World Record Holders

I had high hopes for this long anticipated graphic novel. However, it did not interest me. The comic was written by one of my favorite cartoonist's, Guy Delisle. The comic showcases a collection of his work from the beginning of his career to the present. There are 12 stories contained within the book that range from wistful childhood nostalgia to chagrined post-fame encounters. In one story we see Delisle visiting an exhibition of his work in another country and being confronted by an angry spouse who blames him for destroying her marriage. A juvenile game of Bows and Arrows turns menacing as arrows shot straight up in the air turn into barely visible missiles of death. A coded message from space creates different reactions from different people―debates, dance festivals, gallery shows. 

DeLisle's artistic style is not one that I particularly care for, but it worked well in his prior comics. However, with the stories in World Record Holders not making much sense, the illustration style becomes even more important. DeLisle has written several travelogues and autobiograhies that were fantastic so I am very disappointed with this graphic novel. In fact, I cannot even give it a rating. Only the most devoted DeLisle fans are going to want to read this book.

Moms

I have been thinking about reading this graphic novel ever since it was published in English two years ago. I finally took the plunge and took it out of my public library. Moms is a humorous look at the way middle aged women think. Taking place in South Korea, there are three main characters. Lee Soyeon, Myeong-ok, and Yeonjeong are mothers in their mid-fifties. They’ve had it with their dead-weight partners and the grind of the menial jobs they have. Their overbearing bosses control everything, down to how much water they can drink while they are working. Lee Soyeon divorced her husband years ago after his gambling debts forced them to file bankruptcy. She finds herself in another decade-long relationship with Jongseok, a waiter at a nightclub whom she has grown tired of. Myeong-ok is having an illicit affair with a younger man, and Yeonjeong, whose husband suffers from erectile dysfunction, has her eye on an acquaintance from the gym. All three of these ladies have become bored with conventional romantic dalliances and are embracing outrageous sexual adventures in nightclubs, motels, and even the occasional back-alley. I think they are giving twentysomething women a run for their money. 

It is refreshing to read a book about the emotional and sexual needs of middle aged women. This is not something you find very often. The author, Yeong-shin Ma based the story on his divorced 50 year old mother. He asked his mother keep a journal where she would write about her dating experiences. He also asked her to write about her girlfriends, who were also on the dating scene. What Ma discovered was that older women do not put aside their desires just because they are no longer young. I wonder if he was shocked to find this out. I am betting that he was.

Moms is an amusing story that women will be able to relate to.  I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Days of Sand

Aimee de Jongh's Days of Sand was initially published in France by Dargaud Benelux in 2021. It was published in English on April 19, 2022. The story takes place in the Dust Bowl area of the United States in 1937. It's interesting to me that this Dutch author chose to write a comic based on the dust bowl history. She has been publishing comics for 18 years.

The publisher's summary:

In the middle of the Great Depression, 22-year-old photographer John Clark is brought in by the Farm Security Administration to document the calamitous conditions of the Dust Bowl in the central and southern states, in order to bring the farmers’ plight to the public eye. When he starts working through his shooting script, however, he finds his subjects to be unreceptive. What good are a couple of photos against relentless and deadly dust storms? The more he shoots, the more John discovers the awful extent of their struggles, and comes to question his own role and responsibilities in this tragedy sweeping through the center of the country.

 

I am impressed with the thoroughness of de Jongh's research. As a history buff, I am well acquainted with the dust bowl era and believe that the author exhibited her knowledge of the subject in her story. The story itself was  well told. The characters were convincing. Using a professional photographer to tell the stories of those who lived in the affected states was brilliant. John Clark, the photographer, is the most fleshed out character as he is involved in the story from its beginning to the end. He meets a wide variety of people in his quest to complete a to-do list of photos that his boss wants. The artwork is appropriate for the story. The pages are colored in shades of browns and dull reds to match the dusty landscape of the dust bowl region. 

The writing in Days of Sand is commendable. I recommend this comic not to just history buffs but young students as well. The comic format is perfect for young readers to learn about this part of history.

5 out of 5 stars.

