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The Thing #1 (2005)Dan Stott is one of my new favorite writers. I love the way he's reinvented She-Hulk, and he's now taking on the relaunch of the Thing's new series. The thing that makes Stott so wonderful is that he loves to add humor to stories. Not the lame sort of humor that comes from clever wisecracks from Spider-Man's mouth, but rather the kind of humor that grows out of the absurdity of the Marvel Universe,
For instance, Ben Grimm has suddenly become super-rich, so what happens when he gets together with his pal Goliath to fight a lame, second-rate villain? Goliath and the Thing defeat the bad guy easily, but the villain threatens whiplash and Goliath hits Ben up for a research grant. Or Ben going to a party, but not some small neighborhood party, No, it's a soiree in the Hamptons with Martha Stewart (which also prompts a damn clever line - "she's not a real criminal. She's a white-collar criminal. That's completely different").
There's drama and mystery too. Does Ben's old girlfriend Alicia carry a torch for Ben? And why is the Constrictor, an old Iron Man villain, at the Martha Stewart party?
Like many comics with humorous elements, it begins to fall apart the more you look at it. How did the bad guys sneak into the party without being detected? And why does Ben have such a lack of self-confidence when he's obviously a star?
Still, this is a damn entertaining comic. Andrea DiVoto has a light touch with the art, and gives the whole series a light and fun feel. I'm looking forward to spending more time with the ever-lovin' blue eyed Thing. Exiles #72 (2005)I've never read an issue of Exiles before, but I had to pick this issue up because it's has a connection to one of the lamest lines of comics of the 1980s, the New Universe. The NewU was intended to be like the world outside our window, where life is normal until a great event happens and gives people super-powers. In concept, it's actually rather clever, and came before other universes started popping up. In practice, though, it stunk worse than the end of a busy day at Kindercare. Most of the heroes were lame, the quality of the creators was low, and the books in general had a low-rent feel to them.
Naturally, I love the damn comics. I can't resist them. I'm a dork.
So I had to pick up this book to see what's up with my old pals. I found myself reintroduced with Justice, who's a vigilante able to see the evil in people's souls. Justice has a nice battle with an Exiles dude who I assume is called Mimic and who has bony claws like Wolverine. We also meet up with NewU characters D.P.7, who are kind of an X-Men type of "everybody hates us so we have to band together" sort of group. The team actually has some life and fun to them in this story, a fun repartee that I'd like to remember they had.
But the main star of the NewU is Star Brand, so he had to be in this comic. Kenneth Connell is the Star Brand, so named because the big space event that created him tattooed his hand with some powerful icon that makes him the most powerful guy in the universe. Which, since he's a loser, doesn't change his life one bit. Connell still has no luck with girls, still lives in a crap apartment. I love it how Mimic visits Connell's apartment and analyzes him; it's obvious that writer Tony Bedard has a real affection for these characters, too.
Artists Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar do a better job of presenting the New Universe than we got at the time (if memory serves, Magyar inked a few NewU issues back in the day). The art is dramatic and respectful of the characters, but is also light and entertaining.
So I came to this comic in kind of the opposite way of most readers. I don't know who the Exiles are (and don't much care, after this issue), but I loved seeing the NewU characters again. Metamorpho #12 (1967)I skipped ahead in my copy of Showcase Presents Metamorpho at random to choose this story, which came from the era where DC's covers had "black and white go-go chex" on them. I'm not sure what the idea was behind these - was the theory that having a checkerboard design on the covers would attract readers? But I've always liked the design for its cheesy fun factor.
But Metamorpho isn't cheesy fun, it's just pure mid-'60s fun. Unlike modern comics, this one doesn't take itself seriously at all. It's pure wacky adventure, this one, chronicling the bad things that happen when millionaire Simon Stagg offers a million dollars to the inventor who can cure Metamorpho of his, well, metamorphism. A series of idiot inventors come in, but that's okay, because Stagg doesn't want a cure to be found. Metamorpho had been nagging Stagg to find a cure for his transformation, but Stagg doesn't want him to change back to plain ol' Rex Mason, alpha male. So he chooses an inventor at random, flat-headed Franz Zorb by name, expecting his abject failure. Instead, Zorb creates his own element creatures, Hafnium, Omsium, Selenium and others, and sets them to... well... a football game.
