Night Fisher

R. Kikuo Johnson’s debut graphic novel Night Fisher has justifiably been praised for its fresh take on a classic story type. Loren’s friend Shane has drifted away from him during their senior year of high school. Shane’s been doing meth, and Loren tries the drug in a failed attempt to continue their friendship. He finds himself following a downward spiral, getting high and indulging in petty theft to get more money for drugs. He’s facing a big life decision, deciding […]

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Queen & Country

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 […]

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Solstice

Solstice started life almost a decade ago as a never-finished miniseries. Now, it’s a still-timely graphic novel about the excesses to which men, fearing death, go to to survive. Steven T. Seagle writes and Justin Norman draws the story of Hugh Waterhouse. Hugh’s father is a millionaire with a brain tumor, and he takes his son on a quest for the Fountain of Youth. His accomplishments, his money, his power, and his family aren’t enough for him; instead of being […]

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Mom’s Cancer

Mom’s Cancer deservedly won the 2005 Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic (the debut of that award category). Now, collected in hardcover, it launches the Abrams Image line of illustrated and art books. Brian Fies created Mom’s Cancer when his mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. It captures how he and his sisters dealt with her treatment in an affecting, honest fashion. Although a very personal story, it is also universal in its lessons about the search for answers, the […]

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A Treasury of Victorian Murder

Rick Geary’s graphic novel series A Treasury of Victorian Murder presents the details of famous murder cases from long-ago eras, several of which are unsolved or contain a number of questions still unanswered. Because the mysteries are so old, instead of seeming creepy, the situations feel quaint, and the reader is flattered by having their interest assumed to be historical instead of prurient. Still, the motives are universal, and human nature no different from then to now. Think of this […]

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Mr. Negativity and Other Tales of Supernatural Law

After The Vampire Brat, Mr. Negativity comes next in the series from Batton Lash. It opens with a story where a gambler loses a cursed sarcophagus in a poker game to a casino owner who plans to open it on TV. Flashbacks to a theft in ancient Egypt fill in the back story. Next, Mavis splits into three people in order to handle all the aspects of her life that are overwhelming her. With one working hard, one trying to […]

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The Vampire Brat and Other Tales of Supernatural Law

After Sonovawitch!, the previous Supernatural Law book by Batton Lash, comes The Vampire Brat. He’s a teenager whose supernatural abilities only make his adolescent obnoxiousness worse. The contrast of the classically cool vampire with the obnoxious teenager makes for some amusing moments before the story becomes a parody of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Myrtle the Vampire Hater is a nerd’s nerd who’s being sued for harassing the teenage vampire, and her lawyer strongly resembles Ally McBeal. Unfortunately, the jabs are […]

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True Story, Swear to God: Chances Are…

A cartoonist tells the real-life story of how he and his wife fell in love in True Story, Swear to God: Chances Are…. After meeting at a well-known amusement park, they have to deal with a long-distance romance, with him in California, her in Puerto Rico. Tom Beland’s pages contain simple, cartoony figures that, like good caricatures, capture the essence of the characters. The author is drawn as a regular guy, with open-circle eyes that make him a willing receptacle […]

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