Sorry, Internet. I wrote a whole post and transferred all of Hibbs' exciting bug-eating photos but blogger doesn't feel like uploading them. So now I'm late for work and we don't have any bug-eating entry for today. Hooray!
I'll try posting them again tonight. (And, now, finally, I understand why people switch to Wordpress. Grrr.)
This is the second week in a row where I walked out of the comic store shaking my head in shame. Just tons and tons of books I didn't get a chance to read at all. Of course, part of that may be that there are more and more substantial book releases all the time as well--I spent a good chunk of this last Friday making my way through BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2006--but, me being me, I'm perfectly happy to blame the complete and utter breakdown of my reading faculties (or is that facilities?) as 40 bears down on my unprepared ass. And on that merry note, will Steve D, Adam Stephanides and Sean, all of whom provided invaluable answers to my fat, slobby bad-ass survey of a few weeks ago drop me a line at pigDOTlatinATgmailDOTcom? Your valuable prizes have arrived!
And now, on with the four-color feeding frenzy:
52 WEEK #22: As Bri pointed out, this book is far better than a weekly comic really has any right to be. The scene with Will Magnus muttering "I don't want to be crazy, I don't want to be crazy" while his world falls apart around him was great, but I admit Super-Chief sort of kertwangs some deep liberal knee-jerk response in me--finally, a superhero for Native Americans who want to kill their mouthy grandfathers! Very OK, but when Bat-Hombre debuts by kicking out his mom's uterus to use as a magic bolo, don't say you weren't warned.
ALL NEW ATOM #4: Apart from the comment about Byrne's dynamism in dialogue scenes, I pretty much agree with Hibbs' review here, too. And did I imagine it or did the Atom's arch-nemesis lick his knife on the last page of this issue? Licking a knife is what today's kids do instead of twirling one's mustache, if you ask me. It's kinda played out as an "ooo, he's so eeeevil!" form of shorthand. More-or-less OK issue overall, though.
AMERICAN SPLENDOR #2: The good news: Chris Weston draws Harvey Pekar (at a comic book convention!) The bad news: he only does so for two pages. Still, a terrific line-up of artistic talent made this a Good issue if you go in for the Harvey Pekar kind of thing.
BEYOND #4: Four issues in and it's still playing its big, cosmic concept very small. While I think that's generally a plus--I was sure we'd have gotten a power cosmic Gravity wrist-wrestling The Beyonder for control of the cosmos by now--it feels like the story isn't going to ramp up as much as putter about and then tidily close up shop. I know I'm a contrarian, but now that McDuffie and Kolins have my interest, I'd like to see something bigger.
BOYS #3: Nothing particularly deep or snarky to say about the issue, but I thought it was interesting how Robertson can give his work an almost-Dave Gibbons-ish feel when he wants to--like that cover, for example. (I thought Cameron Stewart's work in Other Side looked a bit like Robertson's work too, as long as I'm saying whatever's coming to mind as I write this.) An OK issue, but if there aren't some serious fireworks in store by the end of the first arc, I wonder if enough readers are gonna stick around--which is kinda like saying I wonder if I'm gonna stick around, but kinda not. I can read this for free while working the counter, you know.
CRIMINAL #1: You picked this up, right? If not, you should. There's a lot to praise here, but the two things that struck me most were Phillips' way with a setting (and Val Staples' fantastic coloring), making a half-dozen different neighborhoods still feel like part of the same city, and the way Brubaker has compressed his already-taut storytelling--the bit about the newspaper strip was the only thing that I could've seen cutting (and I'm sure it has a payoff later down the line). Very Good stuff, in the way that, say, a '70s Don Siegel film is very good stuff--you're watching a genre work done by someone at the top of their craft who knows that genre front to back. A rare treat for comics, and worth picking up.
DETECTIVE COMICS #824: It's hard to believe that a competent done-in-one Batman comic is all I really want these days, but it's true. So the fact that this doesn't quite satisfy is unsettling. I think it's because I've been trained to expect the run to end in six issues, or for a huge crossover story to come in and wipe out the tone of the run, or maybe because it seems likely to me Dini's renovations of the Rogue's Gallery will be forgotten two issues after he leaves. Highly OK, but I guess the Bat-franchise has left me gun-shy.
DOCTOR STRANGE OATH #1: As mentioned in Bri's comment thread, the art in this was amazingly lovely--as with any good Ditko creation, Dr. Strange is actually receptive to stylization--and Vaughan's thoughtful way of connecting bits and pieces (Strange reciting the Hippocratic oath almost as if it was one of his spells) made for a Good read. Like Detective above, I can't really get too fired up about it because there'll be likely be an entirely different take on Dr. Strange coming down the pike in about a year. But that's my problem (or the marketplace's) and not anything having to do with the book per se, I... think.
FANTASTIC FOUR #540: Suffers a bit too much from "have the cake and eat it, too" as far as Reed's behavior is concerned--JMS has him as both the frightened tool of the government and the Lehrer-quoting critic. If you can get around that, though (and it seems like reading most of the Civil War stuff means willing to suspend disbelief as far as character behavior is concerned), I'd say this was pretty OK.
FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #13: I thought the art was blucky, and apparently Peter David wants "Friendly Neighborhood" Spider-Man to mean "time-traveling demonic enemy fighting" Spider-Man, so I think I'm pretty much through. Bummer. Eh.
GIANT SIZE WOLVERINE #1: Actually reminded of most of the Giant-Size books I used to buy in the '70s--lovely art, disposable story, eye-meltingly bad back-ups. OK but mainly because David Aja's work was really impressive here--a melange of great '70s artists like Wrightson, Ploog, Steranko, while somehow having its own flavor. Really not bad at all.
IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #1: You could teach a class off of Phil Hester's masterful handling of the overabundant text--it all went down more or less smoothly. Sadly, all that yakkity-yak didn't really have much of a payoff in this issue as the big reveal (the guy in the Ant-Man suit isn't Gallant, it's Goofus) is spelled out in the title of the book. There were a few other problems as well, but let's just call it a lowish OK and hope the book hits its stride next issue.
TO DANCE: A BALLERINA'S STORY: You may or may not know this about me but I'm a medium-sized ballet nerd. Friends got me hooked on the S.F. Ballet back in the early '90s when I was a huge HK film fan and it was a surprisingly smooth transition from watching John Woo and Jackie Chan films to watching pieces choreographed by Mark Morris and George Balanchine. This puts me in an odd place with regards to Siena Cherson Siegel and Mark Siegel's book, TO DANCE--not being a twelve year old girl, I'm far from the perfect audience for this, but I do think I know enough about the subject material to be frustrated by the work. While the illustrations are superb--Marc Siegel captures that perfect balance between weight and weightlessness in a ballerina's dance--the story as written seems to be one missed opportunity after the other: there's a million interesting things about in the story of a young girl attending ballet school while her family falls apart, and Siena Cherson Siegel knows enough to nod at them as they pass by in the narrative, but little more. It all slides by too quickly, too much anecdote and too little incident, and the protagonist manages to become entranced with ballet, have her family break up, lose her career at an early age due to an injury, and find a new life with husband and child, all without the reader really connecting once. And then there's the whole frustration for the ballet nerd of reading a graphic novel set at the NYCB during Balanchine's last days, with Barishnykov and Suzanne Farrell running around--apart from a brief, evocative recreation of Farrell's farewell dance to Balanchine after he died, it could just as well be the story of any gal growing up at any ballet school anywhere. And that's a damn shame.
I'm sure TO DANCE will kill with its intended audience--it's not too hard to imagine it flying off the shelves of savvy ballet shops during Nutcracker season--but rather than an EH children's book, it could have been an inspiring graphic novel, and it's a damn shame that it's not. At least according to this ballet nerd.
PICK OF THE WEEK: CRIMINAL #1, no doubt. Although OTHER SIDE #1, which I was too lazy to review, is also really worth your time and coin.
PICK OF THE WEAK: Obviously, I was more disappointed with TO DANCE than any other book I read, but that's just because of all the squandered potential. I'm gonna give it to FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #13 because I'm a complainy bee-yotch.
TRADE OF THE WEEK: THE BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2006--it has a piece or two that didn't work for me, but apart from stuff I read and loved previously (like those killer McSweeney's pieces by Ware, Dietch and Heatley), the stuff I missed the first time around that was great--I think Justin Hall's "La Rubia Loca" makes this book worth the price of admission alone, but I'd probably think that about Rebecca Dart's "Rabbithead" is I hadn't already seen it. It's almost 300 pages of top-notch comics for 22 bucks, and the book itself is a lovely looking thing. If you've got the coin to spend, it's worth it.
COMING UP: Bug pictures to post! Probably in the next day or two. And hopefully I can get these fucking things written and posted a little sooner....
What'd you think of last week?
Look, I still got it up before the store opens, so it counts right? Right?!?!? 52 WEEK #23 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #44 (A) ANNIHILATION #3 (OF 6) ANTIGONE ARCHIE & FRIENDS #104 BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #211 BATMAN STRIKES #26 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #2 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #146 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #118 BOMB QUEEN VOL 2 #1 CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #6 CHIP ZDARSKYS MONSTER COPS #1 CIVIL WAR FRONT LINE #7 (OF 11) CYBERFORCE #6 DARKMAN VS ARMY OF DARKNESS #1 (OF 4) DEAD AT 17 VOL 2 #1 DEVI #4 DEVILS PANTIES #4 DILDO #12 (A) DMZ #12 DORK #11 EMISSARY #5 EMO BOY #9 ESCAPISTS #4 (OF 6) FABLES #54 FABLES SPECIAL EDITION #1 FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #30 GEN 13 #1 GREEN ARROW #67 GREEN LANTERN CORPS #5 GRIMM FAIRY TALES #9 JLA CLASSIFIED #28 JOE LANSDALES DRIVE IN VOL 2 WRAPAROUND CVR #4 (OF 4) KING OF KINGS #1 COVER A LOVE THE WAY YOU LOVE #2 MAD MAGAZINE #471 MAGICIAN APPRENTICE COLLECTEDEDITION MARTIAN MANHUNTER #3 (OF 8) MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #17 MARVEL MILESTONES LEGION MONSTERS SPIDER-MAN & BRO VOODOO NEW X-MEN #31 NEXT #4 (OF 6) PAULA PERIL #2 PHANTOM #12 PIRATES OF CONEY ISLAND #1 (OF 8) POWERS #20 PUNISHER #39 RED PROPHET TALES OF ALVIN MAKER COLLECTED EDITION ROKKIN #4 SAM NOIR SAMURAI DETECTIVE #2 SCARLET TRACES THE GREAT GAME #4 (OF 4) STAN LEE MEETS DR STRANGE STAR WARS LEGACY #4 STRANGE GIRL #11 SUPER TABOO XXX #4 (A) TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #1 (OF 8) THUNDERBOLTS #107 ULTIMATE POWER #1 (OF 9) ULTIMATE X-MEN #75 UMBRA #3 (OF 3) UNCANNY X-MEN #479 WOLVERINE ORIGINS #7 WORLDSTORM #1 X ISLE #3 (OF 5)
Books / Mags / Stuff ABSOLUTE SANDMAN VOL 1 HC ANIMATION MAGAZINE NOV 2006 ANTHOLOGY OF GRAPHIC FICTION CARTOONS & TRUE STORIES HC AQUAMAN VINTAGE MESH CAP ARES GOD OF WAR TP BABY SITTERS CLUB VOL 2 TRUTHABOUT STACY SC BIG APPLE SHORTS TP (A) BLACK HARVEST VOL 1 TP CANCER VIXEN CAPTAIN AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER VOL 2 TP DAVE MCKEAN PARTICLE TAROT ARCANA HC (O/A) DAVE MCKEAN POSTCARD FROM VIENNA HC DESOLATION JONES TP EDU MANGA BEETHOVEN GN GIRLS BY BILLY MARTINEZ SC INFINITE CRISIS COMPANION TP INVINCIBLE VOL 7 THREES COMPANY TP LEES TOY REVIEW OCT 2006 #168 LIBERTY MEADOWS VOL 3 SUMMER OF LOVE TP NEW PTG LONG CHALKBOARD & OTHER STORIES GN MANHWA NOVELLA COLLECTION VOL2 GN OLD BOY VOL 2 TP PULSE VOL 3 FEAR TP RED WARRIOR ASSASSIN FOR THIEVES WORLD GN ROCK BOTTOM GN SCANNER DARKLY GN SPAWN COLLECTION VOL 2 TP SPIDER-MAN THE OTHER TP TOM STRONG BOOK SIX HC TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #148 TOYFARE BOWEN SPIDERWOMAN STATUE CVR #112 UNTOUCHABLES TP WAHOO MORRIS BOOK ONE TP WHO FIGHTER WITH HEART OF DARKNESS TP WIDE AWAKE 666 TP
What looks good to you?
-B
Well, the original plan was that yesterday, Thursday, I was going to belatedly take care of last week's reviews. Not only was Sue on vacation, so I had an extra 3 hours of riding the register, but it was the first rainy day in SF all year -- first rainy days historically totally killing business as people adjust to the new weather (it did, we were off by 1/3), as who wants to buy paper when water is coming from the sky? There's no way I wasn't going to have MORE than enough time to get caught up on both reading and reviewing. And then Michael Lieberman walked in the door. For long-time CE customers, you'll remember Michael as "Little Mike", the store's original "Munchkin" -- a young kid who gets you lunch, does some scut work, etc. Michael is Munchkin no more, having been now to law school, just come back from a summer internship (I think) at the Hague (!), and about to start a new job in Washington DC at a law firm where, in his first year, will be making a greater salary than either my Mom (president of marketing), or my Stepmom (runs a 10 acre complex for the elderly) are after being high in their fields for 20 years.
Frickin' lawyers!
Michael is also Ben's Godfather, because I'm not an idiot, and I wanted to be sure that if Tzipora and I died in a fiery cash accident or something, that Ben would have someone both young AND capable of taking care of him.