This is just wonderfully wacky stuff. It brings a bright smile to my face. Pure '60s light silliness. Generation M #1 (2005)In the wake of the events of Marvel's huge House of M crossover event, a reporter for the New York Alternative begins to write about the massive changes to the Marvel Universe. She begins with profiles of some of the people who died or suffered from their loss of powers, but she quickly finds herself becoming a voice for those people. She becomes a minor celebrity, and then a more major one, until a mystery confession drops into her lap.
Paul Jenkins delivers an intriguingly human reaction to the events of House of M. Sally Floyd is an interesting lead character. An alcoholic, loudmouthed lesbian, Sally isn't exactly the sort of lead character that one might expect from Marvel. It's clear that the end of mutantkind as we know it is actually a very good thing for Sally personally. Her life had been falling apart before these events happened; afterwards, she finds fame and celebrity. She begins writing books and seems to have begun to grasp at something new in her life.
This is an audacious book for Marvel to put out. It would have been easy for them to trot out the standard clichés and bring in Ben Urich or Robbie Robertson to report this story. Instead, to choose such a unique character to convey the story is a very cool touch.
In other ways, though, the story seems a bit behind the times. Sally is a reporter, but there's no talk of her using the Internet for her searches, or any use of blogs to gather or disseminate information. I find it hard to believe that in an age where information is so ubiquitous, Sally and her editor are surprised by the sadness that many people have about the fall of mutantkind. They should have some sense of the story they're reporting rather than simply reacting to an unexpected wave of commentary. It strikes me as very sloppy reporting, even for a woman who describes herself as living in a haze.
The art by Bachs and Lucas is pretty nice. They're effective at showing the moods and emotions of the characters in the story, though their art is often a bit stiff. It's got to be hard to draw a Marvel comic where all you get to show is human reactions, and it felt a bit like the artists were straining to show some melodrama. But they do a nice job on the book, and help make the story work well.
This is an interesting first issue, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with Sally. The Brave and the Bold #57: Metamorpho (1964)They just don't make 'em like this anymore. Rex Mason is a freelance adventurer who makes a living doing exotic things like discover rare gems and finding rare shrinking potions. He's got a streak of white in his hair and a whole lot of testosterone in his body. He's also in love with a beautiful babe called Sapphire Steel, who's a millionairess and drives fancy sports cars. She, in turn, is the daughter of Simon Stagg, who has a love-hate sort of relationship with Mason. And has a pet leopard and also an aide de camp who's a caveman.
Is that convoluted enough? Give it another minute.
So Mason goes on a mission from Simon Stagg, for which Stagg will pay him a million dollars. Somehow the magic rock Mason finds changes him from a man to a bizarre being, a being that can change the elements. An element man. And thus does Rex Mason, adventurer, become the misshapen Metamorpho, the Element Man.
This is one of DC's odder concepts of the '60s. In an era when their big characters were intensely formula-driven, comics like Metamorpho and Doom Patrol provided some unique characters and situations. This comic is a very odd cross between James Bond, romance comics and super-heroes. And it just gets odder from here!
I honestly never expected to see this comic reprinted, but DC recently realeased a 500+ page collection of the Element Man for a mere $16.99. You won't find a more breeszily wacky comic for that kind of money. Wavemakers #2 (1991)Now THIS is what an anthology comic should be like.
Wavemakers #2 has a very spooky five-pager by Earl Geier leading off the comic. I'm sure I've posted before in this blog about how Geier is one of the great undiscovered talents in comics. Every story I read by him is intelligent, well-drawn and unique. Man, does this guy deseve greater recognition! Geier is the kind of guy who deserves his own Vertigo series, where he can indulge his imagination through whatever realms strike his fancy. Tragically (and I don't use that word lightly), the guy has been stymied and we just don't see enough of his work.
In fact, this comic is filled by work by guys with terrific imaginations but who aren't well known. Matt Howarth, who did actually have a miniseries published by Vertigo or one of its off-shoots, here presents a nice twist-of-the-tail pieces that reflects his very unique imagination. It involves drug addiction, petty criminals and the death of a planet, all illustrated in Howart's very unique style.
Wayno was a popular indy cartoonist for awhile; wonder what happened to him? Here he presents a nice short anecdote about a very odd guy who collects records.
Evan Dorkin is a bigger name, and he presents a great five-pager full of action and violence, and lots and lots of blacks.
There's even a great one-pager by Harvey Pekar, so typically thoughtful and insightful.
