Title: The Griff
Author: Christopher Moore and Ian Corson
Artist: Jennyson Rosero
Pages: 160
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: July 2011
Where I got the book: Library

From the back cover:

Outrageously funny New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore and award-winning screenwriter-director Ian Corson team up for a wacky and entertaining graphic tale of alien invasion and a motley crew of Earthlings trying to stay alive and, oh, yeah, save humankind.

The mayhem begins when an ancient alien beacon is unwittingly activated, summoning behemoth spaceships from the far reaches of the galaxy. Hovering in Earth’s atmosphere, they release a biblical stream of pods that transform into minivan-size, people-eating, flying lizardy things that look like mythological griffins. Destroying communications, emergency, and military infrastructure, they systematically kill everyone on the planet. Well, almost everyone.

A pesky trio of New Yorkers isn’t about to roll out the red carpet—or roll over and die—for these unwelcome intergalactic marauders. Unlikely heroes Mo, a snarky, Gothy game-goddess; Steve, a skateboard-punk schwag whore; and Curt, the obligatory buff commando expert in weaponry (and a genius with cosmetics), are going to take it to the aliens—and Florida is where the fight is. Armed with M-16s, a BFG (big f**king gun), and a surplus of guts, they’ll battle their way from the Big Apple to Orlando, where a downed spacecraft is the most awesome new attraction.

And in the Sunshine State another pair of courageous (and pretty damn lucky) humans who have outwitted the toothy Überlizards await: Liz, a babelicious killer whale trainer at Ocean World, and Oscar, a chain-smoking middle-aged professional squirrel (seriously—he’s paid to wear that squirrel costume).

Once united, the intrepid warriors will attempt to infiltrate the alien spacecraft, defeat the spacer invaders, and save (what’s left) of the world—and, if Steve plays his cards right, begin the fun of repopulating Earth all over again.

Review:

Christopher Moore is one of my favorite authors. All of his novels have been greatly enjoyable and hilarious. When I heard he was going to write a graphic novel, I was worried. First it was an original story instead of an adaptation of one of his other books. Second, he was writing it with Ian Corson, a screenwriter for movies I’ve never seen. Then there was the artwork. I hated it. For graphic novels the art style can easily ruin it for me, but since I heart Christopher Moore, I was willing to overlook it. However, in the end I was disappointed with The Griff on so many levels that this review will probably be the last time I mention it or acknowledge its existence.

The story in The Griff centers around an invasion of dragon-like aliens who are eating away at the human race. Survivors are forced to hide underground and be on the run constantly. It’s your typical “us versus them” scenario that can be seen in many, many movies. That’s not too surprising. Moore and Corson originally intended for The Griff to be a movie, but when that failed that eventually decided on the graphic novel format. I don’t want to say this is a problem because of the graphic novel format in general, but I think I can get away with saying that novels are a medium that allow more character development than graphic novels. Graphic novels typically only have 140 pages to get their story across and those pages share the space with art while novels can be 200+ pages of words describing and evolving the characters. The characters, one of my favorite trademarks of a Christopher Moore novel, in The Griff are sorely lacking in the development department. None of them are that interesting and in the short span of the book I never really cared for any of them. There’s the tough girl, the hapless male, the army guy, the guy you kind of want to see die, etc.

Another problem I faced with the book was that a lot of action would take place on a single page and it can sometimes be confusing how all the images fit together. Some pages seem more like a collage than a story. I know they are limited on space but jumping from point A to point C while ignoring what happens in between is not the best way to get there. This is especially noticeable in the action sequences where dialog isn’t spoken and the pictures are forced to speak for themselves. It leaves the reader to infer a lot of details about the story.

Closing Thoughts: Dismiss this book. It’s not worth your time.

Question: Maybe it’s just me, but The Griff led me to believe that everybody on the east coast own a submarine and knows how to drive them. Ture or False?

Second Opinions:
comic book newbie
Kleefeld on Comics
The Crawlspace

Title: Son of a Witch
Author: Gregory Maguire
Discs: 11
Publisher: HarperAudio
Published: September 2009
Where I got the book: Library

From the back cover:

In this captivating New York Times bestseller, beloved author Gregory Maguire returns to the land of Oz and introduces us to Liir, an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch. Is he really Elphaba’s son? He has her broom and her cape—but what of her powers? In an Oz that, since the Wizard’s departure, is under new and dangerous management, can Liir keep his head down long enough to grow up?

