Bionic - a Top Shelf graphic novel

I grew up watching both The Six-Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman (and always wondered why they put the price tag on the "man" but gave no value to the "woman" ... food for thought).  The idea of bionics fascinated me as a kid, and just the thought of having these extra abilities to run really fast, bend steel with your hands, and to see or hear at great distances - I spent hours playing make-believe that I had these abilities.  But, of course, those were only television shows and complete fiction.  At the time.  While we still don't have the "bionics" that were created in those shows, we do have artificial limbs and such that allow people to walk again, as well as hear, see, and other things that we would have never dreamed possible just a few decades ago.  So, when I saw a new graphic novel called Bionic advertised in the Previews some months back, my mind automatically returned to my childhood TV shows, and I ordered it thinking it would be along those lines.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Bionic is the creation of Koren Shadmi, and while I have never heard of Shadmi before, he apparently has done a number of graphic novels, including several biographical type tales of Bela Lugosi and Rod Serling, among others.  Bionic, though, is thoroughly fiction (science-fiction, at that).  It is the story of Victor, a young computer nerd who really, really, REALLY wants to go out with Patricia the beautiful young rich girl in his class.  But she is way out of his league, and the boy she is interested in is nothing but a bully - especially to Victor!  Patricia doesn't even notice Victor - not really.  But then, one day, everything changes.

Patricia is hit by a car, and she is out of school for weeks.  Victor visits her in the hospital, but she is unaware he is there.  When she does finally return to school, she is changed - drastically.  Patricia's father owns a company that works in bionics - and his daughter has now become the prime example of what his company can do for people injured in accidents!  While no one says it to her face, everyone - including her former best friends and her former boyfriend - thinks Patricia is a freak of nature.  But not Victor.  Victor still finds her beautiful, even more so now that she is half cyborg.  He finally gets the chance to be friends with her, because he is the only one to accept her for who she really is.  But that begs the question - who is Patricia?

Shadmi presents readers with a lot of ambiguity with regards to Patricia, some of the questions about which never get answered, leaving it up to the reader to decide for themselves.  Is Patricia's father truly using his own daughter for the benefit of his company?  Or is Patricia merely looking for more attention that she doesn't believe she is getting at home?  Is she using Victor only because he is willing to be seen with her, or does she need Victor because he's the only one who truly listens to her?  There are plenty of secrets that everyone is hiding within the story - Victor's father, Patricia's father, Patricia's friends, and even Victor himself as revealed in the final few panels of the story.  This is definitely not a story with a happy ending, but it is a tale that deals with the reality of relationships and real people, and how easy it is to see what we want to see in others, and how easily we judge others only what we see.

The art is rather stylistic - not the normal style that I would like, but the more I got into the story, the more it felt appropriate for the tale Shadmi was telling.  And the manner in which Shadmi tells the story through the art - the first six pages have absolutely no dialogue, and yet they set the tone for the entire story and even provide foreshadowing that the reader is completely unaware of until the final pages.  All of the characters are unique and provide representation of everyday people (instead of everyone being beautiful and buff as you see in most comics), and Shadmi has a way with his characters' expressions that make the reader truly feel what the character is feeling in each panel.  In this way, Shadmi draws the reader into the tale, so that you find yourself rooting for Victor through the entire book, only to have your heart broken right along with his by the end of the story.

Bionic was not at all what I was expecting, but it was definitely a story worth reading.

RATING:  8 Muddy Paws t-shirts out of 10 for showing the reality that sometimes flesh and blood can be much colder than hardened steel.

The Backstagers and the Final Blackout (Backstagers Book Three)

Author Andy Mientus (who is also an actor) concludes his trilogy of books based on The Backstagers comic by BOOM! Studios.  The first two books were a lot of fun, and this third book wraps up the adventures of these young backstagers as they try to prevent the theater artifacts from falling into the wrong hands.  It's always a joy for me to read books that combine more than just one of my loves - and in this instance, the combination of mystery, theater, and comic books pretty much cinches the fact that I'm going to love it!

The Backstagers and the Final Blackout brings our intrepid group of theater students face-to-face with the evil Thiasos Organization in a final battle over the theater artifacts.  Beckett and his merry band have safely stored the four artifacts they have recovered in a place that Thiasos can never find - or so they thought!  So, what happens when a masked stranger not only finds them, but manages to break through the defenses in place and steal all four of them, with the help of his own two artifacts that he has in hand?  The backstagers quickly realize that means there is only one artifact left the Thiasos Organization does now have: the Show Bible!  It then becomes a race against time to find the Show Bible before the enemy does, because if they don't, life as they know it will be changed forever!

Of course, Mientus does not make it easy on our heroes - Beckett is struggling to balance his work with the backstagers with his time with Bailey (his girlfriend), who has no idea the secrets he is keeping.  Meanwhile, Jamie and Timothy are preparing to graduate, which means final exams, choosing the right college, and passing the torch.  Sasha is growing more confused about his Genius and what it means for him and how to understand what it can tell him, and Hunter is beginning to question whether fighting for all of these artifacts is truly worth the cost.  Despite these personal dramas, though, they manage to follow the clues to locate the Show Bible (which includes a fun-tastic trip through a number of show-themed tests that really put our heroes through the ringer and force them to embrace the talents they all possess!) - but just as they think they have it, the Thiasos Organization shows up and takes it out from under them!

