Reckless

Reckless is part one of a new comic book series by Ed Brubaker. Part 2, Friend of the Devil, was published last month and the third and final part will be published later this year.  Reckless follows a man named Ethan Reckless.  He has a home business where he fixes your problems, for a price.  If someone owes you money, he will get you the money.  If someone stole your artwork, he will get it back.  It is something that he fell in to after helping out a few friends.  His jobs increased due to  the spread of word of mouth and after 2 years Ethan decided that it would be his career.  The setting is 1980s Los Angeles where sex and drugs were rampant. However, Ethan's past as a radical in the 1960s comes back to haunt him when a former girlfriend, Rainy, asks for his help. She has been running from the law ever since she took part in a bombing for the Weathermen group.  It's funny that Ethan Reckless is considered the good guy in this comic.  When compared to some of the people he does business with Ethan seems likable but he is clearly breaking the law just as his clients are.  

The artwork was drawn by Sean Phillips and colored by Jacob Phillips.  The dark color palettes used are monotone.  For me, it was a little depressing. There are a few pages colored in oranges which I liked better.  I prefer that the artwork be lighter but I must admit that the Phillips duo matched the feel of the story.  

Having come of age in the 1960s, Reckless was a trip down memory lane.  I enjoyed reading about the chaos of the times and even was proud of the "work" the Weatherman group was doing.  Today, I view their activities as domestic terrorism but back in the day, they were cool. Also, I hate to admit that I used to dress the way Rainy dressed.  

All comic fans are going to love this graphic novel.  I highly recommend it.  5 out of 5 stars.

Shadow Life

 

Shadow Life was published in March 2020 by First Second.  It is a graphic novel written by Hiromi Goto and illustrated by Ann Xu and is about Kumiko, a 76 year old woman.  Kumiko's middle aged adult daughters place her in an assisted living home against her wishes. However, she agrees to give it a try.  Kumiko does not like living there, runs away and finds herself a cozy bachelorette pad.  She keeps her location a secret from her daughters, even while they are talking on the phone.  Kumiko loves decorating as she pleases, eating whatever she wants and swimming in the community pool. Something has followed her though from the assisted living place - death's shadow.  

I enjoyed this story.  It is pretty cool that a bisexual senior Japanese Canadian lady is the protagonist in a comic and it shows what many seniors go through with their adult children.  For some reason they always want to lock seniors up in a facility.  Kumiko screams to the universe that she is not ready to die.  The story has a supernatural element in that Kumiko sees and fights what she believes is death's shadow.  The shadow is seen in the illustrations as spiders that are trying to consume her.  The theme of autonomy is a real world problem for seniors.  This theme is explored in Kumiko's fight for control of her life decisions from her daughters. I found the daughters quite bossy but realistic in their attempts to take over their mother's life decisions.

The black and white illustrations match the gloominess of the story and the drawings of Kumiko's body, particularly the naked ones, were spot on.  She has rolls of fat allover and they have drooped with the aging process.  Her leaking bladder is also realistic for older women.  It interesting that this fiftysomething writer knows so much about being a senior and can write from a senior's point of view.  Hiromi Goto has done a great job with this comic.

5 out of 5 stars!

Freiheit!

Freiheit! The White Rose graphic novel takes place in Germany during WWII. It is a true story about a group of young German students who questioned the authority of the Nazis and paid for their actions with their lives.  It was published last month.  I received an advanced review copy from the Librarything Early Reviewer's Program. This book is the graphic version of  a book by the same name.

Most of the members of The White Rose were Munich University students. The name of the group was selected by them from the title of a poem by a famous German poet. It was formed in 1942 and was active through 1943.  The group opposed Hitler on ethical and religious grounds.  They tried to get the German people to passively resist the Nazi Party and distributed six leaflets before they were caught.  The initial six members who were arrested were found guilty four days later and immediately guillotined. A copy of the leaflets in both German and English are at the back of the book.

This is a compelling story and I would like to know more about the White Rose movement.  These students were incredibly brave. If I didn't know it was true story I would be tempted to say it is farfetched. Who in their right mind opposed Hitler? You knew you would die if you did so. However, it is nice to be reminded that there have been many people in past centuries who stood up for what they believed in and did not follow the crowd.

