Review: The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim
The Eternal Smile: Three Stories
By Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim
First Second, May 2009, $16.95
Three years ago, Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel [[[American Born Chinese]]] – a three-stranded partly autobiographical and partly allegorical story of growing up Asian-American – was published to massive acclaim (National Book Award nominee, Michael L. Printz Award winner) and success. And two years before that, Derek Kirk Kim’s debut comics collection, [[[Same Difference and Other Stories]]], was also highly lauded, winning the Eisner, the Ignatz, and the Harvey. But five years before that, Luen and Kim collaborated on a two-issue series for Image called [[[Duncan’s Kingdom]]].
The Eternal Smile collects Duncan’s Kingdom, along with two other stories – [[[Gran’pa Greenbax]]] and [[[the Eternal Smile]]] and [[[Urgent Request]]] – which seem to be new work, though the book never says that specifically. The three stories are held together only loosely by theme; they’re all about escapism and greed, in their own separate ways.
Duncan’s Kingdom is a medieval fantasy – Duncan is a young knight in the service of a king, who is killed by the agents of the (presumably evil, though the plot is so quick and straightforward that a lot of things are left as “presumably”) Frog King on the third page. The Princess declares that whatever knight can kill the Frog King and bring his head back to her will have her hand and be the next king, so Duncan sets out on the quest with his magic sword.
There’s a twist in the story – there would have to be, with such an over-used premise like that – and I’ll be discrete enough not to tell you what it is. But things turn out not to be just what they seem, though Duncan does show more than enough heroism before it’s all done. Duncan’s Kingdom is a bit facile, though, even with the twist – it’s one we’ve all seen a dozen times in earlier stories. This version of the story is told reasonably well, though Duncan never becomes a specific person rather than “our hero.”
Nikki Finke
The Western movie genre is something most of us consider a relic from the 1950s, and yet, two of the better regarded films – 
On the other hand, Howard Hawks’[[[El Dorado]]], shot five years later and in full color, is a bigger story, played out on location and feels entirely different. His characters, though, are stoics and barely exhibit much emotion. When John Wayne accidentally kills Luke McDonald (Johnny Crawford), the McDonald family barely nods in acknowledgement. This story is also about land rights, as the black-hatted Ed Asner hires gunmen to force the McDonalds into giving up their water rights. The Sheriff (Robert Mitchum) has become a drunk over an ill-fated romance and it takes his old friend, mercenary John Wayne, accompanied by the tyro James Caan to help maintain law and order. The professional rivalry theme plays out between Wayne and Mitchum, both showing their age here, but also between Wayne and Christopher George, the gunhand newly arrived to aid Asner.
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