AFTER: The Graphic Novel (Volume One)

Product Information

Image is a comics and graphic novels publisher formed in 1992 by seven of Marvel Comics’ best-selling artists. Since that time, Image has gone on to become the third largest comics publisher in the United States. One of the most innovative graphic novels in recent memory, Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese skillfully intertwines three tales of race and culture. The first and most prominent is that of Jin Wang, a Chinese-American boy struggling to assimilate into a new white neighborhood and school. Alongside his narrative are the slightly fantastical stories of the Monkey King — a powerful master of kung-fu who wants people to view him as a god — and another boy, Danny, who lives in fear of being embarrassed by his stereotypical Chinese cousin. However, as this carefully arranged novel unfolds, it emerges that all is not as it seems… and that the characters of each individual story have as much to learn from one another as we readers do. Publisher of alternative comix, classic comics, and graphic novels from creators like Peter Bagge, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Ellen Forney, and Chris Ware to name just a few.

In France, young Clémentine is struggling to understand her sexuality until a chance encounter with a blue-haired woman changes everything. As we know, the course of true love never did run smooth. But with the help of Emma (the blue one) — our heroine begins to feel out her place as a gay woman — and what that means for her familial relationships and political leanings. So far, Blue is the Warmest Color is the only graphic novel to have inspired a Palm d’Or-winning film at the Cannes Festival — though we’re holding out hope for a bonkers Naruto adaption from Takeshi Miike! Und so bewerte ich das Buch auch, denn wer die Geschichte noch nicht kennt, wird durch dieses kurzweilige Lesevergnügen nie die Gefühle und Emotionen dieser toxischen Beziehung so erfahren, wie in den richtigen Büchern. Hmm, that's a good question [laughs]. Probably just trimming the cycle. Especially as we're getting further into the story, we're deep in the second one now and I'm kind of reading like, "Wow, this is the same fight 40 times" [laughs], but that's kind of reality. It's like you don't learn until you learn and then you can't fix the problem until you find the root of the problem. A lot of it is just trimming. There's not necessarily drastic changes yet, at least. Spoiler without spoiling, but I think towards the end, I might do a little more drastic changing, but for now, I'm keeping it mostly on point with the novel. If you enjoyed that particularly dark and gritty take on the Joker’s descent into madness, you will surely also enjoy Batman: The Killing Joke, as it provided the foundation for writer/director Todd Phillips’ film adaptation. The graphic novel is considered the definitive Joker origin story, one which also starts with an engineer who quits his job at a chemical company to pursue his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian — only to fail miserably. After reaching his breaking point and turning into the Joker we know today, he sets out on a mission to prove that all humans can be pushed to their mental breaking point and turn into a lawless killer just like him. And in this story, he’s set his sights on Commissioner Gordon as the subject of his social experiment. Home to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, The Flash, Green Lantern, The Watchmen and many other classic comic book superheroes.

When 9-year-old Phoebe skips a stone across a pond (four times!), she has no idea that she’s about to accidentally strike a unicorn! It’s okay, though — far from being hurt, the unicorn, Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, is grateful that she was interrupted. For, you see, she sometimes gets caught up for days staring in her own beautiful reflection. In gratitude, she grants Phoebe one wish, and Phoebe chooses for Marigold to be her best friend. You may know him as a human rights activist or Star Trek’s Sulu, but before he could grow up to do any of those things, George Takei was a Japanese-American boy whose family was imprisoned in an American concentration camp during World War II. In Giant Days, three women become fast friends within the first weeks of university. Daisy is the naive homeschooler, Esther the goth, and Susan the sensible tomboy. Or at least, that’s who they were before they entered the terrifying world of adult-ish life. They encounter enemies (including a gaggle of private school girls), fall in and out of love, and attempt to reinvent themselves — you know, the way every teenager wants to when they leave home. A refreshing look at college life through a predominantly female cast, Allison’s consistently hilarious, Eisner-winning comic can now be enjoyed in 14 collected volumes.

Lo entiendo, el libro tiene como 500 páginas y la novela gráfica no llega ni a las 200 entonces se que es complicado poner todo, se tienen que hacer cambios o en definitiva se tienen que eliminar peroooo a que costó?? This intensely personal memoir follows George and his family through one of the more shameful periods of American history — opening with the terrifying morning when his family is rushed from their house, and continuing on through the next few years as the Takeis struggle with their relationship to the country that imprisoned them after making it their home. They Called Us Enemy lays it all out with unflinching honesty, bringing an oft-overlooked moment of our past to light. In this important account of Brazilian slavery, we follow the lives of four enslaved individuals across four different stories of resistance. Make no mistake: this book does not shy away from the realities of what slavery and slave owners did to people. The visuals, which carry most of the stories, are brutal, honest, and gruesome, even as the artistry itself has much to be admired. But if you can take the honest approach to the dark subject matter, Run For It is not a title to be missed. It’s a necessary, unabashed book — one that shows the many different shapes, both big and small, that resistance can take — and it will surely be part of the graphic novel landscape for many years to come.

