" has been getting some acclaim this year. Intrigued, I decided to get a couple of his books from the library and check them out for myself. So, my first introduction to Kim's work is his 2007 work "Good As Lily," illustrated by Jesse Hamm. Some sites have called this a YA graphic novel, although in my opinion the "YA" tag is purely for marketing. Kim's pacing is delicate yet interesting. The story starts with a bang as Grace Kwon is kidnapped in broad daylight as she sits in the park. She's not alarmed, however, and we discover it's because her friends have abducted her for a surprise 18th birthday picnic. During the party we meet each friend and learn about his or her relationship with Grace. Just as the story feels like a shoujo manga like Peach Girl, Kim introduces a magical element in the form of a strange pig pinata sold to Grace by a strange old woman. The scene of them breaking the pinata is strangely satisfying, words alone can't accurately describe the feeling.
What evolves from there is basically "Back to the Future" in reverse: three versions of Grace from other periods in her life manifest themselves to live with her. The nine-year-old version, which Grace calls Katie is a glutton for cookies and candy. The not-yet-thirty-year-old "Shana" seems to dread the future, but also is fixating on Grace's cute Drama teacher. And the 70 year-old "Jessica" only wants to smoke, drink and watch "Antiques Roadshow" (because "Walker, Texas Ranger" isn't on for another two hours.)
Kim has put together an engaging story, with a satisfying arc and resolution. The plot points are only occasionally predictable. You know that the boy she's grown up with, and overlooked since 3rd grade will obviously be the future boyfriend, but who could have predicted how they finally pay for production of the spring play? (I'm not telling.)
Kim has made much of his career doing webcomics, and halfway through book I was worried that this would be an ongoing story, drawn out over multiple volumes. The weakness of many webcomics is that they don't always focus on a definitive end. "Good As Lily," however, didn't disappoint -- the resolution was clear and satisfying.
After reading "Good As Lily" I'm excited to read more of Kim's work. For those who are interested in the artist's commentary, Kim's website has a series of posts providing a commentary on the development of the characters and the art. The Wikipedia article on Kim is disappointingly short, although I'm sure it will grow in time.
Kim's website is http://www.lowbright.com/ or you can follow him on twitter @derekkirkkim.
Stories by Gerry Finley-Day and Alan Moore. Art by Dave Gibbons, Colin Wilson, Brett Ewins and Cam Kennedy.
,” Tom Cruise plays Chief of Precrime John Anderton, a man whose son Sean was murdered ten years earlier. As a result, he has separated from his wife, and using Neuroin, an illegal psychoactive drug, to dull the pain of his memories. Since his son’s death he has also thrown himself into his work at Precrime to the exclusion of any other activities. The program has successfully prevented any murders for six years and it’s preparing to go national when the system suddenly predicts that Anderton will kill a stranger called Leo Crow. Predictably, Anderton goes on the run. Eventually Anderton meets Crow, but avoids killing him. Crow then commits suicide in such a way as to throw the suspicion on Anderton. This action makes Anderton to question the validity of the Precrime system. Investigating the minority report – the dissenting vision of the future as it was produced by the precog Agatha – he discovers that Director Burgess used the existence of minority reports in Precrime to cover up his own involvement in the murder of the Agatha’s mother. When Burgess is exposed he kills himself, Precrime is disbanded, Anderton reunites with his wife and they decide to have a baby. The precogs are released to an undisclosed location where they can live their lives in peace. It’s a fun, well-made movie. Max Von Sydow is always a great villain and Tom Cruise shows some depth, avoiding a reprise of one of his “Top Gun” personas. But the most interesting part of this movie is when you compare it to the original short story.
.” I’ll never forget the look on Mr. Collar’s face as he handed back the paper, admitting it was well-written, but not the kind of essay that would get me a good score on the actual test. The people grading the exams were looking for more literary topics and science fiction just wasn’t literature.
,” and nearly every other book I read for the next twelve months was by Dick. I’d devoured “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” and the Starlog articles about “Blade Runner,” which was still in pre-production, had me jabbering with excitement. Dick himself was still alive, although he’d die of a stroke a few months before the first movie ever based on his work was released. 
” proclaims it as “The first major science fiction book of the 1980’s!” (It was published February, 1980). “Philip K. Dick may well be the next SF writer to follow Bradbury and Vonnegut in being ‘discovered’ by the mass audience!” Along with the movie “Blade Runner,” plans were in the works for movies based on “We can remember it for you wholesale” and “The Second Variety” (you may know them as “Total Recall” and “Screamers”). Yet, according to interviews he had a distrust of many people who admired him, and in the midst of all this still had money problems. According to the introduction of “Golden Man” in one month in 1977 he made only nine dollars.
