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Friday, September 3, 2010
Rich's Reviews
The first seven reviews are for books picked up at last month’s annual School of Visual Arts student comic book fair, Freshmeat. This was my first time at the show, and it wasn’t too bad from what I could see. There were more exhibitors than I expected, which was a welcome surprise, and while I wouldn’t say I saw the next Clowes or Ware, there was enough creativity on display to make me think that a few sustainable careers in comics were possible.
Guan Yu
by Lorenzo Anselme
mrlorenzo@optonline.net
A tale of battlin’ armies in feudal China. The ink work tries to capture the expressiveness and spontaneity of traditional Asian art, and in places it comes close, but it’s not there yet. (I bought this after looking at the penciled art, which was much stronger.) The artist looks like he’s doing a lot of experimentation, and that’s all well and good, but after awhile all the contrasting brushstrokes and textures and hatch work becomes too much. A large part of what makes Asian art so powerful (and I studied Asian art for a semester at SVA, so I should know) is its minimalism, the way it balances form with empty space. The art here doesn’t have that, and while I realize it’s hard to accomplish in a big battle scene, I would recommend looking not to manga for inspiration, but to the scroll paintings of ancient China and also Japan. This work gives me the impression of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The sloppy lettering and four blank pages (!) in the book (including the inside front cover) don’t help matters. C
Generation Ozone
by John Lavelle
jrl218@aol.com
Pseudo-scientific corporation of somewhat nebulous purpose recruits six teens to become their super-powered agents for environmental change (and to protect their investments as well). From the start, these bland and uninteresting kids come across as incredibly nieve and not too bright. They know enough about Biotech to know “they are responsible for a lot of the damage from global warming,” yet they allow these people to experiment on them for a whopping $500! (Each or total? Unclear.) Plus, we’re told about how bad Biotech supposedly is more than we actually see it, and the story’s resolution is way too simple. Art-wise, the scenes where the team uses their powers don’t look as dramatic as they should at first. This improves in the second half, but not by much. The art is somewhat suggestive of Paul Smith or Chris Sprouse, but it’s not as strong in terms of line work. Biotech needs to be much more clearly defined in terms of who they are and what they do; they should be the book’s backbone, the shadow that looms over everything the team does, but they don’t come across as such. As it is, the book reads like a bad Gen13 rip off. C
Evil Circus
by David McGuire
Bag of Chips
Laconic forest ranger and plucky assistant go on the trail of a missing bear cub. Now this is how a comic should be done – a funny, clearly told story, in both words and pictures, an appealing and well-defined cast (even the animals), a plot with a simple goal that leaves plenty of room for characterization and personality, and delightful art with plenty of detail and texture. If I were this guy’s teacher, I’d pass him with flying colors! B+
Full Moon
by Zevans (?)
no contact information
Working class Joe’s carelessness leads to the death of his father, and the guilt and rage he feels over it leads him down a dark path. There’s no way I can talk about this without revealing spoilers, so… After re-reading the final third of the story, it appears to me that David puts on the Halloween robot costume to re-connect with his late father (triggered by the photo of him as a child in a similar costume with his father). Why, then, didn’t he go after his brother Tim first instead of his girlfriend, given how wound up he was over Tim blaming him for their father’s death? Then there’s the matter of the costume itself. Is it a costume, or is the image of David in the robot costume meant to be metaphorical? One panel we see him in regular clothes, the next he’s dressed like the robot, and while a long interval of time could have passed in between, that’s not the impression I get from this transition. Something about the way this was presented – David-as-robot bursting in upon Denise in a dramatic splash page – doesn’t seem right. The metaphor of the robot costume representing his lost childhood/lost innocence didn’t come across strong enough – if that’s what it even means. It looks like the story suddenly shifted from noir to sci-fi for no apparent reason. The art is excellent – strong Neal Adams influence. Points off, though, for not providing contact information or even a clear credit on the creator’s name. The name is presented as a logo that emulates script handwriting, and it looks like “Zevans” though it could also be “Zevain” or “Zevam.” Plus, art as good as this deserves to be seen on the cover. Having a bland powder blue cover with only the title and artist’s name on it will do very little to attract a reader. B-
Update: The creator is Jorge Zevallos.
