iZombie v. 1: Dead to the World
Written by Chris Roberson
Illustrated by Mike Allred
Colored by Laura Allred
Lettered by Todd Klein
Published by DC/Vertigo

It’s probably not Roberson and Allred’s fault, but I found this particular trade paperback less than satisfying. It just never provided any sense of resolution to the reader – and I understand, this being an ongoing serial, some storylines will remain open for perhaps years. Yet I still prefer that each book in a series gives some closure to some piece of the narrative. I quit monthly comics ten years ago because trades were a more satisfying reading experience. With longer stories becoming the norm, but publishers opting for low-cost collections of only five, maybe six, issues, even trades are often unsatisfying these days. Putting more pages in these collections is strongly encourged, by me anyway. Price resistance kicks in when I know I have to pay many times for what I could have in fewer installments.

Of course, even if Dead to the World provided a clearer resolution, I’m not sure I’d be back for more. iZombie‘s a cute series, about Gwen, a zombie lady who must eat brains once a month or become a mindless, shambling monstrosity, and what occurs when her latest brain comes with memories of its own murder. But it’s still a zombie book, with vampires, monster hunters, ghosts and a were-terrier. It’s building its own particular take on these creature mythologies, but it’s all still monster mythology.  The monster subgenre of horror isn’t really my thing, so I can appreciate a solid twist and some nice art, but there’s no deeper hook here to bring me into it.

Roberson’s stiff dialogue carries the story, but doesn’t get deeper into the characters. The plot swerves effectively in a few key places, such as Amon’s back story, but it’s all plot – there’s no deeper significance to any of it. Mike Allred’s long been a favorite comic artist of mine, with a clean pop-art, cute-girl style that doesn’t seem obviously suited to a monster comic. Yet he acquits himself very well in iZombie, with strong character designs and clear page layouts, bringing a brightness and clarity to Gwen’s sullen lot in life.

In short, iZombie‘s an interesting series, but not necessarily a compelling one. I’m sure many readers will dig it – those with more interest in monster movie riffs than I, for example – but Dead to the World doesn’t set the series up to be anything more than a middling (if pretty-looking) genre exercise.

X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan v.1: 1967-1969
Written by Archie Goodwin
Illustrated by Al Williamson
Published by IDW/Library of American Comics

The daily newspaper Secret Agent X-9 debuted in 1934 with an impressive creative pedigree. Dashiell Hammett, following his successes with The Maltese Falcon and Red Harvest,  scripted the sleuth’s adventures, and Flash Gordon/Rip Kirby creator (and perhaps the most influential comics illustrator ever) Alex Raymond handled the artwork.

Both men soon abandoned their nameless detective, who travelled with a variety of creators for three decades until 1967 when Al Williamson, a longtime disciple of Raymond’s style, was hired to take over drawing the strip. Williamson recruited colleague and friend Archie Goodwin to write adventures for X-9, which was retitled Secret Agent Corrigan.

This book collects the earliest stories from Goodwin and Williamson’s twelve-year Corrigan run.

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It Came From the NYPL

Cross Game v. 2
Written & Illustrated by Mitsuru Adachi
Translated by Lillian Olsen
Lettering and touch-up by Jim Keefe & Mark McMurray
Published by Viz

In Cross Game v. 2, Mitsuru Adachi spends 280 of 350 pages chronicling a single baseball game. If you’re a baseball geek like me, it’s pure heaven.

The series’ overall arc, continuing from the first book, continues to revolve around high schooler Ko Kitamura developing into a baseball phenom, while his adversarial-cum-burgeoning-respect relationship with Aoba Tsukishima slowly evolves from childhood tensions into something more mature.

And, yeah, the emotional core of the series, Ko and Aoba’s relationship, is present in this book, but ultimately, v. 2 of Cross Game is devoted to Adachi’s astonishing ability to capture the magical moments of a baseball game on a comic book page. Using motion lines, severe angles, close-ups, quiet open panels of baseballs suspended in space, and angular poses that capture the contortions of charging fielders and off-balance throws, Adachi visually described the poetry of sports in static imagery.

Cross Game is, for this baseball fan anyway, a beautiful comic series; one I’ll probably begin buying before vol. 3 arrives in the U.S. But it’s great to know that I can continue to discover great series like this at my library; hopefully you’re all discovering similarly wonderful series at your branch.

