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REVIEWS // 12.12.02 21 Down • Full Sanction • Fusion • Peach Girl 21
DOWN #1-4 I'm a sucker for a good twist. It's the magician in me, the part of me that has to sit back and go 'Wow' when a story takes an unexpected left turn and reveals what it's really about. It's the cinematic, or graphic, equivalent of the ball being under the centre cup and not the one on the right. SIGNS had it, THE OTHERS had it, THE SIXTH SENSE had it. And so does 21 DOWN. It's actually taken to issue four for me to realize what this book is. 21 DOWN, at it's most basic level, is a superhero book. Its main character has powers, a quest, someone who may be an arch-nemesis and even the pick of sidekicks. At it's most basic, this is a book that's stock at best and stereotypical at worst. But 21 DOWN, it's apparent very early on, is far from basic. Preston Kills lives under a double curse. As well as having what he freely admits is a stupid name, Preston is going to die when he's 21. He knows this, because when he was a child something dragged him out of his bed into the sky and told him that he would be judged. It did the same thing to an undisclosed number of other people and they all died aged 21. Preston is 20 as the story opens. As if that wasn't bad enough, his powers are emotionally and physically draining. Preston is an empath of sorts, capable of seeing the final few moments of someone's life in almost perfect detail and as a result, a real asset to the police in general and his detective brother in particular. The one problem is, everyone Preston sees stays with him, the memory of their final moments burnt indelibly into him. So at age 20, Preston is faced with the reality of his own death, the reality of other people's deaths and the gnawing feeling that his brother loves his power more than he loves him. He has a year to live and the only thing he's good at is A) What's killing him and B) Causes him immense distress. And then he meets Mickey Rinaldi. Were this any other creative team, Rinaldi would be a total stereotype. She practically has FEMME FATALE tattooed across her forehead as an FBI agent intent on helping Preston solve his problem and with a disturbingly flirtatious attitude to those around her. Done wrong, Mickey would be nothing more than how she's presented on the covers, a woman fresh out of '40s pulp novels with no morals and a gun strapped to her stocking clad ankle. It's ironic then that it's Mickey who drives home exactly how different this books is from the others of it's type. A persistently enigmatic, dangerous and strangely vulnerable presence in the book, Mickey is far more than the Scully-analogue she first appears to be. There's a real dry sense of humour to her exchanges with Preston, as well as an air of genuine danger. She knows far more than she's letting on; Preston knows that too and the two of them dance around one another in a constantly shifting pattern of mistrust and loaded banter. It's an unusually complex relationship for a mainstream comic, the physical attraction and mutual distrust they share obvious in equal proportions. There's a real sense of these two people being bad for one another and neither caring. This level of complexity is what sets 21 DOWN out from the crowd, with each relationship Preston has defined as much by its contradictions as its commonalities. This is perfectly demonstrated by his power, something which he knows is making a genuine difference but at the same time is being used as a springboard by his brother. Grey does an excellent job of portraying the difficulties Preston has. He's not torn apart with angst or yelling "WHY GOD WHY?!!!!" in the middle of a rainstorm you understand, he's just aware of what his life is. Whilst far from happy, his way of coping gives the book a black sense of humour and is very much in keeping with my experience of people with terminal conditions. Preston copes with what's going to happen by focussing on the day today needs of his life and ignoring the bigger picture. Which is in turn why Mickey Rinaldi scares him so much. She represents the world outside his head, the world where he has a greater purpose and more importantly, the world where he's going to die and soon. Preston may be the hero of the book but he's far from a 'hero', and instead is just a young man with a dreadful situation to deal with, doing the best he can. With complex relationships and a fascinating central idea, 21 DOWN is already ahead of the vast majority of the pack. The final component here however, is both a strength and a weakness based on how the book has been received to date. The 'Herod' plot that it shares with GEN 13 is an interesting idea, but it's one which is actually a far weaker link between the two books than most people seem to think. Instead of crossover characters or incidents, what you get is a concept, a world event that's so huge that it touches the lives of people in different parts of the world, that simple. If anything, this is what continuity SHOULD be like if we must have continuity at all. An idea that's too big to be resolved in one book and is approached in two entirely exclusive ways. You only need to read 21 DOWN (Or GEN 13 if you must) to 'get' the Herod plotline. No crossover necessary.
