Review - Troublemaker: Book One

Troublemaker: Book One
Written by Janet and Alex Evanovich
Drawn by Joëlle Jones
Dark Horse Books

Its really odd when a popular, main stream author does a graphic novel. It reaches audiences that normally wouldn’t even consider picking up a “comic book”. And sometimes it fits. James Patterson’s Daniel X series. Brad Meltzer’s run on Justice League of America. The Stephanie Meyers graphic version of Twilight. And these books usually get big press in the comic book world. “Look!” the publishers tout, “we’re legitimate. We have this New York Times bestselling author writing a story for a comic.” Which brings us to Troublemaker.

At the Comic Con this year, Dark Horse was pushing this book. Janet Evanovich was at the convention and the comic book world was introduced to Alex Barbaby and her NASCAR driver friend Sam Hooker. All the characters are introduced to the reader, so a knowledge of the Motor Mouth series of novels isn’t required.

The story starts with Alex and Sam searching for their missing friend named Rosa. The clues lead them from breaking and entering to voodoo rituals. With the added benefit of some car chases and explosions, the action in this book is fast and the settings are very interesting.

One thing that I like about this book is that the characters are fully realized. Obviously, Janet Evanovich has been writing about them for some time and is able to translate them into a the story quite easily. The banter between Alex and Sam isn’t forced. Each character has their set personality and maintains their character. I guess that’s one of the benefits of having the author of the original also work on the graphic novel version of their stories.

The artwork is very good and fits well with the story. Jones uses a manga style, giving Alex big eyes and Sam a square jaw. One of the benefits of this style is that the level of expression the characters make is often exaggerated. The background are detailed, which helps place the setting of the story. And the camera angles she uses enhance the story by making it more dynamic for the reader.

When Troublemaker was listed in our catalog, just prior to it hitting the shelves, there were 9 requests from our patrons. Within a couple days, the holds list was empty. I can just imaging the middle aged women who love the novels coming in expecting a new paperback book and instead being handed this comic book. One glance at the pictures and they would hand it back to the clerk. I’m not sure that’s what happened. But to have a list of 9 holds disappear in a couple days is quite suspicious.

This book is in our teen area and would be a great selection to get comic book readers into novels. There isn’t anything outrageous that would require it to be placed in the adult area. But there are the typical sexual innuendos and violent scenes are pretty innocent and are in most mystery stories. Any public library would be well served having this book in their collection.

Review - Grendel: Behold the Devil

Grendel: Behold the Devil
by Matt Wagner
Dark Horse Comics

Grendel has been around for almost 30 years (he first appeared in 1983 in a comic anthology by Comico) and I have been reading him off and on for most of that time. So when I saw collected volume of a brand new 8 issue Grendel mini-series, I thought it would be a good pick for our library.

For those of you who don't know, Grendel is not a good guy. Nor is the story related in any why with the Beowulf saga. The initial Grendel stories revolve around Hunter Rose, who is a best selling novelist and at night is a ruthless crime lord named Grendel. As the original Grendel comic series and mini-series continued, the Grendel persona is pass onto later generations of people far into the future. But this book, Behold the Devil, is back in the world of Hunter Rose. Telling the tale of a two week period where the notebooks and journals of Hunter Rose were missing, we see a more vulnerable side of Grendel. Feeling like he's being followed, Grendel must rely on magical tools to resolve the problem he is experiencing.

I have been a fan of Wagner's work for decades. Though I don't have all the Grendel stories, I have read enough to know about his world. And I think that readers of Behold the Devil, unless they know much of the previous stories, might not appreciate the book as much as I did. That's not to say that the it's not worth reading. Any comic fan should pick this up and give it a try. I've often considered Grendel to be like an anti Batman. Hunter Rose is like an evil, amoral Bruce Wayne.

The artwork is striking. With mostly black and white line drawings, Wagner also adds red to enhance they impact of the narrative. The red he uses is always the same shade. And when there is wine, or roses, or blood (especially blood) is when the red color appears.

I'm going to put this book in the libraries adult non-fiction area. As I allude to, there is quite a bit of blood. Also, some profane language and nudity hit the trifecta in things that parents might get upset about. So I'll keep this away from the young adult area.

Video Games into Comics

Often, lifting ideas from one media to another does not work too well. How many movies are better than the book they were based on? How many crappy video games are made from blockbuster movies? But recently, I've seen several comic books come out that are based on video game properties that have some pretty big name talent involved in their creation.

The Halo Graphic Novel was the first comic based on a video game that I noticed. It was the talent use in this book that attracted me to it. Artists like Simon Bisley and Moebius had been favorites of mine, so when this came out in 2006, I made sure to pick it up. Interestingly enough, there is also a wordless story told by Tsutomu Nihei. I talked about his work Biomega a little while ago. With four stories written and illustrated by different creators, there are many different aspects of the Halo universe displayed for readers. Subsequently, there has been a couple other comic books issues including Halo: Uprising, Halo: Helljumper and Halo: Bloodline.

