SuperMutant Magic Academy: A Graphic Novel by Jillian Tamaki

Library Copy

It's been long enough since I've written about a graphic novel, and that's not because I haven't been reading them - I absolutely have. It's just challenging to write reviews for individual TP's, so I avoid doing it. But when a graphic novel is a stand-alone thing, that makes my job easier.

Jillian Tamaki is probably best known as the illustrator of the now mandatory Summer Reading assignment for some very lucky middle-school kids - This One Summer. I'd remarked in that review of how jealous I was of her ability to draw such fluid characters and stunning landscapes. SuperMutant Magic Academy was a web-comic Tamaki made, and I have to say I kind of enjoyed seeing her art improve over the course of the series.
Each comic is brief but snarky, dark, and bitingly honest. You get a good idea of Tamaki's sense of humor, but it's a good description of the modern teen & young adult. Sure, it's set in a high-school almost Hogwarts-esque or like Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, but there's no acknowledgement that this school is especially special or woo-woo or anything like that. The students are all still teen-aged dirt-bags, and that's kinda refreshing.

I enjoyed this collection of comics, having read a few online over the years but never kept up with the web series as a whole, it's nice to be given the chance to read them all at once like this. It's also really refreshing to see talented illustrators I know from a web presence break into the publishing industry. (I mean, publishers would really have to be foolish to completely ignore that amount of popularity. That's what we like to call "leaving money on the table.") Now, what comic book will I read next time I'm waiting for my friends to meet me for coffee on Sunday mornings?

Beautiful Darkness

local comic shop

I saw an article for this comic book on BuzzFeed and I knew I had to have it. The art is simple and cute, but the artist has some obvious chops, as is displayed in various points of realism. The art was something I was really excited about, so allow me to geek out over it for a bit. I feel like this book is going to be a lasting influence on me and an artist and writer. If you're familiar with the Finnish series of children's books (and cartoons) called The Moomins, this style is not dissimilar. Also, I'm personally a huge fan of water color and pencil lines in my own work, which is the predominate medium used here. Though, personally I can never quiet pull it off as effortlessly as is done here. In fact, this comic was originally published in France - this is not my first French comic, but it is enough that I can say that I love French and Belgian comics - particularly their illustration and sequential narratives (something you pay more attention to when you can't speak the language). Luckily, this book is in English now.

The story is described as an "anti-fairy tale." I would have to correct you if you would describe it as Grimm-Like, because people are under the false impression about the Brothers' Grimm fairy tales. It is dark and creepy, but largely the horrifying thing is the naivety of the cute little characters. If it's read as a fable, it can be seen as a message about our own oblivious society. But I have so many questions about this book - is Aurora (the cute little girl centered around the story) the soul of another little girl? Are her friends dying off as the body decays - do they represent other parts of the ego? Have I been doing too much research on Jungian theory in fairy tales? Am I completely over thinking this?? Probably.

This was a quick read - I finished it along with my Sunday morning coffee. But it's a delight. Though the art is cuter than a buttermilk biscuit, I still wouldn't, say, give it to a child to read. It is disturbing at times, so consider the child's maturity before handing it off to them. It can still be easily enjoyed by adults, as well.

Un-Popular Opinion Time

So I've been thinking. As much as I talk about books that I like here, I also want to talk about books I don't like. I was sort of thinking that, though I'm an advocate for not banning books, there are certainly some popular books I wouldn't mind if no one ever read - that way I wouldn't have to hear about them anymore. I have the idea in my head that the people who love the books that I hate and hate the books that I love are the same people. So today I decided to spill my guts out and talk about the books that I HATE. This doesn't mean I think you're wrong if they're your favorites, because even though I'm an ass I don't think I'm that big of an ass. I just happen to think that some well-loved books ain't all that. So without Further ado...

Nancy Tillman's series of ugly, mushy, badly photo-shopped children's books, starting with "On the Night You Were Born." I know this is a popular choice among the clueless for baby-showers and junk, but this is really a picture book for Mom's and Grandma's before it is for children. I've heard that some people think it's "pretty," but all I see is saturated photos with a dingy photoshop filter thrown over it. If that wasn't bad enough, the story can't even redeem it. It's just as disgusting and sentimental as you'd fear. As parents, please don't subject your children to this junk, unless you want to kill your child's interest in reading as early as possible.

