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SAMURAI JACK SPECIAL
Recommended (7/10)
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DC Comics/Cartoon Network
Writer: Genndy Tartakovsky
Pencils: Lynn Naylor & Bill Wray
Inks: Bill Wray & Mike Manley
Colors: Zylonol
Letters: Jenny Garcia
Editor: Joan Hilty
Price: $3.95 US/$6.50 CAN |
In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, among other duties, ensures that there's an appropriate level of Canadian content on the airwaves, and it also maintains a balance in the specialized TV channels available up here. For example, a Canadian golf channel gets a shot at a licence before an American one. Or, say, a cartoon channel. We have Teletoon, and so, outside of satellite service, there's no Cartoon Network (though dsome shows air on some Canadian channels).
Long story short: I've never seen Samurai Jack. There was a lot of buzz -- especially among comics enthusiasts -- when it debuted last year. This comic book served as my introduction to the property, and I was pleased to find a thoroughly accessible and quirky read.
The demon Aku has arisen not once, not twice but three times to exert his foul dominion over the world, and a young samurai carries on the family tradition of opposing his evil and eradicating it with a legendary sword. But to avoid another defeat, Aku propels the young samurai forward through time, where he finds that the demon's influence has extended beyond the confines of Earth and into the stellar heavens. With the support of a throng of enslaved talking dogs, the samurai takes up arms against Aku's robotic insectoid soldiers.
Waitaminnit... talking dogs?
Yes, talking dogs. And oddly enough, it works, in a Salvador Dali kind of way. Samurai Jack is anime meets Huckleberry Hound. Its primary goal is clearly to offer as much action as possible, but to make it palatable enough so that the younger set can watch as well. The quirkier characters that surround Jack are what give the property its personality. The samurai elements are too stoic to really draw us in, and anthropomorphosizing some cute animals -- as weird as it may seem -- helps to bring some humanity and fun to this unconventional world.
Animators like Tartakovsky (creator of Dexter's Laboratory) and Craig (The Powerpuff Girls) McCracken have revolutionized animation, bringing something new to it. They blend anime influences, a Hanna Barbera riff and a little Bruce Timm style into something big and dynamic and eye-catching. They shy away from a trend toward greater detail and take a less-is-more approach, and Naylor and Wray carry on that new tradition here. The square-jawed, uber-heroic Jack is humanized by the even simpler design of the characters around him, and the angular style conveys motion and kinetic energy quite effectively.
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