Different presentation formats work in comics
Published Thursday July 2nd, 2009
Graphic novel/comic book reviews.
This week, we review two different publications that together represent two very different formats of presentation.
The first one is Tank Girl: Armadillo! And a Bushel of Other Stories.
Written by Tank Girl co-creator Alan C. Martin, it's a paperback collection of short stories featuring the protagonist and supporting characters of the comic series. It doesn't contain any drawings whatsoever.
Filling over half of the book, its bulk consists of Armadillo! Written in the first-person by Tank Girl, it explains why, along with her posse of friends, she decided to commit 'towniside' (that's her way of describing genocide on the residents of a given town) on a small place called Chankers. Over 90 of the story's 145 pages consist of one flashback sequence.
The second section of the book, The Bushel: A Collection of Short Stories and Titty-Bits, begins with an introduction by Mr. Martin. He casually sets-up readers for what lies ahead: more short stories and poems, along with unused (and incomplete) comic scripts staring Tank Girl, Booga, and the other characters from the Tank Girl Universe.
Tank Girl and friends are certainly not good guys by any stretch of the imagination but the book's written with enough crude (and sometimes cruel) humor to enable a fun experience if not taken too seriously.
It's a book that caters to people who enjoy things that are purposely designed to be different.
The second publication we look at this week is a traditional 32-page comic book.
Jeff Smith's Rasl#4 (April 2009) continues his post-Bone mature readers science-fiction series.
For those who do not know, Jeff Smith's claim to fame is self-publishing (via his company Cartoon Books) the all-ages black and white series Bone between 1991 and 2004. A mixture of fantasy and humor, it lasted for 55 issues before Smith brought it to an end. The series was such a success that Scholastic took a license from Smith to reprint it in nine color paperback collections.
Rasl focuses on the title character, a greedy time traveling and inter-dimensional jumping art thief. He steals from parallel Earths thanks to special technology enabling him to enter a sort of inter-dimensional wormhole hyperspace called The Drift.
Everything in his life is as most people would expect from a successful thief, except that he's being chased by the murderous and deformed Sal, a mysterious creature possessing nearly identical technology as Rasl.
The fourth issue begins with a flashback to a World War 2 U.S. navy experiment narrated by the protagonist. We are then immediately shown the conclusion of a fight between Rasl and Sal, which acted as the third issue's cliffhanger.
As a comic book series, Rasl is proving itself to be very interesting indeed. In keeping with the tune of many modern science-fiction series from different media, especially those from television, Rasl is slowly presenting its exposition at a pace fast enough to reveal background information about the main characters but slow enough to keep the readers interested and hungry for more.
Although Rasl#4 is a fine comic book, prior knowledge of the events from earlier issues would be wise to have before reading it.
Tank Girl: Armadillo! And a Bushel of Other Stories: 2/3
Publisher: Titan Publishing Group Ltd
Rasl#4: 2/3
Publisher: Cartoon Books
Bernard C. Cormier is, among other things, a freelance writer and broadcaster. www.myspace.com/bernardccormier. www.twitter.com/bernardccormier. E-mail: Bernardccormier-gncb@hotmail.com © Bernard C. Cormier 2009
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