Miscellaneous reviews 03

Dr. Slump volume 9 by Akira Toriyama:

Akira Toriyama’s first weekly manga series, Dr. Slump, is an excellent read. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. Toriyama has a combination of intelligent, crass and simply stupid jokes. Each chapter is a barrage of various different types of jokes that incessantly pummel the reader. It all sound violent but trust me, it’s an excellent read. Arale is one of the cutest robots in the history of the medium.

I missed volume 9 when I was first buying the volume. I have most of the series and volume 9 was one of the two gaps I had in my collection. I was upset to have missed it because Dr. Senbei Norimaki and Ms. Midori Yamabuki get married. The weeding is followed by romping multi-part honeymoon. It was great to read about the wedding and honeymoon because I was wondering how the whole thing happened. Needless to say, Toriyama did not disappoint. I was a little weird to read one of the volumes at the half way mark because there was a surprising amount of differences from earlier stories. Someday I plan on writing a longer post about why this is one the most hilarious comics ever published. Each volume has special feature pages and this volume is no different. Half of the pages are slice of life type newspaper articles making fun of Toriyama. The rest are short, one page comics about the creation of some of the main characters. Dr. Slump is always an absolute joy to read I wouldn’t trust anybody who tells you they don’t enjoy it. They’re lying to you.

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany:

I really enjoyed Babel-17. It’s the first novel by Samuel R. Delany that I’ve ever read. I’ve been interested in reading some of his books as he sounds like a tremendous influence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. There were several of his novels at a used book store near home so I decided to pick up a few. I wasn’t sure where to start so I picked the book with the cover I enjoyed the most. It was a quick read but one that provided me with a few hours of enjoyment while reading and several more afterword. There is a lot to think about long after you put down the book.

The book deals with linguistic relativity (also known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) or how language affects your understanding of the world. Some people believe that your ability to communicate something in directly linked to your understanding of it. Rydra Wong, a renowned poet, is asked to decode Babel-17, a code which is being used to orchestrate strategic military attacks. It turns out that Babel-17 is not a code but a highly advances language from the depth a space. As Rydra learns the language her perception and understanding of the world around her radically changes.

I read an interview in which Delany mentions how he discovered the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis a few years after writing Babel-17 which completely disproved the theory in his opinion. Delany thought of about linguistic relativity without being able to label it with specific words. I enjoyed Delany’s style. It was poetic and managed to starkly describe the world in which the characters exist while also portraying the beauty of things. There are also neat ideas about the future like the extensive use of “cosmetisurgery” that not only modify the appearance of individuals but can also give enhanced abilities. It’s also rather funny at times. I particularly enjoyed how one of the characters references James Bond as being a real person. I enjoyed Babel-17 and I understand why it’s regularly considered a classic science-fiction novel. I’ve not entirely made up my mind on Delany but I know for certain that I’ll be reading more of his books because I’ve rather enjoyed this one.

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus volume 2:

Jack Kirby continues his opus in the second collection of all the Fourth World stories, Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen, Forever People, New Gods and Mister Miracle. I think it’s great that the titles are organized chronologically in theses collections. It’s not all great though because there is a downside. Walter Simonson mentions the incredible momentum that Kirby was building with four titles coming out on bi-monthly schedules. I don’t see it. I don’t feel it, either. Most of these title have a momentum building up within their own pages but skipping from one title to another nullifies that feeling of momentum and growth in the story. It’s as if the story is too big and it’s taking an unnecessarily long time to really get going. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the omnibus collection and therefore the entire Fourth World saga feels unfocussed and unnecessarily bloated.

Two volumes in and I find it very difficult to enjoy any of the Jimmy Olsen issues. Unless something happens in that title in later volumes, I think it could have been completely cut out from the Fourth World story. I wish I didn’t have to say that, but it’s true. But, for every issue of Jimmy Olsen I get one issue New Gods and another of Mister Miracle which are just superb. I absolutely adore both of those two titles. Kirby’s crazy ideas are at their finest in those two titles and his art is spectacular. Mister Miracle because much more interesting than it was in the first volume with the introduction of Big Barda, it’s hard to believe, I know, but she’s a great character. Forever People also continues to be good. It’s much better than Jimmy Olsen but there is something holding it back from being as good as New Gods or Mister Miracle. Either way, these are great comics from the 70s and I’ll definitively enjoy revisiting this once I’m done the series. I might end up skimming through the Jimmy Olsen issues though. Especially those Don Rickles co-star issues.

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Starfleet Academy 02: Line of Fire

The events of the cover takes place
during the last ten pages of the book.
Don't worry, you're only about halfway
 done the story. Wait, what?

In Starfleet Academy: Line of Fire, Peter David continues to tell the story of Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation, during his years at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. The first novel served as an introduction to a young Worf and the friends he made at the Academy. It also focused on Worf’s first real interaction with people who didn’t accept him or trust him because of his Klingon heritage. The second novel expands on this and also adds another staple element of Worf’s character in TNG, how he seems himself not fully as a Klingon and no fully Terran, either.

We learn at the beginning of Line of Fire that Worf’s study group, comprising of Terrans Mark McHenry and Tania Tobia, Vulcan Soleta and Brikarian Zak Kebron, has become one of the Academy’s best group of students. Professors and other students have even started to call them the “Dream Team”. As such it’s not surprising that all five cadets are chosen to accompany one of their teachers on a negotiation mission on Dantar IV. Danta IV is a colony with a population that is equally divided between Terrans and Klingons. It’s a little too obvious a situation in which to spotlight Worf’s dual heritage but a direct approach isn’t always a bad thing.

The cadets travel to Dantar aboard the Repulse which we first encountered in season two, episode one of TNG. David writes a nice scenes in which Worf and Captain Taggert talk about Taggert’s crew being surprised at Worf’s appearance. Some of the crew members even do a double-take when seeing the young Klingon in a Starfleet uniform aboard their ship. Worf mentions his disappointment at the reaction of members of Starfleet. He didn’t expect shock and surprised from people who had been trained at the Academy and have likely seen many stranger things than he. Taggert’s reply is that just because you’ve gone through Starfleet training doesn’t mean you’ve been ride of the capability of being surprised. Starfleet, like many other large organizations, no matter how well organized, will always be made up of individuals who have their own beliefs and prejudices. Worf will have to learn to cope with people’s reaction to him.

