Little Archie: The House That Wouldn't Move

 From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Little Archie: The House That Wouldn't Move
Date: 2007
Publisher: Archie Comics
Writer: Dexter Taylor, Bob Bolling
Artist: Dexter Taylor, Bob Bolling
Editor: Victor Gorelick, Nelson Ribeiro, Richard Goldwater

This is an ashcan-format freebie from Archie Comics containing two Little Archie stories (technically the second is labeled as a Little Betty & Veronica story, but both stories actually feature Little Archie and Little Betty).

First up is the title story, "The House That Wouldn't Move", which involves Little Archie helping the resident ghost of the local haunted house resist the efforts of a work crew sent to demolish the place to clear the way for a new highway.

The second story features some dog vs. cat antics when Little Archie's dog, Spotty, chases Little Betty's cat, Caramel, up a tree.

Both stories are kid-friendly, with pretty simple and straightforward plots. There are some funny moments, and the artwork looks good throughout.

Rating: 6/10

Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe

From the school library.

Title: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
Issue: Volume 5
Publisher: Oni Press
Date: 2009
Writer: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Artist: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Editor: James Lucas Jones
Cover: Bryan Lee O'Malley, Ben Berntsen

The fifth volume of Scott Pilgrim gets away from some of the laugh-out-loud jokes and one-liners as it moves into darker territory. Scott is confronted by two of the remaining three evil exes, and they are a pair of twins with expertise in robotics, and an increasingly dangerous series of fighting robots programmed to put a beating on Scott.

And when that doesn't do the job, they're ready to go after Scott's friends.

All the while, Scott's relationship with Ramona is suddenly on rocky ground, his band is horribly out of practice after months of recording, and Scott's world looks to be on the brink of crumbling around him.

This story did a great job with the relationship angst, the loneliness and despair, and some really touching moments involving Scott's attempts to retrieve Ramona's escaped cat. The battle with the twins came down to a nicely emotional climax as well, and the final scene was a great cliffhanger lead-in to the last volume in the series.

This felt like a very classical penultimate chapter, and it brought a good level of intensity to the series.

Rating: 8/10

Venus Needs Sharks

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Venus Needs Sharks
Publisher: Matt Finley (finley.mt@gmail.com)
Writer: Matt Finley
Artist: Matt Finley

This is a minicomic collection of absurd and humorous comic strips featuring characters like Time Shark, the Human Assassin Robot, Space Turtle, Big Fat Old Pig. The jokes range from quirky and surreal to tasteless shock-value humor (trigger warning: a couple of the strips use suicide as a punchline). It was a bit of a mixed bag as far as my own sense of humor went. I did love the two ridiculous Time Shark strips that bookend the collection.

There are some very clever ideas in here, and even the jokes that didn't work for me felt original and went in unexpected directions.

Rating: 5.5/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

This was a birthday present I bought for the Kiddo. The Wimpy Kid series is as popular in Vietnam as it is everywhere else, and the English editions of the books are available in most bookstores in Ho Chi Minh City. In this case, I bought it at my school's book fair fundraiser, which was run by one of the local bookstore chains.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2009
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

This is the third book of the Wimpy Kid series. Like the others, it is written primarily in text with accompanying cartoons and illustrations to flesh out the story.

This volume is a bit meandering, but focuses primarily on middle-schooler Greg Heffley's relationship with his father. Greg's Dad is getting frustrated that his son is not turning out to be particularly athletic or otherwise "manly", so an escalating series of remedies, from the soccer team, to boy scouts, to a family camping trip, are attempted, with the expected comical results.

When all else has failed, the only option left might involve shipping Greg off to military school.

As with others in this series, there are some funny jokes, but a lot of cringe-worthy moments. Greg's manipulation and bullying of his friend Rowley continues to be uncomfortable to read, as Greg remains oblivious of how cruel he's being. Rowley usually "wins" in the end, but I'm still not a fan of how this whole dynamic gets played for laughs.

