No Guns Life 1 by Tasuku Karasuma

 From the publisher:Ex-soldier Juzo Inui has one question—who turned him into a cyborg and erased his memories?

After the war, cyborg soldiers known as the Extended were discharged. Juzo Inui is one of them, a man whose body was transformed, his head replaced with a giant gun. With no memory of his previous life—or who replaced his head and why—Inui now scratches out a living in the dark streets of the city as a Resolver, taking on cases involving the Extended.

When a fellow Extended showed up in Inui’s office—on the run from the Security Bureau with a kidnapped child in tow and asking for help—Inui almost throws the guy out. But Inui’s loyalty to a brother Extended makes him take the job. Keeping the child safe won’t be easy, since everyone wants him, from the mob to the megacorporation Berühren, which sends out a special agent who knows exactly how to deal with the Extended… 

Want a story about a faceless loner warrior who helps a child with mysterious powers, but you're already caught up on The Mandalorian? Then No Guns Life might be just the manga for you!

Juzo Inui is a cyborg soldier who was modified so much that even his head was replaced with a gun (how does he see, you ask? It's a mystery!). Now that the war is over, he makes a living helping out others like himself, living on the fringe of society. Then one day a fellow Extended shows up with an unconscious child in tow and security agents on his tail, asking Juzo for help. Against his better judgment Juzo takes the case and goes on the run with the child, pursued by agents of the Berühren corporation who say he's their property. When the boy wakes up, Juzo understands immediately why Berühren wants him back so badly...

No Guns Life mixes a sort of noir detective story into a dystopian cyberpunk world, but in a signature manga style. The result is a dark, gritty, and action-filled mystery that's also sometimes humorous. For example, after a confrontation in a sewer, Juzo quips "This is why I hate humidity -- and kids." Some of the enemies Juzo encounters just in the first issue are a secret agent dressed as a nun, and a cyborg girl whose body can transform into a giant mechanical spider. Between the heavily stylized cybernetics and the black and white art style, the action can sometimes be a bit hard to follow. But I found the characters and setting compelling enough to make up for it.

This review is for the first issue, but Galesburg Public Library has issues 1 through 4 available in our graphic novel collection.

Bloodlust & Bonnets by Emily McGovern

From the creator of the hit webcomic My Life As a Background Slytherin comes a hilarious graphic novel pastiche of classic Romantic literature led by a trio of

queer misfits—and several angry vampires.
Set in early nineteenth-century Britain, Bloodlust & Bonnets follows Lucy, an unworldly debutante who desires a life of passion and intrigue—qualities which earn her the attention of Lady Violet Travesty, the leader of a local vampire cult.
 But before Lucy can embark on her new life of vampiric debauchery, she finds herself unexpectedly thrown together with the flamboyant poet Lord Byron (“from books!”) and a mysterious bounty-hunter named Sham. The unlikely trio lie, flirt, fight, and manipulate each other as they make their way across Britain, disrupting society balls, slaying vampires, and making every effort not to betray their feelings to each other as their personal and romantic lives become increasingly entangled.

I spied this graphic novel whilst walking through the library and was immediately drawn to it. In the initial flip-through, the third page opens with the heroine Lucy declaring to the group of men approaching her ‘Gentlemen, I do hope you like honey, for I have a bee in my bonnet’ while removing said chapeau and charging towards them with upraised sword.

I was hooked. 

The book follows Lucy’s battlefield meeting of Lord Byron, their journey to his magical castle (in Scotland), and encountering the bounty-hunter Sham (who perhaps has a secret agenda). The trio travels through woods, ballrooms, baths, Bath, wine cellars, and gentlemen’s clubs as they pursue the vampiric Lady Violet Travesty.

With a distinctive art style and biting (ha) wit, B&B is a both a love letter to and parody of the Romantic literature genre. I absolutely adored this book. At the moment I’m trying to minimize physical books coming into my possession, due to a lack of shelf space. Upon finishing it, I immediately put B&B on my wish list and strongly hinted to my husband that he should purchase it for my upcoming birthday. 

Also, in the course of researching this review, I discovered that the real Lord Byron really did use curling papers in his hair at night. 

You can find Bloodlust & Bonnets in the graphic novel section under the author's last name McGovern

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Genres: Graphic Novels, Young Adult
Release Date: September 5th, 2006

Publisher: First Second
Source: Checked out from GPL

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All Jin Wang wants is to fit in. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he's the only Chinese American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, and he has hardly any friends. Then, to make matters worse, he falls in love with an all-American girl...

Born to rule over all the monkeys in the world, the story of the Monkey King is one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables. Adored by his subjects, master of the arts of kung-fu, he is the most powerful monkey on earth. But the Monkey King doesn't want to be a monkey. He wants to be hailed as a god...

Chin-Kee is the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, and he's ruining his cousin Danny's life. Danny's a popular kid at school, but every year Chin-Kee comes to visit, and every year Danny has to transfer to a new school to escape the shame. This year, though, things quickly go from bad to worse...