It's really hot and bright on Dantar IV. It's not all bad, you get to wear
these awesome shades.

Worf gets another taste of this once they arrive on Dantar IV. So far he’s experience the reaction of his adoptive family and cadets at the Academy. He’s not in the middle of a negotiation between colonists comprised of people from both his heritage. Worf embodies nature vs. nurture, the constant struggle between his Klingon genes and his human upbringing. On Dantar his inner conflict is externalized. David also throws in a romantic interest by having K’Ehleyr be one of the Klingon negotiators. It’s so strange to me that both groups have chosen young individuals to take part and, at times, lead the negotiations.

I understand that the individuals in this novel are teens, young adults actually. They deal with everything seemingly without ease. There are scientists and other professionals in the colony but they’re unable to deal with some relatively simple tasks. I’ve always considered colonists to be strong, independent and resourceful individuals. Their job requires that they regularly deal with difficult decisions forcing them to apply problem solving skills daily. Why then are they incapable of taking care of themselves and their petty squabbles? I feel like David didn’t take the time to address this while plotting the book because of he intended audience. I also think he did this in order to avoid writing a book about the day to day lessons in Starfleet. It would probably have been a bore for David and the readers if every chapter was about the Dream Team attending class and studying.

Just like my review, the second Starfleet Academy book ends upbruptly. An unidentified ship attacks the colony and everybody evacuates except for the Dream Team, K’Ehleyr and a couple more Klingons. It’s not really a cliffhanger. The book simply ends and immediately picks up with the third book. 

Miscellaneous reviews 02

Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus volume 1

Jack Kirby is great. I don’t love everything he does but when it comes to dynamic art, he takes the cake. The Fourth World is probably his masterpiece and these handy omnibus volumes give me a chance to read it for the first time. Best of all, the whole thing is in chronological order which is a big deal for me as I find that’s the best way to read any series of books or comics. The Fourth World is a story told with fourth by monthly titles, Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen, New Gods, Mister Miracle and Forever People. Unfortunately, not all of the titles are as worthwhile as the others. Jimmy Olsen, despite being filled with excellent ideas, interesting settings and some oddball characters, just doesn’t work for me. It’s not very good.

Thankfully the rest of the titles are better, Mister Miracle is my favourite in this first volume. The journey from Scott Free to Mister Miracle is a joy to experience. I love every single escape act that happen in the first three issues. New Gods is also an excellent title. It’s Jack Kirby at his most mythic and grandiose. I don’t think these stories would work in any other medium and Kirby proves that time and time again by filling his comics with big ideas, page after page. It allows for a quick, and fascinating, read for those who like to read their comics that way. The real strength of these comics though is that the big ideas also coalesce into a larger narrative in a satisfying way. There is plenty here to make the more pensive readers stop and reflect at the wonders of the Fourth World.  

Secret Avengers: Run the Mission, Don’t get Seen, Save the World by Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis is one of the best writers when it comes to single issue stories. Particularly when it comes to writing single issue stories that also built a larger narrative while also providing the reader with interesting character interactions. He’s done several series that shy away from excessively long and decompressed multi-issue story arcs such as Fell, Global Frequency and Planetary are just a few examples. Even some of his longer series had shorter story arcs. The Authority and Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. are built on a three issues arc structure. Transmetropolitan was built on a combination of three issue arcs followed by three single issue stories. That particular series lasted for 60 issues and it’s the most representative of Ellis’s style and content out of his entire body of work.

With Secret Avengers: Run the Mission, Don’t get Seen, Save the World, Ellis tells stories similar in concept and execution of the stories in Global Frequency but with a superhero twist. The trade paperback contains six stories that mix together the super spy and science fiction genres together into an effective mix (super spy stories often come with a nice helping of science fiction anyway). Each issue is drawn by a different artist starting with Jamie McKelvie and continuing (in order) with Kev Walker, David Aja, Michael Lark, Alex Maleev and Stuart Immonen. It’s interesting to see how Ellis seems to write a story that will suit the artist he’s working with. The use of a different artist with each new issue makes this series seems even more like a superhero version of Global Frequency which is a good thing because it’s one of my favourite Warren Ellis series. I don’t think Secret Avengers is as good a collection because we’re so used to seeing these characters do extraordinary things that it’s difficult to put them in interesting and original situations and have the story begin and end in 22 pages. Ellis and the rotating team of artists do an excellent job telling engaging stories with overly familiar characters and that’s an impressive feat in the climate of today’s comic book industry. The fact that most of the stories deal with moral dilemmas of various kinds is just the icing on top of the cake, proving once again that Ellis, even while doing work-for-hire work on superhero titles, is a master of the genre.

Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment

I’ve never really been a big fan of Doctor Strange. Not because I dislike the character but because I’ve never really read one of his solo stories until Doctor Strange: The Oath. Before that I’ve only ever read stories with Doctor Strange in them as a guest star or as a supporting character. Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment is written by long time Doctor Strange writer, Roger Stern. It’s drawn by Mike Mignola and inked and coloured by Mark Badger. It’s also the best Doctor Strange story I’ve ever read (ok, I know this isn’t saying much considering the beginning of this paragraph). Once every year, Doctor Doom travels to hell and fights for his mother’s soul. Each year his battle ends in a stalemate. Triumph and Torment tells the story of the latest attempt by Doom to win back his mother’s soul. Doom, through an interesting series of events I won’t spoil here, is able to join forces with a reluctant Doctor Strange and once again challenges Mephisto in his domain.

Despite being more of a Doctor Doom story, Triumph and Torment is an excellent comic through and through. There is a theatricality to the comic that elevates it to the status of modern classic. Stern’s moving and often philosophical story also helps with this. The biggest highlight though is the artwork. I wish comics had art like that nowadays. The line work by Mike Mignola is very different to his work on Hellboy. I think the primary cause for the difference in art this early on in Mignola’s career is Mark Badger’s contribution as inker. The colouring, also by Badger, is simply beautiful. It adds so much depth to the comic that I doubt it would work as well without it. I love everything about this story. IT’s so rare to see a creative team firing on all cylinders while also having their individual contributions coalesce into a single work, a single vision.  

