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tiredtank's review
3.0
As with every anthology there's the hits and the misses. My personal faves from this collection were:
-An Illustrated Guide to the Glorious Walled Cities
-Good Dog
-Skies Above
-Fee Fie Foh
-Memory Maze
-An Illustrated Guide to the Glorious Walled Cities
-Good Dog
-Skies Above
-Fee Fie Foh
-Memory Maze
kaindi's review
3.0
As it often is with anthologies some of the short stories worked, some didn´t. I did scream a little when I saw a Kevin Wada drawing (as one should when seeing one of his pieces).
There are also some pretty hilarious parodies in here but my biggest problem with the pieces set in the SNK universe was that the art style just doesn´t fit the series. (But I have the same problem with the SNK spin-offs Before the Fall and No Regrets.)
All in all it was a nice anthology but not a must-read for SNK fans.
There are also some pretty hilarious parodies in here but my biggest problem with the pieces set in the SNK universe was that the art style just doesn´t fit the series. (But I have the same problem with the SNK spin-offs Before the Fall and No Regrets.)
All in all it was a nice anthology but not a must-read for SNK fans.
aoutrance's review
4.0
A generously rounded up 3.5 stars because I am weak to pretty things. Even if I took nothing else away from this anthology, finding this illustration of Levi being beautiful by Afua Richardson would have been worth it.
There's also a gorgeous story at the very back of the book penciled by Richardson - I've already found her tumblr, will be searching for more of her non-SNK work posthaste.
This collection was pretty good for a bunch of Western artists & writers reinterpreting a Japanese work. I particularly enjoyed the parody travel guide, Discovering the Beauty of the Walled Cities, seemingly by some well-heeled debutante with a wild hair up her ass about ~adventure~. As the anthology moves on, we see bits and pieces of this guide and realize what was once a woman's passion project became more of source of propaganda into how safe humanity is now within the Walls, thanks to the government. It becomes sketchier and less finished; the finality of notes on the manuscript of Wall Sheena are particularly troubling.
The tragic love story between inventor Lyla and academic Rene and their end as a casualty of the corrupt Military Police's crusade against new tech was my favorite story, even if I felt that the art by Jorge Corona didn't quite match up to its potential. The coloring by Jennifer Hickman, however, gave it a very sweet, old-timey feeling.
I cannot ramble enough about how much I love Asaf & Tomer Hanuka's art in the last story, "Memory Maze". It is SO vibrant and SO gorgeous. The choice of minimalist backgrounds in most panels that explodes into a riot of patterns just as you are getting used to the single colors is exquisite. Fucking stunning.
There's also a gorgeous story at the very back of the book penciled by Richardson - I've already found her tumblr, will be searching for more of her non-SNK work posthaste.
This collection was pretty good for a bunch of Western artists & writers reinterpreting a Japanese work. I particularly enjoyed the parody travel guide, Discovering the Beauty of the Walled Cities, seemingly by some well-heeled debutante with a wild hair up her ass about ~adventure~. As the anthology moves on, we see bits and pieces of this guide and realize what was once a woman's passion project became more of source of propaganda into how safe humanity is now within the Walls, thanks to the government. It becomes sketchier and less finished; the finality of notes on the manuscript of Wall Sheena are particularly troubling.
The tragic love story between inventor Lyla and academic Rene and their end as a casualty of the corrupt Military Police's crusade against new tech was my favorite story, even if I felt that the art by Jorge Corona didn't quite match up to its potential. The coloring by Jennifer Hickman, however, gave it a very sweet, old-timey feeling.
I cannot ramble enough about how much I love Asaf & Tomer Hanuka's art in the last story, "Memory Maze". It is SO vibrant and SO gorgeous. The choice of minimalist backgrounds in most panels that explodes into a riot of patterns just as you are getting used to the single colors is exquisite. Fucking stunning.
geekery's review
2.0
90% of this anthology is terrible. The only reason it even gets 2 stars is because two of the stories are amazing, one is an interesting concept, one is kinda pleasant because it plays on my love of dogs, and some of the individual pieces of artwork are pretty. The rest was boring, uninteresting, ugly, or actively bad. The 4 koma in particular were painful to read.
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