These titles were recently added to the collection of Yakima Valley Libraries
Athanasia
Kraus, Daniel, 1975- author.
Athanasia, where the heroic dead bleed power into the ground... only to be unearthed by a down-on-her-luck young woman to unforeseeable consequences. Some secrets are best left buried... Forrest Molson is going nowhere. One year out of high school -- and one year into sobriety -- she's working with her father as assistant groundskeeper at Athanasia Cemetery, the final resting place of fallen members of the Dynamic Guild, Venture City's resident superheroes. At her lowest point, Forrest discovers Athanasia's darkest secret. At night, the cemetery soil bleeds a substance created from the spectacular substances that ooze from rotting superheroes. This ooze becomes Forrest's new drug -- and she's intent on using her unpredictable new powers to be judge, jury, and executioner of Venture City's evil citizens. But as she loses her mind to her new addiction, she inches closer to becoming the most evil of all. Athanasia is a superhero story seen through the darkest lens.....
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The giant : Orson Welles, the artist & the shadow
Daoudi, Youssef, 1969- author, artist.
Long after his death in 1985, the shadow of Orson Welles still looms over Hollywood. By twenty-three, Welles had revolutionized theatre and radio with The War of the Worlds; by twenty-five, he had secured his place in history with his debut film, Citizen Kane. Yet four films and less than a decade later, his career suffered a spectacular collapse, and Welles, once the most promising director in America, was written off as a "would-be genius" -- a bad bet in an increasingly money-conscious industry. In The Giant, Youssef Daoudi weaves together reality and mythology to create a radical new look at one of Hollywood's most legendary figures and poses a question as timeless as Orson Welles himself: What happens when a true artist comes up against the rest of the world?....
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More weight : a Salem story
Wickey, Ben, author, artist.
"Every word is an accusation... and every whisper kills." This staggering graphic novel explores the infamous Salem witch trials and the long shadows they cast more than 300 years later. In Salem, Massachusetts, 1692 is a year of terror. When accusations of witchcraft plunge the community into paranoia and death, curmudgeonly farmer Giles Corey and his great-souled wife Martha are forced to confront their troubled pasts, fighting to hold onto their principles even at the cost of their lives. In the 1860s, famed writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stroll the streets of Salem together, reflecting on their own dark connections to those wicked days. Today, graphic novelist Ben Wickey wrestles with the complex legacy of "the Witch City" and what it shows us about the best and worst of humanity. Based on true events, set in three centuries, and hand-drawn over a decade, More Weight is a stunning visual symphony -- a unique and profound inquiry into the infamous Salem witch trials and the long shadows they still cast on us all.....
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Cannon
Lai, Lee, 1993- author, illustrator.
We arrive to wreckage -- a restaurant smashed to rubble, with tables and chairs upended riotously. Under the swampy nighttime cover of a Montreal heat-wave, this is where we meet our protagonist, Cannon, dripping in little beads of regret sweat. She was supposed to be closing the restaurant for the night, but instead, well, she destroyed it. The mess feels a bit like a horror-scape -- not unlike the horror films Cannon and her best friend, Trish, watch together. Cooking dinner and digging into deep cuts of Australian horror films on their scheduled weekly hangs has become the glue in their rote relationship. In high school, they were each other's lifeline -- two queer second-generation Chinese nerds trapped in the suburbs. Now, on the uncool side of their twenties, the essentialness of one another feels harder to pin down. Yet, when our stoic and unbendingly well-behaved Cannon finds herself -- very uncharacteristically -- surrounded by smashed plates, it is Trish who shows up to pull her the hell outta there. In Cannon, Lee Lai's much anticipated follow-up to the critically-acclaimed and award-winning Stone Fruit, the full palette of a nervous breakdown is just a slice of what Lai has on offer. As Cannon's shoulders bend under the weight of an aging Gung-gung and an avoidant mother, Lai's sharp sense of humor and sensitive eye produce a story that will hit readers with a smash.....
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The knives : a criminal book
Brubaker, Ed, author.