Despite being more of a Doctor Doom story, Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment, is an excellent comic through and through. I’ve read this comic twice since its release and I plan on doing so again sometime soon because there is so much to love. It’s also convinced me to track down some more Doctor Strange comics. Luckily for me, this collection also includes three more Doctor Strange stories form the 1970s and 1980s which provide additional context to the main story after which this collection is named.

PokéJournal: Update 016

-I’m still on the Ice Path and I'm still finding items. First one today is a PP Up.

-Huh, I'm out of the Ice Path. That wasn't as long of a cave segment as I thought it would be. I don’t know why but I'm not a fan of overly complicated cave systems in the Pokémon games. For some reason I expected the Ice Path to be a long complicated. I’m glad it wasn’t though.

-I traded Pokémon with my friend a couples months back but I haven't had a chance to rotate any of the ones he traded me into my party. He gave me a Cyndaquil Egg. I'm going to include it in my party and replace Growlithe. I'm sad to let Growlithe go but I don't want him to level up anymore. I need a fire stone to make him evolve to Arcanine but I want him to learn Extreme Speed when he evolves. I think its level 39 but I have to double check. At this time, I don’t have a stone and I want to wait. Besides, a Cyndaquil Egg is a pretty good replacement fire-type.

-Aw crap, I had two eggs in the PC and I don't know which one is a Cyndaquil. I take out one of the eggs and I hop on my bike. For about 5 to ten minutes I’m biking around like an idiot and lucky me, the egg hatched a Cyndaquil. I wonder what the other egg is? Oh well.

-I get a call from Arnie on Route 35 asking me to battle. I go see him and he only had a level 36 Venonat. Naturally I kicked his ass, thanked him for the experience points (Cyndaquil went from level 1 to 6!) and went on my way.

-I just caught a Gligar on Route 45. As a ground and flying dual type Pokémon, it might be a good replacement option for Pidgeotto. It also has an evolved form which is nice. I’m always a little sceptical of Pokémon that don’t have evolved forms. Not only are they a bit boring because they never get to evolve, but are they really that good? The short answer is that yes, some of them are. Even non-legendary non-evolving Pokémon can be tough. Heracross is a fine example of that.

-I take some time to run around in the tall grass and train my Cyndaquil. In no time at all, it evolves into a Quilava. It’s crazy how fast low level Pokémon can get trained the farther along you are in the game. It even makes friendship evolutions easier because the best way to increase friendship is to have the Pokémon level up. In my Pokémon Platinum game, I had fun breeding and catching Eevees and getting them all to evolve into all of the Eeveelutions. It was pretty easy to train up Espeon and Umbreon from an egg. You just gave them the Exp. Share and once they hit level 20 or so, boom, evolution.

-I was curious about the other egg in the PC so I go get it and bike around again. Another five or ten minute later and: Cyndaquil. What? Why do I have two of these? Back in the PC with you, I have a Quilava!

-After dropping Cyndaquil in the PC, I got to the Ice Path to train Quilava. He’s at a level where he’s able to battle a bit for himself. Since he’s a traded Pokémon, he’s levelling up pretty quickly. It’s great that he gets 50% more experience points than my non-traded Pokémon. Since I’m back in the Ice Path I’m taking the time to make sure I got all of the items in the cave. I use the Dowsing Machine and right away I find a hidden Revive! That’s a pretty sweet item to find just laying around.

 

I finally find a replacement for Pidgeotto.

-I’m sick and tired of Pidgeotto’s uselessness. I gave my friend my Platinum game to trade my Skarmory from that game to my Heart Gold game since it can’t be caught in that version. It’s at level 53. I’ll definitively use it to replace Pidgeotto with a level like that. I might not keep him until the end of the game but he’s a pretty great asset to my party for now. That’s a total of two non-evolving Pokémon in my party. I hope it’s not the start of a trend for me.

-I keep on training the party by running up and down Route 45 and 46. I’ve done some good training and I feel like I’m ready to take on Clair, the Blackthorn City Gym Leader. Clair uses dragon type Pokémon. I’ve got a level 53 Skarmory and my Feraligatr knows Ice Fang which I’m pretty sure is super effective against dragon type. Anyway, I feel ready and I’m sure my Quilava will get some good experience points holding the Exp. Share (plus the trade boost).

-I have a feeling I’ll be fighting tons of Dratini in this gym. The guy at the door confirms that the Ice Types are weak against dragon. It sucks for Clair that her village is at one of the entrances to the Ice Path. Seems like a poor location to start a dragon-type gym.  I have no idea who this guy or this group of guys are standing at the entrance of every gym but they usually give you helpful tips regarding type advantages. I’ll be sure to say thanks to him on my way out.

-Feraligatr’s Ice Fang is doing a great job against all of these Dratini and Dragonair from the trainers in the gym. Quilava is already at level 26! It’s great how fast he’s levelling up. I’m getting a bit annoyed at all the trainers. There seems to be more than usual. At least I’m getting experience and money out of it. I finish beating all of the trainers so I take a break and run to the Poké Center to heal up before the battle with Clair.

-She starts out with a Gyarados. I swap out my Feraligatr for Ampharos. Gyarados uses Dragon Rage. Ampharos uses Discharge but Gyarados gets to do another Dragon Rage first. He’s fast but the Discharge ends up being a one-hit KO.

Clair, the eight and final gym
leader of Johto. 

-Clair sends out a Dragonair. I swap in my Feraligatr. Feraligatr attacks with an Ice Fang and Dragonair uses Thunder Wave and paralyze my Pokémon. Clair uses a Hyper Potion and heals all the damage Feraligatr did with Ice Fang. Feraligatr uses a couple more Ice Fang attacks and Dragonair faints.  

