Bubbles #13 is 56 pages long with a 20 page insert

Insert: 20 Unused pages from Noah Van Sciver's forthcoming book Joseph Smith and the Mormons

Five Interviews:
- Noah Van Sciver
- Alex Graham
- Joe Kessler
- Viktor Hachmang
- Collective interview with five Risograph presses: Riso Lab SVA, Tiny Splendor, Perfectly Acceptable, Cold Cube, Lucky Risograph

Three Articles:
- Yves Chaland's F.52, A "Favorite" Comic by Cory MacDonald
- A New Translation on Being Human by Ash Wyatt
- Interglacial: R. Kikuo Johnson's Night Fisher & No One Else by Jeff Alford

Two Original Comics by:
- Meg Mills
- Angela Fanche

Reviews, Comics in my Mailbox, more!?!

The definitive instance of pandemic lockdown romance comics, originally serialized on Instagram, and then self-published via Lulu, Alex Graham’s Dog Biscuits at last has the opportunity to get the wider audience it deserves in this hefty hardcover collection from Fantagraphics.  Age, gender and relationships – both sexual and non-sexual – are negotiated, social media is dissected, and all the while precariousness reigns over lives and businesses as the pandemic and associated lockdowns are navigated by a cast of cartooned characters embodying a combination of animal and human characteristics with a dazzling naturalism.

An empathic record of a dismal time running close to 400 pages that were drawn – more or less – one page at a time, Dog Biscuits provided – and continues to provide – a cathartic experience for readers.  It has the feel of coming from an authentic creative urge, reading like a prismatic projection of Graham’s own lived experiences of "keeping it together" during this period in our shared history.

Simon Hanselmann, who knows a thing or two about making pandemic-themed comics on Instagram, and has this to say:  "Dog Biscuits was, for me, the best piece of media produced by anybody in 2020. Alex really stepped up to the plate with this thing and had all of us that were tuned-in on the edge of our seats. Gussy and Rosie's doomed romance felt realer than any bullshit in the 'real world'."

 Fanta sez:  
"It's July 2020 in Seattle. Gussy struggles to keep his dog biscuit boutique afloat while a global pandemic rages unchecked. The loneliness of lockdown and social distancing drives his employee Rosie to betray her principles. Rosie's roommate Hissy is at a personal crossroads. A love triangle emerges as they find themselves tangled in a web of police brutality, protests, drugs, dating apps and Covid chaos. Taking place over the course of just a few days, this is a snapshot of humanity -- okay, animals -- in crisis. Alex Graham's pandemic-inspired graphic novel was initially serialized six panels at a time on Instagram during the lockdowns of 2020 and became one of the most talked about comics of the year; this hardcover edition will remain a timeless work long after the pandemic ends."

It's about time... for the new Now.  The twelfth issue is a mind bender with perhaps the widest ranging material yet.  From the rhythmic abstractions of Cynthia Alfonso's "untitled" to the old school satire, "The Cartoonist" by Matt Lawton and Peter Bagge, this issue spans the generations and the form itself.  The æsthetic center on which the issue pivots is Kayla E.'s "Precious Rubbish", a series of post-modern mash-ups that bring together a variety of texts ranging from personal reminiscences to the Old and New Testaments and combining them with her personal, signature-style comics, here largely derived from a selection of old school comic book pages, including several from Matt Baker's Canteen Kate (!).

Many readers will get their first look at the piercingly acute and dizzyingly strange artwork of Bhanu Pratap in his story, "Big Head Pointy Nose" which is the first work of his we've seen in color. 

Francois Vigneault's "The Bird Is Gone" is a moving tale of the passing of the Passenger Pigeon.  No matter how many times you hear, see or read the facts that are related in this story, it always boggles the mind.

For us here at Copacetic, #12's highlight is Tim Lane's "Li'l Stevie", a hybrid work that seems to synthesize Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan and Peter Blegvad’s Leviathan  – with a dash of Al Columbia’s Pim & Francie – and then graft it all onto Ernie Bushmiller’s early period Fritzy Ritz and Nancy in order to create a dark, drunken and twisted, but pathos laden – and still very Tim Lane – Golden Age comics take on... Steve McQueen's childhood.  This work won't appeal to everyone, but those who think this sounds up their alley won't want to miss it.

Another great issue of Now!