Dr. Slump vol. 18

Here's how this works. I read a book or two and tell you about them and try not to get too long-winded. This time, a review of Dr. Slump vol. 18 (Viz, 2009).



I decided a few months back against reviewing every volume in an ongoing series - the first, the last and every fifth one would do just fine. Well, back in October, I suggested that if you'd made it as far as the 16th volume of Dr. Slump, then you might as well see things through to the end. I don't know that I was right. By the end of the series, Akira Toriyama was clearly bored out of his mind. Weeks went by with his attention split between the excitement of his new series Dragon Ball and his newfound interest in motorcycles, and limping along to his contractually obligated concluding episodes of Dr. Slump affter five years was no longer what he wanted to do. So more than half the episodes in this final, slightly oversized edition sideline everything you were looking for from Dr. Slump in order to introduce new characters on motorcycles. Amusingly, Toriyama even admits this in the narrative, but his honesty doesn't excuse some lazy, tired comics. I mean, they look great, but your interest in them is pretty much going to require that you really, really like motorcycles.

So at last it's over. I'd like to send a small public thanks to Viz for publishing all of the original Japanese editions, and getting them all out there at the original $7.99 price before their line-wide increase begins. Hearty Bookshelf applause to Rich Amtower and Alexander O. Smith for their hard work as well. The series ended up disappointing me in the end, but if you'd told me twenty-three years ago, when I first encountered Dr. Slump, that I'd one day be able to buy English editions of the entire series, I'd have said you were loopy. Sure, it falls apart by the end, but the first twelve books are absolutely essential for houses with kids. For a good while there in the early eighties, Dr. Slump was one of the best gag comics around, and if you've got preteen kids in the house, you'll not be wrong in having the first dozen collections of this series available.

Slump and Skrulls

Here's how this works: I finish reading something, and I tell you about it, and I try not to bore you to death. This time, reviews, of sorts, of Dr. Slump vol. 16 (Viz, 2008) and Skrull Kill Krew (Marvel, 2006).



Well, now the last time that I spoke of Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump in these pages, I was incredulous over the shark-jumping awfulness that was Turbo, the closest thing in Japanese comics to Scrappy-Doo that I'd ever seen. Of course, the problem with Scrappy-Doo was not the introduction of a new supporting character; it was the introduction of a new main character, knocking the existing cast into a gang of second bananas. So it was with Turbo, the magic baby that could do anything, except perhaps save a gag strip that had run its course for another year.

So I was in no particular rush to continue with Slump, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that after Turbo's initial three-month domination of the comic, he was quickly sidelined in favor of more fun Arale strips, particularly a three-parter where she and Senbei are turned into flies, along with some bizarre meta-commentary in which Toriyama, along with his assistant Takashi Matsuyama, interact with their characters, answer reader questions and look at life a decade down the road for the cast. This is definitely material past its prime, but I laughed more than once, and the work suggests that maybe if you've made it this far, you may as well see it to the end. (Volume 18, apparently.) Recommended for existing readers.

(Bonus: Rumic World has a 1986 interview with Toriyama and Rumiko Takahashi available on their site. You should check that out.)



Now here's a book I've been intentionally avoiding for better than ten years. In the mid-90s, Grant Morrison was co-writing a lot of subpar material with Mark Millar, and Marvel Comics had introduced a line called "Marvel Edge" where they could publish all their EXTREME!! stories. The mid-90s were a time for lots of EXTREME!! everything, and intentionally misspelled words, and comics that could be safely avoided. But for a buck and a half at one of the Great Escapes in Nashville, I figured the collected edition was worth it. And maybe it was, just.

So the idea here is that some people have contracted an alien virus that allows them to see the shapeshifting aliens who have infiltrated our society, but the virus is terminal and they are quickly dying. Five of these people resolve to spend their last days motorcycling around killing as many aliens as possible. There are nods towards such concepts as subplots and character development, and Steve Yeowell's art is occasionally very nice, if badly colored.

Skrull Kill Krew was intended as an ongoing set in the Marvel Universe, but was culled to a five-part miniseries before its launch. The second and third issues feature the Krew getting in the middle of a fight between Captain America and Baron Strucker, and perhaps the failure of this comic can be explained best by putting it this way: five days after I read this, I remember Cap and Strucker's verbal sparring and the dynamic work Yeowell put into their fight, but I couldn't pick any one of the Krew from a police lineup, nor tell you any of their names but one. Recommended if you've got a spare buck and a half.

