This book had a difficult beginning for me. It shows an ugly side of life; an alcoholic father, a mother who is absent due to working three jobs, and a child being rewarded and comforted with unlimited food when trying to make her happy with little regard to her health. I actually wanted to stop reading the raw and embarrassing account of Andie’s family life when she was little but I made myself keep going. Andie has a poetic and real…
Today I have a very exciting giveaway for you! I picked up a few extra things at ECCC last weekend: 1. A reusable ECCC bag.2. A SIGNED trade paperback of Shutter Vol 1.3. Red Rising, a novel.4. Two pins (Catleesi and 11 Doctor Cat) with illustrations by Jenny Parks.5. Two signed Dark Horse prints.6. Miscellaneous items (they came with the tote along with the book: Walking Dead issue #1, Tales from the Con comic, miscellaneous pamphlets and publications). Shutter is…
Purrlock & Catleesi prints by Jenny Parks. I Was the Cat & Tragedy Series issues by Benjamin Dewey. On Friday, before I met up with (other) Jessica, I bee-lined it to the Boom!Studios booth to pick up a copy of the Lumberjanes TP that I have been so eager to read. Once I met Jessica outside and reentered, we stopped by the Karen Hallion booth that was exactly at the beginning and we picked up some prints (me, Belle with…
This is the first Marvel-esque thing that I have read (technically I read an Anita Blake graphic novel put out by Marvel, but I’m talking super heroes, etc.) and I really enjoyed it. This story is about Kamala, a girl who comes from a Pakistani family living in Jersey City. Kamala is in high school and she is struggling to fit in with her peers and keep the values that her family believes in. One night, she sneaks out to…
Flights & Chimes & Mysterious Times follows Jack Foster, a young boy from Victorian London. He spends most of his time away at boarding school, readying taking over the family business from his father when the time comes. Consequently, he has a pretty cold and distant relationship with his parents and finds that Mrs. Pond, the woman who cares for Jack, is the most affectionate with him. One day, Lorcan Havelock, a magician/spiritualist, comes into his mother’s life to replace…
(source) The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences goes through quite a time when the Department of Imperial Inconveniences (“The Department”) is set on following orders to kill all of the Ministry agents. Our two main characters, Eliza Braun (Ministry Agent) and Wellington Books (Ministry Archivist), find themselves with their hands full exploring a relationship between each other, getting to the bottom of the Department’s new orders, and trying to solve a kidnapping of one of the Ministry Seven. The Ministry Seven…
Black Science is about a team who invents a device that transports people to other worlds. They claim they want access to any and all resources to treat illness, but in turn they will be exposed to even more contagions and face a risk of encountering enemies. Someone ends up sabotaging their device so they have no control when or where they go next. People keep dying while they try to figure it all out. Visually, this graphic novel was…
How does Gaiman package up an utterly complete story and present it so perfectly? Stardust is an intricately woven tale that weaves together many lives and paths in such a seamless way that either a mad man or a genius had to write it. Stardust primarily follows the journey of Tristran Thorn to retrieve a fallen star for a girl he is trying to win over. On the way away from and back to his home village of Wall, Tristran…
This is my first Neil Gaiman book! The Graveyard Book is about a boy, Nobody Owens, who is adopted by Mr. & Mrs. Owens (two ghosts) and raised by the other graveyard inhabitants collectively. His guardian, Silas, organizes his schooling and how much contact he can have with the outside/living world. Bod is hidden from the outside world because the man who killed his family is still looking for him. We see Bod grow up: he meets a little girl…
Shutter was one of the first graphic novels I really got into after reading Saga. Part of the draw for me is that some reviewers had compared it to Saga and called it a modern-day Indian Jones story. This story follows Kate Kristopher, a 27-year-old living in an alternate-reality New York City. She is well known for writing books about the adventures she used to have with her late father, Chris, and works as a photographer. I’m caught up with…