Difference between revisions of "Newest Graphic Novels Reviews"

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[[Category:Graphic Novels|*]]
 
[[Category:Graphic Novels|*]]
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Jane, The Fox and Me
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|author=Edel Rodriguez
|author=Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault
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|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Bullied at school and lonely because her former friends don't talk to her, Helene loses herself in the pages of ''Jane Eyre''. To a girl who thinks of herself as fat and plain, Jane's story gives her hope - but can she find happiness? And how will a trip to a nature camp affect her? Can it give her the confidence and courage to change the way she sees herself?
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|summary=We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba.  The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all.  Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away.  Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406353043</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1474616720
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Kia Ahankoob
|title=Nemo: Roses of Berlin
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|title=The Gold Lion and the Tournament of Sentinels
|author=Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=It's all very well having a heroic band of brigands and workers plucked from literature and being able to do the jobs that can't ever even feature in top secret files. Submariners, invisible men, and other individuals of mysterious origin, powers and sometimes intent aren't unique to English, or England. Hence this loose approximation of World War II, when Berlin is turned into a Germania-meets-''Judge-Dredd''-Megacity, and the Indian daughter of Captain Nemo and her very own special Captain Jack have a much more personal mission. The Fuhrer – and the real people and things behind the throne of the Nazi-type superpower – have something they'll fight to the end to get back – their own offspring.
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|summary= When Myriad created Duniva he endowed his children with different powers, each with its own strength and weakeness, in the hope they would complement each other and collaborate, creating a dynamic and prosperous society. Each power is contained within a magical ring belonging to one of eight countries led by Myriad's children and their descendants. But it didn't quite work out like that. Rivalries developed. Enmities grew out of them and the eight countries went to war. Having fought themselves into an endless and ruinous stalemate and finding the cost of war too high, a solution is proposed. Each of the eight countries will send their greatest warriors, known as sentinels, to a single combat tournament. The winner will take possession of all the rings and become the supreme ruler of Duniva.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>086166230X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=B09MMQJFPV
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Pat Grant
|title=Snowpiercer Vol.2 - The Explorers
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|title=The Grot: The Story of the Swamp City Grifters
|author=Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=All of humankind is living on a single train.  Oh sorry, as this is the sequel, make that two trains.  Launched on the same tracks as the original Snowpiercer, but clearly at a slight remove, was a second mile-long behemoth of a train, designed with the latest high tech to be completely self-sustaining as it travelled ceaselessly on the tracks encircling a frozen Earth, waiting for the time the world was inhabitable once more.  But the high tech on board, complete with lemon farms, and differing qualities of virtual holidays depending on cost and class of customer, has not put paid to one aspect of society – and in fact the sole aspect of society not featured in [[Snowpiercer Vol.1 - The Escape by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette|the first book]] – religion.  Some people are fearing the end time, when the Icebreaker crashes into the original Snowpiercer.  Some believe they're duped into the whole train idea, and are in fact on a spacecraft.  Some people know something else – the rare few explorers who get to go outside the train into the world beyond, and see glimpses of what came before…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782761365</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Line of Fire : Diary of an Unknown Soldier (August, September 1914)
 
|author=Barroux
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=A scientist can tell a bit about an animal's nature just by observing the beginnings of its life ('it's in water, ergo it's probably a fish').  They don't need to study every ant in the colony to see how ants collaborate and work together, for the detail is pretty much shared from one ant to the next.  So it is with soldiers, at least as far as this book is concerned.  You can pick one soldier from all the battalions and learn something of soldierly life.  You can see the nature of the war from what happens at the outset.  And here all we get is the outset, for this graphic novel is based on a manuscript the artist found purely by chance, of a solitary soldier's diary that covers only a couple of weeks in 1914, and stops obliquely.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907912398</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Snowpiercer Vol.1 - The Escape
 
