Review: Poppie's Adventures

Poppie's Adventures: Serpents in Paradise
by Julie Yeh & Jack Hsu
Way Out Comics, $6.95

Young Poppie Field decides to take time out from college and falls into a job as a travel writer. On assignment to Hawaii, Poppie has visions of relaxing on the beach during the day and dining at swanky resturants by night. But when she meets up with her photographer, James "Ham" Hamamura, she ends up on an adventure holiday instead, and the two of them stumble into a secret plot by a serpent cult to introduce snakes into the island's ecology.

While clearly aimed at a young audience, this Xeric-winning comic has a lot to recommend it to all ages. Both Poppie and Ham are fun and engaging characters, though they are quite different and that leads to some friction along the way. And there's enough peril that of course they end up working together. Hsu's art is appropriately cartoony but not too much so, and he has a good sense of pacing and storytelling. If there are any faults here it's that once or twice Yeh has her characters go into lecture mode to explain background necessary to the plot; but after a couple of panels that passes and the plot gets back underway.

Poppie's Adventures is recommended for kids who are ready to move past Scooby Doo and are looking for a story in the Nancy Drew mode, or for anyone of any age who enjoys a lighthearted mystery/adventure.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

New This Week: June 28, 2006

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop later today:


The Pick of the Week is The Complete Future Shocks by Alan Moore and a host of talented British artists. This collects all of Moore's early "Future Shocks" stories from 2000 A.D.; although Moore was still developing as a writer, these are some fun 6-8-page tales.


In other comics:

Antarctic have the pocket manga collection of Rod Espinosa's well-received Oz: The Manga; plus the debut of Gold Digger Tangent and the second issue of Gold Digger: Throne of Shadows.

Arcana have the second issue of Koni Waves.

Dark Horse have a collection of Conan and The Demons of Khitai and a new issue of Usago Yojimbo (#94).

DC have another of their 80-page $1 crack comics promo-samplers: DCU: Brave New World; the final issue of Lucifer (#75); plus new issues of 52 (week 8), Action Comics (#840), American Way (#5), Batman (#654), Blue Beetle (#4), Catwoman (#56), Crisis Aftermath: the Spectre (#2), Hawkgirl (#53), Solo (#11 -- Sergio!), and Supergirl and the Legion (#19).

Graphitti have the first of 3 graphic novel prequels to Richard Kelly's Southland Tales.

Image have a collection of Warren Ellis's Down; and new issues of Invincible (#33) and Negative Burn (#2).

Marvel have new issues of Avengers & Power Pack Assemble (#3), Daredevil (#86), Nextwave (#6), Runaways (#17), Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane (#7), Ultimate Spider-Man (#96), and X-Factor (#8).

Oni debut Leading Man; end Polly and The Pirates (#6); and have the second volume of Ross Campbell's Wet Moon.

TokyoPop have the third volume of Telepathic Wanderers; and the sixth and final volume of Rising Stars of Manga.

Viper have the second issue of Villains.


As always, plenty of love to give your local comic shop!

Review: Scooter Girl

Scooter Girl
by Chynna Clugston-Major
Oni Press, $14.95

Based on the feedback I received, I selected Scooter Girl as the book to read for Which Oni GN Should Dave Read Next 2 over the weekend. My reactions are quite mixed.

I have always loved Chynna Clugston-Major's work, from her early days as a contributor to Action Girl Comics to her many Blue Monday minis. Her comics have an attractive East-meets-West aesthetic: her character designs are clearly manga-inspired, as are the style and types of her stories, characters and plots; but her layouts and storytelling techniques are much denser than typical manga. I think that she is one of the more interesting and enjoyable cartoonists working today.