(Alasdair Stuart) * * * FULL
SANCTION #1-4 FULL SANCTION! I don't normally shout in reviews but in this case, I just have to. You see, FULL SANCTION is the funniest thing I've read in months, and not funny in that wry 'oh well that was a bit funny' way that most sitcoms aim at these days. No, I'm talking laugh out loud funny. The plot, such as it is, is this. Joey and Rusty are FULL SANCTION!, a pair of baseball bat wielding guys who fight crime sometimes and know how to travel through time. Oh and drink, temporarily gain psychic powers and own a superpowered cat. Mochove and Rowley have that sort of informal, unhurried sense of humour that so many writers aspire to and so few achieve. Whilst each one of these issues is tiny (single digit pages and under A5 in size), each one is crammed full of some of the best one liners I've read in comics for a long time. After all, where else could you find dialogue like: 'My shell's made out of unhappy children. Wanna taste?' or 'THIEVING FOOL! FEEL THE PAIN OF A THOUSAND LEG STABBINGS!' Oh and time travel like I said, and the odd ninja or two. Mochove and Rowley don't so much borrow from pop culture as run down its aisles, giggling like lunatics and jamming the bits that look fun together. Here, the plot exists only as a frame to hang jokes on and that's no bad thing at all. Besides, if that wasn't the case then we wouldn't be treated to the sight of a CROUCHING TIGER-like rooftop chase between a ninja and… A car. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop. This is one of the most gleefully silly comics I've read in years, bubbling with the sort of energy that makes Johnen Vasquez and Roman Dirge's work so successful. It's incredibly funny, casually and creatively violent and full of good ideas for anyone who happens to have recently gained psychic powers. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, the most creative stick figure art I've ever seen. You'll believe a stick figure can flip the bird, fly through the air and impersonate Mexican wrestlers, to say the least of constructing arsenals of weaponry from scotch tape. And as if that wasn't enough, FULL SANCTION is free. This is pure paper entertainment, designed to do nothing else but make you laugh like a nutter. Email Jose now and get this in your life. Or to put it another way… FULL SANCTION! (Alasdair Stuart) * * * FUSION
#1 Two inches. That's all the space you've got to sell yourself in a small shop, the rightmost two inches of your front cover. Sensible designers use that as an excuse or catalyst to design something that isn't the standard comic cover (You know the sort of thing: WELCOME TO THE X-MEN, MONKEY BOY, HOPE YOU SURVIVE THE EXPERIENCE with Monkey Boy's shattered remains being scraped off Wolverines' boot in the background). Get an unusual cover, you get noticed and you sell the comic in those two inches. Barry Renshaw seems to know this. FUSION Issue 1's front cover is white, with a monochrome head leaning from the top of shot. He looks like he's taken a beaten or is exhausted, slumped over with liquid slowly dripping from the corner of his mouth. At the bottom of the cover, dead centre is FUSION ONE, with all the credits beneath it. End result? An eye-catching and unusual front cover. Which in this case, is a fair reflection of what's inside. Opening with 'Widdershins' a fantasy series is a brave move, and one that pays off. Fantasy as a genre is all but played out and at first glance, this looks like more of the same. Slaine-like barbarian rides into town as an Inquisition-like organisation tightens it's grip around the surrounding area. However, Bealby's script manages to rise above the cliches of the genre by one simple decision: Not explaining. This is a world with a dialect of it's own and one which is not quite our own and by showing rather than telling us this, Bealby draws the reader in. It's still a little unclear where 'Widdershins' is going but based on this first part, it looks promising. 'Space Redeemer' is less impressive, which is no reflection on Colin Stanford's art. It's visually the prettiest story in the comic, Stanford perfectly capturing the clean lines and ludicrous costumes of '30s and '40s FLASH GORDON. However, the vaguely parodic script that accompanies it doesn't sit well and ultimately the story feels incomplete and un-engaging. The next story however, is the star of the show. Renshaw and Webb's 'Hinge' plays like a cross between early Bendis and classic conspiracy fiction, mixing visual invention with what promises to be an unusual and detailed plot. The central idea, that a war with parallel dimensions has been fought for the last forty years isn't entirely new but it's handled with such energy and verve that any familiar elements are quickly forgotten. The art is especially impressive here, with Nathan Webb's