Reading Rants! Out of the Ordinary Teen Booklists!

Eleven-year-old Jack feels useless. It’s 1937, and it hasn’t substantially rained on his family’s Kansas farm in over four years. Most folks are starting to wonder if they’ll ever see storm clouds again. The only clouds that come by these days are the deadly black dust clouds that choke the breath out of every living thing, including Jack’s pneumonia-stricken older sister, Dorothy. Jack longs to do more than just wander around town and look after his sisters, but there is very little work to be done on the failing farm. With no way to show his father his worth, Jack is stuck between childhood and manhood, his burgeoning adolescence literally stifled by the dust. Until he sees the pulsing light that sporadically emanates late at night from the Talbots’ abandoned barn. When Jack investigates, he discovers a secret that could save his family and his town if he is brave enough to open a mysterious satchel and believe in the unseen. This is a great graphic read for all ages, with something for everyone within Phelan’s soft edged, sweeping panels. There’s an homage to The Wizard of Oz (and not just the one you know, but the whole amazing series by L. Frank Baum), suggestions of superheroes to come and shadows of former folk heroes who still live in story and song. There’s adventure and mystery, epic battles and small personal triumphs. There’s a sequence concerning a “rabbit drive” that broke my heart, and then a tender exchange between Jack and Dorothy that mended it. All evocatively illustrated by Matt Phelan in muted pencil, ink and watercolor, where smudged clouds hold hints of both promise and menace, and a boy’s expression changes from fearful to determined with just the subtlest change in the direction of the pencil line. Ironically, I started reading this wonderfully atmospheric GN set in the Dust Bowl after enduring one of the rainiest Junes on record. And even though it doesn’t pub until September 2009, I couldn’t wait to tell you about it, as this quietly powerful stunner is simply not to be missed.

Sometimes it’s best not to mess with a classic. Instead of adding a bunch of modern bells and whistles, sometimes it’s better to just polish up an old masterpiece and introduce it to a new generation, who will still love it because it’s just that good. That’s the case in this gorgeous GN that chronicles the traditional story of Robin O’ the Hood, the devil-may-care outlaw of Sherwood Forest who robbed the rich to feed the poor, wooed the lovely Maid Marian and was the scourge of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Although there are several versions of the Robin Hood myth, the author tied his adaptation as closely as possible to actual historical people and events, making me forget throughout the reading that Robin Hood, like King Arthur, didn’t exist in real life (though some scholars claim these folk heroes may have been based on a combination of real people whose stories have been lost over time). Whatever the origin, I was swept away by this romantic medieval re-telling, in which Robin of Loxley returns home to England from the Crusades where he had been fighting at King Richard’s side to discover his father, the Earl of Loxley, has been murdered and his lands usurped by the crooked Sheriff of Nottingham and his henchman Sir Guy of Gisburn. Determined to avenge his father’s death, Robin joins the gang of outlaws led by John Little in Sherwood Forest and entreats the people of Nottingham to stand up against the corrupt Sheriff and his men. Things get more complicated when King Richard is taken hostage by his enemies and a ransom is demanded of the English people. Richard’s weak and conniving brother, Prince John (who is in league with the Sheriff) makes a show of raising the money by taxing the poor people of Nottingham, but is really sacking it away to bribe local nobles into helping him throw Richard off the throne!  Robin Hood begins to steal the tax money, giving a portion back to the people and saving a portion for the king’s ransom. This pisses off the Sheriff, who arrests Robin’s love Marian for treason and threatens to hang her unless Robin surrenders! Plus there’s an archery contest, several daring escapes, a couple of bloody sword fights, some hand to hand combat and lots and lots of disguises and various subterfuges. The panels feature dark figures brilliantly back lit by rich jewel tones that convey mood or character (for example, Robin most often emerges from emerald green forests, while Maid Marian rises from royal purple shadows). The effect is ominous and gritty, adding weight to a myth that feels more and more like actual history with each passing page. Corpus bones, this is a cracking good graphic read! And it will be making its way to a library or bookstore near you September 2009.

At first it looks like the kids don’t stand a chance in this action-packed GN about the origins of the Teen Titans. One day, without warning, ALL the JLA superheroes go super-villain, and their adolescent partners have to band together to figure out what’s made Batman and Co. go so, well, batty. The Dark Knight’s skinny sidekick Robin heads up a team of knock-kneed, pimply faced powerbrokers on the cusp of puberty: Aqualad, who’s scared of his own wetsuit; Wonder Girl, who’s a little too busy crushing on the boy band of the moment to fight crime; Speedy, who’s trying to grow up in the towering shadow of the Green Arrow; and finally Kid Flash, who wishes Robin would just take the backseat and let him lead the Titans for once! These five teens couldn’t be more different but they have to figure out a way to work together for the greater good, all while suffering through the usual adolescent woes of insecurity, jealously, and voice changes. Once they get those messy emotions under control, the rest is easy! Well, sort of. Short and sassy, this lil’ GN tickled me to no end with its’ “mini-me” depictions of my fav superheroes as anxious, body-conscious teens who just want to be as popular as their name-brand, muscle-popping mentors. A fun comic romp for all ages. (Collects issues #1-6)

Dashing young Duncan is either a handsome knight trying to win the heart of a princess by relieving the dreaded Frog King of his head, OR just another downtrodden teen trying to get by in the projects of Oakland, as his depressed mom dates one jerk after another. Greedy Gran’Pa Greenbax is either a latter day Scrooge McDuck-like animated TV star, OR just a little freshwater frog who’s been used and abused by cruel humans. Meek Janet is either a stately Nigerian princess, OR just another cubicle-dwelling office drone. No one is quite who they seem to be in this lushly illustrated, full-color collaboration between two of the best author/illustrators in the comic biz.  But no matter what their circumstances, each character manages to discover hidden stores of bravery, hope and optimism that help clear away the dark clouds of anger, fear and pride. And what is the Eternal Smile? Well, it’s either the face of God or a hole in the ceiling, and the only person who can decide that is YOU, dear reader! Award winning authors and illustrators Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim will both blow and bend your mind with these three quirky, offbeat Twilight Zone-meets-Pushing Daisies short stories about love, life and the power of the imagination. I didn’t even have to get to the last page to know that what I was holding in my hands was pure graphic novel gold.

In this charming graphic memoir, twenty-two-year-old artist Lucy Knisley narrates her trip to France with her mother in photographs and drawings. Lucy is about to graduate from college, so her parents spring for the ultimate graduation present—a six week trip in the  spring of 2007 to Paris where she and her mother will stay in a rental apartment and sample all the City of Light has to offer. In many ways, this is a typical travel memoir—Lucy lists and draws her everyday experiences, including all the yummy French food she consumes (she estimates having eaten at least 60 croissants and a “metric ton of chocolate mousse” during her stay) and the rich, thick whole French milk she drinks constantly. But what makes this lil’ blue graphic novel special are the very intimate and emotional details of Lucy’s life that are tucked in and around all the sketches of museums and cafes. She unselfconsciously chronicles the fits of depression she falls into when she thinks about leaving the security of school behind, her lusty longings for her boyfriend, and all the times her mother gets on her last nerve. She confesses her doubts that she’ll ever make it as a cartoonist and shares her self-loathing about her “fat American feet” that don’t fit into the sleek European-sized shoes. Lucy is on the scary cusp of adulthood, and even the delights of Paris can’t ease those growing pains. Lucy’s antics will make you chuckle and sigh in recognition, especially if you’re living through that anxious time in your late teens or early twenties. And it was the perfect read for me, as I embark on my own first trip to Paris today! Because of the length of my stay and the jet lag I’m sure to suffer on my return, please don’t expect a new post from me until the end of the month. So au revoir mes amis until then!

