Review: Battle Chasers Anthology HC

What can I say about Battle Chasers that hasn't already been said about Barack Obama? Its great looking! Fresh & Original, it inspires us to be better...It seems to have made one too many promises. Looks like a fantasy but is really quite mainstream. Battle Chasers is the story of five adventurers who's stories intertwine and eventually bind them to one another. It really does epitomize the "sword and sorcery" genre. I would even go as far as saying that Battle Chasers was to fantasy comics what Battlestar Galactica was to Sci-Fi television. An inspirational beacon. "This is possible if you let go of trivial conventions". The artwork is BRILLIANT. Joe Madureira is a virtuoso (and that's not a term I throw around). Tom McWeeney laid down bold solid inks. "Liquid!" was not only the best digital coloring team around, they put in 105% on BC. And last but not least, Richard Starkings and Comicraft did the best lettering i've EVER see in a comic (and that was 10 years ago!!!).

This collected edition combines every issue, sketch, flyer, and anything else printed pertaining to Battle Chasers. It is in fact complete. Even has things we've never see like Mad's from his X-Men days. Kind of pricey, but so comprehensive that its totally worth it. Here's a link to it on Amazon. FYI, I payed full price at a local comic shop...proudly!

Review: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life

The week before Volume 6 of this series, I plowed through 1 through 5, borrowed from the free library. I couldn't help myself. Every chapter was clever and compelling. The series is really quite funny, but in addition, deeply moving. Bare in mind that I am in fact the sort of disaffected fellow that this series is about.

Scott Pilgrim is a 23 year-old bass guitarist for a Toronto indy band called Sex Bob-omb (Yes, like the little walking bomb guys from Super Mario Bros.) who's recently rebounded into a relationship with a high school girl. Now, I know that sounds skeevy, but they really have a sort of high school puppy-love relationship. Knives Chau, WORSHIPS her new boyfriend and is awestricken by the music of his band and their contemporaries. I don't want to ruin any of the plot of v.1 for those of you who haven't seen the movie, but I'll leave it at this; While knee deep in his puppy-love relationship, Scott falls MADLY in love with an NYC trasplant named Ramona Flowers. Ramona, is a Manhattan. Dry but sweet to the tongue and a bit tart. One of those "seemingly too cool to care" hipsters who's been through enough drama in her 20-something years to seek an escape to a foreign land. Also there's a lot of fighting...A LOT of fighting.

Bryan Lee O'Malley is one of my personal heroes, and its this book that won me over. I'd recently finished Persepolis and while reflecting on how Satrapi was able to put 100% of herself into the production of this very personal epic graphic novel. I began relating Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life to works like Persepolis and Maus. The artwork, strange at first, becomes a part of the language and the fluidity of communication at that point really makes the work sing.
I should mention though, that the series has an NES game motif and can be a bit confusing to people who grew up in caves or without any connection to pop culture of the last 20-30 years.

Finally, I was able to pick up my own copy of volume 1. Oni printed it like a manga tankobon, which suits me just fine since i have shelves of untranslated manga i use for artistic reference. My only complaint is that its exactly 20% more costly than I think it should be. However, you can get a great price on the set on Amazon or borrow from your local free library.