Today’s stack is about sequels and series! As I was going through my never-ending queue of comic books, I noticed I had a pretty big stack of books from series, including quite a few where I had the first two books of a series that I hadn’t started yet. For today, I’m mostly covering continuing series that aren’t totally new to me, and I’ll save the others for later.
A silly peek behind the curtain: My family is used to me holing up on Sunday evenings to write my Stack Overflow columns: I often try to get started earlier in the week, but unfortunately I still have the habit of just working up until a deadline—part of that comes from having so many things I could write about at any given time, so I have a hard time choosing until I absolutely have to. Even when I start writing a column ahead of time (as I did with last week’s stack of comics about artists), I tend to read a big stack of books first, and then write them up all at once after the fact. My daughter saw me at my desk with the pile of books, flipping back through them to check what I wanted to say about each one, and she asked me: wouldn’t it be easier to write about each book right after you finished reading it, instead of having to go back and re-read sections later? Well, sure, maybe. But I often don’t know if I’ll have enough books for a topic until after I’ve read several and they start piling up! At any rate, I’m sure my process is not as efficient as it could be, but old habits die hard.
Squire & Knight 2: Wayward Travelers by Scott Chantler
I covered the first Squire & Knight book in the same comics grab-bag as Eowulf: it pairs a bookish squire with a brash, mostly clueless knight. In this book, they’re escorting young Cade to his wizard school … and they’re lost. The forest is a maze, there are gnolls on the hunt, and there’s a knight in the way who’s just as loud and obnoxious as Sir Kelton. But Squire’s smart, right? He’s got books and maps and surely he’ll be able to figure things out instead of charging around in circles like the knight.
Unfortunately, no. In this one, it turns out that Squire can also be overconfident, and he needs to be reminded of what he signed up to do. There’s a little more of Squire’s background through some flashback scenes, though Chantler still stops short of ever giving us Squire’s name. While Sir Kelton is still obnoxious, this second volume does manage to show that at least sometimes he can still be useful.
DnDoggos 2: Spells Like Trouble by Scout Underhill
Here’s the second book in a series about dogs playing RPGs. (Read more about the first book here.) Having completed their first adventure, the dogs get to level up, gaining some new abilities and stats. And just in time, because Squish, the mayor’s son, is off on another adventure—he says Maxila has escaped and kidnapped his dad. What is Maxila up to? The dogs are also joined by their friend Toast, a cat who loves casting spells but is a bit chaotic (of course).
As with the first book, this one jumps back and forth between the world of the game, in which the character drawings are detailed and fantastical, and the real world, where much simpler versions of them sit around the table, rolling dice. It makes for a very fun story and shows what it’s like to play an RPG, illustrating both what’s happening in reality and what the players see in their mind’s eye.
The Books of Clash Volume 6 written by Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by Kendall Goode and Alison Acton
I first mentioned The Books of Clash back in 2023, and the series is still going strong. For a series based on mobile games (Clash of Clans and Clash Royale), I didn’t really expect a whole lot from these at first, though I’ve long been a fan of Gene Luen Yang. What I found was that I’ve really enjoyed diving into this wacky world of the games, and that Yang has done a great job of bringing these characters to life. In particular, each book takes one or two characters, who are usually just one of countless clones in the game, and gives them a back story and unique personality that sets them apart from the others.
This book centers on two skeletons, the twin siblings Riley and Wylie. Their uncle Skullgar set off (way back in Book 1) to get his battle machine repaired—but now the twins get word that he’s in trouble, far away on Mystery Island. The book is narrated by Riley, who doesn’t care for surprises and really wants everything planned out in advance. Meanwhile, Wylie is impulsive and up for anything, as long as it is EPIC. That’s becomes the main source of tension in this volume, as Riley gets tired of constantly having to cover for her brother’s “Leeroy Jenkins” tactics. As you might guess, both twins learn a thing or two about each other and how sometimes their sibling might actually be right.
The Books of Clash have quickly become one of my daughter’s favorite series, too, even though neither of us has actually played the games they’re based on. She’s read through the whole series countless times already, and I know we’re both looking forward to more in the future.
Space Chasers 2: To the Moon written by Leland Melvin and Joe Caramagna, illustrated by Alison Acton
The kid astronauts are back! In the first volume (covered in this column), Steven got injured and was cut from the mission while he had physical therapy to recover. Part of this book follows his story while he was absent, and then continues the story as the team heads to the moon: in preparation for expanding to a bigger outpost, the team will be helping to investigate the recent moonquakes. But ever since Steven got back, his teammates have been acting a little weird around him.
