Dengeki Daisy: The Secret of M's Last Testament

I read Dengeki Daisy , Vol. 14

I posted a review on ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter and at Grumble.

I Reads You Review: ALL-NEW MIRACLEMAN Annual #1

ALL-NEW MIRACLEMAN ANNUAL #1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

WRITERS: Grant Morrison, Peter Milligan
ART: Joe Quesada, Mike Allred
COLORS: Richard Isanove, Laura Allred
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos, Travis Lanham
COVER: Gabriele Dell'Otto
36pp, Color, $4.99 U.S. (February 2015)

Mature Content – Parental Advisory for Strong Language & Content

Miracleman (Marvelman) created by Mick Anglo

All-New Miracleman Annual #1 is a one-shot comic book published on New Year's Eve 2014 (Wednesday, December 31, 2014).  It contains two stories set in the world of Alan Moore and Gary Leach's revived and re-imagined version of Marvelman, the 1950s and early 1960s British superhero character created by British comic book writer-artist, Mick Anglo.

When Alan Moore's Marvelman was brought to America and reprinted by the late Eclipse Comics, it was renamed Miracleman.  After acquiring the rights to the Marvelman characters, Marvel Comics is currently reprinting the material produced by Warrior and reprinted by Eclipse and also, Eclipse's own Miracleman comics that it began publishing in the mid-1980s.

The first story in All-New Miracleman Annual #1 is The Priest and the Dragon: “October Incident: 1966.”  It is a Marvelman-related story written by Grant Morrison for the British comic magazine, Warrior, the home of Moore's Marvelman revival.  No art was produced for the story after it was originally written, and it was put on hiatus when Warrior ceased publication (according to the “Behind the Scenes” section of All-New Miracleman Annual #1).

The story finally sees light with art by former Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada (now Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Worldwide, Inc.).  The story centers on an elderly priest who had an encounter, three years before this story begins, with Johnny Bates a.k.a. Kid Miracleman.  The story, really, is a vignette, but it is the kind of vignette that can be very powerful and effective with the right artist.  Joe Quesada is an effective graphical storyteller, so this story allows us to see Quesada working as a storytelling comic book artist, which he has not been for much of the last decade and a half.  Even the lettering by Chris Eliopoulos for this story is potent.

The second story features the Miracleman Family (the Marvelman Family):  Miracleman, Young Miracleman, and Kid Miracleman.  The story, entitled “Seriously Miraculous,” is written by Peter Milligan and is drawn by Mike Allred with colors by Laura Allred and letters by Travis Lanham.  I think that this is an entirely new story.

The story pits the Miracleman Family against the Dictator of Boromania and his hired gun, Gargunza, a Miracleman adversary.  While constantly foiling assorted diabolical, but weird plots, Miracleman notices something strange about the places where he and his family have fought.

“Seriously Miraculous” is a hugely enjoyable story.  Peter Milligan's name is not often mentioned among the great British comic book writers who started producing work for U.S. comic book publishers in the 1980s and 90s, but it should be.  I don't think that I have ever read something by him that was not interesting or inventive or both.  He may not have created a Watchmen or a Sandman, but he is never ordinary.

In “Seriously Miraculous,” he has written a story that perfectly plays to Mike Allred's retro-modern style, but not just in terms of style.  Milligan and Allred come together for a story that pays homage to Mick Anglo's old Marvelman comics, but also hints at Alan Moore and Gary Leach's revival, while allowing Allred to add his ironic and surreal touches.

Milligan and Allred are a good team, and Quesada brings Morrison's decades-old story to life with the kind of power that it might not have had it been drawn when it was originally intended.  All-New Miracleman Annual #1 is a must-have in this second revival of Marvelman/Miracleman.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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

D.Gray-man: By Your Side

I read D.Gray-man, Vol. 24

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.

Read Webcomic Grumble: Chapter One - Page 13

Page 13 is here: http://www.comicbookbin.com/grumbleone013.html

Dogs: Bullets & Carnage - Dog Soldiers

I read Dogs, Vol. 9: Bullets & Carnage

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.

Review: FATHERLAND - Original Graphic Novel

FATHERLAND
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY/Liveright – @wwnorton and @LiverightPub

CARTOONIST: Nina Bunjevac
ISBN: 978-0-63149-031-6; hardcover (January 19, 2015)
160pp, B&W, $22.95 U.S., $26.99 CAN

Fatherland is a 2015 graphic novel written and drawn by Canadian illustrator and comic book creator, Nina Bunjevac.  Fatherland is a memoir and also a history of Bunjevac's family and of the Balkans, the homeland of Bunjevac's immediate family.  Much of this graphic novel's story also focuses on Nina's father, Peter Bunjevac.

