Graphic Reads

"Do you ever wonder if life's not real? Maybe your life is only someone else's dream." In The Squirrel Mother: Stories, by Megan Kelso, you'll find a collection of stories that depict real life without the rose-colored glasses. Kelso digs deep and gets to the heart of what people may really think and feel, but might never say out loud. In"The Pickle Fork," we meet a museum worker who wants an old woman to die, so that she can obtain her silver collection for the museum. In another story, about the military, we see a raw and honest depiction of the government's and society's treatment of the troops.

Kelso tells it like it is. Her characters and stories don't wear band-aids; all the bumps, bruises and imperfections of the human condition are put out there for all to read. In some ways, this GN can be a tough read, but in others it's refreshing. Kelso's straight-up tales pack a punch. They are effective, well-told and memorable as much for their art as for the mesages they convey.

Following the bombing of Baghdad in 2003, a small pride of four lions escaped from the ruined Baghdad Zoo and wandered about the city until they were shot by U.S. soldiers. This slim graphic novel, told from the lions' point of view, details what those days may have been like for Zill, his two female companions, Safa and Noor, and Noor's young cub, Ali. Richly illustrated in warm browns, yellows and reds, The Pride of Baghdad is the collaborative effort of Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon and begins just before the bombs land on the Zoo. Noor, vibrant and lithe, lies plotting her escape from the Zoo, determined to live in freedom. Freedom, it turns out, is more than the pride had bargained for. As the bombs fall, Vaughan and Henrichon depict the terror and chaos of the animals as they flee their ruined homes. The lions take to the streets of Baghdad, discovering the ruined and deserted palaces of the "keepers". The text can seem stilted in parts, but that is more than made up for in the illustration, which is remarkable and heartfelt.

The Pride of Baghdad is more than anthropomorphosized storytelling, though. At the heart of the book is a debate between Noor, who is in her prime, and Safa, who is older, crippled, and jaded. The lionesses argue about the merits of freedom: is it better to be caged, but well fed and looked after, or free and starving in a ruined city? The debate is clearly adaptable to the human residents of Baghdad, and as the pride meets other residents of the bombed-out city, it is clear that to be kept has its own perils. Though the authors give these kinds of debates to the two lionesses, the text refrains from being heavy-handed, preachy, or trite. There are no easy answers - for the lions or the reader. In the end, the lions' sad deaths are simply collateral damage in the aftermath of the invasion, reminding the reader that war causes many losses, both great and small.

A story of first love, family and growing up, Craig Thompson's Blankets is about as good as a graphic novel can get. At 581 pages, this GN is truly a novel, but don't let the length deter you. Once you pick up Blankets, I guarantee you won't be able to put it down. Thompson's story is honest and gripping, a fusion of words and art that will not fail to touch your heart. It's a realistic story about a boy who confronts faith, love and family and ultimately discovers that art is his means of not just escape, but of understanding the adult world. Blankets is beautifully written and not to be missed. In the words of Thompson, "How satisfying it is to leave a mark on a blank surface, to make a map of my movement -- no matter how temporary." Let's hope Thompson makes many more marks to bring us many more stories in the future!

What do you get when Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage; the king and queen of 70’s punk rock; grow up, clean up and have kids? The Hopeless Savage family! Skank Zero Hopeless Savage (aka Zero), the youngest of the kids in the Hopeless Savage clan, narrates the first volume of Jen Van Meter’s Hopeless Savages series. When Zero wakes up to find her parents kidnapped, she calls on Arsenal Fierce and Twitch Strummer, her brother and sister, to help her save them. Their adventure begins with a trip to rescue their other brother, Rat, from his life as a yuppie executive at a coffee company. Once Rat joins them and is fully reformed to his former punk rock glory, from spiked hair to padlock necklace, the Hopeless Savage kids are ready to rescue their parents. What follows is a hilarious story of punks, skinheads, martial arts, music, and a family that sticks together.

Christine Norrie’s illustrations capture the gritty sweetness of the Hopeless Savage family perfectly. While this GN has a lot going on in it, Van Meter makes the story work and leaves you wanting to spend more time with the Hopeless Savages.

The year's best graphic novels span the range of material from a Chinese-American boy trying to come to terms with his heritage to a self-centered ad-man finding salvation in a post-9/11 road trip; from the quiet musings on the meaning of life from a cartoony everyman to a handful of Japanese school kids battling for their lives following a traumatic train wreck.

Lost Girls - Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie (Top Shelf)
On the brink of WWI, Alice, Dorothy and Wendy, classic characters from children's literature now grown to adults, explore their sexuality and mythic pasts in this controversial erotic fantasy.

Fun Home - Alison Bechdel (Houghton Mifflin)
In this haunting memoir, Bechdel examines her closeted father's homosexuality and destructive lies while learning to accept her own lesbianism.

Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness - Bryan Lee O'Malley (Oni Press)
Indie slacker musician Scott Pilgrim must fight his former girlfriend's superpowered vegan bass-playing boyfriend in this hilarious sendup of video games, indie rock and comics.

Making Comics - Scott McCloud (HarperCollins)
Completing his analytical trilogy, the guru of comics theory takes an in-depth look at how comics storytelling works, offering advice, how-tos and exercises.

Ghost of Hoppers - Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
In this complex and wistful tale, an older, now-divorced Maggie Chascarrillo manages a low-rent apartment complex full of oddball tenants while she struggles with her new life and her old lover, Hopey.

Curses - Kevin Huizenga (Drawn & Quarterly)
Huizenga's spare but architectonic drawings highlight stories that slyly explore philosophic quandaries, often through the eyes of Glenn Ganges, an everyman protagonist who offers a thoughtful wonder at life's complexities.

American Born Chinese - Gene Yang (Roaring Brook/First Second)
The story of a Chinese-American kid in an all-white school is combined with the Chinese fable of the Monkey King and a hilarious racist stereotype in a delightful allegory on Chinese-American identity.

Can't Get No - Rick Veitch (DC/Vertigo)
Corporate executive Chad Roe awakes after an all-night bender to find his entire body marked in indelible ink. After 9/11, he takes to the road, in an elliptical narrative that calls his life's choices into question through satirical verse.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation - Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón (Hill & Wang)
A comics adaptation of the original 9/11 Commission Report that retains all its content and recommendations.

Dragon Head Vol. 1 - Minetaro Mochizuki (Tokyopop)
A Japanese schoolboy heading home by train is violently awakened when the train crashes in a dark tunnel, leaving him and others trapped underground amid the mangled and dead bodies.