Everyone really wants to make sure that Steven—who uses a wheelchair—feels like part of the team. But the way they treat him just makes him feel more out of place. The book shows how it’s important for them to lean on each other’s strengths to solve problems, but a lot of the tension comes from some miscommunications, partially overheard conversations. Some of the major problems could have been avoided if the characters had actually just talked to each other instead of tiptoeing around each other—not my favorite trope. Overall, though, it was still a fun story, mixing in some real space science with the plot.
Sidekicks 2: Thick as Thieves by Dan Santat
Here’s a blast from the past: the first Sidekicks book came out back in 2011! It had been long enough since I’d last read this that I’d forgotten a lot of the initial plot, other than that it features animal sidekicks. In this new volume, Captain Amazing, a superhero with a peanut allergy, has now retired and is on vacation. But there’s been a data breach, and information about the world’s superheroes has been leaked! It’s up to the pet sidekicks—Manny the cat, Roscoe the dog, Fluffy the hamster, and Shifty the chameleon—to save the day.
Then Whipley—Shifty’s long-lost brother—shows up at the house. While Shifty is overjoyed to reconnect, the other animals are skeptical. Is Whipley actually here to help, or is he just working to frame the sidekicks? The story keeps the reader guessing what Whipley’s real intentions are, even as things come crashing to a conclusion at the World’s Biggest Ball of Yarn (where Captain Amazing and his sister are attending Crochet-Con).
The tricky thing about long-awaited sequels is that, as far as the kids go, their tastes may have changed significantly. My oldest was in elementary school when the first book was originally published, and now she’s almost done with college! So it’s probably a little too late for her, but if you’ve got middle grade readers, now you’ve got two books you can add to their reading list.
Adventuregame Comics 2: The Beyond by Jason Shiga
The first Adventuregame Comics: Leviathan came out in 2022, and The Beyond followed in 2023 but I somehow didn’t get around to it until just recently. Jason Shiga’s Meanwhile was a mind-blowing, ground-breaking experiment in comics that let you choose different paths for the main character to take. His Adventuregame Comics use a somewhat similar mechanic, with little “tubes” that connect one panel to the next, often traveling in unusual directions so you don’t just read everything left to right, top to bottom. Where Meanwhile used a bunch of little tabs to jump from one page to another, Adventuregame Comics have a simpler system where a tube might just lead to a little box with a page number in it, and you jump to that page.
In this story, the nameless main character dies—but that’s not really a spoiler alert. It’s actually what kicks off the real story, which involves exploring the Beyond. He winds up in a weird parlor, where he is instructed that he can travel into the world of different books by placing them on a special table. For you, as a reader, it means that you’re trying to collect books throughout the story, because each one is numbered and will let you jump to that page number of the comic book. Do you want to go on a pirate adventure? Woo the beautiful Lady Rose of Wiltshire?
One of the interesting things about The Beyond is that while you can just read it and follow the various paths to see where they go, there’s also a puzzle to be solved. You’re presented with some hints, but the book-portal-table allows for jumping to new numbers to see where they go, and the trick is figuring out how to arrive at the right number to get to a new ending.
There is in fact a third volume as well, Samurai vs. Ninja, but I seem to have lost track of it. Hopefully I’ll turn that up soon.
Eowulf 2: The Creature Connection by Mike Cavallaro
In the second book of the series (mentioned in this comics grab-bag), Eowulf has gotten a part-time job at Vulcan’s Celestial Shop. Her job is to transport the Helm of Balor to a movie studio and keep an eye on it—it’s a real artifact, but it has a safety lock on it so that it can’t be used. But things don’t go as smoothly as expected, and pretty soon Eowulf finds herself digging into missing magical creatures. In the meantime, her friends in Arcadia have their hands full with a realm that seems to be filling up with … snot? Oh, and Eowulf’s parents still want her to clean her room. It’s another mythical adventure, filled with friendly monsters and dark conspiracies, and I was impressed with the way Cavallaro manages to tie all the threads together by the end.
Bone: More Tall Tales by Jeff Smith with Tom Sniegoski
Bone is a fantastic series that is 35 years old this year, but is still finding new readers—it’s a fantasy story about the cartoony bald-headed Bone cousins that mixes in the absurd and the silly with some truly creepy baddies. The original 55-issue series was then collected into 9 volumes (and there are also omnibus editions if you want just one huge book), and it has also had several spin-off books including some illustrated novels.
More Tall Tales is a follow-up to Tall Tales (from 2010!), and features the Bone cousins along with the three Bone scouts and Bartleby, the young rat creature, following the events of the main series. The characters are traveling together—an activity that includes its own adventures—and they sit around the campfire swapping stories, which are illustrated by a variety of artists. Jeff Smith provides the framing story, and then most of the tales are written by Tom Sniegoski.
