Weekly Recon, 8/22/07

The “new arrivals” rack at your local comic book store will be as empty as a bachelor’s refrigerator this week, as fewer than twenty titles are scheduled for shipment. The cream of the crop is 10, 20, and 30 (NETCOMICS), a slice-of-life comedy documenting the professional and romantic travails of three women. With a distinctive visual style and an appealing cast of characters, 10, 20 and 30 offers readers something not found too often in the teen-centric American market: a story with a grown-up sensibility. (Click here for our full review and sample pages; click here to read the first chapter at NETCOMICS free of charge.)

Two other noteworthy arrivals this week are Aurora Publishing’s new series Flock of Angels, about humans who sprout wings (no word on whether Red Bull consumption is to blame), and the September issue of Shojo Beat. If you’ve let your subscription lapse, this month is a must-have, as Honey and Clover replaces Nana, and Baby & Me ends its run in the magazine. (Never fear: Viz will continue to publish Nana and Baby & Me in tankubon format.) The September issue is also noteworthy for its extras—fans will get a sneak peek at new series Fall in Love Like a Comic—and for the original cover art by Absolute Boyfriend manga-ka Yuu Watase.

One final tip for the bargain-conscious otaku about a Barnes & Noble promotion. From now until September 5th, use PayPal for a transaction worth $40 or more and receive a $10 discount. The coupon code is D9U3D3W. Click here for the fine print. Pssst… don’t tell the guys at Midtown Comics I mentioned this!

REVIEWED THIS WEEK:

• Fumi Yoshinaga’s Truly, Kindly (BLU Manga)
• Heroes Are Extinct!, Vol. 1 (DMP)
• Pine Kiss, Vol. 5 (NETCOMICS)

SHIPPING THIS WEEK:

• 10, 20, and 30, Vol. 1 (NETCOMICS)
• Akira Club (Dark Horse)
• Biowulf Pocket Manga, Vol. 1 (Antarctic Press)
• Boogiepop Novel Volume 3: Boogiepop Returns vs. Imaginator Part 2 (Seven Seas; click here for a review of another novel from the series, Boogiepop and Others)
• Can’t Lose You, Volume 6 (NETCOMICS)
• Final Girl, #4 (Antarctic Press)
• Flock of Angels, Vol. 1 (Aurora Publishing)
• The Great Catsby, Vol. 5 (NETCOMICS)
• Gunslinger Girl, Vol. 5 (ADV Manga)
• In the Starlight, Vol. 2 (NETCOMICS; click here for a review of volume one)
• Land of Silver Rain, Vol. 6 (NETCOMICS)
• Oyayubahime Infinity, Vol. 6 (CMX)
• Pine Kiss, Vol. 5 (NETCOMICS; reviewed below)
• Shojo Beat, Vol. 6, No. 3 (September 2007)
• Sky Sharks, #1 (Antarctic Press)
• Spring Fever (Aurora Publishing)
• Street Fighter Sakura Ganbaru, Vol. 1 (UDON)
• Vampire Hunter D Novel Volume 8: Mysterious Journey to the Dark Sea Part 2 (Dark Horse)
• The Young Magician, Vol. 9 (CMX)
• Yu-Gi-Oh Millenium World, Vol. 6 (Viz)

Fumi Yoshinaga’s Truly, Kindly

By Fumi Yoshinaga
BLU Manga, 192 pp.
Rating: Mature (18+)

Though I’m an enthusiastic champion of The Antique Bakery and Flower of Life, I’m less excited about Fumi Yoshinaga’s straight-up yaoi. Gerard and Jacques, for example, struck me as an ungainly hybrid of not-very-sexy sex scenes and speeches cribbed from Rosseau for Dummies, while Ichigenme: The First Class Is Civil Law seemed like a poor girl’s Paper Chase. Truly, Kindly falls somewhere in between Antique Bakery and Ichingenme on the steaminess scale, but suffers from many of the same problems found in Yoshinaga’s more explicit titles.

Her most recent publication (in English, anyway) is an is an anthology of seven stories, from a coming out tale set in present-day Seattle to a going-straight (as in abandoning a criminal past… ahem) story set in Meiji-era Japan. Despite the diverse array of historical backdrops and storylines, Truly, Kindly induces déjà vu with its recycled character designs, clumsy socio-political lectures masquerading as conversation, and the “I didn’t realize how much I liked you until you forced yourself on me!” epiphanies that her uke characters experience. The last three stories—all of which take place in the years leading up to the French Revolution—exhibit another of Yoshinaga’s shortcomings: her inability to integrate tidbits on Versailles and Voltaire into a narrative without stopping it dead in its tracks. Still, there’s something endearing about her insistence on creating characters with real emotional lives and realistically handsome faces in a genre known primarily for its man-on-man action—it’s as if someone forgot to tell her she was writing porn, for pete’s sake.

