Category: book review

454 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Graphic Novel Review: It Won’t Always Be Like This: A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib

By Gene Ambaum on March 7, 2023 at 6:25 am

It Won’t Always Be Like This: A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib. Ten Speed Press, 2022. 9781984860293. After her parents divorced, Malaka Gharib spent summers with her father and his side of her family in Egypt. In the first chapter, when she is nine, Malaka meets Hala, her new stepmother, a pretty young woman who seems fun and playful. They stay at the hotel where her dad works, and she and Hala spend a lot of time together. Despite the lack of much common language they get to know each other pretty well. In later summers as Malaka’s father’s new family continues to grow, she feels like she’s not quite a part of it. There’s a lot of teenage awkwardness, much of it about trying to relate to family across languages and cultures, but for me the heart of the book is when she becomes an adult and starts to understand Hala as a person, to see the problems in […]

Graphic Novel Review: Sakamoto Days Volume 1 by Yuto Suzuki

By Gene Ambaum on March 2, 2023 at 6:22 am

Sakamoto Days Volume 1 by Yuto Suzuki. Translation by Camellia Nieh. Viz, 2020. 9781974728947. Publisher’s Rating: T+ Older Teen. Taro Sakamoto was the greatest hitman of all time. Then he fell in love, had a family, and now he’s totally out of shape. He runs a convenience store on the outskirts of Tokyo and, because he made a promise to his wife, he keeps his murderous instincts in check. Another hitman, Shin, has found his hero Sakamoto. Shin’s boss wants Sakamoto dead, but Sakamoto is no pushover — he’s hilariously fast and precise as he defends himself and defeats his attackers. Soon Shin joins the staff at Sakamoto’s where he helps his hero quietly defend the store and the community around it. A note on the shelf appeal of this title: unbeknownst to each other my daughter and I both bought this book at our local Kinokuniya on the same day. She found it amongst the Japanese-language manga while I […]

Graphic Novel Review: Super Trash Clash by Edgar Camacho

By Gene Ambaum on February 28, 2023 at 6:38 am

Super Trash Clash by Edgar Camacho. Translation by Eva Ibarzabal. Top Shelf / IDW, 2022. 9781603095167. 96pp. A young woman, Dul, buys an old video game cartridge she sees in a shop window and then rushes home to play it. And as she does she relives a childhood memory when, as a video game-obsessed young girl, she wanted a copy of Super Encounter Champions 2 to play with her friend Misa. Her mom bought her another game instead, the very poorly rated Super Trash Clash. What Dul did with the game, and how her mom reacted when she found out, form the emotional core of the story and are the reasons the game means so much to Dul now that she’s older. It’s a quick graphic novel, and its emotional punch will sneak up on you, particularly if you were once (like me) an ungrateful latchkey kid who only now (sometimes) appreciates what your parent(s) did for you. (Worth noting: […]