Boom Studios

Guide to Lumberjanes – now available to the public!

April 10, 2023 by krisis

While some of my brand new Guides to Indie & Licensed Comics will remain exclusive to Patrons of CK, I don’t want to keep anything about this guide a secret! Plus, the 9YO demanded that her hard work as my editorial assistant be visible to the general public! That’s why today I’m happy to fling wide the cabin doors to my Guide to Lumberjanes!

Guide to Lumberjanes

This Lumberjanes Guide not only includes an easy-to-follow list of all 22 main Lumberjanes releases in chronological order, but also includes their original graphic novels, prose novels, and Spanish and French editions.

Plus, the 9YO conducted her own very own week-long research project to confirm the continuity placements of all of the one-shots, specials, OGNs, and novels relative to the main series! Don’t worry, she was compensated for her efforts with a brand new copy of The Lumberjanes BEASTiary: The Most Amazing Guide to All the Coolest Creatures You’ve Ever Heard Of and a Few You Haven’t – which was the one title we were unaware of when we started putting this guide together.

I could not possibly recommend this series any more highly for the kids in your life. We started reading it together when the kid was still a toddler. Each book is wholesome and entirely silly adventure to learn more about a new group of lovable (though slightly scary) wilderness cryptids. Despite some minor monster-thumping, one summer romance, and one adult frenemy hunter with a gun and some dynamite, Lumberjanes is carefully curated to be appropriate for readers of any age.

Guide to Lumberjanes

March 3, 2023 by krisis

I’m back today with another Indie Comic Month new guide for all Patrons of CK! This time, we’re departing from Image Comics in the 90s to focus on another group of comics that have a major presence in my life and in my home: all-age comics! This guide is for a comic I originally despised but eventually grew to love so much that it’s my number one recommendation to anyone introducing comics to kids of any age, from 0 to teen. It also has a wonderfully diverse cast of characters! It’s time to don your badges and move into the cabin in my Guide to Lumberjanes!

Guide to Lumberjanes
This guide is now available to all readers thanks to the hardcore support of Patrons of Crushing Krisis!

If you think there’s not enough about Lumberjanes to warrant a full on Guide to Lumberjanes, think again! Not only are there 20 original paperback volumes, but a pair of “Bonus Tracks” volumes, three OGNs, four prose novels, a fleet of translated editions, and a pair of (very different) accompanying guidebooks!

Lumberjanes first arrived in my home back in 2015 and it was not love at first sight. I picked up the first volume after hearing buzz about how wholesome and wonderful this little series about a magical summer camp was. However, I’d describe the dialog in those initial four issues as “MORE SCREAMING.” It’s a lot of howled exclamations in response to everything, to the point that some of the pages simply aren’t all that coherent.

I read the book and set it aside in my “to donate” pile.

Then, something magical happened…. [Read more…] about Guide to Lumberjanes

Lumberjanes – Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order

The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for Lumberjanes in trade paperback, hardcover, and digital comics. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics Guide to Collecting Indie & Licensed Comics. Last updated April 2023 with titles scheduled for release through August 2023.

Lumberjanes is a joyous, smart, and empathetic adventure at a never-ending summer camp for readers of all ages.

It focuses on a single cabin of five young women at Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for ~~Girls~~ Hardcore Lady Types, as well as their counselor and the camp director. The girls think they’re just at a typical summer camp, but as they encounter an increasing amount of implausible mythical beasts and begin to experience the curious effects of time dilation, they realize there’s more to their camp than they signed up for.

Despite the fantastical theme and nods to plenty of mythological cryptids, Lumberjanes is an easy read. An initial series of one-shot stories give way to traditional four-issue arcs. It doesn’t include any themes inappropriate for young readers. The first volume is a bit… “shouty,” but after the first few issues it settles down to typical comic dialog. While all of its characters are humans with real flaws, none of them model bad behaviors you wouldn’t want to see your kids emulate.

Nerdy Jo is obsessed with technology and problem solving, but can overthink things.

Headstrong April is the obsessively-organized muscle of the group, but she often bites off more than she can chew.

Laid-back Mal is a rocker who meant to go to band camp, but sometimes she needs to make up her mind.

Shy Molly is an uncertain girl who is finding her place in life, but she can be powerful when she takes charge

And, young Ripley is full of boundless energy and a wandering attention span, but sometimes her flights of fancy can save the day!

As the campers explore their camp and its history, they befriend (and often rescue) the boys of the neighboring camp, meet several retired Lumberjanes out in the wilderness, wrangle dinosaurs, befriend Selkies, and more! Between their adventures, the cast explores themes of friendship, gender identity, and the earliest buddings of young romance.

We started reading this series when my daughter was 2 years old. She learned to read as a four-year-old by memorizing the complete script of Volumes 1-4 and then “reading” it back to herself over and over. She loves the books just as much today as she did when she first read them – in fact, she helped me put together this guide!

I couldn’t recommend it any more highly! [Read more…] about Lumberjanes – Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order

The Pull List: Action Comics, Avengers, Calexit, Detective Comics, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Terrifics, Thanos, & more!

