A young boy navigating a near-future world that is both like ours, and also not. A story woven through with commentary on where we find ourselves today.
Street Noise Books brings us Hybred from Jamie Mustard and Francesca Filomena. Set in an alternate future, the book introduces us to Johnny James, 9 years old when the story begins. Mixed race, outcast, and living in a slum walled off beside the bright lights of Follyland, the rich and shining section of city just next door, Johnny splits his time between a home for boys and his fractured family, living life alongside gangs, despair, and a consistent stream of violence.
What Johnny learns from a young age is that those who give up, do not survive. And Johnny is determined to survive. Through years of childhood and into adulthood, Johnny crosses paths with a range of characters, all the while hiding the secret that he is even more different than those around him can know. As everyone claws their way toward survival, Johnny’s love of art may be his path toward safety, but only if he can endure the dangers laying in his way.
Written entirely in narration, Hybred doesn’t use paneling or text bubbles to deliver its relatively short narrative. Instead, the series of standalone, full-spread images and text blocks carry us through each moment of Johnny’s story. Written and with art direction from Mustard, this book tackles a lot—race, inequality, mental health, exploitation, and more—all grounded in an examination of the role that art can play in shaping society. It’s an ambitious and admirable undertaking to address so much in a singular story. Unfortunately, the scope of the themes ultimately harms both Johnny’s narrative and the broader ideas Hybred seeks to convey.
The story itself is never given room to breathe, unfolding in a series of vignettes that never quite find cohesion, while the dramatic conclusion of certain plot points happens largely in summary and off the page. Quiet storytelling and ambiguity can be immensely powerful. The challenge with Hybrid is the size of the gaps the reader is left to fill themselves. Similarly in theme, Mustard turns a lens on vitally important social issues, but in packing so many in with such passionate intensity, it becomes a struggle to walk away from the book with a greater understanding of any idea in particular. In trying to show us all the sights along the way, Johnny’s story struggles to reach a clear destination.
But this is not to downplay what the book does achieve. Not only does Mustard approach the writing with vision, but Filomena’s painted illustrations bring a wealth of character and visual style to the story. Reminiscent at times of Dave McKean’s art, Filomena’s hazy and stylized approach fills the book with life, blending rich colors with striking visual designs that showcase this strange-but-familiar world and the multitude of characters who inhabit it. Pages move from more cinematic presentations to portraits to paintings that demand focus on key elements of the story. Across the range of palates and scenes, Filomena’s style invites the reader to keep looking, following Johnny into this strange alternate world he is navigating.
Throughout Hybred, there are moments of drug use, violence, death, strong language, racism, human trafficking, and sexual themes. With only a couple exceptions, the book does not linger overly long on these moments—and with the early portion of the book framed through a child’s eyes, some of the darker plot points are clearer to the reader than they are to Johnny himself. Nevertheless, the often bleak combination makes the book best suited for adults alongside some older teens who know what they’re in for. In the end, I wish I liked Hybrid more than I did. It’s a respectfully ambitious undertaking from a writer who clearly has a lot to say, and I admire any piece of art that’s willing to aim big. Additionally, Filomena’s art deserves to be seen as it brings this complex tale to life. Hybred doesn’t achieve much of what it sets out to do, but I respect its vision even as I wish more of Johnny’s story had landed effectively along the way.
Hybred A Graphic Novel By Jamie Mustard Art by Francesca Filomena Street Noise Books, 2025 ISBN: 9781951491437
Maggie, an NPR journalist, and Adam, a high school counselor, are like-minded, white, progressive newlyweds on the cusp of starting a family in Austin, Texas. On their way home from purchasing a pregnancy test, they’re accosted by two men with a gun, demanding valuables. Maggie, a Texas native, watches in horror as Adam quickly hands over their money. When the muggers demand Maggie’s new wedding ring, she’s prepared to stand her ground, but is utterly shocked when Adam tearfully pulls the ring off her finger. The men laugh at him for crying and then leave on scooters with the goods.
