Characters: Luke
Graphic Novel Review: Project Arka: Into the Unknown by Romain Benassaya and Joan Urgell
Posted on April 1, 2025 at 6:45 am by Gene Ambaum
Project Arka: Into the Unknown by Romain Benassaya (writer) and Joan Urgell (artist). Based on Pyramides by Romain Benassaya. Translator: Mark Bence. Humanoids, 2023. 978-1643377025.s120pp.
In 2182, the Arka III and several other colony ships leave the earth to colonize a planet twenty-four light years distant. But when Eric, the second in command, is awoken by his captain, they’re at a different place than they expected. Their ship has landed. The AI didn’t revive them. And outside is total darkness — they seem to be on a barren plain with no stars overhead. And the plants and insects in the ship’s garden, which supplies their oxygen, seem far evolved from when they started their journey.
It’s not too much of a spoiler to say the crew and passengers have been asleep much longer than planned, and of course they didn’t make it to that planet. Saying anything else would ruin the story.
Urgell’s art is wonderfully realistic, and I particularly enjoyed the pages that take place in the garden, and the others when a small crew takes a shuttle to explore the world outside.
Graphic Novel Review: Newburn Volume One by Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips
Posted on March 27, 2025 at 6:30 am by Gene Ambaum
Newburn Volume One by Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips. Image, 2022. 9781534322394. Contains #1 – #8. Publisher’s Rating: M / Mature.
Easton Newburn used to be a police detective. Now he’s a private detective “on retainer to all of the major crime families in the city.” He investigates murders and other crimes committed against the families (often by members of the other families). None of them will touch him, no matter whom he implicates; they’ve agreed not to, plus he has dirt on the head of each family. The police even help him — it keeps the peace, plus he gives them information sometimes, too.
But Newburn wants out. In the initial investigation in the book, he meets Emily, recognizes her brilliance, and offers her a job. As Newburn mentors her, she keeps a journal (that we get to read). It’s a dangerous line of work made more dangerous not just by the violent people they investigate and anger, but by Emily’s former boyfriend as well.
The story is entertaining, and Jacob Phillips, who’s been coloring crime comics by his father Sean Philips and Ed Brubaker for years, shows that he can illustrate beautifully violent noir mysteries entirely on his own.
A second volume containing the second half of the series was published in 2024. It’s just as good.
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Graphic Novel Review: Clay Footed Giants by Alain Chevarier and Marc McGuire
Posted on March 25, 2025 at 6:33 am by Gene Ambaum
Clay Footed Giants by Alain Chevarier (co-writer, artist) and Marc McGuire (co-writer). Mad Cave, 2024.9781545808412. Publisher’s Rating: Teen +.
Right at the beginning, a character in Clay Footed Giants asks, “What’s with men these days?” And for a second it feels like it’s going to be about guys trying to reclaim their old-school manliness, but it’s not. It’s about Pat trying to figure out how to be a better dad than he had. His wife is the breadwinner of their family, and Pat is trying to balance his creative work with her need for him to pick up the slack at home, particularly when she’s out of town. His friend Mathieu seems more at ease in his role as a stay-at-home dad and isn’t given to angry outbursts like Pat is.
Pat ends up exploring his relationship with his father, a Vietnam vet who clearly hasn’t dealt with his own trauma, and trying to figure out not only how many of his problems he inherited but how to deal with them. His father’s story seems to hinge on a medal he received for service in Vietnam and doesn’t want to talk about. Pat investigates. It’s all tough to read (my father and father figures were of Pat’s father’s generation) and it’s an incredibly good book. Chevarier uses pencils/graphite, along with the few photos in the book, to evoke emotions and alter the level of detail in the scenes to great effect.
This is an amazing, oversized graphic novel with a lot of shelf appeal. I wish the title indicated a little more of what it’s about, but this is exactly the kind of excellent, under-the-radar graphic novel I always loved handing to folks when I worked at the reference desk.
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Graphic Novel Review: A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, Adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham
Posted on March 20, 2025 at 6:41 am by Gene Ambaum
A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, Adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham. Clarion Books, 2025. 9780063285767.
