The Manga Curmudgeon

Spending too much on comics, then talking too much about them

Wednesday blogrolling

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Broken Frontier has an interesting analysis of the existence of “kill lists” at Marvel and DC. My favorite quote:

“‘This time, his nose is twitching not for mystery, but for blood. You only think you know him. Elongated Man Unleashed!'”

Over at Postmodern Barney, Dorian examines strategies to lure new demographics into the comic shop. What’s the secret recipe? Let’s let Dorian sum it up:

“I mean, we’ve gone out of our way to make sure the store is clean, well-lit, organized, that there isn’t any offensive music playing or tits and ass posters on the wall, that there is as wide as possible a selection of comics. You know, like a legitimate business instead of an insular club for the unwashed coteries of super-hero fans and spandex fetishists.”

James Schee at Reading Along is feeling the love for SGT. FROG, to which I say: “We are the frog. Prepare to be assimilated.”

Kurt Busiek will be the new regular writer on JLA, according to an interview at Newsarama. The author of the JLA/Avengers crossover has some interesting things to say on what makes the team’s unique and a somewhat skeptical view of pending disassembly:

‘I hear (the existing paradigm is) changing for the Avengers, and I’m sure it’ll be huge, at least for a while, considering the talent involved. But I’ve always thought that the best thing to do for each book is to figure out what it’s best at and then do that, better than any other book can. Whenever a book tries to imitate whatever works best for some other book, whether it’s the Avengers trying to be more like the X-Men in the ‘jackets’ era or the Detroit League trying to recapture the success of the Titans, I think you’re losing your way. But maybe they’ll find a different road — and if we wind up with two teams built around the JLA concept, I think the original has the edge.’

Tuesday blogrolling

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There’s some interesting analysis of the recent New York Times Magazine article (free registration required) on graphic novels. The Comic Queen doesn’t think much of it, and Mark Singer (who is Not the Beastmaster, should you have been wondering) takes his own in-depth look at it. Honestly, the responses to the article are better reading than the article itself.

Others have discussed the October solicits from DC Comics now available for your perusal. Of special note, at least in my opinion, is the digest-sized collection of MY FAITH IN FRANKIE, a really wonderful mini-series by Mike Carey. If you missed the individual issues, it’s hard to imagine a better opportunity to rectify that than a $7 digest. And I think this particular story will work spectacularly well in that format.

As for tomorrow’s comics, there’s lots of goodness on display. From DC, there’s FABLES 27, FALLEN ANGEL 13, and GOTHAM CENTRAL 21. Jay Faerber and bunches of other people provide squabbling super-hero soap opera with NOBLE CAUSES EXTENDED FAMILY ONE SHOT (though the crowd of creators obviously leaves open the possibility that some bits will be better than others *cough*DevinGrayson*cough*). Marvel will be offering up DISTRICT X 3, SHE-HULK 5, and ULTIMATE X-MEN 49. LOVE FIGHTS 11 is due out from Oni. (If only I could get my shop to carry it. I loved the FCBD preview, and I’ve ordered the first trade, though.)

And if you want to balance out all that quality, there’s always IDENTITY CRISIS 2 (by New York Times Academy Pulitzer Peabody Papal Saint Brad Meltzer), something called the WITCHBLADE BLOAD OATH ONE SHOT, seventy-five comics by Geoff Johns, and the bust of a tertiary serial killer character. “He’ll eat your eyes and swallow your mind!” What’s next? A Thessaly bobble-head?

Completely unrelated to the subject of comics, if the phrase “low-carb” makes you spasm in frustration and disgust, Sarah Bunting at Tomato Nation feels your pain. She sums up my feelings on the subject much better than I could, so crack open a loaf of crusty sourdough, click, and feel the starchy love.

From the manga stack: YOUR AND MY SECRET Vol. 1

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I’m increasingly of the opinion that a mastery of tone is one of the most important skills a creator can develop. When carefully and creatively applied, tone can be a cornerstone for a fully realized fictional world, from the profound humanity of PLANETES to the kinetic absurdity of SGT. FROG. When neglected or situational, it only highlights inconsistencies, as in SEVEN OF SEVEN.

