Graphic Novels

For the past two years, I've been sharing GN circulation statistics from my own library, the Greene County Public Library, OH. We're a mid-sized system of seven locations that's been buying GNs seriously since 1996; the books have a circulation period of three weeks. I'm particularly excited about the 2005 results. Demand for GNs at Greene County has soared from its previously high level in 2004: 254 of our GNs circulated 16 times or more, compared with 107 in 2004; ten GNs circulated 26 times, compared with one in 2004 (a copy of Tenchi Muyo: Sasami Stories).

Manga dominated the upper echelons of GN circulation in 2005. All of our top-ten circulators were examples of the format, with the first spot tied between copies of Rurouni Kenshin, Vol. 2, and Tsubasa, Vol. 2, at 29 circs each. Additional volumes of these series reached 26 circs or more, as did volumes of Fruits Basket and Inu Yasha. Other top manga series for 2005 include Dragon Ball Z, Fushigi Yugi, Kodocha, Love Hina, Marmalade Boy, Naruto, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Peach Girl.

Just a few nonmanga GNs attained 18 circs or more. At the top was a copy of DC's Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, with 20 circs; others were Batman: Hush, Vol. 2, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Vol. 1, and the first two volumes of the recent Teen Titans series written by Geoff Johns, A Kid's Game and Family Lost. Nonmanga at the 14–17 circ level included multiple volumes of the Avengers, Batman, Fantastic Four, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Ultimate X-Men; many different Star Wars GNs; several Simpsons and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon GNs; and Judd Winick's Outsiders: Looking for Trouble, Mark Waid's Kingdom Come, and Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602. Volumes of the American manga-inspired series Megatokyo, Neotopia, and Ninja High School also came in at this level. Ditto for numerous volumes of the manga Azumanga Daioh, Cardcaptor Sakura, Hikaru No Go, Magic Knight Rayearth, Oh My Goddess!, Trigun, and, yes, Pokemon (that plucky Pikachu is hanging on years after his popularity seemingly peaked).

In the long view, our previous all-time, top-circulating GN, Marvel's long out-of-print The Greatest Spider-Man and Daredevil Team-Ups, has finally been retired from the collection. But in 2005, a new contender reached its exact same level—the gold medal is now held by Star Wars: Dark Force Rising, with 113 circs; the silver goes to Tales of the Jedi: The Collection, at 111; and the bronze goes to our highest-circulating manga, Dragon Ball Z, Vol. 1, with 104 circs. Our all-time top superhero GN is the classic Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga with 99 circs.

I'm not one of those doomsayers who declares that when something stops growing at a furious rate, it's dead—but even if I were, I would have no doubts about the appeal of GNs in my neck of the woods.

EISNER, WILL. The Best of the Spirit. DC Comics. 2005. 192p. ISBN 1-4012-0755-3. pap. $14.99. F

This book collects 22 excellent 1940–50 tales from the comics grand master's series starring the down-to-Earth crime fighter the Spirit, revered among fans as a comics' Golden Age classic. Included here are all the stories reprinted in Kitchen Sink's out-of-print 1990 Spirit Casebook, plus four others, including the Spirit's origin in the very first episode. Most of the tales date from after World War II, when the Spirit often turned into a bit player or a narrator in sometimes uplifting but often tragic tales of crime and urban life—with an occasional fantastic element, as in the best-known episode, “The Tale of Gerhard Schnobble,” a fable about a man who can fly but doesn't because his parents don't wish him to be “strange.” When taking an active role, the Spirit often becomes involved with one of the trademark femmes fatales, including Silk Satin, Sand Saref, and the notorious P'Gell. At seven pages each, with only one two-parter, these are marvels of concise storytelling, displaying an encyclopedic array of artistic techniques, especially in the iconic and widely varied scene-setting splash pages. Essential for anyone interested in comics history.

ENDO, HIROAKI. Eden: It's an Endless World! Vol. 1.Dark Horse. 2005. 216p. tr. from Japanese by Kumar Sivasubramanian. ISBN 1-59307-406-9. pap. $12.95. F

The first half of this excellent and compelling near-future sf manga is set about a decade after a mysterious virus has devastated humanity. In the ruins of what was once a sealed refuge from the outside world, teen survivors Enoah and Hannah live with the scientist Layne, a gay man and friend of Enoah's father, who is slowly succumbing to the virus. An intelligent robot called Cherubim, found by Enoah, saves the three from an attack by another group of surviving humans from a shadowy organization called Propater. In the second half, Enoah and Hannah's son, Elijah, seemingly on a quest to escape Propater, travels with Cherubim through a deserted urban landscape slowly being reclaimed by nature. So far, it's not nudity or sex that earns the 18+ rating but explicit violence and images of rotting corpses. With its postapocalyptic setting (in which much is still left to be explained), intrigue, accomplished writing, highly detailed realistic artwork, and a strong element of philosophical speculation, this will appeal to fans of Battle Angel Alita, Nausicaa, and Neon Genesis Evangelion.

JENKINS, PAUL (TEXT) & MARK BUCKINGHAM, TALENT CALDWELL & OTHERS (ILLUS.) The Spectacular Spider-Man. Vol. 6: The Final Curtain. Marvel. 2005. 144p. ISBN 0-7851-1950-7. pap. $14.99. F

This particular Spider-Man series has varied in quality, with three good volumes followed by two dreadful ones, but a trio of standalone single-issue stories makes this final book the best of the six. In the first, a villain crashes a superhero game of Texas Hold'em played by the Fantastic Four, the Angel, and others. Jenkins's irreverent humor serves him well here, though his dopey characterization of Dr. Strange is a bit hard to take. Peter Parker's compassion and self-doubt move to the foreground in the next story, when he is struck by the plight of a down-and-out ex-supervillain, a psychic called Mindworm, who has become a homeless alcoholic. Finally, in a beautiful Christmas story wonderfully drawn by Buckingham, Peter gets to talk with his deceased Uncle Ben and recovers a memory of his long-dead parents. There's also an uninspiring three-part Doctor Octopus story, but the remainder recommends this to all collections. Marvel appropriately rates the book T+, for teens and up.

JOHNSON, R. KIKUO. Night Fisher. Fantagraphics. 2005. 144p. ISBN 1-56097-719-1. pap. $12.95. F

Loren Foster was transplanted from Boston to the island of Maui six years ago. A haole (Caucasian) living among the native Hawaiians, he's now a senior at the prestigious high school Winthrope, becoming increasingly distant from his father, his friends, and his own strait-laced, high-achieving past. In his first GN, Johnson tells a coming-of-age story with subtlety and depth, expertly depicting the awkwardness of Loren's relationships and his encounters with the seamier side of life. Johnson makes full use of his island locale, bringing in elements of local politics and skillfully interweaving a remarkable subtext dealing with Hawaiian natural history. His realistic but gritty black-and-white artwork and his deft, literary storytelling style may owe something to his instructor David Mazzucchelli (Batman: Year One), but this topnotch work has ideas and power all its own. A smashing debut likely to be of most interest to adults; recommended for all collections.

KOIKE, KAZUO (TEXT) & KAZUO KAMIMURA (ILLUS.) Lady Snowblood. Vol. 1: The Deep-Seated Grudge. Pt. 1. Dark Horse. 2005. 286p. tr. from Japanese by Naomi Kokubo. ISBN 1-59307-385-2. pap. $14.95. F

This revenge story set in modernizing 1890s Japan was published in 1972 and inspired a Lady Snowblood film that was a strong influence on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Written by the cocreator of the classic Lone Wolf and Cub, it concerns the female master assassin Yuki, who is intent upon vengeance against the people who killed her brother and father and raped her mother in an incident years before she was born. The initial episodes here alternate accounts of Yuki's murders-for-hire with flashbacks to her birth and training. The writing is strong, and Yuki is a cold-hearted but gripping central character. Kamimura's artwork is more cartoony than Goseki Kojima's work in Lone Wolf and Cub, but it is still accomplished and effective. The book's “explicit content” advisory is well deserved: there is much nudity (though no “primary sexual characteristics” are shown) and sex (including multiple rapes and lesbian and oral sex), in addition to torture and bloody violence, all of which make this a series strictly for adult collections.

KUBERT, JOE. Tarzan: The Joe Kubert Years. Vol. 1. Dark Horse. 2005. 200p. ISBN 1-59307-404-2. $49.95. F

The highly respected Kubert—known for the Hawkman, Enemy Ace, and Sgt. Rock comics in the 1960s and more recently for Fax from Sarajevo and Yossel—was inspired by Hal Foster's Tarzan newspaper strip as a young boy. In 1972, he got the chance to work on the jungle lord himself when DC Comics began publishing Tarzan's adventures. This hardcover reprints the first eight issues of DC's series, beginning with an exciting adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's very first Tarzan novel, which tells how the baby son of Lord Greystoke was raised in the African jungle by an ape, grew to become his tribe's leader, and finally encountered others of his own kind. Kubert also adapts stories from Burroughs's Jungle Tales of Tarzan and tells one lesser tale of his own. His bold, gritty, rough-edged artwork has the vitality of his predecessor Foster, vividly portraying the strength and fury of the jungle's denizens and the lush vegetation of their home. Recommended for teen and adult adventure fans at all libraries.

Seyeong OBuja's Diary. Nantier Beall Minoustchine. 2005. 280p. ISBN 1-56163-448-4. pap. $19.95. F

This volume presents 13 literary short stories by Korean manhwa creator Seyeong, which are largely stories of hardship, loss, and poverty in a Korea devastated first by the Japanese in World War II and then by political division. This setting will prove educational to American readers: the kids in “Tear Gas” play cops and Communists; in “The Little Alley Watcher,” a lonely girl turns out to be the daughter of the only remaining adults in a farming village where everyone else has left for the big city (Seoul, that is). Two other standouts are “The Secret of the Old Leather Pouch,” about an old man who refuses to let go of sorrow, and “The Snake-Catcher Brothers' Dream,” a simple but masterly dark fable about two hard-working brothers who envy their lazier rival's luck. Seyeong's excellent black-and-white art is strongly realistic. With nudity and sex, this is for adult collections and recommended for all readers of Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, Yoshihiro Tatsumi's The Push Man, and Osamu Tezuka's later works.

WILLINGHAM, BILL & JUDD WINICK (TEXT) & JUSTIANO & OTHERS (ILLUS.) Day of Vengeance. DC Comics. 2005. 224p. ISBN 1-4012-0840-1. pap. $12.99. F

The all-powerful Spectre, spirit of justice, is confused and amnesiac after being split from his human host, Hal Jordan. The evil spirit Eclipso bonds with villainess Jean Loring and seduces the Spectre into a mission to eradicate all magic (and every magic user) on Earth. At the Oblivion Bar, a multidimensional hangout for witches and wizards, Detective Chimp rouses himself from his heavy drinking to call together a motley band of volunteers—including the bar's bouncer, Blue Devil; former superhero Ragman; and mercurial sorceress Enchantress—to put in motion his desperate plan to free the Spectre from Eclipso's influence. The artwork is very good, and the story has a winningly offbeat spirit; it entertains by giving personalities to its second-string mystical characters and by balancing a tone of gravitas with an irreverent side. As one of several books feeding into DC's Infinite Crisis event, this is just part of a complicated tapestry, and it will interest all teen and adult DC fans.

