The ultimate hipster douchebag

Sometimes I think of dumb jokes:

Final Crisis: Some late, half-assed considerations

Links: Here are some pages from Jim Mahfood's upcoming comic, which is apparently an adaptation of a movie called Jennifer's Body? I dunno, I've never heard of it.

And for some weird, cool online comics, check out the work of Mykl Sivak. Adri Cowan at The Daily Cross Hatch linked to a freaky strip of his today, and now I've got a new talent to pay attention to.

And now, some ramblings:

Final Crisis

Written by Grant Morrison

Art by J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Doug Mahnke, and the cast of How I Met Your Mother

I feel like the last person on the internet to read this comic, so since I doubt I have anything to say that hasn't been said by everyone else, I won't bother trying to do a real review of this thing. It was an interesting reading experience though, since with all the various reviews, commentaries, annotations, and blog posts I've perused, it seemed like I had already read the book before I even cracked the cover. And after getting through the thing, well, the verdict is: yeah, they were all pretty much right. It's a hell of an ambitious work, and there are some great moments, but it seems like it kind of got away from Grant Morrison, and the tightness of the art that starts off the book definitely grows much looser as the final issue approaches.

The thing that I found, and it's kind of to be expected in a universe-spanning story like this, is that certain parts were crazy cool, but then things would suddenly drag while we had to catch up with all the supporting players. But then events would speed up again, to the point that it was near-impossible to tell what was going on. The best stuff was all the New Gods material; Morrison is one of the few people who can convincingly imitate Jack Kirby, and the approach he uses here is often awesome, with characters who have been possessed by evil gods spouting breathless proclamations:

The action is often pretty nice, with a convincing level of destruction and mayhem, and some of the character designs are quite cool. You'll be grooving on some crazy shit, and then have to suffer through pages of Green Arrow or somebody whining and hiding in a big building, or Mister Terrific going on about secret plans that never come to fruition (or do they? I couldn't tell, and kind of stopped caring).

The high point is definitely the two-issue Superman Beyond story, which is definitely my kind of Morrisonian event comic. Everything else takes a break as Superman goes on a mission through the multiverse and ends up in Limbo (which I think was last seen in Animal Man?). And then he has to move a book with an infinite number of pages that contains all possible information, then gets his soul transported into a gigantic robot so he can battle the vampire Monitor Mandrakk for the fate of all existence. It's totally nuts, filled with ridiculous dialogue:

And some of those awesome moments in which Morrison can glory in the greatness of fiction:

I get a bit tired of the idea that the origin of Superman is the greatest story that man has ever concocted, but for a scene in which Superman is fighting to save everything, it works; he's so awesome that his very life story can be used as a weapon.

Other positives: the Justifiers, people who have been possessed by Anti-Life, are great; I love their propaganda:

And Darkseid himself is great as an evil badass:

There are some other nice ideas, like the way his takeover of Earth compresses spacetime around it, screwing up and shattering the time continuum (and explaining any choppiness in the story). And I liked a scene near the end in which Superman comes crashing back into the present, and everybody else witnesses him just flying all-out and blowing shit away with his heat vision:

I'm not sure what was going on there exactly (was he still fighting Mandrakk's giant Destroyer machine?), but it's a great entrance after he had been missing for most of the main series.

On the negative side, I think the whole thing is just too big and scattered to really cohere into something great. Some stuff seems obligatory, as if various characters had to be shoehorned in without everyone receiving enough time to fully make sense. The Flash getting resurrected is a good example; he makes some comments about having gained the knowledge of how to defeat Darkseid, but it all happens too quickly to resonate, and then he disappears from the story. And while it's good that the Superman Beyond miniseries got included here (although it's weird that the rest of the story stops for a while for it), some parts seem to have been left out (like the story in Batman about him fighting the attempt to download his memories and create an army), and the Submit one-shot that did get included is just awful, especially coming right after the heights of Superman Beyond, with some hideous art and a draggy, momentum-killing story about the Tattooed Man and Black Lightning.

Eh, it's a fun book, and I'm glad I read it, but thank god for the public library, because if I had actually paid for this, I probably would have been pissed and highly critical of any incoherence, perceived or otherwise. Maybe it would have been different if I had read each issue as they came out, but I got that experience from reading all the online discussion. Yay, internet! Yes, experiencing this for free is definitely the best option.

More comics of the mini- persuasion

Elsewhere: I reviewed Immortal Weapons #1 at Comics Bulletin. That was a fun comic.

News/press release regurgitation: Viz informs me that the anime adaptations of two of my favorite manga series, Nana and Honey and Clover, are available to watch on Hulu (links: here and here). That's pretty cool. I haven't watched any Nana, but I'm curious to do so just to see how they handle the music; will it live up to what I hear in my imagination when reading the comic? As for H&C, I watched some of that series on fansub back before the manga was ever translated, and I loved it. It's a great adaptation, really funny stuff with some nice animation, good voice acting, and lots of funny comedy. At least, that's what I remember; it's been a few years. If you're curious about either of the series, I recommend giving them a watch. Can't hurt, right?

And now for some reviews of comics which were recently sent to me:

Brian John Mitchell of Silber Media was kind enough to send along five comics that definitely live up to the "mini-" prefix; they're each about 1.5 x 1.75 inches, and something like 40 pages long, which makes for a good little package. Here's what I thought of them, ranking them from worst to best in my estimation:

Lost Kisses #9-10

By Brian John Mitchell (?)

I think Mitchell was the creative force behind these, although there are no writer or artist credits on either of them. But he wrote all the others, so I think I can safely assume he wrote these two, and also did the art, which is limited to stick figures. Unfortunately, the writing matches the crudity of the artwork, being a series of self-involved diary-style musings on life and relationships. None of it is really all that compelling; Mitchell comes off as full of himself and kind of a jerk. Maybe it's supposed to be a bit transgressive and confessional, but it's mostly just uninteresting, and not all that easy to read to boot, since it can be hard to tell whether you're supposed to read the word balloons or the captions first on each page:

I hate to start out on a negative note, but I thought these were pretty poor, more appropriate for a blog or something, with the images being pretty much unnecessary. I wouldn't bother complaining about them, but the differential in quality between these and the other minis is pretty notable. I figure it's best to save the positive stuff for later, and luckily, all the others minis are quite a bit more interesting:

XO #5

Written by Brian John Mitchell

Art by Melissa Spence Gardner

This series is apparently about a young hitman, but this issue seems to function as the first part of a sort of origin story, in which he discovers his capacity for murder while simply trying to maintain his drug-dealing career. It's fairly effective, although the character is sort of a cipher, seeming to move through his life without emotion (although his internal monologue tries to argue otherwise). Maybe it's the art, which is occasionally effective in its cartoony figure work and features some nice toned shading rather than crude, simple linework, but can also be a bit stiff:

