2021 By The Numbers

 Because you demanded it, my list of publishers of the books I reviewed this past year. Enjoy!

Publishers 2021

First Second 8

Drawn & Quarterly 5

DC Comics4

Shortbox 4

Fantagraphics 3

Image Comics 3

Scholastic Graphix 3

Silver Sprocket 3

AdHouse Books 2

BOOM! Box 2

Harper Collins 2

Abrams ComicArts 1

Amulet Books 1

Atheneum 1

Avery Hill 1

BDP 1

Birdcage Bottom Books 1

Del Rey 1

Dial Books for Young Readers 1

Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1

Floating World Comics 1

Green Card Voices 1

IDW Publishing 1

Kilgore Books 1

Lion Forge 1

‎New York Review Books 1

Panic Button Press 1

Random House Graphic 1

Ten Speed Press 1

Uncivilized Books 1

Yoe Books 1

Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful

Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful is another well-researched, informative, and thought-provoking book by Darryl Cunningham. He is an author whose work I always try to check out, and I have reviewed a number of his other works, including his graphic novels about Ayn Rand and capitalism, science denial, and mental illness. In this book, he details three biographies, about media mogul Rupert Murdoch, petroleum tycoons Charles and David Koch, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, all super-rich individuals who have had a profound impact on modern life. 

With his journalistic writing, bleak humor, and spare art, Cunningham details their lives, political development, and effects on marketplaces, politicians and political movements, law-making, and media. One common thread is that as they amassed great wealth and used it to consolidate power. Usually, this consolidation involved buying up or creating prominent media outlets to spread their views and persuading others to act (and vote) in ways that tend to be conservative and/or libertarian. In many ways, they become more powerful and wield more clout than political leaders.

The analyses in this book come from a progressive point of view, and they critique what Cunningham sees as a new manifestation of the Gilded Age, but it is difficult to disagree with the profound influence these men have had on people's lives. The economic and political turns he chronicles are evident in our modern world, and I think it is essential that all can see their origins in the lives of these figures.

All of the reviews I have read have been positive. Kirkus Reviews summed up, "The rich really are different, as this lightly presented but utterly serious presentation proves beyond argument." Bruno Savill De Jong wrote, "Cunningham collects vast data and research into their lives and businesses, detailing how through bending their companies to collect additional revenue, they have also thrown society out of shape." Jeff Provine opined how Cunningham's drawings "add attentive details and sometimes humor while at some points instilling vignettes to show the drama of the scene words cannot fully capture."

Billionaires was published by Drawn & Quarterly, and they offer an excerpt and more here. Cunningham's next book, Putin's Russia, will be out in the February.

The Girl From the Sea

The Girl From the Sea stars a Morgan, a 15-year-old young woman who is a planner. She plans to do a lot with her life once she escapes the small coastal town where she lives as well as a lot of personal drama. She is going to figure out how to cope (from afar) with her parents' divorce and a grouchy younger brother. She is going to get decent grades, hang out with her friends, and do what she can to get by until she can move away, go to college, and live the life she actually wants. Morgan realizes that she is attracted to girls, but she wants to stay closeted and wait to explore that side when she is not under the gaze of an entire small community. Her plans get blown to bits one day, however, when she accidentally falls into the ocean and is rescued by a mysterious young woman named Keltie.

Not to spoil things, but Keltie has a big secret of her own, and she is not entirely human. Also, she does not fit in with Morgan's friends, has a unique style, and really wants to be physical. But Morgan is not ready to be public with their relationship, even though she does feel a strong attraction. When she starts ghosting her family and friends to hang out with Keltie, lots of questions come up, and Morgan has to decide whether or not to be honest or stay in the closet.

This book has lots of personal dimensions, and I love how it explores a variety of relationships, between friends, family, and romantic partners. I feel that the characters are all strong, distinct, and realistic, and I was rapt by the various dynamics of how they try to get along with each other. I also liked how it used social media to deliver both exposition as well as character development. It was an effective, contemporary touch.

The artwork is very expressive in detailing their various emotional states and interactions, and I found this a book that was very easy to get lost in. Even though a few of the plot developments seemed telegraphed, I enjoyed reading it, and would suggest it to any reader, young adult or otherwise, looking for a magical tale of love and searching for identity.

This book's creator Molly Knox Ostertag. is one of my favorite graphic novelists. I love her trilogy of The Witch Boy, The Hidden Witch, and The Winter Witch. I also am a big fan of works she illustrated like the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist, which has been collected in two trade paperbacks from Top Shelf, and the sci-fi tale The Shattered Warrior. She speaks about her career in comics as well as The Girl From The Sea in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been positive. Michael Berry called it "a perfect summertime treat -- heartfelt and touched by magic." Avery Kaplan wrote about how it is a book based on cycles and how it "succeeds because it recognizes the beauty in every stage of those cycles: not just the thrill of beginning, but the joy of the journey, and the bittersweet but wholly necessary nature of conclusion." Kirkus Reviews summed it up, "Sweet, fun, Sapphic fluff."

The Girl From the Sea was published by Scholastic Graphix, and they offer more information about it here. 

Lore Olympus Volume One

Lore Olympus is a wildly popular webcomic, one of the most viewed ones on the WEBTOON platform. It is a modern retelling of the myth of Persephone and Hades, with the gods and goddesses possessing cell phones and social media while also engaging in all the sorts of soap opera antics associated with classic Greek mythology. It presents realistic situations that are not always pleasant, and it does so in ways that are compelling and compassionate. It is also frequently funny.

