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The Anthology Project: Volume 1
The Anthology Project collects the comics of artists unified by their pursuit of great stories and notable artistic work in the medium of comics. Its humble intent is only to delight. The project showcases a multidisciplinary group of passionate artists from across Canada and the United States.
239 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 17, 2011
Some of the stories were cute as well as the art. However I found that there were many stories for which the size of the book shrank the artwork so much that I had trouble distinguishing anything.
March 6, 2021
Beautifully presented as a high quality hardcover, The Anthology Project presents 15 sequential art stories from Canadian comic creators. This and the 2nd volume have been in my collection for many years – only now have I finished this first book, for no other reason than life simply hasn’t allowed me to read everything I own in a timely manner.
I loved some of the stories, liked several others, and found a few to be a little odd and not really to my liking (but still of a decent standard), which is a frequent occurrence in such books, especially when the stories are so varied in tone and execution, as is the case here. The standard of art is quite captivating from all but one or two artists (with many having great appeal with their combination of style, use of colour and panel/page composition), and the visual or written storytelling is strong, although text is often sparse or completely absent, which mostly works well on these ‘compact’ pages.
My favourites are ‘My Hero’ by Matt Rhodes, ‘Little World Runner’ by Chris Makris, ‘Wish’ by Joy Ang, ‘Desert Carol’ by Nick Thornborrow, and ‘Sunday’ by Casper Konefal, as these all featured excellent art with dynamic flourishes and/or neat ideas, and contained layers of insight and meaning within their simple plots.
I’ll no doubt now read the second volume quite soon, just to remind our troublesome universe that I still hold some control over my own life.
I loved some of the stories, liked several others, and found a few to be a little odd and not really to my liking (but still of a decent standard), which is a frequent occurrence in such books, especially when the stories are so varied in tone and execution, as is the case here. The standard of art is quite captivating from all but one or two artists (with many having great appeal with their combination of style, use of colour and panel/page composition), and the visual or written storytelling is strong, although text is often sparse or completely absent, which mostly works well on these ‘compact’ pages.
My favourites are ‘My Hero’ by Matt Rhodes, ‘Little World Runner’ by Chris Makris, ‘Wish’ by Joy Ang, ‘Desert Carol’ by Nick Thornborrow, and ‘Sunday’ by Casper Konefal, as these all featured excellent art with dynamic flourishes and/or neat ideas, and contained layers of insight and meaning within their simple plots.
I’ll no doubt now read the second volume quite soon, just to remind our troublesome universe that I still hold some control over my own life.
January 4, 2023
Ever since both the Flight anthology and PopGun anthology series kind of stopped, I’ve been having a bit of a need for a new collection dedicated to short comics. This is quite imaginative and has all these amazing different styles from the different artists that contributed. I’m particularly fond of Joy Ang (fairies are tricksy), Matt Rhodes (panel preview was seen on Pinterest of this image forward fantasy tale), and Casper Konefal (been there with the temperament of cats). They are inventive and creative, I would say some of them have a very beautiful fluidity to them as well almost like some Fantasia music. My only little qualm is that a few of the stories within have such complicated, breakdowns in imagery that sometimes it’s hard to follow the clarity of the story, or what you’re looking at. It almost kinda leaves you in some ambiguity about endings, as well as what actions are occurring in the scenes. I’m now very excited to see if there’s another volume out there!
December 20, 2017
Wish by Joy Ang was my favorite in this anthology. I love the mixture of adorable art with a somewhat disturbing tale.
The book itself is a nice hardcover with full color illustrations, much of the art is beautiful.
While the individual works presented here are all quite nice, there’s no apparent theme or connecting thread. This makes the anthology feel a bit more like a random assortment of comics than a carefully considered collection.
The book itself is a nice hardcover with full color illustrations, much of the art is beautiful.
While the individual works presented here are all quite nice, there’s no apparent theme or connecting thread. This makes the anthology feel a bit more like a random assortment of comics than a carefully considered collection.
October 3, 2021
Como sucede en casi todas las antologías, algunas historias me gustaron más que otras.
Aun así, consideró que esta lectura fue una buena carta de presentación para varios artistas canadienses que no conocía. Y de paso, ahora tengo curiosidad por otros trabajos compilados por The anthology project.
Aun así, consideró que esta lectura fue una buena carta de presentación para varios artistas canadienses que no conocía. Y de paso, ahora tengo curiosidad por otros trabajos compilados por The anthology project.
September 7, 2018
3.5 I loved some of the comics but not all of them. All the artists have beautiful distinct art styles which I truly enjoyed, I am glad it is part of my collection.
November 10, 2022
This felt like a catalog of potential and I’m not mad at that.
February 25, 2024
A range in quality but not great overall, with some stories being completely incomprehensible.