Adam and Maggie each process the experience in completely different ways. After reporting the incident to the local police and getting home, Maggie busies herself checking all the door and window locks and weighs her options for which kitchen utensil might be prime weapon material. Oblivious to her actions, Adam kicks back at the kitchen table, apparently relieved, patting himself on the back for how he deescalated the situation. He pushes Maggie into taking the pregnancy test, in hopes of finding a positive outcome to the day, but a negative result compounds Maggie’s distress. She surprises Adam by inviting friends over late at night, satisfying her need for safety and comfort, but confusing Adam. Their conversation turns to guns, igniting in Maggie the desire to purchase one for herself. Adam recoils at this idea, claiming that people like them do not own guns. But the very next day, Maggie purchases a gaudy American flag-painted gun behind Adam’s back.
What follows is a story of each character frustratingly steamrolling over each other’s needs and emotions as they fall deeper down the rabbit hole of the gun debate. Every character they encounter has a viewpoint to contribute to their journey, shifting their individual views, and creating conflict in their marriage. Meanwhile, a subplot builds with David, a troubled high school senior under Adam’s counsel. His mental health along with issues at home, school, with peers, and with his fledgling film career disenfranchise him enough to start him reading a mass shooter’s manifesto and researching guns. As he inappropriately encroaches on Maggie and Adam’s personal lives, the reader is led to believe he could become dangerous.
Billed by left leaning writer Dave Cowen as an attempt to “heal our polarized divide”, he and right leaning illustrator, Gabriel Wexler, use the characters to start a conversation exploring the deep divide over gun ownership. They touch on many aspects of the issue, like mass shootings, self defense, racism, and mental illness, although the length of the book prevents them from delving deep into any of those topics. It’s hard to cover this divide well and with enough nuance, and although I think the creators make a good effort, it’s a tall order. Their conclusion boils down to respect each other and try to get along, which is not surprising, but also not very deep given the harms and trauma done by guns in America. They don’t promise answers though, their goal is to start the conversation.
Where it gets clunky is in the dialog. Cowen uses brief narration at the beginning and end of the book, indicating where the story takes place and when time has passed, but doesn’t extend it to exposition, which then falls onto the characters to explain. This causes them to speak to each other in unnatural ways to the point where I initially thought Maggie and Adam were meant to be caricatures of what conservatives thought a progressive couple is like in private. As they encounter friends and colleagues throughout the narrative, some of them will launch into monologues to share gun history or philosophy as if they prepared a speech, contrasting sharply with the seemingly impromptu conversations they’re drawn in. This isn’t a story about two deeply connected people reconciling their conflicting and shifting views about guns so much as it’s an essay on polarization with a graphic novel built around it.
In addition to awkward dialog, there were some issues with the panel layout. The art itself is very simple, which doesn’t take away from the overall story because even with simple lines and color, character emotion comes through clearly. However speech bubbles often cover character faces and actions in a way that’s distracting. A handful of panels and even the occasional page seem to add little to the story and probably could have been cut or expressed in a different way. With so many creative and flexible ways to construct a graphic novel, I wondered why a panel-by-panel format was chosen to tell this story.
For content warnings, obviously guns are prominent, and while no one is injured by one on screen, people are threatened with them, guns are fired, and news breaks of a mass shooting. There is also marital conflict, brief mentions of divorce, abortion, and suicide. Maggie and Adam often ignore and cross each other’s boundaries throughout the narrative, up to and including sexual consent. Even with all the conflict, the book does have a peaceful ending, and Maggie and Adam reconcile their differences. Even David’s story has a positive outcome.
Even though I felt the format was ill-suited for this story and it’s a tough read, it’s still unique and could be a good fit in an adult graphic novel section. I think it’s a subject we need more serious coverage of in graphic novels and manga and I see Should We Buy A Gun? as a first step in a difficult ongoing conversation.
Should We Buy A Gun? By Dave Cowen Art by Gabriel Wexler Seriocomics, 2025 ISBN: 9798992055092
The Further Adventures of Red Sonja may be the only omnibus collection whose existence was necessitated by American copyright law. While originally created for Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian series as a pastiche of two of Robert E. Howard’s historic heroines—Red Sonya of Rogatino and Dark Agnes de Chastillon—Red Sonja has been run through her own LLC for several decades.
The practical upshot of this is that when Dark Horse Comics began printing omnibus editions of the classic Savage Sword of Conan magazines in 2008, they did not collect those stories starring Red Sonja. Stories where Sonja was a supporting character in Conan the Barbarian were apparently fair game, as she appears with regularity in the Conan the Barbarian reprints. So it was that, for a decade, the only way to enjoy those solo Sonja stories was to track down the original magazines.
