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Archive for the ‘Graphic Novel’ Category

Pascal (MEZZO) Mesenburg & Michel PIRUS–King of the Flies: 1. Hallorave (2005) [translated 2010]

Posted in Boredom, Cigarettes, Death, Drinking, Drugs, Foreign Books, Graphic Novel, Helge Dascher, Humiliation, John Kadlecek, Marriage Trouble, Michel Pirus, Pascal (MEZZO) Mesenburg, Public Service Broadcasting, Revenge, Sex, Short Story, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation, Violence, Yuck! on June 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

flies1SOUNDTRACK: PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING-Tiny Desk Concert #354 (May 5, 2014).

indexI heard about Public Service Broadcasting via NPR and I loved their song “Spitfire,” a rocking instrumental with interesting samples scattered throughout.  Well, it turns out that live, the rock just as hard.  Even though there’s only two of them.  There’s J. Willgoose, Esq. on guitar, banjo and electronics and Wrigglesworth on drums. The samples come from British public-service films from roughly the 1940s through the 1960s.

Watching this video, I was stunned at just how much Willgoose is doing, and just how much noise these two guys can make.  There’s even a video going on behind them.   The only problem here was that the samples were not loud enough.

 “Signal 30” opens with samples and samples and then a rocking guitar and solid drums. It amazing watching Willgoose do some many different things while playing the guitar. The change of tone at the middle of the song is great and I love watching him just bang the guitar to keep the notes going (while he is playing the keyboard).

 After the song, there is a sample of “Thank you very much” in an arch British voice (the duo don’t speak during the show).   “Spitfire” also sounds great hear–the song is surprisingly complex for an instrumental, and for what seems like it might be a novelty band, the song is really solid.  After this song, Willgoose had to fetch something and the talking sample said “talk amongst yourselves!” The final track “Everest” has a very catchy riff and some really great drumming.  But I love most watching Willgoose play the guitar with one hand and play a solo on the keyboard with the other.

This is definitely a band to check out live.

[READ: June 4, 2014] King of the Flies 1. Hallorave

Hallorave is a dark, violent, sexual comic series written by Pirus and drawn by Mezzo.  Both artists are French and have worked together before.  This book was translated by Helge Dascher and John Kadlecek (and it was translated very well–I didn’t realize it wasn’t American until they started talking about Euros sometime in the middle of the book.

So this is actually a series of short stories narrated by different people.  They seem unrelated, but after a couple of stories, you see the connections.  And there proves to be a core collection of characters all living in this suburb (the location is really irrelevant).

The first story starts with Eric (who proves to be the main protagonist) drinking, reading magazines and sitting on a couch on the (dried up and dead) lawn of his mother’s house.  He is also jealous of his best friend Damien because he is very hot for Damien’s girlfriend Sal.

That first story introduces us to a visual that will run through the book: Eric sitting with a giant fly head on.  The three are going to a Hallorave for Halloween.  Eric is King of the Flies, Sal has a giant cat’s head on and Damien is a skeleton.  By the end of the party, they are all high (you can seem them feeding each other drugs in the picture below).  Eric pledged his love to Sal in front of Damien, and Damien is in a foul mood.  He gets in a fight with some other party goers. By the end of the short story, Eric and Sal are having sex (with their costume heads on) and Damien has been hit by a car and killed.  That’s the kind of stories we’re getting here. (more…)

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Dr. Matteo Farinella & Dr. Hana Roš–Neurocomic (2013)

Posted in 18th Century, 19th Century, Adventure, Chvrches, Dr. Hana Roš, Dr. Matteo Farinella, Graphic Novel, Neuroscience, Scientists, Tiny Desk Concert, William Gibson on June 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »

neuroSOUNDTRACK: CHVRCHES-Tiny Desk Concert #356 (May 12, 2014).

chvChvrches are just on this side of the kind of synth pop that I like.  I simply can’t deny the awesomely catchiness of “Recover” which must be due to Lauren Mayberry’s wonderful voice, or perhaps the bubbly synth sounds that the three of them generate.  In this Tiny Desk version, they brought all kinds of synths along with them.  I don’t know what they normally play live, but this is an amusing sight to see 4 keyboards (for three players)—all of the musicians with their arms hanging down as they play their instruments (synths that are about a foot long and boxes with lots and lots of dials).

“Gun” is a darker sounding song, but again Mayberry’s voice is so clear it cuts through the dark sounds.

I enjoyed that before they played “The Mother We Share” she asked if she could curse.  NPR says yes and she says good for them.  (There is a parental advisory for that one curse word too).  She also says this is the nicest but oddest gig that they have played.  She is charming and it just makes me like them even more.

[READ: June 3, 2014] Neurocomic

First I saw the name of the publisher–Nobrow Press–then I saw the name of the graphic novel–“Neurocomic” and I imagined some sort of sci-fi riff on Gibson’s Neuromancer.  Then I saw that both authors were doctors and I thought that it was going to be some kind of science book.  But the cover has a drawing of a brain and a squid and some other kind of creature and from there I just decided I had better see what this was.

So, this actually proves to be a very basic history of neuroscience.  With a plot.

As the story opens our hero, a rather generic looking fellow, is walking along a landscape when he sees a woman (presumably beautiful) with whom he seems to fall in love.  He is suddenly sucked into someone’s brain and then onto a forest floor.  He is confused and upset and has to find a way out.

Welcome to chapter 1: Morphology.  Our hero learns he is not in a forest, he is in a brain and those trees are neurons.  And he has run into Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934) and Camillo Golgi (1843-1926).  They explain to our guy about neurons and axons, but really he just wants out.  So they tell him to enter a neuron and on we go… (more…)

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Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm–Squish: Super Amoeba (#1) [prepub] (2011)

Posted in Children's Books, Fears, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, I'm from Barcelona, Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm, Mice, Set at School, Short Books, Yo Gabba Gabba on May 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

squish1SOUNDTRACK: I’M FROM BARCELONA-“Just Because It’s Different Doesn’t Mean It’s Scary” (2009).

miaI like I’m From Barcelona, although I don’t know too much about them.

This song opens with ukuleles (or small guitars anyhow) and a big farty bass line. It offers a sensible lyric about things being different and offers suggestions of new things you might enjoy, like fruit or a park.

The band has some fun backing vocals (“let’s taste it baby”), (“run run run run”) and have made a fairly complex song out of what is a very simple concept.

For these Yo Gabba Gabba songs I have to wonder if the bands have taken old songs and made them kid friendly or if they have written all new (fairly complex) songs just for the show.

This is a good one.

[READ: May 16, 2014] Squish: Super Amoeba

I thought I had written about all five of the Squish books so far (there’s a sixth one coming soon).  Except, I realized, that I never wrote about the first one.  So, here, three years after I first read it (I received it as a prepub for crying out loud, so I’ve had it for over three years), I’ve read it again for this post.

I hadn’t even read Babymouse when I read this book, although in retrospect it’s easy to see the similarities between the two (especially in the drawing style).  Of course, while Babymouse is colored primarily in pink, Squish is colored primarily in green.  And of course, Babymouse is a girl and Squish is a boy (well, a boy amoeba, but still a boy).  But there are kid friendly hardships and valuable (if not necessarily obvious) lessons to be learned.

All the characters who have been with us for the duration of the other books were introduced here: Pod another amoeba, who is Squish’ best friend and who is super smart, Peggy (a paramecium) who is happy all the time and Principal Planaria, who is a flatworm (and like all flatworms is really crosseyed).  This issue also introduces us to The Adventures of Super Amoeba, the comic book which Squish loves and the guy who acts as a role model for Squish. (more…)

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Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm–Happy Birthday, Babymouse [#18] (2014)

Posted in Cats, Children's Books, Cupcakes, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm, Mice, Set at School, Short Books, The Shins, Yo Gabba Gabba on May 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »

18SOUNDTRACK: THE SHINS-“It’s Okay, Try Again” (2009).

mia“Sometime you win, sometimes you lose.  But it’s okay, you try it again.”

A simple idea that no kid will ever believe in no matter how many times he or she hears this song.  Nevertheless, the song is poppy and fun, it’s pure Shins and it is infectious.

The song also feels a lot longer than 2 minutes.  They have really packed a lot into their choruses and verses (and middle third).

Yo Gabba Gabba has been excellent at getting great bands to play simple quickie songs for their records (and shows).