The artwork was colored in dark tones to fit the mood of the story. The illustrator did not use the typical comic strip format, which made the graphics meet the seriousness of the topic. The fonts used were typical of the 1930s and 1940s so the reader can tell which era this happened in. 

The word "freiheit" means both liberty and political freedom in German. The White Rose frequently used it in their leaflets. It's perfect for this graphic biography.

5 out of 5 stars.

Primer

Oh my goodness! What a fabulous story.  I read this 130 page comic twice in one day and a third time the next day. I just love it.  The vibrant colored illustrations are what initially attracted me to the book but it has a creative plot that will keep you reading.  

Ashley Rayburn is an upbeat girl with a downbeat past.  Her father is in jail and once used her to help him evade justice. However, someone got killed and he is incarcerated in a federal prison.  In the meantime, Ashley has bounced from foster home to foster home and is a challenge for her social workers.  Her latest set of foster parents are Kitch and Yuka Nolan. Kitch, like Ashley, is an artist and he has a groovy sixties vibe.  Yuka is a geneticist who works for a tech company with a government contract. Yuka's top secret project has her concerned and she brings the project home so that her superiors can't get ahold of it.  It is a set of body paints that when applied to the skin grants the wearer a wide range of special powers.  When Ashley comes home from school, she sees the set of paints and thinks that it is a surprise birthday present for her.  Ashley soon realizes that she has stumbled upon something dangerous but she decides that she can use the paints for good and appoints herself a superhero with a new name, Primer.

I am the type of artist called a colorist.  That means I use an excessive amount of color and do not follow color theory.  Primer had me swooning with its colorful illustrations. It inspired me to get back to work after falling behind for a few days.

The characters all had very different but strong personalities. Ashley is a comedian who can't stop cracking jokes. She always has a positive attitude even though life has dealt her an awful hand. Her friend Luke is also quite positive even though he is an outcast at school. Ashley is an outcast too and that is why she and Luke get along so well. The Nolans are a modern couple.  Kitch is a professional artist and works out of the home. Wife Yuka is the breadwinner. Although Primer is a comic, these characters are fully fleshed out.

I wish that this was the start of a new comic series but I believe that it is a stand-alone novel for young adults.  5 out of 5 stars.

Women Discoverers

 

This small comic book contains the biographies of 30 female scientists. A few of these biographies are merely written in paragraphs while five are done in 20+ page comic strip panels.  The ladies that are featured in the book are:

• Marie Curie (Poland, France) Physics/Chemistry
• Francoise Barre Sinoussee (France) Biology
• Donna Theo Strickland (Canada) Physics
• Dorothy Vaughn (USA) Mathematics/Computing
• Ada Lovelace (Britain) Mathematics/Computing
• Emilei du Chatelet (France) Mathematics
• Emmy Noether (Germany) Mathematics
• Grace Adele-Williams (Niger) Mathematics
• Hedy Lamaar (Hungary/USA) Engineering
• Katherine Johnson (USA) Mathematics
• Marthe Gaetier (France) Pediatrics
• Maryam Mirzakhani (Iran/USA) Mathematics
• Rosalind Franklin (UK) Physics/Biology
• Sophie Germain (France) Mathematics/Physics
• Irene Joliot-Currie (France) Physics/Chemistry
• Jocelyn Bell Burnell (UK) Astrophysics
• Mae Jemison (USA) Medicine/Space Exploration
• Stephanie Kwolek (USA) Chemistry
• Grace Murray Hopper (USA) Computing
• Xie Ye (China) Chemistry

I found the book informative.  Many of these ladies I had not heard of before. Rosalind Franklin stood out in my mind as there is a medical school in my city that bears her name.  I thought Hedy Lamar was an actress.  While she did begin her career in acting she moved into science during WWII. Also, I was not aware that Marie Curie was born in Poland.  She moved to France to study at the Sorbonne and stayed there both as a teacher and a researcher.  

To say that the book will be inspiring for young girls is a given.  Most of these women grew up in societies that did not allow women to work, let alone get an education and a job.  Their trials when they were young can only give hope to today's young girls, who also have personal or family objections to overcome.

