Mike Cavallaro – Mom Read It

Nico Bravo and the Hounds of Hades, by Mike Cavallaro, (April 2019, First Second), $12.99, ISBN: 9781626727519

Ages 8-12

This fun new graphic novel adventure is perfect for mythology fans. Vulcan is a kid working at Vulcan’s Celestial Supply Shop, serving all the gods’ and goddesses’ needs. He works with a sphinx named Lula and Buck, a unicorn with PTSD, and things are fine and dandy until Eowulf – descendant of Beowulf himself – targets a monster for slaying, to keep the family name going. The problem? The monster happens to be Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld! If Cerberus isn’t there to guard the gates, there’s about to be a whole lot of dead folks invading our world. Nico has to get it together and stop Eowulf from bringing on a zombie apocalypse!

I like Mike Cavallaro’s storytelling. He’s great at worldbuilding – something I discovered when I read his fencing graphic novels, Foiled and Curses! Foiled Again, where he created a side-world filled with fantasy and myth. There are mythological references throughout the book that kids will recognize, and some possibly new ones to draw more readers in. Have your Rick Riordan books ready, and your mythological reference books on hand – you’ve got great display possibilities! The cartoon art reminds me of popular animation on TV, with book expressive eyes, colorful artwork, and fantastically cool monsters and beasts for everyone to enjoy. There’s a lot of mythology available, and kids love reading about it – I hope we get some more adventures with Nico Bravo soon!

Decelerate Blue, by Adam Rapp and Mike Cavallaro, (Feb. 2017, First Second), $17.99, ISBN: 9781596431096

Recommended for ages 13+

In a hyper future, speed and efficiency rule the day. Everything is sped up, from literature’s classics to movies. People end sentences with, “Go”, letting the other person know it’s their turn to speak. Angela is a teen who hates this crazy pace of living, especially when her grandfather is being sent off to a “reduction colony” because he can’t keep his numbers up. Angela goes off in search of something he’s left for her and finds her way into an underground community of citizens rebelling against the hyper society. She joins the movement, but their plan to free society from this delirious pace – a drug called Decelerate Blue – is in danger of being found out by the authorities.

This is a case where I love the idea, but the execution left me a little cold. I love the idea of this crazy hyper society where everything is skin deep; no one has real conversations anymore, and even Shakespeare has been edited for brevity. It’s an outcome that is chilling in its plausibility and is begging for a dystopian telling. Decelerate Blue just didn’t grab me like I hoped it would; the graphic novel had powerful moments, but didn’t sit down and unpack them enough to invest me in the characters. The ending bordered on melodramatic, and left me frustrated. I did want to know more, though: what happened after? Did society examine what happened, or did they continue on as if nothing happened? Will the movement continue? Like I said, great ideas, stumbled in the execution.

An additional purchase for your sci fi collections.

Tag: Mike Cavallaro

Nico Bravo and the Hounds of Hades – graphic mythology gone wild!

Decelerate Blue wants to slow down society’s frenetic pace