The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
- Slaved by the bell at Morning Glories Academy
- All about kids action in House of Secrets
- Fine wine, fine lines
| Slaved by the bell at Morning Glories Academy Posted: 14 Jun 2013 08:21 AM PDT Think you have it tough at school? Be thankful you don't go to the Morning Glories Academy. ALL-AMERICAN girl Casey Blevins thinks she has made it big, after being accepted at one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country, the Morning Glory Academy. Waving goodbye to her family, Casey travels all the way to the academy, where she meets five other students – mean girl Zoe, geeky but sincere Hunter, spoilt rich kid Ike, emo kid Jade, and Jun, the jock of few words. She soon discovers, amazingly, that all of them share the same birthday, which proves to be the least of the mysteries at this school. Soon Casey and her friends, the "Glories", will find themselves fighting for their lives and freedom as they face a neverending ride of family secrets, time travel and sinister conspiracies which include a mysterious group conducting human sacrifices, revolutionaries from other schools launching attacks, and mysterious disappearances at night. The academy claims that everything happening here is for the creation of a better future. But a future for whom, and at what cost? Published by Image Comics, Morning Glories is written by Nick Spencer (Action Comics, Iron Man 2.0, Ultimate Comics: X-Men), with art by Joe Eisma (Dynamo 5, Notorious), and cover art by Rodin Esquejo (Avengers Academy, Iron Man). The first 25 issues of the series have been compiled into four trade paperback collections – For A Better Future (Vol.1), All Will be Free (Vol.2), P.E. (Vol.3), and Truants (Vol.4). Morning Glories is a gripping series, packed with twists and turns at every corner, and more mysteries than the dark side of the moon. The series has been described as The Prisoner set in a boarding school, and Runaways meets Lost. It is also ridiculously addictive. Anything and everything can happen in Morning Glories Academy. Readers face exploding booby traps, murderous ghosts, sinister conspiracies and cold-blooded murder – all this in only the first issue. Spencer definitely has a gift for storytelling, as every issue is filled with sharp writing, hilarious dialogue and intriguing plot complications. The strongest part of Morning Glories, however, is undoubtedly its characters. Spencer takes classic high school archetypes and turns then into compelling personalities with fascinating backstories. The socially inept Hunter is endearing, while Zoe, who will do anything she can to succeed, is a brilliant character. Pampered brat Ike is particularly enjoyable to read about – indeed, we reckon he even deserves his own spin-off series. How can you not love a kid who shows up at the funeral of a loved one on a party bus filled with strippers? Morning Glories is also not averse to killing off characters – a major fan favourite bites it before the first 20 issues, in a rather visceral twist ending. Eisma's art is striking and visually pleasing, although his female characters tend to be a little bland. Some of his characters can also be difficult to tell apart (Irina and Aikiko could pass for twins), and one main character, Zoe, is supposed to be Indian-American, but you'd never be able to tell from the way he draws her. For all its similarities to Lost, it is perhaps fitting that Morning Glories' main weakness is the same as the cult TV show's, which was occasionally weighed down by its own mysteries. The ongoing series is into its 27th issue already, and the students (and the readers) are still no closer to figuring out what the heck is going on at the academy than they were in the first issue. Thankfully, Spencer does seem to be consistently moving the series towards a definite conclusion (unlike Lost, where it often felt as if the show was making things up as it went along). The journey there can sometimes be frustrating though, owing to the dozens of mysteries that spring up along the way. Biblical imagery seems to play a huge role in the story as well, so it will be interesting to see how it all comes together in the end. Morning Glories certainly starts strong, and does a great job keeping readers hooked. With the series set to eventually end with its 100th issue, here's hoping it manages to keep the momentum going all the way to the end. The graphic novels reviewed today, Morning Glories and The Initiates, are available at Kinokuniya bookstore, Suria KLCC. For further enquiries, call 03-21648133 / e-mail ebd3kbm@kinokuniya.co.jp /visit kinokuniya.com/my. |
| All about kids action in House of Secrets Posted: 14 Jun 2013 08:23 AM PDT Three siblings get sucked into a fictional world of mashed-up books where they must find a tome of great power in order to get back home. House of Secrets IT'S kind of hard to escape cinematic comparisons when one of the co-authors of this book is a well-known Hollywood director and producer. Co-written by Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter movies (which probably explains the "rah-rah" blurb by Potter author J.K. Rowling), and young adult fiction author and television writer Ned Vizzini, the House of Secrets reminded me in passing of the movies Jumanji (1995) and Zathura (2005) – both coincidentally also based on children's books. It has the classic "group of young kids getting thrown into a fantastical situation" plot, while having to battle an evil presence, which forces them into moral dilemmas that they have to overcome (or not). Come to think of it, Columbus also wrote the screenplay for the popular 1985 kid's action adventure comedy The Goonies, which exudes a similar vibe, storywise. Now, if this sounds a bit too "been there, done that" to you, then let me assure you that the book is really quite an entertaining and absorbing read, due to its fast-paced action. We meet the Walker family as they are about to view a potential new home. The family isn't in the best of circumstances after father and surgeon Dr Jake Walker recently lost his job and is being sued for blacking out and carving a strange symbol on his patient's abdomen one day during surgery. With most of their money going to their father's legal defence, the Walkers have to downsize from their comfortable upper middle-class lifestyle, which includes finding a new place to live. So, things seem almost too good to be true when they are informed that the magnificent and historical Kristoff House, situated in an exclusive neighbourhood overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge (in San Francisco) is for sale, lock, stock and barrel, for a fraction of its worth. Never mind that the Walker children – 15-year-old Cordelia, 12-year-old Brendan and Eleanor, eight – all experience a rather eerie moment when they first enter the grounds, and Brendan actually has a frightening encounter with a