Fangs

 I read. It seems like forever since I wrote about anything I have read. Most of  what I have read lately is stuck in the obscurity of fan fiction.  With that being said, I have just finished the most charming graphic novel.  Fangs by Sarah Andersen might be my favorite love story between a vampire and a werewolf.  

I adore this book. It made me smile and chuckle all through reading it. There characters are likable. The art is clean and uncomplicated. It is pokes humor in unexpected ways.   If you were ever in need of a gift for a friend this would be a go to gift. 

I love Erma

When I think of Pinterest, typically I think of craft ideas, food recipes and an endless meandering through word porn and fashions wish lists and art appreciation.  What I do not think of is comics.  My husband is an excellent resource  on finding new comics. Most of the time he has already found and purchased the exact eclectic graphic novel that I didn’t know existed and couldn’t possibly live with out.  Which is why it took my by surprise to find a comic that I adore on Pinterest. 

I love Erma by Brandon Santiago.  Erma is terrifyingly cute and actually makes me want to watch more horror movies, so that I can truly enjoy some of the nuances in the humor. I love the story lines, the weird trivia and the tongue in cheek nods to the classic horror genre. 

If you need a smile, I highly suggest checking out Brandon Santiago on Twitter, Instagram or even order one of his graphic novels.

Delilah Dirk and the King’s Shilling

Picture from Turkish Lieutenant, (My computer is being disagreeable) 

I am making my way through my To Be Read graphic novel stack.  I just finished up Delilah Dirk and the Kings Shilling by Tony Cliff. It was everything that I had hoped that it would be.  

There was action, adventure with a flair of drama coupled with the need for a really good cup of tea.  If you read the first book, Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, you will not be disappointed with where this one continues in the story.  The art and design of the the novel flows well with the story, and some of the panels were an absolute joy to sit and look at the detail. 

I look forward to hopefully more adventures of Delilah Dirk. Until then I think I am going to brew myself a cup of tea. 

Putting Fun in Funeral

Have you ever done something or seen something that makes you wonder if your whole life is just some part of a zany comedy show for space aliens? A couple Saturdays I had one of those moments.

My husband and I were on our annual anniversary trip, and the theater near us was doing a special feature of Night of the Living Dead. (The original, not the remake.) With it being a classic horror movie that is sometimes consdired the beginning of genre, we purchased tickets.  It is always a fun time to see classic movies on the big screen.   One of the perks of seeing a classic movie, is that sometimes they will bring in vendors for the event.

Now, you might be wondering what sort of vendor would be at Night of the Living Dead.  There were two vendors for the small viewing and they certainly were a highlight of the experience. If it wasn’t for Curiosities 212 and Laura Flook, it would have been a long annoying wait for the movie.

 There is nothing like sitting around waiting for the movie to start and texting my brother about purchasing a rib bone for him for Christmas. (Of course he didn’t believe me, but then I sent a picture and for some reason I am considered strange.)   Curiosities 212 had a variety of funeral paraphernalia that could leave some people scratching their head. It amused me to image my brother opening his Christmas Stocking and pulling out a rib. Part of me wants to know where the bones came from and the other part of me doesn’t want to know ever where the bones came from.

Laura Flook was a perfect counterbalance to Curiousites 212. She was promoting her semi- autobiographical comic book that talked about her time as an undertaker. It was clear to me that she was uncomfortable with the living, or perhaps it was all the drunk people stumbling around, since Oktoberfest was finishing up nearby.  Either way she did her best, and her table was full of a variety of merchandise and at the end of the movie she handed out toe tags as her business card and let us know they make good book marks.  (Which is true, since I currently am using it as a book mark. Also, check out her stuff at www.lauraflook.com  because drunk people shouldn’t be allowed in theaters and also she supports a wonderful cause.)

The whole experience was bizarre, but in a wonderful weird way.

Tarantula

Tarantula by Alexis Ziritt, Fabian Rangel Jr. and Evelyn Rangel  is probably one of the weirdest graphic novels I have read in a long time.  I feel like I am acid trip episode of Lucha Libre.  The art is trippy and with each page I turn, I can practically hear the dramatic music that accompanies Mexican soap operas. 

You brief story line, with limited spoilers is that you are following the main character, Tarantula though her detective case.  The case she is on is bigger than anticipated and allies herself with capable individuals to solve the case.  Lots of twist and turns happen before the conclusion and in the end the day is saved. 