I always welcome a chance to spend a little more time in the Bone world now that the epic tale is over, and these books are the perfect way to do that.
Suitor Armor Volume 3 by Purpah
I’ve written about the first two books in this series here and here, where I included them in books about artificial intelligence and alien intelligence, though it’s not exactly that. Modeus is a suit of armor, brought to life through magic, but he turns out to be more intelligent than the court mage had planned. In fact, despite the fact that Modeus is soon able to speak, ask questions, and show evidence of having opinions, most of the other characters in the book still refer to him as “it.” Lucia is the exception, and has been trying to convince others of Modeus’s personhood, with a little bit of success in certain cases.
Volume 3 starts getting pretty dark. I mean, there has been a lot of talk before about the war between the humans and the fairies, but this book begins with an explanation of what happened from an elf’s perspective, and it involves a lot of cruelty and treachery from the humans. Lucia—who is secretly an fairy living among the humans—quickly begins to see that the elf spoke the truth, and that humans have been using “the war” as an excuse to oppress and demonize fairies. Lucia’s own safety at the castle is threatened, and her relationship with Lady Kirsi starts to feel some strain, too.
While I don’t think the book is strictly allegorical, it’s easy to find parallels between the story and things that have happened and are happening now in the real world. We know how easy it can be to dehumanize our enemies, to use vague threats and the fear of danger to excuse horrific actions. And many of us also know what it’s like to feel threatened by those in power, having to choose between hiding our true selves or being punished. Suitor Armor wraps some serious topics into a fantasy love story, and I’m eager to see what happens next.
City Spies: Europa by James Ponti
We’ve reached book 7 in the City Spies series! Just out this week, this volume finds the kid spy team after some big shake-ups in the previous book. They managed to foil a big plot from the shadowy crime syndicate Umbra and captured its leader, but they also lost their headquarters and have moved to a stand-in location in London. But Umbra is still at work, and the leader has been coordinating a series of attacks from prison. MI6 has intercepted cryptic messages, and it’s up to the kids to figure them out: where will the attacks take place? And are they somehow connected to Clementine, the double agent with close ties to the City Spies?
This book takes the kids all over Europe, and I love the way that Ponti works a lot of real-world facts into his stories. In this one, the kids are getting a lot of lessons on the history of spycraft (particularly British spycraft), so they learn about Violette Szabo, a spy who was captured and killed during World War II, and Operation Mincemeat, which was used to trick Germany into sending troops to the wrong place. These facts aren’t just used as trivia for the reader, but also have deeper connections to the plot. Ponti also does a good job of mixing up tense, action-packed scenes and some levity and humor—these are still kids, after all. Though, I gotta say, claiming that a reference to The Princess Bride was an “inside joke that only the two of them would understand”? Inconceivable!
The Art of Zootopia 2 by Kalikolehua Hurley
Okay, technically this book isn’t a sequel—it’s an art book about a sequel—but I decided to squeeze it into today’s column anyway. Zootopia took us back to this animal metropolis, and the odd-couple partnership between Judy Hopps, bunny cop, and Nick Wilde, fox conman (who is also now on the police force). Despite my dislike of copaganda, I do still enjoy detective stories and I liked the world of Zootopia, with all of the ways that one city accommodates such entirely different animals.
One of those accommodations is the enormous weather walls between the different climate zones of Zootopia, allowing blistering deserts and freezing snowscapes to coexist next door to each other, and they’re one of the central plot points of the second film. They were invented by the city’s founder, Ebenezer Lynxley, part of the reason the Lynxley family still has so much power and fortune a century later. But now there’s a snake on the loose in Zootopia—something unheard of! It turns out that reptiles once coexisted in Zootopia along with the mammals, and Judy and Nick have to get to the bottom of a massive cover-up.
The art book is a great exploration of a lot of the design concepts for the movie: all of the wacky animal-themed buildings and vehicles and products, character designs, and entire environments. This movie introduced the Marsh Market, a section of Zootopia for aquatic and semi-aquatic mammals, so there are closer looks at some of the details there. I always love the pages with all the punny signs and logos that are easily missed when watching the films.
The book does give away a lot of the plot points, so I don’t recommend reading this before you’ve seen it if you want to avoid spoilers, but if you’re a fan of the movie, this one is fun to pore over.
Disclosure: I received review copies of these books. Affiliate links to Bookshop.org help support my writing and independent booksellers (instead of billionaires).