They say Death never takes a holiday. But he will need to plan for retirement at some point, which is why he decides to set up Death Jr. with an internship at Terminal Industries for the summer. DJ’s not sure what he thinks about this, especially when all his friends, including the charming empty-eye-socketed Pandora, the armless, legless Seep and the brilliant Siamese twins Smith & Weston, are heading off to summer camp. He’s even more disappointed when he discovers that dear old dad intends for him to start from the bottom—the sub-basement bottom. DJ is assigned to work under Mr. Cracy (as in “Bureaucracy”) who is in charge of collecting, collating and filing all the paperwork of the dead. The job is boring, but it keeps DJ out of trouble—until he tries to fill Death’s shoes and finds himself at the center of a corporate take-over, with the bitter Mr. Cracy leading the charge against his dad. Meanwhile, Pandora and Co. are finding that summer camp is not exactly what they expected, and are all too eager to come home and help DJ win back his dad’s job and reputation. This creative re-imagining of Death as a harried suburban dad and his son as just your everyday middle schooler with girl problems was funny and punny in equal measure and sure to please everyone from your bratty little sister to your high school librarian. A spooky treat for all ages! And if the lil’ bonehead makes you chuckle as much as he made me, make sure to go back and check out Death, Jr. (Volume 1).

What do a smart-aleck drug smuggler, a female Special Forces Israeli solider, an idealistic American college student, a disenchanted Lebanese teenager, and a cynical op-ed columnist in the modern day city of Cairo have in common? Easy! They are all searching for (whether they know it or not) an enchanted hookah pipe that contains a benevolent genie who has the power (“We don’t pull things out of thin air, we manipulate probability.”) to make all of their dreams come true. The only obstacles in their way? A drug king-pin-turned-magician (who bears a striking resemble to Mike Myers’ Dr. Evil), the horned cousin of the benevolent genie who may or may not be Satan, and their own inability to work together as a team. If they can figure out how to do THAT, well, there just might be hope for peace in the Middle East. Funny, busy, and endlessly inventive, this stunning GN mixes faith, politics and fantasy in a way I’ve never seen before. The only thing I can think of that comes close is one of my favorite fantasies from ’08, The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick, which would make a nice companion prose read to this stellar graphic effort. And I’m not the only one to sing Cairo’s praises. It was also named one of the 2009 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens by the Young Adult Library Services Association of the American Library Association. So what are you waiting for? Take a magic carpet ride to Cairo today!

My favorite superhero has always been Wolverine. So imagine my surprise and delight to discover this new wolf on the block! Cosmopolitan CEO Gary Hampton is attacked by a wild animal while on a routine camping trip with the wife and kid.  He awakens from a coma to find that he has been bitten by the werewolf bug. Unlike traditional howlers, Gary can change into a powerful wolf man each night at will. He only loses control of himself once a month when the moon is full, so he takes special precautions to make sure that while under the lunar influence he doesn’t eat his family. He is mentored by Zechariah, a turtleneck wearing Sean Connery-esque vampire, who teaches him how to harness his powers and hooks him up with some sweet superhero gear. Soon Wolf-Man is taking a bite out of crime and loving every minute of it. Until the night where he meets up with a pack of his own kind, who tell him that Zechariah isn’t what he appears to be and that Gary shouldn’t trust him. Who is Zechariah? And what does some dusty old vamp want with a virile wolf-dude anyway? I love Jason Howard’s angular, sharp, square-jawed style, even though he takes a little too much joy in splashing the blood around whenever Wolf-Man raises a ruckus with some baddies. Still, despite the gratuitous gore, I really dug this story of a struggling superhero trying to find his way when no one will tell him the truth. The Astounding Wolf-Man has an impressive pedigree, penned by none other than the zombie-rrific Robert Kirkman, author of the awesomely awful The Walking Dead.

Deep sea divers. Little leaf men. Suburban water buffalo and lost dugongs. Giant mechanical penguins and getaway cars filled with turtles. All these arresting, ingenious images and so much more await the lucky reader who enters Tan’s whimsical world of “Outer Suburbia.” Not quite a graphic novel, not quite a picture book, this strange amalgamation of pictures and prose (some only a page long) reads like a collection of colorful and creative detritus Tan discovered in the crooked corners of his superior imagination that he then picked up, dusted off, and polished into small, perfect gems. “Eric,” which chronicles the adventures of a small exchange student who marvels at the complexity of his host’s home, will immediately bring to mind Tan’s gorgeously wrought The Arrival, his wordless homage to the immigrant spirit. Others gently emphasize themes of hope, peace and bravery in the face of adversity. Like “Alert But Not Alarmed,” where a neighborhood finds a way to humorously re-purpose the missiles the government requires them to keep in their backyards.  Or  “No Other Country,” where a family, fed up with the dry, arid environment of their new home, discovers a lush hidden courtyard that exists only in that sweet geographical spot, giving them cause to appreciate a place they used to loathe.  In this celebratory season where I am part of a community that often argues over competing holiday symbols, I was especially moved by “The Nameless Holiday.” Here, Tan describes in both words and pictures a holiday that moves around the calendar and is characterized by everyone choosing the object they love most. These treasures are then left hanging on the television antenna as an offering for a giant reindeer, who carefully carries them away, making the participants feel special and chosen instead of regretful and sad. Depending on how you feel or where you are when you open this wonderful tome, the stories will seem sad, happy, hopeful or tragic. But they all share one thing in common—they are born of Tan’s unique and singular vision and therefore are simply not to be missed.

The Janes are back, and this time love is in the air. It’s nearly Valentine’s Day, and Main Jane Beckless is torn between two boys—Miroslaw, the man she helped save on the day of the Metro City café bombing, and Damon, the cutie McCutester who took the fall for her when the P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art in Neighborhoods) Janes were caught at the end of their first adventure. Theater Jane is in love with an actor who doesn’t know she’s alive, science Jane is trying to concoct a pheromone scent that will cause boys to ask her out, while sporty Jane simply takes matters into her own hands by informing the boy she likes that he’s now her boyfriend—and he cheerfully complies. But affairs of the heart aren’t the only troubles plaguing the Janes. The girl-art gang (plus James) is also struggling with low funds and high aspirations when it comes to planning future P.L.A.I.N. projects. To make matters worse, Main Jane’s mom refuses to leave the house after an old friend is killed by an anthrax terrorist attack. Can Main Jane solve her romantic woes, find a way to keep funding P.L.A.I.N., and get her mom to hit the sidewalk, all while dodging the apoplectic Officer Sanchez, who’s determined to shut down P.L.A.I.N. forever? This spirited sequel to The Plain Janes will bliss out any teen crusader of public art, free speech, or love. Have no idea what I’m talking about? Then you better run out to your nearest library or bookstore and snag the first Castellucci & Rugg graphic novel collaboration and get up to date with the Janes!