And there's even more great stuff in this comic from even more obscure names - Doug Potter, Jason Whitley, the team of Dave Ford, Ron Gravelle and Barry Brandon. What every story in this comic shares is a unique viewpoint, thoughtful storytelling, and passion for what they created. Anthology comics are increasingly rare, but in the right hands they're always a treat. The Best of Ray Bradbury: the Graphic Novel (2002)Ray Bradbury is one of the finest writers of science fiction and fantasy literature, a true living legend whose outstanding writing transcends the genre. His stories are taught in high school and college lit. classes throughout the English-speaking world. He's also a long-time friend of comics. He allowed EC Comics to adapt several of his stories in their science fiction comics in the 1950s, and in the '90s helped spearhead a series that adapted his short stories. That series was unjustly ignored during the comics bust, and now it is back with a collection of some of the finest adaptations from that series.
And what adaptations they are! From the gorgeous art of Mike Mignola, adapting "The City," to Dave Gibbons's whimsical adaptation of "Come Into My Cellar," from Daniel Torres's warm adaptation of "Night Meeting" to John Van Fleet's haunting adaptation of "Picaso Summer," the artists all add extra texture to Bradbury's outstanding stories. Each of these artists are master professionals, who have frequently written their own stories. They therefore bring a writer's sensibility to their work. The end result is something that transcends the original work--both true to its source and with an extra element of intelligence. Matt Wagner and the great Harvey Kurtzman, for instance, join together on a wonderful adapatation of "It Burns Me Up," which manages to be both spooky and moving at the same time. Mark Chiarello's adapatation of "A Piece of Wood" uses color in a spectacular way to illuminate the story of two men talking about a weapon that could forever end war. And Gibbons's take on "Come Into My Cellar" uses the artist's traditional comics style to great effect, wonderfully conveying the banality of his characters' lives through use of small panels that seem to be just slightly askew. Most exciting in this collection is the interesting approach taken by the artists to Bradbury's very personal and introspective stories. This collection is almost a clinic in composing stories in ways that enliven their plot. For instance, the different interpretation each artist takes on the Martian landscape of Bradbury's stories is wonderful; each creator's approach complements their respective stories while also creating a greater tableau of life on Mars that really makes a reader yearn for more stories in that strange metaphorical place. This book is the ideal gift for a science fiction fan who is interested in comics. The worst of these stories are unmemorable; the best are wonderful examples of what happens when master creators play with each others' ideas. Dracula Lives! #6 (1974)Dracula Lives! is one of the small genre of comics that have exclamation marks in their titles. The only other title I can think of is American Flagg, which was a classic early '80s comic, though I suppose there are probably others. Maybe the movie adaptations of Daktari! or Viva Guevara! or something like that. But I can't think of any others. Can anyone out there in Internet land help me?
The feature piece in this issue of DL! is a terrific story, "Death in the Chapel," by the stellar writer artist team of Steve Gerber and Gene Colan. Seperately, each man produced brilliant work (Among many, many other credits, Colan was the penciller of the color Tomb of Dracula, arguably the greatest horror comic of all time, for around seven years) but together they were magic. Colan noted in his recent biography Secrets in the Shadows that Gerber was his favorite collaborator, and it's easy to see why.
Dracula is hunting down a nemesis of his, the monk Montesi, who has been hunting down the vampires who live in Rome. Dracula is the king of vampires, so he feels he must protect his followers. But there's just one problem - Montesi has taken refuge in the Vatican, and Dracula of course can't abide the sight of the holy cross.
What follows is a test of Dracula's will and concentration, as he schemes and battles his way through the horrors - for him - of the holiest place on Earth. What he finds will test him like nothing he has ever encountered.
What follows is an operatic masterpiece of story and art. It's comics melodrama at its best, full of passion and energy and fury.
