Graphic Novel/Comic Logging
Sep. 17th, 2018 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckAsterix and Caesar’s Gift - I like these better when there are zero female characters.
Asterix and Cleopatra - I’m almost certain I read this one in elementary school. Cleopatra is memorable, and I think this may have been the first time I read anything that featured her (I probably didn’t realize that she was an historical personage). At any rate, this is silly. There’s not much else to say about anything in the Asterix series.
Asterix and the Cauldron - I’m pretty sure readers were supposed know who the thief was through the whole book. I’m curious about what was going on in the world when this one was written because all of the incidents are built around the idea that only the tax collectors and thieves have any money.
Asterix and the Great Divide - That was very silly. I found myself wondering who did the translation for these and whether it was the same person or team all the way through. Translating word play is hard, and that’s a lot of what’s here. The ‘Great Divide’ in the title is a trench down the middle of a village that has elected one chieftain on the left and another on the right. One of them has an advisor who I kept thinking ought to be named Gollum, just based on his appearance.
Asterix and the Mansions of the Gods - This one skirted very close to having an ethical point. I had to hold on tight not to lose my suspension of disbelief because I was heading off of the 'but this would have changed history' cliff. I have the temptation to go there with each of these but can usually just read for the jokes.
Asterix and the Normans - The Normans don’t know the meaning of the word ‘fear’ but have heard that it will give them wings. They go to Gaul in hopes of learning.
Asterix and the Soothsayer - This one was pretty predictable. Not that any of these aren't. I think I shouldn't be reading so many, so close together because they really, really blur. But they're so fast to get through.
Asterix in Corsica - I felt like this was one long joke that I didn't get because of lacking cultural context. My suspicion is that, if I did get it, I wouldn't like it.
Batman Beyond v.2: City of Yesterday - I had forgotten the details of v.1 when I got this from the library, but I managed to muddle along anyway. There were enough call backs that those and general knowledge of DC’s various universes carried me through. I’m not entirely optimistic about the future for this particular world, but the characters are trying hard. The setting is post-apocalyptic with a time traveling Tim Drake taking over as Batman after Terry McGinnis dies.
Batman Beyond v.3: Wired for Death - The blurb makes much of the 'twist' in the story here, but I thought it was pretty much 100% predictable base on superhero comics conventions. This is not to say that it was badly executed, just that it was beyond inevitable. This one is the direct sequel to City of Yesterday above.
Brain Camp - This one was just kind of weird. Probably, it would read better if I were in the age range of the intended audience. I spent a lot of time going, “Wait-- What?” and the characterization was kind of thin. There’s a certain amount of creepy horror vibe here without the story getting really and truly scary, not surface scary anyway. There are a lot of things underneath that make the world kind of beyond terrible and that the characters can’t fix.
Bungo Stray Dogs 1 - The art style of this manga is such that I’m having a little trouble telling some of these characters apart, and none of them have gone beyond defining quirk levels of story. The setting seems potentially interesting, but I don’t have enough story yet to care much. The library has v.1-6, so I’ll go on.
Dignifying Science - Collection of short comics about specific women scientists-- Hedy Lamarr, Lise Meitner, Rosalind Franklin, Barbara McClintock, and Birute Galdikas with prologue and epilogue bits about Marie Curie. The writing is all by Jim Ottaviani, but the artists vary. There are end notes which I found very useful and an annotated bibliography.
The DragonSlayer: Folktales from Latin America - This book has graphic novel adaptations of three folktales unfamiliar to me (I recognized elements in each but not the stories themselves). They were all quick, easy reads and likely to appeal to all ages, including beginning readers.
Girls’ Last Tour 1 - I feel like this manga shouldn’t work, but it does. It’s post-apocalyptic slice of life. The characters are constantly in danger of starving and are physically uncomfortable, but they’re just living their lives. I can’t tell how old they’re supposed to be which bothers me a little, but it was kind of soothing reading.
Gunnerkrigg Court volume 2: Research; Gunnerkrigg Court volume 3: Reason; Gunnerkrigg Court volume 4: Materia - I know I’ve read beyond the point where volume 4 ended. Looking at Amazon, there are two more published volumes, but I’m not betting that that’s the end of the series. I think that I’m getting a better feel for the worldbuilding by rereading all of this because I’m losing fewer details going forward. The interaction between magic and technology is fascinating, and I want to know more about how the universe works.
Jak and the Magic Nano-Beans - This is a short graphic novel version of Jack and the Beanstalk in a science fiction setting. The beanstalk is a long abandoned space elevator, and the cow is a robot. I didn’t find the story satisfying, but I think that the young readers the book is aimed at would fill in a lot of the holes. The setting is barely sketched in, and there’s a lot of elided history/world building.