This comic is not going to everyone's cup of tea. I am not saying that this comic is terrible.  It isn't.  If you are looking for something that takes itself super serious, this is not going to flip any switches for you.  Tarantula has all the fun of an Adam West Batman episode with just enough Spanish to make me feel good about the three years high school Spanish I don't use. I would recommend this if you are looking for something fun to read that doesn't take itself too seriously.

The Adventures of Momo!

The Adventures of Momo!

My husband had pre-ordered a teaser of The Adventures of Momo and I fell head over heals in love.  It is a wonderful just because gift.  I love Momo.  My cats are not loving me loving Momo, because I keep asking them if they are a wizard cat.  I think only one of them is a wizard cat, but figuring out which one is the hard part.

The Adventures of Momo is a comic hand drawn by Scott Wygmans. (If you don't know who Scott Wygmans is, try DarkWizard Berserker.) Momo is a wizard cat  and he is on a quest.  I love the art style and humor of Momo.  It is fun and spirited and totally embraces what I think a cat wizard would be. 

If you love cats, comics and wizards, then this is definitively something to check out.  

Scooby Apocalypse

When I was a kid, one of my  I favorite cartoons was Scooby Doo. I distinctly recall waking up and watching a million episodes on Saturday morning and loving every bit of it.  If Scooby Doo or Gilligan's Island were on, I was one happy kid.  I loved the monster of the week feel to it, that always turned out not to be a monster. I found humor in the way that Shaggy and Scooby could out weight their fear in a situation by the rumble of their stomachs and how every bad guy would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddlesome kids.

I am an adult now and I still have a nostalgic love for Scooby Doo.  I loved the episode of Venture Bros that re-imagined  the gang in a much darker light. (Season 2 Episode 11 "Viva Los Muertos!").  I tend to like dark comedy and Venture Bros may be one of my favorite adult cartoons, so that only added to my amusement of that particular episode. It cracked me up to no end, because it shed that feel that nothing bad ever happened in the Mystery Machine and everything always turns out fine in the end.

I know that I am giving a lot of back story, and it is hard to see where I am going, but I felt it was important when I try to explain how excited I was discovering Scooby Apocalypse at my local comic shop.   Despite the huge stack of books and comics that I need to read and finish reading, I had to have Scooby Apocalypse.

I devoured it like Shaggy and his Scooby snacks.  I love the way that the characters were re-imagined. They were fleshed out in a way that was not accomplished in the horrible live action movies and brushed over in the television show.   The comic gives them a rounded character  with history and incorporates in some nostalgic touches, such as well used catch phrases.  (Do you know how weird people at work look at you if you use the word jinkies? Spell check doesn't even like the word, and keeps replacing it with kinkiest.)

I don't want to spoil the comic for anyone, because I think it deserves a spot on the book shelf, but I will say that it does hold true the cartoon in the way that the monsters are people. Of course there is a twist, but that is part of the fun in reading the comic.  I

ApocalyptiGirl : An Aria for the End Times

In a moment of insanity I decided to clean out my bookshelf. It was brutal. A part of my brain switched off and if the book was not sentimental, something I would read again, in my to be read pile or something my husband found sentimental or enjoyed, it got shoved in donate pile.  I am sure a little part of me is still curled up in my brain screaming in agony over the separation.

To quiet the screaming part of my brain, I decided to distract it with a graphic novel out of my ever growing to be read pile.  (Holidays have a way of making the to be read pile swell into cat squashing proportions.). The graphic novel I chose to distract myself with was ApocalyptiGirl. An Aria for the End Times by Andrew Maclean.

I am not even sure how to explain this graphic novel.  My brain scatters all over the place and refuses to format words when I try to put it in a category. If there was a category called Beautiful, it wouldn't be accurate, because despite the mesmerizing art style and engaging storyline there is something there that I can't put my finger on.   Something that feel sort of nostalgic, but also like a breathe of fresh air. Perhaps it is the most accurately title graphic novel, and it really is just an aria for the end of times.

I don't know, what it is exactly and when I put my finger on it, I am not sure anyone else will get it. I would highly recommend ApocalyptiGirl for anyone that is looking for something a little different, but different in a good way.

