Difference between revisions of "Newest Graphic Novels Reviews"

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[[Category:Graphic Novels|*]]
 
[[Category:Graphic Novels|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Graphic Novels]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Graphic Novels]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
==Graphic novels==
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{{Frontpage
__NOTOC__
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|author=Edel Rodriguez
{{newreview
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|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey
|author=Robert Crumb
 
|title=Robert Crumb's Book of Genesis: All 50 Chapters
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=In the beginning was the picture.  Just think of all the countless religious images, both inside and outside religious establishments, designed to convey the message to those who could not read.  Art and religion have always been linked, which is probably one of the main reasons I stayed an atheist - I hated art at school, and drawing a man on a donkey, something way beyond my skills, was not a task I appreciated, hence my dislike of both subjects.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224078097</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Guy Delisle
 
|title=Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Meet Guy.  He's a French-Canadian animator, leaving home for a short stay in the capital of one of the world's most intriguing, unknown and alien cultures - Pyongyang, North Korea - so he can work on a TV cartoon co-production.  Forced to stay in one of the three official hotels designed for foreigners, so that the locals and people such as he do not have to mix, he see glimpses of the unique socialist dictatorship, stunning views of the buildings forced through the poverty, and thousands of unreadable faces.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079905</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gareth Hinds
 
|title=King Lear
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Hound me out of town in a most appropriate manner, but I do not like King Lear.  For me, even as a trained actor, the language is too dense and rich, the set-up too archly unfeasible to create the great tragedy it's thought to be.  To my mind the acclaim and esteem in which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-long, over-blown blustering.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Hughes
 
|title=Thomas Wogan is Dead
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Well, with a title like that, need I bother with a plot summary?  A man has a day out in Morecambe, then the next thing he knows he's in the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array of animals (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...), all waiting for... well, something.  Yup, as you didn't need telling, he's dead.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Edgar Allan Poe and Gris Grimly
 
|title=Tales of Death and Dementia
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Wow! What a wonderful combination: Edgar Allan Poe, master of the gothic horror short story, and Gris Grimly, outstanding illustrator, known for his [[The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman and Gris Grimly|work with Neil Gaiman]]. Poe's ''Tales of Death and Dementia'' are shown off at their very best in this edition.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386474</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Bryan Talbot
 
|title=Grandville
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=A dead body found in rural England leads D I LeBrock to urban France, where he is destined to unravel a conspiracy of revolution, treason, and propaganda of potentially global reach.  What is the truth behind the fall of a famous tower under air attack a few years ago?  Why are so many suspicious suicides coming to attention?  And will LeBrock be helped or hindered by his being, as his name suggests, a badger?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224084887</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Will Eisner
 
|title=Minor Miracles
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=This short story collection starts with two appetisers before getting on with two main courses, but as with the best meals even the smallest dishes can have the most depth.  We start with the entire life cycle - rise, fall, rise, fall - of a hobo feeding pigeons in the park.  Obviously he hasn't been doing that all his years - he's been keeping his dignity intact, with a huge amount of chutzpah and more.  Next, a smart Alec defeats the older kids on the stoop with a bit of canny street wisdom.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393328147</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Will Eisner
 
|title=A Family Matter
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Some sons, some daughters, even a shy, semi-abandoned great nephew, are all gathering in the home of a ninety year old stroke victim for what may be his last birthday celebration.  It seems like they are all licking their lips at the thought of a future inheritance.  We've heard before of a nuclear family, is this one about to get too radioactive?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393328139</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
[[Category:Science Fiction]]
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jonathan Luna and Joshua Luna
 
|title=Girls Volume 1: Conception
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Ethan, we see with a great, broad comic stroke or six, is not the best when it comes to girls.  Letting his mouth run away with him too often, he is not very successful at relationships.  But let us look at what happens when he drives away from an altercation at the local bar, and sees a gorgeous - and very naked - young woman standing in the middle of the road.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1582405298</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tony Lee and Sam Hart
 
|title=Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood (Heroes & Heroines Graphic)
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Here, Robin Hood is the Earl of Huntington, a man tempered by bitterness encountered as a youth, trained by skills honed with an apparent need for vengeance.  He's out crusading, when he learns just the beginning of the story of what is wrong in Nottinghamshire.  Returning, he meets John Little, and soon falls into the robbing/giving cycle we know and love him for.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406308870</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle 
 
