Reviews - The Graphic Library

The oates and the elphyne by michael walsh

7/28/2022

Cover of The Oates and the Elphyne. Ben is in the foreground holding his magic sword, dressed in a white t-shirt and green pants. Lynn is behind him with her magical staff in a pink shirt and overalls. Behind her is Beth's magic bear, Daisy, who is reimagined in Elphyne as a giant red bear soldier with silver armor plate. Beth sits on Daisy's sholders and is wearing a pink top Behind them is one of the flying fae creatures with long, white wings. They're surrounded by blue crystals and rolling green hills behind them with a blue sky dotted with white clouds.

The Oates move to Newfoundland to be closer to their family and to help console a branch who just lost a loved one. Not long after, a creature of darkness lurking in the woods kidnaps the youngest daughter, Beth. While the adults scour the forest for the child, the other Oates children, Ben and Lynn, decide to take matters into their own hands. Armed with a flashlight, they venture into the forest and are transported to The Elphyne, a world in between Earth and the next, where fae and other magical creatures live, and where the magic and imagination of children can shape the entire world. The two must overcome their own fears and use the magic to their advantage to save their sister and rid the word of The Corruption that is destroying entire populations of magical creatures.

Island in a puddle vol 1 by kei sanbe

7/27/2022

Cover of Island in a Puddle volume 1. Minato carries Nagisa on his back while she holds an umbrella, pink with white polka dots. Beside them walks a small dog, who looks up at the two children. It is raining.

Minato is a dedicated big brother who takes care of his younger sister, Nagisa, for the long stretches when their mom leaves them alone. He stretches what little money they have to make as many meals possible and plays make-believe with Nagisa so she doesn’t notice how long it’s been since their mom’s been home. One day, she picks them up from school unexpectedly and takes them to a theme park. It starts raining, but she insists they ride the Ferris wheel. As she walks away, lightning strikes the car with the children in it, and Minato wakes up in presumably in another car in another person’s body, with a dead woman at his feet, and his situation could not be more precarious. Now, he has to find his sister and save her while avoiding danger himself.

Everyday hero machine boy vol 1 by irma Kniivila

7/26/2022

Cover of Everyday Hero Machine Boy. Machine Boy is in his letterman, black pants, and sneakers running towards the right. The background is a sold pink with three lines behind him that are yellow, blue, and green.

Illustrated by Tri Vuong

It's starts as just another day for Grandpa of going to the store to get more tomatoes for Grandma's best Spaghetti, but when a machine boy falls to Earth, Grandpa must summon his karate skills of his youth to save everyone. He ends up awaking the heart of the metal boy, who goes on to train with Grandma in the karate arts. Machine Boy loves helping others, even if it's mostly rescuing cats from trees, and listening to his favorite crime-fighting superhero band. A little piece of Machine Boy breaks off and becomes fairly sentient, and Machine Boy keeps him as a pet, but the piece quickly outgrows the hiding place and then turns into a ravenous machine-eating robot who begins to devour parts of the city. Machine Boy, an unlikely friend from school, and the super band team up to get the robot under control and save the city.

Can't stop cursing you vol 1 by Kensuke Koba

7/25/2022

Cover of Can't Stop Cursing You volume 1. Saeyama is staring at us through parts in his jet-black hair. His eyes are glazed and reddened. He has a smirk on his face. Out of his mouth sticks his opium pipe, which has a small trail of smoke rising out of the end. Around him and behind him are splotches of rainbow paint.

Illustrated by Natsuko Uruma

Kiyoharu Saeyama is currently posing as a high school biology teacher, but that's only because he's really a Curse Breaker on the hunt for the next Curse Killer. He's contracted to find those who make pacts with Curse Gods, and break their contracts before too many people die. He has some special abilities that help him trace Curse Killers - he's able to ask the dead one question about their contractor in the hopes of narrowing down the suspect pool. Curse killings also come with several unbreakable rules, and they're not exactly spelled out for the Killers. So, while they're busy making sure they meet their quota of kills per month, Killers must also find out the rules and make sure their kills go off without a hitch. If they successfully fulfill the terms of their contract, the Curse Gods will bestow on them immense power.

City on the other side by mairghread scott

7/22/2022

Cover of The City on the Other Side. Isabel is in the foreground holding the magical necklace. Button, her mushroom friend, is to her right, wearing his green scarf and brown overcoat that matches his brown mushroom top. The rest of his body is white. To her left is Benji in his tattered clothes - yellow shirt, patches purple pants, purple cloak, and his fox mask that makes moving around the fairy world possible. Behind them are two versions of San Francisco - the human version, which is the dark green of nighttime with lights illuminating the windows; and the fairy side at day, which is brightly colored with yellow, green, or red roofs atop beige buildings.

Illustrated by Robin Robinson

While Isabel's upbringing among the elite of San Francisco in wake of the Great Fire may have some considering her fortunate, neither of her parents particularly know how to interact with her, and she is often told to be "seen, not heard." While visiting her sculptor father in Carmel for the summer, Isabel mysteriously traverses the veil between the fairy realm and the human realm, and she immediately gets pulled into a life-or-death quest that will determine the outcome of a brutal war between the two halves of fairydom: seelie and unseelie. She quickly makes a few friends who also want to see her quest fulfilled, and she'll have to rely on them and her strange magical abilities to deliver a stolen necklace to the princess of the seelie.

