May reviews link-up!

It amazes me how fast this year is going! Leave your link of any reviews of graphic novels that you write this month!

March and April reviews

Sorry about being so late guys. If you reviewed a graphic novel in March and would like to link it, please do. Link your April reviews too!

Welcome To Graphic Novels Challenge 2010!!!

Hello again Fanboys and Fangirls!! The Graphic Novels Challenge, the 2010 edition has officially started!! As promised, we have lots of fun things lined up for this year, and the first thing is a mini challenge hosted by the oh so sweet Teresa at Read All Over Reviews!! It's all about reading the classics reinterpreted by the Graphic Novel medium. Head on over to this post to learn more about how to sign up. She also has a super awesome button for the mini-challenge!

Work behind the scenes is still going on and we're at work still compiling a list of recommended Graphic Novels for the newbie to the medium! So you can expect that still, we're just a little behind schedule with the holidays :/ And you should see a Mr. Linky appear in the next day or so that will allow you to link up all of your reviews for the month of January so that we'll have a central place to collect some awesome reviews.

As always, if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to contact us at the challenge email address: graphicnovelschallenge(at)gmail(dot)com or just leave a comment in the comments section!! Above all, have fun!! And if you haven't signed up for the challenge yet, please do!! Sign-ups are open all throughout the year, so hop on in whenever you feel like it! The Mr. Linky is found just a post or two down to sign up :) There are still spots open if you're interested in hosting a mini-challenge, by the way. Just let us know at the above email address. I'm off to bury myself in a book now!

Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness

This third volume in the Scott Pilgrim series starts up where volume 2 left off: the night that his ex-girlfriend, Envy, and her band, Clash at Demonhead, are performing. There are lots of informative flashbacks, particularly those detailing Scott's relationship with Envy (a.k.a. Natalie) back when they were freshmen in college.

In the present, the next evil ex-boyfriend of Ramona's that Scott must fight turns out to be Todd, the bassist for Clash at Demonhead. He is a formidable opponent because, Envy informs Scott (after he's been thrown through a brick wall), Todd is a vegan - "graduated top of his class from Vegan Academy and everything." Scott and his friends are understandably skeptical about the fact that being vegan could give one superpowers, but Todd explains that most people only use 10% of their brains because the other 90% is "full of curds and whey." Vegans, on the other hand, can access 100% of the power of their brains.

All the wonderful characters from the first two books are here, including Scott's gay roommate Wallace, Scott's teenage ex-girlfriend, Knives Chau (who is now dating "Young" Neil), Stephen Stills, and Kim (Scott's high school girlfriend). Bizarre and highly entertaining events follow, including an encounter between Knives and Envy's drummer (who has a bionic arm and knocks the highlights out of Knives' hair), combat at a frightening discount store called Honest Ed's, a costumed band member extravaganza, gigantic mallets and cat fights, an incriminating gelato, and craters being created on the moon (to impress girls, of course).

This series is surprising and intelligent, with quirky, interesting characters that spring to life through their inimitable dialog and O'Malleys' arresting illustrations. I lose myself in these stories, happily suspending my disbelief because the plot and characters are immensely creative and never, ever predictable. Hanging out with Scott Pilgrim and his friends is the reading equivalent of a trip to an amusement park.

Books in the Scott Pilgrim series:
1. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
3. Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
4. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe

Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness (#3 in the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series) by Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni Press, 2006)

Also reviewed at:
Racing Entropy: "Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness not only raises the bar on the previous two books, it pretty much blows them out of the water - which is saying something."

Review: American Born Chinese by Gene Luan Yang

Hello everyone, Olga from Get Thee to a Punnery!

Forgive me if this review is short; I made the mistake of reading this and then avoiding the review like it was made of plague until today. Part of the reason is because I’m lazy. Another part is because I sort of lost my drive and zeal for reading and have been overdosing on Dog, the Bounty Hunter.

But I’m back, baby!

So what can I tell you about American Born Chinese? Yang’s graphic novel is actually three stories in one. The first is a mythical folk tale about The Monkey King, who, despite being a powerful god, is laughed at by the other gods. The second tale is of Jin Wang, a Chinese-American boy who endures the pressures of being a minority in his new school. And finally, the third story follows the life of a white boy named Danny and his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee, who visits every year to wreck havoc on Danny’s life. Chin-Kee is the ultimate in Chinese stereotype—his dialogue is written phonetically, his clothing is stereotypically Chinese (right down to the conical hat); Yang is almost vicious in his depiction of Chin-Kee—the words of all Chinese stereotypes embody the character.