Hither came The Further Adventures of Red Sonja, which collects all the Red Sonja tales originally presented in both Savage Sword of Conan magazine and the short-lived Kull and the Barbarians magazine. This would be good news for fans of sword-and-sorcery in general and the She-Devil with a Sword in particular if not for one issue; this is one of the most slap-dash reprints I have ever seen!
The chief problem is that Dynamite Entertainment elected to colorize every story in this collection. Presumably they feared modern comic readers would not want to read a Red Sonja story rendered in monochrome. While some of the colorized comics are not bad, the ones handled by Mike Kelleher are simply awful.
I have seen colorists whose work obscured the original pencils before. Kelleher is the first colorist who I have seen paint over the original inks! Beyond that, he clearly didn’t bother reading the stories he was working on. The text refers to Sonja’s horse as a black steed, and Kelleher renders it in brown. The narration refers to Sonja’s blue eyes closing, and Kelleher gives her green eyes.
It would seem the editors were similarly rushed in their work. Beyond nobody noticing Kelleher’s mistakes, there are two instances of pages being printed out of order in this book. Two of the stories in this volume; “The Road to Zamboula” and “Swordless Zamboula”—have their last pages placed immediately after their opening pages. That is a minor mistake, however, compared to this volume cutting the final page of “The Day of the Sword”.
“The Day of the Sword” is notable historically as the first telling of Red Sonja’s classic origin. It involves Sonja saving a man from being tortured by bandits, only to recognize the victim as the commander of the soldiers who killed her family and raped her. The final page of the original tale ends with Sonja abandoning the man to the wolves of the forest after realizing he’s lost his mind. There is no clear reason for this cut, apart from an apparent desire to make Red Sonja seem more heroic. It can’t be for the sake of content, as the flashback to Sonja’s assault is included in full and depicted again in a different story in this collection.
With all that being noted, I should say the Further Adventures of Red Sonja is not entirely without merit. Of note is “The Wizard and Red Sonja Show”, which writer/artist Frank Thorne adapted from his own stage show. Not even Kelleher’s bumbling can ruin this burlesque tale, in which a bumbling wizard summons multiple Red Sonjas and must determine which is the real one. The closing tale, a four-part adaptation of the first Red Sonja novel, The Ring of Ikribu, is also enjoyable. Despite this, I cannot recommend this volume to anyone but the most die-hard of Red Sonja completists.
The Further Adventures of Red Sonja is rated T+ for readers 16 and up. I would push that up to an Adults Only, should any librarian feel compelled to add this to their collection despite my warnings. While the bloodshed is on par with most OT manga, with severed limbs a common sight, it is the sexual content that is more problematic. There is a bare breast in one of the two comics depicting Sonja’s sexual assault and one provocative scene of her taking a bath. Beyond that, most of the stories open with a group of bandits threatening further sexual assault before Sonja teaches them a lesson. Empowering as this might be, it may also be triggering for some, though one of the stories does explore the idea of Sonja suffering from PTSD and the goddess who blessed her after her family died being a hallucination brought on by grief.
The Further Adventures of Red Sonja Vol. 1 By Roy Thomas, Frank Thorne, Christy Marx, and Bruce Jones Art by Howard Chaykin, John Buscema, Tony Dezuniga, and Esteban Maroto Dynamite, 2018 ISBN: 9781524107994
Company Age Rating: 16+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)
Character Representation: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
There are monsters in this world. This is a fact that children know all too well, but adults seem to forget as they grow older. The children in the care of retired actor William Jones know it, for all of them were orphaned by monsters.
William has done a fine job teaching his charges to defend themselves. Bullies hold no fear for one who has faced down faeries or a Chupacabra. But the kids aren’t content to avoid what goes bump in the night. They want to fight back. This leads to the formation of the Nightcrawlers; a group of kids who can fight the monsters most adults won’t admit are hiding in their midst.
The Nightcrawlers get their first case when a classmate comes to them about his parents being werewolves. Things are complicated, however, by the arrival of a grown-up charge of William Jones who is out for revenge. For it seems the Nightcrawlers aren’t the first group of young people the old actor mentored and that most of them did not survive the experience!
