1)Review by Marina Cerame

2) A, A’ (A, A Prime) by Moto Hagio is a collection of three science fiction romance stories. While each story differs greatly, they all explore relationships between humans and a species of genetically engineered people known as Unicorns. The Unicorns are so named for the bone ridge on their skulls which causes them to grow an unusually colored tuft of hair resembling a mane. Unicorns are generally assumed to have no capacity for emotion: an assumption which is proved false, sometimes with disastrous results.

The title story, A, A’, follows a newly awoken clone of a red-maned Unicorn girl named Adelade Lee.  The original Addy had died in an avalanche after three years of work on the planet Proxima. Following her death, the clone Addy, referred to as A’, is constructed, restoring her to her sixteen-year-old self before she went to Proxima. A’ is sent to Proxima to replace Addy, and is welcomed by the crew, who eagerly expect to get along with the new Addy just as well as they had the old. The only exception is Regg Bone, who was Adelade’s lover and rejects A’ on principle. Regg insists that a clone would never truly be able to replace his Addy.

The second story, 4/4, is that of a telekinetic boy who falls in love with a Unicorn girl. Mori is a student with strong telekinetic abilities which he struggles to tap into. He meets a particularly reclusive Unicorn named Trill, who is being studied at the station where he lives, and soon notices that he has a better grasp of his powers when he is around her. Trill, too, is more social around him. As Mori falls in love with her, and Trill expands her ability to express her emotions, they create an emotional resonance that causes Mori’s telekinetic powers to surge out of control.

The final story, X + Y, again features Mori and his relationship with a Unicorn. Four years after the incidents on the station, Mori moved to Mars to continue his studies.  While there he meets Tacto, a male Unicorn who reminds him strongly of Trill. To his surprise, Mori finds himself falling in love with Tacto. Meanwhile, Tacto’s doctors discover that, though he appears male, he is genetically female and has fully developed female reproductive organs. This and his relationship with Mori force Tacto to examine his gender identity and sexuality.

3) The illustration of A, A’ is predominantly ink pen. Certain occasions are illustrated in ink painting, generally depicting flashbacks or large scenery views. The style is fairly typical of Japanese manga, with fairly abstract and simplified faces that are dominated by large, detailed, expressive eyes. The clothes, hair and scenery are depicted with a high level of detail, with great attention paid to the patterns and draping of clothing. Hagio works to create a balance of values on each page, usually by setting the figures against either a plain white or black background. If the general values of a page are heavily skewed one way or the other, it usually depicts something like dreams or memories, which are predominantly white, or nightmares which are mostly black. Also typical of manga, the book makes heavy use of bleeds, images which continue to the edge of the page without being bordered by a panel or gutters. Even images which are mostly bound by gutters will sometimes overflow them, expanding into other panels.

4) The main purpose of this collection of stories is the exploration of different kinds of relationships. In A, A’,  Regg struggles with learning to love after the loss of his Addy, while Addy’s clone faces difficulties forming social bonds with the crew that she’s only just met, but knew her for years. 4/4 is a story symbolizing young love. Mori and Trill find a connection with each other which seems wonderful at first, but soon runs out of control. X+Y is an exploration of gender identity and sexuality.  All three also use the Unicorns to demonstrate the way people tend to treat things they don’t understand. For the most part, the Unicorns are not fully accepted by the people around them. Their lack of apparent emotion makes most people see them like ‘dolls’ or ‘drones.’ Only a few come to understand them fully. It’s a very interesting social commentary.

5) I think the biggest strength of this story set is the overarching social commentary that Hagio makes so clear. She creates a story using completely fantastic settings, space stations on some unheard of planet somewhere in the far-flung future, and populates it with unusual people such as the Unicorns and telekines, but uses these extraordinary elements to portray very relatable themes. Stylistically, the stories are well executed. Hagio uses facial expressions and body language very effectively, contrasting the Unicorns’ generally limp postures and expressionless faces with the very exuberant and expressive humans around them.  Most of the panel transitions are subject-to-subject or aspect-to-aspect, which is highly effective in these narratives, as it allows the reader to see the expressions and reactions of many characters to a situation or scene.

6) My biggest problem with the book is just lack of character development. These stories are very short, and so it is difficult for much development to fit in so short a space. However, I’m not a fan of inexplicable romance. “Love at first sight” is one of those tropes that I really think doesn’t work well for a story’s development. Rather than having them really cultivate a relationship, it’s just suddenly stated that one of the characters is in love with another.  In some ways, it sort of makes sense for these stories. A, A’ notes that Addy and Regg had developed a relationship, but little time is spent creating a relationship in return with A’. 4/4 is, of course, about first love which is often depicted as being sudden and irrational. X+Y, though, was kind of disappointing in the way that Mori, now older and perhaps wiser, is again falling in love suddenly and without really first having a rapport with Tacto. My only other real problem with the book is the publisher’s fault, not Hagio’s. They reformatted the book from the traditional left-to-right structure to the Western right-to-left, and in doing so inverted all of the images. While it’s not a huge thing, it creates some quirks such as all the characters suddenly being left-handed, and can change the mood or effect of an image.

7) I would recommend this book to high school students and above. Anyone younger would probably want to read it with their parents’ approval, simply because some might not like its dealings with sex, gender and sexuality. Though it is classified as shojo (girl’s manga), I think the story could be enjoyed by men or women. The social themes apply to both genders, and the science fiction element is easily enjoyed by anyone who likes the genre. The first two stories in particular are not particularly controversial. I, personally, was a bit shocked initially at Hagio’s dealing with gender, transgender and homosexuality all in one story (and all in one character), but it was so inseparably part of the theme of that story and of the story set that I quickly latched onto the idea.

8) Moto Hagio is called “one of the founding mothers of shojo manga,” and has many published works. Unfortunately, few of them have been set in English. One of these is another sci-fi romance set called They Were Eleven, which is both a manga and an anime serial. The other work available in English is an anthology titled A Drunken Dream and Other Stories.

9) Rating: 4/5. Definitely a book worth reading.

1. Corey Schrotenboer
2. This is a fictional story about the country of Germany at the start of Hitler’s reign. It shows the struggles mixed in with small victories. It shows the hardships suffered by a young couple, Kurt Severin and Marthe Muller. Kurt, who is a journalist, is the boyfriend of Marthe, an art student. This story takes place from middle 1928 and ends on May Day, March 1st, 1929.
3. The artwork in this graphic novel happens to be very realistic looking, with a couple exceptions on a bit more abstract drawings. The pictures are drawn with a standard computer pen, with the dialect printed in the classic Times New Roman font. The majority of the pictures, as Germany becomes a shadow under Hitler’s Nazis, appear to be a little darker than a society should be. The style in which this book is written is one that makes the reader feel empathy for the characters and focuses on the decline of the German government.
4. I believe the main purpose of Lutes work in this novel goes beyond just creating another story about a world-power country’s working ways, and how it affected the citizens in so many different ways. I think Lutes created this story to provide a slightly more enjoyable reading experience about a real life event in history. By creating this story as a graphic novel, it shows the readers pictures, though fake, of what it was really like in those times. This is effective because it shows images of the struggles the people had to go through, and it gives the readers an actual visual image to put in their heads.
5. This novel has a very high reputation, and with that being said it contains many strengths with its attributes. One of these is the pictures. Though they are not real photographs of this time period, the pictures displayed allow the reader to really make an educated picture in their minds of what this was actually like. Another strength would be the diction. It seemed like the author used strong, emphasized words in the completely right places and used more laid back, calm words when appropriate. This book seemed to especially stand out because of the reality of possibly the worst era in world history. To read the words as the story rolled on and to think that everything happening actually led to the holocaust is truly something. 
6. One  of the main, and few, weaknesses of this novel includes its lack of more main characters. While several different people are introduced in the story, Kurt and Marthe are really the only main characters. This makes it difficult for the reader to really be able to relate to a character. If one is unable to relate to Kurt or Marthe, then without any other main characters they could lose an interest in the story. Another weakness would be a few pages that are too “busy”. Some of the pages just have a little too much drawn into it, making it difficult to really be able to see what’s going on. 
7. This graphic novel is special in the sense that it is appropriate for people of all age groups. First of all, I think it would be very helpful for high school students and/or college students to read this just for more of an understanding of late 1920s Germany leading up to the Third Reich gaining power. However, this age group is not the only people who might enjoy reading this. Because the story is about a real historical event covering the most gruesome world leader ever, this novel might be attractive to people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and even older people. This novel is unique due to the fact that it has such a wide range of ages people will still enjoy it.
8. Perhaps the most famous piece of work by Jason Lutes is “Jar of Fools”. This story is also a little darker than the traditional optimistic story with a happy ending. In this story, an alcoholic magician struggles from lost love and his own brother’s suicide. The story talks of the hardships Ernie, the magician, goes through as he tries desperately to keep his life together. 
9. Overall, I give Berlin: City of Stones a four out of five rating. This proved to be an interesting story about an intense society as the German government increases its power right before the people themselves.

