Review: Saigami, Volume 1: Re(Birth) by Flame

By Seny (Andrea Otília Vörös)

Available now from Saturday AM

Review copy

Saigami comes from Saturday AM, which has been publishing webcomics online for ten years and recently moved into publishing physical copies of their most popular titles. I like Saturday AM's efforts to build up a diverse portfolio of artists from all over the world, but don't love their marketing of being the world's most diverse manga company. Yes, most manga isn't diverse because it is literally Japanese comics. But manga has been influencing creators around the world for decades now, so I think there is room for OEM (Original English-language Manga). However, I can't recommend Saturday AM as a publisher because there has been controversy about them paying artists.

Saigami starts in our world, where Ayami is a high-school girl with an absent father, a mother who is usually at work or drinking, and a house full of trash. She's struggling, and even her old refuge in books is starting to fail. Then, she gets a mysterious letter from her father, goes to meet him, and falls into a fantasy world where people called 'saigami' have elemental powers (and some even have dragons!). It's a pretty standard isekai setup delivered without much flair. There's a lot of exposition, both before and after Ayami ends up in another world, and certain things get brushed over without a thought. (If Ayami's father is a big mystery to her, why does she instantly know the letter is from him? Why isn't she curious about why her father's letter led her to a mysterious land?)

Once in another land, Ayami quickly meets two boys about her age: the friendly and well-connected Sean and the hostile outcast Reyji. They're both broad types with little sense of an inner life. Ayami gets to go on an important journey with them, even though she's utterly unqualified, as Reyji points out. Of course, as is obvious, Ayami turns out to be a saigami.

The story is fairly predictable and I wasn't drawn in my the characters. The art is okay. The backgrounds are quite nice, there is decent flow between panels, and I can understand what is happening easily. The character designs are consistent, but plain and somewhat amateur, with little variation in faces. Saigami reads like what it is: an OEM by someone who likes manga. Its inspirations are clear, but it doesn't really have a spark to make it stand out, despite its heroine's fiery powers.

Review: The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories

By David Small

Available now from Liveright

Review copy

Graphic novelist David Small's latest work is an anthology of three graphic short stories. One is written and illustrated by David Small; two are adaptations of existing short stories. All three are united by their use of monstrous creatures. (And, of course, the true monsters are humans.)

These stories tend toward a limited palette, mostly monochromatic blues with pops of red. The pages are constructed more like a picture book than a traditional graphic novel, with limited use of paneling and more narration than dialogue. The stylistic choices help tie these stories together visually as well as thematically. The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories is an anthology where I understand that throughline connecting the works.

The titular story is adapted from a story by Lincoln Michel. Lycanthropy as a metaphor for adolescence has become a cliche. This story takes that metaphor to the other end, exploring old age for an elderly werewolf. The pages that switch between the wolf as a young man and an old man are quite effective. He's a fascinating narrator, speaking of his nightmares of the moon even as he clearly misses the violence he used to inflict in those vital days.

"A Walk in the Old City" follows a burnt-out psychologist as he gets lost then saved by a seemingly friendly stranger. The sinister turn is perhaps obvious, but told with the glee of an entry in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. (And, I must say, the blind man's disdain for the psychologist is entirely understandable, even if his methods are quite extreme.)

The final story in the anthology, "The Tiger in Vogue," adapts a story by Jean Ferry. I appreciated that David Small's foreword (and a note afterword) illuminate the more liberal changes he made to the story, mostly to help make the 1920's German setting clear to a modern audience (rather than a contemporary one). This story is the largest departure stylistically, but the violence threatening to break out is a familiar thread. This one also intrigued me into picking up the original short story. The complicity of the audience feels all too timely, even though the source material is the oldest in the anthology.

The Werewolf at Dusk and Other Stories is not a long read, at less than 200 pages. However, I did find each story thought-provoking.