Reviews of graphic novels and comic book collections every Tuesday and Thursday.


Please Note: All Amazon prices are current the day of the review. Prices may change without notice.

 
It's become clear to me that I can't keep up with these reviews anymore. I have a few written, but I've fallen off of reviewing every graphic novel I've read. Oh well. Using Library Thing, you can see what I have read lately. As you can probably tell from my reviews in the past, I tend to read books that I already have a predisposition to like (no reason to read books you don't like). So if you see it on this list, there is a pretty good chance that I'd recommend it.

Labels: the end

posted by Sean McGurr at 9:38 AM

 
Hiatus Over in January
The Graphic Novel Journal will start publishing new reviews every Tuesday and Thursday starting January 2.
posted by Sean McGurr at 10:56 PM

 
Hiatus
I've been taking a break from comics and graphic novels recently--there have been a bunch of great books out recently--so the journal will be on hiatus for a bit. I'm also putting together some new comics to debut at SNAP!. Look for new reviews later this year.
posted by Sean McGurr at 8:00 AM

 
A Few Perfect Hours by Josh Neufeld
When others relate their travel stories--no matter what format: essays, pictures, slideshows, seemingly endless monologues--it can be hard to stay awake. Why should you care about what happened to others? It is a challenge all travel writers face. Comics creators have the same problem. Even though they have the added benefit of being able to show pictures, they have to be careful not to just recreate photos. So how does one create an interesting, relevant travel story? Ask Josh Neufeld.

In A Few Perfect Hours (2004, Alternative Comics, Amazon listing), Neufeld uses humor, engaging art, real-life experiences, and a detail for the little things when traveling to create stories that capture both the every-day experiences of traveling (how to squat in a far East toilet) and the wonder of amazing sights (an all-day trek through a cave). Anyone who has traveled can relate to some of these experiences, but Neufeld (along with his partner Suri) have adventures that are so unique (spending a day at a organic farm in Malaysia or randomly hooking up with Baptist missionaries in the middle of a Buddhist festival in Cambodia) that it makes for fascinating reading.

Neufeld's art isn't flashy (you may recognize it from Harvey Pekar's American Splendor), but works for the types of stories he is trying to tell (which focus on the everyday, which you may recognize from Harvey Pekar's American Splendor).

By the end of the book, even a homebody will want to strap on a backpack and see what there is to see in this world. Just don’t bore us with your pictures. Make it interesting like Neufeld.

A Few Perfect Hours 4 stars (out of 5)
posted by Sean McGurr at 8:00 AM

 
Drawn & Quarterly Showcase No. 4 by Various
I dig Mome and enjoy most of the other literary comics anthology that have been sprouting up over the past few years, but am consistently impressed with the work that is featured in the Drawn & Quarterly anthology. Drawn & Quarterly Showcase No. 4 (2006, Drawn & Quarterly, Amazon listing) has solid pieces by three disparate artists.

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Gabrielle Bell, which doesn't consist of much, but still. But this untitled work about a young woman who doesn't quite fit in at her art school is as strong as any of her other pieces. When the woman's artwork draws the attention of a famous abstract artist's ten-year-old son, the artist hires her to teach him art. Eventually, a strange triangle forms between the three of them. Like the art of the woman in the story, Bell's art is straightforward; there is nothing showy in the layouts or the rendering. But the narrative itself has ambiguity.

"Dog Days" by Martin Cendreda layers a couple of different stories in one day in a hot city: A young boy and his grandfather go to get a haircut while a serial killer is on the loose; three young kids roam the streets getting into young boy type trouble; and perhaps the aswang, a supernatural creature, makes an appearance. With a simple style and a single color, Cendreda immediately involves the reader.

Finally, Dan Zettwoch relates his grandfather's experiences during a huge flood in Louisville in "Won't Be Licked." With an amazing amount of detail for someone who wasn't there, Zettwoch plunges the reader into the action. Although it was a horrible event, Zettwoch captures the adventure a young man would have felt during that time. Seamlessly incorporating first-hand sources with scholarly sources, he is able to recreate an incident most people are probably unaware of and make it engaging.

By focusing on only a few artists with quality work, Drawn & Quarterly has created an anthology that never disappoints and sends the reader out searching for additional work by the artists.

Drawn & Quarterly Showcase No. 4 4.5 stars (out of 5)
posted by Sean McGurr at 8:00 AM

 
AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy by Jeffrey Brown
More autobiographical troubles with women are presented in Jeffrey Brown's AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy (2005, Top Shelf Productions, Amazon listing). This time he focuses on his relationship with Sophia, who he is set up with by a friend.

If you've read Brown before, you know what you are going to get here: crudely-drawn, but oddly engaging panels; a quick read; some humor, some sentimentality; and an unhappy and unsatisfied Brown by the end.

This book seemed more episodic than some of his others. There were some strange breaks that can either be read as the way that memory works or lazy narrative structure. You can choose. Not as strong as some of his other works, but a pleasant enough read. After reading a number of Brown's books, I don't want to continue reading them since they seem pretty much the same, but as much as I want to dislike them, I find myself enjoying the short time I'm with them.

