It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Image Comics. So I was elated to hear they’d received lots of Eisner nominations. In fact, in many categories, there are multiple Image Comics nominees against each other. What follows is a list of their nominations and what I think. Best Single Issue (One-Shot): MADMAN IN YOUR FACE 3D SPECIAL by Mike Allred - I don’t know anything about this comic, but Allred does good work. Best Continuing Series: ...
I read Scott Pilgrim in its original manga-sized, black and white form when it first came out. With the final volume of the color version coming out this year, I thought it would be a great time to revisit the story as well as looking at how the addition of color changes things. I’ll be exploring the story and themes volume by volume. This time, volume 3. This volume is the culmination of all that’s come before - a lot of Scott insecurities hinge on his relationship to Envy and this volume is mostly about their relationship. There aren’t any real new examples of the main characters’ extended adolescence. Knives, on the other hand, continues her personal growth. This volume begins with her unable to contain herself in front of her fashion and music idol and then being unable to contain the fact that she must be so cool by association as both she and Envy have kissed Scott Pilgrim.
note on all the image scans: they are correct manga-style so they are read right to left Spend enough time doing critical readings of media and you come across the assertion that all media tells you about the culture it was written in. Sometimes, as in contemporary media, this is easy to tease out. Other times, as with science fiction, it’s by extrapolation. So I thought it might be interesting to re-read Love Hina, by Ken Akamatsu, as a way to to understand Japanese culture. Part One can be found here. Story Keitaro finally comes back from America. In the last book we learned that Kanako lusts after her brother and in this book Keitaro is confronted with that in a powerful way; we’ll return to this in a later section. Keitaro now looks like Seta and even drives as badly as he does. All the girls at the Inn now see Keitaro as manlier. Pretty much all the girls lust after him now except Sarah and Kaolla. So the dynamic has changed from Keitaro and Naru with Kitsune always open for some sexual play and Mutsumi being ready to grab Keitaro if Naru said no. And, of course, the somewhat disturbing Shinobu - not that she has a crush on an older guy, but that Keitaro occasionally thinks about it. So the book shifts to be a bit more of a harem manga where Naru has some real competition now.
Although Hinges began as a web comic, I was not familiar with the story prior to reading this book. What attracted me to this book was the interesting cover and interesting art style. The decompressed storytelling style has been in vogue for about ten years now. While many different writers (such as Brian Michael Bendis) in the commercial world are responsible for spearheading the idea at the idea at the big publishers, two different trends have lead to readers becoming familiar with the idea: manga and webcomics. Manga, beginning its tradition much in the same was as cheap pulps in the USA had a need for a great number of pages. Web comics, of course, can have infinite page counts because it’s taking place in an electronic medium. Of course, much of what makes web comics so innovative makes them hard to transition to paper. Often various compromises have to be made. And, of of course, the decompressed story telling means that those discovering the story for the first time on paper may find that at the end of the book, nothing much has happened.
Last time we considered Hickman’s use of the themes of love, family, and fatherhood as well as introducing the world, plot, and art. The title of this third trade is “There is No Us” and on the surface, it is about the dissolution of the tenuous peace between the Seven Nations North America. But the deeper themes of this volume are that of free will vs predestination and deception. The first two issues of this volume overlap with the twelve issues I examined last time, but I will include their plot elements as I provide a quick overview of the plot. Xiaolian calls a conference of the Seven Nations at the neutral territory of Armistice. Finally in a position of power, she seeks revenge on The Chosen for kidnapping the son she had with Death. As I mentioned before, many of the Seven Nations are not run by The Chosen (although they hold positions of power) and so they attempt to avert war. A situation I will detail momentarily leads to Xiaolian getting the war she wants. The Ranger finally finds his target and kills Cheveyo. After a confrontation with Death, he agrees to take Death to the facility housing The Beast (his son). The Three Horesemen decide they’re sick of following along with The Word and will go kill The Beast. They leave Ezra in a crumbling Armistice building and head to the facility housing The Beast. As I mentioned last time, The Beast has been plotting his escape with his computing device. He defeats the Conquest and affirms his dominance. He renames himself Babylon, names his computer Balloon and the book ends on a huge “OH SHIT” moment.
