Arriving 6/21/17

A week on the larger side as we enter the dog days of summer! New issues of X-MEN GOLD, THE WILD STORM, HEAD LOPPER and Chip Zdarsky and Adam Kubert's debut on PETER PARKER THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN! Check the cut to see what else is coming your way this week!

ADVENTURE TIME COMICS #12 ALIENS DEFIANCE #12 ALL NEW GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #4 ALL STAR BATMAN #11 AMERICA #4 ANGEL SEASON 11 #6 AQUAMAN #25 ARCHIE #21 BATMAN #25 BATMAN #25 VAR ED BATWOMAN #4 BILL & TED SAVE THE UNIVERSE #1 BLACK HAMMER #10 BLACK MONDAY MURDERS #6 BRITANNIA WE WHO #3 (OF 4) BTVS SEASON 11 #8 CAPTAIN AMERICA STEVE ROGERS #18 SE CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #9 COADY & THE CREEPIES #4 COLOSSI #3 CROSSWIND #1 DAREDEVIL #22 DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS #29 DEEP #6 DEPT H #15 DOCTOR STRANGE #22 SE DOCTOR WHO 12TH YEAR THREE #4 ECLIPSE #8 FEW #6 (OF 6) GOD COUNTRY #6 GREEN ARROW #25 GREEN LANTERNS #25 GRRL SCOUTS MAGIC SOCKS #2 (OF 6) HARLEY QUINN #22 HEAD LOPPER #6 HEARTTHROB SEASON 2 #1 HORIZON #12 I HATE FAIRYLAND #13 ICEMAN #2 INJUSTICE 2 #4 INVINCIBLE #137 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #8 IT SECRET WORLD OF MODERN BANKING #4 (OF 5) JAMES BOND FELIX LEITER #6 (OF 6) JUSTICE LEAGUE #23 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #244 LITTLE GUARDIANS #3 LOBO ROAD RUNNER SPECIAL #1 LUKE CAGE #2 LUMBERJANES 2017 SPECIAL FAIRE & SQUARE #1 MAN-THING #5 (OF 5) MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #16 MIGHTY THOR #20 MONSTERS UNLEASHED #3 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #55 NANCY DREW HARDY BOYS #4 NICK FURY #3 NIGHTWING #23 ODYSSEY OF THE AMAZONS #6 (OF 6) OLD GUARD #5 PETER PARKER SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #1 PLASTIC #3 (OF 5) RAPTURE #2 RED SONJA #6 ROYAL CITY #4 ROYALS #4 SECRET EMPIRE BRAVE NEW WORLD #2 (OF 5) SE SECRET EMPIRE UNDERGROUND #1 SE SEPTEMBER MOURNING VOL 01 SHAOLIN COWBOY WHOLL STOP THE REIGN #3 SHIRTLESS BEAR-FIGHTER #1 (OF 5) SILVER SURFER #12 SLASHER #2 SPIDER-MAN 2099 #24 SPONGEBOB COMICS ANNUAL GIANT SWIMTACULAR #5 STAR TREK BOLDLY GO #9 STAR WARS DARTH MAUL #4 (OF 5) STAR WARS DARTH VADER #2 STAR WARS POE DAMERON ANNUAL #1 SUPER SONS #5 SUPERMAN #25 SWORDQUEST #1 TEEN TITANS GO #22 THE CASTOFFS #7 THE CHAIR #1 (OF 4) TMNT UNIVERSE #11 TRINITY #10 ULTIMATES 2 #8 UNCLE SCROOGE #27 US AVENGERS #7 SE VICTOR LAVALLE DESTROYER #2 WEAPONS OF MUTANT DESTRUCTION #1 WMD WILD STORM #5 WONDER WOMAN TASMANIAN DEVIL SPECIAL #1 X-MEN GOLD #6

Books/Mags/Things ADVENTURE TIME COMICS TP VOL 02 APPLE AND AN ADVENTURE HC ARCHIE 1000 PAGE COMICS HOOPLA TP AVENGERS UNLEASHED TP VOL 01 KANG WAR ONE COMPLETE SKIZZ TP DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS TP VOL 04 QUEENS DC SUPER HERO GIRLS TP VOL 03 SUMMER OLYMPUS DESCENDER TP VOL 04 ORBITAL MECHANICS DIRK GENTLY SALMON OF DOUBT TP VOL 01 EMPOWERED TP VOL 10 GOODNIGHT PUNPUN GN VOL 06 HARLEY QUINN TP VOL 02 JOKER LOVES HARLEY (REBIRTH) INVINCIBLE IRON MAN IRONHEART PREM HC VOL 01 RIRI WILLIAMS JUSTICE LEAGUE VS SUICIDE SQUAD HC (REBIRTH) LEANING GIRL TP (IDW ED) MAD MAGAZINE #546 NEW SUPER MAN TP VOL 01 MADE IN CHINA (REBIRTH) SPACE BATTLE LUNCHTIME TP VOL 02 A RECIPE FOR DISASTER SPIDER-GWEN TP VOL 03 LONG-DISTANCE SPIDER-MAN DOCTOR STRANGE TP WAY TO DUSTY DEATH STAR WARS DOCTOR APHRA TP VOL 01 APHRA STAR WARS POE DAMERON TP VOL 02 GATHERING STORM ULTIMATES 2 TP VOL 01 TROUBLESHOOTERS

As always, what do YOU think?

Arriving 6/14/17

New AMERICAN GODS and SECRET EMPIRE alongside the newest version of Marvel's DEFENDERS, starring Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil and Iron Fist from Brian Michael Bendis! Check the cut for the rest of this weeks new books!

ACTION COMICS #981 ALL NEW WOLVERINE #21 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN RENEW YOUR VOWS #8 ANDERSON DEEP END ONE SHOT BACK TO THE FUTURE #20 BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #11 BEN REILLY SCARLET SPIDER #3 BETTY & VERONICA BY ADAM HUGHES #3 BIRTHRIGHT #25 BITCH PLANET TRIPLE FEATURE #1 BLACK CLOUD #3 BLACK HOOD SEASON 2 #5 BLACK PANTHER CREW #3 BRIGGS LAND LONE WOLVES #1 BRUTAL NATURE CONCRETE FURY #4 (OF 5) BUG THE ADVENTURES OF FORAGER #2 (OF 6) CAPTAIN AMERICA SAM WILSON #23 SE CATALYST PRIME ACCELL #1 CINEMA PURGATORIO #10 COPPERHEAD #14 DAMNED #2 DARK DAYS THE FORGE #1 DARKNESS VISIBLE #5 DEADPOOL #32 SE DEFENDERS #1 DETECTIVE COMICS #958 DIRK GENTLY SALMON OF DOUBT #8 DONALD DUCK #21 DRAGON AGE KNIGHT ERRANT #2 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS FROST GIANTS FURY #3 FLASH #24 GENERATION X #3 GODSHAPER #3 GOTHAM ACADEMY SECOND SEMESTER #10 GRASS KINGS #4 GREEN VALLEY #9 (OF 9) GWENPOOL #17 HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #22 HARROW COUNTY #24 HELENA CRASH #4 (OF 4) HULK #7 INVADER ZIM #20 JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS #26 JIMMYS BASTARDS #1 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #8 KILL THE MINOTAUR #1 KIM REAPER #3 KINGPIN #5 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES BUGS BUNNY SPECIAL #1 MANIFEST DESTINY #29 MARTIAN MANHUNTER MARVIN THE MARTIAN SPECIAL #1 MINDBENDER #2 MISFIT CITY #2 MOTHER RUSSIA #1 (OF 3) MS MARVEL #19 NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #4 NEW SUPER MAN #12 NORMANDY GOLD #1 OLD MAN LOGAN #25 OPTIMUS PRIME #8 PLANET OF APES GREEN LANTERN #5 PREDATOR VS JUDGE DREDD VS ALIENS #4 QUANTUM TEENS ARE GO #4 RAI HISTORY OF VALIANT UNIV #1 (OF 1) RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #11 REGRESSION #2 REICH #7 (OF 12) ROSE #3 SCOOBY APOCALYPSE #14 SECRET EMPIRE #4 (OF 10) SECRET EMPIRE UNITED #1 SE SECRET WARRIORS #3 SE SHADOWS ON THE GRAVE #5 SOLAR FLARE #3 SONS OF THE DEVIL #13 SOVEREIGNS #2 SPACE RIDERS GALAXY OF BRUTALITY #2 SPONGEBOB COMICS #69 SPOOKHOUSE #5 STAR WARS #32 SUICIDE SQUAD #19 SUPERGIRL #10 SUPERWOMAN #11 THANOS #8 THERES NOTHING THERE #2 TITANS #12 TMNT ONGOING #70 TOMBOY #11 TRANSFORMERS SALVATION TRESPASSER #1 (OF 4) UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #21 UNCANNY AVENGERS #24 SE VENOM #151 WEAPON X #4 WINNEBAGO GRAVEYARD #1 (OF 4) WONDER WOMAN #24 WORLD READER #3 X-MEN BLUE #5

Books/Mags/Things ADVENTURES OF SUPERHERO GIRL HC EXPANDED ED AFTER HOURS GN VOL 01 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN RENEW VOWS TP VOL 01 BRAWL IN FAMILY BATWOMAN BY GREG RUCKA AND JH WILLIAMS III TP BLACK PANTHER WORLD OF WAKANDA TP VOL 01 GIANT DAYS TP VOL 05 HAWKMAN BY GEOFF JOHNS TP BOOK 01 JACK KIRBY FOREVER PEOPLE ARTIST ED HC MAD ABOUT TRUMP TP MOTHER PANIC TP VOL 01 WORK IN PROGRESS MOTOR CRUSH TP VOL 01 MS MARVEL HC VOL 03 MYSTERIOUS GIRLFRIEND X GN VOL 06 NIGHTWING TP VOL 02 BACK TO BLUDHAVEN (REBIRTH) PLANTS VS ZOMBIES BATTLE EXTRAVAGONZO HC POP GUN WAR TP VOL 02 CHAIN LETTER RIPPLE HC PREDILECTION FOR TINA SHE WOLF TP VOL 02 SIXTH GUN TP VOL 01 COLD DEAD FINGERS (SQ1) SLAINE BRUTANIA CHRONICLES PSYCHOPOMP HC STRANGE ATTRACTORS TP SUMMER MAGIC COMP JOURNAL OF LUKE KIRBY GN TEEN TITANS TP VOL 01 DAMIAN KNOWS BEST (REBIRTH) TOMB RAIDER ARCHIVES HC VOL 02 VAGUE TALES HC VENOM TP VOL 01 HOMECOMING

As always, what do YOU think?

Arriving 6/7/17

Lots of endings this week! The final DARK KNIGHT III arrives, plus the final issues of REBORN from Millar and Capullo and Jason Aaron and Chris Bacahalo's last issue of DOCTOR STRANGE arrive! Check the rest of this weeks comics beneath the cut!

AB IRATO #2 (OF 6) ADVENTURE TIME #65 AGENTS OF PACT #2 ALL NEW GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #3 ALL TIME COMICS ATLAS #1 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #28 AMORY WARS GOOD APOLLO #3 (OF 12) AQUAMAN #24 AVENGERS #8 BABYTEETH #1 BALTIMORE THE RED KINGDOM #5 BANE CONQUEST #2 (OF 12) BATMAN #24 BLACK BOLT #2 BRAVE CHEF BRIANNA #4 BULLETPROOF COFFIN THOUSAND YARD STARE (ONE-SHOT) BULLSEYE #5 (OF 5) CANNIBAL #6 CHAMPIONS #9 CYBORG #13 DAREDEVIL #21 DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #9 (OF 9) DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS #28 DEATHSTROKE #20 DIVIDED STATES OF HYSTERIA #1 DOCTOR STRANGE #20 DOCTOR WHO GHOST STORIES #3 (OF 4) DRIFTER #19 ETERNAL EMPIRE #2 EVERAFTER FROM THE PAGES OF FABLES #10 EXTREMITY #4 FAILSAFE #2 FAITH (ONGOING) #12 FALL AND RISE OF CAPTAIN ATOM #6 (OF 6) FISH EYE #4 FLINTSTONES #12 GAME OF THRONES CLASH OF KINGS #1 GIANT DAYS #27 GOLD DIGGER #243 GREEN ARROW #24 GREEN LANTERNS #24 GWAR ORGASMAGEDDON #1 (OF 4) HARLEY QUINN #21 HAWKEYE #7 ICEMAN #1 ICEMAN #1 SCOTT VAR INJECTION #13 INJUSTICE 2 #3 IRON FIST #4 JAMES BOND #4 JAZZ MAYNARD #1 JEM THE MISFITS #5 JESSICA JONES #9 JUSTICE LEAGUE #22 JUSTICE LEAGUE #22 MAGNUS #1 MARVEL COMICS DIGEST #1 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN MIGHTY MOUSE #1 MY LITTLE PONY LEGENDS OF MAGIC #3 NIGHTWING #22 NOVA #7 OUTCAST BY KIRKMAN & AZACETA #28 PAPER GIRLS #15 PLANETOID PRAXIS #5 (OF 6) PREDATOR HUNTERS #2 REBORN #6 (OF 6) REDLINE #4 ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN #3 ROCKET #2 ROM #11 SAVAGE THINGS #4 (OF 8) SECRET EMPIRE BRAVE NEW WORLD #1 (OF 5) SE SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL #9 SPAWN #274 SPIDER-MAN #17 SPIDER-MAN DEADPOOL #18 STAR TREK NEW VISIONS TIME OUT OF JOINT STAR WARS DARTH VADER #1 STAR WARS ROGUE ONE ADAPTATION #3 (OF 6) STARSTRUCK OLD PROLDIERS NEVER DIE #5 (OF 6) STRAY BULLETS SUNSHINE & ROSES #24 STREET FIGHTER VS DARKSTALKERS #2 (OF 8) SUPERMAN #24 TRANSFORMERS LOST LIGHT #6 UNSOUND #1 UNSTOPPABLE WASP #6 WALKING DEAD #168 WONDER WOMAN STEVE TREVOR #1 X-MEN GOLD #5 YOUNGBLOOD #2 CVR A TOWE

Books/Mags/Things ABE SAPIEN TP VOL 09 LOST LIVES & OTHER STORIES AMAZING SPIDER-MAN EPIC COLLECTION TP KRAVENS LAST HUNT AMERICAN WAY 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION TP ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 16 BATMAN ZERO HOUR TP BELGIAN LACE FROM HELL HC VOL 03 CLAY WILSON BLACK CLOVER GN VOL 07 DC COMICS DARK HORSE BATMAN VS PREDATOR TP DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU OMNIBUS HC 02 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA THE ROAD TO REBIRTH TP LAST AMERICAN TP LIFE & TIMES MARTHA WASHINGTON 21 CENTURY TP LUMBERJANES TO MAX ED HC VOL 03 MANGA IN THEORY & PRACTICE HC CRAFT CREATING ARAKI METABARONS GN VOL 02 (OF 4) AGHNAR AND ODA MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS TP VOL 03 NOTHING LASTS FOREVER TP SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH COMP TP 1962-1971 SO CUTE IT HURTS GN VOL 13 SPELL ON WHEELS TP SPIDER-MAN DEADPOOL TP VOL 02 SIDE PIECES STARDROP GN VOL 02 PLACE TO HANG MY SPACESUIT NEW PTG SUICIDE SQUAD TP VOL 02 GOING SANE TARANTULA HC TO HAVE AND TO HOLD GN TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN OMNIBUS PLUS HC WICKED & DIVINE TP VOL 05 IMPERIAL PHASE I WONDER WOMAN BY GEORGE PEREZ TP VOL 02 YONA OF THE DAWN GN VOL 06

As always, what do YOU think?

“I Love It When Men Talk About Pork.” COMICS! Sometimes You Just Got To Keep On Killin' 'Em All 'Til All The Killin' Is Done!

In which I look at some PunisherMAX comics. But not the PunisherMAX comics everyone likes. That would be too easy. No, these are the other PunisherMAX comics. The PunisherMAX comics no one ever mentions. The PunisherMAXes Garth Ennis didn’t write. Those PunisherMax comics.  photo Pmwttbstartb_zpsnnh5rv7v.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Parlov, Gischler, Loughridge & Petit

Anyway, this...

1) Half-Hearted Apologia:

So, yeah, I took a break which was fun. Except I have been following the news. We’ve got a General Election on, doncha know. Apparently The Tories are going to win despite the fact they make Norsefire look cuddly and their leader displays all the charm and humanity of Lady Darkseid; while their manifesto is centred around foxhunting and taking old people’s homes off them to sell to Lady Darkseid’s husband’s mates. Look I’m not saying the political class in this country are a shitshow but I’ve heard they are such a shitshow a bunch of shitshows are starting a Kickstarter to sue them for defamation of shitshows everywhere. They make shitshows look bad is what I’m saying. What I’m also saying is I’m a bit out of sorts and so for solace I turned to a big man with a gun shooting his problems in the face.  Because I am civilized.

2) PunisherMAX: What Has Gone Before.

 photo Pmwttbshowb_zpsedqohozx.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Parlov, Gischler, Loughridge & Petit

Despite sounding like an unwise purchase from a dispenser in a night club toilet PunisherMAX was a pretty good little run of comics. (The title of the comic varies for reasons known only to the minds at Marvel©™®, I've just left it as PunisherMAX because that joke wouldn't have worked.) Garth Ennis reined in his playground bully humour and delivered, via the art of many partners,  a masterpiece of incrementally increasing horror. Starting off unpromisingly with brayingly unfunny crap like testicles in a paper cup, the series quickly transcended the oafish drollery of Marvel Knights Punisher by presenting essentially the same story but, and it really worked this, each time everything was that bit more appalling, until it all ended in a future so post apocalyptically awful that only the magnificent Richard Corben could do it justice. His story having being told Ennis jumped ship. Which is uncharacteristically wise behaviour from a comics writer, it must be said. But Marvel©™® weren’t giving up a critically lauded cash-cow that easily. So the book limped on under a number of writers. That’s ungenerous of me. While these issues pale in comparison to Ennis & pals’ nightmarish epic, well, so do most comics. Taken as their own thing these issues of PunisherMAX are pretty entertaining Thug With A Gun stuff.

