Megan and Cass got to know each other during the summers when their families vacationed in Topinabee, Michigan. As kids they were inseparable. And, in a key incident, they once created a work of art together on a cabin’s wall. The place’s owner, a former kindergarten teacher, was more impressed than irritated, and made the girls’ parents to promise to enroll both of them in art classes. They continue to collaborate on art over the years even as Cass’s family falls apart.
Most of the book takes place the summer before Megan’s senior year of high school, when she goes to New York for a few weeks to stay with Cass and her mom in Brooklyn. The neighborhood is a world apart from where Megan lives in Illinois, and she has a bread from her father talking down to her about her artistic ambitions. (He wants Megan to take over the family hardware store, and thinks art is something she can do in her spare time.) Megan has a great time full of art and deep conversations, she and Cass collaborate some more, and then they’re even going to put a piece they worked on together in a show. But when it becomes clear Megan’s parents might see it in the gallery, Megan panics.
My daughter and I loved reading Crilley’s Akiko books together years ago; this story is much more mature but is a compelling read she’d love now. I was really impressed with the way Crilley uses non-white backgrounds throughout the book, which allows him to use white for emphasis and to draw my eye to different details; basically he continues to get better and better at the craft of comics, and everything he’s doing continues to wow me.
This based-on-real-life bit of fiction follows Huda, a young Muslim woman who chooses to wear a hijab, as she navigates high school and the rest of her life. (Fahmy explains in the opening why she always draws Huda wearing her hijab, even in bed, and that this book isn’t meant to represent all Muslims or their experiences.) This is a straightforward high school story with an identity crisis, worried parents, and unrequited crushes that takes place after Huda and her family relocate to a new city. She is not the only hijabi in her high school, but she does face some racism. She also has to deal with people’s stereotyping her and other Muslim students. Huda’s main problem is that she’s not sure who she is (and that she is pretty good at faking interest in whatever anyone is talking about). Luckily she has some good friends around to help, and her family is pretty cool too.
I learned a bit from this book about halaqa (Huda’s friend says it’s like Bible study, but they talk about Islam and the Quran), wearing abayas, and the stuff Huda has to deal with. Mostly I’m in awe of Fahmy’s writing and cartooning; she brought me right into Huda’s life using simple layouts and a perfect balance of words and art. This book deserves a home in middle, high school, and public libraries whether or not they have massive graphic novel collections.
Posted on August 26, 2022 at 10:43 am by Gene Ambaum
Bigmouth bass, seductive women, televangelists, and cold-blooded murder. What have they all got in common? Gene and Willow have to tour the Sunshine State to get to the bottom of this mystery, and maybe eat some roadkill along the way.
Killer Queens opens in the bathroom at Stan’s Diner. Max is about to get it on with a pink alien in a bathroom stall. Alex is having less luck with the woman she’s dating, who is off talking to someone else. Then a flying alien monkey (jetpack, not wings) arrives with a couple of hench otters to try to get his spaceship back from them. That monkey, Captain Bieti, is also pissed that the pair are no longer intergalactic assassins-for-hire, though we don’t know that until the totally unnecessary dialogue on the page where they escape post lasergun fight. (They actually refer to it as “totally unnecessarily dialogue about stuff we both know” which is cute.) They’re soon offered a rescue job which they take and turn into a horny, innuendo-laden adventure that’s a lot of fun.
Balboni’s art adds to the charm of the book and makes the whole thing feel like an episode of Flash Gordon. I’d give it to anyone who loves both Saga and Wilma Deering’s outfits in 80s Buck Rogers reruns.
Cloud Town is located near the inter-dimensional rip, which is where the “Hurricanes” (aka giant monsters) emerge from. One recently destroyed Cloud Town High, so all of its students are now attending school in Tinker Town. Olive is not adjusting well to student life there, mostly because of bullies, but luckily her friend Pen is standing up for her while trying to get her to stand up for herself.
Pen has an intense life — she was recently caught shoplifting, her dad has a huge medical debt, and a social worker is looking into her less-than-normal home life. Bottom line is she has to get a job. And an opportunity presents itself one day when she and Olive find themselves near a fight between a Storm Chaser (a giant robot with a half-human pilot) and a Hurricane. The Chaser goes down. Olive and Pen seek shelter from the monster inside the cockpit. And Pen, despite the impossibility of the move, thinks she can use her skateboarding abilities to pilot the robot. It seems like she might be right. (Minor spoiler: they save the day and she’s offered a job and becomes a bit of a celebrity for piloting the Storm Chaser. But that doesn’t last long, and the truth of which of the girls can actually pilot a Storm Chaser soon tests their friendship.)
