Graphic Novels, Comics, and Books

[chrisb]

Over Spring Break I've been catching up on a lot of reading material that I got over Christmas, but was never able to read. Pardon my massive cut and paste

Limit by Keiko Suenobu

Juicy teen drama with depth and a strong message. A group of very different high school girls are stranded on their way to a school camping trip after their bus crashes. Being the only survivors they are forced work together. Things get ugly quickly, these girls are incredibly vicious!


Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth
Probably the most complex graphic novel I own. It's very hard to follow unless you read very slowly and it requires you to read it more than once. It follows a man named Jimmy Corrigan and his depressing reunion with the father he never knew. He has bizarre (at times sick) fantasies, but it's hard to hate the character. A parallel story shows Jimmy's grandfather as a child in the late 1800s and his tragic story. It's a strange mix of horror, drama, tragedy, and a hint of warmth towards the end. The art is pretty amazing. It wasn't an easy read, but it was so worth it. 9.5/10


WOW. Very hard hitting and emotionally intense. One of the most depressing manga I've read. It was beautiful but it's a total downer.


After watching MTV's The Maxx I decided to read Sam Kieth's following comic 4 Women. Ended up being very different from the action/psychological drama that The Maxx was. The book starts with a woman named Donna talking to a psychiatrist about her roadtrip with three friends. When their car stalls in the middle of nowhere two men show up in a large 4x4 and begin to harass them. What starts as annoying turns into something vile and ugly. The oldest member of the group gets out of the car to save her friends and starts to fight back. When she returns to the car the driver won't unlock the door.The series is about Donna coming to terms with what really happened on the trip and why she is so angry.
I've just read it but it is definitely in my top 5 comics. It's horrifying and chilling, I've never felt my heart beat so quickly while reading a comic book. The characters are strong/lovable and the aftermath of the assault is haunting. The ending is just wow. I really hope you fans of alternative comics will give this a try.

[Farore]

I remember you starting this thread and just never got around to replying. That is until now!

I LOVE reading! I've loved reading since I was a wee little kid when my mom would read meOne Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. At the tender age of three I made my mom read me this book so much she had it memorized and would read it while falling asleep. I would irritatedly point out to her she was reading the wrong page if she forgot to turn a page.

Books to me are a personal movie that happens in my head. I see the characters, I hear they speak, watch them move, everything! I even love the smell of books, especially older ones. I'm that creepy person you see in the library sniffing books. It is very dangerous to my bank account if I enter a bookstore.

I get so excited when a new book I've be waiting for comes out, and I've been known to crack out reading just as hard as I do with game. As far as comics go I read almost exclusively online ones. I've read a few Manga, mostly Warcraft or Van Von Hunter (also based off a webcomic I read during high school). I also have the Japanese version of the Ocarina of Time Manga. I don't read any Kanji, but there is this one panel right after Link has just talked to Saria, and I like to think it says, "EFF YEA FOREST SONG!", because he looks overly excited.

As for book I'll read just about anything, or try to anyways. I'm drawn towards fantasy and magic, but also murder and mystery. I have a of Warcraft lore books. Of course I was initially drawn toward them because I love WoW, but after reading my first one I was hooked on the story.

I also read all of the Harry Potter books. When the 7th one came out I was visiting my parents in Japan so they ordered it with next day shipping through Amazon. After 4 days of not receiving it my dad call Amazon and after he threatened to no longer buy through Amazon (my parents get a lot of stuff through Amazon) they resent the order and included an extra copy of the book. This didn't stop my dad from relentlessly throwing spoiler statements at me. Dinner would start with "Ron dies" and end with "Harry was really a death eater". I'd wake up to "Hermione dies," and before bed I was bombarded with "Snape was really Voldermort all along." My dad is a nice guy so everything he said was random things he though up so as not to spoil it for me, but man was it a tough week.

I find that most the books I read are geared towards teenagers, mostly because I get too giddy when anything, um, naughty, happens. One more adult author I do love to read though is Lisa Gardner. The majority of her books focus on a few main characters who's lives have crossed paths at some point. All the main characters work with law enforcement someway though, and each book has MURDER. I'm really, really bad at noticing subtle hints authors drop about who actually did it, so it is always a surprise when the bad guy is revealed. The suspense is crazy and I get completely enveloped in her books.

[Alexx]

Well I'll certainly chime in on the graphic novels; I've been workin' at the same library for over ten years now, and maybe the last 5 or so we finally upgraded our selection of graphic novels. I was always itching to get at whatever we had, but it had always been so tiny and there wasn't even a section just for them. Now we've got juvenile, young adult, and adult sections! More than I could have hoped for.

Anyway, I've leaned more twoard the young adult and juvenile sections 'cause they tend to have the more fantastical stories and less just-out-of-college-dealing-with-people stories that the adult section has. Not that those are bad....it's just that I am already living life, so I'd rather read about a life that can't happen.