3) It’s Not Sordid, Ma! It’s Purgative!

 photo PMwttbfeetb_zpshai5t3gc.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Parlov, Gischler, Loughridge & Petit

There’s not really much point gussying it up, The Punisher isn’t literature, was never meant to be literature and is highly unlikely to ever be literature. The whole ethos embodied by The Punisher comes from a bad place. And I don’t mean Brooklyn. Wacka wacka wacka! The Punisher comes from that subterranean pit of the male psyche that wants violence to solve everything, and to be the biggest dick in a world of big dicks. The Punisher is the poster boy for the inadequate revenge fantasy in all of us. Even those who aren’t white or male. We’ve all been hurt and felt the lesser for it, and we’ve all wanted to fuck that fuck’s shit right the fuck up. But most of us don’t. Because we can’t. But Frank can. In these issues Frank faces off drug traffickers, monied sociopaths and inbred hicks. And he fucks aaaaaaall their shit up. Of course two seconds later the vacuum left by these corpses is filled by other drug traffickers, monied sociopaths and inbred hicks. Frank forever crops the Weed of Evil but he never pulls out the roots. Because that’s complex stuff, the kind of stuff that requires social funding, education, rehabilitation programmes, investment in social infrastructure and a genuine push to eradicate the inherent inequality of a social system which rewards the few at the cost of the many. That’s not really Frank’s bag. He does do as much good as a nutter with a gun can, though. Fair’s fair.

4) The Men Who Aren’t Garth Ennis.

 photo Pmshtkrunb_zpslrizzt63.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Lacombe, Swierczynski, Staples & Petit

It’s an interesting roster of writers too; all taken from the Crime section of the library. No strangers to chewy macho action these guys. Obviously I’ve not read them, because that would require some degree of professionalism, but I did look at the titles they have penned. Greg Hurwitz has The Kill Clause, Troubleshooter, Bullet Fucker, etc; Victor Gischler has Shotgun Opera, Gun Monkeys, Kalashnikov Suppository, etc; and Duane Swierczynski has Revolver, The Wheelman, Vegan Cooking For Busy Moms, etc etc.  All burly, well-ripped titles which suggest that though they may sit behind desks these guys could crack concrete blocks with their cocks. It looks like these guys are the guys (and they are guys) who write the sweaty meats in the carvery of literature. The kind of thing where some dude (and it is usually a dude) with a harrowing past still somehow manages to be superhumanly capable in the violence stakes when push comes to shove. And push is forever coming to shove. The kind of stuff mechanics would have had rolled up in their oil stained back pockets in gas stations all across the American Past. In the American Present they are read by men who know what a latte is, and think a harrowing past is that time the wifi acted up and they couldn’t smoothly stream that episode of Veronica Mars involving the cupcake and the chimp. Times change but men don’t, is what I’m getting at there. Men will always want to be able to punch through someone’s skull so hard they wear the luckless chump’s face like a glove. And to be right in doing so.  All men. Rabbis and Social Workers too. Particularly Rabbis and social workers. Especially Rabbis and Social Workers. I don’t mean to be a misogynist prick but I imagine women are different to men in this respect. Maybe not, I’m not willing to speculate. But men? I know whereof I speak. And being a man I am not immune to the sweaty charms of these comics .

5) At Long Goddamned Last The Actual Comics (Cue Fanfare!): 

GIRLS IN WHITE DRESSES PUNISHER (AKA PUNISHERMAX) #61-65 Art by Laurence Campbell Written by Greg Hurwitz Coloured by Lee Loughridge Lettered by VC's Cory Pettit Covers by Dave Johnson The Punisher created by John Romita Snr, Ross Andru & Gerry Conway Marvel©™®, $ 2.99 (2008)

 photo dressescovs_zpsfukxgwoh.jpg

First up we have ‘Girls in White Dresses’ which is one of those festivals of testosterone where a poor Mexican town has to get some violent gringos in to sort out their problems. This kill riff goes back at least to The Magnificent Seven (1960), maybe further. (I don’t really have time to look into the tenacity of the “America as Saviour of Mexico” genre. But I do know it was done best in The Three Amigos (1986)) In this case of course the Mexican town in question requires the help of a singular gringo, Frank Castle. Frank doesn’t need six companions, because friends are for the weak. More like the Feeble Seven, eh Frank? Frank Castle just needs to know two things: where the bad guys are and what’s the name for that depression between your nose and top lip. Keeps him awake at nights that does. That and the memory of his dead wife and kids. (It’s the philtrum, Frank. Sleep that bit easier now, old warrior.)

 photo Pmgwwdvanb_zpsutc7gpz5.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Campbell, Hurwitz, Loughridge & Petit

It’s full of the usual butch silliness right from the start, like the way Frank spots his tail because he is wearing a big cowboy hat. (So if you ever do tail a psychotic ex-‘Nam mass murderer, a big cowboy hat might not be the best headgear to go with. Every day is a school day.) Also nice was the way Frank reins himself in from killing the tail because under the hat is an old man. Old men are of course completely harmless. I guess Hurwitz has never seen The Wild Bunch (1969), Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) or ever been in the vicinity of Pappy Kane when he’s that way out. It’s good that Frank stays his hand because then el anciano is able to petition him for aid and thus the comic doesn’t end suddenly. For as is traditional in the America-Helps-the-Mexicans genre the village has scraped together less than you spent on an iPad to sweeten the pot; those poor backward fools never realise that Americans will help Mexico because Americans are Awesome, rather than for the paltry financial reward on offer. After all America is Mexico’s friend; well, except for that time it just up and stole Texas, and that whole Wall business and the way it is constantly interfering with “observers”, and the way it never actually helps in any constructive way whatsoever…other than that though, America wuvs Mexico so very, very much. Unmoved by the financial lure Frank says no, because it’d spoil the suspense for when he appears later to help them despite having said no. Because I know I for one was honestly expecting the next three issue to show the drug traffickers riding roughshod over the community with the odd cutaway to Frank shining his shoes or searching NETflix for something to watch (Housebound (2014) is fun, Frank) or rollerblading in denim cut-offs. Whatever took his fancy really.

So Frank turns up and kills everyone who is bad. THE END.

 photo Pmgwwdgunsb_zpsl29t9qn3.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Campbell, Hurwitz, Loughridge & Petit

Okay there’s a bit more to it than that. Hurwitz takes a thoroughly well-worn set up and chucks in some grisly bits to give it some oomph. Among the gruesome touches on show are the fact that  the women kidnaped by the drug traffickers are being returned stitched up like knock off teddies, Frank has to dig up a kid’s corpse and then dig a bullet out of said dead kid (which was particularly nice) and there’s a simply darling bit of business involving a pet shark. (Yes, a pet shark.) Unfortunately all that good work is slightly undermined by a few tricks nicked from substandard action flicks. It’s possible that on screen Frank’s charge through multiple sheets of drug glazing would work, but on the page it’s a bit listless. (But Campbell nearly makes it work visually, to be fair) And you’d have to be fourteen and merry on cheap cider to take the old throw-a-roll-of-coins-at-the-crane’s-controls-to-drop-a-heavy-thing-on-the-bad-guys bit seriously. It’s a bit too sub-Seagal to play is that part. However, there’s been some research done; or at least I think there has, I’m not going to check but apparently cat litter is used in the production of narcotics (and also for cats to do their cat business in, if the bad guys have an actual cat) and manufacturing narcotics is bad on your eyes and lungs. (Seriously the working conditions are appalling, someone should make it illegal.)

 photo Pmsharkb_zpsvdiz9kbv.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Campbell, Hurwitz, Loughridge & Petit

Oh, and in a weird sop to normal Punisher continuity it turns out that the Big Bad is Jigsaw. Jigsaw is Frank’s only(?) recurring villain because Frank is tough on his villains. I find Jigsaw a bit dull, personally. Jigsaw’s big thing is Frank fucked his face up.  Other than that he’s just a bad man. Bit of a nutter to boot (i.e. his Jigsaw has some pieces missing!) This being MAX Jigster’s also a bit rapey, but mainly he’s just a “bad hombre” as your PoTUS might have it. There’s a lot of build up as to who the Big Bad will be and the payoff is dependent on visual punch, which is unfortunate as Campbell’s splash page reveal is of a man leaning over a desk with what looks like a sooty face. I thought it was maybe a new villain, “Sooty Face”, but no they were scars and it was just Jigsaw.  Which is a problem with Campbell’s approach to art. Drawing over photo reference is all special and modern and that, but scars deform the surface of the skin around them; they aren’t just straight lines laid over a face. You can get away with drawing straight lines on a face if you are drawing everything from the ground up, because everything is obeying the same inherent visual laws, but just scribbling on someone’s face makes it look like someone has a face that’s been scribbled on, like they fell asleep during a frat party or something.  But Campbell does do pretty well overall, even though his approach is not my favourite technique. He certainly knows how to balance his panels, which is super-important if you’re going to rely on the landscape format (see also: Goran Parlov). There’s some nice stuff going on, and the page where Frank is hidden in the patterns of a bush like a malevolent optical illusion is pretty great. And even a colour dunce like myself can tell that Loughridge knows when and how to make things pop. Both here and in Welcome To The Bayou Loughridge artfully displays the blunt impact of the solid red backround beautifully. Girls In White Dresses is GOOD! But really, for the price of the TPB you could probably pick up Don Winslow’s Power of The Dog and The Cartel, which together do the whole America/Mexico drug thing but with the sweep of Ellroy’s American Tabloid while also managing to mix in some historical veracity along with the pantomime machismo.

SIX HOURS TO KILL PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX (AKA PUNISHER AKA PUNISHERMAX) #66-70 Art by Michel Lacombe Written by Duane Swierczynski Coloured by Val Staples Lettered by VC's Cory Pettit Covers by Dave Johnson The Punisher created by John Romita Snr, Ross Andru & Gerry Conway Marvel©™®, $3.99 (2009)

 photo sixhourscovs_zpsfbdbpktl.jpg

Here we have Frank plugged into the Race Against Time trope. Children will be familiar with this from the timeless Crank sequence of movies (Crank (2006), Crank 2: Crankier (2009) and Crank 3: Crankiest (in production)), adults will know it from Speed (1994) and Speed 2: Cruise Liners Aren’t Very Fast (1997) and the elderly will, after much prompting, recall DOA (1950; remade 1988). I  Imagine it was meant to be a very cinematic outing this one, but as is usual with such comics it just made me want to go on an outing to the cinema.  I guess Swierczynski panicked a bit because it’s far too overstuffed for the simple premise. And such premises thrive on simplicity. Consequently what should zip swiftly along kind of lumbers stolidly towards a not entirely convincing denouement. (I have always wanted to use the word “denouement”; I can die happy now.)

 photo PMshtdfaceb_zps8hlrrnzm.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Lacombe, Swierczynski, Staples & Petit

A quick peek behind The Wizard’s Curtain: I don’t tend to write these things with the actual comics to hand; I have to snatch time where and when I can and smoosh it all together later, hoping I pick up on repetitions and inaccuracies. And to be quite frank (hohoho) I’m struggling to remember the intricacies of this particular plot.  Start the clock and let's go: There’s a mayor whose future is threatened because his cousin in law has been running a kids home as a paedo pick’n’mix (and this shows how long ago this comic was written; today politicians can set kids on fire in full public view and then mount the still twitching corpse and people will just shrug and say, yeah, but, immigrants, yeah but, dole scroungers, yeah but, my house isn’t on fire, yeah, but Gogglebox is on, yeah? Remember when politicians used to resign? When was the last time a politician resigned?  About an hour ago should be the right answer, but it isn’t.  Whatever happened to accountability? Oh, John! You’re such an old-fashioned chap! Get on your penny farthing, granddad, and fuck off back to the past!) Er, so some rich dude who is in the mayor’s pocket (or who has the mayor in his pocket) decides to off the mayor to avoid being torpedoed with him, and he chooses to use Frank Castle, so that no one else gets covered in shit when the mayor goes down.

 photo PMshtkpubb_zpsphhpm0bx.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Lacombe, Swierczynski, Staples & Petit

So there’s this rich dude, his sex addled sister, a brain wrecked ‘Nam vet cum-politico and a techy geek who injects Frank with a drug which will kill him in six hours - unless he offs the mayor there’s no antidote for Frank. Then, amusingly, Frank immediately goes off message and tries to maximise his kills given his time limit and the amount of ground he can cover in that time.  That was genuinely pretty funny and really caught the monomania of the character. Almost funny enough in fact to distract from the fact that if they’d just let Frank know the mayor was up to his nuts in kiddie fiddling then Frank would have given them a freebie, you know, without all the magic drug farting about. Anyway, then there are these ex-cops who pretend to be real cops so they can off Frank (because Frank doesn’t kill cops) but Frank senses they are not real cops, but, wait, there are also real cops after Frank, and so Frank has to stop these cops dying when they get caught in the crossfire with the fake cops or it might be some angry gangbangers. I can’t really remember, but there were...shriners? And maybe some put-out girl scouts, and maybe some Japanese soldiers who had been hiding in a hot dog stand in Times Square unaware the war had ended? It’s all gets a bit silly. Yeah, I know it's The Punisher, but there's silly and then there's just silly. And this ends up just silly. Just that bit too goofy for me, I guess. Lacombe does well though, given the overly large cast there's a total lack of confusion, and he handles the set pieces well; they have a real sense of space and an admirable clarity of staging. The only real clanger is when people have multiple facial contusions it looks more like they are sporting a tasty crop of boils. It's a pretty good art job though, not unreminiscent of Cannon and Ha's work on Alan Moore's Top Ten. But, you know, with a shit ton more violence and implied fellatio. Aw, it was OKAY!

WELCOME TO THE BAYOU PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX (AKA PUNISHER AKA PUNISHERMAX) #71-74 Art by Goran Parlov Written by Victor Gischler Coloured by Lee Loughridge Lettered by VC's Cory Pettit Covers by Dave Johnson The Punisher created by John Romita Snr, Ross Andru & Gerry Conway Marvel©™®, $3.99 each (2009)

 photo bayoucovs_zpszn1yzqxb.jpg

This one is just junk. Unapologetic trash.  Just...trash. It’s great. Basically, and I do mean basically, it involves Frank wandering into a ridiculous Frankensteinian patchwork of grindhouse horror movies. There’s a bunch of spring breakers who make a fateful pit stop , a cannibalistic family , a giant gator, a deformed nutter in bib overalls with a sack on his head, bbq cannibalism and probably a whole bunch more of such sophisticated cinematic concoctions I failed to pick up on. It’s not exactly spiritually enriching stuff. In short it’s trash as I said above. Crucially, though, it’s well done trash. Sure there’s much flagrant mugging of other people’s ideas, but it’s so blatant it’s kind of disarming, and they reconfigure everything into at least a semblance of freshness: things take a neat early twist with Frank outclassing his congenitally evil enemies to the extent that expectations become upended, and he seems the monster and they the prey. But sure as eggs is eggs genre will out, and it quickly reverts back to factory settings. It’s brutal, tasteless stuff with a light comedy glazing, all given the appropriate tone of flip goonery by Parlov’s sure handed blend of ludicrousness and realism. Frank himself looks more like a raybanned update of Carl Critchlow’s Thrud The Barbarian than anything that ever drew breath in reality. And the way Parlov controls the pacing and flawlessly connects with the jump scares is evidence of genius at play on the page.  Sure, the outcome of the story might never be in doubt, but Parlov & Gischler consistently give your expectations a good hard Glasgae kiss. Ayup, Frank sure has to jump through some (Tobe) hoop(er)s in this one. Welcome To The Bayou knows what it is and runs headlong with it into a secluded thicket of VERY GOOD!

 photo Pmwttbfaceb_zpsyjb9dpkj.jpg PUNISHER: FRANK CASTLE MAX by Parlov, Gischler, Loughridge & Petit

Weirdly, despite its obvious borrowings the only movie anyone mentions in the story is Deliverance, which is aiming a bit high since that was written by the poet James Dickey and not, say, Ray Garton. Mind you, despite Deliverance being written by the 18th United States poet Laureate, most people do tend to remember it as just a classy survivalist flick. That’s folk for ya. What a lot of people who’ve seen Deliverance don’t know is that Dickey saw active service in both WW2 and the Korean “Police Action”. Maybe the nascent poet, awaiting his next nightfighter mission, propped his ass on a crate and uncurled a battered paperback of  Punisher-esque he-man nonsense. I like to think so, and I'm sure the current purveyors of he-man nonsense considered above would echo that sentiment.

6) Concluding Remarks:

In the future no matter how advanced we as a species become somewhere there will be a man scratching his ass and smelling his fingers. And there's probably some value in that.

NEXT TIME: Will it be a message from a freshly birthed Socialist Utopia or the same quasi-fascist and morally diseased Selfish State? Either way it'll involve - COMICS!!!

Arriving 5/29/17

This is quite the week! New SECRET EMPIRE, ALIENS: DEAD ORBIT, KILL OR BE KILLED, MONSTRESS and SAGA returns!
 
This is one NOT TO BE MISSED!
Check the cut for the rest!