Michael showed up around 1:30, and before I realized it, it was suddenly quarter-to-six and we had jawed the whole afternoon away, talking about supply-side economics, political ethics, morality & money, and a dozen other light subjects. Chris Carter (no, the other one) also hung out for like an hour and gave us some interesting primers on how globalization is affecting animation.
So, no, I didn't write any reviews yesterday.
Wednesday was Ben's 3rd birthday, and a wonderful time was had by all -- a small party at his preschool, dinner with the 3 American grandparents (mm, Pauline's Pizza!), and the beginning of the presents. Tzipora got him a super-realistic 1/6 scale garbage truck (Ben has the odd fixation with garbage men and their trucks), which, for like the first time ever got Ben to play 100% all by himself for like 90 minutes at a time. Usually, he's too interested in his parents to play alone -- he wants us to do all the playing with him -- but finally, FINALLY he's got a toy which utterly absorbs him.
Me, I started the decade-long project of doling out *my* action figures to the boy -- gave him my "Super Powers" Superman, Batman and Robin figures, with the cloth capes and all.
He liked the garbage truck better, at least on day one!
Sunday, we have his birthday party with all of his friends. We've got a jump house, and there's a hot tub at my parents house. And tons of screaming little children. Should be awesome.
Finally, I'll be eating that bug for ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #100 today (I think). I've decided on crickets, since the pet store carries those, and I was wowed by the packaging (?!?) of live crickets. They're in a box in which they'll live "a week or two", that has marketing copy like "The classic cricket experience -- crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside!" Um, wow. I was just expecting a clear plastic bag, really.
(I was also offered mealworms to buy, but they don't look enough like a "bug" to me, although the clerk assured me they were reasonably tasty) (?!?!?!)
I just lost too much time last week to do the bug eating, but it should be today, as long as I remember to bring the camera to work this afternoon. Hopefully sometime middle of next week for pix, depending on Jeff's schedule to resize and post them.
Like a said above, I was originally going to do last week's books yesterday (then this week's books early next week), but since I missed that window, I'm just going to skip ahead and handle THIS week's books, much earlier in the cycle than you are used to.
However, here's a quick run at last week's comics: my PICK OF THE WEEK was STAN LEE MEETS SPIDER-MAN. Not because it was any good, but because it was the strangest god-damn thing I've ever read in my life. Not only do you have Stan psycho-analyzing Spidey, and giving him... dodgy advice ("You've got to keep doing it, son – think of all the people depending on you with toys and movies and underoos!"), but then it had a Joss Whedon story that ends up with, and I swear I am not making this up, Stan going off to PornWorld. Ah, Marvel comics! We're not just for kids any more! Oddly, STAN LEE MEETS SPIDER-MAN was also my PICK OF THE WEAK, since, wholly fuck, can you BELIEVE that content?!?!?! My BOOK/TP OF THE WEEK: SHENZHEN A TRAVELOGUE FROM CHINA HC. I thought last year's PYONGYANG was one of the best books of 2005, and I was really looking forward to this. It isn't at all the same as PYONGYANG, which really gave me "deep" insight into a culture I'll likely never experience on my own -- instead SHENZEN (and this has to be an earlier work, no?) is much more about how Desisle personally feels while traveling in China, with all of the boredom and banality that being a stranger in a strange culture can bring. But, I didn't feel like I learned anything much about China or Shenzhen itself, that I didn't already know. Despite that, this was still, easily, my pick of last week's stuff.
As far as THIS week goes....
52 WEEK #22: We're rapidly reaching the halfway point (4 to go), though it doesn't at all feel to me like we're halfway into the plots. The back half is going to need to be pretty dense, I think, to handle all of the threads they've opened up (like, gosh, hasn't it been forever since we've seen Vic and Renee?). Still and all, I'm pretty much enjoying the run. My only real problem this week : "Going Themyscira" doesn't real sound that likely to me as a (what would you call it?) catchphrase -- there's 4 syllables in that second word! "Doin' a Diana" or "Going Wondy" would both parse better, I think (though the former probably wouldn't translate that well without a footnote, as I tend to think the average reader would probably first flash to the real English one). This is spectacularly OK work, all around, which for a weekly comic is like the gold standard.
ALL NEW ATOM #4: Byrne's gone, and the book suffers from it a bit. I thought #3 was one of the best things Simone had ever written, but that spark doesn't follow through for this reader into #4. Probably because of Mr. Info Dump guy that lays out the Ivy Town weirdness in a very tell-not-show way. I'm also already getting pretty sick of the funny-talking aliens. The art is fine -- just a little too, oh, "DC House Style" for me, I guess. You can say a lot about Byrne, but at least there was always dynamism in his art, even (especially?) in scenes where its just people standing around talking. Merely OK.
AMERICAN SPLENDOR #2: This is much more what I was expecting from a Vertigo AmSplen -- Richard Corben AND Eddie Campbell? Cool! AmSplen's historical problem has always been the art -- I LIKE Gary Dumm's art just fine, but it makes Pekar's mundane tales that much more mundane, and having a Campbell or a Corben makes the mundane seem much more dynamic. Comics NEED dynamism, I believe. On the other hand, I kept expecting an ax murderer or something to show up in the Corben piece because, y'know, Corben. Still, I'll go with GOOD.
BOYS #3: Momentum builds here. Each issue has been better than the one before, which is great because I thought #1 was pretty darn weak. Here, finally, I'm getting a handle on the characters and their world. I'll go with a solid, if unspectacular GOOD.
CRIMINAL #1: Very dense, very strong, very pretty. Top notch stuff from two guys who have really strongly found their legs, and, clearly, work well together. I was going to go with an "Excellent", but I think I'm going to be a petty bitch and knock it down to a VERY GOOD because of the thin cover and the lack of "Good hand" when you pick the comic up. (But, it is actually really Excellent)
CROSS BRONX #2: There was that one SPECTACULAR page in issue #1 where the ghost lady rises up and causes the car crash, and there's nothing here that matches that astounding visual. But it is still GOOD.
DETECTIVE COMICS #824: There's something just a little tiny bit off here, and I'm not sure what it is -- maybe that there aren't any villains on display, or not any real detectiving going on, or maybe it's just the stupid Paris Hilton stand-in (which seems out of place even for foppish Bruce Wayne). Its certainly not bad, but it was pretty much just OK.
DOCTOR STRANGE OATH #1: Oooh, pretty. Plus it had some great bits of business (that Iron Fist opening), and some adept craft (excellent job fitting the origin into the issue without seeming forced -- that kind of natural info dumping is a hard trick to pull off, really), and, so, hard to not call it VERY GOOD from me.
FANTASTIC FOUR #540 CW: What I would have said, had I reviewed last weeks comics, is that, regardless of what you think of CIVIL WAR itself, they're doing some fairly amazing tie-in tricks; for the most part, every tie-in comic has seemed to be relevant and expansive, and you can see why they HAD to hold the crossovers for the main book, because core plot points are involved. That's REALLY rare in line-wide crossovers, especially doing them so well integrated. Which makes this FF even that much odder -- the only thing it seems integrated TO is last weeks AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, not CIVIL WAR itself. I mean, that's NOT how Sue left, is it? Now, I like this version better (Just like I liked FRONTLINE's Death of Giant Man better than the "real" one), but it is a real false note here. I also am really looking for a legitimate justification of Reed's actions, and I'm just not getting it at all. A big EH from me.
GIANT SIZE WOLVERINE #1: The front story was alright (if a bit MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS), but WTF is up with the reprint story as the back up? That kind of incoherent, ugly nonsense is exactly the kind of story that Marvel should be trying to forget, not mis-match pairing with a more "arty" Wolvie story. Brings the whole package down to an AWFUL.
IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #1: Decent and dense read, but it doesn't really hold up. SHIELD is comprised of these kinds of agents? So, then, like the only reason Hydra hasn't taken over, is because they have bigger boobs working for them, then? "The world's most unlikable character" is, perhaps, not exactly accurate (THE FLASH's Griffen takes the 2006 prize, so far, I think), but that's not exactly a sustainable pitch for an ongoing hero book, I think. Hard time Savage Critic Scaling this one, since I think the faults in premise and setup are large, but the skill of execution is decent, so let's be wishy-washy and say OK.
JONAH HEX #12: I had a few problems with pacing, and who-shows-up-where-when, but it's all minor, and this is one of those books that almost certainly deserves a bigger audience than it is getting. I never EVER thought I'd like a Jonah Hex comic book, yet I really do, so I'm going with GOOD.
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #119: Just one of those periodic reminders that this crudely drawn comic, with all of the annoying (since I'm not playing, and have zero use for it) gamer material in the back, is still pretty much the funniest monthly comic on the stands. No, it IS the funniest monthly comic on the stands. There's nothing special about THIS issue, and, really, everything is mid-story so maybe not the best jumping in point (last issue, #118, is probably better for that), but every once in a while I feel the need to remind you this is VERY GOOD.
MYSTERY IN SPACE #2: Bored now. I used to have a "Zzzzzz" rating, so consider it brought back for this.
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET #1: Nope, they're not really getting the appeal of Freddy here, are they? If this is what we're going to get from Wildstorm horror titles (especially where, I assume?, they're paying licensing fees too), then lets abort the line now, since this is just AWFUL.
NIGHTWING #125: So, first off, thank god Bruce Jones is gone. Wolfman and Jurgens are... well, they're kind of the equivalent of comfort food, as a creative team, aren't they? Not particularly good or anything, but filling enough, and evoking nostalgia. There's no way I could cal this better than OK, but, compared to what came directly before, this is a home run of a comic.
OTHER SIDE #1: Wow, that was a punch to the gut. Strong strong characterization, and a solid look at both sides of the Vietnam war. Loverly artwork. A solid home run, and one you should snap right up, because, let's face it, Vertigo is really really spotty about collecting mini-series into TP. VERY GOOD
X-MEN PHOENIX WARSONG #2: So, uh, wait, this book has nothing to do with Phoenix afterall? Now, that's a dead-brilliant move! Really AWFUL.
As for the Books/TPs, there were three major releases this week... all aimed at the bookstores, at that (though I'm going to sell a ton of each):
BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2006 is a really nice package of work, with a superb presentation, but I have to admit it felt a little too close to MCSWEENEYS #13. Still, I expect to sell a shedload. On the other hand, I want to kill Elizabeth Moore for that fucking introduction ("Please please please take comics seriously. We're all adult and stuff! Plllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeaaassssseeeee") -- we're in a really sad place if we need the validation of someone else to bless the medium. I was also a little ... amused maybe that Pekar's introduction goes on an on about how comics are not just superheroes, and the VERY FIRST STORY presented in the book is a SUPERHERO STORY. Sure it's got a "he shouldn't have been a superhero" punchline, but that doesn't make it any less of a punchline. These kind of collections/surveys tend to be pretty snobby, high brow, and otherwise elitist in their presentation of "Comics are Art, damn it! Plllllease believe us!" (and they have been since since Fantagraphics did the BEST COMICS OF THE DECADE (1980s) sixteen or so years ago -- and I keep thinking there was at least one other even before that), but, let's face it, this IS a collection of really fantastic stories. I'm not all the way through it yet, but I haven't read one story that was anything less than "VERY GOOD" so far. Next year, turn down the desperate rhetoric, and I'd have nothing but good things to say. Up to the point I've read, I'm calling it EXCELLENT.
CANCER VIXEN: Its breezy, its focuses on what I think is a largely superficial and vapid segment of American (and specifically New York) culture, but I find it hard to really review autobio, especially when it's about something really fucked up like breast cancer? (or domestic abuse, in the case of DRAGONSLIPPERS by Rosalind Penfold; or abuse and Multiple Personality Disorder in Madison Clell's CUCKOO) Actually, I think those two are also good comparisons, because from a comics-as-craft sense, none of these are especially "good" -- Marisa Acocella Marchetto's cartooning isn't really strong enough to carry the parts of the story that have weight here, but it's breezy enough to make the fashonista stuff clever and fun -- but they're all affecting works if only for the raw sheer bravery on display. I'd put this in the hand of someone who has, or knows a woman with, breast cancer, most certainly, because "Yes, you can survive" is a really important thing. I'd also recommend it to people who are interested in comics-as-a-form because there are relatively few works that try to tackle subjects like these (I'd add PEDRO & ME, and MOM'S CANCER, and I know there are 2 or 3 more, but I'm blanking at the moment), and because of the "it"-driven nature of the book, I think this might ultimately be seen as a historical book in the widespread awareness of comics. If I have to give it a Savage Critic rating (and I do), it's not really much more than an OK, though. That might just be me, however -- if you read VOGUE and watch fashion on E! then you'd probably like it much more than me.
CHICKEN WITH PLUMS HC: I haven't had the time yet this week to read it! I suck! On a flip through, it looks instantly better than EMBRODERIES, so I am heartened and eager to get to it, but I haven't been able to yet. But the reason I am even typing a thing is because I CANNOT believe they went for the cut-out dustcover. God, those things are a nightmare. Virtually every copy of EPILEPTIC that we received ended up damaged, if not from distribution or transport, then from rack damages. The cutout is "safer here, being in the middle of the book, but my god, if you're going to do a dustjacket that *in any way* can be mishandled (Also this week, Gaiman's FRAGILE THINGS falls into the same category), shrinkwrap the son of a bitch. Trust me, WE can open the ONE copy for display.
So, uh, PICK OF THE WEEK: Aw, CRIMINAL #1 by far.
PICK OF THE WEAK: it is either X-MEN PHOENIX WARSONG #2, or NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET #1, and I gotta go with the latter. Freddy should have FOUNTAINS OF BLOOD, man
GN/TP OF THE WEEK: No contest, screwed up introduction or not -- BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2006.
ASSHAT OF THE WEEK: It really really bugs me when publishers ship the HC and SC version of a book at the same time. That, almost always, means the SC is DOA. So, give it up for both WALLYS WORLD and LIFE OF POPE JOHN PAUL II IN COMICS. Eedjits!
And, if I may ask, what did YOU think?
-B
Couple of really terrific books coming out this week! Now I've got to get back to the order form and other first of the month stuff...
