The Wrenchies -- Graphic Novel

The story starts out with two young boys who find themselves at the entrance of a cave in the woods. They enter and their lives and the world as we know it are changed forever!!!!! This book is SO DENSE I should have read it twice in a row. It is so full of imagery and symbolism, references to other literature, movies and sub culture.

The story follows a group of young children who call themselves The Wrenchies in a time where children are the only humans left. 20 somethings get changed into demons/zombies who work for the adults, and the children plan to kill them all in order to stay alive on the shit world they live in now.

We catch up with the first two boys later on in the story and find out that the reason the planet is like this is because of them, and the only way to save Earth and help it to heal is to find the two boys. The Wrenchies is a story of magic, fantasy, regret and youth. Its no wonder this book cannot stay on our shelves for more than 1 day since it came out in September. I think this book is going to be a classic.

Fun Home

Written by Alison Bechdel, Fun Home is the story of Alison's dysfunctional relationship with her father.

It is a very deep and intricate look at both of their lives, together and apart in order to learn more about the relationship they had with one another and the effect of that on the other person.

It starts out very loose but further into the story, you get sucked in because it is so beautifully written that its almost like you forget you are reading a coming-of-age graphic novel, and you are reading a very poignant, serious piece of writing about humans and their connections with each other.

Not a light read whatsoever. The story itself is really dense with very heavy themes of death, suicide and secrets, but it also is lengthy too and full of really great images so be prepared to spend some time with this book, while you are reading it as well as after. It will linger.

Bitch Planet -- Issue #01

Modern feminist sci-fi take on women-in-prison flicks.

Hello! This is amazing!

Set in the not too distant future, there is now a planet that women, and only women, are sent to for non-compliance. Non-compliance is anything from murder, petty theft, adultery, weight, race, etc. Everything about this planet, Bitch Planet, is telling these women that it is their fault for being there, and that their existence at home was not only a threat but a sin, and therefor humanity at large is better off for them being removed from the planet. Chaos ensues and will likely continue on and on.

In just one issue, I am hooked. There is a really awesome essay at the end of the issue about why feminism matters and its connection to Bitch Planet by Danielle Henderson. I now have an extreme amount of adrenaline and find myself once again supremely glad that I was born a woman and living in the time period that I do. Thank you Kelly Sue Deconnick for being an ultimate baller.

Gotham Academy -- Issues #2, #3

Since this series is pretty new still, I wanted to catch up on what has been put out so far, #4 comes out the end of January.

Olive gets partnered with her least favorite person in school for a project and together they find a book in the library about the Cobblepot ghost. The school's north hall has been blocked off and the two girls with the help of Maps and some other delinquent go there in search of the ghost.

Olive's memory is really spotty but when she see's the entrance to the north hall she realizes that she has been there before, and not alone. They find a hole in the floor, and someone or something is in the whole and grabs Olive.

Nothing really crazy has happened, its still mostly about high school drama. I feel like this would be a good recommendation for a teen who isn't really allowed to read violent stories but also wants some suspense.

Shaft -- Issue #01

Classic origin storyline for the blacksploitation character, John Shaft.

This young boxer is headed to the rink, but his boss tells him that because of a deal he has to take a hit and lose this round so that his boss can make some money. Lots of flashbacks to when John was in the army, when he was living on the streets as a younger child getting in fights. John Shaft decides to take things into his own hands because he sits down for nobody. He wins the round and has an amazing fight. Then afterwards he gets beat up by one of his bosses hit-men. The muscle goes easy on him though and tells him that he needs to lay low and not box anymore, come up with another plan for his life.

Pretty good read. Interested to see how far this goes, or if this comic book version of Shaft ends up being a lot like the Shaft from the movies. Mostly with the treatment of women. I'm curious to see if someone would try that in (nearly) 2015, even if it is supposed to be telling the classic story.

Escape from New York -- Issue #01

Escape from New York is originally a movie, made in 1981 with Kurt Russell as soldier turned rebel, Snake Plissken. The story is set in then-futuristic 1996 where New York City has been turned into a giant prison. There is a plane crash over the city and the President of the United States, although alive, is now in this chaos being held prisoner. Snake gets called in to save the President and this very important tape. Long story short, Snake does his job, saves the day but publicly humiliates the President by switching out the tapes for his live speech with a dummy tape. End scene.

This comic is the sequel to the movie (although there already was a sequel to the movie, called Escape from LA, but I guess everyone is forgetting that detail) So here we find Snake Plissken, getting out of jail for his crime, a few years later, on the run from the government. He meets a crew of satanic freaks who are headed to Florida, which has within the last 6 years, gained freedom from the US, and is now a separate country with no laws or rules, governed by a set of gun-loving twins named Romulus and Remus.

The art is made to look dated, it really feels like you're just watching a continuation of the movie, or reading a sequel comic that was actually made in like 1983 a few years after the original movie. It is outrageously cheesy, very over the top, but that is also what makes it very, very awesome.

Something else that is cool is the type for this comic is the same as it was for the original movie.

Southern Bastards - Volume 1

Friday Night Lights meets No Country for Old Men. A perfect partnership of small-town-everyone-knows-everyone-romanticism and one-lonely-and-angry-dude-out-for-justice.

An old man returns to his hometown to clean up his deceased fathers house and realizes that things are exactly as they were when he left 40 years ago, but worse. The football coach is leading a crime mob in the county, eating bbq by day, burying bodies under the bleachers by night.

Earl only planned to stay for 2 days to pack everything up but a series of events makes him change his mind. Letting his anger get the best of him, Earl stays in this small messed up town in Alabama to get some answers and try and free the town of the crime that has consumed it the last 40 years.

I think this story is absolutely crazy, and I'm very into it. Almost every other word is a swear word or slang or offensive in some way, and there is a lot of blood and violence, but the way that its written is exciting. The art fits the story so well, it is like these two Jason's were made to work together.

Letter 44 -- Volume 1

It is inauguration day for the new President who learns through a letter from his predecessor a huge secret that has been kept from himself and the American people. 7 years ago, construction started in the cosmos by a group of alien beings. Unsure of what they are building, NASA sent a group of scientists out to learn more.

With construction almost complete, and the scientists nearing the spacecraft, the new president must now take over the role of responsibility not just for our nation but for the planet as a whole.

Much less political than I first thought, more sci-fi, thriller. Its super great! This is a story that I feel like most people would get down with, especially if it was a movie. Luckily though, it does exist, so we don't have to wait for it to be a movie, we can read it as a comic!

Here - Richard McGuire

Richard McGuire's new graphic novel, Here is actually an extension of a 36 panel comic he made 25 years ago. One view - the space of the living room in his childhood home, as seen throughout history. It is beautiful, captivating and a visually stunning piece of work. I think I really admire the book as a graphic novel, but I also find the entire process, the gallery show, the history behind the comic itself and why it took 25 years for Richard to work through Here as a full length graphic novel so interesting.

Each page is beautiful and shares just the right amount of information. I found this to be incredibly overwhelming to read at work because it is such an honest and reflective concept, but nevertheless, an extremely important and powerful read.

It would have been so awesome to see the gallery show prior to the release of this book last week but unfortunately, the show was only up for 2 months. I don't normally add in additional graphics from the comics or graphic novels that I'm reading, but this one is too beautiful not to!!

Batman Eternal - Volume 1

So GOOD WHY IS IT OVER

I think its such a neat idea that DC put out three, one year long, weekly stories. Waiting a whole month (or sometimes more if an issue is pushed back) feels like such a tease. I like the idea of only having to wait one week for the next issue to come out.

My coworker recommended me this volume to read which is issues #1-21 of Batman Eternal. The story arch started in March of 2014 so it has a few months left. I think they are on issue #37 right now. So its all current stuff and the idea is so awesome.

