MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR 10TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1 hits your local comic book store on April 2nd, but thanks to Marvel Comics, Monkeys Fighting Robots has an exclusive five-page preview for you!
About the issue: HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY, LUNELLA!
It’s a birthday celebration a decade in the making, and the whole MARVEL UNIVERSE is invited! But MOON GIRL is bringing her own agenda to the party – what could her secret plans be? The mischievous IMPOSSIBLE MAN threatens to upend the festivities – unless LUNELLA can rally her guests the way only the SMARTEST PERSON IN THE MARVEL U can! PLUS: Who is DEVIL GIRL AND MOON DINOSAUR?!
The issue features two stories. The first is by writer Brandon Montclare and artist Natacha Bustos, with colors by Luis Guerrero. The second story is by writer Justina Ireland and artist Luca Claretti, with colors by Andrew Dalhouse. Both stories are lettered by Travis Lanham, and the main cover is by Nick Bradshaw and Rachelle Rosenberg.
Check out our MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR 10TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1 preview below:
Are you excited for Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur’s 10th anniversary? Sound off in the comments!
From writer Chris Condon and artist Jeffrey Alan Love comes a creepy and striking take on nuclear weapons in News From the Fallout #1. Featuring lettering from Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, this debut issue presents readers with some familiar tropes shown in atmospheric and unique visual fashion and a sense of horror unlike what is usually seen in these kinds of stories. With a sharp, tense script and utterly fantastic visual work, News From the Fallout is off to a phenomenal start.
“In 1962 Nevada, a nuclear bomb test goes horribly awry and unleashes a contaminate into the atmosphere that turns people rotten. Otis Fallows, a private in the U.S. Army who is present for the test and is the only known survivor, flees the secret army base in search of a safe haven—but does such a place exist?”
Writing & Plot
Chris Condon’s script in News From the Fallout #1 works so well because of how much he *doesn’t* write. The main premise of the comic – insane general uses nuclear experiment to turn soldiers into monsters – isn’t especially unique. However, the tension introduced through Condon’s slow buildup and lack of exposition in the earlier pages of the story makes the issue much more visceral than you may expect. Fallout takes place from the perspective of one gasmask-laden Private who becomes woefully aware of the danger he and his comrades are in being so close to this strange nuclear blast. Condon keeps the story moving at a breakneck but decisive pace, keeping the reading experience taut from beginning to end. His dialogue feels naturalistic yet intentionally stereotypical. The General and all of the other soldiers speak exactly how you’d expect run-of-the-mill characters such as these to speak. This really isn’t of much importance, as all the the book’s most important moments have no dialogue in the first place. What makes this issue work so well is how Condon allows the art to tell the story, with the dialogue writing just adding a bit of context and flavoring.
Art Direction
Speaking of the art, Jeffrey Alan Love’s visual work is the true feature that will draw readers to News From the Fallout #1. His signature charcoal and fully blacked out character work brings this nuclear sci-fi horror story to life in all its dreary tension. Despite his art’s monochrome appearance, there’s a deceptive amount of detail in Love’s work. His close-up details of the General as the story commences immediately sets the tone, showing that some horribly wrong is occurring on this military base. Private Fallows’ gasmask-covered expression still showcases fear, with Love utilizing that Batman: The Animated Series style of white-eye coloring to show the protagonist’s range of emotions. Granted, that emotion is mainly fear. When the main horror of the story sets is, Love crafts fantastic and utterly unnerving panels with his specific style. His work reminds me of a mix between Stephen Gammell’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Manu Larcent’s adaptation of The Road. Adding to the impeccable presentation is Hassan Otsmane Elhaou’s lettering – specifically his scrawled SFX work. His style in these moments resembles carving message in wood with a razorblade, and they add even more atmosphere and tension to this comic. News From the Fallout’s stark presentation makes it one of the most visually compelling horror comics in recent years.
Verdict
News From the Fallout #1 is a surprisingly unnerving and striking first chapter to this new sci-fi horror series. Chris Condon’s script relies primarily on the art to tell the story, utilizing his co-author’s skill to craft something special out of a familiar premise. Love’s art, then, is a darkly unique and wonderfully compelling take on horror comics art, with his stark black and charcoal gray presentation making for one of the coolest-looking comic books in recent memory. Be sure to grab this debut issue when it hits shelves on June 25!