These three stories appear to run parrallel together, but at the end the characters begin to appear in each other’s stories.

I don’t know much about Chinese-American culture, but I can understand the pressures of wanting to be someone you are not. I think everyone has at some point in their life longed for something different, but it’s not possible to change who you are fundamentally.

Deep down, the story of American Born Chinese is that you should accept your heritage, and love your family and friends, no matter what their culture is. It may take a demi-god Monkey disguised as a Chinese stereotype to knock that into you, but ultimately you can’t run away from who you are.

It’s an old lesson, but it’s told in a unique way with lovely cartoon graphics, and a fun set of stories. I felt like I learned a bit more about what it’s like to be Chinese in America.

A good graphic novel, and I would even recommend it for children. The lesson is easy to grasp and the story moves quickly enough that you can share it with your kids.

Rating: Four stars

French Milk by Lucy Knisley

Amazon.com Product Description:

For her 22nd birthday—and her mother's 50th—Lucy Knisley and her mother went to Paris. For more than a month, they toured the City of Lights from their fifth arrondissement flat, exploring museums and cafes, taking photographs, eating pastries and drinking French milk, which Knisley says is sweeter than its American counterpart; she compares it with the influence we take in from our mothers. Knisley's first book is unquestionably a travel journal first and foremost: Lucy-the-writer is so close to Lucy-the-subject that at times the story lacks background and emotional complexity. But as a travel journal French Milk shines. Knisley's photographs from the trip punctuate sketches of her daily adventures and musings about graduating from art school, first love and having an adult relationship with her mother. Best of all are Knisley's portraits of home at the beginning and end of the book, which capture her childhood home and college life lovingly but with clear eyes. Knisley's cartoony drawings are pleasingly clean in one panel and tellingly detailed in the next. A word-of-mouth hit when it first came out in a self-published limited edition, French Milk will remind readers of their own early trips to Europe and of traveling in their 20s.

Warning, this book will make you hungry, it will make you hungry for foods you've never even heard of! A friend told me about comic artist, Lucy Knisley and her blog. I think the post she told me about was a day she had drawn everything she had eaten for dinner the night before at a fancy restaurant. So I wasn't really surprised to see all her food drawings in this book but it still made me want to try all the things she ate, things I had never heard of! I still don't know what some of them are, what are cornichons?

Anyhow, this book is a combination of a travel journal and a 20-something journal of worry and growing up. I loved it! I'm a 20-something so that part was very easy to relate to for me and also I love to travel (not that I have done much lately) so I love to read about trips. To me, there's really no better way to read a travel journal that in the form of comics! Everything is so much easier to visualize! It also doesn't hurt that a lot of photos are included.

This book is seriously a gem, this girl has got good taste! She talks about everything from her day's purchases to weird things about the apartment she and her mom are staying in to the books she is reading. It's great. I wish it was like 4 times longer! Good thing she has another book and a website that she updates often. And her illustration style? It's so cute, she can go from simple drawings to more detailed beautiful images of people (i love the way she draws faces).

It reminded me a bit of Vanessa Davis's book Spaniel Rage, they are both the going ons of a young woman's life, they don't really set out to get a laugh but sometimes do anyways! It's basically their journal. Great stuff, and I want to read much much more!

4.5/5 Stars

The Fountain by Darren Aranofsky and Kent Williams

Olga here from Get thee to a Punnery! Continuing my complete disregard for my actual list, here is my review for Darren Aranofsky's The Fountain.

Darren Aranofsky’s The Fountain (published by Vertigo Comics in 2005) is a visually interesting over-sized graphic novel based on the movie of the same name. Published a year before the film was released, Aranofsky’s intentions were to preserve a part of his project just in case Hollywood “f**ks him over.” A prudent notion, considering his film was met with mixed (and confused) reactions.

Having never watched the film, I borrowed The Fountain from the library thinking I could read this instead and get pretty much the same thing, albeit with ninety percent less Hugh Jackman. The film runs at about an hour and a half; in today’s world of thirty hour Lord of the Ring marathons, this is a fairly quick watch. But at 176 big pages full of cool drawings, the graphic novel wins. I think I read this in under an hour.

