Death Note Volume 3

From the shelf of unread books unpacked from storage.

Title: Death Note
Issue: Volume 3
Publisher: Viz Media
Date: November, 2006
Writer: Tsugumi Ohba
Artist: Takeshi Obata

I read the first two volumes of this series quite a while ago, and I remember enjoying them, but not quite seeing what the hype was about. The premise is intentionally ridiculous: A death god lets a human (teenager Light Yagami) take possession of a notebook with the power to kill anyone whose name is written in it. There is a whole series of complex and arbitrary rules that go along with the notebook, and Light's plan to rid the world of criminals puts him up against the mysterious L, a young genius detective.

This volume is where the two main characters meet, and it's also where I began to buy into the hype. The intricate game of second-guessing, third-guessing, and beyond plays out like an elaborate version of Who's the Werewolf/Mafia, with increasing levels of duplicity.

Then a series of events at the end of this volume introduce a massive additional plot twist, further complicating an already-tangled story. This was loaded with tension. It does require a bit of suspension of disbelief to accept the premise of the story, but the author then takes that premise to all sorts of logical extremes, adding layer upon layer of intrigue. I wasn't sure I'd be interested in reading more Death Note after the first two, but this one hooked my right back in.

Rating: 8.5/10

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

The Legend of Drizzt Book II: Exile

Second of four Drizzt graphic novels I borrowed from a friend here in Shanghai.

Title: The Legend of Drizzt
Issue: Book II: Exile
Date: 2006
Publisher: Devils Due Publishing
Writer: R.A. Salvatore, Andrew Dabb
Penciler: Tim Seeley
Inker: John Lowe, Marco Galli, Dennis Cristostomo, Rob Atkins, Cory Hamscher, Robert Grabes, Serge LaPointe, Rebekah Isaacs, Johnny Timmons, Shaun Beaudry, Alex McCaffrey
Colorist: Blond
Letterer: Steve Seeley, Brian J. Crowley
Editor: Mark Powers

Graphic novel adaptation of R.A. Salvatore's second novel in his Dark Elf Trilogy, set in the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms world.

Away from the intrigues of Menzoberranzan, Drizzt Do'Urden's struggle becomes an internal one against the primal instincts that threaten to make him into a merciless creature of the Underdatk.

Facing the prospect of centuries of isolation and a descent into madness, Drizzt throws himself on the mercy of the deep gnomes of Blingdenstone, where for the first time in his life, he finds the possibility of true friendship.

But his Mother, (the rather blatantly named) Matron Malice, still seeks him out, and she has called forth Drizzt's father in spirit-wraith form to hunt him down.

Although there is some resolution to the political drama in Menzoberranzan in this volume, this is a much more personal story about Drizzt recovering from his totalitarian upbringing and his toxic family. He grows closer to his first real friend, the astral panther Guenhwyvar, and he makes new friends in his travels through the Underdark.

This volume also introduces the menace of the Illithids, although the conclusion to their part in the story felt a bit rushed. The subplot involving the tragic Clacker, a pech transformed into a monstrous hook horror by a wizard's spell, does work very well with the graphic novel pacing.

The artwork looks great throughout, especially the work on the mind flayers.

This volume features an introduction by Forgotten Realms creator Ed Greenwood, and a nice gallery of individual issue covers.

Rating: 7.5/10

Dark Horse: 20 Years

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Dark Horse: 20 Years
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Date: 2006
Artist: Adam Hughes, Art Adams, Doug Mahnke, John Sommariva, Sean Parsons, Mark A Nelson, Cary Nord, Sergio Aragones, Paul Chadwick, Chris Warner, Kilian Plunkett, Eric Powell, Matt Wagner, Jason Alexander, Thomas Yeates, Tony Millionaire, Rick Geary, Joss Whedon, Buzz Parker, Stan Sakai, Frank Miller
Colorist: Michelle Madsen, Edgar Delgado, Dave Stewart, Tom Luth, Dan Jackson, David Nestelle
Editor: Matt Dryer, Matt Hollingsworth, Jim Campbell
Cover: Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart

This is an anniversary pinup book, distributed as a $.25 promo from Dark Horse Comics, celebrating 20 years of their history.