Georgia O'Keefe

Maria Herreros wrote this graphic  biography of Georgia O'Keefe in 2021. Herreros was born in my favorite international city, Valencia, Spain, but now lives in Madrid. Her book was translated into English in 2022 by Lawrence Schimel. Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) is considered one of the greatest representatives of North American art of the 20th century. A pioneer of abstraction, famous for her paintings of giant flowers, New York skyscrapers, and landscapes of remote New Mexico, she was hailed as the "mother of modern American art." Beyond the artist, María Herreros investigates the deep being of O'Keeffe: a tireless traveler, a lover of nature, a strong and emancipated woman who built her own image and carved her own path.

I expected that the biography would cover the artist's entire life. It doesn't. What is covered in the book is her life as a working artist which began alongside her meeting with photographer Alfred Stieglitz. They soon begin a long distance love affair that lasted a  lifetime even though is was, for the most part, by correspondence. Herreros reviewed letters that O'Keefe wrote to her friend Anita Pollitzer. From the letters we discover that O'Keefe always had a fear of what others thought of her. I was surprised by this given the success she had during her career. However, every one of us has an issue or two. It would have been nice to read about her childhood including what made her want to paint and what training she received. This part of her life is not covered in the biography and I feel that this was a squandered opportunity by the author in finding out what made O'Keefe tick.

3 out of 5 stars.

Amazona

Amazona was published on May 3, 2022. It is a graphic novel by Canizales that concerns an indigenous group in Colombia. Andrea, a young Indigenous Colombian woman, has returned to the land she calls home. Only nineteen years old, she comes to mourn her lost child, carrying a box in her arms. She also comes with another mission. Andrea has hidden a camera upon herself. If she can capture evidence of the illegal mining that displaced her family, it will mark the first step toward legally reclaiming their land. 

Amazona is advertised as a socially conscious thriller from graphic novelist Canizales. I wouldn't call it a thriller but it was definately written to get the attention of readers who like socially conscious books. I thought it was a little dull, though. It could have been written as a reportage comic, a la Joe Sacco, but it was written as fiction. 

The story shows the indigenous people being taken away from their beautiful rainforest to live in tiny apartments. Andrea's family of 38 people all lived in a one room 600 square foot apartment. The illustrations were done expertly here.  We see the apartment in the eyes of an Ikea decorated home. Where you would see an Ikea lamp are 5 people on the floor. In an other part of the home where you might see an Ikea rug, are 8 people lying on the floor. This analogy to Ikea was fantastic. It helped me to see what the real situation was for these indigenous folks. The pages were colored in either reds or graphic pencil. The pages showing Andrea in the rainforest are done in shades of red. The pages showing her in her apartment are done in shades of black. The purpose for the coloring is obvious.

Illustrations aside, the story was not very suspenseful and is definitely not a thriller.  I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars.

A Visit to Moscow

A Visit to Moscow is a graphic memoir of Rabbi Rafael Grossman's trip to the Soviet Union in 1965.  He went there with a group of American rabbis from the Rabbinical Council of America. Rabbi Grossman led a congregation in Long Branch, NJ and was chosen for the trip because of his Eastern European ancestry. 

The story itself is quite short, 63 pages. 12 more pages follow with explanations about the trip, a saga about Soviet Jews, a Note from the author and the Illustrator's Sketchbook. This is not a memoir with alot of action. Grossman probably spent less than an hour with the Jewish man he wanted to see. Meyer Gurwitz was the brother of one of Grossman's acquaintances, Meyer's sister Bela.  She had not heard from her brother in over ten years and was worried about him. After feigning a headache at the Moscow hotel where Grossman was staying, he got in a taxi and traveled to Meyer's home. There Grossman found out that Meyer had a ten year old son who had never left the one room home he had been born in. Meyer explained that if he let his son outside that the KGB would force him into a Soviet school where he would lose his Jewish heritage or worse, be killed.

While the story was interesting, it could hardly be described as scintillating reading. I enjoyed the artwork by Yevgenia Nayberg. Nayberg watched Soviet noir films and reviewed photos from the 1960s to obtain a visual direction. She used subdued blue, green and yellow colors in the drawings. 

3 out of 5 stars.

Always Never

Always Never is the story of two old friends who spent one night together 40 years ago. The story is told in reverse order with the first pages devoted to their reunion. Each chapter a prequel until the final chapter which shows them meeting for the first time. The book consists of one volume. It was originally published in France in 2020 but was published in English in May 2021.

