Lovely art with beautiful colors. I really enjoyed LOOKING at it. Did I enjoy reading it? It wasn't really for me. A little too weird, a little too much. I can see this being for others, though. I would recommend it to anyone who likes their comics a little weird, rather than the standard superhero fare.

3 stars

This read was such a fun time and the graphics were really punch you in the face colorful and exciting. There were a few moments of confusion here and there and some parts where I didn't feel like I could understand what some characters were doing or why they were doing it, but to be honest the issues I had were not so large that they took me out of the story and adventure. Overall a very fun read.

book given in exchange for an honest review

This was a fun addition to the DC catalogue. My favorite part was the originality and the art. I felt it was original and well done.

I was quite intrigued about this title but I was not at all familair with neither the author nor the story but I thought the premise of the story was fantastic and I am glad to say it developed very nicely throughout the volume, though at some points it is a bit confusing and hard to follow (I am not sure if that was because I was not familiar with the character, but given how this is a volume 1, that shouldn't have happened). The best part was, without a doubt, the art; the style was incredible and very colourful, which fitted well with the plot. Shade as a chharacter was also intriguing and you want to know more about her and her story, so I will say this is a successful first volume andd maybe those issues I had will be explored more in further installments.

This book was very different than my normal comic read. First off, the art was so fun and bright - very much like classic pop art. The story was unlike anything I’ve read and the author was definitely not trying to fit into a mold of any sort while creating this work. The story follows a mean girl in high school who is found brain dead and whose conscious is replaced by an alien who then returns to the same high school in said mean girl’s body. This is a fun read about friendship and starting over.

I'm honestly torn about this book. The art and covers are absolutely gorgeous, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, they fell somewhat flat.

The story is a mess, that's the only way I can describe it. Readers aren't eased into it, most pages contain huge amounts of info dumps, which still don't explain anything. Maybe if I've read the original Shade the Changing Man, I might've understood more, but isn't it a point of reboots to attract new readers? I spent most of my time reading utterly confused and whenever I thought I started to understand what was happening, I was thrown another confusing curveball. And despite how dense to understand it was, there was barely any plot to think of. I'd almost call that amazing, if I wasn't so annoyed. I really wanted to like this book.

Loma Shade, a bird alien from a faraway planet (that is basically Earth but some of the inhabitants are aliens. Some of them. A lot of them looked like regular humans. No, it's never explained) dons the coat of madness and somehow her spirit transfers to a comatose teenage girl on Earth, Megan. It's never explained how exactly the coat or the "Madness" works, as far as I can remember. Loma decides to take over Megan's life and finds herself back in high school, where she tries to figure out why everyone hates her so much. Surprise, turns out Megan was a horrible despicable abuser to everyone around her! Meanwhile, back on Loma's planet we get a side-plot about a secret research facility trying to utilize the Madness for some sinister purposes. This side-plot actually seems to be the main plot, given how Loma on Earth literally doesn't do anything but hang out at high school and terrify her classmates, but at the same time, it's touched upon so very sporadically, I'm not too sure. Like I said, the story is a mess.

There doesn't seem to be any direction to this book. Loma is a huge fan of Earth who wants to learn everything possible about it, but she never actually learns anything. It seems like the Earth portion spends most of it's time running in circles, watching Loma on her wacky hijinks, wasting time. It's a very pretty waste of time, but still a waste. It seems like every few pages Loma needs to be told again why people are scared of Megan (because she was a horrible abuser!!! We've been over this five times already oh my god), how to act, not to do magic around people.

Which brings me to my other point. The art is gorgeous but also very confusing. I could never figure how much are people around Loma seeing and there's never any explanation. Sometimes it seems that all the magic around his visible, sometimes not. It's confusing.

The art really is gorgeous though. The lines are beautiful and the flat colours fit the style so well, it's probably the best drawn comics I've seen. The art is mostly the only reason I kept reading, to be honest.

I really hope we'll be seeing a lot more of Shade--I was so disappointed back when the last Vertigo run was cancelled. Great reboot!

