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Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol

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I just love First Second (:01), Macmillan’s graphic novel imprint.  Not only are the stories and art almost always good, the books themselves always look pretty.  The binding is high quality, most are available as hardcovers, and the pages are thick and will hold up for many readings.
Anya’s Ghost, Vera Brosgol’s first graphic novel, is no exception.  Teenaged Anya considers herself to be something of an outcast at school.  Her family is Russian, and her mother understands nothing of what it’s like to be a teenager in America.  She insists that Anya eat fatty foods when Anya is trying to go on a diet, and she tries to get Anya to be friends with “fobby” Dima, a short Russian boy at her school who just doesn’t understand why it’s important to assimilate into the majority culture.  What’s more, Anya is crushing majorly on the school’s star athlete, who will never notice her.
When teenaged Anya is out walking after a particularly bad day at school, she has the misfortune to fall down a well.  Even more unfortunately, it looks as if someone else fell down the well, too, and her fate wasn’t terribly rosy – she’s now a skeleton.  After a good freakout, Anya discovers that her companion is a ghost named Emily who died around the time of World War I.  Emily’s a bit irritating at first, but she starts to grow on Anya, and ultimately helps rescue Anya from the well by waking up Anya so she can call for help from a passerby above.
Anya is happy to leave the well and Emily, but she soon discovers that she has accidentally taken a piece of Emily’s skeleton with her, allowing Emily to follow Anya home.  The two start to develop a real friendship, something Anya desperately needs since she feels like such an outcast at school.  Emily helps Anya cheat at tests, choose the right clothes for a party, and impress the boy she’s been crushing on for years.  Along the way, Emily shares the tragic story of her death, and Anya decides to keep Emily around for awhile.
Then things take a turn, and Emily’s concern for Anya’s life starts to morph into something a little closer to infatuation.  Anya discovers that Emily may not be who she says she is – she may be something very dangerous indeed.
Neil Gaiman’s blurb on the front cover calling this book a masterpiece is high praise indeed, and while I think Anya’s Ghost is good, it’s perhaps not that good.  It’s got a lot that any teen could relate to: issues of not fitting in at school, a weird family, an unrequited crush.  The artwork is nicely done – it’s got a generic cartoony feel to it, but Brosgol infuses real emotion into her facial expressions, so we always know when Anya is feeling scornful, anxious, excited, or ashamed.  The muted blacks/whites/grays are perfect for a ghost story.  I also really love the cover.
Despite all these positives, Brosgol spells out the lesson the reader is supposed to have learned at the end of the book, making it a bit didactic for my taste.  The twist with Emily near the end adds some nice excitement to the story, but once it’s revealed, the plot is fairly predictable from then on out.
I see some similarities with Deutsch’s How Mirka Got Her Sword in that both involve the exploration of a culture very different from the average reader’s – Jewish Orthodox for Mirka and Russian Orthodox for Anya.  Both female leads are also highly spirited with a lot of personality and a good amount of intelligence.  It’s also got some parallels with Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese – both explore what it’s like for a teen to feel divided between her parents’ culture and the “American” culture, how it feels to not be accepted by your peers despite desperate attempts, and a twist at the end that makes the reader view the story in an entirely different light.  I think Anya’s Ghost would be a good readalike for both books.  It’s also got enough widespread appeal to please almost any audience.
Anya’s Ghost will be on shelves June 7.  Copy obtained from my local library who somehow got it early.  Score.

Graphic Novel Roundup

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It was another comics-reading weekend for me, and I feasted on a crop of middle grade books plus one for adults.  Fortunately for me, I enjoyed them all and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend any of them.

So cute!

Jellaby, Volume 1
Kean Soo

I am such a sucker for the cute, and Jellaby is about as cute as they come.  Portia has just moved to a new city with her mom (her dad mysteriously disappeared sometime before) and is having trouble making friends.  One day (or night, rather), she decides to investigate the woods behind her house and finds a big purple monster she names Jellaby.  Jellaby doesn’t speak, but he (or she?) is very friendly and communicates in ways that don’t require words.  Portia makes an unlikely friend in Jason, a boy who is always being picked on by the school bullies, and together they try and hide Jellaby from the adults of the town, ultimately hatching a plan to somehow return Jellaby to his home – wherever that may be.