-Clair sends out another Dragonair. Feraligatr is still paralyzed but I use Ice Fang again. It doesn’t do anything because of the paralysis. Dragonair keeps on using Dragon Pulse to the point where I have to heal Feraligatr. I use a Moo Moo Milk (shit, I’m running low on those) and he heals up nicely. I defeat the second Dragonair with an Ice Fang.  

-Kingdra is Clair’s last Pokémon. I send my Ampharos in but he faints in two hits before being able to do any damage. I send out Skarmory. He also faints. My only option left is to send out Feraligatr again but he needs some status healing (still paralyzed) and his HP is low. I learn the hard way that Kingdra has Hydro Pump and Hyper Beam! Come on! I eventually get him to faint all thanks to Feraligatr’s good defence and Ice Fang.

-I defeated Clair, booya! I’ve got to go pick up some more Moo Moo Milk. I used my last two during the Gym Leader battle. I got and buy the milk and then I fly back to Blackthorn City to go to the Dragon’s Den. I want to catch a Dratini.

-It’s going to be difficult to catch a Dratini because the water surface in the Den is full of Magikarp. They’re the worst. You don’t even get good experience point fighting them. There’s a Dragon Shrine but I need to use Whirlpool to get there. I need to go teach it to a Pokémon but I don’t want to teach anyone in my party. I make a quick trip to the Poké Center.

-Back in the Dragon’s Den I go into the temple. There is an old man who asks me silly questions. Clair shows up and is blown away that I’ve passed the old man’s test. She reluctantly gives me the gym badge I won while defeating her in battle, which she refused to give to me earlier.

-I decide to stick around in the Dragon’s Den in the hopes of catching a Dratini. I want one really badly. I stay so long that my Ampharos runs out of PP for all of his offensive moves. As soon as I put Sandslash as my lead, I encounter a Dratini, of course. I send in Kingler (which I only have because I needed a water type that could learn Whirlpool) and I use BubbleBeam. Dratini’s HP is in the yellow so I send in Ampharos and paralyze it. I toss a few Net Balls and then a few more Ultra Balls then I finally catch it! It took quite a bit of balls but it was worth it because you don’t really get a lot of chances to catch a Dratini. I get the hell out of there before I bump into any more Magikarp.

Clair's Dragonairs were pretty tough, but
not as tough as her Kingdra.

-I get a call from Professor Elm. He wants me to visit him because he has something to show me. I fly and go visit him and, lucky me, I received a Master Ball from Prof. Elm. Nice! He suggests I go see the Kimono Girls since they’ve been looking for me. I’m not going to go right away because I want to train my team. They’re all at low levels. I want all of them to get up to around level 50. I have lots of training to do.

Pokémon caught: Phanpy, Gligar and Dratini.

Pokémon traded: Teddiursa and Skarmory.

Gym Leader defeated: Clair.

Fights with Craphat (Rival): None.

Evolutions: Egg to Cyndaquil and Cyndaquil to Quilava.

Pokémon in party: Skarmory, Feraligatr, Heracross, Ampharos, Sandslash and Quilava.

Highest level in party: Skarmory, level 53.

Lowest level in party: Quilava, level 32.

Pokédex: 103

Time played:  42.39

Battling Boy by Paul Pope review

According to interviews, Paul Pope’s Battling Boy originated as Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth pitch for DC Comics. Pope has described what was going to be his Kamandi as “a violent adventure story for young readers with a boy lead character”. DC Comics passed on the idea because apparently they do not publish comics for kids. They publish comics for 45-year-olds. It’s a ludicrous idea and Paul Pope turned around and reworked his pitch into Battling Boy which ends up being a pretty strong argument against the idea that comics for young readers are exclusively for kids. I tremendously enjoyed the first volume of Battling Boy and I’m glad that Pope, a creator of certain renown, used his influence to create something that’s worthwhile and feels fresh in a medium that can regularly make readers feel like they’ve eaten too much candy before bed.

There is so much to enjoy in Battling Boy, the story of a young boy god who is sent to a planet that resembles a post-apocalyptic earth. Every god who reaches the age of third teen is sent on a Rambling, a solitary quest that will help them grow from a child to an adult. His quest is simple, he has to find a way to protect Arcopolis and become the city’s hero. It’s a simply story, and one that’s been told for ages, but it’s the unique influences that Pope brings to the story that make it a worthwhile read.

The origin of Battling Boy. Kamandi is a great
character created by Jack Kirby and starring in his
own series in the 1970s.

As always, Pope’s art is excellent. He draws brutish and ugly monster while somehow given them a sense of whimsy that I’ve never noticed in his art before. He seamlessly meshes together the fantastic elements of Boy’s homework and the super-science elements of Aurora. I’ve never noticed such a strong manga influence in Pope’s work before. It’s always been there on some level (heck, just look at his weird yet wonderful euro-comic/manga mash up of his art style). In Battling Boy, however, the manga influence is also in the extended action sequences and the story. What’s been labelled as a Young Adult comic by First Second is essentially a North American shonen manga.

Despite being steeped in manga influence, you can clearly see the influence of Silver Age comics in Battling Boy. The artistic influence of Jack Kirby, the construct of the science hero whose life mission is to protect the inhabitants of his city are also present in this story. The first volume of Battling Boy also focused on the daughter of the city’s superhero, Haggard West. Aurora’s story is equally important to Battling Boy as Boy’s story. They both have an initial character arc that begins and ends in 200 pages. She witness and grieves the death of her father but she also makes the first steps towards taking over his mantle. Boy, whose story arc is different but follows a similar path, learns what is required of him to become a true hero, like his father. Both characters have a legacy to uphold and are determined to follow it through. I’ve barely finished reading the first volume of Pope’s fantastic new series and already I cannot wait for the next installment.

Item likes Boy’s totem animal t-shirts are a power-ups taken straight from video games and fighting manga. For Boy, though, they’re not just for fighting. Pope gives it a more serious and interesting twist by having Boy use them as totem animal consultants. When he discovers that he can’t just punch himself out of his problems, Boy decides to talk to the cleverest and the wisest of his totem animals. It’s a pivotal scene and it adds a great amount of depth to the work. Battling Boy is also similar to manga because of the lessons the characters learn. You also know that in the second volume Aurora and Boy will become friends and Boy’s greatest strength will be his resolve to never give up and his determination to protect those that need protection.