This one's reprinted in The Essential Tomb of Dracula, volume 4, and is worth the price of admission all by itself. Great stuff. All-Star Superman #1 (2005)What a goddamn fun comic book. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely deliver a version of Superman and his mythos that is both comfortably familiar and cleverly interesting at the same time. From the wonderfully simple four-panel, eight-word origin panels to the wonderful revelation at the end, this is a great new take on Superman. Everyone who you’d want to see in the comic is here - Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Perry White, Lex Luthor - and each has a freshness of character that makes them feel both new and familiar again. Better yet, around the edges of the book, Morrison and Quitely deliver enough hooks to keep readers interested for quite some time. Morrison has a great feel for the characters. There's a great sequence in the epilogue where Superman basically seems to accidentally save a man’s life. It’s a quiet and subtle scene that shows our hero’s real character while also showing the importance of Clark Kent. Similarly, there’s a scene earlier on where Lois has started typing a story about Superman saving the first manned space mission, before the mission is actually saved. Lois knows Superman so well that it’s a given that he’ll save the probe. The only question is how he’ll do so. Jimmy Olsen has a rocket pack and a signal watch - cool! And Morrison is great with Luthor. The core of Luthor is that he’s always been banal and petty, and his explanation of why he hates Superman (“Three months ago, I looked in the mirror at those nasty little spiderwebs of lines around my eyes, and I realized something. I'm getting older, and... and he isn't.”) rings so true to tradition. At the same time, Morrison brings in some great new pieces. Doc Quintum, the man who launched the solar probe, is also a very strange-looking genius leader of a bizarre research group. He dresses in a very odd technicolor coat and wears glasses lenses without frames. Quintum leads research into space explorer titans and nanonauts and more. Not since Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen run has there been such a spectacular world of pseudo-science in a book. Frank Quitely art is exactly what you expect it to be. I like Quitely’s work so see this comic as a wonderful tour de force of imagination, energy and intelligence. There are some scenes that are absolutely wonderful and clever: the intensity of Superman's face on page four, the odd lab that Doc Quintum runs, the cleverly awkward Clark. It’s just wonderful. And to top it off, we get the kind of twist at the end that can’t help but bring a reader back (though it’s ruined somewhat by the next issue blurb). This is classic Superman with a modern twist. Great stuff. Flytrap: Episode One (2005)This is a very nice mini-comic from the team of Steve Lieber and Sara Ryan. Flytrap is the story of one very bad day in the life of Maddy. Maddy works as a publicist when she's not chasing after her deadbeat musician boyfriend Klaus. In the midst of a chaotic morning, as she's desperately trying to get Klaus to take some responsibility for his life, destiny calls for Maddy in the form of members of a circus coming into the office. After seeing her car towed away, Klaus blowing her off, and getting fired from her job, Maddy finally makes a life decision: it's time to join the circus. Really the only problem with this comic is that it's too short at a mere 16 pages. The story is fun, intelligent and involving, and the art is wonderful. It's no secret that Steve Lieber is a very good artist, but his art is especially wondeful here. It reminds me very much of the work of Dick Giordano with its clean lines and wonderful clarity. The comic also has a number of clever storytelling tricks that make it an especially wonderful comic. I love the clever way that the word balloon is used when Maddy cofronts a tow-truck driver. Be warned that this is a small black-and-white mini-comic with a cardboard cover, more zine than full-sized comic. But at a mere $2 for this labor of love (there's a paypal link at the below URL), it's well worth checking out. Amazing Joy Buzzards #1 (2005)Wow! There's an awful lot going on in this issue of AJB! There's spies! And race cars! And rock and roll! Fun characters! Romance! Creepy villains! A Speed Racer parody! Lots and lots and lots of stuff!!! This is a big and bold and brassy comic book, full of wacky energy and humor and a whole slew of crazy characters. The comic never quite takes itself too seriously or too humorously; most of all, it feels oddly improvised, like when you see a good band in concert and they go off on a long riff with a great guitar solo and, before you know it, the song has gone in a whole different direction and it still sounds great. Was that a good enough run-on sentence? This comic does that to you. It's so packed with energy and enthusiasm and side-panel jokes and pop culture references and clever art and most of all it wants to be loved so badly that it's really, really hard to resist. Just try your damndest to keep up or it might give you a headache. Sometimes it's hard to enjoy a concert when you can't quite figure out the melody of a song, and this comic might do that to some readers. I know I had to put it down a couple of times after feeling overwhelmed. But maybe I'm getting a little old for loud concerts. Creepy #58 (1973)The other day I mentioned Don McGregor, one of my favorite comics writers. He wrote a lot of comics in the 1970s, including one of the first true graphic novels, "Panther's Rage", starring the Black Panther, in Jungle Action. He also wrote the adventrues of Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds in Amazing Adventures (reprinted in the Essential Killraven book, now on sale an a cool comics shop near you), and Sabre, one of the first original graphic novels of the '70s.
More important than his resume, though, is McGregor's writing. Don mentioned once in his Yahoo Group that he wrote every story as if it were the last one he would ever write, and that's obvious in his writing. McGregor wrote a lot in his stories. He may have been one of the most verbose writers of his time. Letterers, back when actual people did lettering, useed to hate lettering McGregor's stories - one letterer actually got Marvel to pay him extra per page when he lettered McGregor's stories.
Which would suck except that McGregor had this wonderful prose style, an intense and thoughtful sort of floral writing style, that would intensify and deepen a story. Paired with an appreciative artist like Gene Colan, Craig Russell or Billy Graham, McGregor's scripts would add immensely to the stories he would present, providing context and emotion and intelligence to the wonderful art.
Creepy #58, from 1973, represents some of McGregor's first professional work, but it's still awfully great work. He has two stories in this horror anthology. The first, "An Excuse for Violence," explores race relations on a college campus where a vampire is killing only black girls. The second, "The Walking Nightmare", explores a post-apocalyptic world where people are driven insane with rage, and explores the horrible power of anger.
"An Excuse for Violence" is an especially interesting story. Like all McGregor comics, it's all about people. McGregor never fled from interesting or important themes, but never forgot that people are more important than the themes. In this story, we see the violence through two guidance counselors at the college, one black and one white, and see how the violence and unrest at the school causes fraying in their relationship. At the same time, we see an objective view of the scene, where everyone seems to be holding their breath expecting the inevitable:
That's classic McGregor: getting into the heads of everyone at the scene, giving readers a 360-degree view of what's happening, using the power of comics to have story and art leverage each others' strengths. And when the inevitable happens, and violence breaks out, the evil that men do to each other is much worse than the evil a vampire does to one small person.
Yeah, McGregor might have been a bit florid or verbose for some. But I'll take passion over brevity any day. Alter Ego #54 (2005)Robert Kanigher was a longtime writer and editor for DC Comics. He co-created Sgt. Rock and the Metal Men, and was a stalwart member of DC's editorial team for over 25 years. He was also, according to all reports, pretty dang egotistical. This month's issue of Alter Ego contains a short piece by him, and I just love the way he presents himself...
I just love the juvenile purple prose of those two paragraphs! "As you surely must know", "feverishly bent on destroying their deathless work", "chewing gum to coffins". My god, the man must have been insufferable to work for! My comics want listSo when I go haunting the local comic book shows or wander around eBay, I always have my want list on hand. I made my first want list about five or six years ago, when I plunged back into intense comic collecting and decided I wanted to have some specific comics to look for, instead of just wandering through shows, looking lost. Ironically, I'm now anxious to finish my want list so I can wander through shows without an agenda. Funny how things go full circle. Anyway, at this point, the list numbers 49 comics, which is the smallest number of comics that have ever been on my list. Maybe by next April's Emerald City Comicon, I can get it to zero. Man, I am such a geek. Cerebus 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 I have issues 7 through 300 of Cerebus. In the '80s, this was my favorite series, and since it was projected to run 300 issues, I decided to collect them all. Now I'm getting to the older, rarer issues that are really expensive. But if I ever do get a Cerebus #1, I don't know what I'll do... I might have to quit collecting if I get that one. Daredevil 159, 168, 169, 170, 175 Frank Miller's Daredevil. These are actually pretty easy to find, though #168 is the very expensive first appearance of Elektra. And do I need to remind you again how great these comics are? Green Lantern (v.1) 76 Speaking of expensive, this is the first issue of the "relevant" Green Lantern/Green Arrow series that I'm actually a bit ambivalent about. And I have this comic in at least three different reprints. So why do I need to get this expensive and overrated comic that I already basically have? Do I need to see a psychologist? Seriously, is there something wrong with me? 666: Mark of the Beast 13 In the '80s, Alan Moore was the greatest comic writer ever, and this is the last thing by him that I need. He has a little five-page story in here that's probably not that great, but, seriously, Moore is the best. The best ever. Supergirl (1990s) 1, 75, 76, 77, 78 The 1990s Supergirl was a reincarnated earth angel on Earth to redeem a young girl's soul. Or something like that. It's a really underrated series. actually, and I somehow missed the most popular and valuable issues of the series. Go figure. Two-Fisted Tales 21 The greatest war comic ever, and the only issue I'm missing. This is classic, classic stuff. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 13 Mediocre but fun Spider-Man comic by Kurt Buseik, this got on my list and now I gotta finish up my run. Creepy 41, 54, 59, 74, 91, 113, 137, 139, 141, 142 Warren Magazine produced some great magazine-sized black-and-white comics. These issues are a mix of stories written by Don McGregor, whose work I've always liked, and reprints of classic comics by some of the greatest cartoonists ever. Magazine-sized comics are actually quite hard to find since few people bring them to conventions. FOOM 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 21 Marvel's in-house fanzine was always a hoot, and I have about half of the issues of it. Tales of the Zombie 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 Lots of great '70s stuff by Steve Gerber, my other favorite comics writer. Vampirella 15, 18, 106, 108 Yeah, the bikini clad creature of the night also featured some work by McGregor. Remind me sometime to talk about Dandy Don. And that's the 49 comics. Anyone looking to sell cheap? Giant-Size Creatures #1 (1974)Oddly enough, in 1974, Marvel published a line of comics that featured giant-sized creatures, but Giant-Size Creatures wasn't one of them. In fact, none of the comics with Giant-Size in the title actually featured giants. Giant-Size Spider-Man didn't feature a ten-foot tall arachnid, nor did Giant-Size Fantastic Four feature a giant Ben Grimm. Not even Giant-Size Avengers featured giant-sized characters, since Hank Pym was in his Yellowjacket phase at the time. Giant-Size Man-Thing came the closest to living up to its advertising, but this was a code-sponsored comic book, so you just had to use your imagination.
