’300′ is the greatest story Frank Miller has ever been involved with. In fact I’ll go one step forward and say that ’300′ is the best work Frank Miller has ever produced and will likely ever produce (I’m a natural born optimist and I’d relish reading something that tops ’300′, however I’m also a realist and this is basically Frank’s Magnum Opus). That’s a bold statement considering who I’m talking about here. The man that reinvented Daredevil and made the character one of the best around, the man who reinvented Batman and made him relevant as a character; the man who gave us all of Sin City to delve into; but I don’t choose any of those as his best work (even though they are golden), I choose this little story about ’300′ Spartan soldiers. First published as an oversized hardcover 7 years ago, and began serialization 2 years prior to that.

’300′ is set in 480 BC, ancient Greece and chronicles what is considered by many historians as the single most important battle in the history of humanity. These ideas of democracy and philosophy were looking dangerous for the mighty Persian Empire. These ideas had to be crushed and Xeres the self proclaimed God-King went to demand of Athens and Sparta to yield. Neither did.

In the time of King Leonidas, even the King was not above the law. He still had to take permission to go to battle. He was not granted this. So he decides to go for a ‘walk’, with his personal bodyguards of ’300′ Spartans and sets off to stop the mighty Persian Empire from conquering all of Greece.

From the very beginning of this graphic novel you know it’s different to just about anything else you’ve ever read. The first 10 pages are just epic scenes of soldiers marching. It’s a massive canvas and Miller is going for atmosphere and the iconic. It’s clear that Miller has done his homework (I know he’s really done his homework as he’s actually been to Greece and visited the Hot Gates). The culture and the ideals of the Spartans is shown sometimes in several spreads and other times in a few lines of dialogue or tiny little panels. However it’s all incredibly memorable, powerful and quotable.

The dialogue in this graphic novel crackles off the page. Each sentence is weighed and just sounds fucking hard. Even though I original read this years ago I can remember panels as clearly as if I’d read them yesterday. It’s like Miller stripped all the unnecessary noise from his dialogue and just gave you enough.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the artwork. This is Frank Miller at his best, but also this is where his wife Lynn really outshines her husband. This story would not have worked as well, wouldn’t have looked anywhere near as good if anyone but Lynn had taken over the reigns for the colours. She uses a watercolour palette for this story that is a perfect compliment to the mood that Miller is trying to achieve. The image below is the cover to the second chapter and is easily one of my all time favourite images, mainly because the colours are so vibrant and so perfectly chosen.

One of the best graphic novels in any language has been made into (IMHO) probably the movie of 2007. I’ve watched that trailer time and time again, picking up panels and dialogue which are stripped directly from the book. It’s an incredible adaptation in the making, I’m glad that the creators have actually been so faithful to the material. Then again there’s a reason for that, the material is one of the best the graphic novel medium has to offer.

For more information and a preview go here.

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So I’m in the store yesterday and I’m picking up Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee’s Superman trade and Josh Middleton’s Shazam book (neither characters really do it for me but all creators attached are superb in every meaning of the word) but I wasn’t saticified with just these two books. So I started looking around and there I see it, Ministry of Space. I’ve been wanting to buy this mini-series by Warren Ellis and Chris Weston for a good long while.

When it first came out a couple of years ago I was really very excited about it all and couldn’t wait to read it as a trade. It was three issues so it’s short, sweet and to the point. This was back when I was just starting to move away from reading my sequential stories in 22 page pamphlets and concentrating on the trade paperbacks. So I waited, and waited some more. It was one of those series that was supremely delayed due to a number of reasons, writer falling back, Chris commiting to something else, and so when it finally was announced it was going to be collected into a trade paperback (a couple of years after the first issue was released) you can imagine my glee. However for some reason which I can’t understand Image Comics (the official publisher of the book) really screwed it up. Here in the UK is practically impossible to find the damn book for ages.

Well I got my copy and I’ve ripped through the book in less than an hour, however I’ll be going back for more. As I’ve said the book collected a three issue mini-series published by Image Comics. It was part of Warren Ellis’s drive at the time to write, create and own all his properties. He’s since gone back to the monthly grind of working for the Man, but he did try and he does have a serious volume of work that is creator owned so you can’t really fault the man, he’s just trying to earn a living. It’s just a shame that he can’t earn one just writing Ministry of Space stories because I’d buy it in a second.

