I’m a New Yorker through and through, and a part of me always will be. There are so many great things about this place that I enjoy, and I’m always finding new things to like as well. At the same time, however, there’s an awful lot about this town that I not only hate, but despise. As a result, I’ve had to question whether the former outweighs the latter. I’ve decided that it doesn’t.

Seeing other parts of the country (and other countries as well) has instilled in me a longing to travel more. As New Yorkers, we become so used to being the center of attention all the time and having so much of everything that it’s easy to forget sometimes that there are other places to live… and that while some of those places might not stack up to NYC in some aspects (and few do, let’s be honest), they have their own charms that make them just as worthy to settle down in.

At this point in my life, I need to live someplace smaller. Someplace that’s not as hectic and hostile and expensive. No place is perfect, I know that, but I need to see how other people live and try living differently, for awhile, at least… which is why I’m leaving NYC at the end of the month. I’m not ruling out the possibility of moving back one day – it’s certainly possible – but for now, I’m treating this like it’s permanent.

I thought about many different places to go to, but I finally settled on Columbus, Ohio. It’s a great comics town; I’ve been there before lots of times for both SPACE and the Mid-Ohio Con and I’ve made many friends there. It’s small enough to not be this great big monolith of a town like NYC, yet big enough that I wouldn’t be bored. They have a vital art community in general, in fact, and it has a growing reputation as a multicultural hub. This is exactly the kind of place I was looking for. It would be nice if it was closer to the east coast, but that’s the only drawback I can see (I’ll miss going to the beach in the summertime).

This is by no means an easy decision. I’m leaving my family and many of my friends behind, not to mention a lifetime of memories. It’ll be scary as hell. This is what I want to do, however.

I don’t expect this blog to be affected by the change. Jon and I have already talked about my move and he’s cool with it. Certainly I can still write about comics from Columbus as easily as from New York, and while I can’t guarantee that there’ll be as many comics-related events to go to over there, I expect to find new and different things to write about.

I’m looking forward to it.

And speaking of books in limbo, what’s befallen Aki Shimizu’s Qwan? According to the Wikipedia, six volumes have been released in Japan, but Tokyopop has yet to publish anything beyond volume four. I’m wondering why it’s been almost a year since the last release—is it a licensing issue, or has Tokyopop caught up to the Japanese edition? I’d hate to see this offbeat shonen fantasy languish in manga purgatory, as its gorgeous artwork and compelling, folkloric storyline deserve a bigger audience.

Fairy Cube, Vol. 1

By Kaori Yuki
Viz, 208 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

No one will ever accuse Kaori Yuki of writing boring manga. All of her work—Angel Sanctuary, The Cain Saga, Godchild—has the feverish quality of a Hieronymous Bosch painting, complete with tormented souls, grotesque creatures, and all manner of taboo-busting behavior on display. I’m happy to report that Fairy Cube, her newest series (in English, anyway), is as gloriously overripe as the best volumes of Godchild but considerably more coherent.

Like the male leads in Angel Sanctuary and Cain, the hero of Fairy Cube is filled with angst. Ian’s affliction stems, in part, from his ability to see spirits—but not just ghosts or demons. Ian sees fairies. And malevolent ones, at that—the kind that impersonate humans, enslave the weak-minded, and occasionally snack on a person or two. Making matters worse is Tokage, a sinister creature who stalks Ian, manipulating his family and friends against him. When Tokage takes visible form, Ian finds himself banished to another realm where he incurs the wrath of a bloodthirsty fairy. And when I say “bloodthirsty,” I mean it—though Ainsel has a dainty appearance, her appetite for revenge outstrips Don Corleone’s. After some mishaps, she grudgingly agrees to help Ian take on Tokage before he harms the people Ian loves best: his father and his childhood sweetheart Rin.

My summary barely skims the surface of Yuki’s intricately plotted story, which manages to touch on child abuse, schoolyard bullying, and matricide, all in its first thirty or so pages. (Oh, and fairy magic—but doesn’t that go without saying? And did I forget to mention the hot guys in eye patches? My bad.) The richly detailed artwork has a delirious, almost hysterical, quality to it that suits the manga’s luridly romantic tone. The sheer density of the images combined with the breakneck pacing can be a little overwhelming; at times, I wished Yuki would pause to savor some of her lovelier images. Yet the story hangs together, in spite of its outré moments. In fact, I’d argue that it succeeds because of these outlandish touches—in another manga-ka’s hands, the story would be desperately twee, a sentimental tale about a gentle boy who befriends a winged sprite. Not so with Fairy Cube, an intoxicating—if occasionally ridiculous—mix of horror, romance, and revenge.

