Mmm, after being at the month long whim of amazon, I have a stockpile of TPB's and graphic novels finally lurching their way through my letterbox at the moment, probably enough to last me till the end of the year I imagine, so I thought I'd put a couple of first impressions onto paper before I get stuck in and it all becomes a sticky fingered, technicolor haze...
The list is a little of this and a little of that, perhaps a ways away from the superhero thing, yet overall, the things that made this cut represent trying to get a balance of rewarding material overall, whether it be for teh eyes, the heart, or the brain, be it long overdue recommendations of Zoners, or being comicbook shop deprived, just following my own instincts really...
* 1 of: Planetary : All Over the World and Other Stories
* Y: The Last Man: Unmanned
* We3
* Blankets
* Preacher: Gone to Texas
** Scott Pilgrim: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life v. 1
Fables: Legends in Exile
Astro City: Life in the Big City
You Are Here
100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call (100 Bullets)
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
David Boring
DMZ: On the Ground
The Quitter
Krazy and Ignatz: The Komplete Kat Komics 1925 and 1926
Godland Volume 1: Hello, Cosmic!
Rocketo Volume 1: The Journey To The Hidden Sea
* Still Lurching
** Sigh, 'tis so strange to see bluebottles little face actually in my hands, staring back up at me ***
*** Leave it be, chile, leave it be...
I'm still working through a novel, so I've prevented myself from jumping into the deep end so to speak, and in turn, the first I've had some time to spend with so far are Rocketo and Godland...
I'll sketch in some details, images and linkyness out of general principle, but I'll assume you know more than I do, and I'll work on just being able to best divulge my divulgables...
Rocketo
On first impressions... well, I am most mightily impressed, it's almost impossible not to be, really. It's all about the art, front and center. Framed in silky widescreen pages, everything about the book is designed to be bold, vivid and with a sweepingly, vicerall, old school charasma.
Expressionistic from first to last, images are built of free flowing layers, often built on color, contrast and shadow more than line, and it all feels loose and liquid, yet bound together enough to feel whole, to make you want to hesitate, to linger at panels and to let the simple, perfectly chosen chaos of it all lap at your eyeballs some.
Not a neccasary one, but a nice starting point for a comic book I think.
The introductory episode "0", is brief, expanded apon here of an exhibitionary piece by Eisner nominated creator Espinosa, and it does it's duty. A simple, if unremarkable little tale, with a neat finish or so, but altogether a little in debt to the images at such an early stage...
I'm most looking forward to seeing if the writing is as strong, if the story lives up to the expression it's been given, the textures as bold in concept aswell as form, if so, if there's richer treasures to find beneath the colourscapes, the characters start striking the grace notes between teh chords, I'll be sure let you know when I find it...
Interview with Frank Espinosa, a little spoilerish here and there, but to give you a healthy feeling of the art work if you haven't seen it already, it is very much worth a looksee... HERE