ALIENS DEAD ORBIT #2 BLACK ROAD #10 BLACK SCIENCE #30 CABLE #1 CAPTAIN AMERICA SAM WILSON #22 SE D4VEOCRACY #4 (OF 4) DEADPOOL #31 SE DEADPOOL VS PUNISHER #4 (OF 5) DOCTOR STRANGE #21 SE DOCTOR WHO 9TH #13 DOLLFACE #5 DONALD DUCK #20 FLASH #23 GAMORA #5 GENERATION X #2 GUARDIANS OF GALAXY MOTHER ENTROPY #5 (OF 5) GWENPOOL #16 HADRIANS WALL #7 (OF 8) HEROINES #1 HULK #6 INSEXTS #11 JOE GOLEM OCCULT DETECTIVE OUTER DARK #1 JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS #7 KILL OR BE KILLED #9 LADYCASTLE #4 LOBSTER JOHNSON PIRATES GHOST #3 MAN-THING #4 (OF 5) MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS 2017 ANNUAL #1 MONSTRESS #12 MOON KNIGHT #14 MOTOR GIRL #6 NEW HUMANZ #1 (OF 4) OCCUPY AVENGERS #7 OLD MAN LOGAN #24 OVER GARDEN WALL ONGOING #14 PAKLIS #1 RICK & MORTY #26 ROMULUS #4 SAGA #43 SECRET EMPIRE #3 (OF 10) SECRET EMPIRE UPRISING #1 SEX CRIMINALS #19 SOUTHERN CROSS #12 SPIDER-GWEN #20 STAR TREK WAYPOINT #5 STAR WARS DOCTOR APHRA #7 STEVEN UNIVERSE ONGOING #4 TEEN TITANS LAZARUS CONTRACT SPECIAL #1 (LAZARUS) THANOS #7 TRANSFORMERS TILL ALL ARE ONE #10 TRINITY ANNUAL #1 UBER INVASION #6 VISITOR HOW AND WHY HE STAYED #4 (OF 5) WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #1 X-FILES (2016) #14

Books/Mags/Things 2000 AD PACK APR 2017 AVENGERS FOUR TP BITCH PLANET TP VOL 02 PRESIDENT BITCH DEADMAN DARK MANSION OF FORBIDDEN LOVE TP DEADPOOL THE DUCK TP DOOM PATROL VOL 01 BRICK BY BRICK TP EGYPTIAN PRINCESSES GN GULF WAR JOURNAL TP VOL 01 HAL JORDAN & THE GLC TP VOL 02 BOTTLED LIGHT (REBIRTH) HAWKEYE TP VOL 01 KATE BISHOP HEAVY METAL #286 IMAGE PLUS #14 (WALKING DEAD HERES NEGAN PT 14) INFAMOUS IRON MAN TP VOL 01 INFAMOUS JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #383 KINGSWAY WEST TP LAZARUS TP VOL 05 LENNON THE NEW YORK YEARS HC MISTER X ARCHIVES TP ONE MORE YEAR HC MEGG & MOGG PREVIEWS #345 JUNE 2017 PROVIDENCE LTD HC ACT 02 SPIDER-WOMAN TP VOL 03 SHIFTING GEARS SCARE TACTICS STARDROP GN VOL 01 WHEN ON EARTH STARDROP GN VOL 03 HOME IN TIME SUPERGIRL TP VOL 03 GHOSTS OF KRYPTON WOLVERINE OLD MAN LOGAN TP VOL 04 OLD MONSTERS WONDER WOMAN BY JOHN BYRNE HC VOL 01 YOUNG AVENGERS BY HEINBERG CHEUNG TP CHILDRENS CRUSADE

As always, what do YOU think?

Arriving 5/24/17

If you haven't been following DOOM PATROL from Gerard Way and Nick Derington, now is your chance to see what all the hubub is about with the first collection this week! Plus! ALL NEW GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, DEADLY CLASS and SEVEN TO ETERNITY!

Check the cut for the rest!

ACTION COMICS #980 ALL NEW GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #2 ANGEL SEASON 11 #5 ANNO DRACULA #3 (OF 5) ARCHIES ONE SHOT BATGIRL #11 BATMAN 66 MEETS WONDER WOMAN 77 #5 (OF 6) BATMAN BEYOND #8 BATMAN THE SHADOW #2 (OF 6) BEAUTY #15 BEN REILLY SCARLET SPIDER #2 BLACK HAMMER #9 BLACK PANTHER #14 BLUE BEETLE #9 BTVS SEASON 11 #7 CAPTAIN AMERICA STEVE ROGERS #17 SE CONAN THE SLAYER #9 DEADLY CLASS #28 DEATHSTROKE #19 (LAZARUS) DEPT H #14 DETECTIVE COMICS #957 DOC SAVAGE RING OF FIRE #3 (OF 4) DOCTOR STRANGE SORCERERS SUPREME #8 DYING AND THE DEAD #4 EAST OF WEST #33 ELEKTRA #4 FOURTH PLANET #5 GARTH ENNIS RED TEAM DOUBLE TAP #9 (OF 9) GUARDIANS OF GALAXY MOTHER ENTROPY #4 (OF 5) HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #21 HELLBLAZER #10 I AM GROOT #1 INFAMOUS IRON MAN #8 INJUSTICE GROUND ZERO #12 JAMES BOND FELIX LEITER #5 (OF 6) JAMES BOND SERVICE SPECIAL JEAN GREY #2 JIM HENSON POWER OF DARK CRYSTAL #3 (OF 12) JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7 KAMANDI CHALLENGE #5 (OF 12) LETTER 44 #33 LOONEY TUNES #237 LUMBERJANES #38 MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL #5 SE MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR #19 MOSAIC #8 MOTHER PANIC #7 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #54 OLD GUARD #4 OPTIMUS PRIME #7 PLASTIC #2 (OF 5) RAT QUEENS #3 REBELS THESE FREE & INDEPENDENT STATES #3 REDNECK #2 RINGSIDE #10 SAUCER STATE #1 (OF 6) SCOOBY DOO TEAM UP #26 SECRET WARRIORS #2 SE SEVEN TO ETERNITY #6 SHAOLIN COWBOY WHOLL STOP THE REIGN #2 STAR TREK BOLDLY GO #8 STAR-LORD ANNUAL #1 SUICIDE SQUAD #18 SUN BAKERY #3 TMNT UNIVERSE #10 TOTALLY AWESOME HULK #19 UNDERWINTER #3 VENOM #150 VICTOR LAVALLE DESTROYER #1 WEIRD LOVE #18 WONDER WOMAN #23 X-MEN BLUE #4 X-O MANOWAR (2017) #3

Books/Mags/Things ALTERS TP VOL 01 BATMAN NEW GOTHAM TP BATMAN WILDCAT TP BOOKS OF MAGIC TP BOOK 01 BUNKER TP VOL 04 DC UNIVERSE BY MIKE MIGNOLA HC DEADPOOL WORLDS GREATEST TP VOL 07 DEADPOOL DOES SHAKESPEARE DOCTOR STRANGE AND SORCERERS SUPREME TP VOL 01 OUT OF TIME DOOM PATROL TP VOL 01 BRICK BY BRICK DYING AND THE DEAD SPEC ED TP GRAPHIC CLASSICS GN VOL 26 VAMPIRE CLASSICS HARROW COUNTY TP VOL 05 ABANDONED HELLBLAZER TP VOL 16 THE WILD CARD JASON I KILLED ADOLF HITLER HC JASON LOST CAT HC JASON ON THE CAMINO HC JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS TP VOL 01 MAYDAY TP MOON KNIGHT TP VOL 02 REINCARNATIONS MOONSHINE TP VOL 01 NEIL GAIMAN COLORING BOOK NO MERCY TP VOL 03 SILVER SURFER EPIC COLLECTION INFINITY GAUNTLET TP SIZZLE #73 SUPERMAN ADVENTURES TP VOL 03 UNWORTHY THOR TP VIOLENT LOVE TP VOL 01 STAY DANGEROUS WEAVERS TP

As always, what do YOU think?

Arriving 5/17/17

4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK returns this week, plus the conclusion of THE BUTTON in FLASH #22 plus the next WICKED + DIVINE special and the debut of GENERATION X. Check the cut for the rest of this weeks new books!

4 KIDS WALK INTO A BANK #4 ADVENTURE TIME COMICS #11 AMERICAN MONSTER #6 ANIMAL NOIR #4 (OF 4) AQUAMAN #23 ARCHIE #20 ASTRO CITY #44 BATMAN #23 BATWOMAN #3 BIRTHRIGHT #24 BLADE BUNNY VOL 2 #6 BRITANNIA WE WHO #2 (OF 4) CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #8 (MR) CEREBUS IN HELL #4 COADY & THE CREEPIES #3 CURSE WORDS #5 DAREDEVIL #20 DARKNESS VISIBLE #4 DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS #27 DEAD INSIDE #5 (OF 5) DEADPOOL VS PUNISHER #3 (OF 5) DEEP #5 DOCTOR WHO 10TH YEAR THREE #5 DOCTOR WHO 12TH YEAR THREE #3 ECLIPSE #7 ELEANOR & THE EGRET #2 FEW #5 (OF 6) FOREVER WAR #4 (OF 6) GENERATION X #1 GOD COUNTRY #5 GOLD DIGGER #242 GREATEST ADVENTURE #2 GREEN ARROW #23 GREEN LANTERNS #23 GRRL SCOUTS MAGIC SOCKS #1 GUARDIANS OF GALAXY MOTHER ENTROPY #3 (OF 5) HARLEY QUINN #20 HORIZON #11 INJUSTICE 2 #2 INVINCIBLE #136 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #7 IT SECRET WORLD OF MODERN BANKING #3 (OF 5) JUGHEAD #15 JUSTICE LEAGUE #21 JUSTICE LEAGUE POWER RANGERS #4 (OF 6) KIM REAPER #2 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #243 LITTLE GUARDIANS #2 LOW #18 LUCIFER #18 LUKE CAGE #1 MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #15 MIGHTY THOR #19 MONSTERS UNLEASHED #2 NANCY DREW HARDY BOYS #3 NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #3 NICK FURY #2 NIGHT OWL SOCIETY #2 NIGHTWING #21 ODYSSEY OF THE AMAZONS #5 (OF 6) POWERS #8 (MR) PUNISHER #12 RED SONJA #5 CVR A MCKONE REICH #6 (OF 12) (MR) ROM #10 ROSE #2 ROYAL CITY #3 ROYALS #3 SATELLITE FALLING #5 SECRET EMPIRE #2 (OF 9) SIMPSONS COMICS #239 SPAWN #273 SPREAD #21 STAR TREK TNG MIRROR BROKEN #1 (OF 6) STAR WARS #31 STAR WARS POE DAMERON #15 STREET FIGHTER VS DARKSTALKERS #1 (OF 8) SUPER SONS #4 SUPERMAN #23 TEEN TITANS #8 (LAZARUS) TRINITY #9 ULTIMATES 2 #7 SE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #20 US AVENGERS #6 SE WICKED & DIVINE 455 AD #1 (ONE-SHOT) WILD STORM #4 WILL EISNER SPIRIT CORPSE MAKERS #3 (OF 5) WONDER WOMAN 77 BIONIC WOMAN #4 (OF 6) WORLD READER #2 X-MEN GOLD #4 ZOMBIE TRAMP ONGOING #35

Books/Mags/Things ADVENTURE TIME MATHEMATICAL ED HC VOL 08 BAD MACHINERY GN VOL 07 THE CASE OF THE FORKED ROAD DEADPOOL BAD BLOOD OGN HC FANTE BUKOWSKI GN VOL 02 TWO FLASH TP VOL 02 SPEED OF DARKNESS (REBIRTH) FREE COUNTRY A TALE OF THE CHILDRENS CRUSADE TP GREEN ARROW TP VOL 08 THE HUNT FOR THE RED DRAGON MAGICAL TWINS DLX HC MAXX MAXXED OUT TP VOL 03 RESURRECTION PERVERTS HC VOL 01 SPIDER-MAN SPIDER-GWEN SITTING IN TREE TP SUICIDE SQUAD TP VOL 06 THE PHOENIX GAMBIT SUPERGIRL TP VOL 01 REIGN OT CYBORG SUPERMEN (REBIRTH) SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN TP VOL 05 SAVAGE END USER HC

Arriving 5/10/17

The final issue of AD AFTER DEATH is here! Plus new AMERICA, X-MEN BLUE and the debut of BUG: ADVENTURES OF FORAGER from the family Allred over at Young Animal.Check the cut for the rest of this weeks new comics!

ACTION COMICS #979 AD AFTER DEATH BOOK 03 (OF 3) ALL NEW WOLVERINE #20 ALL STAR BATMAN #10 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #27 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN RENEW YOUR VOWS #7 AMERICA #3 AVENGERS #7 BACK TO THE FUTURE #19 BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #10 BATMAN TMNT ADVENTURES #6 (OF 6) BLACK CLOUD #2 BLACK PANTHER CREW #2 BLACK PANTHER CREW #2 DEL MUNDO VAR BUG THE ADVENTURES OF FORAGER #1 (OF 6) CANNIBAL #5 COPPERHEAD #13 DEADPOOL #30 DETECTIVE COMICS #956 DISNEY FROZEN #7 DISNEY PIXAR CARS #4 DRAGON AGE KNIGHT ERRANT #1 ETERNAL WARRIOR AWAKENING #1 FIX #9 FUTURE QUEST #12 GODSHAPER #2 GOTHAM ACADEMY SECOND SEMESTER #9 GRAND PASSION #5 (OF 5) GRANT MORRISONS 18 DAYS #23 GRASS KINGS #3 GREEN VALLEY #8 (OF 9) GUARDIANS OF GALAXY MOTHER ENTROPY #2 (OF 5) GWENPOOL #15 HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #20 HARROW COUNTY #23 INJUSTICE GROUND ZERO #11 INVADER ZIM #19 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #6 KINGPIN #4 LAZARUS SOURCEBOOK #2 MINDBENDER #1 MISFIT CITY #1 MS MARVEL #18 MULP SCEPTRE OF THE SUN #1 (OF 5) MULP SCEPTRE OF THE SUN #2 (OF 5) MULP SCEPTRE OF THE SUN #3 (OF 5) MY LITTLE PONY LEGENDS OF MAGIC #2 NEW SUPER MAN #11 OLD MAN LOGAN #23 OVER GARDEN WALL ONGOING #13 PLANET OF APES GREEN LANTERN #4 RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #10 REDLINE #3 REGRESSION #1 RENATO JONES SEASON TWO #1 (OF 5) ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN #2 ROCKET #1 SCOOBY APOCALYPSE #13 SECRET WARRIORS #1 SE SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL #8 SHADOWS ON THE GRAVE #4 SILVER SURFER #11 SLASHER #1 SOLAR FLARE #2 SONS OF THE DEVIL #12 SPONGEBOB COMICS #68 STAR TREK GREEN LANTERN VOL 2 #6 (OF 6) STAR WARS SCREAMING CITADEL #1 SUICIDE SQUAD #17 SUPERGIRL #9 SUPERWOMAN #10 TANK GIRL WORLD WAR TANK GIRL #2 (OF 4) THE CASTOFFS #6 TITANS #11 (LAZARUS) TRANSFORMERS LOST LIGHT #5 UNCANNY AVENGERS #23 WEAPON X #3 WONDER WOMAN #22 X-FILES (2016) #13 X-MEN BLUE #3 ZOMBIES ASSEMBLE #1 (OF 4)

Books/Magazine/Things BATMAN ARKHAM MISTER FREEZE TP BATMAN DETECTIVE TP VOL 02 VICTIM SYNDICATE (REBIRTH) BLUE BEETLE TP VOL 01 THE MORE THINGS CHANGE (REBIRTH) CASANOVA ACEDIA TP VOL 02 FAITH TP VOL 03 SUPERSTAR GARTH ENNIS COMPLETE BATTLEFIELDS TP VOL 02 HARD CORE LOGO PORTRAIT OF A THOUSAND PUNKS TP IN SPECTRE GN VOL 04 JESSICA JONES TP VOL 01 UNCAGED LAST DAYS OF THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA TP MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDS FOREVER OMNIBUS TP VOL 02 NGE SHINJI IKARI RAISING PROJECT OMNIBUS TP VOL 03 RAVEN TP REED CRANDALL EC STORIES ARTIST ED HC REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA DELUXE HC BOX SET SHADOW & LIGHT GN VOL 02 SOUND OF THE WORLD BY HEART GN STAR WARS LEGENDS EPIC COLLECTION TP VOL 02 REBELLION TEEN TITANS GO READY FOR ACTION TP

As always, what do YOU think?

Arriving 5/3/17

THE BUTTON and SECRET EMPIRE march on, alongside the debut of ALL NEW GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY just in time for the new movie, plus new PAPER GIRLS, WALKING DEAD and the first ever JEAN GREY #1! Check the cut for the rest!