The giant-sized creatures mags were all reprints of crap '50s giant mosnter stories, the kind where a lone scientist fought a giant creature like Thorggg, Greengrocer from the Planet Goggum. All of them - even the ones with nice art by Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby - were utter and complete crap. Your mileage may vary.
The really famous Giant-Size comic is of course X-Men, and for good reason. That was the beginning of a revolution, though we didn't know it at the time, and many great new Marvel characters were introduced in that comic.
Another Marvel character appeared during the Giant-Size era, one a bit more obscure than the X-Men. In fact, she was a c-list character, the one and only Tigra.
The first thing that strikes me about reading this comic is just how abysmal Vince Colletta was as an inker. Colletta was the worst creator of his era. His scratchy inks and rushed style rendered almost every comic he inked into a murky mess of indistinct lines, awkward composition and missing backgrounds. He had the uncanny knack of making any artist look bad, and he was especially brutal when inking less-flashy artists like Don Perlin, who illustrated this issue. The artwork in this comic is just dreadful. It looks like a kids' coloring book, it's so flat and dull and lifeless. Colletta apparently got lots of assignments because he was fast and never missed deadlines. Marvel used him a lot in the '70s, when their line expanded too quickly. And his work here is as bad as you might expect.
The art does bring one thing that's giant-size: Tigra's hair. Look at that cover. That's big hair, folks. But what's a cat-like heroine in a bikini without big hair? The big hair makes her cool, a fact that later creators forgot.
As for the story, well, Tigra used to be a human super-heroine called The Cat (part of Marvel's short lived line of women's lib comics, and no I'm not making that up), who gets kidnapped by evil agents of the evil spy agency Hydra and brought to a land of cat people who... well, yeah, you can guess the rest, she became the bikini'd cat babe.
It's absolutely amazing how bizarre and insular '70s Marvels can be sometimes. They were so clearly aimed at kids that it's hard to resist their goofy and wacky charms sometimes. But as an adult, reading some of these comics reminds me of what taking drugs was like. Who needs reality when you have Tigra the were-woman? Infinite Crisis #2 (2005)"We saved the wrong Earth." And with those magic words, Infinite Crisis begins to really rock and roll. Finally all the darkness and chaos of the DCU of the last 20 years is put into perspective. Finally the thoughts that so many of use readers have had are coming true. Finally there's light at the end of what literally has been a dark tunnel. We can see the end of the grim 'n' gritty Batman, who spies on his friends and even alienates Alfred. Finally Power Girl makes sense, and finally it seems like there was a reason why so many DC heroes have become so dark over the last year. It all makes sense, as the editors promised, all part of a larger plan. It's all so cool and exciting and wonderful. It's a gift to long-time fans (was that the original Huntress, daughter of the Earth-2 Batman, on the last page?) and at the same time gives new readers hope that the DCU will move into a new direction. It's the small touches that make the book so fun. From the charming family scene with Animal Man's family on the first page ("Have you seen my space suit?" "It was leaking rocket fuel." "It was a gift from Adam Strange.") to Power Girl's memories returning ("I do remember! I'm not alone! I see the extra bedroom with the daisy wallpaper.") to the return of Booster Gold and Skeets, this book is just absolutely wonderful. There's only one scene that doesn't fit with everything else. There's a scene where the Joker kills the leader of the Royal Flush Gang, and there's a scene on the last page of great carnage. In a book with such a bright energy, this scene just doesn't fit for me. Though it might lead the way for a return to a more classical fun Joker, the blood and guts just don't fit the rest of the comic. But overall, this has exceeded my expectations. What a fun story. Burglar Bull #4 (2005)Well this is a nice comic book. Paul Grist is a terrific writer and artist, and delivers a wonderful comic book in Burglar Bill. As always with Grist's work, the artwork is gorgeous - full of resonant blacks and charming linework. And like most Grist, this issue has a charming story that resolves beautifully. What surprised me about this story, though, was just how knowing and clever it was. Unlike almost the work of every other creator out there, Grist's comics don't live in a vacuum. Grist's view of the world of comics includes winks at other creators' universes. Thus Grist brings readers a very funny and clever take-off on Spider-Man, while still maintaining the integrity of his own comic. The Spider-Man like character fits Grist's world, but there are also some wonderful touches that make the character unique. For instance, the Spidey analogue is a wrestler. Is that a joke on Amazing Fantasy #15, or just a convenient way to explain why the character is dressed so oddly? I love it that Grist places this meta-fiction up front for his readers because it adds a whole