Review: KINGPIN #1

KINGPIN No. 1 (2017)
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Matthew Rosenberg
ART: Ben Torres
COLORS: Jordan Boyd
LETTERS: VC's Travis Lanham
COVER: Jeff Dekal
VARIANT COVERS: Marco Checchetto; Bill Sienkiewicz; Ben Torres; Julian Totino Tedesco; Skottie Young; John Tyler Christopher
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (April 2017)

Rated “T+”

Kingpin created by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr.

“Born Against”

The Kingpin/Wilson Fisk is a Marvel Comics villain.  He was created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Romita and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #50 (cover date: July 1967).

The Kingpin is portrayed as one of the most (if not the most) feared and powerful crime lords in Marvel Comics and as the “kingpin” of crime in New York City.  During his run on Daredevil in the early 1980s, writer-artist Frank Miller depicted the Kingpin as a master schemer and cold-blooded murderer who stayed beyond the reach of the law.  Personally, I think Miller is the creator that defined Kingpin more than anyone else.

Kingpin is the new comic book series that chronicles the new adventures of Wilson Fisk.  It is written by Matthew Rosenberg; drawn by Ben Torres; colored by Jordan Boyd; and lettered by Travis Lanham.

Kingpin #1 (“Born Against”) introduces Sarah Dewey, a down on her luck writer, reporter, and journalist.  She has staked some of her remaining credibility on chronicling what she hopes will be the rise of a promising boxer, Orlando Perez.  She gets a break when a powerful man asks her to write his tell-all memoir – warts and all.  However, Sarah does not think she is the right person to write the story of Wilson Fisk... even if he won't take “No” for an answer.

It would be lazy of me to say that Kingpin #1 is “awful” or “terrible.”  Instead, I can simply say that it does not seem like the work of professional comic book creators, although, considering how and why comic book professionals often get assignments, I guess that isn't saying much either.  Still, this is such lazy, uninspired, unimaginative writing on the part of Matthew Rosenberg.  If he had a “Eureka!” moment before he wrote this, I am sad for him.

Now, the art is actually terrible.  Ben Torres does not have the compositional chops to draw for Marvel Comics, and yes, I know.  Marvel's standards for comic book artists have been and still are inconsistent at best.  Right now, Torres is certainly ready for semi-pro-zine work (if such a thing still exists).  I can see him drawing for small press, black and white publishers or self-published webcomics, but he ain't ready for prime time.  Oh, he is has potential, but he has not reached it.

Marvel's overall publishing program treats the North American comic book market like a flood plain in need of a flood.  With so many comic books to publish and likely budgetary constraints, the need for low-page-rate artists means artists like Ben Torres – amateurs who are technically not amateurs because a Diamond Distributors premiere publisher is willing to give them paying assignments.

Yeah... I'm not coming back to this, no.

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint or syndication rights and fees.

---------------------------------

Review: CORTO MALTESE: Fable of Venice

CORTO MALTESE: FABLE OF VENICE
IDW PUBLISHING/EuroComics – @IDWPublishing

[This review was originally published on Patreon.]

CARTOONIST: Hugo Pratt
TRANSLATION: Dean Mullaney and Simone Castaldi
EDITOR: Dean Mullaney
ISBN:  978-1-63140-926-4; paperback with French flaps – 9 1/4” x 10 5/8” (August 2017)
64pp, B&W, $19.99 U.S., $25.99 CAN (September 26, 2017)

Hugo Pratt (1927 to 1995) was an Italian comic book creator and artist.  Some consider him to be among the first literary and artistic comic book creators, and his best known work is his Corto Maltese series, which he produced from 1967 to 1988.  Beginning with Ballad of the Salt Sea in 1976, the series was collected in 12 books (or graphic novels).

Back in July 2014, IDW Publishing announced that it was going to publish the complete Corto Maltese in a series of twelve trade paperbacks, using Hugo Pratt’s original over-sized black and white format.  These trade paperbacks (which can also be called “graphic albums”) are published under IDW's “EuroComics” imprint.  They feature new translations into English from Hugo Pratt’s original Italian scripts by Simone Castaldi, Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Hofstra, and Dean Mullaney, the longtime comics publisher, editor, and translator who is also the creative director of the IDW's imprints, “The Library of American Comics” and EuroComics.

In September 2017, IDW published Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice.  It was originally published in 1976 as Favola di Venezia, the eighth book in the series.  The story takes place in Venice (Pratt's hometown) in 1921 and is a mystery thriller set during the rise of Fascism in Italy.

Fable of Venice finds the enigmatic sea captain, Corto Maltese, returning to Venice, Italy.  He has been brought to the city by the riddle of an old acquaintance, Baron Corvo, and now, he needs to find Corvo's diary.  In that diary are inscriptions related to the whereabouts of the “Clavicle of Solomon,” a legendary emerald and magical talisman.

