Smile!

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

This deserves a post onto itself, if only because I'm hoping to reach an audience of teachers. If at all possible, you need to get a copy of this comic for your classroom and school library, and here's why.

Smile is the autobiographical tale of 7th grade girl, Raina, who needs to get braces. Shock of all shocks, she's not looking forward to them and is very worried about how she'll look and what others will think. But it gets worse! On her way home from Girl Guides one night, she and her friends race to her doorway, only for Raina to trip and break her two front teeth. Thus begins her harrowing journey from 7th grade to high school, as told through the various operations, procedures and dental hardware she has to endure in order to regain a semblance of a regular mouthful of teeth.

The oral adventures (get your mind out of the gutter) serve as a frame for a story about a typical girl who wants to fit in, wants to be cool and popular and of course, wants to get the boy. Her friends are kind of jerks. Their jokes are always a little too mean to be funny but she keeps hanging around with them because, hey, what else can she do about it? When they decide to pants her as a joke, though, she decides they've gone too far and she comes to the conclusion that she's better off alone than with friends like these. The book ends with her making new friends that she really gets along with and finally getting rid of her braces once and for all. Also, she doesn't get the boy, which was a refreshing change from usual youth-lit endings.

I really identified with her decision to break out on her own. My circle of friends from grades 7 to 9 were similar in their insulting sense of humour, or rather, they were considerably worse and I was as bad as any of them. We constantly put each other down and even took turns voting out the "weakest" among us. Usually when we'd vote a guy out, he'd still follow us around and it just gave us an extra reason to pick on him. It wasn't quite so funny when it was my turn, in grade 9, but like Raina, it was the best thing that could have happened to me at the time.

If you can reach one kid with this comic and get them to see that they're never stuck with shitty friends and that what's in your mouth doesn't dictate who you are, then it'll be worth it.

Other important info for teachers :

-It is entirely child appropriate. No sexual themes, no cursing and no violence whatsoever.
- It is available through the Scholastic catalogue that most schools have access to.
- It is available in French (Souris!)

Oh broccoli, who are simple.

Tangles : A story about Alzheimer's, my mother and me by Sarah Leavitt

Every few days I look through the New Adult Graphic Books and New Teen Graphic Books list over at the Toronto Public Library to see if they've picked up anything I've been waiting for. Generally, the titles I add to my hold list are ones I've read or heard good things about. When I came across Tangles, it was completely unknown to me. I liked the title, so I decided to look it up. Turns out, it was included in the Globe and Mail's list of the top 100 books of 2010, as well as a finalist for several awards. Those seemed like good incentives for me to pick it up, and so I did.

Tangles, as the full title might imply, is about Alzheimer's disease and a family affected by it. Based on her own experience, Sarah Leavitt recounts how she, her sister and her father, coped with slowly losing their wife and mother, Midge. As you read the introduction, you realize that you are being allowed into something intensely private and personal. As the author describes it, " I often felt like Harriet the Spy, or in darker moments, like a vulture hovering and waiting for Mom to say something that I could record and preserve, even as she slipped away from me."

The story in and of itself is fairly run-of-the-mill. You may have seen movies like Away From Her or the considerably more saccharine The Notebook and, in comparison, Tangles doesn't add anything new to the genre, as far as plot goes. What is really remarkable about this book, what makes it an amazing and touching read, is its humanity.

Leavitt doesn't provide excessive amounts of back story but she chose quality over quantity. The characters are so well-rounded and real that by the end, you can't help but feel as though you know these people about as well as you know your own family. I often wondered whether the author's family might take offence to their portrayal at times. They get angry when they should be patient, they make bad decisions and they argue with each other when they should be supportive. In other words, they are real people with good intentions who get tired, emotional and upset, just like everyone else.

It's not all tragedy and sadness though. The book is filled with snippets of dialogue that, while sad in their depiction of someone drifting away, were also beautifully poetic and at times laugh out loud funny. Her family learns to appreciate the beauty in how she manages to express herself and take a great deal of pleasure in making her laugh and keeping her happy and comfortable. I can only hope to be so well surrounded when my time comes.

