Wednesday Bonus! - Comics Roundup

I was on a mini break this past weekend and found myself reading quite a few comics and graphic novels over it. I hadn't planned on reviewing them for the blog but since I read so many, I figured I'd give each of them a short blurb for a mini-Wednesday update! Enjoy!

Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time Volume One - David Tipton, Simon Fraser, Scott Tipton, Lee Sullivan

November 23, 1963: A day that changed the world forever. 

That day saw the broadcast debut of Doctor Who, which was to become the longest-running science fiction series on television. 

And now, 50 years later, we pay tribute to one of the greatest pop-culture heroes of all time with this special series, which tells an epic adventure featuring all 11 incarnations of the intrepid traveler through time and space known simply as... the Doctor.

As you may or may not know, I'm currently watching all 50 years of Doctor Who in order and documenting it in my Doctor Who blog. As such, I saw Ian, Barbara and the First Doctor on the cover of this book and yanked it in an instant. Volume One was amazing as it covered the first three doctors (aka the doctors I have watched so far). It follows each of them on a typical adventure with some of their most famous companions but each ends with a strange disappearance. I will definitely be on the lookout for Volume Two because this was great!

(Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time Volume One comes out June 4 from Diamond Book Distributors)

Capote in Kansas - Andy Parks, Chris Samnee

Murder. Not an intricately plotted "whodunit" or fiery passionate fury. But dirty, sad, disturbing actions from real people. That's what Truman Capote decided to use for In Cold Blood - his bold experiment in the realm of the non-fiction "novel." Following in that legacy is Capote in Kansas, a fictionalized tale of Capote's time in Middle America researching his classic book. Capote's struggles with the town, the betrayal, and his own troubled past make this book a compelling portrait of one of the greatest literary talents of the 20th century.

I had just read In Cold Blood last week so this was right up my alley. I enjoyed the exploration of Capote's effect on the people of Holcomb and Garden City. While it's well researched, there is a bit of fantasy that was either going to elevate or hurt the book. While I was a bit eh on it for awhile, I thought the last five pages or so were lovely. Not a great work of art but definitely worth checking out if you enjoy Capote or In Cold Blood.

(A new edition of Capote in Kansas is out July 24 from Diamond Book Distributors)

Genius - Steven T. Seagle, Teddy Kristiansen

Ted Marx works hard at his career as a quantum physicist. But lately the demands of his job have begun to overwhelm him. Then Ted makes a startling discovery: his wife's father once knew Einstein and claims that Einstein entrusted to him a final, devastating secret—a secret even more profound and shattering than the work that led to the first atom bombs. If Ted can convince his father-in-law to tell him what Einstein had to say, his job will be safe. But does he dare reveal Einstein's most dangerous secret to those who might exploit it? In their comic book Genius, acclaimed duo Teddy H. Kristiansen and Steven T. Seagle have created an exploration of the heights of intellectual and scientific achievement and the depths of human emotion and confusion.

I'm still unsure on Genius. The setup is great and I appreciate the climax but it felt a bit too lackluster for me. The art is very different and lends it a unique quality, playing around with focus and seeming more emotive than a typical graphic novel. I think I would have liked this story more in another medium as it felt rather blah. However, the story in and of itself is quite good. I guess what I'm saying is that I liked the story but it didn't excite me.

(Genius is out July 9 from First Second.)

Strange Attractors - Charles Soule, Dan Duncan

In 1978 Dr. Spencer Brownfield saved New York City from itself, bringing the city back from the verge of collapse and ruin. And for 30 years, his small, minute, and unnoticed adjustments to the city’s systems have, à laThe Butterfly Effect, kept the city afloat. Or so he claims to Heller Wilson, a young graduate student that Dr. Brownfield has chosen as his successor. But are Dr. Brownfield’s claims about "complexity math" and its application to the city’s patterns of life real, or are they the ravings of a man broken by the death of his wife and daughter, desperate to find some kind of control over the world around him? Strange Attractors is about control — what you can control in your life and what you can’t, and how important it is to recognize the difference.

Strange Attractors is a really interesting idea. I enjoyed watching Heller try to figure out what was going on and seeing how his life started to crumble under the strain. If you asked me what happened in the book, though, I don't know if I could tell you. It seems like the author knew exactly what was going on and had trouble explaining it to the reader. I understood the basics, of course, but I couldn't explain it to you other than "well, I guess it's basically the butterfly effect but, like, huge." I never understood what the big evil was other than it was a big evil and I never understood quite what was going on to prevent it. I was riveted either way but I wasn't entirely following along and I think that's a bit of a problem. Interesting idea, though.