It's a decent little slice of a story, but not as compelling as it could be; I don't feel like I need to find out what happens next (or before). And the caption-based narration gets a bit grating, but maybe that's just reading a repetition of Mitchell's tics all in a row. He does better:

Worms #4

Written by Brian John Mitchell

Art by Kimberlee Traub

The Silber website describes this series as "surrealistic horror/sci-fi", and that's pretty appropriate. Even though this is the fourth issue, it's pretty easy to follow, with a one-sentence recap on the first page introducing us to the main character's plight, in which she is trapped in some sort of asylum and being experimented on. It's weird, but pretty effective, with strange details blending with crude, abstracted art to make for a compelling narrative that pulls the reader right into the tale:

It's a quick taste of the story, but it's enough to get the reader on board with its disturbing milieu, making us wonder what's going on and what will happen next. This is one that I'll have to try to keep up with.

Just a Man (#1?)

Written by Brian John Mitchell

Art by Andrew White

This western story is the gem of the bunch, telling a simple, effective story of violence and revenge; it seems like a Clint Eastwood movie along the lines of Unforgiven. The main character is a simple farmer who is quick to respond when his family is harmed, but it's an ambiguous ending; was the right man brought to justice (if you can call it that)? Or did he make a hasty decision based on rage and despair? Although it's not indicated on the comic itself, this is apparently the first issue, so we'll probably find out the answers, but it would be perfectly fine if the story ended here, leaving the reader wondering as to what really happened.

Andrew White's art is probably the element that really brings the story to life here, giving a scratchy, dirty feel to the setting, as if dust and sweat are covering everything we see:

It's definitely the best-looking of these books; I'm interested in another issue, but I'd be even more interested in seeing mitchell and White continuing on to a different story, just to see what else they can do.

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Lost Kisses aside, these are some pretty good little comics, a nice use of the small space they've set out. If you're interested, you can purchase them at the Silber Media link above, and you can also view or download electronic versions of some of them as well. Give them a try and encourage a developing talent!

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The Colorblind Art Teacher #2

By Mark Teel

I don't know if Mark Teel lives up to the title of his minicomic series, but if he's an art teacher, his work is pretty crude. I kid! As the husband of an art teacher, I know that you don't have to be a great drawer to teach people about art, and it's obvious that Teel knows how to tell a story. In this issue, he uses his simplistic figures to relate the tale of taking his young daughter (two years old is my guess) to swimming lessons and getting frustrated at her refusal to participate very much because she is scared. But this also brings up the memory of his own childhood, and the way his own father basically bullied him into jumping off the diving board. It's an amusing juxtaposition, although it ends kind of abruptly, and Teel does seem a bit harsh, but that is certainly a believable reaction to obstinate children and the frustration they can cause.

As mentioned, Teel's art is somewhat crude, with characters kind of being more-detailed stick figures (or, since that's kind of unfair, low-detail cartoons), but he gets a good bit of expression out of them, slumping postures and frantic motion combining with big heads and easily-read facial features:

It's a pretty nice little read; I'm curious to check out Teel's other work. If you're interested, you can see more of his work and order issues of the series at his blog.

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By the way, if you're interested in having your minicomics (or regular-style comics, or graphic novels, or whatever) reviewed here, feel free to email me at the address on the sidebar.

This week, I don't know what's going on

News: I was wondering what Mike Allred would be doing now that he's ending the current run of Madman, and now the news is out that he'll be providing the art on a new Vertigo series called I, Zombie. It's written by Chris Roberson, and it's apparently about a zombie girl detective or something. That's cool; I feel like Allred could use a break from writing his own comics. Hopefully this won't suck.

This interests me: I only found out about this weird movie through the blog of webcomics artist John Campbell, but I wish I had known more about it, since I could have gone to the screening in North Aurora. Maybe I'll try to catch it on DVD.

And: I contributed to Comics Bulletin's "Sunday Slugfest" group review of Boom!'s adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And yes, it is an adaptation, even if the full text is included; I originally called it that in the review, but they edited it out. Is Boom! being really finicky about that or something? Not that it's a big deal, but I thought that was weird.

New comics this week (Wednesday, 7/22/09):

100 Bullets #1 Vertigo Crime Sampler

This is kind of an odd choice for Vertigo to be using to promote its new Vertigo Crime line of graphic novels (unless they're re-branding 100 Bullets to go under that line or something), since it's a single issue of a long-running series rather than a self-contained book. Still, I suppose it's a decent promotion, because the series is beyond awesome. If you haven't read it, check it out, although I suggest skipping this thing and going straight for the first volume. You won't be disappointed, unless you're Noah Berlatsky.

Amazing Spider-Man #600

Big anniversary issue number one of the week. I haven't read any Spider-Man comics in a while, having grown fairly bored with the character (and kind of weirded out by the whole "selling his marriage to the devil" thing), but a big honkin' issue like this is often an interesting thing to behold. This one features a story that's something like 60 pages long by Dan Slott and John Romita, Jr. in which Spidey has a good old throwdown with Doc Ock, a metafictional story by Stan Lee and Marcos Martin, some sort of something-or-other by Mark Waid and Colleen Doran, and a bunch of other crap that might or might not be very interesting. Enjoy, nerds.

Atomic Robo And The Shadow From Beyond Time #3

Hey, it's more of the wacky adventures of everybody's favorite robot scientist! I've pretty much loved every issue of this series that I've read, and the first two parts of this current miniseries were no exception, with a bunch of action involving a Lovecraftian monster rampaging through New York after having possessed the body of the actual H.P. Lovecraft. Good times, I say read it.

Boys Herogasm #3

Sexual antics continue. I still need to read that most recent trade; I'm always behind.

Citizen Rex #1

Gilbert Hernandez! (and also Mario). This new Dark Horse miniseries by these excellent fellows involves a robotic future and what will surely be lots of madcap adventures that blow minds and freak out people like me. Since I'm a square, I'll wait until it's collected to read it, but I bet I'll like it whenever that magical date rolls around. Go Gilbert (and also Mario)! Hey, when is The Troublemakers coming out, anyway?

Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #5

Jonathan Hickman concludes his placeholder miniseries, which is now fully revealed as a prologue to his run on the main FF book. I do hope that won't suck, but this is kind of a letdown; it basically goes, "Leave us alone, Norman Osborn!" "Okay, but now I'm mad at you!" And then Reed talks about a mystery to be revealed later. Yawn.

