Marijuanaman OGN – Review

By: Ziggy Marley (creator), Joe Casey (writer), Jim Mahfood (art & letters), Justin Stewart (colors & design)

The Story: An evil pharmaceutical company is pushing a synthetic mood-altering pill.  The good citizens of Exodus aren’t going to stand for this ignorance of good, natural weed and enlist their hero, Marijuanaman in the fight for righteousness.

What’s Good: This is a book that is going to appeal to people on a very personal level.  The overall story of the book comes very strongly from the Rastafarian religion and the great Bob Marley’s “One Love” mythos that we should commune with nature, love our brothers and sisters and, of course, smoke lots of marijuana to expand our consciousness.  Even if you don’t practice that type of creed in your daily life, it is hard to deny a certain attraction to it.  I’ve certainly been on vacation and seen those dudes in Jamaica and thought, “Those dudes seem to have a LOT less stress than I do….”

Of course, if this were just a religious pamphlet for the Rastafari religion, it wouldn’t be a very good story, so Ziggy Marley and Joe Casey came up with this story of an evil pharmaceutical company that is selling a mood altering pill.  Naturally, the pharma company is very threatened by sweet, natural weed and hires a mercenary – who is meant to further embody mechanized industrialization – to take out the resistance fighters of Exodus.  The good guys aren’t without resources as they have on their side an alien from another planet, whose lifeforce is based upon THC (the active compound in marijuana).  Whenever someone smokes weed around him, he turns into Marijuanaman and gains superpowers that help him take on evil and win the affections of an attractive female love interest.

It’s a pretty fun and whacky story and even if you’re kinda a proponent of free markets and industry (like I am), it is always educational to see how some other, more laid back folks may see things.

The Walking Dead Vol.1: Days Gone Bye – Review

By: Robert Kirkman (writer/letters), Tony Moore (art) & Cliff Rathburn (gray tones)

The Story: A man wakes up from a coma to find the world has been overrun by zombies.

Review: News Flash!!!!!  There will be a TV adaptation of The Walking Dead beginning on AMC on Halloween night (Oct. 31, 2010).  Unless you have been under a rock, you will have already heard this news and if you are a big fan of the comic series, you have doubtless been telling family and co-workers how awesome the show should be.  Likely you’ve been hinting to these same people that you just happen to have a complete collection of The Walking Dead in the socially-acceptable-for-adults “graphic novel” format (since no only geeks would be seen to read -sigh- “comic books”) and would be very happy to loan these trade paperbacks out.

Or perhaps you are a non-comic fan who has seen the news of the show and believes that you should always read the book before you seen the movie.  So, you go on Amazon or drive to your local bookstore and look up The Walking Dead.  Where do you start?

Well, it is pretty easy with a series like TWD… You start with #1 which is the subject of this review and is titled “Days Gone Bye”.  This volume is not Watchmen when it comes to sales figures, but it is still making appearances on Top 10-20 monthly sales lists years after its release (which is an achievement in the flavor-of-the-day comics industry).

So, how is this volume that collects issues #1-6 of the comic series?  “We” all presume that this is what the first season of the TV show will be based upon, so is it good source material?  If you’ve never read comics, will you like it?  If you lend it to a co-worker, will they enjoy it or fling it back in your face?

What’s Good: Robert Kirkman does a wonderful job of establishing the basic story in this first volume.  That is the feeling of being alone, loss of family, join at reunion with people you had thought were lost and, of course, the zombies in the background.

It is very important to note that this series isn’t really been about zombies.  This comic is not “Night of the Living Dead”.  The zombies are a dull, background noise that kills characters when they least expect it or when they become careless.  Sure, there are a few “oh shit” moments in this volume where the survivors have to get away from the zombie hordes, but that is not the focus of the story.

So, if the zombies aren’t the focus, what is?  It’s the people, dummy!  Imagine being in a small group of ~10 survivors clinging together, starring at the end of the world.  How do you find food?  Where do you sleep?  And most importantly, who is in charge?  Is it the strongest?  The smartest?  The most vicious?  Although it becomes a theme in later volumes, there are seeds planted here about the breakdown of basic human institutions.

