Adolf Creator: Osamu Tezuka 5 volumes, B&W, Flipped Left to Right Format. Published by Cadence Books / Viz I should start off saying this series is Out of Print so I'm going to spoil it a little. This book takes place around Germany and Japan during WWII. It's about 3 people with the name of Adolph and their lives become entwined. The book is an adventure/drama regarding some secret documents regarding evidence of Hitler's Jewish ancestors. Short history lesson, any German that had a Jewish ancestors went to the concentration camps. The Nazi's looked up peoples family tree's and rounded up anybody they could find with "Jewish blood." What the Nazi's kept very secret was that Hitler himself had some of the same "Jewish blood" he was sending others to death for. This series uses this and constructs a fictional story around a random group of anti-Nazi Japanese people looking to expose documents proving this. But Japan being Germany's ally means they have to find away to get the documents to a place where they'll be exposed. The "rebels" know full well Japan won't allow those documents to be published and will help Germany with the cover up. Along the way we learn how the country of Japan both co-operated with the Nazi's, yet differed with them, especially on the treatment of the Jews. One of the more shocking characters is a young German/Japanese boy named Adolf, who has a Jewish best friend. He ends up in Germany, becomes a member of Hitler's Youth Squad and ends up working with Hitler himself. Along the way he commits many brutal atrocities. Yet Osamu keeps trying to give the readers something about him to like and throughout the book you hope he'll turn away from the Nazi dogma. The pacing of the story is great, Osamu was at the height of his skills when doing this series. I made the mistake of reading a book before bed and finding myself unable to get to sleep afterwords. He jumps around from character to character, giving them all a large chunk of the books to tell their part of the story. I found the characters to be believable and the series is interesting because of both the plot and the characters within it. My only previous experience with Osamu's work was the first volume of Astro Boy, which I didn't care for. This book I enjoyed much more as the art isn't quite so smooth and cartoony. It's more grounded in reality and doesn't have a lot of the Manga tic's that annoy some traditional comic readers. The characters have normal human anatomy (including the eyes), straight forward layouts, almost all of the people are easily identifiable. In the back of each volume is a time table of WW2 events that occur during the story. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if it was more straight forward. Specifically, if it stuck to one character and had the documents moving around more. But that's just a personal preference, I can still see very few flaws in the book and give it a 5 out of 5 stars. When this was first published it was touted by some critics as the best thing Osamu did. I don't know if that's true or not, it certainly is one of the better books I've read, period. I'm now interested in other works by Tezuka. Here's hoping it come back in print in a much better format. With the success of Tezuka's Buddha and Ode to Kirihito, now would be a good time to bring them back. Especially as a follow up to Naoki Urasawa's Monster. The OOP books have no volume numbers on them anywhere and use pictures of real life people on the covers. You wouldn't know it was Manga unless you recognized Tezuka's name and looked inside. I had the unfortunate experience of finding volumes 2-5 for cheap at a con, then spent much time searching for volume 1 at a decent price online. Elk's Run Writer: Joshua Hale Fialkov Artist: Noel Tuazon Colourist: Scott Keating Price: $19.95 Format: 220 pages, Full Colour, Standard NA TPB size. Publisher: Villard Books / Random House This book got a lot of hype. It was first published by Speakeasy but had died when the company went under. There was much praise about the story and the creators luckily got Random House to pick it up and finish the it in a collected format. It was nominated for a bunch of awards and it has promo quotes by Warren Ellis, Brian Micheal Bendis, Stuart Moore, Phil Hester, Entertainment Weekly, and Variety. So what did I think? It's over hyped. The story is okay. About a very reclusive village where the lead male expects his every order to be followed immediately and to the letter. It's all about "protecting families" from the elements of America that they fear. The art is rough and it's arguable that it's done to fit the story, but I get the impression it's done to hide the limitations of the artist (but I could be wrong). The colourist does the best he can to make it look good. I think what bothered me was the inking. I don't know much about art but I think it was inked with a brush which along with the lack of facial details, gave the art the rough look. I come away wishing Cameron Stewart had drawn it as I think he could have conveyed the same impression but with more pleasing results. I think it's a decent book, but not a great book. It's one of many of what I call "competent books" out there that make up the new standard of what a good GN should be at minimum. I wouldn't go out of your way to get it, but if you're in the mood for a book that's 12 issues complete story and a bit different, browse through this book and see if it's to you liking. I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. 24 Writers: J.C. Vaughn and Mark L. Haynes Artists: Renato Guedes (2 stories), Manny Clark (1 story) Price: $24.99 US Format: Full Colour, 156 pages. Publisher: IDW I love the 24 TV show so I decided to check out this trade. It collects 3 stories that take place between the various seasons of 24. The stories are not quite as intense or done in the same style as the 24 show, which is a good thing because they'd be massive comic books. But they are good stories and the writers do a great job capturing the voices of the characters. As I'm reading I can hear Keifer Sutherland's voice loud and clear, much more so than other media adapted comics. So much so I began to wonder if some of the dialogue is lifted directly from the show. Renato Guedes art is really good and he does a great job of nailing the likeness down. What's somewhat unique is they sometimes shift from drawn work to what looks like photo shopped depictions of the characters with some fuzzy effects. I'm wondering if somebody is just going through their 24 DVDs, doing some video captures and then fuzzing it up to hide the fact. It's not all that bad in the first two stories and I was so much into the stories I wasn't bothered by them all that much. The 3rd part done by Manny Clark appeared to be completely done in this fashion, but often there was no fuzzying it up. It was annoying to look at and BAD. It was more fummetti than comic. All the characters were incredibly stiff, awkward and at points had really weird facial expressions that didn't match the dialogue at all. It looked like they freeze framed the DVD while they were talking and got off putting pictures to use. For all those involved, don't do this again. If you're a fan of 24 and can get the book for cheap like I did, then sure, get it and hold your nose for the last part. Otherwise, pass. I give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars. Regards, Jamie Coville http://www.TheGraphicNovels.com News and discussion on a free, Delphi like forum.

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