Oyster War

I took an unintentional hiatus from reading comics.  It is easy to get caught up doing a whole bunch of nothing, and because of that my to-be-read bed side reading pile is looking neglected and structurally unsound.  If I a certain kitty that I know decided to step on it, the whole wobbly structure could collapse and smother me in stack of frozen screams or at the very least I would end up with a could of nasty paper cuts.

In an attempt to make some head way, I pulled out the beautiful hard back edition of Oyster War by Ben Towle that my husband had acquired for me.  I adore this book.  The story is full of whimsy, merriment and makes me want to learn a sea shanty or two.  There are jokes, misquotes and folklore that could entertain people of all ages, and if you are looking for a story with a moral, there is a fun environmental message mixed in.

On top of the story being a tasty morsel, the art style is like the perfect dash of lemon juice on fresh sea food. Refreshing with a little bit of a twist and makes everything flow together seamlessly.  Once I finished Oyster War, it made me want to reread The Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy Bastain, just so that I could continue tooling around with pirates. I would recommend this book to anyone that is looking for an enjoyable tall tale about pirates that flirtation with superstition.

Name that Movie

I was on the phone with my niece, Hannah the other night and we were reminiscing  about last Christmas.  With us mostly talking about how annoying I can be, but how much fun it is anyway. It is really hard to disguise a DVD. You can put it inside of a box, to disguise the shape, but that is pretty much it unless you want to expend a lot of time and effort. Last year when I sent the gifts down, there were a couple of DVD's mixed in.

Hannah thought that since she knew it was a DVD and it had her name on it, she should be able to open it.  I disagreed at the time and still do,  but after listening to a teenagers  insistent and somewhat repetitive reasoning I was willing to give a little, even if it was for my own piece of mind.   I would let her open the gift wrapped DVD if she could guess what it was. Just like with any guessing game there needed to be clues.

This is where I get to be annoying. I limited it to two clues and she could use the internet (because, let's face it, she was going to do it anyway), but they were not going to be easy clues. I can still remember the way she rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed sigh and then demanded the clues, sure that she would get it right away.

First Clue:  The letter "F" is in the title somewhere

Second Clue:  Bill Murray

I was feeling pretty brilliant. Go look up Bill Murray movies that have the letter "F' somewhere in the title.  His IMBD list is as long as Santa's Naughty list.  I was only partially crushed, but not surprised she didn't know who Bill Murray was, after all she didn't know what X Files was either, but now she does.  The amount of guessing and begging for another clue was like a symphony of angels to my ears.  If she wanted to open that DVD before Christmas, she had to earn it.  Getting it right away, did not happen, and she had to wait until Christmas to open it.

Now we roll around to this year, and spoiler alert, there is another DVD in the stack.  I think I might offer the same game to her.  Hannah, if you can guess the DVD, you can open it.

First Clue: The letter "M" is in the title somewhere

Second Clue: The writer is related to comics.

I know these aren't awesome clues, mostly because the internet exists, but if Hannah can guess the movie, I'll let her open it.  Welcome to the new Christmas tradition. Good luck!

For those that are wondering what she got last year, it was The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Read or Die

Manga R.O.D.

There is a fine line between a manga and anime. You may like one and not the other.  I have watched a good bit of anime in my life, but the number of manga novels I have consumed I can count on one hand. In the depths of my to be read pile was volume one of R.O.D. Also known as Read Or Die. 

Years ago, I had watched the anime by the same name and had enjoyed it. This manga is the inspiration for the anime, which is what made me want to read it. There is something fun about having a protagonist called The Paper  or Agent Paper that loves books. I think it speaks to me.  It is like if I had a super power, it would be something that I would pick. 

Anime R.O.D

R.O.D. is a fun read. The beginning of the story is a little weak, but I think it only seems that way to me since I am comparing the book to the show I know you aren't supposed to do that, but it is hard to separate the two, when the show is why you wanted to read the book in the first place. Anything can seem slow when you are trying to build anticipation.  I didn't dislike the manga and it was only volume one, but it didn't really inspire me to see what happens next.  

The insanity of it! 

There were some things that I had really enjoyed that gave me pause to chuckle, such as having a book as a literary weapon, and that reading it will drive a person insane.  A little Lovecraft nod, but something that amused me. There are a few other literary nods in between that pages that kept me entertained.  This is certainly not a serious read. 

