KAMEN AMERICA: the perfect comic book REVIEW!

It is time for another TOTALLY BIASED comic book review and today I will be reviewing the excellent KAMEN AMERICA by TIM LIM and writer Mark Pellegrini.

Kamen America was a pleasant surprise to me and turned out to be one of the best Indie comic books I have bought and read in years. In fact, it turned out to be one of my favorite comic books ever and I am very glad I took a chance on supporting it, after deciding to do so while writing my Soulfinder review which was drawn by the same artist, although that book was drawn in a totally different style.

Kamen America was originally funded on KICKSTARTER and I missed out on it the first go around because I assumed that I would not like the book based on the art style. I have notoriously always had a prejudice towards Anime/manga style comic books and more often than not assumed they were not for me. Don't ask me why, but in the past most books using such a style just never clicked for me personally.

So that prejudice, along with the fact that the physical copies of the book SOLD OUT pretty quickly made me miss out supporting the book the first go around. The book then was funded by around 1023 backers and made a very respectable 20,000+ dollars and was shipped ALMOST immediately after funding. At some point during the campaign I had changed my mind and decided I would give the book a chance but by the time I had "come around" the physical copies of the book were all sold out and all that was left were digital editions and I decided to not fund the campaign. 

The creators, at this point in their crowd funding career, seem to be in a position where they are financially able to create, print and have the books ready to ship so there is a finite number of physical books to be had during the live campaigns. This is an excellent and business savoy plan for two clever and interesting reasons...

The first is more obvious, LIKE I HAVE POINTED OUT IN MY NAPALM BROTHERS REVIEW, in that it is very pro consumer to have a book finished and ready to print or ship, so that the buyers can have faith in the project being delivered in a reasonable time. More content creators, who are in the position to do so, should really make a move towards doing business in such a way so that more fans and buyers can have more faith in the community and get to enjoy their books in a more timely fashion. The second reason I think selling books like this is smart is a tad bit more devious... once I  realized that I had tarried too long in deciding to back the physical book and I had missed out- that created a psychological desire to not miss out again!

Luckily for me the creators soon after launched the same book (with a flipped cover) on INDIEGOGO and had masterfully manipulated me into backing the physical book as soon as I saw my second chance!

I joke about being "manipulated" because I am sure there is no devious attempt to control my mind by the creators, but I am very glad I backed the book; because, the book came soon after I backed it in perfect condition and was a joy to read. 

I backed the "Standee Perk" because I had been envying the cool little plastic standee figure Kickstarter backers had been showing off on Twitter and that cost me 35$ plus shipping and came with the printed comic book, a digital version of the book, a cool little sticker, a "thank you" postcard and of course the coveted, plastic representation of Kamen America herself and was worth every penny!

The book arrived very fast and was shipped safely and was printed with a very bold and beautiful shiny "double" cover and looked great. The book was printed and binded in a high quality fashion and was nearly perfect in every way a buyer could expect for the price and format. Zero complaints in that department. Tim Lim and Mark Pellegrini have a long and proven track record with their crowd funding projects, that you the consumer, can count on receiving a professional book in each and every way. Backing their campaigns again, for me, will be a no brainer because of said track record. They are helping to set the standard for all creators who wish to do business in the community in an ethical and pro consumer way. 

So let us get on with the review and we will start off with the art by Tim Lim.

Long story short, the art is perfect and well done. Any fears I personally had that I would not like the style never surfaced again while reading the book and it was perfectly executed and the story just flowed off the page and never took the reader out of the story. The style and the line work fit perfectly for the character and the story told in the comic. Tim Lim is a master at his craft and may finally be the artist that has broken me out of the prejudice I have had against the manga style artwork. I do not know what it is about the preview art on the Indiegogo and Kickstarter sites that turns me off when I am deciding to back the books but the printed versions look so much better and are very pleasing to look at. I will have zero fears in backing each and every Tim Lim project in the future. He is one of the finest artists working in crowd funding today! I cannot praise his artwork enough so I am going to move on to the story and writing which was my favorite part of the book and was the main reason the book clicked so well with me and the reason I am now so found of it and the character Kamen America!

The writer for the book is the criminally underrated Mark Pellegrini. Writers when it comes to comic books, and especially crowd funded comic books, can easily be overlooked when enjoying the medium. This is sad, but understandable, considering the nature of comic books and how they are created especially when they are done outside of main stream companies. The main reason this is so is because comic books are a visual medium that relies so heavily on the work of the artist and cannot be created by any writer alone who cannot or chooses not to draw the book. More often than not, many comic book writers are considered as an "after thought".

