Jun 30 2022
with colors by Brigitte Findakly and translations from the original French by Kim Thompson and Joe Johnson. I’m not sure what I expected when I cracked open this volume of anthropomorphic animals living in the countryside. From quite early on you see that our title character Ralph Azham is a bit of a loser, the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/30/ralph-azham-vol-1-black-are-the-stars-by-lewis-trondheim/
Jun 29 2022
Wow, what a comprehensive look this is at the past and present of cosplay! I’ve always loved dressing up, ever since my parents bought me a gorgeous Snow White dress that I was forbidden to wear except on Special Occasions, so I maybe got to wear it twice before outgrowing it as a child (which …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/29/cosplay-a-history-by-andrew-liptak/
Jun 28 2022
Another charming installment of the comic book series adapted from the Nickelodeon cartoon The Casagrandes. Volume 3: Brand Stinkin’ New has the added bonus of being entirely comprised of vignettes written especially for this book! While that does mean fewer Loud family shenanigans from, particularly, Lincoln and Lori making cameo appearances here, this does give …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/28/the-casagrandes-3-brand-stinkin-new-by-the-loud-house-creative-team/
Jun 27 2022
Tho I’m a ginormous fangirl of both this series and its creative team, I must say that I’m glad that this installment was passed over for the Hugo nomination (for purely temporal reasons) because things definitely start to fuzz out of cohesion here. So! Our intrepid heroes were originally, literally sucked into the twenty-sided world …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/27/die-vol-3-the-great-game-by-kieron-gillen-stephanie-hans-clayton-cowles/
Jun 24 2022
It’s become vanishingly rare for there to be anything new to say about the zombie apocalypse. This book is no different, but will likely hit the sweet spot for fans of the subgenre, and especially for those who don’t think that there’s enough teenage angst already in the existing corpus. In this expansion on Robert …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/24/clementine-book-one-by-tillie-walden/
Jun 23 2022
So on the one hand, I love any book with an inclusive portrayal of role-players and depictions of how out of game dynamics can affect in-game performance. On the other, yikes, these people need to play something that isn’t Dungeons & Dra– I mean, Dice & Deathtraps. I guess it’s unfair of me to stereotype …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/23/the-last-session-vol-1-roll-for-initiative-by-jasmine-walls-dozerdraws-micah-myers/
Jun 22 2022
Combining two volumes of the original series, translated from the French, this volume follows middle-schooler Chloe Blin as she navigates two very of-the-moment issues: environmental friendliness and cyber-bullying. The first half of this book sees Chloe and her friend Mark roped into helping start an eco-friendly vegetable garden at school by their far more enthusiastic …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/22/chloe-6-green-thumb-by-greg-tessier-amandine/
Jun 20 2022
This is one of those books that I can appreciate, even if I don’t like it. And there’s a lot to like here, so maybe it’s just a me thing. I just… I feel like Cat Valente has a lot to process in terms of abuse and marriage, and that her issues spill out way …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/20/the-past-is-red-by-catherynne-m-valente/
Jun 17 2022
with the subsubtitle “Prompts and Activities to Create Compelling Characters for Horror, Sci-Fi, X-Punk, and More” As an RPG nerd from way back, I was both deeply appreciative and somewhat perplexed by this book. I’ve never really had trouble dreaming up backstories for my characters, but can see how people with less active imaginations would …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/17/the-ultimate-rpg-character-backstory-guide-expanded-genres-edition-by-james-damato/
Jun 15 2022
Oooh, Bridgette with a sword on the cover, y’all! Inside however, as in prior installments, good old Gran is more comfortable with a gun, using it to good, if horrifying, effect when the titular parliament of magpies comes calling, bearing ominous news. She immediately calls her grandson, the reluctantly heroic Duncan, who says he’ll call …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/06/15/once-future-vol-3-the-parliament-of-magpies-by-kieron-gillen-dan-mora-tamra-bonvillain/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire