Tag Archives: anthology

January 9, 2022 · 8:56 pm

Going Down Swinging No. 30

Anthology of short fiction, poetry, comic art, graphic novella and spoken word

Last year, I was thrilled to win a micro-microfiction contest with this journal. I was so inspired I decided to buy one of their annual anthologies. I was looking through the store on the website trying to decide which one and I could not go past this one. The cover design is so striking (by Katrina Rhodes) and I was intrigued by the two spoken word CDs included with it, the design of which matches the Fabergé egg-shaped hot air balloons on the covers. I knew that I had to pick this for my Short Stack Reading Challenge back in December.

Image is of “Going Down Swinging No. 30”. The paperback book is resting on a wooden table with a pair of vintage binoculars and a pocket watch. The cover is of a duck with a dark green head wearing a period-style lime green three piece suit, riding in a hot air balloon. Things are hanging over the side like an anchor, dried onions and a teapot. The balloon is dark green with an intricate design. The duck is floating past a city of light grey buildings with domes and spires.

“Going Down Swinging No. 30” is a special 30th anniversary anthology of short fiction, poetry, comic art, graphic novellas and two spoken word CDs. Although there is an extensive contents page at the beginning, this was a surprisingly quick read. It has a really immersive feel with a very high quality selection of works. Given the number of pieces it is going to be impossible for me to review each or even most, so I will try to highlight some of my favourites.

The Clockwork Children by Felicity Bloomfield was an absolutely chilling horror short story about wanting to fit in with other children that reminded me a bit of “Slade House” or perhaps “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman. Procession by Paddy O’Reilly was a disturbing exploration of what a society with dogs who gained some sentience might be like and the humans who decide to worship them. Rhianna Boyle’s little comic Dirty Joke was a pure and humorous story about making the most of a difficult situation and reconnecting with family. Salvatore Ciliento’s ink illustrations were a beautiful and calming interlude among the written pieces. Shit Brooches by Oslo Davis was a hilarious, punchy little comic that really resonated with me given how popular brooches seem to be over the last couple of years. I thought that Retro Ryder by Robert Caporale was a really interesting take on the trauma of losing a friend when young with a bit of ambiguity thrown in to keep it edgy. I also really liked the realism of Gutted, for Carl Solomon by Luke Johnson which had a intoxicatingly urban setting and examined the ethics of thinking about violence as compared to acting on it. Midlife by Andy Murdoch was an excellent look at intimacy, queer identity and turning 30.

It was a bit hard for me to separate each piece of spoken word on the CDs (let alone find something in my house that would play them!) but the effect of voice over music and ambient noise was very compelling and they definitely added to the overall experience of this book.

A really enjoyable collection and I am keen to get my hands on some more issues of Going Down Swinging.

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September 2, 2021 · 11:26 pm

You Died: An Anthology of the Afterlife

Anthology of comics about death and what comes afterwards

Content warning: death

I have read and supported a few books by Iron Circus (previously called IronSpike), including some that are quite racy! However, I heard about this book because one of my favourite webcomic artists had a comic in it. If you have never come across SE Case’s “Rigsby WI” slice of life, early 2000s, small town comic, then I strongly encourage you to check it out immediately. Anyway, when I checked out the Kickstarter I saw it was by a publisher I had backed before so I decided to back this one as well. When it arrived, I put it on my shelf for a bit and was delighted when I realised after going to bed one night that it glows in the dark.

Image is of “You Died: An Anthology of the Afterlife” edited by Andrea Purcell and Kel McDonald. The image is a photograph of the paperback book with the lights turned out, and all you can see is the glow-in-the-dark (phosphorescent) detailing of moths and fungi.

“You Died: An Anthology of the Afterlife” edited by Andrew Purcell and Kel McDonald is a collection of short comics about the possibilities of what happens during and after death. The book has a foreword by Caitlin Doughty, an advocate of death acceptance and the creator of the “Ask a Mortician” YouTube channel. There are 24 comics that each deal with death and dying in ways that are meant to be poignant, reassuring and even beautiful.

