Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Lumberjanes

Guide to Lumberjanes – now available to the public!

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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

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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.

Boom Studios!

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

Lumberjanes (2014) Volume 1 - Beware The Kitten Holy

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

Haul Around The World: Why no EPICs for New Warriors? Plus: Daredevil, Gambit, & more!

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Your eyes do not deceive you – this video is a Classic Collection, since it was shot before my big move!

That’s because I’ve got a whole year of haul videos to catch up on, because this was my order from January 1, 2019. In this order I go deep on Marvel’s peculiar new strategy of following up ancient classic collections with new trades, plus talk up my Gambit binding projects, love of Moon Knights and Lumberjanes, and more!

In this haul:

Indie Series Spotlight: Lumberjanes (Ep02)

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This is the second episode of my new YouTube show, Indie Series Spotlight!

Any conversation about my favorite recent independent and creator-owned series would be incomplete without a mention of Lumberjanes – a consistent favorite of all three members of our household.

When I first picked up the first volume of Lumberjanes I was seriously unimpressed. It seemed like short-attention-span theatre. Every character seemed to spend their entire time yelling, or occasionally punching monsters on the head.

It wasn’t until I started reading the series out loud to EV6 that the charm of the series and its characters became more apparent to me, and I quickly discovered that Volume 2 recast the series as a mythologically-rooted mystery with some seriously deep continuity. From that point forward, we’ve all been hooked!

The first half of this video is a general discussion of Lumberjanes and the second half is a story-specific portion full of spoilers!

Indie Comics Spotlight Episode #2 features Lumberjanes, the first five volumes of which are currently available to read for free as part of the Comixology Unlimited library!