clean line work making each character distinctive and leading the reader through the complex layouts with ease. Like 'Widdershins' it's unclear where this is going but, again like 'Widdershins' it certainly opens well. In closing, Jamie Thomspons' 'Flight of the Coldsore' is a welcome and total deviation from the stories that precede it. Chronicling the break up of a relationship, it uses two images to both demonstrate the ebb and flow of conversation and give the story an unusually poignant and at the same time wry tone. It's the smallest and most personal of the stories here and lacks the pyrotechnics and drama of the other three but to my mind it's the most interesting. The decision to open this anthology with such a mixed bag has definitely paid off. This is a very promising debut and one which at this price is well worth your time. ENGINE Comics have started strongly and I look forward to seeing where they go next. (Alasdair Stuart) * * * PEACH
GIRL Momo (Japanese for 'peach') Adachi is the eponymous heroine of this immensely readable series. Generally assumed to be a beach bunny, an airhead and an easy lay on account of her looks, Momo has to fight an uphill battle to get Toji, the boy she's liked since junior high school, to go out with her. And this is before Sae, the kind of friend you wouldn't wish on Dracula, starts scheming to take him for herself. Add to the mix one of the most popular boys in school, Kiley Okayasu, who likes Momo… Complicated? You can't even begin to imagine. Momo's main problem is that she looks too… well, western. American, specifically, although it's never actually said. Too tall, too blonde, too damn tanned. And did I mention that she can more than hold her own in a tussle? Look past these dire afflictions, though, and there's a smart, sassy, fiercely moral and single-minded person who'll fight for what she believes in and what she wants. You just know that she has to get together with Toji (although you may find yourself secretly hoping that Kiley, who's a hell of a lot more fun than slow-and-serious Toji, gets the girl in the end) despite the machinations of evil Sae, whose every word drips poisoned honey. However, the path of true love never did run smooth, and what begins as a modern fable of schoolgirl rivalry rapidly escalates to hijinks of such scandalous proportions that… you wouldn't believe me if I told you. You'll have to read it for yourself. Populated almost entirely by tall, doe-eyed boys and beautiful girls with legs baby gazelles would envy, Peach Girl is certainly easy on the eye. Miwa Ueda's artwork is delectable, and her ability to encapsulate a moment of pure emotion, be it indignation, mortification, exasperation or jubilation, is faultless. If there is an adult alive who can read Peach Girl without at some point spontaneously exclaiming, "Yes! I too once felt that happy/confused/angry/embarrassed!", I'm inclined to think that they were found fully-grown under the gooseberry bushes. The characters themselves are incredibly engaging, but what you see is what you get: when people are good, they are very very good, and when they are bad they are horrid. There's very little by way of mystery or character development. Fortunately, in this case, you'll probably be chuckling far too much to care. Just switch your brain off and enjoy. While hardly intellectually challenging, Peach Girl offers neat little in-jokes and word-play: my favourite example is a character named Goro, who suddenly in volume 7 was apparently re-named 'Gigolo'. Very confusing, until you remember his surname is 'Ooji'. Still confused? Just put on your best Japanese accent and (all together, now): "Ooji Goro." Cute, no? However, the apparent indecision over which typeface to use in the English-language can be vaguely annoying and detract from the reader's sense of continuity. All in all, though, this is a minor technical point and one shouldn't overly affect your enjoyment of the book. For readers of a similar age to the protagonists, Peach Girl offers a spunky heroine to identify with (for the girls) or to pant over (for the boys) and the fan mail printed in the 'Peach Club' sections are proof positive of this . For those of advancing years, such as myself, it provides an affectionate and often hysterically funny reminder of those heady teenage years when the approval of your peers meant everything, and every choice you made felt like a life-or-death decision. But let's not get too serious here. Peach Girl has no pretensions of being deep and meaningful. It is a frothy fantasy that sets out to entertain and it does so with humour, warmth, and plot developments more outrageous than every daytime soap put together. It is, to be brief, utterly bonkers. And perhaps that's why I love it so. (Saskia Wells)
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