Volume one of Fairy Cube is available now.

Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time, Vol. 1

By Tohko Mizuno
Viz, 208 pp.
Rating: Older Teen

Like the heroines of Fushigi Yugi and Red River, Akane is an ordinary schoolgirl who discovers that she’s a powerful priestess from an alternate realm. That alternate realm is a sexed-up version of Heian-era Japan, complete with demons and bishonen galore. Two clans—one human, one demon—vie for control of Heian’s capital city, hoping to obtain the assistance of the ultimate human weapon: the priestess of the Dragon God, a.k.a. Akane. Though the head of the demon clan works his mojo on her—apparently he’s quite the dreamboat, though his mask and jaunty cap conceal his rakish good looks—Akane casts her lot with the humans, acquiring a team of eight smokin’ guardians to protect her from harm and help her defeat the demon lord Akram. What this much-maligned shojo tale has going for it is elegant artwork. Tohko Mizuno’s sensuous lines yield some arresting images: a nobleman in his ceremonial robes, a ravenous merman with a trace of blood on his lips. The artwork isn’t stunning enough to offset the cumulative effect of paper-thin characterizations, wooden dialogue, and been-there, done-that plot twists, but it at least offers readers a little eye candy as they plow through yet another tale of an average jane who learns—surprise!—that she’s really a goddess.

Volume one of Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time is available now.

I.O.N.

By Arina Tanemura
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen

Ion Tsuburagi is a superstitious ditz who chants the letters of her name whenever she needs Lady Luck on her side—say, before a math test or a student council election. Through a plot contrivance too creaky for Three’s Company, she meets Mikado Hourai, a hyper-serious hottie who chairs their school’s psychic powers club. Ion is instantly smitten with Hourai, insinuating herself into the club and accidentally exposing herself to one of his experiments. The substance gives her telekinetic powers that are activated by her old ritual of chanting “I – O – N.” Not surprisingly, her new-found abilities prove a blessing and a curse, enabling her to perform some life-saving maneuvers while jeopardizing her budding romance with Hourai, who views Ion as a test subject.

Most of I.O.N.’s problems can be chalked up to inexperience, as it was Arina Tanemura’s first published work. The art has a frenzied quality, with too many facial close-ups, busy backdrops, and panels within panels, preventing the story from unfolding smoothly across the page. Tanemura’s wide-eyed character designs are especially unappealing; like the titular character of Miyuki Eto’s Hell Girl, Ion and Hourai have the kind of saucer eyes that seem more suitable on a giant squid than a middle school student. Equally unsatisfying are the characters themselves, who behave foolishly and unnaturally. Ion, in particular, is so boy crazy that she barely seems to notice that her abilities would qualify her for full-fledged membership in the Justice League.

About the best I can say for I.O.N. is that Tanemura’s heart is in the right place. The underlying message of her work seems to be one of self-awareness and respect: make sure your boyfriend likes you for who you are, and not what you represent. Too bad that worthwhile message gets lost amid the wacky hijinks and tearful discussions about feelings.

I.O.N. is available now.

Story by Kyo Shirodaira, Art by Yuri Kimura
Viz, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen

In the postscript to The Record of a Fallen Vampire, writer Kyo Shirodaira cheerfully admits that his editor goaded him into taking on the project:

“Let’s do a vampire book.”

I think we said something like that. Maybe we didn’t. But this is how editors and manga writers find common ground.

It’s too bad Shirodaira’s editor didn’t allow him to pursue the magical sumo wrestler concept; though extravagant, it might have yielded something fresh and funny instead of this dour, incoherent mess.

The plot, as best I can tell, goes something like this: Vampire King Akabara “Red Rose” Strauss has spent one thousand searching for his queen, who was hidden behind a magical seal by humans and dhampires (half-vampires) who feared her world-destroying powers. Hot on Akabara’s trail is the Black Swan, a demon-parasite that uses nubile young ladies to channel its lethal powers. After slaying one of the Black Swan’s hostesses, Akabara acquires a second powerful foe: Jin Renka, her dhampire boyfriend.

At least, I think that’s the basic story—the first three chapters are so fragmented that it’s difficult to figure what’s happening at any given moment, or why these characters engage in such protracted battles. What few explanations are offered appear primarily in the form of tin-eared, long-winded speeches—the kind of dialogue never uttered outside the confines of a comic book or a bombastic popcorn flick. The excessive use of screentone, clip art, and trapezoidal panels muddies things further, inducing a kind of action-scene dyslexia even when characters are supposed to be engaged in quiet contemplation.

