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.

Green Manor part 1: Assassins and Gentlemen

Writer: Fabien Vehlmann
Illustrator: Denis Bodart
Lettering and text layout: Imadjinn
Translator: Elaine Kemp
Publisher: Cinebook

What's it about?
A cup of tea? A drop of milk? A spoonful of poison?
At first sight, nothing would make the very select club called Green Manor stand out from any other English club. Yet behind its thick walls, sunk into its deep chairs, hides the biggest bunch of con artists, bandits and murderers that Queen Victoria’s England has ever seen.

Can there be a murder without a victim and a murderer? Is the pride of Scotland Yard worthy of his reputation?  Can murder complement art?

Green Manor contains several different tales of murder and mayhem, as told and implemented by the members of a posh gentleman's club in Victorian London.  These fellows are boorish and pompous, intoxicated by their own cleverness.  As a consequence, the challenges issued from one to another are fantastic (in the old sense of the word), foolhardy and border on the ridiculous.

Disabled superheroes update

We've added some more information to the disabled superheroes (wheelchair users) post we did a while back, to cover Horsewoman.  Click through to check it out.

Gingerbread Girl

Writer: Paul Tobin
Artist: Colleen Coover
Publisher: Top Cow Comic Top Shelf Comix (not Top Cow, that's a different publisher, they publish Witchblade, not the most feminist of comics series, it's a bit porny, approach at own risk. Google them if you want)

What's it about?
It's about a girl who has a sister grown from her homunculus, by her mad scientist father.  Or it's about a girl who's a major tease and can't decide what she wants.  Or it's about a girl in the early stages of a new relationship.  Or it's about how other people see this girl.  Or it's about the effect of parental divorce.  Or it's just a fun little story full of fantasy and giggles.

Well, that last bit may not be true.  There's funny, unusual episodes, but it's not really a comedy.  Annah is the lead character, and she may or may not be crazy.  She thinks she has a sister, but it may be fantasy.  It may be real.  Who knows?  Either way, she thinks she's lost her sister and it's having a profound impact on her life. 

Disabled characters in superhero comics - the rest

Now we coming to the last of our short series looking at disabled characters in superhero comics.  originally I intended to list every characters with some form of disability or mental health problem.  But due to life getting really full I'm going to have cut the entries short, so think of these posts as more of a selection of highlights which will give you a good place to start in comics!

Paul Dini's JINGLE BELLE: Naughty and Nice

Written by Paul Dini
Illustrated by Stephen DeStefano

Lettered by Sean Konot and Stephen DeStefano
"Little Matchstick Girl" Illustrated and lettered by Barry Caldwell
"Jingle Belle Conquers the Martians" painted by Lawrence Marvit
Chapter one illustration by Bill Morrison
Chapter two illustration by Lynne Naylor

Publisher: Oni Press

What’s it about?
Jingle Belle is a punctual comic produced by Paul Dini, which he's been releasing every Christmas since 1999. Either in the form of short stories ("one shot" issues), or little graphic novels which have been either collections of previous short stories or original material.
They have been mostly printed in black & white comics.

Naughty and Nice is the first Jingle Belle book I'd recommend starting with.
It contains Jingle Belle's first two stories from Winter 1999 and 2000, as well as a bonus colored story from "Dini Double Feature #13" and some original content (one page stories and pin-ups) by various artists including Evan Dorkin, Alex Ross, Sergio Aragonés, Jill Thompson & Coop.

Jingle Belle is the eponymous daughter of the legendary Santa Claus.
With a father that mostly spends his whole year thinking about all the children across the world and preparing for one very special night, Jings is the rebellious daughter that every parents fears to have.
With a passion for mischief, the little elf girl tries to get by living surrounded such a strict family business.

The book also has an introduction by Eddie Gorodetsky (TV writer and producer behind such shows as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air & Saturday Night Live).

Disabled superhero comics characters - wheelchair users

Note:  I thought this had posted back in November.  Apparently not!  Well, better late than never.

Continuing our series on comic heroes with disabilities, let's look at wheelchair users.
Here we have Charles Xavier, Barbara Gordon, Wendy Harris and Niles Caulder and more.  Read on.