Blue Monday The Kids Are Alright by Chynna Clugston-Major, 2000, Oni Press

The Kids Are Alright is the first of two trade paperbacks currently in print for the Blue Monday series. It contains the first limited series, as well as all the little Blue Monday stories published in various places like Dark Horse Presents and other such books. The stories all revolve around Bleu Finnegan, a high school student. Bleu is not one of the "cool kids," but she has her friends and gets along OK. In the main story, Bleu is on a quest to score tickets to see her idol Adam Ant in concert. While all this goes on she deals with pranks from two male classmates, pranks them in return (with the help of some friends), and falls in love with a substitute teacher.

I think the charm in a book like this is that the characters are totally believable, and I could have changed the names of characters to people I went to school with and the story wouldn't have needed much modification. Yes, high school kids are all crazy, but they're really OK once you get past the raging hormones. And I haven't even mentioned the art yet, which is very good in the main series (some of the early stories are not as good), with a good amount of manga influence, but in a good way. I can recommend this book to anyone who can remember the travails of teenage life, and doesn't mind some foul language.

Blue Monday Lovecats, Dead Man's Party, and Nobody's Fool, by Chynna Clugston-Major, 2002-2003, Oni Press

The first issue is Lovecats, which is my favorite Blue Monday story so far. Clover doesn't want to go to the Valentine's Day dance, even though everyone else is going (or so it seems...). The discussion about it brings up the story of how Bleu and Clover met, which was at last year's Valentine's Day dance. It was neat to see younger versions of everyone, especially Bleu, who looked damn fine with longer hair. But I digress. Back to the present day, everyone's dates fall through for the party, so everyone is just going to go as a group, but they can't find Clover. Victor (who holds a not-so-secret torch of love for Clover) tracks her down, and they have a heart-to-heart talk and kiss, which is rudely interrupted by the rest of the group showing up. The way the story came together worked very, very well, and this issue is a great opportunity for newcomers to check out the series with minimal financial commitment.

Next, we have Dead Man's Party, which I didn't really care for. There are two reasons for this. First, it is a Halloween issue, and I really don't like Halloween. I don't like the costumes, I don't like the scary stories that people feel compelled to tell, I don't like any of it except for the candy, which is marvelous. Second, the sexual humor in this issue was over the top, and it really detracted from the story. I sometimes wonder why Clover doesn't just crack Alan's skull and be done with it. The actual story is about the kids getting stuck at Erin's place at a Halloween party when the power goes out. To bide their time, they tell each other scary stories, which of course involve them in various ways. About the only thing that this issue did was re-inforce that I like Erin the best.

The last issue, and most recent, is Nobody's Fool. This issue was very good, and it actually contains two different stories. First we find Clover being annoyed by the boys singing Irish songs to her for St. Patty's Day (she's Irish, BTW). She tries to escape it all, but finds out that her family is having everyone over for a party! So she runs off and gets into trouble, from which Victor "rescues" her. It was a little over the top, but not too bad. The second story involves Victor dressing like a goth and going around school on April Fool's Day sweet-talking all the ladies. Victor as a goth is totally hilarious, and the ending is very sweet. I liked that story a lot.

It was good to revisit the Blue Monday crew, especially since it will likely be a year or more until more issues come out.

Blue Monday Painted Moon, issues 1 and 2, by Chynna Clugston-Major, Oni Press

The events in this series take place after the events in the second TPB, Absolute Beginners. Basically, Bleu thinks that her life is a complete mess, and while Clover tries to cheer her up, everyone else ends up bringing her down, especially Gomez, whom Erin is still trying to get together with Bleu, so that she can go after Alan. Ah, teenage love triangles (or squares, or pentagons...). The only problem I have with this series is the fact that the second issue revolves around Bleu learning how to masturbate. I kid you not. No, you don't see anything, but Chynna makes sure you know exactly what is going on. While I thoroughly enjoy this series because of the interplay between the characters, I am starting to get annoyed at all the overtly sexual stuff that the author has started putting in. As I don't approve of that, I may have to drop the series if it doesn't tone itself down a bit in the next few issues.

