All posts for External Book Reviews in 2010
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Graphic Novel 6 2010-05-30 02:10:15-04:00
Much as I hate to admit it, at this point Sayonara Zetsubo-Sensei has hit something like a comfortably formulaic plateau. What was funny and startling in the first couple of volumes has been reduced to a set of dance steps....
Black Jack Vol. #11 (Osamu Tezuka) 2010-05-14 22:45:51-04:00
This is the last volume of Black Jack, the manga. It is also not the last volume of Black Jack, the manga. Not the last volume that Vertical, Inc. will be publishing in English; and not the last of such...
Black Jack Vol. #10 (Osamu Tezuka) 2010-03-19 23:52:51-04:00
The timing of this book could not be more, well, timely. I spent most of last week, from the Sunday of the 7th through the following Sunday, nursemaiding my missus and her broken ankle. Despite that, she was determined to...
Detroit Metal City Vol. #3 2010-03-13 01:24:10-05:00
Most of us have at some point in our lives a heartbreaking revelation. There are the things we want to do, and the things we do well. Worse, the two often have nothing in common. Such is Soichi Negishi’s lot:...
Detroit Metal City Vol. #4 2010-03-07 01:01:24-05:00
The hardest thing about being ridiculous is keeping some semblance of ground rules. It’s OK to blow up the world on a whim in something like BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo or even South Park, but less easy to get away with it...
Biomega Vol. #1 (Tsutomu Nihei) 2010-03-05 00:22:02-05:00
Tsutomu Nihei creates spectacular manga about giant, rotting, manmade landscapes where stern-looking men and bizarre-looking monsters stalk about and do their best to blow each other up. That’s about all his previous Big Thing, Blame!, amounted to in my eyes,...
20th Century Boys Vol. #6 2010-02-26 19:28:40-05:00
“Now I told you that story to tell you this one.” That was Bill Cosby, between two of his best routines. That could also have been Naoki Urasawa, right before he made that dozen-year leap forward in the middle of...
Black Jack Vol. #8 2010-02-23 23:34:18-05:00
So why, you might ask, am I now reviewing volume 8 of Black Jack when I was only just reviewing volume 9? Happenstance, mostly. Somehow I ended up missing volume 7 in a mail mix-up, although when that comes in...
Black Jack Vol. #9 2010-02-18 21:53:38-05:00
I’ll put this part behind me right away. As Black Jacks go, volume 9 is only fair. That makes it an okay part of a great whole—but that doesn’t dilute the quality of the whole. It simply makes the good...
Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE: Album De REProDUCTioNS 2010-01-28 22:23:18-05:00
Del Rey loves us. By “us”, I mean fans who take the completist approach. People who don’t just watch the show or read the comic, but want all the ancillary goodies—the art books, the character guides, the bric-a-brac that used...
×××HOLiC: Official Guide 2010-01-25 15:01:16-05:00
Once again, Del Rey loves us. By “us”, I mean ×××HOLiC fans, who have been rewarded for their fidelity with The Official ×××HOLiC Guide, a deep-dive into CLAMP’s moody and amused meditation on the nature of fate and the cost...
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Vol. 5 2010-01-24 15:33:13-05:00
Back when Mangajin was still in print, they ran regular installments of a 4-koma comic named A Visual Glossary of Modern Terms (Zusetsu Gendai Yōgo Benran), which mercilessly dissected all those quirky little aspects of modern life, and with great...
Vampire Hunter D Novel 13: Twin-Shadowed Knight Parts 1 & 2 2010-01-15 22:30:38-05:00
The Ghost in the Shell TV series had two kinds of episodes. The “Stand-Alone” episodes were just that: self-contained adventures. The “Complex” episodes were meta-plot—the story that arched over and wove through the whole show, and which touched on everyone’s...
Akira Vol. 1 2010-01-07 22:23:26-05:00
For most of us, it’s Akira the anime, not Akira the manga. Some of that can be chalked up to logistics and finances: Wouldn’t you rather rent a two-hour movie, instead of spending upwards of $125 for six volumes of...
Jormungand Graphic Novel 1 2010-01-03 19:29:10-05:00
The cynic in me wants to call Jormungand a poor man’s Black Lagoon. The realist in me says that’s not all that far removed from the truth anyway. Jormungand plays like a spinoff title, where two minor Lagoon characters were...
