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My Year Writing This Book About My Year Writing This Book

August 26th, 2008 John and Jana

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Secret History of EL Comics 26

August 26th, 2008 John

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Review - Sardine in Outer Space 5 by Emmanuel Guibert

August 26th, 2008 John

French creator Emmanuel Guibert offers giddy science fiction tomfoolery with the fifth volume of his “Sardine in Outer Space” series, “My Cousin Manga and Other Stories.”

Guibert’s work follows. the adventures of the little witch-like girl Sardine and the cat hiding in her hat as they travel with goofball Captain Yellow Shoulder and the manic Little Louie — together a crew of rather silly space pirates. The regular villains for the crew are Super Muscleman, the so-called “chief executive dictator of the universe” and his partner in crime, Doc Krok, an oogly looking guy with a big orange head.

The collection is packed with 10 delightful stories. In “The Bold and The Bashful,” the space pirates help unite lovebirds from the dark and light sides of the moon. In “The Scamcorder,” Doc Krok discovers “a new way of making children’s lives miserable,” a device that will make kids grow extra pimples, hair and buck teeth.

Guibert’s stories are light-hearted and energetic — oh, and pretty hilarious. They’re perfect for younger readers — reminiscent of something you might find in Nickolodeon Magazine — but older kids will find enjoyment in them too. And adults.

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Review - Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi

August 26th, 2008 John

Seiichi Hayashi’s “Red Colored Elegy” evokes French New Wave film as it follows the relationship between Ichiro and Sachiko, investigating the personal tortures that have an effect on their status as a couple.

Structurally, Hayashi unfolds his tale through disjointed scenes that either hint at more than they reveal, or sometimes just make the reader feel left out from a secret. It’s that arm’s length mode of storytelling that grew out of films like “Breathless,” where it’s hard to engage with the characters since it’s impossible to get inside them beyond their whining to each other.

Hayashi matches the oblique attitude with simple artwork — sometimes so simple that characters can become interchangeable in appearance. That’s a shame because at points, Hayashi lets his skill slip through, mostly with some lovely renderings of landscapes, street scenes, and architecture. The complication of these renditions make it seem as if he is holding back too much with his characters — especially since there are points where the author is really on the verge of drawing a reader into his characters’ dramas.

At the same time, Hayashi does have the detached, disjointed storytelling technique down. It’s not hard to see that in 1970/71, when this first appeared, it certainly was groundbreaking — it’s just that decades later, it has little emotional resonance and stands best as a technical example of experimentation in the graphic arts.

It points to what could be and shows an astonishing level of creative maturity — it is, unfortunately, a promise of what could be rather than a realization of it.

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