|author=Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=All of humankind is living on a single trainI know British commuters feel that way at times, but this is a much different circumstance – it is a train miles long, running non-stop as a self-contained unit across tracks circling a desolately frozen Earth, moving on endlessly until, perhaps some time in the distant future, the planet can recover from the cataclysm that froze itIt's certainly been going on long enough for it to have a culture a hierarchical society from the rich and leisured classes near the front, through the orgiasts, past the useful carriages set aside for producing food, to the underclass at the end.  It's all set in its routine, set in motion.  But there are two fishes out of water – a man from the rear who escaped, and a middle-class woman working with civil rights campaigners.
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|summary=Everything in this world runs on pedal-power, and that includes the punk bands.  There are three pedallers at the front of the Heath Robinson contraption taking our lead characters to the ferry across the swamp to Falter City, where a mother and her two sons aim to set up a yoghurt factoryYou could say that yoghurt would be the only culture around, for this is a really rough-and-ready dump of a place, but everyone is interested in small things that growFor the only money to be had – the only fortunes to be found in Falter City come from algae, gunk and other crud that – well, the use of it is never really made clear.  Once there, the two brothers set themselves each up with a guide – Lippy, the more forward-thinking, industrious of the two, with a besuited gent, Penn with a ballsy young teenaged girl with bright red hair.  But which of the two will come off the worse as they make their own way in this dystopian, semi-Apocalyptic hellhole?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782761330</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1603094660
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)
|title=Mouse Guard - the Black Axe
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|title=Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes
|author=David Petersen
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Long before there can be peace, there is war.  Long before there is something to believe in, there is empty hopeLong before the legend, there is the truth.  And so, long before the events of the first two collected Mouse Guard volumes came the story in this third, that of how the heroic, mythical character Celanawe became so notoriousOur tale starts with him just a guard mouse and tutor to those who would follow him, but an unlikely connection to an already fabled weapon is about to be shown to him, in the equally unlikely form of a scholarly old female mouse, Em.  When she says the ancient legacy is situated far across unmapped seas, an unusual trio of explorers is pushed to the limit and beyond, in search of the unseekable.
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|summary=I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the second half of their teens has other priorities, you knowI certainly didn't know of the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and the birth of the Tank Man image, I didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and I didn't know more than a spit about the people involved on either sideThis book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857681435</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1684056993
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Leigh Bardugo, Louise Simonson and Kit Seaton
|title=Bugsy Malone - Graphic Novel
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|title=Wonder Woman: Warbringer: The Graphic Novel
|author=Alan Parker
 
 
|rating=3
 
|rating=3
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Teens
|summary=One bunch of wise guys might think they have it all, but they don't.  Another bunch of wise guys want it all and have the splurge guns to help them get itInto the middle come a beautiful starlet-in-waiting, and our crafty innocent abroad, Bugsy MaloneCue, at some incredibly random time honouring no discernible anniversary whatsoever, this reprint of the long-lost graphic novel version of the story, told for 'all those kids who find it tough reading books with just words'.
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|summary=Diana, being unique on her island, is the victim of a lot of taunts, and claims of nepotismIt's only her unique status, and her mother being Queen, that has her with any standing at all, her naysayers declare – even though she has clearly fought to be a strong young womanPerhaps too strong for the island, however – for every Wonder Woman origin story has her quickly leaving home for the World of Men, and this Diana is the heroine of yet another Wonder Woman origin story.  A shipwreck disturbs her leading performance in a running race, but the survivor she drags from the waters is only going to disturb a lot more...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007514840</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1401282555
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1401286208
|title=Asterix and the Picts
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|title=Black Canary: Ignite
|author=Jean-Yves Ferri, Rene Goscinny, Albert Uderzo and Didier Conrad
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|author=Meg Cabot and Cara McGee
|rating=5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=I've never been entirely certain if Asterix was written for children or adults. I am quite certain children were the original target audience, but it is equally apparent that many of the jokes are thrown in for adults as well. It does seem as if more adults are buying Asterix than children now, and comics in general have been taken over by the adult consumer, but Asterix still has plenty to offer the younger reader as well. If it is perhaps a bit more sophisticated than the average children's book today, all the better. I'm all for children's books that are light and easy to read, but I think we are doing our children a disservice by filtering out any book with a more complex vocabulary or a fair number of unfamiliar words. My children did find a few words like ''solidarity'', ''fraternise'' and ''diaphanous'' challenging, but if we don't challenge them at all - how will they learn?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444011677</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Hilda and the Bird Parade
 
|author=Luke Pearson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Hilda is a young girl who has just moved from the mountainous countryside to the town of Trolberg; a major upheaval in the life of a girl who likes nothing better than to go exploring the woods and mountains and discovering magical creatures. Since moving into town Hilda’s mother is not so keen to allow Hilda out exploring believing a town to be a potentially dangerous place for a child. Soon though Hilda and her new friends manage to convince her mother to allow her out and the new friends give her a guided tour of the area and all the best places in town. Hilda seems to prefer animals to other children though and early on becomes separated from her friends and instead goes exploring with an injured bird she has befriended.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909263060</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=A1 Annual
 
