Comics & Graphic Novels

The Good Neighbors: Kind

2014, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I’m doing a great job of catching up on series I’d started and let slide. Holly Black’s The Good Neighbors series, for instance. I read #3, Kind last night.

It was good but who didn’t see that coming? Apparently all of Rue’s human friends? This is a good graphic novel series. Very Holly Black-like. I sometimes find the illustrations a little confusing. Sometimes the guys seem drawn a little too similarly and I have to do a double take when I realize this is not the guy who I thought it was? Otherwise, a perfectly enjoyable faerie graphic novel.

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Relish

2013, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Non-Fiction, Women /

I grabbed Relish to take to the hospital yesterday when we took TW’s mom to the ER — and I finished it before the doctor had even made his way in to see her. It’s a super fast read, as graphic novels often are.

I liked it, though not as much as I’d hoped — based on whatever reviews or reading list I read that caused me to reserve it last week. But, it was good — I just had super, super high expectations.

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Two Cybils SciFi/Fantasy

1 Comment / 2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I’m kind of ODing on middle grade and YA books. This is what happens when I don’t read enough throughout the year… gah. The end of the tunnel, I can see it. I swear!

Planesrunner, the YA scifi I thought I wouldn’t enjoy, particularly since I had so much trouble getting past the first chapter, turned out to be a lot better than I expected. Physics is not my thing. Neither are books where ONE paragraph is more than a full damn page. Other than that — it turned out to be a pretty fun book. The airships made it great (and the solid female characters, in a boy story, too.)

Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities is Middle Grade scifi/fantasy and I had a hard time getting started with that too… what’s with all of the comic book superhero stuff lately? After about 30 pages, I was in and enjoying it. I particularly liked what happened with Polly, Captain Stupendous and Vincent’s mom. Super female characters in what’s mostly a boy story.

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Superman: The Unauthorized Biography

1 Comment / 2013, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Non-Fiction /

I’m not a diehard Superman fan. I’ve probably only read a handful of his comics over the last 50 years. I know I’ve only seen a couple of the movies. I liked the old TV show but if I had to choose, I’d always choose Batman.

So the fact that I impulse picked up Superman: The Unauthorized Biography is kind of amusing. The fact that I read every word is just plain weird. It took days — days when I’m way behind on what I want/planned/need to read. I couldn’t help it. Even though it was pretty much the same ole thing for every period of time:

– Origin story.
– Fashion changes.
– Lois/Clark/Lana/Superman angst.
– Bad guys.
– Let’s kill him/reboot.

And do it all over again. And again and again and again and again.

Still. There was something oddly compelling about the book. I kept stopping to watch video or surf comic covers for each of the time periods I was reading about. I kind of want to watch a Superman marathon now… in fact, I might do that next week instead of going back to Dawson’s Creek… maybe. It’s a good thing the STUPID Davis St. project is still only 70% (or something) completed because otherwise I might be tempted to stop at the comic book store next week when I pick up the girls from their father’s apartment. Wait, maybe the construction will be done by then… nah.

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All The Graphic Novels — OK Not All Of Them, Just Seven

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

I didn’t manage to read all of the graphic novels from the Cybils shortlist on Sunday like I’d planned but I did finish a bunch of them on Monday and Tuesday. Here’s what I thought about seven of them:

Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller — I liked it. I wasn’t sure at the beginning. The first couple of pages were dark and confusing but once I settled into the art, and the jumping between Annie’s life and Annie’s life with Helen, it was good. Very good.

Hilda and the Midnight Giant was cute. I like Hilda and her mom.

Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Big Bad Ironclad was pretty good. I grew up with a history nut for a dad so I have a fondness for these kinds of stories. Humor was nicely added to help make the story less dry than history often is made to be.

Little White Duck: A Childhood in China was super interesting. I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I did.

Friends with Boys was probably my favorite of this round of graphic novels. (What’s with all of the memoirs on the list this time?) Homeschool to High School, teen angst, a ghost. It’s all pretty excellent. The drawings were good, too.

