FRENCH MILK by Lucy Knisley

As she stands on the brink of college graduation, cartoonist Lucy Knisley and her mother decide to rent an apartment in Paris for six weeks.  There, she indulges her inner foodie, immerses herself in the arts and history of Paris, and forms a deep addiction to creamy French milk.

A true account, written and drawn during her time in Paris, Lucy's travel journal draws you into her world.  Her cute drawing style invites the reader to indulge in the escape and repose of a Parisian vacation through her dreamlike eyes.  She eschews traditional comics panel layouts, instead letting her words and art float around on each page, showing that the story she's telling is not a sequence of events, but a collection of impressions.

Instead of trying to forge a sweeping narrative of personal growth, she gives an honest view of her experiences from glimpses of both memorable and quotidian moments.  And inevitably, many of these turn out to be one in the same.  I was struck, when she dropped a reference to the execution of Saddam Hussein, how much the real world was thrown into sharp relief, even in her cartoony style, by intruding on her otherwise pleasant repose abroad-- an intrusion she resents, wanting to hide as much from the news of the outside world as she does from thoughts of her future. Though she starts and ends her trip unsure about her future, she emerges from her refuge on the Left Bank with a renewed serenity, prepared to face it, no matter what it is.  And of course, a life-long love of French milk.

Browse an excerpt of French Milk here.

⊗⊗⊗⊗½/5

HOPELESS SAVAGES: Greatest Hits, by Jen Van Meter and various artists

When Zero Hopeless-Savage wakes up one morning to find her punk rocker parents, Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage, kidnapped by fascist music execs, it's up to her and her siblings, martial artist Arsenal, mod theater designer Twitch, and the long-lost Rat--who rebelled and became a respectable businessman--to team up and rescue them.  But it is only the first of many quagmires that the family find themselves in.  In this bind-up volume collecting three previously published stories, this punk-rock family takes on enemies ranging from the paparazzi to international smuggling rings to high school administrators--and none of them escape the Hopeless-Savages unscathed!

I want to join this family so badly.  Forget the Cullens or the Weasleys, if I could join one fictional family, it would be the Hopeless-Savages.  Who wouldn't?  Famous parents, a badass older sister, a burgeoning rocker younger sister, a cool gay brother, and yes, even a corporate coffee shill eldest brother-- all of them forging their own paths in life, with the full love and support of their wholly unconventional family (though Zero did take it pretty personally when Rat "defected").  Nothing that comes their way in their awesome adventures can beat them as long as they're together, at least in spirit.  Supporting the main storylines are some "bonus tracks" and "B-sides" with some fun vignettes revealing, among other tidbits of Hopeless-Savage lore, the origins of Zero's band, the Dusted Bunnies, and how Twitch and Arsenal met their boyfriends.

Van Meter's writing is wonderfully scored by a range of fantastic artists, including the frenetic Chynna Clugston, the soulful Ross Campbell, and this blog's perennial favorite Bryan Lee O'Malley.  But don't take my word for it-- check them out, and then get the whole book:

Previews: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

⊗⊗⊗⊗/5

THE P.L.A.I.N. JANES written by Cecil Castellucci, art by Jim Rugg

After surviving a terrorist bombing, Jane is left with questions about her identity and the sketchbook of a comatose John Doe from the attack.  She resolves to find her true self through art and abandons her carefree-blond-popular girl persona.  When her family moves out to the suburbs, she soon enlists her new 'tribe' of misfits -- dramatic "Theater" Jane, studious "Brain" Jayne, and "Sporty" Polly Jane -- to spread cheer and beauty through the terrified community by forming a guerrilla art gang known as P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art In Neighborhoods).  Soon they're building pyramids in empty lots and knitting hats for fire hydrants.  But it's not long before the town grows paranoid about persons unknown sneaking around at night and calling P.L.A.I.N.'s "art attacks" vandalism.  How can the Janes convince them that "Art Saves"?

I've love Cecil Castellucci's quirky plots and creative heroines since her debut novel Boy Proof, and the Janes did not disappoint.  There is something infinitely appealing about the idea of taking art to the streets, and the sheer variety of PLAIN's art attacks make the book worth reading.  But of course, it's the characters that really grab you.  In a relatively short book, Main Jane goes from a girl who takes refuge in the idea of cliques in her own group of outcasts, to the girl who unites the school--from the one-man Queer Club, James, to the queen bee, Cindy--under one banner.  Her one-sided relationship with the comatose John Doe is touching and sweet, and the mysterious Damon is an excellent romantic foil.  Castellucci also avoids the pitfall of many prose authors writing comics and keeps a smooth balance between words and pictures.

Jim Rugg's art is clean, cute, and fun-- perfect for the story!  Even the bombing scene, which one would think would be far too incongruous with such a sweet art style, works fantastically, underlining Main Jane's loss of innocence.  And Damon is wonderfully swoony, even though he's just simple pen and ink.

Verdict: The PLAIN Janes is an upbeat story for anyone who considers themselves a dreamer, but it probably won't convert many cynics.  You can read a 17-page PDF preview here.

⊗⊗⊗⊗/5

SANDMAN: PRELUDES AND NOCTURNES (Vol. 1) written by Neil Gaiman, art by Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg

The more I work on this blog, discuss it with friends, and field questions from new readers, the more I start thinking about where I was when I first started reading comics and how I got to this point from there.  So it occurred to me that I should start at the beginning and talk about the first comic book I ever read, and how it snagged me into the comics form for life.

I had heard of Neil Gaiman here and there, and one day after reading a short story he had written online, I ran to my friends and asked if any of them had any of his books that I could borrow.  One of my friends piped up that he had written a series of comic books that she could lend me if I wanted them, though it was clear she understood there was a chance I would reject them outright just for being comics and not prose.  But I was in an adventurous mood, and I wanted to read more of Neil Gaiman's work so I accepted her offer.  The next day, she brought three volumes of Sandman, and I spent the weekend buried in their glory.

