REVIEW: Lone Wolf and Cub

Lone Wolf and Cub

By Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, introduction by Frank Miller

Originally published in 1970

·         It is to note that the cover for the American publications of Lone Wolf and Cub are drawn by Frank Miller, who in turn was inspired by the style of manga and who wrote an introduction to how much Lone Wolf and Cub inspired his works like The Dark Knight Returns and other Batman works that he did.

·         The specific issue I will focus on is Issue 8 of the American publication.

·         The introduction by Frank Miller doesn’t talk too much the author or even about the status of Japanese comics at the time but more on the censorship on American comics and how the media is slumping in our times yet with the exportation of comics to Japan, manga has taken a life of its own and perhaps we can learn a lot about the medium through how other nations make comics.

·         They choose in the beginning not to translate the sound effects and the names of the characters in the native Japanese writings done by Kazuo. Instead, the translators allowed the dynamic word play to continue on with the first page, translating only what was already in word bubbles and even that varies in importance. This could be seen as an influence to how Miller was to use his own style of words being influential to his works like in the Dark Knight Returns.

·         As manga is a colorless medium, the use of black and white as seen in Lone Wolf and Cub is influential to the mood of the story in addition to how the panels are laid out. Take the second page for example, where there is a panel with our protagonist in black yet the “aura” of his killing intent is in white, which would mean the author took planned drawing the inking and then whiting around the character to make an artificial fire look.

·         Unlike Tezuka, Kazuo took it onto himself to make establishing shots of the backgrounds (like in Page 11-12) to allow the setting to be in the reader’s minds when explaining other portions of the tale. Take it with the pages afterward (Page 13-14) where the assassins are shown and we take it with what we read before to mentally project the assassin’s onto the landscape even though Pages 13-14 are blank in the background.

·         To note Scott McCloud, characters seen in manga that are human or supposed to be at least Japanese have more simplified faces than any more detailed object which we are to not necessarily relate to. Take the people in Page 28, whose facial features look relatively simple in comparison to how more realistic drawings look. Now look at Page 29 with the highly detailed horse. We initially take in that the people are more relatable whereas we see the horse as its own separate object.

·         Speed lines, very prominent in manga, is seen well in this series as with the chain weapon on Page 52 or with the wind that is commonly seen like in Page 51.

·         Overall, this story was really good about a samurai and his son traveling for revenge. I highly recommend it to anyone.

Bibliography:

Koike, Kazuo, and Goseki Kojima. The Assassin's Road. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics, 2000. Print.

Miller, Frank, Klaus Janson, Lynn Varley, John Costanza, and Bob Kane. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. New York, NY: DC Comics, 2002. Print.

REVIEW: Buddha (Tezuka)

Buddha (manga)

Original manga By Osamu Tezuka

Printed in 1972

·         The story is noted for not focusing on the character who would become the “Buddha” in the beginning but rather it focuses on side characters who would influence the Buddha in future chapters, be it in their current incarnation or reincarnation.

·         Despite everyone being Indian as with the origins of Buddhism, the design is reminisce of Tezuka’s other works which makes the characters more simplistic in order to make us relate more to them.

·         Sacrifice of oneself in order to have a better reincarnation is a common theme in this manga. This is exemplified even in the beginning of the story where the rabbit was to sacrifice himself for the benefit of the dying hermit and thus transcended to a higher plain of existence, which was a theme to be consistently delved into in the series. (Buddha, Pages 22-25).

·         Slaves are treated horribly in the comic, as with the example of the slave boy in the beginning with his mother (Buddha, Page 40).

·         People have mystic powers that are not explained well in the mythos of the manga but they serve as part of the narrative to how certain things in the Buddha’s life came to be, Tatta exemplifies this with his powers of going into animals like when he saved the slave mother for his friend (Buddha, Pages 65-69).

·         Death and destruction is a common theme in the manga as people are killed, maimed, sold to slavery, etc that is less seen in mass in any Tezuka work, like the death of entire village with Tatta’s mother and sister dying (Pages 85-89).

·         As a piece of biography, this manga follows much of the established traditions of the Buddha’s lifestyle in the religion and philosophy with added side characters that Tezuka incorporated.

·         Tezuka does not insert himself in this work, notable compared to his other works to stress that this is a piece of fiction. Tezuka not being in this manga can be seen as stressing that this is NOT fiction, making us awe inspired and lost in his work as opposed to the other works where he tries to test our sense of reality.

·         Despite characters looking evil in the manga at times, it turns out that looks can be deceiving as morally decent characters actually can be good while morally deprived characters can look beautiful.

