This is turning out to be one of those weeks where I wishfully assume more days have already elapsed than actually have. I currently seem to be telling myself it’s Thursday, and the disappointing realization that it isn’t is mitigated by the fact that a ton of great comics are coming out on Wednesday. In fact, it’s sort of an Eisner Nominee Showcase New Comic Book Day!
The sixth issue of the second volume of Linda Medley’s wonderful revisionist fairy tale, Castle Waiting, arrives courtesy of Fantagraphics. (The collection of the first volume of Castle Waiting has been nominated for Best Graphic Album – Reprint and earned a nod for Adam Grano for Best Publication Design.)
Joann Sfar, writer of The Professor’s Daughter (due out in paperback and hardcover from First Second) was nominated in the Best Writer/Artist category for his work on Vampire Loves and Klezmer. Artist Emmanuel Guibert didn’t get a nod this year, but give him time. John Jakala has reviewed The Professor’s Daughter at Sporadic Sequential, confirming my suspicions that I’ll enjoy it very much.
Joining Sfar on the Best Writer/Artist slate is Renée French for her unsettling yet strangely uplifting The Ticking (Top Shelf). The book also earned a spot in the Best Graphic Album – New category, and Jordan Crane was recognized with a Best Publication Design nod. So, yes, The Ticking is superb, which raises my hopes very high for French’s Micrographica, also from Top Shelf. (Reading Tom Spurgeon’s review didn’t hurt either.)
Vertical’s lovely productions of classic manga have been a regular presence in the Eisner nominations, and I wouldn’t be surprised if their release of Keiko Takemiya’s To Terra… made its presence known next year. The second volume of To Terra… shows up in comic shops this week.
When Setona Mizushiro’s After School Nightmare (Go! Comi) earned a nomination for Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Japan, some of the reaction was “After What Who?” Consider the arrival of the third volume of this creepy, psychologically nuanced shôjo thriller incentive to find out just why it deserves the nod. Sure, plenty of manga series focus on extracurricular activities, but Mizushiro’s take is disturbing and unique.
But really, a book doesn’t need an award nomination to be worth picking up, does it? This is my way of saying that I’m stupid-happy over the imminent arrival of a new volume of Sakura Tsukuba’s Penguin Revolution (CMX). So far, this romantic comedy has leaned heavily on the “com” and largely neglected the “rom,” which is partly due to the fact that the heroine is far too focused on professional concerns to consider the possibility that the world of teen idol management could pose romantic complications, on top of all of the secrecy and backstabbing. Things shift a bit towards the “rom” side in the third volume, but the book is still an awful lot of fluffy fun.
Pleasant diversions
I love Joann Sfar’s solo comics – The Rabbi’s Cat (Pantheon), Klezmer: Tales of the Wild East, Vampire Loves (First Second). The Professor’s Daughter provides an appealing introduction to his collaborative work. Emmanuel Guibert illustrates Sfar’s grumpy, fanciful script with elegant watercolors that are both lively and lovely.
In the book, a pair of unlikely lovers (a less-proper-than-she-seems Victorian maiden and a 3,000-year-old royal mummy) struggle to keep their romance alive as forces conspire to drive them apart. If Sfar never lets seriousness of subject matter overwhelm his comedic instincts in books like Klezmer, he’s also too crusty to let the diverting fluff of The Professor’s Daughter prevent him from dosing the story with a thread of fatalism either. Guibert’s watercolors, which range from sweet and swirly to cheerfully antic, suit the script while providing just the right notes of counterpoint.
In other words, all of the pieces fit, but they do so in slightly unexpected ways. The Professor’s Daughter doesn’t offer the depth of pleasure of some of Sfar’s other works, but as imaginative trifles go, it’s tough to beat.
*
Christian Slade’s Korgi (Top Shelf) reads a bit to me like a gorgeous, polished sketch book. Without words, Slade tracks the misadventures of a cute, woodland sprite and her full-on adorable canine companion, a helpful but excessively inquisitive young korgi named Sprout. Slade’s sketches are richly detailed and tremendously effective in conveying the simple story. If I were a kid, I’d probably immediately set about scripting it, and if I were a teacher, I’d be sorely tempted to turn it into a class project.
Since I’m neither, I occasionally found myself wishing that the tightly paneled illustrations had a little more room to breathe. There’s something about Slade’s style that makes me want to see it float in a bit of white space. Slade’s so adept at creating a lush fantasy landscape that I wanted more of a storybook presentation.
*
Bisco Hatori’s Millennium Snow (Viz – Shojo Beat) is one of the more easygoing comics about mortality that you’re likely to find. Chronically, probably terminally ill Chiyuki is trying to make the most of whatever is left of her tenuous existence. She finds diversion aplenty when she meets moody vampire Toya, who’s averse to drinking blood and unwilling to select a human partner to provide sustenance for a thousand years.
There isn’t a whisper of predation in Hatori’s approach to vampirism, which lies squarely in the land of the parasitic-romantic, depending on how you view it. Toya doesn’t want to subject an innocent to centuries as a food source. Chiyuki, entirely aside from not wanting to die young, doesn’t want Toya to have to spend his long, long life alone and unfulfilled. She likes him and says so; he likes her and doesn’t. It’s not the most novel of conundrums, but Hatori’s sincerity and quirky charms as a storyteller sell it.
The dying young person as inspirational life force usually results in the worst kind of sickly sentimentality, but Hatori manages to pull even that old saw off. There’s no treacle to Chiyuki’s optimism, and she’s funny and brave enough to carry the weight of the story on her own. She’s a winning combination of pragmatism and romantic fantasies, setting the tone for an endearing story that strikes a nice balance of light and dark.
(Review based on a complimentary copy provided by Viz.)