Review:

In anticipation of the fourth book in the Wicked series, Out of OZ, I have decided to give the books another shot. The Wicked series is a little conflicting for me. I like the idea of them, but the execution often leaves me bored. When I read Wicked it was because everybody at the time was doing so. I got through it but couldn’t figure out what the big deal was. When Son of a Witch came out years later, I bought it and tried read it. That didn’t last long. I got bored and set the book down. When A Lion Among Men came out I purchased a copy but have never even cracked the spine on the book. This time around I thought about giving the audiobook versions a try and see if I could make it through the series that way. Luckily I had a road trip I needed to make so that gave me just enough time (11 hours-ish) to listen to SoaW,

The novel is broken up in to two different story lines. One follows the events immediately after Wicked (A Plot) and the other takes place many years after Wicked ends with Liir being found near death by a traveling caravan (B Plot). The book does a pretty good job balancing the two plot lines Near the end of the book, the two lines come together and you realize that the B plot is chronologically the middle of the story. Once the end of the A Plot reaches the start of the B Plot, the story unfolds in a single plot line fashion. I might have preferred to have the entire book in chronological order and have the B Plot greatly reduced. Seriously, for most of the B Plot Liir, the main character, is unconscious.

The overall story of SoaW is about people and Creatures being attacked throughout OZ. Birds are afraid to fly and people are getting their faces scraped off while traveling. The only people who seem concerned about it are the people who live outside the Emerald City. There’s also Liir’s obsession with finding a girl named Nor who he grew up with but was taken by the Wizard’s troops during the events in Wicked. Then there is ever present question: Is Liir really Elphaba’s son? People are divided on the answer to that question. Some believe he is and therefore is capable of continuing Elphaba’s work protecting Animals. Others will simply dismiss it and ignore Liir. And truly, that question is the driving force behind this book. I didn’t really care what happened to the Animals or the troubles in the Emerald City. All I really wanted was an answer. The book does answer the question (sort of) at the very end of the book but does so almost casually.

All SoaW did was remind me that I like the idea of the Wicked series but the execution of it doesn’t appeal to me. This is a very wordy book that could stand to loose a good chunk of filler.

Closing Thoughts: Even though I would simply describe this book as “meh”, i’m still going to listen to the third book in the series.

Question: Do you ever force yourself to read a book even though you don’t enjoy it?

Title: Level Up
Author: Gene Luen Yang
Artist: Thien Pham
Pages: 160 pages
Publisher: First Second
Published: June 2011
Where I got the book: Library

From the back cover:

Dennis Ouyang has always struggles in the shadow of his parents’ expectations. His path is laid out for him: stay focused in high school, do well in college, go to medical school, become a gastroenterologist. It may be hard work, but it isn;t complicated… Until suddenly, it is.

Between his father’s death, his academic burnout, and his deep (and distracting) love of video games, Dennis is nowhere near where his family wanted him to be,. In fact, he’s just been kicked out of college.

And that’s when things get… weird.

Four adorable -and bossy- angels, straight out of a sappy greeting card, appear and take charge of Dennis’s life. And so Dennis finds himself herded back onto the straight and narrow: the path to gastroenterology. But nothing is ever what it seems when life, magic, and video games collide.

With deceptively simple, cute art by Thien Pham, and a magical-realist plot that keeps you guessing up until the last moment, Gene Yang has returned to the subject he revolutionized with American Born Chinese. Whimsical and deadly serious by turns, Level up is the next step in a powerful tale that Yang has made his own: coming of age as an Asian American.

Review:

Pardon my graphic novel kick as of late. I am reading books, honest. I’m close to finishing two book at the moment. But i’ve also been dividing my time between comics because they don’t take nearly as long to read. It also doesn’t help that I keep coming across comics that look interesting, and my library has copies in their system.

Obviously the first thing that attracted me to Level Up by Gene Yang is the numerous video game references. I’m a gamer and books/comics about video games or video game culture interest me. The main character, within the first couple of pages, discovers Pacman for the first time and his life changes forever. I think all gamers remember that first time they played a game. For me is was Christmas 1990 when my parents gave me and my siblings an NES with Mario Brothers 3. One of the things I liked about this book is that it didn’t stereotypically make fun of gamers. Instead this book turned out to be surprisingly heartfelt which I was not expecting at all.

