MISC. MANGA, *Air-Heart

I recently picked this up at a mini-comics convention by the creator, Derik Diaz, which is a manga-styled graphic novel about a daring female crime-fighter in a world that seems to be modeled after the Storm Hawks animated TV series.

Set on the planet of Avlon, the landscapes fly in the air. The world is seperated into 99 different sectors, and Sector 44 is guarded by the spunky ace pilot Amelia, who goes by the handle "Air-Heart". She patrols the skies with her rabbit-humanoid sidekick Joey, and they're on the constant lookout from invading countries or other bad guys. They first take on the electrical supervillain Watt who dresses like a Minotaur for some reason. Their next adventure is evil exiled Princess Djalla who wants to use a special ice-making weapon to reclaim her kingdom. In the final chapter, we learn about a betrayel Amelia suffered from back in her academy days.

I personally enjoyed this first volume, although I'm not aware if this is a collected edition of the three chapters used in this from previous publications such as webcomics. However, this all-ages paperback is definately worth looking into. It's got a great manga-style to it, and an adventurous appeal to in the vein of classic comics like Airboy.