I love books that use black and white and one other color, and McClosky’s blue tones really work for his his art, which lives at a beautiful place between cartoony and realistic. The whole story feels immediate and intense, but there’s a lot of humor and heart here to balance that out. Plus: monsters. It reminds me of Brandon Graham’s comics in all the best ways, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is still a little young for his King City books.
Worth noting: I met McCloskey at the American Library Association conference in Washington, DC, where he gave me a copy of this book after we talked a bit. He’s clearly a nice guy who puts a lot of effort into everything he does. Hire him to do a library program if you ever get the chance.
There’s so much to love here: Adam Strange, the Flash Gorden-esque, jetpack-wearing, laser gun toting Earthman who becomes a hero on the planet Rann (and then on Earth). He and his wife recently united the peoples of Rann against the Pykkts, a previously unbeatable alien threat, and lost their daughter in the war. Now they’re on Earth, and Strange is not only the man of the hour, he’s on book tour. But after a man who confronts him at a book signing is murdered, rumors of Strange’s misconduct and dishonor during the war gain some traction. Strange asks Batman to investigate him, to prove that he’s innocent, but Batman passes that task to super genius Mr. Terrific. As he starts to turn over Adam Strange’s story in every way he can; it’s clear he believe’s a lot of it to be BS, especially after the Pykkts begin a war with Earth and its heroes.
There’s a lot to love about this book, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a great superhero story. Everything about it is great. But I have to tell you, I think I’ve read too many superhero books like this lately, dark stories about heroes fans like me are nostalgic for who aren’t as heroic as they’d like us to think. Maybe I need something a little brighter and more hopeful. But if you’re in the mood for this kind of story it’s an excellent graphic novel.
If you’ve never heard of The Public Domain Review, I urge you to visit https://publicdomainreview.org/ and sign up for their newsletter. I follow it for the out-of-copyright art and photos, but the articles are great too.
Affinities is a collection curated by the site’s Editor-in-Chief, Adam Green. Each page has one or several images. Some have a connection to work on another page, indicated by a number under that image, which offers an alternate path through the book, though flipping through the images and looking through the notes is more than fun enough by itself. And the best part is all of this is the art is all copyright-free. Winner of our Coffee Table Book of the Year (So Far) Award for 2022.
Posted on August 14, 2022 at 4:55 pm by Gene Ambaum
Hey! Chris Hallbeck, co-creator of Library Comic, wrote and illustrated a 240 page graphic novel! 😊😊😊
It comes out in April 2023, but you can preorder it right now using these links or wherever you get your books!Here’s the official description from the publisher:
A little girl and her live-in monster learn about what makes them different—and what unites them. This graphic novel is a silly, sweet, and sometimes gross tribute to friendship, and to the wacky world we live in.Based on his webcomic of the same name, Pebble and Wren follows human girl Wren and her live-in monster, Pebble, as she teaches them all about how the human world works—from why the moon changes shape to why we don’t eat candy wrappers—while trying to unlock special abilities without which Pebble will have to return to the monster forest.
A young woman has always lived in a house next to a pool in a yard surrounded by four high walls. Shiatsung answers her questions, provides entertainment, and teaches her what she wants to know. But Shiatsung won’t tell her about other people or the world outside the walls, though it provides whatever the young woman needs. Is it just a computer program that runs the house? Are there other humans who help it do things like prepare food and take away garbage? What’s on the other side of the only door the woman can’t open? Is the sound on the other side of the wall a lawn mower like hers? What will happen to her when she tries to find out?
This feels like the kind of story that could express an overwhelming sense of loneliness, but the woman’s curiosity is stronger than her despair. And the whole situation is just super weird. She will certainly never understand some of what she finds when she goes looking, and it’s hard to tell if that makes what she eventually sees weirder for her or for us readers.
Posted on August 9, 2022 at 6:49 am by Gene Ambaum
Youth Volume One: True Fantasy by Curt Pires, Alex Diotto, Dee Cunniffee, Micah Myers, and Ryan Ferrier. Dark Horse / TECC / Comixology, 2021. 9781506724614. Includes #1 – #4.
Frank hates his job at Meatlords, a burger place. River hates living at home with his stepdad, Paul. Luckily they like each other. And they have a plan of sorts, to steal Paul’s car and head off somewhere to start over. When that doesn’t go smoothly they catch a ride with Kurt, Jan, and Trixy. In short order there’s relationship drama, they find themselves running from the cops, and they get superpowers.
Imagine the X-men if they had terrible parents, acted more like real teenagers, and were being hunted by some weird Nick Fury stand-in. Last time I checked you could read this book and its sequel for free if you had a Prime account — they were originally published on Comixology. (If you look for it there, search for Youth Season One.)
My Last Summer With Cass by Mark Crilley. Little, Brown, and Company, 2021. 9780759555464.
