Making Comic Zines (Eddy Atoms)

Making Comic Zines

Eddy Atoms
Silver Sprocket
Nonfiction, YA? Creativity/Graphic Novel/Humor
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION:

Have you ever had a little idea you wanted to share with the world - a poem, a comic strip, a story, a thought - but didn't know how? Does creating a full-blown novel or comic book seem too intimidating? Why not try making your own zine? These short, small-run, self-published magazines are a great way to begin creating. They can be anything from a folded page to a stapled or sewn-together booklet, and you don't need to be a full-fledged artist or writer to get started. All you need is a little time, a little motivation, and a little idea... and some of the basics outlined here.

REVIEW:

In the interest of full disclosure, I once was part of a fanzine; my father was part of a long-running amateur press association (APA), and for many years I had reviews and the odd thoughts as a "coattail zine" in his entries (admittedly to help boost his page count). I'm not even sure if that APA is still around; we lost touch when Dad's dementia worsened to the point where he could no longer continue to publish, and there seemed no real point in me continuing on my own in what was essentially his circle of friends and associates. So when I found this while randomly browsing my library's Hoopla offerings for something that wasn't ridiculously dark and/or part of a larger franchise or multiverse, it tickled a little wisp of nostalgia.
On the plus side, Making Comic Zines brims with can-do, go-for-it energy, emphasizing that one doesn't need to be a Picasso or a Stephen King to create or have something worth saying. If you wait to be someone else to begin, someone smarter or better or more experienced or what-have-you, you'll never do anything. Start where you are. The bar for entry to zines is very low, and Atoms offers tips on keeping things cheap (or free) and accessible, especially useful to those of limited means and/or minors. It's quite encouraging and empowering, and it openly admits that this is just a launchpad; at 40 pages, it doesn't even try to be in depth, but goes over the basics of coming up with an idea, figuring out layout, printing, and distribution.
On the minus side, though, there's a heck of a lot that's glossed over or ignored, making it a bit too simplistic. Yes, parodies and satires of popular franchises are generally considered safe under "fair use," but big companies can and will bankrupt you proving it if they decided to push their claim, and not even minors are safe from that. There's also no mention of where the line between plagiarism or theft and homage lies, which can also get one into trouble. Further, I'm a bit skeptical of advice to distribute home-printed zines to local libraries; ask first, as not all libraries can or will take such donations. (Guerilla distribution of zines might be a safer bet, to be honest, leaving copies where people you think might enjoy them will find them; just be careful what kind of personal information you include in anything you create... and the same warning goes for fandoms in general. Many people are trustworthy, but there are dark corners in even the most benign-seeming groups.) And, of course, there's the ravenous kaiju elephant beast of AI that's not even addressed, a threat that not even zines are safe from. (As a minor unrelated note, in the section on printing, Atoms skips over the fact that many printers these days can collate your copies for you, saving you a step. It's one of several points where a little more practical nuts-and-bolts information could save newcomers a lot of time, tears, and frustration.)
For all that, though, it's a fun little zine with lots of energy and optimism, and it brought back some nice memories.

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Frostbite (Ian Boothby)

Frostbite

Ian Boothby, illustrations by Pia Guerra
Graphix
Fiction, YA Graphic Novel/Horror
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION:

A busload of high school hockey players, on the way home from a winter game, takes a wrong turn and slides off the road in the middle of the snowy woods... and is never seen again. This is just the latest disappearance in the valley between the two rivers.
Teen influencer siblings Jen and Dante have a popular channel filming themselves doing outrageous stunts - including jumping out of a helicopter to snowboard down a mountain. But they find themselves in way over their heads when they end up in the dangerous valley as night falls, and something dark and deadly begins to stir beneath the snow.

REVIEW:

A hidden valley, a secret danger, half-seen beasts lurking unseen, a desperate plan to survive a freezing night in the woods... Frostbite may not be the most original of tales, but it's a quick, clean, reliable concept, and it's not badly executed or rendered, but there were some issues that held it down in the ratings. For one, sometimes it was a bit tough to tell a few characters apart as they're bundled in snow gear. For another, the in-story logic feels weak and stretched at times. The monsters themselves have clear patterns and rules, but the people, especially the ones who have lived next door to the monsters for generations and the subset who have dedicated themselves to protecting others from the danger, really should have more situational awareness, particularly regarding the final "twist" in the last frame. I realize that many horror/monster stories require the odd bout of plot-enabling numbskull moments, but this one stretched credulity at a couple or three places. It doesn't overstay its welcome, though, and in the moment it produces some tense moments and startles.

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Houses With a Story (Seiji Yoshida)

Houses With a Story: A Dragon’s Den, a Ghostly Mansion, a Library of Lost Books, and 30 More Amazing Places to Explore

Seiji Yoshida, translated by Jan Mitsuko Cash
Harry N. Abrams
Fiction, MG? Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION:

From the mountaintop sanctuary of a dedicated astronomer to a modern bookshop whose proprietor is more than he seems, from a Victorian mansion with a playful young ghost to the dwelling of a dragon tamer who carries the mail across the mountains, artist Seiji Yoshida presents numerous fantastical homes with hints of the stories behind them and the people (or spirits) who live within.

REVIEW:

With strong shades of the whimsicality of Studio Ghibli films and the fantastical locales that feel so real you could step into them presented by James Gurney in his Dinotopia series, Houses With a Story is precisely what the title promises: a series of pictures and cutaways presenting all manner of imagined homes and imagined characters in imagined yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows. These are the kind of imagination-stirring, thought-provoking images that one could pore over for hours, inspiring tales and perhaps compelling one to draw original homes and characters of one's own. At the end, Yoshida includes some sketches and a walkthrough of his art process for further inspiration.
That said, there were a few quibbles - nothing truly awful, but a few little nits and itches that held it down a bit in the ratings. For one thing, the "stories" are uneven; some locales have plenty of extra images and ideas about them, while others are there and done in a single page, as though the artist were less invested or interested. For another, I borrowed this via my library and the Hoopla app, and digital was perhaps not the best choice. Though my tablet is not top-of-the-line, it's not underpowered or underpixeled by any means, yet some of the "zoom" images included to show details had poor resolution, and navigation was sometimes confusing. Also, there was a certain sameness that settled in; there were a few outliers that were wildly imaginative, but many of the others started feeling... I suppose "safe" and "familiar" are the best words, not exploring the far corners of imagination but sticking to what was clearly familiar territory for the artist.
On the whole, though, this is a fun, undemanding book to page through on a lazy afternoon.

