Dropping some recommendations for the holidays

This post is dropping the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, so I thought it might be appropriate to do something a little bit different. Instead of a single comic, trade or story arc, I’m going to briefly recommend a number of genre-related items that might have made very small posts on their own. Several are genre-related shows and films currently streaming, just in case anyone out there is looking for something to watch. I hope you enjoy them.

First up is something I recently enjoyed on Netflix with my family and can’t believe I failed to mention a few weeks ago: The Netflix re-boot of “Lost in Space.” I spent some time this fall discussing some Lost in Space comics. If you missed those posts, you can find them here, here and here.

I can’t believe I failed to even mention this latest incarnation of the Space Family Robinson’s adventures when discussing the comics. I discovered the show on the streaming platform shortly after it debuted in 2018 and, while it was very different from the original, I very much enjoyed the presentation. The third and final season of the program dropped on December 1, 2021, and the show did not disappoint. Again, the characters follow a very different path in this re-imagining, but there are echoes of the original show and a few cameos, too. I and my entire family enjoyed the show and heartily recommend it.

Next up is a fun little animated film streaming on the Disney-Plus platform right now called “Ron’s Gone Wrong.” I heard of it in a friend’s Facebook post. He said the entire family watched and enjoyed the film and laughed all the way through it. I thought it might make a good family movie night for my wife, my 10-year-old daughter and I, and we enjoyed it, too. The film took about 10 to 15 minutes to set everything up and get rolling, but then it was full of laughs. The story centers on one unpopular boy and his efforts to fit in while everyone around him is obsessed with personalized robots and the tech giant that sells them.

Another Facebook post led me to my next recommendation: “Slugfest,” a Roku channel original documentary about the lengthy rivalry between DC Comics and Marvel Comics. This 10-episode series just dropped on Christmas Eve, but each episode is only about eight- to 10-minutes long, so it runs pretty quickly. I’m a longtime comics fan myself, and there was not much new information in this series, but it was very well and entertainingly presented. Kevin Smith narrates, and a number of comics pros contributed to the series. There are also flashback segments showing the comics pros as younger men and women in past decades, and these creators are portrayed by several big name genre actors and actresses. If you’re still not sure, you can find a trailer for the series here.

My next TV recommendation is the just completed six-episode Marvel series "Hawkeye," also on the Disney-Plus streaming platform. I watched the original Marvel/Netflix collaborations on “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage,” “Iron Fist,” “Defenders” and “The Punisher” as well as the more recent “Wanda/Vision,” The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and “What If...?” on Disney-Plus, and I’ve enjoyed all of them. But the latest, involving both Clint Barton and Kate Bishop was a very fun adventure. I’ve never followed Clint Barton in the comics much and don’t know a lot about Kate Bishop beyond the original Young Avengers series. But this was a nice little storyline with some interesting twists, creators playing on the expectations of comics fans and more development for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But mostly, it was a fun show to watch.

Switching from one archer to another and from one medium to another, I would also like to heartily recommend the two recent 100-Page Super Spectacular issues DC Comics devoted to the 80th anniversaries of Green Arrow and Aquaman. Both issues are collections of short stories taking place at various times throughout each characters’ publishing history. They touch on a number of favorite eras in each character’s history and include a number of familiar creators and co-stars along the way. Both books are great reads, but then I’m biased when it comes to these characters.

Lastly, I want to recommend one other creator and comic title: the Collectors webcomic by Eddie deAngelini. You can find the home of Eddie’s web comic here. Eddie write about himself, his wife and his collecting habit to very funny effect. I first came across Eddie’s art several months ago, once again on Facebook. I’ve read a number of his random comics in the months since then and liked them enough to back his recent Kickstarter campaign to publish the sixth annual collection of his comics. He’s a creative and funny guy I’m happy to support, especially because I can readily see myself and my non-collector wife in some of his comics.

So there you have it: a small collection of genre-related recommendations for the holidays. I hope you enjoyed them and maybe discovered something new along the way. Come back in two weeks for a more traditional post to kick off 2022. I’m thinking something from Image that proved to be a pleasant surprise for me. See you then!

Something for young and old alike

Ghosts
Scholastic Graphix
Creators: Raina Telgemeier
Publication date: 2016

This is not an original graphic novel I discovered on my own. My 10-year-old daughter came across the book in her school’s library. She was intrigued by the title and cover, borrowed the book and read it. And she loved it. So much so, that she bought her own copy of the book at the next school book fair. She read it again, and afterwards, she talked it up so much that her mother read it next, and I read it after they each did.

The story is written and illustrated for a younger audience, but like most of the best children’s fiction, is not written down to younger readers. That makes it an enjoyable, if quick, read for adults, too.

Catrina, who prefers to be called Cat, is the main character in this story. While Cat’s age in not specified in the book, my daughter thought she was likely junior high age. I think 12 or 13 sounds about right. Cat’s family has just moved to a new town, Bahia de la Luna in northern California. Cat’s younger sister, Maya, has cystic fibrosis, and it was recommended the family move to the coast to help Maya’s breathing issues. So the family of four moved in August, ahead of the new school year. Cat is a little resentful of the move. She loves her younger sister but misses her friends from the family’s old hometown.

One of the first people Cat and Maya meet in their new town is Carlos, a neighbor boy who happens to be Cat’s age. Carlos offers to take the girls on a tour of Bahia de la Luna and tells them all about the emphasis the residents of the town place on remembering and celebrating the dead — ghosts.

Maya is particularly interested in ghosts. Cystic fibrosis is a degenerative disease, meaning she will never get better and will likely get worse over time. She has questions about death and dying she hopes ghosts can answer for her. She would also like to meet one special ghost — her maternal grandmother whom she has never met.

Cat is much less anxious to meet any spirits. She grows increasingly worried and paranoid about ghosts the more she hears about them, and everyone in Bahia de la Luna seems to talk nonstop about ghosts. Things only get worse when Maya ends up in the hospital due to complications from her illness. Cat blames herself for the dark turn Maya’s illness has taken.

But rest assured, this being a book meant for younger readers, everything works out well in the end.

I found this book to be an enjoyable read with good lessons about family, friendship, courage and empathy for readers of any age. I wasn’t familiar with Raina Telgemeier’s work before this, but she has written a very engaging tale that includes some weighty subjects like death and cystic fibrosis in a way that helps younger readers understand and accept them. Her artwork is very cartoony and simple, but she still includes a wealth of details in the backgrounds and history.

I’m also very happy my daughter is growing to enjoy reading as much as her mother and I do, and I’m pleased that she is branching out to discover books beyond what her mother and I suggest for her, finding her own tastes and styles. It helps that she also likes superhero books, like I do, too. But I like to read other genres besides superheroes, both in comics form and prose. I enjoy seeing her find things she likes on her own, especially if she is choosing books like this one.