Can of Worms by Catherine Doherty is a remarkable semi-autobiographical account of the author’s attempt to track down and reconnect with her birth mother. Unflinching and insistent, it peels back the layers on what happens when the mother-daughter bond goes wrong and the devastating effects on the truth-teller.
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The first time I read Chester Brown’s Paying for It was around the time it was originally published, I believe. I decided to buy a new copy and reread it when I heard that the woman who had been Brown’s “last girlfriend” before he started paying for it had directed a movie adaptation of the book. I seem to remember liking the book more the first time I read it. This time I found it kind of grim and sort of ick. I write about a fair amount of stuff related to this subject matter, and I even ran a website for a year where I posted anonymous emails men wrote to me about paying for it, but this comic is so dark and weirdly dissociated and lacking in any kind of empathy that I read it faster than usual just to get it over with. If you don’t know anything about paying for it or why guys pay for it or the politics of paying for it (particularly in Canada, Brown’s country of origin), this book may be of interest. Also, the drawings are cool. But to the Brown on these pages, sex workers are receptacles to be judged, used, and discarded. That take is retrograde, boring, and depressing.
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Parasitic City #0.1 is a total insane, very extreme comic book by Shintaro Kago. As I wrote in my newsletter: “it’s for anyone with an amputee fetish, a bio-clothing fetish, a bio-furniture fetish, a bio-prosthesis fetish, or a bio-firearm fetish.” There’s a woman, and a war, and copulating chairs. It’s sci-fi meets hentai. It’s weird.
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Ten Days in a Mad-House: A Graphic Adaptation, written by Brad Ricca, illustrated by Courtney Sieh, and based on the book by Nellie Bly, is an absolutely astonishing work that brings to life the terror, shame, and seemingly inescapable horror of being trapped in an abusive system. I’ve read the original Ten Days and I’m an investigative journalist, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. This book is a masterful adaptation of an original work as imaginative and evocative as the graphic adaptation of Paul Auster’s City of Glass. Sieh’s illustrations are especially moving, as she conjures up the faces of the women trapped in the asylum’s hell.
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I didn’t care much for Peepland, which was written by Christa Faust and illustrated by Gary Phillips and Andrea Camerini. I felt like the story was all over the place and a bit hard to follow. But more importantly I largely bought it for the peep show setting, and the peep show world ended up mostly being set dressing. Pretty much everyone dies in the end. I guess I would’ve preferred something more illuminating of that world.
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I picked up a copy of The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade by Viken Berberian and Yann Kebbi because I thought the art was dazzling. And it is. The colors are arresting, the strokes are aggressive, and the pictures soar across the page. I’m also interested in Brutalism, with which this graphic novel (which it isn’t, exactly) concerns itself. But the first third features a woman whose sole role is to have giant tits and act like an idiot. When you’re a woman reading this book and this is all you see of yourself, it gets boring. Maybe do better, guys.
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For the first time in many, many years, my seminal (!) American Bukkake comics are now available online. You can view them, plus read an introduction about their production and publication history, on my website here.
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Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud was a reread for me. It was as inspiring, smart, and creative as I remembered. The only ding I’d give it is that because it was written sometime ago, it is less mindful about being inclusive of comics books creators who are not white and male than it would have been were it produced today. Other than that, a great read. It’s got me thinking about producing more comics.
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A panel from an erotic comic I created some years ago: “My, My American Bukkake Too”
2024 is over. Thank god. 2025 has begun. It just has a better ring to it, doesn’t it? In any case, when I was promoting my memoir in late 2023, I was asked what my favorite book I had read that year was and I realized the answer was: none. Yes, in fact, in 2023, I read exactly zero books. That was in part on purpose because I was finishing writing my own book, and I didn’t want some other author’s voice in my head. That said, it was a little embarrassing. I was a writer, an author. Shouldn’t I be reading books?
So in 2024, I decided to read some books and track my progress. In all I read a total of 21 books, which was a lot more than the no books I’d read the year before. So a win in that regard. But the reality is that I didn’t like most of the books I read in 2024. I’d chosen them mostly at random and for who knows what reason. There was fiction, nonfiction, memoir, self-help, one photo book, and graphic novels.
But my favorite book was what could be described as a picture book: Leela Corman’s Victory Parade. It was stunning and inventive and startling and arresting and wildly creative. In a way, I felt a little silly. I write words. Wasn’t I supposed to prefer one of the other books I’d read, with a lot of words, like, you know, Pynchon or Marlowe or someone like that? No, I liked the one with the pictures.
In any case, I decided I’d do another reading challenge this year and chart my progress publicly again, but in 2025 I’m going to attempt to only read books that are picture books. For example, my first book of the year, which is a reread and which I’ve already started, is Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics.
That title selection may hold a clue. The truth is: I want to create a new comic strip, which is something I haven’t done in some time. Quite a few years ago, I created two erotic comics about the times I went to go see bukkake-themed adult movies being filmed. Those comics are called “My, My American Bukkake” and “My, My American Bukkake Too.” And I’ve long wanted to do a third bukkake comic strip. So I think perhaps this re-interest in pictures and words is laying the groundwork for that.
All of which is to say, you can follow my picture book reading progress at BOOKS I READ.
