special The Sandman Universe : Hellblazer #1. There’s a bit of irony at play here in that Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series spun out of the “dark corner”…

If you’re a comics critic, the smart money is on not touching Alex Graham’s new self-published serialized “ongoing,” This Never Happened. Two issues in, it’s caused — and continues to cause — anything from ripples to seismic waves within the small-press community, depending on who you are and how close to Seattle you live.

I get it, I mean, shit — it’s a small scene, and some easily-recognizable figures within it are getting torched. Not with anything like the vengeful glee of Simon Hanselmann’s Truth Zone, but then, the folks on the receiving end of his barbs generally aren’t people he interacts with on a personal level frequently, much less former romantic partners. There’s a degree of distance between author and subject there, while Graham is offering no such safety. She’s putting you right inside her head, showing her lived experience, and — not to sound too cliched…

Jesus H. Christ, it’s about time.

If you’ve read a small-press comics anthology at any point in the past 15 years or so, or picked up a free Seattle newsweekly or a nominally “underground” ‘zine of any sort, then you’ve seen a Max Clotfelter comic. In many ways, it’s probably fair to say his work’s been damn near ubiquitous. And yet, despite having a rich back catalogue of material to choose from, no enterprising publisher to date had stepped up to the plate to put out anything like a semi-comprehensive collection of his stuff.

Leave it to J.T. Yost at Birdcage Bottom Books to correct this historical injustice and to finally package an impressive selection of Clotfelter strips in a “proper” paperback. There’s no doubt that paring down exactly what to run with and what to leave behind was likely the toughest part of putting Rooftop Stew together, but…

I just knew something was up.

When word hit that November Garcia had found a publishing “home” for Malarkey #4, the latest issue of her ongoing comics ‘zine, and that said publisher, Birdcage Bottom Books, was putting it out in full color, I got the feeling that she was through knocking on the door and was ready to fully announce her presence as a cartooning force to be reckoned with. It’s something that’s been building for some time, of course — we certainly don’t hear the Julia Wertz comparisons much anymore, do we? — yet it’s also worth considering that indie comics history is littered with any number of  artists who were plenty skilled at the art of revealing, and sometimes even reveling in, their own neuroses, but who had the stereotypical “pretty good run” for a few years and then moved on to pastures that were hopefully greener, but…