As can be imagined, the story is similar to the film. It revolves around the same couple in three different time periods—1535 Spain and Central America, present day, and “the future” wherein we will all be riding around in giant space bubbles in the nude, if Aranofsky gets his way.

The central theme of all three stories is the loss of the great love. Tomas traipses through each time period, bellowing, crying and nearly stamping his feet in effort to save the woman he loves. Inevitably, they all die, though. Sorry, I didn’t give away the ending. It’s pretty much a given.

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the graphic novel, and I can understand why the film was met with mixed reviews. The story is a great idea. It has so much Romeo-and-Juliet potential, it could be Romeo and Juliet. But the execution falls flat on its face. The novel is drawn by Kent Williams, an artist widely respected in the industry. While some images are visually spectacular, there are parts of the graphic novel wherein background characters are little more than drawn lines. Perhaps one could argue that Williams and Aranofsky are trying to emphasize Tomas’s intense focus on his love, and so the rest of the world appears little more than hazy outlines, but it just looks unfinished.

See for yourself:


Each story ends with Tomas’s love dying in some fashion. In 1553, she sacrifices herself for the glory of her queendom. In the present day, she quietly dies in a hospital bed as Tomas receives word that they have found a cure for her cancer. Most bizarrely, in the future (remember, floating through space in a bubble), she is sacrificed to give life to the tree inside the bubble.

That I don’t get. The first two, I’m cool on. Tragic, romantic, ideas I can grasp. The final pair I can’t come to terms with. Why are they in that bubble? What’s the point of her dying if Tomas is just going to float through space alone?

Perhaps it’s just too meta for me.

Rating: Three stars

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

I've read my first challenge book-Castle Waiting by Linda Medley. I loved it, and you can read a full review on my blog.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and David Gibbons

Watchmen takes place in the 1980s in an alternative United States. The main difference between this reality and ours is the existence of superheroes, whose presence influenced historical events like the war in Vietnam, and are now influencing the Cold War. The world is on the verge of nuclear conflict, but the presence of the all-powerful Doctor Manhattan gives America an advantage over the Soviet Union. This advantage disappears, however, when something forces him to go into exile.

The main characters of Watchmen are The Comedian, Doctor Manhattan, Nite Owl, Ozymandias, Rorschard and the Silk Spectre. The book opens with The Comedian being murdered. Rorschard, the only non-government sponsored superhero still active after public discontent caused them to be outlawed, suspects that someone is out to get them all. Subsequent events suggest not only that he might be right, but also that there might be more to the whole thing than one could have imagined.

There’s so much I want to say about this book. Let me begin with the characters: all of these heroes are extremely ambiguous characters. As the story advances, we get more background information about all of them, information that allows us to form a detailed psychological portrait. And yet never for a moment do we feel that we have them all figured out. The characterization is too rich and complex to allow that.

Another interesting thing is that these characters have very different ways of looking at the world, and so we get to experience the reality they live in from several different points of view. I think this reinforces what is for me one of the main themes of the book: that reality is often ambiguous, that in real life things are never easy to categorize.

These characters are fascinating, but they’re not exactly likeable. But they also aren’t easy to dismiss as villains under the guise of heroes. They are complex, they each have their motivations, they are human. They are human beings with a lot of power and responsibility – perhaps more power than one person should ever have.

Power is another important theme, as are justice, revenge, fear, war, and the concept of “necessary evil”. Watchmen poses a lot of questions for which there are no easy answers. Therefore, it doesn’t attempt to answer them easily. Perhaps it could be said that the characters each have their own answers, but the book as a whole doesn’t advocate any one stance. And that’s s big part of what makes it so interesting. Apologies if I sound horribly vague here. It’s just that I want to go on and on about this book, but I don’t want to give away the whole plot.

As it’s often pointed out, another thing Watchmen is about is the superhero genre itself. In a world where superheroes are real, comics about them aren’t all that popular. Instead, pirate stories are big. The main plot is alternated with a story called “Tales of the Black Freighter”, from a comic one of the characters is reading. It’s interesting to realize, as you read on, how this story parallels the main plot.

I was particularly interested in the way the story questions the concept of a “hero” – it addresses not only its necessity or its flaws, but also everything that makes it interesting and appealing and be such a big part of our imaginations. In this way, it had some parallels with Perry Moore’s Hero, and like I said the other day reading them side by side was really interesting. Actually, the stories have some similarities too. I don’t mean this negatively, but having finished Hero first made me guess something about Watchmen that might have surprised me otherwise.