A great read!  5 out of 5 stars.

Royal City

I just finished Royal City Volumes 1 through 3.  The comic was written by Jeff Lemire and published in 2017 and 2018.  The comic is about a troubled family, the Pike family, and the town they live in.  The City of Royal City, a once thriving factory town, is slowly disappearing as residents flee for other neighborhoods where they can find jobs.  The comic is a continuation of Lemire's Essex County comic.  

Patrick Pike, a fading literary star, reluctantly returns to his home town after his father suffers a stroke.  He becomes drawn into the dramas of his two adult siblings, his mother, and his browbeaten father, all of whom are still haunted by the death of the youngest brother Tommy.  This family saga covers a span of thirty years.  

I hated for the story to end.  I loved all of the characters and felt like a was a member of the Pike family too.  It would be awesome of the author picked up this story and continued it.  Although this is a comic, the character development and intensity of each family member's reaction to the death of Tommy at age 14 could easily have been written as a fiction novel.  The looseness of the comic format has not hindered Lemire.  The story has a definite beginning, middle and end.  I also liked that the artwork was done in color.  Black and white comics just don't grab my attention.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Grand Odalisque

Carole and Alex are childhood friends who become partners in crime.  They specialize in art thefts and have been working as a team for nine years.  The story begins with them successfully pulling off the theft of a painting at the Musee D'orsay in Paris. After a deserved vacation, they receive a request to steal a painting from the highly secured Louvre Museum. The Grand Odalisque is a painting done by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Odalisque means concubine and that is the subject matter of this artwork and, hence, the title of the comic.  The mission is quite daring because it must be done during daytime. Knowing that they will need a third assistant to pull off this assignment, they hire a third person for their team as well as a diplomat's son who also happens to be an arms dealer.  

The relationship between Carole and Alex is just as prominent as the heist itself.  The two women have different personalities and strengths but also recognize this difference.  They are able to rely on each other's strengths in order to get the job done. Some times it becomes problematic. For instance, when the heist at the Musee D'orsay is occurring, Alex is not able to help Carole because her boyfriend is dumping her via a text message.  The two authors of this comic are men. Would a female writer allow this to happen?  

This is a fun, short book of 125 pages and brightly colored illustrations. Bastien Veves illustrated the comic. 5 out of 5 stars.

Wicked Things 3, 4, 5 and 6

John Allison's Wicked Things story is continued in volumes 3 through 6.  Here we see the main character Charlotte Grote beginning her work investigating crimes for the police while she awaits her fate as an accused murderer. Grote is accused of killing a Japanese teen who was her competitor for a teen sleuth award.  He will be able to tell the police who attacked him when he comes out of a coma.  She is given an apartment to live in but must wear an electronic tracking device.

Grote is assigned to make coffee for the police officers.  They don't trust her to do police work until she comes up with a tip on how a burglary that they are investigating occurred.  Thousands of copies of the hottest new cell phone were stolen from a factory.  Grote figures out that this was an inside job and that the phones could have been sold in a pop-up shop.  She and the police track the phones to a pop-up shop but it had already been shut down with the thieves disappearing.  She then  goes undercover at a casino while the police investigate a robbery. Surprisingly, at the end of volume 6 Grote is released from custody as she has been absolved of the murder of the teen sleuth.

I love this comic and hate to see it end with volume 6. It was hard to wait for each new volume to be published as the plot moved fast and each volume had a suspenseful ending. Wicked Things had a great run in 2020. The first volume was published in March 2020 and the series ended in October 2020. It is a continuation of the Giant Days comic. I wonder what is next for author John Allison?

Green Lantern: Legacy

I did not read the original Green Lantern series as I was not yet interested in comics when it was published. Green Lantern Legacy is an off-shoot of the series and fuses the past storyline of the series with a brand new story.  The author, who is a Vietnamese American, has featured an Asian American hero in Tai Pham. Tai Pham is thirteen years old and lives in an apartment above his grandmother's store, the Jade Market. After she dies, Tai Pham learns about a big secret that his grandmother had and it changes his life. After he inherits her jade ring, Tai suddenly discovers that it inducts him into a group of space cops called Green Lanterns. As he learns how to use its power, Tai meets many new characters as his friends encourage him to use the ring wisely.  He also discovers that his neighborhood is overrun with racist bullies.  He is not sure if he can overcome them but begins to learn how to harness the ring's power to defeat them.

