Reply With QuoteI really need to get a copy of Exit Wounds but Im so broke! I cant wait to review KE 7. That book is going to be bombastic!
* fine print at the bottom of post
This week we are reading: Silverfish HC by David Lapham (Vertigo, 07/04)
Our reviewers this week are:
Doug - 6
Adrian B AWESOME - 10
Andreas - 10
The Amazing Ryan Hoffman - 6
Adam D. Witt - 7
Olivier E. - 9
dEnny - 9
Next week we are reading: Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly, 06/06)
Upcoming: The Killer Volume One (collects #1-4) by Matz & Luc Jacamon (Archaia Studios Press, 09/26), Best American Comics 2007 ed. by Chris Ware & Anne Elizabeth Moore (Houghton Mifflin, 09/26), MW & Apollo's Song by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical, 06/27 & 10/31), Kramers Ergot 7 ed. by Sammy Harkham (Buenaventura Press, early 2008 ),...
Our previous reviews:
Spoiler:
What we do: This is a fanbased review group, open to everybody. It was launched as a companion thread to the BB Review Group. The idea is to review creator-owned books that provide an alternative to the superhero books of the Big Two. This can be anything, from single issues and self-published mini comics to graphic novels and anthologies. Because graphic novels are more expensive and may also require more time to read than a 24 page comic (and sometimes for you to be in the right mood), there will be sufficient time to get the books and to read them before the review thread is up. The "upcoming" section lists a few graphic novels, collections, or anthologies we are going to review in the coming weeks and months, with room for many more. Feel free to suggest books, and also to keep adding your reviews and comments to older threads as you read the books.
As people post the reviews, I will add your name and score to a list in the main post and at the end of the week average the scores for an overall grade on the book. We grade on a scale of 0-10, the meanings of which roughly translate to:
10 - Everything I want in a comic, an instant classic
9 - Excellent, a nearly perfect read
8 - Highly recommended but it has minor flaws
7 - Very good, it does have some problems
6 - Above average but has deep flaws
5 - An average comic
4 - Below average, the flaws outweigh the good
3 - A disappointing comic
2 - Forgettable, a waste of time
1 - Stay away!! One of the worst comics I've read
Anyone who participates is asked to please keep this scale in mind when giving a grade so that everyone is operating on the same system.
THERE IS NO OBLIGATION TO PARTICIPATE EVERY TIME A NEW THREAD IS UP. Please join in as little or as much as you like week to week. If you are uncomfortable giving a grade then just join in the discussions and ask questions.
Last edited by Andreas; 12-05-2008 at 01:39 PM.
I really need to get a copy of Exit Wounds but Im so broke! I cant wait to review KE 7. That book is going to be bombastic!
sweet, i should have a copy of exit wounds by the time next week rolls around, she lecturing near me
Rutu Modan is doing a reading tour in October. Go and see her and get a copy of her book, if you haven't already.
Andreas
I could go to that!!!Originally Posted by Andreas
I'm mostly familiar with Lapham as the artist of Valiant comics. I have never read Stray Bullets, so this was my first exposure to Lapham the writer.
It was a decent little mystery story, if not a little predictable (Step-Mother coming to the kids rescue).
It has been a while since I read this so I'm blanking on character names right now, but I liked the little sister with asthma, but I thought the older sister was kind of cliched in not trusting her Step-Mother, and trying to dig up dirt on her. Sure it turns out there was dirt to dig, but the motivation for trying to find the dirt seemed cliched to me.
As for the killer himself, I wanted to see more of him. We only really see him when he's bat-shit insane. I would have liked to see him when he's normal and can actually get two women to fall in love with him and marry him. Then it might have been more shocking to see him as a crazy murderer.
I'll give Silverfish a 6/10. I kind of wish I waited for it to come out in paperback before buying it.
Facebook ID: Doug Hahner
Wow. Andreas, thank you so much for taking the reins on this and running with it in my abscence. I'll try to be by more often, but I can't promise anything.
As for Silverfish, it's everything I love about David Lapham. The psychology, the suspense, the perfect art...this is a must read graphic novel for anyone interested in comic storytelling. 10/10.