2000 AD #1504 2000 AD #1505 52 WEEK #22 AGENTS OF ATLAS #3 (OF 6) ALL NEW ATOM #4 AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #0 AMERICAN SPLENDOR #2 (OF 4) ARCHIE DIGEST #229 BATTLER BRITTON #4 (OF 5) BEGOTHS COMICS #1 BETTY & VERONICA #221 BEYOND #4 (OF 6) BOYS #3 CITY OF HEROES #16 CRIMINAL #1 CROSS BRONX #2 DETECTIVE COMICS #824 DOCTOR STRANGE OATH #1 (OF 5) DR DEBUNKO THE SHORT STORIES DUMMYS GUIDE TO DANGER #2 (OF4) ELEPHANTMEN #3 EMILY THE STRANGE #3 FALLEN ANGEL IDW #9 FANTASTIC FOUR #540 CW FEAR AGENT #8 FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #13 FUTURAMA COMICS #27 GIANT SIZE WOLVERINE #1 HORRORWOOD #3 (OF 4) HOT MOMS #8 (A) HUNTER KILLER CASSADAY CVR #8 INCREDIBLE HULK #99 IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #1 JONAH HEX #12 JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #26 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #119 LEADING MAN #3 (OF 5) LOONEY TUNES #143 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #20 MARVEL TEAM-UP #25 MONSTER PARADE #1 MYSTERY IN SPACE #2 (OF 8) NEIL GAIMANS NEVERWHERE #9 (OF 9) NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET #1 NIGHTWING #125 NORTHWEST PASSAGE #3 OMAC #4 (OF 8) OTHER SIDE #1 (OF 5) OUTSIDERS #41 POISON ELVES DOMINION #6 POISON ELVES LOST TALES #7 PS238 #18 PVP #28 ROCKETO #12 SAVAGE BROTHERS #2 (OF 3) SHADOWHAWK #15 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #167 SPIKE ASYLUM #2 (OF 5) STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS SAKURADOGAN CVR A #2 (OF 4) TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS (IDW) #8 TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD IMAGEED #1 VAULT OF MICHAEL ALLRED #1 (OF 4) WINTER MEN #5 (OF 8) X-MEN PHOENIX WARSONG #2 (OF 5) Y THE LAST MAN #50
Books / Mags / Stuff BATMAN 13 INCH DELUXE COLLECTOR FIGURE BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SAGITTARIUS IS BLEEDING TP BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2006 BOSNIAN FLAT DOG GN CHICKEN WITH PLUMS HC COMPLETE PEANUTS VOL 6 1961-1962 HC COMPLETE POPBOT COLLECTION TP DR STRANGE VS DRACULA MONTESIFORMULA TP DRAGON HEAD VOL 4 GN (OF 10) ELFQUEST THE DISCOVERY TP ESSENTIAL X-MEN VOL 1 TP NEW PTG HAUNT OF HORROR EDGAR ALLAN POE HC HONEY TALKS STRIPBURGER COLLECTION HOW TO MAKE MONEY LIKE A PORNSTAR GN INFINITE CRISIS HC JANES WORLD VOL 6 TP LAST PLANET STANDING TP LIFE OF POPE JOHN PAUL II IN COMICS GN LIFE OF POPE JOHN PAUL II IN COMICS SC MAGIC BOTTLE A BLAB STORYBOOKHC MIKE HOFFMAN SPACE GIRLS 50 SKETCHBOOK MOTHERS MOUTH GN NATIONAL LAMPOON MAGAZINE RACK TP NEIL GAIMAN FRAGILE THINGS HC OLD JEWISH COMEDIANS A BLAB STORYBOOK HC PEANUTBUTTER & JEREMY BEST BOOK EVER TP PHYSICS OF SUPERHEROES SC PREMILLENNIAL MAAKIES 1ST FIVE YEARS HC RISING STARS VOL 3 FIRE & ASHTP (NEW PTG) SFX #148 SIZZLE #31 (A) SPIKE VS DRACULA TP SWEETER SIDE OF R CRUMB HC ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN VOL 7 HC ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 14 PHOENIX? TP WALLYS WORLD HC WALLYS WORLD SC WILL EISNERS NEW YORK LIFE INTHE BIG CITY HC WIZARD BEST OF BASIC TRAININGADVANCED TECHNIQUES
What looks good to you?
-B
Oh, sure, horrifically late, but I didn't think I'd be back so soon, to tell you the truth. However, I finished my writing contract (and am now sort of hanging out hoping they'll throw more my way) and have my Wednesday morning free and clear (I might have tried to write this sooner, in fact, if the IT guys at work hadn't done something at work so my web browser bombs out whenever I open two windows...) so let's see what happens when guy with no short-term memory opens up week-old whup-ass on books he barely remembers. Maybe it'll be entertaining in that "senile old fool chastises couch cushion he thinks is his cat" kind of way... 52 WEEK #20: When Lobo he put on his little hat at the end of the book, I involuntarily thought, "Hey! I want back the five bucks I spent on Devil's Rejects!" Either Lobo needs a makeover, or my brain needs a bleaching. And anyone else notice the ad count in this issue? It wasn't as bad as some of those Marvel books a while back, but I did put this book down struck by the cosmic sci-fi sweep of Rush City. On the other hand, Kevin Nowlan, $2.50, etc., etc. Highly OK.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #17: Huh. Having this come out within a month of the previous issue made it seem almost twice as good. Which is my way of saying I liked it, but, apart from that hilarious and amazing background/foreground transition, would be loathe to say exactly why any more or any less than the previous issues. And yet, Very Good.
BIRDS OF PREY #98: Kinda why I wish Simone'd stayed away from the whole Batgirl thing--it's fucked if it's Barbara and it's fucked if it's somebody else we don't know--but I do wonder if these past few storylines is setting us up to a change in the focus of the Birds of Prey team. Instead of cracking down on crime, they're going to be helping/saving/fighting young female metas that have fallen through the blabbity-blab of society's yakkity-yak. Or maybe they expressly said that four issues ago and I kinda missed it. Anyway, OK, but really only because the new Batgirl was at least amusing with her "dark justice rulez!" dialogue.
BLADE #1: Double-damning with faint praise: the best Blade book I've ever read and the best Howard Chaykin art in the last year or so. It's still underwhelming, mind you (I feel for the writer who comes up with the the big splashy moment, like the one here where Blade is facing off against nine million vampiric SHIELD agents firing guns and sliding down ropes, You Only Live Twice style, and how that writer must feel after an artist does a somehwat perfunctory job of execution (it looks like Chaykin just adapted some pages from that graphic novel adaptation of Bob Fosse's Chicago he's been working on all these years)) but, for a first issue, I've seen much worse. OK, and we'll see where it goes.
CATWOMAN #59: Has this book officially changed its name to Film Freak yet? Yeah, I can see how he could be a classic villain in the Batman Rogue's Gallery style but, dude, isn't this like the tenth consecutive issue he's appeared in? Also, I know this probably makes me come off like an uptight prude, but I don't think Selina is really the type of person who would knowingly sleep with the son of someone she's slept with (and I think knows is in love with her) just because she and the son feel they have "a connection." But, hey, maybe this is just to pave the way for the revelation that the father of her baby is Tim Drake and I'm being too judgmental. Eh.
CIVIL WAR #4: You'd think that, for my review, you could just cut to a cage full of chimps going apeshit and you'd have an accurate take of my reaction, right? Weirdly, no. I had a genuine reaction to Peter's unmasking in Civil War #2 because I felt that (a) it was a huge mistake, and (b) it at least had been well-established by the JMS lead-in stories over in ASM. For better or for worse, they had led the character to a point where the choice there seemed natural. But, despite being a huge old school Marvel fanboy, I had no real reaction to Civil War #4 (apart from "Wow, that's dumb") because everyone was just so out of character, I didn't believe any of it. Also, honestly, although Mark Millar has read enough Marvel comics to find the wiggle room in any characterization he wants to make--"Of course, Professor X was molesting Jean Grey! Don't you remember that one panel where he's thinking...."--I genuinely believe the clarion call of Millar's muse is the sound of the money truck backing up to his house. There's no real point in debating character or motivation or plausability--you either buy it or you don't. I didn't (in the suspension of disbelief sense), and I won't (in the fiscal sense) from now on.
(Sorry I didn't get to work in the "This is my face as I'm fucking the Marvel Universe in the ass" joke, but I'm sure someone else has gotten around to it by now.)
Lovely art, though. I guess I'll go Eh.
CLAW THE UNCONQUERED #4: I am docked a full letter grade in Barbarian Appreciation because I read this and not the other two Conan books this week. I'm sure they're fine, the other two books, but I have to admit, I kinda dig Claw, and I'm liking this miniseries. This issue was a little heavy on the expository blabbity-blab after the initial werewolf fight, but considering I'm the only person buying it, who cares? OK.
EXILES #86: The threat was utterly limp, but the all-Wolverine conceit was fun. I'm sure it's better than what Claremont's first story--Exiles on the Planet of Infinite Ororo Dominatrices or somesuch--would have been, for sure. Highly OK, just because I think the art, although competent, lacks a certain pizzazz.
FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #4: Back to teh suck. Whoever last issue's fill-in artist was, get that dude more work, and pronto! Awful.
GHOST RIDER #3: Ghost Rider and Dr. Strange have a sissy slapfight in a cemetery. Soothingly sibilant high concept notwithstanding, it's dumb and dull and the "Johnny Blaze is a Tool of the Devil, and we do mean Tool!" approach drives me nuts. Not worth your time. Awful.
HELLBLAZER #224: I missed Ms. Mina's first arc, so have no idea how in media res this issue is, but wow, it'll media res the shit right outta you if this is your first issue. A decent conceit, a fun take on Constantine, and a refreshingly balls-to-the-wall approach made it a Good read, but I'm not altogether sure the team can pull off the story effectively. We'll see, I guess.
IRON MAN #12: For extra credit, read this and Civil War #4 back to back and figure out how you're supposed to believe these books are even by the same publisher, much less featuring the same character. Really weird.
MOON KNIGHT #5: Home Alone, as re-enacted by the Moon Knight Community Players. I was okay with it until, I shit you not, Taskmaster got his ass shot by a butler with a blunderbuss. A staggeringly fucking stupid issue with a lot of really terrible choices made by the writer and a real misunderstanding (to put it mildly) of the Taskmaster. Awful, awful, awful.
NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #8: Probably my favorite issue since the dragon in the purple underwear left. Having a Dormammu analog get his head jammed in a toilet was positively inspired, I gotta say, and those Mindless Ones? Gold. And there was some actual characterization and shit, so I'm going with Very Good.
REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #6: Came out last week, but I wanted to mention it because I'm a big Ape-head. I thought the story kinda ran around in circles for six issues, had far too many people hollering things at each other, and tended to mistake portent for genuine drama far too much of the time. And yet, I also thought it was a lot better than most of the Apes comics projects I've seen over the last decade or so, and that last backup story in particular was exceptionally satisfying. If they release a trade of this and it's affordably priced, you could do worse than to pick it up. Highly OK.
SUPERMAN #656: I hope Superman fights the Anti-Christ ten issues from now. That'd be great. Good.
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #34: It's odd. I should totally love this, since Carey not only is having the Ultimate version of the FF meet and fight a pastiche of the Forever People, but also in that Carey's alteration to his pastiche (instead of loveable hippies, his Forever People are paranoid veterans of an unending war) seems to be addressing the differences between two similar periods of American history (The Forever People were created while America was still at war in Vietnam, after all). And yet, I'm only more-or-less OK with it and I'm not sure why. It could be that Ferry's art, which I loved on Adam Strange, is so light and colorful and Euro, it just can't evoke the Kirbyness required for me to really appreciate the conceit. Of course, one of my big problems with UFF is that it swapped out Kirby for Kubert right at the beginning, thus making this book absurdly visually lackluster.... I don't know. Obviously, I could blather on for hours and get no closer to my discontent. Let's call it distressingly Eh.
WALKING DEAD #31: I was strangely underwhelmed by this issue as Kirkman makes some hard-to-believe plot choices and some odd pacing decisions (that conversation between Rick and the nurse didn't feel believable at all--even if Rick's trying to get someon on his side, I can't believe he'd take the very slow "so what's with you and the doctor? Are you guys dating?" since he knows about the threat facing his community). Guess it was Eh? Weird.
WETWORKS #1: What the fuck? I haven't read any previous iteration of Wetworks, so lemme get if I follow this--it's a covert operations team that underwent some dramatic transformation around the time it got involved in a battle between vampires and werewolves? That concept is so retarded it's almost awesome, but Mike Carey goes for a thoughtful, underplayed approach that (I think) takes that original "idea" and tries to change it up--and that would work if somebody somewhere had bothered to recap the original premise so new readers like myself weren't completely baffled. Kinda Awful, but amusingly so.
PICK OF (LAST) WEEK: ASTONISHING X-MEN #17, but there was a lot I didn't read.
PICK OF THE WEAK: MOON KNIGHT #5, with just a few bad choices, all but destroyed the tone the entire mini had been working toward. That seems like more of a disappointment than what Mark "Do you like my hat? It's made of money!" Millar is doing, just because Mr. Millar knows what he's doing.
TRADE PICK: I don't know, to be honest. GODLAND VOL. 2 TPB, probably? Where's another god-damned volume of god-damned SGT. FROG when you god-damned need him?
NEXT WEEK (by which I mean this week): Blue Beetle, Daredevil and She-Hulk will probably make me 80% less cranky this week than I was last week. Plus, I had no idea about this Dracula vs. Capone miniseries--I'll be reading it just to see if the King of the Vampires is defeated by Capone's untreated syphilis! Nuff said, true believer!
And youse?
Another big-ass week! Graeme's on vacation, but he posted a review in draft form before he left, for me to post. Gonna do that in one second, but I'm not sure if it will post BEFORE or AFTER this entry. So if he's not above me, look below!
