No Ivy League by Hazel Newlevant. Lion Forge / Roar, 2019. 9781549303050. 205pp plus a few pages about their process at the end.

Newlevant’s fictionalized memoir “about a pivotal summer in [their] life…It was a multi-car pileup of race, class, gender, and teen hormones.” Her originals, done in black watercolor paint, are reproduced with a dark green ink in the book, which look super good.

Seventeen-year-old Hazel is homeschooled. They, their fifteen-year-old boyfriend, and another friend are making pro-homeschooling videos as part of a contest, hoping to win money to see a band they all like in Washington, DC, in the fall. Then Hazel’s dad tells them about a summer job removing ivy from Forest Park. They’re hired, but then Hazel gets off to an awkward start with the other high school kids there — they think Hazel is a bit weird and that the food they eats is bougie. Work gets more awkward when Hazel starts obviously crushing on a supervisor, and a few games of Fuck, Marry, Kill seem to indicate things are getting better with the other workers (though then everything gets much worse again for a bit). All in all this is feels like one of the most realistic graphic novels about teens that I’ve read, which probably makes it a bit too realistic for some high schools.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Tor, 2019. 9781250313195. 448pp.

This book is hard to describe. Interstellar travel, a crumbling civilization, necromancers from nine Houses competing, along with their cavaliers, to become immortal. There’s magic, gore, sword fights, monsters, a mystery, puzzles, and oh so many skeletons. At its center is the smart-assed, plain spoken, sweary cavalier Gideon from the Ninth House. She hates the necromancer she’s supposed to protect (with good reason), she’d rather abandon her house to become a soldier, she’s in lust with a very weak but wildly attractive necromancer, and she’s trying to fit the role that she’s been forced into.

I cannot tell you how much fun this book was. It was a nonstop, death-obsessed, no-idea-what-was-going-to-happen-next novel that reminded me why I loved all the goth kids in my high school. (I’ve just finished the next book in the series, Harrow the Ninth, too, which will be out in a few months. Great sequel. It will make absolutely no sense if you don’t read this one first, and it will help to totally trust Muir as a writer, too (which you will after you read this book). It was as unpredictable and hard to classify a ride as Gideon the Ninth, which I thought impossible.)

Suee and the Shadow by Ginger Ly, Illustrated by Molly Park. Translated b Keo Lee and Jane Lee. Amulet, 2017. 9781419725630. 236pp.

Suee Lee dresses differently from her classmates and doesn’t seem to worry about getting perfect grades. She lives alone with her father. (She tells people her mom died when she was little, but that’s not true — she just wants a little privacy.) Her father has just been demoted, so they’ve moved to Outskirtsville from Big City, and she’s starting at a new elementary school. She should make a few friends, but she has no interest in talking to most of the girls she sees, particularly the class bullies and popular kids.

One day a voice calls to her, telling her it will be her friend. When she wakes up the next day her shadow is talking to her. It’s mostly annoying, and she can’t let the other students find out, so she sticks to well-lit areas when she can to keep it quiet.

The Vice Principal starts an after school class for the school zeroes, zombified kids who drop the class average. Suee notices they don’t have shadows, which seems to have some relationship to being bullied, the voice she heard, and perhaps to her shadow as well. To investigate she forms the Zero Detective Club with two other students.

This is the first Korean graphic novel for kids I’ve seen that doesn’t use the typical manhwa style. The slick art and glossy paper really work well together. It’s got a bit of a lesson about bullying and friendship without being too lesson-heavy.

For the Love of God, Marie! by Jade Sarson. Myriad Editions, 2018. 9781908434777. 240pp.

The book opens with a few pages in which young Marie is confused about messages at church. Why does her mother say two women loving each other is blasphemy if what’s most important is loving those around you? Flash forward a bit. Marie, in year eleven of school, wakes up with Colin. Her mission is now simple: “…we should love everyone as God has loved us — by making love to them!” Her parents are less than pleased. In year thirteen she meets William, who reveals his secret to her — he’s a cross-dresser. She tells him he’s beautiful, and they start to have sex in one of the PE changing rooms. The nun who catches them suspends them both, but Marie inspires William to be who he is, which forms the basis for their lifelong friendship (that is sometimes more). Then Marie meets Agnes outside the school office — Agnes is being abused, and thinks she needs to beg God for his forgiveness. Marie convinces her otherwise and they fall in love. Agnes eventually gets help, though after telling a teacher about the abuse at home she’s sent to London. There’s another significant relationship, too, after which Marie gives birth to Annie. The second half of the book is her and Will raising Annie together she is eleven, and ends with Marie falling in love again.

This graphic novel has a fast pace and some very graphic scenes that add to the romance. My favorite thing about it is the way Sarson uses colors, especially the purples Marie’s orange hair.

Letters to a Prisoner by Jacques Goldstyn, translated by Angela Keenlyside. (Traslated by Le Prisonneir sans Frontiers). Owlkids Books, 2018. 9781771472517.

In this nearly wordless picture book, a man is thrown into prison for political activity, right before the eyes of his young daughter. Then he’s held in a solitary cell in a remote prison. Even the guards give him as little human contact as possible.

And then the letters start to come, from people around the world. From workers, children, academics, and even aristrocrats. The guards try to dispose of the first big batch by burning them, but this just lets the words in a variety of languages drift free.  It’s beautiful visual effect — the primary illustrations are pen and ink, colored by washes, so the letters to the prisoner match the illustration style.

This is charming picture book about the power of written letters to effect change.

Guest Book review by Robert in Silicon Valley

Innsmouth Volume 1 by Megan James. ComicM!x, 2019. 9781939888730. Contains issues #1-#5. (Physical and digital copies available at https://www.meganjamesart.com/innsmouth which may be the best way to get one.)  also has a few.

This is another gem recommended to me by Chris at Seattle’s Comics Dungeon, a book James in her introduction calls “a modern day revisionist horror comedy featuring a diverse cast that would be accessible to newcomers and old fans alike.” It’s a beautiful, fun graphic novel that updates HP Lovecraft’s mythos to the masses. Go by the Comics Dungeon some weekend and ask Chris what you should be reading, he never lets me down.

Randolph Higgle from Innsmouth attends East Arkham High School. A Junior Acolyte for his church (or cult, depending on what you believe), he passes out pocket Necronomicons door to door. They’re not well received. He’s well intentioned but maybe a bit dim. His stepfather is a fishman. He wants to go to college but his mother wants him to stay close to home, worship the Deep Ones, and help bring about the end of the world (which isn’t far off). Randolph even (accidentally) becomes the Chosen One to keep the little Shoggoth (the multi-eyed creature on the cover) safe until it’s needed to end the world. He goes to the library at Miskatonic University to find out about banishing it, and there he meets Fatima Alhazred, eldrich-anthropologist-in-training. And then they’re off on an adventure that lasts until the end of the book.

There are “horrifying” creatures, a bit of fairly cartoony violence (and blood and bones and stuff), a lot of laughs, and my favorite reanimators for hire ever, Herbert and West. It’s worth a read whether any of this sounds familiar or not. (But if you’re read any pulps and spent your childhood watching horror videos on VHS like me, some of this is probably ringing a bell.) The first issue is available to read free on James’ website.

Fights: One Boy’s Triumph Over Violence by Joel Christian Gill. Oni Press, 2020. 9781549303357. 256pp.

This graphic memoir by cartoonist Joel Christian Gill is filled with painful childhood memories that include racism, violence, and bullying. (It’s worth noting Gill was the victim of sexual abuse as well — while it will be clear to older readers what’s happening, it’s not shown on the page.) His story begins with him walking with his mama, who had just gotten out of jail and was dropping him off to stay at a friend’s place for a few days — Gill sees a dead animal and a man at the side of the road. It ends with his marriage at a young age, a successful relationship which continues to this day. In between is a lot of cursing, moving, ups and downs. It’s amazing to see that Gill made it through, and that both the public library and drawing were important parts of his journey. Bookending the story of his life is Gill trying to have a talk in the present day with his son, who seems more interested in his phone and puzzled by the profound discussion about fighting that his dad is trying to have with him.

