Comic Book Review: Amulet series

Amulet
Written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi

I picked this one up at the library, in the kid's comic book section (there's some good stuff in there). The story concerns a girl named Emily, and her discovery of a magic amulet. Having lost her father in a car accident, Emily, her mother, and her brother Navin move into their great-grandfather Silas's home. When Emily's mother is kidnapped by a tentacled creature in the basement, Emily and Navin set off in search of her. Their journey takes them to the home of Silas and his robotic assistants; it is his dying wish that Emily take the stone and save the strange parallel earth from the wicked Elf King and his army. Along the way, they are menaced by the Elf Prince, Elf soldiers, various strange creatures, and the seductive power of the Amulet.

Kazu Kibuishi delivers a solid series, illustrated in a loose cartoon style. The story is kid-friendly, but engaging enough that any comics reader will find it satisfying; there are no pretensions here, no high concept, just a diverting adventure. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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The back cover:

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Take a break. Grab a beer. Relax.

Whew - that's a lot of uploading. Here's a picture of me, relaxing:


Ladies, feel free to faint with passion.

That thing on my head, by the way, is the hat I just crocheted - my friend Lauren showed me how to do it. I'm very proud. Here it is, up close:


Unfortunately, I made the crochets on the first round way too tight, so it squeezes my head (I have a friggin' huge noggin), so I'm planning to take it apart somewhat and correct the situation. At least it doesn't fall off my head. The nice thing about making your own clothes - besides the fact that you look so impoverished, no one would dream of mugging you - is that they're all custom-made. I have problems with winter hats: they are either beanies, or way too big and hot. This way I at least have a hat I can stand, and I have no one to blame but myself if it's uncomfortable. Also, yarn is pretty cheap. I'm planning to make some fingerless glove kinda things, too.

Anyway, by next post I'll have returned to uploading comic pages. Stay tuned.

Rick Out.

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(Note: these images don't represent the pages exactly as they appear in the comic - the gutters and border will be black).

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As usual, all images © 2011 Richard M Schlaack.

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Here is the first page - let me know if the text is too small to read when you enlarge it.

As usual, all images © 2011 Richard M. Schlaack.

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Dear All:

I'm going to start uploading my comic to this blog, in order for you to see the wonder and glory. I'll upload it one page at a time (except for the covers), and then maybe do a slideshow-type dealio.

All right, here's the cover sequence:

As usual, all images © 2011 Richard M. Schlaack

All the things I want to do with this blog, but probably won't

Here are some things you may or may not ever see coming up on this blog, maybe, if I find the time:

1. Regular posts!
2. Weekly sketches!
3. Comic reviews every month!
4. Regular updates on my comic work!

My problem is, when I find time to work on this blog, I'm either writer's-blocked or too far from a scanner to upload an interesting sketch. I kinda wish I could just upload all my sketches, every day, forever, but then I start to suffer from "polished sketch" syndrome, in which every image has to be Disney-quality before I feel it's okay to upload it.

Anyway, stay tuned.

Rick Out.