[Zacharie]

Title: A God Somewhere (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): John Arcudi (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Gerard Wood (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

It’s been almost 25 years since Alan Moore’s Watchmen exploded onto the comic book scene. With its three-dimensional characters, moral complexity and more realistic depiction of violence, Watchmen introduced a new paradigm for the superhero graphic novel: Alan Moore took a sledge-hammer to the concept of the superhero and from the shattered pieces built something intelligent and plausible.

Unfortunately the market has a disturbing appetite for graphic violence and is poorly served by writers and artists who mistake gratuitous depictions of violence for gritty realism. Moore led the way but few followed in his footsteps. In an interview with The Stool Pigeon earlier this year, Moore expressed his disappointment with the modern superhero graphic novel: "I've come to the conclusion that what superheroes might be, in their current incarnation at least, is a symbol of American reluctance to involve themselves in any kind of conflict without massive tactical superiority. I think this is the same whether you have the advantage of carpet bombing from altitude or if you come from the planet Krypton as a baby and have increased powers in Earth's lower gravity." His conclusion is damning: "I suspect that a lot of superheroes now are basically about the unfair fight. You know: people wouldn't bully me if I could turn into the Hulk".

There are notable exceptions of course and John Arcudi, Peter Snejbjerg and Bjarne Hansen's A God Somewhere can be counted amongst them. To some degree A God Somewhere continues Moore's decades old study of the superhero in society, but more than that its focus on the corruption of an individual through his possession of super powers makes it an eloquent critique of that modern graphic novel that so disappoints Moore.

Arcudi’s writing is uncompromising and perfectly complemented by colourist Bjarne Hansen and Peter Snejbjerg's magnificent illustration which is often brutal and challenging. Nothing in the telling is gratuitous however, and for all that A God Somewhere is a confronting read, it's marvellous entertainment. The best comparison I can think of is Nicholas Winding Refn's thought-provoking and brutal masterpiece, Valhalla Rising: in both instances we're invited to a visual feast with a wealth of food for thought.

A God Somewhere has garnered some well-deserved praise. Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, describes it as "The most human take on the superhero story I have ever seen". For Batman scribe, Dennis O’Neil, it shows us “the darker aspects of the superhero mythos… our first real superhero tragedy, in the classic sense of the term." High praise indeed, and as I hope to show, fully justified. But beware – there are SPOILERS in what follows.



After a mysterious explosion that destroys a city block and uncounted lives, a young man is left unscathed and in possession of extraordinary abilities. Eric Forster is no high achiever, but he is a man of faith, a devout Christian with a fairly simplistic understanding of the world, an unquestioned sense of right and wrong and a willingness to use brute force whenever he observes injustice. With so firm and unquestioned a faith, he has a simple explanation for his new found powers, "Nothing but the hand of God makes sense," he tells his best friend, Sam. The voice of reason, Sam objects that "for me none of this makes sense," but Eric is without doubt, and it’s this unquestioning faith that lies at the root of his downfall. From believing that he has been chosen by God, it’s a tiny step to believing that he is special and from there to believing that he is superior: superiority breeds contempt for the human condition.

We follow Forster's ascent from flawed human to superhero and on to something more, a being with immense power matched only by his self-righteousness, delight in violence, and immaturity. (Not unlike some nation states, you might think… and Arcudi’s superhero could certainly be interpreted as a metaphor for a global superpower). The more "super" Forster becomes, the more alienated he is from humankind. His experience of life becomes so different from our own that over time he is unable to empathise with us and can no more identify with us than we can with insects: “You’re just a man,” he tells the President, “That’s all any of you are. Men."

From a man of faith with a firm (if narrow) grasp of morality, Eric mutates into the very worst incarnation of the Nietzschean superman, a being beyond good and evil: "Wrong is just a word people made up,” he explains. “It has nothing to do with the real world". He has learned that the supremely powerful do not need the protection of moral laws and he can do what he wants because no one can stop him. With the final threads that tie him to his humanity frayed to breaking point, he commits an atrocious act, brutalising his brother and raping his sister in law, a woman he has always secretly desired. As a man his dark desire had been kept in check by the social bonds of family and morality. As a superman he exists beyond good and evil.

Now it’s obvious why Arcudi chooses to make his superhero a human who acquires super powers and not an outsider or an alien (like Superman): if Forster can lose his humanity as a consequence of acquiring super powers, what compassion and understanding should we expect from an alien super being?

The very opening images of A God Somewhere are a flash forward to a shocking scene of destruction in which a young child finds the disfigured body of her mother: "No matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter what happens to you," we're told, "you are just another character in somebody else’s story". If you're not careful, you might skip over this expression of existential crisis as a simple bit of melodrama. But it’s deceptively simple and far from expressing despair at the futility and meaninglessness of our existence, it should be a powerful statement about what makes us human, because we’re all somebody else to everybody else. Not only do we all have a valid and important story to tell in our own right, but we are also part of everyone else's story.

This is the very essence of our humanity: a connection with everyone else.

A God SomewhereOf course, in the comic book universe in which the superhero is a reality the story doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to the superhero and we are just characters in their story. Arcudi forces this point home by presenting Eric’s story from the point of view of other characters, all of them victims of his brutality in some way or other. But alone at the centre of things the superman risks having no point of connection with humanity, no shared experience, no empathy and without that there’s every likelihood that when he looks at us he will see us as Eric Forster does: “I see hate and I see greed. You could be happy, but instead you let those things eat up your insides, and rot you all away."

If you know your graphic novels, or even the new breed of superhero movie by the likes of Chris Nolan, you'll know that these ideas have been touched on elsewhere. In Nolan's The Dark Knight the advent of the super villain is a consequence of the existence of the superhero. When the benchmark has been set so high, the only way to distinguish yourself above the norm is to be the antithesis of the superhero: the superhero begets the super villain.

