Comicsgirl

Chicagoland Detective Agency #2: The Maltese Mummy Buy on Amazon.com

Our three favorite young detectives (well, two of them are young; the other is a talking dog) return in the second volume of Trina Robbins‘ and Tyler Page‘s Chicagoland Detective Agency series, “The Maltese Mummy” (Graphic Universe, 2011).

Megan wins a contest to see her favorite musician, Sun D’Arc (whose name and style evokes Japanese band L’Arc-en-Ciel — let it never be said that Robbins and Page haven’t done their research), but becomes suspicious when a new girl Jazmin seems a little too interesting in coming along and when Sun himself expresses a strange amount of interest in her friend William.

And what does all of this have to do with a traveling exhibit featuring the mummy of Ra-Hotep’s sarcophagus?

Now, of course the plot points are pretty obvious and most readers, even younger ones, will probably seem them coming. But that’s not so much the point. Megan’s a feisty heroine whose independent nature sometimes gets the better of her (she likely would’ve been better off trusting Jazmin from the beginning) but she does learn that teamwork the way to go. Even though Raf spends much of the book sick in bed, his insights do move the story forward. I wanted talking dog Bradley to have a bit more to do, but understandably, there are places dogs can’t go.

Robbins is clearly having fun and her wit never talks down to this book’s target audience. Kids are appreciated for being savvy and smart. Maybe some of them won’t quite get the jokes that compares aging rock stars to mummies, but I still love that Robbins includes those sorts of things here.

Page’s art continues to be animated and playful. There isn’t as much action here as there was in the initial volume, but his sense of page layout and facial expression keeps the book moving. He has a great way of making otherwise static scenes of two people talking seem dynamic.

I do think you do need to read the first one for this to make sense, but this is turning into a really fun little series. I’m sad there’s only going to be three of them.

For whatever reason, I feel like I don’t read too much about what Graphic Universe is doing, but as far as comics for children go, they are getting almost everything right.

Advance reading copy provided through NetGalley.

Chicagoland Detective Agency #1: The Drained Brains Caper Buy at Amazon.com

We first meet 13-year-old Megan when she walks into Raf’s family’s pet supply store looking for a tarantula. Instantly, readers are pretty sure she’s the most delightful kind of trouble — she dresses in Gothic Lolita-lite clothes, reads manga, writes haiku, and got kicked out of her last school for starting a fire.

She would have trouble fitting in just about anywhere, but there’s something odd about her summer school, Stepford Preparatory Academy and Megan’s determined to get to the bottom of it.

In the first volume of this series from Graphic Universe, written by the legendary Trina Robbins with art by Tyler Page, we meet a fun, feisty heroine, a nerdy and capable young man and even a detective-movie-obsessed talking dog. What’s not to like?

Robbins handles Megan with grace — she’s not a completely likable character as she’s a little stubborn and full of herself — but she’s presented as being intelligent and resourceful. I also love that Megan’s vegetarianism is presented as a positive thing and not just another throwaway act of teenage rebellion. The story has a few twists and turns, but at least adult readers are going to know what’s going on pretty quickly (the middle grade audience this is aimed at may not quite catch the “Stepford” reference, though).

Page’s art has an indie-comics-meets-manga vibe that’s lovely and appropriate for this book, and I love that he made Megan actually look Asian. His page and panel layouts are dynamic and keep the book moving quickly. If I have one complaint it’s that it was hard for me to tell how old Raf was initially — we are eventually told he was 13, but I was under the impression he may have been a bit older since he was working in his parents’ store.

These characters are great fun and their adventures through movie (detective and monster, among other things, I’m sure) clichés will no doubt be wonderful. I greatly look forward to the next books in this series.

Advanced reading copy provided by Graphic Universe/Lerner Publishing Group through NetGalley.

Part of me hesitates to recommend this since it’s out of print (you can, however, still find copies), but Trina Robbins‘ From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women’s Comics from Teens to Zines (1999, Chronicle Books) is an essential read. Even with all the changes that the past decade has brought, it’s still an important overview of 60 years of comics aimed at women.

Robbins’ prose is smart and sparkling — this book is a quick read but also incredibly informative (dazzle your friends with fun facts about how legendary creators like Joe Simon and Jack Kirby wrote and drew many romance comics!). Robbins, of course, also covers women’s contributions to the underground comics scene of the 1960s and ’70s (something that I don’t think gets enough attention) and discusses titles like Love and Rockets and Strangers in Paradise as comics created by men but still featuring prominent female characters and perspectives.

The design of the book is fun — lots of comic images splashed across the pages and phrases highlighted — but it can be a little too much at times. Still, this isn’t mean to be a dull, academic read but rather conversational and playful.

Obviously, I think younger women and girls who are just getting interested in comics will find a lot to like here. But even if you like comics and know quite a bit about them already, you have nothing to lose by seeking out this book and reading it.

