REVIEW: Modern Grimm (Beek's Books #63)

[Todd VerBeek, gwm]

BEEK'S BOOKS #63 brought to you by Radio Zero
"This =is= a review... it just isn't a summary of this week's comics."(tm)
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fancy version: http://www.i2k.com/~verbeek/books/ModernGrimm.html

== Modern Grimm (Symptom)
== written by Andrew Dabb, illustrated by Derek Mah and David Emmerson
== issue #1
== rating: OK (mixed)
== content: beyond genre

I promised to do this review months ago. But thanks to some upheaval in
my life (moving and lover's illness), it got set aside. Now, thanks to
some additional upheaval (unemployment), the book has come to light again,
and I have a chance to give it a read, and write it up... altogether too
late to have much effect on sales, of course.

This first issue features two stories, both written by the books creator,
Andrew Dabb. It's in "flip-book" format, with each story getting a
"front" cover, and the two of them meeting where they end, in the middle
of the book. I read "The Old Woman and the Lions" first... because I
liked that cover better. {shrug}

That cover (a striking rendering of three lions, a crone, and a gnomish
scribe) is painted by Derek Mah, who illustrates this story. "The Old
Woman" is not illustrated in traditional comics format, but rather as
panels running the length of each page of text, much like an illustrated
children's book. (See the Web version of this review for an example.)
It's an awkward space to illustrate, but Mah uses it fairly well, giving
us portraits of each character featured in the story.

The story is a fable about an old woman who, on her regular walks in the
hills, comes upon the "handiwork" of the lions that roam the area. The
tale is told in a traditional story-telling format, repeating key elements
of the text with each succeeding episode. This technique underscores an
ongoing theme and gives a pattern and rhythm to the story. (A familiar
example of this technique is the story of Goldilocks: trying items from
each of the three bears, and finding those of the baby bear "just right".)
This provides the setup for the final episode, in which the pattern
changes... just a bit. It was a bit ambiguous as to what "the moral" of
the story was, but I liked it.

"Animal" is a bit clearer in its point, as a tale about the "savage"
traits that contributed to the survival of homo sapiens millenia ago, and
helped humanity evolve into one of the dominant species on the planet.
But how does that programming fit in with the society that we've developed
since then? What happens when the animal reasserts itself?

David Emmerson's art on this story isn't as strong as Mah's, which is
unfortunate, because the story he illustrates =is= in comics format, and
depends more heavily on the art. It conveys the story (i.e. you can tell
what's going on, which is not always the case even with more practised
artists), but has many of the hallmarks of inexperience: buildings
obviously drawn using a straightedge and vanishing point, completely blank
backgrounds, inconsistent use of light and dark (usually not enough black
ink on the page), awkward body proportions, and some simply ineffective
layouts.

In his brief bio at the end of the story (which I read after writing the
above comments), Emmerson acknowledges that this is his first comics work,
and needs to work on his craft. He's right. {smile} But he's not without
skill; there are some nice bits here and there... just not enough.
Another thing that hurts this story is the lettering, which is done with a
computer-generated "block writing" font... and looks like it.

One theme that recurs in this stories is a bit of violent morbidity.
Several people die in each of the two stories. I suppose it's appropriate
for a series bearing the word "grimm" in its title, and fables certainly
need not end "happily ever after". But I wouldn't mind something with a
more moderate body count.

That said, I'd have to conclude that Dabb achieves his stated goal, of
writing stories that will "appeal to sophisticated readers and people that
just like a good yarn". Despite "Animal"s artistic shortcomings, it
provides a thoughtful look at the baser legacy of human evolution; and
"The Old Woman and the Lions" offers an interesting tale about suspicion
and carelessness. If Dabb can consistently assure that the quality of the
art matches his writing, this series could succeed.

Cheers, Todd
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These reviews (with art samples and HTML formatting) are also
available on my WWW site: http://www.i2k.com/~verbeek/books/
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I'm an optimist: the glass is empty, but maybe =someday= it'll be half full.