2015 Year in Review: New Comic Books

This year I fell hard for comic books. My obsession started in 2014, but has really taken off this year. As I discussed yesterday, I’ve read some older books, but it’s the new stuff I’ve really been falling in love with. There are so many great stories out there and it’s hard to keep up. There’s plenty I want to read but haven’t, but here (in no particular order) are my favorites this year.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Volume One

I fell HARD for this comic. It’s an unqualified joy from the get-go. Doreen Green is the spunky college student I’ve always wanted to be, and she has squirrel powers! Ryan North knows that squirrel powers are totally ridiculous, so he keeps the story light and fun. And as I’ve said before, his subtitles are one of the greatest things ever. That all said, this book could have easily been a short run or a one-trick pony, but Doreen has an amazing supporting cast of friends who help bring fun and variety to the story. I’m actually reading this in single issues and can’t wait to see where the story continues to go, but the first few issues were the amaze-balls. Check out the collection if you haven’t yet!

Nimona

Have I already written odes to Nimona? If not, I’ve been remiss. Nimona started out as a web comic by Noelle Stevenson, and it’s the comic that got me into comics. I have so much love for this story of a shapeshifting girl who joins up as the sidekick to a supervillain. Nimona herself in my spirit animal (animals?). She’s sassy, ambitious, likes to destroy shit (the sequence of her playing board games might be my favorite thing ever), and not afraid to go for what she wants hard. And Blackheart and Goldenloin are the cutest, most delightful friends turned nemises I can think of. But beyond that, the story takes so many unexpected twists and turns. It’s compelling from beginning to end. After reading it page by page over a couple of years, it was fun this year to get the whole thing in book form and experience it all in one sitting. Then I started my mission of lending it to everyone. Read it friends.

Ms. Marvel: The Last Days of Ms. Marvel

Ms. Marvel is also a story I’ve been enjoying from the beginning (both of the story and of my blog), and it’s only gotten better. This year Ms. Marvel got swept up in the Secret Wars arc that consumed most of Marvel, and it made her story deeper, richer, and more powerful. Kamala Kahn is coming into her own as a hero and as a person, and it’s a joy to watch. As her world gets pushed to the brink, she has some amazingly beautiful moments with the family and friends that have supported her. Also she gets to meet her hero, Captain Marvel!

Saga Volume Five

Let’s take a break from my love of super-powered teenage girls and talk about Saga. This is another book that had me from page one. I’ve enjoyed every moment of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ epic space drama. I’ve been reading this one in the trade paperbacks, so I was thrilled to finally get an update on the story when Volume Five came out. It didn’t disappoint. With stunning art, crazy plot twists, and the characters I’ve come to love, I will follow this story for as long as they let me.

Sex Criminals Volume Two

Sex Criminals is the filthy grownup comic that brings balance to the Force. I love stories with sincerity and sass, so my comics reading tends towards spazzy teenage girls with superpowers. But sometimes I need something where they actually use curse words and tell the truth about the weird minefield that is adult sexuality. Sex Criminals is another book that could have just been a funny premise, but became so much more. Volume Two of Sex Criminals tackles some serious issues like depression and brings us whole new views of sexuality as we bring Dr. Kincaid/Jazmine St. Cocaine into the conspiracy.

Lumberjanes

Back to stories and spunky young women. Lumberjanes is a constant delight. I love spending time with Ripley, Jo, and the whole gang. I love the crazy adventures they get themselves into. I love that friendship, bravery and quick thinking gets them out. I love the endless worlds of myth and legends that the great writing team have to draw on. I love it all and can’t wait to keep seeing what comes next. Bring it on 2016!

Honorable mentions: The Wicked + The Divine, Rat Queens, Thor.

2015 Year in Review: Classic Comic Books

The stated purpose of this blog was to teach myself about nerdy things I might not have encountered before, and comic books are a huge part of that for me. I wasn’t raised on comic books. I read my first graphic novel in college and really only started regularly reading comics in the last year and a half. I’ve become a big fan of several comic series that are currently running (more on that later this week) but I’ve also tried to go back and read some of the classics of the genre.

I’ve ranged around a bit. I read Red Son to get a little Superman in my life. I read Allison Bechdel’s beautiful Fun Home to see the depths of artistry that this genre is capable of. I’ve dabbled in Wonder Woman, Captain America, Batgirl, and Deadpool. I’ve tried some classic indie titles like Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: The Last Man. And there’s many more on my list to read next year.

But my favorite comic not published this year that I read this year was: Marvel 1602.

Marvel 1602 was the Neil Gaiman comic book I’ve always wanted. I tried Sandman and found it too graphic, too disturbing, too disjointed for me. I enjoyed Neverwhere, but found that it felt like a comic adaptation of a novel (which it is). I wanted more depth and felt like something was missing. But Marvel 1602 is the perfect compromise.

The premise is simple: take many of Marvel’s most iconic characters and drop them 400 years in the past in the year 1602. So we have Sir Nicholas Fury, spymaster to Queen Elizabeth. We have Matthew Murdoch, blind balladeer. The list goes on and on as the X Men, Fantastic Four, Stephen Strange, Black Widow, Peter Parker, Thor, and Captain America all play their parts.

