Book Review: Kim Reaper Vol. 1: Grim Beginnings by Sarah Graley

Who wouldn't date a Cute Grim Reader?

Part-Time Grim Reaper. Full-Time Cutie!

Like most university students, Kim works a part-time job to make ends meet. Unlike most university students, Kim's job is pretty cool: she's a grim reaper, tasked with guiding souls into the afterlife.

Like most university students, Becka has a super intense crush. Unlike most university students, Becka's crush is on a beautiful gothic angel that frequents the underworld. Of course, she doesn't know that.

Unaware of the ghoulish drama she's about to step into, Becka finally gathers up the courage to ask Kim on a date! But when she falls into a ghostly portal and interrupts Kim at her job, she sets off a chain of events that will pit the two of them against angry cat-dads, vengeful zombies, and perhaps even the underworld itself. But if they work together, they just might make it... and maybe even get a smooch in the bargain.

This is a series that I saw at MCM, but I had spent already too much money. I love Grim Reaper based stories, so I took a photo of the graphic novels to look them up once I had money to spend on comics, but I found the first in Kindle Unlimited that I had a free trial of, so of course I picked this book.

The relationship is developed pretty quickly. They go from Kim not knowing Becka exists, to risking themselves for each other in one comic. Maybe it would work better if it was established that how lonely Kim was. It's hinted I guess. There's oddly not a lot of character time.

The plot is a bit rushed. This graphic novel is made up of four comics. Maybe I'm just too use to comics quite happy spending 10 issues on one story arc.  I think the problem they doesn't feel like much development for plot or the characters.

I do like the art style of these books. It's very cute. There's a lot of visual gags. I generally like the humour. 

An odd criticism that a lot of people have with this book is the diversity. I mean they say the book focus on diversity more than anything else which I don't think is true. This is a graphic novel, diversity is choosing to draw different people in crowd shorts. Yes, it has two Queer main characters, one being a person of colour, with no labels given to explain anyone's background. Not a lot of storytime is actually given to the diversity, it just there. Having diversity is a good point and this is a graphic novel, but I don't get spending so much time talking about the diversity without actually criticising it. Having good diversity doesn't make a good book, and this diversity is okay. It's probably not worth structuring a whole review about.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for Skull Hearts. this is a fun comic series, with a focus on humour but is lacking in tension. I'm curious as to where this is going and hopefully improved. However, I'll probably be a while before I get around to getting a copy of Volume 2, mainly because I've already spent too money this year on books  and Christmas is coming.

Book Review: Manfried the Man by Caitlin Major

Wait, till you see my comic of tiny to normal size woman doing dog like things. Wait...Nevermind.

Manfried is a stray taken in by Steve Catson, a slacker with a dead-end job and nonexistent love life. Soon Manfried becomes the Garfield to Steve’s Jon Arbuckle: lazy, selfish, and sometimes maddening in his weird human behavior. Yet the pair depends on each other to get through life’s troubles. When Manfried runs away, Steve musters his meager resources to find his best man-friend and bring him home safe. Ultimately, both Steve and Manfried realize they’re capable of so much more than they thought.


You've probably seen that comic with the mansize cat and the mansize cat sitting on the key board. This is a whole graphic novel with that concept. I was intigued to see what they would do with a full novel of this idea.

The concept is interesting, but not much after that. There's just a not a lot of comical room for cat like creature doing cat things. Attempt is made to do more than just goofy gags.

The plot is quite standard to most Webcomics. Lovable misfit that needs to figure out his life, while friends are more together and judge him, with a cookie twist to get your attention. For those sort of things, this does it well enough. Steve's affection towards Manfried does play a major plot points, mostly him scared he will be a crazy man person.

Some funny moments and gags, mixed in with relatable life stuff.

The art style is nice and the colouring is done well to match scenes. It is a bit disturbing at first to look at tiny penises all the time, and none of the cats wear clothes, their balls are ignore though.

