![\"Graphic](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/La-Mesa-Reads-July-2017-Graphic-Novels.png\")
<\/a>This year ushered in several intense crime comics with supernatural elements. \u201cKill or Be Killed\u201d is the latest by the noir dream team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. After a failed suicide attempt, disenchanted twenty-something Dylan finds himself alive and hearing voices from a shadow in the darkness. The shadow claims to be a demon who saved Dylan\u2019s life, and Dylan must repay the debt by killing someone once a month. Uncertain of his own sanity, Dylan decides he must chance it, and begins a secret second life as a surprisingly effective vigilante. Everything goes well for him \u2026 for a while \u2026<\/p>\n\u201cThe Black Monday Murders\u201d by Jonathan Hickman and Tomm Coker fuses traditional organized crime stories with horror. It explains the world as one controlled by a small handful of families, whose strength comes from centuries of occult dealings with dark gods.\u00a0The plot begins when one of these secretive financial titans is murdered and the police begin opening the door on this underground society. The investigating cop is armed with some understanding of these dark forces, but is quickly in over his head.<\/p>\n
The ironically titled \u201cHappy!\u201d by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson tells the tale of Nick Sax, a police detective fallen from grace, who now is a sleazy, drunken hit man. After a job goes wrong, he ends up in the hospital \u2026 and is awakened by a miniature blue talking flying horse that only he can see. While Nick\u2019s goal is to flee from the gangsters who want his head, Happy the Horse implores him to save a little girl in town whose time is running out. Is Nick crazy? Is Happy a hallucination? Are imaginary friends real, and if so, why would one put its faith in such a degenerate human being?<\/p>\n
Ron Wimberly\u2019s \u201cPrince of Cats\u201d took me by surprise. It tells the story of a secondary character from \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d \u2014 Juliet\u2019s aggressive cousin Tybalt. But instead of Renaissance-era Italy, the tragic tale is set in 1980s Brooklyn. Picture sword-fighting NYC teens, decked out as though they were auditioning for a Prince video. The artwork is stylish and vibrant, and the dialogue is extremely impressive. Instead of simply inserting Shakespeare\u2019s lines, or re-writing those lines in modern language, Wimberly writes new dialogue in iambic pentameter that mimics Shakespeare\u2019s flowery text, with swearing and hip-hop slang sprinkled in.<\/p>\n
To end on a silly note, I\u2019ll mention \u201cScooby Apocalypse\u201d by Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis and Howard Porter.\u00a0In an inexplicable departure, DC Comics takes the groovy teen detectives of \u201cScooby-Doo\u201d and sets them in a post-apocalyptic Earth filled with monsters.\u00a0But to my surprise, it works.\u00a0Brainy Velma suspects nefarious schemes from her superiors at a shadowy tech conglomerate, so she calls in reality TV stars\/journalists Fred and Daphne. They cross paths with hipster Shaggy, a company dog trainer who works with the genetically engineered SmartDogs, like Scooby. They are thrown together just as the corporate mad scientists realize their plan by releasing a virus that turns people into monsters.\u00a0Scoob and the gang are no longer revealing Old Man Higgins in a monster mask \u2014 they are fighting to survive a world of vampires, zombies and more.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not too late to join the library\u2019s Summer Reading Challenge. People of all ages can get prizes for reading books, attend fun and educational programs, enter art contests, and more. Details are at sdcl.org\/src<\/a>.<\/p>\n