Refresh Refresh, by Danica Novgorodoff

For the last review this week I am looking at a graphic novel. Refresh Refresh is by far the darkest and saddest of these stories. Like Operation Oleander, Refresh Refresh is set in recent history. Josh’s father and Cody’s father are Marine Reservists who are deployed to Iraq. They live in a small, unnamed Oregon town where a lot of the men have gone to war. For many of the families the men’s absence is a financial as well as practical burden. Cody’s power is cut off even though his mother has a job and his father is being paid by the military. His mother says that they are in financial trouble from losing his father’s overtime pay, although she works extra hours at the factory, so she is hardly ever home for him and his small brother.

The title, Refresh Refresh, comes from the action of refreshing the computer browser to see if any email has arrived and at the beginning both boys do this continuously, almost obsessively. As I said in my post on Operation Oleander, electronic communication is both a blessing and and a curse. In wrenching panels we see the boys repeatedly looking at their computer screens and seeing the cheerful but heartbreaking message, “Welcome! You have 0 unread messages.”

Refresh Refresh does a good job of portraying the complex feelings military service creates in the families left behind. Josh and Cody are about to graduate from high school, but in their small town there are not many opportunities open to them. Most of their friends feel they have to work in a local factory–”the plant”–or join the military. The boys resent that their fathers are gone and see the negatives of military service, but at the same time are proud of them, leading to ambivalence, “This is what we all wanted: to please our fathers, to make them proud–even thought they had left us.” Josh wants to go to university–a fact that he hides from his friends. His distant mother and stepfather are willing to pay for college, but if he gets bad news from Iraq what decision will he make?

The artwork reflects the dark subject matter, with severe lines and somber, drab colors, mostly in army green and grey. Try Refresh Refresh for a stark and uncompromising look at military family life, especially for reservists. Refresh Refresh is a violent and often disturbing graphic novel suitable for adults and older teens.

Check the WRL catalog for Refresh, Refresh.

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King City by Brandon Graham

King City is more than a comic book, it’s a love letter to all of geekdom. Every drawing overflows with detail, containing little Easter eggs tucked into the background that make readers search each page before turning to the next one. A city setting is naturally dense, and artist/writer Brandon Graham doesn’t let any opportunity pass by to include a sly off-color pun, so everything from signs, graffiti, and character’s t-shirts are used as a canvas for amusement. This cacophony can be distracting, but it makes multiple re-reads an enjoyable requirement.

The story follows Joe, a ninja/spy/thief, who has recently returned to California after a few years away. During those years, he trained to become a Catmaster, and the main tool of his trade is a cat named Earthling whom he carries around in a bucket. But this is no ordinary cat; depending on the injection Joe gives it from a collection of syringes he carries around on his belt, the cat can transform into a variety of tools or weapons. Armed with his feline and his knowledge of the Way of the Cat, Joe travels the city.

Lest one think Joe is an anomaly in an otherwise normal population, we are introduced to a host of other misfits. Pete, Joe’s best friend, is a wrestling mask-wearing petty thief who falls in love with a water-breathing alien woman and embarks on a quest to free her from her captors. Anna, Joe’s ex-girlfriend, paints large and often intricate mustaches on billboard faces. And then there is Anna’s current boyfriend, Max, who is a veteran of the recent Xombie wars and is fighting the drug addiction he picked up in order to cope with his memories.

The artwork could be described as ska-punk manga and it is busy and sometimes manic. The plot twists over itself like a Moebius strip with no pretense of plausibility, so readers shouldn’t get caught up on the hows or whys of some situations while reading this book. Where Joe gets the syringes he needs to inject Earthling and who pays Anna to paint mustaches on billboards are questions that never get answered. There is sex and violence, but they play a secondary role to humor, taking the edge of seriousness off of both. Originally released as a serial, King City doesn’t really lend itself to that format. However, as a book, it is an engrossing experience, though definitely not a quick read. Recommended to readers of comics and humor.

Check the WRL catalog for King City.

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Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

A vicious intergalactic war rages on in this epic fantasy vs. sci-fi standoff. The inhabitants of Landfall, the largest planet in the galaxy, bear vestigial wings and are technologically advanced. They have forever been in conflict with the population of Wreath, Landfall’s moon, who have horns like sheep and a mastery of magic. Each side recruits other planets and races to join their side in the battle, constantly expanding the battlefield throughout the universe.

Alana was a Landfall soldier, sent to guard prisoners on the distant planet of Cleave. Marko was a foot solider for Wreath, but surrendered as a conscientious objector and was sent to Cleave. Within twelve hours of meeting each other, Alana and Marko flee together. Their union produces a daughter named Hazel, who serves as occasional narrator to the story, and has both wings and horns.

Treachery such as theirs can’t go unpunished, and soon both sides are tracking the new parents, who want nothing more than a peaceful place to raise their child. The fragility of the new life they have created strengthens their resolve to, somehow, survive. Landfall sends Prince Robot IV, a humanoid with a television set for a head, to bring them to justice while the Wreath military hires a freelance bounty hunter named The Will. For reasons yet unknown, the Wreath side wants Hazel brought back alive. Another bounty hunter, a former lover of The Will, is also sent by the Wreath forces to track down Alana and Marco. Prince Robot IV and The Will are soon at odds, with The Will swearing to destroy his blue-blooded nemesis.