Brothers Sumo and Duffy are completely confused when they are abruptly yanked out of school one day by a mysterious cousin they’ve never met, Mister Come-and-Go, “the only man in the world to graduate with honors from Cambridge and…go three years undefeated in the International Extreme Street-Fighting Tourney.” When informed by their harried father that Come-and-Go will be taking them for a hastily planned visit to their eccentric, gout-ridden aunt Lulu’s  island home of Kocalaha, optimistic Duffy is thrilled while pessimistic Sumo is bummed and more than a little frightened (“Shark attacks!” “Hostile natives!” “Tidal waves!”) Once there, the boys are informed that they will be accompanying Come-and-Go and his crew of native sailors and divers on a dubious “expedition,” presumably for the purpose of leading tourists through the maze of volcanic island paradises. But when Come-and-Go takes the boat straight into the heart of an active volcano, Sumo realizes that the adults aren’t setting a new tourist trap, they’re looking for something–something very valuable and somehow related to his scientist Mom, who is supposedly conducting research in Borneo. Sensing danger greater than that they have already faced, Sumo and Duffy set out on their own to discover the secret of the volcano for themselves. And that’s when the REAL adventure begins…my adolescent friends, I have never seen anything quite like Don Wood’s Into the Volcano. While the art and lettering remind me somewhat of my favorite indi-graphic novel, The Interman, Wood takes it to a new level, his frantically kinetic panels depicting earthquakes, breaking waves and flowing lava so immediately you feel as if you are right with Sumo and Duffy in the thick of the action. And there is non-stop action, which takes off by page 30 and explodes, burns, and plummets to the very end. But least you think that Wood is all brawn and no brain, there is a moving story beneath all the adventure–the story of how petty Sumo transforms from a whiny coward into a real hero. This all-ages action adventure, also riddled with fascinating facts about volcano formation, will engage everyone from Anthony Horowitz fans to MythBusters aficionados.  So take a deep breath and venture Into the Volcano. I promise you won’t be disappointed!

Emi is an Everyteen on a hunt for some artistic inspiration to pull her out of her summer-job doldrums. When she sees performance artist Poppy make a scene at the mall while advertising the “Factory,” a local open mic venue, she knows she’s found her muse. Poppy, with her multi-colored dreads and multiple piercings, is everything Emi is not—loud, brash, beautiful and totally uninhibited. With Poppy as her motivation, Emi finds the dubious courage to do things she never thought she’d do—even stealing the journal of a woman she baby sits for, and using her private thoughts as a spoken word act. Soon “Emiko Superstar” is the belle of the Warhol-esque Factory. Deep down, Emiko feels guilty for using someone else’s life as fodder for her performance. But if she drops her act, will she be forced to give up all her fabulous Factory friends and go back to being just boring Emi again? It will take a kind stranger, a timely 911 call, and a torn paper heart to make a-MAH-zing Emiko realize that good old Emi wasn’t so bad after all. This thoughtful, smart story about finding yourself after your fifteen minutes of fame has passed reminds me of Cecil Castellucci’s groovy Plain Janes (another arts-full MINX title) and the work of  Derek Kirk Kim. And though it looks like Emiko may be one of short-lived DC imprint MINX’s swan songs, hopefully artists and authors will continue to produce and promote more girl-rrific graphic novels for us fangirls who still need an occasional rriot grrl fix!

If your life had a soundtrack, who would be on it? For comic artist Mike Dawson, the answer is simple: “When I think of Queen, I can remember my whole life.” From the moment he sees Freddie Mercury strut his stuff on Top of the Pops as a wee lad, Mike knows he’s found his muse. When his family moves from England to New Jersey, Freddie is there, singing “I Want to Break Free” and “Death on Two Legs.” When everyone in his high school in 1991 is rocking out to Nirvana and all the other “alternative” bands, Mike can turn up his nose in favor of Freddie, who “can actually sing.” When Wayne’s World makes “Bohemian Rhapsody” a mainstream hit, Mike can brag that Queen was “his” band first. As he develops his drawing skills, suffers through his first serious romantic relationship, and tries to discover who he really is, the classic rock music of Queen is always playing in the background. This quiet, slice of life graphic memoir emphasizes the incredibly important role music plays in our lives, especially during our teen years. Dawson’s art is realistic and fearless–he isn’t afraid to depict himself in all his adolescent glory, bad haircut, braces and all. Occasionally, Dawson literally “rocks out” on impressive two page spreads (one of which hilariously depicts him singing an endless rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody at a local talent show, while the MC keeps trying to shoo him off the stage) that juice up his gently paced narrative and temper his contemplative tone. If you’re a fan of Craig Thompson’s Blankets, or the late Freddie Mercury, you’re gonna want to give Freddie & Me a go.

The multi-talented Joss Whedon (he of the critically acclaimed “Buffy” television series) has taken the wheel of my fav comic series Runaways and steered those bad boys and girls left of the present and straight into the past, circa 1907. For those of you not in the know, the Runaways (created by the awesome Brian K. Vaughn) are a group of teens who discover their parents are super villains. After unleashing their own super powers on their unfortunate ‘rents, the California kids (originally from L.A.) bounce back and forth from coast to coast as they flee their parents’ evil legacy and try to adjust to their new-found strengths. Finding themselves once again in New York, the kids team up with the crime leader Kingpin, in a blind attempt to gain some security in a strange city not their own. In return for his protection, they agree to stage a small heist. Only they recognize the stolen object as a time travel device and decide to hold onto it for a bit. Naturally, the Kingpin wants what’s his, and sends an army of ninjas (yeah, you read that right—NINJAS) to get it. So before you can say “turn of the century,” the kids jam the device into one of the portals of their long-legged all- terrain vehicle (nicknamed The Frog) and scoot out of harm’s way and back to the 1900’s, where things actually aren’t much better. They find themselves in the middle of a turf war that’s just like The Gangs of New York. Except, these strikers and rabble-rousers, known in their time as “Wonders,” also have super-powers and are turning the tenements into a super-big mess. It will take all the kids’ strength and ingenuity to extricate them selves from the battle and get back to present-day New York in one piece. Whew! Whedon has penned a fast-paced doozy of an adventure that does not disappoint. The genius behind Buffy deepens each of the kids’ characters, especially conflicted leader Nico, and provides cyborg Victor with a romantic storyline that rivals Leo and Claire, I mean, Romeo & Juliet. From what I can discern from the single-issue reviews, it’s better to digest Whedon’s work all in one gulp in this collected volume so that you can more easily follow the complicated time travel plot. Want to know what happened first? Start here. But for those of you who are already fans of the tricked-out teens, I can’t think of a better way to wile away a lazy Sunday afternoon than spending time with these Dead End Kids!

Holly Black leaves the land of Spiderwick for a while to gift us with her first graphic novel, a dark faery tale more along the lines of her gritty Tithe series. Sixteen-year-old Rue (a broody alterna-chick who strongly resembles a “My So-Called Life”-era Claire Danes, except raven-haired instead of red) has been down in the dumps since her beautiful mother disappeared several weeks ago. What makes matters worse is that her devastated professor dad has just been accused of murdering one of his favorite students. Rue has maintained her cool so far by sticking to her usual routine of urban exploring with her best buds and playing groupie at her rocker boyfriend’s shows. But what she can’t ignore are the things she’s starting to see out of the corner of her eye: bubble-blowing nymphs by her locker, goat-headed guys at the local coffee bar, sharp-eared dudes in the alley. When she tries to explain to her friends what’s happening to her, her skeptical boyfriend begins to pull away, and Rue starts to wonder if she’s going a little lulu. So she decides to prove she’s not crazy by conducting her own investigation around her mom’s disappearance and her dad’s alleged crime. And what she discovers is that no one in her family are who they seem to be—and that her own origins are just as mysterious as the faery visions that have begun haunting her day and night. Who are these ephemeral beings? And what do they want from Rue? Book One is only the beginning of Rue’s quest to find her mother and discover her true identity. Ted Naifeh’s edgy, outsider art partners well with Black’s forbidding fairytale, his sharp angles and deep shadows lending anxiety and menace to Rue’s search. Black also includes in Rue’s research about the “good neighbors” one of my favorite lil’ nuggets of supernatural lore: in 1895 Ireland, a woman named Bridget Cleary was murdered by her husband and his brothers because they came to believe that she was a fairy “changling” and not the true Bridget. Of course, they were arrested and imprisoned, as we all know there’s no such thing as fairies. But suddenly Rue’s not so sure…The Good Neighbors will be wafting in on bat wings to your local library or bookstore October 2008—just in time for Halloween!