·         Characters dying in this manga are common, but as reincarnation is the theme of Buddhism it is not necessarily the case that we never see the character again: they can reappear as another person later on.

·         In the first book, the titular Buddha character does not even show up until the very last part, and even then he is but born.

·         Animals have their own will in this manga and tend to act rationally as people do. Given how animals can be reincarnated people, however, this should come to no surprise.

·         People are horribly mutilated in the Buddha series.

·         The only character to continue on by the series’ end was Tatta.

·         Overall, this was an excellent series worthy of Tezuka’s namesake.

Bibliography:

Tezuka, O. (2006). Buddha. New York: Vertical.

REVIEW: Criminal-Coward

Crime: Coward

By Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

First published in 2007

Crime: Coward

·         The comic dives into the crime genre, a genre that was a major contributor to the Comics Code Authority back in the 1960’s which created censorship in comics due to the media being called as the source of corruption in America during the time.

·         As this comic was published in 2007, several years before the Comics Code Authority was debunked and no longer prevalent in Comics censorship, this being allowed to be published by Marvel comics is noted of the CCA’s dropping authority to comics.

·         This tale is somewhat like a noire story, only from the perspective of a criminal as opposed to a private eye or a cop.

·         Like a Noire story, the major part of the plot centered on contraband, heists, mystery murder and a woman who is nothing but trouble. However, this is centered on the criminal element.

·         Leo, the protagonist, comes from a crime family. As this is the first in the Crime series, it is not made prevalent that the stories told later are intertwined with the concept and that they all happen to hang out in the same speakeasy. He only takes jobs he knows he can succeed in.

·         Close to everyone dies in the cast by the end: including the two corrupt cops, the single mother, the grandmother, the father of Leo, the thugs, and Leo himself. Only an acquaintance of Leo, a black woman who is also of a crime family and the mother’s daughter survive by the end.

·         They interplay the story with clippings of Frank Kafka, which serves as a story within a story. Incidentally, the plot elements for the detective in Kafka match with the ‘real’ situations of Leo as the plot moves along.

·         It is not clear to whether the cops set up Leo or were just incompetent at the heist by the end, even with the same goal being that they take the contraband to the drug lord anyway.

·         Child prostitution and child rape are noted in the plot, even when they are not acted on let alone shown thank goodness.

·         Though the narration is supposed to be focused on Leo, there are moments where Leo as the narrator doesn’t make sense as with the experiences with the single mother and the cops being shown regardless of Leo’s presence.

·         It is left unclear by the end of the comic if Leo survived however.

·         Overall, I thought that “Criminal” was a good read though somewhat bleak by the end. Given that this is a noire story that is supposed to be the case. It being published during the dying CCA’s Authority over comics shows that censorship in comics was being drowned by the desensitization that people are now experiencing as opposed to comics years ago.

Bibliography

Brubaker, Ed, Sean Phillips, and Tom Fontana. Coward. New York: Marvel, 2007. Print.

REVIEW: Astro City

Astro City

Written by Kurt Busiek, illustrated by Brent Anderson and Alex Ross

First published in 1995

Astro City

·         The story notably centers on a city and its environment as opposed to a central hero: like Eisner’s Spirit for some of its publications.

·         The focus of the first publication “Life in the Big City,” focuses on heroes as well as criminals and civilians. The first was on Samaritan, a Superman analogy who can only dream of enjoying his powers as he constantly has to save people. The second was on a reporter who kept a classified hero conflict up to a point. The third is on a criminal who finds out a hero’s identity and is haunted by the prospect of the hero getting him. The fourth is a lady who is admirer of a feminist superheroine. The fifth one is on an alien invader who watches the heroes to decide if he should invade. The last is on a date between heroes while they are in costume: Samaritan and Winged Victory.

·         Astro City has the feel of a Silver Age comic series in background where great things happen all the time but people treat it as happenstance and don’t make big political moves to deal with superheroes or villains.

·         The third story was a good psychological tale of a criminal who finds a hero’s identity: with his fears of the hero and the mob who may betray him a good point to why normal civilians who even figure out hero identities rarely take advantage of it.

·         The good nature of the heroes in Astro City indicates that the heroes are not a violent, Image Comics bunch. Instead, it seems to focus on Silver Age like storylines where things are goofy and crime happens but there are no repercussions to heroes or daily people.

·         With the civilians save for the common criminal, despite them getting into danger and almost dying the prospect of heroes in a city draws common people to Astro City: thus indicating that those who would bother to stay in a city of heroes have more of an adventurous, bold part of their personality.

