Young Lucy Knisley, attacked by geese

In her 2013 memoir Relish, Lucy Knisley tells of the time she was attacked by geese:

In her 2020 graphic novel Stepping Stones, Knisley has her protagonist Jen, based on herself as a child, share the story of being attacked by geese with her mom's boyfriend's daughter:

Meanwhile...

The above image is maybe my second favorite one from Luke Ramsey's challenging but fairly awesome new book, Intelligent Sentient? (my first favorite? That's at the top of this post at Robot 6). At first glance, it's just a guy with a comically huge and elaborate gun, the sort you might seek Rocket holding on one of Skottie Young's covers for his Marvel series Rocket Raccoon. Closer inspection, however, reveals that the various guns are all taped and/or tied together to form one big, elaborate gun. I like the little rock-throwing slingshot at the top, but the foremost  of the "bayonets," the one that would be most likely to poke you if he jabbed his gun at you, is probably my favorite detail.

I reviewed Intelligent Sentient?, along with Lucy Knisley's Displacement, at Robot 6 this week; you can read the post at the above link. They are both beautifully drawn and are both gun reads, but it's hard to imagine two books more different in visual or narrative style. So why did I review them both in the same column? Um, well, they were both released in February, so I felt like I was running out of time to discuss them in a timely fashion, and, well, I couldn't choose between which to highlight, so I highlighted them both. Check out the piece and, if those sound like things your interested in—honestly, I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be interested in Knisley's short travelogue/memoir—check the books themselves out.

I also reviewed Toon Books' latest volume of the late, great French cartoonist Fred's Philemon adventures, The Wild Piano, the title sequence of which is fantastic, at Good Comics For Kids this week. This volume is a bit stronger than the previous one, but given the fact that it rather closely follows the events of the original, you'll want to start with Cast Away on the Letter A (Any decent library should carry both).

Meanwhile...

I have an interview with Lucy Knisley regarding her two upcoming travelogues that Fantagraphics is publishing at ComicsAlliance this week, if you'd like to go read it. The books, the first of which I was able to read an early proof of, are travelogues in the style of Knisley's French Milk, but created by the cartoonist after Relish. What amazed me most about An Age of License, however, was learning that Knisley actually writes and draws her travelogues while traveling. Given the difficulty I have in making comics of any kind (even, like, the little 10-panel colored pencils-on-index cards I put online like three times a year now), I'm pretty astounded that she's able to force herself to create such accomplished work under such challenging circumstances.

Art by Robson Rocha and Scott Hanna

And at Robot 6, I have short-ish (for me) reviews of this week's DC annuals, if you'd like to read that piece. These are Batman and Robin, Earth 2, Green Lantern Corps and Worlds' Finest. They all seem fairly well-done, and regular readers/fans of those books will probably want to read them, although only the Batman and Robin one seems worth going out of one's way for, if one doesn't already read Batman and Robin, but is a fan of Batman and/or Robins I and IV (By the way, Peter Tomasi reveals that Dick Grasyon became Robin at age 16 in it, and I believe Dick Grayson's age is one of those Rosetta Stones of DCU continuity with which one can figure out and therefore start to unravel the poor publisher's just-established new timeline).

The Earth 2 book is the origin of the new Batman II, which reveals his surprising secret identity and some other weirdness. As was pointed out to me on Twitter, it explicitly states that Thomas and Martha Wayne were shot in Crime Alley in 1979 which, combined with other temporal clues in the book, means Thomas Wayne was 25 when he was shot by Joe Chill, and thus 17-19 when he had Bruce, depending on whether Bruce was six or eight at the time of his parents' murder. But, Thomas Wayne was already on his residency and about to become a full-fledged doctor some time before he had even met Martha, so Thomas Wayne is essentially the Doogie Howers of Earth-2.

Something I didn't notice (nor, apparently, did editor Mike Cotton, assistant editor Anthony Marques or group editor Eddie Berganza), but a commenter on the Robot 6 did was the surname of the Rex that the dude in the panel above stole Miralco from.

This is the superhero identity of Rex Mason:

Metamorpho, The Element Man, the shape-changing hero who can alter his body's composition to that of any element found in the human body...or in nature, depending on who is writing his adventures and during what part of his fictional career they are set (And who I don't think has been introduced into The New 52-iverse yet, but, if he were, would/should be native to Earth-New 52, not Earth-2).

And this is the superhero identity of Rex Tyler:

Hourman, the chemist who developed an addictive super-drug known as Miralco that gives him super-strength, speed and endurance...but only for one hour a day.

While maybe not glaring (like I said, I didn't even notice while reading and even when quoting it in my review), it's a pretty big error, and one that can't be no-prized around...at least, not if they want to eventually introduce Hourman into the fledling Justice Society in Earth 2 (And why wouldnt they? Hourman is awesome).

Meanwhile...

First up, I contributed to this week's "What Are You Reading?" column at Robot 6, although most of the books I mentioned there I also reviewed more fully here on EDILW before or since (But click the link anyway, to see what James Hornsby, Brigid Alverson, Tom Bondurant and Carla Hoffman have been reading).

Then at Good Comics For Kids, I reviewed the fifth and sixth books in Graphic Universe's Little Prince comics series.

And at ComicsAlliance, I reviewed Lucy Knisley's Relish: My Life in the Kitchen

And, finally, I reviewed Mars Attacks IDW at Robot 6 today. That's where the two-panel sequence atop this post is taken from.

Things Lucy Knisley drew in Relish that I particularly liked:

Doughnut machine

Anthropomorphic food

Anpanman

Goats

Annie Leibovitz

Kate Hudson Vanity Fair shoot

Slimer