The main character, Dennis, is torn between doing what he wants to do and trying to live up to his parents expectations. He would rather spend his days playing video games with his friends but ends up attending medical school even though he is pretty apathetic towards it. His parents want him to become a successful doctor but Dennis can stay focused on the difficult school work. To help him stay focused, four angels mysteriously appear and start doing his laundry, clean his apartment and make him food so he stay focused on his studies. It’s slightly weird but at the same time it’s both funny and interesting.

I went in to this comic expecting it to be lighthearted but it turned out to be surprisingly deep. Dennis deals with the loss of his father and the pressure to live up to his father’s expectations. This is an enjoyable comic which is totally worth a read.

Closing Thoughts: Hey look! I didn’t mention Scott Pilgrim once during my review of this video game themed comic. Oh wait, I just did.

Question: Other reviews of this book talk about Dennis’ Chinese heritage. I, however, completely forgot he was Chinese unless another character mentioned it. Is a character’s heritage important to the story?

Title: Very Near Mint
Author: Justin Peterson
Pages: 156 pages
Publisher: 43rd St Comics
Published: March 2011
Where I got the book: From the author

From the back cover:

Colin Turner and Sam Jones own a pretty awesome comic book shop, the Splash Page. Business is great, they have a brand new employee, Nate, and Colin’s ex-girlfriend Mackenzie is back.

Everything seems like it’s fantastic…

That is, until this week’s new comic books don’t show up. Then things get really complicated and everything starts getting messed up and other important stuff also happens, but we don’t want to spoil it for you… That’s what the internet is for.

Review:

I have a theory that Scott Pilgrim has ruined comics for the foreseeable future. I Googled my theory to see if I was correct and it turns out I was. People like to compare other comics to Scott Pilgrim as if SP is the new standard by which all comics should be judged. Very Near Mint is no exception to this rule. Rightly so, I can see why. Both are comics grounded in geek and pop culture references that comic book nerds find amusing. But that is where the similarities end in my opinion. VNM is based more in reality than SP ever was. You wont find any extra lives or hammers that work well against girls. Aside from the occasional meta-joke, VNM is grounded in reality. If I were to compare it to anything, it would be the TV series Clerks (based off the movie, but I liked the show better).

VNM centers around Colin (fantastic name for a lead character BTW) and Sam (a pretty mediocre name, but it works) who run a comic book shop. One day, their new comics fail to show up and the comic nerd revolt, nearly tearing apart the newly hired employee. To make matters worse, a rival comic book shop opens up across the street. Is this just a coincidence or is something more sinister going on here?

I liked VNM. Its mixture of geek humor and witty dialogue make this an enjoyable read. Art styles can easily ruin a graphic novel for me. SP was a little too manga for me, but VNM is more on the realistic side of things, and the artwork lends itself nicely to the humor. If you look closely you can see little touches throughout the comic like the designs on people’s shirts or the odd in-comic comic book covers.

This is only the first volume and ends on a cliffhanger of sorts leading in to the eventual volume 2. In the end, as much as I hate to say this, fans of SP will like this book. It is very similar in tone but manages to be different enough to where it’s not trying to copy SP‘s formula. You’ll have a hard time finding this book I suspect. It’s not even on Amazon because it was self published by Justin Peterson through a Kickstarter project. You can, however, easily purchase a copy (physical or digital) at verynearmint.com.

Closing Thoughts: How successful can a self-published comic be? It’s clear Justin has put in a lot of work not only writing, drawing and publishing this book.

Question: Will graphic novels ever escape the shadow of Scott Pilgrim?

Title: Men, Women & Children
Author: Chad Kultgen
Pages: 320
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: July 2011
Where I got the book: ARC from Harper Perennial

From the back cover:

Chad Kultgen, cult hero and author of the buzz-generating illicit classics The Average American Male and The Lie, cuts to the quick of the American psyche like no other author writing today. In Men, Women & Children he explores the sexual pressures at work on a handful of troubled, conflicted junior-high students and their equally dysfunctional parents. From porn-surfing fathers to World of Warcraft-obsessed sons, from competitive cheerleaders to their dissatisfied, misguided mothers, Kultgen clicks open the emotionally treacherous culture in which we live—in his most ambitious and surprising book yet.

