5 out of 5

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BOOKS I HAVE TO READ.

Seriously: People, if you made shittier products, I’d be more encouraged to right the lack of awesomeness in the world and finish whatever stories and comics I haven’t worked on.  Instead, I have to deal with assholes like Chris Schweizer who put out amazing books that combine so many different elements that I adore and stuff them into a package I’d never thought I’d enjoy – a historical tale – and then prove to me that there are endless new things left in this world that can still make me poop my pants with joy.  (Requesting shittier products so that I don’t poop my pants in joy seems to suggest that the world must maintain some general fecal ratio.  Reminder to investigate this notion.)

And here’s a confession: I’ve picked up Schweizer’s books in the comic shop a few times, flipped through, and put them down.  I love Oni’s / Scholastic’s 6×9″ softcover format, and the Crogan books have an appealing full bleed character image on the cover, done up in Schweizer’s expressive, bubbly art style.  Now, because I spend a lot of dosh on comics, I’m admittedly open to anything that will encourage me to not buy whatever I’ve picked up, so with Chris’ work, I believe my flip through had me thinking nothing would happen in his books.  “Legion” would give the same impression after a perusal, since it goes with a two-tone color style (mostly yellows and blues) and takes place almost exclusively in the desert, which obviously isn’t going to offer much variation in the scenery.  Combine that with fluffy white Legionnaire outfits, and I don’t think it’s so outlandish to assume that you’re just looking at talking heads.

So what changed?  Well, as marketing knows, a good review from another writer can be all it takes to get a book into a reader’s hands.  The previous Crogan book had a quote from Stan Sakai – whom I love – but the quote felt more like an observation than a review, praising the Chris’ skills but not exactly saying that Stan was telling us to read it.  (Stan has a reserved writing style, though, so I’m not saying the quote wasn’t trying to get us to read.)  “Last of the Legion” has a Jeff Smith quote on it.  Now, I’m more wishy-washy on Smith than I am on Sakai, but I do love Bone, and I think viewing Crogan through a Bone lens was all I needed to give it a shot.  (Even though now I think about it, it definitely has more in common with Usagi…)

Now with all that background… there’s not much I can actually say by way of review, heh, except that Schweizer packs an incredibly dense moral concept of relative rights and wrongs into a story that indirectly teaches us some history and gives us a fairly large cast of characters – centering around Legionnaire Crogan, of course – whom all serve the tale and don’t come across as simple “props” for jokes or plot maneuvers.  That these 200ish pages can also be funny and exciting would seem to be an impossibility.  That this all actually does occur in that featureless desert is yet another accomplishment, and Schweizer’s loopy, loose, but controlled art style (with Joey Weiser and Michele Chidester’s well balanced color scheme – which finds incredible range in those oranges and blues), while seeming almost featureless when you’re flipping through the book, is ridiculously communicative and immersive as soon as you allow yourself to actually start reading.  Furthermore, the historical setting is maintained: small details would pop up to remind me that Chris did some research here; again, it’s rather stunning how involving the book is when it really is historical fiction.  You might commonly read historical fiction and say that this is always the case with the genre, but it never has been for me.  And I’ve bopped through some Tintin and the like – which will often bend reality in a way Crogan doesn’t – and sure, I’ve enjoyed it, but it’s not been this thrilling and brisk of a read.  I felt like such an idiot when I cracked the covers and started in on the first page (which has Crogan’s modern day descendants relating his tale as a framing device): I knew I was loving this thing just a few words and panels in, and I’d skipped his previous books…?

So join me, as I had hundreds more pages to my reading pile, and probably additional entries to the five star club.  Jerks.