Demon Love Spell: Lovey Dovey Day

I read Demon Love Spell, Vol. 2

I posted a review at ComicBookBin.

Review: BARRAGE Volume 1

BARRAGE, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Kouhei Horikoshi
TRANSLATION: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
LETTERS: James Gaubatz
EDITOR: Hope Donovan
ISBN: 978-1-4215-5275-0; paperback (February 2013); Rated “T” for “Teen”
192pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN

Barrage is a shonen manga series from creator Kouhei Horikoshi. The series is set on the planet of Industria, where peace has been disrupted by an influx of alien races. The alien activity causes planetary instability and begins the Warring Planets Period.

Enter Astro, a 15-year-old slum kid living in the capitol city, also called Industria. He struggles with low-paying jobs to support his surrogate family of six younger stray children. Fate brings him into contact with Prince Barrage, the son of the King of Industria. Barrage looks exactly like Astro, so the prince, who wants to be footloose and fancy free, demands that Astro take his place and also Barrage’s royal responsibilities.

In Barrage, Vol. 1 (entitled The Piercer; Chapters 1 to 7), Astro becomes Prince Barrage. He also takes possession of Orgue. This spear and royal relic turns into the Piercer and activates when the wearer is threaten. Now, Astro/Barrage is under the tutelage of Lord Tiamat, the legendary knight who is Prince Barrage’s guardian. The King sends Barrage and Tiamat to go on a journey to save the people of the planet, but not all his reasons for ordering this journey are unclear.

The Barrage manga is one of the series that can leave the reader delightfully surprised, as it did to me. It is more than it seems – a shonen manga (comics for teen boys) that mixes science fiction with the spirit of Saturday morning cartoons. Barrage reminds me of some of those OEL manga/graphic novels that TOKYOPOP produced before the company expired (or whatever). It also makes me think of Dark Horse Comics’ short-lived Rocket Comics imprint.

The character and concept design are not only inventive, but are also infused with a sense of youthful adventure. It is as if creator Kouhei Horikoshi opened up his sketchbooks and let his imagination run wild. Visually, Barrage rarely repeats itself, as it seems that practically every other page offers something new. The graphical storytelling moves like a battle manga and an anime. Horikoshi pushes “the importance of family” theme past the breaking point, but that does not hurt this entertaining series.  Young readers will like the Shonen Jump Alpha title, Barrage.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Otomen: Jewel (Sachihana) of His Eye

I read Otomen, Vol. 14

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).

Book Review: 1356: A Novel

1356
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Bernard Cornwell
ISBN: 978-0-06-196967-6; hardcover (January 2013)
432pp, B&W, $28.99 U.S.

Bernard Cornwell is a British author of historical novels. Cornwell is best known for his cycle of novels starring Richard Sharpe, a rifleman in the Napoleonic Wars. This series was adapted into the Sharpe television movies.

1356: A Novel is Cornwell’s latest novel. This is the fifth book in Cornwell’s “The Grail Quest” series, which focuses on a 14th century English archer, Thomas of Hookton. 1356 is the first Hookton novel since Heretic (2003).

1356 is set in France. The story finds Thomas of Hookton leading a company of mercenary archers and ravaging the countryside of Gascony. Hookton must complete a crucial task before joining Edward, Prince of Wales, a real-life figure. He is now better known as the Black Prince and was the eldest son of King Edward III of England. In 1356, the Prince’s army will fight in what is known as the Battle of Poitiers, a real-life event. Fought on September 9, 1356, it was a major battle in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France.

The novel opens in September 1356. In the besieged town of Carcassonne, Fra Ferdinand, a Black Friar, secretly finds La Malice, a legendary sword shrouded in mystery. Legend has it that the sword could decide the outcome of a war.

Across France, the English army is destroying, when it isn’t plundering and raping. Towns close their gates, and the countryside stands alert for danger. The French army and its Scottish allies, embittered by the defeats handed to them by the English, await the order of King Jean of France to start a war. Is the French King, however, ready to fight the Black Prince and his forces?

