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Graphic Novels & Comics November 2014
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Greetings!My name is Patrick Holt, and I'm a librarian at Southwest Regional Library. I'm also a lifelong reader of comics and graphic novels. Check out the contents of this month's newsletter in the box to the left. I hope you find these recommendations worthwhile, and please email me at pdholt@dconc.gov if you have any thoughts or questions.
Thanks and enjoy!
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Akira
by Katsuhiro Otomo
A masterful tale of science-fiction dystopia, Akira is known primarily as one of the most famous anime in history. However, it was first a well-known, landmark manga. Set in a post-apocalyptic city called Neo-Tokyo, the story follows two teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, whose lives change forever when paranormal abilities begin to waken in Tetsuo, making him a target for a shadowy agency that will stop at nothing to prevent another catastrophe like the one that leveled Tokyo during World War III. At the core of the agency’s motivation is a raw, all-consuming fear of an unthinkably monstrous power known only as Akira.
While many remember Akira for its ultra-violent action sequences and unique pacing (A few seconds of real-time action may take up a full page worth of panels in the manga), at its heart Akira is a superb character sketch involving themes such as youth alienation, rebellion against government corruption and identity transformation in adolescents.
- Guest review by Will Hanley
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Luba and Her Family (Love and Rockets vol. 10)
by Gilbert Hernandez
The latest chapter in Gilbert's sprawling epic follows Luba and her sisters, Petra and Fritz, out of their Mexican town of Palomar, recently destroyed by an earthquake, and into the United States where some things change, and many stay the same.
(New to Love and Rockets? Start with Gilbert's Heartbreak Soup.)
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Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel
by Anya Ulinich
Heller McAlpin at NPR says: "Lena Finkle is a 37-year-old, twice-divorced Russian immigrant and a self-described "toddler of relationship experience" — when a friend asks how many guys she's "been with" in her life, she can only hold up three fingers. Anya Ulinich's new graphic novel, Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel is her account [a reworking of Bernard Malamud's classic story "The Magic Barrel"], told in expressive dark-inked drawings and hand-printed all-caps dialogue, of her quest to find true love — and good sex — and resuscitate what she depicts as her freeze-dried heart."
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Savage Wolverine: Wrath
by Phil Jimenez
Wrath sees Wolverine's vacation to the African Plain (maybe he should hang out with Hellboy?) interrupted when poaching activity draws him back to the island of Madripoor. A second story relates Logan's life as an international booze smuggler (that's Canada and the US, natch) in the 1930s. Win Wiacek at Now Read This! says: "Short, feisty and indomitable, Logan has always threatened and promised an explosion of visceral, vicarious ultra-violence and grim, gritty justice at every moment and in this slim, savage collection the fact has never been more impressively realised."
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Fear Agent vol.1: I Against I
by Rick Remender
About this zany and action-packed sci-fi / weird western tale, Richard George at IGN warns us, "Do not underestimate Fear Agent. It's easy to dismiss some properties as generic or overplayed, and Fear Agent is destined to be unfairly judged. You need to give this book a shot because it takes the familiar and does it really well... [Main character] Heath Huston is rough around the edges and gets his ass kicked, but he is likable and once you read a chapter or two of this trade, you'll care what happens to the curmudgeon. Taking the best character elements from Indiana Jones, Malcolm Reynolds, Han Solo and John McClane, once you meet Heath Huston, you won't be able to stop reading."
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Bardín the Superrealist: His Deeds, His Utterances, His Exploits, and His Perambulations
by Max
Says the publisher: "In a series of vignettes, gags, illustrations, text pieces, and dream stories, ping-ponging back between the surrealist world and the "real" world, Bardín examines, questions, and defends his own beliefs, convictions and philosophies while tangling with the Dog and the Holy Trinity in a variety of guises (including a familiar-looking mouse with red shorts and white gloves)... Bardín the Superrealist is a playful, hilarious, thought-provoking (and beautifully illustrated) major work by one of the great European cartoonists."
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Incidents in the Night
by David B.
Another entry into David' B's compelling bibliography, Incidents in the Night sees a semi-fictional David B. fall into a rabbit hole of personal research, tracking down the Napoleonic creator of a literary journal known as (what else?) Incidents in the Night. Labyrinthine bookshops, Sumerian gods, disfigured ghosts and ghastly murders chase him further into this surrealistic abyss, all drawn in the cartoonist's trademark art style, a combination of Franco-Belgian clear line and ancient and medieval drawing from around the world. Recommended!
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Hair Shirt
by Pat McEown
Twenty-something art student John returns to his hometown after a bad breakup and finds himself involved with a long-lost childhood friend and some confusing childhood memories. What follows is a psychosexual, melodramatic misadventure that would make Charles Burns and Dan Clowes proud. Pat McEown's colors are naturalistic if moody, and his wavering linework is as effective with unsettling dream imagery as it is with everyday life's sweets and sours. Its difficult lessons and explicit content aren't for everyone and should not be entered lightly, but it is nevertheless highly recommended.
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Pachyderme
by Frederik Peeters
In post-WWII western Switzerland, an injured elephant blocks traffic, prompting a woman to leave her car and proceed on foot. A slow whirlwind of memory and dreamscape awaits her at her destination, the countryside hospital where her husband mends from a serious accident. None other than the late Moebius said that Pachyderme contains "something mysterious and obvious that must, above all, not be explained."
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X'ed Out
by Charles Burns
From the creator of Black Hole, X'ed Out follows Doug, a young artist whose troubled life, dreams, and photography blur into an unsettling, subconscious puzzle and the strangest Tintin homage you've ever seen. If you like this one, be sure to continue the story in The Hive.
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Taking a Break!
Graphic Book Club is taking a break in December. January's topic: Manga (and also Manwha, and heck, if you find a Vietnamese/Chinese book that could work too)!
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Ultimate Ladies Alliance discuss Red Sonja at Ultimate ComicsThursday, Dec. 4, 8 p.m. 6120-A Farrington Rd., DurhamThe first Thursday of each month the Ultimate Ladies Alliance meets to discuss a different comic or graphic novel. Join the Ultimate Ladies’ Alliance on Facebook for more info and to vote on your top picks for the next month’s meeting, plus suggest books for future discussion and share your favorites. This month: Rat Queens vol. 1: Sass and Sorcery.
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Welcome to My Madness: The Comic and Pop Art of L. Jamal WaltonOpening reception and artist talk Saturday, Nov. 15 Third Friday reception Friday, 21 Exhibition open Nov. 11-22 The Carrack Modern Art 1111 W. Parrish St., DurhamThe Raleigh-based artist's first solo show! Learn more about L. Jamal Walton at ljamalwalton.com/.
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Links to newsletters from the past year:
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librarywebmaster@durhamcountync.gov
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