"Love is Merely Madness" - William ShakespeareToday's GNF selection is Volume 2 of the Hatter M Series (a spinoff (sorry I'm not quite sure what the right word is...) of the Looking Glass Wars series by Frank Beddor. This comic was written by Frank Beddor and Liz Cavalier and art is by Sami Makkonen.
What Caught My Eye: First, I read the Looking Glass Wars and listened to the audio of Seeing Red so I was alread a fan of the series. I really love the character of Hatter Madigan with all his millinery glory and our students are real fans of this series as well so I thought I should add it to the collection since we are trying to build up our graphic novel collection.
Why I Didn't Put It Down: Like I mentioned above, it's Hatter Madigan!!! He is Alyss Hart's, the young heroine of the LGW series, bodyguard. In the book, she falls into the "real" world and Hatter follows her. In volume 2 of this spinoff, he is continuing his quest to find Alyss and is following "the glow" that represents intense imagination that Alyss would possibly being giving off if he found her. It is civil war in the United States and Hatter must maneuver his way through this alternate world where he, of course, is faced with challenges that prevent him from staying on the path of finding Alyss Hart. There is so much action in this graphic novel that you really cannot put it down. Sam Makkonen's images are intense and dark just like the story. The scenes feel like they are taking place behind a dust cloud (this is a good thing for this type of story). Also, there is an interesting amount of civil war references that I did not really expect.
Who Would I Recommend This To: To those of us who really enjoy the Looking Glass series as well as someone looking for a good action packed comic series to read. Also, more mature middle school readers who aren't too shocked by comic violence. It's intense and for me, not too graphic. At one point, Hatter gets stabbed but it wasn't as graphic as other GN's that I've read. Again, if you are worried about how your community would react, take a look at your local comic shop first before adding it to your colleciton.
3 comments:
I'm not usually a big graphic novel fan, but this looks really interesting. I wonder if I can find this at my library.
I really love the alternate Alice in Wonderland. Also you know you can request them to order it :)
not sure if they will buy it but usually libraries will order because someone is interested in it.
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