Magi: The Fourth Magi

I read Magi, Vol. 12: The Labyrinth of Magic

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.  Support my work on Patreon.

Review: WAYWARD #9

WAYWARD #9
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

STORY: Jim Zub – @jimzub
ART: Steve Cummings – @stekichikun
COLORS: Tamra Bonvillain – @TBonvillain
LETTERS: Marshall Dillon – @MarshallDillon
COVER: Steve Cummings with Tamra Bonvillain
VARIANT COVER: Gurihiru
28pp, Color, $3.50 U.S.

This review comes with an “editor's note.”  I forgot to post this back at the end of June when I was supposed to do so.  I gotta be anal about it and post it...

The latest issue of Image Comics' Wayward is the second-to-last issue of the series' second story arc.  The comic book, which launched late Summer 2014, is set in Japan and features those creatures and spirits of Japanese folklore, Yokai.  Wayward is the creation of writer Jim Zub and artist Steve Cummings.  Wayward focuses on Rori Lane, a half-Irish/half-Japanese teen girl, who is trying to start a new life in Japan.  Instead, Rori and a small band of fellow magically-touched folks battle a secret war of magic in the shadows of Tokyo.

Wayward #9 (“Chapter Nine) opens in the past, as we witness the “Great Tengu,” Daranibo and his forces destroy a village.  What's going on?

Back to the future:  Ohara Emi (the narrator of much of this story arc) and Nikaido meet cat-girl Ayane's new pals, the Tsuchigumo – the Earth Spiders.  They offer to help the trio in the battle against the Yokai, Nurarihyon, and his allies, but Ohara is suspicious.  Meanwhile, Rori is on a mission, and she is feeling the full extent of her powers, which leaves her companion, Shirai, troubled.

Wayward writer/co-creator, Jim Zub, is still sending out advanced review PDF copies of Wayward, nine issues into the series, which one comics reviewer called “the next Saga.”  The ComicBookBin receives these complementary PDFs, and I am glad that I received this one.  I had planned on not reviewing Wayward for a while.  What more can I say about the comic book that should have received a “best new series” Eisner nomination, I thought?

Well, what I don't want to say is that Wayward is getting better.  That's too easy.  It is actually getting bigger.  The more Zub opens this world to his readers, the more he will ensnare them in the weave and the more they will buy into Wayward's conceit.  In fact, it will be increasingly harder for readers to walk away.  Steve Cummings and Tamra Bonvillain's graphical storytelling blazes, conjuring Wayward in a furious story of imagination and wild magic.

Also, an integral contributor to Wayward is Zack Davisson, a writer and scholar who is an expert on Japanese folklore and culture, including manga.  His essays, which appear after the last story page of each issue of Wayward, are must-reads for manga readers who are interested in Japan outside the comics pages.  This issue's essay, “The Secret History of Dirt Spiders,” is startling, and it also expands on information I have encountered in passing.  This is info I need as a fan of Japanese comics and literature, and also of Japanese film and television.

A+

[Wayward #9 contains another engrossing essay, “The Secret History of Dirt Spiders,” by Zack Davisson (@ZackDavisson).]

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Deadman Wonderland: Earthquake Party

I read Deadman Wonderland, Vol. 9

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.  Support my work on Patreon.

I Reads You August 2015

It's August 2015, and well, we can hope for the best in the new Fantastic Four movie, can't we?

Welcome to I Reads You, a ComicBookBin web and sister publication (www.comicbookbin.com).  We write about the things we read:  mostly comic books, comics, and related books.  Sometimes, we’ll write about or link to other topics:  typically books, politics, and entertainment.

Support my work on Patreon.

All images and text appearing on this publication are copyright © and/or trademark their respective owners.

Review: CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA #4

CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA #4
ARCHIE COMICS – @ArchieComics @ArchieHorror

STORY: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
ART: Robert Hack
LETTERS: Jack Morelli
COVER/VARIANT COVER: Robert Hack
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (September 2015)

“The Crucible” Chapter Four: “Harvey Horrors”

Rated Teen + (Violence and mature content)

When writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo created Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch and her world in the early 1960s, did they imagine or could they have imagined how much it would all change decades later?  It's a chilling thought.

The comic book series, Afterlife with Archie, is a re-imagining of the world of Archie Comics as a zombie apocalypse, and it is a hit with readers.  Last year, Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch, a traditionally lighthearted, Archie Comics publication, also received a horror comics makeover.  Now, we have Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, drawn by Robert Hack, and lettered by Jack Morelli.  It is a genuine and genuinely good horror comic book.  Say what!