Popeye v. 5: Wha’s a Jeep?
Written & Illustrated by E.C. Segar
Published by Fantagraphics

We’re closing on the end of Elzie Segar’s monumental comic strip accomplishment with the fifth volume of Fantagraphics’ recent Popeye reprint series. The next book will be the end, as Segar passed away and the strip passed into the hands of other – often still talented, but simply not as original – cartoonists.

This fifth volume introduces Eugene the Jeep, the yellow-furred, future-predicting pet and Popeye’s long-lost father Poopdeck Pappy into the mythology, effectively completing Popeye’s peculiar family unit. Popeye, Olive Oyl and Swea’pea form the semifunctional nuclear unit, with Wimpy, Castor, Eugene and Pappy rounding out the extended family.

While the daily strips focus on extended sequences, including Popeye’s kingdom Spinachovia feuding with Olive’s island nation and then facing invasion from neighboring Brutia. Then Eugene arrives and instigates the search for Pappy; Segar’s Sunday pages are couched in the strip’s unlikely family dynamic.

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Scenes from an Impending Marriage: A Prenuptial Memoir
Written & Illustrated by Adrian Tomine
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

Adrian Tomine’s Scenes from an Impending Marriage was born as a wedding gift, a token given to the guests at he and his wife’s nuptials. As such, it’s fairly innocuous. And you can’t really blame Tomine for that – that’s the inherent problem with a gift for a hundred or so people with a thousand different interests. It’s hard to find something for everyone, so you keep it basic. Innocuous.

Which isn’t to say Scenes from an Impending Marriage is bad. It’s not. It’s decently funny, with scenes that anybody who’s been married (went through it myself last April, so it’s quite fresh) – or known someone who’s been married – can easily relate to. Tomine provides a few good lines, grits his teeth in frustration and rolls with the punches in the same way my wife and I did, and the same way every other couple in ceremonial marriage history has done. It’s effective and cute, and certainly very well drawn – the loose quality of the art makes for a much livelier book than any of Tomine’s others – but it’s not an essential piece of a strong cartoonist’s canon.

It Came From the NYPL

American Splendor: Unsung Hero: The Story of Robert McNeill
Written by Harvey Pekar
Illustrated by David Collier
Published by Dark Horse Comics

This book is one of Pekar’s lesser known, but more affecting, efforts. Robert McNeil enlisted in the U.S. Marines in 1969 at the age of seventeen, and only one birthday later was shipped off for a year-long tour of duty in Vietnam.  In Unsung Hero, Pekar shares McNeil’s story with us, from a brief walkthrough of his childhood and scholastic career, into basic training, and ultimately through his military duty during which he won Navy Commendation Medal with Combat.

Pekar narrates the book from McNeil’s perspective, as if the reader is sitting down and listening to McNeil tell his tale. Occasional panels of McNeil as he appeared when the book saw print, 2003, enforce the casual sit-down nature of the writing. McNeil’s tale is very powerful, focusing on the conflicts between his own self-preservation and his desire to not fail his comrades. Threads of drug use and McNeil’s role in a collective of black soldiers weave through the saga, adding palpable humanity.

The artwork, sketchy but effective, enforces the narrative, but rarely adds much depth to it. The text, McNeil’s memories and insights, could almost stand alone. David Collier, however, does enhance the humanity of each moment with his impressionistic style and focus on capturing the emotional experience of McNeil.

Harvey Pekar may no longer be with us, but he’s left behind a deep body of writing, many of which we may have overlooked. I had missed out on American Splendor: Unsung Hero: The Story of Robert McNeil, and fortunately, the library helped me fill in that oversight. Hopefully your library can help you discover works by your favorite authors that you haven’t read.

Noche Roja
Written by Simon Oliver
Illustrated by Jason Latour
Lettered by Clem Robins
Cover art by Lee Bermejo
Published by DC/Vertigo

Simon Oliver and Jason Latour’s Noche Roja introduces Jack Cohen, an ex-cop turned home-security salesman, hired to investigate the murder of young Mexican women along the U.S. border. The oddest aspect of Noche Roja is how Oliver avoids ever pinpointing its location, referring to “North” and “South”, and dancing around geographic and ethnic specifics. It’s distracting, but not to the point of ruining an otherwise engrossing book.