I was in 8^th grade when I first read American Born Chinese. I loved it but re-reading this book took my love to a whole new level.  So what prompted this re-read you ask? Well, I was reading The Arrival, another great graphic novel, for one of my classes and then suddenly, I remembered ABC. I remembered the yellowness of the cover and I remembered the way the author weaved together 3 completely different stories in such a surprising way and then I wanted to re-read the book. I wanted to experience it from a more ‘grown up’ perspective.

I kind of want to make re-reading the book an annual thing for myself now because I have so much love for it. American Born Chinese deals with cultural identity, bullying, stereotypes and learning to love who YOU are.

Jin Wang moves from China Town, San Francisco to a school where he is the only Chinese-American kid in his class. The teacher basically gets his entire life story wrong on the first day and makes it evident to him how much he sticks out. As the years go by, he seems to become more and more self-conscious of all the stereotypes surrounding his culture and how that affects the way people view him. 

His story runs parallel to the Monkey King's and the two stories interact in such interesting ways! Of course everything about this book is interesting to me but we won’t go down that rabbit hole.

So do I recommend this book? HECK YEAH I DO! Also if you’re a fan of Fresh off the Boat, this book would be a great read.

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

Genres: Superpowers, Graphic Novels, Young Adult
Release Date: May 12th, 2015

Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Checked out book from GPL

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Nemeses! Dragons! Science! Symbolism! All these and more await in this brilliantly subversive, sharply irreverent epic from Noelle Stevenson. Featuring an exclusive epilogue not seen in the web comic, along with bonus conceptual sketches and revised pages throughout, this gorgeous full-color graphic novel is perfect for the legions of fans of the web comic and is sure to win Noelle many new ones.

Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks they are.

But as small acts of mischief escalate into a vicious battle, Lord Blackheart realizes that Nimona's powers are as murky and mysterious as her past. And her unpredictable wild side might be more dangerous than he is willing to admit. 

I only really started hearing about Nimona a couple months before its release. I didn’t even know about the webcomics so when I dove into Nimona, all I knew was that it was a very hyped book and had even been nominated for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. That is HIGH praise but I was more curious than scared. And really, I had no need to be scared because Nimona was just as amazing as everyone said it was.

Nimona is the new sidekick for an infamous supervillain Ballister Blackheart, and she decides she wants to take it upon herself to come up with evil schemes to destroy the world. Unfortunately, her ideas tend to mess with Ballister Blackheart’s plans.

There is more to both the characters than you would think and this short graphic novel turns into so much more. It is so heartwarming and makes you want to curl up in a ball and munch on brownies. (why brownies you ask? Because this mini-review is brought to you by brownies)

I love that even though this is a graphic novel, Stevenson manages to develop a very thorough plot arc and develops relationships so beautifully.

The only thing that bothered me was that all the people of color in this graphic novel were very minor (like they showed up in one scene, had no lines and didn’t really affect the story in any major way.) I had hoped that given the hype, the graphic novel wouldn’t be so whitewashed but alas.

Don’t let that turn you off though, there is some diversity in the novel and the book is so adorable and so worth the read. I mean, it is one of my favorites of the year...

Bob's Burgers by Chad Brewster

Genres: TV Shows, Comic Books

Release Date: April 7th, 2015
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Source: eARC from Netgalley

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Now you can read about the Belcher family (parents Bob and Linda, and their children Tina, Gene and Louise) with brand-new in-canon stories created by the TV show's producers, writers, and animators! 

That's right, all-original stories that expand upon the fan-favorite animated series, including hilarious installments of "Louise's Unsolved Mysteries", "Tina's Erotic Friend Fiction", "A Gene Belcher Original Musical", "Letters Written by Linda", "Bob's Burgers of the Day", and much more!

I am a huge fan of the TV show so when I saw this comic on Netgalley, I knew I needed it in my life. I don't know where to begin though! I don’t know where to commence my fangirling of this wonderful work of art that manages to bring one of my favorite tv shows to life on paper.

I loved seeing Tina, Louise, Bob, Gene and Linda in a different setting but I also loved seeing aspects of their characteristics emphasized.

I wouldn’t say that this isn’t your typical comic because I don’t read enough comics to make that statement (read-I don’t read comics unless we’re talking about those strips that appear in newspapers) but I love that this isn’t just about showing more Bob's Burgers in a different format.

We have Linda’s letters to people (where she talks about her geniusness and tries to sell her ideas), we have Bob’s burger of the day, we have Tina’s friend fictions, we have Gene’s musicals and we have Louise’s mysteries and all of these separate sections dedicated to each of the characters makes me fall in love all over again.

I can see Linda writing those letters to people, and I can imagine them reading it and cracking up and throwing them away. I can see Bob trying so hard to come up with a burger of the day. It’s just so much fun to experience my favorite characters through another medium.

I think these comics are amazing and are just a fantastic way of showcasing our beloved characters from our favorite TV Show and you know, if you haven’t seen the show, YOU NEEDS TO.