Category: Young Adult

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The Only Living Boy Omnibus


By David Gallaher & Steve Ellis (Papercutz)
ISBN: 978-1-54580-126-0 (HB) 978-1545801277 (TPB/Digital edition)

Here’s a rather short but exceedingly heartfelt and enthusiastic re-review for a mighty big book. Scripter Dave Gallaher (Green Lantern, Box 13) and illustrator Steve Ellis (High Moon) first began their stupendous science fiction saga in 2012 as a webcomic before being picked up by Papercutz. The hugely popular yarn (multiple reprintings and numerous award nominations) was collected as a quintet of graphic albums – Prisoner of the Patchwork Planet; Beyond Sea and Sky; Once Upon a Time; Through the Murky Deep and To Save a Shattered World – and when the tale is done was gathered in a bulky paperback (or eBook edition) recounting the complete saga plus fresh material from a Free Comic Book Day tie-in and other sources.

So, what’s it about?

Erik Farrell is 12 years old and scared. That’s why he runs into Central Park at the dead of night in a thunderstorm. In the morning he wakes up in the roots of a tree clutching a little kid’s teddy bear backpack that, for some inexplicable reason, he Must Not Lose. He’s also absent most of his memory. Even so, Erik’s pretty sure home never had wild jungles, marauding monsters, talking beasts and bugs or a shattered moon hanging low in the sky…

Chased by howling horrors and dimly aware that the decimated city ruins are somehow familiar, Erik is saved by a green warrior calling herself Morgan Dwar of the Mermidonians, but the respite is short lived.

All too soon they are captured by slaves of diabolical experimenter Doctor Once and taken to his revolting laboratory. It doubles as gladiatorial arena where the scientist’s involuntary body modifications can prove their worth in combat. Erik’s fellow captives soon apprise him of the state of his new existence. The world is a bizarre of patchwork regions and races, all of them at war with each other and all threatened by monstrous shapeshifting dragon Baalikar. The Doctor seeks the secrets of trans-species evolution and is ruthless and cruel in the pursuit of his goal. In the arena, however, Erik shows them all the value of cooperation and promptly escapes with Morgan and insectoid Sectaurian Princess Thelandria AKA Thea…

Constantly running to survive, the boy slowly uncovers an incredible conspiracy affecting this entire world and even far-gone Earth. The big surprise is an unsuspected secret connection between his own excised past, Doctor Once and hidden manipulators known as the Consortium. On the way, just like Flash Gordon, Erik somehow inspires and unites strangely disparate and downtrodden races and species into a unified force to save the planet they must all share…

After a heroic journey and insurmountable perils faced, Erik’s story culminates in the answers he’s been looking for and a spectacular battle where the many races ultimately extinguish the evil of Baalikar. Sadly, though, that just makes room for another menace to emerge…

Adding bonus thrills to the alien odyssey are a complete cover gallery plus two lengthy sidebar tales. ‘Under the Light of the Broken Moon’ and ‘In the Clutches of the Consortium’ focus on the developing relationship between Morgan and Sectaurian Warlord Phaedrus and on the repercussions of failure for failed-tool Doctor Once at the hands of his backers…

Rocket-paced, bold and constantly inventive, The Only Living Boy is a marvellous and unforgettable romp to enthral every kid with a sense of wonder and thirst for adventure.
© 2012-2018 Bottled Lightning LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Trish Trash Rollergirl of Mars – The Collected Edition


By Jessica Abel, with Lydia Roberts & Walter various (Super Genius/Papercutz)
ISBN: 978-1-5458-0167-3 (TPB/Digital edition) 978-1-5458-0166-6 (HB)

Our fascination with Mars has never faltered and now that we’re almost within touching distance, the Red Planet’s allure and presence in our fiction has never been more broad-based and healthily imaginative. Amidst all the recent TV, movie and literary product, one of the most engaging treatments was an enthralling comics serial detailing the life of an extraordinary young woman in exceedingly trying times.

After Earth collapses in an ecological and economic meltdown, recently arrived first settlers on Mars were trapped under an increasingly burdensome fixed economic structure and oppressive corporate plutocracy. Two centuries later, an entire class of indentured servants eke out a fraught existence, harvesting water and food with machines rented from Arex (“we’re the air that you breathe”). The air they don’t breathe is meagre, toxic, dust-filled and a bit radioactive…

On Mars, everything belongs to The Company, and people usually live from cradle to grave in crippling debt. There is, ostensibly, a chance to escape: mandatory offworld mining missions to the asteroid belt. These Temporary Labor Assignments, however, are regarded as a quick ticket to certain death.

All tyrannies need bread and circuses though. On Mars that’s Hoverderby…

Based on an ancient Earth entertainment, teams of women race around a hover track in flying boots, scoring points by beating each other up. It’s the planet’s most popular spectator sport and Arex own that too…

Trish Nupindu is seven-and-a-half (on Mars. In Earth terms she’s 15): a smart, recently-orphaned kid who’s really good with engines and most mechanical systems. Stuck on her aunt’s water farm, Trish dreams of becoming a Hoverderby star and is utterly discontented with the state of her existence. All “Marty” reel from the force of crushing, inescapable poverty and Trish totally believes her only chance of getting out from under a system stacked from the get-go against ordinary people is to become a media star of the great game.

