Comics This Week
October 10, 2005 | Tags: Readings
I’m supposed to be doing homework that’s due in the morning. Logically, this means I will write more for these reviews to avoid doing work.
“A History of Violence” (John Wagner, Vince Locke)
Note to publisher: Printing critical acclaim about the movie that’s based on the book you’re selling probably helps sales-wise. Printing critical acclaim about the lead actor on the back cover, however, reeks of desperation. This is the book that David Cronenberg’s new movie of the same name is based upon (IMDB details here). The movie opened to critical acclaim at Cannes, and Mark Kermode was drooling all over it in one of his more recent BBC review podcasts, so it can’t be all that bad. Cronenberg has, however, mentioned that the movie deviated quite a bit from the comic, so take that for what it’s worth.
That said, the conveniently-abbreviatable AHOV is really quite good. I’m probably not giving anything away by summarising the plot from the first few pages: two nasty characters, intent on robbing and murdering small-town coffee shop owner and family man Tom McKenna, instead get a brutal taste of their own medicine when he retaliates, killing one and injuring the other. McKenna becomes a local celebrity, attracting the unwanted attention of some shady people, possibly from a past life. Hilarity ensues.
Vince Locke’s art is very, very loose and a little hard to get used to — I ended up forcing myself to read faster so I wouldn’t get too disoriented from it — but it serves its purpose well here, especially in depicting some of the more graphic scenes. Despite the loose, sketchy look of Locke’s art (somewhat like a woodcut), characters are easily recognisable, and that’s no small achievement in a comic without distinguishing capes and costumes. Wagner’s story unfolds at a comfortable pace, so it’s certainly no page-turning thriller, but the brutality and twistedness of the violence depicted here makes the graphic novel a page-turner nonetheless. I really didn’t expect to like this one, but I really did.
“Ex Machina: Tag (Volume 2)” (Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris)
Amazon kindly provided the entire wrap-around cover when I searched for this book’s cover. Isn’t it pretty?
I mentioned volume 1 briefly here, but didn’t say very much about it beyond the point that it was really quite good. Um, well, this one’s good too.
The story continues describing ex-superhero Mayor-of-NYC Hundred’s term in office while providing a bit more information about his power to speak to machines, apparently derived from some shard being investigated by his old NSA security handler. Mysterious grotesque killings involving the shard and its symbol occur, and before long, the mayor is drawn into the whole situation against his will. The mayor also makes a controversial decision. See, how was that any more informative than “it’s really quite good”? I keep calling him “Hundred” or “the mayor” because I can’t remember what the hell his name was — I read the first volume back in January, fergoodnesssake.
Anyway, yeah, it’s really quite good. Top-notch stuff from Brian Vaughan and Tony Harris (though the latter’s “realistic art” takes some getting used to, I much preferred his work on Starman and Obergeist).