Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?

My wife and my mother-in-law borrowed this from the Wilbraham Public Library in Wilbraham MA USA.

Title: Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?
Publisher: Celadon Books
Date: April, 2019
Writer: Patricia Marx
Artist: Roz Chast

Collection of single-panel cartoons, featuring wisdom and fashion sense from the author's mother. Part snarky mother-daughter interactions and part (also snarky) etiquette guide. The author writes for the New Yorker, and the illustrator (also a New Yorker staffer) is working in the magazine's classic cartoon style. I found the cartoons to be a bit hit-or-miss, but there were some funny ones, and the mother's personality shines through in some really unique and unexpected ways.

Rating: 5.5/10

You Know You're A Rural Queer When...

First review of 2025! Not a comic. Prose zine that I got last Spring at the Flywheel Zine Fest.

Title: You Know You're A Rural Queer When...
Date: 2019
Writer: Olivia M.
Artist: Olivia M.

Short essay in micro-zine form that lays out the challenges facing those in the queer community who live in rural areas. There are a lot of isolating factors that are detailed here, not all of them completely obvious, and there are also some issues with misguided our outright counterproductive attempts at allyship that the author has experienced. There is also a good reminder of the role (and limitations) of online supports.

This was a lot of important insights in a small amount of words.

Rating: 8/10

Detective Comics: The Complete Covers Volume 2

 

Bought at Foreign Languages Bookstore, Shanghai, China, in December of 2021.

Title: Detective Comics: The Complete Covers
Issue: Volume 2
Publisher: Insight Editions
Date: 2019

Pocket-sized artbook, featuring a selection of Detective Comics covers from issues 301 to 600. This starts things off firmly in the Silver Age and it's over-the-top brightly colored goofiness, and brings up up to the Batman of the modern era. Along the way, we see the introduction of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, some redesigns of the Batman's costumes and milestone events like Batman: Year Two, and Blind Justice.

Unlike volume 3 (reviewed here), a lot of this material was unfamiliar to me. There were some really fun covers here, a few surprises in terms of crossovers (the Batman crosses paths with several of the Flash's adversaries). There is also a fair amount of silly Silver Age absurdities (Batman and Robin held captive in an alien zoo!) including a "Holy tombstone!" from Robin (who previous to the Batman TV show was more likely to go with "Great Scott!" as his exclamation of choice.

Like the rest of this series, the quality of the illustrations suffer a bit from the limitations of the book's size, but this is still a fun collection that delivers a lot of nostalgia in a small package.

Rating: 7/10

Spy Family Volume 2

Read at the Merrimack NH Public Library.

Title: Spy Family
Issue: Volume 2
Publisher: Viz Media
Date: October, 2019
Writer: Tatsuya Endo
Artist: Tatsuya Endo

After some initial hurdles, Anya has secured a place at the high-prestige Eden Academy, but now there is additional pressure. In order to make a connection with Twilight's target, Anya needs to either befriend the target's son, or earn a place in the school's honors program. When she punches the bratty son in the face on orientation day, it begins to look like neither of those prospects are very likely.

A further complication is introduced when Yor's brother enters the story. And just like Twilight, Anya, and Yor, the brother has his own secret that further jeopardizes Twilight's mission.

The second volume did a nice job of expanding the story, adding new characters and new complications, and giving some additional character development, especially for Anya and Yor.

This continues to be goofy absurd fun.

Rating: 7/10

Spy Family Volume 1

I Read this at the Merrimack NH public library.

Title: Spy Family
Issue: Volume 1
Publisher: Viz Media
Date: July, 2019
Writer: Tatsuya Endo
Artist: Tatsuya Endo

In a fictional-Eastern-European setting, two rival nations are locked in a cold war. Master spy Twilight has a new mission, and in order to get close to his target he needs to have a wife and a child. And he's given a week to come up with those on his own.

The woman he marries turns out to be an assassin. The child he adopts is a telepath.

The whole premise is utterly absurd, but in the most delightful of ways. The story builds a subtle emotional connection between the three main characters, keeps its internal logic reasonably well, and does a nice job of making fun of the espionage genre and high society in general.

The plot develops a bit slowly once the three main characters are together, and their primary objective is not quite fully resolved by the end of this volume, but it's a very enjoyable ride getting there. The artwork is equally effective in action scenes and in the more tender moments.

Rating: 7.5/10

Star Wars: Allegiance

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Shanghai, China.

Title: Star Wars: Allegiance
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2019
Writer: Ethan Sacks
Artist: Luke Ross
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles
Editor: Mark Paniccia, Tom Groneman
Cover: Marco Checchetto

This was really odd. It's a prequel to Rise of Skywalker, but it's very clear that the writer of this story had been given no information on the plot of Rise of Skywalker, and so in hindsight, it reads like the prequel to what everyone expected Rise of Skywalker to be, rather than the prequel to what we actually got.

No mention of Palpatine, of course, because, well, that would have been a spoiler at the time this was released.

The result is a rather uneven mixing of two separate plots. Finn and Poe (with BB8) try to retrieve some weaponry for the Resistance and end up hunted by bounty hunters. And Leia visits Mon Cala with Chewie, Rey, 3PO, R2, and Rose on a diplomatic mission.

Complications of the usual sort arise in both scenarios, and there are a few good moments for some of the characters, along with a fair amount of wasted potential. I'm always here for Rose getting to be part of the action, and was happy to see her shine in a few places, but much like in Rise of Skywalker itself, she still spent too much time standing around with nothing to do. I also thought there was a bit too much playing into the hothead side of Rey's persona. Leia came off as a good diplomat, but we expect brilliance out of Leia.

The story also leaned a bit heavily into tired cliches. Trial by combat? Really?

The crew of bounty hunters introduced in the Poe/Finn subplot were the most interesting people in the story, although that was due in some respect to novelty.

Rating: 4/10

White Bird

Bought at the Foreign Languages bookstore in Shanghai, China. Christmas gift for my son.

Title: White Bird
Date: 2019
Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
Writer: R.J. Palacio
Artist: R.J. Palacio
Inker: Kevin Czap

This graphic novel companion-piece to Palacio's prose novel, Wonder, takes place in the same continuity, telling the story of Julian's Grandmere and her story of survival in Nazi-occupied France during World War II.

Sarah tries to live a normal life, doing her best to put the horrors of the war far from her mind. It's not too difficult at first, as life in the "free" region of France has not changed much. But the horrors are coming faster than Sarah imagines, and in a single terrible day she is separated from friends and family and forced into hiding, depending on the support of a fellow student and his family to care for her and hide her.

White Bird mixes historically-accurate reality that holds back none of the terrible details of Holocaust, and punctuates it with fairytale moments of magic realism that are highlighted by the beauty of the artwork.

The story takes a big step toward redeeming Julian, the "villain" of Wonder, without ever making his present-day situation the focus. The story is full of moments of tragedy and acts of selfless courage, and it does a great job of incorporating small details through both words and art.

Rating: 9/10

Saga Compendium 1

From the staff book exchange shelf at my school.

Title: Saga Compendium
Issue: Volume 1
Date: September , 2019
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks, Steven Finch
Cover: Fiona Staples
Editor: Eric Stephenson

This phonebook-sized (a comparison that is becoming less and less meaningful as I get older!) volume collects the first 54 issues of the Brian K. Vaughan/Fiona Staples epic. Narrated by a child of two soldiers on opposite sides of a seemingly endless galactic war between a techological planet and its magical moon, Saga is romance, satire, dark comedy, grim action, and most of all, a story about the nature of family.

I read the first issue of this (review is here), and really liked it, but hadn't had the chance to pick up any of the subsequent issues. Reading them as a compilation was a great experience given the huge scope of the story and the numerous plot threads that it weaves.

As I mentioned with the first issue, this is definitely R-rated material, including graphic sex and brutal violence, but the story always seems to re-center and find its heart, even in the face of a lot of sudden and tragic twists of fate.

The plot twists are a real strong point of Saga. Vaughan's writing delivers shock after shock, and Staples' artwork sets every plot twist up perfectly. The story has great pacing, moving in furious bursts and then taking time for characters to age and grow so that the reader really feels the changing dynamics of the family.

