I love comics. They represent a unique combination of visual and written storytelling that when done right are simply a delight to read.
Needless to say, I read a lot of comics. I only read English ones (we get Japanese and Chinese comics in Singapore but I don't read either language) so I get my friendly local comics shop to order em in from the USA- especially since popular ones sell out so quickly. There's a new shipment of comics in every Thursday which means I usually have new comics to read every week. So I'm gonna start reviewin em. I'll start with the floppies (single issues) I got this week (a few of these are from the previous week- I didn't go to the shop so I got em late). These are the comics I'll be reviewing:
Hip Flask: Mystery City
Pigtale #3- Dark Neon Rain
Intimates #10
Silent Dragon #1
Y: The Last Man #36
Gotham Central #34
The Losers #26
Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #3
Hip Flask: Mystery City
This is the 3rd Hip Flask single by artist Jose Ladronn and writer Richard Starkings. I wouldn't normally pay attention to a book that makes me wait this long between issues (the first one came out in 2002 and the second in 2003!), but Ladronn's art is nothing short of amazing and makes the book absolutely worth the wait. This is the most gorgeous comic being created today bar none. Ladronn combines imaginative designs with beautifully detailed artwork and the result is breath-taking.
And what of the story? Well, the first 2 books in this series were exercises in world-building- creating the setting and circumstances of the story and introducing the main players in it. This latest installment in the Hip Flask saga begins the story proper. It takes the cyberpunk formula of 30% science fiction to 70% noir and adds about 5% humour to even things out (yeah that adds up to 105% :p)- it's a good mix. And the fact that I can still remember the story and characters of Hip Flask even a year after I read the last installment says something about the writing, I think. Overall, I say this is one of the better science fiction books (including prose fiction) to come out in recent years and I'm really looking forward to the rest of this story... even if it arrives 2 years from now!
Take a look at preview pages from Hip Flask: Mystery City here!
Verdict: Awesome.
Pigtale #3- Dark Neon Rain
This latest issue in Ovi Nedelcu's acclaimed debut comic does not disappoint at all. No sirree. Ovi's artwork lives up to the high standards he set in the books previous issues- his black and white, animation-inspired linework is some of the freshest, coolest art in comics today. His drawings have a sense of movement and energy about them- like the images are going to come right out of the page to cartoon life! The book would be awesome even if the art was the only thing it had going for it, but oh glee- it has a great story too!
Our hero in this book is an amateur private eye named Boston Booth. In the best tradition of comics, he's just a nice, normal guy who just can't get a break. And of course, runs smack-bang into the middle of an adventure. An adventure involving a talking pig named Clyde and his megalomaniacal stepbrother, a wolf named Taxx who wants to take over the city with an army of animal underlings. Oh and he needs a socket device that's embedded in Clyde's head to do this.
In the latest episode of Boston and Clyde's adventures, we see Taxx's crazy take-over-the-city plan coming into shape, we learn a bit more about the mystery of the device in Clyde's head, Boston's relationship with his would-be love interest, Carmen, takes a step forward and we get a wonderful comic moment with Boston's grandma. Not much action, but the cliffhanger in the end promises a compelling 4th issue with the first big confrontation between Boston and Taxx. Yep, it's all good.
Take a look at preview pages from all 3 issues of Pigtale here at the official site.
Verdict: Sweet.
Intimates #10
Argh! Another issue not drawn by Gieseppe Camuncilo, the excellent artist who drew the first 8 issues of this comic. What gives? Scott Iwahashi's a good penciller too but Camuncilo's artwork really defined this series for me. Plus I just read that issue 12 will be the last one... Another Joe Casey comic bites the dust. Sheesh.
This issue's a bit of a letdown after the excellent issue 8 and issue 9, which had some really crazy-cool science fiction ideas in it, despite the sudden shift in art. It's still good enough that I'll follow the series to it's untimely end but if Casey doesn't regain some of the energy and spirit of his previous issues, well.. .way to end off with a whimper and not a bang!
Verdict: Meh...
Silent Dragon #1
Wheee! It's a new series by my favourite action comics writer, Andy Diggle! It's pencilled by Leinil Francis Yu- I haven't seen his work before but he makes this book look real impressive. His linework is sharp, angular and distinctive, his designs are cool and most importantly for an action comic the layouts flow well. Together with inker Gerry Alanguilan and colorist Dave Stewart, he brings Silent Dragon's futuristic vision of Japan to life.
This first issue is pure setup- the storyline's composed out of elements that seem a bit cliche but the comic ends off in a real interesting way that leaves a lot of unanswered questions in the air. I've no doubt, given Andy's track record, that he'll take the story in an interesting, unexpected direction by the next issue.
