Golden Kamuy.

- Golden Kamuy, vol. 1. Satoru Noda. Saichi Sugimoto, a veteran of the Russo-Japanese war, has been mining for gold in Hokkaido, hoping to be able to fulfill a promise he made to a fallen comrade (well, he has a couple other reasons besides the promise). One night, he hears what appears to be a tall tale about a legendary treasure buried somewhere in the region —and the map leading to the treasure was tattooed on the skin of twenty runaway prisoners. The next morning he discovers that the story is true and he has just found the first piece of the map! Now he sets on a journey along with Asirpa, a courageous Ainu girl who seeks revenge for the murder of her father. It will be a long journey, full of dangerous forces of nature and even more dangerous men…

Terrific adventure story that benefits both from Noda’s gorgeous artwork and from a careful investigation both historical and cultural (Noda credits the help of linguist Hiroshi Nakagawa and this volume includes an extensive list of reference material on Ainu customs and history). The story is quite brutal, yet never gratuitously so. It pulls back no punches regarding inclement subzero conditions or wild animals, nor when depicting hunting and skinning of animals (…and people, when the villains get horribly creative), yet it’s presented less for spectacle than for conveying a specific atmosphere. 

Also notable is the subtle depiction of cultural prejudices —at one point Sugimoto beats up a man who calls Asirpa a “pet dog”, and to her comment that she is used to it, he replies “And why should you have to get used to it?”. Sugimoto himself was despised in his hometown for being the last of a sickly family (all neighbors shunned him fearing contagion —all but his two friends, that is). When a man from the prosperous port town of Otaru thanks Sugimoto for his military service (“It’s thanks to soldiers like you that we were able to take back Southern Karafuto. Thanks to you, this port will continue to prosper. Thank you for all you’ve done”), he bluntly replies “The merchants are the only ones getting rich”. It’s a harsh world, then and now, there and here, but ultimately what we do about it matters. 

A very recommended comic, one that I look forward to continue reading. 

Yon & Mu.

- Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu. Autor J-kun has just moved into a new home with his fiancée, A-ko. But with her comes an unspeakable curse: A pair of cats. Ghastly looking, mysterious…and adorable! Can J-kun shed his dog-lover persona and win the sympathies of his new feline friends? 

In 2009, famous horror manga artist Junji Ito (Uzumaki, Gyo) delivered a comedy based on his real-life experiences with pet cats (partly on a suggestion from his Editor; partly to recapture his start as a humor comic author). The result is an unusual comic with which Ito pokes fun at his own excesses. Be they the over-the-top expressions, the characters over-reacting to any little surprise or the monstrous designs out of nowhere, it delivers a much-needed splash of cold water to fans who take his work a little too seriously. 

And outside of that, is it a good comic? Well, it’s a fairly original slice-of-life yarn, and while the comedy will probably not be as effective for people unfamiliar with Ito, it still manages to be an occasionally moving story wrapped in a bizarre exoskeleton. 

Generally, an interesting, off-beat manga worth at least a look. 

The lobster.

- The lobster (Ireland, et. al. 2015, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos). Middle-aged David has just been left by his wife. Sad, yet ordinary. Well, except that in the world he lives in, it is not possible to live in society without a partner. In fact, when you are single, you are sent to a posh hotel that is also a concentration camp, in which you have a total of 45 days to find yourself a new partner (only heterosexual and homosexual options. Bisexuality is not allowed). If not, you are turned into an animal so you can more or less contribute something to the world. David has already chosen —he wants to be a lobster. But maybe there are other options, such as the renegade singles called “Loners” —well, maybe if the hotel ‘guests’ weren’t expected to hunt Loners for sport…

The best high-concept movies are those that start with a wacky premise and play it with aplomb and seriousness (without falling into involuntary humor, that is). Here we have a dystopia that is all the more horrifying because of how convincing its over-the-top premise manages to be. In a world where non-romantic relationships are heavily discouraged and children are ‘assigned’ to quarreling couples on the premise that it will help them solve their problems, becoming an animal almost seems a sensible choice. Except that said animals are invariably killed an eaten anyway. 

A darkly comic, profoundly disturbing little movie. Very much recommended, particularly for fans of off-beat cinema. 