Itty-bitty blondie Sylvia Mark doesn’t look like much. But piss her off, and she’s liable to go all Hulk on you. Except, not green—just really, really strong. Meangrrl Colleen finds that out when she tries to warn Sylvia off her fine boyfriend, and ends up in a Colleen-shaped locker dent with a broken arm for her trouble. While Sylvia at first chalks up her overnight might to puberty-gone-wild, her disturbing dreams of bio-vats and rivers of blood hint at a dangerously different reason. Meanwhile, in a secret government lab, Dr. Tabitha Carver looks over her collection of super-girls in jars, awaiting the return of the missing four so she can activate her army of baby goddesses. Four girls were kidnapped from the lab at the start of Carver’s precious cloning project. Now one of those girls is beginning to manifest her powers. And due to an instinctive impulse that is leading her closer and closer to her test-tube origins, Sylvia is rounding up the other three for a final violent confrontation with Carver that could end up rocking the entire world. My teenage friends, you have no idea how much serious ass-kicking is contained in this lil’ GN. Suffice it to say that it is on the order of my fav comic girl Fray and her bad-ass cousin Tank Girl, and just as cosmically awesome. And if square-jawed, pouty-lipped Sylvia looks familiar, it may be because Simon & Schuster just recently picked up this independent production that originally debuted on Dark Horse’s website, then was published in a seven issue series by Arcana Studios back in ’04. Now S&S have collected all seven issues of Sylvie in this suh-weet paperback for your uninterrupted viewing pleasure. So get off the couch already, head to your closest library or bookstore and get your own Girl! (Batteries and kung fu superpowers not included.)

Yee haw! Shannon Hale and her hubby Dean have taken the tired old princess-in-a-tower-tale and re-imagined Rapunzel as a rootin’ tootin’ cowgirl, complete with scarlet lassoin’ braids, and a sassy sidekick named Jack (yeah, he of the magic bean fame). As in the original, Rapunzel is taken as an infant from her mother by a wicked witch in payment for some stolen…lettuce (for those of you not in the know, “rapunzel” is actually a salad green) and raised in isolation. But instead of sitting helplessly in a tower, she uses her mile-long braids to escape the tall tree-prison fashioned by said wicked witch Mother Gothel, and goes in search of her real mom, who has been forced to slave away in Gothel’s brutal mining camp. On the way she befriends huckster Jack, rescues a ransomed youngster, drives a pack of wild coyotes across the border, and wrestles a giant rattlesnake to death. This fearless ‘Punzie is more Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett than lovelorn Lady of Shallot, and ten times as fun! Hale & Hale’s brilliant cowgirl creation is brought to vivid, full-color life by Nathan Hale’s (no relation) rich illustrations, which resemble a grittier William Joyce. I haven’t had so much fun since Bloody Jack came to town! A must-read graphic novel for all ages.

London Goth-girl Lottie’s been caught flashing her fake i.d. a bit too often, so Mum and Dad are sending her on an all-expenses paid vacation to her grandparents’ posh but terminally boring golf club in the countryside in order to get her away from the temptation of the club scene. Lottie doesn’t do bucolic very well—she can’t tell a putter from an iron, and her three-inch heels keep snapping off in the grass and cow pats. Evenings with the grand’rents are tedious, but things pick up once she and cute golf pro Howard discover a dead body with a strange mark carved into its flesh in a pond beyond the 9th hole. Could the rural Goth-kids she ran into in the quiet village actually be ritual murderers? Or could the perpetrator of this foul crime be someone much more ordinary—and frighteningly closer—to Lottie? This feisty, Brit-flavored graphic mystery, full of red herrings and lipstick, pokes gentle fun at Goth-culture while keeping readers turning pages to find out whodunit. A throughly entertaining read that will help pass the time behind the velvet ropes while you’re waiting for the bouncer to let you in.

I was initially a little worried when I discovered there was going to be a graphic novel version of the Neil Gaiman insta-horror-classic, Coraline. Even though I neglected to post a review here of the original novel when it first came out (see original cover at the bottom),  I absolutely loved it and still promote it like crazy to my students. Would creating a GN version enhance or destroy the black magic of the initial work? For those of you not in the know, the title character is an only child who lives on a rambling old country estate with her busy working parents. She is bored with her solitary life, wishes her parents would pay more attention to her, and longs for adventure. Then Coraline discovers a door in the old house that leads into another world that is a mirror-version of her own. The two parents in this world dote on her and hang on her every word, and the toys in her room in this world are far more interesting than the boring old toys in her real room. Except, sometimes they…move when Coraline isn’t looking, and instead of a dog or a cat to play with, there are big, black rats. Her attentive new parents are great—except they have black buttons instead of eyes, and keep wanting to sew buttons onto Coraline’s face, too. When Coraline decides she’d rather live her own world, the “other mother” gets angry and kidnaps her real mother and father. Now Coraline must return to the other side of the door and play a dangerous game with the other mother in order to save herself and her parents. My fears that the GN wouldn’t do justice to Gaiman’s work were groundless—P. Craig Russell’s illustrations were just right, and matched the creepy visions I had in my head after reading the original. Seeing the “other mother” on the page in all her black-buttoned glory was a sinister treat, and the scene when the “other father” shambles up the cellar stairs in pursuit of Coraline after she has ripped the buttons from his melting face is completely terrifying! I strongly recommend checking this one out if you loved the novel, or are just a fan of horror comics.

Romanian Lord Radu Arisztidescu, (vampire royalty in his country, but a seller of beer in ours) owns and operates the Last Stop quickie-mart. Keeping good help is hard, so Radu just bites himself a new undead employee when he needs a fresh pair of hands to unload the milk and rotate the hot dogs. Enter Dave, Lord Radu’s latest convenience store wage-slave, and reluctant vampire. Dave just can’t seem to get the hang of the bloodsucker-gig. He hates night shifts, and the sight and smell of fresh plasma makes him gag. So he spends his evenings ogling the hot Goth girls who frequent the nightclub next door, and snacking on Radu’s underground blood beer and beef jerky made out of you-don’t-want-to-know-what. He’s in love with a human Goth princess named Rosa, but between trying hide his pesky fang condition and fending off her other suitors, namely a studly vampire surfer named Wes and a bisexual human Goth named Alistair, Dave’s in over his hemoglobin. What’s a bat boy to do? Can Dave learn to overcome his Type-O revulsion in order to up his vampire strength so he can trounce muscle-bound Wes and win Rosa’s hand? Or is he doomed to an eternity of nursing his lonely heart while ringing up cigarettes and pulling Slurpees? It’s hard to believe that anyone could create anything new from the tired old vampire genre, but Abel (of La Perdida fame), Soria and Pleece have done it with this funny, sexy, scary graphic novel that is equal parts Clerks, Buffy, and Revenge of the Nerds. Although this GN has some moments of real fright, it’s mostly just real funny–especially when Dave’s master Lord Radu comes on the scene. How can you do anything but howl with laughter when Radu, sporting a Tom Selleck ’stache and some serious chest hair says stuff like “Dave, Dave, Dave…vhat am I do viss you? I give you geeft of eternal life, I promote you to assistant manager, and ziss iss how you repay? By not punching out on break?” God, I love this GN.