Next is, yes, Goodnight Moon. I know many people have fond memories of this book. It is, after all, a classic. But not everyone has to like the classics. I remember - even as a kid - thinking that this book was nonsense and aggravating. Maybe I thought it was too simple, but I harbored no warm feelings for it. I've since made my peace with it, and as a matter of fact Margaret Wise Brown's other bunny book, Runaway Bunny, continues to be one of my all time favorite children's books. (I've even considered getting a Runaway Bunny tattoo, 'cept I'm a bit of a coward)

I knew this post wasn't going to make me popular, because this is one of my all time least favorite books, and it's dearly well loved by many people. Why did I hate The Outsiders? Part of it had to do with it's popularity, actually, and I'm a total book snob (or else I wouldn't be writing this post). In high school, we read it as an English assignment, and while the entire class enjoyed it (any small town high school English teacher would be encouraged by that feat). I was unimpressed and failed to see what made it so special, and that kind of pissed me off. I could have suggested an entire list of better books we should have read instead, I felt, and I probably could have. I had a real knack for pairing the right person with the right book.
Maybe I should have been a high school English teacher after all.

Will I hold nothing back? Is Nothing Sacred? Now, why didn't I like A Wrinkle in Time? It's up there with The Outsiders, for me, as highly recommended by Sage Adults that turned out to be a crashing disappointment. I remember reading it and feeling like the book it's self was just too pretentious - like the author wanted me to feel stupid, even for a child. It seriously made me doubt my own intellect, until I got older and tried to re-read the series and I realized that I wasn't crazy after all. This really is the sort of soaring bore of a book adults would try to shove into children's faces, forgetting that their tastes may not be the same. This doesn't mean that the world of children's books is so small, however, that they can't find something on their own that is more to their interests.

Another SUPER pretentious book? How about Philip Pullman's Dark Material's trilogy? This time, it is personal. Not only was it pretentious, but it wasn't even accidental. Pullman set out to write an anti-children children's book - a denouncement on C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, for being too sentimental about childhood and for using Christian allegory. Pullman, of course, is an Atheist. As a Catholic, that does grate on my nerves. It seems awfully shitty of him to take such liberties on children, and yes, it's very arrogant and pretentious. I think he sucks a whole ton for writing "Atheist propaganda" for children, but what I hate him even more for is that he's using these books as a platform to belittle children's intellect. A child will decide on their own wither or not Christianity is for them, as they will certainly find out that adulthood can be either awesome or awful with time. But children don't need his nihilism hammered into their skulls, really.
Other than that, this is a really strong, well written series. I remember when it was handed to me in high school, it came with a warning that I had to be mature enough to read it. I'm certain I was, but I'm grateful I at least had the warning first. (In fact, as an High School English teacher, be sure that this would be on the reading list. It is a good test of maturity.)

So... that felt good to get off of my chest. You may not agree with my assessments, and I have a feeling this is going to be controversial. I didn't go after the books that are popular to hate, after all. Disagree with me? Agree? Leave me a comment and we can talk about it.

Manga Manifesto, Bride's Story, and Sakuran

I made a promise to talk about every book I've read from cover to cover - I also made a promise to talk a little about everything I read while away on vacation, and that it would be a lot. But I've never written reviews for comic books until now. Interestingly, because I've been a huge fan of manga since I was 13. College almost killed that joy, but in the past year I've reconciled with it.
A note on comics, manga, and shojo: Manga might not be as popular now as it has been in the last few years. That's okay, because it's still really huge. I understand that in the wide, wide world people still think of comic books as "for the boys," and that's still largely true - in American comics. With the introduction of manga in the US, and the shojo genre with it, there was finally something on the market for girls to read. I understand that Marvel and DC have tried (with limited success) to introduce something marketed towards girls. The thing is, they always seem completely clueless as to how to navigate those waters. I really think the popularity of manga has a lot to do with having a HUGE female audience. In 2001, I was one of those kids that helped make manga so popular. Manga, particularly CLAMP's Cardcaptor Sakura, introduced me to comic books. In the early oughts the quality and quantity of manga available doesn't compare with what it is today. Anime and manga was still a very niche market. It was rare and expensive, but the fans didn't take themselves so seriously and it was still, well, fun. All the same, when people tell me that girls don't read comic books, I think of shojo manga - a genre made for and adored by women all over the world.