The story begins with Ana and Zeno finally retiring and giving their romance a chance to bloom while they both still have time left. Each chapter steps further back and shows the two lovers touch and go courting through phone calls and letters. Ana didn't wait long after Zeno left to find herself a husband. Zeno was a drifter who spent time on boats while he worked on his dissertation.  He left behind a family owned bookshop that Ana wanted to destroy for a public works project. It took Zeno 40 years to complete the dissertation and as soon as he finished it he looked up Ana. Ana had just retired as the mayor of an Italian city that is remarkably similar to Venice. 

The artwork consists of line drawings with bright color schemes. The drawings have a French flair even though the story takes place in Italy. The color scheme changed according the location that scenes were happening in. Pages depicting sunny days are colored in orange, a greenhouse location is colored in green and night time and rainy scenes are done in blues and purples.

Always Never is a fun senior romance. Highly recommended.

Regarding the Matter of Oswald's Body

Regarding the Matter of Oswald's Body is a 5 part online comic published by BOOM! Studios in November 2021. It is a crime thriller set in Texas where President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald. The Kennedy assassination has spawned many conspiracy theories: mafia involvement, the second gunman, government cover-up… but the most important chapter of this sordid tale may just be the theory that the body buried at Oswald’s Rose Hill gravesite is not actually Lee Harvey himself. Meet the ragtag group of “useful idiots” – a wannabe cowboy from Wisconsin, a Buddy Holly-idolizing (former) car thief, a world-weary civil rights activist ready for revolution, and a failed G-Man who still acts the part – who are unwittingly brought together to clean up the crime of the century, and specifically deal with the matter of Oswald’s body.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this story. I know most of the conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination but never heard of the one about Oswald not being buried in his grave at Rose Hill Cemetery in Fort Worth, TX. I searched Wikipedia regarding this conspiracy to see what information was out there about Oswald's body being stolen. I found that his body was exhumed 18 years after his death as there were questions whether a Soviet spy, who was an Oswald lookalike, was buried there instead. The body in the grave was Oswald though. The characters in the story indirectly show that they killed Kennedy and used Oswald as the fall guy.  Jack Ruby, who is the person who shot Oswald, was not mentioned in the comic. I thought that was strange. The premise for the story was good. However, the author played too much with the facts and we don't need any additional false theories about Kennedy assassination out there. 

A paperback copy of the series will be published on August 30, 2022 by BOOM! Studios. I don't think that I will be buying it for my print collection. 3 out of 5 stars. 

Vann Nath: Painting the Khmer Rouge

This is a graphic biography of Vann Nath, a Cambodian painter. Nath used his art to fight against the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge. In 1978, the young painter was arrested by the Khmer Rouge, the violent and totalitarian Communist Party of Kampuchea that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Imprisoned in the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, better known as S-21, painting became synonymous with survival for him. Ordered, like many Cambodian artists and craftsmen, to put his talent to use to glorify his captors, upon his release he continued painting, this time, to remember and pay tribute to the victims of Pol Pot's regime.  The only reason that he survived is because the man running the prison needed someone to paint of portrait of their supreme leader, Pol Pot. Nath became the most celebrated survivor of the prison. He died in 2011.

I learned much from this book. I knew that the Khmer Rouge were brutal but had never read about any specifics from their reign of terror. Vann Nath's graphic depictions of the torture he experienced in S21, which he painted after his release, brought it to life. The story is unsavory but sometimes the truth is brutal. At the back of the book are copies of the paintings Nath painted for the regime during his incarceration. I like his style and wonder what subjects he would have painted if his life had not been so difficult. 

If you love history, you should read this book. 5 out of 5 stars.

In the Flood

Trapped and separated by an apocalyptic rainfall, Mike and Clara, devoted husband and wife, have sworn to find their way back to one another.  Rising waters are threatening the dream home that Mike built but they quickly discover that the rain, and their predicament, is not what it seems. Clara was/is a singer who does magic tricks with cards. Her singing and tricks are half of the story. The main thrust of the story is whether they can they figure out the grand trick that's being played on them and overcome it to reunite.  In the Flood is a surrealistic comic by Ray Fawkes. Comixology has collected all of the installments of the series into one volume which they published in March 2022.  I obtained a digital copy of the book from them.

