Graphic Novels: ¿Hablas Cómics?

Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing U.S. ethnic minority, and they use libraries for information and entertainment (see the Latinos and Public Library Perceptions study, described in "Study of Latinos and Libraries"). Their information needs often center on learning English; entertainment can mean a taste of home with Spanish-language graphic narratives.

Of course, Latino-heritage patrons can appreciate English-language comics and manga, too—some librarians report that their Latino teens know enough English to read manga with their peers, and it's mostly the older Latino patrons who borrow the Spanish-language material. Other librarians note that Spanish versions of Bone and manga do well. Graphic novels with Latino characters and themes, as well as titles in Spanish, will also appeal to many Anglos, including those learning about Spanish-speaking countries or studying Spanish as a foreign language.

One of the longest-running and most popular Latino-themed comics is Love and Rockets, a sprawling, multicharacter set of interlocking adult dramas produced since 1981 by American brothers Gilbert (aka "Beto") and Jaime Hernandez. Fantagraphics has collected the two major series, Jaime's "Locas" and Gilbert's "Palomar" narratives, and just released a volume of new stories. Written for a younger audience, Beto's Sloth (LJ 7/06) made ALA's 2007 Top 10 Graphic Novels for Teens.

Also for adults, Chicanos from Argentineans Carlos Trillo and Eduardo Risso twists standard detective plots by pitting a gutsy, odd-looking woman with terrible luck against New Yorker mobsters and lowlifes. Even quirkier is the low-rent, arty Dead in Desemboque (Xpress Reviews, 8/2/07), E. Arellano's send-up of Mexican comics with fascinating artwork awash in surrealist imagery. In Bardín the Superrealist, Spanish artist Max shape-shifts a playful collection evoking Peanuts, Salvador Dalí, and Luis Buñuel.

A title making three ALA YA recognition lists is Judd Winick's Pedro and Me, about a young Cuban American dying of AIDS. La Perdita, Jessica Abel's award winner (for ages 16+), follows a misguided Mexican American headed south of the border who loses her way going native (LJ 7/06).

In strip comics, Lalo Alcaraz's work offers humor admixed with satire and information and is appropriate for teens through adults. La Cucaracha collects his nationally syndicated, politically themed strip, wherein the titular cockroach comes to life as a humanoid compadre to the artist's avatar as they hang out together in Los Angeles. His biting Migra Mouse: Political Cartoons on Immigration makes a good resource for political science and history students. Alcaraz illustrated Ilan Stavans's Latino USA: A Cartoon History (LJ 12/00), a sometimes sardonic overview of Latin Americans in the United States since Columbus. A more genial Latino-themed strip with several collected volumes is Baldo, from Hector Cantú and Carlos Castellanos.

Both DC Comics and Marvel have created teen superheroes to appeal to Latino youth. DC revived its Blue Beetle series, dropping the azure carapace upon beetle number three, Jaime Reyes (see review, p. 58). Marvel has introduced butt kicker chica Anya Corazón, who embodies an enhanced spiderlike persona dubbed Araña (see review, p. 56).

Spain and the Latin American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Cuba have rich traditions of graphic narrative going back to the early 1900s (see Tim Pilcher and Brad Brooks's The Essential Guide to World Comics). Although few of these stories have found their way to North America, graphic novels in Spanish are becoming increasingly available in the continental United States. Blue Beetle and Love and Rockets are coming out in Spanish, and so is the Dark Horse Star Wars series.

Many other Spanish-language comics and manga can be ordered through Public Square Books as well as from partner company Baker & Taylor and other library wholesalers. See also the Spanish-language book vendors listed in "Immigrant Nation" (LJ 9/1/08)—La Casa del Libro, for example, offers a Spanish Watchmen and Buffy Cazavampiros. For more information and links for graphic novel publishers (editoriales) in Spain, see www.guiadelcomic.com. Amazon.com lists quite a few graphic novels in Spanish, including Don Quijote de la Mancha para Niños. To browse these, use Advanced Search and select Comics and Graphic Novels in the subject box, plus Spanish in the language box.

In nonfiction, many titles from two Capstone series, "Graphic Biography" and "Graphic History," are offered in Spanish, as are "Graphic Biographies" and "Graphic Histories" titles from Gareth Stevens Publishing (www.garethstevens.com).