This is definitely a book I want to read again. I bet I’ll discover new things in it every time I pick it up. One last thing: I so love the quotations at the end of the each chapter, and the fact that the chapters were named after the quotations. The sources range from Bob Dylan and John Cale to Nietzsche or William Blake to The Bible.



Originally posted here.

Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection by Scott McCloud

Hi guys, Olga of Get Thee to a Punnery! I need to be smacked. I have yet to read anything from my list. However, I have the full Sandman series waiting for me at a friend's, so that will soon be remedied. 'Til then, please be content with the following review.

Zot! is a comic created by Scott McCloud, who is better known for having written and drawn Understanding Comics, a comprehensive work on the creation of comics. I found Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection at my my library after not finding a book I was looking for. I seem to have this allergy that prevents me from leaving the library empty-handed. So, I chose Zot!

Zot! is a series that combines the superhero elements of classic comic books with the newer genre of real-life, relationship based graphic novels. I suppose if you were to ask me the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel, that would be it, although that's not necessarily always the case. The definition of a graphic novel and a comic book is highly debated, and this review isn't where I would necessarily lay my lines down about that.

Anyway, I digress.

Zot! tells the story of a blonde-haired superboy named Zot who comes from an alternate earth, and his relationship with Jenny Weaver, a teenage girl from our own earth. The first half of hte collection is comprised of the 'superhero' stories in the series. Zot (real name Zachary Paleozogt) battles a host of villains who are all in some form or another caricatures of the villains McCloud grew up on.

The second half of the collection deals with more introspective, personal stories. McCloud deviates from the classic superhero format by literally exiling Zot in Jenny's (i.e. our) earth and moving the focus away from him. Entire issues of Zot! are devoted to characters that were introduced as minor players in previous issues, such as Ronnie, a comic book obsessed school friend, or Terry, Jenny's best friend who comes out in an issue.

Zot! was published in comic form from 1984 to 1993, and the stories that McCloud introduces, if you look at the time he was writing and drawing them in, are ground breaking. My favourite story has to be Jenny and Zot's first time. The story is left open to allow the reader to decide for themselves if anything actually happens.

What I liked most about the collection was McCloud's commentary. He provides insight into his drawing habits and his personal thoughts about each story. You can really tell he's an incredible perfectionist and it pains him in some ways to publish this collection, warts included. Personally, I didn't think there were any warts, but I'm not an artist, let alone a graphic novel artist. I liked knowing what he thinks of his own stories.

The stories themselves were fun to read. While not terribly complicated by any standards (McCloud admits that he had little knowledge of how to write a story when he first started drawing Zot!), they're interesting and humourous, as well as touching. I could understand Jenny's (I want to say motivation here, but it's not a play...c'mon Olga, work that vocabulary!) desire to flee her world and live in Zot's, where everything is just better. We've all been there before, and we don't have to be fifteen to feel like that.

The characters also made Zot! a good read. Each one, be it a villain or a friend, has a story and they're all interesting. I could go on and on. Seriously, if you happen to stumble upon this collection at the library, I suggest you take it out. It's not McCloud's best work, but it's a really great read nonetheless.

Rating: Four Stars

Review: Violent Cases

Violent Cases
by Neil Gaiman

Synopsis from bn.com:

An exploration of the trappings of violence and the failings of memory, Violent Cases marks the beginning of the astonishing and award-winning collaboration between author Neil Gaiman and the artist Dave McKean, offered in its first Dark Horse edition, in softcover format with cover flaps. Set only in the memory of its author, this brillant short story meanders through levels of recollection surrounding a childhood injury. After dislocating his arm, a young boy is taken to see a doctor - an aged osteopath who was once the doctor of legendary gangster Al Capone. Through studied observations and painstaking attempts at truthful recall, the author reconstructs his tattered memories of the events surrounding his meeting with the doctor, and delves into the psychological complexities that emerged from the doctor's bizarre tales of Capone's life of crime. Gorgeously illustrated in mixed media by Dave McKean, Violent Cases is a sensuous and thought-provoking meditation on our memories.

My thoughts:

This was a quick and interesting read. It was drawn in browns, blues, grays, so it has dark feel to it, and slightly sinister. This was Neil Gaiman's first graphic novel and apparently one of his favorites. I didn't really get it. That's not to say I didn't like it, I just had another one of those moments when I felt like I wasn't seeing the bigger picture.