It's hard to describe what Sandman is about-- it's one of those books where what happens is secondary to the ideas it explores.  But it starts with a group of dark magicians attempting to imprison Death, only to instead imprison Death's brother-- Dream, the titular Sandman.   The first volume follows Dream (also known as Morpheus, Lord Shaper, Oneiros, and about 20 other titles) as he makes his escape, gets his revenge, and reclaims his kingdom.  And it is creepy-- beautifully creepy.  A lot of that is the artwork; Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg's drawings are the stuff of nightmares, hallucinations, and surreal dreams.  But Gaiman's storytelling is the tree the art grows from.

By anthropomorphizing Dream in the way humans long have done with Death, Gaiman is able to explore the deepest recesses of the human psyche, telling stories that really revolve more around a common theme rather than a character or plot.  Ultimately, Sandman is about the power of dreams and imagination, for good or ill.  I shuddered in one scene, where Dream is facing a hoard of demons, and he is taunted by the Lords of Hell who ask why they should let him leave.  Dream responds calmly, Ask yourselves, all of you, what power would Hell have if those imprisoned here could not dream of Heaven?  And the final chapter of the first volume, "The Sound of Her Wings," where we meet his sister Death, is a quiet and beautiful meditation on death and life.

Neil Gaiman has become far more successful and famous in 15 years since Sandman ended than possibly any other comics creator before him, and Sandman is barely even in the top ten of his most well-known works anymore, but if any of his works deserve to be read, it's this one.  This series grabbed me in a way only few works have before or since, and it showed me what I was missing by not reading comics.  That an epic work of such imagination was outside my ken before I stumbled into it was to me a massive oversight that had to be corrected.  And since I have immersed myself in the comics medium, I have only found more and more of such works, works that could not and would not have been done in any other medium.  It is what addicted me and why I am such an evangelist of the form.  If you read no other comics in your life, give Sandman a chance.

You can download a PDF of the first issue from the DC/Vertigo website.

SCORPION: POISON TOMORROW, written by Fred Van Lente, art by Leonard Kirk

When she was 16, Carmilla Black's left arm flared up with deadly toxins, killing her prom date instantly.  Terrified, she fled, leaving behind her adoptive parents, the only family she ever knew.  She comes out of exile three years later when she learns they have been murdered.  Among their personal effects, she finds her real birth certificate-- including her birth mother's name.  She travels to the South Asian nation of Madripoor, where she was born, in hopes of finding some answers about her fatal sting and what her mother's been up to-- after being recruited by the multinational counterterrorism force SHIELD to do so.

A great espionage adventure with a splash of superpowers!  The spy thriller story deftly intertwines with Carmilla's own quest to make sense of her powers and her personal tragedies to build towards the big reveal of the reason for her existence.  Her hesitant romance with fellow tourist Troy is very cute, even though she has trouble trusting him-- due in no small part to her SHIELD handlers' paranoia over who he is and why he is interested in her (but that's not to say he's not hiding something...)  In fact, Van Lente handles all of her trust issues very believably, whether she's questioning Troy's intentions or even SHIELD's true purpose; it is very clear that Carmilla wants someone to trust, but she's been too hurt to do it easily. The art is crisp, clean and easy to follow.  Kirk is especially good at facial expressions-- even when Carmilla's face is half-covered by her mask, her emotions are clearly expressed in her eyes.

One pretty major complaint, though-- an over-arching question of the book is who killed her adoptive parents and why is never answered outright.  Plenty of theories are put  forward and fingers are pointed, but it's never definitively answered.  As far as I can tell, they planned on writing more and making it a series, but it got canceled for one reason or another.  It's frustrating, but it's not really a deal-breaker for an otherwise very enjoyable story.

You can read the first 11 pages here, and read what Van Lente had planned for future volumes!

⊗⊗⊗⊗/5

SCOTT PILGRIM'S PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE (Vol. 1) by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Scott Pilgrim's life is so awesome. He's 23 years old, in a rock band, "between jobs," and dating a cute high school girl. Everything's fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms Flowers isn't covered in rose petals. Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends stand in the way between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott beat the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down?

 If that description doesn't sell it to you, I'm not sure what will.  This book (and series) offers a refreshing take on the slacker genre, where instead of spending his spare time playing video games, Scott Pilgrim inhabits a world that is a video game, and his life is filled with all the paradoxes of a real world gamer.  Sure, he can fight Ramona's evil exes, but is he emotionally mature enough to keep the relationship going? And will he ever get up the courage to actually break up with his high school girlfriend?

The supporting characters turn this book into pure gold-- there's Wallace Wells, his suave gay roommate who he shares a bed with (because he can't afford his own!); the female drummer of his band Sex Bob-omb Kim Pine (don't tell her she's not the only one!); his more mature younger sister Stacy Pilgrim; Sex Bob-omb's only fan Young Neil; and Knives Chau, the Chinese Catholic schoolgirl whose relationship with Scott is so ridiculously chaste you worry more about what it says about his emotional maturity than his intentions with her.

This book also surmounts the challenge of writing a (obviously silent) book with a musical backdrop, as the music scenes are drawn with such raw energy that you'll at least feel the urge to bob your head.  And it has something for everyone-- it's a romance for people who hate romance, a video game story for non-gamers, and the art is manga-style for people who hate manga.  It's just funny, funny, funny.  Now that the series is complete and the movie's about to come out, it's the best time to pick up this book (be cool and read it before you see the movie!)  You can read a 34-page preview here.

⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗ (out of five!)