Wrap-Up of the Graphic Novel and Manga Reading Challenge

This challenge is no longer being offered but the Facebook group for the challenge is still up. I have been saving links to my reviews there. I read 27 books during this year.  

Census by Marc Bernardin

Blood Oath by Rob Hart and Alex Segura

Sunburn by Andi Watson

Night at the Belfry by Xavier Saxon

The Vision by Tom King 

Paris by Andi Watson

New America by Curt Pires

Nikola Tesla by Francesco Barilli

Mary Shelley by Alessandro de Virgilio

The Black Ghost by Alex Segura

Book of Evil by Scott Snyder

Barnstormers by Scott Snyder 

Socrates by Francesco Barilla

The Middle Ages by Eleanor Janega

Vincent Van Gogh by Francesco Barilli

Ephemera by Briana Leowinsohn

The Naked Tree by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim 

The Joy of Quitting by Keiler Roberts

The Great British Bump Off by John Allison

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr by Ram V

Arca by Van Jenson 

Frontera by Julio Anta

Family Style by Thien Pham

Global by Eoin Colfer

Supper Club by Jackie Morrow 

White Faced Lies by Eric Flanagan 

The Golden Voice by Gregory Cahill

Favorite Book:  The Great British Bump Off

Second Favorite Book:  Sunburn

Least Favorite Book:  Ephemera

White Faced Lies

In China, local companies hire white (but not necessarily qualified) Americans to lend them credibility. Cons such as these, known as "face jobs", are instances in which Chinese companies hire foreigners to pose as professionals to lend credibility during meetings, press conferences, and other events where "face" is paramount. This fictional account of one man's experience working in this industry is the subject matter of the book.

Veteran "face-jobber" Stanley Becker has been in China for ten years trying to earn money to build a ranch in China. When a young man, Jared, approaches him and explains that Stanley is his long-lost father, Stanley lets him tag along on jobs. Since some of these jobs are considered two man jobs by employers, Stanley had to find someone anyway to work with him who doesn't need the money.  Stanley needs the entire payment for these jobs in order to keep his ranch so he lets Jared pretend to be his assistant. There is just one problem though. A Chinese factory worker whose brother died from drinking tainted soda wants revenge from the CEO of the soda manufacturer. Stanley posed as this CEO on one of his jobs.

The writers, Eric Flanagan and Sam Voutas, are filmmakers. The book's plot was originally intended to be a movie script. When they realized that China was not a viable shooting location, they decided to make their story into a graphic novel.  It is a funny, fast read that shows how much research they did into this industry.

5 out of 5 stars.

Supper Club

This cute comic by Jackie Morrow is entertaining and enjoyable. The characters in Supper Club are high school seniors who want to spend the most amount of time together as possible before they graduate. The girls cannot agree on whether to get involved with sports or a school club so they invent the supper club for themselves only. At each meeting they are supposed to bring one dish to share with everyone else.  Nora has taken the lead for the group but they alternate meeting at each other's homes.

The publisher's summary: 

Nora, Lili, and Iris are seniors at Seaside High. Their differing schedules and mounting extracurriculars inspire the girls to form a secret club where they can hang without sacrificing their future aspirations. Enter Supper Club, the delicious solution to their problems. When life starts to crumble like a cookie under the girls' feet, they rely on comfort food to hold it together. Can Supper Club endure life's most challenging recipes without burning to a crisp? 

The characters in this story are believable. They accurately portray how high school seniors behave and the dialogue between them is spot on. Each of them has the usual parental issues to deal with. Some do a better job than others. What the adult reader gets is a trip down memory lane. My own school experiences matched what Nora, Iris and Lili experienced. The comic strip panels were colored with primary colors and I love how the author showed their hair flying in the air when they were frazzled.

I received a free copy of the book by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I am happy to say Supper Club is a fantastic read. 5 out of 5 stars.

