IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for July 24, 2019

IDW PUBLISHING

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IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for July 17, 2019

IDW PUBLISHING

APR198596    AMBER BLAKE #4 2ND PTG    $3.99
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IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for May 1, 2019

IDW PUBLISHING

MAR190741    FROM HELL MASTER EDITION #5 (MR)    $7.99
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JAN190833    UNCLE SCROOGE MY FIRST MILLIONS TP    $17.99

IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for March 6, 2019

IDW PUBLISHING

DEC180727    ATOMIC ROBO PRESENTS REAL SCIENCE ADVENTURES TP VOL 03    $17.99
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DEC180694    MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #75 CVR B RICHARD    $7.99
NOV180659    STAR WARS EMPIRE STRIKES BACK GN    $9.99

IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for February 13, 2019

IDW PUBLISHING

OCT180708    DICK TRACY DEAD OR ALIVE #4 (OF 4) CVR A ALLRED    $3.99
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Review: THE FUN FAMILY

THE FUN FAMILY (OGN)
IDW PUBLISHING/Top Shelf Productions – @topshelfcomix

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

CARTOONIST: Benjamin Frisch
ISBN:  978-1-60309-344-6; paperback with French flaps (July 12, 2016)
240pp, Color, $24.99 U.S. (Diamond: APR16-0643)

The Fun Family is a 2016, full color, original graphic novel written and drawn by cartoonist, Benjamin Frisch.  Published by Top Shelf Productions (an imprint of IDW Publishing), The Fun Family focuses on the growing dysfunction of an American family, whose head of household is a popular newspaper comic strip creator.

The Fun Family introduces beloved cartoonist Robert Fun.  He has earned a devoted following for his circle-shaped, newspaper comic strip, “The Fun Family.”  Robert celebrates the wholesome American family by drawing inspiration from his real home life.  He is married to Marsha, a devoted mother and housewife.  They have four children:  Robby, Molly, Mikey, and J.T. (an infant when the story starts).

Unlike its comic strip equivalent, the Fun Family, however, has some dark secrets, and their idyllic world begins to collapse after two events.  First, Robert's mother, Virginia (“Grandma” to the kids), dies, and then, Robert's creepy menagerie is discovered.  Now, the children must rescue their family, but they will also have to escape the cycle that will have art imitating life imitating art.

One of the most famous “circle-shaped” newspaper comic strips of all time is The Family Circus, which was created, written and drawn by the late Bil Keane.  Cartoonist Benjamin Frisch uses the iconography and visual cues and themes of The Family Circus to create The Fun Family.  Robert Fun even draws a comic-within-a-comic that is virtually identical in graphics, shape, format, and themes to The Family Circus.

That is where the similarities end.  The Fun Family is a riveting read, shocking and poignant in equal doses – so much so that reading this graphic novel can be a disconcerting experience at times.  I want to avoid spoilers by saying that the parents, Robert and Marsha, are the big problems in this scenario.  They are aided and abetted by the “professionals” trying to help them, Dr. Leonard Cohen and Dr. Guru Cohen and also by a “ghost.”

Cartoonist and comic book creator, Jessica Abel, is quoted as saying of The Fun Family, “Simply wrenching... Benjamin Frisch subverts the iconography of family cartooning, exposing the seedy underbelly of America’s obsession with the perfect family.”  That is true, and The Fun Family is a blast to read.  I could not stop reading it once I started.  I highly recommend The Fun Family, which is still in print two years after its debut (http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/the-fun-family/935).

9 out of 10

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

----------------------

IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for August 8, 2018

IDW PUBLISHING

JUN180739    BLOOM COUNTY BEST READ THRONE TP    $19.99
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MAR180494    WALT DISNEY SHOWCASE #5 DONALD DUCK FAMILY CVR B FRECCERO (C    $3.99

IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for July 18, 2018

IDW PUBLISHING

MAY180759    CORTO MALTESE GN TANGO    $19.99
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Review: MARCH Book Three

MARCH: BOOK THREE
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS – @topshelfcomix

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITERS: John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
ARTIST: Nate Powell
EDITOR: Leigh Walton
ISBN: 978-1-60309-402-3; paperback with French flaps – 6.7" x 9.7" (August 2, 2016)
256pp, B&W, $19.99 U.S.