The unapologetically pulp comics variously called novelas, fotonovelas, or novelitas—small Mexican-produced booklets of soap opera-type stories—have wide appeal to Latino adults. Libraries tend to treat these like mass market paperbacks without cataloging. Novelas are sold on subscription from several North American vendors, and popular series include El Libro Semanal and El Libro Sentimental. Tucson-based Latin American Periodicals offers subscriptions to Spanish children's comics as well as novelas and will email libraries an attractive PDF catalog (800-634-2124, lapmagazines@att.net). Some libraries use Novelas Popular in Yonkers (914-337-4434), and others order from local Latino bookstores (see "Focus on Special Literature: Fotonovelas," Critícas, 1/05).

As North American publishers angle for the expanding Latino market and interest from Anglos in all things Spanish increases, look for more titles such as the just-out Che: A Graphic Biography from Verso and a Spanish-language biography of Fidel Castro due this month from Seven Stories Press.—M.C.

Half Puerto Rican, half Mexican Anya Corazón is your average, bright 15 year old, but she's right in your face if you cross her. With her mama dead and her papa a Brooklyn reporter, she grew up fast and furious. Now this Miguel guy is telling her she's the new Hunter, meant to help the mysterious Spider Society and its front organization WebCorps (get it?) protect her community from a criminal underground known as the Sisterhood of the Wasp. A tattoo from Miguel activates her Hunter powers, enabling Anya to conjure up a protective exoskeleton and enhanced strength, speed, and agility. Now known as "Araña" (Spanish for spider), this chica kicks butt and sticks to walls, too. Volume 3 finds Anya preparing to confront Jade ("hay-deh"), her mother's killer—or so she thinks. Meanwhile, the Wasps have contracted with Egyptian teen assassin Amun to get rid of Araña, but... could he be falling for her? The series features plenty of mayhem and magic while avoiding graphic body damage and gore. The art is quite good, like Runaways (Vol. 6, Xpress Reviews, 12/19/06), but the darker tinge makes some of the action a bit hard to follow. This gutsy superheroine should have strong appeal for teens.—M.C.

The quicksilver elusiveness of Tori Amos's work takes more tangible form in this massive, sumptuous collection of 51 stories from over 80 creators. While her semantic-collage lyrics play at the edge of rationality with themes of love and loss, these creators have played, in turn, with the lyrics, spinning off fantasies of their own, sometimes adhering to the emotional atmosphere and plotlines of the song, sometimes not. In "I Can't See New York," the shade of a girl who loved too much comes down to reach for the man she has lost, a similar feel as the song. But not so with "God," which stars a fatuous office drone instead of a whimsical flirt offering to help the Almighty clean up his act. Some plots work less well than others, seeming to stop rather than end. Others simply mystify, while the best offer an epiphany or resolution—not necessarily happy. The wonderfully diverse art ranges from decent to spectacular. "Heard melodies are sweet," wrote Keats, "but those unheard are sweeter": these creators evoke their own music, perhaps not sweeter here but certainly compelling. Amos fans will fight to check this out and hotly debate their favorites, and comics-only fans will be intrigued. With occasional sexual situations and strong language; recommended for academic libraries and adult collections in public libraries.—M.C.

We the people can now appreciate our nation's founding document unpacked into easy-to-follow explanations enriched with stick-in-your-mind visuals. Rendering nonfiction into comics is a unique challenge, perhaps best addressed by pulling out the multiple stories implicit in the text. The stories stay with you, whereas mere illustrations can fade faster than the Articles of Confederation. Stories in the Constitution? Yes, indeed: about how the Founding Fathers disagreed with one other, how the 13 Colonies disagreed with England and among themselves, and how the Constitution was therefore designed to balance competing interests: states rights vs. federal power and—within the federal government itself—the executive vs. legislative vs. judicial branches. Throughout, we learn how the document evolved over time so that today the Constitution forbids slavery, for example, instead of sanctioning it as did the original. With his full-color, detailed art, McConnell has personified the three different branches as suited humans of varying gender, but instead of heads with faces, the human figures are headed by small replicas of the White House, the Capitol, and the Supreme Court building. This and other inventive imagery work well across all seven articles and the 27 amendments. A surprising and effective accomplishment; highly recommended for all collections. Buy multiples for kids, teens, and adults.—M.C.