The story starts at the end of the Second World War. Britian has taken actions to ensure that the German scientists behind the V2 rocket engines now work for the British Empire. Churchill gives the green light to John Dashwood to create the Ministry of Space, to lead Britain’s space programme. Sandwiched inbetween this backstory of grasping for the stars there’s another plot running through the series that follows a much older John Dashwood. The series combines a great sense of the time and the characters, although have limited time on the page (it’s a short story), do have very distinct voices which Ellis is very good at doing. While all of this is happening Ellis provides some a clear political message in all of this, which I’ll be sure to try and uncover some proper discussions about this series because that last panel deserves some more attention.

What I love about this series is the fact that Ellis and Weston make it all feel real. This alternate reality could have come to pass, if the stars and moons were aligned. It’s an exceptionally difficult thing to suspend my disbelief to such a level that I could actually see this world that these gentlemen have constructed be the real deal. The character dialogue is always crackling in a way only Ellis knows how to pull off to such a great degree.

The real star of the show in my eyes however is Chris Weston. It’s clear from all the pages that the man was having an emmense amount of fun creating this book. There’s a great deal of love and attention to detail on every single page, and I for one would have paid for this book if it was illustrated by Weston and written by a monkey (which Ellis most definitely isn’t). If only all short mini-series were drawn as well as this.

Laura Martin is without a doubt one of the, if not the best colourist in the business. She gets colours better than anyone else. None of her work seems forced and none of it gets printed off incorrectly. She understands what it takes to enhance a book, and Ellis is very smart to make sure all his books have her wonderful palette finish everything off. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that Planetary/Authority has the same writer/colourist combination.

Generally speaking I tend to shy away from Titan comics as I see them as complete leaches. They take a book that costs $9, repackage it for unknown reasons to me, slap their logo on it and raise the price to £9. If that’s not bad enough they used to slap a sticker on the back of the actual book and raise the price accordingly as well, which used to fuck me off something cronic. For the first time I actually recommend buying the Titan version because it’s actually got better production values, which is crazy in my eyes. Image have been doing this for a good long time, how they dropped the ball on this series is beyond me. It truely deserves better treatment, as it’s easily one of the gems in it’s library, and in fact on anyone’s library. The book has also been released as a hardcover as well, but if you can’t find it, don’t fret, just buy this book, you’ll be glad you did.

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I was meant to write about this last week, but I was extremely busy with life in general that I didn’t get a chance to hit all the reviews I wanted to get done. I’m pretty behind on my schedule but that’s life. Anyway I emailed Rich a while back and asked him if he had a pdf I could have in order to review. He was gratious enough to send me one before it all exploded and he’s got it up for sale on his site, if you can’t find it from a store near you. As I live in London and both Rich and I have the same comic book store (Gosh Comics) I was also able to nab a signed copy of the book on Saturday. Anyway lets get to the review of this graphic novella shall we.

The Flying Friar is a difficult book to review, mainly because I actually didn’t know what to expect. It wasn’t recommended from anyone, I just liked the preview art that Rich was pimping and I’ve been reading Rich’s column for several years now (was a fan of All the Rage, back when he used to write that). He’s a Londoner and has always been very courteous whenever I’ve e-mailed. So he was going to be getting my money.

This is a historical book with a bit of a twist. Set in the early 1600 in Cupernito, Italy; the book chronicles the early lives of two young men, Lux Luthor and Joseph Desa. They meet under funny circumstances. Lux is bald due to a meteor (or something similar) hitting the village and is interested in flying. Joseph on the other hand is not what he appears to be. Yes the similarities between this story and the Superman methos don’t end there. Saying anymore however would ruin things.

Reading through the book I initially had the feeling that I didn’t have a clue as to where it was going. At first it seemed as though this was going to be a story for the second coming. Having recently finished a book set in 1666 recently I can see where Rich is coming with this. People back then were still waiting for the second coming as if it was going to happen any day now. Of course the year of the beast (apparently) didn’t get officially announced until 1649, but I’ve done no research in the matter so take that with a pinch of salt. Anyway that theory proved to be incorrect. As it turns out what I was reading was an interpretation or dramatisation or a story that tried to tell the life of Joseph Desa the Patron Saint of Aircraft pilots and travellers.

