World Comic Book Review

28th March 2024

Land of the Rats – Gastrolithicus (review)

“Land of the Rats – Gastrolithicus” (review)
The Underground Forrest, 2016
Writer: Mark Nasso

In 1851 American writer Herman Melville wrote “Moby Dick”. Ostensibly a tale about the perils of whaling in pre-industrialised America, “Moby Dick” was one of the first novels which:

a. focussed upon “will to power”, in a Nietzschean sense, but thirty years before Friedrich Nietzsche wrote his texts beginning with “Thus Spake Zarathustra” (1883). The fundamental concept is that a person through sheer force of will can overcome any adversity;

b. anger with fate, as a fuel to that will to succeed. Many writers and philosophers have for centuries noted that the fates are cruel. In “Moby Dick”, Captain Ahab rages against God, embodied by the white whale, and drew strength from his fury.

In this fantasy work, entitled “Land of the Rats – Gastrolithicus”, a combination of narrative text and free-flowing art, the unnamed protagonist, wandering a strange and icy land, is subjected to various twists and turns of fate- enslavement, escape and recapture, being eaten by a giant monster, a fight to the death, and the decimation of his liberated comrades. The grim tale is punctuated by amusing monologue – reference to “ass-kicking” and the rise and fall of “stones” depending upon the protagonist’s mental state will draw a wry smile. Any additional humour, given the dire predicaments faced by the protagonist, would potentially have taken the fantasy across the line into farce along the lines of Voltaire’s “Candide”. But the humour is dry, such as it is, and is applied by Mark Nasso, writer and artist of this work, with minimal application.

Read more

Shekhar Kapur’s Devi: Rebirth #1 (review)

Shekhar Kapur’s Devi: Rebirth #1 (review)
(Graphic India, August 2016)
Writer: Ashwin Pande

This title has come back into existence following a crossover event in January 2016 between the title character, a warrior goddess named Devi, and Top Cow Production’s character “Witchblade”. “Witchblade” reached the height of popularity in the late 1990s when comics featuring beautiful, under-dressed superheroines sold stock. This vogue prompted the term “T&A” (“tits and ass”) to describe comic books, such as “Tomb Raider” and the truly awful “Mike Deodato’s Jade Warriors” which sat on the hazy border of soft pornography and comic book entertainment for teenaged boys.

devi

Read more

Forged from the Heavens: Ang Panday

Ang Panday
Atlas Publishing, March 13, 1979
Writer: Carlo J. Caparas

“Ang Panday” (lit. “The Blacksmith”), which first appeared as one of the serials in the Filipino weekly comic book anthology “Pilipino Komiks” in 1979, is the definitive Filipino comic book hero. The property has become a household name among Filipinos – even those who have not read the original comic – owing to a series of film adaptations that starred the late Fernando Poe Jr. (Mr Poe Jr was an influential actor whose popularity was enough to almost win the 2004 Philippines Presidential elections.)

Read more

Gods and Monsters: Feng Shen Ji (review)

Feng Shen Ji
Bookone Creative LTD, Aug 24, 2015 – Apr 11, 2016
Writer: Zheng Jian He

A common thread running across different mythologies from different cultures, particularly those rooted in polytheism, is the concept of deities that are no less prone to corruption, indolence, and egotism as the mortals they seek to govern. The Chinese martial arts fantasy manhua “Feng Shen Ji”, written by Zheng Jian He, works under the same premise – that the powerful gods who govern life and death have within their ranks those driven by self-interest and those who have become drunk with their power, looking only at lesser gods and mortals as mere playthings.

At the center of the story is the Black Dragon, Tian, who was the strongest of the ancient gods. Tian single-handedly drove his enemies, known as the Dark Ones, deep into the pits of Hell. Tian also killed all the other ancient gods when they chose to betray him and his lover, White Dragon, out of fear. Tian serves the purpose of the god of gods in the story, being the creator of the world, the humans, and the lesser gods (called the Great Gods). These lesser gods are themselves fashioned using the life force of ancient gods, and use primitive humans as vessels.

Read more