Graphic Novel Review - Dragons Beware! - Jorge Aguirre

Graphic Novel Review - Dragons Beware! - Jorge Aguirre (Author) & Rafael Rosado (Illustrator)

Recommended for Older Children/Young Adult/Adults

I received a free of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks!

Young Claudette, her brother Gaston and Princess Marie set off on an adventure to retrieve her father Augustine's magical sword, Breaker, from the belly of the fearsome dragon, Azra. They'll face multiple foes along the way, including Marie's evil wizard grandfather, Grombach, and his army of gargoyles; will they find the sword and defeat the dragon, or will they meet their doom?

Well, I won't spoil it, but what I will say is you will laugh your arse off during their quest, because this is a fantastically funny fantasy graphic novel that I didn't want to put down. It's full of pop culture references, from a certain famous Marvel shield making a vomity appearance, to multiple Death Star attack run nods (yeah, I saw what you did, and I LOVED it), which gives it an edge of over other funny children's graphic novels that I've read recently. The humour is silly but witty, and with a nod to the audience that it knows full well it's being daft and doesn't care, and it's exactly the type of humour that I love in a book like this.

The illustrations are great, and they invoke fond memories of similarly-styled texts that I've read before (though I can't put my finger on which ones exactly at the moment) - all three of the main characters eccentricities are perfectly brought across, and to a very high standard.

This is the second book in the series (following Giants Beware!) and I'm certainly going to try and get hold of a copy. The library doesn't appear to have it, so both of these are going straight on my monthly requests for the librarians to order in, because I'll be pushing these at the new monthly comic book club that I'm hoping to set up.

Worth been checked out by all ages from about 7 upwards, and it's pushed into 5* territory by its pop culture references - seriously, if they aren't Death Star run references in the last battle then [insert forfeit but just don't make me do it].

5/5

Graphic Novel Review - Monster Motors - Brian Lynch (Author) & Nick Roche (Illustrator)

Graphic Novel Review - Monster Motors - Brian Lynch (Author) & Nick Roche (Illustrator)

Recommended for Older Children/YA/Adults

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks.

You know how sometimes a book tries to do something different, like re-telling a classic story using reanimated-motors rather than a monster? Yes? Then read Monster Motors, because it does it ever so well. No? Then read Monster Motors, because it does it ever so well.

Mechanic Vic Frankenstein buys a junkyard in Transylvania to set up a repair business, and immediately comes across the not-too-insignificant problem of a vampire cadillac called Cadillacula, who wants to suck the gas out of all the other cars, and be evil and stuff. He'll have to reanimate a truck of his own if he's going to stand a chance at stopping this evil...

Later on, he'll team up with Minivan Helsing and his team to stop an even greater threat, when a lightning strike accidentally reanimates all the other cars in the junkyard and sends them on a cannibalistic spree across town. Not quite the simple life repairing cars that Frankenstein had in mind.

Monster Motors is split into the two separate stories described above, and it's definitely the second (The Curse of Minivan Helsing) that is the strongest. Not to take anything away from the first about Cadillacula, because it's perfectly good fun, but the jokes and subtle humour in the second are far better, and genuinely laugh-out-loud in places. The idea of 'Minivan Helsing' for starters is genius, and in places the script seems to acknowledge the sheer craziness of everything with a knowing wink to the reader, without ever actually breaking the fourth wall, which is a technique I've always been fond of.

It's in the second story, again, where the characters really start to standout. To start with, it was only the delightful robot Igor that I had found memorable, but with the arrival of Minivan Helsing and crew, you've got Minivan himself, his daughter, some self-admittedly treacherous crewmates, Frankenstein's own monster truck, and Frankenstein himself becoming funnier and more likeable. I'd see it as the ingredients all properly falling into place, just like Neil Morrissey joining Men Behaving Badly; good beforehand, excellent afterwards.

The illustrations are great, with a very cartoony feel to fit the story perfectly, and I'd happily get people to read this in the library. If the next story is as good as The Curse of Minivan Helsing then I'll be delighted!

4/5

Monster Motors is out on 16th June 2015 through IDW Publishing

Graphic Novel Review - The Creeps Book One: Night of the Frankenfrogs - Chris Schweizer

Graphic Novel Review - The Creeps Book One: Night of the Frankenfrogs - Chris Schweizer

Recommended for 8+

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to everyone involved.

Group of school outcasts? Check. Strange goings on? Check. Laughs on each page and a mystery you genuinely want the answers to? Check and check. Should you check this book out? Check.

