After a long (much longer than we would have liked, here at Copacetic) hiatus, R. Kikuo Johnson returns to the comics fold with this graphic novel that presents a highly empathic, pitch perfect portrait of a family going through a stressful moment of transition. This portrait serves both to reveal the development of each family member's respective character – along with the way in which each of their characters grew out of their relationships to each other – and how the transition then shapes them in new ways. The entire work is rendered with a mood capturing exactitude very much (and quite successfully) in the mode of The Master (aka Jaime Hernandez) and is a real pleasure to read.
Need a little more convincing? There's a mini-interview with R. Kikuo Johnson along with a nice preview in The New Yorker, HERE.
This is the first great new anthology of the year. It's chock-a-block with meta-super tales by the best and brightest of the new voices in comics. We'll have more to say once we get a chance to give it the once over, but for now, you can read this rave review on 4th Rail.
R. Kikuo Johnson is a natural born comicker, if ever there was one. Every page he draws seems a perfect balance of line, form and color. It's uncanny. He seems incapable of putting a line out of place or making a stray mark. While this Toon Book has been created specifcally for younger readers, the sheer quality of the work on display on each of this work's 36 page's will thrill the perceptual apparatus of any fan of comics and visual story-telling, regardless of their age. Comics geek note: There's a bit of a Jesse Marsh / Alex Toth + Steve Rude / Darwyn Cooke hybrid quality here. Now that this is available in a low-price softcover editoin, there's really no excuse not to check this out (and then perhaps pass it on to a younger reader, and share the joys of good comics).
FROM THE ARCHIVES
ONE COPY
30th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE!
CLASSIC R. Kikuo Johnson cover
Alex Toth Obituary/appreciation by Howard Chaykin
>>> Excellent essay on birth of direct market, "Fine Young Cannibals" by Michael Dean
Essays by Gary Groth and Dirk Deppy
Feature interviw with R. Kikuo Johnson by Gary Groth
Chynna Clugston interviewed by Kristy Valenti
Mark Siegel interviewed by Michael Dean
Chris Staros interviewed by Michael Dean
Diana Schutz interviewed by Dirk Deppy
Joey Manley interviewed by Dirk Deppy
Classic comics reprint: The COMPLETE It Rhymes with Lust by Matt Baker, from script by Drake Waller; inks by Ray Osrin - This is a contender for the First Graphic Novel. Introduction by Michael T. Gilbert and Ken Quattro