I really enjoyed the art in Jellaby.  It’s done in mostly whites and purples, with some black thrown in when Portia experiences a flashback.  You’d think with all that purple and a cute, cuddly monster (seriously – cutest monster ever), the book would fall on the wrong side of saccharine, but it doesn’t.  It’s got a warm-hearted story about friendship at its center (friendship between Jellaby and Portia as well as that between Portia and Jason) and a good dash of adventure.  The wordless panels are among the best in the book at conveying emotion and creating character.  My only complaint is the book leaves us with a major cliffhanger – and now I have to hunt down volume 2.  Oh well.  I’m much more forgiving of this with comics than regular books.

Robot Dreams
Sara Varon

Sara Varon has done something pretty brilliant: created a dialogue-free (and nearly word-free) treatise on friendship that isn’t your usual warm and fuzzy fare.  A dog buys a robot, puts him together, and they become fast friends.  They visit the library together, visit the beach, go for a swim…which is a mistake for the robot, because he starts to rust.  Soon, he can’t move, and the dog leaves him on the beach.  The dog comes back to try and rescue the robot later, but the beach is closed.  Time passes and the dog makes other friends while the robot lays on the beach, dreaming about being rescued, going on adventures, and generally living (as much as a robot can live) again.  Eventually, the summer rolls around again and the beach re-opens, but things don’t happen as you think they would.  Robot Dreams is one of those books that deserves repeated readings.  Bonus: multiple uses of reference books!

Zita the Spacegirl
Ben Hatke

The concept of this one is simple: A mysterious device zaps Zita’s friend through a portal to an alien world, Zita follows, and adventures ensue.  The alien world they are transported to is in the path of an asteroid, and the indigenous people have walled themselves up with Zita’s friend held captive, believing he will save them.  Zita meets up with a motley band of adventurers (not your usual band – more than half of them are robots) and must battle strange-looking aliens and double-crossers and hostile landscapes in order to rescue her friend.  Adventure, humor, bright colors, odd tentacled creatures (Zita finds a whole reference book of odd tentacled creatures, in fact) – what more could you want?  Bonus: the volume tells a complete story!

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword
Barry Deutsch 

The tagline for this book is terrific: Yet another troll-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl. How can you not want to read this book now?  I loved two major things about Hereville: its tongue in cheek plotline (involving a rampaging, talking boar and a fight with a troll) which is funny but also a terrific adventure, and its insight into Orthodox Jewish life, which is incredibly fascinating to someone who knows almost nothing about it (me). Deutsch sprinkles Yiddish words and phrases throughout the book, defining them at the bottom of the page.  The lifestyle of the religion is an integral part of the story and informs the interactions between the characters, who are likable but also have believable faults.  Mirka herself is an engaging protagonist, feisty, full of energy, argumentative, and always talking back to her decidedly un-evil stepmother.  The art is terrific too.  This is a particularly well-done graphic novel that stands apart from its fellows.

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall
Bill Willingham

The lone comic book for adults I read this past weekend, 1001 Nights of Snowfall was one of the most enjoyable.  I’ve waxed rhapsodic before about how much I love the concept of Fables – all the characters from fairy tales and legends you’ve known about since you were a child are living in New York City as exiles, having fled a terrifying adversary that conquered the Homelands.  Despite its fairy tale background, this series is decidedly for adults.  While I mostly read books for kids, it is nice to step outside of that and read something written for people my own age every once in awhile.

1001 Nights of Snowfall uses a twist on the story of Scheherezade as a frame tale: in Willingham’s version, Snow White travels to the Arabian lands to try and broker an alliance with the Sultan in their fight against the Adversary.  Instead, he takes her captive and threatens to chop off her head in the morning.  To keep him placated, she tells him stories, and those stories just so happen to be the origin stories of the characters we’ve come to know and love throughout the series proper: Snow White herself, Bigby, Old King Cole, the Frog Prince, and more.  It’s a great way for Willingham to showcase his creativity, bending the stories we know from our childhoods to suit the characters he’s created.  As a bonus, each of the stories is illustrated by someone different, and if you read comics at all, you’ll recognize at least some of the names (Derek Kirk Kim, for example, is featured).  Great for fans and also a good entree to the series for those new to it.

Take your pick Friday

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In case you ever believed I was a little one sided in my reading, I thought I’d shake things up for this Friday and post two shorter reviews of books I’ve read lately. Not only are they much different than my normal YA fare, but they’re also as different from one another as they could be.

First up, William March’s classic The Bad Seed. You may be familiar with the movie; this is the dark story about a mother raising a child who is a killer. I haven’t seen the movie myself, but after reading the book, you bet I’ll be watching it soon.