Happily enough, YOUR AND MY SECRET creator Ai Morinaga shows real promise in this area. It’s a good thing, since the subject matter – a comic examination of gender identity – really calls for a careful hand to keep things from becoming crass.

YAMS tells the story of an aggressive girl and a gentle boy who switch bodies. The girl, Nanako, is delighted with the turn of events. People seem much more willing to accept her natural temperament coming from a male body, and she’s curious and savvy enough to take full advantage of gender-based double standards of behavior. (She can do things as a boy that a girl would never get away with.)

The boy, Akira, has a rougher go of it. As with Nanako, people respond better to Akira’s personality when it’s coming from a girl’s body. But this subjects him to unwanted romantic attention, reinforces his insecurities, and makes for some rude biological awakenings. He can’t even take much voyeuristic pleasure from the switch, partly because of his inherent modesty but more due to Nanako’s threats.

Compounding the interpersonal complications are unexpected reactions from friends and family members. Akira’s first encounter with his family in his new body is a smart comic reversal of expectations, but it’s also a genuinely emotional moment. And that’s where tone comes in: Morinaga always remembers that adolescents very rarely feel comfortable in their own skin and makes it a defining motif for the manga.

It’s not without flaws, though. Nanako’s grandfather, who sets the plot in motion with his ill-conceived inventions, is far creepier than the rest of the manga can support. (He’s thrilled that he can ogle his granddaughter’s body without his granddaughter being in it to object.) Beyond lechery, his function is to hinder any progress towards a return to the status quo. (Fixing the body-switching machine is expensive and time consuming, and he doesn’t much care to begin with.)

Morinaga’s artwork shows real polish and care, though. While the mostly teen-aged characters are all somewhat idealized (nobody unattractive seems to go to this particular school), none of them are sexualized beyond their years. She’s also strong with emotional expression and body language; it’s a treat to compare pre- and post-switch Nanako and Akira.

While imperfect, YAMS generally takes an intelligent, creative look at a situation that offers a lot of potential for comic complications. It also makes me want to know what happens next, which is really the bottom line.

Stack smatterings

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I’ll be doing full-length comments on some of the books below, but until I get around to it, here are some quick thoughts:

BIRDS OF PREY 69: Atrocious cover aside, one of the big strengths of this book is the subtle, shifting dynamics of the characters. Simone has wisely put some chinks in Oracle’s armor, giving Barbara some flaws while not undermining the character’s essential nobility. Oracle is straddling the fence on Huntress, realizing Helena deserves a chance to contribute while harboring personal animosity towards her. On Helena’s side, she’s showing remarkable reserve in the face of Oracle’s snide remarks and sometimes shaky judgment.

CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON 5: It’s very Priestly, really, complete with dicey government conspiracies and shocking twists. I really only picked this up because I’m a sad fanboy who will trail almost anywhere after the Scarlet Witch. She doesn’t seem very much like herself in the brief glimpses Priest offers, a factor I fear is leading someplace fairly unsavory for the character in the DISASSEMBLED scheme of things.

OFFICIAL HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS 2004: This will no doubt be an invaluable reference for new readers drawn in by DISASSEMBLED so they can have some vague idea of who these characters are as they’re picked off one by one. What other purpose could it be intended to serve, honestly, except maybe as a nostalgia piece before Bendis redefines the team? And, given the preview of AVENGERS 500, a schematic of the mansion seems to be rather beside the point, doesn’t it?

POWERS 1: Paul O’Brien does a very nice job articulating my biggest narrative problem with this issue. The suggestion that there’s no one on the heroic side of the powers equation who would ignore the ban for sixth months seems like a bit of a stretch to me. The evil doers have apparently spent the duration of the ban establishing themselves in the brave new world of virtually unenforceable prohibition. Surely there’s a super-hero or two iconoclastic enough to carry on with business as usual, unless they’re all particularly passive aggressive for vigilantes.