Ol’ Nik’s Morally Ambiguous Stories
by Nikki Lemons
savagepassion666@aol.com
An anthology of short comedy stories. I liked the autobiographical stuff more than the fictional material. The pseudo-manga art could do with either less hatching or better hatching and the lettering needs serious improvement. Playful sense of humor is evident (especially after you spend five minutes with this girl), but still in need of a sustainable concept and better art. C
Fate: Apollo & Daphne #1
by Yali Lin
ylin29@gmail.com
The ancient Greek god Apollo believes the spirit of his long lost love Daphne to be reincarnated in the form of a college art student, who’s going through problems of her own. Here’s an example of the manga influence producing a work that truly looks and feels like the real thing, and not some knock-off that only captures the surface qualities of manga. The beautiful artwork is a given, but the storytelling places a heavy emphasis on emotion and atmosphere, and is very evocative of the finest girls’ manga. Yali Lin is more than ready for prime time, if you ask me, and TokyoPop better take notice of her quick. A
Run For Your Life
by Paul Kaminski
The final days of the Beatles are paralleled with the story of one of their fans, whose idolatry of them sends him to extremes. Alex Robinson trod similar ground in last year’s Tricked, using a Beatles-like band, but here we get to see the real thing, and Paul Kaminski does a splendid job of capturing the pettiness, bitterness and disillusionment that categorized the breakup of the greatest rock band of all time. Stuart’s story arc, while written well, holds no great surprises; indeed, he’s basically Steve from Tricked without the paranoia. I would’ve preferred to have seen this story focus solely on the Beatles. The art isn’t bad – the pacing of the layouts is excellent, in fact – but the hatching and cross-hatching flattens everything out in places, and it’s not as smooth as I like cross-hatching to be. Plus, there were a couple of pages where the text got cut off by the bleed line. A flawed, but worthy effort. B
Continuing on…
Retro Rocket #1
by Tony Bedard & Jason Orfalas
Image, $2.99
Cyborg super-soldier of the future finds himself on the verge of obsolescence, as newer, better technology relegates him to an unfamiliar supporting role – one he finds himself having difficulty adjusting to. The art reminds me more than a little of cartoons like Voltron and Robotech. Looking at Jason Orfalas' work kinda made me think about that period in my life when I was geeking out on anime. I'm not as much into it today as I was then, but I do remember the feeling I had from watching anything from Japan with mecha robots and fancy spaceships for the first time, and the art brought back that feeling. At first I thought Retro Rocket wasn't the character's actual name; that it was more like a nickname. “Retro” implies old-school, and there had to have been a time once when RR wasn't retro, but in fact state-of-the-art. That's a relatively minor thing, though. RR didn't come across as useless or a liability in the opening scene, but judging from his interaction with Sparky and the scene in the restaurant later, RR's isolation seems to have more to do with his lost humanity than his strategical value. Tony Bedard’s facility for characterization comes through well once again. Looks good. B+
Kana’s Island #1
by Mark Page
One Room Hut, $3.50
Boy from a small band of settlers on a remote island inadvertently discovers Wonderland/Oz/Narnia-like fantasy land on the opposite side of a mountain ridge. This new comic follows in the tradition of children’s stories in which a kid finds a strange new world and upsets the status quo there as a result of their very presence. Many familiar archetypes are present – first friend who becomes protagonist’s sidekick, supporting cast of even weirder characters, authority figures who take the fun out of everything. It’s all done expertly well, but at the same time it still feels a bit generic, at least right now. The characters could use a little more personality to them at this stage. The art is gorgeous. Mark Page has an animation background, and indeed, this book looks more than ready for a Cartoon Network pilot. Points off, however, for typos and a couple of panels where the word balloons read like they’re inverted. This is off to a nice start. B (For more about Mark Page, check out my interview with him in my Pop Culture Shock column this month.)
Seize Asylum #0
by Robert Garrett & Patrick David
XMoor Studios, no price indicated
In 2008, a group of astronauts return from a mission to Saturn to discover the earth enslaved by an alien race. The team behind Galtow, a samurai/martial-arts book, is responsible for this one as well, and once again, the setting is an apocalyptic future Earth. Normally, I get sick to death of reading comics with such premises, but Robert Garrett continues to show his knack for building drama and suspense and making a cliched premise worth reading. This is a bit more plot-driven than Galtow, but that’s okay – I still end up wanting to know where it goes from here. Patrick David has lots of fun with the spaceships and scary-looking aliens, and his color work here is very nice as well. He doesn’t go overboard with it; indeed, it’s very smooth and feels natural, even the toned shadows and ambient lighting. Another good job from this duo. B
DVD REVIEW
The Journey of Henry Box Brown
directed by Gina Kamentsky
Sweet Blackberry
color, approx. 28 minutes
Animated short film inspired by a true story about a 19th-century slave who mails himself in a box heading north, to freedom. Director Gina Kamentsky has spent the past few years doing animation after coming over from making autobiographical comics. Journey is the first in what will be a series of African-American-themed films for children, done with producer and actress Karyn Parsons (best known from the TV show Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and the aforementioned Mark Page. Don’t expect traditional animation here; Journey is made primarily with still illustrations animated in small places, like the flapping of a bird’s wings or the turning of a cart’s wheels.
Because this is an all-ages film, great care is taken towards showing the realities of life as a slave in a manner that kids can more easily digest. Henry is shown traveling with various animals who help him in his quest, and he in turn explains to them what freedom means and why it’s so important, especially to one who has never known it. It’s quite tasteful, and while the subject matter is grim to say the least, the tone is hopeful and positive throughout. Racism is never specifically mentioned, though, and I kind of feel that it should have been, as it obviously was a critical factor in the rationalization of slavery. Journey does not sugarcoat slavery, but it does feel slightly incomplete without this important element.
The painted art by Page is very fine. I like the fact that the animals are not overly anthropomorphized, as it would’ve been too much of a distraction. Veteran film actress Alfre Woodard narrates (and appears in a brief prologue with a bunch of kids, preparing them for the tale), and she gets into the spirit of things, imitating voices and sound effects with aplomb. This is a very unique project that deserves to find a wide audience and will hopefully lead young children of color onto the path towards understanding their history. B+ (For more about the making of Journey, check out my interview with Kamentsky at my blog.)
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This weekend is the fifth annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention in Philadelphia, and it will also be the first year for the Glyph Awards. In case I don’t get the chance to later, I wanna thank a few people in particular for helping to promote the Glyphs: Jen Contino at Pulse, NBM Publishing, Pam Noles, Paul Sizer, my colleagues at Buzzscope/Pop Culture Shock, Archiaia Studios Press, Gettosake Studios, and the Museum of Black Superheroes. Regrettably, few of the nominees will be present at the ceremony Friday night, but hopefully that will change next year and in the years to come. I feel like I’ve put together something which has the potential to mean something big in the future, and I’m grateful to Maurice Waters and the ECBACC committee, as well as my fellow judges, for helping me in realizing this dream. Look for the winners, as well as a report on the show, in my blog.
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
