Dark Tower: Treachery
by various people including Peter David, Robin Furth, Jae Lee, and Richard Isanove. Stephen King probably had something to do with it too.
Marvel Books, April 2009
144 Pages

I’ve been on a comic kick lately. Finally catching up on all the Dark Tower comics I’ve purchased over the past year or so. Each one is better than the last which sucks because I have yet to purchase volume five which ends the first series.

Anyway, Treachery is volume three and it starts with Roland, Alain, and Cuthbert returning to Gilead. Roland’s encounter with Maerlyn’s Grapefruit has taken it’s toll on him. While his mind is no longer trapped inside it, he still obsesses over it to the point where his friends start to worry about it. For most of this volume Roland doesn’t do much but sleep in his read and play around with the Grapefruit. He stays in the background of the story and lets Alain and Cuthbert take the stage as they are forced to deal with the impending ceremony where they will be given the title of Gunslingers.

A new character introduced in this volume, who will probably play an important role, is Aileen. She is the niece of Cort, the guy who trains the boys in the ways of a Gunslinger. At heart, Aileen is a tomboy who wants to become a Gunslinger but because she is a girl, she can’t. I think so far she is an interesting character with lots of potential. No doubt she will become a regular in this story even if we know she wont stick around forever because there’s no mention of her in the books.

As the title stands, the overall theme of this volume is treachery. There are traitors hidden throughout Gilead working towards bring about the fall of Gilead, which is ironically the title of the forth volume, The Fall of Gilead. Spoiler alert? Nah, if you’ve read the books you knew it was going to happen.

The last few pages of this volume are perhaps the best as everybody starts to realize just how much trouble they are in and how they’re being manipulated. Roland, being tricked by the Grapefruit, ends up shooting his adulterous mother and serves as the cliffhanger that ends this volume.

The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home
by Stephen King*
Marvel Books, October 2008
160 Pages

The Long Road Home is the second volume in the comic series based on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels. The story line featured in this book is the first original story since volume one, The Gunslinger Born, was primarily based Wizard and Glass, the fourth book in the novel series.

The Long Road Home picks up immediately after the events of the first book as the reader finds Roland, Alain, and Cuthbert on the run from the Big Coffin Hunters. The three of them have managed to steal Maerlyn’s Grapefruit which traps Roland inside, leaving Alain and Cuthbert to protect their friend while his mind is tormented.

Chances are if you haven’t read any of the Dark Tower series then none of that makes sense to you which is fine. The world of the Dark Tower is a complex one. If you were wanting to jump in and start reading the series your best bet would be to start at the first novel and go from there. The comics do a decent job explaining all the mythology that is need to make its story understandable but you would need to start from the beginning. I digress.

The Long Road Home wont be a standout comic and almost feels like a necessary filler to help establish the characters for the chapters that are to come. I’ve already read volume three, Treachery, which is vastly superior in terms of story and events that it’s okay if The Long Road Home isn’t the best the series has to offer.

My review of volume one: The Gunslinger Born

*Okay, it’s not really written by Stephen King. I think he serves as Executive Director. Robin Furth plots the story. Peter David scripts it. Plus there is Jae Lee and Richard Isanove who illustrate. I would love to give credit where credit is due but in terms of comics it’s a team effort and the subject line can only be so long.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game is based off of the popular Scott Pilgrim graphic novels (see previous post #1 and #2 if you don’t know what I am talking about). The story is your typical boy meets girl, boy lesbians girl, boy must defeat girl’s seven evil exes. In the book it is up to Scott to defeat the exes since he is the one dating Ramona. However, in the game you can play as Scott, Ramona, Kim, and Stephen. It’s possible to play the single player game as a character other than Scott but doing so completely destroys the story. Why would Stephen, the lead singer in Scott’s band, go and single handedly defeat Ramona’s exes. There’s nothing in it for him, nothing for him to gain. Same thing with Kim, drummer and Scott’s ex.

In order to make the game playable I made up stories that take the place of “defeat Ramona’s exes” in case I find myself playing as someone other than Scott. Let’s face it, without a story holding the game together it’s impossible to keep interested in this beat’em up game.

Ramona Flowers vs. the World: The Game
One would think that after an appropriate amount of time Ramona’s exes would have gotten over her. Instead they constantly send her friend requests on Facebook, are sending her Tweets, and have from time-to-time shown up at her work. She’s fed up with it. It’s time for Ramona to teach her exes what the meaning of “we’re through” is even if she has to beat it in to them. After beating all seven of the exes, Ramona enjoys to solitude. It might be a little lonely, not being the center of attention, so maybe she’ll get a cat. And one cat turns in to three or four and before you know, Ramona because that “cat lady” who lives above your apartment. Ramona will wonder why she can’t get another boyfriend, but you’ll know why. It’s the all of her cats and the smell that comes with them.