Review:

Men, Women & Children is like a train wreck. It’s not good, but I couldn’t look away. On the surface MW&C is all about sex. It’s about husbands cheating on their wives, wives cheating on their husbands, eighth graders losing their virginity, weird porn addictions, becoming anorexic in an attempt to become sexually desirable, pressuring others in to having sex, parents who want to shelter their children from the internet and exploiting your teenage daughter. Oh, and there’s some bits about football thrown in for good measure.

Initially I was excited to get an ARC of this book. I greatly enjoyed Kultgen’s first novel, The Average American Male. TAAM was nothing more than a satirical look at how straight guys perceive the world around them. MW&C is nothing like that. Instead this novel, his third, simply tells the stories of a handful of people who are all experiencing problems with their wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend/crush and the source of these problems is sex, either too much it, not enough it or not kinky enough.

The novel follows a handful of characters, but there aren’t strong differences between them. MW&C jumps from character to character but it starts to all feel the same since all the characters have similar problems and respond to situations the same way. For example, one of the reoccurring themes throughout this book is how bad people are at communicating with each other. On more than one occasion Kultgen writes abouts Character A liking Character B while Character B feels the same way. But because neither Character is willing to admit how they feel to the other, both Characters walk away disappointed that the other didn’t make the first move. If the characters in this novel would just learn to communicate with each other, then they would have the opportunity to grow and develop as characters.

In the end, I can not find a single reason to recommend this book. It’s vulgar, offensive and very uncomfortable to read. I have to wonder what Kultgen was thinking while he was writing this book. On the other hand, maybe I don’t want to know.

Closing Thoughts: I googled other reviews of this book to see if I was alone in my opinion. I’m not the only one who didn’t like this book, but there are some who are giving it serious praise. I don’t understand this.

Question: Have you read a book you found extremely vulgar?

Title: Island of the Sequined Love Nun
Author: Christopher Moore
Pages: 336
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Originally Published: August 2007
Where I got the book: Library

From the back cover:

Pilot Tucker Case has a weakness–well, Tuck really has two–and the combination of drinking and sex in the cockpit of the pink Mary Jean Cosmetics Learjet puts him on the front page of papers all over the planet. But he finds another job with a mysterious employer–someone with a brand-new Lear 45– who’s willing to pay Tuck generously and ask no questions about his record. The jet and job are on Alualu, a speck in the Pacific Ocean, and Tucker has nowhere else to go. But first he has to get to Alualu, and once there, he faces a hurricane, Shark People, atypical missionaries, and boredom … and the responsibilities assigned to him by Capt. Vincent Bennidetti, U.S. Air Force, deceased bomber pilot and present-day deity of the Shark People.

Review:
I’m slowly making my way through the remaining books by Christopher Moore that I haven’t read. After this one, I only have Practical Demonkeeping and Fluke, or, I know Why the Winged Whale Sings. I’ll probably read Fluke next, but we’ll see. Anyway, back to the book I did read. This was a pretty straight forward Moore novel. If you are familiar with his other books then you wont be surprised to find that Island of the Sequined Love Nun follows the same formula of a large cast of weird characters in comical situations. The main character is disgraced pilot Tucker Case who accepts a mysterious job on a small island to get away from the media attention. Once there he starts getting bored and, against the wishes of his employers, he begins to interact with the natives only to discover just what type of congo he is transporting for his employer.

Love Nun is a really fun read, a perfect raining spring read with it’s tropical island setting. In fact, I can’t really think of any criticism about the book. It hit all the right notes for me. Then again, there is a reason I consider Moore one of my favorite authors.

Closing Thoughts: If you like Moore’s other books and haven’t read this one, you are probably going to enjoy it. If, however, you are new to Moore’s writing style, this is a good book to start with to get a taste of Moore’s writing style and sense of humor.

Question: Why does it seem I am reading Moore’s book in reverse chronologic order?

Title: Nightmare
Author: Cornell Woolrich
Pages: 191
Publisher: Dell Publishing
Published: May 1964
Where I got the book: Purchased at Murder by the Book

From the back cover:
Vincent Hardy awoke in a cold sweat, terrified by a vision of murder. It was only a bad dream, he thought. But his nightmare had just begun.

In bewildered horror, he found himself drawn to a place he’d never seen before. And there, in the cold light of reality, was the man he’d killed in a dream– very real, and very dead.

