Illustrated by George Schall
A company in Korea specializes in creating “proxies”, life-like robots that have taken the place of some human children for families where conceiving has been difficult. A programmer, in his spare time, has possibly unlocked a key of artificial intelligence. He experiments with one unit and sends it out into the world. As she is later named, Jesse is sent to a family in Texas, where she starts to devour every book in the house, and quickly move on to the library where her mom works. She decides she wants to try going to school and being a “normal” child. Jesse’s innocence quickly gets her swept up with the wrong kids, and she finds herself an accessory to a school shooting. The programmer comes back to reclaim Jesse and raise her as his own daughter, but back in Korea, Jesse struggles with her identity and wanting to not be a girl child. Some short stories are also included that are supposed to bring more to the world of proxies
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Vol 1: The Cauldron of Life, illustrated by Justin Greenwood, colored by Daniela Miwa
Shahidah is a scholar who hails from the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, and she finds herself in Wales searching for the Cauldron of Annwn, one of the Thirteen Treasures of the world, and an object said to give eternal live. But Shahidah is not alone in her quest. Following close behind her, led by one of her fellow scholars, is the forces of Margul Khan. If the Margul gets ahold of eternal life, he is sure to conquer the known world! Shahidah uses her quick wits, and sometimes impressive fighting skills, to track down the mystery of this supposedly mythological item. 
Illustrated by Stephen Green, colored by Rico Renzi
After the Shaman tried to rip the War Club out of Kadyn's body in the last bit of volume one, the boy and his father, Gil, are once again separated by light years. Gil and the Shaman end up on the menacing Space Leviathan who attacked the temple on the Sacred Moon in volume one. With them is Monkey and Dolphin, who spent most of volume one tagging along with Kadyn. Meanwhile, Kadyn is stranded in wild space with Dalla, and he’s not sure he can trust her after what she pulled with the evil shaman. The dark spirit inhabiting the Shaman leaves him and infests Gil, which gives him the ability to commune with the Leviathan and see a path to Kadyn. Swirling around all of this is still the magic War Club and what its power means for these space people and creatures. Kadyn must do some soul searching in addition to searching for his dad. 
Illustrations by Marcos Martín & Muntsa Vicente
Friday and her childhood friend, Lancelot Jones, solved many mysteries around their small town. When it came time for college, Friday chooses a school out of town. The day before she leaves, she and Lancelot had an embarrassing moment that Friday dwells on for months away at college. Now, it’s the winter holidays, and Friday is home visiting family. Lancelot is on the case, as always, and she is swept up again in the same old routine of finding clues and solving the mystery. She’s dismayed that Lancelot is treating her just the same, reverting back to before she messed everything up. Something about this case is very different than the others, though, as there seems to be a mysterious spirit involved that Lancelot may know more about than he’s leading on. The case and clues really pick up, and Lancelot leaves traces letting Friday know to come back to their headquarters in the woods, but that’s when everything goes from bad to the absolute worst. 
Illustrated by Sean Phillips, colored by Elizabeth Breitweiser
Charlie is up on a ranch in Ojai where they are continuing to reshoot the movie with young starlet Maya standing in for Val. The official story from the studio is that Val killed herself, but Charlie knows she was murdered. He is still trying to find a producer with horn-rimmed glasses who might know something about what happened, but producers are dime a dozen and his description matches so many people in this town. Despite his better judgment, Charlie starts to fall for Maya, who is in a staged relationship with her co-star to drum up press for the film. But the young man runs his new car into an embankment and lands himself in the hospital. Gil also drums up plenty of trouble for a man who is supposed to be laying low. 
Vol 1: The Promise, illustrated by Nick Dragotta, lettered by Rus Wooton, colored by Frank Martin Jr
Three of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been reincarnated as children in a nation that very slightly resembles the United States in a bizarre future. One of the Horsemen is nowhere to be seen, and the other three set off to find and kill him. We move to another scene where a man, dressed in an all white Wild West outfit, extorts information from a barkeep in exchange for the man’s life. What our mysterious man in white receives is a list of "The Chosen", the seven people who can bring about the End of the World based on the teachings of "The Message". The man in white is Death, and he’d very much like for the world not to end. 
Illustrated by Trish Forstner
Sophie is a nervous dog who classically can’t remember much after it happens to her. She’s introduced to a group of dogs in a new house, and they terrify her. The nicest of the bunch, Rusty, recognizes her fears and protects Sophie. He gives her a tour of the home, including the room they’re not allowed to go into. Snippets of traumatic memories start coming back to Sophie, prompting other dogs to also remember some of their pasts, with owners who were not their current master, who all happen to be female and usually alone. Through this, the dogs discover their happy home with plenty of food and treats is not a safe place to be, for animals or humans. 
Vol 6: The Vow, illustrated by Sana Takeda
In the aftermath of the attack on Ravenna, Maika has been badly burned, many Arcanics were killed, but the Federation forces have stopped their attacks, for now. Maika and Zinn have a bit of a heart-to-heart about facing their pasts, so Maika decides it's time to stop running from hers. She summons her grandmother, the Ancient Wolf Queen, which also brings her face-to-face with her aunt - the Warlord - who is none to happy to finally have her hands on her deadly niece. Maika and the Baroness of the Dusk Court are finally reunited, but it's not a happy occasion. The Federation begin another assault on Ravenna, this time with canisters of gas that turn Arcanics into raging zombie-type creatures, and Maika decides to call on the power of the Mask fragments she's been collecting to try and save everyone in the city. 
Vol 1: Fantasy heartbreaker, illustrated by Stephanie Hans, letted by Clayton Cowles
For Ash's 16th birthday, his best friend Solomon (Sol) creates a new role-playing game that will knock everyone's socks off. Ash's kid sister, Angela, tags along, and the group is rounded out by Chuck, Isabelle, and Matt. The players build their characters, and Sol passes out special dice to each of them, reserving the D20 for himself as the master. They role, and they find themselves inside the game. Two years later, they come back to the real world, unable to speak about what has happened. Angela is missing an arm, and Sol is missing entirely. Twenty five years later, Sol's D20 finds its way back to Ash, who brings the gang back together again to decide what to do. Before anything can be decided, the five are sucked back into the game again. Sol is now the Grandmaster, and he insists they play again to defeat him this time. The group tries to work together to defeat Sol, but they discover their personal motives don't perfectly align this time. 
This volume is a retelling the tale of Persephone and Hades. We start off with Hades, overworked and trying to keep the Underworld in check. Many mortals are coming to him without any idea of how they died, which is a big problem for him in determining where they need to go. He travels to Olympus to figure out why they can't remember and stumbles upon a party, a celebration for Artemis getting her first temple. Zeus convinces Hades into putting the work talk on pause, and goads him into telling who he has a crush on. Hades, who is embarrassed by this line of talk, can't quite tell his brother who she is because he doesn't know her name. Meanwhile, Persephone fights with her mother, Demeter, about going to the party. Demeter is determined to keep working to preserve the perpetual summer the mortals enjoy, but Persephone is tired and wants to blow off some steam -- and potentially see that shy, cute guy. Zeus gets too involved, and Hades and Persephone end up on a stolen carriage in a pretty big pickle, but at least they're getting a chance to talk to each other.
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About MeI've been reading manga and comicbooks for years. Now, I write reviews and other helpful things for School Librarians, teachers, parents, and students. Search this site
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