I recommend this as a quick read, especially if you get it from the library.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Challenges: 100+; Read and Review: A to Z; Graphic Novel; Dream King; 999

The Plain Janes by Castellucci and Rugg

In the beginning MainJane, living in Metro City, is hurt in a bomb attack. She find an unconscious man beside her on the sidewalk after the attack, along with his sketch book embossed with "Art Saves" on the cover. The bomb, the man, and his sketch book lead her to change her perspective on life and the world around her.

Her parents move her to a small suburban town out of fear of the attacks. There she makes friends - a group of Janes - by getting them involved in "art attacks" around the town, random anonymous art, meant to beautify and make people think. While most of the teenagers eventually get into the concept, the adults (led by the police), fear it. They try to control where people can go and when out of fear of these "attacks." Meanwhile, Jane writes to the unconscious John Doe back at the hospital in Metro City, so we see her thoughts as if she were writing in a diary.

I liked the book, but the ending wasn't very satisfying. I know that there is at least one follow-up to this (which I'll read if my library acquires it), but I would've liked to see a more solid conclusion to this. It's interesting that both this and the other book I read, Persepolis, have a message about strong females standing up against fear mongering.

 - Nichole (getting one more in before the new semester starts!)

Delayed Replays by Liz Prince

Amazon.com Product Description:

With this second collection of comic strips after the critically-acclaimed Will You Still Love Me If I Wet The Bed?, Liz Prince continues to explore the intimacy of the couple, while at the same time revealing snippets of her life as a young cartoonist. Sentimental and humorous, these little gems of chaotic relationships and life come off like the best of daily newspaper strips.

Liz Prince's comics are slice of life comics. Funny encounters, funny situations, and even funny noises! It's all there! They remind me a little of Julia Wertz's Fart Party comics. Like Wertz sometimes, Prince uses a very rough sketchy illustration style for her comics.

I had a lot of laugh out loud moments reading these comics. The author has a sassy yet cute attitude which comes across great! A few of the characters seemed familiar from her previous comic, Will You Still Love Me If I Wet The Bed? but I was a little uncertain who was who. I thought I knew which was her boyfriend (he appears a lot in her previous collection) but by the end I was a little unsure. It would have been nice in the front or back to have a list of characters to keep everyone straight.

All in all, this is a great, little and fast collection of random slice of life comics!

4/5 Stars

Have you ever read any autobiographical comics before?

This is a cross post with my own blog!

Anita Blake Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures, Volume 1 & 2

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Guilty Pleasures, Vol. 1

Synopsis [bn.com]

New York Times Best-Selling author Laurell K. Hamilton offers readers a brand new experience in the world of Anita Blake! Fusing mythology, werewolves and vampires with a story loaded with mystery, action and romance, the Anita Blake novels take place in a world where vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of nightmare have been declared legal citizens of the United States. Anita Blake is an "animator" - a profession that involves raising the dead for a living. Anita Blake is also known as a fearsome hunter of criminal vampires, and she moonlights by investigating cases that are far too much for "conventional" police. But as Anita gains the attention of the vampire masters in her hometown of St. Louis, she also risks revealing an intriguing secret about herself - the source of her unusual strength and power. As a special treat, Anita Blake fans will also discover an original side story featuring Anita and Dolph, written specially for the hardcover edition by Laurell K. Hamilton. Collects Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures #1-6

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Guitly Pleasures, Vol. 2

Synopsis [bn.com]

The hit adaptation of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series continues! What price will Anita pay in order to save her friend's life and solve the Vampire Murders? Will she actually kiss Phillip? How far will Edward go in order to find out where the daytime resting place of the Master Vampires truly is? Where is Jean-Claude? And most important, who is behind the Vampire Murders? What's next for Anita Blake, you ask? The answers to all of those questions are here! Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures #7-12

Review
Seeing Guilty Pleasures illustrated in these two graphic novels was fun and exciting. Seeing the characters I came to know and love (or hate) was so great that I was giddy with excitement while reading both. I quickly devoured the illustrations and pages since I already knew what had happened in the story.

For those who have never read Guilty Pleasures Anita Blake is an animator for a living. She's hired to raise the dead back to life for Animators Inc. She's also a vampire hunter, better known as the Executioner. Vol. 1 starts off with the Anita meeting with Willie, a now-vampire who she knew before his change. Willie is trying to hire Anita to find out who is killing off the master vampires in the city.

