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.