From the Reading Pile: The Black Diamond Detective Agency

The Black Diamond Detective Agency
By Eddie Campbell (from the screenplay by C. Gaby Mitchell)

When a train explodes at the turn of the century, a devious plot is unearthed and the Black Diamond Detective Agency are the only people who can solve it.

Campbell hits everything perfect here. The story is a hybrid of a Western and a pulp noir. There are twists and turns, deceptions and mob wars. It is a thrilling and gripping read that will keep the reader at the edge of their seat.

As solid as the story is, it is Mr. Campbell’s art that is truly special here. He captures the feel of the time and the chaos of the explosion perfectly. His use of reds to underscore the mayhem without resorting to graphic depictions of the blood shed contained is restrained and genius. He leaves the more gruesome details to the reader. In fact, much of the action happens off the panel, allowing the reader to determine how a gun fight plays out, where a mark is hit, and what a mess must look like.

The painted style gives the book a kinetic flow that feeds in to the cinematographic feel of the piece. His thick chunky lines make it look animated and his detailed backgrounds give it more of a photo realistic feel. Buildings, trains, and other large objects fill up entire pages with great detail and lifelike recreations.

This is an exciting and worthwhile read with stunning graphics that should entertain anyone who likes the Western genre or is looking for a decent mystery yarn.

From the Reading Pile: Little Mouse Gets Ready

Little Mouse Gets Ready
By Jeff Smith

The genius behind Bone writes his first book that is solely aimed at younger readers. It is short, to the point and thoughtful. Mostly it is just plum precious.

Little Mouse is going to the barn with his family. He rushes to get dressed, but will his attire be appropriate?

This is a great book for any reader starting out. It is cute and will appeal to some of the Bone audience, but it is clearly meant to be a primer.

From the Reading Pile: Daybreak Episode One

Daybreak Episode One
By Brian Ralph

A zombie book with two very unique qualities - no zombies and it is told in first person. The first person stands out the most. I don't think I have ever seen a comic from that point of view before. As with all first person narratives (especially in a visual medium), it works to a lesser extant than one would hope. While it is on its surface an awesome idea, it becomes contrived as there is no way to truly make it seamless. No matter the conceit, it is impossible for the reader to interact in the environment of the graphic novel.

The lack of zombies is nifty. This isn't a Walking Dead type thing where you see them in the beginning and end or every once in a while, there are NO ZOMBIES in this zombie book. This forces Ralph to make his characters sympathetic and believable. It is just a tad drawn out in this volume, but it works.

Art wise, the book has a Jeffery Brown type feel. It is a cartoon with rough lines that are surprisingly consistent. The designs work and the story telling is as fine as it can be for the concept.

This is an intriguing idea. Only reading further volumes will declare whether or not it is a particularly successful idea. Unfortunately, I don't think I am ready to commit more time to this one as of now.

For anyone interested in the book, it is distributed by Bodega and first appeared as a webcomic at newbodega.blogspot.com.

From the Reading Pile: Afro Samurai Volume 2

Afro Smurai Volume 2
By Takashi Okazaki

Volume One was a violent tongue in cheek hybrid of explotation era thematics and the standard samurai revenge tale. It was fun and refreshing in a Tarantino homage kind of way.

This volume, on the other hand, is a complete and utter mess. Afro is still hunting the elusive Number 1, but the story decides to randomly flip between flashback, present day action, and the distant future. There is no rhyme or reason to it, a flashback can come in the middle of a fight or during a quiet dinner scene with no discernable mechanism for distinguishing between the eras.

There are interesting sequences throughout, but the jumbled narrative structure makes the book next to impossible to understand diminishing the important revelations or even more disastrously, the climax itself. Possibly the most disheartening fact of these problems is that this is a reworking of the original manga, yet it still comes off like a rough draft.

From the Reading Pile: Violent Messiahs - Book of Job

Violent Messiahs: The Book of Job
Written by Joshua Dysart
Illustrated by Tone Rodriguez

A riff on Frankenstein that is set in a dystopian future. More than that though, it is a biblical epic both in scope and its allegorical allusions. Tackling the subjects of hyper violence, love, and the nature of truth, it quickly becomes more a mash up of King Kong and The Matrix. Things are not necessarily what they seem and even the motives of family may have sinister ramifications.

The tome doesn’t always work. It is sufficiently muddled and even worse narratively jumbled in places. Often, Dysart is over reaching his ability at the time. This may sound damning, but it’s not. What we have here is the journeyman work of a scribe. He is developing his voice. There is much that points to the tale of a certain bandaged soldier.