I wanted to like this book but it was just a bit too weird for me. It's pretty far removed from a standard human experience and doesn't really make an effort to connect with us. For being a book about an alien masquerading as a human, Shade doesn't really make much effort to interact with said humans.

I haven't read Shade, the Changing Man and didn't know anything at all about this comic when I read it. I had no clue what to expect, but it was definitely rather interesting.

The first thing I noticed was definitely the colour. The art was amazing, so quirky and expressive. Immediately, I was hooked on this book. The art alone drew me in, and I loved looking at every page.

The plot was also pretty wild. Loma Shade, a strange alien creature, steals the "madness vest" and takes control of the comatose body of Megan Boyer - leaving her ex-boyfriend behind as she ventures to Earth. Everyone believes her to still be Megan, and Shade struggles to fit in and right Megan's wrongs. But it was only meant to be a bit of fun - not a permanent situation.

Shade eventually confides in a new-found friend about her true identity, but everyone else still thinks she's just Megan. But Shade is nothing like Megan, and no one has missed the sudden change. But the change is welcome, for the most part - it turns out that Megan wasn't the nicest girl around.

There were also some mini stories included at the end, which were really interesting, about some new characters.

It is a very, very strange comic, and I loved the art. But I didn't really connect with Shade that much, or feel any emotion for or from her. I'll probably read more at some point, and perhaps then I'll begin to enjoy it even more. For now, I'm giving it 3.5 stars. I loved the art, and the plot was good, too. I just hope to feel more emotion from Shade.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. I went into this comic with absolutely no background knowledge of the previous Shade properties and I think that the lack of familiarity had a giant impact on my enjoyment.
The art was incredibly well executed, but I have to admit that I had no idea what was going on the entire time. There have been a lot of comic properties rebooting lately, and for the most part they have been very easy for new readers to pick up and understand what is going on. Shade the Changing Girl, had me scratching my head and wishing that the main character wasn't so incredibly unlikable.
If this had been a stand alone/new comic based on new content I would have given this a 1 star, however I can concede that this title would have been better with a little more knowledge of the original run.

Loma is a bird alien from Meta. She steals the madness vest from the last Shade series and inhabits the mind of a comatose girl, Megan, on Earth. Megan was a mean girl who terrorized both her friends, nerds, and even her parents, just an awful person. Most of the book is Loma dealing with this.

Nothing happens in this book. It's so boring and bland. Same with the art. It felt like an indie comic where nothing happens and there's no point.

Shade the Changing girl is an interesting title. This is a title I heard about from my 16 year old daughter and decided to check out on my own. She looks forward to the issues and has even done some fan art work. Shade is an alien who takes over the body of a mean girl who was now in a coma. She (Shade) is basically trying to fix all the wrongs this girl made without anybody finding out who she is -- besides the close friends she told. Would I use this in the classroom? Depends on the grade level. As a homeschooler our curriculum is much looser and I have already thought of some interesting things I can do with some of the issues that arise with my highschooler. I recommend the series to both teens and adults.

I like to move it, move it, move it, I like to… movie it, provie it, shooo… sorry, I think my brain’s broken from too many crappy comics lately! Oh up yours Young Animal. Thank Jeebus this is the last one of these I’ve gotta endure!

Shade, the Changing Man is reimagined as Shade, the Changing Girl because I guess the character changes? Ahhhhh you spin me right round baby right round like a record... Come on, dude, keep it together, it’s almost over… have another drink.

I’ve never read any of the previous incarnations so I can’t compare or even know if this is similar in approach but this Shade is an alien called Loma inhabiting a teen girl’s body for a contrived reason. Loma must find out why everyone thinks she’s a bitch - not that anything’s at stake, she’s just gotta do something to fill the pages. Yup, real edge of your seat reading!

I wasn’t sucked into what little story there was. We know that Megan, the Earth girl host, was a mean girl before Loma inhabited her, so we have to wait tediously for Loma to figure out what we know from the start. No explanation either for how possession works - is Megan’s, uh, “spirit” killed when Loma jumps in or what? It appears at the end but where was it up til then? Ah, I didn’t really care anyway.

