Chad’s Comments (group member since Oct 24, 2019)

Chad’s comments from the Edelweiss & Netgalley Reviewers group.

Hilda: Night of the Trolls: Hilda and the Stone Forest / Hilda and the Mountain King★★★★★
These are really good stories for kids and kids at heart. Hilda is wild and not afraid of anything but has a good heart. She's nonstop getting into dangerous situations by not thinking things through. It's a bone of contention between her and her mother. The two of them get transported inside the mountains outside Trollburg and have to find their way out while avoiding trolls. (It's Sweden, of course there are trolls.)

Avatar: The Last Airbender Chibis Volume 1--Aang's Unfreezing Day★★★
A slight and short Avatar: The Last Airbender story for younger readers.

Harry Rides the Danger★★
This children's book made no sense to me. Harry wakes up and feels in Danger which seems to be his wolf. He says some lines that make no sense and then it's over. It's almost more poetry than a children's book.

Pearl Volume 3★★★
This is fine. The storytelling can be obtuse at times and sometimes Gaydos makes some odd coloring choices with some of the monochrome pages. This volume seemed to meander without having a strong story to keep this thing going.

Parasocial★★
A limp story about a washed up turd of an actor going to conventions and giving lip service to fans. Eventually he comes across a fan who gives him the Misery treatment. Erica Henderson's artwork is weak, looking even worse for wear by doing her own coloring. It's terrible.

Paper Planes★★★
A modern tale of relationships between Dylan who is nonbinary and Leighton who is asexual. They are sent to some kind of camp for misbehavior and we see their relationship in flashbacks throughout the story. They were younger than expected as they just enter high school at the end of this. The conflict in the story isn't because of their sexual natures, but because Dylan comes from the wrong side of the tracks.

House on Fire★★★
A simple story of a man going out to find medicine for his wife during a pandemic. No, it's not COVID, but it obviously pulls from that time. Don't expect any answers. It's a snippet of their story so we don't get a lot of worldbuilding, just a snapshot of this one day in their life.

Missing You★★
A children's comic about a family presumably surviving the loss of their mother. The kids find an injured fawn and decide to nurse it back to health. I find this all kinds of problematic as normal people are not trained to take care of wild animals, let alone little kids. More than likely the fawn would have just died.

Lost and Found: A Heart of the City Collection★
I couldn't even make it halfway through these "comics" before giving up. They are way more concerned with telling a moral lesson than telling a joke.

Caught up on a lot of arcs while traveling on vacation.

Golden Rage Vol. 1 ★★
Women are sent to an island when they become barren where they form gangs and not much of import happens. This has been done much more interestingly in the past.

Gun Honey, Vol. 2: Blood for Blood ★★★
Our illustrious Gun Honey is brought out of retirement when she's framed for some murders by someone just as good as she is. There's is a ton of nudity in this so be forewarned.

There Are Too Many Milks: And Other Common Annoyances of Modern Life ★★★
A mildly humorous book that may seem funnier to those just starting out in the workforce.

The Tiger's Tongue Vol. 1 ★★
I'm not sure if this was based on African folklore, but it certainly gave off that vibe. It's about twin princesses who are told they have to compete for the throne, in a Kingdom that ignores its constituents.

Garvey's Choice: The Graphic Novel ★★
A graphic novel version of the 2016 kid's novel. It's written in verse and presented as little one page comics into Garvey's life. It's supposed to be about Garvey finding his muse and losing weight but he never looks any different in the art.

Blacula: Return of the King ★★★
Blackula returns. I honestly expected a bit more from the creators of Killadelphia, a far better vampire comic.

Black Ice ★★
A story about a boy on the run with some kind of ice powers.

The Witches of Silverlake Volume One ★★★
A modern day YA version of The Craft.

Thinking of You (but not like in a weird creepy way): A Comic Collection ★
This is like those old posters with the cat hanging from a clothes line that says "Hang in there". They aren't jokes. They're little pep talks for those with anxiety featuring a featureless blob.

Sins of the Black Flamingo ★★★★
A very queer story about a high-end thief in Florida who steals magical objects. When he tries to rob the wrong person he gets into way more than any person can handle. I will say I'm straight and I thought this was terrific.

Rogues' Gallery, Volume 1 ★★★
Some crazy fanboys plan to rob the actress from the TV superhero show they obsess over.

New Kid Vol. 3: School Trip ★★★
Our illustrious main character is now in 8th grade. Instead of focusing on the school year, this is all about a school trip to Paris.

War Birds ★★★
In the near future, two drones gain sentience and run off pursued by their makers in the Middle East.

Why Are You Like This?: An ArtbyMoga Comic Collection ★★★
Some mildly entertaining comics about a young couple from the Pacific Northwest and their two dogs. The author is an extrovert and her husband is an introvert, like so many other webcomics.

The Snowcat Prince ★★★★
An all ages tale about the Snowcats who are all greedy and lazy except for the youngest brother. He's sent by his brothers to find the long-lost crown which will name the next Erlking. I found it a story that was enjoyable for those both young and old with terrific, vibrant art.

Joe Death and the Graven Image ★
This was just an absolute mess. I lost track of what was even happening. The book kept switching to new characters that didn't seem to have anything to do with the story. Everyone droned on and on, there's so much talking but saying nothing. The art was weird too.

Survival Street ★★★
A near future where corporations have completely taken over after being declared legally the same as people. This analogue to Sesame Street was shut down and the muppets all became freedom fighters.

PamG wrote: "Can you set up the March TBR thread?"

It's setup now Pam.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Here we can discuss what we plan to read in March 2023.

Some recent advance graphic novel reads.

Cosmic Cadets (Book One): Contact!★★★
Top Shelf is writing comics for kids now. This is about a Star Trek type ship visiting a new planet where the aliens communicate with their feelings. This causes some misconceptions about their intentions leaving the kids of the crew members to resolve things peacefully before it all blows up.

Overwatch: New Blood★★
Like a lot of these video game comics from Dark Horse, you are expected to be extremely well-versed on the game and know all of the lore to enjoy these. Ray Fawkes does his typical half-assed job writing this after a decent start at the beginning.

Stringer★★
A Stringer is a guy who laces tennis rackets for a pro. No, I have no idea how that becomes a job. It's 1983 and a stringer on tour in Europe makes ends meet by selling a little bit of coke on the side. Enter some drug dealer who forces him to take a bag full of cocaine on tour and deliver it to him in Las Vegas in three weeks and he's way over his head.

The Kármán Line★★★
Dennis Hopeless finally made some new comics. Too bad this was so short. In the near future the Earth is dying and no one seems to care. There's little support for a mission to Mars even though it's maybe our only hope. So to build up support, they send a content producer up with the astronauts to film the mission as a reality show. Things soon get serious when the astronauts all receive messages from their home countries to come home and make sure you're the only one.

Some recent graphic novel ARC's I read last week.

Mister Mammoth★★
Starts off interesting about the world's greatest detective in this noirish story. The 2nd half devolves into this mess though of what feels like completely unrelated stuff from when Mister Mammoth was a child.

Above Snakes, Volume 1★
A terrible revenge Western about a man whose wife was murdered by the Above Snakes gang and now he plans on killing all of them.

The Darkness We Brought Back★★★
A basic tween story about some teenagers who go through a doorway into another world and get powers.

Blab! Volume 1★★
There's a ton of these Blab! comics out there, from back in the Kitchen Sink and Fantagraphics days. Hopefully future installments are better.

Another Band's Treasure: A Story of Recycled Instruments★★★
A simple but true story about a small village in Paraguay who started a band for children using instruments made from recycled materials. Now they've played all over the world.

The Toppi Gallery: Harlots and Mercenaries★★★
These collections from throughout the European illustrator's life are cool. However, these illustrations haven't grabbed me the way his comics did.

Donna wrote: "Lawl, Chad. It's amazing, isn't it, how long really bad writing will continue to sell."

Yep. And now they started translating them to English so the bad 90's writing can be discovered by a new generation.

Donna wrote: "Wait. The assassin is rooting out corruption? Isn't that (as Malcolm X once said about something totally different,) like "Sending the fox to guard the hen house"?"

There's a reason this only got two stars. It's not good (even though this series goes on for awhile.)

The Killer: Affairs of the State★★
This is about an assassin and his team that is rooting out corruption in a French city.

Miss Endicott, Tome 2★★★
This second half of Miss Endicott's story wasn't as good as the setup. It's all reacting to what is going to happen at midnight even though no one knows what that will be.

A bunch more arcs I'm catching up on.

Human★★★
A husband and wife put themselves into cryosleep for 500,000 years in order to return to Earth once it's inhabitable for humans again. They both arrive separately along with some androids to perform certain functions.