My son did enjoy the book, as he has the rest of the series, and I am pleased that in spite of the shortcomings I find in these books, they are keeping him interested in reading.

But this volume was a fair amount of shortcomings and a lot of just aimless wandering from one set of jokes to the next.

Rating: 4/10

Fist of Justice Vol. 1 #1: Free Comic Book Day Edition

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Fist of Justice
Issue: Vol. 1, #1 (Free Comic Book Day Edition)
Publisher: Digital Webbing
Date: May, 2009
Writer: Mike Imboden
Artist: Pow Rodrix
Colorist: Edemilson Alexandre
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
Editor: Mike Exner III

A superhero story that plays with a bunch of classic tropes, this features a hero who has been out of action for thirty years, returning to Charm City, where he was once a beloved protector, only to find that another hero with the same superpowers and a much meaner attitude has taken over the job.

The original Fist of Justice and his modern vigilante counterpart both have a fairly standard set of Superman-style powers: Flight, strength, enhanced senses, invulnerability, etc. Marc Mason, the original Fist of Justice had his heroic career cur short by a tragedy that he blames himself for, and he wonders whether he has any real reason to return to crimefighting.

Meanwhile, his successor is becoming more and more unhinged at the though of a possible challenger to the job that he has made his own for thirty years.

This was a good story that felt compressed in an effort to get to a conclusion by the end of this issue. It could have been helped by a bit better pacing and more depth.

That being said, the Marc Mason character is nuanced and the world is well thought out. The plot elements came together for a satisfying conclusion by the end.

The final bit of dialogue was an anti-political-correctness bit that felt more like a facebook rant by the author than a good set of ending lines, but my reaction to this was more a matter of my personal distaste for such sentiments.

All in all a well-told superhero story. Nothing groundbreakingly original, but well executed.

Rating: 5.5/10

Scott Pilgrim Volume 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together

Borrowed from my school's library. I'm trying to strike a balance between reading unread books and comics that I own, and reading things I'm interested in from the school library before we head back to the US and then off to China.

Title: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
Issue: Volume 4
Publisher: Oni Press
Date: October, 2007
Writer: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Artist: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Colorist: Steve Buccellato
Editor: James Lucas Jones
Cover: Bryan Lee O'Malley, Miguel Sternberg

Scott Pilgrim earns some serious experience points in this volume, as he finally gets (and somehow keeps) a job, and also digs deep for the courage to take his relationship with Ramona Flowers to the next level.

Of course there is also one of Ramona's evil exes to be defeated, not to mention a mysterious stranger stalking Scott while wielding a pair of samurai swords. And there is an old friend from high school who never had a chance to date Scott, but who is wondering about the possibility of second chances.

Also, the rent is due, and the lease is up.

This started off a little jumbled, but tightened up considerably by the end. There were not quite as many laugh-out-loud moments as there were in the previous volume, but this story did bring some real romance, which was more something that had been danced around in the previous volumes.

This series continues to be witty and fun.

Rating: 7/10

Mighty Archie Players: Free Comic Book Day Edition #1

Back from a week of traveling in northern Vietnam, and back to the random stack of unread comics!

Title: Mighty Archie Players: Free Comic Book Day Edition
Issue: 1
Date: June, 2009
Publisher: Archie Comics
Writer: George Gladir
Artist: Stan Goldberg
Editor: Victor Gorelick, Mike Pellerito

Four stories here, each one a parody of a movie genre, with the familiar Riverdale Gang characters playing the various roles.

"High Noonish" is a classic western, with Archie as the marshal, who is about to trade in his guns and badge for wedded bliss when three old enemies come to town looking for trouble.

The second story is "Snow White and the Three Giant Dwarfs", because apparently the Mighty Archie Players don't have much in the way of a special effects budget. The story follows the classic fairy tale with a somewhat more modern vibe.

