Fantasybookspot - Graphic Novel

Girl Genius Books 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 with Agatha Heterodyne

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:32:07 -0400

Authors Phil & Kaja Foglio

Pencils Phil Foglio

Colors by Mark McNabb and/or Laurie E. Smith or Cheyenne Wright for Books 2 to 6

Inks by Brian Snoody on Book 1

Not being all that familiar with Steampunk, I jumped in tabula rasa to this sort of world, but what I have heard is that “Steampunk” means different things for different people. Be that as it may, this is not a review on how well Girl Genius falls into that category, rather what a delightful romp Girl Genius books one, two, three, four, five and six are. We have a Victorian setting industrial age, mad scientists and the “spark”, which allows certain individuals to be set above the rest in their ability to create these mechanical creations, as the author describes it, the capability for true Mad Science. Being a spark leads to all sorts of complications, though…

I am going to give my thoughts on the storyline and characters of each of the books and then bring it all together with a review of the series up to this point as a whole.

Book 1 – Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank - The detail in the background causes a bit of a jolt for the reader as it feels like too much is going on in this book. This is where we are introduced to Agatha Clay, a student at Transylvania Polygnostic University, where she can not build anything that seems to work. The reader can feel a little overwhelmed as we start this book with the host of characters and giving the reader the background of those characters and the world. By the end of Book 1 though is where you can really start to enjoy it as you feel like the story falls into place and we start to get a feel for each of the characters introduced. We also have our main villain Baron Wulfenbachand and his elite soldiers the Jagermonsters. We have an extra color story at the end that solves many of the details of the background issues.

Book 2- Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City - Uh-Uh-Um it is in f’ing color, awesome. This is the volume that starts to excite the reader. Gone are the issues with only black and white and the backgrounds. In this volume we start to appreciate the backgrounds and all the subtle details that they hold for us. We are introduced to Baron’s Airships which are a city in the sky, and all the inhabitants, both good and evil. We have a “Heterodyne Boys” episode in the middle of the book, these little interludes are set perfect as a middle book break and give us information to fill in our background knowledge of the story before book 1 and the Hetertodynes. This issue is also where we start to really see Agatha in the personality sense as well as the skin sense, as the pajama scene with Agatha…well lets just say it was well worth it being in color! The story is really starting to take shape and I do not feel as lost as I did in book one. The relationship of Agatha and the Baron’s son Gil is also a nice plotline. The Jagermonsters also fit very well now within the storyline and their speech works for them, where I originally thought it would annoy me.

Book 3- Agatha Heterodyne and the Monster Engine - We are really into the meat of the story. Did I really just start to realize how fun the story and the artwork are? Shame on me. We also have a talking cat, The King of Cats. I have to say I really like it even though one would think this wouldn’t work. This cat is no Garfield, wait maybe he kinda is. There is also a two page spread of Agatha dreaming which is gorgeous, where is the full sized poster version of this. We also start to get a taste of some of the secrets of Agatha and who she really is and what the Baron is really up to. Whenever there is either a full page panel or even a two page panel it really is a sight to behold.

Book 4 – Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams - The Traveling circus was just awesome, all the characters were fleshed out perfectly. I loved the caravan and the secret that these traveling actors were hiding. The spider riders about halfway through the book though seemed a tad out of place, even though they play a more prominent role in the next book. The interaction of Agatha with the characters is so well done, and how she fits in like a cog (!) with the circus works well. We even get some good scenes with The King of Cats. This book features Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure and I loved it, could be my favorite book of the series so far.

Book 5 – Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess – This is where the series turns a bit weird. Not weird in a bad way, but weird like you really have to pay attention to what is going on in the second half of the book because so much of the larger back-story is thrust upon you and it can be a bit disconcerting. Once you get into the story though you realize that Agatha Heterodyne's story is not what you once thought. We get introduced to some real cool steampunk muses, who are the clockwork pieces, alive or not alive is the debate. Think Clockwork Smurf if you are from the 80s. If you thought the Baron was the only villain, hang on for the ride.

Book 6 – Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite - In the beginning of this book the confusion starts to come to a close and I am really in vibe with the story again. Maybe I am just stupid though and it is not confusing at all, take that for what it is worth, even though my college degree says otherwise. Coming in at 155 pages this book is also a chubby one. The artwork again is superb. This is a tough one to really review without giving anything away, so take these tidbits: there is a huge battle at the end and some people do not survive. Again the story really picks up again from book 5 (my least favorite book) and makes me go Girl Genius crazy again. Where is book 7!!

I do not want to give too much away of the story so they are more a commentary on each book rather than a full blown summary where I may ruin something for you the reader. That would be a shame as it is such a wonderful story.

Team Foglio gives us Heterodyne extra credit stories buried in the middle of volumes (or end) that work out well for breaking up the story and giving you a lot of background to the story. It is like a Super Bowl commercial where you actually want to watch it in our Tivo age.

The backgrounds are filled to the brim with all sorts of fun things going on, it seemed to be distracting in the first book in black and white, but once the story moves to color it does not seem as distracting and works real nice. For the reader it is fun to re-read and notice something real funny going on in the background. Whoever made the decision to go from black and white to color really vaulted this graphic novel into the must read status.

The writing/story and the artwork are interwoven like a complex blanket that not only keeps you warm but also looks good on the back of the couch. Okay, that was a bit cheesy, but it does sum up how I feel about the story and artwork together. The story is funny and silly, but in a way that makes it enjoyable rather than stupid.

The characters are very well developed and go from Agatha Clay, The Baron and his son Gilgamesh, a traveling circus, the King of Cats, Jagermonsters, various monsters (mechanical and otherwise), pirates, a nanny with an attitude, ancient relics turned alive…phew, it has it all. There is not a lack of new and exciting characters, and they all seem fleshed out to the level appropriate to their involvement in the story.

Angela Clay is sexy, smart, and funny. So what if she is a mad scientist, that just makes her an even better catch.

I like to read the works in the collection in tactile paper, but for all the people that cannot wait you can check out the new stories at the website. While you are there, check out all the other neat things on the site.

Check out more Girl Genius at http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/

I heard there is a 7^th volume, hopefully Airship Entertainment will forgive me for being so long with the review and grace me with a copy because I am sure looking forward to the further adventures.

Scalped: Casino Boogie

Wed, 07 May 2008 13:45:15 -0400

it’s a big night on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation -- the grand opening of the multimillion-dollar Crazy Horse Casino.

For Tribal Leader and organized crime boss Lincoln Red Crow, it’s the fruition of thirty years of dreaming, scheming and killing. For FBI Special Agent Dashiell Bad Horse, it’s just another night risking his neck undercover in Red Crow's organization. For Dash's mother, Gina Bad Horse, it’s a painful reminder of how things have gone irrevocably wrong. For wannabe-Indian Diesel Engine, it’s his big chance to prove himself to the Red Power movement. For the mysterious medicine man known as Catcher, it’s a night of signs and visions.

And for ONE of them, it will be their last night on Earth.

One of the interesting things about Casino Boogie is how it changes things up from Indian Country. In Indian Country we are introduced to Bad Horse as our main protagonist and through 5 issues the plot follows him through a linear path in which we get to know some of the other main characters and a bit of the workings of The Rez. But if Indian Country is a story told linearly then Casino Boogie spreads out and is told laterally. This manifests itself in a few ways.

Issue #6 acts as a good transition between these two different story telling styles because it follows a similar pattern to the previous 5 issues allowing us to shadow Bad Horse before imparting on us the important textual lesson that he is not the only character. In this volume we will start to see the broader canvass of characters, their fractured personal histories and the intricately plotted connections that inform their depths.