Oliver’s crafted a tense moral thriller, where everybody has an agenda, and none of those agendas are looking in the general direction of altruism. Early on, Cohen realizes he’s been hired for a specific reason, and Oliver creates a workable scenario from bringing an ex-cop and ex-detective into the case. The interwoven histories of the players in this drama provide a complex tapestry that requires nearly all of the book’s 180 pages to unfurl.

The artwork, by Jason Latour, is effective, dark , moody. The layouts carry the story forward clearly, and the character designs are effective. The book’s reproduction, however, muddies many sequences, with too much ink on the page, swallowing up some of the layouts’ clarity.

Noche Roja works as a good crime comic, surprising and twisted, weaving corruption through worse depravations, with one man, a world-weary failed idealist, pulling at the strings, waiting to see what unravels.

Rat Catcher
Written by Andy Diggle
Illustrated by Victor Ibañez
Lettered by Jared K. Fletcher
Cover art by Lee Bermejo
Published by DC/Vertigo

Rat Catcher stands out among the Vertigo Crime line, certainly one of its better offerings. The plot revolves around an aging FBI agent whose partner has gone missing while investigating the rat catcher, a rumored hitman known for erasing state’s witnesses while in protective custody.

Andy Diggle (this is the first comic of his I can recall reading; mental note to look for more) handles the script with white-knuckle tension. He’s able to give each character shape with just a few snippets of dialogue (abetted, of course, by Victor Ibañez’s strong grasp of facial expressions and body language), so readers connect with the cast without spending much time on actual characterization. The plot’s the driving force here, with the missing agent Lynch on the run, uncovering secrets of the rat catcher, and his partner Burdon in pursuit, figuring out why Lynch remains on the lam.

At the exact moment enough information is put forward to make the rat catcher’s identity inescapable, Diggle goes for the reveal, upending the entire book and setting loose a breakneck chase for the finale. It’s fast and thrilling, with plenty of danger, some double-crosses and a respectable body count among the supporting players.

As strong as Diggle’s script is, Ibañez’s illustrations match the standard every step of the way. Burdon’s weary countenance captures the character’s exhaustion and emotional distress. The southwest vistas feel open and sun-scorched; the character acting is solid if slightly exaggerated (ah, comic book characters and their snarling faces); and the violence hits hard without being overly cartoonish.

A fast-moving, surprising and effective thriller, Rat Catcher stands tall as one of Vertigo Crime’s best titles to date.

It Came From the NYPL

Chew v. 1: Taster’s Choice
Written & Lettered by John Layman
Illustrated by Rob Guillory
Published by Image Comics

In discussing a previous Fables collection, I talked briefly about one of the many ways in which my preferences fly in the face of common comic fandom’s. Namely, comic fans at large tend to prefer ongoing serials, years of history, long-term commitments. My inclination is toward self-contained books or only-brief serials. Reading Chew v. 1: Taster’s Choice (the pun, I feel, would work better if the series’ hero made more choices) I was, again, reminded of this division between fandom and myself.

I liked Chew. It’s bizarre and strange, and not quite funny, but amusing in its own black-humored way. It’s hero, Tony Chu, is cibopathic, meaning that he gets psychic impressions from any food that he eats – and after being pulled into the FDA (a powerful organization in Chew’s world, where bird flu led to chickens being illegal and food crimes are the norm), his ability is frequently put to use by … how to put this delicately … getting clues to crimes through cannibalism.

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Sweet Tooth v. 2: In Captivity
Written & Illustrated by Jeff Lemire
Colored by Jose Villarrubia
Lettered by Pat Brosseau
Published by DC/Vertigo

Two stories unfold in the second book of Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth. Gus, the antlered nine-year-old boy who is ostensibly the series’ lead, finds himself in captivity, with a scientist who begins uncovering the origins of the plague that has killed much of humanity and mutated the survivors into peaceful crossbreeds. The second piece follows Gus’s betrayer, Jepperd, as his history prior to the plague unfolds via flashback sequences.

Despite the volume’s title, this book is much more about life before the plague than Gus’s status. Jepperd feels lost in the past, with no direction left for his life, and Gus remains a passive protagonist, dumbfounded (but sincere) as the mysteries of the recent past unfold around him. Lemire’s script and art both emphasize the mood, with contemplative sequences, open panels and heavy shadows – yet In Captivity also manages to be more plot-driven then Sweet Tooth’s first volume. Lemire doesn’t hold back (much) the origins of the plague, though he offers several more surprises to keep readers intrigued.

