Comics I Bought This Week: February 25, 2012

Feb25
on February 25, 2012 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Comics I Bought This Week

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got two new comics plus a GIANT hard cover collection:

  • Rasl −13

  • Dark Horse Comics Presents – 9

  • ”Wally Woods’s EC Stories: Artist’s Edition”

    • And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

    ”Skim” by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

    Here is yet another graphic novel from up north in Canada. They actually have some sort of government art grant for comics up there so some interesting stuff gets published. Non-super hero stuff. This isn’t the first Canadian Council for the Arts book I’ve read and they’ve all been pretty good.

    “Skim” is the story of a teenage girl going to high school in Canada. She’s Asian, not very popular, interested in Wicca, only has one friend, and is generally a bit depressed. She’s a high school weirdo trying to figure out the world. Her parents aren’t much help either.

    The story is presented as her journal and sometimes we get journal entries but often it’s a narrative told from her point of view. A boy in her school recently committed suicide and Skim (the lead character’s name) and the rest of the school dealing with that is one of the major themes/plot points. There was also a weirdo teacher who Skim bonded with a little.

    The book really picked up for me in the second half. Not that the first half was bad it just felt a little familiar. If you’ve read or seen anything else about alienated teenage girls it might feel a little familiar to you too. Maybe it had to establish its bona fides. The second half of the book dealt with Skim’s problems more specifically and was more interesting to me.

    The artwork on the book was excellent. I seemed to me to be Japanese influenced which is no surprise due to the artist’s Japanese last name. I have never heard of Jillian Tamaki before but she doesn’t look like a beginner. The story is in black and white with a 50% grey thrown in there too and it’s well done. They storytelling is top shelf and the drawing expressive. I have nothing but praise for the artwork.

    Overall I’d have to say this book is good and worth a read. It starts out a little “Meh” story-wise but the art is very strong and the tale gets more interesting as it’s told. Good stuff.