Good Ol' Captain

I tried to read Black Panther for this but it kept linking to Batman so I’m going with this original Avenger. (Massive MCU fan with little exposure to the comics, so I’m excited for this). Right off the bat, the art is so nostalgic and pretty to me, the font screams Captain America. Every page incorporates the classic heavy color palette of the red, white, blue and yellow. I absolutely loved this; all of the swooping action lines in the fights and following any serious motion, the pops of yellow when someone hit something, the POP! style art of POW’s and BOOM’s, the heroics such as saving the girl (I know, we’re all about not being the damsel in distress now, but this is cute), Bucky being in this. It’s hard not to associate Chris Evan’s with the comic book Captain America, but I managed, though the two really are done well. One of my favorite parts (which I’m pretty sure they used in the movies) is using Captain America as the poster child for propaganda posters. As a graphic designer, seeing this attention to detail and incorporation of poster design and advertisement is really impressive.

Britten and Brulightly

The grim, existential and hopeless tone of this story very well matches the artwork accompanying it. The art is very pretty, very dark and gloomy. I’m not sure I can get behind the hand written typeface used in both parts as they are a little hard to read; one being a cursive hand and the other being an all uppercase hand. Otherwise this graphic novel is pretty visually pleasing. Unfortunately, story-wise, this one’s a little hard to follow. The characters are peculiar, which is not a bad thing. But as all of the characters are revealed, (his partner is a teabag?) things get a little confusing and the subplots get mixed up. I just feel like the plot and the ending could’ve been a little clearer. As in, the scene where the main character is laying on a bed surrounded by pill after having burned all of his life’s work, and he’s thinking pretty depressed things. Is he thinking of killing himself? It definitely felt like it. Whatever the actuality, I enjoyed the dark watercolor style of this graphic novel, and maybe it was a little too gloomy for me right now.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters

Amazing Art! I have been a fan of anything ballpoint that is three dimensional forever. It takes so much time to make ballpoint pieces, I can’t imagine how much time this artist spent on this. Crosshatching ballpoint to get that much range of tone in the color and detail is so impressive. Everything in this, with all of the different styles from realistic to more stylized and cartoony, is absolutely beautiful. The range of styles and the content of the work, from homages to old horror magazines, to reproductions of famous paintings, to simply cartoony stuff intertwines with the writing to get a really good reaction out of you. There is everything in this graphic novel. Unsurprisingly with such detailed artwork, it isn’t so much meant for kids even if the main character is pretty young. It covers and includes everything, featuring people who are different from the norm who are seen as monsters, but embrace the differences about themselves. When I have the time to read more, I definitely will and I definitely recommend.