Flake

 

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jonathan Cape
• Publication Date:  April 2, 2020
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1787330583
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1787330580

Flake is a graphic novel that celebrates ice cream. The story revolves around Howard Grayling, a second generation ice cream vendor. He runs his deceased father's territory in the northwest England town of Dobbiston. Howard sells ice cream from his van. He begins to notice a sharp downturn in business and soon realizes that a competitor named Tony Augustus, Howard's half-brother, is trying to take over his territory. Tony's business has been expanding all over the Northwest as he pushes other ice cream vendors out of business. If he can get Howard's territory, Tony will be the only vendor in the region. Howard gets help from his friends in the Dobbiston Mountain Rescue Team to overcome all of the obstacles in his way. Flake is Matthew Dooley's debut graphic novel.

What an enjoyable read! It is a light story that is appropriate for young readers. There are no sex scenes or dirty words. The artwork has been drawn in a whimsical style that matches the uncomplicated plot and is drawn in the usual comic strip format. All of the characters have round faces and stocky bodies. It makes them appear overweight but perhaps they are not. The story itself was fast paced. The characters are just as well developed as you would see in a fiction novel. I think a sequel is in order here.  It would be a shame to not hear from these characters again.

A fun read.  5 out of 5 stars.

Eat the Rich #1

Eat the Rich is a horror comic written by Sarah Gailey. It was published by BOOM! Studios between August and November 2021. I have only read release 1A at this point but it is a promising series for me. Eat the Rich is a five-issue comic book series from Hugo Award-winning author Sarah Gailey about the unspeakable horrors lying in wait behind the idyllic lives of the one percent. All 5 releases are available now in a trade paperback. I enjoyed this release and will most likely get the paperback to finish the story.

The publisher's summary: 

Welcome to Crestfall Bluffs! With law school and her whole life ahead of her, Joey plans to spend the summer with her boyfriend Astor in his seemingly perfect hometown. It’s a chance to finally meet his family and childhood friends, all while enjoying a vacation where every need is attended to. But beneath the affluent perfection lies a dark, deadly rot… will Joey discover the truth before it’s too late, and even if she does, can she survive to tell the tale?

Release 1A is obviously a set up comic. There is no horror in the story yet. You can feel the tension though between Joey and her 1% boyfriend's family. I would describe it as a psychological thriller instead. This release does a beautiful job of establishing the characters and the mystery to come. I feel Joey's pain as she navigates a formal shindig at Astor's home wearing the wrong type of clothing and jewelry. She also made the mistake of asking the help if they needed any help. Her politeness was a social faux pas. Astor certainly did not give her a heads up concerning what she could expect.

Eat the Rich is a fantastic comic series and I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

Swine

    Publisher: ‎Humanoids, Inc. 

    Paperback: ‎120 pages

• Publication Date: 10/5/21
• ISBN-10: ‎1643376047
• ISBN-13:‎ 978-1643376042
• 
  
• Swine takes the cake. The story premise concerns a miracle that the biblical Jesus performed.  Two thousand years ago Jesus confronted the demon Legion in the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac and cast them into pigs to drown in the sea. You can read about it in Mark 5:1. The author poses this question: what would have happened if every pig didn't drown as Mark tells us. Tyrone Finch imagines that a handful of the swine swam to safety and have spent the centuries planning revenge and causing a few random disasters along the way. His plot is certainly creative. Swine contains all ten issues of this miniseries and it is Finch's first comic.

The pigs are responsible for the sinking of the Titanic, the Hindenburg disaster and other disasters in history. Chasing down and killing these pigs are a man and woman team who are joined by the same tragedy. Ellis Rafferty spent seven years in prison after being wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife, minister Becky. He asserts that the pigs killed her. Now released, he seeks to avenge her death. Joining forces with Becky’s sister, Zoey, they hit the road to chase down and kill the pigs. 

While the story is a little far fetched, it was entertaining. The graphics were beautifully drawn by Mauricet and colored by Lee Loughridge in those bright colors that I love. I must say that the pigs were amazingly drawn with every type of facial expression that there could possibly be. They are agile and can fly through the air when they want to attack a human. That old adage that when pigs fly . . . comes true in Swine. Each release begins with the traditional culinary drawing of the pig which shows where certain cuts of pork come from the body. It is a true devotional for the consummate pig lover.

5 out of 5 stars.

