Archive for the Western Comic/Comix Category


American Comic: Y The Last Man

December 14th, 2006

The American comic Y, The Last Man has been on my “to review” list for months and months, but I just never quite found the time. I think “Anything at all but not another schoolgirl, I beg you!” week is the perfect time, don’t you?

Let me preface with review with the statement that I think, in general, this is a pretty good series. I needed to say that first, because most of my comments are going to be negative and it will sound like I hated the series…when, in fact, I didn’t.

To begin with, the plot of Y, The Last Man is a non-Eva post-apocalyptic world. One day, quite suddenly, all the males in the world drop dead. Except one. Hence the title.

The “Last Man” is Yorick. And here is my first complaint.

I can totally understand the appeal of the “everyman” character as a lead. I really can. What I can NOT understand is the appeal of the “nebbish loser” character as a lead. Yorick is a rich kid who is a huge slacker loser who, instead of sitting around playing video games and smoking dope, as one would expect, is sitting around practicing escape tricks and who has a pet monkey he can’t train. Oooookkkkaaayyy. If it works for you…

Secondly, immediately after all the men die, every woman we encounter appears to go completely mad. Any woman with any kind of governmental power is seen to be outrageously insane and make the stupidest and most illogical decisions possible. And lots of pockets of insane cults pop up…instantly. Like within a week.

Third. Every single character who is, or can perceived to be, a lesbian at the beginning of the book is not only insane, but also likely to be drugged, psychotic and evil. And while I like three of the four, they are also often boring ranting lunatics, which is simply dreadful.

And lastly, the thing that made me stop reading somewhere in Volume, 6 or maybe it was 7…or 8, was this; after *two years* we’re told that there are still no medicines and pharmaceuticals being made and distributed.

Now, I’m sorry. Two YEARS? I can personally vouch for the fact that about 1/3 of the folks who work in major global pharma firms are women. 6 months, tops. I can absolutely see production being stopped as all the women regrouped initially. But to think that, after TWO YEARS, womenkind – that is, 51% of the current population of the planet – hadn’t managed a single decent power grid, or distribution of food and medicine…that’s just plain insulting.

All that having been said, there is one major character who is a lesbian, and is not an insane raving lunatic-type psychotic…mostly. Dr. Allison Mann is a competent, intelligent and attractive woman who happens to be a lesbian. Her “coming out” was handled well; she is well past lesbian drama and throughout the whole story manages to stay interesting, intelligent, witty and only goes a teeny bit insane. (It is totally not her fault that she’s given an incredibly stupid backstory.)

Allison does manage to have sex and everything in the course of the story – without her or her lover dying. There’s got to be an award for that or something. The first time, it’s a “well that was a bad choice, but oh well, let’s move on, it was stupid but there you have it,” kind of thing, and her reaction when her erstwhile lover, 355, overreacts is the most realistic scene in the book. Later Allison nabs herself a hunky doodle of an Australian (supposedly) ex-intelligence officer, Rose. I didn’t trust her as far as I could kick her, but then I stopped caring and stopped reading.

So, as I said, overall, good series….

…but, fuck you Brian K. Vaughn and same to whomever wrote the Wikipedia entry with this line: “Y: The Last Man is Vaughan’s attempt to subvert the classic male fantasy of being the last man on earth.” No. There’s no suberversion there. It’s the same thing all over again. Loser guy is last man on earth. Wow. How original. Never been done before. We’ve come a long way, baby.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 5
Characters – 7 tapering to 5 as the story goes on and they get weaker to support stupider and more outrageous plot complications.
Yuri – As a whole 3. Allison – 9
Service – 4

Overall – 7 tapering to 5 as the series goes on and….

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of American Comics, a hearty double fuck you to DC Comics for calling their new line designed to “get girls reading comics”, Minx. No…no condescension there. Uh-huh. Hardly at all.

So, after thinking about it, I sent this email to DC:

Dear DC,

I have the Beowulf comic you published in the 80’s where the “scop” uses lines like “Happy Birthday Caroline” backwards as magic spells and Beowulf looks like the Michelin Man. I will not hesitate to blackmail you with it if necessary. So listen up.

