Book Logging (Graphic Novels)
Dec. 13th, 2018 07:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckIt's been months since I did most of my book logging. This is the first part of my list of graphic novels I've read. I haven't finished writing up the rest yet. I hope to get to them this weekend.
Adventure Time Presents Marceline and the Scream Queens - Princess Bubblegum signs on to act as manager for Marceline’s band’s tour. There are ups and downs. I’ve only watched a bit of Adventure Time, but I was able to follow the story and remembered who everyone was.
Afar - The art here is really gorgeous. One of the main characters astrally projects to other worlds in her dreams, and those worlds look sufficiently alien to work well. I couldn't tell if the setting was post-apocalyptic Earth or another planet.
Asterix, various titles - These really blur together, and I didn't write notes on all of them because they didn't stand out even right after I finished them.
Asterix and the Actress - Asterix and Obelix end up with a couple of important artifacts as souvenirs, and a Roman agent infiltrates their village, pretending to be a woman they know, in order to get them back.
Asterix and the Banquet - This is a tour of Gaul to gather foods to serve at a banquet in order to win a bet.
Asterix and the Big Fight - Getafix has amnesia, and there’s no potion in stock. The usual characters have to deal with that.
Asterix and the Golden Sickle - Getafix's sickle breaks and needs replacement.
Asterix and the Goths - Goths kidnap Getafix.
Asterix and the Great Crossing - Not recommended. Asterix and Obelix get lost while fishing and end up in North America. The natives they meet are… erm… very Hollywood Western versions of Native Americans displaced to the east coast of the continent. Asterix and Obelix get home without ever realizing that they left their home continent.
Asterix and the Laurel Wreath - The chief tells his brother-in-law that he’ll serve a feast seasoned with Caesar’s laurel wreath. Asterix and Obelix have to manage to retrieve it.
Asterix and the Roman Agent - I was a bit afraid this was going to fall to pieces in my hands. Many pages of the library copy were torn, and the binding was going. At any rate, in this one, the Romans actually come up with a potentially workable plan.
Asterix in Belgium - Some Romans tell the Gauls that Belgians are tougher and harder to fight than are Gauls with superstrength. The chief insists on going to find out who’s really better.
Asterix in Spain - The Gauls rescue a Spanish child who’s being held as hostage for his father’s surrender and good behavior. Then they try to get him home. Apparently, all Spaniards can be identified by how often they say ‘ole!’
Asterix in Switzerland - I don’t even remember why they went to Switzerland-- No, wait. They needed a specific Alpine flower for a potions to help a poisoned Roman bureaucrat.
Asterix the Gaul - The local Romans are surprised to find that one village is still resisting them, and they send a spy to find out the secret. This ends in kidnapping and hair growing potions and ridiculousness.
Asterix the Gladiator - Romans manage to kidnap Cacofonix. Asterix and Obelix go to Rome to rescue him. Judging by how the pirates react, this must be the first time the pirates show up in the series.
Asterix the Legionary - Obelix falls for a pretty girl then discovers that her fiance has been drafted into the legions and sent to Africa. He promises to retrieve the young man for her. Obelix falling in love seems to be a plot point in multiple stories, but Asterix doesn’t seem even remotely interested in sex or romance. Doylistically, it’s probably because Asterix in love wouldn’t be all that funny. Watsonianly, I’m going to take it as Asterix being asexual.
Bandette 1: Presto!, 2: Stealers, Keeper!, 3: The House of the Green Mask - These three volumes were all charming. Bandette is a master thief and planner… and a teenage girl. There’s a largish supporting cast. Some of them get development while others don’t (or haven’t yet). Each volume builds on the ones before, but they’ve all got reasonable story arcs completed by the last page. There are prose short stories at the end of each book, and I recommend reading those as they add a lot of information.
Bigfoot Boy 1: Into the Woods - The library has v.1 and v.3 of this series but not v.2. I was resigned to not going on, but we have interlibrary loan back, just in the last couple of weeks, so I’m going to see if I can get v.2 that way. Although, I think I’m with the main female character in wondering why the boy who was just visiting found the magic talisman in her woods. The thing allows the holder to shape shift back and forth between human and bigfoot forms. I expect that more uses will come up later in the series.
Bungo Stray Dogs 2-6 - I’m fascinated by the world building here in terms of the powers, but, even reading these five volumes in close succession, I can’t tell most of the characters apart. That means that I float along the surface and wait for power usage and dialogue to give me clues. I will probably read more as the library gets it, but it’s frustrating to have so poor a grasp on which characters are which.
