Stitches – a review
In the hands of a less capable artist, David Small’s Stitches would have failed. Much of what doesn’t work in the novel is why I didn’t want to read it in the first place. Yes, that’s right, I really did not want to read one of the most talked about books of the year (incidentally, I also don’t want to read The Photographer or Asterios Polyp either – so, maybe it’s just me). I didn’t want to read Stitches because, for the most part, memoirs bore and annoy me. It’s a rare memoir that manages to be honest. Often time I feel like the author is trying to hard to be damaged or pull some memory from toddlerhood that inevitably involves some metaphor like a dangling spider or a grinning Jack-in-the-Box or something.. Small does this. His prose and story is overfilled with parents who are little more than monsters, a crazy grandmother who is every southern Indiana stereotype and weird dreams.
Not that I think Small is lying. I’m sure he’s not. However, it does, or should I say would, read like a formulaic childhood from hell turn to adult success if it weren’t for the artwork. Small recognizes that he tells better stories when he’s silent. He’s been silent a long time. A ragged surgery for a cancerous tumor leaves him without a vocal cord. At 14 he is physically trapped in his own mind, unable to express himself. He becomes his family’s quiet observer, an inconsequential scapegoat for his mother’s anger.
Small is at his best when his character don’t speak. When his mother thwaks shut a cabinet, or his 6 year old self literally dives into his artwork. His drawings carry their expressions so perfectly that often I could just skip the text. I didn’t need to be told that the boy was angry, depressed and intrigued by his new speechless life- I could see it and in just one panel. In fact I wish I could draw this review just to really give the sense at what art can do that a stumbling, rambling bunch of akward text cannot.
So, thanks Bill for forcing this one on me.
Comix App for iPhone – a review
The iPhone is my boyfriend, seriously. I got the Comics (by ComiXology) app immediately. I was mainly curious to see what they had but I honestly didn’t think I would use it that much because reading comics on the phone seemed really hard and headache inducing. But this app is a good one and well worth the price I paid – I think it was like $1.99? Or less.
There are a few complaints with the learning curve – mainly that there is a learning curve at all. Moving from panel to panel takes a little finesse and getting used to. If you tap too hard or in the wrong spot suddenly the whole page zooms in and it’s hard to get back. In fact, a few times it did this all on its own and I was stuck sort of fumbling around this giant word balloon for like an hour. Ok, not that long but it was awhile. However, once you have it down, reading is surprisingly easy. You can read in regular or landscape mode – a nice feature.
I was also surprised by how many good comics they have available. I was expecting lots and lots of erotica combined with lots and lots of indie stuff. Not that either of those aren’t cool but, eh, not something I necessarily want to use my precious battery life for. However, right away I found Atomic Robo and my new favorite Nightmares and Fairytales.
The first issue or two is usually available for free and there’s access to reader reviews. After that the cost is .99 cents. Which, really? .99 cents!!! I’m paying it for Nightmares and Fairytales but only once a month so I’m really behind. I can’t do it once a week and certainly not for multiple titles.
All in all, a great app for comic readers. There needs to be a manga equivalent.
Wild Animals vol. 1-2 review
Set in the turmoil of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Wild Animals is the memory of Ma Xiaojun. In volume 1, the memories are solid. He is sixteen, young, impressionable and plays at violence. He and his friends talk of the revolution but it hardly touches them as they try to bridge the gap between childhood and their impending adult lives. It is during this time that Xiaojun meets the beautiful Mi Lan. Mi Lan quickly becomes the central focus of their gang and of Xiaojun’s thoughts. He becomes obsessed but doesn’t quite know what to do with himself.
In volume 2, the memories begin to fall apart. The adult Xiaojun interjects with his thoughts and questions himself. The memories become more painful, is this why Xiaojun rejects them? Mi Lan falls for the popular and good looking Gau Pu. Xiaojun immaturely answers this rejection by treating Mi Lan cruelly. Finally, he lashes out in a violent and desperate attack. Or does he? Adult Xiaojun insists this couldn’t have really happened, that it was just the imagination of an adolescent boy.
The pain and joy so often present in good coming of age stories is felt here too. Xiaojun’s desire to be accepted drives him to commit small crimes, lie to his father and fight Mi Lan. By the second volume though, the coming of age theme gives way to a darker truth – that not everyone makes it. Some fall behind, some commit crimes they can never make up for or move past. So goes the memory of Xiaojun. Whether his memory is real or a figment of his imagination is left up to the reader but one thing is very clear, Xiaojun saw himself as a good soldier and a good friend and he aches when he fails at both of those.