Congressman John Lewis is a member of the United States House of Representatives as Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District Representative (GA-5, Democrat).  During the 1960s, Lewis was also one of the “Big Six” leaders of the American Civil Rights movement (with the others being Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young).  Before such fame and accomplishments, he was born John Robert Lewis in February 1940 to sharecropper parents, Willie Mae (Carter) and Eddie Lewis.

In 2013, Top Shelf Productions began publishing a series of three graphic novels, entitled March, that would chronicle Congressman Lewis' time as a Civil Rights activist.  March begins with his childhood and moves onto his time as a college student who is a participant in and organizer of dangerous protests.  The story ultimately shits into Lewis' years as a leader in the Civil Rights movement and as someone who shapes and influences change, politically and socially.  March is written by Congressman Lewis and Andrew Aydin, one of Lewis' top advisers, and is drawn and lettered by Nate Powell, an award-winning book illustrator and comic book creator.

March: Book Three (August 2016), like March Book One and March Book Two, uses the inauguration of President Barack Obama (January 20, 2009) as a kind of framing sequence from which a 68-year-old Lewis looks back on the events of the past.  Book Three opens on September 15, 1963 and depicts the terrorist bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

By the fall of 1963, the Civil Rights movement has found its way into the consciousness of the American people.  As the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), John Lewis is one of the people that have made this happen.  SNCC continues to force the nation to confront its own blatant injustice, but as the movement grows more successful, its enemies grow bolder and more dangerous.  The supporters of segregation and of Jim Crow use everything from courtroom tactics via friendly judges to intimidation via violence.  Even more worrying, racists like the Ku Klux Klan and segregationist become more violent and seem to deal out death with impunity.

However, the Civil Rights movement, with Dr. Martin Luther King as its leader and most famous face, decides that in order for black Americans to be truly free and equal, they must be able to vote as freely as any white American.  It is time to end the voter suppression that silences so many Americans.  The cry becomes “One Man, One Vote!”  Lewis and an army of young activists launch their nonviolent revolution with innovative campaigns such the “Freedom Vote” and “Mississippi Freedom Summer,” and with an all-out battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television.

There are new struggles, new allies, new opponents, and an unpredictable new president (Lyndon B. Johnson – the 36th) who might be both an ally and an opponent at the same time.  Even SNCC begins to fracture.  For 25-year-old John Lewis, however, there is no turning back as he and his fellow activists risk everything on a historic march that will begin in the town of Selma, Alabama.

I never doubted that March Book Two could be as powerful as March Book One, but then, I found that Book Two surpasses the first book in terms of intensity.  So, would March Book Three be the typical trilogy fail – the week final entry in a storytelling triplet?  Never fear, dear readers; there is no failure here.  Book One depicts the awakening or the full rising of Civil Rights tide.  Book Two took the readers into the trenches and to the front lines of a non-violent war in which one side uses peace and the other employs senseless, ceaseless, and wanton acts of violence.

March Book Three depicts many infamous acts of violence against Civil Rights activists.  The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing; the kidnapping and murder of three Civil Rights workers (Mickey Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney), and “Bloody Sunday” are some of the most infamous acts of violence, murder, and mayhem that occur against the movement from the Fall 1963 to Spring 1965.

However, Book Three gets into the details and process of forcing change through politics and political action.  The emphasis is the movement's focus on the federal government, particularly on the Presidency of the United States and the U.S. Department of Justice.  The narrative of this book focuses more on political wrangling, with violence often as backdrop, and there is a sense that something is coming to an end.  Gaining the right to vote for Black people nationwide feels like the end of one story, the close of an iteration of the Civil Rights movement.