While there is often some validation to this opinion this is not at all the case with a writer like Mark. 

Sometimes, when you are reading a book as a fan, you cannot be 100% sure who is responsible for exactly what in a comic book story. It is difficult to tell what elements that you enjoyed the most in a story come from the artist, or the writer, or from both, but I feel it is obvious that the story elements in Kamen America that hit closest to home for myself most likely come from the involvement of Mark Pellegrini.

Mark was the original writer from the RED ROOSTER COMIC REVIEW that I wrote recently and that was a book that I was surprised I didn't hate. In fact that was a book I kind of wanted to totally dislike. But I did not.

Sadly, it has been reported, that the script that Mark had originally written for Red Rooster had been changed quite a bit in unexplained ways but I honestly feel I can perceive elements from the spirit of what actually made the Red Rooster work for me personally still in the nature of the tale and also recognize that same "story telling spirit" in a book like Karmen America as well. A great writer like Mark has an unseen signature with the over all feel and spirit of a book that cannot be replicated by many comic book writers today.

Both Red Rooster and Kamen America had elements that are more often than not missing in today's main stream comic books and other popular media. Cultural elements that are needed in entertainment for me to instinctively like, love and hold dear to my heart. Things like common decency, heroism, anti-cultural-Marxist philosophies and old school and forgotten American values mixed with a little traditional common sense!

Kamen America, despite its simple sounding premise, is a comic book that probably could not be made by any corrupted and propagandist main stream comic book company today.

Kamen America is a simple story of a young girl who desperately wants to be "herself" in a world full of muddled expectations and social propaganda. As a child, Carly who is healthy and normal, just desires to enjoy and do the things that come naturally to her nature.

The story starts off when Carly, ten years ago as a kid, gets injured while playing baseball. This event seems to confuse her dad who quizzes her about the fact that she has expressed to her parents in the past that she does not enjoy playing baseball. Carly reveals that she is only playing baseball because of pressure from an activist school teacher and that teacher's feelings about the proper roles of women in society.

The story does not suggest that girls can not or should not play baseball. It just portrays Carly as the type of person who does not care for such things and who is the type of person, who by their nature and preferences, likes to do more traditionally "girly" things like design and make beautiful clothes. Carly feels persecuted about her personal preferences by the public authority figures around her and by society at large and is afraid to be herself. Thankfully for Carly she has wonderful and attentive parents who care and love her as a true individual instead of just desiring to use her has a chess piece and as their own personal pawn in some unnatural culture war. Her father sits her down and teaches her a valuable life lesson about being "herself" and true to her nature instead of giving into the whims and propaganda of popular culture. He teaches her how to be an individual and how to be happy. It is a rare example of a realistic example of a child and realistic acting parents being used in a story showing how they would really care for the child's happiness instead of creators using that child and the story as an unnatural political tool.

In just the first three pages of the story the whole plot and philosophy of the book is masterfully laid out and presented to the reader. So much world building and story is accomplished in such a short and efficient fashion that it is a perfect example of quality writing and the proper way to set up a good comic book tale. It sets up the characters backstory, motivation and outlines the meaning and moral of the book while not wasting time or insulting the intelligence of the reader. Anyone out there who would wish to learn how to write a well written and intelligent comic book story should look no further than Mark Pellegrini.

I wont spoil the rest of the story for anyone but rest assured that the entire book story-wise is just as well written and clever as the first three pages and contains lots of heroic action and witty humor that the entire length of the book was a pleasure to read. At one point there was a silly "comrade" joke that made me (if you will forgive the cringy expression)  made me literally "laugh out loud" and there was also a character named Vicki who I can only assume is inspired by Twitter personality TheVikkiVerse and it was strongly suggested in the story that this character might also be "gifted" with their very own super powers in another issue. I personally hope this is indeed the case and that I am just not looking too much into perceived hints. The only slightly negative experience I had supporting this book was the digital version. I did not desire to spoil my experience reading the book digitally for the first time so I ignored the email until I had read the physical book. By the time I went back to use the digital version to extract art and images for this review I found that the digital download had EXPIRED after only seven days and I was unable to access the digital version. But since I didn't desire the digital version of the book in the first place that trifle did little to take away from the experience of enjoying the book.

 In conclusion the Kamen America comic book has great values, an excellent and unique example of a heroine and lots of counter culture displays of common sense and goodness seeping through every seam of the spirit and style of the story that I enjoyed every moment of reading it. Kamen America, is as the title of this review suggests, the perfect comic book.