I got the new graphic novel last week. It took time to write this.

 

Sister Resister had a great set of stories.

 

In "Back Window", Lincoln is lying in bed with his right foot wrapped in some sort of cast when he hears crunching outside. He adjusts his eyes and sees Mr. Grouse burying Luan's puppet Mr. Coconuts in his front yard. The next morning, he asks his sisters if they saw anything strange last night. Leni talks about how she saw a game of chess nearly killed Linc. Lynn questions how someone like Lincoln could twist their ankle playing chess, but he dismisses it, saying they have to investigate, but is interrupted by Luan, who picks up some milk and exits tracking muddy prints on the kitchen floor. Later, Lincoln, who is on a gaming chair, is pulled upstairs by Lynn. He gets a call from Leni about "life changing news", but it turns out she's just confused by the mood ring she spent a week's pay on. But she has info on Mr. Grouse. She saw him thrice today. But she ends the call when her ring turns yellow.

 

He and Lola visit Lisa to ask for binoculars. However, her robot Todd is using them for birdwatching. However, she does have very special magnifying spectacles. He looks through them and spots Mr. Grouse digging, only for Lana to end up covering them all in mud. Then Lucy comes by and has her bat Fangs search for what Mr. Grouse was hiding (and for Luan as well). Linc gets another call from Leni. She heard from Benny's puppet Mrs. Appleblossom, who gave her hair care tips. As Lola and Lisa bring him downstairs, Leni says that she saw Luan's mood ring as being sad and "suspicious". Plus she went to Mr. Grouse's house yesterday. Taking that as confirmation, Lincoln, Leni, Lynn, Lola, and Lisa head to the house to confront him. Lincoln accuses him of killing Mr. Coconuts, to his confusion. Then Luan appears, and he remembers exactly what Lincoln was talking about. Luan actually took the puppet to Mr. Grouse so he could clean and polish it. Sure enough, he hands it over, good as new. The other sisters are irritated Lincoln got it wrong. And then he steps out of the chair to apologize. What's this? His injury was a fraud! Lynn and Lola are rightly indignant that they pushed him on his chair for nothing.

That night, Lincoln reflects on how he could sometimes be wrong, only to look out and see Mr. Grouse burying Lucy's bust of Edwin.

 

In "Skip to the End", Lana is tuning her bike with Skippy (who we haven't seen since "L is for Love"!). The two decide to challenge each other to an off-road race for bragging rights. They arrive at a dirt path and set up a racing course. When Lana gets ahead, Skippy takes a shortcut, only to fall in the mud. When she finds him, he feels like he deserves to be mocked. Of course, Lana isn't that kind of person. She helps him back up with a tire swing. He thanks her for it. He's about to go ahead when he finds her jumping into it.

 

In "Macabre Mentor", Luan comes in with Mr. Coconuts to find Luna having trouble writing a song. What lyrics she has are pretty much rehashes of songs from many famous rock stars. Luan looks at them and cringes. She suggests that finding inspiration from her muse, like she does with Mr. Coconuts ("It's a thankless job, but someone's gotta do it," he says – isn't that a Bonnie Tyler song Jim Steinman wrote?). She shows her lyrics to Sam the next day, who responds similarly to the lyrics. She suggests that Luna could try looking at the world from a different point of view. It's a great enough idea that Luna dashes off, leaving Sam blown away. At home, she gets Lucy out of her coffin, interrupting her slumber to ask for help to write a song with "dark, deep, emotional feeling". Later, Lucy takes her to a part of Tall Timbers that is apparently nighttime during the day? What? She shows Luna a tree that looks like a zombie hand and a deep lake that makes the surface look black, where she hopes that her reflection would disappear to show that she'll become a vampire. Then she concludes the tour at the cemetery. Luna is inspired, so she heads back home. Later, she demonstrates a new, darker direction. Sully, Mazzy, and Sam are frightened, but Lucy likes it.

 

In "Muscle Fish in the Chores of Doom!", Linc wants to see the new Muscle Fish movie. He's about to leave when his parents stop him; he has to do his chores today. It seems boring, he tells us, but not if he is Muscle Fish! He imagines taking out the trash as disposing a nuclear device, or mowing the lawn as a car chase. With chores done, his friends take him to the cinema, where the movie apparently has Muscle Fish actually mowing a lawn.