Whatever comes next for the movement will be different, but for now, there can be some joy in what is gained by the end of March Book Three.  That is the best thing about March Book Three; Lewis, Aydin, and Powell convey the sense of hope, and no matter what happens next, the victory of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery, Alabama voting rights marches offers hope no matter how good or bad things get from that point going forward.

On the last page of March: Book Three, Congress John Lewis and Andrew Aydin give us a depiction of the two of them talking about that “comic book idea.”  Lewis says “We'll have to find a great artist – someone who can make the words sing.”  Lewis and Aydin's words have the depth and detail of prose and convey the lyrical flow of poetry.

Well, they did find the great artist who could make their words sing in the person of Nate Powell.  Comic books are a storytelling medium that uses graphics to convey, communicate, and tell a story, and Powell makes the words sing “Hallelujah!”  That boy can sang!  In the end, Powell, with pencil, pen, and brush, creates a comic book that lifts him, as well as the readers, to the heights.  None of the greats – not Crumb, not Kirby, not Moebius, not Eisner, not Los Bros., not Wood, not Kurtzman; none of them are above him.  Now, he is their equal.

Nate Powell has marched on up to the mountaintop, and he sits on high with the masters, old and new.  John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Dr. Martin Luther King, and the named and unnamed of the American Civil Rights movement deserve nothing less in the comic book artist who would tell their story.

10 out of 10

For more information about the March trilogy, visit here or at http://www.topshelfcomix.com/march

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

---------------------

Review: THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN Volume 3: Century: 2009

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, VOL. III: CENTURY: 2009
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS/Knockabout Comics – @topshelfcomix @KnockaboutComix

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Alan Moore
ARTIST: Kevin O’Neill
COLORIST: Ben Dimagmaliw
LETTERER: Todd Klein
ISBN: 978-1-86166-163-3; paperback – 6.625" x 10.125" (June 2012)
80pp, Color, $9.95 U.S., £7.99 GBP

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen created by Kevin O'Neill

3: Let It Come Down

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century is the third comic book miniseries starring Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s Victorian superheroes, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LoEG).  The series is written by Moore; drawn by O'Neill; colored by Ben Dimagmaliw; and lettered by the extraordinary Todd Klein.

A three-graphic novel set, Century finds the League as a new team in a new century.  Century #1 “1910” and Century #2 “1969” focuses on the Leagues attempt to stop occultist Oliver Haddo from realizing his dream of creating an anti-Christ called “the Moonchild,” which would bring about an apocalypse.  The League's surviving members, the three immortals:  Orlando/Roland (the eternal warrior), Mina Murray (Count Dracula's shorty), and Allan Quatermain (great White B'wana and British adventurer) believe they stopped Haddo's plans after a battle in Hyde Park and in the “Blazing World” during the year 1969...

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century #3 “2009” (“Let It Come Down”) finds Orlando doing what he does best.  He is living eternally and slaughtering eternally, this time in Q'Mar, where a war of attrition drags into a fifth year of blood and devastation.  Orlando is back in London when she gets a sudden visit from Prospero, Duke of Milan, who informs her that Haddo's Moonchild has already been born and that the apocalypse is nigh.  Now, Orlando must reform the League in time to stop this anti-Christ, but where are the last two surviving members?  They may be immortals, but one is a homeless heroin addict and the other is currently a resident of a mental institution.

I like Alan Moore's dark, famous, and acclaimed comics of the 1980s.  Watchmen is a legendary comic book to many American comic book creators, fans, and industry types.  V for Vendetta is a bold and idiosyncratic vision (misunderstood by many of its readers and admirers).

Still, I prefer Moore’s more surreal and slyly humorous comics, such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  More so, I think that LoEG, like Watchmen and Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, is an extraordinary work because it is the creation of a comic book writing genius and comic book drawing genius.  I may be one of the few people who think that Kevin O'Neill is a genius, but his striking graphics and his visual sense of composing a story via a comic book page are matched by only a few comic book artists over the last three or four decades.  He can convey pathos, drama, humor, satire, parody, and surrealism within a single page and, on occasion, within a single panel.  Also, O'Neill's comics often trade in both the mundane and the scatological.