Red Crow becomes further a Shakespearean figure carrying the weight on his shoulders, the weight of identity, the weight of history and the weight of power. He is compelling, interesting and dare I say that he is a tragic figure; I do have to wonder if his days are numbered. Gina Bad Horse decade’s later still carries the wounds of one moment in time, when two federal agents were killed, and still can't reconcile the embodiment of 'the end justifies the means' that everyone and everything around her has become. She will be a catalyst for explosive change. For Catcher, the alcoholic medicine man, it remains to be seen if he is strong enough to handle what he sees, and more importantly, what he will do. He is the wildcard. Interestingly it’s in Diesel, a white man who claims a 1/16th Kickapoo heritage and self identifies as an Indian, that we get an interesting study in identity politics. He is fervent in his belief of the purity of his heritage but revels in the stereotypical trappings of the race. He is a caricature but a dangerous and violent one. He is a steam roller plowing through everything so his role remains unclear. Dino Poor Bear, who we saw in the first volume, comes from a once powerful family, and is ambitious but a dreamer. His story will be an interesting one, to see if he becomes a pawn moved by greater forces or accumulates some power and changes the configuration of the board. His is a character to watch.

One other way that Casino Boogie spreads out laterally is that it approaches a near-Ulyssean portrait of one single day. Though each section will focus on just one character of this diverse cast the larger exploration of the nuances and facets of the day from every direction possible won't be lost. It’s an exercise in precise plotting to weave together this tapestry of characters and events and Aaron's skills are improving with each book.

This touches on something that is demonstrable here; that each issue functions as a complete story arc but progresses the larger narrative arc forward. This can be a hard balance to strike sometimes, especially in this age of graphic novels, but Aaron never forgets those readers who are purchasing each individual issue on a monthly basis.

Sometime the punch you dont see coming is the one that just hit you. That’s how I felt a couple of times while reading Casino Boogie. Aaron is such a skilled writer that he literally repeats and recycles not one but two reveals from the first volume. But the damdest thing is that you just don't see it coming. It's a deft trick that I would imagine is a tough one to pull off but yet again Aaron nails it.

Casino Boogie capitalizes on the strengths that were shown in Indian Country and improves at every level to tell a compelling and interesting story. It will take us from the top of the power structure all the way down to the kid who mops the floor of the casino and everyone in between. We will go from fifty-five years ago to the present. We will go to the spirit world and come back changed. What’s next? Dunno but I can’t wait.

Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:50:21 -0500

Pulp seems to be in these days in all mediums and let me just say: It’s about time. It is inevitable such a phase will be sniffed out by charlatans (and in some cases have already) and we will soon be drowned in the coming wave of mediocrity but we should not let I had been waiting for people to once again take heed of another man who seems always a step ahead - one Alan Moore in this regard and while I am not sure if Powell gives a damn I’m pleased to see a minor pulp-renaissance occur and Powell is part of that in comics. I should note that I while I have read some scattered issues of Eric Powell’s Goon, I am not an authority on the series as a whole. I am not reviewing the Goon’s adventures in its entirety, but a hardcover collecting an arc that takes place in an original graphic novel and titled Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker. As I have said before I think all comics should be published in this manner so I love seeing the product.What you find is a completely accessible book that will allow us to visit three stages of Goon’s life and succeeds as both a current adventure and allowing you to get the gist of the character without seeming obtrusive: Lifelong streetwise crook who has worked himself to be the big fish. Pretty basic concept that allows unlimited opportunities and quick assimilation no matter when you want to tell a story. Afterall, there are crooks everywhere, and there has been a long American-romantic love affair with crime. The world you are in is your own, except there are brushes with the fantastic – an Eastern God, a cursed book – aspects that are assuredly not normal but are choices that aren’t completely out of leftfield. They could be real; in the reality right next to ours, too the slightly mad, or those slightly more perceptive - take your pick - and what you are left with is a Polanski directing Big Trouble in Little China but take it back 80 or so years.

The current Goon is dealing with a takeover from somebody who has information that only somebody who has broken bread with you can have and what is apparently – an beautifully more apparent - his right hand has gone missing. On top of that we get this incredibly atmospheric story from his past as he consolidates turf power, meeting with the Triad, and finds what has the look of love. On the back cover Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker is described as a ‘formative chapter from Goon’s early years’, so of course it’s about a dame – I don’t where the female Life Dojo is, but not only are all men given life by women – we learn life’s hardest lessons from them. And that classic image we formulate of that same girl that walks into a 40’s P.I. office or once resided in a Matt Baker’s sketchbook that just kind of stroll into our lives and makes things…more interesting. What I found in this experience is the presence of two distinct stories, the former is forgettable and latter is truly – and I think a bit surprisingly - fantastic and it has nothing to do with a dragon. What is supposed to occur is a layering that acts as an echo and source of tension in the current story from the past, and the flashback provides a soul – in this it is partially successful.

”This aint funny”

While a admittedly starting a funny book in this manner is indeed funny, humor always seems a second away, it is there, but it resides underneath – Powell is able to show humor in an atmosphere that doesn’t call for it. We could be having fun and we may later, but we got to handle shit right now and Chinatown is ultimately about handling your business and loyalty. We can laugh later, or better yet, we once laughed and perhaps more than anything we want to see a chuckle.

For any men who have those chapters in our lives that would not have not have taken a turn for the fictional in thinking the possibility of getting knocked was a daily thought and ultimately not surprising if it became an outcome – you know when every house you frequent has bent blinders on the windows because every car that goes by gets a thorough look-over and mentally-cataloged – we have all met a woman that we at one point propped up as an excuse to enter the real world, to give it all up, to go straight, to live happily ever after, a view that can be seen as romantic but is more a door to the skewed, controlled-madness that to often turns from a phase to a lifestyle. At any rate, either way it is an acceptance and desire of being shackled. To catch a dream we would bet against reality and the first rule of gambling is the house doesn’t lose. I think there may be danger in Chinatown when viewing the female characters that may lead one to conclude a stance or agenda by the writer. Let me first say that stances and agenda don't tend to bother me - there are all types of people in the world and a creator should be able to use any of them in that context. What we have in Chinatown actually are women who merely refuse to rescue Goon from himself – he on both occasions is the pleader and while neither Bella or Mirna are examples of what we would likely attach with the word ideal – they were certainly desirable to Goon and in this story they are depicted as any other – wandering their own way, and the exception (Franky) is the power in the story, but not I feel an accusatory one. There is a lot of truth in these pages or ones that I find to be - if we all had some competition and gods to kill right after our heart is broken I dare say a lot of Playstation controllers would have been saved.

Franky is a ridah. You are going to have your circle, but you are also going to have your ace – and the segments of Chinatown that felt the most emotional were the actions of Franky. Simply put, this guy holds it down; he takes care of Goon and does so in a way that defines the strongest of bonds - he doesn’t have to tell him about it. Proven, the guy that is down forever, that let you look past him once, forgave you – and possibly loved him (Goon) more for it. I felt myself oddly moved by some panels where Powell taps into the essence of friendship – if you ever lost your ace, the last pages of Chinatown, brings back memories. Powell exhibits the ability to render more than emotion, but relationship as well as anyone I have read in sometime and you can see it in a phone conversation Goon is having when someone questions the loyalty of Franky – there is no answer because the question has no substance – it is a verbal absurdity that can’t be heard, as if a foreign language to a mono-lingual mind. Absolute trust is a rare commodity and in that instance we want to warn him that such is foolhardy, we can almost taste betrayal around the corner – but the more powerful outcome is to see him justified.

