A selection of September graphic novels

The Old Guard 3 books by Greg Rucka with art by Leandro Fernandez (2017-2021) 481 pages

Book One: Opening Fire This brought back some memories of watching the movie on Netflix in 2020. A bit gory, but fast paced. Obviously you can read at a slower pace, but I feel like the story doesn't dwell too long on any one thing and keeps the action moving forward. Good job quickly establishing each character.

Book Two: Force Multiplied I really liked this continuation of the story. Andy's flashbacks, the introduction of Noriko, and Booker still being outcast from the group are solid plot elements. Themes of human trafficking and slavery, and whether the immortals work to make the world a better place or cynically view human life with little value are written well by Rucka. I think the art is as good as in the first volume.

Tales Through Time Book 1 Mixed bag. Many writers and artists get to play in different time periods with the Old Guard characters. I liked most of the short stories, but some are less impressive in building the world.

1177 B.C.: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline with art by Glynnis Fawkes (2024) 256 pages

Adapted from a prose history book. Very detailed exploration of archeological findings surrounding the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean. Fawkes, the artist, injects funny asides and jokes throughout. This is not for a casual graphic novel reader. Only take a look if you are really interested in archeology or this time period.

Now Let Me Fly: A Portrait of Eugene Bullard by Ronald Wimberly with art by Brahm Revel (2023) 322 pages

Fascinating! And left open-ended for a possible second book illustrating Eugene Bullard's life after WWI. From inside the front cover flap, "Brahm Revel's clear and kinetic art captures moments from Bullard's life with remarkable empathy." The writing is strong too from the framing device to flashbacks in the Jim Crow South and escape to Europe. There is a great kinetic energy to the story. This covers Eugene's childhood, his many odd jobs as a young man, and serving in the French army during WWI. He became the first Black fighter pilot in WWI. I'm finding I really enjoy the quality of everything from publisher First Second.

Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani (2017) 176 pages

For Pri, her mother's homeland, India, can only exist in her imagination. Quick read. I like the story structure and the mix of magic and realism. I wish it was more detailed. Since it is aimed at teens, the shorter length feels a bit rushed. The art is great using both monochrome and color like the Wizard of Oz, except the one Uncle looks like a bobble-head.

Daytripper by Fabio Moon with art by Gabriel Ba (2011) 256 pages

Nonlinear in the best way. Bras is an obit writer for a Brazilian newspaper. Learning of peoples' lives at the point of their death seems like a directionless job for a writer rather than a chance to explore profound themes. Or is it?! The writer and artist, twin brothers, speculate about the choices we make using Bras' life. In diverging timelines, what does Bras' life look like if he died at 32, 21, 28, 41, at 11, 33, 38, 47, or 76. His family and one friend, named Jorge, remain fairly constant. The brothers delve into so much beauty and suffering associated with life by building plots around different unexpected deaths. It is deep and subtle storytelling, keenly felt and at times surreal.

Here

Here by Richard McGuire (2014) 304 pages

The new film Here by Robert Zemeckis starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright is based on this graphic novel. With such big stars the narrative thread must be more consistent and traditional, but I am still curious to see how it is adapted. This graphic novel is quite abstract with a "camera" view that does not move, but the time period depicted does jump wildly forward and backwards in time. It only gives you glimpses, often in small windows, into the broad stretch of time. We see ancient prehistory, history when no house is in the foreground, nearly the whole twentieth century history in the house that might be the main character, and speculation about our near future. There are some mini stories that are sequential over several pages: siblings sharing a joke, archeologists hoping to find relics on the property, Ben Franklin's family in a colonial house "across the street," a painter from the 1870s, and the building of the house in the foreground. After climate catastrophe, I especially loved the virtual tech imagined a couple centuries into our future. Following the time stamps is a nice mental puzzle, but I think the point is more to see the commonalities of how humans act and react to each other.
 

A God in Ruins / Kate Atkinson 468 pp.

Kate Atkinson's writing is so good it makes me want to jump up and down cheering like a sports fan.  She has a fluid, immersive quality that engages me completely in a way few novelists do.  That quality is especially evident here in the story of  Teddy Todd, the brother of Life after Life's Ursula Todd.  His story begins between the wars and lasts into our current century, with an important chunk spent piloting Halifax bombers over Germany during the war.  But Atkinson shows us the story with linear time fractured (she uses the word fractals in the novel) into kaleidoscopic bits.  We see key moments in Teddy's life as he might remember them himself - one thought leading to another, back and forth through time.  Far from being confusing, this works beautifully in Atkinson's skilled hands, as though there were no better way to write a novel.
And if that weren't enough, in Teddy Atkinson has given us a wonderful 20th century man and an almost lovable character.  His decency towards the men in his command, his wife, daughter, and grandchildren is practically sexy.  While he and his wife don't have a bad romance, they do have an intriguing one.