Meanwhile, Thomas of Hookton (also known as le Bâtard) is determined to find La Malice. His quest for the sword will take him on a quest to unravel the mystery of an obscure saint. He will become embroiled in the tumultuous marriage of the violent, vindictive, and vulgar Count of LaBrouillade and his wife, Bertille. Thomas will find himself targeted by William, Lord of Douglas, a Scot who is in France specifically to fight the English, and Douglas’ allies, the ambitious Louis Bessières, Cardinal Archbishop of Livorno and Papal Legate to King Jean. With his wife and child in tow, Thomas leads his feared army of men-at-arms and archers, the Hellequin, on his greatest quest since his search to find the Holy Grail.

Without going into extravagant purple prose, Bernard Cornwell paints the world of 1356 to life. Although I had never before read one of his books, I found myself standing in the middle of walled towns under siege. The landscape of France, from vineyards to small valleys and hills were before my eyes. The attire and costumes and the armor and weaponry, all unfamiliar to me, sprang to life in my mind. It seems that Cornwell’s gift is to set a table, unfamiliar as it may be to readers, and make them feel welcomed.

There is a cover quote on 1356 from George R.R. Martin (the creator of A Game of Thrones) that reads, “Bernard Cornwell does the best battle scenes of any writer I’ve ever read, past or present.” I haven’t read enough to agree with that, but I must admit that from strategy and troop movement to sword thrusts and intestines on the ground, Cornwell is the real deal. He does not do the empty-calorie manliness of Hollywood battle scenes that one might find in films like Braveheart and Gladiator (both good films). Cornwell gets to the heart of the matter – victory is survival, and some of those seven deadly sins are the fuel that drives a combatant to victory.

Still, I have higher praises for Cornwell and 1356. I really did not want this book to end. Whenever I returned to it, after having to stop reading, I felt like I was returning to old friends as soon as I opened the book. I was there, off to the side (of course), but watching everything. With 1356: A Novel, Bernard Cornwell takes the reader to another time and makes the reader never want to leave, no matter how bloody and gory the action becomes.

A

www.bernardcornwell.net

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Tenjo Tenge: The Final Full Contact

I read Tenjo Tenge, Vol. 11

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics.)

I Reads March 2013

This blog marches on.  It's pun time in March 2013!

Welcome to I Reads You, a ComicBookBin blog (www.comicbookbin.com). We blog 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.

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

Review: THE ANSWER! #1

THE ANSWER! #1
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Dennis Hopeless and Mike Norton
SCRIPT: Dennis Hopeless
ART/COVER: Mike Norton
COLORS: Mark Englert
LETTERS: Crank!
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

Part 1 of 4

Mike Norton is the creator of the Eisner Award-winning web comic, Battlepug. Dennis Hopeless is a writer for Marvel Comics (Avengers Arena). The Answer! is a new, four-issue comic book miniseries created by Hopeless and Norton. The series focuses on a librarian and an odd, masked crime fighter.

In The Answer! #1, we meet Devin McKenzie, an insomniac librarian who works at a research library. Devin has a knack for solving puzzles, which results in an out-of-the-ordinary 30th birthday gift from her mother. The gift leads to the “apeiron” website and Chip Carney, an ominous-seeming motivational speaker. When things go crazy, things get really crazy when Devin meets The Answer!, a masked crime fighter with a giant exclamation point on his face mask.

The cover for The Answer! #1, by co-creator and series artist, Mike Norton, does not convey how different this series is. I don’t know if The Answer! is a superhero; he seems like a costumed hero/masked man type – more like The Spirit than Batman. So The Answer! comes across less like a superhero fantasy and more like a mystery series featuring a resourceful heroine. This is a girl-on-the-run tale, and of course, there is a man of mystery who happens to understand the conspiracy set against our girl-hero.

And I love it. I like Norton’s clean, traditional art, which owes more to Alan Davis than to Bryan Hitch. Dennis Hopeless’ script is smart, funny, and (dare I say) sassy, like its heroine. Although I think that this first issue offers too much teasing, for my taste, I am delightfully surprised, and I want to read #2, now! Readers wondering if they can find something both offbeat and good will find The Answer!

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux