Serenity

Publisher
Realbuzz Studios
Writer
Buzz Dixon
Artist
Min Kwon
Country of origin
US
Year
2006

Serenity Volume 1 (revisit)

By David Rasmussen
7th Oct 07

After a few months of waiting and speculating it has finally come to pass.
Realbuzz Studios has finally launched with it’s new publisher, Thomas Nelson.

Now that we’re heading into the 2007 first gen launch titles of this faith based company let’s see how it’s first launch came up (as of September 2007, the premiere month of second first gen title Goofyfoot Gurl).

Rule #1 - Yes, I still still still still believe the title should have been spaced out
No, not that way (again).
There is just something so… soulless about throwing all your volumes out at once at the same time onto the marketplace. Sure, it might have worked maybe with Serenity (because it’s a 2nd print relaunch of a title that first saw print with Barbour Publishing sometime back) but it just didn’t seem to work well in my opinion when it came to this month’s release of Goofyfoot Gurl (but you can read more about that in that review).

Also the way Thomas Nelson releases the books I don’t expect to see any heartwarming surprises (Christmas specials, anthology magazine, whatever) out anytime soon. For a company seemingly trying to get people to give a damn and become hooked on their new AmeriManga slash OEL Manga line? Well, maybe before you expect other people to give a damn about Realbuzz maybe you should act like you yourselves give a damn about Realbuzz before expecting others to do likewise about said line.
Anyway what’s the hurry? The printers going to turn into pumpkins if you don’t publish quickly?

Rule #2 - Homophobia? Not on their watch.
I guess I have nothing to worry about. If these reviews (in the upper range of scoring) are any indication there is nothing to worry about in this regard.

Rule #3 - Refer to the scores this first gen of reviews got and stick with that.

Rule #4 - Shelf thy preconceptions before judging Realbuzz
Yes, it is a Christian Faith Manga, but if you are willing to shelf your preconceptions about that sort of thing you may find that this isn’t another disappointing disaster like King of Kings. Far from it.
In fact check out Goofyfoot Gurl’s review and get a truly surprising shock… but more on that in that review. Anyway let the review itself speak of the title and why it’s getting the score it’s getting.

Serenity Volume 1
Yes, technically this is the second time this book is being reviewed.
Blame Realbuzz, they somehow sent me the same volume (this time the official release book instead of a preview packet of pages) for review so, since they sent it, we’re reviewing it… again.

In “New Girl in Town”… oh, wait, once again my bad… (spraypaints out “New” and scratches in “Bad”)… ahem. Let’s start that again. In “Bad Girl in Town” we are brought to James A. Madison High School, Monday at 7:57AM on a lovely school day. At this moment at this time new girl Serenity Harper (got it wrong last time) has just stepped off the bus, and heck is following close behind (with a press statement denying all responsibility for Serenity’s actions after this point you first meet her).
(And apparently her problems just don’t stop at her attitude misadjustment and occasional bouts of theft seen in this volume, which you see in her additional ill problems noted in Volume 2).

As three of the mismatched lovable team known as the school’s Prayer Club get their first look at the blue haired rebel without an escape clause (though apparently without all her problems aired out in public either until at least Volume 2), Serenity, they have no idea what they’re getting into with the new girl… litterly since she just seems to bubble over with additional ills as the series goes on if Volume 2 is any indication.

Case in point for this volume. 5 minutes into her arrival she’s already trading verbal blows with the frustrated principal of the school (who, if two volumes are any indication, will constantly pop in and out of Serenity’s life without notice or as a means to introduce or press certain plot twists). A few minutes later the school’s welcoming committee, I.e. the Prayer Club, go to meet her and are promptly given… well… I’d say a greeting but I guess you can call it the creator’s idea of what non-Christians “think” of Christians… now I don’t know about you, but I have not automatically jumped down the Prayer Club’s (or any religious person’s) throat 30 seconds into my first meeting with them by calling them “Bible Bangers”! Me? I usually wait for the homophobic ramblings then I jump down their throats.

Ok, Ok, seriously though? That is way too quick a snap attack on people saying hi, but then again considering she just went to the principal and is already locking wills with her I guess she’s not going to be invited to FOX News as anything other than a target for their “fair & balanced” reporting.
(NOTE - If the tingly religious content gets you down flip quickly over to Goofyfoot Gurl‘s review, it got it’s score for a good reason I assure you.)

After Serenity has a run-in with the school’s cheer club (not to be confused with the Prayer Club), and then the school’s “wrong crowd” (don’t ask me what consists of “the wrong crowd”, though I am sure SouthWestern Airlines has it’s notions of who deserves to be smothered in hot blanket on any of their flights because they terrorize the skies with their clothing).

Anyway after the Prayer Club seems to totally get too much into Serenity’s face she suffers a major blow up and flips the middle finger at them (discouraged in both Christian and 70% of normal non Christian mangas). If this was to discourage the Prayer Club it seems to have the opposite effect as they quickly become compelled (guilt tripped by she who will prove herself to become adept at bending the wills of others through the power of the Force -- Sally) into making Serenity their “pet project” and becoming her friend… one way or another.

