Dynamite Entertainment from Diamond Distributors for May 23, 2018

D. E.

MAR181416    BETTIE PAGE TP VOL 01 BETTIE IN HOLLYWOOD    $17.99
FEB181364    JEEPERS CREEPERS #1 KEN HAESER SKETCH ED    $89.99
MAR181488    LEGENDERRY RED SONJA #4 (OF 5) CVR A BENITEZ    $3.99
MAR181497    PUMPKINHEAD #4 (OF 5) CVR A STRAHM    $3.99
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MAR181547    WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS OMNIBUS TP VOL 02    $39.99

IDW Publishing from Dimaond Distributors for May 23, 2018

IDW PUBLISHING

FEB180483    COIN OP COMICS ANTHOLOGY HC 1997-2017    $29.99
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Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for May 23, 2018

IMAGE COMICS

MAR180575    BARRIER #4 (OF 5) (MR)    $3.99
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Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for May 23, 2018

MARVEL COMICS

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Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for May 23, 2018

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

FEB181028    ANIMOSITY #14 (MR)    $3.99
MAR181079    ANIMOSITY EVOLUTION TP VOL 01    $14.99
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FEB181725    2000 AD PACK APRIL 2018    $27.00
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BOOKS
APR182105    100 MANGA ARTISTS HC BIBLIOTHECA ED NEW PTG    $20.00
FEB182048    100 THINGS X-MEN FANS SHOULD KNOW & DO BEFORE THEY DIE SC    $16.95
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JAN182158    DOCTOR WHO COMP HIST HC VOL 67 2ND DOCTOR STORIES    $18.99
JAN188364    STAR WARS MIGHTY CHEWBACCA IN FOREST OF FEAR YA HC NOVEL    $13.99

Review: RWBY: The Official Manga Anthology Volume 1

RWBY OFFICIAL MANGA ANTHOLOGY, VOL. 1 – RED LIKE ROSES
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONISTS: monorobu; Ritsu Hayami; Kuma; KaTe; Xily; Uri; Sora; Amaya; Mikanuji; Moromoimaru; Koogeimoai; Siguma Koko; Mate; mojojoj; Amechan; Shiki Miou; Sorappane; Rojine Kio; Sun Hiura; Umiyo
TRANSLATION: Joe Yamasaki
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley
LETTERS: Evan Waldinger
EDITOR: Joel Enos
MISC. ART: Sai Izumi; Esu; Shiki Miou; Tsukasa; Omutatsu
COVER: Ein Lee and Meteo
ISBN: 978-1-9747-0157-5; paperback (May 2018); Rated “T” for “Teen”
184pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $17.99 CAN, £8.99 U.K.

Based on the animation from Rooster Teeth Productions; RWBY created by Monty Oum

“RWBY” is an American animated series that is streamed on the World Wide Web.  “RWBY” was created by the late Monty Oum for Rooster Teeth Productions (an American company), which is known for its streaming and web animated series.  “RWBY” is produced in a Japanese anime style, although some consider it to be an actual anime series.  It is the first western-produced anime series to be distributed to Japanese television.

“RWBY” is set on the world of Remnant, which is beset by “Grimm,” horrific monsters bent on the destruction of humanity.  The kingdoms of Remnant have risen to combat these monsters by training powerful Huntsmen and Huntresses at academies around the planet. “RWBY” focuses on Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long, four such Huntresses-in-training who are collectively known as “Team RWBY.”

Shiwa Miwa, the creator of the manga Dogs and Dogs: Bullets & Carnage, produced a manga based on “RWBY” and entitled RWBY.  It was published in graphic novel form by VIZ Media in January 2018.  Now, VIZ is introducing RWBY The Official Manga Anthology, which will publish original short manga and comics set in the world of RWBY that showcase the members of Team RWBY

RWBY The Official Manga Anthology, Vol. 1 is subtitled “Red Like Roses” and focuses on Team RWBY leader, Ruby Rose.  The stories reveal that Ruby has insecurities just like everyone else, although she is a Huntress team leader.  While her worries run deep, Ruby is determined to overcome her shortcomings in order to be a true hero.  From working with other teams to taking on evil clones, Ruby is driven to be the best... even if it means she has to change her hair color.

[This volume contains commentary one-panel cartoons from the cartoonists that contributed to this volume.  It also includes “Message from Ein Lee” and “Message from Lindsay Jones.”]

I had not heard of “RWBY” until I received a VIZ Media press release that it was going to publish Shirow Miwa's 2015-2017 manga adaptation of the anime.  As I wrote in a previous review, I was not interested in reading it, but my VIZ Media rep gave me a copy.  However, I was looking forward to the RWBY The Official Manga Anthology manga, VIZ Media came through.

RWBY The Official Manga Anthology Graphic Novel Volume 1 is a little more entertaining than the first RWBY graphic novel.  That is mainly because the stories are mostly humorous.  They are lighthearted vignettes that focus on the relationships between the members of Team RWBY.  Ruby Rose is the emphasis in these tales, but her teammates star in most of the stories here and are featured almost as much as she is.