Ultimately, however, Sweet Tooth meanders along somewhat slower than I’d like, with no clear direction for its protagonist. Gus is earnest and likable, but inactive, a victim of fate rather than a willing protagonist. Lemire provides several strong character moments, and the art is laid out to maximize each emotional beat. I can easily see this series as a favorite for many readers, yet I’m not sure I’ll continue with it unless Lemire can pick up the pace and inject some impetus into the proceedings. Considering the cost (and time, which I never seem to have enough of) required for comics these days, I’m very picky about my long-running serials. As a graphic novel or shorter run of books, I’d recommend Sweet Tooth completely. As an open-ended commitment, I’m not quite as confident.

King of the Flies v. 2: The Origin of the World
Written by Pirus
Illustrated by Mezzo
Colored by Ruby
Translated by Helge Dascher
Published by Fantagraphics

Pirus and Mezzo continue their brutal dissection of suburbia in the second of three King of the Flies albums. The creative team, Frenchmen both, craft a tale so universal that a single reference to a Euro is the only element that prevents the story from taking place in any American suburb.

In King of the Flies, Pirus and Mezzo move through their suburban nightmare in ten chapters, seven-page each. Switching narrators, the creators plumb deeper into the disaffected malaise possessing the listless community with each sequence. Prospectless teenagers pursue their own short-sighted desires, while mingling uncomfortably with adults whose limited ambitions and selfish yens provide an ugly mirror to the kids’ futures.

Artist Mezzo fills each panel with moody, sagging, worn-in details, and the book’s flat color palette enforces the rundown quality of the line art. Anger simmers below the surface of each panel, balanced by a resigned ennui. The beauty of King of the Flies: The Origin of the World lies in seeing which way that tenuous tension will fall for each character.

If you’re of a mind for the ugly side of humanity, the despondence of hopeless lives, you won’t find a better comic that Pirus and Mezzo’s King of the Flies. The dialogue crackles, the artwork’s astonishing, and every character’s swirling the drain of life – like a car crash, you won’t be able to look away.

You’ve seen the movie, you’ve read the magazine articles, now you’ve got the opportunity to see the life of Hunter S. Thompson in graphic novel form.

And this isn’t your Entertainment Weekly-style, Bluewater Productions biography either. Written by Will Bingly and illustrated by Anthony Hope-Smith, Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson is published by an independent graphic novel house in London called SelfMadeHero.

Over the course of Hunter S. Thompson’s extraordinary life he was publically branded a bum, a vandal, a thief, a liar, an addict, a freak and a psychopath. Some of these were true. Yet, even when compared to the most significant figures of the 20th century, his legacy remains a brilliantly vital force. This is his story – the story of a troubled kid who went on to become an international icon, a story that plumbs the darkest depths of American society and charts the now-legendary adventures that birthed Gonzo journalism and a lifestyle beyond imagination.

Read more and check out some preview pages after the jump. (more…)

Denys Wortman’s New York
Written & Illustrated by Denys Wortman
Edited by James Sturm & Brandon Elston
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

Collecting nearly 300 drawings of New York City during the 1930s and 1940s, Denys Wortman’s New York accomplishes many things – not the least of which is renewing interest in a nearly forgotten cartoonist. Wortman spent thirty years drawing cartoons for New York World, yet until just a few months ago, his work seemed relegated to history’s forgotten file folder. Fortunately, James Sturm – cartoonist and proprietor of the Center for Cartoon Studies – uncovered some of Wortman’s work, tracked down the cartoonist’s son, and found a massive trove of illustrations and drawings.

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Palookaville #20
Written & Illustrated by Seth
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

Joining the ranks of Chris Ware and Los Bros, Seth converts his long-running comic book serial Palookaville to an annual tome with its 20^th installment. Like Ware, Seth opts for the striking hardcover package, meaning it’s a little pricier, but he’s clearly intent on making the package worthwhile.

