Marvel "Tsum Tsum" Takeover! (Chabot/Baldeón)

Marvel "Tsum Tsum" Takeover!
Written by Jacob Chabot Illustrated by David Baldeón (2017)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

Once again, I am always on the lookout for graphic novels that I can use in my classroom for Free Read Friday. I have a "Graphic Novel" class in my high school. I found Marvel "Tsum Tsum" Takeover! in a Little Free Library in my neighborhood (along with a two other Cartoon Network books that I started reading and immediately passed on).

The image above is a photo of the cover that I took with my iPad. I usually take the images from Amazon, but it had a different cover. The only matching images I could find where also photographs, so I took my own.

I must've missed the "Tsum Tsum" Craze of a decade ago. I didn't have kids back then and my nephew would've been too little. (Plus he was into stuffed monkeys and pandas that looked like animals, not sleeping capsules.)

On the Marvel side of things, I got most of the references, and recognized most of the characters, either from sporadic reading, from the movies and TV, or just from online conversation.

The basic storyline is that a crate of alien creatures was on its way to The Collector when it's lost and crashes into a roof in Brooklyn where three kids in a superhero club find it. Inside are little capsule-shaped aliens (maybe the length of a kid's forearm) who seem to like the Avengers and superheros. The kids show them videos on their phones, which includes hearing the original Spider-Man cartoon theme song and "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." The Tsum Tsum take on the characteristics of some of the Avengers, right down to their powers.

As a backdrop to this, Ulton has been spotted in Brooklyn, and Iron Man and other heroes are trying to stop him.

As a complication, there's a mean guy living in the kids' building who is actually a low-level crook who just got out of prison and can't get work -- as a criminal. He captures the Spider-Man alien and shows it super villain videos. The alien splits into four, which become Venom, Green Goblin, Rhino, and Ultron. He then trains them to rob a bank, where they take out Ant-Man before they turn on him.

The Collector shows up. Ultron shows up. The Avengers show up. The kids help save the day but are still grounded.

Basically, a dopey story but still kind of fun. I noticed that the aliens have the red and blue Spidey suit and Don Blake Thor, but the book has the red and black Spider-Man suit (and I'm not entirely sure whose in that suit) and Thor is a woman. (I haven't seen that movie, but I remember the fake outrage about the comics.) Ms. Marvel appears but Captain Marvel does not (except in a variant cover). There is a Captain Marvel alien though.

The book is short -- 120 pages, which is four issues combined -- and the last 20 pages or so are just variant covers by different artists featuring different characters (many of which don't appear in this book).

I hope some of my students enjoy it even if they don't get the references or know who all the characters are.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Watchmen (Moore)

Watchmen
Written by Alan Moore,
Artist Dave Gibbons, and Colorist John Higgins (1987)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I know this is Moore's story, but the artwork really drives it, sometimes incredibly so. Also, I added the colorist's name (above) along with the artist because the colors and shading were a major part of the atmosphere.

Alan Moore's Watchmen started publishing around the time I graduated college. I had friends who were really into it. Finally, a friend loaned me his trade paperback -- he overestimated the speed at which I read. Anyway, I have vague recollections of the story. And I remember the extra material wasn't exactly extra -- the stuff at the end was similar to online extras for movies these days. One of the problems I had back then was that the first couple of issues had fake excerpts of a biography of one of the heroes. It was several pages of small print. I don't read comic books for multiple pages of small print. If I wanted to do that, I'd just read a book -- and back then, I didn't read that many books. This was mostly because I didn't read quickly, didn't set a lot of time aside for reading, and often picked the wrong books.

Ironically, my graphic novel class is the reason I picked this up again. I would love to share this with my students but I just can't. Nothing wrong with the story, but the copy came from my brother's apartment and it's from the 80s. I can't say that it's a first printing or anything like that, but it's valuable to me sentimentally more than monetarily. And my students are just not into my class. It's "basket weaving" to them. Many of them can't even read English, and without the use of their phones, they can't translate the text. Basically, they don't care and wouldn't appreciate it. So I'm protecting this book, and I'll find others for them.

For those unaware, this was probably the first deconstruction of superheroes. (If not the first, it was the first one to make a splash this loud!) The heroes were based on the Charlton characters that DC acquired, but the concept was so out there that the characters would be forever tainted and unusable ever again. So the serial numbers were filed off and the story redone.

