Top Shelf Productions = Top Shelf quality
By Alex Ness
March 3, 2024
At a time when I was mostly a fan of comics featuring action adventure, superheroes perhaps, or humor, I came into a deeper contact with the works of Top Shelf. It led me to a greater understanding of the world. Yes, I had a fine education in History and Political Science. I was a miserable human, trying to raise a son, write meaningful reviews and interviews, and maybe eventually, do my own work.
I did appreciate some Top Shelf offerings, but they did many self revelatory works and deep dives into human dialogues in comic form. I'd never appreciated that so much in comic form. I was a fan of it, sometimes in movies but in comics, well, it never clicked for me. Box Office Poison changed me and the works I read in similar vein that followed caused me to grow as a reader. FROM HELL, LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN, and THE SURROGATES were stuff I was very happy to read... but my world was made even greater, and more examined after reading the broader offerings.
A REVIEW
TRANSITIONS: Mother’s Journey
by Élodie Durand (NOV 7, 2023)
Translated by Evan McGorray
ISBN: 9781603095181 | $19.99 US | 176 pages
Full-color softcover graphic novel with flaps, 7.75” x 10.25”
For teen and adult readers
The world is going through numerous changes, perhaps a great extinction, wars of possible terminal results... and a culture dealing with issues of expectations unfulfilled, material culture falling short of happiness, at the same it is developing into one that is different than any before. The terms transgender and gender dysphoria used to imply someone suffering mental illness. However, the current culture and the generations following this one, think of those terms as being limited regarding the depths of gender, and no more mental illness than being born into the gender one is.
(This isn't meant to limit or somehow exaggerate the work considered, but to place it in a context.)
This is a wonderfully well written and illustrated work. In it a mother discovers her child has expressed herself as being of a different gender than the one they were born as. Rather than a hysterical reaction, or a propaganda nearly, life is great lets all celebrate whatever someone chooses to do... this is a deeply touching story of a mother's own transition. She's found herself having to go through a journey, of how to view, respond to, and accept or reject her child. It isn't easy for her, as every parent has expectations and, quite normally, this was not something she could have expected, perhaps not thinking of it as a choice. But it is one of the things to experience, if one is compelled to feel a certain way, is it actually a choice? For those parents of children, they actually have NO choice. Whatever the child or adult child's choice of lifestyle, the parent is in a position of having a child still or not. Over time, they must accept the decision and life of their child, or lose the child.
Due to my knowing numerous people who have fully transitioned, whatever psychiatrists say, or psychologists say about regrets for some, none I knew regretted their choice. Reality is, for anyone a parent's love is vital. But a child or adult child's life decision is the reality of the story, a parent can support them or not. This work was amazing because it doesn't show maudlin or false happy stories. It also doesn't limit the child and parent transition of roles.
There are clichés that love always wins. Love doesn't always win. I know of parents who have made choices to turn their backs upon the decisions of their child. One person having transitioned shared with me an email written to them by their parent. "Dear _____ I keep receiving emails from you telling me that you are my daughter. I wasn't in the delivery room, but I knew moments after delivery that I now had two sons. You've been saying otherwise. I didn't have a child or adult child who is female. Please stop contacting me, I don't know you."At least one broken heart followed, and perhaps two.
This work is honest, beautiful, painful and is a reality. Few works compare, even those of the same sort of subject matter. (And just to say, this is not a reflection of my own views, other than that all people deserve love, and it is sad when it doesn't happen.)
PR FROM TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS
Press Release - February 16, 2024
Legendary Magician/Author Alan Moore Joins Steve Moore and Five Artists to Present The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic.
LOS ANGELES, CA (February 16, 2024). Internationally celebrated publishers Top Shelf Productions (USA) and Knockabout Ltd (UK) are proud to announce the publication date of the long-awaited THE MOON AND SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC. Born of the longstanding creative partnership between legendary writer Alan Moore (From Hell) and his creative and magical mentor Steve Moore (no relation), this celebration of magic and the occult has been meticulously under development for nearly two decades and is brought to life through a combination of prose, illustration, and sequential art from five incredible artists. This veritable grimoire of the magical, the mystical, and even the macabre will be on sale in October 2024. The secrets of the celebrated Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels (sorcery by appointment since circa 150 AD) promise to be revealed in THE MOON AND SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC. This clear and practical grimoire of the occult pairs the knowledge of the proprietors of the aforementioned Grand Egyptian Theatre with illuminating visual delights from artists Kevin O’Neill, John Coulthart, Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch, and Ben Wickey. Unprecedented in its scope and splendor, this tome is full to bursting with illustrated instructional essays, activity pages, biographies of the great sorcerers, and forbidden knowledge sure to tantalize even the most disillusioned of adults into believing in magic once again. “One of the great honors of my publishing career has been to work with Alan Moore on so many monumental projects, like From Hell and Lost Girls,” says Chris Staros, Editor-in-Chief of Top Shelf Productions. “THE MOON AND SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC represents an amazing capstone, created by Alan and Steve, and brilliantly brought to life by five unforgettable artists. It’s been a privilege to watch those magical minds spend years building this grimoire, and I’m proud to join Knockabout in finally sharing it with the world.” THE MOON AND SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC (ISBN 978-1-60309-550-1) will be available in fine bookstores and comic shops in October 2024. |
Click through to navigate five interior pages:
THE MOON AND SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC
Written by Alan Moore & Steve Moore
Art by Kevin O’Neill, John Coulthart, Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch, and Ben Wickey
Book design by John Coulthart
ISBN 978-1-60309-550-1 | 9" x 12" hardcover | 352 pages | $49.99 (US)
Co-published by Top Shelf Productions & Knockabout LTD (UK)
Available everywhere books are sold in October 2024
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