The writing and the artwork for this series successfully contrast the tenderness and intimacy between the parents against the violence of the worlds around them. There are a lot of ideas introduced in this first volume, which can be tricky to maintain, but Brian K. Vaughan is an experienced writer and this volume is a promising beginning. Fiona Staples’s artwork is simple yet striking, and she manages to make several different, distinct alien worlds, bathing the images in contrasting teals and oranges and greens. Recommended for fantasy and science fiction readers, and anyone who enjoys an against-the-odds romance.

Check the WRL catalog for Saga.

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American Vampire V.2 by Scott Snyder and Rafael Alburquerque

Sometimes it’s good to hit the reset button. Bram Stoker didn’t invent the vampire, but he carved the archetype: a creature of power, terror, and ruthlessness hidden under a veneer of charm. Vampires have been popular recently, both in fiction and movies, but the trend has been to smooth over their edges, making them suave, stylish, even glittery, in a way that doesn’t sit well with many fans of horror.

Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque decided to go back to basics. In Skinner Sweet they re-created the vampire, one who commands visceral fear, not existential angst, who is bloodthirsty, vicious, and brutal. And then they threw in a twist: their vampire would be uniquely American, born and bred in the Wild West. As such, he would not be like any of the vampires that had come before him. Unlike all the European vampires, Sweet is unaffected by exposure to the sun. As the character himself explains “Sometimes, when the blood hits someone new, from somewhere new, it makes something new. With a whole new bag of tricks.”

The first story begins in Nevada, during the construction of the Boulder Dam (now called the Hoover Dam). As the construction expands, so does the vice in nearby Las Vegas. Where there is vice and money, there is blood, and where there’s blood, there’s vampires. Sweet, living under the name Jim Smoke, is running a brothel called the Frontier. In life, Sweet was a murderer and a thief, with a knack for riling up pretty much anyone he interacts with. As a vampire, he’s even worse. When a man turns up drained of every drop of blood after dating one of Sweet’s girls, the law begins to take an interest. But do they have any idea who, or what, they are dealing with?

Pearl Jones, a vampire created by Sweet in Volume 1, is still struggling to come to terms with the consequences of her new life. Desperate to live as normally as possible, she shuns her vampire side, feeding on blood without killing. But she is forever tied to Sweet, and the people who want him dead have decided that she just might hold the key to getting rid of him for good. Pearl, along with her husband Henry, is also featured in a shorter second story in this volume. Although each of the stories has a conclusion, the reader is always somehow left feeling like none of the stories actually end. They are just pieces of a larger narrative that slowly builds with each vignette.

Snyder’s writing ratchets up the tension, and the angularity of Albuquerque’s drawings enhances the sharpness of the vampire’s bite. For the first volume, Snyder approached Stephen King with his idea for Skinner Sweet wanting a forward, but King was so enthused with the character he ended up guest writing the origin story himself, based on Snyder’s outline. If a stamp of approval from one of the biggest American horror writers wasn’t enough, American Vampire won the 2011 Eisner and Harvey Awards for Best New Series. Recommended for fans of horror and westerns.

Check the WRL catalog for American Vampire.

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Bayou, Volume 1 by Jeremy Love

If you asked people what they think of when they hear the term “American mythos” many would undoubtedly call to mind Cowboys and Indians and other aspects of the Wild West, unaware of the vibrant and complex stories and traditions of Southern Folklore. Bayou is a beautifully-rendered Alice in Wonderland-style fairytale set in Mississippi during the Depression. It is a uniquely Southern world, filled with mud and Spanish moss, concurrently embracing and fighting against the legacy of slavery.

The story centers on Lee, a young black girl, who is friends with Lily, the white daughter of the woman who owns the farm where Lee and her father live. Lily is snatched and swallowed by a monster from the bayou, named Cotton-Eyed Joe, and Lee’s father makes a convenient suspect for the local law officers when she is reported missing by her mother. In an effort to get her friend back, and free her father before he gets lynched, Lee follows the monster into the brackish water, and finds herself in an alternate but parallel world. The inhabitants of this world are human-like, but their physical bodies have been replaced by various characters drawn from Southern myths. She meets Bayou, a swamp dweller who, despite his giant stature, is cowed into submission by the Bossman and his lackeys through their brutal enforcement of the law. Despite his fear, Bayou sees the need and determination of Lee to find her friend Lily and decides to help her, although not without trepidation.

Any story that starts with a lynching and exposes the varied responses of people to such brutality isn’t going to pull punches. But what is most chilling about its narrative is that Bayou doesn’t make the humans into caricatures. The people in the normal world are just that: normal. They are all believable products of their time and environments, and that is clearly reflected in the social interactions between the characters. Young and old, black and white, rich and poor, everyone seems to know who is in power and the potential consequences of any action that might upset the current balance. In the parallel world, characters are taken to their extreme with Jim Crows, Golliwogs, and Confederate officer hounds, but it’s the similarities rather than the differences between the two worlds that are most striking.

