Mae's sister seems to enjoy running away. Between second and fifth grade, she'd run off all the time, until one day she never comes back. Seven years later Mae gets a call that her sister is being held at the Sheriff's office. Now Mae feels like she hardly knows her sister, and she seems a bit odd to boot. Mae's sister claims to have been away in another world, like Neverland or Oz! When a creature from this strange dimension appears, things suddenly look more real than fantasy.

The beginning seemed somewhat oddly paced, but the story picks up quickly in the first chapter, showing some potential. Access to this other dimension seemed too easy, but the concept of the locations, creatures, and the make-up of the society are interesting. The only qualms I really have with this are the names and the main plot. The names of the fantasy world are extremely unpronounceable, like the author just typed random letters and was like "that's the name I'll use for this!" The main plot revolves around the two sisters traversing the other world looking for their father. While that aspect in itself is rather dis-interesting, the action sequences are fun and I wonder which enemy characters will make a reappearance or what kinds of alliances will be made. The art is also rather appealing, although the transitions at times seem rough. I really like the ending. It seems that Abbie/Ani knows someone who looks very formidable, and I am curious to see who that character just might be. There is also an extra side story at the end that revolves around Ani's adventures in the other dimension during the time her sister knows her to be missing.

All-in-all pretty interesting graphic novel with quite a bit of potential. The world is interesting and I am hoping there will be more secondary plot that overshadows the main plot to keep the action sequences tight and flowing.

Gene Ha’s upcoming graphic novel, Mae, Vol. 1, showcases Ha’s talent as both a writer and an illustrator.  This story introduces Mae, who follows her long-lost sister, Abbie, into a fantasy realm full of monsters, talking animals, mad scientists, and warring factions of nobles. Despite running into mishaps and occassionally bickering like the siblings they are about where they’re going and how to get there, Abbie’s fighting skills and fearless heroics combined with Mae’s technical skills and brain power promise to make them an almost unbeatable team.  Though I felt at times as if the story should be titled “Abbie” or even “Abbie & Mae” rather than just “Mae,” it was easy to root for these intrepid sisters as strong female character leads.

The story is woven together with a good dose of action and humor. Mae and Abbie’s adventures transport them to a realm where Abbie has spent the last several years during which time Mae was left to wonder what had happened to her sister while caring for their father and the family business.  The world building was both creative and well crafted with a variety of interesting characters, from heroes to villains to comic relief side-kicks.  The alternate land to which they travel evokes a feel reminiscent of steampunk and magic, but with a flavor all its own.  Ha’s illustrations feature bold black outlines with shadowy dark tones offset by accents of bright reds and yellows.

Eisner award-winning Gene Ha has worked with comic legends such as Alan Moore and is known for his work with Marvel, DC, and other comic imprints.  Originally started as a solo project with funds raised through the crowdfunding source Kickstarter, the first individual comic books in the Mae series were published by Dark Horse.  This first complete volume graphic novel is published by Lion Forge, with sequels expected under the Lion Forge label.  I, for one, will look forward to reading about Mae’s future adventures.

This review was first published on the Damian Daily blog.

The artwork in this isn’t bad but it really isn’t my style. The story is only ok. It reads like bad fan fiction, and  wish it had more depth, but the plot jumps and has very little flow. The pacing is too fast to care about the characters. 

I enjoyed the fact that in the fantasy world the humans are mostly people of color, but didn’t like that the characters in the story pointed it out-that made it seem less a statement or quality world building than it did trying to be trendy. The characters and plot lacked depth, and the focus seems to be very much on just dropping references to really famous works. This can be done well, but in this case it was lazy and seemed to use referential humor to distract from the one dimensional plot and characters. 

They introduce the characters and there is wooden dialogue, then it jumps to random action scenes. Almost like a graphic novel equivalent of Thankskilling and other d-movies, but without the charm. 

It’s unfortunate because I really enjoy sister dynamics and female-driven stories. This isn’t that-it’s just a series of action scenes and references with no plot, character building or development, or point of view. If there was more time in the beginning to flesh out the main characters it could have been more enjoyable.

This could have been a pretty decent story but overall I felt like it lacked depth. I love portal fantasy and the idea that this girl's sister has been missing for years and then pops back into town 'talking nonsense' and whisks her away back to another world is a really fun one. But the actual story line seemed to just jump from scene to scene with little explanation and only for the purpose of throwing in as many tired nerdy references as possible. People who like 'reference humor' will probably enjoy this, but I would have a little bit more substance to my stories than just going 'oh, I understood that reference!' every other minute. 

