I Reads You Review: THE FLASH #1 (1987)

THE FLASH #1 (1987)
DC COMICS – @DCComics

WRITER: Mike Baron
PENCILS: Jackson Guice
INKS: Larry Mahlstedt
COLORS: Carl Gafford
LETTERS: Steve Haynie
EDITOR: Mike Gold
32pp, Color, .75¢ U.S. (June 1987)

Wally West is a DC Comics character.  Created by writer John Broome and artist Carmine Infantino, West was introduced in The Flash #110 (cover date: December 1959).  West is the first Kid Flash and the third version of The Flash, following the Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick) and the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen), to whom West was a sidekick.

West becomes the Flash after Flash-Barry Allen is killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 (cover dated: November 1985).  In 1987, DC Comics debuted a new comic book series, The Flash (cover dated: June 1987), starring Wally West as the Flash.

Wally takes on his fallen mentor’s identity and wears his costume, but he is less powerful than his predecessor.  An example of his diminished powers is that Wally West-Flash can only run as fast as the speed of sound (instead of being able to reach the speed of light like Allen).  Wally also has to eat vast quantities of food to maintain his metabolism.

The Flash #1 opens in March 1987 on the day of Wally West’s 20th birthday, and he has just bought several candy bars and lottery tickets.  Waiting for him in his Brooklyn apartment are his girlfriend, Francine, and his former teammates from the Teen Titans:  Nightwing, Wonder Girl, Cyborg, Starfire, and Changeling.  They are throwing a surprise birthday party for Wally, who doesn’t seem to be in the partying mood.

The festivities are interrupted when Wally has to transport a heart to Seattle to save the life of science fiction author, Eugenie Hegstrom.  His predecessor could have gotten the heart there in an instant, but for the new Flash, the trip will take at least three hours.  It is an arduous journey for Wally and gets tougher after he meets Vandal Savage.

Before The WB (which would become The CW) television network gave us the fantasy/teen soap opera mash-up (examples include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville, “The Vampire Diaries”), writer Mike Baron turned The Flash comic book series into a 20-something, post-teen soap opera drama.  Recently, I had been having the urge to read the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths relaunch of The Flash, and, thanks to a Mile High Comics sale, I was able to get a copy of the first issue.

I found it an odd read.  I can’t remember what I thought of The Flash #1 after the first time I read it ages ago.  Strangely, I now find that it has a timeless quality or is at least timely, with its look at a single young man struggling to acclimate to adult life.  I think that DC Comics could take Baron’s script, have another artist draw it, and, with few if any changes, publish it as a new work.  I doubt many readers would think of it as an old school comic book, even those familiar with it.

This first issue is not so much a superhero story as it is a drama featuring a guy with fantastic powers.  In fact, it is an appealing drama, as I found myself engaged by every page.  However, I don’t like that it takes a classic superhero and turns him into someone who, if not pathetic, is pitiable.  Wally West seems so adrift, more than Peter Parker ever seemed (as far as I can remember).  That said, I plan on trying a few more issues.

Regarding the art, Jackson Guice (also known as Butch Guice) was not ready for prime time at the time he got this assignment.  His awkward figure drawing, inelegant compositions, and gawky drawing style yields some unattractive and sometimes ugly comic book art.  Larry Mahlstedt’s inking cannot change that.  On the other hand, the cover by Guice and Mahlstedt is actually quite nice.  Go figure.

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Tegami Bachi: Wuthering Heights

I read Tegami Bachi, Vol. 16

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

I Reads You Review: RICHARD STARK’S PARKER: The Score (Book Three)

RICHARD STARK’S PARKER: THE SCORE (BOOK THREE)
IDW PUBLISHING – @IDWPublishing

CARTOONIST: Darwyn Cooke
EDITOR: Scott Dunbier
ISBN: 978-1613772089; hardcover (July 24, 2012)
144pp, 2-Color, $24.99 U.S.

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score is a 2012 graphic novel written and drawn by cartoonist, Darwyn Cooke.  It is a comic book adaptation of the 1964 novel, The Score, by Richard Stark, a pseudonym of the late author Donald E. Westlake.

The Score, also published under the title, Killtown, is the fifth novel starring Parker, the master thief and ruthless criminal who is Westlake’s signature character.  Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score is Darwyn Cooke’s third graphic novel adaptation of the Parker novels, following The Hunter (2009) and The Outfit (2010).

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score opens in Jersey City on Monday, April 13, 1964.  Parker is there for a meeting with Paulus about an upcoming job, but the job isn’t Paulus’ idea.  This operation is the brainchild of Edgars, someone who is both an amateur and someone unknown to Parker.  Parker should refuse the job and walk out, but he doesn’t.