The influences of The Nightcrawlers are clear, even without reading the introduction by the author where Lopez speaks lovingly of the classic kids’ adventure movies of the 1980s and his hope to emulate that spirit. Goonies and Monster Squad are cited specifically, but the character of William Jones evokes the spirit of Peter Vincent from the Fright Night films. I like the idea behind The Nightcrawlers, in theory. The general concept is ambitious and kids fighting monsters is a beloved, time-honored genre for a reason. The execution, I’m sad to say, is somewhat shaky.
The chief problem is there is a large ensemble and a lot of plot for the first volume of what intended to be an ongoing children’s’ comic series. Most of the protagonists are given little definition through the narrative. Calvin, for instance, has no real defining traits in the text beyond having a crush on his classmate, Victor. We learn far more about Calvin and the other kids from their biographies at the back of the book than we do from the story. (Moving these biographies to the front of the book after the introduction might have helped.) Another problem is that the mythology of monsters is largely unexplained. While I appreciate Lopez not weighing the narrative down with excessive exposition, the confusion of our heroes will prove infectious to the reader. Presumably this will be improved in later chapters, where William will take a more direct hand in instructing the kids on things like whether or not vampires have reflections or garlic hurts them.
The story flow and setting are also often unclear. The point-of-view shifts constantly between narrators, including the villain Greta, whose internal monologue we are treated to long before we have any inkling who she is. The artwork further aggravates this issue. There are no visual cues, apart from one “Present Day” caption early on, to distinguish the flashbacks from the here and now. This causes the flashbacks involving William Jones’ original proteges to seem like they came from nowhere or are detailing a different group of kids at the same time. Similar issues arise in the flashbacks William’s assistant Maryisa has while sparring. It is unclear that the one-panel flash of a young William shouting at her is a flashback and not part of the same scene. Different color palettes for the scenes set in the past or more consistent labels between “Then” and “Now” would have helped immensely.
All that being said, The Nightcrawlers becomes a drastically different book once the action kicks in. While Lopez tackles too much in establishing the setting, he writes a darn good thriller. It is also here that the artwork of Rachel Distler shines best.
The Nightcrawlers is recommended for kids 8-12. I consider that a fair rating. Apart from one use of the word “hell” and general spooky stuff, there’s nothing objectionable for the intended age range. I think this would be a fine graphic novel for those young horror fans ready to move on from Scooby Doo but not quite ready for Stranger Things.
The Nightcrawlers Vol 1: The Boy Who Cried, Wolf By Marco Lopez Art by Rachel Distler Ablaze Publishing, 2023 ISBN: 9781684970582
Company Age Rating: 8-12
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
Kids who grew up in the 80s, especially those who come from religious upbringings, remember the phrase “Satanic Panic.” Those kids might remember it as a time when many pop culture properties, from Dungeons & Dragons to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, were considered gateway hobbies that could lead children to embrace Satan and commit acts in his name. Far more nefarious were accusations that schools and educators were drawing children into Satan’s eager embrace. Many of these were seemingly corroborated by child victims who’d had their recollections manipulated through unsubstantiated psychological techniques.
Fast forward years later, and Ed Brubaker, who was a teenager in the 80s, has already written comic stories like Criminal and Where the Body Was, along with his frequent artistic collaborator Sean Phillips. The two once again join forces to tell a story of the Satanic Panic’s aftermath in Houses of the Unholy.
Protagonist Natalie Burns was once a member of the infamous Satanic Six, a group of children who testified to satanic abuse by people they trusted, even though, as an adult, she isn’t sure what, if anything, took place. An adult Natalie helps rescue people from cults (for the right price) but the past comes roaring back when FBI agent West, an expert in cult cases, asks for her help in investigating a killer who might be evoking the demons that Natalie no longer believes in. As she and Agent West dig deeper into the case, Natalie starts to remember the past that she tried desperately to forget.
Brubaker’s story is straight-up noir with just the smallest sprinkle of Satanic evil. Rather than use supernatural tropes like demonic possession and summoning, Brubaker keeps the focus on the terror caused by human beings and the trauma caused by a strict religious upbringing supercharged with paranoia. Interspersed between the pursuit of a serial killer/road trip is Natalie reliving her past with her overly religious mother along with moments that showed how she couldn’t quite escape from under the shadow of being one of the Satanic Six. In this hyper-realistic world created by Brubaker and illustrated by Phillips, whose human characters are illustrated with all their bodily flaws and morose faces, many of the demons that plague these characters are of the personal variety.