Friendship is all the boys underneath Mao have. Their parents are off at war, leaving them alone for weeks at a time. The boys bond and live off each other. The friendship they have is both touching and eery.
The stunning art follows Xiaojun’s memories, very crisp and clear when he’s absolutely sure of a memory, bright and sunny when it’s one he treasures, hazy and dark when it’s one that brings him pain. Then descends into a mess of lines and squiggles with barely recognizable human shapes when he questions if the memory is even real. Mi Lan is given special attention, showing up in portraits caught in time. Beautiful and sensual, even adult Xiaojun is charmed and lavishes in her memory, letting the story stop so he can sit with her for a bit longer.
Wild Animals is an adaptation of the novel Days of Dazzling Sunshine. Artist Song Yang is hailed as a prodigy and lives up to his title here. He expresses his love for the story in his artist’s preface but his work can easily stand as its own piece. It is the sort of book that graphic novels readers love, a good story told with beautiful pictures that can be read in many different ways.
Reading Over Shoulders
Hey, can I share your pumkin-spice latte?
The Manga Critic has a couple of posts – first a few reviews and then a list of truly bad manga.
There’s a new Evangelion installment. I’m not sure how I feel about all of these reimaginings. (link via MangaBlog)
Speaking of manga, go get yourself some! Go Gomi is running a pretty big sale.
Comics Should Be Good sparked a lively discussion with this review of Dark Reign.
A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge sounds really powerful. (link via Journalista)
Review – Ikigami
A child is full of potential. That’s partly why we cherish them so much. In Ikigami: the Ultimate Limit, the government has developed a vaccine that can protect the population from every single known disease. However, to keep the citizens appreciation for life, a small percentage of vaccines kill the child before he or she turns 25. A day before their death, a man delivers an ikigami or death card to the victim. Fujimoto delivers these cards. Unfortunately, Ikigami is a lot like a child just full of potential. It never grows into anything more.
I would be willing to accept that a government would do this except it seems so pointless. People can still die of random acts. Also, generally, an appreciation for life comes with age. So killing children and young adults might hurt the families of those children but I would think that the surviving population would only feel relief that they had survived, not necessarily a new appreciation for life. Having the vaccine kill-switch triggered between 25 and 40 makes more sense. However, the book does focus on the devastation the ikigami brings to the families so I guess I’ll try and move past this nagging plot point.
Fujimoto begins to question the practice but has to be careful because the big bad government kills anyone who questions them. Of course they do. In volume 1, Fujimoto delivers an ikigami to a bitter loser who promptly goes off the deep end and extracts revenge on his highschool tormentors. The story is designed to show the potential problems with alerting someone to their death; they’ve got nothing to lose. However, the overblown artwork makes it seem like the man was a psycho and it was only a matter of time before he went off anyway. In fact, his advice to a young child is ‘go off now, don’t wait’. Confusing.
In the second story a street musician duo is separated when one is tapped for stardom and the other isn’t. The would-be star receives an ikigami and decides to reconnect, in his last seconds, with his true soul. He sings a song the duo wrote and that song brings his friend out of a coma. Then Fujimoto begins to wonder if the ikigami isn’t such a bad thing but a gift that allows people to really live.
There’s a lot of unnecessary information about how the vaccine is made and how it’s recipients are kept secret. This extraneous information illustrates what’s wrong with Ikigami. There’s too much thought. Instead of being a story about human experience and limits of life, it becomes a commentary on government, crime, art, and duty. That’s too much. The artwork is also overdone. At times the characters look like they are in a Pokemon battle as opposed to dealing with a revelation (albeit an awful one). Tears pour over dramatically, veins bulge. These conventions don’t heighten the tension, they just take the reader out of the story.
I can see the potential in Ikigami because it’s not a bad idea. The format of a big story tied together by stort stories leaves the door open for lots of different emotions and themes. Unfortunately, nothing comes together in any tangible way. It’s not a bad but it’s certainly not good. Oh, and another nagging point that maybe someone can help me figure out. On the first page it says the elementary school is in Angleton, Texas yet all the children and teachers are Japanese. What’s the deal? Is this something that was changed for Western readers? If so, why?
Queen and Country vol. 1 – review
I’ve always thought working as a spy would suck. In my mind, it’s hours of boredom followed by five minutes of full blown terror. Turns out, at least according to Greg Rucka’s series Queen and Country, I’m right! Tara Chace is a British “minder”, a spy for SIS. Her job includes assassinations, intelligence gathering and visiting foreign countries. It sounds glamorous but Chace’s alcohol consumption suggests otherwise. Surrounding Chace are her friends and coworkers. Along with the two other minders, she watches as the powers that be play with their lives. On one hand, she’s angry at being used more like a machine than a human. On the other hand, she begs for every mission, often getting upset when she’s overlooked.