Loma leaving her home planet to come to Earth was a flimsy excuse that added to the pointlessness of this comic. And the stuff on Loma’s home planet was equally unimaginative. Basically aliens have the same culture as we do on Earth (even vaping!) but they’re alien-looking. The art is nothing special but Kelly Fitzpatrick’s colours are trippy and cool.

Shade, the Changing Girl is boring garbage. I highly recommend avoiding any books with the Young Animal label!

Loma, an alien, is in a rut in her life. So she decides to steal the famous madness coat from her favorite poet, Rac Shade. To avoid getting caught stealing this item, she runs away finally settling in earth and into an earth body of a high school girl named Megan. Loma thinks that life will be easier on Earth, a planet much simpler than her home planet. However, the body she has chosen in of a high school bully who is currently in a coma. When Loma in Megan's body (who now goes by Shade) goes back to school, people are less than enthused to see her, all while people in her home world are trying to figure out how to get the coat back.

Overall, the artwork in this book was pretty incredible and vibrant. However, the story text sometimes had me confused and made my head spin a bit. I suppose that is probably how Loma felt in her new world and body, but at times it detracted from the story. The concept for this comic was awesome, and it shows how hard it is to be a teenager (especially if you are an alien from another planet). I will be interested to watch and see where this series goes, as of right now it wasn't really for me.

It did not take me long to figure out that this graphic novel is not for me nor would it appeal to my students. The plot is pretty simple despite its non-linear narrative structure. Loma, a birdlike alien creature, is bored on her planet and desires adventure so she dons on a madness coat and turns into a spirit that inhabits the body of Megan, a comatose high school queen bee. Loma is disheartened to find out that Megan was a mean girl that pretty much everyone hated. Loma tries to amend Megan's wrong meanwhile Megan's parents and friends are more shocked about Megan acting like a real human being with emotions and empathy rather than her weird alien powers.
Despite the colorful and vibrant illustrations of the graphic novel, I was bored throughout reading it. The plot was just okay and the characters failed to pique my interest. I didn't get a good grasp on who Loma is before she inhabited Megan. I also couldn't drum up any sympathy for Megan who was a big bully that took a lot of drugs and ended up drowning. I also didn't feel there was a lot of depth to the story despite the trope of using the high school setting as a metaphor of explaining the tumultuous time of puberty. Plot points that didn't really connect where casually explained by the weird things happening in the story instead of an actual explanation.

Cecil Castellucci's Shade, the Changing Girl Vol. 1: Earth Girl Made Easy may turn out to be the best of Gerard Way's Young Animal debuts. Emerging somewhere between Heathers and Edward Scissorhands with a heavy aesthetic of 1980s teen movie, Shade is strange and fun, effortlessly shifting between the serious, mundane, and absurd, from alien moonscapes to psychedelic art to high school classrooms. Castellucci and artist Marley Zarcone create a weird, immersive world that goes perhaps to Young Animal's mandate of distinct art styles more than any of the imprint's other titles I've read so far.

This graphic novel looks and feels like an acid trip a la Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. An alien takes a technicolor coat and travels through the madness to inhabit a teen girl's brain dead body. The idea alone is trippy. No prior knowledge of Shade is needed, although, it might clear up some confusion. A fantastic read and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

I don't have much to say about this, I didn't really care for it. Didn't really understand what was going on. I think I read that this is actually continuing a previous Shade comic, which I didn't know going in. I don't really have the desire to look the original up and read it though. Not for me.

This is a DNF for me. I gave it a valiant try and made it over halfway. Megan has had her body taken over by an alien life form. She was the mean girl in school and after taking too many drugs and drowning, she was declared brain dead. Enter our birdlike alien, who takes over her body and intends to live her life. But her life, is not all he thought a human life would be like. Part of what keeps this graphic novel flowing is our alien thinks in poetry, and interrupts himself in Shades poetry. There are constantly two to three conversations going on, plus then what is happening in the Alien’s home world. It’s all a big mess. Others will probably like it, but I don't.

Added Goodreads
Added Litsy

Great illustrations and really enjoyed the story line.