I might have overdone the checks there.

But seriously, The Creeps is a very entertaining mystery/horror story that children can enjoy from a fairly young age that will also make grown ups laugh along the way. The Creeps themselves are likeable (particularly Rosario, whose mix of brawn and textiles-knowledge made me smile on many occasions), the mystery is played out well with a laughably ridiculous lack of consequence and return to the norm for the guilty villain, and it left me looking forward to joining the gang on another wacky adventure.

And when I say wacky, I also mean bizarre, random, quirky and suspension-of-disbelief-in-a-good-way-ey. It's clearly not a book that is trying to be even remotely realistic, which is certainly not a criticism as I love the crazy story that it weaves, peppered with little twists and self-realisation from the characters that what happens to them isn't even slightly normal. The artwork matches the feel of the book perfectly, with the type of outlandish cartoon-style that appealed to me so much as a child.

The kids at my library love to have a graphic novel recommended that isn't just Asterix or Tintin, so if we don't have any copies coming on to the catalogue when it's published, I'll be contacting the children's team to ensure they put in some orders!

4/5

The Creeps is out from Amulet Books on August 11th 2015.

Teenage Graphic Novel - The P.L.A.I.N. Janes – Cecil Castellucci (Writer) & Jim Rugg (Illustrator)

Teenage Graphic Novel - The P.L.A.I.N. Janes – Cecil Castellucci (Writer) & Jim Rugg (Illustrator)

Recommended for: Teens/Adults

Minx’ were an imprint of DC comics, designed for teenage girls, to try and catch a flourishing market who were starting to get noticed reading Manga in book shops. It ended up being cancelled after poor sales, which is a crying shame as anything that encourages more girls into reading comics can only be a good thing.

I randomly picked up a copy of another book in the Minx series, not knowing at the time it was for teenage girls (honest), just liking the art work and premise. When I really enjoyed that, and learned that there were 12 altogether, I thought I’d get them all sent to the library to go through in order (wonderful things, our public libraries – if you don’t use yours, remember they lend you books for free. That’s more money to spend on other important things, like cling film and lint roll).

The P.L.A.I.N. Janes is the first to be released. It chronicles the story of Jane, who has moved with her parents to the suburbs from Metro City following a terrorist attack which she was caught up in. The story is told mainly through a series of letters she writes to a comatose patient in the hospital who saved her life that day. When it came to move to the suburbs, she took his sketchbook with her, hoping to fill it with her own work and send it back to him when complete. When she arrives, she has the same trouble that every new student at high school encounters, namely to decide which group of friends she would like to hang out with. Shunning the advances of the most popular girl in school, she chooses to befriend the ‘odd ball’ group, made up of three other girls called Jane (or variations on). Realising that there isn’t a lot to do in suburbia, and wanting to live a little under the fairly strict and boring rule of her parents, she forms ‘People Loving Art In Neighbourhoods’ (P.L.A.I.N.) with these other Janes, and proceeds to carry out a series of ‘art attacks’ to liven up the town and show that life can be fun. Although these get all the kids at school excited (and the rest of the suburbs talking), the police view it as anti-social behaviour, invoke a curfew, and threaten anyone who is caught with juvenile hall. Along the way, P.L.A.I.N. enlist the help of a couple boys, one of whom is the obligatory crush for our main Jane.

Teenage girl or not, I thought this was great fun. The art attacks are great to see, it gets you thinking about the line between fun and breaking the law, and the main characters all have their own likeable quirks. There’s an awkward teenage crush as you’d expect, but otherwise it isn’t really full of any clichés as you might expect to appeal to a teenage female audience (fashion, shoes etc.). 

The art work is great, with lots of impressive sketches that Jane draws interspersed with the main narrative. The flashbacks work well, as does the narrating to the guy in the coma, letting us know how Jane feels as the story progresses. There's even a fairly tense finish, which i'm not spoiling here, but it leaves you with a smile on your face, wanting more.

I know this is meant to attract a female teenage audience to graphic novels, so it’s such a shame that it didn’t have the desired impact, because this is a great way to get in for people who think of graphic novels as superheroes in costumes doing geeky things. I myself am most certainly not a teenage girl, no matter what the bullies at school may have said, and I thoroughly enjoyed, so don’t let the Minx imprint put you off. I’m off to start no.2 in the series, Re-Grifters, so I’ll see you then.

9/10