|title=Graphic Classics, Volume 17: Science Fiction Classics
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=So, an introduction.  The Graphic Classics collection is a series whereby the best in genre fiction, from sources both highly likely and remarkably unexpected, is collected and dressed up for us in graphic novel formThis seventeenth edition, a belated best-of sci-fi volume, is their first foray into full colour, and is headlined by a version of The War of the WorldsThe supporting material ranges from a one-page strip to thirty-page stories.
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|summary=We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba.  The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for allWell, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time awayOur narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned uponThe mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0978791975</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1474616720
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Shaun Tan
 
|title=The Arrival
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=A man gathers a last memento or two before taking his suitcase in hand, saying farewell to his wife and daughter at the train station, and leaving for the docks to get the boat to the promised land.  Once arrived, he finds strangeness everywhere - the food, the language, the immigration procedures, and the lodgings.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0439895294</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Edgar Allen Poe, Various, Dan Whitehead (Editor)
 
|title=Eye Classics: Nevermore - A Graphic Novel Anthology of Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=So, if I were to mention someone who was born 200 years ago this season, and who changed the world with their writing, who would you think of first?  Charles Darwin, probablyBut those of a slightly different bent might just have mentioned someone else - someone at the forefront of all things arcane, horrific and thrilling when it comes to fiction.  Someone who lost his birth and foster mother both to tuberculosis before he was ever twenty.  Someone who had most unusual circumstances surrounding his death, to best Agatha Christie vanishing for a while, and most of the detectives in the fiction he helped inspire.  Someone called Edgar Allan Poe.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955285682</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Kia Ahankoob
|author=Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
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|title=The Gold Lion and the Tournament of Sentinels
|title=Skim
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Skim is a slightly overweight, goth, witch-wannabe teenage girl going to an all girls High School in Toronto in the 1990's.  The book takes the form of her diary entries, painfully honest, and very realistic with words crossed out and re-written at times.  We see her tortured teen life and how she faces issues of suicide, depression, first love and being something of a mis-fit amongst the usual school cliques.  We meet her initially trying out being a witch, and beginning a strange, secretive relationship with her hippy art teacher, Miss Archer. Then, after the suicide of the ex-boyfriend of one of the girls at Skim's school, those in charge at the school go on an overdrive of moral-boosting, supportive exercises to help all the girls cope.  This coincides with Miss Archer leaving the school, which drops Skim into a morbid depression, isolating her even further from those in her class.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406321362</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarah Herman
 
|title=I Like My Job
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=If you've ever been faced by too many Post-Its at the same time, or a performance review, or copious yards of errant electrical cabling all round your workspace - and especially if you've been left with an apologetic pineapple on your desk - this is a book for you.  Here the office life is all delegating this, blah blah talk about that, and hanging far too much on the one guy who seems to be most with-it when it comes to the computers.  It's a black and white world, on the whole, where you always get what you generally expected.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>022408576X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Neil Gaiman and Gris Grimly
 
|title=The Dangerous Alphabet
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=A is for Always, that's where we embark. B is for boat, pushing off in the dark... And so begins Neil Gaiman's adventure through the (unreliable) alphabet, in the company of two children and their gazelle. They do battle with monsters, hunt for treasure, and get into all manner of scrapes. What awaits them when they get to Z? Dare you read on?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747597154</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Amit Dasgupta
 