Rhoda Penmark’s always been a bit of a strange child, but her mother hasn’t thought much of it. The thing is, it’s becoming harder and harder for her mother to ignore it when the little boy who won an award that Rhoda believes she earned is found dead. His medal is missing as well. When the rest of the class mourns the boy’s loss, Rhoda continues living as though nothing happened, as though the boy himself never existed. And not just that, but she continues insisting she earned the honor and deserves it.

This chilling novel is not for the faint of heart, and it’s not necessarily a quick read. It’s filled to the brim with Freudian psychology, which is something that interests me to no end. As readers, we’re dropped into the mind of the mother, except that we have the knowledge — or at least the great suspicion — that Rhoda’s got a killing streak in her, and we can’t help but want to shake sense into mom. But what do you do in that situation? How do you punish a child who has no remorse? How do you come to terms with yourself as a parent raising a child like that? Are you to blame or is society to blame?

Hand this book to those who like psychological thrillers/horrors that are less on the bloody side and more on the strange side. I think readers who enjoy books like or Flowers in the Attic (for the strangeness) or Mommie Dearest (the family drama) would find this one a worthwhile read. It’s an adult book, but your teen readers will be interested in this book. It’s a classic that shouldn’t be left behind. I know I’ve mentioned I’m not a one-sitting kind of reader, but this was a book I devoted an entire day to because it was that engaging and, well, horrifying.

After reading a heavy book, I thought I would treat myself to something completely sweet, which is why I dove into My Milk Toof by Inhae Lee. Although not a graphic novel, this book is similar in set up, but it uses large photos with captions to tell a few short stories about a pair of milk teeth (baby teeth) who choose to reunite with the person whose mouth they came from years ago.

A knock on the door one day leads the author to discover a small tooth waiting for her. He introduces himself as Ickle, and he’s welcomed into his new (old?) home with a story, a snack, and even a place to sleep. He’s happy getting so much attention, but it’s not too long before Lardee shows up, and like any siblings, the two of them have their fair share of spats. But they don’t fight all the time — the two of them have adventures together, including bath time (probably my favorite story in the book).

What I love most about this book is how sweet the images are. Everything is real, but the focus is on the tiny details of the teeth and their toys. When Ickle begins teething (because, yes, milk teeth can teeth too!), you see him in comparison to the door he’s chewing. The teeth change their facials expressions throughout, as well, so as readers we know exactly what they’re feeling, even without reading the text. This is a cute story without being cloying, and never once did I feel like it was over done or the story got old. These sorts of books usually don’t work for me because they feel phony and overdone, but Lee gets enough emotion behind the stories to make me care about the characters — even if they’re just teeth. In fact, my husband, who is a non-reader of fiction and certainly a non-reader of comics, read this one cover and cover and really liked it, too.

To get a little more background into the project and for more of the cute stories of Ickle and Lardee, check out Lee’s blog. I’d be comfortable handing this book off to older children through adults; it’s perfectly appropriate for all ages, and it’d be enjoyed on different levels. My Milk Toof is one of those books I’ll be picking up after a bad day and one which I hope has more prints made available soon — I’d love to get a copy of Ickle telling Lardee he can’t play because he’s too busy reading.