The Lions of Leningrad Volume 1: I am Chapayev★★★
4 Russian teens who are friends go through their experiences during World War II when the Germans invade Russia. This was a case where the art was better than the story.

Dead and Unburied★★
A zombie comic for preteens. It's about a teenager who is murdered while trying to save someone. For some reason he remains in his body alive but can't move for a year in his coffin. Eventually for reasons he can start moving and starts playing the trumpet left in his coffin until his friend hears him and digs him up.

The Man with the Bear Volume 1★★
50 years in the future, the world is covered in ice and those left are struggling to survive. A mercenary is hired to return a seedpod of soybeans that was recently found.

Captainz★★
Tries real hard to be a wacky superhero comic and mildly succeeds.

The World According to François - Volume 1 - The Writers' Secret★★
This story about a kid who loves to make up stories was really difficult to follow. The kids in his class and all the adults around him think his stories are terrible until he's met by a mysterious woman who tells him he's the next leader of the alphabet tree?

House of Monsters★★★
This is a fun setup for kids. Elena Potato moves into town and next door to the odd kid in town, Zick. Turns out he can see monsters and talk to ghosts.

Tegan and Sara: Junior High★★★
I am a fan of Tegan and Sara's music. If you haven't checked them out, you should. This is a somewhat fictional version of their childhood. It's been updated to take place now instead of 1991.

Elsewhere, Vol. 2★★
These one-note characters never lived up to their potential. It's the trope of a human trapped in another dimension trying to find her way home. The twist is that she's a real person who disappeared, Amelia Earhart.

Ahiahia the Orphan★★★
A brief version of a traditional Inuit folktale about a boy whose parents are murdered and his grandmother raises him.

Knee Deep Book One★★★★
A dystopian future YA comic set 200 years after an ecological collapse. The people left in this Handmaiden's Tale type society are working to mine phosphorous to grow crops. The main character, Cricket, discovers an underground world once she goes on the run.

A bunch of old European Comic arcs I'm trying to catch up on.

Gérard Five Years with Depardieu★★
For me, it was too much like reading a memoir from someone who hung out with Trump for five years.

Biotope - Volume 1★★★
It's about a team of investigators who go to see about a couple who committed a murder / suicide on a far planet to see if there's more to it.

Biotope - Volume 2★★★
Things go off the rails towards the end of volume 1. While you get answers about what happened, they aren't all that satisfying, especially since the remaining humans on the planet seem determined to get themselves all killed.

Lena Vol. 1: Lena’s Odyssey★★
Lena appears to be some kind of spy. She's visiting people across Europe and Asia giving them something before moving onto the next object.

The Mandelberg Circuit★★
The story of a star Turkish basketball player who won't cheat and an old billionaire looking to transplant his brain into the player's body. You know, that old trope.

Miss Endicott: Part 1★★★★★
I adored this story of a more capable version of Mary Poppins. Her mother has died and she takes over as a nanny to a boy by day and conciliator on the wrong side of London at nighttime working with or against things like underground gnomes that wish to overtake the city.

The Gold Eater (Undertaker #1)★★★
An undertaker in the Old West that may be more than he seems. He's hired to bring a man who is planning on killing himself to be buried in his goldmine. For some reason, he decided to eat two pounds of gold in order to take it with him as well.

Ira Dei 1: The Gold of the Qaids★★
There's some hints at larger plots and infighting but my big take away was some big fights where you couldn't tell which side was which so it's just random battle images.

Louisiana: The Color of Blood★★
I'm sure the author had good intentions but the characters are not written very realistically. The men are all pigs raping the women in their possession while the women on the plantation are the white saviors, even though while treating black Americans better by no means treat them like equals and there's no thought of setting their slaves free.

The Graphic Canon of Crime & Mystery Vol 2★★★
A bunch of classic crime and mystery stories put into short comic book form.

Decorum★★★
Two sci-fi stories that take too long to come together, especially since only one of them was interesting.

The Colony★★★
A story about a real French colony started in 1903 by libertarians as the future of man. From the beginning you know it's all a matter of time before it heads South as I've never heard of this place.

The Detection Club - Volume 1★
This was such a disappointment for such a great premise. Seven of the best mystery writers from the 1930's have formed a club to solve mysteries.

The Detection Club - Volume 2★★
A great idea but poor execution. The idea of a detective club filled with the biggest mystery writers of the 30's is a fantastic one. Too bad they just bumble around until the solution falls into their lap.

