Review! (Graphic Novel Edition!) - Luna The Vampire, Volume 1: Grumpy Space by Yasmin Sheikh

Title: Luna the Vampire, Vol 1: Grumpy Space

Author: Yasmin Sheikh Genre: Graphic Novels, Sci-Fi, Paranormal, Humour, Vampires

Series: Luna the Vampire

Release Date: 14 July 2016

Amazon: UK - USA

Review! (Graphic Novel Edition!) - Disney's Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Vol 1

Title: Disney's Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Volume 1

Author: Jun Abe

Genre: Graphic Novels, Manga, Fantasy, Media Tie-In

Series: Disney's Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Amazon:
2-volume edition - US - UK

Vol 1 - US
Vol 2 - US

A few starting notes:

I received a free digital review copy of this book via NetGalley. NetGalley provides review copies from publishers in exchange for fair and honest reviews.

OK, we have some stuff to get clear straight-off:

This manga is made up of two volumes (oddly enough, Vol 1 (US,) and Vol 2 (US,)) and is also available in a collected edition of both volumes (US - UK.)

From what I can make out, here in the UK (and probably a lot of other countries,) it's currently only available in the collected 2-volume edition (in English, anyway.)

I received a review copy of the first volume, so that's what I'm reviewing here.

This is a manga adaptation of the movie adaptation (UK - US) of the classic book (UK - US).

It reads right-to-left in traditional manga-style.

Right, we all got that? Great.

Premise:

Alice Kingsley is a girl trapped in society's expectations. Then... then she sees the rabbit.

What follows is a trip to Underland, an adventure, a prophecy, and the chance to be 'the Right Alice;' prepare for impossible things.

Best bits:

The combination of Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton, and a manga-style just works. Ok?

There's something about this which is just... right.

The character design is spot-on - not least in terms of The Hatter and the Red Queen.

The right level of detail is carried throughout - highly intricate in the places where it needs it, and less dense in the places that need a lighter touch.

The whole thing is deftly carried out with skill and a real love of the vivacity of the source material.

Basically, I loved it.

Not so great bits:

In places, I felt like this was so true to the film, that I could quote some lines before I read them, and that did take a little of the sparkle out of things.

But this is a tie-in with the film, and you're going to expect an element of this at the least.

There's the odd drop of violence here and there, but nothing beyond what's in the film - if you know the film, you know what to expect, and it's fans of the film that're going to be the main audience here.

Verdict:

Alice fans rejoice!

The artwork is beautiful, and the combination of elements astounding.

Any Wonderland fan will love it.

Goodreads (Volume 1) – Tokyopop Catalogue (Volume 1)

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Nerd Church - Of Impossible Things

You all know that I'm an Alice in Wonderland fan (if you don't, I just told you;) and I've been thinking lately that we could all take a leaf out of Alice's book.

(I'm mainly talking Alice a la the recent Disney films starring Johnny Depp; the first movie was directed by Tim Burton (UK - US.))

One of the main themes of the two Alice films is the impossible. Alice makes the impossible possible, and believes in impossible things.

I think we all need to do that - no matter how hard it may feel (and lord knows we've got some damned tough times coming.)

When you believe, and you keep trying, you really can achieve what others may call the impossible.

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My lovely country, Wales, has reached the semi-finals in Euro 2016.

Now, if you know nothing about football (soccer) this may not mean much to you.

Let's just say that short of the World Cup, the Euros are about as big as you can get (and thank whoever may be listening that competing is not reliant on being a part of the EU.)

We were not expected to do anything - we were expected to be canon fodder to the other teams. We didn't care. The red shirt is the red shirt, whether it's on a rugby player or a football player.

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(In case you've been hiding under a rock, this is Gareth Bale. He's one of the best players in the world. And he's ours.)

We believed the impossible was possible, and made it so.

(And so did Iceland, for that matter - they aren't even professional players, which is fab. Their coach is a part-time dentist, and they defeated England - one of the richest international teams in the world.)



I'm not saying that failure isn't an option - it's OK to fail. What I'm saying is that a little hope, optimism, and belief, can go a long way.

So believe in 6 impossible things before breakfast. Because the world moves in a better direction when we achieve Impossible Things.




Nerd Church is a weekly post where I ramble on about various 'issues' and/or random thoughts. If you liked it, I'd be uber-pleased if you shared :)

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Conversations - Lending Out Books

Conversations is a meme from Geraldine @ Corralling Books and Joan @ Fiddler Blue.

I faff in and out of the discussions when it pleases me - 'cos that's just who I am (this week, lie in the grass... sorry, FOB playing in my head.)

This fortnight's theme/question/whatever you wanna be calling it is:

What are do’s and don’ts for someone who wants to borrow

your books?

