G-Man: Cape Crisis

The last time we met G-Man and Great Man, a pair of squabbling, super-powered siblings, and got to know a colorful cast of characters. In this volume, we get a larger story that grows out of older brother Great Man's desire to make more money than having a paper route. His scheme is to cut G-Man's magic cape into pieces and make them into bracelets. The cape is the source of their powers, and the bracelets give their wearers super-strength, invulnerability, and the ability to fly. Even at thousands of dollars apiece, people line up around the block to get a piece of that action. Great Man is not so stringent with a screening process, and some shady characters end up with superpowers and start causing mayhem. On top of that dilemma, the Wizard warns G-Man that breaking up the cape is making its magic highly unstable.

This volume is the latest in a series by Chris Giarrusso, a veteran of Marvel Comics whose funny and cartoony style is very expressive. This interview about his work and career details some insight into Giarrusso's stories. An interview with Comic Book Resources specifically about this series is available here.

Reviews of Cape Crisis have been largely positive, among readers young and old. Robert Sodaro praised the book, stating that it contains "so much of why we read comics in the first place." 10 year old Sophie Wilson at the Graphic Classroom found the story and art incredible. Raoul at Trade Talks was "tempted to end this review in one paragraph, telling you to just buy it already."

Cape Crisis was published by Image Comics, and an extended preview is available here. A video preview is also available here.

G-Man: Learning to Fly

Chris Giarrusso made his name drawing the Mini Marvels cartoons that appeared in various Marvel Comics. His art is fun, energetic, and reminiscent of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes work. G-Man is his foray into creator-owned characters, ones loosely based on his own family experiences (I am guessing). Here is an interview with Giarrusso about the book where he talks a little about his influences.

G-Man is a young boy who gets superpowers from a magic cape. He gets his name from the fact that no one can pronounce his last name. His big brother is Great Man, and they have a pretty normal sibling relationship. That is, they get on each others' nerves a lot. Their relationship really gets fleshed out in the series of "Mean Brother" (drawn by G-Man) and "Idiot Brother" (drawn by Great Man) comics that appear throughout.

This book chronicles their misadventures and it is full of entertaining characters. These include a powerful wizard, superhero friends from school, and G-Man's parents and teachers. The stories are whimsical and enjoyable, such as the one where the wizard sends the boys on a quest to retrieve his magic chalice. This grand quest ends before it even begins because Sparky the Swift finds it in the kitchen sink. Apparently, the wizard is lax with his dish washing...

This volume, published by Image Comics, has been well received in general. This review from Snow Wildsmith points out the fun points about the book, even if some of them rely on mild potty humor. John Hogan states that this book would be enjoyable for both older and younger readers. It is full of in-jokes for superhero comics fans but also works well as an introduction to the genre.

Giarrusso's official website is chock full of surprises. It has a good collection of his artwork, story samples, sketches, and a few fun games to play. Fans of Asteroids and Breakout especially may be pleased.

An extended preview of this volume is available here.