Kabuki Volume 4: Skin Deep

This is my favorite comic. This was my intro to Kabuki. I was in the mood for something different, saw an ad for this on the back of one comic or another and checked it out at the local direct sales store. WOW. Yes its weirdly told compared to the ordinary comic book and having to move the pages around to read all of it was odd but I loved it. I thought Frank Miller hit the high point in comics when he did The Dark Night back in the 80's. This just blew that away. You probably have to be an adult to get all the nuances but even then there are layers within layers here.

David Mack's beautiful art combined with his wonderful storytelling made this Amazing book come to life. This book deals with Kabuki, a "defective" agent of a secret assassination team called the "Noh" (a group of mysterious women who wear masks who protect the innocent from unknown dangers) being in Control Corps mental institute. She is locked up in a room which is to her, constantly changing color and morphing, due to hallucination from drugged foods, only allowed to come out for meetings with doctors, and refuses to speak without her "face" (which is really her kabuki mask, but she feels the mask gives her strength and confidence, and in some psychotic way, actually believes the mask is her face). This book is much more than your average comic book will ever be. The art is amazing (compared to most of today's comic books), the story is captivating, and I guarantee your eyes will be glued to every page! This fully painted, amazingly written book deserves 1,000 stars and an A++++. It's mysterious, beautiful, strange, confusing, and twisted, but you will definitely enjoy this book if you are looking for a new genre of comic book. You will never read a graphic novel quite like this one. If you are a fan of the timeless graphic novel "Elektra: Assassin", than this book, Kabuki: skin deep, is definitely for you! Perhaps the most interestingly mysterious part of this book is a person Kabuki receives messages from, through a vent in the ceiling of her room on small pieces of origami paper, named Akemi. Akemi sends kabuki these origami animals, telling her not to fall for any of the guards' tricks. "She" (or whoever this "person" may be) tells Kabuki not to eat or sleep in order to save herself. But Kabuki begins to wonder why Akemi is giving her such helpful advice. Is Akemi a true friend? Is Akemi a character made up by one of the doctors trying to get Kabuki to cooperate? Is Akemi one of the Noh operatives coming to break Kabuki out of her cell? Or, is Akemi just an imaginary friend fabricated by Kabuki's own mind to help her cope with the hardships of being in a mental institute. Find out when you read Skin Deep, the best, most entertaining graphic novel I have ever read. This book deserves the highest rating of any graphic novel. It is truly amazing. I have never read a book like this. I read (not just the words in the bubbles but the childish, autobiographical words and doodles of "kabuki" scribbled across the page and in the corners of) every page of this book. ~SPOILER~*Look for the page where there is a statue marked "foam rubber statue, as not to hurt myself or others" to get an idea of what I am talking about*. It's as if "Kabuki" is making commentary on the world around her and we get to see every strangely child-like bit of it! If you liked Elektra: assassin, Evil Ernie: Youth gone wild, or Hellboy: the chained coffin and others, then you will love this book. If you are already interested in Kabuki, I recommend the slightly less entertai

I look for two things in a comic. The first is strong visuals - good drawing, deep imagery, skill with materials, composition, and lots more. The second is optional if #1 is good enough: story. David Mack gives everything. The story is good, in a Femme Nikita Japonaise Noveau kind of way. The art is all I look for. It is dense - many marks carry different parts of the narrative. It is skilled - watercolor, pen, photo, I lost track of the amount of process that goes into each page. Text, imagery, and typography interact without clear bounds. There's just so much that I can't remember it all, so I have to it over and over. (That's a good thing.)Not for kids, but not everything has to be. Not 'adult' either. Just really good. At least, I think so. One small warning: not all of Mack's Kabuki books sustain this level of visual intensity. If that is your reason for buying a book, this one's good. Only some of Mack's Kabuki books conduct this much power. Well, he's only human.

In the previous two books in the Kabuki series David Mack has been exploring the effect on the lifes of those around Kabuki of the events in Volume 1. Here in Volume 4; Skin Deep we finally return to the heroine of the title. This book, while ostensibly a superhero comic book is in fact an excellent combination of so many things. This book brings together great storytelling, excellent characterisation, beautiful artwork, poetry and psychology. We learn more about the fate of the great character Mack has created in Kabuki. While not as long, or indeed as involving as the first work, this book has a very different feel to it. In this work we get drawn into the psychology of the women involved, and into the raw emotions they experience. There is no middle ground in this book. I strongly recommend this book BUT you do have to read the previous works in the series. This is not a good starting point. But you should make the effort. Go back to the start. Work your way here. It is worth it.