Robotika by Alex Sheikman
This Book Is About
Niko, the Steampunk Samurai, is in her Majesty’s service. But is he a faithful royal bodyguard, or a for-hire yojimbo? A perfect warrior, or a soulless weapon? Follow Niko on his journey of self-discovery with Uri Bronski and Cherokee Geisha, as the Three Yojimbo discover a world populated by silent samurai, fast talking geisha, deadly mechabetsushikime, digital djihits and morphing butterflies.
My Thoughts On This Book
Robotika is a great combo of cyberpunk and Japanese samurai tale with just a pinch of Western. I really enjoyed it. I discovered this title at the 2007 ComiCon when I stopped at the Archaia Studios Press booth to check out Mouse Guard (I hadn’t gone to the booth intentionally, I was just on my way to somewhere on the Con floor when the awesome cover colors caught my eye as I passed).
Where do I even start? Robotika is set in the far future, at a time when the efforts of scientists and corporations to create a “…unified ideal of a true cyber-genetic hybrid…” have resulted in multiple generations of cyborgs, “…each new model making previous units obsolete and useless to their employers.” These castoff cyborgs and other aborted experiments eke out an embittered existence in various wastelands. The various types and tribes of these people/machines/experiments are encountered as Niko goes about his missions.
My favorite part is in the first ‘chapter’ of Robotika. In this scene Niko has gone off to a sort of radioactive marshland to see if the tribes of former-nanny cyborgs dwelling there have any information about the item his Queen has sent him for. These “…ex-governess cyborgs who were enhanced to pick-up after spoiled children and teach them poetry, have turned into mecha-betsushikime…female warriors of renowned prowess.”
What I really like about this section is the way poetry is used. As Niko is fighting these cyborg women there are lines from Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwoky poem describing the action. And, when he beheads the last warrior she recites a short Japanese poem about death, finishing just as her severed cyborg head hits the ground. I have never seen the recitation of poetry used to such excellent dramatic potential. I also really like how the mechabetsushikime are colored completely black and shadowy in this part of the story.
The poetry isn’t just limited to this event in the graphic novel. Each ‘chapter’ begins with a parchment-like page with an image of Niko performing a kata (a motion/blow/exercise in martial arts) with his katana. The text on the left of Niko is a haiku describing the feel of the ‘chapter’ (most written by one of the characters, Bronski) and the text on his right is a synopsis of the situation or/and a description of the area the story takes place in. The image at right is a scan of the intro page for the first ‘chapter’.
The artwork for Robotika is good and very fluid in style. Sheikman is creative with his frames and skilled with his colors. The plotting is done well and the characters are cool.
My only complaint with the styling is with Cherokee Geisha’s word bubbles. I like the idea that she ‘talks’ vertically, like traditional Japanese writing, but the way it’s lettered made it hard to read; the lines are too close together and the letters in individual words are too far apart. That aside, everything else is in this comic is excellently done.
This comic is marketed as steampunk, which I disagree with. Steampunk is more Edwardian in style and the technology is primarily, ahem, steam based. I suppose you could call it etherpunk, which is the ray-gun totting cousin of steampunk. However, in my estimation, Robotika is really cyberpunk; digital virtual reality, quest for identity, cyborgs, far future, etc.
Of course, the most important thing is that Robotika is good using anyone’s definition.
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# of actual vikings in book: 0What do these levels mean? » |
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Author and Publishing Information For This Book
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