Graphic Novels

-- Library Journal, 11/15/2005

One of the United States' longest-running manga series has finally changed its format to match the smaller size, lower price, and Japanese right-to-left orientation (or "unflipped" orientation) that has become the industry standard. Starting with Vol. 21, Kosuke Fujishima's Oh My Goddess! is being published by Dark Horse in the size and format of current books released by Tokyopop, Viz, and other manga companies, at a price of $10.95. Dark Horse will also be reissuing all of the previous Oh My Goddess! stories in the new format, with the artwork unflipped and with the new collections matching the original Japanese editions in content. The new versions will be numbered and will not have individual subtitles like the older versions. Volume 1 was released in October, and from this point on, new and reissued volumes will alternate at two-month intervals. Volume 22 is due in December.

This mirrors the reissue treatment that Viz has given to several of its series, including Battle Angel Alita, Fushigi Yugi, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and No Need for Tenchi. But Viz's new editions of CLAMP's X/1999 and two popular series by Rumiko Takahashi, Ranma 1/2 and InuYasha, are still printed with the artwork flipped. (The reissue of No Need for Tenchi has reached Volume 5 of 12; every volume released to date is now available in the new format.) But amidst all the reissue activity, some other well-known manga series are languishing. Tokyopop lost the rights to Sailor Moon, which went out of print without receiving the upgraded, unflipped treatment the company gave to Cardcaptor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Peach Girl. Kodocha has also, unfortunately, dropped from Tokyopop's roster.

Despite Takahashi's popularity, some of her books, including the Rumic Theater and Rumic World Trilogy short story collections and her very first series, Lum Urusei Yatsura, have not been reissued by Viz. Some volumes of the series remain available but only in the older, more expensive editions (which are sometimes not well bound). Actually, Lum Urusei Yatsura has not only not been reissued, its translation was never even completed. Some other series are in the same boat, including Fujishima's You're Under Arrest, Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, and Kenji Tsuruta's marvelous Spirit of Wonder (the first and third installments published by Dark Horse, the second by Viz). With so much current interest in manga, it's a shame that these and other worthy series from manga's earlier days in the United States have not yet received renewed attention.—Steve Raiteri

ATANGAN, PATRICK. Tree of Love. NBM: Nantier Beall Minoustchine. 2005. 48p. ISBN 1-56163-438-7. $12.95. F

In this third volume of Atangan's "Songs of Our Ancestors" series of Asian tales (following The Yellow Jar and The Silk Tapestry), it's evident that the cartoonist has been let down by his editor. The book takes its inspiration from the brightly colored Rajput art of India, and it concerns a prince who rules "with a gently benevolence." There's nothing wrong with the story itself; the prince woos a poor flower seller who has the magical ability to create incomparably beautiful blossoms, marries her, and then must search for her when she loses her memory and disappears. The artwork is also very nice—Atangan presents only one panel on each page, with characters appearing twice or more in different areas of the panel to indicate action, and he succeeds in making the story clear. But in addition to editing mistakes, Atangan has torpedoed the text by partially presenting it in clumsy, ill-metered rhyming verse. Someone should have dissuaded him, or at least corrected the grammatically atrocious rhyme on page 34. Though Atangan's first two books are wonderful, this one is very difficult to recommend.

BARNES, BILL (illus.) & GENE AMBAUM (text). Library Mascot Cage Match. Overdue Media. 2005. 120p. ISBN 0-9740353-2-7. pap. $14.95. F

This is the third collection (following Unshelved, Vol. 1 and What Would Dewey Do?) of the online comic strip Unshelved, starring the staff and patrons of the Mallville Public Library. Cynical YA librarian Dewey and troublemaking teen patron Merv (a modern Beetle Bailey, right down to the always-hidden eyes) engage in lots of knowledgeable geek-oriented banter about comic books, computers, and pop culture. The new 23-page full-color story here, in which the library staff battle an invading futuristic bookmobile, plays out like a Simpsons episode. It's a given that librarians enjoy the strip, but how will it hold up with the general public? Well, the "I'm a librarian, not a buffalo" sequence on getting out from behind the desk will most likely puzzle nonlibrarian readers, but many gags are character-oriented rather than library-specific. The strip's most obvious antecedent, in both its focus on work life and its simple cartooning, is Dilbert, and there's some of that strip's management humor here. Service workers everywhere will find a hero in Dewey, who answers patrons' questions with a large dose of cheek. The strip certainly deserves a place not only on the library's office wall but in the collection as well.