Movements and Moments

Movements and Moments is a collection of 7 short comics about influential indigenous women in developing areas of our world. Each story is about 30 pages long. My favorite one is the first story in the book Let the River Flow Free. It's about the women of the Cordillera tribe in the Phillipines who fought the government to stop plans for a dam that would flood their native lands. We also read about 1930s Bolivia when a self-described Anarchist Cholas form a libertarian trade union. In the Northern Highlands of Vietnam, the songs of one girl’s youth lead her to a life of activism. Equally striking accounts from, Chile, Ecuador, India, Nepal, and Peru weave a tapestry of trauma and triumph, shedding light on not-too-distant histories otherwise overlooked.

What these stories have in common is a commitment to resistance in a world that puts profit before respectand western notions of progress before their own. Movements and Moments is an introductory glimpse into how indigenous people tell these stories in their own words. These seven stories were selected from an open call across forty-two countries to spotlight feminist movements and advocacies in the Global South.

The Naked Tree

The Naked Tree is a graphic novel version of a 1970 novel by the same name written by Park Won-suh. It paints a portrait of a Korea torn apart by what westerners call the Korean War. Koreans call it the American War. Cartoonist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, author of the graphic novel Grass, brings this story to life with her bold, black and white drawings.

The story begins in 1951. Twenty-year-old wallflower Lee Kyeonga ekes out a living at the US military Post Exchange where goods and services of varying stripes are available for purchase. She peddles hand-painted portraits on silk handkerchiefs to soldiers passing through. When a handsome, young northern escapee and fine artist is hired despite waning demand, an unlikely friendship blossoms into Kyeonga's first romantic crush. However, her love is already married with children.

It was interesting to learn about how Koreans lived during the American War. While I read alot of history books I have never heard the perspective of the Koreans during this era. Their economy was in pieces as the war raged on and many families lost loved ones due to the American bombs dropping on them. This is Kyeonga's story though. It is told from her perspective and the reader gets a glimpse of her experiences working at the PX. She has an awful encounter with an American GI who tells her that he will liberate her in a hotel room, falls in love with that sensitive married artist, and tries to deal with the deaths of two brothers from American bombs. I feel badly for the Koreans who were living such a bleak existence and I must agree with Kyeonga's mother when she cries "how can the gods be so cruel?"  

The title of the book comes from a painting of a tree with no leaves. Kyeonga views it as a naked tree. Her telling of this story is magnificent. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Middle Ages

Eleanor Janega is the author of this graphic history of the medieval era. She has done a fantastic job of portraying this 1,000 year era with all its complexities. 

The publisher's summary: 

The Middle Ages: A Graphic History busts the myth of the ‘Dark Ages’, shedding light on the medieval period’s present-day relevance in a unique illustrated style. This history takes us through the rise and fall of empires, papacies, caliphates and kingdoms; through the violence and death of the Crusades, Viking raids, the Hundred Years War and the Plague; to the curious practices of monks, martyrs and iconoclasts. We’ll see how the foundations of the modern West were established, influencing our art, cultures, religious practices and ways of thinking. And we’ll explore the lives of those seen as ‘Other’ – women, Jews, homosexuals, lepers, sex workers and heretics. Join historian Eleanor Janega and illustrator Neil Max Emmanuel on a romp across continents and kingdoms as we discover the Middle Ages to be a time of huge change, inquiry and development – not unlike our own.

This month I have read 3 books on the Middle Ages. This graphic novel is the best of them. It gives the reader an accurate and comprehensive overview of the era in an easy to understand way. The comedy from this format helps the reader remember details. I love it!  The book is not a graphic novel in the usual sense but rather a book with funny memes on most pages that match the writing. While it is Eurocentric the author has included the contributions of other regions on the globe to Europe. It has the feel of a young adult book which I don't think it is. The illustrator Neil Emmanuel, though, is a well known children's book illustrator. While the book cover is colorful, all of the drawings are in black and white. The writing is casual. The author surprisingly refers to one pope as a dude. 