That one, she who kick started the ball rolling on the “salvation” of Serenity, is Prayer Club member Sally. Next volume she’ll further her kicking by adding the art of “blackmailing (aka “black-femaling”) into her arsenal to make Serenity a friend of the Prayer Club (under threat of prison).

Sally, she who speaks softly, is the bearer of bad puns (Pickled Squirrel anyone?), occasionally extorts others into being in the Prayer Club, and has a lovely attitude… and the ability to cuss strongly enough to cause US Marines to pee on themselves (her loving uncle is a bad(bleep) drill sarge for the Marines after all). With her “convincing” the gang in this volume (and Serenity in the next volume to be more into the Prayer Club meetings) to take on Serenity they promptly go to tell her the “good news“.
She takes it rather well, beating her head into her own locker until she nearly collapses and requires a trip to the nurse and aspirin given for a case of… what! Religious Persecution my eye! You can only be religiously persecuted if… never mind! Just swallow the aspirin and pipe down!
(Religious persecution doesn’t happen until Sally extorts Serenity to participate more in the Prayer Club over what Serenity does later in this volume, but more on that later).

Of course when your “pet project” locks horns with the school bleeding heart literary expert (figuratively of course), and causes Sally to have an emotional meltdown just to get said pet project to stop cussing… well, this isn’t going to be a cakewalk (again, 2nd Volume proves how hard it is raising and training a pet problem child like Serenity). It’s not so much about the whole it takes a village to raise a Serenity, as much it is it takes a Sally to keep the village from burning said Serenity at the stake after she pisses said village off one too many times. Things look up when Serenity shows up (not by choice) for Youth Night at the local church, but even if she thinks she just showed up to irk her really uptight tightly wound mom maybe they really are making an impression on her… until she ups and steals the money Sally had gathered to donate to a local animal shelter. Then all bets are off… or are they? (PS. Yes, this is the incident which Sally will seemingly hold over Serenity’s head as blackmail for a long long time).

What happens next may either seal Serenity’s fate (which it does in a sense), or open new doors to her that even she could never have thought would open to her. Only time, and the volume in question, will tell.

Now then, shelving any preconceived notions let’s give it the full solid review.
First off, the good news. Everything from my last review is still intact here.
Writing is as solid as promised, with a fine balance that doesn’t overdo religious tedium and yet isn’t completely fluff (with a fine balance between drama, humor and purpose to it’s writing). With a whimsical art style, and a lighter style at times of it’s writing to match the whimsical artwork, the title is not all serious drama and plot… though it is finely mixed with that as well making for a solid balance.

Now the bad news.
I won’t go on about the artwork, but it is abit simplistic as of this volume.
However if you look at the preview to Serenity Volume 7 to 10 (seen in Goofyfoot Gurl, and which I’ll go over with you this week) you see the artwork has taken a quantum leap forward in quality. So this isn’t as much of a bad news as I might have thought when I first reviewed this.

Character development also improves as the volumes go on and you see more of the cast stand out and be accounted for in character development. It is still about the main cast, but some of those who didn’t seem to do much in Volume 1 step forward and appear more in Volume 2 (which hopefully carries on into Volume 3 and up).

Otherwise the only real complaint is that Serenity is being sold for $10 a pop.
This, however, is something that can’t be changed (even if TOKYOPOP is underselling at $6 a pop).
With the larger print page size, higher quality paper used in the print, and full color it’s only natural the title will sell for higher than TOKYOPOP’s $6 a pop 100 pager line. Not great for those of us who have to shell out 70% more on cover for a new copy of each volume, but I don’t see any room for compromise on the price considering how much print improvements there are on this over a typical TOKYOPOP print (you‘re paying for all the title‘s bells and whistles whether you needed them or not).

Overall there is more good to Serenity than bad (with Volume 2 showing the title has potential to improve as the series progresses through to it’s second series batch in 2008).
Still, at times (one thing that hasn’t changed) it seems the title goes out of it’s way to bring up the Christian equation, but in the end that seems to be the only lingering title problem as the others I talked about in the past review seem to have straightened themselves out once I read more than one volume of the series.

Serenity Volume 1 gets 4 SallyFather’s offers that nobody can refuse out of 5.

Now for the next time.
Once we’re through this batch we’re going to slowly pick up Serenity and Goofyfoot Gurl volumes for review. This shouldn’t be overtly hard for Serenity (at least) since you can pick up first gen Barbour era volumes of the series for between $2 to $4 a pop from used book sellers on Barnes & Noble (which means even with shipping and handling you’re shaving x amount of dollars off the cover price of each $10 cover for the series).

The next time we gather for a new launch, however, it’ll be 2008 and we’ll be talking Hits & Misses along with the second wave of Serenity volumes (7 to 10). I wrote a separate article previewing Serenity Volume 7 to 10 if you’re wondering, so check that out.

-- David Rasmussen 7th Oct 07