Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
One of these days, these @$$holes are going to get tired of the way I drag ass in posting their excellent work, and I’m going to be first against the wall. But until the revolution comes, I’m proud to present another column by them, even if I am enormously tardy. Take it away, gang...
Cormorant here, and I smell controversy in the air for this column! Not only does Canadian badboy, Jon Quixote, take the first issue of Marvel’s much ballyhooed TRUTH to task, but we face betrayal within our own ranks as Vroom Socko takes potshots at the @$$hole favorite, Y: THE LAST MAN! At least some things are normal, like Village Idiot’s ongoing obsession with Supergirl’s perky bits…
@$$hole antics aside, we have in addition to our usual spate of reviews, something genuinely new and different, the first installment of a semi-regular feature called INDIE JONES! It’s a spotlight on self-published comics in particular, masterminded by our own Lizzybeth, and includes comics sent in by you, the TalkBackers! Holy shit, and these comics actually sound pretty fun ta boot! Be sure and check the feature out at the end of the column, where it’ll share a rotating spot with Vroom’s TALES FROM THE CREVICE and Ambush Bug’s @$$HOLE CASTING COUCH.
TRUTH #1
Written by Robert Morales
Art by Kyle Baker
Edited by Axel Alonso
Published by Marvel Comics
A Jon Quixote Anthem
"I have not observed men’s honesty to increase with their riches.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Don’t let the quotation fool you, this review has nothing to do with either creative accounting or Stan Lee. Let the lawyers determine if Marvel has proven Jefferson right. I don’t know whether Marvel’s honesty increases with their riches or not, but what their new mini-series TRUTH does prove is this: Marvel has found a way to increase their riches with their honesty.
TRUTH is one of the most controversial comic books to come along since the death of Superman, and, when I say “controversial” I mean highly-publicized. Marvel seems to delight in telling members of the mainstream media about the controversy surrounding this six issue serving of revisionist history; the story in a recent issue of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY quotes editor Axel Alonso talking about the “outright racists who just don’t like the idea of a black man in the Cap uniform.” (EW, like the TL@ is owned by AOL Time Warner). And, of course, in the comic book world, controversy, meaning highly-publicized, also means sales. That same article seems to go out of its way to mention Marvel E-I-C Joe Quesada mentioning the increase in CAPTAIN AMERICA sales since 9-11. He doesn’t mention how 9-11 has helped sales on DAREDEVIL: THE TARGET, so we can only speculate.
I was reading the letters page in last month’s WIZARD (shut up), where a reader expressed disgust that Marvel felt the need to “screw-up” all its heroes. The letters editor, the normally very amusing Jim McLauchlin, proceeded to jump down the poor letter-writer’s throat (no, it wasn’t me), all but accusing him of racism in his disapproval of the storyline. But Jim missed the point (I swear it wasn’t me): the controversy had far less to do with a black Captain America than it did with Alonso throwing around the word “Tuskegee” like dollar bills at the Cheetah Club. All the publi…controversy surrounding the series suggests that it’s not about a black Captain America, but rather the U.S. Government conducting morally dubious experiments on black soldiers. So TRUTH might be another bad, bad U.S. Government story.
I say “might” because, after reading Issue #1, if it wasn’t for all the publicity surrounding this mini, I would have no idea what the series is about. Because, in the fine new-Marvel tradition of #1 issues, absolutely nothing happens.
I would like nothing more than to ignore the manufactured controversy surrounding the mini-series and just review issue #1 on its own merits. I would, but the book is so damn thin that all it has is hype to staple it together. And that’s a shame, because there might be a good story here. I know I was certainly looking forward to it. But in 22 pages, we’re introduced to three black soldiers and…well, that’s it, unless you want to talk about the 18 pages of ads, not including the two inside covers. Cha-Ching, eh Joey Q? (For the record, the same week’s issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN has 22 pages of story, and 10 pages of ads; the double-sized issue of PETER PARKER, priced the same as TRUTH, had 38 pages of story and only 10 of ads, so perhaps you’ll excuse my cynicism).
I hope there turns out to be a good story here. At its core, and in the right hands, TRUTH is not an unsound idea. There is the potential for strong drama and poignant social relevance, and Morales does introduce some interesting characters, although, at 22 pages of introduction, they had better be interesting. But there is also the potential for Marvel to further line their pockets by squeezing an ugly piece of history and then screaming to the mainstream media how controversial and progressive they are. I’d like to think that if Marvel was primarily interested in the non-ad stuff between the pages of TRUTH, they would rein in the first-time comic writer’s meandering, and tell him to pick up the pace.
But then, there might be fewer issues in the series. And that’s a lot of valuable ad-space lost.
