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August 30, 2005
To Buy or Not To Buy?
Hopefully I will win tonight's $111 million Mega-Millions jackpot. If that doesn't happen, tomorrow's trip to the comic store is going to be an epic comics-budget battle. I should have realized that the last few weeks of nothing to buy were leading up to a week like this...
BPRD The Black Flame #1 (of 6) - Bow before Guy Davis! Mike Mignola and John Arcudi's Hollywood-ish scripting don't have quite the same verve as Mignola's solo work in Hellboy, but Sweet Jesus, Guy Davis draws the living holy hell out of these books. If you need proof, check out this preview on Dark Horse's web site.
Revelations #1 - I'm a bit intrigued by this 6-issue mini-series. It's a murder mystery set in the Vatican, written by Paul Jenkins with art by Humberto Ramos. The story itself doesn't entirely grab me, but the ambitious coloring job on this book is going to make or break it. Check out yet another preview from the Dark Horse web site and judge for yourself.
Usagi Yojimbo #86 - A while ago I praised Stan Sakai for delivering awesome stand-alone stories, so what did he do? He started an epic multi-issue story arc, of course. I'm starting to realize that he has characters and plot threads that appear and re-appear over the course of the title's run, but as a new reader I can attest to the fact that it's all very organic and well-explained. Sakai's beautiful cartooning is all the more impressive because of how loose and easy he makes it look. Buy this book, you won't regret it.
Astro City The Dark Age #3 - The first issue left me a little cold, but the characters became more rounded and the story started to build up steam in the second. Looks like we're in for another memorable Astro City tale.
Catwoman #46 - My enthusiasm is starting to wane for this title after the inorganic plot developments that have marked Wil Pfeifer's run so far. I do enjoy the way Pete Woods draws, though. A game-time decision.
Ex Machina #14 - There's some hostility out there on the internets towards this book, but I still think its strengths outweigh its flaws by a wide margin. Photo-reference haters should take a look at Tony Harris' art before they completely dismiss the technique.
JLA Classified #11 - Warren Ellis. Jackson Guice. Rock and friggin' roll.
Losers #27 - The recent news that this series would be ending is bittersweet news - on the one hand, this title regularly delivers the action-movie thrills with stunning art, and I'll miss it. Knowing the series is building towards a conclusion, however, adds a sense of urgency that may have been lacking.
Seven Soldiers Shining Knight #4 - Like most of the Seven Soldiers books, this series started out good and got better and better. This is the first one to conclude, which means we are that much closer to the Pascal Ferry-drawn Mister Miracle series!
Solo #6 - Spanish comic book artist Jordi Bernet has the honors this month. The cover shows off an art style that appeals to me, but in a crowded week like this, I don't think I'm going to take the $4.99 plunge on an artist I've never heard of. I'm just closed-minded like that. Deal with it.
NYC Mech Beta Love #3 - I met Andy McDonald, the artist for this series, at the MOCCA festival and he was a pretty nice guy. He was also in the middle of drawing a wicked Usagi Yojimbo sketch in his idiosyncratic sensitive-line style. Sometimes the stories in this title are a little higher on style than substance, but the New York City setting always feels true to life. Even though it's populated entirely by robots.
Astonishing X-Men #12 - They're putting this book on hiatus for a while after this issue, right? Call me crazy, but I'm anticipating a major cliff-hanger. One whose resolution I may not read.
Captain America #9 - I like the way that this story is finally coalescing. It seems like there is a somewhat clearer focus now. Steve Epting's art has been drop-dead incredible.
Powers #12 - The fiftieth issue of this series brings us a back-up story written by Oeming and drawn by Bendis, along with a variant cover and an extra long letter-column, all for the bargain price of an extra dollar. Is it just me or does this sound like a perfect jumping-off point?
Runaways #7 - I enjoyed the previous story arc but something about it felt kind of slight. As much as I like Brian K. Vaughan, I'm on the fence about continuing with this title.
Young Avengers #6 - IT NEVER ENDS. Why must they release all the comics that I want in the same week?
Smoke & Guns GN - The preview in that AiT/Planet Lar Black Diamond book gave the impression that this would be a high-action story, maybe thin on substance but high on flash. Fabio Moon's sleek and stylish art looks like the perfect match for this tale of a gang war between hyper-violent cigarette girls. The only thing that might keep me from picking it up this week is the monstrously expensive stack that I will already have in my hands. Of course, if I save $4 by passing on Powers, and $3 by passing on Runaways... boy, the inner workings of my comics budget makes for exciting reading doesn't it?
