Swashbuckling epic continues
SAMURAI: HEAVEN AND EARTH VOLUME 2 #2 <br>by Ron Marz and Luke Ross<br>Dark Horse Comics pp 32, ISBN 9781593078393
I have a weakness for anything Japanese. It all started when I was around 11 or 12 years old. I watched Karate Kid 2 and was really entranced by the tea ceremony scene. The scene was so elegant and serene. It opened my eyes to a world of aesthetics which I had not known existed until that moment. A culture which ritualised the drinking a few dried leaves and turned it into an art. It was then that I realised that life could be art.
Reading a comic sometimes reminds me that life is art. Usually when you write or say "art" you think of visual art - either a painting, or sculpture. Although musicians and followers of non-visual arts can be called artists as well when someone just says "I am an artist" you usually think of painting or sculpture or at least some kind of visual installation. Reading a comic is seeing life transcribed into art. Each page is full of mini-paintings. People may look at comics and see them as just a child's medium. Only the young can enjoy a book of pictures.
I've thought about this for a while, and I can understand why. Most of the time the plot of a comic resembles a children's story. There are stories with monsters and heroes and fantastical beings. They are nice-looking fairy tales at best. These simplistic stories will then be rendered more palatable by the surreal artwork which accompanies it. Most of the time there is a dichotomy between plot and art. Samurai is a perfect example of this.
Looking at each panel without reading the words or thinking about the context of each panel in relation to the one next to it, you are mesmerised. The art is flawless and beautiful. Each panel is brilliantly rendered. Although the artist is not Japanese, the comic is drawn in manga style and contains many elements of Japanese aesthetics. The shading and textures are luscious. Samurai is a beautiful comic. It is a beautiful comic visually.
The plot and writing is, however, nothing special. Samurai takes place in the years 1704-1705 and is a story about Asukai Shiro who is a samurai. The only love of his life is the Lady Yoshiko. One night she is spirited away by his enemies and thus begins an epic journey to retrieve his lost love.
Volume 2 begins with a flashback sequence of Shiro with Yoshiko taking a bath with one another. You can see the love and passion that both feel for each other.
Shiro's most recent information on her whereabouts causes him to book passage on a Mediterranean trader, intending to follow her to the New World. Later Shiro realises Yoshiko has been captured and has been taken to the Egyptian coast. He must then find a way off his ship before he is taken half a world away from her. Thus ensues the climax of this episode with Shiro battling the entire crew to escape from the ship.
Samurai is the typical chivalric quest of a lone warrior looking for his lost love. Their love spans continents and time. If this was a written story I wouldn't be interested - which takes us back to the dichotomy between art and plot. The art is fantastic. The plot is tired. To be fair the only new element here is that the protagonist is Japanese and is travelling around Europe during an age where Japan was totally closed off from the rest of the world. This adds a hint of the exotic, but it is not enough to make anyone stand up and notice.
Samurai is a comic which exists on two planes. The art is transcendent and exists on the plane of refined tastes and beauty. It is caviar and champagne. The plot exists on a lower plane of blandness and humdrum life. It is a bar brawl with a pint of lager.
• Mr Vella is an English Literature graduate with a passion for comics and images. He lives with two cats and the odd human. • A review copy of this title was made available by Malta Comics.
http://www.maltacomics.com
Reading a comic sometimes reminds me that life is art. Usually when you write or say "art" you think of visual art - either a painting, or sculpture. Although musicians and followers of non-visual arts can be called artists as well when someone just says "I am an artist" you usually think of painting or sculpture or at least some kind of visual installation. Reading a comic is seeing life transcribed into art. Each page is full of mini-paintings. People may look at comics and see them as just a child's medium. Only the young can enjoy a book of pictures.
I've thought about this for a while, and I can understand why. Most of the time the plot of a comic resembles a children's story. There are stories with monsters and heroes and fantastical beings. They are nice-looking fairy tales at best. These simplistic stories will then be rendered more palatable by the surreal artwork which accompanies it. Most of the time there is a dichotomy between plot and art. Samurai is a perfect example of this.
Looking at each panel without reading the words or thinking about the context of each panel in relation to the one next to it, you are mesmerised. The art is flawless and beautiful. Each panel is brilliantly rendered. Although the artist is not Japanese, the comic is drawn in manga style and contains many elements of Japanese aesthetics. The shading and textures are luscious. Samurai is a beautiful comic. It is a beautiful comic visually.
The plot and writing is, however, nothing special. Samurai takes place in the years 1704-1705 and is a story about Asukai Shiro who is a samurai. The only love of his life is the Lady Yoshiko. One night she is spirited away by his enemies and thus begins an epic journey to retrieve his lost love.
Volume 2 begins with a flashback sequence of Shiro with Yoshiko taking a bath with one another. You can see the love and passion that both feel for each other.
Shiro's most recent information on her whereabouts causes him to book passage on a Mediterranean trader, intending to follow her to the New World. Later Shiro realises Yoshiko has been captured and has been taken to the Egyptian coast. He must then find a way off his ship before he is taken half a world away from her. Thus ensues the climax of this episode with Shiro battling the entire crew to escape from the ship.
Samurai is the typical chivalric quest of a lone warrior looking for his lost love. Their love spans continents and time. If this was a written story I wouldn't be interested - which takes us back to the dichotomy between art and plot. The art is fantastic. The plot is tired. To be fair the only new element here is that the protagonist is Japanese and is travelling around Europe during an age where Japan was totally closed off from the rest of the world. This adds a hint of the exotic, but it is not enough to make anyone stand up and notice.
Samurai is a comic which exists on two planes. The art is transcendent and exists on the plane of refined tastes and beauty. It is caviar and champagne. The plot exists on a lower plane of blandness and humdrum life. It is a bar brawl with a pint of lager.
• Mr Vella is an English Literature graduate with a passion for comics and images. He lives with two cats and the odd human. • A review copy of this title was made available by Malta Comics.
http://www.maltacomics.com