I don’t want to begrudge any company’s attempts to turn a profit. Marvel’s a business, and the goal is to make money. I’m a particularly greedy individual myself, so I can respect that. But for a company – especially a comic book company normally associated with the didactic delivery of ethics and morals to a generation – to drape that profit motive in a blanket of righteousness and relevance feels wrong. They might be able to fool the media, but not their long-time readership. This comic is creatively weak, perhaps not in concept, but certainly in execution, and those of who have actually read well-executed comics are able to recognize this. It’s not that TRUTH #1 is bad, it’s just that there’s absolutely nothing to react to, good or bad. The only reason a reader would pick up #2 is because of the “controversy” surrounding the whole series, and when the hype has grown larger than what is actually on the page, it is time to question both the need for the story and the motivations behind it.
I’m reminded of another quotation (yeah, I bought a dictionary of the things), this one by historian John Pentland Mahaffy, who said “Never tell a story because it is true: tell it because it is a good story.” After reading TRUTH #1, there is no reason to believe that’s what we’re going to get.
TECH JACKET # 1
written by Robert Kirkman
art by E. J. Su
published by Image
reviewed by Buzz Maverik
I'm guessing that TECH JACKET must be the vanguard of Image's new superhero line. The series could go another way, but this first issue by creators Robert Kirkman and E.J. Su might be the origin of a superhero who, in terms of character, is a cross between Spider-Man and Green Lantern, which is a very cool thing.
We've got a high school kid named Zack. He appears fairly untouched by puberty, which might result in some of his girl problems. You can tell he's a nerd because he has a fat, immature guy for best friend, but Zack is a nerd with potential. Unfortunately, he has other problems. His parents are divorced or separated. His dad owns a small hardware store and owes money to a loan shark. Zack's Mom appears to be a bit of a bitch.
One morning, on the way to school, Zack comes across a crashed alien spaceship. The dying pilot wears a battle suit called a ‘tech jacket’ that has advanced weapons and permits him to fly and fight in space. His ship crashed on earth after an encounter with another alien race. To save Zack from the ship's coming destruction, he transfers the tech jacket to Zack.
The art is clear and nicely rendered. It is a good blend of the realistic and the manga. The space battle scenes are excellent. Su is a fine storyteller and does a good job of capturing his character's feelings.
Kirkman has created a very sympathetic character in Zack. He's a modern day Peter Parker who doesn't seem to have Parker's unique genius or inner-toughness for solace. Zack is just every-kid. I was a big fan of Marv Wolfman's THE MAN CALLED NOVA published by Marvel in the mid-70s. This book reminds me a lot of NOVA, in terms of the character's origin and his ordinary guy qualities. In terms of characterization, Zack is better done than Richard Rider because I could never figure out why Rider was supposed to be such a sad sack. He had an intact family, buddies and a cute girlfriend. He was handsome and he got to be a superhero. At least with Peter Parker, especially drawn by Steve Ditko, it was easy to see the geekiness. Like Parker, Zack has some troubles.
Kirkman's writing is interesting in that it is very sparse, and I mean that as a compliment. He seems selective in what he tells us and chooses not to bog us down in details. We do not yet know Zack's last name, the name of the apparently small northwestern city where he lives, the name of the alien race that crashed on Earth or even the pilot's name. But Kirkman has shown us a likable young character with whom many fans will be able to relate.
Early SPIDER-MAN crossed with early GREEN LANTERN, all very well drawn. How can you beat that?
Y: THE LAST MAN #5
Brian K. Vaughan: Writer
Pia Guerra: Artist
DC/Vertigo: Publisher
Vroom Socko: The Last Reviewer
Oftentimes I find myself promising to do something, only to regret it later. Nevertheless, I always keep my promises, especially to the rest of the TalkBack League of @$$holes. It’s not just out of obligation, however. I remember the last person who broke a promise to us; Sleazy G dragged the poor bastard down to the dungeon he has in the Clubhouse sub-basement. No one’s seen the guy since, and we don’t dare ask Sleazy what he did with him. So when I promised to finish the first story arc of Y: The Last Man, I stuck to that promise. Hell, I’ve seen the way Ol’ Sleaze’s been looking at me… So anyway, the first arc of the story is complete, and I honestly doubt I’ll be reading another issue.
In this volume, Yorick, (the titular Last Man,) and his federally appointed bodyguard have arrived in Boston. There, they manage to track down the world’s only surviving expert in clone research, a Dr. Allison Mann. Cute name, isn’t it? The good doctor first appeared in issue #1, when she was giving birth to her very own clone. The moment the little carbon copy took his first breath turned out to be the instant everything with a Y chromosome dropped dead. Because of this, Dr. Mann instantly assumes that her clone was the root cause of the devastation. You can tell that she’s a really good scientist, since she seeks out as much information about that day as possible, testing her hypothesis for any factual basis. Oh wait, she doesn’t, she starts researching breast cancer instead.