The artwork is provided by Thomas Nachlik, who is a newcomer to me at least. I’m not sure if this is his first work or if he’s a complete veteran and I’ve missed out on his work. He tells his story very clearly which is a very good thing, however I did feel that the art was a little sharp around the edges.

Part of me would love to say that this book is fantastic and that you have to pick it up, but unfortunately I can’t give it such a glowing endorsement simply because I don’t actually feel that way. This isn’t a slant on Rich’s story. He’s crafted a good yarn here, if the above meagre attempt at a description tickles your fancy definitely pick it up. For me however it didn’t really hit the right notes.

This is the first book that I review that’s not a graphic novel. It doesn’t have a spine on it, but that’s ok I think I’ll let him off just this once . This is also the first book that I buy from Speakeasy Comics. The paper quality of the interior pages are thick and glossy so you know the guys aren’t skimping on the paper quality for their production values. I like that in a black and white comic book as it makes the blacks pop out.

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Before I start this review I’ve got to get it out of the way that I am a HUGE David Mack fan. His work is a massive inspiration to me and he is definitely one of the nicest guys in comics working now, so to say that this review is slightly biased is an understatement. However it’s because of the sheer power and thought behind his work that made me this passionate about it in the first place.

The story is dedicated to his mother who died in 1995, when Mack was 21 years old. This story was published sequentially after his mother died and so the story deals a great deal with the issues of family and the importance of a mother and father figure in one’s life.

The story is set in Japan in the future; however the main character’s origins are well placed in the past, dating back from the second world war. The story flips back and forth between the two time periods.

The story effectively begins, with the main character’s mother. Caught in a military camp, rather than provide sexual favours for the soliders the General would make the women perform Kabuki dances. The general has a favourite; this however doesn’t bode well with his son. This is the backstory.

The present is set in our future. The government controls the media waves and in order to keep everyone in check have got the Noh agents who are Japan’s darlings. They are both the eyes and ears of the government.

Mixed in are the details of her unfortunate upbringing and her training, which is linked directly to the missions that she undertakes for the government.

This first story is in black and white before Mack decided to unleash the power of his amazing watercolour skills on the world at large. Even at this early stage in his artistic career Mack was beginning to experiment with how a page was set up and how the story was being told. It’s not as completely insane and poetic as his current work, however you can see him building his way to that particular style.

Mack’s never afraid to experiment with the page and how to tell his story, whether it’s different sized panels scattered all over a double page spread to a decent sized paragraph where he’s trying to tell a specific part of a story. Effectively this isn’t your typical graphic novel and neither should you expect something simple. It works in many layers, many of which unfold right before your eyes.

This is the first part in Kabuki’s overall story, which is not yet complete and it is a marvellous introduction to an intricate and exceptionally well built world.

Writer/Artist: David Mack
Letter: David Mack
Publisher: Image Comics

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This is not hyperbole, this isn’t an overstatement, this is fact. The sooner you come to understand it about this book the better the world shall be, honest trust me on this one, I know what I’m talking about. The fact being that Vagabond is one of the most haunting, best crafted, lushously illustrated stories to be published in comics. Originally this series was published by Viz as a series of thick comic books, but they soon changed their publishing model completely and these volumes started coming out on a regular basis. The production values on these volumes is much better than your average manga book. Painted pages at the start of a new chapter in the story are presented as they originally appeared rather than giving these pages in black and white as well. It’s these additional touches that make this series that much more special.

This is a retelling of the origins of one of the Japanese sword saints, Miyamoto Musashi. The closest approximation I can give is that he’s to Japan, what King Aurther is to England. Musashi didn’t start off life in the most glamourous ways. The story picks up directly after the battle of Sekigahara, with two close friends who have survived, however were on the wrong side of the battle, the losing side.

This first volume gives us a brief introduction to Takezo (the man that will become Musashi) and his best friend Matahachi as they try to get back to their village. Along the way they are ambushed by samurai looking for survivors of from the battle, however they get a lot more than they bargained for from this deceptively brutal 17 year old.