Long Tail Kitty by Lark Pien

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Long Tail Kitty by Lark Pien officially takes the prize for Cutest Graphic Novel Ever.  Long Tail Kitty (abbreviated LTK) is a kitty with a long tail (surprise!).  He’s got two visible teeth and a red stripe around his middle.  He has a number of friends, including a bee that stings him (they’re still friends, don’t worry), Good Tall Mouse (you guessed it, a tall mouse), and three aliens who come for a visit from their home planet (but they must be back in time for breakfast, Mom’s orders).  
The book is a series of five vignettes, and only two of them have any real conflict.  Usually this would be a death sentence for a book, but it works here.  The illustrations are so delightfully cute without being cloying, and LTK’s facial expressions are hysterical.  There’s a huge amount of energy and humor in every panel, thanks to Pien’s wonderful drawings, and despite the fact that not much happens in a lot of the book, it’s always entertaining.
My favorite part of the book involves LTK and his friend the bee, who stings him on the nose (despite the fact that LTK doesn’t really have a nose).  The bee’s stinger is nowhere to be found afterward, and the bee is distraught.  LTK doesn’t understand why the bee is so upset, since he seems to be flying fine without the stinger.  “Just imagine what it would be like if you lost your tail!” the bee exclaims.  LTK imagines just that, and the results (depicted so cleverly in his thought bubble) are hilarious. 
I don’t tend to read a lot of graphic novels for the very young set, and I’m glad I picked this one up.  I read it through in just a few minutes, but it’s worth poring over closely two or three times more.  Pien’s illustrations are simple, but she expresses so much with just a few lines.  There’s a fold-out page in the center that is especially delicious for the eyes.  Pien also includes one page at the end that teaches the reader how to draw LTK her/himself, plus another page with examples of LTK’s many moods (all hilarious and so expressive with a minimum amount of line).  Directions like these are a wonderful way for budding comic book artists to feel inspired and pick up the pen.
Everything about the look of this book is perfect: the cut-out window where we get our first glimpse of LTK on the front cover, the lettering (playful yet readable), the colors (semi-muted with a water color feel), and the final image of LTK dancing on the back cover.  When we talk about books being works of art, this is the type of book we mean.  Everything – page design, illustrations, lettering, cover and spine design, binding, even the type of paper used – works together so well.  It’s best for readers who appreciate illustration as much or more than they appreciate story, since the story is rather slim throughout, but honestly, I can’t recommend Long Tail Kitty strongly enough.

Guys Read: Guest Post by Paul Vogt on Comics You Should Know

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Welcome to the first in our series of posts for Guys Read week. Today, Paul Vogt of The Hopeless Gamer joins us to talk about comic books — find out what you’ve been missing and what you can lead your rabid readers to. Your to-read list is guaranteed to expand.

I’m here to talk to you about comic books. I grew up on the things, and they taught me how much fun reading could be. I learned about prejudice (the X-men’s mutants), critical thinking (Batman’s detective skills), and Christ-figures (All of Superman) as a result of reading comic books as a kid. I learned the definition of “uncanny” by the time I made it to third grade. As a media, comic books have followed me since grade school through high school and beyond grad school. All the while, I was maturing as a reader and comics were continuing to evolve as a medium.
Comics are a funny thing. Right now is a fantastic time to be reading comics. There’s a bit of a creative rennasaince in the industry even as book sales seem to diminish on a monthly basis. And then there’s the question of digital publishing. Comics are a unique medium in that they are usually endless serial stories where some have more than 40 years of continuity clogging up their histories. If you go to any superhero or comic, forum you’ll easily find pages and pages of discussions all asking the same question: where can I jump on and start reading comic X? The assumption here is that you have to read all of the Avengers or the Justice League’s enormous backlog of stories in order to catch up and start enjoying the stories being told today. Guess what? You don’t. You can jump in feet first (maybe with some helpful suggestions by yours truly – see below) and start getting a kick out of comics right away.
There are several routes you can take when starting to get into (or returning to) comics. Every Wednesday sees the release of new issues from DC, Marvel, Image, and many other smaller imprints and publishers. These single issues are often referred to as “floppys” and often get “bagged and boarded” by collectors. In other words, you read single comic issues as most people imagine them and then put them into storage. Alternatively, digital comics are quickly growing in popularity as digital distribution models continue to be discussed and developed by the bigger publishers. There are countless apps out there dedicated to making it easier to read comics on your ipad or smartphone.
Ah, but there is a third option, and it’s the option that your humble writer chooses on a regular basis. While you could have boxes and boxes of single issues collecting runs of your favorite titles, or you could jam your phone or tablet full of comic files, I prefer collected issues that resemble a book more than a magazine. I’m sure you’re familiar with graphic novels as a medium, and these are what I’m going to be talking about today. Technically I’m going to be talking about trade paperbacks specifically. The difference is in the formatting of the story. A graphic novel is a book that was put together specifically to be in a collected format and is released in the collected format primarily. A trade paperback (or TPB) is what you get when you combine a series of comics from a singular, or string of singular storylines. These can range from three issues to huge omnibus collections of 25 issues or more.
I wanted to come up with some suggestions for you to try out, but I’m doing my best to steer away from titles and books you might already know about. I could suggest Watchmen, The Walking Dead, Y: The Last Man, or The Dark Knight Returns, but where would the fun be in that? Instead I’ve selected some titles which would probably not be considered ground breaking suggestions from comic readers but would serve as a good introduction to some very broad genres of comics. My aim is also to provide some suggestions that you may actually be able to find somewhere other than on Amazon (such as your local library… maybe!). So without further ado, here are some comics to try out.