|author=Dave Elliott (editor)
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=It's perhaps a little surprising how few comics anthologies there are on the shelves of regular bookstores. The whole world of sequential art is so fragmented the choices to be made are infinite, everyone who comes into some renown soon wishes for a self-published collection of his favourites or her friends' work, and there definitely is too much out there for anyone in the audience of comix to fully grasp without some kind of editorial spoon-feeding.  One such editor is Dave Elliott, whose A1 Comics has been collating what it deems the world's greatest since 1989, but even with that pedigree it's only now that full hardbacks of their greatest hits are being launched – hardbacks such as this book.
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|summary=Meet Dinah Lance. Frustrated that her policeman father will not allow her to try and follow in his footsteps, and seemingly lumbered with being a cheerleader at school, she is desperate to find her voice. But it's actually more a case of her voice finding her, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singer. You could almost call it a weapon, or a power. But in order for her to call herself a superhero, there has to be a whole path of steps for her to take – one of which will be into her past…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782760164</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|title=Magic Words: The Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore
 
|author=Lance Parkin
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=I don't think that I ever saw [[:Category:Alan Moore|Alan Moore]] when I lived in Northampton, and I don't think I coincided with the publication of ''Maxwell the Magic Cat'' in the local newspaper.  So I missed out on the memorable frame of someone else who is six foot two, albeit a generation older and looking so hirsute he would seem to be afraid of scissors. But I certainly would not have been alone in not recognising him for what he is.  How many Northampton housewives flicked past the daily panels of ''Maxwell'' in complete ignorance of who Alan Moore actually is? – With no idea that the years he spent drawing that cartoon for £10 a week – later to be £12.50 – were just him gearing up to be the biggest man of letters in the comic book world?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781310777</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Briony Hatch
 
|author=Ginny Skinner and Penelope Skinner
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Meet Briony Hatch.  She's a fourteen year old schoolgirl, with a few too many curves for the trendy set, and want-away hair, who is fixated on the ghost who acts as romantic male lead in her favourite series of fantasy books, about a beautiful, feisty female, swashbuckling exorcist. But when the books finish, just at the same time as her parents divorce, it looks like the beginning of the end.  Mum and Briony settle into the abandoned bungalow belonging to the latter's great-uncle and aunt, only for the girl to find a horrid malaise come over her.  Has the books' conclusion done so much damage as to leave her wishing to retire from life, or can she find the ghost of a hope somewhere?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907536140</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1401280048
|title=Fashion Beast
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|title=Batman: Nightwalker: The Graphic Novel
|author=Alan Moore and Malcolm McLaren
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|author=Marie Lu, Stuart Moore and Chris Wildgoose
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Meet Doll.  She seems to fit in with the world she aspires to she has an androgynous look and a sharp tongue, and doesn't seem to hold many of the people around her in much deferenceHowever, as someone else is very quick to point out, she is only a cloakroom attendant, however swanky and in vogue the nightclub she works at might beThat same someone else gets her fired, however, yet for every door that shuts… As she becomes an overnight modelling sensation, and finds her new boss a very singular individual.
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|summary=The young man called Bruce Wayne is a very noticeable one – he can hardly go anywhere without people bystanders, paparazzi, and suchlike – reminding him he's a billionaire at the age of eighteenFeeling rather stuck with the legacy he's inherited from his murdered parents, he wants to do charitable deeds.  But one night, when he speeds off in his posh new car in pursuit of a criminal, he goes too far as far as the authorities are concerned, and gets given the most unlikely stretch of community service instead – cleaning in the home for violent criminals that is Arkham AsylumThere he learns of some other people who also allege charitable intent – the Nightwalkers, a gang who steal any ten-figure bank account contents they can, and murder the owner. Can he get close to one of them and get the truth of their schemes, or will the manipulative Madeleine be a step too far for the young do-gooder?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1592912117</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1401283292
|title=The Weirdo Years 1981-'91
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|title=Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass
|author=R Crumb
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|author=Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh
|rating=4
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|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Books are better than magazines – discussCertainly for the connoisseur of the contents of culturally important titles from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s it must be a lively debateI remember my collection of ''New Worlds'' editions and how often the editors would take us through a long novel over seven or eight parts, then dump a 'sorry, due to space requirements this last part of what you've cherished for months is abridged – but wait for the novel version soon' on usIs it better to be a completist, and witness everything the original editors deemed worthy (or just had lying around) or should we cherry-pick and note the best?  This hefty hunk of book goes for the latter, anyway, taking [[:Category:Robert Crumb|R Crumb]]'s output for the ''Weirdo'' comic, as edited by R Crumb, then someone else, then Mrs R Crumb, and giving us everything, warts and all.
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|summary=Harleen Quinzel is new in townShe always, to me, seems new in town, even if she's been around a long time, for she always has a very fresh attitude, and seems to look out of those large eyes at everything anew each timeBut here she is new in town, and the town is Gotham City.  Expecting a year-long furlough from life with her mother, she finds her gran dead and herself with no option but to stay with a bunch of drag queens.  She also finds school is a drag, she also finds the whole neighbourhood is being redeveloped by a large and uncaring corporation – but she also finds two characters that will have a big impact on her lifeOne is a civil-minded lass called Ivy, the other someone she only meets at night – a lad with a singular graffiti tag and a mind for violence and chaos, who calls himself The Joker…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662253</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=140128339X
|title=The Hartlepool Monkey
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|title=Mera: Tidebreaker
|author=Wilfrid Lupano and Jeremie Moreau
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|author=Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=OK, I'll get the obvious pun over and done with – this graphic novel features a lot of monkeying aroundIt focuses on the village of Hartlepool, and the people who populated the small settlement on low cliffs overlooking the North Sea, with its couple of pubs and not much elseIt looks at what might have happened when, as folklore has it, a storm put paid to a French ship and when a monkey washed up ashore afterwards the natives took it for a Napoleonic spy, tried to find invasion plans from it, and hanged it as the enemy.  Here the poor creature is even shaved so it shows respect to the court-martialHere too are some lovely choice lines of vernacular delivered in spite about the French and the English, and here too is a guest appearance by someone with a much more modern outlook than the ridiculous Hartlepool residents.
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|summary=Meet Mera.  She's the latest in a line of young women intent on fighting against their intended destiny for one only they can see for themselvesHer father, the king of Xebel, sees some cotton wool and a hunky man in an arranged marriage as her future – after all, Mera's mother, the territory's warrior queen, is long deadMera doesn't fancy the cosseting or the fella involved at all and is, in fact, trying to get Xebel out from under the cosh of Atlantean power, for Xebel's royalty are merely puppets of Atlantean masters.  So when she overhears her father request that her intended go to the world of us air-breathing humans, and kill the Atlantis heir, she rushes off to get the quest (and the promised throne) all for herselfBut of course, she has no idea what kind of person she will meet, and how hard it will be to get the job done…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662261</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1401286399
|title=Celtic Warrior: The Legend of Cu Chulainn
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|title=Super Sons: The PolarShield Project
|author=Will Sliney
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|author=Ridley Pearson and Ile Gonzalez
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Queen Maeve wants the Brown Bull of Cooley and the lands of Ulster. With an army of 10,000 men, she marches to try to take them by force. The only man who stands between her and her goal is Cú Chulainn, the legendary hero. Can he save his country from the evil enchantress?
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|summary=It's the near future, and every coastal city – including Metropolis – is in need of a huge flood barrier, built on its coast by Wayne Enterprises. But the rising sea levels have put even those constructions under threat, forcing many people to relocate in America's biggest exodus for decades. Superman is helping out, of course – first, he was patching up the dams, but now he's mining the asteroid belt for a rare dust that's perfect for blocking the solar energy from making further polar ice melt. Inland, in Wyndermere, the refugees from the coast are suffering bigotry and intolerance for being newcomers, but something else is much worse. A major bout of food poisoning is hitting the city. But it can't possibly have anything to do with what looks like sabotage of the flood barriers and the efforts to correct the climate, can it? Four young children begin to piece together clues that it can…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847173381</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Big Nate Compilation 3 : Genius Mode
 
|author=Lincoln Peirce
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=They say you should live your life like an adventure, and Big Nate certainly does that, even if it is only four panels at a time, meaning the full plot of the story can take a week or more to come out. For Big Nate is a star of an American newspaper comic strip, and this, believe it or not, is his tenth collection. We learn from this all about his friendships at school, his relations with his teachers and father, and just what a soppy thing his most unmasculine dog can be.  Here are comics, baseball and laziness, as every American kid knows them.  Luckily for us, though, Big Nate travels well.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007515642</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=168369015X
|author=Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
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|title=Manfried the Man: A Graphic Novel
|title=The From Hell Companion
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|author=Caitlin Major and Kelly Bastow
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=[[:Category:Alan Moore|Alan Moore]] will always be synonymous with two major books – [[Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons|Watchmen]] and From Hell, his look at the Whitechapel Murders. While the latter may appear to many to be a great, galumphing graphic novel loosely about Jack the Ripper, you ain't seen nothing yet. This volume is his illustrator [[:Category:Eddie Campbell|Eddie Campbell's]] look at proceedings, and for a book that would appear to have no actual Moore input in it, he provides a welter of words for it.
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|summary=In a world where cats stand on two feet, go to work at call centres and have diminutive human beings for pets, is Manfried. He's a typical frisky but shy pet – forever getting into scrapes, demanding more food than he can suitably eat, but at the same time being the perfect companion for his owner, Steve Catson. To such an extent that Steve, who is getting known for his man-oriented thinking, is actually having nightmares about becoming the neighbourhood ''crazy man cat''. But when a window gets left open by mistake, and Manfried goes missing, the only thing for it is a massive and energised man-hunt…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861661842</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Hainsworth_Gina
|author=Jennie Wood and Jeff McComsey
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|title=Talking to Gina
|title=Flutter
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|author=Ottilie Hainsworth
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=When fifteen-year-old Lily moves to yet another new town, she falls for a girl who isn't interested in her. Lily, though, has a trick up her sleeve - she's a shapeshifter. She turns herself into a boy so that she can have a chance with Saffron. As Jesse, she starts to build a new life for herself at school -can this 'boy' get the girl? Additionally, why is Lily so resistant to any sort of harm, and who are the strange people who are trying to find her?
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|summary=''This is what happened.''  An artist decided she needed a dog – so drove the length of the country, Brighton to Grimsby, to pick up an Eastern European immigrant street dog with some mange and one working eye.  Why not?  The first night at home, Gina – the dog – eats something she shouldn't and causes a mess, so it's not a great start, but then begin the tribulations of training, status and behaviour all humans must go through with their dogs. And then, the life with Gina begins to feel like too much – ''I felt weird about you because you were always there.  My thoughts were taken over by you, and I felt sick, as if I was in love.'' Slowly, however, everyone – our artist/author, her husband, two children and two cats – gets to form the family they and Gina all would have wanted.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1484085957</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Colfer_Illegal
|author=Mark Millar and Leinil Yu
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|title=Illegal
|title=Superior
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|author=Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Former basketball star Simon Pooni is now in a wheelchair and blind in one eye - at the age of 12. Mutliple sclerosis has left him in this state, praying for a cure. Then a talking monkey named Orman appears to him and offers him the chance to become a real life version of movie superhero Superior - for a week. But what will happen when the week ends?
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|summary=Ebo is twelve years old and all alone. His sister left for Europe months ago and now he doesn't know where his brother is either but knows that he has probably done the same thing. So Ebo has to attempt the same dangerous journey himself. He must cross the Sahara Desert, get himself to Tripoli, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and then try to cross the Mediterranean Sea. By himself. At twelve. And, even if he makes it, how will he find his sister?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857685945</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Miller_Batman
|author=Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke
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|title=Batman: Dark Knight III: The Master Race
|title=Green Lantern Volume 1: Sinestro
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|author=Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=I've never been a Green Lantern fan - I've tried the series a couple of times in the past but seem to have picked bad times to give it a go. However, I've heard some good things about DC Comics recently so wanted to try a few of the New 52 books, which relaunched all of the publisher's ongoing monthlies, and this caught my eye.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1401234550</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Hannah Eaton
 
|title=Naming Monsters
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=''Monsters are all around us'', we are told, and Fran should know. She opens each chapter of her episodic story here with a new monster – a golem, an incubus, or perhaps something less well known. But there are subtly monstrous events in her life as well – an alleged boyfriend with a measly attitude, a fake medium, a summer of retaking GCSEs, and more as well as the biggest, blackest, visitation – something that should bring succour, family and friendship but cannot be handled.
+
|summary=Batman is not playing ball. He's been videoed duffing up Gotham policemen, and not the baddies he usually biffs. But then he's not Batman – he's a she, and she finally comes up with the news that Batman died in her hands. Elsewhere, Lara, the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman, is encouraging Ray Palmer/The Atom to turn his technologies concerned with shrinking and expanding life to the miniaturised city of Kandor, the last vestige of Kryptonian existence not to fly about in visible blue pants. What with Superman sitting idle in an exposed Fortress of Solitude having gone into a sulk, and Batman dead, there would appear to be little in the way of help for the world should anything nasty happen but then, of course, something nasty does happen… s
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190843421X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Weeks_Gritterman
|author=Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
+
|title=The Gritterman
|title=Preacher Volume 1: Gone To Texas
+
|author=Orlando Weeks
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Reverend Jesse Custer is losing his faith in God - but he's about to find out that He exists, and He isn't all that He's cracked up to be. After one incredible event, Jesse's life is turned upside down, and he sets out on a road trip that will lead him to try and get answers from God himself - if Heaven's angels, and the Saint of Killers, don't cut him down first.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1563892618</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Peter O'Donnell
 