Bayou’s injections of race, religion, poverty, and the blues contribute to an important and uniquely Southern voice in fantasy and graphic novels. The storyline and imagery can be disturbing and unsettling, but these aspects give meaning and power to the book’s message. Both written and drawn by Jeremy Love, the use of color enhances the atmosphere, bathing the images in deep gold, dusky pink, and brownish-green. Recommended to readers of fantasy, graphic novels, and southern fiction.

Check the WRL catalog for Bayou

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ABBC: Graphic Works

Coverage continues this week of results from some of the categories in the ABBC: Williamsburg Regional Library’s All-the-Best-Books Compilation, which compiles the results from dozens of different lists and awards to give you the final count on the most lauded books of the year in a single spreadsheet.

Today I’m exploring the top vote-getters in the category of graphic novels and nonfiction. Yes, these are comic books, but they’re not just kid stuff anymore (and believe me, I love the kid stuff, too!) Modern graphic artists use their art to help tell a variety of sophisticated tales and 84 different books have received mention as a best of the year so far.

Topping the list is Chris Ware, an innovative artist whose Building Stories, because of its unusual format, probably won’t be found in most library collections. The title has two meanings: first, the collection is about the residents of a Chicago apartment building; but second, each reader has to build the story for her or himself. Building Stories comes as a collection of objects: pamphlets, newspapers, game boards, and bound books that can be assembled in whatever order the reader likes. The protagonist is a one-legged woman, and the stories follow her through her difficult life as she considers her existence — past and present — and interacts with both the building and the people with whom she comes in contact. Look at a review like this one from Brain Pickings to get a better understanding of this unusual product that has been mentioned as a best of the year in 24 sources compiled so far.

Next up is Alison Bechdel, who previously told the story of her difficult relationship with her father in Fun Home, a top pick of 2006. Now she turns her eye on her mother in Are You My Mother?: a Comic Drama, which has garnered 14 mentions in the ABBC so far. Bechdel portrays the life of a reader, music lover, and actor who wanted more out of life than her unhappy marriage to a closeted gay man. That unhappiness led to a lack of intimacy between mother and daughter, in fact a rather extreme gulf that Bechdel mines with a darkly comic but deeply poignant touch.

There’s a tie for third between two works with seven mentions each. The first is Drama, a work that resides in our juvenile collection but that can be enjoyed by all ages. Writer and illustrator Raina Telgemeier — with color work from the artist Gurihiru — tells the story of drama both in front of and behind the curtain at a middle school production of a musical called Moon over Mississippi. The story is told from the perspective of Callie, a gifted young set designer with no budget and  a crush on two boys in the cast. The play has a colorful cast, and that’s reflected wonderfully by the bright artwork.

The range of graphic works becomes clear when one examines the other work with seven mentions.  My Friend Dahmer illustrated in a style reminiscent of Cracked magazine, tells author “Derf” Backderf’s remarkable true story as a high school friend of Jeffrey Dahmer. He’d even see the infamous serial killer on the day he probably committed his first murder. Don’t expect a grisly recreation of the murders. This is more the poignant study of the differences (somewhat slight) between one troubled kid who goes on to a successful career  and another that commits crimes so heinous they can hardly be believed.  When I read this book, I saw uncomfortable similarities between Backderf’s group of nerdy friends and my own high school pals. It certainly left me thinking. We don’t have this one in the collection yet, but if you’d like to see us add it, just ask! We try real hard to be responsive to as many patron requests as budgets can accommodate.

After that, the voting gets close. At five mentions to date are Brian K. Vaughan’s latest series, Saga and Mark Siegel’s Sailor Twain: or the Mermaid on the Hudson. One more vote back are Joe Sacco and Chris Hedges’ Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt; Ed Piskor’s Wizzywig: Portrait of a Serial Hacker; Hope Larson’s graphic adaptation of the Madeleine L’Engle classic A Wrinkle in Time, and Faith Erin Hicks, with Friends with Boys.

I’ll summarize the results of two more categories on Thursday and Friday this week, while others will get similar treatment at my other blogging home, Booklist magazine’s Book Group Buzz. We’ll continue to release further installments of the ABBC spreadsheet until compilation is complete at the end of March, so keep checking back to get the final word on all of the best books of 2012.

Click on the individual book title links to go to the WRL catalog.

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Darth Vader and Son, by Jeffrey Brown

Set four years after the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Jeffrey Brown’s Darth Vader and Son gives us a comic version of “Episode Three and a Half” depicting an alternate Star Wars timeline in which Darth Vader raises young Luke Skywalker.

Four-year-old Luke is just as precocious as you might think, and Vader’s exasperation is palpable. Much of Vader’s dialog comes directly from the Star Wars films, but it takes on an entirely new meaning as the context changes. Brown’s illustrations are vibrant and colorful with a touch of whimsy. Drawn with what appears to be markers and an inkpen, Brown has great precision and is skilled at coloring and shading.

As funny and inspired as the scenes are in Darth Vader and Son, true fans will find even more enjoyment in the background illustrations and in-jokes featured throughout the book. Nearly every significant Star Wars character is featured, many as child sized versions of their adult selves.

