The Peabody Institute of Danvers not only has superhero graphic novels, but a growing collection of non-fiction titles. These books use sequential art to make complex topics more accessible. They work especially well with reluctant readers. Make no mistake; these books are complex, funny, and smart. Several of the titles have even made it onto…
Three years ago an event destroyed the small city of Poughkeepsie, forever changing reality within its borders. Uncanny manifestations and lethal dangers now await anyone who enters the Spill Zone. The Spill claimed Addison’s parents and scarred her little sister, Lexa, who Addison provides for by photographing the Zone’s twisted attractions on illicit midnight rides. When an…
COMICS, GRAPHIC NOVELS, AND POPULAR CULTURE Most of us have heard of comics and graphic novels, but what are they really? Comics and graphic novels are a form of Sequential Art. They are a series of illustrations read in a specific order. Manga is a form of sequential art that is read left to…
In 1961 the talents of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee brought forth an unusual group of superheroes. A quartet of adventurers mutated by cosmic radiation. This fantastic foursome would in turn help transform a struggling Marvel Comics into a multimedia powerhouse. The Fantastic Four shared aspects with another comic Kirby had worked on a few…
Written by: Greg Rucka Illustrated by: Liam Sharp & Laura Martin With the upcoming release of the superhero genre’s first female-led film, it is no surprise that many people are turning their attention to the Wonder Woman comic books. Wonder Woman’s rise to fame has been on a steady upswing since she first arrived on…
As an avid reader of DC Universe comic books and the wide array of heroes that they cover, I had high hopes for All Star Batman Volume 1: My Own Worst Enemy by Scott Snyder. Batman, being one of DC’s most popular heroes, has multiple storylines in the current ‘Rebirth’ comic run, but the All…
I was really not a fan of Lumberjanes, Vol. 3: A Terrible Plan, but volume four, Out of Time, gave me the same warm and fuzzy feelings as the series opener, Beware the Kitten Holy. Was it because Brooke Allen was back illustrating my favorite five-some after one issue off? Or because the story felt…
Giant Days focuses on three friends as they navigate their first months at Sheffield University. Ostensibly, not much happens – but therein lies the beauty of John Allison’s creation. To focus such an exacting eye on the minutia of female teenagers experiencing adulthood feels refreshingly honest. It reminded me of what it felt to be…
So… I really wanted to like this. After loving Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of T-Challa in Captain America: Civil War and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s memoir Between the World and Me, my senses prickled at the thought of two amazing things coming together. Except A Nation Under Our Feet, Book One is better suited to readers who are…
From the minds behind Hellboy comes a dark retelling of the DC Universe. The Doom That Came to Gotham blends the worlds of Batman, and H.P. Lovecraft. This alternate look at the Caped Crusader touches on the noir, steampunk, and cosmic horror genres. Aficionados of Mike Mignola will recognize the iconic art and writing style…
Thanks to Lumberjanes and Ms. Marvel NOW! – which I tore through in hours – my love of graphic novels has exploded tenfold. Below are some of the current releases (and also some classics) that I’ve added to my TBR* pile within the last year. – Rachel Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan…
Rachel reviews two graphic novels: Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson and Grace Eillis; and Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Mark Waid.
One of the best parts of doing interlibrary loan (besides having the god like power of summoning books from all corners of the globe 😃 ) is all the books, music, movies and tv shows you encounter because other people have asked for them. Andrew MacLean’s ApocalyptiGirl: An Aria for the End of Times…
Buying comics for the library is a tricky thing. For one thing, we’re not buying for the collector. If you know Comics People, than I’m sure you have a friend who obsessively collects every Batman comic or possible X-Men tie-in. We don’t really buy for those readers as they bought the single issues, subscribed to the title, and have been pouring over the message boards to see what’s coming next. Instead, we buy comics for the casual reader. [Caption column by Drew]
Spiders and Conjurers and Hypnotists, oh my.
Marvel had a wild and crazy day back on October 28th, dropping a whole lot of news regarding Phase 3 of the Cinematic Universe (MCU). If you weren’t on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, the Web, Earth that day or ever since, you might not know what’s what in terms of which superhero is getting her/his/their own…
As anyone who reads any of my reviews on this blog knows I read a lot of non-fiction (Especially history. See my last review). Even when I read fiction I love it when there is some kind non-fiction connection. This holds true with graphic novels and here are a few for the non-fiction lover that are fictional but still have some historical connection.
Of course, you can’t swing a cape near American comics without hitting a superhero, so here are three titles from The Big Two. This column includes: Ms. Marvel, Worlds’ Finest, and Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell.
