January 2008 Archives
I've got something to say about this stuff.
Northlanders #1,2
Brian Wood rocks. And he puts out of lot of stuff, really. This book doesn't seem to lack any of the quality of DMZ or any of Wood's other recent hits. I read somewhere that this will one of those books where different characters will get the spotlight for several issues at a time. Wood's gonna jump around to different time periods as well, giving us lots of different perspectives on the these Northern peoples. Awesome.
Well, first-up is the story of Sven the Returned. So far, it's Hamlet. Sven returns home to find that his Uncle Gorm is ruling the land and has most likely killed his father.
Issue one sets the story in motion, showing Sven confronting Gorm and Gorm's less than hospitable welcoming of Sven. Issue two kicks into the action, as Sven takes out a would-be-assasin, beats-up a girl, and then (as the cover indicates) gets some well-earned nookie.
Wood is blessed to be working with another artist who seems to understand his story-telling instinctively, and provides moody landscapes and widescreen action to match each moment appropriately. Gianfelice's pencils are sometimes as savage as his subject, but he still has humor to spare when the moment demands it.
Let me preface this by saying that I have no experience whatsoever with Jack Staff or, as far as I can remember, with Paul Grist. But, the cover of this comic ascribes to a certain set of aesthetics which indicate that it's kind of "indie". It's something to do with the really non-realistic looking heroes on the cover, and the fact that they're all skinny with chunky feet. I don't know how we got to the point that those features are the banners of indie status, but here we are.
Well, isn't this nice? On the fourth page, Mr. Grist provides a welcome for people like me - "any new readers who might have picked up this issue and are wondering what they've gotten themselves into."
Pg. 13 Okay, 3 stories started, all to be continued. Is that what this special is all about? I'm a little annoyed.
Pg. 19 This is funny. "Many men have tried to deal with me over the years. They used many weapons ... You're the first person who thought they could stop me with a stick."
Pg. 24 He keeps writing "continued!" at the bottom of the pages, and I don't know why.
Anyway, this is really funny, too, "I'm immortal Becky Burdock ... I have do to something to pass the time."
Pg. 26 This bit is really funny too. The aliens have moved on to other things, because it's been 1000 years since Molachi started working on his evil plan. Nice.
So, it's not really separate stories, they're really all connected, but you have to read the whole thing to get it. Smart.
This was fun. I think I'd buy this again. I wonder if there's a collected edition of the first 13?
Mr. Grist talks about this issue in this article over at Comic Book Resources.
UPDATE In fact, there are 3 volumes collecting previous Jack Staff stories.
My fave hip-hop album of the moment is Bambu's "I Scream Bars for the Children". This is not exactly one of the stand-out tracks, but it's still way better than average. You might not guess it from this video, but Bambu is quite the social activist.
I originally published this on another blog, in October of 2006. I haven't updated it since then.
Okay, one more post before I go to bed.
My Top Ten Favorite Avengers of All-Time (in order).
Mind you, this list really only goes through issue 300 of the original series and West Coast Avengers number 50 or so. There may have been some great Avengers after that, but they don't count.
10.
The Black Knight was a solid player, an all around good guy. The silent, strong type. Smart, with a great weapon and a cool costume. He stuck around for a long time in the 80s (225(1982) untill 296(1989)). He never was a star, but he held his ground with honor and valor.
9.
What can you say? He's Thor! He's tough as hell, had a great weapon, several cool costumes and used words like penultimate and indefatigable in normal conversation. He had several admirabely lllooonnnggg runs with the team, most notably 1986 to about 1997. Wow.
8.
Ahhh, The Vision. The Avengers needed their Spock. Someone devoid of histrionics. No drama, right? Wrong. The Vision was the center of more Avengers dramas than anyone short of Hank Pym. And he was even involved in those dramas, too. And this was even before John Byrne gutted him of what feelings he had. But, he was a great character, and he looked cool, and his marriage to the foxiest Avenger (The Scralet Witch) made you believe the nerd could get the girl. Go him.
7.
Now, I did say that Wanda was the foxiest Avenger, but Janet Van Dyne runs a close second, and she definitely wins Best Dressed. Nobody, absolutely NOBODY had more costumes than The Wasp. No one. And she was also one hell of a leader. She was in charge in the mid-80s and they were some great years. Captain America was a difficult act to follow, but she did it admirably well. I especially enjoyed watching her keep Hercules in line.
6.
Speaking of Hercules ... Herc was a God for the 70s. Thor was the 60s version, pure and noble, and perfect. I can imagine Herc doing a lot of blow in the 70s. Zeus knows he got more pussy than any other Avenger. He just couldn't help himself. But he was kind at heart, and unafraid of being the fool on occassion.
I've got somethin to say about this stuff.
JLA Classified #50
John Byrne! JOHN BYRNE! Do you like John Byrne? I love me some John Byrne, his art anyway. It's what super-hero comic books should look like, as far as I'm concerned. We can debate his writing techniques later, for now, just admire the drawings.
I read on someone's blog that those hating the regular JLA book ought to be reading this. I feel bad for being so late to the party, I hear JLA Classified is almost over. Too bad, if the rest of the run has been anything like this, it's clear this is where the real JLA lives.
The Punisher (MAX) #51, 52, 53
This book is winding down, we're told. Ennis only has one more storyline after this. I wonder what he's gonna do to top bringing in Frank Castle's daughter.
Anyway, these 3 issuses are pretty damn good. There are those great moments of Ennis's dark humour in the midst of horrible situations. The artwork has been even more enjoyable, though. Goran Parlov pencilled the Barricuda solo series and is one more reason I probably should have read this book. His art - grim, widescreen, and serious, but somehow cartoony - is ideal for the Punisher. He nails the moments of violence as much as he captures the hilarity that is Barricuda's whole character.
What more can you say about a book that just continues to be really good?
Don't you like fun?Well, Johnny Hiro #1 was so fun I almost cried. Seriously, I could have died and gone to heaven, happy to have had such a lovely 20 minutes of pleasure on this earth. It was definitely the most fun comic I've read recently. (For the BEST, click here.)
How did Fred Chao do it? Well, for starters, he's with AdHouse Books, whose books have no ads. Chao even utilizes the inside front and back covers for his story.
It's black and white, which I know may turn some people off right away, but trust me, Chao's just removing the extraneous color so there's more room for pure, unadultered action and fun.
Issue 1 is a sweet tale that features a giant monster attack no more than 8 panels into the story. Hiro spends the issue chasing the monster down the street, trying to save his girlfriend, Mayumi (who speaks with a cute, little affectation).
Hiro wins the day, through little fault of his own, and he and Mayumi have time for a few tender moments along the way.
What can I say? It's perfectly balanced. It has a giant monster, but somehow the story is down to earth. Just enough sugar, but not too much. And nothing but all-natural ingrediants. (Like Jeni's Ice Creams.)
The Mighty Avengers #5, 6
I'm the world's biggest Avengers fan. I don't, however, buy New Avengers anymore, I won't go near The Initiative, and I've been really, really close to dropping this book every month. It started to hit it's stride with these last couples issues, though. Bendis is finding a better balance with his interjected thought balloons experiment, and Frank Cho's art has been more dynamic and less ridiculous.
That said, here's what happened. I somehow read number 6 first, then realized my mistake and went back to read number 5, and quickly realized I didn't need to.
That's not a good sign is it?
Giant-Size Avengers #1
Total crap. A really bad excuse to have the lady-Avengers get wet, strip, and change into bikinis. The almost 30-year old "Even An Android Can Cry" was by FAR the best thing in the book. It's a great story, and it's been reprinted upteen times. I feel abused.
Adrian Tomine drew this cover for the January 13th edition of the NY Times Sunday Magazine.
I'm a huge fan of The Believer magazine. Seriously, if you're not reading it, you're missing out. On my list of favorite things, it's in the top 5, right next to the published output of Drawn & Quarterly.
Anyway, the Fantagraphics Flog reports that the newest Believer, the 50th issue, features another cover by Charles Burns. Burns has illustrated all 50 covers for the Believer, but this issue is special because it features Burns' self-portrait on the exterior, and a lengthy interview with Burns in the interior.
You can read an excerpt from the interview, and purchase the issue right here.
Jeff Lemire (wunderkind writer/artist of Ghost Stories and Tales from the Farm (probably the best book of 2007)), posted this artwork on his blog.
Nice, right? I love that the big guy is reading Super Spy, another of my favorite releases of 2007.
I'll be writing a long appreciation of Lemire's work sometime soon, just as soon as I get a copy of Lost Dogs, his earlier, Xeric-winning book.
My friend Sean Lewis sent this YouTube video to me. It's a great homemade video and a shockingly heartfelt song. I'm a big fan of hip-hop songs that aren't about braggin', ballin', or bangin', mainly because they're so rare. This is somewhat about bangin', but mainly it's about Plies' love for his momma. What can I say? I relate.
I had never heard of The Surrogates before it was given to me as a birthday present last year by my good buddy Brant. He said he'd heard of it because it's supposed to be made into a movie starring Bruce Willis. Huh.
