Review - Dingo #1

Dingo #1
Created and Written by Michael Alan Nelson
Art by Francesco Biagini
Boom! Studios

First part of a 4 issue mini-series, it tells the tale of man (called Dingo) with hard luck who is trying to get a box back. The box was lost by his rock star brother and bad things happen when it's opened. On his way from LA to Las Vegas to retrieve the box, Dingo somehow gets lost (must of strayed off Zyzzx road) and befriends/adopts a huge black dog named Cerberus. The issue ends with Dingo's ex-wife showing up with some thugs to take the box and kill Dingo.

Even though this is only four issues, I'm not going to continue getting this one. The mish-mash of Dingo's noir voice over narration and Greek Mythology updated to today didn't impress me enough to keep going on this title.

Comics for the week of December 23, 2009

Gotham City Sirens #7
Spider Woman #4
Guardians of the Galaxy #21
Detective Comics #860
Battlefields: Happy Valley #1
Wolverine: Origins #43
Madame Xanadu #18
Chew #7
Wonder Woman #39
Irredeemable #9
Victorian Undead #2
Uncanny X-Men #519

Must be extra thick this time to make up for no shipments next week.

Review - Sweet Tooth 1-3

Sweet Tooth 1-3
by Jeff Lemire
Vertigo

Vertigo snagged me with this book by offering the first issue for only one dollar. Their dollar strategy didn't work with their book Greek Street, but Sweet Tooth grabbed me and I had to get the following issues to see where Jeff Lemire would take the story.

Sweet Tooth is about a boy named Gus who was raised by his dad alone in a cabin isolated from all human contact. Gus also happens to have antlers and ears like a deer. Being told by his father never to leave the forest and to keep away from people, his dad dies leaving Gus alone. After a while, he wanders beyond the forest and gets assaulted by a couple of good ol' boys. Getting rescued by a man named Jepperd and discovering that Gus has a penchant for sweets, the two of them go off to find the safe place called The Preserve for Gus to live.

The story grows with each issue making it far more intriguing. It turns out, in the story the world has gone through a major catastrophe of some type and the population of the planet is mostly decimated. And that there are other children out there who have animal attributes like Gus, who seem to be immune to whatever is killing people. As Gus and Jepperd start their journey, we realize the extent of the devastation and the amount of danger is in this world. But Gus isn't dumb or so naive to follow Jepperd blindly. And indeed, Gus isn't sure he should even completely trust Jepperd, but travels with him anyway.

As I mentioned, this book grabbed me and so far, won't let me go. In each issue we find out more about Gus and his world. With sparse, dark artwork, Lemire creates an atmosphere that creates an unease in the reader. Heavily shadowed with dark colors and very little light, a bleakness is represented in almost every panel of this comic.

I would definitely recommend this comic for our older teen patrons. The level of suspense is gripping and grabs you and pulls you along.

Review - The Color of Earth

The Color of Earth
by Kim Dong Hwa
First Second Books
 

I had been reading about this book in several library type magazines as being well done. And last month I added the three book of this trilogy to the buy list for the library.

The Color of Earth is a coming of age story set around a young woman named Ehwa. She is 10 at the start of the book and lives with her widowed mother who runs the tavern in an rural village. Set in Korea during the early 1900s, this first book in a trilogy is a wonderful story with very pretty artwork. By the end of the book, Ehwa is a young teenager and her interests in boys is growing.

The relationship and discussion between Ehwa and her mother makes up most of the story. As Ehwa asks questions about growing up and she is told about life and relationships, many of the answers involve stories of flowers, insects and the wind. Ehwa notices a young monk in training and equates him with tiger lilies. Another boy, who is the son of the orchard grower, makes an impression on Ehwa, but has to go back to the city for his studies. And throughout the book, Ehwa's mother is loving and supportive of the decisions Ehwa makes concerning her life. The analogies for love and sex are almost poetic and in some sense (from my cynically unromantic point of view) almost unintentionally comical.

The art is very well done. Mostly using line drawings for the characters, occasionally they jump into a Japanese chibi style when appropriate. Also, though most of the background art is sparse, occasionally a realistic drawing of a landscape will be presented to effectively add to the drama of the tale. And once I figured out that Ehwa has a solid top with a patterned skirt and her mother is opposite with a patterned top and a solid skirt, it was much easier to follow the story.

Since the library has a new Young Adult librarian, I'm going to let her decide if these books are going to go into the adult non-fiction area of the young adult graphic novel section. Personally, though the themes are of love and sex, this treatment is very poetic and thoughtful.

Comics for the week of December 16, 2009

Deadpool #18
Dark Wolverine #81
Batman #694
Astonishing X-Men #32 and #33
Incorruptible #1
Spin Angels #4
Power Girl #7
Haunt #3
Kookaburra K #2
Mighty Avengers #32

Review - Teenagers from Mars

Teenagers From Mars
Written by Rick Speares
Art by Rob G
Publish By Gigantic Graphic Novels

Luckily, the library budget has been increased and there is more money for me to pick up graphic novels for our collection. I can be a little more experimental in selection and get some of the less well known publishers books. And when the book Teenagers from Mars came across my selection list, I decided to add it to the months book order.

Written by Rick Spears with art by Rob G, this is a story set in a town called Mars. Originally an eight issue series, this book collects all the issues in this one volume. Mars is where teenagers who are on the outside of "normal" society are ostracised by adults who just don't understand. Two teenagers, Macon who is a comic book creator who gets fired from MallMart for refusing the order of his manager to remove the comic books because of a mothers complaint about the "disturbing and totally inappropriate" comic. The other teen is a punk girl named Madison who joins with Macon and they become partners fighting against the establishment creating a group called the Comic Book Liberation Army. As they marshal the nerdy subculture of Mars against the establishment, the level of stakes in their revolt become more pressing.

This book is not subtle. On initial reading, I actually thought it was too blunt in its message. I found it distracting how the action ratcheted almost to an unbelievable level. But Rick Spears created characters which are not too deep, but they do represent the greater feeling of persecution outsiders might feel. And as I pondered this book for a couple days, I grew to appreciate Spears' passion for free speech and expression that is expressed. He even talks about the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and a case they helped defend. I think his bluntness of the message is in direct correlation to his belief in the message.

It took me a little to grow into the artwork. It's not strange or anything, but coming off reading Marvel and DC books for the past couple weeks, I had to adjust to the black and white pages. His figures are dynamic and the faces are expressive and interesting. The backgrounds are sparse, but that's ok because the setting is not relevant to the message of the story.

I'm going to put this book the adult non-fiction area. There is profanity and nudity that could, if a sensitive mother of a 13 year old sees it, turn this book into a real live version of itself. I think its great for our community because I know there is a teen subculture that appreciates expression and free thought which this book celebrates. And hopefully an adventurous teen will find this and appreciate its blunt message.