Author: Gene Ambaum

793 results.

Graphic Novel Review: Motherlover by Lindsay Ishihiro

By Gene Ambaum on September 25, 2025 at 6:25 am

Motherlover by Lindsay Ishihiro. Iron Circus Comics, 2025. 9781638991465. 307pp. Motherlover is the story of two moms becoming friends and then falling in love. Alexis is a single mother who just moved home with her daughter; she seems terrible at long-term relationships. Imogen, her neighbor, has three kids and a husband who completely takes her for granted. That changes a bit when Imogen moves out; Alexis is there to provide support and to keep her from believing he’s going to change. Their friendship is adorable, and I especially loved Imogen’s reaction when Alexis’s friends assume Imogen is more than a friend. Their parenting skills are top-notch, too. I met my friend Michelle at the wrap party for Strangers in Paradise years ago. She made fun of my drink, and I responded by teasing her a bit for crying after reading the last issue. I knew I had to tell her about this book as soon as I turned the last […]

Graphic Novel Review: Low Orbit by Kazimir Lee

By Gene Ambaum on September 23, 2025 at 6:21 am

Low Orbit by Kazimir Lee. Top Shelf, 2025. 9781603095525. 336pp. Azar lives in Vermont with her mother, in an apartment inside a house where her friend Tristan and his father Shannon also live. Azar’s father is still in New York trying to sell their old apartment, but Azar thinks something else may be going on between her parents. She doesn’t quite fit in at school and has a crush she can’t quite bring herself to act on. The way her mom keeps misusing Tristan’s they/them pronouns, and the fact that she thinks Tristan is too young to make such decisions about themselves, keeps Azar from coming out to her mother. One night, Azar finds a science fiction novel under her bed; it’s The Exiles of the Overworld, a novel Shannon wrote. Tristan seems unimpressed by his father’s work, but Azar can’t put it down. And from the way Shannon’s agent, Howard, keeps trying to get in touch with Shannon, it […]

Graphic Novel Review: The Field by Dave Lapp

By Gene Ambaum on September 18, 2025 at 6:01 am

The Field by Dave Lapp. Conundrum Press, 2024. 978772620948. 552pp. In the book’s first episode, young David Lapp, inspired by his friend Edward, draws dirty pictures and puts them on the edge of the vocabulary board in Ms. Lewis’s class. Edward then turns David in. Ms. Lewis tapes a note to David’s mother, along with the drawings, to David, who has to wear them for the rest of class. There’s some more trouble before summer vacation starts. It’s not all Edward’s fault — especially the incident with the angry gym teacher during a square dancing session, when the teacher slams David up against the wall for goofing off. But Edward is always there. He gets David to collect “bees eggs” in a jar. He shows David the dead cat he found. When David takes his new friend Hussein to the field, Edward and Jack drop a hammer on Hussein’s head from their treehouse. It’s no wonder David’s mom thinks Edward […]

Graphic Novel Review: Lion Dancers by Cai Tse

By Gene Ambaum on September 16, 2025 at 6:59 am

Lion Dancers by Cai Tse. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2024. 9781665927739. 299pp. including a note from the creator at the end. The book opens two years ago at the Twelfth Asian International Lion Dance Championships, where the Black Lion Dance Team performed a spectacular leap to defend their title. Wei was in the crowd with his grandmother, and he wanted to fly as part of a lion dance team, just like his dad. But two years later, in middle school, Wei is a different kid. His father died, and he’s living with his grandma. Sports are not his thing. A boy named Hung and his friends seem dedicated to making Wei’s life miserable. Then Wei runs into someone from a lion dancer team and asks to join. But when he shows up for practice, Hung is there. Hung starts screaming that Wei is not allowed to join. Other team members welcome Wei, though. And as he starts […]

Graphic Novel Review: Spectators by Brian K Vaughan and Niko Henrichon

By Gene Ambaum on September 11, 2025 at 6:32 am

Spectators by Brian K Vaughan and Niko Henrichon. Image, 2025. 9781534331211. 344pp. After Val is killed in a Manhattan movie theater, her spirit emerges into the black-and-white world where those who haven’t moved on can do nothing more than observe. This isn’t terrible for Val; she’s a movie fan and she enjoys watching pornography, so there are a lot of “stories” for her to follow. Jump forward to the future, where Val is trying to find a couple with potential. It’s now a world of flying machines and giant robots. Many people are addicted to sex robots, though, so it’s not always easy to find folks who are going to put on a show she wants to watch. She follows a crowd of ghosts to an underground fight club and ends up in the house of a hot young couple. And that’s where she meets Sam, another ghost — he looks like a cowboy, complete with six shooters. The couple has sex […]