December 23, 2025
some of these were cute, some were fun, some were rather uninspired
April 27, 2012
Full review posted on Across the Litoverse
The Anthology Project has a simple mandate: to collect comics from artists who pursue compelling narratives and have published notable works in sequential arts. In short, "[i]ts humble intent is only to delight"—and I assure you, the book delights on numerous levels. I have a soft spot for comic collections and literary journals for their variance and their promise of new talent to discover. And, for the first time in quite a few years, I've found an anthology that features strong storytelling and breathtaking art across the board. I feel this explains their 2011 Eisner Award nomination for Best Anthology, wouldn't you agree?
Immediate favourites include include Kim Smith's "The Nose and the Tongue", a tale of two duelling sommeliers with a contentious wine-tasting competition in their past, and a new Barrel Master score to settle in the present; Chris Makris's "Little World Runner", which examines the life of a young gamer girl who creates and maintains a virtual world known as Azria, and must handle the difficult decisions only a god could make; and Tom Rhodes's "The Box", a hilarious comic about an alien creature named Bardy and an android known as '06' who find a mysterious box at the edge of the universe. All three tales take place across different timeframes and illustrate different issues, but their narratives offer an excellent launch point into the world of sequential comics.
Beautiful, surreal, and endearing—The Anthology Project is a testament to the innovation behind Canadian sequential arts, and it ought to be the next addition to your graphica collection.
Ideal for: New readers to comic collections and sequential arts; Fans of short stories and literary journals who want to add some artwork to the mix; Graphic design and illustration students looking for a lesson on short, powerful storytelling.
The Anthology Project has a simple mandate: to collect comics from artists who pursue compelling narratives and have published notable works in sequential arts. In short, "[i]ts humble intent is only to delight"—and I assure you, the book delights on numerous levels. I have a soft spot for comic collections and literary journals for their variance and their promise of new talent to discover. And, for the first time in quite a few years, I've found an anthology that features strong storytelling and breathtaking art across the board. I feel this explains their 2011 Eisner Award nomination for Best Anthology, wouldn't you agree?
Immediate favourites include include Kim Smith's "The Nose and the Tongue", a tale of two duelling sommeliers with a contentious wine-tasting competition in their past, and a new Barrel Master score to settle in the present; Chris Makris's "Little World Runner", which examines the life of a young gamer girl who creates and maintains a virtual world known as Azria, and must handle the difficult decisions only a god could make; and Tom Rhodes's "The Box", a hilarious comic about an alien creature named Bardy and an android known as '06' who find a mysterious box at the edge of the universe. All three tales take place across different timeframes and illustrate different issues, but their narratives offer an excellent launch point into the world of sequential comics.
Beautiful, surreal, and endearing—The Anthology Project is a testament to the innovation behind Canadian sequential arts, and it ought to be the next addition to your graphica collection.
Ideal for: New readers to comic collections and sequential arts; Fans of short stories and literary journals who want to add some artwork to the mix; Graphic design and illustration students looking for a lesson on short, powerful storytelling.
February 25, 2015
Some stories were well thought out, others felt forced like they had an ideal but no place to stand with it. Wish by Joy Ang, The Unicorn by Christopher Ryzebol special thanks Tom Rhodes, and Mr.Dung and Beetle by Darren Rawlings, were my favorites out of all the stories. Those three could stand alone and have their own books in my opinion.
March 5, 2012
I fell in love with the cover at the comic book store and greedily bought both volumes. The art is gorgeous and the storytelling is nothing to sneeze at either.
As a...hobby artist, I found this inspirational and so well done. I will pour over it again and again.
As a...hobby artist, I found this inspirational and so well done. I will pour over it again and again.
April 3, 2014
The artwork is beautiful...some of the tales are downright awesome. This is something I'd like to see in a larger format, to get really in depth with the pictures. I felt like I was missing out on some of the stories simply because I couldn't see all the details clearly.
February 9, 2016
An interesting mix of graphic artist styles. Many of the stories don't use much words but rely on the art to tell the story. There is a little discrepancy in consistency of moods if you read the stories back to back.
June 3, 2010
What really makes me enjoy reading this book is it's artwork
May 17, 2010
The artwork in The Anthology Project is to be admired! I can't wait for the next one!
April 26, 2011
An interesting collection of art and stories, though only a few really stand out to me.
July 3, 2012
24.99
February 21, 2013
I think I liked volume 2 (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...), which I read first, much better. This one was very surreal and very bleak.
December 22, 2015
Beautiful and varied artwork from many talented creators. The tagline says these stories are meant to delight the reader, but a number of them were just fucking sad.
January 22, 2016
Some of the little comics are really nice and funny but some of them do not MAKE sense at all.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews