Below you will find information about my favorite comic series. I mainly lean towards action/adventure titles with a sci-fi slant, but that's not all that I read. I don't read any superhero titles, which is what many people think of when they think "comic books." They just don't interest me. If superhero books are the sum total of your comic book experience, let me introduce you to what else is out there.
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Oh My Goddess! This is probably my current favorite series. Written and drawn for over 10 years by Kosuke Fujishima, this is the story of Keiichi Morisato and how he dialed a wrong number one day and got the goddess Belldandy to visit him and grant him one wish. Thinking the whole thing was a prank, he wished that Belldandy would stay with him forever. But it was for real, so now he has a live-in goddess for a girlfriend. As is usual in these situations, hilarity ensues, much of it instigated by Belldandy's older sister, Urd, who is always trying to get Belldandy and Keiichi to "consumate their relationship," or Mara, a demoness who is Belldandy's arch enemy. This series is somewhat of a departure for me, as it's a sweet, romantic comedy. Quite different from the action/adventure titles I normally read. But it's really good, and quite funny, and has cool cars and motorcycles and stuff. Oh, Skuld, Belldandy's little sister, is my favorite character. She's so cute! Oh My Goddess! is published in English by Dark Horse Comics, both as a traditional monthly booklet and in trade paperback collections. I prefer the trade collections, so I just get those. Here's some links about this series:
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The Courageous Princess This is another non-traditional title for me. Have you noticed that these are my favorites? Hmmm... Anyway, this is a series that I picked up off the shelf at Anime Pavilion, my local comic shop, solely based off the artwork, which is outstanding. One guy, Rod Espinosa, does all the drawing and coloring and lettering himself! Great stuff. This story revolves around the princess Mabelrose. She has a wonderful family life with a loving father and mother, but she discovers that the larger world isn't always so kind to young women. To say more would give away the plot, and it's worth experiencing it for yourself for the visual impact. Mr. Espinosa is great at getting the proper visual angle for his scenes. The Courageous Princess is published by Antarctic Press, which is both good and bad. It's good in the fact that Antarctic, as an independent publisher, is one of the few companies that would even take a chance with a book like this. It's bad because Antarctic doesn't have the distribution muscle that the big boys do, and they can't afford the larger print runs, so the books are fairly expensive for their size. The third book finally came out in late 2002, though I didn't read it until just recently. Some final comments. First, these books are perfectly suitable for a younger audience. Very little violence (none of it graphic), cute characters, and a classic fairy-tale style story work together to make this a great book to read with elementary-aged children. Second, these books are very girl-friendly, and will appeal to young girls just as much, if not more, than young boys. Third, while this isn't a "Christian" story, these books are friendly to the Christian faith. This is huge, as most comic creators are at best ambivalent about Christianity, if not hostile towards it. But Mr. Espinosa makes a point of showing Mabelrose and her family praying to God. I had an e-mail exchange with Mr. Espinosa about this (and other things), and he replied thusly: On Religion and praying characters: Thanks for finding that feature interesting and noteworthy. I too, find it odd that in our good Earth, a good 90% of all peoples believe in the existence of God/s in one form, many forms, or other manifestations, while in the comics field (and it may be argued that by extension, in many of our fiction books) we have stories where 95% of the characters apparently are all either Athiests or (at best) non-practicing congregation members. : ) Here's some links about the series:
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Appleseed Appleseed is currently published by Dark Horse Comics in large-size trade paperback editions, of which there are four comic volumes, as well as a data book. This comic is written and drawn by Masamune Shirow, one of Japan's leading manga artists. Appleseed is set in a futuristic world where there have been some nuclear wars, and a new nation, Olympus, is sort of a utopian colony for the rest of the world. The main characters, Deunan Knute and Briareos (a cyborg), beging the story in some ruins somewhere, but they are quickly recruited by Hitomi (a recurring character) to come to Olympus, where they get jobs in the local equivalent of a SWAT team. These books are interesting because, while they combine lots of good small-unit cyberpunk action (woo! power armor!), Shirow-sensei uses the story as a way to ruminate on the future of humanity, on a physical and meta-physical level. It gets really deep, and you won't get it all the first (or second, or third...) time you read it. So it's a very