Maple Key Comics Issue 1

Maple Key Comics #1

by Joyana McDiarmid, Dan Rinylo, Carl Antonowicz

Maple Key Comics is a bimonthly comics anthology, focusing on serializing stories by emerging cartoonists.

Genres: Comics

328 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2014

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun, hefty anthology series put together by Center for Cartoon Studies alum Joyana McDiarmid, naturally featuring a good deal of students and graduates of the program. McDiarmid's mission with Maple Key is to provide a venue for cartoonists just starting their careers. There are several serialized stories, chapters of which will run in subsequent issues. Many tales fall into the range of fantasy, sci-fi, or speculative fiction, notably Ignatz winner Sophie Goldstein's "The Oven," Neil Brideau's "A Dragon at the Gatehouse," and Rachel Duke's "Shiny" - all of which are among the strongest work in the book. Other notable segments are Ignatz nominee Luke Howard's skillfully wrought "Talk Dirty to Me," old pro Jon Chad's eerie sci-fi tale "The Surena Grant," and Will Payne's dark fantasy pantomime "Heartless." Amidst all the speculative fiction and fantasy there's the charming auto-bio of Rachel Lindsay's "Rachel Lives Here Now," and Iris Yan's anthropomorphized "Hotline," both of which, along with Luke Howard's piece, lend a nice touch of real life into all the fantasy, for balance. As in most anthologies there are weaker pieces here, but as these are generally younger artists, still honing their craft, there's certainly the sense/hope for growth. In all an admirably done, ambitious anthology, full of youthful energy and charm, that I hope will be around for a while. Four volumes have been released to date, with a fifth on the way soon. I've already started on issue two.

[P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

what a great anthology! I wasn't into one or two of the stories, but even the ones I wasn't into weren't bad. the subjects skew to speculative sci fi, but there's realism, paranormal, and nonfic/memoir stuff in here. thinking of subscribing...