Book Review: Gandhi by Kazuki Ebine

I’ve read a lot of biographies.  In elementary school, biographies were my favorite things to read.  We all learn the historical highlights of famous figures from text books and documentaries, but biographies take you deeper into those lives turning figures into people.  When I picked up Gandhi by Kazuki Ebine, I had high expectations for a book that combines two genres I love: biographies and comics.

The book begins at Gandhi’s childhood, but quickly skims through to adulthood barely touching on what should be important events like his marriage and the birth of his first son (or subsequent children for that matter).  The death of his mother while he is studying in England barely seems to register with a young Gandhi. It’s hard to connect with a character that leaves his family to study abroad seemingly without a second glance. 

This book makes Gandhi unlikeable which hardly seems possible when you consider all he did in his life, however the Gandhi of this book comes across as too perfect when dedicated to his cause, yet cold and unconcerned when it comes to his family. How could a man have such a love for the people of his country, but never shown having that love in his own home?

I applaud Penguin for their attempt at bringing history to the world of graphic novels. It is a good medium to educate a younger audience. Unfortunately, as a reader, I demand more from a novel, graphic or otherwise, than I can get from reading Wikipedia.

For future books, I hope they delve more into the personal lives of the historic figures they choose.  Biographies should seek to go further into the character of the person they are examining and go beyond what we learn from a school history textbook.

DC 52 Relaunch Batch 2: The Rankings

Adam and Shawn ranked the second wave of DC Relaunch books in order of enjoyment, #1 being at the top of the enjoyment scale. This batch was way harder to rank than the first batch. Note that the top and bottom are roughly the same but the middle vary greatly. Listen to Discussion: DC 52 Relaunch Batch 2 for Adam and Shawn’s explanations as to why they liked certain books more than others!

Shawn’s List:

  1) Frankenstein Agent of SHADE
  2) Deathstroke
  3) Batwoman
  4) Resurrection Man
  5) Batman and Robin
  6) Green Lantern
  7) Demon Knights
  8) Grifter
  9) Red Lanterns
10) Legion Lost
11) Superboy
12) Mr. Terrific
13) Suicide Squad

Adam’s List:

  1) Deathstroke
  2) Resurrection Man
  3) Frankenstein Agent of SHADE
  4) Grifter
  5) Batman and Robin
  6) Batwoman
  7) Demon Knights
  8) Legion Lost
  9) Green Lantern
10) Red Lanterns
11) Superboy
12) Suicide Squad
13) Mr. Terrific

DC 52 Relaunch Batch 1: The Rankings

Adam and Shawn ranked the first wave of DC Relaunch books in order of enjoyment, #1 being at the top of the enjoyment scale. Justice League is included in this batch.  Notice the top 5’s are the same books, different order and the bottom 2 have a look of similarity.

Shawn’s List:

  1) Detective Comics
  2) Justice League International
  3) Men of War
  4) Batwing
  5) Animal Man
  6) Swamp Thing
  7) Action Comics
  8) Static Shock
  9) Batgirl
10) Justice League
11) Green Arrow
12) OMAC
13) Stormwatch
14) Hawk and Dove

Adam’s List:

  1) Justice League International
  2) Men of War
  3) Detective Comics
  4) Batwing
  5) Swamp Thing
  6) Static Shock
  7) Animal Man
  8) Green Arrow
  9) Batgirl
10) Action Comics
11) OMAC
12) Justice League
13) Hawk and Dove
14) Stormwatch

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Shawn Says: The Changing of the Seasons

I can feel it in the air in the mornings and evenings, fall is coming. With the cooling of days comes a cooling in my comic reading. These last couple weeks of August have brought a lot of “last issues” for me. With DC’s relaunch, which begins next week, I am saying goodbye to The Spirit, Zatanna, Doc Savage and Gotham City Sirens (not to mention a couple miniseries and a few titles that I pick up here and there when I like the creative team, like Action, Detective and Green Lantern). My pull list is also taking a big hit this October when Boom! Studios will release their last Disney comics. Right now I am picking up Darkwing Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers and Ducktales. But in a couple months I will be forced to live without these titles. So as I cross off quite a few titles from my pull list I need to reassess my comics purchases and fill the void that they are creating.

I have seen myself veer away from the Big Two and gravitate towards small press books. After DC’s relaunch the only title I will definitely get is Batwoman. I might pick up Wonder Woman and Justice League Dark. I may flip through a few other titles but I’m not super excited about any of them. Either it is the character or the creative team but something gives me a reason to not pick up the book. I will likely wait and read the reviews to see how they are before actually buying them (I’m looking at you Green Lantern, Batman, Swamp Thing, Action, and Men of War).

With Marvel I am reading Deadpool, the Oz books, Daredevil, Black Panther, SHIELD, Captain America and Bucky and a couple other minis that will be wrapping up soon. I may pick up John Carter of Mars because Roger Langridge is writing it but I’m still undecided. Other than that I don’t see any new Marvel series that interests me.

So what books do I pick up to replace the ones that are going away? Boom! Studios has Snarked! coming out and I am all over that. I also may catch up on Farscape and start picking that up regularly. I absolutely love Stuff of Legend. Thankfully Vertigo has a strong line up and I will continue to pick up Fables, American Vampire, iZombie, Northlanders (though it is getting cancelled at issue #50) and House of Mystery. I will definitely pick up the new Fables spin-off Fairest when it comes out. Sergio Aragones Funnies is great. Even though I’ve only read one issue it is one of my top books of the year. Loose Ends #2 is out this week and you can bet I will be picking that up along with the other issues in this four-part miniseries. And there’s Rasl, but that only comes out every couple of months (give or take). Oni’s The Sixth Gun comes out every month and I don’t see this going anywhere anytime soon. Maybe I shouldn’t look for series to replace the one’s I’m losing, maybe I should start buying more trades and graphic novels.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions for me? New books to pick up or old series to try? Let me know!

Review: Dr Who Season 6; Part 1

In the nearly 50 years since it first broadcast there have been 11 different men to play the mysterious Doctor Who.  For me, at the end of last year’s Fifth Season, Matt Smith’s Doctor ranked second to last, only above Paul McGann’s 8^th Doctor and that’s because McGann only had the one two-hour movie.

I don’t lay the blame for my dislike of Smith’s Doctor on the actor, but instead what he was given to work with.  Matt Smith has taken the best parts of all the previous Doctors and come up with something new. 

The Doctor is over 900 years old, has had dozens of companions (mostly human) and has spent the bulk of his known life not only on Earth but defending it from all sorts of invasions, yet, this Doctor seemed to be baffled by even the most simple of human interactions.  I felt as though I’d spent a dozen episodes watching the really smart kid in school, who had a kind of book smarts, but not an ounce of common sense nor the first clue how to relate to the other students. 

After watching Season 6, Part 1 on DVD (on sale now by the BBC) Matt Smith’s 11^th Doctor is now in my top 5 incarnations, somewhere between Colin Bakers criminally too-short run as the 6^th Doctor and Christopher Eccelston’s lonely, tortured 9^th Doctor.

So what’s changed between the two seasons?  Well, The Doctor has settled into his new regeneration for one thing.  Gone is the Doctor who jumps up and down in the middle of the room screaming at the top of his lungs, “Look at me and how wacky and strange I am!”  That has all been replaced with a man who might still be all of those things, but has learned to temper that side of himself.  He is man who feels comfortable with his two companions Amy and Rory.  For the first time that I can remember the Tardis feels like a home and The Doctor has a family.

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