Comics makes great beach reads, too. It's a breeze to read through and doesn't take the same amount of concentration that novels require. Personally, I find it hard to read anywhere that isn't perfectly quiet and private. Hotel rooms with TV's blaring, bustling pool sides, etc can be very distracting to me, even when they don't mean to be - I'm particular about my surroundings. But when I'm reading comics, none of that is an issue. That's how during this trip I managed to read 5 volumes of manga and a leetle bit of Clash of Kings.

I started the series Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori - the first three volumes of it, at least. Bride's Story is gorgeously illustrated and richly detailed. I'm personally a big fan of historic fiction and costume drama, and if you are too that this'll be your cuppa. Bride's Story is set in Central Asia's Silk Road, a setting that isn't often seen fictionalized in Western literature. That alone makes it worth a read, in my opinion.

It's about a young boy who takes a 20 year old woman from a semi-nomadic tribe as a wife. As you can imagine, there is some nudity, but it's nothing I think you'd try to hide your kids from. ... Unless it's that big of a deal to you. Honestly, it's a beautiful series with a very sweet story. Of all the manga I read this week, it's probably the best written. Even if you don't read graphic novels very often, I think this would still be interesting to a lot of women. Volume 1 introduced us to the characters and world, but not in the tired, worn out way that manga usually does it. In Volume 2, Amar (our favorite bride, who is really more of a big sister character - tough, but sweet) makes a new friend. There is some fighting over her - this is some of the family politics of the time, but it's basically resolved. Volume 3 is where the drama picks up. In fact, Amar and her child groom Karluk are barely in it. The volume ended on a cliff hanger involving a character that initially wasn't much more than a dippy side character. So I'm eagerly waiting to get my grubby little paws on volume 4.

If you're as curious about the daily lives of women and families on the silk road as you are dramatic stories - thinking along the lines of  Downton Abbey of Central Asia and The Silk Road - I do recommend this series highly.
I've quickly become a fan of Kaoru Mori's work, and it's surprising that I'm only discovering her now. She's well known for Emma, which speaking of Downton Abbey, is Victorian romance about a maid, as Kaoru Mori is a bit of an anglophile. It won't be long before I pick up that manga series as well.

The next manga title I read over vacation was a one volume, shrink wrapped title called Sakuran ("Derangement" in English). Sakuran is set in Japan's Edo period, in the "pleasure quarter," about a courtesan. In other words, it's about a Japanese prostitute. Fun Facts About "Oirans": The way you could tell the difference between a geisha and courtesan at the time is the way that they tied their Obis. Geisha's tied theirs in the back while courtesans tied theirs in the front for easier access. Otherwise, they had a few things in common.
In Sakuran, Kiyoha is sold to a brothel at a young age and is trained from a maid up until she becomes one of the most popular courtesans in the house. She's very sassy and rude, which doesn't make her very popular in the brothel - all the other women she lives with basically hate her. But, that kind of spunk and feminine wiles makes her very popular with customers. The story doesn't so much center around how competitive her life is, but the impossibility of love. As bold and brash as she is, her story is very tragic.
As I've said, it's a shrink wrapped manga, which you understand means one thing - it's for mature readers only, please. But it means another thing, too. Shrink Wrapped Manga was pretty common in the late 90's not because so much of it was for mature audiences, but because the glue was so cheap. Bending the spin while reading, even just a little bit, meant that pages would drop out. I haven't seen that as often lately with manga, but that is definitely true here. If possible, try to read it online instead of buying a hard copy - or watch the movie is you're so inclined.