I leave you with two of my favourite passages.

N.B.
For further reading in the "real people dealing with real things" genre, consider the following graphic novels:

Blankets, by Craig Thompson, about attaining sexual maturity in a very Christian household.
Epileptic, by David B., about dealing with, you guessed it, epilepsy.
Fun Home : A Tragicomedy, by Alison Bechdel, about dealing with repressed homosexuality and suicide.
Pedro and Me, by Judd Winick, about dealing with the loss of a friend to AIDS.

February Reads - Part 1

I started writing this post Monday and was too distracted by TV so I stopped after the first two series, hence the shift in layout/tone.

Pluto vol. 6, 7, and 8 by Naoki Urasawa

Summary of volume 8 from vizmedia.com
"Atom is back, and the fate of the earth is in his hands! Now that Atom has all the answers to the unsolved mysteries around Pluto, Bora and more, he's prepared to put everything on the line. With the memory of his fallen brethren--Gesicht, Mont Blanc, North No. 2, Brando, Hercules and Epsilon--etched deeply into his heart, Atom is headed for one last battle to save the world!"

This was a fun series. There was plenty of action and intrigue to keep me turning the pages and like most manga the entire series was a very quick read. The author manages to juggle a large cast while giving all of the characters the time they need and a unique voice of their own. The plot was intricate and intelligent though it seemed a little rushed at the end. There are no gaping holes left but it does seem like a few areas could have used a bit more explanation. All in all though, I would wholeheartedly recommend this series for someone looking to read an enjoyable and well written manga.

DMZ vol. 7 and 8 by Brian Wood

From dccomics.com
"Matty Roth redefines his role in the DMZ, rolling with a private security force and self-defined mandate to heal the city. But is this the start of a brand-new day – or will this "Rise of Matty" end with the fall of just another petty warlord? Collects DMZ #42-49!"

With Wood announcing that issue 72 would be the last, these volumes definitely step up the drama on the political scale. While I enjoyed them, I felt like Matty's shift from a non-violent observer to a heavily armed force for good was kind of abrupt. It reminded me of Anakin's sudden shift to the dark side. Volume 8 ends with Matty making a colossal mistake that leaves him in shambles and I'm looking forward to finding out how (or if) he'll bounce back from it.

The Walking Dead vol. 13 by Robert Kirkman

I have to admit, I'm having a hard time staying interested in this series. Now that they live in a gated community of sorts, it feels like the prison saga all over again, minus the convicts. Rick arrives, makes himself useful, goes a little crazy and then sees the error of his ways. I was happy when they left the prison and enjoyed the volumes afterward where they were back on the road, trying to survive. I hope volume 14 makes this community situation more interesting and fast.

King City vol. 1

A weird little American manga, King City does the whole dystopian future with underground graffiti culture quite well. It's very imaginative, well paced and pulls you in early on. It reminded me of Jet Set Radio Future, an XBox game from a decade ago where you ride around on roller-blades, marking your territory and sticking it to the man. There's more of a story to King City though, with spies, assassins and secret hideouts. Fun stuff.

Fables vol. 14 by Bill Willingham

The Fabletown Fables recently defeated the Adversary only to find their town destroyed by Mister Dark, an even more powerful foe. In volume 14, titled Witches, the magical community sets out to find a way to beat him while the rest of the townspeople try to mount a defence and cope with day to day problems such as finances. While it's mostly setup, with the payoff yet to come Willingham manages to keep the story rolling and the suspense building. He has a knack for portraying a micro-society realistically, which, when all of your characters are magical humans or talking animals (and sometimes both), says a lot about his writing skills. Now if only he'd leave his not-so-subtle right-wing messages out of it.

Spider-Man : Fever (unfinished)

I read about this title on a best of 2010 list as an honourable mention and decided to give it a try. Spider-Man has his soul kidnapped by some kind of mystical forager and Dr. Strange has to go into the magical underverse (or some-such) to find him. The art is really cool and trippy, I kind of wanted to get baked and read on, but the story felt like it was dragging on needlessly. Worse still, it felt inconsequential. Nothing new was being done here, and nifty pictures weren't enough to keep me reading until the very end.

