What is Zuda Comics? That’s a great question. The short answer is that it’s an all-new line of Web Comics. The longer answer is that Zuda Comics are whatever you make of them.
Zuda Comics is the webcomics division of DC. You can design your own comic for entry into their monthly competition, vote for your favourite entry, or simply enjoy the ones already online.
While we’re on the subject, you can find the DC comics website here, and don’t forget to check out our collection of them in your library branch.
At long last – the latest, newest books. In no particular order.
Stargazer, by Claudia Gray (329 pages) – This is a sequel to Evernight. Bianca’s parents are vampires, and she’s destined to become one (they’re glam vampires, rather than the scarier, cadaverous vampires, probably). But she falls in love with a vampire hunter, which throws a spanner in the works.
First line: ‘Frost began to creep up the walls.‘
Twenty Boy Summer, by Sarah Ockler (290 pages) – Sixteen-year-olds Anna and Frankie go to California for a holiday. They conspire to find a boy for Anna’s first kiss, but Anna has a secret – she’s already had a boyfriend, and it was with Frankie’s brother Matt who died tragically a year ago. Quite sad.
First line: ‘Frankie Perino and I were lucky that day.‘
Faketastic : A Frenemies Novel, by Alexa Young (244 pages) – Halley, Avalon, and Sofee (!) are all friends. Then enemies! Then friends! This is the second Frenemies book, and it looks like there will be more.
First line: ‘“Isn’t it amazing?” Avalon Greene breezed up behind Halley Brandon and gave her best friend’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze.‘
The Warriors of Ethandun, by N. M. Browne (371 pages) – the third and final book in The Warriors Trilogy. Unfortunately, we don’t have the second book, but we do have the first. Two time-travellers return from King Arthur’s era to the present, but are unable to fit back in. So back they go! This time they’re up against Vikings and something more …
First line: ‘Dan stepped out of the Veil of mist.‘
Bridge of Tears : Usagi Yojimbo vol. 23, by Stan Sakai (246 pages) – This is the latest Usagi Yojimbo collection. It’s a graphic novel, and the series is outstanding, even if you don’t usually like comics. I promise.
Zelah Green, Queen of Clean, by Vanessa Curtis (245 pages) – Zelah Green has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and is always, always on the watch out for dirt and germs. Her stepmother sends her to a camp to try to help her, and there Zelah meets Sol, who is gooorgeous. He doesn’t speak however.
First line: ‘My name is Zelah Green and I’m a Cleanaholic.‘
After Dark : A Vamps Novel, by Nancy A. Collins (180 pages) – The third in The Vamps series. The ultra-rich and ultra-dead girls of the exclusive Bathory Academy in New York are a little Gossip Girl, and a little Twilight, if that makes sense.
First line: ‘Cally had been to Rauhnacht parties before, but none as elaborate as this.‘
Renegade : Hell’s Underground 3, by Alan Gibbons (359 pages) – ‘Entertainingly gruesome’, ‘definately scary’, gripping, action packed story’. The book has a very creepy skull on the cover also. We’d love someone to review this for us!
First line: ‘Chaim Wetzel learned at an early age that the streets of London were as likely to be paved with horror as with gold.‘
New Girl : a Secrets at St Jude’s novel, by Carmen Reid (331 pages) – Gina spent all her money on clothes and failed at school, so her mother sends her to a boarding school in Scotland. Which is quite a contrast to California.
First line: ‘Gina Peterson didn’t hear the electric gates slide open, or the silver Mercedes convertible purr through into the drive.‘
Thirst No. 1, by Christopher Pike (564 pages) – This collects the first three books of a series originally published in the mid-90s, the The Last Vampire.
First line: ‘I am a vampire, and that is the truth.‘
Tuck, by Stephen Lawhead (443 pages) – The third book in the King Raven series, which are based on the legend of Robin Hood. Good historical fiction!
First line: ‘King William stood scratching the back of his hand and watched as another bag of gold was emptied into the ironclad chest: one hundred solid gold byzants that, added to fifty pounds in silver and another fifty in letters of promise to be paid upon collection of his tribute from Normandie, brought the total to five hundred marks.‘ phew
Revolver, by Marcus Sedgwick (219 pages) - The Arctic Circle, 1910; Sig, a teenaged Swede, is stuck in a cabin with the frozen corpse of his father. Sound grim, and can only get worse before it gets better. Full of twists! Here’s a glowing review.
First line: ‘Even the dead tell stories.‘
We’ve a new manga series in the YA collection. It is titled Case Closed, by Gosho Aoyama. Jimmy Kudo is a hyper-skilled high school detective who is transformed into first-grader by a’ strange chemical’. He adopts a new name – Conan Edogawa – and continues to solve crime while hunting for whoever’s responsible for his transformation.
We have 29 volumes, so the hunt may take awhile. The animated series is big in Japan and Germany, according to Wikipedia, but I don’t think we’re getting it.
(All our other manga series are listed on this page.)