March 4, 2018 by krisis

This week The Pull List is holding steady at a still-staggering 32 comic books.

I’m not sure if I was being a moody reader or if every company shipped some bunk books this week, but the average rating for the week was 2.70 – a full third of a point lower than the past few weeks. While that means most of the books were still better than average, it’s not by a whole lot.

Artwork from Thanos #16, line art by Geoff Shaw with color art by Antonio Fabela.

Here’s what I pulled this week, with *s on adds (whether I just caught up with them or started them fresh):

DC Comics
- Action Comics #998
- Detective Comics #975
- The Flash #41
- * Mera – Queen of Atlantis #1
- Milk Wars: JLA/Doom Patrol Special
- Raven: Daughter of Darkness #2
- * Suicide Squad #36
- Teen Titans #17
- The Silencer #2
- * The Terrifics #1
- Wonder Woman #41
Image Comics
- * The Beef #1
- Days of Hate #2
- Gasolina #6
- Twisted Romance #4
- Void Trip #4
Marvel Comics
- All-New Wolverine #31
- Avengers #682
- Captain Marvel #129
- * Champions #17
- Legion #2
- * Lockjaw #1
- Moon Knight #192
- Thanos #16
- X-Men Blue #22
Smaller Publishers: Aftershock, Black Mask, Boom! Studios, Dark Horse, Titan
- Abbott #2, Boom! Studios
- * Alisik #1, Titan Books / Statix Press
- Backways #3, Aftershock Comics
- * Calexit #2, Black Mask Studios
- Hungry Ghosts #2, Dark Horse / Berger Books
- * Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation #1, Boom! Studios
- * The Wilds #1, Black Mask Studios

Picks of the Pull

Big Two (Marvel/DC) Issue of the Week:
Detective Comics (2016) #975

A great-looking, contemplative issue that brings together the members of the Bat-Family we don’t usually see in this book – Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood, and Damian.

Batman has pulled these trusted lieutenants together as an inner council to decide Batwoman’s fate as a member of the Bat-family, yet in some ways their conversation is also a litigation of Bruce and his methods as the head of this dysfunctional household. Meanwhile, Batwoman holds herself accountable for her own actions, with a surprising result.

This isn’t an issue that’s going to appeal to a more casual reader – it looks amazing, but it has hardly any conflict. However, for someone who has been reading from the start this pierces right to the heart of this title and the ideological divide between Batwoman and Batman that has been brewing all along.

Part of what makes it so power is that Batwoman also has an avowed “no kills” philosophy, but she is willing to make exceptions when other lives hang in the balance. Batman won’t make exceptions, so he gets to watches thousands of Gothamites die from his moral high ground.

It’s heartbreaking to think of this book writing by someone other than Tynion or with a cast other than this one. Everything about it works so incredibly well. Yet, we’re in the “disassembled” phase, and there’s certainly more conflict to come before Tynion moves on.

Best Small-Pub Issue of the Week:
The Wilds (2018) #1, Black Mask Studios

A strong and sombre new zombie comic, The Wilds is definitely a descendent of Walking Dead but with a completely different tone – due in no small part to its pair of woman creators, Vita Ayala and Emily Pearson.

We get the same old zombie-pocked landscape with isolated camps trading resources and doing their best to survive, except the zombies are walking plant life – humans who have turned into semi-sentient flower pots. It makes for strangely calming, beautiful zombies to see all of their typical goriest bits covered in blooming flowers.

Pearson’s art evokes such masters of the modern form as Allred and Noto, employing their same plain, truthful faces and uncomplicated backgrounds.

Beneath the flowery dressing, this is the familiar story of a single senior errand runner who thinks it might be time to get out of the game, and how an act of compassion on her last journey might spell the end of the safety of her heavily fortified compound. There’s no slam bang action beats in this one, but the strange stillness of it is pulling me towards reading more.

Indie Series Spotlight: Suicide Risk by Mike Carey, Elena Casagrande, & Andrew Elder (Ep01)

March 1, 2018 by krisis

This is the pilot for the fourth video series on my YouTube channel – Indie Series Spotlight!

After months of opening my massive collection of Marvel oversized hardcovers, I realized I was really missing talking about my love of comics not released by Marvel. Since returning to comic reading in 2012, I’ve become a massive fan of independent and creator-owned comics – they occupy a full third of my comic reading time, and they dominated my list of favorite comics in 2017.

In this new show, I’ll be sharing my indie comics love with you one series at a time. Each series will be something I strongly recommend to new readers – including folks who have never read a comic before in their lives! For each series, I’ll start by giving a general pitch of the title and then get into spoiler territory for readers who need even more convincing.

First up: Suicide Risk by Mike Carey, Elena Casagrande, & Andrew Elder. I picked this series up out of blind devotion to Mike Carey, who I love from his work on X-Men: Legacy and Unwritten, not realizing it would become one of my favorite indie comic runs of all time! It’s hard to discuss this series’ massive scope without spoiling it, but it spans genres from police procedural to massive action movie!

I hope you’ll enjoy this new show, because I’ve got over a year’s worth of indie series mapped out to discuss!