Delphine #4

It's the final issue of Richard Sala's Ignatz series, and I bet it's a good read. Of course, I haven't read the first three, so maybe I'm wrong. You can see a couple preview pages here.

Dethlok VS The Goon (One-Shot)

The regular Goon series is on hiatus right now, but here's something fun to tide fans like me over, with the big lug meeting the world's most famous and brutal rock band. I don't know how that will make sense, since they seem to exist in different universes, but it should be fun. I trust Eric Powell; that guy is hilarious, and also a great artist. Don't let me down, EP!

Digger and Friends #1

Hey, maybe this book will get nominated for a Harvey next year, since it stars NASCAR's mascot. Wait, NASCAR has a mascot? And it's a gopher? That's just strange. Anyway, this is from IDW, and it will be "heavily supported" by Fox, so watch out for lots of rednecks in the comic shop buying their racecar gopher comics.

Groom Lake #4

Also from IDW: this Chris Ryall/Ben Templesmith comic about aliens. I read the last issue, and it was fairly enjoyable, although not quite as funny as it seemed to think it was. But Templesmith is always good for some nice art, and, hey, aliens, robots, and monsters! It's hard to go wrong with that sort of thing, right?

Grotesque #3

Here's the other Ignatz release this week, from Itialian artist Sergio Ponchione. I haven't read any of this one either, but it look weird and enjoyable. Preview!

Immortal Weapons #1

This miniseries is a spin-off of Iron Fist, starring Fat Cobra, Dog Brother, and the other weird, strangely-named heroes that Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker created. It's written by Jason Aaron, with art from Mico Suayan and a bunch of others, including Khari Evans and Michael Lark. I guess each issue is going to focus on a different Immortal Weapon, with this one being all about Fat Cobra, who can't remember his long past and has ordered a historian to research it, bringing him much surprise. A preview of this issue ran in last month's Immortal Iron Fist, and maybe elsewhere, and it was quite enjoyable, as one might expect from Jason Aaron. I bet this series will be a fun read. You can see what else I have to say about it tomorrow; I should have a review up at Comics Bulletin.

Incredible Hulk #600

Here's the other big anniversary issue of the week, although this one makes a bit less sense. Marvel has kind of mashed several different series together here to come up with the number 600, and what's even weirder, this series is going to continue on, and so will all the others that contributed to the numbering. It seems illegitimate; how dare they sully the pristine issue numbers of the series? Eh, whatever. Unlike the lengthy story in the Spider-Man book, this issue sees a bunch of different creative teams, including Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness on a story featuring different-colored Hulks, MODOK, and Spider-Man; Stan Lee writing something or other; Fred Van Lente and Michael Ryan doing more stories about their new version of She-Hulk, an excerpt from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Hulk: Gray; and some cartoony silliness from Audrey Loeb and Chris Giarrusso. An extensive package, yes, but I don't know if anybody needs this much Hulk in their life.

Jack of Fables #36

Jack keeps on Fabling. I need to finish the last trade of this series that came out so I can be ready for the next one and the big crossover, whenever that gets collected. Speed these things up, will you, Vertigo?

Runaways #12

Kathryn Immonen and Sara Pichelli's run on the series continues, and while I thought the first issue was good, I'm hoping things get even better here. It looks like Immonen is planning on shaking things up, and I trust her to tell a good story. She's off to a good start; don't screw it up! Please?

Supergirl #43

Is this issue the debut of Supergirl's new "bike-shorts" costume? I don't care! A teen girl flashing short-shorts at the reader is probably better than flashing panties (or bikini bottoms), but is it that much of a difference? Just don't draw her with her ass sticking out; it's not that hard. I was also going to make a joke about Power Girl here, but you know they're never going to stop drawing her as a T&A machine.

Wednesday Comics #3

I like this comic; it's fun to read. Does anything need to be said on a week-to-week basis other than that? Sure, I could make fun of the stupid super-Prozac line in the Superman strip or something, or marvel at Paul Pope, Mike Allred, Kyle Baker, Ryan Sook, and Eduardo Risso's art, but that's not saying anything that everybody else hasn't said already. I'll be reading it and enjoying it; that's all.

We Kill Monsters #1

A new series from Red 5, about dudes that need monster blood to survive or something. It looks nice, although I didn't read the Free Comic Book Day sampler, so I haven't really gotten the full preview. Maybe worth a look? I'm so indecisive when it comes to recommendations.

Adventures of the MASK Omnibus

It's another thick-ass Dark Horse volume, collecting some of their old comics. This isn't the good, John Arcudi/Doug Mahnke stuff though; it's the cartoony comic version of the Saturday morning cartoon that was a spin-off of the Jim Carrey movie adaptation. By this time, the material had lost pretty much all of its teeth, and just wasn't all that funny, from what I've read. Maybe there are some gems in here, but it's not anywhere near the best of the series by any measure.

Awakening Vol 1 HC

This book from Archaia collects (the first part of?) a miniseries about small town murde

rs that might or might not have been caused by zombies. It's by Nick Tapalansky and Alex Eckman-Lawn, and it looks to have a sort of scratchy, wispy style that seems kinda cool. You can preview some of the individual issues at Archaia's site.

Creepy Archives Vol 4 HC

More classic horror comics from Dark Horse. Expensive, as always, but sure to feature some good stuff, although I can't find a list of contributors anywhere. The short preview at Dark Horse's site has art by Neal Adams, so that's something. Enjoy?

Elephantmen Volume 2 Damaged Goods TPB

I often hear good things about this series, but I still have yet to read it. And now I'm further behind, as ever. Ah, maybe one day I'll be able to experience the wonder of animal dudes being sad about killing.

Flight GN Vol 6

This is getting pathetic. Every time a new volume of this anthology series appears, I express a desire to read it, along with all the previous volumes, but I still have yet to get to any of them. Ridiculous. One of these days, I'll actually read some of them, but who knows when it will ever happen. Anyway, this volume is probably as good as the others, with contributions from the likes of Kazu Kibuishi, Kean Soo, and probably most of the usual suspects. Fun!

From Wonderland With Love Danish Comics In The Third Millennium TP

I thought this came out already, but maybe not. It's Fantagraphics' collection of Danish comics, and it looks pretty excellent. Read it, says I, and I hope I can follow my own orders. Here's the page on Fanta's site where you can see a preview.

Little Mouse Gets Ready HC

This latest volume in the Toon Books series of kids' comics looks good, in that it's by Jeff Smith, so it will feature great artwork. But the subject matter might be a bit too simplistic even for me, as it seems to focus entirely on a mouse putting his clothes on. That might be an exciting adventure for the young'uns, but I think I can safely say that I've progressed beyond that stage in my development. If my daughter was a little bit older, this would probably be a perfect book to get and read to her; maybe I'll do so anyway and see if she can pick something up.