I am really into the idea of having multiple artists and (one main, but some other co-writers) writers working collaboratively on one story so it can continue to come out each week. I felt like the story writing was cohesive throughout but sometimes the switch of artists was hard to get used to. I felt like for the most part, everyone's characters looked the same but Jason Bard looked so different each issue it was hard to get past.

This story has some MAJOR plot twists which I am down with but also struggling currently because this volume ended with a major one, and volume 2 doesn't come out until the summer so that means I have to get single issues starting with 22 and read from there on because I must know whats up with Jim Gordon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I also found that this book introduced a lot of characters (like most superhero universes do) but something that is helpful for me to do is read it, and any character I don't know, I write their name down and then cross reference it with wikipedia if they keep coming up and I'm still confused about who they are. I found it to be really helpful for characters like Jim Corrigan and Red Hood who I didn't know before. But! In reading about Jim Corrigan, I realized that I already DO know his character from reading the first issue of Gotham at Midnight. But I had no idea of his importance or back story then.

Anyway, very cool read. I also now am super interested in one of DC's other year long story archs, Futures End which is about Gotham but is set 5 years into the future. I don't see how everyone can keep these stories straight because they are all about the same place but totally different things happening at one time.

Soppy - Phillippa Rice

 I could not believe how cute this story is. Still can't.

About half way through I started realizing I was reading it desperately fast and felt really nervous so I stopped and thought about my feelings and what was happening was concern that the story was too cute that something dreadful was going to happen by the end and it would be a horrible ending. Kind of like when you're watching a video and then you start thinking ''is this a *demon vid", because it can't possibly just be a normal video. I just really couldn't believe it was REALLY THAT CUTE OF A STORY.

Each page is a separate event in the life of this couple. Seemingly boring stuff to the regular joe who doesn't know what true love really is. Just doing things with each other, going places, talking about things, helping each other do stuff, happy memories... but as a whole collection, they are remarkably charming reflections about their relationship as a whole.

The art is really great too!!!!!!

Very easy to relate to unless you are evil or only want to think about how lonely you are. Then don't read this book.

*demon vids were really popular when I first started using the internet circa 2000. videos where you're supposed to stare really close to the screen and focus on this calm nature scene and then a demon face pops up and scares you and then you are scarred for the rest of your life and have to get picked up from birthday parties when your friends are watching things like ghostbusters or the witches.

This One Summer - Jillian and Mariko Tamaki

Our current book of the month!! The story follows two young (12 y/o-ish) girls who are summertime friends because both of their families have summer cottages that they go to each year for a few weeks.

It is a classic coming of age story, zoomed in to viewing just a few weeks of this transitional period. This seems like their last summer as children, which is both heartbreaking and endearing to witness- there is a struggle with the girls because they are not quite old enough to do the things that they want to, want to be seen a certain way by an older teen crowd, but also aren't sure if they are too old for the things they did last summer or years past.

I read this book while at work, I could not put it down. Even though I didn't have the exact childhood as these characters, they are written in such an honest and relatable way, it was easy for me to reflect on my own time in those moments.

Such a wonderful, horribly nostalgic read. Funny, charming, honest and great.

Gotham by Midnight -- Issue #01

Commissioner Gordon has a secret team of police that work the midnight shift in Gotham protecting, surveying and taking care of supernatural occurrences throughout Gotham.

These two girls who had been missing show up at their parents house but aren't speaking a known language. Their parents are concerned and call these guys in to help them out.

They figure out that the girls have been possessed by something, or have been really close to death recently. The issue ends with these two dudes going into the woods and finding an eerie school room cabin full of other children sitting in a classroom and a demon nun writing on a chalkboard. Once they open the door to that school room, the two girls at their parents house lose their marbles and start going crazy.

Once again, hard to really tell if I am down with this story or if I want to read further because of these damn cliffhangers.

Ody-C -- Issue #01

Psychedelic fantasy art in combination with the epic retelling of Homer's Oddysey = mind blowing.

I liked this for a number of reasons !!