Yona of the Dawn 3-5 - I’d seen mentions of dragons in this series, but they weren’t in the first two volumes, so I was confused. Each of these volumes gave me a dragon, so maybe some of the fic prompts I see will start making sense. Yona’s going to have quite a collection of attractive guys by the end of this, isn’t she? I kind of keep thinking of Fushigi Yuugi.
Started but didn’t finish:
Action Philosophers - I read parts of this, but I bounced off a lot of the discussion of more complicated ideas once the number of panels/pages per philosopher got beyond a certain point. I recognized the words as words, but I couldn’t parse their meaning. The level of jokiness and making fun of things remained consistent, regardless of who was being discussed, but I felt very uncomfortable about it in the bits about early Chinese philosophers. Mocking the Classical philosophers doesn’t feel like punching down. Also, the book is a very, very heavy hardcover. I might have read more if I was reading something that I wasn’t afraid to lift.
Batman Beyond v.1: Escaping the Grave - This is a sequel to the two trades in the above section for finished books. They’re starting the numbering over, and the first dozen pages in this one were the final ones in v.3: Wired for Death. This one goes back to Terry McGinnis as Batman (which is supposed to be a surprising twist). I ended up stopping because things went in a Joker direction. I find the Joker really irritating 99% of the time and just couldn’t go on.
Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden: Borrowed Magic - Sadly, my eyes were uncooperative about reading this graphic novel. I got about three pages in and started feeling like my eyes weren’t working right. Half of the panels were very dark in background and the others very light, and I couldn’t transition back and forth between them several times per page.
Nnnewts 1 - hard bounce. Possibly there were too many characters. Possibly the pacing felt off. Possibly great for not-me people.
Siuil, a Run: The Girl from the Other Side 1 - I got about halfway into this and just found myself irritated. I think it might work better for a not-me person. The pace is very, very slow, and it’s hard to tell which speech bubbles come from which character. There’s also no differentiation between spoken words and thoughts.
2024 - This is a reworking of 1984 as a graphic novel with more current technology and buzzwords and such but the same thru line for the plot and the same crushing sense of futility. I don’t think I knew that when I put this on my list of things to try from the library because it doesn’t sound like a fun read to me. The thirty or so pages I read didn’t change my feelings about the idea being fun, either.
Zebrafish: SPF 40 - I think this graphic novel must be a sequel because I had a feeling that I was missing a lot about the characters and their relationships. I wasn’t able to pick up enough from context to follow what was going on because there were a lot of characters who all seemed to be doing slice of life things that were only going to be interesting if I was attached to the characters.
Asterix and Cleopatra - I’m almost certain I read this one in elementary school. Cleopatra is memorable, and I think this may have been the first time I read anything that featured her (I probably didn’t realize that she was an historical personage). At any rate, this is silly. There’s not much else to say about anything in the Asterix series.
Asterix and the Cauldron - I’m pretty sure readers were supposed know who the thief was through the whole book. I’m curious about what was going on in the world when this one was written because all of the incidents are built around the idea that only the tax collectors and thieves have any money.
Asterix and the Great Divide - That was very silly. I found myself wondering who did the translation for these and whether it was the same person or team all the way through. Translating word play is hard, and that’s a lot of what’s here. The ‘Great Divide’ in the title is a trench down the middle of a village that has elected one chieftain on the left and another on the right. One of them has an advisor who I kept thinking ought to be named Gollum, just based on his appearance.
Asterix and the Mansions of the Gods - This one skirted very close to having an ethical point. I had to hold on tight not to lose my suspension of disbelief because I was heading off of the 'but this would have changed history' cliff. I have the temptation to go there with each of these but can usually just read for the jokes.
Asterix and the Normans - The Normans don’t know the meaning of the word ‘fear’ but have heard that it will give them wings. They go to Gaul in hopes of learning.
Asterix and the Soothsayer - This one was pretty predictable. Not that any of these aren't. I think I shouldn't be reading so many, so close together because they really, really blur. But they're so fast to get through.
Asterix in Corsica - I felt like this was one long joke that I didn't get because of lacking cultural context. My suspicion is that, if I did get it, I wouldn't like it.
Batman Beyond v.2: City of Yesterday - I had forgotten the details of v.1 when I got this from the library, but I managed to muddle along anyway. There were enough call backs that those and general knowledge of DC’s various universes carried me through. I’m not entirely optimistic about the future for this particular world, but the characters are trying hard. The setting is post-apocalyptic with a time traveling Tim Drake taking over as Batman after Terry McGinnis dies.
Batman Beyond v.3: Wired for Death - The blurb makes much of the 'twist' in the story here, but I thought it was pretty much 100% predictable base on superhero comics conventions. This is not to say that it was badly executed, just that it was beyond inevitable. This one is the direct sequel to City of Yesterday above.