Reading this nearly 40 years later, it's amazing to see not only how well it holds up but to compare it with more modern graphic novels, or even comic book collections published as trade paperbacks (but not necessarily one complete story). I don't read so many regular comics any more, but, of course, I've upped the number of graphic novels. The nine-panel per page layout is a bit of a throwback just in itself. And now that I'm teaching about these comics, I'm noticing things, such as how the story manages to switch focus at the end of the page, and when it doesn't, the first pages of the following page serve as a transition. I noticed the reuse of a lot of artwork as themes and moments (and time in general) are repeated. That must've saved a bit of time.

I actually put the physical book aside for a while and waited for the ebook to be available from the library. Regardless, I still read the physical book in class on Fridays in front of my students. But the ebook had two advantages: first, zooming in on the dialogue and the backgrounds, second, screen grabs of images that I'd like to use in class next year. I was taking photos with my phone (fair use), but they are warped from bent pages and they have light reflecting. Many websites that I visit for information about graphic novels will use images from Watchmen, so I figured this would be the best way. If nothing else, I could replace the photos I took.

Moving on...

Once again, I skipped the additional material at the end of each chapter (issue) and went back to them later. Some of the stuff that I remembered was stuff people had told me from those pages. I came back to them before the book was due back at the library. The novel was probably the worst to get through. The sheer variety of the material was intriguing, even being true the subject matter, including typos or bad typesetting. I wonder how much time and effort went into making those right, as opposed to writing the regular book. If nothing else, you got the sense that the world really thought that the costumed heroes were a little nutty particularly after the villains traded in their crazy clothing for well-manicured suits. The real enemy of the 1950 (other than McCarthyism, of course) was organized crime. Even the Superman TV show went there - fighting organized crime instead of Lex Luthor or Brainiac.

If anything, I had a better feel for the older period, the past of the story, then I might've had 40 years ago when that stuff was only 40 years old. One thing that still stands out was Rorshach's origin, or at least, the origin of his mask, which was tied to Kitty Genovese, which was something that I learned about in college or somewhat afterward. I might've heard the story before that and hadn't known the name.

I didn't remember a lot of the imagery, especially involving the Comedian. Looking at it now, it's obvious. But, hey, I think I rushed to read it the first time so I could give it back.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Fox Maidens (Ha)

The Fox Maidens
Written by Robin Ha (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This past fall, I started looking for more standalone graphic novels at the library, both to read and to find examples of artwork that I could show in my Graphic Novel class.

Looking at covers and looking for anything different, I saw the cover of The Fox Maidens. Looked interesting so I borrowed it.

The book opens with a brief lesson about The Joseon Dynasty, which ruled Korea for about 500 years, ending in the early 20th century. It also introduces the main characters and their class or station.

The story follows a young woman named Kai who dreams of being a warrior and who has been trained by her father. Her father remembers when his sisters were killed as children and were unable to defend themselves, so he allows her to train. Some question this but he runs the school. Kai's father also rose in his station by killing Gumiho, the nine-tailed fox demon, but others remember his more humble beginnings (think "new money" vs "old money").

Kai's mother was taken away as a child and brought far away work in the woods by men who are afraid of the fox demon, but know that she doesn't harm children. Kai's mother get sick and is discarded, but Gumiho rescues her. Years later, she betrays Gumiho after the fox demon raids towns now that the wards have been removed. Kai's father rescues her and kills Gumiho -- or at least believes that he did.

Kai's mother is barren, but Gumiho (who still lives) tells her that she can make it so that she can have one child, a girl. That girl, Kai, would become a fox maiden when she has her first moonblood.

Kai and her mother have to deal with this, neither wanting to worry the other. The secret gets out, and her father believes that Kai must've been killed years earlier and Gumiho took her place. He sets off to kill her again.

The story gets resolved but the ending is a bit rushed with a side character returning who was also in Kai's debt since she was a child. This one had a hard life and made bad choices, but they were the only choices she had.

Here is where the "queer" portion of the description of the book comes into play. Honestly, it just feels tacked on. I didn't find Kai any more "queer" than any other female heroine that didn't want to continue with the assigned gender roles of the time. Not until the two women get together at the end, at any rate. Nothing wrong with it, but I guess I just think that it could've been worked into the story better.

