▲ THIS SIDE UP ▲
Beautiful Darkness is the kind of comics we need more of. It not only has a sustained thematic subtext, but uses the images to convey information not present in the text. Too often we default to a double dip of narrative from text and image. As readers we're taught to treat the illustrations as secondary. This album, using the full power of the medium, elucidates a story that couldn't exist in another form. Highly recommended.
The reading experience is akin to listening to heavy metal as an adolescent, not the silly faux-pagan heavy metal that we see in retrospect, but the dangerous, devil-borne heavy metal we believed it to be at the time.
What do we see when we bring a mirror into the mirror world? What vision of our reality can we find there? Ennuigi plays with futility, dread and petty addiction as readily as Super Mario Bros. plays with coins and magic mushrooms.
Episode two isn't as overstuffed as the first, but it manages to push the population of the universe ever outward.
Mary desires most to get the adventure over with, and the audience can't help but feel the same.
Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers starts out roughly. If there is folly in its ambition, there is virtue also. The show's dedication to world-building sets it above the competition. Effort is made to establish a plausible universe with recurring races, planets, technology and conflicts. It rises above its premise of space western to become more of a space opera in the Star Trek vein, and it does it all in twenty-two minutes. Well, it tries.
Ultimately, on the My Neighbor Totoro to Princess Mononoke Ghibli intensity scale, Whisper of the Heart falls closer to Totoro. Its value, like Totoro or Spirited Away, lies in the depiction of a believable child character.
The first episode features an African American character as its indisputable star. He travels to Africa which is presented with nuance and as the source of all power in the episode. J.D. ultimately uses his brain to save the day.
Comic books are best when they are disposable. Not because they aren't worth keeping, but because they express a kind of immediate, present experience. When a man becomes a monster, we can and should contemplate whether he was a monster all along, but only a comic book can make you feel the change.
