BoooOOOooom Box Halloween Haunt 2016

From a past Free Comic Book Day.

Title: BoooOOOooom! Box Halloween Haunt 2016
Date: October, 2016

Publisher: Boom! Studios (Boom Box)
Writer: Shannon Watters, John Allison, James Tynion IV, Hope Larson
Artist: Carey Pietsch, Max Sarin, Rian Sygh, Brittney Williams
Colorist: Maarta Laiho, Whitney Cogar, Walter Baiamonte, Sarah Stern
Letterer: Aubrey Aiese, Jim Campbell
Cover:  Rian Sygh
Editor: Dafna Pleban, Whitney Leopard, Shannon Watters, Jasmine Amiri

Ashcan format freebie with four stories: Lumberjanes, Giant Days, The Backstagers, and Goldie Vance.

The Lumberjanes story is an excellent short, featuring Mal giving a mix CD to Molly and Molly enlisting April's help to reciprocate. The interactions were adorable, and it has the typical Lumberjanes weirdness where no one even raises an eyebrow at a dance club inhabited by deer. Artist Carey Pietsch does a great job with the expressions and body language of the characters, especially Molly.

The other stories are more teases/introductions. They're effective, but don't do much beyond introducing characters and setting up the basic scenario for each book they are previewing. Giant Days caught, which is a college-life drama/comedy, caught my interest the most out of the three. The Backstagers and Goldie Vance both could have used a bit more pagecount to give a better sense of what they were all about.

Rating: 6/10

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

Lumberjanes Volume 5: Band Together

Purchased last Spring when Gynn was visiting the US.

Title: Lumberjanes Volume 5: Band Together
Date: December, 2016
Publisher: Boom! Studios (Boom Box)
Writer: Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh
Artist: Brooke Allen, Carolyn Nowak
Colorist: Maarta Laiho
Letterer: Aubrey Aiese
Cover:  Brooke Allen, Maarta Laiho
Editor: Dafna Pleban, Whitney Leopard

While fishing at the lake, the Lumberjanes discover a merperson, along with some of her former friends who she used to be in a band with.

April, dazzled by the ideas of both merfolk and bands, comes up with a series of plans to help the merband reunite, whether they want to or not. Not surprisingly, mayhem ensues.

This volume had a much-needed bit of backstory, with a flashback chapter that showed the arrival of all of the main characters at the camp. It contained some really great insights, and was a perfect breather after the frantic pace that had been set in the previous four volumes.

The merfolk story also something of a break from the longer-term plot elements, and was a nice self-contained tale with good character development and a lot of small, unexpected twists. Not to mention a rousing finale!

This is a good book, and it could function as a jumping-on point for new readers.

Rating: 9/10

Lumberjanes Volume 4: Out of Time

My 1000th entry on this blog!!!!

Bought this last summer at Newbury Comics, Hyannis MA USA.

Title: Lumberjanes Volume 4: Out of Time
Date: July, 2016
Publisher: Boom! Studios (Boom Box)
Writer: Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters
Artist: Brooke Allen, Joy Ang, Kassandra Heller, Ricardo Bessa, Hope Larson, Kat Philbin, Carolyn Nowak, Jen Wang
Colorist: Maarta Laiho
Letterer: Aubrey Aiese
Cover:  Noelle Stevenson
Editor: Dafna Pleban, Whitney Leopard

When a sudden blizzard separates Jen from her campers, she is rescued by a mysterious hunter and taken to a house in the woods full of taxidermied monster trophies.

As the girls try to organize a search for Jen, they learn some of the past history of the Lumberjanes Scouts, and of the conflicts that divided the past generation of campers.

Now, those past conflicts boil up as a lifelong obsession with an ancient and powerful being jeopardizes the camp, the woods, and possible everything else.

The backstory that this collection added to the Lumberjanes mythology brought a whole new direction to the ongoing story, and served to shift the perspective of the reader as a whole trove of long-simmering secrets were hinted at.

The flashback sequences involving Rosie, Nellie, and Abigail are great and add a lot to those characters.

This four-issue arc also put Jo squarely in the spotlight, as she gets into a conflict with Barney of the Scouting Lads, which serves to bring out some of Jo's internal conflict, while at the same time providing a space for examining issues around transgender identity.

There was also plenty of excellent action, an interesting "Big Bad" threat, and all the weirdness and wit that has been great throughout this series.

