The Complete Jon Sable Freelance Volume 1

Bought at Comicazi, Davis Square, Somerville MA USA.

Title: The Complete Jon Sable Freelance
Issue: Volume 1
Date: April, 2005
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Mike Grell
Art: Mike Grell
Editor: Mike Gold

Collecting the first six issues of Mike Grell's classic series for First Comics in the 1980s.

Jon Sable is a bounty hunter and mercenary-for-hire based in New York City, a former Olympic athlete who learned the mercenary trade in the African wars in the 1970s. The first two stories are standalone adventures in the current continuity that introduce Sable, as well has his alter-ego, bestselling childrens author BB Flemm. The opening story also features an appearance by President Reagan.

From there, the rest of this volume uncovers Sable's tragic backstory, with the murder of his family driving him on a relentless path of revenge, inflicting slasher-film levels of violence on the poachers that were responsible for killing his wife and children.

Grell does a great job with the action, nicely treading the line between realism and over-the-top mayhem. Real history and politics are worked into the story, and there are some entertaining twists even if the overall revenge plot is pretty standard fare.

The lighter side to the story, telling how Sable ended up in his double life as an author of childrens books, is genuinely funny and goes a long way toward humanizing the overall story.

Rating: 8/10

Avatar: The Last Airbender Volume 1

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2006
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Bryan Kanietzko, Michael Dante Dimartino
Artist: Anna Kernbaum, John Lo, Louis Csontos, Monalisa J. de Asis
Letterer: Thomas Montalvo-Lagos
Editor: Zachary Rau

Full-color adaptation of the opening episode of the animated series. Katara and Sokk,a of the south-pole Water Tribe discover Aang, the last of the Air Nomads, who has been frozen in ice for more than a century.

While this sticks closely to the story from the animated show, that story is excellent, and these opening moments do a nice job of capturing the mix of humor and tenderness that makes this story so special. This is a nice introduction to the major characters, with the possible exception of Sokka, who is stuck mostly in the comic relief role. I loved seeing the beginnings of the connection between Aang and Katara, and the worldbuilding flows nicely with the story.

Rating: 8.5/10

Venus Versus Virus Volume 7

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Venus Versus Virus
Issue: Volume 7
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Date: September, 2009
Writer: Atsushi Suzumi
Artist: Atsushi Suzumi
Letterer: Roland Amago
Editor: Adam Arnold

So this is volume 7 out of 8, and I'm jumping in here, which is not ideal. I did end up pleasantly surprised, however, by how into the story I was by the end of this volume as it moves toward the climax of the ongoing plot.

There is a crew of magical girls who are training to battle demonic entities known as "Viruses". Among these are best friends Sumire and Lucia, who have now been involved with this fight for a year. Sumire is planning a surprise party for Lucia's birthday, but Lucia makes a discovery about Sumire's boyfriend that threatens to destroy everything they've worked for.

The ending of this volume is delightfully dramatic.

Rating: 8/10

Being Self Directed

I found this in a Little Free Library at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill NY USA.

Title: Being Self Directed
Writer: Zeedikay
Artist: Zeedikay

Mini-zine. If you've ever been told to "just be yourself", this tiny zine is an answer to that idea and a reflection on it. With just a few words per page, this still managed to get me thinking. 

Rating: 6/10

Y: The Last Man: Book 1: Unmanned

From the shelf of unread books.

Title: Y: The Last Man
Issue: Book 1
Date: 2003
Publisher: DC Comics (Vertigo)
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan 
Penciler: Pia Guerra 
Inker: Jose Marzan, Jr. 
Colorist: Pamela Rambo
Letterer: Clem Robins 

Collects the first five issues of Y: The Last Man, featuring the story of the last man on Earth when a plague (biological attack? something supernatural? something else?) instantly kills every male on the planet except for the protagonist, Yorick and his pet monkey.

The thought-experiment aspect of this can be a bit frustrating in places as I was left trying to make some sense out of the setup scenario, but of course the point here is the symbolism more so than the chain of logic, and as symbolism this is great, both in the story an embedded in the art. It's also a really interesting story that does a good job of building tension with plenty of violent action while introducing characters and setting up longterm plotlines. This is a story with a lot going on.

The character of Yorick, an escape artist, has some really clever moments, and his pairing with a hardcore intelligence agent makes for fun chemistry.

As a side note, I had just finished reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, which also features an escape artist protagonist, and included a bonus story in which the character of Sam Clay meets none other than a young Brian K. Vaughan. I didn't review that book on this blog, but you can find my review here.

I was late to the party as far as reading this series, having only previously read the first issue, but this was a really good start.

Rating: 8/10