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.