My buddies and I spent several weeks recently in an ongoing discussion (on-line and off) about MySpace, Second Life, and the logical, apocalyptical end-point of those social networking efforts. Well, Surrogates writer Rob Venditti was in some very similar headspace.
I read a book called THE CYBERGYPSIES by Indra Sinha for one of my grad school classes. Written in the late-90s, it's a true story about people addicted to the Internet and cyberspace. Something about the characters-people who were willing to jeopardize everything, even their careers and families, to maintain their online personas-stuck with me. I began thinking about what it would be like if, instead of being confined to cyberspace, people could send their virtual selves out into the real world. Then they could work, date, get the groceries, and do everything else without ever having to drop the façade. What would that world be like?(Interview excerpts from this Independent Propaganda piece.)
Chris Burnham is a member of the super-hot-and-hip House Theatre of Chicago. He's also the illustrator of a much-anticipated graphic nobel from Joe Casey and Image Comics.
This is cool to me because I also have a theatre company. You can read about it here.
From the image press release:
This March YOUNGBLOOD's Joe Casey and rising star Chris Burnham dig deep into the hidden super-villain underbelly of Los Angeles this March in the 120-page graphic novel, NIXON'S PALS."The 'Nixon' in NIXON'S PALS is Nixon Cooper, parole officer to Los Angeles' ever growing super-villain scene," said writer Joe Casey. "This is hard boiled storytelling, basically putting a superpowered spin on what I love in crime fiction by writers like Elmore Leonard and Jim Thompson."
Casey is not comparing NIXON'S PALS to Leonard's work lightly. The world of NIXON'S PALS is far from bright, with Burnham bringing a refreshingly unique twist on the conventional grim and gritty super tale.
Warren Ellis has wreaked havoc in the Ultimate Universe before, and this book sounds heavy on both concept (extreme man vs extreme machine) and violence (Iron Man vs Hulk), both of which are Ellis's strong-suits.
Someday remind me to tell you about when the Marvel Universe jumped the shark. And why it might not have.
Onward.
Page 2
Ultimate Tony Stark really is a fucking jackass. I hate him. I guess he's well-written.
Page 5
Who IS this artist? Cory Nard? No, Cary Nord. (Googling ...) Huh, Daredevil and Conan. Cool. (Comics dot org ing ...) Bruce Wayne: Agent of SHIELD. Huh.
So, this guy's been around for awhile, has his art always resembled that of Brian Hitch? Or is that just the Utimate house style now?
Page 8
Ultimate Leader. Nice. He's pretty wicked.
End.
Well, not much unexpected here. Ellis gets some very detailed revelations about how the Hulking-out thing works, and Bruce turns into the Hulk and breaks out of Tony's ill-conceived precautions. Next issue, a fight. Yes?
I just discovered Inkstuds podcast interviews.
Hosted by Robin McConnell and rotated cast of sidekicks, Inkstuds explores the underbelly of the comic world, interviewing some of today's top creators. Inkstuds focuses on underground and indy comix from publishers like Fantagraphics, Top Shelf, Drawn and Quarterly and more.So far, the list includes, well, everyone we care about around here. Like Joe Matt, Seth, Jeffrey Brown, evan dorkin, Peter Bagge, Alex Robinson, Anders Nilsen, James Kochalka, Joe Sacco, Chester Brown, Jeff Smith, Gabrielle Bell, Tony Millionaire, Tim Sale, Scott McCloud, Adrian Tomine ... you get the idea.
The New York Times put out an article about Gail Simone and her new job as the first female writer of Wonder Woman.
I was a hairdresser until a couple of years ago," Gail Simone said. "It took me a long time to admit that I was a professional writer."You can read it all here.Ms. Simone was talking about her rise from hairstylist to online commentator to professional comic-book author. This month she added a new title. With the publication of issue No. 14 of Wonder Woman, which hit stores two weeks ago, Ms. Simone has become the regular writer of that amazing Amazon's super-adventures, published by DC Comics. She is the first woman to serve as "ongoing writer" (to use the industry's term) in the character's 66-year history.
Lisa is the owner of Neptune Comics in Waukesha, Wisconsin and she has a blog called Sequentially Speaking.
On her blog she sometimes discusses some of the issues that come from being both comic book fan and retailer.
For instance, in this post, she lists the best and worst parts of comic book retailing for 2007.
Read it and keep in mind next time you're at your local funny book shop.
This book is amazing and beautiful. Amazingly beautiful. Go buy it right now. I'll wait.
