Some comics

Graphic novels are sometimes transcendent, but more often they are pleasurable diversions, like a good mystery novel. I recently read 2 that were entertaining.

Fallen Angel. OK, this technically isn't a graphic novel (if I understand it precisely). Instead it is the first few issues of a periodic comic. Whatever. It is dark and nasty like many other graphic novels, so let's just pretend. This one is set in an American city called Bete Noire that is somehow without police but is managed by mysterious magistrate. He is given to mentioning that the whole world will end if Bete Noire goes crazy. The Fallen Angel is woman with powers not fully explained. Like Rogue, she is more or less invincible and she doesn't mind killing. She faces a bunch of nasties and a few moral choices. Like I said, nothing special, but fun. Of particular note to those looking for female bad asses.

In the multiyear gaps between Fire and Ice novels, George R R Martin has written a few short stories/novellas called the Dunk and Egg stories. They are set about 100 years before the series and involve a squire who impersonates a knight and a boy who befriends him. Marvel recently released the first story, the Hedge Knight, as a graphic novel. It is a small episode, probably worth one or two chapters in one of the novels, and I think some of Martin's detail may have lost in the transition. Still, the art is excellent, and the story has a few surprises. This one may come in handy while we wait for A Dance With Dragons.

I saw but did not pick up Testament, which is written as if Bible stories took place in the modern day. Lots of sex and violence (as one finds in the OT) so this one will be strange for a number of audiences.