Instead of focussing primarily on what the existence of a superhero might mean to society, Arcudi looks inward at the nature of the superhero and from this point of view the superhero does not beget the super villain, the superhero becomes the super villain.

With its remarkable imagery and thought-provoking narrative John Arcudi, Peter Snejbjerg and Bjarne Hansen’s A God Somewhere is superb entertainment. Highly recommended indeed.

More info:

Writer: John Arcudi
Artist: Peter Snejbjerg
ColoristBjarne Hansen

[Zacharie]

Title: 2020 Visions (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Jamie Delano (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: publishersweekly (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

These four vaguely linked dystopian stories about America's near future were originally serialized as a comic book in the late '90s, and their ideas about what's coming are already a bit out of date. The main point of interest right now is that the first story is drawn by Frank Quitely of New X-Men fame. That story, "Lust for Life," is this book's highlight, a darkly daffy evocation of a plague that makes its disenfranchised victims sex-mad before it kills them, set in the desiccated New York City of 2020.

Quitely's hyper-detailed, warts-and-all artwork suits the piece nicely. "La Tormenta," a hard-boiled detective story with a female-to-male transsexual PI investigating a murderous plastic surgeon who rebuilds unwilling bodies, has its moments, too, though it's clear Warren Pleece's artwork was originally meant to be seen in color rather than (as it is here) in b&w. But the William Burroughs-influenced squalor and grotesquerie that Delano indulges in constantly have no real payoff, and James Romberger and Steve Pugh's artwork for the final two arcs (which both concern sectarian wars and mass infertility) is ugly and frequently unclear.

There are plenty of clever ideas here, and the satire of American xenophobia and sex-terror from Delano's very British perspective is sometimes amusing; unfortunately, it all doesn't hold together as a single book.

More info:

Writer by Jamie Delano
art by Frank Quitely, Warren Pleece, James Romberger, Steve Pugh
Published by DC/Vertigo, 1997-1998

[Zacharie]

Title: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): John Carnell (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: goodreads (Review 1) and Anonymous (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

Review 1 - To celebrate its quarter century and the legacy of Douglas Adams, this deluxe edition gathers never-before-collected photographs, original artwork, memorabilia (from the strange to the sublime), and wisdom gleaned from a first read or first encounter as Douglas's friends remember how the galaxy was forever changed a mere twenty-five years ago (not to mention the original text of the novel) into a one-of-a-kind Guide as stunning as two suns setting over Magrathea." Whether you are well versed in the antics of Arthur Dent, a mild mannered Earthman plucked from his planet seconds before it's demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, and Ford Perfect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy posing as an out-of-work actor, or are hitching a ride for the first time, this is the book that has everything you'll need to know about anything.

Review 2 - THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is not just a book--it's a phenomenon. It's based on a BBC radio series that also spawned four other books, a TV series, a 2005 film, a text-based computer adventure game, and a website. As the story begins, Arthur Dent is having a bad day. First, the town council knocked his house down to build a local bypass. Then a fleet of alien spaceships blew up his planet to make way for an intragalactic bypass. Can things get any worse? Possibly. Having been rescued from the Earth's destruction by his friend Ford Prefect, Arthur embarks upon a hectic, hysterically funny adventure that includes torturously bad poetry, a depressed robot, the two-headed President of the Galaxy (currently on the lam), and the legendary planet-building planet of Magrathea. Arthur's only consolation is the wise advice printed on the cover of that classic tome, THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: "Don't Panic."

HITCHHIKER'S has developed a cult classic status that extends beyond SF fans, and people enjoy swapping quotes from it in much the same way that they exchange quotes from MONTY PYTHON. Although there is an extensive crop of British writers who write humorous fantasy in much the same vein, such as Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt, no one has quite been able to make the splash in satirical SF that Adams has.

More info:

The adaptations were scripted by John Carnell. Steve Leialoha provided the art for Hitchhiker's and the layouts for Restaurant. Shepherd Hendrix did the finished art for Restaurant. Neil Vokes and John Nyberg did the finished artwork for Life, based on breakdowns by Paris Cullins (Book 1) and Christopher Schenck (Books 2–3).

[Zacharie]

Title: Star Wars: Invasion—Revelations (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Tom Taylor (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Tim Vinton (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review: Star Wars: Invasion—Revelations #1

With a title like that, you know it has to be Star Wars. The Star Wars: Invasion series is Dark Horse's first set in the New Republic continuity that has been covered by the Del Rey novels. This book is the first in five of the Revelations saga and works as #12 in the overall Invasion line. Does that make it a decent addition to the galaxy far, far away?

For those not up to speed, a quick recap is in order. A long time ago, some Jedi returned. There were some hiccups, but the Jedi returning seemed pretty decent and more continued to return. Then the Yuuzhan Vong showed up. Entirely unannounced, these space invaders from another universe had a less than favorable impression of the New Republic. Specifically, their complaint was that they did not rule over all its inhabitants. Now, most people weren't too concerned, because, hey, the Jedi had returned. Only problem was the Jedi could not feel the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force. This disadvantage, coupled with the warrior race's powerful organic technology, has made things a bit of an uphill struggle for our Luke and company.

Star Wars Invasion Revelations #1In the opening moments of Revelations, Master Skywalker, noticeably aged at this point, stands with only a few remaining warriors against the mighty Yuuzhan Vong army. Elsewhere, the young Finn Gallifrey, I mean, Galfridian hangs out with his eccentric Jedi teacher. Finn's claim to fame is being the only Jedi who can actually sense the Yuuzhan Vong. He still has a lot to learn, but obviously this character is meant to play a large role in the upcoming events of the lengthy Yuuzhan Vong war.