1. Shannon McWaters

2. Lynda Barry uses collages and drawings to tell a story in her book, What It Is. But this story has a much different plot than what would be perceived as normal. Readers can enjoy putting their own experiences and interpretations into each page of this book. Barry attempts to teach her audience how to think like a child again, by asking simple questions that most overlook. Questions like “what is realization?” She asks if it’s involuntary or voluntary. Questions like these require one to dig deep and think independently. The images she uses in her book are so unique it is likely one will strike up a creative spark in you and with that spark she shows you how to develop it into a story. Someone like a philosopher could really enjoy this book because it gets you thinking. There is no plot to summarize; Barry is, through her experiences, trying to remind us how it is to perceive the world as we did once, when we were children. She splits her book up into three sections: 1. what it is 2. Activity Book and 3. Let’s Make Writing.

3. Lynda Barry uses a diverse selection of artwork. She tells her story in collages. She uses almost everything as her art. She has words, abstract drawings, realistic drawings, iconic images, and many more. She tends to use orange, yellow, and green as her main colors, but she puts in some complimentary colors as well. The media Barry uses is ink. I noticed to find a pattern in the artwork she used. Most of it seemed to be rather personified. Weather it was an animal or a person or an object, it tended to have human characteristics. I think this is so that the readers can connect to the image a lot more, it means something to them this way. Humans prefer to personify images so that we understand them more, and I think that is what she is doing in this book.

4. It is obvious that Lynda Barry is simply trying to bring creativity back into the mind of readers. She wants her audience to view the world as if they were kids again. She asks questions with her art that only a child may think of asking. These questions inspire deep thought and bring about realizations that can be beneficial. It’s not only the questions that she manipulates to produce creativity in her readers, though. It’s the images, too. At first glance the images seem to have no correlation with the context on the page; they just seem to be random abstract pieces of art. But when you use your creative brain that Barry is trying her best to get you to use, you can make connections between the words and the pictures. This is a great technique. Then she brings you to her next section of her book and has little activities to get our gears turning. For example, she has an activity that’s called ‘be sure to look’. She has you write what is in front you, behind you, to the left, etc. Then she has you develop that into a paragraph. So just in this activity she taught her readers how to write just by using the things around you.

5. The biggest strength of this book by far is the uniqueness of it. When a artist wants to stand out, they need to create something new, something never done before. This is exactly what Lynda Barry accomplished. This type of book is not common and the everyday artist/writer would not have this idea even cross their mind. It differs from any old how to book in the way that there are so many interpretations. Most how to books tell you what to do specifically and when to do it. Barry gives you a general idea using images and words and lets you take it from there. This is no cliché piece of work, it’s an intriguing book that keeps me on my feet, wanting to read the next page.

6. There aren’t many apparent weaknesses in this graphic novel. If I were to point one thing out it would be that the organization is rather messy. It can be hard to follow at times, and sometimes the pictures do not correspond with the current discussion. But other than that, I didn’t have many complaints about this novel.

7. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 13, as long as they read it with an open mind. If there was one person I would recommend this book to it would be my friend who is majoring in philosophy. These questions especially interest him and he loves to think about this. I showed him parts of this book and he absolutely loved it. Surprisingly this book taught me a lot about myself. It causes you to be self-observant. 

8. I researched a few other books that Barry has written and found a couple some may be interested in. Those books are as follows: The Good Times are Killing Me, The Greatest Marlys, The Freddie Stories, Cruddy,and One! Hundred! Demons!.

9. 5/5 stars.

1. Matthew Reardon
2. The book, The Aviary is a fictional graphic novel written so that the audience can use their sense of imagination. While entering the strange world of the main character, the Quiet Bird-Man, the world become a mysterious world of different corporations. The book has many other unusual characters as well: the foul-mouthed robots, drunken ghosts, amputee comedians, wealthy simian pornographers and canine sentence. Jamie Tanner has been slowly weaving this dreamlike and darkly funny tale in various anthologies and mini-comics for the past several years. The book begins with an old man purchasing A Quiet Bird-man. He then goes on to try and communicate with this doll and gets satisfaction when the doll does its usual blinking of the eyes. The book then jumps to an ocean voyage where the old man is making a trip to be healed by a repression box cure. The cure was a scam and resulted in the old man’s death. The next chapter brings in a new character who is a patron of pornographic arts. He tells men and woman that he will pay them with love if they work with him. In the next chapter, Professor Winterbottom, who is a dog is the mastermind behind the creation of the robot and is having his assistant build it all because his lack of thumbs. The robot comes alive and boxes with a man and punches his head completely off. Professor runs to the lab and puts the robots head on the man just in time for the boxing match. The book continues to include multiple comic strip stories that are mysterious and confusing.
3. The artwork feature in The Aviary is drawn with ink or a pen. The drawings remind me of the Chinese art that was shown in lecture. Jamie Tanner creates a sequence throughout the book and the lines that break up each picture are looked to be hand drawn and imperfect. I would also describe Tanner’s work as dreamlike. There are things happening in this book and also characters in this book that let you know there are very little realistic characteristics in The Aviary. For example, a Professor who is a dog and that can talk has the knowledge to create a robot. Furthermore, the robot has the ability to punch a man’s head off in one swing. The majority of the lines in the book are very sketchy and aren’t straight. The color is merely black and white yet Tanner does a great job in adding texture to her comics. She shows shadows, and the grooves of a wooden table are shown adding more to just a table. Each sequence on a page is used up and she doesn’t necessarily “waste” any drawing space. The pictures are very detailed and include lots of different scenes, characters, and problems. Tanner includes a couple panel transitions as well. The majority of the comics are action to action and portray each action the characters are doing where I read sequences that were scene to scene and the ones she cut out were implied by the reader. The scene to scene comic strips really made me use my imagination and use closure.
4. I believe the author’s purpose of writing and drawing The Aviary was to make the reader think. Each section in the book is so different from the next that it makes you want to keep reading so that you can find out what actually happens. I believe Tanner wanted to do something that no one has really seen before, so that’s why the book could of come off as confusing and pointless. By illustrating this book she opened the eyes of many readers and broadened their perspective on what a comic art can really be. Many people have the narrow minded view on things and art is one of them. I also strongly believe that opening the reader’s eyes was something she wanted to do. Tanner bothered to tell her story because she felt like shit could impact people on the way she depicts her artwork. The gift of having a unique view on art is rare, and Tanner expressed this in her comic strips to share. Another reason why she bothered to write a book was simply just because it has been a goal of hers and she wasn’t necessarily caring if it would be recognized but more as a self-goal.
5. This is the first comic book that I have actually read so the only comparison I can make is to the comics I read on the back of the daily newspaper. One of the first things that stood out to me when I was flipping through the pages was the physical features of each character. It wasn’t a normal businessman or a teacher at a high school; Tanner incorporated animals and machines and humanized them in many different ways. What drew me into the book was when I began reading it I was confused and didn’t no what to think…so I wanted to keep reading and figure it out. Also I felt like I was stopping at each page a little just to re-look at each illustration because they were drawings that I weren’t use to seeing and was intrigued by them. My first reaction of the book without reading it was nervous. I was nervous when I was browsing and skimming through the book because it made not much sense to me. I’m glad I gave this book a chance because it really surprised me and became one of the most interesting comics I have read. One thing I liked about the book is that the actions were broken down very simplistically. This helped me understand what was going down so I didn’t have to imply as much.
6. There are a couple weaknesses I believe the book has and one of them is the confusion. The book jumps around so many times you sometimes lose place in where you’re at or even forgot what the main focus of the book is. What Tanner could do to minimized the confusion is make chapters or scenes flow better so that I’m not asking myself, “wait, what just happened?” Furthermore, some of the actions that the characters were doing didn’t make sense to me and how it related to the book. Sometimes I had to make up my own story or suggest what was going to happen or is happening. To make it easier for the reader, Tanner could of tried to write and draw the book where it was more easier to flow through the story.
7. I would definitely recommend this book. I feel like a college student or older would fit the criteria for liking this book. Also, someone with a passion for comic books and comic art would also enjoy reading The Aviary. This would also be a good book for a teacher to give out to their art class and have each student interpret what they think the book is about and what the illustrations are portraying. I’m not sure I would pass it to my family simply because I don’t think this book would interest them and they wouldn’t appreciate what the book has to offer. I think that people who don’t appreciate art or who don’t like reading books and not giving them a chance would be people who would object to The Aviary. Furthermore I believe some people would skim through the book and once doing that decide not to check the book out simply because it’s outside their comfort zone. The Aviary didn’t surprise me or make me uncomfortable at all but it does make me realize to always give something a chance because you don’t know how truly good it is until you put some effort into finding out.
8. I did some research and located Jamie Tanner’s official website. On the website she only mentions one book, being The Aviary, that she has wrote. I used other search engines like Google and Yahoo but still couldn’t find anymore books so I am assuming this has been her only one.
9. I would give it a 4/5 stars. I think the fact that the book surprised me so much made me like it even more.

