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Post by EdoBosnar on May 22, 2024 11:28:05 GMT -5
Ryuko vols 1-2 Eldo Yoshimizu, 2019  The titular Ryuko is some kind of high-level operative for a large Japanese organized crime gang who’s mainly active in the Middle East. However, early on in this story she rushes back to Japan because she finds out that her mother, who she had thought was killed when she was a small child, is being held captive by a Chinese criminal organization (which also has extensive interests in Japan). As the story progresses, we learn that the latter is actually a secret society called Black Glory, which was formed in the 17th century to oppose the Manchurian Qing dynasty and which over the ensuing centuries grew into a powerful alternate power structure not only in China but throughout East Asia. And Ryuko and her mother are somehow key figures in it. Other secretive organizations, including the CIA, take an interest in these events. The plot elements here are intriguing, but I found the execution, esp. in the first volume, really lacking. Mainly just because the story is often hard to follow – with overly stylized, almost blurred action sequences.  It’s all made a little more confusing by the frequent flashbacks to several different periods in the past – different points in Ryuko’s childhood and adolescene, but also the pasts of several other characters.  ( the beginning of a flashback sequence set in Afghanistan involving a supporting character) I had mixed feelings about the art as well. Many scenes like the one above are very beautifully depicted, with lots of detail, while others are more like that page above. And, as is apparently customary for many mangas, the female characters, including three who are 17/18 yrs old – are often depicted in a needlessly cheesecakey fashion.
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Post by majestic on May 30, 2024 20:10:59 GMT -5
Arrowsmith: Behind Enemy Linesby Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pacheco and Jose Rafael Fonteriz, 2022  Just got through reading the long-awaited follow-up to the first Arrowsmith mini-series from 2003 over the weekend. It’s set in the spring of 1916, and at this point airman Fletcher Arrowsmith is a somewhat more hardened veteran of many battles – although he still hasn’t lost his basic decency and humanity even if he has shed the idealism that led him to run away from home in the United States of Columbia and join the war effort in far-off Europe. In the first chapter he gets shot down in aerial combat and becomes a POW. However, we learn that this was a bit of subterfuge: he’s actually on a secret mission and his capture was deliberate, because Albionese (i.e., British) intelligence wants him to make contact with another spy in the camp. Once he does, their real task can finally begin. Like the first one, this is a very engrossing and beautifully drawn story. It does a great job of fleshing out the world Arrowsmith lives in, and is again an often an excellent commentary on the brutality of war. However, I have to admit that I liked the first one better for several reasons; a minor quibble is I liked the art a bit more in that one, because I think Jesus Merino’s inks really take Pacheco’s already beautiful art to the next level. A more serious criticism would be the fact that this one ends in a cliffhanger, i.e., it’s very much the middle part of a bigger story – uniike the first series, which obviously left open the possibility of more but can nonetheless be appreciated as a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. I hope Busiek won’t need another almost two decades to write the continuation, although in any case any further installments will unfortunately no longer have Pacheco’s art. I finally was able to get this and read it. I agree with everything you said. Hopefully Busiek will conclude the series with another artist. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 7, 2024 15:19:19 GMT -5
 Finished up reading all three volumes of Howard Chaykin's Hey Kids! Comics! Damn...that was outstanding. I know that Chaykin has his detractors, but I'm a big fan and always have been. I love that he has, by and large, done stuff that's outside the mainstream. And if it isn't always successful, at least it's interesting. This, however, was just great. A mildly disguised history of super-hero comics, warts and all...but still, by and large, a love letter to the books and the creators. Half the fun was trying to work out who was the inspiration for any given character, many of whom were amalgams of a few people. So damn good. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 10, 2024 10:18:32 GMT -5
Finished up reading all three volumes of Howard Chaykin's Hey Kids! Comics! Damn...that was outstanding. I know that Chaykin has his detractors, but I'm a big fan and always have been. I love that he has, by and large, done stuff that's outside the mainstream. And if it isn't always successful, at least it's interesting. I enjoy his Substack blog: howardchaykin.substack.com/ |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,860