Lots of classic characters and stories are represented here, with some great-looking artwork. What's really fun about this book, though, is getting to see artists do characters by other creators. Highlights included Adam Hughes on Hellboy, Matt Wagner's rendition of the Goon, Frank Miller drawing Usagi Yojimbo and Stan Sakai's take on Sin City, Paul Chadwick's Groo, and Sergio Aragones bringing a very Groo-style take to Conan the Barbarian. There's even a rare art credit for Joss Whedon, who drew Emily the Strange.

Nice way to celebrate 20 years.

Rating: 7.5/10

Farlight Saga Ethos #2

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Farlight Saga Ethos
Issue: 2
Publisher: Nemonet Studios / Tears Under Starlight
Date: July, 2006
Writer: Jared Koon
Artist: Sarah Hebblethwaite
Colorist: Sarah Hebblethwaite
Letterer: Jared Koon
Cover: Sarah Hebblethwaite, Jean-Francois Beaulieu

I read the third issue of this series almost two years ago (review here), and only just managed to dig this issue out of the Random Stack of Unread Comics. Not sure if I have any more around.

The story in this issue mainly focuses on the human messenger Quinn and his soranae (a mysterious species of reptilian humanoids) companion Nemesio. They have encountered the remains of a series of battles fought on the edge of the forest home of the ra'th (a mammalian humanoid species with tails). There are human and ra'th casualties at several sights, but an investigation deeper into the woods finally turns up a ra'th survivor.

When the survivor panics and tries to run, even more destruction is revealed.

This issue did a nice job of focusing (aside from one scene) on the relationship between Quinn and Nemesio as they investigate the deepening mystery only to uncover further signs of carnage and destruction. There is a bit of background given that provides some necessary worldbuilding without detracting from the progress of the story.

Overall, this had excellent pacing, good character design, and provided some needed setup for the continuing story.

Rating: 7.5/10

Wedding Invitation Minicomic 2006

From the random stack of unread comics.

Sometimes, some very odd things end up in the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

This is a lovely wedding invitation in minicomic form, telling the story of how the couple met (in rhyming verse!) and fell in love.

I have no idea how I got this. I don't believe that I know either the bride or groom (I'm leaving the names out of this entry because I'm not entirely clear the extent to which this comic was meant for public distribution). I was not, in fact, invited to this wedding. I'm guessing that the person who did the artwork was giving away some extra copies as freebies at a convention I attended.

Regardless, it is quite adorable, and I hope that the marriage continues to be a happy one.

I don't rate wedding invitations.

Captain Spectacular #1

From the random stack of unread comics. I bought two issues of this whenever I bought them, so I'll be reviewing the second issue sometime soon.

Title: Captain Spectacular
Issue: 1
Date: 2006
Publisher: Gumshoe Comics
Writer: Nate Corrigan
Artist: Nate Corrigan

Black and white minicomic with a color cover.

Janitor by, well, night mostly, and superhero mostly by day, he is Captain Spectacular. This issue introduces the readers to his heroic deeds in both identities and introduces the menace of the Fun-Guy, who has the power to create and control fungus with his mind.

Captain Spectacular's attempt to lure the Fun Guy away from potential collateral damage in the city may have backfired, as out in farm country, the Fun Guy is in his natural element.

This was a good, quick-paced story with a lot of silliness and a couple of clever moments. Fun Guy is an amusingly daunting villain, and the ending cliffhanger sets up for a big super-powered brawl in the second issue.

Rating: 6.5/10

You Can Never Find A Rickshaw When It Monsoons

Greetings from Shanghai, China! School is underway, so I've been pretty buried in day-job work, settling into my new gig and figuring my way around this city of 25 million (!) people. I brought a big stack of comics from the US, a few new issues, and a lot from the massive unread backlog in our storage unit. I'll be starting to read an review those in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here is a book of travel cartoons that I recently finished.

Title: You Can Never Find A Rickshaw When It Monsoons
Date: 2006
Publisher: Hyperion Teens
Writer: Mo Willems
Artist: Mo Willems

Some years back, I was selling used books online as a side gig, and I would occasionally shop the dollar stores to add to my stock, concentrating on SF, fantasy, and graphic novels. This was one of those purchases, and it never sold. So this summer when I decided to donate most of the remaining stock, since we've been living overseas for a few years now and it looks like we're going to continue that, I saved a few of the to-sell books that interested me.

