Lumberjanes #1 (of 8)

These 'comics' are really well made and beautiful. I imagine that they will last forever. I can't say about the content just yet because I've purchased them as a xmas gift for my nephew who saw these at a bookstore and expressed interest. I love buying reading material for all my nephews so if they keep publishing more of these I will surely continue to buy them.

Fun, charming, and full of badass lady-types! This is everything I've looked for in a comic.
Good for all ages:
- Great gift for kids who are going away to camp and want to know if they're going to have awesome adventures or not
- Great gift for adults who want to relax after work with something that brings joy to their hearts
- Buy it for yourself because you deserve it, why not

THE BEST! My second grade seven-year-old loves the series! Lumberjanes is empowering for girls and a good read. She is an advanced reader and this still pushes her abilities in vocabulary and comprehension (in a good way). This series is great for any gender or age 7+.

Just doesn't compare to Huey, Dewey, Louie and the Junior Woodchucks. Seriously, it was OK but the story and characters didn't live up to the buzz. And while the art suited the tone of the story, it was a little rough for my taste.

I loved the colors and the graphics used. It really helped make the characters feel well rounded. As a teen librarian, I can see any teens interested in a good summer read, with adventure and a hint of fantasy, loving this graphic novel

this review aplies only to the digital version . And it's not a problem of story/art quality. The problem is that you don't get the full album ! only the firts 20 something !! I can't say much about the comic as I only get less than half of it. instead of the full 123 pages as described on the details you get much less. Don't buy the digital as it doesn't fit the described

Lumberjanes Volume 1: Beware the Kitten Holy collects the first four issues of the much-talked-about series, making up the first half of the first storyline. I loved the framing conceit. It’s obvious but amusing and well-executed. The book is set up like a scout guide, or in this case, the “Lumberjanes Field Manual for the Intermediate Program, Prepared for the Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady-Types”. Each chapter (issue) is introduced by a new badge with an old-fashioned description of how to achieve it.

In case you’re unfamiliar with this gang of girls whose rallying cry is “Friendship to the max!”, there are five of them: Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley. They have crazy adventures in the woods nearby the summer camp they’re attending, including saving each other from three-eyed mystical foxes, canoeing some river rapids, exploring a mysterious cave, arm-wrestling a statue, and solving important math problems and anagrams. They also have tea and cookies with the Scouting Lads and cope with counselor Jen, who doesn’t have a lot of patience for their sneaking around.

The art’s impressively active and diverse. Allen is capable of dealing with all the various imaginative elements thrown into this crazy adventure as well as the caring emotions among the young women. Plus, the dialogue is realistic, although I still am not entirely sure which name goes with which camper.

Although the mystery is just getting started by the end of this volume, there are enough incidents and encounters to make this a fun read, although fans will definitely want the eventual next book to know what all the clues were about. The nice thing about Boom!’s collections is that they include copies of the many multiple covers, including retailer and convention exclusives, so they’re a lot easier and cheaper way to see the related art without chasing variants. Plus, there are a couple of character design pages included as well. (Review originally posted at ComicsWorthReading.com.)

The amount of praise for Lumberjanes in 2014 as one of the comic series to most look after makes sense on a couple of reasons. 1) The entire creative team is made up of women, something you don’t see too often in comics, 2) the lead characters are all teenage girls with various body shapes and size, unlike many females portrayed as skinny and in-shape models, 3) it has no political agenda/hidden messages around it’s female cast, as the girls are just fun, typical, and wacky and don’t talk about typical stuff like boys, girl power, or serious subject. 4) Its an all ages book! All those aspects make this series something I can see why not only women and young girls can enjoy, but even-dare I say it-young boys.

LUMBERJANES VOL.1 collects issues #1-4. The story takes place in a summer camp in the woods by the name of Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady Types, where girls are named Lumberjane Scouts. Our five main characters from the Roanoke cabin - Jo, April, Molly, Mal and Ripley – are the weird, offbeat, black sheep group of the camp with a incredibly serious and stern scout-leader named Jen. The camp is run by a scout-master Rosie, a laidback woman who enjoys wood carving. Our five heroines witness a mysterious old woman transforming into a bear one night and decide to follow her into the woods. Next thing they know a hostile pack of three-eyed supernatural foxes show up and disappear. The scout-master Rosie seems to know more about the incident and of other weird aspects, but the girls decide they should answer the mysteries of the camp for themselves.