1. Danielle Burkhardt

2. Get a Life is a story of a big time writer named Jean and the frustrating but comical events that he goes through. This book does not have a main plot just funny comical things that often happen to people in everyday life. The book consists of day by day what happens in the main character Jean’s life including favors his needy friends ask him to do, trips he takes on business, women he meets along the way, awkward dinners with his parents, flash backs to the past of ex-lovers, and amusing dreams he has at night. Jean is a tall gangly man with a short temper which his needy friend named Felix knows exactly how to push his buttons. One of the main features that really stick out to me is the detailed drawings and the change in features when he is having a flash back or a dream. The authors do a great job in telling you when these things are happening so you are not confused while reading.

3. The drawings in this book are detailed but they still have some abstract things about them. They are detailed enough so the reader can tell what the drawings are but they have more of a cartoon element to them. The images are cartoon and very loosely sketched because they do not have a lot of detail to them. For example the characters eyes in the book are just black dots and the hair is just messy lines. The media used to create these images is most likely ink and pen but it does look like it could have some parts that were done on the computer. An observation that I made about the frames of the comic is when it is real life for the main character the lines are straight but when the character is dreaming then they are wavy. This lets the reader know that the character is dreaming this way the reader won’t be confused. Another observation that I made about when the character is dreaming the color in the background goes red. This is just another way of letting the reader know that the character is dreaming. The frames in this comic are also very balanced and easy to follow and read. This is also something that I liked about the book because I knew with boxes to read first.

4. I think that the intention of this book is to explore the common busy lives of most people and put a comical and funny twist on it. I think the authors were trying to let the readers know that we take our lives too seriously and sometimes we just need to go with the flow and laugh a little. The main character of this book was clearly caught up in his life and all of the things that he had to do, but he always got through it. Therefore I think that the authors’ main point was to let people know that if you do the best you can you will make it out okay and be happy with your life.

5. I think that one of the strengths of this graphic novel is that it has many stories in one. That is something that I have not seem in any of the books that I have read. This aspect of the book made me want to come back and read it because it was like you were reading a new book every time you flipped to a new story. My first reaction to the book was that it was funny wording and enjoyable situations. It didn’t feel like I was reading so much when I started but before I knew it I was already almost done with the book. Every new story or event that the main character went through had its own title so it was easy for the reader to understand that it was a new event. Another strength of this novel is the way the word bubbles were also very well structured it was very easy to tell what character was saying what.

6. Something that I would change about the book would be the development of some of the stories. For the most part the stories were well developed and easy to understand but there were some parts were I was a little confused. For example at the beginning of the story he was talking to this girl that he obviously had previous relations with but you did not know her name, then the story would flip to a completely different place with different people and then back to the previous girl. Therefore something that I would change about the book would be to have a better introduction of new characters, and better transitions at some parts. Something else that I thought was a weakness is that the book did not have a specific plot. In my opinion it would have been better with a main story line.

7. I would recommend this book to an older crowd of about 20s and older because they would most easily relate to some of the issues and events that happen to the main character. I would recommend this book to both male and females because although the main character is about a man’s life I could still relate to some of the things that he went through even being a female. I would personally recommend this book to my friends and family because it is a quick and funny read that made me take life a little less seriously. This book increased my interest in the subject matter because before I would have never really thought about reading comic books but now I think that they are funny and interesting to read.

8. Some other books that the authors have written that you might like to read would be Maybe Later, The Monsieur Jean series, Henriette, and Haunted by Philippe Dupuy.

9. I would give this good a rating of 4/5! I really liked it!

1. Scott Johnson

2. The story is about the struggling independent cartoonist name Lewis who wanted to be a world wide comic star. In the begging of the story he picks fights in his mind of others people that are rude because there was someone shoving him while getting on the subway. His head gets the best of him throughout the book because he had a fantasy of kicking the crap out of the guy the way being rude on the subway. He puts himself down all the time. The one time he made fun of himself because he was fat. He says he does not want to be like his mom because she gets walked all over so he does not want to be nice but he hears things in his head. He plays some video games and realizes that he keeps on losing and he is wasting his time. He tries drawing for a Japanese comics place and they criticize his drawings because it does not make up with the culture of there’s and forces him to change it. Lewis goes to on a trip to the United States to and hates it. The places that he visits are Las Vegas and Berkeley and the only thing likes about the US is the baseball caps because it makes him not hunch over and keeps the sun out from his eyes.  He thinks Americans have guns and use them all the time. He also believes buildings fall on citizens. He wants to make himself a better person throughout the book. The he was telling a story on how he was in his childhood. The one story that he told was he and all his friends would act like they are the exorcists from the movie and scar his friends. Then they all kept on doing it because they thought it was funny. The cartoonist decide to have a party at Lewis’s house and it gets out of control by having beer and wine spill everywhere. Then some couple was having sex in the bathroom, which made him mad, but the cops arrested them later on in the night and Lewis gets happy when he hears this. Then one drunk at the party gets naked and runs around all over the place. This guy made a fool out of himself. He has a kid but before that he had to get ride of the stuff that he had in the past because he could not keep it all. 

3. The drawings were in black ink with the lines in all of the pictures with captions in bubbles. The drawings our very detailed but abstract drawings because it was simplified but no realistic. The artwork has expressionism and distortion because when he gets mad all of the time his fist get huge and act like he picks up the guys he doesn’t like. His drawings are mostly tight because there is a lot of detail with the objects and the background that is in the picture. This is crude and sketchy because it does not seem realistic. He drew this with drew freehanded and it this kind of drawings do not revolve with the amount of effort that other drawing would be if they were realistic. These drawings seem heavy and dark because it is just using a bunch of black lines rather than having tons of space with little detail.  This artwork is not impressionism because it doesn’t focus on light colors with broken brush strokes and had not bright colors. The way his drawings are deliberate because of how he places the things in the drawings in a certain place to give off a certain effect. The drawings dreamlike/surrealistic because none of them seem like it had a real life effect. The lines are very dark and have some kind of pattern in the objects that are in the drawings. This seems to have volume in the objects but the color is just black and white. The space is utilized well in all of his drawings and the balance is well portrayed in these.