1. At the front, there is a massive fold out timeline of events for where the story takes place including color coded key with a map of the galaxies with a giant 6 page spread on the reverse side. It introduces the story really well, as well as a taste of the really beautiful artwork.

2. The artwork in this is really something else. From what I've read so far in the first month of comic books, this is my favorite artwork. Each page is unique in it's layout format, which makes it exciting to read, not that typical grid format is boring, but I don't think that would have worked well for this story because it is so dramatic and fantastic. Each page has so much color and there is so much depth and layering to each page, it really is a beautiful work of art. There is so much going on, but Ward keeps everything so well balanced with his use of line.

3. Gender roles reversed! Though it is the retelling of Homer's Oddysey, all of the men are now women so REALLY every character that you are reading about in this issue is female, powerful, strong, complex character. Fraction said he wanted to create a futuristic Wonder Woman type set of characters for his daughter to look up to. They are not overly sexual or dramatically 'feminine' like most female roles in comic books, but they are also not just a mirror image of their male counterparts from the original Oddysey with breasts. They are women, which, I obviously think, is really cool.

Axis -- Issue #01

Holy smokes so MANY CHARACTERS TO REMEMBER.
Reading this I was down, but I only know the main characters from watching a few movies here and there. In the front of this issue it gives a back story to what is important to this story arch which was helpful, but then it lists all the people that are in this ONE SINGLE ISSUE and it's 39.

39 characters...........hi.


Uncanny Avengers, Avengers, X-Men, Uncanny X-men, Evil Guys, Uncanny Evil guys, Side orders, Uncanny Side orders. The list is never ending.

I feel like I need to start at square one for these Marvel teams because there is so much back story to each character and how they all relate to each other it is SO overwhelming, how would someone even remember it all unless they started reading these as a child. I feel.

It was cool, and I really liked reading it, but I felt pretty lost the whole time because I didn't know who was on what team and I kept reverting back to the front page to figure out who was who.

I want like a chronological timeline of events, a list of character traits, what skills they have, who they fight for, who their enemies are, how they joined this crew. I feel like I need that BEFORE I start reading any comics about them or else I am just going to be ??????????????????????????? very lost.

Bee and Puppycat -- Issue #01

This story arch might be too twee to be real.

Bee is a loveable girlie who is unemployed and was down in the dumps about it until she meets Puppycat, a magical stray animal and the two of them become instant pals and lots of weird stuff starts happening to Bee.

Together they go on a bunch of adventures, the colors are pastel and sparkly and cute and great.

A real fun, sweet ol' read.
Probably good for people who like Adventure Time, Sailor Moon, etc.

Batgirl - Issue #01

Barf.

I'm not into this.
I don't want to talk about how much I am not into this.

Gotham Academy -- Issue #01

This story is following a number of academy students around Gotham Academy.

The main girl Olive with white hair is suuuuuper moody and acting like she has changed so much since the last year and wants to break up with her boyfriend and doesn't know why she feels so different and blah blah.

The younger girl, Maps is the younger sister of Olive's current boyfriend who she wants to break up with. Olive is supposed to be mentoring Maps this year because she is a first year student at the academy.

Bruce Wayne comes and visits the academy and Olive gets in trouble and somehow Bruce already knows who she is. Olive is NOT down with Batman, and she seems very angsty about the whole Batman hero in her hometown and is annoyed when people are talking about it.

There is talk that there is a ghost in the school, there was an incident that no one is speaking about yet in detail and the issue ends with a yellow eye peeking out of a crack in Olive's bedroom.

The Life After -- Issue #01

The story begins with this guy talking about his life and how it is the same every day, he goes to work he goes on the bus home a girl drops a scarf he goes to his apartment he watches a cooking show he goes to bed he wakes up and brushes his teeth.

One day on the bus he is thinking about the girl on the bus and how he has never seen her face so he gets up and tries to follow her off the bus but the driver grabs his arm and won't let him leave.

Every time the boy touches someone in this story an electric shock happens and the boy is aware of information that happened either in the past or in the future (not sure which) and he is taken there as well.