A Wizard of Earthsea is my favorite book. After seeing the live-action disaster (I think it was made for SYFY) and the animated adaptation which is, in my opinion, Miyazaki’s only terrible movie, I was worried about the graphic novel adaptation. But I was also hopeful because Fordham’s graphic novel adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird was so good. Theo Downs-Le Guin’s addressed my concerns, and Fordham’s version won me over immediately not because it’s exactly like what I always pictured in my mind, but because it feels like Fordham is sharing what’s in his. And it’s beautiful.
And yes, most of the folks in this version are shades of brown, as in Ursula Le Guin’s original, including Sparrowhawk. His failures and his triumphs are shown in moving detail. I particularly liked the brief glimpse of the dry place where the inhabitants of Earthsea go when they die, and the pages that take place on Roke. And if you’re wondering, both the dragons and the gebbeth are terrifying, each in exactly the way they’re supposed to be.
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Graphic Novel Review: All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey by Teresa Wong
Posted on March 18, 2025 at 6:29 am by Gene Ambaum
All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey by Teresa Wong. Arsenal Pulp, 2024. 9781551529493. 238pp.
Teresa Wong’s graphic memoir starts with her visiting her mother in the hospital after her mother had a minor stroke. When her mother doesn’t speak she fills the silence. When she has to translate for her mother, we get to experience the limited way Teresa can express herself in Cantonese. Wong then explains that she doesn’t know the Cantonese words to help her mother, or the words to use to talk about feelings; it’s heartbreaking, but also the perfect expression of her relationship with her parents. And the rest of the book is the story of that relationship, of growing up in Canada with her immigrant parents. It’s the story of how they communicated and didn’t, of how her parents fled China for Hong Kong and eventually settled in Calgary.
My favorite part is probably when Wong’s mother brings home another “daughter,” a young woman whom she worked with, and the way Wong tries to understand her mother. But the most heartbreaking thing about the book was the ongoing lack of compassion from her mom. It’s amazing to me that she continued to try to reach across the divide that separates them, and that she is trying to tell their story.
Worth noting: if you pick up the book, watch how Wong changes the layouts of the pages. They’re often basic grids, but they always serve the story, and when she needs to she’ll suddenly use a different drawing style or a bunch of white space. It’s perfect.
Picture Books!
Posted on March 13, 2025 at 6:34 am by Gene Ambaum
How To Pee Your Pants* *the right way by Rachel Michelle Wilson. Feiwel and Friends, 2024. 9781250910172. 32pp.
This book has helpful advice on how to hide the evidence, how to find some clean “clothes” to wear after an accident, and how to be a great friend. I loved Wilson’s panicked, sad little bird, especially the way he dances at the end. (This book is the perfect companion to Gotta Go! by Frank Viva from Toon Books.)
I Know How to Draw an Owl by Hilary Horder Hippely and Matt James. Neal Porter, 2024. 978823456666. 32pp.
I saw this on several years best picture book lists, and if I made one it would be on mine as well. After Ms. Rio’s class draws owls, she holds up Belle’s as an example and asks how Bell made her owl’s eyes so wise. The secret Belle doesn’t want to share has to do with where Belle lives, in a car in the woods with her mom. (This book has a perfect ending, which is also about being a great friend.)
Stopping By Jungle On A Snowy Evening by Richard T. Morris, illustrated by Julie Rowan-Zoch. Caitlyn Dlouhy, 2024. 9781481478021. 40pp.
A young boy out riding a blue hippo in a snowstorm encounters the poet Robert Frost. He’s supposed to be riding a horse, not a hippopotamus. Hippos live in the jungle, so the boy changes Frost’s poem slightly. But it doesn’t snow in the jungle, so he changes it more. Frost keeps wanting to go back to his original poem, but the boy resists, particularly after the hippo falls asleep. He wants action! So he brings in an enormous snake, karate, and more.
Worth noting: Robert Frost’s original poem “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” is reproduced on the last page.
Tags No Comments - Read MoreGraphic Novel Review: Vera Bushwack by Sig Burwash
Posted on March 11, 2025 at 6:28 am by Gene Ambaum
Vera Bushwack by Sig Burwash. Drawn & Quarterly, 2024. 9781770467118.
