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Aug 30 2009
What Are You Reading?
Posted on August 30, 2009 - 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Welcome, welcome, welcome to another round of What Are You Reading. I
am very pleased this week to say that our guest is Jeet Heer, the
peerless critic and historian who, when not writing introductions for
Little Orphan Annie or Krazy Kat collections, can be found at the Sans
Everything or the Comics Comics blogs.
Jeet and the rest of the crew have been reading a lot this week and
are eager to share, so get clicking on that link pardners.
Peter and Max
John Parkin: Right now I'm reading Peter and Max, an advance copy of
the Fables novel coming later this year from Vertigo. I didn't really
have any expectations for it when I started reading it; although I do
like the Fables comic a great deal, I wasn't sure if anything would be
lost in the move, so to speak. It focuses mainly on fairy tales
characters who haven't appeared in the Fables-verse yet: Peter Piper,
his brother Max and Little Bo Peep. Although it starts out on the
Farm, most of the action takes place in the past, when Peter Piper's
world was invaded by the Adversary's forces, as well as in present-day
Germany as Peter looks for his brother. (Bigby, BTW, makes appearances
in both time periods, while Rose Red and other Fables staples have
cameos).
Quite frankly, I love it so far. Willingham writes really great prose,
and I was about to type the line "The characters really translate well
to the format," when I realized how ridiculous and obvious that line
was considering the source material. What I'm not sure about, though,
is if I would like it as much if I didn't know anything about the
Fables universe. Everything is explained fairly well, I think, in the
beginning, but since I already knew the story, I may not be the best
judge of that. So my plan is to have my wife read it after I'm done,
to see if someone who doesn't read comics will appreciate it as well.
Typically when I'm reading a prose novel -- and I'm a fairly slow
reader, I think -- I'll put it down if I have comics to read and let
it sit for awhile as I jump into the weekly stash. But in this case
the comics have been sitting and waiting.
Dark Entries
Before I started the novel, though, I read Dark Entries, the Vertigo
Crime novel featuring John Constantine. I really liked the idea of the
premise -- Constantine is hired to investigate the haunted house where
a reality show about fear is being filmed. It seems that the house is
really haunted, so the producer sends Constantine in to figure out
what's going on. It's a fun premise, and was a fun, engrossing read up
until the big twist is revealed. At that point, I had to shut the
book, because I really hated the twist, at least for a 24-hour period.
The premise of what's going on in the book changes; Constantine, it
turned out, had been tricked, yet again, and ... well, I don't want to
give anything away, but at this point I started thinking about past
Hellblazer stories where Constantine faced similar situations, and I
realized I was coming down on this book because of continuity
problems. Which seems like a really silly thing to do for what should
be taken as a stand alone Constantine story. But the other thing that
grated on me was that from a storytelling standpoint, the twist made
everything really easy. It was the obvious way to go, esp. considering
the main character, and I would have much rather seen Constantine deal
with the situation as it was first presented.
Anyway, I did let that twist sit with me for a bit, then jumped back
in. It's not a bad Constantine story, but it turns into a very
familiar Constantine story -- I'd probably like it better if I hadn't
read stories by Ennis and Delano and other writers who handled these
sorts of stories before.
Fantastic Four 570
Tim O'Shea: Fantastic Four 570 marks the first issue of Jonathan
Hickman and Dale Eaglesham's run on the book...and the return on the
1970s cover logo (a fun throwback, but I'm partial to the original
logo). I've always liked Eaglesham's art and he's part of the reason I
picked up the issue (after bailing early in the Millar/Hitch
run). Hickman is continuing a plotline that Millar had started, where
Reed has decided (in one of those "greater good" rationalizations) to
lie to Sue. This first issue's conclusion, involving "The Bridge" has
me interested, so I'll be back. One small question, when did Reed
become so musclebound? It's an odd visual revision of the character,
considering how he's always had a slight build--and the George Michael
1980s beard stubble look for Reed is plum absurd (or possibly another
visual clue that things are not what they appear).
The Incredibles #0
The Incredibles 0 features Landry Walker as a co-writer on the new
ongoing series. The story is partially about the birth of Jack-Jack. I
don't know who to give credit to (Pixar, Waid or Walker) but I want to
see more of the villains Mr. Pixel (kudos to artist Marcio
Takara/colorist Andrew Dalhouse for pulling off that character) and
Tronasaurus. In fact, I want to go on record, no longer will the craze
be talking gorillas, the comic industry is on the eve of worshipping
mechanical dinosaurs sporting top hats. You read it here first.
I'm enjoying Greg Rucka's writing on Batwoman in Detective Comics 856
-- not because of the lead character, but rather her supporting cast,
which as of this issue includes Maggie Sawyer. Rucka gives Kate's
father the best line of the issue with: "Faith was proven when I got
my first face-full of werewolf halitosis."
In terms of music, I'm starting to enjoy Regina Spektor's new release,
Far.
20th Century Boys Vol. 4
Brigid Alverson: I'm up to vol. 4 of Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century
Boys, and my initial misgivings about the series have been
resolved. The first volume felt like it was all setup, but by now I
feel like I have a solid sense of what the story is about and where it
is going. Of course, you have to willingly suspend disbelief about all
kinds of things to enjoy this story, but if you are willing to take
that plunge, it really pulls you in. The main character is a guy who
is in his 30s and realizes that he has not achieved any of his
youthful ambitions. And then, suddenly, he is given a chance to
literally live out his most childish dreams of saving the world. So
Urasawa takes a really universal feeling (for those of us over 30,
anyway) and puts a bizarre spin onto it to turn it into a suspense
story. What I love most about Urasawa's work is the way he draws his
characters; even someone who is only onstage for a few minutes has a
distinct, clearly
visible personality. I'll be sticking with this one for the duration.
