Warning: this review may contain strong language and may not be suitable for younger readers

            Hello comic book lovers and fellow followers! I hope you’re ready for a special kind of review today, as I talk about one special type of comic that (to my opinion) pretty much made up the early two thousands. For those of you who may know and love the old TV show, “Invader Zim” you will know exactly who I am going to be talking about. Today, I will be giving you my review of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, written and illustrated, by Jhonen Vasquez. There are a good amount of things I can say about this comic and it’s classification into web comics in general, but you’ll read about that soon enough. Now before I begin the review, some of you may be asking, “Popular web comics? Then why not read/review Scott Pilgrim?” and to that I say, that web comic seems more “trendy” and too popular for people who seem to have or are reading web comics, so I decided to go further back and talk about something more twisted and darker. With that being said, let’s start the review…

            For those of you who are or aren’t familiar with this series or Jhonan’s work (aside from Invader Zim), you certainly will be in for a real sick and twisted treat. The best way for me to describe Johnny the best way possible that it is simply one of the most fucked up, young, murderous, edgy, angstiest, piece of illustrated literature that I have ever read. Just looking at this art style and what the characters were wearing, just screamed early two thousands pop punk culture. Jhonen Vasquez certainly seems to have the mental capacity of a younger Allen Moore but with more of a graphic and disturbed method of story telling. In one joking way of looking at it, if my eyes and nose could swap functions, my eyes would be able to smell the stench of Hot Topic during it’s hay day during the early two thousands. Now I’m not necessarily saying that this series is bad (except to younger kids, obviously) it’s that it’s just something out there that cleared the road to more graphic experimentation in the world of literature, illustration and over all comic book culture in general. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is simply a collection of short stories of one extremely well disturbed individual that the creator just wanted to have fun and play around with in a method of creating more of a shock value to the general readers. It is something not everyone should read (if willing) but should definitely know about, especially now since the creator, Jhonen is currently working on his beloved children’s cartoon, Invader Zim and finishing up more of its story from the animated world in the comic book world. I would definitely recommend checking out his artwork mainly for the warped simplistic detailed methods he uses for characters anatomy and subtle background texture formations that give more narrative structure to the scenes and panels in his stories. But of course, younger viewers should be recommended to stay clear from this series, until they are old enough of course. Preferably until they are around fourteen years old.

            Alright my followers, I believe it is time for me to go and bid you all a due, until the next latest installment of my comic book world review!

First of I have to say, I love reading DC and reading Arkham Asylum was one of the best books I have read.  As I was growing up, I was highly influenced by DC especially Batman franchise. From the cover of the book, I could say this was going to be an amazing story and an adventure to read.  As I read through the pages of Arkham asylum, I kept on getting engrossed in the story and the art work that was portrayed by the various artist and the character events that took place. Arkham asylum takes place in Gotham, at a mental institution where all the villains are kept in their cell and with the highest security, because they are deemed to be dangerous and are mentally unstable.  However, things soon get out of control, and it becomes a den for all the super villains to take control.  Batman being the protagonist, is summoned by commissioner Gordon, to handle the situation, but little does batman know, he is in for a solid beat down, as all the villains have come together as one to take there revenge on batman.  The plot is very compelling and I don’t want to give any spoilers, but the twists and turns that come with this storyline is amazing.  The layout of the book is well organized as one can see how the artists and the editors came together to block out panels, the script that will be used and the color combination. Its quite unbelievable that each and every panel was hand painted first and then photographed to print in the book. A feat in comic history, that has never been achieved before.

The one summer is a story about Rose and windy, two girls, in their teen years. The story starts of with Rose visiting her home town for the summer and meets her child hood friend windy there. Her hometown is a relaxed place where nothing substantial happens but is good to visit. As the story progresses we see rose starting to develop a crush on a local adult guy, who works at the video store, even though he has a girlfriend, she cant help but feel attracted to him.  Since it’s a slice of life comic, it makes sense to include suspense and dram in this comic, which was well portrayed as, it did , keep me in suspense because the way it was portrayed was that the guy could have taken advantage of the young girl. But I digress, reading the comic I realized one very interesting aspect of  this comic, and it was that it was portrayed very much like a shojo manga, slice of life. And had some japanese cultural aspects mixed in it. Mayank had reconfirmed these suspicions and suggested that in many slice of life anime movies such as summer wars, most the suspenseful slice of live animes have the house iconically placed in a hill, it not always situated a top of the hill but is placed some where in the middle. I found that to be an interesting observation and took that into the account. Overall I think this comic had taken a strong stand on stranger danger sort of motto because, as a reader I did honestly feel a bit terrified for Rose and was at the edge of my seat if she would be in danger with the adult guy or not.

Asteios Polyp is a story about and architect and his life.  The story starts of with him in his run down apartment, where he lives and is living without a job. His life is depressing. However, on that night lightening strikes in one of the apartment of his building, and burnt down his building. The story progresses, and shows how he takes it as an opportunity to get away from his life and decided to have a new start. During his journey we are told about his past and about his career as a paper architect, and the story about his fame and fortune.  In his past, he was a university professor, who was well regarded by the students and was also well known Casanova with his female students. The story progresses as the writer talks to us about how he met his wife, but also starts to philosophies on the idea of what our life is. It could be anything we want it to be. And shows how he would sleep with a beautiful young girl based on his own perception versus how he slept with the one who is not as beautiful who he slept with. Its an interesting concept of what life really is and how one perceives it, and in todays world its quote repetitive as its used over and over again, by religious speakers, by motivational speakers and others. Over all I really found the narrative interesting and the visual style, was very simple, which felt more like a web comic. This comic made me think a little about perceptiveness and life and how we could change it on our own based on our perception and how we view the world around us.

Death note manga is something that isn’t very new to me. My friends at Ringling introduced me to Death Note. I also by the manga and anime pop culture that is famous through out the world. Some of the various ways I was made aware of the manga was, through anime and the movies that were mass-produced. I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting when I first read the manga online. The artwork had surprised me because it had simple shapes and crisp lines. However, after reading the manga and the first 5 issues, I was amazed by this medium in graphic novel. I was very interested in the storyline and twists and plots that took place in the death note. The line quality of the artwork was well scanned online. Death Note is about a boy named light yagami and Ryuk a reaper. The two met when Ryuk, dropped his death note on earth, the human world because he was bored. However, after he was advised by his friends to  get it back before he got into trouble, he came down to earth to retrieve it. But it was late, as Light had already acquired the death note and  had started to use it to punish those  who he had deemed fit to no longer live. You see, Death note is a special notebook, which gives the user the power to kill anyone, as long as he/she has the name and the face of that individual in their mind. The story follows lights ambition to make the world a better place and execute the people who deem unfit in his world, without trial.  It gets really interesting, when his nemesis L comes into play and thus starts the game of Cat and mouse.