Pope does an excellent job conveying the sense that Battling Boy’s parents sent him on his Rambling to learn those very lessons. Boy’s father is a monster killer not because he like sports or because he’s doing I to show off. You feel as though he fights monsters to protect others. When Battling Boy calls his dad for help during his first battle, one of the things his dad asks about is whether or not Boy tried to reason with the monster, Humbaba. In this world, monsters are not, by definition, evil beings. They’re misguided and confused and angry. Their destructive behaviour is symptomatic of their situation. In that same conversation Boy’s dad asks if the monster is hungry. It would be such a simple reason for a monster to be angry. The mayor of Arcopolis told Battling Boy that they do not know where the monsters come from. They simply appear. Maybe the monsters are being taken from their homes and dropped, unceremoniously, onto the city of Arcopolis. I’d be pretty upset if that happened to me.

Pope’s story follows the well-established formula of a mythical coming of age tale. He does it with such bravado and energy that it still feels fresh. There’s also a lot of heart. Boy struggles with the difficulties of his task. It’s somewhat hard to believe that he’s the son of the famed monster slaying Thor-like god. It’s a Greek myth using gods of the Norse pantheon to tell a superhero and manga influence action and adventure story. What’s kept me interested in Paul Pope as a comic creator ever since I’ve read my first comic of his (Batman 100) is the multiple influences his brings to his craft Whether it’s the foodie culture or fashion or his attention to detail and practicality in his design or the comics-of-the-world influences in his art, there’s a smorgasbord of things to enjoy.

My only disappointment in the comic is the colouring. Hilary Sycamore coloured Battling Boy and although she does a pretty good job, the whole thing is too bright when it needs to be darker and too dark and muddy when it needs to be brighter. I would have preferred to see José Villarrubia on colouring duties. He’s done an excellent job with previous works by Pope and his contribution would have elevated Battling Boy to a whole new level.

I enjoyed Battling Boy like I enjoyed Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim and Corey Lewis’s Sharknife. It’s better than Sharknife and it’s equally good to Scott Pilgrim though both works have their different strengths. Despite the different influences, the works all have pretty strong similarities while maintaining distinct authorial voices and tone. It’s impressive that more than 20 years in the business, Pope still manages to create comics that are emotionally resonant and entertaining. Battling Boy is a fun comic but it also has depth. In some ways, his Young Adult comic is better than some of his more adult oriented works. I easily could have read another 200 pages of this comic and that’s a good thing because a second volume is on the way. It can’t get here soon enough.

Comics Should Be Good’s Top 100 Comic Book Storylines

Four years ago Brian Cronin at Comics Should be Good asked people to vote for their Top 100 Comic Book Storylines. He asked that you submit your top 10 choices then he takes some time to count up the points and shares the results a few posts at a time. I voted and I remember having a blast waiting to see the results. I was upset with some, I was surprised by others and many of the stories on the list I had never heard of before until then. Now, four years later, Brian is doing a second list. I’ve taken the time to make up my list and I’ll be voting as soon as I finish this post.

It’s pretty difficult to come up with your own list of Top 10 Comic Book Storylines. It’s difficult because 10 is a pretty small number when you really think about it. More importantly though, the list you come up with will only capture your Top 10 Storylines at the time you wrote up your list. This list, like all lists, is subjective. Yes, there are some objective ways to determine whether one comic book is better than another, but that’s offset by a greater amount of subjectivity. My definition of a good comic can greatly differ from your definition of a good comic. Another thing to consider is that as individuals, we’re constantly changing. My definition of good four years ago is different from my definition of good today. I’ve read more comics, my tastes in comics have changed, I like to think I’ve matured as a reader and that I’ve made an effort to increase the variety in the types of comics I read. In short, I’ve tried to become a better comic book reader by reading comics my past self from four years ago would not have been interested in reading. In short, the list I came up with is a snapshot of what I enjoyed at the time I made the list.

Another reason the list is difficult to do is that there are more than one way to vote. You can vote for whatever you like the most regardless of other’s opinions. You could also vote strategically. For example, I know that Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns will make the list so I will choose not to “waste” one or more of my previous votes on one or more storylines I think will make the list. It will make it on the list whether I contribute to voting for it or not. I think it’s primarily because of strategic voters that we get interesting results. Then again, I also thing that whatever is popular at the time the votes take place will appear high on the list whether they’re considered to be good comics or not. I expect to see Batman: The Court of Owls somewhere on the list even if I think it was a pretty terrible Batman storyline which, I think, will be mostly forgotten by the time the next votes for the next Top 100 list are taking place four years from now. It will be interesting to see how many current ongoing series will make the list.

There could also be other ways that people use to come up with their votes. My personal strategy consists of thinking about who my favourite writers and artists are. I tend to follow the body of work of writers more than I do artists but if I’m thinking of which Grant Morrison comic to vote for, I find it difficult to justify choosing The Invisibles (the quintessential Morrison comic) because of the inconsistencies in the art. It’s also a difficult series to break down by storyline. I also try to vote strategically. I’m a big fan of Frank Miller but I find that voting for The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil: Born Again or Batman: Year One is a waste of a vote. At the same time, I’m grateful to those who did vote for it because those works clearly belong on the list.

The list will always disappoint me because the list could more appropriately be called The 100 Most Popular Comic Book Storylines. They’re not the best storylines, no matter what your definition of the “best” comic book is. It’s always enjoyable though and it’s a good source for future reading materials. Because of the first list I was convinced to continue reading Cerebus pas the first volume which was good but not nearly as good as the volumes that followed it. I had never read a Love and Rockets comic and now I own nearly all of the Love and Rockets stories (sadly, if it’s never been collected into a trade or a hardcover, I don’t own it). I’ve also bought a few older comics. I’ve always wanted to read older Marvel comics from the 80s but I never know where to start or which book to try and the list helped me with that. The comics also helped because certain people would comment on which excellent and deserving comics were missing from the list. The Top 100 Comic Book Storylines isn’t a perfect list but it’s one of the best sources for helping comic readers find their next favourite comic and that holds true whether you’ve been reading comics since childhood or if you’re just starting to discover the medium.

