Slam Dunk: Shohoku in Trouble

I read Slam Dunk, Vol. 27

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

I Reads You Review: THE ROCKETEER: Hollywood Horror #1

THE ROCKETEER: HOLLYWOOD HORROR #1
IDW PUBLISHING – @IDWPublishing

WRITER: Roger Langridge
ARTIST: J Bone
COLORS: Jordie Bellaire
LETTERS: Tom B. Long
EDITOR: Scott Dunbier
COVER: Walter Simonson with Jordie Bellaire – regular cover
ALTERNATE COVERS: Walter Simonson – Cover RI; Roger Langridge and J Bone with Jordie Bellaire – subscription cover; Roger Langridge and J Bone – Comics Pro Retailer Exclusive Cover; and James White – Strange Adventures Retailer Exclusive Cover
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

The Rocketeer created by Dave Stevens

The Rocketeer vs. Hollywood Horror, Part 1

The latest Rocketeer comic book is The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror. The four-issue miniseries is written by cartoonist Roger Langridge and drawn by artist J Bone.

Created by the late artist and illustrator, Dave Stevens, The Rocketeer is Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot who discovers a mysterious rocket backpack that allows him to fly. Donning the backpack and a metal helmet, Secord becomes the adventurer and masked crime-fighter, The Rocketeer. His adventures begin in 1938 and continue into the 1940s (for the time being). Most of his activities occur mainly in and around Los Angeles.

The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror #1 opens in the year 1939 with the usual; Cliff is late for a date with his girlfriend, Betty Page (if “Page” is still her last name). Soon, Betty will need Cliff as the Rocketeer. Her roommate, newspaper reporter, Dahlia Danvers, has gotten herself into something deep, and this deep means trouble.

Everyone seems to be talking about a missing scientist, Augie Lowcroft. Cliff’s friend and partner, Peevy, an ace airplane mechanic, just so happens to be acquainted Lowcroft. Also crawling around this case is Reverend Otto Rune, some kind of impresario/mystic, and a mysterious couple with a penchant for detecting.

Coming on the heels of the most excellent The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom, The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror is a change-of-pace for the franchise. Whereas Cargo of Doom was like an old Hollywood movie serial from the 1930s and 1940s, Hollywood Horror is a snappy comic adventure. Part screwball comedy and a whole lot of tongue-in-cheek, this looks like it will offer some B-movie, science fiction, monster fun.

Honestly, I don’t love The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror the way I did Cargo of Doom. In this first issue, J Bone’s art seems like a near-cubist take on Bruce Timm’s graphic style. I usually like Bone’s work, but this is hit or miss for me. It took me until the end of Chapter One to buy into Roger Langridge’s jesting take on The Rocketeer. If this is the tone of the book, then, Walter Simonson isn’t the appropriate cover artist for Hollywood Horror.

This isn’t really The Rocketeer the way Dave Stevens did it, which other creators have tried to emulate. Hollywood Horror could turn out to be really good, though, so I’ll keep reading.

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Review: VAGABOND Volume 34

VAGABOND, VOL. 34
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Takehiko Inoue
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Yuji Oniki
LETTERS: Steve Dutro
COVER: Takehiko Inoue and Izumi Evers
ISBN: 978-1-4215-4930-9; paperback (March 2013), Rated “M” for “Mature”
200pp, B&W with some color, $9.95 U.S. $12.99 CAN

When it comes to samurai and chanbara, the historical manga, Vagabond, is the comic book to read. Vagabond is published in North America by VIZ Media under their VIZ Signature imprint.

Vagabond, created by the acclaimed Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk), is based on Eiji Yoshikawa’s 1935 novel, Musashi. Both the novel and the manga present a fictionalized account of the life of Miyamoto Musashi, perhaps the most celebrated samurai of all time. He was a swordsman, duelist, and author (The Book of Five Rings), who lived from the late 16th century to the mid 17th century. In Vagabond, Musashi strives for enlightenment by way of the sword and is prepared to cut down anyone who stands in his way.

