Thought Train to Pusan

The second volume of comic series American Vampire picks up in a new era of American history, allowing us to see how the vampires and their many different forms and feuds have influenced that history over time. But while this book was good, I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the first volume. Maybe because I read that one a while ago and forgot some of the little things that had already happened, as well as some of the characters we had met? Or maybe the story itself just wasn’t as thrilling and compelling this time. I think it may have had a little to do with each. In any case, this second book in the series is comprised of two main stories, with certain characters and relations overlapping between the two, as well as connecting from the previous, first volume (which is to be expected). In the first story, the tale of Skinner Sweet continues, this time focusing on his influence (as well as the influence of other wealthy and connected vampires) during the expansion of Las Vega...

While reading The Host , I had so many people ask me, “Why?” with a clear mark of distain in their voices. But why do I need to explain myself? Just because I’m reading this book doesn’t mean I like it. But if I do like it, am I an idiot, like some might say? If I say I don’t like it am I just going along with what the popular notion is? Should I automatically be closed-minded about it because of the name on the cover? What is it about Stephenie Meyer that makes people so up in arms? I tried to read The Host a few years back when I was in high school, but I only got about a quarter of the way through and had to stop because I was just so bored with it (and also had some more important school reading to finish). But here I am, giving it another go. And did I like it? Well… I’d say that it has a really intriguing premise to it that could be developed into something incredibly interesting. Unfortunately, it was not handled very well, and inevitably became very frustrating for a nu...

The simplest way to describe the comic series of Peter Panzerfaust would be as a mid-teens Peter Pan, fighting through World War II Europe with a group of French orphans. It’s the kind of thing that makes some people turn away as it seems ridiculous, while others are intrigued by how it could work, putting this classic figure of Peter Pan into a completely different and historically real universe. And does it work? I think it does, extremely well: Peter Panzerfaust takes the iconic image of the boy who never wants to grow up and turns his mythology on its head to become something else entirely. It’s not about not wanting to grow up, but about keeping a youthful spirit in a situation where you are forced to grow up before you are really even an adult. The first volume of Peter Panzerfaust (there are only two trade volumes as of now), entitled The Great Escape deals with how a group of young French orphans first meet up with the vivacious figure of Peter. The story is told fro...

What would you do if every time you ate something that was once living (we’re talking animals and plants), the history and memories of the food item passed through your mind? Wait, what? Well, besides seeming like the kind of strange question I might just like to ask people for no reason on occasion, that is basically the premise of the comic series Chew , written by John Layman, with the art of Rob Guillory. But it’s a little more complicated than that of course, as this series deals with using these strange gifts and abilities to hunt down criminals and murderers, as well as making some remarks on the government and underground operations at the same time. And although it is a bit twisted, this series (so far, after one volume at least) is quite funny, in a twisted sort of way. The first trade volume, Taster’s Choice is really the beginning of the tale of our protagonist, Tony Chu, and it effectively sets up what should become the main conflict of the series as a whole. Tony...

The Kindly Ones is the ninth book in Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel series of The Sandman. After finding the previous installment to be slightly lackluster compared to some of the others, I had been putting off reading this volume for a while. But now that I have, I can tell you that this hesitation was not warranted, despite being the largest and longest inclusion to the series. In fact, the heft that The Kindly Ones bares allows for many of the interconnecting tales within to be fleshed out in detail, thus making this volume one of the strongest in the series, in my opinion. More than anything, however, The Kindly Ones is the novel in which everything really comes to a head in the series, after simply providing us with snippets along the way up to this point; many characters return and are once again interwoven in the world of dreaming in one way or another, and we see where most everything was ultimately heading after all this time. While many things occur throughout this nov...

The third trade volume of Mike Mignola’s Helloboy series isn’t all that connected with the over-arching plot and story of Hellboy, but is more so a presentation of various little events throughout Hellboy’s career as a paranormal detective. Essentially, The Chained Coffin and Others is a collection of short stories, all featuring different ancient folk-tales, but with the twist of Hellboy eventually becoming involved in them. While it may have been nice to continue where we left off in the previous volume of the series, Wake the Devil , to find out more about Hellboy and the ominous “purpose” that he was awoken for, this volume is still fun and enjoyable, mostly to do with the fact that the character of Hellboy is just as strong as ever: he is powerful and seemingly indestructible, and his nonchalance about the serious situations he gets himself into really draws you to him as a good-spirited individual, though it is clear that he does care for people, despite his seemingly casual ...