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Bea Wolf (Zach Weinersmith)

Bea Wolf

Zach Weinersmith, illustrations by Boulet
First Second Books
Fiction, MG? Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Humor/Poetry
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION:

Hey, wait! Hark now to a tale of heroes and monsters, of foam swords and green soda and tooth-rotting treats, of the ancient King Carl and the many who bore the cardboard crown after he passed into the teen-lands, and of the greatest warrior to ever raise her sugar-sticky fist against the fun-breakers and the bullies: Bea Wolf.
In the high hall of Treeheart, a magnificent stronghold of childhood wonder and hijinks, King Kai and his loyal band enjoy raucous merriment, trading jokes and telling stories and playing video games without parent-approved content... until the enraged neighbor, Mr. Grindle, can stand it no more. His mere touch instantly turns the wildest of children into a dull-eyed, dull-minded teenager, stripping them of their power and joy and ushering them into the doom of gray adulthood. All seemed lost, childhood forever ruined by the mustached monster - until an ally arrives to do battle with the fiendish foe.

REVIEW:

In this homage to the classic epic poem Beowulf, Weinersmith projects age-old concepts of mythology, heroism, loyalty, storytelling, and even the inevitability of entropy and decay of all great things onto the ultimate lost country of childhood.
Intentionally evoking the language and poetry of the original, as well as the alliteration and the dance of words, the tale relates the founding of the "kingdom" by the great king Carl, who - when he inevitably found the chin-whiskers and cracked voice of adolescence upon him, called for a pyre to mark his "death" and passed his crown on to future generations... knowing, even in his "afterlife" checking groceries at the supermarket, that his legend lives on. Heroes of old are evoked throughout, such as the twins who defied bedtime for seven whole days and gained wizardly powers before succumbing to sleep, and the girl whose Halloween candy haul remains unmatched. The current heir to Carl's throne, Kai, has raised the great high hall Treeheart, a place of feasting and merry-making and bedtime-defying for all brave children. But he faces a new threat: Mr. Grindle, "gloom's guardian, teacher of grief," a man who so embodies the epitome of boring, nasty, petty, cruel adulthood that he has become a monster, who only needs to lay one finger on a child to "begeezer" them, leach all their joy and imagination and magic (and there very much is magic involved in this story, which blurs the lines of reality and imagination to create a realm of epic marvels and dangers for the young and a gray, staid "afterlife" for the adults) and make them into phone-staring, rule-following young adults devoid of dreams. Treeheart technically partly overlays his property line, but it's the pure expression of childish joy and anarchy that truly drives the man into a rage, prompting him to defy the traps set to keep grown-ups out - a ladder laced with bug carapaces and boogers and other things repellent to their kind - to savage the very sacred hall itself, until no child dares set foot within. In Kai's time of need and woe, however, an ancient pact is recalled, and an ally from a distant kingdom (another suburb, up the "sliding sea," or river, from his) sends her greatest band of warriors to his aid. The chief of these warriors is the girl Bea Wolf, whose each fist holds the strength of sixty children. But is Mr. Grindle a match even for her bravery and might?
As in the original story, there is, even underneath the moments of triumph and humor, a sense of fate to both victories and defeats, as well as inevitable ending and tragedy, that even the greatest of kingdoms and mightiest of legends will inevitably fade. No child can escape adolescence forever (well, almost no child; there are a few tales mentioned in passing that hint at children who either managed to hold onto their dreams into adulthood or... did not grow up, though I may have been reading a little too much into those). Only the stories survive to inspire and inform the next heroes, passed down by young poets and bards from child to child like Carl's cardboard crown.
At the end, Weinersmith discusses the original Beowulf, the history of the surviving manuscripts, and how Bea Wolf was written to evoke the ancient epic, as well as a few pages of concept art that went into developing the idea. The art itself is worth noting, too, giving noteworthy children their own heraldic shields and creating distinct, occasionally surreal characters and monsters, matching the text in how it blurs lines between realism and fantasy.
The whole is an imaginative ode to timeless classical themes, a story that a clever child should enjoy, but which might speak also to those looking back at childhood from the other side of the teen-lands, hoping perhaps that magic and wonder and adventure yet remain somewhere in this gray and dreamless world, at least for the young.

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Dungeon Drawler Carl: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1 (Matt Dinniman et al.)

Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1

The Dungeon Crawler Carl Graphic Novel series, Issues 1 - 13
Matt Dinniman (author and creator), Aethon (creator), and Actus (creator), illustrations by Laurel Pursuit Studios
Vault Comics
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Humor/Media Tie-in/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION:

It was 2 AM on a cold winter night in Seattle when Coast Guard vet Carl watched the world end. He'd run outside in nothing but his boxers and a pair of too-small pink crocs after Princess Donut, the award-winning Persian who belonged to his ex Beatrice, escaped, so he could only watch in shock as every building suddenly was squashed out of existence, along with everyone and everything inside (including his pants). A booming voice informs everyone that aliens have arrived to take the planet's minerals, but humans could regain control of their world... if anyone dares brave the eighteen levels of the dungeon "game" that have been created underground. Carl didn't even want to do it, but he and Donut will die of exposure if they don't get out of the frigid air, so when a stairwell opens nearby he ventures down, hardly expecting how his life is about to change...
This volume collects the first 13 chapters of the webtoon based on Matt Dinniman's novel, Dungeon Crawler Carl.