 

In "A Hairless Situation", Miss Allegra finishes a song about time (a song Lisa complains wasn't complex enough). Then she explains that she'll be at a ukulele music retreat for the weekend, and asks for a volunteer for the class rat Wrinkles. Lisa volunteers, based on having rodent supplies for taking care of Bitey (wasn't he her previous lab rat?). At home, as Lisa prepares to do some experiments when she notices that Wrinkles was shivering; the house is too cold. She decides to do go and build a new robot, Therm-O-Bot, "the ultimate heating robot". Unfortunately, it scares the rat. It chases him downstairs, where she turns it off in front of Lincoln. He suggests the far more elegant solution of simply giving Wrinkles a blanket. And so he gives him one. Unfortunately, the blanket he uses triggers the rat's allergies. When Lynn comes upon them she suggests trying exercises. They go along with the idea, but it proves too much for him.

 

Lola sees this and suggests sunbathing. It works, but then a rainstorm falls in. Lucy suddenly appears in their midst. They go back inside and she conjures up a heating spell. But it affects their dad's baked goods. Of course. Lisa contemplates making another robot, but Wrinkles shuts that. They end up in Leni's room, where she's fretting over tiny clothes. These were Leni's latest designs, but they suffered from shrinkage (apparently Tanya the mannequin set the heat too high).

But the clothes are a perfect fit for Wrinkles with some light tailoring! With that, they stage a small fashion show! On Monday, Darcy Helmandollar compliments the rat's new threads. And then Lisa shows her and everyone else a new upgrade for his cage: the Rat-a-Rack, with clothes racks of outfits for for every season. It's actually impressive engineering. Of course, the outfits are the star: Miss Allegra wants one of them in human size.

 

In "The Waiting Line", the kids are waiting in line for the bathroom when Lola snaps after waiting for far too long, and asks Luna to get the door to open. They go to the garage to get Luna's new giant amp (which she bought from three months' allowance and got banned from playing at Tall Timbers), set it up, and let her rip. It survives. Lola calls it evil, but Lucy thinks it's something else. She does a seance with toilet paper, plungers, and other toiletries. There's a rumble on the ground, but it's just Lana having a very powerful fart. Disgusting. Soon, it gets so desperate that they decide to ram it down. Then Leni comes in. It turns out that she forgot to unlock it. I don't know how that would work if the lock is inside.

 

In "Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow", Luna's playing is off; it's because her paperclip earrings went missing! She simply can't find them anywhere! Lincoln comes in and she tells him what happened. She can't use her older sisters' earrings because they were special: they were the earrings she wore to her first rock performance, and she's worn them ever since. He dubs it a code red. The other siblings rush in and gather round to begin the search. They start at Liam's farm, where she played at "Barnstorm-apalooza". They check in the giant haystack at the barn, but they could only literally find Leni's sewing needles. They check a record store, where Luan makes a joke about athletes and records. They go back home, where Luna decides to take a break. She finds her dad organizing his recipes into one big stack. And the last two clips he used? Her earrings. She takes the stack out of his hands, where Lisa has Todd take out the paperclips, then she sanitizes them with some chemicals, and puts them back on. She gets her mojo back, and rocks out with a soundwave that scatters Lynn Sr.'s recipes.

 

In "Nature Preserved", Lisa sees Darcy hugging her stuffed toy giraffe, Rafo. She tells her about scientific facts about the giraffe, but Darcy doesn't comprehend it, to her chagrin. She hands her the plushie and actually enjoys holding it. And then Todd comes in for no reason.

 

In "Mo' Hair, Mo' Problems", Lincoln tells us how his middle school will be having gym at the local pool to do one of his favorite sports: swimming. He and his friends intend to use the diving board. He assigns Stella to get pool noodles, Liam to get water shoes, Clyde to get googles, Rusty and Zach to hold their place in line, and himself to sign for attendance. Problem is, Clyde's not here. Then everyone else storms into the pool. Stella struggles with the pool noodles ("I think it's alive!"), Liam can only find left shoes, and Rusty and Zach are walking far too slowly (to Jordan, Papa Wheelie, and Flat Tire's chagrin). They all come back to Lincoln all frazzled up. By the time they return to school, only Lincoln spent time at the pool, with water in his ears and thinking a new plan.