As a piece to the puzzle of finally defeating the Yuuzhan Vong and ending the conflict, this is an interesting component. Being able to actually feel the warriors through the Force is a new development that might tip the scale of things. However, as a snapshot in the life of Finn Galfridian, it is a bit lacking. Unfortunately, Revelations #1 suffers from what I have come to call "story transition syndrome." More often than not, starting a new story gets an entire issue that serves the purpose of establishing what we need to know for the story to work. Obviously, all stories need a beginning, but when I am paying for a single comic to entertain me, this typically just ends up being boring. There are a couple different plotlines going on besides Finn's, so that certainly helps to keep things interesting. Ultimately, though, the focus is on setting up whatever it is Finn and his freckled sister, Some Chick: Warrior Princess, will be doing for the next four issues.

Oddly, I have trouble giving a full recommendation to a Star Wars fan. There is actually some decent humor to be had here, but it does not sound like humor in the Star Wars universe. It's funny when a guard gets Jedi-mind-tricked and decides "I will buy shoes," but, at least to me, it did not sound like Star Wars. Where is the jargon we have come to love? In one way this may be off-putting, but I would like to think that it might also make it more inviting for non-Star Wars fans.

Altogether, I was not especially impressed with Star Wars: Invasion—Revelations #1, but it was a decent read. I had no issues with the art, but there was nothing that really jumped out at me either. It is interesting to see a visual representation of the Yuuzhan Vong after they have been confined to novels for so long, but this is not the first time they've been seen. As you can probably tell, I have a lot of "this, but that" feelings about the book. Perhaps once the story gets going the Revelations storyline will be most impressive. On its own, Star Wars: Invasion—Revelations #1 is like hearing a million voices cry out mostly in indifference. Mostly, mind you. There are a million of them. Hard to get an absolute consensus.

More info:

Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Colin Wilson
Colorist: Wes Dzioba
Cover Artist: Chris Scalf

[Zacharie]

Title: The Joker: Devil's Advocate (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Chuck Dixon (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Hilary Goldstein (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

Presented with the premise for Chuck Dixon's The Joker: Devil's Advocate, it's easy to offer up an eye roll. The Joker is falsely accused of committing murder, but is put on trial anyway. No one seems to care a lick about the madman's innocence except for Batman, who, despite the Joker's innumerable other murders, doesn't want the Clown Prince put to death for something he didn't do. Hokey? Sure. But Devil's Advocate is a thoughtful, well-written tale of the Dark Knight.

The Joker's psychosis is matched only by his own ego. So when he's accused of poisoning some postage stamps, the Clown Prince is incensed. He'd never come up with an idea that unimaginative. The only one who believes the Joker is Batman and oddly enough, the Joker would rather die than accept Bats' help.

While the Joker sports the cover and earns a bald 'do, Batman is actually the central figure in this tale. Sure, you'll wonder who really did it and how the Joker will escape his execution at the eleventh hour, but the story goes nowhere without Batman. This is the true test of Batman's devotion to justice, because at every turn his allies are asking him to let it go, to let the Joker die for someone else's crimes.

It's tough not to empathize with Gordon, Alfred and the rest of the Bat-family. After all, Joker has killed hundreds. Sure, he may not be guilty now, but he's certainly got more than enough reason's to face the electric chair. Batman doesn't see it that way and his resolve shows Dixon's excellent understanding of Batman's psychology. Dixon's only failure is undermining the mystery behind the case. There's no doubting that Joker is innocent, but the true culprit means nothing to us. The case is merely an exercise.

While not among the elite Batman tales, The Joker: Devil's Advocate is far better than it's concept and cover might lead you to believe. If you want some good characterizations of Batman, Robin and the Joker, look no further.

More info:

written by Chuck Dixon
Drawn by Graham Nolan
Published by DC Comics

[Zacharie]

Title: Batman: Dark Knight Dynasty (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Mike W. Barr (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Craig Lemon (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

Plot: Three ages of Batman: Medieval Past, Contemporary Present, Depressed Future.

Three linked stories in one GN, a hardback original last year out now in TPB format. The essential underlying storyline concerns Vandal Savage, the man who cannot die (well he can, he just regenerates after a period of time), and how he interacts with the Wayne-bloodline across three millenia.

In "Dark Past", set in 1222AD, Joshua of Wainwright relates to an inquisition the actions he took after his Knights Templar comrades were slaughtered in a distant mountainous region. Discovering a castle surrounded by a moat of acid, he adopts the mantle of the Bat to invade within, discovering Savage and his latest plan to take over the universe - eventually using Savage's own arcane devices to best him, Wainwright returns home to be tried by a tribunal led by...well, that would be telling. Excellent atmospheric paintings by Hampton, kick this book off with a great start.

In "Dark Present", a more modern style is adopted by Frank and Smith, which initally looks poor compared with Hampton's paintings, but has it's own style and, of course, captures the modern-day tone perfectly. In this version of the modern day, Bruce Wayne's parents are still alive - Joe Chill was thwarted by Thomas Wayne's partner Valentin Sinclair (okay, so there's no shocks when he turns out to be Savage, it is not hidden in any way), so Bruce never becomes Batman. Savage has his plans again, of course, this time to take control of a WayneTech satellite and use it to propel a large asteroid at the Earth.

Thomas Wayne finds out about this, and is killed for his troubles - Bruce then finds out about it, and draws on Joshua's legend to become Batman and thwart Savage's plan. A nasty scene closes off this story, with a very graphic depiction of how Savage comes back to life each time.

Finally, then, it's "Dark Future". 2500AD, and the Wayne descendants encounter Savage yet again. This time it's Brenna Wayne that takes on the mantle of the Bat, after finding the Batcave beneath the ruins of Wayne Manor. This future is a dark, depressing place - Gotham City is more of a hell-hole than usual, anyone with any money has moved upwards - literally, by taking to a floating city - the Earth-based city is left to rot.

A mysterious prophet predicts the earth-bound citizens' day will come very soon, so Batwoman and her young partner, Rodney the Chimp Wonder (yes, you read that right), investigate. Unfortunately their apartment gets bombed. Whilst they are in it. Oh dear.