I have only one issue with this book, and it is a very small one. Why not feature Leia more prominently? I realize that this is Darth Vader and Son, and perhaps Brown intends to follow this up with Darth Vader and Daughter, but it would have been even harder on Vader to raise twins than to just have Luke underfoot. Leia is featured in only one comic and there could have been so much more. Vader at a tea party, Vader playing dress-up, Vader putting on makeup – think of the possibilities!

Check the WRL catalog for Darth Vader and Son.

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Y: the Last Man, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra & Jose Marzan, Jr.

Yorick Brown is on the phone trying to propose to his girlfriend, who is away doing research in Australia, when a catastrophic event wipes out everything with a Y chromosome. In the blink of an eye, Yorick and his monkey Ampersand, for reasons that are unclear, are the last surviving males on the planet. That’s the starting point for Y: the Last Man, a comic series written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan, Jr.

In the ensuing chaos, planes fall from the sky, highways are cluttered with cars full of dead men, and the few women of congress (one of whom is Yorick’s mother) battle for control of the U.S. Presidency, as the only female cabinet officer, the Secretary of Agriculture, is reluctant to take up the role. Various plot lines follow Yorick’s attempt to reach his mother and girlfriend, the battle for control of Washington, the mysterious agent 355, a genetic researcher whose work may be the only hope for repopulation, some militant Israeli army officers, and the emergency of Amazons, a group of women who interpret the disappearance of men as some kind of proof from God that males were scum and the proper order has been restored. It’s hard to say what will happen, but one thing is sure: Yorick, previously nothing much more than a third-rate escape artist, is now a very hot commodity.

This series isn’t particularly cutting edge. The art is nicely done but not revolutionary. I’m recommending it because the premise is intriguing and Vaughan delivers the fun. One good thing about graphic novels is that the serial format allows writers to explore complex, many threaded situations, like an apocalyptic event, in a way that can only be accomplished at the cost of great length in prose or film. In comics, the storytelling remains tight, with plenty of action, but there is room to explore many different aspects of this big gender die off without becoming ponderous. Y: the Last Man is fun and thought-provoking at the same time, without ever becoming too taxing on a reader looking for something that isn’t too heavy.

Check the WRL Catalog for Y: the Last Man

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Ghostopolis, by Doug TenNapel

I saw this graphic novel in a list of Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and was curious—what about this book would appeal to kids of the computer game generation, and would it appeal to me as well?

The story is fast-paced and well drawn.  Garth seems to be a pretty typical kid, though we find out quickly that he has an incurable disease.  He’s reading in his room when a night mare jumps through the wall.

Unfortunately for Garth, an agent of the Supernatural Immigration Task Force, Frank Gallows, chooses that moment to hook cuffs on the ghost horse and send it back to Ghostopolis.  His mom watches in horror as Garth disappears…

While Frank is getting into all sorts of trouble for being careless, a rescue team is assembling to bring Garth home.  Frank decides to try to save Garth on his own and enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend.

Meanwhile Garth is exploring the ghost world with “Skinny,” the friendly night mare.  One of the first ghosts he meets is his grandfather, whom Garth never met in his human life.  Grandpa will help Garth make it back to the world of the living, if they can just stay out of trouble.

The story ends with a showdown between the good guys (Garth, Frank, and their friends) and the bad guy (the ruler of Ghostopolis).  Not too much of a stretch to figure out who will win… but getting to that point is fun.  I loved that regular physics didn’t apply to the humans in Ghostopolis and Frank has to “imagine that I have an imagination!” in order to help Garth with the battle.

Ghostopolis is recommended for ages 8-10, but young adults and those young at heart will enjoy it as well.  The plot is easy to follow and has enough humor and complexities to keep all ages turning pages.  I think the pictures are gruesome enough to keep it just on the edge of being scary.  So yes, I can see how it would appeal to reluctant young adult readers.  And I know I enjoyed it!

Check the WRL catalog for Ghostopolis

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Macbeth: the graphic novel

John of Circulation Services starts the week off with a graphic novel:

The other day, while putting away some graphic fiction in the young adult section, an illustrated version of Macbeth caught my eye. Its cover announced that the play was available in three versions—the original, plain text, or quick text. The one I held was the original and I was intrigued to see that it promised to be the unabridged original play in full color. When I was a boy, (and I’d rather not say how many eons ago that was) the old Classics Illustrated series gave me my first taste of Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Dickens, and other greats. They opened up new worlds for me before I heard from anyone that these writers were challenging and hard to grasp. I was just a boy seeking new adventures and willingly paid my fifteen cents (almost a third of my weekly allowance) for the thrill. But however remarkable those texts were, they never delivered the full work. That had to be left for future discovery. Could this new Classical Comics series fulfill that high goal? The answer, at least for Macbeth, is a resounding yes.

The book starts with an illustrated “Dramatis Personae” that helpfully introduces each character’s image. The authors also provide a brief introduction to the play’s action to help the reader understand both the time period and the political turmoil that is the play’s unspoken “back story.” Then, with a flash of lightening, we’re on the heath with the three witches and the play’s opening question, “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?” In that very instant you know you’re in for a treat—Shakespeare’s words married flawlessly to a cinematic flow of brilliant illustrations in vivid color.

