Asadora! Volume 1

My experiences with manga are pretty limited, I feel, but there are certain authors whose works I seek out and Naoki Urasawa is chief among them. Asadora! shares many features with his other works, including an exploration of how the past affects the present, a compelling mystery, expressive art, and a series of breathtaking cliffhangers. The titular star of this book comes from a large family, and is often overlooked in the shuffle of daily life. (SPOILERS ahead!) One eventful day, she gets kidnapped, a giant hurricane hits, and she and her kidnapper have to band together to survive. While trapped, she learns about his background as a fighter pilot in World War 2, and when they finally survey the damage they see what appears to be a giant footprint among the wreckage. (end/SPOILERS)

What are they looking at? Buy the book and find out!

Three things recommend this book: 1. It is incredibly well crafted in terms of plot. Each chapter ends with a revelation/cliffhanger that compelled me to keep going. 2. The characters and their personalities are quickly introduced and communicated, both visually and narratively. They are drawn in an incredibly expressive style, and I found myself intrigued and enchanted by them in short order. 3. It sets up a captivating mystery, adding a touch of magical realism into an otherwise straight-forward action tale. There is so much going on that is unresolved and unanswered, and this book is a great introduction to a nuanced and detailed serial comics series. I have read the next four books already, and I cannot get enough of them.

Naoki Urasawa is regarded as one of the premier manga creators, and he has won the Shogakukan Manga Award three times, the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize twice, two Eisner Awards, and the Kodansha Manga Award once. His works have been some of the most celebrated of recent times and include Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Pluto. More recently, he has started a YouTube channel where he demonstrates his artwork (in Japanese).

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been positive. Tom Shapira contextualized it against others in his oeuvre, and although he has some issues with some tics, he concluded that "Urasawa can do it all." Will called it "another strong entry in Urasawa’s career." Publishers Weekly wrote, "Urusawa excels in focusing on human drama and multifaceted characters, and the storytelling is matched with dynamic, classic realist manga artwork."

Asadora! is published by Viz Books, and they offer  more information about it here.

The Art of Running

Steve Prefontaine died in 1975 at the age of 24, but he left behind a legacy rare for a modern track and field athlete. He attended college and ran track for coach Bill Bowerman, a hugely influential figure and co-founder of the massive athletic shoe company Nike. He also competed at the 1972 Olympic Games and did not win a medal, but what he did was capture many people's attention with his approach to running and outspoken ways. He became a celebrity of sorts, almost like a rock star, but a car accident cut his life and career short. His rise to fame and untapped potential have fascinated people for decades, and his life has been portrayed in not one but two bio movies released as major motion pictures.

The Art of Running is in part another telling of his biography, done this time as a graphic novel, but it is also a look at his life and beliefs in a way that get at the man and his motivations. I can tell from the well detailed artwork, the attention to specific life episodes, and the way his thoughts are delineated that this book is a real labor of love. I appreciated how the book focused on various aspects of his life, not just his later successes and international presence but also his early days where he learns to run and encounters many interesting personalities, chief among them his coach at the University of Oregon.

I felt that overall the book succeeded in showing a reader (even one who did not know who Prefontaine was) much about his life and times as well as what it was about him that made such an impression. The quotations that kick off each chapter went a long way in establishing a definitive line of thought that unified the narrative. This biography was not just a dry portrayal of facts but a fleshed out, compelling portrait of an extraordinary person.

The only drawback for me about this book lay in the way it ended, and I am uncertain if the creators quite stuck the landing. The scene where he died was a little bit vague for my tastes, with an abrupt transition from a scene of a car crashing to a magazine cover tribute. If I did not know his story I don't think I would have understood quite what was going on. In a way, his death was accidental and somewhat nebulous because of contrasting accounts, so perhaps that vagueness was intention. I think that it certainly creates enough curiosity that an interested reader would seek out more information, but I could also see it leading to some disappointment at the unclear ending of what has been up to the that point a very well crafted set of events. I won't way that the book was ruined by any means, because I quite enjoyed it; I just felt that one key sequence came off a bit wonky.

This book was funded as a Kickstarter project by the husband/wife team of Matthew J.J. and Megan Crehan. Matthew is a running enthusiast, author, and comics creator who is best known for his revival of the British "Tough of the Track" character Alf Tupper. Megan is a photographer and, as far as I can tell, has no other comics credits. The artwork, done in pleasing, realistic, and simple painterly style, is by Sigit Nugroho.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Jonathan Gault called it "a fitting tribute to the man and a nice resource for anyone looking to learn (or re-familiarize themselves with) the story of Steve Prefontaine." Matt Rasmussen wrote, "The storytelling is solid and I found the artwork mesmerizing." Richard Bruton opined that this book hit "that happy medium of storytelling and fact, and doing it with style, picking the best elements and presenting them well."

The Art of Running is available directly from Matthew Crehan here (he is in the UK, so international shipping rates to the US would apply).  He also has preview pages and more information on his website.

A review copy was provided by the authors. Thank you!

Marathon

Ten years before the famed Battle of Thermopylea, the Greeks scored a landmark and pivotal victory against the Persians at Marathon. This book details the life of one of that battle's key figures, here called Eucles, who delivered messages to gather forces and gain allies the only way available back then, by running. (By the way, there are multiple accounts of this story, and the hero's name varies according to the source. He is alternately known as Pheidippides or Thersipus of Erchius). We learn of his early life as a slave, see him earn his citizenship, and wince when he loses his family as part of a hard lesson learned. His role is key, because the Athenians need the assistance of the Spartans, and his task becomes personal when some childhood grudges come to the fore.

Almost as much as it is about Eucles, this is also a book about military strategy. Vastly outnumbered by the Persian forces, who are being marshaled by Hippias, the ex-tyrant of Athens who was ousted by Spartan forces, the Athenians rely on the strategy of Militiades to turn back their foes. The military chess match is a large part of the first half of this book, and my one major negative criticism is that it was difficult to keep straight the separate characters in the early going of the story when scenes cut back and forth. For more historical background about the battle strategies check out these sites.

Marathon is a collaboration between writer Boaz Yakin and artist Joe Infurnari. Yakin is best known as a screenwriter and director. He has written multiple screenplays, including the 1989 movie The Punisher and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. He has also directed films such as Fresh and Remember the Titans. Infurnari is an Eisner Award-nominated artist who is best known for the graphic novel, Mush! Sled Dogs with Issues. His sketchy art style suits the grittiness of this time period well. I also though his action sequences were appropriately frenzied, capturing the bewildering, brutal aspects of Bronze Age combat. He talks more about his life and career in this interview. Infurnari also has a cache of comics online at act-i-vate.

This graphic history has been well received. It was selected a UT School of Information Science Book of the Week, and it has been well reviewed. Kirkus Reviews gave it a coveted starred review. Kris Bather wrote that it is "dramatic, engrossing, and...it really does 'make history come alive.'" A more measured review from Publishers Weekly remarked on how the beginning of the book was somewhat hard to follow but continued, "As the book progresses, and Eucles takes center stage, the book rights itself, and by the end, it is easy to feel oneself racing alongside him toward Athens"

A preview is available here from the book's publisher First Second. 

Thank you, Gina, for the review copy!