Oh, the great little surprises
that show up for review.
Here is another
book, another collection, that I would have never read, and yet it shows up in
my inbox and my world is much the better for it.
This is a great comic called Wonton Soup,
and this book collects the initial run as well as Wonton Soup 2.
I don't know if this originally came out as
separate books or how it was released, but having this collected edition is a
great way to read all of this in one place.
This is the work of James
Stokoe, and he has a very unique vision and way with a story.
The two main characters are Johnny Boyo and
Deacon Vans, and they are space truckers.
Probably not of the variety mentioned by Deep Purple, but more the
futuristic equivalent of our long haul truckers rolling up the miles on the
highways today.
Not much is ever
mentioned about their particular cargoes as that wouldn't make for a very
interesting story.
Rather we see their
adventures along the way as they make their various stops along their route, have
breakdowns with their spaceship, etc.
Johnny Boyo is also an aspiring
chef, who left cooking school to do the space trucker thing.
Deacon Vans seems to just be along for the
ride, and the party, and a girl in every port, or sex with something in every port
anyway.
Boyo's past leads into a story
where he gets involved in a cook off.
It
also leads them into a sticky spot as he goes after rare and exotic
ingredients.
His character seems to lead
the adventures and Deacon is along for the party.
It is a very engaging set of stories, well
written and leading naturally from one to the next.
I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book or
not, but I found myself reading enthusiastically and looking forward to the time
each day where I could sit down and read a little more.
And of course there is that little bit of sadness when
it all comes to an end and you don't have any more of that story to read.
That is the mark of a great book in my
opinion.
The artwork is really cool,
somehow looking futuristic and retro all at the same time.
My understanding is that Stokoe writes the
stories, does all the artwork, and puts the whole book together.
To my knowledge there are not a lot of
artists who do that, and I have to really tip my cap to him.
His style both with the pictures and the
story are very original, funky, and enjoyable.
This is a book that is done in black and
white, and as I have mentioned before I am always a little unsure what kind of
read that is going to be.
I grew up on
Marvel superhero comics with bright colors and good guys versus bad guys story
lines so maybe when I was younger this wouldn't have appealed to me.
This is a really good book and I find myself
more and more enthralled with the graphic novel form as I read different types
of stories.
So again, I'm very glad that
I get the chance to do these reviews.
This one is from Oni Press in Portland, Oregon,
and another win for them.
If you like
your comics a little out there and a little different, check this one out.
You can't go wrong with this one.
- ODIN
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