52 WEEK #21 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #43 (A) ACTION COMICS #843 ALBION #6 (OF 6) ALL NEW OFF HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z #9 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #535 CW AMERICAN VIRGIN #7 AMERICAN WAY #8 (OF 8) ANAL INTRUDERS FROM URANUS #3(A) ARSINOE #5 (A) BART SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #12 BATMAN #657 BATMAN AND THE MAD MONK #2 (OF 6) BATMAN JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT #12 (OF 12) BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #169 BIG BANG PRESENTS #2 SUPER FRANKENSTEIN BITE CLUB VAMPIRE CRIME UNIT #5 (OF 5) BLACK PANTHER #20 BLOWJOB #19 (A) BLUE BEETLE #7 CABLE DEADPOOL #32 CW CAPTAIN AMERICA #22 CW CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #25 CIVIL WAR FRONT LINE #6 (OF 11) CIVIL WAR YOUNG AVENGERS & RUNAWAYS #3 (OF 4) CLIVE BARKERS GREAT & SECRET SHOW #6 (OF 12) CSI DYING IN THE GUTTERS #2 DAREDEVIL #89 DRACULA VS CAPONE #1 (OF 3) ETERNALS #4 (OF 6) FREE SEXXX #1 (A) HARD TO SWALLOW (A) HAWKGIRL #56 HEROES FOR HIRE #2 CW INVINCIBLE #35 JACK OF FABLES #3 JSA CLASSIFIED #17 JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #125 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #2 LIONS TIGERS & BEARS VOL 2 #3(OF 4) LOVELESS #11 NINJA SCROLL #1 PUNISHER #38 RAMAYAN 3392 AD #1 RED SONJA MONSTER ISLAND ONE SHOT RUNAWAY COMICS #2 SADHU #3 SECOND WAVE WAR O/T WORLDS #6 SECRET SIX #4 (OF 6) SHE-HULK 2 #12 SNAKES ON A PLANE #2 (OF 2) SNAKEWOMAN #3 SOCK MONKEY THE INCHES INCIDENT #1 (OF 4) SPAWN #160 SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE #10 SPIKE ASYLUM #1 (OF 5) STAN LEE MEETS SPIDER-MAN SUPER REAL #3 SUPERGIRL #10 SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #22 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #40 TEEN TITANS #39 TEEN TITANS GO #35 TRANSFORMERS EVOLUTIONS HEARTS OF STEEL #4 (OF 4) TRIALS OF SHAZAM #2 (OF 12) ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #100 ULTIMATES 2 #12 UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS #3 (OF 8) UNCLE SCROOGE #358 USAGI YOJIMBO #97 WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES #673 WARLORD #8 WONDERLAND #2 X-MEN #191 ZOMBIE #1 (OF 4) ZOMBIES #4
Book / Mag / Stuff CHICANOS VOL 1 TP CHICKENHARE HOUSE OF KLAUS TP COMICS JOURNAL #278 DAREDEVIL VOL 6 HC DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON SAMURAI BULLETS TP DEADWORLD DEAD KILLER TP ENEMY ACE ARCHIVES VOL 2 HC ESSENTIAL TALES OF ZOMBIE TP ESSENTIAL THOR VOL 3 TP FEAST OF CROW MMPB GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES BOB MARLEY MUSICAL LEGEND GN GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES MARTIN LUTHER KING JR GN GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES MUHAMMED ALI BOXING HERO GN GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES NELSON MANDELA AFRICAN STATESMAN GN GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES OPRAH WINFREY MEDIA SUPERSTAR GN GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES ROSA PARKS CIVIL RIGHTS HEROINE GN HAUNT OF HORROR EDGAR ALLAN POE HC JSA VOL 11 MIXED SIGNALS TP JUSTICE VOL 1 HC JUXTAPOZ OCT 2006 VOL 14 #10 KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE VOL 1 TP LINE MANGA VOL 1 TP LOSERS ENDGAME TP MARVEL SELECT CLOAK & DAGGER AF MASTERS OF HORROR TP OTHERWORLD VOL 1 BOOK ONE TP PIN-UP ART OF JAY SCOTT PIKE VOL 1 TP PREVIEWS VOL XVI #10 (NET) RAGNARS KINGS OF THE ROAD GN SHAZAM FAMILY ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC SHENZHEN A TRAVELOGUE FROM CHINA HC SIMPSONS VOL 4 TREEHOUSE OF HORROR HOODOO VOODOO TP STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL 1 PKT TP SPANISH SUPERMAN UP UP AND AWAY TP THOR ETERNALS SAGA VOL 1 TP ULTIMATE IRON MAN VOL 1 TP UNHOLY KINSHIP GN WALKING DEAD VOL 5 BEST DEFENSE TP WAR FIX SC WIZARD BEST OF BASIC TRAININGADVANCED TECHNIQUES WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE HORRORMANIA CVR #181
What looks good to you?
-B
I've got to be quick this week, for reasons that I'll explain at the end of the column, so just one long bitchy review this week. And you know what I'm going to talk about, don't you? CIVIL WAR #4: I don’t know if it makes me an old fogey or not, but the other day when I was talking about this issue with Brian, I actually asked the question “Where are the editors?” It was rhetorical, of course; I know that the editors are doing interviews with Newsarama where they dodge the obvious questions, but it still kind of fits my mindset with this book – With each and every issue, it gets further and further into the realms of bad fanfiction, written around ideas that sound cool but don’t really stand up to scrutiny. For example: Clone Thor. When, exactly, did Iron Man clone Thor? We’re told that he collected Thor’s hair from the first Avengers meeting (and that scene, where Hank Pym explains the origin of clone Thor, is clunky with exposition and just draws attention to its own ridiculousness: “What kind of man combs his furniture for hair follicles and skin cells?” I would’ve thought that the answer would be the kind of man who is either OCD about cleanliness or someone who is really really paranoid and a CSI fan, but according to the Wasp, the real answer is “A guy with a lot of foresight, I guess.” Oh, that’s right! We’re still doing the Iron Man as Futurist thing, aren’t we?), but not given any timeline for when he started with the whole cloning process. Or why he got the idea to clone Thor in the first place. I mean, we know why Mark Millar did it: For the shock value of the close of issue 3. But why did Iron Man do it? What made him think, “Well, I’m fighting some superheroes, so I probably need some kind of secret weapon… Hmmm… I think I’ll clone Thor.” His “side” already has Cap’s team outnumbered and out-powered (Isn’t Sentry supposed to be the most powerful person in the Marvel Universe? He’s on Iron Man’s team, even though we haven’t seen him yet), so it can’t be that, and for psychological effect, I’m sure that clones of themselves would’ve been much more successful… So… I don’t really get the reasoning behind it, in story. But that’s okay, because this isn’t really a series about story, after all – It’s a series about shock and awe, and that’s about it.
Brian’s main problem with the issue, which I’m sure he’ll tell you himself if he gets the chance to write reviews this week, was the end of the book, where Sue writes Reed a letter explaining why she’s leaving. Not that the letter is terribly written – although, it kind of is – but that the letter explains that, even though Sue is leaving her husband and abandoning her kids, she didn’t want to be thought of as a bad mother or wife, so she made him dinner and slept with him one last time. Which, uh… yeah. That’s more than a little fucked up right there, and a kind of fascinating insight into the way that Mark Millar views the world. That might be indicative of the entire series, in a way; if we’re to believe Millar when he says that he is definitely on Iron Man’s side, then I am very, very scared of Mark Millar. As countless people online have pointed out by now, by this point in the series, Iron Man and Reed Richards are very clearly evil scientists: They have cloned their dead friend to use as a weapon, and are now mind-controlling supervillains (because that always works) to use them as weapons as well. They are paranoid – See Reed in the scene at Goliath’s funeral (and, surprise! It’s the giant who dies this issue, continuing a theme through Mark Millar’s work since, what, his first Authority arc?): “Is it just me or is Peter Parker acting very, very suspiciously?” It’s just you, Reed, because all we’re shown is Peter talk to his family and looking upset (Now, we all know that this is foreshadowing for Parker changing sides, but that’s only because of the obviousness in Millar’s writing; as soon as he said “Do you ever wonder if we’ve picked the right side here, Hank?”, you know that he’s going to jump ship. The characters in the story don’t have the ability to recognize their writer’s limitations, though, so for Reed to get suspicious, it’s either paranoia or bad writing, as he’s reacting to signs that we’ve never been shown). – and callous. This is actually flagged in the script itself, with Hank Pym asking “I just watched a new superhuman I helped create blow a hole through one of my oldest friends. Do you really think I’m so remote - - so detached - - that this wouldn’t have some kind of impact on me?” as we see Reed working on the clone Thor, clearly remote and detached and unimpacted. By contrast, Captain America becomes a bit of a zealot, but it’s hardly in the same class of character assassination… It’s unclear if we’re meant to consider Cap the lesser of two evils, or if the people behind this story are completely unaware of the morality of what they’re creating.
I know, I know. I’m overthinking the whole thing. It’s true; I definitely feel that I’m thinking about it more than the creators, which is worrying, but by this point, I’m just reading the whole thing in some weird state of shock at how unfun the Marvel Universe is these days (Compare and contrast with X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #1, Jeff Parker’s new retro X-series, which is much better than it has any right to be, the second time he’s taken a crappy concept and made something so enjoyable after his Agents of Atlas series), and how it just keeps being made darker and darker.
Ass, and don’t even get me started on the “Watcher looks sad” panel.
I’m off on vacation – I’m actually flying in about an hour and a half – so no more reviews from me for awhile (well, potentially something next week if I get a chance to write while I’m gone), but in the meantime, what have you people enjoyed lately?
Is it just me, or is it completely INSANE that it is the 17th day of the 9th month already? A LOT more comics this week, than the last two. Honestly, I hate this feast or famine shit...
100 BULLETS #76 2000 AD #1502 2000 AD #1503 52 WEEK #20 ANGEL SCRIPTBOOK #7 ARMY OF DARKNESS #10 ASTONISHING X-MEN #17 BETTY #159 BIRDS OF PREY #98 BLADE #1 CATWOMAN #59 CHECKMATE #6 CIVIL WAR #4 (OF 7) CIVIL WAR AMAZING SPIDER-MAN DECISIONS CIVIL WAR X-MEN #3 (OF 4) CLAW THE UNCONQUERED #4 CONAN #32 CONAN & THE SONGS OF THE DEAD #3 (OF 5) DEADMAN #2 DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #344 DWIGHT T ALBATROSS THE GOON NOIR #1 (OF 3) EXILES #86 FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #4 GHOST RIDER #3 GIANTS IN THE EARTH #1 HELLBLAZER #224 ION #6 (OF 12) IRON MAN #12 JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #249 JUGHEAD AND FRIENDS DIGEST #14 KRYPTO THE SUPER DOG #1 (OF 6) LOOKING GLASS WARS HATTER M #3 (OF 4) MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS #5 MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #16 MARVEL SPOTLIGHT STAN LEE JACK KIRBY MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #293 MOON KNIGHT #5 NEGATIVE BURN #4 NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #8 OCCULT CRIMES TASKFORCE #2 (OF 4) PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #106 PRINCESS NATASHA #4 (OF 4) ROAD TO HELL #2 (OF 3) ROBIN #154 RUNAWAYS #20 SAVAGE RED SONJA QOTFW #2 (OF4) SCOOBY DOO #112 SE7EN GLUTTONY #1 (OF 7) SEA OF RED #12 SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #30 SHADOWPACT #5 SIMPSONS COMICS #122 SKYE RUNNER #4 STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC #8 STRANGERS IN PARADISE #84 SUPERMAN #656 TESTAMENT #10 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #34 UNION JACK #1 (OF 4) WALKING DEAD #31 (RES) WETWORKS #1 WITCHBLADE #101 WOLVERINE #46 CW X-FACTOR #11 X-MEN FIRST CLASS #1 (OF 8)
Books / Mags / Stuff ACTOR COMICS PRESENTS VOL 1 TP AMELIA RULES BOOKSHELF ED VOL1 WHOLE WORLDS CRAZY TP AMELIA RULES BOOKSHELF ED VOL2 WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY TP AMELIA RULES BOOKSHELF ED VOL3 SUPERHEROES TP ANIMATION MAGAZINE OCT 2006 #165 ANY WAY I WANT IT TP (A) BACK ISSUE #18 BATGIRL DESTUCTIONS DAUGHTER TP BATMAN CHRONICLES VOL 2 TP CEST BON ANTHOLOGY VOL 1 GN CINEFEX #107 SEPT 2006 COMICS BUYERS GUIDE DEC 2006 #1623 CONAN ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SAVAGE BARBARIAN HC FANTASTIC FOUR VISIONARIES JOHN BYRNE VOL 6 TP FEMME FATALES MAY JUNE 2006 VOL 15 #3 FOLLOWING CEREBUS #9 FOREST KING WOODLARKS SHADOW VOL 1 FORTEAN TIMES #214 GODLAND VOL 2 ANOTHER SUNNY DELIGHT TP HEAVY METAL NOVEMBER 2006 HEIR TO FIRE GILA FLATS GN IN THE STUDIO VISITS WITH CONTEMPORARY CARTOONISTS TP JAMES BOND TROUBLE SPOT TP MARVEL MASTERWORKS HUMAN TORCH VOL 1 NEW ED HC MS MARVEL VOL 1 BEST OF THE BEST PREMIERE HC NOG A DOD PREHISTORIC CANADIAN PSYCKEDOOOLIA GN PERHAPANAUTS TP PLAYBOY INTERVIEWS THE DIRECTORS TP QUITTER SC SAM MARLOWE SC (A) SIZZLE #31 (A) SPIRIT OF THE SAMURAI OF SWORDS AND RINGS GN THE WORLD OF QUEST VOL 1 UNCANNY X-MEN NEW AGE VOL 5 FIRST FOURSAKEN TP WHAT I DID ON MY HYPERGALACTIC INTERSTELLAR SUMMER VACATION X-MEN APOCALYPSE DRACULA TP
What looks good to you?
