Latest Comic:

Robin McKinley loves to ramble in her stories, especially in this one. In Sunshine, however, the protagonist can ramble because she's yammering about vampires and baking, which go well together.

A group of vampires capture Sunshine, our title character, and chain her next to their enemy, who also happens to be a vampire. Normally a novel wouldn't start out with a narrator already in a pickle, but not only does Sunshine escape these creeps, but she takes her fellow prisoner (named Constantine) with her. They part ways, and the story begins as Sunshine becomes aware of her awakening powers and has to hide her strange alliance and developing bond with Con from her friends, family, and the government, who have to deal with vampires as the underworld crime bosses.

Reason one to love this book: Baking. Sunshine was a huge influence on A La Mode with its long descriptions of innovative pastries and desserts as well as having baking apprentices and coffee. However, Sunshine is NOT Lamode and Schulz is too young to be the apprentice in this book (as well as too dependent on sleep). If Lamode were as hot-tempered as Robin McKinley's protagonist, then Schulz wouldn't last a minute in the bakery!

Reason two to reread it: Sunshine doesn't fall in love with Con. She already has a wicked cool boyfriend, and she doesn't want anything to do with vampires because they are the scourge of her world. This novel actually made me immune to and abhorrent of the Twilight craze because I had already found the perfect teen vampire novel that didn't have the typical romance. I know you girls out there love Edward, but what about a story about a "I don't like you, but we have to work together" relationship instead of a romantic one?

Reason three to study it thoroughly: Fantasy post-apocalyptic setting. This world has prejudice against demons, vampire gangs waging war on each other, and government women who will try to read your mind without permission.


And one reason to avoid it: It's for young adults. When I read [u]Sunshine[/i] in middle school, I found it boring. Not only will the rambling bore you if you don't get it all, but the story has foul-mouthed characters, scenes meant for R rated films, and quite a bit of violence. If you are comfortable with that, go ahead and read it. If not, then I'll try to find a vampire story that your parents will allow you to read at night.

There's no color this week due to several children's concerts (where we did Peter and the Wolf- more on that later), a late night chorus rehearsal, and a whole lot of ten impossible things before breakfast. The color will be added later, probably with next week's comic.

In the meantime, I'll post up my Culinary Book of the Week tomorrow, when everything is less hectic.

Signing off.

In A La Mode time, we're in March, just before Schulz starts to work there.

Culinary Children's Book of the Week:

The Witches by Roald Dahl


Because it is funny, scary, and will give you nightmares! Although I was skeptical when my older brother foisted it on me, I finally read it out of curiosity and got freaked out in the prologue.

In this book, witches don't wear pointed hats, talk to cats, or cast magic spells. They are sadistic creatures who love to make children disappear. They turn them into chickens, trick them into taking a snake home, and terrify the bejeebers out of our narrator, an unnamed Norwegian boy. His grandmother, a retired witchopile, tells him all the old stories about witches and why to be wary of them.

What happens besides all this talk about witches? Our protagonist accidentally meets some at an English hotel! Not only that, but he hears their diabolical plan to get rid of all English children using sweet shops . . . the meeting involves a witch getting fried for telling the truth, a lot of bald heads, and how to make Mouse formula in your very own home. When any little boy hears this, especially in a Roald Dahl tale, he sets out to stop them, even if it means braving a bunch of bloodthirsty chefs and hiding from waitresses.

In terms of plot, not much happens, as it takes about five chapters before the boy and his grandmother reach the hotel. But Roald Dahl invigorates his characters and has them act in a very real world. We also get a rather interesting recipe for young cooks out to try, although their parents may not want them to simmer rats in frog juice for an hour.

Roald Dahl, especially when this book came out, has been accused of being sexist. In the story's prologue, he asserts that "a witch is always a woman" and that male witches do not exist. But if the tale is truly sexist, why does he put in such an awesome grandmother? Not only does she know everything about witches, but she has a lot of common sense and defense mechanisms (her cigars) to cope with what happens.