As Vagabond, Vol. 34 (Chapters 297 to 303) opens, Sasaki Kojirō, the deaf and mute swordsman prodigy, finds himself gaining a new position. He becomes a sword instructor for the powerful Hosokawa Clan in Bozen Kokura, the family’s home. That makes him the fifth instructor, and some in the clan believe one of the five must be relieved of his duties. That pits Kojirō against the eldest instructor, Ujiie Magoshiro and Kaede, the smelly instructor. Meanwhile, Kojirō bonds with Doryū, the devil horse that belongs to clan leader, Hosaokawa Tadatoshi.

Meanwhile, Musashi faces the remnants of the Yoshioka School, which he single-handedly destroyed. As he confronts nature and existence deep in the forest, Musashi meets a rather strange boy named Iori.

One of the truly fantastic manga reads is the Vagabond manga, which is also one of the few comic books being published today that can accurately be described as magnificent. Vagabond is also somewhat miraculous, as it leaves me speechless. During and after reading it, I suddenly forget most of the words I need in order to describe just how good Vagabond is.

So let me say, it’s supa-dupa good. The art is a symphony of lush brushwork, intricate inking, precision line work, and lovely layers of toning. This is museum quality artwork.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Graphic Novel Review: ON THE ROPES

ON THE ROPES
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. – @norton_fiction

WRITER: James Vance – @authorjvance
ARTIST: Dan E. Burr
LETTERS/HALFTONES: Debbie Freiberg
COVER: Dan E. Burr
ISBN: 978-0393-06220-5; hardcover (March 2013)
258pp, B&W, $24.95 U.S., $26.50 CAN

James Vance is a comic book writer who has written for comic books such as The Crow and The Spirit. Dan E. Burr is an illustrator who has drawn comics for DC Comics’ Big Book Series. Together, Vance and Burr are pioneers of the American graphic novel because a particular work that was first published in 1988.

On the Ropes: A Novel is a 2013 hardcover, original graphic novel from James Vance and Dan E. Burr. It is the follow-up to their Kings in Disguise, a graphic novel that was originally serialized as a six-issue comic book miniseries and published in 1988 by Kitchen Sink Press. Kings in Disguise was a highly acclaimed comic book. At the time of its first publication, it drew praise from such comic book luminaries as Alan Moore, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman and Art Spiegelman. It won a Harvey Award and two Eisner Awards.

Set during the Great Depression, Kings in Disguise was the story of 13-year-old Manfred “Freddie” Bloch, a Jewish boy from the fictional town of Marian, California. Freddie and his older brother, Al, are abandoned by their father, a widower who can no longer support his family. In 1932, Freddie takes to the rails – traveling the country by train as a hobo – where he meets Sammy. Calling himself “the King of Spain,” Sammy is a sickly, older hobo who takes Freddie under his wing. Together, they travel through a scarred America, searching for Freddie's father.

On the Ropes opens in 1937, some five years after Freddie Bloch left home. Now 17, Freddie works in a traveling WPA circus. He is apprenticed to the circus’ star attraction, the escape artist, Gordon Corey. The act, called “Gordon Corey Escapes,” is a hangman’s illusion that plays it dangerously close to the edge.

After surviving the Detroit labor riots and violent anti-Communist mobs, Freddie has found home and has even befriended Eileen Finnerty, a gracious young woman who works at the circus. Could she become Freddie’s girlfriend? Before he started working for the circus, Freddie discovered that he has a talent for writing. Thus, he finds a kindred spirit, of sorts, in Barbara Woodruff, a WPA guide book writer who is interested in Gordon’s life story. In her own acerbic way, Woodruff nurtures Freddie’s talent.

Freddie also has a double life. He has joined the Workers Brigade, and he moonlights as a delivery boy for the different groups of workers trying to secretly coordinate their countrywide strikes. As “Jim Nolan,” Freddie receives and sends out secret letters as he travels with the circus. Freddie does not know that Virgil and Chase, two murderous union busters, are trying to find out who the “mailman” is.