I also didn't really like the art style. I'm sure there's a specific name for it that I'm not aware of but I would compare it to 3D animation for movies and I definitely prefer the more 'classic' styles. There were a few backstory issues at the end that looked like that, but by that point I had lost all interest so unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy them. There were some cool things in here - like that the fantasy world they go to has a majority black population and there's some panels about fantasy worlds always being ridiculously white - but unfortunately even these goods parts are delivered with such a drive-by style that I couldn't actually enjoy them.

I love the drawing, it reminds me a bit of Life is Strange, well at the beginning anyways. I absolutely love the nerdy references. Of course who doesn't love nerdy references when you are a nerd though. What kills me is the fact that this is based in Indiana and I want to go buy this and show my cousin and his friend in Indiana because they hate being in Indiana and living there. This is great I really want to read the next one to see what happens next just because of the way it left off I was a little frazzled. It went into a bit of a hey here's the back story here's the this and yada yada. But it didn't get back to the story itself. I am happy that Gene did decide to go with Mae as the focus instead of having her sister as the main character because I very much enjoy Mae. She really focuses with her head and doesn't just go and gets herself stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I requested this because I like reading books that have a sister dynamic in them. Mae was an interesting Graphic Novel. In terms of the plot.. I thought it was interesting but there were plot holes.  Not only that but the art style wasn’t what I expected and I don’t think it flows well with the story. Even with that being said, I will definitely read the 2nd vol because I want to see what happens!

Mae's sister, Abbie, reappears after a seven-year disappearance only to tell stories of another dimension where she was a queen. Mae obviously does not believe her until she sees the monsters for herself and they venture into the other world together after their father is kidnapped. The artwark of Mae was good and the story did seem interesting, but there was too much happening too quickly. It was cool that Mae's sister was also her own main character in her own story while most books just focus on the one main character and forget that everyone is technically main character material. Abbie has had her adventures and fame, so having her sister be the focus of the story was an interesting decision, but I think that its important to establish the most important character. The graphic novel is called Mae, but Mae and Abbie seem to be equal protagonists which distracts from the plot. The plot itself was fast-paced, but I found myself not really invested in what was happening because the situation kept changing every page. The story would have definitely been slowed down and still enjoyed and I also believe that there should have been a clearer goal esablished since its the first volume. Yes, they are trying to save their father, but no background on the world was given and it's hard to decifer the greater scheme at work here which I think would have been helpful to know in the context. Even a hint of a scheme would have been helpful or at least a clearer depiction of it. Overall, it was an interesting idea, but the execution could have been better. I will have to think about whether or not I will read Volume 2.

Mae’s older sister, Abby, disappeared years ago. She returns with a strange tale of a fantasy world, not unlike Oz, where she’s had adventures galore. Mae is skeptical, until this fantasy world and its creatures start seeping into regular old Indiana. After targeting the girls’ father, Mae and Abby embark on their own epic journey to save him. 

I have some mixed feelings about this graphic novel. I love the character of Mae, and her references to Doctor Who and Harry Potter. I also appreciated some of the details of the fantasy world, like the scene where Abby and Mae barter for silver. 

The illustrations didn’t resonate with me, sadly. I sometimes felt that this was trying to emulate Lumberjanes or Rat Queens, but not quite succeeding. I also found the choice of bold words in the bubbles random. This is a small thing, but it was enough to take me out of the reading experience. 

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc.

This one was another solid 3/5 stars for me. I really liked the concept of the graphic novel. It's just some parts jumped and there was no real explanation. You are sort of thrown into the world. I love stories that have the sister dynamic so I know I will probably pick up volume two as well. I think it will get better as it goes on.

Mae Vol.1 is a fantasy novel in vivid graphic form, Mae's sister Abbie returns after being missing for a longtime with tales of a fantastical place full of monsters and war and where Abbie is Queen Ani. When some of the other world's creatures kidnap their dad, Mae and Abbie cross back over into the other world to save him. Going undercover and picking up a new sidekick, the sisters embrace the adventure while kicking butt. The characters are unique and wildly imaginative with hints of steampunk. The art is beautifully drawn and colorful for a wonderful immersion into Abbie's world for an enjoyable good read. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

The art feels really clunky and definitely threw me off while reading it. The story line is good, albeit simplistic. I wish the artwork was a bit smoother and that there was a bit more to the story. I really love graphic novels/comic books and was excited to start this, but like I said, the clunkiness of the art threw me off.

I like the idea behind this graphic novel, and there were moments when it was particularly good. The artwork was terrific, and I loved the geek culture references. Unfortunately, there were some very confusing moments where I wasn't sure exactly what was going on. At times the sequence of events seemed a little disjointed, and characters were added with little explanation. That said, the parts I enjoyed were so fun that I'd still like to see what happens in the next issue.

The first volume of Mae started really good. However, I find that I slowly lost interest in the latter part of the story. Nevertheless, I still appreciate the illustrations, and that I like how the story and relationship of Mae and Abbie as sisters was strongly emphasized. This graphic novel is good but not considerable to recommend to my fellow comic book enthusiast.

