Tales from Outer Suburbia defies labels like graphic novel and even young adult, where its often categorized. Its a series of illustrated vignettes that revel in the absurd and magical.
1.Would you consider
Tales from Outer Suburbia to be a
graphic novel?
2.Who is Shaun Tan’s
audience?The stories have the whimsy of
children’s books but have themes too complex for younger minds.
3.What is the
meaning of “It’s a cultural thing” in “Eric?”
4.What were your
favorite and least favorite stories?
5.As an
artist/writer, do you think Tan’s drawings inspire his stories or the other way
around?
6.What is the point
of “Distant Rain?”Is Tan telling us
that our poetry/art should not be hidden from the world?
7.Are there any
overarching themes you sensed throughout the collection?What is “outer suburbia?”
8.Tan has said “I
don’t think I’ve ever painted an image as a reproduction of what I’m seeing,
even when I’m working in front of it. I’m always trying to create some kind of
parallel equivalent.”How does this
information inform your opinion of his work?Does this ring true with The
Arrival as well?
9.Tan’s Outer
Suburbia seems to be unfamiliar but safe.Conflict and harm are generally solved quickly and easily.Why?
Part of DC's rebooted New 52 series, Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl deals with physical and emotional baggage as she slowly but surely gets back into the cape and cowl. Gail Simone was famously fired then rehired on the title due to fan outcry.
1.In the bat-family
books, (Batwoman, Batgirl, Nightwing, etc) Batman tends to show up quite a lot
but these characters never show up in Batman
books.Why is that?Are these characters ultimately unnecessary
to the bat-universe?
2.In the last Batgirl arc before it was rebooted with
this volume, our titular heroine was shot in the spine and as a result became
wheelchair bound.How did you feel about
that being reversed in this book?Could
it have gone any other way?
3.The Catwoman reboot was panned for its
blatant tendency to draw the heroine half naked and in sexual poses.Does Batgirl
suffer the same fate?How does this
title measure up to other female superhero comics?
4.Some of the
bat-family titles are criticized because these heroes don’t have any
established villains like say, the Joker.Do you think Batgirl suffers
from this problem?
5.Simone was fired
from writing Batgirl then quickly
rehired after fan reaction in December.There is not much information as to why.Why do you think the decision was made?
6.You hear Batgirl’s
voice throughout the book as she is narrating.How do you feel about this storytelling style?How did it characterize her?
7.When Barbara
Gordon was wheelchair bound before, she was an information broker known as
Oracle.Why does Simone acknowledge the
injury but not the past identity?
8.Do you think the
best way for a female superhero to be decently written is for her to be written
by a female author?
9.When Simone was
fired from DC, she was looking into creator-owned material instead.Do you think it was a curse instead of a
blessing that she was put back on Batgirl?Do you think her creativity is best spent on
other comics?
RASL was Jeff Smith's first comic series after the hugely successful Bone. This series takes a darker turn with time traveling, science fiction, and noir elements.
1.Jeff Smith is best
known for his kid friendly cartoon epic Bone.How does RASL
differ from that series?
2.Judging from his
career arc from Bone to RASL, what's next for Jeff Smith?
3.The sexy premise
of the series: a noirish time travelling art thief, does not hold even far past
the first volume.Why is this premise so
quickly abandoned?
4.What is Jeff
Smith's deal with Nikola Tesla?Some
chapters were entirely devoted to the man.
5.What is the
importance of the super large pages of RASL?So many graphic novels adhere to a standard
size.Is the size an advantage of
self-publishing?
6.Jeff Smith took a
lot of time off after Bone and spent
time in a remote desert drawing sketches and pages for RASL.Did this extreme way
of finding a muse pay off, did it hinder the series?Smith also spent time in a forested U.S.
national park for Bone inspiration.
7.Smith took a year
studying string theory and the latest science in parallel dimensions before he
started RASL. Did he convey that understanding to his
readers in later volumes?
8.None of the
characters are terribly likeable.Is
this just an unavoidable flaw in noir stories?
9.Most of the female
characters in RASL are of little
consequence or are strippers or both.I
seem to recall Grandma Ben and Thorn were well written female characters in Bone.What happened?Is it an effort to
be “edgy?”
Ignition City is another entry in Warren Ellis' collection of space-themed graphic novels. This one in particular follows Mary Raven on a trip to Ignition City to investigate her father's death.
1. What do you think Warren Ellis’ inspiration for Ignition City was?
2. Ellis has a rather odd relationship with space travel as evidenced by another book club selection, Orbiter. What if any of his space madness did you feel came through in this graphic novel?
3. A few criticized Ignition City for its slow pace considering that it’s a limited five issue run. Your thoughts?
4. Female characters in comics: not often well portrayed. How did Mary Raven fare?
5. Everyone in Ignition City is bummed out all the time because its where “space heroes go to die.” What’s so great about space? Is post-space depression anything like PTSD or readjusting to civilian life in general?
6. Some say steampunk makes for such a compelling setting that its difficult for the story to thrive and ultimately be more compelling than its own world. Is this the case for Ignition City?
7. So many people in Ignition City want to abandon Earth and its Kharg-destroyed remnants to get back to space. Isn’t that just giving up? Why aren’t these people trying to better their own surroundings?
8. Was it ethical for the Marshal to keep Kharg alive in a compound “up North?” Did they really just keep him around to study tech they didn’t understand?
9. Ignition City is not going to be continued at least for the time being. Do you think the story is ripe for expansion? Would Mary have continued to kick vigilante ass as a marshal?
Here are our potential selections for upcoming graphic novel book clubs! Feel free to recommend any additional selections.
Hawkeye vol. 1 by Matt Fraction
The breakout star of this summer's blockbuster Avengers film, Clint Barton - aka
the self-made hero Hawkeye - fights for justice! With ex-Young Avenger Kate
Bishop by his side, he's out to prove himself as one of Earth's Mightiest
Heroes! SHIELD recruits Clint to intercept a packet of incriminating evidence -
before he becomes the most wanted man in the world. You won't believe what is on
The Tape! What is the Vagabond Code? Matt Fraction pens a Hawkeye thriller that
spans the globe...and the darkest parts of Hawkeye's mind. Barton and Bishop
mean double the Hawkeye and double the trouble...and stealing from the rich
never looked so good.
Sweet Tooth series by Jeff Lemire
A cross between Bambi and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, SWEET TOOTH tells the
story of Gus, a rare new breed of human/animal hybrid children, has been raised
in isolation following an inexplicable pandemic that struck a decade earlier.
Now, with the death of his father he's left to fend for himself . . . until he
meets a hulking drifter named Jepperd who promises to help him. Jepperd and Gus
set out on a post-apocalyptic journey into the devastated American landscape to
find 'The Preserve' a refuge for hybrids.
New School by Dash Shaw
In this brand new graphic novel from the acclaimed author of Bottomless
Belly Button and BodyWorld, Dash Shaw dramatizes the story of a
boy moving to an exotic country and his infatuation with an unfamiliar culture
that quickly shifts to disillusionment. A sense of “being different” grows to
alienation, until he angrily blames this once-enchanting land for his feelings
of isolation. All of this is told through the fantastical eyes of young Danny, a
boy growing up in the ’90s fed on dramatic adventure stories like Jurassic
Park and X-Men. Danny’s older brother, Luke, travels to a remote
island to teach English to the employees of ClockWorld, an ambitious new
amusement park that recreates historical events. When Luke doesn’t return after
two years, Danny travels to ClockWorld to convince Luke to return to America.
But Luke has made a new life, new family, and even a new personality for himself
on ClockWorld, rendering him almost unrecognizable to his own brother. Danny
comes of age as he explores the island, ClockWorld, and fights to bring his
brother home. New School is unlike anything in the history of the
comics medium: at once funny and deadly serious, easily readable while wildly
artistic, personal and political, familiar and completely new.
The Unwritten series by Mike Carey
Tom Taylor's life was screwed from go. His father created the Tommy Taylor
fantasy series, boy-wizard novels with popularity on par with Harry Potter. The
problem is Dad modeled the fictional epic so closely to Tom's real life that
fans are constantly comparing him to his counterpart, turning him into the
lamest variety of Z-level celebrity. In the final novel, it's even implied that
the fictional Tommy will crossover into the real world, giving delusional fans
more excuses to harass Tom.
When an enormous scandal reveals that Tom
might really be a boy-wizard made flesh, Tom comes into contact with a very
mysterious, very deadly group that's secretly kept tabs on him all his life.