There are also some brief moments with the two groups hunting young mister Yorick. The first are the Amazons, the militia/cult of man-hating loonies that count among their members Yorick’s sister, Hero. The second is a pair of Mossad operatives, led by the arrogant Colonel Alter Tse’elon. She’s obviously crazier than the Amazons - why else would the current leader of Israel personally head to America based on an unsubstantiated rumor about a surviving male?
I know that the rest of the @$$holes love this book, but I just don’t see why. The concept of every man on Earth dying except one, while every woman survives, is really not that interesting to me. Maybe if the Last Man was Superman or something… Wait, Fabian Nicieza already did that in JLA: Created Equal, and that book sucked too.
Much of what’s occurred so far just doesn’t ring true for me, and I don’t really feel the need to know what’s going to occur. I don’t buy that the Amazons, who’re essentially a terrorist group, are operating in Baltimore, a mere thirty miles away from the only apparent functioning government in North America. I don’t care if they find Yorick or not. I don’t buy anyone thinking that human cloning is the cause of the plague. I don’t care what the cause was. I don’t buy the idea of Hero unknowingly out to kill her brother, a cliché right up there with an out of control car driving through a fruit stand. I don’t care what she’ll do when she finds him. I don’t buy anything about Alter’s character. I don’t care if she kills Yorick, or just uses him like he’s Don Johnson in A Boy and His Dog. Fortunately for me, I don’t care what the other @$$holes think, and I no longer buy Y: The Last Man.
SUPERGIRL #76
Peter David – Writer
Ed Benes – Pencils
Alex Lei – Inks
Published by DC Comics
Reviewed by Village Idiot
I never knew Supergirl was such a hardbody.
Whoops – sorry, that’s the way I began last month’s Supergirl review. Let me start again.
I’m giving SUPERGIRL #76 a B+. And man, is she a hardbody.
That’s right, I said B+. On the other hand, SUPERGIRL #76 is one of those students that seems so endearing that you want to give it a higher grade; or at least talk it up to its parents on open house night (and not because of the hardbody). SUPERGIRL #76 is winsome because one of the strongest elements of the book is its charm. It’s a very charming comic book. Now let me see if I can explain what the heck I’m talking about.
In the end of the last issue, SUPERGIRL #75, the newly arrived pre-CRISIS Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, flies off to meet Superman in Metropolis while the regular post-CRISIS Supergirl, Linda Danvers, chases her in exasperation. In #76, Linda manages to catch up with her before she reaches Metropolis because for some inexplicable reason, Kara has decided to do a handstand in the middle of a field somewhere. “What the hell are you doing?” asks Linda. Kara earnestly explains that she’s pushing the Earth out of orbit in order to avoid an oncoming meteor she saw with her telescopic vision, and that she could actually use a little help, thank you very much. After a few moments pass in disbelief, Linda explains to Kara the actual physical consequences of pushing the Earth out of its orbit, i.e., untold environmental disaster. It’s a very charming, witty scene that contrasts pre and post-CRISIS sensibility. Pushing planets around is a pretty standard pre-CRISIS maneuver, and yet both we and Linda realize the prospect of it being handled so casually in the more realistic post-CRISIS universe is pretty ludicrous (JLA #75 aside).
This was much of the flavor of this issue, with the regular Linda trying to rein in her pre-CRISIS doppelganger with the current post-CRISIS Superboy along to help. Eventually the three wind up in Metropolis where the events from MAN OF STEEL #132 are already under way: Mr. Mxyzptlk has decided to turn holiday parade balloons into big monsters and give Superman’s powers to an actor who plays Superman on TV. Amidst fighting the dinosaurs and giant robots, the story seemed to get a little bogged down, taking us away from the earlier fun to give us a pretty routine “big monster” fight. I realize that the sequence fit within the structure of the story, and the execution wasn’t entirely botched; however, if you’re going to have an action scene in a comic, it should either be fun or dangerous, and this was neither.
Toward the end, the story strikes a moderately effective minor chord when the new Supergirl finally meets Superman, or at least who she thinks is Superman. (According to Peter David’s website, she was really talking to the actor with the powers, but the colorist goofed.) Her home of Argo destroyed, her attempts at heroism thwarted, and now her appeal to Superman rebuffed, the sad reality of Kara’s situation sinks in. And I cared. Which means Peter David is definitely doing something right. The tone of the story up to now, including SUPERGIRL #75, has been a bit breezy, maybe even a little snarky, and again, charming. But then when David really changes gears, I managed to stay with the story emotionally. Nothing deep really, but I found myself feeling sorry for Kara.
