Review: Explorer: The Mystery Boxes by Kazu Kibuishi

Title: Explorer: The Mystery Boxes
Author: Kazu Kibuishi
Published: March 1st 2012
Series: Explorer #1
Source: Paperback
Pages: 128

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Seven clever stories answer one simple question: what’s in the box?

Funny, fantastic, spooky, and suspenseful, each of these unique and beautifully illustrated short graphic works revolves around a central theme: a mysterious box and the marvels—or mayhem—inside. Artists include middle school favorites Kazu Kibuishi, Raina Telgemeier (Smile), and Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy), as well as Jason Caffoe, Stuart Livingston, Johane Matte, Rad Sechrist (all contributors to the groundbreaking comics anthology series Flight), and upcoming artist Emily Carroll.

I don't usually like short stories but I was drawn by the different art styles so I decided to give it a go! The stories were really good even though they were only a few pages long. All in all, there were very powerful drawings. I envy all the creative that went into this! I have pictures of the title pages for each short story to give you a sneak peek at the different art styles. :)

I will talk about each short story briefly without spoiling anything:

Under the floorboards by Emily Carroll

Dark, creepy and suspenseful
Story was amazingly executed

A solid 5 stars

Spring Cleaning by Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier

Fun and quick read but it did not have a conclusive ending.

3.5 stars

The Keeper's Treasure by Jason Caffoe

Loved the humour and the message of the story, I did not see the ending coming at all! Amazing stuff!

5 stars

The Butter Thief by Rad Sechrist

I did not really like the art style for this story but oh boy, the story was AWESOME! It transitioned between the real world and the spirit world so seamlessly and it reminded me of the Miyazaki films.

5 sparkly stars

The Soldier's Daughter by Stuart Livingston

This was a morality tale that had so much potential and sadly it was just not well executed as a short story. There was a sever lack of world building and character building. TBH, I can't remember the story and I am writing this based on the notes I took while reading it. This short story sounded like a great intro to a full length comic series.

2.5 stars

Whatzit by Johane Matte

This was very quirkly, adorable and entertaining!
I can imagine totally imagine this as a cartoon series :)

4 stars

 The Escape Option by Kazu Kibuishi

Great great ending to the entire collection! Loved the art style and the message of this story. This one was deep and made me think, it exceeded my expectations of short stories. This was my favourite out of the entire collection!

5 stars for sure

VERDICT:

Great great great short stories, executions were spot on and these stories are surprisingly memorable. I would really recommend that everyone check this out! It is also a great introduction to these comic book authors and I will definitely be checking out the works of most of them!

My rating: 

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Review: Saga #1

Title: Saga #1
Author: Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples
Published: October 23rd 2012
Series: Saga #1
Source: Paperback
Pages: 160

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When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

From New York Times bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina) and critically acclaimed artist Fiona Staples (Mystery Society, North 40), Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults.

The art by Fiona Staples is really amazing! Without being overwhelming, there were a lot of great details in the background, expressions etc. The storyline in this first instalment focuses on the journey that the narrator's parents were on in order to save their family. It also introduced the various species and politics as part of its world building. It was a little overwhelming and I had to pause periodically to get everything straight. However, I can see how this first book would be a great set up to an amazing series! The world sounds huge and has so much potential, I am going to enjoy travelling through the universe with the characters. :)

Speaking of characters, I can't wait to find out more about all the characters, especially The Will. It seems like he would be an important character as the series progresses. I love how we saw so many sides to him in a short few pages, I was very impressed with Vaughan's storytelling skills. Character development was done pretty well despite the short length of the novel, most of them were pretty multi-dimensional and I am so excited to get to know them better. 

I also enjoyed the humour and it didn't feel forced/awkward even though the main characters were in the middle of a crisis. Great writing overall!

VERDICT:

I was in a bit of a reading slump and this amazing sci-fi fantasy graphic novel pulled me right out of it!  You have to give this a go if you enjoy sci-fi, space adventures or aliens! It is a very easy series to get into. Needless to say, I am continuing with this series! :)

Do note that this has adult content in it and I would not recommend this to anyone that is uncomfortable with nudity.

My rating: 
Recommended for anyone looking for a good graphic novel/comic series!

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Review: Seconds: A Graphic Novel

Title: Seconds: A Graphic Novel
Author: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Published: July 15th 2014
Source: Hardcover
Pages: 323

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Katie’s got it pretty good. She’s a talented young chef, she runs a successful restaurant, and she has big plans to open an even better one. Then, all at once, progress on the new location bogs down, her charming ex-boyfriend pops up, her fling with another chef goes sour, and her best waitress gets badly hurt. And just like that, Katie’s life goes from pretty good to not so much. What she needs is a second chance. Everybody deserves one, after all—but they don’t come easy. Luckily for Katie, a mysterious girl appears in the middle of the night with simple instructions for a do-it-yourself do-over:

1. Write your mistake
2. Ingest one mushroom
3. Go to sleep
4. Wake anew

And just like that, all the bad stuff never happened, and Katie is given another chance to get things right. She’s also got a dresser drawer full of magical mushrooms—and an irresistible urge to make her life not just good, but perfect. Too bad it’s against the rules. But Katie doesn’t care about the rules—and she’s about to discover the unintended consequences of the best intentions.

From the mind and pen behind the acclaimed Scott Pilgrim series comes a madcap new tale of existential angst, everyday obstacles, young love, and ancient spirits that’s sharp-witted and tenderhearted, whimsical and wise.

This will be a rather short review because it is a pretty short story with quite a few twists and I don't wanna spoil it for you! :)

Things I liked:

Loved the art style, the colours and design! Everything came together so well with the story. I really enjoyed the dark aspects, it really added a lot to the story and it was quite unexpected.

I also really really enjoyed all the underlying issues it was addressing, Seconds is a graphic novel that is deep and makes you think, what are you willing to do to get what you want? The twists were also pretty well done considering the length of the novel.

The fantasy elements were amazing as well and a little unexpected, it was executed really well and really added a very interesting dimension to the story and setting!

My favourite was a side character: Hazel. She was so understanding and non-judgemental, she was a great friend for the protagonist who having so much difficulty keeping her shit together.

Things I did not like:

The other characters were pretty one-dimensional and did not engage me much but it was not a big issue and did not affect my reading experience.

The ending felt really rushed and it just didn't feel very satisfactory after that amazing climax. I did not expect it to be a morality tale because the main character, Katie, was a 20-something chef so I assumed that it was an adult novel. (I always associate straight up morality tales with children's stories. For me, morality tales for adults are usually hinted at and not so in-your-face. I could be wrong about this though, this is just my impression. No hate please.) For me, it seems pretty YA or even middle-grade for the conclusion to just be a 'the moral of the story is...' That was a pretty shallow conclusion and highly predictable.

Verdict:

Had I known this was a YA/Middle-grade book I would've probably enjoyed it a lot more, you know, with different expectations and all. The art is amazing and the hardcover looks so damn gorgeous. The characters and plot were not as strong as I hoped for but overall it is a very entertaining and light read! I would think that this would be a rather good introduction to the world of graphic novels, it is pretty good and has just enough complexity without overwhelming a first-time graphic novel reader!

My Rating: 

Recommended for anyone who enjoys fantasy and light graphic novels!

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