Quote for the Week 7/25/11

Is there anything I can do, as a cartoonist? I wish there was a drawing that made people think "Hatred doesn't work?! Shit, what do I do now? Ten years down the toilet..." It would turn terrorists into meek accountants. There is no such drawing. The crying superheros, the Statue of Liberty with a tear in her eye, drawn after 9/11, I don't think they achieved that much. So these are just words. They're nothing, they're not even on paper. But I felt the need to write something down - it doesn't make me feel any better, but there it is.

- Norwegian cartoonist Jason, reacting to last week's terrorist attacks in Norway.

The Details are in "The Devil's Concubine"

"The Devil's Concubine" from IDW Publishing

So. A funny little story:

New York City is an amazing place. You never know who you'll meet.

The night before this past MoCCA Fest (@MoCCAnyc) I was catching the end of an event at Brooklyn's excellent comics shop Bergen Street Comics (@BergenStComics) and I meet a small group of Danish comics creators and one Danish comics journalist walking out of the store. We all walked together to the after-party at which we all got better acquainted: whose work do we like best, the differences between the Danish and American comics industries, etc. Wonderful time. Among these rare guests to NYC was the creator of the soon-to-be released in the US "The Devil's Concubine", Palle Schmidt (@Palle_Schmidt). This review is about a product of Denmark and was originally published there as "Blodets Konkubine". As is its charming creator Palle Schmidt. I was permitted to flip through pages and see a preview of "Concubine" and some other work of his. Never would have noticed the book otherwise. IDW gave it no publicity or advertising that I saw.

I love NYC exactly for these random circumstances.

You may have missed this slim graphic novella when it arrived in American comics stores from IDW Publishing about a month ago. Here I am to make sure you know about it. 'Cool' would be a good way to start out describing the fun, well-drawn crime comic that is "The Devil's Concubine". But I don't go for the easy solution. No sir. I can do better:

"The Devil's Concubine" is like a classic Hollywood crime movie, splintered into delicious chaos by New Wave cinema and Quentin Tarantino, and committed to paper in sequential art with shades of Frank Miller and Chester Gould.

And it's cool.

Some of it feels very standard. Set-ups. Showdowns. Double-crosses. Some of it is tongue-in-cheek and silly. Some of it is tough-as-nails. But what I enjoyed most was the sharp storytelling:


That's an amazing piece of sequential art. Time is splintered down to those slow moments of sudden recognition and just the right details shine through to tell the story. We don't see the moment our hitman main character Jean-Luc realizes he and his partner have been duped, but we do see what he sees the way he sees it. Much more powerful.

This page sets off quite a sweet and hilarious sequence concluding in our main characters being discovered, guns already drawn, in a metal safe. Actually, this page is where the book took off for me. Suddenly the situation gets dire and everything gets hyper-realistic.

"The Devil's Concubine" is essentially the story of two freelance hitmen Jean-Luc and Linda (or hitman and hitWOMAN I suppose) who've accepted a simple job to rip-off a crime lord named Latour but the job slowly reveals itself to be far from simple. Their anonymous employer turns out to have unusual motives. The case they steal turns out to be a mysterious object called the Devil's Concubine. (Or is it?) And their steps are being patiently followed by another dark figure only known as The Haitian. Nearly every classic crime/gangster cliche gets run through before the story ends in a surprising tragedy for the two weary criminals.

Characterization is, however, spread thin in the comic's 84 pages. We don't get a lot of time to get to know our characters. But what's there is strong. This is one of the few personal moments our characters show us:

"You were in the French Foreign Legion, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, how was it?"

"It sounded better in the ad." [he said while lighting a cigarette]

"When I was a little girl, I wanted to become a doctor..."

"We were very poor. We lived in the Tsukrami swamps. You know them? In Japan?"

"Anyway, my father had refused to sell bread to the Yakuza. One night they came. There was a terrible storm."

"I hid in the great big cauldron on the fireplace. The Yakuza killed everyone, even the dog. But they never found me..."

"Great story. All lies." [he said, holding his cigarette]

"Yeah, so?" [she said, eyes only half-open]

~ pp. 41-42

Feels like Tarantino but a bit classier to me.

There's another page in this little Hitchockian graphic tale that is so good, so original, and so fun I can't believe it. You'll have to see that for yourself: "CLAC K-CLICK CLAC SNAP CLAC" Really loved it.

The written sound-effects are actually one of the smarter elements of "Devil's Concubine". A pretty rare compliment as they are so often over-looked and only some very few people make visually beautiful ones, but far fewer know how to use them to tell the story by themselves.

The design-work in general is quite strong actually. Jean-Luc is huge and imposing in his trench-coats (much like Marv from Miller's "Sin City") despite being a bit of a softy. Linda is small and feminine despite being abrasive, stubborn, and perhaps a little crazy. Latour is grungy and lithe despite being nervous and impulsive. The opposing visuals and personalities make for interesting contrasts both between characters and within them.

THE LONG AND SHORTBOX OF IT?

If you want a little action mixed with a little humor in a well-constructed package, you should order yourself a copy of "The Devil's Concubine". It's a unique balance of smart and fun you don't come across very often.

You can learn more about the graphic novella and where you can buy it at its own devoted website: DevilsConcubine.com or at IDW's site or the comicsmith Palle Schmidt's website. Palle is also on Twitter @Palle_Schmidt.