Now, I really don't know why there's so much issue with this in the bookish community.

I know I'm the odd one out here but I see every dog-ear, slight tear, or general dishevelment from when you put it in your bag and then put something heavy on top, as badges of honour.

This book has a story. It's been loved, used, and abused.

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Saying that, I don't purposefully go out to wreck my books.

That's just silly. Especially when I know my natural clumsiness and hare-brained habits will deal with it for me in half the time.




I also do have some ground-rules (although they'll probably seem extreme to you guys,) namely:

• You DO NOT PUT A MARBLE IN MY BOOK (this was my brother, he embedded a marble in the front page of my HP:OotP book by accident... somehow. I wasn't pleased. Though I was slightly impressed.)

• DON'T KEEP MY BOOK FOR OVER A YEAR (a school friend; literally every time she saw me for a year she swore and slapped herself for forgetting again. At least I eventually got it back, she lost the DVD I lent her.)

• Please don't leave it in a pile of dirty clothes and other general detritus, that's just gross (my sis-in-law with my copy of The Casual Vacancy; I confiscated it when she and my brother moved out and left it in said icky pile of their cr*p.)

• Don't intentionally wreck it (no-one's actually done this one, but it's just common sense.)

And that's about it. Sometimes I'm a little bit fussier if it's a graphic novel that was expensive and/or hard to find - but even then a general 'please look after it,' usually does the job.


What can I say? There are much worse things in life than a bent corner or a tea/coffee mark. And if I didn't love you, I wouldn't be lending you stuff anyway.

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Friday Fics Fix - Bat Outta Hell

Fanfiction has no rules. It's part of what makes the medium so unique.

If a fic author wants to cross Harry Potter with something completely random, like EastEnders (please don't tell me if such a fic exists - I don't want to know,) then they can.

No questions asked (except maybe regarding your sanity in the 'wtf did you do?!' kind of style.)

Of course, once unleashed onto the interweb - particularly if you're using one of the more popular platforms like AO3 or FF - people are likely to read your bizarre Franken-fic. People like me.

Because when I see a random cross-over fic, my dear nerdlets, I can't help myself. I just can't resist it, even though nine times out of ten you can be damned sure it will end badly.

This week's fic is one of those random cross-overs that I really shouldn't click on but inevitably do. Lucky for me, it's part of the one in ten times when I wasn't scarred for life by doing this (woo!)






Now, bear (is it bear or bare? Always confused by that,) with me: this is going to sound completely batsh** crazy (upcoming pun intended - because that's just how I roll sometimes.)

This week's fic decides to pair-off Hermione Granger with none other than... (*DRUMROLL*) BATMAN!

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I know! It sounds so freaking demented. But... and this is the really weird part... it works.

The fic author has done a fantastic job of smushing the DC world and the Wizarding world together - and somehow it seems plausible (about as plausible as either of these universes is on their own anyway.)

This is set several years after the Harry Potter books end - in an AU (Alternate Universe) where the fighting didn't stop. There's also some spoilers for the books, just a warning in case there's anyone who hasn't read them yet.

(Also, when searching for the link to this fic, I found there is more than one fic out there that crashes Harry Potter into Batman. Be afraid. Be very afraid.)

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This week's fic is:

Blessings From Malice by sarhea





Sure, there are some grammar and spelling issues (if someone has bigoted beliefs, they are usually referred to as a bigot, not a bigamist - that's a whole different type of situation! #JustSaying) and some plot-hiccups that aren't really big enough to be called holes, but overall it's actually quite well-written.

There's a bunch of violence and some references to sexy-times (nothing graphic - which was almost more of a shock than the whole Hermione/Bruce Wayne deal-y... this is fanfiction after all,) but nothing that really goes that far past normal YA level.

Certainly, it doesn't get as graphic as some New Adult books I've read - so the easily embarrassed can rest easy.

Like this post? Try these:

• The Case For Fanfiction
• Nerd Church - The Pottermore Controversy
• Popcorn Review! - Batman (1989)

Comics Wrap Up - It's Much Better To Face These Kinds Of Things...

Due to a quirk of the Comics Gods, all of my comics-y goings-on this week have been in the 'Other Stuff' category.

(Dammit Loki! Stop messing with my sh**! I said I was sorry already!)

My 'Other Stuff' category is what most people would call Miscellaneous - the category where all the stuff I'm too confused or lazy busy to put into other categories goes.




There's still some very interesting cr*p going on in this week's wrap-up - so take a look! XD





Other Stuff




This week, I read a Thor tie-in novel: Thor: Dueling with Giants (UK - US) by Keith R A De Candido.