[READ: May 16, 2014] Happy Birthday, Babymouse

It’s hard for me to believe that it took 18 books before Babymouse had a birthday!  I got a chuckle out of the fact that in the book it acknowledges that we don’t even know how old she is [and that they break the fourth wall, too].

As the book opens, Babymouse imagines a full-on Times Square countdown for her birthday.  But that only makes sense because every other birthday that she has had in recent years was a disaster (no idea what season it’s supposed to be in since the disasters span just about everything you can imagine).

But this year she is planning something epic–she sends out a mailbox-filling pile of invitations (including to people in the Squish series–nice cross platform mixing there).  Everyone gets invited except for the gnomes–“they’re too troublesome.”  Of course then comes the dreadful information–Felicia Furrypaws is having her party on the same exact day.  And it promises to be everything Babymouse dreamed her party would be. (more…)

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Abhishek Sharma, Anant Singh, Eshita Ghosh, Harsho Mohan Chattoraj, Sidharth Panwar–Munkeeman (2011)

Posted in Abhishek Sharma, Adventure, Anant Singh, Carla Bozulich, Constellation Records, Death, Delhi-6, Eshita Ghosh, Evangelista, Gorillas, Graphic Novel, Harsho Mohan Chattoraj, Mad Magazine, Short Books, Sidharth Panwar, Tere Bin Ladem, Violence on May 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

1352113437munkeemanSOUNDTRACK: EVANGELISTA-Hello, Voyager [CST050] (2008).

helloThis is Carla Bozulich’s first “band” on Constellation. I didn’t really care for her solo album because it sounded way too all over the map.  She has brought in some great musician to rein her in somewhat and it really helps.  This album is still loose and wild and uncomfortable and at times hard to listen to and also really cathartic.  It feels like there is direction to the madness.

The first song is probably the least appealing.  It’s almost a free form poetry slam, but there’s enough incidental music to make it feel like there should be more.–the music doesn’t necessarily follow what’s going on, as if the musicians were told to do what they wanted but weren’t listening to her.

That improv feeling exists throughout the album, but the other songs feel like they have a structure and a melody which really really help.  Like “Smooth Jazz” in which the drums keep a loud steady beat which regulates the tempo and makes her screams all the more intense.  Or “Lucky Lucky Luck” in which a beautiful vocal melody and backing vocal combine with pulsing bass to make a platform for the noisy guitars.  “For The L’il Dudes ” is a creepy string quintet.  But “The Blue Room” is a full complex song with a captivating melody and strings that really work well.

“Truth Is Dark Like Outer Space” is a heavy rock song with great distortion, while “the Frozen Dress” brings back the creepy and spooky sounds. “Paper Kitten Claw” reunites those minimal sounds with a mellow melody.  It feature the great lyric (and theme) “Every time you see the word never, cross it out.”  The disc ends with “Hello, Voyager!” Crazy noises open this 12 minute ramble.  Carla sounds like a crazy preacher and by the end it’s just a free form chaotic mind fuck.  But in a good way.

It’s not always fun to see where Carla’s mind will take you but in this case the crazy trip is disturbingly fun.  Not for the faint of heart.

[READ: May 18, 2014] Munkeeman

This comic came across my desk and I was intrigued by it.  I’ve never read a graphic novel published in India (and written in English) before.  One thing that struck me about the drawing style was how dark (full of a lot of lines and very little white space) the book was.  It’s very busy, demanding a lot of attention.  I prefer my graphic novels to be a little more open and less claustrophobic (okay, I’ll say it, more “white”–racist!–meaning I like more white space in the drawings because I find the heavily drawn dark lines to be a little too busy for me).  But having said that, I enjoyed this style.  The details were always interesting to check out, especially the crowd scenes were Sharma has a lot of fun with background characters (it reminded me of Mad Magazine a bit).

At the same time I was also somewhat surprised at how conventional the story looked.  I don’t know what I was expecting–something more decisively Indian perhaps, but this could have come from an underground comic publisher anywhere.

This is all background to say how much I enjoyed this kind of twisted book.

Incidentally Sharma also directed a film called Tere Bin Laden which is a comedy about an Osama bin Laden double and which sounds quite funny.  I’m going to have to give that a try if I can find it.