I have no idea what this story is about. There didn't seem to be any purpose for the storyline, if there is one.  While I was reading, I thought that I would figure out the plot toward the end of the book. I didn't. The art was done in manga style and I liked the color scheme of bright pink and blue.  The scenes with Clara were pink and those with Mike were blue. Other than that, I cannot comment any further on the book.  No rating.

Chef's Kiss

Chef's Kiss is a coming-of-age graphic novel about a college graduate who majored in English. Ben Cook could not find a job in his chosen field. He applied for jobs as a copyrighter, journalist and proofreader but because he had no job experience, no one would hire him. One day he passes by a restaurant and sees a help wanted sign. Ben decides to apply. After all, he is a gourmet cook at home. However, the restaurant owner requires a series of tests before hiring Ben permanently. With sous chef Liam's help, Ben begins his culinary journey.

Right off the bat I could tell the dialogue between the characters was true to life. It's what you would look for in a novel and it helped to depict the characters and their relationships. There was alot of small talk between them but it was relevant to character development. I got to know each character by the way they spoke, the words they used. There was no exposition. The back story of the expectation of Ben's parents for him was all told in dialogue. 

Chef's Kiss is filled with humor. The taste tester at the restaurant is the owner's pet pig. The back story on how Chef Davis met the pig was fantastical but made me laugh. Ben's crush on Liam is a major component of the story so if you don't like queer YA stories, you will want to skip this one.

5 out of 5 stars.

Cold Iron #1

Cold Iron is a 5 part comic by Andy Diggle. While the copyright is from 2020, Issue 1 was just released as a Comixology Original in May. Next week Issue 2 will be released. Cold Iron is a supernatural thriller that takes place on the Isle of Man. Steeped in Celtic myth, Viking history and Faerie folklore, the island is nestled in the Irish Sea midway between England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. However, to aspiring singer-songwriter Kay Farragher, it feels a million miles from anywhere. She dreams of escaping the humdrum life of a sleepy backwater, and gives no credence to her grandmother’s old folktales and odd superstitions. But when she saves Mona, a traumatized girl lost in the night of Hop-tu-Naa, Kay quickly realizes this is no mere Halloween prank gone wrong. In the mossy glens and rainswept valleys of the island, the shadows of a forgotten past are gathering once more. There is another world, an older world, close by our own but out of reach. On this night the walls grow thin, and someone, or something,  has clawed its way through and it is here to hunt.

The story has a lovely British flavor with slang terms and a British accent here and there in the dialogue. The setting is dominate in this installment of the series.  We see neolithic burial sites, Celtic stone circles and Viking castles. The use of Celtic folklore creates a specific mood for the island and sets up the plot. All of the characters were introduced and they are fully developed in the comic's short 27 pages.  The author did a great job of setting up the story that will follow. 

5 out of 5 stars.

Red Tag

I have read Issues 1 through 3 of Rafael Scavone's Red Tag comic. He co-wrote the comic with Rafael Albuquerque and Roger Cruz. Issue 4 will be  released tomorrow and issue 5, the final issue for Season One, will be released next month. It was a captivating story about three friends searching for justice on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Lis, Lu and Leco are street artists and they bonded over their love for Brazil's unique street art called "pixo" which is a Sao Paulo fixture. After discovering that dangerous people, holdovers from Brazil's brutal dictatorial past, are plotting against the reform movement in Sao Paulo, the three of them gain the attention of these people and their lives become endangered. Afraid that one of the reformer's life is in danger, overnight they spray paint warnings to him in pixo on Sao Paulo's buildings. 

This is a fast paced thriller with appealing characters.  I especially loved the villain - Noronha.  He is a military policeman who works undercover and earns money by extortion. The drawings of his facial expressions were amusing. The plot itself could take place anywhere on the planet, not just in Brazil. Youths from many countries are protesting against corruption wherever they see it. In this respect, the story is timely.

I loved this comic and plan on reading the 2 future installments of the series.  5 out of 5 stars.

The Panic #1: Coffin

Issue #1 of The Panic was recently published. It's a 5 part comic that is one of Comixology's Originals. Release #2 comes out next week and in early November a paperback version containing all 5 issues will be published.

The Panic opens with Annie Delgado on a train for her commute into New York City. The train suddenly derails and Annie's best friend dies. The train car that she is trapped on is beneath the Hudson River and neither she nor her ten other fellow commuters can get  their cell phones to work. The group decides to help each other in order to survive the night. They begin to make plans on how to climb out of the train to safety but they each have cultural, racial and political biases that get in the way of communicating. They soon realize that one of their fellow commuters was not on the train before the crash and all are suspicious of him. 