AB IRATO #1 (OF 6) ADVENTURE TIME #64 ALL NEW GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1 AMORY WARS GOOD APOLLO #2 (OF 12) AQUAMAN #22 BALTIMORE THE RED KINGDOM #4 BANE CONQUEST #1 (OF 12) BATMAN #22 (THE BUTTON) BLACK BOLT #1 BLOOD BLISTER #2 BRAVE CHEF BRIANNA #3 BRUTAL NATURE CONCRETE FURY #3 (OF 5) BULLSEYE #4 (OF 5) CEREBUS IN HELL #3 CHAMPIONS #8 COLOSSI #2 CRICKETS #6 CYBORG #12 DAMNED #1 DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS #26 DEATHSTROKE #18 DOCTOR WHO GHOST STORIES #2 (OF 4) DREGS #3 EMPOWERED SOLDIER OF LOVE #3 ETERNAL EMPIRE #1 EVERAFTER FROM THE PAGES OF FABLES #9 EXTREMITY #3 FAITH (ONGOING) #11 FALL AND RISE OF CAPTAIN ATOM #5 (OF 6) FLINTSTONES #11 GIANT DAYS #26 GIRRION #6 GOLDIE VANCE #12 GREEN ARROW #22 GREEN LANTERNS #22 GUARDIANS OF GALAXY MOTHER ENTROPY #1 (OF 5) GUMBALLS #2 HARLEY QUINN #19 HAWKEYE #6 HELENA CRASH #3 (OF 4) INJUSTICE 2 #1 IRON FIST #3 JAMES BOND #3 JEAN GREY #1 JESSICA JONES #8 JUSTICE LEAGUE #20 MANIFEST DESTINY #28 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #53 NIGHTWING #20 NOVA #6 OUTCAST BY KIRKMAN & AZACETA #27 PAPER GIRLS #14 PLANETOID PRAXIS #4 (OF 6) POSTAL #20 PREDATOR HUNTERS #1 REGGIE AND ME #5 (OF 5) SAVAGE THINGS #3 (OF 8) SECRET EMPIRE #1 (OF 9) SHIPWRECK #4 SMOKETOWN #2 SPIDER-GWEN #19 SPIDER-MAN #16 SPIDER-MAN 2099 #23 SPIDER-MAN DEADPOOL #17 SPOOKHOUSE #4 STAR WARS POE DAMERON #14 STAR WARS ROGUE ONE ADAPTATION #2 (OF 6) STARSTRUCK OLD PROLDIERS NEVER DIE #4 (OF 6) STUFF OF LEGEND CALL TO ARMS #2 SUPERMAN #22 TMNT ONGOING #69 TRANSFORMERS TILL ALL ARE ONE #9 UNCLE SCROOGE #26 UNDERDOG #1 UNSTOPPABLE WASP #5 VIOLENCE VALLEY ONE SHOT WALKING DEAD #167 WAR STORIES #23 WOODS #32 WYNONNA EARP LEGENDS EARP SISTERS #4 (OF 4) X-MEN GOLD #3 YOUNGBLOOD #1

Books/Mags/Things ALTER EGO #146 RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE #176 ALL NEW WOLVERINE TP VOL 03 ENEMY OF STATE II AMAZING SPIDER-MAN EPIC COLLECTION TP GOBLINS LAST STAND AMAZING WORLD GUMBALL ORIGINAL GN VOL 03 RECIPE DISASTER CHAMPIONS TP VOL 01 CHANGE WORLD DRAGON BALL SUPER GN VOL 01 EVERAFTER FROM THE PAGES OF FABLES TP VOL 01 PANDORA GOLDIE VANCE TP VOL 02 JOJOS BIZARRE ADV STARDUST CRUSADERS HC VOL 03 LADY MECHANIKA TP VOL 03 LOST BOYS OF WEST ABBEY MONSTERS HC VOL 01 MARVEL MONSTERBUS BY LEE LIEBER KIRBY MOTOR GIRL TP VOL 01 REAL LIFE NAILBITER TP VOL 06 BLOODY TRUTH (MR) PIX TP VOL 02 TOO SUPER FOR SCHOOL PURGATORY GN RISE OF BLACK FLAME TP STRANGE FRUIT HC SUPERWOMAN TP VOL 01 WHO KILLED SUPERWOMAN (REBIRTH) TARZAN ON PLANET OF APES TP TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES UNIVERSE TP VOL 01 UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL HC VOL 02 WONDER WOMAN TP VOL 02 YEAR ONE (REBIRTH)

As always, what do YOU think?

Arriving 4/26/17

It isn't often that an expensive hardcover is the most exciting thing in the week, but this time SAGA DLX HC VOL. 2 is that thing! Plus new DOOM PATROL and DC's Batman/Flash crossover continues in FLASH #21! Check the cut for the rest of this weeks fresh comics!

ACTION COMICS #978 ALIENS DEAD ORBIT #1 ALIENS DEFIANCE #11 ARCHANGEL #4 (OF 5) BATGIRL #10 BATMAN 66 MEETS WONDER WOMAN 77 #4 (OF 6) BATMAN BEYOND #7 BATMAN THE SHADOW #1 (OF 6) BEN REILLY SCARLET SPIDER #1 BIG MOOSE ONE SHOT BITCH PLANET #10 BLACK MONDAY MURDERS #5 BLACK PANTHER #13 BLACK ROAD #9 BLUE BEETLE #8 BRITANNIA WE WHO #1 (OF 4) CLEAN ROOM #18 COMIC BOOK HISTORY OF COMICS #6 (OF 6) CONAN THE SLAYER #8 D4VEOCRACY #3 DEADPOOL VS PUNISHER #2 (OF 5) DETECTIVE COMICS #955 DIRK GENTLY SALMON OF DOUBT #7 DOC SAVAGE RING OF FIRE #2 (OF 4) DOCTOR WHO 9TH #12 DOLLFACE #4 DOOM PATROL #6 ELEKTRA #3 FISH EYE #3 FLASH #21 (THE BUTTON) GREAT LAKES AVENGERS #7 HADRIANS WALL #6 (OF 8) HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #19 HELLBLAZER #9 HILLBILLY #6 HULK #5 INFAMOUS IRON MAN #7 JEM THE MISFITS #4 JOYRIDE #12 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #5 KAMANDI CHALLENGE #4 (OF 12) KILL OR BE KILLED #8 KILL SHAKESPEARE PAST IS PROLOGUE JULIET #2 (OF 4) LADYCASTLE #3 LOBSTER JOHNSON PIRATES GHOST #2 LOOSE ENDS #4 (OF 4) LUMBERJANES #37 MAN-THING #3 (OF 5) MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL #4 MIGHTY THOR #18 MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR #18 MOTHER PANIC #6 NIGHT OWL SOCIETY #1 (OF 3) OCCUPY AVENGERS #6 OLD GUARD #3 OLD MAN LOGAN #22 OPTIMUS PRIME #6 ORPHAN BLACK DEVIATIONS #2 (OF 6) PATSY WALKER AKA HELLCAT #17 PROMETHEUS LIFE & DEATH ONE SHOT QUANTUM TEENS ARE GO #3 REBELS THESE FREE & INDEPENDENT STATES #2 REGULAR SHOW 2017 SPECIAL #1 RICK & MORTY #25 ROCKET RACCOON #5 SATELLITE FALLING #4 SCOOBY DOO TEAM UP #25 STAR WARS DARTH MAUL #3 (OF 5) STEVEN UNIVERSE ONGOING #3 STRAY BULLETS SUNSHINE & ROSES #23 SUICIDE SQUAD #16 SUPERGIRL BEING SUPER #3 (OF 4) TEEN TITANS #7 TEEN TITANS GO #21 THANOS #6 THERES NOTHING THERE #1 TMNT UNIVERSE #9 ULTIMATES 2 #6 UNDERWINTER #2 UNFOLLOW #18 VISITOR HOW AND WHY HE STAYED #3 (OF 5) WEAPON X #2 WONDER WOMAN #21 X-MEN BLUE #2 X-MEN GOLD #2 X-O MANOWAR (2017) #2 ZOMBEN #1 (OF 4)

Books/Mags/Things ARCHIE TP VOL 03 AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 15 NORTH SOUTH PART 3 AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION TP MASTERS OF EVIL BILL & TED GO TO HELL TP BLACK WIDOW TP VOL 02 NO MORE SECRETS BOOK OF CHAOS HC CAPTAIN AMERICA TP VOL 02 MARVEL KNIGHTS CONAN THE SLAYER TP VOL 01 BLOOD IN HIS WAKE DARK TOWER DRAWING OF THREE TP SAILOR DEADPOOL MERCS FOR MONEYTP VOL 02 IVX DEADPOOL WORLDS GREATEST TP VOL 06 PATIENCE: ZERO FLASH BY MARK WAID TP BOOK 02 GREEN LANTERNS TP VOL 02 PHANTOM LANTERN (REBIRTH) HER BARK & HER BITE TP IMAGE PLUS #13 (WALKING DEAD HERES NEGAN PT 13) JONESY TP VOL 02 JOYRIDE TP VOL 02 JUSTICE LEAGUE TP VOL 02 OUTBREAK (REBIRTH) KAIJUMAX SEASON TWO TP KID SAVAGE TP VOL 01 MOSAIC TP VOL 01 KING OF WORLD PREVIEWS #344 MAY 2017 RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS TP VOL 01 DARK TRINITY (REBIRTH) SAGA DLX ED HC VOL 02 SMALL FAVORS GN STREET ANGEL AFTER SCHOOL KUNG FU SPEC HC SURGEON X TP VOL 01 PATH OF MOST RESISTANCE THEA STILTON HC VOL 07 WONDER WOMAN WHO IS WONDER WOMAN TP NEW ED X-FILES (2016) TP VOL 02 COME BACK HAUNTED YOUNG JUSTICE TP BOOK 01

As always, what do YOU think?

“They Could Be A Crosstown Bus, A Croissant Or A Crossdresser By Now…” COMICS! Sometimes You Should Have Put  A Ring On It!

So I took a break and now I’m back! Like rickets! So here’s far more words than anyone sane would ever need to read about a two-issue comic Howard Victor Chaykin did in 2006. Because, that’s why. Just because. Also: because. Because.  photo GGCD_logoB_zpsmu81xngi.jpg GUY GARDNER: COLLATERAL DAMAGE by Chaykin, Madsen & Balsman

GUY GARDNER: COLLATERAL DAMAGE #1-2 Art by Howard Victor Chaykin Written by Howard Victor Chaykin Coloured by Michelle Madsen Lettered by Phil Balsman DC Comics (2006) Green Lantern created by Gil Kane, John Broome, Bill Finger, Martin Nodell and Gardner Fox Guy Gardner created by Gil Kane, John Broome G’Nort created by Keith Giffen & J. M. deMatteis

 photo GGCC_CoversB_zpsoiauznan.jpg

“Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage” is part of the second of Mount (as in “Mountain”; it’s not an instruction) Chaykin’s twin creative peaks. The first peak, as any fule kno, was in the ‘80s when Howard Victor Chaykin stopped putzing about and found his suave groove. In this period, covering “American Flagg!” thru to “Black Kiss”, Chaykin was amazing. The second, less trumpeted, peak occurred in the ‘00s and marked Howard Victor Chaykin’s full-time return to comics after toiling in the soulless arena of Television for much of the ‘90s. What he did in Television was make money, any more detail and you’ll need someone who gives a shit about Television. A comic writer with an Image book, say. Me, I think a talking car was involved and some Marvel show about mutants; I’m already falling asleep, zzzzzzz. Anyway, everyone needs money so whatever and well done to him. Howard Victor Chaykin burst back onto the comics scene with “Mighty Love”, and followed it with a fiesta of fun concepts, nut-tight art, smart scripting and…no one gave much of a shit, to be honest. Which is a stain on Comics’ collective Report Card. (Also, Comics must try harder in gym and stop being so easily distracted, there are no jobs out there for class clowns.) Luckily I am here to heroically, singlehandedly and, above all, modestly rescue Howard Victor Chaykin’s ‘00s output from the ignominy of thoughtless neglect. I picked “Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage” because as we’ll see it is an unlikely place (a continuity burdened Event tie-in) for his characteristic strengths to find purchase. But, like Nature, Howard Victor Chaykin finds a way. Also I’d just bought it on The ‘Ology.

 photo GGCD_gunsB_zps8tykyj3z.jpg GUY GARDNER: COLLATERAL DAMAGE by Chaykin, Madsen & Balsman

Yes! This aptly named series originally appeared in 2006 as two “prestige” format comics and is now available in 2017 digitally (and, crucially, cheaper) on the ‘Ology.  This means I can write about it without breaking the spines of my originals while scanning them. (Such are the trials which mar my life!) The book lived up to its title (“Collateral Damage”, see) by being barely noticed on publication due to most eyes being filled to the brim by the rest of the “Infinite Crisis” lardfest, of which this was but one small part. In the same way that “House of M” (2005) sounded the death knell for my interest in Marvel’s output, “Infinite Crisis” would place the pillow over the face of my interest in DC and begin to apply pressure. Lest we forget, because after all it was 11 years ago now,  “Infinite Crisis” was the core series in which Geoff Johns wrote a load of typically mawkish continuity-chuff drizzled in saucy gore, and peppered with his childish resentment at internet commentators; all in an attempt to hornswoggle the audience into believing something of merit and depth had occurred. (It hadn’t.) Worse, there were ancillary mini-series like “The Rann-Thanagar War”, which, while decently written, was a waste of the unique talents of Dave Gibbons. Getting Dave Gibbons to write corporately mandated tie-ins to short-term sales bloating events is a bit like getting Isambard Kingdom Brunel in to unblock your sink because the boss is coming round for dinner.  It’s unseemly, and speaks to a total lack of appreciation of his gift. Which is the ability to draw real well, DC Comics. I thought I should spell that out for you; although I guess for DC the real gift of Dave Gibbons is his ability to maintain a dignified silence while they fart once more into the face of  “Watchmen”’s corpse. Although there is a certain grim irony in the fact that DC’s latest attempt to reduce one of the (very few) decent cape comics into something they can eventually team-up with Scooby fucking Doo starts with Batman finding a “Watchmen” promotional button in his cave. After all DC’s underhand antics with promotional badges are what started the whole sorry “Let’s All Hunt And Kill Alan Moore” shitshow off aren’t they? (Yes.)

 photo GGCD_punchB_zpszkvihayg.jpg GUY GARDNER: COLLATERAL DAMAGE by Chaykin, Madsen & Balsman

But this isn’t about that, this is about a Howard Victor Chaykin comic which was secreted somewhere within  muddled parpstorm of a terrible Event. An Event so larded in extraneous chaff that I’ve hardly even begun to scratch the surface. I can’t even be arsed to look it up, so demoralising is the memory of all that Trex, so I may have a few facts wrong when I say there was also “The OMAC Project” which involved Greg Rucka, so it was probably a bit like drowsing while watching a TV show about a strong! independent! female! written with all the élan and excitement of a spreadsheet macro; “Villains United” which tried to make Catman a sexy badass, so enough said there, and a series about the return of Donna Troy (imaginatively and thrillingly entitled “The Return of Donna Troy”) which I imagine no one read, since no one shares DC’s insane belief in the character of Donna Troy. Although it is sobering to note that they have treated Donna Troy, a fictional character, with more love and respect than they have treated Alan Moore, a real human being. Maybe Alan Moore should start wearing a tight cat suit with little stars on it; it wouldn’t change anything but I think the world would be fundamentally a far sexier place. He could maybe jump around a bit and giggle for Peak Sexy. Uh, anyway, Donna Troy, I don’t know; that probably went about as well as expected, I think they found her weeing in a grate outside IKEA while singing showtunes. I could be wrong. Oh, and then all the regular DC series had a tie-in of some description, that description probably involving the terms “irritating”, “disruptive” and “unwelcome”. Best of all (i.e. worst of all) every title then zipped forward 12 months and the series created specifically to fill in this blank, “52”, didn’t. But everyone writing it had fun and readers did get to see small child torn to pieces by a talking crocodile, which is worth more than rubies to Geoff Johns. In essence the “Infinite Crisis” Event turned out as well as any Event could which starts off with the chirpy schmuck Blue Beetle’s brains being blown out. Fucking grown up stuff, that. If I have made any errors in that brief rundown I want to assure you now that I don’t care. Not a jot. What is undeniable is that the only worthwhile reason to brave this blizzard of inconsequential pablum was Howard Victor Chaykin; who, working diligently away in a neglected corner of the DC Universe, produced another Howard Victor Chaykin comic.

 photo GGCD_barB_zpskqh8e7mj.jpg GUY GARDNER: COLLATERAL DAMAGE by Chaykin, Madsen & Balsman

Given the nature of the Event beast Howard Victor Chaykin must here sup from the cup of continuity somewhat deeper than is his wont, yet Chaykin still ably finagles his way into writing what he’d rather be writing about: a horny jackass accidentally doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons. First though he has to pay lip service to the corporate tie-in friendly setup, which is that G’Nort (AKA G'nort Esplanade G'neesmacher the canine looking alien Green Lantern) is looking for an independent entity to broker peace between Rann (the planet of boffins Adam Strange knocks about with) and Thanagar (the planet of winged fascists like that Hawkman). Caught between these two cheeks of the same warmongering arse G’Nort’s home planet has fared poorly. What with his family having being offed the usually played for laffs character is thus portrayed as a bitter champion of peace. An upright talking dog with a magic wishing ring rancorously lamenting its slaughtered family is a pretty good joke about “gritty” superheroes, I think. So, back at the point: G’Nort chooses Guy Gardner, who is the “edgy Green Lantern”. Since the only Green Lantern I have any familiarity with is Hal Jordan, in comparison to whom even I appear “edgy”, I don’t really know how “edgy” Guy Gardner is usually. I’m not really interested either. Here Howard Victor Chaykin writes Guy Gardner as “Howard Victor Chaykin” (Legal Note i.e. not really Howard Victor Chaykin but the cartoonish exaggeration he uses as his default protagonist. Hence the rabbit’s ears round his name.) Or “Howard Victor Chaykin” if he owned his own bar (namely Warriors: “…the finest meat rack the world’s ever seen”) and had a magic wishing ring. It goes without saying that this is the single best set up for a series ever, ever, ever and the very real tragedy is we only have two issues. To recap for Green Lantern newbs: If you stick your finger in Guy Gardner’s ring and make a wish, that wish briefly becomes a physical, but green, reality. But should you stick your finger in Howard Victor Chaykin’s ring and make a wish you end up with a few less teeth and a restraining order. A little lesson in the difference between fantasy and reality there, kids. So, yeah, since there’s a six-issue mini-series occurring somewhere beyond these pages about the Rann-Thanagar War the whole peace process business is a bit of a McGuffin. Okay, a lot of a McGuffin. Everyone gathers in Guy’s bar and then the Tormocks burst in and wreck it and the comic forgets what it was supposed to be about while Guy goes and finishes off the Tormocks. The Tormocks having just finished off the Vuldarian race. I just looked on Wikipedia and, oh wow, it turns out Guy Gardner is the first successful example of the merging of Vuldarian (the Tormock’s hated enemies)  and human DNA. Guy was also born in Baltimore, Maryland. There are people out there who know all that but don’t know who their MP is. Think about that for a minute. This comic is a lot of fun but not quite as much fun as imagining Howard Victor Chaykin’s face as he read Guy Gardner’s backstory.  Bojemoi!