Mouse Guard Volume 2 Winter 1152 HC

The second volume of David Petersen's awesome fightin'-mice series gets collected. If you liked the first one, this features more along those lines, as our intrepid heroes fight bats, a giant owl, and the deadening chill of winter. Good stuff, says I.

Myspace Dark Horse Presents TP Vol 3

More webcomics in print form, and since Myspace is folding (or on its way to doing so; the comics section of the site has closed down), this might soon be the only place to read them, although they're still online for now. This volume contains stories by Sarah Oleksyk, Chris Onstad, Becky Cloonan, Mike Mignola, Farel Dalrymple, and Stan Sakai, among others. Pretty good stuff, but not really essential.

Richard Stark's Parker the Hunter HC

Ooh, here's the highlight of the week; I'm going to have to run out and get it and dive right in. I've been excited about Darwyn Cooke's adaptation of the famed crime series ever since I first heard about it, and it's finally here. You better not let me down, Cooke! You can also get an artbook that featuring Cooke's designs on the series. I bet that's pretty too.

Union Station GN New Edition

I've never read this true crime comic by Ande Parks and Eduardo Barreto, but it looks pretty good. It apparently involves a train transporting a criminal, a reporter and a massacre, taking place in 1933. Cool. Oni has this new version of it, and you can see a five-page preview here.

War Stories Graphic History SC

Not a comic; this is one of those books about the history of war comics, which is certainly an interesting subject. Here's more info, if you're interested.

Weasel Patrol GN

It's a comic about intergalactic crime-fighting weasels; you probably don't need to know much else. You can see an eight-page preview here.

You Have Killed Me HC

Another Oni crime book, although I thought it had already come out. This is the one by Jamie Rich and Joelle Jones, and I've heard good things. Oni's site has a 31-page preview.

You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation TP

Another book that I thought had come out already, but who knows. Fletcher Hanks, bizarre shit, psychotic punishments, weird art, you probably know the drill by now. Here's the usual spot for previews and all that jazz.

All You Need Is Kill TP

Lord Of The Sands Of Time TP

On the manga front, Viz has these books that aren't manga at all, but sci-fi novels translated from Japanese. The first is about an endlessly-reincarnated soldier falling in love, and the second has to do with a time-traveling robot or something also falling in love. Both could be quite interesting, depending on the quality of the translation. I have the first on my review pile, so I might be able to get to it sometime.

Children Of The Sea Vol 1 GN

Viz also has the first print volume of this seinen title that they've been serializing on their SIGIKKI site. I've only read the first couple chapters, but it was pretty nice-looking stuff; I should try to get to the rest soon.

Oishinbo A La Carte Vol 4 Fish Sushi And Sashimi TP

Another volume of the cooking manga that everybody seems to love. I liked the one that I read, and I have this one at home as well, so I'll try to read it as soon as I can. I do like cuisine-based nationalistic fervor and familial conflict.

Real Vol 5 GN

And here I go, falling behind again. I still haven't read volume four of this series, even though it's currently one of my favorite manga being published. I gotta get caught up on my wheelchair basketball.

Vagabond Vizbig ED GN Vol 4

And finally, we've got another massive volume of samurai adventure by Takehiko Inoue. I was hoping to get caught up on this series one day, but even with the VIZBIG volumes, I've got a ways to go.

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And that appears to be the week. I should get my ass in gear and do more writing around here. Stay tuned, maybe you'll see some.

Johnny Hiro: Maybe we do need another one

Elsewhere: I reviewed Agents of Atlas #8 over at Comics Bulletin.

News: I don't usually talk about press releases that I receive, but I did want to mention that Viz is officially launching sigikki.com, their online seinen manga magazine that has been running Daisuke Igarashi's Children of the Sea. That is, the launch date is July 23, and if you want to read all about the series that will be running, here's one place that has the whole press release. Out of all the titles, I'm probably most interested in Saturn Apartments, Tokyo Flow Chart, and maybe Bokurano: Ours. Also, Afterschool Charisma has a bizarre concept, I'll Give It My All...Tomorrow sounds like it could be something close to the salaryman manga that we've been wanting to see over on these shores, and House of Five Leaves might be a cool samurai manga. There's good potential here; I'm kind of excited.

Johnny Hiro

By Fred Chao

For my money, Fred Chao draws the best smiles in comics. Any fool can throw a toothy crescent on the front of a face-shaped oval, but when Chao does it, it really stands out, making his characters beam with joy and happiness. The minimalism of his approach probably adds to the effect; with dots for eyes, simple lines defining other facial features, and blacked-in shapes for hair, the big grins really stand out on characters' faces:

Of course, that in itself isn't really that big a deal, but another thing Chao does so well is craft his characters in a way that we really like them, enjoy spending time with them, and want them to be happy, so when they achieve that happiness, however fleeting it may be, we smile right along with them.

It also helps to be really funny, come up with exciting conflicts, fill pages with cool visuals, and make the read a fun experience that has readers enjoying the time spent with the characters and not wanting the book to end. And that's what Chao does, detailing the adventures of the titular protagonist as he simply tries to get by in New York City along with his girlfriend Mayumi. Over the course of the book, he has to face a rampaging monster, knife-wielding chefs, samurai businessmen invading the opera, angry fishmongers, and the city court system. Each chapter is great fun, but while events can get a bit fantastical, it's all still grounded in reality, as Johnny just wants to make enough money as a busboy/cook/waiter to support himself and Mayumi while not screwing things up more than he already has. The action is lots of fun, but we spend just as much time on mundanities like moving into a new apartment or getting ready to go out for a night on the town. And the surprising thing is, those parts are just as good as the bits of frenetic excitement, if not better, probably due to the cute interplay between Johnny and Mayumi. Mayumi is especially fun, sporting charmingly broken English and a silly sense of humor:

The action is tons of fun as well, due to Chao's excellently dynamic sense of movement. His cartoony characters move fluidly through urban environments that have a real sense of depth (while not seeming so rigidly defined as to stand out from the rest of the artwork), making things fun to watch:

And they usually culminate in huge moments of craziness, which never fails to bring a smile to the face. And speaking of smiles, Chao's use of humor is excellent, whether through a perfect sense of timing:

Or in the relation of funny anecdotes:

It's great fun all around. If there's anything to complain about, it would be the occasional overuse of third-person narrative captions, which at their best can provide illuminaiton on Johnny's inner emotional state while he's fleeing from crazed attackers, but sometimes drag things down with a bit too much wordiness.