Rating: 9/10

Lumberjanes Volume 3: A Terrible Plan

Bought this one last summer in the US (don't recall which store). My review of Volume 1 is here, and my review of Volume 2 is here.

Title: Lumberjanes Volume 3: A Terrible Plan
Date: February, 2016
Publisher: Boom! Studios (Boom Box)
Writer: Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters
Artist: Carolyn Nowak, Brittney Williams, Aimee Fleck, Faith Erin Hicks, Rebecca Tobin, Felicia Choo, T. Zysk
Colorist: Maarta Laiho
Letterer: Aubrey Aiese
Cover:  Noelle Stevenson
Editor: Dafna Pleban, Whitney Leopard

The opening story here is really a collection of stories, as the campers gather around the fire to tell spooky tales, which are lovingly illustrated by a series of guest artists. This makes for an eclectic mix that does a nice job of reflecting the personalities of the characters as they act as storytellers.

The real plot, though, has the campers split up on a day of free time at camp. Mal and Molly take a picnic lunch and set out on their very first date, only to encounter the Bear Woman and take an unintended trip to a dimension of lost things. Lost things, of course, include hungry dinosaurs.

Back at camp, April, Jo, and Ripley get busy trying to earn all of the most boring badges they can think of, competing in ballroom dancing, cake decorating, fence-painting, and scrapbooking ("More glitter!!!").

The plot back at camp provides the comic relief, but this story is all about the budding romance between Mal and Molly, and it is so adorable that it completely steals the show. There are a bunch of great character moments, a few fun nods to Jurassic Park, and enough imperilment to keep things entertaining.

I also felt with this volume that I've seen enough of the Lumberjanes world that the rules and logic are falling into place, which ends up strengthening the plot as events feel more consistent and less random than they did in the first two volumes. The worldbuilding is subtle but effective, and it provides the foundation to better focus on the character development, especially of Molly and Mal.

This was sweet and fun, and I will definitely be seeking out more soon.

Rating: 9/10

Lumberjanes Volume 2: Friendship to the Max

I liked the first volume of Lumberjanes enough that I went to New England Comics in Quincy MA and picked this one up, and read it in one sitting.

Title: Lumberjanes Volume 2: Friendship to the Max
Date: October, 2015
Publisher: Boom! Studios (Boom Box)
Writer: Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis
Artist: Brooke Allen
Colorist: Maarta Laiho
Letterer: Aubrey Aiese
Cover:  Noelle Stevenson
Editor: Dafna Pleban, Whitney Leopard

The second volume of Lumberjanes begins with dinosaurs attacking the Lumberjanes Scout Camp, and it proceeds to get weird from there.

This volume covers issues 5-8 of the comic series, plus a cover gallery and a preview of another Boom Box comic series, Giant Days. The Lumberjanes stories basically conclude the initial arc begun in the first volume (or first four comic issues), introducing some more well-defined villains, and a healthy dose of Greek mythology.

A game of Capture the Flag has much of the drama of real warfare, as the scouts learn to rely on each other under pressure, and they face down some serious supernatural forces by the end.

Character growth continues nicely, and the dialogue continues to be brilliant.

Giant Days, a comedy/drama about three women in their freshman year of college by John Allison and Lissa Treiman, looks like it has potential.

Rating: 7.5/10

Lumberjanes Volume 1: Beware the Kitten Holy

I bought this at Merrymac Games and Comics in Merrimack NH on our trip home for the summer.

Title: Lumberjanes Volume 1: Beware the Kitten Holy
Date: September, 2015
Publisher: Boom! Studios (Boom Box)
Writer: Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis
Artist: Brooke Allen
Colorist: Maarta Laiho
Letterer: Aubrey Aiese
Editor: Dafna Pleban, Whitney Leopard

This is the first trade paperback volume of the critically-acclaimed Lumberjanes series, collecting the first four issues, plus a bonus gallery of the variant covers.

Five girls discover friendship, weirdness, and various monsters during a summer at Lumberjanes Scout Camp.

Loaded with catchphrases and frenetically-paced, the story places the girls into one dangerous adventure after another, with hardly a moment to stop and wonder "What the junk?".

The character development happens in small moments and little details, amid plenty of humor and a strong sense of wonder and weirdness.

The occasional entries from the Lumberjanes Field Manual and the badges (Pungeon Master!) are a nice added touch.

There is lots of action in this volume, but not many answered questions. I look forward to seeing where all of this is going.

Rating: 8/10