The closure of the story is excellent, Savage is not really defeated but is successfully pushed out of Wayne's lives - finally - in a neat ending, where he sort of wins - he gets what he wants at the conclusion, just doesn't achieve the complete and utter destruction of Gotham along the way.

Thoroughly recommended TPB, can't say more than that.

More info:

Written by Mike W. Barr
Art by Scott Hampton, Gary Frank, Cam Smith, Scott McDaniel, Bill Sienkiewicz

[Zacharie]

Title: The City (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): James Herbert (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: The Masked Bookwyrm (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

This proclaimed "James Herbert" in big, bold letters on the cover, but reading it one gets the feeling that artist Ian Miller is the main force behind this piece. At least in the sense that the visuals are the main point, with horror novelist Herbert not really delivering a story or characterization. I don't mean he's delivered a bad story or implausible characterization -- I mean, there isn't any, good, bad, or indifferent.

The "story" is simply a masked, unspeaking, heavily armed stranger wandering with his armoured dogs through the streets of a surrealistically decayed London, populated by insane people, crazed mutants, and homicidal rats (both giant and regular sized). In various combinations they try to kill him, and he shoots them. Eventually a purpose emerges to his wanderings, and some emotional reactions (he finally removes his mask which had rendered him little more than a prop for most of the story), but all that comes within the last few pages, hardly enough to justify the 50 or so pages that led up to it. Even the background is unclear -- what is supposed to have led up to these circumstances (particularly as the imagery is so weird and surrealistic, you can't just assume this is simply a post-Apocalyptic future). It's sub-titled "The Rats Saga Continues...", and Herbert has written a series of novels about rats over running London, so maybe if your a Herbert fan it's familiar stuff. But if you're not, it makes little sense on its own.

The story can't even be taken as a progression into nightmare because it's all rather formulaic, with each sequence pretty much the same as the previous; there's almost no dialogue and even the captions are simple sentences stretched over more than one panel.

Miller's art is kind of fascinating in a grotesque, repulsive way, and there's some atmosphere evoked, but he's better at the warped buildings and designing the horrific figures than the actual movement/action of the characters. And there were spots that were hard to figure out what was going on.

Hardcore horror fans might go for it better, some horrorphiles seeming horror as a purely visceral experience, but The City doesn't really scare, or horrify, because it needs to evoke some sort of emotional reaction. It needs to draw the reader in and to accomplish that it needs a plot, or characterization, or a sense of the thing progressing in some way or another. It's a book that just makes you go..."huh?"

Additional notes: oversized tabloid format; I'm not sure this was ever released in a North American edition. The copy I came across only had the price listed in British Pounds.

More info:

Written by James Herbert.
Illustrated and coloured by Ian Miller.
Published by Pan Books

[Zacharie]

Title: Sin City (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Frank Miller (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Bob (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

You're bound to have strong reactions to Sin City, comic or movie; but some people's reactions are dumbfounding. They found it amoral; unreal; sexist. Don't people nowadays know noir?

Sin City is a straight-up hard-boiled detective story-- which, as Raymond Chandler explained in "The Simple Art of Murder", was an attempt to reintroduce realism into the mystery genre, which was in danger of drowning in preciousness-- impossible crimes, committed by unlikely upper-class Brits, solved by ever more eccentric amateurs. The hard-boiled detective story concentrated on the kinds of crimes and corruption that actually happen. The prototypical villains were those of the time-- gangsters and plutocrats. Plus a few murderous women, because who doesn't want to read about dames with gats?

The crimes were generally sordid, but the detective was not; as Chandler wrote, "Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." He can't be too virtuous, or he'd never enter this line of work; but he's the final judge, the moral authority (especially since the police in these works are no better than they have to be). He has to do right, and he does, even if no one but himself knows it.

Sin City is most like the early Chandler-- the short stories, where as he himself admitted, if he wrote himself into a corner he brought in a gunman and shot his way out of it. There's also a good dose of Mickey Spillane, and on the comics front, Will Eisner.

Of course, Miller is more interested in Chandler's methods than in his realism. Sin City is an exaggeration of everything that makes noir noir: the nastiness of the criminals and corrupt rich guys, the toughness of the good guys, the fatalité of the femmes. He also revels in the now-retro details, like the big '50s cars and the slang.

Miller's heroes aren't anything as mainstream as private eyes. The first, Marv, is a bundle of ugly muscle with no life, until a beautiful woman takes pity on him, has sex with him, and gets murdered in his bed. Dwight, the hero of several books, takes pictures for some underworld creep, and later serves as enforcer to a gang of prostitutes that runs part of Sin City. Wallace is a vet trying to become an artist. Hartigan is apparently the only incorruptible cop in Sin City. The villains, for their part, are pure scum-- serial killers, abusers of women-- you never have to pause to wonder if they deserve the ultraviolence; they do.

So it's not amoral; it's just the simple morality of "you do bad things to me, I do bad things to you". This has enormous narrative appeal; the only problem is that when applied to the real world, the results are invariably horrific. Whether it's the Bush administration or the Iraqi insurgents or the massacre in Rwanda, people applying this morality end up not being very particular about who they do bad things back to.

The worldview is recognizably the same in Miller's 1983 work, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns -- a brilliant but achingly nasty-minded work, which did much to deepen and darken the superhero genre. But bad politics is good noir.

As for sexism, it's certainly true that the female cast spends much of its time underdressed. But these are post-feminist bad girls who can take care of themselves.

If you don't want to drop over a hundred clams on all six books, the best is the fifth, Family Values. (If you've seen the movie, it's not in it, so it'll be new for you.) In this Dwight is investigating a drive-by shooting at a diner, for reasons we don't at first know. His backup is one of the Old Town prostitutes-- deadly little Miho. Dwight gets beaten up like all self-respecting Chandler heroes, but Miho is the closest Sin City comes to a superhero; she doesn't even get blood on her outfit. And amid the violence there's some dark humor and surprising, lovely moments of tenderness. The final revelations are striking enough that I wondered if they shouldn't have been telegraphed earlier; then I checked and found that they were.