REVIEW:

Yes, I'm on a bit of a Carl kick at the moment (so sue me, I seriously need something to enjoy with the way everything's going), so I went ahead and sprang for this graphic novel adaptation. The story sticks pretty close to the book, covering the first third or so of Dungeon Crawler Carl, and was clearly made with the author's input. The only major change that I noticed is that Donut is now a colorpoint (mostly white) cat instead of a tortoiseshell, a perfectly understandable compromise for the medium (torties being far more complicated to consistently ink and color, plus the simpler markings of a colorpoint make expressions easier to render and read). The art, effects, and overall layout and conventions reflect more manga influences than I usually read in my admittedly-limited graphic novel experience, but do a decent job getting ideas and emotions across.
That said, I do have a few gripes. The size is a little smaller than I'd hoped, being roughly eight inches by five and a half inches, which can make some of the text a little hard to read. Speaking of hard to read, several of the dungeon announcements, such as the AI's often-hilarious "achievements" for various tasks, are printed in fine white lettering on gold/orange backgrounds. Either my copy is slightly off true in color alignment, or it's just plain too small and with too poor contrast, because a good third at least of these announcements I could not read; the text is just too grainy even with a magnifier. There's no real gutter at the inner margins of the pages, which also cuts into images and text in ways that affect readability; I can't open the thing flat enough to see it all without damaging the spine or pages. I'm also unsure how well I'd be following it if I didn't already know the story (again, in part due to bits being a little tough to read). I'm not sure it picked the best point to end, not really being at a conclusion or a cliffhanger but just in the middle of things. And there were times where the panel layout and progression wasn't quite clear, though I expect this is down to me not reading enough manga-influenced material to be familiar with how they flow compared to more "Western" graphic novel styles.
Still, for all that, it's still a fun story that doesn't stint on the emotional weight, and the visual aspect highlights both the comic absurdity and the overall darkness of what's happening to Carl, Donut, and the world.

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Sea Legs (Jules Bakes)

Sea Legs

Jules Bakes, illustrations by Niki Smith
Scholastic
Fiction, MG General Fiction/Graphic Novel
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION:

Living aboard a boat would be a dream come true for most kids, but sometimes Janey gets tired of being adrift her whole life. Once in a while they drop anchor in an American port long enough for Mom and Dad to earn money, and she gets to go to school and make friends, but soon enough the red sails on the Merimaid rise and it's off across the sea again. Janey's determined to keep in touch with Rae, the best and closest friend she's ever made, but phone calls are expensive and letters sporadic and hard to mail. Then, at dock in the Bahamas, Janey meets teenager Astrid. Like Janey, Astrid lives aboard a boat, but otherwise they're nothing alike, challenging Janey to rethink her own life and her place in the world.

REVIEW:

This was an impulse borrow via the library and the Hoopla app to change up genres a bit; it's been a while since I read a graphic novel, especially one not in the fantasy/sci-fi genres, and I was looking for sea-related ideas for a personal project. Inspired by the author's own childhood aboard a boat built by her parents, Sea Legs is a coming-of-age tale as young Janey learns to navigate the difficult waters of an unusual childhood and different ways people can be friends. She loves her parents, and there are many wonderful things about life aboard the Merimaid - starlight, flying fish, colorful new places and amazing new foods - but sometimes it's tough when all she wants is friends she can see every day and a teacher who isn't her own mother.
Astrid is almost everything Janey is not: confident to the point of arrogance, cynical, (apparently) fearless, and independent to a fault. Their friendship is more a matter of proximity and a dearth of other minors on the docks than anything else; most other boat-dwellers are adults. Sometimes Janey resents Astrid's dismissive attitude and how she treats the younger girl like she's silly or stupid, but she also wants to be like Astrid... not seeing (at least not at first) how all the qualities she admires are the result of a harder life than Janey can imagine. The fact that Astrid keeps coming back to hang out with Janey speaks to something Astrid needs in a friend, too, but can't say out loud, not even to herself. Even as they form a fragile, fractious, and unlikely bond, however, the shifting seasons and tides threaten to destroy everything. The seas are never still, and neither is a life lived on the water, but sometimes you can find something to carry with you when you go.
The story moves decently. The art is bright and full of tropical colors and exotic locales, bringing to life a bygone childhood and the wonders (and hardships) of growing up on a boat. I enjoyed it.

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The Complete Maus (Art Spiegelman)

The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale
The Maus series, Volumes 1 and 2
Art Spiegelman
Pantheon
Nonfiction, Graphic Novel/History/Memoir
***** (Great)

DESCRIPTION: Art Spiegelman always had a troubled relationship with his father, Vlatek. He knew that the man, like Art's mother Anja, had experienced terrible things during Hitler's reign in Europe, but still Vlatek could be so very, very difficult to be around. It wasn't until much later that a grown Art, now a successful cartoonist and writer, decided to try recording his father's experiences in graphic novel form. Thus, in a series of interviews and encounters spanning several years, the story unfolds, the story of how a successful young Jewish man in Poland saw the world he knew destroyed and witnessed horrors no human should ever have to experience again.
This edition includes Volume I: My Father Bleeds History and Volume II: And Here My Troubles Began.

