IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for August 8 2012

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Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for August 8 2012

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Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for August 8 2012

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Comics, Magazines, and Books from Diamond Distributors for August 8 2012

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

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I Reads You Review: HAWKEYE #1

"Hawkeye: Year One?"
HAWKEYE #1
MARVEL COMICS

WRITER: Matt Fraction
ARTIST: David Aja
COLORS: Matt Hollingsworth
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
COVER: David Aja with Matt Hollingsworth; variant cover by Adi Granov; Pasqual Ferry with Matt Hollingsworth
28pp, Color, $2.99 U.S.

Hawkeye is a Marvel Comics superhero character and the Marvel Universe’s most prominent archer, marksman, and sharpshooter. Created by Stan Lee and Don Heck, Hawkeye, whose civilian identity is Clint Barton, first appeared in Tales of Suspense #57 (September 1964 cover date). He first appeared as a member of the Avengers in Avengers #16 (May 1965 issue).

Marvel’s The Avengers movie is a shocking worldwide box office success. With the appearance in the film of a spiffy-looking Hawkeye, it was a no-brainer that Marvel Comics would try out the character in his own new comic book series. Hawkeye (2012) is written by Matt Fraction, drawn by David Aja, and colored by Matt Hollingsworth.

Hawkeye #1 opens in New York City and finds Hawkeye/Clint Barton having some serious health issues. After healing, Clint returns to his apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy), where he finds the real trouble. His Russian landlord is bringing pressure on Clint and the other tenants. When Clint tries to save the day and to make a deal with these Russian heavies, things get bad – for our Avenger and a cute dog.

If Hawkeye #1 seems familiar, it’s the highly-stylized riff on Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli’s Batman: Year One that plucked your memory. Hawkeye even comes across as being similar to Bullseye from Miller’s famous run on Marvel’s Daredevil comic book series in the early 1980s. That aside, this first issue of Hawkeye is more a Clint Barton story than a Hawkeye comic book, and that’s fine. I like how Fraction depicts Barton as a sort of laconic everyman who only turns on the extra-powers when he has to do so. Here, he does it just to balance the scales for the little guys and gals. Notice, I said, extra-powers, in this story, Clint doesn’t come across as a superhero.

As for Aja’s art, which is a scratchy imitation of Mazzuchelli on Batman: Year One, it’s nice, but not great. The storytelling is good; by drawing so many small panels, Aja creates a pace and rhythm that serves this story quite well. The only problem is that Fraction’s script is non-linear, jumping back and forth as if Fraction were trying to write a Quentin Tarantino movie. Thus, just as Aja’s graphical storytelling is moving briskly on a particular sequence, it moves to another set piece, which is jarring, especially when the previous sequence was going so well.

Still, I like this enough to read future issues. It’s both different and entertaining enough to warrant more attention.

B+

Yaoi Review: AWKWARD SILENCE Volume 1

AWKWARD SILENCE, VOL. 1
SUBLIME

CARTOONIST: Hinako Takanaga
TRANSLATION: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
LETTERING: Deron Bennett
ISBN: 978-1-4215-4347-5; paperback; Rated “M” for “Mature”
202pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £8.99 UK

Born in Aichi, Japan, Hinako Takanaga is a female mangaka (creator) known for her yaoi manga work, including such titles as The Devil’s Secret and Liberty Liberty! She has also provided illustrations for light novels.

SuBLime recently published the first volume of her BL/yaoi manga series, Awkward Silence. For those who don’t know, “BL” is boys’ love manga, a comic book that features romance between male characters. “Yaoi manga” is a subset of BL that usually depicts explicit sex. Awkward Silence is about an introverted boy who finally gets the boy of his dreams, but finds himself too overcome to speak to his dream lover.

Awkward Silence Volume 1 introduces Satoru Tono is a shy, introverted, high school boy. He has long had a crush on Keigo Tamiya, a popular boy who plays baseball for their school, Nishikou High. Tamiya shocks Tono by striking up a conversation with him, but Tono is so overcome that he cannot respond to the nice things Tamiya says to him. As their relationship blossoms, Tono and Tamiya find others coming between the two of them.