So the book starts with an explanation about Munkeeman–he appeared (for real) as an unseen villain in the Hindi film Delhi-6 (which I’ve never seen).  You don’t need to see that movie to quickly learn that there was a villain (the Black Monkey) who is now getting his story told from his point of view.  Especially since the prologue fills you in that nobody ever got a full glimpse of him but he was referred to as The Munkeeman. (more…)

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Xu Bing–Book from the Ground: from point to point (2013)

Posted in Drinking, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Sex, Short Books, The Vestibules, Word usage, Xu Bing on May 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

xubingSOUNDTRACK: THE VESTIBULES-“Boulbous Bouffant” (1995).

rfvThis is a fantastic comedy bit of euphonics.  It starts out a bit slow–without a clear point.  But once it picks up, it is outstanding.  And you’ll find yourself saying…oh all kinds of things for no reason.

[READ: May 15, 2014] Book from the Ground

Xu Bing is a Chinese artist.  He caused some stir several years ago with his exhibition Book from the Sky, a set of books, panels and scrolls on which were printed thousands of characters resembling real Chinese characters, but which were nonsense. Xu spent years hand carving the typesetting blocks used to make the prints according to traditional Chinese block printing methods. Each block was embossed with a unique but meaningless symbol and then used to make the prints for the exhibit.  It was controversial and he even lost favor with the Chinese government.

That project was conceived as a “book” that no one could read.  With Book from the Ground, he has attempted to create a book that literally everyone could read.

The entire story of this book is told with icons.  There are no words at all.

It is the story of a man as he lives his day from the time he wakes up until he falls asleep late that night.

The icons are mostly but not entirely universal–they depend upon the reader being familiar with contemporary technological life (icons for Amazon and GMail for instance might confuse some–or maybe they have saturated the market enough that they are universal by now).

The story opens with us zooming in on the man as he sleeps.  It is 7AM and he is awoken by a bird and by his alarm.  We see him wake up, use the bathroom, make (and ruin) breakfast and then head to work. (more…)

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Ian Duerden–Tales from the Clockwork Empire: The Tale of the Clockwork Menagerie Book 1 (2012)

Posted in Constellation Records, Feu Therese, Graphic Novel, History, Ian Duerden, Kraftwerk, Serge Gainsbourg, Steampunk, Tangerine Dream, Technology, The Beach Boys, Word usage on May 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

clockworkSOUNDTRACK: FEU THÉRÈSE-Ça Va Cogner [CST049] (2007).

feu2Bands change sounds from one album to another all the time, but few as radically as this one. From weirdo psychedelic band to French new wave pop band, from 6 minute instrumentals to 2 and 3 minute songs with vocals.

At times the album feels like Kraftwerk meets Serge Gainsbourg (which I know is an unfair reduction, but when your singer mostly talk/sings in a deep French voice, the comparison is apt.  And yet the album is fairly poppy and catchy as well.

“A Nos Amours” opens the disc with three minutes of synth happiness. It even has a section where the music drops out and the bass resumes its place.  Recall in their debut that at 4 minutes of each song something radically different happened.  Now the songs just end. “Visage Sous Nylon” features the more Kraftwerk sound—but it’s an almost organic Kraftwerk (which I know makes no sense but there it is). “Les Deserts des Azurs” has a kind of Tangerine Dream feel with washes of analog synths.

“Le Bruit du Pollen La Nuit” has a weird kind of synthy 70 s rock feel but the music almost drops out entirely (but not quite) while the vocals (in French) are spoken. It feels like it’s mocking and serious at the same time.  It’s also got a discoey chorus singing “You’re just a just a just a pretty boy!”

“Nada” has a synthy almost disco feel.  “Ça Va Cogner” is just over 5 minutes long and consists of various delicate swells of synths.  I kept waiting to hear The Beach Boys “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” burst forth from the waves, until about half way in when it turns into a simple delicate melody and a children’s chorus. “Les Enfants” is a simple ditty with hummed lyrics.  It’s poppy and catchy as anything

“Ferrari en Feu Pt. 2” is a fast synth songs with slap bass. (Part 1 was on the debut and sounded nothing like this).  “La Nuit Est un Femme” is a slow synth track with a female backing vocals over a sung male lead. The end of the song adds some loud textures to this otherwise sweet song bringing in some really interesting tensions.  The disc ends with “Laisse Briller Tes Yeux Dans le Soleil,” a synthy instrumental that ends with cheesy charm.