|title=Modesty Blaise - The Girl In The Iron Mask
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=n this volume our globe-trotting heroine Modesty and her faithful Willie land up at a jungle hospital, only to find the people providing it with useful drugs are also creating their own much worse drugs nearby; find the Mafia just one man away from taking over Australia – and therefore give him a male and female tag team back-up; and stumble into the wicked games of a pair of corrupt, evil billionaires in the Alps. There is no let-up in the global shenanigans, the daring-do, or the whipcrack action – and we wouldn’t want it any other way…
+
|summary=There's a man who has an ice cream van. In summer, what there is of summer, he uses it to sell ice creams, That's not his vocation though, but it does keep him going whilst he waits for winter when the van becomes a Gritting Van and our narrator becomes a Gritterman. The fibreglass 99s on the roof light up and rotate, playing a tune, whether the van's gritting or selling ice creams. Tonight - Christmas Eve - will be the van's last trip. The council has sent the letter about his services no longer being required. Global warming. Dying profession, they say. There's even a tarmac now that can de-ice itself, but the Gritterman isn't sure that he wants to live in a world where the B2116 doesn't need gritting.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857686941</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Historical Fiction Reviews]]
|author=Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
 
|title=Nemo: Heart of Ice
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=The Nemo here is merely the daughter of the great Captain Nemo, as defined by Jules Verne, although given that heritage there is more than enough talent in her bloodline for piracy and adventure.  Here, fleeing a royal family that has just been looted, Nemo turns to her father's logbooks and journals, and decides there is unfinished business in the southern polar wastes.  But while she's off looking for more edifying action, others are off looking for revenge on her…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861661834</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Cassandra Clare and HyeKyung Baek
 
|title=The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel, Volume 1: The Manga (Manga Edition)
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Meet Tessa Gray.  Summonsed to London to be with her brother after living in America, she has no idea what she is going to be in for.  A kidnap and training at the hands of two witches is only the start of it as she is forced to find the truth about the world about her – about the two different kinds of supernatural beings, and of how they constantly fight against each other, and about her own unique origin, character and destiny that makes her more than a pawn in this battle.  You might have met Tessa before, but not like this – for this is the manga adaptation of the series.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356502252</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Joff Winterhart
 
|title=Days of the Bagnold Summer
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Meet Daniel Bagnold.  He is a surly, sullen, modern teenager, permanently in a black hoodie, with long, lanky hair and almost a monobrow, who one would call very quiet were it not for the metal music that forms almost his only interest.  He has been forced to spend the summer, not in Florida with his absent father's new family, but with his librarian mother Sue, his best friend and his shyness.  He doesn't want much, and neither it would appear does his mother – although she knows she has to get him some posh shoes for her cousin's wedding.  This book is about their relationship – the two of them and the dog that completes the household – in telling, devastating and humorous manner.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090844</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Nytra
 
|title=The Secret of the Stone Frog
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=You know the drill – you are a young boy and find yourself waking up alongside your older sister, but with your beds beside the bole of a huge tree in an enchanted forest.  The advice you get is straightforward, but impossible to follow, as you don't stick to the straight and simple path home that you should.  As a result you find a tempting house guarded by bees who steal the words out of your mouth, hoity-toity upper class lions, angler fish on the daily commute and more.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1935179187</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Krent Able
 
|title=Krent Able's Big Book of Mischief
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=It's come to my attention recently that Knockabout books, with their growing library of graphic titles, have no intention in being at all literary – not for them the gently observant characterisation of some original graphic novels.  Instead they seem to have a wilful regard for going even further than their house name suggests – wild, wacky and not afraid to present an upsetting image.  With Krent Able they have the collaborator who will surely help them live up to that ethos like no other.  Taken from the ''Stool Pigeon'' musical magazine, with some extra cartoons, are these strips of depravity, death in unlikely ways and revolting selections of body parts and fluids.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861661796</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Robert R Crumb and Aline Crumb
 
|title=Drawn Together
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=This book is, as it says several times, the collected works of the world's only comic-strip creating husband-and-wife partnership.  While this is to ignore the work Joyce does to co-write some of Harvey Pekar's titles, there certainly is not a couple such as this.  Over several decades of work, we see just how joined at the hip they are.  Most of the panels are drawn by him - R - with Aline drawing herself on top of his inked backgrounds.  Later on, their self-created titles are split, with him doing half the pages, and her own opus on the other half - by this time she had had works out under her own name.  But so close are the couple in each other's intimate works, they are never very far from the edge of the frame.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861661788</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 10:21, 30 October 2023