In spite of the size of this compilation, an awful lot is left unresolved at the end, and I look forward to the return of Saga in the coming year.

Rating: 9/10

Sunny Rolls the Dice

 From my school's Fall book fair.

Title: Sunny Rolls the Dice
Publisher: Scholastic
Date: 2019
Writer: Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm
Artist: Jennifer L. Holm, Matthew Holm
Colorist: Lark Pien
Letterer: Fawn Lau
Editor: David Levithan

This is the third book in Jennifer and Matthew Holm's Sunny series about a girl growing up in the Pennsylvania suburbs in the late 1970s. Of course, the thing that attracted me to this book was the main character's introduction to Dungeons and Dragons, right out of the classic blue boxed set.

The nostalgia runs thick here, in all of the best ways. The D&D scenes are loads of fun, and really capture the feeling I remember as a sixth-grader trying to figure out this new kind of game.

The rest of the plot is pretty standard middle school slice-of-life fare, as Sunny tries to figure her way through peer pressure and the standards of "groovy" (complete with a handy "groovy-meter", which Sunny is distressed to find is usually in the red). As Sunny's friends begin to pursue teenage interests, Sunny has to make some choices about what path she wants to follow.

She is hoping that path won't end with her walking into a gelatinous cube.

Rating: 7/10

Avengers Endgame Prelude

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside Mall, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Title: Avengers Endgame Prelude
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2019
Writer: Will Corona Pilgrim, Jim Starlin, Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Paco Diaz, George Perez, Josef Rubinstein, Tom Christopher, Valerio Schiti, Phil Noto, Andrea Sorrentino, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Arthur Adams, Kevin Maguire, Mark Bagley, Andrew Hennessey, Sara Pichelli, Filipe Andrade
Colorist: Dono-Sanchez-Almara, Max Scheele, Ian Laughlin, Richard Isanove
Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham, Jack Morelli, VC's Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso, Jennifer Grunwald

This trade paperback was released in anticipation of the Avengers Endgame film. It contains three parts: A complete adaptation of the film Avengers: Infinity War, a reprint of the first issue of the original Marvel series The Infinity Gauntlet from 1991, and a reprint of Guardians of the Galaxy #19 from 2015.

Much like DC's Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey (reviewed here), this collection has something of a thrown-together feel to it, like Marvel was fishing for relevant material in anticipation of the movie release.

The adaptation of Avengers: Infinity War has issues with pacing, and scenes that needed to be cut for space considerations. It fails to make the kind of visual impact that the film does, and the humor in the dialogue also falls flat when translated into the comic medium. The serious dialogue does work reasonably well, so that the emotional beats of the story still pack a punch. As a recap for people about to watch Endgame, it accomplishes the purpose of refreshing the major details of the story, but it doesn't do so in a way that is particularly memorable.

I read the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline when it was released and was not impressed with it at the time. That may have been partly due to having a bit of crossover fatigue after several years of collecting and reading major titles from the "Big Two", but upon rereading it, The Infinity Gauntlet still strikes me as a pretty dumb story. It's the story of how a person gets godlike power that go above and beyond the already godlike power of other established beings in a universe full of beings with godlike power. And then he proceeds to squander it all in a series of bad decisions, because there is no way for the heroes to ever win this scenario. It's Thanos' scenario to lose. And lose he does. Of course much of that nonsense happens later in the series. The first issue is mostly Thanos trying to decide what to do with his power and trying to impress his Lady Death, while Mephisto looks on with amusement and Silver Surfer tries to warn Doctor Strange of what is coming. The first issue ends with the Snap, and its immediate aftermath, mostly as felt on Earth.

While I was never a fan of this series, one thing that I failed to give it credit for was the art. George Perez knocks it out of the park, and rereading this now was worth it just to get another look at the visuals of this first issue. There is some spectacular and inventive "Marvel-cosmic" imagery, but also tremendous detail work on characters and their emotional reactions and body language.

