MBQ: Volume 1

Brian runs a pay-by-the-hour hotel and Korean karaoke bar catering to the musically challenged. Part man, part mountain, Jeff is a well-liked worker at the local McBurger Queen—the MBQ of the title. Hotshot rookie Aidan O'Malley is about to start his first day as a cop, while Dee, a brutal black drug dealer, is making plans to pulverize Richie for stealing from him. Omario, a not-so-secret stand-in for this book's author, just wants to draw completely original comics—comics much like the ones on these very pages. Smith's debut manga shows how these people's lives begin to intersect across the multiethnic urban landscape of Los Angeles. He's created an over-the-top, outrageous, slice-of-L.A. portrait that combines the best of manga—intensely expressive figuration and action, visually rich in emotion and comedy—with a violent and frankly entertaining strand of kick-ass, hip-hop gangsta sensibility. From the image of huge but nimble Jeff serving burgers to a couple of hilarious porn-addicted East Indian clerks, Smith takes the reader on a wild ride through the neighborhoods, nationalities and lowlifes of L.A., pausing only to deliver a talk-to-the-camera manifesto on the existential demands of making great comics. Weirdly thoughtful, thrillingly violent and cheesily sexy, this book is a guilty pleasure and a shameless delight. It's a wonderful glimpse into the future of original English manga. (Aug.)