Lucas Blogs About Books

So, what's this book's deal? Well, the deal with Apocalyptigirl: An Aria for the End Times  is that it's the project Andrew MacLean worked on before he wrote and drew Head Lopper . As one might guess from the title, it's a post-apocalyptic sci-fi adventure comic. That does sound like a thing you would enjoy, Lucas. I did enjoy it, so let's talk about it. The protagonist, Aria— Wait, the word "Aria" in the title is a pun? Yep! Anyway, Aria is a young woman who's been sent to Earth27 to recover the Grand Photon, an energy source — and potential weapon — which was used to bring about the cataclysm which lead to the collapse of society. The thing is that Aria's mission was supposed to last a few months but it's already been several years. She's not completely alone, she's got her cat Jelly Beans, and the broken down mech she's been trying to repair, which she's named Gus, but neither of them is much of a conversationalist. Nor are...

Remember Cowboys and Aliens ? No? Me neither.   So, what's this book's deal? I thought you'd never ask, Hypothetical Reader. The deal with Lake of Fire  is that it's a comic book written, colored, and lettered by Nathan Fairbairn and drawn by Matt Smith. The pithy synopsis is that it's crusaders vs. aliens. Perhaps a less pithy synopsis is in order. Yeah, okay, have you heard of the Albigensian Crusade ? You mean the twenty year campaign of extermination against the Cathars in the Languedoc region of France in the early 13th Century? Yes, that Albigensian Crusade. Lake of Fire  takes place in 1220, about halfway through. After a couple of pages showing a spaceship crashing, we cut to Theo and Hugh, two teenage boys who have set off to join the crusade before the campaigning season is over. However, when they arrive they discover that a family friend, Count Henry, has been dispatched to bring them home and has overtaken them on the road. Sensing an opportunity to get...

Too bad Norgal doesn't have a van, he would look sweet air-brushed on the side.   So, what's this book's dea—oh, more Head Lopper . That's right, it's Volume 3: Head Lopper & The Knights of Venora . So, as you may recall, in Volume 2 , Norgal, aka, the Head Lopper, caught feelings for Zhaania in the Crimson Tower, only for her to die. So he's been drowning his sorrows in drink and bloodshed and is in a pretty sorry state when he's forced to rescue Arlenfor and Balan, the Third and First Swords of the King of Venoriah, respectively. See, they were sent out to parley with the goblin army that's been laying siege to the city. As it turns out, the goblins think that the giant egg-shaped stone within the city's walls is going to hatch their fire-breathing toad god who will then devour the sun and the moons. As fire-breathing toad gods are wont to do. Exactly. In gratitude Arlenfor vouches for Norgal who had previously been turned away from Venoriah fo...

Like the one that sustained Saint Corentin ? I've been kicking around an idea for a Hey, Hypothetical Reader!  where HR and I would discuss canon. You know, like in the context of fiction. I would have this whole schtick about how canon is a mind-prison that leads to a hyper-focus on continuity at the expense of examining what really matters about a story. Namely, what it makes you think and feel. They don't assign The Great Gatsby or The Scarlet Letter  to high school juniors so they can find out whether Daisy will leave Tom for Gatsby or who the father of Hester Prynne's daughter is ( SPOILER: she won't and it's very obviously Reverend Dimmesdale). They assign them because A) The Literary Canon is also a mind-prison; and 2) both feature such obvious symbolism that even a high school junior will notice it. I feel like I'm getting off track, let's start over: The Magic Fish   is a graphic novel for young readers by Trung Le Nguyen. You might say it's abo...

Oh, deer, it's a g-g-g-g-ghost!   So, what's this book's dea—Oh, I'll bet those library stickers mean that this was another book you auditioned for a Christmas gift, like Skunk and Badger  last week. That'd be a smart bet. Snapdragon by Kat Leyh is a young adult graphic novel about . . . well it's about a lot of things. Oh, and in case you're wondering, this ended up being a gift for my cousin's daughter. The same one who received The Prince and the Dressmaker   last Christmas. I seem to recall that The Prince and the Dressmaker was a big hit. Was this? Well, she did start reading it as soon as she opened it in the family Christmas zoom. But I haven't received a gushing thank you note either, so I dunno. Anyway, it's the story of Snapdragon, a tomboy-ish mixed race girl living somewhere in the South. When we first meet her she's riding her bike out to the edge of town to confront the so-called witch who lives there. See, her dog, Good Boy (Ge...

