I’ve been living in a bit of a bubble these past few years with respect to my comic book reading habits. I tend to read books that I hear about on websites and what I see on the shelf in front of me at the store. The problem is that this is limiting somewhat and I know that there is an absolute PLETHORA of books out there that I would really enjoy if only I knew about them. I guess as a reviewer of graphic novels it’s part of my mission to hunt these things out myself and really try new things. Sadly my reading of reviews is kind of limited as the number of review sites that I visit has diminished since the Fourth Rail went offline last year sometime. Fair enough the guys behind those particular sites are now doing other things in the form of ComicPants and Eyeoncomics however the consistency is just not there really, which is a shame, but I’m living in a glass box really and I shouldn’t be throwing stones myself to be honest.

The thing is I’ve been listening to more comic podcasts (in addition to producing my own) and that has seriously reinvigorated me in the reading and reviewing comics. One book that was mentioned and I thought was intriguing was a book that I mentioned from published First Second called, American born Chinese. And what an amazing find this book actually is.

I’m not particularly familiar with this publisher or this creator but I’ll definitely be hunting out his work in future and hunting his previous work as well, because in my mind this is one of the freshest talents to come into the graphic novel world in DONKEY years. Before I get further in this review let me just say that this book is without a doubt the best thing I’ve read this year, and I have read a tonne of really excellent books in the last month or so.

The creator of American Born Chinese is Gene Luen Yang and is without a doubt a talent you all should make yourselves more familiar with. The artwork is very simple and soft (that’s the best way I can describe it) and it’s got this seriously magical quality to it. Gene basically is using the graphic novel format to tell a story. That’s the main thing behind this. It’s not about the detail it’s not about the imagination, it’s about the story and the message that he is trying to convey, which he does with absolute ease.

The story follows three seemingly unrelated characters. The first being the Monkey King of Flower Fruit Mountain. A character who is trying to be more than he is and making sure all those around him know this to be true as well. The second follows Jin Wang an American born Chinese kid in school which follows his trials and tribulations as he goes through school and sees how he is treated by his fellow kids and how he feels oddly out of place but is trying to fit in. The final story is like a mocking sitcom, that is COMPLETELY over the top and racist in which feeds on the misconceptions of Chinese people. For a start the sitcom series is called Everyone Loves Chin-kee. The main character Chin-Kee is a complete stereotype and it’s meant to poke fun, not of Chinese people, but rather those that still have those misconceptions.

The real magic is how these three completely unrelated tales come together in the end to tell a brilliant story that has soo many defining moments that you end up with a massive smile on your face for a couple of days after you’ve finished reading it and so much so that you can’t stop talking about it.

Seriously do yourself a favour and get this book, it’s easily on my top ten graphic novels of this year unless Alan Moore comes back from retirement and published 10 new graphic novels that is. A preview of the book can be found on the website here.

I remember a few years ago I got into indie comic books in a big way. It seemed every single book that I bought had to be black and white and had to have a circulation of about 10 people. That’s a bit of a lie. Part of the reason I was reading the indie publishers that much is because they were publishing things in the form that I wanted. So I was able to sample stuff like Goodbye, Chucky Rice, A complete Lowlife, Jimmy Corrigan, Box Office Poison, Pistolwhip, Berlin and a slew of other books from Oni, Ait-Planetlar and others. However as time went on, either I lost interest or stuff that interests me was not getting published and I stopped by the indie graphic novel, with a few notable exceptions. Thank god for Jonathan Adams.

He’s the creator of Truth Serum. Until 2 weeks ago I’d never heard of this book or the creator. I just went into the store and started browsing like I’m prone to doing. While going through the shelves I noticed this one book that looked different. It had a beautiful design (a topic I will be raising very shortly on Splash Panel, graphic novels and design) that just came off as utter class.

I picked it up and was really amazed by the quality this self-published book had. I’ve seen a good deal of self-published books in my time and quality is usually sketchy at best. This book was larger than all the other books on the shelf. It had great typography on the cover and the back. So I started to flick through it. Usually what happens when I flick through a book is I get seriously disappointed by the art and put it back down. I know that’s just stupid as most times the story meshes with the art and that style seems perfect all of a sudden. Anyway the art in this case instantly grabbed me. It was clean, crisp and detailed with an overall quality that I really liked…flick flick flick, oh what’s that an introduction by Diana Schutz, of Dark Horse fame! As I continued reading her introduction I started feeling an affinity for the book’s creator. I don’t think I’ve ever bought a book based on just the introduction but I was sold by that alone.

So what’s the actual book about since I’ve written enough about what got me here in the first place. Truth Serum is a hard book to describe and still doing it justice. I guess part of me think I can’t really do it that much justice since it’s a feeling you get after reading it that makes it that good. It’s set in a suburban town called Manchester (for all the Brits out there, it looks nothing like the original Manchester) where the town is packed with ’superheroes’. The catch is you NOT ONCE SEE these ’superheroes’ in action. That’s not what this book is about. In many ways it is just a bunch of people talking, people going through life and people fucking up. It shows the weak and often stupid nature of human beings. Simply put this book is about people. It follows their lives and how they meet and part just as quickly as they came together.

The book is oftentimes slightly surreal but it’s always done in a funny way which more and more creators are finding it increasingly difficult to pull off in comics. Many indie books fall into the trap of make a talking heads book that tries to be deep, tries hard to be thought provoking. What we usually get is 120 pages of pure boredom. People looking at each other for several panels, where the creator is trying to envoke some mood or other. Adams doesn’t play to that game. With the exception of the last story the bulk of this book is a collection of roughly (give or take a couple) 4 page stories. So he makes every panel count. Sometimes when he’s got some space to play he’ll fill in a few panels with randomness that just makes you laugh.

Which reminds me. Everything about this book is meant to make you smile and enjoy yourself. From the description at the back, right to the copyright notice in the front. If you want to see what I mean go check out Adam’s website. For example underneath the cost of the book it writes:

FREE if you run fast enough.
Or punch hard enough.

What I really like is how Adams makes his heroes the villains and the villians the heroes. It’s provides great dialogue which is always something that will stay in my mind. Whenever you leave a book and a couple of scenes or lines stick well and true in your mind, you know the creator has done something right. Jonathan Adams has done a lot of good in this package.

I’m pretty sure you can’t buy this book in bookstores or on amazon as it doesn’t seem to have and ISBN number (giving me the impression that it’s a pretty limited run). If you do find this on the shelves however definitely pick it up. One of the better indie books I’ve picked up in years.

Writer/Artist: Jonathan Adams
Publisher: City Cyclops