Reissues

MCCAY, WINSOR. Daydreams and Nightmares: The Fantastic Visions of Winsor McCay. Fantagraphics. 2005. 176p. ISBN 1-56097-569-5. pap. $24.95. F

This highly impressive volume collecting a wide variety of black-and-white work from 1898–1934 by early newspaper strip master (and animated cartoon pioneer) McCay was originally published by Fantagraphics in 1988. This second edition is larger in size (an oblong 14” x 10”) and features improved artwork reproduction in some sections. Included are examples of McCay's early strips Little Sammy Sneeze and Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend, the latter presaging McCay's most famous strip, the surreal fantasy Little Nemo in Slumberland, with its bizarre nightmares inspired by rich food. Many other early strips and illustrations are also featured, including an interesting set of visions of the future “as foreseen through the Spectrophone.” The book's last section collects a remarkable series of newspaper illustrations—some futuristic, some moralistic, many allegorical, and all amazingly rendered in great detail. The strong realism in McCay's artwork here makes the fantasy and bold allegory all the more striking. Much of this work is also available in the more comprehensive multivolume Winsor McCay: Early Works series from Checker, but this book has better reproduction quality, and its contents are better served by the larger presentation. Recommended for all collections.

About Comics

GRAVETT, PAUL. Graphic Novels: Everything You Need To Know. Collins Design. 2005. 192p. ISBN 0-06-082425-5. pap. $24.95. Graphic Arts

In this sophisticated and useful “readers advisory” book for adults, Gravett (Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics) provides an excellent overview of the world of graphic novels. Selecting 30 highly recommended works from many countries, ranging from The Dark Knight Returns to Palomar to Hugo Pratt's historical adventure Corto Maltese, he groups them in separate chapters by theme (childhood, fantasy, crime, sex, superheroes) and devotes a two-page spread to each work, presenting sample pages and discussing them in annotations. Each of the 30 is followed by similar but shorter features on four other recommended works with related themes, and a web of keyword references directs readers further. Each chapter has an introduction providing comics history and context. With 150 books excerpted and many others mentioned briefly, even readers who know comics well are likely to discover unfamiliar and intriguing work. Gravett occasionally gives away more of a story than some readers would wish, but that quibble aside, this is a genuinely substantial contribution to the growing literature on graphic novels. Highly recommended for all libraries.

LEHMANN, TIMOTHY R. Manga: Masters of the Art. Collins Design. 2005. 256p. ISBN 0-06-083331-9. pap. $24.95. F

This attractive volume features profusely illustrated interviews with a diverse group of 12 important manga creators. Many of the subjects tend toward adult-oriented works, the biggest exceptions being the two best-known in the United States: action manga creator Kia Asamiya (Dark Angel; Batman: Child of Dreams) and the all-female group CLAMP (Cardcaptor Sakura; Tsubasa). Also included are Jiro Taniguchi (The Walking Man; Icaro), Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk; Vagabond), Erica Sakurazawa (Between the Sheets; Angel), and several creators who have so far had little or no work translated into English. The illustrations, including a 24-page color section, are well chosen and gorgeously reproduced, and their text is left untranslated. One new exclusive ten-page story (also untranslated) by Mafuyu Hiroki is included in full. Lehmann also includes selected lists of each artist's work, noting books published in the United States, and recommends several others with similar styles or themes. Lehmann intended the book primarily for artists, and it features photos and long lists of the artists' tools along with discussions of their working methods. But general manga fans will definitely find the interviews and artwork of interest. With explicit violence and sex, this is recommended for adult collections.

Masters of American Comics. YaleUniv. 2005. 328p. ISBN 0-300-11317-X. $45. F

This beautifully designed but sometimes frustrating oversized hardcover volume is the catalog of a joint exhibition at the Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, both in Los Angeles. It spotlights 15 important American cartoonists, including comic strip masters Winsor McCay, E.C. Segar, and Chester Gould; comic book legends Jack Kirby and Harvey Kurtzman; underground comics father Robert Crumb; and more recent graphic novelists Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware. The color and black-and-white examples of the artists' work, sometimes from printed copies but often from the original artwork, are well selected and wonderfully reproduced. Each artist is the subject of a biographical or analytical essay by an admirer (e.g., Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell writes on Charles Schulz, jazz critic Stanley Crouch on George Herriman). These are interesting and worthwhile, though Raymond Pettibon's commentary on Will Eisner can be abstruse. Also, the book's first half features a lengthy and disappointing introductory essay by John Carlin, which contains interesting information on early comics but is peppered with questionable statements and padded with too much rote description of the book's artwork. Still, this is an impressive volume, recommended for all adult collections.