This continues to be a very plot-driven series where the reader follows along with the story of the 3 main characters. In this book, we learn the secret of one of the character’s pasts and why they are slowly disappearing.

The main villain also seems a bit scarier, but not in a horror way, but in a way that shows us how easily public opinion can be weaponized.

Over the vacation a couple of weeks ago, I read volume two of ‘The Graveyard Book’ which was the graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book of the same name. it was a very good second act to the story. The protagonist, Nobody is a little older than he was in volume 1 and has a much stronger curiosity about what lies outside the graveyard.

This past week, in preparation for my chat with Curtis Clow, I read the first four issues of his famed series ‘Beastlands’ which has been picked up for distribution by Darkhorse Comics.

Curtis likens his series to a cross between Pokémon and Game of Thrones. This is a fairly accurate claim. There is an adult level of violence found in the latter reference, but the theme of people having magical pet companions is reminiscent of the ’90s card game and cartoon.

This past week I finally finished reading ‘Covid Chronicles’ comic anthology from Graphic Mundi. This is a whopping 270+ page book with 65 individual stories. This book serves both as a therapy for all of us who lived (and are living) through COVID and serves as a time capsule. Although the book was published less than 2 years ago, it is also good to see how far we have come with the science and understanding of COVID.

I really loved Mika’s illustration style and the simple and direct story is full of heart and is accessible for humans to read at any age.

The message of the book is universal: Fresh donuts taste better than burnt pancakes!

I really enjoyed the multiple artists that came on to the project and it gave it an anthology feel even though it was written as a singular storyline. There were great world-building and alien cultures created for the book and even though the story was abandoned, I am excited to see what parts of the concept of the series will turn up in ‘Vampire Detective in Space’

I read book 3 of ‘5 Worlds’ this past week. I continue to enjoy the character development and storyline. I am particularly pleased to see how the evolution of each main character happens at a different pace. For example, in the first book the main character discovers her hidden power; in the second book, the android evolves into something more; in the third book, another main character is starting to grow.

The main plot of this African Science Fiction story starts with four alien races splitting up the earth into their own territories. Parallels to colonialism are the message and allow the reader to be educated on our world history. The presumption of the colonizers being welcomed along with the clash of technologies allows for the beginnings of a compelling story.

This is a middle-grade graphic novel series, but Siegel can tell a story that I believe is more well written than many adult fantasy epics that try to evoke a similar level of world-building. Others do it at the expense of character development, but Siegel weaves both internal and external conflicts for the heroes in a way that seems natural.

It was a fun read and one thing that Caleb is good at too is making sure the title is reflecting what the story is about. Issue one gives the reader a taste of where the overall story is going while throwing in an engaging origin story of the main character along with the origin story of the world he has created.

I backed Stephanie Nina Pitsirilos’ Kickstarter a couple of months ago, ‘Zine100: How Not to Be Colonized By Outreach Programs’. It was a fun and educational mini-zine that was handmade by Stephanie. Her passion and experience in community-based health advocacy are apparent and appreciated in the booklet. She tackles a challenging subject that is also not widely known with an approachable and accessible narrative and art style.

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.

Also the book boasts four different illustrators and they do a great job in capturing the fantastical science fiction and magical world that Siegel created. The colors and the character designs, along with the landscapes helped with the story immersion.

The description of the book is as follows:

Planet Jurassica is under siege. The sinister space pirates have raided the Imperial palace and stolen the famous Jewels of Jurassica. This looks like a job for . . . Captain Raptor!. . . hero of a thousand space missions; champion of truth, justice, and dinosaurs in space throughout the galaxy. If anyone can track down those marauding space pirates, it's Captain Raptor and the fearless crew of the Megatooth!

I have always loved Neil Gaiman’s stories. They possess an accessible amount of horror and whimsy while making incredibly niche settings easy to understand by any reader. There is no level of condensation to his narrative, and this book is a great example of it.

The story turned out to be a melancholy post-apocalyptic world where the three protagonists wandered around a destroyed world for food.

For me, it read like an episode of the show instead of a self-contained story.

Nostalgia abound! Much like other branching novel books, this is written in a second-person point of view. How this is different than other books, this is also mainly a solo roleplaying game. The reader first creates the character statistics. I love how this particular branching novel roleplaying adventure makes it extremely portable and accessible anywhere.

I really appreciated Khouri’s artwork, with its heavy linework. This book also shows how important color is to a story, for mood and setting. The entire book was presented in a warm palette of yellows and oranges, which insinuated to me, a planet with a different type of sun.

This past week I read ‘Aster and the Accidental Magic’ by Thom Pico and Karensac. What a fun book. Thom and Karensac created a great world for the protagonist, Aster to explore. I really love this type of youth-oriented graphic novel genre that has characters interacting with their day-to-day magical surroundings.

It is exciting to see the writer and the artist world build together and seemingly work so well as to play on each other’s creative strengths.

I mentioned on my Instagram that this book had some innovative storytelling through mapping and engineering designs, which I found interesting. Ying also sets up a grand backstory that is hinted at in the book, allowing the reader to feel satisfied while wanting to explore this world more.