Edgar proposes a grand robbery; the target – an entire town.  According to Edgar, a cool quarter of a million dollars is there for the taking in the mining town of Copper Canyon, North Dakota.  It’s like science fiction, thinks Parker, a job with too many rules and set up by an amateur.  Still, he’s intrigued, and he assembles a team of 12 to knock over a town.  Parker, Edgars, Paulus, Grofield, Wycza, Wiss, Palm, Elkins, Chambers, Cho, Salsa, and “Pop” Phillips.  But it’s all going to blow up in their faces.

I have praised Darwyn Cooke’s Parker graphic novels so much that I think I’ve run out of words that I can use for more praise.  Speaking of praise, maybe I should get Biblical on this review.  Seriously folks, Parker: The Score is so f-word + ing good.

Like the two before it, Parker: The Score is a great crime comic, obviously.  I think what makes it a superior work of comics and storytelling is that for all its crime genre trappings, Parker: The Score balances classic elements of storytelling.  Over the years, I have learned that storytelling is about plot, setting, and characters – especially the last one.  Parker: The Score balances all three.  It flows like a lush jazz composition played by an orchestra not afraid of finding the brash rhythms and strident moments or even the dark mood in the last act.

Cooke makes the setting, Copper Canyon, also a character.  The town is a she, a siren that entices with the treasure she holds within her – ready to be plucked by any ambitious man or group of men that think it is worth the risk of crashing and burning.

Cooke takes some of the characters:  Parker, Edgar, and Grofield, to name a few, and makes them, specifically their actions and motivations, the plot.  They drive the story even more so than the primary plot, which is about the planning and execution of the robbery.

Which brings us to the setting:  it is the robbery itself.  Parker and company and Copper Canyon are brought to this thing that is also a place:  the act and planning of a robbery.  It is where characters and setting meet in order to do their thing.  Cooke presents the fundamentals and elements of the story in such a way that they function as they should.  They also break the boundaries and expand the story beyond their function.

Parker: The Score is such a beautifully drawn and designed book.  Cooke’s style, which resembles the work of cartoonists such as Alex Toth, Will Eisner, Steve Ditko, and John Romita, is always attractive.  It is the storytelling at the core of his art, however, that is important.  He uses the overall graphic design of the page and the design of the elements and contents of individual panels not just as compositional elements, but also as the storytelling.  Thus, this book of striking images is more than just pretty pictures.  It is that kind of storytelling that has been grabbing the human imagination for a long time, or so I’m told.  Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score: you need to score one.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: RICHARD STARK’S PARKER: The Hunter (Book One)

RICHARD STARK’S PARKER: THE HUNTER (BOOK ONE)
IDW PUBLISHING – @IDWPublishing

CARTOONIST: Darwyn Cooke
EDITOR: Scott Dunbier
ISBN: 978-160010-493-0; hardcover (July 28, 2009)
140pp, 2-Color, $24.99 US

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter is a 2009 graphic novel written and drawn by cartoonist, Darwyn Cooke.  Originally published as a hardcover, Parker: The Hunter is based on the 1962 crime novel, The Hunter, written by Donald E. Westlake (under his pseudonym Richard Stark).  The Hunter introduces the enduring and ruthless career criminal, Parker (whose first name is never mentioned in any of the 24 “Parker” novels).

When IDW announced in 2008 that acclaimed comic book creator Darwyn Cooke (DC: The New Frontier, The Spirit) was adapting four of author Westlake’s “Parker” books as graphic novels, fans were excited.  This was probably especially true of readers looking forward to what would hopefully be a great crime comic book.  With the release of the first Parker graphic novel, The Hunter, fans of crime comics got their wish.

However, Parker: The Hunter is not just a fine crime comic book, but it is also an outstanding comic book.  In his adaptation, Cooke even remains faithful to the original novel’s uncomplicated plot.

Parker arrives in New York City with a head of steam, as he scams and schemes his way to a little financial stability.  He only needs a little stability, just enough to begin to get payback.  Parker’s mission begins the woman who betrayed him – the woman who shot Parker just above the belt and left him for dead – his wife Lynn Parker.  She’s the key to Parker discovering the whereabouts of Mal Resnick, the partner who double-crossed him after a successful heist.  Parker, however, wants more than to just coldly exact revenge; he also wants back everything that was taken from him, including the money Resnick stole from him, and that will pit Parker against Resnick’s employers, The Outfit.