Do yourself a favor and check this out. The nightmares are worth it.

yes- I have updated today. A La mode will shortly be relaunched. I plan to update on Wednesdays for now.

What was the reason for my disappearance? Well, when i asked for advice on a webcomics website, I got quite a few "I don't understand what's going on." In order to solve that, I had to learn how to ink and how to letter. I'm still learning.

In the meantime, enjoy pretzels!

I don't know how many people like my webcomic, but I understand that it hasn't been as good as it could be. I'm going to postpone the storyline until I can convey the climax as clearly as possible and not frustrate you gentle readers. If an update's not up by Friday, you have permission to send the Kindly Ones after me.

I'm in half a mind to redraw all of the old comic strips in the archive, but I'm not sure because it would mean going George Lucas on them. I need some opinions on that.

. . . . the finale will be up Saturday. All it needs is watercolor and it will be done.
I do wonder what Lamode has been doing for all this time . . .

I finally managed to get two comics done. One is up today (and I hope it makes you groan wryly), the other will be up tomorrow.

Now, for the promised overview of previews seen at the 9 premiere. the good prognosis radar goes on a scale of 1 to 10:

Top of the List

Astro Boy
Despite the fact that it's a 3d rendition of a Japanese anime, this movie looks awesome. Astro, a robot designed to replace a human boy, can do anything. But, according to the previews, a country's military/weapons manufacturing company wants him and his technology to use in war.
Prognosis: 9 out of 10.

Bottom of the List

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Roald Dahl dominated the literature playground when I got into books. This story is about how a fox outwits three farmers in order to steal from their farms. However, it seems that the movie overuses the word "fantastic" and show Mr. Fox as an egotistic gangster like the Godfather. The animation scares me because it looks so . . . realistic and lifeless. I only hope I'm wrong because I loved this story to death and I don't want to see Hollywood ruin it . . .
Prognosis: 5 out of 10


Where the Wild Things Are
I didn't grow up rereading this book (Dr. Seuss and Marc Brown beat Maurice Sendak to it), but I liked the story and its imaginative drawings. The problem is that they're turning a picture book into a live-action movie, where the boy is real and his monsters are CGI. The monsters will look great, but the kid looks ridiculous in his animal pajamas. This movie has a lot stacked up against it.
Prognosis: 3 out of 10

In the Middle

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Cirque du Freak is a teenage horror series about a boy who becomes a vampire thanks to a stupid act involving a circus. I've only read the first three books, but I hope that this movie is good because the books can be awesome. From the looks of it (and the title) they're merging the first two books. Josh Hutcherson is in it too, which means we have at least one good young actor in it. Squee!

Prognosis: 7 out of 10

Okay, here are 5.5 reasons to watch 9 if you're a teenager:

1. It's a movie squarely aimed at the age group. Filled with war, dead bodies, machine guns, biology, explosions, intelligence and maturity akin to Spiderman and Catch Me If You Can, 9 proves that an animated movie doesn't have to be sanitized.

2. It has a butt-kicking rag doll named 7. For guys, 7 is the closest thing we have to a female ninja in this wasteland. For girls, how can you NOT like her? She is also one of the great ironies in the film when the rag dolls' origins are revealed.

3. Despite the fact that a lot of critics have criticized the "lack of plot," the story makes sense in a linear fashion. The questions that the film doesn't answer aren't frustrating, just one that a curious moviegoer will ask about while looking for their car in the theater parking garage.

4. Everyone agrees that the visuals are great. I went for that reason too. We see creepy robotic serpents, rag dolls that look real enough to hold in our hands, fragments of Europe dotting the landscape (again, we have a high intellectual level here), and nothing cute or cuddly. You will not be embarrassed to have the poster rolled up in your bag.

5. If you grew up on Japanese anime, then you know that America needs an influx of teenage films with animation that are mature and not merely spinoffs of The Simpsons or Family Guy.

5.5 It's a good movie. Period. You'll be getting your money's worth.

Task one of the weekend accomplished. Next: a diary entry!