I Love Him to Pieces by Evonne Tsang & Janina Gorrissen: Review Posted by Tiffany at 7:13 AM

Title: I Love Him to Pieces
Writer: Evonne Tsang (interview)
Artist: Janina Gorrissen (site)
Published: April 28th, 2011  by Graphic Universe

Pages: 128

Series: My Boyfriend is a Monster #1

Buy: Amazon / Book Depo /Powell's

Rating: 80%

Synopsis: Can love survive the zombie apocalypse? Maybe Dicey's first chance at a real relationship was dead from the start. She's the star of her high school baseball team, and Jack's the star of the science program. Her idea of a study session includes sleeping in the sun, and his idea of a good game involves dungeons and dice. But opposites start attracting when they're assigned to be partners in a class project. Now an outbreak of a weird infection--it eats your brains and leaves you hungry for more--might not mean just the end of their first date. It might mean the end of everything. Will their relationship fall apart faster than zombies in the Florida sun, or can Dicey and Jack beat the odds and find a happy ending? (Goodreads)


Story Review: 35/50 points


This really felt like two stories. The first was about Dicey and Jack getting to know each other and falling in love. The second was about that love being immediately put to the test by a zombie plague. It was all very cute and fun, but it was just a bit too young for me. The pacing was a bit off: some parts were too slow and then suddenly it was weeks later and things were completely different. I'd recommend it to younger teens and preteens. There was nothing sexual or anything else to make it inappropriate for kids.

Graphics Review: 40/50

I am not a huge fan of black and white comics. It's harder for me to get really absorbed in them because after a while the pages all kind of blur together. However, this was cleanly drawn and very readable. My main complaint was about the facial expressions. Dicey especially kept making this incredibly stupid happy face that made me want to smack her. Other than that, the art was very clear and went well with the story. I would have loved to have seen it in color, though.

Bonus points: 5

I'm adding bonus points here because this would be a great comic for younger readers. A lot of the big comics now have scanty costumes, tons of sex, and tons of cussing- and I'm not complaining about any of these things, but it does make me uncomfortable recommending them to younger readers. It's nice to find a comic that is cute, sweet, short, and fun that I could recommend to a gradeschooler or a teen.

Total Score - 80 points out of 100 possible, or 80%

The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen: Comic Review Posted by Tiffany at 2:15 PM

Title: The Last Dragon
Writer: Jane Yolen (site)
Artist: Rebecca Guay (site)
Published: August 31st, 2011  by Dark Horse

Pages: 144

Buy: Amazon / Book Depo / Powell's

Rating: 89%

Synopsis: Master storyteller Jane Yolen (Owl Moon, Sword of the Rightful King) and celebrated fantasy artist Rebecca Guay (Swamp Thing, Magic: The Gathering) weave a textured and lyrical tale of adventure, homelands, and heroism the hard way.Two hundred years ago, humans drove the dragons from the islands of May. Now, the last of the dragons rises to wreak havoc anew — with only a healer’s daughter and a kite-flying would-be hero standing in its way. (Goodreads)


Story Review:


Plot - 23/25 points This was very much in the style of classic fairy tales. I love Jane Yolen's writing, from her Dragon Pit series, which was a favorite of mine when I was growing up, to her kids books- which I love reading to my kids. Her style goes well with graphic novels, if a bit wordier than the usual comic. One thing that bothered me: she set if up with the history of the dragons, making me feel sorry for them, but then the dragon was the villain throughout the rest of the story. It seemed like a mixed message.

Voice - 18/25 points The only problem with classic fairy tales is that the voice is a bit detached, flat. I liked the story, but the characters didn't really pop. I didn't get a feel for who was telling the story, or for the characters it focused on.

Graphics Review:

Artwork - 24/25 points This book is so beautiful! I LOVE Rebecca Guay's artwork. I would love to own a few of her prints. The settings were very detailed and gorgeous, putting you right in the story. The style went very well with the story. It looked almost like a series of old stained glass windows, a bit like the beginning scenes in Beauty and the Beast. The only thing that bothered me was the way faces were drawn. They seemed a bit too alien. 

Coloring (or lack thereof) - 22/25 points The kind of washed-out colors made for a beautfiul, antique-feeling setting, but they also made the whole thing kind of run together. I would have liked a few more brilliant colors thrown in.

Bonus points:

This is a great graphic novel for kids, teens, or adults. I'm awarding 2 bonus points because it would make an amazing book for an early reader.

Total Score - 89 points out of 100 possible, or 89%

Lucille by Ludovic Debeurme: Comic Review Posted by Michaela at 5:28 AM

We're keeping the comic train rolling with our second graphic novel review for Lucille by Ludovic Debeurme. This comic is originally written in French, and there is very little that is comical about it.

