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Showing posts with label Ross Demma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ross Demma. Show all posts
Friday, July 10, 2015
Friday, July 3, 2015
Friday, June 26, 2015
Friday, June 19, 2015
Friday, June 12, 2015
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Lumberjanes 13+14
Issue 13 acts as a flashback and opens to giving us a glimpse into the family life of each of our favorite Lumberjanes as they arrive at camp on the first day for the summer:
- Jo has been raised by 2 very supportive dads (who are both also Tony Stark-brilliant)
- Ripley seems to be 2nd or 3rd youngest in a family of 9 kids (this explains the jump-into-the-fray hyperactivity.)
- April, we only see her dad which seems to be a late-middle-aged man. She refuses help from him and proceeds to carry *ALL* of her luggage in by herself.
Here, April and Ripley have a sweet interaction involving immediate acceptance of Ripley by April (and I assume vice versa.)
- Mal arrives in a taxi of which the cabby seems to be getting Mal's whole life story leading up to and including her arrival at the camp. We also see the meet-cute moment between Mal and Molly (which is the only member of Roanoke cabin we don't see actually arrive.)
There are already character-driven layers here: April and Jo know each other, Ripley knows Jen (but seemingly no one else. I assume this is key to her acceptance by the other Lumberjanes in the cabin), this also seems to be Mal and Molly's first summer here. Not 5 minutes into everyone getting to know everyone when Ripley's unicorn disappears and before Jen can stop them, the girls race after it! We get introduced to Molly's raccoon cap and before we know it, all of the Lumberjanes are being welcomed by Rosie for the first official day of camp.
Issue #14 - We are back in the present and Jen is trying to teach the girls basic wilderness survival when a freak blizzard hits (in the middle of a summer-filled forest), Jen and the girls get separated. The girls get rescued by Rosie, while Jen wakes up in the cabin of Abigail a woman that seems to have a penchant for hunting the animals in the forest, including the creepily supernatural ones!
Meanwhile, Rosie headed back out to look for Jen while the girls did the same (unbeknownst to Rosie), Rosie encounters the mysterious bear-woman who tells her that Abigail is *back* and an air or ominousness is placed on how potentially dangerous she is (and that she and Rosie have a clear history that was once a friendship. Side-note: kudos the writers for a Die Hard 2 *and* a Frozen reference in the same sentence.
Now, it's purely speculation, because I don't know how Noelle Stevenson and company's creative processes operate, but we are now 6 issues past where the series was proposed to end and there seems to be no end in sight to the ongoing arcs. I want to say I definitively know whom to trust and who is a "shady character", but any one of these engaging folks could turn at any moment. A person you once thought was *clearly* a threat, could just be serving a greater good. There's a lot of conjecture to be had with a book like this. I will continue to make theories and plans and expect to have them dashed and/or exceeded by the next issue. I'm buckled in, ready to take this bullet-train of awesome to the next stop.
Thanks for reading,
Friday, June 5, 2015
Friday, May 29, 2015
Friday, May 22, 2015
Friday, May 15, 2015
Friday, May 8, 2015
Friday, May 1, 2015
Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Friday, April 3, 2015
Friday, March 27, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
Lumberjanes 12
Alright, so the (back)story goes like this:
I had a vague knowledge of Lumberjanes when it debuted (I enjoy most of the stuff Boom! puts out, even if I don't follow all of it religiously). On a whim, I joined Scribd, an online subscription service for books, audio books, and comic books (I'm coming back around, bear with me.) One of the titles I added was Lumberjanes: the cover was wonderfully done by Noelle Stevenson (who also writes the book and helped design the characters.) The cover was nothing flashy: 6 females among a patch of tree stumps. "Well, this could be *anything*." I thought to myself, but that didn't stop me from checking it out.
I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but this is the topper to this portion of the back story:
I had unknowingly started issue 7 instead of #1 (which wasn't available on Scribd at the time). I was halfway through the issue before I realized my mistake, but here's the thing: it didn't matter.
I was already so enthralled by the characters and the writing that I picked up on things contextually. That, to me, is some solid writing. So, already: big kudos to Noelle Stevenson and Grace Ellis.
The book revolves around 5 female scouts (Ripley, Mal, Molly, April, and Jo) that belong to Roanoke Cabin at "Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady Types" and their adventures in the surrounding area.
Once I found my way to issue 1, I second-guessed myself that there may be an issue #0 I missed because the book essentially drops you into a "cold open" with the 5 girls from Roanoke Cabin already tussling with, and ultimately defeating, some supernatural-looking foxes - actual, red foxes. This starts a chain-reaction of mystery and supernatural aspects (including an elderly woman that turns into a bear, aptly named "Bear Woman" thereafter) that the girls take upon themselves to solve. Jen is their slightly high-strung scout-leader of the cabin, which the girls regularly evade in order to move on to the next clue. Rosie is the camp's scout-master who seems to know more about the camp's mysterious goings-on than she tells.
Aside from the fantastic movie references (Jurassic Park, Aliens, and Die Hard), references to some amazing female pioneers in *every* field from music ("What in the Joan Jett are you doing?") to astronauts ("Holy Mae Jamison!"), the girls of Roanoke Cabin are also knowledgeable in the scientific names for the local flora as well as the Fibonacci sequence, all of which helps them on their quest to figure out just "what the junk" is going on around the camp. The issues even end with a "mixtape" of songs put together by one of the girls.
So, Issue 12 is the 3rd part in a small arc: It's a "Free Day" at Camp and the girls can do whatever they want. April, Jo, and Ripley swore not to go on any crazy adventures or destroy any supernatural forces until Mal and Molly have returned from their picnic together. So, the 3 attempt to earn some of the more "mundane" badges while they wait (to humorous results). Mal & Molly, meanwhile, have their picnic cut short when they witness the Bear Woman wander past their clearing. They follow her and find themselves in an alternate dimension populated by dinosaurs and carnivorous plants. The issue (and the arc) works as a catch-your-breath reprieve to the standard "constant running/jumping/fighting" when there's a big bad to take down. I also noticed something enjoyable in the dynamic of characters: although Bubbles is Molly's raccoon (that she was wearing as a hat for a while), the interactions between Ripley and Bubbles seem to serve much more entertaining results (Watch the two try to ice a cake to earn their "Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fondant" badge).
This whole series was only meant to be an 8-issue run, but got extended due to positive sales and reception. (We really do need more groups of kick-ass, female leads.) The writing might have slowed for the moment, but it has far from faltered. With Noelle Stevenson and Shannon Watters paired with Carolyn Nowak's illustrations and Maarta Laiho's colors, the crew continues to deliver exciting, engaging, and endearing stories following the Roanoke group. Even on their "Free Day", they tend to take the day by the horns and drag it around in the only way they know how. I'm looking forward to what the next issue brings them.
Thanks for reading,
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