Billionaires

Billionaires is Darryl Cunningham's 2021 graphic novel. It is a biography of three of the world's current billionaires, Rupert Murdock, Jeff Bezos and the Koch Brothers. Billionnaire Robert Maxwell plays heavily in Rupert Murdock's story. At 244 pages, each of the billionaires receives about 90 pages of space in the book. Cunningham begins each biography with the birth and childhood of the person. They continue until their death or their current state of affairs. Each of them was driven to succeed by destroying every competitor they had. The key word here is destroy. They were not content to push the competition out of business but rather destroy the owners themselves. All of them had instincts that drove their businesses far above their competitors and created new ways of doing business that other companies have followed.  

While I had previously read alot about each of these men, when I looked at them as a group I saw similarities that I had not seen before. The last four pages of the book discussed the economic and societal problems that stem from the actions of these billionaires. It did sound a little sanctimonious even though I agree with the author's conclusions. However, I cannot think of any way that Cunningham could have said it differently. He addresses the effects they had on American policy making and political campaigning.While each of these men used a philosophy of small government and low oversight over corporations to build their empires, what society has received is the exact opposite. We have alot of government oversight of American businesses. How did this happen? These men used political power to stop any competition. This can only happen if government oversees the affairs of all of the other companies. 

The political power these men held influenced world affairs in a negative way. The founder of the Koch dynasty supported Nazi Germany with its oil refineries. Murdock's love of gossipy newspapers and his media mergers is what gave us opinionated news anchors. In my opinion he gets the bad rap for creating Fox News. Bezos' predatory acquisitions brought us his vision of The Everything Store. No one seems to be able to succeed in selling any products because Bezos will just start selling the product cheaper, putting other companies out of business. 

Billionaires is an insightful graphic novel that gives the reader all the knowledge they need about the lives of these three men. The author has successfully told their stories but in a funny way. There are alot of laughs throughout the book and I can confidently rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

The Delicacy

James Albion's The Delicacy is a fictional story about the restaurant industry told in graphic novel format. Set in the world of flashy restaurants, this story of greed and ambition comes with a macabre ending as rare and delicious fungi spell trouble for two brothers who are running a restaurant. 

The story opens with Tulip and his brother Rowan having left the simple comforts of their remote Scottish island with a plan to grow succulent, organic vegetables in an idyllic market garden, and to open a restaurant serving these wholesome culinary delights to the busy sprawl of London. However, the world of fine dining seems impossibly competitive until they discover a delicious new species of mushroom. The dish brings diners in droves, catapulting their small restaurant to success beyond their wildest dreams.  Pressured by the demands of a hungry city, Tulip decides to crack the secret of their new ingredient's growth. But just how much will he sacrifice to feed his own insatiable ambition?

I was not expecting this comic to be so suspenseful. If it wasn't for the graphics, I would call it a cozy mystery. It has a perfect mystery plot with fast pacing. The Tulip character surprised me. His ambition seemed to be unbelievable. I don't think new restauranteur's would want to expand their business as fast as Tulip. However, the stress he endured created more and more suspense for the story. The ending was unexpected and I am still not sure how I feel about it. I was wanting something else while I was reading but I guess karma finally found its way to Tulip.

I LOVED The Delicacy and highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

Putin's Russia

Darryl Cunningham's latest graphic novel is Putin's Russia: The Rise of a Dictator. It was published on February 15, 2022 and is a biography of the Russian dictator. As publisher Drawn & Quarterly said recently, it is unfortunate that this comic arrived at this point in time. With Russian troops now in eastern Ukraine, it could not be more timely. News articles state that World War III is right around the corner. I do not understand why WWIII is a possibility but when you read about Putin's rise in Russia you see what he is capable of. 

In this biography of Vladimir Putin we see the development of a schoolyard bully in Soviet era Leningrad into a KGB officer, then on to a corrupt commodities trader and continuing on to being the president of Russia. The reader is shown the brutality that Putin has waged against his detractors as well as his lawless financial dealings. What I gleaned from the book is that everything Putin does politically enhances his personal finances. Taking that idea further, I imagine that Putin will make billions off of Ukraine. Money is the only thing he is interested in. Yes, there are advantages to Russia for invading Ukraine. It has oil and plentiful wheat fields that Russia could benefit from. However, when you see the totality of Putin's life you see that every political decision he makes only makes him richer. 

Putin was lucky is obtaining jobs that brought him more and more power. He was able to join the KGB in which membership is by invitation only. When returning from an assignment in East Germany he somehow found jobs that allowed him to take advantage of the post-Soviet chaos. By becoming affiliated with Boris Yeltsin, Putin was able to become president of Russia. Someone obviously helped him rise to power but the author does not tell us who that person is. Most likely no one knows this information other than Putin himself. Anyone with knowledge about Putin's past ends up dead and by controlling the media, he is able to create his own biography. 

This is an eye opening picture of the Russian dictator. Personally, I like to refer to him as Czar Putin. Highly recommended. 5 out of 5 stars.