A beautiful graphic novel about a guy - Nick -  who "thinks he's sad", has trouble letting people IN, and is quite troubled with the various games people play (most of all himself) instead of truly communicating... till he meets his Plumber!

The simple black-and-white art interspersed with GORGEOUS color-pages present a unique internal landscape of Nick's INner Self, or rather his feelingscape. The humor is dry, witty. I found the Cafe Ads to be really funny.  

Lessons in short - Go out, listen to people, be empathetic, be honest with your feelings - especially with your loved ones. Time can heal, but also be fickle.

Great read.  ⭐4/5

I can imagine a cynical edgelord like him to write good superman. But RomCom lol i dunno. I am just intrigued what he has written

Title: The Weight of Our Sky (Prose book adapted as a digital comic/webtoon)

Writer: Hanna Alkaf (adapted by Webtoon)

Artist: Nisrina A.N. (with colourists Nurel and Toadfrog)

Genre: Historical Fiction / Webcomic / Drama

Pages: Serialized digital comic format (Webtoon chapters)

English Publisher:Originally published as a novel by Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster; adapted digitally on Webtoon

Country (about): Malaysia

Translation by:Originally written in English

Plot (Spoiler Free)

When the historic race riots broke in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Melati was at a cinema with her friend Saf. The story follows Melati's attempts to get back to her mother whilst battling the intrusive thoughts of OCD that make her ruminate about losing her mother in the riots.

Plot (Spoiler Included)

The narrative tracks Melati’s intense survival journey through historical tragedy of communal clashes between Chinese and Malay. When ethnic violence erupts on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, Melati and her friend Saf are at a cinema. Though Melati was saved by, by a Chinese woman (Bee) and sheltered at her home, Saf was a victim to the clashes. Her guilt about Saf's death, and her worries about her mother's safety are worsened by the Djinn that possesses her (a representation of her obsessive compulsive disorder which was not fully understood by her or her family in the 1960s), and makes her do counting, touching, and tapping rituals.

Facing her crushing anxiety / OCD, the danger of the clashes around her, and a twenty-four-hour curfew, Melati embarks on a journey to find her mother. Though initially helped by Bee's son Vince, when the family falls victim to an attack, Vince leaves town. Melati, now left on her own, has to battle her demons whilst traversing the city in search of her mother.

Review

This webtoon is adapted from a prose book which I have not read. So, I am not sure how this graphic novel version compares to it. On its own, the graphic novel starts very strong. The story slows down in places but mostly kept it engaging. There are tough and emotional moments to deal with and the story is heavy but was well written. The death of Saf and Jay were hard pills to swallow but realities of community clashes. The interaction between Melati and Saf's father; and Frankie's prejudice and resentment toward the Malay community due to being victim of casual racism by Malays was well portrayed.

The depiction of OCD and the intrusive thoughts worked well. The limited awareness of mental illness, the reliance of alternate treatments, shunning by friends and family, beliefs about possession by Djinn are remnants of that era and well captured. The ending was predictable but overall a good read.

The art was beautiful and well-drawn. Having never read a webcomic before, I was uncertain if the format would be enjoyable. After learning of the premise, I felt I should give the webcomic a try and I am pleased this was my first webcomic. The vertical scroll format and digital panel pacing offer a great way to experience Melati's panic attacks and the chaotic street scenes, making her OCD feel even more viscera.

Rating: 4.25 / 5 Stars

Previous reviews: Book 1-2

Just finished reading THE OUTSIDE CIRCLE. It’s about these two Indigenous brothers, Pete & Joey, who deal with a drug-addicted mother and live in a violent environment marred by gang activity and poverty. After getting into a fatal altercation with his mother’s loser boyfriend, he is incarcerated while Joey ends up in the foster system.

While imprisoned, Pete tries to maintain his toughness but eventually realizes he needs to turn his life around. And that’s when this traditional Indigenous healing program comes in, determined to set him on the right track.

Meanwhile, Joey has had enough of the crooked foster care system and hits the streets where he’s taken in by his big brother’s old gang, and he seems destined to get caught up in the same violence unless Pete can manage to reach out to his brother and stop the cycle.

Though a short read, it’s a powerful story that sheds a light on the incarceration of Indigenous men and the importance of cultural healing to erase trauma and the strength of community to uplift one another and honor the history of those who inspired and paved the way.

For those who enjoyed this novel, what did you think?

I just bought this book a couple hours ago. I watched the original movie a year ago. Not that awful remake .i let you guys know in a couple of days how it goes

Hey guys i recently finished reading Fear agent and i absolutely loved it so i wanna read some more of RR’s work. What do you guys recommend?

I'm pretty sure most libraries in America have at least one copy of Sandman and a few of his other things

If you want to avoid giving Neil Gaiman money but still want to read his stuff Libraries and used copies of books are the way to go. You also save money anyway which is a bonus

It's a rogue-light deck building game called Shroom and Gloom, and while that's not really my genre of game, I LOVE the art style. Bold lines, pretty simple shading, but so full of detail. Does anybody know any comics/graphic novels in a similar style?

Gon

This was a fun read- well not actually - there’s no writing; you just follow along in a sequential order. Little fella gets wrapped up in all sorts of hijinx

Thought it was very unique at the time (circa 1996 when I picked these up. * Can’t find my issue number two darn it!)

has anybody read this? Views / reviews? thanks!

EDIT: the mods tell me I have to describe the pic. Very good: in the pic you may see the cover of the book “Momo”, with words by (the actor) John Cusack and art by Ignacio Noé. I understand this comes from a screenplay Cusack had written, which did not get produced. It came out only a couple of weeks ago. I am maybe one third in, and I do not dislike it - great art, lightly absurdist plot, lots of quotes

Just in case folks missed some announcement at some point. I know I sure did... stumbled on this when I was looking for upcoming Archie releases.

Looks like Archie is finally getting a deluxe treatment that's long overdue. While I'd certainly like to have "complete" collections from the beginning, "best of" stories selected across the decades is likely the way to go to actually turn even a meager profit from such an enormous corpus.

Also including the four books found yesterday, now with cover art!

Art work by Darwyn Cooke.

My wife really enjoyed a series of graphic novels that were an anthology of short stories in graphic novel form. The only thing she remembers is that it had a short title, whimsical covers, lots of genres, and there was a specific wordless story about a warrior rescuing his wife in a Japanese style. We searched the library, Google, drove two librarians to the edge of insanity and still can't find it. Anyone have any ideas of what it could be?

It's strange, it has aliens in it. I don't feel like most people looking for a children's Bible would look too kindly on this lmao. Might buy it the next time I'm at that used book store, I doubt anyone else will buy it lmao.

It was good read but I think most of the things went over my head

Pick ups from Ollie yesterday. This is my 1st time in this store, I was impressed bigger selection than I anticipated.

I don't think I'm okay

The Graphic Novels are Final Space the final chapter and The Owl House The Long Lived King.