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.

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.

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.

Haru: Book 1: Spring by Joe Latham. Andrews McMeel, 2024. 9781524889616. 270pp.

Haru is a little blue bird with a little brother, Goose. Haru wants to leave the valley where they live, to see what’s up on the mountain in the distance and beyond, but that’s a dream since he can’t even fly.

Other birds make fun of Haru for being blue, but his friend Yama is just the pick-me-up Haru needs. The darkness that once spread across the world is watching them; because it believes Haru is the one mentioned in a prophecy it sends a minion out to grab Haru. Soon Yama is infected with the darkness. It gives him cool powers, but it’s scary because it could hurt someone and Yama can’t get rid of it.

Haru and Yama head to the Old Oak Tree to seek advice on what to do. It’s a quest! Or the beginning of one, at least, to be continued in sequels. (Book 2 is out now.) There are freaky moments involving bog bodies and, later, a weird shopping mall, but there’s help in the form of Herb, a friendly mushroom who cares for dandelion cubs and loves nature.

This book feels like the beginning of something special and reminded me of when I read the first books of Amulet, Bone, and Lightfall.

I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together by Maurice Vellekoop. Pantheon, 2024. 9780307908735. 496pp.

Vellekoop’s graphic biography begins when he’s a little boy in love with his mom, heading downtown together on Remembrance Day. When he arrives home with a new book (Cinderella) he shares it with his older sister. After a pillow fight with his two brothers, everyone sits down at a family dinner during which his father goes into one of his regular rages. And then his father takes him on a special excursion to see Fantasia, “an experience that more or less set the course for the rest of [his] life.” Disney becomes his obsession. (Later Barbies and science fiction do, too; there’s an amazing scene where he first sees Planet of the Apes on TV.)

His relationship with his parents becomes a little more complicated when he comes out to them, but he’s lucky enough to have theater, drawing, and good friends to help him through difficult times. Vallekoop attends art school and eventually moves to New York where he works as a commercial artist. He contends with loneliness throughout his life, though the book ends on a high note.

Worth noting: Vellekoop’s illustrations feel like they belong to past decades, but they also have a quality. I particularly enjoyed the way he drew family photographs (there are quite a few on the endpapers), movie posters, and scenes from movies and TV.

Also: the photo drawn on the cover appears on the outside of the hardcover, under the dust jacket. Be sure to have a look.

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: A Graphic Adaptation by Manu Larcenet. Harry N. Abrams, 2024. 9781419776779. 160pp. Includes Larcenet’s letter to McCarthy about the book at the end.

I’ve read a few graphic novels drawn by Larcenet that I really enjoyed — Ordinary Victories, plus a few volumes of Sfar and Trondheim’s Dungeon series — but both were drawn in a simpler style. The stark, realistic way Larcenet adapts McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel is stunning, and makes me feel like it’s time to look more deeply into his work.

The story follows a father and son struggling through a wasteland of ash and destruction, trying to get to the ocean and maybe some semblance of safety. The two are wrapped in stained, dark clothing. They’re also starving. The pair avoid others out to do whatever it takes to survive and struggle to be good guys.

The book is drawn in color, but it’s hard to tell on most pages. There’s a bit of color when the sun is up, and some when they’re able to risk a fire or light a lamp. But the most vivid color at the beginning of the book is from packaging, on a box of matches and a soda can, things left over from the way people used to live.

Worth noting: Larcenet apparently attempts to follow McCarthy’s novel and avoid any reference to the film adaptation. I haven’t read McCarthy’s book. If you have, please tell me if Larcenet manages to do this. It’s so unlike the film I feel like he succeeded, but I’d love an informed opinion.

Squire & Knight: Wayward Travelers by Scott Chantler. First Second, 2024. 9781250846907. 156pp. (more) Fun Extra Stuff at the end, including a bit about the origin of the story, sketches, and a few notes about Chantler’s process.

At the end of the book, Chantler talks about how easy it would have been to just repeat the first book in the series with a new problem — I assume he meant the boastful Sir Kelton would again have needed his clear-thinking Squire to save the day (though he would not have admitted it). I would have enjoyed that book, but I like this one much better. Seeing Squire realize he doesn’t know everything and then have to deal with that is very satisfying.

The graphic novel opens with Sir Kelton and Squire traveling through the woods. Sir Kelton is entertaining the young goblin child they’re taking to the School of Wizardry with a story. Sir Kelton admonishes Squire for reading on the trail, saying he lacks a sense of adventure. But Squire wishes the knight would pay more attention to their surroundings; they’re lost, and Sir Kelton’s disdain for reading extends to maps as well. Things look up (to Sir Kelton at least) when he has to fight another knight who also isn’t good at listening. Then Squire heads up a tree to try to figure out where they all are, and ends up being captured by hungry gnolls. (Throughout Squire recalls meeting the beautiful Queen Marley, and eventually what she told him about his duty to Sir Kelton.)

Worth noting: Chantler works with a limited color palette again, though it’s different from that of the first book; it’s stunning, and it works particularly well in clarifying which are the flashback scenes. The monsters are just terrifying enough and the battles are entertaining.

Self-Esteem And The End Of The World by Luke Healy. Drawn & Quarterly, 2024. 9781770467149. 324pp.

A stressed out, thirty-year-old Luke Healy has a lot of stress and anxiety. The earth is falling apart, he’s never going to own a home, and then his twin brother, Teddy, doesn’t ask Luke to be best man at his wedding. He orders a bunch of self-help books and listens to his brother’s voice on the Head App. (Teddy doesn’t believe any of the crap he says via the app.)

Jump forward five years to Luke having invited his mom to see one of his plays performed. Then five more when he’s hiking in Greece while trying to work a day job (he takes calls and pretends to be home). Then five more to the set of a movie based on a minicomic Luke wrote back in 2013. Healy’s mother and brother continue to figure into the story throughout, as do floods. It’s all weird as what starts out feeling like a memoir veers into deadpan, near-future science fiction.

Worth noting: Healy uses the same six-panel layout on most pages. It works really well with his limited use of color (see the cover) and his crisp, clear style of illustration.

Knots by Colleen Frakes. Harper Alley, 2023. 9780063247161. 240pp.

I’m a huge fan of Frakes’s comics, including Prison Island, Tragic Relief, and her other minicomics, and I can’t believe it missed this graphic novel when it came out last year.

At the beginning of the book, Norah and her little sister Lark live in Cheney, Washington, with their parents, who both work for the Washington State Department of Corrections. Nora starts middle school and, after talking her mom into it, begins bleaching and dyeing her own hair at home. It doesn’t go well, then it does, then it doesn’t. Nora’s hair’s ups and downs nearly mirror changes at home, as her mother takes a new job and moves across the state with her sister, leaving Nora in Cheney with her father, who is busier than ever because of a promotion. After her hair gets tangled up, Nora worries about her teacher reporting her to the authorities, and that she’ll be in trouble because she’s alone at home so much.

This is a great read — Nora is full of new-to-middle-school worries but not the same ones I’ve read about in other books — and her family’s problems don’t involve divorce despite her parents having markedly different personalities. (Minor spoiler) Everyone is in a rough place and instead of driving them apart everyone comes together in a believable, hopeful way by the end.

Worth noting: Nora spends lots of time at the library!