The Manga Curmudgeon

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

From the stack: Underground

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underground1I find it harder to review pamphlet comics, since there’s less content to consider, but Underground (Image) is a lively genre piece with a number of promising elements. Here they are:

It’s got a strong creative team. Jeff Parker has established himself as a smart writer of a variety of snappy, satisfying genre comics, even finding fresh approaches to timeworn franchise characters. Steve Lieber has a great way of drawing real-looking characters and evocative settings. Ron Chan provides a solid palette of colors that support the visual environment.

It’s set in Appalachia. There aren’t all that many comics that consider rural environments without condescension, and Underground looks like it will be one of those. It’s Appalachia without the menacing banjo soundtrack.

It’s got interesting, setting-specific undertones. The driving conflict is between environmental protection and economic development which, again, isn’t normal narrative territory for comics. Park ranger Wesley Fischer wants to protect the fragile ecosystem of a massive cave. Locals want to make the cave more accessible to tourists, boosting the town’s economy. Self-serving mogul Winston Barefoot may be the most public face of the development side, but that doesn’t mean the effort is entirely unsavory. It’s the kind of issue faced by lots of Appalachian communities, and Parker doesn’t minimize or simplify the conflict any more than he can avoid.

It’s got a strong woman protagonist. Ranger Fischer has principles and the force of personality to act on them. At the same time, she isn’t insensitive to opposing points of view. (Her likely love interest is both a local and a ranger.) She seems more than layered enough to carry the series.

On the down side, the socioeconomic underpinnings seem likely to take a back seat to cave-bound risk and rescue. I don’t imagine they’ll vanish entirely, though, as the creators have demonstrated the ability to juggle various narrative elements.

On the nitpick side, there seem to have been some proofreading lapses in the production process. Some dialogue just doesn’t scan, no matter how you try to read it.

On the whole, it’s a solid first issue of a series with engaging characters and interesting ideas. I’ll stick around to see where things go.

Audience development: Mail

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I’m just not feeling the ComicList this week. When the big manga releases have been in print in English for years, I just can’t get all that excited. I’ve also got to say that the publisher’s utter lack of anything resembling even minimal marketing efforts bothers me. They seem to understand how competitive the market is for translated manga, but they’ve never sent out a press release, haven’t built even a rudimentary web site, and have given only a single interview barely a week before the release of their first round books.

Listen, I’m not saying I want more press releases in my inbox, but I am saying that even successful, high-profile publishers with good bookstore saturation work hard to spread the word about their products. It’s not encouraging to see the much-anticipated direct entry of a major Japanese publisher into the translated-manga market be conducted with a caution and reticence that seems to verge on agoraphobia.

So forget the new stuff. I’ll take the occasion and the fast-approaching Halloween to recommend a really entertaining but neglected horror comic:

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You may know Housui Yamazaki as the illustrator of the very entertaining The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, written by Eiji (MPD Psycho) Otsuka. Or you may not; it’s got a devoted following, but it’s never exactly set the sales charts on fire. That’s obviously a shame too, but today we’re talking about Yamazaki’s solo effort, the three-volume Mail.

If Kurosagi can be described as an older-skewing Scooby Doo with actual ghosts, Mail is more in the line of The Twilight Zone hosted by Richie Brockelman, also with ghosts.

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Master of ceremonies Reiji Akiba can see ghosts. (Exactly how that came to be is explained in an origin story in the third volume.) They’re definitely on the malevolent end of the spiritual spectrum, but not to worry. He’s got just the means of dealing with them.

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Yes, it’s exorcism at gunpoint. The majority of the three volumes are a collection of stand-alone stories, with generally innocent people running afoul of nasty ghosts and Akiba coming to their rescue. I’m not going to claim that it’s a wildly novel concept, but Yamazaki executes it very well. I could have read more volumes of the series, but I’m happy to revisit the three I have, especially at this time of year.

Yamazaki is a sharp and imaginative illustrator, and he really has a handle on episodic storytelling. He’s got a sly sense of humor and a knack for building suspense in a relatively small number of pages. If you’re looking for some stylish shivers in a series that doesn’t demand a big investment of time or dollars, Mail is an excellent choice.

There are a number of series that fall into the category of engaging, episodic horror. What are some of your favorites?

Out and about

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Oh, to be 14 again and able to drink like that! Ah, nostalgia. Anyway, just a reminder that I’m giving away a copy of the first volume of Jiro Taniguchi’s A Distant Neighborhood (Fanfare/Ponent Mon). Click here for details, or… y’know… scroll down a little bit.

In other Taniguchi news, Kate Dacey has posted a thoughtful review of Taniguchi’s other recent release, The Summit of the Gods. Over at About.Com, Deb Aoki offers a manga-rich preview of this weekend’s Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. Fanfare will be there, along with other providers of high-quality comics from Japan. And you should buy a copy of the new hardcover of Fumiyo Kouno’s Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms from Last Gasp, because it’s one of the most beautiful comics ever made.

If you knew then what you know now…

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This week’s Flipped looks at A Distant Neighborhood and considers the various sides of Jiro Taniguchi. (I bet he has more than five; that’s just based on his works that are available in English.)

As I suspected I would, I’ve wound up with an extra copy of the first volume of the book. I’m kind of like one of those animals that shouldn’t be allowed to free feed, at least on Fanfare/Ponent Mon titles. If I see one, I feel a panicky compulsion to buy it. So I picked it up at SPX strongly suspecting that I’d pre-ordered it through Diamond as well, which I had. (And let’s face it, pre-ordering through Diamond doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll get the book as a result.)

But my poor impulse control is your free manga. In this blog’s grand tradition of chintzy giveaways, I’m offering up the unread copy of the first volume of A Distant Neighborhood. All you need to do is fire me an email at DavidPWelsh at yahoo dot com that includes a year of your life you might revisit if you could do so with present knowledge intact. You don’t have to over-share; just a year will be fine.

I’ll arbitrarily set the deadline at midnight Friday, Oct. 16, 2009, and randomly draw the winner from the entries.

Happy National Coming Out Day!

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Just in case I haven’t mentioned it lately, I’m gay.

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Even more apparent is the fact that I’ll use any excuse to post panels from Fumi Yoshinaga’s Antique Bakery (DMP). I am clearly without shame.

New initiative linkblogging

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Deb Aoki talks to Eric Searleman about Viz’s original comics initiative:

“Eric Searleman: ‘We’re considering everything. The format will suit the material. For example, there’s no law that says our original comics need to mirror our manga trim size. Let’s mix it up.’

“‘We want to do something fun and fresh. Why bother otherwise? We want our books to be an alternative to what’s already out there. It’ll be hard work, but we are confident we can get it done. The bottom line is this: the quality of the comic takes precedent over everything else.'”

And update your bookmarks and news feeds: Brigid Alverson has launched another sure-to-be-invaluable blog, Paperless Comics:

“My goal is to cover the world of webcomics and do it objectively. Rants (editorials) will be clearly marked as such, but mostly, I want to connect people, keep them informed about what is going on in the world of webcomics, and help good comics and readers find each other.”

Final thought for Friday

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Dear cartoonists: Please draw an Archie cover where Betty accepts Veronica’s marriage proposal and Archie sobs in the background. Thank you in advance.

Update: An email correspondent points me to this cover:

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And I appreciate it, but it’s sort of a “close, but no cigar” kind of thing. This reads more to me like Archie is horrified that both of the girls he’s inexplicably able to string along might have the notion of long-term commitment somewhere on their minds. Or, judging simply by his line of sight, Betty has carelessly neglected to button up the back of her gown, revealing otherwise concealed reptilian skin, or something like that.