Writer: Lilah Sturges
Artist: polterink
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Cover Artist: Alexa Sharpe
Thanks to BOOM! Studios for providing a copy for review!
If you’ve read any of the fun, empowering, witty, and life-lesson-packed issues in the Lumberjanes series, you can expect to see more of what you and I love from this latest addition by Lilah Sturges.
The Shape of Friendship brings us right back to Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types after a dangerous encounter with a Hydra and a not-so-dangerous encounter with a band of Opossums who seem to be… decorating? We later find out that these Opossums are actually a reclusive troop of Pookas, adorable shape-shifting creatures that learn of the Lumberjanes life at the camp, and decide they want that life for themselves by trapping and impersonating the Lumberjanes.
The Lumberjanes must fight their way back to camp to reclaim their identities, and end up finding new things about themselves along the way. We meet strange and wonderful new characters along the way, and get a wonderful emotion-packed subplot that pays off in an incredibly beautiful way close to our conclusion (no spoilers).
Lumberjanes has everything this sappy, head-in-the-clouds reader could want. Bad-ass and diverse female characters unafraid to explore and embrace their emotions, weird magic that strikes a perfect balance between mysterious and goofy, and countless examples of healthy ways to deal with life’s challenges geared towards young women. I love going to Google ‘What in the Betty Friedan’, ‘Holy Hildegard of Bingen’, and all the other important women of history that make up frequent exclamations from the Lumberjanes.
More than anything else I’ve seen in the series, however, I love a single moment between Jo and April found in the final pages. Lilah Sturges, you had this grown man spilling tears of joy onto his laptop in the middle of a crowded coffee shop, and I want to thank you for that.
I will be saving this and every other book in the Lumberjanes series for my own children to read someday. I can’t more highly recommend The Shape of Friendship and the Lumberjanes series as a whole.
LUMBERJANES: THE SHAPE OF FRIENDSHIP graphic novel is now available in your local comic book stores.
Jeffrey Venture is a noob gamer, okay writer, comic book enthusiast, and social media fiend, and he co-hosts the Dungeons Mastered podcast. You can connect with him on Twitter, where he mostly posts memes for D&D and all things internet culture.
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