-B
Second set of reviews this week, because, let’s face it: I should talk about the comics some more. But it's hard when BBC America is doing an Eddie Izzard marathon... 52 WEEK NINETEEN: I have no idea what it is about the “shocking” reveal at the end of this issue – It’s certainly not the shock, because all the reveal is is really just the confirmation of a fan-held suspicion for a while now – but it’s somehow made me much more excited about the series as a whole. Perhaps it’s because it feels like the beginning of some kind of second act: Now we know (one of) the bad guys, we can start to begin working out just what’s been going on behind the scenes for the last eighteen weeks. Was (spoiler warning) Skeets lying to Booster all along, and plotting his demise, or taking advantage of his cluelessness? Is time really broken, or was that just something that Skeets was telling Booster to cover his tracks? Is Skeets the one kidnapping mad scientists, and if so, is he trying to start the artificial intelligent wars that were mentioned as a future event earlier in the series? With this and the last issue, things are beginning to come together and a larger plot becoming apparent (although some of the threads seem to be being lost in this convergence: When was the last time we saw John Henry Irons?), giving the series some much needed forward momentum. Good, and interestingly-done payoff-without-being-payoff, reminding me of Lost.
AGENTS OF ATLAS #2: Jeff Parker continues to have fun in his corner of the Marvel Universe, away from Wars, Civil and otherwise (Is “War” Marvel’s version of “Crisis”? We’ve had Secret Wars, Secret War, Civil War, and next year we’re getting World War Hulk), and it shows in the dialogue here, whether it be Jimmy Woo’s 50s spy lingo or Ken Hale’s dryness (“Derek, I’m a freaking gorilla. What else can you do to me?”). There’s also a nice bit about alien toilets that sums up just how silly Jeff is prepared to be and how much of a breath of fresh air this series is in the very serious world of The Big Two these days. Very Good, and continuing to be a very pleasant surprise overall. If Parker can be kept around, I’d love to see this become an ongoing book.
CASANOVA #4: I love this comic. I can’t be objective about it, for some reason. It hits all of my buttons: Humor, action, sense of its own ridiculousness but rejoicing in it nonetheless, pop cultural thievery and magically some emotional resonance as well. And that’s not going anywhere near Gabriel Ba’s artwork, which is clean and cartoony and dramatic and and and. Just like the last issue, I finished this one and thought “It’s the best one yet,” and part of that comes from the way in which each issue builds upon the last while still managing to have a plot that manages to resolve itself within an issue – Matt Fraction’s mentioned that he’s following a Buffy model of writing here, with the A plot of each episode complete within each episode, but with B through Z plots that run the length of the season, and it’s not the only Buffy influence I got here; the importance of (and strained relationship with) family felt very Whedonesque, as well. Excellent, but like I said, I can’t be objective around this.
THE ESCAPISTS #3: There’s a sequence in the middle of this issue, where the characters talk to each other through their work, revealing themselves in the work, that felt new and exciting – the way the lettering changes as the fictional characters stop speaking as their characters and start talking as themselves, and the artwork setting their conversation as chase sequence – which only underscored how disappointing the rest of the book felt (with the exception of Max’s reaction to his first bad review, which also feels honest). It’s not just that Steve Rolston’s art is still an awkward Philip Bond impression that doesn’t have Bond’s lightness, even as it suffocates what’s good about Rolston’s own style, but Brian K. Vaughan’s writing, which comes across as entirely unrealistic and forced: The hand of the writer is too obvious as the characters’ comic is critically panned (Awww!) but magically successful, being a top ten seller (Huzzah!) within a few pages, while an evil corporate publisher appears at the end of the issue, wanting the rights to the character back and wondering where his moustache is, because he wants to twirl it to be melodramatic. I have no idea what’s happened to Vaughan here, because this is all much more false than his writing normally reads, adopting the melodramatic plotting of the Chabon source novel without the smoothness of Chabon’s voice to try and hide it. A disappointing Eh.
MS. MARVEL #7: Still in the middle of Civil War, and still oddly making the anti-registration side more sympathetic despite the best attempts of the creators, I mention this Crap book just to point out that David Mack’s cover art is really weirdly half-assed in its treatment of the background characters.
MYTHOS: HULK #1: Paolo Rivera’s art is nice, if muddy – he has a really enjoyably cartoony treatment of the characters, especially when it comes to exaggeration of body language – but it’s used in the service of a very badly written story that not only begs the question “What’s the point?” but also the question “Did Paul Jenkins think that he had more pages here?” It’s a very oddly paced story, with a lot of time spent on set-up that never really pays off, and the Hulk himself spending very little time on-panel, and none of that time hinting at any complexity in the character whatsoever – This is the Hulk as destructive force of nature and that’s it. It confuses more than anything, because it adds nothing to the character or the origin story, but it also doesn’t work solely as a retelling of the origin, either, due to the loose ends: Are we really meant to end the book thinking that the real tragedy of the Hulk is that Betty Ross ends up being dumped, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear? Awful, despite how much I liked the art.
PHONOGRAM #2: So, I did end up picking up the first issue, and enjoyed it in the “Britpop Hellblazer” way that it had. But this second issue felt too referential in ways that the first managed to avoid. I got all of the references, because I was in my twenties when Britpop was happening and I bought the singles and hated the songs – Oh, boy, did I hate Echobelly, as much as I fancied Sonya Madan – that get namechecked in here, but… I’m not sure that there was enough underneath all of then namedropping; plotwise, it feels like the first half of an issue, not an issue in itself. Which may be the point, and is kind of fitting; Britpop was always concerned with style more than substance, after all – although the best bands had both – but still… I’m hoping that next issue has more explanation of what’s happening than (admittedly well-deserved) hatred of shit DJs. Eh, but the first issue was better.
A short week of “singles”, as they’re called by some, this week. But that’s because it’s all about the graphic novels this time around – Hopefully you’ve all made your trip to your comic or book emporium to pick up American Born Chinese and/or Pride of Baghdad already (ABC is still my TRADE OF THE WEEK, if you’re caring), although I was surprised to find myself enjoying this week’s JONAH HEX: FACE FULL OF VIOLENCE collection as much as I did. I’d tried the first issue (collected here with the next five issues) when it came out and more or less thought “Yeah, fine, whatever”, but either I’ve become soft in my old age or the stories here get better as they go along. Yes, Luke Ross’s art still feels somewhat plasticy and photo-referenced, but Justin Grey and Jimmy Palmiotti get to play with the “Jonah comes and makes everything alright” formula enough to keep things entertaining: Evil nuns! Almost all lawmen being corrupt! Lots of people being hanged! I’d be happier if it wasn’t on glossy paper because, well, it should be on rough pulpy newsprint and cost next to nothing (and, in an ideal world, be read by macho men in hats and pubs), but that’s just me being snotty; it’s actually Very Good, and who expected that?
PICK OF THE WEEK is Casanova, however, and PICK OF THE WEAK is Mythos. Next week: As much as I'll want to write something about Civil War #4, I’m on vacation, so anyone who knows of good places to eat in New England, feel free to offer advice in the comments.
Yesterday, Friday, was my first day working at CE in two weeks and I gotta say: looking at the new comics rack and seeing all the issues of Julia Wertz's Fart Party next to the latest volume of MOME? Genuinely heartwarming. In other brief not-comics-but-pop-culture news, I'd seen (almost all of) the first two Lone Wolf & Cub movies, but that restored version of Shogun Assassin is fucking great. That narration? That synth-heavy score? All the most insane parts of the first two Lone Wolf & Cub movies cut into one not-qute-coherent whole? I loved it.
But hands-down my favorite thing about it is Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Itto. Not only is he an awesome badass, but he is a fat, slobby awesome badass. There's a scene where he's half-dead and killed a dozen guys and about to kill a dozen more and, like, he's unshaven, and his hair is sticking up in weird places and there's, like, leaves in it, and it was just the coolest fucking thing ever. I know it's just an extension of the Mifune Yojimbo/Sanjuro thing but it's taken to an even higher level.
Anyway, it got me thinking--who would you say are the top five cinematic fat slob badasses of all time? My list at the moment looks like:
1. Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Itto (Lone Wolf & Cub; Shogun Assassin) 2. Toshiro Mifune as Sanjuro/Yojimbo (movies of the same name) 3. Orson Welles as Hank Quinlan (Touch of Evil) 4. M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser (Blood Simple; and just as you can't imagine Wakayama's performance without Mifune's, you kinda can't imagine Walsh's without Welles') 5. John Belushi as Capt. Wild Bill Kelso (1941)
Who else am I missing? (Note: All other Belushi performances are probably null and void unless they're very different from above, as is Sammo Hung unless you've got a role where he was also a slob badass, as opposed to just a fat one.) Drop me your picks in the comments.
Where was I? Oh,right. Those whattya-call-'ems:
52 WEEK #19: I was expecting to be deeply annoyed by Lobo, but the idea that he's found religion and has kinda cleaned up his act, made that storyline kinda interesting and fun. The Booster Gold stuff read a little rushed but had some cool patches and you've got two gorgeous looking pages by Brian Bolland, to boot. Highly OK, I thought.
ABANDON THE OLD IN TOKYO HC: I thought this second volume of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's work was better than the first, probably because there's at least a little more variation in the choice of protagonists--for example, the first story (whose title I can't remember because I am a dope), about a failing kid's manga artist whose interest in bathroom graffiti is a stunning piece of work, oddly reminescent of Clowes' Caricature, that succeeds precisely because of the creator's willingness to risk the reader's confusion between creator and protagonist. (It also has one of the most haunting full pages I've seen in some time, where the protagonist is shown on the street after having descended a pedestrian overpass. Tatsumi is giving us an ordinary bit of everyday life and a shockingly bluunt metaphor--the protagonist is caught in a spiralling descent--at the same time.) There's some other amazing stuff in here (the title story, and, jesus, that story with that monkey!) although your best bet is to read just a story every other day so they don't suffer from their similarity: a gorgeous hardcover for $19.95, this is Very Good if you dole it out accordingly.
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE SC: Although I only read this once, I think Graeme's review is pretty much spot-on--this is a one of the best graphic novels of the year. It effortlessly strikes that sweet spot of being hilarious, troubling, entertaining and thought-provoking all at once, and it puts you in that all-too-rare position of laughing and challenging about why you're laughing all at the same time. I understand Graeme's initial vexation at the end but I thought it kept the three storylines from being more than just variations of each other--I was reminded of the way the melodies in a canon follow and then come together--and opened not just the technique of the story but possibly the message into a new place none of the stories could have gotten to on their own. And, to put it crassly, at 240 color pgs. for $14.95, this sucker is a god-damned great deal for the money. Excellent work, worth reading and worth owning.
BECK VOLUME 5 TPB: I know, I know. Several weeks old but worth commenting on anyway, because on the one hand, the payoffs were tremendously enjoyable and yet, on the other, out of synch with the pacing of the previous volumes--it read like Harold Sakuishi had been told to wrap things up and then halfway through the editors changed their mind and told him to keep going. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was damn Good stuff and if I had my way, you fuckers would buy this and like it even if you did so at gunpoint, but I'd be a sycophantic cheerleader if I didn't admit this volume felt a little off.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #21: A little bit of trouble with that ending scene between C & B, but the rest of this was pure comic book nirvana. Very Good stuff if you're a Cap fan.
CASANOVA #4: Four issues, four months, and Fraction's work is shaping up to be a very pleasurable thing, indeed. Under an enjoyable done-in-one cosmic spy heist story is a lovely subtextual rumination on the difficulty of determining the value of what's real and what's fake in matters (largely, but not solely) spiritual. And it's not even diagrammed out, underlined or prechewed in the accompanying text piece. Really Good stuff--I quite liked it.
CLAWS #2: Far less stiff and annoying and tool-ish than I expected it to be. In fact, although maybe not quite as charming as the first issue, still very charming overall. Sadly, the larger price tag (like, $3.99 or something?) keeps in the Valley of the OK, I think.
DEATH NOTE VOL. 7 TPB: Like Beck, suffers from a sudden heaving jump of the plot but I still wouldn't trade it for the world: Death Note was becoming just a bit too complacent in its formula and the revelation in this volume were just what was needed. Could well have screwed itself, but, for now, Very Good.
DEVI #3: I know, I know. It's really just Witchblade: India and yet, between the large cast and the occasional surreal cityscape and the badass who really seems like he should look like Sanjay Dutt instead of a dude you'd find on an Old Spice bottle, I'm just the teeniest bit hooked. OK.
DMZ #11: A really lovely looking issue, but I think looking at the pre-DMZ break between NYC and the USA is a mistake--it's a concept that works as a conceit, as a rich base for satire and allegory and personal vision; trying to sell the reader on the idea that this is something that might actually ever happen is just inviting disbelief. But as a gorgeous looking issue, and another oddly moving loveletter to New York, Good.
DRAGON HEAD VOLS. 2 and 3 TPB: I'm glad this is being spared Tokyopop's "direct ordering" treatment because this book didn't get interesting to me until Volume 3. Minetaro Mochizuki's art is great--something about it reminds me of Charles Burns and, weirdly, Chester Gould--but the first several volumes push the hysteria and "descent into madness" thing a little too quickly. If you can push through that, Volume 3 does a much better job of positing the ways in which panicked and isolated people fall into patterns of magical thinking. Vols. 1 and 2: OK. Vol. 3: Good, but to be honest, if you had to pick between this and the similar Drifting Classroom, I'd steer you toward Drifting Classroom.
DRIFTING CLASSROOM VOL. 1 TPB: Seriously, this was a great first volume: an entire elementary school gets transported to a mysterious wasteland and everyone loses their fucking mind. Unlike Dragon Head, this book nails the madness lurking behind shock and trauma, probably because it shows how much mass panic contributes: some of the most shocking scenes in this volume are of panicking children trampling each other or falling to their death in an attempt to get back to their parents. If you ask me, the very retro art (the series originally ran from 1972 to 1974) makes the work all the more disturbing as doe-eyed Tezuka kids running in mid-air really heightens the sense of innocence being strapped into the front car to Hell. Very Good stuff and you should hunt it down pronto.
ESCAPISTS #3: All of my problems with issue #2 magically disappeared this issue, and I'm back to really enjoying this. On the one hand, I mourn its brevity--it's not going to explore nearly as many interesting ideas and riffs as the novel did--but I'm actually thrilled that this miniseries might now pace itself properlyand not dramatically drop the ball at the end of things. Very Good stuff.
EX MACHINA #23: On the other hand, if you must buy only one BKV dream sequence this week (and "buy" in the sense of "believe") this one has it hands down over the one in Escapists. Forced ending, but there's always something about this book that never really gels quite right for me. OK.
FART PARTY: I've enjoyed every issue of Julia Wertz's self-published Fart Party, but, to be honest, have been leery about recommending them because they're, like, $3 each. (I know, I know. I'm a cheap bastard and I suck.) So here's a great solution: go to Julia's site, read all of her strips, then give her as much money as you think she deserves. If you hate reading comix on the web, get the second issue of Fart Party either from us or from her (it's fifty cents cheaper and has a priceless Liz Prince cameo). Either way, I think you'll really like her work--the charmingly crude visuals are more than made up for by the hilariously crude obscenities--and will support it accordingly. Funny stuff.
GOLGO 13 VOL. 4 GN: I can't really review this because I still can't think about G-13 sniping a space satellite without some primordial pleasure center in my brain going off. And the English Rose story is an audaciously fucked up piece of work that doesn't care who it pisses off. Very Good stuff although if we could get just a bit less Clancy and a bit more Crazy, I'd be very pleased.
GREEN ARROW #66: It's sloppy--the captions start off omniscient, go to Ollie, then end[?] with Connor and at least half the book felt like it was set to the "Montage" musical number from Team America--but it's effective: I read it back to front, all in one go, enjoyed it and will read the next issue if it's in the store the same time I am. Quite OK.
GREEN LANTERN #13: Sometimes I wonder if Geoff Johns did intern work for Satan drafting the selling-of-the-soul documents because that guy can find the loophole in anything: Here, it's revealed that Arisa was thirteen years old on a planet where a year's rotation around the sun was equivalent to blah-blah-blah-blah, making her not underage jailbait but instead a super-hot grandma. The rest of this will either similarly entertain or annoy you, depending, but any book where planets blow up willy-nilly and giant transformer robots beat the snot out of Green Lanterns gets a Good by me.
LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #17: Most of the Beto work seemed to poised to easily understandable dramatic denouements for a change, but I'm not sure if they really worked in a dramatic sense. (I suppose they will in the trade but that doesn't do my $4.50 much good right now, does it?) But that's just me snarking. It doesn't matter because Jaime's Hopey story kicks nine kinds of ass and makes the issue worth it all on its own). And, wow, the way that guy draws kids breaks my heart (in a really good way). Very Good issue, despite my initial pissiness.
MONSTER VOL. 4 TPB: If you ever wondered what it might be like if David Lynch directed an episode of The Fugitive, Vol. 4 is maybe as close as you're going to get. Good, and maybe my favorie volume since the first.
MAN CALLED KEV #3: Is it wrong to admit I'm enjoying this much more than The Boys? It's not perfect by any means (Ennis either wrote it in a hurry or his ear for dialogue is getting a bit tinny), but as I think I said elsewhere, it reminds me a little bit of Ennis's dear departed Hitman. Good or highly OK, depending on where you stand with this sort of stuff.
PHONOGRAM #2: I thought the first issue of this, with its Hellblazer-meets-High Fidelity take on the British music scene (and yes, apparently every review of Phonogram is required to take a stab at reverse-engineering the high concept), was quite good. I'm really on the fence however as to whether this issue is better or worse--although it's admirable that the creators don't blurt out the backstory all at a go, I think I spent more of the issue baffled rather than intrigued. The art's lovely and the concept is really, really great but my enthusiasm is more guarded than I would like. A guarded Good (bonus synchronicity points for the way the Transformers screed ties in perfectly with American Born Chinese from First Second).
PRIDE OF BAGHDAD HC: Again, see Graeme. The art on this is stunning and Vaughan's characterization and eye for event tremendously affecting. If you've been wondering what to give that person who loved that copy of We3 you gave them last year, look no further. This book is not without its flaws--the book's end, a nudge to make you take that final little leap of empathy, felt a little pushier than I would have liked--but goddamn, is it a strong piece of work. Good stuff.
SAM NOIR SAMURAI DETECTIVE #1: Very very dumb--it makes Sin City look like The Dubliners by comparison--but very, very gorgeous. Not how I'd spend my cash, but hard to rank that lovely art lower than OK (although I probably should).
TRUTH JUSTIN & AMERICAN WAY #4: I have no idea if anyone's reading this but me (and honestly, I can't remember if I made it past issue #1 or not) but I'd like to sit down with all the issues of it sometime. The '80s shout-outs get old fast--avoid that fake letters page at all cost--but Giuseppe Ferrario's art is goddamned good and the story is fun. Provided there's not tentacle rape in the next few issues, a trade of this skewed to the teen market'd probably do really well. Highly OK.
WASTELAND #3: This, Phonogram, and Casanova all seem very similar to me, and I don't think it's just the WEF pedigree. Even though they're not done in Fell format, Phonogram and Wasteland have similarly ambitious takes on their specific non-capes genres, with black and white work and generous text sections at the end. But whereas Gillen maybe holds his milieu back a little too much, Johnston gives his too much free reign: a really iconic storyline that should move like a b-movie drags under mostly underwhelming art and an over-fastiduous eye for detail. On the letters page, Johnston mentions growing up and playing a lot of RPGs and it shows: Wasteland gets bogged down in too much flavor text too often. My hope is that both Gillen and Johnston will nail down these pacing issues as their books go on but, until then, this is really just kinda OK.
PICK OF THE WEEK: As you can see, didn't bother too much with the crappy stuff (hopefully not to the entry's detriment) so I'll leave it up to you.
PICK OF THE WEAK: See above.
TRADE PICK: American Born Chinese, and then, if you have the coin, either Pride of Baghdad or Drifting Classroom and some other manga volume.
NEXT WEEK: Not from me, amigo! I'm down to the wire this week on two separate deadlines and it's my one year anniversary on Monday. Besides, wasn't that a big ol' portion of mouthiness right there?
Please submit yr. thoughts and lists of slobby fat badasses below. K, thx, bye.
Well, I promised some kind of reviews this week, right? Luckily, I had more to review than just Mystery In Space… Don’t get me wrong; I’m more than happy to talk about last week’s weird science fiction revival from DC, but it’s more fun to get into two of the best graphic novels of this, a pretty great week for graphic novels. So, let’s get into it, shall we? MYSTERY IN SPACE #1: Or, as the logo says, “Mystery In Space With Captain Comet,” which may be my favorite thing about the entire comic – There’s just something about that that makes it sound like some PBS show, like the DC Universe version of Jacques Costeau or something. Sadly, the comic doesn’t follow through on the somewhat kitschy promise of the title, instead offering up something that doesn’t really fit together well – Shane Davis’s jagged Top Cow-esque artwork is a bit of a mismatch with Jim Starlin’s old-fashioned and very… well, Starlin-esque writing (Not that Starlin’s own art over his writing, in the back-up, is that much of an improvement, looking oddly quaint and with some crazy coloring). It has to be said, Starlin has his niche, this weird hippie take on space opera, and he’s made it his in a way unlike any other comic writer. You’ve got to respect that, even if – like me – you find that style to be overwritten and too reliant on “cosmicness” to explain away obvious plot devices; the four page sequence explaining Comet’s death and rebirth has some terrible narration to work through (“Quantum physics I understand and can explain. The spiritual and the occult are realms I never delved into - - Complete Greek. But I wasn’t operating, at that moment, on any kind of intellectual level. Fear drove me on, and chance allowed me to spot that tiny sparkle of light. There was something different about it. Something alluring.” And that’s just one panel!), and once you get to the end of the issue, you realize that not that much has really happened in either of the two stories, outside of exposition and backstory. It reminds me of the Rann-Thanagar War, in the way that it’s amusing that DC’s sci-fi books seem to be some of the more old-fashioned books they publish, writing-wise… Not that that’s a bad thing, but it makes for a pretty Eh comic book, it has to be said.
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE: You know it’s a good sign when one of the few faults that you can find with a book is that you don’t like the font that the lettering is done in, and that’s pretty much the case with Gene Luen Yang’s new graphic novel from First Second. In the same way that Eddie Campbell’s Fate Of The Artist was, for me, the “lead” book of First Second’s launch line, this feels like the lead of the second set of releases, which (again, like the launch line) includes a lot of other strong releases; Lat’s Kampung Boy and Joann Sfar’s Klezmer being the ones that are probably most likely to attract critical attention. This, though, is my favorite of the publisher’s fall releases; a book about personal and cultural identities that manages to talk about both in inclusive and specific ways all at once, playing with stereotypes (and, in the way it tells the story of the Monkey King, mainstream comic storytelling traditions) in such a way as to take advantage of, and undermine, them at the same time. By structuring the book in the way that he does – separating the themes into three distinct storylines that come together at the end – Yang plays slight-of-hand tricks with the true intentions of the story in such a way as to undermine the scope of what he’s doing. The difference in experience between reading the book for the first time and re-reading the book is greater than you’d expect, with the re-read solving what I’d felt was the largest fault of the book the first time around… which I can’t really explain here for fear of spoiling the story (It’s the nature of the reveal of crossover between the three parallel plots, and that’s all I can say. But for those who finish the book and feel as if something was off, re-read it and see what you think then). It’s a very strong piece of writing, though, and one of the best graphic novels I’ve read in a year that was already a great year for graphic novels. Excellent, I would happily say.
PRIDE OF BAGDHAD: I think every fan of Brian K. Vaughan’s approached this with some level of trepidation, if only because it seemed so outside of his comfort zone – Where were the last page cliffhanger reveals going to be in a graphic novel? How could you get pop-cultural references into dialogue from lions in Iraq? – but that turns out to be a plus, surprisingly. It allows you to focus on everything else that BKV does well, which happens to be… well, quite a lot. Really, his characterization is still key, despite the lack of trivia titbits to be spouted; the animals have personalities that border on Disney but still ring true, and allow for the allegory to come through (although the allegory gets slightly too obvious for me at the climax of the book, but your mileage may vary). All of that is beside the point for me, though, because this is artist Niko Henrichon’s book. The artwork is beautiful, and sells you on everything that you need to believe in to work – The characters are distinct, but believable instead of cartoony, the surroundings atmospheric and the storytelling clear. Any talking animal book lives and dies on the artwork, and Henrichon’s stuff is so good that he could’ve made anyone’s script enjoyable; it’s just a plus that Vaughan’s script is pretty damn good, too. Another Excellent book, although, admittedly, I’m not sure that it’s worthy of the hardcover, $25, format. But Very Good, even at that price.
PICK OF THE WEEK, then, is American Born Chinese, which again makes you think that First Second really know what they’re up to when it comes to picking creators. PICK OF THE WEAK, well, it’s Mystery In Space, but that hardly counts, really…
This weekend: Reviews of some of them there comic books, as opposed to graphic novel books. And probably a lot more snark.
Nearly forgot this... Maybe, possibly, reviews tomorrow, if I can clear my plate a little more, but don't cry if I don't manage it...
Here's a mediocre week for comics, but another great week for GNs...
52 WEEK #19 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #42 (A) ANNIHILATION #2 (OF 6) AQUAMAN SWORD OF ATLANTIS #44 ARCHIE #569 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #173 BAOBAB #2 BATMAN GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT NEWPTG BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #210 BATMAN STRIKES #25 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #117 CAPTAIN AMERICA #21 CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #5 CASANOVA #4 CIVIL WAR FILES CLAWS #2 (OF 3) DEVI #3 DMZ #11 ESCAPISTS #3 (OF 6) EX MACHINA #23 FABLES #53 FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #29 GIRLS #17 GREEN ARROW #66 GREEN LANTERN #13 GREEN LANTERN CORPS #4 INCREDIBLE HULK #98 JLA CLASSIFIED #27 LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #17 MAN CALLED KEV #3 (OF 5) MARTIAN MANHUNTER #2 (OF 8) MS MARVEL #7 CW NEW EXCALIBUR #11 NEW X-MEN #30 NIGER #1 NODWICK #34 PHONOGRAM #2 REFLECTIONS #1 REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #6 (OF 6) ROKKIN #3 SAM NOIR SAMURAI DETECTIVE #1 SCARLET TRACES THE GREAT GAME #3 (OF 4) STAR WARS LEGACY #3 SUPER DELUXE HERO HAPPY HOUR LOST EPISODE TALENT #3 (OF 4) THUNDERBOLTS #106 TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT SHOCKWAVE TRUTH JUSTIN & AMERICAN WAY #4 (OF 5) ULTIMATE X-MEN #74 VERONICA #174 WASTELAND #3 WOLVERINE ORIGINS #6
Books / Mags / Stuff ABANDON THE OLD IN TOKYO HC AMERICAN BORN CHINESE SC BARDIN THE SURREALIST HC BIG FAT LITTLE LIT BOOK OF COMICS BIKER GIRL GN CRYING FREEMAN VOL 3 TP DOOM PATROL VOL 4 MUSCLEBOUNDTP DOOMED MAGAZINE #3 ESSENTIAL HULK VOL 4 TP FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN VOL 1 DERAILED TP GI JOE VS TRANSFORMERS VOL 3 ART OF WAR TP HOW TO SELF PUBLISH COMICS TP JOHNNY REPEAT VOL 1 GN JONAH HEX FACE FULL OF VIOLENCE TP JOURNEY INTO MOHAWK COUNTRY SC KAMPUNG BOY SC KLEZMER SC LEES TOY REVIEW SEP 2006 #167 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN VOL 4 CONCRETE JUNGLE DIGEST TP MISSOURI BOY SC MOME VOL 5 GN NEW AVENGERS VOL 4 COLLECTIVEPREMIERE HC PILLOW FIGHT GN (A) PIRATE CLUB VOL 2 TP PRIDE OF BAGHDAD HC R CRUMBS HEROES OF THE BLUES T/C (NEW PTG) SARDINE IN OUTER SPACE VOL 2 SC SHAZAM FAMILY ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC STRANGE GIRL VOL 2 HEAVEN KNOWS IM MISERABLE NOW TP SUPERMAN INFINITE CITY SC TOP COWS BEST OF DAVID FINCH TP TOYFARE CELEBRITY MAGAZINE PARODY CVR #111 TRANSFORMERS INFILTRATION TP ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM-UP ULTIMATE COLLECTION TP WILDCATS NEMESIS TP WIZARD BEST OF BASIC TRAININGADVANCED TECHNIQUES WOLVERINE CLASSIC VOL 4 TP
What looks good to you?
