Not a whole lot of people can identify with an English schoolgirl falling down a rabbit hole, though enough of us have daydreamed of exploring a strange wonderland.  Micheline Hess takes a familiar story and introduces us to Lilly Brown, a young girl who dreads the boredom of a summer filled with chores and health food and ends up trapped in a world that makes even less sense to her than the once she misplaced.

America.  Proud, full of opportunity and wonder. Natural and man-made wonders that are her best face looking at the world and saying, “Here, I am! Here’s the power of my dream!”  But, what about the dark side of freedom?  The holes in the soul that opportunity can leave?  The stories that you hear and are always ready to dismiss, because, “That’s something that only happens when things get out of hand.”  What about the side of you that only an outsider can see?

Minsc is everything.

The third issue of Legends of Baldur’s Gate is exactly the fun, smashing time I was looking for after Issue #2 got its exposition out of the way.  Though there’s just as much gleaned in these pages as in that issue, it all happens on the fly during an episode of Little Rascals Go to Downton Abbey.

Before my editor handed me this book to review, I had never heard of Harvey Kurtzman. I didn’t know that he was the man who created MAD Magazine, who had built the first graphic novel, and had subverted so much of this country’s youth for many, many years.

Corporatica presents us with a world in a fever dream.  Seen through the perceptions of a man who might be crazy, who might be the only sane person left, we are treated to a cacophony of sight and text that beguiles with its confusion, drawing us in, because we simply aren’t given much to go on, but what is there . . .

The Storyteller series was one of my favorite Jim Henson creations, doing what he did best: telling amazing stories in interesting ways.  Blending live action with creatures from the shop, the Storyteller featured John Hurt’s incredible presence weaving tales of the old world, with very little in the way of censoring the unfortunate or scary events, but leaving the tales complete with the bits usually removed for children.

So, Jesus had a pretty rough go of it. Begat by Mary and the Holy Spirit, he suffered and died for the people who killed him, allowing people into the kingdom of Heaven.  And, what do we reward this sacrifice with?  The world is . . . pretty awful in certain places, and sometimes in the very churches built in his name.  So, what if Jesus . . . got fed up?  That’s the idea behind Creator’s Edge’s release, Prince of Pieces. Jesus comes back with a vengeance.

I love David Petersen’s Mouse Guard series, and some of my favorite stories are the ones that have been released as part of the Archaia Free Comic Book Day anthologies, which have always disappeared quickly from the shelves.  These stories have been collected in a lovely edition, with a couple of new ones added to the mix.

Inheritance can always cause strife in a family, siblings vying for position and influence over each other with parents or relatives, striving to attain some legacy from them, either monetary or property.  How much harder must it be if the property involved had its own goals?

There are a lot of storytellers who like to cloak and hide their lessons in fantastical tales of might and magic, or in the actions of anthropomorphized animals who allow them to reduce complex characters to acceptable stereotypes, because they’re not human.  Jennifer Crute is NOT one of those storytellers.