But any minor complaints are quickly overridden by the next bit of greatness, coming in the form of a zany bit of action, a funny flashback, a perfectly executed layout (an overhead-view tour of Johnny and Mayumi's new apartment makes for a particularly bravura page), or a touching moment of human connection. There's something to enjoy on every page here, and I haven't even mentioned pleasures like Alton Brown occasionally interjecting to correct some bit of food trivia, the seemingly-random celebrity cameos (David Byrne! Gwen Stefani! Judge Judy!), or the wonderful sound effects.

Interestingly, the volume starts out with its most high-concept bit of fantasticality and slowly becomes more and more down to earth, choosing instead to focus on human concerns and developing the characters' relationships. And since Chao does this so well, the move away from action is barely even noticeable. That's some good storytelling right there, and luckily, even though it's not obvious, the back cover flap lists the title as "Johnny Hiro volume 1", meaning that hopefully we'll be able to read more in the future. That possibility is what can keep hope alive in the interim, right?

This week, I'm not as excited to get to the comics store

Link: In preparation for the upcoming Beasts of Burden miniseries, Dark Horse has posted the original 2003 Evan Dorkin/Jill Thompson story featuring the characters, "Stray", on their website. It's a good one; I think it even won an Eisner. Check it out if you haven't read it, then get extra excited for the new comic.

If I was going to SDCC, I would probably want to pick this up. It looks nice.

This New York Times collection of Al Jaffee's fold-ins for MAD magazine is pretty cool.

Anyway:

New comics this week (Wednesday, 7/15/09):

Agents of Atlas #8

Jeff Parker keeps things rolling on the awesome series; I hope people are reading it, so it doesn't get cancelled. This issue sees the team fight some freaky monsters and meet the Hulk. Art is by Carlo Pagulayan, and the coloring seems somewhat improved, from what I can tell. More along the lines of what's been on the Gabriel Hardman issues. I like this book; I should have a review up at Comics Bulletin tomorrow.

All Select Comics #1 70th Anniversary Special

More old-school superheroics, with this issue being about the sexy Blonde Phantom, by Marc Guggenheim and Javier Pulido. Also: Michael Kupperman with a story about Marvex the Super Robot! I think that one is also going to be in the Strange Tales MAX series, so maybe this is a sort of preview. Fun?

Creepy Comics #1

Dark Horse is reviving the horror anthology that used to run way back when, providing a monthly dose of black and white creepiness. This issue sees the likes of Berni Wrightson, Jason Shawn Alexander, Neil Kleid, Angelo Torres, and others, with covers by Eric Powell. Here's a short preview.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? #1

Boom! Studios has this adaptations of Philip K. Dick's novel (you know, the one that Blade Runner was based on), by Tony Parker (who is only credited with art, and Dick credited with writing, although somebody must have done the adaptation). It looks interesting; maybe it'll turn out good. Blade Runner has never been among my favorite films, and I think I read the novel in high school, although I don't remember a whole lot from it. I would say that other stuff by Dick is probably better, but whatever.

DMZ #43

Brian Wood, Ryan Kelly. War's still going.

Fables #86

The war's over here, but there's more fairy tales to be told. Let's get the next volume out, and then follow up with the crossover volume toot sweet, okay?

Fables #1 Peter & Max Preview

And here's an odd little sampler, with an excerpt from Bill Willingham's upcoming prose Fables novel and a reprint of the first issue of the series (and maybe someting from 1001 Nights of Snowfall? I thought I saw that somewhere). I guess it's something to get people on board (although I maintain that the second volume of the series is better than the first), but a free giveaway would probably be better than charging a dollar for it.

From the Ashes #2

Bob Fingerman continues to wander the post-apocalypse with his wife and complain about Blackberries, or something. Here's a funny(?) story: I said hi to Fingerman at MoCCA when he was signing at the Fantagraphics table, telling him that I liked his work. His response was to gesture at the stack of Connective Tissue volumes sitting in front of him and say "Why don't you buy the book then?" Ah, what a genial fellow! That's okay, artists are allowed to be abrasive.

Incognito #5

Hey, this is a good series, isn't it? I sure liked that last issue.

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #3

That goofy mutt and his pals are still questing for Infinity Gems, and this issue takes them under the sea, to Namor's realm, then they get to meet little Bo Obama, to everyone's general eye-rolling distaste. I guess this series is enjoyable enough, but it's so lightweight and inconsequential that it will probably be instantly forgotten the day after the final issue comes out.

Nexus Space Opera Acts 3 & 4

So apparently Steve Rude is having financial problems, so the final two issues of the current Nexus miniseries are coming out together. Not that I was reading them or anything. But you get two comics in one for only five bucks; enjoy! I really should catch up on this series...

Poe #1

Another Boom! book; this one imagines Edgar Allen Poe as a supernatural detective, "for fans of books like Hellboy". I doubt he's going to punch and monsters or say "Aw, crap" though.

Rasl #5

Jeff Smith! I've been loving this series, so I'm excited to read more, as always. What was going on again? I think we were getting a backstory infodump that had to do with the Tunguska Event and the Philadelphia Experiment, right?

Robot 13 #1

I glanced at this book at MoCCA, but it didn't really seem that enticing; the art style is a slavish Mike Mignola imitation; it's something about a skull-headed robot fighting monsters, but it seems like such a Hellboy wannabe that I can't summon much interest. You can see some preview pages at the official site here if you want to judge for yourself.

Robotika For A Few Rubles More #1 & #2 Double-Sized

This series seemed like one I would be interested, but I never really got the chance to check it out, and it seemed like it was going to disappear when Archaia was having problems. Now that the company seems to have recovered, the current series is getting a second chance, with a re-release of the first two issues. Maybe this is my chance to catch up.

Rotten #2

I wasn't really aware of (or had forgotten about) this comic, which is a sort of western/zombie mashup from Bluewater, but it seems interesting enough. Here's the second issue; maybe it won't be bad. Hope springs eternal.

Unknown #3

I've been meaning to read this supernatural mystery series from Boom!, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Greg McElhatton seems to think the first two issues were pretty good.

Wednesday Comics #2

I didn't comment about this after reading it last week, because I figured it wouldn't be all that interesting to join the comics-internet-wide chorus saying that it's pretty good, but I did like it. My favorites: Paul Pope's Adam Strange (surprise, surprise, right?), Gaiman and Allred's Metamorpho, Gibbons and Sook's Kamandi, and, I dunno, maybe Hawkman and Deadman? I bet this issue will be good too.

Zeke Deadwood Zombie Lawman #1 Legally Dead

Wait, another western/zombie comic? This one is by Thomas Boatwright and Ryan Rubio (creators of Cemetary Blues), and maybe it's a bit funnier? You can supposedly read a 10-page preview here, but it's not working for me right now.

