Dublin is currently participating in the One City One Book program, and they've selected Dracula for it. So it seemed fitting (kind of) that the book I had brought with me was an advance copy of The Strain by the director Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (no relation). The Strain is a vampire book, too, and it was the perfect book for the plane --- gripping, fast, very readable, and tense and macabre. It was the eerie kind of book where you keep waiting for something terrible to happen (that it opened with the mass death of everyone on a giant airliner added to the tension as I read it 38,000 feet over the Atlantic).

After the nice vacation I returned and got back to work. That included going to see Chris Claremont and Matthew Manning talk about Wolverine. I still haven't seen the movie yet (I'm incredibly behind on everything at this point, and that includes movie-going). Seeing Chris Claremont in person and listening to him speak about the years he spent not only on Wolverine but on the entire X-Men was one of those surreal moments. It helps that Chris is open and honest when he speaks. I call it surreal because it's odd to see and hear, some 25 years later, what went on behind the scenes of the creation of works that defined, influenced, and outright changed your childhood.

After that, it was time to work on more content for this site update. That included the interviews, reviews, and articles you'll see described below but also planning for some future content that I'm really excited about. I think this is going to be one of the most exciting summers in graphic novel and manga history, and we want to cover it all as best we can.

Thanks again for your support. As we continue to grow the site, we rely on our readers for solid feedback. All of us here are incredibly grateful to have you reading! And before I go, let me remind you to enter the GNR contests on the site. Just by signing up for this newsletter you're eligible for our monthly newsletter giveaway (in which you could win five books). But also be sure to enter our Word of Mouth contest on the site. It's simple and easy: All you have to do is tell us what you're reading and how you like it, and you could win a free book. We aim to please, and we also aim to keep you well-stocked with good graphic novels and manga.

Happy reading!

John Hogan (John@bookreporter.com)

Rick Geary
Rick Geary has an eye on the past, but with a very modern sensibility. That's what's helped him create some very exciting adventures and mysteries that all have historically accurate ties, including The Adventures of Blanche.

The New Yorker Previews the New Clowes

A Little Wolverine Talk

Claremont and Manning Discuss Wolverine

Pryde and Glory

Dublin the Fun

The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert
The Photographer, which will be in stores on May 12th, is one of this season's most highly anticipated books. It marries the amazing pictures of Didier Lefevre with the images and text of Emmanuel Guibert (Alan's War). The result is a blazingly honest, riveting memoir that stands as one of the best examples of graphic literature: It's that good. Lefevre journeyed through Afghanistan in 1986 with Doctors Without Borders, taking pictures to document the entire time he spent there and the work of the doctors he met. Years later, working with his friend Emmanuel Guibert, Lefevre was finally able to tell his story. Laying bare the real life of doctors and citizens in Afghanistan in the mid-'80s, The Photographer is a mesmerizing experience. Sadly, Lefevre passed away in 2007, but not before seeing the completed work of his life in Afghanistan take shape in The Photographer. Take a sample look here at what Didier Lefevre and Emmanuel Guibert have created.

Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy series remains one of the most loved and bestselling series in publishing. Now, it's been adapted to the graphic novel format by writer Chuck Dixon and artist Chase Conley and published by Dabel Brothers. Adding new insight into Robert Jordan's classic, the upcoming Dragonmount is a beautiful and thrilling adventure. Here's a look at the first six pages of the book, coming out next week.

The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack by Nicholas Gurewitch
Dark Horse's The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack highlights the consistently solid writing and art of Nicholas Gurewitch's now defunct webcomic. Printed beautifully and containing more than 20 pages of bonus material, it is a must-own collection for fans.

Arcade of Cruelty by Joseph Larkin
Joseph Larkin's Arcade of Cruelty is full of crass humor, but the author finds the right tongue-in-cheek approach to make many of the jokes work. It is by no means perfect, but Larkin's book provides enough laughs around a clever concept to make it worthwhile.

Huntress: Year One by Ivory Madison and Cliff Richards
The Huntress gets another reboot in Ivory Madison's story of a mob daughter fighting crime. Armed with a crossbow and her tough-as-nails determination, Huntress is no longer Batman's daughter --- but she is finally getting the storyline she deserves.

The Adventures of Blanche by Rick Geary
If you've read any of the books in Rick Geary's Treasury of Victorian Murder series, you know how his deliberate, deadpan delivery of the facts of the murder cases belies the detail in his artwork. This same technique is put to brilliant use in The Adventures of Blanche, a collection of three long out-of-print stories about an adventurous young woman living in the early years of the 20th century.

Adventures in Cartooning by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost
It's nonfiction! It's a story! It's possibly the best how-to book on cartooning for kids that has been disguised as an actual comic book ever! No, really!

Wolverine: Worst Day Ever by Barry Lyga
Somewhere between epistolary and graphic novel, Wolverine: Worst Day Ever tells the story of a student at Professor Xavier's School for Mutants, a student who doesn't quite love the powers he possesses and wants to emulate someone like Wolverine.

Making Comics by Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud, comicdom's unofficial genius and universal translator, makes the leap from simply Understanding Comics to the equally challenging world of Making Comics. People who think they're the same thing probably also confuse apples and rhinoceroses.

Was Superman a Spy? by Brian Cronin
Facts and trivia from comics' golden age all the way up to the modern age fill the pages of Was Superman a Spy?, a fun and informative romp about the history of the industry. It's packed with things big and small, new and old, and famous and obscure.