Bad Machinery Volume 1: The Case of the Team Spirit - John Allison

Shauna. Charlotte. Mildred. Three schoolgirl sleuths. Jack. Linton. Sonny. Three schoolboy investigators. Tackleford. One mid-sized city with a history of countless mysteries. Is there enough room at Griswalds Grammar School for two groups of kid detectives? There better be, because once these kids have set their sights on solving a mystery there's nothing that can derail them. Nothing, except maybe gossip, classwork, new football player cards, torment from siblings, or any number of childhood distractions.

My friend Alex has been telling me to read Bad Machinery for at least a year now so I figured I'd give in and I'm so delighted I did! This book is absolutely lovely! Well crafted and genuinely funny, it follows a bunch of middle school kids while they investigate crimes and grow up in a small English town. It was charming, seriously hilarious at parts and all around great. Pick it up!

The Cute Girl Network - MK Reed, Greg Means

Jane's new in town, and the only people she knows are her new roommates and the dudes at the skate shop where she's just been hired. Then Jane wipes out on her skateboard right in front of Jack's food cart, and finds herself agreeing to go on a date with him. Jane's psyched that her love life is taking a turn for the friskier, but then her roommate — and her roommate's friends — find out about Jack. And it turns out that Jack has a spotty romantic history, to put it mildly. Cue the Cute Girl Network — a phone tree information-pooling group of local single women. Poor Jane is about to learn every detail of Jack's past misadventures… whether she wants to or not. Will love prevail?

OK, I kind of loved this but I also had a few issues with it. Jane and Jack are adorable and completely relatable. The dialogue is grounded and sprinkled with wit, including a great bit where Jane's roommates are reading a Twilight-esque novel to each other around the dinner table. The actual Network bugged me a bit because, as I truly believe this could be a real thing (I think there's a website like this?), it made all girls with the exception of Jane and Jack's roommate (and I guess Jane's roommate who I wish we saw more of) seem awfully petty and awful. Not that men were painted in a better light but there was more of a focus on this. I did like Jane going off on a few men about how they treated women skaters though. Overall, I really enjoyed the story, loved Jack and Jane and wish the book was a little bit longer. :)

(The Cute Girl Network is out from First Second on November 21)

Daytripper - Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba

To be honest, I don't think I would have picked up Daytripper if it wasn't the book for my comics reading group this month. By the time this review is posted, I will have gone and discussed it but since I'm also moving that day, I'm writing it early and hoping I don't feel the need to chance anything afterwards.

Daytripper tells the story of Bras de Oliva Domingos, the son of a famous author and aspiring author himself. He works at the paper writing the obituaries section and waiting for his life to begin. But, as the book points out with its varied chapters and jumps, where exactly does life start?

Each chapter is a small sequence of events in a year of Bras's life. In the first chapter, he's thirty two. In the second, he's twenty one. The book skips around like this throughout, exploring Bras's life story and those around him while showing how each interaction and decision he makes could potentially change his life in drastic ways. 

One thing that I really loved about it is how down to earth it feels and how you really get to know the characters. Even though characters appear and disappear as their relation to Bras's life changes, it's interesting to watch their growth just as much as the lead's. The brothers (did I mention this was written by amazing twin brothers?) are able to fully sketch out complex and individual characters even if they only appear for a chapter or so. I absolutely adored Bras's best friend Jorge, someone who constantly disappeared and reappeared as the time went on. 

There are instances of magical realism in the text but there is no real sense of any magic beyond the magic of everyday life and human connection. Although I am not a very big magical realism fan (mainly because it usually shows up in texts I wouldn't have liked anyway), I think that it really added to the story and to the setting, giving it a Brazilian flavor that really distinguishes the tone. 

I will admit that there is one chapter that I didn't like and felt very out of place to me and that was chapter seven, or 38, I guess. This is a chapter on friendship, something I'm very much in favor of, but I think it goes a bit too far. Although all the chapters have their instances of crossing a line, most of them feel in place with the story and such things that would happen in life, if a bit drastic. This chapter, however, becomes overly theatrical, in my opinion. 

Beyond that, however, I loved every other instance of this book. The art is lovely and very fitting with the text. The story is definitely engaging and touching. I definitely teared up at bits. But then again, I tear up at Youtube videos so I suppose that's not that telling. Would I recommend this book? 100%. It is engaging, thought provoking, inspirational and true. If you pick up one graphic novel this year, it should be this one.