Brain Camp - This one was just kind of weird. Probably, it would read better if I were in the age range of the intended audience. I spent a lot of time going, “Wait-- What?” and the characterization was kind of thin. There’s a certain amount of creepy horror vibe here without the story getting really and truly scary, not surface scary anyway. There are a lot of things underneath that make the world kind of beyond terrible and that the characters can’t fix.
Bungo Stray Dogs 1 - The art style of this manga is such that I’m having a little trouble telling some of these characters apart, and none of them have gone beyond defining quirk levels of story. The setting seems potentially interesting, but I don’t have enough story yet to care much. The library has v.1-6, so I’ll go on.
Dignifying Science - Collection of short comics about specific women scientists-- Hedy Lamarr, Lise Meitner, Rosalind Franklin, Barbara McClintock, and Birute Galdikas with prologue and epilogue bits about Marie Curie. The writing is all by Jim Ottaviani, but the artists vary. There are end notes which I found very useful and an annotated bibliography.
The DragonSlayer: Folktales from Latin America - This book has graphic novel adaptations of three folktales unfamiliar to me (I recognized elements in each but not the stories themselves). They were all quick, easy reads and likely to appeal to all ages, including beginning readers.
Girls’ Last Tour 1 - I feel like this manga shouldn’t work, but it does. It’s post-apocalyptic slice of life. The characters are constantly in danger of starving and are physically uncomfortable, but they’re just living their lives. I can’t tell how old they’re supposed to be which bothers me a little, but it was kind of soothing reading.
Gunnerkrigg Court volume 2: Research; Gunnerkrigg Court volume 3: Reason; Gunnerkrigg Court volume 4: Materia - I know I’ve read beyond the point where volume 4 ended. Looking at Amazon, there are two more published volumes, but I’m not betting that that’s the end of the series. I think that I’m getting a better feel for the worldbuilding by rereading all of this because I’m losing fewer details going forward. The interaction between magic and technology is fascinating, and I want to know more about how the universe works.
Jak and the Magic Nano-Beans - This is a short graphic novel version of Jack and the Beanstalk in a science fiction setting. The beanstalk is a long abandoned space elevator, and the cow is a robot. I didn’t find the story satisfying, but I think that the young readers the book is aimed at would fill in a lot of the holes. The setting is barely sketched in, and there’s a lot of elided history/world building.
Yona of the Dawn 3-5 - I’d seen mentions of dragons in this series, but they weren’t in the first two volumes, so I was confused. Each of these volumes gave me a dragon, so maybe some of the fic prompts I see will start making sense. Yona’s going to have quite a collection of attractive guys by the end of this, isn’t she? I kind of keep thinking of Fushigi Yuugi.
Started but didn’t finish:
Action Philosophers - I read parts of this, but I bounced off a lot of the discussion of more complicated ideas once the number of panels/pages per philosopher got beyond a certain point. I recognized the words as words, but I couldn’t parse their meaning. The level of jokiness and making fun of things remained consistent, regardless of who was being discussed, but I felt very uncomfortable about it in the bits about early Chinese philosophers. Mocking the Classical philosophers doesn’t feel like punching down. Also, the book is a very, very heavy hardcover. I might have read more if I was reading something that I wasn’t afraid to lift.
Batman Beyond v.1: Escaping the Grave - This is a sequel to the two trades in the above section for finished books. They’re starting the numbering over, and the first dozen pages in this one were the final ones in v.3: Wired for Death. This one goes back to Terry McGinnis as Batman (which is supposed to be a surprising twist). I ended up stopping because things went in a Joker direction. I find the Joker really irritating 99% of the time and just couldn’t go on.
Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden: Borrowed Magic - Sadly, my eyes were uncooperative about reading this graphic novel. I got about three pages in and started feeling like my eyes weren’t working right. Half of the panels were very dark in background and the others very light, and I couldn’t transition back and forth between them several times per page.
Nnnewts 1 - hard bounce. Possibly there were too many characters. Possibly the pacing felt off. Possibly great for not-me people.
Siuil, a Run: The Girl from the Other Side 1 - I got about halfway into this and just found myself irritated. I think it might work better for a not-me person. The pace is very, very slow, and it’s hard to tell which speech bubbles come from which character. There’s also no differentiation between spoken words and thoughts.
2024 - This is a reworking of 1984 as a graphic novel with more current technology and buzzwords and such but the same thru line for the plot and the same crushing sense of futility. I don’t think I knew that when I put this on my list of things to try from the library because it doesn’t sound like a fun read to me. The thirty or so pages I read didn’t change my feelings about the idea being fun, either.
Zebrafish: SPF 40 - I think this graphic novel must be a sequel because I had a feeling that I was missing a lot about the characters and their relationships. I wasn’t able to pick up enough from context to follow what was going on because there were a lot of characters who all seemed to be doing slice of life things that were only going to be interesting if I was attached to the characters.
