Graphic novels, most of them disappointing

But a couple of them were terrific, starting with the first volume of KATIE THE CATSITTER by Colleen A.F. Venable and Stephanie Yue. All Katie wants to do is earn enough money catsitting for her upstairs neighbor to join her BFF Bethany in summer camp. But the cats are uncanny, including master thieves, ace hackers, martial artists and acrobats; the neighbor may be the supervillain Mousetress; and Bethany seems to be changing into a different person while they’re apart. Can Katie hold it all together? I’m hardly the target demographic for a middle-grade graphic novel but I liked this one. And I loved the parody of Batman’s origin in which a superhero talks about the tragic day he lost his parents (“Son, you only lost sight of us for five minutes.”).

GIRL GENIUS: The Second Journey of Agatha Heterodyne — Queens and Pirates by Phil and Kaja Folio is fun, as the series always is: while Agatha’s Mom begins terrorizing Europe, Agatha and most of her supporting cast wind up in England where they get some help from its immortal queen, though possibly with strings attached. Fun, but unsatisfying: this lays the groundwork for what feels like a dozen future story arcs without enough stuff paying off in the here-and-now. Still, it was nice to see Krosp and Gil again.

BRITISH PARANORMAL SOCIETY: Time Out of Mind by Chris Roberson and Andrea Mutti (Dark Horse credits Mike Mignola too, but he’s not on the cover as a creator) is also unsatisfying and nowhere near as much fun. Set in the Hellboy Universe, this has Simon Bruttenholm and new character Honora Grant visiting the small village of Noxton where the standing stones are sinister and the summer festival is creeper than Honora expects. This wasn’t bad but it’s interchangeable with a long list of charming English villages with creepy undertones.

FOR WHOM THE DOORBELL TOLLS by multiple creators has the interesting idea of adapting Ernest Hemingway stories for Disney characters — though the adaptations are more inspirations to the point I wouldn’t recognize the connection if they didn’t spell it out (in fairness, I’ve read little Hemingway). The stories include Goofy as a blues singer struggling to go country, Scrooge McDuck reliving his glory days and Mickey realizing a life of adventure can be a good thing. I’m not enough of a fan of Disney comics to get into this.

WILDING WILLOWS: Where the Wild Things Are by Dave Elliot and Barnaby Bagenda is a Victorian-character mashup in which Alice (of Wonderland) is the daughter of Dr. Moreau, who’s genetically engineering flying monkeys for the Wicked Witch of the West while Dr. Doolittle’s son discovers Mowgli is the kid he didn’t know he had and Frankenstein’s creature squares off against Peter Rabbit. It’s been a long time since I reacted to things like this with “Holy shit, a mashup!” rather than “what, another one?” — not that a good one doesn’t work for me, but this left me completely uninterested in reading V2.

#SFWApro. Cover by Yue, all rights to image remain with current holder.