Gordon sees that Freddie is playing a dangerous game, and although he is jaded and tired, Gordon wants to see his young assistant make something of himself. Both Freddie and Gordon, however, are haunted by the tragic past, which causes friction between the two. Each man can save the other or bring about their mutual destruction.

I will certainly be among the many reviewers and critics voicing great praise for On the Ropes. In the last decade or so, I have read few comic books that I felt in my heart as I read them. On the Ropes is one of those books. By the end of the year, On the Ropes will likely still be the best comic book or graphic novel of 2013; it will take a miracle for there to be a comic book that knocks On the Ropes off its perch.

James Vance’s story is unflinchingly human, telling a story that captures humankind both in stark contrasts and in perplexing shades of gray. The characters are basically stock characters, but Vance imbues them with humanity. Combine that with the intricacies of the narrative and with the various plot twists and these characters are largely unknowable, but have intriguing quantities that make them worth the effort to know. Vance delves so deeply into plot, setting, and character that his comic book script is more like a novel than a comic book script.

Dan E. Burr’s art is so earnest and heartfelt that it wrings the humanity out of Vance’s story. His compositions are painterly and reminded me of American art movements like American regionalism, social realism, and the Ashcan School. Thus, Burr’s graphical storytelling has more than twice the narrative heft than many of the best graphic novels of the last 30 years.

On the Ropes has a straightforward plot, and past and present are seamless in the way they move the story towards its conclusion. There is such complexity in this graphic novel that the entire time I read it, I thought of On the Ropes as a novel and not as a comic book (not saying comic books are junk).

Of course, the title, On the Ropes, is both literal and figurative. Vance and Burr take on the social and political turmoil of the Great Depression in ways that are intensely poignant and heartrending, but also ardently involved. Vance and Burr aren’t sitting on the sidelines, being dispassionate in recounting the past.

They have turned American history into great drama. This is a hypnotic account of who we were and where we came from that shows us who we are now and why we are where we are. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said, time is neutral. Then, On the Ropes is not only a timeless masterpiece, but it is also quite timely, especially if you’ve been paying attention to where we are now.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Review: B.P.R.D.: Vampire #1

B.P.R.D.: VAMPIRE #1 (OF 5)
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

STORY: Mike Mignola, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon
ART: Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon
COLORS: Dave Stewart
LETTERS: Clem Robins
COVER: Fábio Moon
28pp, Color, $3.50 (March 2013)

Mike Mignola, Gabriel Bá, and Fábio Moon unleash a hellish side story to the main B.P.R.D. comic book series. It is entitled B.P.R.D.: Vampire.

In the world of the Hellboy comic book series, the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the B.P.R.D. or BPRD) protects America and the rest of the world from the occult, the paranormal, and the supernatural. The B.P.R.D. first appeared in the debut Hellboy comic book miniseries, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction (1994). The Bureau received its own title with B.P.R.D.: Hollow Earth (2002).

B.P.R.D.: Vampire is a direct sequel to the previous series, B.P.R.D.: 1948. The new five issue miniseries follows an apparently doomed agent’s quest for revenge against a clan of vampires and its queen.

It is the year 1948. B.P.R.D.: Vampire #1 opens as a trio of vampires enjoys the last of a feast of (alleged or apparent) virgins. Is this a dream or a memory?

In Fairfield, Connecticut at BPRD headquarters, Agent Simon Anders informs Professor Trevor Bruttenholm that he is leaving the organization. Not sure of what he is becoming, Anders begins his quest for revenge against a particular group of vampires and their Gorgon-eyed queen, Hecate. But first, he will have to find them.

It has been at least two years (if not more) since I last read a B.P.R.D. comic book. B.P.R.D.: Vampire is a helluva comic book in which to return to the series. The basic plot, by Mike Mignola, Gabriel Bá, and Fábio Moon, is straightforward and simple.

The actual comic book story, as told through art and graphics (which I often call graphical storytelling), is as emotional, psychological, and figurative as it is linear or even literal. Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon offer some stunning images and striking sequences of images. This story is going to be a good read, but the graphics side of this is going to be hella good read.

