Lessons Not Learned from Watchmen

One of the reasons I believe that the Watchmen collection has been a perennial best-seller for over twenty years is the fact that it is complete in one volume. An interested reader can pick up the entire story at once and not have to worry about finding Watchmen Book 2.

But for some reason, DC has been releasing their collections of their limited series in multi-volume chunks. This week sees the release of Rann/Thanagar Holy War, vol. 1, which collects just issues #1-4 (of 8) and the attendant Hawkman Special. The War That Time Forgot, a twelve-issue series, is being released as two separate volumes. And possibly the worst offender of all, Justice, the twelve-issue series from Alex Ross & co., has been released as three separate hardcover volumes (later as paperbacks), each collecting just four issues of the series! If you want the entire series in one volume, your only choice is the $100 Absolute edition.

While there may be some short-term gain for DC in releasing their collections this way, in the long term I think they'd be much better served by releasing an entire limited series together in one volume. Much easier for stores to stock, and much more attractive for readers to get the complete story in one purchase.

GN Discussion Group

Our Graphic Narrative Discussion Group met last week to choose our texts for the coming year. After a couple hours of deliberation, here's the schedule we decided upon:

• February: The Arrival by Shaun Tan
• April: Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw
• June: The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
• August: Bookhunter and Fleep by Jason Shiga
• October: The Will Eisner Reader and The Best of the Spirit by Will Eisner
• December: Journey, vol. 1 by William Messner-Loebs

Looks like another good slate of comics!

Review: Glacial Period

Glacial Period
by Nicolas De Crécy
NBM ComicsLit, $14.95

This is a strange graphic novella, part future travelogue, part art & cultural critique, part ecological warning tract, and part absurdist narrative.

The book basically breaks down into three acts. In the first, we are introduced to a group of archaeologist-anthropologist-explorers in a far future Earth ravaged by ecological catastrophe into a glacial wasteland. They are accompanied by talking hybrid pig-dogs who are for no discernible reason are named after American super-heroes like Hulk & Spider-Man. (One wonders if this was an unfortunate choice by the translator and that perhaps in the original French they were named after famous European comic characters--Tintin & Asterix perhaps?) We learn that the explorers are looking for artifacts from our earlier civilization, and perhaps a great city; also, that one of the pig-dogs, Hulk, has untoward feelings towards his human mistress.

In the second act, Hulk and the humans separately stumble upon different parts of the Louvre, recently uncovered via a snow-slide from its icy entombment. The humans discover the various paintings hung in the museum and completely misinterpret what they represent.

In the third act, the statures and various pieces of representational art come to life and begin to hound poor Hulk, impressing upon his the history of the Louvre and the downfall of the prior civilization. Hulk then mounts one of the large dog-like statues and rescues two of the humans who had become trapped in a mini-avalanche. They ride off into the sunset.

The plot summary above doesn't even begin to describe the strangeness, so I don't feel that I'm giving much away. The best part is the satirical second act, as the explorers take the representations of their finds far too literally. It serves as a critique of the potential follies of anthropology as well as the times that produced the art in question. The other parts of the narrative don't fare as well; the introductory section establishes relationships that are not successfully followed through on, while the end defies logic and undercuts the earlier parts with its use of the fantastic and absurd that comes out of nowhere. My understanding is that this is De Crécy's style; he just needed to either curtail it here or set us up better for it.

De Crécy, a graduate of the Angoulême comics art school, is a skilled storyteller and is able to work the reproductions of the various art works into his work with ease. This is partially an educational enterprise, done in conjunction with the Louvre to promote appreciation of the arts in general and their collections in particular. I'm not sure this is what they were expecting!

Still, there's enough good stuff here to recommendthat you consider giving it a look.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

Bedtime Reading

Graphic novels about paleontology make for great bedtime reading!

Favorites of 2007 - Graphic Novels & Manga

Let me state up front that this is not necessarily a 'Best of' list; I didn't have time to read everything and I'm sure that there's some good stuff that came out in 2007 that I just haven't gotten to yet.

