Book Logging - Comics
May. 5th, 2017 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckComics read:
Asterix in Britain - Not much new to say about this. It’s still utterly ridiculous.
Bookhunter - I didn’t like the art in this, and that made the story harder for me to read. I stuck with it because of all the library details. It’s set in the early 1970s and has the premise of a world where libraries hunt for missing books/book thieves in the same way that law enforcement hunts serial killers or giant drug rings. I suspect that younger readers might be a bit put off by the differences in technology. The book is pretty accurate in terms of how such things worked in the early 1970s, but there isn’t enough context early on to emphasize the time period. The book opens with a short that features the same main character but is much more violent than the rest of the book. I almost stopped there.
Case Closed 33-36 - Somehow, I’m liking these better now than I did earlier volumes. The mysteries still don’t interest me much, but I think I’m more interested in the characters than I was. I’m at the point of needing to get each volume via interlibrary loan. Sadly, the system considers different volumes to the same in spite of the numbering, so I can only request a new volume after the previous one is back with the originating library.
Cleopatra in Space, Book 3: Secret of the Time Tablets - I’m slightly less annoyed that the Big Bad is called Octavian at this point, but it’s been like a pebble in my shoe as I’ve read these. This is supposed to be the famous Cleopatra, at age twelve, having time traveled into the future to fulfill a prophecy. I’m now trying to figure out if she’ll lose her memory before going back at the end of the series or how that will be handled. I’m sure that’s a very long way off, but it’s the sort of thing I get stuck on.
DC Super Hero Girls: Finals Crisis - Super cute. Pity I can’t get Cordelia to look at this. A mysterious villain is picking off top students, one by one, the night before finals. (I keep looking at 'Super Hero Girls' and getting cranky about the spelling. That’s how it is on the book covers, though.)
DC Super Hero Girls: Hits and Myths - Wonder Woman is hosting a sleepover, but the Batplane is missing, so her non-flying friends have no way to get to Themiscyra.
Hilda and the Stone Forest - Definite cliffhanger territory. I’m sure all will be well eventually, but this volume ends with a big ‘Oh, no! What happened?’ Hopefully, when the next book comes out, I’ll remember what happened in this one (or remember to get this one from the library again to reread first). I like all of the characters, but I have more sympathy for the mother than for Hilda.
Korgi 4 - This one was a bit creepier than previous volumes because there was a zombie unicorn. It also features Sprout, the dog, acting much more dog-like than in previous volumes.
Lumberjanes: Band Together - I don’t think this advanced any story arc, but I enjoyed it anyway. I particularly liked the bits at the beginning with the girls arriving at camp. I had some problems with the changes in the art, but I think most people won’t.
Natsume’s Book of Friends 4-6 - I’m getting these slowly through interlibrary loan because our library only owns the first two volumes. Right now, I’m not seeing enough of a through line, plot-wise, for the delays to matter much except that I can’t always remember who the supporting characters are. Still fun.
Paper Girls 2 - I was very confused by bits of this because I remembered only fragments of the backstory and so wasn’t sure which things built on that and which came out of left field. I like the characters, though, and I like the level of complication in the story they’re caught in. I’d like to have a clearer idea of the factions and the problems to be overcome, but these volumes aren’t all that long, and it’s very clear that everyone who knows more than the main characters do is lying to them about something. Almost all of the characters involved in this volume are female.
Princess Princess Ever After - There wasn’t much to this, but what there was, I adored. I think it’s right for the target audience, too. Two princesses having a few brief adventures and forming a powerful bond that ends in a happily ever after-- I want kids to have this.
Teen Titans Go! Bring It On - I don’t actually remember a thing that happened in this. I have a general recollection that I enjoyed it, but I guess it was pretty disposable.
Transformers: Ironhide - I have just enough context to be able to fill in some of the things that aren’t explicit in this book. I think, though, that it would still make sense without that. My main problem with this is that I have trouble following action sequences in most comics.
