Posted on July 4, 2024 at 6:30 am by Gene Ambaum
Cosmoknights Book Two by Hannah Templer. Top Shelf, 2023. 9781603095112. 278pp.
This graphic novel is as good as the first in the series, though you should read that one if you haven’t. It’s about a crew of women who seem to be competing in combat contests to win the hands of princesses, but who are actually setting the princesses free. They may soon be ready to take their mission to the next step even as freeing the princess they have in hand gets more complicated. Pan (you’d know her if you’d read the last book) begins training in zero-gravity combat. Plus there’s queer romance galore and space pirates!
This book is just so satisfying, and so much fun. I can’t wait for the third book. Worth noting: It has my favorite dedication ever: “To Found Family”
The Horizon Volume 2 by JH. Translation by Ultramedia. Ize Press, 2023. 9798400900303. 360pp.
The Horizon Volume 3 by JH. Translation by Ultramedia. Ize Press, 2023. 9798400900310. 360pp.
This Korean graphic novel series wraps with volume 3. It’s the story of two kids in a post-apocalyptic world. Highlights include The Man in the Suit, who rescues the kids at the beginning of Volume 2 and then teaches the boy how to use a gun. The girls’ survival backstory is told in detail. Volume 3 continues with a meeting that’s heartbreaking, and then the story jumps into the future a few decades.
Great Korean stories never go places I expect, and this continues that trend in a way I admire.
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Posted on July 2, 2024 at 6:30 am by Gene Ambaum
A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll. First Second, 2023. 9781250255525. 250pp.
Carroll’s graphic novel is the best kind of creeps-up-on-you horror adult horror, one of those the-less-you-know-the-better type books. (Apologies if you hate hyphens.) It’s about a bad marriage and a controlling husband. At the center is Abby, a quiet woman trying to help raise her stepdaughter, Crystal, and the story of what really happened to her husband’s first wife. There’s a ghost, fantasy imagery, and a creepy use of color that is pure Carroll.
If you’re an adult and you’ve never read one of her books, this is the perfect place to start.
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Posted on June 27, 2024 at 6:30 am by Gene Ambaum
The Phantom Scientist by Robin Cousin. Translated by Edward Gauvin. MIT Press, 2023. 9780262047869. 125pp.
This graphic novel opens with the arrival of Sorokin at the 4th Institute for the Study of Complex and Dynamic Systems. The armed clean-up crew that has just finished with the 3rd Institute is leaving the site, and one of the masked men hands things over to him. Sorokin watches a video from the previous director who explains the Institute a bit, from the type of researchers it includes to the fact that the system tends toward entropy and chaos in its last year, when results are expected. Sorokin’s role is to slow the spread of chaos at the end of the 4th Institute during its final year.
Then on the next page, the book jumps forward six years, to the arrival of the final researcher, Stéphane, whose field is morphogenesis. He is offered a lab plus whatever resources he needs. On the way to his lab he meets two others who live in his building, Louise (linguistics) and Vilhelm (he seems to be modeling the Institute itself). As Louise gives him a tour, a lone scientist in the woods observes them. He’s the so-called Phantom Scientist of the title, a man supposedly living in their building (though he’s never been seen), a researcher looking into the mathematical problem of P vs. NP.
It all makes for a decent mystery full of drawings that I loved, and it had me searching and reading scientific terms. After finishing the book I was able to send a cryptic (to me anyway) text to the smartest math person I know, which will (I hope) lead me to a deeper understanding of P vs. NP next time we talk. If not, at least I’ll have a better sense of how much my brain has petrified in recent years.
Worth noting: There’s some cool stuff on plants and origami and much more in here.
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Posted on June 25, 2024 at 6:30 am by Gene Ambaum
The Gull Yettin by Joe Kessler. New York Review Of Books, 2023. 9781681377391. 216pp.
This wordless graphic novel begins with a soccer match, after which a strange, shape-shifting creature follows a boy home. That night the boy’s house catches fire. He escapes the flames but is taken to a hospital. The creature liberates the boy from the hospital and takes him on a harrowing journey that includes many bizarre moments, parental figures, tenderness, and some horrific violence.
The drawings might look primitive at first glance, but they have a power that comes from the sense of quick rendering combined with Kessler’s storytelling skills. Their odd colors and childlike style are deliberate and compelling; both forced me to pay attention and think about what I was reading in a way that slicker-looking graphic novels rarely do.
Kessler’s work is inspiring and I hope you’ll give this book a quick but thorough read.
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Posted on June 20, 2024 at 7:05 am by Gene Ambaum
Ashes: a comic by Álvaro Ortiz. Translation by Eva Ibarzabal. Adapted by Leigh Walton. Top Shelf, 2023. 9781603095174. 184pp.
I love the layout of this graphic novel. Each page is a grid of up to 20 small panels; they are sometimes combined into larger panels, but never subdivided. The panels are borderless, their edges soft and defined by color rather than lines. They float and morph as the story requires. This works well with Ortiz’s simple line drawings and the colors. Ortiz seems to know exactly what each panel must do. I just love looking at the pages of this book. (Ortiz’s art is fantastic, too. The way he uses colors and black lines to draw people and some details drew me in when I started reading this book. But I love the layout and how it’s used for storytelling more than anything.)
Every character has a two-page origin story, starting with Polly, who’s working at a cafe at the beginning of the book. And there are lots more pages that are asides like these, that don’t move the story forward but which fill in some gaps. Lots of them involve the history of cremation.
This is the story of Polly, Moho, and Piter. Their friend Héctor is dead, and his ashes are in a box. When Polly arrived at Héctor’s house she was given a map with an x on it; Héctor had told his parents the three of them would be scattering his ashes. And so they set off to do that, if they can find the place where they’re supposed to go. Héctor’s ghost is hanging around. And so are two brothers both named Smirnov who seem to think this is a crime story. (And it kinda is, but that’s not the most important thing about the story.). Oh and there’s also a very smart monkey named Andrés who plays a part, too.