The art is black and white, with splashes of color. Miller is a good draftsman, but excels at stunning noir compositions. It's one of the few black and white comics that wouldn't be improved by color.

As for the movie, it's a fantastic adaptation, and as David Edelstein noted in Slate, Miller performed a virtuosity transplant on Robert Rodriguez, whose films have never been as focussed and visual as this. Probably we'll all get sick of this look and feel over the next few years, but for now, it blew me away.

More info:

Written by Frank Miller
Art by Frank Miller
Book design by Mark Cox

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Highschool of the Dead (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Daisuke Sato (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Stina (Review 1) and Jeremiah (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

Review 1 - Highschool of the Dead, Vol. 1 - Great story? It's zombies. But the teens at least get character development, you feel for them and generaly don't want to see them die. Especially Kohta...ah Kohta.
The story is the one thing keeping this manga from a perfect review from me. It pretty much seems like you're reading a side scrolling adventure with point and click controls. It doesn't feel like there is a different senario the characters would encounter if they headed another direction. At this early point in the story, they fight to survive, they arrive at school perfectly safe, no zombies in site, then by lunch the world turns to hell. One by one the 'main' characters meet one another and join up to fight against the horde- to survive and find their families, anyway. By the end of volume one you know where they are attempting to head next-I won't spoil it.
As for the art...the artist did hentai manga before this work was published. So boobs are a-plenty. But boobs in this story seem to just exsist for the sake of boobs-maybe except for Marikawa. His style is beautiful for the horror genre, the zombies don't just look like a glob of undead corpses. Looking at each one you can tell how they met their fate. And, while the main guy looks like your stereotypical douche who doesn't care, he's a much different person than you think by the first two chapters. hint: He seems like a real person than just a manga character, not many authors can do this.
the gore is just what you'd expect from a zombie slaying, apocalyptic story. Blood covers every single page, street, zombie, and even highschool girl.
So with all of these factors in mind, join Gun crazy, smart crazy, Takeshi crazy, blood crazy, little girl, and, well, Boobs on this wonderful adventure of blood, guts, carnage, boob bouncing, ecchi filled story!
I would not recommened to someone looking for a deep, meaningful story 'plot' wise. but it's good for watching characters struggle to make it out of desperate situations, or if you just like 'apocalyptic' stories. If you want a 'life changer' check out something else.
If you want boobs, zombies, blood, and violence then, welcome to Highschool of the Dead!



Review 2 - Highschool of the Dead, Vol. 2 - If you are browsing for volume two, then you are already likely sold on the idea of Daisuke and Shoji Sato's zombie apocalypse. However, if you're wondering whether or not investing into the series will be worth it or not, try not to listen to the critics too much...

Whereas it's true that you cannot expect gold to be dripping off of a zombie genre's plot sequence, High school of the Dead moves the plot around in a believable sense- making the characters feel extremely human even in such impossible circumstances. Whether it's finding their first gun (something that's a little more important in Japan) fending off crazed survivors or rescuing a helpless little girl, there's a decent amount of action to be expected.

Another point of criticism would be the character development, which comes together a little more during this volume. I always operate with the idea that in a series where the characters can be eaten in the next panel what little is said between them is more important than if they could spend an infinite amount of time in a care free environment. Either way, Volume 2 had the characters make large steps in making me want them to live.

And finally, the fan service. It continues in this volume, of course, and it is actually home to the most fan serviced scenes in the entire series. However, the art and undeniable feeling in the pages were enough for me to overlook the fan service (which really isn't that bad if you watched the anime adaptation).

More info:

Written by Daisuke Sato
Illustrated by Shouji Sato

[Zacharie]

Title: Ghost World (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Daniel Clowes (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Kolwynia (Review 1) and JustinWrites (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

Review 1 - Ghost World is an interesting excursion into the lives of two teenage girls who are trying to figure out who they are and what they are going to do with the rest of their lives. It's a different kind of coming-of-age story. If you have ever felt a sense of isolation from the rest of the world, you can probably relate to Enid and Rebecca. And if you have ever graduated high school and faced that moment where you have to start really deciding on a direction for your life to take, then you can understand their story. Be prepared for a lot of swearing and some disturbing content.

Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca Doppelmeyer are two cynical teenagers who are best friends. They find themselves in that strange no man's land of graduation, where they have just spent 18 years of their lives becoming the people they are and now they have to decide who they really want to be and what they really want to do. They have their whole lives ahead of them, but no driving passion. Instead, they pass the days criticizing popular culture and the strange cast of characters that live around their town, all the while finding themselves growing into different people.

There is a pervading sense of melancholy and isolation throughout the book. These characters live in their own universe, apart from the rest of the world around them. They are also starting to find themselves drifting apart from each other, which they don't know how to deal with. I really liked the weird characters in the story, and the two main characters are an odd combination of annoying and likable. Ultimately, I couldn't help feeling for them and hoping that they would find happiness. The dialogue flows very naturally, and really helps you to believe the friendship between Enid and Rebecca.

I liked the book. I enjoyed the changing relationship between the main characters, and their individual quests to find themselves. The overall mood of the story really affected to me. I felt so sad after reading it, but if you asked me I couldn't tell you exactly why. The ending is perfect. I would recommend this book to fans of graphic novels who are looking for an offbeat, slice-of-life story about identity and friendship. Ghost World is not a book for everyone, but those who can relate to its characters will be sorry to see it end.



Review 2 - Absolutely brilliant. Every panel is either hilarious or disturbing or both. Clowes even parodies himself, giving main character Enid (played by Thora Birch in the entertaining Terry Zwigoff film from 2001) a crush on the cartoonist -- then revealing her disgust when she actually sees him in person. The relationship between Enid and her cuter but more insecure best friend Becky feels so true, so real and ultimately so damn heartbreaking. Clowes throws in these moments that would smack of sentimentality in anyone else's hands, but instead play as genuinely moving when surrounded by so much oddity and nihilistic banter. A fun, creepy, silly, hilarious, moving graphic novel. This book is a subversive little gem.

