Customer Reviews

East Coast Rising Volume 1 (v. 1)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Becky Cloonan is one of the best artists on the indie-comics scene today. Her staging and pacing are masterful, her inks are intense, and her monsters are freakin' nasty! The art isn't the only thing that makes this book good, however--the story holds up its end as well (finally an indie comic that doesn't take itself too seriously). In fact, this story combines all the best elements of comics--pirates, sea monsters, intense action, and super-cool characters--into a rock-n-roll thrill ride that kicks some serious booty . If you want to see what a real comic book looks like, buy this book now.

I love books about pirates, books about futuristic, possibly post-apocalyptic worlds, and books with weird villains. I am also mildly interested in Western comics done with a Japanese manga flair, and since East Coast Rising has all those things, it was a good match.

The art grabbed me right away. It's not trying to hard to be manga, thank goodness, but you can clearly see the influence in the character design and the way the ocean is depicted. Think Teen Titans, except with more lines and definition. (You can view a preview of the book on Amazon here, by the way.)

The story started off with a BANG, for sure- the best stories always start with shipwrecks, I find. This shipwreck luckily has a happy turn, as our protagonist, Archer, gets rescued by a crew of...kinda-pirates. (I'm sure they'd prefer to be called smugglers/adventurers.) The rest of the book is pretty much just the pirate crew trying to keep Archer safe while beating another pirate crew to some treasure, and then a sea monster! pops up.

Alright, it's mostly action, with little plot and a lot of lovely art and fighting, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Though, I will admit that it would have been nice to have a little bit more substance. While the action-packed story is a good opener for a series, I couldn't help feeling that some things were left out that would have made it even better. Like, say, some background for our main character. I also thought that East Coast Rising could have been more effective if it was produced in a larger size. The small size of the book (7.5 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches, according to Amazon) makes it difficult to appreciate the art (and it's quite good) and sometimes even makes it hard to read the text. A larger format would have made it easier and more enjoyable, methinks.

On the whole, however, East Coast Rising seems like a fun, exciting story with lots of nifty things like giant sea monsters and crazy, androgynous villains. It's too bad that TokyoPop dropped it after the first volume, with volume two never having come out despite the author having over 100 pages done (via the author's website). I'd love to see where the story is going, so that's a bummer.

East Coast Rising is a manic, contemporary spin on pirates, featuring a colorful cast of characters, sea monsters, a flooded East Coast and, of course, a hidden treasure. Becky Cloonan puts a lot of energy into this first-of-three-volumes story, introducing her large cast of slacker/hipster characters, establishing some of their intertwined relationships while hinting at others, and setting up what appears to be more than just another treasure hunt. Not unlike Pirates of the Caribbean. East Coast Rising isn't a PotC clone, though, as Cloonan has her own story to tell and it's a fun one that stands on its own merits.

Disappointingly, her artwork doesn't hold up its end of the deal as the decision to 'color' water black instead of shades of grey too-often makes page after waterlogged, manga-style page indecipherable, especially during the many chaotic scenes of battle between ships, people and sea creatures, all blending into each other, and, worse, the water itself. Judging by the more legible sketches in the book's bonus section -- "The World of East Coast Rising" -- as well as memories of her exceptional, and varied, work on DEMO, this is presumably Vasilis Lolos' fault, who's credited with "tones". Issues with the art aside, it's an entertaining read that actually gets better on the second pass, and if its "tone" improves in subsequent volumes, I'll be picking them up.