Tuesday, March 9, 2010

I Reads You Review: PLUTO: URASAWA × TEZUKA, VOL. 6

Creators: Naoki Urasawa (writer/artist), Osamu Tezuka (writer), Takashi Nagasaki (writer) with Jared Cook and Frederick, L. Schodt (translators)
Publishing Information: VIZ Media, paperback, 200 pages, $12.99 (US), $16.99 CAN, £8.99 UK
Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-4215-2721-5 (ISBN-13)

Pluto: Urasawa × Tezuka is a science fiction and conspiracy manga from Naoki Urasawa. Pluto is also a reworking or re-imagination of The Greatest Robot on Earth. First published in 1964, this is the most famous story arc of Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom), the late Osamu Tezuka’s beloved manga.

Pluto: Urasawa × Tezuka focuses on a supporting character from the original story, a very human-like, German robot detective named Gesicht. Gesicht investigates a series of murders in which someone or something is targeting the world’s seven most powerful and advanced robots for destruction. Gesicht is one of those robots, and he discovers that the killer may be another robot, an indestructible monstrosity called “Pluto.”

In Pluto: Urasawa × Tezuka, Vol. 6, Gesicht has a meeting with Abullah, hears more about Goji, and searches for Sahad. How are they connected to Pluto? Well, Gesicht finally meets Pluto, and also faces his own fate.

Pluto: Urasawa × Tezuka is a mystery and psychological thriller in the vein of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, but Pluto is science fiction like Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys. Like Urasawa’s other work, Pluto is a grand puzzle, but Pluto is a joy to read, even if the reader cannot solve the mysteries. Urasawa introduces a multitude of characters and subplots in a slow and deliberate fashion. If reading can be described as delicious, these characters’ motivations, secrets, conflicts, and personalities form a complex meal of complementary savory flavors.

Plus, with all the big reveals, Vol. 6 is a must have for fans of the series.

A

Achtung Negroes!

From time to time, I get these chain emails from my friends and family that contain content admonishing Black people/African-Americans to uplift themselves.  Here's a recent one that contains statements supposedly made by someone on a radio show.  Of note, the plain text in between the italicized text is the important stuff:

BLACK PEOPLE, PLEASE, READ & HEED. POIGNANT!!!

The sad thing about this article is that the essence of it is true. The truth hurts. I just hope this sets more Black people in motion towards making real progress. Chris Rock, a Black comedian, even joked that Blacks don't read.

Help prove them wrong! Read and pass on.

Please Note:

For those of you who heard it, this is the article Dee Lee was reading this morning on a New York radio station. For those of you who didn't hear it, this is very deep. This is a heavy piece and a Caucasian wrote it.

Dee Lee :THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES

We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.

Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, 'The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.' We now live in the Information Age.. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes &Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all..

GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%).

Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing.

They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them 'Status' or that they have achieved their Dream.

They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities.

With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn't want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They'll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.

SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture.. A 'Talented Tenth' he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some 'form' of success.

However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn't read that the 'Talented Tenth' was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life.. Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have.. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get together, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community.

They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that Together Each Achieves More (TEAM).

They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms.

Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are 'helping' their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don't worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, 'THEY DON'T READ!!!!

(Prove them wrong.. Please pass this on! After Reading


There you have it.  OK, colored folks, let's get straight.  I guess this is copyrighted by somebody...

Fantagraphics Books to Publish Manga Beginning in September


Here Comes The Son:

Fantagraphics Starts A Manga Line

The publisher of Love and Rockets, Hate, Eightball, and Eros Comix, will publish manga.

After years of development, Fantagraphics Books is unveiling a new line of manga. Kicking things off in September 2010 is a collection of short stories from the mother of shōjo (young girl) manga, Moto Hagio. Next, is a multi-volume series from the GLBT manga-ka Shimura Takako. Each book will be released in hardcover form, keeping the original “right to left” manga style for a deluxe, yet authentic reading experience.

The first book, entitled Drunken Dream, is a collection of short stories by Hagio falling into multiple genres created between 1971-2007. This tome travels through several of Hagio’s most revolutionary and poignant tales that span over the years of her lush career.

In December 2010, comes one of the defining transgendered-centric manga, Wandering Son. Shimura Takako’s ongoing series follows two young friends, Shuichi and Yoshino. These 5th graders struggle with only not puberty, but also severe identity issues; Shichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. The two find solace in their mutual confusion and help each other cope with their gender frustration while embarking on the complicated journey of growing up.

To celebrate the launch of the new Fantagraphics manga, Moto Hagio is making her first ever visit to The United States to attend Comic-Con International 2010 as a special guest. More details on a speaking event and panel at The Con will be available soon.

Moto Hagio spearheaded the rebellious shōjo in the 1970’s. She, along with a few other women, formed an artist collective called the “Magnificent 24.” Influenced by radical youth culture of the 60’s, American and British rock ‘n’ roll, and European cinema, these women pioneered shōjo and helped develop the style that so most manga-ka emulated today. Winner of the Shogakukan Manga Award, Seiun Award, Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, Nihon SF Taisho Award and many others, Hagio has earned respect as a Japanese artist superstar and won the hearts of manga fans for the last 40 years.

