Too Cool to Be Forgotten and Shirley

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 Too Cool to Be Forgotten (Top Shelf, 2008) and Shirley (DC/CMX, 2008).



I came late to Alex Robinson, getting two of his better-known books in the last year or so while he was in the studio working on this strange little time travel story, where a fellow undergoes hypnosis in a bid to quit smoking and finds himself stuck in the past, given a new chance to never start in the first place... but is that the only "fix" to his own history that he can make?

I liked it very much, and I'm being hopelessly unfair to Robinson by finding quibbles, but what made Box Office Poison and Tricked so engaging was the effortless juggling of POVs among multiple protagonists. There isn't anything wrong with the comparatively slim Too Cool to Be Forgotten, and its remarkable evocation of 1980s high school is great fun, and we should certainly applaud creators who can avoid expectations so well (which brings me to the next subject, below), but, selfishly, I will impatiently wait for a new 600-page Robinson tome with a huge cast as soon as is feasible. Recommended.



What interests me most about Kaoru Mori is her exquisite artwork, especially in period architecture and costume, immersing readers in her Victorian/Edwardian romances through outdoor crowd scenes and huge parties. But the seven stories in this collection predate her better-known Emma by some time, during which Mori was (slowly) learning to draw more than just faces and bodies. Five of the stories are wish-fulfillment tales of a practically perfect in every way thirteen year-old who finds work as a maid, and the others are not-disagreeable short stories with maid protagonists. I don't know what her interest or fetish is, either.

Emma, itself, was a very frustrating read which I could only recommend on the strength of the gorgeous art, which is what led me to try this. I'd recommend this about as strongly as I would Gregory Maguire's umpteenth revisionist fairy tale. If I wanted a one trick pony, I'd buy one, and the next thing I sample from Mori better not have any more goddamn maids in it.

(Originally posted August 28, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Period piece edition of What I Just Read: Emma vol. 7 and The Red Seas vol. 1

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



Well-l-l-l-l... it was okay. There's a bizarre sense of time in this edition, like a trip to and from America is a simple jaunt and not a couple of months in a ship crossing the ocean. Everything ends somewhat satisfactorily, but the viscount doesn't get the comeuppance I was hoping for. And Eleanor, Jesus, what a drip. I started the series captivated by the story and the art, but by the end, I was only thrilled by the art. In the end, not particularly recommended, but I'm willing to give Kaoru Mori's next series Shirley a try since I like her art so much.




It's a rip-roaring tale of pirates on the high seas in the 1760s, led by the dashing Captain Jack Dancer. (The character's name predates that Sparrow fella by about a year, but Sparrow's a little more compelling to this viewer.) The series is full of brilliant period art by Steve Yeowell, who can draw anything and make it look great, excellent villains, and high concepts like a talking two-headed dog and a battle between a giant kraken and the Colossus of Rhodes, but the devices drive the plot more than the characters. We rarely see Capt. Dancer think his way out of an impossible situation, and his crew is disappointingly anonymous. I find myself wishing The Red Seas was more compelling than it actually is, but for what it does, it's not at all bad. Recommended with wishes for more improvement in the ongoing series.

(Originally posted March 15, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Emma vol. 6 and Watchmen

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



The "dark" installment, where everything hits the fan. William finally stands up to his old man in an intensely cool sequence with the two of them shouting at each other for pages. On the other hand, Emma's quiet passivity is really grating this time around. The art's sumptuous and beautiful, but I don't understand what William ever saw in her in the first place. Backbone, people! Spine! Moxie! Recommended with reservations.



What was this, the fourteenth or fifteenth time I read this? It remains a masterpiece of construction and foreshadowing full of genuinely great characters, but it satisfies a little less each time I read it. I don't read all the pirate stuff every time, but I realized this time the main reason I want to skip them is because those damn captions are the most turgid, overwrought things in the book. It might make a good movie, but I don't know that a contemporary audience is going to buy the almost immediate armistice the way we did twenty years ago. Recommended, but not for younger readers.

