Set in a dystopian fantasy world, Coda by Simon Spurrier is a whip-smart adventure from beginning to end. Following the trials and tribulations of Hum, a disgruntled former bard, Coda delves deep into a land affected greatly by The Quench, a cataclysmic event that changed the world forever. With eye-popping illustrations and delightfully dry dialog, Coda is an entertaining read.
Hum wanders throughout the ruined land writing diary entries to the missing wife he’s searching for and generally trying to stay out of trouble. The world he once knew has changed forever after a tragic event and now everyone is under the power of new dark lords who do not allow any new magic. Hum’s search for his wife sends him to Ridgetown. He gets conned into accepting a quest from the town’s mayor and this is where his adventure truly begins. There is something rotten in Ridgetown. Is it tied to The Quench or vice versa? Hum teams up with a rag-tag group of friends and foes alike to try and figure out what’s going on in Ridgetown and hopefully save his wife in the process.
Coda is beautifully illustrated. The artwork is cotton candy colorful and it’s a delight. There are enough fantastical elements in the illustrations to remind the reader that this is not taking place in a normal time and place. The varying creatures and beings in this world are unique and are drawn as such. From a murderous Pentacorn to an Ylf in agony, Matias Bergara’s illustrations are clear, concise, and fun to see. It’s a welcome mix of modern and medieval that enhances the story greatly and easily draws the reader into this high fantasy world.
Coda is a very well-written. The writing is smart and the characters feel real. The dialogue is natural and funny. The added feature of Hum’s diary entries to his wife help guide the reader through the story without it feeling forced. This plot device is perfect for providing the appropriate amount of backstory. Coda is a great example of a story that has a balance between the light and the dark. The humor is a welcome respite to the otherwise dark desperation of a world under tyrannical rule.
Coda is suitable for readers 13+ and will appeal to readers who enjoy fantasy. There is some non-gratuitous violence as it relates to the story. Coda is enjoyable for readers of Skottie Young’s Middlewest, Kieron Gillen’s Die: Fantasy, and Christopher Sebela’s Crowded.
Coda, vol. 1 By Simon Spurrier Art by Matias Bergara ISBN:9781684155156 Boom! Studios, 2019 Publisher Age Rating: Teen
La Voz de M.A.Y.O.: Tata Rambo is a book that aims to fill a gap in the historical record, highlighting the contributions of Ramon Jaurigue (Tata Rambo) to the Pascua Yaqui tribe in Arizona and the Mexican American Yaqui Organization (M.A.Y.O.). Ramon Jaurigue is the great-grandfather of the book’s writer, Henry Barajas, who channels his background as a journalist into piecing together Jaurigue’s story through interviews, oral histories, newspaper clippings, and the scant recorded history available through his public library.
The story opens in 2015, with Barajas taking an aging Jaurigue to a protest, relating to the reader that it may be the last march he would be able to attend, before traveling back in time to 1969. The book traces Ramon’s involvement with M.A.Y.O. to protest the construction of the I-10 highway, which would have further displaced around 12,000 members of the Indigenous Yaqui community. A vital step to blocking the measure is to get the tribe recognized by the federal government, an ongoing five-year-long struggle depicted over the course of the book. Barajas includes both community-oriented anecdotes and personal stories, with tension slowly building as more time dedicated to the community often seemed to mean less time he spent with his own family.
Barajas re-appears in the story several times, but always briefly and as a supporting character, prompting the reader to think of Jaurigue’s legacy and how history is recorded and remembered. The storyline can feel a little stunted with abrupt transitions between scenes, which may reflect Barajas’s difficulty with piecing together his great-grandfather’s story. But as a result, Barajas represents key moments in the history of the M.A.Y.O. without losing the facts in too much fictionalized connective tissue.
The art is very bold and stylized, with thick black outlines—almost any panel looks like it could be made into a poster. The color palette centers around shades of red, blue, and yellow, invoking traditional comic book colors, but with a twist—shades of teal and turquoise, deep red-orange, and muted sunflower yellow—that also references the American Southwest. The consistent use of these colors brings some unity to the disjointed scene changes.
In the book’s foreword, scholar Frederick Luis Aldama stresses the importance of corrective counter-narratives that balance our understanding of American history with appropriate, truthful representations of people of color. He describes how comics have become an important medium is this regard, and La Voz de M.A.Y.O. is an excellent example.
After the story, the book includes a two-page interview between Barajas and Congressman Raul Grijalva; five full issues of the titular newsletter, La Voz de M.A.Y.O.; various newspaper clippings; and a five-page letter from Ramon himself. Barajas has produced a well-rounded work that would be easy to place in a classroom curriculum, with a wonderful opportunity for studying primary texts alongside a historical narrative.
Librarians wishing to shelve this book and teachers looking to teach with it should be aware of the following content warnings: police brutality, brief depictions of colonial violence, and brief depictions of war.
La Voz de M.A.Y.O.: Tata Rambo By Henry Barajas Art by J. Gonzo ISBN: 9781534313637 Image, 2019 Publisher Age Rating: T+ (Teen Plus)
Browse for more like this title Character Traits: Pascua Yaqui, Mexican American Creator Highlights: Latinx Creator, Chicano Creator
It’s appropriate that on the heels of BOOM! Studios’s graphic reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the publisher released its Angel equivalent only months later—because you can’t have one without the other. Well, you can, but it doesn’t seem right. The relationship between the two TV-shows-turned-comics was never a simple duality, but one of self-reflexivity. In the vampire with a soul, Buffy found her quieter, darker side, and in the high-spirited vampire slayer, Angel found happiness (however detrimental) and a purpose. Like Buffy, Angel refuses the good vs evil, light vs dark, us vs them dichotomies, and inhabits a world that is messy, complicated, and not always what it seems. But when Angel became its own television show it also became something quite distinct from Buffy: darker, seedier, more twisted, and inherently more noir.
In this regard, the reboot written by Bryan Edward Hill (Detective Comics, DC Universe’s Titans), with artwork by Gleb Melnikov, is flawless. Not only does Hill have a clear understanding of Angel’s character and dark history, but he has also managed to capture the spirit of the original series while creating something fresh and new.
The aptly named Angel, vol. 1: Being Human opens on a little girl standing amid a village in flames. It’s an obvious reference to the show’s flashbacks of Angel’s previous life as Angelus, the sadistic vampire who terrorized Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s also a brilliant way to kick off Angel’s return to graphic novels. He is the epitome of the brooding antihero with a dark past, a beloved cultural archetype, and whether readers are new to Angel’s story or are longtime fans, it’s a familiar tale that will appeal to both.
In BOOM!’s Buffy reboot, writer Jordie Bellaire made a lot of questionable changes and undoubtedly alienated many fans. Because it’s one thing to incorporate smartphones and tablets into a retelling, but it’s quite another to make Cordelia Chase the nice girl. Hill was much more careful in this regard, or maybe he just understands that a good thing shouldn’t be tampered with. To be clear, Hill’s reboot is truly a 21st century upgrade. In the first installment, a predatory demon uses social media to feed off of young people’s insecurities and desire to be “liked,” leading many to violence and death. Angel seeks to destroy the demon with the help of Lilith (the one and only) and a patient from the local insane asylum named Winifred Burkle (think post-Pylea Fred but in much worse shape).
It’s your typical monster-of-the-week scenario, but with a level of foreshadowing and character depth that suggests exciting things are on the horizon, and that more serialized storytelling is forthcoming. I really hope Melnikov remains a part of this process. His art is fresh and clear, and beloved characters are instantly recognizable. But my favorite part about his style is his use of Ben-Day dots. The dots, a technique created by 19th century illustrator Benjamin Henry Day, Jr. to limit the amount of ink used in printing, have become synonymous with the early comics of the 1930s-1950s. In most aspects, the artwork in Angel is very contemporary. From the distinct linework to the bold use of color, the style reads clean, digital, and intentional, with little room for the abstract. But the use of Ben-Day dots suggests a blending of the old and the new—300-year old Angel coming into the digital age, the inhumane vampire of the 18th century “being human” in the 21st. All this to say, Hill and Melnikov have managed to launch a thrilling revamp (pun intended), and I can’t wait for the next installment. Angel is in good hands.
Recommended for fans of urban fantasy and shows such as Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Grimm. There is some violence and graphic imagery, but the publisher does not give an age rating. I recommend this title for teens and adults.
