An Embarrassment of Riches

True Life Comic Book Heroes - by Alison Comic books are full of charismatic leaders locked in desperate struggles, but a vast majority of these are fictional. It's perspective-changing when comics are used to tell stories of real people. One such book is Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography, by Chester Brown. Riel is a character of mythic proportions in Canadian history. He butted heads with the newly established government of Canada, starting in 1869 when he led the Red River Rebellion. Riel was a leader who believed he was divinely chosen to protect and defend the rights of the Metis - descendants of First Nations people and Europeans who suffered persecution from the wider culture. Brown tells the story of Riel's fights and flights back and forth across the Canadian border, from Manitoba, to Montana and then to Saskatchewan, where he was eventually arrested for treason and hanged. The minimalist color scheme and Brown's crisp drawings create a suspenseful story that could otherwise come across as a dry recitation of historical fact. If you never thought you'd read a comic book, but are a history buff, give this a try. Find out more about the intriguing Louis Riel here.

Scabby Doom - by Jen One of the features of the library catalog I love most is when it tries to re-spell whatever it is I've just typed. The greatest potential substitution I've had yet came recently when I tried to type "Scooby Doo" without a hyphen.  

"Did you mean Scabby Doom?"

Ah, Scabby Doom.  

Scabby Doom can be leaving your freshly packed lunch on the table near the door. Again.  

Scabby Doom can be waiting for a bus in a cold rain with no hot coffee because you forgot to set it the night before.  

But real Scabby Doom, I've decided, is that adrift-on-an-iceberg feeling I get when I don't have a promising stack of books waiting to be opened. It's that "nothing good to read" feeling, something so ridiculous to contemplate in my line of work that when it happens I feel I must be in an alternate universe. Water water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.

I was recently treading water in this book-less sea looking for something to occupy my commute when a hold I had forgotten about crashed ashore. Children of the Sea by Daisuke Igarashi is exactly the kind of imaginative and atmospheric manga I look for and rarely find. The story and pictures combine a detailed realism with an element of fantasy that is compelling. Ruka is a troubled girl from a broken home stuck hanging around the aquarium where her father works. Umi and Sora are strange siblings raised by dugongs with an otherworldly affinity for the ocean. The drawings of the sea and its creatures are striking; whale sharks and beached oarfishes are particularly memorable.  

Japanese culture meets an urban legend from Fisherman's Wharf?

Feral and occasionally luminescent manatee children?

A mystery of disappearing fish involving the world's aquariums?

Scabby Doom be gone!  

(Now if only I could get rid of Scooby-Doo, too. These are the animated perils of living with children who have not been raised by manatees.)

Has the library catalog given you any fantastic or semi-hilarious substitutions? Post a comment!

Drawn To It - by Steve

I used to be a voracious reader. My time spent riding the bus everywhere usually involved a thick novel balanced carefully on my lap. However, with summer creeping slowly closer, I have been riding my bike more and my reading time has been trimmed considerably. I find myself turning to graphic novels more often to get a great story, but in a condensed version.

I discovered FreakAngels by accident. Warren Ellis is truly an icon when it comes to graphic novels. I read his first full-length novel, Crooked Little Vein, a while back, thoroughly enjoying every word. When I saw that he was working on a new online webcomic, I had to check it out.  Each Friday, I get a little delivery of genius to my RSS reader.  FreakAngels is an excellent post-apocalyptic tale of survival. The twelve main characters, each with their own special ability, were the cause of something cataclysmic for which they're now trying to repay humanity. Murder, mayhem, and community gardening: a match made in heaven. Lucky for me, the second volume was recently added to our collection.

Speaking of murder, Whiteout takes place in Antarctica where the U.S. Marshall stationed there to keep the peace has to solve a gruesome murder. Then another. Then the killer comes after her. Will she survive the incoming storm while running for her life? Yes, because there’s a volume two. Greg Rucka’s storytelling is dark, and Steve Leiber’s illustrations match the writing perfectly.