Third is "Marcia the Mermaid" with Betty in the title role, and Archie as the love interest, Scuba Joe. This is a pretty straightforward mermaid romance.

Last up, and the funniest of the bunch is "Once Upon A Time Along the Nile", a Cleopatra (actually, Cleaopatricia, played by Veronica) drama that is loaded with awful (in the best sense of the word!) puns. This one had some humor that may be lost on younger readers, but had me laughing.

As with many of the recent Archie Comics products, this book does a nice job of working with the reader's familiarity with the iconic Riverdale characters, and allowing the writer to jump right into the different stories.

This was a fun book with some good laughs.

Rating: 7/10

The Avengers: Free Comic Book Day 2009

From the random stack of unread comics by way of Free Comic Book Day 2009.

Title: The Avengers: Free Comic Book Day 2009
Issue: 1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: May, 2009
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Jim Cheung
Inker: Mark Morales
Colorist: John Rauch
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort, Jeanine Schaefer
Cover: Jim Cheung, Laura Martin

The frost giant Ymir has invaded New York, and it's going to take two teams of Avengers to stop him. In this rather crowded book, narrated by Spider-Man, we've got the post-Civil-War Avengers, currently outlaws, and the government-sanctioned Dark Avengers, led by Norman Osborne wearing the Iron Patriot armor.

As mentioned, you need a scorecard to keep track of everyone here, and it doesn't help matters that you've got two Spider-Men (one is actually Venom), two Wolverines (one is the original's son... X-24, I guess? Or is X-24 some other dude?), and two Captain Marvels (neither of which is Mar-Vell OR Shazam; both are women).

While I realize that having all of these duplicates is part of the point, it does not make for a good story. Most of this book was the various team members trudging through the snow to find some super-powered sword, which they didn't even really need to use on anyone. Just breaking the thing out of its display case was all that was needed to save the day.

Oh, and then the two teams almost-fight.

This was a lot of buildup to a massive fizzle of an ending. The only think holding this together was Peter Parker's snarky narration, and even that felt forced at times.

Rating: 3/10

 

The Diary of Amos Lee: I Sit, I Write, I Flush

Got this for the Kiddo at Kinokuniya on Orchard Road in Singapore.

Title: The Diary of Amos Lee: I Sit, I Write, I Flush
Issue: Volume 1
Publisher: Epigram Books
Date: 2009
Writer: Adeline Foo
Artist: Stephanie Wong

When we were exploring Singapore, I took the Kiddo (my son, age 9) to the Kinokuniya book store on Orchard Road. I picked this out basically assuming that this was Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but set in Singapore. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, while it had some similarities, this book had a very unique and distinctive flavor as compared to the Wimpy Kid books.

Amos Lee is a typical Singaporean kid whose mother has decided that he should get in some writing practice whenever he sits down on the toilet. This diary is the result. The story follows one full calendar year of Amos' life, and it brings in current events at the time of writing, as well as loads of local flavor and culture.

In places, this story reads almost like a Singapore travel guide, with the occasional snarky comment. The book is not loaded with jokes the way the Wimpy Kid books are, but there is plenty of humor, and Amos Lee has a more snarky and subtle side to his sense of humor.

As the story progresses, more plot elements come into play. There is a school bully who has been bothering Amos and his friends, and Amos is constantly coming up with new money-making schemes to earn cash for the portable video game system he has his sights set on.

Over the course of the year, we see Singaporean events like Lunar New Year, the National Day Parade, the F-1 race, and Deepavali. There are references to many of the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of the city. It was fun reading about places we had gotten to visit where we were in Singapore, as well as seeing other areas of the city through Amos' eyes.

The plot takes a while to build up, and the book feels a bit random in the early going, but it intensifies as it reaches the end, and I liked the fact that the bullying issue is not resolved in perfect storybook fashion.

It also helps that, in spite of some cynical and lazy tendencies, Amos is a fairly likeable character with some well-developed interests and some moments of introspection and compassion.

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