Writer Noelle Stevenson has writing and art credit for Adventure Time!, so the same sort of kiddy/teenager vibe remains here as well, but with the addition of another writer Grace Ellis, artist Brooke A. Allen, and colorist Maarta Laiho to continue the trend. The book is simply a delightful and fun romp of our girl scout Lumberjanes getting into trouble and finding adventure and a tight friendship. Either it be canoeing and fighting a three-eyed dragon, exploring an ancient cave with arm-wrestling statues, using numerical numbers to solve a anagram, or simply figuring out a bow and arrow on a bridge from possessed boy scouts. It’s all weird and cartoony, but there is a lot of humor and heart with these characters to make this enjoyable. Timed correctly jokes/catchphrases like “what the junk?!” or “I like cats”

As I have mentioned before about all ages and no hidden meanings, it works out for all ages and can appeal to kids and adults (no, really). This is about friendship in a broad general term, not just for girls, but any teenager of sex, age, or skin color. There’s no “girl power!” slogan, or feminists wordings, or body imagine/shaming happening, any other message here. This is simply a book that stars teenage girls and about friendship. That’s why it’s such a fun romp. There is a slightly subtle romance in there, but it’s well-handled to being cute and doesn’t take away from the adventure.

The entire book has a layout design based on the Lumberjane field manual handbook, as each issue begins with a merit badge description and method of attaining it, which also plays an important part of the issues plot. So the first issue is about dealing with three-eyed foxes at night, which the merit badge is called “up all night badge” for scouts to learn about the things that walk the night. It’s charming and ironic at the same time for the stories.

The only setback I can see if from maybe male audiences. I’m a male reviewer in his late 20’s, so maybe I could have missed some deeper meanings young girls would know? Maybe some boys/men might not appeal to them? What I’m trying to say is there might be problems from a males-perspective, seeing as I’m not the target audience. But that’s merely an observational flaw, and nothing that detracts from this series. The overall ending leaves on a cliffhanger though, where many questions readers might have won’t be answered until volume 2.

None the less, I still enjoyed this book and see why it’s highly revered. It does have characters with likeable traits, a lot of charm, sass, and overall child/teenage theme that does appeal to young women, though arguably it could appeal to anyone and everyone-and again, I’m writing that that down from a man’s perspective. LUMBERJANES is an enjoyable all-ages comic meant for teenage girls, but it’s just a fun series in general and are interest to read volume 2 when released.

I really enjoyed reading Lumberjanes Volume 1: Beware of the Holy Kitten. It is about a group of Lumberjanes (hard core lady types) at summer camp, Jo, April, Mal, Ripley, and Molly, who like to go on adventures together and find the strange things that are happening in the woods. And there is a hint of romance! I especially loved this graphic novel because it reminded me so much of Girl Scouts, I have been a Girl Scout my whole life and it has taught me a lot of life lessons. It made me happy to see how other people, even graphic novel characters, valued the lessons that they learned in scouting.

Lumberjanes VOLUME 1 collects the first four Lumberjanes comics. They are titled Lumberjanes #1, Lumberjanes #2, Lumberjanes #3, and so on, (all the way up to a Lumberjanes 18). If you buy Lumberjanes #1 you will only get the first comic not the collection. You need to buy Lumberjanes VOLUME 1 to get the four-comic collection.

Paper copies of the four comics are hard to come by. But get this; the comics are available individually for Kindle and as best I can tell as of the time I'm typing this, Lumberjanes #1 costs the same as Lumberjanes VOLUME 1. This is confusing and makes no sense, but there it is. So be careful about what you're buying and try to get the VOLUME 1 collection.

On a side note, if you like this girrrll power collection you might want to look at the Rat Queens graphic novel series, which involves a group of barbarian girl mercenaries. It is very funny and well plotted and written, but it is an adult comic with a lot of cursing, drinking and sex. (They are empowered barbarians, after all.)

