Untold Chronicles could be told better

The Untold Chronicles, Book One
Everdance: A Blood Story
Geo Brawn IV (writer/illustrator)
Brawn Graphix Design Creation, February 2011

Reviewed by Lyda Morehouse

If you’re intrigued by morally-ambiguous vigilante characters like Showtime’s serial killer antihero “Dexter,” The Untold Chronicles is a graphic novel for you. On the surface, Kate Bennet appears to be a mild-mannered kid lit author, but, in reality, she’s a blood-thirsty vampire in desperate need of a mentor. Her vampire husband died leaving Kate unable to fend for herself. Luckily, she meets the queen of demons and mother of all vampires, Lilith, who relishes taking Kate under her wing, as it were.

In the course of the graphic novel, the reader is also treated to the history of Lilith. As she tells her story for Kate to write as a new book, we see how Lilith went from being the first wife of Adam to Lucifer’s lover. Having written extensively myself about Lilith and Satan, I found those sections particularly interesting.

The only thing that mars this collection is the artwork. It’s very uneven. Individual panels can be quite well-rendered only to be followed by very sketchy or blurry ones. Unfortunately, that’s true for the lettering as well, which makes the book, literally, difficult to read.

The Untold Chronicles is a monster’s coming of age story. It’s about learning to embrace the dark and make it work for you. A very cool idea that needed better execution, alas.

Pang: The Wandering Shaolin Monk makes comic history

Pang: The Wandering Shaolin Monk
Volume 1: “The Refuge of the Heart”
Ben Costa
Iron Crotch University Press (July 2010)

Review by Lyda Morehouse

If you’ve ever applauded your way through one of Jackie Chan’s “Drunken Master” films, but secretly wished that along with the subtitles there were pop-up bubbles with information about Chinese customs, history and/or language, Pang is a graphic novel for you.

This volume collects 188 pages of the on-going web comic Shi Long Pang, which you can find at shilongpang.com. The story takes place in 17th century China and follows the title character, Pang. Pang himself is drawn in a simple style, which reflects his “uncarved block” personality (with apologies for making a Taoist reference for a Shaolin monk). In this way, Pang stands out in a visual simplicity among the vividly colored, complex and sometimes cluttered panels. However, I think that contrast is not only perfect for this sort of character and story, but also highlights the intensity of the times in which Pang lives.

Costa tells a serious, epic story about the Three Feudatories War, while simultaneously following the personal and sometimes gently humorous tale of Pang – a rotund, sheltered monk, who finds himself thrust into the center of the conflict. Pang is very likable from the moment he enters the picture. Like a bumbling hero in a Golden Harvest film, he’s the moral center of any argument and (as a bonus!) surprisingly cool/capable in a fight.

Pang is one part sweet, one part serious, and a whole bundle of awesome. A great read. I devoured the whole thing the moment I sat down with it. In fact, now I plan to take the time to hunt through the archives at the web comic, so I can start to follow along in real-time with the continuing adventures.

Contrast in Outer Space - Two SF graphic novels reviewed

The Martian Confederacy (Vol. 1): Thieves. Outlaws. Rednecks. Humanity's last hope on Mars. written by Jason McNamara, illustrated by Paige Braddock

Astronauts in Trouble: Live from the Moon written by Larry Young, illustrated by Matt Smith

Review by Lyda Morehouse

After reading both these space adventure graphic novels, my first thought was, “there are too damn many white boys in space.” I felt this way not because I particularly have some kind of diversity agenda, but because, in both black & white comic books, I had trouble keeping the male characters straight because they all looked so much alike. In the Martian Confederacy the big physical difference between Boone (the hero) and Alcalde (the villain) seemed to be the thickness of their sideburns. In Astronauts in Trouble, I had difficulty distinguishing between the main TV anchor, the villain, and the villain’s main henchman.

Despite this slight artistic handicap, I found The Martian Confederacy to be immediately accessible and engaging. Part of that might be my own predilections, however. I’m always up for a story about a thief, and our hero, Boone, is exactly that. The Martian Confederacy is the story of a corrupt, lone wolf cop, Alcalde, and his personal quest to keep an economically (and atmospherically) struggling Mars under his thumb. Our thief/antihero Boone and his band of classically misfit friends get in Alcalde’s way, and wacky hijinx ensue.

The main plot, while entertaining, wasn’t the main appeal of The Martian Confederacy for me. I ended up surprisingly invested in the various characters, particularly the female android, Lou, as well as some of the odder side characters, including a slightly-insane, grieving widow/show girl and the “duplicitous” girlfriend of Alcalde. In fact, the true marvel of The Martian Confederacy is that I even ended up caring about a talking bear and his family.