cerebral story. Add to that the fantastic art and character designs (Nike is my favorite), and you've got a very engrossing story that is worth the time it takes to really get into it. WARNING: THERE IS FEMALE NUDITY IN BOOK 3. This is something I wish I knew before I really got into these books (the other books don't have anything worth mentioning in this category, from what I remember), as I would prefer not to support this kind of thing with my money. It's rather flagrant, too. I think Shirow-sensei just wanted to draw Deunan and Hitomi naked. It's somewhat ridiculous how it happens, as they're in a sauna discussing geo-politics, and the clothes come off. If you're really offended by this, you'll unfortunately want to avoid the series, which is too bad because other than these few pages it's really good. Here's some links for you:
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Record of Lodoss War This series has significant history in Japan. It started with a series of novels based on Ryo Mizuno's table top role-playing games, which then spawned a number of manga series as well as some animations as well. I've got pretty much everything I could get my hands on. Really, when you get down to it, Lodoss War is pretty standard fantasy fare. However, the fact that it's European-style medieval fantasy written by a Japanese man gives it a different spin than an American or European would put on it. Even though it's somewhat predictable, it's still real fun. CPM Manga has published four different series; The Grey Witch, The Lady of Pharis, Deedlit's Tale, and Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. All of the series are available in either monthly comics or trade paperbacks. Each series has run its course, but are still available from dealers or CPM directly. There's not much on the web about the comics themselves (as opposed to the animation, which has dozens of fan sites), but here's some stuff I'm aware of:
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Star Wars Where shall I start? Well, how about at the beginning. When I was a young lad living in California, I read some comic books, just like most young boys. I read G.I.Joe, Transformers, and sometimes my brother's copies of Johnny Quest. That was it. I read about the toys I played with, but not much else. When I stopped actively playing with my toys, I stopped buying the comics. But in early 1992 Dark Horse Comics got the license to the Star Wars universe. They put out this series called Dark Empire. I saw it in a store and said, "Huh. A new Star Wars comic book. Looks interesting. That idea sat in my head for a while, until I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the trade paperback of the series. I had to search a while to find it, but I did. And a whole new world opened to me. I was now back in comics, and for the first two years I only read Dark Horse's Star Wars comics. I eventually discovered the wider world out there, but I still read a number of Star Wars titles. They are what really got me "into" comics, in a much bigger way than when I was a kid. I've read a lot of Star Wars series; most of them in fact. My favorites series are Rogue Squadron, Tales of the Jedi, and the current Infinities series. Star Wars Tales is great, too, and is the only anthology comic I've ever purchased at full price. Here's some good links about Dark Horse's Star Wars comics: |
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Shadow Empires: Faith Conquers / Sheva's War Back when I was first getting into comics again in the early '90s, I remember seeing the first issue of Shadow Empires: Faith Conquers on the shelf. It was cool. It had hovertanks, and large, burly people in large power armor suits. I really like military sci-fi, so I ended up getting it, and I was blown away. Each cell was hand-painted! I had never seen anything like it before. This series is the one I credit with making me see the larger comics universe that was out there, and it led me look beyond just the Star Wars titles, and give other things a chance. The series was published by Dark Horse. A number of years later, I heard that Christopher Moeller, the artist and writer behind Shadow Empires: Faith Conquers was working on a follow-up series called Sheva's War. The name of the series had changed to Iron Empires by this point, possibly due to confusion with the Star Wars comic series Shadows of the Empire. It was like two or three years between the announcement and the actual publishing of the series by DC's now-gone Helix imprint, but Sheva's War rocked. The art was just as good as before, if not better, and the story was just as finely-crafted, if a little different. Both series are now out of print, and not easy to find. They were only published as limited series in booklet form (4 issues for Faith Conquers and 5 issues for Sheva's War). There was also a serialized B&W Shadow Empires story in Dark Horse presents a few years back, but I never read it and don't know anything about it. If you enjoy military science-fiction, the comics are worth tracking down. There's little on the web about these books, but here's what I'm aware of: |
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Usagi Yojimbo
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