This world has left me with questions. Like they are no tiny female humans so how do they reproduce. It doesn't really matter, but it just a thought in my head. Especially as there are packs of them. I have questions, but I don't think there actual answers to them. I want to see the dogs which exist in this universe but the men are hybrid of both cats and dogs with what they do and how they behaviour. They're lazy, fight like cats but you can train them to do tricks.

Overall, I give this book 3/5 stars for canned hamburgers. I like this well enough, but I don't think I'm invested enough to pick up the sequel. I think it more we're not the right matches for each other, as they nothing I can point to say what wrong with it. If you're interested by the idea, I would say pick up  and give it a chance you're self. Maybe not the sequel to this, but I would check out more works by Caitlin Major.

I got this book for Review off Netgalley and it is being published by Quirk Books 1 May 2018.

Book Review: Bob's Burgers: Medium Rare by Various

Most Dangerous time travel method yet.

While Bob and Linda Belcher have their hands full running the family business, their kids Tina, Gene, and Louise have adventures that you won't believe! The producers, writers, and animators of the hit animated show Bob's Burgers proudly present all-original comic book stories, including hilarious installments of "Louise's Unsolved Mysteries & Curious Curiosities", "Tina's Erotic Friend Fiction", and "Gene's Rhymey Rhymes That Could One Day Be Songs." Whether it's Tina's daydreams of cloning back-up dancers or jungle misadventures, Louise's explorations of underground tunnels and time-stopping Wonder Wharf rides, Gene's lyrics that reimagine boring Aunt Gayle visits as epic journeys to fantasy worlds, the Belcher family hijinx are guaranteed to make you laugh!

I enjoy the show Bob's Burgers (I would enjoy it more if they had stuck with the cannibalism thing, but that's most likely just me). This contains the first 4 issues of the comic. Each issue has a segment from each of the Belcher kids that match their personality and talents with the tiny thing from Bob and Linda once in a while (just a singe page).

There is the art style of the show, but there is also different ones. Some make sense with what story being told like "Gene's Rhymey Rhymes That Could One Day Be Songs." The others were bit jarring because they were different but there were good. There also tons of alternative cover images for the comics which similar to the better fan art you find online. So some of it was amazing, others were good.

 The stories were good. They basically made up by the characters and not likely to have actually to have happened. They are lot references, such Casablanca and Narnia. Either Gene's version of Cinderella or  Louise's The Ride (the art is sickly cute). Tina's stories were just too much butts, which are her but it not as charming on paper than it is on scene.

Overall, I gave this 3 out of 5 stars for pineapples. If you're caving more of Bob's Burgers then this worth a read, but it's not quite the same magic as the show.

Book Review: Twisted Dark: Volume 1 by Neil Gibson

It's not very twisted or dark.

Twisted Dark is a series of interconnected psychological thrillers, perfect for fans of twist endings and comics that reveal more on the second reading. Each story stands alone, but the more you read, the more connections you see between the characters. There are over 100 characters that appear more than once and one of the joys of reading is when you spot a reference that you know others will have missed. A rotating team of talented artists draw the stories, with each style offering something new.

This is graphic novel with a short story motive and usually with short stories I would comment on each story but with this I don't have much to say and think it would all mostly borderline on spoilers.

This is meant to be full of twists or whatever, but it was mostly predictable, especially since you were expecting them. I don't know if a book of twists really works as a concept because you know that all of them are going to have one. Also some of the so called twist were just lame. Very few were actually good and satisfying.

The writing was okay but nothing enchanting and I had to push myself to finish it. It was just boring afterward.

The art is and good quality but I got kind of sick of it even with the artist changing. The concentrate black was a bit much after a while. Also one of the stories (e.g.Cocaína) was confusing as the the main character looked the same as another character.

Overall, I gave this two out of five stars for finding someone to blame. This didn't do a good job of holding my attention and I don't see myself reading any of the other volumes. I like dark, twisted things and I didn't like this so I'm not sure who will like it. Though, I feel I should note that I read this from a digital review copy and it was hellish loading it on my computer to read it so that might have effected my enjoyment of it.

I got this for review off NetGalley and from TPub.