MK Reed

The title character is a practical and dull 26-year-old woman who is stuck in a rut, floating from temp job to temp job during the day and becoming a shut-in at night. A chance encounter with a couple of sketchy dudes making an independent, no-budget slasher movie may give Penny one last chance at finding a life. There are no big surprises here except how relatable Penny is, how delightful the other characters are, and how much I enjoyed hanging with all of them.

This sort of reminds me of show more Young Frances, another graphic novel about a twentysomething trying to make her way in the world that I also liked a lot. I'm also a fan of Reed's Americus. show less

The Library Board of the town of Americus, Oklahoma must deal with a book banning controversy. The popular young adult fantasy series, The Chronicles of Apathea Ravenchilde, has come under attack by a group who claim the books are “Satanist recruitment manuals” that promote anti-Christian values. The organizing mother, whose childrearing technique is “You kids better stop thinking on your own and start listening to what I tell you,” catches her fourteen-year-old son reading one and show more promptly packs him up and sends him off to church camp followed by military school. But first she takes the offensive book back to the library and tears it up in front of the librarian.

While this attempted censorship provides the main source of conflict in the story, the background to it is the stifling conformity of middle school, high school, and small town life. The worst sort of majority rule whose active agents shore up their own opinions and sense of self-worth by making it their duty to inflict ridicule and abuse on anyone perceived by them to be different, whether they be readers of fantasy fiction, fans of punk rock, gays, girls who take shop class, or make their own dresses. It’s against this current of conformity that the characters of Reed and Hill’s work must swim. show less

This graphic novel gets four stars for two very simple reasons:

1) The illustrative work in this book is adorable, and fits with the story just perfectly.
2) It's about real relationships between both friends and couples. Which is refreshing!

Jane is a bundle of hilarity and opinions. She's a skater girl at heart, and totally pissed about the fact that she isn't taken seriously in the hobby that she loves. Girls are only there to look pretty, right? They love sparkles, and ponies, and want to show more have a million babies with sexy, smoldering vampyre boyfriends... right? Never say any of that to Jane, unless you're willing to fend off the scathing, wholly intelligent remarks that will come flying out of her mouth. I love this girl.

Jack is a messy, funny, sweetheart who just so happens to be a layabout as well. His current job is working at a soup cart which, as he puts it, is the best job ever because you always get free soup! He's so darn adorable. His whole persona screams "I don't quite have my shit together yet, but I'm honest and sweet". Jack is just too much fun to follow.

Put these two together, and you have fun and kooky banter for days. I loved how this graphic novel doesn't shy away from the fact that we're all major dorks sometimes. Yes, sometimes we say stupid things when we're nervous. Yes, we are all flawed in some way but there's always someone to compliment those flaws. Jane and Jack aren't a "perfect couple" persay, but they definitely fit together like a puzzle.

Hilariously, my favorite part of this whole story was the titular group "The Cute Girl Network". A network of women who are ready and willing to dish all the hateful gossip on a guy to any girl who might want to date him. I don't want to spoil, but watching Jane deal with this was so much fun! I couldn't get enough of the fact that these characters point out so many things that are fundamentally wrong with the way people think "good boyfriends" should act. *wipes a tear* Love it.

This is getting lengthy, so I'll quit typing. Suffice it to say that this was a fun, dysfunctional look into how two people can fit together so perfectly, flaws and all. I adored it. show less

This book is part of an entire series of Science Comics. I particularly like this one, because it not only gives very good information about the prehistoric lives of dinosaurs, it also shares a lot of great stories about the early years of paleontology as a scientific discipline, covering everything from the important but unrecognized women in the field, such as Mary Anning, to the craziness of the Bone Wars between Marsh and Cope. While it was written for children, the hilarious stories and show more colorful artwork make this a joy to read at any age.

Recommended to anyone who like dinosaurs, crazy science history, and bright colors. show less