|title=Indian by Choice
 
|rating=2
 
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Mandy is forced by circumstance to fly from his lifelong home in Chicago to India to represent his family at a wedding.  He hates it.  The Indians on the flight are brash, noisy, unmannered. The city he arrives in is a sprawling, noisy, polluted, impoverished mess. Everywhere people think Mandy is a daft name and he should have stuck to his name of birth, Mandeep. But he is American by choice, and finds nothing appealing about the prospect of four weeks in New Delhi.
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|summary= When Myriad created Duniva he endowed his children with different powers, each with its own strength and weakeness, in the hope they would complement each other and collaborate, creating a dynamic and prosperous society. Each power is contained within a magical ring belonging to one of eight countries led by Myriad's children and their descendants. But it didn't quite work out like that. Rivalries developed. Enmities grew out of them and the eight countries went to war. Having fought themselves into an endless and ruinous stalemate and finding the cost of war too high, a solution is proposed. Each of the eight countries will send their greatest warriors, known as sentinels, to a single combat tournament. The winner will take possession of all the rings and become the supreme ruler of Duniva.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>8183281362</amazonuk>
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|isbn=B09MMQJFPV
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Pat Grant
|author=Guy Delisle
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|title=The Grot: The Story of the Swamp City Grifters
|title=Burma Chronicles
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=What we have here are a male househusband and artist, and his MSF doctor wife, and their life in Burma or Myanmar for roughly a yearWe get to see the life in the country, from the racks of bootleg software, to the animation class he leads, to their efforts to get into the lush country clubs, to their baby being adored by every passing girlWe see the state of the country, with its horrid drugs, HIV/AIDS and malaria problems, hidden beyond the gentle Buddhist retreatsWe see the Delisles' interaction with this singular country - the censored press, and the fact that their road is only made more busy because of the roadblock diverting everyone away from Aung San Suu Kyi's house a block away.
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|summary=Everything in this world runs on pedal-power, and that includes the punk bandsThere are three pedallers at the front of the Heath Robinson contraption taking our lead characters to the ferry across the swamp to Falter City, where a mother and her two sons aim to set up a yoghurt factory.  You could say that yoghurt would be the only culture around, for this is a really rough-and-ready dump of a place, but everyone is interested in small things that growFor the only money to be had – the only fortunes to be found in Falter City – come from algae, gunk and other crud that – well, the use of it is never really made clearOnce there, the two brothers set themselves each up with a guide – Lippy, the more forward-thinking, industrious of the two, with a besuited gent, Penn with a ballsy young teenaged girl with bright red hair. But which of the two will come off the worse as they make their own way in this dystopian, semi-Apocalyptic hellhole?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087711</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1603094660
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)
|author=Tom Siddell
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|title=Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes
|title=Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=While having used the internet for several years now I have never needed to use the favourites option much – there is a routine for my comings and goings online that I can handle, and I don't think I regret losing out on a regular visit to any particular site much. The downside of this is that a lot of online graphic novels have probably passed me by, as I habitually don't form the habit of clicking to them.  It's a relief then that one very well-acclaimed example, Gunnerkrigg Court, has come to my attention in book form.
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|summary=I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out someone in the second half of their teens has other priorities, you know.  I certainly didn't know of the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and the birth of the Tank Man image, I didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and I didn't know more than a spit about the people involved on either side.  This book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184856175X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1684056993
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Leigh Bardugo, Louise Simonson and Kit Seaton
 +
|title=Wonder Woman: Warbringer: The Graphic Novel
 +
|rating=3
 +
|genre=Teens
 +
|summary=Diana, being unique on her island, is the victim of a lot of taunts, and claims of nepotism.  It's only her unique status, and her mother being Queen, that has her with any standing at all, her naysayers declare – even though she has clearly fought to be a strong young woman.  Perhaps too strong for the island, however – for every Wonder Woman origin story has her quickly leaving home for the World of Men, and this Diana is the heroine of yet another Wonder Woman origin story.  A shipwreck disturbs her leading performance in a running race, but the survivor she drags from the waters is only going to disturb a lot more...
 +
|isbn=1401282555
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1401286208
|author=Rod Serling
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|title=Black Canary: Ignite
|title=The Twilight Zone: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
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|author=Meg Cabot and Cara McGee
|rating=4.5
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|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=One of the benefits of growing up when I did, as opposed to, say, just a year or two earlier, was that home VHS coincided with the first attempts to have round-the-clock TV in Britain.  The channels struggled to provide enough programming at a budget, just as they do to this day, but one thing they did give us, delightfully, was ''The Twilight Zone''.
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|summary=Meet Dinah Lance. Frustrated that her policeman father will not allow her to try and follow in his footsteps, and seemingly lumbered with being a cheerleader at school, she is desperate to find her voice. But it's actually more a case of her voice finding her, as when she gets frustrated or plain dissed at school her vocal outcry can shatter glass better than any opera singer. You could almost call it a weapon, or a power. But in order for her to call herself a superhero, there has to be a whole path of steps for her to take – one of which will be into her past…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747587914</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1401280048
