Review: The Nobody

One day, in a rural fishing village where nothing much usually happens, a drifter covered in bandages walks into town. He rents a room at the local inn, while the other residents of Large Mouth keep a suspicious eye on him. There's a rumor that the he's a wanted man - or maybe a victim of a horrible accident. Only the stranger himself knows the truth, and he's not telling anyone. This is the story of The Nobody.

The Nobody is written and drawn by Jeff Lemire, relatively new to the graphic novel scene. Prior to this, he produced the Essex County Trilogy, which was published by Top Shelf Productions and nominated for both a Harvey Award and two Eisner Awards (very prestigous comics awards, for those of you who don't know). The Nobody was published last year by Vertigo, who also publish his current ongoing series, Sweet Tooth.

Review: Crossed

Crossed is a graphic novel set in a post-apocalyptic world, where a mysterious plague causes its victims to pursue their foulest desires - like rape, murder and cannibalism (and not necessarily in that order). Carriers of the virus are known as The Crossed due to a cross-like rash that appears on their faces. The story follows a group of survivors on the way to Alaska, where they hope they'll be relatively safe.

Crossed is written by Garth Ennis, who you may be familiar with from Preacher, The Punisher and The Boys. Many of Ennis' usual themes show up here, mostly bodily mutilation and sexual depravity, occasionally tempered with dark humor. We also see moments of male friendship and criticism of religion, which is par for the course with Ennis. Crossed is certainly not his best work, but probably his darkest and most unrestrained. The artist, Jacen Burrows, I admit I'm less familiar with. He has worked on various series for Avatar Press, perhaps most notably Alan Moore's The Courtyard. Burrows' style can be compared to another of Ennis' frequent collaborators, Steve Dillon. It is clear, competent storytelling, but not very dynamic. Burrows draws meticulous backgrounds, though.

Review: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life

I just finished re-reading Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life. It's the first part of a six-volume series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley. I'm really psyched for Edgar Wright's upcoming movie adaptation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, so I thought I'd better read the books first. I've only read the first one before, but now I've managed to get the entire set and am really eager to get into the rest of it.
The premise is basically this: Scott Pilgrim is a 23-year-old slacker who plays bass guitar in the band "Sex Bob-Omb." He meets and falls in love with delivery girl Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven "evil exes" in order to date her. Only the first one shows up in this book, though. Actually, here's the movie trailer, that explains the plot well enough. Go ahead, watch. I'll wait.

Sex Bob-Omb's music is described as "fast, hard, sloppy" and in a way, that also describes Bryan Lee O'Malley's art. It's rough and energetic and looks spontaneous, like he had fun drawing this. Unlike Sex Bob-Omb's music, however, O'Malley's art is not terrible. He manages to convey subtle emotions remarkably well in such seemingly simple artwork. The character of Scott Pilgrim is sort of a clueless dork, but a very endearing one (in other words, perfect casting for Michael Cera). The other characters are also very likable, and the dialogue is both funny and believable. The genius part is the mash-up of romance/comedy graphic novel and 1980s-style video game duel. While the genre change comes quite sudden, you can't help but feel it's awesome when (SPOILER!*) Scott whups the first evil ex and he implodes, dropping $2.10 in coins ("not even enough for the subway back home!" Scott complains). It's a really cool book, and I look forward to seeing what director Edgar Wright does with the movie version. You may remember him as the director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, so this could be a cult comedy hat trick.

And hey, you can even read the first 50 (!) pages for free at the official Scott Pilgrim website! How about that?
Yeah, I thought so.

* Oh come on, this is not a spoiler. Of course he defeats the first evil ex; there wouldn't be six volumes if he lost, would it?