Anyway this is a great and interesting find with a positive and unique dynamic among the heroines and a very solid and rewarding change of pace. Happy reading.

The Skinny
The Roanoke Cabin, led by Jen, is known for their exploits. Friends Jo, April, Mal, Molly and Ripley stick together like PB&J and have some exciting – and dangerous – adventures at this Camp for Hardcore Lady Types. There’s a mix of backwoods country, rockabilly and urban teen all mixed into the characters. The girls stumble upon some really strange things around camp, and as the summer goes on and strange things continue happening, they are set on solving the mysteries. They encounter all manner of craziness and creatures along the way, so they stick to their core camp concepts: stranger danger and friendship to the max.

The Players
Jo – a tall Davy Crocket type who seems to like Mal

April – the fierce yet kind redhead of the group, she is an odd mix of Disney princess and warrior

Mal – a punkrock hipster kind of girl who seems to kind of like Jo

Molly – a tall Lumberjack type who knows all things Lumberjanes, she is also very sarcastic and smart alecky

Ripley – cares strongly about things like kittens and cake, easily distracted, appears to be the youngest of the group

Jen – the camp counselor for the girls, she is very good at loosing the girls and gets very flustered

Rosie – the director of the Camp for Hardcore Lady Types

The Quote
So we were in our bunks just like we were supposed to be, right? And we heard a rumble and a whoosh, and then we saw – well, Jo and I saw – the super weird old lady outside the cabin.

So I went down into April’s bunk because of , y’know, stranger danger.

– SHE WAS LIKE SUPER WEIRD, LIKE THIS –

And THEN the woman said a lot of swears I’d never heard before and then WOOOOSH and AHH BRIGHT LIGHTS and then there was a BEAR!

So Jo and I woke up all of our friends because “FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX,” obviously, and we went after it and then there were foxes and here we are.

The Highs and Lows
/ Plot. The plot had its good and bad points. There wasn’t much of a real plot there, just a jumble of various adventures. The chapters center around an adventure to get a particular Lumberjane badge, but the events themselves are kind of all over the place. Even the dialogue between characters was a bit off at times, like the characters were on in some inside joke and readers were left with no clue. There was the whole Kitten Holy thing in the first chapter, which also came back full circle in the end and they found out what it meant, but otherwise there was no significant plot development.

+ Ripley. If I could have been anyone in this crazy adventure of the Camp for Hardcore Lady Types, I would want to be Ripley. She goes with the flow and doesn’t get caught up in the details. Kittens and cake and unicorns and puppies all the way!

+ The Art. The artwork and illustration are terrific! I wish my life could be designed and illustrated like this.

+ Jen. She is the classic worrywart, and it is clear she loves her group of girls – crazy adventures and elevated blood pressure and all.

– Rosie. There were a few moments that Rosie seemed…odd. I can’t quite put my finger on how to describe it, but I don’t trust her. But she definitely and clearly is meant to be a reincarnation of Rosie the Riveter…with a sophisticated Daphne look.

/ Humor. The authors and illustrator clearly spent time developing the Lumberjanes and the humor of the dialogue and the drawings had me giggling while I flipped the glossy pages. Sometimes I got the impression the authors were trying to hard to push a lot of references. I have a movie and music buff in the friend circle, and even I was lost on some of the references. Like make up tutorials, less is more. Sometimes it was a little overdone. However, when the humor was on, it was on.

The Take-Away
I liked the focus on certain characters throughout the entire volume. Each character had a little spotlight and readers had the opportunity to get insight into them as individuals, but also in pairs.

Recommendation – Buy, Borrow or Skip?
Borrow. If I continue reading the series, I doubt I’ll continue to buy the physical books. I will try to borrow from libraries or friends to keep reading the series. This is in large part due to the sporadic plot.

This is ‘Lumberjanes’ Volume One, collecting issues #1-#4 of this popular and amazing comic book series released by Boom! Studios and created by Ross Richie and Shannon Watters. The idea for ‘Lumberjanes’ came from Boom! Studios editor Shannon Watters approaching writer Grace Ellis with an idea to create a girl-centric comic series, from there Brooke A. Allen was bought in for initial character designs and Noelle Stevenson as a co-writer (the eagle-eyed amongst you will recognise Stevenson's artwork from Rainbow Rowell's 'Fangirl')

A single eight-issue story arc was originally planned, but the series received such critical acclaim and fan-response was so huge that it’s now an ongoing series (hallelujah!).