RWBY The Official Manga Anthology Volume 1 – Red Like Roses is a good way to let readers learn more about the characters via comedy and teamwork.  Most of these stories are about 10-pages in length.  According to the press release that accompanies this first volume's release, the mangaka (creators) that contribute to this anthology are new artists, and it shows in the fact that these stories feel like amateur press comics or “dōjinshi.”  These stories are fun, but I miss the fantasy-horror-action mix of the previous RWBY manga.  Still, I think Red Like Roses will serve to make new RWBY fans just because of the friendly nature of these stories.

B+
7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

--------------

Review: THE MAN FROM THE GREAT NORTH

THE MAN FROM THE GREAT NORTH
IDW PUBLISHING/EuroComics – @IDWPublishing

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

CARTOONIST: Hugo Pratt
TRANSLATION: Dean Mullaney, Simone Castaldi, and Ariane Levesque Looker
COLORS: Annie Frognier and Patrizia Zanotti
EDITOR: Dean Mullaney
ISBN:  978-1-68405-058-1; hardcover – 8 1/2” x 11” (October 2017)
104pp, Color, $24.99 U.S., $33.99 CAN (November 21, 2017)

Hugo Pratt (1927 to 1995) was an Italian comic book creator and artist.  Some consider him to be among the first literary and artistic comic book creators, and his best known work is his Corto Maltese series, which he produced from 1967 to 1988.

IDW Publishing is currently publishing new English-language editions of Pratt's graphic albums and comics.  One of those is a full-color graphic novel, The Man From the Great North.  It was initially entitled Jésuite Joe and was serialized in the French comics magazines, Pilote.  Jésuite Joe was then collected as a graphic album in 1980 in France (by Dargaud).  In Italy, it was published as L'uomo del grande nord (The Man From the Great North) and was one of four graphic novels that Hugo Pratt contributed to Italian publisher Edizioni Cepim's “One Man, One Adventure” series.

IDW's The Man From the Great North is the first English-language version of Jésuite Joe (according to the publisher).  IDW's edition includes Pratt's original 48-page version of Jésuite Joe and also 21 pages of storyboard material that Pratt produced for a 1991 French film based on the graphic novel and directed by Olivier Austen.  The storyboards are integrated into the original graphic novel to produce an expanded version of the Jésuite Joe graphic novel.

IDW's The Man From the Great North also has five pages of watercolors studies and five spot illustrations that Pratt produced for Jésuite Joe.  Pratt also produced 19 pages of a second Jésuite Joe story that he never finished, and that is reprinted in this book.

The story focuses on Jesuit Joe, who is a “Métis,” an ethnic group in Canada and part of the United States that is descended from indigenous North Americans (Native Americans) and European settlers.  In Joe's case, he is of French-Canadian (father) and Mohawk (mother) descent.

The Man From the Great North's story takes place in 1912 in Canada (the “Great North”), and for most of the story, Joe is dressed in the uniform of a Royal North West Mounted Police (RNWMP), specifically a corporal's uniform.  Joe finds the uniform in a cabin shortly before he kills two men who hat shot into the cabin.  Next, he encounters a Cree medicine man in the middle of some kind of ceremony involving a baby stolen from white settlers, and Joe kills him.

Thus, begins Jesuit Joe's spree of killing and violence that includes a Catholic priest, family, Indians, and the man who is tracking him, Sergeant Fox, among others.  All the while, Jesuit Joe is looking for something... something ephemeral... or absolute.

In his essay, “Whatever became of Jesuit Joe?”, Gianni Brunoro writes that Hugo Pratt “...was interested in telling stories about ideas.”  Brunoro writes that Jesuit Joe may have been “an ideologically completed story,” so for Pratt, there was nothing to which he should return.  Something else worth noting:  in his forward to Jésuite Joe, written in 1991, Pratt talks about writers who influenced this creation, including Jack London and Zane Gray.

For me, Jesuit Joe seems like an idea, a story about a guy going through the wilderness of the “Great North,” killing people at just about every stop because that is what he does.  His motivation is inscrutable, unless a reader wants to admit that Joe does things simply because he wants to do those things.  He is simultaneously ephemeral, a force of nature, and a personification of death.  One can see that this story and character seem like ideas inspired by the works of Jack London.

The story in The Man From the Great North is impressionistic and is told in illustrations that are abstract when they are not treading the ground of realist art.  The influence of the great American cartoonist, Milton Caniff, is evident on The Man From the Great North, as it is on Pratt's Corto Maltese series.  The storyboard pages are loose and seem immediate and relevant, but do not show the influence of any particular artist or writer.  They seem like pure Pratt.

This story, with its wraith-like character who wanders a sometimes dream-like wilderness landscape, seems to me to be about inspiring the reader's imagination.  Pratt seems to tell us to follow Joe and make of it what our imaginations will.  I find that this story does indeed arouse my imagination, and I cannot help but be intrigued and emotionally involved in it.  The violence (murder, kidnapping, assault, rape, etc.) moves me.  I feel something... and some things I should not admit...

There will be no more Jesuit Joe by Hugo Pratt.  I want more because this story moves me.  There is no beginning, middle, and end in a traditional way; in fact, The Man From the Great North seems like a small section of a larger story.  Like Pratt's other work, this is a work of graphic fiction and graphic storytelling that grabs the reader in ways that larger, more developed comics do not.  That is the reason why Pratt is always worth reading, but concerning Jesuit Joe, this is the end.

9 out of 10

[This book includes a forward by Hugo Pratt, and an essay, “Whatever became of Jesuit Joe?” by Gianni Brunoro.]

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Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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