Palookaville #20 comes with an eye-catching design and plenty of great features. Seth’s introduction explains the rationale behind the new format while lamenting the passing of the traditional comic book leaflet/pamphlet/insert-your-preferred-term. An extended installment of his ongoing “Clyde Fans” serial proves, if you’re new to the story as I am, difficult to entire immerse yourself in, but the quality of the cartooning is evident at a glance. (And I’m sufficiently intrigued to be very jazzed for an eventual collection of the entire saga.) Sketchbook pages; a long look at “Dominion”, Seth’s hand-made cardboard city, and its various exhibits; and a contemplative, verging-on-but-not-quite-falling-into despondence autobiographical sequence round out the package.

Seth’s a superb cartoonist, approaching each of his stories with an austere documentarian’s eye. There are no fancy tricks – just careful composed images and plenty of amazing details in both script and artwork. His evident interest in the development, culturally and architecturally, in his native Canada’s last century underscores all of his work, and nothing here changes that focus.

Despite “Clyde Fans” ongoing nature, Palookaville #20 is surprisingly inviting. Seth’s precise grids make it easy to fall into the tone and pace of each narrative, and his spare scripting and smooth, detailed illustrations capture the sense of his lost souls moving unsurely onto the next stage of their lives.

It Came From the NYPL

Special Exits
Written & Illustrated by Joyce Farmer
Published by Fantagraphics

So this book is, honestly, about as sad as you’re likely to find. In Special Exits, Joyce Farmer, via fictionalized alter ego Laura, takes readers on her father and stepmother’s final journey. The final four years of their lives, with all the inevitable health failings and physical and mental difficulties, unfolds for all to witness.

Farmer is a dense cartoonist, with often two or three word balloons per page, making for a heavy read, but a worthwhile one. They encounter many physiological, mental and emotional potholes along the way, so she can’t dally – clipped scenes of sponge baths, sleeping, unhealthy but easy to prepare meals, and Laura’s hundreds of small and large sacrifices inundate readers with the inescapable reality of her parents’ decline.

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Alec: “The Years Have Pants” (A Life-Sized Omnibus)
Written & Illustrated by Eddie Campbell
Published by Top Shelf

If you’ve not read Eddie Campbell’s Alec stories, this book is perfect for you, as you’ll be almost entirely caught up with just one tome. If you are a reader, you’ll get a new story along with some other odds and ends, and you’ll get most of the Alec tales under a single cover. In a well-designed, sturdy, and quite heavy brick of a book.

Alec, if you’re unaware, is Eddie Campbell. So Alec is, thinly veiled, an autobiographical comic. It’s also the on the short list of contenders for the best autobiographical comic. Actually, you can forget the comic part – it’s among the best autobiographies. No navel-gazing here, reader. Eddie Campbell’s a visionary, and Alec: “The Years Have Pants” (A Life-Sized Omnibus) collects the many facets of his own narrative: youthful adventures in and around the pub, marriage and children, relocating to the opposite side of the planet, anecdotes about the behind-the-scenes comic book business, and Campbell’s own philosophies on creativity, wine tasting and family.

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Acme Novelty Library #20: Lint
Written & Illustrated by Chris Ware
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

The latest Acme Novelty Library offering from Chris Ware tells a lifetime portrait of Jordan Lint, from birth to death. As with previous ANL books, Lint stands out on shelves as a beautiful book, a strikingly designed hardcover whose subtlety nearly screams out in comparison to the hyperventilating action-oriented covers of most comics.

Due to its narrative breadth, Lint sketches the outlines of its protagonist’s life, offering fleeting glimpses, snapshots of time just before or after momentous life changes. As such, certain sequences feel too fleeting, unfulfilling, but taken in sum, the complete reading experience rounds out a life as complete, complex and full as any found in the comics form.

Ware’s graphic sense remains impeccable, minimalist and striking, weaving small images together to give readers the fullest possible picture of Lint’s world. Similarly, his use of lettering – fonts, sizes, placement – aids the artwork in establishing the emotional tone of each sequence.

Like all of Ware’s work, darkness marks Lint, though this book doesn’t match the depressing melancholy of earlier Ware books. Which is, I think, a welcome change. Ware’s a technical master of the medium, and capable of devastating emotional stories; showing a wider emotional range will only make his work even stronger and more essential. If you’re not reading Acme Novelty Library, you’re missing the most technically accomplished and boundary-pushing comics available today.

