The Chicken Thief

The Chicken Thief
Writing and art by Beatrice Rodriguez
Publisher: Gecko Press

What's it about?
This is sold as a wordless book where children can invent their narratives to go along with the illustrations.  It's really a comic - sequential art where the entire double page is given over to the art, and there are no narrative boxes, speech bubbles, or sound effects.

It's only about 10 pages long and is pretty simple - fox grabs chicken and runs off, chicken's friends follow in hot pursuit through forest, sea and sand.  There is a twist at the end!

Comixology's submit - stuff that didn't fit anywhere else.

This the last of the books from the Comixology: Submit sale we talked about in March.  This bundle isn't available anymore but the books in it are, and are well worth looking at.  Here are the remaining five that we think are worthy of note.

Smut Peddlar - short anthology of smutty stories.  Clearly for adults only and not safe to read at work. This may not have been in the bundle, but is an indie book and is good sexy fun.  It's got a mix of pairings - male/male, female/female and male/female.
Writers and artists: various
Publisher: Iron Circus Comics

Dumbing of Age - excellent book about a home schooled Christian woman starting university and meeting people from different backgrounds.  It's smart and funny. It's not mean about Christian homeschooling - it doesn't insult anyone for being who they are.  It's got a great cast who interact really well.  This made me smile a lot, when not much else did.  It started off as a webcomic, which you can read here. Start at the bottom of the page.  Includes LGBT characters and characters of colour.
Writing and art: David Willis
Publisher: Self published

Rock Star Scientists - in this world, scientists are treated like rockstars.  They get the fans, the glory and the clothes. There are 2 stories in this comic, which is split into two section called Side A and Side B.  Side A is an introduction to this world and Side B is a rather short story. Nonetheless it's worth the money.
Writing and letters: Kenny Jeffery
Art: Jordan Cutler
Pencils and inks: George Zapata
Colours: Armit Ghadge
Publisher: Angry Fruit Salad

After Twilight - this has nothing to do with sparkling vampires.  It's 2022 and Texas is in a civil war with the rest of the States to become independent.  Government and laws are based on biblical faith.  The protagonist is a librarian who finds herself involved in the struggle between the underground resistance and the theocractic leaders
Writing: Richard Alvarez, Gary L Watson, Sandra Yates
Art: Douglas Brown
Colours: Chandran and Meagan Tanner
Publisher: Nu-Classic Publishing

Legend of Oz - it's the story of Oz done as a Western.  Dorothy is a gun toting cowgirl and Toto is her horse.  The colours are rather brassy and the faces are a bit plasticky, but the story is good enough.  There is some violence so this won't be good for kids.
Writing: Tom Hutchinson
Pencils: Alisson Borges
Colours: Kate Finnegan
Publisher: Big Dog Ink

Comixology submit: comics for kids and teens

Comixology's submit sale had quite a lot of comics aimed at and suitable for children and teenagers.  Here's the best of the ones I read:

For younger kids:
The Antler Boy and Other Stories - this is a fun kids' book with a whole host of imaginary and not so imaginary creatures.  It's great fun.
Writing and art: Jake Parker
Publisher: Self published

Squid and Owl - this is less of a comic and more of an illustrated picture book.  It's a bit weird, there's only a few lines of text on each page, and the art is quite ethereal and dream like.  It's like a stream of consciousness in picture form.  I hesitate to say it's aimed at children because adults will appreciate the beauty in the illustrations too, but it's set out a bit like a child's picture book.
Art and writing: John Holbo
Publisher: Rhinobird books

For teenagers:
The Deep: Here Be Dragons - the Nektons are a multiethnic family of aquanauts journeying through the seas in hunt of strange creatures.  The Nektons are son Ant; daughter Fontaine; mum Kaiko; and dad Will.  Ant is brilliant.  This is worth the price for the absolutely gorgeous art of deep sea monsters.  The first few pages are full of drama and danger.
Writer: Tom Taylor
Art: James Brouwer
Publisher: Gestalt Comics

Chloe Noonan: Monster Hunter - Chloe has a job to hunt and destroy monsters but she doesn't really care for it.  She hasn't got super strength or a heightened sense of danger - she's just like you and me, but maybe slightly more cynical.  This isn't like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  It is good fun and I can seen teenagers getting a lot of mileage out of it.
Writing and art: Marc Ellerby
Publisher: Great Beast Comics

Jackie Rose - This is set in an alternative 1940s and tells the story of Jackie Rose, teen adventurer.  In this volume she gets kidnapped by air pirates.  It's suitable for teenagers and has an air of a young Indiana Jones about it.
Writing and art: Josh Ulrich
Publisher: Self published

The Only Living Boy - Erik Farrell has no memory and is in a world filled with humanoid creatures and monsters.  He doesn't know how he got there but he wants to survive.  Forced into battle, he proves his worth through the use of his wits alone.  This is 53 pages and it's great.  It's a lot more serious than the others in this post.
Writer: David Gallagher
Art: Steve Ellis
Publisher: Bottled Lightning

I Die at Midnight

Written and drawn by: Kyle Baker
Published by: Vertigo/DC Comics

What’s it about?
(from the back of the book:)"The Good News is Muriel has decided to take Larry back."
"The Bad News is Larry's just swallowed a bottle of pills."

Written and drawn by Kyler Baker for Vertigo Comics' pre-millennial "V2K series", I Die at Midnight is an original graphic novel mixing a bit of comedy, a dash of comedy and some romance in the background in a fast-paced well-animated story against the clock.

I Die at Midnight follows a man named Larry. The girl of his dreams just walked out on him. Left without any more purpose, Larry decides to kill himself. He empties an entire bottle of pills...

...But that is precisely when Muriel changes her mind and decides to come back!

And if that wasn't enough... did I mention this was all taking place on New Year's Eve?!

I Die at Midnight is a fun fast paced story set against the whole Year 2000 phobia (it does play a part in the story, at the end!) about fighting for a reason to live.

Patrick The Wolf Boy: The Giant Size Collection

Written by: Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani
Drawn by: Art Baltazar
Published by: BlindWolf/Electric Milk Comics

What’s it about?
Patrick The Wolf Boy is the first comic by the creative team of Art Baltazar and Franco, who would go on be the force behind such popular all-ages titles as DC Comics' Tiny Titans,  Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! and Superman Family Adventures and behind the upcoming Ity Bitty Hellboy at Dark Horse Comics.

It originally started as a self-published comic book through their own Electric Milk Comics brand, the collective duo and additional assistants being known under the "BlindWolf" name.

Patrick The Wolf Boy is the comic where they started working together. As the title says, it follows the self-titled adventures of a little Wolf Boy. It's very reminiscent of classic newspaper comic strips in the lines of Calvin & Hobbes or Peanuts. Art Baltazar and Franco were really able to get what make those classic characters memorable and timeless. Make the same concept their own and run along with it.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Writer: William Shakespeare

Adapted by Richard Appignanesi

Art: Kate Brown

Publisher: Self Made Hero

What’s it about? 

This is an adaptation of a William Shakespeare play.  To my mind, it’s the most magical and comedic one.

Theseus and Hippolyta are due to be married in Athens, Greece.  Theseus' servant Egeus has a daughter named Hermia.  Hermia and Lysander are in love and wish to marry, however Egeus has decided that Demetrius is an appropriate husband.  Helena loves Demetrius but, as he wants Hermia, he is not interested in Helena.

In honour of Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding a group of inept craftsmen decide to put on a play about star-crossed lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe.  It’s a tragedy where the lovers kill themselves, so not entirely fit for a wedding – I did say they were inept!

In the forests of Athens the fairy court is in session.  Oberon, King of the fairies, and Titania, fairy Queen, are embroiled in an argument.  Oberon wants a human boy that Titania has adopted, but Titania won’t give him up.  Oberon plots revenge, and here is where the plots converge...

Oberon gets his servant Puck to enchant Titania so she falls in love with the first hideous thing she sees.  Hermia and Lysander have run away to get married and are pursued by Demetrius, who is in turn pursued by Helena.  Oberon witnesses this and instructs Puck to enchant Demetrius to fall in love with Helena, except Puck gets it wrong and enchants Lysander instead.  The enchantment of Titania is successful, as Puck gives one of the craftsmen, Bottom, a donkey’s head, and Titania falls for him.

This takes up the first half of the play.  The second half concerns the humans and fairies trying to sort out the mess Puck has caused. 

Sequential Art

 Sequential Art

A webcomic by Phillip M Jackson

What's it about?
It's a webcomic that started out slice of life-ish, then branched out more unusual topics like aliens and laboratory testing of intelligent scientist squirrels.  It about a group of people, Art (an artist),  Kat (a cat and photographer), Pip (a penguin, makes his money by buying and selling on Ebuy), Scarlet (a squirrel with a very short attention span), the denizens (black blobs) and Leonard/Ducky (a platypus).

It's told in strip format, with a gag in each instalment and it's British.

The Princess (LGBT History month)

 The Princess

A webcomic by Christine Smith

http://the-princess.funonthe.net/

What's it about?