Second Shift Cover art
Credit: Avery Hill Publishing
Since the dawn of science fiction, the concept of isolation has been a central theme. Whether it is a lone traveller on the verge of discovering new worlds, or the creation of something new thrust into a world it doesn’t understand and left to its own devices to discover who they are, these stories persevere. The outcast status of the central character allows creators to examine complex emotional feelings and philosophical concepts through a focal point that connects directly with the audience. This can be seen in one of the first science fiction novels, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and also in Avery Hill’s upcoming new graphic novel Second Shift, written and illustrated by Kit Anderson.
The pitch is straightforward enough: volunteers work for the company and spend their lives on distant terraforming outposts processing incoming asteroids referred to as the payload. The workers work their shifts in turns, spending their downtime in suspended isolation. But what if you find something that challenges the world around you, and makes you question the reality of your situation? This is exactly what happens to Birdie Doran in Second Shift when she discovers another processing centre nearby, devoid of life but full of mysteries.
Second Shift Interior art Credit: Avery Hill Publishing
Second Shift begins with the central character, Birdie Doran, being woken up by the station’s AI in a sequence that is a mix of a system reboot and flashes of memory. This moment is a juxtaposition of science and nature, with the text representing the background code of a computer system while the images show a slowly emerging natural world. Anderson then uses this awakening to introduce the reader to the character and setting, allowing both character and audience to acclimatise to the situation together. This technique is a tried and tested science fiction trope that allows creators to drop an audience into any fantastic world and control the culture shock that is inevitable. You just need to see the introduction of the Nostromo crew in Ridley Scott’s Alien, or Jinn and Phyllis’ holiday cruise in Pierre Boulle’s novella La Planète des singes, to see how effective this kind of introduction can be. In Second Shift, Kit Anderson effortlessly introduces Birdie Doran, the station where she lives and works, and the few other characters that she interacts with, most notably the constantly form-shifting AI interface referred to simply as Station.
This opening sequence establishes Birdie’s relationship with the setting, and Anderson delays giving the reader a good look at the character until the scene has been set. Her artwork is very deliberate with sturdy lines that create shapes for the colouring to define. There is an ironic distinction between the machines that Birdie interacts with and the natural elements that fill the background of many panels. The manufactured elements are comprised of clean cut straight lines, coloured white or grey. The human elements, such as clothing, is more brightly coloured, and the natural world is less defined, with lines indicating the boundaries of the plants. But the colour does most of the heavy work, shaping the landscape that fits around Birdie and the machines. Complicating this neat separation of the manufactured and the natural is the AI interface. On the one hand, it’s clearly artificial, as signified by its ghostly colouring and ability to switch form at will, but the forms it takes are of creatures you might expect to find in the natural world depicted in the opening pages. This mix of natural and artificial acts as a link between the characters and their environment, a link which becomes more and more important to the narrative as the comic unfolds and Birdie’s world is turned upside down.
Second Shift Interior art Credit: Avery Hill Publishing
For a story so deeply tied to the control and reliance of Artificial Intelligence, the opening is surprisingly emotional, as it focuses heavily on the relationship between Birdie and Heck. An ongoing conversation between the two characters stretches over several pages, highlighting the difference of opinion between the two and their connection to Station. Anderson focuses the reader’s attention beautifully on this conversation, gently emphasising elements of the speech by subtly changing the background colour. Throughout much of this sequence, the unreality of the comics form is manipulated to enhance the speech and character acting. Heck’s posture speaks volumes, while Birdie’s gestures and quirky smiles enable Anderson to show how Heck’s words begin to get beneath Birdie’s skin. The backgrounds disappear, leaving panels empty of props and distractions, allowing narrative focus and character development to take place.