While there are no horned demons flying around possessing people, that’s not to say demons (and the fear they create) don’t permeate this book. Phillips adds several pictures of these demons, along with other examples of both religious and satanic iconography, that read like the front of tabloid newspapers from that era, all done in a grisly red the color of spilled blood. It’s a similar red that’s used later in the book during a scene that, while not showing demons taking to the skies, creates an overall apocalyptic tone as the story barrels to an ambiguous but thought-provoking conclusion.
While working on supernatural books like Fatale and superhero books like Sleeper, Brubaker and Phillips have mainly built their reputation for creating bleak, blood-soaked noir, and this book maintains a modern noir feel throughout. The evil it reveals is as lacking in the supernatural as the panic that made Dungeons & Dragons seem to some like a gateway to Satan. The book may not satisfy those looking for demonic horror but it could be great for adult fans who know that evil in society never needed Satan’s help.
Houses of the Unholy By Ed Brubaker Art by Sean Phillips Image, 2024 ISBN: 9781534327429
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Scarlet finds herself face to face with the Devil himself, who is thrilled to finally meet her. He tells her she was the worst of the worst in life and he wants her to become the Grim Reaper. She has no memory of anything before waking up in hell and the offer is to either go straight to level 9 or return to Earth as the grim reaper and bring the devil one soul a day. Sinners will be marked with a giant red X on their chest so she can find them. Scarlet opts to try out the new job, only to struggle with the morality of it.
She meets a disgraced police detective named Chase who is interested in her immediately. In this volume we don’t learn much about him other than he wants to earn his way back onto the force and his mom is the chief of police (or an equivalent.) Scarlet and Chase come to an agreement to work together to try and solve a crime that will restore Chase and hopefully in the process help Scarlet piece her memory back together about the life on Earth she cannot remember. Both have secrets and both are troubled. Scarlet has trouble killing people and bringing them to the devil as the morality and finality of it feels like too much, but the devil always has easy answers for her.
With the popularity of Lore Olympus it is not surprising to see publishers grabbing webcomics in the hopes of adapting them for new audiences. The problem is not all comics are created equally and not everything that finds an audience in an app like WEBTOON will necessarily find an audience at the bookstore. Some webcomics also have trouble making the jump to physical books because it loses something in the layout and format change. This book feels like one of those where too much is lost in the transition.
I’m the Grim Reaper was originally a WEBTOON comic that has been adapted to manga format by Viz Media. This volume contains episodes 1-16, with a second volume set to publish later this year.
The writing and the approach to the subject matter felt like it was written by someone much younger. The way the characters talk about love, is murder ever justifiable, who should go to hell and what constitutes being bad enough to condemn someone there; it has a rather juvenile attitude and approach. It also tries to inject some humor through the art by switching character styles, like in other manga, giving some juxtaposition to the seriousness of the subject matter. It never quite struck the right note for me in doing so and I found myself mostly unimpressed by it. Additionally, I believe this book would have been better if like most printed manga it was in black and white. The colors throughout were just flat and lifeless. The lack of detail and copy/paste backgrounds made it hard to enjoy. These things you can get away with when people are reading your new webcomic chapter in a couple of minutes and moving on to something else, but when you are faced with 240 pages of it all at once, it become grating.
This book creates a dilemma for me as someone who purchases graphic novels and recommends them. The publisher rates it Teen+ (which they identify as 16 and older) with the following disclaimer, “This volume contains graphic violence, mature language, and violence towards children.” However, the tone and art I believe are meant to appeal to a younger crowd of readers than myself and those who enjoy webcomics generally. I would not purchase this for our adult section, as I don’t believe those readers would enjoy it, but I cannot recommend it to anyone under 17 who might actually like it. It somehow tries to do too much and doesn’t do nearly enough at the same time.
Because this was originally a WEBTOON comic, you can find it in it’s entirety on that site/app now. If this is something you are considering, I might encourage you to take at least a quick look there and see if the audience you are purchasing for might be better suited than I was.
I’m the Grim Reaper Vol. 01 By GRAVEWEAVER VIZ, 2024 ISBN: 9781974739080
Publisher Age Rating: Teen+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
To be stateless, drifting between two cultures, belonging to neither one nor the other completely, creates a confounding challenge for finding a place called home. Such is the plight of young Japanese American teenager Amy during the tumultuous times of World War II. In Pearl, Sherri L. Smith (Flygirl) and Christine Norrie (Cheat) chronicle her dilemma amidst the shadow of war in the United States and Japan.