The Immortal Iron Fist Volume 1: The Last Iron Fist Story (Marvel Comics)
by Matt Fraction (writer) and David Aja (artist)
“…Tiger Scratch (Second Stance). Drunken Wasp Sting. Good Fortune Thunder Kick. Brooklyn Headbutt.”
Iron Fist is a classic example of a modern comic writer taking a classic 70’s superhero character and updating him for the 21st century. Iron Fist, also known as Danny Rand, is a living weapon kung fu master of the secret city Kun’Lun. Sounds pretty cheesy, right? I did mention it’s originally from the 70’s, but Fraction, with the help of Aja’s art, has taken the character in a completely new direction. In this relaunch of the title, he does a creative job of imagining a whole backstory to the character spanning centuries. It gives a truly epic feel to the character, and the revelation early on that Danny is the 67th Iron Fist is felt as a true revelation to the reader as much as it is to the character. It’s a street-level action comic right at its heart, and plays like a classy version of the 70’s mystic kung fu flick.
Iron Fist moves at a break-neck pace and ends up feeling a little bit like the original Highlander movie (you’ll have to read it to discovery how). Aja’s art is realistic without being too photographic. Its got just the perfect amount of illustration to really communicate the character’s thoughts and reactions. The story is complete on its own, but it also works as a very nice set-up for the rest of the on-going series and follow-up TPB volumes. Danny faces some tough challenges in this first collection, but hints of more living weapons (something unheard of before Fraction’s reboot of the character) and a tournament to the death just works to amp up the excitement of the series by giving it a real purpose and direction.
Astonishing X-Men Volumes 1 – 4: Gifted, Dangerous, Torn, Unstoppable (Marvel Comics)
by Joss Whedon (writer) and John Cassaday (artist)
The Thing: “Didn’t they come up with a cure for your kind?”
Wolverine: “You got a problem with mutants?”
The Thing: “I meant Canadians.”
General fans of genre television will recognize Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse) while comic fans will equally get their interests piqued when they see John Cassaday’s name. I’ll be honest, I grew up loving the X-Men, but even I will admit that they can be too much for the casual fan to wrap their minds around. With more bizzare plot twists and a cast larger than a Pynchon novel, things can get complicated real quick. Astonishing clears that all away. Whedon knows his X-Men. You don’t need to know anything going into the book, and the chemistry between the team members is still going to be instantly recognizable. If you like any of Whedon’s shows, particularly for the dialogue, you can’t go wrong here.
Of course if it was just a bunch of good dialogue, it wouldn’t be one of my favorite runs of all time. The four volumes of Astonishing X-Men tells a complete story and gives all six team members very full, very satisfying character arcs. The plot focuses around a new villain (and eventually new alien world) that takes all the things that makes the X-Men great and makes them relatable. The character, an alien from a world created for the run, is out to kill all the X-Men since his people received the prophesy that an X-Man will one day destroy their world. Although the plots cover many different areas, there’s always the constant threat of this new alien menace lingering in the background. Cassaday’s redesign of some of the characters, specifically fan favorites like Wolverine, Cyclops, and Beast, are iconic and re-conceptualize the costumes to somehow be both serious and heroic in a classic superhero kind of way. By the time you get to volume 4, Unstoppable, you will be gripped by the story’s climax. You’ll both cheer and get tearful before the end of the story, and you’ll be loving it the whole time. You want a classic superhero team book? You’ll find nothing better than Whedon and Cassaday’s run of Astonishing X-Men.
Batwoman: Elegy (DC Comics)
by Greg Rucka (writer) and J.H. Williams III (artist)
Jake (Batwoman’s Father): “Who were you talking to?”
Kate Kane/Batwoman: “Hmm?”
Jake: “Transcript time oh-four-forty-two hours. Suit GPS puts you just north of Tricorner, at Lake Street. Just after you questioned Rush… Who were you talking to?”
Kate Kane: “That, sir, was the Batman.”
You don’t have to know that Bruce Wayne just returned from the dead (really, he did… sort of) to enjoy this one-shot Batwoman story. Kate Kane, the Batwoman, is possibly my favorite new character to be introduced in comics since I don’t know when. She feels authentic as a character in way that, regrettably, few other female superheroes can express. Sadly she’s such a new character that there really aren’t that many other stories out there with her starring in them, but Elegy offers a high enough degree of story crafting combined with the most talented and creative artist in the biz today that you will come away satisfied. Layouts and story-telling are two things you hear a lot about when talking artists, and J.H. Williams III is pretty much the king of both. Picture the Sunday comics with three to six panel stories per strip. A lot of mainstream comics still follow this formula, but the trailblazers try to tell a story through the use of their panel layout, often ignoring the confines of the box altogether. In Elegy, you get to see a master at work.
That’s not to say that Greg Rucka should be ignored. Rucka is known not only in the comic industry but also for his novels in his ability to tell a mystery. Elegy is really a story arc out of the Detective Comics title (where Batman first appeared way back when), and Rucka’s run on writing Detective is epic in its own right. Again, like the previous two titles, the villain in the story is original and self-contained to the TPB they appear in, and it’s a boon to the storytelling. Rucka can do anything with the villain in his story, especially when you compare her to classic Batman rogues like the Penguin or the Riddler. This freedom adds a natural layer of tension and excitement in the fact that she is much less predictably than the traditional villains. On a totally unrelated note, Rachel Maddow wrote the introduction for Elegy, so that’s gotta count for something, right?

