halfcactus

As with the last two years, I had a shared haul with a few other people. And as with the last two years, I've mostly only read what I got for myself, because we kind of got... a lot. I got more than I usually do bc the organizer (Zainab Akhtar) has been talking about taking a break so this is our last Shortbox Comics Fair for a while, which is also good for me bc both my wallet and my brain could use a break from month-long comic fairs. 😂

Hero in the Serpent's Skin by Hwei 🇲🇾
Wrote about it here.

Kasalan ng Bayan | Community Wedding by Renren Galeno 🇵🇭
An overachieving student deals with the duality of (co-)organizing a community wedding while convincing her parents to file for legal separation... A story about transferrable skills and girlhood. Renren Galeno is most known (locally, at least) for her thriller comic Sa Wala | Nothing to Lose which is about a magical cockfighting chicken (which I haven't read), so I was surprised to see her put out something with such a mundane and low-stakes setting lol.

Dead Horses by Freya JN
Or as the artist calls it, feline lesboviolence. A marvelous feat of storytelling that sets you on a winding path that twists and twists—"in circles, in knots"—until it takes you back to where it begins and gives you release. The writing is patient, the dialogue snappy, and the visual journey perfectly cinematic and emotionally rewarding. There's also a soundtrack for it.

Highly recommend if you like fantasy with worldbuilding, action, messy women, rewarding twists, and a dose of horror. Hands down one of the best things I've read this year.

how i made Dead Horses, from thumbnail to final page 🐱

[image or embed]

— Freya JN (goblinstunts) October 21, 2025 at 2:05 AM

Layover By Lis Xu
Short comic about visiting family in Shanghai during a layover. Everything is drawn in pencil which makes the story feel like a diary entry, and the characters drawn as anthropomorphic dogs which gives it a sense of distance. It's not too detailed or serious but still feels very personal and might be triggering for people who have sick family abroad.

Lina and Eileen by Shuning Ji
Fantasy comic about a princess who dreams of being kidnapped by a dragon, and a lady knight who dreams of slaying one. Painted with a vibrant watercolor style that evokes fairy tales while questioning them. The plot is too YA for me, though I'm fond of the note it ended with.

Meet Me at the Seafloor by Gojiberry
A depressed marine biologist hears a siren's song, tracks it down, and meets a selkie. Life-affirming and manga-like and a nice change of pace from my dark fantasy fish romances. Also reminded me of this other manhwa I was reading at that time called I See You, which is about a woman who's about to commit suicide but is challenged by the Reaper (also a woman) to live three more months. And then they were roommates! I haven't finished that one yet.

Fashion Intervention by Chereen Francis-Roberts
28-year-old Bertie has a party to attend but her closet is haunted by a fashionable demon. 😱 Very fun oneshot about self-care through self-expression. Has the thrills of shoujo transformations/makeovers except the MC has to do it all herself and make do with what she has. I basically live in Uniqlo so #can't relate to the struggles but the outfits were super fun.

Aquatic Lives by Pepe Reyes 🇵🇭
This was actually part of last year's comic fair, but since Pepe Reyes also participated this year I wanted to read his previous entry first. This is such a beautiful piece about being in the sea. The visual style reminds me of the Delirium chapter in Sandman: Endless Nights. In his afterword he posts underwater photos he took when diving in preparation for this comic, which was very cool! His 2025 comic is about bugs (I think), though, so I'm kind of nervous about reading that. 🙈

Recently enjoyed Wednesday's Child by Niv Sekar, a little f/f urban fantasy comic about a woman who wakes up curiously numb after a night in the club. She finds out over the next few weeks that someone had cast a spell to make her emotions disappear.

It was what she needed, but it wasn't kind.

(This is mostly to remind myself to check out Niv Sekar's work if ever they're on Shortbox again since I quite like her writing and art style.)

+ 1 more image

-

snowflake_challenge #5
Talk about what has improved in your life thanks to fandom.
My perspective; My world is so small and boring and stationary but I've been realizing lately how broad my PoV has become in spite of it. The perks of not being limited to physical proximity. XD Also travel! If it weren't for fandom friends, I never would have gone on the quest to try the black sesame chiffon cake in New Taipei City... There's no way I would have known it would have existed and that I was capable of enjoying a dessert that much...!