At any rate, I can't think of any other Korean stories I've read other than the following two: The Fox's Fire, by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (an American writer and my sometimes editor/publisher) contains a story with Gumiho in it, and I read a story about one man's escape from North Korea, which is an entirely different kind of story (and also nonfiction).

Next graphic novel, which I picked up at the same time, will be set in Australia. And I have more Book Club and Library Thing books to start.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Cooking with Monsters: The Beginner's Guide to Culinary Combat (Alsaqa/Truong)

Cooking with Monsters (Book One):
The Beginner's Guide to Culinary Combat
Written by Jordan Alsaqa and Illustrated by Vivian Truong (2023)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This past fall, I started looking for more standalone graphic novels at the library, both to read and to find examples of artwork that I could show in my Graphic Novel class. On a recent visit, I found this book and the title and cover sold me.

Imagine My Hero Academia, but it's a Cooking school for Warrior Chefs, Gourmand Academy of Culinary Combat. It looks like it could be a cartoon, but it isn't. Also, it's not manga, but definitely inspired by them. It's read from left to right, starting with the traditional front page for this country.

The world of the book is the country of Gourmand, and it's capital Gourmand City. And there's an archipalego that's full of different cultures.

The book opens with a young Hana Ozawa and Bobby Binh hunting a monster outside their village. They are overwhelmed but saved by a Warrior Chef, who slays the monster and fries it up in a pan (not really, but does prepare a meal from the meat). I forget the characters' names already, and there isn't much to go on online.

Flash forward a few years and the two characters are at Gourmand City to attend a Hogwarts type school for Culinary Arts. Students will train with Warrior Chefs, including the one we saw earlier. And here's where the drama/melodrama starts.

A broody/annoying girl named Olivia immediately is ticked off with with Hana for nothing that Hana did. It's all Olivia's baggage, but it drives a wedge between her and her classmates/friends and none of them seems to want to do or say anything about it, and basically treat them equally at fault. High school stuff where everything is blown out of proportion.

Add in a bit of "checklist fiction" to make sure that everyone is represented but it doesn't overwhelem the story (by becoming the story). In fact, I didn't see this description (not a review, mind you, but the capsule summary) until after I'd read the book:

Cooking with Monsters is Naruto with a cast of LGBTQ+ characters. It’s Percy Jackson or Harry Potter without a straight white man in the pilot seat.

Had I seen that, I might've skipped it because books that find this to be the topmost quality to promote about the book rather than its story tend to be, in my opinion, lacking on story. (Anger is a Gift comes to mind.)

There appears to be a love triangle forming, which while tired are pretty much standard in teen dramas, but this one will be determined by whether one of the three is straight or gay, unless they become bi. Again, in books that classify themselves as "queer", this sort of thing is more "fluid" than it appears to be in any high school I've actually taught at, not that I know anyone's leaning unless they put it out there for everyone to see. (And many, again, in my limited experience, prefer to be private about their feelings.)

Getting back to the book, I liked the artwork, although I used a couple of panels in my Graphic Novel class for both good and bad examples. The monsters were silly and dangerous enough with names reminiscent of Pokemon puns. The training and the fights, while no "My Hero Academia", were entertaining. I might watch an episode or two if it were a cartoon, but I don't think I'll read another book in the series.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Hollow

Hollow
Written by Shannon Watters and Branden Boyer-White,
Illustrated by Berenice Nelle (2022)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This past fall, I started looking for more standalone graphic novels at the library, both to read and to find examples of artwork that I could show in my Graphic Novel class. This was a hardcover that wasn't part of a series. Three teens on the cover in the dark in the woods, with the word "Hollow" as the title. I'm not sure when I notice the bright orange pumpkin or the dark figure holding it. (To be fair, the lighting in that section of the library isn't great.

Anyway, it's obviously a take on Sleepy Hollow, and from the clothes you can see that it's a modern take. Thankfully, it's not a modern retelling where the original tale never took place (but everything else in the world is the same). Aside from that ...

The story was okay, but the artwork was problematic. I spent too much time noticing it and looking at it for the wrong reasons.

This book has sat in a TBR pile for months because I hadn't gotten to read the book on top of it. (Straight on Till Morning) I read this is a day. (Free read Friday helped, as did two subway rides.) Had I not been so quick to read it, I might've taken another look at the cover, where you'll notice the central character has full lips that are a little glossy and what appears to be an earring or stud on her lobe.