This album is really wonderful–surprisingly catchy and dancey and yet exotic enough to not sound like anything else that (most) people are familiar with.  All of the Constellation albums are streaming on their site, but this one is especially worth checking out.

[READ: April 15, 2014] Tales from the Clockwork Empire Book 1

I was very intrigued by this book because of the steampunk nature and because I have a strange fascination with clockwork ideas–a technology that is precise and interesting yet which never really took off beyond clocks and small toys because other technologies were more powerful

I thought that the cover was kind of interesting with this gigantic metal head holding ball.  But on closer look the man in the ball was very poorly computer rendered and that should have been a tip off.  For all of the people in the book have this same unfinished-rendered look.  It looks a lot like storyboards of unfinished versions of Pixar films.  I mean, really cheesy and really unfinished and really unsettling. This is especially noticeable on the rendering of Napoleon Bonaparte in the “end credits” of the book.

I hate to harp on the graphics, but this is a graphic novel after all.  All of the non human elements looks fine, many look even better than fine, bordering on photo realistic.  But the humans all seem ugh, creepy and stiff and just dropped on top of these scenes.  It is terribly distracting and may even make the dialogue feel stiffer than it actually is.  Because the dialogue felt very stiff and mechanical as well.

It is the kind of story that seems historically accurate in the details and works very hard to let you know that it is accurate.  Indeed, in the end of the book Duerden goes to great lengths to show the accuracies in the writing.  But there’s so little flow in the dialogue that it seems like a lecture.  Basically the entire book feels like, not a first draft, but like the draft before the final draft.  Like the book is going to go back to have a final polish to make the dialogue breezier and make the pictures look better.

This is all a shame since I haven;t eve talked about the story yet. (more…)

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Stephen Mooney–Half Past Danger (2014)

Posted in Adventure, Anachronisms, Canadian Music, Cigarettes, Constellation Records, Death, Feu Therese, Graphic Novel, Irish Writer, Jordie Bellaire, Le Fly Pan Am, Nazis, Pink Floyd, Serge Gainsbourg, Stephen Mooney, Violence, War on April 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

half pastSOUNDTRACK: FEU THÉRÈSE-Feu Thérèse [CST040] (2006).

feu1Feu Thérèse is a band created because of the hiatus of Le Fly Pan Am.  They offer a melange of styles, as befits the visual arts origins of several of the members.  And yet, there is a solid rhythm section that grounds the band in a wonderful way.

“Ferrari en Feu” opens with 3 minutes of pulsing waves of synths and electronic bird-call-like sounds. It’s unclear exactly what you’re listening to and it seems like the whole album will be a kind of ambient collection.  Then a proper rock song kicks in with chords and notes and drums–it has a cool psychedelic vibe and feels very late 60s.  “Mademoiselle Gentleman” has pulsing bass notes and staccato guitars with a layers of distorted laughing throughout (there’s no “singing” on the first two songs). At around 4 minutes (out of 6) the feedback squalls too and a simple steady beat.

“Tu n’avais qu’une oreille” seems like a traditional song–with singing (in the Serge Gainsbourg, dirty old man style of whisper/singing) which has a middle section that is quite conventional (with ahh ahhs) but again at 4 minutes, the song shifts into a faster drumming section (with more spoken words).  But then a lengthy trippy guitar solo shatters the mellowness.  “L’homme avec couer avec elle” starts with what sounds like horns.  At around 4 minutes in turns into a kind of western but with a crazy clarinet solo accompanied by sped up noises that sound like Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma.  There’s more psychedelic Pink Floyd styles on the final track, “Ce n’est pas les jardins du Luxembourg.”  The song opens with “drips” that sound like “Echoes.”  And then there’s more Ummagumma birds/animals (possibly distorted seagulls?).   At (yes) 4 minutes it turns into a trippy psychedelic organ based song (with Indian music as well).  The song is 12 minutes and leaves no sound unheard.

The music is experimental but it is not terribly “difficult.”  It’s actually quite a fun album which demands multiple listens.

[READ: April 24, 2014] Half Past Danger

The tagline for this book (which is presented like a movie in a number of ways) is Dames. Dinosaurs. Danger.  And the cover features a giant Nazi flag in flames.  Sounds like pulp genius to me.