He meets Earnest Hemmingway who tells him that the boy is now dead and they are in purgatory for suicides. The plot of this story arch reminds me of a movie I saw once called Wristcutters: A Love Story which is about the afterlife for people who have committed suicide.

Seems like it is set in the future so its like thousand and thousands of years of people are in this story, all of them at once in this place - which I think would be really cool.

Intersect - Issue #01

I have no clue what I just read.

Thats the thing about first issues is that if the story is all over the place, the issue is over and then you still have no idea who the characters are, what is going on, blah blah.

I know its supposed to come off as intriguing but I just find it to be a waste of time, I'm not really interested in what I was reading so why should I read the second issue to figure out more of the story that already doesn't make sense to me.

From what I've gathered, there is a girl and also another person who has one body on the front of them and one body on the back of them and can switch back and forth and they are running from something and it might be post apocalyptic. But who knows.

I wasn't too down with the artwork, it was really washed out like it was done with watercolor, and the only dark ink on the page was the text which really wasn't done very well, so many times I had no idea who was talking.

At the end of the issue there were like 4 or 5 pages, looked like a mini cut-out zine that was all garbled text and yeah, not down.

Teen Dog -- Issue #1

Teen Dog.


teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen dog

a high school pizza loving skater dodge with a punk rock girlie bff.

that is pretty much it as far as the first issue goes.
and it is cool.

I think it would be better as a cartoon show rather than a comic because nothing really happens at all.

Buddah -- Osamu Tezuka

I found myself really enjoying this mirror manga. Tezuka explains the origins of Buddism and the birth of Gautama Budda in his own unique way. I was surprised with how violent and graphic the story was, but enjoyed the back history and side stories of each character.

Even though it was a fairly large volume, I'm still not really sure who each of these characters are in relation to the origin of Buddism, which is intriguing. I read about them for the entire volume, but still not sure what their part is in all of it. Interested to find out each person's part.

I think this is the first volume of 7, and I am super eager to read the rest of the volumes. The illustrations are really beautiful and I LOVE the way that all of the animals are drawn - similar to Disney style of animals from Bambi and Fox and the Hound, super big eyes and so so so cute.

Heck -- Zander Cannon

 Heck starts out with the lead character, Heck at his fathers funeral and we learn that he was quite a big-shot in high school. He has returned home to pack up his fathers house and take care of family business.

Heck teams up with Elliot, the faithful water-boy from Heck's high school football team and together they start packing up the house. They find a gateway to hell and start their own business communicating with those in hell for those on Earth that want final closure.

It is a really imaginative book, inspired by Dante's Inferno. Heck travels down through the different levels of Hell throughout the story for his job and encounters different troubles, meets people along the way, learns more about himself but learns the most through his selfless friend Elloit.

As dark as this book would seem to be, since it is about hell, it is really charming and mainly about friendship.

Spread - Issue #01

Holy smokes. This story is so intense, I really wish I didn't have just the first single issue of this story.

From what I know so far, it is the end of the world, there is some crazy pandemic called The Spread which pretty much kills anything that it comes into contact with. The Spread is killing off humans and there are only a few people left. There is a outsider, dark, quiet character named 'No' who is immune to The Spread so he is going around killing people that have been infected as well as just trying to stay alive by not being murdered by The Spread.

We're introduced to the narrator midway through the story who is a child, like in Saga, so you know this baby not only survives but is also a super important baller, or at least I hope so. They call her 'Hope' because her BABY TEARS DESTROY THE SPREAD LIKE ACID.

and then the issue is over. So............................

The Woods - Issue #01

The Woods! So great! Where do all these writers come up with these ideas!

A entire high school in Wisconsin gets abducted/transplanted onto another planet during the middle of the day.

Weird stuff starts happening, the sky goes dark, alien beasts start attacking the school and eating students. A senior student computer geek gathers a crew of misfits to travel to the heart of the woods, as he believes this will lead them to answers about how and why they were abducted.