Or Else #3 - Kevin Huizenga's work has been praised to the rafters by many critics whose opinions I respect. Nonetheless, I have yet to check it out. Every time I come close to buying issue #2, I compare the size of the book to its price tag, then I flip through it and I come upon a 6-page sequence of narrated landscape panels. Every time it goes back on the shelf. Of course, I felt the same way about $7 for Super F*ckers, but then I bought it and came away with the best superhero book of the year. So I don't know.
So what did I miss? And how in God's name do you expect me to afford anything else?
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 12:11 PM | Comments (3)
August 25, 2005
Subway Reading: Jack Cross
Jack Cross #1 - Artist Gary Erskine draws with a super-tight, closed-line, hyper-detailed style. In The Filth, which Erskine inked, that style was a perfect match for Grant Morrison's fire-hose torrent of ideas and madness. Every panel and page was crammed with crazy detail: imaginative settings, outlandish costumes, giant sperm, etc. It could have been an incomprehensible jumble, but Chris Weston's pencils and Erskine's clean finishes made it easy to digest.
Warren Ellis' script for Jack Cross, unfortunately, presents Erskine with almost nothing to sink his teeth into. Nondescript, suit-clad federal agents trudge through barren, antiseptic settings. As a result, the reader is left with nothing to look at but Erskine's over-worked, stiff figures. His meticulous exactitude was a strength in The Filth, but here it's a glaring weakness. Unless issues 2 through 4 are going to feature giant floating sperm cells or dope-smoking Russian chimpanzees, this is yet another example of the wrong artist for the job. (It should be noted that Erskine's art was not exactly helped by ugly coloring and DC's trademark crummy paper stock.)
It's a shame that the visuals were so underwhelming, because Ellis has put together an interesting story here. The focus on the conflict between U.S. federal law enforcement agencies feels a little dated, but that's to be expected, as this script was written a couple of years ago. The set-up and characters feel a bit stock early on, but once the interrogation scene gets going, Ellis grabs the reader with well-paced, taut action. All in all, this was a decent read, but a missed opportunity. A more appropriate artist, higher production value, and a release date of 2003 would have gone a long way towards elevating this books above its pedestrian level.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 11:06 AM | Comments (6)
August 23, 2005
Everybody F*ckin' Run!
Top Shelf released Super F*ckers #1 a few weeks ago, and I resisted buying it for a while because of the price. I mean, really, 7 bucks for one comic book? Then, thanks to Fanboy Rampage, I came across a link to The Super F*ckers Theme Song by James Kochalka's band. It was like a moment from my childhood, when a TV commercial for the G.I. Joe comic book would whip me into a comic-buying frenzy! I'd gather up the spare change from between the sofa cushions and dash down to the stationery store for Larry Hama's latest 22-page extended toy advertisement. Except, of course, that this commercial jingle features lyrics like "Our dicks are stuck in the PlayStation 3" and "Get High!" Also, it's much harder to scrounge seven bucks out of the sofa cushions than sixty-five cents. Nonetheless, I was whipped into yet another frenzy, so I marched on down to Brooklyn's own Rocketship Comics and scratched that consumerist itch.
If there was nothing more to this book than the ridiculously dirty humor, I would have been pretty well-entertained. When Jack Krak cried out, "Nobody controls JACK KRAK! Jack Krak is the MOTHERFUCKER!" I was hooked. But upon further reflection (and upon reading Tom Spurgeon's excellent interview with Kochalka), I saw how much more was going on in this book. In between the absurdist superhero hijinks and potty humor, Kochalka delivers some interesting meditations on teenage angst and the siren song of nostalgia. The way Vortex protects and cherishes his Kandor-like jar was a touching-yet-biting commentary on superhero fans and their desperate need to cling to a time of childhood innocence. Some people may interpret that as Kochalka hating superheroes, but I see it as the opposite. It's Kochalka trying to reconcile the appeal of superheroes with an adult outlook on life, a theme that is examined from many different angles throughout this book.
