August 1, 2023

This is a special edition of the Comic Cavalcade as I have several graphic novels that I have picked up that I decided to group them together for this post.

For the first time last year, I looked over the list of graphic novels nominated for Eisner Awards and I purchased a bunch of them because they sounded interesting. I have been becoming more of a fan of the independent comics and so I have been more intrigued by the story,

So I did once again look at the Eisner Award lists and picked out several that I thought were really exciting to read.

However, there was one graphic novel that was left over from last year that is going to kick off this Comic Cavalcade.

Monsters. This was one of the Eisner Award winners from last year and, when it arrived, it looked like a textbook, a thick and overwhelming textbook. This a was a passion project by Barry Windsor-Smith that he had worked on, in one way or another, for decades. The story involved a program called Prometheus that the US military was running, a genetics program that came from Nazi Germany, that was trying to develop a supernatural force. The story follows a needy young man named Bobby who applied to the military, ending up placed into this program. The art is beautiful. The book is amazingly constructed and the story bounces around time involving multiple intertwined characters. Though it is 360 pages long, this book reads extremely smoothly, with a lot of visual storytelling. Monsters is an exceptional book and it is understandable why it won the Eisner last year.

Eight Billion Genies. Now, this was not a Eisner nominated book and it is not, technically, a graphic novel. It is a trade hardcover that collected the Image series Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne. I purchased this last week at Comic World. I had picked up Eight Billion Genies #1 back when it first came out and I was not impressed. I was not engaged in the story so I did not pick it up as a series. All I heard about what how great this series was after that. Recently, I considered looking back into this series and give it a second chance. When my friend Todd showed this book to me at Comic World, I thought this was a great opportunity to give it a second chance. I’m glad that I did because this was considerably better than I remembered back when I read #1. I am very pleased with this group of characters and how this unbelievable situation provided a ton of conflict and entertaining interactions. One of the most creative ideas in the last few years.

The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night Book 1. Back to one of the Eisner winners this year, The Night Eaters is the new horror graphic novel from Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, the team behind Monstress. Another book that was a really quick read because of some tremendous art work that build amazing suspense. They do a nice job of introducing these new characters and a fantastic set up of a plot in the house across the street. It’s a story of family and of legacy. Book Two is scheduled to come out later this year so we’ll have to see where this goes from here. It is an enjoyable start.

Alfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense. I have always loved Alfred Hitchcock movies. This graphic biography is a fun book. Written by Noël Simsolo and with art by Dominique Hé, this is a graphic novel that felt very much like a couple of other books from the last few years such as Twilight man, the book focusing on Rod Serling, and Legosi: The Rose & Fall of Hollywood’s Dracula. These books are interesting reads because of the main focuses of the books, but I have to say that the dialogue of the characters in this book is simply not the way people talk. The dialogue is more about passing along information about the person’s history instead of developing the story. The time frame of this novel jumps around a bunch and can be challenging to follow. If you are a Hitchcock fan, this is a fun read and looks at the master director.

Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith. However, this graphic novel, a biography of author/comic book writer Patricia Highsmith is a much more impactful manner of storytelling, giving us a great story as well as just presenting info. This graphic novel was created by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer. It was one of the winners of the Eisner Awards this year and I understand why. I thought this was a great way to present the story of Patricia Highsmith. Highsmith was known to hate the comic book writing that she did, preferring to focus in on her novel writing, such as Strangers on a Train, which would become one of Hitchcock’s top films. It is ironic that a woman who hated the comic book format stars in an award-winning graphic novel. She was also an inspiration for the LGBTQ community and her sexual orientation is a major aspect of this book too. It is another of these graphic novels that read extremely quickly/smoothly.

But I Live: Three Stories of Child Survivors of the Holocaust. Three stories of true stories about children in one of the worst periods of human history. Three creative teams are first, Miriam Libicki and David Schaffer, second, Gilad Seliktar and Nico and Rolf Kamp, and then finally Barbara Yelin and Emmie Arbel. The images in this book are beautiful, basically pieces of art. The stories are also well told and told in a variety of ways, including one of the tales being a basic interview with the Kamp brothers. The Holocaust is a horrendous time with stories of survival that show the human spirit and how vital life is.

I am still waiting on a graphic novel called Ultrasound from Conor Stechschulte. That should be arriving later this week and it’ll go into a future Comic Cavalcade.