REVIEW: Lone Wolf and Cub Vol. 1

Lone Wolf and Cub

By Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, introduction by Frank Miller

Originally published in 1970

·         There are many ridiculous forms of martial arts that is used in the series, like the “Hawk style” where the assassin’s against the Wolf and Cub used a hawk as the major part of their martial arts. (Pages 17-19)

·         A lot of the comedy of the manga comes from the interaction of the child with his environment, like with the daimyo threatening our protagonist while the child was crying to pee and they had to let the protagonist go so he could let his son piss. (Pages 23-25)

·         The action is notably defined by the lines used with the deadly slashes seen in the manga. (Page 28-29).

·         There is a lot of iconography of the father and son motif in this manga, like the image of introducing the Wolf and Cub assassin with dialogue with the image of a literal wolf and its cub and the two animals heading to the readers. (Page 37)

·         It is to note that the horse stampede is drawn realistically, but also that the assassin Lone Wolf is willing to use his son and the environment around him to throw his opponents off track: like how people are unwilling to slash at him because his son is on his back and then Lone Wolf cuts them down due to this flinch in weakness. (Pages 52-55)

·         The cart is notably its own character in Lone Wolf and Cub, as it is not only bulletproof but also can be used as a tool besides the sword and his son for Lone Wolf. (Page 85)

·         The child is notably very intelligent for being a three year old boy, being able to recite music and choose the way of the sword compared to the way of normalcy. This would imply he’s as much a warrior as his father yet this requires the suspense of disbelief that a child could be so capable at such an early age. (Page 114-117, 224-228).

·         Much like Miller’s work, women in Lone Wolf and Cub are notably capable of being adversaries alongside the normal brutes that make up the enemies of the protagonists. This is included with the eight deadly femme fatales that Lone Wolf and Cub had to surpass and kill in one story arc. (Pages 137-157)

·         Women are also victimized in the series as one lady was raped and strangled to death in front of the Lone Wolf and Cub, which contrasts with what we read in the previous chapters with femme fatales and with the gentle ladies. (Pages 173-174) This is to contrast with Miller, however, as he does not include gentle ladies in his works, only femme fatales and ‘whores.’

·         Overall, this is an excellent series but it is noted compared to other manga works due to the outlaw style of storytelling. This is a huge contrast with the manga that was designed for children that we saw with Tezuka.

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: Astro City Confessions

Astro City

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

First published in 1997

Astro City: Confession

·         The story centers on a sidekick character for the majority of this installment of Astro City: the Choir Boy. He’s the sidekick of the Confessor, who is a Batman detective vampire character.

·         With the Confessor’s style of justice in the night, we see the night life and night crimes of Astro City, which is contrary to the bright and optimistic light of Astro City in the day.

·         Even Jack-in-the-Box, a superhero who has a gadget and acrobatics motif, isn’t as dark in tone as the Confessor’s stories.

·         The Confessor’s arc brings to mind that no matter what you are you can be a hero

·         The hero’s journey of Choir Boy brings an outsider to Astro City who wants to become a hero who in turn learns that there is more to being a hero than fame and respect, a trend Booster Gold in DC comics went through.

·         With the alien invasion to discredit the heroes being prevalent in the arc, we see why they included the alien spy arc in the first volume.

·         The fact that politicians choose not to bring heat to heroes in Astro City until this arc highlights how intergraded heroes are in the Astro City society, to the point that no one questions their motives or questions that the heroes could turn against the public

·         Again the art is beautiful and the design for the Confessor is well played, given that he allows his symbol to be a cross in order to self-punish himself so as to drive backs his bloodlust as a vampire and channeling his focus into fighting crime.

·         The introduction of the Crossbred, a religious themed group of heroes like the X-Men, brings to light the discrimination some groups of heroes may get for their beliefs. Incidentally, they are the most tolerant of the public’s discrimination against them during the manhunt for the heroes besides the Confessor.

·         When Choir Boy brushes off side hero plots like synopses of comic arcs, it highlights that super events in comics to the heroes that are part of the timeline barely note the happenings of others outside of general politics, similar to how real people know legislation and armed conflict in real life but do not put too much thought into it.

·         The story of the Hanged Man highlights that lives to get changed in timeline altering events in comics even if things seem to go back to normal, as one man feels empty after a day where his wife ceases to exist.