The missions are exciting and nerve racking. This isn’t a Lara Croft video game, there’s no guarantee that any of the minders (including Chace) will make it out alive. While the minders take care of the dirty work, politics are the game back home. It makes for a compelling look at espionage. Rucka manages to avoid melodrama or cheesy action cliches. His spies are real shells of people, hollowed out and hungry for a job that will eventually, inevitably kill them – even if they physically live to retirement.
Yes, it’s depressing. Yet, it’s hard to stop reading. Much of the “boring” parts, the sitting around waiting for the five minutes of terror, are actually the most interesting. It’s in these down times that the reader gets to see the relationships between Tara and the other characters.
The missions do get a bit redundant. That is probably the point but it makes it hard to read for long. I found myself getting annoyed at yet another mission with yet another round of worry, anger, acceptance and fallout. It’s nice to have the series collected in volumes but a break between missions is needed and probably worked great when they came out individually. The different artists offer different takes on the cast and each one reveals something new about the character, whether drawn as a sexual creature for her attempt at love or drawn in hard lines, with small eyes, when she’s taking on the job of a killer.
I’m onto volume 2 (well, after I finish my latest volume of Monster) with some trepidation. If volume 1 is any indication, things will only get tougher.
Incidentally, Rucka’s comic Whiteout is now a movie!
Fables Vol. 12 – The Dark Ages review
I’m going to try and do this without any spoilers. Emphasis on try because, like most of the Fables stories, the plot is an integral part of the story. In the last volume, the war ended and lots of us were left going “that was it? seriously? ok….what comes next?” Usually the war is it, the big payoff followed by bittersweet burying of your dead and series done. Except this is Fables and there’s always more, thank god.
Turns out the war is really the beginning. The powers that be didn’t truly think through the consequences of this war. Geppetto, former big bad Adversary, tries to tell them but since he’s a known tyrant they ignore him. Then it happens. I’m not going to tell you what “it” is of course but, trust me, it’s pretty bad.
As usual, the writing is awesome, pushing the story forward while leaving time to develop the characters. The artwork is still stunning, especially the use of color and movement. One of my favorite things about Fables is the political strife. In this volume a group calling themselves the Society of Seconds (first generation Fables born in America) demand passage into the homelands. What they want is somewhat ridiculous, as the homelands aren’t anywhere near safe, yet also speaks to the disconnection first-generation immigrants have.
If I have one complaint, it’s emotional fatigue. I’m worn out, I’ve been through a war for gods sake! Can’t I take a break? One volume where maybe Snow White and Bigby take a vacation in the homeland? Let us see how it’s rebuilding or a journey East to see some different fables?
Back to Work/End of Summer Reading
I’m back at work! It’s kind of weird but believe me, I’m relishing the time to drink a cup of coffee and read my email without worrying I’m going to spill on the baby’s head or get my computer torn down by the toddler.
This may be shocking to some but maternity leave is no vacation! Still I did get to squeeze in a few manga these past couple months. Here’s how I felt about them:
Bride of the Water God Vol. 2
I had heard that the second volume doesn’t necessarily improve. The character development is still minimal, the plot is full of holes and the dialogue is laughable. Still, the artwork makes up for everything. I don’t care how insipid Habaek and Soah continue to be, if they wear those gorgeous clothes while flying past the moon in an elaborate ship, I will eat it up.
Uzumaki Vol. 2
There’s very little “horror” that I can’t handle. Uzumaki is pushing the limit. In this twisted (pun intended) volume, the terror is pushed up as the town possessed by a spiral, uh, spirals downward. I warn you, it’s seriously disturbing but brillant. The only thing that bothers me is that the townspeople have yet to figure out what’s going on. You would think that after multiple frightening incidents, including people morphing in snails for godsake, the folks would learn to stay away from anything strange or believe others when they relate that something is wrong – ah, but no.
Pluto Vol. 1
I should have read this title first. I’m a huge fan of Monster and was thrilled to see a couple of series by Naoki Urasawa. My comic book guy recommended it over 20th Century Boys, saying it was different than Monster and would make a nice change. Based on a single Astro Boy story, “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, Pluto takes the concept of a robot murdering serial killer and expands the world to a completely new level. There is obviously a lot of care and reverence to the master, Osamu Tezuka. I’m not sure why I resisted, perhaps because Astro Boy is my least favorite Tezuka title? Whatever the reason, I’m glad I finally got around to it.
