Monster Mash: The real monster is inside us all. It's called "lymph"

I don't know what that means, but here are some links to distract you from that:

Look at this page of a Paul Pope comic for some French parody anthology or something. Now I want the whole story.

Jim Rugg has some sketches for an upcoming, as-yet-unannounced graphic novel. I'll be looking out for that one.

I thought this Daniel Clowes interview was really good reading.

In inter-blog inside joke news, I found this drawing by Tim Callahan to be hilarious.

And if you want to read stuff I wrote elsewhere, I reviewed Agents of Atlas #3 and Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2 at Comics Bulletin.

Okay, here's the real content. I didn't think I would be getting to it until tomorrow or so, but once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. SPOILERS ahead, but you could probably guess that, given that this is the final volume:

Monster, volume 18

By Naoki Urasawa

And so it ends. I had heard that the finale of this series was somewhat unsatisfying, as manga endings can often be, but I didn't find it to be anything of the sort. With the setup from the previous volume, in which most of the characters were plunged into an orgy of violence in a closed-off location with no escape, there's an incredible sense of urgency, as Tenma, Lunge, Grimmer, Franz Bonaparta, Nina, Dr. Gillen, and some locals do what they can to fend off their attackers and save as many innocent bystanders as possible. This leads to some amazing action scenes and violence that often comes out of nowhere. And at the same time, we get the final revelations about Bonaparta, Johan, and Nina, seamlessly worked into the exciting narrative. Everything rushes to a conclusion, with characters reaching the end of their arcs and backstory filled in, completing Urasawa's vast tapestry with a few final, masterful brushstrokes.

And what brushstrokes! There's constant excitement on nearly every page, with scenes like Grimmer's last stand against the bad guys beseiging the hotel where he and some others are holed up, or Lunge fully committing himself to the fight. Lunge might be my favorite character in the series, and he gets a doozy of a send-off this volume, with several memorable scenes, including the moment when he comes face-to-face with Tenma, declares his vacation over, and heads off to do his job as a policeman and bring the bad guys to justice:

And just look at how badass he looks striding off into the rain to complete his mission:

That's some excellent character work there, with the posture and facial expression giving him a determination that we can't help but believe. And it's not an empty gesture either; he ends up having an intense, violent fight with Roberto that brings out the most intriguing, dramatic aspects of both characters and really leaves you gasping as you frantically turn the pages:

And that's just one character; in addition, Grimmer gets a great exit from the series, calling back to his "Magnificent Steiner" personality that popped up in past volumes when he was pushed to the breaking point. But that doesn't happen this time; he's gained control of himself, and he won't let the programming he received as a child shape him anymore. He's out for juThis leads to a rather poignant final moment, given what we've seen of the character previously:

And we also get some nice reveals courtesy of Nina, who finally recovers all of her memories, learning what happened with Bonaparta and her mother. Urasawa gives us some highly effective scenes of her freaking out over Bonaparta's paintings of her and Johan, including one page that works wonderfully, depicting her memory of their mother as floating behind everything, informing everything that happened since they were torn from her:

That's some great work by Urasawa, as is this image of Nina collapsing to her knees:

The way he depicts the motion is so natural, with the wet hair flying upward, the clothes settling around her, and the motion of the body seeming so fluid. Urasawa is a great storyteller, but he's an amazing artist as well.

And then there's the final confrontation between Johan and Tenma, with most of the other characters thrown in for good measure. It's a perfect payoff to everything preceding it, and an amazingly dramatic scene, with Tenma trying to muster the will to end things, and all the other characters acting on their own impulses. But it all comes down to that expected confrontation, with the repeated imagery that is no less chilling than it's ever been, even though it's come to be expected:

And then, suddenly, it's over, and everyone is left to recover. We do get to skip ahead and see what becomes of all the surviving characters, and it's optimistic and positive, but with a tinge of regret and questions about what exactly it all meant. And then there's a wonderfully ominous, ambiguous ending that might leave some unsatisfied but left the perfect taste in my mouth.

But what does it all mean? The question has surfaced here and there throughout the series, as if the characters were trying to discern their place in the world as all the chaos raged around them. Ultimately, it comes down to life vs. death; we learn here that Johan simply couldn't deal with the uncertainty and unfairness that death brings into the world, and by taking the view that nothing matters, since we'll all die anyway, he went to the extreme reaches of that sentiment, casually murdering whomever he felt like and attempting to control people to enact his capricious, unpredictable desires. And when we learn where it all came from, it's a simple, yet frightening revelation. Is there a little Johan in all of us, who wants to rage against the unfairness of the world? What if all it took to turn us into a killer (or worse, an easily-manipulated shell of a person) was some conditioning to remove any troublesome emotion? It's a scary thought.

On the other side of the coin, there's Tenma, and his continued philosophy of life. As a doctor, he's dedicated to preserving life and combating death's grim pursuit, and he does that not just through medicine, but through encouragement and personal connection. We saw in volume 13 that his patients over the years came to love him, not just because of his life-saving abilities, but because he was friendly and approachable, willing to speak frankly to them and encourage them to not let their illnesses beat them. And we've seen that attitude time and again over the course of the series, as he helps people that he meets, trying to better the world through his respect for his fellow man. Some might have found him to be too goody-goody, but that positivity was a necessary contrast to Johan's darkness. And it's why he makes the decision he does at the end of the volume; even at the end of this long quest of his, he can't deny his true nature as a life-giver, and that's Johan's true defeat.

So there it is: good vs. evil. Light vs. darkness. Life vs. death. That's a gross, gross oversimplification of the series, but that's what it comes down to. The world may be a complex place, but sometimes the way we approach it can be simple, with the question being: do we let our eventual death defeat us long before it gets here, or do we make the most of the time we have? What's your choice going to be?

-----

Eh, I hope that wasn't too sappy of an ending. Man, what a great series. I'll probably have one more post to kind of wrap things up, so watch for that in the next day or two. And while I'm talking, thanks to anybody who read this series of posts and offered support, to Viz for sending me a good portion of the volumes for review, and to Urasawa for blowing my mind with his excellence.

Monster Mash: Small towns can be dangerous

Links of interest:  This has already gotten plenty of links, but it's pretty cool: somebody has posted photocopies of Big Numbers #3, the infamous "lost" Alan Moore comic.  I never read the existing issues of the series, but it's one that people have long talked about as something that it's sad we'll never get to finish reading.  The first two issues were illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz, and story about the third issue goes that his assistant/replacement Al Colombia refused to release the art, and eventually destroyed the originals (or maybe that was the fourth issue?  I don't know).  So it's kind of a big deal to actually see the issue.  Neat.

I don't know if I'm all that interested in this, but A. David Lewis has made all four issues of Some New Kind of Slaughter available for free download, hoping to be considered for the Harvey Awards (and probably the Eisners).  It's a series about flood myths around the world, written by Lewis with art by mpMann.  I haven't read it, and I'm a bit trepidatious, since I didn't like their previous project, The Lone and Level Sands.  But you never know, it might be good.

And since I like to link to online comics, check out this comics-format review by Alison Bechdel of Jane Vandenburgh's A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century.  It's neat.

On the news front: The new creative team on Runaways has been announced, and it's Kathryn Immonen and Sara Pichelli.  I haven't read anything by Pichelli (I only know of NYX, in which I'm completely uninterested), but her work does look nice.  And Immonen is a perfect choice for writing; hopefully she'll bring the same crazy, fun energy to the book that she brought to the recent Patsy Walker: Hellcat miniseries.  I might be interested in actually reading the series again.

Also, Chris Butcher announces the lineup for Comics Festival, the Free Comic Book Day comic that is coming out in conjunction with/support of the Toronto Comics Art Festival.  Looks pretty awesome.

And if you want to read more of my stuff, I reviewed last week's Dollhouse at The Factual Opinion.

Monster, volume 17

By Naoki Urasawa

The revelations are coming fast and fierce in this penultimate volume, although many of them are the kind that raise as many questions as they answer.  I don't know if Urasawa is going to be able to close everything out satisfactorily, but at least the series has been one hell of a ride.  And whether or not the various mysteries and plot complications are resolved, I still feel like I've spent plenty of quality time with well-developed characters, witnessed some gorgeous art and well-constructed comics storytelling, and breathlessly turned many a page while gasping at the mindblowingly tense chases and confrontations.  

But wait, it's too early to be writing a summary/conclusion about the series.  There's still this volume to discuss, and one more to go!  This volume kicks off with the continuation of the last one's cliffhanger, in which it was hinted that Nina, not Johan, was the twin who underwent Franz Bonaparta's brainwashing (or at least witnessed his nasty handiwork).  That turns out to be true, but what does it mean?  The series has tended toward the old "nature vs. nurture" question, asking whether Johan is inherently a monster, or if his upbringing made him that way.  The former seems to be true, since Nina managed to grow up to be relatively normal (although that seemed to come through repression of horrible memories), but who knows what further revelations will do to her.  She seems pretty devastated by this current one, and only Tenma can talk her down from killing herself, in a powerfully emotional scene:

But as this volume ends, she's on her way to the final confrontation with Johan, so everything might change with her once again.

The rest of the volume sees a skillful setup for the apocalyptic finale, as Inspector Lunge and Mr. Grimmer separately track Bonaparta to a small town called Ruhenheim, just in time to realize that it's a powder keg that's ready to explode...with murder!  It seems to be a plan of Johan's to commit "the perfect suicide", which would involve destroying all traces of his existence, including anyone who has any memories of him.  At least, that's what people say, but we don't even get to see him at all, unless he's one of the various shadowy figures haunting the town's narrow streets.

No, most of our time is spent getting to know a few of the inhabitants and understanding how just a small push can plunge everything into mayhem.  A drunk layabout doesn't get any respect from the town's other inhabitants, and his young son is continually tormented by bullies.  An old woman has a dog that constantly barks at nothing in particular, driving her neighbors crazy.  A teenage girl longs for someone to show up and take her away from the small-town drudgery.  A middle-aged couple bickers about the wife's habit of playing the lottery and hoping for an escape from their low-class existence, but when she unexpectedly wins, rather than rejoicing at their fortune, they end up fearful that the other townspeople will kill and rob them.  And somebody (Johan? Roberto?) seems to be dropping guns into people's hands, preparing to spark a frenzy of killing from the long-smoldering resentments.  It's chilling and ominous, and another testament to Urasawa's skills to make something like this believable in such a short span of pages.