One might ask what makes a graphic novel better than watching the play on DVD.  I would offer that the reader controls the pace. Didn’t quite catch a line? One can re-read. Didn’t understand the action? One can study the picture. And happily even the meaning of unfamiliar words is often revealed in the illustration’s context.

Each act and scene has a title, making the play’s progress easy to follow. Shakespeare’s use of dramatic technique is handled simply but clearly. When a character is speaking aloud, the lines are in solid bubbles. If a character is speaking only to himself, the bubble is wavy. If a character is thinking, but not speaking aloud, the bubble is curly. If a character is whispering or speaking to another, but not heard by all present, the bubble is dotted. Musical notes in the bubble reveal lines that are meant to be sung. This technique allows for a closer study of the play’s soliloquies. The soliloquy moves frame by frame with various cinematic angles or close-ups. So, instead of just “hearing” a character think, the reader sees clues in the illustration to what the character feels. Thus, a series of frames gradually reveals Macbeth’s growing fear, desperation and submission to evil in the “Is this a dagger?” soliloquy.

The same is true in all the play’s famous scenes. We see Lady Macbeth’s bloodthirsty ambition, Banquo’s loyal devotion, and the gatekeeper’s drunken description of hell itself. We admire Macbeth’s courage, but fear his growing descent into reckless evil. Later, when his wildest fears begin to be realized, we still hope for his return to the better man he was. This is so poignantly revealed in the way the illustrations portray Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy. His trap is set, he knows the doom is of his own making, yet he faces what is to come with all the dignity he can muster.

Macbeth is always a tough play to stage. Over the years I’ve seen four or five sort of satisfying versions. Staged versions often have to leave out something. Director’s insights or points of emphasis might eliminate scenes or important lines. There are two film versions, one directed by Orson Welles and the other by Roman Polanski. Both are very good, but also heavily influenced by the director’s vision. There are several filmed staged versions on DVD. There are excellent recorded versions. Verdi even wrote an operatic version. This slight book might seem humble in such company, but I would have to rank it right up there with the best. It’s true the reader may miss a great actor’s interpretation of a line, but Jon Haward’s illustrations and Nigel Dobbyn’s coloring and lettering help the reader to grasp the character’s core, to see the action, to reveal the motives, and to catch the play’s sweep.

There are many stunningly illustrated passages, but one of my favorites is a scene often left out of staged versions. In it, the witches are scolded by their queen Hecate for revealing so much to Macbeth. In a scene of wild fantasy and demonic maneuvering, they plot a way to draw Macbeth in closer and thus seal his doom. This scene occurs right after Macbeth has seen the ghost of Banquo, the friend he had murdered to seal his hold on the throne. In the final frame of that scene, we see the images of the three witches behind Macbeth leering at his climatic realization that he is “…in blood stepp’d so far, that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.” That one frame brilliantly ties both scenes together.

In addition to the play’s full text, there are end articles on Shakespeare’s life, the historical background behind the play, and an insightful history of Shakespeare’s version of the events and the political reasons he may have altered key facts. There is also a fascinating article on how the pages of this book were prepared and how the lines were worked into the illustrations. The book illustrates the difference in the three different versions—original text, plain text, and simple text. I must confess, the book made me long to be a teacher again. How wonderful it would be to have a resource like this to introduce young readers to Shakespeare’s glories.

Check the WRL catalog for MacBeth: The Graphic Novel

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Feynman, by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick

The late physicist and free spirit Richard Feynman has been depicted again and again in books: his own disjointed but charming memoirs collected in Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character; James Gleick’s fine biography Genius: the Life and Science of Richard Feynman, or the more scientifically focused Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science by Lawrence M. Krauss to name a few. Feynman’s quirky way of thinking, his enthusiastic cheerleading for the value of science, his gifts for explaining complicated subjects to laypeople, and his sometimes bizarre personal behavior all make him a subject for the ages.

There’s always room for one more good book about a person this complex, as writer Jim Ottaviani and artist Leland Myrick demonstrate in their new graphic biography, Feynman. It’s actually very fitting that Feynman should get the graphic treatment: one of his great achievements in science was to find new visual ways to depict equations, and he always claimed to see equations with a kind of synesthesia, visualizing them swirling around him with different parts in different colors. The artist here does this legacy fine justice, with different background colors making the book into a slowly progressing rainbow and Feynman himself drawn with wiry, jaunty, approachable grace.

Feynman fascinates. He was one of the leading scientists of the twentieth century, a man closely involved with important events like the Manhattan Project and the investigation of the first space shuttle explosion, but at the same time was famous for quixotic quests like playing instruments at Carnival in Rio, trying unsuccessfully to visit a little known region of Russia, or appearing in court to defend the topless bar where he liked to sit and think. Ottaviani does a fine job here of balancing Feynman’s scientific importance with all the qualities that made the man unusual and sometimes difficult.

Nearly a quarter of a century after his death, Feynman continues to captivate us, perhaps for the pure light of his genius, perhaps because he’s difficult to pin down, or perhaps because there’s something in his legacy to capture almost anyone’s imagination. This new book is perhaps the easiest entry point I’ve seen yet for your own pursuit of a truly curious character.

