This is how you know I am beyond overworked right now -- I totally forgot to link to the new column on CBR. My opening thoughts on running two stores.
(GOD, I AM SO TIRED AND OVERWORKED, it isn't even funny!!!!)
Read it, love it, comment here, if you like
-B
In which I carved out a bit of free time at the weekend and chose to spend it with you worshipping at the altar of Mike McMahon. Just like any sane person would.
Anyway, this...
BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #55-57 Artist: Mike McMahon Writer: Chuck Dixon Letterer: Willie Schubert Colourist: Digital Chameleon DC Comics, $1.75 each (1993) Batman created by Bob Kane
These three issues comprise the self contained and out of continuity Batman tale Watchtower. The comic itself, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, specialised in such tales. This title delivered a surprising number of accomplished tales from a talented and varied array of creative minds and hands; certainly at least for as long as Archie Goodwin was at the editorial helm. The attraction in this arc for me was very much the magic of Mike McMahon. Now, Chuck Dixon does a fine job, don’t get me wrong. Like a TV version of Miller’s Dark Knight Returns Dixon’s story is of a near future Bruce Wayne pining for the colourful criminals of the past. Here though none of the colourful loons conveniently return and so Batman must confront the banal but no less evil prospect of Privatisation (and its co-joined twin Corruption). Craft wise it’s spot on; Dixon hits all the beats. You know, those beats the comic book writers are always going on about. He doesn’t use narrative text either; just dialogue. I know! It turns out you can write a well paced entertaining story which makes sense by combining just dialogue and art. (Actually it turns out people have been doing it for decades, but shhhh!) Yes, Chuck Dixon provides a strong script; one so strong I suspect it would have succeeded in entertaining the reader had most anyone drawn it. That’s not faint praise but that’s all he gets because most anyone didn’t draw it; Mike McMahon did.
Before I demonstrate my love for McMahon’s work on these pages (work he has dismissed as awful) in the usual storm of horseshit hoping to pass for art appreciation let’s talk about Mike when he was but a tyke. The first time ever I saw Mike McMahon’s art was on Judge Dredd in the weekly British comic 2000AD in 1977 AD. Turned out that was his debut. McMahon, the scent of Chelsea Art College still lingering in his puppyish nostrils, was called in to pinch hit due to editorial shenanigans centering around Carlos Ezquerra. That’s why his early stuff looks like Ezquerra – that’s what he was told to do. And, bless his gifted mitts he did it. But, leisurely, he stopped doing it.
As the years passed it was clear McMahon was developing his own style under cover of The Carlos. Initially grubby and giving the impression of portraying a world made of compacted scabs there was soon a sense of flakiness to McMahon’s art, as though a slow act of shedding was underway. In strips like Ro-Busters and A.B.C. Warriors there is a definite impression of McMahon’s Ezquerra-isms swelling as though from internal pressure. It’s true, I tell ya; his figures become bloated and even have strange flecks drifting off them. And then his art, primarily on Dredd in this period, seems thereafter to suddenly retract, fitting itself tautly around a new wholly McMahon framework of geometric precision. But it didn’t stop there; McMahon’s art kept going (and it is still going), kept fresh with refinements both calculated and accidental. (How his outstandingly appropriate woodcut style on Slaine was the unexpected result of a new method involving Bristol board, markers and tracing paper has now passed into Legend.) Then he got ill. A couple of years passed and he came back strong with The Last American for Goodwin’s EPIC imprint. McMahon, being notoriously self critical as he is, was unimpressed by his work there but Goodwin knew the real stuff when he saw it and so (I assume) threw McMahon this assignment. But like San Francisco’s favourite cop you don’t assign McMahon you just turn him loose.
Loose being the last word you’d apply to McMahon’s work here. Meticulously constructed from the most basic level as it is to reflect the comprehensive vision of Mike McMahon. A vision which embraces the two dimensional nature of comic art like no other. Looking at Mike McMahon’s art is like looking at the world through the eyes of an alien creature. You can tell what everything is but everything is off. Yet in relation to each other every element is clearly related to the same perceptual set. It’s the flatness that gets me. Usually that would be a pejorative term obsessed as comic book art can tend to be with verisimilitude Here though realism is out of the window. Indeed, McMahon’s art seems to imply that if you want realism then look out the window because right here, pal o’ mine, is something better than reality. Something other. Something no one else could produce. Something that you won’t get anywhere else. I could have just said it was unique but I have a reputation for going on a bit to maintain. Standards and all that.
Surprisingly given its unique nature McMahon’s art isn’t hampered by the involvement of other hands. I have no idea whatsoever if there was any level of communication between the various parties but if there wasn’t then what we have here is the happiest of artistic accidents. Willie Schubert’s font in the speech bubbles and the Sound FX, with their slanted angles and hand crafted air have a very McMahon feel to them. They seem a part of the art. There’s a killer sequence where a hood is beaten by security specialists and the SFX appear in the panel showing a witness quailing in fear, but they are then absent from the next panel which shows the risen clubs. I described that quite tediously but the actual success of the effect is indisputable. You’ll notice there is only the slightest indication of motion in the image of the clubs (the blood on te rearmost club). McMahon eschews motion lines throughout. Usually he’s designed the image in a panel to lead the eye in such a way that the implicit motion is conveyed. Sometimes though ,as in a panel where a club strikes a head, the only clue to motion is the presence of a SFX (“WOK!”).
Digital Chameleon’s colours are noticeable even to me and I am notoriously inert in my appreciation of comic colouring. However, they don’t stand out because they jar or if they jar they are meant to. The palette of lime greens, midnight blues, soiled yellows and popping reds all provide another level of visual interest at the very least. And at their very best they collaborate with McMahon’s images in achieving the effects he’s reaching for. Particularly when it comes to the layering of the image. McMahon’s very keen on layering the elements in his panels. His panels can be many layers deep but each layer is distinct and the illusion of depth is the result of their distance being adequately conveyed. It's akin to those fuzzy felt pictures you used to do as a kid; if you are super-old like me. Anyway, there are panels where the colouring quite blatantly enhances this effect. In these issues i was pleasantly surprised to find that McMahon’s work adapted well to the many hands make light work ethos of North American genre comics; something everyone involved gets a high five for.
So, yeah, Mike McMahon did a Batman comic back in the day. Mike McMahon probably doesn’t like it and I can’t conceive what fandom of the day made of it, but I thought it was VERY GOOD!
But then again Mike McMahon is – COMICS!
Let’s start off 2014 with a panel that fair throbs with magnificence:
That there being Dog vs. Moose by Alex Nino from Alex Nino & Neil Kleid’s adaptation of Jack London’s The Call of The Wild. Kids, use your nascent psychic powers to guess what I’m on about this time!
Anyway, this…
Jack London's THE CALL OF THE WILD Illustrated by Alex Nino Adapted by Neil Kleid Puffin Books, $10.99 (2006) Based on the original novel by Jack London
Those not hammered to the brink of psychosis via Holiday overindulgence will have already deduced that what we have here is a paperback adaptation of Jack London’s "immortal classic" The Call of The Wild. Despite London’s book having been around since 1903 I’d never actually read it. It was one of those books that when a child one’s parents would heavily suggest one read and was thus one of those books one strenuously avoided. And as is so often the case it turns out I’d been robbing myself. Turns out Jack London’s The Call of The Wild is a pretty damn good book, combining as it does two perennial childhood favourites; snow and cruelty to animals. Technically, I guess, I still haven’t read it but I have read a graphic novel adaptation by Alex Nino and Neil Kleid which was good enough to suggest I should have maybe gone to London sooner.
So, for all the other insolent children of the world: The Call of The Wild is the tale of a dog called Buck who is torn from his pampered life of domesticated bliss and thrust into a harsh world of servitude in the Klondike Gold Rush. As civilisation is quickly shredded by the brutality of the wild Buck finds nature has equipped him better than any human for survival. The unsentimental conclusions London reaches about nature vs nuture are tempered by the mutual respect and admiration that grows between Buck and The Man, Thornton. I would have used the word love there but this late in the world’s day that would only be incitement to snickering. They really hit it off is what I’m saying there. And then, ah, and then…
Upsettingly it transpires that Jack London died at the youthful age of 40. On the plus side, for us anyway, he did so after writing his way out of poverty via a series of extraordinarily popular novels (and more importantly - good novels), these being based on a couple of periods of hard scrabble living he endured along the way. Obviously you don’t have to be savaged by wolves to write about being savaged by wolves; that’s what imagination’s for. But if you have been and they leave you enough fingers to set it down in words it’s probable that authenticity will give your work a little extra kick. Of course, you do still have to be able to write. Being savaged by wolves isn’t going to make up for any lack in that department. (But it’s worth a try, Dan Brown!) What I’m getting at is; Jack London wrote from experience and he wrote well. Sure, in the book at hand I’m experiencing his words at a certain remove but they are still his words. For the most part Neil Kleid’s smart enough to step out of the way and let London’s language determine the course for the most part. While largely blunt and simple, as befits his subject, London’s words via Kleid glare with brilliance in brief and arresting bursts. Now, “..his anger swelled like a kidnapped king.” are not, I believe, London's words precisley but they lose none of the magic for having been adapted.
Here Kleid arranges London’s words to sit atop Alex Nino’s striking images. Alex Nino (b. 1940) is a Filipino artist whose work I first recall seeing in ‘70s DC Mystery comics (House of Mystery, House of Secrets, House of Secret Mysteries, Secretive Mysterious House, etc). His art was striking at the time and it is striking still. Not literally, no, but close; I do feel like I’ve been slapped whenever I look at his pages. In a good way; suddenly refreshed and attentive. He’s kept on going and kept up the same high standard all the way. The last time I saw his work was in the Image Comics series Dead Ahead which was about zombies on a boat and was visually insane. Seriously, I’ll have to dig that out; it’s nuts. The big thing about Nino’s art for me is how it teases incomprehensibility without ever actually falling into it, or if it does you don’t mind. Well, that’s when Nino has his druthers anyway, which he hasn’t here so it’s a far more sedate and populist performance on these pages. It’s still Alex Nino so it is still pretty spicy stuff.
Like Joe Kubert, Nino knows the best way to draw snow is not to draw snow; so most of these snow set pages consist of whiteness. There’s no short-changing though; Nino makes what ink there is work like a harried sled dog. His figures, flora and fauna are reduced to, mostly, rough assemblages of lines; the close proximity of one to another is the only clue that they delineate the same shape. At times Nino seems to be testing how dispersed he can make his lines and still ensure the reader’s eye can herd them back together as a dog; a bush; a party of three with a heavily laden sled disappearing under fracturing ice. Maybe he’s having a bit of fun with the fact that the conditions he’s drawing are so elemental and thus reducing his work to its elements. Probably not.
In keeping with London’s unimpressed view of humanity under duress Nino’s lumpen tuberous fizzogs give everyone the look of grumpy goblins. Everyone, that is, except The Man, Thornton, who is drawn in the classical hero mould and so stands out visually from his fellow humans as much as London’s text would wish him to. Throughout Nino’s art is smart and sophisticated but he’s smart and sophisticated enough to know simplicity works too; the eye is always drawn to Buck as Buck is given heavy black markings which make him immediately stand out in any given panel, largely white as they are. Fans of Nino will be pleased to note several panels of Pure Nino (a group of dogs that resemble crystal automata; a primordial vision via Nino’s signature fantasmagoria). He’s one talented son of a lady. The book closes out with a nice chunk of backmatter with script pages, sketches and preliminary layouts. From this it appears Kleid specified the page layouts for Nino. They aren’t high art but they don't have to be they just have to work, and they work well in that they carry the reader through the pages unobtrusively. Ideally, I think, at some point the reader should forget they are reading and just be reading; the simple layouts achieve this. Additionally, their basic nature provide a necessary buffer, an essential corral, for the signature manic intensity of Nino’s art.
So, yeah, dogs, violence, emotions, great art by Alex Nino, a thankless task well executed by Kleid (good use of black panels, sir), great source material; The Call of The Wild is VERY GOOD!
Simpsons Alan Moore: Knows it; wishes to settle it.
Happy New Year, fellow Whatnauts! Graeme and I are back with another installment of the external manifestation of the constant internal chatter constantly haunting your brain. After the jump: the link and some hasty show notes written by a dude with a cold trying to get this wrapped so he can take a nap!
So, first and foremost: you do remember we've shifted to a fortnightly/biweekly recording schedule, yes? You're not going to miss us that much, I know, what with the hundreds of hours of entertainment pouring at you like candy-colored magma, but we do appreciate you continuing to tune in, and hope our latest round of agreeable disagreements will provide your day with a bit of pleasure...