 photo GGCD_stanceB_zpsszd2o8ur.jpg GUY GARDNER: COLLATERAL DAMAGE by Chaykin, Madsen & Balsman

Given his oft expressed preference for comics’ form over comics’ content I was amazed that Chaykin had immersed himself in Guy Gardner’s typically ridiculous (not a criticism) continuity to the extent he had, but it’s all part of Chaykin’s sleight of hand as he refocuses the tie-in not too subtly onto his pet concerns. Basically the Tormocks allow him to provide his arrogant schmuck of a protagonist with the usual “moral cripple” opposition. Since Guy Gardner is the “hero” it’s important he come into conflict with someone demonstrably worse. Which is kind of tough because Gardner is a leering oaf, a blunt concoction of braggadocio, poor impulse control and genitally driven self-interest.  And he also has the worst haircut in comics. The guy’s a walking pile of soiled jock straps with all the self-awareness of a stump. Much of the comedy comes from Chaykin nakedly embracing Guy’s faults, with only Guy’s wishing ring’s sardonic commentary, acting as a kind of unheeded conscience, as a balm to the buffoonish sexism on display. I kid you not when I say there are no less than three panels in which Gardner is clearly ogling a boob while talking to its owner, and his interest in heroism is a poor second to his interest in troilism. Even back when it was just called dickheadedness Chaykin showed a  concern with toxic masculinity, a concern which persists in his work. Because he doesn’t actively undermine it to the extent people expect someone to I think he gets a raw deal, and people interpret his depiction as an endorsement. (Also it’s easier to dismiss him that way.) Chaykin’s mature (i.e. Flagg! onwards) work is festooned with protagonists hampered by their toxic masculinity. Usually violent, sexually aggressive and emotionally restricted many of Chaykin’s male leads are walking (but charming) embodiments of toxic masculinity. But the stories they inhabit are often misinterpreted as celebrating this, because Chaykin doesn’t tut and shake his head enough to sate political correctness. Yet Chaykin’s usually kneecapping male bravado as thoroughly as a bolt gun. in “American Flagg!” our cocky protagonist  is brought firmly down to earth, only prevailing through fear driven violence and ending a weeping wreck in the arms of a woman despite all the swagger of preceding issues. “Midnight Men” is as much about a man breaking out of the emotional inertia of maleness so he can finally mourn his father, as it is about the joys of punching assholes in the face. Blackhawk doesn’t win by fighting, he wins by thinking. Cass Pollack in “Black Kiss” is thoroughly punished, emasculated even, for his moral feebleness. And Guy Gardner, well, Guy Gardner is just an unrepentant prick. And remains so. Which is fine, but it makes it hard to root for him. Hence the Tormocks. This bunch of charmers are basically engaged in ethnic cleansing on a universal scale, and not only kill people but turn them into a kind of paste and then get schwifty while rolling about in it. So, yeah, as unrepentant as he may be Guy Gardner doesn’t look too bad in comparison. I’ll take toxic males over space Nazis anyoldday.

 photo GGCD_spaceB_zpsqzvwly9g.jpg GUY GARDNER: COLLATERAL DAMAGE by Chaykin, Madsen & Balsman

Visually, Chaykin returned from Television with a new lucidity and boldness which the pages of  “Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage” testify loudly to. His figures are big and his layouts regimented. It’s easy to rip the piss out of the predictability of his layouts, with their strict regime of vertical or horizontal panels interrupted by insets, but it works because his aim is clarity, not pizzazz. Sometimes his aim’s off though. No, it’s not all unrestrained gushing from my end (ooer!), Chaykin’s pages definitely work best on the horizontal pattern; the vertical doesn’t give him enough space to stage action, which he forgets sometimes. Confusion ensues. (A dependency on vertical panels would somewhat tarnish, and for some fatally undermine, the many other pleasures of the later “Century West” OGN) Mostly though it’s good lookin’ stuff! There’s a real bounce to it all, a real sense Chaykin’s having a good time. This pleasure is particularly evident in the glee with which he yanks back the clock on the sci-fi stuff. Chaykin’s space jalopies are fantastically old school, each a knowing throwback to the thrilling days of yesteryear. Specifically 1938-40,  when Olympic swimmer Larry “Buster” Crabbe (1908-1983) was so virile he portrayed not just Flash Gordon but Buck Rogers to boot. With their rococo ornamentation and redundant aerodynamic tapering Chaykin’s ships just need a fire cracker stuck up the jacksie and to be hoisted aloft by wires moving in a circular but persistently vertical motion. (Also, I’m pretty sure one of the characters is using a hairdryer as a gun at one point.) This obvious affection for the outmoded, impractical but beautiful would find later and fuller expression in Chaykin’s “Buck Rogers” revamp. Here though it’s super heroes a-go-go and Chaykin goes appropriately brash and big with the figurework. Surely no heart can remain unmoved by the five (count them: five!) double page splashes which open the book in a suitably dynamic and sweeping style. Oh yeah, there’s also some debonair styling going on as Chaykin continues his wholly understandable love affair with the visual of a man in a nice suit. And woven in among it all are some sweet little touches of humour, such as the repeating GL symbol on Guy’s tie. It helps that the book’s coloured by Michelle Madsen, whose contribution to this ‘00s second peak period of Chaykin is considerable. Embracing lurid and fruity colours as befits such a lurid and fruity book, Madsen’s colouring here is delightfully essential rather than dutifully unobtrusive. The lettering is fine, but it’s not Ken Bruzenak. It’s fine though. But not Ken. Okay I’ve run out of time so “Guy Gardner: Collateral Damage” is undoubtedly a minor work by a major talent, but it’s still VERY GOOD! Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power – COMICS!!!

Arriving 4/19/17

Both DC and Marvel are launching events that will change the way you look at their univeres going forward with THE BUTTON (starting in BATMAN #21) and SECRET EMPIRE #0, respectively. Plus new GANGES, COADY & THE CREEPIES and SEX CRIMINALS! Check the cut for the rest of this weeks new books!

ADVENTURE TIME COMICS #10 ALL STAR BATMAN #9 ANGEL SEASON 11 #4 ANNO DRACULA #2 (OF 5) AQUAMAN #21 ARCHIE #19 ASTRO CITY #43 BACK TO THE FUTURE #18 BATMAN #21 (THE BUTTON) BATWOMAN #2 BEAUTY #14 BERLIN #20 BLACK #5 BLACK HAMMER #8 BLACK HOOD SEASON 2 #4 BLACK PANTHER WORLD OF WAKANDA #6 BLACK SCIENCE #29 BLADE BUNNY VOL 2 #5 BTVS SEASON 11 #6 CAPTAIN AMERICA STEVE ROGERS #16 CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #7 COADY & THE CREEPIES #2 COLOSSI #1 CURSE WORDS #4 DAREDEVIL #19 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #33 DEADPOOL #29 DEATHSTROKE #17 DEEP #4 DEPT H #13 DESCENDER #21 DISNEY GRAVITY FALLS CINESTORY #1 SHORTS DOCTOR STRANGE #19 DOCTOR WHO 10TH YEAR THREE #4 ECLIPSE #6 FAILSAFE #1 FEW #4 GANGES #6 GENERATION ZERO #9 GOD COUNTRY #4 GOLD DIGGER #241 GREATEST ADVENTURE #1 GREEN ARROW #21 GREEN LANTERNS #21 HARLEY QUINN #18 HAUNTED HORROR #27 HORIZON #10 I HATE FAIRYLAND #12 IMMORTAL BROTHERS GREEN KNIGHT #1 INJECTION #12 INJUSTICE GROUND ZERO #10 INVINCIBLE #135 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #6 JAMES BOND FELIX LEITER #4 (OF 6) JIM HENSON POWER OF DARK CRYSTAL #2 (OF 12) JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS #6 JUSTICE LEAGUE #19 LETTER 44 #32 LOW #17 LUCIFER #17 MEGA PRINCESS #5 MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #14 MIRROR #7 MONSTERS UNLEASHED #1 MONSTRESS #11 MOON KNIGHT #13 MS MARVEL #17 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDS FOREVER #38 NICK FURY #1 NIGHTWING #19 NINJAK #26 ODYSSEY OF THE AMAZONS #4 (OF 6) PLASTIC #1 (OF 5) PUNISHER #11 RED SONJA #4 REDNECK #1 ROYAL CITY #2 ROYALS #2 SECRET EMPIRE #0 (OF 9) SEX CRIMINALS #18 SHAOLIN COWBOY WHOLL STOP THE REIGN #1 SHE WOLF #8 SILK #19 STAR TREK GREEN LANTERN VOL 2 #5 STAR TREK NEW VISIONS THE TRAVELER STAR WARS POE DAMERON #13 STAR-LORD #6 SUPER SONS #3 SUPERMAN #21 SUPERWOMAN #9 THE CASTOFFS #5 THUNDERBOLTS #12 TOTALLY AWESOME HULK #18 TRINITY #8 US AVENGERS #5 VENOM #6 WILD STORM #3 WORLD READER #1 ZOMBIE TRAMP ONGOING #34

Books/Mags/Things 2000 AD PACK MAR 2017 ALL STAR BATMAN HC VOL 01 MY OWN WORST ENEMY (REBIRTH) BATMAN TP VOL 10 EPILOGUE BRIGGS LAND TP VOL 01 STATE OF GRACE CAGE TP FILTH TP NEW EDITION GROO FRAY OF THE GODS TP HELLBOY INTO THE SILENT SEA HC JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA THE SILVER AGE TP VOL 03 MAD MAGAZINE #545 METABARONS GN VOL 01 (OF 4) OTHON AND HONORATA MOCKINGBIRD TP VOL 02 MY FEMINIST AGENDA REVIVAL TP VOL 08 STAY JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER SAVAGE HIGHWAY HC SCARLET WITCH TP VOL 03 FINAL HEX SOUPY LEAVES HOME TP SPIDER-MAN 2099 CLASSIC TP VOL 04 SUPERMAN ACTION COMICS TP VOL 02 WELCOME TO THE PLANET (REBI WELCOME BACK TP VOL 02 WITCHFINDER TP VOL 04 CITY OF THE DEAD WONDER WOMAN EARTH ONE TP VOL 01 X-MEN 92 TP VOL 02 LILAPALOOZA

As always, what do YOU think?

Arriving 4/12/17

This week we have the debut of the secon new X-Men book with X-MEN: BLUE! Plus GODSHAPER from Si Spurrier. Check the cut for the rest of this weeks new books!

ACTION COMICS #977 ALL TIME COMICS BULLWHIP #1 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #26 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN RENEW YOUR VOWS #6 BABYBEL WAX BODYSUIT (ONE SHOT) BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY #9 BLACK PANTHER CREW #1 BLACK PANTHER CREW #1 SCOTT VAR CAPTAIN AMERICA SAM WILSON #21 COLOSSI #1 COPPERHEAD #12 DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #8 (OF 9) COLLECTORS EDITION DEADPOOL AND MERCS FOR MONEY #10 DEADPOOL VS PUNISHER #1 (OF 5) DETECTIVE COMICS #954 DISNEY PIXAR CARS #3 DOCTOR STRANGE SORCERERS SUPREME #7 DOCTOR WHO 12TH YEAR THREE #1 DRIFTER #18 DUCK AVENGER #4 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS FROST GIANTS FURY #2 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS FROST GIANTS FURY #2 SUBSCRIPTION VAR FLASH #20 GODSHAPER #1 GOTHAM ACADEMY SECOND SEMESTER #8 GRANT MORRISONS 18 DAYS #22 GRASS KINGS #2 GREEN VALLEY #7 (OF 9) GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #19 GWENPOOL #14 HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #18 HARROW COUNTY #22 HELENA CRASH #2 (OF 4) HELLBOY AND BPRD 1954 GHOST MOON #2 IT SECRET WORLD OF MODERN BANKING #2 (OF 5) JONESY #12 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #4 VAR ED KINGPIN #3 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #242 LITTLE GUARDIANS #1 MERCURY HEAT #12 MOSAIC #7 MOTOR CRUSH #5 MY LITTLE PONY LEGENDS OF MAGIC #1 MY LITTLE PONY LEGENDS OF MAGIC #1 10 COPY INCV NANCY DREW HARDY BOYS #2 NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #2 NEW SUPER MAN #10 OLD MAN LOGAN #21 OLD MAN LOGAN #21 ASAMIYA VAR ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN #2 PLANET OF APES GREEN LANTERN #3 POWER MAN AND IRON FIST #15 RAGNAROK #12 RAT QUEENS #2 RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #9 REDLINE #2 ROM #9 ROSE #1 SCOOBY APOCALYPSE #12 SEVEN TO ETERNITY #5 SILVER SURFER #10 SKYDOLL SUDRA #2 (OF 2) SOLAR FLARE #1 SOVEREIGNS #0 SPAWN #272 SPIDER-MAN 2099 #22 SPONGEBOB COMICS #67 STAR TREK BOLDLY GO #7 STAR WARS DOCTOR APHRA #6 SUICIDE SQUAD #15 SUPER POWERS #6 (OF 6) SUPERGIRL #8 TITANS #10 UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #19 UNSTOPPABLE WASP #4 WEAPON X #1 WEAPON X #1 KEOWN VAR WICKED & DIVINE #28 WONDER WOMAN #20 X-MEN BLUE #1 X-MEN BLUE #1 MARTIN VAR X-MEN BLUE #1 N ADAMS VAR

Books/Mags/Things AMERICAN BARBARIAN COMPLETE SERIES TP AQUAMAN TP VOL 02 BLACK MANTA RISING (REBIRTH) ARTIST HC ATOMIC ROBO TP VOL 11 ATOMIC ROBO AND THE TEMPLE OF OD BATMAN LEGACY TP VOL 01 BATMAN TP VOL 02 I AM SUICIDE (REBIRTH) BLACK PANTHER TP BOOK 03 NATION UNDER OUR FEET CAPTAIN AMERICA STEVE ROGERS TP VOL 02 TRIAL OF MARIA HILL DISNEY DESCENDANTS CINESTORY TP VOL 04 FIX TP VOL 02 JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS TP VOL 04 ENTER THE STINGERS JUDGE DREDD CAPE & COWL CRIMES TP JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #382 KINGDOM AUX DRIFT TP LEGIONNAIRES TP BOOK 01 MANARA CARAVAGGIO HC VOL 01 PALETTE AND SWORD REALIST ORIGINAL GN HC PLUG PLAY RED RED ROCK SC SCOOBY DOO TEAM UP TP VOL 03 THE ORDER DIE MENSCH MASCHINE TP VIGILANTE BY MARV WOLFMAN TP VOL 01 WET MOON GN VOL 03 FURTHER REALMS NEW ED WOODS TP VOL 06 WORLD OF TANKS TP

As always, what do YOU think?

Arriving 4/5/17

The biggest week we have seen in awhile! With long awaited issues of LOVE & ROCKETS and PROVIDENCE plus the launch of X-MEN: GOLD, this is one to not sleep on! Check the cut for the rest!

ADVENTURE TIME #63 ALL NEW WOLVERINE #19 AMERICA #2 AMORY WARS GOOD APOLLO #1 (OF 12) ANIMAL NOIR #3 (OF 4) AQUAMAN #20 AVENGERS #6 BALTIMORE THE RED KINGDOM #3 BATMAN #20 BLACK CLOUD #1 BRAVE CHEF BRIANNA #2 BRUTAL NATURE CONCRETE FURY #2 (OF 5) BULLSEYE #3 (OF 5) CAPTAIN AMERICA STEVE ROGERS #15 CHAMPIONS #7 CYBORG #11 DARKNESS VISIBLE #3 DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS #25 DEATHSTROKE #16 DOCTOR WHO GHOST STORIES #1 (OF 4) DONALD DUCK #19 ELEANOR & THE EGRET #1 ELEPHANTMEN #76 EVERAFTER FROM THE PAGES OF FABLES #8 EXTREMITY #2 FAITH (ONGOING) #10 FALL AND RISE OF CAPTAIN ATOM #4 (OF 6) FLINTSTONES #10 GIANT DAYS #25 GOLDIE VANCE #11 GREEN ARROW #20 GREEN LANTERNS #20 HARLEY QUINN #17 HAWKEYE #5 INJUSTICE GROUND ZERO #9 INVADER ZIM #18 IRON FIST #2 JAMES BOND #2 JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS #25 JESSICA JONES #7 JUGHEAD #14 JUSTICE LEAGUE #18 KILL SHAKESPEARE PAST IS PROLOGUE JULIET #1 (OF 4) KIM REAPER #1 LITTLE ARCHIE ONE SHOT LOVE & ROCKETS MAGAZINE #2 MOTOR GIRL #5 NIGHTWING #18 NO MERCY #14 NOVA #5 OVER GARDEN WALL ONGOING #12 PAPER GIRLS #13 PATHFINDER WORLDSCAPE #6 (OF 6) PLANETOID PRAXIS #3 (OF 6) PROVIDENCE #12 (OF 12) ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN #1 ROYALS #1 SAVAGE THINGS #2 (OF 8) SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL #7 SONS OF THE DEVIL #11 SPIDER-MAN #15 SPIDER-MAN DEADPOOL #16 SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING PRELUDE #2 (OF 2) STAR WARS #30 STAR WARS ROGUE ONE ADAPTATION #1 (OF 6) STARSTRUCK OLD PROLDIERS NEVER DIE #3 (OF 6) SUN BAKERY #2 SUPERMAN #20 TANK GIRL WORLD WAR TANK GIRL #1 (OF 4) THEYRE NOT LIKE US #15 TRUE BELIEVERS GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1 TRUE BELIEVERS X-MEN #1 UBER INVASION #5 UNCANNY AVENGERS #22 UNCLE SCROOGE #25 WALKING DEAD #166 WOODS #31 X-MEN GOLD #1 ZOMBIE TRAMP 2017 EASTER SPECIAL

Books/Mags/Things 2000 AD 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL 2000 AD PACK FEB 2017 ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 15 ASTRO BOY OMNIBUS TP VOL 07 BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY TP VOL 01 WHO IS ORACLE (REBIRTH) BORUTO GN VOL 01 NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION TP JUSTICE IS SERVED CARTOON UTOPIA GN CHEW OMNIVORE ED HC VOL 06 CICI A FAIRYS TALE GN PERFECT VIEW ELECTRIC SUBLIME TP GALAXYS GREATEST FOUR DECADES OF 2000 AD TP GREEN ARROW TP VOL 02 ISLAND OF SCARS (REBIRTH) HONEY SO SWEET GN VOL 06 HOTEL STRANGE GN GHOSTS IN THE CLOUDS I AM A HERO OMNIBUS TP VOL 03 KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE TP VOL 56 LETTER 44 TP VOL 01 10 DOLLAR ED LUMBERJANES TP VOL 06 RUROUNI KENSHIN 3IN1 TP VOL 02 SO CUTE IT HURTS GN VOL 12 SUPERMAN TP VOL 02 TRIALS OF THE SUPER SON (REBIRTH) TWIN STAR EXORCISTS ONMYOJI GN VOL 08 WATER DRAGONS BRIDE GN VOL 01 WE STAND ON GUARD TP WHAT PARSIFAL SAW GN YONA OF THE DAWN GN VOL 05 BLACK CLOVER GN VOL 06

As always, what do YOU think?