Wrapped Up In You - Dan Jolley & Natalie Nourigat

Well, look at me, being a big time book blogger. This is the first time I'm able to review a book before it's actually been published. I was sent the ARC copy of Wrapped Up in You last week and get to review it early. Mainly because I'm best friends with Natalie Nourigat but what are you going to do?

Wrapped Up in You is one in a series of new books from Lerner Publishing called My Boyfriend is a Monster. Jumping on the whole Twilight bandwagon, Lerner wanted to make a series that both embraced the supernatural mystique that is gripping the nation but is also much more responsible, showing girls with healthier relationships than their sparkly counterparts. Each book in the series uses a different monster: vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's monster, etc. If you couldn't guess from the title, Wrapped Up in You is the mummy book.

Now, of course, romancing someone in thick bandages seems a bit more medical than romantic but no worries, this mummy is of the Incan variety, brought back to life by magic (of course) and much more attractive and muscular than that friend of Abbott and Costello. Oh, and his name's Chuck. Because of course it is.

Our heroine is a girl named Staci Glass, your average highschooler. She's best friends with a girl named Faith but, unfortunately, Faith begins hanging around with the wrong sort of crowd. Drug users? No, magic users. Yep, Faith starts hanging out with witches, who end up bringing Chuck back from the dead, just in time for him to wine and dine Staci and defeat those witches because, you know, they're pretty mean. 

The story, overall, is pretty cute, if a little over-simplistic. It works for its target audience, teenage girls, but it does feel a bit off. I think, for the most part, the story works once it gets past its very odd and uneven beginning. Staci complains about always witnessing bad things happening and whether or not she should tell people about it. That is a weird thing to complain about. It's just so oddly specific about something that happens to everyone. Also, is she just hyper observant? It's a weird problem to have.

The other thing about the beginning that really threw me off was the way Staci gets very worried about Faith "doing magic." When asked if she believes in magic, she says that she doesn't but she also understands that there's things she doesn't know. This bizarre sequence of Staci trying to get advice from several authority figures at her school (including an extremely odd bit with a guidance counselor) just doesn't gel with the rest of the book. Once the mummy is risen(?), of course you have to start believing in magic. It obviously works. But before that, this is a seemingly normal school. Why is Staci so freaked out about Faith doing "magic"? I would understand if maybe she thought something else was going on, drugs or alcohol-related. That would seem more in keeping with the tone. Having her worried about magic before any proof that it existed was off-putting.

Not that Staci wasn't a nice main character; she was, even despite her awful name. She was genuinely nice and sweet, caring about the, admittedly few, friends she had. It just felt like she was quite bland. She didn't really have anything that made her stand out, other than the fact that things happened to her. Now, I'm sure part of this is just the fact that there weren't a whole lot of pages for Jolley to work with but she still felt rather flat. 

Also flat? Her relationship with Chuck. Once again, I fear this is mainly the fault of the book's length. Chuck isn't even introduced until the end of the first chapter. But he's definitely much more fleshed out than Staci, having a clear personality and motives for his actions. But despite him being a well defined character, the relationship between him and Staci seems forced. She's the only girl he's interacted with since he died (awkward) and they go from walking around to kissing in about two seconds flat. It was hard to believe that this was a real relationship. The end was sweet but it definitely felt rushed. Probably because it was.

The overall plot was good and engaging. The bits with the witches were fun and the police detectives definitely added something to the mix. It's a fun book to read. It just felt a bit forced at times. 

As for the art, well, I'm a bit biased. Personally, I thought it was a perfect tone for the book. It was never too far out but it was also whimsical and went with the story. I especially loved all the museum pieces. Chuck definitely looked like an Incan and Faith looked like the sort of personal that would twirl through life. It all connected with the larger context.

Wrapped Up in You is a good book for what it wants to be. You can tell there was room for more if there was just the time or place to add it in but for a fun romp through magic fights and Incan delights, than this is the book for you.

Wrapped Up in You will be available from Lerner Group in October 2012.

I Kill Giants - Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura

I haven't managed to read anything new since last week so I'm going to revisit a book I read about a year ago that I think is one of the best graphic novels I've ever read. It's called I Kill Giants and you should really check it out.

It's the story of a young girl named Barbara Thorsen. She is, of course, a giant killer. She has made it her duty to keep her town safe from giants. And she is very good at it.