This is the first book in a trilogy of 3 kids' novels - Marvel's Tales of Asgard - and I'll be reviewing it soon. :)

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There's good news for fans of diversity in comics this week:

Marvel announced plans for a new Inhumans character and series: Mosaic. A new black superhero, Mosaic's alter-ego is a basketball player named Morris Sackett.

Elsewhere, Mark Millar has announced new runs of both the Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl series, with the title role of Kick-Ass being taken up this time around by an African-American woman.

It's uber-good that comics creators are finally waking up and smelling the under-representation in the industry, but there's still undoubtedly a ways to go.

Progress, though my dearest nerdlets! Progress!

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In #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend news:

Sebastian Stan spoke briefly about his views on Stucky; his comments were positive, and probably about as enthusiastic as you can get while towing the studio-line.

A gay porn parody of Civil War seems to have decided to use the hashtag for marketing.

I have no issues with porn in itself (as long as it's safe, sane, consensual, and non-exploitative,) but am majorly p**sed off that they're using the tag.

People have been working to get this seen as a serious campaign, and throw light of the lack of LGBTQ+ representation and relationships in mainstream media; adding porn to the mix runs the risk of cheapening the issue in the eyes of many.

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Nadia Bauman at Women Write About Comics wrote a piece about the treatment of Russian culture and history in graphic novel Codename Baboushka Vol 1: The Conclave of Death (UK - USA.)

(You can see my review of Codename Baboushka Vol 1 here.) 

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Johanna at Comics Worth Reading spread the news that awesome Welsh actor Michael Sheen will be directing a film adaptation of Dark Horse Comics' title Green River Killer (UK - US.)







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1/2 Year Resolutions Update

It's the end of June!

So I guess, given that half the year is gone already, it's time to look at where I am with those pesky bookish New Year's resolutions I made.

(Damn you attempts to improve myself!)

Reading Resolutions

• To read 200 books (Goodreads Challenge)

Well on-target for this - I've read 110 books so far, 13 books ahead of schedule, and 55% through!

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• To read at least 20 books for the Charity Reading Challenge 2016.

Yeah... don't think this one's gonna happen. Seeing as how I've read a grand total of... 1 book for this challenge.

I think it's because all the e-books and library books and new books keep distracting me.

So I'm revising my target down to 10 books. I can always put it back up again if I've got the chance.

• To read widely

Welp. This one seems to be going quite well if the range of genres I've read this year is anything to go by (and that's a lot of different genres - I think I have a problem.)

I also wrote a post entitled '6 Ways To Read More Widely' in order to help others - because I'm nice like that.

• To read at least 5 books in Welsh

Yeah... I haven't started this one.

I only mean to read like, really easy kids books, but I still haven't got around to it. Welsh is hard! ...So I kind of keep putting it off.

Even though I really want to learn more because hell, it's yr iaith (the language) of y gwlad (the land,) and it does mean a lot to me - but dude, it's a tough language to learn!

• To never, ever, stop reading in print

Still reading a lot in print, as well as reading on the e-reader. Love print!

Blogging Resolutions

• To blog regularly.

I blog almost every day - so this one is going well. Just have to keep it up!

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• To always be open, honest, and genuine in my blogging and my reviewing.

I hope you all agree that I definitely keep this in mind when blogging. To the extent where sometimes I probably tell you a little more than you wanted to know!

• To never lose sight of why I started this blog - which was to have fun, feel a bit more like a person again, enjoy reading, and encourage others to do the same.

Hopefully still doing that!

• Try to find ways to promote reading

As a Book Nerd On A Mission, I've been trying to read out in public (the big wide world!) at least once a week, even if it's only waiting for The Bestie to reach our table at the coffee shop.

People definitely seem to find this weird - particularly in Pizza Hut. I think they were about two minutes away from calling the men with the white coats.

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I've also been adding non-bookish blogging hashtags, and tagging non-bookish blogging accounts for retweets, on Twitter. That way it's not just the bookish who are exposed to my all-out zaniness.

BUT THERE'S STILL MORE TO DO.

I want to spread reading to the world! But for that, my dear nerdlets, I will need your help.

Any ideas of how to spread reading like a plague will be most welcome! AND GET OUT THERE AND READ IN PUBLIC!

• To not get stressed! - If I don't finish a post by a certain time, it doesn't matter! This is my blog, and I shouldn't be stressing about it.

Ha, yeah... working on this one. It's hard sometimes when you're trying to run your own business (most ninja assassin princesses are self-employed,) and sort out the normal life sh** and blog.

But blogging is definitely good for me mental-health-wise - hence the amount of posts I write on a weekly basis, and the amount of faffing about and bugging all of you that I do in general :)




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