Y.S. Stephen - Reader | Casual Observer

Keep Going by Austin Kleon is an exhortation to anyone doing creative work. Life happens - people die, we get discouraged, distracted, hurt, ill and old, but in all these the author encourages creators everywhere to let go, develop routines, take walks, and seek solitude among other things. He notes that one of the keys to creating, regardless of what lie throws at us, is to focus on today:  "It is not the experience of today that drives men mad. It is remorse or bitterness for something which happened yesterday or the dread of what tomorrow may bring." Austin Kleon also warns that those who hide behind their creative work to make themselves and other people miserable are doing the world a disservice and are better off doing something different than art. He writes, "If making your art is ruining anyone's life, including your own, it is not worth making...find something else to do with your time, something that makes you and the people around you feel more ali...

"She shouldn't have survived. She was two years old... I taught her nothing. I prepared her for nothing." In Sword Daughter (Volume 1) , a man who has been in a coma for ten years after his village was pillaged and his wife killed, wakes up to find his daughter grown and emotionally distant.  Despite their troubled relationship, the two work together to seek revenge against the pillagers. I could say that Sword Daughter is just revenge plot with nothing else and I will be right. But as far as revenge stories go, it is a good one. The art's brownish austere look fits with the story's overall theme. This is not a story that is trying to be subtle, it has fights, blood and all the mechanics you would expect in a story that is trying to get down and dirty with details of death, starvation, and survival. Many thanks to Dark Horse Comics for review copy.

Blackhammer tries to go behind the fist-throwing and razmataz of superhero stories. It explores doubts, fatigue, love and other emotions that can come with wielding huge supernatural powers. With its main characters, Blackhammer shows us what it is like when powerful beings become vulnerable and afraid. It shows us the human side of superheroism and the lack of control they feel situations don't fall in line as they expect. Blackhammer features six superheroes who failed in saving the world and find themselves in another dimension. Though they try, the "heroes" are unable to leave the dimension. Guilt, shame, and exasperation settle in as they languid around, looking for ways to leave, a few of them are already giving up seeing their homes again. If you are a lover of superhero tales but tired of the normal Marvel-DC take, you will enjoy Blackhammer .

Imbalance (Part One) is the latest instalment of Avatar: The Last Airbender comics. Reading it feels familiar - it mirrors a lot of what is happening in our present world. Much of the book is devoted to the theme of unfettered and unconscious progress. It examines how such "progress" tends to leave the poorest behind while the wealthy take undue advantage to accumulate more. For Avatar fans, it is important to note that Imbalance events occur way before any of the four main characters (Aang, Katara, Toph, and Sokka) had children. It focuses on the technological and economic advancement that came after the war. As usual in an Avatar series, this story has the four companions helping folks, solving complex problems, and busting skulls.