I only recently realized that BOOM! Studios has put some of their
titles up as free webcomics on their site. 2 Guns, written by Steven
Grant with art by Mat Santolouco, is a nice buddy/enemy story about
two guys who rob a bank. Neither realizes at first that the other one
is not just a crook; one is a DEA agent and the other is a naval
intelligence offers. The plot is fairly twisted and no one is ever
what they seem (of course). With plenty of action and banter, it's a
perfect end-of-summer read, a bit of escapism to enjoy before the
heavy reading begins.
In the non-comics realm, I'm finishing out my summer with Cheating at
Solitaire, by my favorite mystery writer, Jane Haddam. Haddam's
mysteries all feature an Armenian-American detective, Gregor
Demarkian, and the denizens of his old neighborhood in Philadelphia,
but somehow she manages to come up with a compelling cast of
additional characters for every book. She tells the story from
multiple points of view, following one character around for a while
and then switching to another, which gives the reader a lot of insight
into the various characters' problems and motivations. This particular
story is set during a movie shoot on an island very much like Martha's
Vineyard, and Haddam has obviously modeled some of the characters on
real actors (Paris Hilton and Patrick Stewart come to mind'now imagine
them together), but she throws a bunch of other interesting types into
the mix as well. It's great stuff, much more entertaining than
anything on
TV right now.
Cursed Pirate Girl #2
Matt Maxwell: CURSED PIRATE GIRL #2
Jeremy Bastian, ringleader of the madness
This is hitting me just right, and there's every chance that it might
not have done so. My tolerance for fantasy changes on a near-daily
basis. Sometimes it's far too cute and clever for its own
good. Sometimes it's just pastiche of other (better) books that I've
read years ago. But once in a while, you get the right voice telling
the right story, and pretty soon, you find that you're not getting
hung up on what you do and don't like about the genre and just
enjoying the story. This is one of those times. Yes, Mr. Bastian
tips his hat to Rackham (and Teniel, it occurs to me, particularly
with his doddering twins) but CURSED PIRATE GIRL is so unlike anything
that I've read recently that I find myself utterly charmed by it, not
just for the rendering or the beautiful hand-lettering, but for the
way the pages are broken down and the story is presented in a way such
that only
comics could present it.
FCBD HELLBOY (from 2008)
This just turned up. I'd probably grabbed it from BEA last year and
somehow lost track of it. My fondness for HELLBOY has waned somewhat,
though I still follow BPRD in trades. The Hellboy story in this book
was somehow just right, not stretched out to take up an entire issue,
but too big for a backup feature. There's a wonderful sense of
lightness in it, particularly in Duncan Fegredo's artwork (something
that I think has been lost since I always felt that Mr. Fegredo was
being directed to draw more like Mike Mignola, even if there's no
basis in fact for that.) The BPRD story is another great little
character portrait with art by Guy Davis (who if you haven't figured
is one of my favorite artists in comics, then I need to work a little
harder) that hits the spot. Same for the final story, which is from
the historical 1946 spin-off (so far as I can tell), a nice little
Lovecraftian chiller by Josh Dysart and Paul Azaceta (who I'd love to
see more
work from). You know, I'd eat up a bunch of done-in-one stories like
this, should they put 'em out regularly. As a sampler for the current
Hellboy-related books from DH, this seems to do a pretty fine job.
Blackest Night #0
BLACKEST NIGHT #0
Johns, Reis, Mahnke
Not my thing, though perhaps I should read more of these to try and
get a handle as to why they're lighting the superhero comics world on
fire right now. I wasn't able to pull much out of this other than two
formerly dead superheroes talking about their past funerals and just
feeling really, really creeped out by it. Yeah, you're superheroes,
but when you do this sort of thing, you're basically making the
character in-human. Un-human, whatever. I'm sure there's an audience
for graveside chats that take up the entire intro issue, but I'm
testing well for that demographic. Though I will say that this book
does strike me as being emblematic of DC's main-line output for most
of the 00s, and why I'm not following as much of it as I used to, once
upon a time (in 2005).
More DR. STRANGE. That essential volume is taking forever to plow
through, a couple chapters a night before I nod off. But what dreams,
man.
Silver Age #1
Tom Bondurant: Can I say that I finally watched the Louis
Leterrier/Edward Norton Incredible Hulk movie from last summer? It
was okay, although it felt too short and I have never liked Liv
Tyler's mutant ability to suck all the air out of a scene. Also,
William Hurt was great as Capt. Stottlemeyer. I did like the
references to the TV series, and I would like to see what Tim Blake
Nelson does in full-on Leader mode.
While looking through the "S Misc." longbox on another errand, I came
across DC's Silver Age miniseries from the spring of 2000. Headed up
by Mark Waid, the "fifth-week event" aimed to tell a retro version of
a modern-day crossover. However, it had to fit into current
continuity, which meant Luthor was a tycoon, Black Canary was a
founding Justice Leaguer, and Wonder Woman and the Silver Age Hawkman
weren't yet in the picture. Naturally, another big difference was the
presence of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, who got a lot of
play in the miniseries. Ironically, though, with all the rollbacks in
continuity since then, Silver Age has become an artifact of a
different era.