N.B. I did skim through the rest of the story though to confirm that I did in fact know what was going to happen.

Never Learn Anything from History by Kate Beaton

I have a confession to make, I didn't actually read this one, BUT, there's a great explanation for that. This particular work is a collection of Beaton's online comic which I've read through in the past month or so. I picked up the trade from the library thinking there would be a few only-for-print comics, which there were, but only a handful. If you have never read Hark! A vagrant!, the online comic, get on it. Beaton is from Nova-Scotia and there's a very Canadian sensibility to her writing. She has a unique and simple drawing style that has got me laughing out loud on more than one occasion, mostly in her depictions of facial expressions. Her comics are history based, so if that's your forte, you're in luck, but even for an ignorant shlep like me, they're great fun.

Batman : Black and White vol. 2

Wow. This volume was miles above the first one. Superstar artists such as Alex Ross, Tim Sale, Gene Ha, Jim Lee and Paul Pope all illustrate a story in this volume, making it worth the read on looks alone. Its heavy on acclaimed writers as well, with stories by Warren Ellis, John Byrne, Paul Dini and Brian Azzarello. My favourite story was the very first, by Paul Dini and Alex Ross, where Arkham Asylum employees find an unpublished report on the Joker which argues that he is in fact sane and in complete control of his actions, meticulously portraying himself as crazy in order to stay out of jail. The explanation is brilliant and the reveal, that the report was written by Dr. Harley Quinn before she herself went insane, were masterful indeed. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I detested "Snow Job", by Bob Kanigher. I can handle a silly Batman story if it's done well but this one had little to no redeeming qualities. All mayhem and slapstick, the story about Batman and his son being attacked during a skiing competition (in costume!)had only one thing going for it, Kyle Baker's art. If you feel inclined to check it out, spare yourself from this one and read his Hawkman story from Wednesday Comics.

Scalped vol. 2 by Jason Aaron

While volume 1 threw you into the action head first, immersing you in the plots, subplots and plot twists, this volume contains 6 issues that basically retell the same 24 hours from the point of view of various characters. The overlap was just enough to keep your bearings while not enough to feel repetitive. Following these different people around meant seeing different aspects of the native reserve and how the construction of a casino was affecting those at opposite ends of the food chain. Through the use of flashbacks, it also served to characterize the relationship between the key players. Master of the cliffhanger ending, Aaron didn't disappoint with an unexpected murder to be followed up in volume 3.

Comics from school - the "This Actually Happened" series

Click on the image for a larger, eye-friendly version.

A Month's Worth of Graphic Novels : January 2011

I decided at the beginning of the month that I would start keeping track of the comics I read. I barely read monthlies anymore so I decided to just stick to graphic novels or trades. Here's what I read in January.




Bone by Jeff Smith : Volumes 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9

A series that's been around for years, kept hearing about how great it was but just dismissed it out of hand. When I finally put in the effort to read the first volume I was hooked. Great mix of comedy and fantasy, complete with prophecies, dragons and princesses. Fun stuff.




Bone : Rose

Prequel to the Bone series, it's a good read but the high point is definitely the art by Charles Vess. Beautiful




Bone : Tall Tales

A ... post-quel? Definitely not a sequel, but a few characters from the main Bone series tell some tales around a campfire. Fun, light stuff, fairly skippable in the grand scheme of things.




Paul à Québec by Michel Rabagliati

The fifth book I've read by this author, it follows Paul through the years. Mainly autobiographical, this volume tells of his father-in-law's cancer and how it is dealt with in the family. It was fantastic. It was incredibly human and avoided the easy sap that could come from a death in the family. I cried way more than I care to admit. I read it in its original French but it is available in English.




Wilson by Dan Clowes

I didn't realize going in that this book was written by the same guy who did Ghost World, which I also read last year. It's written in the same style, telling an overarching story through one page bits. Wilson is a putz, socially awkward and with verbal diarrhoea. It was often cringe-inducing but hilarious, in a Ricky Gervais sort of way.




Parker - The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke.