Now, to protect his own life and discover the truth behind his origins, Tom will
travel the world, eventually finding himself at locations all featured on a very
special map -- one kept by the deadly group that charts places throughout world
history where fictions have impacted and tangibly shaped reality, those stories
ranging from famous literary works to folktales to pop culture. And in the
process of figuring out what it all means, Tom will find himself having to
figure out a huge conspiracy mystery that spans the entirety of the history of
fiction
Ed the Happy Clown by Chester Brown
In the late 1980s, the idiosyncratic Chester Brown (author of the
muchlauded Paying for It and Louis Riel) began writing the cult
classic comic book series Yummy Fur. Within its pages, he serialized the
groundbreaking Ed the Happy Clown, revealing a macabre universe of
parallel dimensions. Thanks to its wholly original yet disturbing story lines,
Ed set the stage for Brown to become a world-renowned cartoonist.
Ed the Happy Clown is a hallucinatory tale that functions
simultaneously as a dark roller-coaster ride of criminal activity and a scathing
condemnation of religious and political charlatanism. As the world around him
devolves into madness, the eponymous Ed escapes variously from a jealous
boyfriend, sewer monsters, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and a janitor with
a Jesus complex. Brown leaves us wondering, with every twist of the plot, just
how Ed will get out of this scrape.
The intimate, tangled world of Ed
the Happy Clown is definitively presented here, repackaged with a new
foreword by the author and an extensive notes section, and is, like every Brown
book, astonishingly perceptive about the zeitgeist of its
time.
Punk Rock Jesus by Sean Murphy
A reality TV show starring a clone of Jesus Christ causes chaos across the U.S.
of the near future in PUNK ROCK JESUS, a new graphic novel written and drawn by
Sean Murphy, the acclaimed illustrator of JOE THE BARBARIAN and
AMERICAN VAMPIRE.
J2 causes both outrage and adulation. Religious zealots
either love or hate the show, angry politicians worry about its influence on the
nation, and members of the scientific community fear the implications of cloning
a human being at all, let alone the Son of God.
Thomas McKael is the
clones's bodyguard and former IRA operative, who despite his turbulent past is
hired to protect the new Jesus—a baby who captivates the world, but grows up to
become an angry teenager.
When falling ratings force the network to cut
Jesus's mother from the series the young star runs away, renounces his
religious heritage and forms a punk rock band. And what starts off as
babysitting for Thomas becomes an epic battle, as Jesus goes to war against the
corporate media complex that created him.
John Constantine, Hellblazer vol. 1: Original Sins by Jamie
Delano
The very first Hellblazer collection ORIGINAL SINS is available in a new edition
that includes John
Constantine’s appearances in SWAMP THING. This is the first
of a series of new HELLBLAZER editions starring Vertigo’s longest running
antihero, John Constantine, England’s chain-smoking, low-rent magus.
This first collection is a loosely connected series of tales of John’s early
years where Constantine was at his best and at his worst, all at the same time.
The Manhattan Projects vol. 1 by Jonathan Hickman
What if the research and development department created to produce the first atomic bomb was a front for a series of other, more unusual, programs?
Collecting the coolest new series of the year into one super science package.
Our first new storyline is THE PRIVATE EYE, a forward-looking mystery we created with colorist Muntsa Vicente. Set in a future where privacy is considered a sacred right and everyone has a secret identity, The Private Eye is a serialized sci-fi detective story for mature readers.
NOTE: This graphic novel is digital only, if we select this, all book clubbers need consistent internet access, a tablet, or another form of computer to be able to read the comic.
Girl Genius Omnibus vol. 1: Agatha Awakens by Phil and Kaja Foglio
The Industrial Revolution has become all-out war! Mad Scientists, gifted
with the Spark of genius, unleash insane inventions on an unprepared Europe. For
centuries, the Heterodyne family of inventors kept the peace, but the last
Heterodyne disappeared twenty years ago, leaving their ally Baron Klaus
Wulfenbach to maintain order with his fleet of airships and army of unstoppable,
if not very bright, Jaeger Monsters.
At Transylvania Polygnostic University, Agatha Clay dreams of being a
scientist herself, but her trouble concentrating dooms her to be a lowly minion
at best. When her locket, a family heirloom, is stolen, Agatha shows signs of
having the Spark in a spectacular, destructive fashion and captures the
attention of the Baron—and the Baron’s handsome young son, Gilgamesh.
Swept up to the Baron's Airship City, Agatha finds herself in the midst of
the greatest minds of her generation, as well as palace intrigue, dashing
heroes, and an imperial cat. Agatha may be the most brilliant mind of her
generation and the key to control of the continent, but first, she just has to
survive.
One Soul by Ray Fawkes
Eighteen individuals throughout history whose entire lives unfold
simultaneously. Comprised entirely of double page spreads split into eighteen
panels with each panel featuring one character's life, cartoonist Ray Fawkes has
artfully crafted eighteen linear stories into one non-linear masterpiece.