4. The author’s purpose of writing this book is to show that there are going to be different obstacles in life and Sometime everything does not go your way but people need to accept these facts and move on with life while appreciating the others around you. The author is trying to say don’t but your self down all the time but to think in a positive way. Lewis was putting himself down though the book but he had to realized he need to be the better person with trying to act like it without getting mad all the time. It also trying to convey is doesn’t judge other countries by hearing things you hear not everything you hear is true like when Lewis heard all the things about American, which were not true. This book is very entertaining with the events that take place in it, which keeps you wanting to read it to see what happens next. This book is not boring I hate reading with a passion and I read it and liked it you should definitely be excited by reading this book.

5. The biggest strength of this book is that it was funny and entertaining. Yes I will admit while reading it I giggled a few times but it kept my interest with all of the crazy events that happened in this book. The other books I have read do not have pictures which makes it boring and you have to do all the imagination in your head but with reading this book it does helps you along with it while reading it. My first gut reaction this book is going to be really bad but after reading it for a while it was well worth it. The artist draws some pictures where you can connect with the mood that is going on and knows what Lewis is exactly feeling.

6. The two weaknesses that this book has our is not having any color which makes it really hard to see the drawings while reading the book and the ending of the book leaves me really mad because it’s a cliff hanger so your unsure of what happens next. If I were the artist I would definitely use color and create a good ending. The book cover is not great and I would not want to pick it up but its true you should not judge a book by its cover. 

7. I would recommend this book to anyone who is in high school and over because not all of elementary students are going to get what is going on in this book and understand the humor in this book. Men and women can read this book but I would say I would recommend it to guys because it doesn’t have much dealing with what women do. I would pass this book on to my friends and family and say it’s a great and easy read while being entertaining as well.

8. The Nimrod books look like they would be funny and interesting along with the Harum Scarum.

9. 5/5 = I absolutely loved it!)

1. Morgan Ward
2. Mirror, Window is comprised of a series of five short fiction stories and three short nonfiction stories all following a similar theme about the struggles of young people discovering who they are. The fiction stories are placed first in the book followed by the nonfiction. The fiction stories appear to become more complex as the stories progress both with characters and situations. The first story, “As I Live and Breathe,” is about a guy named Ben and a woman named Darcy. They both have feelings for one another, but doubt the other’s feelings. They go on a date, which turns out to be extremely uncomfortable, but they both have friends that help their confidence. The second story, titled “Chaine,” is about a professional ballerina, Paloma, who is going through a rough time and believes she is too old to be a great ballerina in the industry. She is constantly degrading herself and only has one supportive person in her life, Nina, who takes her on a vacation and helps her see she can do anything she desires. The third story, “Point of Departure,” is about a guy named Steve who is an aspiring author and wants to leave his family, girlfriend and friends behind to move to New York to pursue his career as a writer. Most people disapprove of his decision and don’t believe he will last, which eventually leads to his own doubts. The fourth story, “Hollywood,” is about a guy named Dirk who has feelings for his very good friend Lara, but she has feelings for a rock star. The two end up getting into a serious fight before true feelings are revealed. The final fiction story is about a girl named Darcy and the internal struggles she faces, tempting her to run away. Though the stories are primarily composed of dialogue, there is an occasional narration from an outside source. Each story moves at approximately the same pace, and it is evident the title Mirror, Window, reflects the theme of the book. Either the main character was doubting what he or she saw in the mirror or other characters were doubting what they saw through the window. 
3. Because there are a number of different stories in Mirror, Window, the artwork of each story varies slightly. However, there are also a number of similarities that carry on through the entire book. It is evident the medium used to create all drawings is ink. The ink allows the lines to appear very detailed and as realistic as possible. With the ink, Jessica Abel also uses the technique of cross-hatching, which aids in making the space appear more three-dimensional. The style of the book, though drawn only in black and white, is rather realistic. The quality of realistic content, including facial expressions, backgrounds and scale, is steady throughout the book. As I mentioned, the drawings have no color, which does sometimes provide for a heavy, dark style, but Abel uses the amount of heaviness to match the mood of the story. Therefore, some stories have a darker style of artwork than others. The type of transitions used from frame to frame in Mirror, Window are those of Action-to-Action. Abel spends a significant amount of time in each scene, which allows for very concise actions through the entire story. There is occasional use of light and shadow throughout the book, both of which contribute to the realness of the frames. There is also a sense of unity through Mirror, Window with the continuous use of black and white. The proportions are very realistic, also contributing to the overall realistic quality of the novel. 
4. All the stories throughout Mirror, Window appear to share the same purpose. Each story, in its own way, serves to show the struggles of young people finding themselves. They’re learning from themselves and others what they weren’t able to see before through both struggles and triumphs. Some doubt their own potential or have other people doubting them. The purpose of Abel turning these ides into a graphic novel is clearly to communicate them with a deeper meaning through art. She allows the audience to literally see the impact of the emotions the characters experience, which makes the story more meaningful and impacting. It can be very valuable for anyone doubting himself or herself or facing a tough decision. 
5. There are a number of strengths throughout Mirror, Window, but the first strength I noticed was the practice of having multiple stories in one novel. It was different from most others I have seen, and it made the book very easy to read. The setup also provided for a quick pace when reading the novel. 117 pages may seem somewhat long for a graphic novel, but it didn’t take long to read at all. One of the primary strengths I noticed was the length of the stories. Often with books, the story loses the readers attention because it extends the story more than necessary. Jessica Abel, however, wrote each story to be the perfect length; they were long enough to be complete, but they didn’t drag on and become boring. Another strength I noticed was the use of dynamic characters. Each character was very interesting in different ways, and the way Abel told the stories allowed me to feel as if I personally knew the character through his or her actions and comments rather than using a biography to explain. The detailed facial expressions Able used also added to the art of the story and helped explain the feelings of the characters with minimal dialogue. The use of dialogue was also a strength of Mirror, Window. The dialogue corresponds very well with each frame, and Abel’s careful word choice for each character is evident. The wide variety of strengths in Mirror, Window all contribute in various ways to the novel’s overall effectiveness.
6. Though there were a number of strengths in the novel, I did notice a couple minor weaknesses. The primary weakness I found was the way each story began. Each story appeared to start out in the middle of a scene, which was often very confusing. It also took quite some time to know what was going on and who was who because the characters seemed to be thrown into the story without any introduction. For example, in the very beginning of “Chaine,” the main character, Paloma, is talking about different characters the audience hasn’t met, which made the story somewhat confusing and difficult to follow. To fix this issue, I would try to give some background information at the beginning of the story to make it more clear to the audience what the current situation is or introduce the characters as they come into the story. Another minor weakness I noticed was the absence of color throughout all stories. It didn’t harm the novel in any way, but I believe just some color in a few of the stories would enhance the overall quality of the novel. Therefore, if I were creating the novel myself, I would add color in some parts of the stories. 
7. I would recommend Mirror, Window to anyone from older teens to middle age adults. I don’t believe it is appropriate for most high school students, and I don’t believe older people would enjoy it as much because the stories focus primarily on young adults. I do, however, believe both genders in these age groups would enjoy the stories and be able to relate to the different characters because there is an even mix of male and female characters all experiencing different things.  I would definitely recommend Mirror, Window to my friends, possibly to my parents, but not to my sister because she is only 16. I can imagine recent college graduates loving this book the most because the conflicts of the stories are those people around that age are most likely experiencing. On the other hand, I can imagine very old people, such as my grandparents objecting to this book primarily because most ideas in the stories would probably not be relatable for them, which is why I would not recommend the book to this age group. Though they may object to the stories, I would point out that the book is still very entertaining, so they may find the stories to be interesting and some even humorous. The only part of the book that I found somewhat shocking was the use of inappropriate language. It wasn’t anything offensive, and it didn’t make the book any less credible or make me feel uncomfortable; I wasn’t expecting it, but I believe it actually added to the stories. This element in the book did make me understand that sometimes inappropriate language can be useful in stories. Reading Mirror, Window has increased my interest in reading both comics and short stories aimed at young adults and adults. 
8. Other books and comics by Jessica Abel: Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: A textbook about making comics. Life Sucks: A romantic comedy about vampires. La Perdida: A story about a young American in Mexico City. Soundtrack: Short Stories: 1989-1996: A collection of work from Artbabe Volume I. Radio: An Illustrated Guide: A look behind the scenes at TAL and how they make their show. For more detailed descriptions visit: http://jessicaabel.com/shop/books-and-comics/
9. I give Mirror, Window four out of five stars. I don’t typically enjoy reading graphic novels, but I really enjoyed this book and can see myself reading others by Jessica Abel in the future. 