CHADWICK, PAUL. Concrete. Vol. 1: Depths. Dark Horse. 2005. 208p. ISBN 1-59307-343-7. pap. $12.95. F

Chadwick's remarkable, acclaimed Concrete series, begun in the mid-1980s, has won multiple Eisner and Harvey awards. When political speechwriter Ron Lithgow's brain was transplanted into a 1200-pound rocklike body, he gained tremendous strength, a tough protective skin, and amazingly acute eyesight. But some of life's simple pleasures, like tasting food or having sex, are denied him, and his massive body is awkward in a human-scaled world. He accepts his limitations without angst, however, sublimating his unfulfillable love for Maureen Vonnegut, a researcher assigned to study him, by collecting paintings of nudes. His new abilities inspire him to attempt amazing feats, like swimming long distances or rescuing trapped miners. But often his plans go awry, and his embarrassments are magnified by his notoriety. Chadwick's stories and excellent art both display a great deal of realism, and his writing gives Concrete himself a mature and very thoughtful viewpoint:wry, practical, philosophical, human. This volume, the first of a new series, compiles the earliest Concrete stories (previously collected in The Complete Concrete and Concrete: Complete Short Stories 1986–1989) and adds some previously uncollected tales, including a non-Concrete autobiographical short. Older teens and adults should find this uncommonly rewarding reading.

CLOWES, DANIEL. Ice Haven. Pantheon. 2005. 92p. ISBN 0-375-42332-X. $18.95. F

In this tour de force—which won the 2002 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in its original publication in the comic Eightball #22—acclaimed cartoonist Clowes (Ghost World, David Boring) brings to life the town of Ice Haven, where it's not the climate that's chilly, it's the people. In short episodes modeled in both form and style after Sunday newspaper comics, Clowes studies a variety of the town's unhappy, self-important, and self-pitying denizens and guests: frustrated poet Random Wilder, failed writer Vida,boy intellectual Charles and his lovesick stepsister Violet, comic book critic Harry Naybors, and visiting husband-and-wife private detectives Mr. and Mrs. Ames, who are called to town to investigate the mysterious kidnapping of a young boy. Clowes packs a wealth of detail and complexity into this small, oblonghardcover, giving great depth, nuance, and humor to his character portraits and hiding within them a genuine mystery story inspired by the 1920s Leopold and Loeb case. A remarkable achievement, highly recommended for all libraries; with nudity and mature themes, this is best for adults.

HAMPSON, FRANK (text & illus.) & OTHERS. Dan Dare: Operation Saturn. Pt. 1. Titan. 2005. 96p. ISBN 1-84023-809-7. $19.95. F

The classic adventures of Dan Dare, pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet and one of British comics' best-known characters, were originally published in two-page installments in the British magazine Eagle from 1950 to 1969. This fifth volume, set in the then-future of 2001, features the first part of a story in which Dare flies an experimental spaceship to Saturn to investigate a rash of destructive robot probes sent from there to Earth. But en route, the ship is taken over by its creator, the evil aristocrat Dr. Blasco, who plans to set up Earth as his own private fiefdom with aid from the tyrants of Saturn's moon Titan. With cliffhanger adventure, colorful alien races and settings, realistic and detailed artwork, and a strong, confident hero, this is directly comparable to America's Flash Gordon newspaper strip and has a similar appeal. The great nostalgia that the series may draw in Britain will not operate here, as the stories were not imported to America in their heyday, but this is still enjoyable, all-ages work of more than historical interest. Start with one volume, and buy more if demand warrants.

KETCHAM, HANK. Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace. Vol. 1. Fantagraphics. 2005. 592p. ISBN 1-56097-680-2. $24.95. F

In the wake of the great success of the Complete Peanuts, Fantagraphics has turned its attention to another American newspaper standby, that five-year-old rapscallion Dennis Mitchell. Ketcham kicked off the Menace's adventures in 1951, just a few months after Peanuts debuted, and worked on them until retiring in 1994 (he died in 2001, and the feature continues today with other creators in over 1000 newspapers). This enjoyable, nicely designed hardcover collects all of the single-panel daily installments from 1951 and 1952. The very earliest panels have an old-fashioned magazine cartoon look (before Dennis, Ketcham worked for the Saturday Evening Post and The New Yorker), but Dennis's rambunctious, mischievous personality is already fully formed: he takes a ride in the new washing machine, makes mud pies with the electric mixer, tells people what his parents really think of them, drives babysitters up the wall, wrecks the house, and ends up sitting in the corner facing the wall. But even though he's a handful, Dennis is a nice kid at heart. There have been dozens of Dennis collections over the years, but every one is now out of print, making this a welcome return, recommended for all libraries.