Drew lives in the woods with her new dog, Pony. She’s learning to fell and buck trees by working with Spoons, a neighbor who seems to be doing a little too much mansplaining. Living alone in the forest offers Drew the freedom to be herself, though her friend Ronnie (a firefighter) keeps trying to convince Drew that she deserves more. And we can see that she’s found it, or at least that she’s on the right track; when she chainsaws, she sees herself as the bareback riding, assless-chap-wearing person on the cover. She also “transforms” when playing with Pony and when she rides her motorcycle.
Burwash’s art is superb. But when Drew is in the zone and she and her world change, there’s a joy in the drawings that’s overwhelming and contagious. I haven’t wanted to visit the woods this much in a long while. And it’s worth noting Burwash uses their talents to convey Drew’s trauma, too, especially her alarm when Pony goes missing.
Such a great graphic novel, and it has a hopeful ending that came, for me at least, from an unexpected direction.
Novel Review: Clockwork Boys (Clocktaur War Book One) by T. Kingfisher
Posted on March 4, 2025 at 6:45 am by Gene Ambaum
Clockwork Boys (Clocktaur War Book One) by T. Kingfisher. Argyll Productions, 2018. 9781614504160. 262pp.
I saw this on a list of great fantasy novels recently, and it proved to be the perfect book to read on a weekend trip.
Slate is a thief — a master forger, to be precise. But she was caught, and rather than be put to death, she agrees to lead a suicide mission to stop the oversized clockwork soldiers who are invading from a neighboring kingdom. Accompanying her is an assassin she once had a relationship with as well as an attractive paladin with serious problems. A young scholar also goes along — he’s supposed to help, but he’s so proper he seems more afraid of Slate’s womanhood than the threat they face.
They set off for the front, and then into enemy territory; they don’t dare stray from their quest because there will be real consequences. (Sorry this is vague. The details are amazing! But you’re better off discovering them for yourself.)
This novel has a perfect balance of character development, sexual tension, and violence. And I’m already reading the sequel because this is only half the story.
Tags 3 Comments - Read MoreGraphic Novel Review: Giantess: The story of the girl who traveled the world in search of freedom by JC Deveney and Nuria Tamarit
Posted on February 27, 2025 at 6:44 am by Gene Ambaum
Giantess: The story of the girl who traveled the world in search of freedom by JC Deveney (script) and Nuria Tamarit (art). Translation by Dan Christensen. Magnetic Press, 2022. 9781951719616. 202pp.
All of Nuria Tamarit’s art is so beautiful her comics deserve to be published as oversized hardcovers, as this one was. Giantess is a bit more of a fairytale than Tamarit’s Daughters of Snow and Cinders, but it has the same amazing shelf appeal.
In the first pages, a woodcutter finds a giant, red-headed baby girl in the woods. His wife names her Celeste and she’s immediately welcomed into their family where she has six older brothers. After her brothers have all left to go into the world, her parents try to keep Celeste safe at home. But one day she meets a wandering peddler on his way to a great fair in a town he says is famous for a couple of giants. He talks her into accompanying him. Things do not go well there, but this leads Celeste to other adventures involving a noble knight who falls for her, a war, an inquisition, a witch, an amazing library, a troup of performers, and more.
This is a wonderful graphic novel about being a (giant/powerful) woman, and I know my wife and daughter will love it as much as I did.
Graphic Novel Review: Peculiar Woods: The Ancient Underwater City by Andrés J. Colmenares
Posted on February 25, 2025 at 6:45 am by Gene Ambaum
Peculiar Woods: The Ancient Underwater City by Andrés J. Colmenares. Andrews McMeel, 2023. 9781524879297. 160pp.
The beginning of this graphic novel is so unexpectedly strange. Iggie is being dropped off in Peculiar Woods by the woman who raised him so he can live with his “Aunt Jill,” who is really his mom. On the drive there they pass a flooded city and a neighbor girl wearing snorkeling gear who is taking notes. Iggie soon gets lost in his new back yard where he’s frightened by something lurking in the woods. Not too much later he’s talking to a rock, dealing with a “ghost,” and then being told some startling news by a chair. Then, with his new friends, Iggie explores a flooded town as he tries to help two lost chess pieces find their way home.
Warning: if you’re afraid of beavers, this book is not for you.