I recently finished the first volume of Bayou by Jeremy Love. Another book that started as a webcomic, this lilting story from the Antebellum South follows a special girl trying to clear her father’s name. He’s been lynched for abducting a white girl, but she saw what really happened, and knows that it was actually a monster.  She travels to a bizarre land where she befriends a hulking giant.  Unfortunately, the story ends as they start their quest together, but I managed to track down the whole story on the site where the comic first started.

I Heart ACK-WA-MAN* - by Jen

There is something comforting in the rift we have as children between fantasy and reality.

When I was a kid, there were two beagles in my life. There was Snoopy. Everyone had Snoopy.

And then there was the "beagle" my Aunt and Uncle owned. She was elderly, obese, and toothless. Her tongue lolled in a perpetual pant over the left side of her mouth without any barrier to keep it contained in her head. Her name was Hyphen. She was nothing like Snoopy, and I decided she could not possibly be a beagle because there was no reconciling Hyphen with Snoopy. And anyway, who names a dog after a punctuation mark? Snoopy and Hyphen did not occupy the same universe. Hyphen was an obscurity; an unknown in the beagle world.

While I will now freely label Hyphen of the beagle breed, it took me until last year to admit that Aquaman is not considered by most people I have surveyed** to be a top-tier superhero. His power to telepathically communicate with ocean creatures has been mocked and ridiculed by many. Sufferin’ starfish!

Spiderman is cool. Batman is cool. Aquaman is NOT cool. Some would insist they do not occupy the same universe.

I am a geek for not realizing this sooner, I know. But I freely admit to my personal geekiness and make regular overt attempts to turn my children geeky as well. (For help with the geekification of children, I recommend Bringing up Geeks by Marybeth Hicks.) This includes subjecting them to the early episodes of Little House on the Prairie and reading a somewhat obscure Australian novel about a talking pudding. 

And now thanks to the The Complete Collection of The Adventures of Aquaman I have 36 episodic chances to convince Child the Elder that there is nothing better than rounding up sea creatures in defense of Atlantis against the evil Vassa, Queen of the Mermen while riding a giant snowy seahorse named Storm. Look out, Aqualad!

Perhaps it is my lifelong fascination with all things ocean-related, but Spiderman and Batman just never measured up to a guy who battles mechanical whales and mutant plankton.

I dare you to watch it without reveling in a satisfying universe where good always triumphs. It is a relief to dive down below the reality of our recessionary realm to a place where bad guys can be vanquished with a few compressed balls of water and a school of obedient yet determined fish. The corny and hilarious dialog is a bonus. And you just may ask yourself, "Why does every last villain aim to smash the glass bubble surrounding Atlantis and drown its hapless air-breathing inhabitants? Do they hate the Atlanteans for their captivity?"

Great Gastropods! Long live Ack-wa-man*, and long may he reign.

 *The proper pronunciation, according to the television series.

**Not a scientific survey. Includes many disdainful children of my relation or acquaintance and one sarcastic husband.

Freddie and Me - by Laural (read)

Freddie & Me: A  Coming-of-Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody by Mike Dawson is one of my favorite books of the last year.  Think back, possibly way back, to when you were a child or a teen and there was music.  And music was one of the most important elements in your life.  First it was the Beatles for me.  Then it was a New Zealand band called Split Enz. Thereafter I branched out to local bands I could see live. Well, Mike Dawson may have branched out but as we find out in this terrific graphic memoir, Mike can place the memories of his life with the releases of rock band Queen’s albums. Besides using graphic art methods to tell his story there is also time-line at the beginning of the book outlining major events in his life with the releases of Queen’s record albums. Queen fans and readers who love a good memoir will like this book. At times this book is laugh out loud funny and other times touchingly philosophical~don’t miss it.

And in case you love this book and want to talk about it with other fans, The Hollywood Library's Graphic Novel Book Group is discussing Freddie and Me on March 10th at 6:30. Details here.