XIII Book 6: The Jason Fly Case
XIII Book 6: The Jason Fly Case, by Jean Van Hamme & William Vance, Cinebook
TAKE ANY ten comic book artists at random, lock them in a room with an envelope each randomly containing a separate page each from the first ten of this book, and come back some 24 hours later. Three of them will have to be taken away in gibbering in straight jackets, at least two will have had to have the wet patches they’ve made on the floor mopped up, one of those along with another two will be busy drawing, attempting to replicate some of the images they’ve seen, there will probably be a couple of them surfing the internet looking to find any evidence of photo reference used in the individual panel drawings, and the rest will be doing what a lot of comic book artists do – Chatting among themselves when they should be working. Ouch! That’s lost me some friends.
Does it have a certain dated look? Well, only if you think quality drawing + genuine storytelling are old hat. But far many people internationally would disagree with you than are reading the latest issue of X-Men, no matter how good that might be.
Even if I am overstating the case, the first batch of pages in this book are incredible – Vance’s art in this series has always demonstrated a keen draughtsman technique and a presumed penchant for photo-realism, but he pulls out all the stops here. It’s both overwhelming when you sit there and take all the different panel images in, each with a differing detailed scene using various levels of perspective too, but also easy on the eye as consummate sequential art when, simply, just read.
If the work is photo-referenced I don’t care, Vance has altered them to fit in with his storytelling, nothing’s apparently strained or askew because of it. What’s more the pages drawn are packed with both figuratively transparent emotional value and symbolism too.
The fifth comic page, numbered 7 in the book, features 14 panels that need not have a single word lettered across them; in fact it might well have worked even better as a silent page: we know implicitly what’s going on: like sad voyeurs we witness the former Major Jones, looking sexy as hell, but we know emotionally she’s been kicked in the teeth, the presence of a cat makes us consider that maybe we humans think too much, and then the final panel jolts us from our creepy viewing to witness the all too real presence of someone who’s going to cause a serious problem for the woman right here and now.
Meanwhile, XII is off in yet another American countryside town, trying to uncover his true identity – I have to say who he is has become more of a distraction for me; it’s the adventures he gets up to when he hits a town and gets involved in having to sort out some criminal affair or other. In this book he goes to Green Falls to find out who Jason Fly, the latest identity he wears, really was, and soon finds there are people who want that left a forgotten mystery.
A good read, that continues with the next book, but it’s the art that sings so gloriously for me in this one!
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