Afrodisiac – Graphic Novel Review

By: Brian Maruca & Jim Rugg

Review: “Alan Diesler, a frail, humble janitor in Hardwood Elementary, awoke to his true calling the day jerk aliens invaded his turf.  While trying to protect the student body, Diesler used the only weapon at his disposal – an old beat up cane – the magical pimp stick, Mackjolnir.  Slamming it on the ground for emphasis magically transformed the meek, crippled janitor into the legendary… AFRODISIAC!

This is but one of the many origins that Maruca and Rugg give as the origin of their hero in the awesome original graphic novel, Afrodisiac.  Although they were deadly serious at the time, 1970’s blaxploitation movies have become the kings of unintentional comedy and this book pushes very hard to ramp up the unintentional comedy factor while NEVER knowingly making fun of itself.

In terms of presentation, Afrodisiac is 94 pages of 6″x9″ fun.  The book is presented as a compilation of silver age comic material, so you get a series of shorter stories (5-6 pages) with random covers interspersed throughout.  The only downside to this presentation is (alas) Afrodisiac was not a real silver-age comic and unfortunately you cannot go buy the back-issues.  Maruca and Rugg made it up.  Sigh…..

Although I and most others have lumped Afrodisiac into the blaxploitation-spoof genre, the stories really are not pulled from that type of source material and that is why this book really shines.  I’m not sure if there were blaxploitation comics in the 1970’s or not……  But, if there were, they wouldn’t have been able to do more than a story arc or two about the hero protecting his turf from slum lords or white drug dealers who were selling heroin/guns/booze in their neighborhood.  Pretty soon those comics would have moved onto the types of situations you see in Afrodisiac: fighting aliens, staking vampires, dealing with kung-fu guys, thwarting killer computers, etc.

Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965 – Graphic Novel Review

By: Joe Kubert (written and illustrated)

Review: When not reading comics, I am a pretty avid reader of military history, so when I saw Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965 on the shelf in my LCS, I had to give it a try.

The basic story of this original graphic novel is that of a U.S. Army Special Forces team that is “advising” in South Vietnam in 1965.  I’ve heard people say that this was before the “war” started and I don’t think that’s quite the right way to refer to what was going on.  There was definitely a “war” going on, the U.S. was just limiting its involvement to providing advice to the South Vietnamese and trying to keep U.S. soldiers from becoming directly involved in the hostilities.

So this 12-man team was sent to assist the South Vietnamese forces with the fortifications of a strategic town/base called Dong Xoai.  From the moment they arrived, it was very clear that the Viet Cong (VC) wanted to occupy this position for its strategic value and were intent on doing so asap.

The book tells the story of very nasty battle in Dong Xoai in which the U.S. forces and their allies were vastly outnumbered and receiving no outside support.

If I had to sum up this book in one sentence it would be: GREAT art and dreadfully dull writing.

The first tip-off that the writing might not be all there was when I heard an interview with Joe Kubert at iFanboy.  He was explaining that although this was very heavily based on a true story, it could not be called a really true story because the survivors of the battle didn’t care for the dialog and didn’t want their real names used.  That’s not a good sign….

The “story” portion of the book runs ~150 pages, but the actual battle is all compressed into the final third of the book with the first portion being taken up by boring descriptions of interactions with the indigenous people and the strengthening of barbwire barricades.  I kept waiting for something to happen, and then when the big battle does occur, it isn’t that exciting.  Now, if you read the supporting material in the back of the book, you’ll learn that in the real Battle of Dong Xoai there were two Congressional Medal of Honors awarded.  So, I feel like “dull” isn’t a term that should come into play.  I was expecting an illustrated Black Hawk Down (the book) and didn’t get it.

Area 10 – Review

By: Christos N. Gage (writer), Chris Samnee (art) and Clem Robins (letters)

The Story: A serial killer is beheading victims in NYC, and people are getting holes drilled in their heads, giving them powers of precognition.

What’s Good: This was a very fast paced hardcover OGN from Vertigo’s Crime series.  Checking in at 180 digest-sized pages, I chewed through it in ~70 minutes over two sittings.  It was a good, fun and fast read.  The well paced story is that of a “hard-boiled detective trying to catch the serial killer” with a kind of X-Files (or Fringe, for the younger readers) twist.  In a lot of ways, I felt like Gage was kind of paying homage to the serial killer/thriller genre because a lot of the cliches of the genre are in here, but when they play out in a predictable fashion it is fun rather than groan-worthy.  I’d compare it to watching a Tarantino movie where he is playing up Western themes in a fun and slightly cheesy way.  On top of that, there were a couple of plot twists toward the end that I didn’t see coming, yet they weren’t plot twists for the sake of plot twists.  I loathe gratuitous plot twists!