Nominated for the 2012 Eisner Award in the "Graphic Album: New" category.
Stumptown vol. 1 by Greg Rucka
Dex is the proprietor of Stumptown Investigations, and a fairly talented
P.I. Unfortunately, she's less adept at throwing dice than solving cases. Her
recent streak has left her beyond broke - she's into the Confederated Tribes of
the Wind Coast for 18 large. But maybe Dex's luck is about to change. Sue-Lynne,
head of the Wind Coast's casino operation, will clear Dex' debt if she can
locate Sue-Lynne's missing granddaughter. But is this job Dex's way out of the
hole or a shove down one much much deeper?
Described by critics as A Game of Thrones meets Star Wars meets Romeo and Juliet Brian K. Vaughan's new series Saga tells a story of two lovers from warring factions who have brought a child into the world. They meet and overcome strangers and dangers in the unique fantasy/science fiction world in which they live.
1.Saga’s world can seem like a mishmash of
sci-fi and fantasy elements what with the Godzilla monsters and TV headed men
and wooden spaceships.Does it come
together as a cohesive and thought out setting?
2.What is
with the TV headed folks?Is there
symbolism there or is it weird for the sake of weird?
3.Saga is told from the perspective of
Marko and Alana’s child who points out at the end of one chapter that she will
be safe as long as she is with them.Doesn’t this remove the suspense of the story since you know they’ll
turn out okay?Why?
4.One of the
central conflicts of Saga is between
the “horns” and the “wings.”Is Vaughan
using this story as an anti-war and anti-racism mouthpiece or is there more to
it?
5.Does this
story deliver on the Star Wars meets Romeo and Juliet meets A Game of Thrones feel as early
reviewers deemed it?
6.Narration
has been considered an outdated storytelling technique in comics.Thought bubbles and narration hearken back to
the days of bad 90s X-Men
comics.How does Vaughan do with
narration in Saga?
7.What is
the significance of the cursive written narration in their juxtaposition with
pretty images?
8.Vaughan
chose to publish with Image because he can own the rights to Saga’s story and never have it turned
into a film or TV show or anything.Do
you agree with his thoughts that this story should say within comics
pages?What does this communicate about Y the Last Man’s struggles with film?
9.What do
you predict The Will might do in future issues?Team up with Marko and Alana?Hunt them mercilessly in a game of (lying) cat and mouse?
We were long overdue to read Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. A veritable cornucopia of favorable reviews and academic essays have been written on this highly literary memoir about a father and daughter's experiences with sexual identity, loss, and companionship. In the vein of the comic, here are some high-brow questions for you to consider:
1.
Alison Bechdel thanks her family for not “trying to stop her from
writing this book.” What effect do you think this had on the Bechdel
family? Why do you think Ms. Bechdel wrote it?
2.
The Bechdels are obviously an academic family, performing in plays and
reading the classics. Did you find the allusions to classic literature
jarring?
2b. Alison writes in reaction to the allusions: "I
employ these allusions to James and Fitzgerald not only as descriptive
devices, but because my parents are most real to me in fictional terms.
And perhaps my cool aesthetic distance itself does more to convey the
arctic climate of our family than any particular literary comparison."
3.
Did knowing the sexual identity confusion and emotional hardships that
Alison’s father Bruce went through justify his actions or his demeanor?
4. Do you think Bruce Bechdel committed suicide? Why?
5.
Alison and her father were inversions of each other, opposites. How
did this affect their relationship early in life and later in life?
6.
Alison questions if her own coming out was one of the factors leading
to her father’s suicide. She was open in her sexuality, he was clearly
closed. Do you think this was the case? What conflict would this have
caused?
7.
People found Alison’s reaction to her father’s death inappropriate.
Why couldn’t she mourn properly? What is proper mourning?
8.
Alison clearly used primary materials and even posed for each human
drawing for each panel in the entire book. What does this say about her
creative process?
9. Alison’s brush with OCD seemed to be the odd chapter out in the book. Why was this part included?
10. Did you find yourself asking “are people actually like this?” Do you think the Bechdel family are incredibly unique?
11. Bechdel is known for The Bechdel Test: a test that is used to “identify gender bias in fiction. A
work passes the test if it features at least two women who talk to each
other about something other than a man.” Many films and works of
literature do not pass the test. Does Fun Home?
12. The reality that Bruce Bechdel could have been accused and convicted of pedophilia and adultery seems to be glossed over. Why?