Kim Pine vs. the World: The Game
Kim comes from a broken home. He father left before her first birthday, and her mother refuses to talk about it. Her mom has dated other men, searching for a replacement father figure. But every time she got comfortable with them they left. After Kim’s mother passed away in a car crash one snowy night after being dumped again, Kim was forced to live on the streets and support herself. She learned to fight to protect herself from the scary hobos of Montreal. Life turned around and eventually was taken in to foster care (or the canadian equivalent) and started life over again. At last she had a family, but her anger towards men remained. Her violent outburst can not be contained and all of her friends are worried about her rage issues but are too afraid to say anything. Only after Kim’s seventh violent outbreak do her friends sit her down and tell her how worried they all are about her. There are tears and a lot of hugs. Too ashamed to face her friends after that, Kim retreats to the Chic-Choc Mountains where she manages the local tavern and is able to beat up the occasional drunk without anybody noticing.

Stephen Stills vs. the World: The Game
In what may be the least expected plot twist (and the least cared about) in the Scott Pilgrim books was that Stephen Stills is gay. He finally came out to Scott 10 pages before the end of Volume 5. Nobody saw that coming. The reason for that was because it took 5 volumes for Stephen to accept who he is. At first he was like “Oh dude no, I can’t be gay. I’ll date a girl or something to prove.” But that, naturally, doesn’t work out. His confusion turns to self-hatred and he becomes incredibly homophobic. To prove his manliness, he sets out to beat up the seven toughest people around, who just happen to be Ramona’s exes. As he defeats each ex, he learns a little about himself. Upon defeating Ramona’s final ex, he earns the power of acceptance and is finally able to admit to himself and his friends that he likes dudes. Stephen and his boyfriend go on to open a bed and breakfast in Saint-Georges.

Next time, I’ll explore the story’s of the two hidden characters in the game.

Have you heard of this little known comic series called Scott Pilgrim? Not many people have, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t. I hear they might make a movie about it at some point. Again, these are just rumors.

Well, anyway, with the comic series having finally wrapped up. I thought I would re-read them all. Being forced to wait a year in between books makes it difficult for me to remember certain characters and plot events and whatnot.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
The Scott Pilgrim series is apparently about this 23 year old guy who starts dating a 17 year old high school student. Wait, check that. Scott Pilgrim is apparently about this 23 year old who starts dating a 17 year old high school student but then starts cheating on her by totally sleeping with this girl he meets at a party. I know that the above statement is not what Scott Pilgrim is about, but if someone just randomly picked up this book and started reading without having a friend tell them what it was about or without reading the back cover, then this is what I would think the plot is about. It’s not until near the end up the book that seven evil ex-boyfriends is mention. I find it odd that the book opens with Scott’s relationship with Knives (the high school student). To me that suggests that she plays an important role in the story. That, or the entire first half of this book is just filler. Couldn’t we have just started with Scott met Ramona (the party girl)? That would have made more sense.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Wold
Now that we’ve got the introduction to the series under our belt, Vol 2 can just jump right in to the meat and potato of the series, so to speak. In my mind this book is still trying to find the proper balance between drama/action/comedy. While the drama and comedy are there, the action is a bit of a let down. Vol 2 does contain my favorite fight scene in the whole series when Knives attacks Ramona in the library. I think the outfit Knives is wearing and Ramona’s ability to kick-ass come as a nice surprise to the reader. The Scott vs. Evil Ex battle in this book is an incredible let down. Halfway through the ex gets killed in a pretty pathetic skateboarding accident making him the most forgettable of the ex’s. The rest of the book is about Scott’s band and his need for a haircut.

Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
Vol 3 is my favorite book in the series. I think it is the most well balanced. Todd, evil ex number #3, who was shown in the final pages of Vol 2, is a vegan and just happens to be dating Scott’s ex, Envy. I liked that, unlike the previous books, Scott and Todd have multiple confrontations instead of just one fight that was over way too quickly. I actually felt that defeating the evil ex’s was the main plot instead of just a convenient hook used to draw the reader in to Scott and his friend’s relationship drama. The relationship drama is extra heavy in this volume due to the inclusion of Envy, the girl who broke Scott’s heart prior to the start of the series. Her and Ramona have a pretty cool fight involving a rather large hammer. There’s now a duality in the series with Scott fighting Ramona’s exes and Ramona fighting two of Scott’s exes thus far. We could look deep into this a suggest that what Bryan Lee O’Malley is trying to say that in every relationship a person can not help but at some point have to confront the exes of the other person in either a symbolic, physical, or hypothetical fashion. Or, we could just see it as an excuse for Ramona to kick-ass and establish her as a strong female character.

Anyway, I’ll post tomorrow about the remaining three volumes.

I was given a copy of The Return of King Doug and burned through it so fast I almost wondered how.

I think the idea behind this book is incredibly funny and something that has never been done before. The idea of “The Chosen One” has been done so many times (Frodo, Buffy, Neo, etc.) that someone was bound to put a good twist on it, and they did.

Doug Peterson is a young boy who discovers the fantasy kingdom of Valdonia. It’s at the bottom of a well that sits in the backyard of his parent’s summer cabin. Being human, the creatures revere him as The Chosen one, their commander, who will lead them into battle against the wicked Queen who has taken over their lands. Together with the magic amulet, the Heart of Agnon, they will defeat her and crown Doug their King.