|author=Shirley Hughes
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|title=Batman: Nightwalker: The Graphic Novel
|title=Bye Bye Birdie
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|author=Marie Lu, Stuart Moore and Chris Wildgoose
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Ah, who doesn't love Shirley Hughes? We've all read and cherished [[Alfie]] and [[Dogger]] over the years. 'Bye Bye Birdie' is her first graphic novel for adults, and it's as great as you'd expect it to be. A man goes on a date with a woman, but things don't turn out how he expected.
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|summary=The young man called Bruce Wayne is a very noticeable one – he can hardly go anywhere without people – bystanders, paparazzi, and suchlike – reminding him he's a billionaire at the age of eighteen. Feeling rather stuck with the legacy he's inherited from his murdered parents, he wants to do charitable deeds.  But one night, when he speeds off in his posh new car in pursuit of a criminal, he goes too far as far as the authorities are concerned, and gets given the most unlikely stretch of community service instead – cleaning in the home for violent criminals that is Arkham Asylum. There he learns of some other people who also allege charitable intent – the Nightwalkers, a gang who steal any ten-figure bank account contents they can, and murder the owner.  Can he get close to one of them and get the truth of their schemes, or will the manipulative Madeleine be a step too far for the young do-gooder?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>022408075X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1401283292
|author=Barasui
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|title=Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass
|title=Strawberry Marshmallow: v.1
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|author=Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh
|rating=4
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|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Strawberry Marshmallow is a slice-of-life manga by Barasui that follows the day to day lives of sixteen year old Nobue, her twelve year old sister Chika, and Chika's friends Miu and Matsuri. The little girls try to solve problems and help each other out, but things don't always go well. Leading to a slow paced, heart warming manga that's basic premise is 'cute girls do cute things in cute ways'. Sounds exciting doesn't it? Don't be fooled! ''Strawberry Marshmallow'', like most slice-of-life manga and anime is full of gentle, subtle and slightly obscure humour.
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|summary=Harleen Quinzel is new in town.  She always, to me, seems new in town, even if she's been around a long time, for she always has a very fresh attitude, and seems to look out of those large eyes at everything anew each time. But here she is new in town, and the town is Gotham City. Expecting a year-long furlough from life with her mother, she finds her gran dead and herself with no option but to stay with a bunch of drag queens.  She also finds school is a drag, she also finds the whole neighbourhood is being redeveloped by a large and uncaring corporation – but she also finds two characters that will have a big impact on her life. One is a civil-minded lass called Ivy, the other someone she only meets at night – a lad with a singular graffiti tag and a mind for violence and chaos, who calls himself The Joker…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1598164945</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=140128339X
|author=Oivind Hovland
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|title=Mera: Tidebreaker
|title=Trial and Error: The Aviated Efforts of Jean Babtiste de Bomberaque
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|author=Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=We open with a long, slow aerial shot, up the driveway of a chateau buried in the French countryside, focussing in on the family (father, mother, daughter, son) that live thereAll except this cannot happen, as yet, for this is long before the age of powered flight and such a shot is impossibleIt is up to the son in that family, one Jean Babtiste de Bomberaque, to pursue that dream and make it true.
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|summary=Meet Mera.  She's the latest in a line of young women intent on fighting against their intended destiny for one only they can see for themselves.  Her father, the king of Xebel, sees some cotton wool and a hunky man in an arranged marriage as her future – after all, Mera's mother, the territory's warrior queen, is long deadMera doesn't fancy the cosseting or the fella involved at all and is, in fact, trying to get Xebel out from under the cosh of Atlantean power, for Xebel's royalty are merely puppets of Atlantean mastersSo when she overhears her father request that her intended go to the world of us air-breathing humans, and kill the Atlantis heir, she rushes off to get the quest (and the promised throne) all for herself.  But of course, she has no idea what kind of person she will meet, and how hard it will be to get the job done…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955808847</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1401286399
|author=Oivind Hovland
+
|title=Super Sons: The PolarShield Project
|title=A Day in the Life of Alfred
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|author=Ridley Pearson and Ile Gonzalez
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Witness Alfred, getting up, getting ready for work, finding himself low on toothpaste again, going to work, working, coming back from work and falling asleep at home.  Is it Alfred's fault, or the world's, that in all that routine, it appears nobody ever talks to him?
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|summary=It's the near future, and every coastal city – including Metropolis – is in need of a huge flood barrier, built on its coast by Wayne Enterprises. But the rising sea levels have put even those constructions under threat, forcing many people to relocate in America's biggest exodus for decades. Superman is helping out, of course first, he was patching up the dams, but now he's mining the asteroid belt for a rare dust that's perfect for blocking the solar energy from making further polar ice melt. Inland, in Wyndermere, the refugees from the coast are suffering bigotry and intolerance for being newcomers, but something else is much worse. A major bout of food poisoning is hitting the city. But it can't possibly have anything to do with what looks like sabotage of the flood barriers and the efforts to correct the climate, can it? Four young children begin to piece together clues that it can…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955808855</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rosalind Penfold
 