Angel, vol. 1: Being Human By Bryan Edward Hill Art by Gleb Melnikov ISBN: 9781684154715 BOOM! Studios, 2019 NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Older Teen (16-18), Adult (18+)
This biography covers Einstein’s life, with a focus on his years doing research. The book begins with the briefest glimpse at his childhood, when he receives a compass from his father, a captivating gift. The compass returns repeatedly throughout the story, symbolizing both his curiosity and passion for learning more about the unknown and his commitment to following his moral compass as a pacifist through two World Wars. Einstein’s story is told through a series of reflective framing conversations: chatting with his mentee, lecturing to students, and confiding in his girlfriend, Johanna Fantova. The frame story approach occasionally means that some biographical information comes across as heavy-handed. For example, in the beginning of the story, Einstein insists on feeding his mentee dinner, saying that he should not be hungry, clumsily tying this hunger to his criticism of the Nazis for “establish[ing] their authority over a people that were weak and hungry.” While the book does contain a fair amount of dialogue quoted or paraphrased from Einstein, it is generally executed more gracefully.
The story is fairly narration-heavy, given the conversational style. Some scenes depicting Einstein working on his theories can be fairly dense, with text that’s hard to follow both visually and conceptually. While it is not necessary to have substantial knowledge of physics in order to appreciate the story, a few pages may need to be re-read in order to follow Einstein’s thinking and his discoveries. The book has plenty of footnotes to contextualize the names of important historical figures, events, and theoretical concepts, which helps convey their significance without slowing down the story too much.
This text-heavy approach is seemingly balanced by the relative simplicity of the art. The art is a realistic style and uses shading in primarily one shade of light gray, which makes the art look flat and feel somewhat sparse and unfinished. However, most of the panels contain fully illustrated backgrounds, which saves it from looking too cartoonish. Some panels are drawn without borders—rather than a full panel, the person and their speech bubbles float against a plain white background, creating added weight to these words. While this technique is used sparingly, it’s not always employed in the most effective manner; ”Of course, Mark, if it will help you,” is a far cry from “The Nazis are going to take power and by then it will be too late.” The most striking pages in the book depict the mushroom clouds of each atomic bomb, with small panels along the bottom showing their destruction. These pages are incredibly visually effective, carrying the weight and devastation of the bombs while also conveying the appropriate silence.
Philosophy and ethics were integral to Einstein’s work and mindset. The excitement he displays when working on the theory of general relativity vanishes with the development of the atomic bomb. While Einstein was not directly involved with the Manhattan Project, he signed a letter to President Roosevelt encouraging nuclear research, fearing that the Nazis may be the first to harness its horrors. In one of his more harrowing quotes, Einstein says, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” This book provides an overview of Einstein’s life while grappling with some incredibly heavy themes. A detailed timeline, bibliography, and selected quotes follow the story for readers wishing to learn more about Einstein’s life.
In regards to content warnings, there are brief depictions of the following: anti-Semitic violence, a Holocaust mass grave, war, and bodies burned by the atomic bombs. The book contains a lot of heavy topics, though the art does not focus nor unnecessarily linger on the violence.
Albert Einstein: The Poetry of Real By Marwan Kahil Art by Manuel Garcia Iglesias ISBN: 9781681122021 NBM, 2019 NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Older Teen (16-18), Adult (18+)
Horror serves many different purposes for those who seek it. Some people stare down the existential dread of death by seeing it inevitably claim lives in fiction. Others think gore and murder are kickin’ rad, not because they want to enact violence themselves, but because seeing it done in art is one of the only acceptable ways to indulge in the macabre. Horror and insurmountable odds are also the stuff of inspiration: plenty of authors embrace terrifying narratives, they claim, in order to teach and demonstrate that such frights can be overcome. In Kazuo Umezz’s The Drifting Classroom, there is ripe material for all these tastes and more.
One day, a Japanese school and all 864 of it students, faculty, and staff are transported to what seems like a weird, alien land. The “drift” itself is precluded by the casual nastiness and obscured kindness of sixth-grader Sho and his mother. They yell at each other about her strictness and nosiness and his keeping a messy room and dangerous objects. He saved up money to buy her a gift in lieu of a toy he greatly desired, but it was accidentally broken before he could get home. Much of The Drifting Classroom has to do with good intentions being sidelined by sudden catastrophe, and the great effort it takes to recover from the resulting trauma and collateral damage.