And so it is.  Stephen Mooney has been an artist for some great graphic novels over the years and this is his first book that he wrote on his own, based on a labor of love–having Nazis fight dinosaurs.  Like a dream come true.

So obviously, this is a story of an alternate past.  Set in 1943 in the South Pacific, an Army battalion is tracking an area when they discover a secret Nazi base.  There are not supposed to be any Nazis this far east, and yet there they are.   Sergeant Tommy “Irish” Flynn is surprised but he gets his team ready to take pictures and prepare a report.  But that loud rumble sounds like the biggest tank they have ever heard.  And then out steps a T-Rex (in a great reveal).  The T-Rex wipes out all of Irish’s company.  Irish escapes with a few photos and little else.

We jump cut to two months later where Irish is drinking in a bar in New York City.  In walks General Noble of the USMC and Elizabeth Huntington-Moss of British MI6.  They request his service.  He tells them to fuck off.  Actually no, he doesn’t.  This is a PG13 story, there’s a few “shite”s and an occasional “damn” but it is squarely in the realm of comics–implied sex, a lot of blood and a few mild words.  A brawl ensues, in which a Japanese fighter helps out Noble & Moss.  And soon Irish is recovering and being told what’s going on.  After some string reluctance, Irish agrees to go back to the island.

Noble proves to be a supremely tough and string fellow.  The Japanese soldier has defected to the U.S. after the non-respectful attack on Pearl Harbor.  And Moss is an enigma.  As they approach the island, there is plane trouble and a wonderfully cool scene in the water (which I won’t spoil but the art and graphics are terrifying and wonderfully drawn and colored–Mooney did the colors for the first chapter, while Jordie Bellaire did the other five).  (more…)

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Faith Erin Hicks–The Adventures of Superhero Girl (2013)

Posted in Canadian Content, Carla Bozulich, Constellation Records, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic, Faith Erin Hicks, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Kurt Busiek, Set at School, Supernatural on April 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

 superheroSOUNDTRACK: ELIZABETH ANKA VAJAGIC-Stand With the Stillness of This Day [CST028] (2004).

eavlpElizabeth Anka Vajagic is a singing in the vein of Carla Bozulich (whose solo album CST would release a few years after this one).  She has a powerful, raw voice that can go low but can also rage.  She has a lot of control over her voice (which is seems sometimes Bozulich doesn’t) which leads to a lot of tension-filled songs.  EAV plays guitar and some piano.  These songs are also filled with cello, harmonium and an oud.  The songs are slow but powerful, and her voice suits the melodies very well–dark and full of longing.

“With Hopes Lost” has that mournful keening vocal, and the cello really provides that hopeless-feeling component.  “Around Here” is a dark stormy song with aching strings and piano.  “Where You Wonder” is a dark song but with a fight left in it–resistance to the darkness it feels.  The song feels mostly sparse until 4 and half minutes when it rages with a screaming guitar solo and big bold chords.  “Iceland” has probably the most fun chorus of the bunch, something actually sing-alongable.    The next song is called “Why.”  I’m always suspicious of a song called “Why” and this one is a little deservedly so–vague statements are not really anyone’s forte.  She has the keening down well, but it feels a little flat–brevity helps on this one.  “And the Sky Lay Still” opens with a slow echoing guitar, and as it slowly builds, ther’s a great vocal melody that builds for the verse  “Sleep with Dried Up tears” is an acoustic song.  It’s definitely a bit of a downer after the intensity of the album (which is dark but powerful).

EAV is definitely not for everyone.  It depends on your taste for screaming and, your taste for strings instead of heavy guitars to accompany those screams.

[READ: April 23, 2014] The Adventures of Superhero Girl

I grabbed this book from the library because I like Hicks’ work.  When I brought it home, Sarah thought that I brought it for her because it is on her Hub Reading Challenge List.  But no, I liked Hicks enough for myself (so selfish–although I did let her read it first).  She loved it, and so did I.

The Adventures of Superhero Girl is an online comic which Hicks seems to have started in 2010.  Online it is black and white (this book is done with colors by Chris Peters). I didn’t check to see if this is the entire series, but I assume it is. It went on hiatus in 2012 and has been eerily silent ever since.  So at least we have this pretty hardcover document of this hilarious series.