1. Caitrin Grace
2. One stormy night Asterios Polyp is taken back in time, back on a fateful journey of his life. He is brought back to major events such as the day he met his wife, his multiple jobs, and how he became the man he is today.  The flashbacks are a glimpse of the “better days”. Asterios’ current life is in pieces. The central conflict of the book is Asterios’ internal struggle with himself. Asterios always felt different growing up, as if someone was always following him. He later learns that he had a twin brother, Ignazio, who did not survive birth. This constantly weighs on Asterios’ mind as he wonders, “What could’ve been”.  A narrator tells the story and the narrator turns out to be Ignazio, Asterios’ twin brother. He comments on Asterios’ life throughout the novel and makes many appearances throughout. The main character, Asterios is very egocentric and scholarly. He lacks emotion and when the story first starts, his wife Hana, has just left him. Most of Asterios’ flashbacks consist of moments shared with Hana. Hana is the polar opposite of Asterios as she is shyer and less outspoken.
3. The media used to create Asterios Polyp is digital/computer. It is evident by the font, lines, and colors that technology is present. The novel was not overly colorful, however, after glancing through the novel a few times after reading the entire novel, one will notice that each character has his or her own color scheme as well as font style. However, some scenes are sometimes shown in all one color and Asterios’ everyday life outside of the flash backs are shown in regular color that is dulled to show that he is not satisfied with his current life.  There are multiple styles in this novel such as Realistic vs. Abstract as well as Heavy/dark vs. Airy/light.  Some of the scenes in the novel are geometric and abstract. The characters are portrayed as geometric shapes pieced together to look like the characters, however most of the book is realistic. The book also incorporates some humor; this lightens the mood of the otherwise sad and heavy plot line. The pages of the novel use fairly simple lines and shapes, for example, the faces of the characters are simple and do not have very distinct characteristics. There is also a lot of empty space and only the most necessary objects needed for the picture to get its message across are incorporated; there are not many extra “filler images”.  As far as balance, proportion, and scale, Mazzucchelli stays true to what is perceived as “normal”.
4. The author’s purpose or intention of writing this book was, in my opinion, to communicate emotions as well as entertain the reader with unexpected twists. Mazzucchelli does a brilliant job of touching on pathos and making the reader experience almost every emotion.  The book itself is an emotional rollercoaster for the reader as well as Asterios. In the beginning the reader is empathetic to Asterios and his sad life, but as more is reviled we start to realize that his egocentric behavior has brought his new lifestyle upon himself so we feel less sympathetic for him. The author also incorporates some humor throughout the book to lighten the mood.
5. I have never read a graphic novel before this one so I do not have much to compare to.  However, compared to a lot of chapter books I have read, I feel that this book has a lot of detail. The book was very lengthy and I was surprised by how he could convey such a dynamic story with only few words and pictures. I have never read a book that hits on so many emotions as this one.  I enjoyed reading my first graphic novel; I didn’t have trouble picking it back up every night because it was, in a way, like watching a movie. The graphics were not filtered or censored which made it interesting to see what the author had in store for each page. When I first started reading the book, I thought the bluntness of the pictures and writing were a little crude and unnecessary, however I kind of grew to enjoy them. It made the book more relatable and real.
6. Overall, I really enjoyed the book; however if I had to pick something the author might have been able to improve, I would choose the style of the graphics. Before opening my graphic novel I imagined very detailed colorful pages, similar to a comic book. This author chose to keep his graphics very simplistic. The characters are a few steps up from stick figures and there is not a great deal of color utilized. I understand that the tone of the book is more serious so this is most likely why he did not include much detail, however I believe it would’ve held my attention even more if there was a little more included in the pictures.
7. I would recommend this book to the college age group. Some of the material is more mature therefore an older audience might benefit more from this novel.  I would also recommend it to adventurous readers. People who are open to all types of genres and aren’t afraid to read a lengthy book. I would hesitate recommending this book to anyone younger than the college age group because they would most likely lose interest and not understand the deeper underlying emotions to this book. After reading this novel I have become more open and look forward to future graphic novels. I did not expect to enjoy this genre at all, but was pleasantly surprised that it was an enjoyable read.
8. David Mazzucchelli’s other books are “Detective Comics”, “Negative Burn”, “Spotlight: Rubber Blanket”, “sketchbook”.
9. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

1. Kara Hattemer-Plant

2. The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. is a collection of stories that were a part of an animation by Dash Shaw.  Although there are many parts to the book, the main storyline is that of Rebel X-6 who is sent by an anti droid organization to “Art School 46” to pretend he is a droid.  At Art School 46, the students don’t know how to draw humans. Rebel X-6 is given “stiff pills” that will allow his legs to stay still for a long time so it will not be noticeable that he is not a droid.  He cannot sweat or show any emotion.  He tries to trick the students into drawing him and his human like qualities.  The title comes from him posing as a model for art classes to draw.  The book is like a series of episode storyboards.

3. The comic uses many different types of media.  The beginning of the book is predominately colored pencil.  The drawings are very realistic with distorted background images.  The images are very colorful and the colors of the images are definitely the first thing the viewer would notice.  They are generally warm colors with a few pages being pastels.  It is to scale and very realistic sizes and shapes.

4. I believe the author wrote this book to bring up the issue of people forgetting about human like qualities because of computers and other advances of technology.  The students of the future won’t use pens and paper, everything with be digitized and online, like the comic portrays with the students at Art School 46.  I think the author took a complex look at the negative side of the advancement of technology and the harmful effect it can have on society.

5. The greatest strength of this graphic novel is definitely its ability to have the author think about the future.  The graphic novel is very futuristic and brings up an important issue.  The main character also struggles with internal battles that any common day person would face (being self conscious about pimples, etc) yet he is in a much more advanced and complex world.  The theme of the novel and the man being unclothed is symbolic for him being stripped down to the person he really is.  My first reaction to the book was surprised at what it was about.  I expected something mildly pornographic and was scared to even open the book.  I ended up really enjoying the book.

6. A major weakness with the book is that it jumps around between many different stories with no transition. It makes it hard for the reader to know what is going on and stay interested in one story or another.  If I were the author, I would focus on the main story of Rebel X-6 and his adventures

7. I would recommend this book to art students and those who are interested in comics.  Because of the jumping around of the book, unless someone was interested in comics, I feel they would not normally enjoy it.  I think art students would like the book because it takes a look at how art students will be in the future.  I would not recommend the book to anyone outside those two groups.  I would not recommend it to any of my friends or family.  The book does not contain any offensive material, it just is not easy to follow, so I would not recommend it to young people.

8.  The only other book by Dash Shaw I could find was Bottomless Belly Buttons.  He also has a webcomic called BodyWorld.