Here are three comics set before today, back when the shadows were a bit deeper and the stakes a bit higher…
Lately, I’ve been going through a bit of Protagonist Fatigue. For some reason, the normal wise-cracking, don’t count him out when he’s down hero hasn’t been doing it for me. Maybe this is part of a shift in taste away from capes or at least your standard up-up-and-away superhero story, but for whatever reason this summer I decided to take a break and try to read some comics with something new to me…
Notes from the Internet Apocalypse – Wayne Gladstone Have you ever guffawed while reading? I mean, out of the blue: a burst of laughter, startling in the relative quiet. I did, with this book, not once or twice but so many times I lost count. This too-slim* satire imagines an internet-less world run amok with…
“The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards are considered the “Oscars” of the comics world. Named for the pioneering comics creator and graphic novelist Will Eisner, the awards are given out in more than two dozen categories during a ceremony each year at Comic-Con International: San Diego.” [X] If you have a minute (or four) to…
Publisher’s Summary of Book One: “This collection introduces The Losers, formerly an elite U.S. Special Forces unit that served as the covert bloody hand of America until they stumbled across a C.I.A. secret they couldn’t ignore. The C.I.A. tried to kill them, but they’re about to learn that it takes more than one try to…
From the Publisher: “Stepping out of Batman’s shadow, the original Boy Wonder now breaks the circle of crime and corruption on the mean streets of New York City as Nightwing. When the Dark Knight’s adversary Two-Face steps in to take a bite out of the Big Apple, it’s up to Nightwing to pluck the city…
Publisher’s Summary: “Finally, IRON MAN enters the world of MARVEL NOIR, with an action-packed pulp reimagining like you’ve never seen before! In 1938, Tony Stark is a daring adventurer, traveling the world in search of its mythological treasures and trying to forget the responsibilities of an iron magnate. From the Fountain of Youth to the…
So you’ve read Diana Gabaldon’s (awesome) Outlander series…Will you be reading the forthcoming graphic novel, The Exile, which is being billed as Jamie’s side of the story? I know I will! If you’re curious about what this is going to be like, head over to Gabaldon’s site – she’s put up a few teaser pages.…
The tragedy on September 11, 2001 was an event that will go down in American history books as one that changed our nation. The late Howard Zinn reminds us that history is not just written by presidents and generals but regular people like you and me. What Alissa Torres does in this graphic novel memoir,…
Take an acrophobic flight attendant, a mysterious traveler who changes his name based on his destination and a clandestine group of vigilantes and put them together and you have the making of a fun new graphic novel series. Blythe meets Zayn on various flights and begins to think that he’s a terrorist. But Zayn charms…
The late French photographer, Didier Lefevre, covered a Doctors Without Borders mission through war-torn Afghanistan in 1986. His good friend, Emmanuel Guibert turned his fascinating story into a stellar graphic novel. The team of doctors, nurses and mujahaddin traveled from Peshawar, Pakistan to their makeshift hospital in the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan. The journey itself…
David Small is an award-winning illustrator of children’s books. In Stitches, his first graphic novel, Mr. Small tells the story of his childhood. A childhood that is described on the back cover as one that “might have been imagined by Kafka.” Set in Detroit, young David is surrounded by unhappy people. His mother is constantly…
Sam Sarkar and Garrie Gastonny have taken the Arthurian legend and set it down in the American Northwest. Guided by a shaman named Whitefeather, young Arthur Pendergon takes possession of a gun that will help him tame a lawless land. You’ll encounter a lot of familiar Arthurian territory within the pages of Caliber, but the…
This is a fantastic graphic novel that follows three unlikely pairs on an advenuture that takes them through the underworld of present day Cairo. Ashraf, a drug-runner, sets this tale in motion when he sells a stolen hookah to a naive tourist. When the hookah turns out to be more valuable than he realized, Ashraf…
In this groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father. In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail. Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of…
Essex County Vol.1: Tales From the Farm ~ Jeff Lemire This is a bittersweet coming of age tale about Lester, a ten year-old who still wears a superhero mask and cape. After his mother dies, Lester moves to his Uncle’s farm in Essex County, Ontario. Neither of them, knows quite what to do with the…
Set in World War II, Super Spy delves into the lives of spies: their motives, their tactics and their missions. Each chapter or “dossier” moves the story along, but not necessarily in a linear fashion. The dossiers are dated, so you could read it that way if you want. But, the original order allows Kindt…
Naomi Nowak’s second graphic novel is an intriguing little volume. Josephine or Posy, as she likes to be called, comes from a once wealthy family. Her overly critical parents send her to a sweatshop so she can earn money for nursing school even though she faints at the sight of blood. During her stay at…
If you’re a fan of James Bond, you’ll love Alex Rider. Sure, he may only be fourteen, but he knows his way around a karate kick and a Portuguese Man-of-War. Complete with gadgets – zit cream that can eat through eight inches of metal, anyone? – Alex infiltrates a computer manufacturing company to discover why…
After having seen Frank Miller’s 300 on opening night, I can tell you that it is brutal in its beauty, surreal in scope and cinematography, and totally gripping. It’s one of those films that, the more you think about it, the more it burrows under your skin. Based on Miller’s (also of Sin City fame)…
If you are new to graphic novels, here are some that were recently recommended by local librarians. These are the kind that are geared for adults. Maus – Art Spiegelman Persopolis I & II, Embroderies, Chicken with Plums – Marjane Satrapi Palestine – Joe Sacco Rabbi’s Cat – Johann Sfar Pride of Baghdad – Brian…