Review: Castle Waiting

Castle Waiting  is a wonderful set of re-imagined and nouveau fairy tales.  This graphic novel starts out with a sort of stand-alone Sleeping Beauty tale, titled The Curse of Brambly Hedge.  Instead of focusing on Sleeping Beauty, the story is seen mostly through the eyes of the secondary characters involved in her tale.  From there the story picks up many years after Sleeping Beauty's departure and focuses on the few remaining residents of the castle, which now serves as a sort of refuge for folks with troubled pasts.


After the story moves on from the Sleeping Beauty intro, we meet Lady Jain, who is pregnant and fleeing an abusive husband.  Her father, a well traveled tradesman, once told her of Castle Waiting, a place she could go if she needed a safe haven.  After a long journey, sometimes filled with peril, Jain eventually makes it to Castle Waiting and meets the not so numerous yet diverse group of characters who look after the place.  The castle is sort of unofficially run by a stork headed dapper lad by the name of Rackham, but there's plenty of other folks who live at the castle, including a bearded nun, a sort of half-man, half-horse knight, a jack of all trades who is definitely the strong, silent type, three maids in waiting, a reclusive doctor, and a susie-homemaker named Dinah, and her son.

As the story progresses writer/artist Linda Medley develops the characters who populate Castle Waiting through a series of vignettes, and then delves into a longer story arc that gives a detailed origin story of Sister Peace, the bearded nun, whose life has included being a bar maid, to working for the circus, to eventually joining a convent that is populated exclusively by bearded women.  While this book offers more of an in depth look at Sister Peace, all the other characters are equally amazing and fully developed.  I get the feeling that the remainder of the origin stories make up the second volume which has recently hit shelves.  Medley seems to really know her characters inside and out, and that comes across to the reader as they all come to life on the page. 

Medley's artwork is exquisitely detailed and beautiful to behold.  Each page is filled with rich ink-line illustrations and just by looking at one page you get a sense for the massive amount of time Medley must have spent on the art alone.  This collection is 457 pages long, and there is absolutely no sign of Medley ever cutting corners or slacking on the art.  It is all beautiful.  The consistency, which must have been hard to maintain, is one of the many virtues of this graphic novel. 

Castle Waiting is not only lovely to behold, but also lovely to hold, Fantagraphics Books really pulled out all the stops in making this a beautiful book.  It is printed on nice high quality paper hard bound and comes complete with a fancy built-in silk page marker.  I know I don't usually, ever rave about how nice a book is, but this is easily the nicest book I own.  I looks like the type of book that belongs on a mahogany bookshelf or something.

Castle Waiting definitely has a bit of a PG feel to it, as there isn't really a lot of tension or danger to the book, however, the stories inside definitely cover a wide range of adult themes, the book just happens to deal with them in a way that is quiet, well mannered and peaceful.  You wont get wild chases, vicious sword fights, or devious backstabbings, instead you get even headed adults handling things like, well, adults.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, and despite its massive length, I was left wanting more.  While I loved learning more about Sister Peace and her life prior to Castle Waiting, I wanted the same treatment for the other characters.  I guess I'll just have to read the next volume.  Castle Waiting is one of those rare books that gave me the warm fuzzies as I read it.  I sort of wish I could live at that castle.  Definitely not my typical graphic novel read, but definitely worth the journey.

Grade: A-

Comic Quickies or This is the End

Nemesis #4: This issue is the grand finale.  Like most Mark Millar comics I've read, aside from Kick Ass, I'm not sure why I bothered with this one.  I'm beginning to think Millar's creating method involves coming up with a bunch of crazy, balls out, brutal circumstances and then linking them all together with thin narrative connections.  For example: A Black-ops team storms a mansion on a covert night mission, a fat dude tied to a bed and wired with c4, the president wired with explosives, the oval office getting blowed up...all these things happen in the span of about a dozen pages, but the problem is that they really don't have any kind of emotional impact beyond a cheap shock value because well, they happen too damn often to mean anything at all.  Yeah a lot of shit gets blown up, and lots of people die, but who cares because no time was ever invested in making those things important.  The onus is on the eye candy and while all the crazy shit happening might look "cool" and be the wet dream of a 14 year old boy it doesn't mean shit to me.  So the question remains: Why bother?  In all honesty, I don't really know.  I'm definitely still finding my way in the comics world, and it is hard to pass up the chance to read one of the BIG name creators in the floppy format.  Shit, I'm still learning my tastes, and I enjoyed Kick Ass enough that I guess Millar got a free pass on this one.  Well, I'm a bit wiser now, and will definitely be more cautious of Millar in the future.