·         In the trade copy, there is a map of the layout of Astro City, thus indicating that the creators had a specific idea of how Astro City should be unlike Metropolis or Gotham City where it is left to the interpretation of every succeeding artist to decide the geography of what the city looks like.

·         The hero date seemed conspicuous on the last story as it would have made more sense for them to go not in costume. However, given how old Samaritan looks out of hero form it may have been done to the benefit of Winged Victory.

·         Overall, I liked the story though with Alex Ross as part of the team I thought it would have been even better if he did the actual artwork for the comic and not just character designs and covers. The take on superhero life in a functioning city and how the culture of that mirrors musings like Plato’s Republic and Thomas Moore’s Utopia in picturing a society to an ideal form: in this case it is of an ideal society catered to heroism.

Bibliography

Busiek, Kurt, Brent Eric. Anderson, Richard Starkings, John Gaushell, Steve Buccellato, and Alex Ross. Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Life in the Big City. La Jolla, CA: Homage Comics, 1996. Print.

MOCA: Alt. Comics and Marvels & Monsters

Museum of Chinese in America: Alt. Comics and Marvels & Monsters

Two exhibits in the Museum of Chinese in America

An event of 2012

Alt. Comics and Marvels & Monsters

·         The Alt. Comics portion featured artists from both the East and West Coast who are Asian American who worked on comics touching on the topic of being Asian in America.

·         They have a noted connection web where the cartoonists of the West Coast are part of a group called “Art Night.” The East Coast artists are similarly with their own connections.

·         The artists featured included Larry Hama, Alex Joon Kim, Derek Kirk Kim, Jerry Ma, Christine Norrie, Thien Pham, Lark Pien, Jason Shiga, GB Tran and Luen Yang.

·         Their art featured included works they are currently on, as with the case of G.L. Yang. Yang also worked on American Born Chinese, a graphic novel I enjoy.

·         The West Coast artists notably praise each other in their descriptions.

·         The works featured are that of the original pencils and inks with the exceptions of printed copies of the artists’ publications.

·         The gallery also included sketches the artists did in childhood.

·         Some artists are in relationships or married to some others.

·         The Marvels and Monsters portion featured an analysis on how Asians were portrayed in comics: mostly in archetype yellow face.

·         The exhibit opens with exaggerated color tones of yellow and brown colors that were used on Asian characters in comics: a noted difference from the white comic counterparts who had normal skin colors to them.

·         The archetypes covered were that of Schemers (Dr. Fu Manchu), Dragon Ladies, wise Sages, submissive women and others: all of which still has some prevalence in how Asians are portrayed in American comics and even American media today.

·         The archetypes of making the Asians look evil or lesser than their white counterparts was not limited to Chinese, as Japanese and other races of people were shown to cover the spectrum of archetypes.

·         For the Dragon Ladies, they were attractive foreigners of noted height, as they were drawn as tall as white people.

·         They included pages of Mary Marvel, the Unknown Soldier, Dr. Strange, Iron Fist and other known comics to show how Asians were commonly portrayed with a white character to introduce them. Not until recently had Asians been allowed to be the starring focus of their own in American comics.

·         If one were to wait for a guided tour, there was also an included exercise where one was to draw out your actual self versus your ideal self for Asian participants.

·         Overall, I like the exhibits and the museum and not only because I myself am an Asian American person

REVIEW: The Whisperer in Darkness (Book to Comic)

The Whisperer in Darkness: Book to Comic comparison

Book by H.P. Lovecraft, first published in 1930

Graphic Novel adapted by Mark Ellis, first printed in1991

The Whisperer in Darkness: Book to Comic adaptation

·         While the graphic novel combines elements of all of the Cthulhu Mythos, the original short story by Lovecraft only briefly touched on elements like the Necronomicon, Azaroth, and even Cthulhu himself. The main focus in the original Whisperer in Darkness short story was focused on the Outer Ones and the cult that allied with them as opposed to the followers of Cthulhu in this comic adaptation.

·         The comic is a noted sequel to the short story in that the events of the comic takes place after the short story, with Professor Wilmarth being rescued by the Muskatonic Project protagonists, who are inserted into the story.

·         The suspense and doubt of the reality of the short story is uplifted in the comic as it is clear that there are aliens and other gods in the comic, with the cult of the Outer Ones about to kill and take the brain of the Professor had it not been for the Muskatonic Project.

·         They force the timeline of the Mythos onto the beginning of the series, which took several short stories of Lovecraft and even his successor authors to build.

