Review: King City, by Brandon Graham

[slr2moons]

I'd estimate that when it comes to hard copy graphic novels, 95% of what I read is manga. That remaining 5% is everything else--henceforth referred to as "comics". With that percentage in mind, it's not surprising how very...alien...I can find comics. For example, take the graphic novel I'm reviewing for this post: King City, by Brandon Graham. Rather than try to write a book-column-worthy compare and contrast proper review, I'm just gonna make three lists:

What I liked:

• The story was not predictable. That's always a good thing.
• The artist has a clear knowledge of anatomy and movement, and he wasn't afraid to break the rules. The figures are well-drawn and never stiff.
• All the characters have distinct personalities. That's also always a good thing.
• A great deal of creativity went into this book, from the weird use of a cat as an all-purpose-weapon to the endless puns and tricks in the backgrounds.
• The backgrounds. I'd carefully study each one, looking for all the little drawn jokes to be found in fliers pasted on telephone poles, store displays, T-shirts on characters, wall and sidewalk graffiti, and little sketches and labels intended purely for fun.
• The characters actually changed clothes. The lack of this irritates me to no end, and manga is just as guilty of it as comics.
• The use of other languages in the background and sound effects. Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and some French and German. That's cool.
• Sound effects. The artist has a wide library of hand-lettering fonts, and I liked his unconventional FX-ing. For example, as a sound effect for someone tying a shoe, the FX was a dress-shirt-tie in a little FX bubble. Neat!
• The omake, like a full-page crossword or two-page-spread board game, complete with character pieces you can cut out and use.
• Neither the hero nor his BFF get their chosen girls, romantically. No conventional love stories, here!
• Panel layouts are interesting and varied, and changed to fit scene mood and action. Nice.
• The uber-plot ending to defeat the big Cthulhu monster wasn't the main point of the story at all, and how the author resolves the problem reflected that. Because...
• This story is about the characters. It's completely character-driven, and you all know how much I love that.

What I noticed but don't have an opinion about:

• No use of screen tone or pattern. Everything is white, black, or a shade of gray.
• The oversize book printing is great for finding hidden details, but makes the book heavy and unwieldy.
• No use of crazy exaggerated expressions. I kind of like this, because it shows that emotions can be portrayed with less cartoony art. But crazy exaggerated expressions can be VERY funny and effective. It's an interesting toss-up.
• The characters. I didn't like or love-to-hate anyone. Ouch.

What I didn't like:

• This is not in any way an equal-opportunity fanservice book. That's true for almost every manga and comic I've read, but this book is particularly noticeable because there is SO VERY MUCH FANSERVICE for those who like women. Literally 2 out of 3 pages will have fanservice on it. Girls in skin-tight clothes, boob shot, butt shot, crotch shot, panty flash, finger-sucking, gratuitous female mouth close-up, etc. In contrast, fanservice featuring men gives us a handfull of pages with a shirtless supporting character who is at least nicely built, then a couple shirtless moments with the rather stick-thin male lead character, and one comedic butt-shot of same. Also a handful of background/FX-y funny little cock-and-balls drawings. *points to the first adjective in that last sentence there* Granted, this book IS drawn by a straight man, and granted, the double-standard of entertainment industry says fully naked women are fine, but fully naked men--particularly "are-you-happy-to-see-me?" ones--are not allowed. Humph.
• All the women in this book but two are drawn the same way: thin, beautiful, shapely butts, large if at least somewhat normal-sized breasts, full-lipped Angelina Jolie-type mouths...usually open. Oh, and wearing skin-tight pants. If they ARE wearing pants, of course. There are two--TWO--women in the book who do not fit this type. One is a plump waitress who is in two panels, and whose face we never see because her hair is in the way or her back is to us. A supporting character insults her after she walks away, but at least he doesn't say something about her weight. The other is a supporting character's supporting character who never says a word in the entire book. The top half of her face is covered with a cloth mask. All we see of her face are two blank round circles for eyes, and lipsticked lips. (Not Angelina Jolie lips, though.) At one point, this woman gives the skinny MC a kiss on the cheek, and he makes a disgusted look and wipes it off with his cat.
• Too much toilet humor. Ugh.
• Needs more world building. The setting and events raise a lot of questions that remain unanswered at the end.
• Supporting characters need more development. Aside from the three main supporting characters, we barely know anything about the others. Particularly the deus ex machina ones. If they're going to save the day, I'd like to know more about them...then they'd be less deus ex machina, hmm? And WTH was with the "owls" gang, anyway?
• Blah main characters. I'm listing this here, too, because I didn't like not having a strong reaction to anyone. They were sort of interesting, but I didn't particularly care if the hero won or not, or if the ex kept her current angsty boyfriend, or what. On the other end, there was no one I wanted to see go down in a blaze of satisfying defeat, no one be creeped out by, nor feel disgust towards whenever they appear because they are so very repellant. Everyone was just...*yawn*

I've been trying to think of what else I didn't like for the past five minutes and can't come up with anything, so I guess that's mostly it. Hmm. The likes list has more individual items than the dislikes. But the first two dislikes are really big in my mind, and I'm actually pretty philosophical about fanservice. There's just SO MUCH OF IT in this book, and it's so completely in your face. *gags*

Overall, I did like the book and don't regret reading it. I enjoyed the backgrounds and the creative elements to the story. Oh, and one thing I will give a definite star: the MC's BFF wonders to himself if he'd be so fond about the damsel in distress (and I quote) "if you looked like a plant with teeth?". It's nice to see some non-comedic acknowledgement that attraction is a driving force behind a lot of guy's actions. So. King City, by Brandon Graham. Go ahead and read it. The art is fun, and the story has its moments. Be prepared for prodigious amounts of womanly T&A. *snort*