The comic is advertised as a horror story but I felt is was more a suspense thriller.  I did not see any horror aspects in issue 1. Perhaps it is coming. The artwork was interesting. Most of the pages are colored in blue and the varying funky hairstyles of the characters helps the reader figure out who is who. The publisher stated in their summary that the theme of the comic is loss of security and control of your surroundings. I did not analyze the story as such but enjoyed it immensely.

5 out  of 5 stars. 

Policing the City

Policing the City is an ethnographic written by Didier Fassin. Originally published in French in 2020, it has now been translated into English. The novel is dedicated "to all those who undergo daily the harassment, the humiliations, the baiting, and sometimes the violence and racism of the police, and who are finally succeeding in making their voices heard." 

The publisher's summary:

Adapted from the landmark essay Enforcing Order, this striking graphic novel offers an accessible inside look at policing and how it leads to discrimination and violence. What we know about the forces of law and order often comes from tragic episodes that make the headlines, or from sensationalized versions for film and television. These gripping accounts obscure two crucial aspects of police work: the tedium of everyday patrols under constant pressure to meet quotas, and the banality of racial discrimination and ordinary violence. Around the time of the 2005 French riots, anthropologist and sociologist Didier Fassin spent fifteen months observing up close the daily life of an anticrime squad in one of the largest precincts in the Paris region. His unprecedented study, which sparked intense discussion about policing in the largely working-class, immigrant suburbs, remains acutely relevant in light of all-too-common incidents of police brutality against minorities. This new, powerfully illustrated adaptation clearly presents the insights of Fassin’s investigation, and draws connections to the challenges we face today in the United States as in France.

While described as a graphic novel, it is not a novel but rather a graphic memoir. Everything in the book actually happened. I dispute some of the author's conclusions, such as that French police officers copied bullying tactics from American law enforcement.  I also do not believe that the anti-crime efforts of the French police are as black and white as they author shows us. Fassin says that almost all of the police rely on their political beliefs when dealing with so-called crime. He also says that the victims of police brutality are 100% innocent. Nothing is really this black and white and I think that Fassin has done a disservice to the problem of police brutality. I believe that he has a prejudice against the police because, as he stated early in the book, his own son had a run-in with the law.

3 out of 5 stars.

Bootblack

Bootblack is a historical graphic novel of 1930s New York City. It takes place during the construction of the Rockefeller Center.  Originally published in French in 2020, it has now been translated in English. The story is about Altenberg Ferguson who hates his German name and family. Leaving home still a child, he lives on the streets working as a shoe shiner also referred to as a blackboot. After changing his name to Al Chrysler, he soon tires of being hungry and sleeping outside in the cold. Al returns home only to see the building his parents were living in on fire. They perished. Returning to the streets he teams up with 2 friends to shine shoes. New friend Frankie talks the trio into running money for the mob but after deciding to steal some of the mob's cash, Al is caught by the police and sentenced to 10 years in an adult prison. By the time he is released WWII is ongoing. Al joins the army and is sent overseas to Germany, where he finds himself in the town of Altenberg, the town he was named after.

I enjoyed Bootblack. There was alot of mystery concerning where life would take Al. The story alternates between Al's childhood and his soldiering during WWII. I initially had a hard time figuring out where the story was going but after realizing that the story was alternating time periods, it was easy to accept and continue reading. In fact, I believe it enhanced the story. I certainly did not expect the ending but it was most appropriate given Al's identity issues.

4 out of 5 stars.

Django

Django is a graphic biography of renowned twentieth century guitarist Django Reinhardt. Born in 1910 in a Roma community in Belgium, Django's childhood friends were taking him in a bad direction. He began stealing and gambling. After a run-in with the police, Django's mother finally buys him what he always wanted-a banjo. Django learns how to play quickly and he develops an expertise by his teen years. He plays in several bands in Paris, earning alot of money. However, after a fire started in his caravan, Django's left hand is seriously burned. He is told that he will never play again but Django overcomes all the odds by switching to playing an easier instrument-the guitar. His fame continued to spread and he is considered one of the best musicians of his time.