That said, here are my picks for my favorite graphic novels and manga from 2007 (I'll follow later in the week with a post on favorite comic books):


Original Graphic Novels:


The Arrival by Shaun Tan

The Arrival actually came out in 2006 in Tan's native Australia, but it didn't really hit U.S. shores until this year so I feel justified in including it. Tan, generally a creator of picture books for children, has created a wordless graphic novel that seeks to give the immigrant experience to the reader. Our nameless immigrant travels across the ocean to a strange land; at first we think we're in a early 20th century on Earth milieu, but soon we discover that we're in a world that clashes with the bizarre and wouldn't be out of place in a Jim Woodring comic. The sights are odd, the flora and fauna are odd, the customs are odd, and we don't understand the language. I don't know if it's possible for a comic to be a truly immersive experience, but The Arrival comes about as close as possible.



Bookhunter by Jason Shiga

Set in the early 1970s, Shiga's Bookhunter takes the police procedural and sets in the world of a major city public library. For anyone who enjoys a good comic this is entertaining; for a library geek like myself, it's paper-and-ink crack. Bookhunter goes a long way in solidifying Shiga's reputation as an unheralded comics genius. (You can read Bookhunter online in its entirety here, though I strongly suggest that this is a comic best experienced in print.)



Zombies Calling by Faith Erin Hicks

You might expect that at this point there wouldn't be anything new in zombie comics. I would have thought such an opinion to be correct, had it not been for Faith Erin Hicks' debut graphic novel Zombies Calling. Three university students find to their surprise that their campus is being overrun by zombies, and they use their knowledge gleaned from watching zombie movies to survive. It has just the right mixture of humor, satire, action, drama and pathos; and Hicks's agreeable art (reminiscent of fellow Canadian Brian Lee O'Malley) is perfect for this kind of story.


Manga


Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma

2007 saw the resumption of English publication of one of my all-time favorite manga series, Kiyohiko Azuma's delightful slice-of-life comedy Yotsuba&! No other comic being published today makes me laugh so much, and it's good clean fun at that. Charming, sweet and fun, it serves as a perfect example of how to make good comics.



Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms by Fumiyo Kouno

A collection of two (or three, depending on how you count them) stories dealing with the long-term effects of the atomic bomb on the people of Hiroshima, Kouno's Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms pulls off the tough task of being an 'important' work without seeming like it's trying to hard. Despite the sometimes depressing themes, this is not a depressing book. We see the bomb as a ghost hanging over the people, but it is a ghost that they learn to deal with. Heartbreaking, yet strangely uplifting in the way the characters not just survive but also live. It has stayed with me ever since reading it.

Graphic Narrative Discussion Group

I briefly mentioned yesterday that last night we were having our inaugural meeting of a Graphic Narrative Discussion Group. The group is a spin-off of sorts of our Fantasy & Science Fiction Theory Reading Group. Every year for the past few years that group has chosen a graphic novel as one of the selections; this new group is for those of us who want to do more than just one a year and/or things that don't necessarily fall under fantasy or science fiction.

Last night we decided to do a somewhat major work every other month (we haven't decided yet what, if anything, we'll do in the intervening months). Here's the slate we came up with for our first year:

February: Global Frequency by Warren Ellis and various artists (both volumes)

April: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

June: Yotsuba&! by by Kiyohiko Azuma (first 2 volumes)

August: Mister O by Lewis Trondheim

October: Palestine by Joe Sacco

December: Get A Life and Maybe Later by Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian


To me this seems like a good batch offering plenty of variety and potential discussion.

Satrapi on NPR

NPR's Bob Mondello interviews Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi on the event of the release of the Persepolis movie: "Story of Growing Up in Revolutionary Iran"

Undiscovered Gems 2 Day 4

Another entry for the Undiscovered Gems 2 Contest:

Paul Abbamondi writes:

Actually, I don't read that many comics, and so I'm not too sure of what is technically discovered or undiscovered, but my recommendation has to go to Grease Monkey by Tim Eldred. The story revolves around Robin Plotnik, a young assistant mechanic who has just arrived on the Fist of Earth for duty. In this era, over half the human population has been killed. To fill the void, a race of aliens offer intelligence first to the dolphins (they turn them down, bunch of bottle-nosed snobs!) and then next to gorillas (who gleefully accept). Robin quickly learns that he'll be working under Mac, a sentient gorilla. Action isn't the name of the game here, with the focus being more on the budding relationship between Robin and Mac, human and accelerated animals, and together these two will share some sometimes silly adventures and some sometimes downright serious ones. Regardless, I found both the writing and artwork to be top-notch. The hint of war never really blossoms into anything other than background drama, but with Mac looking for love and Robin yearning to find his place a battle in space is the last thing on their minds. A really fun read, one that I always tell people should check out. The entire series of comics has been published by Tor Books as a graphic novel.

Thanks to Paul for his recommendation; he's been entered into the drawing for The Best American Comics 2006, which will be awarded next Wednesday. There's still time for you to enter!

Review: Flower & Fade

Flower & Fade
by Jesse Lonergan
NBM/ComicsLit, $13.95

It's a pleasure to sometimes find a graphic novel I'd heard nothing about from a creator I knew nothing about, and have that comic turn out to be quite good. Jesse Lonergan's recent Flower & Fade is just such a graphic novel. It tells the story of a relationship--one between protagonist Kyle and his pretty neighbor Erika--from beginning to end, starting with the initial infatuation and hitting all the beats through to the bittersweet end.

Lonergan tells his story through a series a vignettes, each leading off with a title and a date over a six month period. There are no thought balloons, but Lonergan has a way with both dialog and emotions expressed through body language that gets across how the characters are feeling and relating. The art is an important part of the story; it may appear simple at first glace but really isn't, and Lonergan does a good job at pacing and moving the eye through the story; he also makes a great use of using blacks and contrast to set the tone.

Most importantly, Flower & Fade has a ring of truth about it. Many times I saw episodes from past relationships of my own being reflected in the story I was reading. It may not be a world-changing graphic novel, but Flower & Fade succeeds quite well in what it sets out to do.

Rating: 4 (of 5).

YAFQ: Omnibuses?

Today's Yet Another Friday Question concerns the latest craze in trade collections: omnibuses, those massive collections of previously collected comics.

From Runaways & New X-Men hardcovers to Star Wars & Buffy paperbacks to massive Palomar & Locas hardcovers of L&R material, omnibuses are a great way to get a lot of material you like under one cover. Many people will even buy material they already own just for the convenience of having it in one place.

Our question for you all today is:

What new omnibus edition would you like to see published?

I'd like to see an omnibus collection of Matt Howarth's various Bugtown material. It's all one connected narrative, but it was published in so many disparate places and much (if not most) of it is out of print. I'd gladly slap down a wad of bills for a nice hardcover.

How about you?

Update: Both John Jakala & David Welsh recently addressed this topic!

Shameless Friend Promotion

Pal Jim Ottaviani has two graphic novellas coming out in July: Wire Mothers and Levitation. Both Comic Book Resources and Newsarama have interviews with Jim about his new books. And there should still be time for you to tell your friendly local comic store proprietor that you want a copy of each for your bookshelf!

Who Rules on Amazon?

I checked out the Comics & Graphic Novels bestsellers list on Amazon; I expected that, like in bookstores, manga would rule the day at Amazon, but that's not the case. Here are the current top selling Comics & Graphic Novels at Amazon (edited to remove things on the list which aren't actually comics or graphic novels):

