One Piece Is Awesome, Example #41

In One Piece, Eiichiro Oda goes for the slow burn, with storylines building and building and playing out over volume after volume until they explode in an amazingly satisfying climax; it's a pretty amazing spectacle to witness. The Water Seven/Enies Lobby arc is the longest story yet, stretching over fourteen or so volumes, and while it did seem to drag at times (the obligatory one-on-one battles between members of the Straw Hats and CP9 seemed to slow things down for a volume or two), the big finish in volume 44 is something to see, bringing everything to a close in spectacular fashion, with the Straw Hats facing off against a massive threat while Luffy struggles against his toughest opponent ever, Rob Lucci. Oda throws in excellent character moments for pretty much everybody, but my favorite might be a scene in which Luffy seems to be beaten, but he gains the strength to keep fighting from Usopp, who drops his Sniper King persona in order to encourage his friend:










Being a shonen manga, the big fights usually come down to determination and strength, with the power of friendship often providing the motivation to win, but this is such a moving example, with Usopp overcoming his shame at having quit the crew in order to convince his friend to keep fighting. It's just one powerful moment among so many, but since it hits on the series' theme of friendship, it's the one that sticks with me the most. Wow.

One Piece Is Awesome, Example #40

With as much cool action as Eiichiro Oda packs into One Piece, he still manages to surprise regularly, not just with new ideas and powers, but also the artistic depictions thereof. This panel, from volume 44, was one that I thought was especially cool, showing the villainous Rob Lucci using his ability to push off the air molecules and move in a zigzag pattern when attacking:



That's just such a dynamic depiction of movement that it pops right off the page. And while it's not quite as much of a departure from the usual style, I also like Luffy's retaliatory strike, in which he comes up with a new power that sees him inflate his fist to gigantic proportions and punch his opponent right out of the building:



I love the crazy stuff that Oda comes up with seemingly every dozen pages or so in this series. You never know what to expect, and it's rarely less than completely awesome. More, please.

One Piece Is Awesome, Example #39

Throughout the Water Seven arc of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece, Usopp has been having a sort of crisis of confidence, due to having been beaten mercilessly by the Franky Family, which led to him challenging Luffy to a fight over the fate of the Merry Go. He even went so far as to quit the crew, but when he was put into a position where his help was needed, he donned a mask and took on the identity of Sniper King, pretending to be a stronger, braver, and more confident person than he felt like he actually was. But, like everyone on the crew, he has his strengths and talents, and when it comes time for him to step up and save the day, he does so as thrillingly as anyone, as can be seen in this sequence from volume 43, in which the evil, power-hungry Spandam is about to drag Robin away, only to feel the brunt of a sudden, unexpected barrage:







Oda fills this series with moments like this, last-second saves or triumphs where a character steps up and delivers when it counts, but he somehow keeps it from ever feeling contrived. It would be something to marvel at, if I wasn't so busy cheering in excitement along with the characters.

One Piece Is Awesome, Example #38

In One Piece, Eiichiro Oda somehow keeps flexing his imaginative muscles and coming up with crazy powers for the various characters who wander into the purview of the Straw Hat Pirates, and this often presents the opportunity to portray a classic manga reaction panel, in which something wacky is happening and a character's face can be seen to the side of the panel, often freaking out at the ridiculousness of what they are seeing. Here's an example from volume 42, in which Nami is fighting Kalifa, who has the power to create soap bubbles so relaxing that they render her victims incapacitated and unable to move:



Or this moment from volume 43, where Zolo is fighting the square-nosed Kaku, who can turn himself into a giant giraffe:




Those are both kind of hilariously dumb, but the context behind this is that both Kalifa and Kaku recently ate the Devil Fruits that gave them their powers, so they're still figuring out the extent of what they can do, and some of the moves they are workshopping end up being pretty goofy. This keeps from making their threat seem oversold, since they had been sold as rather dangerous, part of an elite group of secret assassins. They're still tough, they've just got plenty of new ways to kill you, and if some of those seem funny, well, at least you'll die laughing.