extra element to his work. Take the issue's main bad guy, a criminal who runs around in a Ninja Turtles mask. Grist is trusting enough of his audience that he allows readers to read any subtext into the scenes that we might want, while still presenting the character with all the respect he deserves. It becomes wonderfully meta to read the Turtle Robber's interior monologues the more you know about comics. The Robber's monologues are reminiscent of monologues in Frank Miller's comics, which in turn reflects on the fact that the Turtles were originally created as a take-off on Miller's comics. Everything loops around on itself beautifully. At the same time, a reader who doesn't get the reference can still enjoy the humor of the character. The comic is full of wonderful touches. Police Constable Stephen Hill, a rookie cop who's still idealistic, is presented in a whole series of charming scenes that could only work in comics. I thought it was especially neat how Hill imagines himself as a front page headline, only later to become one. It's the kind of scene that could only work in comics, and Grist, the master, pulls it off beautifully. Paul Grist's art is absolutely gorgeous. The comic is full of scenes that are made more lively or interesting due to Grist's thoughtful and interesting line work. The scene where the Spider-Man analogue appears at the window of newspaper reporter Firth Park made me laugh out loud, and a scene in a squalid public housing complex made me groan. And once the comic moves to the sewers and Grist can show off his amazing talents in stark black-and-white rendering, the comic reaches an evem higher level. This is one of those comics that seems good at first reading, but the more you think about it and reread the comic, the better it gets. Grist is an amazingly talented creator. Ruule: Ganglords of Chinatown (2005)In a near-future San Francisco, society has broken down. Nasty biker gangs drive over the Golden Gate Bridge and terrorize the good people of Chinatown. Finally one man, named Gid, rises to lead a rebellion against the men that keep the people oppressed. With the help of God, Gid and his group of thirty men and women defeat the hundreds of bikers and bring peace to their world. That's the basic plot of Ruule: Ganglords of Chinatown, a very odd new graphic novel. Supposedly based on the story of Gideon from the Bible, this is a very violent look at the power of faith to help drive a man to be greater than himself. In outline, it makes sense and sounds interesting, But in execution, this is a frustrating book. For one thing, the book is extraordinarily violent. There are dismemberments, beheadings, buckets of blood on nearly every page. After awhile, all the violence gets a bit numbing and overwhelming. Sure the plot of the story guarantees that there will be violence, but all the violence feels way over the top. More strangely, even though there is so much violence, there's no use of profanity. Instead we get crazy sentences like "none of you here is worth a $#&*", while on the opposite page readers are shown a man whose entire lower torso is blown off. What in the hell is the purpose of that? Who is being protected from poor language in such a context? It just makes no sense. This is the most bizarre double standard I've seen in a long time. I also had trouble with Gid's journey. It was interesting and refreshing to read a story where faith has a part, and where God is specifically mentioned and discussed. Religion is a topic that's almost completely missing from current comics, and it's great to see it here. But the story isn't focused enough on Gid's journey and how his faith in God empowers him. God gives Gid some nice strategic hints, but readers are never really given a clear feel for the internal struggles and frustrations Gid goes through in exercising his faith. Nor are we given a feel for why God singled Gid out, or why He cares about this particular group of people. Hawthorne and Remender's art is professional and attractive, but didn't fit the comic well, in my opinion. The cartoony, manga-style art didn't give the story enough gravity for me. The book is violent and the characters take great journeys, but the art style gives everything an oddly unreal feel. I felt abstracted from the violence by the art style that was chosen; it just wasn't sufficient to convey the spirit that the story was intended to convey. This was a very disappoining graphic novel for me. I was intrigued by the general plot of the book, but its execution was frustrating. The art style that was chosen, it just wasn't sufficient to convey the spirit that the story was intended to convey. The Hawk and the Dove #1 (1968)It's very strange, some 35 or more years later, to read a comic book where the struggle between violence and non-violence is front and center. In this era of the Iraq war, violent video games and television cop shows, the question of violence has been settled and violence has won. Few if any people talk about non-violence as a means of persuading others. There may be argumentation or debate, but even the language of debate has changed - we talk about fighting for decisions, driving for conclusions, pushing for results. There's so much less talk about working together to drive answers or striving to find higher solutions.
