It’s a new story arc for Lumberjanes, one that explores more about who these scouts were before they came to camp. As the cover shows, it’s Parents’ Day. Only that becomes tricky when so much of what happens involves the supernatural. The campers want to keep that a secret so they aren’t sent home early. And Molly’s parents aren’t coming, for some reason that we know is more than she’s saying. But that’s something to discover in coming issues. In […]

The adventures of Princess Maxine, wannabe detective, conclude for now with a happy ending. (Did you expect anything else?) For the previous four issues, accompanied by her talking pony, she’s been visiting fun, fantastic kingdoms while searching for her missing little brother. Kelly Thompson uses classic ideas about princesses in fresh new ways, particularly in this issue, with a twist on the Frog Prince story. And I have to praise Brianne Drouhard’s art — she does a wonderful job drawing […]

Brianna’s part of a cooking family. But with a celebrity chef father and a bunch of accomplished older brothers, she doesn’t feel good enough. Then dad announces he’s dying, and to establish his legacy, he tells his children to go start their own restaurants, and the one who is most successful will inherit it all. The first few pages set up the premise well: Only Brianna isn’t particularly competitive, and her youth is a disadvantage. She jumps at an invite […]

Must be something in the water recently, as this is the second Boom! comic I’ve read that explains how to play roller derby. Of course, since that’s the setting of Slam!, it’s essential information, and it leads into something of a change-of-pace chapter. You can see the opening pages here: Now that we’ve gotten to know the characters, particularly the core duo of Jennifer and Maisie, this issue switches to action, showing the reader what it would be like to […]

As in the previous issue, Giant Days #24 continues exploring what it means to be an adult and take care of yourself, this time through contrast. Susan’s terribly sick and has lost her voice. Her dad, a handyman from Northampton, comes to take care of her. He winds up staying, as the girls like being taken care of, perhaps too much. He cooks for them, takes them to the movies, and helps them figure out what’s happened to the next-door […]

I wasn’t expecting to see such a well-done sporting explanation in this comic. There’s a great rundown of the basics of roller derby here, which I would have expected instead to see in Boom!’s title Slam! In the latest chapter of the series, written by Shannon Watters & Kat Leyh and illustrated by Carolyn Nowak, the campers have made a bet with a renegade group of sasquatches. The beasts have taken over the yetis’ tree house, and the only way […]

Now that the girls, in their second year of college, are living off-campus, the stories by John Allison, Max Sarin, and Liz Fleming are less about college hijinks and more about trying to grow up. As shown here by that terror of adulthood, the dinner party. Susan’s sick and refuses to take care of herself, Esther’s waiting to hear about a job at the local comic shop, and Daisy’s spending more time with her girlfriend. So to cheer everyone up, […]

Talk about catching the hottest wave in culture! The four-issue miniseries Ladycastle tags into several current areas of debate, protest, and wishful thinking. As written by Delilah S. Dawson and illustrated by Ashley A. Woods, it’s an adventure fantasy in which almost all the men have disappeared. We open with the famous concept of a princess trapped in a tower. She even sings! She’s a bit snarky, though, with a pet snake and dreams of anarchy. The other women — […]