Anyone that has ever been in the theater knows - there is always way more drama going on behind the scenes than there actually is on the stage!  And Mientus definitely captures the truth of that statement in this final part of the Backstagers' battle for the theater artifacts.  The climactic battle with the Thiasos Organization reveals a dark plan that not even the members of the organization realize the full extent to which it will change reality as they know it, but it also reveals a traitor from the backstagers' own school!  Ultimately, one of the backstagers makes a huge sacrifice to save everyone, and it requires all of the skill, knowledge, and quick-thinking on the part of Beckett and his friends to save their own being possessed by a theater god for all eternity!

When I first saw Mientus as the Pied Piper on CW's The Flash, I did not know at the time that he had a background in theater and that, years later, I'd be reading and enjoying books that he wrote.  Mientus is a multi-talented man who has shared his love of the theater and writing with fans like me, and for that, I thank him profusely!  And because of these books, I'm on my way to check out The Backstagers comic from BOOM! Studios (which, by the way, happens to be drawn by Rian Sygh, the very same person who provided the art in all three of Mientus' books!).

With this trilogy concluded, I'm left wondering - just what will Mientus surprise us with next?

RATING:  9 trails of candy out of 10 for providing an all-ages story that combines theater, supernatural, mystery, drama, and romance in a tale that is fun and engaging and can be enjoyed by everyone!

Nancy Business - the second Nancy Drew-Inspired Mystery

"...we don't listen to what we're told to believe. Like Nancy Drew, we investigate and we find out the truth ourselves."  (Nancy Business, p. 354).  I think this one line from R.W.R. McDonald's latest book pretty much sums up "the Nancys," the unlikely amateur detective trio of young Tippy and her Uncle Pike and his better-half, Devon, who are determined to follow in the footsteps of their favorite fictional sleuth and prove to everyone that they have what it takes to solve the mysteries that even the police get wrong!  It's hard to believe Nancy Business, the follow-up to McDonald's very first book, The Nancys, is only his second published novel!  The plotting, the characterization, the mystery, the fabulous fun, the crazy climaxes - one would think McDonald was a seasoned writer with hundreds of published works under his belt already!

Nancy Business picks up four months later, as Spring is just around the corner.  It has been one year since Tippy's father died following a mysterious car accident, and Uncle Pike and Devon are back in town to honor the occasion - and to begin working on the new home they purchased there in Riverstone!  (Of course, it is the same house where Devon found a rather grotesque surprise in the freezer in the last book, so needless to say, there is PLENTY of redecorating going on in that house!)  While the house is being renovated, Pike and Devon are staying in a rented house, and Tippy is going to spend her vacation with them.  The rental, though, turns out to be anything but what they expected - but their distaste of the look and smell of the place suddenly take a back seat when an explosion rocks entire house!  They can see a large cloud of smoke from downtown - and Tippy takes off running, because it's coming from right where her mother works at the hospital!

 

And so begins the latest Nancys' adventure - but it's not really a "whodunnit?" but more of a "whydunnit?"  The police have video footage from local businesses that show the local florist delivered the bomb, which not only killed him, but the wife of a councilman and severely injured a police woman who appeared on the scene after a call was made warning of the bomb.  The townhall is destroyed, the famous founding tree is now gone, and the lives of those in Riverstone will never be the same.  But something isn't right - because everyone Tippy and her uncles speak to say that Mr. Tulips was a nice man, and no one can imagine him doing such a thing.  So, that begs the question - why did he do it?  Or did he do it ... ?  Tippy is anxious to get to work and solve the mystery surrounding this bombing, but it's not as easy as she thinks, since she has so much working against her ...

- her mother cannot find out what is going on, or she will put a stop to it

- Pike and Devon seem to be having problems, and when they separate, it seems to Tippy that might spell the end of the Nancys

- Lorraine still holds a grudge against Tippy for telling her that her fiance was gay, so she won't help them

- Hornblower is trying to weasel his way back into Pike's life

But the worst possible thing happens when Tippy finds out a horrific truth about her father's death - and the fact that everyone around her, including her beloved uncles, have been lying to her all this time!  Can the Nancys put all of their personal troubles aside in time to solve the mystery behind the bombing and prevent a second bomb from destroying the Riverstone Bridge?

McDonald provides readers with a superbly plotted mystery that also strengthens the characterizations for all of the main cast, providing room for growth in the characters in a natural progression.  The humor is still there - plenty of innuendos, plenty of sassy sarcasm, plenty of double entendres.  McDonald made me laugh, he made me cry, he made me cheer, and he made me anxious, on the edge of my seat - Nancy Business is a roller coaster ride of fun, mystery, danger, love, betrayal, lies, secrets, and most importantly, family!  And that big revelation about Tippy's father?  Well, as I suspected from the first mention of his death in the first book, it appears there is more to that than what it seems.  And judging from the end of this book, the next book is going to explore that mystery (which may ultimately reveal a connection between everything that has been going on in Riverstone!).