Case Closed/Detective Conan 46-48 - The usual mysteries. There’s a Kaito Kid story in volume 46 which was fun. Volume 47 has a Ran-almost-figures-it-out plot which is less so. She gets to the point of deciding that Conan/Shinichi must have a good reason and that she won’t push before Conan convinces her that he’s just a little kid. I know that her not knowing is meant to underline how scary the bad guys are and to add comedy, but it’s just… kind of icky. Having Heiji know is a much bigger security risk, and I’m pretty sure that the Black Organization wouldn’t spare her if they figured out Conan’s secret, no matter what she did or didn’t know.
Cash + Carrie Book One: Sleuth 101 - This is a very thin volume broken up into several shorts. I didn’t find any of them very satisfying, but I suspect they’d work better for the intended audience which is likely to be people at least forty years younger than I am. I had a little trouble with the book as the pages were thin and liked to stick together. I missed the last two pages of one short and was very confused about why the second didn’t clear up the still-pending mystery.
Castle in the Stars 2: The Moon-King - I found some of this art hard to parse. There’s something about soft blues that blurs everything else to the point that I couldn’t read more than a couple of pages at a time. My normal course in the face of that would be to read the text and skim the art, but there’s a lot in the art that’s necessary here.
Dream Jumper 1-2 - This was more fun that I expected it to be. The elements felt a bit predictable in as much as I'm expecting a 'No, Luke, I am your father' moment. The main character discovers that he can enter other people's dreams and alter them. There's some sort of war between good and evil in the dream world.
Ethel & Ernest - This follows the creator's parents from marriage through decades of marriage until the ends of their lives. Given the length of time covered, each 2-3 pages covers years and is just a snapshot. I appreciated it but didn't enjoy it.
Flying Witch 1-4 - This is a slice of life manga. Makoto, a teenage witch in training, moves in with relatives who have a farm. The witch aspects are rather more Kiki’s Delivery Service than anything else. Makoto learns more about magic, but she also learns what wild plants are good to eat and how to tend apple trees in blossom. She attends high school, and there are some events there. Nothing’s high stakes. Nobody’s evil. The magical non-humans all have their own places and their own lives. Multiple witches turn up. They’re all different from each other, but they’re all good people. I don’t think that, at this point, the series is suddenly going to develop must-stop-the-apocalypse plot or even teasing by mean kids plot. It’s very soothing.
Adventure Time Presents Marceline and the Scream Queens - Princess Bubblegum signs on to act as manager for Marceline’s band’s tour. There are ups and downs. I’ve only watched a bit of Adventure Time, but I was able to follow the story and remembered who everyone was.
Afar - The art here is really gorgeous. One of the main characters astrally projects to other worlds in her dreams, and those worlds look sufficiently alien to work well. I couldn't tell if the setting was post-apocalyptic Earth or another planet.
Asterix, various titles - These really blur together, and I didn't write notes on all of them because they didn't stand out even right after I finished them.
Asterix and the Actress - Asterix and Obelix end up with a couple of important artifacts as souvenirs, and a Roman agent infiltrates their village, pretending to be a woman they know, in order to get them back.
Asterix and the Banquet - This is a tour of Gaul to gather foods to serve at a banquet in order to win a bet.
Asterix and the Big Fight - Getafix has amnesia, and there’s no potion in stock. The usual characters have to deal with that.
Asterix and the Golden Sickle - Getafix's sickle breaks and needs replacement.
Asterix and the Goths - Goths kidnap Getafix.
Asterix and the Great Crossing - Not recommended. Asterix and Obelix get lost while fishing and end up in North America. The natives they meet are… erm… very Hollywood Western versions of Native Americans displaced to the east coast of the continent. Asterix and Obelix get home without ever realizing that they left their home continent.
Asterix and the Laurel Wreath - The chief tells his brother-in-law that he’ll serve a feast seasoned with Caesar’s laurel wreath. Asterix and Obelix have to manage to retrieve it.
Asterix and the Roman Agent - I was a bit afraid this was going to fall to pieces in my hands. Many pages of the library copy were torn, and the binding was going. At any rate, in this one, the Romans actually come up with a potentially workable plan.
Asterix in Belgium - Some Romans tell the Gauls that Belgians are tougher and harder to fight than are Gauls with superstrength. The chief insists on going to find out who’s really better.
Asterix in Spain - The Gauls rescue a Spanish child who’s being held as hostage for his father’s surrender and good behavior. Then they try to get him home. Apparently, all Spaniards can be identified by how often they say ‘ole!’
