Chainbreaker #1

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics

Title: Chainbreaker
Issue: 1
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
Writer: Shelley Lynn Jackson, Merry Death, John Gerken
Artist: Shelley Lynn Jackson, Merry Death

Not a comic. This is a zine, and in some sense a love-letter to the bicycle, covering bicycle history, culture, and repair. The author works at a bicycle repair shop in New Orleans, and volunteers at the Plan B, the New Orleans Community Bike Project.

The zine starts out with the historical impact of the bicycle, including short biographies of bike pioneers Marshall "Major" Taylor and Gyda Stephenson. The impact of the bicycle on womens fashion and feminism are discussed.

Other features in the zine include essays on bike maintenance and ideas about self-reliance and repair, plus a well-written guide to changing a flat tire.

A guest essay by John Gerken goes into more detail on the Plan B community project in New Orleans.

As someone who's spent a lot of time riding bikes, including commuting to work by bike, this was a great way of taking a further step into bicycle culture while also providing some great ideas and background.

The real highlight of this zine, though, is the shear joy and enthusiasm for the bicycle that shines through on every page.

Rating: 8.5/10

The Legend of Drizzt Book IV: The Crystal Shard

Last of four Forgotten Realms graphic novels loaned to me by the GM from my gaming group here in Shanghai. These were purchased at Atomic Comics in Artesia CA.

Title: The Legend of Drizzt
Issue: Book IV: The Crystal Shard
Date: 2007
Publisher: Devils Due Publishing
Writer: R.A. Salvatore, Andrew Dabb
Penciler: Val Semeiks
Inker:Dan Davis, Jeff Austin, John Stanisci, Jeremy Freeman, John Lowe, Marc Deering, Em Stone
Colorist: Blond
Letterer: Brian J. Crowley
Editor: Mark Powers

The fourth volume of the Legend of Drizzt graphic novel series goes back to the prose novel where Drizzt was originally introduced. The barbarian Wulfgar was the lead character of that novel, but here the emphasis has been shifted slightly to focus more on Drizzt, although the story is, so some extent, an ensemble cast.

The lack of female characters (there is one, and she only appears in two minor scenes), was a bit disappointing, particularly after this had not been an issue in other books in the series, but again, this feels like a product of this graphic novel being based on an earlier piece of Salvatore's writing.

As for the story, there's an evil artifact, a weak-willed but power-hungry wizard who uses his newfound power to set himself up with a horde of monsters, and the heroes determined to save Icewind Dale in spite of the struggles of the locals to unite.

This volume tells a complete story. I had forgotten that the Icewind Dale books were more standalone than the Dark Elf Trilogy.

Wulfgar gets a lot of the spotlight, as does the halfling rogue Regis, who ends up having one of the best scenes in the story in a mind-control battle with the villain. Drizzt does all of his usual Drizzt things, but seeing him as a mentor-figure to Wulfgar is a nice turnaroud after all of his times in the student role in the first three graphic novels.

The battle scenes are bloody and intense, and all of the artwork on the action scenes is great.

This novel had a lot of plot, and the graphic novel struggled a bit to give everything the space it deserved, with a scene involving a dragon getting sold a bit short in the crunch for space.

The climactic battle does get the space it needs, and the pacing on that final battle is great.

Rating: 6.5/10

Black Panther: Battle For Wakanda

Bought this for the Kiddo at a bookstore in Hub Mall here in Shanghai.

Title: Black Panther: Battle For Wakanda
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: 2019
Writer: Brandon T. Snider

Another of the Mighty Marvel Chapter Books series. While it's a prose story, it is full of color illustrations, but unfortunately, the artists are not credited (at least I was not able to get the information from the Amazon or Goodreads entries for the book and, as noted below, the credits on the copy we bought were not in English). This is the, well, I guess the phrasing would be English language Chinese edition, which we purchased in China. All of the story text is in English, but the credits, copyright and publisher information, and there are vocabulary footnotes in Chinese, which seem to be aimed at English language learners.

The Chinese edition covers for this series look awesome, by the way.

The story involves a plot to stir up trouble in Wakanda every time T'Challa is off doing Avengers things with the Avengers, which is currently more often than usual because there is an imposter Black Panther running around sabotaging SHIELD installations and beating up SHIELD-agent jobbers.

T'Challa makes some questionable decisions in order to move the plot along, but it eventually builds into a big confrontation with Klaw back in Wakanda, and a chance for T'Challa to regain the confidence of his people.

Several Avengers guest-star, and Shuri gets a decent supporting role.

Those picky about continuity should note that this is based more on comic storyline than the MCU version, but like the Gamora book in this series (I reviewed it here), it definitely tries to play to fans who have seen the films, but have not read the comics.

There were some editing issues, including a mess of a pronoun problem at one point, and the plot left a fair number of unanswered questions.

Still, it did the flavor of the characters well, and hit the right emotional notes in the end.

Rating: 5.5/10

The Legend of Drizzt Book III: Sojourn

Title: The Legend of Drizzt
Issue: Book III: Sojourn
Date: 2006
Publisher: Devils Due Publishing
Writer: R.A. Salvatore, Andrew Dabb
Penciler: Tim Seeley
Inker: John Lowe, Robert Q. Atkins, John Rauch, Mark Englert
Colorist: Blond
Letterer: Brian J. Crowley
Editor: Mark Powers

Dark elf Drizzt Drizzt Do'Urden seeks a new home on the surface of the Forgotten Realms world of Faerun in this adaptation of the third novel in R.A. Salvatore's Dark Elf Trilogy.

When his first attempts at finding peace and friendship end in tragedy, Drizzt finds himself hunted again, this time by a ranger and her party of adventurers, along with a rugged frontiersman who blames Drizzt for the injury that left his face scarred.

The long pursuit will bring Drizzt face-to-face with some classic Dungeons & Dragons creatures, and will lead to his discovery of the path of the ranger, and finally to a last refuge in a place called Icewind Dale.

The Icewind Dale trilogy was written before the Dark Elf trilogy, and this volume completes the prequel, bringing together the characters and the setting that originally introduced the character of Drizzt.

There is a lot happening in this story, and supporting characters are sometimes written out rather abruptly. Still, there is a lot of good character development for Drizzt, and some very memorable members of the supporting cast. The characters in this volume, with a couple of notable exceptions, come across as smart and nuanced, and are not defined just by their preconceptions about Drizzt.

Rating: 7/10