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anacereading's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
I think the length of these stories just doesn’t work for me. I wanted more. Or less. 🤷🏻
The diversity of characters was great tho.
The diversity of characters was great tho.
qalminator's review against another edition
5.0
Overall, this is quite a good collection. There are three that I'm not especially fond of, several that I'd like better if I'd been able to make more sense of, and a lot of just really good ones. Story by story below. Note: the tags are for the volume as a whole; it seems like too much work to tag each story separately.
Reclamation: Very short poem with a lovely illustration.
How Not to Magic: Cute story. Artwork is a bit too cutesy in a few places, but mostly quite good.
Pilot Light: Enjoyable idea, but a bit too short to quite pull it off, imo. Good sketch-style artwork.
Dear Wife: Sort of a fairy tale, with a grumpy not-quite-Rumpelstiltskin. I liked the story quite a lot. The artwork, well, the animals were quite good, but there was an odd Picasso-esque style to the humans that I really didn't care for.
Stardust & Feathers: Nice meet-cute, via magical McGuffin. Best artwork so far, imo.
Daisycakes: Quite a funny take on spreading misinformed gossip, complete with acid rain and an acid resistant pet. Artwork is decent, but fairly meh.
Fishing for the Truth: Another funny one, about a "monster" in a sewer. Pretty good artwork (though it took me a while to puzzle out the chase scenes).
Entropy: One with more subtext than text, that I like better the more I think about it. Gorgeous artwork.
Time Will Tell: Can adopting a new pet count as a meet-cute? That's how I want to describe this one. Very good artwork.
Karana: The curse of not listening felled by the blessing of dance. Good story. Sketch-style artwork that's mostly good, except for occasional terrifying depictions of teeth.
Suite Victory: Another meet-cute, at an Olympics populated by satyrs, minotaurs, centaurs, and other animal/human hybrid types. Enjoyable story. Good artwork, except in one or two places where I was trying to figure out who a character was supposed to be.
Growth: Baby's first giant plant growth spell? Rather odd. What's up with the imp? Gorgeous artwork, though.
Cúchulainn: Disturbing story, but well done. Robots need hearts. Good artwork.
Found: Cute but short. Good artwork.
Void: It's interesting, but I really have no idea what's supposed to have happened. Beautiful background art. Varying foreground. Almost certainly CG (but used well).
Petrichor: Very nice reunification of family story. Gorgeous artwork. Reminds me a bit of Annihilation (the book), but with a much happier ending.
Wanderer: Another one with a puzzling storyline, that's probably a meta-for something. Impressive sketch-style artwork.
The Most Stressful Months of the Year: Sitcom, with monsters. I am not a big fan of sitcoms. Middling artwork (though my lack of enjoyment of the story is probably influencing my opinion).
Fairy Food!! Very cute mini-quest. Good artwork.
Sleeping Giant: Odd one, about coexisting with giants that cause natural disasters whenever they wake up. Good artwork.
Quarantine: Trapped in the Matrix, trying to get a message out. Good artwork.
Going Home: Escaped fairy, goons trying to drag back to the Otherworld. Not really fond of the artwork.
The July Fashion Issue: Um. If you're going to do a "Hey, she's so competent that she can totally talk about shopping while fighting a crustacean the size of a house" moment, it has to be earned. This just felt like a random snippet out of an anime. Decent artwork.
The Core: Meet cute via summoning-gone-wrong. Decent artwork.
Abnormal Cartography for Beginners: After school special, complete with McGuffin. Rather cartoony artwork (suits the material, but not to my taste).
The Courier: Another one that needs more ... something ... to work. Good artwork.
Reclamation: Very short poem with a lovely illustration.
How Not to Magic: Cute story. Artwork is a bit too cutesy in a few places, but mostly quite good.
Pilot Light: Enjoyable idea, but a bit too short to quite pull it off, imo. Good sketch-style artwork.
Dear Wife: Sort of a fairy tale, with a grumpy not-quite-Rumpelstiltskin. I liked the story quite a lot. The artwork, well, the animals were quite good, but there was an odd Picasso-esque style to the humans that I really didn't care for.
Stardust & Feathers: Nice meet-cute, via magical McGuffin. Best artwork so far, imo.
Daisycakes: Quite a funny take on spreading misinformed gossip, complete with acid rain and an acid resistant pet. Artwork is decent, but fairly meh.
Fishing for the Truth: Another funny one, about a "monster" in a sewer. Pretty good artwork (though it took me a while to puzzle out the chase scenes).
Entropy: One with more subtext than text, that I like better the more I think about it. Gorgeous artwork.
Time Will Tell: Can adopting a new pet count as a meet-cute? That's how I want to describe this one. Very good artwork.
Karana: The curse of not listening felled by the blessing of dance. Good story. Sketch-style artwork that's mostly good, except for occasional terrifying depictions of teeth.
Suite Victory: Another meet-cute, at an Olympics populated by satyrs, minotaurs, centaurs, and other animal/human hybrid types. Enjoyable story. Good artwork, except in one or two places where I was trying to figure out who a character was supposed to be.
Growth: Baby's first giant plant growth spell? Rather odd. What's up with the imp? Gorgeous artwork, though.
