Review - Stone Monkey by Jim Round

It's like Naruto, but worse.

...I'm not really sure I need to write any more than that for most of you, but for the benefit of those who would like to know 'why' (or for those of you who don't know what Naruto is) I suppose I'm going to have to.

Stone Monkey is an action-adventure saga drawn, written published by Jim Round. It takes heavy influence from japanese media and chinese folklore, not just from a story perspective but also in the way that the pages are structured and the characters express themselves. The problem is that it borrows too heavily from some aspects at the cost of the things an action-adventure story requires, and the overall quality of how the plot and character interactions are laid out is uncreative and painfully wooden.

The latter quality is most apparent in the writing. The job of a first volume is to start the hero off  on his journey, set up his initial challenges, introduce his companions, all of that stuff. It manages to do these things by using the narrative equivalent of shoving him out of the front door. He does something mysteriously powerful which makes mysterious people nod their heads and decide his actions for him, which he's upset about for a half-second before being given a carrot and sent on his adventuring way. He's not so much a protagonist as a plot mechanic. The world-building such as it is suffers from a very rookie story-telling problem, a good example of which would be where the main character tries to tap into his inner skill and unleashes his mysterious power, prompting his cousin to remark on how powerful his 'Dantian wave' is, a phrase asterisked with the following remark:

'Dantian wave: A wave of energy created from the dantian cinibar field.'

Oh! I see now! The Dantian Cinibar field! How foolish of me not to realize!

More seriously, the problem here is fourfold: Those who know what dantian are don't need this comment as they can guess the meaning from the context. For those who don't know what dantian are, this little comment does nothing to actually explain what just happened (Dantian are Chi focus points, if you're wondering). Thirdly, he was already talking about 'inner skill', so a fancier name for it at that point was entirely unnecessary...and along the same lines, the explanation itself was entirely unnecessary, other than to show off the author's knowledge of chinese spiritual philosophies.

It's not the only point where he does this either, with most attacks having multiple translations of the name in Mandarin, then phonetic mandarin, then english...and then others just happening without any fanfare at all. I feel as if I can see Jim Round now, rifling through his chinese-english dictionary, piecing together clever names for his attacks and giving up on the rest. It's not clever. It's obfuscating, pointless (Saying 'Kaimen' instead of 'Open') and feels entirely artificial in the way it's presented; a badly translated love-letter to the eastern media it's taken from. Particularly as the main character is called 'Buster', of all things!

Other manga actually bother to explain how these inner-energies and abilities relate to the rules of the world, building up a background for us to understand how it works and why certain things matter in relation to it. As it stands, the world and the plot of Stone Monkey seems woefully incomplete due to an over-reliance on foreshadowing without establishing why we should care about the events that are happening.

And it keeps happening. Very early on when the main character is talking with his friend about the politics of their realm in regards to him, this gets said:

Buster: But my uncle said your grandpa is on his side. What does that mean anyway?

Juno: Nevermind, look! We've arrived!

Or this gem, from one mysterious character to another after something valuable gets stolen:

Sage: Sorry, Ryo. I couldn't help you this time...You know what this means though...good luck...

The only reason it holds together at all is due to a story info-dump in the first couple of pages...which has that most hated of narrative devices in it: a prophecy. So we pretty much know how all this is going to end anyway. Great.

It's not just the plot that suffers from this paucity of innovation, the characters do too. Horribly so. Typically in a comic, if the plot is slow moving (like Gunnerkrigg Court for example) it's made up for by you caring about the characters and enjoying how they bounce off one another, their compelling dialogue and the interesting little touches of world-building that leak into such conversations. Stone Monkey doesn't have any of this. Buster, the main character, is a bad ninja who wants to get good, but that's absolutely all he is. Completely. That's all he's ever enthusiastic about...and as for a reason why? I couldn't tell you as he's too busy being an idiot, not knowing what to do in any situation and being easily placated just through the chance to get stronger. There's nothing likable or charming about him, which is a bit of a problem when this is the main character you're supposed to be rooting for.

True, it's a well-worn character building device to make an eager youngster willing to take on the world, but it'd be nice if he had a decent motivation for it...and maybe he does, but then that falls back onto the same problem as with the plot, namely that 'mystery' (which doesn't even exist thanks to that prophecy) is used as a draw in lieu of actual motivation. If they aren't two-dimensional like Buster, then they're just mysterious, like his Uncle. His friend Juno at least is neither, but then he's not really anything else; he's just 'Buster's skilled friend'. It's ticking the boxes alright, but only about half of them. There's nothing to root for and no-one appealing to attach to.

At this point I'd love to be able to salvage Stone Monkey by praising its art and its structure. I do actually like the Superflat style that Round uses in Stone Monkey, and it's all technically proficient...but on closer inspection it has glaring issues. The clothing is all traditional Japanese and Chinese garb, which wouldn't normally be a bad thing, but turns out to be a demerit when a story requires strong visual themes like this one does, marring truly expressive character visuals and making some people look very similar at first glance.

 More shocking is the loose, wasteful panelling Round employs in an attempt to generate some kind of atmosphere. I've talked a bit in previous reviews about how good use of wordless panels can help the flow of the story and this is an example where it hurts it. There's no appreciable context, emotion or reason for them, and some of the other panels are similarly wasted, feeling like either the dialogue for them is missing, or that the dialogue used in a previous panel  would be better used for the current one. Some pages are entirely unnecessary, or could be cut down to two panels of action rather than seven. A good editor would have helped out Stone Monkey a lot in this department, but I suppose that's the safety-net you go without when making Indie comics and self-publishing.

