Sugar Glider and Sugar Glider Stories #2 review

We reviewed the first issue of Sugar Glider here.
Issue 2 has been on the review pile for a while and it has taken us far too long to get to it. But boy was it worth the wait.
The first issue of Sugar Glider, as well as the spin-off title Sugar Glider Tales was fantastic in setting up the world and characters, and in this issue we pick up where that has left off.
Thee is a new mysterious figure roaming the streets of Newcastle – the, frankly rather loony, Don Quixote. I’m being a bit too simplistic here. There is an awful lot going on, and the characters as much more rounded and real than my describing Quixote as a loony makes them seem, but I feel that to tell you too much about him would lessen the impact.
All I will say is this: Sugar Glider is one of the best Small Press titles, no, strike that. It's one of the best comics I have ever read, and I have read a lot of them.
It doesn’t just standing up against other Small Press titles, it easily holds it’s own against any superhero title you would care to name. Yes, That’s what I said.
If you read comics, you really should be reading this.


Sugar Glider Stories #2

See the previous Sugar Glider Stories review here.
Much like the previous SGS, this is a series of short stories, some no more than a page or so in length, but each adds something to the overall narrative of the book and the world of Sugar Glider.
Reading this, I was impressed by not only how complex it is, but the degree of effortlessness that seems to be present in the writing. This book dances back and forth in time, filling in spaces from Sugar Glider #2 and ending up just where that one begins, as well as letting us see what’s going on in the background of the events in the main comic.
Like I say – it is complex, but handled with deceptively consummate ease. What could so easily have been a disjointed mess reads very smoothly.
As with the last collection, the art is a mixed back, ranging from pages that would sit easily in a professional comic to art that is decidedly amateur.
Now – I thought long and hard about the word I would use to describe the art before going for amateur. And I mean that word in a very good way. The art may not be to any sort of professional standard, but it never once comes across as bad.
The strips are clearly drawn, with the action easy to follow and characters are distinct and can be recognised easily, even when drawn by artists with polar opposite styles.
If you’re reading Sugar Glider, and if you’re a comic fan you should be, then you should be reading this too.