Yuge!

- Yuge! 30 years of Doonesbury on Trump. G. B. Trudeau. A compilation of Doonesbury strips featuring or commenting on the shenanigans of Donald Trump (hardly even exaggerated, given that the man is practically a living caricature), covering the 80’s (ostentatious yachts perpetually circling his casinos), the 90’s (said casinos driven to bankruptcy), the 2000’s (hosting a morally repulsive game show) and the current 2010’s (political circus that ended in a real life nightmare). 

As it is the “Doonesbury” strip, there are thousands of recurrent characters, and lots of arcs will be seemingly forgotten or left unsolved —although, most of them have a pretty easy to grasp personality and history. While one wishes the author’s introduction had given as much attention to the ongoing storylines and characters as to the importance of satire in general, it is nevertheless an entertaining compilation. 

It has been hailed as something of a warning (indeed author Trudeau has appeared on actual tv shows and been asked how he predicted Trump’s presidency) —yet, reading the strip, it’s rather obvious that anybody with a grasp on American history and celebrity excesses knew it would head that way. Which may say more about the public at large than about the comic strip…

Either way, the result is a book that is still worth revisiting, not just to laugh for a while but to see what disasters might yet be fixed and prevented in the near future. 

(P.S. For anybody wondering, “Yuge” is, I’m told, a stereotypical New York pronunciation of “Huge”)

Free country.

- Free country: A tale of the children’s crusade. Neil Gaiman, et. al. Overnight, the children of Flaxdown have disappeared without a trace —a phenomenon that is soon repeated in several places all over the world. Investigating the case are Rowland and Paine, detectives far more earnest than experienced, but who have a certain unique asset: they are both ghost children. Soon it becomes apparent that there is a massive conspiracy at play, involving millennia-old magic and five very special children en route to a place called Free Country. But is it a heaven for abused children or an altogether new kind of hell? 

This particular comic is something of a curiosity —not only for the high concept premise (which mixes real life tragedies like the infamous ‘Chidren’s crusade’ with the legend of the Pied Piper and a dash of “Childe Roland to the dark tower came”, plus even more ancient rhymes and fairytales), nor for the decidedly unique cast —but because it is the “collected edition” of a story that never truly was. 

You see, “The children’s crusade” was conceived circa 1992 as a crossover between the major Vertigo titles. It would involve the children of each ongoing book — Rowland and Paine from “The sandman” (and the spinoff “Dead boy detectives”), Maxine Baker from “Animal Man”, Dorothy Spinner from “Doom Patrol”, Tefé from “Swamp Thing”, Suzy from “Black Orchid” and Tim Hunter from “The books of magic”. Gaiman wrote two issues, the first by himself and the second with Alisa Kwitney and Jamie Delano, which were effectively the prologue and epilogue of the crossover. Each chapter would be covered in the Annuals for each of the other comic books. 

But… that didn’t quite happen. Most of the writers were simply uninterested in breaking their ongoing stories for the sake of an experimental crossover (to be fair, this gimmick has certainly become bloated in current times, particularly at DC and Marvel). 

Consequently, this edition features a completely new middle written by Toby Litt and Rachel Pollack, and between the three they make a coherent story… kind of. Truth be told, as a story it can be best described as “uneven”. For one thing, out of the seven intended protagonists, Dorothy is not really in the book at all, while Tefé is reduced to a couple pages-long cameo. Maxine is practically a villain because of her compressed character arc. Suzy, being left with very little to do, comes across as something of an airhead. Rowland and Paine solve the mystery pretty much by accident and then save the day thanks to a deus-ex-machina. And while Tim Hunter fares much better (he has a consistent personality and is the only one who both acts as an actual child and is actually smart enough to think before he acts), he essentially appears out of nowhere and then simply drops out of the story. 

Yet there is a lot to like here, particularly an extremely intriguing plot involving Freedom Land itself (and peopled by some truly disturbing villains). It is very tempting to imagine the entire story done again, this time without the baggage of needing to accommodate already-existing character beats and instead with characters made from scratch. 

There’s a writing prompt, for sure…

Too cool to be forgotten.

- Too cool to be forgotten. Alex Robinson. Middle-aged Andy has been trying to quit smoking. He’s tried everything, from conventional to non-conventional means. So why not give hypnosis a try? Yet he never expected to seemingly travel back in time and revive his high school years. Is this a chance for a do-over? To ask out the girl he never dared to talk to? To avoid that first cigarette? To reach out to the people he ignored back then? Perhaps. Or perhaps, it’s a journey meant to confront Andy with that one memory he kept blocking out, the root of so much grief…

Notable character drama disguised as a time travel adventure. What at first would seem to be yet another nostalgia yarn (The 80’s! Being a teenager again, with all the drama and excitement!) soon turns into a meditation on the way our memories shape us. 

I remember reading a review of this comic years ago, in which the reviewer felt that Andy’s final memory was something he surely wasn’t likely to forget. I would say I disagree with this interpretation…

MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD. 

…because despite what the title tells us, it’s not something that Andy had forgotten, it’s something he had been trying to block. In the summer of 1985, Andy didn’t just have his first cigarette. He lost his father to Lou Gehrig disease. There are tons of hints throughout the book that this is what he’s supposed to confront and that Andy is avoiding it on purpose. Several characters alude to his father or to “the situation at home”, and every time Andy gets lost in thoughts and refuses to acknowledge the mention. He cries while looking at a family picture —talking about his siblings, his mother and the dog, but completely avoiding mentioning his father. At one point he mispronounces “I did what I had to do” as “I Dad what I had to do” (the editor makes sure to point out this was entirely intentional and not a misprint). 

So what is going on here isn’t that Andy had forgotten his father nor that it was his death that lead him to chain-smoke, it’s that it was a memory he had buried so deep he had to tear down several defenses before he got to that point. 

What follows, then, is a tour-de-force scene that is not just a final talk between father and son, but a confrontation between past and future. In order for Andy to have a future, he would have to first accept the past. 

All in all, an interesting little comic that is not what it seems at first. More than worth a look. 

Drama

- Drama. Raina Telgemeier. Middle-school student Callie has one definite passion in life: Musical theater. Though she can’t sing or act on stage, she is an enthusiastic set designer. But this year’s school production comes with a new complication: Boys. Balancing drama both on and off-stage is complicated enough without having to deal with malfunctioning stage props and assorted questionings of one’s sexuality…

Charming YA drama with memorable, vividly drawn characters and a script that (not unlike good stage-plays) subtly hints at a much larger world beyond our protagonist’s journey. There are several ongoing conflicts that are only hinted at though Callie’s eyes, even as she herself navigates both technical challenges and assorted crushes. Telgemeier’s clean art style is a delight to look at. By the time one reaches the last page, we wish we could stay in this novel’s world for just a bit longer…

In general, a recommended comic, both for pre-teens and older readers. 

Can you ever forgive me?

- Can you ever forgive me? (2018, dir. Marielle Heller). Dramatization of a real-life case: That of Lee Israel, an under appreciated biographer in 1991’s New York. At the end of her wit, patience, and royalties, Lee discovers a new way to make money: By using her considerable writing talent to forge saucy letters from assorted famous writers. Her eventual partnership with equally down-on-his luck Jack Hock would only be stopped by the FBI’s investigations. 

Terrific drama that both convincingly presents the foibles of the Literary world and constructs two fascinating characters in Lee and Jack. Partners in crime, lonely gay people and ultimately all-too-human. Great performances from everyone and a classy score, too. Overall, a very recommended drama. 

Isn't it romantic

- Isn’t it romantic? (2019, dir. Todd Strauss-Schulson). As a child, Natalie was told that women like her “do not get happy endings”. As an adult, she struggles as an under-appreciated architect in New York. After she’s knocked unconscious during a mugging, Natalie wakes up in the pastel-colored world of feel-good romantic comedies… the kind of movies she despises. She must now figure a way out of this silly pretty (or pretty silly) existence —and perhaps learn a lesson or two on the way…

An entertaining parody of the rom-com / chick flick genre that, as is often the case with mainstream parodies, embraces the same clichés it seeks to spoof. Yet the result is still sufficiently funny, anchored by a good performance from lead Wilson. The director had previously helmed a parody of horror movies in a similar vein, “The final girls”.