College freshman Greg Willis has a dream he can fly. He’s just moved from the Midwest to New York to attend NYU and become the next great American spandex-ed superhero, like his idol Spider-Man. Ever since “the Accident,” Greg has been able to manipulate the gravitational pull of the earth and use it as his own. As superhero “Gravity,” he hopes to join the elite fighting ranks of other famous masked NYC crime fighters. But it’s tough juggling homework, classes and a girlfriend all day while fighting crime all night, and Greg’s grades are starting to slip. Plus, he’s learning it’s not all fun and games saving lives. He’s had his butt kicked a few times by super-villain Black Death, and even when he does take down someone as infamous as The Rhino, he gets hardly any love from the press! What’s up with these New York reporters? They’d never do that Spidey! Now he’s looking to get Black Death back by planning an ambush with his new best friend The Greenwich Guardian. Only the Guardian is not what he seems, and Greg’s dream is quickly turning into a nightmare. Does he have what it takes to continue fighting crime down the mean streets of Manhattan? McKeever, author of graphic novel series Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and Sentinel, gets the warring feelings of bravado and insecurity embodied in his naive new character just right, and teens will sympathize with Greg’s difficulty in balancing his crowded college life with his new calling. Give Gravity a spin, I promise it won’t get you “down!”

Imagine being far from home, in a new city where you don’t speak the language and nothing is familiar. Boat-shaped flying machines ferry people to and from work beneath flights of origami birds. Oddly shaped fruits and vegetables are sold from compartments in a giant market wall, and every person you meet has a small animal guide to accompany them, each looking like it sprang fully formed from a Hieronymus Bosch painting. You miss your home. You miss your family. But your job is to work hard and fit in here so that you can eventually make a new life for yourself and those who depend on you. Living as I do in a city of immigrants, I’ve seen & heard the “coming to America” story a million times before. But never like this. There is a magically real gloss on Shaun Tan’s sepia-toned wordless graphic novel that raises the classic “stranger in a strange land” plot to a fresh new height. As the story begins, it would be easy to mistake it for an Ellis Island epic. But it soon becomes abundantly clear that Tan is taking us on a trip to a land none of us has ever seen before, giving us a chance to truly understand the immigrant experience, as we the readers flounder right alongside the weary protagonist, trying to make sense of the beautiful, dizzying landscape Tan has created. So gorgeously illustrated and imagined, you’ll want to own your own copy so you can look at it again and again.

In an alternate sci-fi Old West, where both buffalo AND robots roam the range, famed train robber Daisy Kutter has hung up her guns. Ever since her square-chinned ex-beau Tom repented of his wild ways and became the local sheriff, Daisy’s not only lost her partner in crime and one true love; she’s also lost the will to illegally lighten trains of their valuable loads. Enter mysterious oil magnate and security specialist Mr. Winters. Winters proposes a job that has Daisy’s trigger finger itching—if she can successfully rob his new security enhanced train, he will pay her the handsome sum of 350,000 lugs (what passes for pesos in Daisy’s world). Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Winters just won Daisy’s dry goods store in a high stakes poker game—and if Daisy wants it back, she’s gonna have to strap on her gunbelt one last time. Now, this IS the Old West, so expect some double-crossing and serious gun play before this story is through. Kibuishi’s b&w graphic novel, chosen as one of the 2006 Best Books for Young Adults, features a trash-talking heroine who is equal parts Annie Oakley and Tank Girl, with moves that out-manuever Laura Croft. You’ll be hard-pressed not to frantically flip pages to find out what happens next, but after you do, take a moment to go back and admire Kibuishi’s cool, clean art, heated up by his heroine’s bad-ass action sequences.

This little bit of raspberry-flavored fluff reads like a graphic novel episode of “Sex in the City: the High School Years,” without the, well, sex. Our narrator, brainy brunette Chloe, relates the story of her junior year at Georgia O’Keefe “Fashion” High like a pint-sized Carrie Bradshaw, complete with cute outfits and mild bouts of insecurity. Along with her three BF’s; sex kitten Mackenzie (a blond, man-stealing Samantha Jones doppelganger) cynical Isabel (a TOTAL Miranda if I ever saw one) and way-too-sweet Erika (SO annoyingly Charlotte), Chloe shakily navigates the stormy waters of high school in the leaky boat known as “Popularity.” As each girl faces her own personal trial (Chloe likes a geek-chic boy that she’s embarrassed to introduce to her friends, Mackenzie is mackin’ on another girl’s boy, Isabel’s parents have her on lock-down and Ericka is struggling with whether or not she wants to go “all the way” with long-time beau Kyle) they come to discover that their friendship is changing—and not necessarily for the better. Suddenly they can’t always be trusted to be there for each other, and begin to wonder if this is the end. Especially mean-girl realistic is the slightly masochistic relationship between Chloe and Mackenzie. Mac has always been the group’s charismatic leader, but when Chloe finally stands up for herself and declares her love for Trekkie Adam, will Mac allow such an insurrection, especially when it threatens her own popularity? Breaking Up is escapist chick lit at its best: clean and sweet until the claws come out! Christine Norrie’s blushing, pouting girls, reminiscent of Mattel’s My Scene Barbies, are just a bit too good-looking, with nary a zit or muffin top among them, but I didn’t care, because this is escapism after all, and who wants REAL high school when I can have High-School-Musical high school? I totally hope Aimee Friedman and Christine Norrie come out with a second installment of the Fashion High series–I’ve already made a space for it between my Sweet Valley High original paperbacks and Sex in the City complete DVD collection!

This is the untold story of crazy Queen Mab; her regal rival Queen Titania, their battle for the throne of Fairie and the changeling teen who gets caught in the middle. Rebellious British teenager Linda likes living life on the edge, especially when it includes hanging out with slick elfin motorcycle boy Verian, who has taught her how to shoot up “red horse,” a hallucinogenic combination of heroin mixed with her own blood. The potent mixture not only gets her high, but also gives her frightening visions from the land of Fairie. Linda can see the tortured souls trapped in the dark heart of evil Queen Mab, who has stolen her rival Titania’s throne and forced Titania herself out into the human world to search for help. From Titania, Linda learns that her mother is a fairy, which makes Linda herself half fey. It is Linda’s dual-nature blood that makes “red horse” so powerful, allowing her to see into Mab’s heart. Now Titania is forced to call on her former friend and her teenaged daughter to help her destroy Mab. Because only Linda, who is both fairy AND human, can expose Mab’s black heart…with her unique, intoxicating blood. This darkly compelling graphic novel, richly illustrated in John Bolton’s photo-realistic style, is not for the faint of heart. It’s just as much horror as fantasy, more Stephen King than J.K. Rowling. But those who enjoy Holly Black’s Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale and its sequels will find this bizarre “Midsummer’s Night Dream” meets “Nightmare on Elm Street” completely captivating. As scary as she was, I couldn’t turn my eyes away from Bolton’s Mab, a pulp-fiction nightmare in black and purple bat-wing taffeta and dirty white cotton candy hair. Depictions of drug use and some gratuitous thong scenes make this one strictly for the high school set. But trust me tweeners, you wouldn’t want to flip this one open anyway–just one panel of Bolton’s murderous skeletal fairies on demonic black horses was enough to give me the heebie jeebies–and I’m thirty-something!