I will have to check my book stack to see if I picked up more than just volume one and see if it gets better.  The story (so far) made me want to go an reread all my favorite books and immerse myself in a good story with a hot cup of tea and forget about the world for a little bit. I don't think think that was what the manga was trying to convey, or maybe it was. There is a certain amount of love and adventure that can be gained when you are reading for pleasure, and this volume reminded me of that. 

Dr. Strange - Love It

Dr. Strange - Love it.

IF you a re a looking for a serious review of Dr. Strange, this post is not for you.  I am not going to talk about the awesome special effects. I am not going to talk about Benedict Cumberbatch's high cheek bones.  I am not going to talk about how the movie related to the comic book series.  There are plenty of other people out there that can do that much more eloquently than me. 

Instead, I am going to talk about the stupid mental funny that happened as a result of a combination of Cher, Daylight Savings Time and Dr Strange, that I am currently torturing my husband with . At work a couple of my coworkers were talking about Turning Back Time and getting a bit more sleep.  This turn of phrase of course made me think of the Cher song, If I Could Turn Back Time. Off the top of my head I can sing the first two or three lines of the song in a ridiculously dramatic scare the cat fashion, and I am hard pressed to remember any of the other lines.   I am refusing to look up the rest of the words to that song, because it is better this way and infinitely more annoying to every one else.

Not to give too much away, but there is some time and space manipulation in Dr. Strange.  And now you are probably wondering what this is all leading up to. Picture this; Dr. Strange dancing around with his cape, Fred Astaire style singing "If I could turn back time..."  The mental funny behind it, is cracking me up to no end. I am pretty sure his cape would dip and twirl him as Dr. Strange belts out his love. My husband is trying to ignore me belting out half of a late 80's chart topper every couple of minutes and snickering to myself. The best part of being married is having that one perfect person to annoy. :)

Bad Machinery

A Review: Bad Machinery

My stack of comic to read has been overflowing for a while now, and I decided to do something about it.  In the deep abyss of things I should read, I found Bad Machinery Volume 1: The Case of Team Spirit by John Allison.  This is published by Oni and can be found at your local comic shop or at least ordered by them if they don't have it in stock.  This is one of those comics that my husband picked up for me, thinking that I would like it.

He was wrong.  I don't like it. I love it.  It cracked me up laughing several times.  The story flow is fun and inviting.  There are jokes that adults can appreciate, but not so over the top that I would feel uncomfortable having my niece read it. In fact, if my niece did read it, I could see me ending up with more than one wet leaf in my pocket. (Hailey, I do not want a wet leaf in my pocket. This not an invite to put wet leaves places.)

If you are looking for a series that is off beat, fun and has nothing to do with super heroes, you might want to check this out. This is definitely a book worth giving, and a fun read to pass an afternoon with.

Princess Ugg

I am trying to catch up on my comics. I have a to be read pile next to the bed that if it toppled could hurt the cat. Half of the pile is comics and half books that have peaked my interest. I don't remember if I actually ever finished a post I was going to write about on Princess Ugg.  I remember starting it and perhaps I lost it in an email to myself, or perhaps I put it off until I got the second volume. 

I love Princess  Ugg by Ted Naifeh.  The art by Warren Wucinich  is superb and the story makes me smile and warms some of those dark corners of my heart. I love comics, but when you read some of the female characters, they tend to be a little flat in most areas except for the chest and fall into stereotypes.  Not all comics are this way and the female role in comics in general has evolved a lot over the years. Princess Ugg is another step in that evolution.   

The beauty of Princess Ugg is that despite the fact that it is a story that has to do with a gaggle of princesses and one princess that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of them, it is really a story about the art of diplomacy and how finding the right way to do things is not always the easiest way to do things. I think that is a good lesson to remember no matter what age you attain.  I would highly recommend picking up both volumes of Princess Ugg and adding it to your library. It is a good read for all ages. 

2015 Boiled Down

I love lists.  I love the feeling of being organized and having a clear direction that a list gives me. I wanted to create a list of 15 things to describe 2015. It sounds like a simple thing, but the more that I thought about it, the more daunting the task became.   How does a person describe the glowing bits of happiness with the dark bits of sadness in just a few words? The idea of creating a list was slowly becoming a new year’s resolution. Something that I said I would do, and in my mind I would do, but in reality I would maybe not quite do completely.  