This might've helped because for the first portion of the book, despite being told that Izzy Crane is Isabel Crane, she looked like a boy. No one else (character-wise) seemed to think she was a boy. The only confusion was mine. It was a good chunk of the book before her jacket became a longer coat.

Basically, it seemed to me, and I could be way off-base especially now that I know the writer also wrote Lumberjanes, but it seemed like the story was originally written for Izzy to be male, and then switched a queer romance. Aside from how she's drawn, there are other little bits that seem odd. For example, when Izzy's mother asks if Izzy has met anyone at her new school, Izzy replies that there's one good who's kind of cool.

Mom gets excited and says, "A GIRL?" and automatically assumes that there's a spark of a romance to be had. Why would mom assume that when her daughter makes friends with a girl that there might be some romantic spark going on? (I never had my mother ask "A BOY?" when I made a friend in school.) And Izzy said the girl was cool, not possibly gay, particularly since she hasn't gotten to know her yet.

Isabel's image aside (and it did change subtly throughout the book so that at times she appeared more feminine), my bigger concern was how the artwork changed styles. In one panel, we're close-up and can see the whites of their eyes and even the shapes of their eyes, and in the next, everyone has two dots for eyes and maybe a nose but not necessarily. The abrupt shift back and forth was confusing. It felt like there were two different artists at work some times. It was a major distraction.

There were times when I wasn't sure that the third character, who had to be Croc, was actually him or someone new.

The story is that Sleepy Hollow loves celebrating its legend. One person who doesn't in Vicky Van Tassel, who is a descendant of the original woman from Irving's story (which is fictional but based on real events). She hates being used because she's a Van Tassel. When Izzy first shows up, she wants nothing to do with her because her last name is Crane. Too much.

Meanwhile the horseman has been appearing again. When it chases Izzy (who doesn't believe in this nonsense until then), she learns that it's appearing to protect Vicky from all threats, and this Hallloween is a "dark Halloween" when the threat is likely to appear.

Also there's a new substitute teacher named Mr. Tenebrous, which is defined as dark, shadowy, or obscure. I mean, it's obvious he's evil but does it have to be that obvious? Well, it's a Buffy/Scooby Doo type story, so I guess it does. In any case, Tenebrous is an evil spirit who has cursed the Van Tassel family from the time of the original story.

One final quibble which they acknowledge in the story: Katrina Van Tassel married Brom Bones, aka Brom Van Brunt. So their children would've had the family name Van Brunt, unless they divorced and she had a bastard son to carry on the Van Tassel name. Of course, the Van Tassel name could've survived, but Vicky shouldn't be descended from Katrina. A quick explanation is that the family the name now for public events. As it is, the town of Sleepy Hollow is really just North Tarrytown, NY, which changed its name in 1996.

Edit: Here's an example of what I was talking about with the distracting artwork.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Straight On Till Morning (Strohm / Sofi)

Straight On Till Morning: A Twisted Tale
Stephanie Kate Strohm / Noor Sofi
Adapted from the book by Stephanie Kate Strohm (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This past fall, I started looking for more standalone graphic novels at the library, both to read and to find examples of artwork that I could show in my Graphic Novel class. This was one that caught my eye. I saw that it was a Twisted Tale (although I was sure what that meant at the time). Only recently did I notice that it was adapted from an earlier book.

It's funny that Disney now owns Marvel, and Marvel created the comic "What if...?" because this starts off like a "What if" book, but this doesn't carry that title.

A quick check on the original book shows me that Stephanie Kate Strohm is known for reimagining Disney classics, not just only books and fairy tales. The reason I was curious about this is that I wanted to know when it because a Disney product, if it had been designed that way. There are points in the story where I wonder if they were inspired by the original nvoel or by the stage show (which I may have seen once, but I'm familiar with some of the music).

In this story, Peter Pan never flew to Wendy's house to find his shadow. Wendy and the boys grew up a bit. During that time, Wendy was still telling stories about Neverland, which she's dreamed of even if she's never visited. Angry that Peter never came, Wendy makes a deal with Captain Hook -- she trades him Peter's shadow in exchange for passage. It's a trap, of course, but a friendly pirate sets her free.

Neverland isn't what she thought it was, and neither are the Lost Boys who have a Lost Girl (or Lost Person) among them.

