Gun Fu delivers on all the promise of its ads, its cover and its general attitude: It's a fun action comic. The character's tossed-off hip-hop sometimes borders on the Poochie-like nonsensical, but it's part of the charm, and the action is as strong as any I've seen in a comic. Mason's style seems to have the fundamentals of an animator behind it, and he manages to convey humor and motion with equal skill. Though it's not likely to win any Eisners for deep plots or thematic content, if you're looking for a fun ride along the lines of good Hollywood action-comedy (is there such a thing anymore?) you could do a lot worse than to check out Gun Fu.
Here's the secret of action stories, which far too many people don't get: Just start with the action. Shum wastes no time in getting to what Cheng Bo Sen does best, which is look good, shoot guns and foil crimes. Within a few pages, he's already capped a couple bad guys and chased down a car on a runaway rickshaw. And if that isn't a great action set-piece, I don't know what is. Wait, maybe I do, maybe it's an unarmed kung-fu cop taking on a Nazi robot. That's in here too.
Shum actually seems to have gotten the secrets of both action and comedy. Bo Sen's anachronistic hip-hop dialogue is a lot of fun, and even though he basically never speaks in anything but those catch-phrases, it serves as enough of a character definition for this book. And the finale of the first action scene, a riff on an old Clint Eastwood bit, is not entirely unpredictable but it is worth a chuckle, and serves notice that Shum is aware of the potential for formula in action books and he's willing to turn it on its ear. In addition, even when the book isn't relying on action, it's quite funny. The Queen's ignorance of her own colonies is hilarious, and the reaction when Bo Sen calls in after his mission cracks me up as well.
If I had to peg the attraction of Gun Fu, though, it'd be the action storytelling. Shooting, chasing, parachuting, kung fu, more shooting and the defining moment of any action story, the hero jumping away from an explosion, are all in here. Mason's storytelling skills are impressive, able to convey the madcap rapid action with ease. I was particularly enamored of his use of cut away techniques to show the speed and skill of Bo Sen with guns, such as when he shoots a curtain in the way during the first chase or when he takes out a handful of guards with two machine guns.
And if the tone (and title) of the book isn't enough to convey the sensibilities of Gun Fu, the creators spend a few pages in the back talking about all the hot girls in entertainment. It's borderline sexist at times (on the other side of the border), but it's all in good fun and clearly shows the sensibilities of Gun Fu. This is a book for all those guys who gauge their movie viewing by how many explosions are in the trailer, for those who loved Lethal Weapon and Die Hard and Last Boy Scout. Fortunately, I happen to be one of those guys.