That last bit, of course, was what I identified with the most. I grew up at roughly the same time as Gill, though not in neighborhoods as tough as where he lived in, and found his life story compelling and moving. I think other adults and teens will feel the same way.

I’m keeping my copy on the shelf with Jarrett Krosoczka’s Hey, Kiddo and the Sunny books by Matt and Jennifer Holm.

Palimpsest: Documents from a Korean Adoption by Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom. Translated by Hanna Strömberg, Richey Wyver, and Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom. Drawn & Quarterly, 2019. 9781770463301. 156pp including a postscript and notes on selected panels and pages.

Sjöblom was adopted from South Korea by a family in Sweden in 1979. During and after the birth of her second child, she thinks about when she was born, her birth mother, and her early life when she was handed to strangers in a place she couldn’t understand a word who renamed her Lisa. She does an amazing job showing how everyone tried to make her feel about her adoption and her place in Swedish society without ever asking how she felt. As her Korean-ness was erased she was constantly reminded that she didn’t fit in, and even attacked. After escaping high school and moving away from home, she started looking into the story of her adoption, including what it meant and how it affected her. I’m so glad she made it through her darker moments and has produced this graphic novel, which everyone in my family is going to read.

Much of the book is a detailed account of Sjöblom and her partner trying to find out as much as they can about her past. Various agencies involved in her adoption (or in recording it) seem determined to keep documents from them because of what the documents reveal not only about shady adoption practices but about Sjöblom’s biological parents. But their tenacity pays off, and they get help from unexpected government offices and agencies, and in the end they learn quite a bit. Their trip to South Korea at the end of the book is riveting.

The Forbidden Harbor by Teresa Radice and Stefano Turconi. Translated by Carla Roncalli di Montorio and Nanette McGuiness. NBM, 2019. 9781681122328.

1807. Young Abel, who has lost his memory, returns home with the British naval officer, William Roberts, who found him on a beach in Siam. (Abel easily took to life on the ship and playing the violin that belonged to Captain Stevenson. The Captain seems to have betrayed the navy and his ship by disappearing with some treasure, though that may not quite be true.) In England Robertson introduces Abel to the Captain’s three daughters, who give him a place to stay. This all sets Abel on a long and winding path to discovering who he is and how to set things right. It’s a romantic and somewhat magical adventure that involves love, betrayal, the madame of a local brothel, poetry, family, and revenge. Turconi’s pencil art is beautiful, and includes a spectacular sea battle that brings everything to life.

Saying more would ruin the book for you, though I must add that the hardcover is not only designed to look like an old book, but to feel like one — it’s cover is coated with something a bit rough and grainy and anyone who picks it up up will need to open it. Recommended for all adult graphic novel collections.

The Complete Curvy by Sylvan Migdal. Iron Circus Comics, 2019. 9781945820403. 520pp. Publisher’s rating: ADULTS ONLY.

Fauna, a liar (magic user) from Candy World, is fleeing an awful arranged marriage. On Boring World (our world), she meets and quickly falls for (and into bed with) Anaïs. This starts a fun, sex-filled adventure that includes lots of magic, a hot candy octopus lady, pirates, superheroes, a plan to conquer Boring World and a plot to democratize magic. Anaïs and Fauna’s love for each other is at the heart of the book, though they clearly need to talk about their relationship. The story is kinda structured like a video game, and sex is everywhere, friendly, and involves every combination of folks and beings you might imagine (and some you might not). It’s a bit like a good-natured, pornographic version of Adventure Time.

I just recommended this to a friend who once complained to me that she couldn’t find anything else as fun and sex positive as Colleen Coover’s Small Favors.