If you looked up “girl power” in the dictionary, the cover of this graphic novel is what would show up. The Lumberjanes are a group of five girls who are attending a summer camp modeled after Girl Scouts. They are a diverse group- with a nice representation of body types, clothing styles, age and sexuality.
This is a magical realism tale, for the girls are immediately thrown into situations that have paranormal animals, and later they have an Indiana Jones type adventure. The girls aren’t fazed by any of it, although their older cabin leader doesn’t ever seem to see any of the creatures the girls do. But then there is the hip, tattooed camp director who seemed to be in on the mysteries.
Two of the five girls are a couple, and one girl seems gender fluid, but none of it is over emphasized. Instead it’s just a group of friends who work well together and always have each others back. Isn’t that we all should have in a friend group? The only complaint I have is that sometimes the dialogue is trying too hard. The girls love to throw famous people into their conversations as slang words- “What in the Joan Jett are you doing” and ” Good Juliette Gordon Low, we’re allowed to have something good happen once in awhile”. It was funny once, but then becomes too trite.
The author and co-creator of this story is Noelle Stevenson, who also wrote and illustrated the appealing Nimona. When I first read Nimona, Stevenson’s artwork was new to me. But as I have read more graphic novels in the last few years, I have noticed this cartoony hipster style is similar to the art work of Faith Erin Hicks, Emily Carroll and Molly Osertag. Although the illustrations are credited to Brooke Allen, the characters are so very Stevenson, that I’m thinking Allen had to draw based off the template that Stevenson designed. But the bold bright colors with a modern look will be a draw for young readers. And that’s why I picked it to read with the middle schoolers at my library for our next graphic novels book club. The story ends on a cliff hanger, and I and other readers will definitely want to read the next in the series to find out what adventures the Lumberjanes get into next!
I’m back from Amsterdam, and holy COW was it amazing.
We landed at 6:30 AM local time, which actually killed us but we got to ride the train into the city as the sun was coming up. Beautiful. We wandered around and got lunch to kill time until we could check into the hotel and pass out!
The concert was PHENOMENAL. Easily the best show I’ve ever gone to. I bought a new compact camera before the trip that was supposed to be good for low-light photos, and I was not at all disappointed. It held up through 2.5 hours of continuous shooting and I got some amazing photos!!!
(I took almost 400 photos this is just a suuuuuuper small sample)
For the rest of our week there, we really just explored the city. We got lots of museums in, including the Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Rijks museums. Amsterdam is a small city, so from our hotel, we were pretty much able to walk anywhere we wanted. We only used public transport to go to the zoo and the airport. The weather was wonderful: high 50s or low 60s the whole time, and both rain and sun.
I didn’t want to be that girl who took pictures of all her food, but my word, the food was amazing. We ate at half a dozen tiny little cafes, not one of them the same. We sampled sushi, Dutch, Italian, Vietnamese, and even (after we got back to Amsterdam from the concert) European McDonald’s! XD The bread there is so much better than here, the ice cream was wonderful, but I did not care for the chocolate at all!!!
Easily the best vacation I’ve ever taken. For a whole week, I didn’t worry about work, or class, or even money that much. My boyfriend and I talked and laughed and explored together, which really strengthened our relationship. We definitely want to come back someday ❤
The Birds have moved to Platinum Flats, a Silicon Valley-type town where there’s a new startup on every corner. No one will pay any attention to the new Clocktower Systems, a.k.a. the Birds’ new nest. They came for one crime boss, but they quickly realize that it’s a lot more than one guy. A whole group of supervillans moonlighting as CEOs have formed a group called the Silican Syndicate, and they’re in the startup business solely for themselves. Oracle’s intel is good so far, but from a questionable source. How long until she gets a bad piece of information? And when the Joker shows up in town, will Babs be able to stand up to him?
A little corporate action was fun after the globe-trotting of the past few volumes. The tension was ratcheted up in this volume with the addition of the Joker. This was the first time he and Babs had come face-to-face after he shot her and put her in the wheelchair. Bab’s emotions about their confrontation were realistic and really tugged my heartstrings. Can’t wait for the next volume!
