Comic Mini-reviews for All || 4 books for you!

I know I’ve said these before, but I do really love mini-reviews! So I use them a lot. I also use the word ‘comics’ and ‘graphic novels’ interchangeably – like comics is in the post title and graphic novel in the excerpt. No reason, just because I want to. Enjoy!

Remember, just because I didn’t like the book, doesn’t mean you can’t.

Disclaimer: I received these e-arcs through Edelweiss, Netgalley, and the publishers in exchange for free and honest reviews. The featured image is also my own. The summary is my own (well, I summarised the Goodreads description). All opinions expressed are my own.

Title: Graveyard Wars 
Author: A.J. Lieberman, Andrew Sebastain Kwan (Illustrator)
Year Published: 2020
Publisher: Ablaze (Diamond Books)
Genre: Young Adult ~ Fantasy ~ Paranormal ~ Comics and Graphic Novels

Stars:

Links: Goodreads || The StoryGraph
Copy: E-arc

Near death experiences don’t usually come with new superpowers, right? Well, that’s what happens with Ethan Noble. His twin Carter, has no idea how to help him; but they soon realise everything they know is not what it seems.

This was my last read of August, like I finished this on the last day of August, sometime after midnight. I think I was watching Tarzan, actually. So maybe I was too into Tarzan to properly pay attention

I really thought the characters would have powers linked to death because it’s called Graveyard Wars so that’s where my line of thinking was. But actually they can just access people’s skills sets? So like, if you need a doctor right now, boom you know how to do open heart surgery, I guess. I didn’t understand some of the restrictions on their powers – like can they access ordinary people’s skill sets or is it limited to dead people who also had the ability (to access the skill sets)? Maybe that’ll be explained further down the line but I also don’t know if I’ll want to carry on with the series.

I realised (a couple of pages had passed) that there was a difference between 2 characters –  I thought like it was the same girl. but it was actually 2 different girls. Another thing I did have an issue with was it the wasn’t a lot of dialogue. so all I’m left with is stills of the characters instead of, say, narrative. With narrative, it makes it easier to follow the characters whereas with stills you have to sort of draw your own conclusion and I wasn’t really interested in doing that. Might’ve been a reason why I didn’t like it it as much as I was hoping I would.

Title: Middlewest, Book 1 (Issues #1- #6)
Author: Skottie Young, Jorge Corona (Contributor), Mike Huddleston (Contributor)
Year Published: 2019
Publisher: Image Comics
Genre: Young Adult ~ Fantasy ~ Comics and Graphic Novels

Stars:

Links: Goodreads || The StoryGraph
Copy: E-arc

Abel and his fox need to navigate the land after a frightening experience. With magic involved, and Abe’s dad after them, what will happen and where will Abel go?

Middlewest was an interesting little graphic novel and I understood like 10% of it. I thought it a bit weird that they just jump in with the fox? No explanations as to why he speaks or how he knows the main character. Does he even have a name? I don’t even know if I like the fox. He seems mysterious, as if he knows more than he’s letting on.

I did like the story – the main character was cute in that ‘pick him up and squish him type of way.’ The other characters were fun to read about – except his dad. He’s a bad dad. Unfortunately, nice graphics and fun characters aren’t enough. But I still want a fox.

Title: Blackbird
Author: Sam Humphries, Jen Bartel (Artist), Triona Farrell (Colourist)
Year Published: 2019
Publisher: image Comics
Genre: Young Adult ~ Comics and Graphic Novels ~ Fantasy 

Stars:

Links: Goodreads || The StoryGraph
Copy: E-arc

CW: drugs.

Nina Rodriguez knows the magical exists in Los Angeles. What she doesn’t know is how she can be a part of it. After her sister is taken by a giant beast, she finally has the chance to see, and maybe even use magic? Or will something else happen that takes her by total surprise?

The gorgeous graphics in this are the only reason why this is 2 stars and not 1. It was another confusing story and while I was interested in Nina, our main character, at first, that interest sort of fell away because (to me) she felt like she was constantly moving between emotions and character motivations a bit? And I’m not trying to sound like it’s Nina’s problem, because I think it was probably me that just didn’t connect with the characters. At all. 

As much as I didn’t connect with the characters, it was also the plot that really put me off. I felt that they just shoved us into the world in like, mid-season of the series and we’re forced to play catch-up with everything. 

I liked the magic they showed and definitely how the magic and magical characters were shown through the illustrations. Maybe if they had more focus on the magic, I would have been more into the book?

Title: The Avant-Guards, Vol 1 (Issues #1 – #4)
Author: Carly Usdin, Noah Hayes (Illustrator)
Year Published: 2019
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Genre: Young Adult ~ LGBTQ+ characters ~ Comics and Graphic Novels ~ Romance 

Stars:

Links: Goodreads || The StoryGraph
Copy: E-arc

Charlie, a new student at Georgia O’Keeffe College of Arts and Subtle Dramatics, doesn’t want to join the college’s basketball team when she’s asked. But will Liv, the enigmatic team captain and the rest of the team persuade her to join?

Ending the review off with a happy review! Avant-Guards is definitely one of my favourite graphic novels now and I’m wanting to read the other issues! I loved every aspect of this and enjoyed every minute I spent reading it.

The characters were so much fun and I wanted to read it again and again to spend more time with the characters. Or just have a cute animated series that’s just them being all cute and having fun team times. They all had such fun personalities and I just loved them all.

Olivia is adorable and I can definitely relate to her. While I could possibly count her as my favourite, the entire team are all my favourites. If you’re looking for a cast you could probably all love, then this is the book for you!

I usually like to write about three paragraphs for a mini-review. What about you? Are you also unhappy when a book looks like it’ll be good and then it turns out to not be so good? But luckily you do now and then get a good read! Have you read any of the books in this post? Come chat to me!