The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith. Little Brown, 2020. 9780316485982. 256pp.

Twin brothers Grayson and Hawke manage to escape during their cousin Mirelle’s coup against their grandfather. Needing a place to hide, they disguise themselves as girls and join the Sisters of the Communion Blue as new initiates, Grace and Hanna. They go to some effort to keep their secret, but are tested along with the other new girls. Soon Hawke is training to become a guardian, who will protect the Sisters, and Grace is welcomed as a spinner who will learn to create the threads that bind the world (and the magic that goes along with that). Hawke rankles at staying hidden, but it’s clear that Grace’s place and new identity means much more to her. When the two have a chance to expose the truth of what their cousin did, Grace tells her brother as much, though they still go forward with their risky plan that starts with removing a magical tapestry from the Sisters’ Library of Ancestors.

Smith’s art grew on me as the book progressed, and I especially loved the way she showed Grace’s emotions as she slowly figured out who she is. This is a great book for middle schoolers, and I’m sure some younger and older kids will love it, too.

Kodi by Jared Cullum. Top Shelf, 2020. 9781603094672. 176pp.

Katya loves comics, and prefers them to hanging out with kids her age. On the way to her grandma’s house after getting a snack at the corner market, she falls off a slippery log and stumbles across a bear whose leg is pinned under a fallen tree. Her grandma helps free him, and she names him Kodi. Hanging out with him is a magical time for both new friends (made more magical by Collum’s watercolors), but it’s cut short when Katya has to return home to Seattle. (Their adventure continues after Kodi stows away on a Seattle-bound ship and starts looking for Katya there.)

Mister Invincible: Local Hero by Pascal Jousselin. Translated by David Bryon, James Hogan, and Ivanka T. Hahnenberger. Magnetic, 2020. 9781942367611. 96pp.

Mister Invincible is the only true comic book superhero! He has the power of comics — he can hop from one panel to another, which allows him to violate causality, travel in time and space, do good deeds, and fight crime. Others have comic-derived powers, too, including Jack, who uses the power of words (and word balloons), 2-D Boy (he wants to use his power over perspective for good), and the Jester, a super villain who seems able to travel through walls (though his power is, of course, much more comics specific than that).

Timely note: There’s a one page gag where Mister Invincible defeats a mad scientist’s mega virus using his powers.

The book is a good mix of one-page gags and longer stories.

Roald Dahl’s The Witches: The Graphic Novel adapted and illustrated by Pénélope Bagieu. Translated from French by Montana Kane. Scholastic Graphix, 2020. 9781338677447. 304pp.

A young boy who has just lost his parents lives with his grandma, who can’t give up her cigars. She tells him a story from her childhood, about a friend who fell victim to a witch, and it’s terrifying. So she teaches him to distinguish witches from normal women: they have claws with wrinkly fingers, they’re bald, and they hate kids. This does not set the boy’s mind at ease. When grandma isn’t feeling well (clearly because of her smoking, though she denies it), the two set off for a few days at a seaside hotel, which is, of course, where a convention of witches is secretly gathering to hear their leader’s plan to rid England of all children in a year. Then they discover the boy, who is accidentally listening in.

This is a wonderfully silly, faithful adaptation of Dahl’s book that won’t sit well with anyone who has an aversion to mice or rats. I look forward to tales of those trying to have it removed from kids sections of libraries, too, because of all of the smoking (which clearly isn’t good for you) — I hope it ends up on all the banned books lists next year, and that it stays in print as long as Dahl’s original novel.

Umma’s Table by Yeon-Sik Hong. Translated by Janet Hong. Drawn & Quarterly, 2020. 9781770463868. 360pp.

In this follow-up to Hong’s Uncomfortably Happy, South Korean manhwa artist Madang moves to a small house in the outskirts of Paju with his wife (also an artist) and their new son. The focus isn’t on art and making a living, though; it’s on memories, his aging and ailing parents, and his new son. What ties it all together is food — the meals Madang’s mother made him when he was little, and the food Madang himself prepares for his family, much of it made with ingredients grown in their new garden. At once sad and heartwarming, it’s filled with beautiful moments and the reality of trying to help his parents deal with their health problems. One of my favorite moments is near the beginning, when Madang makes kimchi with his mom and he realizes it may be the last time. Equally heartbreaking are his feelings for his father, who continues to drink and place demands on what little energy Madang’s mother has.

This would pair well with Robin Ha’s Cook Korean: A Comic Book with Recipes — there’s not enough detail in most of the meal preparation to qualify this is as a cookbook, but if you’ve had Korean food before it’s guaranteed to make you hungry.

The Grot: Book One in the Story of the Swamp City Grifters by Pat Grant with colouring by Fionn McCabe. Top Shelf, 2020. 9781603094665.

In The Grot a family (two brothers and a mother) sets out to make their fortune in Falter City. Most who go are out to find some of the valuable algae. The rest are grifters, with the exception of the family — they’re out to start a yogurt business. Misguided? Probably.

The most beautiful thing about the swamp around Falter City is that it seems to run on pedal power. Everything else is gross, from the yeasty air to the plague to the stinking mud that’s everywhere. It’s a place filled with misery and animal fights. The family should have paid more attention to the fact that so many people on the road were headed the other way, apparently with good reason.

