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.

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’