Sounds great, and even Doug is in, until he realizes that he is a little boy and this isn’t a game. It’s a real battle. There’s a chance he could get ripped apart.

So he goes back home.

25 years later Doug is a lazy good for nothing that can’t keep a job. He has since fathered a boy and we pick back up when it’s his weekend with his son. They end up at the cabin, his son goes off to play and well…I think you see what’s coming.

The Centaurs and the Tum Tums are in an even worse place. If it was bad before, now it’s REALLY bad and Doug must confront his fears and his bad habits to save his son and take back Valdonia from the evil Queen.

This may sound all epic but it’s very funny as well. I have been waiting for a fantasy/comedy that’s actually good and this one satisfied me. Aside from the story, the linework by Wook-Jin Clark is fluid and beautiful and he does a terrific job of really bringing Valdonia and it’s people to life.

It seems that I might be getting what I asked for. The other day I purchased a copy of Empire magazine which told me that Natalie Portman, James Franco and Danny McBride would be starring in a fantasy/comedy called Your Highness, and just today, when I googled “The Return of King Doug” all these images of Ben Stiller popped up. Apparently, he has signed on to produce and possibly star in….you guessed it…The Return of King Doug.

The Return of King Doug is written by Greg Erb and Jason Oremland

It is illustrated by Wook-Jin Clark

It’s published by Oni Press

I have been a fan of Kazu Kibuishi for a while now, having purchased the first volume of his book Daisy Kutter at the Stumptown Comics Convention several years ago. His style pulled me in at first but while reading Daisy Kutter, the story and storytelling intrigued me. Before I knew it I had a new artist I had to follow. From there I went on to read my new favorite series, Amulet, which I am dying to read more of.

Since there isn’t a new Amulet yet, I looked around for more work by Kazu and a friend turned me on to Copper. It looked familiar. I thought maybe I had seen Copper in a previous volume of Flight but I couldn’t be sure.

This friend turned to the back of Copper and showed me that it included a tutorial on just how Kazu creates the Copper strips. He takes it from his thumbnails all the way to his finished pieces and the digital coloring section was of great interest to me.

For me, I suppose that’s how Kazu Kibuishi gets me. He dangles a lovely carrot in front of my face and before I know it I have gone on an incredible journey with his characters that seems to end all too quickly.

Copper, he tells us in the introduction, began as a sticker and t-shirt design and has since turned into something greater. The adventures that Copper and his dog/friend Fred go on are interesting and filled with meaning if you pay attention. Some of my favorites include the mushroom jumping and the spectacled, blue-haired girl who they just can’t seem to catch.

I’m gonna go ahead and say that Copper often gives me the same kind of feeling I would get when reading my Calvin and Hobbes collections. It’s filled with possibilities, imagination and things you can even learn about yourself.

Blurb for the back cover:
“Superheroes? Check.
Orphans? Check.
Girl that looks like a violin? Er, check.”

So The Umbrella Academy appears to be your typical superhero comic on the outside. A group of seven kids are adopted by some rich guy in order to “save the world”. Naturally, these kids were born in mysterious circumstances and have super human powers. The book opens with a prologue with six of the kids saving the Eiffel Tower and the seventh watching as she seemingly has no super power. The story jumps forward twenty years and we discover that the group has broken up and gone their separate ways only to be reunited at the funeral of their adoptive father. Yanya, the seemingly unspecial seventh child, gets pulled in to a diabolical scheme that just might prove how special she really is, but at the same time, destroy the world in the process.

I haven’t read many superhero related comics but what drew me to this one was the fantastic art style (drawn by Gabriel Ba) used in the book. It’s colorful and morbid with a nice attention to detail in the bigger panels. Plus, the girl on the cover looks like a violin.

Story wise I didn’t find it to be anything that special. There is a bad guy and there are superheroes. The superheroes stop the bad guy and the heroes stand around and are like “It’s a good thing our adoptive father’s death conveniently brought us all together again so that we could overcome our differences and team up to stop the apocalypse. Also I could really use a sandwich right about now!”. There is a very dry humor that is used to tell the story. It wont make you laugh out loud (or LOL, as kids nowadays are calling it) but it will make you grin.

I would recommend this graphic novel. The story may not be special, but the artwork and humor make it stand out compared to all the other graphic novels I have read (which is only a few, so really who knows what I am say…)

Other blog reviews:
read/RANT!
Bao’s Blog

I came across this article on You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice last and thought it was interesting enough to post about.

Do you remember the children’s book Nate the Great? Me neither. But it was a book published back in 1972 about a boy detective who solves murders petty crimes. In the book series this is this girl who goes by Rosamond who can only be described as “strange”.

See? They call her strange. Anyway, if you’ve been in Hot Topic recently (you can admit it, I wont think less of you), you may have noticed this girl.

Her name is Emily and she is “strange” as well. Emily was the poster child for skateboards in the early 90′s and have since become a pop culture icon with her very own book series.

Notice anything different? Me neither aside from a few words. YTWWN has more detailed information about this possible copyright infringement.