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The view out the window at Secret Headquarters. For more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
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I adored this book. It’s such an exciting mix of genres, prose and images, the political and the personal. I can’t recall having read a book quite like this. She fearlessly ranges from her sexual experiences to her politically ideologies and relentlessly sticks to the truth that any and all binary positions are false. I would hope some young adults get to read this book, as it serves as a timely, relevant guidepost for those figuring it out.
Books I Read in 2024: Victory Parade, I Hate Men, My Friend Dahmer, The Crying of Lot 49, Machines in the Head, Big Magic, The Valley, End of Active Service, An Honest Woman, The Money Shot, Atomic Habits, Finding Your Own North Star, Crazy Cock, Sigrid Rides, Your Money Or Your Life, The Big Sleep, Eventually Everything Connects, Smutcutter, Shine Shine Shine, A Serial Killer’s Daughter, Confessions of a Serial Killer
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The above image is a panel from “My, My American Bukkake Too,” a comic that I made in 2003 or 2004. I made the comic using photos I shot on a bukkake movie set, running the images through Microsoft Paint, and editing the results. This comic was a sequel to “My, My American Bukkake,” a comic that I made using the same process in 2002. There was some controversy around MMABT, which you can read about here. I believe MMAB was first published in Headpress 23. Later that same year, MMAB was published again, in Dirty Stories Volume 3, which was edited by Eric Reynolds and published by Fantagraphics, alongside comics by Joe Sacco, Bob Fingerman, and Carol Swain, among others. MMAB was republished again or MMABT was published (I can’t remember which one) in Best Erotic Comics 2008, which was edited by Greta Christina and published by Last Gasp, alongside comics by Daniel Clowes, Phoebe Gloeckner, and Toshio Saeki, among others. In a review of Dirty Stories Volume 3, “A Fresh Look at Porn Comix,” TIME called MMAB a “non-fiction standout.” In 2004, MMABT was published on Artbomb (a comics website created by Warren Ellis that no longer exists), where it was described as “a deeply moving account of personal loss set amidst the tapestry of sexual taboo.”
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Rabbits, Malibu Canyon, and a dress made of books. Follow me on Instagram for more of my photographs.
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In my latest newsletter, I talk about writing blocks, the Warren Ellis controversy, and racism in the porn industry.
An excerpt:
There’s been a lot of conversation lately about racism in the porn industry. It is true: There are ways in which the porn industry engages in systemically racist practices. That is not a good thing at all, and I hope that the porn industry works to rectify that wrong. At the same time, I’ve spent over 20 years writing about the porn industry, and the one forever truth in porn was told to me years ago by a producer: If there wasn’t a demand for it, it wouldn’t be made.
Read the rest here, and subscribe here.
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I wrote an appreciation of Charles Forsman’s Slasher for the Seriocomic series on HILOBROW. I highly recommend the Slasher series. It’s wild and outrageous and like no other comic I’ve ever read.
“Narratively, bad things happen, oftentimes at Christine’s hand: people die, people are brutalized, people are terribly lonely. But for Christine, murder is self-affirming. ‘I’ve never felt so relaxed,’ Christine texts Joshua after a fresh kill. ‘Like I’ve been holding my piss for 25 years. I know who I am now.’”
Read the rest here.
Buy a copy of my latest digital story: “The Tumor” —“a masterpiece of short fiction.”
12 Likes, 0 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "Iterations 🎨"
I’m taking a comics-making class, and this is something I did in the third session. It’s iterations of my main character. She’s in her underpants. I decided to take the class so I could practice drawing. What I like best about the class is that it asks you to focus on creativity. Sometimes, when you’re a journalist, creativity is not encouraged. But if journalism isn’t an act of creation, then what is it?
Buy my digital short story: "The Tumor." It’s been called "a masterpiece of short fiction."
24 Likes, 1 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "Crushing it in comics class, obvi 😂"
If you’re a writer, art class is great because you don’t have to use any fucking words.
Support this artist! Buy my short story: "The Tumor." It’s been called "a masterpiece of short fiction."
19 Likes, 0 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "Signing up for a comics making class for no reason other than to blow @youngmattc out of the water..."
Not long ago, I signed up for a comics-making class. I’ve made some comics in the past and had several published, and I thought it would be a good idea to have an outlet for expression that wasn’t just words. I’ve always made comics by taking photos and using digital means to manipulate them into what looked more like art. This time I’m going to try actually drawing. Unfortunately, I’m not very good at it. I’m good at the words, and the storytelling, but my art is not strong. It’s not even close. I’ve made a few ahead of time, and I bought some colored pencils. So far, they’re pretty ugly. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe that’s what you tolerate.
Enjoy my work? Buy "The Tumor." It’s been called "a masterpiece of short fiction."
1 Likes, 0 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "Graphic novel of Paul Auster's City of Glass 🏙"
The nice folks over at Seriocomic have asked me to write a short piece about the comic of my choice. Seriocomic is “a weekly series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of our favorite comic books, comic strips, and graphic novels.” My contribution will be appearing in the spring. For my “comic,” I chose the graphic novel version of Paul Auster’s City of Glass.
Enjoy my work? Buy "The Tumor." It’s been called "a masterpiece of short fiction."
This is an excerpt from a porn comic that I was working on in 2018. It’s about a woman who moves back to Porn Valley after a long time away, what she sees there, and how things have changed and are the same.
Buy my short story "The Tumor" — it’s been called "a masterpiece of short fiction."