 

Oh, and what would a book about amateur detectives who love Nancy Drew be without some great Nancy Drew references?  Like the fact that Uncle Pike and Devon's blue twin-cat ute rental is "[l]ike Nancy Drew's roadster" (p. 7) ... like Tippy wishing her mom were a lawyer like Carson Drew - "He had the best clients with lots of interesting cases" (p. 12) ... like the fact that Nancy and her lawyer dad were well off, and so Nancy did not need to get paid for her work (p. 84) ... like the reference to the bomb in the mailbox from The Clue in the Whistling Bagpipes (p. 91) ...  or the car bomb in The Haunted Showboat (p. 92) ... like the reference to Nancy's books, where the cops were not smart, but they were never the villains (p. 98) ... or the all-so-true observation that the villains in Nancy's books were "usually ugly and rude, with terrible clothes and bad make-up" (p. 100) ... and even a reference to the Nancys' favorite Nancy Drew TV series (p. 109) ... as well as Nathan Gomber (p. 122).  And let's not forget the reference to The Clue in the Velvet Mask and Devon's confusion about George (p. 135)!  And those are just the tip of the iceberg!  McDonald certainly provides Nancy Drew fans with plenty of reason to love this book for more than just the well-written mystery!

The Nancys have definitely become my favorite all-time mystery-solving trio, and I hope and pray they stick around for a long time to come!

RATING:  10 stinky, noisy, rattly Air-BNBs out of 10 for keeping the Nancys in business and sharing their fantastic adventures with the world!

Bob Powell's Complete CAVE GIRL - the hardcover collected edition

Honestly, I had never heard of Cave Girl until I happened across the hardcover collection edition for sale on Amazon while looking for other things.  Now, it used to be, I had no interest in the old "jungle" comics of the golden and early silver age.  Characters like Sheena, Nyoka, Lorna, Shanna, and the like never really caught my attention (which, you would think is odd, since I've always been attracted to the female characters in comic books ever since I started reading them way back in 1979...).  However, in recent years, I've found a sudden appreciation for the older comics geared towards females - the old romance comics, the nursing comics, and more recently - the girls of the jungle comics.  So, I added this to my Amazon watch-list, and as chance would have it, the book was given to me as a Christmas gift this past year (from someone who obviously keeps an eye on my wish list!).

Bob Powell's Complete Cave Girl is a beautifully bound hardcover collection of all of the character's appearances - from her first appearance in the Magazine Enterprise ("ME") title, Thun'da, to her solo bak-up stories in that same book, to her own four-issue series self-titled Cave Girl, to her final appearance in a one-shot title called Africa: Thrilling Land of Mystery.  Cave Girl has a total of twenty-one (21) stories in all, which is not a lot when you think about how long comics have been around and how many appearances characters like Nyoka, Sheena, Shanna, and the such have made over the decades.  Yet, it seems that Bob Powell's character made quite an impression at the time, and after reading this collection of stories, I can certainly see why.

The character of Cave Girl was introduced in Thun'da issue 2 (1952), in a story titled "The Ape God of Kor."  The story stars Thun'da and Pha, who stumble across a young woman who is fighting to escape to clutches of a cruel high priest.  Thun'da helps her, but in so doing, he gets captured and forced to fight in an arena against three large sabretooth tigers!  At the last moment, the young cave girl swoops in and speaks the language of the tigers to save Thun'da's life.  Together, they defeat the high priest and escape to their lives in the jungle.  I love the fact that in just seven pages, a complete story from beginning to end is told with plenty of excitement and danger, as well as the uncomplicated introduction of Cave Girl.  What is interesting to note is that Cave Girl never introduces herself to Thun'da and Pha anywhere in the story.  In fact, the only reason the reader knows her name is that the narrator refers to her as simply "Cave Girl" in the captions.  Other than the fact that she lives in the jungle is able to speak the language of the animals in the jungle, and she is referred to as "Cave Girl," there is absolutely nothing about who she is, where she comes from, or how she came to be Cave Girl.  And, quite honestly, that's okay.  Back then, it was not necessary to have a 6-issue, drawn out origin story that gives every minute detail of how a character came to be.  This seven page story is more than sufficient to introduce readers to Cave Girl and whet their appetites for more adventures of this jungle queen!

Cave Girl appeared as back-up stories in the next four issues of Thun'da before striking out in her own magazine.  In two 6-page tales and two 7-page tales, readers follow the exploits of Cave Girl as she defeats a vicious man who aims to steal from the people of the jungle (and meets anthropologist Alan Perkins; reveals the truth about a shadow god to the suspicious natives of the jungle; outwits three criminals determined to get past her and steal the gold hidden in the jungle; and aids the smaller than average pygmy, Bobo, in his quest to rescue his beloved's mate.

In 1953, a year after she first appeared, Cave Girl graduated into her own comic magazine - which lasted a whole four issue (two being published in '53 and the last two being published in '54).  Oddly enough, the issues were numbered 11, 12, 13, and 14 rather than 1, 2, 3 and 4.  And it is in that first issue of Cave Girl (or issue 11, if you must) that readers finally learn the origin of Cave Girl and how she came to live in the jungle.  An expeditioner and his wife are exploring the depths of the jungle, with their little blond-haired daughter, Carol, in tow.  When natives attack, the parents are killed, but poor Carol is swooped off by a giant eagle to its nest, where a wolf attacks and kills the eagle.  Thinking the wolf is nothing more than a dog that saved her, young Carol befriends the wolf, who takes her to his pack - and thus, the beginning of Cave Girl's life in the jungle, learning the language of the animals around her and picking up the skills of the natives who live here and there around her.  Flash-forward to the present, where a millionaire, with his young guide Luke Hardin, are seeking the fabled fountain of youth.  They find it, and the millionaire shoots Luke, hoping to keep the location a secret.  But the only secret he discovers is that the fountain of youth does more than pull back the years - it takes its drinker back to beyond when he was born, so that he no longer exists!

The four issues of Cave Girl provide readers with 14 exciting adventures of the jungle adventuress, beautifully drawn by the super-talented Bob Powell.  Cave Girl's trademark tiger-striped animal-skin mini-dress barely keeps her covered, and Powell's scenes of Cave Girl bathing in the ponds and rivers certainly must have been titillating to the readers of yester-year when these first came out.  Powell doesn't shy away from depicting the violence and death that jungle has to offer, and many times, the villains in the stories do not make it out alive!  By today's standards of sex and violence, these stories properly seem rather tame; but when you consider the stories were published in the early 1950s, just before the whole Seduction of the Innocent fiasco, it sheds a whole new light on just how risque these stories really are!

The final book in this collection is Africa, Thrilling Land of Mystery issue 1, published in 1955.  This featured the last three stories of Cave Girl, and according to Powell expert Ed Lane (writing in Alter Ego #66, March 2007), "should have been Cave Girl #15 but was released with a new logo."  The cover of Africa features the huge "Approved by the Comics Code Authority" stamped next to the logo, and so the stories inside feature a Cave Girl who is much more modest, less bloody violence, and no sex appeal whatsoever.  However, the stories are just as thrilling and adventurous as her previous appearances, and as Cave Girl says in the final panel of that last story in that issue, "Good! Then my jungle world will be at peace for a long time!"  Little did she know that the "peace" would last for more sixty years until Dark Horse/Kitchen Sink would re-publish these stories of old.

While there is a part of me that would love to see new stories of Cave Girl, there's a part of me that wants to keep her in the past.  If she were revived in today's comic market, she would either be overly sexualized or would be caught up in the drawn-out storytelling of today's writers and artists.  The only way I could see her coming back successfully, while remaining true to her character, is if an independent published picked up the rights and told stories in the same vein as these in this collection - three or four short stories in each issue, with self-contained stories (barring one or two subplots that might carry from one story to the next once in a while).  But, since I don't really see that happening, I will be content to enjoy these stories of the past, where Cave Girl could be the jungle queen she was meant to be!

RATING:  10 plastic-rubber skull masks out of 10 for preserving the stories and art of the good girl comics of the past for readers of today to enjoy!

Diana and the Island of No Return - The First of the Wonder Woman Adventures

Not too long ago, DC Comics published a young reader graphic novel featuring a child Diana (who would grow up to be Wonder Woman), and I thoroughly enjoyed it. More recently, the Wonder Woman comic published monthly by DC Comics has added back-up stories featuring a young Diana that have been in the same vein as the graphic novel, and they have been fun to read. Now, Random House has published the start of a series of novels, the Wonder Woman Adventures, which feature a twelve-year old Princess Diana who is desperate to begin training, so she can be a strong, fierce Amazon like all of her sisters.  And author Aisha Saeed gives readers a fantastic first adventure that sets Diana's course to become the greatest Amazon of them all!

Diana and the Island of No Return finds young Diana awaiting the arrival of her friend, Princess Sakina, for the Chara festival, which is one of the rare times visitors are ever allowed on Themyscira.  Soon, Sakina, along with hundreds of others, arrive for the festivities.  What none of them realize is that one of the boats carries a stowaway - and the young boy who dares to come to this island paradise will set in motion a chain of events that will take Diana, Sakina, and the boy Augustus away from Themyscira to the island where the chariots of the gods are created - an island that is now being controlled by a demon - the very demon who sent Augustus to Themyscira to bring back the young princess Diana!

Saeed tells a wonderful little tale of friendship, trust, honor, strength, and determination.  Diana so desperately wants to be an Amazon warrior, but her mother, the Queen, refuses to allow her to train. But when all of the Amazons are put under a spell, Diana and her friend, Sakina, must leave Themyscira with Augustus to his home island, where they must find a way to defeat a demon whose goal is to capture Diana and take him to whomever "he" is that hired him.  And to even get to the demon, Diana and her friends must face countless dangers on an island now filled with traps, face off against the islanders - Augustus' own people! - without hurting the mind-controlled people, and overcome a villain that can take over one's mind simply by speaking to them!  Sounds easy, right?  Well, for a grown-up Diana who has her full powers and the knowledge and skills of decades of training, sure.  But for a youthful young princess who has yet to train and who does not even know the full extent of who she is or what she can do - let's just say, it's going to be an uphill battle - literally!

While I do take some exception with a lot of the current slang and American phrases used by Diana, Sakina, and Augustus (where would these three even learn of these phrases), overall the story is thoroughly enjoyable and definitely keeps the reader's attention from beginning to end.  And Saeed certainly captures the essence of who Wonder Woman is - even if she isn't quite a woman yet.  This is the type of story that DC needs to take heed of - a character-driven tale that features an big baddie that must be defeated, seemingly overwhelming odds, a lot of innocents in danger, a huge climactic battle, a few tricks and surprises along the way, and a lesson learned by everyone by the end of the story.  This is what comic books used to be.  The stories do not need to be uber-dark and violent to be exceptionally written and fun to read.