00:00-16-49: Greetings? Our first podcast of the new year and on the plus side, we’re on it within the first ninety seconds, talking about that lengthy Alan Moore interview (that as of recording time, Graeme had read in its entirety, but Jeff, alas, had not). Unfortunately, for the first ninety seconds, there are subjects we are not nearly as “on it” (such as talking and saying the proper year out loud, etc.) But make sure you listen to Jeff and Graeme have a very polite dispute on Alan Moore/Grant Morrison’s far less polite dispute. 16:49-34:22: As much as we probably could’ve lingered on Moore’s interview forever (had Jeff read it, anyway), we had other fish to fry: we were recording on the day of the Image Expo. We go over the announcements and our impressions. (Sadly, they’re not, like, actual impressions. We don’t alternate trying to talk like Robert Kirkman or whatever, but I think you know what we mean.) 34:22-1:06:02: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... Marvel got the Star Wars license! (yes, we have some old ground to catch up on.) Jeff frets about his digital collection and talks about why (in the face of mounting evidence that he should not). Also discussed: whether or not we’re excited about Marvel having the rights, age differences and Return of the Jedi, the book market, and more. [Note: the Marvel exec whose name Jeff couldn’t remember -- and whom Graeme couldn’t remember at all -- is Ruwan Jayatilleke and some of the stuff Jeff is talking about comes from here. 1:06:02-1:30:43: Discussion of the rumors that the Amazons are Kryptonian descendants in the Man of Steel sequel! Jeff wanted to talk about this rumor (originally mentioned and clarified here). Naturally, we talk a bit about The Man of Steel (since Jeff finally saw it), Star Trek Into Darkness, plans, theories, ideas, and stuff. Because I grew up in the '70s, I re-read the last part of that previous sentence and realized how much I sound like my fifth grade teacher. 1:18:23-1:30:43: “Hulk Hates Puny Relaunches!” With its third reboot in as many years, is The Hulk a title that just can’t work? Or is this barely any different than Marvel’s relaunch of Daredevil? There’s a brief lull in the conversation for 2014’s first mini-Techpocalypse but it's actually surprisingly small. Would that it were our only one. 1:30:43-1:45:27: Other topics, covered a bit more quickly: the leaked cover of Amazing Spider-Man! Original Sin, the upcoming Marvel crossover event! Shia LaBeouf! This should've led to a more in-depth conversation about comics we’ve read recently, including the Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine miniseries by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert; and Detective Comics #27 by a mess of people including Brad Meltzer, Bryan Hitch, Francesco Francavilla, Gregg Hurwitz, Neal Adams, Peter J. Tomasi, Ian Bertram, John Layman, Jason Fabok, Scott Snyder, Sean Murphy, and others. But then we get derailed by another tech problem so instead we change gears and talk about… 1:45:27-1:54:28: Misfits! That cheeky bastard of a show recently wrapped up and Jeff finally caught up on it, and we discuss the finale. (Despite a lot of complaints on Jeff’s part, the show is worth digging up over on Hulu and having a watch, if you can put aside any preference on your part for internal logic of any kind whatsoever.) 1:54:28-end: Closing comments! Apologies! Reminders we have moved to that fortnightly schedule, so we will be back in two weeks! Closing show music!
Well, that wrapped things up, didn't it? Okay then, we'll see you -- oh, what's that? The actual podcast? Oh yeah, well, that's available by now probably on iTunes, and our RSS feed (and I was supposed to look into that other RSS service Al from House to Astonish wanted us to consider but I haven't done that yet) and, in fact, directly below:
Wait, What? Ep. 143: The Score
As always, we hope you and enjoy and thank you for listening! And now, if you'll excuse us, it is naptime in the hopes of a speedy recovery.
Not to be out done by last week, this Wednesday comes out swinging with some excellent comic books for your pleasure! Along with new ASTRO CITY and COFFIN HILL, Marvel sends out into the world it's first issue of their MIRACLEMAN reprints in an attempt to make the world a better place. That and so much more just after the cut! A VOICE IN THE DARK #3 ADVENTURE TIME #24 ALEX + ADA #3 ALL NEW X-MEN #21 AMAZING X-MEN #3 ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #17 ARCHIE #65 ASTRO CITY #8 BATGIRL #27 (GOTHTOPIA) BATMAN LIL GOTHAM #10 BEN 10 #3 BETTIE PAGE IN DANGER #11 BETTY & VERONICA #269 BLACK DYNAMITE #1 (OF 4) BPRD HELL ON EARTH #115 CARBON GREY VOL 3 #2 (OF 2) CATACLYSM ULTIMATES #3 (OF 3) CLIVE BARKER NEXT TESTAMENT #7 (OF 12) CLOWN FATALE #3 (OF 4) COFFIN HILL #4 CONSTANTINE #10 (EVIL) CURSE #1 (OF 4) DAREDEVIL #35 DC VS MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE #4 (OF 6) DISNEY KINGDOMS SEEKERS OF WEIRD #1 (OF 5) EGOS #1 FANTASTIC FOUR #16 FOREVER EVIL ROGUES REBELLION #4 (OF 6) FOX #3 GATE WAY #1 (OF 4) (FORMERLY PURGATORY) GHOSTED #6 GOD IS DEAD #5 GRAVEL COMBAT MAGICIAN #0 GREEN LANTERN CORPS #27 HARBINGER #20 ILLEGITIMATES #2 (OF 6) INDESTRUCTIBLE #2 INHUMANITY SPIDER-MAN #1 INJUSTICE YEAR TWO #1 JENNIFER BLOOD #35 JUSTICE LEAGUE 3000 #2 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #11 (EVIL) KISS ME SATAN #5 (OF 5) LENORE VOLUME II #9 LIL BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #1 MARVEL KNIGHTS HULK #2 (OF 4) MAXX MAXXIMIZED #3 MEGA MAN #33 MIRACLEMAN #1 MISS FURY #8 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #15 NIGHT OF LIVING DEADPOOL #1 (OF 4) NIGHTWING #27 NOIR #3 (OF 5) NOVA #12 PETER PANZERFAUST #16 POWERPUFF GIRLS #5 PROPHET #42 RAT QUEENS #4 CVR A (MR) REGULAR SHOW #8 REVOLUTIONARY WAR DARK ANGEL #1 ROVER RED CHARLIE #2 (OF 6) SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #41 SECRET AVENGERS #14 SHADOW NOW #4 (OF 6) SIMPSONS COMICS #208 SIXTH GUN #37 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #256 STAR WARS DARTH VADER & CRY OF SHADOWS #2 (OF 5) STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI FORCE WAR #3 (OF 5) STITCHED #18 STRAIN THE FALL #7 SUICIDE SQUAD #27 (EVIL) SUPERBOY #27 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #25 SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #4 THOR GOD OF THUNDER #17 THUNDERBOLTS #20.NOW ANMN TMNT NEW ANIMATED ADVENTURES #7 TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS EYE #25 DARK CYBERTRON PART 6 TRIPLE HELIX #4 (OF 4) UNCANNY X-FORCE #16 XFV UNCANNY X-MEN #16 UNITY #3 VELVET #3 WARLORD OF MARS #32 WOLVERINE MAX #15 WORLDS FINEST #19 WRAITH WELCOME TO CHRISTMASLAND #3 (OF 7) X #9 X-FILES CONSPIRACY #1 (OF 2) X-MEN LEGACY #22
Books/Mags/Things 2000 AD PRES SCI-FI THRILLERS TP 2000 AD PROG 2014 ADVENTURE TIME MATHEMATICAL ED HC VOL 03 BATMAN DARK KNIGHT HC VOL 03 MAD (N52) CREATURE COMMANDOS TP DEXTER PREM HC I LOVE TROUBLE TP JEREMIAH OMNIBUS HC VOL 03 JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #343 MONSTERS AND OTHER STORIES TP RIO COMPLETE COLLECTION TP ROY THOMAS PRESENTS CLASSIC PHANTOM LADY TP VOL 03 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TP VOL 04 NECESSARY EVIL TEN GRAND TP VOL 01 THOR GOD OF THUNDER TP VOL 01 GOD BUTCHER TORPEDO TP VOL 05
As always, what do YOU think?
It is a new year and it brings with it new comics! The first shipment of 2014 sets the bar pretty high, and is welcomed after the smallish weeks it is following, seeing the release of SEX CIMRINALS #4 and AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #3 plus so much more, but just click the cut and find out for yourself. 100 BULLETS BROTHER LONO #7 (OF 8) A PLUS X #16 ABE SAPIEN #9 ACTION COMICS #27 ADVENTURE TIME FLIP SIDE #1 (OF 6) AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #3 ALL NEW MARVEL NOW POINT ONE #1 ANMN ALL NEW X-FACTOR #1 ANMN AVENGERS AI #8.NOW ANMN AVENGERS WORLD #1 ANMN BATMAN BLACK & WHITE #5 (OF 6) BATMAN SUPERMAN #7 BATWING #27 (GOTHTOPIA) BLACK WIDOW #1 ANMN BLOODSHOT & HARD CORPS #18 REG CRAIN BUCK ROGERS IN 25TH CENTURY #4 (OF 4) CABLE AND X-FORCE #18 XFV CATACLYSM ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #3 (OF 3) CATACLYSM ULTIMATES LAST STAND #3 (OF 5) CROSSED BADLANDS #44 DAREDEVIL DARK NIGHTS #8 (OF 8) DEADPOOL #22 DETECTIVE COMICS #27 DRUMHELLAR (PREVIOUSLY STRANGEWAYS) #3 EARTH 2 #19 ELEPHANTMEN #53 (MR) FAIREST #22 FANTOMEX MAX #4 (OF 4) FATALE #19 FBP FEDERAL BUREAU OF PHYSICS #7 (MR) FIVE GHOSTS #8 FOREVER EVIL ARKHAM WAR #4 (OF 6) FRACTURE #1 (OF 4) GAME OF THRONES #18 GREEN ARROW #27 GREEN LANTERN #27 HALO ESCALATION #2 HINTERKIND #4 INFINITY HEIST #4 (OF 4) INF INHUMANITY AWAKENING #2 (OF 2) IRON MAN #20 KEVIN KELLER #12 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #204 LETTER 44 #3 LIL VAMPI #1 LORDS OF MARS #6 (OF 6) MANIFEST DESTINY #3 MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #4 (OF 5) MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #4 SYU MINIMUM WAGE #1 MORNING GLORIES #36 PAINKILLER JANE PRICE OF FREEDOM #3 (OF 4) PROTOCOL ORPHANS #3 (OF 4) QUANTUM & WOODY #7 REGULAR SHOW SKIPS #3 (OF 6) REVOLUTIONARY WAR ALPHA #1 ROBOCOP LAST STAND #6 (OF 8) ROGUES #6 SAVAGE WOLVERINE #14.NOW ANMN SCOOBY DOO TEAM UP #2 SEX CRIMINALS #4 SHADOW #21 SHADOWMAN #14 SHAOLIN COWBOY #4 SHELTERED #6 SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 ALIEN #2 (OF 4) SONS OF ANARCHY #5 (OF 6) SPAWN #239 SPONGEBOB COMICS #28 STAR TREK KHAN #4 (OF 5) STAR WARS #13 2013 ONGOING STEAM ENGINES OF OZ VOL 2 #2 GEARED LEVIATHAN STORMWATCH #27 SUGAR BOOGER #1 (OF 3) SWAMP THING #27 THREE #4 TRINITY OF SIN THE PHANTOM STRANGER #15 (EVIL) WALKING DEAD #119 WOLVERINE #13 X-FILES SEASON 10 #8 YOUNG AVENGERS #15
Books/Mags/Things ALL NEW X-MEN TP VOL 01 YESTERDAYS X-MEN B PLUS F HC BATMAN 66 THE TV STORIES TP BATMAN DARK KNIGHT TP VOL 02 CYCLE OF VIOLENCE (N52) BEST OF WONDER WART-HOG TP CINEFEX #136 COMPLETE MULTIPLE WARHEADS TP COSPLAY GIRLFRIEND GN DEADMAN TP VOL 04 DEMON FROM THE DARKNESS TP DOCTOR SOLAR ARCHIVES TP VOL 02 ELEPHANTMEN TP VOL 06 EARTHLY DESIRES EX MACHINA TP BOOK ONE GREEN LANTERN SECTOR 2814 TP VOL 03 GREEN LANTERN THE ANIMATED SERIES TP VOL 02 GUARDIANS OF GALAXY BY JIM VALENTINO TP VOL 01 HEAVENS WAR TP NEW PTG HEAVY METAL #266 HOGANS ALLEY #19 ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE #43 MY LITTLE PONY WHEN CUTIE CALLS TP NARUTO GN VOL 64 POKEMON ADV GN VOL 20 RUBY SAPPHIRE PRISON PIT GN VOL 05 ROY THOMAS PRESENTS CLASSIC PHANTOM LADY TP VOL 02 SIMPSONS COMICS SHAKE UP TP SWAMP THING BY BRIAN K VAUGHN TP VOL 01 X-MEN BATTLE OF ATOM HC
As always, what do YOU think?
And below the jump will be this year's list of best-selling books and graphic novels at Comix Experience!
First we will present this by quantity sold.
SAGA is a frighteningly large hit -- volume 1 sold almost 500% of the #3 best-selling book, and volume 2 is something close to 250% of #3. Those are insanely large numbers. I love it!