I hope we see you more often again soon, Adrian. Have you settled in yet? Be filling in in the meantime to keep the thread going. Let me know if you see a good book to review.
Andreas
Silverfish
The first image that you see when you open David Lapham's SILVERFISH prepares you for the graphic novel's mood of claustrophobia: enclosed by a black background (that is used for the whole book) you can make out a woman's face in heavy shadows, who has just taken a call and looks absolutely terrified. This small single panel is crammed in between, practically invaded by the title of the graphic novel and the name of its creator. The following double page continues in the same vein. From right to left you get: the title and creator's name in large, vertical letters; around the gutters there are two vertical rows of panels without borders, random moments of terror from the story that alternate with the repeated image of a swarm of piranhas that approaches the reader; while the left third is kept blank with a small male figure falling down this dark abyss.
The graphic novel then begins with the image of an ear/eye in total darkness with lines that spiral inwards. Like a bad nightmare, a swarm of piranhas emerges from the darkness within. This is contrasted with a nightmarish rendition of the children's song "Dem Dry Bones" 1) that puts you into the mind of a very dangerous man.
It's an intense prologue, after which the story jumps forward three years to December 22, 1988, and to Seaside Heights in New Jersey, an artificial small strip of land, perhaps 2,000 ft. wide, lying parallel with the coast of the mainland and connected to it by two bridges with a total length of two miles. The only attraction is an amusement fair that is deserted at this time of year. Around this time of year Seaside Heights is almost devoid of people, which keeps the focus on the handful of characters we meet, but also enhances the feeling of secludedness and helplessness.
We meet Mia, a 16-year-old teenager who bitches about everything and loathes her new stepmother Suzanne with a passion, and her friend Yvonne, introduced as the only person who still hangs out with Mia. There are hints that Vonnie may not be the best influence, which is confirmed later, but you don't really expect healthy relationships in a Lapham story. Mia also has a younger sister, Stacey, who has a medical condition, which is used in a short scene to establish the strong bond between the two. When Mia's dad and Suzanne leave for a holiday vacation, a stolen notebook leads to the unleashing of demons from her stepmother's past.
Each of the characters has something to hide and there's a fragile balance of power and trust. The tensions in and between the characters and their paranoia cannot be contained and are expressed in their faces, their body language, and sometimes empty gestures. In a particularly disturbing scene, Lapham has Suzanne collect all the knives in the house and put them in a paper bag, the knives sticking out at all sides. How this dysfunctional family then is confronted with the rage of a psychotic and possessed madman has to be seen.
Lapham bases most of the pages on an 8-panel grid and its variations, which his readers are already familiar with from his long-running series STRAY BULLETS, and which keeps the story moving at a steady pace and pulls you in. The majority of the book takes place in the course of one night, in and around Mia's house and the nearby amusement fair, which helps to maintain a strong sense of place. There's also a motel and a hut that serves as a holiday resort. All these places become invaded to some extent. What Lapham seems to suggest is that if you allow a madman to enter your life there can be no safe place. The way the terror and the madness take control of the characters is played out in a subtle ebb and flow.
The claustrophobic mood in SILVERFISH owes much to the classic era of film noir. There are echoes of The Night of the Hunter (1955), when the two children try to run away and hide from the madman, and there's even a nod to Strangers on a Train (1951). There's something inevitable about the way the plot unfolds. In Lapham's stories you always have to pay for your past mistakes. What raises SILVERFISH above other noir comics is David Lapham's masterful storytelling. The result is a disturbing and gripping graphic novel.
After last year's SLOTH by Gilbert Hernandez, this is another original graphic novel by Vertigo that delivers the goods.
(10/10)
Andreas
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1) The song has appeared in numerous television shows, including "The Prisoner" and Dennis Potter's "The Singing Detective."
Yeesh, I don't remember a whole lot about it other than being dissapointed by it. The art was nice, but the story was a little hurried.
6/10
"Reality is not a popularity contest. Reality is what it is, regardless of who knows it"
"The well-meaning contention that all ideas have equal merit seems to me little different from the disastrous contention that no ideas have any merit." Carl Sagan
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