The story ranges far and wide across the European continent, England, and the New World. It is a time of turmoil with Queen Elizabeth at the end of her life and succession not crystal clear. There is strange weather that might be fortelling the end of the world. The Spanish Inquisition is persecuting the strange “witchbreed” of mutants and sorcerers. And a long forgotten weapon is set to reappear. That’s a lot going on, and there are a lot of heroes to help it all happen.

The whole series is a delightful game as we get to speculate and see who shows up and in what form. It’s fun to think about how superhero powers would be perceived in a much more superstitious and much less scientifically-advanced age. The premise is exciting and the execution is clever, not to mention beautiful. The old-fashioned art by Andy Kubert is truly spectacular. Some of the surprises made me laugh out loud in shock and delight. This is the kind of creativity, artistry, and unusual storytelling I have loved in others of Neil Gaiman’s works. It was a joy to watch him unleash his talent and take a romp with characters as rich and beloved as the Marvel crew. If, like me, you weren’t aware this existed, I recommend checking it out.

 

Honorable mention: Y: The Last Man. Brian K. Vaughan is a talented storyteller with a sense of humor close to my own. His epic story about the disappearance of every male animal on earth except for a boy named Yorrick and his monkey Ampersand is a fascinating thought experiment loaded with ladies who kick butt. I found a few of the storylines problematic, but overall enjoyed the word play, geekery, and apocalyptic mayhem.

2015 Year in Review: Books

I don’t know why I’m surprised about this, but this year it’s become clear to me that this is a book blog. Sure, I’ve enjoyed reviewing TV shows and movies that I’m watching, but most of the posts I’ve written and most of the posts that people have responded to have been about books or comic books. Looking back at everything I’ve read this year, it’s been a great year in books. Choosing favorites is almost impossible for me, but here goes nothing.

Favorite New Book: Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

I’m going to throw in here the caveat that I’m terrible at reading books in the year they are released. I’m cheap and get most of my books second hand or from the library, so a book already has to get me excited for me to read it right away. As I discussed last week, Carry On did that for me. It got me hooked with a ridiculous and exciting premise and then delivered beyond what I imagined possible.

Honorable Mentions: Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor made this category really hard. I love the podcast. I loved the book. I love everything Night Vale and want to talk about it always. Look for a review soon where I do just that. I was also impressed by The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi and The Martian by Andy Weir (which was released in 2014).

Favorite Older Book: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Lillith’s Brood, and The Windup Girl

This is totally taking the easy way out, but I read widely this year and have a hard time comparing apples, oranges, and grapes. So these are the three books in wildly different styles that all stuck with me this year. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is the spooky epic fantasy novel to beat. It’s haunting, gorgeously detailed, clever, and truly lovely. Lillith’s Brood is an amazing science fiction epic. I’m probably already cheating by lumping the three books in this trilogy into one, but they’re each a part of this giant, ambitious whole that tackles big issues like xenophobia and what makes us human. And finally The Windup Girl was a shockingly plausible speculative fiction world stocked with memorable characters on one hell of a journey.

So what do you think? What new books this year did I miss? What classics should I make sure to read next year?

2015 Year In Review: Classic Movies

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope whatever you celebrate has been wonderful. 2015 is coming to a close this week, and I’m feeling reflective. This blog has been my wild experiment of the year. I officially started it back in February (but was thinking and writing for it long before that) and have truly enjoyed working on this. This week I’ll be looking back at some of the highlights of my first year as a blogger.

I started this blog to have somewhere I could talk about my various nerd interests, and to document my efforts to catch up on the many fun, geeky things I’ve missed out on in the past. When I started this blog, movies were a big part of what I had in mind. My movie watching life was missing many of the classics, and I’ve covered a lot of ground this year. And while I’m glad I can say I’ve finally seen staples like Temple of Doom and Blade Runner, here’s my highlights from the year.

Favorite Classic Movie of the Year: Labyrinth

I watched a lot of classic movies this year, but none of them tickled me quite as much as Jim Henson’s lovely Labyrinth. I’m a sucker for Jim Henson’s sense of joy, wonderment, and the truly strange. I’m a sucker for puppets. I love how unique the film was. And seriously it’s hard to beat David Bowie in one of the strangest, creepiest, and most iconic moments of his career. And I’ve had this stuck in my head for the rest of the year:

So Bad It’s Good Movie of the Year: Dune

This was one of my first movie reviews for this blog, and it remains one of my favorites. The 1987 Dune movie by David Lynch is a true disaster of a film. It’s erratic, makes no sense, has a truly bizarre cast and some seriously weird effects, but I enjoyed every minute of it. (Although I’m guessing if I watched the 4 hour director’s cut, I might not feel the same.) I still think back and laugh about this one on a regular basis. That’s a lot more than I can say about Mad Max.

 

I feel like I should also write about my favorite new science fiction or fantasy movie that came out this year, but really with The Force Awakens still consuming my whole brain, there’s not a competition. Maybe next year.