Americus

Books can be keys to fostering imagination and new ideas, and some people hate that. Americus, by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill, dramatizes the conflict that occurs when a lonely boy’s favorite fantasy series is targeted for censorship in his small Oklahoma town. There’s even an heroic librarian, to charm those of us who love books and their keepers. Neil and his best friend Danny are mesmerized by the series “Chronicles of Apathea Ravenchilde, the Huntress Witch”, reading every volume […]

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Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series

It’s Matt Smith’s second series as the Doctor! The 14-episode set of Doctor Who: The Complete Sixth Series begins with a disc containing the hour-long special A Christmas Carol, a charming story that freshens up the classic Dickens tale with comedy and a giant flying shark. The Doctor has to un-harden the heart of Michael Gambon by going back in time to make his childhood holidays more fun. It’s a brilliant blend of time travel and a story well-known enough […]

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Preview Archie #627, Where Archie Meets KISS

As announced this summer, tomorrow’s Archie #627 is part one of the “Archie Meets KISS” storyline, “Riverdale Rock City”. The publisher has provided the following preview story pages. As you can see, we don’t really meet KISS yet, although the situation is set up: Sabrina and the “Riverdale Monster Society” — a new invention that tells us that Archie and his buddies, including super-scientific Dilton, now a) know Sabrina the Teenage Witch, b) know she’s a witch, and c) believe […]

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MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus

Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a completely unique graphic novel, the only comic to win the Pulitzer Prize. It is meaningful — telling the story of Spiegelman’s father, a Holocaust survivor, through his son’s eyes — and worth study, yet it turns on the simplest and silliest of visual imagery — the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice. It opened readers’ minds to what the comic format could do, 25 years ago. Now, this companion volume serves to elaborate on how […]

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The Manga Guide to Biochemistry

The author of The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology returns with another volume in the popular true-science comic series. (Note that with this book, the series pricing goes from $19.95 a book to $24.95, but Amazon has substantial discounts available, and other vendors might as well.) Writer Masaharu Takemura explains in the preface what biochemistry is: the study of the molecules that constitute our bodies … and the chemical reactions that occur within cells. While the science itself is full […]

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The Muppets: Some Thoughts on the Movie

KC and I went to see The Muppets on opening day, and while we enjoyed it, there were some aspects of the movie I wanted to talk about. It’s a good movie, but there were three things that left me wondering. The first was the central presence of Walter, the new Muppet. He and co-writer Jason Segal are brothers (the details of which are never explained), and their fandom for the Muppets drives the film. When the two visit the […]

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Green River Killer: A True Detective Story

They’re billing Green River Killer as a “true-crime comic”, but that’s misleading. Where this story really shines is in its portrayal of a working police detective frustrated by the length of time it took to catch a Seattle serial killer. Writer Jeff Jensen is better known as an entertainment reporter, but here, he tells the story of his father Tom, who investigated the Green River Killer in Seattle for twenty years. The GRK, Gary Leon Ridgway, is attributed as “the […]

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A Bride’s Story Volume 2

It’s difficult to find new ways to praise this gorgeous historical series. It’s got something for everyone. It’s beautifully drawn, exciting to read, diverse in story events, educational in its research, features a dramatic battle … there are even several nude shots for titillation. The opening chapter of volume 2 brings Amir, the bride of the title, a new friend. Pariya is a talented bread maker Amir meets at the communal ovens. While Amir works to fit in with her […]

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