Thursday, May 5, 2011

Graphic novel reviews L

Letter 44 - Charles Soule

Locke and Key - Joe Hill

  1. Welcome to Lovecraft - After their father is brutally murdered by two local youths, the Locke family move to Lovecraft, MA to take possession of the Keyhouse. However, the house comes with a set of magic keys and has at least one trapped spirit who wants revenge, and is using the father's killer as a tool to get it.  Gory horror told in a non-linear fashion to very creepy effect, with blocky, thick-lined art that suits the atmosphere.  Although horror isn't my thing, there's enough mystery and unanswered questions in this book to keep me reading.  [4]

Louisiana Purchase - John Chase

Lucifer (11 volumes) - Mike Carey
Fantasy, morality, theology, world-building, story-telling.  Better than Sandman.  Endlessly re-readable.  [5]  Keep.

Lucky Luke - Goscinny and Morris

  • Jesse James - Luke takes on the Cole and Younger gang.  [4]
  • 38. Ma Dalton [1971] - Mrs. Dalton, who looks just like Joe, isn't such a nice little old lady; she leads a crime spree with her sons, and Luke tries to track them down.  [5]
  • The Wagon Train - Luke protects a wagon train.  [3]
  • 9. Rails on the Prairie [1957] - #32 in Cinebook.  Luke escorts and protects the building of the first transcontinental railroad, while a shady character who own stagecoach stock tries to stop that.  A bit more cartoonish and silly than some of the other entries, but a lot of fun.  [4]
  • 11. Lucky Luke Versus Joss Jamon [1958] - #27 in Cinebook.  The title bad guy and his five desperado friends take over a town; Luke tries to clear them out.  Sketchy art, the "Dalton cousins," and an unfamiliar Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and Calamity Jane making cameos all mark this as an early work.  It's got a rich plot with plenty of zigs and zags, more like an old western movie than the archetypal Lucky Luke.   The welcome signs on the various towns are a great running joke.  [4]
  • 12. The Dalton Cousins [1958] - #28 in Cinebook.  The origins of the Daltons!  Apparently they're the cousins of five other identical deceased brothers, vowing to get revenge on Lucky Luke.  A lot of harmless back and forth follows, with lots of bottle throwing and fisticuffs.  It's interesting to see the evolution of Joe and Averell's adversarial relationship, although they're already pretty fully formed.  [4] 
  • 13. The Judge [1959] - a slightly fictionalized Judge Roy Bean seizes Luke and charges him with cattle rustling; when a rival judge comes to Langtry, Luke sets them against each other.  The art in this one is much rougher than usual; it's from 1959, predating the Cinebook #1 of the series, Billy the Kid.  It's not as funny and over the top as the finest of the series.  [3.5]
  • 14. The Oklahoma Land Rush [1960] - #20 in Cinebook.  Luke keeps the peace among the settlers vying for land in Oklahoma.  [4]
  • 15. The Daltons' Escape [1960] - #30 in Cinebook. The Daltons escape again and frame Lucky Luke as a feared bandit, causing him to flee the town and become their servant.  This is actually the fifteenth book chronologically.  The Daltons are some of the best characters in bandes-dessinées, and they're in fine form here.  [4.5]
  • 18. In the Shadow of the Derricks [1962] - Luke comes to the aid of an oil town besieged by Barry Blunt, a man who drives others out by force to take their claims.  [4] 
  • 19. The Rivals of Painful Gulch [1962] - #12 in Cinebook. In the town of Painful Gulch, the families O'Timmins (big red nose) and O'Hara (big ears) have been fighting for decades, and do not even know why. Lucky Luke is named mayor of the city to try to solve this problem. He's not very effective! [3.5]
  • 20. Billy the Kid [1962] - #1 in Cinebook.  Luke brings the small, violent Billy the Kid to justice.  [4]
  • 25. Ghost Town [1965] - #2 in Cinebook.  Luke tries to keep an ornery old miner's claim safe from some con men who want to buy and then oversell him claim. [4] 
  • 29. Barbed Wire on the Prairie [1967] - Luke teams up with a farmer who's at war with a cattle baron.  [4]
  • 30. Calamity Jane [1967] - Luke meets and befriends Calamity Jane.  [4]
  • 31. Tortillas for the Daltons [1967] - the Daltons join bandits in Mexico, who don't want them.  [3.5]
  • 32. The Stagecoach [1968] - Luke provides an escort for a Well Fargo stagecoach that is carrying a box of gold, and advertises it for all to see to prove how secure the line is.  One of the classics, with a cast of goofy characters and the usual heroism.  I really appreciate how the new translations are trying to give dignity to the stereotyped Indians of the original, though there's nothing they can do about the pictures of totem poles on the prairie.  [5]
  • 34. Dalton City [1969] - #3 in Cinebook. After Lucky Luke closes down a corrupt settlement of Fenton Town, the Daltons are released accidentally (because of a Morse code mix-up) and they take over the town as their own.  One of the best in the series.  [5]
  • 36. Western Circus - [1970] - Luke guards a circus featuring a wino ringmaster, a toothless lion, and an irritable elephant from a rodeo kingpin who doesn't like competition.  One of the best. [5]
  • 37. Apache Canyon [1971] - Luke tries to make peace between Apaches and a cavalry commander whose son was kidnapped years ago by them.  Guess who that masked Apache is?  Luke doesn't do very much in this one; he just keeps getting captured by both sides.  He doesn't even figure out the ending.  [3.5] 
  • 40. The Grand Duke - [1973] - #29 in Cinebook.  Luke escorts a larger than life Grand Duke from Russia who wants to see the "real wild west" before he'll sign a treaty.  While the Duke longs for danger and bandits, Luke does the opposite, arranging for fake fights and ghost towns.  Great humor and fun characters all around.  [4]
  • The Tenderfoot - Luke guards an English newcomer with a stuff upper lip who tries to defend his land against a rival landowner who wants to force him out.  The butler, a fine character, is vaguely Wodehousian.  Another excellent entry in the series.  [5]
  • The Dashing White Cowboy - Luke tries to find out how a traveling troupe of actors are committing robberies in the towns they visit. [4]
  • The Daltons in the Blizzard - the Daltons flee to Canada under assumed names (Averell is Imbecile); Luke teams up with a mountie to retrieve them.  Lots of jokes abut Canadian names and the willingness of Canadians to obey authority.  The rivalry between Joe and Averell is intense here, with Averell refusing to cede to Joe in their fixed boxing match, one of the funniest scenes in the whole series. [4.5]
  • The Black Hills - Luke escorts a quartet of scientists through the Black Hills to survey a plot for a new town; a man who trades with the Indians there doesn't want them.  I appreciate how the modern addendums try to mitigate some of the stereotypes about Indians from the original.  [4]
  • The Escort - Luke takes Billy the Kid (still serving his two thousand year sentence from book one) out of Texas to Missouri, where he awaits trial for different crimes.  [4]
  • On the Daltons' Trail - Luke and Rin Tin Can have misadventures aplenty trying to track down the Daltons.  [4]
  • The 20th Cavalry - Luke is sent to fix the broken peace between the Cheyenne and the cavalry, but finds the commander there to be an unyielding stuffed shirt.  [4]
  • Emperor Smith - loosely based on the real Emperor Norton, a deluded man believes himself to be the emperor of the United States, but is a harmless wealthy eccentric until an outlaw persuades him to put down a rebellion (and in the process seize the wealth of the town).  This is a weird one; Smith's aides seem as deluded as he is, and it ends abruptly, with no real closure.  The art is unusually detailed.  [3.5]
  • A Cure for the Daltons - a German psychiatrist attempts to cure the Daltons of their criminal mindset, only to be ucked into the criminal life himself.  This one has some good Rin Tin Can moments.  [4]
  • The Bounty Hunter - a Lee van Cleef lookalike is after a $100,000 bounty for a horse thief; the problem is, Luke Luke (who turns in criminals free of charge) thinks the accused Indian is innocent.  This entry stands out, with great art, some plot twists, and several unusual characters.  The bounty hunter is, despite his greed and shiftiness, not unsympathetic, constantly trying to bribe his way out of trouble or into partnerships with insultingly low offers.  [5]
  • 48. The One-Armed Bandit [1981] - #33 in Cinebook. Luke escorts two inventors who have created the first one-armed bandit.  A few funny jokes, some rather broad.  [3.5]