Is The Hunter a great crime comic?  It certainly could be considered as such.  Is it a faithful adaptation of the source?  Yes, it is – quite so, but The Hunter is something else, also.  It’s a terrific comic book, plain and simple.  Darwyn Cooke has taken Westlake’s first Parker novel, a story that has already been told, and Cooke retells it in a new voice.  This is Cooke’s voice – the graphic novel as only he can do it.  Cooke blends words/text, pictures in sequence, portraits, cityscapes, and single illustrations into a graphic work that does more than just adapt The Hunter into comics form.  It is something new; it is Parker and his world as they’ve never before been.

With modern crime comics, sometimes the emphasis is either on drawing stylish art that will have a “film noir feel” (even in full-color crime comics) or stories that “play with crime genre conventions.”  Cooke’s The Hunter is certainly visually stylish.  The elements of line, shape, value, texture, and color are hardboiled.  In terms of components and principles of art, Cooke’s work here has a passing resemblance to the comics of Will Eisner and Alex Toth, both noted for their cinematic visual motifs.  However, ultimately the art direction, graphic design and composition, both as style and as storytelling, make The Hunter something different.  Whereas other creators may be concerned about crime comics that have a general visual style or specific narrative conventions, Cooke reaches beyond convention simply to tell a great story with wide appeal.

The parts of Westlake’s text that Cooke uses as word balloons and in captions, he also brings to life with his art.  The art establishes story, especially the first 24 pages, in which Cooke efficiently reveals to the reader Parkers abilities and his aptitude as a criminal.

Cooke detailed renderings of New York City, 1962, brings us to a hustling, diverse city of distinct locales and varied local colors.  From the bustle of the subway to greasy diners manned by saucy waitresses, Cooke establishes the world in which Parker will make his long, slow, but relentless climb up the hill to revenge.  Look at this book long enough and it is obvious that Cooke put so much thought into creating The Hunter’s environments via art direction and set decoration.  There’s the cool, ultra-modern of Lynn Parker’s apartment, bought with ill-gotten gains.  That actually pales next to the spotless, space-age elegance of the lobby at Frederick Carter Investments.  Whatever the setting, Cooke’s deft touch at fashioning the milieu of Parker’s world brings the story alive and brings the reader into that world.

Ultimately, The Hunter will be judged on how well Cooke tells a story, more so than on how pretty the art looks or how much the art fits a genre.  Every panel and every page connects in one fantastic tale of a man who simply wishes to balance the scales in his favor.  Yeah, Parker is a ruthless criminal and murderer, but in the world in which he lives, he earned what is his.  All he wants to do is get that back.

Decades ago, Donald Westlake began an epic journey convincing readers that Parker was doing the right thing as Parker saw it, and that first book, The Hunter, was a terrific book of crime fiction.  Nearly 50 years later, Cooke retells that story in his own unique voice, and as expected, Darwyn Cooke’s The Hunter is a superb comic book – in whatever genre one might place it.  It is a graphic novel better than most and as good as the best.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Yaoi Manga Review: CRIMSON SPELL Volume 2

CRIMSON SPELL, VOL. 2
SUBLIME – @SuBLimeManga (Chara Comics)

CARTOONIST: Ayano Yamane
TRANSLATION: Adrienne Beck
LETTERS: WOWMAX Media
COVER: Ayano Yamane with Yukiko Whitley
ISBN: 978-1-4215-6422-7; paperback (February 2014) Rated “M” for “Mature”
162pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $14.99 CAN, £8.99 UK

Ayano Yamane is an international bestselling mangaka (manga creator) of such yaoi manga as A Foreign Love Affair and the Finder series.  SuBLime Manga is currently publishing an English-language edition of her yaoi manga series, Crimson Spell.

Yaoi manga are romance comics that depict relationships in which the romantic leads are male.  This subset of boys’ love (BL) manga can also feature depictions of explicit sex between male characters.

A fantasy tale, Crimson Spell focuses on a handsome prince beset by a demon’s curse and the sorcerer who helps him fight that curse.  Eighteen-year-old Prince Valdrigr Alsvieth a/k/a Prince Vald is the eldest prince of the Alsvieth Kingdom.  He is an excellent and accomplished swordsman, but when he first holds the sword, Yug Verlind, he takes on a curse that transforms him into a demon at night.  Halvir Hroptr a/k/a “Havi” is a sorcerer living in exile.  Because Havi is adept at breaking curses, Vald approaches him for help.  Havi discovers that intense physical intimacy helps tame the demon Vald becomes at night.

As Crimson Spell, Vol. 2 (Chapters 8 to 13) opens, Havi learns the origin of the curse on Yug Verlind that transforms Prince Vald.  Meanwhile, Havi’s former friend, Halrein, is ordered to retrieve the numerous magic tomes that Havi stole.

Vald and Havi meet Mars, a wandering swordsman, an encounter that leads them to a village in the midst of an invasion by demons.  There, unknown enemies plot to control both Vald and Havi.