“F*** you, Tarzan.” COMICS! Sometimes ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore!

In which I aimlessly amble around Howard Victor Chaykin’s recent series ‘Midnight of the Soul’ and see what strikes my fancy. No, really, even more than usual, I just sort of prattle on rather aimlessly and hope some kind of coherent point emerges. It probably won’t, but as I haven’t written it yet we’ll have to find out together. Take my hand, fellow stranger in paradise! Take my hand...  photo MotStabuB_zpsngnrr5c3.jpg MIDNIGHT OF THE SOUL by Chaykin, Arbutov and Bruzenak Anyway, this...

MIDNIGHT OF THE SOUL #1-5 Written by Howard Victor Chaykin Art by Howard Victor Chaykin Coloured by Jesus Aburtov Lettered by Ken Bruzenak Image Comics, $3.50 each (2016)

 photo MotSCoversB_zps4ay4i1ei.jpg

On one level ‘Midnight of the Soul’ is exactly the kind of comic everyone thinks Howard Victor Chaykin makes, but on another level it isn’t, and the abrasion between what you expect to read and what you actually read creates some smart sparks. I think. The success of Chaykin’s smuggling run in 'Midnight of the Soul' is aided no end by the fact he draws it and so, inevitably, it looks just like a Howard Victor Chaykin comic. This is the bit that misleads because the surface is flawlessly “Chaykin”. Obviously. What did you want, Dave McKean? The guy’s in his sixties, he’s not likely to be suddenly incorporating mixed media and sculpture into his work. Not when “Diagnosis: Murder” is on and there’s kosher Franks in the pan! Thus, the art is as Late Chaykin as Late Chaykin gets. And, yes, it breaks my heart too, but it is getting late in the Seasons of The Chaykin. But dry your eyes, o feral child, because he’s still with us, and he’s still delivering his pugnaciously suave art. Sure, some eyes will still be perturbed by the clip art that doesn’t quite gel and flinch at the odd lapse in positioning. I’m a Chaykin maniac but I’m not blind to his transgressions; there’s one panel of Patricia in a doorway that doesn’t work – at all, and he’s stuck himself with a motorbike image that doesn’t always suit the angle of his composition, and that precise image of a woman was in Satellite Sam, and that cop’s all out of whack with that barrier and, and, and, you know, we could carp all day, but what matters is that for the most part, most of it works. As your eye sweeps over it, as you read it, it works. If you sit and look at each panel, eh, not so much. But who’d do that? Whaddya think comics are? Art? Comics are for reading first and looking at second. 'Midnight of the Soul' is a VERY GOOD! read.

 photo MotSsailorB_zpszow0ttqs.jpg MIDNIGHT OF THE SOUL by Chaykin, Arbutov and Bruzenak

The occasional glaring visual infelicity aside, Chaykin definitely gets in a major artistic victory by resurrecting a sense of of New York as 'twas. While Arbutov’s colours remain a little too garishly lacquer-ish for my sedate tastes, they contribute enormously to this effect as well. The interiors of the dance halls and gin-joints are particularly noteworthy and Arbutov lays down some seriously hot pinks and cool greens. So, y’know, yay. The ‘50s being the Golden Age of The Billboard, omitting to mention the phantasmagoria of styles and fonts Bruzenak scatters as gloriously and as evocatively as the notes Gershwin throws over the opening of ‘Manhattan’(1979) would be a serious dereliction of duty. Bruzenak also subtly colour codes his speech bubbles so you know who is speaking even when they are “offscreen”. The big thing about Big Ken Bruzenak is that he never stands still (artistically, that is), and his stylistic evolution continues here with a pretty darn exciting and innovative mock 3-D lettering effect, used sparingly and effectively. Conjuring a particular time and  a particular place from the past into the present via paper and ink is a very Chaykin preoccupation. The man’s rightly proud that locations in the original ‘Black Kiss’ are so redolent of ‘80s Los Angeles that readers’ noses start convulsing for coke in sympathy. In ‘Midnight of The Soul’ Chaykin (and Arbutov and Bruzenak) work a similar feat for ‘50s New York, though here it’s your stomach that rumbles for coffee and a doughnut, rather than your nose for Class ‘A’s.

 photo MotSHornB_zpstexcff1j.jpg MIDNIGHT OF THE SOUL by Chaykin, Arbutov and Bruzenak

Not that the New York of ‘Midnight of the Soul’ is drug free. Au contraire, mon frère! On past evidence Chaykin’s not one of those selective amnesiacs who thinks the past was a magical Eden, to which the present is a disgraceful relative. If anything he’s prone to wallowing in the seamier side of things, and we’re not just talking about stockings there. And so it goes that Joel Breakstone’s search for his errant wife brings him up against a rash of rascals, a pair of gun slinging gunsels (in the correct sense of "catamites"), a saucy whip-smart dancer, a corrupt cop, and a boss man with a ginger flattop. This is after all, the ‘Midnight of The Soul’, so a certain sense of threat and moral conflict come with the territory. I mean, I could be wrong, but I believe the title alludes to ‘The Dark Night of the Soul’ (AKA ‘Noche obscura del alma’). That’s not because I am an expert on the poetry of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), but because ‘Midnight of the Soul’ has a familiar structure, one which accords with the ‘time of testing’ the poem assures us we must all go through before reaching a state of Grace. Something to look forward to there, kids. That’s some high falutin’ stuff, poncho! Don’t worry, it just means ‘Midnight of the Soul’ is a lot like, oh, ‘After Hours’ (1985). Basically in these things you get some dude (or maybe a lady these days) out of his depth flailing about a thoroughly threatening city, encountering threats embodying his inner failings, while his intended goal remains persistently out of reach until his ordeal has suitably shriven him for the final confrontation. After which he’s a lot more at peace than he was when he started. And so it is for our slightly schmucky and typically Chaykin-esque looking lead, Joel Breakstone.

 photo MotSRedB_zpsbeyr6ifw.jpg MIDNIGHT OF THE SOUL by Chaykin, Arbutov and Bruzenak

Joel’s a failed writer but a successful drunk who slouches despondently in the garage of a house he sold to his Brother-in-Law to clear debts accrued, pecking out unwanted alt-History tales of a World where Germany won WW2. If Joel punched himself every time he ate a bagel he couldn't be more obviously a self-hating Jew. He doesn’t hate himself because he's a Jew though, he hates himself for some unpleasantness which occurred during the liberation of a Concentration Camp in WW2. Something, as Joseph Heller famously had it, happened. Coming to terms with that memory is Joel's key to Grace, but to do it he'll have to navigate his 'Midnight of the Soul'. Meanwhile, just to underline his emasculation, his wife is out bringing home the bread working as a night-court stenographer. Except she isn't, as Joel finds out while pathetically creeping the house for booze. Turns out she's turning tricks. The lit match of his self-righteous indignation plops straight into the accumulated reservoir of self-hatred, and the resulting explosion of dumb machismo is sufficient to propel the cuckolded schmuck out into the city in search of vengeance. New York, however, has other ideas. 'Midnight of the Soul' is a picaresque adventure comic in which a man finds out a lot of the things he thought he knew about himself aren't true, and that the truth might hurt but not as much as living a lie does. Also: violence, jazz, profanity, blow jobs, snappy patter, racism, jokes and a man dressed as a baby in an Irish bar. 'Midnight of the Soul' has something for everyone! Except humourless drips.

 photo MotSBlamB_zps7jnc9rwm.jpg MIDNIGHT OF THE SOUL by Chaykin, Arbutov and Bruzenak

Joel's a luckless boob for the most part, but he is ultimately lucky because he gets to inhabit one of Chaykin's more vital narratives. From the first loaded word (“Parallels”) there’s a sense of Howard Victor Chaykin pushing through the pages of the narrative at the reader. The explicit fictional narrative of the book seems shaken every now and then by subsurface ructions, barely repelled authorial outbursts, which threaten to make it lose its footing.  Which it never quite does, but it comes close. There’s a lack of commitment to the pulp fiction on show, as though Howard Victor Chaykin is intermittently is gripped by the urge to be doing something else. And I think he probably is. In a sense 'Midnight of the Soul' works as a big kiss-off to a bunch of tropes you suspect Chaykin feels he’s outgrown. Joel enters a midnight world of Chaykin standards, but always at an odd angle, always a few beats behind thee action, always playing catch-up, as though trying to find his way into the story proper. A story which seems to be occurring in parallel(!) to his search. This story, the story Joel circles for the bulk of the book, is the “usual” Chaykin, the Chaykin we expect; all bad behaviour, colourful characters, sassy patter and blunt force violence. For much of the book Joel never quite connects with this pulp strand, instead he keeps bouncing off it into a more sedate but no less colourful screwball romantic comedy. Both strands hinge on a portrait of New York anchored by visual verisimilitude and the odd nod to reality (is that Joe Gould reciting 'The Face on The Bar-room Floor'? In #3?) but both run parallel(!) to each other; until the final pages, anyway. And it's on these final pages that Chaykin seemingly states his current genre preference. But is it “Goodbye” or just “Au Revoir” to the genre staples that made his name and brought him fame? Alas, despite what I tell ladies in bars, I don't know Howard Victor Chaykin personally, so we'll all just have to wait and see together...

NEXT TIME: Take a guess, punchy. That's right - COMICS!!!

"...Gimme A Circus Like This Anyday." COMICS! Sometimes We're In Like Flint!

There's a little bit of Dredd in this one, a smidgeon mayhap. However there is a whole lot of Carlos Ezquerra and he's really making his computer colouring work in this one. Some real freaky skyscapes going on in the background of these panels. If you're a Carlos Ezquerra fan you'll probably want to pick this one up. Oh, looks like I started the review early, better put the rest under the jump. See ya, wouldn't want to be ya!  photo JDMC67backB_zpswcpjviup.jpg CURSED EARTH KOBURN by Carlos Ezquerra

Anyway, this…

THE JUDGE DREDD MEGA COLLECTION REVIEW INDEX

JUDGE DREDD: THE MEGA COLLECTION Vol. 67: CURSED EARTH KOBURN Art by Carlos Ezquerra Written by Gordon Rennie Lettered by Ellie DeVille and Annie Parkhouse Originally serialised in JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 211-212, 221-223, 228, 239, 241-244, 314-318 & 361-364 © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2015 & 2016 Rebellion A/S Hatchette Partworks/Rebellion, £9.99 (2016) JUDGE DREDD created by Carlos Ezquerra & John Wagner

 photo JDMCCov67B_zpstvolape4.jpg

‘Cursed Earth Koburn’ mostly features the exploits of circuit-Judge Koburn, rounded out by a Dredd adventure featuring the vengeful El Maldito. Both Koburn and Maldito hark back down the ages to Battle Picture Weekly and the strips 'Major Eazy' and 'El Mestizo', both of which were created by Carlos Ezquerra and Alan Hebden. I’ve written some slapdash slop about 'Major Eazy' before HERE, but just to recap for those too busy to click on a link: Major Eazy was a laid-back one man attack, as anti-authoritarian as he was effective in taking the fight to the Nazis. And since he was very effective indeed he was very anti-authoritarian indeed, as many a weak chinned officer type found out to his stuttering chagrin. Like most of Battle’s characters he was a direct reaction against the bright eyed and bushy tailed Tommy pushing back the baddies for God, Queen and Country, always with that distinct sense of good sportsmanship which defines the British in their own minds but in no one else’s. In comparison Major Eazy would fuck you up, and fuck you up good and he’d do it quick and nasty too. Because in war you get the job done, you don’t stop and have tea and scones while you do it. Visually Eazy was modelled on David Niven, as any fool knows. No, it was the American actor James Coburn (1928-2002), an actor with an easy-going and thoroughly amiable but subtly malevolent, screen presence., Despite apparently being born with the teeth of  a much larger man the ‘70s were good to James Coburn, indeed as they were to British comics, and so the latter plucked the former’s iconic image from Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron and plunked it in a strip for kids, probably about 50 seconds after Hebden and Ezquerra left the movie theatre, since both film and character appeared in 1976. Which is why Eazy wears a German cap, usually pulled down over his narrow, calculating slits for eyes. He also usually has a cheroot drooping from his slim lip because Coburn was a keen smoker both on screen and off.

 photo JDMC67coolB_zpsq97lc1ho.jpg CURSED EARTH KOBURN: KUSS HARD by Ezquerra, Rennie and Parkhouse

If you buy the Arrow blu-ray of 'Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia' not only will you have bought the greatest movie about Warren Oates and a head in a bag ever made, but you also get the documentary about Peckinpah, 'Man of Iron', in which Coburn probably appears, smoking. It’s highly likely because if you do buy that blu-ray (which I think you should. NOW!) you also get a disk with 10 hours (1!0! H!O!U!R!S!) of interviews, from which the contents of the doc are culled. I’m far too busy being a supercilious prick to have watched this yet, but I did treat myself to the first 30 mins or so, in which James Coburn appears, smoking. He is also, obviously, awesome.  He is so awesome in fact that after a few seconds it’s like you’re sat opposite him while he suavely drawls about the past, smoking. So convivial is his company that at one point I almost tapped him for a smoke, then I remembered it was a recording, he’d been dead for 15 years and I no longer smoke. He’s a funny one because you always think he just showed up and did his stuff, but the interview reveals him as a proper artist with thoughts about his art and a real interest in the art of moviemaking. I mean, I never realised this, but James Coburn was second unit director on 'Convoy'. The last thing I ever envisaged James Coburn doing was sitting on a water tower waiting for instructions via walkie-talkie (like a mobile phone, kids) so he could film footage for one of Sam Peckinpah’s shittiest films. Man, the dude really dug Peckinpah. Oh, he also reveals what the ending to 'Cross of Iron' means, which is something I’ve been puzzling over for about four decades. (SPOILER: It’s hilarious, after all these years it turns out that the ending to 'Cross of Iron' means that Peckinpah set Coburn and Maximilian Schell loose on a set of exploding scrap until something happened. What happened was that Schell’s prop gun fell to bits in his hand and Coburn laughed his ass off in response. That’s it. Brilliant.) Basically James Coburn was awesome, and this was duly recognised by the Academy in 1998 with an Oscar® for his role in 'Affliction'. (Which is a great movie; one that should be on Blu-Ray, people!)

 photo JDMC67hellB_zpsgg72zeyh.jpg CURSED EARTH KOBURN: KUSS HARD by Ezquerra, Rennie and Parkhouse

I don’t really know where I am now, uh, Major Eazy was based visually on James Coburn? Which is why Koburn is called Koburn. According to the interview with Rennie in the back of the book they tried lots of variations along the lines of “Eazy” but went with Koburn, which works. Turns out a fan suggested Ezquerra bring Eazy back, and that was Rennie’s impetus for introducing the basic character to the world of Dredd. The first strip “Sturm Und Dang” sets out the characters’ stall. Dredd is on a hotdog run with some cadets and picks up Koburn along the way. Koburn knows the territory because he’s a cursed Earth circuit-judge, a kind of itinerant sheriff with a given area to patrol. This set-up  allows Rennie to play Koburn’s slackness off against Dredd’s rigidity, to effectively define how the character works. It’s a smart move. Key is the fact that both Dredd and Koburn get the job done. It’s no good being a laidback dude if you can’t snipe a guy’s eye out from two klicks at the drop of a hat. Koburn’s all pose but underneath his cool poise you just know he’s like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs (© Traditional). All Dredd can see is infractions of Dress code and lack of respect.  But who ends up in a bath chair with a broken leg fighting a Panzer and who sashays his way through storms of bullets while barely breaking a sweat? That’s right. Oh, the panzer? Oh, yeah they are up against Comedy Nazis which isn’t ideal for me, because I’m not that into Comedy Nazis since that logically leads to Comical Concentration Camps and I have a hard time squaring that particular circle. And yet, I guess, yeah, it does acknowledge the roots of the character in a cheeky winkeyty-wink kind of a way, and no one gets hurt. Except the comical Nazis who get comically dead. Ezquerra is obviously having a whale of a time and gives The Cursed Earth his unique sheen of grubbiness while revisiting his war comic past, but with a quirky twist of Dredd. GOOD!

 photo JDMC67turnB_zpsvhr31hru.jpg CURSED EARTH KOBURN: STURM UND DANG by Ezquerra, Rennie and Parkhouse

