The Book I Would Like To Buy:
Dead Space Salvage TP
by A
ntony Johnston and Christopher Shy; IDW, $17.99
I didn’t know this was coming out. I am not much of a gamer, and usually don’t spend any time on the comics adaptions of video games, unless they’re being made by writers and artists I respect. The first Dead Space mini-series, and it’s one-shot follow up, were by Johnston and artist Ben Templesmith, and I thought they were great.
Johnston took a lot of time building up a Scientology-like religion that added a lot of texture to the story. I don’t know if that’s a feature of the game or not, but I can’t believe it would contain as much depth in the game anyway. Templesmith’s art was its own usual brand of insanity, and the comic was a great success.
This looks like a follow up, minus Templesmith. I don’t know who Christopher Shy is, but he has some big shoes to fill. Regardless of how the book looks, I’m interested simply because I enjoy Johnston’s writing, which aside from his co-writing credits on Daredevil, I don’t see much of since Wasteland went on what seems to be an indefinite hiatus (does anyone know what’s going on with that title? I miss it).
I think it’s strange that this book is being published by IDW, since the other comics were all Image books.
Books I Think You Should Buy:
Luna Park TP
by Kevin Baker and Danijel Zezelj; Vertigo, $14.99
I read this in hardcover, and enjoyed it. Here’s my original review from last June:
I was really impressed by this graphic novel
. I have no idea who Kevin Baker is (apparently his novel Dreamland
Luna Park is a really interesting story. It took me a little while to get in to it; the beginning seems to breeze through the opening pages, but as the book progressed, I got wrapped up in its depth and layered use of story telling.
At the surface, Alik is a Russian immigrant scratching out an existence in Brooklyn by working for a minor Russian mobster. Alik is still nursing emotional wounds he got in Chechnya, where he was a soldier ten years before. He’d tried to help a woman he was in love with, and it ended badly for them all.
Alik today is in love with a woman with a similar name, who works for Alik’s boss’s rival, another Russian mobster who is buying up most of Coney Island, including Luna Park. Alik is a heroin user, and is plagued by dreams of his time in Chechnya, although often the dreams seem to be taking place in the First World War, or during the Russian Revolution instead.
The story quickly becomes more of a historical novel than the crime story that I expected it to be when I started reading, as Baker explores the connection between these dreams and Alik’s present, in a manner that totally surprised and pleased me.
Baker’s writing, mixed with Zezelj’s incredibly moody and evocative artwork, capture a sense of ‘Russian-ness’ I’ve only encountered in actual Russian novels before. They make strong connections between the shabbiness of Coney Island and the desolation of the trenches of WWI France. Everything is seen through a window of unfulfilled promise, which is very much how Alik has led his life. Recommended.
Chew Vol.3 Just Desserts TP
by John Layman and Rob Guillory; Image, $12.99
Wow, they’re getting trades out quickly these days. This volume of Chew collects issues 11 – 15, and number fifteen just came out last week. This would be a difficult volume to pick up as your first foray into Tony Chu’s world, but if you read a few issues and fell off, this is the volume that would hook you into it.
These stories are all over the place chronologically and geographically, but they are mostly centred around Tony’s relationship with Amelia, the discovery of another FDA agent involved in a frog/chicken hybridization project, and the spectre of Mason Savoy, Tony’s original partner.
These comics were a lot of fun, and gave us a lot more insight into Tony’s past and his family. Issue fifteen, the last chapter of this book, is probably the best issue of this comic to date.
So, what would you buy Were Money No Object?