The final part of this collection is a fairly goofy Guardians of the Galaxy story with Thanos leading a coalition of alien forces in an attack on Earth that is thwarted handily by the Guardians and multiple allies. It makes Thanos look like a chump, and he comes off the best of his villain allies. The story is very feel-good, but with this being released with Endgame on the Horizon, it felt a bit out of place to be jobbing out the MCU's #1 BBEG in what felt like an afterthought.

The story had some good laughs, nice visuals (with a big crew of guest artists brought in for Brian Michael Bendis' finale on the series), and even a tender moment or two between Kitty Pryde and Peter Quill, who I did not realize were a thing, but who apparently are.

So, a movie adaptation, a very pretty bit of history/nostalgia, and a goofy throwaway story with Thanos getting beat more easily than he probably should. Probably not necessary to get anyone in the mood for a movie that was already the one of the most anticipated of all time.

Rating: 4/10

Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside Mall, Pudong, Shanghai, China

Title: Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey
Date: 2019
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Scott Beatty, Scott Young, Greg Rucka, Anderson Gabrych
Artist: Yvel Guichet, Aaron Sowd, Phil Winslade, Rick Burchett, Pablo Raimondi, Walden Wong, Brian Stelfreeze, Al Barrionuevo, Bit
Colorist: Tom McCraw, Hi-Fi, Brad Anderson
Editor:Alewx Galer

This is a collection of reprints, featuring characters associated with the Birds of Prey (and in particular, characters featured in the movie version of Birds of Prey) in solo action.

Harley (from Detective Comics #831, published in 2007) takes on the new version of the Ventriloquist and Scarface, and more importantly takes on the Arkham Asylum parole board (with Bruce Wayne as one of the members deciding her fate).

Black Canary, guided by Oracle, teams up with Lois Lane to break up an illegal sweatshop and it's psionic-powered foreman (From Showcase '96 #3, published in 1996).

Huntress teams up with Nightwing to investigate the mafia murder of an undercover cop (from Nightwing/Huntress #2, published in 1998).

Renee Montoya deals with harassment from a previous case where the perpetrator walked (from Gotham Central #6, published in 2003).

Cassandra Cain faces off against her father, assassin David Cain, during the epic No Man's Land event (from  Batman #567, published in 1999).

Last up, Catwoman takes on Black Mask and Sylvia Sinclair, who have taken Selina's friend Holly and Selina's sister Maggie hostage (From Catwoman #16, published in 2003.

The opening Harley Quinn story and the Lance/Lane team-up were both good, especially the interaction between Lois and Dinah, which was loads of fun in spite of a pretty generic plot.

From there, the book seemed to run out of one-shot stories and just gave us pieces of longer storylines that felt unsatisfying, and in some cases, didn't even focus enough on the featured character. There was a lot more Nightwing than Huntress in the segment from their team-up, and the Gotham Central storyline had a lot of subplots going on, and not much in the way of develop or resolution for Renee Montoya.

In spite me not being a big fan of Cassandta Cain, her origin story from No Man's Land had visually powerful moments. But again, it's a piece of a massive long-term storyline.

The Catwoman story with Black Mask felt more complete than it really had the right to thanks to a lot of recapping in the narration.

Overall, the result of this collection of fragments is a collection that has some great individual moments and some beautiful artwork, but feels thrown together, and is not as effective as it could be at introducing readers to the lineup of characters for the Birds of Prey film.

Rating: 5/10

Lumberjanes: The Shape of Friendship

Bought at the Foreign Languages Bookstore, Shanghai, China.

Title: Lumberjanes: The Shape of Friendship
Date: November, 2019
Publisher: Boom! Studios (Boom Box)
Writer: Lilah Sturges
Artist: Polterink
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Cover:  Alexa Sharpe
Editor:Jeanine Schaefer, Spohie Philips-Roberts

The Lumberjanes find a cave full of friendly pooka, who proceed to shapeshift into perfect-camper versions of the girls while leaving the real troop trapped in a maze of tunnels (possibly full of cave snakes!).

While the escape and the reclaiming of the girls' identities provides the plot, the real conflict is April and Jo struggling to figure out their friendship, and where Barney fits into the dynamic between them.

Everything about this book gets better as it moves along. The opening scenes are a somewhat blatant crash-course for new readers on who the Lumberjanes are and what to expect from their world, and it feels a bit hurried and heavyhanded.