The strip is a genuine, honest to god, comic strip–8 panels and a punchline!  (okay most have fewer than 8 panels, but that’s the set up).  It’s sort of a goof on superheroes, but as the introduction by Kurt Busiek points out, it is really not a parody of the genre.  Superhero Girl is a superhero, with powers (but not amazing powers) and she does help people and she suffers angst from it.  But Hicks plays around with the most basic tropes of super heroes.

Superhero Girl, first of all, doesn’t have a superhero name.  She’s not hugely muscular, she’s not super sexy, she doesn’t wear a sexy costume.  She’s a young Canadian girl in a mask and (sometimes) a cape. She doesn’t have an agonizing backstory.  She just has superpowers and wants to help people. (more…)

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Colleen AF Venable–Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye, Book 5: Raining Cats and Detectives (2012)

Posted in Birds, Children's Books, Colleen AF Venable, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Mystery, Pets, Short Books, Stephanie Yue, The Okee Dokee Brothers on April 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

catsSOUNDTRACK: THE OKEE DOKEE BROTHERS-“Lucy and Tighty” (2010).

okeetakeEven though the Okee Dokee Brothers are primarily about getting outdoors, not all of their songs fall into that category.  Like this one, which is a cute song about two people who are very different but who still like each other (and fall in love).  See the chorus:

‘Cause opposites attract, opposites attract
In the end baby, opposites attract

But what attracted me to the song was the fun (and perhaps easy rhyme scheme) of the verses.  I loved the way the first verse started

Lefty Lucy loved to lolly lackadaisically
But Righty Tighty went By the book alphabetically
So when Lefty Lucy loosened up unapologetically
Righty Tighty tightened up rather introvertedly

Musically, the beats are simple and pronounced, and while the songs starts simply, with just guitar and banjo (and drums, of course), it builds through each verse and chorus, complete with backing vocals.  I loved the fun of the names “Lucy and Tighty” (which may be immediately obvious or may not) and the wordplay in the second verse two.

On the dance floor, they were known for
Having moves that expressed themselves aesthetically
Lucy was groovy, dancing to a different drummer energetically
Tighty politely followed the right steps predictably
Solo, they were so-so, but together they’d be better exponentially

And if all this weren’t fun enough, the video is also fun, done with mirrors (which you can see in the background), it makes me wonder if they are leaning in the right direction or not.  The song even ends up with a fun New Orleans style stomp at the end.  This will help get your kids into the Avett Brothers for sure.

[READ: April 2014] Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye #5

After raving about the first four books in the Guinea PIg series, we received a huge surprise when Colleen AF Venable sent us a copy of Book #5 with an autograph and an inscription and everything.  And I can’t believe that I forgot to write about it!  So here it is two years later (!) and Book 6 is already out and I’m only writing about book 5.  Shame.  On.  Me.

So I re-read the book recently and decided it was about time I showed Colleen Af Venable a little more love.  Because even if she hadn’t sent us this cool book, it would still be hilarious.

As this one opens, recent pet shop hire Viola is trying to teach Mr Venezi the pet shop owner, the names of the animals (he’s hilariously awful at it–he calls the hamster a mini koala, a short ferret and a tiny dragon).  Viola is very good with the animals and plans to buy a few of them to bring home (so she can dress them up even more, which they secretly love).

Hamisher (the hamster) and our star Guinea Pig, Sasspants (the best name for a character, ever) are talking about what kind of owners they might want.  Hamisher hopes that their owners will live in the same state so that maybe they can see each other still.  They talk about the kind of owner they’d want (their standards are very high).  Then Hamisher notices he is standing on a cat.  Charlotte (the owner of the store next door) has a cat (whose name is Tummytickles) which sleeps in their window.  A lot.  Sasspants explains that Tummytickles is a heavy, heavy sleeper.  Tummtickles wakes up enough to say that that’s not his real name but falls asleep before he can ever say what it is.

We focus on Tuimmytickles because he is the main crisis in this story–he has gone missing!  Which is pretty impressive for a cat who barely moves an inch in a week.  How will Sasspants and Hamisher find him?  Especially when…Sasspants has just been purchased! (more…)

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