I really like our diversity at CE.
| 1 | SAGA TP VOL 01 (BKV) |
| 2 | SAGA TP VOL 02 (BKV) |
| 3 | HAWKEYE TP VOL 01 MY LIFE AS A WEAPON |
| 4 | PROPHET TP VOL 01 REMISSION |
| 5 | MANHATTAN PROJECTS TP VOL 01 SCIENCE BAD |
| 6 | BATTLING BOY GN VOL 01 |
| 7 | LOEG NEMO HEART OF ICE HC |
| 8 | EAST OF WEST TP VOL 01 THE PROMISE |
| 9 | WALKING DEAD TP VOL 18 WHAT COMES AFTER |
| 10 | HAWKEYE TP VOL 02 LITTLE HITS NOW |
| 11 | WALKING DEAD TP VOL 01 DAYS GONE BYE |
| 12 | PROPHET TP VOL 02 BROTHERS |
| 13 | ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 01 |
| DARTH VADER AND SON HC | |
| MANHATTAN PROJECTS TP VOL 02 | |
| SANDMAN TP VOL 01 PRELUDES & NOCTURNES NEW ED | |
| 17 | ALAN MOORE NEONOMICON TP |
| 18 | ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 02 |
| VADERS LITTLE PRINCESS HC | |
| 20 | FABLES TP VOL 18 CUBS IN TOYLAND |
| LOVE AND ROCKETS NEW STORIES TP VOL 06 | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 01 UNMANNED | |
| 23 | WATCHMEN TP |
| 24 | SANDMAN TP VOL 02 THE DOLLS HOUSE NEW ED |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 17 SOMETHING TO FEAR | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 19 MARCH TO WAR | |
| 27 | CURSED PIRATE GIRL HC VOL 01 |
| HELLBOY MIDNIGHT CIRCUS HC | |
| 29 | BONE COLOR ED SC VOL 01 OUT FROM BONEVILLE |
| FABLES TP VOL 01 LEGENDS IN EXILE NEW ED | |
| 31 | V FOR VENDETTA NEW EDITION TP (MR) |
| 32 | CHEW TP VOL 06 SPACE CAKES |
| FATALE TP VOL 01 DEATH CHASES ME | |
| NINJAGO GN VOL 06 | |
| NOWHERE MEN TP VOL 01 FATES WORSE THAN DEATH | |
| TRANSMETROPOLITAN TP VOL 01 BACK ON THE STREET | |
| 37 | ALL STAR SUPERMAN TP |
| BATMAN TP VOL 01 THE COURT OF OWLS | |
| FATALE TP VOL 02 DEVILS BUSINESS | |
| OATMEAL HOW TO TELL IF YOUR CAT IS PLOTTING TO KILL YOU | |
| R CRUMBS HEROES OF BLUES JAZZ & COUNTRY WITH CD HC | |
| 42 | AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 04 SEARCH PART 1 |
| BATMAN DARK KNIGHT RETURNS TP (new $19.99 printing) | |
| OGLAF BOOK ONE | |
| PROMETHEA TP BOOK 01 | |
| THE INFINITE WAIT | |
| 47 | FATALE TP VOL 03 |
| HARK A VAGRANT HC | |
| NAO OF BROWN GN | |
| RICHARD STARKS PARKER SLAYGROUND HC | |
| TOWER CHRONICLES GN VOL 02 (OF 4) | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 02 CYCLES | |
| 53 | ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 03 |
| AMULET SC VOL 01 STONEKEEPER | |
| AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 05 SEARCH PART 2 | |
| AVENGERS VS X-MEN TP | |
| BATMAN HUSH COMPLETE TP | |
| FUN HOME TP | |
| LOCKE & KEY TP VOL 01 WELCOME TO LOVECRAFT | |
| MY FRIEND DAHMER SC | |
| NINJAGO GN VOL 05 KINGDOM O/T SNAKES | |
| SUPERMAN RED SON TP (NOV058130) | |
| WARREN ELLIS GUN MACHINE HC | |
| 64 | BLACK HOLE COLLECTED SC NEW PTG |
| CHEW TP VOL 07 BAD APPLES | |
| CHI SWEET HOME GN VOL 01 | |
| CRIMINAL TP VOL 01 COWARD (MR) | |
| ECONOMIX HOW & WHY OUR ECONOMY WORKS & DOESNT WORK GN | |
| MIND MGMT HC VOL 01 | |
| NEIL GAIMAN DANGEROUS ALPHABET SC | |
| NEIL GAIMAN OCEAN AT END OF LANE NOVEL HC | |
| SILVER SURFER BY STAN LEE AND MOEBIUS #1 | |
| 73 | ADVENTURE TIME ORIGINAL GN VOL 01 PLAYING FIRE |
| ARKHAM ASYLUM ANNIVERSARY ED SC | |
| AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER LOST ADVENTURES TP VOL 01 | |
| AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 06 SEARCH PART 3 | |
| BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL ED HC | |
| BATMAN YEAR ONE DELUXE SC | |
| FABLES TP VOL 02 ANIMAL FARM | |
| FROM HELL TP NEW PTG | |
| LEGEND OF ZELDA HYRULE HISTORIA HC | |
| LOEG III CENTURY #3 2009 | |
| LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 | |
| MASSIVE TP VOL 01 BLACK PACIFIC | |
| NINJAGO GN VOL 01 CHALLENGE OF SAMUKAI | |
| PREACHER TP VOL 01 GONE TO TEXAS NEW EDITION | |
| SANDMAN TP VOL 04 SEASON OF MISTS NEW ED | |
| UNNATURAL CREATURES STORIES SELECTED BY NEIL GAIMAN SC | |
| WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM TP VOL 02 | |
| WALKING DEAD TP VOL 02 MILES BEHIND US | |
| X-MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST TP NEW PTG | |
| 92 | ADVENTURE TIME MARCELINE & THE SCREAM QUEENS TP VOL 01 |
| ANYAS GHOST GN | |
| ARE YOU MY MOTHER A COMIC DRAMA SC | |
| AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 01 PROMISE PART 1 | |
| BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR GN | |
| DRINKING AT THE MOVIES SC | |
| KICK-ASS 2 TP | |
| MARCH GN BOOK 01 NEW PTG | |
| NINJAGO GN VOL 02 MASK OF THE SENSEI | |
| ONE TRICK RIP OFF DEEP CUTS HC | |
| PREACHER TP BOOK 01 | |
| PRIDE OF BAGHDAD SC | |
| RELISH MY LIFE IN KITCHEN GN | |
| SOLO DELUXE ED HC | |
| WALKING DEAD NOVEL SC VOL 01 RISE OF GOVERNOR | |
| WRINKLE IN TIME GN | |
| Y THE LAST MAN TP VOL 03 ONE SMALL STEP |
I was going to do the dollar sort, but I forgot to pull that data before I shut down the store computer for the year; whoops!
Any thoughts or comments?
-B
There are those people who find this kind of thing interesting, and those who have no interest -- I put it behind the jump for the benefit of the latter!
Oh, comics! The agile arbiter of zeitgeist; the enabler of cash flow; the avatar of tastemaking! How how much I treasure you!
What follow is a list of the best-selling comics, for the singular Comix Experience, as of 12/31/13, at 5:54 PM. The store is still technically open for another hour and six minutes, but I don't think we'll significantly change this chart in that time.
This does NOT contain the charts for Comic Outpost because a) I've only owned it a fortnight, and b) we had silly computer problems in week #1, so much of the sales are registered to a generic "miscellaneous comic" code, and not the specific book that specifically sold. Ah, but 2014 will allow me to present combined charts and differences, and ah! I can not wait!
I've also pulled out "Quarter Comics", "Generic Back Issue", "Dollar Comics" and "Starter Set", which were otherwise our #1 to #4 items in the "comics" category. We sold 22x times the number of "quarter comics" as we did of Actual Comic #1, and I still think to myself, "We're not liquidating the cheapest crap fast enough". Go figure! (That's because it accumulates quickly -- "death of a thousand papercuts" is the rule for most stores, I believe)
Clearly, as you can see from what follows, 2013 is Image's year. 9 of the top 10, 13 of the top 20, 32 of the Top 50 -- that's a performance to be proud of. The second half of the year, especially, has had hot launch after hot launch, and Image right now feels like me to be like Vertigo circa 1993.
I have at least one note -- because Comix Experience (prime) is pretty much against the multiple cover as a moral stance, we treat them as distinct SKUs -- except that SANDMAN OVERTURE performed very very well with BOTH covers. So the net impact is that the COMBINED value of the Dave McKean and JH Williams' covers would actually make it our #1 book for the year, by about a 20% margin. Too bad we're stuck until February for issue #2 with no (as far as I know) co-op or returnability cushion to help us promote that it finally came out. In some ways, this is the absolute worst case scenario for a civilian/lapsed-driven book like OVERTURE -- a lot of dollars are going to be lost because of the lack of follow-through.
| 1 | SAGA #13 |
| 2 | SAGA #14 |
| 3 | SAGA #15 |
| 4 | SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) McKean Cover |
| 5 | SAGA #11 |
| 6 | SAGA #12 |
| 7 | SAGA #16 |
| 8 | SAGA #10 |
| 9 | SAGA #9 |
| 10 | JUPITERS LEGACY #1 |
| 11 | SEX CRIMINALS #1 |
| 12 | SAGA #17 |
| 13 | EAST OF WEST #1 |
| 14 | BATMAN #21 |
| 15 | BATMAN #17 |
| 16 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #8 |
| SAGA #8 | |
| 18 | BATMAN #16 |
| 19 | BATMAN #22 |
| 20 | SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) JHW cover |
| 21 | EAST OF WEST #2 |
| 22 | BATMAN #23 |
| 23 | SEX CRIMINALS #2 |
| SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1 | |
| 25 | UNCANNY X-MEN #1 NOW |
| BATMAN #20 | |
| INFINITY #1 (OF 6) | |
| WALKING DEAD #106 | |
| 29 | WALKING DEAD #109 |
| JUPITERS LEGACY #2 | |
| VELVET #1 | |
| 32 | WALKING DEAD #110 |
| WALKING DEAD #111 | |
| BLACK SCIENCE #1 | |
| WALKING DEAD #108 | |
| WALKING DEAD #112 | |
| 37 | BATMAN #19 |
| GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1 NOW | |
| HELLBOY IN HELL #2 | |
| PRETTY DEADLY #1 | |
| 41 | BATMAN #25 |
| BATMAN SUPERMAN #1 | |
| HELLBOY IN HELL #3 | |
| WALKING DEAD #107 | |
| WALKING DEAD #113 | |
| WALKING DEAD #115 | |
| 47 | BATMAN #24 |
| EAST OF WEST #3 | |
| WALKING DEAD #116 | |
| 50 | AGE OF ULTRON #1 (OF 10) |
| EAST OF WEST #4 | |
| JUPITERS LEGACY #3 | |
| SEX CRIMINALS #3 | |
| THE STAR WARS (LUCAS DRAFT) #1 (OF 8) | |
| WALKING DEAD #114 | |
| 56 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #9 |
| INFINITY #3 (OF 6) | |
| OPTIC NERVE #13 | |
| 59 | HAWKEYE #8 |
| EAST OF WEST #6 | |
| SAGA #7 | |
| 62 | HAWKEYE #10 |
| HELLBOY IN HELL #4 | |
| 64 | BATMAN ANNUAL #2 |
| GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #0.1 NOW | |
| STAR WARS ONGOING #2 | |
| WALKING DEAD #117 | |
| X-MEN #1 NOW | |
| 69 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #10 |
| STAR WARS ONGOING #1 | |
| 71 | LAZARUS #1 |
| JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 | |
| BATMAN INCORPORATED #6 | |
| EAST OF WEST #5 | |
| HAWKEYE #7 | |
| HAWKEYE #9 | |
| PRETTY DEADLY #2 | |
| UNCANNY X-MEN #3 NOW | |
| 79 | JUSTICE LEAGUE #22 |
| AGE OF ULTRON #2 (OF 10) | |
| AGE OF ULTRON #3 (OF 10) | |
| EAST OF WEST #7 | |
| FOREVER EVIL #1 (OF 7) | |
| 84 | AVENGERS #3 NOW |
| BATMAN INCORPORATED #7 | |
| GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #2 NOW | |
| SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2 | |
| TRILLIUM #1 (OF 8) | |
| VELVET #2 | |
| 90 | BATMAN SUPERMAN #2 |
| BLACK SCIENCE #2 | |
| INFINITY #2 (OF 6) | |
| SHAOLIN COWBOY #1 | |
| TRUE LIVES O/T FABULOUS KILLJOYS #1 (OF 6) | |
| WALKING DEAD #118 | |
| 96 | ACTION COMICS #16 |
| JUSTICE LEAGUE #16 | |
| HAWKEYE #11 | |
| INFINITY #4 (OF 6) | |
| WAKE #1 (OF 10) |
However, I am in the business of making money, so in many ways, what is more important is not how many copies were sold, but how many dollars were generated. If I sort the chart that way, then you can see that DC (and especially Marvel) do much much better -- SANDMAN OVERTURE, in particular, exceeds SAGA #13 by more than 200%
Still, you can see the value of the $3.99+ cover price here?