·         Choir boy becomes the new Confessor, with the public’s view of him being renewed as good after the original vampire Confessor sacrificed himself to save the planet.

·         Overall, I loved the Confession arc of Astro City, as it shows the underground that the daytime Astro City doesn’t show. It also shows how people get into the city hoping to get into the hero business and how dreams can be altered with growth in such a bizarre city of heroes.

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. LaJolla, CA: Homage Comics, 1997. Print.

REVIEW: We3

We3

Written by Grant Morrison, illustrated by Frank Quitely

First published in 2004

We3

·         We3 centers around three pets who were turned into tools of war (I called them Cybermats from Doctor Who) with their wills in place. They are a bunny,  a cat and a dog (the dog being our focus for the story)

·         The beginning panels were minimalist in story telling (like the experimental comics that artists like Art Spiegelman work on) and conveyed the animalistic snapshots of conscious that the pets went through just doing things without dialogue.

·         The animals themselves have minimal cognitive processes though they do have a will that drove them in the story to leave the facility that is trying to kill them.

·         The fact that this series shows animals being used as military weapons could be a critique in itself about animal rights and the status of strays in the United States.

·         The only good humans in the comic are the Doctor who tested on them, who want to redeem her by getting the animals safe from the military, and the homeless guy who didn’t overreact to the dogs being weird and in fact was sympathetic that humans have been testing on them. The cat and the dog survive by the end to be in the care of the homeless man.

·         Despite the fact that we are supposed to sympathize with the animals, they do kill soldiers and people who want to get at them in the story. This may have been focused as being part of their conditioning as tools of war as opposed to their own sadistic sense of survival, as opposed to the humans who see them as game to shoot and kill for the sake of pay.

·         Had this series been in based in real life, PETA would have been all against the actions of the government using animals as drones of war, which is ironic given PETA’s own controversial stance on politics in the real world.

·         The animals show cunning by the end by getting rid of their armor and rigging it with bombs so as to blow up the soldiers getting at them. This is contrary to their animalistic tendencies and instincts that they had in the beginning of the series so this may convey growth of the characters.

·         The politician tried his best to cover up the bad things he has done to animals in the series, which ended up with him losing his credentials by the end.

·         The dog seems to be a strong moral character given his loyalty to innocent humans and those who don’t treat him horribly.

·         Overall, the story was okay for me. As I am used to Grant Morrison work redefining a concept, like All Star Superman, I was expecting to see a redefinition of how pets with mechanical powers could be seen. However, this was not the case with this work. However, it was an enjoyable read and I do recommend it to others.

Bibliography

Morrison, Grant, and Frank Quitely. WE3. New York: DC Comics, 2005. Print.

REVIEW: Tales from the Crypt

Jack Davis’s Tales from the Crypt

By Jack Davis

First published in 1950, reprint published in 2012

Tales from the Crypt

·         This reprint of the original Tales of the Crypt comic is in the same style as the 1950’s comic that was sold on the comic shelves during that time. This was printed as a Halloween special under Fantagraphics Books for promotion.

·         The reprint was given as part of Halloween goodies for people who trick-or-treated. Given that Hurricane Sandy happened for New York City however, the comic was given as part of thank you present for those who donated canned food and water to their local comic store. In my case, it was Forbidden Planet, NYC.

·         The series was originally started by William Maxwell Gaines and Albert B. Feldstein. The printed comic viewed, however, focused on Jack Davis’ work.

·         The stories are the same as other horror and terror and supernatural stories in that they are introduced by a narrator, who in this comic is the Crypt Keeper. In the comics, the Tales from the Crypt stories may have been part of an anthology of other horror comics as the Crypt Keeper usually hands over the comics’ continuation to “an old witch” who is not part of the print.

·         The Crypt Keeper himself has a back story that is part of the printed comics’ tales as the child of an Egyptian mummy and a two headed horror.

·         Apparently, books like Tales from the Crypt were part of the justification of Fredric Wertham, M.D. as part of his writings in “Seduction of the Innocent” as comics being the cause (not correlate) to the moral decay of the American youth.