Magic 7, Vol. 1: Never Alone★★
A kids comic about (will be) 7 kids meeting who all have different powers. A ton of thefts are happening around the school and one kid is being blamed.

Modern Speed★★
I couldn't get into this strange story of a fevered night following a dancer and a woman who has decided to chronicle her life out of the blue.

Galaxy: The Prettiest Star★★★
This was alright. It's about an alien teenager and the aliens watching over them. They have been hiding on Earth for the last 6 years as a boy, but is in really a girl. It's filled with all kinds of trans-metaphors. I thought some of the impact was lost though by making them an alien instead of just a normal trans kid.

A Lapse in Judgement★★
Starts off strong with a judge looking back at his last case as an investigator before he became a judge. It's about a man who disappeared from a girlfriends house. The story gets very muddled though as it becomes more about the investigators private life and his breakup with a girlfriend.

Little Miss Cheery★★
An odd graphic novel about an ostrich farmer who murders his wife only to find her at home like nothing happened.

Welcome! (Mr. Ash Tuesday #1)★★★
Victor Tourtelle wakes up dead and a skeleton in a moon-like landscape. He eventually discovers everyone there is a skeleton and this may be purgatory.

Heavenly Demon Reborn! Vol 1 ★★
This bored me to tears. It's about a guy who is reincarnated into a cult where he wants to take revenge on some of the members. He's young and it's about how he trains alone for the next ten years.

The Panic (Comixology Originals): Ten Survivors ★★
A subway train derails while going under the river into Manhattan. It's post-Pandemic and there's all kinds of arguments from both the Left and the Right about utterly pointless things when their goal should be getting out from under the river. Nothing is explained, especially the terribly ambivalent ending.

Avatar: The High Ground, Volume 3 ★★★
A solid prequel to the new film. Jake Sully and Ney'tiri now have a family. The 2nd volume pretty much sets up this finish.

Outpost Zero: The Complete Collection ★★★
A story about a space colony that was lost on an icy planet decades ago. They are slowly losing their knowledge of how things work. The story revolves around some 14 year old kids who survive after one of them commits suicide.

Eve Online: Capsuleer Chronicles ★★
Like a lot of Dark Horse tie-in books, it requires you to have played the game to know at all what's going on. It's about the backstories of four capsuleers in this space battle they can't win.

Wiper ★★★
Some solid future noir. It's about a private detective. She's a Wiper meaning that she wipes out her memory after each case. A robot hires her to find a missing person which eventually takes her off Earth.

The Golem of Venice Beach ★★★
Chanan Biezer's debut graphic novel is about a 400-year old golem surviving in Venice Beach. He's protecting the last family of the Rabbi who created him.

Project MK-Ultra Vol. 2: Sex, Drugs, and the CIA ★
I couldn't follow this at all. The story is super-complicated and lots of drugs are given making the storytelling suspect.

The Mare ★★★
A story about a young, down on her luck woman who suffers from sleep paralysis. Nothing is working so that she can sleep soundly.

Destroy All Monsters ★★★
It's 1988 now and Ethan is feeling old as he takes on a case about a shady real estate developer. I think that's part of the reason why I didn't like this book as much as the rest of the Reckless series, the weak villain. I typically love anything Brubaker and Phillips touch.

Nomen Omen, Vol. 1: Total Eclipse of the Heart ★★★
This book is seriously complicated. It's urban fantasy. It's about a color blind girl who only sees magic in color. There's some stuff tucked away in there about fairies and old Irish gods. I think multiple reads may be necessary to figure it all out once I've finished all of it.

Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend ★★
Another DC YA reimagining of one of their characters. This is about a rich teenage Zatanna Starr (It's not even the correct last name.) living at an elephant-shaped hotel at Coney Island. Her parents, Ezra and Lola, are illusionists with a show at their hotel, expecting their daughter to follow in their footsteps.

Scurry ★★★★★
Fantastic art. Great story. It's about a starving mouse colony after humans have all disappeared. Highly recommended.

Red Lightning ★
I got through this, but just barely. I thought about quitting several times. It's about a young man who finds out David Bowie died and is transported 200,000 years in the future, just because.

Lastman, Volume 1 ★★★
A French comic that reads like a Manga. It's about a martial arts tournament in Medieval times. A young man named Adrian who isn't very good is not going to be able to compete in the tournament until a stranger, Richard Aldana, shows up at the last moment who is fantastic. He's clearly somehow from the future, but one of the few people in the tournament who doesn't use magic.

