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Comic of the Week has been on a l ong hiatus but I wanted to bring it back since I've been reading graphic novels and comics again. Every week I'm going to showcase a comic or GN cover- could be old, could be new- and share a few thoughts on why I think it's special. Do you like what I picked out? Let me know in the comments, and as always, if you have a favorite cover or piece of comic art, let me know!

The protagonist is a seventy-one year old teacher named Valentina, from rural Siberia, and she gets pulled into the story mainly because her mother, a famous mathematician, basically invented time travel. There's a chilling scene where they're talking paradoxes and a concept called "grandfathering," where changes made in the future ripple back and change the present, and Val's memory literally changes as the timeline is affected. This is a fast read and thrilling, I loved Val and Tatiana together, and you just know from the outset there are betrayals going on because the story starts with Val shooting someone that, later in the story, she is getting to know as part of the program! I didn't know the first thing about her, not her name, not her time of birth or death, what had happened to her in the difficulties, what sort of life she'd led, but in that moment I knew that she was a good and decent person, that the past was full of people like her, that it was just as valid to think of history being stitched together out of numerous tiny acts of selflessness and consideration, as it was to view it as a grand, sweeping spectacle of vast impersonal triumphs and tragedies."

The art is stellar and this world comes to life with bright colors and amazing underwater scenes, jet ski chases through a canal city, twists and turns that left me open mouthed on occasion- and most important left me wanting more. This not only has a super interesting dystopia with the floating platforms and ocean vistas, but there's also an insidious plot going on in Golden City, where a shady geneticist is trying to replace Banks with... another Banks? If I have any complaints it's that the salvage kids (other than Mifa) don't show up much, but I'm sure their roles will expand as it goes. Trains that run under bridges, an Asian influenced canal city, little touches- like when a tech fixer's monkey companion finishes the cigarette he started, and messes around with weapons and stuff laying around-

As many of you are aware Michigan actually has an Upper and Lower Peninsula, linked by the Mackinac Bridge, and I'll be showcasing the area that we in lower Michigan affectionately call "Up North. First up is a look at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, otherwise known as simply the sand dunes. This video by drone captures an eagle eye view, including the extremely strenuous climb at the 12 second mark, sun- dappled forests, and the magnificent Lake Michigan overlook. I think it actually hastens erosion of the dunes at that point, but the Park Service seems to tolerate it there so that people don't do it at half a dozen places?