REVIEW: I've heard of this book for many years, a Pulitzer Prize-winning record of one of history's greatest modern atrocities through the eyes of one survivor, but it never quite ventured onto my reading radar. In recent times, as efforts to censor and outright ban books gain more traction (and disturbing signs of history repeating itself play out in broad daylight, to the unheeded warnings of many and the cheers of those too ignorant to know how this story always goes and those gleefully aware and spurring it on), I decided it was high time to give it a try; anything they're trying that hard to silence must be necessary reading. I finally manged to secure a used copy... and I only wish I'd gotten to it sooner.
The tale opens with a brief glimpse of a young Art - portrayed as a mouse, all characters in the book being anthropomorphic animals - out roller skating with friends only to fall behind when his skates break. He goes home to his father, but if he was expecting sympathy, he gets none. "Friends? Your friends?" Vlatek tells his son cynically. "If you could lock them together in a room with no food for a week... then you could see what it is, friends!" This moment sets the stage for the unfolding tale, which takes up again when Art is a grown man, his relationship with Vlatek best described as "complicated"... as are Vlatek's relationships with many people, particularly Mala, the woman he married after Anja's death by suicide. The two snipe at each other ceaselessly, driving one another to their wit's end (with Art too often caught in the middle). Even many years later, Vlatek still mourns Art's mother, herself also a survivor of the camps, a pain that often expresses itself in anger and helpless frustration, not helped by failing health. Art's efforts to record Vlatek's memories are as much about trying to bridge the gap with his father and reconnect with memories of his mother (whose own memoirs Vlatek burned in his grief, a tragedy Art struggles to forgive) as documenting a vital part of world history as experienced by one man. In this way, Art develops both himself and his father as full characters, in the present and the past, not just hollow placeholders to parrot facts and figures about the Holocaust experience. This lends the story more weight than anything I recall reading in history class, driving home that these were people, real people, warts and all, who thought and dreamed and loved and feared, not statistics and not some dismissable "other" from long ago and far away. In the present, Art and Vlatek meet several times, visits often ending in frustration and arguments, while Vlatek's past - starting from just before the young man met his future wife and Art's mother Anja (daughter of a wealthy and influential man who learned too late that money was no shield against evil) and wending through the buildup to Hitler's invasion of Poland and the relentless stripping down of rights and basic humanity on the way to the camps themselves. The illustrations sometimes bleed into surreality, the only way to effectively render the terrible events unfolding. Through it all, Vlatek persisted then as he persists in modern times, through a mix of resourcefulness, luck, and sheer stubbornness, traits Art comes to understand (even if he still can't help but find the old man difficult to the point of exasperation).
Spiegelman's simple, expressive renderings and heavy lines are surprisingly eloquent and effective, and the story as it unfolds in both past and present comes together splendidly, as much a tribute to one man's endurance as a testimony of an ugly time that should never be repeated (and yet, unfortunately, has been and is and most likely will be; I'd call these times and events "inhuman" if they weren't so often the flame to which humanity seems to keep fluttering like a moth, time again and again). This is a book that only becomes more important and even necessary as witnesses to World War II fade in the rear view mirror just as fresh new horrors appear through the mists ahead, a dire warning sign as well as a tiny glimmer of grim hope that maybe, eventually, these new evils too might fall and light return to a darkened world.

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The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, Volume 3 (Andy Diggle)

The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, Volume 3
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth series, Issues 9 - 12
Andy Diggle and James S. A. Corey (creators), illustrations by Francesco Pisa
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: It has been ten years since the sleeper "dragon tooth" agents left behind by General Duarte and the Martian defectors - currently on the far side of the Laconia ring, under complete radio silence - caused trouble for the system, but that does not mean they have forgotten their old master and their standing orders... or that they have not been working toward the destruction of Earth, Mars, and the Belters. When an Earth diplomat dies under suspicious circumstances while en route to Luna, it signals the coming end game for the saboteurs - and possibly the end of everything that Avasarala, Drummer, and the aging crew of the Rocinante have labored to rebuild.

REVIEW: The "Season Seven" story arc wraps up in a suitably explosive, action-packed finale with this third and final volume of the Dragon Tooth storyline. With another time jump, the characters are showing their age, continuing to fill the gap between the sixth and seventh novels but on the parallel timeline established by the television series. The core cast is distinctly older but no less capable or determined to protect the hard-won peace of the system... just as their enemies are no less determined to see it all destroyed. As the crew of the Roci race to identify the threat, the sleeper agents are perpetually one step ahead of them, leading to a nail-biter climax and a fitting final scene that segues well into the events of Strange Dogs and Persepolis Rising, the next books in the greater arc. I almost thought the characters felt a little short-changed in the rush to tie up the storyline, but this is primarily an action plot, and everyone has their own parts to play in the unfolding crisis. It earned the extra half-star for continuing to capture the feel of the series, which I've missed more than I realized.
On an unrelated side note, the tail end of December may have seemed a little sparse on reviews. That is because many of my reviews are audiobooks that I listen to at work, and I have had to take some time off due to a family crisis. My elderly father's physical and mental health have been worsening for some time, and a recent medical crisis finally tipped things over the line from controlled decline to the final countdown, as it were. As of this review, he is currently under home hospice care. He is the man who helped introduce me to reading in general and science fiction in particular, a lifelong fan who was active in the local fannish community for many years, and his impending loss is a black hole in my life. I should have been a better person with him for a father, and I feel that failure every day. Between this and the horrific betrayal of hope that was the November election, I utterly and sincerely wish with every fiber of my being that 2024 burns in the deepest possible depths of whichever Hell will take it... and it can preemptively take 2025 and beyond with it into the abyss.

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CatStronauts: Mission Moon (Drew Brockington)

CatStronauts: Mission Moon
The CatStronauts series, Book 1
Drew Brockington
Little, Brown and Company
Fiction, CH Graphic Novel/Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Oh, no! The world is about to run out of power! Fortunately, the President of America knows just who to call: the World's Best Scientist, who hatches a plan to put a solar power plant on the moon and beam energy back to Earth via microwave. To accomplish this, World's Best Scientist knows who else to call: the CatStronauts over at the Catsup Space Agency. Major Meowser, Waffles, Blanket, and Pom Pom - as well as the entire space agency, which hasn't conducted a moon mission in 30 years - have just 60 days to train, build a rocket, and get the lunar power plant online, or Earth will run out of energy and life as every cat knows it will end.

REVIEW: Melding humor and science and more than a few nods to the history of the (human) space race, CatStronauts is a fun little graphic novel for kids (and grown-ups reading along, or just looking for a light, fast-reading adventure). The illustrations are whimsical, with details that add to the humor and the resonance for those looking for real-world space connections. Characters are simple yet distinct and fun, learning to work together in a crunch and science their way through problems in true astronaut fashion, and the plot moves briskly (with more than a few throwaway puns and jokes). There's a little peril, a little conflict, and no real spoiler that things come together by the end. I had fun reading it, and if I ever need a light pick-me-up in the future, I might continue the series.