The Princess is about Princess Sarah, aged about 8 years, maybe 9 or 10, who was born with a male body and named Seth by her parents.  The first strip introduces Sarah to us as a happy, confident girl:

Sarah's parents are divorced and she lives with her mother.  Her mother is having difficulty accepting Sarah's decision to dress as a girl, as she's worried about Sarah being bullied and having a hard life if she doesn't present as male.  However, Sarah finds support from her best friend Irma, her father, her aunt and her aunt's friends.

As much as it's a story about being trans, it's a also a story about young kids, their imaginations, school, pre-pubescent crushes and adventure! 

That Deaf Guy

A webcomic

By Matt and Kay Daigle

http://www.thatdeafguy.com

What's it about?

That Deaf Guy is about the everyday adventures of a Deaf man with a hearing son and wife.  It is created by husband and wife team, Matt and Kay Daigle.  Matt draws, Kay writes.  Matt was born Deaf, his wife is hearing, and together they create a comic strip about everyday life - raising a small child, managing money, working out Halloween costumes, appropriate winter finger wear, and being Deaf.

Heh heh. "glittens"

Garfield minus Garfield

Writer and Illustrator: Jim Davis
Garfield removed by Dan Walsh

What's it about? 
Garfield is a fat orange tabby cat, who likes pizzas and being sarcastic.  He hates Mondays, diets and doing things.  As a cat, he naturally knows he's better than everyone else, particularly his owner Jon and the dog, Odie.  Garfield has been running as a comic strip since the late 70s and is beloved by many people the world over.  There's been a film, TV shows, toys, mugs, t-shirts, all sorts of merchandise.

What Dan Walsh has done, is take Garfield strips and remove Garfield from them.  This invariably leaves Jon looking, well, decidedly odd.

French Toast Comix

A webcomic, by Becky Hawkins

(Images posted with author's consent)

What's it about?
French Toast Comix is an autobiographical webcomic by a lady who works as a cruise ship musician.  She's Jewish, gay and draws pretty much anything that happens in her life.  Strips might appear about a coffee shop, her mum, cruise ship culture, new places that she's visited, her art class, anything (also - stealing giant porcelain cows)!

It's not as linear as a lot of web comics, in that it mostly reads more like stand alone events.  However, you can buy more structured print mini comics if you like (see the more information section at the end of the review). Many of the entries have a text blog accompanying them, giving more information about the events being depicted.

Sinfest

written and drawn by Tatsuya Ishida

What's It About?Sinfest is a daily online comic strip. Originally intended for newspaper publication author Tatsuya Ishida was unable to find a paper willing to publish his product so he turned to the internet. Reading Sinfest it isn't difficult to see why it wasn't taken up and why that's a damn shame.

In some ways the world of Sinfest is a pretty normal place. The two main characters, Slick and Nique, have their on-off friendship/flirtation, they have their friends, both have their romantic troubles (mainly self-inflicted) and their dreams of fame and fortune. On the other hand it’s a damn surreal place: the Devil runs a stall (“Anything you want! Price: Your Soul”) complete with succubus booth-babes and his own personal fanboy, the characters regularly converse with God Himself and Slick's best friend Squigley is a pig on drugs. Sinfest is by turns a touching, surreal, political and thought provoking four panels once a day, every day.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

adapted by Tony Lee from the novel by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
adapted from the original novel by Jane Austen
art by Cliff Richards

What's It About?This is a graphic novel adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's best selling novel that merges the work of Jane Austen with flesh-eating zombies. In this version the courtly Bennet sisters are fearsome warriors in the war against the undead “Unmentionables”. Elizabeth Bennet's classic tale of love and manners now takes place in equal parts in the ballroom and in battle and disapproving aunts are now far from the only threat she and the arrogant swordsman Mister Darcy have to face.

Halloween month: We Kill Monsters

To kick off our now annual Halloween month we bring you a guest post, from the land down under: 

Michelle is an Australian-based writer and all-around geekified girl. she loves comics, sci-fi, and talking or writing about either of those two things. She'll pay good money without question for any comics written by Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver, Ed Brubaker, or any books written by Connie Willis. One day her name will be on the front of a comic book, right underneath the words "Written By". One day....

You can find Michelle at one of these domains:

Wordpress: Runaway Writings

Tumblr: The Geekified Girl

Twitter: @mishla

 

Writer: Christopher Leone

Artist: Brian Churilla

Inker: Hilary Barta, Brian Churilla, Richard Ellis

Colourist: Ronda Pattison

Letterer: Jeff Powell

Publisher: Red 5 Comics

What’s it about?

Jake and Drew are mechanically inclined brothers who stumble across a genetically enhanced secret. When Jake is attacked by a monster that appears out of nowhere and injures his arm, he soon finds himself with more trouble than he can handle. His arm heals itself almost instantly but by the next day his arm has transformed into that of the creature he was attacked by – complete with super strength.

