Vol 1: Jewel of the Gravesend, illustrated by Jacquelin De Leon
Zatanna Starr, the daughter of renowned Coney Island illusionist Ezra Starr, is not a fan of crowds and performing. She’s much rather hang out with her friends or boyfriend and ride Coney Island’s coasters, grab cotton candy, walk her pet rabbit, or laze around at the beach. Her whole life changes when they visit a traveling band and find Mirror Script, a backwards script trick magicians used to use to hide their spells and tricks. Everyone else seems to have difficulty reading it, but Zatanna is able to read it just fine. What's more, whatever she reads comes true, and she can't figure out how this illusion is working! Diving deeper into this mysterious world unlocks other secrets about her family and her past that she must confront in order to truly understand what she's capable of.
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Adapted by David M. Booher, illustrated by Zoe Thorogood, colored by Chris O'Halloran
Honeysuckle and her girlfriend Yolanda are so excited to be finally moving in together. As they pack up the car with all of Yolanda’s things, the dark storm clouds over Boulder open up and let down a deluge - of razor sharp, nail-like crystals that pierce those out in the open. And this isn’t an isolated incident. Over the next few days, the sky drops more crystals all over Colorado, and other parts of the world. Honeysuckle traverses the somewhat post-apocalyptic landscape for survivors and for some answers to what has happened to the clouds.
Vol 3: Limit, vol 1
Taichi and Kōhei are together to some degree, without a label just yet. Taichi has begun working at Sig-N, a company that trains folks to use sign language. Kōhei is still going to school, studying to become a labor lawyer. The two are supposed to go on a romantic getaway weekend trip, but Taichi gets called away to go on a retreat for his work. His boss is gruff but caring, which makes Kōhei jealous. While Taichi’s away, Kōhei gets a checkup, where he and his doctor talk about his continuing hearing loss. Later, he and his friend Maya sort of stumble upon a group of Deaf athletes playing soccer in a special aparatus . Kohei has a pamphlet of cochlear implants in his bag, which enrages some of the members of the group.
This story follows a gardener who can see ghosts, and a ghost who has fallen in love with the gardener. Hamal tries to go about his day at the nursery where he works, but customers constantly complain about his odd behavior and how he talks to himself. But Hamal is actually talking to the ghosts, including his best friend, Blue. Blue and a few other ghosts keep getting swept into a creepy, dead forest. A reaper approaches Blue and reveals there is an unlicensed necromancer in the vicinity, and asks for Blue’s help, but Blue is sure it's Hamal, and he can’t betray him like that. The reaper catches up to them anyway, but gives Hamal a way to make balance between the world of the dead and the world of the living - work for the reaper, but the jobs aren't as gnarly as one might think working for a creature of death.
Vol 2: Theory of Happiness
After Kōhei kissed Taichi, the two don’t quite know how to act around each other. Taichi is still willing to take notes for Kohei, but then Maya comes along - another hard-of-hearing person who thinks Taichi is just taking advantage of Kōhei and his seemingly endless supply of lunches. Taichi stumbles upon a business called SIGN that helps train people in some basic sign language and works with other companies to be more inclusive, and Taichi’s impassioned plea to not exclude the hard-of-hearing from their company’s work impressed the owner so much that he offers Taichi a job. While he’s mulling over the offer, Taichi realizes he would probably be better off working full time instead of wasting money going through college without direction. But will Kōhei be ok with another note taker?
Illustrated by Jess Taylor
Taylor and her associates are posing as a makeshift family in a small town outside Metropolis, but they’re actually refugees from another planet, hiding from a cruel enemy called The Vane who destroyed their world. For an extra measure of protection, Taylor’s general and pretend father made Taylor’s disguise a human boy, even though Taylor’s true identity is The Galaxy Crowned, Princess of Cyandii, and she feels out of place in her male body. She also has a guard "robot", an adorable sentient corgi who follows her and records what happens daily. When a girl named Kat movea to their small town, Taylor’s facade starts to really distress her, and she breaks her cover to reveal her true self to Kat. The community, however, isn't as accepting of having an alien in their midst.
Uenoyama has found the perfect napping spot at school, but he’s miffed one day to find another guy sitting there. This new person is clutching a guitar with broken and rusty strings, which morally offends Uenoyama, a serious guitarist. He fixes the strings and reluctantly gives it back, and the newcomer begs Uenoyama to teach him guitar. After wearing him down, Mafuyu finally gets Uenoyama to teach him. Uenoyama dreads the task until Mafuyu sings, and Mafuyu’s voice pierces Uenoyama. He introduces Mafuyu to his band mates, Akihito and Haruki, who are both also stunned by Mafuyu’s vocal talents. When a classmate tells Uenoyama that Mafuyu dated a boy in junior high, and that the boy committed suicide, he must figure out what he thinks and feels about Mafuyu, or decide to ignore this information completely.
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
Book 2: The Secret of the Wings, illustrated by Michael Dialynas
Wynd and his friends have escaped Pipetown, but what they've found outside the walls is a world unlike what they were told. The King of Pipetown makes an unexpected alliance with the Vamps, specifically the sister of his dear hunter, the Bandaged Man. He wants her to scare his son, but bring him back to Pipetown alive. General Zedra of the Vamps seizes on the opportunity to sew more chaos into the world and potentially settle some very old scores between her people and some of the other inhabitants of Esseriel. After the Vamps decimate the Duke's small fleet of ships, Wynd, Yorik, Oakley, and a gravely injured Thorn find themselves in the Faery city of Escalon. But, they aren't safe there for long either.
Illustrated by Claudia Balboni, Harry Saxon, and Lucas Gottoni
Alex and Max are Reformed Assassins for Hire who scuttled away from their employer after a job included killing children. Now, they take odd jobs doing dangerous things so they can get paid and eat tacos. They take a highly dangerous job from one of Alex’ old flames to sneak into a fascist country on the planet Antigone and rescue two kids who have been taken as political prisoners. But Bieti, their former employer and a very fluffy monkey, demands his ship back. He follows the two towards Antigone and causes them to crash land, giving up any sort of element of surprise they might have had. Now, they have to escape a high-security prison and break into an even higher-security prison to get the job done. That is, if Max can stop hitting on everything long enough to formulate an escape plan. |
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 siteRatings, Audience, and Subject Tags
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