-B
I have nothing to say about this week's books, I have to admit. It's not because they weren't interesting, because they probably aren't. I say probably because the real reason I have nothing to say is that I haven't read them; I didn't make it to the store this week, so the only things that I've been reading are a second-hand copy of Essential Savage She-Hulk - which I'll probably write about at some point, but I want to read Essential Spider-Woman first, to see if it was a similarly aimless attempt at franchise growth or not - and a wonderful book called The United States of Arugula by David Kamp, which is all about the rise of "gourmet eating" in this country since the end of the Second World War. I know what you're thinking: "Why are you telling us about that? That has nothing to do with comics!" Sure, you think that now, but wait until Mark Waid's upcoming Brave and Bold series teams Green Lantern up with Adam Strange after Jacques Pepin gets caught in a Zeta Beam and introduces Rann to modern French-American cuisine. Next week, real reviews, honest.
Why is it that "three day weekend" holidays end up with MORE work being needed to catch up? I'm more swamped than normal, and I've got, maybe, 20 minutes now before the truck shows up with this week's comics, and I'm oddly grumpy about everything.
First off, because I'm sure someone cares, that "3 week supply" I described last week RE: LOST GIRLS? Looks like I'm higher than a kite. We sold our last copy this morning. I've even brought back my copy from home (because I don't much care if I end up with a first printing or not) -- so, yeah, we ended up having a really good week last week, thanks to that $75-a-throw pornography.
I'm not really in much mood to review this week, sorry, but I did want to say that I was deeply weirded out by BLACK PANTHER #19, where both T'Challa and Doom tell Storm to shut up like a good girl, and, uh, she does. And gives the Panther a big kiss for it, too. Yikes.
Yeah, that's all I want to write for now. I'll try to do some real reviews for this week's books, if the loss of a day doesn't kill me...
I'd ask you what you think... but I didn't tell you what *I* did, did I?
-B
Right. So last time you heard from me, it was several weeks ago and I was planning a garage sale. Although you might or might not care (particularly since Graeme and Hibbs have been so on top of things), I thought it'd be nice to let you know what's been up since then. First, the garage sale. Honestly, it was great. I knew all would be well when the sale's patron saints, Joe Keatinge and Chris French, showed up early and hit those longboxes like they wanted 'em to bleed. (You can find a terrifying inventory of Joe's purchases here and a more concise summation of Chris' stuff here.) Joe and Chris were the first guys at my garage sale last year, and impressed the hell out of Edi both years with how friendly, sharp and normal they are. Thanks, guys!
But also big, big thanks to everyone else who showed up: Dave Robson, Peter Wong, Sam Phillips, Ian Brill, Steve Byrne, that guy Mark, that guy Shannon, that surly dude with the mohawk who bought well over a hundred comics, and tons of others my rusty memory can't remember at the moment. It's always great seeing stuff I like go to people who are really going to appreciate it, and to be able to clear out a ton of space, get some extra money to the Bernal Heights Seniors Center, and hang with great people all at the same time? It's the closest I'm ever going to get to owning my own comic shop (because I'd run my own shop out of business in about eight weeks) and it was great. Again, thanks.
As for why I haven't posted since--well, I don't know if you remember me mentioning Secret Writing Project X, but I actually got the gig and have been up to my eyes in it ever since. I can't give you any details at the moment (and can't even say for sure when I can) but it looks like I'm not going to be able to contribute much here until the end of September. But I'm really excited by SWPX and hope, when I'm finally able to tell you about it, you will be, too. Those of you who like my humor column for the newsletter will be pleased, I think.
Okay. Back into hiding for now. I was going to do very, very fast reviews on some good recent manga (Beck Vol. 5, Monster Vol. 4, Drifting Classroom Vol. 1) but that's not going to happen at the moment. Maybe if I end up with a few spare minutes between now and Monday...
Anyway, I'm well. Hope you are, too. Real reviews from Graeme are right below if you haven't read 'em.
Is it wrong of me to be completely hooked on HGTV’s “DesignStar”? The reruns are on this morning, and Kate and I have just watched three in a row, and would probably happily watch the rest of the marathon if it wasn’t for the fact that we should, you know, leave the house and get some fresh air or something. I blame the end of Who Wants To Be A Superhero and the terrible gap it has left in my life. Project Runway just isn’t enough, as much as it tries… Oh, wait. This is a comics review blog, not “what reality shows I waste my life on,” isn’t it? Okay, have some comics.
ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #5: Dear DC, apparently you forgot to finish the cover for this issue, because the copy I have is somehow missing a speech balloon from Luthor that says “Stand back, Kent! This is a job for Lex Luthor!” and I know that there’s no way that you would’ve missed that opportunity intentionally. Mind you, it was just the first in a series of disappointments this comic brought, so maybe it’s just me. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the idea, but with the execution… Grant Morrison’s script doesn’t really put a foot wrong, but it’s too slow and so much exposition for what we already know that it drowns the action. Frank Quitely’s art is technically perfect, but it’s not right for this story, somehow… It’s too good, if that makes sense, too beautiful for something that needs a higher, more pulpish, quality (Just imagine a Curt Swan take, and the same story being told in fourteen pages, for example). I know that this is probably the best thing I read this week, and yet it still only felt like an Good book to me.
Oh dear.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #1: Except, of course, this is really issue 2. It doesn’t even offer a “story-so-far” for those who missed issue zero, just to emphasize the point, so pity the poor souls who pick this up expecting the start of a story. Quality-wise, this suffers from the same problems as the previous issue: Writing that comes so close to being pitch-perfect to the television series, before blowing it with something so offkey that it leaves you soured on everything that comes in the next few pages, and art that – while occasionally catching likenesses – is staged and definitely colored in a way much closer to your average superhero book instead of the very particular aesthetic of the show (The cliffhanger at the end of this issue is still unclear to me, and I think it’s an art thing – It feels as if there’s something in particular that I should’ve been able to tell from the double page spread, instead of just “Well, that doesn’t look good.”). Things aren’t helped by the scope of this storyline – it’s obvious that the returnees aren’t the real thing back from the dead, because there’s no way that if the dead son, brother and lover of the show’s three main characters had come back to life, that would’ve been reflected in the TV show at some point, and so the whole thing has a feel of “Well meaning but ultimately just Okay,” sadly.
THE BOYS #2: As Robson was saying to me in the store, this really should’ve been the second half of a double-page first issue – if not the first issue in and of itself, considering how much of that first issue feels wasted insofar of everything that was repeated this time around - in that it brings some humanity and attempt at subtlety that was lacking in the real first issue. Not that much, though; this is still a completely cynical book full of stereotypes and cheap humor, and still Crap for me, but at least this time it feels closer to a good version of what it’s aiming to be.
CIVIL WAR: YOUNG AVENGERS AND RUNAWAYS #2: With the introduction of Marvel Boy as a mind-controlled killing machine, does this mean that we can add this series to the long line of undoing Grant Morrison’s contributions to Marvel (even Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men seems to be getting into the act with its most recent two issues, depressingly)? This is Awful, which is kind of a shame, because there were parts of Zeb Wells’ script that were quite enjoyable (Especially where the two teams discuss their similarities); it’s just that the plot is entirely forced and unnatural – Why is SHIELD going after the Runaways now, when they’ve not done anything to draw attention to themselves anymore than all other illegal superheroes? Shouldn’t they be focusing on the actively anti-registration heroes? - and the art somehow both appealingly cartoony and lazily ugly, something that isn’t helped by the murky coloring. The end result is that I’m curious to read something Zeb Wells writes that he has some level of control over, and preferably a different artist, and I doubt that was the intention…
CSI: DYING IN THE GUTTERS #1: Wow. Just wow. Ignoring the procedural and murder mystery (because, surely, the murderer intended for Joe Quesada to be the victim?), this is a fascinating book just to see the axes that someone has to grind within the comic industry. Ed Brubaker portrayed as Joe Quesada’s minion! Chris Ryall as a paranoid angry editor-in-chief! And, much more interestingly, Joe Quesada as an asshole! Seriously, I have no idea what’s going on with the Joe Quesada in this book, but it’s worth picking up the book for just for his appearances, saying things like “Hey, the no-smoking thing in our comics is strictly for my image and public sympathy. Wolverine can’t smoke, but I can” while his arms around two silent smiling bimbos. Are they the TVs that he keeps on telling people he has to spare? Is writer Steven Grant trying to tell us that Joe is a transvestite pimp? Yes, I read the disclaimer that “characterizations in this story are dramatic embellishments and are in no way supposed to represent the actual people,” and I get that everyone is being portrayed as the Lying-In-The-Guttersverse version of themselves, but still, come on. There’s some crazy axe-grinding going on here from someone, whether it’s Steven Grant or someone else, and I’m going to keep reading the next few issues to see what else we’re going to see before this is done. Good, but for all the wrong reasons; if you’re going on the quality of the book instead of the strange carcrash feeling, then it’s low Eh - The set-up takes too long, the script has some very clunky “comics are cool” exposition to get the characters to the convention, and the art relies too heavily on the photo reference. That said, it has to be seen to be believed.
SOLO #12: I think my mind was melting by the time I finished this, but in a good way. Oddly enough, I think this made me realize what was missing from Mike Allred’s issue of this series – Mike loves pop, but he isn’t pop, he’s really well-done retro pastiche. Not that that’s a bad thing, but you see this and realize what the difference is: Brendan McCarthy, for all his faults, is as pop as they come, and this isn’t so much an anthology of short stories as 48 pages of freeflow pop culture remixed by the best DJ you’ve heard. Or, in this case, seen. Curt Swan meets Yellow Submarine meets Carmine Infantino meets the Bible meets David Lynch meets meets meets… It’s not to everyone’s tastes – if you aren’t a fan of random art poetry pieces, for example, you might have a problem with a few pieces here – but for me, it’s Excellent, and the best way for this series to end because, really, how do you follow this without it seeming like a letdown in enthusiasm at the very least?
THE TRIALS OF SHAZAM! #1: I don’t have the same problems with this as Brian; doing a grim-and-gritty Captain Marvel isn’t necessarily a bad idea, as such. Well, as long as the story is good, and not something that starts with children being kidnapped to be sacrificed for some black magic ritual and then jumps back in time for some exposition flashbacks that don’t really add anything to the black magic ritual plot. The art, too, has some interesting painterly touches matched to some terrible basic errors (Howard Porter, please, please, concentrate on basic human proportions). This is Eh, but hey! There’s still time for it to get better, right? I have no idea what makes me cautiously optimistic about this, but I’m hoping that it ends up hitting the promised mines of wonder and magic sooner rather than later.
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #33: Who knew? Mike Carey + Pasqual Ferry = Jack Kirby. But not the Kirby of Fantastic Four, but the Kirby that went to DC and did Forever People and Jimmy Olsen, because this is “What if the Fantastic Four met the Forever People?” in almost every way that counts, making me wonder if the “God War” storyline isn’t just going to be a retread of Kirby’s Fourth World but in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. It feels… awkward, and awkwardly graverobbing, as well. Am I just getting too picky? It’s Good, and potentially better than that if it doesn’t just make you want to go back and read some real Jack Kirby. That said, Ferry’s art is still a thing of beauty, and maybe worth picking up the book for in and of itself.
PICK OF THE WEEK is Solo, because I’m a sucker for Blue Meanies that are actually yellow. PICK OF THE WEAK is Civil War: Young Avengers and Runaways, because I really liked that Marvel Boy miniseries, and would have much rather have seen the character ignored that turned into a generic “mindless deadly assassin” character that completely squanders the potential and ideas that Morrison had left behind. TRADE OF THE WEEK is a tough one; I feel as if I should give it to Lost Girls just because it’s easily the most newsworthy of the books released this week, but I personally wasn’t interested enough to want to spend $75 on it. Is that wrong of me? Probably. So, instead, Showcase Presents Batman Volume 1 wins instead, because even though I haven’t read that one either, how can you really go that far wrong with 500+ pages of Silver Age Batman for $16.99?
What else has everyone else been reading recently?
