Lumberjanes, Vol 1 "Beware The Kitten Holy"--Noelle Stevenson & Grace Ellis

Did you go to summer camp? Did you read books about summer camp? Did you wish you could go?

Lumberjanes is a happy little comic about 5 friends at a Girl Scouts style summer camp. The central tenet of the Lumberjane code is friendship. April, Jo, Molly, Mal, and Ripley are residents of Roanoke cabin, headed by by-the-books counselor Jen. The girls are busy earning their badges (The Robyn Hood Badge, The Up All Night Badge, Naval Gauging Badge) and bonding though adventure and ritual.

However, the Miss Quinella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp For Girls Hardcore Lady-Types is a little different. Let's just say that it's kind of got a very "Welcome To Night Vale" feel to it. The local fauna tend to have three eyes or belong to myth, and the camp director is awfully unfazed by reports of a bear woman. What is "The Kitten Holy?" And why are there these glowing gems in odd places?

I'm a little over the Night Vale weirdness (it's starting to look like "Lost" to me, which I thought was just random and grasping for ideas and pretending to be going for a greater big, important reveal--ha ha ha). But while I am not totally into Lumberjanes, I still like the emphasis on female friendship, bravery and problem solving. The use of famous female role model names as an interjection gets a little old, and in some ways it's just aggressively twee. But you know what? Who cares? This comic is fantastic for teens and hardcore lady types. I just wish Peaches were about 5 years older to share this with her.

I first heard about Lumberjanes last summer when it was published. I'm not into comics anymore, so I put the collection on my list of titles to add to my ever-growing library list. I pulled the trigger and ordered it when I heard it had been optioned for a movie. Issues with it aside, I am looking forward to reading and seeing more about the adventures of April, Jo, Mel, Molly and Ripley in the future. Additionally, with the new fiscal year on July 1st, Phoenix Public Library's subscription to Hoopla includes comics and all issues of Lumberjanes are included.

Want my used copy? Let me know.

This Makes Me Almost Grateful For My Performance Artists

I never think of them anymore, except to abstractly wish them ill as part of my standard list of People I Wish Shit Upon. But I came across this comic, which someone linked to because the neighbor was involved with some illicit shenanigans on Valentine's Day. It's all explained on the page.


Trixie Biltmore's site is here, and her comics are hilarious!

Women In Comics

An interview with Kate Beaton of "Hark, A Vagrant!"

And a conversation with Trina Robins about early superheroine comics. Trina Robbins is totally awesome, as a feminist, as a comics historian and as a legendary comics creator! And I've met her! We used to belong to the same thrifting Yahoo! group and when she came out to Columbus for a symposium at University of Ohio a bunch of us met up with her. Her newest book sounds really cool.

Case Of The Two Watsons

Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant!- Case of the Two Watsons from Squadron B on Vimeo.

They also animated "Dude Watchin' With The Brontes." I faint from joy.

Hark! A Vagrant

LSpacey mentioned this comic recently, but I had it in my bookmarks to mention at some point because it's unusual and fun. Kate Beaton writes short panel comics on literary and historical topics, particularly British and Canadian focused topics. Pssst, Aunt Mary Jane--don't laugh to hard and make sure you've finished the piece of chocolate that's in your mouth before reading.

Anyway, anyone who has read too much of the Brontes or been one of three sisters should like this one: "Dude Watchin' With The Brontes."

I wonder if Aces would like the t-shirt?

I'm Your Fan: Bill Willingham

ABC to Bring DC's "Fables" To Life.

"Fables" is my favorite comic, even if I haven't picked up an issue since moving. I've done a handsell to almost everyone I know over the years. At some point I'll get all the issues I've missed, and probably even shell out for this. I am of two minds on its transition to a screen. On the one hand I really hope it makes Bill Willingham a ton of money and draws more fans and acclaim to his work. On the other hand, I don't think it will be as good as the comic, even if we do have the time to flesh out more of the characters and their daily lives.

Seriously, it's so well done, month after month. Unlike some creators (oh wait, let's not get into the Whedon rant) Willingham gets that devoting himself to something and have a thought out plan leads to consistently good product and happy fans. No, it really is that simple. This is a guy who when he turned out a short story line that really wasn't quite up to his usual standards, apologized and explained why he had to pull his original idea--something in the great comics brainverse lead to someone else having a similar idea that hit the stands first, and he wasn't comfortable publishing his after that. Damn, integrity. And hell, those substitute issues featured Bigby Wolf swanning around undercover in Nazi Germany wearing a white linen suit, so it wasn't all bad.

So yes, sometimes you can say Willingham's pushing his conservative agenda a bit hard. I don't care. This is work with nuance, humor, well-realized characters whose actions are consistent with their growth, expertly plotted (there's little seeds planted in the first 6 issues he picked up on later, and I just was amazed to put it together), that rewards close scrutiny. Do you realize how unusual it is to find that in any fiction? Don't go dismissing it when it happens in graphic fiction. And he does it month after month. Heck, he even did an issue devoted to the questions readers had on the little character things--what's Boy Blue's favorite song, for example--gleaned from their question. And a big sappy wedding issue.

So Bill Willingham--thanks. I'm your fan.

And if the tv series gets that far, I do want to see the fight where Snow says, "No, I am not moving to Kazakstan with 6 babies, only one of whom looks fully human! Are you out of your freakin' mind?"

And ask Wentworth Miller to audition for Bigby--I'm sure he'd like to play a character with a sense of humor, and he needs a job now that Prison Break has been cancelled.

