Categotry Archives: Graphic Novels

Pierce Brown’s Red Rising: Sons of Ares

Pierce Brown's Red Rising: Sons of Ares Book Cover Pierce Brown's Red Rising: Sons of Ares
Red Rising
Pierce Brown, Rik Hoskin
Dynamite Entertainment
March 13, 2018
Hardcover
152

From the world of the best-selling YA series Red Rising comes a story of love and loss and rage!

In the future, when mankind has spread across the stars, the hierarchy of man is dictated by the color of one’s caste. The Golds rule all, but what will happen when one falls for a lowly Red? See how a forbidden love will set the course of events for the future and lead to the formation of the formidable Sons of Ares!

Written by author Pierce Brown (The Red Rising Trilogy) and Rik Hoskin (Heroes of Skyrealm, Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand), with art by Eli Powell (Yakuza Demon Killers, The 13th Artifact), comes the in-continuity story of revolution and Red Rising!

 

Review:

“Red Rising: Sons of Ares” is a must for any diehard Red Rising fan.  The backstory of how it all began is interesting, and I hope it continues.  One of my favorite touches was that the text bubbles matched the color of whoever was speaking.  Anyone who hasn’t read the books first probably won’t find it enjoyable, so please read the wonderful series first!

This unbiased review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.

The Comic Book Story of Video Games

The Comic Book Story of Video Games Book Cover The Comic Book Story of Video Games
Jonathan Hennessey
Comics & Graphic Novels
Ten Speed Press
2017
192

A complete, illustrated history of video games--highlighting the machines, games, and people who have made gaming a worldwide, billion dollar industry/artform--told in a graphic novel format. Author Jonathan Hennessey and illustrator Jack McGowan present the first full-color, chronological origin story for this hugely successful, omnipresent artform and business. Hennessey provides readers with everything they need to know about video games--from their early beginnings during World War II to the emergence of arcade games in the 1970s to the rise of Nintendo to today's app-based games like Angry Birds and Pokemon Go. Hennessey and McGowan also analyze the evolution of gaming as an artform and its impact on society. Each chapter features spotlights on major players in the development of games and gaming that contains everything that gamers and non-gamers alike need to understand and appreciate this incredible phenomenon.

 

Review:

“The Comic Book Story of Video Games” is definitely not light reading, but it is entertaining and full of information.  I believe I learned something new on almost every page.  This is perfect for kids interested in engineering and technology, as well as adults.  It could also fit easily into a STEM curriculum.  Highly recommended for all of us video game nerds out there!

This unbiased review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.

 

The Creeps

The Creeps Book Cover The Creeps
Fran Krause
Comics & Graphic Novels
Ten Speed Press
2017-09
144

A follow-up to the New York Times best-selling Deep Dark Fears: a second volume of comics based on people's quirky, spooky, hilarious, and terrifying fears. Illustrator, animator, teacher, and comic artist Fran Krause has touched a collective nerve with his wildly popular web comic series--and subsequent New York Times best-selling book--Deep Dark Fears. Here he brings readers more of the creepy, funny, and idiosyncratic fears they love illustrated in comic form--such as the fear that your pets will tell other animals all your embarrassing secrets, or that someone uses your house while you're not home--as well as two longer comic short-stories about ghosts.

 

Review:

“The Creeps” is filled with cartoons depicting various fears ranging from the rational to far beyond the irrational.  I don’t think anyone can go through it without finding something they relate to.  Some of it is funny, some of it is horrifying, and I finished it having some creepy crawly fears I had never even considered before.  It’s an especially fun read for the Halloween season.

This unbiased review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.

Park Bench

Park Bench Book Cover Park Bench
Christophe Chabouté
Comics & Graphic Novels
Gallery 13
September 19, 2017
336

With his masterful illustration style, bestselling French creator-storyteller Chabouté (Alone, Moby-Dick) explores community through a common, often ignored object: the park bench. From its creation, to its witness to the fresh ardor of lovers, the drudgery of businessmen, the various hopes of the many who enter its orbit, the park bench weathers all seasons. Strangers meet at it for the first time. Paramours carve their initials into it. Old friends sit and chat upon it for hours. Others ignore the bench, or (attempt to) sleep on it at night, or simply anchor themselves on it and absorb the ebb and flow of the area and its people. Christophe Chabouté’s mastery of the visual medium turns this simple object into a thought-provoking and gorgeously wrought meditation on time, desire, and the life of communities all across the planet. This could be a bench in my hometown or yours—the people in this little drama are very much those we already recognize.

 

Review:

With the only words in “Park Bench” being book titles and scribbles on the bench, it is the purest form of a graphic novel.  I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful this book is.  No words could do it justice.  I laughed and I cried and I felt despair for the human race and hope for the human race and etc.  I can’t recommend this enough.  It is truly something you will never forget.  If only there were 100 star ratings.

This unbiased review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.