I delighted in the theme of ‘do not grow up too fast’ and ‘be careful what you wish for.’  The final confrontation with the antagonist at the end felt rushed, but I loved some of the characters Mel meets along the way and the fantastical settings of some of the environments.

It was fun and educational along with being a quick and engaging read. I love how Christian set up the world and all the different species that were found by the main characters so far. I am very excited to see what each level of the pyramid brings.

What I did like about Wright’s game is how he created archetype stunt families that have stunt groups that chain off of each other. This gives players another opportunity for character progression.

The Mecha system is also very interesting; allowing the Game Master to have a collection of Aspects, Extras, and Stress track for them.

I read Eric Orchard’s book, ‘Maddy Kettle: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch’. This was a fun middle-grade-level graphic novel that is around 90 pages.

It was a fast-paced fun adventure about a girl trying to save her parents and floating toad pet from goblins.

I loved that my memories of the book stayed true. I think this book really launched me into the idea of world-building, as Berenstain showed the history, culture, and activities of trolls in a fun and entertaining way that inspired me as a child to make my own worlds.

“Meanwhile” is a fun hard-cover graphic novel that allows the reader to choose their own path for the character which acts more as a solo adventure game than a comic book. I have reread it many times and almost every time it is a different ending.

I really have started to prefer the space-faring comic titles as it seems like more epic events take place that has lasting meta plot effects as compared to the more earth-bound titles.

I am also curious to see where the storyline is going. Al Ewing, the writer is making the not-so-subtle comparison to the team with the Avengers, by calling the team the ‘Space version of the Avengers.’

My 6-year-old raided my bookcase and found a Star Wars: The Clone Wars graphic novel called “Shipyards of Doom” and has been eagerly reading it to me and to her younger sister every night.

I am such a proud dad to see my daughter discover Star Wars on her own. She was even more excited to discover that Disney Plus has all of the Star Wars too.

This past week, I’ve been reading more public domain golden age comics; mainly the old Sheena comics to help me out with the writing styles of the 1940s.

This past week I read the 2006 series of the “Defenders”. It was one of my bookshelf discoveries. It was so cool to see that the writers of this series were no other than the writing team of Keith Giffens and J.M. DeMatteis.

I loved their Justice League run in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and was excited to read these first 5 issues.

This past week I read issue 3 of Crimebusters by Scott Harris King. He was our guest a few months ago on Episode 47 of Storycomic Presents. He was promoting this comic book back in late November last year.

A few years ago I had the great opportunity to meet the more famous Barney Smith while I was at a conference in San Antonio Texas. I spent the entire afternoon with him and I had a great time learning about his work making art on toilet seat covers.

This past week I was also fortunate enough to get my hands of Lords of the Cosmos issues one , two, and three. I am reading them so I can send in a letter for the letters section of issue 4. I really enjoyed how Jason Lenox designed the universe and the wide and diverse cast of characters has made it really enjoyable as well

It was a slow week with reading. I did however put together a new lego set! So technically I read the instruction book for the lego set.

This week I finally got in the mail the last issues I needed so I could read Part 12 – 22 of the X-men event “Ten of Swords”. Since I am only a year or so back into reading comics, I got the strong impression that this event has set up some significant story seeds for the future.

I just read ‘Heck’ by Zander Cannon and it was a great book! it was a hefty 250+ pages, but the story carried me through and it had a great take on Dante’s Inferno. The character development was good. A great amount of action, intrigue, and emotion.

Highly recommend this story for anyone who likes hell-themed adventure stories.

This past week I read Nathan Hale’s educational graphic novel, ‘Big Bad Ironclad’ which is part of his ‘Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales’ series.

The format of the book is really good. I loved how Hale utilized the page formats and frames to help tell the story. Almost every page was a master class in graphic design.