This manga fantasy about the dark side of dreaming is set in 1920s Japan at the Silver Star Tea House. Owner Mizuki Asahina is kind and gentle, but the shop's customers come to see Hiruko the Baku, an immortal, not-quite-human young man who can enter into people's nightmares and help solve the problems causing them. He takes as his fee the nightmares themselves, which are his only sustenance. In this third of nine volumes, Hiruko's help is sought by a man searching for his missing sister; a silent film narrator losing the power of speech, one syllable at a time; an heiress who's being forced into marriage; a famous writer with an awful secret; and a boy whose expression never changes. Sometimes Hiruko facilitates a happy resolution; more often, there's a macabre or sorrowful twist ending. Mashiba's artwork features attractive shojo character designs and ornately detailed settings. His dreamscapes exhibit an uncommon stylistic diversity: one is drawn in the style of a map, another features only a spiral of text. There's occasional gore, but this is accurately rated "T" for teens. Recommended for fans of Clamp's xxxHOLiC (Vol. 4, LJ 7/05) and for shojo readers in search of chills.—S.R.

It began as a video game, but this is a graphic novel with plot fixed within pages. Yet the interlocking and cyclical nature of the story, which flips back and forth across time, lends a sense of shimmer and uncertain potential. In the ninth century, an uneasy trio of prince, princess, and princess's brother leads to chaos and to a prophesy: four centuries hence, the palace of Marv will fall, and a new prince will rise from the waters. Jumping to the 13th century, we drop into the prophesy in action: the rebellious daughter of a corrupt official runs off in boy's clothing to join the rebels and discovers the prince-to-be hiding in the aquaducts. Both stories proceed in tandem, and eventually the pieces come together. The solid yet beguiling art incorporates colorful touches from Arabic graphic design and seems to move with the characters. And move they do—there is little dialog here but pages and pages of well-done action that carries much of the tale. Fire, fighting, escape, insurrection, and subterfuge concern these feisty princes and princesses, and even Genghis Khan drops in near the end. Recommended for high school and up owing to considerable mayhem and murder, plus discreetly portrayed sexual content.—M.C.

Before the wonderful period romance Emma (one of LJ's Best Graphic Novels of 2007, 3/15/08), manga creator Mori's fascination with Victorian-era English maids inspired the short stories collected here. When unmarried cafe owner Bennett Cranley advertises for a maid to help her keep up the large house she's been living in alone, her first applicant is shy 13-year-old orphan Shirley Madison. Bennett takes Shirley in largely out of pity, but Shirley's cooking, cleaning, and sewing skills prove first-rate, and through the slice-of-life vignettes presented here, a bond develops between the two. Mori's early artwork here is less polished and detailed that her Emma work, with writing less nuanced and dramatic—but the designs have the same appeal, the characters have the same charm, and the stories are leavened with similar moments of quiet sweetness and light humor. Two backup stories that feature other maids are included. Rated "T" for teens, this is recommended for adults, too, and for all libraries.—S.R.

The foreword by Roger Corwin, who brought many of Poe's tales to the screen, characterizes this anthology as "fresh interpretations" to "recast the tales for a modern audience, applying Poe's themes to contemporary conflicts and moral ambiguities." Indeed, "The Fall of the House of Usher" shows us a fading rock star's last days, "The Oval Portrait" an obsessed photographer, "The Masque of the Red Death" the sleazy emcee of a comic con, and "The Pit and the Pendulum" the penumbra of a terrorism-fearful society. The most intriguing plot variation occurs with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" in a futuristic setting, where a court-appointed personal optronic encoder—basically, an android—assists detective Dupin in uncovering an "en-gram mind transfer" motivating an unwittingly homicidal ape. All of the stories are well drawn to unsettling effect, evoking a semblance of Poe's atmospheric build-ups, but several seem to end too fast with plot revisionings that do not quite satisfy. With horror more implied than presented and a discreet sex scene, this is recommended for older teens and up. It's also good fodder for classes in graphic narrative.—M.C.

"America's first business manga" introduces Johnny Bunko, chained up in cubicle city and crunching numbers for the Boggs Corporation (bogg-ed down—heh heh) when he'd rather be doing almost anything else. Then in an office all-nighter, he snaps a pair of disposable chopsticks and snaps into being—a genie?! Diana, complete with mangastyle elf ears, promises to return six times to teach him the key lessons for career success and satisfaction. And—poof!—she's gone. Naturally, Johnny isn't buying this and gets coworkers Yuko and Carlos to witness these charmed chopsticks. Snap! There's Diana again with lesson one: there's no fixed "plan" that guarantees step-by-step career success and happiness. Later comes snap two: think strengths, not weaknesses. After four more snaps, Johnny has all the lessons and a better worklife. In his highly regarded A Whole New Mind (2005), Pink identified six "senses" as crucial for 21st-century professional survival: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. His first shot at manga has all of these in an entertaining synergy that's perfect for students, recent grads, and cube dwellers of any age. Diana's timeless advice rings true, and the art is pleasant and effective, although the Japanese sound effects look strange in an American book. Recommended for high school, public, and academic libraries.—M.C.