More info:

Writing and art: Daniel Clowes
Colors: John Kuramoto

[Zacharie]

Title: Road to Perdition (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Max Allan Collins (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: The Masked Bookwyrm (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

In 1930 Illinois, Michael O'Sullivan is a hit man for mobster, John Looney. After O'Sullivan's son, Michael Jr., witnesses a mob killing, his family is targeted by the Looney clan -- his wife and youngest son are killed, forcing the two to hit the road, Michael Senior determined to get revenge.

Road to Perdition is a crime thriller set, sort of, amid real characters -- John and Connor Looney were real, as were Al Capone, Frank Nitti, Eliott Ness and one or two others who makes appearances. But the basic narrative is fiction (apparently there was a hitman who the Looney's turned on, but one infers he didn't hit the road with his son or bear much relation to this character). Collins is no stranger to historical fiction (having written some novels about Ness) so it's too bad he's willing to play so fast and loose with history.

Although first published in 1998, this gained a bigger profile after it was turned into a big budget, critically acclaimed -- and, frankly, somewhat better -- motion picture.

It's presented in a style evocative of Japanese manga comics -- slightly larger than a pocket book, in black and white, with only three or four panels per page. Collins makes no secret of his love of manga, nor of the influence of Lone Wolf and Cub, a Japanese comicbook series (and movies) about a rogue Samurai, betrayed by his boss, who travels the road with his son (in that case, a baby).

re-issue coverClearly the book wants to be literature. It ain't about men-in-tights with fancy powers; it's rooted in a gritty historical milieu, and it plays around with themes of honour and Catholicism. It starts out interesting, benefiting from the period atmosphere, and the slightly atypical milieu for a comic book. And benefits from our own expectations. But, ultimately, it's disappointing.

The basic story is, well, basic. Man's family is killed, man seeks bloody revenge. I'm sure Steven Segal has starred in a dozen films with that same plot. There aren't a lot of twists and turns, nor even any mysteries that need to be unravelled. The action scenes are protracted and repetitive -- O'Sullivan repeatedly walks into rooms, ostensibly to talk, and/or is unarmed, and thugs try to kill him. O'Sullivan, being a superduper assassin, wipes them out, sometimes employing objects at hand. The ease with which O'Sullivan can slaughter his way through odds of ten to one stretches credibility at times.

Plot-wise, there's a late story sequence where O'Sullivan tries to put pressure on Al Capone's mob to give him Connor Looney (who they are protecting) by robbing their business interests, hitting them in their pocket books. It's moderately interesting...but likewise proves repetitive and fails to build to anything.

At the story's core, and supposedly what makes it literature as opposed to just a comic book, is the father and son drama. Yet there's no real character growth or development. You might expect it to start out with Michael Jr. not liking his father, then coming to love him by the end, or loving his father at the beginning but, once he knows what his father does for a living, growing to despise him. Or some such variation. But their relationship doesn't really change one iota over the course of three hundred pages (though given the few panels, it's more like 100-150 pages).



There isn't a lot of characterization, period. O'Sullivan is one of those squinty-eyed, close-to-the-vest, man-with-no-name archetypes that are more defined by their dangerous cool than their multi-faceted personalities. While Michael Jr, despite being the narrator, is largely defined by his reflections on his father. The other characters are basically there to serve the plot, or provide a historical "guest" appearance, rather than to be explored as people.

The story's other big themes are honour and Catholic guilt. O'Sullivan is seemingly cast as a good man who happens to do bad things, frequently referred to as "honourable" -- a man who views his profession as no more morally ambiguous than that of a soldier fighting a war...despite the fact that he is supporting pimps, pushers, extortionists and murderers. Maybe if Collins had given us more background to the character, a sense that he got in too deep to get out. But this isn't about a man who lost his way. It's about a man who is doing what he was born to do -- but he does it with "honour". We can especially see the influence of Japanese Samurai fiction in this approach. At one point, O'Sullivan specifically states that he isn't responsible for what happened to his family -- and I don't think that's meant to be ironic. Sure, the Looney's are directly to blame, but indirectly, O'Sullivan is responsible for his family being involved in that world to begin with. And if you don't accept O'Sullivan's moral subjectivity, the story just becomes kind of creepy, as a sociopathic killer takes an impressionable child under his wing. Because O'Sullivan is a good Catholic, he lights candles for those he kills, and makes Confession regularly. I'm not that familiar with Catholicism, but aren't you supposed to confess to repent your sins? What's the point of confessing...if you have every intention of going out and committing the exact same sins again and again?

The art by Richard Piers Rayner got a lot of attention, and it is impressive to a degree. Heavily photo-referenced, there is a realism to figures and backgrounds that's quite impressive. But like a lot of photo-referenced art, it can be a bit stiff, with characters looking too much like they're posing, and where facial expressions seem copied from a finite number of reference images. Lengthy talking head scenes -- stretched out because, like a lot of modern comics, Collins often only allows one character to speak per panel -- can amount to a collection of rather non-specific head shots. In one later scene, a character is shot in the knee, yet when he speaks, instead of grimacing in agony, his expression wouldn't tell you he was even injured! Rayner might also have thought to give O'Sullivan a distinguishing characteristic -- a scar, a moustache -- because it was often hard to recognize him.

Nor is Rayner's choice of composition anything spectacular -- there aren't any really stylishly desiggned scenes, or moodily composed images that necessarily augment the text.

Obviously, I read this with some mixed feelings, morally speaking, but the main problems are more narratively based. The ambience can only carry you so far before you notice it's a really thinly story, and not very fresh. There are too many stretched out gun battles and too little character development.