Next up is “Kuss Hard” in which Koburn gets a partner. Typically this is a female Judge, Judge Bonaventura, who is a bit more rules orientated than her shabby new partner, and so she’ll be getting a lesson in how things work in The Cursed Earth, dang straight! We get a bit of low-comedy where she walks in on Koburn being ridden by a Rubenesque whore and she’s all “Oh, my!”  She’s a straight arrow, see. Did you get that? The mis-matched (sigh) pair set off on the trail of The Kuss Brothers who are suspected of Organ-Legging and are regulars on Koburn’s patch. To be honest Rennie seems to get distracted early on in this one and it all just sort of happens without any weight to anything.  There’s a weird bit where Koburn visits the Brothers’ mom at the unsavoury jail she runs. When she’s less than forthcoming Koburn releases all the inmates and it’s like Rennie forgot Koburn was a Judge or something. He’s not some wandering vagabond laying down the law in his own special way; he’s a Judge! Even better (i.e. worse) their mom’s totally superfluous to proceedings, and it all ends, as it should have done a lot earlier, in a fight in a meat packing factory. It’s all a bit uninspired and flabby, which is unfortunate so early in the character’s run. But it does introduce Bonaventura for Koburn to play off, and old fogies will realise belatedly that she’s just a sex-swapped update of Sgt Daly, Major Eazy’s long-suffering subordinate.  (Later I think Eazy acquired an Arab chap who liked cutting Nazi throats, but there are probably some things we should leave to the ‘70s. Despite what UKIP think.) OKAY!

 photo JDMC67deadB_zpsr6nf2lgs.jpg CURSED EARTH KOBURN: BURIAL PARTY by Ezquerra, Rennie and Parkhouse

“Burial Party” is up next, where Rennie widens the cast of the series to include Koburn’s fellow circuit-Judges, all of whom are either scarred or a bit nuts as befits the harshness of their lives. It’s a nice piece with drunken silliness giving way to sober reflection on occasion, as everyone drinks around the corpse of a fallen Judge, a blatant reminder of how they’ll all end up.  Despite being mostly set in one room with a fixed cast all wearing very similar clothes, Ezquerra’s art is so good at making even the mundane visually interesting with his bold feathering and attention to grimy detail, it never feels visually constrained in the least. GOOD! Having established, koburn, Bonaventura, and their fellow circuit-Judges Rennie goes on to show us one of their regular duties in  “The Assizes”. Titled after a now defunct British legal term describing courts held periodically around the country, The Assizes shows us Koburn doing precisely that small-scale  King Solomon shtick in some Cursed Earth armpit of a town. The complaints of the scabby citizenry are of the "humorous" kind and are probably really funny if you think people fucking animals is hilarious. It’s the kind of stuff that would make Garth Ennis shoot Guinness out of his (broken) nose. Still, Ezquerra has fun, and it’s always nice to see his never entirely-absent skills as a caricaturist slide to the fore. Hit and miss stuff, basically. So little is there to “The Assizes” that a substantial part of it is the prologue to the next story.  OKAY! “Malachi” is that next story and it’s where Rennie starts trying to inject some seriousness into his so far largely light-hearted strip.

 photo JDMC67plngB_zps1jeitetc.jpg CURSED EARTH KOBURN: MALACHI by Ezquerra, Rennie and Parkhouse

Malachi is some dude who encountered Judge Death and, well, unlived to tell the tale. Now he roams about killing everything he meets while saying spooky things in those spooky word balloons that make spooky words everso much more spooky!  I think he’s the physical manifestation of the hate The Cursed Earth dead hold for the living.  Or something. It’s not entirely clear, but what is clear is nothing can kill him and he’s headed straight for Koburn and Bonaventura. Which is unfortunate as Koburn and Bonaventura are currently looking in on Spring Seeds, a Juve Offenders facility. This means there’s a lot of kids for Malachi to mangle unless someone can stop him, which is going to be tough as Malachi, as is demonstrated by his run-ins with the circuit-Judges introduced in “Burial Party”, is unstoppable. Just so we care, Rennie gives us a tough Juve who may be salvageable and his pregnant girlfriend to root for. Pregnant? Yes, even in a Juve Offenders facility nature finds a way. Which is not too big a surprise as later when Malachi bursts into the girls dorm they are squealing in negligees like someone got 'Porky’s' and 'Friday The 13th' mixed up. Negligees in a Cursed Earth Juve Offenders facility! Oh, Carlos Ezquerra, you cheeky Spanish rogue! There’s a real feel of impending doom, some characters to care for, a sense of jeopardy and a genuine question about how Koburn can stop such an unstoppable force. In the interview Rennie says the more serious strips don’t work as well, but I’d have to disagree here. GOOD! Blimey, this is a proper slog isn’t it? Last push, everyone!

 photo JDMC67signB_zpsrmsmesp4.jpg CURSED EARTH KOBURN: GOING AFTER BILLY ZANE by Ezquerra, Rennie and DeVille

In the final Koburn tale, “Going After Billy Zane” Rennie cranks up the seriousness and sets up a creepy tale in which the past which haunts the present bares its teeth. Koburn teams up with Judge Rico (who is basically another clone of Fargo; a younger Dredd) to track a Citi-Def squad lost on manoeuvres in The Cursed Earth. Unfortunately the Billy Zane Block Citi-Def squad are not lost but are tracking a distress signal, a distress signal sent by a man who died twelve years ago. Obviously they don’t know that, but we do. The squad are led by a female leader who lost her kids twelve years ago, the man who died twelve years ago was the Judge who broke Koburn in and, uh, about twelve years ago Rico had doubts about his lineage. (The original Rico being Dredd’s bent Judge brother. Judge Dredd's favourite joke: "My bent Judge brother has no nose! How does he smell?...") Which kind of reflects the strip in essence. That is, it struggles to link everything so that there’s a true sense of things coming full circle, a sense of inevitability but it..just…can’t…quite…make it happen. Which is a shame, because there’s some strong stuff on these pages. Strong enough certainly to entertain but not any stronger than that, alas. Ezquerra’s pours the creepiness on this one with a great inky ladle, making rocks and crevasses look far more menacing than you want them to . There’s a surface sense of unease and an undercurrent of violence running through all Ezquerra’s art here. The big noses and whiskery  comedy chins stay at home and he breaks out the shadows and silhouettes to unsettling effect. The strip peters out on a cliff hanger which is as yet unresolved, but even that seems appropriate to the sense of amorphous menace it seeks to convey. Koburn’s last outing is GOOD!

 photo JDMC67payB_zpsnunfke2w.jpg JUDGE DREDD: EL MALDITO by Ezquerra, Rennie and Parkhouse

Yes, that was Koburn’s last hurrah but there’s still one story to go: “El Maldito”. This strip is interesting for a couple of reasons, the most obvious of which I’ll save ‘til last. In this one a spooky figure is wading in on the side of the workers at a food processing facility in The Cursed Earth. What’s interesting here is that it’s not often that you see something so “up the workers!” in comics these days, which I find both odd and troubling. Mostly because this silence seems to reflect the increasing belief that somehow unions are bad things. Over here the papers (who are all to a greater or lesser extent in hock to tax dodging billionaires with their own freedom stifling agendas) endlessly roar at any and every episode of industrial action. And the vox pop is less than ideal, “how dare they inconvenience me!”, “I wish I could have the day off work!” and all that cretinous rot. Hey, poncho, I’ve been on strike. I’ve been on strike more than once, and I’ll let all you vox pop nincompoops out there into a little secret: you don’t get paid for strike days. And if I could afford not to get paid, pal, I wouldn't go to work. Those people striking? They are making a personal sacrifice to protest some form of injustice or proposed measure which will erode the safety of all involved. So, think on next time. Anyway, here we have a bunch of “peons” striking and acting up and generally getting in the way of business. Obviously that can’t stand, so the company send in the men with the batons. Apparently these workers want conditions improving or fair pay or somesuch socialist snowflake nonsense. Probably want treating like human beings or some other pie in the sky shit. So the plan is as ever, a few heads get cracked, names are named and the ringleaders get rounded up and hey ho we can all get back to work. Or you can. I’ll just spend all this lovely money while you put your back into it.

 photo JDMC67fightB_zpsvimdmzye.jpg JUDGE DREDD: EL MALDITO by Ezquerra, Rennie and Parkhouse

Unfortunately a lot of companies mistake salaried employment for indentured servitude, and even more unfortunately a lot of governments are happy to let them. Oh, don’t worry, my right wing chums, I’m fighting a losing battle. It’s okay, don’t ruffle your share portfolios over it; you’re winning while I’m whining. Today Theresa May sent her letter triggering Article 50 which will see us begin to leave the EU. Yes, we’ll be leaving all that “red tape”, all those pesky regulations that gave us holidays, safe working conditions and kept our food safe are all up for grabs now. And the Tories have the whip hand. So, yeah, good times ahead for people who want more human faeces in their drinking water and horse meat in their Bolognese. Regulation! Pah! Who needs it! Personally I think we should just go the whole hog and bring back hanging, National Service and 'The Black and White Minstrel Show'. Say, did you see that shit about “Empire 2.0”? And that’s the grown-ups in charge that is. I despair, I honestly and utterly despair. I also lose my track but always find my way back. The strikers are helped by this spooky figure who comes in times of need, this El Maldito. The company has Judge Dredd. Sparks fly and symapthies may not lie entirely where you expect. It’s a decent strip with good points to make about industrial relations, but Judge Dredd survives a massive explosion, uh, because, and the subplot about the guy and his kid doesn’t gel but, y’know, fun is had and salient points are made, so GOOD! Oh, the other interesting thing (besides how irritated you got when I went on about strike action) is that El Maldito is a tip of the hat to 'El Mestizo', which like 'Major Eazy' ran in Battle Picture Weekly. Unlike Eazy this was set in the American Civil War and involved a black slave turned mercenary having weekly and very violent adventures. Yeah, a black slave , and if you started any of that moaning about pandering to Social Justice Warrior Snowflakes shit he'd have stuck a stick of dynamite up your arse and kicked you off a cliff. And quite right too. Unfortunately while I do remember the strip, all I can remember is he looked like Jimi Hendrix as dressed by Sergio Leone and was balls cool. Although it was the ‘70s so we probably would have said he was “jolly spiffing” and then laughed at some homosexuals on TV. Since there were only 16 episodes someone should collect the 'El Mestizo' strips so I can buy them, you know, with money I earned while not striking. HAH!

 photo JDMC67nameB_zps4rdfugjs.jpg CURSED EARTH KOBURN: GOING AFTER BILLY ZANE by Ezquerra, Rennie and DeVille

NEXT TIME: If I don’t end up in jail for sedition, it’ll be more Judge Dredd and thus more COMICS!!!

Arriving 3/29/17

March does not plan to go quietly in to that goodnight with one of the stronget weeks we have seen for awhile! Headlined by SAGA VOL. 7 along with new DEADLY CLASS, DARK KNIGHT III and the first looks at the post IVX Marvel world with X-MEN PRIME and INHUMANS PRIME.

Check the cut for rest of this weeks new comics!

ADAM STRANGE FUTURE QUEST SPECIAL #1 ALIENS DEFIANCE #10 ALIENS VS PREDATOR LIFE AND DEATH #4 ALL NEW X-MEN #19 ANIMAL NOIR #2 (OF 4) ANIMOSITY #6 AVENGERS #5.1 BACKSTAGERS #8 (OF 8) BATGIRL ANNUAL #1 BLACK WIDOW #12 BOOSTER GOLD FLINTSTONES SPECIAL #1 CINEMA PURGATORIO #9 CLEAN ROOM #17 COMIC BOOK HISTORY OF COMICS #5 (OF 6) CONAN THE SLAYER #7 COSMIC SCOUNDRELS #2 (OF 5) DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #8 (OF 9) DEADLY CLASS #27 DEADPOOL AND MERCS FOR MONEY #9 DIVINITY III STALINVERSE #4 DOC SAVAGE RING OF FIRE #1 (OF 4) DOCTOR WHO 9TH #11 ELFQUEST FINAL QUEST #19 GARTH ENNIS RED TEAM DOUBLE TAP #8 (OF 9) GHOST RIDER #5 GRAND PASSION #4 (OF 5) GREEN LANTERN SPACE GHOST SPECIAL #1 GUIDE TO MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIV MARVELS DOCTOR STRANGE HADRIANS WALL #5 HARLEYS LITTLE BLACK BOOK #6 INFAMOUS IRON MAN #6 INHUMANS PRIME #1 INSEXTS #10 JAMES BOND HAMMERHEAD #6 (OF 6) JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS #24 JOYRIDE #11 JUGHEAD THE HUNGER ONE SHOT CVR A MICHAEL WALSH JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #3 KAMANDI CHALLENGE #3 (OF 12) LADYCASTLE #2 LAZARUS #26 LOBSTER JOHNSON PIRATES GHOST #1 MAN-THING #2 (OF 5) MAYDAY #5 (OF 5) MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL #3 MOONSHINE #6 OCCUPY AVENGERS #5 OLD GUARD #2 OLD MAN LOGAN #20 ORPHAN BLACK DEVIATIONS #1 (OF 6) OUTCAST BY KIRKMAN & AZACETA #26 POSTAL #19 QUANTUM TEENS ARE GO #2 REGGIE AND ME #4 (OF 5) REICH #5 (OF 12) RICK & MORTY #24 ROM #8 SERENITY NO POWER IN THE VERSE #6 (OF 6) SPACE RIDERS GALAXY OF BRUTALITY #1 SPIDER-WOMAN #17 STAR TREK BOLDLY GO #6 STAR-LORD #5 SUICIDE SQUAD BANANA SPLITS SPECIAL #1 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #103 THANOS #5 THUNDERBOLTS #11 TITANS ANNUAL #1 TRANSFORMERS TILL ALL ARE ONE #8 UNFOLLOW #17 VISITOR HOW AND WHY HE STAYED #2 (OF 5) WEIRD LOVE #17 X-FILES (2016) #12 X-MEN PRIME #1

Books/Mags/Things ADVENTURE TIME ORIGINAL GN VOL 09 BRAIN ROBBERS AFAR TP ASSIGNMENT TP ASTONISHING ANT-MAN TP VOL 03 TRIAL OF ANT-MAN ATOMIC ROBO TP HELL & LIGHTNING COLLECTION BLACK HAMMER TP VOL 01 SECRET ORIGINS BPRD HELL ON EARTH TP VOL 15 COMETH THE HOUR CANNIBAL TP VOL 01 CAPTAIN AMERICA FALCON SECRET EMPIRE TP NEW PTG CASTOFFS TP VOL 01 CRYPTOCRACY TP DISNEY FROZEN COMICS COLL HEARTS FULL OF SUNSHINE TP DISNEY STAR VS THE FORCES OF EVIL COMICS COLL TP DOOM PATROL TP BOOK 03 EARTHA HC HELLBLAZER TP VOL 01 THE POISON TRUTH HENCHGIRL TP HILLBILLY TP VOL 01 IMAGE PLUS #12 (WALKING DEAD HERES NEGAN PT 12) INTERVIEW HC INVINCIBLE TP VOL 23 OUR CATS ARE MORE FAMOUS THAN US HC PREVIEWS #343 APRIL 2017 RG VEDA OMNIBUS TP VOL 02 SABAN POWER RANGERS AFTERSHOCK MOVIE GN SAGA TP VOL 07 SCENE BUT NOT HEARD GN SPIDER-MAN MILES MORALES TP VOL 02 SUPERGIRL BY PETER DAVID TP BOOK 02 TEEN TITANS BY GEOFF JOHNS TP BOOK 01 WONDER WOMAN & THE JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA TP VOL 01 X-MEN EPIC COLLECTION TP SECOND GENESIS

As always, what do YOU think?

"Death Among The Hors D'oeuvres." COMICS! Sometimes It's Tough, Tough Toys For Tough, Tough Boys!