The comic had a slow start for me. I had never heard of Django before reading the book. This child prodigy was leading a fantastic life. There wasn't much excitement until the halfway point in the story when he was injured in the fire. Then there was the wondering whether he would recover.  He had to use his hand differently after it was injured but the author did not go into any detail about how he made the transition.  Django had two loves, Naguine and Bella. These storylines were OK but there wasn't much mystery here.

This was an OK book. 3 out of 5 stars.

Olympia

Olympia is the sequel to The Grand Odalisque. Characters Carole and Alex are childhood friends who are partners in art theft crimes. They have been working together for nine years. With just a few days having past after their theft of the famous painting The Grand Odalisque at the Louvre, they are hired by a mobster to steal an ancient mask. With that theft completed they are then given their next assignment: to steal three paintings. Edouard Manet's Olympia is one of them. It is located in the Petit Palace in Paris. With the help of their mutual friend Sam the ladies begin planning the heist. Of course, they encounter several complications including the fact the Carole is nine months pregnant. They use modern technology and common theft how-tos to carry off the assignment. The English version of this graphic novel was published on March 1, 2022 by Fantagraphics.

It was easy to get back into the story from February 2021's The Grand Odalisque. The reader doesn't really need to know anything special from the earlier novel in order to follow the story.  The ladies were shadowed by the mobster's hit man, Antonio, as they planned and executed the theft. It was amusing to see them sexually harass Antonio and get no response from him. They used the same phrases that men use when they harass women. The howdunit of the theft was enjoyable. There were enough twists and turns to satisfy the mystery reader but the artwork is what made the Parisian setting extraordinary. The architectural line drawings let you know where the setting was located. 

All in all, Olympia was a fun read. I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Flake

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jonathan Cape
• Publication Date:  April 2, 2020
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1787330583
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1787330580

Flake is a graphic novel that celebrates ice cream. The story revolves around Howard Grayling, a second generation ice cream vendor. He runs his deceased father's territory in the northwest England town of Dobbiston. Howard sells ice cream from his van. He begins to notice a sharp downturn in business and soon realizes that a competitor named Tony Augustus, Howard's half-brother, is trying to take over his territory. Tony's business has been expanding all over the Northwest as he pushes other ice cream vendors out of business. If he can get Howard's territory, Tony will be the only vendor in the region. Howard gets help from his friends in the Dobbiston Mountain Rescue Team to overcome all of the obstacles in his way. Flake is Matthew Dooley's debut graphic novel.

What an enjoyable read! It is a light story that is appropriate for young readers. There are no sex scenes or dirty words. The artwork has been drawn in a whimsical style that matches the uncomplicated plot and is drawn in the usual comic strip format. All of the characters have round faces and stocky bodies. It makes them appear overweight but perhaps they are not. The story itself was fast paced. The characters are just as well developed as you would see in a fiction novel. I think a sequel is in order here.  It would be a shame to not hear from these characters again.

A fun read.  5 out of 5 stars.

Eat the Rich #1

Eat the Rich is a horror comic written by Sarah Gailey. It was published by BOOM! Studios between August and November 2021. I have only read release 1A at this point but it is a promising series for me. Eat the Rich is a five-issue comic book series from Hugo Award-winning author Sarah Gailey about the unspeakable horrors lying in wait behind the idyllic lives of the one percent. All 5 releases are available now in a trade paperback. I enjoyed this release and will most likely get the paperback to finish the story.

The publisher's summary: 

Welcome to Crestfall Bluffs! With law school and her whole life ahead of her, Joey plans to spend the summer with her boyfriend Astor in his seemingly perfect hometown. It’s a chance to finally meet his family and childhood friends, all while enjoying a vacation where every need is attended to. But beneath the affluent perfection lies a dark, deadly rot… will Joey discover the truth before it’s too late, and even if she does, can she survive to tell the tale?

Release 1A is obviously a set up comic. There is no horror in the story yet. You can feel the tension though between Joey and her 1% boyfriend's family. I would describe it as a psychological thriller instead. This release does a beautiful job of establishing the characters and the mystery to come. I feel Joey's pain as she navigates a formal shindig at Astor's home wearing the wrong type of clothing and jewelry. She also made the mistake of asking the help if they needed any help. Her politeness was a social faux pas. Astor certainly did not give her a heads up concerning what she could expect.

Eat the Rich is a fantastic comic series and I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.