But the book’s biggest shortcoming is Yuri Kimura’s inability to translate the script into evocative images. During one of the pivotal confrontations between Akabara and the Black Swan, for example, one of the bystanders informs us, “The air is shimmering with magic and aggression. But the Black Swan is utterly quiet which makes her all the more sinister!” If there was ever a moment in which Miss Applebaum’s old dictum of “Show, don’t tell” applied, it’s this scene. Yet the image is as static as a diorama, and has sound effects superimposed on it. (The sound of silence, I guess?) In a word: gyaaaaa!

No doubt there will be vampire fanatics who find this series irresistible, but others are advised to arm themselves with wolfsbane before their next trip to Borders—you don’t want to get bitten by this Vampire.

Volume one of The Record of a Fallen Vampire will be available on May 14th.

by Gavin Jasper of 4thletter!

Some people believe I always go out of my way to search for weird comics. Not always. The truth is that most of the time, weird comics go out of their way to find me. Take two weeks ago, for instance.

There I am, flipping through some back issues, when I find a batch of issues for a Honeymooners comic from the mid-80’s. I didn’t even know there was a Honeymooners series. I’m still not certain why there was one in the 80’s, considering the show was long dead and gone for decades. Now that I think about it, it does give me hope for one day reading Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Perfect Strangers.

Okay. So now we have an old sitcom re-imagined into a comic years after the fact. That’s a good start. I looked through the covers and found one that completely stood out. It’s the kind of comic that makes you question the industry and reality itself for allowing such a thing to exist. Ralph Kramden in a comic book? I guess I could buy that.

Ralph Kramden in a comic book, wrestling alongside Captain Lou Albano?! Welcome to the 5th Dimension.

Much like the epic battle of Superman and Muhammad Ali, there are plenty of cameos in that crowd. I notice Frankenstein’s monster, Gumby, White Spy, Groucho Marx (obviously not amused by rest-hold spots), Alfred E. Newman and Gorbechaf.

Also note the top right corner. Not only is this issue #7, but it’s #7 of 24. That’s… odd. I guess Triad must have had a two-year contract and decided to flaunt it. Though from what I’ve found, the series didn’t make it past the twelfth issue. No other wrestler cameos, from what I’ve gathered.

The writers for this epic comic were Thomas Edward West and Norman Abramoff. Neither did all that much outside of this series. Art was done by Win Mortimer, a Schuster Award-winning artist who had done piles and piles of comics for DC and Marvel over the years. This series was the last of his comic work. The fact that he worked on it makes enough sense to me, as the art in this comic is really great.

The story begins with Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton in the front row of a wrestling match, watching Turk the Terrible, an obvious Iron Shiek homage, beating the stuffing out of… Guy Gardner, I guess.

Turk bullies around Ralph and makes an announcement. Next week he will make an open challenge. Anyone who can beat him will get a thousand dollars. He then puts his opponent in a leg lock and suggests he’ll do the same to Ralph, causing the overweight bus driver to pass out in Norton’s arms.

Cut to the next day as Ralph saves a kid Tommy from being run over on his street. Ralph then tumbles into a pool of cement, which quickly dries into a one-inch layer around him, except for his eyes and mouth. As Norton chisels him free, Ralph tells young Tommy that the streets are too dangerous to play in. He decides to lie to the kid’s face and says that he’s going to rent out an empty lot and turn it into a safe place for children to play in. Then Norton comically misses with his hammer and hits Ralph hard in the shin.

When Alice yells at Ralph and asks how he could promise something so expensive, he reacts the way you’d expect.

Yes, they beat that line into the ground. His other catchphrase about punching Alice to the moon probably didn’t go over well for an 80’s comic for kids.

Ralph and Norton later help out Tommy’s grateful mother and unclog her sink. It’s there that Ralph notices a photo of Mrs. Manicotti’s nephew Captain Lou. Wow. The dude was in his mid-50’s by this time and Mrs. Manicotti’s son is like ten. Then again, does this take place in the present or the 50’s? Pretty sure Captain Lou didn’t wear his trademark rubber bands and Hawaiian shirt back then. I’m confused.

Our two bumbling heroes go find Captain Lou’s wrestling gym. There are photos of other, older wrestlers on the wall in the background. It’s cool that they listed real names, such as Gorgeous George, but I doubt Tor “Swedish Angel” Johnson of Ed Wood movie fame ever had long, blond hair and a goatee.

Ralph tells Captain Lou about his situation and Lou offers to lend him some money. Ralph declines and instead asks to be trained as a wrestler.

