Seraph of the End (Vol 1): Vampire Reign by Takaya Kagami
Seraph of the End is an exciting shonen manga with some creepy post-apocalyptic elements combined with the vampire genre. This is the third vampire book I’ve reviewed in the past few weeks, and I’ve never been drawn to vampire stories to begin with. I do enjoy many vampire stories — from Dracula to a few by Rice, and I love Buffy — but I don’t actively seek them out.
May 16th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 3.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Vampire Knight (Vol. 1) by Matsuri Hino (art and story)
Vampire Knight has a great premise for a manga story that would appeal to most fans of Vampire love stories; however, the writing is clearly aimed at tween and young teenage girls (shojo). The story is in the boarding-school genre, and this particular boarding school runs day and night. The daytime students are your typical students, but the mysterious headmaster has added a night class of beautiful, brilliant students of whom the day students are in awe.
May 7th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 3 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Understanding Categories of Manga: From Shojo to Gekiga
If you are new to Manga, you might want to know a few key terms used to describe it. These terms are well-known to fans of manga, and as I’ve come to understand the way manga is categorized in Japan, I’ve learned much about the publication side of the business as it shapes what an author is expected to do: If an author writes for a shojo magazine, s/he will have to follow certain expectations that fit that demographic.
May 6th, 2014. Brad Hawley | Comics, Reading Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Night Wanderer by Drew Hayden Taylor (text), Michael Wyatt (illustrations), and Alison Kooistra (adaptation)
This graphic novel The Night Wanderer is an adaptation by Alison Kooistra of Drew Hayden Taylor’s novel The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel. Since it’s a vampire novel — a genre of which I’ve about had my fill — I almost passed it by. But I was very interested in the Native American angle. I’m glad I picked this up — the book is only using the vampire genre to tell a Native American tale and make us look at an all-too-familiar tale in a new light.
May 2nd, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 3.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Dreary and Naughty: Friday the 13th of February by John Lefleur & Shawn Dubin
I normally review comic books, so I want to be clear that Dreary and Naughty: Friday the 13th of February does not combine images and words in a series of narrative panels; instead, it is an illustrated book, an illustrated poem to be precise. Dreary and Naughty: Friday the 13th of February is an intentionally silly poem about two characters — Dreary and Naughty. The illustrations, however, transform the light tone of the poem into a touching story.
May 2nd, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Started in 2002, Free Comic Book Day — FCBD — is always the first Saturday of May. To get your free comics next week, you’ll need to locate a local comic bookstore and, if in doubt, give them a call to see if they are participating. Chances are, if it’s an independent comic book store, they are offering free comics, because FCBD is designed to celebrate comics, to introduce comic books to new readers, to celebrate the unique independent comic book stores that sell them, and to support comic book stores by bringing in new customers in addition to the regular patrons.
April 25th, 2014. Brad Hawley | Comics, Reading Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks
While Image is my favorite major publisher of monthly comic titles, First Second is my favorite publisher with a small output of high quality graphic novels, using the term in a very limited sense to refer to comic books that are complete, unified novels either issued at a single point with no previous monthly issues OR trade collections of monthly issues clearly designed to be complete, sustained narrative stories with thematic coherence (such as Watchmen and Daytripper).
April 25th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction (writer) and Chip Zdarsky (artist)
Sex Criminals is not just as dirty as it sounds — it’s far more perverse than that. So, if you are even slightly likely to be offended by intentionally offensive material, then I’d stop reading right now. On the other hand, if offensive material becomes less offensive to you by the very fact that it IS intentional — as is the case here for me — then please read on: You just might find Sex Criminals does it for you.
April 25th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
Three by Kieron Gillen & Ryan Kelly
Gillen is one of my favorite comic book writers for Marvel, so I was extremely eager to pick up Three, a new series written by him for Image. Otherwise, I wouldn’t normally find myself picking up a book on Ancient Sparta. I suppose I’ve always been partial to Athens. So, I had mixed feelings going into the book . . . and I have mixed feeling coming out of it as well.
Being the academic that I am,
April 14th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 3.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The King’s Dragon by Scott Chantler
Though The King’s Dragon is the fourth book Scott Chantler’s THREE THIEVES series, and I have not read the first three, I had no problem picking up the story already in progress. In fact, if I hadn’t been given that information, I would have guessed it was the first volume of a great new series of comic book adventure stories for young readers.
The basic story in this book focuses on Captain Drake, a member of The King’s Dragons.
April 13th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 3.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!
If the state of the arts puzzles you, and you wonder why so many novels are "retellings" and formulaic rework,…
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…