The Bulletproof Coffin #6: Another finale here, and this one was done extremely well.  The previous five issues in this mini-series have consistently been amazing, but I was a bit skeptical that the creative team of David Hine and Shaky Kane would be able to wrap this one up nice an neat.  There is a lot of meta-textual, story within a story action going on through out this series, and I think that element makes it harder to wrap everything up without any kind of weird plot holes.  Well, that wasn't an issue at all here.  Shit, Hine and Kane even managed to plug themselves into the story, along with the rest of the comic production team, in fairly significant, and hilarious roles.   

The Bulletproof Coffin is an excellent mix of action, mystery, meta-textual mayhem, super heroes, lots of weirdness, and some great humor as well.  I feel like this was one of the most under-rated, under-appreciated titles of 2010, and far more deserving of attention than many of the other Image titles that get lots of press and have their first issues sell for $30 on ebay before they hit comic shops.  Hopefully enough people will buy this in trade so that it can be widely enjoyed.  I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that these guys start some sort of new project together asap.

Sweet Tooth #17: I lumped this one in with the "This is the End" theme because I thought this issue was the end of the "Animal Armies" story line, but it turns out I'm wrong and #18 is actually the end of the "Animal Armies" story arc.

I know I probably say this every time I write about Sweet Tooth, but I really think this comic gets better with each issue.  Each time I read one I think, "yup, that's the best Sweet Tooth yet."  This issue is the best Sweet Tooth ever because of the giant punch in the feelings it delivers.

Jeppard has been on an insane quest to rescue Gus for the past few issues, and his crazy plan looks be just about working.  The confrontation between Jeppard and his character foil, Abbot is more amazing than I could have imagined, plus a MAJOR plot twist hits that just about knocked me off my readin' perch.  This issue hits hard on all notes, especially the emotional one, and just like that, I am even further sucked into this crazy world that Jeff Lemire has so wonderfully created.  I can't wait for the next issue.

Comic Quickies or Flights of Fantasy

The Cape One-shot: Joe Hill, yeah that Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, popular horror novelist, and writer of the successful comic series Locke & Key.  The guy seems to be popping up on my radar a lot lately, sadly, even though the guy is seemingly everywhere, The Cape is my first taste of Joe Hill. 

As a kid, Eric loved to play superheroes with his brother.  Eric was The Red Bolt, and Nicky was the Streak.  One day while playing in the yard, Eric fell from a tree, impaling his arm on a broken branch and fracturing his skull.  The result is a lifetime of splitting headaches and little motivation.  Luckily, Eric has a good woman in his life, his girlfriend Angie, but Eric doesn't seem cut out for a normal life, causing lots of friction with his far more motivated girlfriend.  After hitting rock bottom Eric discovers that he has a unique special ability.  But will this new power help Eric patch things up with his lady, and finally discover his full potential?

The only thing bad about this comic is that it is a one-shot.  I would love to read more, and see what the hell happens next.  There was a tease about The Cape returning in 2011, so it looks like I'll get my wish.  definitely a great, self-contained comic, with plenty of ground for further exploration.

Kill Shakespeare #8: Just when I was getting back into this comic, the creative team delivers another dud.  Aside from developing the love story and introducing a character that is long overdue for an appearance, nothing really happens.

With the aid of Iago and Falstaff, Hamlet sets off in search of that elusive bastard wizard Will Shakespeare.  In the mean time, Lady MacBeth is rallying her troops and setting things in place so that she'll profit best from the coming war between Juliette's band of rebels and King Richard's soldiers. 

I've generally been a fan of the art work throughout this series, but this issue felt a bit weak to me.  The pages of Kill Shakespeare are packed solid with panels full of art and lots of detail, but I've started to notice that facial expressions are not a strong suit of the artist, Andy Belanger.  Sometimes he'll dedicate a panel to just a character's face, but the expression on the face will not even come close to matching what is going on in the word bubbles.  This causes a disconnect that brings me out of the flow of events, and is pretty frustrating.  After this issue I'm unsure I want to carry on with this rollercoaster of a series.  Maybe adding Shakespeare to the mix will help...too bad he is probably at least two issues away from making his debut.

Dracula The Company of Monsters #4: Kill Shakespeare should take note as DTCOM cranks out another issue where the plot moves forward in leaps and bounds.