Title: Lucille by Ludovic Debeurme

Published: July 12, 2011 (English Version) by Gallisol

Pages: 544

Buy: Amazon

Rating: 80%

Synopsis: With Lucille, Ludovic Debeurme takes on the difficult world of adolescence, following the life of a young anorexic woman and the difficult relationships she has with others, who have significant problems of their own.

Story Review:

Plot - 15/25 points The story was mildly interesting, but I have a feeling I was only intrigued by the morbid parts of the story (which seemed rather abundant). Not a lot happened, and it felt like too much of a fast adult read for my tastes.

Voice - 18/25 points The voice itself was okay, but not necessarily anything to write home about. This can't be entirely credited to the author, though, because it was translated into another language (which might not make that much of a difference, but I am not really a master of translation - I don't know how that affects the diction). At any rate, this was nothing extravagant.

Graphics Review:

Artwork - 22/25 points The artwork was one of my favorite things about this graphic novel. It wasn't too distracting from the story and didn't linger too much on any one scene. One thing I didn't like was the simplicity of the art - there wasn't a lot of intricate detail work. Now that I look back, I notice that this may be the most fitting style for the content of the book. Either way, it was a little less than perfect, but still very nice.

Another note - there were a lot of pages where I was left wondering what they had to do with the story. For instance, there were several pages of the various characters' heads put onto the bodies of bees. This might just be some kind of deep message that I'm missing (the short, tortured life of the average honey bee?), but I was not on board with these images.

Coloring (or lack thereof) - 24/25 points I think the decision to make all of the artwork black and white really added to the impact of the story. It all came together quite nicely.

Bonus points:

I'm going to go ahead and award one bonus point for the bee drawings. While they were a little too poetic (and slightly cheesier than I like), they still got a little chuckle out of me.

Total Score - 80 points out of 100 possible, or 80%

Batman: Year One Posted by Michaela at 6:47 AM

Hey there, guys! Due to our latest obsession with reading comic books, Tiffany and I have decided to start a weekly segment on comics! We mostly review darker comics, or (in my case) modern superhero comics. Hopefully you can find something that sparks your interest. Comics are a lot of fun!

We have also adopted a slightly different reviewing method, using percentages and points, so there's a more accurate account of what we liked and didn't like. (May or may not be applied to books.)

So, here is the launch of our new segment, Comic Books For Bears! (Breathtakingly awesome image coming soon)

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, and Richmond Lewis

Published: January 10, 2007 by DC Comics
Pages: 144
Buy: Amazon
Rating: 94%

Synopsis: A young Bruce Wayne has spent his adolescence and early adulthood, traveling the world so he could hone his body and mind into the perfect fighting and investigative machine. But now as he returns to Gotham City, he must find a way to focus his passion and bring justice to his city. Retracing Batman's first attempts to fight injustice as a costumed vigilante, we watch as he chooses a guise of a giant bat, creates an early bond with a young Lieutenant James Gordon, inadvertently plays a role in the birth of Catwoman, and helps to bring down a corrupt political system that infests Gotham.

Story Review:

Plot - 24/25 points This plot was very enthralling. It was particularly fun to get to know the amateur Batman that was still trying to figure out the whole "superhero" business. We also get to see the darkest part of Gotham City (which happens to be my favorite part). I am no conossieur of graphic novels, but I can certainly say this is one of my favorite plot lines for a comic book.

Voice - 22/25 points The voice was just dark enough to be chilling without being over the top. The entire time I was reading, I felt like I was there, in a situation that couldn't be solved without someone being hurt, or seeing Bruce Wayne's hopeful view of the future for Gotham City. Miller uses simple, stark dialogue and inner monologue to make sure you get the full blow of the emotions he was conveying.

Graphics Review:

Artwork by David Mazzucchelli - 25/25 points At risk of going on an obsessive rant, I'll keep my artwork review nice and short. Mazzucchelli captured Miller's words with his art in a way that I'm sure few could pull off. The drawings were stark, vicious, and exactly what Gotham City should be.

Coloring by Richmond Lewis - 23/25 points I really think he hit the nail on the head, here. The colors had a lot of the classic 50's feel with some shadowing that threw in some modern gothic flavor. This pulled everything together, like the cherry on a delicious chocolate cake.

Bonus Points:
One bonus point awarded for the first page of this comic - it was beautiful, sad, and all around perfect. See it and you'll know what I mean.

Total Score - 94 points out of 100 possible, or 94%