Welcome to Dead High! At this killer school, the only way to get your mug into the annual yearbook is to lose your head…or heart…or some other vital organ. In the boarded-up basement of a condemned high school, this year’s staff is hard at work creating the ultimate high school keepsake, making sure that everyghoul, I mean, everyone is included. Within it’s blood-smeared pages, you’ll find It-girl Rowena, who made the mistake of cuddling a little too close to her new puppy (which just happens to be a demon-possessed Chihuahua—watch out, Paris! This could happen to you!), Louis, whose nasty old grandma-turned-zombie held him hostage for midnight snacking purposes, and Clara, who was so determined to take the SATs that not even decapitation was going to stop her, among many others who had the bad luck of biting it too young. This half-cheesy, half-scary collection of short stories featuring teens meeting their untimely, supernatural ends reminded me of some of the best Tales from the Crypt storylines. I for one enjoy getting my shiver on, and I applaud McVeigh, Velez & crew for giving us a good old-fashioned, full-color, gory teen-themed horror-fest. I enjoyed every blood-curdling minute of it, and if you’re a fan of the Cryptmaster & co., you’ll (grave) dig it too!

Blame it on Speedball. He was the leader of the minor superhero team who were making their living as reality TV stars. But when Speedball and Co. go after a group of villains that are way out of their league in front of the cameras, the fallout from their neighborhood battle is tragic—an entire elementary school is wiped off the map when one of the bad guys goes nuclear. Suddenly the citizens of the United States are up in arms, demanding that all superheroes must be made to register their powers with the government. Leading the pro-registration movement is Tony Stark, aka Ironman, with Peter Parker, the Amazing Spiderman at his side. But not every super person is thrilled about the idea of unmasking, namely Mr. US of A himself, Captain America, who counts half of the Fantastic Four and Daredevil on his side. What happens when the two super sides collide is Civil War, the amazing Marvel comic series that has been sweeping the nation for the past year, and has now been collected into several graphic novels. In addition to reading the main Civil War storyline, you may want to fill in the back story by reading about the conflict through the eyes of some of your other favorite Marvel heroes. My favs wereAmazing Spider-Man, No. 533 (Civil War: Spiderman Unmasked) and Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways Think about it–who’s side are YOU on?

She’s smart, she’s fast, and she’s supadupa-fly–except for the fact she’s a spider! Just don’t call her Spider-Girl, she’s Anya Corazon, aka Arana, the Latina teen who just happened to be in the right place at the right time to score the kinds of acrobatic moves that would make Spider-man look about as scary as a Daddy Long-Legs. Now that she’s working for the mysterious WebCorps, with tall dark Miguel as her Muse, Anya is slowly learning how to harness her Hunter powers in order to trap WASPS, a shadowy criminal underground organization that operates outside society and the law. But how is she going to bust chops, find a decent superhero costume (one of the funniest sequences in the book) and maintain a B+ average at the same time? This first volume of Arana’s adventures is fast-paced and full of laughs, while not giving readers all the answers about Anya’s uncertain future, which is why you’re gonna want to score Arana Volume 2: In The Beginning and Arana Volume 3: Night Of The Hunter as well. And if you like Anya, check out the other titles in the Marvel Age/Adventures imprint. This imprint has always been been near and dear to my heart since it was the one to launch Runaways.

After Jane lives through a terrifying bomb attack on her beloved Metro City (a thinly disguised New York suffering in the wake of 9/11) she chops off most of her hair, dyes the rest black, and determines not to let fear rule her life. But her parents have other ideas, and move the whole family to the arguably “safer” suburbs. Jane is angry and bored until she discovers three other misfit girls, also named Jane, who agree to be part of her pet project to bring culture to the boring ‘burbs, P.L.A.I.N (People Loving Art in Neighborhoods). But not everything goes as planned, and soon the Janes are being targeted by not only the popular mean girls, but the police well! Fresh, irreverent and funny, The Plain Janes is YA author Cecil Castellucci’s (Boy Proof) first GN for DC Comic’s new MINX imprint, aimed at teenage girls. Check out the Janes and other new MINX reads at DC’s very cool website: www.minxbooks.net

Jin Wang is the new kid at Mayflower Elementary. He is one of only three other Asian American kids, including shy Suzy Nakamura and brainy Wei-Chen Sun. Though Jin is friends with Suzy and Wei-Chen, he wishes he were as popular as blond-haired, blue-eyed Greg, who seems to have everything, including the attention of Amelia Harris, the girl Jin has a crush on. But when Greg asks a special “favor” of Jin that involves “staying with his own kind,” Jin decides he’s has enough of other people’s assumptions of who he is and where he comes from. Channeling the strength and cunning of legendary Chinese trickster, Monkey King, Jin finds a way to break free of negative Asian stereotypes and learn to be comfortable in his own skin. This brightly colored, charismatic graphic novel is rich in wisdom and folklore, and ripe with humor and pop culture references. You don’t have to be American Born Chinese to appreciate the universal message of acceptance, self-esteem, and identity in Gene Yang’s thought-provoking and multi-layered story.

> El Zombo Fantasma is afraid of NOTHING - not even Death! When the Mexican pro wrestler is brutally shot in a dark alley after what is to be his last throw-down, he is informed by his afterlife caseworker that if he wants to stroll through the pearly gates, he must go back to Earth and assume the guardian angel-ship of one very small and very angry Belisa Montoya. Beli needs a serious ass-kicker on her side. Turns out she’s the reincarnation of an Incan goddess who should have been sacrificed centuries ago to some grade-A villains known as Los Mascaras Negroes. And they’re ready to cut up Beli’s heart ASAP�but first they’ll have to get through the impressive biceps and Superman-sized chin of the one, the only EL ZOMBO FANTASMA!! And that, my friends, will be no SMALL TASK! Can I just say that El Zombo rocks? This GN was so fast, so furious, so downright sharp and funny and LOUD (the colors are so bright they make your eyes bleed) that I’ve basically been passing it out to every teen I know, wrestling fan or not. El Zombo Fantasma FOREVER!

Okay, we’ve all seen the Incredibles�–Kids find out that their average parents are really secret superheroes. But what if, instead of gooey do-gooders, a group of teens discover that their parents are really super VILLAINS? This group of mismatched offspring find out that their fund-raising, charity-obsessed parents are really much more naughty than nice the night they accidentally witness their folks commit murder during one of their top secret “meetings.” Disturbed beyond belief, the teens (among them a jock-boy, computer whiz, goth girl, and “good” girl) take off in one of the parents’ minivan in order to buy time as they try and determine what to do. Meanwhile, each of them is discovering their own latent talents, but deciding whether these new powers are a blessing or a curse is the least of their problems as they continue to be chased by their homicidal elders. Fast, furious, and oh so fun, Runaways is one of the titles in the Marvel Fantasy line, which is a group of comics written specifically for the teen audience. I also heartily endorse Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Vol. 1: Super Crush (all about the lovely high school redhead who pines after Peter Parker’s alter ego) andAstonishing X-Men: Emma Frost, Vol. 1 - Higher Learning(exposes the not-so humble beginnings of the X-Men’s mind-reading psychic chick)

Paul is an aimless high school dropout living in Quebec, Canada in the 1970’s. He is saved from his dead-end job at the local print shop when an old friend from school calls up and asks Paul to join his counselor crew at a camp he’s put together for disadvantaged kids. Paul figures anything is better than printing, so he takes to the woods, envisioning fresh air, peaceful lakes, and hot chicks. Well, one out of three ain’t bad. His co-counselor, Annie, is pretty hot, but the mosquitoes, overly curious wildlife and crying kids almost put him over the edge. But things start looking up when Paul figures out how to tie a decent rock-climbing knot, bandage skinned elbows, and talk to Annie like a grown-up. This is a sweet and understated story about first jobs and first loves and what goes into making the kind of summer memories you never forget. Americans, don’t let the 1970’s Canadian references put you off–the author thoughtfully included a short list of explanations in the back. Tuck this one into your duffle bag beside the bug spray and flashlight next summer.