1. 300


2. Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3: Torn


3. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes


4. Watchmen


5. Lost Girls


6. American Born Chinese


7. Serenity: Those Left Behind


8. Penny Arcade Volume 3: The Warsun Prophecies


9. Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels


10. Fun Home


11. Persepolis


12. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns


13. V for Vendetta


14. Understanding Comics


15. Fables Vol. 8: Wolves


16. The Walking Dead, Vol. 6: This Sorrowful Life


17. Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall


18. The Complete Far Side 1980-1994


19. Bone: One Volume Edition


20. Maus: A Survivor's Tale (box set)


21. Lucifer Vol. 11: Evensong


22. Bone Volume 1: Out From Boneville


23. The Halo Graphic Novel


24. Theories of Everything: Selected, Collected, and Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978-2006


25. Fables Vol. 1: Legends in Exile


26. Pride of Baghdad


27. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories 2


28. Marvel Zombies


29. Bleach Vol. 17


30. Kingdom Come


31. Frank Miller's Complete Sin City Library


32. Our Kingdom Vol. 5


33. Scrum Bums: A Get Fuzzy Collection


34. Y: The Last Man Vol. 8 - Kimono Dragons


35. Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History


36. Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began


37. Ronin


38. The Complete Peanuts 1959-1962 Box Set


39. Y: The Last Man Vol. 6: Girl on Girl


40. Preludes and Nocturnes (The Sandman, Vol. 1)


41. Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm


42. Death Note Vol. 1


43. Garfield Blots Out the Sun: His 43rd book


44. Try Rebooting Yourself: A Dilbert Collection


45. Virtuoso Di Amore


46. It's A Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection


47. Watchmen (Absolute Edition)


48. The Walking Dead Vol. 5: The Best Defense


49. Lost Portrait


50. Justice: Volume 2

The first manga doesn't appear on the list until position #27!

A couple of caveats:

1) Amazon updates its bestsellers lists hourly, so it'll probably be different by the time you look at it.

2) There are a lot of non-comics books on the list; it's unknown if there are any comics & graphic novels that didn't make the list because they're labeled wrong.

(Manga is a subcategory of Comics & Graphic Novels; there is a separate Manga bestsllers list, and it does track with the broader list.)


Why such a poor showing for manga in Amazon? I have a couple of theories:

1) Amazon's pricing structure usually doesn't give discounts on items priced under $10; since most manga are $9.99 or less, there's no cost savings for ordering most manga on Amazon. (Although that doesn't stop the similarly priced Serenity graphic novel from hitting the top ten.)

2) One needs a credit card to order from Amazon; teenagers--one of manga's major audiences--typically don't have credit cards.


A few more observations about the list:

* 300 on top is not surprising, since the movie comes out next month. Good to see Dark Horse having movie-related product available before the movie for a change.

* Big ticket items make a strong showing, with The Complete Calvin & Hobbes and Lost Girls both in the top 5. Amazon shoppers love those 40% discounts on expensive hardcover box sets!

* Plenty of evergreen titles here, like Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, V for Vendetta, Persepolis, and Maus.

Is Fables DC's Best-selling Title?

Is Fables DC's best-selling title?

I ask because the latest collection, Wolves (vol. 8) not only topped Diamond's December graphic novels chart, but was also the top non-manga title in the latest PW sales chart (which charts bookstore sales too).

Fables would appear to be an evergreen title too, with the Diamond chart showing 1500 of vol. 1 & 1000 of vol. 2 in December (in November it was even higher: 1700 & 1400 respectively). That's most likely 3000 new readers of Fables over the last two months of 2006, not even counting bookstore sales.

It's got to be either Fables or Y, the Last Man.

The Best of 2006 (That I Haven't Read Yet...)

With the old year behind us and the new one just begun, it's time to look back at 2006 and pick the year's best.

But...

I find that this past year there were many heralded GNs that I didn't get around to reading. Such as:

Fun Home. I'm actually two chapters into this, having started it over the weekend. I really like it so far, but it is an exhausting read (in a good way).

Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness. Also started this over the past weekend; halfway through.

Curses. Forgot to order from DCBS; but I got Amazon gift script for Christmas so it's been ordered!

Chicken with Plums. Checked out from the library to read over break but didn't get to it.

Lost Girls. Have it, but haven't been in the right mood yet to read it.

Ode to Kirohito. On order for the library.

Cancer Vixen. Reviews have been mixed; I suspect perhaps I am the wrong age/gender/whatever to appreciate it.

The Drifting Classroom. Escaped my notice when it first came out, but a lot of people are raving about it. Is it true?