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The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, Volume 2 (Andy Diggle)

The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, Volume 2
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth series, Issues 5 - 8
Andy Diggle and James S. A. Corey (creators), illustrations by Francesco Pisa
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: Ten years ago, the crew of the Rocinante took down Sohiro and his crew of Martian defectors - violent loyalists to the rogue Duarte, long vanished beyond the Laconia gate - in a devastating firefight... or so they believe. The agent known as Sohiro and his core crew managed to slip away, still pursuing their ultimate goal of reuniting with their leader and helping bring the rest of humanity and the ring gates to their knees.
As things slowly settle down across settled space, James Holden and his crew have moved on to less dangerous assignments than tracking pirates and "dragon tooth" sleeper agents. Now, they're helping a science team led by Dr. Elvi Okoye, late of Ilus, as she studies the still-mysterious properties of the ring gates themselves. But what should be a fairly routine experiment, placing probes about an active gate, takes a deadly turn when one of the scientists is found murdered.

REVIEW: With another time jump, the Dragon Tooth graphic novels continue their impressive expansion of the Expanse universe, bringing another adventure to the doorstep of the Rocinante. This outing is less about adrenaline-rush space battles (though there are a few bullets and explosions) and more about the science and the murder mystery, as well as the continuing arc about sleeper agents "Sohiro" and "Mayes" as they steadfastly continue their agendas despite no concrete evidence that Duarte even remembers them. Some other threads and character developments from the previous volume are also followed up on here, weaving stories that, along with continued excellence in artwork, still make me feel like I've watched new episodes of a show that remains a favorite of mine and a book series that's in the top tier. I'm looking forward to seeing where this is all going.

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The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, Volume 1 (Andy Diggle) - My Review
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The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, Volume 1 (Andy Diggle)

The Expanse: Dragon Tooth, Volume 1
The Expanse: Dragon Tooth series, Issues 1 - 4
Andy Diggle and James S. A. Corey (creators), illustrations by Rubine
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: One year ago, the solar system was rocked by cataclysmic events. Already destabilized by the opening of the alien ring gates and the colony worlds beyond, the rise of Belter rebel Marco Inaros led to the bombardment of Earth, while the betrayal and desertion of Martian General Duarte left one of the major system powers half-gutted. Now, with Marco dead and Duarte vanished behind the now-closed Laconia gate, Earth, Mars, and the newly-created Transport Union of Belters try to pick up the pieces and move forward in a changed reality... but with Earth in shambles, food growing scarce, and pirates preying on colonists and freighters alike, the system is still half a click away from disaster.
Captain James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been hunting pirates, but one - Sohiro - proves both exceptionally brutal and exceptionally elusive, leaving nothing but carved-up wreckage in his wake. Camina Drummer, president of the Transport Union, struggles to coordinate traffic through the ring gates from Medina Station while keeping supplies of food and live soil moving... nearly impossible with the pirate problem, and with Earth - the only source of microbial-active soil needed to grow human-edible food - in such a state of disarray. Chrisjen Avasalara tries to keep the peace on a broken world, but suspects the rot revealed by Marco and by Duarte's defection is by no means cleansed; not only is the rage that led to Marco's rebellion still rampant through the Belt, but Duarte's ability to coordinate such a staggering betrayal suggests a vast network of spies and traitors, not all of whom may have passed beyond the Laconia gate with him. She is about to be proven right - and it may spell the end of the fragile peace.

REVIEW: In the interest of full disclosure, I contributed to the Kickstarter campaign that helped fund this graphic novel series, billed as "Season Seven" of the televised version of The Expanse.
Though following the show's version of events (and featuring likenesses of the actors), Dragon Tooth also fills in some of the time that was jumped over between Books 6 and 7 of the source material. It had a fairly high standard of storytelling and continuity to live up to. Happily, it cleared that bar handily.
Starting one year after the sixth season finale - the end of Marco's rebellion, the disappearance of Duarte beyond the Laconia gate, and Drummer becoming head of the fledgling Transport Union to keep supplies and people flowing between the new colony worlds - it drops the reader into a familiar situation: the Rocinante on a desperate rescue mission, hunting enemies in the Belt. From the first frame, it feels just like the show, from the fantastic artwork to the pitch-perfect dialog to the character interactions. Even though it's been a little while since my last rewatch of the show, I was back up to speed in no time, in part because it just felt so familiar. Even the new characters slot neatly into the established world. With action, intrigue, emotion, and the odd touch of humor, this first volume establishes a strong story arc for the next installment. I'm looking forward to Volume 2 already...

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Three Little Wishes (Paul Cornell)

Three Little Wishes
Paul Cornell, illustrations by Steven Yeowell
Legendary Comics
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Humor
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: The qualities that make Kelly a great lawyer are the same ones that make her personal life miserable. Nobody reads the fine print more closely, or writes a more airtight contract... or lives by such strict rules that she can't even get five minutes into a blind date before overthinking things to death. Worried that Kelly is building walls of rules so thick she'll suffocate in them and die alone and miserable, her best friend Annie pushes her to do one impulsive thing - just one, no matter how small (and no matter how drunk she has to be to do it).
Which is how, thanks to the power of alcohol and an online auction, Kelly came into possession of an abandoned self-storage unit full of random junk - including one old bottle containing a trapped fairy lord, none other than the legendary King Oberon himself.
Oberon makes the incredulous woman an offer any mortal should jump at: three wishes, to do whatever selfish, impulsive, ill-thought-out things they please (and which the fairy will have no end of fun twisting around for his own amusement, because nobody can find a hole to exploit in a wish like he can). But Kelly is nothing at all like the other humans he's encountered in his long life. Not only does she refuse to use her wishes for personal gain, but she treats them as she would any contract negotiation - to the point where her first wish, for world peace, actually brings an end to global war and violent crimes. But even the best-worded and best-intentioned wishes can go terribly awry... and even the most selfless and rigidly rule-bound person (or the oldest and most devious of fairy kings) might find themselves in the sort of trouble they never anticipated.

