How To Draw Manga Compilation Volume 3

Rating:
Summary: Caveat emptor, sucker!
Review: My name is Alex Robinson and I am the author of this book. There appears to be some mix up:
1) "Sherman's March" is out of print.
2) Ben Dunn was the publisher of the book, not the co-author.
3) The cover depicted is not the cover of the book.
Anyone interested in reading my reprinted comic book series "Box Office Poison" should check out the Top Shelf publication of the same name, available here at Amazon.

Rating:
Summary: Vaguely Seinfeldian
Review: Times were that graphic novels were about intrepid crews battling evil intergalactic empires, or apprentice wizards going on quests to recover stolen artifacts, or bands of superheroes duking it out with Earth's greatest menaces.

Lately, a growing number of graphic novels are about fairly average people leading fairly average lives. In these collections, no one is pulling on a pair of Spandex tights to race off to battle crime, nor are the conflicts on an epic and history-changing scale. Often, there are no real plotlines as such, or at least, the narratives tend to center on such relatively prosaic crises as the loss of a job or the breakup of a relationship or estrangement from family.

This particular volume pulls together some of the issues of the now-defunct sorta-monthly series "Box Office Poison", which was about the lives of Sherman, his girlfriend Dorothy, his friend Jane and her lover Stephen, and his friend Ed and Ed's cartoonist boss Irving Flavor. Sherman is a disgruntled college-educated bookstore employee (some of the most amusing sections deal with his trials at the hands of witless customers who wander in to ask for "that book about that guy in the blue cover"). He longs to be a serious writer, but seems to suffer from some low-grade slacker infestation which keeps him from accomplishing anything, while still remaining rather self-righteous about his integrity.

Jane and Stephen are academics, with Jane providing the fiery passion and Stephen a calming influence. He dearly wants to marry her; she's indifferent to the concept. Ed is a schlub with crippling self-esteem issues. He's an aspiring cartoonist who lands a job with former industry great Irving Flavor, a stand-in for Siegel/Shuster/Kane and other Golden Age comic book figures who created Superman, Batman, and others but never received a fraction of the riches their heroes brought to the publishers.

Dorothy is a successful commercial writer on the staff of a metropolitan magazine. She smokes incessantly, drinks too much, and lives in a wretched den of slovenly filth. She may also have a mysterious and shady past; Jane, her former roommate, despises her, but won't tell Sherman why.

The most fully developed plotline relates to Ed's attempt to force a comic book company to render a fair share of royalties to the aged and cantankerous Flavor. Most of the rest of the material involves vignettes about finding a new place to live after getting evicted, searching for roommates, dealing with insufferable bosses, wretched customers, and boring co-workers, and the trade-off between certain but low-paying work and the risk of seeking greater fulfillment but possible financial ruin. And, of course, the search for love.

Sherman and Dorothy make a strange and not always likable couple. Indeed, sometimes the reader simply wants to smack Sherman upside the head. Stephen and Jane live together happily, but Jane is strangely reluctant to make a commitment. Ed stumbles about unhappily, being painfully shy. And recurring characters who pop up at first in the margins slowly develop their own minor sideplots and pursue their own connections.

The artwork is quite nicely done and has a vividly distinct and appealing style. Many of the episodes are amusing; some are actually poignant. Separate sections are bookended by little flights of fancy, where both the main and lesser characters get to answer questions about sex and celebrity. On the whole, it's a well-produced work, but, like real life, it's not very focused narratively; there are small triumphs and losses, strange but bitter arguments over nonsense, relationships that implode spectacularly or simply wither away. None of the characters is without fault, but all of them have some virtue. It's kinda messy, but strangely absorbing. Give it a try.