In 1975, Nina's mother, Sally, was weary of her husband, Peter's alcoholism.  However, she was also increasingly fearful of Peter's growing political fanaticism.  He had connected with an organization of Serbian nationalists in Canada and the United States who were determined to overthrow the communist government of Yugoslavia.

Sally took two-year-old Nina and her older daughter, Sarah, and moved to Zemun, Yugoslavia to live with her parents, Momirka and Spasoja.  Sally told Peter that it was only going to be a short visit, but he would not let her take their oldest child, a son, Petey, on the trip.  With his wife and two daughters gone, Peter Bunjevac continued his activities, as his family's present, just as his family's past, become ensnared in the history of the fatherland.

Above the title on the cover of Fatherland are the words, “A Family History.”  This wonderful and engaging graphic novel is indeed a family history, but this comic narrative insists that families are not simply individual units of people that exist outside of the goings-on and happenings of the world.  Indeed, Fatherland insists that the creation of a family is firmly rooted in the history of land or nation.  A family's conception can only exist by the actions of the past, which act as a kind of fertile plain or earth from which relationships spring.

Reading Fatherland, there were times when I could not separate the story of the Balkans from the story of Peter Bunjevac's family and ancestors.  I think that is what Nina Bunjevac wants.  She makes 150+ pages of graphical storytelling seem like an epic novel of family and history spread out over two continents and taking place in several nations.

In Fatherland, her exquisitely rendered black and white drawings are like a marriage of cross-hatching and stippling.  They have a quality that is photographic, dream-like, and earthy.  That may be why this true story felt so real to me.  I had not heard of the Toronto-based Nina Bunjevac until W.W. Norton & Company sent me a galley/advanced reading copy of Fatherland.  Still, her storytelling welcomed me into the part of her family story that she wanted to reveal to readers through Fatherland.

By the end of it, the loss of life that is the center of Fatherland stung.  Why should it?  I don't know these people, but Nina Bunjevac made me care enough about them to be hurt.  So, readers looking for heartfelt biographical graphic novels and graphic memoirs will want to visit Fatherland.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for January 21, 2015

DC COMICS

OCT140353     AQUAMAN AND THE OTHERS TP VOL 01 LEGACY OF GOLD (N52)     $16.99
NOV140249     BATMAN AND ROBIN #38     $2.99
NOV140239     BATMAN ETERNAL #42     $2.99
NOV140241     BATMAN SUPERMAN #18     $3.99
NOV140244     BATMAN SUPERMAN #18 COMBO PACK     $4.99
NOV140269     BATWOMAN #38     $2.99
OCT140378     BEWARE THE BATMAN TP VOL 01     $12.99
OCT140354     BIRDS OF PREY TP VOL 05 SOUL CRISIS (N52)     $17.99
NOV140195     EARTH 2 WORLDS END #16     $2.99
OCT140387     EX MACHINA TP BOOK 04 (MR)     $19.99
NOV140328     FABLES #148 (MR)     $2.99
NOV140276     GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #38     $2.99
NOV140287     INFINITE CRISIS FIGHT FOR THE MULTIVERSE #7     $3.99
OCT140369     JLA TP VOL 06     $24.99
NOV140180     JUSTICE LEAGUE #38     $3.99
NOV140183     JUSTICE LEAGUE #38 COMBO PACK     $4.99
NOV140335     KITCHEN #3 (MR)     $2.99
NOV140212     NEW 52 FUTURES END #38 (WEEKLY)     $2.99
OCT140401     NORTH 40 TP NEW EDITION (MR)     $14.99
NOV140270     RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #38     $2.99
NOV140291     SENSATION COMICS FEATURING WONDER WOMAN #6     $3.99
NOV140234     SUPERGIRL #38     $2.99
NOV140216     TEEN TITANS #6     $2.99
NOV140218     TRINITY OF SIN #4     $2.99
NOV140219     WONDER WOMAN #38     $2.99

DC COMICS/DC COLLECTIBLES

AUG140376     DC COMICS SUPER VILLAINS DEATHSTROKE BUST     $49.95
JUN140330     VERTIGO IZOMBIE STATUE     $99.95