By Carol, Everett Public Library staff
Comic books! I totally missed out on the awesomeness of comics when I was a kid and I find myself more than making up for it as an adult. Lately, however, I find that my eyes are bigger than my allotted reading time. It’s like being at a buffet and filling up plate after plate, but in the end you only have so much time to eat.
I’m hoping to grab some time this weekend to play a little catch-up, and I thought a great way to psych myself up would be to share with you just a few of the series that are currently casting a shadow in front of my Shakespeare books at home. I’ll pair them up how I plan to read them. Maybe if you’ve already read one, you’d consider reading its complementary series?
Lumberjanes & Gotham Academy
Lumberjanes was one of the first comic series I really got into reading. A group of girls meets at summer camp and form fast friendships. Soon, however, they realize the surrounding woods are home to magical creatures who aren’t always harmless. It’s up to our gals from the Roanoke cabin to take all that knowledge they gained from earning badges and apply it to the real-life situations they face.
Gotham Academy is about an adventurous group of kids about the same age as our Lumberjanes. Though these kids attend a boarding school outside Gotham City, they also have their share of run-ins with the impossible. And while these two have similarities, they’re listed here together because just this month a new comic series has begun where they have put both casts of characters together in one adventure. This new team-up series is going to be one of the first comics I finish off of that giant stack pictured above.
Batgirl & Black Canary
Did you know that the original Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, was a librarian? It’s true! And while the reboot of one of my favorite characters has gone in a new direction (Babs is in her 20s and in college) I’m totally loving it. There’s a lot of focus on her struggle to balance school, work, friendships, and relationships with fighting crime in Burnside (kinda like Brooklyn).
Dinah Lance is a character I first met in an issue of Batgirl. She fronts a band called Black Canary…and I’m having trouble remembering more details because I’ve only read the first issue! I do remember that they’re like a magnet for trouble. All their concerts get riot-ish and it’s up to them to find out why before they start losing fans.
She-Hulk & Patsy Walker aka Hellcat
Okay, so I’ve actually read all the She-Hulk issues and am almost up-to-date on Patsy Walker aka Hellcat. However, these two pair so well together I had to take the opportunity to tell you about them. She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters, is a defense attorney and a Hulk who can actually control her rage. Hellcat, Patsy Walker, works for a time as an investigator for She-Hulk. The two are really good friends who work well together, both professionally and personally. And they’re both willing to go the extra mile for the underdog.
Rat Queens & Nimona
I’m big into RPGs (role playing games) and so it’s totally surprising that I haven’t actually read Rat Queens yet. Here’s the summary from the library’s catalog:
Who are the Rat Queens? A pack of booze-guzzling, death-dealing battle maidens-for-hire, and they’re in the business of killing all god’s creatures for profit. It’s also a darkly comedic sass-and-sorcery series starring Hannah the Rockabilly Elven Mage, Violet the Hipster Dwarven Fighter, Dee the Atheist Human Cleric and Betty the Hippy Smidgen Thief.
Nimona will also appeal to fantasy fans, though again I’m not sure why I haven’t read this yet. The character Nimona is a shapeshifter who teams up with a villain and tries to prove that the heroes of the land aren’t actually heroes after all. Alan reviewed it last year as one of the best graphic novels of 2015, so I would truly be a fool to let this sit around collecting dust much longer.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. If we consider my stack of unread comic books a buffet, I am planning to gorge myself and soon!
Be sure to visit A Reading Life for more reviews and news of all things happening at the Everett Public Library.
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