American Born Chinese. Library copy is at the bindery.

Abandon the Old in Tokyo. Just haven't got around to it yet.

Finder: Five Crazy Women. Gah! I'm behind on my Finder reading.

Ghost of Hoppers. Ditto for Love & Rockets.

Making Comics. Own it; I've read maybe a quarter of it so far.

Cartoon History of the Modern World. Just got it this past week.


Anything in there that I should defintely read before too long?

Review: A.L.I.E.E.E.N.

A.L.I.E.E.E.N.
by Lewis Trondheim
First Second, $12.95

The conceit of Trondheim's A.L.I.E.E.E.N. is that the book isn't of his own devising, but rather an artifact from an alien culture that he found left behind from presumably a UFO landing. This conceit is carried forward in the high class packaging that we've come to expect from First Second, with the cover and interior pages having faux wear and singeing. The dialog is written in an alien language, making this effectively a silent comic, the type that Trondheim excels at.

There are several short stories, each of which features cute little alien creatures doing rather disturbing things to themselves and each other. Eyes get poked out, body parts get swallowed, and in one case momentous defecation commences. The separate stories turn out to be interlocked, so seemingly random events in one story turn out to have relevance in another. Trondheim is definitely channeling Jim Woodring here, and with good results; fans of Frank will find a good deal to enjoy here.

The conceit of this being an alien comic adds another level to the proceedings. We don't know what the intended audience for this book is in its native culture. Is this typical children's humor for little aliens? Or is this a subversive comic akin to the underground comix of our own culture? Is this what the aliens look like, or is this their version of funny animals? Would this book be banned or embraced? Is this high art or low? Reading through this comic with different sets of assumptions can radically change how we react to the material, and brings in question how we react to all those other comics where we know--or think we know--the context in which it should be read.

Rating: 4 (of 5).

Dave's Dozen: Collections/GNs

Concluding my look through the October Previews (for items supposedly shipping in December or January or later), here are a dozen collections and graphic novels that I feel are worth your attention:


Alice in Sunderland
(Dark Horse, $29.95, p. 27)
Even after reading the solicitation copy I have no idea what this is actually about. But any new work from Bryan Talbot (Luther Arkwright; Tale of One Bad Rat) is cause for celebration.



The World Below
(Dark Horse, $12.95, p. 30)
Raise you hand if you like weird & creepy monsters! Paul Chadwick's underrated underground adventure story gets a long-awaited collection.



Gunsmith Cats Omnibus vol. 1
(Dark Horse, $16.95, p. 40)
Kenichi Sonoda shows that you can do a manga with plenty of violence and fanservice and still have a story that's, well, good. And now you can get it in a big thick omnibus edition at a fraction of the cost that those of us who bought the original collections did.



Batman: Year One Hundred
(DC, $19.99, p. 63)
I heard plenty of excelent things about Paul Pope's take on the Batman of 2039, but didn't buy it because I just knew there would be a trade. Now there is.



Doom Patrol vol. 5: Magic Bus
(DC, $19.99, p. 117)
Another collection of the classic Morrison series, with plenty of Dada--the Brotherhood of Dada that is!



Action Philosophers! Giant-Sized Thing Volume 2
(Evil Twin, $8.95, p. 278)
If you missed picking up issues #4-6 the first time around, now's your chance to laugh and learn about Karl Marx, St. Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, Descartes, and the rest.



The Grave Robber's Daughter
(Fantagraphics, $9.95, p. 278)
Richard Sala returns with a new GN story of Judy Drood, Girl Detective. More dark funny from Sala.



Jane's World Omnibus volume 1
(Girl Twirl, $19.95, p. 284)
It's a massive 400+ page compilation of Paige Braddock's lesbian slice-of-life comic; that is, if your life includes alien abductions, vegan Amazons, and super spies!



Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms
(Last Gasp, $9.99, p. 300)
Fumiyo Kouno's manga about a young woman in Hiroshima ca. 1955.