I needed that tak tak tak as much as I needed that squint.

Worst of all is how derivative this work is, of Naruto in particular. The same art-style, the same 'secret strength' main character also hated by the village, the same use of inner energies (chakra this time), the same group of two boy ninjas and one girl at the end, the existence of different ninja villages in general, the same kind of building designs, the same use of scrolls...and yet Stone Monkey manages to do worse with the same ideas. In the same span of pages in Naruto, you know the titular character's main goal in life, why he acts like he does (being a prankster as well as an energetic idiot), get a glimpse at all the other relevant protagonist characters in the story and some of their motivations, start to see some development and an explanation of how some of the world works, and had him off on a very clearly defined mission, reasons and all, whilst still managing to generate an appreciable amount of mystery to be revealed later. Plus- no prophecy.

It's an introductory arc much more accomplished in every aspect than you'll find here in Stone Monkey, which feels like it expects you to have read Naruto and other eastern things first already in order to enjoy it. A false expectation; as I have, and it doesn't make this any better. Originality, character and an editor would've though, and I sincerely hope Jim Round has found these before he rolls out Volume 2.

 Summary: It's like Naruto, but worse.

Review - Feynman by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick

Feynman is a biography. I'm not usually much a fan of biographies, but in this case it's a biography of the titular Mr. Richard Feynman- a very famous scientist who is sadly no longer with us, so I thought I'd give it a crack. There's only really two reasons why anyone reads a biography; the first is that you're already interested in the person it's about so want to know how they came to be the way they are, the second is you want to see if you too can extract some life-lessons from their experiences. So, the question is- are you and can you?

                Truth be told, Jim Ottaviani, the author of this bio, pens himself into an awkward position before even the first panel, saying in his dedication that

'If the laws of physics allowed, I'd go back to thank whoever it was that first showed me "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman!" Then I would read it again.'

Which brings up a very damning point- This is not the first Biography written about Feynman, and if he enjoyed it so much, why should we bother to read this one? What's more, the other biographies were autobiographies penned by Richard Feynman himself. So in what sense is Feynman needed?

                Well, for one, it condenses things. The narrative touches on a lot of events throughout his life but you get the distinct impression that Ottaviani has cherry-picked and rearranged details in order to provide a smoother, more interesting narrative- if a point in the future is relevant to something being discussed at the moment, he has no problems throwing linearity out of the window. At first this is a little jarring, but as soon as you start expecting it and disengage from convention, it does a much better job tying themes and moments together than would otherwise be feasible in a straight A-to-B story...and somehow works to reflect the meandering thoughts of the titular character as he strolls through life. The tone is consistently light-hearted and semi-detached, more interested in the little things in life and only occasionally stopping to clarify his opinions on larger philosophical points, offering maybe a glib comment to paste over the cracks until they can be more appropriately addressed later on.

They're talking about the Atomic Bomb, just so you know.

                Sometimes it makes the moments of grief seem spurious or like they didn't affect him much, how it just glides from them into other things. No tragedy defined him. But then how often does tragedy actually change someone? How often does tragedy strike? So I'm inclined to put this down as a strength of the piece rather than a weakness...there is a feeling, though, that not every scene that's included is strictly necessary, a little editing and shaving down of some of the asides would have gone a long way to making this a more coherent piece.

                Despite this, though the writing can get dense in places it's never overwhelming, (though it might be fair to say that some parts might be daunting if you've forgotten your high-school physics classes), and most importantly Ottaviani knows when to drop the text entirely for some panels in order to change the momentum to suit the mood. He knows what he wants on the page, and it's good to see from a writer.

                ...Which is just as well, as it's really the art that you're here for- the one thing that Feynman's own autobiographies didn't have and by far the most important thematic aspect of this book. Feynman himself was quite the fan of art and artistic expression- indeed, his most famous creation was a diagram- and Leland Myrick does an excellent job in using his own illustrations to explain and expand upon the text Ottaviani puts down to make even the more complex ideas accessible

Give it a minute.

-All while infusing the book with eccentric character; the spindly-yet-accurate linework bringing to mind sketching with a technical pen (an apt choice for a physicist) with the bold unshaded colouring providing clear contrast between the forms those lines are trying to depict. It's the kind of clear obviousness you'd see in a calculation, but with more vibrancy- a flattering portrayal of the kind of character Feynman was

                Which isn't to say it's entirely without its faults. The women tend to look very similar to each other, and the colour-coding as you slide through the timelines doesn't seem to have any meaning or cause behind it other than to note that you've passed into some other era, which can add to the jarring effect that the sudden timeline jumps create.

                So. To go back to our first points...are you interested in Richard Feynman and can you learn from his life? I'd say he's certainly niche...but comics are niche anyway, so I'm sure that if you've even bothered to read this far you will likely get something out of this biography- Feynman has some good lessons to give beyond just physics.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself. You are the easiest person to fool.

With everything done in a style that can get you to rethink things in your own life; a strange perspective that Feynman himself was famous for and which Ottaviani has managed to capture brilliantly.

I suppose the experience of reading this was very familiar to how I felt about the man when I first heard of him, back in college. Back when I was studying physics I saw a lot of Feynman diagrams. Useful as they were, I never thought it vital to know the life of the man who made them. Reading Feynman, that opinion hasn't changed...but to quote the man himself, though the book isn't vital, it *is* very 'in-ter-est-ing'.