Graphic Novel Review: Free Piano (Not Haunted) by Whitney Gardner

By Gene Ambaum on September 9, 2025 at 6:20 am

Free Piano (Not Haunted) by Whitney Gardner. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025. 9781665938136. 252pp. The end of the book includes notes on the Prophet-5 keyboard, a Hall of Fame, and some early sketches. Margot likes making songs and playing her ukulele. Her friends Seven and Sebastian love to smash junk and make videos while doing it, which they post online. They find a keyboard with the titular note — a Prophet-5 keyboard (circa 1979). The boys want to smash it, but Margot takes it home. Her dad is a flaky musician who decides to head to Los Angeles to pursue his music career because he has nearly 10k followers online. In doing so, he disappoints Margot; he had said he’d teach her to play the Prophet, but leaves her to find online tutorials. Margot’s mom has to pick up the pieces. Margot is mad at both her mom and father when the ghost of 1980s pop star […]

Graphic Novel Review: Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer

By Gene Ambaum on September 4, 2025 at 6:24 am

Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer. 23rd Street, 2025. 9781250364371. 362pp. Includes “Extras” at the back: a note from the author plus photos and more. Catherine never skips Mass. Never! Her mom always reminds her to go. But she’s kind of secretive about it with her friends and her boyfriend, Manolo. Catherine feels like something terrible will happen if she doesn’t go. Then one day she heads to Staten Island with Manolo instead of to church. There she gets bitten by a squirrel and wonders if it’s an omen. She and Manolo go into an old church to look around, and it’s there that Catherine first sees a bunch of black blobs; Manolo sees nothing. Later, at home, after a nap, Catherine wakes up to find that the blobs of darkness are talking to her (and only her). One has a giant eye. It introduces itself as Vassago, Prince of Hell, and it’s not alone. Are the demons real? How can […]

Graphic Novel Review: R.U.R. The Karel Capek Classic by Katerina Cupová

By Gene Ambaum on September 2, 2025 at 9:34 am

R.U.R. The Karel Capek Classic by Katerina Cupová, translated by Julie Novàková. Rosarium Publishing, 2024. 9788986614687. 264pp. Includes a sketchbook at the end. I’ve tried to read translations of Capek’s 1920 play, R.U.R., a few times (it’s famous for introducing the word “robot”), but this graphic novel adaptation is the first version I’ve finished. Cupova’s adaptation pulled me through because the book is just beautiful to behold. (So beautiful that even when I couldn’t quite follow the story’s jumps and such, and when its dated treatment of the female characters in particular annoyed me, I could focus on the art.) R.U.R. stands for Rosarium’s Universal Robots, a factory churning out emotionless, humanoid workers. Director Domin opens the book with a big speech. Helena Glory wants a tour of the factory; these are never granted, but he shows her around anyway because she’s the President’s daughter. She’s an activist who believes robots are people, despite a lot of evidence to the […]

Graphic Novel Review: Botanica Drama by Thom

By Gene Ambaum on August 28, 2025 at 6:11 am

Botanica Drama by Thom. Pow Pow, 2023. 9782925114246. 244pp. This is an entirely wordless, book-length graphic novel starring Death (aka XIII, according to the Dramatis Personae page at the back of the book) and his little friend Philomène, a flower (I think). They live together in a nice little town with a bunch of anthropomorphic animals, plants, and insects and such, under a sky filled with an anthropomorphic sun, moon, and planets. Death and his friend run a nice little cafe bakery. Everything is great until one day the sun parties too hard and doesn’t rise in the morning. With the skies dark, tall beings emerge from their home under the earth. They’re hungry, plus the world is now a cold place. How can the citizens get the sun back up in the sky where it belongs? I love Thom’s version of Death; he seems to love his friends despite his duties outside the bakery; with his constant, toothy smile, […]

Graphic Novel Review: Eat by Nagabe

By Gene Ambaum on August 26, 2025 at 6:37 am

Eat by Nagabe. Translation by Adrienne Beck. Seven Seas Entertainment, 2025. 978893732603. 234pp. Publishers’ Rating: Older Teens (15+). Lufaria is a law professor with a harsh reputation and black fur. His students call him The Killer. His secret: he loves to watch people eat. When a tardy student approaches him after class — the dude is a huge, handsome herbivore who keeps saying he’s hungry — their interaction makes Lufaria realize that what he really longs for is to be eaten. The rest of the book is about this thing between them, a teacher-student relationship (between adults) that must be uncommon even in an anthropomorphic world. I’ve picked up a few of Nagabe’s other books in English, but somehow I couldn’t really find my way into his style, and hoped a standalone might give me a better way in. I ordered this one from my library without reading a synopsis and was quite surprised. I enjoyed the pacing and art […]