"The Vagabonds" #1
Fanboy Radio (vol. 2, #1, May 2004)
by Phillip Ginn
Welcome to the first installment of "Gave It A Shot." This is my way of sharing a couple o' bucks with you without actually having to give you money.
When I go to pick up my comics from my local comic shop, I make it a habit to try out something new — something I've never read before. Sometimes it'll be a DC or Marvel book, but more often than not I try to seek out books published by "the other guys". I want to find good books that don't have a big slice of Market Pie.
And, not surprisingly, I find a lot of generic crap on the shelves.
Just so you guys know where I’m coming from, let me describe a few of the ways I look at things: Although I'm a fan, I will criticize Alex Ross's art (I’m the only person I know who does this!). I don't think Bendis should write a gazillion Marvel books a month, even though I like his writing. I liked The Dark Knight Strikes Again as a piece of art, but not as a sequel. I think Jim Lee is a good draftsman, but an overrated artist and storyteller...
As you can see, I have very... different... standards. I consider them high standards, but "high" is relative. Hell... you might think I have low standards, or even snobby standards. In any case, it’s difficult for me to find a book that screams, "Buy me! I’ll please you for just a few bucks!"
BUT, I also know that not everything can be groundbreaking. I know mistakes will be made in a periodic/deadline-oriented medium such as comics. Finding innovation is like finding a needle in Romulan Air Space. Most of the time I, and everyone else, just want a really good, solid story that makes us go, "Cool!" or, "Interesting," or even better, "Holy crap!"
So when I go looking for a new book to pick up, I try to find something unique and interesting. Not necessarily life-changing or innova t ive, but something that sticks out like a flower in a field of weeds. For this first "Shot," I thought I’d tell you about a book I picked up months ago (late summer of 2003, I think) called The Vagabonds, a story based on the real-life travels of Josh Neufeld — and one of the few alternative/independent books my local comic shop had on the shelves. With this one, I got lucky.
The main story in this comic is about Josh and Sari, two young "Jewish heathens" from America that are visiting Thailand to witness the Buddhist Full Moon Festival, which signifies the end of the rainy season and the main rice harvest. Their journey takes them near the Laotian border where they have trouble finding a place to stay. Luckily, or unluckily, they end up staying with an American missionary family. Josh and Sari become uncomfortable with the family’s "traditional," very Christian ways. After witnessing the festival, which turns out to be very... boring... they say goodbye to their hosts (but not without a quick prayer!) and move on.
Right away, from panel one, you can tell that this is a writer’s book, meaning that the book relies very heavily on well-constructed words and uses the art to complement the narration. You won’t find a lot of experimental storytelling, which is fine because Neufeld’s craftsmanship shows that he knows he’s writing a comic book. The author uses very natural, conversational narration and the captions, which tell us what Josh is thinking throughout the story, are delivered with a pretty dry tongue.
The artwork, which combines sparse realism with cartoony expressionism, works nicely against Josh’s thoughts. And Neufeld’s characters can act. Without reading the words , you can tell that Josh and Sari are either having a good time or they’re very uncomfortable in certain situations. I also found that the narrative captions often describe what goes on inside the panels, but not in a Chris Claremont sort of way, where the words and pictures say exactly the same thing. Neufeld uses his artwork to enhance the descriptions rather than restate what the words are already describing.
But enough technical talk. On the story front, it’s neat to see these characters make their way through a foreign land, dealing with an unfamiliar people yet being more put off by the Americans who serve as their hosts. And that is something noteworthy. Although Josh and Sari are supposedly open to other cultures and religions, they are intolerant of the American Christian missionaries — people who subscribe to and promote a religion that is dominant in their home country! As Josh says upon meeting the family, "From what I knew, missionaries brought nothing but confusion and discord to traditional cultures. They were everything I was trying not to be." From this point on, we see Josh and Sari’s awkwardness at having to stay with such a family. Upon their goodbye, Josh found the family’s wish-you-well prayer to Jesus to be rather uncomfortable. I, in turn, found this all pretty ironic, since Josh and Sari were unable to accept their host family’s way of life, even though they were on a journey to expose themselves to different cultures and religions.
The rest of the book consists of five short stories originally printed in other comics. All of them are pretty entertaining in their own way. Included is a seemingly autobiographical piece that shows Neufeld as a geeky kid, and a tale where classic comic character Tintin prosecutes Neufeld with the crime of ripping off Georges Remi’s (Tintin’s creator) drawing style and stories (pretty funny!). One story features Josh and Sari running into Sari’s old roommate from a college trip to Italy, another about September 11th that is set to the lyrics of "New York, New York," and finally a one-page commentary about George W. Bush’s administration.
So what made me pick up The Vagabonds in the first place? Simple, it looked interesting. Seemingly well-written with good artwork, it didn’t look like anything else on the rack — and in a good way. So, I bought it and took it home.
And I liked it. Like I said, I got lucky. Would I buy another Josh Neufeld book? Well, let’s ask my rating system: For the craftsmanship, the interesting read, and the value of it all (in terms of my time and money), The Vagabonds is a 4-star book.
You can check out Josh Neufeld’s site, and order online from him, at www.JoshNeufeld.com. The Vagabonds is published by Alternat ive Comics and is a sequel to another book, Keyhole. Until the next "Shot"...