| April 2008
|
by James Moore
“There’s that old saying: ‘Everything’s been done, nothing’s original. That’s just what people with no passion say when they’ve run out of ideas. Fuck those people.” -- -- Johnny Boyo in Won Ton Soup
In a way, it’s an old story. A young man
turns his back on a an educational system he views as
stifling, and goes out on his own to see the world and fuel
his passion in his own way. Now imagine that story as if
Jack Kirby attempted to tell it as an outer space cooking
manga. That statement sums up the approach by Canadian
writer/artist Jamie Stokoe to his debut graphic
novel Won Ton
Soup.
The book follows Johnny Boyo, a space trucker with a
passion for extreme cooking, who left cooking school to
explore the universe and learn about exotic alien cuisine.
An encounter with a bad of space ninjas leaves Johnny, and
his roughish, comedy-relief co-pilot Deacon Vans,
temporally stranded on the planet he left a year ago while
their ship is repaired. While grounded, Johnny reunites
with his girlfriend, Citrus, and is challenged to an Iron
Chef-style competition with a creepy set of alien twins.
The plot is fairly straightforward, but it’s the execution
that makes the book shine. Every other page there seems to
be a new idea, an interesting alien, or fascinating set
piece. Johnny Boyo’s world is one of anthropomorphic
pandas, food that will strangle the chef if not prepared
just right, and enormous techno-towers shaped like ancient
alien cooking gods. There is a nice, lived-in quality to
the world Stokoe creates which is as much the result of his
picaresque, assured pacing as it is due to his craggy,
organic linework.
Stokoe’s character designs have the kind of pleasantly
striking uniqueness you would see more commonly in manga
than your average indie comic. He tends to go for simple
iconic personalities, at least in this first volume, but
there is clearly room for complexity down the road
if Won Ton
Soup continues.
Johnny and Citrus’ relationship, for example, has a
melancholy undercurrent of two people on separate paths
that wish they could walk together.
Won Ton
Soup is a genial
book, quirky and funny without being overbearingly so. It
is a funny page-turner that just rolls on and on, soaking
up the otherworldly scenery. It is a book more about just
wandering around and experiencing—and taking joy in that
experience—than about forcing its characters into
artificial conflict for the sake of tension and drama. It
is an effective storytelling choice that mirrors the
protagonist who tosses off a ‘Luke you are our only hope’
moment with a sardonic, “I don’t have energy for this,” and
for whom the final conflict is about having fun, instead of
winning. It celebrates passion, learning, and creativity
over victory which is refreshing in a medium so often
preoccupied with “Changing things for Spandex Man
forever!!.” Stokoe is clearly a creator with passion and
ideas to spare, and if this auspicious debut is anything to
go by it will be well worth seeing what he cooks up next.