Bold and impatient, one day she sneaks off to join the local team and is suckered into a binding intern’s contract, even though she’s under-age…

Trish doesn’t even get to play: the team manager wants her because she’s good at fixing the hoverboots continually malfunctioning due to the all-pervasive dust. Her world turns upside down after she and avowed-revolutionary/pal Marq discover a native Martian. Recalled from near-death, the mythical creature opens their eyes to a whole new world, and “her” secrets will change forever not just the way Hoverderby is played but also the very economic balance of power on the Red Planet – if the ruthless upper echelons of Arex don’t stop them first…

The inspirational drama is backed up by extensive supplemental features such as the rules of Hoverderby; Derby Gear: Then and Now; illustrated specifications for Radsuits; fact-features on The Homestead Debate, Native Martians, Ares Collective Statement of Debt (ACSOD), TLAs and Asteroid Mining all delivered in the manner of wiki pages. Also on show are data bursts on legendary water miner Ismail Khan, faux kids’ comics “True Tales of the Early Colonists” and a complete Timeline of Mars Colonization.

Jessica Abel has been wowing readers and winning prizes since 1997 when she took both the Harvey and Lulu awards for Best New Talent. Previous graphic delights include the fabulous Artbabe, Growing Gills, Life Sucks, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, collections Soundtrack and Mirror, Window plus the Harvey-winning La Perdida.

Trish Trash began gradually unfolding in 2016: a sublime blend of subversive human drama and hard science fiction thriller with a supremely human and believable lead taking charge and changing the world. After three album releases, the entire saga was made available in this oversized (218 x 284 mm) hardback, plus paperback and eBook editions, at least one of which you really must see ASAP.
© Jessica Abel and Dargaud. All rights reserved. All other editorial material © 2018 by Super Genius.

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Re-Gifters


By Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, Marc Hempel & various (Vertigo/Minx)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0371-9 (Minx) 978-1-84576-579-8 (Titan Books edition)

In 2007 DC comics began a bold experiment in building new markets: creating the Minx imprint. It was dedicated to producing comics material for the teen/young adult audience – especially the ever-elusive girl readership – that had embraced translated manga material, momentous global comics successes such as Maus and Persepolis and those abundant and prolific fantasy serials which produced such pop phenomena as Roswell High, Twilight and even Harry Potter. Sadly after only a dozen immensely impressive and decidedly different graphic novels Minx shut up shop in October 2008, markedly NOT citing publishing partner Random House’s failure to get the books onto the appropriate shelves of major bookstore chains as the reason.

Nevertheless the books that were published are still out there and most of them are well worth tracking down – either in the US originals or British editions published by Titan Books.

My particular favourite remains the second release, a magnificently beguiling and engaging monochrome, cross-cultural romantic martial arts melange by writer Mike Carey (X-Men Legacy, Lucifer, Hellblazer, Crossing Midnight) and artists Sonny Liew (Malinky Robot, The Shadow Hero, Wonderland, Sense and Sensibility, Doctor Fate) & Marc Hempel (Blood of Dracula, Mars, Jonny Quest, The Sandman, Breathtaker).

The all-star trio’s gloriously offbeat and upbeat Vertigo miniseries My Faith in Frankie is generally regarded as prototype for the Minx model, and that quirky quixotic vivacity is in full flower in this tale of feisty yet desperately dutiful Korean-American teen Jen “Dixie” Dik Seong who channels her suppressed aggression into hapkido and her blossoming crush on hunky Adam into daydreaming, clumsiness and humiliating imbecility…

A total klutz in real life, Dixie is a demon in martial arts combat, but as her best friend and dojo-mate Avril is keenly aware, the flummoxed lass’s poor head is stuck in the clouds nowadays. It’s hard enough for Dixie to juggle school, her quick-fire temper, precious heritage and loving-but-generally clueless parents with burgeoning hormones and astoundingly annoying younger brothers piling on pressure without the added distraction of an infatuation with a rich, self-absorbed white boy who is also her only serious rival in the upcoming National Hapkido Tournament.

After a chance encounter with mouthy street punks and local bad boy Dillinger, Dixie blows all her savings and the Tournament entrance fee (which her father gave her) on an ancient warrior statue for Adam, sparking a huge fight with Avril but which also actually succeeds in getting the boy to notice her. So much so, in fact, that he wants her advice in getting snooty babe Megan to go out with him…

When Dixie discovers a business loan for her father from traditional Korean bankers depends on her performance in the tournament, the furious, lovelorn lass is forced to battle for a wild-card place in the event by joining a knockout “Street Sweep Competition” against half the kids in Los Angeles – including dire and dangerous Dillinger. Moreover, Adam has finally got into Megan’s good books – and other places – by re-gifting Dixie’s statue to the most popular girl in school…

Re-Gifters is a bright, witty, sublimely funny and intriguing coming of age comedy following all the rules of the romance genre but still able to inject a vast amount of novelty and character individuality into the mix: a perfect vehicle for attracting new young readers with no abiding interest in outlandish power-fantasies or vicarious vengeance-gratification.

Track this down for a genuinely different kind of comic book – but do it before some hack movie producer turns the tale into just another teen rom-com.
© 2007 Mike Carey, Sonny Liew & Marc Hempel. All rights reserved.

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Diana: Princess of the Amazons


By Shannon Hale & Dean Hale, illustrated by Victoria Ying with Lark Pien, Dave Sharpe & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-91422-406-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Myth Making Gift Giving… 9/10

In recent years DC opened up its shared superhero universe to generate Original Graphic Novels featuring its stars in stand-alone adventures for the demographic inappropriately dubbed Young Adult. To date, results have been rather hit or miss, but when they’re good, they are very good indeed.

They’ve been especially scrupulous producing material catering to girls and other previously neglected comics minorities, tapping into the communal history and mystique of the DCU and always visiting aspects of youthful rebellion and growing independence.

Here – crafted by Shannon Hale (Rapunzel’s Revenge, The Princess in Black, Squirrel Girl, Princess Academy, Ever After High, Real Friends) & Dean Hale (Rapunzel’s Revenge, The Princess in Black, Squirrel Girl), illustrator, author and animator Victoria Ying (Big Hero 6, Moana, Meow!, Not Quite Black and White) colourist Lark Pien and letterer Dave Sharpe – is a tale of the earliest icon women in comics ever had: Earth’s most recognisable Female Heroic Ideal.

Wonder Woman is the acme of female role models. Since her premier she has permeated every aspect of global consciousness, becoming not only a paradigm of comics’ very fabric but an affirming symbol to women everywhere. In whatever era you observe, the Amazing Amazon epitomises a perfect balance between Brains and Brawn and, over decades, has become one of a rarefied pantheon of literary creations achieving meta-reality.

Her origins have been common cultural currency for so long and assimilated by so many generations that it’s a given the story can now be massaged and reinvented to accommodate and address any readership – just like all the best fairy tales.

Diana: Princess of the Amazons opens on the paradisical island of Themyscira: home of immortal Hellenic warriors called Amazons. They are mighty and wise and each is millennia old, happily ruled by their Queen Hippolyta. A few years prior to this tale she was blessed with a daughter. Diana is smart, courageous and inquisitive, spending her days learning from her thousands of “aunties”, playing with the vast number of animals inhabiting the land, exploring and having fun. Of course, as the only child on an isolated island, there’s no one to have all that fun with…

When she little everybody paid her attention and sought to share Diana’s life, but now that she’s nearly a teenager she often feels in the way of grown up stuff. It’s like she’s always in trouble… too old and simultaneous still too young for anything…

Then one day, Auntie Lyssa reminds Diana how Hippolyta moulded a baby out of clay and the gods and goddesses breathed life into it. More out of boredom than anything else, Diana heads to the beach and using clay, sand and surf tries ‘Making a Friend’ She isn’t surprised that it doesn’t work, but a little later meets the almost-breathing fruits of her labours when someone follows her…

The sand creature calls herself Mona and wants to be friends but refuses to let adults see her. Slowly, Mona becomes a covert but constant presence in Diana’s life, but that comes at a cost. There’s a flaw in her and an exciting wildness, leading to ‘Cutting Class on Themyscira’ and even wilful mischief. The princess should be ashamed of herself – but increasingly isn’t…

When one prank goes awry, Diana desperately wants to make amends and earn back her mother’s respect, and Mona hints that she should demonstrate her warrior prowess…

Of course the island is a paradise and no heroic deeds are possible there. All the Amazons’ martial training is because they are tasked with guarding Doom’s Doorway: the entrance to a hell dimension where the gods have imprisoned all the monsters of mythology. Thankfully ‘Only an Amazon’ can even turn the key holding the horrors in check.

With the incessant cajoling voice of her only friend in her ears, Diana makes the biggest mistake of her life…

However, with Hell unleashed and her aunties losing a savage battle against unholy terrors, she soon proves why she is ‘The Best of Us’: making hard decisions, exposing the truth of Mona and ultimately facing death to make things right again…

A superb example of a beloved character living up to her full potential, this is a sublime and rousing romp proving heroism comes in all manner of packages and affirming everyone can be the hero.

If further proof were required, this book also contains an enchanting extended excerpt from Zatanna and the House of Secrets to hammer home the point by entertaining the heck out of you and leaving you wanting more…
© 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Deadman Tells the Spooky Tales


By Franco and a few of his Fiendish Friends! – Sara Richard, Andy Price, Derek Charm, Mike Hartigan, Christopher Uminga, Abigail Larson, Morgan Beem, Justin Castaneda, Tressina Bowling, Boatwright Artwork, Scoot McMahon, Isaac Goodhart, and Agnes Garbowska with Silvana Brys – & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0384-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

Here’s a little post-Halloween treat for youngsters of every vintage to ease our communal dark awaiting us at the end of all things. Never to soon early to start traumatising preschoolers, right?

As the 1960s ended, the massive superhero boom resolved into a slow but certain bust, with formerly major successes unable to find enough readers to keep them alive. The taste for superheroes was diminishing in favour of traditional genres, and one rational editorial response reshaping costumed characters to fit evolving contemporary tastes.

Publishers swiftly changed gears and even staid, cautious DC reacted rapidly: redesigning masked mystery men to fit the new landscape. Newly revised and revived costumed features included roving mystic troubleshooter The Phantom Stranger and golden age colossus The Spectre, whilst resurgent genres spawned atrocity-faced WWII spy Unknown Soldier and cowboy bounty hunter Jonah Hex, spectral westerner El Diablo and game-changing monster hero Swamp Thing, spearheading a torrent of new formats, anthologies and concepts.

The earliest of that dark bunch was assassinated trapeze artist Boston Brand who began his career by dying in Strange Adventures #205 (cover-dated October/November 1967). An ordinary man in a brutal, cynical world, Brand was a soul in balance until killed as part of a pointless initiation for a trainee assassin.

When the unlucky aerialist died, instead of going to whatever reward awaited him, he was given the chance to solve his own murder by conniving spirit of the universe Rama Kushna. That opportunity evolved into an unending mission to balance the scales between good and evil in the world. The ghost is intangible and invisible to all mortals, but has the ability to “walk into” living beings, possessing and briefly piloting them.

You should read all his stories because they are really good; all the previous has no real bearing on what follows. I just love showing off my wasted youth.

Here he holds the hallowed position of quirky narrator and curator to a collection of terror tales entirely scripted by Franco (Aureliani) and lettered by Wes Abbott, and drawn by a host of artists…

The eerie soirée and each following vignette are preceded by our supernatural star offering ‘A Die-er Warning’ (all limned by Sara Richard). Commencing in ‘The House of Madame Pyka’ – rendered by Andy Price in tones of blue – wilful Brooke moves into an expired spiritualist’s house…

Deadman interjects between tales to test our resolve but undaunted, we see Derek Charm illuminate in living colour the shocking result of Mr. Smith’s visit to the optician in ‘Eyes’, before Mike Hartigan exposes the spook in the ‘Litter Box’ and Christopher Uminga & Silvana Brys silently show the downside of too many ‘Neighborhood Cats’…

Abigail Larson provides the art for an exceptionally effective argument for why kids should stay out of ‘The Cemetery’ and Morgan Beem captures the mordant gloom and imminent immolation of ‘Fall’ before Justin Castaneda homes in on little kids and playground bullies to expose ‘A Boy and His Skull’…

Tressina Bowling renders tall tales painfully real in ‘The Fisherman’ whilst Boatwright Artwork take a long last look at ‘Mannequins’, before Scoot McMahon peeks ‘On the Inside’ of Batman’s most tragic foe.

Franco gets artistic with ‘The Fly’ prior to Isaac Goodhart exploiting DC’s monstrous back-catalogue for fearful film show ‘Inattentive Blindness’ before Agnes Garbowska & Silvana Brys confirm that the end is near and that bright shiny colours have no bearing on safety and security in ‘The Box’.

Silly and chilling, this splendidly glitzy grimoire shows that our love of scaring ourselves and each other starts early and never stops. Fearful fun for all: get some now!
© 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Bad Magic – A Skullduggery Pleasant Graphic Novel


By Derek Landy, PJ Holden, Matt Soffe, Rob Jones & Pye Parr (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
ISBN: 978-000-858-5785 (TPB/Digital edition)

Have you heard of Skulduggery Pleasant? What about his biographer Derek Landy?

The latter is an occasional comics writer (All-Out Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America) who moonlights as a best-selling Irish author, thanks mostly to the addictive exploits of the former. Since 2007, Landy has detailed the training of mystic troubleshooter Valkyrie Cain by a veteran spook chooser/animated skeleton calling himself… Skulduggery Pleasant…

Other than my heartfelt recommendation, what more do you need to go get some of that? By my count there’s 15 novels thus far, with another due early next year. Technically, it was all supposed to end after three trilogies, but the only thing that can’t die or be killed is soaring success…

With snippets, novellas, sidebar stories and the like popping up when least expected (surely the best time?) it was inevitable that the haunt-hunters would migrate to comics too, and it’s fair to say that the result is a real cracker…

Scripted by Landy, limned by P.J. Holden (Rogue Trooper, Judge Dredd, Warhammer Monthly, The Moon Looked Down and Laughed, coloured by Matt Soffe and lettered by Rob Jones, the story opens in rural Termoncara, a rustic outpost that just happens to be the unsung murder capital of Ireland. Somehow, though, nobody outside seems to notice…

Inside the idyllic enclave of ordinary folk, all is not happy – especially for young Jamie, who truly regrets saying to Ethan what he did. Now Jamie’s despised: kept out of school and accused of killing his best friend. Moreover, he’s become the focus of enough hate, spite, hostility and intolerance to move mountains…

One month later, two flashy strangers arrogantly breeze into town, ruffling feathers, poking under stones and asking questions that better… beings… have died for. Soon, Valkyrie and Skulduggery are baiting and beating up a succession of racist, homophobic louts of all ages. Refusing to learn, these decent folk regularly confront them, but it’s just useful for misdirection as the strangers continue the actual task of finding out what kind of monster has turned a sleepy hamlet into the mystic equivalent of the Somme…

The root cause of all the grief is a deep mystery going back twenty years, and as the eerie investigators probe deeper and dodge multiple mundane and magical murder attempts, it becomes clear that it might be more than even Pleasant can handle…

Sadly, when they do unearth toxic, mystic agent provocateur Mr Friendly and his thuggish thaumaturgic pals, that proves all too true, but this kind of buried trauma can generate unlikely friends as well as appalling foes and in the end it’s all up to Jaimie to make a life- and reality-changing choice…

Fun, thrilling, smartly scripted and powerfully making a stand for diversity and inclusion in the face of intimidation and ignorance, even if this is your first encounter with the worlds of Skulduggery Pleasant, it one you will adore and never forget…
Text © Derek Landy 2023. Art © P.J. Holden 2023. Skulduggery Pleasant™ Derek Landy. Skulduggery Pleasant logo™ HarperCollinsPublishers. All rights reserved.