Cúchulainn: Disturbing story, but well done. Robots need hearts. Good artwork.
Found: Cute but short. Good artwork.
Void: It's interesting, but I really have no idea what's supposed to have happened. Beautiful background art. Varying foreground. Almost certainly CG (but used well).
Petrichor: Very nice reunification of family story. Gorgeous artwork. Reminds me a bit of Annihilation (the book), but with a much happier ending.
Wanderer: Another one with a puzzling storyline, that's probably a meta-for something. Impressive sketch-style artwork.
The Most Stressful Months of the Year: Sitcom, with monsters. I am not a big fan of sitcoms. Middling artwork (though my lack of enjoyment of the story is probably influencing my opinion).
Fairy Food!! Very cute mini-quest. Good artwork.
Sleeping Giant: Odd one, about coexisting with giants that cause natural disasters whenever they wake up. Good artwork.
Quarantine: Trapped in the Matrix, trying to get a message out. Good artwork.
Going Home: Escaped fairy, goons trying to drag back to the Otherworld. Not really fond of the artwork.
The July Fashion Issue: Um. If you're going to do a "Hey, she's so competent that she can totally talk about shopping while fighting a crustacean the size of a house" moment, it has to be earned. This just felt like a random snippet out of an anime. Decent artwork.
The Core: Meet cute via summoning-gone-wrong. Decent artwork.
Abnormal Cartography for Beginners: After school special, complete with McGuffin. Rather cartoony artwork (suits the material, but not to my taste).
The Courier: Another one that needs more ... something ... to work. Good artwork.
cuddlycuddlefish's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
alexis_sara's review against another edition
5.0
Beyond 2 is why comics are made. A showing of diverse talent creating inclusive worlds that exist beyond the end of the world. Worlds that are fantastic and queer, special, lovely and creative. Beyond 2 shows that post apocalyptic and urban fantasy settings can be so much more then the cut and past heteronormative stories we get. These stories have powerful romance, lovely unique versions of how the world could be, amazing art styles, 347 pages of greatness all in one place. I imagine I will feel the need to talk more about this because it's so damn good.
charlibirb's review against another edition
3.0
The stories were a little short. 5 stars for all the creative post-apoc worlds. There are maybe 6 stories that really captured my fancy, but I wanted more!
bellisk's review against another edition
5.0
If it’s possible, I loved this book even more than the first Beyond anthology. The stories and art span a vast array of moods and settings: from carefree adventure to matters of life or death; from subtle, almost wordless sequences of characters wandering through a changed natural world, to bustling urban tales filled with energy and visual jokes. Although I pre-ordered the book during its kickstarter, I only got around to reading it now, in a Pride month that’s been a bit more difficult than usual. It’s restorative to read such a broad collection of stories that feature queer people front and centre, with no unnecessary justifications.
My favourite story was Karana by Bishakh Som, the vignette of a group of space-travelling hijras made truly special by the fine characterisation in Som’s art. I also loved The Core by Jenelle Elizabeth and Danae Wilding, a sweet depiction of friendship as well as the intersection of online dating and magical summoning. Really, though, it feels wrong to choose favourites when everything was so good!
This is a book I’ll reread and lend out time and again, whenever my friends and I need the magic of a good story or of knowing we’re not alone in the world.
My favourite story was Karana by Bishakh Som, the vignette of a group of space-travelling hijras made truly special by the fine characterisation in Som’s art. I also loved The Core by Jenelle Elizabeth and Danae Wilding, a sweet depiction of friendship as well as the intersection of online dating and magical summoning. Really, though, it feels wrong to choose favourites when everything was so good!
This is a book I’ll reread and lend out time and again, whenever my friends and I need the magic of a good story or of knowing we’re not alone in the world.
oworthyfool's review against another edition
5.0
A uniquely hopeful take on the post-apocalyptic genre, Beyond II collects some masterful tales into a cohesive showcase of queer storytelling.
hoatzin's review against another edition
Again, also Kickstarted this one but hadn't read it until now. Even better than the first one! So many cute stories and good ideas, and absolutely wonderful art. The July Fashion Issue was super cute. Quarantine and Sleeping Giant had nice worldbuilding. My favorite part of these stories is that often the worldbuilding is secondary -it's about the love, and the normal life people lead, even with magic and/or post-apocalyptic conditions.
ETA: On second thought, I realized what I liked the most: most if not all of these stories had happy endings. I'm so used to queer stories ending uphappily that I didn't even know what it felt like to have them all be happy.
ETA: On second thought, I realized what I liked the most: most if not all of these stories had happy endings. I'm so used to queer stories ending uphappily that I didn't even know what it felt like to have them all be happy.
eozya's review against another edition
5.0
This is !! The most important thing. The creation of community after tragedies is very queer, and every single comic in this book was so well done. There are so many dark and gritty post-apocalyptic/urban fantasy stories and this subverted everything in the best way. "Dear Wife" by Reed Black, about a woman who goes to do some shopping for her wife and gets held up by a fairytale-esque creature who forced her to complete three tasks, and "Daisycakes" by J. Doyle and U. Wood, where three strangers discuss a story they heard while waiting for the acid rain to stop, were probably the biggest standouts, but I loved all of them dearly. Favorite comic of 2019, I think!