New Library Comics

Now that the Newly Catalog Items feature is working again on the library's Website, I can easily share the list of new comics that the library is getting in for our collection.

Here is the listing of new comics & GNs added to the catalog over the past four weeks.

Assuming there's any interest, I'll probably continue to generate a list either every week or every other week.

Quick Manga Reviews

Club 9, vol. 1
by Makoto Kobayashi
Club 9 is the story of Haruo Hattori, a cute but klutzy country bumpkin who comes to Tokyo to attend college and ends up working as a ginza at Club 9, the hottest hostess bar in the city. Kobayashi imbues Haruo with a charming combination of naivete and pluckish enthusiam, making her a likable character. The ginza profession is made to seem glamourous and exciting, though one suspects that the reality is far from that, as putting up with the leering and pawing of middle-aged leches is something that most girls would do only for the money. However, Kobayashi does take advantage of the scenes in Club 9 to poke fun at manga-ka, even including an analogue of himself as a drunken lout. The art is strong--better, I think, than in Kobayashi's What's Michael--the backgrounds are well-detailed, the storytelling flows nicely, and Kobayashi knows how to draw attractive women with realistic proportions. I find his faces though to be overly cartoony; they work well in a gag strip like What's Michael, but they seem out-of-place amidst the more reliastic suroundings here. I'm also put off a bit by the translation, specifically the dialect given to Harou which reads like she is an American back-woods hick. I know the effect they were going for, but it comes off like a low-rent Daisy Duke.
Rating: 3 (of 5)


IWGP, vol. 1
by Ira Ishida & Sena Aritou
Take one part young adult drama, one part sex farce, one part detectice story and one part gang comic, mix them all together, and you may get something like IWGP. Based on a popular novel (that also spawned a Japanese television series) IWGP tells the story of a group of young adults who meet in Ikebukuro West Gate Park on New Year's Eve at the turn of the millennium, then follows them as the flirt, fall in love, have sex, and get imbroiled in the case of a serial killer who rapes and strangles escorts. There's sex, violence and melodrama, all in nearly equal amounts (at at times rather graphic), and the various elements of the story don't ever quite mesh together; it's as though there are three different types of stories being told, all vying for the limelight. Still, despite the fact that it really shouldn't work, I find myself drawn to the characters. The art is 'standard manga' style, but manages to keep the various characters delineated and tell the story clearly, even as Aritou changes his style around slightly depending on the mood of the story at a particular point. It's all a bit of an uneven package, but it's better than I thought it would be.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)


(A review copy of IWGP was provided by the publisher.)

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

Today's cover is by Scott McCloud, from 1987's Zot! #16, in which the entire cast gets devolved into monkeys. Great Fun!

Image is courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

More Lieber

Here's a more recent piece by Steve Lieber, "$209 Round Trip," a two-page remembrance of his father:

page 1 - page 2

(link via Johanna, who also makes some nice observations)

Steve Lieber's IPL Blast from the Past

Continuing on our IPL Birthday theme, here's a very rare Steve Lieber cartoon that appeared in the IPL's one-time newsletter for kids, WebINK, back in 1997:

Happy Birthday, IPL!

On March 17, 1995, the Internet Public Library opened its virtual doors to the world.

In early January of that year, a group of thirty or so graduate students at the University of Michigan School of Information and Library Studies gathered in a room and launched their plan to create a public library for the Internet community. Ten short weeks later that dream became a reality, and now ten years later the IPL continues.

I was proud to be one of those thirty students who created the IPL, and after the class I continued to work on the IPL project for seven years, spending the last 3.5 of those years as the Director. During that time I had the privilige to work with scores of talented students on the project. I have now continued on my career away from the IPL, but I look back on those days fondly and continue to be impressed by the work of those who continue what we began a decade ago.

So Happy Birthday, IPL--here's to at least ten more!

Quick Comic Reviews

Street Angel #5
by Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca
In this final (for now) issue of Street Angel, Jesse finds herself teamed up with one-time superhero Afrodisiac, under siege from an army of gun-toting thugs intent on killing them. As our hero's situation grows grim, we learn Afrodisiac's backstory in grey-toned comic panels made to appear as though they are from the 70s and 80s. This issue brims with innovating storytelling, including a dense, frenetic two-page spread near the end where Jesse brutally takes out the thug army. Every issue of Street Angel was different from the others, but it maintained a unique vision throughout and each issue wa a treat. Though the series is done for now, I hope that Street Angel is able to return soon.
Rating: 4 (of 5)


Action Comics #825
by 'J. D. Finn', Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Marc Campos & Oclair Albert
The final oversized issue by the current creative team is full of action, action and more action as Superman vaces off against the twin threats of Gog and Doomsday. Austen (writing as Finn) tries to wrap things up and bring about a conclusion, and considering the mess he made for himself earlier does an okay job, even though it involves some dodgy time travel and even dodgier motivations. It fares a bit better than some of Austen's earlier stories in that he has little time to attempt his ham-fisted character development with the supporting cast, focusing instead on the super-powered characters beating the snot out of each other, all dynamically rendered by the small army of artists.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)


Blood of the Demon #1
by John Byrne, Will Pfeifer, & Nekros
I had vastly mixed expectations for this book. On the one hand I like Kirby's The Demon as a character, and I generally enjoy Will Pfeifer's work. However, Pfeifer is just scripting over a plot by Byrne, whose recent work has left me cold. Since DCBS had the first issue at 75% off, I decided to go ahead and order it; thankfully it turns out to be a rather good start to a new series, presenting an interesting new status quo for The Demon and his alter ego, Jason Blood, without reconning or making a radical change to the character. Byrne's art is well-served by both inker Nekros and colorist Alex Bleyaert, just as Pfeifer's scripting does well for the plot. It's still too early to tell, but this could turn out to be a good series after all.
Rating: 3 (of 5)


Wolverine: Soultaker #1
by Akira Yoshida & Shin "Jason" Nagasawa
I'm a bit disappointed; I was promised Wolverine fighting ninjas and zombies, but while their was plenty of ninja-ass-kicking, the zombies are nowhere to be found. Aaside from that let down, this admitedly completely unnecesary mini series (how many comics does Wolverine appear in each month?) turns out to be a bit enjoyable. Yoshida takes a standard Wolverine-in-Japan plot and infuses it with a dash of actual Japanese culture, while Nagasawa deftly blends western super-hero and manga styles. The plot is just barely there, enough to set-up the action, but it works on its own level. There just better be zombies soon!
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)


Gotham Central #29
by Greg Rucka, Stefano Gaudiano & Kano
With Promethea officially over, Gotham Central now stands alone as my favorite ongoing title from DC. After the devastating events of last issue resulted in a cop falling prey to an old trap set by Flash foe Dr. Alchemy, Detectives Montoya and Allen travel to Keystone City to see if they can bargain with the incarcerated Alchemy to save the officer's life. Supporting characters from The Flash make an appearance, allowing a compare-and-contrast between the police departments of two cities plagued by very different types of costumed villains. There's genuine drama in Rucka's story: will the detectives be able to save the officer, and in so doing will Montoya regain the respect of the cops in the GCPD? Kano steps in to provide inks over Gaudiano's pencils, smoothing out some of the rougher edges and making for a very attractive book. I still miss Michael Lark, but with Kano tapped to become the new regular artist I think this book will continue to be an excellent marriage of story and art. Now if only sales were better...
Rating: 4 (of 5)