Things I've Read Recently (84): Seriously What Do I Call This Post

If you're new around here, Things I've Read Recently is a series of posts I do that are basically mini-reviews of books that I either forgot to review, didn't have enough to say for a full review, or just didn't want to do a full post about for whatever reason. Buy links include affiliate links, where I can earn a small commission if you purchase through them.

Stone Cold (Lumberjanes, Volume 8) by Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, Carey Pietsch, and Maarta Laiho

Published: February 20th, 2018 by BOOM! Box
Genre: YA Fantasy Comic
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: Goodreads says 112
Part of a series? This collects Lumberjanes issues #29-35.
Got via: The library, as usual.
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): Five best friends at summer camp take friendship to the max when they team up to defeat the strange forces lurking within the surrounding forest.

Excited to have Barney starting their first week at the camp, the Roanokes run over to the Zodiac cabin, only to find everyone turned to stone! Between strange shadows and Diane being back, it looks like April, Jo, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are going to have their hands full trying to find a cure for their friends... as long as they don’t look the wrong thing in the eye first.

Thoughts: I've had some issues with the art change of the last few volumes, and I'm not sure if there was another shift, or if I've just gotten more used to it, but it definitely didn't stand out at all in this one. I was also really excited about this one because of the stuff going on. Barney's everything is just like so lovely, and while they didn't feature as prominently in this due to being turned into stone, it's still just nice to see them being a Lumberjane.

I also adored that they treat hair as very important, even when big important things are going down. It's really supportive of people looking how they want to look, and that's nice. It was also fun that this one called back on an older arc of the series, and plays with Greek mythology again. I continue to love this series, and can't wait for the next one to come out.

Paper Girls, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang

Published: April 10th, 2018 by Image comics which basically means I've caught up and I'm going to have to start waiting for them to come out. Siiiigh.
Genre: YA Science Fiction Comic
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: Goodreads says 128.
Part of a series? This collects issues 16 to 20 of Paper Girls.
Got via: The library.
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): The mind-bending, time-warping adventure from BRIAN K. VAUGHAN and CLIFF CHIANG continues, as intrepid newspaper deliverer Tiffany is launched from the prehistoric past into the year 2000! In this harrowing version of our past, Y2K was even more of a cataclysm than experts feared, and the only person who can save the future is a 12-year-old girl from 1988.

Thoughts: It's funny - my review notebook is filled up on one side of the pages and I don't want to waste paper, so I'm using the pages upside down and backwards. Amusingly, the opposite side of my notebook right now has my notes from the first time I read a Paper Girls.

Anyways, this was a really interesting one. I kind of hope they keep exploring the girls' Future!Selves, as that's a really interesting angle. Tiffany was seriously neat to see in the future. Or, past, as it is, since this is centered around Y2K. They also finally started to do the thing with queerness that I have suspected was comng since the beginning of the series, and I still have hopes about what's to come.

I'm so bummed that I have to wait for like four months now til the next one of these is released!

Teenage Wasteland (Ms. Marvel, vol. 9) by G. Willow Wilson and Nico Leon

Published: July 31st, 2018 by Marvel Comics
Genre: YA Science Fiction Comic
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: Goodreads says 136 pages
Part of a series? This collects Ms. Marvel issues 25 to 30.
Got via: The library.
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): Kamala Khan has vanished! But where has she gone, and why? Jersey City still has a need for heroes, and in the wake of Ms. Marvel's disappearance, dozens have begun stepping up to the plate. The city's newest super hero Red Dagger and even ordinary citizens attempt to carry on the brave fight in Kamala's honor. Somehow, Ms. Marvel is nowhere...but also everywhere at once! Absent but not forgotten, Ms. Marvel has forged a heroic legacy to be proud of. But when an old enemy re-emerges, will anyone be powerful enough to truly carry the Ms. Marvel legacy - except Kamala herself?

Thoughts: I was anxious that this would make me cry, and it kind of did, but not for the angst-y reasons I was expecting. This was just... beautiful. Look, I adore Lumberjanes, I really do, but I think Ms. Marvel might be my favourite comic series. The messages and storytelling that they put into this series are just so good.

I went into this expecting to read something that would involve a lot of anger or pain or just, you know, angst, and instead it tells a story that's full of understanding and support and healing. Kamala needs a break, and her friends understand and give her space. Ms. Marvel needs a break, and her friends understand and give her break and also take over for her so she doesn't have pressure to save the city on her shoulders when she needs time to heal. (They also don't connect those dots, somehow. Ah, comic books.) It's just... so nice that they give her time to feel like herself again.

Also, props to this comic book artist. They seem to draw really good fat bodies. Mike's body/size can vary depending on artist, and this one seems to draw her a little larger and more visibly fat than others, and that is great. This one doesn't make her like a perfect hourglass plus-sized model body. You see more of the shape of her stomach and a bit of double chin, and she looks very real. Kamala's sister-in-law's mom is also shown in this one, and she's also fat and she has a very visible, large belly, but is absolutely gorgeous, and seriously, props to that. Good job, artist.

All in all, I just really loved this. It made me feel really good reading it, and made me feel like Kamala had actually had time to heal a little, along with beginning to work on relationships with others. Very, very good, and I can't wait for more. (I've totally already pre-ordered the next through the library.)

Girl-Moon (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, vol. 4) by Brandon Montclare and Natasha Bustos

Published: January 9th, 2018 by Marvel Comics
Genre: MG comic book
Binding: Paperback
Page Count: Goodreads says 136
Part of a series? This collects Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur numbes 19 to 24.
Got via: The library of course.
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): Journey to the Living Planet! It's Lunella Lafayette's biggest adventure yet, as a voice from the outer reaches of space beckons her and Devil Dinosaur on a truly fantastic voyage - an Ego trip, if you will! Are you ready for Moon Girl to meet...Girl-Moon? Lunella isn't just smart, she's the smartest person on Earth - but what good is that when the problems she faces are intergalactic?

And when our incredible duo makes it back to Earth, they might find things a little different than how they remember. What happened to Yancy Street? And who exactly are Devil Girl and Moon Dinosaur?! The story of a young genius and her T. rex pal gets wilder than ever!

Thoughts: I kind of have already given this one back to the library because it was really overdue and it had a hold on it so I couldn't renew it anymore and it was wracking up the overdue fees something fierce. So it's a bit hard to review it when I don't have it with me.

However, I really like this volume. There's a little bit of fatmisia at one point, but I really just love Lunella and I really like the journey she's on of learning to perhaps be just a little more empathic and thinking about others' feelings a little more. She is only a kid, after all, but she's a great one.

There's also a thing that happens in this one that seriously made me look up future volumes of this because I was worried, so let me assure you that there are several more. And I want them!!

What a good group of comics!

Peace and cookies,
Laina