That still doesn't stop it from being a lot of fun. Waid writes the
giant-sized bookend stories, and an all-star cast produces the
anachronistic one-shots which tie them together. Kurt Busiek and
Brent Anderson get the pivotal Green Lantern book, Bob Haney writes a
Batman/Metal Men team-up for The Brave and the Bold (drawn, as it
happens, by Kevin Maguire), Barry Kitson joins Waid for Dial H For
Hero, Marv Wolfman writes Teen Titans and Mark Millar writes Justice
League, and a young master Geoff Johns writes Showcase Presents Seven
Soldiers Of Victory. With a sprawling yarn like this, though, you
tend to notice the little things. The plot involves villains
switching bodies with heroes, so (just as in Identity Crisis'
flashback) the bad guys quickly learn whose faces are under the masks.
Catwoman makes a pass at Doctor Light, but he says he's more
interested in physics than women. When Green Lantern wields
Sinestro's ring, he finds himself almost
overwhelmed by the power within it. Perhaps most strikingly, once
the villains achieve ultimate power, they wreak havoc with a set of
power rings for each color in the spectrum. (Shame that idea wasn't
expanded upon....) The whole thing wraps up in a monster 51-page final
chapter by Waid and Eduardo Barreto, where the Injustice League
(wielding said power rings) drives the JLA into hiding. Of course the
day is saved, and in fairly clever ways to boot, but I have to say, no
one does the horror of omnipotent evil quite like Mark Waid.
Superman #691
I've been pretty happy generally with the Superman titles, but this
was a particularly good week. Superman #691 finished up the four-part
"Codename: Patriot" crossover, and the Jimmy Olsen Special #2 featured
Codename: Assassin stalking Jimmy (no, not in that way). James
Robinson wrote both books, with Renato Guedes and Eduardo Pansica
pencilling the Superman issue, Jose Wilson Magalhaes and Sandro
Ribeiro inking it, and Bernard Chang drawing the Jimmy Olsen Special.
I thought both were pretty suspenseful, mostly because both find our
heroes in tight spots and then show things getting worse. Without
giving too much away, "Codename: Patriot" seems to be at least as
important to the overall New Krypton arc as the infamous "Sacrifice"
four-parter was to Infinite Crisis. Its ending is rather unsettling,
but on the bright side, we're only halfway through the World Of New
Krypton miniseries. That's where the Jimmy Olsen Special comes in,
pulling
together subplots and characters from all around the Superman titles
before ending on a very-nicely-done cliffhanger. While I don't believe
for a second that you-know-who is really you-know-what, I had a great
time getting there. In fact, these two issues are a fine way to
demonstrate the utility of serialized comics. They each give you
exactly as much information as their producers want, and leave you to
stew for a week, a month, or however long, until it's time for you to
learn more. Glad I'm not waiting for the trades on these!
Speaking of waiting, I'll have a lot of time to pore over the details
of Flash: Rebirth #s 1-4. This week's issue #4 was five weeks late,
and issue #5 (which was supposed to be out this week) is now scheduled
for October 14. Still, it looks like the bulk of the plot has been
revealed, thanks to issue #4's infodump. If you remember the issue of
Green Lantern: Rebirth where all the metaphysics and pseudoscience
behind the power rings was explained, Flash: Rebirth #4 is a lot like
that. Most of it is a big fight in the Speed Force which artist Ethan
Van Sciver pulls off fairly well, although some of his more dramatic
moments -- both during the fight and otherwise -- seem too posed and
static. Regardless, Geoff Johns manages to make Barry Allen the
center of the Flash universe without the puffery which characterized
issue #1, and that's a neat trick on its own. (Plus there's a good
scene with Jesse Chambers, who I've always thought was criminally
underused as a speedster.)
Whaddaya know -- I got this far without mentioning Batman And Robin #3
or Detective Comics #856. Huh. Well, it goes without saying that I
enjoyed the heck out of both, especially Frank Quitely's amazing
choreography of both Robin fighting and Professor Pyg dancing. I also
liked seeing JH Williams III introduce yet another new art style (kind
of a shaggy Dan Brereton thing) for the were-creatures, and it was
good to see Bette Kane again. Man, if Rucka and Williams end up
making Bat-Girl/Flamebird the next sensational character find, is
there no end to their power...?
Wolverine: Prodigal Son
Michael May: I'm checking out the Wolverine "manga," Prodigal
Son. Three chapters in isn't a lot of time to form an impression, but
I'm enjoying it so far. Official Wolverine's background is so
convoluted that I appreciate a simplified version where a secluded
dojo replaces Xavier's and Logan's just a punk kid. The story's not
very original so far - Wolverine's "specialness" makes him feel like
an outsider to all the other students except for the sensei's daughter
who's the only person who truly understands him - but there's still
lots of time for that to change.
I've also started reading BPRD, Volume 1: Hollow Earth and Other
Stories. I've been re-reading all the Hellboy/BPRD stuff in tpb and
it's been fun, but I'm a bit disappointed in how a lot of the material
is organized. Especially the stuff around Roger the Homonculus'
introduction to the BPRD. If you read the Hellboy collections in
order, keeping track of Roger's story is kind of like watching Pulp
Fiction. And even then, you have to skip over to the first BPRD book
to pick up a crucial episode. It's all doable, but I wish it were
easier to read the whole saga in more or less chronological order.
Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggression
Chris Mautner: I managed to make a trip to my LCS the other day and
finally got caught up on some pamphlets -- mainly Wednesday Comics,
since that's almost all I'm reading in serialized form right now. I'm
pleased to find that many of the up-till-now mediocre stories are
starting to pick up some steam. Except for the Teen Titans one. That's
still horrible.
Like everyone else, I also picked up the latest copies of B&R and
Det. C. The former was still immensely enjoyable; the second .. well
the art was immensely enjoyable at any rate. The villain in that story
reminds me of one of the characters from the Lucky Luke Jesse James
book. In that, he constantly quotes Shakespeare, but only snippets
like "Sirrah" and "Tis true." Same kinda thing going on here, but for
dramatic, instead of comedic effect. She looks cool though.
IDW also sent me the first issue of their new Ghostbusters series,
Displaced Agression. The story involves the various characters getting
displaced in time (hence the title), which is a good idea, but it's
just not very funny. And more than anything, a Ghostbusters comic
needs to be funny. Is there really that big a clamoring for more
Ghostbusters material anyway? Didn't the second movie and the recent
video game pretty much kill any goodwill the first one merited?
Masterpiece Comics
Jeet Heer: Love and Rockets, New Stories #2. The Hernandez Brothers
have been producing such consistently good comics for such a long time
that I often feel they get taken for granted. But their recent comics
just maintain their high level of previous achievement, they also have
a freshness and liveliness that any young artist would envy. Jaime's
100 page superhero epic `Ti-Girls Adventure Number 34' succeeds at
pulling off something Alan Moore has often aimed for (but failed at)
in series like Tom Strong: recreating the frothy care-free fun of
space-age superheroes. The tone is jaunty and insouciant, there are
many fine nods to Kirby and Ditko but no musty nostalgia. And amid all
the fight-scenes and shifting alliances, there is a healthy moral as
well, about the need to cultivate your gifts in a world that
encourages you to settle for less: this is what a superhero comic
should be. Gilbert's `Hypnotwist' is an unnerving excursion into
dreamland, reminiscent of some works by Richard Sala and the Dan
Clowes of Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron. What makes this story so
curdlingly unsettling is that it expertly mimics the associational
logic of a nightmare, where heat can easily expand into a ballon and
you're always running into your doppelganger. I also enjoyed Mario and
Gilbert's new sci-fi romp Citizen Rex (from Dark Horse), a welcome
return to their retro-futurist mode, and look forward to seeing how
the story unfolds.
R. Sikoryak's Masterpiece Comics. These stories are familiar friends:
I've read many of them when they were first published in magazines
like Raw, Snake Eyes, and Drawn and Quarterly, and over the years have
often returned to them. Encountering them again in this definitive
volume, I remain amazed at how multi-layered Sikoryak's comics are,
which a big reason why they repay many close readings. Each story
works on at least 3 levels: as a scarily-precise parody of a classic
cartooning style (say the Winsor McCay of Little Nemo or Wayne
Boring's Superman), as a surprisingly faithful (albeit truncated)
adaptation of a classic work (Wuthering Heights, Crime and
Punishment), and as a echo-rich dialogue between the style and the
story (for example, seeing Tubby enact the role of Roger
Chillingworth, the relentless persecuting husband in The Scarlet
Letter is a comment on Tubby's vindictiveness when he plays detective
and the petty childishness of
Chillingworth's hunger for revenge). Dollar for dollar, this is one
of the best investments you can make in a graphic novel, since it
offers many hours of pleasure.
Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics
Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman's The Toon Treasury of Classic
Children's Comics. Full disclosure: I was on the advisory board that
Mouly and Spiegelman consulted when they put together this book, but I
think that experience gives me an insight into the books production
that is worth sharing. Mouly and Spiegelman are the greatest editors
in comics because of the time and thought they put into each
project. Too many collections of old comics are just slapped together
with whatever material is at hand. Mouly and Spiegelman, by contrast,
take the job of editing an anthology seriously enough to 1) rigorously
define their ambit, 2) search out the best material, and 3) organize
the selection in such a way that it makes sense. In this case, they
could have easily picked a handful of stories from the big names (Carl
Barks, Walt Kelly, John Stanley, Sheldon Mayer) and come up with a
passable book. But they aimed to make a definitive book, not just a
`good enough' book so they read through the oeuvre not only the four
masters but countless other cartoonists, with an eye in every case for
the best. The stories selected really are the cream of the
crop. Everything about the book (the design, the cover, the
introduction, the reproduction, the stories selected, the paper stock)
is impeccable. What the book does is define a particular genre
focusing tightly on the best material: kids comics, as the book shows,
are not just comics aimed at little kids. Rather, kids comics are
comics that nurture the culture of childhood, the cocoon-time after
toddler-hood but before adolescence when curiosity and imagination run
free.
Fantagraphics has been busy in the graphic novels department lately so
I have a big stack of their books to read, including The Squirrel
Machine, Giraffes in My Hair, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book,
and West Coast Blues. They all look good.
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/0 8/what-are-you-reading-35/
Aug 30 2009
What Are You Reading?
Posted on August 30, 2009 - 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Welcome, welcome, welcome to another round of What Are You Reading. I
am very pleased this week to say that our guest is Jeet Heer, the
peerless critic and historian who, when not writing introductions for
Little Orphan Annie or Krazy Kat collections, can be found at the Sans
Everything or the Comics Comics blogs.
Jeet and the rest of the crew have been reading a lot this week and
are eager to share, so get clicking on that link pardners.
Peter and Max
John Parkin: Right now I'm reading Peter and Max, an advance copy of
the Fables novel coming later this year from Vertigo. I didn't really
have any expectations for it when I started reading it; although I do
like the Fables comic a great deal, I wasn't sure if anything would be
lost in the move, so to speak. It focuses mainly on fairy tales
characters who haven't appeared in the Fables-verse yet: Peter Piper,
his brother Max and Little Bo Peep. Although it starts out on the
Farm, most of the action takes place in the past, when Peter Piper's
world was invaded by the Adversary's forces, as well as in present-day
Germany as Peter looks for his brother. (Bigby, BTW, makes appearances
in both time periods, while Rose Red and other Fables staples have
cameos).
Quite frankly, I love it so far. Willingham writes really great prose,
and I was about to type the line "The characters really translate well
to the format," when I realized how ridiculous and obvious that line
was considering the source material. What I'm not sure about, though,
is if I would like it as much if I didn't know anything about the
Fables universe. Everything is explained fairly well, I think, in the
beginning, but since I already knew the story, I may not be the best
judge of that. So my plan is to have my wife read it after I'm done,
to see if someone who doesn't read comics will appreciate it as well.
Typically when I'm reading a prose novel -- and I'm a fairly slow
reader, I think -- I'll put it down if I have comics to read and let
it sit for awhile as I jump into the weekly stash. But in this case
the comics have been sitting and waiting.
Dark Entries
Before I started the novel, though, I read Dark Entries, the Vertigo
Crime novel featuring John Constantine. I really liked the idea of the
premise -- Constantine is hired to investigate the haunted house where
a reality show about fear is being filmed. It seems that the house is
really haunted, so the producer sends Constantine in to figure out
what's going on. It's a fun premise, and was a fun, engrossing read up
until the big twist is revealed. At that point, I had to shut the
book, because I really hated the twist, at least for a 24-hour period.
The premise of what's going on in the book changes; Constantine, it
turned out, had been tricked, yet again, and ... well, I don't want to
give anything away, but at this point I started thinking about past
Hellblazer stories where Constantine faced similar situations, and I
realized I was coming down on this book because of continuity
problems. Which seems like a really silly thing to do for what should
be taken as a stand alone Constantine story. But the other thing that
grated on me was that from a storytelling standpoint, the twist made
everything really easy. It was the obvious way to go, esp. considering
the main character, and I would have much rather seen Constantine deal
with the situation as it was first presented.
Anyway, I did let that twist sit with me for a bit, then jumped back
in. It's not a bad Constantine story, but it turns into a very
familiar Constantine story -- I'd probably like it better if I hadn't
read stories by Ennis and Delano and other writers who handled these
sorts of stories before.
Fantastic Four 570
Tim O'Shea: Fantastic Four 570 marks the first issue of Jonathan
Hickman and Dale Eaglesham's run on the book...and the return on the
1970s cover logo (a fun throwback, but I'm partial to the original
logo). I've always liked Eaglesham's art and he's part of the reason I
picked up the issue (after bailing early in the Millar/Hitch
run). Hickman is continuing a plotline that Millar had started, where
Reed has decided (in one of those "greater good" rationalizations) to
lie to Sue. This first issue's conclusion, involving "The Bridge" has
me interested, so I'll be back. One small question, when did Reed
become so musclebound? It's an odd visual revision of the character,
considering how he's always had a slight build--and the George Michael
1980s beard stubble look for Reed is plum absurd (or possibly another
visual clue that things are not what they appear).
The Incredibles #0
The Incredibles 0 features Landry Walker as a co-writer on the new
ongoing series. The story is partially about the birth of Jack-Jack. I
don't know who to give credit to (Pixar, Waid or Walker) but I want to
see more of the villains Mr. Pixel (kudos to artist Marcio
Takara/colorist Andrew Dalhouse for pulling off that character) and
Tronasaurus. In fact, I want to go on record, no longer will the craze
be talking gorillas, the comic industry is on the eve of worshipping
mechanical dinosaurs sporting top hats. You read it here first.
I'm enjoying Greg Rucka's writing on Batwoman in Detective Comics 856
-- not because of the lead character, but rather her supporting cast,
which as of this issue includes Maggie Sawyer. Rucka gives Kate's
father the best line of the issue with: "Faith was proven when I got
my first face-full of werewolf halitosis."
In terms of music, I'm starting to enjoy Regina Spektor's new release,
Far.
20th Century Boys Vol. 4
Brigid Alverson: I'm up to vol. 4 of Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century
Boys, and my initial misgivings about the series have been
resolved. The first volume felt like it was all setup, but by now I
feel like I have a solid sense of what the story is about and where it
is going. Of course, you have to willingly suspend disbelief about all
kinds of things to enjoy this story, but if you are willing to take
that plunge, it really pulls you in. The main character is a guy who
is in his 30s and realizes that he has not achieved any of his
youthful ambitions. And then, suddenly, he is given a chance to
literally live out his most childish dreams of saving the world. So
Urasawa takes a really universal feeling (for those of us over 30,
anyway) and puts a bizarre spin onto it to turn it into a suspense
story. What I love most about Urasawa's work is the way he draws his
characters; even someone who is only onstage for a few minutes has a
distinct, clearly
visible personality. I'll be sticking with this one for the duration.