Likewise, at first the drama between Jo and April is pretty standard afterschool-special fodder.

The main plot gets immediately better once the pooka are introduced, and features some amusing moments along the way to wrapping multiple threads up very satisfactorily.

The resolution of Jo and April's story gains a lot of depth in the end, and is genuinely touching.

As always, Lumberjanes does a tremendous job of featuring trans and nonbinary characters and generally celebrating the differences that make each member of the cast unique and awesome.

The duotone artwork by P:olterink is understated but beautiful.

Backup feature is a preview of The Avant-Guards, a comic about a basketball team at a decidely non-sports-oriented arts college by Carly Usdin and Noah Hayes, which was a fun start to the series and looked like it had great potential.

Rating: 8/10

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

Dog Man: Fetch-22

The Kiddo bought this at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Title: Dog Man: Fetch-22
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: September, 2019
Writer: Dav Pilkey
Artist: Dav Pilkey
Colorist: Jose Garibaldi

Li'l Petey makes a discovery about the Supa Brain Dots that had turned Flippy the bionic fish evil, and it leads to Flippy's release from Fish Jail, as well as a recall of Supa Brain Dots. Unfortunately, with Dog Man in charge of the recall, things get rapidly out of control, and the city is soon being menaced by 22 psychokinetic tadpoles, a giant tree monster (Barky McTreeface!) and a very angry TV gameshow fairy who is out to make sure that everything is fair. By destroying everything.

There were plenty of good literary and pop culture references, and some good one-liners here. The plot felt a bit like a retread of the previous stories, though. Not much new ground was covered here, although Petey and Li'l Petey had some really good moments together.

Entertaining, but leaned a bit too heavily on previous plot beats.

Rating: 6/10

Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Place, Jingan, Shanghai, China.

Title: Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2019
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

Such a disappointment.

I haven't been that big a fan of the Wimpy Kid books, but my son loves them, and the series had had its share of funny jokes. I was looking forward to this one a bit more than others in the series because of the prospect of hearing Rowley's point of view, but almost everything in this book was still focused on Greg.

And it was all Greg at his worst, basically being abusive toward Rowley. Jokes that were actually funny were few and far between here, but what I really missed was character development for Rowley. There was hardly any.


We also barely got to see Rowley's parents or anything about Rowley's life outside of his (toxic) friendship with Greg. What little focus there was on Rowley also kept coming back to his uncomfortable crush on his math teacher.

This felt like the author was trying too hard to make the book too similar to the rest of the series and missed out on a rare opportunity to do something that could have been different and, well, awesome.

Rating: 2/10

Detective Comics: The Complete Covers Vol. 3

Bought at Boocup at the Kerry Place Mall Jingan, Shanghai, China.

Title: Detective Comics: The Complete Covers
Issue: Volume 3
Publisher: Insight Editions
Date: 2019

Insight Editions makes pocket-sized collectible artbooks. This one collects the covers of Detective Comics, starting with issue #600 in 1989, through the re-numbering with the New 52 in 2011, and up to #17 in the renumbered series.

There is a ton of absolutely gorgeous artwork in this volume, not to mention a nice look at the recent history of the Batman. Included are such classic stories as Knightfall, No Man's Land, the Batwoman run in Detective Comics, Greg Rucka's three-year writing run, and Neil Gaiman's "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?". Characters introduced in the issues covered include Bane, Stephanie Brown, Anarky, and the Parliament of Owls.

I've read Batman comics on and off during the time period covered here, so there was plenty of nostalgia looking through these covers, as well as some ideas for issues I should seek out.

As always with something pocket-sized, the size can never truly do the artwork justice, but in terms of presenting a shear number of classic covers, in order and complete, this book was a delightful treat.

Rating: 7.5/10

Black Panther: Battle For Wakanda

Bought this for the Kiddo at a bookstore in Hub Mall here in Shanghai.