Wendy learns that Tinkerbell kept Peter away from her because she was jealous. Tinkerbell takes a piece of Wendy's voice so that she can speak (although the other fairies don't seem to have a problem...), and the two becomes friends. They set off to find and rescue Peter, who is searching in dangerous places for his shadow. Meanwhile, Hook plans to use the shadow to destroy Neverland.

Wendy learns that her stories have the power to shape Neverland, but so do many other children who dream about it. She also learns that the best way to save Neverland is to try to reshape her own world, even if she is a woman. (In the epilogue, there's almost a nod to Mary Poppins as the narrative jumps ahead even more years so that she can be a suffrogette.

It was an enjoable book for what it is, and it was a quick read. I managed to complete it in a couple of train rides. Meanwhile, it's been sitting next to the bed for probably three or four months. It only came out a year and a half ago. There isn't much demand for it, assuming people know about it. In any case, it's back on the shelves.

I have a couple more graphic novels and manga from the library to get to and even more in my classroom.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Understanding Comics (McCloud)

Understanding Comics
Scott McCloud (1993)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

Every source, from TED Talks to web pages to actual comic people that I know, tells me that Scott McCloud literally wrote the book on Understanding Comics. He's actually written a few. And he will reference Will Eisner as the guy who wrote the book before him.

Understanding Comics is a book I would've bought back in August if I knew I was going to be teaching two classes in Graphic Novels. I was told on the first day of school and wasn't given any curriculum or guidelines to work with. For the record, I'm a math teacher (and still teach math the rest of the day). I'm neither an English teacher nor art teacher. However, the administration knows that I like to write so this idea occurred to them.

Note that I write prose, not comics. I do (did?) have a webcomic for many years, but that was a joke per day, not a continuing story, and it wasn't anything artistically special. It was loaded with bad puns, and you can't teach that. Maybe you can teach timing for it ... but that's another story. And, let's face it, they weren't aware of the comic.

The book is nonfiction but it's written as a graphic novel or just a giant comic. McCloud illustrates himself and plays with the surrounding to take about what makes comic books work and what makes them "art". He includes reproductions of many old comics and paintings to make his points.

I did get a bit more understanding and comprehension (just to use a different word) of the topics within the subject, so that was good. And if I'm giving this class next fall, I'd juggle some of the earlier vocabulary lessons. This is, I was stumbling in the dark. However, several comments he made make more sense in the order he mentioned them. So maybe I should go that way next time.

If nothing else, the topic of Sequential Art should've come in the first week.

I may buy this paperback as an ebook just so I can take screenshots.

This was a fun read, and I got to read it in my classroom during Free Read Fridays where I allow my students to read graphic novels ... most of which I had to provide, with the help of Little Free Libraries and a couple of nice donations.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Yes, I'm Hot in This (Fahmy)

Yes, I'm Hot in This
The Hilarious Truth about Life in a Hijab
Huda Fahmy (2018)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I was glancing at some titles among the grpahic novels at the libary and I saw Huda F Cares, which caught my attention. Huda Fahmy had several books there with similar titles that caught my interest.

Since I have too many physical books out that I haven't read yet, I figured I'd see if these were available electronically. That's where I saw that her first book was "Yes, I'm Hot in This".

I checked it out.

I reads like a comic strip that has been collected and worked into a book with chapters. Irreverent humor and poignant criticism and commentary, a little repetitive and sometimes preachy, but that's her life and the situations that arise.

Basically, the parts that resonated with me were the parts I could identify with, which were things relating to her loving but sometimes clueless husband.

Hilarious? no, but amusing.

It was an interesting read. Will I request the next book? Maybe after I've returned some of the outstanding books I have and caught up a bit with my TBR pile and book clubs.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Waverider: A Graphic Novel (Amulet #9) (Kibuishi)

Waverider: A Graphic Novel (Amulet #9) , by Kazu Kibuishi (2024)

On Tuesday, January 22, 2019, I posted my notes on the first eight parts of a nine-issue series, Amulet. I saw a bunch of the books in a classroom, and I borrowed (and returned) them, one at a time. I was disappointed to learn that the final issue in the series had not been released yet and wouldn't be for at least another year.

Fast forward six years, and the series comes to mind. (The fact that I'm teaching a Graphic Novel course might have something to do with it.) I checked and issue #9 came out in 2024! Last year! Five years later! The other books came out at a rate of one per year.

I didn't go back and reread anything, and maybe I should have, but I didn't have time with all these 400+ page books I wind up reading.