|title=Dragonslippers: This is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=So, a five star book where we can predict the entire plot, and at times foretell just what people in it say.  It's a damning indictment of things that that is even possible.  
 
 
 
This book lives by its subtitle – ''this is what an abusive relationship looks like''.  Rosalind meets a man who seems nigh-on perfect they seem to fall in love with ease, and she gets on very well with his four children from an earlier marriage.  Then odd occurrences start to happen – he declares her work getting in his way, he possibly drinks a bit too much, he sees flirting in her shop-talk with other men.  And things escalate and escalate, and – you know every stage. She suffers a guilt trip, before suffering physical violence, discovering affairs, getting back with him, then finding the right kind of help.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007216882</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan 
 
|title=Demo: v. 1
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=It's not every young disaffected teenager that will respond to the withdrawal of her medication so explosively.  It's not every young disaffected teenager that runs through empty landscapes because she is too scared to speak to anyone – for quite the reasons we see here.  Not every family patches itself back together over a funeral in the fashion the third story gives us.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184576921X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=168369015X
|author=Will Eisner
+
|title=Manfried the Man: A Graphic Novel
|title=The Dreamer
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|author=Caitlin Major and Kelly Bastow
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=So, who else on the burgeoning Bookbag database has created a whole literary artform, almost single-handed?  Not just added something to a genre, or tweaked a style to her own, but done so much towards inventing a format of literature?  The name of Will Eisner is legend in the world of graphic fiction, and this book, starting as a thinly-veiled autobiography, is almost as iconic as its creator.
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|summary=In a world where cats stand on two feet, go to work at call centres and have diminutive human beings for pets, is Manfried. He's a typical frisky but shy pet – forever getting into scrapes, demanding more food than he can suitably eat, but at the same time being the perfect companion for his owner, Steve Catson. To such an extent that Steve, who is getting known for his man-oriented thinking, is actually having nightmares about becoming the neighbourhood ''crazy man cat''. But when a window gets left open by mistake, and Manfried goes missing, the only thing for it is a massive and energised man-hunt…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393328082</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Emma Rendel
 
|title=Pentti and Deathgirl
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=I don't think there will be a more divisive book on our Bookbag database for many a moon to come than this volume. The publishers have it that this is ''a strange and wonderful delight for every reader'', and while that phrase starts with full honesty I have to say it becomes less truthful with every word.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085069</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and Nathan Hale
 
|title=Rapunzel's Revenge
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=''Rapunzel's Revenge'' is a re-telling of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale. It is set in the Wild West and is in the form of a graphic novel.
 
 
 
Rapunzel is a feisty 12-year-old living in a grand villa with Mother Gothel. She wants for nothing in the material sense, but is bored and rather lonely. A large wall surrounds the villa, and Rapunzel is determined to climb it, despite being forbidden to do so. She scales the wall and is amazed at what lies on the other side. On her return, she has a chance encounter with her real mother who is enslaved in the mine camps beyond the villa. To punish her rebellion, Rapunzel is banished and imprisoned in a lofty magical tree, but the magic also helps her hair to grow and eventually gives provides her with the means to escape.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1599902885</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Hainsworth_Gina
|author=Danny Fingeroth
+
|title=Talking to Gina
|title=The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels
+
|author=Ottilie Hainsworth
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=I have an admission to makeThere are elements of my life I hold dear that, whatever I do, I cannot make other people converts to.  They remain resilient to the charms of OMD, and for the life of me I seem unable to make people see the merit of graphic novels.
+
|summary=''This is what happened.'' An artist decided she needed a dog – so drove the length of the country, Brighton to Grimsby, to pick up an Eastern European immigrant street dog with some mange and one working eyeWhy not?  The first night at home, Gina – the dog – eats something she shouldn't and causes a mess, so it's not a great start, but then begin the tribulations of training, status and behaviour all humans must go through with their dogs.  And then, the life with Gina begins to feel like too much – ''I felt weird about you because you were always there.  My thoughts were taken over by you, and I felt sick, as if I was in love.''  Slowly, however, everyone – our artist/author, her husband, two children and two cats – gets to form the family they and Gina all would have wanted.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843539934</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Colfer_Illegal
|author=Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner
+
|title=Illegal
|title=The Comic Strip History of the World
+
|author=Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=''The Comic Strip History of the World'' is, as you might expect, a comic strip history of the world. It covers everything from the Big Bang to the present day, with each period of history summed up in a page or two. It's very much a potted history in the vein of the Horrible Histories series and 1066 and All That. It's a fantastic book, both as a light fun read, and as a brief education into everything that has been before.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747594317</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Gary Northfield
 