-

Misc.:

The Lovers release has been pushed to 2026. *sad dolphin noises*

Fanmix rec: The Magician (Arcane - Viktor) by fairykiss: great tracklist, great cover and track art

Manga I recently enjoyed (all ongoing): Though I Am an Inept Villainess (universally cherished but chronically ill heroine x reviled but healthy villainess bodyswap; inner palace intrigue; gen), When I Became a Commoner, They Broke Off Our Engagement! (a fairy's mischief: a commoner and a noble are swapped at birth, to be returned to the "right" parents when they're older; the men appear to only exist so they can help the girls achieve their goals of social change...)... Megane, Tokidoki, Yankee-kun (high school romance between a reformed delinquent and a girl who used to be bullied by delinquents)

A cnovel I recently bookmarked and briefly skimmed but am not sure I'll actually read: 全宇宙最后一只猫 The Last Cat in the Universe: The MC is a former pampered house cat that is determined to cultivate to the ultimate nine-tail form; fantranslation appears to be incomplete.

Recently read

Joe Sparrow, "Fishing"
A comic that compares the concept of creativity, inspiration, and struggles to execute artistic ideas to fishing. Concise, well-communicated, and good choice of colors that differentiates what's above and below the water.


Snowlattes, "Grief Log" & Fatima Wajid, "Prism"
Both of these artists are ESL and could use a friend to help them copyedit (though I firmly believe that most amateur artists who get into comics need to run their stories with writing/editing and reading friends anyway); it still feels like a privilege to be entrusted with such personal and beautifully illustrated journals—one about grief and loss, the other about getting high with old friends. Fatima Wajid’s art and worldview are so marvelously depicted I got all emotional lol.




Megan Abbott, "The End of Everything"
The mystery cdramas I've been watching have me raring to read mystery, but unfortunately this... was not the type of crime/mystery I wanted to read. /o\ It's grooming and sexual harassment/assault framed in a missing persons case and told in the PoV of teenage girls who have daddy issues and are navigating school and sexual experiences. It's more interested in the psychology and the emotions than the crime and mystery, but the psychology and feelings aren't very interesting and the final twist is very standard.

The prose is attractive and the scenes of girlhood would fit really well in a coming-of-age novel. It has a writing style that I associate with fanfiction and amateur writers, ie. a lot of made-up verbs and "smelled like x and y and z"s but the word choices, at least, are quite logical and not just running on vibes. They still get a bit much sometimes though. XD

(I have a Kanae Minato novel lined up as my next mystery/thriller read, we'll see how that one goes since I've never read any of her work before.)

Recently sampled (then dropped)

Elizabeth Hand, "Wyldling Hall"
I... simply don’t have the brain to read a story written as a documentary/series of interviews. Also not sure how much horror is in this?

priest, "Stars of Chaos" (Sha Po Lang)
Sampled the first chapter of the first volume because I saw people in cnovels talking about how smooth the translation is and... well, the first chapter does read very smoothly. It's a lot less distracting than MDZS and Little Mushroom. But I still bounced off it because of a couple of oddities, and because I'm likely familiar enough with priest's writing style to feel the disconnect. And then I got distracted about my personal thoughts about what I like to see in a translation VS what other people like to see in a translation and the kinds of conversations I wish we could have about translation. I don't know how to talk about this without sounding ungrateful and nitpicky!!!

Anyway for this novel I might have to either cross-reference with the raws or supplement with the audio drama which is too much work and defeats the purpose of reading a translation. Stepping back for now and coming back in my own time, unprompted by any concurrent discussions.

-

Drama-wise I'm now at the final episode of Tender Light and trying hard not to laugh at the recent plot developments. Setting aside the issue of the plot not plotting, it's just really funny that there's this entire Devotion of Suspect X plot development when the author of the original novel has been accused of plagiarizing Suspect X in a completely different canon a couple years ago. I never watched Better Days but I would argue that Tender Light's setup is closer to Suspect X. I did hear that Tender Light deviates a lot from the original novel, which is allegedly plagiarized from a couple of other things, but I'm not interested in reading the original novel and checking. ^^;

Shortbox entries I read in November: In the Jaws of St. Camillus is my definite standout for this round. So much fannish potential in that one! The artist has started selling physical copies and mentioned that they're turning it into a webcomic series. :)

Felipe Ortiz, "Minnow Soup!"

