Comic Review: David Mack's KABUKI: Circle of Blood TPB

Ever seen those real, gritty, edgy indie films shot in 16mm Black and White film? That's what Kabuki is like: a heartfelt, emotional, charged and edgy piece of fiction that reads more like an autobiographical record of love, despair, vengeance and jealously.

Having first read Skin Deep, my experiences with Kabuki were worlds of color and depth. I was swimming in a technicolor world of watercolors and gradients. And strangely, my favorite scene in the book was when Kabuki spilled the black liquid on the floor and used her hair as a brush to fill the walls with her thoughts and imagination.

Black and white stark against the colored world of the psychiatric ward simply astounded me.

But with Circle of Blood, the edgy black and white tones of the whole story scream at your face so loud that you'll start seeing the color of each panel without it having been shown. Though the dark black of the meeting room where the Noh are gathered is no different from any other black panel in the book, you start seeing the points where black shifts to the yellow of the fire. Where the whiteness of kabuki's face mask merges into the blue of her lines. The red of her lips.

You see color no matter how stark the black and whites are.

And you'll see the color burst forth even richer than today's computer colored masterpieces. Why? Because these black and white characters have soul. Have peronsonality. And because the artist's heart and soul echo so strongly in this work, you'd think he mixed his blood somewhere in with the inks.

Kabuki: Circleof Blood is truly a masterpiece of storytelling. it completes a tale, leaving enough questions to ponder on and hope to have solved in future installments, and yet closed the "circle" of the story to end the chapter in a satistying read.

David Mack, there is no questioning why you're work was noted back then, and why you have ever right to be proud of your achievements.

Thank you once more for sharing your vision with us.
May I earn enough to order the next TPB within the month. I need my next fix :-)

Sincerely, with all due respect and gratitude.

tobie