Transformers 30th Anniversary Collection - I’m not convinced that this was a good choice for me given that I don’t know much at all about the Transformers. This is a largish book, but it doesn’t actually contain any complete story arcs, just selected issues from various points across thirty years. There was a bit of commentary from the editors of the book and some of the creators of the featured issued, but it was printed in white on a black background which I can’t read without risking a headache, so I only read little bits of it.
The Wallflower 18 - Purest silliness. This is very much a sitcom.
What Did You Eat Yesterday? 4 - I’m annoyed. Our library doesn’t have v.5 of this series. None of the libraries in our ILL system do, either. There’s some sort of electronic copy held by one library, but I really can’t get that unless our library has it electronically. At any rate, this is still fairly sweet and, as far as the characters go, believable to me. ETA: Two months later, our library has replaced v.5, and I have it on my shelf with my other library books.
Yoko Tsuno: The Three Suns of Vinea - The library just added this to the collection. I don’t know if they’re going to get the other, already published books that they don’t have yet. This volume is very definitely science fiction and involves a trip to another planet.
Started but not finished:
Aqua 1 - I had read this before, so when I realized that the library copy was kind of disintegrating in my hands, I didn’t feel that going on was worthwhile. I know what happens. I know I enjoyed it a lot last time I read it. I wonder how expensive this is to buy?
Bone: Coda - At least three quarters of this book is essays talking about Bone and its origins. That’s at least theoretically interested, but I was expecting more Bone story and found what there was inadequate. It was good. The characters were recognizably themselves. There just wasn’t much there, no plot, no exploration, no resolution.
The Heroic Legend of Arslan 1 - This has a waitlist at the library, and it didn’t catch me, so back it goes. It’s possible that the worldbuilding and characterization details that kept stopping me dead would make sense if I did the work and read the whole series, but I don’t particularly want to at this point.
Justice League: Gods and Monsters - I’m going to try this one again when there isn’t a waitlist. Probably. What I really want is a detailed synopsis so that I don’t have to read this. Maybe I should stop trying to read superhero comics?
Library Wars 1 - I only made it about thirty pages into this in spite of it being manga and in spite of me renewing it twice. I didn’t manage to get past the part where the main characters annoyed me to reach anything actually happening.
Listen at Home with Octopus Pie - I tried to get through this, but I had trouble telling the characters apart, and I really, really didn’t care at all about lives of characters.
March, Book 1 - This was a struggle for me to get through because I had trouble reading the print in several places. I ended up giving up because the book couldn’t be renewed. I thought that what I could follow of the story had a strong sense of place and time and was very clear about the issues and motivations and such. I think that books like this are really important in terms of making history accessible (most people aren’t going to have my issues with reading the lettering) and being honest about the risks civil rights activists were taking. Our library has catalogued this as an adult graphic novel, and I’m not entirely happy about that because that limits the access that children and teens will have to the book. I rather think that the book will be most powerful for young people. Hearing the story told by someone who was there, someone with the stature of Congressman John Lewis, matters a lot.
Mirror: the Mountain - I read about a third of this and found myself feeling no connection to the characters or to the story.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 1: BFF - I think I need to stop trying to read superhero comics. I just get cranky because I want to like what I’m reading but also don’t actually want to read what I’m reading. It’s not that the things I’m trying are bad superhero comics. It’s that I’m just not in the right mental space not to get annoyed by normal superhero stuff. There’s a reason why I’m very sporadic about watching superhero TV shows and movies.
Orange: the Complete Collection 1 - This was too long for me. I think I’d have liked it better in smaller bits instead of trying to read the whole thing the day it was due back at the library (unrenewable, of course, because of the waitlist). The volume is about three times the length of the manga volumes I’m used to. The pace of the story is very slow and deliberate. If I was less irritated by that, I’d call it gentle. The focus is on the interpersonal relationships and incremental events much, much more than on the time traveling letters, and the latter were what drew me to begin with.