AEIOU: Any Easy Intimacy 3 stars (out of 5)
posted by Sean McGurr at 8:00 AM

 
When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs
Growing up in the late 70s and early 80s, nothing scared me more than nuclear war. Fear of the bomb was constantly with me and I found myself daydreaming about what I would do if I survived a nuclear blast. Of course that was silly as the chances of my surviving would be slim, especially since I lived near a major city that was almost certainly high on the Russians hit list.

But for the retired couple in When the Wind Blows (1982, Schocken Books, Amazon listing) living out in a rural area of England, perhaps they would be on the outlying areas of a blast. Unfortunately for them, they have put their faith in their government which Raymond Briggs shows is entirely misplaced.

Through a serious of malapropisms, Jim tells his wife that a war might be coming and that they need to take action to shelter themselves. His proper wife, remembering WWII, is sure that they'll be fine. Despite reading the papers, Jim has no concept of what a war would be like. They are both living in the past. To the modern reader, their discussions are quite funny.

Although only 38 pages, the book is crammed with panels and words by Briggs. There are upwards of a dozen panels on most pages and each is mostly taken up by word balloons as you get the impression that these two characters can't stop talking. When they do, it is because Briggs has broken up the book with eerie two-page spreads showing nuclear submarines, airplane formations, or a simple empty page depicting the bomb exploding.

By the end when the couple starts to succumb to radiation poisoning, any humor that existed is forgotten and the horror truly sets in for the reader.

When the Wind Blows 4 stars (out of 5)
posted by Sean McGurr at 8:00 AM

 
Legend of the Green Flame by Neil Gaiman
While in Seattle a few weeks ago, I found a Neil Gaiman comic I didn't know existed, Legend of the Green Flame (2000, DC Comics). Ironically, the script by Gaiman was lost for a number of years. He wrote a Green Lantern and Superman script that couldn't be published because it didn't fit the continuity of the DC Universe at the time. The script was lost, but once found years later was thought worthy of publication. Illustrated by a host of artists (Frank Miller, Mike Allred, Terry Austin, Mark Buckingham, John Totleben, Matt Wagner, Eric Shanower, Art Adams, Jim Aparo, Kevin Nowlan, and Jason Little), it was published as a sort-of alternate universe tale in a prestige format.

Not being a fan of the DCU, Superman, or Green Lantern, the draw for me was the Gaiman script, which is good, but not great. For some reason, the story, dealing with big mystical themes that make the Sandman such a great read, falls short when forced to deal with these superhero characters. Perhaps DC fans will get more out of it than me.

Legend of the Green Flame 2.5 stars (out of 5)
posted by Sean McGurr at 8:00 AM

 
The Sandman Vol. 4: Seasons of Mists by Neil Gaiman
In The Sandman Vol. 4: Seasons of Mists (1992, Vertigo/DC Comics, Amazon listing), Neil Gaiman's extended saga takes off. The storyline here is probably the strongest and most exciting in the series. For readers who enjoyed the short stories, but now want access into the extended Sandman Universe, this arc, rather than the first volume or "The Doll's House" is a great beginning.

It starts with a family meeting between the members of the Endless, minus brother Destruction, which precipitates Dream going to Hell to search for Nada, his lover that he banished when she denied him. In a huge anticlimactic moment--Dream spends an entire issue saying his good-byes before his journey, which he senses will end with his death--Lucifer doesn't want to fight Dream. Rather, he has emptied Hell and gives Dream dominion over the realm. This turns out to be a curse though. All manner of deities and entities seek Dream to ask for the key to Hell. How Dream handles this variety of gods and the fate of Hell becomes the crux of the story arc.

Along the way, we are given an extended view of the Sandman's realm, the Dreaming. Gaiman also introduces and expands upon the characters there, including Matthew, a talking crow, Cain, Abel, and Lucien, the librarian in a library of stories of books never written, only dreamed. Gaiman seamlessly mixes humor, drama, suspense, and intrigue to create a page-turning story with a satisfying conclusion.

The Sandman Vol. 4: Seasons of Mists 5 stars (out of 5)
posted by Sean McGurr at 8:00 AM

 
Playback Adapted by Ted Benoit and Francois Ayroles
It has often been said that the best trait of comics is the ability to adapt to just about any genre. Obviously the biggest success has been in superheroes, but there are fantastic comics in science fiction, biography, realism, non-fiction, fantasy, and mystery. At first blush, an unproduced noir screenplay by Raymond Chandler would seem to be great source material for a graphic novel. But while reading Playback (2006, Arcade Publishing, Amazon listing), all I could think of was how much better this would be as a novel or a movie.

I think a good graphic novel could be made out of the screenplay, but this isn't it. Not having read the source material, I'm not sure how accurate Ted Benoit was in the adaptation. I have read Chandler though and his tough, hard-boiled writing, while evident in many places here, would have spruced up the story. A novel would have filled in many of the gaps and added to the suspense and characterizations.

As a film, Francois Ayroles' static and often muddy art would have been clarified and made the story more dynamic. Perhaps the reproduction of the art wasn't done well, but it was much too dark. Also, because of the translation issues (the graphic novel was originally published in France), the world balloons are awkward as the new lettering leaves too much white space.

Fans of Chandler would do well to seek out the screenplay or his adaptation of it into a novel rather than seeking out this subpar graphic novel.

Playback 2 stars (out of 5)
posted by Sean McGurr at 8:00 AM