Mo Willems is best known for his childrens books (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!), and as a writer for Sesame Street. This collection of travel cartoons was drawn during a post-college backpacking trip around the world.

I found the cartoons to be a bit hit-or-miss in terms of humor and in terms of insights, but I appreciated the honesty of the project, as Willems presented the image that most inspired him to draw during each day of his travels. There were some familiar scenes here: vendors and motorbikes in Southeast Asia, crowded trains in China, the seemingly endless lists of fines and regulations in Singapore (in Willems' words, "Everything fun ends abruptly at Singapore").

The book also gave me glimpses of plenty of places that I have not had the chance to visit, and even spawned a few travel ideas.

The restriction of one cartoon a day for nearly a year results in some inconsistency, but also in some unexpected insights and surprising revelations. There is a bit of a privileged vibe, as you're going to have with any account of an American's post-college adventures abroad, but Willems mostly manages to temper that with his ability to laugh at his own situation while looking for understand of the people he meets.

Rating: 6/10

Pop Art Funnies #6

The Sunday review marathon continues! I found one more comic in my backpack that I had overlooked, so we'll be at nine comics left in the random stack of unread comics after this review. That puts me at two per day to finish the stack by Friday, if I don't do any more tonight.

I have no idea where I got this next one.

Title. Pop Art Funnies
Issue: #6
Publisher: MPH Comics
Date: 2006
Writer: Martin Hirchak
Artist: Martin Hirchak

This is a collection of short humorous stories in a traditional comic format. The art style is definitely 1970s underground-influenced, and it goes for the kind of countercultural irreverent vibe that the undergrounds were known for.

The first and longest story is the origin story for Super Bull, a superhero parody featuring a mild-mannered music fanzine writer getting transformed into a humanoid bull (minotaur?) following a rather complex accident involving plutonium, voodoo, and a bullfight. It's a good start, but it felt like it ended just when things were getting interesting.

There are two single-page Captain Scurvy the Pirate stories, and a tour of Philadelphia featuring a cranky ghost of Ben Franklin.

None of this was laugh-out-loud funny, but there were a few giggles to be had here and there. The drug jokes were a bit too obvious for my tastes, and the Captain Scurvy cartoons featured a lot of setup for a single simple joke each.

Rating: 5/10

Thief: The Adventures of John Argent #11

From the random stack of unread comics. My memory is fuzzy on where I got this, but I believe it was at the Arisia convention in Boston some years back.

Title: Thief: The Adventures of John Argent
Issue: 11
Date: 2006
Publisher: Rainbow Bridge Productions
Writer: Rene Blansette
Artist: Rene Blansette

The cover rather loudly proclaims that we will see a "Good Girl vs. Bad Girl" battle for the fate of the Empire! Which is probably why I bought this to begin with.

As it turns out, this is the climactic issue of a storyline involving an evil wizard out to use a powerful magical artifact to take over the Medieval empire of Charlemagne. Opposing said wizard is the thief of the book's title, along Adele, daughter of one of Charlemagne's Paladins (and a trained warrior herself). On the bad guy's side is his daughter Morganna, a sorceress (not surprisingly, with that name).

So the battle depicted on the cover gets the issue started. It's a reasonably well-crafted extended fight scene, but unfortunately 1) sinks into borderline-fetishy catfight territory for a few moments in what is supposed to be a serious battle, and 2) ends in a rather unsatisfying draw.

From there we get to the actual main event, in which evil wizard Hildemar attempts to use the power of the Merlinstone and it's up to John Argent to stop him. This leads to an even more unfortunate trope, as instead of just disintegrating the hero, as he did with a guard a moment earlier, the villain instead decides to tell the hero his entire origin story, as shown in three pages of flashbacks.

Things get a bit better with the final bit of action and a couple of epilogue scenes, which end up being the best bits of story in this.

In addition to some of the problems outlined above, there is an annoying tendency to slip into anachronistic dialogue and narration. In particular, a football (American football!) reference in the narration makes no sense at all being in this story.