Don't get me wrong: the beauty of this book is not just in the subtext. It's in the teenage superheroes getting high off the slime drippings from a purple hairy turd monster, the mutant touching himself to the sounds of a girl brushing her hair, and the aforementioned "Jack Krak is the MOTHERFUCKER!" line. This book is nonstop, over-the-top, subversive, nasty fun, and at seven bucks it's just as much of a bargain as a sixty-five cent issue of G.I. Joe. If only there were Super F*cker action figures.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 02:30 PM | Comments (3)
August 18, 2005
NYC is Comic Book CRAZY!
ICV2.com's analysis of comics sales in July has been linked to and discussed all over the place. The upshot of the whole thing is "July sales of comics and graphic novels to comic stores were up 10% in dollars over the year-ago period." Could this explain the sudden uptick in comic book readers that I have spotted on the subway? Because, for the first time in recent memory, there were sightings in back-to-back trips. Last night I saw a guy wearing a funny little straw hat reading a couple of yesterday's new comics: the new G.I Joe book and Defenders #2. Then, this morning, I found myself seated right next to somebody reading an issue of the Lex Luthor: Man of Steel series! The only possible conclusion to draw from this is that the F train, and by extension, all of New York City, is COMIC BOOK CRAZY. Go team comics!
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 12:40 PM | Comments (2)
August 17, 2005
Miscellaneous Stuff
Jeff Lester and Brian Hibbs write my favorite kind of reviews: smart-ass quick-takes that pull no punches. Neither is afraid to admit that they don't remember what happened in the previous issues, which instantly endears them to me and my sieve-like brain. I appreciate a well thought out, academic analysis as much as the next guy, but the consistently high "coffee spit take all over the monitor" quotient at the Savage Critic is unparalleled. Take Lester's comments about Supergirl #1: "What impresses me about Jeph Loeb is that once he sets out to do something, he doesn't let a little thing like doing it well get in his way." Rock on!
On the other end of the spectrum, Jog: The Blog reads the living bejeezus out of Grant Morrison's Zatanna #3. I need Jog to lean over my shoulder when I'm reading the Seven Soldiers books, so that he can point out all the cool subtextual stuff that I miss in my cursory third-grade level readings.
I finally got my hands on the We3 TPB, and read it yesterday on the subway. Say what you will about the easy-target nature of animal stories, or the hard-to-swallow ending. That's one hell of a funnybook. Even a studly he-man like myself got choked up more than once. And Sweet Christmas, Frank Quitely came up with more clever comic storytelling tricks in those three issues than most artists do in their entire careers. It's nothing short of comic book perfection.
What? You didn't read We3? And you're too cheap to buy the trade? Well, my penny-pinching, no-taste friend, you're in luck. The original 3 issues, and many, many other comics can be purchased for a fraction of their original cover price at The Pickytarian's eBay auctions! Rather than make you click through to see the list, here is what I am selling:
THE QUESTION #1-6
BLACK PANTHER #1-6
RUNAWAYS Vol. 2 #1-6
G.L.A. Great Lakes Avengers #1-4
MANHUNTER #1-12
VIMANARAMA #1-3
WE3 #1-3
JOE MATT'S PEEP SHOW lot of 7 books (#1-13)
WILDSTORM GRAB-BAG / Planetary, Authority & more!
So what are you waiting for? Click on over there and bid, bid, bid!
Finally, for no good reason, I have another subway comic book reader sighting to report: a guy reading a Fables trade on the platform a few mornings ago. I'm not sure which one because I lost interest in that book after one or two trades. Nonetheless, it always warms my heart to see a fellow nerd letting his geek flag fly on the subway.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 10:59 AM
August 15, 2005
To Buy or Not to Buy?
Holy cripes, there is nothing to buy this week! I just might have enough room in the budget for that Top Ten: The Forty-niners hardcover...
Seven Soldiers Klarion The Witch Boy #3 - As of right now, this is my favorite of the Seven Soldiers titles. When does the Mister Miracle series with Pascal Ferry start?
Top Ten Beyond The Farthest Precinct #1 - There's a fair amount of skepticism surrounding this Alan Moore-less book, but I'm kind of looking forward to it. Jerry Ordway's art has an appealing old-school charm that would seem to make it the perfect fit for a book so rich in super-hero tropes and in-jokes. I don't think I've ever read anything by writer Paul DiFilippo, but I'm still willing to give this one a chance.
