Continuing a trend in Image lines that look real pretty but are mostly hollow. This mishmash of manga tropes didn't quite have enough story or charactContinuing a trend in Image lines that look real pretty but are mostly hollow. This mishmash of manga tropes didn't quite have enough story or character to keep me from falling asleep for several consecutive nights, but it was diverting enough for me to keep trying. The art is luscious, but the action was kind of hard to follow in parts. It does feature a nearly all-female cast and was made by two women, all of which are great, but winning the Bechdel Olympics is really just a good start. And yes, I mostly just bought this for the Neil Gaiman blurb. Weirdly, there's also a Cosmo blurb. Cosmo?!
Totally unrelated: while I was perusing this at my local comic book shop, the guy at the counter received an unmarked package of monkfish from a friend. He was quite pleased, and I was quite pleased that he was quite pleased.
Merged review:
Continuing a trend in Image lines that look real pretty but are mostly hollow. This mishmash of manga tropes didn't quite have enough story or character to keep me from falling asleep for several consecutive nights, but it was diverting enough for me to keep trying. The art is luscious, but the action was kind of hard to follow in parts. It does feature a nearly all-female cast and was made by two women, all of which are great, but winning the Bechdel Olympics is really just a good start. And yes, I mostly just bought this for the Neil Gaiman blurb. Weirdly, there's also a Cosmo blurb. Cosmo?!
Totally unrelated: while I was perusing this at my local comic book shop, the guy at the counter received an unmarked package of monkfish from a friend. He was quite pleased, and I was quite pleased that he was quite pleased....more
An illuminating, painful, outstanding graphic novel. Without knowing her work at all I imagine it would be hard to read about Beaton's encounters withAn illuminating, painful, outstanding graphic novel. Without knowing her work at all I imagine it would be hard to read about Beaton's encounters with sexual violence as she skillfully and emphatically makes it clear how ordinary they were and are. As a fan of many years, I wanted to put the book down when it was clear what was happening because I didn't want it to happen to someone that almost feels like a friend. At the same time I have even more admiration for Beaton for addressing that part of her personal history and weaving it into a whole portrait of life in the camps, a community composed not just of rural Canadians but of people from the place she was raised. The conversation where she grapples with this with one of her coworkers and says she has more in common with the men in the camps than the urban journalist trying to get a sensational story ("they're more mine than she is" p. 377) was particularly cutting.
While most of this book is close-up character work, Beaton did a great jobs with the landscapes. I particularly loved the scribbly tire tracks in mud and snow and the generally disorienting chaos of the industrial scenes. I almost wish Cape Breton and Victoria had as much landscape work for contrast (they had some, and it was great stuff, and yes, that's literally the color, but more please!). My one complaint is that pacing varies between shorter, strip-sized scenes and longer, multi-page scenes and the transitions are usually abrupt. Not sure if I wanted a different visual treatment for the shorter vignettes or what, but it often took me a panel or two to realize I was in a different scene....more
I thought this was going to be more about exercise, but it's more autobiographical, which is just fine, as I've actually never read anything by BechdeI thought this was going to be more about exercise, but it's more autobiographical, which is just fine, as I've actually never read anything by Bechdel, even though I've considered and applied the Bechdel Test to almost every work of fiction I've encountered since realizing how frequently fiction fails it. I found her obsession with consumerism bizarre, every new sport or activity or even lifestyle requiring not just particular gear but *branded* gear, flaunted in a way that doesn't seem to be about detail. An obsession with ownership, or guilt over consumerism? Haha, actual sponsorship? Loved the bits about the Wordsworths and Margaret Fuller, good tie-ins to Solnit's Wanderlust but also, of course, to Bechdel's obsessions with movement and transcending her rather intense neuroses....more
Cooke's linework and character design will be instantly familiar to anyone who has watched a DC animated show like "Batman: The Animated Series," and Cooke's linework and character design will be instantly familiar to anyone who has watched a DC animated show like "Batman: The Animated Series," and the loose inks, washes, and halftones used here wonderfully play up the noir / crime novel sensibility. Sadly, everything other than the visuals is a witless exercise in violence and misogyny for which the lovely artwork doesn't manage to compensate. I'm not familiar with the source material so maybe that just how Stark's Parker novels were....more
I admit, I bought this for the cover, which could easily be me with shorter hair and a mustache. I know nothing about Tsuge or his reputation aside frI admit, I bought this for the cover, which could easily be me with shorter hair and a mustache. I know nothing about Tsuge or his reputation aside from what I gleaned from the essay at the end. Without that, it would be easy to write this off as yet another autobiographical comic about a mostly-worthless dude obsessing over his own worthlessness, crushed dreams, and sexual obsessions, but there is a little more here. For one thing, we're seeing a portrait of poverty in Japan, and not like salt-of-the-earth rural poverty, but urban poverty, people who have crashed out of the middle class, seem disconnected from any kind of family support, and seem to survive on a small trickle of luck. It's not a Japan that I've seen in much manga, though my exposure to manga is certainly lacking breadth.