I only recently realized that BOOM! Studios has put some of their
titles up as free webcomics on their site. 2 Guns, written by Steven
Grant with art by Mat Santolouco, is a nice buddy/enemy story about
two guys who rob a bank. Neither realizes at first that the other one
is not just a crook; one is a DEA agent and the other is a naval
intelligence offers. The plot is fairly twisted and no one is ever
what they seem (of course). With plenty of action and banter, it's a
perfect end-of-summer read, a bit of escapism to enjoy before the
heavy reading begins.
In the non-comics realm, I'm finishing out my summer with Cheating at
Solitaire, by my favorite mystery writer, Jane Haddam. Haddam's
mysteries all feature an Armenian-American detective, Gregor
Demarkian, and the denizens of his old neighborhood in Philadelphia,
but somehow she manages to come up with a compelling cast of
additional characters for every book. She tells the story from
multiple points of view, following one character around for a while
and then switching to another, which gives the reader a lot of insight
into the various characters' problems and motivations. This particular
story is set during a movie shoot on an island very much like Martha's
Vineyard, and Haddam has obviously modeled some of the characters on
real actors (Paris Hilton and Patrick Stewart come to mind'now imagine
them together), but she throws a bunch of other interesting types into
the mix as well. It's great stuff, much more entertaining than
anything on
TV right now.
Cursed Pirate Girl #2
Matt Maxwell: CURSED PIRATE GIRL #2
Jeremy Bastian, ringleader of the madness
This is hitting me just right, and there's every chance that it might
not have done so. My tolerance for fantasy changes on a near-daily
basis. Sometimes it's far too cute and clever for its own
good. Sometimes it's just pastiche of other (better) books that I've
read years ago. But once in a while, you get the right voice telling
the right story, and pretty soon, you find that you're not getting
hung up on what you do and don't like about the genre and just
enjoying the story. This is one of those times. Yes, Mr. Bastian
tips his hat to Rackham (and Teniel, it occurs to me, particularly
with his doddering twins) but CURSED PIRATE GIRL is so unlike anything
that I've read recently that I find myself utterly charmed by it, not
just for the rendering or the beautiful hand-lettering, but for the
way the pages are broken down and the story is presented in a way such
that only
comics could present it.
FCBD HELLBOY (from 2008)
This just turned up. I'd probably grabbed it from BEA last year and
somehow lost track of it. My fondness for HELLBOY has waned somewhat,
though I still follow BPRD in trades. The Hellboy story in this book
was somehow just right, not stretched out to take up an entire issue,
but too big for a backup feature. There's a wonderful sense of
lightness in it, particularly in Duncan Fegredo's artwork (something
that I think has been lost since I always felt that Mr. Fegredo was
being directed to draw more like Mike Mignola, even if there's no
basis in fact for that.) The BPRD story is another great little
character portrait with art by Guy Davis (who if you haven't figured
is one of my favorite artists in comics, then I need to work a little
harder) that hits the spot. Same for the final story, which is from
the historical 1946 spin-off (so far as I can tell), a nice little
Lovecraftian chiller by Josh Dysart and Paul Azaceta (who I'd love to
see more
work from). You know, I'd eat up a bunch of done-in-one stories like
this, should they put 'em out regularly. As a sampler for the current
Hellboy-related books from DH, this seems to do a pretty fine job.
Blackest Night #0
BLACKEST NIGHT #0
Johns, Reis, Mahnke
Not my thing, though perhaps I should read more of these to try and
get a handle as to why they're lighting the superhero comics world on
fire right now. I wasn't able to pull much out of this other than two
formerly dead superheroes talking about their past funerals and just
feeling really, really creeped out by it. Yeah, you're superheroes,
but when you do this sort of thing, you're basically making the
character in-human. Un-human, whatever. I'm sure there's an audience
for graveside chats that take up the entire intro issue, but I'm
testing well for that demographic. Though I will say that this book
does strike me as being emblematic of DC's main-line output for most
of the 00s, and why I'm not following as much of it as I used to, once
upon a time (in 2005).
More DR. STRANGE. That essential volume is taking forever to plow
through, a couple chapters a night before I nod off. But what dreams,
man.
Silver Age #1
Tom Bondurant: Can I say that I finally watched the Louis
Leterrier/Edward Norton Incredible Hulk movie from last summer? It
was okay, although it felt too short and I have never liked Liv
Tyler's mutant ability to suck all the air out of a scene. Also,
William Hurt was great as Capt. Stottlemeyer. I did like the
references to the TV series, and I would like to see what Tim Blake
Nelson does in full-on Leader mode.
While looking through the "S Misc." longbox on another errand, I came
across DC's Silver Age miniseries from the spring of 2000. Headed up
by Mark Waid, the "fifth-week event" aimed to tell a retro version of
a modern-day crossover. However, it had to fit into current
continuity, which meant Luthor was a tycoon, Black Canary was a
founding Justice Leaguer, and Wonder Woman and the Silver Age Hawkman
weren't yet in the picture. Naturally, another big difference was the
presence of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, who got a lot of
play in the miniseries. Ironically, though, with all the rollbacks in
continuity since then, Silver Age has become an artifact of a
different era.