It was something like 67 degrees today, a freakishly warm day. So, I sat on my couch, opened the front door and windows, and pulled out Joshua W. Cotter's newest masterpiece.
I bought it based on Brian Cronin's recommendation here. (He also did a nice review of the book when it came out almost three months ago.)
At any rate. If you have any inkling towards non-super-hero work, you should pick this up. And yes, they're working on a collected edition, but who knows how long that will take? You need to improve your life today, right?
I'll be honest, it may have been the weather (doesn't every change of season, even temporary, make you feel incredibly nostalgic for a simpler time?) but I was close to tears reading this issue. It is about a kid growing up in the 80s, Cotter's nods to that "era" are subtle and affecting. Reading the kids' adventure near the beginning of the book, I was thinking, "Odd, they looked like they're dressed-up as He-Man characters." It wasn't until the panel that actually features He-Man's sword that I was sure.
Apparently, this thing's been around for awhile, but I just now found it, so forgive me.The New York Times has a cool interactive page titled Graphc Novels: A Visual Language. It features slideshows and audio comments from 5 of the the coolest guys in comics, Seth, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Joe Sacco, and Chester Brown.
It's Seth who calls it a "Visual Language", saying that comics are a combination of poetry and graphic design. Ware has a great moment when he calls comics "a third language" something like "words that can be read".
While you're on the site, be sure to check out The Funny Pages, published in the NY Times Sunday Magazine, for work from Seth, Daniel Clowes, and Megan Kelso. (They also published one by Jaime Hernandez, but it doesn't seem to be on the site. Huh.
I'll take notes as I read it.
First of all, the cover is fantastic. I love the silhouettes of the mentors up above, and he logo is very retro, and the modeling of the characters is great. Subtle lighting. Wow. Great cover.
Page 1
Oh. I didn't know this was an Ultimate-style story. Robin's chatting. Nice.
Page 2
is that a docked iPhone?
End.
Huh?
Well, that was okay, I guess. That art was grrrreat, but the story was very brief. Why was Batman acting so crazy? More than a bit out of character. He hit Robin?!
So, Aqualad's afraid of fish. That's funny. And Wonder-Girl came to the big city and is a fish out of water herself. Cute.
Cute. But it sure didn't live up to that great cover.
Also note: My wife, who's a huge Robin/Nightwing/Titans fan, really loved this issue.
UPDATE
Check-out this great paragraph from J. Caleb Mozzocco's Every Day Is Like Wednesday. (The emphasis is mine.)
Anyway, like I said, I personally don’t really care. And the reason why is because Karl Kerschl is illustrating this story, and he is illustrating the hell out of it. Amy Wolfram’s script could have consisted of 22 pages of the Titans viciously slandering me personally and I would have still enjoyed the hell out of this—that’s how good Kerschl is. (He shares are credits with Serge LaPointe and Steph Peru; I’m assuming at least one of them is responsible for the colors, which are lush, textured and reminiscent of a cell from a high production value 2D animated film).
Serendipity for this site in particular.
DJ Chong Wizard put Jay-Z vocals over Ghostface instrumentals and vice-versa, minted this great CD cover and called it American Ironman. There's even a sample from the trailer for the new Iron Man movie.
Oh Word has links for the full download. Here's a taste.
He starts the essay by setting the scene of post-slackers Generation X and the eruption of Hate and Love & Rockets from the underground.
The generation needed something primitive, honest, something from deep within reminding them that they hadn't been reduced to characters in Tron.From there he dives into Bush-era America, where "it was getting way worse than you could have ever imagined". He uses Jimmy Corrigan and Eightball as his prime examples, and this is where he drops the killer graph that has stayed with me all this time.
That's the best delineation of a new millennial indie art mission statement that I've ever heard.
See the characters of Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware? See them shaking and perspiring? It was about more than doing covers for Estrus singles. It was about fear, and loathing, and pain; and more than that, it was about isolation. What, the generation had to ask itself, did we accomplish with our privilege and opportunity?
The rest of the essay is great too, and it's all better in context, so please click over here and read it at GOOD's website.
I actually wrote about Brown's work on another blog, Theatreforte. Here's an excerpt:
A really great example of "ugly" comics is the work of Jeffrey Brown. Brown's drawings are shaky, scratchy, ill-proportioned ... a less-cautious judge might say they're "bad" drawings. Indeed, they have a bit of a quality of being like something you might find scribbled in a 14-year-old's school notebook when he's thinking about the girl who broke his heart. (Click here for a pop-up example.)
