In this hectic time of year, deciding on gifts for friends and family should be the easiest item on your holiday To-Do List. Fanbase Press is here to help with recommendations for the must-read books and graphic novels as suggested by our staff and contributors. Give your friends and family gifts they can enjoy curled up by the fireplace or introduce them to a new title outside of their regular pull list.

Title: Hideo Kojima: The Creative Gene
Recommended by: Carl Wilson

If you have played any of the video games Hideo Kojima has created, such as Metal Gear Solid (1998) or Death Stranding (2019), you will know that the pop-culture omnivore enjoys his movies, music, and books as it all feeds directly back into the games that he makes. The Creative Gene, translated from Japanese magazine articles Kojima wrote between 2007-2013, is a deep dive into some of these incredibly varied influences, such as the lyrics of a Joy Division song, the experience of watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, or his thoughts on buying the latest Apple iPod.   

Throughout the book, Kojima discusses the value of connections and his philosophy about “memes” – units of cultural information that are passed onto future generations. In this regard, The Creative Gene is one more meme to be shared; but whereas many books on video game culture are about the making of any given game, it is refreshing to have an insight into the wider, and often surprising, thought processes behind a video game director, which becomes a deeply personal and reflective ‘making of the man:’ worried about the potential collapse of Japan and contemplative about growing up without a father.

Cost: $22.99
Click here to purchase.

Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin (Hardcover)
Recommended by: Bryant Dillon

Essentially the Dark Knight Returns of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mythology, The Last Ronin follows “a lone surviving Turtle embarking on a seemingly hopeless mission to seek justice for the family he lost.” TMNT co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird have outdone themselves with this New York Times bestseller. This dark, gritty, and emotional finale will be perfect for anyone on your list who loves a good story or grew up idolizing those heroes in a half shell.

Cost: $29.99
Click here to purchase.





Title:  Black Sand Beach #3: Have You Seen the Darkness?
Recommended by: Barbra Dillon

Dash and the crew are on a mission to save their summer vacation home from competing evils in the third installment in the creepy Black Sand Beach graphic novel series by writer/artist Richard Fairgray, perfect for fans of Gravity Falls, Rickety Stitch, and Fake Blood.

After reading Dash’s journal from the previous summer—the summer he doesn’t remember—the kids piece together that Dash’s new ghost girl friends were really puppets of a darker evil that collects the identities of its victims. And now that evil has come to call.  

Kelsey and Casey visited Black Sand Beach in the ’90s, back when it was a legit beach town with boogie boards, ice cream, T-shirt shops. But they weren’t on a summer escape. They were tagging along on their dad’s monster-hunting mission. They found one. And it ate them.   

Now, back in the present, Dash and his crew must put this face-stealing monster to rest. Before the Darkness, and all the evil of Black Sand Beach takes Dash . . . forever.

Cost:
Click here to purchase.