NINOMIYA, TOMOKO. Nodame Cantabile. Vol. 2. Del Rey. 2005. 208p. tr. from Japanese by David & Eriko Walsh. ISBN 0-345-48173-9. pap. $10.95. F

Shinichi Chiaki, aged 21, is a third-year piano student who wants to become a conductor. But his fear of airplanes and boats prevents him from studying overseas, making him frustrated and unhappy. His next-door neighbor Megumi Noda, nicknamed Nodame, is also studying piano; a terrible slob, who's constantly mooching food, she falls in love with Chiaki and throws herself at him constantly. Though she's no great beauty, Nodame's boundless enthusiasm—and her wayward, oddly endearing playing—start to get through his thick skin. So far, though, the series is far more comedy than romance. Here, the famous German conductor Stresemann comes to Chiaki's school to teach and starts going after the young female students, especially Nodame. He refuses to let Chiaki transfer to his conducting class because of an old grudge against Chiaki's childhood teacher, rival European conductor Sebastiano Viero. But when Nodame knocks Stresemann out for being too forward, Chiaki gets his first chance to conduct. Ninomiya's cartooning is fairly simple, but her writing has a refreshing unpredictability. The ages 16+ rating reflects some sexual innuendo, and there's one gay male character. Recommended for most collections, for older teens and adults.

PEKAR, HARVEY (text) & DEAN HASPIEL (illus.). The Quitter. Vertigo: DC Comics. 2005. 104p. ISBN 1-4012-0399-X. $19.99. AUTOBIOG

Since 1976, Pekar has shared his life with readers in the pages of American Splendor, a series that inspired the eponymous critically acclaimed 2003 movie. But this is the first time he has told the story of his younger days. Born in 1939, he was the son of Jewish immigrant grocers who, he feels, couldn't understand his own life as an American. As a boy he was always beat up by the local black kids, which proved to be excellent training for his teenage role as a street brawler. But despite his tough-guy reputation, Pekar is plagued by insecurity from the beginning, and when he can't excel in something, he quits. So he drops a series of pursuits, academic and otherwise, and a predilection for fooling around loses him several jobs, leaving him at loose ends until his outlook matures. His love of jazz and his meeting with cartoonist Robert Crumb help him find his way, but the insecurity never disappears. Pekar's tone, as always, is straightforward, unadorned, and real, and Haspiel's artwork, with its combination of realism and simplicity, fits the text very well. This moving memoir will probably be of most interest to adults and is recommended for all collections.

ROBINSON, ALEX. Tricked. Top Shelf Productions. 2005. 352p. ISBN 1-891830-73-2. pap. $19.95. F

In this brilliant new work, the Eisner Award–winning creator of the acclaimed Box Office Poison draws readers into the lives of six protagonists: Ray Beam, a wealthy rock star who has lost his muse; Lily, Ray's new love interest; Nick, a habitual liar who forges the signatures of sports stars; Caprice, a waitress recently dumped by her boyfriend; Steve, a surly music geek; and Phoebe, a teenager in search of the father she's never known. Through his well-rounded characterizations, naturalistic dialog, and excellent black-and-white cartooning, Robinson brings the characters to vivid life. His deft plotting and suspense-building draw the six inexorably toward a terrible moment that will change all of their lives forever. While reaffirming the consummate skill at portraying relationships that Robinson showed in Box Office Poison, this more plot-oriented book reveals a broader mastery of storytelling and the possibilities of the comics form. Robinson's work has the potential to appeal to comics fans who don't normally read "alternative" comics and to readers who normally avoid comics entirely. With mature themes and full frontal nudity, this is one for adult collections; highly recommended.

SAMURA, HIROAKI. Blade of the Immortal. Vol. 14: Last Blood. Dark Horse. 2005. 256p. tr. from Japanese by Dana Lewis & Toren Smith. ISBN 1-59307-321-6. pap. $17.95.

The swordsman Manji was unwillingly made immortal, but he can die if he kills a thousand evil men. He's been hired as a bodyguard by the 16-year-old girl Rin, who has sworn to avenge her parents' murder at the hands of the Itto-ryu, a band of maverick swordfighters out to destroy all other sword schools and the traditional discipline they represent. But when she meets Anotsu Kagehisa, the Itto-ryu's charismatic leader, he spares her life, and Rin's feelings become conflicted. In this volume, while Anotsu is ill with tetanus, Manji ends up defending him against a band of killers who are after both Anotsu and Rin. This riveting saga of revenge and honor, full of complex and compelling characters, will definitely appeal to fans of other samurai manga such as Lone Wolf and Cub. But this series distinguishes itself with a nihilistic punk edge that turns samurai conventions on their head. Samura's highly accomplished, realistic art can be rough and brutal when depicting the savagery of swordfighting, but it can also be exquisitely beautiful in quieter moments. Highly recommended; with much explicit violence, some nudity, and disturbing themes, this is one for adult collections.

