Comics I Bought This Week: March 12, 2011

Mar12
on March 12, 2011 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Comics I Bought This Week

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got three new comic plus a graphic novel:

  • Vertigo Resurrected: Finals

  • The Walking Dead – 82

  • Sigil – 1

  • “Finder: Voice”

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

    “Storming Paradise” by Chuck Dixon, Butch Guice, Rick Burchett, Eduardo Barreto, and Fernando Blanco

    “Storming Paradise” is an alternate history story. It takes place during World War II and is about the invasion of Japan. In this alternate history the U.S.’s atomic bomb project was not successful so there were no A-Bombs to drop on Japan and instead it had to be invaded.

    At first this was a pretty well done war comic. It gave us a nice slice of what life was like for American soldiers as they prepared for invasion plus showed us how the Japanese military was preparing the citizens of Japan for total war. A scary prospect for all involved.

    Though I enjoyed the war story aspects of the beginning of this book there was a strange twist in the middle that didn’t ring true for me. Half way through the book it became about the Japanese having an atomic bomb of their own. Or at least some defeated German scientists brought it over on a u-boat and were going to use it on the Americans. The book became a typical race against time before a bomb blows up story. It was not nearly as interesting as the invasion of Japan part.

    There is also a strange diversion in the beginning with John Wayne making an appearance as he volunteers for the army and becomes a soldier in the invasion force. I’m not quite sure why that was in there.

    The art in the book is top notch. Guice and Baretto are a couple of favorites of mine and everything was well drawn. They brought the death, destruction, and horror of an invasion to life. It’s worth a look just for the art. That’s what sold it to me. That and I’m a history fan.

    Overall this was an enjoyable read. I just wished it stuck a little more to the premise but I guess a long slow slog of a battle through Japan with death and destruction all around doesn’t make for an easy story arc. A ticking bomb plot is easier but it didn’t help the story much in the end.