Batman Whatever Happened To the Caped Crusader HC

Last week was Alan Moore's farewell to Superman, now we get Neil Gaiman's Batman version. I didn't read this story, but it sounded kind of dumb, and even though people seemed to think Andy Kubert's art was good, it didn't seem much better than his usual blandness whenever I looked at it. But if you dug it, now you can have this overpriced ($25) hardcover that also includes a couple other Gaiman Batman stories. Yay!

Captain Britain Moore Davis Omnibus HC

Whoa, I didn't know about this book. I think it contains the entirety of Alan Moore and Alan Davis' run on the series, along with some other stuff, like Chris Claremont's appropriation of some of the characters for the X-Men. I've heard that this is good stuff, so I would love to read it, but I definitely won't be able to afford the $100 for this volume. To the library!

Dan Dare Omnibus TP Dynamite Edition

I thought Dynamite had already released a collection of Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine's Virgin Comics miniseries, but maybe I was wrong. Or maybe they've got a new version out. Whatever the case, it's pretty good, a nice war comics-style tale of British derring-do that happens to take place in space. Good times.

Dreamer Volume 1 Consequence of Nathan Hale TPB

IDW is publishing this collection of Lora Innes webcomic about a girl who imagines herself as a historical character participating in the American Revolution. It looks nice from what I've seen; as with all web-to-print books, I'll point out that you can save dough by reading it for free online.

Enders Game Battle School HC
Enders Shadow Battle School HC

Did anybody read these Orson Scott Card adaptations? I was curious about them, since I do really love the novel Ender's Game, but I'm hesitant to approach any of Card's work these days due to his ugly, outspoken political views. The adaptations were written by Christopher Yost, with art by Pascual Ferry on the first one and Sebastian Fiumara on the second. Not that I plan on buying them, but somebody let me know if they're worth a look-see.

Hum GN

Here's a book with an interesting-sounding sci-fi premise involving a space colony in which a bunch of the people have been stricken blind, and the ones retaining their sight have forced everyone else into slavery, leading to eventual revolution and whatnot. Is that interesting? Maybe it's not interesting, and I'm just a sucker for sci-fi. It could be okay though. You can see some more information on the book's Myspace page if you want (I hate Myspace pages for comics; they're all so fucking hard to navigate and seem to never have much in the way of useful information).

IDW The First Decade HC Slipcased

I don't know if there are any fans of IDW as a publisher, but if so, here's the book for you. $75 gets you a slipcased double-hardcover, with one volume containing interviews and whatnot with a bunch of the people involved with the company, including creative talent like Ben Templesmith, Steve Niles, Ashley Wood, Chris Ryall, and a bunch of others. The second volume reprints the covers from every issue the company has ever published. And there's also an exclusive comic that includes Popbot and Wormwood stories, among others. That's something, I guess, but who knows if anybody besides investors will want to buy it.

Light Brigade New Printing TPB

I was just reading about this 2004 Peter Tomasi/Peter Snejbjerg supernatural WWII series the other day, and now DC is putting out a new edition. It's too expensive though, costing $20 for what was originally a four-issue miniseries. Quit screwing us, DC!

Lost Girls HC Single Volume Edition

I've never read Alan Moore's pornographic magnum opus, and to tell the truth, I'm not really all that interested in doing so, unless somebody wants to send me a free copy. But I'm more likely to get this one than the huge set of hardcovers that Top Shelf had previously released. Maybe if I win the lottery.

Preacher Book 1 HC

DC is giving Garth Ennis' probable most famous series the deluxe treatment, rereleasing it in fancy, expensive hardcovers. This one collects what were originally in the first two volumes. It's a damned good series (if occasionally a bit juvenile in its attempt to be sexually frank and shocking), so I recommend checking it out if you're interested.

Smuggling Spirits HC

I reviewed the first volume of this series way back in September 2007, and I thought it was quite interesting, full of spooky mood and a neat Frank Miller influence. This volume collects the whole story; you can read more about it in this CBR interview that includes some preview images.

Spider Judgement Knight TP

Moonstone seems to be crafting an identity of comics featuring old-school pulp heroes, and here's one reviving the Spider, a masked detective that would just go around shooting bad guys, from what I understand. It's by Norvel W. Page, Howard Hopkins, and Gary Carbon; you can read a little bit about it at Moonstone's site.

Spider-Man Torment HC

Oh lord, Marvel just keeps wanting to dredge up the lame stuff in their catalogue, don't they? This was the first storyline on Todd McFarlane's non-adjectived Spider-Man series, and it's pretty obvious that it was written by an artist, with lots of huge splash images and not much in the way of actual story. Does anybody really need to spend $20 on a hardcover collection? Hell, the damn thing sold so many copies that you're sure to be able to find the back issues in any shop's bins for only a couple bucks each, if that. Please don't waste your money on this book.

Will Eisners Family Matter TP WW Norton ED
Will Eisners Minor Miracles TP WW Norton ED

Two more of Eisner's books in the format that Norton is releasing them in. I haven't read these, but I'm sure I'll get to them someday; I do love me some Eisner. I think they were some of his later books, but I could be wrong about that. I bet they're good though, and I doubt that supposition is incorrect.

World War Robot Volume 2 TPB

It's the second volume of Ashley Wood's illustrated stories about soldiers fighting bucket-shaped robots and whatnot, with ties to the toy line he produced. I read the first volume, and it was all right, mostly a bunch of cool images with a little bit of connective tissue holding it together. Of course, I really like Wood's art, so if he doesn't do anything for you, stay far away.

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That appears to be everything that I found notable. I don't know if I'll make it to the shop this week, but probably not, since I've got more than more than enough to read as it is. I'll do what I can to catch up; stay tuned.

Shonen Jump: Not girly enough

Some linkiness: I (along with the rest of the world) was unaware of Rick Veitch's involvement with the creation of the Marvel Comics character the Sentry, but he has the story in a series of posts on his blog. I pretty much hate the character, but there's a germ of an interesting idea in there, and now I can attribute that to Veitch, and all the lame stuff to Paul Jenkins.

Looks like Powers is getting relaunched again, and it's supposedly going to come out monthly. We'll see how that goes. I still need to read the most recent collection...

The new "issue" of Dark Horse Presents (relocated to DH's site, at least for now) is up, and it's a good one, with a superhero story by Gilbert Hernandez, a "Giant Man" tale by Matt Kindt, and a Buffy story illustrated by Jo Chen. Cool.

I like this illustration of Macchu Picchu by Paul Pope.