 

He spots Clyde whispering to Coach Keck. He's whispering to her about having leg hair. I know how embarrassing it is. He's shocked at the fact that he has a secret and didn't tell him. Clyde bumps into him and apologizes for messing up his plan. He goes off before Lincoln could ask him what's going on. At lunch, he expresses concern about it to the others. They assure him that he's probably waiting to find the right time. Then Clyde comes in with a new backpack. He got it after his dad read an article about dangerous backpacks, and got him one with a built-in canoe if the school ever floods. And then he proceeds to eat a lima bean; he actually loves them now. He never told Lincoln about either of those things. After lunch, he comes by with a new purple jacket. Then he ends up in Mr. Bolhofner's classroom and gives a fist pound. He got it from Lynn, who said it's cooler and transmits less germs than high fives. And then he doesn't use bunny ears to tie his shoes; he's been doing that for a month.

 

When gym comes around again, Lincoln is afraid he's losing Clyde. When Clyde comes into the locker room, Linc cries out that he's changed, to the other's confusion. Linc says that he and Clyde would tell each other everything. Thing is, Clyde is reluctant to talk to him about his hair. It's rather touchy. Talking over each other, Clyde explains how he felt nervous wearing a swim cap to protect his hair, with his dads saying he shouldn't worry. Linc says he thinks he is losing Clyde, but understanding that he will grow up with leg hair too. At that point, they realize it was a misunderstanding regarding Clyde's swim cap; as an African-American, he says it's hard having different hair from everyone else. To lift his spirits, Lincoln tells him that his hair is pretty awesome. Later, Lincoln and co. take another run at the pool, and they make it to the diving board. Clyde goes up first, but the others have one more thing to do: they put on their own swim caps, and Clyde gets the message and jumps into the pool.

 

This was a pretty nice set of stories. "Back Window" had some fun gags, as well as building up Luan and Mr. Grouse's relationship (as seen in The Really Loud House), which was quite a nice touch, despite rehashing the misunderstanding plot. "Skip to the End" having Skippy appear again to finally play a big role in the graphic novel was wonderful, and not only because I think there were numerous missed opportunities to use the characters from "L is for Love" in the show itself. It was also fun seeing a different, competitive side to Lana. And Skippy seems to resemble a male version of Handlebarb from Craig of the Creek, right down to the dirt patch on the cheek. It's not relevant, it's just something I noticed here. "Macabre Mentor" has an interesting pairing with Luna and Lucy trying to work out the lyrics for a new song with a visit to Tall Timbers and the cemetery, though I think it would have been better to set it at night to feel more natural. Also, more interactions with Luan, leading to another interaction of Sam as Luna's muse, which were nice to see. And the ending was funny, too.

 

"Muscle Fish in the Chores of Doom!" was another fun short comic about dealing with chores. Again, the ending was funny. "A Hairless Situation" was a nice showing of how Lisa would take care of a pet, and how the other siblings help out, though I think Lisa ought to cool it with the robots. And Lucy's contribution was too magical. "The Waiting Line" was pretty funny, though they should have toned down the toilet humor here with Lana. Again, it was disgusting, but at least it didn't lead to magical hijinks. "Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow" was a good Luna comic showing. However, Todd's appearance was superfluous. Same with "Nature Preserved", with him spoiling an otherwise wholesome comic about Lisa and Darcy talking about the latter's stuffed giraffe. "Mo' Hair, Mo' Problems" was the best story in here. Lincoln fearing losing Clyde reminds me of theme of friends growing apart seen in Amphibia and the recent episodes of Craig of the Creek (that review coming up soon). It also touched on the matter of Clyde's natural African-American hair. It actually reminds me of that episode of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur about it, and it was nice to see this franchise address it, even if in an oblique and minor way.

 

Color and linework were great across the various stories in this volume. Despite using different artists in each one, there was a surprising amount of consistency design-wise, while still showcasing the more naturalistic approach that you can only get with drawing. You can surely tell how much quality there is. Also, not affecting the quality of the review, but they brought back the letter from the editor in this one. I don't know what happened with that in the previous graphic novel volume for The Casagrandes. Can anyone from Papercutz explain? Apparently, this is the first volume after the company's purchase by Mad Cave Studios, and this would be Jim Salicrup's last piece. I wonder who will take over, but I hope he and everyone else at Papercutz can keep it up. I wish them luck. They got a good thing going.

 

All in all, this was a wonderful volume to read. I would like to give this graphic novel a 9.5/10.