For another, Sukegawa (Tsuge's stand-in protagonist) lives with his wife and child, and while they are not favorably depicted, they are also not elided, nor are they footnotes. They aggravate him, but they're also a part of how Sukegawa sees himself, ever-present, tightly bound to his guilt. Women characters are not quite equitably portrayed here, but their justifiable anger is present, at least.
Also, aside from the first chapter, most of the book explores other characters in the village, from the other rock peddlers (who seem, if anything, even more eccentric than Sukegawa), to flea market junk dealers, to bird trappers both mercantile and mythological. While clearly motivated by the kind of egomania that drives anyone to autobiography, it's far from his only drive (thankfully), and these portraits are fun, sometimes pointed, and, especially in the case of his wife, complicated.
It's also hard not to think of Jenny O'Dell's How To Do Nothing and the iceberg of thought that sits atop. While Sukegawa isn't specifically escaping capitalism, he does seem to deliberately opt out of extrinsic notions of value. Even though he's constantly hustling for the most obvious form of extrinsic value (money) his absurd failures to earn any derive from his complete, perhaps willful ignorance of what other people want to buy. He seems exasperated that people don't share his internal obsessions (rocks, old cameras, poets who care for nothing but hard drinking and hot springs), at least not to the point of shelling out a few yen.
The art was a shock after reading that Toppi collection. Tsuge's style is loose, sometimes bordering on sloppy, but totally different than most other manga artists. Many of his landscapes show the kind of detailed draftsmanship that so often sets Japanese comics apart from American ones, but they're few and far between. I want to say his style reminds me more of American indies, but I'm struggling to think of which ones specifically. My partner just suggested Tomine, but Tsuge's WAY less spare than that. Something to think about.
I would gladly read more. Despite the lack of published translations, it looks like the Internet has significantly more, including this collection by someone named Sonny Liew....more
Dear lord, the lines, the beautiful lines! So many amazing lines! I know next to nothing about European comics. The level of artwork always seems so, Dear lord, the lines, the beautiful lines! So many amazing lines! I know next to nothing about European comics. The level of artwork always seems so, so far beyond what Americans were doing around the same time, and that's definitely true in this collection. The stories are very short, light Western-ish vignettes about indigenous people and Spanish colonizers in South America. They're universally violent, people of all backgrounds seem to get equal shots at agency (though no one is exactly "good"), but who cares about any of that because they're all *achingly* beautiful, particularly the landscapes, many of which evoke the North American west with lots of arid, rocky vistas, but Toppi knocks gnarly, ornate jungles out of the park just as reliably. I must have the other collections in this series. Must. Have....more
I put this down halfway through and when I picked it up I'd forgotten what was happening and who everyone was, so not encouraging. There are two many I put this down halfway through and when I picked it up I'd forgotten what was happening and who everyone was, so not encouraging. There are two many gods and they all look too alike. I'll continue on to the third since I bought it, but eh. Not sure this series is for me....more
Picked this up on a whim at Isotope and was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I don't know too much about Japanese cooking so the basic ovPicked this up on a whim at Isotope and was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I don't know too much about Japanese cooking so the basic overviews were very helpful. The Yamaoka / Kaibara conflict was amusingly absurd, and the values articulated and implied were interesting, e.g. a cosmopolitain appreciation for the qualities in cuisines from all places, but also a very specific and rigid definition of what is right and wrong in Japanese cuisine. Female characters were almost exclusively accessories, with the exception of Kurita's contributions in the last chapter, so take that for what you will. It's also interesting that while they harped on the excellence of the simple basic elements, they never seemed address how the characters eat on a day to day basis. Where do they go out for lunch? What's a weeknight dinner look like? They do go out to lunch at a cafeteria-style place in once scene, but it's not clear if this is typical, and most of the scene is devoted to Yamaoka berating a co-worker for eating nori incorrectly and not on the quality of the dishes or who prepared them. Is the food good? How do dishes and standards vary from day-to-day meals like this to the celebratory feasts or quintessential experiences that constitute most of the meals in the book?