·         This comic has the mark of “An Entertaining Comic” as its seal. Ironic given that the Comic Code Authority was born from debate over titles like this and which’s seal was on comics for half a century since until its debunk in 2011.

·         In my modern eyes, the comic wasn’t that terrifying or morally disturbing, making it overrated as the comic series that placed censorship on all comics at the time. This may have been due to my contemporary cynicism and desensitization though.

·         As the Tales from the Crypt is supposed to be horror based, most stories understandably end in tragedy and deaths of characters save for the Crypt Keeper’s origins.

·         Violence is included with the death of women and the mutilation of characters. However, most deserved their horrible fates in their comics.

·         Overall, I enjoyed Tales of the Crypt though the hype of it being morally haunting may have been promoted too much by the doctor. In my opinion, this comic series wasn’t that terrifying even for kids at the time. Perhaps one day I’ll read the doctor’s work “Seduction of the Innocent” and see if it holds true as a good psychology paper by modern standards. Tales of the Crypt, on the other hand, is a great anthology of horror comics.

Bibliography

Davis, Jack. Tales from the Crypt. Seatte, WA: Fantagraphics Books, 2012. Print.

New York Comic Con 2012

New York Comic Con 2012

A New York City Comic Convention

An event of 2012

New York Comic Con 2012

·         The lines were long

·         Christopher Lloyd, Peter Davison and Adam West were guest there

·         The anime scene and dedicated areas of last year were notably missing

·         The center seemed smaller as the areas previously opened were now in repair or closed off altogether

·         Artist Alley was notably made smaller: with more space given to well named artists in the American comics business and independent artists and online artists were now missing

·         Brentalfloss, internet celebrity, was there

·         There were a noted amount of cosplayers this year: and even a Greatest American Hero (me)

·         Wii-U titles were there: including Pikmin 3 and Zombie-U for demos.

·         The artist alley was placed in an area where the previous autograph and card game areas were last year.

·         Phone reception was a nightmare in the Center past the entrance.

·         The free ticket lines were not lackluster as getting multiple ones are more difficult compared to last year, especially with the tickets being given at 8 am as opposed to the previous 5 am rush.

·         Construction made it impossible for people to get to the center normally and the entrance was forced from 34^th st to 38^th street.

·         Troma films, the creators of the Toxic Avenger, was there

·         There were a noted amount of Fiona cosplayers from the gender bending Adventure Time fan creations and a lot of Banes form Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.

·         There was a Delorean from Back to the Future, a Batmobile and a Mystery Machine where one can take pictures in.

·         The main show floor was obviously packed, especially in the gaming sections.

·         Assassin’s Creed 3 had a live demo for people to try.

·         The Capcom booth had Darkstalkers, Devil May Cry and Okami HD: the last being a noted financial failure but artistic masterpiece in gaming history. Its revival on the PS3 may be a good sign towards a possible financial success in the series.

·         There was live Harry Potter Quidditch for people to play.

·         Playstation Allstars was difficult to play given the Smash Brothers template I grew up with.

·         There was a noted lack of Power Girl cosplayers this year, possibly in protest to the dumb New 52 costume that Johns has given the character lately.

·         Ironically, there was a professional model who dedicated her theme to being Power Girl, a sort of “Professional Power Girl.”

REVIEW: Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 01

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01

By John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

Published 1977

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01

·         The series notably has a positive, if not conservative, view of judges (police) always being in the right throughout the series

·         Judge Dredd never took his helmet off once, unlike the Judge Dredd film adaptation done by Stallone

·         Judge Dredd had a sidekick in the series in the Robot Walter and a side character in the stereotypical Italian Maria

·         There is notably a whole story arc dedicated to a robot war and the Wild West being on the moon

·         The panels are notably clump together in some situations, though this is common in late 70’s comics that were limited to less than ten pages per issue. (Issue 3, Page 2)

·         There are a noted lack of females being killed or kidnapped in the series, as the ladies that are not Maria are notably idealized and objectified

·         The Soviet Union apparently existed up to the year 2099 in the Judge Dredd series. This reflects the seeming adamant nature of the USSR to the USA in the late 70’s.

·         There are noted side stories in the back dedicated specifically to Walter

·         Robots are seen as slaves in the series despite the sentience of some of them. In fact, Kenneth the robot initiated the Robot War story arc that immediately takes place several issues in.