Shimura Takako is a female manga creator living in Tokyo. Her focus on GLBT issues places her work in a space that’s rocked out by The Gossip and on par with Alison Bechdel. Several of Takako books have been honored with recommendations from the prestigious Japan Media Arts Festival.

Fantagraphics Books (www.fantagraphics.com) has been the world’s leading publisher of comics and graphic novels since 1976.

I Reads You Review: Angel: Blood and Trenches #1


ANGEL: BLOOD & TRENCHES #1

IDW
CARTOONIST: John Byrne
LETTERS: Chris Mowry
COVER: John Byrne with Tom Smith/Scorpion Studios (colors)
32pp, B&W, $3.99

Angel: Blood & Trenches is a 2009 comic book miniseries starring Angel, the character from the television series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the spin-off, "Angel." Written and drawn by John Byrne, one of the most important comic book creators of the last 40 years, Blood & Trenches has Angel on the trail of experiments by the WW1-era Germans in the use of vampires as soldiers.

Angel: Blood & Trenches #1 (entitled “Over There”) finds Angel as an ambulance driver for the Allies during World War I, just before the United States entered the war. What brought him to France? The mystery of the unsolved murders of large numbers of British and French troops sends Angel across the Atlantic, where he sneaks into France. He eventually befriends a doctor, Lady Margaret D’Ascoyne, who helps him. However, the activities of the English Colonel Geoffrey Wyndam-Price and the Germans force Angel into the open.

Apparently, Angel: Blood & Trenches ties into “Why We Fight,” the 13th episode of Angel Season Five, but even readers who are only casually familiar the “Buffy universe” can enjoy this rollicking comic book. Byrne tells the story using black and white pencil art that is not inked and not colored (except for a few panel). Byrne’s art, which is usually quite fluid and so evocative, is even more so, as presented in this fashion. It would seem a shame to embellish this pencil art storytelling with inks and cover it with colors.

The textures created by this layered penciling create a unique mood for this series; Blood & Trenches looks like a historical drama with the colors washed out, but it also feels like a good horror thriller. Byrne does killer work on the characters’ clothes and costumes, but his pencil stroke is even better at capturing the characters’ emotions – from loud to subtle. I enjoyed reading this and recommend that even non-Buffy fans find it just because it is a good comic book.

A-

Paradise Restaurant?

I read Ristorante Paradiso

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.  This is from Natsume Ono, the author of not simple.


Monday, March 8, 2010

Michael Golden Contributes to Emerald City Comicon Charity Art Book

ECCC "Monsters & Dames is Golden from Cover to Cover


That's right! One page of DOES feature a fantastic monster piece by artist Michael Golden, while the other pages are illustrated by some of the other greatest names in the sequential arts business, including painter supreme, Mark Texeira.

This year, the annual charity art book "Monsters and Dames," measures 9x12, 48 pages, full color, hardcover, and limited to only 850 copies, individually numbered copies and features contributions from guests appearing at the 2010 show. This great book is available at the ECCC show booth, #604.

Part of the proceeds from "Monsters and Dames," benefits the Seattle Children's Hospital, a premier child health care and pediatric center and recognized as one of the leading US hospitals for children. What a great idea to buy on of these volumes and get it signed by all the creators involved!

In addition, Michael Golden will be in Artists Alley both days of the show to debut his own new sketchbook, "Michael Golden: MORE Heroes and Villains," limited to 580 copies!

While Mark Texeira and Renee Witterstaetter will be signing the new book from Vanguard Productions, "Tex: The Art of Mark Texeira." Renee is the writer as well as the designer of this great new edition, available in hardcover, softcover and deluxe editions.

Other folks joining Golden, Texeira and Witterstaetter at the Emerald City Comic Con include: Leonard Nimoy, Stan Lee, Thomas Jane, Whil Wheaton, Lou Ferrigno, Matt Allred, Brian Michael Bendis, Tim Bradstreet, Kurt Busiek, Matt Fraction. Francesco Francavilla, Barry Kitson, David Mack, Kevin Maguire, Alex Maleev, Ron Marz, Terry Moore, Chris Moreno, Mike Oeming, Jason Pearson, Whilce Portacio, Joe Quesada, Rick Remember, Tone Rodriguez, Tim Sale, Stuart Sayger, Taki Soma, Richard Starkings, Philip Tan, Jill Thompson, Jim Valentino, Mark Waid, Len Wein, Dan Wickline, J.H. Williams III, and many more!

The ECCC will be held March 13th and 14th at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. Go to: www.emeraldcitycomicon.com for more details.

The Husband Store - A Joke

One of those email jokes a friend sends me from time to time:

THE HUSBAND STORE:

A store that sells new husbands has opened where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates:

You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1 - These men Have Jobs

She is intrigued, but continues to the second floor, where the sign reads:

Floor 2 - These men Have Jobs and Love Kids.

'That's nice,' she thinks, 'but I want more.'

So she continues upward. The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and are Extremely Good Looking.

'Wow,' she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 4 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Good Looking and Help With Housework.

'Oh, mercy me!' she exclaims, 'I can hardly stand it!'

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 5 - These men Have Jobs, Love Kids, are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help with Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor, where the sign reads:

Floor 6 - You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

PLEASE NOTE:

To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opened a New Wives store just across the street.

The first floor has wives that love sex.

The second floor has wives that love sex and have money and like beer

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors have never been visited.