Reviews - The Graphic Library

Zawa and the belly of the beast by michael dialynas

6/21/2024

Cover of Zawa + the Belly of the Beast. Zawa is sitting on a trash heap. She's eating a popsicle. Her green hair is flowing to one side. She's wearing a yellow and blue striped shirt.

On the remote island of Mesa's Boon, Bandit and Thatcher run an underground kitchen providing fresh meals to locals using recipes their dad taught them. But, if only they had more ingredients, which are usually hoarded by a greedy company that squanders resources on the island. In an ill-conceived attempt to sneak in and stockpile fresh foods, the siblings find much more -- Zawa, a creature of myth, but also of cookies? She's been trapped below the surface, feeding on garbage and industrial waste, but she also could be the Spirit of the Mountain, and she also loves Bandit's cookies he fashioned to look like the Spirit. After an escape and some helpings of fresh food, Zawa's temperament completely changes, though her appetite is still ravenous! There's much more going on behind the company's door than shackling spirits and hoarding resources, including what Bandit and Thatcher's mom has been up to at work, and it all shakes the very foundation of the town, forcing the citizens to question the relationship they have with the natural world around them.

Grim vol 3 by stephanie phillips

12/31/2023

Cover of Grim volume 3. Jess is trying to come up to the top of a body of water but there are chains tied around her feet. Everything is a deep red

Illustrated by Flaviano, colored by Rico Renzi

Jess and Eddie are imprisoned by Adira while Marcel wallows in a layer of Hell, but humans on Earth are still unable to die and the Reapers are starting to get restless. Meanwhile, the deal Adira struck to capture Jess has dire consequences as the soul she traded for Jess releases onto Earth something even worse than the undying. Elsewhere, Life bargains with Lilah, Jess's mom, to try and get her to relinquish her powerful amulet, but first he has to understand what she truly wants after serving decades in prison away from her family.

The woods vol 1 by james tynion iv

8/19/2023

Cover of The woods volume 1. The teens are mostly standing around in a group and looking back at us, arranged with their backpacks and ready to go off into the woods, which are purple and behind them. Behind the trees is a pink planet with a lighter pink ring.

Yearbook Edition vol 1, illustrated by Michael Dialynas

On a fateful day in 2013, students and staff at Bay Point Preparatory High are going about their normal days, when they are suddenly transported to an alien and hostile environment with violent monsters trying to eat them all, and strange glowing rocks. Several exceptional teens try to take some modicum of control and seek solutions. Several decide the answers they need lie in the woods, and they soon discover they are not the only humans who have been plucked from Earth! Some of them are abducted by warriors who look seem like Vikings, while others discover a Ziggurat full of writing from ancient civilizations, as well as more questions about why they were brought to . The Viking warriors, take the teens back to a civilization named New London, and they know English, but they are also keenly interested in what the rest of Bay Point might have to offer for their own continued survival.

Grim vol 2 by stephanie phillips

7/21/2023

Cover of Grim volume 2. Jess is kneeling on the ground with her hands touching the ground. Her head is exploding, with half of it already turned into a skull. It's mostly engulfed in a yellow and orange fire. The flames are also in her veins running down her arms into her elbows.

Illustrated by Flaviano, colored by Rico Renzi

Jessica, Eddie, and Marcel start off still trapped in Las Vegas, having learned some secrets to Jess’ lineage. Meanwhile, all over Earth, people aren’t dying like they’re supposed to, as the Reapers are not there to collect the newly departed and the Afterlife is thrown into chaos from Jess’ revelations. Despite not being able to return to the Afterlife, the three find some other figures straight out of Greek Mythology, including the Three Fates that tell Jess how she can fix everything by taking up the mantel she clearly doesn’t want. To make things a little more messy, an embodied form of Life gets entangled with Jess’ mom and tries to pay her a good deal of money for a special necklace in her possession.

Once upon a time at the end of the world vol 1 by jason aaron

7/17/2023

Cover of Once Upon a Time at the End of the World volume 1. The world is on fire. Two people sit in a small canoe on a fiery lake. They both have gas masks on, and the canoe is filled with stuff. They have an umbrella over them and there's a heart-shaped hole in it. The circular filter of the gas masks are pressed together as if the two people are kissing.

Illustrated by Alexandre Tefenkgi, colored by Lee Loughridge

In a time after the apocalypse, Mezzy is part of the Wasteland Rangers, a group that is part boy-scouts, part doomsday-preppers. She, however, is determined to find her way to the fabled Oasis where everything will be plentiful. Along the way, she takes refuge from pursuing Rangers in a giant tower, where she meets Maceo. Maceo is an inventive young person with tons of television entertainment options, a tape recorder where he records messages to his quarantined (and dead) parents, and loads of vending machines full of candy and treats. He tries to entice Mezzy to stay, but she refuses. Instead, Maceo packs up a giant pile of his belongings, gives one last message to his parents, and follows Mezzy out into the Wasteland, despite her refusal to travel together. Over the next few weeks, Mezzy constantly saves Maceo from wasteland disasters and reluctantly teaches him how to survive, but Maceo shares his hoard of treasures and helps Mezzy understand what it means to live.

Specs by David M. Booher

7/11/2023

Cover of Specs. Kenny is holding the specs down on his nose so that we can see his wide eye behind it. Reflected off the glass of the lens a skeleton with its mouth wide open. It has beady, red eyes.

Illustrated by Chris Shehan

Best friends Kenny and Ted live in a small town in Ohio in the 1980s. Ted plays on the baseball team, and Kenny is trying to hide the fact that he's gay and has a crush on his best friend. One day, they find an advertisement for wish-granting glasses in the back of an old comicbook. They think nothing more of it until the specs arrive, un-summoned. When they decide to use a wish to make the town bully disappear, they start down a dark path of wishes as they try to fix their mistake, and as Kenny tries to make life better for himself and Ted. Rarely does any wish turn out without unintended consequences, so Kenny descends into an out-of-control spiral of wishes and ramifications.

Know your station by Sarah Gailey

5/29/2023

Cover of Know your Station. A skeleton stands atop a pile of gold coins. It's holding a martini glass in one hand, the other hand is perched on its hip bone. There is a space helmet around its skull.

Elise is, for all intents and purposes, the "law" on the most elite space station full of Earth's 1% who have escaped a dying planet below. There's hardly any crime aboard, so she feels ill-equipped when there are multiple murders to investigate! Someone is going after the station's Board of Directors, and they're not just dying quietly. Each body is made into a spectacle that would disgust even the most heartless of the working-class citizens. While she's trying to solve the murders, Elise is also trying to kick her habit of taking the highly addicting, hallucinogenic substance known as "Blue". Her paranoia is heightened when it seems like she might have had a hand in one of the murders in an intoxicated stupor, but she's determined to figure out what is really happening on her station.

Dune: tales from arrakeen by Brian Herbert & Kevin j anderson

5/25/2023

Cover of Dune: Tales from Arrakeen. A man stands in front of a pile of sticks that seems to be on fire. Inside its smoke, we can see a sliver of Caladan.

This volume collects two short stories: Blood of the Sardaukar and Whispers of a Caladan Sea.

In the first sorry, we follow along with a commander of the Sardaukar forces the night they were deployed against House Atreides. We discover that he originally had a deep hatred for Duke Paulus, who spoke up and eventually went to battle agains the commander’s father, who was the noble of the planet of Borhees. The House Atreides seized the planet, while the children of the noble family were conscripted into becoming deadly Sardaukar.

In the second story, we come upon a group of Atreides soldiers who were ordered into the caves to protect the stores of supplies hidden inside. They become trapped during the battle of Arrakeen and know there is no survival. The men ask Vitt to tell them a tale and distract them from their impending doom. Vitt is of an ancient line of Jungleurs, storytellers with powers like the Bene Gesserit, power to make their words come alive and entrance their listeners. Vitt bids the group to remember the sea on Caladan, and all the treasures it held, as their oxygen slowly runs out.

Mamo by sas milledge

2/15/2023

Cover of Mamo. Jo and Orla are climbing trees with Orla's cat familiar between the two of them.

Jo sets out one day to find someone who can help with the poltergeist in her attic and her ailing mother. She finds Orla, the granddaughter of the last witch of Haresden. Orla has no intention of being sucked back into Haresden’s problems, but Jo is pretty convincing. Orla agrees to fix her problems, but discovers that the magic is off in Haresden because of her late grandmother. She wasn’t buried properly, so her bones have been spread all over the town, causing chaos with the fae spirits and engendering magical problems across the countryside. Orla enlists the help of Jo in gathering all of the bones and setting the magic right again, but the two get more than they both bargained for.

Wynd vol 3 by james tynion iv

1/11/2023

Cover of Wynd volume 3. Wynd is in full transformed mode - he has large black wings, black fur covering his body, blue glowing eyes, sharp teeth, and sharp claws on his hands. He's flying over a snowy landscape that has spears sticking out of the snow. There are also a few spears in the air flying at him.

Vol 3: The Throne in the Sky, illustrated by Michael Dialynas

Our heroic band of kids is on the run, including from Duke Yadriel, who was supposed to be their savior! So now, humans, faeries, and those pesky vampires are wanting to overtake the group for a variety of reasons. The most terrifying presently is General Eks, a ruthless faery who believes the children are responsible for the destruction of an entire city. A suggestion is thrown out that they take the mountain pass to avoid being tracked, but this terrifies Merien. Faeries aren't built to withstand such extreme temperatures, which might be good for evading Eks, but not for their friend. While refreshing themselves at a mountain hot springs, the kids are picked up by Strawberry, a seemingly-friendly giant, who takes them to the ruins of an ancient city. Merien and Wynd discuss using his likeness to the Winged Ones to win allies, but Wynd still rejects the notion that he's descended from the original creators of the world.