Leroy Douresseaux Reviews: MARKSMEN Volume 1

MARKSMEN VOLUME 1
IMAGE COMICS/BENAROYA PUBLISHING

CREATORS: Michael Benaroya, David Baxter, and Dave Elliot
STORY: David Baxter and Dave Elliot
SCRIPT: David Baxter
PENCILS: Javier Aranda
FINISHES: Gary Leach
COLORS: Jessica Kholinne and Benny Maulana
LETTERS: Bebe Giraffe
ADDITIONAL ART: Tomm Coker (series cover); Nam Kim and Matthew Dalton (end papers)
COVER: Javier Aranda and Gary Leach with Jessica Kholinne
ISBN: 978-1-60706-486-2; paperback
192pp, Color, $15.99 U.S.

Produced by Benaroya Publishing, Marksmen is a six-issue miniseries set in a post-apocalyptic America. It presents a world where everything seems to have gone wrong: a financial meltdown with a global domino effect, civil war, mass riots, looting on a large scale, opportunistic vigilantism, exodus from the cities, starvation, and even cannibalism.

Image Comics just released Marksmen Volume 1, a trade paperback collecting all six issues of the series with additional material. That includes “The Future in Our Sights,” an essay about the world of Marksmen and also two-pages of character designs. Hugo Award-winning science fiction author, Vernor Vinge (A Fire Upon the Deep, 1992) provides an afterword.

Created by Michael Benaroya, David Baxter, and Dave Elliot, Marksmen is dystopian science fiction. It is set 60 years after a global financial meltdown led to a civil war that splintered the United States into warring fiefdoms. Most of the action takes place in and around New San Diego (NSD), a technocratic utopia that offers the last bastion of peace and prosperity for those that live within its walls. Sgt. Drake McCoy, NSD’s best protector, is one of a select group known as the Marksmen, a defensive force descended from the Navy SEALs. The Marksmen defend the city from the numerous human threats that exist in the wasteland outside New San Diego’s walls.

Now, there is a new threat. The oil rich Lone Star State is sending a powerful army to steal New San Diego’s technological secrets. Arriving ahead of them is a renegade group of former Lone Star State denizens. One of them is Joe Percival, a former NSD with ties to Drake’s father, Admiral Leo McCoy, and his mother, Dr. Sharon Heston, the NSD’s head scientist. Will Percival and his son, Sean, have anything that can help Drake and the NSD stop the Lone Star Rangers? Or are the Rangers’ charismatic leader, The Duke, and resident religious fanatic, Deacon Glenn, really unstoppable?

There is not much to say about Marksmen other than to say that it is a damn good read. On Monday, May 14, I received a review copy from Benaroya Publishing. I read the first two chapters on Tuesday, May 15. On Wednesday, May 16, I practically devoured Chapters 3 to 6 and I wanted more. Marksmen is like Black Hawk Down meets Mad Max, but Marksmen’s villains are scarier than the bad guys in either of those movies.

This is a well-thought out future scenario. Writer David Baxter offers some sharp commentary on the real world social, political, and financial situations happening right now that could lead to a situation similar to the one presented in Marksmen. Then, Baxter turns it into a breathtaking science fiction and military action thriller. It is more popcorn fun than most Hollywood heavy hitter action flicks, and it is scarier because this story’s basis is grounded in the current disquieting reality.

On the storytelling end, the art by Javier Aranda (pencils) and Gary Leach (finishes) is good, but Aranda’s pencils don’t display the polished quality of a veteran artist. Composition and the layout of some of the panel interiors is a little off. However, Aranda has the ability to create drama and tension that grabs the reader, and he has a knack for visualizing both physical and non-physical conflict. This is why Marksmen keeps hitting the mark.

Readers looking for credible comic book action thrillers will want Marksmen Volume 1 for repeated readings.

A-

Leroy Douresseaux Reviews: SAMURAI’S BLOOD VOLUME 1

SAMURAI’S BLOOD VOLUME 1
IMAGE COMICS/BENAROYA PUBLISHING

CREATORS: Michael Benaroya and Owen Wiseman
SCRIPT: Owen Wiseman
PENCILS: Nan Kim
INKS: Matthew Dalton
COLORS: Sakti Yuwono of Imaginary Friends Studios
LETTERS: John Aitken
COVER: Jo Chen
ISBN: 978-1-60706-488-6; paperback
172pp, Color, $14.99 U.S.

