Holy childhood memories, Batman! Skyscrapers of the Midwest by Joshua W. Cotter is a combination of much non-reality paired with serious realistic traits, and to a lot of the realistic elements I greatly relate. I know that feeling of being endlessly frustrated with a younger brother who worships you, and even though you get mad at him all the time you don't hate him. I know the general rural-country feeling (including being baptized at a young age most likely because of peer pressure, then fearing eternal damnation because you knew you did it for the wrong reasons) and colloquialisms that result from the geographic area-- like my grandfather called his wife, my grandmother, "Mother" instead of her name or a more normal pet name like "honey," as an old man in one of the side stories called his wife. Beyond personal things, it depicts the main character, a little boy, and his family/friends/neighbors as cats. Human cats, I guess. This and other elements of fantasy, like robots, robot-cats, dinosaurs and so on make frequent appearances. It's sometimes difficult to separate fantasy from reality in this book, but this is how it goes when speaking of childhood. The main character is a nerdy little boy and you get all these funny glimpses into his various traumas and adventures, and more. It's a really complex, creative book and very enjoyable. OVERALL RATING: 4.5

So, I must be a sap for childhood tales of woe, because I really liked Chester Brown's I Never Liked You: A Comic-Strip Narrative. In this graphic novel, Brown recounts (as much as memories will allow) his childhood past. He's a gawky, awkward teen who according to the girls he knows, could be much better looking if he'd do something with his hair and wear better clothes. Little do they know, there are much deeper things going on in Chester's life. Even though he goes through all the usual teenage boy thoughts of getting with girls, he's got real struggles. His mother is mentally ill, and announces to her two sons that she is admitting herself into a mental hospital. He later depicts her in the hospital as shriveled and unlike her old self, unable to respond to her visitors with more than a few grunts. It's terribly sad, yet Chester barely feels a thing. It's an interesting point; sometimes in the face of real tragedy we are unable to have the appropriate feelings, especially in the cruel self-centered realm of the adolescent years. OVERALL RATING: 4.5

My significant other was reading through Guy Delisle's Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea at the same time I was, and described it quite accurately as "Sacco lite." (Light? Is lite just a newfangled, new-aged made-up spelling?) Delisle is an animator who finds himself traveling to North Korea to work on a project. His experiences there are incredibly limited, as he is not allowed to do many forms of travel without an escort. Everyone he encounters (with the exception of non-Koreans) has the same "brainwashed" mindset of being obsessed with their leader and former leader, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. (Forgive me if I forget which is which!) Everything is very sterile and pretty much every aspect of the North Korean's way of life is consumed with ways of serving the great leaders. It's certainly no detailed, truth-bearing Sacco novel, but it's funny and an interesting sociological report. Worth reading, but nothing to rush out and get. It's good if you find it though! OVERALL RATING: 4