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Post by shaxper on Jun 12, 2024 7:50:05 GMT -5
Finished The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún last night. I generally don't dabble in manga, but the cover of the first volume really called to me, so I gave it a try.  It's a fascinating tale, full of both tremendous gentleness and savage darkness. Critics seem to compare it to Beauty & The Beast, but the work this feels the most similar to in my view is Bone. It lacks the adventure and the comedy, aiming for something more quiet and nuanced, but the setting and backstory draw some strong comparisons. I'm not sure this qualifies as essential reading, but it's beautiful, memorable, and a very fast read (even though the full thing comes to roughly two thousand pages). As with so many works that hint at mysteries throughout and build and build to an inevitable conclusion, the ending falters a bit and dampens my otherwise tremendous enthusiasm for this work. It's still a better (and, thankfully, more unique) ending than most, but it isn't a perfect wrap to the series either. |
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Post by driver1980 on Jun 17, 2024 5:52:24 GMT -5
Reading J. Michael Straczynski’s Captain America. I’m glad we’ve finally solved the mystery of time:  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 17, 2024 7:16:33 GMT -5
that's an interesting concept coming from the guy who's most famous work is, in fact, based on time travel.
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Post by driver1980 on Jun 17, 2024 7:56:08 GMT -5
There’s also this, which I found interesting:  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 21, 2024 21:37:06 GMT -5
I read the Transformers trade last night on Hoopla.. it was just about what I figured it was.. basic plot, a bit of characterization, and some really cool Daniel Warren Johnson art (who I'm definitely a fan of). I don't think I need to pay 4 bucks an issue, but I was happy to read it for free
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 26, 2024 15:41:51 GMT -5
The Arab of the Future, book 4 Riad Sattouf is a magical storyteller. In this fourth instalment of his childhood memories, he invites us to relive the thousand little details of our own childhood while entrancing us with the uniqueness of his own circumstances: born of a Syrian father and a French mother, raised for years in Syria and then in France, not exactly torn between the two cultures but clearly the victim of a tug-of-war. This series received several accolades over the years, and all are well-deserved. Here's the description from Amazon (as I'm lazy) : «In the fourth volume of The Arab of the Future, little Riad has grown into a teenager. In the previous books, his childhood was complicated by the pull of his two cultures―French and Syrian―and his parents’ deteriorating relationship. Now his father, Adbel-Razak, has left to take a job in Saudi Arabia, and after making a pilgrimage to Mecca, turns increasingly towards religion. But after following him from place to place and living for years under the harsh conditions of his impoverished village, Riad’s mother Clementine has had enough. Refusing to live in a country where women have no rights, she returns with her children to live in France with her own mother… until Abdel-Razak shows up unexpectedly to drag the family on yet another journey.» Needless to say, the family is living under a lot of stress. Abdel wants his family to move permanently to Syria, where he has quietly bought a tract of land, spending money he swore he was piling away in a fiscal paradise for their future. He wants his sons to practice a rigorous Islam. He wants his wife to behave like a traditional moslem wife. She, on the other hand, a strong-willed Breton, is growing increasingly fed up with his religious radicalism, his sexism, his laziness and his lies. Add his jealousy to the list: when she has to undergo chemotherapy in France while he's in Saudi Arabia, he suspects her of not going to the hospital but to have a series of affairs with other men. A reputation that will await her when the family moves to Syria for a while. Sattouf contrasts this gripping family drama with a charming depiction of the transition between childhood and young adulthood, as little Riad feels the first stirrings of passion for the fairer sex, realizes that it's not the entire world who thinks he's God's gift to mankind, and suffers from bullying, facial tics and acne. There is no self-pity at all in these pages, but an amusingly self-deprecating appraisal of the many obstacles we face as youngsters! We can completely relate with the kid, with his joys, his problems and his doubts. The book ends on a cliffhanger that guarantees I'll run to the library to get book 5 as soon as possible. (Da&n, how I hate his father!!!) The whole series is a must-read, in my humble opinion.
