Page Turners: Bad Machinery

I am still reading The Emerald Atlas, I planned to be finished by now but then things happened, as they tend to do. So, here's another recommendation!

Bad Machinery

Bad Machinery is the son of Scarey Go Round, which is the son of Bobbins, by John Allison and is about three schoolgirl sleuths and three schoolboy investigators who all attend Griswalds Grammar School in Keane End, Tackleford, West Yorkshire. The students aren't exactly enemies but thanks to a mixture of pride, mistrust and pig-headedness they aren't exactly friends either and are always crossing purposes.

Tackleford is a medium sized West Yorkshire city that has a long history of mystery. It's a hotbed of problems, isues, manifestations, bad deeds, schemes and trouble. Griswalds Grammar School is in the leafy suburbs.

I only discovered Bad Machinery the other day, thanks to Tumblr, so if you're new to it then you can check out the cast here before you take the plunge, and once you're ready you can start reading about this varied cast of amateur detectives.

Here's the page that got me to read the rest:

Coveted Cover: Johnny Wander

Johnny Wander: Volume 1

I adore Johnny Wander, it's one of my favourite webcomics and I love the covers for their published book versions. I especially love volume 2's cover:

Johnny Wander: Volume 2

Yuko and Ananth who work together to write and draw the comic are both really awesome people too, and you can see that in their work. The series is whimsical, auto-biographical, surreal and at times features fictional work. It's one of those comics that I like to trot out whenever someone either say they don't like comics or when someone says that they don't know what to read. So check it out!

From Goodreads:

Johnny Wander is about life after college, striking out on your own, and all the moments in between the adult stuff. 

Feature Friday: Comics

If you read this blog regularly, follow me on twitter or know me in real life then you should be aware of my love for comics. There is something about sequential art that makes me really happy, something about writing with pictures that makes me feel a rush when I discover a new gem.

Now, I read around 14 webcomics regularly, some of which update every day, some update three times a week and some less often. I also read a lot of comic books/graphic novels/manga too but I only really follow a few series. I particularly love big, chunky graphic novels that are one offs.

I am not going to talk about every single comic that I love, because we could be here for hours. Instead I thought I would just introduce you to a few of my favourites. Some of these I may have mentioned before because they're amazing.

Webcomics

Girls With Slingshots

Girls With Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto

I started reading Girls With Slingshots a few years ago and it astounds me that it's gone so far! I find it so strange to think back to the older story arcs and the older art style. Danielle is a really lovely person and you can tell that she loves her work. Girls With Slingshots is funny, heart-warming, silly and realistic if a little surreal at times. You can read Girls With Slingshots online or buy the books through the store.

Fishbones

Fishbones by written Jisuk Cho and drawn by Yuki S.

I had known about Fishbones for ages but I only got around to reading it recently. I have no idea what took me so long! This is my kind of story. Teenagers, friendship, the trials of growing up and gangsters. Fantastic. Obviously there is violence and swearing involved, seeing as the comic deals primarily with criminals, so if that's not your thing then you might want to skip it. But for me this is a really great comic and I always look forward to updates. Read it online at the Fishbones website.

Books - Series

DOGS: Bullets and Carnage

DOGS: Bullets and Carnage by Shirow Miwa

You're probably getting sick of me talking about DOGS but it really is my favourite comic book/manga series. This is the cover for the prelude, currently there are seven books in the series and they just keep getting better. 

I'll let the blurb speak for itself: 

Boasting furious action, switchback plotting, magnetic characters and dazzling art, DOGS tells the story of four individuals struggling to survive a dystopian urban future by gun and sword and courage and luck.

 Wet Moon

Wet Moon by Ross Campbell

 This is another one that I knew about for ages but only got around to reading recently. I've followed Ross on deviantART for absolutely ages and always loved his style, and Wet Moon does not disappoint. It can be a little hard to find in stores and Ross himself told me that you generally have to request a copy if you want to buy it in a shop, so I get mine through Amazon. Wet Moon is set in the Deep South, it's gothy, angsty and haunting, it's about friendship, romance, sex, betrayal, gossip, murder, guilt and "all the terrible and wonderful things people do to each other".

Books - Stand alone

Solanin

Solanin by Inio Asano

This one again! Solanin is a gorgeous manga both art-wise and story-wise. If you've ever felt lost and confused about your place in the world, dissatisfied with your job, yearned for something more out of your life and felt stuck between being an kid and an adult then read this. It's realistic, funny and heartbreaking in it's honesty. Meiko is one of my favourite heroines because she's so real. She's not perfect, she's actually very ordinary. She works a job that she hates, has a boyfriend who she loves but is always crashing at her apartment because he can't afford his own place, parents who love her but are a little suffocating and a group of fantastic, if some what immature friends. She wants to be an adult but at the same time feels that she's not cut out to be a part of the real world so is left straddling the line between being a student and being a grown up.

I read Solanin for the first time in my third year of university, but even now two years later as I sit here with two degrees and a writing job I find that the themes in Solanin still ring true, as I imagine they do for many people. 

That is why it is my favourite book, and that is why you should read it.