Bad Magic will be published 28th September 2023 and is available for pre-order now. If you’re of a sociable bent, there is a series of nine meet-&-greet events – such as a signing at Forbidden Planet Megastore London on 28th September and Henley Literary Festival on October 1st – so why not check out www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk for precise details, hmm?

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Wandering Son volume one


By Shimura Takako, translated by Matt Thorn (Fantagraphics Books International)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-416-0 (HB)

Huge fan though I am of the ubiquitous digest-sized monochrome format that makes up the greatest part of translated manga volumes, there’s a subtle enhanced superiority to these hearty and satisfyingly substantial oversized hardback editions from Fantagraphics’ manga line (see also Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories) that just adds extra zest to any work of pictorial narrative.

It’s just a shame the story still isn’t accessible digitally or that the remaining volumes (as far as I know, we got to Book 8 before everything paused) still languish untranslated for us who don’t speak Japanese….

Especially effective and affecting, Wandering Son was this second intriguing offering from the good FBI, following two youngsters mutually experiencing the most difficult times of their lives…

Shuichi Nitori is a boy freshly transferred into a new school. He’s starting Fifth Grade and on the cusp of puberty. He’s also in a bit of a quandary. Slim, androgynous and, to be frank, rather pretty, he is constantly thinking about wearing girls’ clothes…

On his first day, he is befriended by Yoshino Takatsuki; a tall, burly tomboy harbouring similar secret yearnings. Her instinctive friendliness towards Shuichi is shared by pretty Saori Chiba, who is happy with her own gender but troubled in almost everything else. Always over-eager to please, she is a ball of inexplicable guilty feelings and – even at her young age – is considering converting to Christianity…

From the start, both girls encourage Shuichi to submit to his urges. Yoshino’s clueless mother keeps buying dresses which the despairing daughter just gives to her confused new pal, whilst Saori, also acutely aware of the Nitori boy’s underlying otherness, actively encourages him to cross-dress. She even buys him an extravagant frock for his birthday, almost killing their budding friendship stone-dead.

It is Saori who successfully suggests the unsuspecting class perform The Rose of Versailles as their end-of-term play, with all the girls playing the male roles and vice versa…

(The Rose of Versailles is a monumentally popular Shoujo manga tale – later, a movie and musical – by Riyoko Ikeda, telling the story of Lady Oscar: a girl whose soldier father raises as a man. She/He eventually becomes a dashing Palace Guard and the darling of Marie Antoinette’s Court.)

Both Shuichi and Yoshino are hard-pressed to deny their overwhelming mutual need: boy wants to be girl and girl, boy. Inevitably, their need proves too great and both succumb. Yoshino has her hair cut and goes out in her brother’s school uniform, only to be chatted up by an older woman in a burger bar. Shuichi’s periodic capitulations are less public, but increasingly important to his happiness and wellbeing – and to be honest he does make an astonishingly pretty girl, more so even than Roger Taylor in that Queen Video – although utterly pure, innocent and raunch-free…

Nevertheless, no matter how much Shiuchi and Yoshino wish they could exchange gender, time and biology inexorably march on and the changes of puberty are causing their treacherous bodies to horrifyingly and inescapably betray them…

From any other culture this type of story would be crammed with angst and agony: gratuitously filled with cruel moments and shame-filled subtext, but instead Takao Shimura (Even Though We’re Adults, Sweet Blue Flowers) crafts a genteel, winningly underplayed and enchantingly compulsive school saga that is filled with as much hope and positivity as drama.

As Hōrō Musuko the tale began in Comic Beam monthly in December 2002, running until 2013 and eventually collected as 15 volumes. It is resplendent in its refined charm and exudes assured contentment, presenting a very personal linked history in an open-minded spirit of childlike inquiry and accepting optimism that make for a genuine feel-good experience.

But of course there is more to come in the unavoidably difficult futures of Shuichi and Yoshino…

This moving, gently enticing tome also includes a helpful watercolour character chart, a pronunciation guide for Japanese speech and ‘Snips and Snails, Sugar and Spice’, a fantastically useful guide to Japanese honorifics by translator Matt Thorn, explaining social, gender and age ranking/positions so ingrained in the nation’s being. Trust me, in as hide-bound and stratified a culture as Japan’s, this background piece is an absolute necessity…

The comics portion of this volume is printed in the traditional back-to-front, right-to-left format.
© 2003 Takako Shimura. All rights reserved.

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Jughead: The Hunger volume One


By Frank Tieri, Michael Walsh, Pat & Tim Kennedy & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-68255-901-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

For over 80 years Archie Andrews has epitomised good, safe, wholesome fun, but the staid and stable company shepherding his adventures has always harboured an ingeniously hidden and deviously subversive element of mischief. Family-friendly superheroes, spooky chills, sci-fi thrills and genre yarns have been as much a part of the publisher’s varied portfolio as those romantic comedy capers of America’s cleanest-cut teens since the company Golden Age debut as MLJ publications.

