Comic World News

April 22, 2008:
CWN and the Grand Finale! -

February 4, 2008:
In Conclusion - David ends his CWN run with Tezuka's MW from Vertical

February 2, 2008:
Acting Like You Have Nothing to Prove -

February 2, 2008:
The Shoegazer Returns - A New Year Begins, And Our Narrator Makes A Pledge

January 30, 2008:
Tim's Reviews -

September 13, 2007:
Wizard World Chicago Loot, Part One - Stykman, Empty Chamber, the Ztarian Saga, and yes, Little Bunny Foo Foo

February 15, 2007:
I Come Not to Bury Nick Cage... - But to mourn the death of my punchline

November 20, 2006:
The End - Rich's last Chicks & Romance

November 8, 2006:
Joann Sfar's Klezmer - And a Front Racks Hiatus

October 4, 2006:
This Month's Guest: Dave Gibbons - From the pages of Elephantmen!

September 18, 2006:
Back in Berlin - or How I spent my summer

July 29, 2006:
KICKING UP A STORM - An interview with David Lloyd

June 19, 2006:
You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me. - Graeme looks at Spidey's "genies"

December 18, 2005:
Disappointed - Sad news for fans of Busiek's CONAN, Stephen King, and others

December 13, 2004:
JUSTICE UNPLUGGED 2 at last !!! - By Fabrice Sapolsky & Xavier Fournier

December 2, 2004:
THE TWELFTH AND FINAL STEP - Say it ain't so, Dan.

November 23, 2004:
The importance of editing -

September 29, 2004:
Mystery and Conundrum indeed! - Where in the world is Jason Pomerantz?

September 13, 2004:
Hello and Goodbye and Hello Again - Change is in the air at CWN and it smells sweet.

August 12, 2004:
The Rise of the Web Toon - New Business Model or Dumb Luck?

July 30, 2004:
The Name Says it All... - Spin Doctors revamp Boomerang.

July 27, 2004:
Bigger Isn't Always Better -

June 8, 2004:
Pre-emptive Strike: MoCCA Arts Festival - Looking forward to the con, rather than looking back at it

The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Buddha Volume 1: Kapilavastu

Review by Michael May

Written by Osamu Tezuka
Illustrated by Osamu Tezuka

Published by Vertical
$24.95

When Passion of the Christ came out, there was of course a mixed reaction. I understood most of the reactions I encountered except for the one where people said they didn't care to see it because it depicted a story they didn't believe. Putting aside for a second the fact that not believing that the events in The Lord of the Rings really happened has never kept people from enjoying those films, I would think that a well-told depiction of a history-changing event like the crucifixion of Jesus would be of interest even to people who didn't believe the story. The fact that so many influential people throughout history believed it and changed the world based on that belief makes it sort of interesting. Doesn't it? I mean, choose not to see it because it's too graphic or you think it's anti-Semitic or you don't like Mel Gibson or whatever, but if you claim disinterest simply because you're not a Christian, I question that.

I'm not a Buddhist. I haven't studied Buddha's teachings and don't know much about his life, but a lot of people in the world do and that makes me curious about him. Not curious enough to track down and read the Tripitaka maybe, but certainly intrigued enough to want to read an entertaining account of his life and teachings, even if it's a fictionalized one like Osamu Tesuka's Buddha: Kapilavastu, the first of several volumes based on the life of Siddhartha Gautama a.k.a. Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.

Tesuka's work is to the historical Siddhartha what Xena: Warrior Princess was to Greek mythology and early Roman history. It's full of dramatic exaggerations that call into question any amount of accuracy, but its entertainment value is so high that one doesn't concern oneself with its lack of educational worth.

Kapilavastu is set at the time of Siddhartha's birth, but it's only marginally about that. What it's really about is a boy named Chapra who longs to rise above his permanent station in the slave caste. Chapra and his mother belong to a wealthy merchant and one day Chapra's robbed of his master's property by another boy, Tatta, a member of the Pariah caste who are considered animals, even lowlier than slaves. Add in an invading army, a monk who's come to the area to witness a prophesied birth of great importance, and Tatta's ability to inhabit the bodies of animals with his spirit, and you have the beginnings of some great drama that Kapilavastu pays off nicely.

Chapra, his mother, Tatta, and the monk become friends, but Chapra leaves the group when he sees an opportunity to join a higher caste. As the book unfolds the consequences of that decision, it touches on themes like love, loyalty, identity, sacrifice, and the sanctity of all life. Heavy themes, and Kapilavastu gives them the attention they deserve, but it does so in such an engaging way that you never feel preached at.

It's funny, for one thing. Especially Tatta, who's so poor that he spends the entire book completely naked and such a social outcast that peeing on someone is an acceptable way to show that you don't like him. Rather than see his situation as a disadvantage, Tatta's attitude is that he's unbound by society's mores and so completely free to do what he wants as long as he doesn't get caught. With that attitude he has a lot to teach the overly serious Chapra who's so obsessed with escaping his situation.

The marriage of story and art in Kapilavastu is absolutely perfect. I was reading a comic earlier this week that had some gorgeous artwork accompanied by the wordiest, dullest text you ever saw. I couldn't read the thing, but skimmed over the artwork, simultaneously appreciative of its style and frustrated by its inability to tell a story on its own. It thought it was a comic, but it wasn't; it was an illustrated story. In contrast, Kapilavastu uses narration very sparingly and says what it needs to in fast-paced dialogue. If you don't stop to gawk at the vividly detailed scenery and the endearingly cartoonish characters and animals, you'll breeze through the 400 pages pretty quickly. But believe me, you'll stop. You'll gawk.

I don't know how educated I was by the book. I learned where Siddhartha was born (the titular Kapilavastu) and � if the account was accurately portrayed � the legend surrounding his conception and birth. In a book in which characters compare their cities to modern Paris and New York and where Tatta refers to animals as "my peeps," accuracy is going to be a secondary concern at most. The primary concern is that we feel something while reading, and with all the laughter and heart-break and wonder that readers experience through Kapilavastu, the book meets that concern. And how.