The opening pages introduce Amy’s great grandmother, who as an ama, dives for pearls along the shores of Honshu in Japan. The narrative then shifts and traces her lineage to thirteen-year-old Amy on the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i in 1941. One day, news of her grandmother’s deteriorating health prompts Amy to travel to Japan while her parents stay home to take care of her newborn brother. She stays at her uncle’s farm on the outskirts of Hiroshima and is drafted into translating news from American radio broadcasts for the Japanese military.
When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and Amy learns of the incarceration of Japanese Americans back home, she must navigate between her dual identity as Japanese and American: “To the Americans, I was a traitor. To the Japanese, I was an American. I had no country to call my own.” In this conflicted tale of grasping one’s identity amidst the looming specter of war spanning across the Atlantic, Pearl explores themes of emigrating to one’s ancestral land, becoming estranged as an outsider between two cultures, and grappling with despair, hope, and the will to survive in the aftermath of atomic destruction.
The story falls short in developing the family dynamics between Amy and her relation to her grandmother, leaving more to be desired. While she interacts with relatives in Japan, their relationship to her fail to fully crystalize. The graphic novel’s strength lies in its picturesque visuals of the sea in deep space compositional panels ensconced in pastel hues of blue and flashbacks tinted in light gray, establishing a muted tone of melancholy and wonder. Wordless panels and speech bubbles depicting nuanced emotions and symbolic imagery imbue selected scenes with dramatic impact, conveying the affective interactions between characters and their environment.
Fantastical elements blend into the narrative and expressive artwork, which include the haunting personification and specter of death as characters struggle past the ravages of war and emotional trauma. Although lacking in secondary character background development, this graphic historical novel presents a conflicted perspective of a Japanese American caught in the socio-political throes of World War II and will complement diverse middle grade graphic novel collections to highlight this crucial period of U.S. American history.
Pearl By Sherri L. Smith Art by Christine Norrie Scholastic GRAPHIX, 2024 ISBN: 9781338029437
Publisher Age Rating: 10-14
NFNT Age Recommendation: Tween (10-13) Creator Representation: Black, Character Representation: Japanese-American,
The Red Thread of Fate is an East Asian myth that says two soul mates who are meant to be together are tied to each other by an invisible red thread. This thread can stretch through boundaries of time, space and lifetimes.
In The Red Thread, Vol.1, a sweet but skittish college freshman named Pharm finds himself irresistibly drawn to the tall, handsome captain of the swim club, Dean. Dean feels a similar pull. Both young men are plagued by dreams of a romantic couple that they do not know and bear emotional scars from some unknown trauma.
This love-at-first sight story is pretty trite, but the romance narrative is sandwiched between flashbacks and the dreams of both boys. Of course the question of whether these two will remember each other from a past life is a moot point. The translation feels a bit stilted. It is packaged and sold as a Japanese manga (and in fact, was published in Japan). But other than a few throw away lines, the setting is not fully explained. The names are Thai, and Pharm is a member of the Thai Dessert Club at college.
There is next to no exposition, which makes it a little tough to figure out who is who based on the dream sequences and flashbacks. Other characters are set up as possible romantic rivals, but it is established pretty early on that this is a queer romance story. The dialog is flat and even the romantic scenes have little spark to them. The chapters feel barely strung together, leaving the reader lost between one scene to the next.
Since it is very obvious from the opening scenes that the two main characters are going to get together, there is little to do but wade through each interaction and decide when they will figure out their past lives and love and sort out their current feelings. Although the explanation of their past life trauma is not fully explained in the first volume, their current lives seem to offer very little in the way of obstacles for their future.
The art is adequate but not outstanding. The characters all have distinguishing characteristics and they are all attractive with typical indicators of a Japanese style Boys Love romance.
The manga is set in Thailand, where the series was also adapted into a live-action television show, and where same-sex marriage has only recently been legalized.
The Red Thread is appropriate for older teens, but there are certainly better LGBTQ+ romance manga out there for this age.