Reading this story, I felt that I knew who these characters were, almost immediately, and they act in surprisingly vibrant ways. The twists on classical storytelling are expert and intriguing. All of the various personalities and relationships are cast in a way that heightens the drama and emotion of the goings-on of this book. It is one of my favorite comics of the past decade, and I am glad to see it in a physical format that will gain it new readers.

The narrative kicks off one day at a posh party at Mount Olympus Hades (who does not even want to be there) makes a remark that this new young goddess (Persephone) puts Aphrodite to shame in terms of beauty. That is a big mistake, because the vain, spiteful goddess of love sics her son Eros on poor Persephone, and she ends up with a spiked drink that knocks her out for the evening. Somehow, she ends up under Hades's care and ends up in his kingdom, where she wakes up and endears herself to his many dogs. There is some flirting, but nothing serious happens. What follows, however, is a lot of rumors, gossip, and wondering by various mythological beings.

What makes this book, which is retelling a tale that is thousands of years old and has been retold countless times, so exceptional is how it depicts its characters. The artwork is full of life and personality. Each god/goddess has their own color scheme and unique designs. They pop off the page in an almost alchemical way. They seem very alive and animated. I was curious to see how effects that worked with vertical scrolling webcomics would work in book form, and they translate extremely well. The story does not flow in the same manner, but the glossy pages and layouts make this a very attractive reading experience.

In addition to the artwork, the personalities are all defined in bold, distinct ways in the narrative as well. Persephone herself is young and sheltered, a bit naive but smart. She wants to get out of her mother's broad shadow and make something of herself. She does not want to be a simple conquest for a lecherous elder god. Her life gets further complicated by her relationship with Artemis, her roommate who is the goddess of chastity, among other things, and who is very protective of her.

However, Artemis is too distracted to see her brother Apollo making unwelcome advances towards  Persephone. One night he takes advantage of her, and she feels too ashamed and conflicted to deal with the violence afterward. She questions her role in this event, and she fears what others will think. I feel that an important aspect of this book is its telling this sort of story, which is too painfully common though not often shared.

Lore Olympus is the debut comics work of Rachel Smythe. She has won a Harvey Award for her work on it, and has also been nominated for an Eisner. She speaks about her work on the webcomic and adapting it into a print version in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been glowing. Etelka Lehoczky wrote that "anyone who's drawn into Smythe's world will appreciate its beauty and wit, and few will escape its seductive ambiguity." Publishers Weekly summed it up, "As rich as baklava but snacky as a bag of potato chips, this romance is hard to resist."

Lore Olympus Volume One was published by Del Rey, and they offer more info about it here. The webcomic appears at WEBTOON, and is currently on Episode 184. This book contains episodes 1-25.

Friday Book One: The First Day of Christmas

The holidays can be a tough time of year for many people. This is especially true for Friday Fitzhugh, a young woman who comes home to her small New England town after her first semester at college and finds herself embroiled in a mystery. This situation is not novel to her, because she spent most of her childhood traipsing over town with her best friend Lancelot Jones, solving mysteries, foiling villains, and discovering all sorts of magical items. Something menacing and mysterious is lurking in the woods outside of town, driving some townfolk mad. However, something happened just before she left for college that estranged her from Lance, and she does not know quite how (or if) to deal with it. 

Friday is a sort of version of Sally Kimball,  tough and athletic and able to be a body guard for her friend. Also, she is a multi-faceted young woman who is trying to figure out her place in the world, and what a strange world it is. The seaside New England town where this book is set is like a character unto itself, full of interesting characters, adjoining a creepy forest, and a focal point for dark magic. 

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I may just be the perfect demographic for it. It smacks of things I read when I was a kid, like the Encyclopedia Brown series and John Bellairs novels, only with a twist that carries them beyond a children's book perspective. The characters and setting coalesce organically in the tightly plotted narrative, plus the artwork is exceptional. It is full of atmosphere, and I loved poring over pages to admire the archaic architecture, creepy critters, and spot-on character designs. My admiration of the art, along with the need for checking for clues to the mystery, led me to re-read this book a few times for fun. The worst thing I can say about it is that it is a long prologue for the real  narrative, because the last few pages of the book add a twist that I did not see coming. But it's so incredibly intriguing and well crafted  that I really did not care. It's a great piece of genre fiction, and I cannot wait for the next two books to see how things resolve.

Friday is a collaboration between writer Ed Brubaker, artist Marcos Martin, and colorist Muntsa Vicente. Brubaker is a multi-award winning comics creator whose works include Sleeper, Criminal, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade-Out, and Kill or Be Killed. Martin has also won Eisner Awards for his art in the superhero series Daredevil and the webcomic The Private Eye. Vicente has done design and illustration work for a number of high profile clients and more recently has also gotten into coloring comics.

Friday won the 2021 Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic, and all of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Publishers Weekly wrote that "this atmospheric first installment sets up compelling sequels, with a sucker punch ending that demands follow-up." Luke Chant opined, "Ed Brubaker’s script is excellent, while Marcos Martín and Muntsa Vincente combine to do a great job capturing the 70s feel." Steve Baxi called it "an incredible start to what is sure to be an incredible series."

This trade paperback of Friday Book One: The First Day of Christmas was published by Image Comics. All individual and future issues are and will be available from Panel Syndicate.