To describe in plain terms what happens next would be a massive disservice without emphasizing the timing, pacing, abrupt tonal shifts, and constant mounting dread demonstrated in lingering shots of panicked faces distorted with fear. This story is violent, despairing, and dehumanizing, yet is also at turns encouraging and even silly. The adults at the school do their best to maintain order, but without any rational explanation for what’s happened, they quickly become as authoritarian and abusive as the students eventually become toward each other. Food becomes a hot commodity, as does sane leadership. A monstrous insect terrorizes the school, unifying everyone against it one moment, but also wedging apart the useful, practically minded students from those experiencing meltdowns or trying to assert control.
I suspect teen readers will be better able to roll with the flexible tone of The Drifting Classroom than adults, who might hyper-focus on a given violent scene to the exclusion of the greater narrative. One show-stopper after another keeps readers too frightened, grossed out, or even exhilarated to slow down. Many of these have to do with terrible things happening to children. First-graders, screaming from the rooftops for their parents, decide to jump, believing they’ll turn into birds and fly home. Adults and students hit, cut, and scheme against each other, sometimes out of survival or grievance against the school, other times because someone has been named a scapegoat and must be punished. One student is crucified and burned alive by classmates. One girl, demanding to be called “Princess,” makes examples of a couple of students by pummeling them, including having her minions strip a boy naked and step on his groin.
What purpose does this all this grisly business serve? The children are resilient and want to take care of each other, physically and emotionally. A last-minute gambit against a monster rampaging through the school is for the kids to pretend with every fiber of their being that they are chairs. Aggressive denial of one’s own personhood as the price to be paid for continued survival says a lot about the generational trauma Umezz (also known as Umezu) frequently implies. There’s evidence that the school has traveled into the future, and that any continued civility among the survivors is moot because the planet’s dead anyway. The series may have been first published in the early 1970s, but its themes reach directly into modern-day despondency over the world tilting into extinction. The brutal betrayals, murders, and bullying make the occasional appeal to humanity and shared purpose a welcome relief and reminder that we are still responsible for ourselves. The new hardcover omnibus editions from Viz are a godsend for every reader who will be transformed by them, especially teens, for whom this series has been waiting like a dire warning in a bottle.
The Drifting Classroom: Perfect Edition, vol. 1 By Kazuo Umezz ISBN: 9781974709373 Viz, 2019 Publisher Age Rating: OT (16+)
What is your relationship with art? Say you had the Louvre all to yourself: are you reading the placards and listening to prepared audio commentary to guide your tour? Do you stroll through and only stop for the pieces that strike you between the eyes? Would you rather arrange 30 daily, miniature visits instead of one long day? Could you visit a favorite piece each time and find something new to cherish, as though it were your own personal playground? Taiyo Matsumoto’s Cats of the Louvre explores our relationship with art, especially in relation to our perspective on mortality.
The primary cast are a bunch of cats who live in the Louvre’s attic and are semi-secretly supported by a few of the museum’s staff: the knowledgeable tour guide Cécile, the elderly Marcel, and new recruit Patrick. The vast majority of humans in this book are white and presumably French or visiting tourists; Patrick is dark-skinned and speaks French as well as Japanese. Their stories are the window dressing to the core cast of cats (plus a friendly spider) rendered in realistic and anthropomorphic styles. The humans marvel at and maintain the artworks in the museum; the cats just live there. While Cécile discusses the Mona Lisa, the Nike of Samothrace, The Funeral Procession of Love, and The Bridge at Narni, one young cat in particular, Snowbébé, is able to enter and explore the Louvre’s many paintings.
The art exploration is not seen as a gift by everyone: the black cat, Sawtooth, sees Snowbébé’s jaunts as risking the rest of the cats getting discovered and kicked out to the streets. Sawtooth came from the streets and knows the many ways cats can die out there. A warning for those with a certain soft spot: two animal characters die by the end of this book. There is also an extended dreamlike sequence that treats a missing child with a profoundly sad yet playful “lost time” theme. Come to think of it, “profoundly sad yet playful” is a great descriptor for Matsumoto’s body of work as well as artistic choices. The nooks and crannies of the Louvre, as well as the people in and around it, are rendered in his trademark distortions and gift for placing sly glimpses between moments. I feel more familiar with these cats and Louvre employees over the course of this one book than I otherwise would if this story were told in, say, ten volumes of a more conventional style, both visually and narratively. The way Matsumoto zooms out to shrink the Louvre against its surrounding environment—the book takes place over the course of seasons—then zooms in on wordless faces and gestures feels so esoteric and personal, yet universal at the same time.