Corto is not the only one after this magical object that is steeped in history and mysticism.  There are his friends, Bepi Faliero and Böeke, and the young Blackshirts (Fascists), Stevani and Boselli.  There is mystery woman, Hipazia, who believes that she is the reincarnation of a prominent figure in the School of Alexandria.  Corto also finds that the Freemasons and their masonic lodge, R L Hermes, frequently pop up during his search.  Freemasons, Vikings, Teutonic Knights, King Solomon, Jewish mysticism, the Queen of Sheba, Biblical figures, mysterious Arabs, and the genie of the lamp:  are they all part of a quest that will unravel time and space or are they all chasing a fantasy?

I first heard of Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese when Frank Miller mentioned them as influences on his work leading up to his then-new comic book, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.  Pratt's own influences include 19th and 20th century adventure storytellers like novelist Robert Louis Stevens (Treasure Island) and cartoonist Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates).

Fable of Venice specifically is influenced by the magical realist literature of South American writers like Jose Luis Borges (whose work Pratt would have encountered during his years living and working in Argentina) and American novelist Dashiell Hammett.  In fact, while reading Fable of Venice I could not stop thinking about Hammett's most famous novel, The Maltese Falcon (1930), which was twice adapted into film, with the 1941 John Huston-Humphrey Bogart film being more famous.

So I think of Fable of Venice as a magical realist take on The Maltese Falcon set in Venice during the rise of Fascism.  This is the first time that I have read a Corto Maltese graphic novel (thanks to a review copy provided to me by IDW), so I really do not know this character.  What attracts me to this novel are two things.

The first thing are the characters.  I cannot choose a favorite, because each one is like a delightful flavor in a wondrous hoodoo gumbo.  They are simultaneously weird and recognizable and sinister and attractive.  Each of these character is so eccentric and colorful that he or she makes this black and white comic seem like a spinning kaleidoscope throwing off sparklers.

The second great thing about Fable of Venice is Hugo Pratt's gorgeous black and white art and sumptuous graphical storytelling.  This is simply some of the most beautiful black and white comic book art that I have ever seen.  This book is like a slim, paperback version of one of editor Scott Dunbier's “Artist Editions” (also from IDW).  I think that this story is so rich and complicated because Pratt maximized his over-sized pages with nine to 12 panels to page.  Whereas so many American artists draw big panels and half-splash and full-splash pages, Pratt uses the 9 to 12-panel grid to delve into the details of the characters, moods, situations, and his wonderfully magical Venetian setting.

From the opening pages' Masonic gathering and Corto's arrival to the final pages' gathering of players and magical realist and surrealist ending, Pratt pushes past any imaginary boundary lines forced on the graphical and comics medium.  Over 40 years after Fables of Venice was first published, Hugo Pratt's work is still ahead of most comics being published today.

A+
10 out of 10

EuroComics.us

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

-----------------------------

Book Review: FOOLS AND MORTALS

FOOLS AND MORTALS
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Bernard Cornwell – @bernardcornwell
ISBN: 978-0-06-225087-2; hardcover (January 9, 2018)
384pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S.

Fools and Mortals is a 2018 historical from Bernard Cornwell, a bestselling British author of historical novels.  Cornwell is known for his “Saxon Tales” series, a multi-book epic about the making of England as seen through the eyes of a Saxon warlord, Uhtred of Bebbanburg.  Fools and Mortals is a standalone novel that tells the story of the trials and tribulations leading up to the first production of William Shakespeare's comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, as seen through the eyes of Shakespeare’s estranged younger brother.

Richard Shakespeare lives in London, the heart of Elizabethan England.  He is an actor, a penniless actor, struggling to make ends meet with his beautiful face, silver tongue, and skill at being a petty theft, but the 21-year-old wants more.  Richard's brother is William Shakespeare, the acclaimed playwright and “Sharer” (part owner) of The Lord Chamberlain's Men.

William is largely dismissive of his younger brother, giving him mostly insignificant parts or female roles (because at the time women could not appear in stage plays).  As William’s star rises, Richard’s onetime sibling gratitude is souring, and he is sorely tempted to toss family loyalty aside.  Opportunity comes when a rival company makes a bold offer to Richard, but the offer comes with a shockingly high price.  When a copy of William's newest play turns up missing, Richard is blamed, and he has also drawn the ire of religious zealots.  Now, to avoid the gallows, Richard must play the role of a lifetime, a high-stakes game of duplicity, betrayal, and violence.  Lord, what fools these mortals be . . .

Some may consider it lazy of me to say Bernard Cornwell's novel, Fools and Mortals, reminds me of the 1998 film, Shakespeare in Love, which won the Oscar for “Best Picture of the Year.”  But I do have a valid reason.