Rodriguez is one of those indy guys. He worked on the Snake Plissken book and other work that required less realistic rendering (The Simpsons, Urban Monsters). Here, he tries to match the cinematic chaos of the script. Bravely experimenting with layouts. They pop, squeeze and eventually cover each other up. Like the story itself, the art is not perfect. In fact, the first half of the book is painfully amateurish; but as the story progresses, both the script and the pencils become more coherent, more refined, and ultimately find the edge they are looking for.

From the Reading Pile: Sin City Vol 2 - A Dame to Kill For

A Dame To Kill For
By Frank Miller

The Hard Goodbye suffered from Miller's penchant for hokey dialogue. Oddly enough it worked well enough for Marv's story.

Here, Miller delves fully into Noir. Dwight's speech is full of the cadence and swagger of Bogart at his finest. The lust between Dwight and Ava is thick, the smell of sweat rises from the page.

What's more, Miller embraces the pulp mechanisms, sprinkling bits from the other volumes here and there. The story becomes a frame and like a Leonard novel, old friends are hiding in corners.

Oh, Ava's monologuing can get overbearing - but it is made up for in spades by the momentum that keeps the pages turning and the story moving.

To this reader, this is a better outing that the first volume. Miller is playing around less and hunkering down to tell a decent story.

From the Reading Pile: From Hell

From Hell
By Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

Masterpiece. Alan Moore has at least three books that qualify. There is Watchmen, Lost Girls, and this one. It is probably the least of the three, but it still rises to the top of the greatest achievements in all of comics.

Moore takes the lore of Jack the Ripper and uses it to mark a clear demarcation between the grime and questionable morality of 19th century London and the free for all that has become the 20th century and beyond. By pointing out the evils of that more "innocent" time, he examines the worst of humanity and the evils of the present become a more potent concern.

Along the way there is the cautionary tale of Gull. He is a doctor who strives to be the best at what he does. Slowly, but surely, his unquenchable drive causes him to lose not only his mind, but everything he worked so hard for.

Campbell's art is an acquired taste. The loose line is overcome by his strong storytelling. One has to wonder what a more capable artist could have brought to the table. Would the loss of the gritty mood have been more harmful than the sketchy nature of the art?

A sublime, dark and incredibly dense epic, From Hell takes historical fiction into the realm of the metaphysical.

From The Reading Pile: Hellboy Vol. 2 - Wake The Devil

Hellboy: Wake the Devil
By Mike Mignola

More from the uncontrollable stack of books I have yet to read. Like Sin City, I am reading this in the big Library Editions from Dark Horse. This first hardcover (of which this is the second half) took me a while, because to be honest, Seed of Destruction didn't exactly set my world on fire. Fortunately, it was not my first experience with Hellboy. I had checked out what ever mini series was being published when I first got back into comics. I dug it, but after a couple of series... I am thinking I made it to The Black Flame... I realized that this world was rich in back story, so I decided to start at the beginning and then these cool hardcovers were solicited.

This is more like it. After the somewhat empty opening of the first series, the whole ball of wax gets rolling here. Rasputin, Vampires, Gods, Nazis, Mad Scientists, Disembodied Heads. That's what our Demon friend should be fighting. However, the emotional connection to his team becomes clearer here. We see him face his destiny and claim his own path. The wry humor is here. Perfect comics from a genius of the medium.

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From the Reading Pile: Sin City Volume 1: The Hard Goodbye

The Hard Goodbye
By Frank Miller

Having seen the movie, I was a big enough fan that I own the entire series in the big over-sized hard covers, but have never actually gotten to reading them - hence the name of this new feature, brought on by my illness this past weekend, where I didn't read anything new to review and pretty much just lied around reading things from the big pile in my comics room.

This was a solid story. It easy to see why they made the movie focus on this story. Marv is a great character and there is a nice balance between the noir darkness and Miller's sense of humor.

The art is amazing. Miller utilizes the black and white to the nth degree. He has a sense of shadowing seldom seen in comics and the simple palate accentuates this. The detail is amazing.

The only thing that holds this book back is the ham-fisted dialogue. Of course, it is perfect coming from Marv, but still unbelievable. What was once kitschy enough to make The Dark Knight Returns a breath of fresh air is over the top here.

Still, all and all, a great read deserving of the accolades and status it has obtained in fandom.