This past week I read issue 3 of ‘There’s an Alien in my Toilet’ by the fun and talented Samuel Vera. In issue 3, the reader meets Herman, the Chihuahua who acts as the foil to Doodie’s adventures and exploration of this new world he is lost in.

I was very excited to read issue 4 of Warriors of the Universe by Chance Priest with art by the talented Geff Bartrand.  This is a great team-up of a world builder and an illustrator.  Chance is prolific in creating a giant world with countless characters, and Geff can match complex stories with intricately detailed illustrations for the comic book series. 

I read the second Barb book, ‘Barb and the Ghost Blade’.  It continued to possess the same delightful storytelling magic of Dan and Jason.  They expertly weave in serious adventures with childlike humor.  Their style is reminiscent of the golden age of Nickelodeon cartoons with the class of a Disney film

Judd Winick took the characters' danger in the first one and set the bar hiring to create a unique sense of risk that the main characters had to face.

This goes more into depth about Hilo’s backstory while giving the main supporting characters more growth.  Because of this, there are more impactful decisions that are made by the children that appear to ripple into other books.

This past week I read Ben Hatke’s ‘Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl’ I first started reading Ben’s work with ‘Mighty Jack’ but never read any of his Zita stories.  I must say, as someone who only knew half of the characters in this book, Ben did a fantastic job not getting the reader lost in the story. 

It takes a specific storytelling skill to start a book halfway through a character’s developmental story arc and not make a first-time reader get lost, and Ben did a great job with that.

Over the last few weeks, I have introduced my 6-year-old and 8-year-old to the fun and exciting world of tabletop role-playing games.  Toon, by Steve Jackson Games, is a great in-between system for young kids who like games that involve interactive storytelling and those that want to get started in learning more complex rule systems.

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 past week I finally got to read ‘Olaju: The Edge of Origins’ by one of our past guests, Peter Chizoba Daniel.  It is a gorgeous graphic novel that is inspired by Nigerian folklore.  This story is unique to most other comics I have read in the past, and I would categorize it mainly in the high fantasy genre, or it could be in a new category on its own of African High Fantasy.

The late Dirk Zimmer’s artwork gave me great nostalgia. The illustrations provided an outstanding balance of horror and innocent accessibility so that my 8-year-old self was haunted by the images but not terrified by them.

I read ‘Mighty Jack and the Goblin King’ by Ben Hatke this past week.  Compared to the first book, ‘Mighty Jack’, this one had less dialogue and more action.  The second book was also much more overt in its inspiration of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and also gives a robust backstory and does some substantial world-building as well.

I particularly loved that it was heartfelt and funny, and I could tell that Dan and Jason had an enjoyable time making the book.  This is what stands out for me.  The sheer joy and humor in the book made it engaging.

I have been researching and designing my FATE Core adventure module for my ‘Appliance’ game and found Mindjammer Press’ cosmic fantasy roleplaying game, ‘The Chronicles of Future Earth’, an excellent resource. 

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.

What I appreciated the most from this book is how some proverbs are like those of the Zarma and Hausa people.  This does make it hard to determine where some of these sayings originated, but it does say a lot about how some phrases and sayings resonate throughout all of West Africa.

What I appreciated about this book, as I have daughters and work as a disability advocate in my day job is how Ben naturally includes into the story strong female characters and normalizes the inclusion of folks living with disabilities.

I really enjoyed the build-up of mysteries and the reveal of backstories while the reader learns more about Wyatt and Adeline.

The book has a pretty good pace and fits well within the teen superhero genre. It has heart and Eric did a great job showing the reader what a supportive and competitive sibling relationship looks like.

This is a great children’s book and has a great message for kids, and that is all about following your dreams, and being kind can make you feel good. Amy Baron also found an amazing illustrator for ‘The Gentle Bulldozer’ with Rogerio Coelho. His friendly and accessible style is a perfect companion to Baron’s story.

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.