I Reads You Review: AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER 1

Creators: Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko with Aaron Ehasz, Peter Goldfinger, and Josh Stolberg (writers) and Nickelodeon Animation Studios (art)
Publishing Information: Del Rey Manga, Color, paperback, 94 pages, $7.99 (US), $9.99 CAN
Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-0-345-51852-1 (ISBN-13)

Avatar: The Last Airbender was an animated series that first ran on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. With the upcoming film adaptation of the series, entitled The Last Airbender, debuting in theatres in July, Del Rey Manga is releasing manga tie-ins to the movie.

One of the releases, simply entitled, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a film comic and is actually not a new release. In regular comic books or manga, the art is, of course, drawn by one or more artists. In a film comic, still images from animation or live action film is used as the art. TOKYOPOP calls its film comics, “Cine-Manga” (a trademarked term). Four years ago, TOKYOPOP began publishing Avatar: The Last Airbender Cine-Manga using images from episodes of the Nickelodeon series. In fact, TOKYOPOP’s Avatar: The Last Airbender Volume 1 Cine-Manga sold over half-a-million copies, according to the publisher.

Now, Del Rey Manga is republishing, Avatar: The Last Airbender volume 1 (sans the Cine-Manga label). This film comic adapts the first episode of the animated series, entitled “The Boy in the Iceberg” (Season 1, Episode 1 – Book One: Water).

For those who don’t know: Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a world divided between four nations: the Water Tribes, Air Nomads, Fire Nation, and Earth Kingdom. Fire Nation has destroyed the harmonious balance among the four nations. These dire times are just when the Avatar, the master of all four elements, is expected to bring balance to the world, but he has been missing for a century.

Teenaged siblings, Katara and her brother, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, rescue a boy who has been frozen in a sphere of ice for one hundred years. The boy, named Aang, is indeed the long-lost Avatar and also the last airbender. Katara and Sokka must help Aang, whose training was never completed, master the four elements in order to fulfill his destiny. But the determined Prince Zuko of Fire Nation also wants the Avatar.

This is probably the best film comic that I’ve read thus far – even better than my beloved film comic of The Secret Saturdays that Del Rey published last year. Perhaps, its goodness is a result of the high quality of the source material, the original animated television series. The highest recommendation that I can give this is to say that I’m eager for future volumes, and that I will pass this on to my nephew because I know he’ll love it, as will other young readers. This is an excellent read.

A-

Review Copy News Alert: The Secret Saturdays: The Kur Stone Part 1

I just opened a package from Del Rey Manga, and inside was a review copy of The Secret Saturdays 1: The Kur Stone. This is the latest release in Del Rey Manga's line of film comics based on Cartoon Network animated series.

In a "film comic" the writer or editors use still images from live action or animated film or video to create the comic book art instead of standard drawn panels of art. They generally take most, if not all, the dialogue from the film or video and put it into word balloons so that the film comic book will essentially tell the same story as the original film or video. So a film comic looks like a comic book except the art is not drawn by artist, but is instead still images from film or video.

Del Rey Manga's license with Cartoon Network Enterprises to produce film comics has also seen the release of Ben 10 Alien Force: Ben 10 Returns and Bakugan Battle Brawlers books.