She inhabits a world where she's just a bit different. She takes to wearing rabbit ears and is always a bit out of step with the rest of the student population at her school. But she's very self confident and assured, a really lovable and tough character.

What you come to find while you're reading, however, is that Barbara's giants aren't quite what she says they are. And there are some things that Barbara fears, despite her protestations. As the narrative unravels, you witness a coming of age tale really unlike any other. And you may just tear up a bit.

I loved I Kill Giants. It was leant to me in my early days of comic reading by my friend Tally and I ate it up in one night. It's engrossing in a way that not many stories are. It pulls you in and makes you question what you're reading, just as you're cheering Barbara on.

That's the real charm of the novel: it is nothing of what you think it is. I didn't start to realize the real story until I was a good halfway through it and once you see what is really going on, it hits you like an emotional dumbbell to the stomach. What seemed like a fun, if silly, little tale becomes so much more, a story of a young girl coming to an understanding with something she doesn't want to have to deal with. Something that no one really wants to deal with. It's hard and it's painful and it hurts and it's true. I dare you to not tear up while you're reading it. I may have sobbed. You know, just a little.

The characters are all well thought out and created. Barbara, of course, is a favorite but everyone else is just as developed. From her family to the kids at school, each character brings something to the story that needs to be there. It's a well formed narrative that has no excess or waste. The only issue I have with the supporting cast is a stylistic one. The principal is also drawn with fantastical cartoonishness that is only usually seen on Barbara. I wish the illustrator would have left Barbara as the only character that seemed somewhat magical as fits in with her depiction and her view of the world at large. But that's a minor thing.

Although the title is "I Kill Giants," I want to point out that this is not a fantasy book. It has elements of the fantastical but on the whole, it is very much set in the real world as becomes more apparent as time passes. This is a story of a young girl coping with the world around. It might seem a bit magical at first but all things pass.

I cannot recommend this book enough. If you like graphic novels and you haven't picked this up before, you need to do it. If you've always been curious about comics, this is a great first read. It has emotion, depth, silliness and strong characters. I really hope that you can check it out and love it as much as I do.

From Hell - Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

I'd always wanted to read From Hell but had never really had the motive to buy the huge graphic novel. Luckily, however, my graphic novel book club decided to read it for the latest meeting and not only did I get to buy it, I got a discount as well. Lucky!

However, since the meeting got postponed and now I can't attend the next one, I thought I'd turn my thoughts into a review. Because, honestly, this book needs to be talked about.

Originally released in 10 issues, the collected novel tells the story of the Jack the Ripper murders through an extremely convoluted but very ingenious theory linking events and answering almost everything there is to question about the situation. 

What makes the book really unique, however, is that Moore does away with all of the whodunit and makes this more of a how and why done it. You know right from the beginning who the murderer is; it's never a question. The reader follows right from the beginning with the birth of a bastard royal through to the retirement of the policemen involved and "Jack's" death. In the 120 years or so since the murders, who the killer is has been discussed to death. This new take on the issue is a breath of fresh air.

The complicated web of theory that Moore creates is impressive and confusing. It is just unimaginable how he came up with his solutions. Almost anything that could be conceivably questioned is answered. But at the same time, he also likes to throw in people and events that are timely but not necessarily connected. Oscar Wilde appears for no reason other than he was conveniently alive and in the neighborhood when one scene was being written. Although it's fun to see Wilde, it does sit a little uneasily.

Truly, both the downside and the incredibly helpful thing of this book are the notes in the back. When I began reading this at first, I got through about the first four chapters before being confused by a panel and flipping back to see the endnotes. And that's when I realized that this is what I was supposed to be reading. Notes are pages long and explain things that there is no earthly way you would have figured out on your own. I had to go back and begin again; this time, I read a few pages, then the notes, constantly flipping back and forth. 

Without the notes, I doubt I would have gotten a quarter of what I got out of the book. They explain a lot and even go into more depth with things briefly mentioned. Casual remarks would have been overlooked of their significance and I would not have recognized important characters. However, is a book truly readable if you have to read the notes to truly understand it? I can't imagine reading through the entire thing without touching the notes and actually knowing what the entire plot is, ignoring the small details. I was getting lost while reading, hence why I turned to the notes in the first place. Is that a good sign?

No matter what you think, the book is definitely thought provoking, entertaining and all around a good read. I was really looking forward to discussing this with my comic book friends but all you out there in internet land will have to take over for me. What are your thoughts? 

Oh, and there was a movie with Johnny Depp at some point. Ignore that. It's rubbish.