Dark Knights of Steel vol 1 by Tom Taylor

7/21/2022

Cover of Dark Knights of Steel volume one. The Batman holds his sword handle up in the foreground, A small Harley Quinn jester squats to the side of him. Kal-El smiles off to the side with a noble, princely smile. Opposite him looking off the other side is Alfred. Behind the all is Jor-El and Lara with their hands on Lara's pregnant stomach. Behind them are red stained glass windows.

Illustrated by Yasmine Putri, colored by Arif Prianto, lettered by Wes Abbott

In a reimagining of the DC Universe, Jor-El and Lara escape a crumbling Krypton in a rocket and crash land in a fantasy, Medieval Europe inspired time, just as Lara is giving birth to Kal-El. A prophet in a neighboring kingdom warn of a danger coming from the sky, who will look like humans, and who will destroy the world. Naturally, many suspect the Els as the subject of the prophecy, and some work to take out the indestructible family. The Els struggle between several kingdoms on the brink of war with the Kingdom of Storm and the Amazonians.

Jujutsu Kaisen vol 3 by Gege Akutami

7/20/2022

Cover of Jujutsu Kaisen volume 3. Itagaki's classmate, Kugisaski, is about to throw several sharp darts at someone off page. She has a few sticking out of her mouth but is wound up to throw some with her hand.

Gojo has a theory that curses and cursed energy are becoming more powerful and more deadly, on both sides of the fight. The higher ups with the Jujutsu Order don’t necessarily want to hear him out, but his case is proven for him with the next bad guy we meet. He can transform the soul of anything he touches, and his current delight is experimenting on humans to see how far he can take them. His latest experiment is witnessed by Junpei, who wasn’t particularly fond of the three boys he saw transformed. Mahito, the cursed spirit, takes Junpei back to his lair and reveals some of his evil plan while bonding with Junpei over the evilness of humans. Itadori and a Grade 1 sorcerer, Kento Nanami, are put on the case to investigate, and this leads to Itadori becoming somewhat of a friend to Junpei. The two bond over their love of movies. Junpei, though, is used by Mahito to get to Itadori, and tragedy strikes close to home, causing Junpei to lash out with murderous intent.

Nightmare in savannah by lela Gwenn

7/19/2022

Cover of Nightmare in Savannah. Underneath moss-covered trees, the four girls stare at us with different looks, some annoyed, some hopeful.

Illustrated by Rowan MacColl

Alexa moves in with her grandpa in Savannah after her parents are arrested for nonviolent offenses. Her google-able past makes her an instant target for the school bullies, but she also finds some friends a group of three girls: Chloe, Skye, and Fae. The four blow off some steam after school one day with a drunken bonfire in the forest, and they come back with more than they bargained for. All four start exhibiting signs that they've delved into the Fae world and are slowly transforming into fairies. To make it worse, Alexa's grandpa starts dating a woman who also seems like she has fairy magic, and she's not leaving Alexa's family and friends alone until she restores a powerful fairy to the Fae world - someone she feels is in Alexa's friend group.

Demon Slayer vol 8 by Koyoharu Gotouge

7/18/2022

Cover of Demon Slayer volume 8. Rengoku stands with his hands on the top of his sword as it's point is in the ground, and his flame and hair wraps around him majestically.

With the events on the train wrapping up, an high level demon appears amongst the wreckage and picks a fight with Rengoku. Tanjiro was wounded in the battle and is trying to concentrate on not bleeding out of the wound in his stomach, but he still senses the strength of the demon and is powerless to help Rengoku. Inosuke, who survived unscathed, is reluctant to intercede. The two watch the fierce battle and chase the demon as he escapes, fleeing from the oncoming sunrise. Tanjiro once again loses his sword. Rengoku tells Tanjiro to go to his family's estate and consult the records the other Flame Hashira have kept to see if there is any more information on the Hinokami Kagura breathing form. There, Tanjiro confronts Rengoku's drunken father, who becomes belligerent when he sees Tanjiro's Hanafuda earrings, and his starts railing about Sun Breathing.

Die vol 2 by Kieron gillen

7/15/2022

Cover of Die volume 2. Ash is centered in the forefront with her dictator power surging from her left eye. Behind her is Matt, looking sadly and angrily at us. Angela is posed behind them like she is about to run off to the left, her cyberpunk helmet on and her blonde hair flowing from the bottom. Behind them is Isabelle looking up into the sky, and beside her is Chuck, who is ready to draw a weapon from his sheath on his back.

Vol 2: Split the Party, illustrated by Stephanie Hans

From the previous volume, the party gets stuck in the middle of a war zone, and the only way to escape it is for Angela to make yet another sacrifice. Once out, the party splits. Isabelle feels responsible for the people of Glass Town and wants to find a place for them to live, while the rest of the party is still insistent that getting home should be their number one priority. Chuck decides to go with Isabelle, but the rest of the party is off to Angria to confront their past, specifically some of the consequences of their actions from the last time they were in Die, with the hope that something will come of this to get them home. Ash is reunited with Zamorna, a vampire Lord and the father of her son in Die, and Ash decides the only way to leave Die is to save it all, not just Glass Town.