 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, welcome, welcome, I'm Philip Magnus and today's video review is all about the Lumberjanes. Or rather the first volume, Beware the Kitten Holly. It's not a kitten named Holly, but rather a Holly kitten like with a little halo and angelic and all that. I have been meaning to read the Lumberjanes for a very long time now. Indeed, ever since it became popular back in 2014, 2015 I think, but I never had it around. And then what do I see just last week when I was in the local library? A lot of volumes of this comic book, folks. And since it just finished its 75th issue run back in December of 2020, I told myself when better a moment than this one. And indeed, I checked out this one immediately. My friend told me that I should have checked a few more, but I told her no, no, I've got, I've got enough to read right now. And this will probably take a while. It did not take a while. This took like 20, 30 minutes. And I am surprised because it looks kind of, you know, a good chunky bit. But the dialogue here in Lumberjanes Volume 1 is not the main point of the comic book. There's, there's enough of it, but all means enough to do all the important things like character development, humor, growth even. Character growth, very important folks to those of you at home who have never had any, I'm sorry, and you never will. Because this is not literature in real life, no one changes. Yep. Anyway, Lumberjanes, where was I? Ah, yes, the characters, lovely, lovely characters, but it is very easy to read. Our main cast consists of five teenage girls in Semicamp and I have written their names down because I still can't quite remember all of them. I'm going to try, we've got Riley, we've got Moe, we've got April. Uh, no, not Moe, we've got Mal and Molly. In my head, those two make up Moe. Does that make sense? Ah, whatever. And we also have Ripley, and I have written down their characteristics. I remember them, I remember their design, but it's a little bit difficult to just snatch it from my mind without looking. So I'm going to look into this. April is the prim and proper one. She reminds me of Daphne from Scooby-Doo. She's a redhead and she seems very stylish. She's very fashionable, very clever, but also hides a beast deep within her. I think one of the very first panels we see her in shows her. And by the way, the humor, a lot of it is done through this amazing art style. I know I'm jumping from topic to topic, but it's really hard to keep track of everything I want to talk about in relation to Lumberjanes, all right? So I'm going to do this very chaotically, very chaotically indeed. Next up, after April, I told you it was going to be chaotic, after April we have got Molly. And Molly is the beaver hat wearing girl. And I think she might be my favorite. She is an archer. I think we either saw this somewhere or I've read it somewhere. And she seems to be very invested in her beaver hat. Invested to the point that she risked her life in a dungeon to save it. Oh yes, there is a dungeon. There's a loss of insanity. Maybe I should read you the blurb first. Friendship to the Max. At Miss Kinzela, Pikswin. What? Tiskwin? This name is not made for me. At Miss Quinzela, Tiskwin, Hennie Kwikwi. This old crump is crump for hardcore lady types. Things are not what they seem. Indeed, not. For the record, no comic book has made me want to be a teenage girl going to summer camp as much as Lumberjanes has. Things are not what they seem. Tree-eyed foxes, secret caves, anagrams. Luckily, Joe, April, Molly and Ripley are five round butt kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together. And they're not going to let a magical quest or an array of supernatural creatures get in their way. The mystery keeps getting bigger and it all begins here. Yes, this is very much fantasy set up in modern day, just out in the woods. Somewhere in North America, probably somewhere in the USA. And I love every single freaking panel of it, not minute panel. These four go on so many adventures together and they curse in the most adorable ways. For example, my favorite thing and I think I'm going to try and get that into my daily vocabulary is what the joke? As well as Connie Moll Jameson and oh my Basie Coleman. I don't get it, but I love it. I mean, I'm not that up to date with American history and not every important woman in American history is known to me. Sorry, fellow Americans. Well, you know what I mean. My point is a funny way to curse this. Now, what else do we have here? The adventuring. These five can seem to stop getting into trouble. Go for a stroll late at night in the woods. You end up in a fight for your life with triad foxes, which then all scream out, beware the kitten holly. And I still I'm still not over the bloody kitten holly. I mean, what the junk people. Let's get back to the characters for a moment. Mal has got the punk vibe aesthetic going for her, but she doesn't have the exterior. You know that hard colors self that a lot of punk girls, you would expect them to have based just on popular media and all of that. No, Mal is much more of a thinker. She's a planner and she she attempts to concoct these schemes, which do not survive contact with her friends, let alone her enemies and by enemies. I mean, all kinds of horrific critters with three eyes. Mal is also the foil to one of our other five Ripley. Ripley I love. Ripley is bashed crazy. She is probably the youngest of the lot. And she's got this frankly adorable gap between her teeth, which makes for a lot of hilarious art, let me tell you. And I absolutely love that she jumps into danger without a moment's hesitation or a moment's thought. Two more characters worthy of mention. The first is Joe, who has a bit of an Indiana Jones vibe. I could definitely see her looking at some treasure later on in the run and yelling. That belongs in a museum. So do you. But, you know, more high pitched. And of course, we've got Jen. Jen is not one of our five. I think she is probably the principal supporting character of the series. She is the cabin supervisor. And she frankly is absolutely hopelessly lost in her attempts to look out for our troop of adventurers, of young ladies who are hungry for adventure. One of the biggest strengths of Lumberjanes is the character design. And this will either make or break the series for you. It definitely is a plus for me. They are so expressive, our heroines, and so full of life. The art, too, is vibrant and full of color and absolutely the perfect comic book. I would I would just hand this over to my sister. She is 16. And I think that she would have such a great time with it. No question about it. I believe this is one of the first books that you should buy your kid's sister, your friends, kids, not because none of it will only appeal to girls. Obviously not. But but if you have someone in your life who is on the fence about comic books or has never really gotten in the genre, has never really had the impetus to drive to get into a graphic novel. And she is between 12 and 18 in particular. I think that Lumberjanes is such a perfect example of a young adult comic book. Absolutely, absolutely a treasure trove of fun and hilarity. I love it. I loved so hard I could not get enough of the adventures these five get up to. They had a fight with foxes at the very opening. They had some canoeing that ended up with disastrous results. They ended up falling in a dungeon and solving a bunch of Indiana Jones, you know, mysteries, traps. One of my absolutely favorite moments of this volume so far is April taking on a statue and arm wrestling it into submission. There's a lot of shenanigans to be had here. And I love that it's building up to this greater mystery. And I absolutely love that the girls are treating this mystery that has embroiled them like something that they really just need to push out of the way in order to enjoy their semis to the max. I'm beyond excited to read what's going on in volume to my friends. It is such fun, such fun Lumberjanes. And I think you should read it. You should definitely get it. I hope there's some hardcover collectibles that I can get some bigger volumes than this because I'm going to get this eventually for my personal library. Maybe not in the next couple of months, but it's going to happen definitely. And I am going to get back to you as soon as I get the next few volumes and read through them. Meanwhile, before you go, please don't forget to like this video, share it with your friends, subscribe. Don't forget to smash that like button. And you know I'm here for you. I'm going to be reviewing a lot more comic books in the future. Frankly, I love comic books and I think that this video reviewing medium is just fantastic to talk about them. Until then, I'm Philip Magnus and I will see you again next time. Bye. Until then, I'm Philip Magnus and I'll see you again next time. Bye. One of the girls had to go have an actual, an actual, what's the word? It's, you know, the thing with the hands. Oh, God, I do not remember. Let me, let me locate it for you. I'm sure it's just over here. Oh, cannot find it. Oh, well. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Arm wrestling. Arm wrestling is, is what I'm meant to say. How could I forget the words for arm wrestling? I, I, I, mumble, mumble. Oh, well.