That still doesn't stop it from being a lot of fun. Waid writes the
giant-sized bookend stories, and an all-star cast produces the
anachronistic one-shots which tie them together. Kurt Busiek and
Brent Anderson get the pivotal Green Lantern book, Bob Haney writes a
Batman/Metal Men team-up for The Brave and the Bold (drawn, as it
happens, by Kevin Maguire), Barry Kitson joins Waid for Dial H For
Hero, Marv Wolfman writes Teen Titans and Mark Millar writes Justice
League, and a young master Geoff Johns writes Showcase Presents Seven
Soldiers Of Victory. With a sprawling yarn like this, though, you
tend to notice the little things. The plot involves villains
switching bodies with heroes, so (just as in Identity Crisis'
flashback) the bad guys quickly learn whose faces are under the masks.
Catwoman makes a pass at Doctor Light, but he says he's more
interested in physics than women. When Green Lantern wields
Sinestro's ring, he finds himself almost
overwhelmed by the power within it. Perhaps most strikingly, once
the villains achieve ultimate power, they wreak havoc with a set of
power rings for each color in the spectrum. (Shame that idea wasn't
expanded upon....) The whole thing wraps up in a monster 51-page final
chapter by Waid and Eduardo Barreto, where the Injustice League
(wielding said power rings) drives the JLA into hiding. Of course the
day is saved, and in fairly clever ways to boot, but I have to say, no
one does the horror of omnipotent evil quite like Mark Waid.
Superman #691
I've been pretty happy generally with the Superman titles, but this
was a particularly good week. Superman #691 finished up the four-part
"Codename: Patriot" crossover, and the Jimmy Olsen Special #2 featured
Codename: Assassin stalking Jimmy (no, not in that way). James
Robinson wrote both books, with Renato Guedes and Eduardo Pansica
pencilling the Superman issue, Jose Wilson Magalhaes and Sandro
Ribeiro inking it, and Bernard Chang drawing the Jimmy Olsen Special.
I thought both were pretty suspenseful, mostly because both find our
heroes in tight spots and then show things getting worse. Without
giving too much away, "Codename: Patriot" seems to be at least as
important to the overall New Krypton arc as the infamous "Sacrifice"
four-parter was to Infinite Crisis. Its ending is rather unsettling,
but on the bright side, we're only halfway through the World Of New
Krypton miniseries. That's where the Jimmy Olsen Special comes in,
pulling
together subplots and characters from all around the Superman titles
before ending on a very-nicely-done cliffhanger. While I don't believe
for a second that you-know-who is really you-know-what, I had a great
time getting there. In fact, these two issues are a fine way to
demonstrate the utility of serialized comics. They each give you
exactly as much information as their producers want, and leave you to
stew for a week, a month, or however long, until it's time for you to
learn more. Glad I'm not waiting for the trades on these!
Speaking of waiting, I'll have a lot of time to pore over the details
of Flash: Rebirth #s 1-4. This week's issue #4 was five weeks late,
and issue #5 (which was supposed to be out this week) is now scheduled
for October 14. Still, it looks like the bulk of the plot has been
revealed, thanks to issue #4's infodump. If you remember the issue of
Green Lantern: Rebirth where all the metaphysics and pseudoscience
behind the power rings was explained, Flash: Rebirth #4 is a lot like
that. Most of it is a big fight in the Speed Force which artist Ethan
Van Sciver pulls off fairly well, although some of his more dramatic
moments -- both during the fight and otherwise -- seem too posed and
static. Regardless, Geoff Johns manages to make Barry Allen the
center of the Flash universe without the puffery which characterized
issue #1, and that's a neat trick on its own. (Plus there's a good
scene with Jesse Chambers, who I've always thought was criminally
underused as a speedster.)
Whaddaya know -- I got this far without mentioning Batman And Robin #3
or Detective Comics #856. Huh. Well, it goes without saying that I
enjoyed the heck out of both, especially Frank Quitely's amazing
choreography of both Robin fighting and Professor Pyg dancing. I also
liked seeing JH Williams III introduce yet another new art style (kind
of a shaggy Dan Brereton thing) for the were-creatures, and it was
good to see Bette Kane again. Man, if Rucka and Williams end up
making Bat-Girl/Flamebird the next sensational character find, is
there no end to their power...?
Wolverine: Prodigal Son
Michael May: I'm checking out the Wolverine "manga," Prodigal
Son. Three chapters in isn't a lot of time to form an impression, but
I'm enjoying it so far. Official Wolverine's background is so
convoluted that I appreciate a simplified version where a secluded
dojo replaces Xavier's and Logan's just a punk kid. The story's not
very original so far - Wolverine's "specialness" makes him feel like
an outsider to all the other students except for the sensei's daughter
who's the only person who truly understands him - but there's still
lots of time for that to change.
I've also started reading BPRD, Volume 1: Hollow Earth and Other
Stories. I've been re-reading all the Hellboy/BPRD stuff in tpb and
it's been fun, but I'm a bit disappointed in how a lot of the material
is organized. Especially the stuff around Roger the Homonculus'
introduction to the BPRD. If you read the Hellboy collections in
order, keeping track of Roger's story is kind of like watching Pulp
Fiction. And even then, you have to skip over to the first BPRD book
to pick up a crucial episode. It's all doable, but I wish it were
easier to read the whole saga in more or less chronological order.