I don't have a joke about this one. So, what's this book's deal? Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes  is a graphic novel (I will never not feel pretentious typing those words) about the events leading up to the Chinese government crackdown on the pro-democracy demonstrations that had taken place in Tiananmen Square in the Spring of 1989. Sounds a little heavy, are you sure you want to do this one in the Hypothetical Reader format? Well, we've already started haven't we? It's never too late to turn back. Nah, it'll be fine. Anyway, Tiananmen 1989  was co-written by Lun Zhang a sociology professor who helped the student protesters organize and French journalist Adrien Gombeaud with art by Améziane. Zhang's dedication makes it clear that it is not a strictly autobiographical account, and that it presents a condensed version of the events portrayed. Formally, it's structured as a lecture, with the fictionalized Zhang addressing the reader from a stage an...

Abandon all hope, ye who read . . .   Don't read this blog post. Go read this book. Okay, I'm being a little disingenuous, I would like you to continue reading this blog post, I wanna talk about Evan Dahm's The Harrowing of Hell . That said, I kinda think that it's best experienced on its own terms. Also, I'mma SPOIL  the hell out of it (to the extent that any story based on millennia-old texts can be spoiled). So, if you don't want your first reading tainted by my opinions (I find that once, again, I am being disingenuous. Let's face it, it's hard to go into a story about Jesus free of preconceptions.), then just close the tab and go out and read the book first. Otherwise, let's talk about it. As the title suggests, The Harrowing of Hell  recounts the events between Jesus's death and resurrection, when he is said to have descended into Hell in order to save every righteous person who had predeceased him. This story is told in the apocryphal Gosp...

Oh, Assassin Nation sounds like "assassination," I get it. So, what's this book's deal? Well, the deal with Assassin Nation: Number One with a Bullet  is that it's a comic book written by Kyle Starks and drawn by Erica Henderson. You may recall that Henderson was the original artist who worked with Ryan North on The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl   . As for Kyle Starks, this is the first time I've read his work. Anyway, the comic opens with the attempted assassination of Boss Rankin, formerly the world's top-rated hitman, currently the head of the city's second-largest crime syndicate. In response, Rankin invites the current top twenty hired killers to his penthouse to offer them the chance to be his new protection detail. Unsurprisingly, several of them have been hired to kill him at this very gathering, leading to a shoot-out. Over the course of the five issues collected in this paperback we see Starks and Henderson explore such topics as gang w...

I suppose I could make a joke about how manly this picture isn't, but that seems out of keeping with the spirit of a book about being true to yourself, traditional gender roles be damned. Hmm, is pointing that out a way of trying to have my cake and  eat it? ‾\_(ツ)_/‾ So, what's this book's dea—oh, wasn't this in your Unhelpfully Specific Holiday Gift Guide ? Yep! I gave it to my first cousin once removed. She's a precocious eight-year-old. You mentioned that. What did she think? Well, her mom said it was a hit, so I guess she liked it. [ UPDATE:  I just received a thank you note in which she claims to have read the book ~2,000 times. There isn't a date on the note, but even conservatively, that's more than 100 readings per day, I think we can safely say that this one was a hit. - 1/9/2020] So . . . what's it about? Well, Jen Wang's The Prince and Dressmaker  is a graphic novel (but let's be real, it's a comic book) set in Paris...

I really shouldn't be taking these pictures during the day. So, what's this book's—oh, for Christ's sake! Yup, we're doing another volume of Saga . But this is the third time you've drawn from this well. Then we should be able to wrap things up quickly and get to work on stuff I haven't written about yet. Or we could have a discussion about por— Stop right there. —nography. We're not going to talk about pornography. Well, I mean, the difference between art and pornography. But, is there really a line? You're not suggesting. . . What? That pornography is art. Well, I mean, I guess technically speaking it couldn't be anything else. But I was actually suggesting that maybe it's less of a clearly delineated line and more of a gradient. So while what we might think of as serious art can contain erotic elements, it wouldn't be pornographic unless it was produced solely for salacious purposes. But why are we having thi...

Well, it may be large enough to easily cover my face, but even with my low standard of blog aesthetics, I can't help but be annoyed by the glare from my monitor in this crappy webcam pic. So, what's this book's deal? All right, so  Saga is an ongoing sci-fi/fantasy family drama/comedy written by Brian K. Vaughn and drawn by Fiona Staples. It's apparently about to go on hiatus for a year, so now's actually a pretty good time to catch up. Here's the premise in a nutshell: The planet Landfall is at war with its moon, Wreath. This war has been going on for so long that a sort of galactic cold war has built up around it as various other planets, asteroids, planetoids, etc. back one side or the other. The Landfallians are humans with wings who use advanced technological weaponry, while the inhabitants of Wreath are humans with horns who wield powerful magic and speak Esperanto. Also there are robots, which are basically grey-skinned humans with CRT monitors for...