The Devil’s Panties: Volume 2

Breen’s second collected volume of her autobiographical online comic is a wry look at the everyday life of a not-so-everyday girl. From comic convention marathons to her day job as surly salesperson at a comic book store, Breen gives readers a backstage tour of her life. She makes up for a lack of color in the b&w art with her cast of colorful characters, including her endearing if video game-obsessed boyfriend, Will ; conventioneers decked out in costume; and Breen’s own tight-knit, oddball family. The issues Breen grapples with on a day-to-day basis aren’t earth-shattering—checking comics vs. clothes in the luggage when traveling by air, figuring out how to still go trick-or-treating at age 25—but she handles them with just the right amount of sarcasm and charm so readers can easily relate. A graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design (in Sequential Art, which she makes a point of reminding readers is a real major), Breen produces black-and-white drawings that are simple without being simplistic, and her characters and sound effects routinely break out of their loosely drawn frames. Satisfying from start to finish, the episodic nature of this latest collection also makes it just as fun to pick up and dive into the middle. (Jan.)