SUPREME POWER 11: Sometimes, the mere suggestion of breasts just isn’t enough, I guess. Zarda and her boobs tell us a little bit more about themselves, as there’s really only a little bit to tell. Instead of having any kind of origin of her own, she’s become a spin-off of Hyperion, and she’s looking forward to clothing optional world domination. Gary Frank earns my contempt by keeping naked Hyperion wrapped in a sheet for the duration of the issue. Does no one care about fan service for gay men, straight women, and bisexuals, too?

YOUR AND MY SECRET Vol. 1: It wasn’t new this week, but I picked it up along with the monthlies. After my disappointment with SEVEN OF SEVEN, I enjoyed this promising if imperfect manga collection. An aggressive young woman and a passive young man switch bodies, and (mostly) comic identity crises ensue. It’s not quite as complex as I’d like, but there are plenty of interesting ideas and some nice narrative twists. Flaws aside, it made me want to know what happens next.

More blogrolling

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Plenty of good reading can be found at Sequential Tart. For one thing, they’ve announced their Third Annual Tartie Awards, with deserving honorees like MY FAITH IN FRANKIE, BIRDS OF PREY, and RUNAWAYS, and equally deserving dishonorees like death-happy DC, the rape scene in NIGHTWING, and the replacement of Cameron Stewart with Paul Gulacy on CATWOMAN. There’s also a solid piece on “Death and the Role of Gender in Superhero Comics,” which doesn’t say anything particularly new, but it’s a subject that always demands consideration.

Speaking of death and the role of gender, Newsarama has some preview pages of the upcoming BLACK WIDOW title.

Tired of the Bendis backlash? Never fear. Don MacPherson at theFourthRail likes him just fine, so go read his review of POWERS 1. (Cohort Randy Lander offers no opinion on the issue.)

The $&#* Count

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A quick summary of the salty vérité of Eisner Award-winner Brian Michael Bendis from POWERS 1:

A@@hole: 5 singular + 2 plural = 7 total
F&#k: 8 + 1 “beeped” + 1 with prefix “cluster” = 10 total
F&#ked: 3 + 3 “beeped” = 6 total
F&#king: 5 + 1 “beeped” = 6 total
S^*t: 7 + 1 “beeped” = 8 total

Tally does not include “The Line Up” or “Powers Personals.”

Pick of the week and miscellany

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If you missed ARROWSMITH, the splendid mini-series by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheo, now is your chance to repent by purchasing the trade paperback ARROWSMITH: SO SMART IN THEIR FINE UNIFORMS. It’s a beautifully rendered mix of fantasy and war story, but the key to it is the characterization; the characters are layered, sympathetic, and interesting. This is some of the best work Busiek has done outside of ASTRO CITY, and the pencils by Pacheo and Jesus Merino are gorgeous throughout.

Publisher’s Weekly has summed up my feelings on THE ULTIMATES quite nicely. Thanks to Kevin Melrose at Thought Balloons for blogging it.

Mark Hale again confesses to an embarrassing entry in his collection, SLEEPWALKER #1. Visit the ChaosMonkey and share the shame.

Earlier, I was kvetching about Christopher Moore’s COYOTE BLUE and had set it aside. Stranded at home with a head cold, I picked it up again and hit a turning point in the story that makes it all work for me. I don’t want to give anything away, but about a third of a way through, there’s a great scene that gives the proceedings some real pathos. Still funny, but the stakes and sympathy rise to Moore’s usual level.

It’s like in high school when I was reading GRAPES OF WRATH and thought I was going to lose my mind until I got to that short chapter with the diner waitress, and it all came together. Weird how that can happen.

Olivier Coipel is apparently spelling Alan Davis for a few issues of UNCANNY X-MEN, with preview pages at the Pulse. When I first saw his work on LEGION, Coipel’s pencils made my eyes bleed. I thought he’d improved considerably by the time he was working on AVENGERS (though some of the costume designs were awful). I’m not sure what to make of his pages for UXM but to say that he seems to have some of Ed Benes’s fondness for the gynecologic.