Just for fun, I'm gonna toss my reactions right onto the blog as I read this. FYI, I haven't been the biggest fan of Kyle Baker's last few high-profile projects. Birth of a Nation, with Aaron McGruder, was only okay. I think Baker's cartooning actually took a lot away from the book's satirical potential. And that Plastic Man run was bland, though I agree that Baker's art held great for the character. I just wish the writing and layouts had been more experimental. But, my impression is that Baker's been stretching out on Special Forces, and I'm looking forward to that.
Anyway, here we go.
Page 1
Have you seen this page one? Shit. "The black guy dies first." The art is downright gruesome. Hey, that chick's having the same reaction as me - "FUCK!"
Page 6
Some of this art is positively Eisner-esque. Look at the pleading face in panel 8. WOW.
Page 13-5
Talk about a sudden tone shift. One minute we're laughing at a little witty Don't Ask Don't Tell repartee, then turn the page and -wham- intestines all over the place.
Well, lucky for me, my hometown has a great comic shop that stocks plenty of indie stuff and makes it easy and fairly pleasurable for me to find what I'm after. It's not quite as pleasurable as it used to be, but it's still worth my time and a better option than most a lot of indie comics fans have.
(Oh to live in Montreal and visit 211 Bernard West, Drawn & Quarterly's brick and mortar retail outlet.)
Does that look like paradise, or what?
Hey, that's Michel Rabagliati in the foreground. Awesome!
Anyway. Brian Hibbs of San Fran's Comix Experience has a post up at Newsarama in which he talks about what he's learned since installing a computerized point of sale inventory system. Johanna of Comics Worth Reading has done a nice job of picking a few highlights out of the article.
Punisher War Journal #12
It was somewhere in the middle of the 3rd page or so that I realized the Punisher wasn't about to fight the Hulk.
Bummer.
In this issue, the Punisher picks up from where Captain America left off at the end of the Civil War, upset that the Capes spend all their time these days beating each other up, thereby leaving "the regular people to fend for themselves." With those angry words, the Punisher embarks on a brief mission to save a little girl and her kitten by chopping aliens up with a pair of chain-saws. He saves girl and kitten and returns them to their family, who've chose to stay behind during the WWH evacuation.
This is kind of a silly, little issue, but Matt Fraction uses it as an opportunity to sneak it a little bit of wry commentary on Marvel's 2 big, recent crossovers, and some politics as well. I couldn't help but think of New Orleans when an old, black man tells Frank, "We apparently didn't merit seats in the evacuation. Our invitations must've gotten lost in the mail."
The best thing about this issue is the interplay between Frank and Clarke. You can almost see a smile on the Punisher's face when he and Clarke say "Staten Island Ferry" in unison. And I'm sure Clarke was all kinds of proud to hand Frank a giant weapon and say, 'It's a gun, Frank. A gun that shoots swords."
9 pages from the end, though, Fraction and artist Ariel Olivetti reveal their plan. It's another alternate Punisher costume, this one based on Venom.
Remember this from just 5 issues ago?
Will we see another Punisher costume variation in issue 17? Here's hoping. It sure is entertaining.
The issue concludes with the Punisher repeating his new-found refrain "I'm here to help." Is this Matt Fraction searching for the heart of gold that's sometimes missing from the Punisher's portrayal in that other series? Is that appropriate though? It's interesting that the new War Journal, between the curvy, smooth, puffy artwork and the comic timing of the dialogue, presents and less gory version of the Punisher's life-style. It seems a lot less dark, and a lot more like, say, Ultimate Spider-Man. The book does seem to be finding it's feet though, and I enjoyed this issue much more than I expected to.
Punisher War Journal #13+14
Well, well. Just when I was starting to like this series ...
(Can you believe I bought this many issues when I wasn't even liking it that much? Well, I guess I bought the first few because of the Civil War, and then issue 4 (the funeral issue) was simply amazing. I've read it several times since. But I really didn't get much out of the Hate-Monger story. I really didn't.)
So, these issues were quite funny at times, I really liked a couple of the gags Fraction pulled with Spidey. And, I'm really excited to see Kraven back in some form. He's a pretty great character. (Though I'm not crazy about Kraven-ito's Tarzan-the-musical haircut.) Fraction must have gotten some fan-mail about the D-List villains he packed into issue 4, because several of that type show-up in this story as well. A nice touch. I have to say, however, that Cory Walker (#13) and Scott Wegener (#14) are not artists I'm excited about seeing on this book.
Luckily, a peek into the future shows that I've little to worry about since we'll soon be seeing Howard Chaykin taking over the art after the Kraven story concludes. Sweet.