Plus, it's obvious that Saeed is planting seeds for future stories - such as, who is the "he" that hired the demon to capture Diana?  Who wants her so badly?  What is trying to escape Doom's Doorway under the island?  And will Diana discover the truth about her newly discovered abilities that allowed her to climb the side of a mountain and break metal bands as if they were nothing?  I guess we will have to wait for book two, and other future books, to discover the answers to these questions.

I can't end this post without talking about the beautiful cover to this book. The fantastic cover art is provided by Alessia Trunfio.  I'm unfamiliar with the name, but her rendition of a young Diana standing at the edge of the island, the tumultuous waves of the ocean crashing down before her as lightning strikes in the background - the scene is so alive, you can almost feel the wind, hear the waves and the crackle of electricity.  I would definitely love to see Trunfio do more Wonder Woman art - it's a shame she was not permitted to do any internal illustrations for the book.  That is probably the only thing that could make this book more perfect than what it already is!

RATING:  9 gamma gazelles out of 10 for a superbly written Wonder Woman story of young Diana's pre-Wonder Woman days!

Haunted Heroine - Book Four of the Heroine Complex

When Sarah Kuhn began this series, it was the story of Evie Tanaka and how she came to terms with becoming a superhero.  When the second book came out (which was a surprise, since I didn't realize this was going to be a series when I bought the first one!), Kuhn shared the story of Aveda Jupiter, Evie's best friend and crime-fighting partner.  Then, when the third book came out (which, needless to say, had me over-the-moon excited), Kuhn gave us the chance to get to know Evie's kid sister, Bea Tanaka, as she faced some of her own demons.  Now, as we settle in to Kuhn's fourth book in this wonderful series, Team Tanaka/Jupiter faces a whole bunch of new unknowns from both the present and the past!

Haunted Heroine brings Evie back to a college life she thought she left behind years ago.  But when she gets invited to visit the college she dropped out of so many years ago, Aveda sees this as the break Evie needs from everything going on in her life - in particular, her pregnancy!  With the tension growing between Evie and Nate (her husband and father to her child), Evie agrees, even though she is curious as to why she got invited back to a college from which she did not graduate.  Before she gets the chance to find out, though, a ghost attacks a student, and Evie steps in to save the day!  The provost of the college then reveals to Evie and Aveda that this is not the first supernatural attack on campus, and knowing of their recent triumphs against the demons popping up all over San Francisco, she asks the two of them to go undercover to protect the students and perhaps find the source of the supernatural attacks.  An opportunity to live out the college days they never had, plus solve a supernatural mystery?  How could they pass this up?!

I have to give Kuhn credit - each of her books is fresh and unique.  Even though the characters and some of the underlying plotlines are ongoing, each book manages to have not only its own individual story, but also its own "feel," for lack of a better word.  From self-discovery in the first book, to realization in the second book, to recovery in the third book, now we get some plain, good old-fashioned supernatural mystery fun.  Who are the ghosts haunted the halls of Morgan College?  Why are the haunting the school?  And what has caused them to go from merely roaming the halls to actually interacting with the students, sometimes in the most aggressive of ways?  Are they truly ghosts, or could they be demons that have somehow found a new portal across the bay from San Francisco?  Aveda can't wait to find out, but Evie is more concerned about how she is going to deal with the fact she must face the professor that she had a teacher/student affair with all those years ago - a man who made her feel less than what she was while taking advantage of her the whole time.

Kuhn introduces a whole new world of characters at Morgan College - Julie, Pippa, Shelby, Tess, Jocelyn, Victoria, Miriam, Lenora, Richard, Gloria, not to mention Madeline, Clementine, and the perky little bartender at the college party!  Each and every one of them breathe so much life into the story, it's not hard at all to get caught up in the drama that is their lives.  The problem is, each of them is harboring secrets - things they don't want others to know.  And as Evie and Aveda (or Eliza and Angelica, Teachers' Assistants, as they are known to the students at the college) dig deeper into what is going on at the school, they find that all of those secrets lead to some very deadly plans and a few unexpected surprises for both our superhero pair and the reader!

Now, I'm going to say up front there was one aspect of the book that annoyed me a little bit - not going to go into detail, but let's just say that it felt a bit like pandering to some current events in the real world today (and at times, it caused a bit of confusion to me as the reader).  However, that small tidbit certainly did not take away any of my enjoyment of the story.  Kuhn has a superb way of making her characters real - their dialogue, their actions, their responses and feelings - they all weave together to make believable characters that you can easily identify with in a very unbelievable world that you only wish you could live in!

And the only reason I'm still so excited after having finished this fourth Heroine novel is because I've already seen on Amazon that a fifth book is on its way!  Already counting the days...

RATING:  8 cups of supernaturally spiked punch out of 10 for giving us a superhero soap opera with a fun supernatural mystery to spice things up!