Jo, April, Mal, Molly and Ripley are five besties enjoying their summer at Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniguigul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types – Miss Quinzella girls are known as ‘Lumberjanes’. But as the summer starts unfolding, the Lumberjanes of Roanoke cabin (love this reference, btw!) get the sense that something fishy is afoot – there’s a weird Bearwoman, talking foxes that warn them of “the kitten holy”, sea monsters in the lake and yetis in the woods. The Lumberjanes intend to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding their summer camp – and all while upholding the Lumberjanes Field Manual!

This series is the best. THE. BEST! I can’t even put into words the awesomeness that is ‘Lumberjanes’ – it’s like ‘Goonies’ with an extra dose of fantasy in the adventure, there’s a Buffy’s Scooby-gang sensibility, and doses of magical realism that at times reminded me of Karen Russell’s short stories (like ‘Haunting Olivia’ – because I could totally see these Lumberjanes going crab sledding!).

Let me see if I can breakdown the awesomeness of this series, shall we? There’s Jo, the cool-headed one of the group who uses math, science and logic to help get the gang out of sticky situations (she rocks the Fibonacci sequence in one ‘Goonies’-esque escape scene that totally rocks!).

April loves taking notes, making lists and puzzle-solving. She has a flair for the dramatic, adores a good pun and while she’s physically the smallest of the group, she dominates at arm-wrestling.
Molly is a skilled archer, but sometimes worries that she doesn’t contribute enough to the group – she wears the hell out of a Davy Crockett hat, and is a great cheerleader for her friends.

Mal looks like a punk-rocker, but she’s a Discovery Channel-aholic and is the very cautious member of the group, who will do anything to save her friends if they’re in trouble.

Ripley is the most energetic of the group – she’s got a mean karate-chop and does a great ‘fastball special’. She’s like a can of fizzy drink that someone’s just shook up and is completely hilarious.

These protagonists are so darn brilliant and diverse, I adored each and every one of them. And then there are the secondary characters who also kick-butt: Rosie the camp director whose like a tattooed rockabilly mama-bear, and Jen the Roanoke cabin's scout-leader who takes her job and protection of the girls very seriously.

I also loved that two of the main characters have a budding romance that’s beginning to unfold in Volume One – Molly and Mal have some completely adorable scenes of timid attraction, and I can’t wait to see where they lead because I’m already shipping them so hard!

This comic series is funny as all get out – there’s a testosterone-fuelled male camp director who’s like a caricature of misogyny, proclaiming he’s going to “catch a fish by wrestling it away from a bear!”. And the way these girls take every challenge (be it lake-monster, wrestling statues or crazed scouting lads) in stride is both admirable and brilliant.

‘Lumberjanes’ has set a new benchmark for comic books with me – I can see myself becoming an annoying spruiker of the series to anyone and everyone who’ll take reading my reading advice! I’m so in love with this series, and totally kicking myself that I wasn’t aware of its existence sooner so I could have bought each issue as it came out. As it stands I’ve now got to wait until October, when Boom! Studios will be releasing Volume. 2!

This is ‘Lumberjanes’ Volume One, collecting issues #1-#4 of this popular and amazing comic book series released by Boom! Studios and created by Ross Richie and Shannon Watters. The idea for ‘Lumberjanes’ came from Boom! Studios editor Shannon Watters approaching writer Grace Ellis with an idea to create a girl-centric comic series, from there Brooke A. Allen was bought in for initial character designs and Noelle Stevenson as a co-writer (the eagle-eyed amongst you will recognise Stevenson's artwork from Rainbow Rowell's 'Fangirl')

A single eight-issue story arc was originally planned, but the series received such critical acclaim and fan-response was so huge that it’s now an ongoing series (hallelujah!).

