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Another great collection of comics by this writer. The afterward has a lots of information about how the artist has changed up her style since she first started posting her comics online when she was still in art school.
Periwinkle the cat narrates his life in the pages of this book. Starting with coming to live with Nnedi and her daughter Anyaugo, Periwinkle takes a few months to warm up to them but now loves them very much. When they are asleep, he jumps in his space ship and races an orange space cat that has extra limbs and is from Neptune just like Periwinkle’s father. He protects the family from a hot sauce demon and also goes to Nigeria when Nnedi goes there for a year to write a book. When he is there he still has his spaceship since he keeps it in liminal space. He gets out one day and has even more adventures. The story and the art work hand in hand the entire book and I love the illustrations. A fun read for all ages.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
Rivers of London Vol. 12: Stray Cat Blues by Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, José María Beroy (artist)
This story has Abigail and the foxes working on a case that brings back a villain from a previous comic story but this time she is on the side of good. A good story that builds on both comic and book mythos.
This is a beautifully drawn book but nothing like the artist’s previous work. This is a tiny book that packs a wallop in the black and white drawings and spare narrative. Certainly one to check out and revisit.
When an old roadie sees dragons in London the Folly gets called in. The only problem is most people can’t see them and they are also attacking helicopters. The Fey are trying to get them back at the same time Peter is trying to fix the issue. A good story overall and builds on what has come before in the comics.
Hellboy in Love by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden , Matt Smith (Illustrator), Chris O'Halloran (Colorist), Clem Robins (Letterer)
Just what the title says. Hellboy seems to be smitten in this series of stories with meeting Anastasia, an archaeologist who is working on discovering the secrets to a previous unknown group of magic users that were around the globe. This is certainly a new side to Hellboy for the fans and I’ll be interested to see if they will be doing more stories in this setting since there is so much more to explore.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
This covers Tom Petty’s early life and the early years of his career. There isn’t much about his later years but most casual fans will know those parts about his life. This goes over every band he was in before getting the Heartbreakers together and some of the things he did before he hit it big. Fans of Tom Petty will enjoy the easter eggs of lyrics woven into conversations. I also think this might be a good gift to give any musically inclined friend or family member to show them that it took a lot of hard work and some luck for Tom Petty to become successful.
Digital review copy provided by the published through Edelweiss
Young Hellboy: Assault on Castle Death by Mike Mignola, Craig Rousseau (Illustrator), Dave Stewart (Illustrator), Clem Robins (Illustrator), Tom Sniegoski
This second collection is just as fun as the first one. Hellboy is coming down with a fever while settling into his new home. In his fevered state Lobster Johnson appears to him and asks for his help on a mission. Hellboy jumps at the chance to help his hero but while this is happening there is someone planning on murdering the child to prevent the end of the world. The story is good and has a strong ending. And the details work great so you can see how Hellboy would see how things happen as he is in a fevered delusional state.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
Rivers Of London: Deadly Ever After by Ben Aaronovitch, Celeste Bronfman, Andrew Cartmel, José María Beroy
Olympia and Chelsea are the young twin daughters of Mama Thames and they are all about having a good time. When on a camping trip they break a ward on a mulberry tree and accidently free a painter that has been there for over a hundred years. Jeter finds his one descendant and with the magic he has learned during his captivity is using it to change the people around his descendant. With the help of the foxes the twins have to fix what is going on and get Jeter under control and break the magic he has done. Peter and Nightingale are not in this much except for some cameos but Abigail does give the twins some help but is not the focus of the story. This isn’t my favorite of the comics since it doesn’t feature Peter or Nightingale.
The look of the comic mirrors the movie perfectly and the tone of the story hits all the marks. Ash is Blade Runner but she has a secret she keeps from her coworkers in order to keep her job. She is given a job she can’t refuse, to find the wife and daughter of a corporate executive. Of course, it isn’t easy and there are facts missing but Ash keeps hunting even after she is pulled from the case. A good story and you are left wanting more by the end.
