Written and Illustrated by Ran Inzana
Ichiro is a boy adrift in this world.
Raised by his Japanese mother in New York, his American father having been taken from him by war before he ever knew him, Ichiro finds it difficult to figure out where he fits in.
A trip to Japan leaves Ichiro with his Grandfather, a stranger to him in a country he does not know.
And then one night Ichi gets dragged down a hole by a monster.
When he wakes up, he isn’t in Japan anymore. In fact, he isn’t in the mortal world. Ichi has entered the domain of the gods.
With words and pictures, Ryan Inzana seamlessly interweaves myth and reality, life and death, gods and mortals, creating a wholly original fantasy adventure about one boy’s search for peace, acceptance, and a place to call home.
Last week I found a copy of “Ichiro” sitting on the shelf of a local book store. The cover immediately grabbed me, the interior art looked nice and I decided to grab it, assuming that this was a book I’d just missed.
Turns out it came out this week, and they put it on the shelf a week early for some reason. However, that extra amount of time allowed me to sit and read the book at a leisurely pace, giving me ample time to put together my thoughts on the book.
Take a look behind the cut for some thoughts on this rather fantastic graphic novel that you may have missed this week.
The world of mythology is an incredibly rich one, full of interesting stories and aspects to explore from a modern viewpoint. Generally speaking, the average person is rather cynical towards these stories that used to be (and in some places still are) considered to be absolute truths, but that doesn’t take away their importance. They informed entire worlds from the ground up, taking place of the science that informs our world today, and are still relevant to the same extent any modern religion exists.
However, the loss of this aspect of culture — mythology being religion and a universal truth, that is — is something that should certainly be lamented to an extent. While there isn’t anything wrong with putting your faith in science (pun intended), the stories held a power over large groups of people that is completely lost today. This shared belief fostered cultural community, they gave hope to the hopeless and helped inform civilizations and how it would grow. The appreciation of this mythology helped to foster what was an entirely less jaded world due to accepted truths, although the world was still just as if not more so problematic then as it is today.
This is, basically, what “Ichiro” is about. Following a young half-Japanese half-American boy as he moves from Brooklyn to Japan after the death of his father and due to his mother’s work, Ichiro stands at the center of a distinct culture clash. He’s a boy that wants to be his father’s son and spends time reading about military strategy, but he’s in a world where culture is more important than how to defeat your enemies. That is, before culture grabs him and pulls him down into it head first as he gets wrapped up in the ongoing odyssey of what happens to abandoned myths.
Of course, the biggest part of that is Inzana’s work in the book. With a very fresh voice that captures both age groups quite well, that of the young and confused and that f the elderly and wise, helps make the world believable. However, what really makes the book stand out is Inzana’s mixed media artwork. It’s a lush looking book, with rich details and a very thoughtful handling of the world Ichiro moves through. The book is somewhat broken up visually, with mythology told in full and rich color, while the present day is told in a muted set of greens and the mythological world Ichiro finds himself color coded based on mythology (a subtle nod to Oz, assumedly), an element that makes sense the more you read the book. In one large hardcover book like this, it certainly makes for a beautiful collection of pages.
In terms of a great value, you’d be hard pressed to find original content on par with “Ichiro” this week. Both the personal storytelling from Inzana and the illustrations go a long way to selling the title and it’s familiar yet new all the same tale of a boy discovering his ancestry amount to quite a wonderful read, and it’s certainly an early contender for graphic novel of the year; a compelling story sure to wow and impress on many levels.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