Ashton Archer is a smug, ridiculously good-looking Lothario who always gets the girl…except this time. Meet Margaret Sheldon, the “scooter girl” of the title. Absolutely perfect in every way, this Vespa-riding Mod chick has no time for smooth talking scrubs. But Ashton won’t give up, until Margaret turns the tables on him and makes his life a living hell. When Ash finally gets over his obsession, Margaret unexpectedly comes back into his life, only this time, he swears, if he can’t have her, no one will–even if he has to hire a hit man to make it so! A wonderfully fun and slapstick take on the old Taming of the Shrew/David-and-Maddie-Moonlighting story, (if you don’t get that reference, you’re clearly under 30. Go ask your parents about it.) Scooter Girl is a anime-style, scrumptious visual feast of 60’s mod scooter culture and 80’s pop, all set in a time period that could only be now! Ash is a DJ, be sure to check out thepanels where he’s spinning–the author includes song titles and bands, so you have a sort of mental soundtrack to the story. It’s GROOVY!

In a sort of Blade-Runner meets Mad Max future, Manhattan is an industrial slum peopled by everyone from regular old fashioned humans to genetically engineered mutants. In one of the seediest of the seedy neighborhoods, known as Versi, lives a full-time petty thief named Melaka Fray. Despite the fact that she can fall 50 stories and not break so much as a fingernail, Mel doesn’t think of herself as special in any way. Until a centuries old demon named Urkonn shows up one day and informs her otherwise. Turns out that Mel is a Slayer, born to kick vampire butt all the way back to hell. That’s why she heals so quickly and has an inbred hatred of the “lurks,” what the humans of her day call the sewer dwelling junkies that are actually vampires. Sound slightly familiar? That’s because the author of this GN is none other than Joss Whedon, creator of the immortal Buffy series. But with Fray, he kicks it up a notch, delivering a high impact heroine in a cool new format. Just as Buffy had her temptation in Angel, Mel’s Achilles’ heel is that her twin brother Harth, is a lurk bent on her destruction. Can she kill the only person she’s ever loved, even though technically he’s already dead? Now that Buffy lives on only in re-runs, you Slayer addicts are going to be looking for a new drug, and Mel Fray more than fits the bill. Plus, Buffy was just so model-perfect. In high contrast, Melaka looks like Tank Girl’s cousin, with purple-pink hair, blue lipstick, baggy cargo pants, and thick heeled Doc Martens. Fray is fantastic, and I can’t wait for the next installment.

One of my top ten books of the year, Blankets blew me away with its powerfully raw honesty. Thompson recalls, in evocative, autobiographical comic panels and prose, what it was like to grow up in a judgmental, fundamentalist Christian home in the Midwest. As a child, Craig and his young brother survive their parents’ distant and punishing upbringing by sharing their love of drawing and creating imaginary worlds out of their shared bed and blankets. By the time he’s a teen, Craig feels like an outcast, not fitting in at school and still feeling doubt at church. Then, at a winter church camp, Craig meets Raina, a girl who is beautiful both inside and out. Together, they negotiate their first love affair, in the shadow of their moralistic families and their own ingrained Christian guilt. O gosh, is this a good book–and not just because I grew up in a judgmental, fundamentalist Christian home in the Midwest! Craig Thompson has written the book I have always wanted to write, and damn if he didn’t do it ten times better than I ever could. Not your typical superhero comic, this is a BIG graphic novel with BIG themes for BIG kids. If all you dig is Batman, wait a few years before picking up Blankets.

Bee is a twenty-something that works one of those McJobs as a photo teckkie in the Big Apple. It’s more interesting than you might think�Bee has a blast making copies of people’s crazy pictures and laughing about them over a beer with friends. But then one day she develops some film that isn’t very funny. The pictures are all series of corpses, most of them looking like victims of brutal crimes. The man who turned in the film claims to be a famous crime-scene photographer-turned-artist. But Bee smells a rat, and she herself becomes a photo-tech-turned-amateur sleuth as she tries to find out the truth behind the film. A sharply drawn, quality bound hardcover GN, Shutterbug Follies is drawn just like it’s subject–with the sharp lines and bright colors of a photograph. Author Jason Little’s Bee is a scrappy heroine with a heart of gold and a morbid curiosity that gets her into all sorts of scary and sometimes ridiculous situations. Don’t let this one remain “undeveloped!”

An epic adventure based on common fairytale motifs, Rose is the story of two sisters, Rose and Briar Harvester. Both are princesses in training to become successors to the throne. But to be the chosen heir, the princess must be able to “see in dreams,” or be precognizant, to see the future in order to protect the kingdom from coming danger. Rose, the younger sister, has the “dreaming eye,” but Briar doesn’t. Yet it is Briar as the eldest who is expected to inherit the throne. Rose could care less, but there is a new danger menacing the kingdom in the form of an ancient evil, and the people need a leader who has the sight. Rose is blissfully and perhaps foolishly unaware that Briar has a plan for becoming the chosen heir, even is she has to do away with her sister to claim it! A wonderfully old-fashioned fairytale adventure with lots of dragons, heroes and sword fights, Rose is the age-old story of good vs. evil, with the modern message that sometimes there’s a lot of gray in between.

No, it’s not that simply TERRIBLE WB attempt to bring Oracle and Huntress off the page and onto the stage. Instead, DC gives us the back story on two of my very favorite characters, Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl, (later known as Oracle) and the slinky, elusive Catwoman. Here we see Batgirl pre-Oracle as she is first taking up the Bat mantle and learning how to fly like the big guy. Concerned over the death of a young girl heavy into Gotham’s club scene, Batgirl finds herself in over her head when she discovers a conspiracy to lure innocent young women to their deaths. So it’s the Cat to the rescue! Our slinkster girl decides to help Batgirl, as long as she can still stage a heist of valuable WWII art in the process! A totally fun girl-superhero romp of the first order. And speaking of Catwoman…

Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, has fallen on hard times. She needs one more big score so that she can finally retire as a cat burgler and just watch her assets accumulate interest. So when her old Gotham City pawnshop pal Swifty hooks her up with an Afro-ed-out-to-there sister-friend who’s ready to give up the goods on her Italian Mafioso boyfriend, she knows she’s found the perfect score. But she’ll still need a little help from her friends, namely a grizzled, cranky ex-lover named Stark, a tall, dark and handsome charmer named Jeff, and strangely enough, a hard-boiled detective on the right side of the law named Slam. These three guys will all end up not just falling under Selina’s spell, but taking the fall for her when the gig goes all wrong and the Cat is left holding the bag. Brought to vivid life in blocky, 50’s-looking beatnik art, Selina is stunning, smart, and gratefully, not ridiculously busty. Besides being a terrific crime saga, Selina’s Big Score is such a beautiful piece of work that you’ll want to own the hardcover.

Think about this: there are places in Alaska that, due to rotation of the earth, don’t see a sunrise for at least a month in the very dead of winter. And this winter, the dead are going to take advantage of it! The underground network of vampires has discovered the small town of Barrow, Alaska, where for 30 days every year, there is nothing but darkness. It’s feeding time unless the very clever sheriff and his police officer wife can come up with a plan to outsmart the bloodsuckers. Fabulously gruesome and wonderfully gory, with blood that splatters across the page like a Jackson Pollack painting, this is NOT a graphic novel to read without every light in the house ablaze. I think I’ve finally found something that rivals Salem’s Lot as one of the scariest vampire books I have ever read. (But you can skip the movie–it sucks, and NOT in a good way!)