These are themes we are all familiar, that we know carry gravity and they do in what would seem telling the part of Goon’s life that would in later incarnations look like a scab. It’s ugly, but it protects something tender, a layer closer to you and they work really well but there is a what I perceive as a weakness in the conflict – the situations and feelings are wonderfully captured and framed magnificently by Powell’s art and story-telling tone but they are in someway betrayed by a hokiness that oversteps even the obvious pulp sensibilities of the series itself. It is a story that should be an amazing, poignant; certainly familiar, but in a manner that is never outdated, and it is until we get the reason in the story why Goon has to beat something up. I want to say that the story would have been an excellent chapter, perhaps a deviation, that didn’t require the actual conflict in the current storyline. I realize that such a statement possibly may grate on existing fundamental Goon traditions that I’m not aware of but the conclusion and dynamic involving Mr. Wicker comes off as severely campy when in the presence of an otherwise beautifully rendered story. I guess some could say that it is that very element that makes Goon, but it doesn’t come off as charm in Chinatown it come off as a burden. Powell may have felt the same (admittedly, more likely not) as he does choose to end the story with the thread from the past and due to that, Chinatown is able to conclude with its better half in some way insuring the aroma of satisfaction as we close the door.

I collect original comic art and while across the board I feel much of the modern work is a bit overpriced and I expect that to correct itself after a surge of awareness and the market stabilizes from an influx of buyers and while I think more vintage work will keep escalating as legitimate, relevant, pop-art there are some contemporary artists who have even seen their work go to another level and generally on creator-owned work – a Mignola Hell Boy page, an older Wagner Grendel page, a Keith Maxx page, a Smith Bone pages, a Sim Cerbebus page and while Powell I don’t think has achieved quite that status, Goon pages have shown to be very desirable and you can tell why from thumbing through Chinatown. While some comics seemed to be filled mostly with panels to lead to the next, Powell finds reason for each individual one. Splash pages almost seem to have become added strictly for the purpose of selling them at premium prices in the OA market but Powel utilizes them for a purpose on story– not comely to begin with, we see a man buckle, we see realization, we see a man gain clarity and he has to look at himself to find it. He stood before a mirror to bear witness his own pain and like a man he would not learn from his mistakes he attempts to conquer them. From the perspective of art, Powell can really do no wrong – it’s absolutely gorgeous and while it is an industry that traditional lies in duos and even more in current comics, something about comics that have only one name next to ‘by’ – for what I think obvious reasons – have a more cohesive vision. It is here, where it seems you will most likely find true creative outlets that remind us comics are art, in an industry that is more and more a factory production line.

I fee like I’m riffing VanderMeer and the Post, but somewhere within Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker is a great story and I think we can find the lines of separation quite easily. I think I love Chinatown but the Mystery of Mr. Wicker I could have done without – it doesn’t deliver what is weird in the manner that I think pulp masters would see translated today, it comes as quite goofy and honestly has the feeling of being thrown in. I come away from my first prolonged experience with The Goon with a definite interest in reading more; Powell is undeniable as an artist and with Chinatown we see a storyteller that is able to capture a classic and mundane story and infuse it with personality that makes it Goon’s classic story and through it, ultimately a recommendable read and in Mystery of Mr. Wicker we get the feeling that we haven’t seen the best of Powell - that perhaps there may be a haphazard inclination to include certain elements just to have them in-story and I think what we wanted was Anthony Shaffer and we got Nicholas Cage instead.

I’m going to cop more Goon for Franky baby.

Jay Tomio
The Bodhisattva

Dark Wraith of Shannara

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:11:15 -0500

When I reflect on Shannara, we are going back to the baby steps of a love affair with Fantasy that if not taken when they were, I would have probably found myself not inundated with advanced copies for a site I co-own dedicated to the subject of Speculative Fiction itself. It was not my first venture into Fantasy, but it was perhaps the first series I continued simply because it was Fantasy. Later in life I’d realize I was already a fan of the fantastic and it could be illustrated with books I read before – be it from Tolkien, Stevenson, Lovecraft, or others but I think then it was just about adventures then and Shannara offered another place I hadn’t been before, and at that age being someone who was used to and loved travel even then it was not only enough – it was optimal. I was as a child lucky enough to had already seen places and found myself at a place where so many rarely left their own state. Be it the Coliseum, the Parthenon/Acropolis, Pisa, The Sistine Chapel, Pompeii, Ercolano, the real Oktoboer Fest, Carnivale, Mardi Gras, Big Ben, Venice – Vesuvius or Fuji, the Pyramids, the Louvre a ride on The Orient Express and countless German and French castles and cathedrals and rugs from Turkey later – when I sat in history classes I always felt a chapter ahead, it was a review for me, not an introduction. Later, I’d I found myself in the dirty south of the U.S. which at the time was something not unlike exile from meaningful culture. Later, I’d recognize a highly functionable and welcome order to it all but at the time I think I was substituting that sense of wonder lost, with a maze of wonder at the library. I’m not at all sure if there were books I didn’t like then, in fact there may not have been even ‘good’ or ‘bad’ they were just all part of one large journey for me, some legs were just more memorable and some more staying power - better than I remembered - when I made the journey back, but if not, it does not taint what came before. To me I was just chillin’ with Huck one week, fishing with Ahab the next, sharing riddles in Hed after that, blew trees in the Shire a month after, all while walking through Shadow with my bud Brand who was babbling about chaos, and all because years before I wanted to go beyond where the wild things were. You see, Allanon and me, well, we go way back; before Bremen found him hiding all shook - we were already tight, even before me and Jessica used to have mélange sessions. I’d tell you my last name is Creel, but that’s another shadow, one me and only the Grimpond talk about but what you need to know is that when I wasn’t being a hell raiser as a youth, I could be found plotting my next secret vacance in my room, or what looked like plotting otherwise, why was I so quiet? Nobody complained, least of all me, because I was in my comfort zone – and I had been there before, and in fact I could fuck around and tell you how to get to Varleet from the Vale on a budget right now – like I said I’d been there before.

When discussing Shannara or Terry Brooks work in general – those that even take the time to do so anymore - many find it difficult to isolate a specific topic, having to express their stance on him and the fact alone should speak on his presence in the field. I myself am not gifted enough to buck that trend and as I type this I find myself unable to think in the box. I don’t love or hate the works of Brooks - but no different than any other writer at times I have loved and hated them. It is this relationship, this passion that defines fandom for me. Writers evolve and more importantly readers do as well and it’s not a shift that occurs one or in one direction. If we rightfully view the works of Rowling as an anomaly in regards to its measure of success in book sales – not just fantasy sales – then Brooks sits among the most successful who has ever done this and while to some that is somehow proof of impropriety against art itself, such stances prove to cause only minor chinks in the armor in one of the few writers in this field’s history that I think has a legitimate claim to being a generation’s introduction to the form – even if, irrefutably, largely borrowed beyond anyone’s attempt at shielding with the worst of paper-arguments ‘nothing new under the sun’. For myself, while presently – and for some years - my tastes have moved away from what Shannara has to offer but while I have aged and expanded upon my reading and bear with me, lore, of this corner of fiction that offers a perspective in a larger picture beyond the lines that are often the topics of heated and too often-linked discussions I try not to lose, replace, or dilute the veracity of my experience at the time. Addendums certainly - but no subtractions. The relevance of these statements to this review is due to the relationship that Dark Wraith of Shannara has with previous Shannara material, and more importantly, chapters I’m not only very familiar with, but chapters that I will always be familiar with. While it is The Heritage of Shannara arc that represents the best Brooks has shown in Shannara, and aside from his Word/Void work (in particular Angel Fire East) my favorite in his body of work, it seems to in his first three books in particular that fall into a timeline that sowed and cultivated the fanbase noted above. The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara are not classic books, but they attempted to capture and perhaps even remind of classic tales in a form many had been waiting for, whether they were conscious of it or not. It is within these three books that the most resonant of threads could be found to truly test the waters of a market and platform I feel very strongly about: the OGN – the original graphic novel. With the success of King and Hamilton projects in sequential art, I’m interested in seeing more of and how others will follow suit and Brook’s attempt will be an interesting gauge due to that existing fanbase noted above.

When Dark Wraith of Shannara showed up at the door in January I must admit some measure of curiosity. I am perhaps a bigger fan of comics than I am in any other form of reading and I think that’s telling for anyone who is aware of how much time I put into a site like Fantasybookspot.com I love getting my VanderMeer, Erikson, Mieville, Zivkovic, Martin, Jonathan Carroll and Jeffrey Ford books – and releases by Saramago, Ishiguro, and McCarthy are close to spiritual experiences bound up and sold on shelves; Speculative fiction is close to my heart, but more than anything, I love my sequential art – I love my comics. It also presents a very low risk investment in my time, I tend to commit to my novels even if I don’t see anything of value hundreds of pages in – a habit that I think is the only plausible explanation on why so many people are familiar with books like The Fifth Sorceress. I have my own preferences and I get perhaps unequal opportunities to explore them and this format allows for a shot of Shannara I otherwise wouldn’t indulge in, and this is something I consider a fortunate circumstance.

Dark Wraith takes place some three years after The Wishsong of Shannara and utilizes principle characters from that book. This was an auspicious discovery for me as my favorite denizen of the Four Lands was introduced within those pages and the opportunity to see further adventures of Slanter was more appealing than I would have wagered. Wishsong, more than the other books really offered a group-quest that lingered due to the number of characters and the finality of where some of those paths led in how they would affect the survivors. It was also the end of the first arc and to the reader a geopolitical era and tone in Shannara that would be come forth from the Heritage arc. Because of this, I think it was the best place to mine further adventures and also a minefield due to a chance of pulling on strands knotted close to hearts. When finishing the 160 pages, I saw both of my thoughts play out. In familiar fashion a member of the Ohmsford family is recruited to continue their legacy as Allanon’s chosen champions and protectors of the land and this time –as promised - it will fall on Jair, burdened with his charge and a promise, he once again seeks out the Mwellrets who (in Wishsong) failing in their attempt and I guess strangely upset at being freed of being enslaved by the power of the Ildratch (because, you know, their evil) have plotted a new course of action: restoring the Druid Keep of Paranor to the land to unlock the knowledge within its walls. It should be said that there is not a tremendous amount attempted here, it’s a straightforward read that offers little in regards to searching for invisible thought bubbles mid-page but I think if it is aiming at the age-group I think it is, this wasn’t unforeseen or unintended. I was reading Brian K. Vaughn’s The Escapist (in collected form) at the same time and there is more going on, more weight on several individual panels and single lines in it then can be found within the entirety of Dark Wraith, but it offered this real interesting dynamic as when I was getting most disinterested in Dark Wraith I’d pick The Escapist up and it was almost telling me to take it (Dark Wraith) for what it was (anybody – and by that I mean everybody should – who had read The Escapists understands). What drove me nuts from the beginning was something that actually makes a substantial amount of sense in regards to character and story – a boy emulating someone he looked up to and able to manifesting what is most likely semi-fantasy even on its own but when augmented with legitimate need becomes something more. In comics nothing is guaranteed, especially death, and while there isn’t a true resurrection within the pages, given the nature of the original character, it’s close enough to want to reflexively argue otherwise – and that isn’t even a problem in itself or abnormal, but it did create this major and what looks to be the central element in any works to come after that if you find yourself not behind puts a very tangible ceiling on how much one can enjoy the story (and possibly further adventures). The death of Garet Jax (Wishsong of Shannara) is one of the really great deaths in the history of fiction – largely because it ended the existence of one of the most heinous, no-dimensional characters ever conceived. Garet Jax was a weapons master – unequaled, the best there is or ever was, yada, yada, yada.. He was also a walking deus ex machina – a mortal force of nature that would solve the majority of the quest’s problems by skillfully, hitting shit - sometimes hard. When he wasn’t (actively) being cool, we were being told how kewl he was by others. Let me say this about Brooks – he is consistently able to bring conclusions that satisfy and he does this by surrounding the inevitable saving of the day with a recognition of sacrifice and acceptance that does resonate and finds a corner in our memory that doesn’t fade. He showed this many times; with Amberle (Elfstones of Shannara), Allannon; he showed this with a debt and bond of two races being acknowledged by an injured Elf and Dwarf – and what these instances do is bind the allegiance of generations of Ohmsfords through representatives of the land – it is the people who become what they fight for, what they are loyal to, and through them the Four Lands and taken to the end the reader themselves. The death of Garet Jax, while welcome by me and clearly writing that was on the wall from the novel’s beginning was still one of those great moments in this child’s reading history. The ambiguity of the event, a mystery of whether or not the mortal demise of a man unequalled was in fact the reward he searched and trained for or was his sacrifice a delightful, if sobering, reality check. Say what people want to say, but these are terrific books for younger readers and Brook’s ability as a closer pays off. Like I said there is no true resurrection, thus it seems like I’m shadowboxing a bit, but the usage of the Wishsong that transforms Jair into Jax is strikes me as an element that would have been high on my list of not basing a story or a series of forthcoming stories on. The other underlining theme of Jair struggling to keep his promise of abandoning the Wishsong that he made to his sister and coincides with the familiar ‘power corrupts and eventually enslaves’ forms the apparent meat of the story that will take new readers for a tour and returning visitors a spin down memory lane. This is really an admittance of not caring for the fundamental premise and it was difficult for me to shake that as I read on as nothing really evolved from the transformation that made me not think just seeing Jair and Slanter reuniting to get by on wits, luck and experience would be more fun. I realize that some could consider it the sweetest thing imaginable, but for me it just strikes me as a decision that sounds better and perhaps even exciting as an idea thrown out there and dismissed after a second thought than it looks on paper and brought to fruition. What we are set-up for is basically a condition that allows Jair to handle any imaginable situation by being someone else and the balance is supposed to be given by Jair’s personal regret of lying to his sister in the course of saving his own life. That just cannot last for any length of time as the fundamental conflict for people who are used to reading even the least competent of fiction - indeed it got old just within these pages alone. We knew it was going to happen, we knew what going to happen when it did, we knew what Jair was going to ponder later and while it is passable – if not memorable - once it is a cycle that has to stop now and cannot carry another story. The backdrop of an adventure; the where, who, and when of it will not matter if these continue to be the bookends of the tale. I don’t know, I was looking for something to occur that even if not perceptible by the new reader, that was an attempt at really grabbing prior visitors – to let us know these graphic novels are projects that go beyond what we may want to read, but reads the afficianado has to read, filling in the gaps in the puzzle or introducing new ones – calling back to what some may hold dear, maximizing the fact that there is a fanbase that’s reading, waiting for that single moment of recognition that goes beyond bearing a name, when we look up and see familiar stars when we stop reading about wonder and start breathing it and Dark Wraith of Shannara never took that step for me. It was like following familiar tracks but upon catching up you find that they just belong to those wearing the same brand of shoes – the occupants, strangers.

It is, I know, awfully hip to say one loves the purity of black and white, and in the sense of seeing older works brought back in a collected or archive format with specific creators/pencilers I agree, but for the most part I’d be disingenuous in saying I prefer non-color. It certainly is appropriate and even optimal in some cases and this happens – I think – to be one of them. Jair himself echoed my thoughts early in the story, as an Ohmsford will once again find themselves on the banks of the Silver River on the way to a greater journey:

"Looks the same even after three years"

"I suppose the land never really gets old"

"Not like us"

"I was a different person last time I was here"

The black and white art helps creates this distance even when standing at what amounts to a figurative bridge in-story and for the most part I really took to the art. It is impossible for the visuals we created in our imaginations to be rendered as we saw it but there were no choices that troubled me terribly and even some that played out well and I think balanced the idea of a book for younger readers that still gave the sense of aging for those familiar with the novels and you can see this with Kimber who is a full blown tuttin now and apparently doesn't require clothing any longer. She lives in the cut, not a trailer park, still it is very alive. For the most part, the art exceeded expectations for me and managed find that middle-ground that was part of the contrast we’d see between the first two novels arcs.

Interestingly enough, I feel that the Dark Wraith of Shannara serves as better appetizer for the uninitiated to take a look at the novels and not as much as a product that at the end demands attention by those looking for more Shannara. This was a rather disappointing development for me simply because aside from seeming backwards to me, but from a purely selfish standpoint, as a former reader of Shannara I fall into the secondary category! I think in some ways, it may be underestimating the sophistication of the Manga reader, but I admit the American Manga market is something I don’t have near a comprehensive knowledge of , having not lived on those shores during it’s apparent rise in popularity and my own Manga reads are chosen with heavy deliberation as though I am a huge comic book fan and half-Japanese – I’m not what I’d call an avid fan of Manga. That said, it does give a gist of what occurred in the novel that will not leave the reader with the feeling of an incomplete tale, and that with just about everything else noted really brings us to the bottom line with this release. It’s damn well put together in terms of being friendly for anyone to pickup and comprehend – be it strictly Manga, strictly graphic novel, strictly comic book, existing Shannara fans, people who may have just read Wishsong of Shannara, or any combination of the above, but I finished not at all inspired to read on (the implication of further adventures and a continuing story is implied in the end – and by the time this review sees light possibly even announced) to any but the most loyal of fans and to me would be better suited as a nice online web comic project for fans to read between novels. I was reminded I once liked these characters but they were built with a shelf-life that I thought correctly optimized them already and nothing in these pages suggests otherwise. I think Brooks himself may have initially been aware of this (at the time) and avoided it with his early work by continuing tales in the setting with successive generations. What bothers me the most is that if you are like when you see a new project like this announced, you tend to reread source material to warm up for the event, but this 160 pages ends up not paying that off, indeed it doesn't seem to event attempt to.

The most interesting reading for me came after the story itself in the ‘making of Dark Wraith of Shannara’ segment that is also followed by a sketch-book of the artist, Edwin David. It’s rather brief but has some interesting insight on the collaboration between Robert Place Napton, who adapted (if I’m reading this correctly) Terry’s outline, David and Brooks. Visually I think Dark Wraith of Shannara is a success, the story itself does nothing for me, andI wonder how much could have been done about it, even though its really not relevant in terms of allocating opinion. It is what it is – no matter how it got there. Now in truth, I did find the story flat, a bit uneventful, it never approaches possessing any degree of suspense or a payoff and it reads very much like a preliminary outline put straight to paper. The story itself is just uninspired and felt more like a story that occurred without leaving any evidence it passed. It was like having that feeling that you just read a book but experienced a synopsis and when this occurs what happens is you get an opinion of a project that once finished, doesn’t deviate from whatever (preconceived) you had coming in. I found that upon completion I could describe (if asked) what happens in two - not unusually long - sentences in a manner that would make reading the actual 160 pages an absolutely redundant experience. I don’t like making comparisons out of thin air, as I said before at the same time I was reading this, I also happened to be reading the collected (hardcover) of Brian K. Vaughan’s The Escapists and while I can tell somebody what it was about as well (perhaps with two especially long sentences in this case) it would not in any way diminish the experience of the read itself – it had life beyond summary. There is nothing for the reader to bring to or take away from the story that they didn’t possess before. It just goes through the motions, and one feels like such a venue could be used to get dirty in the Four Lands and really what we are left with what seems more chum thrown to potential new readers than something those of us with the soil of the Westlands still stuck in our boots or seen the pride of Callahorn first-hand can get excited about. It is in a word, unnecessary, and when putting a brand that means something to many on a book, it’s the one quality you can’t be. It should be said I stopped reading Brooks after the Voyage of Jerle Shannara arc and there perhaps may be call-backs imbedded from material beyond that, that may add dimension to this graphic novel that I cannot be aware of but not once did I feel like I ever went back. One could, I suppose, possibly compare it to The Hedge Knight, which was material that chronicled activities that took place prior to the timeline in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and what you got was not a mind-blowing or essential addition, but still it was a piece, and with Dark Wraith and as someone familiar with the material and the legacy of the Ohmsfords it just doesn’t feel like a progression or even just a continuation of that, and if it tripped and fell flat, it somehow managed to do so without ever walking.

Shades!

Which is all it ended up being, nothing substantial; looks good, and while the spark of Jair’s future with Kimber leaves the faintest ripples of interest, there is just not enough brewing here that could ultimately make it recommendable and I find any attempt at lauding it impossible without following it with "for what it is" – and that’s usually the worst of signs.

Jay Tomio
The Bodhisattva

The Escapists

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:05:58 -0500

While often times I think fans of comics and thus its creators are a bit too preoccupied with the same ailment that some Fantasy and Science Fiction writers and tend to trade the walking stick for the mirror often and further, stand so close they fog up the picture. Thus my conclusion is that one Brian K. Vaughan has no reflection but truly exists in both worlds, one the fan, one the creator, all the skills, that he has taken on a project spurned on by the creation of another planewalker, Michael Chabon, whose Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay certainly won the Pulitzer throughout the Multiverse in a socially acceptable double dip. Either that, or he doesn’t breath.

The Escapists is several stories, a very isolated, focused and a lay’s Vellum in a small sense, that follows the story of Maxwell Roth chasing a dream and buying the rights to his favorite character simply because the feeling of existing in a world with no more adventures of his pulp hero The Escapist was unacceptable. It is from many perspectives rather pathetic, even going to the extreme of spending essentially all that his family left him to purchase the property and start publishing the comic again. Those who would aid in this rebirth were people he met in real life, doing real things – there is no lab, no dungeon that’s only in and out is a net hook-up and though a Warren Ellis can expose crooked little veins simply by rummaging through e-trash it is an eye trained in the field and that has reflected back at him others of the same that can create so bounty from such rummages. It would just seem sensible that the dungeon comes after the success not before. Roth would meet the pencils that would free the Escapist at his job providing elevator maintenance helping free her from the corporate highway, a freedom she - one Case Weaver - would later put into focus for Roth later. His letterer, Denny Jones, could actually be a superhero in a world that had such – a protector in school and since a lifelong friend. In limited pages it succinctly chronicles The League of the Golden Key’s figurative return to the world and success achieved by literal return in a marketing ploy gone bad until the day was saved. To take from Mr. Vaughan, not really a mistake – but more of a happy accident. Those who haven’t experienced Vaughn’s prowess or can’t read a comic without tights are yawning on their way to pick up the latest issue of what used to be Spider Man and I won’t bore you with Vaughn’s turn of phrase, his timing, his delivery and how this fictional-biography is a creative-reality check, coming of age story that pulls universal strings. I’ll just tell you that there are tights, there are superheroes, there are villains – and the narrative shifts from the ‘real world’ to the adventures in the comics themselves, both current and classic. Shift is perhaps not a correct word, they are layered – and could be viewed next to each other but offer an enhanced landscape when stacked or removed from one another. One of chief and possibly not intentional pluses in reading The Escapists is that a modern reader is able to stroll into past ages without the stigma we may attach going into reading a "Golden" or even "Silver” Age story. There is a preconceived camp many seem to associate with the era, a detachment from our sensibilities, that even someone like me who is a comic collector of examples from both era is not immune to, however, presented side by side by top talent we see the excitement that can be barely contained on page – it’s bigger than life, these pulp masters didn’t need to escape as they lived in a world of possibilities and mystery and as within the pages of The Escapists boundaries did not exist. We will see the rise of Escapists return, another hot product creating buzz that got the attention of the Corporate machine that wanted to buy it back. Vaughan is careful here, he doesn’t come of as creator lobbyist – the Corporation gave what we are to believe is a more than fair value for a borrowed dream, something he gives to us via the Case's reaction to Roth's decline.