The voting ends October 31^st at midnight. Make sure to visit Comics Should be Good and cast your votes. I look forward to the results on November 4th! I will be sharing my list once the results are out.

For those of you interested in reading the results from the first poll, check out this master list.

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian review

Geoff Hunt did a good job on this cover.
My only disappointment is that most of
the ship is missing.

I’m a very big fan of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the film adaptation of a few novels in the Aubrey-Maturin series written by Patrick O’Brian. I’ve watched that movie about once a year since it’s come out. Although I knew it was based on a 20 book (and one incomplete book) series, it never dawned on me to give the novels a try. Until the last time I watched the movie, that is. I’d glad I gave it a try because I ended up really liking the book but it was difficult read.

I felt the same way reading Master and Commander as I did while reading Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The book is a combination of riveting passages and glacially slow accounts of marine life in the early 19^th Century. When the book is good it’s really good but when the pace slows down and O’Brian writes about the rigging of the ship or Melville talks about the about the failed representation of the leviathan, it becomes a dry read. It’s not just those two books though; I seem to have a problem with any nautical adventure book. I had the same problem while reading Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket earlier this year. There is something about that type of narrative, I don’t want to say genre, that can lead itself to fascinating stories but the author’s all seem to get side tracked by the trivial matters. O’Brian, at least, has an excuse because he’s writing a historical fiction novel first and a bromance adventure novel second.

The pace of Master and Commander is slow. It’s damn slow. It doesn’t help that there isn’t a strong narrative flow. The structure of the book is episodic. Stories don’t necessarily follow each other; one doesn’t always flow into the next. The narrative seems to have been built around the smaller episodes that O’Brian wanted to write. I think the book could have been a hundred pages shorter without seriously impacting the story. The whole thing feels like an introduction to a larger story which make sense because it’s followed by several other novels (though at the time O’Brian wasn’t planning a series).

I’m very impressed by O’Brian’s descriptions of nautical life of the British Marines but I don’t care for the minute details of the ship’s design, rigging, etc. It’s impressive but it doesn’t appeal to me to directly, at least not a book made up of just that. I also don’t want to know everything about the ships, especially not right away. The first 100 pages feel like I’m reading a dusty historical account of life as an officer in the Royal Navy. Which is fine but it’s not balanced with story. It doesn’t feel like fiction until you’re passed that initial hurdle. I think, on the whole, O’Brian’s decision to start off the book in this way pays off. Despite being a dry read and a slow start, I learned a lot and I think it contributed to my excitement reading the rest of the book.

O’Brian is clearly a very intelligent man. He has a large vocabulary and doesn’t pander to the reader. That’s part of the problem, of course, because it makes for a difficult read. At time it feels like the book is written specifically for an audience made up of historians, nautical experts and enthusiasts. The average reader looking for a book about an adventure at sea might be in for a difficult read.

The use of historically accurate descriptions of the HM Sloop Sophie pays off for O’Brian as a storyteller and for the reader. It prepares the reader for the rest of the book. O’Brian is not only telling a story, he’s educating the reader. He starts even before the book truly begins. In his introduction, O’Brian clarifies two things to the reader. The first, he shares his opinion that it’s impossible to describe with complete accuracy the feeling of being in the Royal Nave in the early 1800s. Because of this he’s chosen to write his novel in as flat and unemotional a writing style as possible. The second point is that he’s borrowed a great many details from history books which should come as no surprise. It’s the first point is the most important one, in my opinion. O’Brian’s prose throughout the novel is flat, so very flat. During several passages he falls quite close to a writing style that could be considered academia. Despite O’Brian’s attempt to be as underwhelming as possible, the excitement during the action scenes is palpable. It’s surprising that writing in such a style that O’Brian successfully makes jokes. Unlike how the writing serves itself rather well to philosophical discussions and political debates among the characters, the flat writing shouldn’t work well at making jokes but it does.

The flat writing style is also contrasted with the characters. The characters are one of the better elements of the book, particularly Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin’s relationship. The characters, by their actions, take on mythical qualities which contrast with the flat, unemotional writing style. That a man such as Aubrey can fear that one of his officers considers him shy when he decided to no longer pursue a French man-of-war is pretty close to mind blowing. Especially considering that this scene occurs after we’ve read of several impressive accomplishments of Aubrey and his crew on the Sophie. Often time Aubrey is portrayed as more than mortal. He feels so strongly, his every moment is filled with passion. His desires seem excessive when compared to the desires of others but it’s only because he makes a conscious decision to live fully and completely. He’s a man of action with a large appetite. His appetites for food, spirits and women are very large. He feels very strongly too. He’s very emotional. When Maturin leaves the ship for a short period of time, Aubrey misses him so dearly he visualizes the conversations they will have together upon Maturin’s return. It might be because of the contrast between the events of the book and the writing style that it works, that it doesn’t feel forced or exaggerated.

If it wasn't for O'Brian teaching me about
ships, I would never have realized that the
yards on this boat are very crooked.

There are plenty of things to like about this first novel and they’ve helped to convince to keep reading the series. Some of the smaller little things that contributed to my enjoyment included O’Brian’s dialogue which is excellent. It’s accurate to the time period (or at least it reads as if it’s accurate, I’m not expert). I also enjoyed discovering how Captain Aubrey and Stephen Maturin first met. Because I’m already familiar with some of the characters, it was a nice treat finding out where some of the officers and members of the crew first came into Aubrey’s service (characters like Pullings and Killick). I’ve always wondered where Aubrey got the scar on his face and ear in the movie. I know now because the story about how he got injured takes place in Master and Commander.

