Category: Graphic Fantastic

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!

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.

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!”

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!