The writer and artist together have crafted a very plausible way for the "mutated Cordyceps fungus" to infect people and, uh, dissolve their brains. And it doesn't take long for the "zombie fungus" to do its work... Hey, the CDC just released Emergency Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse on 5/16/11 - life imitates art?!
Tsang's writing is humorous and serious in all the right places, while Gorrissen's drawings make every character distinctive and real - both cartoonish and lifelike at the same time (except thoroughly dead, in the zombies' cases).
Dicey is a hoot, playing baseball on the varsity team and giving the guys back what they dish out, while Jack is super-brainy, getting totally flustered when Dicey agrees to a date = you can just see him blush, even though the whole book is in black and white.
I was excited to see that I Love Him to Pieces was nominated for YALSA's 2012 "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" list. So nice that they confirmed my enthusiasm!
**kmm
Book info: I Love Him to Pieces (My Boyfriend is a Monster #1) / by Evonne Tsang; art by Janina Gorrissen. Graphic Universe/Lerner, 2011. [author interview] [artist's website] [series site] [publisher site]
Recommendation: Who knew that being “egg parents” together for a school project would lead to making a stand against the undead on a senior skip day?
The “zombie fungus” should never have reached Florida. But suddenly varsity baseball star Dicey and her super-scientific boyfriend Jack are in the middle of it, as zombies begin to take over their city.
Are Jack’s researcher parents safe in Mexico, at the meteorite crash site where the fungus was first discovered? Are Dicey’s dad and little brother safe across the bay? What about their fantasy-gaming friends and the baseball team at St. Petersburg High School? Just one bite from a zombie, and it’s all over…
Somehow, the stunningly detailed art in black and white makes the zombies scarier than a blood-and-guts palette would - fantastic! First in the graphic novel series “My Boyfriend is a Monster,” each book featuring a different writer/artist pairup and a different variety of monstrous boyfriend. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) (review copy courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.com)
Fun! This sounds right up my quirky alley. :) Thanks for the recommendation, Katy! I'll pass it on to my mother (who just loaned me Mansfield Park and Mummies, btw).
ReplyDeleteThis is my favorite of the 4 in the series = best artist/writer combination for me. (I haven't read MP & M yet, but loved PP & Zombies)
ReplyDelete**Katy