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 anthology compromises seven stories of Direct Support Professionals on their duties of support folks living with disabilities. Green Mountain Support Services sponsored the comic and it was written by Mike Luoma and illustrated by several Vermont cartoonists.

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.

I really enjoyed ‘The Return of Thelma the Unicorn.’ It read like a poem and the illustrations were entertaining for kids and fun to look at for adults as there were enough visual jokes and references that gave me a chuckle.

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.

I read with the girls Jim Arnosky’s ‘Every Autumn Comes The Bear’. I have always been an avid fan of Jim Arnosky’s work since he was the first children’s book author I met way back in the early 80’s in elementary school and he is local to my area.

I am a fan of old golden age public domain comics and there are so many people trying to reintroduce old characters to a modern audience, but I feel Scott does it the best.

He can write a good pulpy story while nodding at the original material while updating it for a modern readership.

I read Issue #2 of Samual Vera’s ‘There’s an Alien in My Toilet’. I have been a fan of Sam’s journey into making his loveable and fun alien, Doodie a household name.

Issue #2 continues Doodie’s adventure in learning more about the earth while letting his imagination send him on adventures.

I also like seeing Sam build up the story from the perspective of the antagonists. The reader can get a glimpse of where the metaplot is going to take us.

On the cover, it looks like it fits solidly within a middle-grade audience, but as I read the 200+ page graphic novel, there might be a bit too much blood and violence for a middle-grade reader. This could depend on the maturity of the reader, of course.

Depending on the age of the child, this is a great book for a kid to read or have read with an adult. I introduced this to my 8-year-old as she loves kid's comics, but was a bit overwhelmed by the science aspect as it introduces some math formulas, but she did really love how accessible the craft designs were as it used common household items as ingredients.

I had some fun reading Laurie Calcaterra’s debut comic, ‘Path of the Pale Rider’. Laurie came on the show earlier this year to talk about the story of this post-apocalyptic western comic book and I was immediately excited to read the story.

What I love about this system is that the rules provide enough narrative freedom for the player, while still keeping it within a defined system that would appeal both to seasoned players that like a little ‘crunch’ in their game; whilst making it easy for first-time players to tabletop to enjoy.

This book and his style of books remind me a bit of Eric Carle and Dr. Suess. His illustrations and simple and creative use of words are accessible, much like Carle’s books, but the humorous and entertaining storyline that appeals to both adults and children is reminiscent to me of Dr. Suess.

This past week I read to my girls, Minh Le’s story, ‘The Blur’ which was illustrated by the Caldecott Medalist, Dan Santat. Granted, it is a children’s book, but this book is for parents.

The story follows the parents of a little girl who watch her grow up and go to college. The title ‘The Blur’ has a twofold meaning.

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.

This past week, I did more research on the Fate Core system. I read the Fate System Toolkit which is another game-building supplement of Evil Hat Productions. This was also a very helpful resource for building a game.

Although I do not plan on having magic used in my game, this does have a very robust explanation of how one would utilize a magic system inside a Fate Core system.

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.