Second Shift isn’t your high octane, violent, action science fiction of 2000AD, but is a subversive emotional study about the effects of isolation and paranoia. The close relationship between Birdie and Station has a lot in common with the character work in comics such as Alex+Ada, except where Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn’s comic from 2013 focuses on the emergence of humanity within a machine, Anderson’s work examines the effects that constant AI support has on the human spirit. It is a story about rediscovering humanity after the negative effects of technology. One of this book’s strengths is using the format of comics to highlight the contrasting worlds of technology and nature. The sterile, almost empty panels early in the book become the scene of some reality bending sequencing that calls back to outlandish science fiction sequences from such groundbreaking movies as 2001: A Space Odyssey. The cold and clinical is replaced by the mind bending and emotional.
Second Shift Interior art Credit: Avery Hill Publishing
This is a comic about contrasts, which suits the medium perfectly. There is the surface level “nature versus machine” concept, and just below that is the “emotional” compared to the “detached.” But the more you dig, the more you discover. There is science fiction jostling with fantasy, realism against surrealism, and even the artwork is constantly battling between reductive and highly detailed. Virtually empty panels on one page are followed by complex landscapes on the next. All of these choices feed back into the narrative, and make the reader question what they are seeing with their own eyes, and you become more attuned to the importance of the characters’ speech. Comics are a visual medium, and this is demonstrated perfectly by this story. Without the visual guides highlighting the duality of the narrative elements, the overall story would lose some of its power. Also this story would suffer as cinema because the reality of that medium would defuse the ambiguity of images throughout this book.
Second Shift is a seductive, albeit melancholic, graphic novel, that draws you in through the visuals before gripping your emotions and twisting them. Kit Anderson toys with the characters and readers alike, misleading both with the cutesy AI interface and the contradiction of image and text. Anderson plays with the visuals and occasionally changes the format of the page so a particular panel will lack its borders, forcing the image to bleed into the gutters, giving it a significance on the page. As engaging as the narrative is, its true beauty lies within the clever visuals and the underlining stories and ideas that these juxtaposed ideas create.
Second Shift Interior art Credit: Avery Hill Publishing
Avery Hill are currently running a kickstarter for Second Shift which can be found here!
This contains a gorgeous little animated video promoting the work, along with a number of backing options that include PDFs, physical books, and prints.
Second Shift is due for general release on May 7th, 2025.
Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe
Credit: Boom! Studios
Who can resist high adventure and historic-fuelled legends acted out by tiny rodents in a world of imposing nature? As a pre-teen, I grew up reading Robin Jarvis’Deptford Mouse books, a very English series of fantasy books containing medieval type wars between mice and stoats. This led me into the world of Redwall by Brian Jacques, whose books were compared to JRR Tolkein’s famous fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings.
So, it will come as no surprise that when David Petersen began releasing his Mouse Guard series through Archaia Studio Press in 2006, I was waiting with open arms. The comics were appealing on a number of levels: art, design, and magnificent storytelling. However, the initial appeal was the cast of central characters, each one a striking individual, even though they were just mice. Over the years, I have loved and re-read the comics already available, becoming a big fan of Petersen and his errant rodents, so much so that I named the players in my last Blood Bowlleague team after his enchanting characters.
On March 19th, 2025, in conjunction with BOOM! Studios, a new Mouse Guard saga begins; an historic tale set before any of the other comics that have been released. Dawn of the Black Axe starts with the introduction of a metalsmith, Farrer, who is travelling to Lockhaven in the middle of the storm. He brings with him The Black Axe, forged by himself in a fit of vengeance aimed at the snake Langtspyd who killed all of his family. But the weapon is too heavy a burden for the metalsmith, and he drags it across the kingdom in search of a champion to wield it. Initially, the request for one of the Mouse Guard to assist him is rejected, but Bardrick steps up—a noble, honourable mouse who will risk banishment to protect all mice.
And so begins the legend of the Black Axe and Bardrick, its first wielder.
Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe Credit: Boom! Studios
Dawn of the Black Axe is the first in (hopefully) a line of miniseries set in the Mouse Guard world. Each series will see David Petersen work with a different artist to tell new stories while maintaining the same, hypnotically natural aesthetic that has come to define the Mouse Guard books. Over the years Petersen’s work has been captivating, blending together lyrical narratives with beautiful artwork. And the inclusion here of a new artist, Gabriel Rodriguez, does not diminish any of this. Rodriguez adopts the style from the previous books with fine line work and highly detailed panels. The characterisation is wonderful but the true beauty comes from Rodriguez’ ability to make them act on the page. Extravagant gestures, solid posturing, and some of the best facial mouse expressions ever are committed to the page. This comic is Shakespearean in staging and delivery. It is perfect for the story that Petersen is telling.