There is a touch to The Escapists, or rather an embrace that I liken to another read, Tony Fleec’s underead In My Lifetime but though you get a strong sense that certainly Vaughan is drawing upon self, it’s not at all as biographical as one may think. The description of it being a ‘love letter’ while alluding to a past is telling. We write most love letters for ourselves and they often go unsent, they are an attempt at personal clarity, to make things real and though The Escapists points to the past it’s message is posted to today and the future. We may dream of the past – but they (dreams) are instruments of tomorrow in reality and this is why The Escapists is oddly enough not in advocacy or a – though all forms of fiction are in some degree escapist in nature – call for us to look to fictional locales and occurrences of our imagination to get away from hardship, the grind, or negatives we may associate with our own realities. We can look to other Vaughan projects (any of them – they are all sweet) and see this is not a theme in any of his other work, so much so one may even come to believe he views such crutches with disdain by his avoidance and would rather limp to engage then sprint to avoid. The titular message is something a rather famous white boy from Eight Mile has shouted to us from main street to mainstream – you have to lose yourself to the muzak and I bet Vaughan was the a hellion when it came to hide and seek. To be an Escapist you have to be able to be it and bask in chasing others, learning, experiencing, loving, and even hate – but in the end you have to want to step out and be on the run yourself – to get lost. What separates the super-fan and the marginal (and in some cases even profound) talents who have jobs in the industry from the true creative forces is never to allow our selves to be attached to the thrill of the chase of other’s dreams.

As a reader, even as a life-long fan of sequential art, my considerations bordering on exclusivity always focus on the writer and writing. Narrative, dialogue, plot – all products of great art as well – via the writer has always been my focus. A comic can have just competent art and I could hold it in the high of regard. I have always painted my own pictures in my reading with paints given to by artisans of vocabulary like Calvino, Peake, Clark Ashton Smith, Kafka - and newer scribes who paint with words like Mieville, Valente, and Ducornet and I find that I read comics the first time around completely unaware of art. I go from word to word, balloon to balloon, and then if satisfied I go back and compare visions. By its very nature it’s not very hard to portray or convince us of something that is fantastic, the accomplishment of the art in The Escapists is to illustrate the journey within that is put across in our own world and a fictional comic. The real journey was Bastian's; running from the bullies and reading a book, not Atreyu's. This is the fictional story of fictional storytellers in the midst of creating fiction – sometimes finding themselves in the pages – not breaking the fourth wall, but creating the 6th. The use of books as literary devices is something readers are familiar with recent work like Shriek: an Afterword, or more famously by Lovecraft and so on, but to give seamless physicality to these gates was almost breathtaking. The flashbacks to vintage funny books make you want to go out and explore an era that when names like Schomburg didn’t need variants to make a fool of you and buy books and were labeled by the only titles with words that could contain them: Weird, Amazing, Astonish, Mystery, Strange, Two-Fisted, Suspense, Planet Comics, Wings. The modern pages reminded me of Totleben, who along with the aforementioned Moore heralded the next evolution. No matter where on the timeline or in what reality they chose to inhabit, the art in The Escapists given to us by Jason Shaw Alexander, Eduardo Barretto, Philip Bond and Steve Rolston gave me not only something to interact with, but offer visual bridges to Vaughan’s generational collage. Simply put, the art is top notch throughout and display an era when every page was a Tale or and Adventure. Where dreams were seen for all to witness, but more importantly where one was put down on paper.

I didn’t go to Comic Book inventions when I was a kid. To me they were these semi-mythical events that I could only read about in some Wizard’s report. I was either overseas or never in an area close to these tourneys when I wasn’t but I had a magic kingdom and it was called a flea market. A place that opened its gates every weekend where I could communicate with Hama, Gaiman, McFarlane, Claremont, Shooter, Windsor-Smith, Keith, Lapham, Simm, and Byrne – they were never there but they spoke to me, sometimes through balloons. I was there when people carried on conversations of such gravity only in person, "Who the heck is this Stephen Platt?" - "I don’t know bro but I’m coppin’ Moon Knight". It was a time when Scott Lobdel had the keys to the hottest titles when they had rarely been hotter, when Generation X wouldn’t be thought of as just another X-book in a lame era – but when it was perhaps the only mutant title that carried on the original mandate that once made the X brand great – these kids were different and Chris Bachalo came out of the lab with stuff up he still doesn’t get enough credit for and when Travis Charest pages were still affordable. It’s when we were introduced to some dude named Hellboy in the pages of Byrne’s Next Men, when Gaiman and Moore were advancing the possibilities of the craft, when we read a Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow comic with no word and didn’t miss a beat. I was there when the creation of Image created actual excitement about comics, when Shooter was valiant and defiant, and witnessed Kraven’s Last Hunt. When was the last time comics impacted pop-culture like cowabunga, four turtles and a rat? I didn’t live during THE Golden Age that Vaughan apparently invokes and to many who did I probably fell into their Dark Ages, but it was the only Golden Age I had and one thing that all of them had in common is the wonder they instill. I’m close to thirty years old and you aren’t telling me shit about Archer and Armstrong or Harbinger that isn’t in a reverent tone or risk getting hemmed up and this is why my previous comment was a lie. It is exactly what Vaughn invokes – it is an atmosphere shared by decades and generations; this thing of ours, a specialized bi-lingual attribute shared by those who are otherwise altogether different and never would share more than a nod in passing.

Vaughan goes beyond the admirable skill of knowing how to tell stories – he understands them. He can tell you how to open and close them and then tell you why you shouldn’t as he slams the window that you didn’t see before – that wasn’t even there - on you. Every child who has ever dreamed and any adult who isn’t living it and wants to see Vaughan get missing should lock themselves up with Escapist and watch it break free and then, and only then can you have the chance to know it is not he who Vaughn followed, but what lay a step further, he was chasing that yet and always unseen that the Escapist himself was chasing.

I’m a quoter, a look at my other reviews will indicate such, I pick out lines of no more relevance than any other to consume space in my reviews. Some display stylistic characteristics and others I choose just because they make me smirk. With this read I almost wanted to skip the practice as every line is so in tune I didn’t want to spoil the melody but right after a table-setting intro by Chabon, Vaughan kicks it off with:

"Superman and I have the same hometown"

We all do.