Check the WRL catalog for Feynman

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Locke & Key, by Joe Hill

Joe Hill impressed a lot of critics (though not me) with his debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, and he impressed a lot of critics (including me) with his second novel, Horns. Unfortunately, Hill’s graphic novel series Locke & Key is not impressing the critics. It’s not even registering with them.

Or rather, the critics in the niche world of comics are taking note; the series has picked up some Eisner Awards and nominations and a British Fantasy Award in the category of Best Comic/Graphic Novel. This is wonderful, but it would be great if the mainstream folks would pay attention. Oh well. While the critics snooze on the job, Hill is quietly creating his best work yet.

As the story opens, we meet the Locke family: children Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode; mother Nina; and father Rendell– but don’t get too attached to Rendell, as he gets killed off a few pages later. A disturbed young man named Sam brutally murders his former teacher, and nearly succeeds in slaughtering the rest of the family. Sam escapes, and the grieving survivors escape across the country to Lovecraft, Massachusetts.

Which is dumb. Characters in horror novels ought to flee away from towns called Lovecraft, not toward them.

Lovecraft is home to the Locke family estate, Keyhouse, where the recently-deceased Rendell spent his childhood. Nina is too busy drowning her sorrows in a bottle to see that something is profoundly off-kilter in Keyhouse. High school senior Tyler is too haunted by guilt over his father’s death to notice the strangeness, and Kinsey is too busy trying to blend in at her new high school. But six-year-old Bode has discovered the keys that, when inserted in the right locks, deliver marvelous results; one of them, for instance, allows Bode’s spirit to fly around untethered to his body. And Bode has made a new friend here at Keyhouse. Too young to have seen The Ring, Bode does not realize that you must never, never make friends with ghost-girls who haunt wells.

Hill’s ongoing comic series (now up to four collected volumes and counting) is doing fresh and creative things. Hill started his career as a novelist with two perfectly respectable books, a ghost-story and a devil-story, but this is where his imagination is really taking off. The supernatural keys just keep getting cooler and cooler as the story progresses, and the malevolent shape-changing ghost haunting Keyhouse just keeps getting nastier and nastier. The characters are superb, the in-jokes are geeky (there are references to Arkham Asylum! and to Bone! and to Calvin and Hobbes!), and Gabriel Rodriguez’s art is lovely. These books are the best-kept secret in the horror and dark fantasy genres.

Check the WRL catalog for Locke & Key

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Pride of Baghdad, by Brian K. Vaughan

During an American bombing raid in 2003, four lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo. This true story is the inspiration behind Pride of Baghdad, a magnificent graphic novel by Eisner Award-winner Brian K. Vaughan, best known for his two series Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina.

As the story opens, our four heroes are squabbling over the merits of captivity versus freedom. Safa, a grizzled old female, is content to be free from the brutality of the jungle. The younger female Noor, who barely remembers life on the outside, is plotting an escape. Her cub Ali likes the thought of adventure, while the adult male Zill is wary of rebelling, though he is nostalgic for the natural beauty of the free world.

The matter is decided for them one day when some strange and noisy shapes go careening across the sky. The zoo explodes into flame, the human zookeepers flee, and animals start dying. It is too dangerous to stay.

Safa, Noor, Ali, and Zill tread past the gates, free at last—but freedom turns out to be full of unpleasant surprises. The lions need food, but there are no zookeepers to tend them. They need water, but the river is polluted by oil. They need shelter, but when they try to seek refuge in a palace, they are attacked by a starving bear, the pet of Saddam Hussein.

Artist Niko Henrichon’s illustrations are painted with gorgeous warm yellows and browns. This literal brightness is the only luster in a story that is dark, grim, and violent. Torture, animal abuse, savage death, and gang rape are here, as well as the more abstract violence of environmental destruction. It is a haunting anti-war novel of the highest caliber.

Check the WRL catalog for Pride of Baghdad

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Elmer, by Gerry Alanguilan

On February 3, 1979, the chickens of the world became human. Only months later did the United Nations officially recognize the change, and by then there was no denying it: chickens everywhere had instantaneously developed the same intelligence and capability of speech as homo sapiens.

This posed something of an ethical quandary for poultry farmers.

That was the most immediate concern, obviously, but other social dilemmas had surfaced in the intervening decades. Should chickens be integrated into the schools? Should chickens and people be allowed to marry? How do you stop workplace discrimination against chickens?

Jake Gallo struggles with the ugly side of chicken-racism every day. Bitter and angry, he has been the victim of vague institutional discrimination as well as brutal hate-crimes. Out of work and out of luck, he spends his time masturbating to human porn.

(If you have been waiting your whole life to read a chicken masturbation scene, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE.)

All of Jake’s problems fly out of his head when his father Elmer has a stroke. Jake rushes back to his childhood home, but he is too late: Elmer dies before Jake can say goodbye. But Elmer has bequeathed his journal to his son, and in its pages, Jake begins to see his father in a whole new way. Elmer had been hardly more than a chick when chickens became human. The chronicle of his liberation, education, and career reveals family secrets and forgotten history that will change Jake forever.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. Filipino graphic novelist Gerry Alanguilan has taken an absurd concept and turned it into something genuinely moving. The characters are memorable (and distinguishable from one another, despite being chickens) and there are a host of social questions to ponder— though your chicken sandwich might not seem appetizing when you’ve finished.