Adaptations

What about fans who are very familiar with After, both in its novel and Netflix adaptation forms? What can they get out of these graphic novels that they haven't already read or seen onscreen? Lucy Knisley always knew she wanted to be a mother, but life doesn’t always make our dreams easy. Kid Gloves is the account of her relationship with babies and childbirth, from her perceptions of the process as a kid to the exhaustive effort she once put into preventing pregnancy before she was ready and the way that she struggled with her feelings when the person she wanted to spend her life with wasn’t interested in being a parent. Her art style, as well as her experiences, are grounded and deeply relatable — whether you’re interested in parenthood or not — and the book is sprinkled with facts about reproduction, gestation, and childbirth that are both fascinating and important. You’ll feel each step of Lucy’s tangled emotions as she processes everything from miscarriage and a chilling account of the birth that almost kills her, to the deep fulfillment of a lifelong wish. Madeleine L’Engle’s all-time teen lit classic A Wrinkle in Time gets the sparkly graphic treatment in this adaptation from the co-creator of Goldie Vance. Thirteen-year-old Meg is a misfit who, along with her young brother Charles Wallace and classmate Calvin, finds herself transported across the galaxy by a mysterious ‘tesseract’. Confronted with strange new worlds and creatures, they must discover the power within them — and save Meg’s father. The name of the On a Sunbeam game is: recovering what’s been lost. To that end, a “restoration crew” travels through space to preserve what’s left of times gone by. Mia is one member of that crew, but she’s interested in more than just looking after the universe’s history. There’s another member of the crew who might just be from Mia’s own past. Someone she’s never forgotten. Someone she’s never stopped loving… and whom she hopes still loves her too.

Momentami, patrząc na ilustracje, czułam, że są one wykonane zdecydowanie mniej dokładne i estetycznie w porównaniu z ilustracjami z pierwszego tomu tej powieści. To samo było niestety z tekstem. Home of Spider-Man, X-Men, The Avengers, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and many other legendary comic book characters. Excelsior! You know, I think so. Can't say for sure, but I have really, really enjoyed this form of storytelling, and it would be really fun to do probably a completely original idea or maybe another one of my novels, but I love this, and now I'm like, "Oh, this opened up a whole new part of my creative brain that is really being fed well." So I would say probably.

Memoirs and Nonfiction

Jarrett Krosoczka didn’t grow up in the Typical American Family with a mom and a dad, two siblings, and a dog. Instead, he had his grandparents, a heroin-addicted mother often in rehab, and no sign of his father. Told with laugh-out-loud humor and a gentle touch of compassion, this is a story to charm all ages. Phoebe and Her Unicorn is an instant classic; a sparkly, girly successor to the much-loved Calvin and Hobbes. Though the manga industry is incredibly subversive and innovative in many ways, it’s not without some difficult faults — one of which is its overt sexualization of women and frequent fetishization of gay relationships. This is just one of the things that Nagata Kabi’s autobiographical My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness bravely corrects. Gone are the short skirts, questionable depictions of anatomy, and gratuitous art of lesbian fun. Instead, Kabi offers an unflinching, powerful portrait of her struggles with sexual identity, depression, and self-harm — a journey that will take readers into brothels and hospitals alike. Honest and heartfelt, this manga won’t be an easy read, but it is definitely a worthwhile one that may just help open your eyes. Las páginas pasan volando. Como siempre hay algún conflicto o drama de por medio, pues es fácil querer ir viendo cómo seguirá todo. Por lo que he entendido, este volumen no abarca el primer libro completo, pero sí que acaba en un momento muy crucial, así que me he quedado con ganas de saber qué ocurrirá a continuación.

It’s not the wish Marigold was expecting, and at first she doesn’t seem at all sure about this arrangement. But as time — and gentle snarking — goes on, the two of them realize that maybe they have more in common than they first thought. There are certain things that when I, especially now, where everything's just different than when I first started writing and the content I was consuming was different, but I don't ever really tweak anything for critics. Because, here's the thing, as much as it's frustrating to have a 1,000 people on the internet cuss you out about fictional characters [laughs], I do really want to create controversial stories. I don't want to tell the story of a perfect girl, perfect boy who meet each other, they hang out, then everything's great, the end. What is life without complication? And people are complicated.

Fall in love all over again in volume one of the graphic novel adaptation of the global phenomenon AFTER! In the midst of these strange times emerges (what else?) a league of extraordinary gentlemen. Comprised of fictional characters such as Captain Nemo and Dr. Jekyll, it's time for these literary figures to band together and determine how to save the British Empire. Before we close out, is there anything you want anyone, your fans, new fans, to know before they go into this graphic novel? Since we've talked so much about how much fun you had working on this graphic novel, does this mean that there are going to be more graphic novels from you outside of the After series? Either from you directly or from Frayed Books?