REVIEW: An impulse read to kill time (when I wasn't concentrating enough to read a paperback), Three Little Wishes has a fun premise, but seems a bit confused as to what to do with it, or the characters it introduces.
Kelly is the ultimate contract lawyer who uses rules to shield herself from life's scary ambiguities and pitfalls. A (not-so-) recent breakup with Michael, one of the few men to last more than one date with her, only made her that much more rigid... especially since she knows it was her overthinking and overanalyzing and refusal to bend one iota to accommodate another human being (or allow a sliver of spontaneity into their lives) that killed the relationship. When Annie, among the few implied friends she has, pushes Kelly to break loose and do something spontaneous, Kelly bumbles and fumbles and fails until sufficiently lubricated with liquor (and the ease of online auction sites). It reduces her a bit from a full character to the sort of shallow caricature I've seen in too many half-baked rom-coms that reduce women to flailing, helpless objects trapped by their own foolishness (until a guy helpfully saves them from themselves, of course). Oberon, too, is supposed to have a more nuanced backstory that eventually comes out, but I also found him a bit hard to connect with.
I get that it was a comedy, of course, but humor is inherently subjective, and the brand on display here just felt too clunky and forced, especially given how it tries to both cling to the low-hanging fruit tropes and also explore and elevate its core concept of a mortal woman figuring out how to actually get a wish out of a trickster fairy without having it twisted back on her in an ironic or literal way. Oberon's abilities (or lack thereof) feel random and plot-convenient, as does his uneven character growth from a being who resents foolish mortals and enjoys defrauding them with deliberately-warped wishes to one who actually comes to understand and even care about people. Annie too often feels like a third wheel, the Black best friend who exists simply to support and enable the white lead in her pursuit of a more fulfilled life, and later in the story Michael is reintroduced in a way that challenges Kelly's determination to not use any of Oberon's magic on her own wants. As she struggles with renewed feelings for her ex, she finds herself facing unexpected fallout from her first wish, which may have ended a lot of human suffering but also led to a lot of people (and nations) losing a lot of money and jobs - such as an assassin who tries to resort to indirect methods to taking out the woman who ended his career. (How everyone found out it was Kelly also had the feeling of a plot weakness, because of course women can't help gossiping online, tee-hee.)
Things eventually resolve and the expected lessons are learned by the expected characters, but I couldn't help feeling an itch of dissatisfaction with how it all played out. It's an okay enough story, but I kept feeling like it could've been more than just "okay" if it had moved beyond the expected, tired rom-com cliches it seemed determined to cling to, even when the story tried to rise beyond them.

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The Sandman Volume 2 (Neil Gaiman)

The Sandman Volume 2: The Doll's House, 30th Anniversary Edition
The Sandman series, Issues 9 - 16
Neil Gaiman, illustrations by Mike Dringenberg and Malcom Jones III
Vertigo
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Horror
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: Dream of the Endless, sometimes known as Morpheus, has escaped his long decades of captivity at the hands of mortals and begun rebuilding his realm, but four dreams and nightmares have eluded capture. Meanwhile, the young woman Rose Walker meets the grandmother she never knew she had and seeks her kid brother, lost in the foster system after her parents divorced and her father died. When a dream vortex - a powerful, disruptive force that weakens the barriers between the Dreaming and waking Earth - develops, their quests may cross paths... as will the paths of the missing denizens of Morpheus's realm, with potentially dire consequences.

REVIEW: I read, and was less impressed than I'd hoped to be by, the first Sandman volume some time ago. Not only do I find sprawling megaverses like DC's offputting and unwieldy, but there was something about Dream's stories, one in particular, that struck a very sour and repelling note with me. So I guess I can credit Netflix with luring me back; I watched and (mostly) enjoyed the recent streaming adaptation, which tweaked the elements I found most unappealing and updated the story enough to intrigue me into coming back to the graphic novels for one more try. (The fact that the graphic novels are free via hoopla and my local library was also an influence, I'll admit.)
This, unfortunately, is one of those somewhat uncommon instances where the adaptation exceeds the source material.
In the show's version of the Doll's House arc, which I saw before reading this and thus I cannot seem to avoid the comparison, Rose Walker is a decently developed character with some manner of agency over her actions; she may not understand what she is and the risk she poses at first, but she's active in her search for her brother and able to stand up to even Dream, fully capable of defending herself. The denizens of the Florida home where she stays during her search are also decently realized for side characters, as are their dream lives and hidden selves (which Rose inadvertently visits as her vortex abilities grow). Meanwhile, the King of Dreams is undergoing his own unwilling realization that even the Endless grow and change, and the abandonment of some of his fugitive creations is due at least in part to his own inability to see that... in the streaming show, that is.
The graphic novel version of the story, unfortunately, is not that. Here, Rose is powerless over everything, a victim start to finish, who must be rescued by male figures and never has anything approaching agency. She can't even defend herself when she's physically attacked. The whole of her arc boils down to her not being able to control what power she has, so a man has to take it all away - even the memory of it (not the first time the series has invoked this idea). Her brother is also rather a victim, for all that there's a certain retro charm in the dream world he finds himself in nightly, with deliberate nods to the classic comic strip Little Nemo. There's also another woman who exists only to be a prop to a clueless man, another powerless female whose connection to anything felt rather vague; she seems to exist just to be helpless and chained to someone else's whims and desires. Meanwhile, the nightmarish Corinthian also feels rather thin compared to the development he got in the adaptation, where he took on a stronger, more malevolent role, actively working to undermine Dream and promote his own dire work inspiring serial killers in their calling. Here, he's just another bad man in a convention of bad men, easily dealt with once the King of Dreams gets around to it. Indeed, "Dream finally turns up and stops the bad thing" is pretty much how a lot of problems get resolved here. Underneath the story are some intriguing concepts and mythic roots and speculations on who controls whom, mortals or Endless (or others), in the many-layered dollhouse of reality, and hints of future conflicts for Dream, particularly regarding his bitter sibling Desire.
The more successful stories, or at least the ones that worked better for me, are the side vignettes, one about Dream's first (and possibly last) mortal love and the tragedy that ensued and another about a man granted immortality by Dream's sister Death after he is overheard vowing that he will never die. The longer story arcs feel drawn out, and too often - as noted - reduce people to helpless pawns in games so great even the Endless move by rules and restrictions they cannot adequately explain. For all that parts of The Sandman remain interesting and like something I should enjoy, and I can still respect the mythic roots Gaiman weaves in (and the artwork), once more I find that the appeal of this iconic graphic novel series is lost on me.
I'm really not sure if I want to bother pushing onward to see if it hooks me, but I'm leaning towards not; the women-as-victims things, particularly the women-must-be-stripped-of-any-power-or-ability-to-help-themselves thing, really started irritating me. (As did how absolutely, glaringly white the whole graphic novel was, even background characters, with only rare exceptions. I suppose, thirty-odd years ago, it was just a thing, but you really start seeing it, especially after the adaptation added a more human color palette to the cast.) I'll probably just wait to see if Netflix (or somebody) gives the show a second season, instead; it's not an obsession-level favorite, but it is interesting enough to watch - and they absolutely nailed the look.