Black Widow Breakdown issues 1-3 by Devin Grayson, Greg Rucka, and Scott Hampton, 2001, Marvel Comics

In this series, Natasha Romanov, the original black widow, has SHIELD kidnap Yelena Belova, a young Russian spy who considers herself to be the successor to the "black widow" title. Then they do a Face:Off kind of thing where they switch faces. Then the play head games with Yelena and try to make her believe that she's actually Natasha Romanov. It's pretty heady stuff, especially with the first issue ending with Yelena (as Natasha) shooting Natasha (as Yelena)! Needless to say, I was somewhat miffed that I never found out what happened next.

But all was not lost, as after months of searching and waiting Mile High Comics got in some back issues of this series, so I was able to order the last 2 issues. After I did that the books sat around for a while, as I was always doing something else, but this last weekend I took some extra time off to give me a four-day weekend, so I finally got around to reading the rest of the series.

I can't really discuss much of the plot without giving everything away, but let's just say that the "good guys" mess with poor Yelena's head in a major way. They do their best to convince her that she's really Natasha Romanov and that she's wanted for murder. So while SHIELD is chasing her, Natasha (as Yelena) does some undercover work to expose a Russian plot. But is that the real reason for the whole deception, just to keep Yelena out of the picture? Is there more going on? You'll have to find out for yourself.

If you like espionage stories then this is probably something you will like. I would recommend reading the earlier Black Widow miniseries (which is great) to get acquainted with the different characters before reading this one, as that background is important, but it won't totally ruin the story for you if you don't. It'll just take you longer to get up to speed. So if you can find this series for a reasonable price and you like the premise feel free to check it out.

Black Widow - Right to a Life issues 1 , by Richard K. Morgan and Bill Sienkiewicz, Marvel Comics

The guy that owns the comic book store I go to was pretty excited when this book came out, as he is a big fan of the artist, Bill Sienkiewicz. I can't admit that I share that opinion. I find the art in this book to be rather sloppy and "dirty," with lots of extra lines and ink splotches added in for some reason. Obviously, this works for some people, but it didn't work for me. Overall, I'd have to say this book was pretty average. Because it's a Black Widow title I'll give it some slack and give it another month. Great cover, though; Greg Land is the man!

Black Widow issues 1-6 by Richard K. Morgan, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Goran Parloy, Marvel Comics

First, the not so good. Bill Sienkiewicz is a famous comic artist, and the guy that owns the comic store I go to was super excited when he found out that Bill was working on this series. I will admit that there is a certain charm to the artwork, but it really ain't my thing. I would much rather have had Greg Land (the cover artist) do the whole thing, but we don't always get our wishes. Greg's work is something I have always liked. I would also love to see Michael Turner have a shot at drawing our favorite ex-Soviet assassin, but that's probably not gonna happen either. Anyway, Mr. Sienkiewicz' "sketchy" style gives some nice "grit" to the visuals, but it's not my favorite

The story, however, is top notch. Without giving anything away of importance, someone is trying to kill the Black Widow, so she leaves her home, hooks up with an old 'friend,' and tries to figure out what is going on. It turns out to involve more of her past then she realizes, and in fact we get to learn a lot about the Black Widow's true past, which was real cool. And, of course, she kicks lots of butt and wins in the end, because if she didn't Marvel wouldn't be able to come out with another mini-series a little further down the road. Even though I knew where the destination was, though, it was a lot of fun to get there.

Battle Girlz issues 1 through 6, by Rod Espinosa, Antarctic Press

This series is set in the same overall universe as the aforementioned Chronicles of the Universe is, and it even features members of the Desperado family, which appeared in the earlier work. Basically, one of the Desperados has founded an all-women team to combat evil in the universe, or something. The story really revolves around Yunna, an ex-mecha pilot, and her first experiences with the Battle Girlz unit. Yunna is the only member of the group who is normal, with the possible exception of Su Win, the scientist/inventor member of the group. Other members include a super-strong teenager who for some reason dresses in a Japanese school uniform, a very large, possibly alien lady who wears armor and has spiritual/magical powers, and a lady who dresses like a whore and has power to seduce men. And then there is Sasa Rai Desperado, the group's leader, who claims to be a "goddess," and has many super powers of various means, which are mostly never explained.

