An exciting and thought-provoking compilation.
A brilliant, misunderstood girl with autism uses her impressive intelligence to protect her home from interdimensional intruders in Bennett and Martin’s debut YA comic collection.
Glamorella is a much-commercialized superhero whose powers include flight and superstrength. But this volume, collecting the first four issues of the L.P. Comics title of the same name, isn't about her; instead, the star is her young daughter, Comet, who has autism. She’s unfazed by her mother’s fame and spends time with her exuberant friend Isaac (who has superheroic aspirations of his own). Her challenges include social events, such as dances and birthday parties. In this story, Comet helps her father, “interspace” researcher Emmett Emeagwali, fix his computer code to shut down an interdimensional portal after Steve, one of his scientists, is yanked inside it. Steve is pulled into the dimension from which Emmett rescued Glamorella 13 years prior; it tuns out that Glamorella’s father, the king, wants Steve’s assistance in bringing her back. Steve manages to reopen the portal, and the king’s squirrel-shaped minion goes through it, captures Emmett, and takes him back to the faraway dimension. As Comet’s only remaining parent, Glamorella refuses to go through the portal to rescue Emmett. So Comet sneaks out and, aided by Isaac and her frenemy Betsy, breaks into Emmett’s facility in a bid to save him. Bennett and Martin subtly weave Comet’s autism into the story and intriguingly make her a latchkey kid of divorced parents, with a mom who can be called into action at any time and a dad’s who’s lost in his work. The book points out that having a superhero for a parent isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, and Bennett is unafraid to tackle other difficult subjects, as when Glamorella’s vile publicist warns her to keep Comet’s activities with Isaac, who’s undocumented, off of social media because “the optics are bad.” While gleefully employing such comic-book staples as monsters and other dimensions, Bennett gives plenty of substance to Comet’s everyday life.
An exciting and thought-provoking compilation.Pub Date: June 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-943988-34-1
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Literati Press Comics and Novels
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
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