·         Rico, the clone brother of Dredd in the film by Stallone, is notably just a corrupted Judge in his origins. He notably lets himself be killed in the comic series and doesn’t appear again.

·         Comic books in the Judge Dredd series are ironically contraband in the year 2099 that hooks kids to addiction. Fittingly, 2000 AD comics made themselves the comics that are the contraband in the series

·         The bullets the Judges use serve as dues ex Machina as they seem to hit the targets literally with heat seeking

·         Bigotry in the Judge Dredd series exists with the Neon Knights, which serve as clan members to persecute robots and the people they serve under

·         Judge Dredd notably has but one personality type: lawman. While there could be development with him later in the series, for Case Files 01 and the noted first issues provided Dredd has little personality.

·         It seems that no one administratively seeks to question the Judges in the series, as the “judge, jury and executioner” nature of the Judges that subjectively could be corrupted easily is never questioned in the series and its beginnings.

·         The style is notably edged and more realistic in its art design

·         The backgrounds notably establishes only in several panels per page, a quite advanced technique.

Bibliography

Wagner, John, and Carlos Ezquerra. Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 01. Oxford: Rebellion, 2010. Print.

REVIEW: Crumb (film)

Crumb (film)

Crumb film released 1995

Crumb (film):

·         It is of interesting note that Crumb reluctantly allowed this movie to be made

·         It is also of note that the sisters did not wanted to be interviewed for the film

·         Finally, of the points of the Crumb family’s reluctance to be documented, it is of note that one of Crumb’s brothers committed suicide some time after the interview and the other brother giving up on cartooning altogether

·         The mother is also noted to be in her own depressed state during the film’s duration

·         While Crumb is sometimes seen as a cartoonist who draws the proportions of his women with overemphasized features, there are women who praise said style for the apparent bluntness of sexuality towards less skinnier women to be a socially acceptable thing

·         It is of interest that R. Crumb’s children have artistic talent, be it from the nurture of being raised by a cartoonist who disciplined him or a continued lineage of cartoonist given that Crumb and his siblings seem to display artistic prowess

·         For Fritz the Cat to be killed off due to the nature of Crumb’s disdain for the film is an interesting one, as he took the action of violence against his art as a means to get back at the media industry who he saw as perverting his works in the ways he didn’t want it to be

·         Despite noting himself not to be one assertive to his sexuality, it is of note that he did date several quite attractive women and did show up in a porn magazine feature shot with noted attractive women

·         Given his disdain for the modern aspect of consumerism, Crumb constantly criticized the consumer nature of America in one scene where he sat sketching while other people walked by with their brand logo shirts and loud boom box music (given that this film was being made during the 90’s, people were carrying boom boxes around)

·         During the duration of the film, Crumb aimed to move him and his family to Europe, where he saw difference not in what Europe held but rather in what it didn’t had in comparison to Midwest America

·         It was noted that Crumb did take some drugs in order to gain the inspiration for his works, especially for his works with Zap Comics

·         He was noted to even be shocked with his own work, as with the case of his tale of Mr. Natural with a headless women, which was given to his male friend to be a sex object despite the protest of the young man, who would later have sex with said body of a woman yet feel guilt for it afterward

·         His artistic styles of telling the racist Black American comics were interesting in that he didn’t held back in depicting harsh black face representations in his drawings. While objectionable, it does convey his own voice in his racism: as it is not flattering or anything but a personal opinion for his view of Black Americans

·         The Crumb family as children notably lived in “the Projects” of their neighborhood and had many issues with their father. They also notably formed their own comic book group where they drew comics. With this, it can be seen that even at a young age R. Crumb and his brothers had artistic talent

·         It is to note that R. Crumb consistently turned down fortune opportunities to maintain his personal integrity of having his works unabridged and unaltered for the viewing audience, a view that he claimed happened with the “Keep trucking” phenomenon and the animated adaptation of “Fritz the Cat.”