And I simply must acknowledge Alanguilan’s illustrations. The black-and-white art is outstanding. His chickens are realistic and individualistic without any cartoony silliness. The images are vital to the story, and so magnificently drawn that you’ll find yourself studying them in detail, unwilling to turn the page. The book is not appropriate for children (there are instances of human nudity and intense violence, and there’s lots and lots of swearing) but it is precisely the sort of unexpected and too-little-publicized book that ought to be in the hands of thoughtful adults.

Check the WRL catalog for Elmer

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Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, by Barry Deutsch

As far as I’m concerned, every reason to read this graphic novel is right there in the tagline on the cover: troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl. But then, I have a thing for girls with swords.

Mirka Hirschberg, a middle daughter in a large family, aspires to dragon-fighting, but until she can earn a sword, she makes do with fighting bullies, her siblings, and a homework-eating pig. And to earn her sword? She just has to defeat the troll that guards it.

Despite her family’s insistence that girls don’t fight monsters, Mirka is clearly cut out for any challenge involving swords, fisticuffs, or sheer obstinacy. She can literally hold her breath until she passes out, just to prove a point. (I especially like her approach to a math word problem about equally dividing cake amongst guests, although “decapitation probably isn’t the answer they’re looking for.”) It’s just her luck that this troll issues a knitting challenge. (“Didn’t think this through at all, did you?”) But in the end it isn’t her martial arts or her questionable prowess at needlework that are going to save the day.

A clever, lighthearted read that grownups can enjoy along with younger kids, Hereville is also a warm portrait of everyday life in an insular Jewish community. The dialogue is sprinkled with Yiddish phrases, which are translated in the footnotes. Hereville started out as a webcomic, and you can read the first 12 pages here. The author promises that future stories about Mirka are on the drawing board.

Check the WRL catalog for Hereville.

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Wanted, by Mark Millar

Is it possible to get hooked on a book from reading only one page? Because I think that’s exactly what happened. The initial panel in this graphic novel was just perfect, moody reds and blues and exquisitely rendered people and a one-sentence narrative box that tied it all together.

So I turned the page and was reminded of Fight Club, both the book and the film. And then I turned the page again and was reminded of American Psycho, both the book and the film, and anyway by that point I knew I’d found a winner.

Wesley Gibson is a harmless loser. His boss yells at him each day at his boring office job; his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend; his idea of excitement is choosing the wasabi mayonnaise over the plain.

Then one day a woman introduces herself to Wesley while he’s standing in line at a deli. She pulls a gun from her jacket, shoots a bunch of innocent bystanders, and informs Wesley that he’s heir apparent to a vacancy in a sinister global cabal of supervillains. Oh, and he’s really rich now.

Back in the 1980s, all of the world’s supervillains had banded together to fight against the superheroes. They succeeded. Now Wesley, after a bit of intensive training to desensitize himself to violence, is poised to become the world’s most talented assassin. There are no more superheroes to kill off, but there are plenty of supervillains to keep in line, and there’s no shortage of ordinary human beings to attack.

To state the excessively obvious, this is a violent book. Sex and nudity are relatively modest, but the physical action is extremely violent (though not as violent as the general worldview). Ethics and morality don’t enter the picture, not even in an “honor among thieves” sort of way. There is not a single admirable character in the book. The depraved sensibilities of the supervillains serve to illustrate some very ugly truths about humanity, but still, most readers enjoy a bit of moral growth or social responsibility in their fiction. This isn’t a book for everyone, but for those willing to engage in a bleak and barren dystopia, the story is electrifying, with tumultuous action, witty dialogue, and great character anti-development.

Check the WRL catalog for Wanted

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Flight Explorer, Volume 1

I ran across an interview with cartoonist Ben Hatke in Shelf Awareness, an emailed newsletter about the book trade.  Hatke drew pictures to answer questions about the books that influenced his life and had me laughing out loud.  I wanted to see more of his work.

He is one of ten cartoonists featured in Flight Explorer, Volume 1, a showcase of graphic work geared for ages 10 -12.  From what I understand, Flight Explorer is modeled after the series of anthologies for young adults, called Flight, which the library has recently acquired.

Flight Explorer starts off with editor Kazu Kibuishi’s “Copper: Mushroom Crossing.”  Copper and his dog, Fred, come across a field of mushrooms that are just begging to be bounced across.  Despite Fred’s warning to use the bridge, Copper takes a leap.  And Fred, being a faithful companion, follows.  All goes well until Fred gets a little carried away — and we’re in for a surprise as to what’s below the mushrooms.

Another favorite is Philip Craven’s “Big Mouth.”  Big Mouth can’t help it if he’s loud and very round.  And he feels sad when others seem disturbed by his presence.  He finds out, though, that being big and loud can be useful, and he ends up with a friend.  Kean Soo’s “Jellaby: First Snow” and Mathew Armstrong’s “”Snow Cap, second verse” also show sweet stories about unlikely friendships.

There are a few space adventures in the collection, including the story by Hatke, and a funny story about a jungle guy who is late coming home on his wife’s birthday (which parents of the ten- to twelve-year-olds will probably appreciate more than the youngsters themselves).