Definitely will continue reading on, and I'm glad the story took the turn that it did. At first I thought I was just going to be reading about a bunch of high school seniors who don't know what to do after they graduate and try to find where they belong in the world, but luckily for me and luckily for these writers, they have imagination and the story got wild real fast.

Deadly Class - Volume 1

Deadly class is a really awesome read.

The story follows one boy who used to be homeless at his new school where he and his classmates are training to be assassins. It is a very graphic story, but that should be assumed

I would definitely continue reading this story, because of the art. My favorite part of this volume was the coloring. Most pages are monochromatic, which I find to be really balanced and easy to look at, and the color hues that were used look so nice against the black ink. There are scenes throughout with only hues of complimentary colors which looks amazing, and the second half of this volume the crew is in Vegas and are tripping on acid -- the colors and drawings are remarkable.

I found myself really liking this story. The main character is likeable even though he is clearly a psychopath. He is definitely troubled but even still, you find yourself wanting him to be safe, be okay, stay out of trouble.

God Hates Astronauts - Issue #01

 This comic is insane and perfect.

Nothing in this storyline makes any sense and somehow everything makes total sense.

I should say that this is not for certain types of people for sure, but those that grew up finding stupid cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants or Captain Underpants hilarious, like myself, this garbage is for you and it is not garbage, its gold.

My favorite character is the 3D ghost who gives back stories when necessary and pops in every now and then just to say hi.

The whole thing is a trip.
and I'm very down.

The Fade Out - Issue #01

Very righteous noir comic with mystery, intrigue, murder and more. Lead character is a male, who in my mind is Leonardo DiCaprio - seems like he would play this guy pretty well.

Lets see..

A guy wakes up! Next to a dead woman! Who done it! I have no idea! I have to read more!

Cliffhangers are a trip and these dudes know what is up. Reading one issue of The Fade Out is not enough, not even close to being enough.

Captain Marvel - Volume 1

 I wanted to know more about female lead superhero's so my co-worker recommended Captain Marvel.

This is one of the first superhero comics I've ever read so I was very overwhelmed. The way the story was laid out and the graphics seemed really busy to me, compared to the other comics I have been reading, overall I found it to be confusing because all these new superhero characters were popping in and out, and I had no idea who they were! 

I haven't read anything about Guardians of the Galaxy or seen the new movie so this was my first introduction to these characters so I really didn't know much about what was going on or how they were all connected to each other.

Even though I felt intimidated while reading this, I still enjoyed it. Captain Marvel is one bad bitch who is best buds with her cat and loves being a pilot over everything else. She leaves her hot boyfriend on earth so she can pursue her dreams of going to space and learning more about herself (which rules!!). She seems to have a large passion for those who are less fortunate and believes in loyalty and justice. One groovy gal.

Mind MGMT - Volume 1: The Manager

 Mind MGMT - Volume One: The Manager

While reading through this I was very interested with the themes of dreams and mystery and mind control, it reminded me of the TV show LOST which I am, to put it lightly, very into. Then! After I was done I read the forward to the book, which was written by one of the co-creators of LOST. WHICH IS CRAZY I THOUGHT THE FLIGHT 815 THING WAS JUST ME BEING A FREAK ABOUT LOST. But I feel like definitely now, it is something else. Something cooler.

While reading this collection, I found myself becoming very into the story. But a lot was going on with the story and it wasn't as fast of a read at I thought it was going to be. It is not a light read at all, it was in fact very dense.

I read half the book one day before work and told my manager that I wasn't able to get through the entire book overnight. He then told me that there are three story lines going on at the same time. The first is what you are reading, the second is what you are seeing, and the third is the secret story written in the binding of the book.

I hadn't noticed the third story at all so I'm really glad I was able to finish the book another day. I also hadn't thought about how what I was reading and what I was seeing really were two different stories. My imagination was following so closely with the narrative that everything seemed to flow together really nicely, less needed to be said because of how descriptive the imagery was.

Can't wait to read the other volumes of this. A very cool story.