Blogrolling in our time

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Ooooh… Avengers Disassembled has its own spiffy logo, the stylized logo “A” but… SHATTERED. Mmm…. symbolicious.

I didn’t pick up much in the way of stuff on New Comic Book Day, as I got out fairly late in the afternoon and wanted to leave the all-ages stuff for kids. (Big thumbs-up to Gary, the owner of one of our local comic stores, for putting out free copies of current issues to supplement the day-specific freebies.)

Of what I took, I was stunned at how much I liked BARRY WEEN, given that it’s basically just Judd Winnick indulging in his worst excesses. Somehow, those excesses work exceptionally well in this case. While it may chafe me to see super-heroes be quippy, nihilistic, arrested adolescents, seeing actual adolescents act that way is a hoot.

If Oni is counting these things, they can consider a copy of the LOVE FIGHTS trade sold based on the freebie. EVEREST looks promising, even though I generally think the act of climbing that particular mountain is a pointless act of hubris.

I’m so relieved to see the prevailing opinion on B.A.B.E. FORCE. Were it possible for a forest to sue a publisher for negligent homicide and improper disposal of a corpse, this would be exhibit A.

For a fuller look at everything FCBD had to offer, stop by Cognitive Dissonance. Johanna Draper Carlson has done absolute yeoman’s work covering the mountain of material that came out.

I’m utterly uninspired to review by last week’s comics (though I’m coming off a manga binge), but I would be violating some kind of law if I didn’t put in a good word for SLEEPER SEASON 2. Many people have already made perfectly good arguments for why you should be buying this title, so why not go take a look at some of them?

I will say just one thing about SLEEPER: it reads equally well in trade and monthly formats. I read the first six issues in TPB and the next six individually, and it confirms my belief that Ed Brubaker is one of the best at striking a balance between those two markets.

From the manga stack: IRON WOK JAN Vol. 2

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In IRON WOK JAN Vol. 2, protagonist Jan Akiyama continues his efforts to be Japan’s finest creator of Chinese cuisine. It’s a common manga theme, tracing a young man’s battle to the top, but this title approaches it with a welcome level of psychological complexity.

In Vol. 1, readers saw glimpses of Jan’s apprenticeship under his sadistic, obsessive grandfather, the late Kaiichiro Akiyama. Before Kaiichiro’s death, he sent Jan to become an apprentice in the restaurant of kindly rival Mutsuju Gobancho, partly in hopes that Jan would destroy Gobancho during his ascension. Arrogant, ambitious, and abrasive, Jan quickly impressed the Gobancho crew with his skills even as he alienated them with his personality.

The set-up makes you wonder if Jan’s goal is really his. Does he want to achieve greatness for its own sake? Did his grandfather successfully overlay his own brutal ambition in his grandchild? Is there some undercurrent of spite against Kaiichiro that drives Jan? Will the more benevolent attitude of the Gobancho crew soften Jan? It gives complexity to a straightforward concept.

It also helps make Jan more sympathetic than he might be otherwise. It’s a tricky thing to successfully present an abusive childhood as an excuse for a character being a bastard, but creator Shinji Saijyo pulls it off. He also gives Jan some other saving graces. In his own brusque way, Jan’s supportive of hapless fellow apprentice Takao Okonogo. And Jan’s zeal for cooking is obviously sincere.

Vol. 2 puts Jan and his other fellow apprentice, Kiriko Gobancho, in a competition for young chefs specializing in Chinese cuisine. In the process, Saijyo introduces a wider cast of rivals for Jan and expands on his antagonistic relationship with Kiriko. The newcomers are all engaging and distinct in their own ways, but my favorite would have to be Kei Sawada, the cunning pretty-boy who uses cooking as a pick-up line.