As you surely know by now, Archie has been around since 1941, spending most of the intervening decades chasing both tantalisingly attainable (yeah, right!) Betty Cooper and wildly out-of-his-league debutante Veronica Lodge. The game was played with best friend Jughead Jones alternately mocking and abetting his romantic endeavours whilst rival Reggie Mantle sought to scuttle every move…

As crafted by a legion of writers and artists who logged innumerable stories of teen antics in and around idyllic, utopian small-town Riverdale, these timeless tales of decent, fun-loving kids captivated successive generations of readers and entertained millions worldwide.

To keep all that accumulated attention riveted, the company has always looked to modern trends with which to expand upon their archetypal brief. In times past they strengthened and cross-fertilised their stable of stars through a variety of team-ups such as Archie Meets the Punisher, Archie Meets Glee, Archie Meets Vampirella and Archie Meets Kiss, whilst every type of fashion-fad and youth-culture sensation have invariably been shoehorned in and explored on the pages of the regular titles.

The company has long exploited a close affinity with horror stories and – combined with the boost of racy new TV franchise Riverdale specifically aimed at “young adults” – launched a range of alternate scary, gory spins-off including Vampironica, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and the tasty treat on view here…

The premise is deliciously sharp and appetising: ever since his 1941 debut, Forsythe Pendleton “Jughead” Jones has been a witty, sarcastic outsider: a little bit weird, very intelligent, immune to teenage love, faithful and loyal to Archie but – above all else – preternaturally hungry and apparently insatiable.

Reimagining this evergreen comedy prop, Frank Tieri injected some harsh (meta) reality in One-Shot’ – illustrated by Michael Walsh, coloured by Dee Cunniffe and lettered by Jack Morelli – by heading deep into Teen Wolf territory…

In this Riverdale, the traditional setup maintains until the night when beloved teacher Miss Grundy is eviscerated and beheaded by “the Riverdale Ripper”. The old gang are the last to hear the awful news about their favourite educator because they’re all watching Jughead put another All-you-can-eat diner out of business…

However, all notions of innocent fun forever vanish as a season of mayhem continues. Pop Tate, Big Ethel and Jug’s cousin Bingo Wilkins are also victims of a savage serial killer, and the Jones kid is feeling utterly unlike himself as he shambles home at nightfall. Everything seems sharper, clearer, and more intense.

The answer to Jug’s inner turmoil becomes clear when he meets Dilton Doily and the safe old life ends forever. As a wave of sensation overwhelms him, Jug he feels a change coming… and wakes up in his own bedroom, covered in blood and bits of Dilton…

Panicked and desperate, “Juggie” rushes to his best friend, only to learn Archie was a traumatised witness to the entire revolting encounter and saw him transform into a ravening beast… as well as what followed…

Before the best buds can even begin to process what’s happened, sweet dependable Betty arrives. The dilemma of whether to share the secret with her is solved when she explodes into martial arts mayhem, ruthlessly beating Jug before trying to shoot him…

Barely able to restrain her, Archie hears an incredible story: how the Jones clan have been lycanthropes for centuries, with her family – the Coopers – hereditary werewolf hunters for just as long. They are raised from birth to end their depredations when they turn feral…

She’s been watching and waiting for most of the gang’s lives and now it’s time to abandon friendship and do her duty…

Incredibly, Archies entreaties convince her to try an old unproven method, seeking to cure instead of kill. Days pass and all seems well until Jughead (and his beloved pet Hotdog) vanish from Riverdale. In their absence, the mangled body of Reggie Mantle is discovered…

All that occurred in a stand-alone debut released in March 2017, but the story picked up in October with a continuing series, joining other books in a separate Archie Horror imprint. Tieri remained as scripter, with Pat & Tim Kennedy, Bob Smith, Jim Amash, Matt Herms & Morelli completing the creative cast. The first three issues complete this terror tome, with the tale expanding as emergency doctors manage to resuscitate Reggie. They don’t live long enough to regret it…

Meanwhile, young wanderer “Smith” and his dog have joined a circus. Friendly but tight-lipped, they fit right in, and nobody asks why the kid “borrows” the escape artist’s gear every night…

Archie and Betty are relentlessly searching the region, but she is becoming increasingly unstable and violent. All Archie’s attempts to placate her are wasted, especially after she links up with her kin in the Cooper Underground: all eagerly looking for a fresh werewolf to kill. Andrews is now painfully aware that the entire world is crazy and he was utterly unaware of how it really works…

The same can be said for Jughead, who wakes up beside the bloody remnants of a circus girl. However, once he calms down enough to doublecheck, he realises he didn’t escape his bonds but was released by persons unknown…

Back in Riverdale, Ronnie Lodge is baffled and shaken by events and only achieves understanding in the brief moments before the true architect of all Jughead’s woes adds her to the body count…

With additional art contributions from Joe Eisma, the second chapter sees even more beloved characters fall to the mystery murderer. Not far away, Archie gets a crash course in monster-fighting and comes to the appalling conclusion that the only way to be true to his friend is to end him…

With Juggie’s face all over TV, a manhunt closes in on the “teen serial killer”, but when cops close in, Jones finds he has an unsuspected ally, someone he’d believed long dead…

Issue #3 finds that comrade sharing some useful werewolf tricks and tips; disclosing how he’d been using Jug to protect his own secret life. Their falling out mirrors the moment Betty takes Archie to meet her Auntie Elena who runs a global cabal dedicated to killing weird beasts, and the Andrews boy makes his own momentous decision. Inevitably all factions converge just as Jughead is battling for his life and trying to decide who’s side he’s on.