·         For some odd reason the end talks about the writer and editors of this comic and feature a good third of the last part of the book about the DC, Marvel and other series titles they worked on that isn’t the Cthulhu Mythos.

·         The suspense and mystery of the original book is downplayed in the comic as it becomes a thriller shooter narrative with the Project members fighting off the cult members Indiana Jones style.

·         The madness-inducing gods are notably lackluster in the depiction in the comic.

·         The priests of the cult are wearing stereotype South American blood ritual clothing in the comic, though given the depiction of other ethnicities in Lovecraft’s own work (like him noting Middle Eastern people as “Arabs” and being superstitious) this isn’t out of context.

·         The story in both comic and book take place in Vermont of all locations, emphasizing the American-centered mindset of the authors of both works despite the cross-cultural context The Great Old Ones have on the world the Mythos is based on.

·         The comic ends in victory of the protagonists as they manage to fend off an agent of Cthulhu, as opposed to the tragic end of the canon Lovecraft stories and the bleak inevitability of mankind in the cosmos in said canon stories.

·         Overall, the comic was okay but the source material is excellent.

Bibliography

 Ellis, Mark, and H. P. Lovecraft. The Miskatonic Project: The Whisperer in Darkness. [S.l.]: Millennial Concepts, 2008. Print.

Lovecraft, H. P. The Whisperer in Darkness. Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 2007. Print.

REVIEW: Locke & Key

Locke & Key: Welcome to LoveCraft

By Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

First published in 2008

Locke & Key: Welcome to LoveCraft

·         The book notably starts with the death of the father of the Locke family, a key figure who was implied to have had his own mystery adventures back in the day in the series

·         The girl in the well Echo (later to be revealed NOT to be Echo), reminds me much of Sadako from the Ring series.

·         The tale also notably starts with the rape of the mother, which has strained her relationship with her kids.

·         The tale is notably macabre showing the horror of the father’s astral form and the souls of the Locke children having fallen to a ‘dead’ state after going to astral form.

·         Though Echo is notably malevolent, she does keep her promises as in the end she does save the Locke family as promised to Bode and made the murderer Sam powerful by turning him into a ghost

·         Echo also haunts a random lady in the end, implying there is much more to the story than meets the eye

·         The young teenagers who committed the murder and rape are given close to no back story besides passing dialogue. The raping kid only mentions special education and sexual attraction to the mother, but this isn’t usually enough to commit such a crime. Also, Sam somehow manages to kill most everyone he sees, giving a sense of overpowering murder to a seemingly mortal killer in the series.

·         The series also depicts minors being brutally beaten and almost molested/killed on panel, a notably risky narrative style.

·         The keys of magic, so fittingly key to the narrative to the story, are only seen really at the end of the book.

·         The series is set originally in the San Francisco Bay Area, with the characters moving to Massachusetts after the murder.

·         The authority figures in the series are notably incompetent, again requiring the suspension of disbelief that a teenager could overpower a police station worth of police officers to even escape to begin with and had the resources to go cross country to hunt down a family who was more than likely being protected by even more officers. In addition, if Sam had left a string of murders in his wake then the authorities could have predicted a pattern of his moves and acted to redirect the manhunt according to a likely path for him to follow.

·         Fittingly the location in Massachusetts the place is located in is called “Lovecraft,” as the author is the son of another author inspired by  H.P Lovecraft

·         On page 39 there is a provided comic of Bode’s view of the events, which is done with a child’s style of art and narration.

Bibliography

Hill, Joe, and Gabriel Rodriguez. Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft. San Diego, CA: IDW, 2008. Print.

REVIEW: The Crow

The Crow (Comic)

By J. O’Barr

First published in 2002

The Crow (comic)

·         The work notably comes with both comics and poetry, with the poetry being part of the narrative about loss.

·         The comic is illustrated in two styles, with it being jagged and having heavier lines with the violent post-death scenes of the Crow’s loved one and the soft almost acrylic look of the comic in the pre-death scenes.

·         The nature of the Crow’s powers is not made clear in the story, but it does add to the supernatural element of the piece and the surreal Horror genre feel of the tale.

·         The Crow’s mercy of Funny Boy is notable in that he gives Funny Boy a fast and painless death of illegal drug overdose due to Funny Boy’s recognition of his own sins. While the other rapist and murderers tried to make their lives more positive after the death of Shelley, Funny Boy morbidly accepted his death and so the Crow gave him the least gruesome death.

·         The Crow notably has mercy to the innocent in that a police officer, a prostitute, a little girl and other noted side characters not the rapists. He even wishes them a good life as with the case of the officer and the little girl.

·         There is a noted “women in refrigerator” story narrative with the rape, death and mutilation of the Crow’s beloved Shelley was there only for progress the story of the narrative.

·         The flashbacks with Shelley are notably in mostly white as opposed to the dark pages this book is mostly made of.

·         Cats are common in the series as a herald to the Crow being in the area, much like the magic crow which brought the man the Crow back to life.

·         The villains have no depth to them other than that they were rapist and murderers. This seems sociopathic almost in the depiction as the lack of redeeming qualities make the antagonists seem more beast rather than murdering people. Granted this may be what the author was aiming for in depicting people doing dark deeds.

·         The actual death of T Bird and the Crow are notably absent, the former possibly being tortured to an extent that even this series can’t convey. The latter possibly could mean that he finally could die with the murderers dead or that he continued in existence as a vengeful antihero.

·         The one time The Crow smiled he found disturbing given his new nature. This shows his more human side which he shuns now is somehow still there.

·         It is never explained how Shelley knew how her precious Eric (The Crow) saw everything as a magic crow in her rape and death.

·         It is never explained how the commissioner knew of the Crow and accepted his revenge.

·         The irony of constantly seeing Shelley saying she’s safe with Eric or Eric notably seeing the murderers as not a threat before becoming the Crow is used to an almost stupid amount.

Bibliography

O'Barr, J. The Crow. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink, 1994. Print.

REVIEW: Kavalier and Clay and the Escapist

Kavalier and Clay A Novel and the Amazing Adventure of the Escapist

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay were published in 2000.

The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist were published in 2004.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay:

·         It’s to note that this book was inspired by the creative teams of the Golden Age of Comics, starting roughly around the time Action Comics 1 was already published to many years onward

·         The creation of the Escapist amalgamates the aspects of Captain America, the Spirit and other pulp fiction style masked vigilantes during the Golden Age. The Escapist even punches Hitler in his first issue much like Captain America did in his

·         Joe and Sam mirrored many American comic book writers at the time, being Jewish Americans who were taken advantage of financially for their work as they had no copyright royalties

·         They are noted to be the contemporaries of Will Eisner in the novel, a footnote in the novel in fact

·         The telling of the Golem and Kavalier with it was interesting though served no other purpose than to symbolize the artificial hero that Joe was to create with the Escapist in American comics

·         Joe’s disdain for the Germans during the World War II era was noted in fueling his tales of the Escapist fighting Nazis and the like (though not named as such in the comics). It’s noted that during this time war-time comics were popular and used such imagery in their own stories, like how “The Haunted Tank” and “Blackhawks” made use of the war propaganda movement to fuel their stories

The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist:

·         It’s to note that though this book was illustrated by many contemporary artists that Chabon still kept to the style of the in-universe telling of Kavalier and Clay in that he claims most of the work to be influence by Joe and Sam.

·         The Escapist book ties in with the novel with its references to important characters like Anapol and Rosa who had an influence in the novel

·         It’s interesting that they faked a manga adaptation of the Escapist, which mirrors the Bat-manga that was published in real life. It’s to note that this adaptation mirrors a good number of current American hero comics adapted to manga, like Stan Lee’s creations of Wolverine and Iron Man currently being made in manga and anime form overseas.

·         In “Sequestered,” the Escapist is noted to being a mock up joke caricature more so than even the child friendly version. This plays into the joke that the Escapist is no longer being written by Clay and drawn by Kavalier in universe and much like other Golden Age heroes grew to a state of mockery.

·         In universe, it is claimed that the Escapist along with other Radio Comics characters were bought up by DC Comics, a trend that followed with many other comic companies at the time, like Fawcett Comics with their titles like “Captain Marvel” (later to be called “Shazam”) “the Spy Smasher” and more

·         The Escape Goat story was noted to mirror the DC comics pet versions of title characters that is aimed towards a child demographic, notably with its slapstick comedy and its use of classic characters for children stories

·         With “The Passing of the Key,” it is noted that the Kavalier and Clay Escapist dies and gives his back story in order to provide a new Escapist with a back story to becoming a new superhero. This mirrors the development of the Blue Beetle franchise of DC Comics, with Dan Garret of Fox Comics (which would eventually be bought up by DC Comics), passing on his legacy to Ted Kord, who would become the next Blue Beetle in the name of a previous hero

Bibliography

Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel. New York: Picador USA, 2001. Print.

Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics, 2004. Print.