Author: Gene Ambaum

522 results.

Graphic Novel Review: Down To The Bone: A Leukemia Story by Catherine Pioli

By Gene Ambaum on March 30, 2023 at 6:20 am

Down To The Bone: A Leukemia Story by Catherine Pioli. Translated by J.T. Mahany. Graphic Mundi, 2022. 9781637790342. While trying to get treatment for her sciatica, Pioli was diagnosed with leukemia. She spent more than a month in the hospital starting treatment, which was followed by chemotherapy after she was able to go home. This is her story, from pain to diagnosis to telling her family and then enduring treatment. Throughout it all, she maintains a sense of humor and produces some amazing comics despite how much her strength deteriorates. The narrative, the information about leukemia, and the details about her treatment that the book shares all have a sense of hope that made the graphic novel’s abrupt ending, with a short text note about Pioli’s death in 2017, all the more devastating. I love how exact the illustrations feel, and in particular how she draws some people, objects, and backgrounds as colorless to emphasize other details and people. Plus […]

Graphic Novel Review: We The People! (Big Ideas That Changed The World) by Don Brown

By Gene Ambaum on March 28, 2023 at 8:39 am

We The People! (Big Ideas That Changed The World) by Don Brown. Amulet, 2022. 9781419757389. 124pp. including notes on specific pages, which name sources for quotes (yay!), a selected bibliography, author’s notes, a fairly detailed index, a timeline, and a short biography of Abigail Adams. Brown’s history of American democracy is narrated by Abigail Adams, wife of President John Adams. It begins thousands of years ago before there were countries (with a roast beef sandwich). (She’s a brilliant narrator, and she’s very well-positioned to comment on how men ruled.) The first leaders and the first cities (and Hammurabi’s Code) lead to monarchies, but Adams explains that even thousands of years ago there were republics in India, Africa, and Australia, which leads to a quick description of the republic in ancient Greece. This all takes up a little more than 20 pages of this fast-paced graphic nonfiction book, which makes a point of looking beyond common myths about the founding of […]

Trans Rights Are Human Rights #transrightsreadathon

By Gene Ambaum on March 25, 2023 at 10:45 am

A few edits for clarity and grammar and such. Let me know if these edits are okay. Willow speaking: as some of you know, I am a transgender woman. Right now trans rights are under attack across the globe. Many conservative politicians and demagogues don’t want trans people to be safe. They don’t want us to be visible. To those in power I say: too bad. Trans visibility is important. Someone you know is trans. A trans person you know is afraid to come out to their parents, afraid to make friends, afraid to be bullied, or excommunicated. When I was young, every trans person I saw in the world was my hero. They had the courage to make themselves seen in a world that was hostile to them, to declare their real name in front of God and everybody. Trans visibility is a celebration of the pillars of our society: freedom of information, the free exchange of ideas, and […]

Bookstabber Podcast Episode 33: Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

By Gene Ambaum on March 24, 2023 at 9:38 am

Gene and Willow struggle to remember the one true podcast, the podcast which casts all others as shadows. Can they ally themselves with sibling podcasts and take the throne, or will this book lock them in a dungeon? This marks the beginning of The Year of Sword and Sorcery, which Gene is excited for. Willow estimates it will last three months.

Graphic Novel Review: Best Friends by Shannon Hale, artwork by LeUyen Pham

By Gene Ambaum on March 23, 2023 at 6:21 am

Best Friends by Shannon Hale, artwork by LeUyen Pham. First Second, 2019. 9781250317469. I’m a huge fan of Hale’s Rapunzel graphic novel and her Princess in Black series, which Pham illustrates. But for no good reason it took an overwhelming amount of library folks telling me how great Hale’s autobiographical graphic novel series is to finally get me to pick one up. This, the second in the series, lives up to every positive thing everyone said about it. It’s 1985, and Shannon is working at a library in Salt Lake City. She feels like she’s not quite a kid anymore, and her friends are as excited as she is to be starting sixth grade (and middle school). The most popular girl decides to share a locker with Shannon, and Shannon even tries to be friendly to a girl who used to bully her. (The latter doesn’t seem to be working out so well.) As some of the girls in her […]