(Originally posted October 13, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Put One of These Books Back on the Shelf

Here's how this works: I finish reading something, and I tell you about it, and I try not to bore you to death. This time, reviews of Put the Book Back on the Shelf (Image, 2006) and Dr. Slump vol. 15 (Viz, 2008).



Well, it's very difficult to come up with a review for this. I read a good chunk of Neal's copy of the similar Tori Amos collection Comic Book Tattoo and was equally stumped as to how to convey it. It's an anthology book inspired by various songs, in this case by the often wonderful Belle & Sebastian. It is nice to get a really broad sweep of material from all across the spectrum, ranging from impossibly cute little sunshiny strips with cartoony animals ("Legal Man" by Joey Weisner) to challenging, oblique pages of expression without narrative ("Fox in the Snow" by Jacob Magraw). On the other hand, I kind of want plot in my comics, and not expression either without narrative, or with it utterly obscured by the layout and presentation.

Most of the strips, mercifully, go for the obvious and feature definable characters in their early twenties, and most of them are pretty good, but some kind of editorial control still would have been nice - a couple of these stories don't actually end, they just seem to stop when they hit their page count. Overall it is a pretty good book and never less than interesting. It's always nice to see work by the very talented Laurenn McCubbin - who also has some pages in Comic Book Tattoo, I noticed - and I'm pleased to say I enjoyed Chris Butcher's script for "Expectations," which is turned into a story of backstabbing in the teen-publishing market, a whole lot. This one was illustrated by Kalman Andrasofsky & Ramon Perez and might be my favorite art in the book. I'd love to see more of Andrzsofsky's work, which is, I think, the most important thing about reading a book like this. It's one thing to go in saying, "oooh, Laurenn McCubbin, I loved her stuff in Rent Girl," but you should also leave finding another creator of whom you want to see more. Recommended for older readers, especially if you like Belle & Sebastian.

On the other hand...



What is this shit?

I considered continuing for many, many more paragraphs than that, but nobody ever read the rest of Greil Marcus's review of Self Portrait; the opening sentence said it all. But to explain briefly why I react in this way, let me continue.

Don't get me wrong; regular readers know that I'm a huge fan of Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump, and think every home, especially the ones with elementary school-aged kids, should have the first 14 volumes on the shelf. But suddenly there's this cute baby called Turbo who can do anything in the cast. Every panel feels like the work of a creator who just does not care anymore - he was clearly burning out his contracted time getting ready for Dragon Ball at this stage. I did not laugh once.

And this baby? The producers of The Simpsons might have thought that, in "Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie," they were creating the ultimate parody of an obnoxious cute sidekick added to a show and ruining it instantly, but they had no idea that Toriyama had already done it, and a hundred times worse, and he wasn't parodying anything. Volumes 1-14 are recommended. Stop there. There's a sixteenth coming out in a couple of months. You probably won't want that, either.

(Originally posted August 02, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Dr. Slump vol. 14 and Enigma

Here's how this works: I finish reading something, and I tell you about it, and I try not to bore you to death.



Have to say, this one was done on the cheap. The first half of this book wraps up the really long scrap with Dr. Masahirito and his "Caramel Man" robots which originally ran for about five months in the pages of Shonen Jump in the early 80s, but there isn't any recap or helpful information for anyone stepping into the middle of this. It's all kinds of nutty and odd, but I recommend anybody curious pick up volumes 13 and 14 together!



I reviewed Enigma for my Weekly Comics Hype back in 2005 and made a complete hash of it, honestly. This was one of the mini-series which were selected to launch the Vertigo imprint in 1993, a murder mystery about sexual identity, 1970s comic books and flying lizards. It's remarkable in many ways, and frustrating in others, but it's a singular, fascinating story and one of Peter Milligan's best stories. Recommended for mature readers.

(Originally posted February 17, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Dr. Slump Vol. 13

Here's how this works: I finish reading a comic collection, and I tell you about it, and I try not to go on too long.



There was a notable ebb in this title's madness between books 8-11. By the twelfth, Toriyama had clearly found his groove again, and by this one, he had surpassed himself. This collects 13 episodes of the longest of the Slump storylines, which continues in the next edition. The evil, and stupid, Dr. Masahirito has built a rival for Arale, a dimwitted robot kid named Caramel Man 004 who looks like a bizarre cross between Arale and Astro Boy. Arale doesn't quite catch on that Caramel Man 004 is out to destroy her, even when he throws her into outer space, and is pleased to finally have a friend as strong as her. Then Caramel Man 004 falls in love with her. Utter fucking lunacy follows. Highly recommended!!

(Originally posted November 21, 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)