Kabuki Volume 4: Skin Deep (v. 4) [Paperback]

David Mack (Author)

Book Description

Series: Kabuki | Publication Date: July 22, 2002

A woman whose face is horribly scarred finds herself in an institution for "defective" government agents. While there, she is interrogated to find out if she is hiding something or if she is simply crazy. Isolated and psychologically tormented, Kabuki's only friend is found in a mystery woman who sends her handwritten notes folded into origami animals.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a sinister, futuristic Tokyo, an assassin named Kabuki wakes up wounded and incarcerated. She's a member of an agency that keeps the forces of government and crime in balance. Events covered in preceding Kabuki volumes have separated her from her sister agents and landed her at Control Corps, an agency that rehabilitates impaired or rogue agents and gets them back in the field. But Kabuki discovers her associates are out to kill her for a murder she's allegedly committed. Not much else happens in this slow-moving volume, which is called a prequel to another volume by the author. At its core is Kabuki's clandestine friendship with Akemi, an unseen individual claiming to be a fellow detainee, who sends tiny notes folded into exquisite origami creatures through a vent in the cell. Mack has a talent for eye-catching composition, color and texture, and an excellent grasp of anatomy. Each image has a high-labor finish and his inventive layouts are unconfined by a traditional panel grid. But his affection for melodrama and his overly exotic treatment of all things Asian (particularly women) or superficially Asian often makes the book seem like soft-porn science fiction. His women are all half-dressed, continually pouting and flawless. Add a tendency toward a pretentious "literary" tone and you might mistake this book for Asian-fetish erotica. But the work is saved by the intelligently rendered psychological intrigue Mack generates between two characters forced to establish trust and support under tremendous duress. This edition includes a bonus short story, sketchbook drawings, handwritten manuscript pages and photographs of Mack, his buddies and his models.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Image Comics; Graphic No edition (July 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582400008
• ISBN-13: 978-1582400006
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #385,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poetry, Psychology, and Perfection!, January 24, 2001

By 

Shane Culleton "culleton" (Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa-ken, Japan.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kabuki Volume 4: Skin Deep (v. 4) (Paperback)

In the previous two books in the Kabuki series David Mack has been exploring the effect on the lifes of those around Kabuki of the events in Volume 1. Here in Volume 4; Skin Deep we finally return to the heroine of the title. This book, while ostensibly a superhero comic book is in fact an excellent combination of so many things. This book brings together great storytelling, excellent characterisation, beautiful artwork, poetry and psychology. We learn more about the fate of the great character Mack has created in Kabuki. While not as long, or indeed as involving as the first work, this book has a very different feel to it. In this work we get drawn into the psychology of the women involved, and into the raw emotions they experience. There is no middle ground in this book. I strongly recommend this book BUT you do have to read the previous works in the series. This is not a good starting point. But you should make the effort. Go back to the start. Work your way here. It is worth it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One that you'll remember, November 18, 2003

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Skin Deep (Kabuki) (Paperback)

I look for two things in a comic. The first is strong visuals - good drawing, deep imagery, skill with materials, composition, and lots more.

The second is optional if #1 is good enough: story. David Mack gives everything. The story is good, in a Femme Nikita Japonaise Noveau kind of way. The art is all I look for. It is dense - many marks carry different parts of the narrative. It is skilled - watercolor, pen, photo, I lost track of the amount of process that goes into each page. Text, imagery, and typography interact without clear bounds. There's just so much that I can't remember it all, so I have to it over and over. (That's a good thing.)

Not for kids, but not everything has to be. Not 'adult' either. Just really good. At least, I think so.

One small warning: not all of Mack's Kabuki books sustain this level of visual intensity. If that is your reason for buying a book, this one's good. Only some of Mack's Kabuki books conduct this much power. Well, he's only human.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kabuki Is More Than A Comic, April 1, 2007

By 

EAJ "Bookie" (Troy, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kabuki Volume 4: Skin Deep (v. 4) (Paperback)

This is my favorite comic. This was my intro to Kabuki. I was in the mood for something different, saw an ad for this on the back of one comic or another and checked it out at the local direct sales store. WOW. Yes its weirdly told compared to the ordinary comic book and having to move the pages around to read all of it was odd but I loved it. I thought Frank Miller hit the high point in comics when he did The Dark Night back in the 80's. This just blew that away.
You probably have to be an adult to get all the nuances but even then there are layers within layers here.