Interestingly, the motion picture stuck close to the comic in some ways, well diverging significantly in others (including slightly changing some names). The whole intent of the film is different, notably by underplaying the action-violence. Where in the comic O'Sullivan might get into a shoot out with ten guys...in the movie, it might only be two; in some scenes, the shoot out has been removed entirely! There's also considerably more attention paid to characterization, including adding a whole surrogate son-surrogate father dynamic to the relationship between the (anti-)hero and the mob boss that isn't really in the comic. The movie, like the comic, suffers from a certain thinness to the plotting, and neither really capture any sense of grief either O'Sullivan would surely be feeling over the death of their loved ones, but it's a more satisfying take on the story.

Both versions also have some (minor) historical lapses. In the comic, a character quotes the May West line about "are you glad to see me?"...in a story set before West had made any movies. While in the movie, the kid reads a Lone Ranger book, a few years before the Ranger had been created.

Collins has subsequently written a series of shorter graphic novels, under the title On the Road to Perdition, set within the framework of this book (since the graphic novel takes place over many months, that left a few windows in which to insert stories of the two O'Sullivan's on the road). He also wrote the text novel adapting the movie.

More info:

Written by Max Allan Collins
Art by Richard Piers Rayner
Letters: Bob Lappan.
Editor: Andy Helfer.
Published by DC Comics/Paradox Press (and Pocket Books)

[Zacharie]

Title: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Max Allan Collins (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: grovel (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Bad Rap

Just in case you read more comics than you watch TV, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American television drama that focuses on a team of forensic scientists in Las Vegas. Using modern science and traditional detective work, this charismatic crew solve crimes by analysing bullet trajectories, collecting fingerprints, utilising mass spectrometers (whatever they are) and comparing DNA samples. Having already spun off Miami and New York variants on TV, the move into comics is a logical additional revenue stream for this highly popular franchise.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Bad Rap

However, the format hasn't translated all that well. The dialogue is almost too sharp - people just don't say things that clever, that often, in normal conversation. This quick-fire stuff may work on TV with good actors who can pull it off, but see it written down and it all sounds rather corny.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Bad Rap

The crime the team are investigating in this book heads rapidly towards farcical - the murderer stays one step ahead of the team all the way through the story and it's only once the number of potential victims is running short that hunters and hunted finally meet. The mystery hangs around the music business and there's an over-riding feeling that it may be trying to be too hip for its own good. Collins uses an expert on forensics to help him with detail and plotting - perhaps he should have got a music business insider to help with the realism on that side of things.

The artwork uses contrasting styles to flashback to events that occur before the story starts and hypothetical sequences of events plotted by the CSI team. This is covered by a different artist to the majority of the book in an expressionistic style, which actually works rather well, ensuring there's no question of getting confused about what happens when.

This isn't enough to heave the book up though. Sure, huge fans of the program may well relish some further adventures, but there's little mystery here. This may have worked better on prime-time TV, which requires a certain element of 'sit-back and enjoy the ride' to keep its mass audience. But we believe a comic could have been cleverer, using the strength of the medium to add more depth to the story. After all, comic readers can always nip back and check on a nuance of the story - a television viewer can't do this, and it's reflected in this plot's relative linearity.

More info:

Words by Max Allan Collins
Art by Gabriel Rodriguez and Ashley Wood

[Zacharie]

Title: Wilson (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Daniel Clowes (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Michael Tolento (Review 1) and Tim Idsole (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

Review 1 - What a fun read! Each page of this slim oversize book is designed as a self contained comic strip. The effect is an episodic revelation of Wilson's story in phases like the peeling of an onion. Once Clowes has defined Wilson's irrepressible personality, the vignettes evolve from the slice-of-life non sequitur of the opening pages, and begin to relate to one another in development of the plot. Clowes varies his drawing style from one strip to the next. The art goes from Schultz-esque cartoon abstractions to representational warts-and-all realism in service of the narrative.

This is Clowes most mature and emotionally satisfying work to date, yet his dark acerbic humor remains, manifesting itself in the cranky eccentric voice of the title character. Wilson is a brilliant graphic novel, sure to be cited as one of the best in the same breath as Ware's Jimmy Corrigan or Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp. It is a celebration of the sort of storytelling one can only experience through the misunderstood medium of comics.



Review 2 - Daniel Clowes assigned himself an unusual formal constraint in this book; it consists of a sequence of seventy full-page comics, each with six or seven frames, each a complete vignette, most with the familiar rhythm and concluding punchline of a Sunday newspaper gag cartoon like "Nancy" or "Peanuts." (Be forewarned, though, the tone of the writing has little in common with those strips, and Wilson's "punchlines" often traffic in cruelty and humiliation.) Each page is recognizably in the hand of Clowes, but the styles differ from one strip to the next, from big-nose cartoons to quite naturalistic renderings, with many different color schemes. Every page features the musings and adventures of Wilson, a self-defeating, socially inept and exceedingly unlikeable protagonist. We get glimpses of Wilson's dialogues with himself and his interaction with others, including his father, his ex-wife and his beloved dog Pepper, across a considerable span of years. Rather astonishingly, through the accumulation of single-page strips that if taken independently may seem glib, slight or superficial, Clowes builds up a moving book that lingers in the mind as much more than the sum of its parts. It gives rise to thoughts about the need for human interaction, the nature of memory and the possibility of wisdom. The most resonant contents of the book emerge from the relationships between the individual strips, much the way action can be implied by the blank "gutter" between the panels of a comic strip. Easy to read, but I'm sure there's much I missed the first time through: I expect to enjoy reading this several times

More info:

Writing and art: Daniel Clowes

[Zacharie]

Title: Batman: Broken City (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Brian Azzarello (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: grovel (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso are already an award-winning team, responsible for the creation of and continued success of 100 Bullets. For Broken City they took over six issues in the run of the regular Batman monthly comic book - reproduced in this volume for posterity - and have pulled Batman and Gotham deeper into the shadows.
Batman: Broken City

The story is a knockout. There are no grand superhero battles to be had here - instead we follow Batman's street-level work as he hunts for a small time killer he develops a particular interest in bringing to justice. Although there are a number of recognisable villains in the story, including Croc, Penguin and Joker, Azzarello underplays them to perfection, drawing out their human elements and suggesting that, as with Batman himself, there's little of the super about these villains. Azzarello also brings out Batman's unlawful tendencies to the maximum - the master detective resorts to significantly more brutal methods of finding information than dusting for fingerprints or covert surveillance.