And speaking of Pope, he did some really cool illustration work on this (mostly safe for work) photo gallery of girls in various states of undress for Marc Ecko's Complex magazine. Man, that guy can draw.

On the manga weirdness front, Scott Green has posted a couple pages from Hiroaki "Blade of the Immortal" Samura's series Halcyon Lunch. Freaky!

Oh, and I also blathered on about last week's episode of I Survived a Japanese Game Show over at The Factual Opinion.

Okay, on to my bitching:

Shonen Jump

August 2009

Since I had a subscription to Shojo Beat, I'm now receiving issues of Viz's manga magazine from the other side of the gender divide. I deeply mourn the loss of my monthly dose of girliness, so why not take it out on a few series that I have little knowledge about? That's not all that fair, but it's at least an interesting exercise to jump into a long-running series and see how much I can understand and how well information is conveyed to a new reader. As with SB, the series cover a range of quality, from enjoyable and well-done to tiresomely obtuse and hard-to-follow. That's the way it goes, I suppose. As for non-manga content, what there is is pretty negligible, mostly related to anime, video game, and collectible card game tie-ins to the various manga series. There's also reader-submitted fan-art, which is nice to see; even the lesser series can inspire creativity.

Okay, lets's see what sort of sequential storytelling this magazine has to offer:

Waqwaq

By Ryu Fujisaki

The title of this series amuses me; it sounds like a duck's noise. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's got a few somewhat interesting ideas behind it. The first couple of pages feature some psychedelic coloring (of the sort that can be seen on the cover of the first digest volume), but the rest of the story loses that energy, taking place in a vast post-apocalyptic wasteland. Apparently humans have been driven underground by killer robots and taken to living in earthen-domed cities. Our heroes are a traveling father and son; it turns out that the father is Guardian Al, a guy who can combine with their pet, a good robot, and defend humanity against the nasty machines. Of course, a shonen series isn't going to follow somebody who is already an established, respected champion, so you know something is going to have to happen to the father that will make him pass his mantle on to his son, the skunk-headed son. Sure enough, an attack by a giant horde of robots that take the shape of a giant man-like figure ends with a heroic death, and young Shio gets saddled not only with being a guardian, but the responsibility of protecting a (time-displaced?) young girl who seems to be the supernatural power behind the machine attack.

Thats some pretty basic Shonen stuff, and there's definitely some crazy energy here, but the action can get hard to follow at times. Still, there are some interestingly weird touches, like the organic designs of the machines, or the techno-symbiotic way they combine with people:

Or the bizarre appearance of a smiley face on the machine man:

The first chapter of a series isn't usually enough to make a complete decision, so things could easily get tiresome after this, but there's potential here, so it might be something to keep an eye on, if goofy shonen robot-battling is your sort of thing.

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Naruto

By Masashi Kishimoto

Oh lord, this is obviously not the place to jump into this incredibly long-running series (this issue of the magazine contains chapters 434-437); I was not only completely lost, but even though it was all high-stakes fights, most of it came off as boring, and surprisingly slow-paced. Naruto is fighting a guy named Pain, who can apparently possess several bodies at once, with the main one looking like a double of Naruto himself, except with black studs along the sides of his nose and concentric circles in his eyes. He's incredibly powerful, and Naruto is trying to figure out a way to defeat him, along with some frog mentors and a slug (?) that rides his shoulder. While there are occasional blows struck, most of the time seems to be spent discussing strategies, chakras, "jutsus" , and who knows what other gibberish. When the actual action happens, it's pretty cool:

But about halfway through this series of chapters, Naruto gets pinned to the ground with a sword (or whatever the black rod weapon that Pain uses is), and the two opponents spend an interminable amount of time arguing about peace and justice. There's probably some backstory involving rival ninja clans here, so for longtime fans it might be an interesting and enlightening debate, but for me, it's tedious talk when there could be more punching going on. Come on, I expect some awesome ninja skills when reading Naruto; if I wanted confrontations that consist of characters talking angrily at each other, I would still be reading Vampire Knight!

The final chapter ends with Naruto transforming into a giant, multi-tailed fox spirit, which seems cool, although it seems to be exactly what the bad guy wants, so who knows, it could lead to more tediousness. Find out next month!

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Ultimo

By Hiroyuki Takei

Original Concept by Stan Lee

Ah, it's the notorious manga "written" by Stan Lee! He's only credited with "original concept" here, so it looks like the heavy lifting has been done by Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei, but I do notice that a key character (who doesn't actually appear anywhere outside of the title page this chapter) has been given ol' Stan's likeness, with a bit of beefing up and a ponytail:

That's funny. Anyway, this is only the second chapter, so it's not too hard to jump into the story here. Apparently, the series concerns two robot puppets, Ultimo and Vice, who were created in the 12th century by some sort of old-school mad scientist (the Stan Lee character), supposedly embodying good and evil, respectively, with the intent of having them battle to find out which is stronger. Uh huh. Now, in the present day, a kid named Yamato (who seems to be the reincarnation of a bandit from the past, or something) comes across Ultimo in an antiques shop, and his presence makes the robot boy wake up, declare Yamato to be his master, and get all frantic about finding Vice and stopping him before he obtains a master and becomes powerful. And then, sure enough, Vice shows up and attacks Yamato and his friend, slicing a bus in half with a huge claw and prompting Ultimo to show up and save the day. As with too many of these types of things, there's only a little bit of action, with several pages taken up by the characters posturing at each other. It's still kind of cool, since Ultimo is floating in midair, holding half of a bus in each hand, and Vice has a ridiculous thirty-foot-long giant claw sticking off the end of his arm:

I'm not so sure about the character designs; Takei seems to favor highly-exaggerated features, so the robots have overly skinny limbs and torsos, but wear flamboyantly poofy clothes (and, in the case of Ultimo, a halter top that makes him appear to have breasts) and sport hugely spiky hair. That's not all that uncommon in shonen manga, but it's a bit much for me. Still, I don't mind this one all that much; it's kind of silly so far, and I doubt it will be a highlight of Stan Lee's career, but it's probably going to be fairly enjoyable.

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One Piece

By Eiichiro Oda

This is probably another series that's much too far into the story to make sense at this point (rather than a ridiculously high chapter number, this is the 56th and 57th installments of the current storyline, "Alabasta"), but it's still pretty enjoyable, even though we're jumping in right at the climax. Our crew of piratical heroes are apparently mixed up in a revolution in some small country, with most of them in the midst of a city-wide battle. There are some scenes in which a girl who I guess is the princess has climbed to the top of a clock tower and is screaming at everyone to stop fighting. That's probably supposed to be dramatic, but I've got no context. More interesting is the fight going on elsewhere between the rubbery-limbed Monkey D. Luffy and the bad guy, a big dude named Crocodile. There's no boring posing going on here; the fight is all a flurry of crazy action, with the highlight being a bit in which Luffy kicks Crocodile up through a building's roof and high up into the air, then sucks in a bunch of air and shoots himself up into the sky in order to deliver a crazy multi-fisted attack. It's awesome.