Emily is back and in more control of her powers. She's assembling a team of friends who will bring a satisfying conclusion to the series. And the series does conclude.

There isn't much more I would say that isn't either a) a spoiler, or b) wrong because I misremembered something.

And thanks to that Graphic Novel class, there may be more graphic novels in this blog in the coming months.

Amulet, Volumes 1 - 8 (Kibuishi)

Amulet , by Kazu Kibuishi (2010-8)

A couple of months ago, there was a Scholastic book fair at the school that I'm currently assigned to. While I wasn't officially "working" the book fair, it took place in the room I usually spent my free time in, so I did lend a hand, mostly straightening up piles. There were a number of graphic novels on one of the tables, and one of these (particularly one of the ones that had Volume One on the table) was Amulet. The cover looked interesting and a quick flip of the pages showed some great color artwork. I took a picture of the first book and made a note to look into it.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and I find myself regularly in an English classroom where there is a pile of these books. Basically, almost a class set of book 1 and two copies of the rest. I spent the next couple weeks reading them, 50 minutes at a time. It wasn't until I was on book 5 that I realized that there were more than six books in the pile. (I thought only six were shown on the inside back cover.) There were seven. Nope, wait, there were eight. (Someone must've borrowed it.)

As you can tell, I enjoyed it enough to keep reading. And I enjoyed it enough to be annoyed to find that there is a NINTH book, which the teacher didn't have. So I checked the library website, and they didn't have it either. And then I did a little research and discovered something:

Volume 9 hasn't been published yet!!

I haven't had this feeling a series of books in a long time. And it's worse because most of the story has (or seems to have) wrapped up in Volume 8, and we are promised that it will "conclude" in Volume 9. When I saw that the first book was published in 2010, I didn't think it was still being created, unless it was an open-ended story. Who knew? Other than fans who have been reading it from the beginning, and waiting one or two years between each edition. And considering that volume 8 was only released this past September, I probably have a while to wait for it.

Okay, so the brief notes for me to review when book 9 comes out:

It starts with a family and there's a car accident, but the father doesn't make it out and falls into the darkness with the car. A grim start, but one that gets reference much later on, so it isn't gratuitous. (Seriously, some books, particularly ones written for kids, could start after these events and refer to them in flashbacks.) Mom takes the two kids, Emily and Navin, to an old house in the woods that belonged to her grandfather, Silas Charnon. And this is where the weird stuff begins.

Emily and Navin find an amulet in Silas's old library. That night, the mother gets kidnapped by giant spider-like things and brought to another realm. The kids follow. They're eventually rescued by the rabbit creature from the cover of the first book, which turns out to be a robot that Silas built. Silas, who is still alive, but barely, is a "stonekeeper". Before he dies, he passes the stone on to Emily, along with all its power, responsibilities and its curse. (There's a voice within the stone that talks to Emily and tries to gain control.)

Mom is rescued within a couple of books, but there's a bigger story involving the Elves, who are the "bad guys" of this series, being at war with the "humans" for many years. I put humans in quotes, because many of them have begun to look more animal-like because of an affliction. And then there's Trellis, the son of the Elf King, who knows there's something wrong and wants Emily to join him to help overthrow his father. (The Elf King has no problem seeing Trellis dead if he cannot perform certain actions.)

Lots going on, both in the past and the present, in one world and in the void.

Great artwork, particularly on the splash pages. I can see why it takes so long to finish each book. And I want to finish the next one already.

I'm counting this as eight books for any "goals" I decide on, because I can.

Batman: Terror (graphic novel)

Batman: Terror (graphic novel)

I don't usually read graphic novels, but the library had a bunch of them and I had time during the summer. I picked up a few of them.

This one was quite good featuring Batman squaring off against both Hugo Strange and Scarecrow (who has plans of his own that Strange is unaware of). Catwoman also puts in an appearance. Worth reading.

I'm glad this was the first one I picked up. Otherwise, I might not have read any more.

Batman (Gardner)

Batman, Craig Shaw Gardner, 1989

A promising prologue, but then it fell apart. Little more than what passed the screen hit the pages. Harvey Dent got a few mentions, but no more action or appearances. The narrative was uneven -- at times, dark and cynical; others, too sarcastic. And not just when the Joker was in the scene. The narrator's voice blended with the characters' thoughts too freely. Could've been so much better. Quick read. (Day and a half, maybe)