 In this issue we finally get an idea of what Conrad, the president of the evil corporation that resurrected Dracula, has in mind for his company's newest asset.  Let's just say, it ain't pretty.  In the meantime, Marta Stefanescu, and her vampire hunting family are mourning the recent loss of her father when they realize what Barrington Industries was up to in the mountains of Romania.  As Conrad seeks to fulfill a dangerous pact with Dracula, Marta and her crew hit American soil in search of Dracula and his accomplices.

I wanna point out how extremely cheesy the covers for this comic are, and I also want to add that they do a really shitty job of representing what lies between the covers.  This comic is by no means the cheesy piece of shit the covers suggest.  The story is compelling, and I enjoy the characters too.  This was another strong issue, and the series looks to be headed in some very interesting directions.

China Mieville's online comic

While perusing the headlines at Bleeding Cool I came across this sweet little tid-bit.  It looks like China Mieville has himself a fledgling online comic.

Titled London intrusion, the webcomic is in the early stages, but Mieville's ink-line art is looking pretty good. The guy has one of the most imaginative minds out there, so chances are it will develop into something pretty cool.

The tantalizing first four parts can be found at Mieville's tumblr blog Rejecamentalist Manifesto. 

Review: The Umbrella Academy v1: Apocalypse Suite

Umbrella Academy is a graphic novel that starts off with an atomic flying elbow and never looks back.  This first volume features liquid smooth pacing and some sexy artwork.

Many years ago, all across the world,  forty-three children were born to mostly single women, who previously had shown no signs of pregnancy.  Many were abandoned or put up for adoption, but one man, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a.k.a. The Monocle, managed to track down seven of the children and adopt them for himself, his reason: to save the world.

The children Hargreeves adopts all have special gifts, with the exception of one,  which they use to become a super hero team.   After a quick origin story which I pretty much just gave you, Umbrella Academy jumps ahead ten years to showcase the team's first adventure, where they protect Paris and battle the Eiffel Tower which has gone insane.  From there we get another jump, this time of twenty years where the team is kaput and each member is off doing their own thing.  Spaceboy, the former team leader finds out that his adoptive father has died, so he returns to his childhood home for the funeral.  In the meantime, Vanya, the one child without any kind of special powers, gets a mysterious phone call for an audition to become the first violin chair in an orchestra.  Eventually the rest of the "family" turns up at the mansion for the funeral and the adopted Hargreeves children turn out to be a pretty dysfunctional bunch.  They all carry a lot of weird baggage, but possibly none more than Vanya, who has always been the outcast due to her glaring normal-ness.  During this sad, awkward reunion, a world ending threat conveniently surfaces and its time to get the old team back together...too bad the team doesn't get along so well, but they're kinda the worlds only hope, so they'll pull their shit together and save the world right?

Umbrella Academy  is a super hero comic at heart, but it is also something a little bit more.  For one, it is written by a "rock" star, Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance.  I've never listened to them, but a quick foray to you tube shows that they are not my musical cup of tea.  Nice hair dye guys...Anyway, I'm not gonna let the dude's other gig cloud my judgment here.  As I said earlier, Apocalypse Suite features one of my favorite things: great pacing.  The plot really rolls along nicely, and it is packed, fucking packed with cool ideas.  Not to mention, plenty of tragedy.

The characters of this graphic novel aren't really that well developed, I don't feel like I got to know the individual characters that well, save maybe Vanya, but what I did get was a strong sense of the tragedy and neglect that played a huge role in their young lives.  They were all adopted for less than loving reasons by a father who didn't seem too interested in them beyond what kind of potential they possessed.  As a result you get a mixed bag of pent up emotions and weird baggage that they've all dealt with in different ways.  In this sense, it was much easier for me to understand the Umbrella Academy team and why they functioned, or dysfunctioned they way they did, rather than understand the team members on an individual basis. 

This graphic novel is also a treasure trove of great, beautiful, wonderful ideas.  There is a wonderful blend of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and straight up weird all interacting in this graphic novel.  I kinda wanna live in the world of Umbrella Academy.  It is a world where the Eiffel Tower is also a rocket ship, aliens exist and live on earth, monkeys can talk, human heads can get grafted onto gorilla bodies, time travel is possible and lots of shit gets blown up.  Completely original.  I loved it.