Incidentally, whatever happened to that comic book with the Art Adams promotional art with Batman punching Rorschach? Did that come out yet?

(Originally posted February 03, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Chance in Hell, Emma vol. 5, Golgo 13 vol. 11

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



I'm not sure what I went into this one expecting. In the Love & Rockets universe, one of the characters, Fritz, is a B-movie actress. This is the adaptation of one of her first films, a comic book version of a movie that never really existed. So it's a stand-alone graphic novel where one of the minor characters looks like a different Gilbert Hernandez character.

Man, it's bleak. It's not as explicit as some of his other material - I guess it was "cleaned up" for the screen or something - but it's even more patently adult in content and tone, with terrible fates befalling unhappy people. It's a really ugly world which I didn't enjoy visiting, but I was nevertheless caught up in the story and cared what happened to Empress, the strange, lonely girl caught in ugly situations. Recommended with a pretty strong mature readers advisory.



Much, much better. The previous volume of Emma had me deeply annoyed with both protagonists for their very stupid decisions and actions. This time out, Emma and William are recovering from what they'd done, Emma is actually interacting with her fellow staff and not being so uptight, and William... well, I think book six is going to be pretty interesting now that we've met this Viscount fellow. Best of all is an exchange of letters between the two which is, quite unexpectedly, the hottest thing ever. Oh, the passions! Oh, these Victorians! Recommended!



...but it's not recommended half as highly as this baby. This is one of the best of the English-language Golgo 13 books yet. The bulk of the volume is given over to a captivating little political study called "Okinawa Syndrome." You probably never gave a thought in your life to how Okinawa's exchange rate with the US affects its ability to attract manufacturing business, but such minutiae fuels a remarkable story of an attempted military coup. Golgo 13 doesn't even show up until halfway through the story, and, in a break with the series' conventions, you have no idea what he's doing there and whose side he's on.

Possibly even more entertaining is the short story which follows, in which somebody gets mistaken for Golgo 13 and comes to the inescapable conclusion that he has made a genuinely horrible decision in passing himself off as something he's not. Then again, he accepts his fate with such engaging, infectious good spirits that you can't help but chuckle, and the climax is the most unexpected thing you've ever seen. Highly recommended!

* * *

(Originally posted November 29, 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Emma Vol. 4

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.



I'm afraid this really starts to lose its way in this collection. I guess there's too much modern mindset creeping through, but in this collection, we meet a really fantastic new character called Monica, who is assertive, confident, demanding and engaging, and about whom, frankly, I'd rather read. By comparison, Emma's complete lack of assertion, down to the point where she just does not talk to people, really, really grates in a few scenes in this book. When the rest of the staff are flat-out asking you about your time in London, just TELL THEM about your previous position. Damn, it's annoying. And William! What the hell are you thinking, dude? As a whole, not really recommended as much anymore. In fact, I've got book 5; I'll refrain from either recommending or not based on whether things improve in that book.

(Originally posted November 05, 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Emma Vol. 3

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.



I read volume 2 about a month ago; there are still two more collections in the US I need to get around to in order to get caught up. There's considerably less of William's obnoxious siblings in this book, as Emma takes a position in another town as part of a wealthy German family's large staff. Absolutely gorgeous artwork, full of vivid period detail and architecture. I'm looking forward to reading more! Recommended for everybody.

(Originally posted October 12, 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Emma vol 2

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.



I won't swear to be totally hooked by this class-barrier romance comic, but I wanted to read something more recent - most of the Japanese comics I enjoy were originally published better than twenty years ago - and something more grounded in visual realism, without the spit-takes and "super-deforming" you see in lots of the popular stuff. The art is completely superb, with a great deal of attention to period architecture and costume. The story occasionally grates; reader sympathy is naturally not going to be on the side of the aristocracy, and I think William's youngest sister needs her ass kicked. Still, I think this is among the better Japanese offerings available stateside, and certainly the best, as far as I can tell, of CMX's licenses. Recommended for everybody!

(Originally posted September 11, 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)