To Read & To Write

George Takei's graphic novel - illustrated by Harmony Becker and co-written with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott - is an important entry into American history that, for the most part, has not been delved into at depth (and very much should be). Takei's graphic novel, They Called Us Enemy , chronicles his life's memory beginning with a short childhood spent in California and then only a little bit later, the rest of his childhood spent in Japanese Internment Camps set-up by the U.S. government during World War II due to a attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese government. Takei's journey is an astounding glimpse into a world fraught with racial politics; the problems with defining people, especially immigrants, by their ethnicity, and the extreme, wieldy, power an unlawful government has to wreak havoc on a person's identity, physical and mental, by means of vocabulary (images of the wartime propaganda are shown), ideological impositions on/of "law" (the j...

With drawings unintentionally reminiscent of the rotoscoping technique (in such films as "A Scanner Darkly" and "Waking Life"), "The Night Bookmobile" lends itself to an honest dreamlike quality. Unclear images linger behind their clearer, striking thoughts and dialogue, giving us an idea of reality at its blunt end: that of a sadder woman living in Chicago's constant neighborhood twilight, where even daytime seems foggy and filtered, and still more so on the brightest sunny day. Her relief: the world of books and a nighttime bookmobile at an intersection that holds all the books she's ever read in her life. On that sharp edge of consciousness, readers may be able to connect with the solace and sanctuary that books offer, especially when they are connected in a collection. The mysterious owner of this particular nocturnal bookmobile isn't hiring, but being able to experience it makes it no wonder that our main character ends up working in a...

After reading and loving Hack/Slash Omnibus Volume 1, I decided I might as well purchase Hack/Slash Omnibus Volume 2. It was definitely worth my money. I’ve heard that many comics struggle to keep audience attention after their first release. One theory is that perhaps since the second release is, many times, no longer an “origin story”, writers begin to lose the sense of plot, and thus character development suffers as well. This is not the case for Hack/Slash.  Cassie Hack returns with a vengeance, still side-by-side with Vlad, the monstrous but gentle man (if not engaged in a fight) that she calls her friend. There are eleven stories presented in this volume, and they run together seamlessly. Cassie and Vlad continue to fight the slashers (a.k.a. Revenants) as this is their raison d’etre; they would like to save as many people as possible from the hands of these reanimated, angry, corpses. Cassie and Vlad encounter a psychotic psychologist, a rock and roll band that has sold ...

I picked up a library copy of Hack Slash Omnibus Volume 1. Someone had recently returned it, and I couldn’t help but notice the striking cover: a girl, possibly in her late teens to mid-twenties, staring fiercely with her intense blue eyes at something, her shoulder length straight dark brown hair covering her right eye. And yes, she is wearing revealing clothing, but there’s nothing uncomfortably sexual about it (from my subjective perspective) – the girl, whose name is Cassandra Hack, is sitting in a position that isn’t very ladylike. Her legs are spread, knees up, and her right arm rests on her right leg, this hand holding baseball bat that hangs downward with the words Kiss It etched on it. She’s wearing plaid knee-high socks, a black pleated skirt with a belt of steel with the emblem FaQ at the buckle. Her midriff shows, and she’s wearing a short, netted halter-top. Her arms are covered up to the elbows with long striped tube socks, which she has made into fingerless gloves. He...

Written on 08/22/16 Seeing that at this point I would consider myself very new to the comic book world, this particular series, Wolverine #1-4 and Uncanny X-Men #172-173 was a great place to start, but only given the fact that I’ve already watched just about every Marvel (as well as DC) feature film that has been released since the ‘90’s. So, I am familiar with the character of Wolverine and that his bones are of indestructible adamantium metal due to a scientific experiment done to him by the shady Canadian government agency Weapon X. Why did the government experiment on him? To create a super solider of course, for such is life in the world of superhero comics. I may add that many subjects of this kind, including Wolverine, are, indeed sadly, forced into it.  Many already know that Wolverine is part of a band of superhero mutants called The X-Men. Even before he was experimented on, he was already different because he had a unique blend of healing power (any physical injur...