Fables is a great comic book series that is about all your favorite fairy tale characters, but with a twist. The characters are real and the live in New York.

The premise of the series is that an enemy who has not named has taken over all of the kingdoms where the fairy tale characters traditionally lived and so they escaped by moving to our world where they try to hide in plain sight. Most of the characters can get by posing as human but some, like the three little pigs, cannot. So there is a farm in the country that is a refuge for all the magical animals.

The first collection deals with the murder of Rose Red, Snow White’s lesser known sister. The Big Bad Wolf investigates the case and rounds up a list of suspects of very well known fairy tale characters. In the second collection the magical animals on the farm revolt and try to fight for their freedom as well as to reclaim their magical lands.

If you like fairy tales, or need a different kind of comic to read then Fables may be right for you. It is a bit violent at times, so I am recommending this for ages 14 and up.

Dara Brighton lost the use of her legs in a car accident when she was sixteen. Now she is an art student in college and has come to terms with her new life. Her family has always been supportive. Her sister helped her believe in herself, her mother taught her never to give up, and her father taught her kindness and perseverance. Dara and her family are about to sit down for the evening meal when everything comes to an screeching halt.

Three strangers appear at their door. They claim Dara’s father is a man named Demetrios and that he possesses a sword that rightfully belongs to them. When her father explains he doesn’t know what she is talking about the three strangers start killing each family member with supernatural powers. One controls the earth, another water. The last one, a woman, controls the air. Dara watches her mother and sister die. Then the strangers attack her father, yet he still claims he has no knowledge of a sword. Once he is dead they turn to Dara. But the house has caught fire in the melee. The roof collapses on Dara. Assuming she is dead, the strangers leave empty handed.

But Dara is alive. The collapsing roof fell through the floor and took her with it. She struggles away from the wreckage and finds herself in a crawl space under the house. She is injured and burned. But then she sees the sword. When she grabs it she is magically healed. She can even walk again. Soon she discovers that the sword gives her superpowers. She then decides to hunt down the three strangers and make them pay for murdering her family. But along the way she will discover harsh truths about her father and herself. Will she be able to kill? And if so will she be able to live with herself?

The Sword is an excellent graphic novel and is gathered in four volumes. The artwork is superb and the story is riveting. It is recommended for all comic book fans and is appropriate for ages 16 and up due to some violent scenes.

Now these are vampires! So many monsters have lately fallen to the paranormal romance genre. It is nice to see vampires being mean and willing to kill just about anything.

American Vampire tells two stories. In the first a young woman, Pearl Jones, lives in the Hollywood of 1925 and longs to be a movie star. She is seduced by a movie star who then turns her over to a coven of vampires. They feed on her and leave her for dead.

The second story is about a ruthless bank robber, Skinner Sweet, in the old west of 1880. While being hunted down by lawmen Skinner is accidentally turned into a vampire. But sometimes new vampires evolve different traits when they come from different regions of the world. The vampires we all know, those who fed at night and who are killed by wooden stakes, are European vampires. Skinner becomes the first American vampire. He can walk during the day and stakes don’t harm him. When he feeds he transforms large claws and huge monstrous jaws. He is definitely a breed all his own.

Many years later Skinner is still around. He finds Pearl and turns her into an American vampire. Soon she will want her vengeance against the old guard but most of all she needs wants to snack on the living.

American Vampire is a great comic, and classic horror. A must read; it is appropriate for ages 16 and up.

Irredeemable Volume 1 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause

Everyone knows Superman and his amazing powers. But what if Superman became a villain instead a hero? What would it take to turn the greatest of heroes into an embodiment of evil?

This is the question that Irredeemable attempts to answer. The Plutonian is a Superman-esque superhero: he can fly, has invulnerability and superhuman strength, and heat vision. He is the greatest of all heroes. But yet for reasons unknown he throws it all away. First he levels the city he has worked to protect his whole life. Hardly anyone is spared, millions are dead. Then he begins to hunt down his former superhero allies. Alone none of the world’s superheroes could ever stop the Plutonian. So they need to work together to find out why the Plutonian has gone bad, and if he can be saved. But how do you go about fighting a supervillian that can hear everything going on in the world, or who can be anywhere in an instant? And sadly, as the body count rises, this hero may truly be irredeemable. May he show mercy to the world.

