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This star means that the title or site is recommended especially for younger teens
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The past is always attractive -- it shows where we come from and where we sometimes return to, even when we should remember and know better. If you're the kind of reader who devoured Karen Hesse's Witness or Adele Geras' Troy, these books are for you.
Jump to a title:
Adolf: A Tale of the Twentieth Century
Age of Bronze
Berlin: City of Stones
A Contract with God
Days Like This
Enemy Ace
The Golden Vine
The Golem's Mighty Swing
Jack the Ripper
Trenches
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At this point in history, the name Adolf has a rather immediate reaction -- dictator, little square moustache, genocide, madman. It is difficult to escape negative associations. Osamu Tezuka, a revered anime animator and manga writer, wrote this trilogy to reinvent the way we look at Adolf and World War II. The story follows three boys named Adolf: a Jewish boy living in Japan; a half-Japanese, half-German boy; and the famous dictator. review by robin |
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Would you start a war to keep the love of the most beautiful woman in the world? This title marks the beginning of another epic series -- this time Eric Shanower tackles the full story of the Trojan War, detailed with research from history and mythology. Drawn in crisp black and white, the story focuses on the people caught up in the tide of war, from the famous instigator Paris to the beautiful Helen. Read More... |
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There are numerous stories about the Holocaust and WWII, but what about Germany before the war? What led to the rise of Nazism and the horrors that followed? Jason Lutes eloquently traces the politics and society of Weimar Berlin in this first volume of a projected trilogy. The tale centers around Marthe Muller, a struggling young artist and Kurt Severing, a downtrodden reporter, but the story reaches far beyond these two to a wide group of well-drawn characters. If you want to feel history through your heart rather than analyze it with your brain, this title is for you. review by robin |
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Will Eisner is the granddaddy of graphic novels as well as being repsonsible for the success of comics in a variety of genres, from journalism to nonfiction. This title, often called the first graphic novel, is a personal one -- a sequence of tales drawn from Eisner's memories of growing up Jewish in a Tenement in Brooklyn in pre-war America. He deftly explores the fragility and community to be found in a world of people living in poverty practically on top of each other. The tale also works as a portrait of a place and time as can only be told by one who lived through it, with affection and honesty. review by robin |
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As Jamie Rich reminds us in his afterword, the idea that all musicians must write their own lyrics and melodies is, in actuality, a rather stupid idea. What many think of as some of greatest performers of all time didn't write a note or word on their own, and despite the occasional master of all crafts that appears, we do not need the endless parade of singer/songwriters that often plug up the music charts. Writing a song, both in terms of lyrics and music, is an art many performers just aren't up to. Don't you dare harken back to older times, either -- it was just as rare back then as it is now for a singer/songwriter to actually be good. Pop music takes an even more rare talent -- how to be everything to everyone and say it with an infectious tune requires a pretty impressive sense of balance. All this to introduce Days Like This, a wonderful new feel-good journey through the 1960s music industry that produced some of greatest pop music America knows. Groups were formed out of some of the strangest circumstances. In this case, Anna Solomon, ex-wife of a record producer, is determined to take on her ex's business and beat him at his own game, but first she's got to find some talent. Enter three high school girls performing at the her daughter's high school show, and Anna knows she's got her new band. If only lead singer Tina's father would let them perform. Tackling head on the minefields of family loyalties, first time writing and recording staff, and her own doubts, Anna is determined to make Tina and the Tiaras stars. Everything in this title is, pardon the bad pun, perfectly on key -- the dialog is easy and perfectly pitched, and the clean flow of Scott Chantler's artwork wraps it all together in an energetic package. The only let-down is that you can't hear the music. review by robin |
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Hans von Hammer was the fiercest, most ingenious fighter pilot in the Great War -- on Germany's side. Now withering in a German sanitorium, another veteran, this one of Vietnam, comes seeking some advice on how to deal with his memories. Both get more than they bargained for in reliving the past. Inspired by the tragedy and heroism of WWI, this book is hauntingly illustrated with full color paintings of unexpected tenderness and beauty. review by robin |