But the core rivalry is still between Jan and Kiriko, and it’s more than a case of simple one-upping. Kiriko is a subtler, more contemplative student than Jan. In one chapter, she takes genuine pleasure and pride in mastering a new technique; it’s joy in learning for its own sake. Still, Jan knows how to push her buttons; he seems to have a special, infuriating smirk that he saves just for her.

It’s clear that Kiriko sees the potential in Jan, not simply in terms of skill but on a more personal level. When Jan does something unethical, she explodes with fury, and it’s surely not just because of how it reflects on her family’s restaurant. Even if she doesn’t like Jan (and who could?), she wants him to be worthy of their profession and thinks he can be.

The art is wonderfully polished and well-suited for the material. Saijyo renders the act of cooking so that it’s as visually exciting as any samurai battle. While the stories and dialogue are often melodramatic to giddy effect, Saijyo manages never to undermine the characters’ sincerity or the craft they’re trying to master. And honestly, I’d much rather read about young culinary Turks than cartoon cock-fighters or supernatural card sharps.

From the manga stack: SEVEN OF SEVEN VOL. 1

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There’s a great premise at the heart of SEVEN ON SEVEN, billed as a “hilarious new manga romance.” Teen-aged Nana Suzuki splits into seven versions of herself thanks to a mystical crystal. The six copies each represent a heightened aspect of Nana’s personality – her intelligence, her sexuality, her insecurity, and so on.

So why is SEVEN OF SEVEN Vol. 1 such a disappointment? There are a number of reasons, but the most important is that it doesn’t do anything interesting with its own concept. Adolescent identity can be mined for all kinds of stories – comedy, drama, romance. Throw in a mystical complication like this that brings the protagonist face to face with what can be troubling and troublesome parts of their own persona, and you’d think the manga would write itself.

But in SEVEN OF SEVEN, author Yasuhiro Imagawa has taken the narrowest possible view of the possibilities this situation presents. Nana doesn’t really learn about herself by interacting with the crowd of clones; she just has six largely unpleasant rivals for the boy she likes. (As a small bright point, the boy in question actually seems like a catch. Yuichi is friendly, smart, and fond of Nana.)

So the stories all work around the Nanas trying desperately to stay in Yuichi’s orbit and catch or keep his attention. More often than not, this means the Nanas execute a series of disturbingly malicious schemes to pass tests, put rivals out of the picture, and win Yuichi’s favor. (It never occurs to Nana to do well in school because she has any ambitions of her own, despite the fact that there are seven allegedly distinct versions of her.)

The manga’s tone is wildly uneven. It’s not the kind of controlled tonal chaos of SGT. FROG; it’s just a hodgepodge. Innocent mischief makes hairpin turns into destructive pranks. A youthful crush can turn into violent and creepy obsession. Supporting characters fluctuate to serve whatever the situation requires. (Her parents all but disappear and seem largely un-phased by the fact that they’re suddenly parents of septuplets.)

The style of the art by Azusa Kunihiro is just as muddled as the story’s tone. Kunihiro can’t seem to decide what Nana should look like, and that’s not merely because she comes in seven flavors. Her age fluctuates from page to page, looking like an innocent pre-teen on one page and a sultry young adult on another. (I’m not talking about the difference between Nana prime and “Sexy Nana,” either.) In what’s either a stylistic choice or just general laziness at the drawing board, background figures turn into disturbing, pointy-limbed silhouettes. Seriously, the art is all over the place, from HELLO KITTY to COWBOY BEBOP. There’s also a healthy dose of cheesecake, whether it’s seven nude Nanas at the hot springs or “Sexy Nana” in dominatrix drag.

Who is this title supposed to appeal to? Anyone who buys it for the fan service is likely to be bored out of their minds by Nana’s dithering. Anyone who buys it because they can relate to Nana’s innocence is sure to be repulsed by the fan service. Fans of fantasy, smart humor, and romance will be out of luck, too.

I was bound to run across a manga I didn’t like eventually, but this one left a truly awful taste in my mouth. Flaws in execution aside, the worst part is the title’s suggestion that, no matter how different the girls may be, they all want the same (single) thing: for a boy to like them.