I loved this mini history of the Middle Ages. I would recommend it to both adults and young adults. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Great British Bump Off

The Great British Bump Off is John Allison's newest comic series. Parts 2 through 4 will be published throughout the next few months with a paperback of all 4 of them coming out in November 2023. It is a graphic murder mystery that takes place on the set of the Great British Bakeoff tent. 

When Shauna Wickles enters the Bakeoff, she expects that she will delight the judges, charm the nation and meet a few friends along the way. She did not expect to be an amateur sleuth investigating the poisoning of a fellow contestant. It is up to her to figure out who the killer is while avoiding elimination from the contest.

The comic is as delightful as a British traybake. The cast of characters is diverse. There is the retired grandmother, Shauna, a choir director, street musician, dental technician, meteorologist and a pharmacist to name a few. Some contestants are pleasant while others are "competitive."  This is a goofy rendition of the British TV show that female readers will definitely like. It might be too sacharine sweet for superhero comic readers though. 

I loved the comic and am rating it 5 out of 5 stars. I am looking forward to the release of part 2 next week.

Book of Evil

The Book of Evil is a Comixology Original by Scott Snyder. Part 1 was published in October 2022. The book does not have the feel of a comic but rather an illustrated story about four young friends growing up in a strange future. In this future, over 92% of adolescents become psychopaths when they reach puberty. The four friends embark on a journey across America looking for a safe haven. As they search for this utopia, they find terror behind every corner. At this time, only two installments of the series have been published. #3 was supposed to have been published last month but I cannot find it.

The story was eerie as were the drawings by JOCK. The characters are supposed to reside inside the yellow yolk lines drawn on roads. If they leave the yolk, they get punished. If they get punished bad enough then they cannot become human.  All of the characters are named after famous authors such as Homer, Poe, Milton, Elliott, and Blake which must mean something. I just don't know what it is.

I must admit that I had a hard time following the plot. It seemed to me that the entire first entry only showed the reader what this strange world entailed. I also read part 2 of the series and have come to believe that this series is not for me. I will not be reading any future installments. The story was too weird for me but I know that there are comic fans out there who will enjoy it. 

The Black Ghost

The Black Ghost is a 5 part Comixology Original by Alex Segura and Monica Gallagher. All 5 issues were  published in May 2021 in one volume by Dark Horse Comics and it promises a continuance of the story at the close of #5.  

Our main character is Lara Dominguez. She is a troubled Creighton cops reporter obsessed with the city's debonair vigilante - the Black Ghost. With the help of a mysterious cyber-informant named Lone, Lara has inched closer to uncovering the identity of the Ghost. But as she searches for the breakthrough story that she desperately needs for her paper, Lara navigates the corruption of her city, the uncertainties of virtue, and her own personal demons. The question is whether she can overcome those demons to write spectacular news stories.  

Lara is a fantastic character.  She is a lesbian vigilante of color but her sexual orientation and race do not figure into the story. Lara not only is a journalist but she also teaches a GED class. She is an alcoholic and this prevents her from advancing in her life and career. Another character that I liked was Ernesto who is one of Lara's GED students. He lives in the Dregs and unfortunately gets beat up because of his involvement with her.  Milano's bartender Molly and Lara's boss Maggie are also characters who were interesting and added depth to the story. Crime chieftain Barnabas is the villain of the story and Lara's former classmate Kelly works for him.. All of these characters would make for a fantastic long comic series.

The Black Ghost was a fun read. 5 out of 5 stars.

Census

Census is a 5 part Comixology Original comic by Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman. It is advertised as a horror comedy by the publisher. I have read the first 4 installments of the series and the final part will be published January 17, 2023. The story is about Liam Malone who takes a job as a census taker for $32 an hour. Liam has no ambition in life. After six years attending college he has not been able to obtain a degree and is looking for any job other than cleaning up human waste. While riding a bus in New York City he sees a sign that says "Good pay, flexible hours, no experience necessary" so heads over for an interview and gets a job working for the Census Bureau. What Liam doesn't know about this new job is that he will be counting demons for the Underworld census. He has to count and register all of the demons, djinns, changelings and other supernatural beings in New York. Liam learns that to get the job of a lifetime you sometimes have to sell your soul.