What would Thunderbirds be like in the world of Judge Dredd? My dog has no nose; why isn’t Robbie Morrison funny? What if the messiah was susceptible to weed killer?  What would be the absolute best name for a character in a very cold place? Can a gun be too big? And if war is so terrible why is it so good for John Wagner? All questions I’ll probably forget to answer in the latest jolly riverdance through the JUDGE DREDD MEGA COLLECTION.  photo JDMC55backB_zpsp0h97kfi.jpg JUDGE DREDD: THE HEAVY MOB by P J Holden

Anyway, this…

THE JUDGE DREDD MEGA COLLECTION REVIEW INDEX

JUDGE DREDD: THE MEGA COLLECTION Vol. 55: THE HEAVY MOB Art by Jim Murray, Clint Langley, Malcolm Davis, Nick Percival, Xuasus, David Millgate, Kevin Walker, Brian Bolland, Ron Smith and P J Holden Written by John Smith, Chris Standley, Robbie Morrison, John Wagner and Michael Carroll Coloured by Chris Blythe and Len O'Grady Lettered by Gordon Robson, Ellie DeVille, Steve Potter, Tom Frame and Annie Parkhouse Originally serialised in 2000AD Progs 122-125 & 1792-1796 & JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 2.31-2.33, 2.60-2.62, 2.70, 3.20-3.23, 3.29-3.33 & 240-243 © 1979, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2006, 2012 & 2015 Rebellion A/S Hatchette Partworks/Rebellion, £9.99 (2015) JUDGE DREDD created by Carlos Ezquerra & John Wagner

 photo JDMCCov55B_zpsfiuarnsw.jpg

HOLOCAUST 12: SKYFALL Art by Jim Murray Written by John Smith & Chris Standley Lettered by Gordon Robson Originally published in JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 3.20-3.23 HOLOCAUST 12: STORM WARNING Art by Clint Langley & Malcolm Davis Written by John Smith & Chris Standley Lettered by Gordon Robson & Ellie DeVille Originally published in JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 3.29-3.33

 photo JDMChs01B_zpsxmuojqci.jpg HOLOCAUST 12: SKYFALL by Murray, Smith & Standley and Robson

In the 1990s the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE was so starved of content there was actually a strip based on a concept (The Holocaust Squad) which had appeared for less than a page in Judge Dredd a couple of decades earlier (see Father Earth below). Spotting that idea had legs was a pretty good spot, particularly as the 1990s were characterised by a bizarre fetish for trying to replicate the high-octane and content-light high-concept action movie style into comics. It didn’t work. Movies aren’t comics and comics aren’t movies. What zips past on the screen trundles across the page, and so this first outing for what is basically a fire brigade on steroids staffed by psychopaths  seems to involve the world’s slowest space ship crash. It would have been even slower on its first appearance with the weeks separating each instalment. On screen there are also actors, so even the slimmest of characters can be fattened with unspoken character. On the page Cyrus “The Virus” is probably a bit flat but stick his words in the mouth of John Malkovich and we’re off to the races. Smith’s strip has no such advantage so his characters are just violent ciphers. Visually they are distinct because comics have art and Murray and Langley are certainly distinctive artists, but that’s about it. One of the Squad carks it in this first instalment and I couldn’t remember which one , and our POV character gets side-lined shortly after he’s walked through a room and had everyone described to him. There’s a lot of “This is Cockthrottler Magoo. He can fart through cement and is just such a badass, well, it’s just plain scary is what it is!” A lot of telling not showing basically, and we all know how much we enjoy that.  Smith is a good writer but some writers are good only in certain areas. The vagaries of comic writing mean the humble dreamweavers are often called upon to write something they aren’t really suited to. Disaster-action movie seems a particularly poor fit for John Smith’s body horror obsession and trademark bursts of stream of consciousness narration. It’s too constricting; Smith works best on horror because horror is a tad more elastic than the action movie. The action movie is all about the cliché, moving within that cliché, and stretching it maybe, but always solidly retaining that core cliché. Smith’s not one to work well within restrictions. He’s too cerebral for this shit basically; you practically can feel him switching of areas of his brain, limiting himself.

 photo JDMChs02B_zpsnzzqpado.jpg HOLOCAUST 12: STORM WARNING by Langley & Davis, Smith & Standley and Robson & DeVille

It’s not a complete loss, he certainly has some fun sneaking his gore in there. Lots of people die horrible deaths in both instalments and it sometimes seems like concocting vile ends for his bodies is all that’s keeping Smith awake. It’s pretty much all that kept me awake too, well,  besides his always fun narrative captions, evidence that at least one comic creator enjoys modernist linguistic trickery. There’s a disaster, people die, the Holocaust Squad stop being naughty and set off, the clock is ticking, more people die, rescue is achieved. It’s all pretty much like that. In the first a spaceship fizzing with chemical death is crashing into the city, in the second the tallest building in the world (Chump Tower; ho ho!) is hit by a freak weather storm and a space ship, oh, and the zoo gets loose, because there's no such thing as overkill! In this second one Smith doesn’t make it easy to root for the victims as they are all rich arseholes (rissoles?) except for a manservant (maybe a nod to The Admirable Crichton (1957) there?) Ultimately Holocaust 13 just feels too restrictive a concept to have much room for Smith to manoeuvre within. Artistically the strip provides plenty of freedom for Murray and Langley (hmm, that sounds like a posh brand of paint) particularly in the realm of the grotesque.  Although given a largely tech-based scenario Murray gets some nice gore in there, and has fun with his POVs. He takes the time to paint the reflected lights in a pool of blood and his SFX have a Vaughn Bode/Comix wobble to them. The reproduction dulls his fully painted but cartoony art, but Murray goes the extra mile indicative of someone enjoying themselves. Clint Langley goes several miles too far and may be enjoying himself far too much. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what you’re looking at on Langley’s metallically garish yet brutally dark pages. It’s like squinting at a metal zoo losing its collective mind  in a catacomb. Langley’s obviously pushing the then available technology of photo manipulation to its extreme, and while it may be a struggle to read, it is just a step on the way to his current bizarre peak. For a couple of strips struggling so hard to be unpleasant, surprisingly there are pleasures in these Holocaust 13 strips but you have to hunt and peck for them. GOOD!

BRIT-CIT BRUTE Art by Nick Percival Written by Robbie Morrison Lettered by Ellie DeVille Originally published in JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 2.31-2.33 BRIT-CIT BRUTE: TRILOGY Art by Nick Percival, Xuasus and David Millgate Written by Robbie Morrison Lettered by Steve Potter Originally published in JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 2.60-2.62

 photo JDMCbcb01B_zps98dnc5sk.jpg BRIT-CIT BRUTE by Percival, Morrison and DeVille

I’m not spending long on this one as it’s clearly for people who found DC’s Lobo a bit highbrow. It’s supposed to be funny so you get our strapping lad of a lead being named Newt (because they are small!) and his boss who looks like John Major (British Tory Prime Minister 1990-97) is called Judge Major (because satire!) and some Elvis references (because he’s a lazy comedy staple!) and some underwear stealing (because the British!) and if you find your ribs being tickled by any of that you’ll soil yourself if you ever read any Mark Millar (ugh!). Brit-Cit Brute is bad is what I’m saying. And don’t be expecting any insight into Brit-Cit unless you are a massive fan of being disappointed. It’s hard to even tell what Brit-Cit looks like because Percival’s art is so unfocused. It’s the work of someone who likes drawing but hasn’t realised there’s more to comics than just drawing; there’s as much panel to panel continuity here as there is on Celebrity Squares. It’s a good job Robbie Morrison’s script is so tedious that it informs us of things we should be able to see , because thanks to Percival’s murky and stilted art we can’t actually see them anyway.  There’s a two page interview with Percival at the back where he sounds very enthusiastic and likeable, which is nice, but doesn’t alter any of the artistic deficiencies here. However we do also learn he was very young and Brit-Cit Brute was very early in his career, so maybe enshrining it between hardcovers wasn’t such a hot idea, Rebellion?  Xuasis and David Millgate fare better artistically, but none of it’s in any danger of hanging in the Louvre any time soon. Hopefully everyone involved had a great time because I didn’t.  Brit-Cit Brute has only a handful of episodes but manages to outstay it’s welcome before even the first of them is over. CRAP!

WYNTER Art by Kevin Walker Written by Robbie Morrison Lettered by Ellie DeVille Originally published in JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 2.70

 photo JDMCwy01B_zpsrjpw0vik.jpg WYNTER by Walker, Morrison and DeVille

He’s called Wynter ‘cause he’s up in the snow, and it’s proper snowy in winter, see. Clever wordplay, Robbie Morrison. Well, in the old days it snowed in winter, nowadays not so much. Definitely nothing to that global warming malarkey, mind. All made up by them Koreans to make America look bad, bribed all the scientists haven’t they? My lad’s all glum because every year they promise it’s going to be a “Bad Winter”, and it isn’t; so no sledging for the yowwun. We had a bit of a flurry but nothing special. I remember when it’d be knee high, and all the buses would stop and you’d have to walk to school.  Mind you I also remember the Yorkshire Ripper, Margaret Thatcher and the IRA pub bombings so, you know, it wasn’t all roses. You can oversell nostalgia, kids. But it wasn’t that far back either; in the ‘90s I once got stuck halfway between home and Leeds because the snow was too much for the buses. Had to spend the night in a Fox’s biscuit factory. No lie. Got waved over to it by a plod who spotted me walking aimlessly about looking worried and trying to keep warm. Curled up on a leatherette sofa eating free biscuits and reading Helen Zahavi’s Dirty Weekend while the night shift kept those biscuits flowing, snow or no snow. I’ve had worse nights. Rang in and told work to **** off the morning after. Barely had any sleep had I? Got to get my beauty sleep or I’m no use to man nor beast. So, yeah, Wynter, clever word play. Except it drives me nuts that “cool misspellings” thing. I have to keep checking “Gil” knows you don’t spell “attacks” “attax” as in “Match Attax” and all the other everyday spelling atrocities which slip my mind right now. So, back at the comic, Wynter is a Judge in the snow, the Antartic Territories to be precise. All Robbie Morrison has to tell us about this exciting addition to the world of Judge Dredd is it’s cold, snowy, sparsely populated and it’s snowy, did I mention the snow? Luckily he remembers Michael Moorcock’s The Ice Schooner and has a boat zipping over the ice proper sharpish like. It’s crewed by ice pirates who have made off with some medical supplies and some chemical weapons. Wynter (recap: because it’s cold) has to get the chemical weapons and never mind the mega-Lemsips. But kids are dying so he’s not happy about that. There’s a bit of a ruckus and he makes the right choice. There’s not much too it but then I imagine no one imagined it’d ever be enshrined between hard covers, probably a last minute bit of filler unfairly maligned here by my rancorous self. The art’s okay though. Probably more of interest as a look at Kev Walker before he dropped all the extraneous detail and went a bit Mignola; a style which suits him greatly and is adequately represented elsewhere in this series. Here though he’s still drawing like someone who really liked Citadel miniature’s Warhammer 40K and thinks John Blanche is an artistic demigod (which he is). His action’s all over the shop as well, but he’d get (a lot) better and so he shouldn’t be too upset. I did like the way Robbie Morrison tried to give it some weight by starting off with Wynter (recap: brrr!) portentously informing us that he’d “buried a child today”. In the same way that chucking Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt over anything, even a video of a your cat cleaning its bum, makes it seem as important and moving as The Crucifixion, dead kids give stuff a bit of heft.  Wynter (recap: because it’s a bit nippy!) is a bit of a waste of a dead kid really because it’ still EH!

JUDGE DREDD: FATHER EARTH Art by Brian Bolland and Ron Smith Written by John Wagner Lettered by Tom Frame Originally published in 2000AD Progs 122-125

 photo JDMCfe01B_zpsy9jzymjo.jpg JUDGE DREDD: FATHER EARTH by Bolland,Wagner and Frame

This is the best tale in the book by a hefty margin and it’s nobody’s fault except everyone surrounding it that it’s also the most elderly. This does mean a few of you will be suspecting that I have difficulty accommodating the present and like many withered old fusspots prefer to live in the past.  Which is obviously  true; after all I sit here in the sallow light of flickering candles inscribing these words upon parchment via quill and ink. There is a certain bit of the power of early imprinting at work because I can quite clearly remember several moments in this one and the attendant original thrill they induced quite clearly. But would it have imprinted so hard had it not been so good? I don’t know, and I don’t think it’s worth applying for a grant to find out. It is good; really, really good. It starts off small with a (rare for 2000AD) black couple encountering a Cursed Earth messiah, who looks like Alan Moore if he’d been designed to sell corn on tins for a living, at their trading outpost. Before the story ends Mega City 1 will have become besieged by mutants wearing dog heads like hats, a power tower will have gone a bit Pompeii, thousands will have lost their lives and a singing, killing plant will have meted out blackly ironic justice. It is a master class in serialised entertainment. Because not only is there all that stuff but there is also a tense bomb disposal scene (a la David Hemmings in JUGGERNAUT (1974)), comedy robots, Dredd failing to save a lady, and a major plot point hinges on the power surges in the 1970s whenever the whole country watched something on TV (e.g. there used to be power surges immediately after CORONATION STREET as everyone leapt up to put the kettle on) and of course…the Holocaust Squad!

 photo JDMCfe02B_zpszys2liqa.jpg JUDGE DREDD: FATHER EARTH by Smith,Wagner and Frame

These dudes appear for a half page, dropping out of the sky in sci-fi diving suits and into the maw of the power station turned volcano. After that we only hear their voices for a handful of panels as they go out one by one like candles in a draught. Which reminds me…hang on (lights candle and bends back over the parchment). The brevity of their appearance belies its power to shock the mind of a child. For the last few decades I thought they were the focus of a whole episode, but they barely get a page in reality. It really shook little me up reading their voices bravely passing the baton as they burnt up like tissues in a furnace. Wagner has many strengths as a writer and here we see two of them smashing boredom like twin hammers going at a pile of crackers. First is how much he can get out of so little; the robots get enough personality to make them humorous, but also enough for you to go “Oh!” when the bomb disposal goes to cock, and the Holocaust Squad have more impact over their petite sprinkle of panels than they do over two full stories by John Smith (see above). Secondly he is fearless in his use of imagination. A lot of comic writers write like they are scared they will never have another idea, Wagner writes like he’s convinced their flow will never cease. It takes some nuts to write like that, but it’s definitely the best approach. The art here is by Bolland and Ron Smith and it’s great too, although the reproduction is so awful you may have to take that on trust. Bolland fares worst with big areas of solid black swamping his detail but Smith uses a lighter touch and his art comes off better, if a little ghostly. Shame, but it doesn’t stop Father Earth being VERY GOOD!

JUDGE DREDD: DEBRIS Art by P J Holden Written by Michael Carroll Coloured by Chris Blythe Lettered by Annie Parkhouse Originally published in 2000AD Progs 1792-1796

 photo JDMCdb01B_zpsjw9an9et.jpg JUDGE DREDD: DEBRIS by Holden, Carroll, Blythe and Parkhouse

Michael Carroll is one of the new breed of Dredd writers currently tasked with chronicling Old Stoney Face regularly whenever John Wagner isn’t. Because I don’t follow The Tooth regular like anymore I’ve not read a lot of his stuff yet, but it seems competent enough, just lacking that essential Umpty factor.  This Debris one is fine, I guess, but not exactly a stunner. It’s about a block seceding from the Meg and how it has a big gun on top to defend itself. There’s an interesting kernel there about how the block feels it’s better at protecting its inhabitants than the Judges, and it’s hard not to see their point as the story is set after another of the seemingly endless city filleting events.  The gun on the top is the least interesting aspect but this proves to be the focus of the strip, which is unfortunate. Carroll seems unduly impressed by the fact that the gun hoovers® up debris (that’s right!) to fire. Sure, it’s an idea but it’s not a big enough or good enough idea to hang the story on. I mean, it’s a big gun so all you have to do is get under it so it can’t fix a bead on you and Bob’s your uncle and Fanny’s your Judge. This doesn’t seem to occur to any of the characters, who are bulked up by some Space Marines who themselves are bulked up by their armour (hence their inclusion in this volume). The Marines are there because the Judges are so depleted by the regular occurrence of extinction  level events their numbers are running low, they might also be there to highlight the different approaches to situations between the military and judicial mind-set, they might not; it’s hard to tell because developing that would distract from the big gun, which Carroll is convinced we are more interested in. Unfortunately we’re not; or I wasn’t, you might be all over that big gun like a rash. Since it devolves quickly into action and shouting Debris takes up too much page space. After The Pit it’s pretty much established that the Dredd audience can manage the more talky stories, so Carroll’s swerve into the least interesting  and more action packed approach is even more puzzling. Holden’s art is okay though; a little rushed and he fluffs some of the staging, but it’s chunky and funky in a Brett Ewins/Rufus Dayglo markers and rulers way. It’s no great shakes but Dredd seems like Dredd and entertainment is had. OKAY!

JUDGE DREDD: WARZONE Art by P J Holden Written by John Wagner Coloured by Len O'Grady Lettered by Tom Frame Originally published in JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 240-243

 photo JDMCwz01B_zpsvqihnzra.jpg JUDGE DREDD: WARZONE by Holden, Wagner, O'Grady and Frame

Not only is this one also illustrated by P J Holden but its events are also spurred into being by a recent Mega-City trashing event. One of the many (many) cool beans things about The World of Dredd is how Events happen and then there is a period of fallout from that Event which has to be navigated before the next corpse-piling Event occurs. Because, yes, astonishingly, it turns out that it is possible to segue from one Event into another while also providing satisfactory stories with beginnings, middles and (crucial this:) endings, characterisation and even internal logic; despite what writers of North American genre comics demonstrate on a monthly basis. (I mean seriously now, are you people even trying?) Anyway, Dredd’s after some bloke who was instrumental in terror attacks on the Big Meg. Wisely hiding out in a warzone the guy probably thinks he’s safe, unfortunately he doesn’t realise he’s the bad guy in a Judge Dredd strip so his days are numbered, like on a really morbid calendar. You can take the war comics off the child but he’ll only buy them again later in more expensive hardback formats. No wait, I mean you can take the writer out of the war comics but you can’t take the war comics out of the writer. Wagner might have started out writing girls’ (eeew!) comics but he got great during his stint on war comics, and Warzone is like a quick reminder to the world that where war comics are concerned John Wagner’s still got it going on. He hasn’t lost a step; he might even have gained a couple of new ones.

 photo JDMCwz02B_zpsx2ixn5p2.jpg JUDGE DREDD: WARZONE by Holden, Wagner, O'Grady and Frame

In less time than it takes a North American genre comic writer to have his characters discuss their favourite cereals Wagner has sketched in the personalities of each member of the group assigned to Dredd. Not only that but he’s also established the needlessness and futility of the conflict they are waging (it’s space-Vietnam). Sure the soldiers are types, but they are also alive; the noble sergeant who is more metal than man, the shell-shock case who can only utter profanities, the hov-grafted guy who lost his girl along with his legs, the ear-collecting Rogue Trooper-a-like, etc etc. Not an original one among them, but you’ll still give a shit when they get shot to bits. How does that happen? SPOILER: Good writing. There’s a tellingly protracted sequence after the big battle when time is spent just showing the bodies, all torn and mangled and host to a variety of carrion eaters, in which the reader is silently invited to ruminate upon exactly what their deaths have achieved. They died bravely and they died well but they are dead. Wagner being Wagner there’s also some humour because where there’s life there’s laughter. I particularly enjoyed Dredd’s abrupt curtailment of the campfire bonding. In the end as implacable as ever Dredd, bloody but never beaten, pushes his way past the war and manages to extract some small measure of Justice for the fallen. Warzone is John Wagner doing war comics and that’s still VERY GOOD!

 

NEXT TIME: Old British war comics make another unlikely appearance in the world of Dredd as a couple of familiar faces get a new coat of future-paint! Hoo ha -COMICS!!!