Three dark journeys wind around each other over a decade, like sharks hunting for a kill. Cartoonist Jacob Kurtz goes to Hollywood in the era of peak TV to work on an adaptation of his comic strip, only to find himself caught up in the life of his aging aunt and the vultures circling her estate. Angie was raised at the Undertow, but now everything she loves has been taken from her. She's on the streets with vengeance on her mind, her eyes set on the city's kingpin. And finally, Tracy Lawless is home from the Special Forces, finally a civilian again, but he's in bad shape and this city has always brought out the worst in him. These three tales collide in The Knives a breathtaking noir story about greed, ambition, heartbreak, and blood ties.....
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James Bond 007. Your cold, cold heart
Ennis, Garth, author.
"Codename: Stalvoda. Translation (from Russian): Steel Water. It kills without trace. Puts unspeakable power in the hands of a madman. Buried in its chemical formula is the means of ending the worldwide balance of power. MI6 thought they controlled it -- but in fact, British Intelligence have now fallen victim to a decades-old conspiracy, reaching back into the mists of the Cold War. James Bond is assigned to retrieve the lethal compound -- and finds himself in a race against friend and foe alike, from the icy cold of Earth's orbit to the endless wastes of the deserts below. The stakes could not be higher -- and as the opposition soon finds out, 007 will do whatever it takes to get the job done"....
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Simplicity : a novel
Lubchansky, Mattie, author, artist.
In 1977, a group called The Spiritual Association of Peers decamps to the woods of the Catskills, taking over an abandoned summer camp. They name their new home Simplicity. In 2081, scholar Lucius Pasternak, a fastidiously organized trans man, tries to keep his head down living in the New York City Administrative and Security Territory, which was founded after the formal dissolution of the United States in 2041. Then, he's offered a job by the mayor, billionaire real estate developer Dennis Van Wervel, to complete an anthropological survey of the people of Simplicity for a history museum he's financing. A wary Lucius is nevertheless drawn in by the people of the small wooded community, intrigued by its strange rituals and in particular by the charming acolyte Amity Crown-Shy. Born and raised on the compound, Amity is comfortable in their own skin, a striking contrast to Lucius' repressed reserve. But Lucius' control starts to slip when he begins to suffer visions both terrifying and sensual-visits from beautiful but nightmarish creatures. Then, just as Lucius discovers that Van Wervel's project is more sinister than it seemed, members of the community begin to disappear, leaving behind grisly signs of struggle. The denizens of Simplicity believe that a being they call "The Lamentation" is responsible for the attacks. Amity and Lucius set out to hunt for the creature in the dangerous Exurb Zones, a wild wood full of libertarian doomsday preppers, wealthy isolationists, and worse. There, they'll finally discover the true threat to their way of life-and what they're willing to do to stop it.....
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Lore Olympus. Volume 9
Smythe, Rachel (Comics artist), author, artist.
Persephone and Hades are finally reunited when the banished goddess of spring returns to the Underworld to claim her rightful place as queen. Now that Hades and Persephone have defeated and imprisoned the power-hungry Kronos once more, nothing can keep them apart, and years of being separated have only made their desire for each other grow. But the other Olympians can't help but meddle, pushing the pair to make things official with a coronation--and a wedding. Ignoring the others who try to define their relationship, Hades and Persephone choose to take things at their own pace and focus on rebuilding the Underworld. They begin by investigating how Kronos was first able to escape, and they learn the horrifying truth that he has captured a powerful young god whose abilities help Kronos project his thoughts outside of Tartarus--thoughts he uses to plague Hera's every waking moment. Though Kronos's physical form is locked away, Olympus will never be free until they can rescue the child from the furious Titan's grasp. To save the realms, Persephone must figure out her fertility goddess powers and embrace her role as Queen of the Underworld--even as it takes her further from her mother's expectations and her former place in the Mortal Realm.....
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Marvel Zombies : black, white & blood.
The Marvel Zombies phenomenon rages on, in this anthology collection stunningly rendered in black and white - and blood red! Daredevil, Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Blade, the Punisher and many more are beset by ever-growing zombie hordes! A mad Reed Richards works in desperation. A lone warrior stands tall against a galaxy of undead. And the unstoppable X-Force faces its greatest foe yet! From New York City to a mystical forest full of gods and monsters to the now truly Savage Land, the plague has clawed its way everywhere - but in a brutal, bloodstained world, can hope survive? Or will creeping, gnawing, shambling horror win out at last? Find out as your favorite (and soon-to-be favorite!) creators tell the most haunting tales their minds can muster!....
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Checked out
Fricas, Katie, author, illustrator.
