Crosstalk

A new Connie Willis novel is a terrific gift, and Crosstalk does not disappoint. It’s a romantic comedy (similar to her early story “Blued Moon”) with a setting focused on a hot cultural topic (which reminded me of Bellwether) and a whole flock of female Irish family members. Briddey works at a cellphone company eager to develop the next communication breakthrough. She’s dating a promising young executive there, and he’s just proposed to her that they get the new operation [...]
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Mega Princess #2

Maxine is well on her quest to find her baby brother, started in issue #1, which gives writer Kelly Thompson and artist Brianne Drouhard a chance to explore some of the more imaginative lands in their modern fairytale. This time out, it’s the Tiny Kingdom, with a shrunken Max and an even tinier pony Justine. She’s clever enough to outfit a fox — teaching the reader about the riddle about getting the fox, chicken, and food ferried across a river [...]
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How Much of Your Work Should Be Sacred? Tips on More Efficient Work

Lars Martinson has finally finished his Tonoharu trilogy. (I reviewed the first volume when it came out in 2008.) All told, it took him 13 years to make the three books, and he’s now put out a video discussing that process and some of the lessons he’s learned. It’s great seeing an artist do a post-mortem of a significant project, particularly since his key lesson is realizing that time is a limited resource, so you need to keep that in [...]
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DC: The Big Book of Girl Power and The Big Book of Superpowers

Want to indoctrinate your favorite child into superheroes? Get them one or both of these large children’s picture books aimed at ages 3 and up. For a focus on powerful women, you want The Big Book of Girl Power, emphasizing how “DC’s super heroines… have the courage to fight for peace and justice.” Each character (with three exceptions) gets a two-page spread with an image (many drawn by Scott Kolins) and a brief explanation of her origin and abilities. The [...]
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Black Dahlia (A Treasury of XXth Century Murder)

The latest Treasury of XXth Century Murder (following Madison Square Tragedy) by Rick Geary tackles what’s perhaps the most famous unsolved Hollywood mystery: who killed Elizabeth Short, the 22-year-old wannabe actress nicknamed the Black Dahlia? In January 1947, Short’s bisected body was found in a vacant lot. As with all the other stories in this series, her killer was never conclusively identified. That means the source of satisfaction isn’t knowing the answer to the mystery of her murder; instead, there’s [...]
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Yotsuba&! Volume 13

Although Yotsuba&! volume 13 came out this past spring, this time of year feels better suited to the series for me, since it’s as warming and comfortable as a cup of cocoa. And waiting an extra six months or so is nothing, since it’s been three years since the previous volume. Any new Yotsuba&! is a gift. Her wide-eyed, accepting attitude to the world and the new experiences she has, as portrayed by author Kiyohiko Azuma, is a tonic. In [...]
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Awkward

It’s an amazing time for graphic novels for kids, and Svetlana Chmakova’s Awkward is only the latest astoundingly good one I’ve read. It’s the story of Peppi, who’s just started at a new school. In order not to stand out in the wrong ways, she does something early on she’s ashamed by, something to avoid bullies that hangs over her memories and keeps her from being her full self. She finds the art club, though, and she enjoys her time [...]
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Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!: Hooked on a Feline

I’ve been reading comics a long time, so sometimes I feel like I’ve met my lifetime quota for superhero tales. Then a fresh, modern approach comes along that makes me appreciate even more the talent involved in telling good comic stories. Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!: Hooked on a Feline reprints the first six issues of the series by Kate Leth, Brittney L. Williams, and Megan Wilson. (Issue #6 had art by Natasha Allegri instead of Williams and Wilson, which makes [...]
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Good Books to Order for February 2017

The latest Diamond Previews catalog lists a lot of books worth checking out. Here are a few of them, along with others I had something to say about. You can order them now through your local comic shop for delivery in February or later. The Fuse: Constant Orbital Revolutions Image Comics, $14.99, DEC16 0799, due out February 8 The fourth (and final for a while) Fuse collection reprints issues #19-24, a tale of fighting terrorism that also provides the answer [...]
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Nightlights

Nightlights is a gorgeous parable by Lorena Alvarez. Although I’m not entirely sure I grasped the meaning of everything that happens in it, it is absolutely beautiful. (And a work that leaves you thinking isn’t a bad thing, either.) Sandy is a young artist, drawing constantly. At night, she sees sparkles of light that fire her imagination, leading to luscious, expansive spreads of collaged images, all richly colored in fuchsias and purples and blues. At school, she meets a ghostly [...]
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Behind the Scenes!! Volumes 1-2

Bisco Hatori (best known for Ouran High School Host Club) brings out a rollicking story of a shy young man finding room for his talents when he meets the right group of college friends in Behind the Scenes!!. The twist in this series is the media connection — the Art Squad handles props, costumes, and special effects for all the campus groups who want to make movies. Ranmaru is your typical manga protagonist. He’s an unassuming but high-strung country boy, [...]
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The Time Museum

The Time Museum is an enjoyable, rollicking adventure story that I couldn’t put down. Matthew Loux captures the same sense of summertime exploration and amazing discoveries that he portrayed in the Salt Water Taffy series, but now, his group of characters is more inclusive and wide-ranging. Delia Bean is too smart for her classes. She’s expecting to be bored over the summer, until she finds out that her favorite uncle Lyndon is secretly a time-traveling curator of the Earth Time [...]
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Decelerate Blue