– Kathleen
Bedard, Tony, Michael O’Hare, Nicola Scott, and Claude St. Aubin. Birds of Prey (Vol. 12): Platinum Flats. 2009.
I am typically not a fan of manga series, although I do admire the art and storytelling style. In over a year and a half of blogging, this is my first manga review and Kathleen has only reviewed one manga title herself, Vinland Saga: Book One. But after reading this fun and affirming book, I will reconsider and try other series.
Author and illustrator Gengoroh Tagame is a well known openly gay Japanese artist whose previous manga series are extremely adult orientated. Tagame typically writes gay erotic manga, but in this case he decided to write an all ages book written to combat prejudices against gay culture. What results is a beautifully written book about preconceived notions and how to fight them.
We first meet Yaichi, a divorced dad to daughter Kana. He receives a visit from Mike, a hulking Canadian, who was married to Yaichi’s twin brother Ryoji. Ryoji has recently died, and Mike wants to meet his family and see where his husband had grown up. Kana is absolutely shocked to meet him, for first of all she didn’t even know her father had a brother as the twins were estranged, and secondly she did not know men could marry.
Yaichi had reservations about Mike, as shown by his early biased thoughts, but when Kana asks him to stay over Yaichi is shamed into offering the hospitality he would have given other friends or family. Slowly the three of them get to know each other better, and Yaichi’s learned bigotry starts to fall away. He is forced into confronting bias he was not aware he had, and learns much from Kana’s love and acceptance of Mike. While her natural curiosity can at times be embarrassing, Mike is a willing teacher and a model of decency to his new niece.
There are no major events in this book beside the three becoming a family unit. It naturally introduced gay acceptance in Japanese culture and showed how parents and children can acknowledge differences in a honest and sensitive way. I also liked how Kana’s mother was still shown in a loving maternal role, even if she broke gender norms by not being the parent that Kana lived with.
Tagame draws his trademark bearish men, and his artwork was traditionally manga-ish, but yet unique enough to stand out for someone like me who does not read manga. The only mis-step I saw in the illustrations was a pose between the two men in one panel that could be interpreted in a sexual manner. Normally, I wouldn’t even point this out, but for an all ages book this suggestive pose could be misconstrued.
I will definitely be on the look out for future books in this new series (edit- the series concludes with volume two), and will be adding them to the collection at my library as they are released.
I am a big fan of the Star Trek universe, so when I saw this book come highly recommended by a Goodreads friend, with whom I have many similar reading tastes, I snapped it up. A description from Amazon says it is the “first officially produced in-universe biography of the legendary and iconic Star Trek character, Captain Kirk“. Written as if it were the memoirs of Captain Kirk, I was prepared to love it.
Sometimes we read a book at just the right time in our lives, so the book speaks to us, as if it were written for you alone. Other times due to timing, a book is read at the absolute wrong time, so you end up hating the book. Unfortunately, this book falls into the later category for me. Let’s find out why!
The book starts out promisingly, with Kirk recounting his childhood in Iowa with his parents and older brother Sam, to the book’s “editor” David A Goodman. It proceeds through his first time off planet with his mother, then through his early years of Starfleet Academy. We meet many of the people who will play a part in his later missions, for several of them tie in with school and his first two ship assignments. Thus, the narrative takes official Star Trek canon and builds around it.
Once we hit the Enterprise years, the book came to a screeching halt. Kirk’s recollections lurched from one episode to another, recapping what we know happened in the tv show and later in the movies. Spock and McCoy were barely mentioned, and their friendship did not ring true, even with their foreword and afterwards bookends. Then the other important quartet of Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and Chekhov were also all but ignored in this supposed memoir. There was so sense of unity or teamwork among the Enterprise staff, much less the family he left behind. Even the Khan stories lacked power.
Now let’s talk about the ladies. Kirk is known as a swashbuckling ladies man, but in this story he is a petulant man child. He is callous to his first love at the academy and is a complete ass and a deadbeat dad to Carol and their son David. There is no mention of his marriage to Miramanee, whom I felt was one of his true loves, and doesn’t mention the kiss with Uhura. The largest story goes his romance with Edith during a mission he went to the Earth’s past. He moons over her death, and then slights other women. Even with Carol and David come back into his life years later he doesn’t muster much excitement or love for them. When David dies, he isn’t heartbroken and dismisses Carol, never to see her again.
