Kabuki Volume 2: Dreams [Paperback]

Sanity is not always called for. This story explores one alternative. It's a dark alternative, but it's an alternative to an even darker reality.

This is another of Mack's lavish painted comics. To call it 'painted', though, is faint praise. Drawing, lettering in a few different hands, collage, painting - the visual layering and intensity are incredible. The story itself is stark, physically static the with dynamics all in Kabuki's mind. Somehow, Mack conveys and sustains that moment when even desperation fails.

Mack's images are filled with deconstructed text. My eye instinctively tries to read it all, but that would defeat the purpose of the imagery. On the other hand, ignoring it defeats the purpose of the writing. This is a book I'll come back to, to give it all the different readings it deserves.

I stumbled across David Mack's breathtaking Kabuki: Circle of Blood in a second-hand bookstore and found it absolutely amazing. The story follows Kabuki, a young female Japanese assassin involved in a tangled web of espionage, murder, and revenge, engaged in a deadly game of chess with an archenemy from her past. The black and white artwork gave Frank Miller's art from Sin City a run for its money, and the storytelling-- filled with allusions to philosophy, pop culture, literature, and Japanese culture-- was simply amazing, on par with Jeph Loeb and approaching even the great Alan Moore. Halfway through the book I went back to the second-hand book shop and picked up the used copy of Kabuki: Dreams that I had seen sitting on the shelf next to Circle of Blood. Upon finishing the first book in the series, I immediately turned to my prize: Dreams, the second book in the series, and began reading.

Dreams begins right where Circle of Blood left off. What I saw when I turned to the first page was beautiful black and white imagery that could have come straight from the first volume. As I continued to read, the artwork began incorporating much more color, and the type of media began changing from inks to acrylic, to watercolor, to oil, to photography, then back again. When I finished the first chapter I was amazed at what I had seen-- David Mack was surely an artist on top of his game; however, as I tried to remember what I had read, I could not come up with anything. Such is the case with the rest of this book as well: great art, but very weak storytelling. What little story there is unfolds mainly in images, with little to no words at all. Though his sparse use of words makes what few words are there carry extra weight, there is only so much story that can be told with pictures, especially when the story is as metaphysical as it is in Dreams. Perhaps though, that is the point of this work, to try to convey ideas that are not very well expressed with words. Perhaps this is why I was disappointed with this volume: after the complex story of Circle of Blood, and the heady mix of action, suspense, and thoughtful contemplation contained therein, I was expecting more plot and action in Dreams, and there was neither.

Some have written Kabuki: Dreams off as rubbish, while others have lauded it breathtakingly amazing; however, I believe it to be neither. To call it rubbish is to admit that this book flies over one's head, but to call it breathtakingly amazing is to place undue weight on deliberately vague storytelling that could be accused of masquerading as brilliance. This book is designed to be a bridge between Kabuki: Circle of Blood and Kabuki: Masks of the Noh, a bridge that gets the reader into the main character's head in a way that Circle of Blood was unable to do, and, when treated as such, this book succeeds. If you are interested in this book because you are expecting it to be in the same vein as Circle of Blood, as I was, then you will be severely disappointed. You will miss nothing in the overarching Kabuki saga if you skip this title and move on to Masks of the Noh. However, if you are interested in the psyche of Kabuki the character, if you want to find out more about her subconscious before continuing her journey with her, or if you simply want to see some art that is ahead of its time, then you will thoroughly enjoy this title.

In summary, the artwork contained in this title is spectacular, and David Mack should be praised for his innovation and fearlessness as an artist. The story, though, is barely there, and will likely leave you disappointed and feeling fairly unfulfilled as a reader.

I'm not going to say that the pictures were by any means all perfect. There was lots of gorgeous artwork in this book, and it was a visual treat. However, some of the pictures felt rather slapped together or amateurish, and I do wish there could have been more to the story. Still, it does get better in the next book, so just consider this one as even more of a 'graphic' novel than usual.

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