Zuda Comics collects user-submitted comics. The comics then compete with one another – they’re rated by users – and the winner is published. There’s some great work there, and the latest, Dracula vs. Santa, is hysterical. My aching sides!
You may have heard that there’s a global recession on. What can that mean? It’s quite complex, but there are simpler ways of viewing it. However, what’s perhaps more immediately relevant is how it’s affecting comics; apparently Peter Parker lost his job and is now working at McDonalds.
The American Library Association, together with its rather unattractive website*, has produced a list of 10 great graphic novels/ series that were published in 2008. We even have some, which I’ll list below.
Life Sucks, by Jessica Abel, Gabriel Soria and Warren Pleece
Japan Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan, by Aimee Major Steinberger
Skim, by Mariko Tamaki; drawings by Jillian Tamaki
The Umbrella Academy. Volume 1, Apocalypse suite, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba
(I feel almost exactly like one of those Academy Award presenters typing that, but without the frock and the fame and the botox.)
* sorry sorry, but it’s true!
This Digital Inspiration blog post entitled, informatively, Create your own Garfield Comic Strip, will introduce you to the wonderful world of, well, creating your own Garfield comic strip. In summary, you can download this application and drag and drop (so you can do it if you can’t draw) and hey presto! I guess it’s similar to creating your own giant squid (mine has now swum 180 kilometres and most recently beat up a diver).
The Green Lantern film is going ahead and should be out in 2010, which is good news if you’re a fan of the comic hero, or enjoy film adaptions of superhero comics. Green Lantern isn’t one particular hero, but is instead the title given to any member of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force who use their power rings to do some pretty cool stuff. They inhabit the same reality as Superman and Batman, and I’m not sure who would win in a fight. My money would be on Superman, to be honest.
(Our Green Lantern collection is here.)
GoComics is a website run by the company who distribute Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and a loads more daily comic strips. You get to select the kinds of strips you like and then spend all morning reading them – although there is only so much Garfield you can take.
Tintin is being made into a movie series, and Steven Spielberg is going to direct the first film (to be based on The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure - which we have in the library). Peter Jackson is going to direct the second film, which is even better news. More information here, along with a picture of the actor selected to play Tintin. No release dates are mentioned, sadly.
We have received many wonderful reviews this week, as part of the SubText08 programme currently running for teens. Here is the first of several reviews that we enjoyed reading. The genre for the week was ‘graphic novels’, and this review of a graphic novel was excellent!
Nancy Drew Vol 6 : Mr Cheeters is Missing, by Stefan Petrucha
Being a fan of the original Carolyn Keene Nancy Drew Series, I have to say I was disappointed at the mystery aspect of this graphic novel. The novels are filled with intriguing, nail-biting mysteries; while the graphic novels are a poor excuse for so-called mystery writing.
Although the way the graphic novels are illustrated is great and I also enjoy seeing my favourite character being brought to life in a different form, I think that it would be better if the author, Stefan Petrucha, made graphic novels of the original, well-known stories, instead of trying (and failing) to write his own Nancy Drew stories.
My reason for thinking this, may just be because I am incredibly biased towards the ‘true’ Nancy Drew books, but I probably won’t be recommending this series to any of my friends.
I give this graphic novel, 2 stars because of the storyline – the overall product is readable and, possibly, enjoyable for some, but sadly not for me.
~ Melissa (13)
The first of the SubText08 quizzes is available here. The theme is Graphic Novels. You have until the 29th of August to complete it, so don’t hurry – some of the questions are quite tough and may require a little research! Please make sure you’ve registered before you submit your answers.
A massive stack of new graphic novels has arrived. There are (like the new books) too many to list, but here are some of the outstandings ones.
There are about fifty other new comics. Most are new installments of established series, from J.S.A., Batman and Spiderman to The Hardy Boys, Duck Tales and Avalon High. Check them out!
A stack of new comics have arrived and are available to you all. We have:
There’s a lot more, inside … Read more…
Otago Museum’s SciCity is an interactive website that is laden with games. What’s notable is that you can create your own avatar, earn SciCity dollars that you can spend on technology, and chat with other users! It’s pretty addictive, but in the good, educational way. Otago Museum also produces the Cosmix Comic books, which are all online. We often have free copies in the library as well.
Elfquest was a comic series that began in the late 70s, and it is still being published today. We have several graphic novels in the library. But! Like all good things, it can be found for free on the Internet. Each week several issues are added to the archives at the Elfquest website – eventually all 6000 pages (!) will be available.
Enjoy!
Kiwi comics is your portal to the New Zealand comic scene. This wiki-style site allows you to keep in contact with creators and comic dealers around the country, find out about comic cons and other events, plus much, much more!
Masashi Kishimoto’s very popular series of manga, Naruto, very rarely makes it to our shelves. Many people may not be aware it’s even held in the library! But it is! We currently hold up to volume 15 (a great stack of new copies came throught a few weeks ago), and while you may need to reserve it – which you can do online – it’s well worth the wait. Especially if you’re a fan of the animated series.
For a full list of manga held in the YA collection click here.
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