Girls already read comics. We always have. We *would* just really like to have female characters who are unabashedly whatever they are without justification or condescension. Calling a line “Minx” (which is the kind of thing letchs call women in trashy novels (“You little minx, you”) is not a good way to draw in women.

Hope that helps.

Sincerely,

Erica





Yuri Comic: Girly, Volume 1

July 19th, 2006

I love webcomics. Which is to say, I love the idea of webcomics.

When I was a little kid, every Sunday I’d go to the candy store with my father. (Swear to god, I’m not making this up.) He’d get the paper, I’d get 50 cents to buy whatever I wanted – I wanted comic books. I read mostly Marvel and over the years picked up some deeply weird and random books…most of which I still have. Like Nova, which was a deservingly short-lived series about a kid who somehow got a super-powered suit and still managed to be a nebbish. As I got older, I got into comics collecting and met and became friends with some folks who worked for the big comic companies. (I tried to get a job with DC, but failed. lol) I even worked for a while at a comic book store. I knew, of course, about Indie comics, but was never interested much – mostly because what I perceived as “Indie” was usually bad art and nothing more than drugs and bad, boring or gross sex.

I was just leaving the world of American comics as small indie ventures such as a new, upstart company called Dark Horse was coming on the scene. I even worked with a guy who had a short-lived comic published by DH about a creature that came out of the toxic fields near Newark, NJ. I think it was called “Zone.” But for all that, Indy comics never did it for me.

I was aware, as all comic readers were, of the dearth of really original, unique story telling and art in the widely available published comics industry. Some of that was due to the American comics nadir during the McCarthy era, and alot was due to market forces. I left comics when the best new ideas that DC and Marvel could come up with were “collector’s edition” covers on popular series.

Fast forward 10 years and the Internet was born. Now, more than ten years after that, and publishing on the net has removed almost all the barriers for self-publishing that ever existed. Writers and artists of all ages and talent levels can slam something together and put it up and say that they are published. This is, quite obviously, wonderful – – and really scary. ^_^

So, yes, I love the *idea* of webcomics – truly independent work by people from nearly everywhere almost instantly findable by almost anyone anywhere.

But in reality, I only like a few webcomics. Wait, no…one. There’s a few I’ll read when I’m really, really, REALLY bored, or haven’t looked at them in forever, but there’s only *one* I read regularly. And that’s Josh Lesnick’s Girly. And I’m thrilled to say that Josh’s first 100 or so strips have been collected into the first volume of Girly, now available on Amazon.

I know Girly is not for everyone. The art is inconsistent (which I quite like, especially as he started this particular comic trying a more button-down style and over time it’s exploded into his usual wackiness) and the story is wildly random (which I also like.)

I was a fan of Josh’s from Wendy and through Cute Wendy, the collected works of which we were able to give away as prizes at Yuricon in Tokyo, thanks to Josh’s generosity. But as I sat here the other night reading Girly, Volume 1, I remembered just why I liked it. It’s got great characters. Otra and Winter have that thing I look for in Yuri – that inexplicable electricity that make a couple work for me. Officer Policeguy, the woman with the cute baby…Chupacabre, they are all just plain fun. Even the vile and cheap repartee’ between Captain Fist and Assmaster makes me laugh.

The book is really well put together – the strips are laid out vertically on a black background, two to a page for a feel similar to the website. The black makes for a cool all-around feel to the book, too. And if you’re an anime fan, Josh lays on some not-at-all-subtle anime fandom in-jokes from time to time.

If you’re not familiar with Girly you’re probably thinking, “But is it Yuri?” Yep. It’s about two women who fall in love and have adventures with rampaging elephants and marshmallow kitties and giant dildos. Among other things.

I pre-purchased my copy of Girly directly from Josh’s site, partially to support him and partially to nab myself a signed copy. When it arrived, it had a lovely drawn picture of Otra and Winter on the inside back cover and the header “Yuri Power!” ^_^ Thanks Josh – it really made my day.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 8
Service – 2

Overall – 7

The story itself has gotten stronger as the comic has gone on, but Josh hasn’t yet lost sight of the qualities that make the characters unique. I look forward to Volume 2. ^_^

Oh, and I adore my t-shirt that says, “Everywhere I go, I’m shooting people into space.” :-D