Jay Tomio
The Bodhisattva

The X-Files Volume One

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:29:12 -0500

The X-Files Volume One is the first graphic novel I have reviewed. I am not a fan of the comic genre in general. I follow specific comics, usually spin-offs of TV shows that I am a fan of. That said, if I had to pick a graphic novel for my first such review it doesn’t get any better than this for me.

I am a very large X-Files fan, and have been since the very first trailer for the show that appeared the summer before the series premiere. I was there for episode 1. I was there for episode 201 and everything in between. I’ve seen everything that’s come out and read everything. I am a big admirer of Chris Carter’s style, as well as all of the writing and production staff, so I consider myself a good judge of material X-Files related.

The X-Files Volume One is a graphic novel compilation of a number of the X-Files comic books released in the mid-to-late 90’s. Produced by Topps, the title ran for 40 issues, plus several special editions, before ending. I own almost all of the original comics but it’s been years since I’ve read them. I was looking forward to seeing what Checker brought us in glossy, graphic novel form.

This volume is made up of Issues 13-17 of the Topps comic series, plus adaptations of the pilot episode and the episode Squeeze. Writing credits for these issues go to Stefan Petrucha and Miran Kim, with artwork by Charles Adlard. In all there are 7 chapters, telling 6 different stories. I am not sure how they choose their issues for this graphic novel, but I do recall that the 4 stories covered between issues 13-17 were among the best of the original stories that were done. They stayed very true to the spirit of the show and to the characters, while staying away from the core mythology of the show. A couple of the stories in the collection were relatively similar to one another, but were still well done. I have seen artwork that was more realistic and spot on than the renderings of Mulder and Scully. I think that Charles Adlard, the artist, was going for a style, since he was consistent throughout, but I am more of a fan of realism. What I did like about the artwork was how the sequences of violence were handled. That drawing style was darker and gloomier, almost abstract, in a way that depicted the violence but without either showing it directly and making the panel too graphic, or by showing it and having it appear downplayed by looking too “cartoony”. Violence was often handled on the show in the same way, shown indirectly after a camera cutaway. I recall that Chris Carter said in an interview once that the imagination can produce a far scarier picture than anything he could put on the screen. So he let the imagination fill in the blanks in the violent depiction. The comic handled this very well, in that same way, and the combinations of darkness and swirling colors reminded me personally of the dark and shadowy feel that was the trademark of The X-Files while it filmed in Vancouver.

Chapter One is “One Player Only”, in which Mulder and Scully investigate why a well liked computer programmer would suddenly go on a spree killing at his workplace. This chapter captured the creepy X-Files feel through the addition of an abstract; more artistic and sinister drawing style intermingled with the normal drawing style best of all. I liked the story, but it seemed like the ending was abrupt, even though it had a bit of that chilling effect that the X-Files was always good for. It kept you thinking even after the credits were rolling.

Chapter Two is “Falling”. Mulder is in search of a crashed UFO. But he finds that the most dangerous beings that he has to face aren’t alien at all, or even adult. This was interesting, but “characters in peril” isn’t the most interesting thing to me, when it’s a sure bet that the peril will not come to pass.

Chapters Three and Four and “Home of the Brave, Parts One and Two. Mulder and Scully are again in search of aliens, but find themselves captured by anti-government survivalists. If they make their way outside they may be in danger. But if they don’t, they may be in even worse danger. This story was in-depth enough that it was a two- issue story. See my previous statement though about “characters in peril”. This story did make another character (or guest star) a bit of the focus of the story, and we see some things through her eyes, which was always a staple of good episodes. That character was the most intriguing part of this story.

Chapter 5 is “Into Thin Air”. When a Navy Pilot returns 50 years after vanishing without a trace in the Bermuda Triangle, there is much more going on than meets the eye. I personally thought that this was the most interesting story of the non-episode adaptations. It had some mystery to it, so it kept you guessing.

Chapters Six and Seven are the episode adaptations. For readers perhaps getting a first exposure to The X-Files adaptations of the pilot and Squeeze are very good episodes to select. The pilot started it all. Tooms in Squeeze was the first very popular “monster of the week”. Both adaptations were very true to the episodes, catching all the visual high points of both episodes. The essence of both episodes were still there, all the key dialogue, the key camera angles, the key shots.

The plots were not overly simplistic, but they were not extremely complex either so they could fit in a single comic. “Home of the Brave” was a two-parter that went into a bit more detail. As I recall, there were some arcs that ran at least as long as 4 comics during its run. I can only assume that this graphic novel wanted to expose readers to as many different stories as they could get into one small novel, so they went mostly with “standalone” single issue stories.

For a fan of The X-Files, or for someone who likes the characters of Mulder and Scully, this collection does justice to the spirit of the show and captures the characters very well. Expect a series of stand-alone investigations, which are opened and closed. The interaction between the characters is basic. There are no bombshells of character development or plotline. Chris Carter was involved to an extent with the stories so that means that they will have a certain standard of excellence. It also means that there aren’t going to be any big bombshells since those were being saved for the TV show. He did however pick writers and artists who he thought could best bring his vision onto the Comic book page. That was certainly done, and I think this collection shows that.

I think though that The X-Files is a must have for any fan of the show who doesn’t have the comics. It’s glossy and has a neat cover that is appropriate for the show. It looks good on the outside and doesn’t disappoint on the inside. The writing is high quality enough that a general comic fan would find this a good read, even if they don’t know the show. The Pilot episode is the last chapter in the novel, so reading it first would give enough character background to understand the characters. With that in mind, it might have made more sense to make the pilot the first chapter rather than the last.

I give this a 7.5. The 10 standard here would be held if Chris Carter himself did a comic that picked up storyline from where the series ended, as Joss Whedon did to a small extent with Firefly, and to larger extents with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The same thing for The X-Files would be something to dream about, but X-Files Volume One is a good read until that happens. There is a new movie coming out in July as well, so this graphic novel can whet the appetite.

Hip Flask: Concrete Jungle (The Big Here & the Long Now)

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:37:24 -0500

"Hip Flask: Concrete Jungle" was very much what I expected in terms of continuing the stories begun in the "Elephantmen: Wounded Animals" graphic novel. This volume could be considered a stand-alone volume in some circles, but in my own experience, it was a mistake to attempt to read "Concrete Jungle" without reading "Wounded Animals" first. "Concrete Jungle" offers only the barest recap into previous events which helps jog the memory of readers who are already familiar with the series, but offers little in the way of explanation to readers who are experiencing "Elephantmen" for the first time. The first attempt at reading this volume was largely unenjoyable because I didn't have the faintest idea why I should care about any of these characters. After reading (and very much enjoying) "Wounded Animals," I began reading "Concrete Jungle" again and discovered it to be a far better volume than I'd anticipated.

As with "Wounded Animals," "Concrete Jungle" masquerades as a pulpy, genre action story that centers on Hip Flask, the Elephantman who appears to be a bipedal hippopautamus. He was introduced in "Wounded Animals" as a private investigator type who's been contracted by a branch of official law enforcement. His exact employment status and agency aren't fully revealed, but it's clear that he's meant to be on the side of the "good guys" as much as this series can be said to have "good guys."