So that's my review.  Moore was first declared a genius over 30 years ago, and I am now officially declaring O'Neill a genius.  The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century #3 “2009” is a great comic book because it is the work of genius times two.  Everything about it is unconventional, although its structure is conventional comics, and the story is full of convention – by reference and allusion.

The final battle between the League and the Moonchild is neither climatic nor anti-climatic.  It is something different, waiting for a different kind of heroine to take it in another direction, even if that direction has been taken before her.  I wish there were The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century #4.

9.5 out of 10

www.tppshelfcomix.com
www.knockabout.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

-------------------------

IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for July 11, 2018

IDW PUBLISHING

MAR180563    COME AGAIN HC    $24.99
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Review: MARCH: Book Two

MARCH: BOOK TWO
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS – @topshelfcomix

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITERS: John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
ARTIST: Nate Powell
EDITOR: Leigh Walton
ISBN: 978-1-60309-400-9; paperback with French flaps – 6.5" x 9.5" (January 20, 2015)
192pp, B&W, $19.95 U.S., $25.95 CAN

Congressman John Lewis is Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District Representative (GA-5, Democrat).  Lewis was also one of the “Big Six” leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement (with the others being Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young).  Before such fame and accomplishments, he was born John Robert Lewis in February 1940 to sharecropper parents, Willie Mae (Carter) and Eddie Lewis.

In 2013, Top Shelf Productions began publishing a series of three graphic novels, entitled March, that would chronicle the life of Congressman Lewis, from his childhood to his college-age youth as a participant in and organizer of dangerous protests.  The story ultimately moves into Lewis' years as a leader in the Civil Rights movement and as someone who shaped and influenced change, politically and socially.  March is written by Congressman Lewis and Andrew Aydin, one of Lewis' top advisers, and is drawn and lettered by Nate Powell, an award-winning illustrator and comic book creator.

March Book Two (January 2015), like March Book One, uses the inauguration of President Barack Obama (January 20, 2009) as a framing sequence.  The story then moves back to November 1960.  After the success of the Nashville sit-in campaign to desegregate lunch counters, the Nashville Student Movement is ready to make its next moves.  The students want to desegregate fast food restaurants and cafeterias and movie theaters so that that black people can receive the same service that white people do.  John Lewis is more committed than ever to changing the world through nonviolence — but he is about to become involved in his most perilous venture yet.

In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) plans to test a recent favorable Supreme Court ruling, Boynton v. Virginia, which outlawed racial segregation on buses and in bus terminals.  CORE called this program Freedom Ride 1961, and the young activists involved are dubbed “Freedom Riders.”  However, these “Freedom Riders” plan to go into the heart of the deep south in order to segregate bus terminals in cities like Birmingham, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana, and they will be tested as never before.  They must face beatings from vicious white devils... (I mean) civilians, police brutality, imprisonment, arson, and even murder.  With their lives on the line, these young activists also face internal conflicts that threatens to tear them apart.

I never doubted that March Book Two could be as powerful as March Book One, but now, I think that Book Two passes the first book in terms of intensity.  Book Two also chronicles how John Lewis and his fellow activists attracted the notice people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who would become powerful allies.  We also witness Lewis get elected chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), thrusting the 23-year-old into the national spotlight.  We see Lewis become one of the “Big Six” leaders of the civil rights movement and a central figure in the landmark 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  March Book Two also depicts the speech that Lewis gave at that historic march, and, at the back of this graphic novel, the original version of Lewis' speech is reprinted.  The section of the story that deals with the “negotiations” involved in getting Lewis to make changes to his speech is riveting.

However, the spine of March Book Two is the harrowing depiction and recounting of “Freedom Ride 1961.”  Lewis and Andrew Aydin's script, narration, and dialogue are some of the most powerful that I have ever read in a comic book.  As I read those glorious pages, I felt as if my blood was freezing, at the same time that my heart was a'pounding.  If Lewis and Aydin's text about the Freedom Riders was reprinted without the art, it would still be compelling and effective.