·         The film also provided views from other underground cartoonists on their opinion of R. Crumb, most praising him yet some female artisans criticized his later depictions of women being sex objects when he previously depicted women as sexual yet independent and strong in his previous works

·         It is also interesting to see R. Crumb’s son and his opinion of his father, as both a mentor and someone he notes as eccentric despite being his son

·         R. Crumb also notably loves his daughter over all other women, consistently noting in the movie how he felt no love for most women he knew (past sex objects) yet he felt intimate with his daughter

·         R. Crumb notably shows features of xenophobia towards the development of the American culture as opposed to people moving in. He criticized people building houses at one point where he lived in California yet it was due to the advancement of development in the area and the destruction of the natural surroundings. This is also prevalent with R. Crumb’s critique on how consumerism took over the American mindset

Bibliography

Crumb. Dir. Terry Zwigoff. Perf. Robert Crumb. Sony Pictures Classics, 1995. DVD.

REVIEW: Tatsumi (film)

Tatsumi (film) and A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

Tatsumi film released 2011

A Drifting Life published 2008 in Japan and 2009 in America

Tatsumi (film):

·         The film took a live action approach in depicting the onsets of both the life of Tatsumi and the graphic novels to which he worked on

·         It is interesting to note where the adult manga genre came from, given that manga had the same connotation of as the “funny papers” of children as opposed to a medium that was supposedly enjoyable by adults as well

·         It is interesting to see Tatsumi as the contemporary of Tezuka, another influential man on the art of manga. It is also interesting to see Tatsumi note Tezuka to be envious of him at the time

·         It is assumed that the film followed the format of the graphic novel, though portions of Tatsumi’s life is abridged in favor of fitting the film to a certain time limit

·         The outlay of Tatsumi’s life alongside the works he made relevant to the events in his life placed publication date out of order yet still maintained the importance of how certain factors in his life contributed to the style of narration and drawing to which he is noted for

·         The graphic tales in black and white have a feel similar to a motion comic in that the line work and use of black on white notably define how one views the work. This is comparable to the colored work to which the film illustrates the autobiographical portions of Tatsumi’s life

·         It is noted the adult themes of Tatsumi’s works that are featured, given that the contemporary style of Japanese manga was that stereotyped to Tezuka’s style: which is somewhat of a Golden Age of manga style

·         The publication industry of Osaka and Tokyo are made known by Tatsumi’s relations to reporters and how he gained money by working long hours in miserable conditions to pay for his family: a stereotyped trend for manga artists that persists to this day save for those who actually succeed in fame and fortune.

·         The transition from the “Occupied” short story to his real life narration was done beautifully, with how he had his protagonist drop a pen into the toilet after being arrested for sketching profanity onto the walls while Tatsumi in the next panel picks up supposedly the same pen while still narrating

·         The themes of Tatsumi’s stories are also of interest: being the ones shown in the film to be on topics of post-World War II Japan, Japan during the contemporary industrial life, Japanese middle age and sexuality, the field of Japanese manga artists and their depictions of sexuality in society, Japanese women post-World War II and his own autobiography

·         It is interesting to note that Tatsumi phrases each story as him discovering a new world rather than creating one, showing he draws inspiration when writing and drawing as opposed to forcing his own imagination onto reality

·         Tatsumi having his characters read their own books in the end of the film was a good touch, having it seem like all is full circle with his depiction of the worlds he creates

Bibliography

Tatsumi. Dir. Eric Khoo. Perf. Tetsuya Bessho and Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Zhao Wei Films, 2011. Film.

Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. A Drifting Life. Quebec, Canada: Drawn and Quarterly, 2009. Print.

REVIEW: Edgar Allen Poe Graphic Novel Adaptations (The Raven)

Edgar Allen Poe: Graphic Classics and Max Graphic Novel Adaptations (The Raven)

Poetry written by Edgar Allen Poe. Graphic Novel adapted by Corben and Co. (Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allen Poe) and Pomplun and Co. (Graphic Classics: Edgar Allen Poe)

Poetry published 1824 to 1949.

Graphic Novel adaptations published 2006 and 2010.

Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allen Poe (The Raven)

· As with the Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven is limited to the artist’s interpretations yet this is made more clear with the original text provided with it

· The violence against the Raven wasn’t necessarily in the original poem and may have been a fabrication of the artist

· The comic is noted to not be a true word for word adaptation of the poem, as the lettering in the graphic novel is noted to be different than with the poem

· The fact that the artist was limited to but eight pages leaves little for the imagination, compared to the implied pacing of the poem being indefinite, which seems finite given the nature of the graphic novel and its but eight pages

· It is noted that the Raven is further changed to the interpretations of the artist Corben, who took the liberties to change connotations and wording of the poem to make way for his art

Graphic Classics: Edgar Allen Poe (Raven)

· The art has an abstract feeling to it, with the protagonist eerily transitioning to a tragedy mask while the raven sits on top of a comedy mask

· The lettering, while noted to being clumped on top of the work and seems to be a separate entity from the comic, is at least part of the composition as the eye can flow from picture to lettering as with any other comic naturally

· The facial expressions on the protagonist seems unnatural to the situation he is in, having a rhetorical conversation with a raven. He seems too emotional, and not necessarily in the negative sense. Then again, this piece is more abstract than the other comics so that may have been the intent of the author

· The raven doesn’t seem like an ominous figure in the poem as it appears to be more comical in nature. This downplays the tragedy of the composition for me

· The background seems to lack consistency, as the study to which the raven stalks seems to change from panel to panel in continuity

Bibliography

Corben, Richard, Rich Margopoulos, and Edgar Allan Poe. Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allan Poe. New York, NY: Marvel, 2006. Print.

Poe, Edgar Allan, and Tom Pomplun. Edgar Allan Poe. Mount Horeb, WI: Eureka Productions, 2010. Print.

REVIEW: Edgar Allen Poe Graphic Novel Adaptations

Edgar Allen Poe: Graphic Classics and Max Graphic Novel Adaptations

Poetry written by Edgar Allen Poe. Graphic Novel adapted by Corben and Co. (Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allen Poe) and Pomplun and Co. (Graphic Classics: Edgar Allen Poe)

Poetry published 1824 to 1949.

Graphic Novel adaptations published 2006 and 2010.

Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allen Poe (Tell-Tale Heart)

· Most noted is that the original short story was given to the reader after the graphic adaptation so as for a means of comparison from the illustrator and the works of Poe

· The illustration is built on the pretense of the original reading, so actions are abridged in written detail as the actions are done by the drawn characters. This had varying degrees of success

· The lettering appeared to be built around the work in terms of its composition, so both do not complement each other necessarily with reading

· The actions of the police officers close to the climax had no means of drawing suspicion as illustrated, as they were merely standing around as if nothing happened. This could be interpreted as the maddening effect of murder on the narrator, yet this had to be assumed with reading as opposed to being told in the tale

· It was unnecessary to illustrate the destruction of the old man’s heart in the end, though this may have been the author’s spin on the tale

· The old man and the narrator were illustrated in a hilarious fashion compared to the dark telling of the tale, which didn’t compliment it for me. Compared to almost Herge’s Tintin design of he policemen the two characters seemed too unrealistic

· The stylized dread of the narrator seemed unrealistic as it didn’t convey the message of the narrator’s internal conflict as well as it could

· As stated before, the adding of the original text to the end made it so that the illustrated work seemed worse as one could compare their own interpretation of Poe’s work to that of the illustrator. This has the side effect of appearing to be padding on the publisher’s part

Graphic Classics: Edgar Allen Poe (Tell-Tale Heart)

· The story starts with the narrator directly addressing the audience, which doesn’t seem natural due to what is to happen later in the short story

· The lettering at least served to compliment the pacing of the comic, as the story was divided to as to show transition between panels according to the tale

· The narrator continued to directly address the audience, which breaks the pacing of the comic in a bad way as it leads to the question of to whom is he talking to

· The implied butchering of the old man due to the transitions between gutters was done well, as the horrors that happened are left to the reader to interpret (opposed to the previous read which left little to the imagination)

· The actions of the officers was well done, as the conversations and the interpretations of the narrator on their part felt natural as with the original story

· The officers noting of the narrator’s weird actions later on felt organic in its composition, as the smiles that started this piece was to be replaced with whispers and uneasy grins

· As with the other graphic adaptation, the implied actions of cleaning and such are left out by the narrator and the illustrator, so as to minimize the work of the illustrator. This made it felt lax as opposed to abridged

· The emphasis on backgrounds was a plus as it set the scenery that the characters interact with, though the short story did not go into the details upon this so such work was on the illustrator’s part

Bibliography

Corben, Richard, Rich Margopoulos, and Edgar Allan Poe. Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allan Poe. New York, NY: Marvel, 2006. Print.