I believe there are three glaring reasons why I didn’t like the book. One- my eldest just started college, and I miss him terribly. I was angry at Starfleet for making family life basically impossible. Family relationships were torn asunder by the long absences, and the choices people made if they wanted to accept a promotion. Second- I recently had a negative experience when someone else’s bad decision affected me. So Kirk’s many decisions through out his career, where others were collateral damage to his ego, infuriated me. Thirdly- the filling in around canon didn’t seem authentic to me. While it was approved (so I assume the new info is canon too now), it all seemed fake and wooden. I recently read Superman: American Alien which did the same thing, but that story filled in the gaps of Clark Kent’s growing up years in a very believable way.
So while I hated this version of Kirk, I am going to do what many fans do when faced with problematic story lines or conflicting data- I’m going to pretend it doesn’t exist. If I can forget about Spock’s brother or how Klingon’s first looked when we met them in TOS, I can forget about Goodman’s Kirk. Instead I shall remember the blustery but fun William Shatner version that started this whole Trek phenomenon. Live long and prosper, my friends.
Sooo… remember a few issues back when I mentioned Flycatcher got turned back into a frog for some reason? Well, he’s human again, but he’s got a glorious purpose! With the help of Lancelot’s ghost, Flycatcher dons Lance’s sacred armor and sets out to stake a claim in the Homelands – a claim that is his right as a prince. Meanwhile, Mayor Charming and Beast are working with Hansel, the Adversary’s ambassador from the Homelands. Each party has something the other desperately wants – but can they exchange goods without starting an all-out war?
This volume! Was so!! Good!!! Everyone loves a good underdog story, and boy is Flycatcher the ultimate underdog. To watch him struggle for his birthright after knowing his backstory, you can’t help but cheer for him. Since it was mostly one story, the art was consistent throughout, which was a bonus! A few new revelations from side characters made this volume pretty juicy and moving along at a fast clip. As always, can’t wait for the next volume!!!
– Kathleen
Willingham, Bill, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Andre Pepoy. Fables (The Deluxe Edition): Book 8. 2007.
I discovered Wild C.A.T.S. in the .25¢ bins at a local comic con, and I am enthralled by this time capsule of the early 1990’s and reading about the growing pains of brand new (at that time) Image Comics.
This series was one of the first published by Image and was created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi, with further pencils by Lee. Originally envisioned as a three parter, it was expanded to four. It established a new super hero group, with the moniker Covert Action Teams. This team concerned themselves with the battle between aliens called Kherubim and Daemonites. The team was a motley group pf heroes, with not a great deal of backstory to explain their origins. When Vice President Dan Quayle is overtaken by the evil Daemonites (OMG- how awesome is that!), so the group works together to avoid world chaos. Image’s flagship superhero group Youngblood shows up too, not understanding that Quayle has been possessed and is not truly himself. This was the first combining of Image universes, showing that the two teams coexist together. While there’s more to the story obviously, a recap is hard to explain. This story must be experienced to appreciate it. You can also have fun matching up these heroes with who you think they would correspond with in the Marvel or DC universes.
Now let’s talk about the art! Lee is a talented artist, but God, the excesses of his drawing made me laugh. The issues came out in 1992-93, right during that time frame that the superhero genre was at it’s most superlative. Women especially were drawn so amazingly out of proportion to be comical, and unfortunately that continued to be the case with this series. At times the art overpowered the already somewhat confusing story, with an myriad array of panels. There were a few times you had to flip the story sideways to follow the panels, one time just so they could show a full length view of the hyper-sexualized Voodoo. A nitpick I had with the covers of the first four issues is that the art always covered some of the words. I found that odd and not very appealing. For the compendium cover, they fixed that problem.
Jim Lee started each issue with a letter to the readers, which I found fascinating, for it gave a window into what was going on behind the scenes at the company. I watched the DVD documentary about the founding of Image Comics, The Image Revolution, so I was already privy to the rough start of a now strong comic publisher (BTW, I wrote that review very early on in my blogging career, and it hardly received any love. Read it now to understand more about Image’s rocky start & like the review!!). Lee was brutally honest in his letters in acknowledging that Image had a big problem with timeliness in getting their issues out. He also is kind enough to explain why Whilce Portacio, the first of the seven founders to leave Image, was MIA due to a family death. This went far in reinforcing my thought that the documentary didn’t explain enough what happened to Portacio.