I could say the same thing about the art.  If Nate Powell's illustrations and graphics for March Book Two were reprinted without the text and word balloons in an art book, they would still be all-powerful and potent storytelling.  Even as pantomime comics, Powell's work here would force us to understand every bit of Lewis' story as told by the Congressman and Mr. Aydin.  Powell is easily one of the very best comic book illustrators of the still young twenty-first century.  He is in my Top 10.

Fortunately for us, Lewis, Aydin, and Powell work as one almighty comic book creative team.  On that ride back through time, they transport us onto the buses for the most perilous bus rides in American history.  Because of the felicity with which they tell this story, Lewis, Aydin, and Powell honor not only Lewis' story, but they also honor the men and women, black and white, who put everything on the line for freedom and equality.  March Book Two was and still is 2015's best original graphic novel and best work of comics.

10 out of 10

For more information about the March trilogy, visit here or at http://www.topshelfcomix.com/march

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for May 30, 2018

IDW PUBLISHING

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IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for April 4, 2018

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IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for March 7, 2018

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Review - Pirate Penguin vs Ninja Chicken: Troublems with Frenemies

PIRATE PENGUIN VS NINJA CHICKEN BOOK 1
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS – @topshelfcomix

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

CARTOONIST: Ray Friesen
EDITORS: Chris Staros and Brett Warnock
ISBN: 978-1-60309-071-1; hardcover (June 2011)
96pp, Color, $9.95 U.S.

Ages 7 to 13

Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken is a graphic novel series by cartoonist and webcomics creator, Ray Friesen.  Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken (Book 1): Troublems with Frenemies is an all-ages humor graphic novel that was the first in the series and was originally published five-and-a-half years ago.

The stars of the series are Pirate Penguin, a penguin who is a pirate (complete with a hook for a right hand, an eye patch, and a pirate hat), and Ninja Chicken, a chicken who is a ninja (complete with ninja pajamas costume).  They're roommates, bestest of friends and also the worstest of enemies.  Now, see them in action – in stories so small and epics so epic.

See them fight over smoothies.  Watch them scuffle over peer pressure.  Witness their friend Camoflaugey Chameleon cause chaos by impersonating one or the other.  Join arguments over stuff like ice cream or origami.  Then, in “The Biggest Giantest Epicest Pirate Penguin versus Ninja Chicken Story Evar!,” Pirate Penguin rockets off into space, and Ninja Chicken attends a ninja convention in Las Vegas, but can they really be apart for 11 chapters?

Top Shelf sent me a copy of Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken (Book 1): Troublems with Frenemies when it first came out – yes, that long ago.  I lost track of it, but recently found it again, which was fortuitous because the second graphic novel, Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken (Book 2): Escape from Skull-Fragment Island!, was recently published.

I didn't think that I would like this, but I did.  Of course, this is a kids' graphic novel, but there is a reason that it is described as “all-ages.”  Anyone who can read this, regardless of age, will like some or all of it.  The short comics, usually two pages in length, are little gag strips that play on the inherent silliness of traditional humor comic books.  A pun, a philosophical point turned on its pin head, an argument:  Ray Friesen is clever and imaginative in creating humor.

Despite their wacky names, Pirate Penguin and Ninja Chicken are actually good characters.  They are lovable, and the fact that they like each other in some way makes this work.  These two characters are bickering, gently contrarian characters, and their attitudes and personalities make them lovable.  There are also some good supporting characters, like useful third-wheel, Camoflaugey Chameleon, and a character whose profession makes it easier to expand the settings for stories, Astronaut Armadillo.

