I wrote reviews of Hey, Mary!, Animal Pound, and The Red Badge of Courage for the Village Voice, and they were just posted online. Here's a taste:
The first book on the docket is Hey, Mary! (Oni Press, $17.99), by writer Andrew Wheeler and artist Rye Hickman. Part coming-out story, part history lesson, with an emphasis on religious studies, Hey, Mary! focuses on Mark, a high school student at a Catholic academy who’s struggling with feelings of same-sex attraction, including toward his friend Luka — who’s out, proud, and soon transferring to another school. Unlike Luka (and most of their classmates), Mark is genuinely devout, taking Catholic scripture and teachings seriously. But is what he’s being taught the whole story? That’s the question Wheeler and Hickman seek to address.
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Tom King and Peter Gross provide a new take on a familiar library book with Animal Pound (BOOM! Studios, $29.99), a modern reimagining of George Orwell’s 1945 satire, Animal Farm. King and Gross change the setting of the animal revolution from a rural farm to a pound in the suburbs, which, among other things, changes the kinds of animals involved. In Orwell’s story, the lead characters were pigs, horses, and a variety of other farm animals. Animal Pound’s menagerie is divided into three factions: dogs, cats, and rabbits, who join forces to unlock their cages and drive the humans from the facility. And the “Seven Commandments of Animalism” from Orwell’s book are boiled down into one golden rule, painted on the pound wall: THE DOORS WILL REMAIN OPEN.
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One more trip to the school library might yield The Red Badge of Courage (Abrams ComicArts, $25.99), Steve Cuzor’s lovingly detailed adaptation of Stephen Crane’s classic tale of the Civil War. Cuzor is best known in Europe, but many of his comics, like the World War II–set Black Cotton Star and O’Boys (a mixture of Huckleberry Finn and blues legends), have focused on Americans. His latest work takes place during the rift that nearly tore this country apart — a conflict whose reverberations we’re still feeling today.
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Replies
Animal Pound is the only one of the comics I am familiar with. I really liked the comic and I really liked your review.
Thanks!
These are excellent reviews-- and I was unaware of any of these graphic works. The first two sound particularly interesting, though I enjoyed the original Red Badge of Courage, many years ago.
Great to see you back at it, Rob!