It’s twisted fun to watch idiots get conned, and the filth didn’t leave me feeling too grimy. That was because the art is wonderful, largely due to the little details and McCabe’s colors. Grant really knows how to draw a sickly chicken and a yeasty poultice.

You can still read The Grot at http://thegrotcomic.com/

When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2020. 9780525553915. 264pp including an afterward to the graphic novel and author’s notes by both Mohamed and Jamieson, plus photos of Fatuma, Hassan, and Omar.

Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, live in a Dadaab, an enormous refugee camp in Kenya. When they fled Somalia years earlier, they lost their mother, and they hope to find her again. Fatuma, a woman from Somalia who is alone in the camp, functions as their foster mother. Theirs is a miserable, boring existence much of the time –fetching water, rationing what little food they get, trying to ignore their hunger — but Omar and Hassan play together and with other friends, particularly Omar’s best friend Jeri.

Omar sees it as his job to take care of Hassan, who is kind but needs looking after; the only ever says one word, “Hooyo!” So when Omar has a chance to start going to school, he’s not sure studying is the right decision for them even though it may lead to a better life, and even if they spend their entire lives in the camps. And after he does start school, it’s difficult for him to continue studying. (It’s not much of a spoiler to let you know that Omar is quite a student.)

When Omar and Hassan finally get an interview with the UN Resettlement Agency, it doesn’t lead straight to resettlement. There’s jealousy and hurt feelings as some folks that they know get to leave the camp, and a lot of waiting and uncertainty and heartbreak. It’s all broken up by bits of joy though. One of my favorite parts of the book is when everyone, after fasting for Ramadan, gives the kids candy on Eid Al-Fitr.

A few years ago, Jamieson began volunteering as a cultural liaison for refugees, and met Omar Mohamed through his work. The result is this slightly fictionalized version of Mohamed’s life story, an amazing, touching graphic novel about love, friendship, hope, and the value of education that belongs in all school and public libraries.

Here’s a link to the organization Mohamed founded, Refugee Strong. http://www.refugeestrong.org/

Livi & Nate by Kalle Hkkola and Mari Ahokoivu. Translated by Owen F. Witesman. Owlkids, 2019. 9781771473729. 72pp.

In this Finnish graphic novel the two title siblings live with their mom and grandpa. The landscape is covered in snow. Livi is pretty freaked out by noises outside and her thoughts that her mom and grandpa might die. But the kids have a great time sledding outside and then adventuring in their dreams, which feature a big friendly snow bear, their super powered mom, and oh so many butterflies.

I can’t think of another graphic novel for little kids with this combination of magic, delight, love, and real world fears.

Ralph Steadman: A Life In Ink by Ralph Steadman. Chronicle, 2020. 9781797203003. 320pp.

“It seems I have done a lot of pictures over my life, and pictures explain quite a lot about life that words do not.”
— Ralph Steadman, at the end of the book, in a short statement opposite a recent illustration of himself in a surgical mask.

At the beginning there’s an introduction by Steve Crist, then an interview with Steadman. Along with these are photos of the artist, both at work and posing his ass off. The rest of the book is drawings, mostly chronological, along with a fair amount of collage. There are titles and dates below each, and some have a quote from Steadman, usually about the work. The book has a great design in that these words are totally ignorable — you can just look at the pictures.

It has a few bits from work I remembered — Alice in Wonderland, Animal Farm, and assorted pictures of Hunter S. Thompson (including one of Thompson as a woman). There are hundreds of pages more, including quite a few that have word balloons and look suspiciously like comics. I like the images that fit tidily onto a single oversized page — it’s annoying to lose some of the art in the gutter — but overall this is an amazing collection. Of the pieces I don’t remember having seen before, many of my favorites had bookish subjects like the Frankfurt Book Fair and Fahrenheit 451, though I also loved the drawings of characters from Breaking Bad and the creepy black and white drawing of Disneyland mascots, which Steadman describes as “sinister.”

The paper is thick, the reproductions are marvelous, and it’s worth checking this out from your public library even if you don’t feel inclined to buy a copy for yourself.

Lightfall Book One: The Girl & The Galdurian by Tim Probert. HarperAlley, 2020. 9780062990464. 248pp.

Beatrice, a human girl, lives with her gramps, Alfirid the Pig Wizard. He sends Bea out into the woods to look for ingredients for an elixir, and when she needs help she meets Cad, who is looking for her uncle. Cad is a Galdurian, one of the people who constructed the lights that illuminate their world after the sun was destroyed — he’s looking for his people, and he needs the help of the Pig Wizard to translate some papers.

But the forgetful Alfirid has left to take care of something important that he suddenly remembered, the Seal of the Restless Sleeper. Bea and Cad follow, which becomes the adventure that takes up the rest of the book (and leads into the next). The entire landscape is magical, with evidence of past civilizations. Their journey involves a rat thief, giant crabs, a cursed temple, hungry bandits, and a few great, cartoony fight scenes. (The “restless sleeper” probably has something to do with the sinister bird in the dark place, which we see in interstitial scenes that take place well away from Bea and Cad. Is that the bird that destroyed the sun?) And how important is Bea’s jar, with its magical flame, going to prove to be in the end?

Probert’s art is just wonderful and adds to this graphic novel’s magic. This one is a clear readalike for Kibuishi’s Amulet series (and a great diversion while we’re all waiting for the last book).