I think Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken (Book 1): Troublems with Frenemies is a little more than its cover suggests.  I won't describe this as great, but it is surprisingly cute, funny, and enjoyable, and like me, you may be surprised to find yourself liking it.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: HOME TIME: Under the River

HOME TIME: UNDER THE RIVER - OGN
IDW PUBLISHING/Top Shelf Productions – @IDWPublishing @topshelfcomix

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

CARTONIST: Campbell Whyte
ISBN: 978-1-60309-412-2; hardcover – 9” x 9” (August 2017)
228pp, Color, $24.99 U.S., $33.99 CAN

Home Time: Under the River is an original graphic novel from Australian comics creator and arts educator, Campbell Whyte.  A full-color, hardcover (9” x9”) book, Under the River is Whyte's debut graphic novel and is the first in a series that is apparently inspired by the worlds of fantasy fiction that Whyte encountered in the 1980s and 90s.

Home Time (Book One): Under the River introduces Lilly and David Watanabe, who might be twins, but they don't agree on much.  December 15th marks the beginning of their last summer before high school, and they at least agree that they are going to enjoy it.  This is going to be a perfect time of relaxing with friends:  Nathan Dermott, Ben Miller, Amanda Holm, and Lawrence Baudin.  They are going to play fantasy games, watch movies on video, and have sleepovers., and there might even be some romance.

The best laid plans of mice and almost-high-schoolers, however...  David and Lilly and their friends fall into a local river.  When they wake up, there are in a strange land where they meet peculiar diminutive plant-like people that call themselves the “Peaches.”  Taken to the Village of the Peaches, the kids learn that these beings consider them to be savior – “sky spirits” that have come to save the Peaches from their enemies.

The kids are trained in the art of tea-brewing in preparation for an upcoming festivals.  The boys also explore and discover that there is more to this world than they imagined... or were told.  Now, they have to discover the truth and find their way home – if they can tolerate each other long enough.

Back in the 1990s, I read an article in which the author stated that he believed children's literature and picture books had become safe.  He said that publishers were unwilling to tell stories that were dark and dangerous or that placed children in peril.  That probably was his perception based on what children's books he encountered, or maybe, his intention was to complain about political correctness and/or be nostalgic for an era before he was even born.

I often encountered dark and edgy children's storytelling back in “those” days.  Lord knows Harry Potter (which began publication in 1997) seems to trade in the currency of death, duplicity, and betrayal.  A main character who is a child is actually killed in Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass (first published as Northern Lights in 1995).

Well, if readers young and old... I mean mature are looking for children's literature of a darkling kind, they will find that in this most excellent graphic novel, Home Time: Under the River.  It is hugely imaginative, and it grabs the readers with its sense of dread, doom, and finality.  We follow the children on many explorations, and there is always, around the edges, an ominous atmosphere surrounding everything.  So even as the children keep discovering in this world of color and natural splendor, there is menace in the garden of delights, making the story richer and more engaging with each page.

Home Time: Under the River may end up being the best or be on the shortlist of best graphic novels for any age this year.  Campbell Whyte's storytelling is a celebration, an exploration, and a display of shifting drawing mediums and graphical styles.  There is more imagination in Whyte's story than you will find in an entire year of most of Marvel and DC Comics's superhero comic book titles.

People looking for classic children's storytelling for their young readers will want to buy Home Time: Under the River, and then fight over who reads it first.

A
9.5 out of 10

www.topshelfcomix.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for September 6, 2017

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IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for August 30, 2017

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Book Review: SH*T MY PRESIDENT SAYS: The Illustrated Tweets of Donald J. Trump

SH*T MY PRESIDENT SAYS: THE ILLUSTRATED TWEETS OF DONALD J. TRUMP
IDW PUBLISHING/Top Shelf Productions – @IDWPublishing @topshelfcomix

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITERS:  Shannon Wheeler, Donald Trump
ARTIST: Shannon Wheeler
EDITORS: Chris Staros, Greg Goldstein, Leigh Walton
ISBN: 978-1-60309-410-8; hardcover – 5” x 6.5” (August 2017)
120pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $19.99 CAN

Sh*t My President Says: The Illustrated Tweets of Donald J. Trump is a 2017 book of cartoons from award-winning cartoonist, Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man).  The book collects a selection of President Donald J. Trump's tweets of which Wheeler provided an accompanying illustration for context, illumination, or otherwise.