Defenders #2 - I'm glad Marvel is finding room amidst their House of M crossover madness for comedy books like this one and Dan Slott's GLA. Believe it or not, fanboys, there was a time when super-hero comics did not take themselves as seriously as they do now.
Man With The Screaming Brain #4 - The last issue demonstrated that the "two brains in one person" set-up consistently equals comedy gold. Hillary Barta's art kept me around this long, but the story has finally caught up.
Runners Bad Goods TP - In his self-published Runners series, Sean Wang ambitiously takes on a genre that you don't usually see in an independent black and white book: straight-up sci-fi adventure. Wang's clean art style and clear storytelling keep the action moving, and his imaginative character and set designs create a memorable and complete world.
So what did I miss?
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 11:33 AM | Comments (7)
August 11, 2005
Subway Reading: It's Millar Time
Ultimate Fantastic Four #22 - Zombie superheroes? Cool. 3-issue story arc with 2 solid cliffhangers? Also cool. My fears about Millar's Ultimate FF are being proven wrong. With the exception of teenage Sue Storm's continued depiction as a porn star, the visuals in this book were very impressive. It's maybe the best synthesis of pencils, inks, and computer-coloring that I have ever seen; it's hard to tell where one job ends and the next one begins. The finish breathes life into Greg Land's heavily photo-referenced drawing. Justin Ponsor's colors are complex, dark and moody without being murky. A solid job from all the creators, though porno-Sue really has to go. I mean, come on.
Ultimates Annual #1 - Lest you think I'm getting too soft on Mark Millar, let's take a look at Ultimates Annual. This was a story that probably could have been told in about 8 pages. Stretching it out to 48 made it perhaps the most poorly-paced story of all time. It just kind of meandered, meandered, and meandered some more, then it ended with the most blatantly telegraphed "surprise" ending since The Sixth Sense. The art, from usually reliable Steve Dillon, was disappointingly uneven. His style may be in a bit of a transitional period, moving from tight inks to a looser, scratchy look. That wasn't quite the problem, though. The patches of uncharacteristically poor draftsmanship lead me to believe that this may have been a bit of a rush-job. It really would have been better for everybody involved if this had been the 8-page story that it so desperately wanted to be. Dillon could have taken the time to finish the art, and Millar could have trimmed the fat off of the bloated story. I will give him this: the scene with the Defenders, the "wheel fellow," and the Thunderbird cracked me up.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 12:29 PM | Comments (3)
August 10, 2005
Ring of Truth
I just read Ring of Truth, the latest Y: The Last Man trade, and I was duly impressed by penciller Pia Guerra's and inker Jose Marzian, Jr.'s art. While their work was always serviceable and clear, there was always something fairly bland about it. They have steadily improved their game over the course of this series, and it's really starting to click. Marzian's inks in particular have somehow become both tighter and livelier. The result, a difficult combination of accurate rendering and dynamic, fluid action, compares favorably to Dave Gibbons' art. As for the pencils, Guerra's layouts have gotten more daring, finally complementing the drama of Brian K. Vaughan's scripts. The facial expressions and overall character acting are more nuanced and less stiff than they were at the outset of the series. Watching an artist (or a team of artists) develop over time is one of my favorite things about comic book art, and Guerra and Marzian are the latest and best example of this kind of progression. Great job!
Looks like I got a late start on posting this week, so I'm going to spare you my usual nattering on about the week's new comics. Suffice to say that I am looking forward to the Steve Dillon-drawn Ultimates Annual #1, and that I am curious about Wildstorm's Winter Men #1 (click the link for a preview). Dark Horse has Concrete Vol 1 Depths TP, but I am not entirely clear on whether this new line of Concrete trades is going to collect all the Concrete stories or just some of them. I would love to put a definitive collection of Concrete stories on my bookshelf, but this may or may not fit the bill.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 11:26 AM | Comments (2)
August 04, 2005
Subway Reading: Stupid Comics
Stupid Comics #3 - There's a lot to like in this collection of one-pagers from Jim Mahfood. When it's on, his heavily-stylized drawing and lettering style jumps off the page with infectious electricity. Unfortunately, the price to pay for such loose, lively art is the occasional sour note. I'm not talking about rendering mistakes, which are largely irrelevant in this context. Scattered instances of blotchy inking and uninspired layout decisions, however, have a way of interrupting Mahfood's flow. The problem is, if Mahfood slowed down and got more considered and cautious, he would kill the spontaneity and life that make his art so appealing in the first place. It's not easy to walk that line, and he stays on point more often than not. It's like a lo-fi rock song or an expressionistic painting; the evidence of the creator's hand is part of its charm.