Perhaps therein lies the difference between The Martian Confederacy and Astronauts in Trouble. The only character I felt I could hang onto in Astronauts in Trouble was the hard-drinking, hard-livin’ cameraman, Heck. Astronauts in Trouble follows the adventures of a band of TV journalists who get invited along to an historic return to the moon by billionaire business mogul Ishmael Hayes. When the launch is nearly hijacked by eco-terrorists it becomes clear that there’s more going on than a simple space launch. There’s some truly excellent science in the science fiction of this graphic novel, but ultimately the characters never felt fully realized to me.

Honestly, I was nervous when I read Warren Ellis’ intro to Astronauts in Trouble because I’m not a huge Ellis fan. I mostly know him from Freak Angels, much of which I’ve found compelling yet… a bit “arty.” Astronauts in Trouble might suffer from too much hype, too. Its cover blurbs ranged from Harlan Ellison (an old school science fiction writer I mostly respect) to Ed Brubaker (my current #1 favorite comic book writer), and with that and a forward from Ellis I may have come into Astronauts in Trouble expecting to be completely blown away, and thus felt disappointed when I was only mildly entertained. Perhaps, if you’re a fan of Ellis, you’ll disagree with my assessment. Certainly plenty of other big names would back you up, if you did.

Introducing Lyda Morehouse and SFOO's first graphic novel review

Lyda Morehouse has been an avid comic book reader since the early 1970s, having spent many happy days in her cousin’s basement reading her uncle’s collection that included many first issues of Marvel titles like Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, X-Men and hundreds more. Neil Gaiman’s “Season in Mist” partly inspired her to write her first novel in the AngeLINK tetrology, Archangel Protocol, which was published by Roc in 2001 and won the Shamus award for an original paperback featuring a private detective. Currently, she writes bestselling paranormal romances and YA novels as Tate Hallaway, while also attempting to revive her science fiction career with a prequel to the angel books called Resurrection Code, due out from Mad Norwegian Press in March 2011. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with her partner of twenty-five years, their son, four cats, two gerbils and a multitude of fish.

And she's a fellow Broad Universe member! Broads rock! Lyda came to my aid when I asked for help with reviews and I'm so glad she can give graphic novels and comics some sun. Welcome aboard, Lyda!






HAVEN
Leonardo Ramirez / Davy Fisher
Markosia Enterprises (July 2010)

Collects:
HAVEN (Book 1): “What We Leave Behind”
HAVEN (Book 2): “What We Hold Dear”
HAVEN (Book 3): “What We All Want”
HAVEN (Book 4): “What We All Need”





There’s something about Dante’s Inferno. In February this year, Electronic Arts came up with a high-octane adventure videogame based on Dante Alighieri’s descent into the seven circles of hell for Playstation 3/Xbox, and now that very same poem inspired a demon butt-kicking graphic novel by Leonardo Ramirez and artist Davy Fisher called Haven.

In Haven, we are introduced to Haven Irena Dante a high school senior and the current heir to the Dante Alighieri bloodline. She’s heard the story of how a relative of hers descended into hell, but what she doesn’t know is that his journey sparked an eternal blood feud between hell’s demons and the Alighieris.

The story begins at her mother’s funeral. Haven’s mother, who I’m not sure is ever named, is a stand-in for the famous Beatrice (Dante’s Muse and guide for the third section of the Divine Comedy, of which Inferno is the first part.) Haven’s mother’s death begins the original poem’s “deep woods” in which Haven quickly finds herself lost and in need of a “right path.”

However, instead of being drawn to Hell by being metaphorically assailed by wild beasts, Haven is literally sexually molested. After that all hell breaks loose… literally. The first issue ends with Haven waking up on the street, two years later, with glowing angelic script tattoos on both arms, a magic staff given to her during a brief sojourn in purgatory and, it is soon revealed, hereditary superpowers. The last three issues follow Haven’s battle to uncover the demons’ plot to infiltrate her father’s company and, like any good superhero, save the world.

Normally, when I read graphic novels or comic books, I only require the artist not to distract me from the story. I’m the sort of reader who will often forgive moderate art when the storytelling is strong. However, particularly in the case of the first issue, I got the impression that under the command of a different artist, I would have found Haven’s origin story gratuitously grim. Rape! Murder! Argh, all in the first ten pages! But, Davy Fisher’s artwork elevates this graphic novel nearer to the place I think author Leonardo Ramirez intended it to be. There were moments that positively reminded me of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. In fact, a good blurb for this graphic novel could be: Sandman meets Zap! Pow! action.

The only thing that marred this collection was a few moments of clunky storytelling. When the storyline gets really pumping, the scenes also get a bit jumpy too. I was also left with some minor questions about the “whys” of Haven’s superpowers that, while not deal breakers, could use more explanation.

I can only hope that there will be another installment of this series to answer some of my questions. Despite the few hiccups I illustrated above, I found this graphic novel ultimately satisfying. Fisher’s artwork is worth the cover price alone and the premise rocks enough to forgive the minor flaws.

***

If you agree, you can order it here.