REVIEW: Northlanders, Vol. 1: Sven The Returned (3/10)

Northlanders, Vol. 1:
Sven The Returned
Vertigo
2008
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Davide Gianfelice
ISBN 978-1401219185

Score
3/10

Greetings, friends! It’s been a minute since I got at ya! Well, that’s on account of me laying off the bottle a bit as a result of my New Year’s health kick. (As my regular readers may know, I typically do my best review work with a solid buzz.) But tonight I’m putting it down with my good friend Jack Daniel’s, and I’m doing it just for your benefit, dear readers, so you’re welcome.

So what are we talking about tonight? We’re talking about Northlanders, Vol. 1: Sven the Returned, which is a Viking comic. Not a comic book created by Vikings – although I would pay to see that! – no, I mean a comic book about Vikings, of course. At least that’s the premise, although I’m not sure I’m any more informed about Vikings after reading it, but we’ll get to that…

I’ll preface this review by saying that I was pretty stoked about this comic when I ordered it from the library. Not that I knew anything about it, mind you – I believe I learned of this series from an advertisement in the back of a Scalped book. I just thought it looked cool, and I was frankly excited at the mere prospect of a Viking comic book. I’d never read a Viking comic before, and let’s face it, there’s so much potential for great material there, right? Well, let me tell you how it went…

REVIEW: Scalped, Vol. 7: Rez Blues (7/10)

Scalped, Vol. 7: Rez Blues
Vertigo
2011
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: R.M. Guéra,
David Furno,
& Danijel Zezelj
ISBN 978-1401230197

Score

7/10

Hi, kids. It’s been a minute – thanks for hanging in there. Today I bring you my review of Scalped, Vol. 7: Rez Blues. This was an interesting one, and somewhat of a departure from recent volumes of the Scalped series. Jason Aaron spends a lot of time fleshing out the back stories of some well-known Prairie Rose characters, and even introduces us to a couple new ones. Shall we?

Story

Volume 7 is really kind of broken into 4 distinct parts, so I think I’ll summarize each of those, and then give you my insightful and fascinating opinion on the book as a whole. Sound good? Great.

Chapter 1, a.k.a. “Listening to the Earth Turn”, is a self-contained tale that introduces us to two elderly residents of the rez that we haven’t met before. It remains to be seen whether or not they will play a role in the larger story, but even if they don’t, this moving and emotional episode is pretty riveting and expertly crafted. Even if we never see Mance & Hazel again, this chapter helps to paint a more rounded picture of the Prairie Rose reservation, and reminds us that not all its people are participants in the shocking crime that this series is generally focused on. Some of these folks are struggling just to live an honest life and put food on the table…

Chapters 2 & 3, a.k.a. “A Fine Action of an Honorable and Catholic Spaniard”, focuses on our old friend Shunka, the fearsome enforcer of Chief Red Crow. Well, just like most other character in this series, Shunka is not as one-dimensional as he may seem. I won’t say much more for fear of spoiling the surprise, but suffice to say this story contains one of the more eye-popping reveals of Scalped so far! Plus of course there’s lots of violence. A lot of people get shot. And, even though this also seems to be a self-contained sub-plot, I have little doubt that the secrets that are revealed in these chapters will come into play later on. They are, simply, too juicy…

REVIEW: Akira, Vol. 6 (7/10)

Akira: Volume 6
Kodansha Comics
2011
Katsuhiro Otomo
ISBN 978-1935429081

Score

7/10

Well, we’ve come to the end of yet another journey here on First Panel – a LONG, intense journey to Neo-Tokyo, ca. 2030, where super-powerful telekinetics rule over a post-apocalyptic megalopolis, whilst being assaulted on all sides by assorted parties who fear their uncontrolled power.

This final chapter in the Akira series – Vol. 6 – is the swan song of Katsuhiro Otomo‘s epic – and I mean EPIC – Manga tour de force. I still find it hard to believe, but Otomo wrote and illustrated this entire series himself. For the record, that’s 2100 excruciatingly detailed pages. It’s not so hard to believe however that he spent 7 1/2 years of his life doing it. Honestly, I’m somewhat surprised it didn’t take longer…

For the record, the version I’ve been reading and reviewing here on First Panel is the recently finished reissue by Random House.

Story

After all my admiration of the scope of this work and the ridiculous dedication and effort that Otomo put forth, the first thing I’m going to do is complain about how long volume 6 was. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of very important things transpired in this book (obviously) – I just felt that they probably could have been accomplished in about half as many pages. Allow me to explain…

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Movie

Well, I finally got around to watching the Scott Pilgrim movie – Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – a good year or so after it was released. What took me so long? I was waiting until I finished the books, naturally. I like to do that – watch the movie version of a book, right after I finish the book. It’s like I get to see Hollywood’s visualization of the story after I’ve just spent days or weeks or months visualizing the whole thing in my own head. Generally, it’s a good experience. I recommend it!

And it’s a good thing I waited until I’d finished the whole series, because this movie somehow manages to pack the entire thing (6 volumes, roughly 1000 pages) into one film – and rather successfully, I might add.

Now I know that movies based on books never really follow the printed story line 100% -and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is no exception. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they followed it fairly closely – until the end at least. I can never quite figure out why movie-makers make the changes they do when bringing a book to the big screen – but of course, I’m no movie director either. I just have to trust that the digressions were absolutely necessary.

REVIEW: Scalped, Vol. 6: The Gnawing (9/10)

Scalped, Vol. 6:
The Gnawing
Vertigo
2010
Story: Jason Aaron
Art: R.M. Guéra
ISBN 978-1401227173

Score

9/10

Ok, this could be a short one, because I finished this book about a week ago, and I just haven’t been able to get in the mood to write about it. It’s not because the book wasn’t good – in fact it was great. I guess I just haven’t been in a writing state of mind lately. Don’t worry – it’s not you, it’s me. Anyway, I’m going to bang this one out right here and now, and apologies in advance if it’s too succinct (or just plain sucks).

So tonight I’m talking about Scalped, Vol. 6: The Gnawing, written by Jason Aaron, with art by R.M. Guera (acting solo this time). If I’m brief here, at least there’s plenty of previous opinion about this series to be found on this blog. So let’s do it!

Story

As I’ve said before, this story is awesome. The premise and setting are awesome, and the characters are badass and complex. And awesome.

I’ve been lately working my way through Breaking Bad (the TV show) on Netflix Instant, and if you’re a fan of that show, then you’ll enjoy this series. There are a lot of parallels: drugs, sex, violence, deceit. It’s just plain dirty, guilty fun.

So what specifically about Vol. 6 is so great? Well, we discover that even more parties than previously thought are aware of Dashiel’s secret employment as an FBI agent. That ratchets up the tension about 1000%. Also, Red Crow makes some incredibly stupid split-second decisions in regards to his problem with the Hmongs, which bring that situation to a spectacular head (and puts him right where Special Agent Nitz wants him). Plus there’s a midnight manhunt, a double-double-cross, a serious ass-kicking, naked chicks doing coke, a torturous cold-blooded murder, and the most fucked-up love story you’ve ever seen takes a turn for the worse.