I really enjoyed this comic.  While it was written for young readers, this sixtysomething reader found it enheartening.  It's a story of overcoming disadvantages in life and how to deal with racism but told in a friendly, non-threatening way. The brightly colored illustrations also give this serious topic a light feel. The age old American idea that with power comes responsibility is also seen here. There are many lessons young readers can learn from this book. I highly recommend it.

5 out of 5 stars.

Something New

I have read all of Lucy Knisley's graphic  memoirs but missed this one. Something New: Tales of a Makeshift Bride is about Knisley's engagement and marriage to her long time boyfriend John.  It is a humorous look into the world of all things bridal, illustrated with colorful comic strips by Knisley herself.  

As an artist Knisley wanted a DIY wedding that reflected her and John's personality. Her mother is a retired caterer who insisted that she not only get married at home but that her mother would build a barn to hold the festivities in. Knisley and her mother had built many things together before and both of them thought the barn would be easy to accomplish.  It wasn't. Nor were all of the decisions that needed to be made on items such as linens, dresses, decor, and music.  Mom basically got her way though.  

Something New is a fabulous graphic memoir and I enjoyed the author's journey to adulthood. Especially recommended for the newly engaged woman. 5 out of 5 stars.

Creation

Sylvia Nickerson's graphic novel Creation was a big disconnect for me. Creation is the story of the gentrification of her neighborhood in Toronto.  While the plot is good, the story suffered at the midway point as the author alternated between giving her own story of self-discovery as a mother and telling the story about the changes in her neighborhood. I did not see the connection between the two.

The artwork did not help this story in any way. She used graphite pencils throughout the book. I could not understand why she drew people with blob figures and shaded her drawings in deep gray. The book cover is quite colorful and gives a happy feeling but this feeling is not carried out through the book.  It's rather depressing. When I bought this book I had not seen the inside so when it arrived in the mail I was surprised.

It is almost impossible for me not to like a graphic novel but this book was a big disappointment. Skip it. 

British Ice

British Ice is a fictionalized account of a commissioner's year on Reliance Island off the northern coast of Canada. At the time of Commissioner Harrison Fleet's visit, the island was part of the British Arctic Territory. British Ice is a graphic novel. It was published two weeks ago by Top Shelf Productions.

Since the plot revolves around the setting, it will need some explanation.  The British Arctic Territory is an imagined territory that consists of one main island, Reliance, and a few smaller ones including rocks and underwater formations. It was discovered in the early 1800s by Captain Netherton and the main island was named after his ship. It has remained British land since its discovery and has been constantly manned by a member of the British High Commission even though it is in remote, freezing location. The artwork contributes to the setting. It has been colored entirely in an icy blue tone to match the setting. Drawings in comic strip panels complete the look of this book.

Upon his arrival on Reliance Island, Fleet immediately realizes he cannot speak the native language. He soon meets Ana and Abel, the Community Engagement Officer, both whom treat him with plenty of distrust and sarcasm. After snowmobiling to Netherton's home, a townhome, Fleet settles in for what is supposed to be a four year post. Inside he finds a few items owned by the prior commissioner, who disappeared without a trace. The natives refuse to communicate with him so Fleet must rely upon his pilot, Ana and Abel to determine why the indigenous people have always mistrusted the British.

I did not expect this book to be a mystery but love that it is a historical mystery. Fleet did an investigation into the background of the natives anger toward British rule and was surprised at what he discovered. It wasn't just a reaction to colonial rule. I won't be a spoiler but the answer to that question connects to the first chapter. He also asked plenty of questions about his predecessor. Why did he disappear?  Fleet was able to figure this out after snowmobiling around the island looking for clues.

I was impressed with the author's creation of the setting. He went into great detail in the beginning of the book to tell the reader about the geography of the area, the person who discovered it and British colonialism. Then he began the story.  Incredible!

5 out of 5 stars.