The Crimson Spell manga is serious about being fantasy fiction, but is not high fantasy of the Tolkien variety.  Crimson Spell is closer to sword and sorcery, bearing a slight resemblance to some elements in the work of Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Cimmerian (or Barbarian).  Some readers may find it a little similar to various comics and OEL manga based on World of Warcraft.

Crimson Spell is also serious about being yaoi manga, featuring oral sex and saliva-infused foreplay.  Creator Ayano Yamane takes advantage of what the fantasy genre offers, so she is quite imaginative in depicting who can have sex with whom… or what.  Those depictions of sex are bizarre, shocking, funny, and sometimes delightful.

Of course, everything is drawn in Yamane’s painterly art style.  Lovely renderings and lush compositions will dazzle the eye and is also good storytelling.  Everything about the characters, from their pasts and secrets to their goals and desires, makes them attractive to readers.  I look forward to future volumes of Crimson Spell.


A-

www.SuBLimeManga.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Rin-ne: Renge Shima Wants You

I read RIN-NE, Vol. 14

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

Book Review: BLACK HORIZON

BLACK HORIZON
HARPER (HarperCollins Publishers) – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: James Grippando
ISBN: 978-0-06-210988-0; hardcover (March 4, 2014)
384pp, B&W, $25.99 U.S.

Black Horizon is a 2014 legal thriller and crime fiction novel from author and attorney James Grippando.  Black Horizon is the eleventh novel in a series starring Grippando’s Miami-based, criminal defense attorney, Jack Swyteck.  Black Horizon finds Swyteck in the middle of an international legal battle over a Cuban oil spill that soon turns into an international terrorist conspiracy.

Fifty years from now, it likely that few if any will remember James Grippando as a great American novelist.  This review, however, is about the here and now.  Now, when you pay $26 plus tax for a book, it better be worth your money, and Black Horizon is worth your money and your time.

As Black Horizon opens, Jack is getting ready to marry his longtime fiancé, Andie Henning, who is an undercover agent for the FBI.  The festivities are hampered by the arrival of Hurricane Miguel, but Jack and Andie’s wedding won’t be the only place Miguel causes trouble.

Off the coast of Cuba is the Scarborough 8, the world’s largest oil exploratory rig.  During the storm, there is an explosion on the rig, which sinks the structure.  Now, oil is spilling into the ocean, and an oil slick heads straight for the United States – specifically the Florida Keys.

Meanwhile, Jack and Andie’s honeymoon in the Keys ends when Andie is called away on an assignment for the FBI that is shrouded in secrecy.  Jack is asked to represent Bianca Lopez, a Cuban woman who immigrated to America and became a citizen.  Her Cuban husband, Rafael Lopez, was a worker on the Scarborough 8 (a “derrick monkey”), and he was killed in the rig explosion.  Although the explosion occurred in foreign waters (Cuba), Jack files a wrongful death lawsuit in a U.S. court for Bianca.

However, the suit soon clashes with an FBI investigation (in which Andie is apparently involved).  Jack’s longtime friend and cohort, Theo Knight, is implicated in a murder.  And Jack becomes the target of everyone, including the U.S. government, high-powered rival attorneys, and a mysterious figure who claims to know what really happened on the Scarborough 8.

Last year, HarperCollins offered copies of James Grippando’s Blood Money, the tenth Swyteck novel, to book reviewers.  I took a review copy on a lark, and it paid off because Blood Money was a hugely-entertaining read.  When Harper offered Black Horizon, I took it.  I have to admit that I don’t think that it is as good as Blood Money.  Blood Money holds a mirror up to modern American media culture and the reflection reveals something ugly and sad.  That novel also dug deep into the dysfunction of a modern American family, and it the findings were, shall we say, un-pretty.  Black Horizon does not run quite as hot.

Black Horizon is less a legal thriller than it is a political thriller.  In Blood Money, there was real blood and money, and the truth behind the blood money was repulsive, tragic, and made for damn-good reading.  Black Horizon is a murder mystery, complicated by competing and often selfish interests.  It is the legal thriller turned into a small-scale international thriller, filling with conflicts and competing interests.  Grippando cleverly suggests (without actually saying it) that most of the people in this book spend so much time fighting for their own causes that they forget that people actually died in the rig explosion.

Black Horizon gives the reader the thrill of the chase as Jack tries to uncover whodunit in an ever-growing cast of characters with reason to have done it.  I enjoyed the chase, especially the last 50 pages of this book, because Grippando is crafty in the way he finally reveals who, what, when, where, and how.

Last year, I wrote that Blood Money was the beginning of a beautiful reading-list friendship with James Grippando.  Black Horizon makes me keep the friendship alive.

B+

www.jamesgrippando.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.