Irredeemable is an interesting superhero morality tale. If you ever wondered what would happen if your favorite hero went bad this book is for you. But just to warn you this has a lot of violence and some adult themes so it is not for the faint of heart. Highly recommended and appropriate for ages 16 and up.

Johnny The Homicidal Maniac: Director’s Cut by Jhonen Vasquez
5 Stars

You may know Jhonen Vasquez as the creator of Invader Zim. You may not. But from this author comes a graphic novel that is, for lack of a better word, ‘different.’

As the title suggests, this book is violent. Very violent. The book circles around a homicidal maniac named Johnny, or ‘Nny,’ as he prefers to be called. Following him is Nailbunny, a sort of representation of his better side, and the Doughboys, a ‘fractured’ version of the shadow that haunts him. The book also features Squee, the adorable and tormented little kid that lives next door, and a monster hidden behind a plaster wall that’s just aching to burst through. Some may find interesting insights about our society in ‘Nny’s monologues (when talking to the floating head of Nailbunny). Others may find it a bit sad how Johnny seems to have had, at one point, a fine, intelligent mind, until he somehow lost himself in all the chaos. His whole journey seems to focus on a search for cold, not wanting to feel the need to do anything. And, of course, the search for a store that doesn’t turn off their Slurpy machines at 2:00 am. And, of course, for lovers of blood, there is plenty of killing. All in all, JTHM possesses the funny and darkly violent humor we all love in Invader Zim, even though this was written before the popular show hit Nick Toons. Go ahead. Jump in with all the fans. Read this book, it’s well worth browsing through the Young Adult section. A warning for the kiddies, though–there is relentless, if hilarious, gore, violence, and swearing throughout this book.

Wolverine: Worst Day Ever by Barry Lyga

Here is a delightful little book about a young mutant, Eric Mattias, who is the new student at the Xavier Institute. Eric has a rather strange mutant power; he is literally unnoticeable. People forget he is around and can’t see him even when he stands next to them. He doesn’t disappear, people just forget he is around. Eric’s life gets pretty lonely and he spills out his heart on his secret blog. But his power also allows him to sneak around and even secretly join missions against evil mutants.

But Wolverine can smell anyone, even a nobody like Eric. And even a nobody needs a friend. This is a heartwarming tale of friendship and discovering the power within yourself. The book also comes with three issues of Power Pack that features Wolverine. Appropriate for all ages.

Zen is a handsome, dashing, and irresistible to everyone he meets. There are just two things wrong with him. First he has amnesia and cannot remember the last twenty years. Secondly, he is an unstoppable killing machine. He lives by his own whims, which usually means wreaking havoc on everyone and everything around him. If it wasn’t for his looks he would be unlovable.

But he begins to change when he meets Hakka, a young doctor who cares for a village of refugees. Hakka is everything Zen is not. He is kind, compassionate and seeks a better world for all of humanity. Hakka is so kind he takes pity on Zen and agrees to help him regain his lost memories.

Their journey is filled with intense gunfights and suspense. Will they discover Zen’s former life? What is the truth hurts? And is it worth dying for? Blank Slate is a story about being your own person no matter the cost. Like all of us, Zen seeks to be free.

Blank Slate is a quick two volume shojo manga. Reluctant readers who don’t want to dedicate themselves to reading a lengthy multi-volume manga like Naruto may prefer this short, self-contained story. It is recommended for anyone who loves action and spy fiction. It has intense scenes of gun violence, so it is appropriate for anyone 14 and up.

There is a term for those who obsess over manga, anime, and video games. These people are known as otaku. We have many otakus who hang out on Monday nights here at BPL for our Anime Club. We nitpick about the filler in the Naruto anime or what happened in the latest issue of our favorite manga. These conversations go on forever and really bring out the passionate geek in all of us.