God of War is a 6 issue limited series from Wildstorm and is scripted by long time comic writer Marv Wolfman. Not that I pick up everything he does, but since reading Teen Titans in the 80s, I take a look at titles that have his name attached to them. In the first issue of this series, we look back into the early life of Kratos. As a newly trained Spartan warrior, Kratos' wife gives birth to a deformed baby which must be put to death to conform with Spartan law. But Kratos being who he is, finds out that there is a cure that the gods have which will cure his daughter. But without any inkling to Kratos, each god has selected a mortal who is in need of the cure, and only one will win the prize.

Dragon Age is an interesting comic since it is written by science fiction author Orson Scott Card. Published by IDW Comics, this story tells of a young mage named Veness who falls for templar named Sadatt. Those who have played the game know that templars are meant to keep mages in line. And if necessary, hunt and kill rogue magic users who use the taboo practice of blood magic. Though set in the Dragon Age world, this story could be picked up and enjoyed by any fantasy fan. Though I only have read the first issue, I like the game enough and the story could be interesting enough to get the rest of the series.

Mass Effect: Redemption is written by Mac Walters and John Jackson Miller. What makes this interesting is the Mac Walters was the lead writer on the Mass Effect 2 video game. While the other comics I talk about here are set in or use characters from their games without any real reference to specific game events, this comic is actually a prequel to the events you play in Mass Effect 2. With a mention made in the game to the events chronicled in this comic series, it's a real insiders fanboy glimpse into the Mass Effect world.

There are many other examples of video game material being turned into comics. Gears of War and the online world Free Realms are published by Wildstorm along with Starcraft and Dante's Inferno. Some are better than other of course, but all should be considered for purchase by a public library. Video games are hugely popular, and there are tons of teenagers who spend tons of their time playing these games. So by having this type of materials on hand for them to read after school, maybe a teenager will actually pick up a book and read something they're interested in for a hour or so.

Review - Blood Song: A Silent Ballad

Blood Song: A Silent Ballad
by Eric Drooker
Dark Horse Comics

It's very rare that I feel music in a graphic novel. But with Blood Song, artist Eric Drooker creates a simple lyrical tale of a young woman and her journey away from peace and innocence. The story starts out in a primitive fishing village where a family enjoys dinner. But as an invading army with helicopters destroys the village, a young woman escapes with her dog. As she flees, she is transported to many different settings and eventually ends of up a city where she meets a man who is a street musician.

As I mentioned, this story is one of the most musical that I have read. Wordless, like a symphonic tone poem, there is an ebb and flow of emotion. With many large single panel pages, even diptychs, to very small panels with several on a page to tell the story, the size of the panels is a way Drooker is able to control the tempo of this work. The color palette is another tool used to influence the timbre. He uses mostly cooler colors of blues and purples. But there are snippets of warm colors that make infrequent dramatic appearances. A butterfly, a sunset, a hut on fire, a single flower, colored red/orange stand out like beacon on the page drawing attention to an emotional point in the piece. The reader can not help but feel the melody as the young woman dances though her journey, through the good times and the bad.

It's obvious that Drooker was thinking musically when he created this work. Though it only takes a couple minutes to go through, I found myself going through the book a couple times. Its musical quality amazing me each time. Artistic and poignant, this book can be added to many public library collections into they teen collection. But don't think too many younger people will "get" this book. Maybe I'm being too critical of young people, but I don't think they will be able to hear this music Drooker has composed for us.

Review - The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite
Written by Gerald Way
Art by Gabriel Bá
Dark Horse Comics
 
Published by Dark Horse, The Umbrella Academy garnered some buzz when it first came out because it was written by a guy named Gerard Way. What makes him special is that he is a musician in the rock band My Chemical Romance. But I picked up the trade paperback which contains 6 comic issues based on the good words I was hearing about the book from various sources.

The story starts with with a bit where at the exact same instant in time, 47 babies were unexpectedly born. Of all of these special babies, seven of them were adopted by millionaire inventor Reginald Hargreeves. With these children he created The Umbrella Academy is a group of 7 children who all (except for number 00.07) have extraordinary powers. And when asked why he adopted these special children, his response was "to save the world." From this point, the story jumps to the future where Hargreeves has died and the children get together for his funeral. It turn out that the children grow up to form a dysfunctional family of super heroes. And that's where the fun of the story lies.

It's been a decade or so since I read the Grant Morrison run on Doom Patrol, but I get the same type of vibe. I mentioned in the review for Seaguy (also by Grant Morrison) that strange is good, and this makes a valiant attempt to reach that surreal level of strangeness. Quirky things just appear in the story without any explanation. For instance, there are talking chimpanzees living and working alongside humans. But it all works in the continuity of the story. The artist Gabriel Bá has a blocky hard style in this book which also fits well with the narrative. The character designs are most striking and the backgrounds are full of detail of this unique world they have created.

I would recommend this book for any library. There is some graphic violence and some mature themes. But again, nothing more that one can see on a primetime drama show on television. This book is best placed in the teen areas of libraries, but could easily be of interest an older audience.