Graphic Novels in Libraries UK

Holy Terror Batman or not!

2011-10-14T12:03:00.002Z

This is going to be one of those love or hate books. It's basically about a Batman and Catwoman type characters who get involved with a terrorist attack. At first, it is quite straight forward with suicide bombers, but then goes a bit too far for me. It shows all Muslims in a bad light, and the main character is clearly racist. Then the main good guy uses torture on suspects to get information, this is not the way I want my heroes to act.

The artwork is startling, typical Frank Miller, violent and suggestive. I suspect some people will read this for the art. For once, however, the art does not justify the book. The racist undertones are too much for me to like this book. I suspect it would be a good discussion piece for a reading group, because it is bound to seperate opinions. It's not suitable for children.

Stunning artwork

2011-09-28T10:00:00.000Z

The first thing that strikes the reader, after the overlongintroductions, is the stunning artwork. It is just so detailed and intricate.It is not what a reader, used to American comic art style, expects. The peopleare real, there are no unrealistic portrayals.

The stories are basically old school westerns, well written,and very obviously heavily researched. ‘Indian Summer’ follows an outcastfamily during an Indian attack. The portrayal of women in this one was up anddown. Sometimes the naked women were very tastefully portrayed, whereas othertimes it did feel a bit too voyeuristic. The reader sees a level of detail thatyou would not expect, and it does not really need to be there.

The 2^nd story, ’Paper Man’, was a lot better.Looking at themes of colonialism and how Indians are just as intelligent as thewhite man. I really engaged with this story, and thought it had a good ending.There were no naked women in this one, but honestly, it was the journey that madethe story riveting.

This is definitely an adult graphic novel because of thesubject matter, and the illustrations. It includes rape, incest and extremeviolence. Those who are interested inthe graphic novel as art will like this book, even with its faults.

An old adventure

2011-09-26T12:35:00.002Z

Hellboy - House of the Living Dead

This was a surprisingly quick read. Set in the past, Hellboyencounters Mexican wrestlers, vampires, a Frankenstein type professor and hisIgor. The story does stretch credulity with Hellboy constantly being drunk, andhaving a successful career as a Mexican wrestler.

The artwork is pretty as always, the style does strangelywork in the past and the gothic style. Iwill admit that I have only read the odd Hellboy and have watched the films. Ijust wanted it to be a longer graphic novel, because there were some charactersthat I would have liked to know more about. Maybe more knowledge of thisuniverse would enable a better reading experience. I suspect that this bookplugs a gap in Hellboy’s timeline.

It is probably ok for teenagers to read, and those that areold enough to have sneakily watched the films before they legally should. Theshortness of the book would appeal to reluctant readers.

Very pretty

2011-09-17T13:07:00.000Z

This is very pretty, the artwork is beautiful. The story isold fashioned, and is a fairy tale of sorts. It follows a dragon and its impacton peoples’ lives about him. There are 3sisters living in the affected village, all of them conform to some kind offemale stereotype. The main sister is intelligent and wants to be a healer.Another is obsessed by the dream of her true love coming from across the sea.The world the author makes does seem expansive, and I expect there will be manymore stories based there. This would, perhaps, give ‘The Last Dragon’ morenarrative strength.

There are pages when only the art tells the story, and thosereally work. When I first startedreading it I thought it was going to be more like ‘Stardust’ by Neil Gaiman,from the style of the text and layout, and that is a compliment.

To be honest, the story doesn’t matter that much with a bookof this type. People will read it and look at it just for the artwork. There’squite a lot of deaths involved, so its probably suitable at ages 10 plus.Adults and teenagers will be interested because of the use of the art.

Star Wars: Clone Wars

2011-09-16T09:00:00.000Z

Strange Allies is the latest graphic novel based on the ‘StarWars: the Clone Wars’ TV series. It is also based on characters created for the‘Star Wars: Clone Wars, Secret Missions’ series of books for young people. Ihave not read that series of books, but I do avidly watch the TV series.

This graphic novel follows a master less Padawan, NuruKungurwara who has made a name for himself. In a sequence of images veryreminiscent of the opening narration of the carton, the reader sees how he cameto that fame. It is a nice explanatory touch for those who have not read the ‘SecretMissions’ books, and probably a thrill for those who have read them to see thememorable sequences illustrated.

A straightforward mission to protect a droid consignmentfrom pirates becomes a lot more complicated. Savage Opress (Count Dooku’s newapprentice only briefly seen in the TV series) gets involved, and more thingsare at stake than droids.

The artwork is in keeping with the TV series style, and thatmeans that sometimes some characters like Yoda look a bit odd. Most of thestory is told by the action in the artwork, and the nice clean lines means it’svery accessible for young people. The story is engaging and has enough twiststo keep the reader happy. The entire book is loyal to the ‘Clone Wars’sensibilities, and as such is suitable for readers who are old enough to watchthe cartoon.

A good, entertaining read

I'm back again

2011-09-08T18:43:00.000Z

I'm going to try to start reviewing new graphic novels very soon. So watch this space!

Hulk Smash, or not

2010-02-07T15:53:00.004Z

I'm not the greatest Hulk fan in the world. I find the lack of brains irritating in the character, Dr. Banner always worked better for me. So I was intrigued to read how it all started in Marvel Masterworks: The Incrediable Hulk Volume 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

It's interesting how often the ground rules for the Hulk change in this:

He's grey, is intelligent and only happens at night
Banner choses to change into the hulk via a ray gun - oh, and now the Hulk is green
Hulk becomes a mindless tool of the side-kick
Back to raygun and intelligent Hulk

I actually really enjoyed these stories as the Hulk's humour is quite sarcastic. Some of the other characters do seem quite cardboard, and you can definately tell by the language that its a product of the 1960s (Daddy-O is used a lot).

The artwork may not make it the most accessable for modern comic fans (one of my graphic novel reading group members refused to look at it), but the stories are interesting enough to merit a read. There is more to the Hulk, than 'Hulk Smash' of the cartoons. I enjoyed this more than the Wildcats book.

Age wise - there's nothing offensive in here, so suitable for all.

Wildcats: World's End

2010-02-02T17:34:00.003Z

Well, this lunchtimes reading was:

Wildcats: World's End by Christos Gage, Neil Googe and Pete Woods

To be honest, I've not read that much Wildcats, so didn't know the characters that well. It didn't matter, as whatever you needed to know was explained. It's set after 'The Number of the Beast' where a world is destroyed by evil supervillians. The good guys lost!

The post apocolyptic way of surviving as good guys who lost is quite intriguing. They try to save everyone they can, or decide that maybe superheroing isn't for them. On the strength of this graphic novel I might read more Wildcats, as the storyline is gripping.

Its definately for older teens as there are quite a few sexual references in it, one character is definately obsessed.

2010-02-01T17:33:00.003Z

Well, I finally found my way back here, well its been 2 years lol.

So what have I been reading recently:

The Batman Chronicles Vol. 4.

What struck me when I was reading it was how much it was a social commentary on the time it was written in - the early 1940s. In nearly every story, Batman/Bruce Wayne decides to buy War Bonds.

It is even more striking when Batman and Robin team up against a Nazi plot. you can tell they are Nazi's due to the big image clues pasted all around the script.

But is it a good read?

Yes, its fun. There's the odd story that you could see being written now. For example, when Batman does a lecture tour and is quoted as saying the Joker wants to be caught as he keeps leaving clues around the place. The Joker isn't happy so goes on a deliberate crime spree that even has Batman guessing.

I would recommend it if you like light Batman stories, with lots of 'Pow' in them. There's nothing in it that is too offensive, so its probably suitable for all. Just bear in mind when it was written.

What did I learn?

Bruce Wayne used to date someone called Linda, who thought they might get engaged.

Catwoman, used to have a full face cat mask, and can work as a beautician.

War bonds were very important to the US

Not sure what I started...

2007-07-17T18:01:00.000Z

Well, nearly 2 months in, 150 posts and 39 members later, it seems the list has taken on a life of its own. If it carries on growing at this rate I'm sure world domination will be quite do-able soon.

Just thought I'd share what I've been reading recently:
Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan

So far, I have only read the first 2 volumes but they are really quite a lot of fun. The premise is that you have a group of teenagers who don't particularly like each other but have to get together now and again because their parents are friends. At one of these get-to-gethers the teenagers find out that their parents are a group of supervillains called 'The Pride', so they decide to runaway together. They discover, by accident, that they all have some kind of superability. Only problem is, their parents are not happy about a group of superpowered teenagers running around who know their secret, even if they are their own kids.

These books are great for teenagers and above as they really speak like you'd think they would. The storylines aren't that predictable, and the quotes they use will force even the most media savy young person to google them. The artwork is very pretty and its nice to have a manga size book (even though its not manga) that will attract the teenage market.

27 members

2007-06-19T16:36:00.000Z

Yay, the discussion list now has 27 members and a whopping 63 posts already. This discussion list was obviously needed. I've found out through it that there are now 2 libraries that have their own anime clubs, let world domination commence....

I am currently trying to read all of '52' so that I can make sense of the 'One year later' books that hve already been published.

First post - yay

2007-05-22T18:50:00.000Z

Ok, this is the first post in my new blog. Basically I have started this to support the 'Graphic Novels in Libraries UK' e-mail discussion list.

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/GNLIBUK?hl=en

I decided to start this list because I find the American GNLIB really, really useful. Only a lot of the discussion is not that relevant over here in the UK because the books they talk about might not ever be released over here. It is well worth joining though, just to see how American libraries promote graphic novels. Indeed, I started 'Free Comic Book Day', an anime club and a graphic novel reading group just because I got the ideas from that list.

So hopefully, the UK list will be just as useful especially now that manga and anime are now becoming more in vogue. So if you're interested and you're a library professional or just really into graphic novels in libraries then join me.