This past month’s shipment of new comics from Mile High Comics of books that came out about mid-March to mid-April. Here are brief comments on them, in some cases longer reviews will follow in the future.
The First Kingdom Vol. 2 by Jack Katz (Century Comics): Issues 6-12 of Katz’s fantasy/science-fiction epic from the late seventies. I reviewed volume one recently. This volume picks up even more plot threads and characters and delves into a second timeline of events from the past. Katz uses a lot of full-page images in this volume, which are just crammed with information, this is kind of comics maximalism. Halfway through and I’m still interested and waiting for the conclusion. I realized Katz’s figures have a vaguely Renaissance-like musculature to them, distorted and pronounced.
Buddha Vol. 8 by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical): Speaking of conclusions, this volume wraps up Tezuka’s life of Buddha. This is a consistently interesting and enjoyable series, which I am much looking forward to rereading as a whole. This last volume returns the story to a few characters, places, and themes from the beginning of the series and nicely wraps up character stories and thematic threads. The first softcover volume came out this past week, so for those of you reluctant to buy the more expensive hardcovers, give this series a try. Tezuka is one of the best, and this is him at top form.
Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby Vol. 2 (Marvel): This volume promised more than just a bunch of superhero comics, but sadly, the few other genre pieces here are short, early works. The two romance stories presented here are the exact same ones from February’s Marvel Romance volume, which is really annoying. Marvel couldn’t find a couple other stories to put in this volume? There’s a single western story, the origin of the Two Gun Kid (which I think they also recently reprinted elsewhere), and a Yellow Claw story which is some kind of pulp action story. Most of the book is superheroes, a multi-issue Fantastic Four arc, a bunch of Thor issues that were really one long extended lead up to a very brief fight, a really lame X-Men issue where they kind of sorta battle the Avengers. One of the highlights is the crazy art of Devil Dinosaur #1 the single 70’s work in this volume.
Every Girl is the End of the World for Me by Jeffrey Brown (Top Shelf): As much as I loved Jeffrey Brown’s Girlfriend Trilogy, his works since then have left me cold. He obviously needed to extend his boundaries outside the painful autobiography genre, but so far I don’t think he’s found a new niche yet. This book returns to some of the same ground as that trilogy, but doesn’t have that those elements that made the other books so interesting: the real (or very well faked) openness of the story and the pacing of tiny moments. This has a vague epilogue quality to it (two of the girlfriends are in this book), but it doesn’t really stand as an interesting work on its own.
Japan As Viewed by 17 Creators (Fanfare/Ponent Mon): An anthology of 17 French and Japanese cartoonists all making stories that take place or are about different locations in Japan. The names of many here are familiar: Taniguchi (The Walking Man), Peeters and Schuiten, Sfar (Rabbi’s Cat), Boilet and Takahama (Mariko Parade), Guibert (First Second just put out his Sardine in Space), Matsumoto (Black and White), and others. I had high hopes for this book combining the alt manga one rarely sees with French cartoonists (rarely or never seen in English). Unfortunately, on first reading, most of these stories, while very nicely drawn and greatly varied in style, are not very interesting to read. I need to reread it, but maybe it all just related to my dislike of short fiction anthologies.
Or Else #4 by Kevin Huizenga (Drawn and Quarterly): This is a strange story, that kind of flies all over the place at the end. Huizenga is reaching for something very different and wide-ranging, I’m not sure he’s succeeded. But it is a fun ride. This one definitely requires a closer look. The first half is what one expects from one of the Glenn Ganges stories (thought not as well drawn as Ganges #1), and the second half is an odd mix of pseudo-advertisements, excerpts, and some kind of apocalypse scene.
The Envelope Manufacturer #2 by Chris Oliveros (Drawn and Quarterly): Unfortunately I couldn’t find my copy of the first issue (from years ago now) of this three issue series by D&Q publisher Oliveros. This is a strange little tale about a failing envelope business. The art has a scratchy European look. Interestingly Oliveros doesn’t ever put his name on the book as the cartoonist, only as publisher.
Tags: Comics, kirby, Reviews, tezuka
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