| 1 | SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) McKean Cover |
| 2 | SAGA #13 |
| 3 | SAGA #14 |
| 4 | BATMAN #24 |
| 5 | SAGA #15 |
| 6 | SANDMAN OVERTURE #1 (OF 6) JHW cover |
| 7 | SAGA #11 |
| SAGA #12 | |
| 9 | SAGA #16 |
| 10 | SAGA #10 |
| 11 | SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1 |
| 12 | SAGA #9 |
| 13 | INFINITY #1 (OF 6) |
| 14 | BATMAN #21 |
| 15 | OPTIC NERVE #13 |
| 16 | SEX CRIMINALS #1 |
| 17 | BATMAN #17 |
| 18 | DETECTIVE COMICS #19 |
| 19 | BATMAN #16 |
| 20 | BATMAN #22 |
| 21 | BATMAN #25 |
| 22 | EAST OF WEST #1 |
| 23 | JUPITERS LEGACY #1 |
| 24 | AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700 |
| 25 | BATMAN #23 |
| 26 | UNCANNY X-MEN #1 NOW |
| 27 | BATMAN #20 |
| 28 | BATMAN ANNUAL #2 |
| 29 | SAGA #17 |
| 30 | INFINITY #6 (OF 6) |
| 31 | EAST OF WEST #2 |
| 32 | BATMAN #18 |
| 33 | GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1 NOW |
| BATMAN SUPERMAN #1 | |
| 35 | SEX CRIMINALS #2 |
| 36 | BATMAN #19 |
| 37 | SAGA #8 |
| 38 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #8 |
| 39 | AGE OF ULTRON #1 FOIL CVR (OF 10) |
| STAR WARS #1 (OF 8) | |
| 40 | VELVET #1 |
| 41 | BLACK SCIENCE #1 |
| 42 | HAWKEYE ANNUAL #1 |
| 43 | INFINITY #3 (OF 6) |
| 44 | PRETTY DEADLY #1 |
| 45 | GREEN LANTERN #20 |
| 46 | ACTION COMICS #18 |
| 47 | EAST OF WEST #3 |
| 48 | X-MEN #1 NOW |
| 49 | GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #0.1 NOW |
| 50 | EAST OF WEST #4 |
| 51 | SEX CRIMINALS #3 |
| 52 | JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 |
| 53 | WALKING DEAD #109 |
| WALKING DEAD #106 | |
| 55 | JUPITERS LEGACY #2 |
| 56 | JUSTICE LEAGUE #22 |
| 57 | WALKING DEAD #110 |
| WALKING DEAD #111 | |
| 59 | FOREVER EVIL #1 (OF 7) |
| 60 | SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2 |
| 61 | WALKING DEAD #108 |
| WALKING DEAD #112 | |
| 63 | GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #2 NOW |
| 64 | EAST OF WEST #6 |
| 65 | BATMAN SUPERMAN #2 |
| SHAOLIN COWBOY #1 | |
| 68 | AGE OF ULTRON #2 (OF 10) |
| 69 | HELLBOY IN HELL #2 |
| 70 | INFINITY #2 (OF 6) |
| TRUE LIVES O/T FABULOUS KILLJOYS #1 (OF 6) | |
| 72 | HELLBOY IN HELL #3 |
| 73 | ACTION COMICS #16 |
| JUSTICE LEAGUE #16 | |
| AGE OF ULTRON #3 (OF 10) | |
| 76 | AVENGERS #3 NOW |
| 77 | UNCANNY X-MEN #3 NOW |
| 78 | WALKING DEAD #107 |
| WALKING DEAD #113 | |
| WALKING DEAD #115 | |
| 81 | INFINITY #4 (OF 6) |
| 82 | WALKING DEAD #116 |
| 83 | ALL NEW X-MEN #6 NOW2 |
| 84 | ALL NEW X-MEN #5 |
| 85 | GOD IS DEAD #1 (OF 6) |
| 86 | JUPITERS LEGACY #3 |
| 87 | EAST OF WEST #5 |
| 88 | DETECTIVE COMICS #18 |
| 89 | PRETTY DEADLY #2 |
| 90 | WALKING DEAD #114 |
| 91 | EAST OF WEST #7 |
| 92 | ALL NEW X-MEN #9 NOW |
| JUSTICE LEAGUE #23 | |
| ALL NEW X-MEN #7 NOW2 | |
| ALL NEW X-MEN #10 NOW | |
| DETECTIVE COMICS #16 | |
| 97 | X-MEN BATTLE OF ATOM #1 (OF 2) |
| 98 | INFINITY #5 (OF 6) |
| 99 | BATMAN INCORPORATED #9 |
| 100 | BATMAN #26 |
Right, so give me some comments, kids -- spot a pattern I didn't or something?
-B
So, I didn't get near any comics this Holiday but I am always writing nevertheless. In my head mostly. So, although I haven't got anything about comics I have got a head full of dumb words about some Peter Cushing films I watched this year. Usually I just dump this head written stuff into the ether but I felt like posting something and this was all I had. So I dumped it on you. Attractive, non? Anway; an old man, some old movies and a spatter of tired old jokes. What better way to see the New Year in. Have a drink, it'll read better that way. Everything's better when you're insensate with drink. That's what it's for. Oh yeah, Happy New Year everybody!
Oh yeah, none of these are Oscar(C) winners in waiting but they are all fun so they are all GOOD!
All images taken from Wikipedia.
TWINS OF EVIL Directed by John Hough Screenplay by Tudor Gates (Based on characters created by Sheridan Le Fanu(?!?)) Music by Harry Robertson (Hammer, 1971)
Yes, there is a joke there isn’t there? One about breasts; but I won’t be making it. Knock yourselves out though by all means. Then try and look your mother in the eyes, pal. In this movie, the quality of which is indicated early by the choice of Hot Electric Pink for the titles, Peter Cushing plays Gustav Veil whose surname is not only an anagram of “evil” but is pronounced “vile” and that’s about as restrained as this one gets. Seriously, there’s a bit where a lady is enjoying the physical attentions of a gentleman and the camera zooms in to show her hand lightly gliding up and down the shaft of a candle. Y’know, like a penis. Keep up. Anyway, Peter Cushing, equipped with a buckled hat, blithely classes this silly exercise up in his role as a Puritan who roams about at night with his Puritan pals burning single young women as witches. Cush & Co. average one a night which suggests that there is a preternaturally large population of single young women in and around his village or someone is bussing them in so Cush’n’chums can have their fiery fun. It’s testament to Cushing’s performance that when someone says Vile “means well” despite there being nothing in the script which indicates he is anything other than a murderous misogynist you do actually think, oh, maybe he’s just a tad, a smidgen perhaps, overzealous. So anyway, his twin nieces, or what have you, come to stay and one’s a bit of a scamp and is lured into depravity by the sleazy Lord of the manor who has been en-vamped. Unfortunately he’s played in a way that’s about as threatening as a doily. After a few creepy scenes of young women leading old men on (“What would your Uncle say?” Urrrggghhhh. No thanks, 1970s.) and flashes of flesh it’s all boiled down to The Cush vs the fanged doily man for the souls of his flock! There’s some mileage in that; the bloke who was seeing Evil everywhere where there was none now has to deal with real Evil right in his own home. But, basically, this movie prefers to find excuses to chuck some knockers up on the screen.
THE BEAST MUST DIE Directed by Paul Annett Screenplay by Michael Winder (From the short story by James Blish) Music by Douglas Gamley (Amicus,1974)
This mangy but loveable cur of a movie has a spectacularly inappropriate theme tune. Oh, It’s really good, don’t get me wrong but it’s the kind of swinging up-tempo floor shaker more suited to a title sequence in which Oliver Reed checks out ‘birds’ from his Union Jack mini as he tootles down Carnaby Street. Here it sits oddly atop a movie about a bunch of weird people lured to an island retreat by a big game hunter who believes one of them to be a werewolf. The most dangerous game of all just got dangerouserererer! I can’t lie; it’s a bit dull beyond the campiness but it does perk up whenever Peter Cushing uses his fantastic accent, someone dies or when everyone has to fondle a silver bullet in a game of Pass The Death Sentence. Oh, and there’s an exciting bit where our superfly hero hounds the werewolf in his helicopter and tries to machine gun it. Mind you, that last bit now looks like nothing more than a man shooting at a very large German Shepherd and inadvertently ruining someone’s potting shed in the process; I can assure you that was very thrilling when you were 10. But then so is hopscotch. Near the end a ticking clock fills the screen and you have to guess who the werewolf is. I don’t know how the movie knows what you’ve guessed but every time I watch it it’s (SPOILER!). I’m not saying the movie struggles to fill its screen time but it will find a favourable reaction amongst people fond of watching Michael Gambon driving about in a jeep.
AND FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN Directed by Terence Fisher Screenplay by John Elder (Anthony Hinds) Music by James Bernard (Hammer, 1967)
In which Frankenstein doesn’t but what he does do is trap the soul of a wrongly executed man in the body of the guy’s disfigured girlfriend; she having drowned herself on seeing his execution. Together with Thorley Walters (played by Eddie Izzard) Peter “The Cush” Cushing as Baron Frankenstein fixes her face (and her hair; Blonde Contretemps by Boots) and everything turns out just dandy, thanks. No, no it doesn’t, you fool! See, the soul of her boyfriend makes her hunt down the three fops who not only teased her about her face but , worse even, murdered her father and left her beau to take the rap. Some people probably say that the scenes where a man in a woman’s body seduces then murders his/her victims are ripe with trans gender subtext. Well, they might if they weren’t distracted by the fact that the victims are all dressed like Willly fucking Wonka. Anyway, if The Baron had fixed her face in the first place all that unpleasantness could have been avoided. So, basically, it’s a movie about getting your priorities right.
FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL Directed by Terence Fisher Screenplay by John Elder Music by James Bernard (Hammer, 1974)
This is the one in which Peter Cushing plays Baron Frankenstein one final time. It isn’t the best send-off but Peter Cushing doesn’t flag and nor does he falter. So, The Baron is now covertly running an asylum he’s supposed to be banged up in because he’s got the goods on the pervy dude in charge. He’s landed on his feet but his hands are giving him grief. His burned mitts are hampering his quest to stitch together the mentally unhygienic into a perfect man. Good thing then that Shane Briant (played by Twiggy) gets locked up in his gaff. And it is lucky because not only is Shane a surgeon in training he is also The Baron’s biggest fan. What are the odds? They are good, my friend. Anyway these two knock up a makeshift man who looks like a shaved ape and has a penchant for sticking broken glass in people’s faces. Shane Briant is also feeling moral pangs about The Baron passive aggressively badgering the inmates into committing suicide so he can play pick’n’mix with their parts. Oh, Madeline Smith wafts about the place as well giving the place a woman’s touch and some pathos; a bit anyway. Anyway, everything goes tits up pretty quickly. It’s possible to read the film as an indictment of the parlous state of the care of the vulnerable and how, without regulation, the gaolers become worse than the gaoled; but, basically, it’s a movie about how if you’ve got Peter Cushing in a top hat you’re sorted for 80 minutes and change. Cush Fact: the feathery wig sported by the great man himself is the exact same toupee which adorned his magnificent bonce in And Now The Screaming Starts… which, ah, here it is now…
AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS..! Directed by Roy Ward Baker Screenplay by Roger Marshall (David Case) Music by Douglas Gamley (Amicus,1973)
For about 40 minutes this enjoyable but not exactly good period set horror film consists of scenes of Ian "The Saint" Ogilvy and Stephanie “Powders” Beacham reacting badly to odd events in a stately home. A severed hand, a slashed portrait, something going bump in Stephanie Beacham’s night, a Richard Harris impersonator and hushed references to something terrible bad in the past combined to leave me clawing for clarity and wondering if I was suffering another dry drunk or what. Thankfully at that point Peter Cushing sauntered into the movie and delivered a performance which managed to make the whole thing watchable at least, and this is despite his sporting the aforementioned alarmingly feathery wig. Actually I spent a lot of time looking at this unsettling hairpiece so I could have missed some nuance or subtlety in what followed. It’s doubtful though as what followed not only had Patrick Magee pretending to be strangled by an invisible severed hand but also featured Herbert Lom as a not entirely convincing example of the landed English gentry who lets things get out of hand; sparking all the unpleasantness off with a poorly considered decision to reinstall the droit de seigneur tradition. From then on Cushing attempts to combat superstition and supernatural vengeance with the new-fangled Science Of The Mind! It ends badly for everyone involved. Where is your science now, Peter Cushing!?!
THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR Directed by Vernon Sewell Screenplay by Peter Bryan (Trigon, 1968)
This is the one with the lady who seduces men, turns into a big moth and kills ‘em. I see no subtext. Probably because there isn’t one; the script has it all on trying to make sense. Which it doesn’t but when did that ever matter; just entertain me, you mad fools! Peter Cushing is on record as claiming this is the worst film he ever made. Steady on, old boy; that’s a bit harsh. I mean even I haven’t seen every film Peter Cushing ever made but I think maybe the proximity of filming to his wife’s death coloured his judgement. Don’t get me wrong it’s quite, quite terrible but it is not without its charms. There’s Roy Hudd popping up to give the 1970s version of an amusing cameo(i.e. it isn’t; amusing that is); Cushing’s fellow plod is played by Dave the barman from Minder; some good performances convincingly delivered in spite of everything; an electrifyingly perfunctory climax in which Peter Cushing and Dave from Minder set fire to some piled up leaves, which the moth cannot resist and so meets its fiery end. And then the credits whizz up the screen. One of the things I never noticed about these movies until this re-watch is how tight they all are with film. No sooner has the final line slipped into silence than BANG! THE END! CREDITS ROLL! They might as well have someone shout "That’s yer lot! Ain’t ya got homes to go to! Fawk off home! G’wan! Whaddya want, Jam on it? Home! Now! Go!"
Speaking of which…THE END.
Happy New Year!
