Readable comics

It's frustrating when you drag yourself to the library in order to borrow something specific and when you are finally there, it turns out someone else has already borrowed the book you wanted. Rather than go home empty handed, I picked up a few books from the comic book section that looked interesting enough just by quickly glancing through them.

Monsterland by Hans Arnold
Published by Arvinius Förlag AB
OMG! Nudity! Alright, this one isn't actually a traditional comic, more like an illustrated short story, a little over 60 pages long. I was drawn to this by the dark imagery, rather than the story, which I couldn't quite grasp. The story is just there to provide a setting for the illustrations, which are the main focus. A good description of the illustrations would be surreal,slightly disgusting, macabre horror mixed with humor. Even if it contradicts what I just said, the entirely black and white illustrations are quite beautiful in their technique. Enjoyable might not be the right word for this, but I did find the book more enjoyable if I skipped reading the text entirely and just looked at the pictures. The title of the book, "Monsterland" has already tied the pictures perfectly together, therefore the story isn't needed. Oh, right, the story begins with a woman answering to a personal ad in a magazine, where a businessman is looking for company for a holiday getaway, and then everything just turns bizarre....

Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic
Illustrated by Steven Ross & Joe Bennet
Published by Transworld Publishers Ltd
Honestly, I got this one purely for the reason that Death appears on the cover and beyond that I wasn't really expecting much, but it turned out to be a quite funny reading. However, trying to explain the plot is a challenge. The story is about .....well, first of all, there is this giant turtle swimming is space and on its back it's carrying a magical world called Discworld, filled with wizards, trolls and all kinds of crazy shit. Then there is this spellbook called Octavo, left behind by the creator of the universe, that withholds 8 great spells, but for whatever reason one of the spells is stuck in our main character's Rincewind's head. Rincewind, a failed wizard, must bring the spells back together before a set time or else the Discworld will be destroyed. Rincewind meets many wacky characters and surroundings on his way to return the spell to the magic book. I don't know any background for this graphic novel, but something tells me there's a lot more to it and this is merely a fracture of a whole bigger story. The comic was good fun, but it wasn't captivating enough for me to find out more about the series. The art does its job well, although I'm not a huge fan of it, but what I like the most about this comic is the dialog, almost on every page you will find something to make you chuckle. Despite how absurd it was, this one was surprisingly fun to read.

Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan & Niko Henrichon "Inspired by a true story"
Published by DC Comics
Well, that was depressing! I had very high expectations for this one and it turns out to be the most depressing thing I've read in a while. The Pride of Baghdad is a story of four lions that try to survive after they escape from the zoo along with other animals, as the city has been bombed to ruins around them. The main characters are the two lionesses Safa and Noor, Noor's cub Ali and a male lion named Zill. From what I could understand the events in the comic are happening during one single day, which means everything went downhill for the poor animals very quickly. Never did I imagine stumbling upon the subject of rape in an graphic novel about talking lions. o_O Definitely no Hakuna Matata singing in this one. It was tiresome to read when the character were constantly bickering with each other, except for the little Lion cub Ali, he was lovable. Close to the end of the story, we get to see a quite random and frankly, pretty stupid plot twist, with the lions fighting an another big animal. Nothing is gained from this fight, other that it drags down the story right before we get to the bittersweet end. Even though I'm saying this is very depressing, I don't necessarily mean that it's bad. It's just hard to recommend to anyone, because it is a such a sad story. The drawings are very beautiful though. I guess I could recommend this for them, who have ever wondered how the Lion King with an M-rating would look like....

Funny Misshapen Body a memoir by Jeffrey Brown
Published by Simon & Schuster
Brown's autobiographical comic here, has to be my favorite out of this bunch. It was quite refreshing to read a comic that is this down to earth after all those earlier fantasy series. I can only speak for myself, but rarely do I find a story that is this relatable. I think Brown's drawings are charming, because they aren't too perfect, they definitely have a handmade quality to them. I can easily picture them being taken directly out of a sketchbook. This is a good read for anyone who ever, even just for a second, have dreamed about of becoming a cartoonist.