Rose Red is missing, possibly dead. But don’t worry, the Big Bad Wolf is on the case, assisted by deputy major of Fabletown, Snow White (acting in Old King Cole’s stead). The usual suspects include the wily Bluebeard, that rascal Jack the Giant Killer, and even Snow herself. After all, Snow White and Rose Red were not the closest of sisters after Red slept with Prince Charming, which caused their bitter divorce. Talk about a fractured fairy tale! Twisting the fairy tale archetype until it screams, Willingham gives us a wonderfully inventive, grown-up version of all our childhood favorites. Clever, clever, clever. (And special thanks to Robin Brenner, the fabulous webmistress of the groovy GN website No Flying No Tights for pointing this one out to me!)

Who is Wolverine? Literally the greatest mysteries in comics, Wolverine’s origins have always been shrouded in secrecy. But Marvel finally decided to reveal where the wolfish man with the heart of gold came from, under great controversy and consternation. The result is beautifully digitally painted graphic novel about a little boy who lost his parents under horrifically violent circumstances. Traveling under a different name with his beloved childhood nanny, young Wolverine begins to feel the effects of his superhuman strength as he tries to make his way at a mining camp in the frozen Yukon Territory. But his past will catch up with him in a way he couldn’t even be able to imagine, and this time, Logan won’t be able to keep his claws from coming out. A compilation of the material originally published as a serial, Origin is a gorgeous GN, full of rich art and gory conflict. Wolverine is a fascinating character to try to understand and unravel, and this volume helps immensely in trying to understand his complex motives. A real reading pleasure.

Kevin Smith, of Clerks and Silent Bob fame, has cooked up a fantastic plot about a slain old school superhero that comes back to life, his troubled son, the kindly man who saved the superhero but who is hiding a secret agenda, and all the members of the JLA, who, despite all their fantastic abilities, are having a hard time believing that said superhero has actually come back from the dead (especially when the superhero, a mouthy and arrogant Green Arrow, insists that he never left the plane of the living. How’s THAT for messed up?) Throw in a poetry-spouting demon and some serious Satan worship, and you’ve got a whiz-bang of a graphic novel that was the only GN to make the Best Books for Young Adults list for 2003.

Meet Rebecca and Enid, two high school seniors who love to hate EVEYTHING, from tabloid TV and nosey parents to 50’s diners and sometime-Satan worshippers. Now that high school is over and there are no more easy targets for their caustic slurs, they have to see if they really have anything else in common other than their habit of trading sarcastic quips. Their running commentary on pop culture, relationships, and life in general is pretty funny (even if it’s so mean-spirited it can make you cringe a little). Definitely pair this GN with the very fine movie adaptation of the same name.

Even if you’re not as Real World obsessed as I am, you would have had to have been living under a rock to not have heard of AIDS activist and SanFran RW housemate Pedro Zamora. Pedro set out to educate people about AIDS after discovering he was HIV positive at age 17. Picked to be on the Real World, he became close friends with many of the cast members, especially cartoonist Judd Winick. His death after the end of the RW season saddened everyone who had gotten to know him through their televisions. So Judd decided to chronicle Pedro’s life in the best way he knew how–through pictures. Judd produced a beautiful, funny, full length graphic novel about the Pedro he knew on and off the Real World set. It’s a touching tribute about life and the power of friendship, and also just a really good book. Even if you’re not into the Real World, you’ll really get into Pedro and Me. I guarantee it.

In this collection of comic strip shorts, a number of comic artists have come together to write and draw their interpretations of what it is like to be a teen. Mind Riot graphically captures the trauma of fitting in, skater punk culture, family problems, and masturbation (Umm, that last one is only mentioned, not pictured). Some of my favs include “Weird Girl” and “Out at the Movies”. All are different, all are intensely personal, some are funny and some will make you think. I promise you’ll find at least one to which you will be able to relate. Oh, yeah, it was also picked as a Book for the Teen Age by the New York Public Library in 1998. So, that means it’s good — trust us, we’re librarians.

Mild mannered Caitlin Fairchild is about to find out that instead of being an innocent college coed, she is actually an emerald-eyed, heaving bosom-ed super hero of the Gen 13 project. Gen 13 is the code name for a government run operation that tests drugs on unsuspecting persons in hopes of giving them super-human powers. But what the Gen 13 execs had no way of knowing was that their teen guniea pigs don’t exactly want to go along with the plan to turn them into war machines. Caitlin, Grunge, Roxy, Bobby and Sarah have decided to ditch the remote government compound they’ve been held prisoner at and release their new found powers to the world at large. But there are some mutant-government dudes who say different, and they are not above sending out scary android-type soldiers to track down the Gen 13 team. Look at Gen 13 as kind of an X-Men for teens. While the drawings of the girls are a bit too sexy for my feminist blood (Come on, NO ONE has breasts THAT large or legs THAT long) at least it’s made up for by how well these girls and their male counterparts kick butt! It’s a fast and fluffy read.

This tale is about a rat, but it’s really the story of a girl named Helen who has a huge problem. Her dad is getting a little too friendly, (like un-fatherly touching and stuff like that) and her mom flat out says that she never wanted Helen anyway. So, Helen chops off all the pretty blond hair that made her so attractive to her father and hits the road with the pet rat she rescued from the school dissection lab. She had this crazy idea that if she can just get to the birthplace of her author-idol Beatrix Potter, she’ll be okay. This is the story of how she hitchhikes around getting into all kinds of dangerous situations until she finally finds a place where she feels safe. Then she realizes she will never really feel safe until she confronts her dad about the sexual abuse. A serious, powerful graphic read about the effects of abuse and how to start the healing process.

Who can kill bounty hunters with a single blow, chain smoke, and flirt with kangaroo mutants all at the same time? Why, Tank Girl of course! Forget Xena, this futuristic warrior princess commands her own tank and takes no bull from anyone, including Satan himself. I love this crude, rude girl–she’s got a shaved head covered with Band-Aids and her language would make a truck driver blush, but her flowered push-up bra is always in place and her magenta lipstick is never smudged. Tank Girl–a heroine for our times and a lot less polished than those Gen 13 babes! Note, Tank Girl fans, there is also a movie of the same title starring Lori Petty, with Ice-T in one of his lesser known roles as one of the kangaroo mutants. The fun is in trying to guess which one!

In this powerful graphic parable about the Holocaust, the Nazis are cats, the Jewish people are mice and the American soldiers are dogs. Based on Spiegelman’s father’s own experiences during WWII, Maus is not only a survivor’s tale, but a compelling story about the relationship between a father and a son. A Pulitzer prize winner and credited with beinmg one of the first true “graphic novels,” I have always found this story much more interesting than some dusty old WWII history book.

The King of Dreams has been kidnapped from his fantasyworld by a mad scientist. After destroying those who kept him away from his home, he travels into the lives and dreams of people and demons, trying to find the special talismans that once brought together, will allow him to go back to his castle in the air. Sandman was the first GN I ever read and still my favorite. It’s the best blend of literary fantasy and great, gory illustration. Don’t expect an easy read–Sandman’s many complicated plot twists are challenging , and Gaiman doesn’t shy away from the gross stuff. But the truly original stories will make your imagination soar. Keep in mind that this title is only the first installment. The Sand just keeps piling up after this–happy digging!