Much to criticize, but much to enjoy too. I'm glad to have a new-to-me manga series I can look for at comic shops now! ...more
Been meaning to check this out for a while. Alphona's pencil work was outstanding. I think his quavery lines expressed the adolescent anxiety of the cBeen meaning to check this out for a while. Alphona's pencil work was outstanding. I think his quavery lines expressed the adolescent anxiety of the characters (particularly the excellent facial expressions), and added a dynamism to flowing things like hair and Kamala's scarf. Storywise... nothing new. Kid gets powers, powers a metaphor for alienation and adult responsibilities, adventures ensue. A villain cloned from the DNA of Thomas Edison and a cockatiel was a stroke of minor genius....more
Excellent cartooning style and developing weirdness, though mostly in the service of mood and not plot. When was the last time I read a comic with a pExcellent cartooning style and developing weirdness, though mostly in the service of mood and not plot. When was the last time I read a comic with a plot......more
My first, least-charitable, and least-considered thought was that this was just another Maus, as if that was a bad thing. Maus is a towering achievemeMy first, least-charitable, and least-considered thought was that this was just another Maus, as if that was a bad thing. Maus is a towering achievement, one of the finest comics ever written. Maus made the Holocaust real for this 90s kid who had no direct connection to it. Maus came from horror through emigration through generations through the mind of a gifted, ingenious cartoonist. It's the rarest thing. To read another Maus is cause for celebration.
I am unforgivably ignorant of the history of 20th century conflict in Southeast Asia, even though the demographic fabric of my home in Oakland, CA is very much a part of its aftermath, so I appreciated every nugget of personalized history in this book. I also loved Bui's fluid lines and her faces, particularly her own face as it varies in degrees of realism, and Bố's full-lipped frown that seems persistent in age but takes time to evolve over the course of the book.
I think the only thing I wanted more of (aside from everything) was more detailed scenery. The rural scenes in Vietnam looked very different but I felt the urban backdrops didn't feel as individualized, even though they varied from Sài Gòn to Berkeley. Maybe it's because almost every frame was dominated by a face or a figure, giving the entirety a very subjective feel, but I felt it detracted from the sense of place.
Well worth reading, despite my geographic pecadillos. While this had been at the edges of my awareness for a while, my thanks to the East Bay Express and Walden Pond Books for bringing it into focus for me....more
Over Easy and The Customer Is Always Wrong are basically two halves of one book, so I'll just write about them both here. It's impossible to separate Over Easy and The Customer Is Always Wrong are basically two halves of one book, so I'll just write about them both here. It's impossible to separate my enjoyment of these two books from the fact that I live just around the corner from where they're set, so all the landmarks are mostly familiar, albeit removed by about 30-40 years. In fact, I only learned about these books through the wonderful Oakland History Facebook group, where someone mentioned reading about backyard water towers in the city, which indeed feature briefly.
These books are Pond's roughly fictionalized memoir of her post-collegiate years in Oakland in the 1970s, waitressing at a local breakfast spot (that's still there, albeit under different ownership). It's mostly a collection of vignettes and character profiles, without too much of a plot, but well worth the read if you're into Oakland and/or autobio comics. It's funny, I just finished re-watching Freaks & Geeks which has a lot of parallels. Late 70s / early 80s, arrival of punk, feeling both constrained and drawn to a slice of society you're probably destined to leave behind and confusion over how to relate to the people who aren't....more
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