9. I would give the book a 3.5/5 stars. I enjoyed a few parts, but there was too much nonsense. 

1. Sarah Hayes
2. The graphic novel I read, Paying For it was based on Chester Brown’s life from the June 1996 to the summer of 2010. In the Beginning of the story Chester is living with his girlfriend Sook-Yin in her house. She tells him she still loves him, yet she is in love with another man and wants to see where it goes. Soon after, Sook-Yin tells Chester her new boyfriend is moving in, but he is still allowed to stay. This makes Chester realize he does not want a girlfriend anymore, but is torn by the want to have sex. Over many thoughts he decides he is going to start seeing prostitutes. Each chapter is a different prostitute, although he does go back to see a few of the same ones multiple times. He only makes outcalls because his roommate has asked him to not have any prostitutes inside the house. Chester sets up his visits financially, he will go see a prostitute every three weeks because that is what he is able to afford. Eventually Sook-Yin asks him to move out and he has to find his own place, the upside to this is he can have the prostitutes come to his house instead of him always going out. At the end of the book he is seeing a prostitute regularly named denise, who is only seeing him as well, although he still pays her. They have a monogamous relationship and his friends dont see why he is still paying her. Throughout the book, you do not see any of the prostitutes faces, just their backside. Chester always has the same expression on his face too. He has kind of a scowl, straight lined expression. His friends also have the same exact face in every picture. The title of the book Paying for it relates to the subject he is writing on. He is paying woman to have sex with him. The genre is a memoir about his life.
3. The artwork in this book for the most part is very realistic. Their is not a lot of detail in every picture, but when detail is needed it is their. It is all in black and white, which i believe to be pen or some kind of pencil. Most of the backgrounds in each individual picture is all shaded black, unless they are outside or their are objects around him. He uses short line strokes when drawing the people, and the inanimate objects. All the lines are very thin. Light plays a big part, like i said before it is all in black and white, and most pictures have a complete black background with absolutely no detail. 
4. I believe that the AUTHORS point in writing this memoir is to show people that prostitution is not all that bad. He argues with his friends how it should not be regulated or illegal. He is definitely pushing boundaries when he wrote this book, because as we all know prostitution is frowned upon. This also explores questions of gender. The men who pay woman for sex are known as “johns”. Chester refers to himself as a john many times in this book. He goes on and on to friends how its not all that bad and it is much easier than a relationship. They argue about what “romantic love” actually is and the need for it. This graphic novel touches many different themes and questions people have. 
5. My first gut reaction to this book after seeing it was about prostitution was, what did I get myself into. This graphic novel stands out because it tells the truth and real thoughts of actual people. Not many books are like that. Now a days most books are written in regards to whats appealing and how people live their life today. This graphic novel goes outside of the norm, shows nude sketched drawings and doesn’t conform to the everyday life of whats acceptable and unacceptable. It is an actual story of a person who has taken part in prostitution and knows how it feels like. I think the fact that is an actual persons thoughts is what makes it so strong, its not a fantasy book or what people perceive it to be like. Another strong factor is that each chapter is a different prostitute, so you don’t get confused since you do not see faces of these woman. Also the dates, Chester Brown tells you the exact date and year of his visits or conversation so you know how to match societies views with what he’s doing, and you see how long it actually goes on for. 
6. I think some of the weaknesses of the book is that he would skip 2 weeks at a time and just go straight from one week with a prostitute to his next time with a prostitute. I would add a little more time in between each visit. I would also add more detail during the time of each visit. Such as the thoughts that are going through his head at the time, or his surroundings, 
7. I would recommend this book to young adults who are 18 and over because they would have a better understanding on the subject and have their own thoughts and won’t be forced to make judgement calls on what they have been taught growing up. They will be able to make their own decision without a parent whispering in their ear, “prostitution is bad”. I think woman or men should read this book, since it could be a double perspective. Yes, the book is only written in a males eyes but a woman could have the same views as Chester does, or have a counter argument that she could explain. I would not recommend this book for high schoolers and below, just because they are still at the immature stage in their life when seeing a penis or boob in a book is something to laugh about. They would not be able to handle the responsibility of reading this, some might but not all. I was not uncomfortable at all during this book, but the blunt pictures of a penis did shock me at first and caught me off guard. But then it was a reoccurring image so it wasn’t as strange toward the middle of the book. I can see where Chester is coming from when he says prostitution is ok, and some of the woman in his book even agree with him. But as far as my thoughts i do not think a woman should be sold for sex, it can be degrading and give woman a low self-esteem. I do not frown upon prostitution because people have to do what they have to do, it is just not something i personally agree with. 
8. Some other books he has written are, Yummy Fur, Ed The Happy Clown, The Litte Man.
9. I would give this book about 3.5 stars out of 5.

1. Tiara Trombley
2. This graphic novel contains thirteen different stories with three intermission type comic strips called “Arm Trophy” throughtout the book. It isn’t set up like a chapter book or a story with few pictures. Shocking to me, it was an entire book of comic strips. Most of the stories within the book are no more than ten pages long besides a longer story in the middle which contains about twenty pages. Most of the comic strips were depressing, sad, weird, or completely random. Together, all of the stories make the entire book seem rather depressing and upsetting. Amy is one of the main characters that is unfriendly, self- conscious, depressed, sad, lonely, and has mental issues along with every other character. For example, in the story “Just One Reason”, Kate is a sad, depressed girl who makes multiple attempts to commit suicide. She lived with her Aunt May and uncle and they didn’t care about her at all. They were mean and cruel to Kate and treated her very badly. A few things brought joy to her such as reading comic books, a boy complimenting her, and picking flowers but then her sadness began to escalate. She ran home to her abusive, manipulating house and threatens to kill herself and asks her Aunt for one reason why she shouldn’t pull the trigger and her Aunt went on to call her selfish, whiny, and only wants attention. Within that second, she shot her Aunt and the story ends with her smiling and giggling. Most of the stories and events relate to this one with depressed, psycho characters.
3. The art in When Im’ Old and other stories, is all black and white. Her drawings seem to be pretty realistic and show a lot of expressionism with the story line included. The media throughout the book looks like ink, or pen that is very heavy and dark. It also looks very busy with a lot going on and somewhat sketchy. The shape is 2 dimensional with diagonal and curved lines which make it very energizing. The space is all 2 dimensional too, meaning it can only be viewed from one side. The light comes from many different angles because some of the art is dark and gloomy, while others is somewhat upbeat and spread in white. There’s also a lot of shadows in the artwork. Overall, it’s very good artwork with many different media.
4. I think the author’s purpose or intention of writing this book was to show a side of depression. I think she wanted witness what ill people envision and how they see life in their eyes. Maybe she wanted depressed people to know that they aren’t the only ones in the world who know what they’re going through. 
5. After I read this novel, I realized how many strengths it had.  After reading the book I was drawn in. I was shocked when I opened it and it was an entire book made up of comic strips. It was kind of hard to put it down because they were such short stories within the book so before I knew it I was twenty pages further which made me want to keep going. Another strength was that it had pictures and a storyline for each individual comic. It was a story within the comic and most of them were pretty interesting. The stories in the book were also very drastic, with psycho teens, killing people, and attempted suicide. It definitely kept me interested and made me realize that some people really do experience those feelings.
6. The novel didn’t have many weaknesses but there are a couple things I would change about it if I were writing it. I understand that it’s meant to be gloomy and depressing, but if that was my goal, I would add more to the comic story and not leave the story hanging at the end. It almost seems that right at the climax, the story ends. This causes a lot of the stories to come off confusing and pointless. After many of the stories I found myself skipping through pages seeing if I missed a page or wishing there was more so I could understand it or see how it really ended. Other then that, it was a pretty good novel.
7. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is in highschool, older teens, kids in college, or young adults. I mainly feel like I would recommend it to girls over boys because all of the stories in the book involve girls. However, it could pertain to guys too. I also would recommend it to any group that attends therapy and that are depressed. It may let me know that there are other people who know how they feel and that they aren’t alone.   It could also interest people who are trying to understand what depressed and ill people feel like. I definitely don’t think I would recommend it to any of my family members or friends. It’s very mind confusing and isn’t a happy, exciting book most people would want to read about. I can imagine people who relate to the book, liking it and people who don’t understand and are creeped out by depression objecting to it. To be honest, if someone objected to the book I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. It was definitely different which was cool, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. I was surprised and shocked by the stories that involved the girl killing people and shocked by her mood swings also. It was just something I’m not used to reading or hearing about so it was pretty different for me. After reading this book, it definitely made me realize how some people feel, react, and live that I haven’t fully understood before. I wouldn’t say this book increased my interest in the subject matter of suicide and depression. I would definitely rather read a happy or more interesting book.
8. Some other novels written by Gabrielle Bell that some may be interested in are Lucky, Hi-Horse Omnibus, or Cecil and Jordan in New York, which are all similar to this book in how the comic strips and layout are set up. She has a tendency to write about odd, out there material but it’s something different to check out instead of reading chapter books or long novels.
9. I would give the book a 3/5 because it wasn’t terrible but a lot of it was very random and out there. Not that that’s necessarily bad, I just felt very confused on some of the stories. 
10. 