It is impressive how much story Petersen can make you think you have read. This first issue of Dawn of the Black Axe is fairly straightforward with two, arguably three, major scenes, however Petersen is able to pack the comic with an abundance of history and set up. The metalsmith has a small role but he is a fully rounded character with a tragic past and a determination to his present. We only need a quick glimpse of the matriarch Siobhan to get a full understanding of her character and how she treats her subjects. She is a strong leader, able to control a room, but there are hints of her clever manipulation of the other characters she interacts with. Returning once more to Shakespeare, Siobhen inhabits a presence on the page equal to any of the bards most famous female characters: the Lady Macbeth, Gertrude The Queen of Denmark, or even Titania herself. Siobhan is a pillar that the story revolves around while maintaining physical and emotional distance from both the other cast members and the readers. Both Petersen and Rodriguez understand this and chose her place within a panel accordingly. They have also designed her so that she stands out on the page, even when she is hiding in the shadows.
Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe Credit: Boom! Studios
Speaking of shadows, Rodriguez uses a lot of heavy black spaces to represent the shadows within the comic, especially in the halls and candle-lit rooms of Lockhaven. This produces very atmospheric scenes and gives the comic a shifting tone as the adventure moves from the fabricated walls of the city to the open expanses of the surrounding woods. It also makes the first half of the comic very staged, as if it is a performance to be viewed. When the readers follow Bardrick out of the city to hunt down the snakes, we transition from audience to companion. We stop merely watching the action unfold and become more like a squire to the questing knight where we get thrown into the action on the ground level. It is a strong emotional shift that brings us closer to Bardrick and we understand the sacrifice he has made and the danger that he now faces.
There is so much going on within each page, but it somehow seems simple and dreamlike, almost uneventful. It is possible to sum up the storyline of this comic in a single sentence, but to explain what happens, to give someone an idea of how the story is told, would take you so much longer. There is a depth to Dawn of the Black Axe that you often see with this type of story. It is like a lake—the crisp shimmering of the surface is flat but enticing, and the closer you get the more you can see happening beneath the surface, drawing you in until you are submerged in an expansive, beautiful world.
Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe Credit: Boom! Studios
The Mouse Guard series has always had a bi-monthly, if not longer, release schedule, and it has been nearly 10 years since any new Mouse Guard comics have been published. However, it is always worth the wait, especially when Petersen himself is involved. Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe is a magnificent comic that will draw any reader in, whether you are new to the series or an obsessive. David Petersen, with Gabriel Rodriguez’ help, has created a beautifully styled, performance-esq, legend narrative that compliments his ongoing series perfectly.
And I’ve not even mentioned the superb design of the product itself. There is something satisfying about the square format of the comic that allows for some wonderful storytelling but also, of itself, produces a fantastic reading experience. I have always found the reading of comics a very tactile experience, having the physical product in my hands, and this is enhanced when the product challenges our expectations. By simply changing the size and shape of the comic, we interact with it in a different way and accept that what we are reading is different to our usual comics. It has a physical impact that creates a memory specific to that comic. And any time a comic tries to interact with you in a new and physical way, it is worth your time.
