Part 4 of 4 in a series of brief summary-reviews of comic books I’ve read in the past. This article covers titles beginning with T though Z.
Time’s Up, a minicomic series by Patrick J. Lee. Lee’s artwork reminds me of a cross between Matt Howarth and Gilbert Hernandez. My favorite story is “The Yellow Kid,” an interesting reflection on being Asian American (especially one who hated kung fu).
Once again I’ve denoted recommended comics with the lightbulb ( 
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Twisted Sisters: A Collection of Bad Girl Art, edited by Diane Noomin. An excellent anthology of unabashedly feminist creators. My favorites include the late Dori Seda (“Let’s eat brains!”), Krystine Kryttre (scritchy, angry, dark and fun) and Mary Fleener (autobiographical stories drawn in a nifty, abstractly geometric style).
Uzumaki, by Junji Ito. An eerie horror story about spirals (uzumaki) taking over and destroying a small Japanese town. Disturbing and quite compelling to read.
Utopia Unlimited, by Charlie Wise. This was a two issue (both standalone stories) for Phil Foglio’s Xxxenophile series. It’s a lot of fun —I prefer the first one with the stuffy lieutenant getting, ah, entangled with a gorgeous, sentient cyborg. Whee! Wise seems to have disappeared from the Internet, since this best information I can find on his work is an article at Clean Sheets.
Wandering Star, by Teri Sue Wood (now known as Teresa Susan Challender, and The Resa). A story told in flashback, of a woman and her friends who survived a interstellar war. Wood handles the relationships thoughtfully and humorously.
What’s New? by Phil Foglio. This is the first collection of Foglio’s strip from Dragon magazine. Contains funny and thoughtful discussions about gamers and roleplaying games. Now available as a free web comic.
Yikes, by Steven “Ribs” Weissman. Delightfully creepy li’l kids: cute zombies and vampires, along with an adorable gorgon, cowgirl and a boy with x-ray eyes. Amusing to read about their neighborhood and playground dramas.
Yuri Monogatari anthologies published by AniLesboCon. Yuri (“lily,” literally) refers to lesbian (and occasionally bisexual women) themes in manga and animé. (ALC Publishing’s president Erica Friedman provides a helpful glossary of related terms.) Monogatari translates as “tales,” so this series collects stories by many different artists in differing styles, some Japanese and some not Japanese. Actually, most are non-Japanese authors, which is why I list it under Western rather than Asian comics. A few seem to completely lack manga traits, having only lesbian themes. (Especially those by Sergio Alves, Grace Hume, Althea Keaton and Susan Knowles, although I did enjoy the ones by Keaton and Knowles.) I’ve managed to obtain volumes 3, 4 and 5, and the quality of the stories is at its best in the latest one. (The first two volumes are out of print and difficult to find.) I’m particularly fond of works by Sakuraike Kana, Akiko Morishima, Eriko Tadeno, Rica Takashima, and Nishi Uko. I hope this trend continues in future volumes.
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