Because of the way the calendar worked out this year we manage to sneak in one last new comic day before we say good bye to 2013. Again, new comics are on Tuesday this week. Not the largest week, but far from the smallest and we still manage to get things like MANHATTAN PROJECTS and ROCKET GIRL. Surely something will interest you this week, if only you would click the cut, yes? ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #8 ALL STAR WESTERN #26 AQUAMAN #26 ARTIFACTS #33 ATOMIC ROBO SAVAGE SWORD OF DR DINOSAUR #4 (OF 5) B & V FRIENDS DOUBLE DOUBLE DIGEST #237 BAD BLOOD #1 (OF 5) BALTIMORE CHAPEL OF BONES #1 (OF 2) BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #26 BATWOMAN #26 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #219 BEWARE THE BATMAN #3 CATALYST COMIX #7 (OF 9) CATWOMAN #26 CLONE #13 DAMIAN SON OF BATMAN #3 (OF 4) DEAD BOY DETECTIVES #1 DEADWORLD RESTORATION #2 (OF 4) DEATH SENTENCE #4 (OF 6) FABLES #136 FLASH #26 FOREVER EVIL ARGUS #3 (OF 6) GARFIELD #21 GREEN TEAM TEEN TRILLIONAIRES #7 GRINDHOUSE DOORS OPEN AT MIDNIGHT #4 (OF 8) GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #10 JENNIFER BLOOD #34 JUDGE DREDD CLASSICS #7 JUICE SQUEEZERS #1 (OF 4) JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #26 (EVIL) LARFLEEZE #6 LEGENDERRY A STEAMPUNK ADV #1 (OF 7) LIL ERNIE #1 MANHATTAN PROJECTS #17 MERCY SPARX #3 MICHAEL AVON OEMINGS VICTORIES #8 (MR) NEW AVENGERS #13.INH OCCULTIST #4 (OF 5) RACHEL RISING #22 RED LANTERNS #26 ROCKET GIRL #3 SAVAGE WOLVERINE #13 SIN BOLDLY ONE SHOT SINISTER DEXTER #2 (OF 7) SONIC UNIVERSE #59 STAR WARS #0 (OF 8) LUCAS DRAFT SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN #7 SUPERMAN #26 SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #5 TALON #14 TEEN TITANS #26 TERMINATOR SALVATION FINAL BATTLE #2 (OF 12) THUNDER AGENTS #5 TODD THE UGLIEST KID ON EARTH #8 TOM STRONG AND THE PLANET OF PERIL #6 (OF 6) TRUE LIVES O/T FABULOUS KILLJOYS #6 (OF 6) TWILIGHT ZONE #1
Books/Mags/Things 2000 AD PACK NOV 2013 ABC WARRIORS RETURN TO EARTH HC BATMAN JUDGE DREDD TP CELEBRATED SUMMER GN DISTRICT 14 HC SEASON 02 DOCTOR WHO PRISONERS OF TIME DLX HC FIFTH ESSENCE HC PT 02 PLANET DIFOOL HELLBLAZER TP VOL 07 TAINTED LOVE HOGANS ALLEY #19 JUDGE DREDD (IDW) TP VOL 03 MAD MAGAZINE #525 MY LITTLE PONY DIGEST TP VOL 02 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC TP VOL 03 NEW AVENGERS PREM HC VOL 02 INFINITY PARIAH TP PREVIEWS #304 JANUARY 2014 SIZZLE #60 60TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE STAR WARS OMNIBUS DARK TIMES TP VOL 01 SUPERBOY TP VOL 03 LOST (N52) SUPERMAN THE MAN OF STEEL TP VOL 08 WALTER SIMONSON MIGHTY THOR ARTIST ED HC NEW PTG
As always, what do YOU think?
Not mentioned in any way in our podcast but I do love how it captures what's most important about the holidays -- conquering and invulnerability.
Ho, ho, ho! Hoist high the Jolly Roger and all that! It is Christmas, when boys become men and Boy II Men become headliners at the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. (As always, I wish Graeme was doing this entry as the holiday spirit comes terrifyingly easy to him and is a much more uncomfortable fit for me.)
Oh, and before you read any of this, go read Abhay's post first because it is undoubtedly a million times better. Really, I can't wait to stop writing this entry so I can go back to reading his...
After the jump, I leave coal in your stocking! And also show notes for our two and a half hour end-of-2013 episode! Come, sit uncomfortably on my knee and realize you're close enough to smell what I ate for lunch! And other holiday tradition-like things!
First, because the show notes are sooooo extensive (well, really my poorly formatted, hastily assembled best-of list as mentioned in the show), let me do you a holiday solid and put the link to the show first, okay?
Wait, What? Ep. 142: Out Like a Lamprey...
Okay, now that you've got that revving, you can dig into these, our show notes for the last episode of 2013. We gave you something like 32 episodes this year--that's not so bad, right? I don't even think that counts our lost episode, our minicast, or the number of hours or whatever. I mean, we gave you well over sixty hours of entertainment--that's worth celebrating, right? I mean, admittedly it may have been more like "entertainment" than entertainment but...
[Christ, I get needy during the holidays...]
Anyway....
00:00-3:21: Greetings! Graeme is happy that it’s almost Christmas; Jeff is happy he is one year closer to death! So, yeah, we’ve got a lot of common ground there, as always. Opening comments include: us talking about our lost episode, us trying to touch on the year on comics, but mainly doing a very good job talking about why we were so poorly prepared to talk about the year on comics. 3:21-39:05: We do, however, get around to talking about a certain Marvel editor’s move to a certain Marvel Animation on a certain West Coast. We also talk about the move of Will Moss to Marvel, the upcoming DC move, and more topics in which I can mindlessly use the word “move.” Unsurprisingly, discussions include the fates of Daredevil (and its relaunch), Captain Marvel, Hawkeye (and Hawkeye’s publication schedule), and Avengers: Endless Wartime (okay, maybe that last one is a little surprising). 39:05-58:53: On a related note, did Marvel in 2013 become DC in 2011 without anyone caring? Graeme lays out the case. Mentioned: David Morell, Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, roving feral gangs of art teams setting upon defenseless books and completing them, etc. Also mentioned: a really good piece by The Outhousers, the importance of corporate narratives, and how those narratives change. 58:53-1:02:43: Graeme has read Harley Quinn #1 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Chad Hardin and has hope for it as an outreach book, as well as good things to say about the Green Lantern books. And yet he has nearly no faith in DC? Explain, Graeme! 1:02:43-1:26:23: Graeme starts to talk about the “Best of 2013” as refracted in part through his picks for Wired’s Best of list, but we quickly change topics to discuss the recently released Slayground, the latest adaptation by Darwyn Cooke of Richard Stark/Donald Westlake’s Parker novels. Spoilers ahoy, as we try to figure out why our reactions to the book are what they are (including spoilers for Lemons Never Lie, because we are crazy out of control that way). 1:26:23-1:40:52: What else did Jeff buy this week (actually, closer to a month since he hadn’t been to the store since before Thanksgiving)? Jeff quickly runs down the list because, um, I don’t know, I guess I thought we were squeezed for time? Discussed in at least a sentence or two (although sometimes at most): Batman #26 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo; Batman & Two-Face #26 by Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason and Mick Gray; Lazarus #5 by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark; Velvet #2 by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting; Saga #16 and #17 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, the latest issues of The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard; Mars Attacks Judge Dredd #4 by Al Ewing and John McCrea; and issues #2 and #3 of Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios. 1:40:52-1:48:40: Jeff’s very incomplete, incredibly biased Best of 2013 list, reprinted here only with the proviso that there was so much great stuff in 2013, I didn’t even know about a lot of it, much less read it. But from what I read, here's what I liked:
Bought at the store, loved in the home: Works by G-Mo: Batman Inc. and Action Comics Works by Al Ewing: Zombo, Jennifer Blood, Mars Attacks Judge Dredd, The Fictional Man. the Avengers Assemble one-shots I read Works by BKV: The Private Eye (with Marcos Martin) and Saga (with Fiona Staples) Works by Brandon Graham: Multiple Warheads and Prophet (with Simon Roy, Giannis Milogiannis, and Farel Dalrymple) Works by Adam Warren: Empowered Animal Style (with John Staton), Empowered Nine Beers with Ninjette (with Takeshi Miyazawa) 2000 A.D. (Stickleback! Zombo!) Copra by Michel Fiffe
Stuff I really dug on digital:
2000 A.D. and Judge Dredd Megazine, by various: god, yes. Probably my most overall pleasurable reading experience of the year Kikaider by Shotaro Ishinomori Works by Akira Toriyama: Sachie-Chan Good!! and Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. Bandette by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover Batman ‘66 by Jeff Parker (and various including Jonathan Case although it was really that Joker story with Joe Quinones that rung my chimes) Double Barrel by Zander Cannon, Kevin Cannon, and Tim Sievert (whose Clandestinauts was really a grotty shot of energy to the last third of the run) Chris Weston’s story in The Adventures of Superman...boy, that looked amazing. Jack Kirby’s Kamandi reprints (which looks as if they’ve finally been discontinued... which breaks my fragile heart)
Trade paperbacks or books or whatever: My Dirty Dumb Eyes by Lisa Hannawalt TEOTFW by Charles Forsman Zombo: You Smell of Crime…And I"m The Deodorant, by Al Ewing and and Henry Flint Sin Titulo by Cameron Stewart Jack Kirby Omnibus Vol. 2 by Jack Kirby Superman: The Phantom Zone by Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, and Rick Veitch
Least favorite comic book movie of the year: Man of Steel (just saw it a few days ago and it bummed me out that the film had the best evocation of superpowers on film, but the worst evocation of Superman in just about any medium ever. Jesus, that was depressing.)
Favorite comic book movie of the year: Fast and the Furious 6 (not as good as 5, but it was still pretty great. Some of those actions only make sense if you believe in Jack Kirby physics, which of course is my baseline)
[Oh, and the above two are bonuses for show notes readers as I had them on the list and didn't get a chance to mention to Graeme).
Weirdo one-shots: Avengers Assemble Annual #1 by Christos Gage and Tomm Coker Ant Comic by Michael DeForge Supermag by Jim Rugg Masters of the Universe: The Origin of Hordak by Keith Giffen in a Kirby homage that just felt oversized and stunning Optic Nerve #13 by Adrian Tomine Satan's Soldier by Tom Scioli (thank you for not leaving comics, Tom!)
The solid b-level books that keep me on the hook: Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Batman & Robin by Pete Tomasi & Patrick Gleason Batman by Snyder & Capullo Archer and Armstrong by Fred Van Lente and...various?) Afterlife with Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios Zero by Ales Kot and various, including Morgan Jeske Lazarus by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark Superior Spider-Man by Dan Slott and various, whenever anyone would give me the code
Not this year but just the best: Hook Jaw by Pat Mills, Ken Armstrong and Ramon Sola Shako by Pat Mills, John Wagner, Roman Sola, and Juan Arancio Rogue Trooper by Gerry Finley-Day, Dave Gibbons, Colin Wilson and others Cat Shit One/Apocalypse Meow by Motofumi Kobayashi Chronicles of Conan by Roy Thomas and various The “White Zero” issue of 2001: A Space Odyssey (#5) by Jack Kirby Steve Ditko Archives: Shade The Changing Man by Steve Ditko The Boys by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, John McCrea and Russ Braun Yakitate!! Japan by Takashi Hashiguchi The Secret Society of SuperVilllains by a bunch of pitiful bastards including Gerry Conway, Bob Rozakis, Rich Buckler, Bob Layton & more Torpedo Vol. 1 by Sanchez Abuli, Jordi Bernet and Alex Toth
Whew! So yeah, like I said, there's a metric shit ton of great stuff that came out this year that I didn't read. But that was a list of stuff I did.
1:48:40-2:00:59: Graeme embellishes upon the list with some Marvel stuff Jeff justifiably overlooked including:
Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie Mighty Avengers by Al Ewing and Greg Land Iron Man by Kieron Gillen and Greg Land (and others?) Iron Man Final Frontier cowritten by Kieron Gillen and Al Ewing (digital) All-New X-Men by Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen (and others) Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron and Nick Bradshaw (and others)
And non-Marvel stuff too: Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps by Robert Venditti and others Flash by Manapul and Brian Buccellatto Bad Machinery by John Allison American Barbarian reprints on Comixology by Tom Scioli (co-signed) (and this is where Jeff finds out Scioli is writing and drawing a cosmic Transformers/G.I. Joe miniseries and makes a high-pitched noise incapable of being recorded) various Valiant titles Works by Chris Roberson: Code Name: Action and The Shadow Kings Watch by Jeff Parker and Marc Laming (Graeme didn't mention Amelia Cole by Adam Knave, D.J. Kirkbride and Nick Brokenshire but probably only because he didn't have an actual list, and was mostly riffing off mine.)
2:00:59-2:07:46: As mentioned above, it was a really good year for comics. Jeff talks about the Comics Alliance Best of List which had stuff he is now eager to read. (In fact, I just grabbed that Ōoku: The Inner Chamber from the library just this afternoon.) Graeme goes on to talk a bit about 2014 and titles he thinks are worth looking out for, including Action Comics by Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Red Lanterns and more. 2:07:46-2:27:20: Because you requested it! We talk Matt Fraction being pulled from Inhumanity and the way Marvel addressed it, Image books vs. Marvel books, what Grant Morrison is up to these days, the Affordable Care Act, and more. 2:27:20-closing: Closing comments! With an important HEAD’S UP: we are transitioning to a fortnightly (week on/week off) schedule in 2014 in order to keep us a little more sane, fresh, and feisty as we head into another year of podcasting. We are thinking of seeing if we can synchronize our schedule with House to Astonish, maybe? Please watch this space for details!
Whew! Okay, hopefully you won't mind if I play fast and loose with the tags for now? I've got my holiday shopping done but would not mind a chance to sit down and read a few comics after a busy day of running around crazy.
As we say in the podcast -- thank you to everyone who listened to us, sent us emails, sent me comics, recommended things, argued with us and each other in the comment threads, and did so much more (or nothing more than just continuing to let us blab our ever-loving hearts out). We look forward to doing it again in 2014. Please have a wonderful holiday season, a happy new year, and, as always, thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy.
Second to last new comic day of the year and because certain western holidays fall on the usual Wednesday for new comics, new comics this week, and next, come out on Tuesday! It's a very special gift from comics to you! Though this week is, to put it lightly, slim, there are new issues of AVENGERS, FOREVER EVIL and JUSTICE LEAGUE. Not much follows the cut, but you should probably click it anyways so you aren't surprised you didn't know something came out this week.
AVENGERS #24.NOW DECEIVERS #1 (OF 6) DOCTOR WHO SPECIAL 2013 #1 FOREVER EVIL #4 (OF 7) JUSTICE LEAGUE #26 (EVIL) ORIGIN II #1 (OF 5) ROBOTECH VOLTRON #1 (OF 5) SAVIORS #1
Books/Mags/Things CONAN TP VOL 14 THE DEATH FAIRY QUEST TP VOL 01 OUTLAWS STAR WARS OMNIBUS KNIGHTS O/T OLD REPUBLIC TP VOL 02
As always, what do YOU think?