Jo, April, Mal, Molly and Ripley are five besties enjoying their summer at Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniguigul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types – Miss Quinzella girls are known as ‘Lumberjanes’. But as the summer starts unfolding, the Lumberjanes of Roanoke cabin (love this reference, btw!) get the sense that something fishy is afoot – there’s a weird Bearwoman, talking foxes that warn them of “the kitten holy”, sea monsters in the lake and yetis in the woods. The Lumberjanes intend to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding their summer camp – and all while upholding the Lumberjanes Field Manual!

This series is the best. THE. BEST! I can’t even put into words the awesomeness that is ‘Lumberjanes’ – it’s like ‘Goonies’ with an extra dose of fantasy in the adventure, there’s a Buffy’s Scooby-gang sensibility, and doses of magical realism that at times reminded me of Karen Russell’s short stories (like ‘Haunting Olivia’ – because I could totally see these Lumberjanes going crab sledding!).

Let me see if I can breakdown the awesomeness of this series, shall we? There’s Jo, the cool-headed one of the group who uses math, science and logic to help get the gang out of sticky situations (she rocks the Fibonacci sequence in one ‘Goonies’-esque escape scene that totally rocks!).

April loves taking notes, making lists and puzzle-solving. She has a flair for the dramatic, adores a good pun and while she’s physically the smallest of the group, she dominates at arm-wrestling.
Molly is a skilled archer, but sometimes worries that she doesn’t contribute enough to the group – she wears the hell out of a Davy Crockett hat, and is a great cheerleader for her friends.

Mal looks like a punk-rocker, but she’s a Discovery Channel-aholic and is the very cautious member of the group, who will do anything to save her friends if they’re in trouble.

Ripley is the most energetic of the group – she’s got a mean karate-chop and does a great ‘fastball special’. She’s like a can of fizzy drink that someone’s just shook up and is completely hilarious.

These protagonists are so darn brilliant and diverse, I adored each and every one of them. And then there are the secondary characters who also kick-butt: Rosie the camp director whose like a tattooed rockabilly mama-bear, and Jen the Roanoke cabin's scout-leader who takes her job and protection of the girls very seriously.

I also loved that two of the main characters have a budding romance that’s beginning to unfold in Volume One – Molly and Mal have some completely adorable scenes of timid attraction, and I can’t wait to see where they lead because I’m already shipping them so hard!

This comic series is funny as all get out – there’s a testosterone-fuelled male camp director who’s like a caricature of misogyny, proclaiming he’s going to “catch a fish by wrestling it away from a bear!”. And the way these girls take every challenge (be it lake-monster, wrestling statues or crazed scouting lads) in stride is both admirable and brilliant.

‘Lumberjanes’ has set a new benchmark for comic books with me – I can see myself becoming an annoying spruiker of the series to anyone and everyone who’ll take reading my reading advice! I’m so in love with this series, and totally kicking myself that I wasn’t aware of its existence sooner so I could have bought each issue as it came out. As it stands I’ve now got to wait until October, when Boom! Studios will be releasing Volume. 2!

If the art had been more consistent I totally would have given this 5 stars.

I REALLY liked this story. It's weird and funky and fun and intriguing and silly. It's sort of a cross between the Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree and Indiana Jones.

I'm not completely convinced that Ripley is even human, but that could just be the silliness factor. All the girls have something unique - super smart, super strong, super clever, etc.

I love the camp directors Tats. Hilarious.

There are some seriously weird and messed up things going on in this story, but it's super fun. I'm not always a fan of the tween/teenager comics, but this one has a great story, interesting and characters, and a creepy mystery.

I would highly recommend this comic for anyone. Despite the inconsistent art, the characters are unique enough that you can still tell who everyone is from panel to panel.

The Basics:

The Lumberjanes are a scouting organization for, in the words of the back cover, “Badass Lady-Types.” Beyond earning survival badges and forging friendships (“to the max!”), the girls have to contend with a whole forest full of paranormal weirdness.

The Upside:

It’s harmless and intermittently cute, with a few educational interludes and the occasional laugh, appropriate for pre-teens getting into comics and looking for positive representations of female friendship.

The Downside:

The modern comic book renaissance has many better examples to offer of all the above positive elements.