While Anita refuses to help she is quickly dragged into the vampire night life as she is forced to accept the job by the oldest vampire she has ever met, Nikolaos. A sadistic child-like vampire with an unpredictable and hot temper.

The two graphic novels follow Anita as she goes about tracking the murderer down while trying to basically stay alive and sane at the same time. The reader will meet some crazy characters that will definitely make you want more.

I really enjoyed seeing the book adapted into graphic novels. I loved the way Anita was depicted. She was just as I imagined. I recommend any Anita Blake fan to read these and anyone who hasn't to take a peek as well. Be sure to read the novel though, it goes into so much more depth.

Romeo and Juliet by Esther Pearl Watson

Amazon.com Product Description:

This remarkably well-told, bizarre and updated version of the classic tale of love and loss will blow your mind. Narrated by Donkey Kong, and set in a urban high school. Instead of poisoning themselves, the young lovers prove their devotion to each other by crushing themselves under a Coke machine. By Esther Pearl Watson, regular contributor to Bust magazine.

Esther Pearl Watson is hilarious, random, and very unique. When I heard she did a version of Romeo and Juliet I just had to read it!

The comic was funny and very very random, if a bit short. Having her strip, Unlovable to compare it to it didn't exactly live up to my expectations. Don't get me wrong, the illustrations were great, the story was funny and it was very very random. I just think the author truly shines with her Unlovable strip, which is why I'm very glad all the Unlovable comics have been collected into a book!

But anyways, it was definitely fun comparing her comic to the Romeo and Juliet we have all read! If you are ready to try an short indie comic with familiar content this is the place to start!

3.5/5 Stars

What's one remake of a story you enjoy?

This is a cross post with my own blog!

Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi

This wasn't on my planned list, but after reading Persepolis I discovered my library had Embroideries by Satrapi... in with the regular Fiction instead of the Graphic Novel section. This is a very quick read, basically a conversation during tea with the author and 8 female relatives and friends. It has as much (or more?) dialogue as it does graphics. The women talk about men, sex, marriage, divorce, and... embroideries, of a sort. I couldn't imagine having such a conversation with my mother and grandmother!

This doesn't have nearly as much impact as Persepolis, nor do the graphics in it. The graphics are really just there to show you who is speaking. But, it's another tiny peak into the behind-closed-doors lives of free-thinking Iranian women.

It's interesting, but I wouldn't go through a lot of trouble tracking it down.

Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age edited by Ariel Schrag

This isn't one of my chosen twelve, but I thought I would include my review to this website anyway. Any graphic novel review is a good graphic novel review, right?

Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age collects the unpleasant, embarrassing, and often humourous memories of a group of artists from the junior high years. Best friends, horse camp, betrayals, first kisses, and parachute pants all combine to breathe life into the childhood memories that so many of us try and repress. It’s true. We all have, to varying degrees, really effed up stories of pre-teenage years.

In the spirit of Stuck in the Middle, I give you a tale of my own from those tender years when I thought in all honesty I would grow up to be the bride of Leonardo DiCaprio (or one of the Backstreet Boys.)

I never went to middle school, but that didn't prevent me from going through similarly painful juvenile rights of passage. As a child my family moved around a fair bit. By the time I was in the seventh grade, I was in my sixth grade school. As everyone knows, moving not only uproots you, it also turns you into the newest pariah of any given school. I don’t blame my parents for changing my schools very often, but I certainly know that I will never do the same to my own children.

In the seventh grade, after moving once again in the summertime, I happened to be close enough to go back to my very first elementary school. Figuring that I would at least have somewhat of a connection to these group of children, I begged, whined and complained until I was enrolled in St. J’s once again.

Of course, nothing ever goes right, especially not when you’re the new kid. I was immediately ostracized by former friends, having made the grave mistake of leaving on a bad note the first time around—I stole a robin’s egg from my class and was caught. That was the very last thing my schoolmates remembered about me before I moved away, and so I was the pariah once again.

But, I was resourceful. I made friends quickly, girls who came to St. J’s long after the incident, and thus had no memory of my egg-stealing.

Fairly soon I was fully embraced by a group of about five or six girls. The number of us changed constantly since we were always not speaking to this girl or that girl, but for the most part we got on really well.

The problem with prepubescent girls is, they are like mercury. Moods and alliances could change in an instant, without provocation. We were like ticking time-bombs, ready to go off at one another.