I came away from this series smiling. While I might have criticized some aspects of the storytelling, this was a fun read. Image Comics remains a favorite of mine, so I enjoyed going back in time to read some of their first stories.
We were nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Lily from Cheeky Booky! This is our third time for this award, but it never gets old, for we love getting selected since it means another blogger thought of us!
Thank the person who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog
Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you
Nominate new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions
List the rules and display the sunshine blogger award logo in your post and/or on your blog
1. Which Disney Princess do you relate yourself with?
Nancy: Mulan!!! It’s a rare Disney movie in which BOTH her parents are still alive, plus Mulan is kick -ass. The romance at the end is secondary, because while I am a sucker for romance, Mulan and her team prioritize saving that day before that happens.
Kathleen: Jasmine! She is smart, headstrong, and independent, but she is also loving and a good judge of character. She’s not passive at all and takes charge of who she is, where she’s going, and who she loves. She refuses to conform to others’ expectations or plans for her, and I both admire and strive to be like her.
2. What would the world be like if you are the leader? (Be as detailed as you like)
Nancy: World peace and a beautiful environment!
Kathleen: First thing I would do as world leader would be cure all nut allergies (seriously, it sucks)! I would strive to lead a peaceful, humane, and just world.
3. Top 5 Pairings?
Nancy: Me & my husband, Eleanor/Park, Superman/Wonder Woman (ignore what Kathleen says below for the Kingdom Come pairing was perfect!), Jamie/Claire from Outlander andEhd/Beh from Transcendence (the most ridiculous historical fiction romance book ever that I inexplicably loved).
4. What animal is your patronus? ( Mine is a Dolphin according to Pottermore XD)
Nancy: Wolf. I love their beauty and teamwork.
Kathleen: I think mine was a terrier according to Pottermore, but I secretly feel it would be a snow leopard instead.
5. OH NO! Eric Cartman came and stole your favourite desert. What’s your favourite desert and how would you deal with it? (Yes I am a huge South Park Fan) XD
Nancy: I am a sucker for dark chocolate so Cartman wouldn’t even stand a chance of getting near it in the first place.
Kathleen: My favorite dessert is homemade chocolate cake… with 3 layers and chocolate frosting, just how my mom makes it. Consequently, I would have no qualms about punching Eric Cartman out over it 8D
6. What would you do if you won a huge jackpot from the lottery?
Nancy: Fund my children’s college educations and donate to charity. Then take some epic vacations!
Months and months of planning have finally led up to this day… soon I’ll be boarding a plane to fly overseas for the first time in my life. I’m both incredibly excited and incredibly nervous I’ve forgotten to pack something.
Even though I’ve triple checked my bags.
I thought it’d be fun to tell you guys which books I’m bringing for the 8 hour flights!
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien – it just seems fitting. I’m about to embark on a great journey, just like Frodo is.
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin – A dense read like this is sure to keep me occupied for a while =P Plus, I’ve been feeling like it’s time for a reread.
The Naming by Alison Croggon – I feel like I need some comfort from my favorite book for it being my first time so far away from home.
Night Shift by Lilith Saintcrow – See last entry =P Plus, I need some of Jill’s ultimate badassery to bolster me.
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King – I just couldn’t stand the thought of waiting until I get back to continue the story!!!
Four out of the five are rereads. I feel like I need some familiarity and comfort as I take this big new step.
I am a homebody. Most of my life choices have been based on what is close to home, what is familiar. My university was 45 minutes from my house – far enough away for me to feel independent, but close enough to get back home whenever I needed. I still live with my mom now, a year and a half after I’ve been done with school – though this was more out of necessity than anything else, it’s still nice. When I do eventually move out, I’m not sure how far I’ll be willing to go.
I’m taking a huge step here. It’s terrifying, but I’m not going alone. My wonderful boyfriend will be with me, as well as all my friends who’ve embarked on their own journeys.
Graphic Novelty² 
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