There's plenty of other stuff going on as well, including Lunge and Grimmer confronting the long-hidden Franz Bonaparta (whose identity, unfortunately, is given away by the image on the back cover).  He apparently had a change of heart at some point, forsaking his evil ways and attempting to retreat to the middle of nowhere and live out his existence in peace.  What made him change?  Did he glimpse the true face of evil that he had unleashed?  Or is he working out some sort of plan that's even more obscure than the rest of the series' plots?  Whatever the case, it's all rather compelling, and Urasawa throws in some of his usual creepy details, like the discovery of an abandoned house that contains a multitude of obsessively-drawn portraits of a young Johan and Nina:

The intrigue doesn't stop, and all parties seem to be converging on Ruhenheim for a bloody showdown in the final volume.  I don't know if Urasawa is going to be able to answer all the remaining questions or wrap up the various plot threads in a satisfying way, but I can't wait to find out.  One volume to go!

Monster Mash: It's all coming together

I could probably link to something or other here, but instead I'll just say that this isn't much of a way to spend the last few hours of my twenties.  Or maybe it is; comics are cool, right?

[SPOILERS? Yes, spoilers!]

Monster, volume 16

By Naoki Urasawa

We're getting close to the end now, and Urasawa is finally revealing some of the secrets behind the series.  He's been teasing us with glimpses of flashbacks and fragmented memories for nearly the whole series, so it's pretty satisfying to actually see some answers for once.  There's plenty more to reveal, but with two more volumes to go, there's lots of space to show us everything, and some potential for great character moments while doing so, along with satisfying resolutions to long-running plots.  I sure hope it works out.

But in the meantime, this volume is packed full with fast-moving action, of the incredibly intense page-turning variety.  To start off, Tenma's latest ally, a dentist named Milan, has a quest for revenge to fulfill; he's planning to kill Peter Capek, the longtime ally of so-far unseen evil mastermind Franz Bonaparta.  Tenma tries to stop him, but finds that he can't really, since Milan's quest mirrors his own; he feels responsible for Capek's evil, just as Tenma feels culpable in Johan's crimes.  Milan was a childhood friend of Capek's, and he helped him escape to West Germany, only to find that he had terrible plans which involved the brainwashing of children to commit suicide.  It's a quick encapsulation of some of the themes of the series, but no points for guessing how it turns out.

Other highlights of the volume include the a police detective who is about to retire suddenly discovering new leads in the case of the twins who disappeared from from the hospital eleven years ago (back in volume one, that is).  It's a nice chapter, with the discovery slowly becoming apparent as the detective talks to a serial killer that he is transporting to a different location.  The guy is a taxi driver who seems to be inspired by Robert DeNiro (Urasawa was inspired by the movie that is, not the actual character), except he took the contempt for the scum of society well beyond Travis Bickle levels:

And it turns out that he got some prompting from Johan, which brings the detective into the thick of things, just prior to a peaceful retirement.  He might be getting too old for this shit, but hopefully Urasawa won't go with the easy cliche and have him die, but even if he does, I doubt it will be in an unsatisfying manner.

But the taxi driver isn't the only one; it turns out Johan has been manipulating several serial killers into doing his bidding, much as he did back in volume 5.  And we even learn the purpose, which would be to cover up scandals involving his new protege, the creepy guy from last volume who is being shepherded around by Capek.  See?  It's all related!

But then the volume really kicks in when Johan starts dismantling the organization that is trying to involve him in neo-Nazi activities, much as he did back in volume 4.  The first to go is The Baby, who gets a semi-tender moment with a stripper who actually seems to connect with him on a personal level; he was so lonely, always having to pay people for companionship, whether they were prostitutes or bodyguards.  And when he goes down, Capek gets especially paranoid, sure that he has no control over Johan and is bound to be killed.  This makes for some especially tense scenes, including one that contrasts rather effectively with the Baby's death scene, in which we saw only the smallest details (mainly an overflowing bathtub).  When Capek thinks his driver/bodyguard is going to shoot him, he reacts without thinking, with some surprisingly gory results:

And then things get even more tense, as both Tenma and Eva confront Johan's protege in an attempt to determine his location, while Nina goes after Capek and tries to get to her brother first.  She also learns the story of her and Johan's birth, which involves a eugenics scheme led by Franz Bonaparta (whose face we actually see, although only in a flashback).  He seems to be the real evil behind the entire series, but maybe Johan has surpassed him.  We've got two volumes to find out.

So the final few chapters here involve lots of yelling and pointing of guns, and even some actual shooting.  There are answers and confrontations, and the promise of more to come.  And it's incredibly gripping, with the heart thumping at each new reveal and fingers itching to turn pages as fast as possible.  That's what Urasawa does so well, and I hope he can keep it up through the end without creating the feeling that he cheated in any way.  But I trust him; he hasn't let me down yet.

-----

On a more self-reflective note, it seems I didn't have all that much to say about that volume, did I?  At this point in the series, it doesn't seem that there is all that much new to discover about Urasawa's technique, and any discussion of themes or whatnot can probably wait until the finale.  So we'll just have to settle for a repetition of "And then this cool/exciting/tense thing happened!" for now.  I hope you don't mind too much.

