Author

Sumney Sigler

Browsing

When I first read issues one through six of Shade the Changing Girl as they were published piece by piece over a year and a half ago the series was quick to carve out a special place in my heart. Now that I’ve made time to go back and reread those first few issues where they are compiled into a collected edition my fondness for everything Shade has multiplied tenfold. If you’re someone who reads monthly comics you know that most of the best titles are written to be circular. What I mean by this is that some interpretation is gained bit by bit, while other interpretations become more clear when you can put all of the pieces together. Both separate reading experiences feed off of each other for the deepest level of understanding.

After scheduling an interview with Cecil Castellucci, writer of Shade the Changing Girl, I was eager to start my research and learn more about her. In addition to her monthly series, Cecil published more than fifteen other original Graphic Novels and works of Young Adult Fiction. Her most recent, Don’t Cosplay With My Heart, seemed like it would be a good place for me to start.

Hope Larson’s triumphant return to cartooning has arrived just in time for the start of summer with All Summer Long.

At the start of All Summer Long, our protagonist Bina finds herself feeling emotionally unprepared for all of the changes that are coming her way. Her childhood best friend Austin is trading their summer break rituals for an elite soccer camp. Then while he’s away at camp he stops responding to her texts. Does that mean he doesn’t want to be her friend anymore? They get a chance to figure things out when he’s home again, close to the end of the summer.

“World may be crashing down ‘round us, but we figured out the trick.
Don’t be greedy. Be satisfied with having enough.
Some think it’s too antiquated a way of livin.’ But look around. We make it work.”

Outsiders view the Grass Kingdom as a town full of tax dodgers and squatters. Its residents know better. To live there is to live in a paradise full of people who want to think, live, and work for themselves and each other. So when someone new would like to join they all get a say.