Review:
There’s good news and bad news. The good news is this book is fantastic. The bad news is you’re going to have a hard time finding a copy if you want to read it. Nightmare is actually a collection of six different stories written by Cornell Woolrich. The title story, Nightmare, is obviously the longest. The other stories include: I‘ll Take You Home, where a girl walks in to the forest with her ex-boyfriend and only he comes out; Screen-Test where the police are hired to protect an actress who is receiving threatening letters; in IOU a detective’s daughter is saved from drowning by a man who will have a huge favor to ask in return; Three O’Clock is about a man who suspects his wife is cheating on him while he is at work; and, lastly, Bequest where two men inherit another man’s car and get more than they bargained for.

As with the previous Cornell Woolrich books I’ve read (Fright, The Black Angel), Woolrich’s story focus more on the psychological duress his characters go through rather than the pulp fiction cliché of a private detective solving a murder. His take on characters is actually pretty interesting and helps builds the suspense of a story. Take IOU for example. The man the police are looking for has decided the best course of action is to hide in the house of a police offer whose daughter was saved a few years ago from drowning by the wanted man. The officer/father is put in a rather difficult situation. Should he do his duty and turn the man in? Or is a favor owed because with out this man the officer’s daughter would be dead? So throughout the story the reader watches him struggle with this conflict.

Closing Thoughts: Woolrich offers up a non-traditional take on pulp fiction. If you can find a copy and like noir, buy it.

Question: How do you feel about book bloggers reviewing books you’ll probably never find?

I reviewed this book originally a month ago. It get released in bookstores and Amazon today so I am reposting this review.

Title: Quarantine
Author: Rahul Mehta
Pages: 224
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: May 31st, 2011
Where I got the book: ARC from Harper Perennial

From the back cover:

With buoyant humor and incisive, cunning prose, Rahul Mehta sets off into uncharted literary territory. The characters in Quarantine—openly gay Indian-American men—are Westernized in some ways, with cosmopolitan views on friendship and sex, while struggling to maintain relationships with their families and cultural traditions. Grappling with the issues that concern all gay men—social acceptance, the right to pursue happiness, and the heavy toll of listening to their hearts and bodies—they confront an elder generation’s attachment to old-country ways. Estranged from their cultural in-group and still set apart from larger society, the young men in these lyrical, provocative, emotionally wrenching, yet frequently funny stories find themselves quarantined.

Review:

I’m not quite sure what drew me to this book, but I was excited to read it. It may have stemmed from the book Blue Boy by Rekesh Satyal, one of my favorite books in a long while. Blue Boy centered around a young Indian American boy who was different from the kids in his school because he was Indian and outcasted by the other Indian American kids because he acted strange and liked to play with make-up and dolls. Just the descriptions of an Indian American family trying to keep with tradition in America sparked my interest in Indian culture. Now that I think about it, White Teeth by Zadie Smith is another book I’ve read that touches upon this theme is old tradition versus today’s society. Although White Teeth isn’t a book I would recommend reading.
What makes Blue Boy and Quarantine so compelling, at least to me, is the contrasting differences between tradition and today’s modern society. Quarantine, through its collection of short stories, offers different perspectives on the same theme but focuses on the idea of being gay in a culture that may not be accepting of that lifestyle. In the stories the main characters will often get wrapped up in what is expected of them by their family, from taking care of an ill grandparent to moving to New York and becoming successful at a big publication, and have to try to put aside their own personal wants.
In most of the short stories, the main character has a boyfriend/partner who, whether they like it or not, get pulled in to the Indian culture by association. I kind of wish the boyfriends and their thoughts were explored a little more because I would have liked to know what they made of Indian culture and if they had a hard time understanding why the main character had to travel to India to take care of his grandmother.
My favorite story from the book was Citizen. It stuck out like a sore thumb because instead of being about an openly gay Indian American, it told the story of an older Indian women who is forced to move to American to live with her children after her husband dies. Her children want her to become an American citizen but since she is up there in her years, she has a hard time understanding the english language and the questions on the citizenship test. It’s equal parts heartwarming and sad. This woman would rather be back in Bombay than in America but all the decisions about her life are being made by her children who don’t even seem to have time for her. She only spends three months of the year before being passed along to the next of her four children.
Going in to this book I knew it was fiction but it wasn’t until the second story, when the names of the characters suddenly changed on me, did it full set in as fiction. It read like a memoir and that’s how my mind was first interpreting it. Even if it is fiction, I could easily see how some aspects from the stories might be based on real life events for the author.

Closing Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written, and I was able to relate to the characters in the book because conflict between two generations is something, I feel, most people can relate to.