The first Absolute Universe storyline has come to a close in Absolute Batman #6. Writer Scott Snyder, artist Nick Dragotta, colorist Frank Martin, and letterer Clayton Cowles come together to give us a compelling story cementing this new Dark Knight’s beliefs and priorities. This issue is the incredible payoff to five issues of setup, definitively showcasing what this Batman stands for. Any unanswered questions from the previous issues were addressed perfectly here, with Bruce showing that he cares about his friends, family, strangers, and even those he seeks to defeat. He’s strong and not afraid to be brutal, but he knows when he needs help and knows what rules he follows, and now we do too.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ABSOLUTE BATMAN #6
The issue starts with Bruce stumbling into Waylon’s gym, hurt and beaten. He tells his friend that he’s Batman, and that he needs his help. We then cut to a younger Bruce having a nightmare. He wakes up from it and is comforted by his mother, Martha. Back in the present, Martha and Jim Gordon are on the run from Black Mask’s Party Animals. He has put a bounty on their heads, and so these people are willing to do a lot to kill them. They try to negotiate but it doesn’t seem to work. Somewhere else in Gotham, Alfred Pennyworth’s daughter is abducted by him as he tries to put her on a plane out of the city to protect her. She tells him if the plane leaves, she will never speak to him again. In the skies above, Bruce is on a plane piloted by his friend Ozzie. He jumps from it, and descends onto Black Mask’s boat for a final confrontation.
Bruce stumbles into Waylon’s gym
WRITING
This feels like the Batman story that Snyder has always wanted to tell. It captures what was so enticing about his previous run on the character, with his ability to write action as well as great interpersonal relationships elevated. Throughout this entire first arc, seeds have been planted about these characters and how they all work together. It all comes together in this issue. Bruce’s bonds with his friends are tested, but we see how they jump into action for him. Alfred is ready to abandon it all and leave the city, but something about Batman is in the back of his mind telling him otherwise. The action is incredible and exciting, but the real strength of the book lies in the relationships tested throughout it. Bruce and his mother are tightly knit, and even when they’re apart you can tell that everything they do is for each other. It’s really emotional work.
Something really great about this issue is that when Bruce is on the boat and fighting all of Black Mask’s followers, he doesn’t throw a single one overboard without ensuring their survival. There’s this one great moment in particular where he uses a life vest to beat one, then throwing them off the edge of the boat with it. Batman has never been about just beating the bad guys. Snyder understands that Batman’s journey is to help and to encourage those he defeats to forge a new path for themselves. While this Batman doesn’t get there the same way, Snyder really understands that two different characters can get to a similar place while being motivated by different things, making them stronger in their own ways.
Young Bruce and his friends
ART
This issue features some of the best art of the book to date so far. Dragotta doesn’t miss on a single page. He’s an incredibly diverse artist, tackling these stiff and robotic pages featuring Party Animals viewing bounties and contrasting that with snappy fight sequences that use the entire page to its advantage. Dragotta never wastes an inch of space. Every single panel progresses the story smoothly without skipping a beat. There’s this page where Bruce has a nightmare, and the structure of the page is really confining. The panels are rigid and fixed, suffocating us as they do Bruce. Dragotta also manages to sneak in some beautiful homages to past Batman art, and it really fits. This is a new take on the character, but his core is still there and Dragotta explores that beautifully.
Young Bruce has a nightmare
COLORS
Martin does a really good job of making sure we know where and when we are at all times. In these incredible flashback sequences that he colors, we immediately know we’re in the past from the lighter colors, giving us a more dreamlike aesthetic. When the dream turns into a nightmare however, it shifts to these darker colors where you can hardly make out the silhouette of what you’re seeing.
In the present day, the Party Animals wear these tech masks that Black Mask has supplied, and we get a few POV shots of what the Animals see when they have them on. As opposed to Gotham’s usual darker appearance, through those masks we see the world through an orange lens that blends really well with the darker outside of Gotham itself. When Bruce confronts Black Mask on his boat, he’s covered in the blue of lightning and purple of the night sky. It’s small touches like these that really help in separating each situation from the other, making sure we don’t get lost while we’re taken through this story.
LETTERS
This issue really tries a lot of different things with the lettering. Cowles provides us with some great screams of agony and determination, the letters following the character throughout the entire page sometimes. We follow the character’s movements through this, and really helps in viewing them as real moving people. Back to the Party Animals and their masks, Cowles uses this great computer font display inside those masks. It looks statistical and robotic with no room for error, and is perfect for displaying the bounties on Jim Gordon and Martha Wayne clearly and in an understandable way. Cowles has fallen into a great rhythm of making the reader understand a character’s intention through speech bubble placement and word emphasis. It’s hard to really discern what a character really means sometimes reading comics, but Cowles captures the intent behind every sentence really well, and it’s different for each character too. It helps all the different personalities shine through and also enhances their conversations together. It’s really helpful when reading things like this, and allows the reader to further invest themselves into the story and all the different character dynamics.
