NPR host Brooke Gladstone presents an engaging history of journalism, discussing both how it has been a force for good and how it has been perverted (through politics and other means). I found myself getting a little bored with the history lessons but I was quite engaged by the ethical discussions and by Gladstone’s speculations about the future of reportage in a world where man and machine become increasingly intertwined.
The Influencing Machine works reasonably well as an instructional comic, with artist Josh Neufeld providing capable (albeit sometimes repetitive) illustration. I enjoyed the book overall, as a person who is interested in the news and media and has even done a little writing for newspapers but does not have the temperament for actual in-the-trenches reporting. I can also see it being useful for young people who are thinking about going into journalism and who want to get a feel for what the field is like.
I’ve developed a fairly decent sense of restraint in my old age. Despite my ardent love of comics I will wait until a series is collected in trade paperback, or until I can find it at the library, or obtain it from my galley service. It’s not often that I glance through a book and immediately buy it because I must own it; but this is one of those books. 
This is a very clever YA graphic novel by Jane Yolen and Mike Cavallero, the second in a series about a teenaged fencing prodigy called Aliera Carstairs. Aliera discovers that her finding skill is no accident; she is the Defender of Faerie, and her lab partner Avery is a troll sworn to protect her. 
I am a big fan of Scott Pilgrim; my introduction to the series was to buy a copy of this book in its original incarnation from writer/artist Bryan Lee O’Malley at a book festival in Halifax. For the purposes of this review, I’m going to divide the potential reader into the following groups: 1) those who have never read the books, and 2) those who have. Whether or not you have seen the film is immaterial; the books contain a lot of additional story that is well worth reading.
Jeff Lemire (Essex County, Sweet Tooth) recently released this original graphic novel through Top Shelf to great acclaim, and while I did enjoy it, I feel like it may be a little overpraised. Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof puts it well in his introduction: The Underwater Welder is like a lost episode of The Twilight Zone. It is the story of Jack Joseph, a diver who works on an oil rig off the coast of Nova Scotia. His very pregnant wife is frustrated that he seems to be pulling away from her when she needs him most. Jack is haunted by the loss of his father – also a diver – twenty years earlier. When Jack finds an object deep in the ocean that appears to belong to his father, he finds himself forced to choose between dwelling on the past and his future.
I’m a year or two late to this party, but I’m glad I finally got around to reading the rest of Jeff Lemire’s Essex County (I had read the first section previously). Lemire’s book became a cause celebre last year when it was in the running for the CBC’s annual “Canada Reads” competition; especially when a panelist considered it unworthy for being a comic. 