Teens who’ve never read anything so simultaneously weird and heartfelt are going to be knocked for a loop by these cats’ misadventures; ditto for adults. Dozens of artworks are referenced, including some nude figures, but they’re chaste in presentation, so don’t go spiriting this straight to the adult shelf like it’s some forbidden fruit. The emotional core of this book concerns the place of art in life, when both are vulnerable to the ruins of time. Paintings need restoring and change in nature with each retouching; living creatures change with their environments and alternate between the need for exploration and for shelter. An enemy one day is a guardian the next, whether they’re a rival cat or a strange person. The art in which you get lost could be the same art in which you are found. Let this story be one of those pieces of art for your patrons.
Cats of the Louvre By Taiyo Matsumoto ISBN: 9781974707089 Viz, 2019 Publisher Age Rating: T
The daughter of two sensitives and a sensitive herself, Chise Hatori felt like an outcast even before she was abandoned by her family. With no other options available to her, the teenage girl decided to sell herself into slavery in the hopes of finding somewhere to belong, someplace where her ability to see faeries wouldn’t be considered strange, and where she might gain some respite from the teasing of mundanes.
To her surprise, Chise was bought by Elias Ainsworth—a seven-foot tall mage who was neither a man or a faerie but something in between. Though he was capable of hiding his true form behind glamours, Elias rarely bothered to so, allowing the animal skull that is his face to be freely seen when he is among his fellow mages. Chise’s surprise turned into confusion, as she learned that Elias had bought her because of her status as a Sleigh Beggy—a sensitive who draws magic into themselves as easily as breathing air. She was also stunned when Elias freed her of her chains, saying that he intended to make her into his apprentice… and then his bride! Now, Chise is growing into her new role as a fledgling magus, trying to learn what she can of the world around her and the power at her command. She also tries to get to know her new master, though she is quick to realize that human emotions are alien to Elias and that he bought her as much to try and better understand people as to understand her powers. Dark forces threaten them both, as Elias’s duties as a mage place him in peril, and Chise finds herself getting drawn into helping those in need against Elias’s wishes. Still, something seems to be growing between the new master and apprentice, something neither of them have the words or experience to name, but which might be love.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride is one of the most involved and complex fantasy romance manga it has been my pleasure to read. While stories of a young woman falling for a monster who seeks to become more human are nothing new (Beauty and the Beast ring a bell?), Kore Yamazaki builds a complex mythology to support the odd romance between Elias and Chise that mixes elements of traditional fantasy, Catholic/Anglican dogma, and Celtic myth. For instance, in the first four volumes, reference is made to the Wandering Jew, one of the main supporting mage characters tends to a dragon sanctuary, and specific fae such as selkies, Leanan Sídhe and Church grims are encountered as Chise pursues her education.
The artwork is also unique and memorable, with Elias’s design itself being notably alien and eye-catching. Yamazaki’s art perfectly conveys the weird beauty of her world as well as the nightmarish horrors that wait to catch the unwary off-guard. The sequences in which Elias sheds his preferred form and allows the shadows that empower him out lead to some truly horrific imagery.
The series is rated 13+ for Teens and I believe that rating to be a fair one. While Elias and Chise’s relationship is odd, there is nothing improper about it and there is no sexual element to the story at all, despite Chise technically being a slave to Elias’s whims. There is no hint of fan service in the artwork and nothing that would be inappropriate for most teenage audiences in my estimation, though some elements of the evil magic Elias and Chise fight (such as a man who sacrificed cats to steal their lives) may disturb some audiences.
The Ancient Magus’ Bride, vols. 1-4 By Kore Yamazaki vol 1 ISBN: 9781626921870 vol 2 ISBN: 9781626921924 vol 3 ISBN: 9781626922242 vol 4 ISBN: 9781626922556 Seven Seas Entertainment, 2015-2016 Publisher Age Rating: Teen (13+)
This is an unusual graphic novel, comparing the battles of World War I to the interior battles of soldiers and nurses fighting dysentery and other diseases.