CONCLUSION
Absolute Batman #6 is masterclass work. It brings together everything that has made this series great so far while also paving the way for new reveals and things to come in the future. Every page is just as exciting as the last, and every character gets to shine in their own way in relation to Bruce. Some characters take the backseat, but you’re filled with hope as you read and understand that your favorites are coming, but soon. Snyder, Dragotta, Martin, and Cowles should be proud of their work here, and reading it was an absolute pleasure. The feeling is sure to grow in the issues to come, but if this is what the Absolute Universe will look like always, then we’re all in for a treat.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #70 hits your local comic book store on March 26th, but thanks to Marvel Comics, Monkeys Fighting Robots has an exclusive four-page preview for you!
About the issue: THE 8 DEATHS OF SPIDER-MAN CONCLUDES!
ENTER THE SPIDER-NAUT! But who is this unstoppable webbed-wonder?!
The issue is by writer Joe Kelly and artist Ed McGuinness, with inks by Mark Farmer, colors by Marcio Menyz & Alex Sinclair, and letters by Joe Caramagna. The main cover is by McGuinness, inker Cliff Rathburn, and Menyz.
As stated in the solicit, this issue concludes the “8 Deaths of Spider-Man” story that’s been running in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. The title relaunches April 9th with a new issue #1.
Check out our AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #70 preview below:
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YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #4 hits your local comic book store on March 26th, but thanks to Marvel Comics, Monkeys Fighting Robots has an exclusive three-page preview for you!
About the issue: SQUASHED LIKE A BUG?
Spider-Man’s reputation is kaput after his battle with THE ENFORCERS. Now that Silvermane and his goons have the upper hand, can Spider-Man survive a second round? The prequel to the Disney+ series continues here!
The issue is by writer Christos Gage and artist Eric Gapstur, with colors by Jim Campbell, and letters by Joe Caramagna. The main cover is by Leonardo Romero.
The comic is a prequel to the animated television series of the same name, currently streaming on Disney+.
Check out our YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #4 preview below:
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MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #31 hits your local comic book store on March 19th, but thanks to Marvel Comics, Monkeys Fighting Robots has an exclusive four-page preview for you!
About the issue: “POOLS OF BLOOD” – PART FOUR!
The enemy of Spider-Man’s enemy is…DEADPOOL? But first, Spidey and the Deadpools have a score to settle. Should Miles Morales survive THIS fight…he’ll have to face the terrifying threat pulling all these strings!
The issue is by writer Cody Ziglar and artist Luigi Zagaria, with colors by Bryan Valenza, and Cory Petit. The main cover is by Federico Vicentini and Ceci de la Cruz.
Check out our MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #31 preview below:
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If one unfamiliar with manga, or even comics in general, were asked to describe them, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear them say the stories are to be action-forward, perhaps a thriller, or based entirely on fiction. As avid readers of the medium know, while this doesn’t encapsulate the whole identity of comics and manga, there is truth to the generalizations. While there are a few exceptions, when looking at Shonen Jump’s slate for the past few years, you’ll find action, sports, and horror dominating the scene. However, regardless of genre, there is occasionally a story that combines all its elements superbly and proceeds to deliver something that anyone can pick up and just go, “Damn… that’s good.” Right now, that’s Akane-Banashi.
Akane-Banashi, by author Yuki Suenaga and illustrator Takamasa Moue, follows 17-year-old Akane Osaki as she learns Rakugo, a traditional form of Japanese storytelling, and aims to become a shin’uchi, the highest rank a ‘rakugoka’ can achieve. Akane’s journey is initially set up as a revenge story of sorts. Her father, who had been a practicing rakugoka for over a decade, finally gets a shot at the shin’uchi rank. However, he and every other rakugoka who perform for the title are abruptly and unceremoniously expelled from the practice by master Issho, who is seen as the patriarch of his school, and widely accepted as the current cultural leader of his art.