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Ascender Volume 4: Star Seed (Jeff Lemire)

Ascender Volume 4: Star Seed
The Ascender series, Issues 15 - 18
Jeff Lemire, illustrations by Dustin Nguyen
Image Comics
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Mila and Captain Telsa have finally located the boy robot Tim-21, and had an unexpected reunion with Mila's father and mother... just in time for Mother's forces to arrive. As Tim-21 reveals the truth of where he has been and why he has returned, they face a moment that could reshape the entire galaxy for all life forms, living and robotic - or Mother's cruel regime of dark sorcery could ascend to an unstoppable superpower.

REVIEW: The final volume of the Descender/Ascender cycle wraps the story up in a cataclysmic conclusion that can't help but feel a little bit rushed. There's a slight hint of pulled punches and last-minute revelations, but overall things come to a satisfactory conclusion for Tim-21 and Mila's family and friends... and, yes, even the robot dog Bandit. Though the Descender part felt a little less full and complete than the Ascender arc, I still enjoyed this space opera melding of magic and machinery.

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The Expanse #4 (Corinna Sara Bechko)

The Expanse #4
The Expanse series, Issue 4
Corinna Sara Bechko and James S. A. Corey (creators), illustrations by Alejandro Aragon
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: On both Luna and Mars, the two-woman investigation into a system-wide ring of criminal corruption has struck a nerve with someone - someone willing to murder a high-profile (if faded) politician like Chrisjen Avasarala and unafraid of former Martian Marine Roberta "Bobbie" Draper. Rescued in the nick of time, Chrisjen wonders if perhaps she's sacrificed too much and stepped too far over the line... and, when her husband Arjun calls from Earth, she realizes what her commitment may be costing her. On Mars, Bobbie makes a horrifying discovery.
This series takes place between Seasons 4 and 5 of the Amazon Prime series The Expanse, based on the books by James S. A. Corey.

REVIEW: The fourth installment of this interlude series wraps things up (well, at least partially; it wraps up the character arcs, though the criminal network itself lives on into Season 5 of the show.) The two women each have gone further than they intended, but then the conspiracy they're investigating is vast on a scale they still can't quite comprehend, unprecedented in scope and scale and sheer audacity of purpose. This conspiracy is too big and too dark for them to stop on their own, but what choice do they have but pursue their investigation to the bitter end? Chrisjen's storyline has some extra poignancy given events in the show's fifth season, a moment lost and path not taken that she will come to deeply regret, while Bobbie's commitment to her changing, dying world only grows stronger. I'm still not completely a fan of the art style, but it does the job. Again, I'm pretty sure I would've enjoyed all four episodes more if I'd waited to read them in a complete volume, but the free library-associated digital lending site hoopla only offered them as singletons as of this review, and you really can't say no to free. (Well, yes, technically you can, but in this case I couldn't.)

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The Expanse #3 (Corinna Sara Bechko)

The Expanse #3
The Expanse series, Issue 3
Corinna Sara Bechko and James S. A. Corey (Creators), illustrations by Alejandro Aragon
BOOM! Comics
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: On Earth and Mars, former secretary general Chrisjen Avasarala and ex-marine Bobbie Draper have been investigating a web of corruption - and, in doing so, kicked a hornet nest far bigger and more dangerous than they could have imagined. While Chrisjen finds herself trapped on Luna, Bobbie regroups after a setback... both realizing they've only seen the tip of the iceberg, and that they're in too deep to turn back now, even if it kills them.
This series takes place between Seasons 4 and 5 of the Amazon Prime series The Expanse, based on the books by James S. A. Corey.

REVIEW: The third installment of this bridge series picks up the pace somewhat. Both of them are finally realizing the sheer scale of what they've unearthed, how deep the rot runs and the unimaginable reach of its agents, but this only makes them more determined. The two outwardly mismatched women continue to make an unexpectedly solid team. Neither one takes well to having been caught off-guard, and the setbacks only make them more eager to get at the heart of the problem. But, for all their determination, they are still only two people, one a disgraced Earth politician past her prime and the other an ex-officer on a dying world. I'm looking forward to the fourth installment.

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The Expanse #2 (Corinna Sara Bechko)

The Expanse #2
The Expanse series, Issue 2
Corinna Sara Bechko and James S. A. Corey (creators), illustrations by Alejandro Aragon
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
***+ (Okay/Good)

DESCRIPTION: The investigation of corruption on Mars and Earth takes a turn... and not for the best. On Mars, former Martian Marine Bobbie Draper has been wounded in pursuit of criminals; how much more can she risk before her luck runs out? Back on Luna, sidelined politician Chrisjen Avasarala seems to have rattled the right cages in her own pursuit of answers; a contact offers her a chance to regain her former political clout, hinting at the building of a new order beyond the old, dying ways of Earth and Mars. But at what cost?
This series takes place between Seasons 4 and 5 of the Amazon Prime series The Expanse, based on the books by James S. A. Corey.

