Faint praise time: This is probably the issue of Now: The New Comics Anthology that I have disliked the least.

Sure, the first 44 pages are given over to a scribbly, icky autobiographical story about an age-gap sexual relationship with barely legible lettering that almost made me give up on reading this book, and yeah, the next 16 pages are more legible but barely any more readable.

But then Noah Van Sciver delivers a dumb but loving little tribute to Basil Wolverton's Spacehawk, Emil Friis Ernst contributes a bizarrely enthralling bit of nonsense about a mysterious motorcyclist, Ben Nadler delves into a sci-fi take on a family trauma that spans decades, Ethel Wolfe offers up a skeevy YouTuber with a face you just want to punch, and finally John Ohannesian prods the limits of freedom of expression in just three panels on the back cover. I'm not in love with any of these stories, but after the wasted first half of the book, they were certainly a welcome relief.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Nine [Front Cover] / Raquelle Jac -- The Real Me / Theo Ellsworth -- Misguided Love / Raquelle Jac -- The 'Raindrop' Prelude / Keren Katz -- Spacehawk / Noah Van Sciver -- Zoom / Emil Friis Ernst -- Quarryhouse / Ben Nadler -- How Mums Annoy You / Ethel Wolfe -- Art [Back Cover] / John Ohannesian ( )