So here's a few that have impressed me so far:

- This one looks like it has a TON more adventures up it's sleeve, but the singular adventure of the current book is still fairly stand-alone if he doesn't end up doing any more. Bascially it's about a young girl and her friend getting sucked into a portal and ending up on an alien planet. Adventure ensues! It's cleverly written, the characters are colorful and interesting, and there's plenty of crazy aliens and stuff to keep your imagination entranced.

- I was taken in by book one, but the series is four books in so far and it's only gotten better. The art style of course drew me in, but the story has kept me there. Perhaps there's a trend in my interests, but it's yet another story of kids (though thier mom comes too) getting transported to another world. The young girl finds herself to be quite important as the grandchild of a man who one wielded great power. He isn't around long before bequeathing an Amulet to her, of which she has to learn to use if she doesn't want it to take over her mind. Very interesting stuff, great characters, writing, and artistry! Highly recommended. He seems to be working on these regularly so I don't see them suddenly ending in the middle of the story.

- A simple ghost story, and one where you may guess the ending pretty easily. Still, any cliched story can be great if it is told well. This one has the main character Anya's desires at heart and is one of those "growing up" stories, but the art style and the writing take you right in. Empathy is quite easy in this story, so you eat it up quickly. Very fine read!

- Got this out for my wife originally 'cause she read these constantly when she was a kid. Still, I ended up reading through them while they were sitting around the house because I liked the art style. They were pretty engaging! Simple lessons 'n such, but the writing is funny and the art style just emphasizes the funny situations and makes them even funnier (there's a part where they give a dog a bath and end up putting all sorts of ribbons and bows in it's hair - and the expression on the dog's face is friggin' hilarious). Great for anyone who's a child at heart.

- This was MADE for me! Flight is a series of graphic novels that collects stories from artists from all over! Each book is an interesting collection of unique art styles and VERY unique stories. You never know what you're going to get, except in the case of a couple here and there that continue a story throughout. The editor is actually the author of the Amulet series above, and he really manages to get together some absolutely stunning and amazing talent. I can't recommend these enough. Pick up any volume and you'll be entranced.

That's only a few from years of workin' at a library, but they are some favorites. Hopefully they're interesting enough for you to check out!

[Farore]

I completely forgot you said you work at a Library Alexx; that has got to be one of the coolest jobs ever!

[Alexx]

[Farore]

It still sounds like a cool place to work. I would have to agree with the people you work with, too. If you enjoy working there you should pursue the degree, and 10+ years experience would definitely make you a good candidate for just about any library I would think.

I usually go to the library on the base here so it might be a little different than the norm now. It's still tends to be really quiet but the computers always seem busy. I'm always so scared that I'll accidentally do something loud when I'm in a library!

[RollCasket]

Heh heh heh...

...do something loud...

[Bear]

Farore, have you seen ? Considering your fandom for books, I'm starting to think of you as the Yomiko Readman of our group. Yomiko is a total bookworm hero has the ability to control and influence paper to various awesome affect.

Both the OVA and TV series is rather freaking awesome. Get the OVA first and get hooked and keep an open mind when checking out the TV series, since it does not feature the heroine from the OVA. I think the biggest letdown is that people didn't get into the TV series due to this fact, but it is a strong addition to the series that always compels you to watch more. Great overall for any fan of books, really; it's quite good stuff.

[Pie]

This is just a really quick post, probably aimed at Farore specifically since she's a very open Zelda nut here on the forums! XD If you love Zelda, you should REALLY check out this series of by Akira Himekawa! =D

The books cover:

Link to the past
Ocarina of time (two books)
Majora's Mask
Oracle of Ages
Oracle of Seasons

Minish Cap
Phantom Hourglass

and I think Four swords
There're two books based on another game, but I don't know what it is based on the Amazon picture of the book bindings. ^^;

I have Chinese versions the first list of books I listed (minus Link to the Past) and they're treasures of my manga collection. XD They're all drawn very beautifully and directed very well. =) You guys gotta give these a try! XD

Also, here are a few of the Zelda Skyward Sword manga by the same manga artist. XD I haven't touched the game yet so I haven't even looked through pages myself except for saving them without trying to spoil anything. >_>

[Farore]

I know I've heard of Read or Die from Roll. In fact I just checked and we have a DVD, though I'm not sure which it is. I did see that it has English Audio so Yayy! I think it is the OVA because it has Yomiko Readman "The Paper" in itty bitty writing under the title. I want to say we watched some of it but it was only subbed so I never finished, but again according to this it says its dubbed.

I'll have to watch it sometime this week and let you know what I think!

And oooo it's really, realllly hard to not order that set right this moment!