The premise of Scooter Girl is fairly straight-forward: Ashton Archer is a young lothario, the latest in a long line of successful womanizers. As the cliche goes, men want to be him, and women want to be with him. His life is charmed and easy, and things are going well until Margaret Sheldon comes into his life. Ashton is completely smitten by Margaret, but whenever she is around Ashton's suaveness disappears and he becomes a tongue-tied, clumsy oaf. As the story progresses, Ashton alternately tries to avoid and bed Margaret, both to no avail. Enough variations abound to make Rumiko Takahashi proud.

All of Clugston-Major's strengths are on display here. She immerses her characters and we readers into a world of Mod culture, where it's perfectly natural and cool for young adults to dress in 60s clothing and motor around on scooters; it's an affectation that gives the book a unique look. Her plotting is impeccible, and her charcterizations are very strong; when introduced to a character we very quickly get to know him or her, yet the characters often have depths that are slowly revealed.

Clugston-Major does so many things right with Scooter Girl that I'm sad to say there was one glaring probem that kept me from enjoying it outright: I really, really hated the protagonist, Ashton Archer. He's a total prick. He uses women, treats them like dirt, and yet they all flock to him. (I wish this were a crazy, comics-only characterization, but I've seen such things in real life too--what is it about women-hating men that attracts some women?) I realize that by the end of the story we're supposed to believe that Ashton has changed, but he really hasn't; he thinks he's in love with Margaret, but he's really just learned the words to say and the actions to do to get what he wants. We're supposed to be rooting for Ashton to get the girl in the end, but all I was really rooting for was for Ashton to die in the most horrible and painful way possible. It's hard to really enjoy a romantic comedy when the lead is an irredeamable jack-ass who you want to see dropped off a twenty-story building.

I suppose that it's to Clugston-Major's credit that she has created characters so real that I have such a strong reaction to, even if that reaction is negative. It's a testimony to her considerable skills, which as I noted are all on display here. So a very mixed reaction from me, and hopefully I'll enjoy her next work more.

Rating: 3 (of 5)

New Library Comics: Week of June 19, 2006

Here are the comics we got in for our library collection last week:


Attitude 2 : the new subversive alternative cartoonists /New York : Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine, c2004.

Blurred vision : new narrative art. /New York : Blurred Books, c2005.

Crumb, R. The complete Crumb /Seattle : Fantagraphics Books, [1987?]- vol. 17

Forge /Oldsmar, Fla. : CrossGeneration Comics, c2002- vol. 1

Keret, Etgar, 1967- Jetlag : five graphic novellas /New Milford, Conn. : Toby Press ; Godalming : Melia [distributor], [2006]

Konig, Ralf. Maybe-- maybe not, again! /New York : Ignite! Entertainment, c1999.

Krell, Jeff. Jayson : best of the 80s /Los Angeles : Ignite! Entertainment, c2005.

Krell, Jeff. Jayson : best of the 90s /Los Angeles : Ignite! Entertainment, c2005.

Larson, Hope. Gray horses = chevaux gris /Portland, Or. : Oni, 2006.

Nilsen, Anders Brekhus, 1973- Dogs and water /Montreal, QC : Drawn & Quarterly, c2004.

Robinson, James. Batman : collected legends of the Dark Knight /New York : DC Comics, c1993.

Shaw, Dash. Goddess head : short stories /San Jose, CA : Teenage Dinosaur, c2005.

Trondheim, Lewis. Mister O /New York : NBM/Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine, c2004.

Wein, Len. Roots of the Swamp Thing /New York, N.Y. : DC Comics, c1986. nos. 1-5

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

What could possible be better than a comic with a giant ape on the cover? How about a comic where a super-powered dog fights a giant ape? That's what we get on the cover of Underdog #10!

(Standard disclaimer about giant apes not really being monkeys applies.)

Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

Dave's Dozen: Collections/GNs

Concluding my look through the June Previews (for items supposedly shipping in August or September), here are a dozen collections and graphic novels that I feel are worth your attention:


Jonah Hex: A Face Full of Violence
(DC, $14.99, p. 77)

If you're looking for not just one, but six stories of violent western action, then this is the collection for you! Follow along with Hex as he hunts bounty and exacts revenge.