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Review of

Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey by Edel Rodriguez

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen… Full Review

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Review of

The Gold Lion and the Tournament of Sentinels by Kia Ahankoob

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

When Myriad created Duniva he endowed his children with different powers, each with its own strength and weakeness, in the hope they would complement each other and collaborate, creating a dynamic and prosperous society. Each power is contained within a magical ring belonging to one of eight countries led by Myriad's children and their descendants. But it didn't quite work out like that. Rivalries developed. Enmities grew out of them and the eight countries went to war. Having fought themselves into an endless and ruinous stalemate and finding the cost of war too high, a solution is proposed. Each of the eight countries will send their greatest warriors, known as sentinels, to a single combat tournament. The winner will take possession of all the rings and become the supreme ruler of Duniva. Full Review

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Review of

The Grot: The Story of the Swamp City Grifters by Pat Grant

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

Everything in this world runs on pedal-power, and that includes the punk bands. There are three pedallers at the front of the Heath Robinson contraption taking our lead characters to the ferry across the swamp to Falter City, where a mother and her two sons aim to set up a yoghurt factory. You could say that yoghurt would be the only culture around, for this is a really rough-and-ready dump of a place, but everyone is interested in small things that grow. For the only money to be had – the only fortunes to be found in Falter City – come from algae, gunk and other crud that – well, the use of it is never really made clear. Once there, the two brothers set themselves each up with a guide – Lippy, the more forward-thinking, industrious of the two, with a besuited gent, Penn with a ballsy young teenaged girl with bright red hair. But which of the two will come off the worse as they make their own way in this dystopian, semi-Apocalyptic hellhole? Full Review

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Review of

Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes by Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the second half of their teens has other priorities, you know. I certainly didn't know of the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and the birth of the Tank Man image, I didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and I didn't know more than a spit about the people involved on either side. This book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989. Full Review

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Review of

Wonder Woman: Warbringer: The Graphic Novel by Leigh Bardugo, Louise Simonson and Kit Seaton

3star.jpg Teens

Diana, being unique on her island, is the victim of a lot of taunts, and claims of nepotism. It's only her unique status, and her mother being Queen, that has her with any standing at all, her naysayers declare – even though she has clearly fought to be a strong young woman. Perhaps too strong for the island, however – for every Wonder Woman origin story has her quickly leaving home for the World of Men, and this Diana is the heroine of yet another Wonder Woman origin story. A shipwreck disturbs her leading performance in a running race, but the survivor she drags from the waters is only going to disturb a lot more... Full Review

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Review of

Black Canary: Ignite by Meg Cabot and Cara McGee

3.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

Meet Dinah Lance. Frustrated that her policeman father will not allow her to try and follow in his footsteps, and seemingly lumbered with being a cheerleader at school, she is desperate to find her voice. But it's actually more a case of her voice finding her, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singer. You could almost call it a weapon, or a power. But in order for her to call herself a superhero, there has to be a whole path of steps for her to take – one of which will be into her past… Full Review

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Review of

Batman: Nightwalker: The Graphic Novel by Marie Lu, Stuart Moore and Chris Wildgoose

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

The young man called Bruce Wayne is a very noticeable one – he can hardly go anywhere without people – bystanders, paparazzi, and suchlike – reminding him he's a billionaire at the age of eighteen. Feeling rather stuck with the legacy he's inherited from his murdered parents, he wants to do charitable deeds. But one night, when he speeds off in his posh new car in pursuit of a criminal, he goes too far as far as the authorities are concerned, and gets given the most unlikely stretch of community service instead – cleaning in the home for violent criminals that is Arkham Asylum. There he learns of some other people who also allege charitable intent – the Nightwalkers, a gang who steal any ten-figure bank account contents they can, and murder the owner. Can he get close to one of them and get the truth of their schemes, or will the manipulative Madeleine be a step too far for the young do-gooder? Full Review

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Review of

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh

3.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

Harleen Quinzel is new in town. She always, to me, seems new in town, even if she's been around a long time, for she always has a very fresh attitude, and seems to look out of those large eyes at everything anew each time. But here she is new in town, and the town is Gotham City. Expecting a year-long furlough from life with her mother, she finds her gran dead and herself with no option but to stay with a bunch of drag queens. She also finds school is a drag, she also finds the whole neighbourhood is being redeveloped by a large and uncaring corporation – but she also finds two characters that will have a big impact on her life. One is a civil-minded lass called Ivy, the other someone she only meets at night – a lad with a singular graffiti tag and a mind for violence and chaos, who calls himself The Joker… Full Review

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Review of

Mera: Tidebreaker by Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

Meet Mera. She's the latest in a line of young women intent on fighting against their intended destiny for one only they can see for themselves. Her father, the king of Xebel, sees some cotton wool and a hunky man in an arranged marriage as her future – after all, Mera's mother, the territory's warrior queen, is long dead. Mera doesn't fancy the cosseting or the fella involved at all and is, in fact, trying to get Xebel out from under the cosh of Atlantean power, for Xebel's royalty are merely puppets of Atlantean masters. So when she overhears her father request that her intended go to the world of us air-breathing humans, and kill the Atlantis heir, she rushes off to get the quest (and the promised throne) all for herself. But of course, she has no idea what kind of person she will meet, and how hard it will be to get the job done… Full Review

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Review of

Super Sons: The PolarShield Project by Ridley Pearson and Ile Gonzalez

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

It's the near future, and every coastal city – including Metropolis – is in need of a huge flood barrier, built on its coast by Wayne Enterprises. But the rising sea levels have put even those constructions under threat, forcing many people to relocate in America's biggest exodus for decades. Superman is helping out, of course – first, he was patching up the dams, but now he's mining the asteroid belt for a rare dust that's perfect for blocking the solar energy from making further polar ice melt. Inland, in Wyndermere, the refugees from the coast are suffering bigotry and intolerance for being newcomers, but something else is much worse. A major bout of food poisoning is hitting the city. But it can't possibly have anything to do with what looks like sabotage of the flood barriers and the efforts to correct the climate, can it? Four young children begin to piece together clues that it can… Full Review

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Review of

Manfried the Man: A Graphic Novel by Caitlin Major and Kelly Bastow

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

In a world where cats stand on two feet, go to work at call centres and have diminutive human beings for pets, is Manfried. He's a typical frisky but shy pet – forever getting into scrapes, demanding more food than he can suitably eat, but at the same time being the perfect companion for his owner, Steve Catson. To such an extent that Steve, who is getting known for his man-oriented thinking, is actually having nightmares about becoming the neighbourhood crazy man cat. But when a window gets left open by mistake, and Manfried goes missing, the only thing for it is a massive and energised man-hunt… Full Review

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Review of

Talking to Gina by Ottilie Hainsworth

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

This is what happened. An artist decided she needed a dog – so drove the length of the country, Brighton to Grimsby, to pick up an Eastern European immigrant street dog with some mange and one working eye. Why not? The first night at home, Gina – the dog – eats something she shouldn't and causes a mess, so it's not a great start, but then begin the tribulations of training, status and behaviour all humans must go through with their dogs. And then, the life with Gina begins to feel like too much – I felt weird about you because you were always there. My thoughts were taken over by you, and I felt sick, as if I was in love. Slowly, however, everyone – our artist/author, her husband, two children and two cats – gets to form the family they and Gina all would have wanted. Full Review

Colfer Illegal.jpg

Review of

Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin

5star.jpg Graphic Novels

Ebo is twelve years old and all alone. His sister left for Europe months ago and now he doesn't know where his brother is either but knows that he has probably done the same thing. So Ebo has to attempt the same dangerous journey himself. He must cross the Sahara Desert, get himself to Tripoli, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and then try to cross the Mediterranean Sea. By himself. At twelve. And, even if he makes it, how will he find his sister? Full Review

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Review of

Batman: Dark Knight III: The Master Race by Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello

3.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

Batman is not playing ball. He's been videoed duffing up Gotham policemen, and not the baddies he usually biffs. But then he's not Batman – he's a she, and she finally comes up with the news that Batman died in her hands. Elsewhere, Lara, the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman, is encouraging Ray Palmer/The Atom to turn his technologies concerned with shrinking and expanding life to the miniaturised city of Kandor, the last vestige of Kryptonian existence not to fly about in visible blue pants. What with Superman sitting idle in an exposed Fortress of Solitude having gone into a sulk, and Batman dead, there would appear to be little in the way of help for the world should anything nasty happen – but then, of course, something nasty does happen… s Full Review

Weeks Gritterman.jpg

Review of

The Gritterman by Orlando Weeks

5star.jpg Graphic Novels

There's a man who has an ice cream van. In summer, what there is of summer, he uses it to sell ice creams, That's not his vocation though, but it does keep him going whilst he waits for winter when the van becomes a Gritting Van and our narrator becomes a Gritterman. The fibreglass 99s on the roof light up and rotate, playing a tune, whether the van's gritting or selling ice creams. Tonight - Christmas Eve - will be the van's last trip. The council has sent the letter about his services no longer being required. Global warming. Dying profession, they say. There's even a tarmac now that can de-ice itself, but the Gritterman isn't sure that he wants to live in a world where the B2116 doesn't need gritting. Full Review

Move on to Newest Historical Fiction Reviews