When I was younger I had a simliar experience with Star Trek. We called ourselves Trekkies. We just didn’t talk about Star Trek, but other nerdy interests we had, such as D&D, Super Nintendo, and whatever fantasy book we happened to be reading at the time.

This is what the manga series Genshiken is all about, obsessing over our interests and making friends. Sasahara is new at college and is coming to terms with who he is as a person. He knows he is into manga, anime, and video games so he decides to joining the Genshiken club, an all encompassing group of eccentric personalities. There is the hardcore cosplayer, the would-be manga artists, the video game expert, and the overwhelming sense of belonging. Sasahara builds friendships, and has fun, and truly starts to finally like himself.

I highly recommend this series. It is appropriate for anyone 16 and up. There are some racier comments in regards to different genres of manga. Genshiken is a perfect read for anyone who likes humor, and stories about finding true friends. It also works as a great introduction to otaku culture. I liked it so much, I will probably read it again.

Lord Daigo wants to rule all the land. He travels to a monastery and promises 48 demons they can have any part of his unborn son as long as they grant him the power to rule. When his son is born the child is a monstrosity. It has no limbs, no eyes, and cannot care for itself. Daigo orders his wife to cast the child away. So she puts it in a basket to lets the baby float away.

A doctor finds the child and begins to care for it and begins to notice that the child seems to know how to move around even though he is blind. The young child also can speak even though he is mute (he speaks with his mind). The doctor strives to help the child fit into society and crafts prosthetic limbs for him. But one day the doctor is attacked by demons only the child can “see”. The doctors names the child Haykkimaru, which means demon boy. The boy must leave in order to draw the demons away from his foster father.

Life as a wanderer is tough, and one night while Haykkimaru is talking shelter from the cold he hears a mysterious voice. It tells him that 48 demons have his body parts and if he kills them he will slowly regain what is his rightful body. Soon after he meets up with a young boy named Dororo, a child thief who is being beaten by villagers. He befriends the boy and sets off on the adventure to regain his body parts.He is only armed with his special prosthetic limbs. He can remove his arms to reveal swords that are attached to his body. He also has contraptions hidden in other body parts as well, all of which he will need to kill the demons.

This manga is really good. Highly recommended. Osamu Tezuka is the godfather of manga. He created Astro Boy and pretty much invented manga. Dororo is appropriate for anyone 14 and up.

I started this manga on a whim, only having seen a few episodes of the anime and playing the video game a few times. I quickly got sucked in and had to read it online via a scanlation site. About a week of my life was dedicated to reading all 31 chapters that have been published so far. Since I am clearly addicted I eagerly await the next volume.

So what is Naruto all about? Well for the uninitiated Naruto is a manga, so you read it right to left, and back to front. The story follows a young boy who is training to become a ninja. His whole life he has been mistreated and scorned by his fellow villagers, only the village leader, the Third Hokage, and his teacher Iruka Umino treat him lovingly. He soon discovers why he is so scorned though. It is because he has a demon, the Nine-tailed Demon Fox, sealed within his body. This demon would attack the village from time to time killing many. Naruto vows to become the greatest ninja ever and become Hokage one day, and learns from Iruka Umino the value of relationships, whether they are friends or family. Because of this lesson Naruto is fiercely loyal and this directly impacts the main story that runs through out the series. Naruto, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno form a ninja squad. Naruto begins to think of them as family, and so when Sasuke leaves the village to train with an evil ninja (all in order to eventually kill his own brother in an act of revenge), Naruto vows to bring him back to the village and help redeem Sasuke. Throughout the many years the story takes place, Naruto fights many villains, and becomes a more powerful ninja. He even meets up with Sasuke a few times but is beaten time and again. In the end it is Naruto’s unconditional love for his “brother” that makes him become a better ninja and gives him the determination to never give up.

And then there is the butt kicking action. It’s really quite cool.

Naruto is highly recommended for anyone 13 and up. Expect to get hooked just like me.