Graphic Novel Review: Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

By Gene Ambaum on March 21, 2023 at 6:32 am

Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser adaptation and script by Howard Chaykin, pencils by Mike Mignola, Inks by Al Williamson, colors by Sherlyn van Valkenburgh, and letters by Michael Heisler. Dark Horse, 2007. 9781593077136. Originally published by Marvel Epic in 1991. I remember trying to read this graphic novel adaptation in my 20s and I didn’t get it. But I just reread it and now I plan to seek out Leiber’s books and stories to read more. Maybe there’s something about being older that makes this buddy book more appealing. Or maybe it’s that I’ve read so many crappy sword and sorcery books lately that my brain is relieved to finally find a good one. The dialogue is excellent, as are the layouts. This is pre-Hellboy work by Mignola, and it’s fun to see how Williamson’s inking changes the tone of his art vs. when Mignola inks his own work. Inside there’s evil wizardry, beautiful women, booze, and way […]

Support the #transrightsreadathon this week!

By Gene Ambaum on March 20, 2023 at 7:38 am

Willow and I are supporting this week’s Trans Rights Readathon and hope you will, too!   Please read a book by a trans author and consider supporting a trans charity as well! Here are three we recommend: Trans Lifeline https://translifeline.org/  Transgender Law Center https://transgenderlawcenter.org/  Mermaids (UK) https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/  I’m re-rereading one of my favorite books, All The Birds In The Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, which I highly recommend to everyone. And my family (including my daughter’s roommate and boyfriend) are recommending a few other books we love:  Dana Simpson’s Phoebe and Her Unicorn series, As The Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman, Nimona by ND Stevenson, and Glory (Image Comics) which was illustrated by Sophie Campbell (and our copy of which has either disappeared or is out on loan). If you’re looking for books to read you can start with those or search the hashtag on social media instead. There are lots of folks posting great recommendations out there and talking about their […]

Graphic Novel Review: Macanudo: Welcome To Elsewhere by Liniers

By Gene Ambaum on March 16, 2023 at 6:32 am

Macanudo: Welcome To Elsewhere by Liniers. Fantagraphics, 2022. 9781683965565. Introduction by Matt Groening. Groening compares Liniers’s comics to Mutts, Peanuts, and Calvin and Hobbes, calling them “funny and fanciful and whimsical and philosophical in the best sense.” Macanudo feels timeless and hand-crafted and makes me feel like I should be reading more comic strips. Its repeating characters include a beaked man in black, two penguins, a friendly monster named Olga, long-hatted elves, a girl and her cat, and others. Anything can happen in these comic strips — Cthulhu, dragons, superheroes, Dorothy, and even volcanologists make appearances. So does John Venn. Plus there are a fair number of comics about books and reading, too. This isn’t the only collection of Macanudo comics available in English but it is my favorite.

Graphic Novel Review: The Human Target Volume One by Tom King and Greg Smallwood

By Gene Ambaum on March 14, 2023 at 6:22 am

The Human Target Volume One by Tom King and Greg Smallwood. DC Black Label, 2022. 9781779516701. Contains #1 – 6. This is the first of two volumes that will collect King’s Human Target comics. It’s a detective tale in which Christopher Chance, aka The Human Target, tries to solve his own murder. While on the job, disguised as Lex Luthor, he was poisoned. Chance will be dead in twelve days. (Not even Dr. Midnight seems able to change that.) Evidence points to the poisoner being one of the members of the somewhat ridiculous Justice League International, and it seems that Chance will meet each in turn. First up: Ice, who says she wants to help. Her ex-boyfriend, the hot-headed Green Lanter Guy Gardener, isn’t happy she’s hanging out with Chance, though. There are other complications as well. This is Tom King at his best — the story is a little dark but also goofy and nostalgic. Smallwood’s art has a […]

Graphic Novel Review: Let There Be Light: The Real Story Of Her Creation by Liana Finck

By Gene Ambaum on March 9, 2023 at 6:26 am

Let There Be Light: The Real Story Of Her Creation by Liana Finck. Random House, 2022. 9781984801531. In Part I: Past, God creates everything: the heavens and earth, night and day, everything on the Earth. She’s a little more despondent and lonely than I’d have suspected, but she has a few wild, joyous moments too. Then she makes man (and Lilith, Monster of the Night). And man starts naming everything, including her. And when he names her “she [transforms] into a stern old man with a beard.” (That’s true only in man’s mind though. Ha.) When man is a little sad God has to tell him he’s right about everything, and then makes him a friend, woman. Everything is great, but then all of that stuff with the tree of knowledge happens, followed by the story of exile and Cain and Abel and a brilliant comics adaptation of all of the begetting that follows, plus the story of Noah. I […]