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.

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.