Fumi Yoshinaga’s Truly, Kindly is available now.

Heroes Are Extinct!!, Vol. 1

By Ryoji Hido
DMP, 200 pp.
Rating: Teen (13+)

Imagine, for a moment, that you live in the far reaches of space with no first-hand knowledge of Earth. What might you conclude about its inhabitants from watching stray television broadcasts? For Great Galactic General Cassiel, leader of the Imperial Bazue Army, the answer is obvious: Earthlings are a race of noble warriors that look suspiciously like the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Cassiel salivates at the prospect of meeting these heroes in combat, and readies an invasion force. But when he arrives, he’s deeply affronted by the Earthlings’ meek acquiescence. Determined to level the playing field, he gang presses a reluctant group of teens into service as the new Earth Terra Force, teaching them the superhero ropes from action poses to catch phrases in preparation for their showdown with the Bazue.

I can’t decide if the staleness of the target is a sign of an impoverished imagination or of scientific inspiration—after all, those MMPR reruns take a long time to reach neighboring galaxies—but Ryoji Hido manages to wring a surprising number of laughs from his thin premise, poking fun at the costumes, gadgetry, and forced camaraderie that were the show’s hallmarks. The artwork is crudely serviceable in a B-movie sort of way, with a cheesy-looking spaceship, a scantily clad princess (in a bikini, no less—paging Captain Kirk!), and a hero whose sole “alien” characteristic is his exceptional stature. (A cynic might conclude that Hido ran afoul of the same financial problems that bedeviled Roger Corman and Ed Wood, forcing him to skimp on the backdrops and props to save a few dollars.) Planetes it’s not. But if you’re looking for the comic book equivalent to Spaceballs or still own a pair of Power Rangers Underoos, you might just cotton to this goofy, three-volume series.

Volume one of Heroes Are Extinct! is available now; volume two will be released in October.

Pine Kiss, Vol. 5

By Eunhye Lee
NETCOMICS, 192 pp.
Rating: 13+

Reading Pine Kiss reminded me why I’ve never been an avid General Hospital fan. I’ve always found soap operas’ admixture of dead-serious dialogue and over-the-top storylines tough to swallow. To be sure, murders, kidnappings, unwanted pregnancies, and eleventh-hour reprieves from terminal cancer provide the grist for countless serial dramas, from Battlestar Galactica to Bones. But in the world of daytime television, no one ever sees these events as extraordinary or even noteworthy, as if having an amnesiac identical twin was as common an experience as, say, being Catholic or liking Twinkies.

Pine Kiss unfolds in this same alternate universe of Guiding Lights and Passions, with a cast of beautiful characters whose enormous eyes, long lashes, and snub noses make them look like American Girl dolls (at least when viewed front-on). Its central character, Orion, is a charismatic young math teacher whose flowing locks and warm smile camouflage a tragic past. He attracts the attention of two very different students: Sebin Jo, the angry, entitled daughter of a powerful gangster, and Dali Nam, a fiercely principled girl whose poverty forced her to abandon dreams of becoming a professional marimba player. (No, that’s not a typo.) Sebin and Dali both have more age-appropriate suitors in the form of Sanghyung and Rocky, two friends who never seem to be in love with the right girl at the right time. Further complicating matters are the characters’ deeply intertwined histories (of the “my uncle used to date your mother before he was killed by yakuza thugs” variety) and close ties to the Korean underworld.

All of this would be much easier to take if Pine Kiss wasn’t so earnest. I longed for a character to break the fourth wall and admit to being a little embarrassed by the melodramatic storylines, or for Sebin to embrace her inner Alexis Carrington and do something truly trashy. (The one fist fight between Sebin and Dali is disappointingly tame—no fur flies, no mud splatters.) Heck, I would have settled for a voice of common sense among the series’ many cast members, as no one seems to think Orion’s interactions with Sebin or Dali are the least bit unprofessional, nor does anyone wonder how Sanghyung, a clean-cut honor student, ended up in the hospital with life-threatening injuries from a baseball bat. Pine Kiss is at its best when artist Eunhye Lee focuses on her teenage characters’ romantic lives, revealing their insecurities and hopes with beautifully restrained artwork and fervent voice-overs that sound like something a real sixteen-year-old might commit to her diary. These brief interludes provide a welcome respite from the As the World Turns plot developments, and suggest that with a less sensational topic, Eunhye Lee might be a graceful storyteller.

Volume five of Pine Kiss will be available on August 22. For a preview of the series, click here.