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Posted on June 18, 2024 at 6:21 am by Gene Ambaum
The Cliff by Manon Debaye. Translated by Montana Kane. Drawn & Quarterly, 2023. 9781770466944. 152pp.
Thirteen-year-old Charlie and Astrid make a secret blood pact to commit suicide on Friday, before noon, by holding hands and jumping off the cliff. Astrid wonders if anything will change at school before then because at school she’s bullied by Charlie’s group of guy “friends.”
Charlie goes home and tells her mother she’s going to kill herself. Her mother doesn’t take her seriously. At school Charlie beats up Enzo, who calls her mom a whore and suggests she might be one too. And she continues to act like she doesn’t know Astrid when other people are around.
This graphic novel is just brutal. In tone and and because of the bullying it reminds me of ancco’s Bad Friends, also published by D&Q. In contrast to the dark story, its colored pencil art is striking. I love the way Debaye draws birch trees and, in particular, Charlie’s facial expressions. My favorite moment involves a request for kindness, when one girl asks the other to style her hair.
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Posted on June 13, 2024 at 6:39 am by Gene Ambaum
Firebugs by Nino Bulling. Drawn & Quarterly, 2024. 9781770467057. 164pp.
This German graphic novel is a beautiful book full of art that’s mostly black and white with red accents. Red is also used for the panel borders and dialogue. The club scenes have so much energy they make the book beguiling on their own; it was impossible to turn away once I started reading it.
Ingken is in Paris, and as the world burns it becomes more and more clear she’s ready for a change. Though whether that change means getting rid of her girlfriend, transitioning, or finding a new way to deal with climate change and her family, it’s hard to say. It may mean all of that. There are lots of conversations in this book, plus cacti, ladybugs, and some content that will put it firmly in your library’s adult section.
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Posted on June 11, 2024 at 6:26 am by Gene Ambaum
Lightfall is my favorite kids / tween graphic novel series. If you’ve never read one of these, go read book one, The Girl & The Galdurian. Everything about it is beautiful, and it makes me wish my now-adult daughter still let me read to her. It’s a fantasy adventure about two friends, Bea and Cad, trying to stop a giant bird from destroying all of the lights (think mini-suns) of their world. Bea’s cat, Nimm, accompanies them on their quest, plus others are often around, too. Caution: spoilers ahead.
Lightfall Book 2: Shadow of the Bird by Tim Probert. Harper Alley, 2022. 9780062990488. 256pp.
After getting a note from Bea’s gramps and learning more about both the Restless Sleeper (Kest, that giant bird) and Irpa (their planet), Bea and Cad set off to either stop Kest or find another of the ancient beings that created Irpa or maybe both. It’s high stakes with shadow creatures, mass evacuations, and giant lights falling from the sky. Not to worry, though; Bea is super brave, and Cad has a huge sword, plus their friends help out. (And the ending is my favorite kind, dark enough for me to love it but not without hope.)
Lightfall Book 3: The Dark Times by Tim Probert. Harper Alley, 2024. 9780063080904. 256pp.
I thought this might be the final volume in the series but good news, it’s not!
In a last-ditch effort to save their planet, Bea and Cad head for The Citadel of Knowledge. That’s right, a library! I assume you don’t need to know more to get you to read this. But if I was pitching this to my daughter, I’d also tell her there’s a giant bat-like being at the heart of the story in this volume. (They love bats.)
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Posted on June 6, 2024 at 6:09 am by Gene Ambaum
Beowulf by Santiago Garcia and David Rubin. Translation by Sam Stone and Joe Keatinge. Image, 2018. 9781534309197.
I read this version years ago and loved it; reading Zach Weinersmith and Boulet’s Bea Wolf made me want to reread it. This time I finally bought a copy for myself. I’d forgotten how great the art looks in this large-format graphic novel. The battle scenes still wowed me.
Beowulf, Hrothgar, Vikings, Grendel, Grendel’s mom, the dragon — they’re all captured in cinematic layouts and drawings that seem organic. If you read the John Gardener version as a kid, and/or if you’re waiting for the next Head Lopper book from Andrew MacLean, find a copy of this.
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Posted on June 4, 2024 at 6:39 am by Gene Ambaum
The Gulf by Adam De Souza. Tundra, 2024. 9781774880753. 236pp.
2007, British Columbia. At the end of high school, Olivia runs away to join The Evergreen Community, a commune, to try to escape the meaninglessness of attending university and getting a job. (Olivia is also trying to escape a friendship/romance gone bad that ended with her punching a young man in a school hallway and losing everything she needed for the trip.) Milo is going along; he’s brought a video camera to document everything and to try to capture images of the sea-ape (think bigfoot). And Milo has invited the nerdy Alvin, though Alvin doesn’t know about the commune or Milo’s romantic interest in him.
The pages are oversized, which made me fall for De Souza’s art, particularly the way he drew the forests and the ferry ride. (I grew up in Seattle, and this book looks like home.) Oli seems a bit oblivious as to how worried her mother might be about her, and a few kind adults help the trio even though Oli isn’t quite eighteen. There’s drama (but not survival drama) as the three find the commune (it’s not what they expect) and try to figure out their next steps. For certain young people, this will be the ultimate graduation present; for me it was a great reminder of road trips I took as a young adult, and of all the friends who went on them with me.
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Cosmoknights Book Two by Hannah Templer. Top Shelf, 2023. 9781603095112. 278pp.
The Horizon Volume 2 by JH. Translation by Ultramedia. Ize Press, 2023. 9798400900303. 360pp.