New Masters ★★★★
A story soaked in Afrofuturism. Hundreds of years in the future, the Earth is seen as a planet with dwindling resources while Jupiter is the jewel of the solar system. The only two gates off planet are in Africa. A young girl and her parents are the main characters. They get embroiled in a scheme that could remake Earth as a go-to world again.

Ava's Demon, Book One: Reborn ★★★
This is a long-time webcomic that Image is now re-releasing. There's an enormous amount of exposition and standing around talking in this. It's about a girl in a sci-fi universe that is plagued by a demon who turns out to be the reincarnation of a past galactic ruler who is looking to get the band back together. There's some multimedia stuff that is missing from the physical release since it's no longer a webcomic here.

Chad wrote: "You didn't review this on GR? I don't have an account to like your review on bookbub.."

I found it. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

PamG wrote: "I finished One Last Chance by Kat Martin.

My 4.52 rounded to 5 stars review: https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/17088029

The story..."

You didn't review this on GR? I don't have an account to like your review on bookbub.

Days of Sugar and Spice ★★
An OK story about a woman in Paris whose father dies and leaves her his small town bakery.

Hi Dorie. Nice to see you here!

Vuzz, L'intégrale ★★★
Comics from a simpler time. Vuzz had few goals in his barren wasteland world. To fight. To eat. To have sex. The comic is that simplistic, with long wordless passages and big, battle scenes.

Mezek ★★★
The story of foreign mercenary pilots in Israel right after the end of World War II.

The Ghoul Next Door ★★★

M Is for Monster ★★★★
A different take on the Frankenstein story.

Avatar: The High Ground, Volume 2 ★★★
This was written by James Cameron as a prequel to the new movie coming out at Christmas. It's surprisingly pretty good considering how the original movie is all flash with little substance.

Witchy Vol. 2 ★★★
not as good as the first volume but more focused

Verse Book 1: The Broken Half ★★★★
A book set in a fantasy world where magic has went away. What is left is controlled by mindless creatures called the Vel.

The Last Halloween: Children ★★★★★
A very long and enjoyable read about 10 year old Mona, who is humanity's only hope to stop the destruction of the world on Halloween. Mona and her nightmarish friends are mankind's last hope to find out and stop what's happening.

Maze ★★★★
A story about a hero and his boy transversing insane worlds. But when the boy stops coming, the world begins to fall apart leaving Goreck alone.

The Collector: Unit 731 ★★
A story about an immortal who collects objects from people. He was a prisoner in a real-world prisoner camp in China during World War II.

Blitz T01 ★★
None of these sports-type manga have ever done much for me. This one isn't any different.

Titan ★★
A sci-fi graphic novel about an aging colony on Titan where the Titans have been engineered for over the last 100 years for a low gravity environment to work in this factory.. The regular terrans come in for shorter spans as management. Da Silva is the new plant manager trying to keep things going in this aging plant that time has passed by.

Mr. Lovenstein Presents Failure ★★★★
Some fun but dark web comics about anxiety and the struggle to try. I liked how they had a punchline and then you turned the page for a second punchline.

Elle(s), Vol. 1: The New Girl ★★
Everyone else seemed to love this book but me. I did like how each different color hair she has in a panel is a different personality. I just didn't think it ran true to how Dissociative Identity Disorder works.

Naughty List: The Complete Series ★★★
This had the potential to be fantastic but suffers from being all exposition. It's about Santa Claus if it was a curse.

These all point to the correct books now. Not sure what happened the other day.

Doughnuts and Doom ★★★★
A witch who has trouble performing in public and a aspiring singer meet under strenuous circumstances. Will they realize they could be something much more? A light and sassy sapphic romance.

Sacred Lamb ★★
A cool idea with poor presentation. It's about a secret town in the middle of nowhere for survivors of slashers.

Night Terror ★★★★
Pure nightmare fuel. Images of children accompanied by horrific creatures. All with looks of ennui on their faces.

Spa ★★
I didn’t get this. It was just random things happening at this spa. There was no thru line or story to speak of. The characters all had the same doltish, fugly look.

We Have Demons ★★
Snyder’s first foray into digital comics is a generic snooze fest set at the end of the world. It’s about a group of people who fight demons.

Snow Angels: Season Two ★★
I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was happening with this story. Lots of chasing outside the trench. Didn’t really pick up why though. I expected a lot more out of Snyder and Jock.