Writer/Artist: David Mack
Publisher: Image
Plot:
David Mack’s popular heroine Kabuki is still thinking about stuff that happened in previous Kabuki comics.
Comments:
David Mack is very good at stretching out the shelf-life of the material he produces. After building a loyal fanbase since the publication of Kabuki: Circle Of Blood in 1995, Mack has fairly consistently keep Kabuki alive on store shelves with various comic volumes – some by Mack himself and others featuring artwork by others. Kabuki: The Ghost Play is the latest to hit said shelves. It is a stand-alone painted issue of twenty-four pages that has previously been published in the book Kabuki: Dreams, and indeed, this comic has a dream-like quality. I have not read Dreams so I picked up this issue thinking it was a new Kabuki series, which it is not.
The story seems to pick up where Circle Of Blood left off, with Kabuki in a near death-like state, apparently under the care of doctors in a secret location. In the book Masks Of The Noh government agents who once fought beside Kabuki are ordered to find her, and if found, to eliminate her. Circle Of Blood portrayed Kabuki as the most interesting of The Noh, a select group of Japanese female assassins/pop culture icons. And unfortunately for long-time Kabuki readers, we’re still not sure what’s happened to her. She has a confrontation with Noh agent Scarab in the exciting conclusion to the book Kabuki Agents: Scarab, but since then she has only appeared in Kabuki #1/2 – another dreamy look inside the assassin’s head.
In The Ghost Play, Kabuki is entirely rendered with photographs. There is only one page featuring ink. Mack’s style in this issue is not unlike that of Sandman cover artist Dave McKean. Each page is a collage of photos, construction paper, dead leaves, fabric, and Jackson Pollock-esque paint effects. The few captions that exist are written on yellow Post-It notes and taped over the artwork. Mack also litters the backgrounds of his pages with self-examining scribblings from Kabuki herself. Most of these are illegible and nonsensical meanderings.
I gave this “comic book” two bullets for the colorful artwork alone. Unfortunately there’s nothing else to rate, as there is no story whatsoever. If the reader is not familiar with Circle Of Blood they would have no idea who Kabuki is or what kind of world she lives in. Japanese motifs abound in the imagery but this tells us nothing about the character’s conflicts or background, besides the fact that she’s Japanese. For three bucks, Mack could have at least provided a tale that moved the plot forward five minutes. But that’s the problem with the Kabuki franchise: its creator is pandering only to longtime fans that will buy anything with the name Kabuki on it. The Kabuki books have been reprinted and re-packaged many times, and as with The Ghost Play, they are available in several editions and collections. Fans who already own Dreams need not buy this issue, unless they’ve just got to have a three page interview with Mack (similar to the one published in Kabuki #1/2) and two pages of black and white preview artwork from a Mack autobiography. I would not recommend it for the casual fan either, as it “reads” like a twenty-four page slickly done ad for the franchise itself. I would, however, suggest this magazine to fans of photography, graphic design, and Sandman covers.
I’m not sure why David Mack doesn’t allow another creative team to produce a Kabuki series while he’s working on projects for Marvel. It would keep the interest up and give fans a continuing story instead of year-long gaps in the plot. The Ghost Play is purely filler, but it’s colorful and fun to flip through.
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