Based on a series of crime novels, Darwyn Cooke's art style was amazingly suited to the story. It has a great 50s feel and look to it, as though you've stepped onto the set of Mad Men. The story is pretty simple, a jilted crook goes after the mob to get what was his. There's a sequel, which I actually read first back in December, and it's just as cool.




Zot by Scott Mcloud

This huge brick is a collection of the indie series from the late 80s to early 90s. It's a weird mix of super-hero comics and teenage angst with some pretty good dialogue. By today's standards it's a little heavy-handed but for its time it was very progressive, dealing with social issues with more subtlety than was customary. Scott Mcloud went on to write the fantastic Understanding Comics and his commentary between issues is really insightful.




Batman : Year 100 by Paul Pope

A Batman tale set 100 years in our "current" Batman's future, the story revolves around someone taking up the mantle in a dystopian society. A collection of four issues, the story is pretty good and keeps you reading but the art is the real draw (pun not originally intended but fully noticed). Love him or hate him, Pope's style is gritty and incredibly true to detail (folds in Batman's costume, for example) while also being very dynamic.





DMZ volumes 4, 5 and 6 by Brian Wood

Volume 4 was the breakthrough for me. DMZ is one of Vertigo's most popular titles but I really wasn't feeling it. The basic premise is that there is a civil war going on in the U.S. where the South forms an army and attacks the government. The main battleground ends up being NYC which then becomes a demilitarized zone, or, wait for it, a DMZ. While the first 3 volumes set up the characters and the key players, it wasn't until volume 4 that I finally felt like things were coming together and I wanted to find out more about what would happen to the characters. A good mix of politics, journalism and war zone survival.




Batman : Black and White vol. 1


A collection of stories from the mid-90s, this first volume is very uneven. I didn't find any of the art to be bad but some of it was definitely more exciting or worthy of notice, like Brian Bolland's Innocent Guy and Matt Wagner's Heist. Some of the stories are annoyingly dated, even for the mid-90s; expository dialogue was definitely the worst. The story I liked most was Man Handles, by Bruce Timm, drawn and written in his legendary Batman: The Animated Series style.




Scalped vol. 1 by Jason Aaron

Another popular Vertigo title, this one about a prodigal son returning to the Native American reserve he left at the age of 13. Barely back in town, he gets hired by the corrupt Mayor as a police officer but you soon find out that just about everyone is hiding something. While very violent, the pacing is excellent and keeps you reading. I found it to be a great first volume because I'm already invested in it and the intrigues that it sets up.




Strange Tales by various artists

Another collection of short stories, this one was a lot of fun. Unlike the Batman one, it is written by a slew of indie comic writers and it's all very light-hearted. The Perry Bible Fellowship, of online comics fame, tells a few one-page gags featuring our favourite Marvel heroes. Paul Pope also has a fun story with the Inhumans in his unique art style. The biggest surprise for me was a story by Jason, the Norwegian author of Sshhhh!, a great graphic novel with no dialogue. His Spider-Man story was cute but his very presence in this collection came as a surprise to me. I'm very much looking forward to volume 2 though, featuring Kate Beaton.




Edit : I somehow skipped this entry in my list. My bad!

Pluto volumes 2, 3, 4, and 5 by Naoki Urasawa

The first manga I've read in years, Pluto builds on the Astroboy mythos to create an excellent story about robots living with humans. It delves into concepts like advanced AI and robot rights and laws without being preachy or overly-sentimental. The cast is huge but it's introduced gradually enough that you don't feel overwhelmed. Astroboy, or Atom, as he was called in Japan, doesn't appear until the second volume. The basic premise is that of a series of murders targeting the world's top scientists in robotics as well as the 7 most advanced robots, who are getting picked off one by one. The mystery has a fairly large scope and as I'm reading through volume 6 (of 8), light is just now starting to be shed on the major protagonists. Most of the volumes end with an afterword by a leading manga critic and those I've read praise the inclusion of many references to the original series. Not being an Astroboy expert, I can't attest to that but it's highly enjoyable on its own merits.

That's it for January, stay tuned for my February reads.