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.

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.