Before he (tragically) became President of the United States, Donald Trump was a real estate “mogul,” controversial figure, media personality, and anti-African-American bigot who once demanded the summary execution of five young men of color who were accused of a crime they did not commit.  Trump joined social media site, Twitter, in 2009 and began tweeting, first to promote himself, his appearances, and his business interests.

Trump's Twitter account turned tragic, probably after about a year, when he began fancying a run for president and also decided that the way to establish himself was to criticize President Barack Obama.  Soon, many of tweets began to make it obvious to the people who acted as if they never noticed what an incorrigible bigot, racist, sexist, and xenophobe Trump was and still is.  His pettiness and petulance is frankly stunning.  Imagine reading those tweets with cartoons that brutally accurately illustrate what a really bigly sad person Donald Trump is.

Back in 2008, Top Shelf Productions published Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance by Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger.  It was an illustrated history, survey, and list of the first 46 Vice-Presidents of the United States, from the first, John Adams, to the forty-sixth, Dick Cheney.  Over the past few decades many people have proclaimed many titles from comic book publishers as worthy of being placed in secondary and college education classrooms.

Many of those comic books and books are subject to debate as to whether they should be in classrooms; some clearly should not be in classrooms.  Veeps should be on high school history and social studies reading lists.  I think Sh*t My President Says: The Illustrated Tweets of Donald J. Trump is another Top Shelf book that belongs in classrooms and also in waiting rooms, public libraries, and in the offices of the leaders of every country of Earth.

Sh*t My President Says takes its title from Justin Halpern's “Shit My Dad Says” Twitter account which spawned a book and a short-lived CBS television series.  Although I have heard of Halpern's social media feed and even watched the first episode of the TV series, I have never read any of Halpern's tweets.  Quite frankly, I don't particularly care about the statements or opinions of white men who are of middle age and older.  The exceptions are some white men and older who are artists, writers, journalists, publishers, comic book creators, filmmakers, recording artists, performers, public figures, thinkers, and scientists – you know, creative types.  I don't care for the opinions of old white men who were once professional athletes even if I liked them in their athletic prime because, for the most part, many of them resent young African-American athletes (Terry Bradshaw, Mike Ditka, Boomer Esiason, to name a few).  So I don't give a shit about the shit Halpern's dad says.

I also ignore Donald Trump's Twitter account.  However, I am interested in what Shannon Wheeler has to say, especially via his pen.  Calling this a book of illustrated tweets is not quite accurate because it makes it sounds as if Wheeler has merely drawn cartoons to go with the tweets.  He does so much more than that, to the point that these cartoons sometime defies description.

Some of Wheeler's cartoons mock the tweets they accompany, such as the August 6, 2012 tweet about Barack Obama's birth certificate.  Sometimes, these cartoons illustrate Trump's authoritarian leanings in a way that is not funny, but poignant (July 18, 2013, which is essentially Trump's complaint about regular people criticizing famous people).  Many of the cartoons are prescient because I think many of us are just now understanding that Trump is not self-aware.  For instance, I don't think he understands how callous he often comes across to people.  There is a tweet from September 11, 2013 related to 9/11, and Wheeler's simple, but evocative cartoon is like a warning, sent from the day he drew it to every day of the future.  It is as if Wheeler is saying that we should beware this man's vanity and ego, and man who does not recognize sanctity and sacredness outside himself.

Make no mistake, however; much of this book is funny.  Yes, this sh*t will tickle your funny bone as much as it tackles ye olde thinking side.  Every single person who buys books about politics and all those who read political cartoons must have a copy of Sh*t My President Says: The Illustrated Tweets of Donald J. Trump.  Honestly, in a better world, this book would sell millions.

A+
10 out of 10

www.sh-tmypresidentsays.com
www.topshelfcomix.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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