The then 11-year-old Akane sees that everyone outside the rakugo community seems excited and happy for her father, who now works an “honest” job selling concrete, earning more money, and generally having a better quality of life. Akane is infuriated by this; she loves her father’s art and the joy it brings them both. So she vows to learn rakugo and earn the title that escaped her father’s grasp.
Akane-Banashi quickly identifies itself as more than a simple revenge story. Akane and the reader are shown the harsh realities of being a great artist early on: not everyone can or will make it to the top. Her father, while dedicated to his art, failed at it due to his lack of confidence and his split focus. He had fears he could not swallow and expectations he hoped to achieve, and in this faltering, he could no longer deliver his best art. Akane is indeed her father’s daughter, but where he had fear, she does not. She is quickly and defiantly portrayed as a living and breathing rakugo machine. She shows no signs of faltering and makes no plans to pick other careers or colleges, with a single-minded focus on making it to the top. This is not to say she is infallible or not riddled with mistakes to fix, however, her drive and overwhelming love for the art make it impossible not to root for her. If this were the film Whiplash, she would be Andrew and Master Issho would be her Fletcher, both locked in a struggle to master an art and create a master of it.
Within the portrayal of rakugo itself, each story shown is given deep respect, as if a master is performing it for you. As a reader, you can’t skim past, or gloss over any aspect of the performance. You find yourself glued to every minute detail. Not only is the history of each rakugo story given as background, but they always tend to fit narratively to either Akane’s journey or another performer, even serving as foreshadowing or red herrings to later reveals. Although delivered in this written form, the performances don’t lose any impact on their emotional delivery.
The art and the coloring by Moue is also deserving of high praise. It is detailed and intense at times, but as rakugo is a comedy art, it is not above getting silly and over the top. The everyday musings of the story are mostly portrayed the same way, but when rakugo is being performed, Moue lets loose with imagination and boldness. Depending on the story, the lines are sharp and pointed, akin to traditional Japanese styles, while some are sillier and closer to a Ghibli movie in presentation. Moue creates these wildly detailed landscapes that allow the reader to dive into the world of the story that the Rakugoka is describing. The lettering, while remaining mostly consistent in terms of speech, is also used widely in impact text that seem to radiate from the characters. The speech bubbles and shading are used very effectively to show independent characters, but also showcase one character portraying multiple voices simultaneously without confusion.
The series, now approaching its third birthday and what is assumed to be its midway point, portrays much more than just a legendary rakugoka in the making. It is a love letter to the arts themselves. It showcases how compelling and exciting learning and mastering an art is. Characters of different backgrounds and motivations are all shown to be dragging themselves through the mud to master their craft. Some are young prodigies, while others are starting on the art form as a mid-life career change. Some are relentless in pursuing history, performing rakugo in a way a scholar would. Others dedicate themselves to the performance, by portraying other characters extremely well or adapting voices, maybe even modernizing their art for those unfamiliar with the history. Each character has a different way of learning and developing their form of performing. Regardless of how they do it, the similarity is that they love it. They are willing to struggle, learn, and suffer and bring themselves completely out of their comfort zones for their art.
This is what makes Akane-Banashi such a splendid story. It draws you into its world and forces you to fall in love with it, its characters, and its history, and you can’t do anything about it. It’s a piece of art that shows the importance of chasing your dreams, but it does not pretend those dreams can’t become nightmares. It’s got comedy, drama, and so much heart. This series is a masterwork, and you should be reading it.
The New Gods #3 tells a story that feels almost like legend. It succeeds wholeheartedly in deepening the lore of the world these powerful characters inhabit. Writer Ram V, artists Riccardo Federici and Evan Cagle, colorist Francesco Segala, and letterer Tom Napolitano all work together to add weight to this story of gods.
The issue starts with a war raging on Apokolips. It then immediately cuts to Metron and a more mysterious character named The Chronicler. The Chronicler has summoned Metron, but Metron doesn’t know for what. Chronicler explains the story of how this new, young god on Earth came to be. While he does that, Mister Miracle and Big Barda set out to find this new god and protect them. They meet up with Oberon, Mister Miracle’s friend, and leave their child with him while they set out on their mission.
A weapon is launched towards Apokolips.