Risso's art could hardly be more complimentary. His Gotham is a dark and broody city, hiding its grizzly secrets in its shadows; his Batman grim and business-like; and his supporting cast of Gotham's underworld look like they could easily step out of any dark alley, not just one in superhero comics's world of rent-a-freaks.

This is an everyday Batman taken to his logical conclusion, a real-world populated by characters that seem little more than a step away from exaggerated reality. With its noir imagery, its stark violence, its sharp dialogue, and its dark and deeply bitter plot, Batman fans can barely hope for anything more.

More info:

Words by Brian Azzarello
Art by Eduardo Risso
Published by DC Comics (US), Titan Books (UK)
First published 2004
Originally published as Batman 620-625

[Zacharie]

Title: Batman Cacophony (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Kevin Smith (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Joey Esposito (Don't click it, read the review here... )

Review:

The floppies are where my love of comic books lie. Hardcover collections, Absolute Editions, and deluxe hardcovers are all well and good, but there's nothing like the going to the shop and picking up on a story where you left off the month previous. Sometimes though, a story is simply better suited to be read in one sitting - and Kevin Smith and Walter Flanagan's three issue mini-series, Batman: Cacophony, is testament to that. In its initial release last year, I found myself enjoying the first issue - if not a bit taken aback by some curious character treatments from Smith - but as the series went forward, I began to loathe reading it. I felt that the pacing was all wrong, characters were uneven, and the tone changed midway through the story.

However, when I revisited the tale in the form of this nifty little hardcover, my opinion changed. Admittedly, I'm the type of comic reader that has so much on his plate, often times my "to read" stack gets piled high with months worth of titles to catch up on. And while I'm of the mindset that a good story will stay fresh in my mind regardless of the time I spend away from it, perhaps Cacophony would have benefited from a re-read before I read the subsequent issues. Reading it straight through, I found that the story is not thematically fractured as I had remembered, but instead entirely cohesive.

Cacophony finds Batman caught in the middle of a vile gang war between an escaped Joker and C-list rogue Maxie Zeus, who has turned Joker's signature poison into Gotham's new designer drug. Along with dealing with his age old enemies, a third party enters the fray in the form of Kevin Smith's own creation from his run on Green Arrow, Onomatopoeia, and Batman is left dealing with figuring out what role the newcomer plays in the events unfolding before him.

Originally, I chastised Smith for starting out with what I thought was an exploration of his Onomatopoeia villain, and being unable to resist the urge of exploring the oft-explored Joker/Batman dichotomy. Instead, I found that relationship to be the point of the entire mini-series all along. From the Joker's initial appearance in the book to his last, the story comes full circle, paying off in a cleverly written dialog between Batman and Joker. Though the lasting effect has nowhere near the potency of something like The Killing Joke (referenced by Smith himself as a direct influence to write a Batman tale), the end result is still a thought-provoking look at what these two characters mean to each other; perhaps Smith sums it up best with Joker's best line when talking to Batman: "I don't hate you because I'm crazy. I'm crazy because I hate you."

Though this final scene is certainly well written and will surely be a classic moment, it's hard to ignore that most of the characters are the DCU inhabitants you've come to know, refracted through the Kevin Smith prism. You'll be delivered talky henchmen, a pop culture reference on every page, a not-so-ambiguously gay Joker, and a rather mouthy Batman. This isn't a deal breaker, but just know that the world you are walking into isn't quite the one you're familiar with. Not surprisingly, Smith's best moments come when he is dealing with his own creation, Onomatopoeia, particularly in the ending. In fact, I'd go so far as to say the revelation of just where this character stems from is one of the most intriguing as of late, and I certainly hope we'll get more of his story in the near future.

Of all the issues that were rectified by this hardcover edition, the one big one that remained intact was the inconsistency of Flanagan's artwork. Kevin Smith admits in his introduction that he essentially got Flanagan, his buddy, the job, and that he's not going to apologize for it. In fact, he points out how Flanagan's work improves from issue to issue, and that's true. But, it's quite clear that a different artist may have been better suited to serve the story. There are some great moments, art-wise, but there are also cringe-inducing ones. Flanagan's Batman works best when he is draped in shadow, because any other time, the character resembles something along the lines of Gumby. His composition and layouts are perfectly fine, as are most of his character designs and body language. It's simply a matter of consistency when it comes to facial expression and style that bring the book down.

Being a mere three issues, DC was kind enough to include some bonus content in the way of Smith's introduction, in which he is very forthcoming in the book's faults and successes - perhaps another aspect that raised my original opinion of Cacophony - as well as the complete script for the third issue, and a gallery of covers. The script is most interesting, if only to show the vast changes that Smith made before the issue went to print. He cites reading a blogger's review of the first issue in which the writer complained of Batman's un-Batman like dialog. Smith recognized the issue, and did his best to rectify it. Whether he did so or not is up for debate, but it's clear that Smith has a passion for the character that can't be ignored.

Though it has its faults, Cacophony winds up being an enjoyable, if somewhat out-of-touch with the main DCU, Batman tale. It remains to be seen if Smith will follow up on the threads he left dangling in regards to Onomatopoeia, but his view on Batman and Joker's strange relationship adds another new dimension to that eternal debate.

More info:

Andy Kubert artist, cover
Guy Major colorist
Jared K. Fletcher letterer
Kevin Smith writer
Sandra Hope inker
Walt Flanagan penciler
Bill Sienkiewicz cover
Bob Kane other
Dan Didio, Jann Jones editor
Published by DC Comics, 2009