Comic Picks By The Glick

No, really.  John and I got to San Jose for Day Zero a week ago Thursday and before either of us knew it we were on our way out on Monday.  Attending Fanime is always one of the highlights of my year and while this was just a “good” con compared to previous years it still went by faster than I would have liked.  Part of that stems from the fact that there was frankly a ton of stuff to do and see at the con, as always.  In addition to the dealer’s hall, artist’s alley, and gaming hall, there were four panel rooms and six video rooms (which were running 24/7) so there was always something to check out at almost any given moment.  Most of what I checked out was pretty entertaining, as you can read below starting with a convention tradition:

Spiritual successor to this.  Are there any interesting skeletons in the publisher's catalog of uncollected manga?

It’s rare these days that we get some indication about how well a manga title is selling for its publisher.  Which is why this article about Hiroaki Samura’s latest was a very pleasant surprise to read.  (Now only if some of that sales success can rub off on fellow digital-only seinen release “All-Rounder Meguru”...)  It’s also good to know that Kodansha will be sticking with this series because this is its sharpest yet.  We pick up after the quasi-cliffhanger from budding radio personality Minare Koda’s latest show in which she participated in a scenario where her no-good boyfriend came back to life after she tried to bury him.  This leads to some funny bits involving a goddess of rebirth who would “[L]ook cute if she lost  weight?” and is obsessed with Sweden because of its good welfare programs.

With her dramatic history with her previous boyfriend successfully mined for material, Minare beings to look for new experiences to fuel her show.  She’s willing to give anything a shot, so while you or I would balk at investigating the frightening scrawl faxed from listener begging for help with the ghost of the girlfriend he believes is haunting him Minare decides to give it a shot.  After some egging on by her producer, of course.  What follows is more entertaining silliness that sees Minare in full Japanese exorcist getup, tells us about the kind of hot spring you don’t visit, and maybe involves a Russian assassin as well.

Much as I enjoyed this stuff, I kind of wish that Samura had stuck to the original outcome of Minare’s visit because the twist is really easy to see coming.  It does lead to an awkward/funny radio show where she sets the record straight and may likely prove to be a turning point in her radio career.  Which will be interesting to follow as she’s presented with a “Valentine Radio” plan at the end of the volume.  I’m sure that’s going to turn out real well for her!

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

This is actually the first arc of “Saga” to have a proper name.  “The War for Phang” is described on the back cover as being “an epic, self-contained ‘Saga’ event.”  If you’re going to hype up a story to that event then you’d better deliver.  On that level, this volume of “Saga” is a genuine disappointment.

A deceased debutant’s dildo.  A masturbating millenial mayor.  A merchandising meth-head named Matty.  These are just some of the new wrinkles introduced to the irreverent craziness of the plot of this series.  Roy, the cop who likes to think that he’s a smooth operator, is dealing with the fallout from the death and subsequent mansion explosion of the starlet he was supposed to be protecting.  While this case may be the big break his budding showbusiness career needs, it might be derailed in short order if the side business he and his partner have with some meth-heads turns out to have been the reason she died.  Speaking of his partner, Mac may not have any illusions about his smooth operator status, but he’s actually managed to forge a solid bond with the one morally upstanding character in this series:  Pretzels, the drug-sniffing beagle.  Now Mac just has to leverage that friendship so that his suburban crimelord boss can get one of his guys through the TSA screening.

If the crude humor and poorly-timed social aspects of the first volume didn’t turn you off, then I have great news!  Vol. 2 of “The Fix” offers up much more down-and-dirty jokes and jibes at the expense of proper social etiquette.  No, the boundary-pushing nature of writer Nick Spencer’s humor doesn’t always hit the mark, but it does much more often than not here.  It’s also impressive to see how much effort he’s put into creating this wild and weird take on L.A.  Witness meth-head Matty’s detailed thoughts about his current life situation and goals.  Partner-in-crime Steve Lieber is also fully committed to this debauchery, particularly in the mostly wordless two-page sequences where it feels like he was given free reign to be as absurd as he can within the story.