WRITING
Ram V once again delivers on the new entry of this team’s godly epic. Character work takes a step back here in order for V to do a bit of housekeeping. He explains the origins of this new god on Earth, and why they’re so young. The story is told by The Chronicler to Metron, and right there you already have an incredibly interesting dynamic. A mysterious character giving new information to the man who should know everything is a really fun situation V sets up. The character that should know everything and strives to paired with the character that does makes for some great dialogue and V uses that to his advantage.
The story the Chronicler tells feels like legend. V writes it like it’s a new entry in a book of myth that will be read thousands of years from now, and that really works. Something really special about telling the story this way is how it deals with the things not even the gods could account for. At one point, Chronicler’s story takes an unexpected turn. He expected the child to be met with violence and confusion, but instead a human treated them with love and care, and a will to understand. Compassion was not accounted for in the tale of the gods, and that’s an exciting theme for V to explore moving forward through Mister Miracle and Barda especially on this quest of theirs to find the child.
War on Apokolips.
ART
The start of the first two issues each featured a few prologue pages helmed by different artists. After those, Cagle would take the reins for the majority of the issue. That wasn’t the case this time around. Cagle did the beginning and a few interlude portions, but Federici took on half the workload this time around as well. Both do amazing work, and the work of each flows nicely into the work of the other. While Cagle covers the art in the present, Federici handles the art of the Chronicler’s story. Federici’s style really lends itself to recounting myths and fables. His art is dreamlike, like pages out of a storybook. He does this really special thing in a page with Chronicler and Metron where Chronicler’s face fills the panel that it’s in, but then breaks free of it as he just blends into the beautiful starry background. It helps in showing his control over stories, how he’s the storyteller and that everything serves him. Federici helps Chronicler’s story feel like history through these mostly static images of godlike characters and locations. It’s as much showing as it is telling, the reader sometimes even gaining more context through what they’re seeing rather than what they’re reading.
Cagle covers the present day portions of the issue, and it feels like he’s found a really great rhythm with Scott and Barda. He perfectly captures their endearment for one another through facial expressions and body language. He draws Scott wearing his mask in a really fun way. Certain facial features on it are prominent, but it’s really just an incredible expressive set of eyes and his mouth. There’s this one specific panel where Scott is standing on top of a car with his cape flowing with the wind. a rocket is shot at him with the smoke of it breaking through the panel, hitting the rocks behind him as he and his beautifully designed suit remain unscathed. There’s so much impressive detail to both him and Barda. It’s just consistent quality.
Chronicler and Metron meet.
COLORS
This issue’s coloring really lends itself to both art styles present. Segala fully displays his range here. The colors present in Federici’s part of the book are mostly muted. There’s a prominent beige that fills the background like smoke, telling us that the background details of the story don’t matter. The main objects in the story are bright and prominent though. The bodies of gods as well as the cosmos itself are shining blue with stars. Green eyes pierce through the page, watching. The ship that escapes a planet with the child has a strong bright trail behind it. With Cagle, Segala’s chunk of the story is much more grounded. Not everything is blended to resemble myth, a lot of stuff is flat and much cleaner. We’re in reality now, and on Earth. Things need to seem real and tangible, and Segala really excels at that switch. It’s seamless.
Chronicler tells his story
LETTERS
The lettering in this issue is especially creative. Large, text-filled boxes are present when the Chronicler tells his story of the new god. They’re placed carefully around the beautiful art, and there are very little text bubbles. The bubbles help to immerse us in the tale, but the large boxes fill the page, they’re the real focus and are incredibly prominent. Napolitano also does this really fun thing with Scott. He can be sassy at times, and Napolitano really stretches out the letters on a few words to make him come off as a snarky schoolboy. The repeated letter alternates different sizes to make it read a certain way, and it’s just really fun and clever.
CONCLUSION
This issue was incredible. We were told a story hidden from the New Gods themselves in a masterful way, everyone involved should be found. It felt like myth being etched into the walls of a cave with the story in the present contrasting that, showing that we’re in this situation. We’re here, experiencing the aftermath of the fight of the gods. It’s unimaginable how much more powerful they’ll seem in the issues to come.
