Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
Usually, this book is in prose form. It’s also a work of fiction, and the last time I broke that rule I wasted a whole summer with multipart articles cutting down Seduction Of The Innocent. Hopefully this won’t break the one a week part of the format.
However, this is a graphic novel. It’s a pretty long one as original graphic novels go. Usually they’re not 11 chapters unless they’re a trade collection. This is one story and each chapter is longer than you would expect. It’s almost as big as the Watchmen graphic novel and sequels I won at Free Comic Book Day in 2025, the same day I ended up with this one as a giveaway. So you know I’m bias here. It came from my local comic store as they had a bunch to give away. How could they do that? I’ll explain in the review. Yes, even I can break out the tease now and then.
Admittedly this is not my usual graphic novel. An autobiography about an indie band isn’t usually in my wheelhouse. But it was free, the art looks good, and the plot does at least sound interesting as they chronicled a record breaking attempt that took them across the country. So there’s no reason not to review it, but due to the length of the book and the chapters it’s a bit long for me to find time to read for Scanning My Collection. Thus I made the decision to review it in the Chapter By Chapter format. If they can do something different, so can I. And so, the 26th book in the Chapter By Chapter Review series (and we’ll be back to prose for 27) is…………………
BW Media Spotlight 
BW’s Saturday Article Link> DC VS Manga On Genre Variety
In a recent article of mine, I went over what DC Comics could and couldn’t learn from manga, after Jim Lee’s comments that they should look to their success to chart DC course. One of the things I’ve mentioned is that in the past American comics embraced multiple genres, while today only indie comics try to do anything other than superheroes and licenced works. We actually made more comics for “everyone” than we do now when certain groups are demanding comics be “made for everyone”, only not as disingenuous. It other words it was done for story variety rather than placating (insert group who doesn’t actually read comics here).
In an article for his Megacosm website, writer Victor James digs more into how comics used to make multiple genres of comics, like Japanese manga creators and publishers do today. Manga followed the Golden Age formula of tackling multiple storytelling genres for multiple age groups, and while that’s only one reason for their success, it’s one comic fans and commentators were requesting and suggesting even before the rise of Japanese media in the West to current levels. Something to think about.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on March 14, 2026 in Comic Spotlight and tagged comics vs manga, commentary, Golden Age comics.
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