threatening old crone. Naturally, the Walkers buy the house and move in straight away. A bad move, I hear you say? Definitely, because on their very first night, the old crone, who turns out to be the evil Wind Witch, as well as the daughter of mysterious writer and original owner of the house Denver Kristoff, shows up and tries to destroy them all. In the process, the Walker siblings get thrown into an alternate world that seems to be a mash-up of some of Kristoff's books. The only way out is for them to fulfil the Wind Witch's command to find and give her The Book of Doom and Desire – a seductive tome of great power. It doesn't help that the main way to find the book is by giving in to their "selfish desires" (can you say "moral dilemma"?). Along the way, they encounter several of Kristoff's fictional characters, including World War I fighter pilot Will Draper, a gang of ruthless warriors and a ship of evil pirates. They also discover more about Kristoff House, which is transported with them into the alternate fictional world. Now, the best thing about this book is the fast-paced action and realistic sibling dynamic between the three young Walkers. The short chapters and good descriptions are also likely to make it a more appealing read to tweens and teens with shorter attention spans. There are however, some rather vividly scary descriptions in the story, including one of a room full of bones that come alive, so parents of kids with overactive imaginations might want be aware of this. It might come as no surprise to find out that this book actually started life as a movie script. For some reason, the authors also made the characters do some quite stupid things, like, for example, Brendan blowing up a grenade "just because". And the ending was just a bit too neat for belief. I was also not a fan of the book's deckle-edge. But these are mere eye-rolling minor annoyances than full-blown thorns-under-the-skin irritants in my opinion. House of Secrets is by no means a great read but it is an entertaining one. I would recommend it for younger readers (tweens upwards) who enjoy action-filled adventure stories. And for those who really enjoy it, you will be glad to know that it is the first in a planned series, so you will be reading more about the Walker siblings. |
| Posted: 14 Jun 2013 03:03 AM PDT STOP me if you've heard this one: a cartoonist and a winemaker walk into a room and decide to exchange jobs… Actually, this isn't a joke. This is the premise of The Initiates, a book by French cartoonist Étienne Davodeau. Davodeau is a cartoonist who doesn't know much about the world of winemaking, while Richard Leroy is an artisanal winemaker who has never read a single comic book or graphic novel in his 50 years of life. One day, Davodeau decides to approach Leroy to propose an experiment to see how different (or similar) their chosen industries are, and to see what it is about each man's chosen profession that makes him want to devote his entire life to it. So it is that Davodeau goes to work in Leroy's vineyards and cellar, and in return the winemaker explores the world of comics – and over the course of slightly more than a year, the two manage to get in each other's way, open and sample a lot of wine, prune many vines, draw a few lines, read a lot of comic books, visit art exhibitions, and travel around meeting famous winemakers and comic artists. The result is a fascinating representation of both professions, one that is both educational yet entertaining, and which ultimately proves that even though they are in different indistries, their passion, aspirations and goals may not be so different after all. Now, although it says, "A comic artist and a wine artisan exchange jobs" on the cover, this description is rather misleading. Although it would have been pretty amusing to read about a clueless comic artist taking over operations at a vinery and screwing up an entire season's harvest while an artistically-challenged winemaker documented the process in a comic populated with stick figures, The Initiates isn't about that at all. In fact, their so-called "exchanging of jobs" is more like an mutual internship, with one man guiding the other along and educating him about the virtues and processes of his chosen field. It was the wine-making part of the book that fascinated me the most – after all, since I live in a country where wine-making is not exactly a common occupation, it was fascinating to learn about how wine is made, especially in such an easy-to-understand format. Davodeau's venture into Leroy's wine-making business gives a comprehensive yet remarkably simple insight into how Leroy makes his wine. Granted, this is from the point of view of a small artisanal winemaker (as opposed to a larger producer), but if anything, this gave the winemaking part of the book a lot more charm and character. Davodeau also manages to capture the personality and character of the winemaker perfectly – from the many times Leroy scoffs at an inferior bottle of wine (at one point he decides to drink water rather than spoil his appetite with a bad wine), to the way he orders the artist around in the vineyard, this is as much a character analysis of the winemaker himself as the wine he makes. At the same time, the French artist's attempts to educate Leroy on the virtues of comics are equally fascinating, though reading about the duo going to printing presses and art exhibitions somehow paled in comparison to their excursions to the beautiful vineyards so beautifully sketched by Davodeau. To his credit, Davodeau does his best to express the virtues of his chosen profession – Moebius, Watchmen, Maus and The Photographer are some of the critically acclaimed names and titles he brings up, and the two of them even pay visits to some famous French comic artists such as Emmanuel Guibert (The Photographer) and Marc-Antoine Matthieu (Museum Vaults) so Leroy can learn more about how the comic artist's mind ticks. That The Initiates works so well is all thanks to Davodeau's beautifully simple yet remarkably detailed black-and-white artwork. He is not only adept at turning otherwise wordy technical expositions into wonderful gems of information, he also manages to weave his characters' personalities and eccentricities (yes, even his own!) into the story in such a way that the reader is never bored, even when the book delves into the more technical subjects such as biodynamic wine or printing press proofs. The Initiates is a rare breed of graphic novel – categorised under "graphic novel/nonfiction/wine making/comic art", it takes a unique approach in introducing the reader to two vastly different professions, and is a fascinatingly entertaining yet educational read that goes a long way towards proving that even the most technical and maybe boring subjects can be rendered fun and entertaining when depicted in a graphic novel format. |
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