The ongoing Lumberjanes comic series follows the misadventures of Jo, April, Mal, Molly and Ripley, five plucky young girls as they attend the Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpets camp for hardcore lady types. The girls are trying to earn their pun-ny Lumberjane badges, like the Naval Gazing Badge, Pungeon Master Badge and the Everything Under the Sum Badge… but what sets this series aside from the usual ‘boys’ own adventure’ stuff, apart from the gender (obviously), is the weird supernatural element. The woods surrounding the camp feel like they're just a stones throw from Twin Peaks and just a hop, skip and jump from the island in Lost. In this land a Bear Woman, ancient Greek gods and unicorns rub shoulders with a whole plethora of colourful characters that roam free, bringing this wonderfully eclectic place to life. It all makes sense in a strangely logical way as the world is a tapestry of story and character within this world-building tableau, and yes I'm aware that sounded incredibly pretentious!
I have the complete graphic novel series so far, including the Gotham Academy crossover.
The story of the girls, who meet in the camp and create a bond where they support and love each other, banding together as they face trials and tribulations such as bear-women and vampires is awesome. The stories themselves are often simple standalone adventure tales but there are elements of continuity as each episode has repercussions for all that follows. The tales have a lot of heart and are touching, something I've been seeing a lot more of in 'children's comics' over the past few years.
The series is very girl heavy, from the writers to the artist to the characters, the whole package is one wonderful group of girls making a positive and life affirming comic series. Even if you're not a girl though you will still find much to love in the 10 graphic novels that exist to date. Featuring people of colour, LGBTQ+ and other inclusive groups Lumberjanes is a force for good in this often fractured and jaded world.
Noelle Stevenson (Of the new rebooted She-Ra and the Princesses of Power fame) is no longer head writer, which is a shame as she is a very talented story teller with a strong ear for dialog. All of the volumes she wrote (1-4) were incredible but that doesn’t mean that the stories still aren’t good, just less consistently good. I miss her style and I feel her voice added much to what made the series so unique and outstanding.
I’m a man in my late-30s and even though I’m not the target demographic for the series I still purchase each new graphic novel release with zeal. It is rare for a series to be so kind hearted, open and just gorgeous.