1. Daniel Jones

2. This graffic novel is based off of the epic poem the Divine comedy, by Dante Alighieri. This epic poem was composed of three works. One about hell, one about purgatory, and lastly Paradise. This comic is almost like a parody compared to The divine comedy. Involving many famous people put in the work to portray characters that were in the divine comedy, such as Alice Cooper and Elvis. It is also written as a poem. This the second poem of the trilogy, being the stage of purgatory like in the divine comedy. The character Jimbo who is almost dressed to look as a caveman wheres a piece of plad as a loin clothe. Coming out of hell Jimbo finds himself in purgatory where he is leaded through by his guide running into many characters that test and help him through purgatory learning the stories of people who are there and why they are. His guide is a robot that comes up to Jimbo’s knee. Looking almost like an acute triangle flat at the top. The guide leads Jimbo throughout purgatory.

3. The graffic novel is definitely larger than most, with a red and gold cover. It was drawn with ink made to look dark and crude because of the context which showed graphic scenes. It was very abstract looking more as a cartoon rather than realistic. The borders of each page are interesting themselves changing with each new scene. You find yourself looking at the borders before even reading the next page, the way it changed, what it contains. Such as going from distinct pattern of lines to a detailed filled border with darker material such as skulls and distorted figures to flowers and more natural looking material, or a combination of all depending on what is depicted in the scene. On some pages the lines of the scene would continue on through the gutter connecting the whole page.The way the graffic novel reads is a combination of action - action and scene - scene. 

4. I believe the authors purpose in writing this was to parody The divine comedy. Making it a fun and interesting version with familiar people portraying characters from Dante in purgatory. Some scenes make you laugh in your head or leave you scratching it, not sure what you were supposed to take from the scene. Overall I believe it was made to be a strange twist on Dante in purgatory, just as strange as Dantes epic poem was when it was written.

5. The graffic novel is the first I have read but I have not seen this style of drawing anywhere before it is truly unique to me. The way it was drawn goes well with the contents of the story and what I could make out was happening. The borders along with the very different scenes keep on making yourself ask whats next? 

6. It was difficult to keep up with the text because it was written as a poem. The last thing i expected when picking up this book was that i was going to have a difficult time understanding what i was reading. In some parts there was really no transitions from one scene to the next, all of the sudden you would expect the character to be in the same place but you’ve moved to a completely different part of the story. 

7. I would recommend Jimbo in Purgatory to anyone who has read the Divine Comedy, and those who can understand poetry. If you don’t understand poetry you’ll probably have a hard time following the book. If you like to be surprised and have no idea what to expect next you would enjoy this graphic novel. For this reason I recommend it to the age group of college and above. The subject matter is rather on the darker side in some parts and may scare away some readers, along with the way the drawings are.

8. This author also has Jimbo in paradise, Jimbos inferno, and many other Jimbo related books such as Jimbo in the Bronx.

9. I would give this graffic novel a three out of five stars.

1. Darian Standal

2. This graphic novel is interestingly arranged in one main story. What is different in this graphic novel is that the story isn’t told in a third person narrative point of view. It is told in point of views from the female characters, Tamara Drewe, Beth Hardiman and Casey Shaw.  Tamara, a once unnoticed young woman, returned to her old home in the British countryside and stirred up a bunch of trouble with her new sexy appearance. After getting her nose job men started noticing her more especially the men in Stonefield, the neighboring writers retreat. Andy Cobb, the groundskeeper at the retreat, had feelings for Tamara before she turned into a beautiful woman, but she wasn’t interested in him, she had her eye on two other men. These men were Nicholas Hardiman, a prosperous writer and Ben Sergeant, an ex-famous drummer. The second female character was Beth Hardiman the wife of Nicholas. She ran Stonefield and treated the other writers at the retreat like her own children.  Nicholas cheating on Beth wasn’t new news for her. She caught Nicholas several times having affairs, but this affair with Tamara put her on edge; she finally decided to get a divorce. The last female that narrated the story was Casey Shaw.  Casey was the best friend of Jody Long.  Jody was in love with Tamara’s boyfriend Ben. She always dreamt about having romantic times with Ben but this would never happen because Jody and Casey were only teenagers. They both snuck around Tamara’s house to get a peak of Ben. One day they went there, Jody started going through Tamara’s emails. She saw one where Ben was looking for someone to watch his dog and she responded giving him her number and name.  Even though romance seems to be very relevant in this story it is definitely not the theme. Scandals and adultery are the themes. The part that surprised me the most was the ending of the book. Even though the mood of this book wasn’t lite, I wasn’t expecting this to happen. The book was compromised of strips along with paragraphs of text.

3. Surprisingly I enjoyed this book a lot. When I first learned about the project I was quite leery on graphic novels. When I thought of comic books I wasn’t excited but this novel was set up very well. The speech bubbles in the comic were not too long so it didn’t look crammed like most comic books in my opinion. When there were other things to be said besides dialogue she put them in paragraphs. This comic was more in a novel format only telling one story. The media used to create the drawings were pen and ink lightly brushed with water colors. The drawings were very light and elegant. The pictures are more realistic some more than others. They are also minimalist with simply drawings. They still have some detail but aren’t distorted. They are mostly loose but not too loose, just enough to make it look naturalistic. The pictures have a lightness to them making the mood semi- happy even though going on isn’t the happiest. In the drawings there are many contour lines shaping out edges of the people. The lines give the images mass. There are highlights and shadows in the images making them look realistic. There are some textures in the images mostly hair and clothing being the most obvious. Most of the colors in the images are analogous with an exception of some random bright colors. Usually they are the focal point in the image if it is bright. They are also mostly shades of cool colors. There isn’t much variety in the images they are mostly the same style.

4. I believe the author wrote this book in a semi humorous way to look at problems with relationships. She targets the problem of trust and adultery. I believe she wanted to persuade the readers to understand how heartbreaking cheating and lies are.  The main function of this book is to tell a story. It’s more like a life story with highs and lows of each character. I believe she also wanted to show the truth in real lives and that no matter if you are famous you aren’t exactly happy. I also believe that she was shining light on women who shouldn’t take crap from their husbands. Also she was giving the message that grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

5. I believe this book has many strengths. Comparing to other books I have read I would have to say the biggest strength is the flow of the story. The pictures help give us the perfect visual and her short witty discussions between the characters help us get a real feeling of the personalities of them. Also because there are several narrators I would assume the story might get a bit confusing but, but she did a great job by giving us the insight on all aspects of the story. The form of how it is written is very well synchronized by the content. Without having paragraphs of text I think it would be very sloppy and confusing with the different sides of the story and amount of characters.  I enjoyed how it was more set up like a normal book but with pictures. I would defiantly say that the book is more of a chick novel, a love story, and I loved this. My gut reaction was that this book would be horrible. I was very nervous because I don’t really enjoy reading, especially graphic novels. The page layouts consisted of panels of pictures with some speech bubbles and an occasional paragraph going more in depth. The narrative flow was a little choppy going back and forth from the points of views of the different characters, but the author did the best she could having that many points of views. The author draws facial expressions exceptionally well and really shows the feelings of the characters through this.