It Came From the NYPL

The Man in the Ceiling
Written & Illustrated by Jules Feiffer
Published by HarperCollins

Having recently read Jules Feiffer’s strong memoir Backing into Forward, I felt compelled to sample some of Feiffer’s children’s book output. His glowing regard for the form makes it nearly impossible to ignore the them, particularly given my high regard for his cartooning. So I checked The Man in the Ceiling out of the library, and it’s well worth it. It’s enjoyable for adults, and if you have younger children, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Jimmy can’t throw or catch or hit a baseball; he’s basically a failure as boy. However, he’s a fantastic artist and dreams of becoming a famous cartoonist (the theme should be familiar if you’ve read Feiffer’s memoir). His uncle is a failure as a playwright, but finds success suddenly on his doorstep. And the only popular boy who notices Jimmy likes his drawings, but has “better” ideas about comic book stories. Mix an emotionally distant father learning to express himself, an artist mother who designs women’s fashions, a bossy older sister who encourages Jimmy’s artwork, and an adoring younger sister who pesters Jimmy to no end, and you have the framework of The Man in the Ceiling.

Feiffer’s engaging and fun prose possesses plenty of wordplay humor to keep adults reading to their children engaged, while the story itself explores the terrible heartache of creativity and failed creative ventures. Regular illustrations, both of the characters themselves and of Jimmy’s comic books, spice up the proceedings, adding humor and humanity. Through all the heartache of Jimmy and his uncle’s struggles, Feiffer uses dollops of humor to keep the book upbeat and pleasant. And while the subject of dreams lost and dreams compromised runs throughout, The Man in the Ceiling excels through Feiffer’s strong interpersonal dynamics, weaving a deeper understanding of all the book’s themes by exploring the complex connections between Jimmy and his family.

If I had young children, no doubt this book would be purchased and add to my library. For now, however, I’m glad I can explore the many creative avenues of talents like Jules Feiffer by finding excellent books like The Man in the Ceiling at my library. Hopefully you can find it at yours.

Elmer
Written & Illustrated by Gerry Alanguilan
Published by SLG

After reading Gerry Alanguilan’s chicken-centric Elmer, I’m left wishing that he didn’t need to spend precious hours inking other people’s comics to pay the bills.  So I’ll ask you all to go pick up a copy of this amazing book so Alanguilan will have money and time to devote to his own comics.

Elmer tells of a world where chickens, spontaneously, gain human-level intelligence. Told via the framing device of a son reading a father’s journal, the story deals simultaneously with its titular lead character’s struggle for acceptance in the post-talking-chicken world, while his son, Jake, copes with his father’s death and the anger that comes of being a disrespected, often mistreated minority. Firstly, Elmer is beautifully drawn, with detailed renderings and careful pacing. Alanguilan lays out each page precisely, building emotional connections with close-ups, while pulling back to give proper impact and scale to the dramatic confrontations that occur frequently throughout the narrative.

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Who doesn’t like free? You know what’s even better? When the free thing you’re getting is quality awesome. Top Shelf announced today they’ll be offering Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin’s new graphic novel Gingerbread Girl online at Top Shelf 2.0 for FREE!

Top Shelf 2.0 is the company’s dedicated webcomics site where they also released the Eisner-nominated graphic novel Super Spy by Matt Kindt and publish several other titles. Gingerbread Girl, the most recent title, will be serialized with a new mini-chapter appearing each Monday and Friday.

You may know Colleen Coover & Paul Tobin from the fabulous talking-monkey adventure Banana Sunday, the adorably erotic Small Favors, or the wonderful work they’ve done with Marvel superheroes. But here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor of the newest project by this dynamic duo!

But hey, you ask, what’s it about? Gingerbread Girl is the story of one adorable and bewildering girl, Annah Billips, and the exasperated attempts by everyone around (boyfriends, girlfriends, neighbors, bystanders, passing animals) to figure out what makes her tick. That’s all we can tell you – for more, you’ll just have to read the story!

The story is set in Portland, Oregon and from the official summary, sounds completely wacky and fun. “There are plenty of established facts concerning 26-year-old Annah Billips. She likes sushi and mountains, but hates paper cuts and beer breath. She dates girls and boys, and loves to travel. She may have a missing sister, or she might be insane.” Sounds like my kind of book. All of the chapters will be eventually be released as a hardcover in the Spring which is available for pre-order or you can start reading now!