One is Yukari Machida, a pretty girl who always seems to be next to Tamiya. Tono is shocked to discover that he is jealous of this pretty teen rival. Tono also discovers that Yuji “Yu” Sagara, a former childhood pal, is also a student at Nishikou. Yu wants to be friends again, much closer friends than before (and they were pretty close). Tamiya, however, thinks Yu is trying to get too close to Tono.

I think the most compelling thing about the romance of Tono and Tamiya is that one is such an introvert (Tono) and the other is the typical high school athlete/extrovert (Tamiya). Tono’s inability to give voice to his feelings – literally, he can barely speak when overcome with strong feelings – is a bit overstated. Hinako Takanaga presents this in such a way that it made me want to follow this love story, if for no other reason that to enjoy Tono’s humorous suffering. When he can’t express himself in words, Tono allows others to make assumptions about what he wants, thinks, or feels, and such misunderstanding is a mother of comedy invention.

The supporting characters, Yukari Machida and Yuji Sagara, are just what Awkward Silence needs when the narrative gets bogged down in the speechless boy/aggressive boy dynamic. More pixie than vixen, Ms. Machida is seemingly oblivious to the problems she causes, which makes her good for relationship comedy. Takanaga depicts Sagara as so insistent, especially in the way he pursues Tono, that he comes across as a lead character. Sagara is Awkward Silence’s biggest stimulus of conflict.

Takanaga’s art is not one of the better examples of graphical storytelling you’ll find in a yaoi manga. The art emphasizes facial expression, because this story is all about expressing feeling and depicting the intensity of romantic love and sex via facial expressions. Also, the story is divided into three chapters. Takanaga has Tono and Tamiya make love to close each chapter. And while the silence may be awkward, the bedroom play isn’t.

B+

SuBLimeManga.com

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Short Story Review: “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”

WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE
A short story by Philip K. Dick - Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux on Patreon.

“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” is a science fiction short story written by the late author Philip K. Dick and first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (April 1966 issue). The story has been republished several times in book collections, most recently in Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (2002), which is where I read it (although I first read this story in another book collection back in the 1990s).

“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” was loosely adapted into the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Total Recall, which was directed by Paul Verhoeven. That film is the subject of a 2012 remake starring Colin Farrell and directed by Len Wiseman.

“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” takes place sometime in an indeterminate future in which humans have traveled to Mars and colonized the planet. The story hints or suggests that some of the rest of the solar system has also been visited by humans and perhaps colonized.

The story focuses on Douglas Quail, a nobody clerk and salaried employee. Quail yearns to travel to Mars the way other men might yearn to bed a pageant queen. His wife, a harpy-type named Kirsten, is not interested in traveling to Mars, but does agree that her wimpy husband needs adventure. Quail knows that he cannot afford a trip to Mars, which is expensive, not to mention that few people are even allowed to visit the planet.

Quail visits Rekal Incorporated, a company that offers “extra-factual memory implants.” These memories, which are implanted into the customer’s brain, are more real than real memories because implanted memories don’t fade away. Quail’s extra-factual memory package includes an adventure on Mars in which he is an agent for the Interplan Police Agency. However, something goes wrong during the memory implant, when Rekal discovers that there is more to Quail’s memories than they or even he realized.

I’ve found Philip K. Dick to be one of the most imaginative science fiction authors (and one of the most imaginative authors, in general) that I have ever encountered. I think his best work is found in his novels, but in his short stories, Dick presented seemingly countless inventive scenarios.

“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” presents a familiar theme in Dick’s work: how the human mind struggles with shifting realities. Usually, a lead character will find himself trying to discern which is the real reality or which is his reality. Another familiar theme is man vs. bureaucracy or man vs. man (individual or organized) that act in opposition to the protagonist. In this story, Quail’s desires and yearnings to both visit Mars and to have a more fulfilling life runs up against the reality of a disapproving wife, his finances, Rekal, and Interplan.

I don’t want to spoil this story for anyone who has not yet read it or who have read it and don’t remember the details. However, I must say that the scenes in which the Rekal operatives find themselves confronted by the secrets Quail’s memories hold make this story worth reading. It is classic Philip K. Dick – the little guy fighting and even striking back at the forces gathered against him.

B+