6. I think the biggest weakness in this book would be at sometimes it’s hard to follow.  I think it’s a bit confusing because there’s a lot of stuff going on and a lot of characters. Even though I thought the author using multiple perspectives made the store more dynamic it also confused it some. A solution to this would be to simplify the story. Maybe take out a part that isn’t needed. Also if she used the transition between characters a little bit smoother. This book has changed my view on graphic novels. They aren’t just for men and also not necessarily like comic books. She might have a small bias on men being cheaters and attractive women using sex to get what they want

7. Because this book is a bit racy I would recommend the book to high school and up.  This book is definitely geared more towards women, but some men may find it amusing as well. This book would be passed on to people who enjoy romances, even though this isn’t exactly like one. I would not pass this book along to anyone younger than me and not necessarily anyone older than me too. I wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone in my family but definitely my friends. No parts of the book made me uncomfortable but actually upset. There’s some cheating on spouses in the book and it frustrates me a lot. I do not think it is acceptable what so ever and the other spouse should definitely not deal with it. I was also shocked by the ending. I didn’t really have to reevaluate anything in my life but it made me think of how cheating is not ok.

8. I enjoyed Posy’s illustrations and a different book she illustrates is “Matilda Who Told Such Dreadful Lies”. Another book that seems fun is “Bakery Cat”. This seems more fictional than “Tamara Drewe”, so better for younger people.

9. I would give this book a 4/5.

1. Daniel Striks

2. This story begins with the birth of Edison Steelhead. Unfortunately, Edison’s mother doesn’t survive his birth. It is evident that he has inherited the facial deformities of his father, which causes his father to take him into seclusion. When Edison is a few years older his father takes him to a doctor to see about getting an operation to fix his face. Edison rejects this proposition. This ultimately lays out an important path in his life of finding beauty among unattractive circumstances.

3. The style in which the artwork is drawn looks completely done in charcoal with soft shading to express details. The panels are fairly simple in their content and often focus on a specific area of a larger perceived location. Abstract would be the best term to describe Edison. Although the degree of abstraction isn’t extreme, it is enough to make him seem less normal in appearance than an average human.

4. This graphic novel is an excellent example of growing up with the insecurities of appearance. We’ve all dealt with those awkward middle school and high school phases where everything concerned exterior factors. I believe this story connects with those feelings and shows that it’s okay to look different. By accepting yourself, you can then appreciate the beauty in the rest of the world.

5. In my opinion, the biggest strength in this graphic novel is the simplicity in which the story is told.  With no more than two panels per page and at most one sentence per panel, it is a very easy read. Another strength is the artistic style of the drawings. Since it is all black and white there are no sharp contrasts of color to confuse the eyes. Also, the shading effects make the images seem soft rather than rigid or stiff. This gives it a pleasant visual feeling to go along with the simplicity.

6. After reading this graphic novel, I find it hard to find a concrete fault. The only thing that seems notable to mention would be the occasional random panel that seem to be awkwardly thrown into the story. Although they go along with the story in general, sometimes I found myself re-reading briefly to relieve any confusion.

7. I would recommend this book to anyone ranging from middle school and up. I feel that the subject matter is appropriate for people to absorb maturely. As stated earlier, the simplicity of this graphic novel makes it appealing to nearly any age group.

8. If you enjoy The Ticking by Reneé French then you may also like her work The Soap Lady which deals with friendship and acceptance.

9. I would rate this graphic novel with a 4/5. It is truly a great work.

1. Joshua McGinnis

2. Lulu Eightball is a cartoon book composed of multiple mini cartoons on each and every page. Most of the cartoons consist of herself as the main character, and in these comics, she is making humor out of a real life situation. Most of the titles for each mini comic could be a real situation, more times than not, and her action she does in the comic is not a likely or common action. Although some actions are not common or the typical answer, some of the actions remind us of a friend or our self that actually does these things and gives the reader a well needed chuckle.  Throughout the book the author, Emily flake, keeps humor alive and cracks jokes every single page. She never is serious with a situation whether it is something that is from her own life or something she brewed up in her active creative mind. Each page has a different comic that does not relate to the next or pervious page.

3. The artwork featured inside this book is pretty simple and not to complex. The media used to create each and every comic is only an ink pen. Each comic is written in a laid back non formal manner. You can tell this by all the lines being loose and curvy, with very little to no sharp corners.  Majority of the book was black and white. There wasn’t any color and shading with the pen was also quite minimal. When there was shading, it was evenly spaced diagonal lines to fill in space.  The main style of this cartoon was abstract; the panels are crude and sketchy. The people depicted in this comic do not have much detail to them; they are very cartoon like and simplistic with the bare essentials of features.  The shapes in the cartoons as very geometric with perfect balance within each comic panel. There is just enough detail so that you aren’t left guessing what an object is. The images are scaled in proper proportion to how they should be in real life. For example, a computer or a coffee mug is within the proper relation to the size of a person.

4. Besides showing that comic books can be fun and very humorous, I think that Emily flake has a few other purposes in writing this book. For example, I think she wants to bring humor to situation that people might take serious and rarely joke about. She is definitely pushing the boundaries in most of her comics. She is not afraid to be herself and tell it how it is. You can see this by the verbiage she has chosen to use throughout the book. Emily does not sugar coat he messages, she is blunt and straight forward with how she feels in a given situation.   Some of them I am offended by because they joke around about my religion, but I did not let this effect my overall evaluation of the book.

5. This is my first time picking up and actually reading a comic book. It totally ended my stereotype that I had of comic books. I had always thought they were boring and you had to be nerdy and into the finer arts to get involved and enjoy them. This book had totally changed me. Just because the book did not have much detail or color to it, does not mean it is immediately boring. The context of this book is what really makes it shine. The thing that had hooked me from the beginning was how real she was. She talked exactly how I would in situations and because of this I found myself laughing on most of the pages. I had never thought that a comic book could make someone laugh as much as this one had made me. My first reaction to the book was immediate laughter within the first few pages. This book is very relatable to many people. The situations that Emily brings you into make you think about your own life and you compare it to with her message about that given situation. The flow of this book was very easy to follow. It was apparent that each page was telling a new story of its own. This made it very easy to read for readers of all levels.

6. One weakness to this book is that there is not a clear plot established. The comic panels do not relate to each other, or have any significance as to why they are in this order. The book seems to be just random thoughts of things the author was thinking at the time. It was unclear as to what the author was trying to tell the audience. You had to sit and think very hard and long, and even then I was unsure as to if I had interpreted her comic book as intended. 

Secondly, I thought that another weakness of this book was the lack of color. I found it to at first to suit the book well with showing that the author was laid back and not up tight. But after a while I did not like looking at page after page where all the drawings had the exact same style as the page before.

7. I would recommend this book to people that are a lot like myself, being that they are laid back and have a good sense of humor without getting offended. Even though this book is very easy to read, this book does use crude language and situations that would not be suitable for young children. I feel that this book could be enjoyed by anyone above the age of 18. Whether you are a male or female does not matter when it comes to Emily Flakes Lulu Eightball. This is a great comic book that has at least one page that can make anyone laugh.  Personally my mother is a lot like me and has the same sense of humor that I have, so I would, and am going to recommend that she takes a look at this book. I feel that she would love this book, whereas my grandma is more conservative and I feel that she would be offended with most of the pages, but yet there still would be at least one page that could get a chuckle or a grin on her face. I would hesitate telling my grandmother also because she is very religious and if some of the pages offended me, I know that she would be extremely offended and immediately have a set in stone impression towards the book.  This book has increased my interest in comic books because it was the absolute opposite of what I thought all comic books were. I from now on will have an open mind when someone talks about a comic book, instead of tuning them out immediately.

8. For those who are interested in Emily Flakes Lulu Eightball, they may also be interested in her book, written in 2007, titled “ These Things Ain’t Gonna Smoke Themselves: A Love/Hate/Love/Hate/Love Letter to a Very Bad Habit.” This is a comic book about a very bad habit that many Americans have. SMOKING! If she can bring humor to a book that is full of her random thoughts, I feel that she could also bring humor to something that many people can relate too.

9. I would rate this book at 4/5 stars. I really liked the contents of this book, and laughed a lot. I just wish there was at least a little bit of color somewhere in the book.