On the good side, there is a beautiful two-page spread of a big kaboom during the climax, and an interesting linking between Arthurian mythology and the later tales of Charlemagne that give the story some good flavor. Adele fights pretty fiercely, and Morganna is satisfyingly nasty and treacherous in the brawl, so the whole good girl vs. bad girl thing does kind of work. Like much else in this book, it simply wasn't as good as it could have been.

Rating: 4/10

Farlight Saga Ethos #3

From the random stack of unread comics. No idea where I got this one. We had an internet outage for part of the weekend, so I missed doing a review yesterday. So as far as the goal of finishing the stack before we leave for the US, I have (after reviewing this comic) 25 days, and 23 comics to go, plus two graphic novels I've checked out of the school library that will need to be returned by next Friday.

Title: Farlight Saga Ethos
Issue: 3
Publisher: Nemonet Studios / Tears Under Starlight
Date: July, 2006
Writer: Jared Koon
Artist: Sarah Hebblethwaite
Colorist: Jean-Francois Beaulieu
Letterer: Jared Koon
Editor: Kris Simon
Cover: Sarah Hebblethwaite

A pair of wilderness messengers encounter the remnants a ra'th (a tribal, woodland species with tails) village that has been burned by raiders. They attempt to comfort the one survivor, but her hatred of all humans has left her unwilling to accept their offer of aid.

This had a classic fantasy feel to it. The events of this issue focused on the aftermath of the devastating raid, and the story did a nice job of taking its time to explore the feelings of the characters as they respond to the tragic situation. Some flashbacks helped to develop the characters, and a very emotional confrontation set the stage for the continuation of the story.

The setting for this story uses a lot of familiar fantasy tropes, but it is developed in a nice level of detail, and it makes good use of familiar themes to set up a story with plenty of internal as well as external conflict.

Rating: 7.5/10

Scott Pilgrim Volume 3: Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness

Borrowed from my school's library. I've only got a couple more months here, so I really should get more use out of my school library's surprisingly extensive graphic novel section.

Title: Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
Issue: Volume 3
Publisher: Oni Press
Date: 2006
Writer: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Artist: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Editor: James Lucas Jones

Scott Pilgrim's band is the opening act for a show by his ex-girlfriend's (much more famous) band. And one of the members of that band is the next in the series of Ramona Flowers' evil ex-boyfriends that Scott must defeat in order to date Ramona. This is going to be particularly difficult for Scott because Todd, the evil ex, is a vegan. And as we all know, vegans have mystical telekinetic powers.

This volume starts off pretty convoluted (there's even a convoluted diagram to show everyone's relationships; it helps a little), and takes its time getting to the big climactic battles, but once it gets into gear, it is loads of fun. There are some great one-liners, a bit of breaking of the fourth wall, and the usual gaming references and ridiculously over-the-top fighting spots ("She punched the highlights out of your hair!").

Considering all of the extra characters that are involved at the start of this, it wraps up really nicely. This is a fun read, and it's worth scorecard that you need to keep track of everyone in the early going.

Rating: 7.5/10

One Year in Indiana #0

A minicomic from the random unread comics stack. No idea where I got this one.

Title: One Year in Indiana
Issue: 0
Date: 2006
Publisher: Pungent Basement Comics
Writer: Kurt Dinse
Artist: Kurt Dinse

A death metal vocalist leaves his nomadic life to settle down with a college buddy, sharing a house in Indiana. There he begins to learn the mysterious laws of the land, starting with the one that prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. He figures out he can hold out one night, but when he wakes up to a massive snowstorm, all of a sudden the need for a beer run has reached crisis proportions.

What follows is an epic journey across a snow-covered landscape filled with frozen fratboys, Star Wars references, and a yeti.

The was pretty entertaining, with some clever ideas and good timing on the jokes. The art style worked well with a bit of a 70s underground comix vibe. The good print quality for a minicomic helped too.

A nice self-contained story and a fun start to more adventures in Indiana.

Rating: 7.5/10

Bathtub Baby

Minicomic freebie from the unread comics stack. Not sure where I got this one.

Title: Bathtub Baby
Date: 2006
Publisher: MinDo (plockmatic60@yahoo.com)
Writer: MinDo
Artist: MinDo

Limited edition (#53/60!) half-sized minicomic freebie.