Silver bullets fly and the decision is taken out of his gore-streaked hands…

To Be Continued…

Fast-paced, pleasingly irreverent, blood-soaked and bombastic, the wild ride also offers a Special Features section comprising an Introduction by screenwriter Matthew Rosenberg discussing “Americana”, and a closing gallery of covers & variants by Franco Francavilla, Adam Goreham, Robert Hack, Walsh, and T-Rex, plus Character Sketches and Sample Pages by the Kennedys and pages tracing the process from pencils to finished art.

This terror-packed tome closes with a bonus story: the initial outing of Vampironica by Greg & Meg Smallwood, detailing how the darling debutante became a decidedly unconventional bloodsucker. Stay braced for a full review of her own in the weeks to come…

Brilliantly reimagining cosy comforting friends into compelling new roles, this is a spooky feast for fans and newcomers alike.
™ & © 2018 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher – a Johnny Constantine Graphic Novel


By Ryan North, Derek Charm & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0123-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Moody, Mirthful and Magical… 8/10

In recent years DC has opened up its shared superhero universe: generating Original Graphic Novels featuring its stars in stand-alone adventures for the demographic inappropriately dubbed Young Adult. To date, results have been rather hit or miss, but when they’re good, they are very good indeed. An ideal example is this cheery chiller reinterpreting the formative years of DC’s magical bad boy: particularly concentrating on his early relationship with things that go bump in the night…

You’ve either heard of John Constantine by now or you haven’t, so I’ll be brief. Created in 1985 by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, Rick Veitch & John Totleben during a groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing, the unlikeliest of heroes is a mercurial modern mage, a dissolute chancer and self-appointed mystic fixer who plays like an addict with magic – on his own terms for his own ends.

He is not a good guy. He is not a nice person, but all too often, he’s all there is between us and the void…

Winning his own series by clamorous popular demand, Constantine’s own series Hellblazer premiered in 1988, during the dying days of Reaganite Atrocity in the US but at the height of Thatcherite Barbarism in England. We’re pretty much singing the same songs now as back then but – with 5th rate Britain’s Got Talent cover-artist wannabes as our revolving-door leaders – that’s something little Johnny will surely get around to sorting if he gets another outing…

In 1988, creative arts and Liberal attitudes were dirty words in many quarters and the readership of Vertigo was pretty easy to profile. The long-running series started with relatively safe horror plots, introducing us to Constantine’s unpleasant nature, chequered history and odd acquaintances. Even then, discriminating fans were aware of a joyously anti-establishment political line, rebellious nature and wildly metaphorical underpinnings. Racism, Darwinian politics, gender fluidity, plague, famine, gruesome supernature and more were everywhere in the dark dystopian purview of John Constantine – a world of bleeding-edge mysticism, Cyber-shamanism and political soul-stealing.

Relax. That is not the Constantine you’re looking at here…

Courtesy of writer Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics, Adventure Time, Slaughterhouse-Five, Power Pack, Machine of Death, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, How to Invent Everything, Star Trek – Lower Decks) and illustrator Derek Charm (Jughead, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Uncle Scrooge, Jughead’s Time Police, Star Wars Adventures) – assisted by letterer Wes Abbott – we’re meeting a wily wizard in waiting: someone apparently without conscience or impulse control who bears more than a passing resemblance to juvenile parental burden Dennis the Menace – but more the malign mischief maker from The Beano than Hank Ketchum’s wayward waif…

It begins in London where a cocky kid pops into a sweetshop. Unfortunately, Archibald Junior’s Discount Confections is no ordinary purveyor of tasty treats, but then again, Johnny Constantine is no ordinary kid…

Behind a cheesy façade of fragrant gleaming bottles, jars and bags, this exotic emporium has a back room where ghosts, demons and world-devouring cosmic entities can also snatch a little snacky something. It just another eldritch secret that Johnny – who calls himself “Kid Constantine” – somehow knows. The boy has an astounding affinity for magic and has even befriended a few lesser devils, but he also has a weakness for Archibald’s magic chocolates.

Sadly, this latest shoplifting lark endangers all of Earth and, haunted by angry ghosts, the Kid has to take refuge with a pack of low-grade demons.

He’s been casually manipulating his parents for a while now, and fooling himself that he’s a wicked cool Jack the Lad, but he learns a few hard truths as he even wears out his welcome with the unholy monsters, and immediately opts to try boarding school to evade further repercussions. Best of all, the place is in America…

It’s pretty far away, but Johnny doesn’t mind. He’s always been better off alone. Just look what happened to the last friend he foolishly shared his magical gifts with…

With terrifying ease, the unaccompanied boy rocks up at The Junior Success Boarding School in Massachusetts, but his charm and roguish manner can’t help him adjust, settle in or make any friends on campus. In fact, he’s actually starting to feel a bit lonely… until a bit of lazy, labour-saving magic is spotted by fellow sixth grade outsider Anna.