Decelerate Blue brings the popular dystopian YA genre of a young rebel finding her people to comics. Adam Rapp writes and Mike Cavallaro draws the story of Angela, a fifteen-year-old living in a world that emphasizes speed and hyper-consumption. All sentences end with the word “go”. Using too many adverbs will draw the wrong kind of attention. Everyone has a tracking chip implanted in their arm. Movies last under fifteen minutes. But Angela has found a copy of the banned [...]
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Science Comics: Bats: Learning to Fly

The next Science Comics release (after volumes educating us about Coral Reefs, Dinosaurs, and Volcanoes) tackles those misunderstood mammals, Bats, as written and illustrated by Falynn Koch. There’s not much story in this volume, to make more space for a thorough visual overview of all kinds of bats and their methods of nutrition. The loose framing structure features a Little Brown Bat who’s injured by humans during a night wildlife hike. He’s taken to an animal hospital with a vet [...]
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Everyone’s Getting Married Volume 3

Everyone’s Getting Married is such an engrossing soap opera! The concept is basic — two people like each other, they enjoy being together, but they think they want different things in life and have different ideas of commitment — which makes it instantly involving and sympathetic. What older reader hasn’t been in a similar situation at some point? In volume 3, in a gender twist, Asuka’s career takes off while Ryu has a romantic conflict from his past pop up. [...]
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Benny and Penny in How to Say Goodbye

Geoffrey Hayes’ adorable field mouse siblings return in a story about dealing with loss. While playing in dead leaves, Penny finds the body of Little Red, a salamander the two had memories of seeing earlier in the year. In only 20-some pages, Hayes manages to move his characters realistically through denial, disgust, resistance, friendship, problem-solving, and navigating the ceremonies of mourning. It’s all beautifully illustrated, and I was particularly happy to see new friend Melina. She’s a mole, and her [...]
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The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series

Out this week is a wonderful brick of classic television. The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series is again available on Blu-ray, all 156 episodes in five seasons on 24 discs. There was a previous 2012 set released by another company, but rights have transferred, this package is more compact, and the price has dropped. The show looks beautiful, crisp and yet timeless in black and white, and I was surprised at just how many of the episodes were both new [...]
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My Love Story!! Volume 10

The most recent volume of My Love Story!! wraps up a storyline that began back in volume 8. Too often, Yamato seems like the perfect, quiet girlfriend. All we really know about her, beyond her deep devotion to Takeo, is that she likes baking desserts, and she’s pretty good at it. So it was a great thing when she got a summer job at a local pastry shop. Unfortunately, the star chef there decided that she was his muse and [...]
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Love Stage!! Volume 6

The cliffhanger set up in the previous volume, with Ryoma and Izumi trapped in the wilderness, isn’t played out as significantly as I hoped in Love Stage!! volume 6. However, the second half recalls a key part of Izumi’s personality that I’d almost forgotten about, one that puts the boys into a charming situation. First, though, the boys are missing, and everyone’s worried. The couple gets a sex scene, but emotionally, we spend more time with the older Shogo (Izumi’s [...]
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Ooku: The Inner Chambers Volume 12

Another year, another volume. (It’s like an early Christmas present!) But as Fumi Yoshinaga’s alternate history gets closer to the modern era, and the opening of Japan to the rest of the world, events move faster and more dramatically. Even with the delay between volumes — beautifully detailed historical interactions take time to draw — I had no problem catching up in volume 12. The thorough cast of characters pages help, but so does the universality of the main story. [...]
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Giant Days #21

What would you do if you came home and you found open doors and missing valuables? If you’re the three roommates written by John Allison and drawn by Max Sarin, you’d panic, then you’d collapse, then you’d interact with the local police. But when none of these things had useful effect, then you’d come up with a ridiculous plan that involves visiting criminal hangouts to try and recover property of emotional significance. What matters, though, and what makes this series [...]
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Master Keaton Volume 8

Master Keaton volume 8 has the usual mix of chapters typical to the series — some period Cold War adventures where Keaton has to stop an assassination; some heartstring-tugging family mysteries, where Keaton has to reunite relatives who have misunderstood each other; some life-or-death struggles, where Keaton’s military training is all that keeps the stubborn alive. But the chapter that stood out to me most in this collection was the one where we find out how he became an insurance [...]
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A Front Page Affair

While hoping for another Lady Frances Ffolkes mystery, I stumbled across this similar series. A Front Page Affair, by Radha Vatsal, is the first Kitty Weeks mystery. Kitty (short for “Capability”) is a fish out of water no matter where she goes in 1915 New York City. Her father is her only relative, and he’s mysterious about his business. She’s got enough money to hang with her high society friend, but not the family background, particularly since she was born [...]
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My Love Story!! Volume 7

It can be difficult to keep a love story going once it gets more than a handful of volumes under its belt, particularly if you (correctly, in this case) don’t want to break up the main couple. Kazune Kawahara (writer) and Aruko (artist) in this volume of My Love Story!! are exploring another possibility, which provides a valuable contrast to the happiness of Takeo and Yamato. Takeo’s best friend Sunakawa is good-looking, so he gets plenty of attention from girls. [...]
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Remember the Legion of Super-Heroes? DC All Access Does

I used to be a huge fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the future teen team that was first published in 1958. When I got back into comics in the 90s, I collected all the issues… which was a lot of fun, since they ran in different titles over the decades. Heck, eventually, I even collected the editor. (After meeting at a comic convention, reader, I married him 17 years ago.) When KC Carlson left the book after issue #100 [...]
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