This is not a comic book.

I don’t know what it is…or, rather, there’s not yet a word in the language for this new thing.

The Chomsky-quoting politics annoy me a bit, but the graphic design of this comic book is going to make waves that won’t settle down for decades. This is something entirely new – full page, double page spreads, no frames, infographics and footnotes sprinkled across the page. Footnotes and cynical asides from the author scattered here and there. Distressed logos, ink spattered pages, a look like USA infographics took a bunch of crystal meth and then swallowed three dozen cutting edge web-2.0 websites.

I really can’t rave about the artwork here enough.

And the writing! Even though I can’t stand the politics (and Jonathan Hickman tries to distance himself from them, but I’m not swallowing that disclaimer 100%), he’s taking big bold steps in a way that I haven’t seen since “V for Vendetta”.

Wow.

Go buy this. Now.

Wow.

The graphic style of this comic book is DIFFERENT.

...and I love it. It’s like a cross between Sin City and the first scene of Saving Private Ryan – the look is somewhere between “grainy film stock” and “run through a xerox machine” ten times…but not in a cheesy art-school / hardcopy ‘zine way – this style is a tool wielded deftly in the hands of a pro.

The story is brawny and two-fisted.

Why was I note told about Danijel Zezelj before?

I’ll be reading more by him!

His style and sensibility remind me a lot of Moebius, who is my favorite comic artist ever.

Some of the works are a bit trivial / cliched (gee, what happens when evil government agents use technology to create automata who always kill anything dressed in red? Is there any chance that those very same government agents … nah… that could never happen …).

Still, aside from that complaint, really good stuff.

Go. Read.

At first, I thought I wasn’t going to like this comic – it seemed to be an all-too obvious homage to Firefly / Serenity (wild west in space), crossed with warmed-over 1980s cyberpunk (the big crew cut enforcer on designer steroids, corporate espionage, etc.).

The thing is – despite the somewhat derivative inspiration, the book has decent writing, and a good sense of humor (pay attention for the sly Conan reference halfway through)!

I’ll read more.

I’m a huge fan of Courtney Crumrin – I’ve given five stars to everything else in the series.

This installment lost its way, I think.

The great bit of CC is that one little girl was smarter than her horrible yuppie parents, hated her classmates, and was immersed in suburbia … despite knowing a bit about the magical elements around her, and despite being able to practice a bit of magic.

The juxtaposition of cell phones, talk about BMWs, and night creatures and spells was striking…really really good stuff!

Also, her weird relationship with her uncle was quite interesting.

This issue loses all of that.

Courtney is off touring the hinterlands of Europe with her uncle (who is now less mysterious), and everything that was great about the series goes away: no fairies, no night creatures, no juxtaposition and contrasting of the well-lit suburbs with dark magical secrets.

Also, a bit of moralizing was woven into the whole thing – don’t be afraid of folks who are different ; maybe most conflicts are just caused by misunderstanding ; etc., etc.

All in all, still fun, but much weaker than the previous CC books.

Hoping the next one is better…

I’m somewhat disappointed in this. The cover art is beautiful, but the interior art is a bit amateurish. Also the writing isn’t really world-class.

I’ll let my subscription run a few more issues to see how it pans out, but I’m not convinced that I’m going to stick with it.

I’m somewhat disappointed in this. The cover art is beautiful, but the interior art is a bit amateurish. Also the writing isn’t really world-class.

I’ll let my subscription run a few more issues to see how it pans out, but I’m not convinced that I’m going to stick with it.

Ted Naifeh is rapidly becoming my favorite comic book author and artist. Polly and the Pirates and Courtney Crumrin are wildly different in some ways, but have a lot in common – charming (yet not sugar coated) adventures, salty (yet not harmless) adversaries and other characters, a wonderful drawing style that really conveys a sense of dream like otherworldiness while being deceptively simple – I just can’t get enough of this stuff!

Ted, you rock! Courtney Crumrin tells the story of a misunderstood young naif with two soulless (figuratively!) yuppie parents who move in with an old – a very old – uncle who is dark and brooding in his Victorian manse. Courtney is excluded by her materialistic classmates, hectored by her teachers, and mostly ignored by her parents. In this dark period of her life she discovers that there is more to the town than meets the eye – dark forces, amoral critters, and dangerous magic. Courtney responds with wit and verve.

Go read it!

Ted Naifeh is rapidly becoming my favorite comic book author and artist. First, Polly and the Pirates – charming (yet not sugar coated) adventures, salty (yet not harmless) adversaries and other characters, a wonderful drawing style that really conveys a sense of dream like otherworldiness while being deceptively simple – I just can’t get enough of this stuff!

Ted Naifeh is rapidly becoming my favorite comic book author and artist. First, Polly and the Pirates – charming (yet not sugar coated) adventures, salty (yet not harmless) adversaries and other characters, a wonderful drawing style that really conveys a sense of dream like otherworldliness while being deceptively simple – I just can’t get enough of this stuff!

Courtney Crumrin tells the story of a misunderstood young naif with two soulless (figuratively!) yuppie parents who move in with an old – a very old – uncle who is dark and brooding in his Victorian manse. Courtney is excluded by her materialistic classmates, hectored by her teachers, and mostly ignored by her parents. In this dark period of her life she discovers that there is more to the town than meets the eye – dark forces, amoral critters, and dangerous magic. Courtney responds with wit and verve.

Go read it!

Sometimes a piece of art, or food, or something will come along, and you’ll say “Dang – I totally understand the mastery with which this thing was prepared … and yet, I don’t care for it at all”.

Say you’re not into mushrooms, and someone gives you a perfectly seasoned mushroom soup.

You don’t enjoy it.

Well, that’s how NYC Mech is for me. The artwork is fabulous. The page layouts are great. The dialogue is snappy and crisp.

...and yet, I don’t get the book at all. All of NYC is filled with anthropomorphic robots, who act EXACTLY like people do. They smoke, they do drugs, they eat, they act like idiots towards each other. In fact, the only way that they are not people is that they have silverish skin.

I don’t understand the world they robots live in.

I don’t understand their meaningless lives.

I don’t understand the plot threads.

I don’t care about them as characters.

I just don’t get it at all.

Maybe it’s social satire?

If so, it’s going over my head.

I’ve read great things about this graphic novel…but, ehhh, I just didn’t get it. The artwork was fine – nothing special. The dialogue was OK…but the plot (as much of it as I could get through before giving up on the book) really left me cold. I didn’t care about the world, the characters, or the culture.

This is an amazing, unique graphic novel. David Petersen, with his background in print-making, has an artistic style that’s rich and evocative, even as he is conservative in the colors and number of lines that he uses in each image. The story is full of bravery and adventure, and is appropriate for all ages. I love it in my late 30s, and I can’t wait to read it to my godkids and nieces, in their single digits.