It is an entertaining and heartwarming story with humor and great panel layouts that give the reader a sense of the cinematic.  Judd Winick wrote and illustrated the story, and I look forward to reading another installment.

A while ago, I backed Tiny Library on Kickstarter.  It is a deck of 50 single-card RPGs from various creators, and this kit is chock full of inspiration.  Some of the cards are very much stand-alone mini-role-playing games.  Other cards are inspirations for creative minds; some are resources people could use for their games.

This quick and powerful read follows a young girl who goes back to visit her mother’s hometown after a storm.  A great backstory is touched regarding her mother’s passing and the seemingly normalized magical creatures that live next to this seaside fishing village.

This was an engaging and visually stunning coming-of-age story about a girl who accidentally crashes her father’s airship in a faraway jungle paradise. She meets new friends and builds her confidence and grows from seeing the flaws of those she looks up to and learns that no one is perfect.

I have been enjoying reading some of the comics that I bought through doing Proxibid. One of them is the old New Universe series ‘Kickers Inc’. Jim Shooter created the line of in celebration of Marvel Comics’ 25th anniversary.

As a reader, I knew I was reading a horror comic, but my logical brain was trying to make sense of what was happening and was hoping that I would get some answers at the end of the story, but frankly, I am glad I did not. It made the story’s horror last longer in my mind.

This past week I read ‘Kerry and the Knight of the Forest’ by Andi Watson it was a delightfully thick YA graphic novel that reaches over 260 pages. The story is about a boy named Kerry who gets lost in the woods and a waystone helps him find his way out of the forest.

‘Baba Yaga’s Assistant’ was geared towards the young adult audience, but at the same time had some pretty adult themes of the death of family members, while discussing the importance of finding one’s own life path based on the values and wisdom established by multi-generational households.

One of my favorite things about this is the repartee between characters. It is reminiscent of the 90s in the sense that the original Image Comics superhero teams were built from a similar story premise and the 90s movies were also a great era of witty banter.

This past week I read ‘Turner Family Stories’ from the Vermont Folklife Center. It is an anthology of stories that follow Daisy Turner retelling the stories of her parents and herself over a 100-year timespan from enslavement in Virginia to freedom in Vermont. This book is over 100 pages and features 5 cartoonists, including our ‘Friend of the Show’ Marek Bennett.

Frankly, I was very impressed by the quality of the story. I immediately connected with the characters and found the story’s backdrop of Eastern Africa engaging. Beserat is great at instilling some cultural-specific terms and actions that serve as a nod to his Ethiopian audience and as a cross-cultural educational piece for an uninitiated western audience.

The series so far is reminiscent of James Gunn’s film with how both successfully interweave a compelling storyline with the complexity of multiple character development arcs.

I reread the 18 issue series “The Comet” from the short-lived 90’s DC spinoff publication series, Impact Comics. They had 6 titles, and my favorite, by far with The Comet.

I still think he had the best superhero origin story. Once Rob Conners (The Comet) discovered the origin of his powers, he basically spiraled down mentally and he eventually died.

Mark Gonyea is extremely passionate about graphic design and how the combination of basic shapes can tell a compelling story. I had a great time sitting down and talking with Mark, an accomplished graphic designer, and children's book author. For those who love design and children's books and how to make one, this is an interview you can't miss.