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A review by qalminator
Beyond II: The Queer Post-Apocalyptic & Urban Fantasy Comic Anthology by Taneka Stotts, Sfé R. Monster
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.