The Treasury of Victorian Murder volume 8: Madeleine Smith
(NBM, $8.95, p. 308)
The latest in Rick Geary's line of darkly whimsical recountings of 19th century murders.



My Dead Girlfriend, vol. 1
(TokyoPop, $9.99, p. 322)
It's a story as old as time: awkward boy meets cute girl, finally asks her to the dance, and they fall in love. Problem: the girl's a ghost! Should be a fun OEL manga from Eric Wright.



Roadsong, vol. 2
(TokyoPop, $9.99, p. 330)
The second volume of Allan Gross & Joanna Estep's OEL title promises to bring the two on-the-lam stepbrothers to Nashville for a little country twang to go along with the comedy/action hybrid.




Hey look, this month I actually managed to get all the way through Dave's Dozen before the end of the month! (Earlier in the week I posed my picks for mainstream comics and indy comics.)

Fantasy and Science Fiction/Theory Reading Group

Last night was the book selection meeting for the Fantasy and Science Fiction/Theory Reading Group to which I belong. Once a year we meet to decide what the books will be for the coming year; basically everyone brings a few recommendations, makes pitches, and then we vote.

It's become a tradition to use one selection for a graphic novel; two years ago we did The Dark Knight Returns, and last year we did Seaguy & We3. This year at my suggestion the group has opted for Charles Burns's Black Hole, which I think will make for a very interesting discussion.

The other (non-graphic) novel readings for the year are:

Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveler
Maureen F. McHugh, China Mountain Zhang
Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (also my suggestion)
Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners
Clive Barker, Weaveworld

Looks like an interesting mix of books.

Dave's Dozen: Collections/GNs

Concluding my look through the September Previews (for items supposedly shipping in November or December), here are a dozen collections and graphic novels that I feel are worth your attention:


Huntress: Dark Knight Daughter TP
(DC, $19.99, p. 69)
I'm actually a bit surprised that DC would go to the trouble to clear the reprint rights for a bunch of non-continuity stories about a b-list character that will have limited sales appeal. But since the author is company VP Paul Levitz, I can see how that might have greased the wheels. Still, I won't complain, and neither will Earth-2 fans, who will have a chance to get all of these disparate stories in one handy package.



New Teen Titans: Terra Incognito TP
(DC, $19.99, p. 91)
DC already collected the second part of this story several years ago as The Judas Contract; now read how it all began. This storyline is probably the height of the Wolfman/Perez Titans as wel as being one of the best straight-forward corporate super-hero stories of the 80s.



New X-Men Omnibus HC
(Marvel, $99.99, p. M90)
Yes $100 is a steep price, but with over 40 comics worth of content it's cheaper than buying all the individual issues, and there aren't any ads either. You get one of the best runs on the X-Men in years all between two sturdy covers.



Avengers and Power Pack Assemble! Digest
(Marvel, $6.99, p. M95)
If you have something against fun all-ages super-hero comics then don't order this! The rest of you though can enjoy the stories at a reduced size and price!



Girl Genius: Omnibus Edition #1
(Airship, $14.95, p. 228)
The first three volumes of Phil & Kaja Foglio's fun Gaslamp Fantasy series that features "lots of running around in Victorian underwear, occasional innuendo, a certain amount of violence and the occasional 'damn!'", all in glorious black & white at an affordable price. If you haven't yet tried it, now's your chance!



Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures TP
(Avatar, $29.99, p. 246)
A collection of Moore miscellany: a few stories by Moore, including a From Hell coda; adaptations of stories by Moore; stories inspired by Moore's other stories; interviews; and illustrated essays. Love that cover!



Mammoth Book of Best New Manga
(Carroll & Graf, $13.95, p. 260)
When they say Mammoth, they mean it: over 500 pages of stories from creatorsboth new and established. Even if only half of the stories turn out to be any good, it's still a good deal.



Dork Decade: The Dork Tower 10th Anniversary Collection TP
(Dork Storm, $15.99, p. 280)
Every one of John Kovalic's Dork Tower strips from Shadis & Dragon magazines collected together. Very funny stuff for gamers and those who know gamers.



