Daisy Kutter: The Last Train [Paperback]

Kazu Kibuishi (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Daisy Kutter's bandit days are behind her. She and partner Tom have gone legit, and now she is a respectable small-town citizen, owner of the local general store--and bored out of her mind. Frustration with the tedium of normal life and her own discontents gets her into trouble after she loses the store in a poker game. Mr. Winters, the security mogul who won it, offers a proposition she can't refuse: to test the new security robots on his train. He is willing to pay. In a fit of recklessness, Daisy takes the job. Kibuishi's art and storytelling in his Wild West confection convey a sense that Daisy's world isn't created as much as spontaneously unfolding as you read. His art is a hybrid of the best aspects of both manga and American animation yet is more unique than that suggests. It expresses Daisy's restrained frustration and Tom's aw-shucks likability and also the wide-open space of the Wild West. Tina Coleman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Viper Comics (March 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975419323
• ISBN-13: 978-0975419328
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #980,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kazu Kibuishi is the author and artist of the popular Amulet graphic novel series. He is also the creator of the Flight Anthologies, a critically acclaimed comics series, and Daisy Kutter: The Last Train, a winner of the YALSA Best Books for Young Adults Award. Born in Tokyo, Japan, Kazu moved to the U.S. with his mother and brother when he was a child. He graduated from Film Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, and then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. He currently works as a full-time comic book artist. Kazu lives in Alhambra, California, with his wife, Amy, and their son, Juni.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hipster Spies With His Mystic Eye Something That Begins With--The Old West through a fractured lens, December 30, 2005

By 

The Mystic Eye Of The Hipster (Murfreesboro, TN United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Daisy Kutter: The Last Train (Paperback)

Set in a strange, Futurist version of the Wild West, female ex-bandit Daisy Kutter is tricked into one last train robbery. But all is not as it seems.

It has wry humor, an appealing lead character, a real feel for the West, & fun art.

I'll bet my eyeteeth the cartoonist has a shelf full of Lamour Westerns at home.

This belongs in an odd little sub-genre called the Weird West, claimed equally by Westerns, Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror, all set in the latter half of America's 19th Century, & west of the Mississippi.

I wanna see more of Miss Daisy Kutter.

The Hipster gives it a big Thumbs Up!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine comic, April 24, 2005

By 

K. M. Ueda (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Daisy Kutter: The Last Train (Paperback)

The title is actually Daisy Kutter: The Last Train, and it's an excellent graphic novel by <a href="http://www.boltcity.com">Kazu Kibuishi</a>. It's a sort of a space western featuring Daisy Kutter, a former outlaw of mythic repute who gets roped into one more gig. The story is simple and rather unremarkable, but its merits as a comic are many. Kibuishi seems to have mastered the subtle pacing and extended silences that make comics so magical, and he has chosen a level of stylization for his characters that is accessibly cartoonish without being cloying or absurd (think The Incredibles and Tintin rather than Mickey Mouse). One gets the impression he has taken all of Scott McCloud's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006097625X/">best advice</a>, consciously or otherwise. Regardless, this is a real gem.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So good that there should be more, December 4, 2008

By 

sanoe.net - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Daisy Kutter: The Last Train (Paperback)

Daisy Kutter: The Last Train is a graphic novel that I had no plans to get. I didn't even know it existed. It never came up on my Recommended List.

WHY?? This book has been out since 2005. I should have gotten it much much sooner! I feel like I am late to a wonderful party!

But still, I did eventually find this graphic novel by Kazu Kibuishi on pure accident while looking for another graphic novel.

I got both but it is Daisy who stole my heart.

Seriously, this is a fabulous book. Unpretentious, funny, intense, a bit of romance and some blood with a great heroine.

Daisy Kutter is an old West, steam punk style ex-bandit. After losing her store in a round of Texas Hold 'Em, she is persuaded to take part in a robbery of train that is commissioned by the train's owner as a way to test the security.

Daisy's world is an alternate universe where the old West and robots live together in uneasy harmony. She's a woman who has lived a full life and while she isn't ready to be a good woman, she's more than ready to give up the old lifestyle.

But a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do.

With the sherriff-on-vacation beside her and two new associates, she will attempt to rob the train and get the money and save her store.

If only it were that easy.

The art is deceptively simple and apparently all done by Kibuishi himself. The story is wonderful in detail and dialogue.

And Daisy and Tom are immediately engaging characters.

I have to look for more work from Kazu Kibuishi because I am now an immediate fan.

But as I look through the listings, it doesn't look like there are any more Daisy Kutter books as yet. I hope that changes because this little gem of a story is so good that it begs to have more.