As I mentioned in my John Carter first look, I’m somewhat new to Dynamite’s properties; more accurately, their licensed properties. When I attended the Pulp Panel at Baltimore Comic-Con 2014, I was interested in the Green Hornet for the first time. My only previous exposure was the trailer for the Seth Rogan film. I knew it was an old character from the time of the radio serials, but not much else. But after hearing about Mark Waid’s take on it, I flagged it as something to check out. Last time we looked at Kevin Smiths’ Green Hornet. This time we take a look at Mark Waid’s first two volumes. I don’t want to muddle things with comparisons, so I’ll just be taking a look at what Mark Waid did and, in about a month, there’ll be a comparison article. As I did last time, I’d like to first quickly outline the story and then take a look at the themes Mark Waid is exploring. This time the story takes place in the 1940s, closer to the original Green Hornet stories. This allows Mark Waid to make use of pulp tropes and simpler technology. There are just some plots that don’t make sense in a world with Twitter, cell phones, the Internet, etc. The Green Hornet and Kato have been operating for a while, but not long enough that all the lowlifes know who they are. A new mob boss, Cerelli, arrives from San Francisco and already knows who The Green Hornet is, such is his infamy. In a plot that comes right out of the pulp era, The Green Hornet finds out that Axis power agents have infiltrated the USA and are trying to sabotage US efforts to assist the Europeans in the war. They are also waging a propaganda war to try and keep the US out of the war. Eventually Britt Reid figures out that the city’s industrialists are on the take as the Germans are paying them and they’re also collecting insurance on the goods they destroy. Additionally, it turns out that Cerelli is a German masquerading as an Italian. After The Green Hornet and Kato disrupt the German plot, they decide to retire as the events of this arc were hard to manage. Unfortunately, Lenore Case blackmails/guilt trips them into continuing. Thus we end with a proper pulp ending - the hero did some good, did some bad, and lost some of himself and his freedom in the process. (At least he’s alive at the end)
We don’t often consider single issues here at Comic POW! We prefer to look at story arcs and completed series to get a better feel for what the author and artist were trying to accomplish. However, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some comics’ first issues to predict where we think it might be going and see how that compares with where the series actually goes. This new series is called “At the Beginning” and it’ll usually be for series right as they are starting up. It appears that Scott Snyder was not content to have one of the best works of fiction about vampires, he wanted to continue working the horror pantheon. He couldn’t have selected a better partner in this enterprise. I fell in love with the Snyder/Jock team when they were working together on Detective Comics Vol 1 on the Black Mirror arc. Jock can quite easily go from horribly disturbing artwork to regular artwork that nevertheless excels at facial expressions. This contrast can easily be seen when comparing the first few pages with the pages that follow it.
The concept behind Seconds is not original. I’ve read and seen similar stories ( The Butterfly Effect) - I even saw a trailer for a new movie in that vein (although my Google-Fu is failing me in finding the title right now). The execution, however, was deeply personal and remained rooted in the character of Katie. Unlike the gravity behind the changes in The Butterfly Effect (child abuse, etc), Katie’s changes are personal and somewhat petty. Or rather, petty to the outsider. To her, they are nearly as important as life itself because she sees her life slipping away. Bryan Lee O’Malley is almost the same age as I am. So we have a lot of the same cultural touchstones and a lot of the same life worries. O’Malley and I are already in our thirties, so Katie’s story is a bit more resonant with me than it might be if I were younger. And, perhaps the same way my wife and I saw Ariel from Disney’s Little Mermaid as misunderstood when we were kids and a spoiled brat now, I may have different feelings about Katie when I’m older.
I read Scott Pilgrim in its original manga-sized, black and white form when it first came out. With the final volume of the color version coming out this year, I thought it would be a great time to revisit the story as well as looking at how the addition of color changes things. I’ll be exploring the story and themes volume by volume. This time, volume 2. Beginning by revisiting the themes from last time, there is again the theme of extended adolescence. O’Malley does not add much to this over the last book. Nearly all of the characters are in the same place as they were before. O’Malley adds a few more examples of Scott’s extended adolescence and immaturity in this volume. Last time I wrote about how his dating of Knives Chau was a prime example of how he didn’t want to grow up after his last breakup left him devastated and against being an adult in relationships. Unfortunately for Knives, he meets Ramona soon thereafter and begins cheating on her. In this book Wallace once again tells him to breakup with Knives. He declines saying he doesn’t want to “because it’s hard”. He only finally agrees to break up with her when Wallace threatens to tell Ramona about Knives if Scott doesn’t do it. As I mentioned before, while there are adults that don’t want to deal with the pain of breakups and sometimes just let relationships drift into nonexistence, it is still a sign of immaturity. Scott needs to think about others, particularly the young and vulnerable Knives who he will hurt more the longer the charade goes on.
note on all the image scans: they are correct manga-style so they are read right to left Spend enough time doing critical readings of media and you come across the assertion that all media tells you about the culture it was written in. Sometimes, as in contemporary media, this is easy to tease out. Other times, as with science fiction, it’s by extrapolation. So I thought it might be interesting to re-read Love Hina, by Ken Akamatsu, as a way to to understand Japanese culture. Part One can be found here. Story The story picks up where we left off before. Keitaro is going to go overseas with Seta to do some archeological work. The first story is a light story dealing with the Naru keeping Keitaro company while he waits at the airport for a delayed flight. Their relationship continues to thaw as Keitaro continues to gain respect for growing up and being less of a loser (at least by the standards shown in this book).