There's a 6-page PDF preview of the comic available here. Check out the awesome robot samurai on the last page!
Verdict: Kick-Ass.
Y: The Last Man #36
Y: The Last Man is one of the most popular titles in DC Comic's Vertigo line, and with good reason. The series took a high-concept premise- a mysterious plague kills all males on the planet save one!- and grounded it with realistic characters, witty dialogue, wry social commentary and fast-paced plots with cliff-hanger after cliff-hanger.
It was recently revealed that the series is going to run until issue 60 so we're just over halfway through the storyline. And we finally, finally get an entire issue dedicated to the main character Yorick's girlfriend, Beth, who's stranded in Australia and has been oft-mentioned and seldom shown. Beth has been captured by an Aborigine tribe and most of this issue takes place as she goes through a series of dreams under the influence of some hallucinogens fed to her by a witch doctor woman.
We learn some interesting things about Yorick and Beth's relationship in the past and Beth learns through her vision that Yorick is still alive. Well she could just write it off as merely a dream but somehow I doubt that's the direction the story'll take.
It's another great issue in an great series and it looks like the story's gonna go in some interesting directions as Yorick and his companions (absent from this issue but no big loss- they'll be front and centre in the next one) are soon to reach Australia themselves, after spending the bulk of the series on a road trip across the USA.
For a taster of the series, you can read the entire 1st issue of Y: The Last Man in PDF form here.
Verdict: Goodness.
Gotham Central #34
Gotham Central, which focuses on the detectives of Gotham City Police Department's Homicide Division, is the best of all the Batman titles DC's publishing these days, and this, part two of the four-part "Dead Robin" storyline, is no different. Written by both Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker (who is sadly leaving DC's shores to write for Marvel), this latest storyline asks a really interesting question- what happens if the police find the body of a dead superhero?
The superhero in question here is Robin, Batman's sidekick. In the previous issue, the Gotham City Police Department found the dead body of a kid dressed up as Robin. Of course, nobody knows his real identity. So they're forced to assume that it was the real one, eventhough there's no way to tell. Batman showed up at the end of the issue and got shot by one of the police officers- who happens to bear a grudge against him for failing to prevent her partner's death earlier in the series.
Of course, Batman doesn't go down that easy. At the beginning of this issue, he gets up, punches said police officer in the face, steals her gun and runs away with it (Batman's a bit of an asshole in the DC universe these days). Later in the issue, the Teen Titans (a slightly more grown-up version than that shown in the Cartoon Network series) show up to answer a couple of questions down at the police headquarters. With their bright costumes, they're really out of place in Gotham Central's grim n gritty vision of Gotham City and this is used to great comic effect in a couple sequences. At the same time, we get to see the GCPD detectives trying to get to the bottom of the case, which is cool since the police procedural aspect of this series is one of it's biggest strengths.
Verdict: Rockin'
The Losers #26
The Losers has been one of my favourite action comics since it first came out in 2003. This latest issue begins it's penultimate storyline: Unamerica. The regular artist, Jock, who'se angular, stylised art was a big part of the appeal of this title, is taking a break (happily, he'll be back for the final storyline, "Endgame", which begins with issue 29) but Colin Wilson (who drew Point Blank, the fantastic prequel to Ed Brubaker's Sleeper) does a good enough job in his stead. This issue does a lot of things- we finally learn what Max's big plans are (and boy are they BIG!), one of the Losers is captured by Max's men and, well... it's basically all building up to something BIG. I can't say much as at this stage in the story everything's a spoiler just I'll just say this- The Losers is Big Action Comics, the way they should be done. DC and Marvel superhero writers should take note.
Rating: 9 out of 10.
Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #3
Ah, what great days these are when I can expect at least 2 comics by my favourite author, Grant Morrison, every month. His Seven Soldiers project is the most insanely ambitious superhero epic I've had the pleasure to read and Zatanna #3 is the first issue that really firmly ties in with another one of the Seven Soldiers titles, namely, Shining Knight. Zatanna and her assistant Misty run straight into the aftermath of what we saw in the last issue of Shining Knight, where they learn some disturbing things indeed. Like the Losers, there's not much I can say here that won't spoil the story.
There's an interesting commentary going on here about the nature of stories and ideas and how they never really die, and I expect these things will become quite important in the overall storyline of Seven Soldiers as the series progresses. We've almost reached the halfway mark of this series and the disparate storylines of the different series are starting to come together. If Grant Morrison can keep up this level of fantastic storytelling til the end of this series, he'll have created one of the most remarkable epics in comics history.
Verdict: Coolness.
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