The second issue of the Nib magazine, as strong as the first! I really enjoyed Nicole Georges' interview with Alison Bechdel and Mathew and Jake New's report on the world's largest annual gathering of twins. The stories of a father separated from his son at the border and of politicians finally gaining access to spaces to care for nursing infants while on the job were extremely timely and relevant.

Environmental disaster and genetic disorder have lead to a world without men. In the rural town of Beyonce's Thighs, nudist Mayor Gaia works to keep up her people's spirits. They work together in communal farms and gardens, and begin construction on a hospital to serve the region. Meanwhile, life goes on: poet Ina has a crush on Layla, who is dating Lara, but they argue a lot. Yumi suffers from anxiety, but is working on meditation to help gain some inner calm. Grandma Ulaana teaches youngsters Emiko and Naomi about the past, an era of forgotten pop culture, malls, and misogynistic jokes. Each woman must make her own way in this utopian post-apocalyptic future. These stripes were originally serialized on instagram, and there are more stories online than fit into the book. If you want to read more, especially about the coming of age adventures of Emiko and Naomi, find them @aminder_d on instagram.

Rickety Stitch is a walking skeleton, blessed with much more personality than his kind usually have, but plagued by dark dreams of a undead army and a terrible Lich King. He and his best friend, the Gelatinous Goo, are on a quest to find the source and meaning of these dreams which they believe lies in a nearly forgotten kingdom called Epoli. In this volume they stumble into a construction site which has uncovered pieces of Epoli's ancient treasure. But as soon as they glimpse it it is stolen by the minions of a petty goblin merchant running a caravan across the continent. Rickety and Goo get on board with a party of musicians, but the caravan is repeatedly attacked by bandits and black knights. With so many enemies and competing motives in the way, will Rickety ever find the answers he's searching for?

I have mixed feelings about this book. I read it and loved it as a child, without any thought about how the story sat in a wider cultural context. The art is heavily stylized. Human figures almost always appear in a familiar Ancient Egyptian profile, but the animals and plants seem possibly more influenced by traditional Chinese painting. The story itself is about a blond-haired, green-eyed girl who was captured as a slave from Greece and taken to Egypt. There she is insulted and abused by her fellow servants. When the Pharaoh throws a ball, the three other serving girls of the house get to go, but the slave girl must stay behind. A hawk steals one of her dainty slippers and drops it in the Pharaoh's lap, and he begins a search to find the girl who fits the slipper, determined to marry her. As an adult reader, I found myself skeptically raising my eyebrows when the Pharaoh did indeed choose to marry a former slave, the one white girl present in the whole book. This book was published in 1989, and I wonder if it would have been published today. But the biggest surprise was the author's note at the back, stating that this story has at least some basis in historical fact- the Pharaoh Amasis (Dynasty XXVI, 570-526 BCE) did indeed marry a Greek slave named Rhodopis. This story was first recorded by the Greek geographer Strabo in 64 or 63 BCE, and this tale might be the earliest ancestor of the Cinderella tale we are more familiar with today.

The series Legal Drug went on hiatus (at least in English) in 2003. Ten years later, the story was picked up in this follow-up series. Kazahaya and Rikuo are sent on a mission that involves meeting Kimihiro Watanuki, their opposite number from the xxxHolic series. He is now confirmed to his shop, in the absence of his boss, and so he sends the pair to an ancient house inhabited by an inebriated and weakened vampire. Their job is not to fight the vampire, but to release him from his prison. Kazahaya falls ill, possessed by the vampire's mental state- Rikuo offers it blood, and in return the vampire gives him a tragic prediction.

They have clearly switched to a new artist for this follow up series, which is a nice change. They are starting to reveal some of the pieces of the character's backstories, but I find myself less and less interested in the prophesied blood-soaked conclusion. Maybe it would be better to imagine the boys as happily working in the stop forever, never facing their destinies.

Things are getting serious and building towards a conclusion in volume. Rikuo is still searching for his sister, who may or may not still be alive. Kazahaya goes on a solo mission and meets a chibi angel named Kohaku. I believe this character is from a different Clamp series I haven't read so this whole middle section was a bit confusing... but on returning to the store Kazahaya finds Rikuo battered and bloody. When he wakes, Kazahaya finally shares his own tragic backstory: he and his twin sister, Kei, never knew their family, but were controlled from a young age by a group of monks who used their powers of seeing into the future and past. A terrible childhood trauma drove Kei mad and Kazahaya ran away from her and the monks, to try and protect them both. But Kei is probably looking for Kazahaya and when she finds him it's unclear if she will welcome him home, or try to murder him. I'm honestly not sure at this point if I want to know what happens in the end. I'm probably not going to seek out the conclusion.

This story focuses on two high school drop-outs, Kazahaya Kudo and Rikuo Himura, who work at Green Drug Pharmacy, a corner store which sells sundries such as chocolates and condoms. But the owners of the shop, Kakei and Saiga, run a second business as well: one that involves dreams, wishes, spirits and memories. Kazahaya is able to sense memories of anything he touches, Rikuo is able to break things telepathically and Kakei can see some aspects of the future. He also might not be human- there are many hints that he and Saiga are not what they seem, and that both the store and even the supernatural side jobs are a front- their real purpose being the protection of the boys in an environment designed to foster their relationship. I loved this series in high school. It is not particularly sophisticated or well-drawn compared to other Clamp series, but the constant homoerotic tension between both Kakei and Saiga, and between Kazahaya and Rikuo (plus sometimes between all four of them) was like a sweet syrup to my gay-ass teenage soul. Re-reading these books again as an adult, I am less impressed. The story is designed in such a way that Kazahaya is constantly fainting, or being enchanted to fall lustily into Rikuo's arms, or being forced to wear a dress despite numerous protests. I ate that shit up at 16, but reading it now I'm uncomfortable with the instances of dubious consent. The mysteries that Kazahaya and Rikuo are sent to solve feel like less well-developed versions of the mysteries Kimihiro Watanuki works on in xxxHolic. Of the three volumes collected in this omnibus, the third one is the strongest. It takes place at a private boys school where Kazahaya and Rikuo pose as students. Because the whole book is given to one mystery, it is the most complex and interesting that they face. It is also the gayest and the shippiest volume of the series, but if you've made it to book three, than that's probably what you are reading for!