Fans of Hellboy will want to try at least one issue of B.P.R.D.: Vampire, enough to get hooked.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for March 27 2013

DC COMICS

JAN130275 ALL STAR WESTERN #18 $3.99

NOV120298 AMERICAN VAMPIRE HC VOL 05 (MR) $29.99

JAN130209 AQUAMAN #18 $2.99

JAN130287 ARROW #5 $3.99

JAN130229 BATMAN INCORPORATED #9 $2.99

JAN130232 BATMAN INCORPORATED #9 COMBO PACK $3.99

JAN130240 BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #18 $2.99

DEC120327 BATWING TP VOL 02 IN THE SHADOW OF ANCIENTS (N52) $14.99

DEC120330 DAY OF JUDGMENT TP $14.99

JAN130211 FLASH #18 $2.99

JAN130217 FURY OF FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #18 $2.99

JAN130271 I VAMPIRE #18 $2.99

JAN130327 INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US #3 $3.99

JAN130291 JOE KUBERT PRESENTS #6 $4.99

JAN130264 JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #18 $2.99

JAN130260 RED LANTERNS #18 (WRATH) $2.99

JAN130215 SAVAGE HAWKMAN #18 $2.99

NOV120267 SHOWCASE PRESENTS SGT ROCK TP VOL 04 $19.99

JAN130225 SUPERMAN #18 $2.99

JAN130324 SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES #11 $2.99

DEC120339 SUPERMAN VS ZOD TP $9.99

JAN130238 TALON #6 $2.99

JAN130280 TEEN TITANS #18 $2.99

JAN130333 TIME WARP #1 (MR) $7.99

JAN130339 UNWRITTEN #47 (MR) $2.99

DEC120368 UNWRITTEN TP VOL 07 THE WOUND (MR) $14.99

DC COMICS/DC COLLECTIBLES

DEC120379 BATMAN DARK KNIGHT RETURNS CALL TO ARMS STATUE $399.95

JAN130346 SUPERMAN THE MAN OF STEEL STATUE BY LEE BERMEJO $79.95

Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for March 27 2013

MARVEL COMICS

JAN130709 A PLUS X #6 NOW $3.99

JAN130637 AGE OF ULTRON #3 $3.99

DEC120733 ALL NEW X-MEN PREM HC VOL 01 YESTERDAYS X-MEN NOW $24.99

JAN130745 ASTONISHING X-MEN #60 XT $3.99

JAN130785 ASTONISHING X-MEN TP VOL 11 WEAPONIZED $16.99

JAN130771 AVENGERS VS X-MEN TP $34.99

JAN130741 DEADPOOL KILLUSTRATED #3 $2.99

JAN130788 DOOM 2099 COMPLETE COLLECTION BY WARREN ELLIS TP $39.99

JAN130640 FANTASTIC FOUR #5AU NOW $3.99

JAN130691 FF #5 NOW $2.99

JAN130751 FURY MAX #10 (MR) $3.99

JAN130748 GAMBIT #10 $2.99

JAN130642 GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1 NOW $3.99

JAN138150 HAWKEYE #1 5TH PTG AJA VAR $2.99

JAN130701 JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #650 NOW2 $2.99

AUG120686 KICK-ASS 2 TP (MR) $19.99

JAN130739 MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #12 $2.99

JAN130782 MARVEL UNIVERSE VS AVENGERS TP $16.99

DEC120745 MIGHTY THOR BY MATT FRACTION TP VOL 03 $19.99

JAN130776 MMW GOLDEN AGE HUMAN TORCH TP VOL 01 $29.99

JAN130685 MORBIUS LIVING VAMPIRE #3 NOW $2.99

JAN130752 POWERS BUREAU #3 (MR) $3.95

JAN130717 SCARLET SPIDER #15 $2.99

DEC120749 SPIDER-MAN LIZARD TP NO TURNING BACK $16.99

JAN130641 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #6AU NOW $3.99

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JAN130670 YOUNG AVENGERS #3 NOW $2.99