Nancy Drew Diaries, No. 22 - A Capitol Crime

It took a bit of trying, but I finally got the latest Nancy Drew Diaries.  I'm not sure if it's simply the lack of sales, or the lack of promotion and/or marketing, or simply a declining market in actual books (versus digital books), but it seems Barnes & Noble does not keep up with any of the continuing series that is not what they deem a "big name" (such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Harry Potter or any other hit of the week/month/year that is making a big splash for the moment).  As a kid, book stores had shelves and shelves of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books - now, Barnes & Noble barely carries one or two Hardy Boys books, and the Nancy Drew books take up less than half of one shelf (if that much).  A Capitol Crime, the twenty-second Nancy Drew Diaries book had a street date of May 25, 2021; yet, my Barnes & Noble didn't get it in until May 27th, and even then, they only got one copy.  A friend in Massachusetts said his B&N also only got one copy.  For a series that is nearing its 95th anniversary in just four more years - and has her own television show on the CW right now - and had a semi-successful movie come out a year or so ago - one would think the publisher would really be trying to cross-market all of this.  Instead, we barely see her books on the shelves any more.  Such a shame...

While the last series, Nancy Drew: Girl Detective, did not sit well with fans, this latest incarnation has been a step in the right direction.  The plots have finally moved away from sabotage of the week stories and have taken Nancy back to her roots - haunted houses, kidnappings, stolen items, etc.  For a while, the titles were reminiscent of the original series, utilizing "Secret" or "Mystery" or "Clue" in the titles.  Even the length of the stories has expanded, allowing for a bit more characterization and build up for the mysteries.  And while the Nancy on the covers may appear a bit younger than long-time fans are used to, at least we are getting cover art again, rather than clip art or live model images.  That is not to say, however, the series is perfect.

The mystery in A Capital Crime hits close to home for Nancy - her father has disappeared while at a legal convention in Washington, D.C.  And when she, Bess, and George head up to the nation's capitol to see if they can find him, they only discover it is worse than they originally thought - he has been kidnapped!  Nancy and her friends immediately start investigating - combing through Mr. Drew's hotel room, talking to Mr. Drew's friends at the convention, and hacking into the hotel's security system to view video footage of the day he disappeared.  Then they find his phone.  And a tie clip.  And just when they don't now where to turn next, they get a phone call from a woman - who claims to have Nancy's father!

Now, there is an incident at the beginning, when Nancy and her friends first arrive in D.C. that tips readers off to the reason Mr. Drew was kidnapped, but it's not until Nancy comes face-to-face with her father than the reader learns the mystery is not really about the kidnapping at all!  Instead, Nancy, Bess and George must work overtime to solve a year-old mystery involving a theft of diamonds rings at a jewelry store in Maryland!  The person who pled guilty to the crime may not be guilty at all, and Nancy must prove his innocence in order to help her father.

The plot is actually well thought out, and there are plenty of red herrings and misleading clues that take Nancy (and the reader!) in the wrong direction.  However, along the way, Nancy and her friends do some things that might be a stretch, even for Nancy Drew.  Numerous times, Nancy and her friends pretend to be other people so they can sneak into hotel rooms, obtain phone numbers and addresses, interview suspects.  But the incident that tops everything is when Bess and George distract the front desk officer at the police station so that Nancy can sneak into the records room - and not only does she lie to an officer out front, she also compounds the lie to the detective that stops her on her way to the records room, and more so when she lies to the records clerk to get past her and into the files!  Those lies catch up to her pretty quickly, and she is forced to escape through a window in the records room and run away from the police (who, oddly enough, do nothing further when she evades their grasp after breaking into the police records room!) - and all of this because Nancy, Bess, and George realize the Maryland police may not be as willing to share information with her the way the River Heights police do!  Breaking and entering to obtain clues is one thing, but breaking into a police station and lying to police officers to get access to their records takes Nancy's criminal activities to a whole new level!

Aside from that, the first chapter of the book features a number of proper name items that I'm surprised to see in a Nancy Drew book, since it could easily date the book at some point in the future.  George references Instagram, while Nancy is called out for playing Words With Friends with Ned.  Nancy also references Car and Driver magazine with regard to a case she was helping the River Heights police to solve, and Bess picks the film To All the Boys I've Loved Before for the girls to watch on their sleepover at Nancy's house.  In the past, authors have always been somewhat vague about magazine or movie names; but it seems recently, Simon & Schuster has allowed authors to be a bit more direct with named items in the books.

Oh, and let's not forget the mention on page 144 of George's "full name," Georgia.  

Overall, the story was a good read, and I rather enjoyed it.  With the exception of book 20, The Vanishing Statue, the series has been presenting some pretty good mysteries, and I hope they keep heading in this direction.  Oddly enough, instead of promo-ing the next title on the back of this book, there is only a promo of A Nancy Drew Christmas, the oversized special which came out in 2019.  At first, I was worried that perhaps we had reached the end of this series, but thankfully, that is not the case.  The next two titles, The Blue Lady of Coffin Hall (#23) and Captain Stone's Revenge (#24), are set to come out in 2022, So Nancy Drew appears to be sticking around.  For another year, at least...

RATING:  8 cups of chocolate/peanut butter swirl fro yo out of 10 for letting Nancy take readers on a semi-tour of the nation's capitol while solving a well-plotted mystery!

Mary Perkins, On Stage - Volume Three

After more than a year since reading volume two, I figured it was time to delve back into the world of everyone's favorite actress of yesteryear - Mary Perkins, On Stage!  As I was reading this third volume, it hit me - I am so glad that I'm reading these for the first time in these collected editions, because I don't know if I would have had the patience to wait day after day for each three to four panel episode (not counting the larger Sunday episodes) to reach a conclusion of one story and move on to the next.  I realize I do that very thing with General Hospital (as I also did with Passions, Santa Barbara, and All My Children back in the day...); but at least with the television shows, you get a full hour (well, 40 minutes or so) of story - with only three panels a day, you can't move the story at too fast of a pace without making it not worth the effort.  However, in this collected format, I have the opportunity to get the entire story in one reading without having to wait for just a small snippet of the story each day!

Volume Three of Mary Perkins, On Stage features strips from April 20, 1959 to June 12, 1960 (just a little over a year's worth of stories). This volume features an introduction by Joe Jusko, who is a rather famous artist in his own right, his art having graced covers of Conan and Vampirella, among others.  I enjoy these introductions, because it's great to see how Leonard Starr's daily comic strip inspired other creators.  Like Jusko, I much prefer comic art that is more realistic, rather than a lot of the stylized art that we see in today's comics and cartoons where people barely even look like people.  Jusko correctly points out that Starr's art in On Stage showcased "facial expressions and body language [that] was flawless, projecting every emotion accurately and precisely, and the hair styles and clothing were always current and age-appropriate." (Introduction, p. 4)  And like Jusko, I assumed Starr must have been extremely familiar with the theater world based on the detail and descriptions in his stories, but was very surprised to discover that Starr was not at all comfortable with the material he was writing!  That definitely speaks volumes about this man's writing and artistic talents!

 

As to the storylines in volume three, we pick up right where volume two left off - the ghost on the set of "The Dryden Ghost" has been exposed, and now Mary, along the cast and crew, are headed to France where the film has been entered into the Riviera Film Festival.  Only, so has a film starring Oola LaBelle, who is so beautiful and sultry that her lack of acting skills are always overlooked.  Oola, however, is afraid Mary may steal her spotlight, so her agent does everything in his power to keep Mary out of the way - including leading Mary to believe he can reunite her with her true love, Pete Fletcher, who has been a political prisoner in a foreign country for too long now.  Of course, things always have a way of working out for Mary, so not only does her film win in the festival, but she also learns that Pete will be released in just six months!

Starr always manages to end one story with a lead-in to the next big adventure, and as fate would have it, Mary has been offered a part in a play by the famous playwright, George Geeper.  The only thing is, Cara Wayde has also been offered a part - to play Mary's sister in the new production!  And Cara Wayde is an unscrupulous egomaniac who will do just about anything to ensure the play is all about her.  An accident gives Cara the ammunition she needs to put Mary under her thumb and endear herself to the playwright, and before you know it, rewrites are happening on a regular basis that increase Cara's stage time and reduces Mary's lines to nearly none at all!

By the end of that production, Mary has lost her voice, so she is sent off to a private cabin in the countryside to recuperate - which, coincidentally enough, her next story begins!  This is a fun little caper that has nothing to do with acting and everything to do with horrible dog trainer who has been abusing the animals - and one in particular is a famous dog that Mary easily recognizes and does everything she can to protect him from his vicious owner.  And as Mary successfully sees Coppy placed in a loving home, Pete Fletcher receives his passport and is released, ready to be returned to the States.

The next story finally sees Pete and Mary reunited in Switzerland, where they finally get married (in a beautifully rendered Sunday edition), despite some concerns the doctors have regarding Pete's memory lapse and his unusual fear of nurses.  Of course, as with any soap opera, happiness is never to last long, and soon enough it is revealed that Pete is already married - to a woman who was his nurse while he was held captive!  Until the truth is fully uncovered, Mary is forced to live separate from Mary - which is when she happens to be swept off her feet (literally!) by good ol' Johnny Q!  He, of course, helps her discover the truth about Anya Kapek, and it all culminates in an explosive battle.

Mary and Pete return to the States, where Mary finds herself a guest on Bud Birdie show - but the host is anything but confident, and he seems to be always nervous, fearful that he will not be loved and well received.  Even his co-star, Tex McPrairie, and his announcer, Carl, can't seem to ever soothe Bud's nerves when it comes to making sure his show is a success.  Circumstances lead to Mary becoming a permanent guest star on the show, but backstage, something else is going on - someone is leaking stories to the press that are not true, and it seems to Mary that someone is trying to ruin Bud Birdie!

The final tale finds Mary starting a new play, where she will be a substitute teacher in a school filled with tough students.  What she doesn't expect is to find a couple of real tough kids who sneak into the auditions to avoid being caught by the police.  Mary's heart feels for the two boys, so she convinces the director to bring them into the cast in the hopes they can offer authenticity.  Chino and Tom readily agree, since it means a paycheck.  Chino seems to be a natural, quickly learning lines; but Tom has a bit more hesitancy and freezes when it comes his turn to speak or act.  But you can't always take the trouble out of the boys, as Mary and Pete soon learn, and the two boys ultimately have to make choices that will determine their futures - but will they choose right?

And as this volume comes to a close, it ends with a Sunday spread that hints of things to come - Mary receives a call from Pete's editor at "View" magazine with an urgent message for her husband; and at the same time, an elderly woman has shown up on the set, responding to the advertisement for a wardrobe mistress.  How will these events play out?  Guess we'll have to wait for volume four!

