Shelfdust

Follow Shelfdust on Patreon - as a paid backer or free backer - and you’ll get sent Shelf-Redux each week, a random essay from t’archive: www.patreon.com/Shelfdust

a woman in a black shirt is talking on a phone Alt: A clip from Reefer Madness

Next week on Shelfdust

a woman in a black shirt is talking on a phone Alt: A clip from Reefer Madness

Next week on Shelfdust

Next week on Shelfdust:

“I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape”

I found that series absolutely fascinating. So strange.

Fuckin' Concrete. A staple image of Indie Comics that popped up sans context in most of my comic shop visits for what feels like a two-decade span. But this article gives me more context on him today than any imagery I encountered back then, none of which made me buy a single issue/book.

Moving at the Speed of Concrete: “The Transatlantic Swim” By Tom Shapira Orson Welles’ 1958 film, Touch of Evil, opens with a single continuous shot that shows a bomb being planted in a car. A slow drive follows as the car crosses the border from Mexico t…

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Moving at the Speed of Concrete: “The Transatlantic Swim”, by @tomshaps.bsky.social: shelfdust.com/2025/11/19/m...

A wonderful article about one of the greatest single issues of any comic ever. Concrete is an annual re-read for me. Please give it a shot if you've never discovered it before!

Moving at the Speed of Concrete: “The Transatlantic Swim” By Tom Shapira Orson Welles’ 1958 film, Touch of Evil, opens with a single continuous shot that shows a bomb being planted in a car. A slow drive follows as the car crosses the border from Mexico t…

🚨 NEW on Shelfdust today! 🚨

Moving at the Speed of Concrete: “The Transatlantic Swim”, by @tomshaps.bsky.social: shelfdust.com/2025/11/19/m...

Little swimming guy

Next week on Shelfdust

The Annotated Savage Sword of Susan Tis said that Giant Days t’were a brilliant, weird, funny t’comic about three young maidens who made their homes in the ancient shires of Sheffield, a base for all the known magic in th…

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The Annotated Savage Sword of Susan: shelfdust.com/2025/11/12/t...

An excellent piece of the 90s SHADE THE CHANGING reboot and its continuing relevance. @jamesgunn.bsky.social , is this one a candidate for an adaption? Maybe with Yorgos Lanthimos or Coralie Fargeat?

Halloween might be over, but the spooky nature of confession and Ghost Rider comics is eternal 💀🔥

I heard a familiar melody on the air while reading Batman #1 before a flight. I wrote about it, and hope you'll follow me on a short journey about Bat-aesthetics, writers and visual styles, and why Batman is in its Jorge Jimenez era.

citations to charles portis and the miami vice pilot, this piece absolutely has it ALL. what a read.

Batman #1: Styles Upon Styles Upon Styles Is What They Have By David Brothers Batman is one of the most popular characters in the world, and still a complicated sell for me. A side effect of reading a lot of really good Batman comics is that each new one ha…

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Batman #1: Styles Upon Styles Upon Styles Is What They Have, by @iamdavidbrothers.com: shelfdust.com/2025/11/05/b...

www.patreon.com/posts/142644...

Shelfdust absolutely worth your money, as ever - a great long read from David Brothers about the Bat!

it's BATMAN

HOLY DAVID BROTHERS, BATMAN!

New article coming to Shelfdust this Wednesday!

Its mischief night 😈

So #ICYMI I wrote a spooky thing about a spooky guy

Female wrestlers form a crime syndicate and beat up some gangsters

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Plastic Fantastic: Female Wrestlers Take The City in Police Comics #4: www.patreon.com/login?ru=%2F...

Cover for The long Halloween 1

Happy Halloween!

Shelfdust covered every issue of The Long Halloween IN REAL TIME, one holiday at a time: shelfdust.com/category/bat...

I wrote a spooky piece about man and monsters, for a character who is a spooky man and monster! 💀🔥

This is a very cool piece about the Johnny Blaze Ghost Rider and how the late period of the comic dealt with the truly terrifying question underlying most stories about demonic possession or “good”/“evil” split personalities: What of the duality is an illusion?

Cursed Confession: Johnny Blaze’s Guilt Rides Wild in Ghost Rider #68 By Steve Baxi There’s a fine line between man and monster. Over the course of a life, or even just a few years, choices can compound, options taken in the moment become habits, and one day you look…

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Cursed Confession: Johnny Blaze’s Guilt Rides Wild in Ghost Rider #68, by @stevebaxi.bsky.social: shelfdust.com/2025/10/29/c...

a man with a burning skull on his head is wearing a leather jacket Alt: Ghost Rider cracks his knuckles

This week on Shelfdust

I completely agree with this, in that the pods and sites in Tyler's thread and its replies are excellent, and goodness knows we do our best at HtA, but I totally want to shout out @shelfdust.bsky.social in particular for its analysis of single issues from years past

Spectacular Spider-Man Does Iran-Contra By Hank Kennedy Throughout the Cold War, the United States intervened covertly in numerous Latin American countries to prevent left-wing movements from attaining and maintaining power. As part of t…

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Spectacular Spider-Man Does Iran-Contra, by Hank Kennedy: shelfdust.com/2025/10/22/s...

Three panels from page 62 of the graphic novel Onibi. The artists sit outside a café and enjoy hand-cooked desserts while basking in the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the trees of a mountain forest. A few locals sit with them and joke about how the place is filled with yokai after dark.

I wrote an essay for @shelfdust.bsky.social about the gentle anti-capitalist use of cultural nostalgia in the French graphic novel Onibi, an autobiographical account of a summer in rural northern Japan. Degrowth might feel uncanny, but it's also warm and beautiful. 🍂 shelfdust.com/2025/10/15/a...

Analog Nostalgia and Gentle Degrowth in Onibi: Diary Of A Yokai Ghost Hunter By Kathryn Hemmann Onibi: Diary of a Yokai Ghost Hunter, originally published in French in 2016 as Onibi: Carnets du Japon Invisible, is the account of a trip to Niigata prefecture in Japan, writte…

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Analog Nostalgia and Gentle Degrowth in Onibi: Diary Of A Yokai Ghost Hunter, by @kathrynthehuman.bsky.social: shelfdust.com/2025/10/15/a...

now THIS is a headline