supermutant magic academy. jillian tamaki. (299)

supermutant magic academy had been on a handful of instagram and facebook posts and since i loved tamaki's illustrations in one last summer, i decided to check it out.

i had assumed that the supermutanta magic academy was cohesive narrative but once i started reading it, i realized it was a collection of comics.  the comics featured the same characters and they related but there wasn't a direct storyline that connected them all.  though i was expecting a graphic novel, i did enjoy the comics.  my favorite character was frances, i loved her art and her smart-ass remarks.  i also loved wendy and marsha's comics, with marsha's cute crush on wendy.

here were my favorite comics:

love food humor!

love frances!!

this margaret mitchell quote is amazing!

time is never time at all.

there is no wrong way to interpret art,

i fear for kids today.

read books!

ps this is the second book i have read that mentioned ulysses (i didn't share that comment.) i really need to read it!

lumberjanes: vol. 1. noelle stevenson, grace ellis, brooke a. allen. (295)

i read about lumberjanes on book riot.  a comic book for girls, how could the feminist in me resist?!?!

i wasn't sure what to expect, and i have to add that i was thrown off my the sci-fi element of it.  the girls fight off three-eyed foxes that warn them of a kitten holy.  i had anticipated a more realistic comic, but regardless this comic was great.

the comic was about five girls: jo, april, mal, molly, and ripley, they always find themselves in crazy situations at lumberjane camp.  the girls are a motley crew.  different but they get along and have their own special talent.  also two of them are lesbian (well it was hinted at) so nice to see some diversity.  oh i should add their camp director was named rosie and was very rosie the riveter-esque.

each chapter started off with a description of a lumberjane badge that relates to the adventure they find themselves in.  my favorite badge was the puncheon master badge which is given for great puns:  

cute, huh?

as i mentioned before, at camp the girls find themselves in crazy situations.  they have to fight off a river monster, crazy foxes, statues and brain-washed boy scouts (but not the official boy scouts.) they fought off everyone, because these girls got muscle! for example, april won a arm-wrestling match with a statute and then quoted kelis, when she was asked to show the girls how she did it:  

but these girls have brains too!! jo used the fibonacci sequence to help them get across a pit!  and april solved anagrams to get them out of the cave!  it was great to see them being super smart too!

since this was volume 1, i don't know how the story ends.  all i know so far is:

-they need to be aware of the kitten holy.

-they keep on being attacked by three-eyed creatures.

-they found a sacred bow and arrow.

-and the boy scouts are weird crazy cult.

i look forward to reading the next one to find out how all of this ends.

ms. marvel. wilson alphona. (274)

ms. mavel has been on my radar for a while.  i considered buying it, because i wasn't too sure if the library had it, but they did!  i have to admit that i know nothing about the marvel universe.  i haven't see any of the recent marvel movies (i am a movie snob and only watch things with actors or directors, i love or if like it did really well at sundance.)  so i am confused as to how another superhero shows up when i google ms. marvel.  can someone please explain this to me?

to start, i love love love the premise of ms. marvel.  the real identity of ms. marvel is kamala, a muslim teenager.  she has strict parents and doesn't always agree with some of the more sexist aspects of islam (also the bacon restriction) but her desire to do good, is fueled from the koran, which is nice to see.  and being a girl of color, i of course love seeing a girl of color as a superhero!

however, my love for her kind of stops there.  i didn't enjoy the stories in the comic as much as i thought i would.  i guess i had an issue with who is going to clean up all of the messes that she made?  like at school, who is going to pay for all of that?  and how is the bodega owner going to be cool with his store being damaged.

and i know that this is all kind of getting to know my super powers and stuff, but i didn't get what her power was.  morphing right?  i also kind of felt she shouldn't have rushed into the saving like she did, but glad that she did.  and i mean she is getting better, so hopefully the storylines will get better too.

all in all, i am happy that she is in the marvel universe, but hope she has more interesting stories.

also i think she would make a cute halloween costume!  i should make that happen! but it would be this first attempt at a costume with a fanny pack that i go for!

blankets. craig thompson. (253)

blankets has been on my to read list for a very long time.  however, when i saw it on time's 100 best young adult books, i decided to finally check it out.

i really wish that i had read this when it first came out in 2003.  i identified with craig and would have enjoyed reading this closer to when i went through a similar experience.  blanket is an semi-autobiographical graphic novel about thompson's experience growing up in a religious household and his first love.  what i identified with was craig's questioning of his faith and the church leaders insistence on following christian path.  my questioning of my religion, as i discussed before was due to the church views on homosexuality and how i thought it was unfair that families were separated unless they were sealed in the temple.  for craig it was contradiction in the bible and the realization that though the bible may be the word of god it had been filtered through men.  also reading his pastor advise him against going to art school due to the possibility of exposure to nude models and the risk of becoming a homosexual, reminded me of an conversation i had once with a girl i went to church with.  (i may have shared this before in another post, so i apologize for being redundant.  a girl i went to church camp asked me where i was going to school, and i told her ucla.  she then asked me what i was going to do.  i explained study history.  but she asked again, but you go to byu to get married, how are you going to get married.  i think i just smiled as a response.  though i will say that i am grateful for being raised mormon.  as child growing up, we did not fear god, but saw jesus as a loving savior, and were not made to be scared of hell as i saw with craig.

but college was an eye opening experience for me, like craig.  i wasn't born in a completely rural area like him, but being exposed to the big city of los angeles, allowed me to realize that there was more out in the world.

the story of his first love was sweet and like should happen with all first loves, he grew as a person.  he was able to see the world for as it was and not for what he was told it was.  i think the greatest thing was that he reconnected with his brother after seeing how close raina was with her siblings.  it was nice to see them become friends in the end.  (i should also note know it was really difficult to read about his brother's molestation as a child.  craig should have done something, but easier said then done because he was a child himself, but still sickening to read.)

i also found it disheartening to read about raina's adoptive siblings.  i think it was wonderful that her parents decided to adopt two children with disabilities, however, their reasoning behind it seemed unsound.  they adopted the ben and laura as a thank you to god for blessing them with two children.  a beautiful gesture, but neither one were equipped to take care of them.  and in the end, resulted in their divorce and the responsibility becoming that of raina.  i might sound insensitive, but you should adopt to truly help a child not to prove a point about how blessed you are. 

but a wonderful coming of age story and beautiful illustrations.  i also loved that the library was a tool in helping craig discover the world and who he was.  definitely a top young adult book!