|title=Derek the Sheep
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Derek spends his days eating grass, talking to other sheep, trying to avoid angry bulls and entering the Farmyard Best Haircut competition - y'know, typical sheep stuff. ''Derek the Sheep'' packages together thirteen of the comic strips from ''The Beano'' into an enjoyable collection.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747594244</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kurt Busiek
 
|title=Superman: Redemption
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Right from the get-go there was some criticism that the creators of Superman had simply invented a messiah figure for their own amusement. Whether that kind of talk was anti-Semitic comment against Siegel and Shuster, it has to be said that there are similarities – an only son, landing on earth to help the human race he is not exactly a part of, all the while being highly unlikely to truly die.  Perhaps people were reading too much into a character that only wanted to outrun a speeding bullet, and to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
+
|summary=Ebo is twelve years old and all alone. His sister left for Europe months ago and now he doesn't know where his brother is either but knows that he has probably done the same thing. So Ebo has to attempt the same dangerous journey himself. He must cross the Sahara Desert, get himself to Tripoli, one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and then try to cross the Mediterranean Sea. By himself. At twelve. And, even if he makes it, how will he find his sister?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845767446</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Miller_Batman
|author=Shiro Ihara 
+
|title=Batman: Dark Knight III: The Master Race
|title=Alice on Deadlines v.2 
+
|author=Frank Miller and Brian Azzarello
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Ah, this book brought back memories. The way the reaver from the spirit world had crash-landed on Earth into the form of a teenage schoolgirl, and began instantly lusting after more of the same, alongside the sheerest, frilliest, sexiest undies, and the way the girl's soul ended up in a skeleton, walking around and sometimes helping out destroy other nasties…
+
|summary=Batman is not playing ball. He's been videoed duffing up Gotham policemen, and not the baddies he usually biffs. But then he's not Batman – he's a she, and she finally comes up with the news that Batman died in her hands. Elsewhere, Lara, the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman, is encouraging Ray Palmer/The Atom to turn his technologies concerned with shrinking and expanding life to the miniaturised city of Kandor, the last vestige of Kryptonian existence not to fly about in visible blue pants. What with Superman sitting idle in an exposed Fortress of Solitude having gone into a sulk, and Batman dead, there would appear to be little in the way of help for the world should anything nasty happen – but then, of course, something nasty does happen… s
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0759528454</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Weeks_Gritterman
|author=Terry Brooks 
+
|title=The Gritterman
|title=Dark Wraith of Shannara 
+
|author=Orlando Weeks
|rating=2.5
+
|rating=5
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=I should probably start this review by confessing that I've never read any of Terry Brooks' work before. As a completely new reader, I was both excited and intimidated to read and review ''Dark Wraith of Shannara''. The blurb declares it as an ideal opportunity to venture into the world of Shannara for the first time, however, I think whoever wrote it was being a bit optimistic.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496383</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Judith Park 
 
|title=Y Square
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=At his local high school, our hero Yoshi just cannot work out why the girls are not attracted to him.  It might have something to do with his brash, foot-in-mouth approach, or just bad luck, but whatever, he turns to the stereotypical local babe-magnet.  Except the hunk is not exactly what he seems.  The main girl, the prettiest, bitchiest object of desire, is not what she seems either.  And further girls on the horizon can only bring out jealousies, problems, and everything else you might expect.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075952405X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Dall-Young Lim 
 