Asterix in Switzerland - I don’t even remember why they went to Switzerland-- No, wait. They needed a specific Alpine flower for a potions to help a poisoned Roman bureaucrat.
Asterix the Gaul - The local Romans are surprised to find that one village is still resisting them, and they send a spy to find out the secret. This ends in kidnapping and hair growing potions and ridiculousness.
Asterix the Gladiator - Romans manage to kidnap Cacofonix. Asterix and Obelix go to Rome to rescue him. Judging by how the pirates react, this must be the first time the pirates show up in the series.
Asterix the Legionary - Obelix falls for a pretty girl then discovers that her fiance has been drafted into the legions and sent to Africa. He promises to retrieve the young man for her. Obelix falling in love seems to be a plot point in multiple stories, but Asterix doesn’t seem even remotely interested in sex or romance. Doylistically, it’s probably because Asterix in love wouldn’t be all that funny. Watsonianly, I’m going to take it as Asterix being asexual.
Bandette 1: Presto!, 2: Stealers, Keeper!, 3: The House of the Green Mask - These three volumes were all charming. Bandette is a master thief and planner… and a teenage girl. There’s a largish supporting cast. Some of them get development while others don’t (or haven’t yet). Each volume builds on the ones before, but they’ve all got reasonable story arcs completed by the last page. There are prose short stories at the end of each book, and I recommend reading those as they add a lot of information.
Bigfoot Boy 1: Into the Woods - The library has v.1 and v.3 of this series but not v.2. I was resigned to not going on, but we have interlibrary loan back, just in the last couple of weeks, so I’m going to see if I can get v.2 that way. Although, I think I’m with the main female character in wondering why the boy who was just visiting found the magic talisman in her woods. The thing allows the holder to shape shift back and forth between human and bigfoot forms. I expect that more uses will come up later in the series.
Bungo Stray Dogs 2-6 - I’m fascinated by the world building here in terms of the powers, but, even reading these five volumes in close succession, I can’t tell most of the characters apart. That means that I float along the surface and wait for power usage and dialogue to give me clues. I will probably read more as the library gets it, but it’s frustrating to have so poor a grasp on which characters are which.
Case Closed/Detective Conan 46-48 - The usual mysteries. There’s a Kaito Kid story in volume 46 which was fun. Volume 47 has a Ran-almost-figures-it-out plot which is less so. She gets to the point of deciding that Conan/Shinichi must have a good reason and that she won’t push before Conan convinces her that he’s just a little kid. I know that her not knowing is meant to underline how scary the bad guys are and to add comedy, but it’s just… kind of icky. Having Heiji know is a much bigger security risk, and I’m pretty sure that the Black Organization wouldn’t spare her if they figured out Conan’s secret, no matter what she did or didn’t know.
Cash + Carrie Book One: Sleuth 101 - This is a very thin volume broken up into several shorts. I didn’t find any of them very satisfying, but I suspect they’d work better for the intended audience which is likely to be people at least forty years younger than I am. I had a little trouble with the book as the pages were thin and liked to stick together. I missed the last two pages of one short and was very confused about why the second didn’t clear up the still-pending mystery.
Castle in the Stars 2: The Moon-King - I found some of this art hard to parse. There’s something about soft blues that blurs everything else to the point that I couldn’t read more than a couple of pages at a time. My normal course in the face of that would be to read the text and skim the art, but there’s a lot in the art that’s necessary here.
Dream Jumper 1-2 - This was more fun that I expected it to be. The elements felt a bit predictable in as much as I'm expecting a 'No, Luke, I am your father' moment. The main character discovers that he can enter other people's dreams and alter them. There's some sort of war between good and evil in the dream world.
Ethel & Ernest - This follows the creator's parents from marriage through decades of marriage until the ends of their lives. Given the length of time covered, each 2-3 pages covers years and is just a snapshot. I appreciated it but didn't enjoy it.
Flying Witch 1-4 - This is a slice of life manga. Makoto, a teenage witch in training, moves in with relatives who have a farm. The witch aspects are rather more Kiki’s Delivery Service than anything else. Makoto learns more about magic, but she also learns what wild plants are good to eat and how to tend apple trees in blossom. She attends high school, and there are some events there. Nothing’s high stakes. Nobody’s evil. The magical non-humans all have their own places and their own lives. Multiple witches turn up. They’re all different from each other, but they’re all good people. I don’t think that, at this point, the series is suddenly going to develop must-stop-the-apocalypse plot or even teasing by mean kids plot. It’s very soothing.