In which a queer library worker searches for love, artistic validation in New York City, and the perfect book. An aspiring cartoonist and book lovin' lesbian, Louise works a dead-end day job at a shoe store, where she spends most of her time brooding over a coworker who will never quite love her back. By night, she works diligently and obsessively on her graphic novel--the true story of a carrier pigeon who rescued a battalion of soldiers in WWI. When Louise unexpectedly lands a new job at a private library on the Upper East Side, she feels like her graphic novel will finally take off--surely the oldest library in New York has excellent holdings on pigeons and WWI. But what she finds in the stacks might be less revelatory than her discoveries between the sheets and buried in her own family history. A graphic novel set against a perfectly cartoony NYC backdrop--complete with landmark haunts, street fashion, and quintessential characters of the city--Checked Out is at once a valentine to libraries and New York, and the story of an artist working to make her dreams come true. Drawn in a delightfully vivacious style, Checked Out buzzes with Katie Fricas's vibrant energy, quick wit, and storytelling aplomb.....
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Grommets
Remender, Rick, author.
Grommets is both an authentic look at '80s skate culture--a snapshot of the generation that turned skating into a worldwide phenomenon--as well as a heartfelt coming-of-age story following two friends from troubled homes navigating their damage in an era when no one cared. The series' title springs from skater slang, a "grommet" is a commonly used term for a young up-and-coming skater or surfer. Since the '60s it's been used to describe the next generation of kids who, with youthful exuberance, love the sport but want to put their spin on it.....
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Night drive
Sala, Richard, author, artist.
This extremely rare, long out-of-print comic book of macabre and mysterious short stories launched the career of one of the medium's most distinctive stylists. Originally self-published in 1984 and never reprinted, this expanded hardcover represents the original Night Drive with rare art and other bonus material... When Richard Sala passed away in 2020, he left behind a uniquely eldritch body of graphic novels and illustrations, fueled by macabre whimsy and a love of dark mysteries and vintage monsters. Like David Lynch, Sala was a painter who turned to a storytelling medium that allowed him to create inventive narratives inspired by such disparate influences as French crime fiction, the grim humor of Charles Addams, the surreal poetry of Jorge Luis Borges, and his own penchant for all things gleefully ghoulish and sinister. ....
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Raging clouds
Yudori, author, artist.
Amélie is a brilliant woman trapped in the restricting social mores of high Dutch society in the mid-16th century. Her marriage to Hans, a swashbuckling merchant, is a terrible match. While he charms the townsfolk, at home he is her intellectual inferior and treats her with cruelty and sexual violence. Expected to be a devoted housewife, Amélie can only be her true, free-spirited self when Hans travels away on business -- when she can explore the town alone, lose herself in literature, and study winged animals to learn about the mechanics of flight. She looks to the skies and dreams of flying far away. Her life changes when Hans returns from his journey with Sahara, a slave mistress from a distant land. The two women are drawn to each other -- each recognizing their confinement in a world dominated by men -- and work together to seek their freedom.....
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Trouble is my business
David, Arvind Ethan, author.
Los Angeles, 1930s. A rich old man who knows trouble when he sees it hires a detective agency to scare off a young woman who seems to be making his adopted son hemorrhage cash. Fortunately for the detective, a hard drinking man named Philip Marlowe, trouble is his business. The young woman, Harriet, has an agenda all her own and aspirations beyond being a shill for a gambler. She's nobody's fool. Nor is the old man, for his part. He's got serious muscle--a chauffer with a degree from Dartmouth, the only Black student from his class, who knows his way around a gun and isn't afraid to use it. Right in the middle of it all is a big pile of money. And when the bodies begin to drop, only Philip Marlowe can sort out which of these suspects is pulling the trigger.....
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The nice house by the sea. Vol. 1
Tynion, James, IV, author.
From the award-winning team that brought you The Nice House on the Lake comes a chilling continuation of the apocalyptic terror! Max has hand-picked her invitees. They're all masters of their fields, titans of their industries - humanity's best and brightest. Who better to carry on the torch of civilization after the world ends? But these house guests don't know Max, nor do they know each other, and as it turns out, the offer to live forever in the ruins of an empty world might come with some unexpected pitfalls. At least they're all trapped in such a nice house, in such a lovely place, with such lovely company. There's no better place to spend a post-apocalyptic eternity, right? ...Right? ....
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