Batman - Court of Owls Volume 1

"We are who we choose to be, Bruce. Not the role the past says we should play." - Dick Grayson

 I had my third day at work on Wednesday and while I've been reading a number of different story lines for homework, I told my manager that I am really very intimidated by superhero comics. He gave me Batman, Court of Owls to read, said it was a good starting point.

WAS HE RIGHT OR WHAT

First of all, this was amazing.

I wasn't too familiar with the storyline of Batman because I've only seen the Christopher Nolan Batman movies, so Dick Grayson (Nightwing), Tim Drake (Red Robin) and Damian Wayne (Robin) were all new characters for me. They weren't really in this volume too much but I'd like to learn more about their characters/what their scene is to the overall Batman story. The idea of someone or a group of people (the Court of Owls) knowing more than Batman about Gotham city is scary and intriguing, and the Court of Owls is a whole group of villians, not just one villian, so Batman really has no idea who they are or where they are or what is even going on!

Last night before I started reading this I was thinking to myself, I can just go online and watch a classic Batman movie to learn more about Batman, being a whiny 21st century baby who can't use their own imagination. But luckily, my computer battery was dead and I have lost my charger so I had no choice but to read this and I feel bad for ever thinking that I might not be into this storyline. Let me say it again...

I AM SUPER DOWN WITH THIS BOOK. The writing is incredible, from the very beginning I was hooked. I feel like I need to get the second volume immediately and forgo all other plans for the rest of my life until I have read everything in this series.

Lumberjanes - Issue #01

 this! is! amazing!

I love this story, these characters, their humor, everything.

Five cool girls at a sleep-away camp with their Lumberjanes' troop (think Girl Scouts but....cooler) get into trouble, solve mysteries, encounter supernatural animals, etc, etc. It rules.

The humor is awesome, the characters are well written.
Each girl has their own personality and I found the whole thing to be very empowering. Wished I had something this cool to read when I was younger, but glad I can read it now!

Plus there was a very cool mixtape at the end of the issue, of all female musicians for kicking ass.

Outcast - Issue #01

 Spooky for sure. But I'm also into it.

Horror comic about demons and exorcisms. It seems as though this poor guy has been trying to live his life but everyone he loves keeps getting possessed by demons, his mother, his wife, etc etc.

He struggles to come to terms with this (obviously) and figure out why he seems to have the skill to exercise these demons. Non-believers think that he is trouble and abusive, so he isn't allowed to be in contact with his family any longer.

The art and writing is very intriguing. The story and concept are very dark but I can't stop reading!

Saga - Trade Paperback - Volume 1

"Looks like a lot of weird sex" - my boyfriend after flipping through it

First trade paperback I've read. Co-workers and customers alike said I should read this first because it is right now the most popular storyline out right now. And I can totally see why.

The characters are really likeable and with the story being narrated in the future by the young child, you can tell that this baby is going to see some real shit and! live to tell you about it! Which rules!

The main couple has a Romeo/Juliet love story which rules because forbidden love is universally captivating.

This book is set in a fantasy realm, but like most well-written fantasy realms or science fiction stories, the characters are dealing with core issues that humans can relate to. I found these characters to be very charming and likeable.

When I first learned about the concept of trade paperbacks vs single issue comics, I didn't understand why someone would wait until the trade came out and then read everything all at once. After reading the first trade of Saga, I completely understand. One single issue is NOT ENOUGH, NOT EVEN CLOSE TO ENOUGH of the amount of Saga I want/need/must read. But I need to cool it or else I will catch up and then have to wait like everyone else.

Sabrina - Issue #01

 I am an idiot because I read through this entire issue without first realizing that this Sabrina was actually Sabrina. But now it all makes so much sense.

This Sabrina is a little more dark and a little more spooky than the TV show Sabrina or the classic comic Sabrina, but she still lives with her two aunts, still is a witch, still goes to public school and falls in love with some boy in her class and uses spells to get her way for little things.

I like this dark Sabrina, much more serious.