If you, dear readers, have experienced the work of William Shakespeare at a college or university, you know that English departments treat Shakespeare with the reverence with which Sunday schools and catechism lessons treat Jesus Christ.  Shakespeare in Love treated Will Shakespeare as if he were a man like other men – talented – but a man like other men.  When Dame Judi Dench's “Queen Elizabeth” suggests that Gwyneth Paltrow's “Viola de Lesseps” (Shakespeare's object of desire) has been “plucked,” I thought, “Oh, no. Did Joseph Fiennes' “William Shakespeare” tap that ass?”  Ye olde English class is unlikely to talk about Shakespeare knockin' boots.  Although Fools and Mortals focuses on Richard Shakespeare, it is through Richard that we see Will as a man like other men – lustful, envious, scheming, and capable of violence.

Fools and Mortals, however, is Richard's story.  It is part insider fiction; period and court drama, historical fiction, romance, suspense and conspiracy thriller.  It is a lot of things, but this story crackles and that makes Fools and Mortals a page-turner with heat like a summer potboiler.  The novel works because the author makes Richard seem like a natural storyteller, a character the readers want to follow.

As always, Bernard Cornwell offers deft characterization and wit, and his prose is vivid.  I could practically smell the stink of Elizabethan London and feel that muggy and damp filth.  You, dear reader, will beg for a hazmat suit and hand sanitizer because you will feel like you are right there in a stew of funk,  Well, that funk is also a marvelous on-stage and off-stage blend of history, fiction, and speculation.  Once again, Bernard Cornwell proves that he is the king of historical fiction.

A
8.5 out of 10

www.bernardcornwell.net

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

-----------------------

Review: RWBY

RWBY
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Shirow Miwa
TRANSLATION: Joe Yamasaki
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley
LETTERS: Evan Waldinger and Walden Wong
EDITOR: Joel Enos
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9512-2; paperback (January 2018); Rated “T” for “Teen”
250pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $19.99 CAN, £9.99 U.K.

“RWBY” is an American animated series that is streamed on the World Wide Web (or simply “web”).  The series was created by the late Monty Oum for Rooster Teeth Productions (an American company), which is known for its animated streaming or web series.  “RWBY” is produced in a Japanese anime style, although some consider it an actual anime series.  It was the first western-produced anime series to be distributed to Japanese television.

“RWBY” is set on the world of Remnant, which is beset by “Grimm,” horrific monsters bent on the destruction of humanity.  The kingdoms of Remnant have risen to combat these monsters by training powerful Huntsmen and Huntresses at academies around the planet. “RWBY” focuses on Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long, four such Huntresses-in-training.

Shiwa Miwa, the creator of the manga Dogs and Dogs: Bullets & Carnage, produced a manga based on “RWBY.”  Miwa's story was based on the initial four trailers that were released to promote the “RWBY” anime shortly before it release.  Miwa's manga debuted in the November 2015 issue of the manga magazine, Ultra Jump, and concluded in the same magazine in January 2017.  VIZ Media collected Miwa's RWBY manga in a single-volume, paperback graphic novel in January 2018 (and my VIZ Media rep gave me a copy for review).

RWBY (Chapters 1 to 12) introduces Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long.  They are four Huntresses-in-training at Beacon Academy, one of four academies that train Hunters who subdue the monstrous Grimm and maintain peace.  Together Ruby, Weiss, Black, and Yang are Team RWBY.

We see a unique side of each member of Team RWBY.  Later, the quartet is put through a grueling training test that forces them to work with RWBY's rival, Team JNPR.  Their adversary is a giant, multi-headed serpent that seems impossible to defeat.

I had not heard of “RWBY” until I received a VIZ Media press release that it was going to publish Shirow Miwa's 2015-2017 manga adaptation of the anime.  I must be honest with you, dear reader; I was not interested in reading it.  Then, VIZ Media came calling with a way to force me to read the RWBY manga.

RWBY Graphic Novel is actually fairly entertaining.  My experience with Shirwo Miwa is mixed.  He can produce visually striking manga action art, but sometimes his narrative is shallow or even dull.  RWBY has a slow start, but then, it really takes off when Miwa starts using separate chapters to delve into the mysteries of each of the series' four stars:  Ruby, Weiss, Black, and Yang.  The giant snake battle is a blast to read and makes me ready for more RWBY manga.  [VIZ Media will start publishing an RWBY manga anthology this coming summer.]

Fans of the “RWBY” anime and fans of the manga of Shirow Miwa will want VIZ Signature's single-volume RWBY graphic novel.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for February 21, 2018

DC COMICS

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NOV170377    YOUNG JUSTICE TP BOOK 02    $29.99

Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for February 21, 2018

MARVEL COMICS

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IDW Publishing frfom Diamond Distributors for February 21, 2018

IDW PUBLISHING

DEC170535    COMIC BOOK HISTORY OF COMICS COMICS FOR ALL #3 CVR A    $3.99
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