Here are some Year-end Best-Of Lists-- no one else was writing those, so I thought I would be the only person to do that.
BEST TELEVISION
I didn't watch anything on HBO or Showtime this year, and I didn't feel like I missed anything. I didn't see the Game of Thrones hoo-boy episode or the Homeland this-or-that. There's too much. There's too much. Here's what I saw instead:
10. Black Mirror - "White Bear"
9. Luther -- Season 3, Episode 4 -- Series Finale
Hannibal and Les Revenants (The Returned) were fun pulp shows, but for total satisfaction, nothing came close to the finale of Luther. I don't involuntarily cheer TV shows too often; this episode, I cheered twice. An ending I hope they leave alone.
8. The New Girl -- "Virgins"
7. Arrested Development -- "Señoritis" (The Maeby episode)
I hated how this season got received, in that ... After years of hype, Netflix dumped fifteen long episodes all at once, and within about 2 hours, the same websites responsible for that hype, there were negative reviews, noise about "disappointment", insta-reaction backlash. First! Congratulations on being first with your fucking opinions, you glorified comment sections. And then in a month, it was like this show never happened.
I'm not saying you can't have a thoughtful negative reaction to that 4th season-- what an imperfect season! But to see a work with so many interesting angles to it get boiled down and wasted on just being more fuel for their dumbfuck tweet noise machine ... What a bummer. Is that what art's going to be like now? Fuuuuck.
Anyways, the Maeby episode, I just thought was the best, in that... Everything that made that season interesting to me-- seeing that family fall apart without one another, seeing their mistakes snowball over longer spans of time, their scheming coming across differently once the characters became lonelier and lonelier-- all of that hit more and hit hardest in the Maeby episode. It seemed like the show at its darkest and fucking meanest, even though I thought it was still a pretty funny episode.
I've never seen a sitcom where you get to watch the child actor get screwed up over however many episodes by their dysfunctional family and then actually become a screwed up adult, as a result of that bad parenting on display in the funny sitcom episodes, while staying funny, staying a consistent comedic character the entire time. That felt new, and worth celebrating.
6. The Chris Gethard Show - "The Villain's Journey" 5. 30 Rock -- "A Goon's Deed in a Weary World"
4. Person of Interest-- "Relevance"
One of my favorite things about the show is even three years into the show, people are screaming, "Look out! It's... it's.. It's the MAN IN THE SUIT." Because they never gave Jim Caveziel's character a name like Batman or anything, so everyone just yells "Man in the suit!" Man in the suit! But the thing that makes this episode is great is the focal character is someone else for a change, a new character, such that when Jim Caveziel finally does show up in the background, lurking and all intimidating... You do have to kinda admit, if you saw him on the street and had to describe him, you'd probably say, "holy shit, this man in a suit showed up."
Sometimes I like this show so much that I think about reading Batman comics when it's not on because maybe the people writing those are taking notes, but then my head clears up...
I imagine this episode would make a nice double-feature with that Joe Carnahan episode of The Blacklist. (But the second episode of Carnahan's two-parter, the part he had nothing to do with, kinda bit-- that show's still figuring things out).
3. Mad Men -- "In Care Of"
I know a lot of people who don't care for this show. And that's fine: I just don't know that you can appreciate what this show has accomplished watching any one episode, at this point. Season after season has meditated on how much people can change, with last season culminating in this lush, sinister exclamation that they they can't, that people are trapped in their cycles because of the poison of the world they're stuck in. This season, a season of misery, ends with this beautiful, spare scene that finally allows for the possibility that they can, as painful as that might be. And so I don't know what to say to someone who doesn't like this show -- "Just watch 5 years of it because oh my god, moving!" The show doesn't work as a soap opera (as much as fans made a bizarre spectacle of themselves trying to make it one this year) or as "entertainment"-- but I find it a great pleasure just to watch a show that really contemplates how slowly things happen in people's lives and the time it takes for things to finally come to a head for them...
2. Parts Unknown - "Tokyo"
Parts Unknown has had amazing hour after amazing hour after amazing hour. Anthony Bourdain has exploded what a cooking show can be and uses it now as a launchpad to talk about anything, everything (also: to insult Creed and Nickelback a lot). Everybody eats-- it seems like a simple idea, but as Bourdain tours all the world's darkest corners, that idea begins to seem more and more profound. I could put any episode here-- the Copenhagen one! DETROIT! But this one, so dark and strange, sex-soaked, hentai-soaked, alien, pulsing. I just think the fucking world of this show.
1. Breaking Bad -- "Ozymandias"
On the one hand, I didn't see Sex Box, the British reality show about people who have sex in a box. So I don't know for sure how bad that got. But on the other hand, I did see more than one episode of Agents of SHIELD. ... I have to go with my gut and my gut says that Sex Box probably had more surprising plots and more interesting characters than Agents of SHIELD. It just stands to reason...
BEST COMICS
I missed some major books this year, as usual. I'm still way behind on the Hernandez Bros. in particular; I'm waiting on my copy of that Blutch book So Long, Silver Screen and Frank Santoro's Pompeii. I wasn't a very adventurous reader this year for the most part, so with those caveats,
10. "The Long Journey" by Boulet
9. "Hawaii 1997" by Sam Alden
8. Hellboy in Hell, by Mike Mignola
7. "Mars to Stay" by Brett Lewis and Cliff Chiang, from the DC-Vertigo Witching Hour one-shot
8 pages aren't a whole lot, but this comic managed to sell a plot about space exploration, reality shows, sex, horror, capitalism, desparation, and survival into 8, without it ever feeling cramped. Brett Lewis wrote the Wintermen, and this shares what impressed most about that comic, how every page felt like it conveyed so much information, story, character, whatever without ever losing sight of being a comic page. Cliff Chiang limits his palette to reds and greys-- it all looks like class. If you're working on ultra-short comics, I'd suggest giving this one a look.
6. Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover 5. FURY: My War Gone By, by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov
4. In the Kitchen with Alain Passard, by Christophe Blain
This comic was my favorite comic this year for most of the year, more in how it slotted into my obsessions than for its actual content. You know, it's a completely great, globally famous cartoonist doing a talking head comic. Talking head comics are kind of a thing for me, so seeing Blain work in that territory was of particular interest. Plus, like every other obsessive, I've always wondered why there wasn't more cooking in comics, besides that one recipe in Scott Pilgrim-- so to not only see one done but with a renowned chef, drawn by the guy who did Gus & His Gang... Jesus! And I guess it speaks to where my mentality was most of this year, that I found it so pleasant, in the midst of reading all these dreary Image comics, to read a light non-fiction piece of reporting about the actual world, a comic aware that interesting people lives in that world, that the world can make for good comics.
All that having been said, it's not the most pulse-raising comic-- it's basically 100+ pages of a French guy "oohing and aahing" while eating, like, a turnip. Not for everybody. Not for turnips.
This comic pairs well with the lush Copenhagen episode of Parts Unknown.
3. Incidents in the Night by David B., translated by Brian and Sarah Evenson
Though this is one of my favorite comics of the year, it's difficult to recommend. It's an unfinished comic, and it's remained unfinished for, what, 10 years now...? But oh goddamn, this thing-- I don't know what it is about it, exactly. This was just the only comic where I wanted to run and start making something after I got done reading it.
It's a comic about a David B. analogue character becoming embroiled in a sinister war between a near-immortal author of a mysterious publication and the Angel of Death. Comic book pleasures galore: an impossible panel of David B.'s face with an aerial view of a city in the background; David B.'s character able to change shape and assume different forms at whim, including a "shadow form" and a "skeleton form"; bookstores that resemble a Carl Barks moneybin. After a year struggling to connect with most comics, it felt like a curative to read a comic so intoxicated with the form.
(Black Paths was o-kay, too, but I think Incidents was much better. Black Paths is a little more complete though, plus the full color work, so for recommendation purposes, maybe the safer bet...).
2. Copra, by Michel Fiffe 1. Sunny, by Taiyo Matsumoto
The Disappointments
These comics weren't bad. I could even half-recommend them for some of the merit they did feature. But I'd list them as disappointments:
6. Satellite Sam, by Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin.
My favorite character is the guy with the moustache.
I'm mostly confused why I don't know what's at stake. What's at stake in this comic? Mad Men uses advertising as a metaphor for the lies that these characters in the show tell themselves, the lies that people want to hear, people's self-inflicted confusion as to the surface of an image and what lies beneath. Here, what's at stake in the early days of television? After 4 or 5 issues now, I'm still not sure. Someone's dad got laid a lot-- why should I care? The social mores of this entirely unpleasant, charmless cast feels unmoored to anything connecting them to us, rendering the whole experience weightless.
Comics with unclear stakes-- if you stray from mainstream comics, you get a shit-ton of that heaped on you. That Amazing Killjoys thingy-- can't even pick on that, it'd be like picking on a three-legged blind dog. That comic Nowhere Men from late last year. Federal Bureau of Physics-- a damn swell-looking comic, entertaining at times, but if I can read more than one issue of your comic and not care if every character gets a bullet in the head....
5. Supermag by Jim Rugg
I was hoping that this would be more like a magazine, and that he would embrace the format. Instead, it was just a collection of odds and ends, placed into a magazine-shaped container. People received that magazine-shape of the container in a pretty rapturous fashion, but comics have been sold in magazine-shaped containers before-- that's how they sold Tank Girl.
The variety of comics on display was interesting, but I think kept it from being any kind of statement (other than a statement re: variety or some dull postmodern sentiment)-- there's no feeling like it's more than the sum of its parts. Some of the odds and ends are goddamn great-- Jim Rugg draws like a motherfucker. But some are just an entire page dedicated to Vanilla Ice...? A blaxploitation pin-up drawn in a 1990's X-comic vernacular has little going for it other than the joke of its existence. I mean, Rugg's Art Thibert impression is swell, but a boring drawing is still a boring drawing.
4. Hair Shirts by Pat McEown
The two graphic novels that bookended the year for me were Hair Shirts and Charles Forsman's The End of the Fucking World. With both, I had the same reaction, of (a) the book being really interesting to look at and (b) oh, how much happier would I have been if I had a way to consume the visual aspects of both without having to read them!
TEOTFW had pretty interesting storytelling, a very readable comic ; it just lost me super-super-hard once the reveal of the "bad guys" happens. Considering the acclaim it received on its release, that might just be a failure in my own generosity as a reader. But I just... it's in a genre that I'm very tired by and I don't know that it brought much to that genre. I was very interested in TEOTFW as comics-- just not as a story (so I don't know that I'd call it bad or a disappointment or whatever; it's not on my list; I'd just put it as promising work and keep my fingers crossed that Forsman improves on that end).
But with Hair Shirts, my reaction was that multipled by a thousand. I just went in with a higher opinion of Pat McEown, and Hair Shirts ... Hair Shirts is just so fucking pretty-- it's such a fun comic to look at that I really wanted it to be better than it turned out being.
I just don't think .... I just don't think I'm the audience for a comic about the sexual dysfunctions of young people. I'm not sure how much I cared about that when I actually was a young person, even. I just found the story too generic, and its attempts to be specific to be too unconvincing. Once again, it was never persuasive that anything meaningful was at stake.
The Hates
3. The Wake by Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy 2. Lazarus by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark
1. Zen Pencils by that Zen Pencils Asshole
The worst thing to happen in comics and in many ways, the worst thing to happen in all of our lives this year were the fucking Zen Pencils comics. This is that asshole who takes other people's thoughts and creative work, who takes the words that have come out of other people's mouths, and sets them without permission to the most goddamn generic comic stories possible told with the most generic storytelling possible, all of which (regardless of how the original speaker might have felt about the world, or their own attempts to convey subtlety in their work) consistently emphasize Zen Pencil's own one-dimensional, shallow, poorly-communicated thematic obsessions, e.g. lame nerds quitting their white-collar jobs in order to "pursue their stupid dreams" and angrily attacking their former bosses for having dared to stand between nerds and their dreams. At least if you're lucky, and some quote from Pico Iyer hasn't been overlaid on top of a fucking Game of Thrones fan-comic...
Rather than think great things, or create great stories, Zen Pencils settles for stealing and coasting off other people's celebrity. This is just dimestore internet plagarism, fed by a social media system that mistakes reblogging political sentiments for political activism, mistakes flooding each other with incessant numbing streams of copyright infringing no-credit images for curation, mistakes badly drawn rip-offs of Bill Watterson with real cartooning. It transforms the hard-won wisdom of our best comedians, thinkers, and writers into commodities. Have you managed to say something great, after a lifetime struggling with the language and your own internal limitations in order to express something uniquely your own? Well, here comes Zen Pencil to turn it into a source of ad revenue, maybe a fucking print he can sell. Wee! Zen Pencils trots out "liberation from day jobs" fantasies and paeans to childhood dreams in order to sell more bullshit to squares that they don't need, and thus offers only another manifestation of a comics culture constantly unable to see other people as anything besides more chattel to be exploited. While other young cartoonists are busting their ass trying to discover who they are and what they can bring into the world, this jack-off repackages shit people already like, in the crassest way possible, never pausing to wonder whether the people he quoted wanted to be drafted into his misbegotten enterprise (even when those people include Bill Watterson, a cartoonist more than equipped to convey his thoughts to his audience without this fucking guy's "help").
Zen Pencils is representative of both comics and the internet at its very, very worst-- it's leading the charge towards a world of diminished expectations. Congratulations, mediocrity.