I found the first novel of the Aubrey-Maturin series to be challenging and I can only assume that the rest of the series will be similarly challenging. Perhaps less so because I’m far more familiar with the nautical language now that I was when I first began. Despite the challenges, Master and Commander was a rewarding read. I feel like a “better” reader. I feel the way I do when I read classic literature. There is a sense of accomplishment for having read and enjoyed the book. I’m also slightly disappointed because I’m so familiar with the movie and there is a completely different tone between the film and the novel. I’m still very glad that I’ve read the book because I’ve really enjoyed it even though it got tedious from time to time, I liked learning about the Sophie. Part of me wishes I had researched late 18^th and early 19^th Century Royal Navy before starting the book. Now that I’m done the first novel I feel ready for more but I’ll enjoy my shore leave for all it’s worth before heading out to sea once more.

Sand Land by Akira Toriyama review

Akira Toriyama is one of my favourite manga creators and he’s also one of the first mangaka whose work ever caught my eye. As a child who grew up in the nineties, Dragon Ball Z has been on television for as long as I can remember. To this day I’m still a big fan of Dragon Ball. In recent years I’ve also been collecting Toriyama’s first ongoing series, the hilarious Dr. Slump. I love his body of work for various reasons from his excellent character designs, his excellent grasp of anatomy to his choreography of hand to hand combat and the combination of dumb and intelligent humour. Rereading Sand Land several years after I first read it in the pages of Shonen Jump was a real treat. At the time I had somewhat dismissed Sand Land as that “other comic” Toriyama wrote and drew but it’s clear to me now that it’s a modern classic manga in a single volume.

Sand Land is one of Toriyama’s works from the later part of his career. After completing Dragon Ball in the mid-nineties, Toriyama wisely chose to never create such a long series. Sand Land was supposed to be a short work about a man and a tank and the whole thing is only one volume long. Even then you get the feeling it went on longer than Toriyama was expecting. It was published in Japan in 2000 and it was first published in English in issues #1-11 of Shonen Jump. The story is rather simple, in a post-apocalyptic desert land, an old Sheriff and a couple of demons go on a journey to find the mysterious Phantom Lake. Along the way they meet various strange characters and a couple of monsters all the while uncovering the dark secrets of the King’s Army and the war that took place 30 years earlier.

There isn’t an enormous amount of depth but the story is entertaining and it moves at a breakneck pace. Yet, it’s not a quick read it just that so many things happen every chapter. There are demons stealing water from cargo trucks, monster chases through the desert, driving lessons, fights with crooks, tank battles, plenty of hand to hand combat, a couple military conspiracy and that’s only about half of the content of the manga! So there’s not a lot of depth because the focus is to write and draw a fun manga and hope the reader has fun too. That’s exactly what Toriyama achieves.

It’s not all fun in the sun and desert hijinks though. There are some environmental and social-economic concerns in there too for readers who need a bit food for thought with their entertainment. General Zeu’s use of the King vas a puppet leader to create a monopoly on the water of Sand Land is a pretty dark and surprisingly contemporary socio-economic issue. At first I was a bit disappointed that the villainous General Zeu didn’t appear to have any further motivation for his actions than wanting to amass power and money. That’s it for his motivation, actually. It works, though. That’s the driving factor for some of most of the corrupt military and political leaders of modern times. Greed is the driving factor that contributes directly to the suffering of hundreds of millions every year. Sheriff Roa, Thief and Prince Beelzebub are putting their foot down and choosing to end the needless suffering of the people of Sand Land.

Clean water should not be a luxury. It’s a foundational pillar of life and should be shared amongst all living creatures, be they man, animal or demon. It’s interesting that Toriyama makes Zeu a cyborg. He’s equal parts man and machine. By pursuing his greedy aim his body has decayed to the point where he needed to attach cybernetics to maintain his health. His need for water is presumably less important to him individually than it is for the average human. It’s grim that he’s the sole possessor of the Land’s water supply. His continued persecution of the people has nothing to do with his need for water but for his illusionary need for increased wealth.

The art here is some of Toriyama’s best. In his short introduction to this volume he states that he thinks his drawings of the tank are less than satisfactory which is completely inaccurate. It’s very well drawn from its first appearance to its last. He draws the exterior as well as the interior with great attention to detail. He draws several other motorized vehicles, some real and some imaginary. His character work, as always, is great. His villains look like villains and his heroes are tough but fair. Beelzebub and the Sheriff look great. I would really like to see more of their adventures.

Sand Land wasn’t a quick read but it was a light read. The book feels dense even though there isn’t an overabundance of story but there are a lot of plot points, nearly each chapter feels like a story unto itself. It all keeps the story rolling along but it also makes you feel as though it was money well spent. It was to see a storytelling master at work. Sand Land could be dismiss as just another fun adventure manga with demons, tanks and an old secretive Sherriff but to dismiss it as such is to entirely miss the point. The entire point is to have fun but there is a more depth to the work for those who wish to pay attention to it. Sand Land allows for a more engaged reading experience. Viz Media gave the collected volume an “A for All Ages” rating and that’s spot on because Sand Land works well on so many different levels. Truly a manga for the whole family.

Miscellaneous Reviews 01

Chew volume 7: Bad Apples

This is probably the weakest volume of the series so far which is a pretty big disappointment since every single volume has been a joy to read. The volume doesn’t really advance the story. Chew has recently reached its halfway point and “Bad Apples” seems to be setting up the story for the second half of the series. It doesn’t feel like much of a continuation of the first half of the series because the momentum sort of just . . . stops.

A considerable amount of Chew has to do with world building. John Layman and Rob Guillory have done a phenomenal job building a world in which the sale and consumption of chicken is an illegal activity up until this particular volume. The whole thing feels like it was done without any real effort. It’s repeating things that have previously been established but it’s dialled up a few notches. We know there several different kind of superpowers based on but, but on a single page the writer and artist create nearly a dozen new powers. The food related superpowers are approaching self-satirical heights. It’s completely unnecessary and each new power is less impressive than the other. I’m disappointed because I expected so much more story and a lot less frivolous world building and cheap gags. One of the things that have made Chew so good up to this point was the deft balance between humour and supernatural food related drama.

Challengers of the Unknown Must Die!

Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! Is the first published comic work of Jeph Loeb and the first collaboration between Loeb and artist Tim Sale. That alone makes this an interesting comic to read since we get to experience the writer and artist cutting their teeth on one of their earliest comics work. The story takes place in the aftermath of an attack on Challengers Mountain: they retire. Loeb and Sale give us the story of a group forcibly starting retirement, what they did after and then, how they came back out of retirement. It’s a nice little story but it’s something we’ve seen before: deconstruction of a superhero team followed by its reconstruction.

 
One of the highlights of the comic is Tim Sale’s art. I’ve always liked his art ever since the first time I read Batman: The Long Halloween but he’s been good ever since he started working in comics professionally. He really did a great job with the Challs. The most impressive aspect of his art on the book is his stellar page and panel designs. Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! is one of the few comics that revels in being a comic and telling the story in a way only comics can.

Sale inks, presumably, with a pen. His lines are the same thickness throughout the comic. It’s a pretty thin line and it doesn’t matter how close or far an object or a character is the thickness of the line remains the same. It gives it a loose and casual feel. This isn’t an overly polished digital image. There is something classic about Sale’s style it’s put to good use here. I can’t help thinking of reasons for which I admire his art. He uses very few straight lines; the whole comic has a nice fluidity of movement and looseness to the action. Superman’s guest appearance in one of the issues is a rare example of Sale’s obvious use of straight lines (such a square jaw). The art is interesting from the first page to the last but I can’t say the same about the writing. Loeb starts off with a really strong story but the whole thing loses it’s footing with the last couple of issues. For someone first published work, Loeb should be proud of his efforts since he wrote a several compelling issues reviving one of the earliest super science hero teams. Having Tim Sale on art duties surely helped too. It’s too bad this was only an 8 issue mini-series since I think it had the potential for an interesting ongoing series.

Lost Cat by Jason

Jason is one of my favourite comic creators. There is something about his deadpan, anthropomorphic animal style that really works for me. Despite the minimal facial expression and body language, his art is very expressive. He manages to do things with his art that he shouldn’t be able to do, it just shouldn’t work. The emotion his characters can convey is staggering and the feeling he can imbue in the reader is equally impressive.

Lost Cat is one of his longer workers. I’m not sure if it’s the longest so far but it’s being advertised as such. Sure, the page count is very high compared to his previous comics but his pages follow a strict four panel grid. I’m sure that some of his shorter 48 pages comics with nine panels on each page contain just as much story but the extra breathing room Jason gives Lost Cat helps with the story he’s telling.

One of the recurring themes in Jason’s work is loneliness. He does it so well in Lost Cat. One of the pivotal scenes in the book is a forty page long conversation between two astonishingly lonely people who, for the first time in their lives, feel connected to another individual. Lost Cat isn’t about a lost cat at all. It’s about a missed opportunity; it’s about missing out on the love of a lifetime because of mundane reasons like having cold feet. It’s a comic that ponders the deeper meanings of love and live and Jason brings his unique perspective it, aliens and all. 

X-Factor: Visionaries Peter David volume 3 review

The third volume of ­X-Factor Visionaries: Peter David brings the focus back on the main members of the X-Factor team. It’s a big frustrating because I feel this is where the story should have picked up after the first volume. The crossover with The Incredible Hulk was a pretty major distraction even if it was a good story in itself. I enjoyed the third volume more than the second one but my enjoyment of it is hindered by the same problems I had with the previous volumes of this series.

The art inconsistencies didn’t really bother me this time around. That’s because the guest artists’ style matched up pretty closely to Larry Stroman’s art even if they did not quite reach he same level of abstraction in their line work. I don’t have much more to say about the art in these issues and that itself probably says a lot. They’re early nineties comics and it’s important to mention that because the inking and colouring have a pretty big impact on the final look of the comic. These issues look like nineties comics. The only exception would the Annual issue which is drawn by Darick Robertson and Joe Madureira. That issue looks sleeker and cleaner and it’s quite breath of fresh air but the annual they make up can best be summarized as a throwaway gag issue. It doesn’t advance the story or the characterization and the only thing it contributes to is a few laughs. Peter David has made significantly better jokes in the regular issues of X-Factor.

Thankfully the story moves along a big more in the rest of the volume. The X-Factor team deals with three mutant related issues. In one, a mutant is accused of murder and they investigate the allegations. In another story, they’re asked to protect a former member of a muscle for hire crew which offered protection to a drug cartel. The third story deals with mutant expatriates from Genosha who are travelling the seas searching for sanctuary but finding only rejection. Mutants are the Jews of the Marvel Universe it seems. All three of those stories could and for a few pages did, form the basis for interesting stories about homo sapiens and homo superior equality but they all fall short. One of the reasons of the stories do not work is that the members of X-factor always end up fighting numerous other mutants or super villains. The resolution to all these stories is a one or more superhero fights. It’s a disappointing story.

The other reason why the stories don’t seem to work is that they try to bring forward topics that would generally seem more serious in tone. Peter David is trying to pull away from the good guys fights bad guys story and steer the book into a more satisfying direction. He’s trying to offer the reader something different that also happens to have depth of story. As I mentioned, the first problem is the unnecessary requirement for superhero fisticuffs and it’s not even a particularly rewarding version of that. The second reason is that the tone of the book is in constant fluctuation form humorous to serious and thoughtful. David is unable to balance the humour and the more serious elements into a cohesive comic. This happens to be the volume which has the best humour in it. He’s done ag ood job on that fron band the best thing about the fight scenes is the banter. It’s problematic though when Havok and Val are having a serious discussion as to how to handle the mutant expatriate (or x-patriate) situation, they’Re also finding time to crack jokes.

It’s inconsistent but it has a lot of potential and it makes for a frustrating read because you keep thinking the story is going to lead to something good and worthy of thought and discussion but it often leads to bad jokes, cackling evil bad guys. The villains in this story are uninteresting and much like the stories in the Annual issue, they feel like throwaway characters that matter because of their role as villains as opposed to their importance as characters in a story. Three volumes in and it still feels like Peter David is trying to find his footing and it’s getting to be too late since he ultimately only wrote one more volume’s worth of X-Factor comics.