An often entertaining and offbeat, if occasionally overwrought, mystery tale.
An investigative journalist and editor, who happens to look like a deer, becomes entangled in a shadowy local mystery in Lindsay’s noir-tinged graphic novel.
The story starts with human carjacker John Doe (the first of several deer-related puns) dying amid suspicious circumstances. The protagonist, an anthropomorphic deer named Bucky who has the personality of a 1950s movie detective, quickly learns that the dead man had connections to the mayor’s press secretary, Rachel Meadows. After Bucky finds her murdered, he chases down a car that’s fleeing the crime scene and rams his antlers through the window, but the perpetrators escape. The second chapter shifts focus to Bucky’s human sub-editor, Dan, as he tries to infiltrate the corrupt mayor’s inner circle. When he learns causes the story to take a detour into the supernatural, and Bucky reappears to help; the plot thickens in the following chapter. Throughout, the story captivates with its blend of hardboiled language and noir aesthetics, though it occasionally veers into clichéd territory. Women seem to exist in the story mainly to be killed, and readers may Bucky’s inner monologues are ceaselessly edgy to a fault: “Most mouthbreathers on the street think calling us a hack is an insult. There’s a reason hack is a homonym with what you do with a firm blade in a rough fashion.” With his lethal antlers, Bucky bears a striking resemblance to the X-Men character Wolverine (even, at one point, calling someone “Bub”), and the story never explores the reasons why he’s accepted as a deer in a world entirely populated by humans. Still, some of the overheated language and storytelling is saved by Kivelä’s striking two-tone artwork, which features cinematically staged fight sequences, menacing shadows, and the ever-present threat of Bucky’s antlers.
An often entertaining and offbeat, if occasionally overwrought, mystery tale.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781960578679
Page Count: 108
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth.
Superman confronts racism and learns to accept himself with the help of new friends.
In this graphic-novel adaptation of the 1940s storyline entitled “The Clan of the Fiery Cross” from The Adventures of Superman radio show, readers are reintroduced to the hero who regularly saves the day but is unsure of himself and his origins. The story also focuses on Roberta Lee, a young Chinese girl. She and her family have just moved from Chinatown to Metropolis proper, and mixed feelings abound. Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane’s colleague from the Daily Planet, takes a larger role here, befriending his new neighbors, the Lees. An altercation following racial slurs directed at Roberta’s brother after he joins the local baseball team escalates into an act of terrorism by the Klan of the Fiery Kross. What starts off as a run-of-the-mill superhero story then becomes a nuanced and personal exploration of the immigrant experience and blatant and internalized racism. Other main characters are White, but Black police inspector William Henderson fights his own battles against prejudice. Clean lines, less-saturated coloring, and character designs reminiscent of vintage comics help set the tone of this period piece while the varied panel cuts and action scenes give it a more modern sensibility. Cantonese dialogue is indicated through red speech bubbles; alien speech is in green.
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth. (author’s note, bibliography) (Graphic fiction. 13-adult)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77950-421-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Using modern language, McDonald spins the well-known tale of the two young, unrequited lovers. Set against Nagar’s at-times...
A bland, uninspired graphic adaptation of the Bard’s renowned love story.
Using modern language, McDonald spins the well-known tale of the two young, unrequited lovers. Set against Nagar’s at-times oddly psychedelic-tinged backgrounds of cool blues and purples, the mood is strange, and the overall ambiance of the story markedly absent. Appealing to what could only be a high-interest/low–reading level audience, McDonald falls short of the mark. He explains a scene in an open-air tavern with a footnote—“a place where people gather to drink”—but he declines to offer definitions for more difficult words, such as “dirges.” While the adaptation does follow the foundation of the play, the contemporary language offers nothing; cringeworthy lines include Benvolio saying to Romeo at the party where he first meets Juliet, “Let’s go. It’s best to leave now, while the party’s in full swing.” Nagar’s faces swirl between dishwater and grotesque, adding another layer of lost passion in a story that should boil with romantic intensity. Each page number is enclosed in a little red heart; while the object of this little nuance is obvious, it’s also unpleasantly saccharine. Notes after the story include such edifying tidbits about Taylor Swift and “ ‘Wow’ dialogs from the play” (which culls out the famous quotes).Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-93-80028-58-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Campfire
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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