So it's very strange to read a comic like The Hawk and the Dove from 1968. Hawk & Dove is the story of two brothers, one violent and one non-violent, who are given odd costumes by a disembodied, all-powerful voice. One reflects the violent brother's inner life, turning him into a hawk-costumed fellow, and the other reflects the non-violent brother's inner life and turns him into a dove-costumed fellow. But thats just the macguffin for the plotline. This comic was intended to not be an action series; instead, it was intended to reflect the times and depict the questions that were plaguing American society at the time.
As you might guess, this comic is horribly, horribly dated. The dilemmas are trite and dull, and the Dove really comes across as a real wimp. C'mon, I kept wanting to say, just fight back a bit, Dove. Don't be a freak. In America, violence is a way of life. Just accept it and move on.
The great saving grace of the comic is the gorgeous Steve Ditko art. Ditko is probably best known for being the brilliant work he did on the first 38 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, and he applies his same eye to this series. Hank and Don Hall, the Hawk and Dove, are at least interesting-looking characters, and Ditko clearly enjoys putting them through their paces.
But overall the comic just feels creakily old. Chilling Adventures in Sorcery #5 (1974)This is one of my favorte obscure comics series of the 1970s. Every issue of Sorcery is a hoot. As you might imagine, this was a horror anthology comic that came out in the era when horror comics were all the rage. Marvel, DC and Warren Magazines all were realeasing all kinds of horror comics, and this Sorcery was, oddly enough, produced by an offshoot line of Archie Comics called Red Circle Comics. The first three or four issues, in fact, had Sabrina the Teenage Witch as host (!), but by issue five, the comic had settled into a familiar horror anthology position, with four twist ending stories with art by the terrific Vincente Alcazar and the equally terrific Gray Morrow.
Because it wasn't put out by Marvel or DC, this comic can still be fouind at many conventions at good prices. I picked up this issue, for instance, in Fine condition for only $3, or the price of a new comic these days. But in terms of bargain for the dollar, this is worth much more than this month' issue of New Avengers.
The first story in the issue is "The Two Thieves of Baghdad," and takes place in ancient and modern Iraq, or at least Iraq of the 1970s. It's ironic reading this comic today, seeing the presentation of Iraq as just another exotic country. Of course, for Americans, Iraq will never be "just another country", but here it's presented as the backdrop of a charming adventure tale. Alcazar's art is wonderfully bold and fresh, with an exciting kinetic energy to it.
After an ad from "Jeri of Hollywood" for movie star photos (for 50c, you could get a set of 18 photos of such stars as Ann-Margaret, Barbara Eden, Lee Majors, Raquel Welch and the Mod Squad!) comes "Esme," the story of a groovily dressed girl whose glasses make monsters seem like normal people. Okay, that's not a problem you or I might ever have, but Alcazar's heaving rendered line work is moody and fun.
The third story, by Gray Morrow, tells of two barbarians who find god and riches to their eventual regret. Nothing special, but nice art.
Finally, there's a final piece illustrated by Alcazar, about a medieval queen who wants the necklace off the neck of an old gypsy woman. When she gets it, she learns that greed is a bad thing.
Overall Sorcery #3 isn't a great comic book, but it's a lot of fun and contains some wonderful artwork and a killer cover. It's nice to read a Bronze Age book that's off the beaten path. There was another way to do comics stories in that era, and Sorcery represents one alternative. |
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