Burnout

Danni and her mother have moved to a logging town in Oregon. Dad split, and she doesn’t like Mom’s new boyfriend, because she doesn’t like the person Mom becomes around him, more concerned with others than with herself. In Burnout, Danni’s grumpy and bitter, a very typical teen. She doesn’t like her surroundings, but she can’t do anything to change them, so her pain comes out as complaints. Then she develops a crush on Haskell, her morose soon-to-be-step-brother with secrets. […]

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Great Expectations

Classics Illustrated relaunched with Rick Geary’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Previously published in 1990, this short reprint hits the high notes of the story of orphan Pip growing up to become a gentleman. I find illustrations very handy in understanding the context of a classic set in another time and place, and Geary doesn’t disappoint. His unique faces are well-suited to a story with so much conversation, since the cast can be instantly distinguished, and he shows their […]

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Reinventing Comics

I thought of Reinventing Comics as the ugly middle child of Scott McCloud’s trilogy of books about the medium. Understanding Comics was revolutionary; nothing like it had been done before in discussing the theory behind the art. Making Comics was needed; there aren’t enough good books about the practice of craft. But as I remembered it, Reinventing Comics was a bunch of outdated gee-whiz-aren’t-computers-cool bits and pieces. I was surprised, then, upon rereading it, to realize how current and up-to-date […]

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Castle Waiting

This handsome hardcover collects (if I’ve gotten this right), The Curse of Brambly Hedge, issues #1-14 of the mostly self-published series (as well as those put out by Cartoon Books), and short stories from Scatterbrain #1 and the second Trilogy Tour special. Regardless, now that all this Castle Waiting is under one cover, the original appearances are irrelevant. This is the format that suits the material. The book’s old-fashioned look acknowledges the tradition behind the story’s setting — all those […]

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Incognegro

Incognegro weaves historical elements — lynchings, blacks passing for white, the Harlem Renaissance — into an entertaining, action-packed thriller that makes its points violently, so that they strike home. Zane Pinchback is a reporter for a black newspaper in the early 30s. He’s light-skinned enough to pass for white, so he ventures down south to report on the murders of black men that the white papers don’t bother covering. He’s tired of it, though, afraid of continuing to risk his […]

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Too Cool to Be Forgotten

Alex Robinson (Tricked, Box Office Poison) is best known for his mastery of handling a sprawling, connected, soap opera-style cast. In his new graphic novel, Too Cool to Be Forgotten, he changes gears to focus on a single protagonist. Andy Wicks is a middle-aged man who, when he undergoes hypnosis to stop smoking, finds himself back in high school in 1985. It’s a common fantasy, to wonder how things would go if you had the chance to do it all […]

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Halo and Sprocket: Natural Creatures

I’m very happy to see Halo and Sprocket return with an all-new graphic novel. The characters — the robot Sprocket, the angel Halo, and regular girl Katie — are still exploring philosophical questions and human nature with great humor and outstanding cartooning from Kerry Callen. In Halo and Sprocket: Natural Creatures, Katie tries to explain to her roommates why people want privacy in the bathroom, societal expectations about women’s body hair, and whether you should kill spiders. The group goes […]

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Little Vampire

Little Vampire contains three stories for all ages: “Little Vampire Goes to School”, “Little Vampire Does Kung Fu”, and “Little Vampire and the Canine Defenders Club”. The first two were previously published individually in 2003, but the latter, the most heart-warming, is newly translated. They’re as straightforward as their titles suggest, with charm that permeates situations any kid can relate to. In the first, the Little Vampire wants to go to school, so his ghost and monster friends make it […]

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