By now you should have a good idea if this is your kind of thing or not. If you read the above paragraph and say to yourself, "What the hell IS this?!", then this is not the comic for you. If you are interested, though, then you will probably enjoy what you see here. The only character that is really developed in any way is Yunna, and even that is pretty cursory. The six issues revolve around the group dealing with a criminal overlord of some kind who has the standard "evil plot" that the group must deal with. There are actually a fair number of enemies that are part of this "evil plot," and they really get no development at all. As with the aforementioned Chronicles of the Universe, this work really only feels like one chapter in a larger story that is running around in the author's brain. Only seeing bits and pieces of it like this makes it pretty hard keep on top of things, but there's really nothing for it. Truth be told, there is also a tie to the author's earlier For*Eternity series, as one of the characters from that comic shows up fighting for the good guys in the later issues of this series.

The art here is pretty good overall. For the author's black & white work, this is probably his best stuff to date. Granted, one would expect an artist's skills to improve over time, and this series was done right before Mr. Espinosa reached the top of his game with his Neotopia series. Occasionally in these comics you will encounter situations where the inking wasn't done quite right, with unnecessary variations in line thickness for no noticeable reason. Sometimes the persrpective isn't quite right, too, making it difficult to figure out what is going on in a specific frame. Still, these are pretty minor quibbles, and overall it all works quite well. If you like your stories a little on the bizarre side, and if you like your sci-fi so out there that it becomes fantasy, then you'll find this series worth your money.

Bad Girls issues 1 through 5, by Steve Vance, Jennifer Graves, and Christine Norrie, DC Comics

The first issue is drawn by Jennifer Graves, who has somewhat of a "sketchy" style, where the lines aren't really sharply defined. It looks well enough, but the other four issues are drawn by Christine Norrie, and I really like her stuff. I'm not sure that it would work great for every kind of story, but it works great here, as all of the girls look really cute, and the guys, well, look like guys. You can normally tell when a woman is drawing the female characters, as they just look a little more natural, which is definitely the case here. I actually started this series with issue 3, which was a random purchase from a store I popped my head into when I was looking for a place to live in St. Louis, so Ms. Norrie's art was my first experience with the story. Maybe that's why I like it better. Anyway, the art and coloring are great for this style of story. I should also note that the art inside the book is better than what they did for the covers.

The writing is good, too, and everyone seems to act pretty much like you would expect they would in the situations they find themselves in. I really didn't care for the ending, as it seemed pretty abrupt and didn't really resolve anything. I also must note that when this series first started it was slated for six issues, but it wrapped up in five. So maybe it felt rushed because they had to speed things up and do the last three issues worth of material in two issues. I'll probably never know, but the ending definitely wasn't worth the build up. The ending is the only part of the writing that didn't seem to really fit with the characters. Oh, well; the ride was fun up until the end, anyway. Still, if you like your comics to be a little bff-beat, you could do a lot worse than this.

Birds of Prey issue 69, by Simone, Adrian, Lea & Lei, DC Comics

The writing seems pretty par for the course; not too good, not too bad. At least the art is pretty, but the printing seems a little off. The colors are a little too muted, like it wasn't printed properly. I have no idea if I just got a bad book, or if all of the issues are like that. I didn't like it, whatever caused it. So, the end result of my experiment is that I probably won't be getting any more issues of Birds of Prey; it's just really average, at least to me.

Bleach volume 1 by Tite Kubo, Viz

I realize that I am well older than the target market for this comic (it is a Shonen Jump title, after all), but the art is just so good, and the action is just so good that I don't care. The price is a strong point, too. Most books of this size sell for $10, but Viz has a cover price of $8 on this series. That makes it an even better deal. So, you have great art, a good enough story, and a great price. Looks like a winning combination to me!

Bleach volume 7, by Tite Kubo, 2005, Viz

In this volume of the story, Rukia, the Soul Reaper that gave Ichigo (our hero) his powers, has finally been tracked down by two characters from the Soul Society who are intent on bringing her back to pay for her crimes (which I think consist of associating with a human, or giving her powers to a human, or something like that). Ichigo decides to fight them to save Rukia, but gets his butt kicked for his troubles. At this point, he goes to Rukia's "friend" at the black market soul reaper store, to get trained on how to go rescue Rukia.

After reading this book, I asked myself the following question: "Do I care if Ichigo rescues Rukia from the Soul Society?" The answer was "not really, no." Because I have no idea where the story is going, I'm really not inclined to tag along on a random journey to nowhere. And I'm not sure why. Oh My Goddess! went to that realm years ago, but I am perfectly happy to tag along on that ride because of the characters. I even really like the character of Rukia, but I find myself wearied by this story. So, I won't be buying anymore Bleach.