This graphic novel would probably not be what it is without some great artwork, luckily artist Gabriel Ba delivers.  I can't say that his style is totally unique, since I have a hard time discerning his art from that of his brother, Fabio Moon, but it is unlike anything else I've seen.  His style is somewhat angular, detailed and boldly expressive.  It has just enough slap-dash to it to fit the bizarre world perfectly.  The writing and the art work so well together to create a world that feels familiar but also extremely unique and bizarre at the same time.

I do wish that I could have connected to the individual characters more, because I think it would have added to my enjoyment, but even still, there is a lot of unanswered questions and a large amount of mystery still shrouded and unanswered that guarantees I'll be back for the second and final graphic novel.  Definitely a cool, fresh feeling graphic novel that can and should be enjoyed by many.

Grade: B

Review: Empire in Black and Gold

Fifteen years ago Stenwold Maker witnessed the fall of Myna at the hands of the Wasp Empire.  He returned to his home in the Lowlands to warn of an impending invasion from this new, and dangerous threat to their peaceful and thriving existence.  His initial warnings fell on deaf ears, and as the years passed and the Wasps focused their energies on other conquests, Stenwold's continued warnings started to sound more like the ravings of a paranoid madman.  Not willing to stand by and do nothing to protect his homeland, Stenwold created a vast network of spies to help him stay on top of the Empire's comings and goings.  Now with the territories north of the Lowlands partially in the Empire's grasp, they appear to be turning their attention at last to the Lowlands, a land of city states too concerned with their bustling commerce to pay attention to the dangers they face.  The Empire is a canny bunch, and they are onto Stenwold and his schemes, so he and his newly anointed batch of spies must do whatever they can to survive in the rapidly changing world and find a way to protect their land, and their way of life.

Empire in Black and Gold is a pretty damn refreshing book.  Over the past couple of years I have become increasingly skeptical of starting in on any new fantasy series.  More often than not, I read the opening novel in a fantasy series, and then don't read any more of the series.  Usually for one of two reasons.  It is either waaaaay too much of a time/page investment for something I am not totally fired up about, or the book doesn't offer anything new in the way of furthering the fantasy genre.

Yes, on the surface, Empire in Black and Gold treads the well worn path of peaceful-land-gets-invaded-by-evil-empire, but Tchaikovsky wraps all that up in what is in my mind a totally fantastic idea: Peoples with traits/powers akin to those of common insects.  So instead of having different races and ethnicities, Tchaikovsky has humans that are ant kinden, wasp kinden, beetle kinden, mantis kinden and so on.  Each kinden has unique skills and qualities that sets them apart from the other kinden.  I'm totally in love with this concept, and it plays out very well as there is long held tension/hatred between certain kinden groups that plays into the story, not to mention the Wasp kinden who are trying to take over the world.  I think the concept of differing kindens is the major strong point of the novel, and a quality that sets this new series apart from all the other epic fantasy series out there.

It takes more than just a good concept to hook me, and Empire in Black and Gold has some other strong suits as well.  For one, I enjoyed the diverse cast of characters.  Tchaikovsky's novel features interesting and compelling male and female characters that are, for the most part, fun to read about.  For the most part the story follows characters that are on the "good" side, Stenwold, his niece Cheerwell, his ward Tynisia, the mantis weapons master Tisamon, a dragonfly Salma and a half-breed, Totho.  However, the novel also features a character, Thalric, who provides the reader a point of view from the Wasp side of the struggle.  I think the idea was to present a wasp character that would be somewhat sympathetic to the reader, thus adding a facet to the wasp people that doesn't portray them simply as the "evil empire".  While I appreciate the attempt at creating a "shades of gray" character that is truly not evil nor good, the effort felt a bit contrived to me, and I thought the Thalric character fell flat and was more of a plot device than anything else.

Empire in Black and Gold scores high on another  favorite fantasy staple of mine: sweet, sweet, glorious combat.  Tchaikovsky shows great talent for writing a battle scene, whether it be single combat or larger engagements, the action scenes are great.  The other great thing is that he doesn't skimp on them either.  There is plenty of sword fighting and action in the novel, but it all serves a purpose and is never frivolous. I like feeling close to the action, and Tchaikovsky does a great job of bringing the reader in close to the action, making battle scenes a personal emotional affair rather than an abstract, panned out view of the action at large.

Empire in Black and Gold is a strong debut and a solid first novel in what looks to be a great epic fantasy series. There were times when the pacing slowed down and my interest waned, but I think there are enough positives in place to keep me going through the series in the future.  I look forward to reading more from Tchaikovsky in the future.