This became a harsh reality for me one evening. Out of nowhere I received a phone call from R.—she accused me of making fun of her voice. Bewildered, having done no such thing, I denied it vehemently, but there was no use. I was already a Benedict Arnold. The news spread quickly—Olga’s a teaser. And that was that.

The next day at school I was ignored by all of my friends, left to stew in the mess that I had made for myself by allowing myself to become a target.

Heartbroken, I was forced to tell my mother the details (after being yelled at on the phone once again by a friend the following night). My mother was livid, and no doubt even more bewildered than I was, having received a hysterical and no-doubt confusing explanation from a distraught pre-teen.

The next day, she took me to school. Instead of dropping me off, she went down to the schoolyard with me, and—to my horror—bitched out the very girls who had ostracized me for the past thirty-six hours in broken English.

God bless my mother. She was my greatest champion, fighting that battle as best she could with half-finished sentences growled at the girls. At least they had the courtesy of looking shame-faced.

I was convinced this was the end of my social life completely. R. and the rest of the girls apologized half-heartedly in front of my mother. When she left, I was left alone once again.

But then something miraculous happened. At lunchtime, I was invited to sit with them. Once more I was welcomed back into the fold, and in the blink of an eye all was forgotten. There was no need to discuss what just happened—it was over! Why bring up the pain, when we could just move on with our lives and share a bag of Doritos and talk about our crushes again?

I’ve never been able to forget that event, even though the details have become fuzzy. I still don’t quite get what happened, but it serves as a reminder that middle school—your thirteenth year especially—is f**king scary. You couldn’t trust anyone, and you couldn’t be trusted. That best friend who just yesterday was braiding your hair over lunch, could be pointing the finger of blame on you today.

I’m glad I’m not thirteen anymore. This collection of comics from that unsettling age is a great journey down memory lane, but it makes you think about your own hellish recollections. The best part of the book is knowing that everyone goes through the same thing—no one gets out of middle school without having been scarred by it.

Rating: Four Stars

For more reviews (graphic novel and non!), check out my website.

The Book of Ballads by Charles Vess and Others

Books Completed: 9
Date Completed: January 7, 2009
Pages: 192
Publication Date: September 30, 2004

Reason for Reading: Graphic Novel Challenge

Illustrated and presented by one of the leading artists in modern fantasy, here are the great songs and folktales of the English, Irish, and Scottish traditions, re-imagined in sequential-art form, in collaboration with some of today's strongest fantasy writers. Here are New York Times bestseller Neil Gaiman with "The False Knight on the Road"; popular mystery author Sharyn McCrumb's version of "Thomas the Rhymer"; acclaimed children's writer Jane Yolen with "King Henry" and "The Great Selchie of Sule Skerrie"; popular novelist Charles de Lint's contemporary reworking of "Twa Corbies"; Bone creator Jeff Smith with "The Galtee Farmer"; Emma Bull's version of "The Black Fox," and much, much more. Introduced by award-winning editor and writer Terri Windling, and finished with full lyrics and discographies of the classic versions of these songs and tales, The Book of Ballads is an event in the worlds of fantasy and graphic storytelling alike.

Luck was with me when I was at the second-hand bookstore on Tuesday! I have tonnes of credit there, but haven't been having much luck finding books that interest me lately. Tuesday, I brought home quite the pile! When I found this book I almost did a happy dance right in the store! Think about it... This book is illustrated by Charles Vess, who is an amazing artists. The stories included in each comic are retelling ballads, which are something that I love! And, then, there are the authors of each comic. They are some of the best fantasy authors out there. Add in the fact that Terri Windling does the introduction, and you have everything that this folk tale fangirl needs! I mean, the book is second-hand, so it is not as nice as it would be if I had bought it new, but it is hardcover and has a beautiful cover! I hope the rest of 2009 is as wonderful reading-wise as this first week has been!

The book includes stories by Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Sharyn McCrumb, Midori Snyder, Lee Smith, Elaine Lee, Delia Sherman, Charles de Lint, Jeff Smith, Charles Vess, and Emma Bull. Charles Vess is the main illustrator. Jane Yolen and Charles de Lint have two stories included. The best thing is that they not only rewrite these ballads, but the actual ballads are also included. I thought that was a great idea! If that is not enough for you, also included is a discography so you can actually find singers that sing these ballads and hear them for yourself! So, yes, I loved this book! It took so many wonderful things that I love and brought them all together! I am so happy that I went to the bookstore because this is a book that I will be holding onto for years to come. I also intend to spend some time looking up some of the music so I can hear it myself.

