Guts

Bought at the Foreign Languages Bookstore, Shanghai, China.

Title: Guts
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: 2019
Writer: Raina Telgemeier
Artist: Raina Telgemeier
Colorist: Braden Lamb
Letterer: Jesse Post
Editor: Cassandra Pelham Fulton

This is the third of Raina Telgemeier autobiographical series. Raina starts a difficult year in the fifth grade with what at first seems like a bad stomach flu. But a series of recurring stomach problems and anxiety attacks make an already stressful school year terrifying. As the year goes on, Raina learns some ways to face her fears and discovers that she isn't as alone as she thought she was.

Raina Telgemeier's brilliance is her ability to surprise the reader without going to extremes. Her stories are grounded in real interactions but still loaded with plot twists and turns.

This story covers issues around mental health and chronic illness in ways that will resonate with readers, and it manages that with humor and heart.

Rating: 9/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball

Bought at the Foreign Languages Bookstore, Shanghai, China.

Title: Diary fo a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2019
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

In some ways I felt like this was back on track for Jeff Kinney. The jokes were genuinely funny, as the Heffleys inherit some money and attempt to carry out a big home improvement project. From do-it-yourself to dealing with contractors, to thoughts of possibly moving and dealing with realtors and movers, Kinney applies Murphy's Law in some very creative and amusing ways.

I also liked the fact that Greg was not entirely intolerable in this one. He had some decent moments, including a really good scene with Rowley. I also liked the fact that the misery (and there was plenty to go around) was spread pretty evenly among the family members.

The ending was a bit of a disappointment, as the author chose the "reset button" approach, which was the least interesting of all possible endings. Still, I was able to enjoy this one all the way through, and there were some truly creatively hilarious moments.

Rating: 6.5/10

Rube Goldberg: Inventions

 From the faculty room book exchange shelf at my school.

Title: Rube Goldberg: Inventions
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date: 2000
Writer: Maynard Frank Wolfe, Rube Goldberg
Artist: Rube Goldberg

Rube Goldberg is one of those artists that many people have an idea of their work without ever having actually seen any of it. At a D&D game recently, I elaborated on the "Dwarves are art deco and and elves are art nouveau" meme by adding, "and gnomes are Rube Goldberg". My crew of geeks got exactly what I meant, even though they'd probably never read an actual Rube Goldberg comic strip. Goldberg is iconic. The classic "Rube Goldberg Machine" is a device that does a simple task in the most complicated manner possible, and it has become a fixture of school competitions around the world.

Goldberg wrote and drew his The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts strip for an incredible fifty years from 1914 to 1964. He was a prolific artist with many other published comic strip, some of which rivaled his Inventions in longevity.

This book provides a nice biography of Goldberg, introduces his early and non-Inventions work, and the gives a wide selection of the Inventions cartoons grouped around general themes.

While the style gets a little repetitive, there are some brilliant details, featuring fantastical animals, pop culture and political satire, and just utter ridiculousness to be found throughout the drawings.

Goldberg's references to concepts like suicide and homelessness come of as a bit insensitive by current standards, but a lot of the political humor on topics like the stock market are still spot-on.

This was a nice overview and a good introduction to the works of a artist who is well known by reputation, but not actually read as often as when his work was a fixture of the newspapers.

Rating: 7/10