I dislike the term, resolutions.  It makes me feel broken and that something needs fixed. I prefer the word challenges, because it makes me feel like it is something that I can overcome and grow from. With that in mind, I challenged myself to come up with some words that described my 2015 and reflect upon the crunchy bits, to learn from them and help challenge myself to make the most of my 2015 and hope to challenge myself to find ways to enliven my 2016.

1. Welcome to Nightvale
2. Homemade wine
3. Pishing
4. Cherries
5. Bacon Jam
6.  Zumba
7.  Comics
8.  Museums
9.  Thrift Stores
10. Fabric
11. Board Games
12.  Post Cards
13.  Sunblock
14. MST3K
15. Cats

I know that with the word, I didn't put things like Family, or Friends or Love, because it is my belief that all of those things are involved with my core essentials, it is just a way they were manifested in 2015.  I can only anticipate what 2016 will bring.

Porcelain

Sometimes it takes me a while to make head way in my to be read pile. It monsooned over the weekend which gave me ample opportunity to curl up with a book and a glass of wine. From deep with in the stacks came Porcelain A Gothic Fairy Tale by Benjamin Read and Chris Wildgoose.

When I think of a gothic fairytale, I think about Jane Eyre and architecture but mostly Jane Eyre. This story reminded of some of my favorite parts of Jane Eyre.  Jane Eyre is a piece Of classic literature that has a lot going on and most of it being examples of good things going bad. I would say the same is true with Porcelain. Porcelain is a beautiful dish that gets cracked and can never get back its original perfection which is what makes  it a perfect gothic fairytale. 

The art is well done and it fits the tone of the story very well. There are layers upon layers that make me want to go back and read it again and examine the pictures to see if there are any other nuances that I may have missed.  I am pleased with this addition to the ever growing graphic novel library. 

Baltimore Comic Con 2015

A comic con from a fans point a view. 

I love comic books. My husband loves comic books. My brother loves comic books and some of our friends love comic books. The rest of our friends just roll their eyes and chuckle at us.  My husband and I decided that we were going to go down to the Baltimore Comic Con with a group of friends. Prepping the night before, we pulled out all the comics and graphic novels that we thought would be really cool to have signed.  Then we debated on what we were going to wear. My husband had two new tee shirts that were contenders.  Should we go with Free Hugs with Leatherface or Welcome to Mordor. Welcome to Mordor for the win.

Then in the morning we double checked to make sure we didn’t forget anything while listening to Wordburgler rap about comics and drink coffee. The trip down to Baltimore was not that bad. I love looking at every one that dressed up. It is fun and there are all sorts of extremes in costumes. I thought I would join in the dressing up in a small scale and had a Black Widow dress and some knee high boots on. If I were to ever to dress up as Black Widow again, I would forgo the boots and wear something more sensible.  There is a price for cute boots and I am not entirely sure it was worth it. 

We barely go through the doors and make our way into the center to try and get out of the fray and I spot Jeremy Bastian at a table and there isn’t a line yet.  He wrote and illustrated Cursed Pirate Girl, which is one of most beautiful books I own. I could sit there and look at the art for hours. It is incredibly and intensely detailed. I had hoped to have my booked signed, but he did one better and drew a picture that you wouldn’t know wasn’t there originally and signed it. Inside I was squealing while I stood there in awe. 

Not to long after we wandered over to Justin Jordan’s table. Justin is a great guy and signed everything that was shoved in front of him while we chatted about cats. I don’t know if that makes him sound like a crazy cat man or me a crazy cat lady.  Maybe a little of both. Either way it was great to see him and I regret not bringing Tom Waits a cat toy. 

It takes a special sort of person to come up with God Hates Astronauts, and Ryan Browne completely blew me away. I could not stop laughing as he and my husband traded compliments with each other as he drew hats and signed almost a dozen issues and then drew a picture inside of a graphic novel.  It shouldn’t  have surprised me that he was a cool guy with a neato personality  considering the number of mind bending things that go on in his comic, but it did. I know it was one of the highlights of the entire convention for my husband.

