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

2022/2023 Recap: My Top 5 Books (Prose or Comics) Read

Due to internet connectivity issues in China, lockdowns, and being generally busy with plans to move home, I only added a couple of entries to this blog in 2022. There were a few more in 2023, but I never did recaps for 2022, so I am combining them here, starting with my overall top books from each year. No comics or graphic novels made the list in 2022 or 2023, mostly because I was concentrating on reading prose.

My top 5 books read in 2022:

5. The Chicken Sisters by K.J. Dell'Antonia

4. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

3. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

2. Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard

1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

My Top 5 Books Read In 2023:

5. The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

4. A Game of Fox and Squirrels by Jenn Reese

3. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

2. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

1. Beloved by Toni Morrison

2021 Recap: My Top 5 Books (Prose or Comics) Read in 2021

 

My 5 Favorite Books Read in 2021

5. Molly House by A.R. Pip

4. Saga: Compendium One by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

3. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

2. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

A Monster Calls

Another not-quite-a-comic-in-the-traditional-sense entry. This is an illustrated novel, where the illustrations are an integral part of the experience of the story. From my school library.

Title: A Monster Calls
Date: 2011
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Writer: Patrick Ness, Siobhan Dowd
Artist: Jim Kay

Thirteen-year-old Connor O'Malley bears the burdens of his mother's serious illness, the bullies that have targeted him at school, and a recurring nightmare that he will do anything to avoid facing. When he is visited by a monster. the ancient Green Man of Celtic mythology, Connor assures the monster that he's seen worse. But the monster is determined to make Connor face the truth that he hides.

There are some mythical elements to this book, and a sprinkling of snark, but mostly it is the raw emotion of trying to hold together in the face of death at its most unfair. This was intensely powerful, and the writing it beautifully enhanced by Jim Kay's haunting illustrations.

Rating: 9.5/10

Tree Rats! Or, The Crepuscular Hobbyhorse

Given to us by the author over the summer.

Title: Tree Rats! Or, The Crepuscular Hobbyhorse
Date: 2015
Publisher: Drowned Town Press
Writer: E.J. BarnesCover: E.J. Barnes

Not a comic. This is a zine-format chapbook containing a single prose short story.

The story is a dark comedy and family drama, beginning with a scene that will be familiar to many: Family members trying to persuade and elderly relative to move into an assisted living facility. In this case, the narrator's uncle has gotten himself into the habit of shooting at squirrels with his b.b. gun out his bathroom window while dealing with his digestive issues.

When the narrator calls on an old friend to drive him from the East Coast to the Midwest to help with the resulting family drama, things quickly escalate into an over-the-top mess involving sex toys, a standard-shift truck, fireworks, stochastic music, an ill-tempered Italian greyhound, and militarized cops.

This had a lot of fun geeky elements, enough realistic details of how some family members can grow old ungracefully to give it an emotional punch, and plenty of laughs as it hits one bizarre plot twist after another.

Rating: 8.5/10

A Prelude To Penemue

From the random unread comics stack. I got this from the author at Arisia 2009 in Cambridge MA.

Title: A Prelude To Penemue
Date: 2008
Publisher: Apex Publications
Writer: Sara M. Harvey
Cover: Melissa Gay

Not a comic. This is a chapbook containing a short story by Sara M. Harvey meant to act as a prequel and companion piece to her novel The Convent of the Pure.

The setting mixes some mythological high fantasy (nephilim and demons) with sword-and-sorcery spellcasting and some steampunk elements.

The opening, plunging right into the action, finds aristocratic nephilim Lady Hester Sloane in the middle of a battle between nephilim and demonic forces. True to her duty to defend the humans in her charge, and seeking to protect her human husband and their child, Hester rushes into battle alongside the warrior nephilim.

When things turn tragic, Hester must take a hard look paths that lie ahead and make a fateful decision.

This story packs a bunch of great characters and some impressive worldbuilding into a thin chapbook, along with some really great fantasy battle scenes. The action is nonstop in the first half, while the character development takes center stage toward the end.

This felt more like traditional fantasy than the novel it is linked to. Convent of the Pure has more of a steampunk gothic horror vibe. Still, this is a solid introduction to a fantasy world that has some familiar elements, but plenty of surprises and memorable characters.

Rating: 8.5/10

Agent Boo Volume 2

This was a freebie I picked up this past weekend at Otakon.

Title: Agent Boo
Issue: Volume 2
Date: 2006
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Alex De Campi
Artist: Edo Fuijkschot

Interesting format. This book is mostly prose, but switches into comic format for sections that vary from as little as a panel to as much as several pages. The artwork does not illustrate what is in the prose fiction, it conveys additional plot that the prose does not cover, and thus is integral to the story.

The characters are young interdimensional agents-in-training, in a world at the center of the multiverse.

This story was a mix of fantasy adventure, pre-teen drama, and slapstick comedy. The adventure and drama worked better than the comedy did.The jokes were mostly unfunny or uninteresting.

The story varied from a very straightforward good-kids-take-on-evil-villains thing to something with considerably more complexity, and that complexity, while not consistent through this volume, came into play often enough to keep me interested.

The action was cartoony, but conveyed a decent level of drama and excitement.

Rating: 5.5/10