As a whole, the comics in this collection perform their autobiographical task effectively, painting a well-rounded picture of Mahfood's life and his opinions. Unfortunately, the view we get of Jim is a superficial view at best. Though I personally agree with the opinions he expresses in his cultural/political screeds, I can't say that they make for compelling comics. The reason for this is a glaring lack of self-reflection. He does an accurate job of communicating the hopelessness that I see in the hearts and faces of disaffected, progressive-minded, young people. But his sanctimonious stridency limits the impact of the comics themselves. In the comic "It's Gonna Be Okay," for example, Jim shows himself sitting at the base of the evolutionary ladder, waiting for the rest of the country to show up. Meanwhile, there is no recognition of the fact that America's conspicuous consumption of reality TV, gadgets, and cheese doodles may not be all that different from his own conspicuous consumption of hip-hop CD's, cool T-shirts, and beer. Does the mere juxtaposition of these depictions qualify as acknowledgement of the potential hypocrisy? I suppose it could, but the self-satisfaction with which he depicts himself seems to discount the possibility.
Maybe it's not fair to hold Mahfood up to the master, but compare the autobiography of these comics to that of R. Crumb. Without the self-loathing, R. Crumb's comics would come off as nothing more than the work of a mean-spirited, perverted misanthrope. Or take Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to whom Mahfood refers more than once in this book. His critique of the "nation of two hundred million used car salesmen" would not have been nearly as cutting if it hadn't been mixed with the pathos of his copious drug consumption.
It's hard to critique autobiography without critiquing the subject. Like I said, this book does an excellent job of documenting the attitudes, emotions, and lives of Jim and his peers. I'm just not sure that the picture that Mahfood is painting here is quite as complimentary as he intends.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)
August 02, 2005
Subway Reading: Hellboy and Catwoman
Hellboy: The Island #2 - In some ways, this book read like a parody of the standard Hellboy story. The villain recounts a tale of an evil monster from the past, then explains how this monster is going to return and destroy the earth. He throws in a nugget about said monster's previously-unknown connection to Hellboy. This pushes Hellboy over the edge, forcing him to exclaim some kind of cheeky "Cut the crap!" line and start punching the bejeezus out of the villain. It's a shame that Mignola's writing is so uncharacteristically weak in this issue, because his visual storytelling has never been fresher and more inventive. One of the many things that I love about Mignola's comic art is its unmatched level of graphic design. His layout decisions are not solely informed by storytelling necessity; look, for example, at the abundance of non-sequitir panels. These smaller shots of architectural details, statue close-ups, and atmospheric scenes not only add "beats" to the pacing, but they unify the overall page design. My favorite example of design concerns outweighing the storytelling is the panel above, where the "Boom!" from Hellboy's punch appears, strangely enough, in a word balloon. There was a big empty space over there, and the letters alone would not have activated it nearly as well as the white balloon. I would be remiss if I didn't mention colorist Dave Stewart and letterer Clem Robins while discussing the visuals. Stewart's flat colors pop as much as they would in your average over-highlighted gradient festival and Robins' lettering expertly guides the reader's eye through the action. All in all, this was a masterful storytelling effort in the service of a disappointingly flat story.
Catwoman #45 - Much like its predecessor, this issue seems to commit the scripting sin of having the plot events drive the characters, rather than the other way around. It all comes to a head at the end, when the characters bend over backwards to set up what seems to be a long string of Catwoman versus various DC universe badguys. I think writer Will Pfiefer is keeping Hush's motivations close to the vest, because the alternative is that he's causing trouble for Catwoman because, well, he's the villain and that's what he does. Pete Woods' art has a fantastic surface quality, but questionable anatomy and proportions made some pages look kind of rushed. I also hold to my opinion that his panels are a little too claustrophobic; a vignetted, borderless panel here and there or maybe a little less background detail would go a long way.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at 12:31 PM | Comments (2)