Image is of the book with the lights turned on. The cover has the title in stylised central alignment, surrounded by the black outline of a coffin. The cover is decorated with the moths and fungi that glow in the dark as well as a skeleton hugging its knees in the background and red flowers in the foreground.

This is a diverse collection of interpretations on the theme, which is reflective of the contributors. The comics broach the topic of death from a range of cultural perspectives. Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld by Ahueonao is a tongue-in-cheek Mesopotomian story about goddess Inanna, siblings and and the cyclic nature of life and death which I really enjoyed. Danielle Chuatico’s story All Souls Day is a heart-warming depiction of a Filipino tradition of packing a picnic and visiting the cemetery to share memories about cherished family members. I Promise by A. Shinozaki and Cheryl Young gently considers the difficulty in upholding someone’s wishes and traditions around death when rituals such as kotsuage are not permitted in Western countries. Bone Ink by Rhiannon Rasmussen-Smith and Grace P Fong is a beautifully illustrated comic mixing illusions with Chinese traditional painting and exploring the meaning of legacy.

There were also plenty of diverse relationships and I especially liked the signature honesty and rawness of remember by SE Case and coming to terms not with what you’re facing but with what you’re leaving behind. Arkou by Isabelle Melancon & Megan Lavey-Heaton with a queer twist on the stories of Ankou in Breton, Welsh and Cornish folklore. I’m a big fan of animal stories of course so I also liked the biological education of What Eats Us by Letty Wilson and the heart-rending concept of Herd by Shae Beagle. The Last Wreath by Juliette GMM Lopez was kind of delightfully surreal and Peat, Bone, Oak by Laura Ketcham was a really enlightening comic about bog people.

While there were certainly some standouts in this collection, I felt that there was a range of quality and impact in the comics and some stories worked better than others. There were a few science fiction/fantasy interpretations that I felt took the theme too abstractly, and quite a few comics that unfortunately just weren’t that memorable. I know the anthology was about the afterlife, but I think I had expected something a little more along the lines of Caitlin Doughty’s YouTube channel: a bit more matter of fact and tied a little more to the natural world.

A creative and contemplative collection, with a number of really strong comics that unfortunately outshone the others.

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January 18, 2017 · 10:51 pm

The Secret Loves of Geek Girls

I had been waiting for the right time to read this book, one that I had gotten by way of a Kickstarter some time last year and that came with a gorgeous signed bookplate sticker, and finally the time had come. After days of heatwave, the evening had cooled down enough that I could snuggle in bed with a cup of tea and one of my bestie’s homemade chocolate chip cookies. I’d just come back from seeing the new Disney movie Moana, my dog was coming in occasionally to say hello to me, and in the background was the white noise of a fan and my boyfriend admonishing his randomly assigned teammates in Overwatch over voice chat. The mood was well and truly set.

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“The Secret Loves of Geek Girls” is an anthology compiled and edited by Hope Nicholson. The book contains non-fiction stories, comics and essays by over 50 creators (including Margaret Atwood) all about being a geek girl in love.

You never really know what you’re going to get when you back a Kickstarter project, but the final product of this book was much more than I had hoped for. It is a real celebration of women’s creativity, passion, intelligence and eloquence. I was really impressed at the diversity of voices that emerged from these pages and I felt their heartbreaks as my own heartbreaks. As somewhat of a geek girl myself, I knew about a lot of the fandoms (though the Dr Who references and any game that wasn’t a single player RPG was a bit lost on me). Some of the stories were much stronger than others, and I loved Minas Tirith, Fanfiction, F/F, angst, Cherry and Montreal, 1993 the most. Some of the artwork in here is spectacular, and some a little less so.

This is an inclusive, well-considered collection of stories by geeky women for geeky women who are looking for everything from something nice to flick through through to dating advice and, most of all, solidarity.

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