Questionable Content

A recent find worth checking out is the web comic Questionable Content. It's the fictional life I wish I'd had back in my 20's--passive indie rock guy finds his life taken over by a bitter and witty girl who becomes his roommate, her boss and coworkers at the local coffee place, and adventures and love ensue. Throw in robots, a girl raised on a space station, the superheroine Pizza Girl, and occasional trips to the local dive bar and the romance novelist who lives there and you've got a daily comic about relationships, music and life's uncertainty done with wit and verve. Yet even with the outlandish details the comic retains truth and bite due to the way Jacques grounds bizarre plotlines with believable details and relatable characters. Even with my hatred of the Monk-ification of mental illness, I root for Hannelore and her small improvements.

I got turned on to it through my weekly ALA Direct email, where they spotlighted a recent story line featuring the anxious Hannelore visiting Marten at work in the local college library and enduring tales of library spiders and innuendo from his coworker. It's worth going back to the beginning to enjoy the subtle way Jeph Jacques builds his cast and characters, from the gradual revelation of the trauma that turned Faye into the new Dorothy Parker to the corruption of Winslow by Pintsize. It's a timesuck that's rewarding--go for it!

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks--E. Lockwood

Let me explain: last Saturday I read half the review of this book in The New York Times, stopped myself as so not to quash my enjoyment, and immediately went to the library unbathed and in dirty clothes to check it out. Sartorial crimes aside, I am glad I did so, as this was one of the best books I've read this year. YA fiction is very hot right now, deservedly so because the quality is there. This book has a more engaging plot, better characters and intellectually involving themes that most adult fiction, even so called 'literary fiction," doesn't bother to touch.

So, the plot: Frankie Landau-Banks is 15 and headed into her second year at Alabaster Preparatory Academy, an upper tier Northeastern boarding school. To her family she is "Bunny," and while they are very happy she's grown into her looks, it worries them that she'll be all alone at school without her big sister. To the outside world she's an attractive, intelligent, slightly geeky, but ordinary, girl who like clothes, books and debate. And to most of Alabaster, she's just the girlfriend of gorgeous, wealthy Matthew Livingston.

And that is really all anyone expects from or imagines of her, until Frankie seizes control of The Loyal Order of Basset Hounds, Alabaster's all-male secret society, and launches a series of clever and pointed pranks highlighting the absurdities of privilege and forcing change. That she does this without anyone knowing she's behind it, including the Order, how and why--well, that's the story.

Here's the part where I go into rapturous glee about the book, and if you think you might read it, stop reading the review now because some things are best when you don't know. Drwende, you are warned--this book directly takes up some of the questions you were pondering about Emily when you were wrestling with motivation and the format of the quest while planning out her story.

Things I love about this book:

1) E. Lockwood has obviously spent some time in the East Coast upper crust prep school milieu. And so have Dusie and I (although our school was a little third rate and we were day students), so this book causes flashbacks. "Chapel is non-denominational despite the fact it's held in a Christian chapel in front of a cross, so suck it up, Jews!"--that happened in my school.

But other aspects are right on too: the odd formula by which status is conveyed by money, excellence in academics and certain sports, general coolness and exoticism, the speed and depth at which relationships develop without scrutiny by adults, the relative absence of adults, unspoken rules and class lines, the grant of limitless independence and self-determination in an atmosphere where you have no actual power. (Another hilarious aside from my school days--so one of the English teachers went to teach somewhere else for a year, came back and made a chapel speech about how he realized they were selling us a false bill of goods by telling us we could achieve anything but giving us no real power to affect change. So EVERY SINGLE PERSON running for school office made "get us some power" part of their platform. Did anything change? Of course not. But it looked great on college applications.)

2) Frankie herself--she's an intelligent, perceptive heroine with flair. Her pranks are awesome, and the way her mind works is elegant. Oh, and she's logical and argumentative and likes herself. This is not a girl who we as readers is told is "smart" but couldn't find her shoes if they were strapped on her feet. How rare is that?

3) The feminism: Kate Chopin, eat dust. This is the best novel of a feminist awakening I've read in a long time, partly because of the modern intelligence of Frankie, and also because it's realistic and not polarizing--what she wants, what drives her is a desire for respect, a desire to point out inequity and agitate for change, and a desire to belong on her own merits to a group of interesting guys who have the power inherent in their maleness to think big and go out and do things. This is a desire that's intrinsic to almost everyone regardless of sex. Frankie's not just a victim of men; the book also explored the boxes women put themselves in and the behaviors they enforce upon each other.

Additionally, Lockwood has a lovely writing style, detailed, amusing and perceptive but grounded in character. This is a good book for reading aloud. Someone please, please, please read it besides me and want to talk about it. I booktalked Dusie into giving it a try, but she's not a big reader.

So if you're looking for readalikes--Booklist has this list of other modern boarding school stories,, The P.L.A.I.N. Janes touches on the pranking, but what I'm really hoping for is this comic Genius to get picked up.

Maybe I Need To Stop Reading So Much...

Slap me silly, sugar. I'm getting inspiration from the funny pages again.

Today's Mary Worth quote, from the otherwise lame Dr. Drew on his date with the (we can only hope!) nymphomaniac Dawn, "I heard it's best 'not to look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness!'"

On the one hand, it's so true. On the other hand, it's Mary Worth. It just goes to show that wisdom crops up in weird places.