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.

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.

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.

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.

I really appreciated how the writers and artists utilized Baum’s original series and did not rely on the more well-known film version of the characters. The writers of the stories also understood many of the characters and lands in the 13-book series, including people like the Shaggy Man and Ozma.

The setting is interesting and unique, allowing games to only take place in Americana Literary settings. I found the book a fun read and very rules-light. It almost seemed like a party game in its design and intent than a traditional tabletop roleplaying game with long campaign settings.

Lords of the Cosmos is a quintessential homage to 80’s culture. On the surface, it appears to reference ‘Heavy Metal’ and influenced by the artwork of the bands of Iron Maiden and Metallica.

As I read more of the story, it was fun to see also inspirations from the 80’s cartoons and toys as well.

I wanted to first thank all of my guests for being a part of my podcast. When I started it at the beginning of last February, I had no idea that we were going to be facing such a tough year.

Talking to them has been equal parts inspiration, social connection, and therapeutic. I have been consistently humbled and encouraged by the conversations and I am looking forward to seeing where next year will take us. In our inaugural year, we were able to produce 50 shows!