This darker series is set in the 1960s, with the current story line largely taking place in 1967.  Sabrina Spellman is a 15-year-old who lives in Greendale with her aunts, Hilda and Zelda (two witches of the Satan-serving variety), and her cousin, Ambrose (a warlock).

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #4 (“The Crucible” Chapter Four: “Harvey Horrors”) opens after Sabrina's interrupted “Unholy Baptism,” in which she was preparing to accept the life of a witch.  Now, Sabrina's boyfriend, Harvey Kinkle, a fellow student and football stud at Greendale High School, is running for his life.

In the tragic aftermath, Sabrina struggles to accept what seems like fate.  In the meantime, her aunts warn her that she must face the coven.  However, a sympathetic teacher at Greendale High, Evangeline Porter a.k.a. Madam Satan, may have a way to make things better for Sabrina.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack have created a horror comic book that it is so good that they could make it work without using a well-known Archie Comics character.  That they have re-imagined Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch simply makes the book that much more wickedly divine and salacious.

The bucolic 1960s setting is appropriate as this comic book has the occult and ominous vibe of such 1970s occult films like Carrie, The Omen, Race the Devil, and Rosemary's Baby, among others.  Every time I read this comic book, I also think about Rob Zombie's recent half-ridiculous/half-brilliant, Satanic art movie, The Lords of Salem.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is mad and brilliant.  If EC Comics and the 1950s copy-cat horror comics that the publisher influenced had created graphic novels, they would look like this first story arc of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, “The Crucible.”  Sometimes, the witchery is so shocking in this comic book, I think that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack might need some inquisition face-time, or perhaps to be dunked a time or two.

[This issue includes a bonus Sabrina the Teen-Age Witch story, “Double Date,” from writer by Dick Malmgren and artist Dan DeCarlo.]

A

http://archiehorror.com/

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Food Wars: Memories of Battle

I read Food Wars!, Vol. 6

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.  Support my work at Patreon.

Review: WAYWARD #10

WAYWARD #10
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

STORY: Jim Zub – @jimzub
ART: Steve Cummings – @stekichikun
COLORS: Tamra Bonvillain – @TBonvillain
LETTERS: Marshall Dillon – @MarshallDillon
COVER: Steve Cummings with Tamra Bonvillain
VARIANT COVER: Hanzo Steinbach
28pp, Color, $3.50 U.S.

Wayward, the comic book series from writer Jim Zub and artist Steve Cummings, is about to take a three-month break from publishing.  Before that break, Wayward #10, which is the concluding issue of the series' second story arc, has arrived.

Published by Image Comics, Wayward is set in Japan and features those creatures and spirits of Japanese folklore, yokai.  Wayward focuses on Rori Lane, a half-Irish/half-Japanese teen girl, who is trying to start a new life in Japan.  Instead, Rori and a small band of fellow magically-touched folks battle a secret war of magic in the shadows of Tokyo.

Ohara Emi was a quite school girl until she started manifesting strange powers.  Now, she is the narrator of the current story arc, and she manipulates matter and transmutes man-made materials.  As Wayward #10 (“Chapter Ten”) opens, Ohara, Nikaido, and Ayane have team up with Tsuchigumo.  These are supernatural spiders that are fighting their yokai brethren.

Now, humans and mystical spiders attack the Fudo Temples, but their tengu guardians are determined to fight back.  Do Ohara and her friends know the entire story of this fight, however?  Meanwhile, Rori and Shirai, thought to be dead, prepare to reemerge.

Wayward writer/co-creator, Jim Zub, sent out advanced review PDF copies of Wayward #10 (which the ComicBookBin received).  This is a pivotal issue.  Not only is issue #10 the closing chapter of the series second story arc, but it also essentially the end of series introductions.  Now, the series is prepared to get on with the big story, as Zub says in an afterword to this issue.

Zub's script does not disappoint, and co-creator Steve Cummings brings the script to life as magical graphical storytelling that remains grounded at the same time it brings the supernatural to life with imagination and inventiveness.  Colorist Tamra Bonvillain delivers striking colors that make the magical energy pop.  Also, integral Wayward contributor, Zack Davisson, delivers two essays (instead of the usual one) that explain the mythology and culture in which Wayward travels.  I think the next 10 issues will blow our minds.

A

[Wayward #10 contains two engrossing essays, “Circle of Protection Tokyo! The Goshiki Fudo” and “Sokushinbutsu – Buddhas of the Living World,” by Zack Davisson (@ZackDavisson).]

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.