All-Star Superman Volumes 1 and 2 (DC Comics)
by Grant Morrison (writer) and Frank Quitely (artist)
Lex Luthor (to Clark Kent): “You wanted my story ‘The Gospel of Lex’ and now you have it. There’s no deep psychology behind the struggle between Superman and me. It’s all very simple. How would you feel if someone deliberately stood in your way, over and over again?”
A lot of people don’t like Superman. A lot of people just haven’t read All-Star Superman yet. You hear a lot of complaints about how boring Superman stories are because he’s all-powerful. It’s basically the novelist’s equivalent to writing an interesting story where God is the protagonist. I have similar memories of Superman. I loved the Justice League as a kid, but I always liked the Batman side of the story much better than the Superman side. All-Star Superman is the story of Superman summed up in 12 amazing issues. All the distractions of the DC universe are stripped away and what’s left is the core Superman cast and basic dilemna of the Christ-like character. Instead of trying to explore a new angle, Grant Morrison, a modern-day legend in the industry, dives in head-first and tries to discover just how difficult it can be for the Man of Steel to save all of humanity.
Morrison and Quitely are well-known for their collaborations. You can pretty much put money on any random book with both of their names on it being solid gold. To me, All-Star is at the top of this list. It’s the purest form of superhero story-telling out there from any creative team. Where Astonishing X-Men gives the perfect team book, All-Star shows what the best superhero in the world is capable of accomplishing. Each of the 12 issues can be picked up on its own and enjoyed as a complete story, but you can feel the underpinnings of the overall theme shining through. Superman is dying. Superman wants to do as much good for humanity as possible before he dies. Go!
Tom Strong Deluxe Edition Volume 1 (America’s Best Comics)
by Alan Moore (writer) and Chris Sprouse (artist)
“This is Tom Strong. Please stay calm everyone…”
It would be downright irresponsible of me to not include an Alan Moore book in a list of comic recommendations. There’s so much to choose from (including the above-mentioned Watchmen) when it comes to Alan Moore, I wanted to stick to something that wasn’t too cerebral, too self-referential or “meta”, and something that could be taken on its own merits as a stand-alone story. Tom Strong also has the benefit of being a book of every genre. It’s basically Alan Moore’s creative playground. In this first hardcover collection you’ve got stories about futuristic Aztecs, parallel worlds, the Old West, super-sentient computers, Disney-style cartoon characters, and of course, Nazis. Tom Strong, the titular character is a super-scientist born and raised on a diet of pure pulp action. He’s a hulking man, but he invents technology like no one else. It’s truly a science fiction book in superhero clothing.
But like all these recommendations, Tom Strong has more to offer than fantastic, complex plots. Tom would be nothing without his family, including his wife, daughter, talking gorilla, and antique robot butler that practically raised him from birth (of course invented by his father). As silly as this all sounds (and you can bet Moore is challenging the reader’s assumptions by including them), each character is fleshed out with great detail. In fact, my only complaint in this first volume is that Tom doesn’t actually get that much screen time compared to the rest of his family. Comics are known for a couple of different subgenres within the overall superhero genre. You’ve got your lone street warriors like Iron First, your teams like the X-Men, but no sampling of comics could be complete without a proper family book. Think the Fantastic Four, and you’re on the right track. Tom Strong offers a lot of fun, original ideas, but at its core it offers a look at a super family trying their best to balance the common good with what’s good for the family.