The Red Thread Vol. 1 By Lazy Sheep Art by Hibiko Haruyama Yen Press, 2023 ISBN: 9781975364090
Publisher Age Rating: 16+ NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18)
Creator Representation: Thai Character Representation: Thai, Gay
It begins with a game among a group of middle school friends—a deadly game that sets off a series of events that haunts them from beyond the natural world. What have they unleashed, and how will they stop this evil from spreading? Supernatural thrills and chills multiply in Remy Lai’s (Ghost Book) Read at Your Own Risk, an eerie tale fraught with uncanny occurrences that spell trouble and impending doom.
Seventh grader Hannah spends her time journaling in her diary, recording all her private affairs including the fateful day when things turned weird after playing a game called Spirit of the Coin: what started out as an Ouija-like game to communicate with the dead quickly turns into a spook-filled mystery in R.L. Stine fashion. While walking home one day, an unseen force pushes Hannah from behind, yanks her by the wrists, and shoves her to the ground. During science class, a freak accident occurs in the middle of a lesson on dissecting an earthworm, resulting in a scalpel flying across the room, nicking her forehead that required two stitches. Later in the restroom, she spots a centipede wiggling around inside her face and squirming into her gums—or was that her paranoid, overactive imagination running wild? But then a spirit begins to speak with her directly, scrawling increasingly threatening messages in the pages of her diary. The stakes rise when the spirit starts to target her brother by controlling him like a puppet. Hannah must find a way to break this curse gone berserk, but how can she fight something she can’t even see?
Haunting tension create a sinister Goosebumps vibe in this graphic novel through zany black and white doodles and gothic stylized characters reminiscent of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. As the plot unravels, the motives behind the malicious spirit don’t quite hit the mark, leaving room for questions and perhaps even a sequel for further exploration. Various characters—from Hannah’s classmates and teachers—pop in and out of the story, but ultimately Hannah takes the lead in moving the plot forward.
Fueled by its angst-ridden narrative voice, Lai’s story cranks up the suspense in steady bursts that explode onto double-page spreads as Hannah struggles to make sense of what’s happening while attempting to shake off the predatory entity. The storytelling style, orchestrated in sporadic journal entries paired with doodling sketches in the vein of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, makes this a fast read for reluctant readers of supernatural fiction wrapped in mystery, yet ends rather abruptly with a lingering, curious twist.
Read at Your Own Risk By Remy Lai Henry Holt, 2024 ISBN: 9781250323354
Publisher Age Rating: 8-12 NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11)
If there’s one thing the Alien franchise understands, it’s that greed gets punished—in this case through exploding chest cavities and widespread terror.
From Marvel Comics and 20th Century Fox comes Alien: Thaw by Declan Shalvey and Andrea Broccardo. If you’re at all familiar with any iteration of the Alien franchise, then you already know the basics. In this particular outing, a small team of scientists on a remote ice moon are searching for usable sources of water while also conducting some covert scientific research. There’s Batya Zhan, her daughter Zasha, and Batya’s partner Dayton. Zasha’s father died in a workplace accident and since then, Dayton has stepped up to fill the role of both teammate and surrogate father after months of isolation. Things really start getting interesting when Zasha finds a strange organism frozen in the ice and the small team brings it back to the research facility for further study. Always a good idea, right?
A pregnant Zatya tries to use the find to secure overdue transport off the moon and back to civilization, but instead attracts the attention of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation—a familiar presence across the Alien franchise. After hearing of the lifeform the Zhans have discovered, Weyland-Yulani buys the entire research company and arrives on the moon with a squadron of armed goons with itchy trigger fingers and limited common sense. Only problem is—that one organism was not the only thing buried in the ice. And with so much human activity, things are starting to melt. You can guess what happens next.
Having worked with IP such as Moon Knight and Deadpool as well as independent titles like Bog Bodies, Shalvey is no stranger to writing gritty and complicated characters trapped in progressively worsening circumstances. From the very beginning of the story, he establishes the isolation and the danger of the situation with a relatively likeable set of characters who are unable to escape their circumstances despite the progressively dire state of their situation. As things go from bad to worse, Shalvey fully confronts the capitalistic greed that underlies the bad decisions in any Alien story. As people put profit and legacy over common sense, safety protocols and rational thinking go out the window.
However, from the soldier who puts his own survival over the corporate mandate to Zasha’s desire to protect her mother—Shalvey finds moments of reason and empathy to ground the story in worthwhile ways. Some of the dialogue throughout feels a bit off, there are some plot holes and questions which hang over the narrative, the timeframe of the whole disaster is a bit too condensed, and the creators aren’t breaking any particularly new ground with this comic—but Shalvey has a talent for throwing characters into the mix and pacing out a story of conflict and survival—all of which he brings to bear on this narrative.
Meanwhile, Broccardo’s art goes for a certain amount of comic stylization without shying away from the gruesome violence of the Alien presence. As the creatures carve their way through the hapless grunts dragged along on another ill-fated mission, there is enough blood, burst chests, and viscera to convey the severity of this mistake without reveling in the gore. The characters are distinct, the action and emotions come through clearly, and there are some truly cinematic moments delivered as the researchers and corporate stooges uncover a whole lot more than they bargained for beneath the ice. Even in comic form, there’s a certain awe to watching a swarm of apex predators descend on their unwary and often unsavory prey.
Marvel lists a parental advisory for this title, and it’s definitely aimed at an older audience. However, the language is surprisingly censored throughout, so the main issue is the violence and gore which is graphic but not excessive. To be perfectly frank in assessment, Alien: Thaw is familiar, a bit underdeveloped, rushed, and kind of lacking in its final delivery of its ideas. It’s not the best writing Shalvey has delivered, nor is it the best Alien story on the market. It’s often illogical and occasionally a bit silly despite all the death and such. That being said, if you or your readers are particular fans of the franchise or are desperate for some more sci-fi horror comics, there’s still a bit here to enjoy. I can see the flaws clearly, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying myself or appreciating the few moments throughout that really do manage to shine as yet another profit-chasing bureaucrat leads a group of underlings to mass destruction. Alien: Thaw doesn’t have enough space to do everything it wants to—and it doesn’t always entirely make sense—but it’s a dramatic, cool, and gooey anti-greed story all the same.
Alien: Thaw By Declan Shalvey Art by Andrea Broccardo Marvel, 2023 ISBN: 9781302947668
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18) Creator Representation: Irish,
find ourselves today.
Maggie, an NPR journalist, and Adam, a high school counselor, are like-minded, white, progressive newlyweds on the cusp of starting a family in Austin, Texas. On their way home from purchasing a pregnancy test, they’re accosted by two men with a gun, demanding valuables. Maggie, a Texas native, watches in horror as Adam quickly hands over their money. When the muggers demand Maggie’s new wedding ring, she’s prepared to stand her ground, but is utterly shocked when Adam tearfully pulls the ring off her finger. The men laugh at him for crying and then leave on scooters with the goods.
law. While originally created for Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian series as a pastiche of two of Robert E. Howard’s historic heroines—Red Sonya of Rogatino and Dark Agnes de Chastillon—Red Sonja has been run through her own LLC for several decades.
There are monsters in this world. This is a fact that children know all too well, but adults seem to forget as they grow older. The children in the care of retired actor William Jones know it, for all of them were orphaned by monsters.
Panic.” Those kids might remember it as a time when many pop culture properties, from Dungeons & Dragons to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, were considered gateway hobbies that could lead children to embrace Satan and commit acts in his name. Far more nefarious were accusations that schools and educators were drawing children into Satan’s eager embrace. Many of these were seemingly corroborated by child victims who’d had their recollections manipulated through unsubstantiated psychological techniques.
worst of the worst in life and he wants her to become the Grim Reaper. She has no memory of anything before waking up in hell and the offer is to either go straight to level 9 or return to Earth as the grim reaper and bring the devil one soul a day. Sinners will be marked with a giant red X on their chest so she can find them. Scarlet opts to try out the new job, only to struggle with the morality of it.
challenge for finding a place called home. Such is the plight of young Japanese American teenager Amy during the tumultuous times of World War II. In Pearl, Sherri L. Smith (Flygirl) and Christine Norrie (Cheat) chronicle her dilemma amidst the shadow of war in the United States and Japan.
It begins with a game among a group of middle school friends—a deadly game that sets off a series of events that haunts them from beyond the natural world. What have they unleashed, and how will they stop this evil from spreading? Supernatural thrills and chills multiply in Remy Lai’s (Ghost Book) Read at Your Own Risk, an eerie tale fraught with uncanny occurrences that spell trouble and impending doom.
cavities and widespread terror.
