I knew the concept of Borrowed Time going in — a reporter goes to the Bermuda Triangle and returns to find his life changed and his girlfriend missing — and I thought it had potential. Unfortunately, this first book of a planned series pretty much establishes just that, and the reader is required to take a lot on faith. I very much appreciate Oni trying new things: in this case, attempting to establish a format for the serialized graphic novel. […]

In Chynna Clugston’s Scooter Girl, Ashton Archer is king. He’s immaculately dressed in the coolest clothes, rides the snazziest scooter, gets any girl he wants, and oh yeah, he’s loaded. For generations, it’s a family trait to be the luckiest, most charming, sexiest, most popular guy around. Then Margaret arrives. Suddenly, he’s a klutz. Nothing unusual about that — many boys become tongue-tied and stumble-footed when they meet a beautiful girl and develop a crush. Ashton, though, gets it bad. […]

The point of Hope Larson’s comics is never the destination but the journey. Raina Telgemeier calls them “visual poetry”, just the right description. Gray Horses opens with travel, as French exchange student Noémie reaches her new city, taking the subway from the airport to her rooming house. While she adjusts to her foreign surroundings, she dreams of a girl named Marcy riding a wild talking horse. In the daytime, she makes friends with a neighbor, a girl who’s in her […]

In Ross Campbell’s Wet Moon, Cleo’s just moved into a new dorm room at college. When she and her friends get together, they gossip and worry about what other people think of them. The point of this book isn’t what happens, though, but mood and atmosphere, captured through believable actions and conversation. The way Campbell draws Cleo is terrific. She’s chunky, a solid presence, but cute, and she looks even younger than she is, emphasizing her vulnerability. Her pierced nose […]

Writer Greg Rucka has created a gripping spy saga with the Queen & Country series of graphic novels illustrated by a variety of talented modern creators. Book one, Operation: Broken Ground, introduces Tara Chace, one of three Minders (operatives) for the Special Section of the British Ministry of Intelligence. They’re the ones called in to clean up when missions go bad or sent on morally questionable errands. If something needs to be done but no one’s willing to go on […]

B-Sides: The Origin of the Dusted Bunnies, the latest in the Hopeless Savages series, is a shorter sampler than the other graphic novels. It contains three flashback stories, all written by Jen Van Meter, about Zero’s friends and bandmates. “Flora” (art by Becky Noonan (Demo)) shows the origin of the band, set against a backdrop of preteen exclusion and school politics. Flora’s somewhat pretentious, with the vocabulary of a Dawson’s Creek refugee, but she’s got an in-story reason: Mom’s a […]

Too Much Hopeless Savages, the third book in the Hopeless Savages series, is written by Jen Van Meter and drawn by Christine Norrie and Ross Campbell. It begins with mom Nikki’s mother holding a protest on the family’s lawn. Gran has taken up with a religious type and, convinced that punk is sinful, calls the children names on TV. Arsenal and Twitch, meanwhile, are dating the Shi brothers (Claude and Henry, in a followup to “Romance #1” from the first […]

Hopeless Savages: Ground Zero, the second book in the series written by Jen Van Meter, is illustrated by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim) with flashbacks by Andi Watson (Breakfast After Noon), Christine Norrie (Hopeless Savages Book 1), and Chynna Clugston (Blue Monday). Cover and chapter break art is by Terry Dodson. It focuses on Zero, the youngest child of the punk family, as she’s beginning to think about dating. It’s a touching, very real portrait of the problems of being […]