Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet
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William Meyers, Robert A.F. Thurman, and Michael G. Burbank. Tibet House US, $39.95 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-941312-04-9
Much like John Lewis’s March series, this biography of the Dalai Lama is more than just a biography, but rather a sprawling historical tale filtered through one individual life. The book covers events during the Dalai Lama’s previous incarnation and leading up to his own ascendancy, which may be a bit much for a casual reader who just wants the basic story. The narrative includes the intricacies of the Chinese government’s relationship with Tibet, capturing all the players, military moves, and atrocities in harrowing detail. All three writers are devoted followers of Tibetan thought—Thurman is the famed founder of Tibet House—and given their closeness to the subject, the book lags a bit in the last third as it slavishly renders the Dalai Lama’s rise to internationally treasured leader status. However, the artwork by multiple contributors gives the presentation a cinematic sweep that captures the intensity and larger-than-life quality of the subject. (Mar.)
The Damned, Vol. 1: Three Days Dead
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Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt, and Bill Crabtree. Oni, $10 trade paper (152p) ISBN SBN 978-1-62010-385-2
Eddie is a gunman for hire who’s lost his soul and can be killed over and over. A devilish mob boss—as in, he is literally a devil—hires Eddie to find a missing demon, and thus unfurls a mostly standard hard-boiled story with a supernatural twist. “Getting a little tired of dying,” Eddie says; “maybe I should charge Al extra every time I take a fall.” Eddie bargains with the boss to be left for dead, forever, so he can finally rest. Hurtt’s moody, shadowy artwork with subtle colors from Crabtree help evoke Prohibition-era New York, and the creature and demon designs are creepy and creative. Strong action sequences make the supernatural gangland warfare pop. Eddie is a charming rascal, but as a protagonist he still leaves much room for depth. As with Bunn’s popular series The Sixth Gun, this genre-crossing tale is good fun for readers. (Mar.)
Simply Samuel
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Tommi Musturi. Fantagraphics, $24.99 (160p) ISBN 978-1-60699-998-1
This colorful, psychedelic graphic novel twists the bizarre and the macabre into a metaphorical, illusory quest for the secret of life. Samuel, a teardrop brought to sentient life, wanders through weird landscapes of apocalypse, biology, and comics themselves. Musturi (The Book of Hope) presents this elegiac silent story through vivid and polychromatic clear-line imagery with zero dialogue or narration. The bright, fluid design of Musturi’s characters and panoramas makes Samuel’s wordless odyssey paradoxically both alien and universal, accommodating both fantasy and the human condition, spun with a tangle of tension and mystery. The puzzle box of a narrative ends with a list of six (sometimes contradictory) maxims, including “Trust blindly” and “Question all information.” As a guide to the meaning of life, it’s more of a Choose Your Own Adventure story. (Apr.)
Black Hammer: Secret Origins
Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston. Dark Horse, $14.99 trade paper (152p) ISBN 978-1-61655-786-7
Lemire’s best stories (the Essex County trilogy) are permeated with loss–his characters are always pining for something that once was and can never be again. While reveling in the pulp fantasies of silver age superhero comics and EC’s lurid sci-fi/horror stories, this collection is as much a study of loneliness and isolation as it is a superhero deconstruction. It opens with six former superheroes who’ve been mysteriously trapped on a small farm for a decade. Each chapter, beautifully illustrated by Ormston (Lucifer) with eerie, stripped-down realism, explores each hero’s identity, origins, and path to ending up on the farm. As the narrative unfolds, the haunting backstories add greater context and intrigue to the mysteries of the present. There’s an astonishing clarity to the characters and their motivations amid what could easily become a convoluted backstory filled with interstellar exploration, multiverse travelling, alien diplomacy, and quiet farm life. If Black Hammer lives up to its early promise, it will deserve a place on the shelf right next to the Watchmen series. (Apr.)
Japanese Notebooks: A Journey to the Empire of Signs
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Igort. Chronicle, $29.95 (184p) ISBN 978-1-4521-5870-9
In this pleasantly meandering graphic album, Italian cartoonist Igort (The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks) collects his scattered impressions of Japan, stitching together short stories, essays, and samples of the comics he drew for manga publisher Kodansha while living in Tokyo. As a foreign-born manga artist, he’s put through the rigors of the true manga-ka lifestyle, including the time-honored ritual of being shut in a hotel room by his editors—“under house arrest”—until he meets his deadlines. He talks art with renowned creators Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Jiro Taniguchi and discovers WWII-era manga and anime. Igort is enamored of all things Japanese, writing, “I had convinced myself and my editors at Kodansha that I was Japanese in a past life.” If this rose-colored view is a touch naïve, Igort’s warmly colored art, combining the elegant clear line of European comics with the expressive simplicity of manga and a touch of ukiyo-e, goes a long way toward selling his vision. Agent: Debbie Bibo. (May)
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