Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "paul-the-samurai"

Collected Paul the Samurai by Beb Edlund

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ben Edlund is best known in comicdom as the creator of the Tick. However, Edlund also created three spin-off series from the Tick. Among them was Paul the Samurai. This older book collects the character's first three Issue series from 1990-91.

After Paul's appearance in the Tick, he sets out to become a private detective but finding work sparse, he becomes a night watchmen in a mall. Skulduggery has been afoot as several night watchmen have disappeared while patrolling the boiler area. While his fellow guards are apathetic, Paul sets out to find the truth and he has to match wits with Reverend Billy, an insane boiler man who has become leader of the boiler men as well as the other boiler men.

Paul the Samurai is nowhere near as zany as the Tick. (Though perhaps that would have gone without saying.) The humor of the book doesn't rest on Paul's behavior. Paul is the straight man to the book's cast of characters. He's truly an honorable hero though he does struggle with self-doubt in Issue 3. He still is loyal, courageous, and honorable.

The book is actually quite good and given that the biggest plot point deals with mad boiler men, it's pretty good. In the Paul the Samurai #3, we see a Superhero dive that predates the Comet Club which was one of the most iconic places in the Tick Universe. This bar caters exclusively to down on their luck superheroes, so it's not quite the same, still the seeds of the idea for the Comet Club are in this section.

Overall, this a wonderful book about an overlooked hero in the big blue world of the Tick.



View all my reviews

Bonanzai by Ben Edlund

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Paul the Samurai return after the Ben Edlund written mini-series returns for a proper continuing series. This book collects Paul the Samurai (Vol. 2) Issues 1-4.

Clay Griffith takes over the writing chores and there's a clear shift from Edlund. Edlund's portrayal of Paul was of a character who was truly noble whose comedy came out of the situations he was in. Here, much of that nobility is somewhat more superficial though only somewhat. The world around Paul is still the source of entertainment.

Some of the ideas in the book are quite fun. Paul battles the Miti Men, a group of Manga/Anime inspired characters in Issues 1 and 2. (Kudos to artist Dave Garcia for making this incongruous set-up of traditional American comic and Japanese comic art in the same picture actually work). Issue 3 sees Paul battle a mad mastermind dog and Issue 4 has Paul beginning to face an environmental extremist anti-hero.

On the negative side, some of the humor is quite dated. This comics were written in 1992 during the tale end of Japan's economic ascendancy and American anxiety over such as represented by Issue 1's other villain the Detroit Fury, a giant car robot created by a laid off auto worker. Paul's position as an apolitical Japanese warrior who'd rather just hit things with a sword was nice comedy but readers who the humor doesn't age well.

The book ends on a cliffhanger that will be resolved in Volume 2.

Overall, this is a fun series very much in the spirit of the Tick and worth a read.



View all my reviews

PAUL THE SAMURAI BONANZAI 2 by Clay Griffith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This second volume of Paul the Samurai comics collects Issues 5-8 of the ongoing series.

The book begins by introducing a superhuman lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his female sidekick Babe as the story wraps up a previous line regarding a parody of environmental comics and segways back into Paul's rivalry with the evil Sagin, which dominates Issues 6-8.

The comics are a laugh a minute as the book features parodies of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes (I.e. The Galapagos Boxing Tortoises) and Japanese monster films. Issue 7 features a Japanese village that tries to trick Paul into awakening the monster Gomorra to build up tourist trade and filming.

The book has flaws. Even for a parody, it feels like there are too many characters running around and too much going on at times. Paul does seem to be getting harder to like compared to how Edlund wrote him in the Tick comics, as well as in the original mini-series.

Still, it's hard to dislike a book that's this funny. I should be clear that this book also ends in a cliffhanger, which hopefully will be resolved in Tick Omnibus Volume 5.



View all my reviews