In conclusion and summation, fuck him, fuck his comics, and fuck your stupid "Quit your dayjob" fantasies. Get back to work! We're a species that depends on each other working hard for each other and sacrificing for one another, if we all want to live in a functioning civilization. Your outlaw fantasies where you get to coast off everyone else's sacrifices are childish shit and you should fucking know better. You're a grown-ass adult.
I "missed" (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not) a lot of this year's serious movies, I guess: Captain Phillips, Dallas Buyers Club, Rush, Her, Short Term 12, All is Lost, Drug War, Enough Said, Fruitvale Station, Blue Jasmine, Nebraska, Place Beyond the Pines, The Spectacular Now, Before Midnight, Computer Chess, the Bling Ring, and The Counselor. 2013 doesn't end without getting to see the Wolf of Wall Street, though; my hopes there are very, very high.
Setting all of those (!) aside...
10. The World's End
All of those Transformers movies were made so that Michael Bay could earn the freedom to make a movie about steroid addled maniacs torturing and murdering people in order to achieve a cocaine-tinged version of the American Dream. It's called "dreaming big."
8. The Great Beauty 7. Cheap Thrills 6. Upstream Color 5. Inside Lewelyn Davis
Lake Bell making a movie about sexism in the movie trailer voiceover business...? On paper, that sounds like an oddity or a vanity project, but I thought the comedy that resulted, while maybe a little uneven in places... I don't know, sometimes when you're watching a movie, do you ever start rooting for the movie? I felt that with this one.
3. Side Effects
2. Furious Six
Maybe not a "Great movie" but by far, the most memorable theater experience of the year. People yelling things at screen; people cheering in the right places; I remember at one point one of the guys I saw this with trying to argue with the screen-- he is in his 30's. People losing their minds; people caring too much what happened to a Korean guy named Han Seoul-Oh; people going home and watching Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift because that's a sequel to this movie? I was all of those "people", this year; it was great. I don't know what the best movie of the year was but this was the best time.
My favorite kinds of movies are comedies, and I just thought this movie was fucking hilarious. I've only seen it the once and I've heard mixed things from people who've seen it since. But me? I laughed my fucking ass off at this. Apparently it's not for everyone, but the jokes plus I just really connected to a couple things in this movie that... This was the movie I walked away from the most worked up this year.
Star Trek Into Darkness: This is a really boring choice, but man, this movie really was a piece of shit. It's such a boring choice-- is anyone even arguing this is a good movie anymore? But even in the same year that Matt Damon played a Mexican, this was the worst movie. Even the same year people pretended that an endlessly tedious Iron Man movie was a "real Shane Black movie" just because it was set at Christmas, this was the worst movie. This was just tip-to-toe pretty thoroughly numbskulled and unentertaining. It'll probably make for a good Redletter Media Mr. Plinkett review someday, but even giving it points for that, what was as bad as this movie?
I don't have any great hate for JJ Abrams, both before or after this-- if I don't think much of him as a "filmmaker," I still think he's actually an interesting guy, from, like, a business model perspective. He was a good guest on Jeff Garlin's podcast. He's helped made television I've enjoyed. But what had as much contempt for its audience, the rules of logic, or cinema itself? Nothing comes to mind.
HONORARY MENTION
Pacific Rim Fans on the Internet aka the John Carter Memorial Award: Quit telling people that boring, stupid special effects movies without any characters in them need to be "supported"! Those movies have already been supported with eight-figure ad campaigns. There was nothing wrong with those campaigns-- those campaigns accurately conveyed to general audiences that Hollywood spent a lot of money on computer graphics for 11-year-old boy wankery. Every summer there are small, deserving independent movies that actually need support while all that goes on-- Kings of Summer didn't have a 8-figure ad campaign; In a World... had to rely on word of mouth, for a movie that no one probably got paid much on to begin with. It's grotesque.
"Movie ticket purchasing is your way to vote for originality, the blistering originality that is this guy semi-incomprehensibly ripping off anime for 2 hours. It's this generation's Star Wars!" Ugh, go fuck yourself with a Gundam figurine. Why is that happening every year? Is this going to be every year now? After the next one of these special effects movies bombs, can Chris Hardwick have a post-movie-bombs show where he talks to that guy who writes about movies in all-caps, that Dragon-Con child-molester guy, and Jimmy Kimmel? Thanks.
5. Jeff Garlin -- "Will Ferrell" 4. Slumber Party -- "Flash Flood of Sadness"
3. Harmontown -- ?
I've seen some amazing things thanks to Harmontown: Robin Williams talking about Brandon Graham comics, Eric Idle singing, Jeff Davis revealing he has magical psychic powers that could've fucking prevented 9-11 or something, etc. Amazing things I felt privileged to see.
But my favorite moment this year was during a D&D game -- Erin McGathy grabbing some goblin, looking deep into its eyes and saying "You are me" (or something like that).
I don't remember the exact words; I just remember that was probably the fucking hardest I laughed all year. McGathy killed my shit.
2. The Best Show on WFMU -- the final episode
I'm not a super-fan like a lot of people on the internet so a lot of stuff went over my head. It wasn't my first time at the rodeo either-- I'd just dipped in and out over the years; I was never consistent with it. But boy, this was still some listen.
(I also liked the one where Tom was writing the Entourage movie all night, though I don't know it was best-of-the-year material. But I enjoyed that one a bunch).
1. Welcome to Night Vale-- The Sandstorm, Parts 1 and 2
Warning: you can't start listening with the Sandstorm episodes.
Least favorite: I tried to get into the Thrilling Adventure Hour-- it didn't go well. We didn't agree with each other.
Best: Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen & Candy Stripe Nurses by Chris Nashawaty
I haven't read all of it yet-- been sipping on it, but here's an excerpt that meant a lot to me, spiritually:
"Jim Wynorski [talking about Dinosaur Island]: We made the film in ten days. I thought it came out pretty well. The funniest thing is I was at a party and Joe Pesci-- who I didn't think even knew my name-- came over and said, 'Hey, Jim Wynorski.' And I said, 'Hi, Joe Pesci, right?' He said, 'Yes. I've got to tell you, I love Dinosaur Island! Every time I watch it, I feel like I want to go there.' He was with Barry Levinson. And they kept asking me about Dinosaur Island. Bizarre."
Worst: Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe
I'd read some old non-fiction pieces Wolfe had written back in the day and put me in the mood for one of his novels, my memory for what one of those are like failing me. It wouldn't be so bad that this novel is super-racist if it at least worked as a novel. But man, the story goes nowhere. The characters aren't believable. And the prose ain't shit. Also, p.s., hoo-boy, it is super-racist.
I wouldn't have guessed I'd be the audience for this game, but Conan O'Brien playing this on his show sold me on giving it a shot. I was pretty surprised how effective this was, especially in the first hour or so, in conveying a character in a desperate situation and how much that kept me invested for the rest of the (admittedly too long) game.
Worst: Gone Home.
I really hated this. I don't know if you remember, but when webcomics first became a thing, there was a wildly overpraised webcomic about what it was like to be a boring, boring LGBT person. Wildly overpraised, now equally forgotten because it skipped the part where a comic has an interesting story, fun characters, etc. Here, I felt like reaction to this game was driven by the politics, the fact that it was a "Discover your sister is a lesbian" simulator, especially right now when I know the image I have in my head of a stereotypical "gamer" is someone leaving women death threats while wearing a Penny Arcade shirt celebrating rape. Gamers just seem like pretty much the worst, even as games become more widespread, more ubiquitous.
But this game was terrible, and as a piece of fiction, there just wasn't anything interesting about it that I could figure, other than the (okay, pretty great) soundtrack. The sister's story is just dull, dull, dull-- nothing interesting happens in that relationship, other than the fact that it's a gay relationship. The dark, stormy night and creepy house the story is plopped in just make the whole thing seem extra-silly-- why is your character wandering through a creepy house for no reason? Why doesn't she order a pizza and watch TV? Delaying the delivery of this tedious story so that the player has to solve lame puzzles-- I just felt like that mechanic paled in comparison to any number of more interesting indie games out there this year (I liked Kentucky Route Zero much more, though that's incomplete at the moment). The side stories (including the dad-uncle relationship) don't improve any of this noticeably.
I couldn't guess at what people saw in this.
5. Take a Knee
It's the last episode, so you should watch the rest first if you haven't seen it.
3. Biting Elbows -- Bad Motherfucker 2. Cop Show Drug Test 1. Car Jumper-- Episode 7
Honorable Mention: Addy, on CNN.
Believe you me when I say I share your relief as we thunder into the fourth and final part of what people as far away as the chair next to me are calling a Planet of The Apes Weekly gallery! Merry Christmas! Ho ho ho!
Anyway, this...
After all that it turns out the guy I borrowed these off was just shy of the complete run. Sigh.
So 'almost' only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and - COMICS!!!
My name's John Kane and I wish you all, every man Jack of you, a very Merry Christmas!
"Beware the beast Man, for he is the Content's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he scans for the attention of strangers during Internet lulls. Yea, he will politely ask his work-mate to borrow his work-mate's Planet of The Apes Weekly collection. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will spend most of his time washing, cleaning and generally running about to little result before finally sitting and staring dully into the far distance. Shun him; drive him back into his new-build lair, for he is the harbinger of death." Thus spaketh The Lawgiver. And so Part Three of the Planet of The Apes Weekly cover gallery begins:
Anyway, this...
Ape Shall not borrow and then forget to return ape's - COMICS!!!
Well, Christmas The Holidays are almost upon us! Now, if you do knock back the old grape juice plus please refrain from driving. This isn't the Nineteen Seventies, you know! Although you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise as we plummet into the second part of our gallery of Planet of The Apes Weekly (very old but VERY GOOD!) covers. It ain't Nostalgia, it's History. (Okay, it's nostalgia).
BONUS**BONUS***: Fool your friends! Baffle your enemies! Be hunted by the Government and shot in a ship yard with our Amazing Like-Life Ape Mask! (Never use scissors unless supervised by an adult.)
Anyway, this...
Oh, apes might talk but they don't make - COMICS!!!
It is with no small amount of shame that I note it has been over a year(!) since I promised to take a look at Planet of The Apes Weekly. Um. Prizes for the best excuses! Er, I mean reasons. Look, we're all adults so let's all just put it behind us and move on. As a special Christmas Treat, and as a small act of atonement, please find the covers to the first 31 issues of Planet of The Apes Weekly. If you like 'em I'll do some more. And, okay, we'll see what we can do about, y'know, going on about the contents in word form. No promises, mind. Special BONUS: from hereonin I (mostly) shut my mad yapper and let the pictures speak. Merry Christmas!
Anyway, this...
Oh, context: Planet Of The Apes Weekly was a repackaging of Marvel's PoTA material for the British market. It was spurred by the enormous popularity of the PoTA TV show. The PotA strips were hacked into episodes of about six pages and backed up by whatever mad sci-fi based stuff Marvel had to hand. Turned out Marvel had plenty. The weekly schedule really burned through the scant PoTA material and filling each issue must have been quite an adventure. The movie adaptations constantly rotated in and out and the Killraven strip was rejigged from a disco themed continuation of H.G. Wells' War of The Worlds into a disco themed continuation of PoTA via the genius of the addition of badly drawn ape heads on anything that wasn't moving. PoTA began in 1974 and ran under its own title for 139 issues before being subsumed into other Marvel reprint titles and finally expiring in 1977. Which is when the children's entertainment Star Wars hit...Anyway, we'll get into all that later. Maybe. For now, the singular visual magic that was 1970s Marvel reprint comics covers:
And a fond farewell for now from The Planet of The COMICS!!!
It's a Skip Week! Oh, oh, the horror! So let's take your mind off it and hurriedly look at some comics which originally appeared some forty one years back. Way back, back when a lady entering a pub unaccompanied would be burned as a witch. And rightly so! Look, it was either this or I did a Best Comics of 2013 like everyone and their mother, but you know what The Best Comics of 2013 are? Whatever you think they are! Merry Christmas! Don’t worry, I try and get serious later. That’s usually quite funny isn't it; like a chimp baking or something? So, Tomb of Dracula!
Anyway, this...
THE TOMB OF DRACULA Vol. 1 Penciler: Gene Colan Inkers: Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, Vince Colletta, Ernie Chan & Jack Abel Writers: Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin & Gardner Fox Colourists: Tom Palmer, Glynis Wein & Petra Goldberg Letterers: John Constanza, Artie Simek, Charlotte Jetter & Tom Orzechowski Front Cover: Neal Adams Contains material originally published in magazine form as Tomb of Dracula #1-12 (1972-3) Blade created by Gene Colan & Marv Wolfman Marvel, $24.99 (2010)
The biggest surprise on reading this book was how long it takes for Marv Wolfman to show up (issue 7, p.137 ff). I’d got it into my head he and Gene Colan were there from the off but apparently not. Gene Colan’s here from the start but for most of this book he’s bolstering up a bugger's muddle of writers; each stopping only to catch their breath before being yanked out and replaced by the next passing writer. Stability only really even starts to settle in when Marv Wolfman starts bringing his own mug in, symbolically speaking. He's the one who, mostly in later volumes than this, defines the cast and events which would cause Tomb of Dracula to be so fondly remembered all these years later. Because it is a lot of years since these appeared. 1972! Or Nineteen Seventy Two as David Peace would have it.
