Ian Boothby

I went in intrigued, I was initially not necessarily feeling the art and the tone, but a couple of pages into the first issue I was hooked and the vibes were immaculate. This is what if Tia and Tamara from Sister Sister were Emily Strange and Sabrina the Teenage Witch with a little Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Cate and Kate are in the business of dealing with supernatural fuckery, specialising in reclaiming lost souls from The Pit and giving a demon or two a kicking for good measure. Their mum show more sold their soul when they were kids (family, amirite?!) or rather Cate's soul that took on a rebellious life of its own, Kate.

That's the premise. The style is classic comic in the tradition of Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Sabrina with a modern twist, which suits the irreverent and infectiously fun tone perfectly. They pop in and out of hell (and demon orifices [orifi?]), angels rain from the sky, shadows are going to wipe out all life. All standard fare for the teen spoopy storytime, but there's just something special and fun about the Exorsisters style.

This really is a testament to crafting something new and fun from familar parts. I absolutely need to read more! show less

A collection of comics based on the great, still-lamented TV show Futurama. Two of these I very much enjoyed, and thought had the classic Futurama feel. (Star Trek references! Math jokes! The Robot Devil!) Sadly, the other three were meh at best, and kind of lame at worst, although at least one of those had the virtue of being very short.

Sparks! by Ian Boothby is the amusing story about two cats, August and Charlie, who save people and thwart an alien invasion while operating a robotic dog-suit.

The story's narrator and "guy in the chair" for this duo of feline superheroes is a sentient litter box who offers the amusing refrain, "Just let me know if anyone needs to poop in me."

I really loved this graphic novel's goofy humor, which carries similar flavor to The Simpsons (unsurprising given that Boothby and illustrator Nina show more Matsumoto have been involved with creation of that long-running animated show).

But enjoyable as the goofy humor is, this story also has a serious element of overcoming your fears. August, the cat who invented the dog-suit, is afraid of the outdoors.

This title is sure to appeal to a broad age-range of readers. Brightly colorful, entertaining, fast-paced, it was a pleasure to read. show less

Also a goofy and fun science fiction graphic novel -- but this time it is narrated by a robotic litter box, and the mad scientist is a cat. The adventurous sidekick is also a cat. But they are dressed up in a dog suit and facing off against an alien mastermind disguised as a baby. Yep, ridiculous. Yep, good fun. Pain Pants!!!!!!