So there you have it, my summer reading. Another good reason to return to work? The copies of Queen & Country and A Drifting Life on my desk!
07-Ghost Review or Why I don’t read Shonen
Here’s the basic plot of 07-Ghost volume 1, or as much of it as I could figure out: There’s a kid, Teito who was once a slave but is now an elite student at a military academy. He’s got his best friend Mikage and that’s pretty much it. He overhears something he shouldn’t and ends up having to hijack an aircraft. He crashes into a mountain but is saved by four (hot) bishops who take him to the church where he’s granted sanctuary and nuns give him a bath. Then, he has flashbacks and other stuff happens and a demon tries to eat his soul by giving him his one wish? But thankfully the bishops are skilled fighters and finally a mermaid shows up. Yay, a shape- shifting mermaid! He and the mermaid fall in love but he also has confusing feelings for Mikage. I made that last part up. But that’s what I wanted to happen once I got to the mute mermaid.
I realized then that I am not this book’s reader. I should probably not be its reviewer either but here I am. The problem with 07-Ghost is not that it’s a conventional shonen manga but that I’m not a conventional shonen reader because:
1 There’s about a million characters in a shonen manga and practically all of them are male. There’s only so many hairstyles you can use to differentiate the enormous testosterone driven cast and, inevitably, a few thousand of them are going to look alike. In 07-Ghost I have lost track of who’s who and it’s only the first volume.
2. The fight scenes give me vertigo. I have to hand it to the Japanese. I had never seen fighting like this until I opened a manga. It makes Batman look downright lethargic. There’s extreme close ups, fast action lines, panels crossing each other and blood splatter everywhere, it’s amazing. Unfortunately, there’s extreme close ups, fast action lines, panels crossing each other and blood splatter everywhere. I can’t keep up and usually end up flipping to the end of the battle and hope I can tell who won by who’s left standing. If the main character is in a battle that makes it easier since he’s almost certain to win.
3. The storylines are plot driven and therefore somewhat convoluted. In 07-Ghost Teito is a slave raised by a Father in the church and is a the true son of the King of Raggs. (Yes, the kingdom is actually named Raggs.) And they are protecting the Eye of Mikhail which is now in Teito but the neighboring kingdom broke a treaty and on and on and on. I can’t even get into the demons and church politics which are actually somewhat interesting. Now, if you’re a regular shonen reader you’ll probably love it. If you’re used to all the clans in Naruto then two kingdoms with about 10 Districts seems simple, I’m sure.
I have the other two volumes – thanks Go!Comi sale – so I’m going to be a trooper and stick with it. My final assessment is that it’s a conventional shonen series. It’s lacking the heart and humor of better series like Yu-gi-oh but for regular readers there is probably a lot to enjoy. Goodreads shonen readers certainly seem to like it so I trust there’s something there that I’m missing.
Color of Earth review
There’s so much to look at in and say about Color of Earth that I’m not sure where to start. The relationship between Ehwa and her mother. Young Ehwa’s blossoming mind and body. The monk’s struggle with his emerging sexuality? All of this and more is set against a gorgeous Korean countryside. It is in nature that Ehwa defines herself, often as a flower. A fickle young girl turning into a woman, the flowers she prefers, like the way the rain falls – is constantly changing.
In some ways, the book is uncomfortable. The opening scene with two beetles mating and the young boys eagerly watching is both honest and almost too private. It’s like spying on a world that most adults would rather leave alone. Hwa handles this delicate transition through art. The boys and girls are drawn sparingly, almost like one line, the pen never leaving the paper. They are undefined though lovely. Nature, on the other hand, is exquisitely detailed. Nature is in control and humanity has no choice but to grow and follow the seasons.
Ehwa and her mother live alone. Her father has died and while it must have effected Ehwa greatly, there’s no mention of how. Her mother often hints at being lonely and uses Ehwa as her confidant, delighting in Ehwa’s growth because it gives her a reason to discuss her repressed sexuality. This relationship is all the two women have and they cherish it. Ehwa trusts her mother and believes her incapable of making any mistakes. At her mother’s encouragement, Ehwa begins to pursue innocent relationships. She and her mother string flowers outside their home and giggle at the prospect of romance. Of course, there will be a time when Ehwa’s simple longing becomes more intense but in this first, sweet volume she is a girl falling in love as quickly and as fleetingly as a butterfly chooses a flower.
I wish I had two copies of this book. One to read and one to cut out pictures to paste on boxes. It is not an easy or exciting read but there is something compelling in Ehwa and her mother.