C2E2 2013: Groo and other sketchy subjects

At any convention I attend, I'm always excited to get some contributions to my Groo sketchbook, and here's what I obtained this year:



Jeff Zwirek drew this nice image of Groo and Rufferto thinking of food; I especially love the body language.



Boulet contributed this detailed image. He wasn't actually familiar with the character or Sergio Aragones; he said the only MAD cartoonist with much of a reputation in France is Harvey Kurtzman. Since the person in front of me had him draw Thor, he said this was his barbarian day. It was a real treat to watch him draw; the way he drew straight to ink was incredible, as if the details were flowing straight out of his imagination and through the pen.



Jason Copland, the artist of Kill All Monsters, drew a more realistic take on the character, although he didn't seem satisfied when he was done, so his partner Michael May later tweeted to show some more sketches he did that he thought turned out better (I'm happy with my version, of course; it's got a nice grittiness to it).



Amy Reeder did this nifty cartoony take on Groo; I especially like the expressive eyebrows.



And K. Lynne, the artist of the webcomic Plume, drew this nice penciled image of the character.

But that's not all of the drawings which I brought home. My daughter also asked several artists to draw her favorite subject: princesses. Here are the results:



Chris Samnee whipped out this Sharpie sketch of a cute, friendly young royal.



Jill Thompson drew Princess Delirium, although she's just a mermaid princess as far as Magnolia is concerned.



Maggie switched things up a bit with Geof Darrow, asking him to draw a doggie for her little sister.



Amy Reeder was happy to draw a princess for Maggie, since they are a favorite subject of hers as well.



Amy Mebberson went to the Disney well with this depiction of Maggie's favorite princess, Cinderella.



Denver Brubaker did a nice, simple sketch of Sleeping Beauty.



Sean Dove drew a really cute Belle.



And Jeremy Bastian finished things off with a nicely detailed little lady.

The one other sketch I ended up with was one I didn't even ask for; Geof Darrow scrawled it self-deprecatingly on the back of the posters for his series Shaolin Cowboy that were being given away at the Dark Horse Booth:



All in all, a pretty nice sampling of good artwork from talented creators. My world has been enriched.

C2E2 2013: Through the eyes of a five-year-old

It's the duty of any nerdy/geeky person to do their best to impart their passions to their offspring, so since Sunday is kids' day at C2E2, I brought along my five-year-old daughter Magnolia, and we had a great time. There was plenty to do for all ages, and whether we were participating in specifically kid-focused activities or taking in comics-related sights that we could both enjoy, we had a great time.

First up was Ben's Bubble Show, a fun display of soapy virtuosity from a professional entertainer who found all manner of neat stuff to do with his medium of choice, blowing bubbles of all different sizes with various implements (but mostly his own hands), creating cool chains and structures of bubbles, and even bringing kids up on stage to envelop them in huge soapy spheres. It was tons of fun to watch, and even though Maggie isn't the type of kid to join the throng of kids near the edge of the stage and leap around frantically, trying to pop any bubbles that floated over their heads, she loved watching the ones who did.



The kids' costume parade was scheduled to appear onstage after the bubble show, but we decided to move on to see what else could be found, so we headed over to Artist's Alley. Maggie was interested in getting people to draw her some pictures, and she wasn't disappointed; several artists drew her subject of choice: princesses. She got some wonderful drawings from Chris Samnee, Jill Thompson, Amy Reeder, Amy Mebberson, Jeremy Bastian, Denver Brubaker, and Sean Dove, and she even asked Geof Darrow to draw a doggie for her little sister. Everyone was incredibly friendly and happy to contribute to her growing appreciation for the art form; nobody wants to disappoint a cute little girl. We also picked up a few children's books, which she found even more engrossing than the artists themselves:



We did catch the end of the costume parade, and we both loved seeing all the cute outfits the kids sported, ranging from toddlers dressed as Wonder Woman to fantastic homemade robots, Transformers, and Martians:



We also stopped by the game room, which contained a huge library of tabletop games that people could check out and play, and we ended up spending a great deal of time playing the physical Angry Birds game, in which one player sets up structures and the other launches bird figures with a catapult to try to knock them down. It was a lot of fun, just one example of the many activities to participate in:



At the end of the day, we took the train home, and it was obvious that my goal of creating a lifelong comics fan has proceeded as planned:



C2E2 is a great convention, whether you're there to find comics or merchandise to buy, meet creators, attend panels, or meet up with like-minded fans, and now I've found that it's a great opportunity to share your passions with your family members. I can't wait to do it again next year. It looks like we'll have material to tide us over until then:

One Piece Is Awesome, Example #37

The tragic origins of characters in Eiichiro Oda's One Piece are a regular source of genuinely moving emotion, and the flashback detailing Nico Robin's backstory in volume 41 might be the harshest one yet. We had previously learned that her entire island had been destroyed by the world government when she was a child, and while she was the only survivor, she had been branded a criminal, spending the intervening twenty years on the run. The imagination can fills in the expected details, but Oda manages to make it play out for maximum emotional impact through the addition of Robin's mother Olvia, an archaeologist who had left her daughter in the care of an aunt in order to travel the world doing illegal research into the mysteries of the past (this also ties in to the series' ongoing subplots about political and military power, as we learn a little bit about the "100 year void" of missing history, which seems to point to the current world government's annihilation of the previous ruling power and suppression of any information about what they did to gain the stronghold they currently have on the world stage, but that's a subject which will hopefully be explored further in future volumes). Robin's mother returns to the island of Ohara just in time for the Navy to initiate a Buster Call, in which a fleet of warships bombards it into dust for the crimes of studying forbidden archaeological knowledge. Thinking she is protecting Robin, she refuses to admit that she's her mother, giving us an incredibly devastating moment:








It's the worst thing Olvia could have done, and it's enough to wrench one's heart right out. Oda isn't completely heartless though; with the revelation that Robin does have enough archaeological knowledge to make her a target, she is able to have a reunion with her daughter, albeit a short-lived one, but she has resigned herself to her fate along with the rest of Ohara. However, she tells Robin to live, to keep striving for knowledge that can improve the future of the world. Robin does escape, but her home and everyone she has ever known is killed, and as we see in a montage of the subsequent years, she has lived her entire life since then on the run, never able to trust anyone and feeling like the whole world wants her dead for the crime of simply existing. By the time of the present story, it's understandable why she would have finally resigned herself to death, if only as a way to ensure the safety of the Straw Hat Pirates, the only people who have ever accepted her or shown her any kindness. So when Luffy and the rest of the crew realize this, the sign of solidarity they show is one of the most powerful, moving moments the series has yet seen:









Oda had been building to this moment for several volumes by this point, with Robin having apparently betrayed the crew, then seeming to inexplicably choose to die in hopes that they would escape safely, but we know Luffy and crew aren't the type to run away. Instead, they take the awe-inspiring step of taking on the entire force of the world government in order to save a friend, and it's enough to make the reader wipe the tears out of their eyes, stand up, and cheer. That's what shonen manga should be all about, and Oda delivers on that promise like nothing else I've ever seen.

Art What I Like: One Piece Is Awesome, Example #36

As much stirring emotion and awesome action as Eiichiro Oda packs into One Piece, it's still a shonen manga, with a target audience of adolescent boys, which means gross-out jokes make their way into the comic from time to time. However, Oda puts his own weird spin on them, turning them into crazy fighting styles and making them kind of awesome in their own right. Take the introduction of this character from volume 39, a cook who blocks our heroes' progress on the sea train they're fighting their way through:



Yes, that's gross, but it's also hilarious, and it's only the beginning of his disgusting abilities:



By the time he's making a suit of armor composed of ramen, he's just another wacky goofball among all the others that populate this crazy ocean. I love how Oda takes so many concepts and incorporates them into his skewed take on high-seas adventure, and this is just the latest example. I'm sure there will be many, many more to come.