Grade: B

Comic Quickies or New Beginnings

I've been up to plenty of new comic reading lately, I just haven't had much chance to share.  This week's edition of Comic Quickies features four titles that all share something in common, they are either the first issue of a new series or the first issue in a new story line.



Who Is Jake Ellis #1: This comic was easily my pleasant surprise of the month.  This one looked cool in the previews, and the issue itself exceeded my expectations.  The comic begins with a deal gone wrong, and some shady business men trying to kill our main man Jon.  As Jon makes a nifty escape, the comic comes to a full stop and replays the last fifteen seconds, this time showing the same exact opening scene, but with Jake Ellis, Jon's invisible guardian-angel-type-dude, in the picture this time showing the role he played in aiding Jon's escape.

From there the issue speeds along with great pacing.  Jon is pretty much on the run for reasons not totally clear yet, aside from the few details that could be parceled out from the opening scene.  I gotta say that I got totally sucked into this one, and I'm most likely on the hook for the duration of the five issue series.  I wanna know more about what is going on, and definitely wanna know who is Jake Ellis.

Infinite Vacation #1: Another debut here.  Infinite Vacation takes a fairly common comic idea: that there are millions of alternate universes all populated with the same people but where in one world a guy might be a janitor, in another he might be president.   In Infinite Vacation people have the ability to download an app to their smart phone and buy their way into one of their own alternate lives.  The changes don't have to be as extreme as switching from a janitor to the president, you could simply switch to the universe where you had the balls to talk the pretty girl who smiled at you in the coffee shop.

The main guy in Infinite Vacation, Mark, seems to be pretty bored with his own existence and switches lives about nine times a day, in the top 20th percentile for switching.  I get the feeling Mark is your typical bored rich kid, since it is pretty costly to make changes to other yous.  One cheaper option, that Mark uses quite often, is to simply visit other universes and hang out with say, the Mark who decided to open a surf shop in Tahiti.  Mark seems like a pretty confused guy who is looking for the happiest way to live his life, but things get even more confusing when Marks from the alternate realities start getting killed soon after our Mark visits them.

The concept behind Infinite Vacation is pretty interesting, but I'm not sure how it will sustain a full on monthly series.  I definitely enjoyed this first issue, and I'm interested to see where this one is going.  I'm not totally in love, but I'm willing to pick up a few more issues to give it a shot.  I gotta add that there is some seriously trippy art work in this comic.  Very pleasing to the eye.



Chew #16: There's strange alien writing in the sky, the future's uncertain, and the end is likely near, but that doesn't stop Tony Chu from trying to figure out what the hell the alien writing means.  Sure, everybody is on edge, including Tony's partner John Colby, who has taken up heavy drinking, but they need to find a guy named Daniel Migdalo who might be able to translate the alien script.  You see, Migdalo is voresophic, which means he gets smarter with the more food he eats. Since Colby is out of commission, Chu teams up with agent Velenzano to try and track down Migdalo.  As you might expect from Chew, things end poorly for Chu.

It looks like Chu and the other FDA agents have been forced to switch their focus from the chicken prohibition to dealing with the strange Alien writing.  An interesting side story that takes place in this issue is that of the former fried chicken restaurant Mother Clucker's.  It looks like with the help of D-Bear the restaurant will be reopening its doors.  I'm excited to see what this little story thread leads to as it parallels the main story line.

The Sixth Gun #7:  After an epic opening storyline that filled the first six issues, The Sixth Gun begins the Crossroads storyline.  The opening pages of this issue find Becky and Drake Sinclair laying low in New Orleans.  Becky is still bound to the 6th gun, and Drake is in control of four others.  The final gun is still in the hands of Miss Hume, but she seems to be out of the picture for the moment.  This new issue introduces a potential new player, Kirby Hale, a pretty boy who flirts with Becky at a saloon, then single handedly destroys a gang of thugs after getting called out for a standoff.  Hale comes across as the golden boy hero, but knowing Cullen Bunn's writing style, Hale could end up being the exact opposite of what I think he is.

Drake Sinclair's voyage through the creepy ass cypress swamp is shaping up to be one hell of a supernatural adventure.  It is nice to see the story moving forward, but I can't say that I have too big of a clue as to where it is headed.  All signs point to more greatness though as Bunn sets the table nicely.  Definitely one of the best on-going titles out there.