Curses HC
(Drawn & Quarterly, $21.95, p. 281)
I've expressed my admiration of Kevin Huizenga many times before on this blog, so it should come as no surprise that this collection is a top pick of the month; even though it's all material that has previously appear in disparate sources, having it all in one hardcover collection will be swell.



New Adventures of Jesus: The Second Coming
(Fantagraphics, $19.95, p. 286)
Frank Stack's underground classic finally gets collected. Probably won't be a hit with the bible belt crowd...



Mister i volume 1 HC
(NBM, $13.95, p. 315)
I really dug Trondheim's Mister O, and this looks like more of the same, with a different letter of the alphabet.



Blank Volume 1
(TokyoPop, $9.99, p. 329)
Pop Mhan was one of the artists who came on the scene with a manga-esque stle just before the big manga explosion in the US, so it's gratifying to see him get an OEL series to strut his stuff. It's a high school comedy/action/romance type thing.



Sorry this was so late--hopefully you still have time to let your FLCS know that you want one or more of these fine books. I'll be back next month! (Earlier this month I had my picks for mainstream and indy comics.)

Review: Siberia

Siberia
by Nikolai Maslov
Soft Skull Press, $19.95

Like I suspect most Americans who grew up and the end of the cold war, I really only knew two things about Siberia: 1) It was cold; and 2) it's where the Soviets sent their dissidents to live out their lives in misery. In the back of my mind I must have assumed that there were 'regualr folks' who lived in Siberia, but up front was the idea that everything there was like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Siberia is a graphical memoir by Nikolai Maslov, one of the 'regular folks' from a small farming village in Siberia. An aspiring artist and Francophile, Nikolai has dreams that, due to the circumstances of his life, may never be realized. He grows up; gets drafted and serves in Mongola; and returns to Siberia, where life revolves around labor during the day and swimming in vodka in the evening. Nikolai seems destined to live a life a quiet desperation, until a fortuitous trip to the big city leads him to art school, a wife, and eventually to Moscow. But Nikolai's dreams are halted as his prefered western art style does not agree with the Party's idea of what Soviet art should be.

As a story, Maslov's memoir is alas somewhat lacking in a narrative drive. It mostly seems to be a series of events in a life (which, let's face it, most of our lives would seem like if put to paper!) Where Siberia succeeds quite admirably is in painting a picture of that life. Done entirely in soft pencil, both the desperations and the small pleasures come through. Over the course of nearly 100 pages, Maslov's art pulls you into his world.

In the afterword, Emmanuel Carrère, the original French publisher of Siberia, tells the story of how he visited Russia and came upon Maslov and his memoir. It is quite remarkable to learn that, outside of a few Corto Maltese volumes, Maslov had little exposure to western comics. It is also said that Maslov has no future plans to do any more comics; which I think would be a shame.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

(a review copy of Siberia was provided by the publisher)

Quick GN Reviews

The Ride
by a bunch of folk
Image, $9.99

Created by Keven Gardner, The Ride attempts to bring mindless action movies to the comics page, and in that it largely succeeds. The premise behind this anthology is that a particular 1968 Camero ends up being involved in a variety of high-octane situations: A high-octane Hong Kong gangster shoot-out, a police hunt gone bad, a deadly insurance scam, etc. The stories succeed or fail largely based on the artist; some, like Cully Hamner and Brian Stelfreeze, are clearly at ease with this type of story, while others are not. For mindless action, it costs about the same as a movie ticket to a Hollywood action blockbuster, and will leave about as much of an impression.

Rating: 3 (of 5)



Dark Blue
by Warren Ellis & Jacen Burrows
Avatar, $8.95

Dark Blue begins like it's going to be another of Ellis's ultraviolent stories about one badass cop against the evil criminal that no one else can take down. Then about halfway through there's a big ol' plot twist, which mainly works because you're expecting this to be the standard Ellis story. As this is an Avatar comic, it has the expected R-rated disemboweling and whatnot, which of course Burrows is able to pull off. Told in just six economical ten-page chapters, this is Ellis & Burrows doing what they do well.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)