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Graphic Novel Review: Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein) by Alessandro Manzetti and Stefano Cardoselli, art by Stefano Cardoselli

cover art for Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein) by Alessandro Manzetti and Stefano Cardoselli

Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein) by Alessandro Manzetti and Stefano Cardoselli, art by Stefano Cardoselli

Independent Legions Publishing, 2020

ISBN-13: 9788831959827

Available: Paperback  ( Bookshop.org )

 

Dr. Jamaica Foxy, a brilliant scientist, creates Franky, an eight-foot tall gentle giant. Dr. Foxy teaches Franky life lessons, essentially raising him. Franky even calls her Mom. He loves his mother, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, and watching baseball games. Apart from his mother, Franky has only one friend in the world: thirteen-year-old Mary Shelley. Set in the summer of 1977 in Brooklyn, New York, the Son of Sam killings keep people off the streets… most people, anyway. One morning, Dr. Foxy’s path crosses that of some white supremacists wandering the streets looking to start a fight. When Dr. Foxy doesn’t return home after hours of waiting, Franky searches for her himself. What he discovers enrages him, turning him into a force of vengeance.

 

I love seeing what authors can do with the Frankenstein story. While this isn’t the first one where the authors have used Black Lives Matter as a focus, it is one that has a unique take on the monster tale. Dr. Foxy is a Black woman striving to improve her community through her science, teaching and raising Franky to be a caring, thoughtful individual. Against the backdrop of a tumultuous time in history, the authors call out the racial injustice faced by Black Americans today. The authors created a powerful story in Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein). The artwork is stark in its presentation, black and white art using negative space effectively. I would put Cardoselli alongside Mike Mignola and Frank Miller in its presentation.

 

Linda D. Addison provides a short but powerful introduction to this incredible graphic novel.  Recommended.

 

Contains: depictions of white supremacists, gore (in silhouette), violence against Black community, violence against women

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Editor’s note: Her Life Matters: (Or Brooklyn Frankenstein) is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Bram Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel. 

Posted on March 31, 2021 by , Reply

Book Review: A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh

cover art for A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh

A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh

Apokrupha, 2020

ISBN-13: 979-8647146519

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

The ghost of Mary Shelley haunts the pages of A Complex Accident of Life by Jessica McHugh. With words insightfully culled from Frankenstein, the blackout poetry in this brilliant jewel of a book captures the tragic intensity, dark fervor, and dramatic suffering of Shelley’s life as well as something totally new, inspired, and relatable.

 

Through startling images of struggle and determination, this collection also reveals the essence of Shelley’s creative imagination as a writer and her mind and heart as a woman. McHugh tells us, “She felt hope like a moon: / A bright heart nothing could extinguish. / She embraced its bounty / And settled passion upon purpose.” Shelley’s words, like gold deposited decades ago in the novel’s text, are mined and skillfully transformed into a contemporary memoir by the talented McHugh.

 

On each page of the book, the reader will find an entire printed poem and then, below it, a copy of the blacked out (in color) page from Frankenstein from which the poem was taken. The pages from Frankenstein are in numerical order, which is astonishing when you realize that the poems do not reflect a narrative that parallels that of the novel, and yet one poem smoothly flows into the next encouraging a slow, thoughtful reading.

 

McHugh has carefully shaped each eloquent verse to stand alone, a sort of reflective snapshot in time. There is something so tender and wounded about these poems; they sometimes seem like private thoughts that should not have been divulged: honest, raw, and deeply felt. McHugh draws us into that place where those thoughts and feelings are simultaneously hers and Shelley’s, and together, they become an expression of universal truths.

 

Jessica McHugh has truly lifted blackout poetry to an entirely new level of remarkable craftsmanship. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

 

Editor’s note: A Complex Accident of Life is a nominee on the final ballot for this year’s Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Poetry.

Posted on March 19, 2021 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: Mary Shelley Presents: Tales of the Supernatural Vol. 1 by Nancy Holder, art by Amelia Woo

cover for Mary Shelley Presents Vol. 1

Mary Shelley Presents: Tales of the Supernatural Vol. 1 by Nancy Holder, art by Amelia Woo (available only through Kymera Press)

Kymera Press, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-9965558-0-7

Available: Hardcover, trade paperback

 

Mary Shelley Presents: Tales of the Supernatural #1 is the first in a series from Kymera Press adapting stories by Victorian-era women writers of supernatural fiction. With a foreword by Lisa Morton, who just published her own anthology of Victorian women’s supernatural fiction, followed by Isabelle Banks’ poem “Haunted”, this first volume adapts “The Old Nurse’s Tale” by Elizabeth Gaskell, “Man-Size in Marble” by Edith Nesbit, “The Case of Sir Alister Moeran” by Margaret Strickland, and “Monsieur Maurice” by Amelia B. Edwards.  Each story is preceded by a short introductory paragraph from the publisher and the author, Nancy Holder, and then introduced by a spectral Mary Shelley, accompanied by her Creature. These authors have written some wonderful, chilling stories , but they do get wordy for an impatient, modern audience. Holder’s adaptations slim the stories down while preserving the quality of the storytelling, and Amelia Woo’s gorgeous color illustrations are a perfect accompaniment. The brilliant ghosts, period clothes, and detail in darkened woods and cemeteries pull the reader right in. Each adaptation is followed by the full text of the story. As someone with poor eyesight I could have wished the text was a little larger, but some of the original stories are very long– it took skill and collaborative effort to be able to successfully adapt them.

This is a great way to introduce readers to some excellent women writers who, until very recently, had not received recognition for their supernatural fiction, as well as a treat for those of us already familiar with these authors, who would love to see them gain a larger audience.  I’m hoping we won’t have to wait too long for volume 2. Highly recommended for ages 12+.

 

 

Editor’s note: In the interests of full disclosure, I backed the Kickstarter for this book.

 

 

 

 

Posted on August 12, 2020 by , Reply
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