Author Archives: Johnny Hall

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Reviews
“Chasin’ the Bird: Charlie Parker in California”

By | Oct 15, 2020 | Reviews

It is no deep revelation that a strong relationship exists between math and music. Twelve notes in total, and countless variations thereof spinning out into the infinite, with the most virtuosic using the geometry of music to create a language. The dominant language of the music scene in the mid-20th century was jazz, and nobody, […]

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Slaughterhouse Five - Featured Reviews
“Slaughterhouse-Five”

By | Sep 17, 2020 | Reviews

If ever there was a time to feel “stuck in the amber of the moment,” it is now. It certainly seems so for Americans, where the economy has stalled out due to a nationwide pandemic that has trapped people in their homes and forcibly separated them, even from their loved ones. Where institutional forces long […]

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Paying the Land Cover Featured Reviews
“Paying the Land”

By | Jul 20, 2020 | Reviews

Joe Sacco’s newest book is nothing short of brilliant. A measured, even look at the struggles of the Dene Nation (the indigenous tribes that make up the Mackenzie River Valley in northwestern Canada), Sacco’s remarkable skills as a journalist are matched by his deftness at the drawing board. This is a work of profound nuance […]

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Downfall Featured Reviews
“Downfall”

By | Jun 16, 2020 | Reviews

After finishing the last page of the self-contained graphic novel “Downfall” (“Reiraku”), I breathed a sigh of relief. What prolific manga creator Inio Asano has produced is a work of unabated misery and anguish- largely for his protagonist, but we should extend that circle outside the book to include the reader, as well. While some […]

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J+K Featured Reviews
“J+K”

By | May 1, 2020 | Reviews

A set of trading cards for “Dog Park Dogs,” a sticker sheet celebrating mall culture, a manga-styled mini-poster of the game “Dance Warrior,” and a miniature copy of the popular “Cool Magazine: ‘Brain Blowing Bummers,’” all await readers when cracking open the absolutely gorgeous “J+K” hardcover, out now from Fantagraphics. And let me not forget […]

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Familiar Face Featured Reviews
“Familiar Face”

By | Mar 23, 2020 | Reviews

Michael Deforge’s newest work, the hardcover OGN “Familiar Face” out now from Drawn & Quarterly, is a tremendous gift, and a read that hits particularly well given the current state of the world at large. Deforge, no stranger to critiquing society (his “Ant Colony” a scathing and darkly existential notable example), returns with another look […]

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Isle of Dogs Featured Reviews
“Isle of Dogs”

By | Feb 24, 2020 | Reviews

Beneath the carefully constructed artifices of every Wes Anderson film- the beautiful art design, the symmetric, storybook-like cinematography, and the deadpan, pithy humor, beats a heart aching with melancholy. His most recent work, 2018’s stop-motion animated Isle of Dogs, is no exception. In it, a Japanese boy tries to reunite with his canine companion in […]

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