Understanding Bandes dessinées - a guide to European comics

© Dupuis.

Comic books... Mangas...
Different names, same basic idea.
As popular as they might be in their local birthplace, there's a form of funny books that simply isn't as well documented and known outside their countries' border. European comics. What is known, in various languages, as "Bande dessinée" (literally, "drawn strip") the french term for Franco-Belgian comics.
Though I like to also count as such comics from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, as well as many more regions and to some extend, those from the UK as well. (more on that later, below!)

Mostly, they aren't as well represented on the net outside specific regional websites.
Perhaps its due to a lack of information regarding them or documentation beside the few high profiles long running series (Tintin, Lucky Luke or Astérix come to mind).
Or the irregular exportations of those few books, try to get a complete run of Spirou in english, at a single editor and on a regular format.
The problem is that if you don't read French (or Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc..) and aren't ready to end up importing those from way across the sea, you might end up letting quite something pass by you. And you won't know what you will be missing...

© Casterman.

So here's a little in-details blog post about European comics, a brief look at their histories, the various editors, the genres and some personal thoughts and recommendations.
And if there's some demand, I might review some of these books, some series I'm a big fan of.

LGBT History Month presents: Fans

“We didn't ask the sky to open. We didn't ask time and space and magic to warp and crack and spit out unknown enemies... But while you were calling these enemies “impossible” and “unimaginable”, we were ready. Because we had imagined. And we can tell you now, now that you'll believe us, that the weird is real.

The future is here. The wide world yonder is capable of things you won't believe.

But don't worry. So are we.”
from Book Six: Magical Thinking

series written by T. Campbell
drawn by Jason Waltrip

Valentine Reviews - Manga Shakespeare: Twelfth Night

based upon the play by William Shakespeare
adaptation by Richard Appignanesi
art by Nana Li
textual consultant Nick de Somogyi
Aublisher: Amulet Books

What's It About?
Off the coast of Illyria two twins, Viola and Sebastian, are separated following a violent shipwreck. Believing her brother dead Viola washes up on the shores of Illyria penniless and alone. Disguising herself as a boy she enters the service of the Count Orsino who proceeds to use “him” to ferry messages of love to the Countess Olivia. The countess promptly falls in love with Viola, now known as Cesario.

So, Orsino loves Olivia. Olivia, who is also being courted by Sir Andrew Aguecheek, loves Viola, believing her to be a boy. Viola loves Orsino, who also believes her to be a boy. To add spice to the situation, Olivia's servants have convinced her pompous butler the Countess is in love with him. And then Sebastian, looking identical to his disguised sister, turns up and the fun really begins...

Sexy Voice And Robo

written and draw by Iou Kuroda
Publisher: Viz Media

What's It About?
Nico Hayashi is girl with a part-time job: she works for a phone dating scam, acting innocent and enticing on the phone to keep men talking long enough to run up huge bills. She wants to be a spy when she grows up (or maybe a fortune teller) and she uses her after-school job to hone her skills in reading people's character from what they say and how they say it. One day she's plying her trade in a corner booth of a local diner when the old man sitting behind her asks her for a consultation on a phone message that has been brought to his attention, a recording of a kidnapper's demands.

Thus Nico begins a new career as a detective consulting on cases for the old man. Aided by her sidekick (and former scam victim) Iichiro Sudo she is about to embark on an intense education in the dark side of human nature.

Valentine's review - Blue Monday: The Kids Are Alright

written and drawn by
Chynna Clugston-Major
gray tone colouring by
Guy Major and Staissi Brandt
Publisher: Oni Press

What's It About?
Blue Monday is an American high school comedy without the rose-tinted glasses. Its the early 1990s and Blue L. Finnegan lives in a world of teacher crushes, pig-headed boys, annoying girlfriends and nothing to do of an evening, the typical teenage experience. Suddenly, excitement enters her life when her idol Adam Ant announces a gig in her area. The gig sells out instantly but with single-minded determination Blue decides she is attending and that she'll get tickets somehow. Antics ensue.

The Kids Are Alright collects the first Blue Monday series as well as an extensive collection of additional short comics.

Update to an earlier review

Our Young Justice review has now been updated with some further reading recommendations.  If you enjoy superheroes, teenage fiction, team up books or comedy you would do well to have a look at this book.

It's a Young Adult book that's laugh out loud funny, although it has to be said a lot of the humour is rather childish.  It's a great introduction to some spectacular characters, most of which are still active today.  It's one of my favourite books and I try and push it on to as many people as I can.  I hope you enjoy it too.