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Post by berkley on Jun 26, 2024 22:07:28 GMT -5
Ryuko vols 1-2 Eldo Yoshimizu, 2019 The titular Ryuko is some kind of high-level operative for a large Japanese organized crime gang who’s mainly active in the Middle East. However, early on in this story she rushes back to Japan because she finds out that her mother, who she had thought was killed when she was a small child, is being held captive by a Chinese criminal organization (which also has extensive interests in Japan). As the story progresses, we learn that the latter is actually a secret society called Black Glory, which was formed in the 17th century to oppose the Manchurian Qing dynasty and which over the ensuing centuries grew into a powerful alternate power structure not only in China but throughout East Asia. And Ryuko and her mother are somehow key figures in it. Other secretive organizations, including the CIA, take an interest in these events. The plot elements here are intriguing, but I found the execution, esp. in the first volume, really lacking. Mainly just because the story is often hard to follow – with overly stylized, almost blurred action sequences. It’s all made a little more confusing by the frequent flashbacks to several different periods in the past – different points in Ryuko’s childhood and adolescene, but also the pasts of several other characters. ( the beginning of a flashback sequence set in Afghanistan involving a supporting character)I had mixed feelings about the art as well. Many scenes like the one above are very beautifully depicted, with lots of detail, while others are more like that page above. And, as is apparently customary for many mangas, the female characters, including three who are 17/18 yrs old – are often depicted in a needlessly cheesecakey fashion. From the samples you posted I have a similar reaction to the art. If it was all in the detailed, realistic style of the second sample I'd probably take a chance on this but the first one isn't my kind of thing at all so I'll probably give it a miss. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 1, 2024 2:12:02 GMT -5
Fridayscript: Ed Brubaker, art: Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vicente; 2020-2024  ( covers to the first and last issues) It’s just before Christmas, 1973, and Friday Fitzhugh comes back home to the small New England town of Kings Hill after her first semester away at college. However, instead of going straight home to her mom’s place, she’s met at the train station by the town’s sheriff and her childhood friend, Lancelot Jones, so that can they rush off to the woods just outside of town to track down an erratic young man who stole some kind of recently discovered archeological artifact. You see, since before their teens, Friday and Lance, a boy genius, have acted as young detectives, solving all kinds of odd mysteries in the quirky little town (however, things soured a bit when they hit their late teens and esp. when Friday left for college). But this ‘little’ mystery ends up revealing some major, weird and ultimately horrifying secrets about the town.  According to Brubaker’s afterword in the first issue, the idea was to toy with the concept of the various popular ‘kid detective’ stories of numerous children’s and YA books (e.g., Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, etc.) by placing the characters in a ‘post-YA’ phase, i.e., by looking at what happens after they are no longer little kids. And also throwing in some eldritch, Lovecraftian horror. The series was was released in nine issues, or installments, in digital format at the Panel Syndicate over the course of five years, where it is still available (for any price you want). It’s also been published in tpbs by Image comics; the first two collect the first six issues, with the third one collecting the last three coming out this month. Otherwise, I found it oddly coincidental that the two comics I’ve read most recently are set in 1973.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 2, 2024 15:36:53 GMT -5
I've read a couple of very different modern comics of late.  Read the three volumes of March by the late Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. What a powerful read. It's astounding to me how far we have come and yet how little we've learned and how far we still have to go. This should be required reading in every government or civics class.  Finally got around to reading the first collection of Nancy from "Olivia Jaimes" that seemed to take, at least the internet, by storm back in 2018. It was definitely a breath of fresh air compared to the stale state of the strip that had preceded it. I may be a little too old to fully appreciate it, but it's usually at least interesting. Which the strip certainly hasn't been since before Ernie Bushmiller died. It's got its moments, but again, I may not be fully the right audience. But it's clear that Sluggo is lit. |
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Post by Dizzy D on Jul 4, 2024 9:56:17 GMT -5
Recent buys:
Uncanny Spider-Man, which for me will be the final chapter of the Krakoan Age of the X-Men. By Si Spurrier and Lee Garbett, Javier Pina, Marcus To and Wilton Santos.