Ralph begs him to help and upon namedropping Turk the Terrible, Lou snaps. That bum has been giving wrestlers a bad name, so Lou agrees to train Ralph. We see Lou putting Ralph through harsh exercises while giving Norton orders to keep Ralph on a good diet. As Ralph’s training gets more intense, we see him slug a heavy bag with a picture of Turk on it as hard as possible. A moment later, he screams out in regards to his aching fist.

When I turn the next page, there’s a little scene where Ralph gets home, makes up an excuse to Alice and passes out on the floor. Unfortunately, I’m distracted and horrified by getting this image from the neighboring page shoved into my face.

Gah! Just a whole page of that out of nowhere.

For the next three pages, we take a break from the comic and get an interview with Captain Lou, who discusses his love for Jackie Gleason, his friendship with Cyndi Lauper, his acting career and his involvement with using his name to help fight against multiple sclerosis. When discussing why the Honeymooners TV show was so successful, Lou brings up Gleason’s character acting and how it wasn’t about the jokes, but the mannerisms of the brilliant cast. In other words, he’s saying that it was things that can’t be replicated so easily in comic book form. Oops.

Ralph continues his training and soon Lou is teaching him various holds. Lou suggests that Ralph practice them whenever possible. While at his bus driving job, Ralph reflects on that advice as a loudmouthed guy behind him yells for a transfer. The loudmouth puts his hands on Ralph, causing Ralph to unconsciously take him down. Shock of all shocks, it’s Turk the Terrible, who promises that if he ever sees Ralph again, he’ll turn him into sausages. No wonder Captain Lou says the guy gives wrestlers a bad name. His promos are terrible.

Ralph is now scared as hell. How can he face Turk in the ring now, when the guy wants to kill him twice over? Norton figures that Ralph could just wear a mask and none would be the wiser. Lou gets an idea of his own and suggests that he’ll hide under the ring and coach Ralph through the match. I’d think it would be easier to just coach him outside the ring where you can see everything and not be deafened by the microphone-enhanced bodyslams. Then again, there’s more to Lou’s plan than what he tells the other guys.

Meanwhile, Alice and Trixie are given free tickets to the show and decide to bring Tommy along. Man, Ralph was a lucky guy. He had a hot wife who insisted on going to wrestling shows.

Despite Lou’s coaching, Ralph is absolutely decimated. He can’t get a single piece of offense in there. He can’t hear Lou over the crowd noise and Norton doesn’t dare run towards the ring out of fear of being seen by Alice and Trixie. After getting conked in the head by Turk’s headbutt, the masked Ralph falls out of the ring. Lou drags him under the ring, compliments his guts and comes out wearing Ralph’s mask.

I did a double-take and had to check that yes, Captain Lou was already wearing the same wrestling gear as Ralph before this part. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing because in the end, I wouldn’t have minded if I had to upgrade this article into “talking about that comic where Captain Lou Albano strips an unconscious Ralph Kramden naked”.

Pretending to be Ralph, the masked Lou barges into the ring and annihilates Turk like nobody’s business. Even Norton is fooled and exclaims, “I never knew Ralph could do that!” when Lou hits a dropkick. It’s par for the course, since I’m pretty sure Captain Lou could never hit a dropkick in real life either.

Turk cries uncle and gives up. After having his hand raised, Captain Lou slips out of the ring, crawls underneath, puts the mask back on Ralph and has him come back into the ring. Ralph is awarded the money and unmasks in front of everyone. Alice and Trixie give a surprised shriek, which leads me to believe that Ralph and Alice are set to have some very hot “Mr. Plow jacket” bed action that night.

Sometime later, Lou talks to his cousin Tommy, ignoring the suspicious 40+ years of age difference between them. Tommy knows that Lou was wearing the mask, to which Lou silences him and explains that with Ralph being there for Tommy when he needed help, Lou had to do the same for Ralph. Tommy agrees to keep his mouth shut.

The Manicottis, the Kramdens and the Nortons all get together for dinner as a way to finish off the story. Oh, wait. There’s still one page left after that. Figuring out a way to fill in that last page, they have Ralph give a speech about how helping others makes the world a better place. Everyone supports the statement, including a random scream of, “I love you, Ralph!” from Alice.

Then, all of the sudden, Ralph gets dangerously close to Mrs. Manicotti and with a sinister glare like that of a serial killer excited that he’s about to slaughter an entire orphanage, he informs her that it’s mambo time!

What a nonsensical way to end a comic that should never have existed in a sane world. As you can see, the art was fantastic stuff through and through, but the writing was a bit off. There were a lot of flow problems from panel to panel and scene to scene. In fact, Turk makes it clear that it’s a week between shows, but the constant “next day” and “later that night” narration boxes also make it clear that it’s only been about three days.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go search for a comic where Amos and Andy grapple with the Powers of Pain.