Ghostbusters: Displaced Aggression
Chris Mautner: I managed to make a trip to my LCS the other day and
finally got caught up on some pamphlets -- mainly Wednesday Comics,
since that's almost all I'm reading in serialized form right now. I'm
pleased to find that many of the up-till-now mediocre stories are
starting to pick up some steam. Except for the Teen Titans one. That's
still horrible.
Like everyone else, I also picked up the latest copies of B&R and
Det. C. The former was still immensely enjoyable; the second .. well
the art was immensely enjoyable at any rate. The villain in that story
reminds me of one of the characters from the Lucky Luke Jesse James
book. In that, he constantly quotes Shakespeare, but only snippets
like "Sirrah" and "Tis true." Same kinda thing going on here, but for
dramatic, instead of comedic effect. She looks cool though.
IDW also sent me the first issue of their new Ghostbusters series,
Displaced Agression. The story involves the various characters getting
displaced in time (hence the title), which is a good idea, but it's
just not very funny. And more than anything, a Ghostbusters comic
needs to be funny. Is there really that big a clamoring for more
Ghostbusters material anyway? Didn't the second movie and the recent
video game pretty much kill any goodwill the first one merited?
Masterpiece Comics
Jeet Heer: Love and Rockets, New Stories #2. The Hernandez Brothers
have been producing such consistently good comics for such a long time
that I often feel they get taken for granted. But their recent comics
just maintain their high level of previous achievement, they also have
a freshness and liveliness that any young artist would envy. Jaime's
100 page superhero epic `Ti-Girls Adventure Number 34' succeeds at
pulling off something Alan Moore has often aimed for (but failed at)
in series like Tom Strong: recreating the frothy care-free fun of
space-age superheroes. The tone is jaunty and insouciant, there are
many fine nods to Kirby and Ditko but no musty nostalgia. And amid all
the fight-scenes and shifting alliances, there is a healthy moral as
well, about the need to cultivate your gifts in a world that
encourages you to settle for less: this is what a superhero comic
should be. Gilbert's `Hypnotwist' is an unnerving excursion into
dreamland, reminiscent of some works by Richard Sala and the Dan
Clowes of Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron. What makes this story so
curdlingly unsettling is that it expertly mimics the associational
logic of a nightmare, where heat can easily expand into a ballon and
you're always running into your doppelganger. I also enjoyed Mario and
Gilbert's new sci-fi romp Citizen Rex (from Dark Horse), a welcome
return to their retro-futurist mode, and look forward to seeing how
the story unfolds.
R. Sikoryak's Masterpiece Comics. These stories are familiar friends:
I've read many of them when they were first published in magazines
like Raw, Snake Eyes, and Drawn and Quarterly, and over the years have
often returned to them. Encountering them again in this definitive
volume, I remain amazed at how multi-layered Sikoryak's comics are,
which a big reason why they repay many close readings. Each story
works on at least 3 levels: as a scarily-precise parody of a classic
cartooning style (say the Winsor McCay of Little Nemo or Wayne
Boring's Superman), as a surprisingly faithful (albeit truncated)
adaptation of a classic work (Wuthering Heights, Crime and
Punishment), and as a echo-rich dialogue between the style and the
story (for example, seeing Tubby enact the role of Roger
Chillingworth, the relentless persecuting husband in The Scarlet
Letter is a comment on Tubby's vindictiveness when he plays detective
and the petty childishness of
Chillingworth's hunger for revenge). Dollar for dollar, this is one
of the best investments you can make in a graphic novel, since it
offers many hours of pleasure.
Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics
Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman's The Toon Treasury of Classic
Children's Comics. Full disclosure: I was on the advisory board that
Mouly and Spiegelman consulted when they put together this book, but I
think that experience gives me an insight into the books production
that is worth sharing. Mouly and Spiegelman are the greatest editors
in comics because of the time and thought they put into each
project. Too many collections of old comics are just slapped together
with whatever material is at hand. Mouly and Spiegelman, by contrast,
take the job of editing an anthology seriously enough to 1) rigorously
define their ambit, 2) search out the best material, and 3) organize
the selection in such a way that it makes sense. In this case, they
could have easily picked a handful of stories from the big names (Carl
Barks, Walt Kelly, John Stanley, Sheldon Mayer) and come up with a
passable book. But they aimed to make a definitive book, not just a
`good enough' book so they read through the oeuvre not only the four
masters but countless other cartoonists, with an eye in every case for
the best. The stories selected really are the cream of the
crop. Everything about the book (the design, the cover, the
introduction, the reproduction, the stories selected, the paper stock)
is impeccable. What the book does is define a particular genre
focusing tightly on the best material: kids comics, as the book shows,
are not just comics aimed at little kids. Rather, kids comics are
comics that nurture the culture of childhood, the cocoon-time after
toddler-hood but before adolescence when curiosity and imagination run
free.
Fantagraphics has been busy in the graphic novels department lately so
I have a big stack of their books to read, including The Squirrel
Machine, Giraffes in My Hair, The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book,
and West Coast Blues. They all look good.
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/0 8/what-are-you-reading-35/