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Darkminds Macropolis issues 1-4 by Chris Sarracini, Jo and Christina Chen, and Alan Wang, 2002, Dreamwave Productions This is the third Darkminds series. The first one introduced the main characters, Nagawa and Nakiko, who are police officers in the Special Investigations Unit. It also instituted the whole "Ghost in the Shell" movie feel that the series is known for, as Nakiko is really a cyborg or android or whatever you want to call it. The second series dealt more with Nagawa and another police officer, Mai. In this series it's Nagawa and Nakiko again. I've had most of these comics for a while, but it was six months between issues 3 and 4, so I had to read them all again just to remember what was happening. So in this series Nagawa gets an award from the mayor, and it gets him the wrong kind of attention, as some psycho decides to mess with him and murder a bunch of people while giving Nagawa just enough clues to show up a little too late to do anything. While all this is going on Nakiko is having her own problems, as her internal battery is running out! Each Darkminds series has had a different artist, and this one is no different. I have to say that Jo and Christina Chen are the best so far, though. Their work is really great and is a nice change from the normal artists I'm used to seeing. I'm not sure what else they've done (other than a story in one of the Star Wars Tales books by Dark Horse), but it just might be worth trying to track down. So now I'm stoked to see what happens next (and if Nagawa's gonna get his head out of his butt); hopefully it won't be six months before the next issue! |
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Domu: A Child's Dream, by Katsuhiro Otomo, 2001, Dark Horse Comics I had never heard of this book until my friend Joel told me about it. It's very famous in Japan as the "magnum opus" of Otomo-san, the same person who created the Akira manga, which was later turned into a critically-acclaimed anime movie. Even with all that, I probably never would have bought it myself. Joel let me borrow his copy, though, so I read it and now I'll tell you what I think about it. This story is about a large housing complex in Japan, and the police investigation into a number of strange deaths. Nobody can figure out what is going on, as it seems to be a normal apartment complex with a normal array of tenants. Yes, some of the people there are a bit odd, but so are many people in everyday life; that doesn't explain all the suicides. We quickly learn that there is a force behind all of the deaths, someone with strong psychic powers that uses them for entertainment and capricious behavior. However, this person doesn't have much time to gloat before a challenger appears to even the odds. The art here is very good. It is black & white, as most manga is, but the attention to detail is superb, especially in the apartment buildings themselves. If this story was drawn today, you would expect the artist to use digital techniques to copy building elements over and over, thus saving time and effort. However, Otomo-san had to draw and re-draw everything over and over again, which is quite impressive when you see the drawings. On first glance, you don't see this detail in the people themselves, but on further investigation you see that there is a lot of detail present, which makes it very easy to tell who is who at a quick glance. The story is very weird. I like sci-fi and fantasy stories, so I could get into the whole "psychic warfare" thing OK, but the sheer scale of the powers involved and the battles they get into is over the top. Yes, this allows the artist to draw lots of neat explosions and crumbling buildings and stuff, but there was so much craziness going on that I lost some of my suspension of disbelief. Also, in a world where even a small portion of the populace had psychic powers you would expect the police to be wary to its presence, but the police here are totally ignorant. Still, this is an impressive work, even if just for the art. I should also note that this story is very violent, and is not for children. |
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Dark Angel issues 1 - 10, by Kia Asamiya, CPM Manga Here's an older series that I have been meaning to re-read for a while. You know I've had these books awhile, because I got this series in monthly booklet form, which pretty much nobody but Dark Horse uses to publish manga these days. During its initial run I had missed a few issues here and there. I was able to track them down over time, but I was holding off on reading them until I could go through the entire series again. Well, I have finally started doing that, with some unexpected results. Specifically, I'm not sure why I liked this series in the first place. Maybe it was because it was one of my first exposures to manga, but I find that the story here doesn't really hold up well to other stuff I have been reading lately. The main story revolves around a young man named Dark, who in the first issue becomes one of the "Phantom Saints," who are warrior-protectors of nations in the world. Dark has to declare his saint-hood at the central city in the world, so he sets off on a journey to get there, accompanied by his faithful sprite companion, Kyo. Unfortunately, Dark can't read maps or follow directions well, so he ends up wandering into another country, which is forbidden. The people from the other country come out to see what has happened, and then a fight breaks out which literally takes three issues to resolve. After that, Dark wanders around some more, meets an old man who helps him grow in his power, the old man gets attacked by a were-bear, Dark fights some more people (which goes on for a while), and then he ends up heading off to the capital again. It just takes so long for anything to really happen. This is one of those stories that I suspect would work better in the longer graphic novel form, but then again taking an entire graphic novel to resolve on fight is still too long. The characters aren't all that enjoyable, and many of them are very one-dimensional. Very few characters really develop at all, it is mainly just moving from one fight to the next. Unless you just have to buy everything that Kia Asamiya has done, you might want to skip this series. |
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Danger Girl: Body Shots issue 1, by Andy Hartnell, Nick Bradshaw, and Jim Charalampiois, 2007, Wildstorm The "bad-ass babes with guns" genre has always worked well for me, for reasons that I shouldn't have to explain. Therefore, you would think that I would be a big fan of J. Scott Campbell's Danger Girl series. Well, you would be wrong. While I do like Danger Girl, I have never liked J. Scott Campbell's art, and I have never read any of the stories he drew. I did thoroughly enjoy the one-shots drawn by Phil Noto, and I also thoroughly enjoyed this book, the first issue in a new mini-series that involves the Danger Girls in a plot to take over the world. What, you were expecting something more pedestrian? The plot revolves around a device that has been developed which gives the user complete control over all nuclear bombs on the planet. Yeah, I know, it doesn't make sense, but that's OK. It gives Abby and Sydney a chance to kick ass and take names. Truth be told, the bad guys kick more ass in this first issue, but that is OK. The scene with the British secret agent was very funny, especially if you have seen the latest Bond film, which it spoofs. On the art front, Nick Bradshaw's work is on the cartoony side, but I really like it. The guy can draw some great action scenes. All told, I am sold on this series, and will be getting all of it. |