Lady Bugs

Well, it's been 10 months since we moved back to the US, and I finally made it to a convention: The Flywheel Zine Fest in Holyoke MA USA was a really fun event, and I'll be posting items from my haul in the coming weeks, starting with this.

Title: Lady Bugs

This is an uncredited mini-zine, worless except for the title. It features illustrations of insects with mask-like human faces, either as their faces, abdomens, or wings.

The drawings are lovely, with a tiny bit of an uncanny valley vibe going on.

Seriously quirky fun.

Rating: 6.5/10

Once Upon A Time In The North

From my school library.

Title: Once Upon A Time In The North
Publisher: Random House Kids
Date: 2023
Writer: Philip Pullman
Artist: Chris Wormell

Not a comic, but beautifully illustrated, this novella (novelette? fairly long short story?) is a prequel to Pullman's His Dark Materials series. This is a classic western tale (well, northern, technically) featuring a stranger coming to town, a corrupt politician, an evil mining company, a good-hearted librarian, gunslingers, and, of course, a talking bear.

This is the story of the first meeting of Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison. Lee arrives in a sleepy northern oil town, and gets introduced to the local political scene, where an offer is made to pay him to be hired muscle in the unfair treatment of a merchant captain. Instead, Lee decided to side with the captain, and earns the support of the armored bear Iorek Byrnison.

This was really fun because the pacing of most of His Dark Materials makes it difficult to give center stage to secondary characters like Scoresby and Byrnison, and even more difficult to spotlight a character like Scoresby's daemon, Hester, who is absolutely awesome here.

This features an intense gunfight with an extremely nasty villain, a good bit of worldbuilding, and some fun subplots. Really enjoyable as a fan of Pullman's other works, but stands on its own pretty well as long as you have an idea of the daemon concept.

Rating: 8.5/10

Heartstopper Volume 2

From my school library.

Title: Heartstopper
Issue: Volume 2
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: 2020
Writer: Alice Oseman
Artist: Alice Oseman

The second volume of Alice Oseman's high school romance focuses first on the fallout of the end of the first issue, and then to Nick's growing understanding of his identity and the beginning of his coming out. As with the first volume, the dialogue is great, and the whole story just has a warm and comfortable vibe to it. There is some conflict involving Nick's friends, but the romance continues to be front and center.

The second volume continues the great use of art and layout, and the excellent pacing of the first volume.

Rating: 8.5/10