Koko Be Good by Jen Wang YP FIC WANG

Jon and Koko are opposites. Koko is a free-spirited, careless, and selfish party girl and Jon has decided to dedicate his life to helping others. Jon is planning to head to Peru to be with his girlfriend, but he isn’t sure if he is following his dream or hers. When Koko and John collide Koko is inspired to ‘be good’, but she isn’t very good at it. Jon is inspired to question what good is, but it may just destroy all his plans.

This is an amazing debut graphic novel by Jen Wang. She has created a truly intelligent and mature look at the aimless twenties that feels fresh and original. If you are (like me) a fan of indie comics then you (like me) have read WAY TOO MANY stories about twenty-somethings finding themselves. And you may (like me) be SO OVER the free-spirited girl changing the uptight guy storyline. Why is this book worthwhile and different? Well, the art is absolutely fantastic and makes the book worth the reading all by itself. It looks sort of like the artwork for the band The Gorillaz but using inkwash. Ink wash is taking ink and thinning it in water to get subtle shades of gray. It adds shape and dimension to the designs and helps it be more than just COOL (but it is really cool). Also Wang really has fun with layout and has a lot more movement and expressiveness in her characters then a lot of indie comics. So even though there is no ‘action’ it feels like a lot is going on. In addition to the clearly super great art, the characters feel fleshed out and developed. Koko is one of the better “free spirited pixie types” I have read in a long long time, and Wang shows very well how annoying the type can be while still remaining likeable. So, if you like indie comics or just cool comics for the cool kids, then this is a fun read with great art that has a lot of heart.

Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio YP FIC HAGIO

From Moto Hagio one of the founders of shojo (manga aimed at girls) comes a career spanning collection of ten of her finest works. From a sci-fi dream of eternally doomed love in A Drunken Dream, a girl that hates her beautiful but mindless conjoined twin that sucks all the life from her in Hanshin: Half God, to a beautiful girl that thinks she’s an iguana in Iguana Girl these tales of love and loss have touched hearts for years and now they are yours.

This is a really brilliant collection, because it allows you to see a history of the best in shojo all in one volume. Hagio’s style and skill changes over the years, but all her tales are beautiful and timeless. Like modern fairy tales, these stories cross across time, langue, and culture. Even though the subject matter goes from realistic to sci-fi to all sorts of other interesting places, the stories and line work of the art is simple and straightforward. My favorite stories are the three mentioned in the summary above and The Willow Tree, a brilliant story told with almost no dialog in very simple half page panels. The twist to this one is sad and touching and made me reread the story immediately. This is an excellent collection of manga for anyone that likes well written, intelligent manga.

The Little Prince by Joann Sfar YP FIC SFAR

A man stranded in the desert tries to fix his downed airplane before he dies of dehydration or starvation. As he contemplates how certain death seems he meets an extraordinary boy that comes from the stars. The boy tells the man about his kingdom across the sea of stars and the flower that broke his heart. Together they discuss and experience life, death, love and all the other beautiful invisible things in this graphic novel adaptation of the timeless classic The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (FIC SAINT).

I read The Little Prince for the first time when I was 11 years old and have re-read it about a zillion times (give or take). Reading as a teenager was different than reading as a child, and reading as an adult was even more different still, but the sense of wonder and love the book brings never lessened over the years. So I can say that the original The Little Prince is one of my Most Favorite Books of All Time with some credibility. That’s why when I picked up the graphic novel adaption I was skeptical. Sure, it was adapted by James Sfar, an excellent artist and writer of the wonderful The Rabbi’s Cat (YP FIC SFAR), so it MIGHT be okay. I was totally floored with how much I loved it. even though I still love the original novella and it’s simple illustrations, Sfar’s unique style brings the book to a brand new life. He captures the magic and playfulness of the original book and the totally understands the humor. Sfar’s art has a fun rough quality. He mixes simplistic and detailed line work in a way that never seems confusing. It’s as beautiful and poetic as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry masterpiece. Read both today!

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi YP FIC BACIGALU

The world is a wreck and Nailer lives to salvage. A teenager on the ruined Gulf Coast, Nailer strips sunken oil tanker, obsolete due to the catastrophic climate change that has sunken cities. When Nailer finds a pristine clipper ship he thinks he finally has the Lucky Strike that will pull him from poverty, but inside is a potentially greater prize a beautiful and wealthy heiress of one of the all power corporations that rule the wastes. Nailer’s choice leads him on a breakneck escape from pirates, half men (genetically engineered humans made into slaves), and the worst of all: his father.

I picked up this book because it is on SO MANY Best Books of 2010 Lists. It even won the Printz Award of best YA book of the year! Impressive! So I went in with high expectations. I don’t think it was the best book of the year (that would be Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness YP FIC NESS), but it was excellent. What works best about Ship Breaker is how real the future world seems. The descriptions of Nailer’s poverty and struggles could come from any third world nation in present day, but adding the dystopian end-of-the-world makes the story large than just Nailer and his friends. This book has a lot to say about poverty, the perils of global warming, the excesses of capitalism and greed in general, and a host of other Big Issues. It also has edge of your seat and chew on your finger nails (a really gross habit!) action. With all this together it is impressive that the book doesn’t feel jumbled or confusing. Instead, it is a great adventure story that will make you think. I was left wanting to see more about the genetically engineering and Half Men and more about the large corporations. Hopefully there will be more about it in the sequels! Check this out if you like dystopias, sci-fi, or adventure novels that make you think.