Poe, Edgar Allan, and Tom Pomplun. Edgar Allan Poe. Mount Horeb, WI: Eureka Productions, 2010. Print.

REVIEW: The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

By Ann Marie Fleming

Published September 2007

· It was interesting on how Ann Marie had multiple interpretations on her great grandfather Long Tack Sam on his various tales of how he became who he was, as all her accounts were from second hand sources. Fittingly, I liked how she illustrated this in a Golden Age style origin story. Most noted to me was that she had a total of five different origins to the mystic arts and magician’s fame, some of which contradict one another. While these panels were straighter forward in nature compared to the collage of her other pages, they are noted to adding her interpretations of the times Long Tack Sam was popular, especially with Golden Age inspired art. (Fleming, 11-16, 38-43, 61-63, 65-67, 77-79)

· When Ann Marie was asked to take pictures next to her grandmothers, I found it interesting that she maintained her anonymous character persona through the scene by having a hand-drawn version of her stand next to the illustrations. While minute in detail, it shows the degree of reliability of her journey to the viewers within the continuity of her decision to have a drawn version of her be the representation one follows through the entirety of the book. This is opposed to having the true photograph of her next to the illustration, which would bring about an entirely different connotation altogether. (Fleming, 8)

· Reading this, I had a personal discrepancy with the ambiguity of her choice of composition on one page. While there was an arrow leading the viewer to read downwards on the piece, I couldn’t help but misread the piece by reading the panels continuously left to right as opposed to top to bottom. This would’ve been easily solved with a better planned composition of panels or dividing the page’s composition into two pages so as to remove the bad flow of reading for the viewer. However, this is just my personal observation. (Fleming, 7)

· It was a nice touch to add notable dates on the border of the pages, yet I felt that they were not necessary to the story and instead served as filler. My reasoning behind this is that she started out her journey to knowing her great grandfather with some noted dates yet the composition soon had them almost removed from the book entirely until the very end, where they jolt out in bulk to cover for the credits of the book. I can see why she placed them there, as a means to tie to the culture at the time. However, they serve little to the understanding of Long Tack Sam as the bulk of the graphic novel is dedicated to the mysteries of his stage life, not the mundane of the world around him. There wasn’t even a guarantee that he necessarily would be one to partake in the developing music and technology during those dates. (Fleming, 10, 50, 164-170)

· I liked how the pictures drawn to illustrate Long Tack Sam were at the time not the stereotypical Yellow face that captivated America since the Gold Rush and the first Chinese immigrants. This may be due to the fact that the illustrators may have not been American, but regardless of that fact it holds that Long Tack Sam was respected enough in his art that he wasn’t considered a “rat man” when drawn to promote his talents. It might’ve helped that he always wore the contemporary Chinese clothing at the time, thus noting his ethnicity, but that had little to do with his status in my opinion. (Fleming, 96)

· As a Charlie Chaplin fan, I find it interesting that Ann Marie made her statement about the black and white star with her noting of the rise of Hitler and other noted characters and people at the time. This, compared to the random dates previously noted, actually served the narrative well as it brought out the contemporary problems and influences at the time that people can research should they wish to relate to it. (Fleming, 103)

· The new reel from how Long Tack Sam refused to involve his daughters in racial lessening of Asians in the film industry at the time was notable. It showed the sense of ethnical pride that few note Chinese people at the time had. It denoted an interesting sense of Nationality from a man who traveled from place to place and had no permanent home of his own during his career. It was significant that Ann Marie chose to place illustrations of how beautiful her grandmothers were with how the American film industry noted them “too pretty” to portray Chinese people for their productions. It was even noted that Ann Marie provided newspaper that showed how much of an impact Long Tack Sam had to not wish for his family to be involved in the demeaning of Asian people in the public eye.(112-113)

· Overall, this was a great book. The small flaws it had me pause for a moment to contemplate what Ann Marie was trying to bring about in the plot of her journey, however they had little effect on the reading of the graphic novel. Her use of blending hand drawn illustrations with photographs and references as a collage made this an avant garde piece of work.

Bibliography:

Fleming, Ann Marie. The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. New York: Riverhead, 2007