The Kid is just starting to think he might have made a mistake coming to America when she comes clean and confesses that she too can make little miracles…

Our gobsmacked loner thinks long and hard before letting his guard down, but soon they are friends and co-conspirators, playing pranks and testing their limits. It seems the best of all worlds until their homeroom teacher Ms. Kayla starts behaving strangely…

Formerly the nicest adult in school, she abruptly changes, spitefully singling out Johnny and Anna for special attention and cruel psychological bullying. Before long, the supernatural students are using their gifts to learn what caused the transformation, but discover it’s far worse than they could ever have imagined…

Facing a deadly existential supernatural threat, Kid Constantine does what he always does and runs away, deserting Anna and the school, but everything changes when he hits the forests surrounding the institution and meets a potentially life-changing ally in the huge form of a witch-hunting demon called Etrigan…

Chastened and emboldened, the Kid makes a decision that will change his life: returning to school, joining Anna and the Demon in ending a monstrous menace more terrible than anyone could have imagined…

Rowdy, rousing and riotous – and sublimely stuffed with twists, shocks and enticing snippets of DC lore – the battle against unforgiving evil culminates in a clever piece of misdirection and some stellar sleight of hand as valiant Anna and duty-driven Etrigan see their bad boy come good and save everything…

This tale is done in one but the book also offers a lengthy excerpt from Jeffrey Brown’s Batman and Robin and Howard that is also worth some of your time and attention…

Bold, beguiling, brilliantly entertaining and deliciously uplifting, The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher is a magical rite of passage and smartly funny adventure with a twist to charm and thrill full-on fans and nervous neophytes alike: one introducing a new wondrous world with a rousing reminder that there is magic everywhere.
© 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Sheets


By Brenna Thummler (The Lion Forge/Cub House/Oni Press)
ISBN: 978-1-941302-67-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Spirited Fun for All… 9/10

Gloom, doom and death cling to Marjorie Glatt like static. The weary youngster is bullied at school and harassed at home. That’s because she spends every waking moment trying to keep the family business going under ever-escalating pressure. The laundromat was her mom’s refuge, dream and legacy, where they all lived safe, happy and warm above the washers and driers.

…And then Mom drowned.

Situated on a quiet bend of the coast, Finster Bay is like any other small town: everybody lives for themselves and is only concerned with what they want and need, and no one sees how 13-year-old Marj is daily being sucked ever-downwards. Since the funeral she’s now stuck with school, keeping a home and even feeding the family since dad had his breakdown and withdrew from reality.

The Glatts are deep in debt and Marj’s little brother Owen is a typical boy brat who won’t help unless he’s bribed…

The rich mean girls have singled her out for special attention and nasty yoga guy Nigel Saubertuck keeps breaking in, terrorising her by sabotaging all her attempts to turn Glatt’s (formerly Delaway’s) Laundry around. He even smugly boasts of it, saying he’ll take their prime location for his proposed spa centre and make them all work for him folding towels…

That’s not even worst of it, either. Adding to Marj’s woes is the distraction of inexplicably attentive cute boy Colton possibly?/perhaps?/maybe/surely it can’t be? liking her: a novelty that consequently attracts more the full venom fand disdain of obnoxious classmate Tessi Waffleton.

The fact that Marjorie is developing a full blown compulsive aversion to water after seeing her mother drown is mere icing on the cake, but as the floundering girl slowly sinks under impossible adult responsibilities, her stressed teen’s life gets even more complicated after Wendell starts causing trouble…

Finster Bay is a town doubly populated. Existing alongside the self-obsessed adults and kids is an unseen legion of dead people. The Bay is a “Land of Ghosts” and Wendell is having a hard time adjusting to not being alive anymore. A determined and inspired fabulist liar, the little apparition refuses to interact in the support group (DYE: Dead Youth Empathetics), hasn’t read the Book of Ghost Law he was given and won’t even keep clean the standard-issue white shroud which confines and contains all that’s left of him.

He also died in water, and has an unrecalled deep connection to Marjie…

When Mr. Saubertuck makes his big move, surreptitiously adding red dye to the Glatt washers, he’s thinks he’s finally driven Marjorie to surrender. However, he’s shockingly confronted by Wendell! The slimy schemer hasn’t reckoned on an army of spooks coming to her aid, even as she at last realises the free-floating annoyance that has immensely added to her distress…

In the meantime, Marj has been doing some deep diving at the Library and has deduced that the overly-familiar little spectre is the little kid who saved her when she was lost years ago…

Wistful, charming, sadly poignant and unafraid to address both lighter and the darkest issues, Sheets is a sweetly refreshing tale of determination, discovery and enduring friendship, with illustrator-turned-author Brenna Thummler (Anne of Green Gables) delivering a remarkable and enchanting modern fable that has already spawned a sequel, and should be a favourite for generations to come.

This book was released by Lion’s Forge in 2018, and is available in digital formats, but is also schedule for re-release in January 2023 from Oni Press.
© 2018 Brenna Thummler. All rights reserved.