Pride of Baghdad
(DC/Vertigo, $19.99, p. 114)

Brian K. Vaughan is a fave of YACB readers, so I'm sure you all will be lined up to get a copy of this new OGN about the adventures of a bunch of escaped animals from the Baghdad Zoo in the wake of the Iraq War. Artist Niko Henrichon is unfamilar to me, but the sample pages are sweet.



NextWave: Agents of H.A.T.E., vol. 1 - This is What They Want
(Marvel, $19.99, p. M88)

All those of you who haven't been reading Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen's NextWave have been missing out on one of the most wacked-out fun titles that marvel has published in years. Well now you have a second chance! (And yes, there will be a third chance when this hits paperback in a few months, but if you wait for the trade then the meta-terrorists have won!)



X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl
(Marvel, $13.99, p. M102)

The other fun comics from Marvel published recently gets its very own trade paperback collection. has Marvel killed off your favorite character? Then they're probably in here!



C'est Bon Anthology, vol. 1
(C'est Bon Kultur, $21.95, p. 251)

All your favorite international artists that you probably have never heard of before come together in a handsome anthology. Think of it as Flight for the int-indy-art-comix set.




Abandon the Old in Tokyo
(Drawn & Quarterly, $19.95, p. 281)

More classic 60's art-manga from Yoshihiro Tatsumi, a manga-ka who was way ahead of anyone on either side of the Atlantic.



The Louche and Insalubrious Escapades of Art d'Ecco
(Fantagraphics, $16.95, p. 285)

Early Roger Langridge comics that show what he was up to before creating the enjoyable Fred the Clown.



Fallen Angel, vol. 1
(IDW, $19.99, p. 303)

Not to be confused with the first Fallen Angel collection that came out from DC a while back, this collects the recent IDW series by Peter David & J. K. Woodward.



Fragile Prophet
(Lost in the Dark Press, $9.95, p. 308)

I screwed up my online ordering and missed out on getting this in floppy form, so as I really enjoyed Davidson & Buell's first comic, Video, I'm really looking forward to this collection.



Amelia Rules! vol. 3: Superheroes
(Renaissance Press, $14.95/$24.95, p. 323)

Jimmy Gownley doesn't really need you to buy this, as he'll be selling truckloads to libraries. But you should get it anyways, cause it's good. Oh, and despite the title it's not a super-hero comic, it's a comic about kids who dress up as super-heroes.



Star Trek
(TokyoPop, $9.99, p. 333)

The latest OEL manga from TokyoPop is an anthology of tales from the defunct sci-fi franchise. Can TP succeed where so many before have tried? (Gold Key, Marvel, DC, Marvel again, WildStorm...)



Lost Girls
(Top Shelf, $75.00, p. 352)

Safe to say that nobody is going to put down $75 for this thing and not know what it's about. Me? I'm trying to figure out how three, 122-page volumes can add up to 264 pages...



That's 12 big thick comics to make a dent in your wallet! (Earlier this month I had my picks for mainstream and indy comics.)

Which Oni GN Should Dave Read Next? 2

I did this before a while ago, and I think it's time to do it again.

I have a small stack of GNs/collections from Oni, and I'd like you all to decide which one I should read this weekend.

The candidates are:

Killer Princesses by Gail Simone & Lea Hernandez
Little Star by Andi Watson
Midnight Mover by Gary Phillips, Jeremy Love & Jeff Wasson
No Dead Time by Brian McLachlan & Tom Williams
Once in a Blue Moon by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, & Jennifer Quick
One Plus One by Neal Shaffer & Daniel Krall
Scooter Girl by Chynna Clugston-Major
Three Days in Europe by Antony Johnston & Mike Hawthorne

Please use the comments on this here blog post to make the case for which of the above I should read over the weekend. I'll post a review or reviews of the Oni GN(s) I choose early next week.

Thanks!