Monster Mash: Love is doomed

Non-Monster stuff first, so skip down to the cover image if you don't want to read my blathering and linkage:  

I haven't talked about Battlestar Galactica around here for the last couple seasons or so, but the final episodes and the lead-up to the finale have been pretty incredible.  And while I don't know if the last installment was perfect, it was probably about as satisfying as it could be, bringing everything to a conclusion and answering about as much as possible.  Some of the long-running mysteries were kind of hand-waved away as "God did it", but the divine has been a long-running aspect of the show, so it's not completely unexpected, and I did like the final nod toward "god" being some sort of alien intelligence rather than an actual deity; it satisfies my atheist urges, even though this is all fiction anyway.  But the best thing about the episode for me was probably the character moments; I teared up at least twice, once early on when President Roslin gave some final thanks to Dr. Cottle, who couldn't figure out how to react, and later on when Adama and Roslin were taking their final flight.  The final scene between Starbuck and Anders wasn't bad either.  Good times all around, with some exciting action and actual finality; I call it a win.

By the way, if you want to read more of my babbling about TV shows, I reviewed last week's Dollhouse at The Factual Opinion.  Man, that episode was terrible.  I still haven't watched the one from last night, but it better be good, or I'm done with this thing.

Links: I gotta point out this excellent review of an old Smurfs comic by Jog; it's an amazing piece of criticism, summarizing the story and enlightening readers by pointing out the Belgian politics that influenced the creators.  If there was a prize for internet criticism, this post would be the one to beat.

Tom Neely posted a nice one-page cover version of the X-Men story where Kitty Pride fought the demon in the mansion, done in the style of Nancy.  It was done for a charity art show; that guy can draw.

Check out Paul Pope's cover for the long-rumored and actually finally upcoming Marvel "indie" anthology!  Damn, that thing is beautiful; I can't wait to see it colored.

And speaking of Pope, DC has announced a new title called Wednesday Comics, and it's a pretty cool concept, replicating the format of old Sunday newspaper comics that took up an entire page, with some great creators involved, including Pope, Mike Allred, Joe Kubert, Kyle Baker (this appears to be where that Hawkman project he's been mentioning is going to see print), Neil Gaiman, Walt Simonson, Ryan Sook, Amanda Conner, and others.  I rarely get interested in new superhero-based projects, but this should be pretty awesome.

And finally, this preview of a new comics-instructional book for kids is charming and fun.  It's called Adventures in Cartooning, it's by James Sturm, Alexis Frederick-Frost, and Andrew Arnold, and it's coming out in April from First Second.  Looks like one to watch out for.

Okay, to the real content.  Watch out for SPOILERS:

Monster, volume 15

By Naoki Urasawa

It seems like I say this for every installment of the series, but wow, a lot happens in this volume.  We see some continued revelations about what's going on with Johan and the conspiratorial machinery that created him and wants to control him, Nina continues to regain her memories (including a somewhat dodgy scene involving hypnosis) and develops a new resolve to stop her brother, Detective Suk and Verdeman (Tenma's lawyer) discover in each other kindred spirits who want to bring out the truth, and Tenma encounters yet another person with a past that has been affected by the conspiracy and a desire for vengeance.  It's all excellent furthering of the plots, although with only three volumes to go, one wonders how Urasawa is going to wrap everything up satisfactorily.  He does seem to be relying on coincidences more and more often, including a scene in which Tenma is trying to escape on foot from the Frankfurt police and is somehow rescued and spirited away (after being knocked unconscious by a car) by somebody who just happens to be associated with his quest.  But at this point, you kind of have to just go with Urasawa's story; it's all or nothing.

And luckily, the emphasis on character overrides any clunkiness of the plot.  The real centerpiece of this volume is what goes on between Eva and her bodyguard Martin; they're both wounded individuals that have built up impressive, seemingly-impenetrable facades, and the moments where their exteriors crack and real emotion shows through is played wonderfully, giving real heart to the story, rather than concentrating solely on the tangled schemes that ensnare everyone.

The emotion starts early, with the first scene in the volume seeing Tenma confront Martin in a bar, only for Martin to beat the snot out of him and tell him to get lost:

Martin seems to have developed some affection for Eva, even though she treats him so scornfully.  But maybe he recognizes some similarities in her, as somebody who has suffered some losses and found her own way of coping.  Not that her methods are very healthy; they seem to consists primarily of constant drinking and mocking rejection of anybody she encounters.  But he managed to get through her shell too, if only by reversing the trajectory of his life and refusing to kill her.  We learn that he has twice seen people he cared for kill themselves when he had to opportunity to stop them.  When Eva expresses similar desires, he doesn't continue the trend; perhaps it's balking at doing the deed himself rather than letting others finish themselves off, but it seems that he has turned over a new leaf, refusing to allow someone to let despair overwhelm them, not if he can help it:

As we learned in last volume's flash-forward, this decision will have dire consequences for him, but it seems to be enough to have jostled Eva out of her drunken, nihilistic state, at least for now.  In a series of heartbreaking scenes, she waits for him at a train station, hoping to run away together, and it's fascinating and sad to watch her familiar look of contempt melt into one of sadness and even possible hope:

And then when she finds out Martin's fate, it turns to sorrow and regret:

Urasawa does such an excellent job with facial expressions that all this emotional information is communicated through the images; the words aren't even necessary to get the full effect of what she is feeling.  It's wrenching stuff.  Following these characters over the course of the series, we feel like we've gotten to know these characters, and we're going through this rocky emotional terrain right along with them.  And luckily, even though this seems like it could be a natural exit point from the series for Eva, it looks like we haven't seen the last of her.  I'm glad; she's turned into one of my favorite characters.

