Why you should read Lumberjanes too

I guess the title of this week’s entry pretty much says it all. I fell in love with this wonderful comic book series a while ago and today I’m gonna try to convince you to give it a try too, if you haven’t already. With all the hype and awards that Lumberjanes has been getting, you had to be living under a rock to have missed it.

I first found out about Lumberjanes through several youtube channels about comics that gave it a lot of praise and positive reviews. As you might know, I’m usually more of a superhero comic fan, but of course I read other books as well. Especially Image and Vertigo titles like The Walking Dead, Fables, DMZ, Y: The Last Man and Scalped. And one of my all time favorites is Jeff Smith’s Bone, which is actually what Lumberjanes reminds me of most. A cartoonish art style, stories accessible for young readers and a host of supernatural beings. These are all ingredients for a fun read, so I decided to give trade volume 1 a chance. By the time I had finished it, I had already ordered all the other volumes.

Lumberjanes is developed by Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, Noelle Stevenson and Brooke Allen. The fact that Noelle Stevenson was involved, was a good reason for me to give it a try. I had read her Nimona graphic novel a while before that and really liked that. It was so different than anything else I was reading at the time and I really liked her art style. It’s incredible what that young lady has accomplished at such a young age. She is now even the showrunner on the upcoming She-Ra Netflix/Dreamworks cartoon that’s coming in november. And if you’ve read my previous entry about He-Man and She-Ra, than you’ll understand that I’m pretty excited about that.

Another good reason to give this title a chance, is the fact that it is written and drawn by an all female team and that the five main characters are also all female. And to top it off, one is even a transgender girl and some of them obviously have more feelings for each other than just friendship. This really shouldn’t be a big deal, but in the very male dominated comic book world, it actually is. And the fact that this title is so popular and successful now, is a clear sign that times are definitely changing. Marvel has also put a lot of effort in making their superheroes more diverse as far as ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation is concerned these last couple of years, but this is taking it a step further and it really proves that there is room for equality, feminism and LGBT characters in the comic book world.

But all that aside, it’s just a really fun book to read. It actually had me laughing out loud on several occasions. The 5 lead characters are all very different, but it’s those differences and their unconditional friendship that make it so much fun. And the situations that these 5 girls get caught up in are often so bizarre, that you can’t help but think: “WTF??” They encounter stuff like dinosaurs, sea monsters, shapeshifters, Greek gods and yeti’s and that’s not what you’d expect from a book about 5 girls at a summer camp. It’s a perfect combination of humor, adventure, heartwarming interaction between the characters and just good old fun!

Since I loved the comics so much, I also just ordered the Mariko Tamaki novels, which also have illustrations by Brooke Allen. They should make a nice addition to the collection and I’m looking forward to reading them during my summer vacation. And since comic books are the inspiration behind Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters these days, 20th Century Fox is currently working on a Lumberjanes movie, which should be a breath of fresh air among all the superhero movies coming out these days.

So if you want to try something different, give Lumberjanes a chance. When I first heard about the title, I thought there would probably be a lesbian/feminist undertone, and there definitely is, but it’s done in such a nice way, that it’s still very suitable for all ages. Like I said, it’s one of the most fun books I’ve read in quite a while and I hope the series will continue for a long time to come.