|
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Reviews Reviews Reviews
We got 'em here.
A Few Perfect Hours and Other Stories From Southeast Asia & Central Europe by Josh Neufeld Alternative, $12.95 In this style: Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson When I spent the summer of 1993 in Barcelona, it never occurred to me to keep a pictorial journal. Oh, I did keep a journal, and I did draw in it occasionally, but mostly I wrote in it. I went as part of an overseas painting course from school, so half my time there was occupied with drawing and painting anyway, but I drew outside of class as well. Not much, though. It was my first time out of the country, and I suppose I was so taken by the newness of everything that I felt taking photos would make it more real to me when I got back. If I were traveling today, I suppose I’d might draw more. I’m not entirely sure, though. I was going to write a comparative review between Josh Neufeld’s A Few Perfect Hours and Craig Thompson’s Carnet de Voyage, but I lent my copy of the latter to my friend Vija so I don’t have it in front of me and I’d rather not rely solely on memory. Anyway, Hours is a quite pleasant account of the author and his girlfriend Sari’s year and a half on the other side of the world and what happened after. One major difference I can think of off the top of my head between the two books is that Carnet goes much more into the author’s emotional state of mind, which is an integral part of his story. Hours tends to emphasize the events themselves a bit more. There’s an old fashioned pluckiness in the way Josh and Sari are presented. Even in physically dangerous situations (such as the chapter where they explore a cave), their trepidation of the unknown environment they find themselves in is mixed with a stubborn determination to experience it, even if the results turn out to be less than they hope for – and indeed, isn’t that the attitude of most travelers? Such a healthy attitude is especially refreshing to read about post-9-11, and indeed, in her introduction Sari alludes to that. The art is quite good. Landscapes and cityscapes are obviously crucial to a story like this, and Neufeld doesn’t scrimp on detail. In particular I like his approach to textures and patterns. Though his art may lack the spontaneity and zest of Thompson (who, by his own admission, was drawing constantly, almost compulsively), his style works for the approach he’s taken to telling his stories. Hours is definitely worth checking out. B+ Daisy Kutter: The Last Train by Kazu Kibuishi Viper, $3.99 each In this style: the TV show Wild Wild West Former gunslinger wistful for the old days gets an offer to get back in the game from a pair of strange visitors, but first she must win a poker game against a very confident opponent. Kazu Kibuishi, along with the artist of the back-up story “Mongrel: Trixie Come Home,” Phil Craven, is from the lineup of super-talented newcomers in the Image anthology Flight. Both artists excel at storytelling ability and character design. The main story combines the western genre with sci-fi, mixing in robot cowboys and AT-AT-like steeds, but so far, the sci-fi elements seem entirely superfluous. Plus, the story itself follows familiar western cliches: the retired outlaw trying to go straight only to get pulled back for one more job, the mysterious outsiders, the high-stakes poker game. Overall, it is done very competently and entertainingly, but I’m hoping for a little more in terms of plot. The backup story is a decent noir with anthropomorphized dogs, though all the dog-related references were a bit much after awhile. B Cloudburst by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Christopher Shy & Eliseu Gouveia Image, $7.95 In this style: the movie Alien and its sequels the book Dune by Frank Herbert and its sequels Scientist with big machine designed to bring rain to desert planet learns too late that its inhabitants are going to be forcibly removed. Meanwhile, a species of malevolent critters are roaming around, hunted down by one who lost his father to them. I picked this up because I liked Palmiotti & Gray’s work on Monolith, but this turned out to be a disappointment. Okay, the story’s an Alien rip-off, and if that were its only problem, I’d say fine and sit back and enjoy it. I like a good monster story as well as anyone. But it’s the art that does this book in. There are two different art styles; one by Christopher Shy in the opening prologue, the other by Eliseu Gouveia, which takes up the rest of the book. Gouveia puts the main character Lauren in way too many cheesecake poses that show off her ample butt. Plus, he seems to have a problem drawing the lower half of the mouth – many times Lauren looks like she’s sticking her tongue out for no reason. In one panel someone points a gun upward against her face; she looks like she’s licking it (let’s not even go into the sexual connotations of an image like that)! Very limited range of facial expressions also. Shy’s painted work is better, if a bit too obscure in places (it’s difficult to tell what exactly happens to the child’s father). Oh, and did I mention the letterer forgets punctuation marks in places? Enough to actually be noticeable and to be annoying? If this were more than a cliched action-movie story, I might be willing to overlook these faults, but it isn’t, and I can’t, so I won’t. C Fade From Grace by Gabriel Benson & Jeff Amano Beckett, $1.99 each In this style: the Silver Age DC superhero books, such as Flash and Green Lantern The evolution of a superhero as seen through the eyes of his wife. This isn’t bad, as far as superhero stories go, but it’s awfully vanilla. It lightly touches on the aspect of the dangers loved ones of superheroes face, but Brad Meltzer is approaching that same subject to a much broader and deeper degree in Identity Crisis. It delves into the “learning curve” aspect and the media reaction angle, but Brian Michael Bendis has been doing it much better in Ultimate Spider-Man. It emphasizes the relationship between the main characters, but Kurt Busiek writes more challenging characters in Astro City. The animated-like art is decent, but Darwyn Cooke’s art is much more dynamic and exciting in New Frontier. If you’re gonna do a superhero book these days, you have to either do something dramatically different from Marvel and DC, or do what they do better. And this book does neither. C The Small Press Expo is this weekend; hope to see you there. CWN will be well represented this year, what with myself, Ed, and our newest addition, Shawn Hoke. This will be my seventh SPX in eight years (there was no show in 2001), and I’m especially grateful for it this year, since I wasn’t entirely sure if I was gonna make it. I wanted to complete what I’ve been calling my “Small Press Victory Tour” – APE, SPACE, MOCCA, and now SPX all in one year. That’s a feat I’m pretty darn proud of.
|
April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