A tiny forest creature delves into the woods to find ingredients so they can prepare their grandmother’s special minnow soup for a loved one. A cozy comic best served warm on rainy days.

Short and cozy, as described in the synopsis. The character-to-environment ratio makes this extra cute and alluring!

C.R. Chua, "Kanna Has Never Seen a Cat"

Once upon a time, a strange creature sneaks into Kanna's room and it won't leave. She's good with dogs, surely this creature is similar? In Heian Japan, the lady-in-waiting Kanna goes about her day when a cat unexpectedly shakes her quiet routine...

Cute and sweet, but I don't really have anything to say about it.

Jean Wei, "Light Through Memory"

Two young star-gazers spot something new in the night sky. What might it mean? Historical fiction, featuring ancient, pre-telescope astronomy. B&W.

A short, moving, and poetic read. Best viewed on a computer because you need to see both pages of each spread side-by-side.

Mathilde Laillet, "Les Oiseaux de l'Orage / The Birds of the Storm"

A quiet and atmospheric comic about storms and tenderness. The emotions are understated but powerful, the story feeling simultaneously small and spacious. The experience is almost puzzle-like and never fully unravels, always leaving room for things that are unsaid.

Other notes: f/f relationship + the PDF has both French and English versions of the comic

Claud Li, "Auntie"

Warm, funny, and moving, 'Auntie' gives us a glimpse into the life of Catalina 'Auntie' Cheng, an elderly, award-winning poker player (who also runs a cat rescue) making a return to the table after a mysterious absence.

A surprisingly wholesome (and moving) poker-centered comic! The first part is a competition which was a lot of fun. Everyone had distinct personalities and some of the character interactions (John and Victor 👀) were intriguing. The second half takes you back to Auntie’s home which takes you to her home and personal life.

Content notes: grief and a sad family storyline—but overall the comic finds the character at a place of peace

Stevie Barot, "In the Jaws of St. Camillus"

Father Valencia is a friendly priest from the capital tasked with revitalizing the distant island province of St. Camillus. His kindness immediately uplifts the community. And yet despite all his apparent benevolence, Mr. Rivera, the island's funeral director, sense something is off...


This is a twisty story about a funeral director and a priest in a remote Filipino town. Dark and warm with beautiful tension, with a strong sense of place and very interesting character dynamics (and a distinctly pre-slash dynamic that I feel is very relevant to fandom interests!). The ending feels like a backstory for characters who go on to do more things in St. Camillus.

I was initially hesitant about this because of the Catholic themes—and then I found out it wasn't white Catholicism and so I got onboard lol. I didn't actually realize that the characters were Filipino until a bit later into the comic.

Other notes:
1) the artist produced physical copies of this!!!

2) heard through the grapevine that the artist is planning to make a webcomic series out of this

my 120+ page psychological horror comic "In the Jaws of St. Camillus" is out now! (not likely to restock)

🎄 will sell at paskomiket too :]
🔗shop below pic.twitter.com/7RyJmIN0V2

— stevie (@sneckoil) November 22, 2023

The fair closes in less than a week so I figured I should post my ~haul~ while considering what I can get next and trying to ignore the cries of my wallet.

The Things We Carve by Chan Chau is free: a 16-page little story about getting over a creative block and nurturing one's craft (+ established relationship).




( 'The Hawk and The Rabbit' by Hwei )

( 'SOMEONE DIED HERE' by Azam Raharjo )

( 'Parasocial Activity' by Pearl Law )

( 'The Things We Carve' by Chan Chau )


Hoping to get months later: The Stranger: a short speculative fiction comic set in the near future that explores the brief relationship between an old woman who is losing her memory and an android made in the image of her late wife. Not Shortbox-related/Shortbox-exclusive, thankfully! Most of my to-read/to-buy list is now comics/manga so idk if I'll fulfill my annual goal of finishing 12 books this year. I haven't gotten a single poetry collection either! I can feel my expressive ability withering haha