Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Aaron Alexovich both writes and draws Kimmie66 (the first Minx book that has allowed a writer-artist to do both), a near-future tale of a world lived in virtual reality. Telly, the goth teen girl lead, has received a suicide note from her best friend, a person she never knew in real life, which leads her to ponder the nature of existence and how you really know a person. Her conclusion: It’s such a pain in the butt when you don’t […]
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I had high hopes due to the premise — teenage blogger can’t cope with mom’s new boyfriend — and the co-writer, Louise Carey, who is an actual 15-year-old girl and daughter of established writer Mike Carey. I was sadly disappointed with Confessions of a Blabbermouth. And to tell you why, I have to spoil the book, so if you don’t wanna, skip to the next post. The book starts in a very cartoony fashion, with Tasha, our Teenage Heroine, throwing […]
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The every-other-book-is-good Minx pattern continues. Good as Lily is not the best book in the line (that would be Re-Gifters), but it’s a close second. Derek Kirk Kim (Same Difference and Other Stories) writes and Jesse Hamm draws this story of Grace, a girl just turning 18 who magically encounters herself at the ages of 6, 29, and 70. Why now? Because Grace is unsure of where her life is going to take her, and her other selves aren’t very […]
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I’ve been remiss in keeping up with this young adult series, adapted and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier based on the books by Ann M. Martin. I very much enjoyed the first book, and now the third’s already been out for two months and I haven’t talked about it. The first volume featured the founder of the baby-sitters club, Kristy, and each subsequent book focuses on another of the girls, which is a nice way to get to know the characters […]
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I don’t make any claims for superior artistry or quality, but this manga series by Yukiya Sakuragi has quickly become one of the top five I look forward to. It’s consistently entertaining, and I know what I’m going to get from it: cute dogs and soap opera among the people who love them. It feels good to read it, and it rewards me exactly as I expect it to. I do wish, though, that some of the fan service chapter-opening […]
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I broke my iron-clad “no zombies” rule to read Eating Steve when sent a review copy, only because I so very much enjoyed J. Marc Schmidt’s previous graphic novel, Egg Story. I shouldn’t have bothered. Not because of the subject matter, but because it’s not very good. It’s not really about zombies — it’s about a young woman finding herself after the abrupt end of her relationship and life to date. Schmidt postulates a disease that causes people to suddenly […]
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I liked the premise behind this odd series by Tomoko Hayakawa — four gorgeous guys hired to bring a geeky horror fan out of her shell — but when I sampled The Wallflower before, I could never get into it. For me, there was too much emphasis on the horror references, not enough character development. I was surprised, then, to find myself drawn into this later volume. I still can’t tell the guys apart, and it’s a bit unnerving that […]
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The otaku/manga/anime fan series by Kio Shimoku comes to an end with this volume and school graduation. The club president’s American friends have returned. Sue, the bad-tempered yaoi fan, now has a dream: to attend university in Japan as an exchange student. Since she only talks in anime quotes, there’s some confusion over just how much Japanese she understands or can speak. For that reason, her friends think it’s a bad idea, but Ogiue (who winds up hosting Sue as […]
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