The Reading Pile – November 15
Welcome to another edition of The Reading Pile, in which your Good Comics for Kids bloggers look up from their books and talk about what they have been reading lately. Feel free to join in in the comments section!
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I’ve also been looking at webcomics this week. At Brigid’s recommendation, I read the first 50 or so pages of Ectopiary, a new project from Hans Rickheit. The story focuses on Dale, a young girl who’s sent to live with relatives after some kind of weird (and, as yet, unnamed) tragedy befalls her parents. Ectopiary is almost impossible to categorize genre-wise; it has elements of a sentimental Victorian novel, science fiction, and horror. Oh, and an enormous, glowing white dog who purports to come from the moon. The artwork is lovely, toned primarily in inky grays that make Dale’s new home look like the setting of a Wilkie Collins novel. I’m not sure if younger readers will have the patience to wait for new installments of the story—Rickheit is posting one page at a time—though I could definitely see fans of The Dreaming enjoying what’s been posted so far.
Mike Pawuk: I’ve been reading mainly weekly comic books:
Simpsons Comics #171: When the Simpsons go on a 12-hour road trip, what better way to pass the time than to listen to audio books. Soon the Simpsons parody yet another uncharted territory: the children’s book vault of classics as we’re treated to takes on The Phantom Tollbooth, James and the Giant Peach, and A Wrinkle in Time. I have to say the vaunted “litterasee issue” was actually a bit of a disappointment but I think it’s mostly due to the fact that my mind is like a steel sieve and I admittedly have a hard time remembering plots years after I’ve read them. I vaguely recall reading The Phantom Tollbooth and also A Wrinkle in Time, but I did enjoy the short James and the Giant Peach spoof. Not a bad effort. I really do still enjoy the monthly Simpsons Comics but 5th graders who have just read these books due to their Accelerated Reader lists will enjoy them.
Amazing Spider-Man #646: The conclusion to the Origin of the Species storyline in which Spider-Man tracks down a newborn infant born to Lily Hollister (the Green Goblin-like villain called Malice) and presumably Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin. Doctor Octopus has hired all of Spider-Man’s foes to capture the baby since its DNA is ripe for a cure that may reinvigorate Doc Ock, whose health is failing. A solid effort by Mark Waid, though I do have to say I don’t care as much for the art team of Paul Azaceta and Matthew Southworth. It’s a very realistic art style that harkens a little of David Mazzucchelli (Batman: Year One) but doesn’t quite feel right in this book.
Brigid Alverson: I’m re-reading Twin Spica, as I want to write a review of the first few volumes, and I’m struck once again with what a great series this is. It has the ingredients of any good series book, prose or comic: Plucky heroine, sympathetic surrounding cast, the good friend, the mean girl, and challenges to be overcome one by one. Yet this book goes beyond standard formulas, especially in the first volume, with its lovely exploration of the heroine’s backstory and her reaction to her mother’s death. I also find the art very appealing; it’s less stylized than standard manga art and full of telling little details that really draw you into the story. Vertical has a fairly ambitious schedule for this book, with a new volume coming out every two months, and I really hope it finds its audience.
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About Brigid Alverson
Brigid Alverson, the editor of the Good Comics for Kids blog, has been reading comics since she was 4. She has an MFA in printmaking and has worked as a book editor and a newspaper reporter; now she is assistant to the mayor of Melrose, Massachusetts. In addition to editing GC4K, she writes about comics and graphic novels at MangaBlog, SLJTeen, Publishers Weekly Comics World, Comic Book Resources, MTV Geek, and Good E-Reader.com. Brigid is married to a physicist and has two daughters in college, which is why she writes so much. She was a judge for the 2012 Eisner Awards.
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