Graphic Novel Reviews

The start of the Ultimate-verse reimagining of the Avengers.

A combination of bad timing in terms of my interest in modern superheroes, a general disinterest in "retooling" concepts, and no real taste for the work of Millar or Bendis means I'd never bothered with Ultimate anything. Still when I saw this at the library the Avengers fan in me thought "what the hell" and I checked it out. I was pleasantly surprised. Millar actually devotes significant page space to character development and has one or two characters that aren't total pricks, both of which are nice departures from every other comic of his I'd ever read. There is, however, no plot here whatsoever... maybe that changes in future issues, but this is all about action and establishing characters. The real draw is Hitch's gorgeous artwork, which is amazing throughout... except for his character redesigns. A lot of them, especially Iron Man, look cornier than the "old" version, which makes me wonder why bother updating if you can't make it better? This is a total "style over substance" book, but the style is very good and most of the major changes from original Marvel reality are intriguing. Good enough for me to recommend, and for me to check the library for other Ultimate titles in the future.

reviewed by jdp

Abe the poisoner meets his end.

Abe is undoubtedly a villain, with none of the honor or dignity of the series other antagonists, and thus he appears to lack any qualities that would soften our hatred of him. But it is precisely the fact that Abe is not a samurai, is not an honorable man, that makes us feel sorry for him when he dies. The series is filled with noble samurai who bravely cut their bellies and die for what modern minds would consider the most minor of perceived slights. Abe, meanwhile, behaves the way most ordinary people likely would: he fights his coming death, literally and figuratively, kicking and screaming almost to his last breath. The result is more horrific than most of the series’ other deaths are (and that’s saying something), and despite knowing what kind of man he is, knowing that he deserves death, you can’t help but feel sorry for him. It’s just one more example of what Kazuo Koike does so well throughout this series: presenting characters and situations in such a way that it evokes different, even contradictory emotions from us as we read, making for a more complex, and thus satisfying, experience.

reviewed by jdp

This is an anthology with a nice, light touch to the stories. All of the artists involved avoid the trap of relentlessly self-pitying, navel-gazing yammering common to the works of lesser auto-biographical cartoonists.

Matt Wagner's recipe comic and Stan Sakai's travelogue are both excellent, and I thought the size and format were just right for the material. Don't expect heart-breaking epic stories, but instead enjoy each story for the small slice of someone's life it represents.

reviewed by dan

A group of strange travelers find themselves in a tavern at the end of the world, sharing stories to wait out a storm.

The world surrounding the Sandman expands rapidly with the addition of many new supporting characters and their interesting stories. The story of the Sandman is a story about stories, and this arc is literally all about the sharing of tales. The artwork by Michael Zulli, Mike Allred, Vince Locke, Bryan Talbot, Steve Leialoha, Mark Buckingham and others is so varied and wonderful, helping Gaiman to bring to life a dozen new worlds, any one of which could spawn its own wonderful series. This collection, along with Volume 6 "Fables and Reflections", contains such varied story styles and subject matter that it gives you a real taste for just how talented Neil Gaiman is.

reviewed by jdp

Young Terry Lee, his guardian Pat Ryan, and their servant Connie find adventure in the Orient amongst bandits, rebels and, of course, pirates.

A wonderful new volume from IDW collecting the first two years, dailies and Sundays, of this classic strip by the legendary Milton Caniff. Caniff is known as “the Rembrandt of the comic strip”, and with good reason: his visual style and narrative approach helped to define the adventure strip and his influence on generations of artists continues to shape comic art to this day. Though the strip starts off rough by Caniff’s eventual standards it rapidly improves, and about a year in everything comes together. Caniff’s bold use of light and shadow, his sexually charged female foils, and his surprisingly rich characterization are impressive even today, and it is impossible to overstate how vitally important they were to the development of the medium. Caniff’s pacing of the strip is very well done, reading smoothly in compilation… many strips, because of the recap needed to keep reader attention from day to day, are clunky when read in a block, but Caniff’s stuff works. The one thing many modern readers might balk at is the depiction of the non-whites in the strip, which is pretty off-color and features some bad stereotypes, particularly of Asians. While much of this material may offend the modern reader, those who are able to relegate it to its proper historical context will find this as exciting, provocative and entertaining an example of the classic adventure strip as there is to be found. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the genre.

reviewed by jdp

My daughter the manga/anime fan loved this book.

reviewed by DaveH

Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood" is a well crafted, insightful, and honest story of growing up in Iran. This book covers important incidents in her life in Tehran between ages six to 14, bracketing the overthrow of the Shah.

This book was originally published in France (in French?) in 2000.

I had heard of this book before, but had not heard enough to convince me to read it or buy it.

I found it for about 1/2 price used, read it, and loved it - I will definitely read the next volume.

reviewed by DaveH

Totally indispensable. Whether you need to know the escape velocity of Neptune or how to say "cheese" in semaphore, this book has the info you desperately need, even if you don't know you need it.

reviewed by dan

The second installment of stories featuring perpetual slacker Buddy Bradley, from Peter Bagge's magazine, Hate.

A great, classic humor series, highly recommended. Material is worth a 5, but there's a better format: buy "Buddy Does Seattle"... it collects the first three collections in one volume for $15.

reviewed by jdp

The saga of young Albino as he strives to become the Supreme Technopriest, and become involved in creating the video games that can control the universe.

A supremely weird bit of sci-fi from Alexandro Jodorowsky. This has plenty of truly bizarre stuff in it, not surprising from Heavy Metal sci-fi, not to mention some scathing bits of social commentary about entertainment and consumer culture manipulating the witless masses. The story isn't perfect, bouncing around rather quickly from conflict to conflict. Except for Albino everyone in the book is a horrible person, which somehow actually works pretty well. Zoran Janjetov is a very talented artist and this is a gorgeous looking book, far superior to pretty much any American comic, and still not quite as good as other Jodorowsky-penned sci-fi tracts. A stronger overall story would net this a perfect rating, but it's still very worth reading as is.

reviewed by jdp