By Osamu Tezuka
Vertical, 312 pp.

A greedy warlord in feudal Japan makes a deal with 48 devils: in exchange for pledging pieces of his unborn child to them, he will achieve his goals of fortune and power. The child is born horribly deformed, little more than a torso and a head, then set adrift like Moses in a reed basket. The warlord’s life continues, and unknown to him… so does that of his child’s. Now, years later, Hyakkimaru roams Japan, searching for the demons in possession of his missing body parts, and reclaiming them as he slays them. Unfortunately for him, he’s about to gain an unwanted sidekick by the name of Dororo.

Tezuka’s artwork is very cartoony, and at times this works to a perhaps unintentional comical effect. Large scenes depicting wars are highly detailed, but all the soldiers bear that cartoonish look giving an oddly amusing look and feel to a fairly dramatic and serious moment. In fact, that’s the case with several moments throughout the volume, generally though the artwork works far better than one would think. Tezuka’s monsters and demons are freakish and weird, even a bit creepy and disturbing in some scenes. And while the artwork looks cartoony, it’s still quite capable of depicting emotional moments. The flashbacks to Dororo’s or Hyakkimaru’s pasts are both surprisingly powerful. Meanwhile the action sequences are lovely to behold. The fight sequences are fast paced and entertaining, with Hyakkimaru’s artificial limbs providing for some interesting moments in several of them.

The writing is light but suits the material. While Tezuka briefly plays with ideas like the exploitation of the poor or even the traumatic effects of warfare, most of the book, at least so far, has been a light adventure romp. The characters and their various back stories are interesting and engaging. A fair amount of room is given over to showing the backgrounds of both Hyakkimaru and Dororo. They’re slipped nicely into the story without getting in the way of any of the action sequences or other stories. Despite being a shonen book, Dororo manages to avoid extended pauses in the middle of a fight scene so someone can recite their life story. If that was enough, their respective histories do a lot to further the unlikely friendship that quickly forms between the two. Both have had endured a horrible event, and each one is the result of the warfare that ravages the land. The dialogue is as light as most of the material in the book. It’s also very informal and prone to anachronistic words, like Hyakkimaru describing himself as a cyborg in one scene, and with his father talking about space aliens in another.

Time to come clean, this is the first Tezuka manga I’ve ever read. I know, I know. For shame. But better late than never! While I can’t really compare this to his other work that’s made it to the US, I can safely say that Dororo is a really fun, really well executed action adventure story. The material should be easily followed and enjoyed by just about anyone, and it might even help serve as a gateway drug for some of his meatier works. Lord knows it’s having that affect on me.

Volume 1 of Dororo is available now.

Kevin Grevioux

Plus: I think I missed this Grevioux interview from the NYCC about New Warriors.

Dwayne McDuffie

(left-click to download Cool & Deadly, Soul Shakedown Party mixed by Prince Bam)

Alright before I get to my spiel, let me cut and paste the official line on this mix:

A new mix by Miami bred Brooklyn based selector/producer Prince Bam aka PQ. One half of the Cool&Deadly soundsystem, which throws a monthly in Brooklyn called the Soul Shakedown Party. The party features vintage roots, rocksteady, culture, and just about the funkiest reggae music these guys can dig up.

Alright, now for the unofficial. Man, nothing makes me happier than when I get to host an original mix of this caliber. Mixing is compliments of our man PQ, another of the old Miami DJ crowd who, like yours truly, ended up migrating to Brooklyn a little while back to spread the Magic City’s love to our brothers up north. (Now we just need to get Mr. Brown to make the move… yeah, never going to happen.) A consummate crate-digger, General of the Gospel of Good Sounds, and all around eclectic motherfucker, PQ’s current monthly is the Soul Shakedown Party at Soda Bar in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (you’ve probably seen my prop other nights at the venue here occasionally too). Some of the best reggae, rocksteady, and old school roots jams you’re likely to hear in any of the 5 boroughs, you’ve got deejay Squintee doing his thing on the mic, occasionally some live instruments making an appearance, and a nice crowd always bringing the good vibes. If you’re in the New York area, you seriously owe it to yourself to check out the Soul Shakedown Party.

If aren’t able to check out the actual Soul Shakedown Party, you owe it to yourself to invite some nice friends over, put out a few drinks, drop this mix, and pretend.

The playlist, which I know you’ll be wanting after hearing this, is up on Bam’s own blog, Champion Sound, and hopefully you’ll take some time to check out whatever other musical goodness he’s been posting about lately.

Enjoy. I’m pretty sure you will.