In addition to all this character work, a few important plot points are struck, including the revelation of another major villain of the series.  That would be Peter Capek, who appears to be one of the men behind the Red Rose Mansion, 511 Kinderheim, and the origins of Johan.  And, interestingly, Johan appears to have gained an apprentice, another young man with murderous intentions.  He has a confrontation with Martin that is deliciously freaky, mostly because he seems to be Johan's opposite; where Johan is cool and emotionless, he seems to get a perverse joy out of the idea of death and despair:

It's another counterpoint to Johan's inhumanity; Urasawa seems to be examining the various reasons that people kill each other, from loud displays of passion, to perverse serial killings, to calm and calculated genocidal impulses.  Or maybe he's just coming up with an array of different villains that are all compelling in their own manner.  Whatever the case, it's highly enjoyable to watch them bounce off each other, with the end result almost certain: Johan will execute all of his pale imitators, and only Tenma will be able to stop him, although everyone else, from Nina to Eva to Reichwein to Verdeman, will get involved in the ultimate confrontation.  We'll have to see how that plays out in the final volumes.  The end is not too far off now...

Monster Mash: There's more than one kind of puppet

Linkery: Here's the official theme song of James Kochalka's Superfuckers, with animation!

Monster, volume 14

By Naoki Urasawa

Wow, there's a lot going on in this volume (which I suspect will be true for every remaining book in the series).  First off, we learn a key secret involving Tenma's lawyer Verdeman, and then almost immediately jump to Nina and Deiter in Prague, as they locate the Red Rose Mansion, which causes Nina's memories to come rushing back to her, although only in fragments, revealing some horrific images of murder.  It's freaky stuff that only seems to get more harrowing as details continue to be slowly revealed.  And at the same time, we see that Johan has also recovered his memories, making his transition to his "monstrous form" complete.  And along with the twins' continued awakening, we get to see some of their mysterious past, including that fateful night in which young Nina (or Anna, as she was known at the time) shot Johan in the head (waaay back in volume 1), kicking off the entire epic struggle, at least as we've seen it; it seems that it's been going on for much longer.  But those scenes of the kids are some creepy stuff, especially a moment that calls back to Tenma's confrontation with Johan in volume 9:

It's impossible to tell what's going on with Johan (then or now), where these ideas came from, what they mean, or what actually happened during all these mysterious events, but the hope remains that we will eventually learn more and get to a point where we feel like we can at least slightly understand what occurred and what made Johan this way.  But in the meantime, it's incredibly unsettling to see him act like a robotic follower of some undefinable philosophy of superiority that also leads to both suicidal and murderous impulses.

This volume also sees the return of two characters that readers (myself, for example) may barely even remember: General Wolf, and The Baby, both last seen in volume 4.  They were both involved in some sort of neo-Nazi organization; the former is revealed to be the man who found Johan and Anna when they fled from Czechoslovakia to East Germany, and the latter is working for a man who has a strange interest in Tenma's ex-fiancee Eva.  Everything is connected, apparently, which we're learning as more and more of the dense web of connections in the series become apparent.

And Urasawa continues to demonstrate excellent storytelling skills, including some deft upending of expectations.  One of the best fragments of the volume involves Nina being cared for by Mr. Lipsky, a street puppeteer who seems to have some issues relating to people, to say the least.  Soon after his introduction, he is revealed to have an obsession with Franz Bonaparta, the author of the weird children's book that is behind a lot of the mysteries of the series, so it stands to reason that he's got a connection to the whole affair.  And sure enough, in the same chapter where we first meet him, we learn that he was a student of Bonaparta's at the Red Rose Mansion.  Urasawa doesn't even bother drawing out the mystery behind him, confirming the suspicion that an odd-seeming character in this series is going to be connected to the master plot.  Except, just when reader is feeling safe, he then goes to reveal that there's even more to the character.  It's a bit of double misdirection; there's definitely more than one trick up his sleeve.

Then, in later chapters, he uses a flash-forward structure, a trick that hasn't seen much use in the series so far.  We see a wounded man being rushed to a doctor, and find that he has a relationship of some sort with Tenma, but we don't know what.  Then we see flashbacks to him approaching Eva and acting as her bodyguard/escort at the behest of a mysterious man with unstated intentions.  It's already a somewhat tense setup, since we know that Eva is being targeted by Johan's underling Roberto (or Baul, or whatever his real name is), who is sure to show up again at some point.  But while their interactions are kind of lighthearted, with him expressing a distaste with jobs involving women, and her insisting that he dress nice and use good table manners when accompanying her to parties, the spectre of violence is hanging over their heads.  We'll have to wait until the next volume to see what exactly is going to happen, but it's going to be tense and exciting getting there.

And as always, in addition to the great pacing and plotting, Urasawa's art continues to impress.  In the scene where we first meet Mr. Lipsky, we see his puppet before we get a look at him, only to learn that he has no audience:

That panel of the puppet looking down the way at the more popular performer is a nice way of demonstrating the situation before we even see Lipsky's sorry face.  And along with a later scene, in which he seems to be interacting with a puppet that he has fashioned in the image of Nina, the scene is an indication that he relates to his creations better than to real people, and that he can express himself better through them than on his own.