I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating - Starr's art is absolutely magnificent.  His backgrounds are so detailed, so exact, that the reader feels like he or she is actually right there with Mary and her friends - whether it's the streets of New York City, or the newly furnished apartment for the Fletchers, or the countryside outside the cabin where Mary convalesces, or the backstage of her latest play - Starr provides the most minute details to make each panel as real as possible, and this, I believe, is in large part what led to the success of this strip for so many years!

RATING:  10 leftover steaks out of 10 for providing a thoroughly enjoyable ongoing drama that is engaging, beautifully drawn, and exciting as it is fun!

An Ordinary Boy - a novel by Brian Centrone

I happen to know Brian Centrone through a mutual collecting group that we belong to on Facebook - we both happen to be fans of children's mystery series, in particular, Nancy Drew. And, as a fellow series book fan, I was thrilled to find out that Brian was an author himself.  So, when I discovered that he had some books out there, I jumped at the chance to read one of them.  Brian sent me one of his books, which he graciously autographed for me - the only problem is, it appears to have taken me three years to finally read the book!  (I did not realize this until I looked at his inscription, which he dated 2018!)  As such, I feel bad about sitting on the book for so long, and hopefully, he will forgive me this VERY late review of his work!

An Ordinary Boy is, quite frankly, an ordinary story about ordinary situations faced by a freshman in college who discovers that life is anything but ordinary.  Which, as it turns out, made this book most extraordinary!  I don't know many authors who can take a year in the life of their character and create an impact not just in his fictional character's life, but also in that of the reader.  But Centrone manages to capture that moment of transition from boyhood to manhood and bring it to life in a way that so many of us have experienced yet never dared to share.  An Ordinary Boy is a tale that many of us have experienced, and it allows the reader to identify with not just the main character, but also a number of the supporting cast, as well.

Tom Grove is anything but an "ordinary" boy. Tom is from a rich family.  Tom is used to dressing in the best styles.  Tom is good looking.  Tom has just taken it for granted that things come easy.  Tom is planning to become an attorney, just like his father.  Simply put, Tom is very spoiled.  The one thing Tom is missing is a boyfriend.  He knows he is gay, and it is something he has managed to keep a secret from his perfect family.  For Tom, going to college is finally going to be his chance to be himself, live his own life, and be free to express his homosexuality.  Only, Tom has no idea what a sheltered life he has lived - but he quickly finds out.

College is not full of hot, gay men just waiting for him to appear on the scene.  In fact, when he goes to a meeting of the gay & lesbian club on campus, he is shocked to discover that the members of the club are not all Adonises with perfectly chiseled bodies, coiffured hair, and name brand clothes.  Rather, they are what people might consider the outcasts - overweight, skinny, off-the-rack clothes, piercings, and just about anything else that would send his mother into cardiac arrest if she saw.  Tom's roommate turns out to be great looking, intelligent, and athletic - but he's straight.  So, what is Tom to do?

Centrone provides a rather interesting coming-out tale that addresses more than just Tom's coming out to his family and friends; rather, it takes on with full force the preconceived notions that people - both gay and straight - have about gay people, about class status, and about what lies beneath it all.  Honestly, I did not like Tom Grove at all as I read the book - he is judgmental, critical, snobbish, and extremely selfish and needy.  But, then again, he is a product of having been raised with that attitude, and by the end of the book, the reader realizes that the whole story is addressing that very issue.  The very thing that Tom has been looking for was right in front of him the whole time, and all he needed to do was get past his own biases and judgments.

It's funny - in most books, the reader is supposed to be drawn to the protagonist, and we are supposed to sympathize with, or identify with, the main character.  In An Ordinary Boy, I found myself more honestly identifying with some of those outcasts that Tom and so many others at the university were critical of - and Centrone definitely hit the nail on the head with the way the self-proclaimed "queens on campus" looked down on, made fun of, and basically ostracized the members of the gay & lesbian club who did not have the proper "look" to be accepted as a part of the gay clique.  Such an accurate representation of the hypocritical nature of the gay society - cry out for equality and representation, but then within their own circles, consistently discriminate and demoralize those who don't "fit the mold," so to speak.

When Brian sent me the book, he included a little note that apologized for any errors in the book (such as spelling and grammar), as this was published by an indy company, which did not necessarily have the best editors.  Yet, upon finishing the book, I can honestly say there were fewer errors in this book than in many mainstream books on the market today (I just finished reading a book the other day that came out this year from Berkley Publishing, and it had nearly 5x as many spelling errors as this book did!).

The one drawback on the book were the explicitness of the sexual encounters.  It is one problem I have with so many of the gay books on the market - there seems to be this misguided belief that in order to sell a book to the gay readership, it has to include explicit sex.  I disagree.  While erotica may have its place in the market, I think exceptionally good stories marketed to gay readers can do well without the explicit and graphic descriptions.  Perhaps I am in the minority in that thinking, but when I sit down to read a mystery, an adventure, or simply a "day-in-the-life" story like this, I'm not interested in reading porn - a sexual encounter can have a much stronger impact by being less explicit - less is more, as they say.

Anyway, the overall story was a good read, and I honestly wouldn't mind reading a sequel that reveals more about Tom, Darren, Isaac, and the others from this book.  Perhaps an ordinary boy could become an extraordinary man!

RATING:  7 Vera Wang wedding dresses out of 10 for shattering the impossible expectations and misconceptions about gay college life and revealing the realities of human nature.