Samurai’s Blood is a six-issue miniseries produced by Benaroya Publishing and published by Image Comics in 2011. Created by Michael Benaroya and Owen Wiseman, the series is set in Japan. The story takes place during the early Edo period in the middle of the 17th Century and follows three teenagers’ quest for revenge. The entire series is collected in a trade paperback, Samurai’s Blood Volume 1, and includes a short story set in the world of Samurai’s Blood written by Wiseman, who wrote the script for the series.

Samurai’s Blood begins when an embittered noble, Lord Gakushi, first betrays his daimyo, Sanjo Dewa, and then, goes on a rampage to destroy the Sanjo Clan. He also kills Sanjo Goro, but three clan members escape. Two of them are Goro’s son Junichi (or “Jun”) and his sister, Mayuko (or “Yuko”). The third is a young man named Kajiro Katashi, who is the son of one of Goro’s retainers. Kajiro plans to marry Yuko, and he is also training to become a samurai.

Leaving their mountain village of Eiwa, the three eventually reach the city of Yamagata, where they plot revenge against Gakushi and his second-in-command, the evil Araku. They take on new identities. Jun becomes Kaio Fukuyama and Kajiro becomes Haniya Toshimitsu. Their path to vengeance, however, fits all the stereotypes about paths to vengeance. It is fraught with peril; it is long and winding. It is filled with so many sidetracks and tributaries that these teenagers may lose themselves before they gain any of what they want.

The first issue of Samurai’s Blood that read was issue #2. Back then, one of the things that immediately stood out to me was how dense and layered the storytelling was. Not only was there a lot of dialogue, but there were also many captions and some of those contained philosophical expositions about the way of the samurai.

The script for this entire series, written by Owen Wiseman, is convoluted and confused, but I don’t mean that as a criticism. This is a well-written graphic novel in which strong characters are the spine that joins bloody fight scenes with intense and dramatic confrontations of the non-killing sort to create a unified whole.

I call this convoluted and confused because those words describe what becomes of the characters’ lives and their journey. I think Wiseman gets that revenge is an end, and that everything between the beginning (the declaration that one is seeking revenge) and the end is either shadowy or certainly more complex than it might appear. Beginning the quest is easy, but it is far easier to lose oneself in the disorder and uncertainty. One must solve the mysteries and see through obstructions to get to the end (revenge). The surprise of Samurai’s Tale is that there are so many surprises and changes that by the end, you will likely not see the characters the way you did in the first issue.

Wiseman’s tale is told in beautiful art by Nam Kim (pencils) and Matthew Dalton (inks) that superbly captures the drama and the violence in an energetic graphic style. Their art resembles Joe Madureira’s art during his tenure on Uncanny X-Men back in the mid-1990s. Kim and Dalton take Wiseman’s potent storytelling and turn it into melodramatic splendor – the Joe Mad thing is a bonus for me.

A

Leroy Douresseaux on SAMURAI’S BLOOD #2

SAMURAI’S BLOOD #2 (OF 6)
IMAGE COMICS/BENAROYA PUBLISHING

CREATORS: Michael Benaroya and Owen Wiseman
SCRIPT: Owen Wiseman
PENCILS: Nan Kim
INKS: Matthew Dalton
COLORS: Sakti Yuwono of Imaginary Friends Studios
LETTERS: John Aitken
COVER: Jo Chen (Variant cover by Nan Kim and Matthew Dalton with Jessica Kholinne)
28pp, Color, $2.99

Benaroya Publishing is a recently launched entertainment company that publishes comic books through Image Comics. Samurai’s Blood is a historical drama set in Japan from Benaroya Publishing.

Created by Michael Benaroya and Owen Wiseman, Samurai’s Blood is a six-issue miniseries that follows three young samurai from the destroyed Sanjo Clan. The trio follows an elaborate plan to get revenge on the men responsible for betraying their clan.

As Samurai’s Blood #2 begins, Jun cautions patience in their quest for revenge. Kajiro is mightily impatient, especially after Jun’s sister, his bethrothed, Mayuko is kidnapped. Jun and Kajiro takes on new identities, and they meet Horitomo, a sensei who trains Kajiro to be a better fighter.

One of the things that immediately stood out to me was how dense and layered the storytelling in this second issue of Samurai’s Blood was. Between the dialogue, captions, and philosophical exposition about the way of the samurai, this issue reads like a 56-page comic book instead of a 28-page one. Via his script and story, Owen Wiseman is determined to immerse his readers in this world, and if he fails, it won’t be for lack of information.

Artist Nam Kim is a good storyteller, and Matthew Dalton’s inking polishes some of the awkward aspects of Kim’s figure drawing. That aside, this composition and design capture the look of an authentic jidaigeki. I look forward to more.

B+