The story begins at a casualty clearing station in France, where an Australian nurse is checking in sick and injured patients. Sister Annie attends a soldier with acute diarrhea and the doctor diagnoses dysentery. During the rush of tending to patients and sending them off to various points for further treatment, the soiled cloths are spilled and readers get a close-up view of the microorganisms called Shigella Flexneri, seeking new places to breed. Annie and her fellow nurses eat together and survive a gas attack, but the shiga are advancing… into Annie’s digestive system. Ill from dysentery, as the microorganisms, bacteria, and viruses battle within her, the war continues outside with soldiers fighting and dying on the front lines and in the hospitals.
Detailed back matter adds information about the terms and historical events referenced, from the lives of nurses at the front to the different bacteria in the digestive system. The creators are also profiled, along with their credentials and experience.
The art is black and white, fine ink drawings. Injuries and diseases are shown, but not in graphic detail and the faces of the nurses and soldiers are drawn with individual character but not caricatured. The primary action pictured is among the microorganisms in the digestive system. Shiga are pictured as little furry logs, chattering and zipping around. Viruses are robotic, chanting their motto of defense as they struggle to mutate and fight off the invasion. The stark black and white of the art illustrates the desperate life and death struggle of the soldiers and the organisms, fighting to survive another day on the battlefield in France and in Annie’s gut.
This isn’t likely to appeal to a wide audience. The medical and scientific terms are carefully explained, but it’s still a challenging and complex read. Despite the effort to make it appear an action-packed adventure, it doesn’t have a great deal of emotional appeal. However, it’s a fascinating look at how microorganisms and the digestive system work and also offers a glimpse into the atmosphere of the trenches and hospitals of World War I. This is most likely to be of interest to teens and adults with an interest in medical history and World War I.
The Invisible War By Ailsa Wild, Dr. Jeremy Barr Art by Ben Hutchings ISBN: 9781541541559 Lerner Graphic Universe, 2019 NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Older Teen (16-18), Adult (18+)
Smashed is the most recently published collection of horror tales from master manga creator Junji Ito. If the name sounds familiar, you may have heard of him from his other popular series Tomie, Uzumaki, and Gyo. And Cartoon Network’s Toonami recently greenlit Uzumaki to get the anime treatment, so his name is very much in the zeitgeist. This short story collection is comprised of thirteen horrific tales. While most of them are stand-alone stories, there are three in the middle that are linked by a sociopath with a knack for curses, spitting nails, and creating haunted houses.
Reading through this manga reminded me of reading Stephen King’s Night Shift when I was a teenager. Both creators have the ability to write something so creepy that it stays with you days later. Ito’s ability to take ordinary, banal aspects of life and turn them into horrifying nightmares is a delight to read! Of the thirteen stories, a couple stood out to me more than others, but mileage will vary with that according to the reader.
The story “Earthbound” is a mysterious tale about people standing oddly like statues all over Japan. When they are moved from their place they always return to the exact location in the exact same pose. It is assumed the Earhbound’s condition is a contagion, but what if the reason for their appearance is something even more disturbing? The conclusion to this mystery is haunting and stays with the reader. Another story that stood out to me is “Library Vision”. Koko fell in love with Goro’s keen mind and love of reading. Goro loved books so much his entire mansion was a giant library and he knew the place of every single book. One day a book goes missing, marking Goro’s descent into madness as he obsesses over the missing tome. He’s haunted by characters from books, but he’s the only person who can see them.
Ito’s artwork stays consistent throughout the anthology, and he knows how to dial it up and down according to the story. The anthology is in black and white which adds to the drama in panels. A story like “Earthbound” has a quieter, more realistic style than “Library Vision” because the theme is about the horrors of what people do to each other and its effect on the victim and perpetrator. In “Library Vision”, the main character is being tormented by the library, so there are panels with forced perspective to make the reader feel how enormous the collection of books is compared to the main characters. Also, the character of Spiny Hell that haunts Goro is drawn as a terrifying, hunched figure of a man with hollowed-out eyes and sharp fingernails that lurks in the shadow of panels. A characteristic of Ito’s art is that, once a character has gone over the edge, or is a monster, he draws them with huge, bloodshot eyes. It is terrifying and an image that will linger in your mind.
I highly recommend Smashed for public library collections. If you already have Ito’s other manga series then this is an automatic addition. His work is definitely for older teens and up. There is some female nudity, but not much, nor is it shocking because the horrific artwork stands out more. Ito’s storytelling, both textually and visually, has the ability to ramp up as you read. One minute you have an idyllic family scene about a kid adopting a cute, stray cat and a couple of pages later a character has cursed the cat resulting in a creepy image of the feline with giant bloodshot eyes staring into your soul. Those eyes follow you. If you have readers that want to be creeped out or scared by a great horror collection, this is the manga for them!
Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection By Junji Ito ISBN: 9781421598468 Viz Media, 2019 Publisher Age Rating: Older Teen
Brenda is a geeky computer hacker working in the local community college’s IT department when she unfreezes Mia Corsair, a master jewel thief from 1969! Before being awoken in 1999, Mia was chasing her ultimate prize—the Net of Indra. When Brenda discovers that the jewel is coming to a local museum, she convinces Mia to team up in order to escape from her own unfulfilling life. Soon the women are planning a heist and forming a powerful bond.
Smooth Criminals is a fun romp of a comic that kept me turning pages until the very end. Do you enjoy heist stories? Stories with awesome female characters? How about ridiculous computer hacking and/or mad science? Smooth Criminals has got it all! The first volume of Smooth Criminals sets up the history and current rivalry between Mia and her arch rival—a rich thief named Hatch—and her relationship with Brenda. The mix of friendship and heist planning is a palatable blend that keeps its tension throughout. The volume frustratingly ends a bit abruptly, but left me eager to see how the story plays out.
What makes the story so enjoyable are Brenda and Mia’s characterizations and their dynamic. Brenda is a hilarious mix of smart and silly, pairing hacker skills with a sharp analytical mind and a funny habit of talking to herself out loud. Mia is aloof with excellent thievery skills, and, although she is often frank on certain matters, she struggles with trusting others. Despite being opposites, their knowledge and skills allow them to play off one another and plan their heist. The queer representation doesn’t hurt either! Both Mia and Brenda discuss being interested in same sex relationships, and seeing well-rounded queer characters is a joy.
Secondary characters, while perhaps not as fleshed out as Brenda and Mia, still contribute to the excitement and humor of the story. My personal favorite was Mia’s mother, who is incredibly sassy, despite being incarcerated and questioned by two law enforcement officers The characterization and strong plot result in a fun thriller that runs a little bit deeper.
The art in Smooth Criminals effectively sets the tone of the story. The style leans slightly more realistic, but has plenty of movement and exaggerated expressions to portray the emotions and action. A good example of this is the opening panels where a blond rollerblader commits athletic feats worthy of a parkour master as the words narrate the moves in a self-congratulatory way; suddenly the skater asks Brenda (who is heavier, darker-skinned and sitting on the trolley) why she’s talking to herself. It’s a funny moment that sets the tone for a story where no one is what they initially appear to be. Additionally, the range of expressions portrayed rounds out the characters; a good example of this is Mia who tries to act as the mysterious thief but occasionally is prone to sudden outbursts of excitement and frustration.
Readers looking for a thrilling adventure with awesome female protagonists will find much to enjoy in this first volume of Smooth Criminals. There is nothing really questionable in this first volume, so teens and adults of all ages should enjoy this one. Libraries looking to collect the series should know that the second volume will be out after December 4 2019.
Smooth Criminals, vol. 1 By Kurt Lustgarten and Kirsten Kiwi Smith Art by Leisha Riddell ISBN: 9781684153855 Boom Box, 2019 NFNT Age Recommendation: Teen (13-16), Older Teen (16-18), Adult (18+)
Browse for more like this title Character Traits: Lesbian, Pansexual
Set in a dystopian fantasy world, Coda by Simon Spurrier is a whip-smart adventure from beginning to end. Following the trials and tribulations of Hum, a disgruntled former bard, Coda delves deep into a land affected greatly by The Quench, a cataclysmic event that changed the world forever. With eye-popping illustrations and delightfully dry dialog, Coda is an entertaining read.