Lumberjanes attempts to imitate the optimistic, lighthearted style of female-led peers like Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, and even Harley Quinn, but seems to have confused “lighthearted” with “insubstantial.” In an apparent effort to demonstrate the independence and competence of the Lumberjanes, every obstacle they face falls before the might of their teamwork and smarts, effortlessly and within seconds, eliminating the possibility of any tension or stakes.

The girls are fairly interchangeable, particularly in their bulletproof self-confidence which, while admirable in role models for girls, leaves little room for conflict or even self-discovery when the entire main cast shares this same immunity to all doubt.

What plot exists is instead pushed along by bizarre paranormal phenomena that come and go not only without explanation (which can work), but without resolution or any identifiable point, at least not within this first volume.

The bright colors and mood of wacky hijinks are probably sufficient to entertain younger readers while introducing concepts like anagrams and the Fibonacci sequence, but there’s nothing here to earn the firm stamp of crossover appeal that Lumberjanes seems to aspire to.

I definitely think this comic series is an excellent entry into the genre, and the author and illustrators deserve a TON of credit for their work on Lumberjanes. This series was recommended on a pop culture podcast that I listen to, and based on most of the content of that podcast and the hosts I expected a series that was aimed at a slightly older age group (such as Morning Glories). As an adult male who sometimes dips into YA fiction, I tend to be onboard with a wider variety of genre conventions aimed at younger audiences, but this series wasn't what I was personally looking for.

That being said, I absolutely loved the art style, themes, and world-building associated with this series. For me the only piece that I wanted a bit more from was the overall plot and just a slightly more realistic level of stakes associated with these adventures. However, if you're looking to buy this for a girl ages 7-14 I could not recommend it more highly. Frankly, even for those folks who don't fall inside that demographic I think that there is a lot to love about this series about a diverse group of snarky, tough, fun young ladies who blow the real scouts and their standard merit badges out of the water.

The worst thing about Lumberjanes is that my library only has the first issue. And now that I finished that whimsical, funny, earnest, lovely graphic adventure of a diverse but very realistic group of girls...I need to read more! Honestly, the entire first issue is setting the stage for a supernatural mystery. I'm so Mal it's painful (in personality) but all of the characters are fun. Here's visual representation of girls of all types that aren't often represented (in graphic novels, film, etc.): the hyperactive tomboy, the girl who is really good at puzzles both numerical and linguistic, the nurturing girl who is supportive of others but not a mothering doormat type, etc. The visuals were fun and colorful, with a lot of comic-style facial expressions but nothing slap-dash. The plot is appropriate for middle grade (no cussing, no adult topics, very wholesome) but was also entertaining and funny to this 33-year-old cynic. So in short, I highly recommend it for anyone looking for some lighthearted humor and adventure, graphic novel-style. But especially if you like seeing diverse and realistic gender representation (on both sides!).

This is the first trade paperback volume of the critically-acclaimed Lumberjanes series, collecting the first four issues, plus a bonus gallery of the variant covers.

Five girls discover friendship, weirdness, and various monsters during a summer at Lumberjanes Scout Camp.

Loaded with catchphrases and frenetically-paced, the story places the girls into one dangerous adventure after another, with hardly a moment to stop and wonder "What the junk?".

The character development happens in small moments and little details, amid plenty of humor and a strong sense of wonder and weirdness.

The occasional entries from the Lumberjanes Field Manual and the badges (Pungeon Master!) are a nice added touch.

There is lots of action in this volume, but not many answered questions. I look forward to seeing where all of this is going.

What a fun, engaging, exciting new series! I had heard about Lumberjanes but not read it until an in-store recommendation during a shopping spree with my friend Kay two days ago caused me to pick this first collected volume up. I'm glad I did, and I'm glad I decided to read it right away.

It took only a couple of pages for me to become immersed in these characters and want to know more about them and the world they inhabit. It probably helped that the authors start the story in mid-adventure: we don't get pages of character introduction setting up the fact that the girls are going to sneak out of their cabin; the story starts with the sneaking already having happened and the girls encountering a pack of three-eyed foxes in the woods. And the pace never really slackens after that: there are quiet moments and raucous moments, but not a page or panel is wasted on exposition. Every word and image moves the story along.