My brother is a big fan of Ben Templesmith. I will be honest, I haven’t read a single thing by him yet, but I do have all of my brothers Wormwood issues, so that is an easy remedy. Trying to be the good sister, I brought some issues to be signed. Ben was a striking figure dapperly dressed in black and oozes dark comedy that had me trying to unsee the loincloth man walking around the convention. The unfiltered commentary left me chuckling. It was only hours later that I wished I could  have gotten my brain moving to get something commissioned while I was there and picked up his SquidGirls. I regret that my brain was on overload. 

In between getting issues signed there were boxes to go through and vendors to visit. There is something for everyone there. I wish I had more money or at least had the ability to be more whimsical financially, because if I had that ability I would buy at least one of those mystery boxes and then perhaps a game or two at some of the tables and have some stuff commissioned. Despite my non ability to be whimsical, I think we still did pretty good on adding to our growing comic collection. I am looking forward to next trying to attend next year and am completely thankful to the artists and creators that gave us the time of day.

Wytches

My brother came out for a visit and we swapped comics, canned goods and beverages.  I wasn't sure what to expect when my brother recommended Wytches from Image to me. My brother and I are still working on find our common ground in genre.  He likes horror and dark comedy. I like some dark comedy and very little horror. I tend to go for more adventure. I had a little bit of trepidation when it came to picking up his recommend. In the end I didn't have a choice. He brought me a copy and left it in my vicinity and my natural curiosity was awoken.

I know that I have read some comic books by Scott Snyder before, but it has been a while. When it has been a while, you forget how much you enjoy a certain style. Wytches is good, which is much like saying that the sun is hot. The story has interesting dynamics that have to do with the family and human nature while maintaining a horrifying fiendish element.  Without giving away too much as to what is going on in the story is that you can pledge some one and if your pledge is accepted you are granted one wish. Now image if some one close to you has been pledged. Welcome to Wytches. The art works well with the story and gives it a gritty feel when needed.  I am not sure if it is a good thing that my brother recommended the book to me, or if he is trying to tell me I have been pledged.  I am looking forward to the next volume and if I have been pledged I hope I can figure a way out of it before it is too late.

Lumber Janes

Who needs lumber jacks, when you have Lumber Janes? I want to be a LumberJane. I was never a Girl Scout. I can't even tell you what Girl Scouts do other than sell cookies. I have a vague notion that they do out door activities based on the cookie boxes. I could only hope that it is like LumberJanes. 

LumberJanes Beware of the Kitten Holy is a fun first volume of what I hope will be the first of many volumes. It is fun, upbeat, complex with out being intimidating story of resourceful  quirky girls. I had just as much fun reading the excerpts of the handbook as I did following the adventure.  If summer camp was really like this, I would sign up to be a camp counselor in a heartbeat. 

There is a beautiful blend of real and not so real that has a way of charming the reader. While stumbling into poison ivy is a rather normal experience, stumbling into a quad of hipster yetis is not. (I can't be sure if quad is the correct plural for a group of yetis or if I am making it up. ) I want to earn the experience badges. I wish I could do that as an adult, just because I think it would be fun to be recognized for bad puns. 

I am looking forward to the next volume and would recommend this to all ages but especially the 8 to 10 age range since I feel they would really enjoy embarking on a quest for Kitten Holy.   The art works well with the story and  does enough to keep the readers attention while passing out information like candy on Halloween.  Over all this was another brilliant pick from my husband. 

Iron West

I think that my Doug TenNapel collection is growing. I didn’t even know that I had a Doug TenNapel collection, until I started writing this and realized that I have composed several reviews on variety of his works. (Such as Cardboard, Flink & Ghostopolis to name a few of the graphic novels that I have previously sampled.) It seems that the more I read of Doug TenNapel the more I come to adore the way his brain works. 

I have noticed that in his stories that there is a belief in person that somewhere inside them is a good person, and that sometimes good people just make bad decisions. I like that.  Mostly because I want to believe that I am an innately good person that sometimes makes bad decisions. I also want to believe that people can change if they want really want to change. This latest Doug TenNapel find did not disappoint.

Iron West is a graphic novel by Doug TenNapel that highlights that sometimes life will take you on a weird path, but ultimately the path you choose is up to you. This tale of the old west may roam with Indians, Sasquatches, killer robots and the occasional wingless dragon, but overall it drives home that change comes from within.  The art and the characters are so much fun to follow, that by the time you are done with the book you can’t help but smile and marvel at what a good trip it was.