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.

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.