~ @JonGorga

Quote for the Week 5/26/11

For Spirou, it's obvious that I haven't much room to maneuver, because the fans are expecting to see some famous characters, and they want me to respect the 'mythology' of that long series -- I suppose it's like being the writer of Batman in the USA, for example. But in a way, it was a little bit the same with Jason: I love his incredible and unusual style, and I didn't want to change it totally... So even if I created the entire story and the characters of 'Isle of 100,000 Graves,' I also did kind of a 'forger-job,' trying to write as if I was Jason but also bringing my own private topics (death, childhood, etc...), which was a very exciting challenge.

- Fabien Vehlmann, interviewed by CBR, about working with Norwegian cartoonist extraordinaire and LongandShortboxOfIt favorite Jason on Isle of 100,000 Graves.

A Swiss Samurai. Who Knew?

"365 Samurai and a Few Bowls of Rice" from Dark Horse Comics

My high school Drama teacher (emphasis on the drama part) used to say: "All theater is about sex and violence!" Cheery fellow he was. I am thus pleased to discover a work of narrative fiction that encompasses both sex AND violence, but isn't really about either.

It's about enlightenment.

The weirdness that a Swiss artist/writer named J. P. Kalonji is the creator of this bande dessinee graphic novel about a young samurai, and that he chose to construct it as 379 sequential full-page splashes only adds to its unique charm. If Kalonji chooses to continue working in comics and do less design-work as his bio describes he may really be a new European talent to watch.

I, at first, mistook the work for manga. And I think, dear reader, you can forgive me for this given the size (manga/digest), the author's name (Kalonji), the publisher (Dark Horse), and the subject matter (samurai violence and enlightenment) of this graphic novel.

But after more thought I can see why the solicitation for the graphic novel compares the art to both "Blade of the Immortal" AND to "Bone". Jeff Smith's same slightly cartoony, fluid line can be found here and the starkness of the black and white makes the similarities all the more obvious. In fact, the stark solids of the colorless artwork also gives the splash-pages the appearance of simple woodcuts not unlike those that were common during the Edo period in Japan. The time at which the story is supposed to take place.

The work is -obviously- very Japanese. The character designs of each samurai our main character Ningen encounters are brilliantly distinctive to the point where you will remember a handful of faces after you've finished the whole thing.

Now that's remarkable because there nearly ARE 364 samurai (270 really) each depicted and each killed in turn by Ningen in his quest to avenge the death of his master. In that way, it's very similar to manga like "Blade of the Immortal" and "Lone Wolf and Cub" where opponent after opponent appear and get dispatched (usually by being cut in half) with a flick of the main characters blade.

Over the course of the book's 379 pages, 270 samurai go down and one year passes. One year = four seasons in four chapters: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Ningen meets one woman with whom he shares a different emotion in each season: the young Aki in need of protection, the mature Fuyu who offers him protection and comfort (sexY tiME! very nI-cE!), the sweet Haru with whom he shares pure love (and subsequent pure pain), and finally the older Natsu who gives him practical assistance in the last moments of his life's journey.

Those aspects of the ultracompetent main character that I always found pretty ridiculous (dangerous looking men fall with little to no effort when he draws his sword, woman pop up out of nowhere and are either perfect angels or hot and ready to have sex with him with no dinner OR movie) are totally forgiven and work very well here because of the remarkable surprise-ending fantasy aspect of the story...

Why does Ningen meet only 364 samurai when the title is "365 Samurai"? In what way is Ningen's story a fantasy? Why does Ningen find everything he needs to continue his quest around the next corner?

That, my dear friends on the road of life, is what you need to read the graphic novel to learn for yourself.
Now, go READ it. It's gorgeous.

Every Wednesday Will Be Independents Day!

Hi there!

Jon Gorga here, intrepid crazy writer of prose and comics and recent graduate of Bard College. Guess what? I also work in a comic-store and I also love comics!

Do you read comics? Like your funnybooks? Enjoy a fine graphic novel now and again? Do you go to the trouble of tracking down mini-comics? Comix? Manga? Manhua? Manhwa? Bande dessinee?

Have I lost you? Well, hold on. Because I love comics of all genres and sizes and nationalities and I want nothing more than to share that love with you! I love the medium, the craft, the form, and the function of comics. I love reading and making sequential art!

But worry not! I am neither some high-brow sweater vest-wearing academic here to shit all over your fun, nor a tight pants-wearing chain-smoking hipster who only reads comics that make fun of you. I will be reviewing plenty of straight-forward fun comedy titles. And I'll be fighting both Clare and Josh for the right to review any damn issues of "The Amazing Spider-Man" they'll let me! I grew up on Spider-Man and the Ninja Turtles, and I feel absolutely no embarrassment when I saw that when they are done well I still enjoy them today. (My old personal blog at Gorga'sThoughts.blogspot.com, especially this post about my experiences at the MoCCA Fest should give you a fine idea of what kind of stuff you can expect from me.)

I will be sharing my thoughts on all comics-related things most especially my weekly load of new large-publisher imprint, small-publisher, underground, and international comics with you here at THE LONG AND SHORTBOX OF IT! My first pull-list will be up shortly.

SIDE NOTE:
Now, if you haven't figured it out from the hints all three of us have dropped, none of us will be exclusively reviewing any type of comic or specific title. Some weeks you might find a review of a comic from any of us that doesn't fit into the categories we've given ourselves. Honestly, that's just because all three of us know that we could never sit happily in any one of these categories. You're going to get a lot of honest opinion and perspective on this blog. I think that's a good thing.