Title: Black Panther: Battle For Wakanda
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2019
Writer: Brandon T. Snider

Another of the Mighty Marvel Chapter Books series. While it's a prose story, it is full of color illustrations, but unfortunately, the artists are not credited (at least I was not able to get the information from the Amazon or Goodreads entries for the book and, as noted below, the credits on the copy we bought were not in English). This is the, well, I guess the phrasing would be English language Chinese edition, which we purchased in China. All of the story text is in English, but the credits, copyright and publisher information, and there are vocabulary footnotes in Chinese, which seem to be aimed at English language learners.

The Chinese edition covers for this series look awesome, by the way.

The story involves a plot to stir up trouble in Wakanda every time T'Challa is off doing Avengers things with the Avengers, which is currently more often than usual because there is an imposter Black Panther running around sabotaging SHIELD installations and beating up SHIELD-agent jobbers.

T'Challa makes some questionable decisions in order to move the plot along, but it eventually builds into a big confrontation with Klaw back in Wakanda, and a chance for T'Challa to regain the confidence of his people.

Several Avengers guest-star, and Shuri gets a decent supporting role.

Those picky about continuity should note that this is based more on comic storyline than the MCU version, but like the Gamora book in this series (I reviewed it here), it definitely tries to play to fans who have seen the films, but have not read the comics.

There were some editing issues, including a mess of a pronoun problem at one point, and the plot left a fair number of unanswered questions.

Still, it did the flavor of the characters well, and hit the right emotional notes in the end.

Rating: 5.5/10

2019 Comic Review Recap

I spent 2019 living and working in Shanghai, China. For non-comics reading, I spent 2019 reading only books written by women (my top five books of the year are listed here). I didn't extend this to my comics reading because I was relying on the Random Stack of Unread Comics, which I had brought to China from storage in the USA in 2018. I only went to one geeky convention in 2019, a local anime/cosplay event at the Hub Mall near Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai. I did also get to see mall exhibits on Marvel Studios and Ultraman, and attended a WWE live show in Shanghai. Travel destinations in 2019 included Taiwan, Palau, the Philippines, as well as Wuxi, Hong Kong, Xi'An, and Hangzhou within China. I went to Hong Kong Disneyland, which brings my total number of Disney parks to three.

I also read and reviewed 96 comics. which is 11 less than 2018. Here are the highs and lows:

Highest Rated Comics Read In 2019

Alethia Chapter 1 (8.5)
Awakening Comics #1 (8.5)
Awkward (8.5)
Bored Angel (8.5)
Circadia #1 (8.5)
Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls (8.5)
Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal (8.5)
The Realm #2 (8.5)
Shade: The Changing Man #44 (8.5)
Smile (8.5)
Tragedy at Farstation Prota (8.5)
The Vengeful Half (8.5)
The Walking Dead #175 (8.5)

The Flutter Collection (9)
Ghosts (9)
Lumberjanes Volume 4: Out of Time (9)
Lumberjanes Volume 5: Band Together (9)
We Won't Be Erased (9)

The Prince and the Dressmaker (9.5)

Lowest Rated Comics Read In 2019

Hermann Shepherd in "Gitmo Goofs" (2.5)

Dog Man: For Whom The Ball Rolls

The Kiddo borrowed this from a friend at school.

Title: Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls
Publisher: Scholastic / Graphix
Date: September, 2019
Writer: Dav Pilkey
Artist: Dav Pilkey
Colorist: Jose Garibaldi, Aaron Polk

Petey is released from Cat Jail, but will he be able to be the father that Li'l Petey wants him to be? When Petey's own father suddenly comes back into the picture, Petey must face his own abandonment issues, even as he finds himself part of a very nontraditional extended family with his son, Dog Man, and 80-HD.

Meanwhile, Dog Man gets some well-intentioned Pavlovian behavior modification to cure him of his obsession with chasing balls, but when a (not) new villain unleashes a horde of ball-shaped robots, Dog Man's greatest weakness becomes, well, his greatest weakness. Just in an even worse way.

Dav Pilkey drops Ernest Hemingway and Eric Carle references, confronts the reality of toxic family relationships, and expands the character development of a bunch of returning cast members.

This was a fun step forward that brought some new ideas and kept the same impressive joke-density of the previous books in this series.

Rating: 8.5/10