REVIEW: As expected, this picks up where the previous issue left off. Bobbie, in trouble after her near-miss with the organization behind the growing ring of thefts and corruption eating away the heart of the Mars she knew, must call in a favor from a friend, questioning what her commitment is gaining her other than fresh scars and fresh enemies. Chrisjen finds herself in personal danger after rejecting an offer that's too good to be true, for once without anyone to call upon to help her out of trouble. As with the previous issue, it's a brief fragment of a larger story, suffering for being a middle installment and thus a bit adrift; it starts and ends in the middle of larger arcs, and it's so short that, by the time I got myself oriented again in the larger story, it was almost over. (The continued rough sketchiness of the artwork did not help on this front.) Once more, I'm thinking this is a quartet that will read much better when it's published in a single volume instead of piecemeal like this, but I'm sufficiently impatient to just grab the issues as hoopla offers them. (The price tag of "free" for hoopla borrows is also a significant factor.)

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Ascender Volume 3 (Jeff Lemire)

Ascender Volume 3: The Digital Mage
The Ascender series, Issues 11 - 14
Jeff Lemire, illustrations by Dustin Nguyen
Image Comics
Fiction, Fantasy/Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: On the run from Mother's minions, young Mila and the illegal robot dog Bandit, along with her reluctant guardian Telsa and her companion, run into another old friend of Mila's father Andy: the robot Driller, protected by the mage Mizard the wizard after the great Descender robots removed mechanical beings from the galaxy and opened the way for magic's return (and Mother's rise.) Together, they find their way to a hidden fortress where the map in Bandit's scrambled brain might be unlocked... but what will they find?
Meanwhile, Andy - lost and presumed dead by his daughter Mila - has managed to not only survive, but rescue his former lover and Mila's mom, the half-robotic woman Effie. Freed of Mother's vampiric influences, she joins forces with Andy to find their way back to Mila and Bandit... but can they escape Mother's ever-watchful eyes?
Mother has suffered a cruel turn of fate: her prodigal sister, from whom Mother stole her powers and position, has returned, forcing the woman to act as a puppet running the galactic empire of magic and terror she built with her stolen abilities. But Mother didn't claw her way up from humiliation and drudgery just to end up, once again, on her knees before an arrogant witch...


REVIEW: This maintains the pacing and style of the previous two Ascender volumes (which are themselves continuations of Lemire's Descender series, chronicling the end of the robot era.) Separated from her father, Mila finds herself torn, both excited to finally fly into space and scared of a future without her family, a situation that becomes all the stranger when Mizard informs her that she is herself a fledgling mage. Her journey with Telsa brings them into contact not only with Driller, but another character from the original Descender series, who has undergone a radical transformation. Meanwhile, Mother's fortunes have taken a bad turn, but the new secret ruler of the galaxy is even crueler than she was. All paths seem to be converging toward the twin (possibly entwined) secrets of where the robots were taken and the hidden source of the galaxy's magic. The trajectory almost feels like it could wrap up in the next volume or two, unless some dramatic new plot twist draws it out as long as the original Descender series (six volumes.) In any event, I'm still enjoying this story, an interesting and action-filled blend of magic and rockets, and will happily read on.

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The Expanse #1 (Corinna Sara Bechko and James S. A. Corey)

The Expanse #1
The Expanse series, Issue 1
Corinna Sara Bechko and James S. A. Corey, illustrations by Alejandro Aragon
BOOM! Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Media Tie-In/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Mars is dying. With the opening of the ring gates and the thousand habitable worlds beyond rendering the terraforming of an airless red rock quaintly obsolete, not to mention the collapse of the old rivalry with Earth that fueled their mighty military industry, the pillars of the Martian economy and society are in freefall... and someone is taking advantage of the chaos. Ex-Marine Bobbie Draper stumbled into Mars's underworld and discovered a greater conspiracy. With off-the-books backing from Chrisjen Avasarala, a fading political force on Earth (now essentially exiled to Luna by the new secretary general), Bobbie plucks at threads hoping to find the center of the web - but that web may spread as far as Earth, and beyond, and for once Avasarala may have found an enemy even craftier than herself.
This series takes place between Seasons 4 and 5 of the Amazon Prime series The Expanse, based on the books by James S. A. Corey.

REVIEW: Filling in some backstory of events between the two seasons, this story follows Bobbie Draper's efforts to find out who is behind the growing web of corruption and Mars's burgeoning black market in military surplus, and Chrisjen Avasarala's efforts to both help Bobbie and keep her own head above increasingly murky and turbulent water in Earth's politics, as she realizes there's something not right on Luna. The two make a decent, if outwardly mismatched, team, both driven and dedicated and somewhat neglectful of personal and family lives in pursuit of greater justice... and both willing to bend a few rules to get what they need. It almost lost a half-mark for being so short (I prefer reading these things as single volumes once all issues are out, because it feels more like a finished story in a volume) and for the art sometimes being a bit sketchy. Still, it does what it sets out to do, creating a story and capturing the essence of the characters I recognize, so I cut it a little slack given that it's just the first installment of a four-issue arc.

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Sentient (Jeff Lemire)

Sentient
Jeff Lemire, illustrations by Gabriel Walta
TKO Studios
Fiction, Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: The ship U.S.S. Montgomery was en route to a colony world when disaster struck: a rogue separatist murdered every adult on board. Now the shipboard AI, Val, must raise the children and continue on its own... a task beyond its current programming, especially when they encounter a threat to both the survivors and the Montgomery itself.

REVIEW: Though there are strong hints of sequel potential, Sentient works as a largely self-contained story. The children and the computer both have to push themselves to acts they never thought themselves capable of in pursuit of survival, plagued by inner doubts and old rules that no longer apply in the wilds of space. Friction between Lilly, the oldest (and therefore captain-presumptive of the survivors) and Isaac, whose mother was the murderous separatist (and who is therefore blamed by association by the grief-stricken survivors), threatens to tear them apart, a fault line that could be a fatal weakness when an outside danger arrives. Though the stars are mostly children, there's a horror undertone to the tale, not to mention several gory deaths, that makes this more of an adult (or older teen) story. The ending feels a little open-ended, but resolves the immediate issues. I honestly can't tell if Lemire intends to continue this or not; as I mentioned, it's a mostly decent wrap-up if this is a standalone, but there is series potential in the larger themes.

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