The Samnee art is also a joy.  Being B&W and in digest format, it really reminded me of the art in some of the more realistic newspaper strips like Rex Morgan.  That may sound like a slam on a comic artist, but I don’t mean it that way at all.  It’s well done, clear and tells the story without resorting to needless splash pages.

Bizarre New World: Population Explosion (Graphic Novel) – Review

By Skipper Martin (writer), Christopher Provencher (Art), Wes Dzioba (Colors)

I guess I should have read the back cover first. You see, the synopsis on the back cover states that Paul Krutcher, the world’s first flying man, is no longer alone in the sky and must negotiate the insanity of everybody suddenly gaining the ability of flight to make a mad dash from California to Arizona in response to a desperate, teary phone call from his son. Unfortunately, what I didn’t get from the story is where Paul was going in his desperation. We see him race home and we see him pack for a trip, but at no point do we get a simple “I’ve got to get to Arizona,” which would have been a big help. Maybe if you’ve read this title before you knew the details of Paul’s personal life, but a new reader wouldn’t, unless, as I said, you looked at the back cover first.

Unfortunately, Paul’s race home and his race out of town seemed quite a bit repetitive. The book has several pages of Paul flying or driving in earnest while people are flying haphazardly all around him. The sequences serve to paint the picture of chaos that ensues when all of humanity suddenly takes flight, but there was not enough variety to keep me interested and the sequence seemed overly long. Ultimately, Paul reunites with his son and the story turns into in rumination on what it means to be different.

Paul is a likable enough main character, a simple, everyday Joe trying to find his place in the world and obviously a good guy with his heart in the right place. Despite the presence of a likable main character, there is just not enough in this book to really grab me and insure that I’ll come back for more. (Grade: C)

– Arthur Cooke

A Second Opinion

Like Paul’s character, I felt cheated when it was revealed that all humans were gaining the ability of flight (Bizarre New World #2, #3). It was like everything unique and special about this book was taken away; all the long, expository conversations and visual narratives were for nothing. Unfortunately, with all the magic taken away, Population Explosion feels like a train that’s lost its steam.

The story of this graphic novel is spread out over 48 pages and is paced similarly as the previous issues. I was hoping, given the new direction of this series, that things would open up and give us a bigger picture of how the world has changed, but we only see it through the eyes of Paul, who has become a man of words and not action.

The conversations about flight and how these powers will affect the world are discussed, but they honestly just feel like any conversation you’d hear from people at a comic convention. After a while, it all becomes stale – we’ve heard these discussions before. The only real meat to this story is Paul’s race home to find his son. It’s a plot thread that works, but could have been resolved so much sooner. I wanted more from this book, but the pace of this series just hasn’t picked up for me. (Grade: C)

– J. Montes

Stardust (Graphic Novel) – Review

By: Neil Gaiman (Writer), Charles Vess (Art)

Written by superstar scribe Neil Gaiman, Stardust is a pleasant departure from the traditional presentation of graphic storytelling. The story is presented in the form of a text based book with wonderful illustrations by Charles Vess strategically placed throughout its entirety.

Gaiman doesn’t disappoint with his straightforward (by Gaiman standards), but skillfully developed, fairy tale following a young man’s quest to win the heart of his true love. Set in the era of Victorian England, the tale begins in a mostly quiet village but quickly moves into realms of magic and witchcraft as readers follow the young man in pursuit of a fallen star which he must retrieve to claim his heart’s desire. His journey affords Gaiman the ability to do what Gaiman does best as he expertly creates detailed landscapes and colorful characters. Needless to say the young man isn’t the only one after the fallen star as numerous antagonists are added to the mix making for an excellent yarn all around.

The story is not hard to follow, pedantic or painfully verbose. It is, simply put, a well crafted short story collected in a trade paperback that presents nicely. Extras include a sketch and cover gallery at the back. Of note: this book is not a children’s fairy tale as it contains sexual content and graphic violence (probably should have mentioned that right off the bat as a selling point). Suggested for Mature Readers. (Grade: A)

– Chris Williamson