THURSDAY comics, because of the holiday. Don't go into your LCS on Wednesday, or they'll laugh at you behind your back!!! 2000 AD #1500 2000 AD #1501 52 WEEK #18 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #41 (A) AGENTS OF ATLAS #2 (OF 6) ALL NEW ATOM #3 AMERICAN SPLENDOR #1 (OF 4) BATTLER BRITTON #3 (OF 5) BEYOND #3 (OF 6) BONEYARD #22 CREEPER #2 (OF 6) CROSS BRONX #1 DETECTIVE COMICS #823 ED THE HAPPY CLOWN #9 (OF 9) EMISSARY #4 EXTERMINATORS #9 FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #12 GI JOE SCARLETT DECLASSIFIED HERO SQUARED ONGOING #3 HICKEE VOL 3 #2 (RES) HUNTER KILLER LEE CVR #7 JACK STAFF #11 JONAH HEX #11 JUGHEAD #176 JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #25 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #118 LOCAL #6 (OF 12) LONE RANGER #1 LOONEY TUNES #142 MAD MAGAZINE #470 MANIFEST ETERNITY #4 MARVEL 1602 FANTASTICK FOUR #1 (OF 5) MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #19 MARVEL TEAM-UP #24 MYSTERY IN SPACE #1 (OF 8) NEXT #3 (OF 6) NIGHTWING #124 NOBLE CAUSES #23 OMAC #3 (OF 8) OUTSIDERS #40 POISON ELVES DOMINION #5 PUNISHER #37 RED SONJA #14 RUSH CITY #2 (OF 6) SAVAGE DRAGON #128 SIDEKICK #3 (OF 5) SILENT GHOST #1 SNAKEWOMAN #2 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #166 SPIDER-MAN SPECIAL BLACK & BLUE & READ ALL OVER STRANGE GIRL #10 TALES FROM RIVERDALE DIGEST #14 TASK FORCE ONE #3 TOY BOX #1 TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS (IDW) #7 TRANSFORMERS STORMBRINGER #3 (OF 4) UNCANNY X-MEN #478 X-MEN PHOENIX WARSONG #1 (OF 5) Y THE LAST MAN #49
Books / Mags / Stuff 9 11 REPORT GRAPHIC ADAPTATION SC BATMAN FACE THE FACE TP BEC AND KAWL VOL 1 BLOODY STUDENTS HC CLASSIC CRUMB 2007 12 MONTH WALL CALENDAR COMIC ART MAGAZINE #8 CRAZY PAPERS GN CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON TIMES BLACK LAGOON NOVEL FALLEN ANGEL GN FANTASTIC FOUR THE LIFE FANTASTIC TP FORTEAN TIMES #213 GEN 13 WHO THEY ARE AND HOW THEY CAME TO BE TP GIRL STORIES GN GRIMM FAIRY TALES VOL 1 TP ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE #17 KRAMERS ERGOT VOL 6 SC KRYPTON COMPANION SC LIFE AND TIMES OF SCROOGE MCDUCK COMPANION SC MAKING COMICS STORYTELLING SECRETS OF COMICS MANGA & GN SC NEW ALICE IN WONDERLAND COLORMANGA VOL 1 TP NEW AVENGERS VOL 3 SECRETS AND LIES TP SFX #147 SILK ROAD TO RUIN HC SPIDER-GIRL PRESENTS FANTASTIC FIVE IN SEARCH DOOM DIGEST SURROGATES VOL 1 TP SUZUKA VOL 1 GN TEZUKAS BUDDHA VOL 3 DEVADATTA SC TOTALLY SPIES VOL 1 THE O P GN TOTALLY SPIES VOL 2 I HATE THE 80S GN VAMPIRELLA TALES OF PANTHA TP WESTERN GOTHIC TP & MUSIC CD SET WILD SKETCHES #1 SC X-MEN THE END BOOK 3 MEN & X-MEN TP
What looks good to you?
-B
Little late here, sorry --don't really have that much time as it is, so here's a small handful of reviews for the week. BATMAN #656: Y'know, if someone more cartoony was doing the art, say an Ed McGuiness or something, I'd probably really really be enjoying this. But I think Kubert's art is... oh, I don't know, too mannered maybe? for me. This is supposed to be manic and pop and fun, and, to me, it is stiff, and overly rendered, and way too formal. Besides that, how'd you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln? GOOD.
BATMAN & THE MAD MONK #1: I thought this was super-terrific, but I'm a Matt Wagner fanboy, I am. Since "super terrific" isn't a Savage Critic rating, let's call it VERY GOOD instead.
KADE SUN OF PERDITION #1: Absolutely stunning artwork, with a very so-so script. I also don't like the "universe building" going on here, with the "Ezra" character being so prominently focused. Books should work within their own orbit, IMO. OK
52 WEEK 16: Love/Hate relationship for me. I liked the sense of the plot and where this is moving, but the staging was so slipshod and amateur that I wanted to put my head through a wall. Where's security? how do Renee and Vic sneak in? Why the hell is Vic wearing that mask, which would seem to draw MORE attention, rather than less? How is it that Renee is screaming and yelling and using Kirbytech guns to shoot into the crowd, and the Marvel family, 20 feet over their head, don't even begin to notice? Feh and double feh. Not quite AWFUL, but still less than EH.
FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #3: Much MUCH nicer art, and the medicine goes down much smoother. If #1 & 2 looked like this, there'd be a positive buzz about the book. I still think the story is pretty bad, but the art pushed this way up to an OK
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1: OK, first off, that line up? Man, that's a seriously street level JLA, isn't it? Plus, there's no way Black Lightning would ever be on the JLA -- he already told those "Jive Turkeys" to blow! I also really think that I'm going to quickly go mad from the IDENTITY CRISIS-style multiple viewpoints, and overlapping narratives -- that's far too cerebral and "bookish" than I, personally, think the JLA should be. I like that style of writing on many things, but JLA should be a lot more slam-bam. Clearly, everyone's heart is in this, and it is written with depth (perhaps too much, but I shouldn't tell Ian Brill's stories for him), but I can't swing better than a High OK for how I felt about this at the end of the week.
WONDER WOMAN #2: Too many characters, way way too much previous continuity needing to be espoused, and, still, not even a hint of what or how or if Diana changed during the missing year, or what or why she's doing what she's doing now. Especially with it only coming out bi-monthly (rassen frassen), I'm going to need a real reason to care about this. And, no, Hercules really isn't it... EH
DARKNESS WOLVERINE: Also had really terrific art, in the service of what can't even be called a story. Barely a vignette. EH.
FELL #6: A solid base hit, but compared to the full out Home Runs the first five were, that feels a real let down. Interestingly, I think that maybe lateness is really going to hit this book hard. At Comix Experience, at least, first week sales of #6 were only about 60% of #5's -- one thought may be that because these are all one-offs, there's less of a compelling reason to "burn" for the next issue like a cliffhanger makes you do. Anyway, I thought this was a GOOD issue.
WALKING DEAD #30: I think shifting the action back to the prison blows most of the momentum of the story -- it sorta felt like Supporting Cast Theatre -- though it might work in a book, we'll see. But, like I said, I was pretty bored with this issue, and we'll go with a high OK
DAREDEVIL #88: Brube is firing on all cylinders, man -- he's just going through an amazing streak of great writing right now. VERY GOOD.
RED SONJA #13: This should have been the first issue. I really liked this one, bringing some depth and a solider backstory to what's really been a 2-D character. Believe it or not: GOOD.
ETERNALS #3: So weird to have such a blatant CIVIL WAR tie-in in this. That's going to go hard on the eventual TP, I think. What's really getting me, however, is that it just doesn't read like a Gaiman comic, at all. Extremely EH.
HEROES FOR HIRE #1: On the one hand, I pretty much disbelieve the motivations of the key cast members for being on the "pro" side; on the other hand, this was reasonably dopey fun that sold much much better than I would have really imagined. I intensely disliked the new Tarantula chick who licked the blood from her weapons though -- ew! EH
NEW AVENGERS #23: I was pretty much digging it until the Cheaty McCheaters of "And then she blew the island up and killed everyone" without any, y'know, how. But, still, this, like the last 2 issues that focused on one character, have pretty much been the best issues of Bendis' AVENGERS work so far. A low GOOD.
ULTIMATES ANNUAL #2: Jeff asked me, at the store, what I thought of this and I stood there for 15 seconds trying to remember if I had even read it or not. I *thought* I had, but I couldn't remember a single event for the comic. That's never ever a good sign. I'll also say that sales were way down from last year's annual, where it sold (for me) 95% of the parent title. So far here we're at about 55%. Ruh roh. The default rating for "I can't remember if I even read in the first place, something that I did read 2 days before" is AWFUL.
SUPERGIRL #9: Ugh, skeevy. AWFUL.
JACK OF FABLES #2: There's a line in here, something along the lines of "Well, I'm in no danger, I'm Jack of the Fables, and I always win!", and my interest-o-meter just went shuddering down by 50%. You want something much much more in a line-expansion like this. OK
ASTONISHING X-MEN #16: The big moment, the line that Graeme built up so much in his review, and I can't remember exactly how I phrased it then! Try this: basically, this is to Joss Whedon and (nee) UNCANNY X-MEN #133, as SUPERMAN RETURNS is to Bryan Singer and SUPERMAN (nee :THE MOVIE) -- its a glowing love letter. The difference is that Whedon takes the template (Wolverine: ALONE!), and twists it with Kitty as the protagonist. Plus Kitty's spit-take last line was a thing of joy and beauty. I enjoyed this tremendously, and will give it a rare EXCELLENT.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Well, you know how that one turns out, anyway -- ASTONISHING X-MEN #16.
PICK OF THE WEAK: Of what I wrote about here, SUPERGIRL #9. BUt I probably liked SWAMP THING #29 less, really.
GN/TP OF THE WEEK: It's a really really good week for books. BATMAN & THE MONSTER MEN is great stuff (though somewhat shockingly bereft of anything but the comic -- no intro, no nuthin'), and I was seriously grooving on the first 80% of DEATH NOTE v7, but then they start a new story in the last 20%, and it marred my enjoyment of the intensity of the conclusion of the previous story. I also think the FALLEN ANGEL (IDW) TP is gorgeous to look at, and is some interesting work, but if I had to pick just one thing, then I'm probably going to go with PROMETHEA v5, if you didn't buy it in the HC.
That's what I thought.... how about you?
-B
Did you know that LOST GIRLS represents 21% of the dollars of this week's invoice (the largest invoice I've had in a decade, by the way)? Or that EVERY Marvel title this week, combined, including reorders, is less than 85% of my LOST GIRLS dollars? And, I beleive that I've ordered less than a three week supply? (36% of those copies are pre-sold; we must be getting 2-3 requests a day for it... though I suspect that will melt to, say, a *purchase* a day, when they see the seventy-five bones price tag.)
And that I got an email from Diamond asking me if I was sure of my order (they also did this for THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN BLACK DOSSIER HC [which had a much higher qty order][although a less-than-majority fraction of the last LOEG periodical release]) because it triggered some flag or another)?
So we're either going to have a really fine next few days, or I'm be in a shitty mood this time next week, wheeeeeeee.
Otherwise, the other big news: the return (for an eyeblink) of the BONE ONE edition. I don't know, maybe they'll go back to press just. once. more. But if I were you? I'd assume this is your last chance, and snake up a copy as fast as you can. $40 for all of BONE is kinda stupidly cheap, really, so don't blow it this time!
2000 AD #1498 2000 AD #1499 52 WEEK #17 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #40 (A) ACTION COMICS #842 ALL NEW OFF HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z #8 ALL STAR SUPERMAN #5 AMERICAN VIRGIN #6 AMERICAN WAY #7 (OF 8) ATHENA VOLTAIRE FLIGHT O/T FALCON APE ED #1 BATMAN JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT #11 (OF 12) BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #1 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #145 BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR #75 BLACK PANTHER #19 BOYS #2 CABLE DEADPOOL #31 CW CITY OF HEROES #15 CIVIL WAR YOUNG AVENGERS & RUNAWAYS #2 (OF 4) COBB OFF THE LEASH #3 CSI DYING IN THE GUTTERS #1 CYBERFORCE CVR A #5 DOC FRANKENSTEIN SKROCE CVR A #5 FALLEN ANGEL IDW #8 GI JOE VS TRANSFORMERS VOL 3 ART OF WAR CVR A #5 (OF 5) HAUNTED MANSION #4 JACK KIRBYS GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS #2 JLA CLASSIFIED #26 JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #248 (NOTE PRICE) JUSTICE #7 (OF 12) KABUKI #7 LOVELESS #10 MAN-BAT #5 (OF 5) MARVEL SPOTLIGHT ED BRUBAKER BILLY TAN MYTHOS HULK ROCKETO #11 SAVAGE RED SONJA QOTFW #1 (OF4) SHE-HULK 2 #11 SNAKES ON A PLANE #1 (OF 2) SOLO #12 SUPERMAN BATMAN #29 SUPERNATURAL LAW #1 AT THE BOX OFFICE TEEN TITANS #38 TEEN TITANS GO #34 THRUD THE BARBARIAN #2 TRANSFORMERS EVOLUTION HEARTSOF STEEL #3 TRIALS OF SHAZAM #1 (OF 12) ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #33 ULTIMATE X-MEN ANNUAL #2 UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS #2 (OF 8) URSA MINORS #2 USAGI YOJIMBO #96 WORMWOOD GENTLEMAN CORPSE #2 X ISLE #2 (OF 5) X-FACTOR #10 X-MEN #190 X-MEN FAIRY TALES #4 (OF 4) ZOOM SUIT #4 (OF 4)
Books / Mags / Stuff ART OF LUIS ROYO 2007 WALL CALENDAR BONE ONE VOL ED SC (NEW PTG) BONEYARD VOL 5 TP BOOK OF LOST SOULS TP CAPTAIN AMAZING TP CSI CASE FILES VOL 1 TP DARK LABYRINTH BY LUIS ROYO HC DECIMATION THE 198 TP DRAWING COMICS IS EASY (EXCEPT WHEN ITS HARD) HC EGO SUM VOL 2 HC GIRL GENIUS VOL 1 TP (NEW PTG) GOOD APOLLO IM BURNING STAR IV VOL 1 GN GREEN LANTERN GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD TP GREMLINS HC IRON WOK JAN GN #19 JOKES AND THE UNCONSCIOUS GN JUDGE DREDD COMPLETE CASE FILES VOL 4 TP LITTLE LULU COLOR SPECIAL TP LOST GIRLS DLX SLIPCASED ED MITSUKAZU MIHARA RIP REQUIEM IN PHONYBRIAN GN NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE VOL 1THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT PREM HC ONIRIKA ART OF SIMONE BIANCHIHC PATH OF THE ASSASSIN VOL 2 TP PREVIEWS VOL XVI #9 REX MUNDI VOL 3 LOST KINGS TP ROTTING IN DIRTVILLE GN SHOWCASE PRESENTS BATMAN VOL 1 TP TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #147 TOUCH OF DEATH TP ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN VOL 16 DEADPOOL TP VAMPIRE DOLL GUILT NA ZAN VOL1 GN (OF 3) WHATCHA MEAN WHATS A ZINE SC WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE AVENGERS CHO CVR #180 YOSHITAKA AMANO HERO VOL 1 PXHC
So, what looks good to YOU, bubba?
-B
