Death! It’s coming for us all. Of if it was that easy to sum up The White Lady with just that statement. Instead, we find a complex look at how we care for our elderly. Is there kindness we can provide at the end of one’s life be it a simple gesture of pretending to be someone’s granddaughter after they begin pulling back from them. Quite frankly, I do not think anyone has the answer and there are all sorts of legal gray areas when it comes to end of someone’s life.
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When it comes to fantasy worlds, everyone is living in the shadows of Tolkien and other literary greats that managed to create deep back stories and rich worlds to tell their stories. It is incredibly hard to catch the attention of readers and fans with new worlds and characters. Often, as it is with Vesper, the author is acutely aware of the rich back story that they have created. Instead of unraveling it over the course of the story they instead blurt it out like an excited child who cannot wait to share their creation. The constant mention of the past and exposition dumps provided by each character as they are introduced becomes the biggest hindrance to the story.
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Typically when you read a series of graphic novels, you become aware of the structure of the story. Many writers use the same setups and pacing to give each volume a familiar feel. The problem with this is that by the time you reach the end, you’re complacent with the material. The setup and pacing for the second volume of Isabellae are vastly different from the first. Whereas the first volume of Isabellae had several reveals and high points, this volume of the series is slowly building towards the ending.
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I have always been a sucker for samurai stories. As the years have gone on, I tend to stick with the ones coming straight out of Japan, but I still check out a variety of other tales told by creators that like myself, enjoy a good samurai story. It’s just that it’s rare that they’re enjoyable or not filled with Wikipedia notes and definitions.
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I’m not a huge fan of era stories that in a way add modern genres to the twist. For instance a western that adds forensic science to the story. There’s a little of that in the first volume of Stern, but thankfully it ends up making a lot of sense to the story.
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When I was instantly drawn to the covers for Sisco while looking through izneo’s catalog of titles; something about the covers just kept me coming back to them. I didn’t read what Sisco was about because I don’t ever do that. I blindly read anything and everything as a reviewer because it allows me to see if the story’s plot comes through on its own rather than through a synopsis supplied by a publisher.
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Well, I was way wrong about the title of this comic on my latest podcast. The full title is Atar Gull or The Tale of the Model Slave. Which is more fitting than what I thought it was. Listen, reading stories about slaves shouldn’t be easy. This book doesn’t glorify slavery, but it does strangely attempt to humanize all of the people involved in slavery and not in a sympathetic way either.
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Reading the description for Marzi is a cheat. It tells you too much, and that spoils the journey that Marzi takes you on in this first volume. First and foremost, don’t read the description, but do read Marzi.
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Save Me, Pythia is 100% what you’d want from a manga set in ancient Greece. The story follows Pythia, a teenager working at the temple for Apollo. Apollo himself has taken to Pythia, and after remembering to move the sun to night, he goes to the temple as a beggar looking for a place to stay the night. He reveals himself, in several different meanings of the word “reveal,” to Pythia and expects to have sex all night long with her. Instead, he gets rocked in the face and gut because Pythia isn’t having any of that shit. Her reward is a curse from Apollo in which she’ll be able to see the future.
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While trying out the izneo platform I came across Louca. The concept is a high school boy that’s bad at everything ends up befriending a ghost that’s his complete opposite. It’s not a new storyline, but I will admit that I’m a sucker for this type of story. The success of the story lies in the journey and the mystery of how the young man came to be a ghost haunting his old high school. If you were looking for something similar to compare it to, I would recommend Brody’s Ghost from Dark Horse Comics.
Read MoreEurope Comics, the All Digital All European comics and graphic novel venture will mark its first year of existence at the New York Comic-Con this October. The project, officially launched at the NYCC 2015, is returning to the convention, but this time with four European creators and a list of events at the Javits and other locations around New York.
French creators François Boucq, Matthieu Bonhomme and Jean-David Morvan and Italian comics prodigy Zerocalcare will be comparing their work and experience with American creators Sean Gordon Murphy, Andrew C Robinson, Dave Roman, and US-based French creator Pénélope Bagieu, under the watchful chairmanship of Calvin Reid (Publishers Weekly) and Brigid Alverson (Good Comics for Kids). Panels will be held at the Javits Center, the Cooper Union and Columbia’s Department of Italian.
A series of author signings/live drawing, and a week of special sales and giveaways will be accompanying Europe Comics at the NYCC.
Europe Comics will also be co-sponsoring ICV2’s state-of-the-industry event ‘Insider Talks/Happy Hour’ where a quick summary of the past 12 months and future goals will be made.
In one year Europe Comics has published 200 titles, has participated in five major events in Europe and the USA, and toured with a dozen European creators.
Details at http://www.europecomics.com/nycc16
Just to get pointlessly personal with you for a moment, if I have a second child and it turns out to be a boy… I’m stealing this name. Holy Jesus looking Cheeto did that name catch my damn attention. The best way I can entice you to read this fantastic series which is launching at Comic-Con from Europe Comics, is to describe it as Cowboy Bebop minus the setting and a different occupation. I know, that doesn’t sound like Cowboy Bebop, but in a weird way it’s a solid example of what to expect. I thought with a name like “Jazz” that it would be about music… and it is, just not the focus.
The first issue throws us right into the action as we find Jazz and his friend tied to chairs. Jazz tells his friend Teo how they got into trouble which takes us to another scene without context. Usually when you’re tossed around in a story like this, given no context and just in the moment with the scene, it can be off-putting and prevent you from immersing yourself into the story. What’s really incredible about the writing is that you only find yourself more immersed. Jazz explains that he was in New York working for a band when he received a message from his sister and instantly left the gig. She was being held hostage in a brothel. Drugged, beaten, and giving up hope she reached out to her baby brother in the hope that her message made it through. What follows is an intense scene of a brother there for his sister and taking her home no matter what.
From this first issue we learn everything we need to know about Jazz. His passion is music, he cares about his sister more than anyone else in his family, and he’s a career criminal. He didn’t just rescue his sister, he stole a few million in diamonds while he was there.
For the first time in ages Jazz is back home and due to the diamonds and how he rescued his sister, he finds himself in trouble and getting acclimated with his home city of El Ravel. A seedy place that has more criminals than heroes. Jazz’s problem is that this trouble and his sister are now being used against him and sucking him back into a system he intentionally left behind.
The writing is sharp. There are some genre trope and character tropes for sure, but they work to strengthen the story. Raule builds and destroys the status quo as he goes along. On one hand, he shows what the city is and how it got there, while also setting it up to all be destroyed. Jazz’s character is of course cooler than ice, but then when we meet the other characters… they’re all pretty cool. It makes you wonder if he can out cool them, but that’s why I’m reading. He’s our loveable con, but he’s stuck and in over his head.
I was utterly surprised when he tore through the brothel the way he did. It was surprising to the story, but it was incredible for the art. Roger’s artwork is stunning on this series and that one scene set the tone for what to expect from the rest of the book. Big action moments. There are plenty of character moments as well. In particular the way that Roger presented Jazz playing his trumpet was incredible. You could feel the music coming off the page and that was just magical. Roger also brings the city of El Ravel alive. It has a personality and a vibe all its own. It’s not a Gotham or a New York, it’s something else and it all stems from Roger’s artwork.
These first four issues are fantastic. The writing is great, don’t get me wrong, but the artwork is where so much of the storytelling and personality oozes from. I’m incredibly glad that Europe Comics has brought this French work over and I hope to see more from both creators. If you’re at SDCC this year, check it out and pick up all four issues, though like me, you’ll be wanting the next four right after that.
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