Every page of this series is filled with this kind of detailed storytelling, a perfect combination of words and art to make for a gripping, encompassing story that doesn't disappoint.  Each subsequent just cements Urasawa in the pantheon of great comics creators; he's amazing, and it's just a treat to watch him do his thing.  I'm ready to rush into the next volume, but I'm starting to feel like I'm going to be sorry when it's over.

Monster Mash: Somehow, this turned into The Fugitive meets Les Miserables

One quick link, unless I find more: Publisher's Weekly has a fairly lengthy preview of Pixu, the horror comic from Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, Fabio Moon, and Gabriel Ba.  This is from the upcoming version that Dark Horse is releasing, which might or might not be different from the convention comic that the group put out last year.  I'm not sure.  I'm looking forward to getting to read it though.

[SPOILERS below!  You probably don't want to read this if you haven't read this volume and everything preceding it.]

Monster, volume 13

By Naoki Urasawa

Holy moley, can this comic get intense.  After the events of the last volume, which saw Dr. Tenma captured byt the police, he's been extradited to Germany and is about to stand trial for the murders that Johan committed (not all of them, no sir, just the ones from way back in volume 1).  That's an interesting enough development, but legal action isn't really the style of this series (Phoenix Wright it ain't), so intrigue quickly abounds when Tenma's ex-fiancee Eva enters the picture.  As we learned in volume 6, she witnessed the murder of one Adolph Junkers, and can thus prove Johan's existence, and therefore Tenma's innocence.  But she's not going to cooperate, since she's still holding a grudge agains him for ruining her life.  No, she wants him to rot in jail for what he did to her.  She makes for a loud, obnoxious figure in the story (any actress playing her in an adaptation would have to be willing to go well over the top), stumbling around drunkenly and berating old acquaintances that she happens upon.

At the same time, Tenma ends up with a crusading lawyer named Fritz Verdeman, who is hired by a consortium of all the people he's helped over the years.  Like most all characters in this series, both major and minor, he has a backstory that defines his character in a way that allwas readers to quickly get to know and understand him: his father was wrongly accused of being a spy in Communist East Germany, and he was sent to prison, only to be proved innocent years after his death.  So Verdeman has dedicated his life to fighting for those who are unfairly accused.

But Verdeman also has a partner in Tenma's defense, and we don't learn his identity at first, a sure sign that he's not only somebody we would recognize, but probably also a person with sinister intent.  Sure enough, it turns out to be Johan's creepy henchman (called Mr. Baul here, although that's probably a fake name), who seemingly died in the library fire in volume 9.  Not having seen his body, I suspected he might turn up again at some point, and here he is, mocking Tenma and voicing his intent to murder Eva.  That's right, he's actually planning to make sure Tenma is found innocent, since Johan apparently has plans for him, or at least wants to help him in return for saving his life.  But those plans don't include Eva, so he's going to get rid of her.  Or maybe he's just crazy and wants to kill her for fun.

Whatever the case, this sets off several chapters of three-way psychological gamesmanship, as Tenma decides to confess to the murders in an attempt to save Eva, Eva decides to testify on Tenma's behalf in an apparent recognition of his virtue, and "Baul" continues with his murderous plans.  So that mean's it's time for an escape, of course!  Tenma ends up teaming up with a fellow prisoner who is reknowned for multiple prison breaks (he's another character that gets quickly fleshed out with a brief backstory), and the race to save Eva is on.  We'll have to wait until the next volume to see what happens though; Urasawa is certainly a master of the cliffhanger.

That's some pretty damn exciting stuff just in that plotline, with tense conversations and confrontations, characters overhearing bits of information and reacting in various fashions, flashbacks to previous events (some that we've seen before and some that we haven't) that come at moments of realization or actualization, and some split-second decision-making.  And there's a lot more going on here as well, including Lunge's continued investigation into Johan's past.  He has apparently finally become convinced of Johan's existence (he previously believed that Johan was a separate personality of Tenma's), and he's researching that freaky picture book, with some surprising findings, including a letter that reveals obsessive madness with a nice Frank Miller-esque touch:

There's also a nice scene in which Tenma shows how he's been agonizing over the decision he made to save Johan, wondering if it was the right thing to do and whether it proved the philosophy of non-equality that he doesn't want to believe in:

And there's plenty more; this is a volume that's packed full of material, demonstrating Urasawa's excellent storytelling.  He can give us a series of tense, fast-reading showdowns, compellingly explanatory backstories and flashbacks, and interesting character explorations, knowing exactly when to switch modes for maximum effect.  And the art is just gorgeous, as always; check out the way he draws Eva's dress in this scene, with it's intricate pattern and fabric that drapes realistically:

He also utilizes an interesting flashback transition twice in this volume, showing a panel in which a character is remembering by filling it with fine vertical lines:

It's almost like a camera paning quickly downward, and it's especially effective on that page, since it, along with the wide gap between that panel and the one to its left, draws the eye downward, when it should be going to the left.  It's a bit of visual confusion that disarms the reader, creating an uneasy feeling that perfectly fits Tenma's confrontation with "Baul".  The same effect works really well when Eva flashes back to the night she saw Johan, with the vertical lines mirroring the rain that was falling:

And if you want an especially unsettling flashback, check out this moment when Eva recognizes that Baul has been in her room, remembering him from their previous encounter:

I had either forgotten that they slept together, or didn't realize it in the first place, but those panels of her memories are especially unsettling, mixing their gross imagery with skewed angles and a lack of panel borders to convey a jumble of feelings, none of them good.  It's a very effective technique.