(Robbins herself may still have a few copies left for purchase, and there are some available through Amazon resellers. But also check your local library — mine has it on the shelves.)

The Supergirls Buy at Amazon.com

I wanted to love The Supergirls (Exterminating Angel Press, 2009). And I certainly feel like Mike Madrid has his heart in all the right places. I also want to give this book to any budding female fan of superheroines that needs some perspective.

But for me, it was just sort of a miss. I think I may have been expecting different things from it.

This isn’t really a history of the superheroine, although there’s a lot of history here. It’s more of a collection of essays chronicling the ups and downs of female characters in mainstream comics. Madrid sticks to Marvel and DC for the most part, and while he discusses girlfriends like Lois Lane, it deals mainly with the female characters with super powers (as the title would suggest). That’s a huge topic in and of itself, and while I didn’t really expect this to cover the portrayal of women in all comics everywhere, all the time, the subject does get repetitive.

While it is arranged in, more or less, chronological order, the chapters do sometimes overlap each other. Supergirl and Wonder Woman have chapters focused exclusively on them, but they also tend to pop up all over the place. This is understandable to a certain extent since they are two of the most significant female characters in comics, but it begins to feel repetitive.

I also think the book could be organized a little bit better. Some chapters focus on characters, others on time periods. I guess I wish it had focused on one or the other. I think as separate essays, each chapter works, but taken all together, I just felt like I got the point.

Having said that, though, it’s a light and intelligent book and Madrid isn’t afraid to pull some punches. I sometimes think he’s a little harsh about some things, like his discussion of celebrity debutantes like Paris Hilton (it’s relevant, really) but I think a lot of these issues are issues that need to be brought up with some aggressiveness.

I particularly loved his section on Betsy Braddock — who started out as a frilly girly-girl who was transformed into a scantily-clad ninja. I think in this part alone, Madrid most clearly illustrates the problem with the way superheroines are portrayed — they’re either harmless and sexless or overly sexy. Neither comes across as particularly powerful for women.

Still, I didn’t get as much out of the book in total as I got from that part. But yes, I’ve read plenty of books about comics and women in them (I do, after all, love Trina Robbins, as we all should). For someone new to comics, this book probably has more value.

So yes, I know that’s a pretty ambivalent recommendation of The Supergirls, but it’s still a recommendation. It’s a worthy read, sure, but don’t expect too much.

If you’ve read my blog or, you know, looked at the title of it, you’ve probably pretty much figured out that a) I’m a girl b) I like comics and c) I like women making comics.

Given all of the above, do I really need to tell you I love this? I swear, it’s like someone went into my brain made a comic just for me.

But let’s get past all the initial giddiness and just get to how awesomely good all of this is.

First of all: Marvel, please please please make a poster of Colleen Coover‘s intro piece. It deserves to be hanging in every girl’s bedroom. I will buy five of them if you make it into a poster. And it’s not just me — I have friends who also want it as a poster. I love it.

Starting with a lyrical, nearly wordless tale written by G. Willow Wilson with art by Ming Doyle, Girl Comics #1 definitely starts off right — it’s feminine and mysterious but not stereotypically “girly” at the same time.

The next story by Trina Robbins and Stephanie Buscema is, however, but playfully so. Robbins tells the story of Venus trying to return to her job on earth as a fashion magazine editor, only to find things have changed, and not for the better. Buscema’s retro-inspired art is a delight and all of this is cute and romantic and way too much fun.

Valerie D’Orazio‘s Punisher story, with art by Nikki Cook is probably the most straightforward and traditional of all of the stories here, but these four pages do a lot with a little — an entire backstory is told through several, simple images — and the effect is very powerful.

Lucy Knisley‘s Doctor Octopus story is hilarious and adorable, and Robin Furth’s and Agnes Garbowska‘s steampunkish retelling of Hansel & Gretel, featuring the Richards kids is inspired and different.

Concluding the issue is a dreamlike take on the Jean Grey/Cyclops/Wolverine love triangle by Devin Grayson and Emma Rios.

I absolutely adored the profiles on Flo Steinberg and Marie Severin (also, Marvel, when you’re making a poster of Colleen Coover’s intro image, will you also manage to collect some of Marie Severin’s work into a book? Please?). These were unexpected and fun bonuses.

This is an awesome showcase of the diverse talent of female creators — and just comic creators, period. I can’t wait for the next one.

It’s a wonderful little anthology, but it’s more than that.

I started Comicsgirl way back when as a teenager because I knew there was more to comics than what most people saw. I knew that comics had some great things to offer women. But even now, especially in mainstream comics, I often don’t feel like I’m recognized. Sometimes, I have to struggle to see myself in the comics I read. But Girl Comics makes me feel like I’m being acknowledged. No, maybe it’s not going to be everyone’s thing, but I wish I could go back in time and give this to my 17-year-old self. I wish I knew a bunch of 15-year-old girls I could buy copies of this for. And for me, that makes this is a beautiful thing.