Once again the artists have gone for a look that while richly textured is decidedly dark and gritty which is fitting considering the hard-boiled pulp noir storyline. This book follows Hip Flask through the partial investigation of a case that clearly involves a hitman, the elephantman Obadiah Horn, and a man named Serengheti. What isn't clear is exactly how the case will be resolved because this volume, frustratingly enough, doesn't contain a full story arc. It's obviously setting up plot elements for bigger and better things to come in the series, though the cliff-hanger ending is less about cheap tricks to sell more books and more about a logical place to end what is, essentially, a single chapter in a much larger work. "Concrete Jungle" shifts between plot threads fluidly, while only weaving a couple of them into the larger storyline. The reader gets the impression that they can trust the author and artists to resolve all of these glimpses into a coherent whole, especially if that reader has gotten to read "Wounded Animals." The changes in characters and plotlines are nothing new for "Elephantmen" and it's part of what keeps the story so interesting.

The "Elephantmen" series is a fast-cut action series skillfully melded with noir and near-future science fiction and "Concrete Jungle" is no exception, however, as with "Wounded Animals", much larger and deeper issues are at the heart of this story. "Concrete Jungle" raises issues of scientific ethics and responsibility, racism, economics, and even provokes some thought on law enforcement and prisons. While this certainly shouldn't surprise readers of graphic novels or genre fiction in general (because much of it does contain worthy statements on society and culture), the simple fact is that the "Elephantmen" series carries all this issues within a story that brings them up without ever getting horribly preachy or boring in the slightest. "Concrete Jungle" is one of those books that a person can't help thinking about after reading it, and that's certainly not a bad thing at all.

Dragons of Winter Night - Graphic Novel

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:23:32 -0500

From the back cover of the paperback book (blurb) -

Now the people know that the dragon minions of Takhisis, Queen of Darkness, have returned. But the races have long been divided by hatred and prejudice. It seems the battle has been lost before it begins.

The companions are separated, torn apart by war. A full season will pass before they meet again—if they meet again.

It is always a pleasant surprise to find out that book that you loved, got turned into a graphic novel. That said though, visiting a world that you know and love in graphic form, it has to live up to some healthy expectations for the reader. Devils Due and their team brought it to life, and everyone should be very pleased by their work. Dragons of Winter Night, has the dark feel one would think it should and it comes across in the artwork and layout.

I thought the artwork was beautiful, and where it really seemed to shine was in the outdoor scenes and the artwork of the dragons. The characters were also depicted well for my personal tastes, whether or not they live up to what you envisioned them to be is something you have to look at for yourself. My favorite representation though was Kitiara, you can feel the evil bubbling below the surface, in her facial expressions. I always thought she was a great anti-hero to the group, and I can feel that in the artwork. I also enjoyed the depiction of Fizban as well; the humor of the character still shines through in the drawings. Overall the artwork had pretty big shoes to fill, if you go by the covers of the books done by Larry Elmore, and I think for the medium (a graphic novel can not be of the level of a single piece of canvas) the team of Kurth, Ruffino, Narvasa, Bradley, Rauch and Crowley, did an excellent job. They put together the perfect graphical companion to Weis and Hickman’s novel.

The adaptation by Andrew Dabb stayed pretty faithful and the overall feel and storyline stayed where they needed to be due to the restraints of the graphic novel medium. I personally find the graphic novel to be a nice companion to the book, but it still needs to stand on its own if one has not read the book. It worked for me on both of these levels as I had read this sometime in the 1980’s I believe. It does not hold the same weight as the book, but I do not believe it is supposed to. There is no way they can include everything and I found it to be a fun visualization after reading the books. Even if you are not familiar with the books though it is still very enjoyable just not of the same level I believe as someone that has read the books.

DDP always brings us something new for the fantasy crowd looking to dip their toes in the graphic novel and comic market. I think once you feel the temperature you will want to dive right in. Dragons of Winter Night, the graphic novel, is a great piece to own; visually telling what I consider a classic story in the fantasy book market

Edison Steelhead's Lost Portfolio: Exploratory Studies of Girls and Rabbits

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 21:08:41 -0500

"Edison Steelhead's Lost Portfolio: Exploratory Studies of Girls and Rabbits" is another small, square offering from Renee French. Edison Steelhead was the protagonist of "The Ticking" and while it doesn't seem entirely necessary to augment one's reading with that volume before picking up this tiny volume, it certainly aids the reader in fostering some understanding about the actual point of this particular book.

This book is exactly what the title states, it's a portfolio of sketches, one individual to a page, of the heads of girls and rabbits with various medical ailments. Each illustration is assigned a number and has a very brief description that seems to indicate why each subject caught Edison's eye. Also included with the number and description is a small list that pertains to Edison's day as he sketched. At the end of the book, there is a map with numbered locales that allows the reader to note where Edison made each sketch.

French has created beautifully shaded pencil drawings with an amazing sense of detail and texture. Despite the subject matter, the sketches are far from cold and clinical. There is a certain air of warmth to each individual that the reader can easily carry into a jump of compassion for each individual. It is a compelling work as one sees all kinds of medical issues on full display, all of them in the one place that's most difficult to hide, the face.

This is a melancholy book. It seems to inspire the reader to want to make up any number of little stories for each of the subjects explaining how they came to be in the condition in which they've been immortalized and ending with some version of "and then, they were all right." Obviously, there's no such story to be had within the pages of this book, but Edison's own story turned out that way, so one can always hope that these stories will as well.

This book is for those who are already familiar with French's books and want to see what else she can do. Without prior knowledge of French's style and general themes, I'm not sure that this offbeat little volume would make sense as anything other than a simple curiosity, still it's a lovingly illustrated sumptuous celebration of grostesqueries that somehow manages to make the subjects somehow far more palatable than they would be in any other format. It most definitely shows the true power of art.

Micrographica

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:38:52 -0500

"Micrographica" is a very small, square book. The original illustrations for the work were only a square centimeter because the author claimed that she didn't want to put too much detail into the drawings. When one considers the scale, the detail that is contained within these drawings is remarkable.

The illustrations have been enlarged for the graphic novel, thankfully, but though the art is small in format, as is the book, the title seems to be especially apt because the story is small as well. There are three main characters, Moe, Preston, and Aldo. Preston finds a crapball which he and Moe leave in the care of Aldo. Aldo manages to break the crapball while Moe and Preston are playing on a corpse and he goes in search of a replacement.

I definitely wouldn't recommend eating while reading this particular piece. It's certainly not for the weak of stomach. The protagonists are rats, with all of the disgusting connotation that simple word can imply. They're thrilled with their crapball, if not especially thrilled with the idea of sharing said ball with anyone.

While French took a break from her usually lush pencilwork, she certainly stayed in top form with melding pictures to story. Rather than description, the story is told entirely in character dialogue which occurs as picture captions. This clever device makes it impossible for the reader to divorce the pictures and words, which very much seems a hallmark of French's particular genius as a graphic storyteller.

It becomes a book that is difficult to read mostly because of the "ick" factor. Aldo is the only character who's even marginally likable and he's still a bit stomach turning because of his obsession with crap in general and the crapball in particular. He becomes the focus of the story as it becomes abundantly clear that some rats (Preston and Moe) will never change because they refuse to look beyond their comfortable little world.

A highlight of the book is a guest gallery of-what else?-crap drawings, which really ought to give you an idea of who you can recommend this book to.

Everyone knows a Preston and a Moe and an Aldo in their lives. They're easily relatable characters, so long as the reader doesn't have to identify too strongly with any of them (except, perhaps, poor pathetic Aldo). This makes "Micrographica" the kind of book to pass on to friends who are not easily offended and who have a possibly black or very odd sense of humor. (Come on, I'm sure that you know SOMEONE like that.) It's not a bad read, or a horrible book, but it's the kind of thing that requires a very particular taste in entertainment. You know who you are and I fervently hope those of you who haven't already find your way to this book.