The idea for the story is rather creative but with Liam meeting female supernaturals who rape him for his blood, this is obviously written by a man. A woman writer would never create a character who is unappealing physically but cannot fight off the women who want him. The adolescent stuff aside, Census is hilarious. The reader sees Liam going door to door, never knowing what he is going to find when that door opens. Liam's home situation is also hilarious. He shares an apartment with two other men and they alternate who gets to sleep in a bed and who has to sleep in the bathtub. One roommate is always shown naked sitting on a toilet so the adolescent element continues throughout the story.

Each installment of the comic shows Liam coming across different types of creatures. For example, in part 2 he comes across a group of leprechauns that he must register. I enjoyed the story and wish it could keep on going. However, there is only one more release before this comic ends.

4 out of 5 stars.

Night at the Belfry

James Ransom is 74, and a far cry from the tough young boxer he remembers from the 80's. Sick of growing increasingly powerless and reliant on others in his old age, James reconnects with a former trainer and hatches a possibly fatal plan to regain the control he believes he's lost. He plans on training for a final boxing match during which he hopes to die. His trainer is searching for the right opponent while James trains. In the meantime, James' daughter is constantly checking on him and wonders whether he should be living in an assisted living facility. James wants to avoid that possibility at all costs.

As I advance in age I find myself liking stories about seniors more and more. There is no reason to accept crappy behavior from the younger generations and our hero James finds an interesting way to become stronger. After getting mugged on a train by a kid he gets up early one day to see if he runs into the kid again. James sees him on the street and punches him in the face but gets injured in the process. The important idea here, in my opinion, is that he gets his revenge.

The artwork is beautiful and I liked the cool toned purple and blue palette. Xavior Saxon not only wrote this engaging story but he also did the artwork. Night is his first graphic novel and I am looking forward to seeing what he brings us in the future.

5 out of 5 stars.

Blood Oath 1 Through 4

Blood Oath is a  5 part Comixology Original by Rob Hart and Alex Segura. I have read installments 1 through 4. Installment 5 will be released soon. The story takes place during Prohibition with Hazel Crenshaw tending to her Staten Island farm, caring for her younger sister and running her business. Her business becomes tangled up with the New York gangs that will eventually coalesce into the mafia. With the farm not doing as well as Hazel hoped, she helps bootleggers by letting them store their alcohol on her farm. When the Crenshaw farm is attacked, Hazel has to defend her home but realizes that her flirtation with the gangs also put her and her family in danger.  

Blood Oath blends bootlegging and vampires into a horror story that entertains. While it is a horror story, it is also a family story as both Hazel and the vampires act in their respective family interests. A fun read, I am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Sunburn

Sunburn is Andi Watson's fourth graphic novel. Sunburn is a sweet, clean fiction story about 16 year old Rachel. Rachel is happy to have found a summer job at a butcher's shop where she will be mopping the floor and performing other mundane tasks. At the last minute her mother receives a phone call from her best friend Diane with an invitation for Rachel to spend the summer in Greece with her. Of course, Rachel decides to give up that summer job and take a free trip to Greece.

Rachel hasn't seen Diane and her husband Peter since she was a baby. However, she assimilated into the Greek culture swiftly and even made a friend. Benjamin is attracted to Rachel and she feels the same way about him. They spend most of their days and nights together getting to know one another. 

Sunburn has no foul language, violence or sex so it is appropriate for kids. The adults do alot of drinking and party every night. Rachel and Ben tag along with them. There is a mystery concerning why Diane invites a young person every summer to her home and Benjamin has something to do with it. I couldn't figure it out though. The story is illustrated in the blues and whites that you see in Greece which made the story more attractive to the reader.

This is a lovely story. 5 out of 5 stars.