|title=Black God: v. 2 (Black God)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=A lot has happened in the world of comics and manga since I reviewed the first volume of Black God.  Heck, even Captain America managed to die ('not too great a loss', I hear you knowledgably mutter).  So coming to this second book after turning many a page of many other conflicting and diverse comic worlds since reading the first is a little like coming to the series anew.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0759528411</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Peach-Pit 
 
|title=Zombie-Loan: v. 2 (Zombie-Loan)
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=I deliberately did not re-read the first volume in this series, or even [[Zombie-Loan by Peach-Pit|my review of it]], before planning this review – wishing instead to see how obvious, how immediate, and how penetrable the second part could be as a stand-alone read.  You can thank me for being so brave later.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0759528365</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Chuck Kim and others
 
|title=Heroes Volume One
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=''Heroes Volume One'' contains the first 34 instalments of the continuing online graphic novel that features on the official NBC Heroes website. Despite the apparent mismatch of numbers (34 instalments to 23 episodes) this Volume is intended as a companion to the first series of Heroes, recently aired on BBC2. Anyone who was not a fan of the series, or did not watch it, should turn away now, as this book is completely meaningless without some background knowledge of the show and its characters.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845767063</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Bryan Lee O'Malley
 
|title=Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=The ''Scott Pilgrim'' graphic novel series has slowly but surely been building up their own little cult over the last few years and it's not hard to see why.  Drawn in a crude but effective black and white anime style, these pop culture and video game literate books have a geeky appeal, being a delirious mix of a sci-fi love story and coming of age tale, featuring a great ensemble of characters and having a tendency for breaking into anime style OTT battles.  ANd with an adaptation to film soon by the very cool ''Hot Fuzz'' and '' Shawn of the Dead'' director Edgar Wright, this series seems set to burst out of its niche bubble.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1932664491</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Chris Blythe and Steven Parkhouse
 
|title=Angel Fire
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=John Dury and his partner Zee are businessmen you would find it hard to like.  Hard-hitting, go-getting types, they spend their leisure hours taking drugs, and their company time making smash-and-grab raids on family firms, carving them up and selling the relics off piecemeal. Their boss, Mr Belial, rewards their more amoral business successes with escorts in their scanties, and yet more narcotics – the trendiest street drug of which is Angel Fire, a new chemical that can easily take you to heaven.
+
|summary=There's a man who has an ice cream van. In summer, what there is of summer, he uses it to sell ice creams, That's not his vocation though, but it does keep him going whilst he waits for winter when the van becomes a Gritting Van and our narrator becomes a Gritterman. The fibreglass 99s on the roof light up and rotate, playing a tune, whether the van's gritting or selling ice creams. Tonight - Christmas Eve - will be the van's last trip. The council has sent the letter about his services no longer being required. Global warming. Dying profession, they say. There's even a tarmac now that can de-ice itself, but the Gritterman isn't sure that he wants to live in a world where the B2116 doesn't need gritting.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844429180</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Historical Fiction Reviews]]
|title=Tamara Drewe
 
|author=Posy Simmonds
 
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|rating=4.5
 
|summary=Tamara Drewe is not the woman she used to be. Plastic surgery has altered the shape of her nose and with a trendy wardrobe she has all the confidence she needs. She quickly captivates the local men when she returns to Ewedown to clear her mother's house after her recent death. Everyone, male and female, seems to be drawn to Tamara. Well, everyone except Beth Hardiman.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>022407816X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 10:21, 30 October 2023

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Review of

Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey by Edel Rodriguez

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

The Gold Lion and the Tournament of Sentinels by Kia Ahankoob

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

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

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

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

3star.jpg Teens

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

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Review of

Black Canary: Ignite by Meg Cabot and Cara McGee

3.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

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

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh

3.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

Mera: Tidebreaker by Danielle Paige and Stephen Byrne

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

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

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

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

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

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Review of

Talking to Gina by Ottilie Hainsworth

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

Colfer Illegal.jpg

Review of

Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin

5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

Miller Batman.jpg

Review of

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

3.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

Weeks Gritterman.jpg

Review of

The Gritterman by Orlando Weeks

5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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

Move on to Newest Historical Fiction Reviews