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Okay, I have an interesting situation here. Mark Crilley has put out a new book, but it's not an Akiko book, so it has no real link to comics. I'd like to do more than a quick capsule, but a full review really doesn't belong on the rec.arts.comics.* groups. Nor do I really hang out any of the newsgroups where it WOULD be appropriate. So, what to do? Blog it, of course.
CAPSULE REVIEW
Billy Clikk, Creatch Battler: Crilley's biggest non-Akiko publication that I'm aware of, and potentially the start of a new franchise for him. He succeeds in creating a different tone from Akiko, although you can certainly see similar archetypes floating around. He continues his style from the Akiko novels of using both spot illustrations and big splash pages, although with less of a computer generated look for scenery and more of a charcoal-crayon deal on faces and general shading. A good read, reasonably light at 246 pages of largish type. Recommended. $10.95/$16.95Cn
Okay, if you're reading this far, there's a good chance you're familiar with the Akiko comic and/or novels. In fact, there's a small but non-zero chance you're the writer of the Akiko comic and novels. :) So I'm going to lean heavily on comparison/contrast with Akiko. And other sources, too.
Like Akiko, Billy Clikk is what marketing types call a "tween" (between kid and teen, or 8-12 years old), who seems to live a relatively normal life until finding out that the world is MUCH stranger than previously expected. Like Akiko, Billy's initiation into the strangeness of the world is followed by an adventure involving monsters and architecture and oral hygiene, albeit in a different combination. And like Akiko, Billy finds that paying attention and talking to people often solves a lot more problems than jumping in with fists flying. Billy even has a cast of archetypes around him that's similar to Akiko's (his dad is a Spuckler with better hygiene, his mom is kinda bookish in a Beeba fashion, and the enigmatic Poog and versatile Gax are rolled into the character of Orzamo).
Of course, Billy is also quite different from Akiko in many ways. He takes a much more direct role in the action portions of his own tale, and as such needs to have a background to make this plausible. He's 12 years old, having a few years on Akiko, and has a history of extreme sports participation. He also has better than average recuperative powers, a result of what amounts to a centuries-long breeding program (albeit one that seems to be largely informal). Thus, while his dad is an action sort of guy, Billy gets to do most of his own stunts. The tone is also clearly more of a "Spy Kids" subgenre, as opposed to the "Little Nemo" sort of adventures Akiko has...while Billy can certainly think his way out of a lot of tight spots and use words instead of fists at times, he has to mix it up once in a while. The main villain of the piece is certainly not going to be talked out of his nefarious plans, or stopped by a magic Tooglian word (although, oddly, he is stopped in a similar way to Loza Throck).
Another useful comparison to Billy Clikk is the Van Helsing movie, at least in terms of the world setting. A secret organization exists to keep humanity safe from creatures at the borders of the world, sending out agents equipped with special equipment to capture critters...or destroy them if necessary. Of course, Billy isn't an angst-ridden immortal like Van Helsing, and AFMEC is more of a secular than religious group, but the parallels are there.
The writing is strictly third person past tense, limited narrator. The narrator's voice tends to be fairly neutral and descriptive, but occasionally gets inside Billy's head and is more vivid in describing his mood or attitude. Artistically, Crilley has gone with a more angular style (especially for clothing), using "smudges" extensively for shading. I don't remember the proper technical term (blending?), but in both the color work on the cover and the interior B&W art, facial shading looks like it was done with a smudgeable medium (pastel or acrylic crayon on the cover, charcoal stick for the interior). Of course, for all I know, it was all done on a tablet with appropriate filters and stuff. :)
As a final note, I was amused by the shelf-placement at Waldenbooks where I got this. Crilley's books almost always end up right next to those by a writer named Creech...Mark Crilley, Creech Battler?
"They don't all suck blood. Very few of them do, actually." - Linda Clikk
CAPSULE REVIEW
Billy Clikk, Creatch Battler: Crilley's biggest non-Akiko publication that I'm aware of, and potentially the start of a new franchise for him. He succeeds in creating a different tone from Akiko, although you can certainly see similar archetypes floating around. He continues his style from the Akiko novels of using both spot illustrations and big splash pages, although with less of a computer generated look for scenery and more of a charcoal-crayon deal on faces and general shading. A good read, reasonably light at 246 pages of largish type. Recommended. $10.95/$16.95Cn
Okay, if you're reading this far, there's a good chance you're familiar with the Akiko comic and/or novels. In fact, there's a small but non-zero chance you're the writer of the Akiko comic and novels. :) So I'm going to lean heavily on comparison/contrast with Akiko. And other sources, too.
Like Akiko, Billy Clikk is what marketing types call a "tween" (between kid and teen, or 8-12 years old), who seems to live a relatively normal life until finding out that the world is MUCH stranger than previously expected. Like Akiko, Billy's initiation into the strangeness of the world is followed by an adventure involving monsters and architecture and oral hygiene, albeit in a different combination. And like Akiko, Billy finds that paying attention and talking to people often solves a lot more problems than jumping in with fists flying. Billy even has a cast of archetypes around him that's similar to Akiko's (his dad is a Spuckler with better hygiene, his mom is kinda bookish in a Beeba fashion, and the enigmatic Poog and versatile Gax are rolled into the character of Orzamo).
Of course, Billy is also quite different from Akiko in many ways. He takes a much more direct role in the action portions of his own tale, and as such needs to have a background to make this plausible. He's 12 years old, having a few years on Akiko, and has a history of extreme sports participation. He also has better than average recuperative powers, a result of what amounts to a centuries-long breeding program (albeit one that seems to be largely informal). Thus, while his dad is an action sort of guy, Billy gets to do most of his own stunts. The tone is also clearly more of a "Spy Kids" subgenre, as opposed to the "Little Nemo" sort of adventures Akiko has...while Billy can certainly think his way out of a lot of tight spots and use words instead of fists at times, he has to mix it up once in a while. The main villain of the piece is certainly not going to be talked out of his nefarious plans, or stopped by a magic Tooglian word (although, oddly, he is stopped in a similar way to Loza Throck).
Another useful comparison to Billy Clikk is the Van Helsing movie, at least in terms of the world setting. A secret organization exists to keep humanity safe from creatures at the borders of the world, sending out agents equipped with special equipment to capture critters...or destroy them if necessary. Of course, Billy isn't an angst-ridden immortal like Van Helsing, and AFMEC is more of a secular than religious group, but the parallels are there.
The writing is strictly third person past tense, limited narrator. The narrator's voice tends to be fairly neutral and descriptive, but occasionally gets inside Billy's head and is more vivid in describing his mood or attitude. Artistically, Crilley has gone with a more angular style (especially for clothing), using "smudges" extensively for shading. I don't remember the proper technical term (blending?), but in both the color work on the cover and the interior B&W art, facial shading looks like it was done with a smudgeable medium (pastel or acrylic crayon on the cover, charcoal stick for the interior). Of course, for all I know, it was all done on a tablet with appropriate filters and stuff. :)
As a final note, I was amused by the shelf-placement at Waldenbooks where I got this. Crilley's books almost always end up right next to those by a writer named Creech...Mark Crilley, Creech Battler?
"They don't all suck blood. Very few of them do, actually." - Linda Clikk