La Voz de M.A.Y.O.: Tata Rambo is a book that aims to fill a gap in the historical record, highlighting the contributions of Ramon Jaurigue (Tata Rambo) to the Pascua Yaqui tribe in Arizona and the Mexican American Yaqui Organization (M.A.Y.O.). Ramon Jaurigue is the great-grandfather of the book’s writer, Henry Barajas, who channels his background as a journalist into piecing together Jaurigue’s story through interviews, oral histories, newspaper clippings, and the scant recorded history available through his public library.
It’s appropriate that on the heels of BOOM! Studios’s graphic reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the publisher released its Angel equivalent only months later—because you can’t have one without the other. Well, you can, but it doesn’t seem right. The relationship between the two TV-shows-turned-comics was never a simple duality, but one of self-reflexivity. In the vampire with a soul, Buffy found her quieter, darker side, and in the high-spirited vampire slayer, Angel found happiness (however detrimental) and a purpose. Like Buffy, Angel refuses the good vs evil, light vs dark, us vs them dichotomies, and inhabits a world that is messy, complicated, and not always what it seems. But when Angel became its own television show it also became something quite distinct from Buffy: darker, seedier, more twisted, and inherently more noir.
This biography covers Einstein’s life, with a focus on his years doing research. The book begins with the briefest glimpse at his childhood, when he receives a compass from his father, a captivating gift. The compass returns repeatedly throughout the story, symbolizing both his curiosity and passion for learning more about the unknown and his commitment to following his moral compass as a pacifist through two World Wars. Einstein’s story is told through a series of reflective framing conversations: chatting with his mentee, lecturing to students, and confiding in his girlfriend, Johanna Fantova. The frame story approach occasionally means that some biographical information comes across as heavy-handed. For example, in the beginning of the story, Einstein insists on feeding his mentee dinner, saying that he should not be hungry, clumsily tying this hunger to his criticism of the Nazis for “establish[ing] their authority over a people that were weak and hungry.” While the book does contain a fair amount of dialogue quoted or paraphrased from Einstein, it is generally executed more gracefully.
Horror serves many different purposes for those who seek it. Some people stare down the existential dread of death by seeing it inevitably claim lives in fiction. Others think gore and murder are kickin’ rad, not because they want to enact violence themselves, but because seeing it done in art is one of the only acceptable ways to indulge in the macabre. Horror and insurmountable odds are also the stuff of inspiration: plenty of authors embrace terrifying narratives, they claim, in order to teach and demonstrate that such frights can be overcome. In Kazuo Umezz’s The Drifting Classroom, there is ripe material for all these tastes and more.
What is your relationship with art? Say you had the Louvre all to yourself: are you reading the placards and listening to prepared audio commentary to guide your tour? Do you stroll through and only stop for the pieces that strike you between the eyes? Would you rather arrange 30 daily, miniature visits instead of one long day? Could you visit a favorite piece each time and find something new to cherish, as though it were your own personal playground? Taiyo Matsumoto’s Cats of the Louvre explores our relationship with art, especially in relation to our perspective on mortality.
The daughter of two sensitives and a sensitive herself, Chise Hatori felt like an outcast even before she was abandoned by her family. With no other options available to her, the teenage girl decided to sell herself into slavery in the hopes of finding somewhere to belong, someplace where her ability to see faeries wouldn’t be considered strange, and where she might gain some respite from the teasing of mundanes.
This is an unusual graphic novel, comparing the battles of World War I to the interior battles of soldiers and nurses fighting dysentery and other diseases.
Smashed is the most recently published collection of horror tales from master manga creator Junji Ito. If the name sounds familiar, you may have heard of him from his other popular series Tomie, Uzumaki, and Gyo. And Cartoon Network’s Toonami recently greenlit Uzumaki to get the anime treatment, so his name is very much in the zeitgeist. This short story collection is comprised of thirteen horrific tales. While most of them are stand-alone stories, there are three in the middle that are linked by a sociopath with a knack for curses, spitting nails, and creating haunted houses.
Brenda is a geeky computer hacker working in the local community college’s IT department when she unfreezes Mia Corsair, a master jewel thief from 1969! Before being awoken in 1999, Mia was chasing her ultimate prize—the Net of Indra. When Brenda discovers that the jewel is coming to a local museum, she convinces Mia to team up in order to escape from her own unfulfilling life. Soon the women are planning a heist and forming a powerful bond.
