The Originals

Listed in "500 Essential Graphic Novels" as: Science Fiction (Best of the Rest)
Contains: The Originals (Original Graphic Novel)
Year: 2004
Publisher: Vertigo
Writer: Dave Gibbons
Artist: Dave Gibbons

What?!

We're 16 books into this thing and this is only the SECOND book in the science fiction genre that I'm going to review?!  How did that happen?! I rather like sci-fi!!!

Let's get to it, shall we?

Actually, as we begin, let me just say that if you're not a fan of sci-fi (I know at least one dear reader of this thing who isn't), you'd have little to worry about in reading this.  Really the only thing that's sci-fi about this book is the hovering scooters and motorcycles used by the rival gangs...  But you have no idea what I'm talking about that with any of that yet, do you? 

Let's fix that.

The story begins as protagonist Lel is walking through a city that's eerily retro and futuristic simultaneously.  As he narrates, he talks about finishing school, about all the stuff that grown-ups and teachers tried to shove down his throat, and about he and his buddy Bok really wanting to become Originals.

The Originals are nothing more than a glorified gang, smartly dressed, loving music and fashion, popping pills, and hovering around on their floating scooters.  They absolutely detest a rival gang which they call "The Dirt", who look like a crowd you might see at any modern day biker bar, wearing leather, swilling beer, and riding what look like (also) hovering Harleys.

Lel and Bok finally do get into the Originals by helping existing members locate and fight a group of Dirt louts.  They'rs invited to an upscale dance club that the Originals party in called The Place and they ascend to becoming full-fledged Originals, both scoring their own hovers (which is how they refer to the hovering scooters) and Lel beginning to sling pills to dope heads for Ronnie, the seeming leader of the Originals.

Lel meets a girl, tensions between the Originals and Dirt rise, and we go from there...

As I said above, despite its inclusion in the "Science Fiction" portion of Mr. Kannenberg's book 500 Essential Graphic Novels, this really doesn't feel like a science fiction read.  Again, the only thing sci-fi about it are the hovering bikes and scooters.  The rest feels...  If I had to put it into a phrase...  A post-apocalyptic mob flick.

The way that the whole dance club is set up, the way the boys are trying to get into this elite fraternity, the way they pander to the leaders of the Originals...  Yeah. It feels like every mafia movie or show I've ever seen except with another sort of edge.

It's also been said that these groups, the Originals and the Dirt are patterned to resemble the Mods and Rockers of 1960's Britain.  Lel even has Roger Daltrey's circa 1960 haircut, pops pills, and loves his tunes. 

However you want to look at it, though, this is a story in some future about a boy who wants to gain entry into a group, does so, and then gets maybe a bit more than he bargained for. 

The work is nice, short, and solid, bringing you into Lel's narrative nicely, enveloping you for the time that you need to be there, and then panning back out almost where we met him.  We see the character develop, smarten-up, make that transition from a boy to a man almost right before our eyes in a read that takes less than a half hour.

Gibbons' art, left in the black-and-white style, is perfect for giving this a sort of timeless feel.  We see the hovering bikes and such, but we also see the clothes, the manners, memories of the past.  It's hard for the reader to pin down when this might take place.  It's obviously the future with the hovers, but why does it feel so much like the past?  A fine quality of this work.

The book shows how markedly we can grow up in so short a time and does so against a backdrop of a world that's not overtly strange, but is like an odd memory of the future.  A brief, good read by Gibbons that any fan of his, Anglophile, or fan of gang or mob stories should check out.

Mr. Kannenberg's rating: 3 out of 5
My rating: 3 out of 5
16 down, 484 to go

Join me next time for a return to my beloved superhero comics with Shade, The Changing Man: The American Scream.

Keep well until then. :)

WE3

Listed in "500 Essential Graphic Novels" as: Science Fiction (Best of the Rest)
Contains: WE3 #1-3
Year: 2004-05
Publisher: DC/Vertigo
Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: Frank Quitely (Artist)
        Jamie Grant (Colorist & Digital Inker)

Here we go, guys...  The first entry.

First, let me clarify some things and a bit more of the mechanics of how I'm going to move through this "500 Essential Graphic Novels" book.  It's quite simple: Basically, in no particular order. 

The only small bit of order that I am going to follow requires only a bit of explanation.  The book is broken up into ten chapters, each featuring a genre of story.  Each of those chapters has a "Top Ten" section, higlighting the best 10 book in that genre, and a "Best of the Rest" section, listing the remaining featured graphic novels of that section in alphabetical order.

What I'm going to do (at least for starters) is read four (4) "Best of the Rest" books, just hopping around the book in random order, and then a "Top Ten" pick, also in random order.

Make sense?  Now, then...  WE3.

With the first official review of the blog, I wanted to start off with as much as I could with a "something for everyone" kind of book.  Also, Grant Morrison is my favorite author and Frank Quitely is a stellar artist, as well.

We open on what is apparently some sort of upscale mansion/compound. Some big, bad lug is running on a treadmill. There are shady looking characters sitting around everywhere. Drugs, booze and guns are abound.  But if we look closely in the holes in the wall or the heating grates, we see tiny glowing red eyes.

This book focuses on what is referred to early on in the work as "The War of Tomorrow". Treadmill lug and his bad guy friends are apparently those who deserve warring upon because something... some robot-like, crazy, high-tech, mech things are encased in the shadows.  In the next sequence, they bring the hurt to all these guys. Hard.

After carrying out their mission, these extremely efficient, startlingly lethal things (whatever they are, we still can't see them yet) with their crazy robot parts and metal armadillo-like tails are called back to a covert tractor trailer.  The trailer belongs to the U.S. military and these killing machines turn out to be the cutest little dog, cat, and bunny rabbit you've ever seen.

These little guys have been engineered and drastically technologically enhanced for the aforementioned "War of Tomorrow".  A war with no human soldiers, but with what some view to be more expendable animals as the fighting force.

WE3, our three little animal buddies, have done a bang-up job of razing the bad guy compound, but they were just prototypes and will be decommissioned.  The remainder of the book is the story of these three tiny animals' instinct to survive, their valiant effort to fight for that instinct, and the tale of what happens when they do.

At this point you might be thinking, "I thought you said you wanted a book for everyone? This is crazy, sci-fi, futuristic, war crap! Household pets as U.S. soldiers? Come the fudge on!"

This book is anything but that.

I challenge you to make it through even the first chapter without feeling an intense bond with these three little critters.  Morrison has woven genius here, keeping with something that his long-time fans will enjoy (with all the science-y, smart, repeat read-worthy stuff) and also giving us three of the most easy-to-love characters I may have ever seen.

Artist Frank Quitely even bonds the reader to the story right away with the original covers to this fantastic series by making us feel right at home.  You've all seen a flyer for a lost dog haven't you?

That above image is genius.  Giving us something we've all seen to make us feel more at home in this fantastic work.

And while we're on the subject of Quitely's art: this book has art and images like I've never seen.  Look below.  Have you ever seen someone getting shot to shreds look so beautiful?

Or you longtime readers of comics (or readers of sequential art at all): Have you ever seen a panel sequence like the one across the top of this two-page spread?

This was a work where writer and artist worked perfectly together.  It's obvious that Morrison and his script were in the director's chair, but Quitely and Grant execute to perfection in making this thing an experience, not just a "comic book" or a work of sequential art. Morrison tells a story using somewhat less-than-usual dialogue. The first thirteen pages of the story contained no words at all, but evoked enough emotion, aesthetics, and awe to where the reader didn't need anything else.

I chose this one for my first entry because I'd read it before, Morrison is my favorite author, and I love the work. I wanted to give you something that shows that (while I love some superhero stories) comics are more than just musclebound guys in tights.  Comics can be absolute magic.

If this stellar work doesn't show that to you, I don't know what will.

Mr. Kannenberg's rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 5 out of 5
1 down, 499 to go