There is one big issue with this volume and that would be how little the story progresses in the four issues contained here.  Granted, this is only a four-issue collection.  Yet one only needs to look at what Brubaker and Phillips did on the similarly-sized “The Fade Out” collections to see that you really can advance a story in a trade paperback of this size.  If they want to keep me reading then Spencer and Lieber are going to have to work a lot harder to make sure the next volume actually moves the narrative forward.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Tom King’s first volume of “Batman” took a familiar concept -- Batman having to work with new superpowered characters who want to work with him to help Gotham -- and didn’t do anything new with it.  “I Am Gotham” had some nice art from David Finch and Ivan Reis, but the storytelling never really rose above “competent.”  There was the hint that things could get interesting at the end of the volume as Batman agreed to undertake a mission for Suicide Squad head Amanda Waller in order to get Gotham Girl the help she needed.  The good news is that seeing Batman assemble his own “Suicide Squad” is pretty entertaining and shows that King isn’t going to be entirely beholden to convention in his run.  If you’re also guessing that there’s some bad news here, you’re right as I can only hope the writer’s one big thought on why Batman does what he does is quickly forgotten.

I made two mistakes regarding this series.  The first was buying this arc in three-volume paperback form.  There’s going to be an oversized hardcover collection of “A Nation Under Our Feet” released later this year that will not only be cheaper, but reprint-free as well.  The second was expecting that this concluding volume would offer up a more exciting experience compared to the previous two.  There is some interest to be had in seeing T’Challa’s reunion with his sister Suri, the Midnight Angels negotiating the tricky path of revolution, and the battle against Tetu and Zenzi for control of Wakanda’s Golden City.  Yet the majority of this volume (and the first arc as a whole) is made up of people talking about the rights and responsibilities of rules towards their people and it’s not really any more interesting here than it was before.  Credit where credit is due, artists Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse do their best to make the talking heads as interesting to look at as the action and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates does wrap things up with a markedly different status quo for Wakanda heading into his next arc “Avengers of the New World.”

It’s also worth mentioning that the reprints selected to round out the page count in this volume are of a more recent vintage than what we saw in vols. one and two.  They’re from Jonathan Hickman’s “New Avengers” run in the lead up to and start of “Time Runs Out.”  While they’re a lot more fun to (re)read compared to the 60’s-era offerings in the first two volumes, their inclusion is somewhat problematic from a quality standpoint.  That’s because even in their abbreviated presence here they show how dialogue-driven superhero comics can work really well.  Seeing the Illuminati grapple with the morality of destroying a world as they have minutes to decide its fate is downright gripping.  In less dramatic context, the dinner conversation between Namor and Doom as the former asks the latter for help is rife with tension and drama leading to the classic “Doom is no man’s second choice” statement.  Compared to scenes like these, Coates’ “Black Panther” doesn’t really measure up.

I do recognize that this is Coates’ first major work in comics and that he committed himself to this twelve-issue arc from the start.  Now that he’s had a year of experience writing comics I’m interested in seeing if he’ll handle things differently with this next arc.  That’s my reason for sticking around.  Optimism, as opposed to the actual quality of the comics in these three volumes.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com

Hiroki Endo’s MMA-manga continues on in its own appealingly low-key fashion.  After the (perhaps unsurprising) finish to Maki’s match from the previous volume the focus shifts back to Meguru and his ongoing struggle to get better.  While he’s slowly developing his technique and refining his ability to copy moves on the fly from others, he still lacks the strength needed to compete with tougher opponents.  Much of vol. 3 focuses on Meguru’s growth as a grappler within the title’s grounded aesthetic.  I think this approach for a fighting manga is still pretty novel even though I’ll admit that some might find mangaka Hiroki Endo’s approach just a little dull.  Endo does spice things up a bit with some goofy humor, mostly from the introduction of skilled judo practitioner Momo Aikawa, which is appreciated.

The really interesting stuff takes place between what I’ve described above as we get to see what Meguru’s old (former?) friend Takashi gets up to when he’s not training or fighting.  After his latest fight, he meets up with his sugar mama, Miyuki, who has a personal request.  One of her former hostesses fell in with a low-class yakuza thug and wound up in the hospital after said thug beat her really bad one day.  Miyuki wants this guy to be taught a lesson, and Takashi turns her down only to find out later that one of his co-workers from the bar he waiters at has taken the job in the hopes of getting in good with the local gang.

This leads to some, how shall we say, real-world applications of the fighting techniques that Takashi has been utilizing in the ring.  It’s a brutally efficient sequence that showcases not only the young man’s skills, but the theory behind their application as well.  I found it easy to appreciate this thoughtful approach along with the interesting twist where Takashi finds out there was more going on than he was aware of.  This thread is also further evidence that the mangaka isn’t afraid to bring in more complex subject matter than we’re used to seeing in fighting manga, which is also appreciated.  So if you’re like me and want to see more of this, it’s best you go out and buy a copy to download right now.  Kodansha hasn’t solicited any more volumes of this series yet, and it would really suck if ANOTHER of Endo’s manga wound up being unfinished out here.

jason@glickscomicpicks.com