I loved how the characters referenced places like Oz and Neverland, though somewhere in there was a decently major Harry Potter spoiler, which was disappointing. 

The art style seemed unique to me—me who is not a graphic novel expert—but I liked how it seemed more “animated” than “cartoony.”

But the first few scenes were confusing—you could figure out what was happening, but they were oddly laid out. Characters weren't very deep. And they seemed even less real as the story progressed. Initial conversations surrounding her sister were very repetitive. Words in the dialogue were bolded too often—the emphasis grew to mean nothing. Scenes jumped oddly, and were awkwardly short, or they would go on unnecessarily long. A few scenes after we landed in the hidden world, I lost interest. It was just fight scenes and kind of world building and a lot of pointless dialogue with the occasional one-liner. 

Also, there was a page dedicated to belittling fantasy movies and books for mostly featuring white characters, and it only made me dislike this story. Maybe it’s an issue to be discussed, but this wasn’t the place to bring it up self-righteously.

I started reading Mae having no background beyond the description:

Mae's beloved older sister, Abbie, has been missing for years. Mae has her theories about where Abbie might be. But nowhere in her wildest imagination do those theories encompass a fantasy world full of terrifying monsters, power-hungry nobles, and nefarious scientists. That is, until Abbie suddenly reappears in Mae's world. And not alone.
Let's be honest, that's an intriguing description for a story and I was looking for something interesting to fill my day off (yay for taking days off during the work week). As a note, I have been provided a free digital copy by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

By a quarter of the way through, it was clear this was leaning heavy on the novel part of Graphic Novel, and I switched my reading intentions from stories put together to continuous narrative and was rewarded for the mindset change. 

A little bit of background before I dig in. In 2015, Gene Ha launched a kickstarter to publish the graphic novel Mae (Vol.1), which had already been written and drawn and was just waiting publishing at that point. Ha's Kickstarter goal was met in 36 HOURS!!! That's amazing and shows how strong the fan base was. Then several step goals later and a lot of work and it finally went to print. I'm super jealous I didn't get my hands on a hard copy version (and might just buy one for my shelf).

Overall, it's a surprisingly quick read, done up in chapters, and not quite the full story, being only Vol. 1 and waiting for the rest of their adventure. For the most part, beautifully rendered, but I felt a little thrown off by close faces, which had that kind of CG/Sims style sheen to them. The action scenes are visually fantastic. It's probably for the older end of YA, given the detail on some of the more gruesome stuff. 

As a side note, Ha addressed diversity in Science Fiction with humor and a little bit of nerdy wit. There are throughout a lot of pop culture references that hopefully won't be lost to time (Dr. Who, Harry Potter, etc.), but aren't required for understanding the story itself, if anything they just reinforce the ways that different characters interact with one another.

That said, it's an entirely incomplete story. It feels like it's only just the beginning. Would've liked to see it end at something that at least felt like a natural break.

Looking forward to see where this goes in Vol. 2.

I like the world building and the characters. Story is interesting. I love Doctor Who and Harry Potter referances. Illustrations are amazing.

An interesting art style, like something from the PS1 era of video games, but it works well with the odd fantasy setting.

The cover for Mae was nice enough to get me to look at the back. The blurb didn’t precisely excite me, but it had been a while since I’d reviewed an adult graphic novel on the site, so I decided to give it a chance. 
The color palette is pleasing. I like the heavy use of purple. It took a while for the illustration style to grow on me, but it’s very easy on the eyes. When it switched to more traditional illustration for the last two stories included in the volume (a backstory from when Abbie was first in the new land, and then one on how Dahlia and Mae became friends), I was disappointed.

The Doctor Who reference had me grinning. It was perfect. Mae’s sister, Abby, definitely looks like she could be The Doctor herself. There were other pop-culture references that had me giggling, but I’ll leave them to you to discover yourself. On top of the sass, there was a ton of action in Mae, Vol 1. The fact it was girls kicking butt just made it even better (and sometimes doing it by using their brains – even more so).
I wasn’t really a fan of the fact that we got a couple awesome, nicely illustrated issues, and then there was a bunch of filler in the form of artwork pages, and some backstory comics. I’m sure other people will love it, though. So I’m not really counting it against Mae too harshly. I know I’m not exactly your typical comic book reader.

The evolution of the characters that was included at the end was pretty interesting. I definitely prefer the version that they ended up going with. It feels more real, and more fun. The fact that this volume was apparently brought to life via Kickstarter was neat as well. 

Overall, the first few issues were well-done, engaging, and made me want to read more. The rest of Mae, vol 1 I could take or leave. Definitely think fans of Doctor Who should check it out. It’s got that Tenth Doctor wibbly-wobbly feel to it.