Asterix in Britain - Not much new to say about this. It’s still utterly ridiculous.
Bookhunter - I didn’t like the art in this, and that made the story harder for me to read. I stuck with it because of all the library details. It’s set in the early 1970s and has the premise of a world where libraries hunt for missing books/book thieves in the same way that law enforcement hunts serial killers or giant drug rings. I suspect that younger readers might be a bit put off by the differences in technology. The book is pretty accurate in terms of how such things worked in the early 1970s, but there isn’t enough context early on to emphasize the time period. The book opens with a short that features the same main character but is much more violent than the rest of the book. I almost stopped there.
Case Closed 33-36 - Somehow, I’m liking these better now than I did earlier volumes. The mysteries still don’t interest me much, but I think I’m more interested in the characters than I was. I’m at the point of needing to get each volume via interlibrary loan. Sadly, the system considers different volumes to the same in spite of the numbering, so I can only request a new volume after the previous one is back with the originating library.
Cleopatra in Space, Book 3: Secret of the Time Tablets - I’m slightly less annoyed that the Big Bad is called Octavian at this point, but it’s been like a pebble in my shoe as I’ve read these. This is supposed to be the famous Cleopatra, at age twelve, having time traveled into the future to fulfill a prophecy. I’m now trying to figure out if she’ll lose her memory before going back at the end of the series or how that will be handled. I’m sure that’s a very long way off, but it’s the sort of thing I get stuck on.
DC Super Hero Girls: Finals Crisis - Super cute. Pity I can’t get Cordelia to look at this. A mysterious villain is picking off top students, one by one, the night before finals. (I keep looking at 'Super Hero Girls' and getting cranky about the spelling. That’s how it is on the book covers, though.)
DC Super Hero Girls: Hits and Myths - Wonder Woman is hosting a sleepover, but the Batplane is missing, so her non-flying friends have no way to get to Themiscyra.
Hilda and the Stone Forest - Definite cliffhanger territory. I’m sure all will be well eventually, but this volume ends with a big ‘Oh, no! What happened?’ Hopefully, when the next book comes out, I’ll remember what happened in this one (or remember to get this one from the library again to reread first). I like all of the characters, but I have more sympathy for the mother than for Hilda.
Korgi 4 - This one was a bit creepier than previous volumes because there was a zombie unicorn. It also features Sprout, the dog, acting much more dog-like than in previous volumes.
Lumberjanes: Band Together - I don’t think this advanced any story arc, but I enjoyed it anyway. I particularly liked the bits at the beginning with the girls arriving at camp. I had some problems with the changes in the art, but I think most people won’t.
Natsume’s Book of Friends 4-6 - I’m getting these slowly through interlibrary loan because our library only owns the first two volumes. Right now, I’m not seeing enough of a through line, plot-wise, for the delays to matter much except that I can’t always remember who the supporting characters are. Still fun.
Paper Girls 2 - I was very confused by bits of this because I remembered only fragments of the backstory and so wasn’t sure which things built on that and which came out of left field. I like the characters, though, and I like the level of complication in the story they’re caught in. I’d like to have a clearer idea of the factions and the problems to be overcome, but these volumes aren’t all that long, and it’s very clear that everyone who knows more than the main characters do is lying to them about something. Almost all of the characters involved in this volume are female.
Princess Princess Ever After - There wasn’t much to this, but what there was, I adored. I think it’s right for the target audience, too. Two princesses having a few brief adventures and forming a powerful bond that ends in a happily ever after-- I want kids to have this.
Teen Titans Go! Bring It On - I don’t actually remember a thing that happened in this. I have a general recollection that I enjoyed it, but I guess it was pretty disposable.
Transformers: Ironhide - I have just enough context to be able to fill in some of the things that aren’t explicit in this book. I think, though, that it would still make sense without that. My main problem with this is that I have trouble following action sequences in most comics.