Lucky Luke - Achdé et al 

  • 77. Lucky Luke Versus the Pinkertons [2010] - #31 in Cinebook.  This takes place in 1861; Allan Pinkerton creates an intricate web of spies and informers, with files on everyone, so he can consolidate his power.  Lucky Luke is mocked and dismissed as a relic, even though Abe Lincoln vouches for him.  But then the Daltons get involved.  The new post-Morris art is very good, with different lines and new angles, but the writing is missing some of that old silly magic.  Chronologically, 1861 is a very early year for Luke to be considered a dated relic with years of adventures under his belt (Billy the Kid, for example, was two years old).  This reminds me of the later Asterix series, when continuity and previously established character went out the window.  [3]

Lumberjanes - Noelle Stevenson & Grace Ellis

  1. Beware the Kitten Holy - Five super rad young girls at a camp fight some ghost foxes who, before they disappear, them them to "beware the kitten holy."  It goes on from there, with the same super rad weird energy.  It's a mix of Kate Beaton and Louise Belcher, but without the charm or wit.  It tries a little too hard to be weird and cool.  At one point one of the little girls defeats a giant stone statue in arm wrestling.  How and why?  Girl power, I guess?  It's not very interesting.  The characters often cite real historical women in their exclamations, so that's worth something, I guess.  [2.5]