So often with so-called "girl-centric" ensembles (whether in print, television or movies) we get characters who must fill a role: The Spunky One. The Pretty One. The Funny One. The Rich One. The Leader. and so on. I am happy to report that there's no such tick-box character creation of group members here. All five girls, along with their cabin counselor Jen, are well-rounded characters who each have their funny/smart/snarky/athletic/leading moments, as well as moments where they are insecure/clumsy/unprepared/suspicious. It was great fun wondering who would solve the latest riddle the group encounters, who would take the lead, who would make the next pithy comment. They all get the chance to, they all rise to the occasion. (That said, as of now my favorite characters are Mal and Molly, because of their adorkable romance, and Ripley, because of her frenetic energy and kick-ass entrances.)

The art is also great fun. Brooke Allen's style is at times reminiscent of current animated shows like Adventure Time but also completely her own. She's got a wonderful sense of motion from panel to panel, leading the reader's eye through character posture as much as motion. And the facial expressions are priceless and point-on. She's not afraid to get broadly cartoony when the moment calls for it, but she's also not afraid to scale it back to more realistic when that's called for as well. And some of the backgrounds/set-pieces have far more detail than you at first realize as you're following the action.

I'm absolutely ready for volume 2. I'm also ready for someone to make this a television series, except that I'm sure Hollywood would find a way to screw up such a wonderful aesthetic.

I really enjoyed reading Lumberjanes Volume 1: Beware of the Holy Kitten. It is about a group of Lumberjanes (hard core lady types) at summer camp, Jo, April, Mal, Ripley, and Molly, who like to go on adventures together and find the strange things that are happening in the woods. And there is a hint of romance! I especially loved this graphic novel because it reminded me so much of Girl Scouts, I have been a Girl Scout my whole life and it has taught me a lot of life lessons. It made me happy to see how other people, even graphic novel characters, valued the lessons that they learned in scouting.

I finally read this collection this past weekend and...just, all the hearts. Lumberjanes smashes up so many things that I love--hardcore lady types, summer camp, friendship (to the max!), a sense of adventure, sharp humor, wacky supernatural creatures, and an ace ensemble cast. Like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer mixed with your favorite summertime novel. It's about the members of Cabin Roanoke, five super curious and hilarious and hardcore Lumberjanes (think Girl Scouts with a Joss Whedon twist) who are discovering that there is a lot more going at their summer camp than they could imagine. They encounter yeti in the woods, weird foxes, river monsters, and a super strange boys' camp in their quest to figure out what exactly is going on this summer, and they're not going to let anything stop them from having the best time ever.

The first volume contains four chapters/episodes/issues (or whatever the terminology is, I'm a comics noob, relatively speaking) that sets up the weirdness of the camp and the mystery terrifically. Strange creatures abound, the adults are being all mysterious, but once the girls have latched onto the mystery of the Kitten Holy not even their hovering camp counselor will be able to keep them from investigating. The clever twists on language keep it fresh--puns abound, their favorite "swears" are "What the junk?" and "What in the Joan Jett?" which made me cackle every single time. And can I say how amazingly awesome it is to read a genuinely funny and amusing story about girls who are being awesome and working together and living out believable relationships and tensions? It shouldn't be so revolutionary (insert obligatory grumbling about patriarchy) but it's just crazy cool awesome. And genuinely entertaining. And I love it. And I think you would, too. And your friends. And your kids. (Seriously, it's super entertaining as a YA, but it's even appropriate for MG-aged readers!) Basically, it's for everyone.

I started off reading the first issue and then decided to go for the whole volume, issues 1-4! Haha I loved when Rosie said "What's the story, Wishbone?" Nostalgia! The colors were so vibrant and bright, jumping out of my iPad! Another funny line "Well, I could teach you, but I'd have to charge." Haha! It's funny that the red-haired girl, April, is the only one drawn with real eyes, the rest just have black dots for eyes. This was a cute, fantastical comic and easy to read and follow, not a whole lot of lines to read to take away from the pictures. If the rest of the comics were available on Kindle Unlimited I would keep reading!