SFAR, JOANN. The Rabbi's Cat. Pantheon. 2005. 148p. tr. from French by Alexis Siegel & Anjali Singh. ISBN 0-375-42281-1. $21.95. F

In this agreeable ramble of a tale, set in 1930s Algeria, a cat belonging to Zlabya, the daughter of a rabbi, eats a parrot and gains the power of speech. The cat, as might be expected of a cat, proves to be a grand skeptic with a smart mouth and engages in lacerating theological discussions with the rabbi and with the rabbi's master. In the second half, the focus moves away from the cat and features a visit by the rabbi's imposing cousin Malka and his pet lion; a threat to the rabbi's position; a suitor for Zlabya; and a trip to Paris. Sfar, cocreator of NBM's series Dungeon, won a prestigious French award for this book, and its likable characters and good humor are winning. Sfar's unruly full-color artwork, likewise endearing, alternates the cartoony, changeable style with occasional glimpses of more realistic rendering. His portrayal of a spectrum of Jews as they deal in their own ways with the rules and customs of their faith is thoughtful, witty, and deeply human. With nudity and mature themes, this is recommended for adult collections, for which it's strongly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/05.]

SHIMOKU, KIO. Genshiken. Vol. 2. Del Rey. 2005. 208p. tr. from Japanese by David Ury. ISBN 0-345-48170-4. pap. $10.95. F

Upon entering college, Kanji Sasahara joined Genshiken, the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, and found among the otaku (hardcore fans) a place where he belonged. The club is mainly just a hangout and discussion group for fans of anime, manga, gaming, cosplay (costume play), and related interests. The members may be a little quirky, but they're really just average guys, not drooling obsessives. Video game master Makoto Kosaka is unique among club members not only for his pretty-boy looks but also because he has a girlfriend, Saki Kasukabe. But Saki doesn't appreciate the otaku lifestyle, and much of the series is taken up with her attempts to get the oblivious Makoto's attention and to harm Genshiken—though she ironically becomes friendly with its members (including the only girl member, cosplayer Kanako Ohno). Eventually, Saki is blackmailed into actually joining and even helps to save the club from forced to disband. This is an enjoyable, realistic, episodic sitcom aimed primarily at a male audience, with artwork more naturalistic than that in shojo manga. The appropriate ages 16+ rating reflects some sexual innuendo and frequent discussions of pornography—there's no nudity or violence. Recommended for most collections.

WARE, F.C. The Acme Novelty Library Annual Report to Shareholders and Rainy Day Saturday Afternoon Fun Book. Pantheon. 2005. 112p. ISBN 0-375-42295-1. $25. F

This impressive oversized hardcover, a true visual marvel, collects a large number of strips and other features from the Acme Novelty Library periodical by Chris Ware (creator of the highly acclaimed Jimmy Corrigan). The bright colors and bold graphic designs of the strips belie their contents; the "adventures" of hapless cowboy Big Tex, stranded astronaut Rocket Sam, and the morose, indolent "hero" of Tales of Tomorrow are full of regret, sadness, and loneliness. Everything here is apt to drop into the dark night of the soul by the end. A magnifying glass should be kept handy for the many minuscule-print text features, including the characteristically self-deprecating introductory material on the book's wraparound paper strip, a spurious history of the Acme Novelty Company, and endless bogus advertisements (some of an unusually political bent) for such products as atomic weapons, placebo birth control, and "certainty." There's also a wickedly satirical history of comics, a glow-in-the-dark star chart featuring such constellations as "the hospital bed," and, hidden in the indicia, a special note to attractive female librarians. With nudity and mature themes, this is for adults and recommended for all collections.

About Comics

POITRAS, GILLES. The Anime Companion 2: More... What's Japanese in Japanese Animation? StoneBridge. 2005. 164p. ISBN 1-880656-96-5. pap. $18.95. REF

This informative and useful volume—which also includes many references to manga—is a follow-up to the first Anime Companion book (1999) by librarian Poitras, also the author of Anime Essentials. Both companions feature short encyclopedia-style entries on various aspects of Japanese life and culture, including foods, clothing, religion, the arts, place names, and more. Each entry notes specific references made to the subject in anime or manga. This volume is particularly strong in Japanese history and historical figures and explains references from such samurai manga as Lone Wolf and Cub, Vagabond, and Rurouni Kenshin. Other manga references come from series such as GTO, Osamu Tezuka's Adolf, and the works of Rumiko Takahashi. Some entries are accompanied by black-and-white illustrations, and Poitras also includes sidebars on various anime-related topics. New in this volume are the kanji or kana (Japanese written characters) for each entry. There's also a glossary covering both companion volumes where terms can be looked up under their English names and an extensive bibliography. Recommended for all collections.

Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays!, edited by Peter Maresca, has been released by Sunday Press Books as a limited-edition hardcover. Featured in an article in the Arts section of the New York Times, it includes 110 digitally restored prints in full, original newspaper size, 16" x 21", for $120. Its size may discourage circulating collections, but this would be a beautiful addition for display and browsing. Visit Sunday Press Books for more information.—Ann Kim, Library Journal