Oda's art is pretty amazing too, although I did have a slight bit of trouble following the action at times. But he really sells the hard-hitting nature of the fighting, with everybody's faces and bodies streaked with dirt and smeared with blood (I assume; it's hard to tell in black and white). But at the same time, the crazy exaggeration keeps things appearing cartoony and fun:

And while there's a large amount of destruction, with buildings being toppled left and right, we're assured that it's okay by Luffy's huge grin, signifying that it's all a fun romp through this milieu of scurvy scalawags. Sure, I might not really know what is going on here, but I had a hell of a time reading it. This is much more like it.

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Tegami Bachi

By Hiroyuki Asada

And it's back to the realm of incomprehensibility, which is pretty remarkable, since this is only the fourth chapter of this series. From what I can piece together, it takes place in some sort of medieval-ish fantasyland, and Lag, our intrepid boy hero (there's one in every shonen series, of course), wants to be a Letter Bee, one of an elite group of Pony Express-style messengers who are allowed to travel across the uninhabited areas between cities. He's joined by the requisite band of adventurers, with the most interesting one being a weird feral girl named Niche who has prehensile, sword-like hair. But the main focus of this chapter is a different girl named Nelli, who, along with a bunch of other people, is trying to steal Lag's Crossing Pass, which allows passage on a bridge between cities. Got that? Because I don't know if I did. Nelli wants to find a guy named Jiggy Pepper (gotta love the names in this series) who abandoned her and her younger brother, eventually leading to the boy's death of sickness. Boo hoo. We get some chases, some weird shit involving Lag's power, Niche trying to get Lag to admit she's his "dingo" (servant? I dunno), and a big monster attack. I suppose it all makes a sort of sense if you just go with the flow, but this is the kind of manga that makes me say "I'm too old for this shit".

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YuYu Hakusho

By Yoshihiro Tagashi

Wow, this series is still going? Do kids even like this sort of thing? It seems so old-fashioned. I can barely follow it, but as with most of the content of this magazine, it's very far into a long series, so it's probably silly of me to expect to do so. As far as I can tell, this one is about demons and fighting tournaments in the afterlife, and the current storyline sees several powerful rivals planning to compete in a massive tournament that will decide who rules the "Pemon Plane". Sounds like a big deal. The chapter here (which takes the One Piece tack, being the 12th part of the current storyline) seems to be a preliminary one, positioning the various competitors as they make alliances and prepare to wage battle, or whatever. I find it kind of boring, with maybe some slightly humorous moments here and there; the main thing that I take away is the surprising crudeness of the artwork. A lot of the characters seem roughly sketched onto the page, without much energy going into the details at all. Why would I want to read something like this on a regular basis? It's boring and ugly. Next!

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Bleach

By Tite Kubo

And here's another one of the better series; after this chapter, I can see why some people like this manga so much. Again, it's quite a ways into a long series (although only chapter 11-13 of the current storyline, "Journey to Hueco Mundo"), but I feel like I'm able to jump in and go with the flow without feeling so confused that I want to throw the magazine on the floor. I don't know what hollows, arrancars, or espadas are, but I get that there's a girl named Orihime who has been kidnapped by bad guys, and they're trying to screw with her psychologically and get her to betray her pals. And meanwhile, said pals are making their way through the bad guys' fortress in an attempt to rescue her. That makes enough sense for me.

The real highlight here is Tite Kubo's dynamic artwork, which is really clear and exciting in the fight scenes. Our hero Ichigo comes across a guy named Dordoni, who initially appears to be a pushover, given his clumsy entrance and goofy matador-like attire. But soon enough, he's kicking Ichigo through walls and doing pretty awesome stuff:

And he even sprouts some crazy spikes from his shoulders and his pants grow nozzles that shoot out huge, prehensile clouds of smoke, or something. I dunno, it's weird and crazy and pretty cool. I'm pretty floored by how well Kubo conveys motion during the action; check out the middle panel of the second image just above; the dense lines on Dordoni's clothes work as shading, but they're also like speed lines, showing that he's flying through the air toward Ichigo. And the same lines work in the next panel to show Ichigo jerking his head upward in anticipation of the next blow. That's some nice work there.

So yeah, I still don't really know what's going on here, but it's still hella fun to read. Why can't all the series in the magazine be like this?

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Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Story and art by Naoyuki Kageyama, in collaboration with Brain Navi

Original concept/supervised by Kazuki Takahashi

It seems like I should be lost on this series as well, since it's a spin-off or follow-up to the long-running card-battle series that seemed hugely popular a few years ago, but not so much, really. I only have a vague notion of how the game the series is built around actually works, but the few episodes I've seen of the anime show (along with most of the movie, which came out when I used to work at a movie theater, so I watched bits of it here and there) were enjoyable enough; it always cracks me up when they shout "I summon Mega Fire Dragon! Now attack, with Ultimate Blast!" or something like that. It's so dramatic.

Anyway, this version of the series follows some students at a Duel Academy that apparently teaches only how to play silly card games, since that's what's important in life. There's some intrigue about Jaden, the main character, angling for a higher rank and competing against the school champions or something, and a subplot about a malevolent demonic presence, but that's all fluff; the real fun is just watching them play the game. It's pretty much exactly like the anime, with cards being drawn and weird creatures attacking each other, and characters revealing some amazing hidden strategy to everyone's shock and amazement. I dunno, that's pretty stupid when described (or watched, or read, etc...), but I find it kind of enjoyable, in a cheesy way. Characters shouting "I'm not going to hold back! I'm going all out!" and that sort of thing. It might not be great, transcendent shonen manga, but it's fun for what it is. I can't really fault it too much. Yes, I'm sure those words will attract many readers. Enjoy, weirdoes!

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Aw, that was much too positive of a way to end this. I was hoping to shout and swear and cry, showing my anguish at the loss of my beloved girls' comics. Overall, I would give the series in the magazine a thumbs-up for maybe three, or three and a half of the seven series (with Ultimo, Yu-Gi-Oh, and maybe Naruto getting a half a thumb, even if that doesn't make sense. Oh, and another half a thumb for the Waqwaq preview, why not?). That's probably around the level of Shojo Beat, but I was more invested in those series. We'll see how it goes, I guess, but probably not for too long; I don't think all that much more is left on my subscription.