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An ambitious, visually stunning work, The Golden Vine is also a study of history's possibilities. The book focuses on one of the more enigmatic figures of the world's past: Alexander the Great, that rebellious Macdeonian prince who conquered the bulk of the known world only to die in his 30s, armies scattered and empire broken. The Golden Vine turns on one departure from recorded history: what if Alexander had not destroyed the conquered capital of the Persian empire, Persepolis, and, by maintaining the respect of those people instead of crushing them, followed a different path to life and a world empire? Told in three interwoven parts, each vividly illuminated by a different artist, the tale follows the journey of Alexander IV, Alexander's half-Greek, half-Persian heir, as he struggles to ascend to the throne of Emperor and puzzle through the power and legacy of a father he barely knew. Through the memories and advice of Alexander's closest companion, Hephaestion, now ruler of Persia, and by reading Alexander's own letters Alexander IV begins to see his father as both a man and ruler. The entire work is impressive both in scope and in the humanity visible through the monumental legend. Jai Sen certainly did his homework, and he was careful to document where he departs from the known story -- in fact, Shoto Press has a wonderful website devoted to the title with invaluable side by side timelines showing recorded history and the book's embellishments and outright changes. Alexander, Hephaestion, and Alexander IV are all very real people, struggling with their individual senses of pride, loyalty, and power in the process of changing the world's landscape culturally as well as geographically. In the end, I was a wee bit skeptical at the ease with which Alexander spreads his rule across the continents, but within such a glorious book all around, it is a small fault. An excellent choice for teenagers and adults curious about ancient worlds, the legend of Alexander the Great, and the true nature of authority. review by robin |
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Enough with war -- on to baseball! Set in the 1920s, this title follows the Stars of David, one of many barnstorming baseball teams touring the country, this team's distinction being that all the team members are Jewish. Caught in the Midwest and desperate for attendance, the team bills their one African-American teammate, dubbed a member of the lost tribe, as a mythical golem. Their gimmick backfires, however, and pushes their audience's anti-semitism to a boiling point. Subtle and affecting, this is not to be missed. review by robin |
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I will admit to a fascination with Jack the Ripper. Apparently like a good chunk of the American public, I am intrigued as to what causes such great evil to manifest in certain men and women, and all of the stories, from the suave Republican Ted Bundy to everyone's favorite fictional cannibal Hannibal, begin with the Whitechapel murders. The string of murders which have continued to puzzle criminal experts since the 1880s remain sensational, and the various speculations on the identity of this first icon of serial killers are often the most intriguing, if often ridiculous, tales of all. Rick Geary has a series of titles, dubbed A Treasury of Victorian Murder, which each examine a particular case of the time, from the Ripper to accused murderess Lizzie Borden. This volume is presented as journal following the case as it happened, obviously of a gentleman of the upper classes given his access to the crimes and their details, and Geary does an excellent job of presenting the case, the players, and the suspects without ever speculating on the killer's true identity. The artwork is suitably dark and strong, its woodcut style giving every image an almost physical weight on the page. Though graphic enough to transmit the severity and violence of the crimes, the art is never ghoulish in its portrayal of the victims. An admirable addition to Jack the Ripper titles, certain to delight young investigators and those in search of a good, chilling tale. review by robin |
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In a clean, almost child-like style of wiggly lines and shifting shadows, Scott Mills tackles a story of the French front in World War I. At the center of the story are three men: Lloyd Allenby, a upstanding husband and worker volunteering for the war, Davey, a less than admirable and rather bumbling younger brother who nonetheless manages to leave two women pining at home, and Jonathan Hemingway, a stalwart, upper class man who will be their commanding officer. Mills traces their time on the front through a series of instances, from jokes and scuffles in the trenches to the relative ease of the local bars, all the while making clear the horrible loss and sudden attacks that became everyday occurences. Although not as harrowing as other tales of the Great War, Mills manages to create a subtle and realistic portrait of the bonds that formed between men in those fields, unexpected and against class rules though they may be, and shows tragedy on an intimate scale. The look of the panels and grayscale tone stylizes the more graphic violence and a bit of sexual content, but it is still powerful, as it must be to make the story resonant. review by robin |
Age
of Bronze
Berlin:
City of Stones
Enemy
Ace: War Idyll
The
Golem's Mighty Swing
Jack
the Ripper 
Trenches
copyright Robin Brenner 2002-2004