This is a straight-up story of the writer/artist's pregnancy, full of detail and touches of humor.

It was a good, thoughtful read without taking itself too seriously, and the relationship between the parents shines through nicely.

As happens a lot with minicomics, some of the lettering got reduced a bit too much for comfortable reading, but that's a pretty minor issue in what is otherwise a nicely grounded and true-to-life story.

Rating: 6.5/10

Astonishing X-Men #13 (Variant)

From the random stack of unread comics. This is the second of two (close, but not consecutive) issues of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men that found their way into the unread comics stack. I reviewed #10 here. Not sure where I got these. This one is marked as a variant cover.

Title: Astonishing X-Men
Issue: 13
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: April, 2006
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Mike Marts, Sean Ryan, Nick Lowe

Black-and-white variant cover on this issue.

This is something of a catch-up issue, that manages to be a lot more satisfying a read than #10 was, in spite of #10's emphasis on plot and action.

The focus here is on character development, particularly on the romance between Kitty and Colossus, and the conflicting forces influencing Emma Frost.

There is also a very amusing reveal of the new low-tech version of the Danger Room (after the room ran amuck over several issues around the previously-reviewed #10). Now that Ms. Room has been officially "future-endeavored" (or whatever happened to her), the new plan for combat training is simpler, more elegant, and far more dangerous: The trainees are simply put into a darkened room in which Wolverine kicks their asses. Why did they not think of this in the first place? It seems like it would have saved everybody a lot of grief, and the quality of training would not have suffered.

In addition to that amusing bit, there is lots of Emma-intrigue, some seeds planted for future storylines involving SHIELD, some dream sequences, and a very shock-value final scene.

This is moving in the right direction.

Rating: 6/10

Strange Girl: Free Ashcan Edition

From the pile of random unread comics. I'm guessing I got this because it was free.

Title: Strange Girl: Free Ashcan Edition
Date: August, 2006
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Nick Stakal, Eric Nguyen, Jerome Opena, Harper Jaten

Standard comic format here. "Free Ashcan Edition" just indicates a small page count (10 total; five of story and five sketchbook pages), and the fact that it's a giveaway.

The story portion is a first-person recap of the action from issues 1-9 of the Strange Girl series, as told by the title character Bethany Black. Essentially, a Christian-flavored apocalypse has occurred, with much of the population raptured away by God, while Earth is given over to the demons, who get right down to the business of enslaving, torturing, and killing those "left behind".

Bethany, discovering she has a talent for demon magic, survives by making herself useful to one of the demon lords before eventually escaping and striking out on her own.

Unfortunately, all of that is told in a wordy recap that really doesn't do the job of selling the product that it needs to. Show, don't tell, please! Bethany's voice is uninteresting, and she never quite manages to convince me that I should care about her or her world. I guess I need more of a hook than just "Hell on Earth".

The artwork looks good, but the small panels don't help matters. The emergence of the demons from cracks in the earth during the apocalypse really needed to be epic-sized. Space limitations really hurt matters here.

In fact, the best thing in this book was the sketchbook section, in which artist Nick Stakal was allowed a bit of breathing room while showing off concept art for his run, which starts with the 10th issue of the series.

That's not enough to convince me to jump on board with this story, though.

Rating: 4.5/10

The Arrival

Here's a graphic novel that I bought quite a while ago when Borders went out of business. I finally got a chance to read it tonight.

Title: The Arrival
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic
Date: 2006
Writer: Shaun Tan
Artist: Shaun Tan

In Shaun Tan's graphic novel about immigration, the reader experiences the strangeness of the immigrant's experience by way of a bizarre and alien world, and a wordless story.

The effect is perfect. While there are clear parallels with the historical experiences of the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in New Jersey in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Tan makes the destination into a strange and wondrous city that is filled with steampunk-influenced designs and surreal details that fill every page.

The story actually contains the stories of several immigrants who meet up with the main character as he tried to find his way in the alien city. He has left his wife and daughter behind while he goes to look for work, and he meets other migrants who are fleeing war and disaster and poverty in their homes.

Telling the story with no narration or dialogue, Tan takes the time to let the tale breathe. He fills a page with small panels of cloud formations to mark the passage of time on an ocean voyage. He allows his main character to explore his new quarters, and to struggle to be understood in a land where his language is not spoken.