Marathon should have been good. Instead, I couldn’t even finish (I tried though. I tried hard.) The drawings should haven’t helped the difficult to follow story but they just made things worse.

Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White was my second favorite of the batch. I liked the art. I liked the story. Hispanic family in Alabama during the 60s? Not white but also not black? Tough situation and super interesting.

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Two Graphic Novels

2013, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /

I decided to go with easy reads after struggling through Mrs. L’s Dressmaker. Too much going on at work and at home for me to sit down with anything serious. Plus, my vacation is about to start. Yay for vacation! And yay for graphic novels, even if I only loved one of them.

First, the one I didn’t love. Ichiro. Not my thing, though it should be since it was really just Japanese mythology. I just didn’t like the story. I didn’t like the portrayal of Ichi’s American grandfather. Yea, there are people like that but… no. It just set the whole thing off badly for me and the rest of the book never quite redeemed itself for me. I didn’t hate it, but I definitely did not love it.

I did, however, LOVE Giants Beware. I loved Collete. Loved Gaston and Marie and Valiant, too. Loved all of the townspeople and all of the things that happened outside of the wall. Loved, loved, loved the story. And the art.

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Soulless: The Manga

2012, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

Last week, or maybe earlier this week (I dunno, time flies and I can’t keep track anymore), Sassymonkey asked some folks what the best book they read this year was. I refused to answer because I can’t do “favorites” – there are lots of different kinds of “best” and “favorite” and how do you pick just one?

Whatever, right?

One of my favorite series was The Parasol Protectorate. I loved those books and I’m dying to read the next series – I mean really dying to read them. I introduced them to Michelle Belle and she ripped through the whole series, too.

I’d been meaning to check out the manga versions and when Michelle read the series last week, I was inspired to grab one from the library. Soulless: The Manga was just as fun as Soulless (the not manga).  The color frames in the beginning are GORGEOUS and I really wish the entire book was color. It’s not that the black and whites aren’t good, they are – but the color really did justice to all of the characters and I didn’t think I’d feel that way having loved the non-manga series so much.

The only tiny little complaint I have about the first book is Lord Maccon’s accent…. It’s supposed to get stronger and revert to the Scottish brogue when he’s wound up by Alexia and that didn’t really happen.  There’s one bubble where he starts to slip into it but that was it. I’m not sure what the thinking was behind that change but it disappointed me.

Otherwise, bring on Volume 2!

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

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Catching Up on Graphic Novels

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Young Adult /

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed someone had reviewed Books 3,4, and 5 in the Amulet series on our library website. That caused me to realize that Elly and I have fallen way behind on our Amulet series so I reserved books 4 & 5 immediately. I’d planned to read them during #readathon but book 5 was due back today and could not be renewed because it has holds so… I read them both yesterday.

And, excellent series. I have yet to tire of these characters, except for Emily’s mom who is pretty much a waste of a character, if you ask me.  Is there some reason that she’s so… clueless and blah and I just missed the explanation for that? Her father blah blah blah, yea, I get that but still, she needs to get her shit together or I’m just gonna skip over every word in her bubble from now on.

I really liked seeing what happened to Max and I’m glad Miskrit is back!

Here’s hoping we won’t fall so far behind again!

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Wonderstruck

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

I’ve been putting off reading Wonderstruck because it’s a really, really big book for a middle grade graphic novel. I was waiting until I was in the right mood for reading what I imagined might be a book that wasn’t easy to follow – black and white pictures, and lots of ‘em. Even though Elly read it ages ago and said it was good… I put it off.

Then a couple of days ago, I realized it was not JUST a graphic novel, but a graphic novel and a written novel. Well shoot, I could have handled that weeks ago.

So I picked it up last night and LOVED it. Brilliantly done – two different people, from two different eras. One child’s story told in words, another child’s story told in images – until those stories merged. Brilliant. Why haven’t I read Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret? I must read it – soon.

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