Poor Jaime Reyes. Puberty? A piece of cake next to getting a giant scarab fused to your spine that gives you a blue carapace, wings, and superpowers you don't understand. An unexpected recruitment into outer space to zap an enemy satellite launches Jaime's new persona. Unfortunately, homecoming leaves him naked in the desert a year later Earth time—a bit off-putting to family, friends, and schoolwork. Jaime is the third Blue Beetle and apparently the only one to learn the alien origin of his powers. The first two volumes introduce Jaime's social and inner worlds—he's a sharp Latino teen with hardworking parents and two fast friends: Brenda and Paco. An early episode never fully resolved centers on Brenda's guardian and aunt, whose covert criminal persona "La Dama" is masterminding a project to spirit away young metahumans. Eventually, a mysterious box that transports Brenda to a death-trapped planet kicks off a major story arc: the scarab's alien owners want to invade earth; in this third volume, Jaime tries to recruit other superheroes to stop them. New plots, over-the-top villains, and DC Universe guest stars keep things lively. The result is not especially cohesive but does make for an enjoyable and often amusing ride. For teen collections.—M.C.

In this nicely illustrated mess of a manga, swordsman Imanotsurugi wanders through the underworld defeating demons and collecting their swords. Enishi, a powerful tenma (heavenly devil) who looks like a little girl, offers him a deal: if he will collect 1000 swords to assist her in returning to heaven, she will remake his body to be stronger. He accepts, and the two go off to fight monsters. Video-game designer Suzuki is capable of gorgeous artwork; his delicately detailed figures and evocative, hellish landscapes are impressive. Yet he does not consider himself a manga artist, and his lack of training and experience are evident in his nearly impossible-to-follow action and storytelling. Even the appeal of the artwork is limited by the deep gray tones that obscure much of it. With its pretty pictures, mindless violence, leaden dialog, and free-floating captions naming fighting techniques ("Split Joint Blade!"), this is much closer to ComicsOne's Hong Kong kung fu graphic novels such as Mega Dragon and Tiger than to the average samurai manga. Accurately rated ages 15+ but not recommended.—S.R.

Few deaths are easy on either the departed or the survivors—how, now, the excruciatingly public deaths of the 9/11 tragedy? For Eddie Torres, it was all over 18 seconds after he took matters into his own hands and jumped from the North Tower, where he'd just started working at Cantor Fitzgerald. For Alissa Torres, Eddie's death and then her own life were out of her hands. Eddie just kept dying over and over, thousands of times throughout the year afterward as seemingly hundreds of misguided cogs in the 9/11 relief juggernaut tried to help the young widow facing motherhood. Wading through grief, parenting, missed connections, misinformation, and paperwork, Alissa finally found solace in revisiting Hawaii, where she and Eddie had vacationed so happily; then in recounting her experience for magazines, and finally in writing this sensitive and appalling graphic work about her year of a thousand Eddie deaths. Her tragedy of errors inspires anger on her behalf, although the story is calmly and beautifully told. Choi's simple and attractive line art is set off by turquoise wash, yielding to a full-color photo at the end when Alissa embraces her life anew. Recommended for all adult collections and readers high school and up.—M.C.

The latest volume of this sexy superhero satire (Vol. 1, LJ 9/15/07) finds the voluptuous but insecure heroine Empowered still frequently trussed up by bad guys when her fragile, form-fitting, power-granting bodysuit shreds and leaves her helpless. In the most hilarious story here, villain vendors even start using her to promote their latest superhero capture and restraint equipment. But though there's still a measure of ribaldry, witty wordplay, and intelligent superpower spoofery, manga-influenced American cartoonist Warren (Livewires; Iron Man: Hypervelocity) ups the seriousness quotient here. Readers learn more about the potential dangers left over from Emp's live-in boyfriend's villainous past, while best friend Ninjette is attacked by agents of the New Jersey-based ninja clan she deserted in a violent, gory episode that showcases Warren's action artwork skills and reveals unexpected powers in Emp's mysterious supercostume. An unresolved tale in which Emp dons her "sexy librarian" disguise to draw out a fetish-fixated poltergeist skirts dangerously close to being mere cheesecakes, but overall Warren balances titillation and humor with genuinely affecting emotion. Multifarious sex-related content easily earns the series a "Parental Advisory" label; this is one for adults.—S.R.