DNF. Just make it a damn mental health manual and forgo the gloss of a story altogether. And get better artists. This looks like it was drawn by a sixth grader. At least a sixth grader can improve. ( )

Dark Agents by Janina Scarlet,PhD is a therapy/comic book dealing with issues of PTSD & Depression aimed at teenagers. I applaud the effort & I like that the author is trying to present these real world problem in a way teens might engage with. I think this comic has potential but a few things kept it from being a hit with me. The art is colorful but basic which seems aimed more toward younger teens but the dialog gets a bit long in places which seems misplaced for a younger teen. A little more "action" in the Art, especially the backgrounds & a little lighter, or broken down into smaller bites, on the dialog would make this interesting concept more readable.Received as part of the Librarything Early Reviewers for my honest opinion. ( )

This book is an interesting take on helping children work through traumatic events. The authors' use of the graphic novel format is a good choice; I think kids would be much more likely to pick up a graphic novel about a girl with super powers than something more akin to an adult self-help book. While it won't win an Eisner, I think Dark Agents achieves its goal, and I would recommend it to anyone helping a young person suffering from PTSD.

This graphic novel is meant to provide a way for young people who have suffered from trauma to understand their history and work toward a healthy live. Using a story about superhero types fighting evil, it attempts to explain what trauma is and what those who have experienced it might feel or act like because of it. Further it tries to offer techniques like mindfulness and acceptance/commitment therapy to help those sufferers cope. All are good goals but this book as a whole misses the mark. The story is not well flushed out, the characters are not fully constructed (therefore confusing) and this reader didn't come to care about any of them. The "message" part of the story is hard hitting and sounds like a lecture or therapy session not like a superhero story. Although well intentioned, I don't think it hits the mark for an interesting series that a casual, not traumatized young person would want to read. ( )

Synopsis: Violet's parents are murdered by a necromancer when she is a child, leaving her to learn her craft from her grandfather as they go into hiding. When she turns 19, she goes into training to become a Dark Agent. Her goal is to take revenge on the person who killed her parents; however, her success is threatened by her inability to deal with her early trauma.
Review: This graphic novel is actually a manual for children who have PTSD. The illustrations are excellent. But while the therapy may be well grounded in psychological practice, the story is thin and disjointed. I kept waiting for the story to develop, however it never did. ( )