Transformers 30th Anniversary Collection - I’m not convinced that this was a good choice for me given that I don’t know much at all about the Transformers. This is a largish book, but it doesn’t actually contain any complete story arcs, just selected issues from various points across thirty years. There was a bit of commentary from the editors of the book and some of the creators of the featured issued, but it was printed in white on a black background which I can’t read without risking a headache, so I only read little bits of it.
The Wallflower 18 - Purest silliness. This is very much a sitcom.
What Did You Eat Yesterday? 4 - I’m annoyed. Our library doesn’t have v.5 of this series. None of the libraries in our ILL system do, either. There’s some sort of electronic copy held by one library, but I really can’t get that unless our library has it electronically. At any rate, this is still fairly sweet and, as far as the characters go, believable to me. ETA: Two months later, our library has replaced v.5, and I have it on my shelf with my other library books.
Yoko Tsuno: The Three Suns of Vinea - The library just added this to the collection. I don’t know if they’re going to get the other, already published books that they don’t have yet. This volume is very definitely science fiction and involves a trip to another planet.
Started but not finished:
Aqua 1 - I had read this before, so when I realized that the library copy was kind of disintegrating in my hands, I didn’t feel that going on was worthwhile. I know what happens. I know I enjoyed it a lot last time I read it. I wonder how expensive this is to buy?
Bone: Coda - At least three quarters of this book is essays talking about Bone and its origins. That’s at least theoretically interested, but I was expecting more Bone story and found what there was inadequate. It was good. The characters were recognizably themselves. There just wasn’t much there, no plot, no exploration, no resolution.
The Heroic Legend of Arslan 1 - This has a waitlist at the library, and it didn’t catch me, so back it goes. It’s possible that the worldbuilding and characterization details that kept stopping me dead would make sense if I did the work and read the whole series, but I don’t particularly want to at this point.
Justice League: Gods and Monsters - I’m going to try this one again when there isn’t a waitlist. Probably. What I really want is a detailed synopsis so that I don’t have to read this. Maybe I should stop trying to read superhero comics?
Library Wars 1 - I only made it about thirty pages into this in spite of it being manga and in spite of me renewing it twice. I didn’t manage to get past the part where the main characters annoyed me to reach anything actually happening.
Listen at Home with Octopus Pie - I tried to get through this, but I had trouble telling the characters apart, and I really, really didn’t care at all about lives of characters.
March, Book 1 - This was a struggle for me to get through because I had trouble reading the print in several places. I ended up giving up because the book couldn’t be renewed. I thought that what I could follow of the story had a strong sense of place and time and was very clear about the issues and motivations and such. I think that books like this are really important in terms of making history accessible (most people aren’t going to have my issues with reading the lettering) and being honest about the risks civil rights activists were taking. Our library has catalogued this as an adult graphic novel, and I’m not entirely happy about that because that limits the access that children and teens will have to the book. I rather think that the book will be most powerful for young people. Hearing the story told by someone who was there, someone with the stature of Congressman John Lewis, matters a lot.
Mirror: the Mountain - I read about a third of this and found myself feeling no connection to the characters or to the story.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 1: BFF - I think I need to stop trying to read superhero comics. I just get cranky because I want to like what I’m reading but also don’t actually want to read what I’m reading. It’s not that the things I’m trying are bad superhero comics. It’s that I’m just not in the right mental space not to get annoyed by normal superhero stuff. There’s a reason why I’m very sporadic about watching superhero TV shows and movies.
Orange: the Complete Collection 1 - This was too long for me. I think I’d have liked it better in smaller bits instead of trying to read the whole thing the day it was due back at the library (unrenewable, of course, because of the waitlist). The volume is about three times the length of the manga volumes I’m used to. The pace of the story is very slow and deliberate. If I was less irritated by that, I’d call it gentle. The focus is on the interpersonal relationships and incremental events much, much more than on the time traveling letters, and the latter were what drew me to begin with.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-07 07:17 am (UTC)