Gear Paperback – February 13, 2007

I love Doug TenNapel. I think the guy is fricken brilliant. And, although I've read various comics growing up, a lesser amount in the 80's and 90's, and a few more in the 21st century, this guy stands out as sui generis.You read something by him and you know, you recognize the "voice."He's nuts. But in a very wonderful way.What would I call his trademarks?1. a zany imagination not afraid to mix together elements that make the averge person (and maybe even the above-average one) go, "Huh?"2. Action-packed storytelling that nevertheless connects with a compassionate thread for people in need and in trouble.3. Humor. It's a really wacky sense of humor that is evident in both the artwork and the text. (In Gear, I just about died at the internal monologue from Heaven, that whole guppies thing, and the catacomb paintings. GUFFAW!)4. Christian content. Let's face it, it's hip to be anti-Christian, to be blasphemous, to shove it in the face of those Jesus Freaks. Culturally, Christianity is not cool. But Doug doesn't shy away from faith content, and instead makes it an important part of the story. Whether it was that amazing panel in CREATURE TECH with the Jesusfied creature thing, or the Jonah story retold in EARTHBOY JACOBUS, or the redemption in IRON WEST, or the unexpected Jesus figure in GEAR (not to mention that hilarious glimpes of cat/mantis/guppie heaven.) Doug is not afraid to pour Christian reality into his zany stories. And that's very, very cool.GEAR has a sort of manic quality that verges on incoherence in spots. I kinda liked it. And the artwork is different from what I'd seen in the other graphic novels by him. I read the afterword, and I understand he was using a different tool/technique. It hyperkinetic and a just plain enjoyable. Too bad it's such a quick read.But what's it' about, Mir? you ask. It's a story of war, various factions from different points (North, South) in a fantasy land populated by giant mantises (one showed up in CREATURE TECH, huh?), cats, dogs, and guardian robots, big ones. The alliances, the battles, the cult that formed around a gear thing, the forbidden mechanism, that will be instrumental in putting an end to this bloodshed.I think that glimpse of Heaven says a lot about that warring land, because it says a lot about US and our warring lands. We're gonna look back or down or whatever some day and go, "Sheesh, that sucked. What were we thinking. It's much nicer to get along and eat..er"...well, maybe not live rabbits and raw fish, but you get my drift. But Doug is realist enough to portray the need to fight against evil and to protect the innocent, even if you'd rather just watch guppies swim in a pond.I'm ready for the next TenNapel.Doug, get cracking, man.Mir of Mirathon blog

The black and white  Gear  TPB was the first comic of TenNapel's that I ever read. It was the book that convinced me to pick up the rest of his stuff as it was released. The art, the characters, the story -- all of it seemed explicitly designed to cater to my own personal artistic sensibilities. In short, it tickled my fancy.Years later, he has seen fit to re-release this special book with a great lookin' new paint job. My appreciation for the art has waned a little (I still love a lot of it, but I noticed, having seen TenNapel's more recent work, that it isn't as strong), but I find myself still appreciating the story as much as I did back in 1998. I was surprised to find that there were still several moments of genuine poignancy in this book about cats in giant robots: Simon's words from Heaven during his funeral; Mr. Black's epilogue narration.Of course, the other things I loved about Gear remain as well: the character designs, the dialogue (Gordon singing and thrusting while piloting the Gear must be seen), the unique humor, and established universe and the epic feel.Regarding the color: it's good. While I'm always a fan of good black and white line-work sans color, the addition in Gear in no way harms it. In most cases, it actually enhances it for clarity of reading. There are a few pages that worked better in the original black and white (some of the art without contour lines, for example), but overall the color is welcome.I'd recommend this book to fans of TenNapel's other work, as well as fans of goofy cartoon work in general. This stuff is great.

I remember reading this a while back, to the point where it was destroyed beyond repair. Then I went through some sort of maturity phase, I guess, and did that thing where many parts of your childhood disappear from everywhere except the darkest recesses of your mind. I've been doing some excavating, and found that many of my favorite things, albeit video games, comics, art and albums have an inexplicable link to one Doug TenNapel. I'm pretty sure it all started with this book.While simpler and more straightforward than some of his other books, there still remains a complex and beautiful story, engaging characters, and some of the most unique artwork and vision I've seen. On many of the pages you can just FEEL the intensity and ferocity with which he drew, and the recklessness and broad stroke style that he shows in this book is one of many reasons that sets him apart artistically from others in my eye. I own them all now, and urge you to do the same, starting with this one.If you remain interested, check out his other stuff, as he's left imprints everywhere, whether it be his video games (neverhood, skullmonkeys, earthworm jim), cartoons (catscratch, ewj), online videos (sockbaby), or album designs (Terry S. Taylor, Five Iron Frenzy.) It's nice finding an artist with this kind of vision and seemingly endless supply of stories who somehow seems to enjoy what he's doing more than I do.

One of Doug TenNapel's best, purchased for Reddit BookShare 2013. Great story, characters and art...get yourself a copy, it's brilliant!

Selon Wikipedia, "Gear" est en fait le deuxième roman graphique de Douglas "Dog" TenNapel. Sa publication remonte à 1999 mais l'édition sur laquelle repose ce commentaire est celle d'Image Comics, en 2007. A l'occasion de cette réédition, cette histoire en 6 chapitres a pris des couleurs, avec l'intervention experte de Joe Potter et de Katherine "Lemm" Garner.Dans un texte inclus à la fin du livre (à côté d'un dessin de Mike Mignola !), TenNapel explique ce qui l'a conduit à dessiner ce comics et notamment à recourir à ce style en apparence minimal et grossier mais en réalité évoquant si fort "nos franco-belges" Mandryka (' Le Concombre Masqué (Intégrale, tome 1) ' et s.), Touïs (' Sergent Laterreur '), Vuillemin et autres. C'est le résultat raisonné de l'utilisation d'une plume de bambou et d'un pinceau en poil de cheval.L'histoire est probablement la plus délirante que j'ai lue à ce jour en provenance de TenNapel. Mais la vérité m'oblige à préciser qu'il me reste une demi-douzaine de bouquins de lui à lire.Il nous propose ici un monde dans lequel il y a une tribu de chats, une de chiens et une d'insectes (des sauterelles). Elles sont en bagarre entre elles. Le premier chapitre montre diverses scènes que l'on croit disparates et qui finissent, au fil de l'avancée de l'histoire, à faire sens.Les héros principaux sont quatre chats (inspirés des vrais chats de TenNapel) qui sont en mission pour leur peuplade en vue de récupérer un "Gardien", robot géant à chouraver aux chiens. Mais c'est bien le "mécanisme interdit" qui est l'arme la plus dangereuse...Ninjas, espions, arme fatale, transformations, bagarre entre robots guerriers géants, poissons rouges, retour d'entre les morts, invasion massive, prise d'otage, on a droit à tout. Avec un vrai talent d'écriture et ce sens de la surprise et de l'humour que TenNapel démontre dès ses premiers pas dans la BD.La colle utilisée par Image Comics n'est pas costaude et le cahier se détache de la couverture. C'est mon seul véritable reproche à ce livre. Le Concombre Masqué (Intégrale, tome 1)Sergent Laterreur

Daughter loved the book but the cover fell off before she was done reading the first time through. The story is wonderful but the quality of the book was questionable