Little can be said about the artwork, short of just how spectacular it is. You can smell the grass, feel the Japanese sun, and dirt gets in your eyes from the dusty roads. The level of detail that Inoue puts into the backgrounds is something Geoff Darrow (of the Matrix fame) would put in. What come across very clearly in this book is just how much fun the creator is having with this series. It’s a story he was meant to write and draw and he shows this by putting this amount of effort and attention to detail on every page.

This book was originally published in March 2002 and we’re currently on volume 20. That’s actually up to speed with the very latest release in Japan. So it could be a while before any more volumes get translated, which gives everyone the perfect opportunity to actually get to grips with this series. Unlike Dark Horse who keeps issues in the bag with their samurai epic (Blade of the Immortal), Viz decided to go down the opposite route and publish everything as soon as they could.

Story and Art by Takehiko Inoue
Touch-ups and Letters by Steve Dutro
Publisher Viz Media

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As with all oversided Marvel hardcovers, the 1602 hardcover is nothing short of a great solid chunk of book. It comes with a black faux leather cover with gold writing on it, simply entitled MARVEL 1602. The book collects the 8 issue mini-series written by Neil Gaiman as a method to raise funds for his lawyers in his ongoing battle with Todd Mcfarlane. This battle is an ongoing one with various properties(MiracleMan, Angela, Cog and a few others I believe) at stake in one great big knot of a mess in recent comic book history. This was the first project Gaimen wrote for Marvel in exchange for the cash to help with the case. Gaiman has one more project to work on to fullfil his contract with Marvel in this respect, and if it’s anything as close the quality within these pages then we’ll all be in for another treat.

The story takes place (at least most of the story) in 1602 England. and follows the major players in the Marvel universe, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Peter Parker, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the X-men and many more, over 30 main characters are given some time to shine in this story. However Gaiman’s turned everything on it’s head. There’s a freshness to all these characters because he’s gone and dumped them in a completely different setting than what we’re used to. To keep everyone guessing he’s changed their names slightly and of course they’re not wearing their costumes, they’re wearing derivatives, sometimes the only link being the colours remain the same. By doing that he effectively gets to play around with the character’s origins and how they came to be the same people (or close to the same people) as those 400 years later. The book is scattered with great characterisation and dialogue as you would expect from Neil, and having not written any sequential work in 5 years the man seriously has not missed a beat.

One of my favourite moments is when Daredevil climbs into James’s chambers and gives him a stern warning. Another moment that I don’t know why it didn’t click earlier was the fact that Rohjah as actually Steve Rogers. I completely missed that association, mainly because I’ve never read a Captain America book and therefore care nothing for the character himself.

Kubert is in fine form in this series as well. In fact there isn’t much difference in quality between that series and this, the content matter of course is slightly similar, except with the massive array of cast assembled in this series it’s definitely more colourful. I feel however that the story and Gaiman’s story might have been even that more unique if a more organic artist was chosen. By that I mean someone like Michael Zulli. I only say that because I felt that a story such as this deserved something unique and quirky. It had the same qualities of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but like I said the art just wasn’t as unique in my mind as it could have been.

That being said the art is aided in no small way by the awesome powers of Richard Isanove. I have a great deal of admiration for Isanove, as I’ve seen him evolve into one of the premier men colouring comics at the moment, from humble beginnings on Top Cow books in the mid 90s. He has most definitely come into his own following his work on Origin.

The covers by Scott McKowen are truely unique and do wash the time period over you in a strange way. I’m very glad that Gaiman chose something different for the covers than what would have been traditional fare. This is actually what I would have expected on the inside covers as well. For all those thinking that the average Marvel Zombie wouldn’t have clicked, I’d disagree since Kevin O’Neill wouldn’t have been my first choice to declare him a fan favourite however he’s definitely the definitive image of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

It’s no coincidence that usually the best penned series in comics (ie those written by Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman) are also lettered by the multi-Eisner award winning Todd Klien. The man knows how to letter a sequential page like nobody’s business, and I think both these guys understand just how much a good letterer brings to the table. It’s so subtle but easily one of the most important aspects of a comic book, after all that’s what you’re looking at 50% of the time.

In the end I highly recommended buying this book as either the hardover version or the trade paperback version.

Writer: Neil Gaiman
Penciller: Andy Kubert
Digital Painter: Richard Isanove
Letter: Todd Klein
Publisher: Marvel

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