Peng

by Corey Lewis

Corey Lewis is a creator about whom I can't seem to make up my mind. His work is on the same level as Brandon Graham and James Stokoe, both of whom I love, but seems to be missing some secret ingredient that those two cartoonists share. I think the problem might be that he doesn't imbue much life into his characters.

Peng is a good example of this. It's a comic book about an Advanced Kickball tournament. Four teams have made it to the 'final four', and we are given a quick overview of each of these teams, before diving straight into the action of the different games. The elimination games conclude, and we jump straight into the final game between two of the teams. There is very little time, amid the frenetic art and exciting gameplay, to get to know (and by extension, care about) anyone.

It's too bad too, because the comic is otherwise pretty cool. The game of advanced kickball is neat. There are all sorts of special moves with kung-fu inspired names, and a variety of unique players. Sharknife shows up, as does Scott Pilgrim in a short, and inspired, cameo role.

Lewis's art is pretty crazy - it's all over the map and hard to understand. I think that his work needs to be seen in colour to be appreciated, as his recent Longshot story in Marvel's Strange Tales anthology was much easier to understand. Still, this is an entertaining read.

Sharknife Vol. 1

by Corey Lewis

This is a strange book. I've really enjoyed the Original English Manga work of Brandon Graham and James Stokoe, and have heard Lewis mentioned in their company, so I thought I'd give this a try. It's much like their work in terms of general set-up. Caesar Hallelujah is a busboy at a massive Chinese restaurant that happens to have hideous monsters living in its walls. He is the only one able to fight off the monsters, because when he eats a fortune cookie, he becomes Sharknife, a big super-hero kind of guy, who fights monsters. That's about it for plot - it's loosely a revenge/jealousy kind of story, but that's hard to follow.

Actually, much of this book is hard to follow. Unlike Graham and Stokoe's clearly defined panels and action, Sharknife is rather all over the place in its action scenes, and therefore I found the action very difficult to understand at times. As well, I didn't feel like there was enough emotional weight to the story. I know books like this are supposed to be silly, but I never found myself all that interested in what was going on. It just all felt a little flat to me.

On the up side, I saw that the second volume of Stokoe's Wonton Soup is in the next issue of Previews. I wish I knew what was going to happen with King City 2.