When an always detail oriented lady lawyer finally decides to do something spontaneous things get really out of hand. She buys a storage locker and instead of a jinn in a bottle she finds the fairy King Oberon who grants her three wishes but he will take every wish literally. Kelly decides to wish for world peace and has six main clauses and thirty-four subclauses. Of course lots of people are unhappy with this outcome and come after her. Now she has two more wishes and is in hiding and has to make sure she doesn’t use the word wish anymore. And Oberon is learning more about the modern world he has missed out on.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
Hellboy: The Silver Lantern Club by Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, Ben Stenbeck (illustrator), Michelle Madsen (illustrator), Dave Stewart (colors)
This collection has Hellboy briefly framing each story as his friend’s uncle recounts in in a pub. Only the last issue has more of him in it when one of the old stories sheds light on the case that Hellboy and his friend are working on. There isn’t a lot of Hellboy action until the end, but the stories are entertaining.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
Set in the world of Hellboy but before he came into our world, The Witchfinder is set during Victorian England, and it follows Sir Edward Grey as he is tracking down something that was brought to England. The unusual bones were found on an expedition, and it seems that everyone that had something to do with that trip is dying. I enjoyed the story arc since I hadn’t read these before and it makes a great introduction to Mike Mignola’s work.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
#19 The Tea Dragon Tapestry by Kay O'Neill
Apr. 5th, 2022 12:04 pmThe third book in this series is just as lovely as the other two. Characters from the previous collections make an appearance in this one. Greta is working to create something that will impress a master metalworker to take her on as an apprentice while she is still caring for a grieving tea dragon. Minette is also coming to terms with her decision to leave the monastery. Yet with the unknown featuring in the book there really is a lot of happiness and these stories leave the reader with a warm and cozy feeling.
This is the collection that has my all-time fav panel by her of shopping in a bookstore. Everything in this book is wonderful and starting here is fine for a new reader since each comic is pretty much self-contained.
This is a gorgeously illustrated version of a short story of Neil Gaiman’s that has been collected multiple times. Colleen Doran’s watercolor work brings it to life and makes it luminous. The story has a old woman finding the Grail in a charity shop and then having Galahad show up and offer her many treasures for the Grail. This isn’t the first time they have collaborated together and I can’t wait to see if they do more.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
This one deals with a tea dragon that bespelled for 80 years and missed out on protecting a village. After being woken up by Rinn, the dragon feels out of place after losing so many years. The village comes together to help Aedhan realize he is still wanted and to help him overcome all the lost years. Rinn’s uncle comes to visit and helps find the cause of what caused the spell, he was also in the previous book so it makes for a nice continuity thread between he two books.
#72 The Art of Sushi by Franckie Alarcon
Dec. 10th, 2021 10:27 amThis is more of a memoir wrapped in info and history about sushi. As the author travels around Japan learning how to make sushi and the different styles of it. The art is lovely and color use is intentionally limited to great effect. I did learn something new about how really good sushi uses a different way of treating the fish before it is carved up for the chefs to use. This would make a good gift for someone into sushi or learning more about different cuisines.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
#69 Oddball by Sarah Andersen
Nov. 29th, 2021 02:30 pmI really like this comic and as usual there are some real gems among the pages. The downside is that I had seen about half of these before since I follow her son social media. The upside was seeing all that I missed. The nice thing about her collections is that they are all great for gift giving since they don’t have to be read in order.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
#63 Fine Print, Volume 1 by Stjepan Šejić
Nov. 16th, 2021 08:13 pmThe artist is the reason I requested the book. The story is supposed to be a contest between a succubus and incubi and their seduction of a woman to see who is the top cubi. The only downside most of the story here is set up to get to the contest. Most of the story is the backstory for Lauren and how she got to the point in her life that she agrees to sign a contract with the cubi, what the cubi get is power to be able to reproduce so they very much want these contracts to work and in the very beginning a contract was signed by someone that was asexual, so the contract went unfulfilled and caused quite a few problems. In the end this is a setup for a more issues of this comic and I hope that more of it gets done. The art is amazing and there is adult content so you might not wan to leave it lying around for just anyone to pick up.
Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