Tomb of Dracula is a bit of a bumpy ride writing wise; it’s a bit cacophonic in terms of authorial voices but that does mean it's never predictible. Gerry Conway starts us off and I have to say, credit where credit’s due and all that, I do have to say Gerry Conway starts proceedings off with a surprisingly strong first chapter. There’s a very adult air about the whole thing driven as it is by debts, resentful friendships and sour love. Really quite enjoyable and effective at hooking the reader in. Sadly his next chapter is pretty bad, largely being a rehash of the first issue and featuring some big bald dude who seems significant but is never seen again. Come issue 3 and Archie Goodwin tries to reign it all in to some shape, succumbing to his omnipresent Editor Within to explain continuity glitches away and home in on a coherent narrative direction. This direction being, as it was throughout the series, finding a way to repurpose the Gothic trappings of Dracula within the heady, crazy days of the fast changing fondue-tastic, tie-dyed seventies. The book takes a while to settle into this and there are moments of inadvertent humour as Dracula is nearly bested by the use of car headlights, enlists children as feral weapons, encounters a projecter that can make an army of vampires (Don't ask. Really.), goes on a cruise, mixes it up with biker gangs and voodoo and dispenses advice to a couple of troubled teens hemmed in by small town life. It's all very silly but quite charming.
You can particularly feel Marv Wolfman settling in and becoming more comfortable and far more effective as the pages pass. And as the pages pass Wolfman's cast amasses. Largely a drab bunch to begin with things liven up with the arrival of Blade, the blaxploitation inspired vampire hunter who would go on to earn Marvel millions in other media. (Oh don’t worry, I’m not going to go into it. I mean, Christ forbid someone should express any concern for another human being. Particularly one they've never met. How absurd! I will say, to no one's surprise, I do think Marv Wolfman was badly treated in this instance.) Which is lucky because besides Harker with his seemingly magical wheelchair (which can access any location unaided no matter how remote) and his array of endearingly rubbish gadgets ("I call it...a net!")Dracula is the only real personality on show.
Good job it's his book. And it is his book. Despite being portrayed as a slap-happy chap who never changes his clothes and monologues like monologuing is in danger of going out of fashion Dracula really comes, er, alive by the end of the book. He's no frilly cuffed fop puling and whining like Andrew Bennet in I...Vampire. No, this dude is a proacative predator with schemes galore up his grave dirt soaked sleeves. Also, don't fuck with him because this Drac fucks back. As our outclassed band of hunters discover to their chagrin in issue 12. In fact by that moment in the final issue reprinted here everything is meshing so smoothly that the art, writing, colouring all combine into this magnificent sequence atypical of '70s corporate comics in its artistic innovation and emotional impact:
Now fair warning; these comics are from an earlier day, a day in which comic book dialogue was distinct from dialogue in other media. Here people spout great gouts of unexpectedly near lyrical verbiage within a single panel portraying as swift an action as, say, Dracula slapping someone to the floor. (He does that a lot.)But then no one literally took the words being spoken to actually be occurring within the time frame of the action being portrayed. We were children, yes, but we weren’t idiots. Because back then comics were comics and cheerfully so. And one of the conventions of comics back then was that the dialogue would, yes, be the words spoken but these would be presented in a manner in which such words were supplemented by information informing the emotional affect, the emotional stakes of the scene and the emotional states of the players in question. Either via narrative text boxes or within the dialogue itself. Hence the overstuffed armchair of exposition effect modern readers often balk at. Inelegant as it may have been at its best the result was a very comics specific variation of, I guess, prosody.
There’s an assumption that this method was unsophisticated; in fact it was very sophisticated. However, it was implicit, instinctive and had evolved naturally along with the comics form. It wasn’t pretty but it was one of the unique beauties of the comic form. It is of course dead now. And it died because it was very hard to reduce to a simple formula, thus it was hard to replicate and, not insignificantly, requires not a little knowledge and love of the English language. For a reader the dissimilarity between the old school and the new school is, I think, the difference between passively watching a story unfold and actively inhabiting a story as it develops. Both are valid, but I have always liked to live within my comics as I read them. It’s more difficult to do that now. But time passes, trends change and the moving finger writes; and having writ moves on…to television (it hopes). Of course the ascendant trend is borne not of artistic need but of expediency, the very expediency Gene Colan turned to his very great advantage.
Because if there’s one reason I bought this then that reason is Gene “The Dean” Colan. This time out the big thing I noticed about Gene Colan’s art (the inkers here varying from Palmer's sympathetic magic to Colletta's reliably shitty hackwork) is how his signature style is shaped by the demands of his job. Every page and every panel on these pages is an illustration not only of whatever the script calls for but also of the requisite rapidity a Bronze Age comics warrior's position entailed. Gene Colan’s work here is a series of exercises in expediency. The genius is that he manages to turn this from a stylistic restraint into an instrument of stylistic release. Using shadows, bizarre POVs and about three battered postcards of London Gene Colan provides an England that never was, but an England absolutely fitting to the pulpy melodrama at play. And he populates this eerie environment with figures whose startlingly realistic faces contrast starkly with the impossibility of their bodies; these bodies apparently composed of clothes filled with living winds in fluctuating states of agitation. As a result Colan’s pictures are pickled in atmosphere and thrumming with potential threat. So, when the kick off comes (and come it always does) Colan’s flailing and comprehensively wind whipped figures whirl around a world filled with fearful shadows. More than anyone else involved Gene Colan makes Tomb of Dracula the success it is. When I was young I thought Gene Colan’s art was awesome simply because it looked awesome now I am less young I think Gene Colan’s art is more awesome still because I now have the merest inkling of the skill involved. That’s why Gene’s The Bursar! I mean, that’s why Gene’s The Dean! And ultimatley that's why Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1 is VERY GOOD!
It's also, it almost goes without saying, COMICS!!!
So many comics! This week is the biggest yet, almost like a certain holiday is mere days away. With many banner books this week there is no shortage of quality comic books, including (but not limited to) SAGA, PRETTY DEADLY, YOUNG AVENGERS, EAST OF WEST, ZERO, BLACK SCIENCE and DAREDEVIL. The question is, with so many things to be excited for why are you still reading this? Click the cut!
A VOICE IN THE DARK #2 ADVENTURE TIME #23 ALL NEW X-MEN #20 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700.4 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700.5 ANIMAL MAN #26 AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #22.INH BATMAN 66 #6 BATMAN AND TWO FACE #26 BEN 10 #2 BIRDS OF PREY #26 BLACK SCIENCE #2 BLOODHOUND CROWBAR MEDICINE #3 (OF 5) BLOODSHOT & HARD CORPS #17 BOUNCE #8 (MR) BPRD HELL ON EARTH #114 BRAVEST WARRIORS #15 BUZZKILL #4 (OF 4) CATACLYSM ULTIMATE X-MEN #2 (OF 3) CLIVE BARKER NEXT TESTAMENT #6 (OF 12) CODENAME ACTION #4 (OF 6) CONAN THE BARBARIAN #23 CROSSED BADLANDS #43 DAREDEVIL #34 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #31 DEADPOOL #21 EAST OF WEST #8 ETERNAL WARRIOR #4 EXTINCTION PARADE #4 FANTASTIC FOUR #15 FF #15 FOREVER EVIL ROGUES REBELLION #3 (OF 6) GHOST #1 GHOSTBUSTERS #11 GODZILLA RULERS OF THE EARTH #7 GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #26 HARLEY QUINN #1 HIT #4 (OF 4) ILLEGITIMATES #1 (OF 6) INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #17.INH ITTY BITTY HELLBOY #5 (OF 5) JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICAS VIBE #10 KISS ME SATAN #4 (OF 5) LADY RAWHIDE #3 (OF 5) LOCKE & KEY ALPHA #2 (OF 2) LONGSHOT SAVES MARVEL UNIVERSE #4 (OF 4) MARS ATTACKS JUDGE DREDD #4 (OF 4) MASSIVE #18 MIDAS FLESH #1 (OF 8) MIND THE GAP #16 MR PEABODY & SHERMAN #2 (OF 4) MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #14 MY LITTLE PONY MICRO SERIES #10 LUNA NEVER ENDING #2 (OF 3) PRETTY DEADLY #3 RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #26 RED SONJA #6 REVIVAL #16 SAGA #17 SAMURAI JACK #3 SCARLET SPIDER #25 SECRET #4 SECRET AVENGERS #13 SERGIO ARAGONES FUNNIES #11 SEX #9 (MR) SIMPSONS COMICS #207 SINISTER DEXTER #1 (OF 7) SLEDGEHAMMER 44 LIGHTNING WAR #2 (OF 3) STAR TREK ONGOING #28 STAR WARS DARK TIMES SPARK REMAINS #5 (OF 5) STAR WARS DARTH VADER & CRY OF SHADOWS #1 (OF 5) STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI FORCE WAR #2 (OF 5) STAR WARS LEGACY II #10 STEAM ENGINES OF OZ VOL 2 #1 GEARED LEVIATHAN STRAIN THE FALL #6 SUPERGIRL #26 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #24 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM UP #8 TEEN TITANS GO #1 TEN GRAND #6 THE SPIDER #16 THOR GOD OF THUNDER #16 THUNDERBOLTS ANNUAL 2013 #1 TMNT KEVIN EASTMAN CVR GALLERY TMNT ONGOING #29 TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE #24 DARK CYBERTRON PART 5 TRINITY OF SIN PANDORA #6 (EVIL) UMBRAL #2 UNCANNY AVENGERS #15 UNCANNY X-FORCE #15 UNCANNY X-MEN #15.INH WAKE PART ONE #1 WARLORD OF MARS #31 WASTELAND #51 WITCHBLADE #171 WONDER WOMAN #26 WONDERFUL WORLD OF LISA SIMPSON #1 WORLD OF ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #34 X-MEN #8 X-O MANOWAR #20 YOUNG AVENGERS #14 ZERO #4
Books/Mags/Things ALTER EGO #122 AUTHORITY HC VOL 02 BOY AND A GIRL GN DEADPOOL CLASSIC TP VOL 09 DEADPOOL TP VOL 03 GOOD BAD AND UGLY EMPOWERED TP VOL 08 FABLES TP VOL 19 SNOW WHITE FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #271 GARTH ENNIS BATTLEFIELDS TP VOL 08 GODZILLA RULERS OF EARTH TP VOL 01 GREAT PACIFIC TP VOL 02 NATION BUILDING JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #342 MASSIVE TP VOL 02 SUBCONTINENTAL POWERS BUREAU TP VOL 01 UNDERCOVER SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN TP VOL 15 SHOWCASE PRESENTS STRANGE ADVENTURES TP VOL 02 SLAINE BOOK OF SCARS 30TH ANNIVERSARY HC SUPERMAN VS MONGUL TP TEEN TITANS TP VOL 03 DEATH OF THE FAMILY TO (N52) WORLD WAR 3 ILLUSTRATED #45 X-FACTOR TP VOL 21 END OF X-FACTOR X-FILES SEASON 10 HC VOL 01
As always, what do YOU think?
I was a bit rushed this week so I thought I'd save some time by doing a gallery instead of a bunch of words arranged in upsetting orders. Hilariously, I saved no time whatsoever but I can now present to you a cover gallery of all the issues of WARRIOR Magazine I own (i.e. no issue 1). They are old, stained, dog-eared and read to within an inch of their lives but they still look nice and give a savoury taste of the groundbreaking early '80s anthology that thrilled me from the age of twelve and up, up and away. Anyhoo, have a look if you want. (Also: How To Make a Zirk! Really!)
Alan Moore and Alan Davis correctly predict the reaction of the Internet to those Miracleman reprints coming in January 2014. Who sez he ain't magic!?!
Anyway, this...
Oh, WARRIOR was VERY GOOD! there, now I can categorise it as a review. Tricks of the trade, my loves. Tricks of the trade.
WARRIOR ISSUE 2 COVER ART by Garry Leach
WARRIOR ISSUE 3 COVER ART by Paul Neary
WARRIOR ISSUE 4 COVER ART by Steve Dillon
WARRIOR ISSUE 5 COVER ART by Dez Skinn
WARRIOR ISSUE 6 COVER ART by Steve Parkhouse
WARRIOR ISSUE 7 COVER ART by Mick Austin
Mick Austin's cover unadorned except by age and stains.
WARRIOR ISSUE 8 COVER ART by David Jackson
WARRIOR ISSUE 9 COVER ART by Mick Austin
Mick Austin's cover unadorned except by age and stains.
WARRIOR ISSUE 10 COVER ART by Garry Leach
Garry Leach's cover unadorned except by age and stains.
WARRIOR ISSUE 11 COVER ART by David Lloyd
WARRIOR ISSUE 12 COVER ART by Steve Parkhouse
WARRIOR ISSUE 13 COVER ART by Garry Leach
WARRIOR ISSUE 14 COVER ART by Jim Baikie
WARRIOR ISSUE 15 COVER ART by Mick Austin
WARRIOR ISSUE 16 COVER ART by Steve Parkhouse
WARRIOR ISSUE 17 COVER ART by David Jackson
WARRIOR ISSUE 18 COVER ART by Steve Parkhouse
WARRIOR ISSUE 19 COVER ART by Dez Skinn?Garry Leach?David Lloyd? I know not.
WARRIOR ISSUE 20 COVER ART by Garry Leach
WARRIOR ISSUE 21 COVER ART by Mick Austin
WARRIOR ISSUE 22 COVER ART by Geoff Senior
WARRIOR ISSUE 23 COVER ART by Jim Baikie & Garry Leach
WARRIOR ISSUE 24 COVER ART by John "Joz" Bolton
WARRIOR ISSUE 25 COVER ART by Garry Leach
WARRIOR ISSUE 26 COVER ART by Garry Leach
MARVELMAN SPECIAL #1 COVER ART by Mick Austin
BONUS****BONUS****BONUS****BONUS***
How to Make a Zirk Art by Garry Leach!!!
As you've probably gathered by now, those were - COMICS!!!
