The Good Neighbors Book One: Kin - Holly Black and Ted Naifeh

"What are you?" "I'm bored, that's what I am. But the word you are looking for is faerie."

This was another graphic novel I found in the library's rotating collection. I knew Holly Black as the author of The Spiderwick Chronicles (which I never really got into) but this one looked like it was targeting older readers. I think also from skimming the dust-jacket that maybe I thought this was something else I'd read about, but in any case I did enjoy the book.

Rue ("like kangaroo or 'You'll rue the day we met, mwa-ha-ha!") Silver is a high-schooler whose mom has left recently after an argument with her father. Since then, her father has shut down and hasn't gone anywhere, and Rue has started to see really weird things. She'd known for some time that her mom was crazy, but now she fears she's starting to go crazy too.

What she's really seeing, though, are fairies. Their world and ours are crashing together, and Rue (for reasons that will later be revealed) can see them. When her father is arrested for the murder of one of his students (and the disappearance of his wife), Rue starts digging into the questions and discovers a lot more about fairies, her family, and herself.

The book actually reminded me a bit of some of Neil Gaiman's work (particularly the bits of the Sandman series that involved Faerie). It helps that the drawing style (done in black and white) is a little reminiscent of Dave McKean's illustrations (though a little less stylized). The way that strange beings populate the background, showing us the world as Rue sees it, is unsettling, particularly because nobody is acting out of the ordinary.

It's a good modern-day fairy tale, drawing on old legends of the "good neighbors" and keeping the frightening bits instead of just the Tinkerbell aspects. This book was originally from 2008, so I'm going to keep my eyes open for a followup.

Fed to jonathan's brain | March 09, 2010 | Comments (0)

Batman: Face the Face - James Robinson et al.

Found this one at the library. Since I never know any more what Batman timeline any given book might be following, I just try to roll with whatever's happening and hope that it makes sense. In this particular volume, Batman has been gone from Gotham for a year. Commissioner Gordon was gone for awhile and is now back. Harvey Dent is no longer Two-Face, but has had both surgery and psychiatry to put him back together.

In fact, Batman put him in charge of Gotham during his absence, and Harvey Dent has been out on the streets, doing his own vigilante justice (but not killing them). Until now. Batman has returned, only to find that somebody has been killing off Gotham's villains with Two-Face's twin revolver. All the evidence points to Dent, of course, but no murder mystery is that easy. Dent himself is struggling with the reappearance of Two-Face in his own mind, and isn't himself sure if he has committed the murders or not.

The artwork in this volume is not bad, though I've always found Two-Face to be a bit much. In particular, despite the however many times that Dent has had his face destroyed and repaired, every time it happens it looks the same again, right down the center, eyeball and teeth and everything. The scenes of Dent arguing with himself are a little like that scene with Gollum in the movies: okay, yeah, it's all taking place in his mind, but we get the point long before the scene is over.

What I found most interesting about this particular plotline was Batman's thoughts about Robin. (I believe this was Robin Number 3.) It actually ends up showing a more human side of Batman than we usually get, and I actually liked it; Robin brought out a different attitude in Batman and change the way he thought about being on a team.

The overarching mystery plotline is okay, but involves a couple characters I'm not familiar with, so I wasn't really invested in that part of the story. I'd be more interested in Batman's year off, I think.

Fed to jonathan's brain | March 09, 2010 | Comments (0)

Mouse Guard: WInter 1152 - David Petersen

"No swordplay?" - Saxon "Don't seek combat, Saxon. Seek resolution." - Celanwe

I enjoyed reading the first Mouse Guard book, but I think I liked the second one even more. After the events of Fall 1152, the mouse colonies are ill-prepared for the winter. Their supplies are low and much of their energy had been spent fighting the enemy within. Various Guard Mice have been dispatched from Lockhaven to the other mouse cities to call for an assembly and ask for supplies.

Most of the story focuses on one particular group of mice that we're now familiar with: Kenzie, Saxon, and Lieam have been joined by Sadie and Celanwe, known only to a few as the legendary Black Axe. Their travels lead them to an encounter with an owl, and a trip through old (but not entirely abandoned) weasel territory deep underground. The artwork is amazing and Petersen is really coming into his own. I love the different architecture (particularly in Darkheather, the weasel's former home). And if you thought the battle with the crabs was impressive in the first book, the owl is much scarier.

I have to admit, now I'm hooked. I see that Petersen is working on a new six-issue mini-series about the Black Axe starting this year, and I'm excited to see it.

Fed to jonathan's brain | March 07, 2010 | Comments (0)