The variety of artistic styles and subjects make this a fun mix.  Pick it up for a quick sampling of some talented graphic artists.

Check the WRL catalog for Flight Explorer, Volume 1

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The Odyssey, A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds

John Livecchi of Circulation Services shares this review:

Reading Homer’s Odyssey is something I do once or twice a year. I’m lucky enough to teach Homer’s classic tale for the Christopher Wren Association every fall, and I confess that re-reading it so frequently is a pleasure. Few stories engage my imagination at such depth and fewer still hold up under such close scrutiny.

Actually, the “Homer bug” bit me early. This will date me, but when I was 10 and 11, I got fifty cents as a weekly allowance. Ten cents of that almost always went for the latest “Superman,” but one week a cover from a new series called “Classics Illustrated” caught my eye. It pictured a monster with a single eye standing on a mountain hurling huge boulders at a ship in the harbor. A man on that ship faced the monster fearlessly, shaking his fist in righteous rage. Even though the new series had a steeper fifteen cents cost (5 cents was a whole Hershey bar!), I just had to have it. It didn’t disappoint. More than fifty years later, I must confess that Homer’s Odyssey is still better than chocolate itself.

Over the years I re-visited Homer in several college classes, but an early teaching assignment brought me a Homeric question I never expected. How could I communicate my enthusiasm to students convinced that if Homer is that old, he must be dull?  I wish I had had this Gareth Hinds version as part of my arsenal. It’s pure magic.

Hinds’s work has a pronounced cinematic quality. Not only does he give you a faithful retelling of Homer’s story by adhering to its structure, the illustrations often give the exact image we find in Homer’s text as a wordless illustration of the plot. There are many examples, but my favorite occurs at the end of Book 2 (don’t let the word scare you off, it’s the term “chapter” has in epic poetry), when Telemachos is about to set sail for news of his father. His parting from Mentor, the secret disclosed to the nurse Eurykleia, Athena disguised as Mentor assembling the crew, and launching the great boat are all told perfectly without one word!

This isn’t to say Hinds doesn’t value language. It is clear in following his work that he has a keen familiarity with the best translations available in English, because so many of the lines we hear the characters speak echo Lattimore, Fitzgerald, and Fagles. When he does so, we know we are at a critical point in the plot, and only Homer’s own cadence (albeit in translation) will do. In other sections, he gives the language wider latitude, though always he remains faithful to the stately tone the epic form demands.

One great pleasure in reading this graphic form is seeing firsthand the interaction between gods and men. In Homer, there are often subtle ways to interpret the actions of gods on mortals. Sometimes we know with certainty that the gods really acted; at other times the resulting action could have had another cause. For example, does Odysseus come up with a great strategy and then attribute his action to the goddess of wisdom, or is Athena telling him what to do? The graphic novel leaves no ambiguity for interpretation. We see Athena fly down from heaven to assume the shape of Mentes, holding a torch aloft to light the armory for Odysseus and his son and standing with them in battle against the suitors. We see and hear the counsel of gods deciding if Odysseus should return and how. We see Poseidon stalking through the sea intent on delaying Odysseus one more time. These visual elements underscore the important balance Homer himself uses in showing the interaction of the “deathless ones” with mere mortals.

Many of the Odyssey’s literary puzzles are present too. One of my favorites is Penelope’s questioning of the “stranger” in Book 19. We know the stranger is Odysseus in disguise, but Penelope is in the dark. He claims to have met Odysseus, but Penelope wants details—what was he wearing? While the “stranger” describes the hero’s outfit, we see in the first frame a close-up of the very brooch Penelope fastened on her husband as he left for the hard years at Troy. This detail gives Penelope the opening she needs for showing this stranger both her complete loyalty and her cunning. She lays out in detail how she will test her suitors to see which one she shall choose, but, in doing so, she also reveals to the stranger an artful strategy—she will be able to bring a weapon into the room without arousing suspicion. This begs the question—does she suspect the stranger is Odysseus? What other reason would she have to reveal such a detail to a stranger in rags? Happily, neither Homer nor Hinds provides a definitive answer. Keeping the mystery in literary puzzles is what keeps the work alive.

Of all the books in the Odyssey, the most moving, for me, has always been Book 11, Odysseus’s visit to the underworld. Here he meets the ghosts of many of his warrior companions from Troy and learns that his long absence caused his mother to die of a broken heart. Before he can speak to these shades, he must first find the seer Tiresias, because he alone knows what Odysseus must do to appease Poseidon. In short, after saving his own house, he will face another, even longer journey. He must travel to a place so far away from the sea that the folks there won’t be able to recognize what an oar is. Here, he must sacrifice to Poseidon and finally peace, and death, will overtake him. Ironically, before the encounter with Tiresias and the other spirits, the shade of one of his shipmates who died and was left unburied begs him to give him burial and to place the oar he pulled in life as a fitting memorial on his mound. It’s this touching image that Hinds chooses as a proper ending for Odysseus’ adventures.

Hinds’s Odyssey is a brilliant reworking of a classic story.  It opens the book for first-time readers and gives veterans ample cause for reading pleasure too.  I recommend the book wholeheartedly.

Check the WRL catalog for The Odyssey.

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