Customer Reviews

Kabuki Volume 4: Skin Deep (v. 4)

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.