Reviews - Riverside Public Library

BookPage Reviews

Cute and cuddly comics

For those who don't necessarily want their comic books all grown up, there are plenty of illustrated works for the younger set (or adults in denial).

Storymaze: The Ultimate Wave (Allen & Unwin, $5.95, 144 pages, ISBN 186508378X), first in a series of zany, illustrated kids books by out-there Australian Terry Denton, follows the universe-traversing adventures of three surfers from Planet Ithaca, out to save their friend Icon from the clutches of his evil brother, King Vidor. A giant robot chicken's eyeball plays a key role.

Days Like This is the story of a '60s girl group, Tina and the Tiaras, on their meteoric rise to fame. Written by J. Torres (The Copybook Tales), the quick-moving, lighthearted story includes inspired time-capsule artwork by Scott Chantler.

It's hard to describe the unspeakably adorable animated hamsters of the Japanese TV series Hamtaro without resorting to italics. Imagine if, say, the Powerpuff Girls did a remake of Watership Down, only even cuter, because these are teeny little singing fur-balls, and one is so shy it wears a blanket on its head, and one has an eyepatch, and one's a nerd. They're so cute. The Official Hamtaro Handbook (Viz, $11.95, 80 pages, ISBN 1569318395) details the HamHams' adventures, their family trees and body language ("schmubby-wubby" = snuggling . . . aww!) and includes an original comic by Hamtaro creator Ritsuko Kawai.

Also recommended

Hopeless Savages: Ground Zero, another great collection about the world's most wholesome punk-rock family (Oni Press, $11.95, 128 pages, ISBN 192999852X).

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Set in the girl-group era of the early 1960s, this slender, pleasant graphic novella concerns a plucky young woman who becomes a songwriter; three almost-as-plucky young girls discovered at a high school talent show who become singing sensations Tina and the Tiaras; and a relatively plucky woman who's starting her own record label with some money from a divorce. Chantler's drawings are simple, cute and clean-lined-not an approximation of manga, exactly, but an American equivalent of its quick, bold images. (The book's small b&w format should appeal to manga buffs.) And there's something adorable about the panels of three smiling girls in matching dresses harmonizing or getting their hair done together, even if their notched-circle eyes recall Disney's Huey, Dewey and Louie. As a quick entertainment for younger teens, Days Like This is charming, but there's not much more to it than its surface, and writer Torres largely glosses over the fascinating tensions in the music business of the time (not to mention the work that actually went into creating three-minute AM-radio masterpieces): nobody's got anything tougher to face than a disapproving dad. Torres's fictionalizations of history are harmless on their own (the Brill Building, for instance, becomes "Harmony Plaza"), but what they add up to has none of the convincing force of details-just a cheery little fable about girls on their way to the top. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.