But I wouldn't have expected any less from Urasawa, and I'm sure he's got plenty more up his sleeve.  On to the next book, and may my heart never slow down!

Monster Mash: Don't stop typing

Still going strong, even though birthday celebrations slowed me down last week.  That's right, my daughter is one year old already.  Yikes.  Next thing I know, she'll be in high school.  Gotta distract myself from the aging process:

Wait, one link: Andrew Hickey started a fascinating discussion about adaptations in general, and Watchmen in specific, asking what the ideal movie adaptation of the comic would be like.  I liked his version, but the one Jog offers in the comments is pure genius.

Or two: while we're talking Watchmen and adaptations, Canada's National Post has a comic illustrated by Steve Murray (a.k.a. Chip Zdarsky) that details the circuitous path taken between the book being published and the film finally being made.  Hat tip: Chris Butcher.

Monster, volume 12
By Naoki Urasawa

The mystery of Johan's origins deepens here, and some exciting new complications are added to the plot, making for an excellent volume, but the highlight here: Lunge on a vacation!  Nah, that's not really the best part, but it's kind of funny that he shows up in Prague, where the rest of the characters are already hanging out, and gets involved in the case again almost by accident.  He seems to be actually trying to relax, but he's also there to get a translation of the infamous picture book that has been a key to the series lately.  But when talking to the local police chief about the big case involving Detective Suk and Mr. Grimmer, he slips right back into his investigative habits, collecting data in his own unique fashion:

He also gets to investigate the writer of the creepy book, who we've learned is tangled up in Johan's past.  He definitely has some involvement with the Czech secret police, but could he also be Johan and Anna/Nina's father?  Lunge comes across some interesting clues, including some sketchbooks and a sealed room in an abandoned mansion.  As happens so often in this series, we're left hanging as to his conclusions or follow-ups to his findings, as the plot lurches elsewhere.  But we'll certainly return to this, even if Lunge gets distracted by what happens later.  But for now, we get some really well-done scenes, especially in the way Lunge's tension ratchets up as he finds himself drawn into the local intrigue:

We saw him almost absentmindedly typing above, but here he's back into his usual data-collection methods, his hands working themselves into a fury, until he realizes there's no going back:

I love the way Urasawa paces this, especially since we're already familiar with Lunge's obsessiveness.  Once the case gets a hold of him, It's only a matter of time before he's in too deep to back out.  

Urasawa's art is as great as always, with the sketchbooks looking especially nice.  They really appear to be artwork within the world of the comic, differentiating themselves from the linework that depicts the events that we are seeing, but still showing recognizable characters:

I think what seals the deal is the expressions on those kids; we've seen that before, and it's some creepy shit.

But Lunge's story is only a small part of the book.  Another highlight:  the return of Eva, Tenma's ex-fiancee!  She last showed up way back in volume 6, which saw her spiralling into alcohol-fueled despair.  Here, she pops back up again, demonstrating her old moxie, along with a possible hint of regret:

It's only a short appearance, but it's a promising one.  There's a major event that happens in this volume, but I'm sure will be a big focus in the next installment, so I'll reserve commentary until then.

No, the real centerpiece of this volume is another harrowing sequence involving Johan's manipulations.  We've seen him casually ruin lives before, but this one seems worse, because his victim is an abandoned child who just wants to find his mother.  Knowing that the boy was the son of a prostitute who left him at an orphanage, Johan (who is disguised as Nina, which somehow adds to the creepiness) sends the kid on a quest through the red light district to find her, exposing him to the cruel nature of the world in what seems to be an attempt to crush his spirits:

This sort of thing is like a hobby for Johan, and he's damn good at it.  The following sequence is hard to watch, since we know nothing good can come of the kid's search.  Tenma and Grimmer race to find the kid before the worst happens, but given Urasawa's track record, we feel like anything can happen; he's definitely heartless enough to off a kid if it's necessary.

It's another good volume, although I found one thing to complain about, that being Grimmer's continued anxiety about not knowing what he should feel.  He repeatedly asks Tenma what emotions he should be expressing, and it gets a bit tiresome.  This is probably a quirk of reading what was initially a serialized story in collected form, but it's surprising to see Urasawa strike a sour note when he seems to be in such perfect control the rest of the time.

Still, that's a minor quibble, and one of the very few that have popped up at all over the course of twelve volumes.  With all the rest of the intrigue and excellent storytelling, it's easy to ignore.  Instead, I can focus on the questions raised by scenes like the one in which a character remembers seeing Johan and Anna/Nina as children:

They seem near-identical there, both sporting that familiar malevolent smile.  What happened to turn Johan into a monster, while Anna escaped relatively unharmed?  Did the evil come from nature or nurture?  Will Urasawa define the "darkness" that characters keep referencing, or is it just a nebulous force of evil?  The thing is, these questions could very well be left up to the reader to decide, but I feel like Urasawa plans to answer them, at least partially.  I hope he doesn't let me down.

Monster Mash: Evil serial killers are evil

Elsewhere: I've got a review of Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #1 up at Comics Bulletin.  Jonathan Hickman!

Hey, I should mention that there are some spoilers here, if you haven't read the series before.  So watch out.

Monster, volume 11

By Naoki Urasawa

I'm gratified to find that I was right in my prediction about this volume: the murderous blond woman from volume 10 was actually Johan in a wig.  But that was actually pretty easy to guess; the rest of Naoki Urasawa's plot twists and complicated web of character interactions aren't so simple.  They are, however, incredibly gripping, with exciting developments coming along every few pages, and loads of bravura storytelling.  This volume sees some major events for Detective Suk, as Johan takes an interest in him and sets him on a similar path as he did for Dr. Tenma so long ago.  The question is why he would bother, other than just because it amuses him to mess with people's lives.  But he had more of a connection to Tenma, who saved his life as a boy.  Does that mean there's a hidden connection between Johan and Suk?  Or has Johan been doing this sort of thing everywhere he goes?

But what's even more interesting are the revelations about Mr. Grimmer, the journalist who is researching 511 Kinderheim.  After a particularly tense encounter that sees Grimmer and Suk pinned down in an abandoned building by agents of the former Czech secret police:

Later, Tenma makes his entrance to this part of the story, and Grimmer reveals that the reason he is so interested in the evil orphanage is that he grew up there.  This explains a lot, especially the way his constant cheerfulness seems so strange and offputting; it's all learned behavior, since he was programmed not to feel any emotion:

This turns him into a tragic figure, and one that is more directly involved in the story, rather than an outsider trying to get involved.  It's a sly move on Urasawa's part, and it leads to some excellent scenes, especially in a confrontation with the leader of the secret police.

Also good this volume: we finally get to hear what's on the tape of Johan as a child that Dr. Pedrov left to Grimmer, and it's as creepy as you would expect.  Which is a testament to Urasawa's skill; a scene in which characters listen to a voice on a tape is as gripping as any of the big confrontations in the series:

Another impressive moment comes when Nina returns to her childhood home, causing memories to surface.  Urasawa illustrates these in an offputting style that sees wavy, hesitant panel borders and what look like watercolor greytones, adding a creepy air to the jumble of context-less panels:

Beautiful stuff, as always.  

This volume seems kind of like a "setup" installment of the series, moving characters into place for bigger events down the road, but it's still full of excitement and intrigue, and a good helping of action and tense conversations.  On its own, it might seem a bit slight, but as part of the series, it's as integral as everything else.  Urasawa astonishes with his storytelling acumen, dribbling out bits and pieces of the plot in a way that satisfies but still leaves readers clamoring for more.  The next volume can't come too soon.

Monster Mash: Please don't let this turn into a superhero comic

Monster, volume 10

By Naoki Urasawa

After the excitement of the previous volume, it's back to what passes for business as usual in this series, with characters delving into Johan's past and uncovering dark, inexplicable secrets.  They come at it kind of obliquely here though, with the action moving to Prague and centering on two new characters who probably aren't even aware of Johan.  The first is Grimmer, a reporter who is trying to lay bare all of the atrocities that were committed at 511 Kinderheim, the orphanage where Johan brainwashed all the children and caused them to go on a murderous riot (we first learned about it way back in volume 3).  He's a great character, and Urasawa smoothly introduces him such that we feel like we already know him after just a few pages.  He's a sort of goofy, good-natured, disarmingly friendly sort, completely open about his intentions and background:

We might learn some of his secrets, such as how the death of his son prompted his quest for justice, but for now, he's the type that's happy to help anyone he meets (including Dr. Tenma, whose presence in this volume is little more than a cameo), maintaining a dopey exterior even when he's doing something like pretending to be stuck in a train's passageway to block some officers' path:  

He makes a good guide for this portion of the series, as he investigates that creepy orphanage.  And this leads to some tense scenes, as Grimmer confronts a former director of 511 Kinderheim, only to discover that he seems to be continuing his research on a group of strange-seeming young boys:

But not everything is as it appears on the surface, as we find when some nasty types show up with violent intentions.  In a surprising twist, the culprit seems to be Johan's sister Nina, but that can't be right; she's not the murderous type (unless Urasawa has a reveal in the works that she is secretly in league with Johan, or is being controlled by him, but that seems unlikely and farfetched.  One thing that works so well about the series is that it seems plausible, in an action movie sort of way, and that would stretch credibility a bit too far, given what we see here).  My guess is that it's actually Johan in a wig.

Grimmer gets some great scenes though, including a nasty bit in which he ends up on the receiving end of some fingernail-clipper-based torture:

But Urasawa changes it up near the end of the volume as he switches focus to Detective Suk, a young police officer that is investigating his role-model partner's death.  As an idealistic rookie, he's up for some eye-opening experiences, as he uncovers corruption in the force that is tied to the secret police left over from the Soviet regime.  But how does Johan factor into all this, along with Nina, who also seems to be trying to work her way toward the secrets of Johan's background.  And Tenma is there lurking in the background, ready to jump in and take over the plot at some point.

It's fascinating to watch Urasawa weave these plots together, while still making time for character moments and some excellently-paced scenes of confrontations and subterfuge.  As the volume ends, Suk and Grimmer are bound together inextricably; will they survive, or will they fall to Johan's continuing rampage of terror throughout Europe?  I can't wait to read the next volume and find out.