The Complete Persepolis

Let me say first that I do not have much interest in biographies, history, or politics. Persepolis is basically all three of those things, and I loved it!

The author, Marjane Satrapi, tells her story of growing up in Iran and what it was like to be in the wars there. As a 10 year old at the time, she remembers the change from being very free in 1978 to having to wear the veil in 1979. She also tells of her time as a teenager in Austria, where her parents sent her to be away from the war, and for education free of the restrictions of Iranian rules. She also shows how many Iranians were behind closed doors, where the veils could come off, and people who were more liberal minded would hold parties and use forbidden things (music! games! make-up!), for which there was a strong black-market for. Basically, it challenges what the US-centric thinking is of what Iranians are like.

Because of my lack of interest in history and politics, I am probably not fully understanding some things... despite that, ye olde review word "compelling" applies to this novel. I read it in a few hours with barely a break, it just kept me wanting to see what would happen next. There was some humor injected into what was largely a horror story of war, plus the intriguing story of this brave woman who was taught to stand up for her freedom amidst oppression.

One of the things I am having a hard time grasping is that her parents seemed to prefer the life/freedoms they had under the Shah, and yet didn't seem to agree with the Shah either. My parents and siblings actually lived in Iran for a few years in the 60s (I wasn't born until '78), but I think that asking for information from them would only give the western view of events and not really help with the view the author is trying to convey.

The artwork is very simple black and white drawings, but the way facial expressions are used to mark the emotions is amazing (especially during the younger years).  The 1st and 2nd panels on the first page had me hooked with the impact of "this is me" and then "this is my class photo"... a group of girls nearly identical because they are hidden by their veils.

Anyway, I found Persepolis fascinating and highly recommend it.

Fables - Volume 2: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham

Books Completed: 5
Date Completed: January 4, 2009
Pages: 128
Publication Date: August 1, 2003

Reason for Reading: Graphic Novel Challenge

FABLES: ANIMAL FARM is a highly imaginative political thriller that tells the modern day story of fairy tale characters as they struggle for their freedom. After their homelands were attacked and conquered by the mysterious Adversary, the mythological characters from fables and folklores were captured and the non-human beings were forced to live on a farm in upstate New York. Unhappy with their captive life, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Three Little Pigs lead a rebellious uprising that quickly turns deadly. Now caught in the middle of an animal revolution, Snow White must find a way to make peace on the farm or become the next victim in a bloody massacre.

The second volume in the Fables series, I had to read it! I looked at my other books and thought I might want to read something different, but no, this was the book that was calling for my attention. Something tells me if I had all of the books in the series available to me, I would probably read them all in the month of January! Considering that I am not very fond of reading books by the same author in a row, that is very high praise from me indeed! I think a lot of it is nostalgia. I read a lot of fairy tales and nursery rhymes as a kid (still do, really) and I enjoy seeing them all together in one story. This novel also draws on Animal Farm by George Orwell and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, which I thought was a nice touch.

Once again, we see Snow White and her sister Red Rose caught up in all the excitement. They have gone out to the farm, the second settlement for the Fables. Snow White is hoping to mend bridges with her sister, but instead they caught up in an uprising that might lead to lots of loss of life. Some other characters are: Goldilocks, The Three Bears, characters from The Jungle Book, The Three Little Pigs, and many more. Little Boy Blue, Bluebeard, The Big Bad Wolf, and Jack (of Beanstalk fame) are just some of the characters that make a return appearance.

The book is really beautiful, though. It is just as much about the written word, as the pictures. There are some fantastic artists involved in this series. I was just book browsing again (I have gift cards left) and my shopping cart now contains the next four volumes in the series... At this rate, I am never going to use the cards, but I am having fun changing my mind every five minutes!

The Series:
Fables: Legends in Exile
Fables: Animal Farm
Fables: Storybook Love
Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers
Fables: The Mean Seasons
Fables: Homelands
Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days)
Fables: Wolves
Fables: Sons of Empire
Fables: The Good Prince
Fables: War and Pieces
Fables: The Dark Ages

Other Reviews:
Heather (A High and Hidden Place)
Rhinoa (Rhinoa's Ramblings)
Chris (Stuff as Dreams are Made on)
Nymeth (Things Mean a Lot)

Anyone else? Let me know!