This is basically Way of X volume 3 or Legion of X volume 2: After the events in Legion of X, Nightcrawler has left Krakoa and has been accused of murder. To lay low, but still be active, he borrows a costume from Spider-Man and goes for simple superheroics (people think he's a demon trying to atone by performing heroic acts, which is if I recall correctly Dave Cockrum's original origin for Nightcrawler before he used him in the X-Men.) The whole Spider-Man is not really used that much, Kurt fights the Vulture and Rhino and gets into a relationship with Silver Sable, but most of his actions are focused on helping his mother Mystique. There is also a flashback story that gives Kurt now a definitive backstory as the son of Mystique and Destiny (the origin that Claremont had intended but couldn't). All in all this was more focused than Way of X (but I found that title more ambitious) and Legion of X.
Avengers Inc. by Al Ewing and Leonard Kirk: Not that big into Avengers, but I'm a Ewing fan (not enough to buy Venom, but I'll get most of his other works) and I liked the covers of this (judging comics by their covers). It was more based in Avengers continuity than I was expecting, I was expecting more of a standalone story. 6 supervillains are murdered inside prison and Janet van Dyne is called into investigate. Before soon she is assisted by one of the murder victims themselves, David Cannon aka Whirlwind has woken up with a different personality, memories and new powers and now calls himself Victor Shade, a name with some history. The two investigate several murders over this 5 issue mini-series and I find the individual cases interesting, but don't care as much for the overarching story.
I like that both titles had some lower, but more personal stakes for the heroes
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 21, 2024 12:29:59 GMT -5
A Walk Through Hell, v1 (The Warehouse) and v2 (The Cathedral) collecting issues 1-5 (v1) and 6-12 (v2) of the series published in 2018-2019; written by Garth Ennis, art by Goran Sudžuka, colors by Ive Svorcina
 The tagline for this series sounds like the set-up for a (bad) stand-up comedy bit: so two FBI agents walk into a warehouse in Long Beach on Christmas Eve. However, this is very much not that, it is in fact a very dark, very bleak horror story. The two FBI agents in question were checking into a lead about a possible shipment of cocaine as well as smuggled ivory, in what was considered a mundane case. Nine hours later, they haven’t come out, nor have they answered any calls or messages to their phones. The Long Beach PD sends in a SWAT team, who enter and then return almost immediately and climb back into their van, all freaked out (they all end up shooting each other a few minutes later). Special agents Shaw and McGregor, who are working the same case as the first two, arrive on the scene, and decide to enter the warehouse to find their colleagues, and enter an apparently never-ending nightmare. The whole matter is apparently tied to an earlier case worked by Shaw, in which she tracked down, but could not produce sufficient evidence to prosecute, the head of a grisly ring of child-molesters/murderers. My feelings about this are mixed; it’s definitely a page-turner, as the suspense and overriding sense of dread keep you interested. The jerky, non-linear storytelling style, which slips into flashbacks on a dime, is initially a bit disorienting, but it is effective. And Sudžuka’s art is, as always, quite nice. However, I came away pretty unsatisfied. First and foremost, a minor criticism would be that so much of the story is just people talking to each other (in interrogation rooms, in bars, etc.) and after a while this becomes tiresome. However, my main gripe is that more than anything, it seems that Ennis wanted this story to be a contemplation of the nature of evil, which ties in to the current political climate in the US. I just don’t think he really succeeded, and I found the rather cryptic ending with no resolution of any type more annoying than anything else (esp. because there were a few plot threads that really demanded some kind of explanation at the very least). |
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