The artwork is breathtaking, and I loved all of the odd details. There is a lot going on here, but the overall story is straightforward and effective.

This was one of the best graphic novels I've read in quite a while.

Rating: 9.5/10

Soul Rescue Volume 1

We had our first yard sale of the summer. Here at Ogremoot, even the yard sales are geeky, with comics, manga, board games, Magic cards, and a ton of SF/fantasy books. We did well, but there were  expected long stretches without customers, so I grabbed one of the manga volumes I had up for sale somewhat at random (I looked for books that were the first volume in their series). These are mostly books I haven't read. I picked them up to sell online, and suspended online sales to put them in the yard sale.

So this is what I ended up reading today in between yard sale customers and helping my son manage his lemonade stand.

Title: Soul Rescue
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2006
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Aya Kanno
Artist: Aya Kanno

When warrior-angel Renshi disobeys orders one time too many, he is hauled before a sort of heavenly court-martial and is exiled to Earth by God Himself (depicted here as a dude in a weird helmet with tubes and goggles).

Renshi is stripped of much of his angelic power and given the gift of soul rescue, a power of complete physical and spiritual healing. So the warrior needs to learn to live and think as a healer. Furthermore, he will not be allowed to return to Heaven until he has healed 10,000 souls. This does a nice job of setting up the potential for this to be a very long series. Especially since he only successfully uses the power twice. So, two down, and 9,998 to go.

After the introductory scenario, the volume basically can be broken into three stand-alone stories. All three are good. In the first, Renshi and his heavenly-assigned assistant, Kaito, encounter a young woman and her two young siblings. A friendship quickly forms, but just as quickly, the woman's dark past begins to catch up with her.

In the second story, Renshi finds his soul rescue power unable to cure the ailment of a dying princess. He uncovers a deadly plot, which had a nice twist that I never saw coming.

The third story introduces devils to the mix, as the forces of Hell stir up trouble in a town that has been pushed to the breaking point by a greedy feudal lord.

This was a good start to a series with a ton of potential, and it provided three quality tales. The only weakness was the fight scenes, where it could get hard to tell what was going on until they were resolved.

Rating: 8/10

Agent Boo Volume 2

This was a freebie I picked up this past weekend at Otakon.

Title: Agent Boo
Issue: Volume 2
Date: 2006
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Alex De Campi
Artist: Edo Fuijkschot

Interesting format. This book is mostly prose, but switches into comic format for sections that vary from as little as a panel to as much as several pages. The artwork does not illustrate what is in the prose fiction, it conveys additional plot that the prose does not cover, and thus is integral to the story.

The characters are young interdimensional agents-in-training, in a world at the center of the multiverse.

This story was a mix of fantasy adventure, pre-teen drama, and slapstick comedy. The adventure and drama worked better than the comedy did.The jokes were mostly unfunny or uninteresting.

The story varied from a very straightforward good-kids-take-on-evil-villains thing to something with considerably more complexity, and that complexity, while not consistent through this volume, came into play often enough to keep me interested.

The action was cartoony, but conveyed a decent level of drama and excitement.

Rating: 5.5/10

Red String Volume 1

Here is another of my Anime Boston purchases.

Title: Red String
Issue: Volume 1
Date: December, 2006
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Gina Biggs
Artist: Gina Biggs
Editor: Mike Carriglitto

Red String is Gina Biggs' shojo webcomic that explores the theme of destiny in love. Set in Japan, the story centers on high school student Miharu Ogawa, who is suddenly informed by her parents that they have arranged a marriage for her.

Her first instinct is to rebel against the decision, but things get more complicated when a chance meeting with the boy she is to be engaged to leads to a real attraction.

As Miharu questions the nature of destiny and her own ability to choose her path in life, her new romance is complicated by a boyfriend-stealing cousin, school rivals, and even the arrival of a second arranged fiance.

The plot is complex but never to the point of being confusing, and the book features a really strong supporting cast with their own subplots going on. Biggs' art is lovely, and this American-made shojo contains a believable rendition of life in Japan and plenty of good details in between the story's more dramatic turns.

Rating: 8/10