The art as I noted, was another babe-a-licious babe-o-rama – with teenaged girls. Okay, to be honest, this issue didn’t seem as provocative as the last one (although when Supergirl is doing her handstand, you can’t help noticing that skirt), and I know now that Supergirl (Linda) isn’t really a teenaged girl; but the girls are still drawn pretty MAXIM-ized, and that still gives me pause. But it's a brief pause, and overall Ed Benes and Alex Lei did a really nice job with often beautiful art. Unfortunately, again, the cover gives no indication of what’s inside, with another 2-dimensional, geometric nightmare of a cover piece. Make it stop. Please.
SUPERGIRL is still enjoying a lot of buzz among DC fans right now, and is quickly developing a very enthusiastic following. Both #75 and #76 have sold out at my local comic store, which I find a little surprising. Sure it’s good, but right now I think the title carries enough of a geeky rep that comic snobs will probably stay away from it for a little while longer. For example, I can’t picture any of may @$$hole colleagues reading it (I imagine that Lizzybeth is unaware that a Supergirl title even exists). But it’s their loss: it’s light but entertaining stuff with a good pedigree that feels like it’s on the verge of being something truly special, and judging by the word on the street, perhaps becoming a breakout hit. (Of course the title that REALLY deserves to be at the top of the heap is THE FLASH, but I’ll save that for another review.) Nevertheless, SUPERGIRL #76 is a clever, winsome book, with beautiful (but cheesecake-y) art, and unexpected pathos. B+ is a good grade, and the issue is definitely worth a flip-through the next time you’re at the store.
FRANK MILLER: THE ART OF SIN CITY (HC)
Book Designer: Cary Grazzini
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Reviewed by Cormorant
To be honest, I think that the SIN CITY series has been on the decline following the conclusion of the first Sin City story, serialized in the now-defunct DARK HORSE PRESENTS anthology. It was and still is one of the most wild, brutal, and exhilarating stories in comics, but the insanely hardboiled hyperbole of that story has proven to be repetitive and more than a little silly as an ongoing concept. Not that that’s kept me from buying the various SIN CITY miniseries as they come out. The series is still entertaining, whether or not it’s inspired, and one element has always remained beyond reproach: Frank Miller’s startling black and white art. Gritty, ugly, sexy, and packed to the brim with guns, muscle cars, and lighting that any film noir cinematographer would kill for, the art in SIN CITY has been a reminder for the last ten years of precisely why Frank Miller is one of the preeminent cartoonists of our era.
But the real question is…is he FORTY BUCKS preeminent? THE ART OF SIN CITY is a 128-page hardcover featuring both black and white and color art, oversize dimensions (9”x12”), and both unpublished sketches and rare promotional pieces in addition to reproductions from the comics - but is it worth the price tag? For me, just barely. The art itself is gorgeous, and as a dedicated fan of Miller’s SIN CITY style, I enjoy seeing it reprinted in oversize dimensions, but the package as a whole is a little lacking. There’s an introduction by comics historian R.C. Harvey (whose own book, THE ART OF THE FUNNIES: AN AESTHETIC HISTORY I recommend unequivocally), but after that, any degree of artistic analysis and commentary goes out the window in favor of page after page of art. Again, there’s not a damn thing wrong with the art, and I definitely dug seeing the rare pieces and handful of sketches, but the book could have been so very much more.
Is this just sour grapes talking? Am I judging THE ART OF SIN CITY not for what it is, but for what I want it to be? If it wasn’t for the fact that most coffee table art books at least provide perfunctory biographical information and technique overview before jumping to the art plates, I’d say yes, but they do, so I won’t. Maybe I’m particularly critical because in the mid-90’s, I read a lesser-known comic strip magazine called HOGAN’S ALLEY which ran a sketchbook gallery from Frank Miller, and in the space of only 14 pages, it was far, far more illuminating about his artistic process than the 128-page ART OF SIN CITY. How so? Well, one of the interesting elements of Miller’s SIN CITY art is that his breakdowns are strictly linear with no hint of the shading to come. Considering the fact that the chiaroscuro lighting of the SIN CITY books is easily their most distinct visual feature, learning what goes on between Miller’s sketchy breakdowns and the shadow-saturated final images is absolutely key to understanding him as an artist. From the HOGAN’S ALLEY article I learned that Miller dashes off many layout pages before hitting on a final choice, that he draws all his characters naked initially to get the anatomy right, that he blocks out major shapes with a black marker and uses a red marker for drapery, that he draws elements that might get inked over because he wants to know that everything is in its proper place, and that the intense shading only comes in the inking stage. From THE ART OF SIN CITY, I learned nothing new at all.
But let’s not undervalue the pictures – they may be no-frills, but they’re a pretty excellent selection. Whether they were all chosen by designer Cary Grazzini, editor Diana Shutz, or whether Miller himself had any say, the book showcases a nice balance of Miller’s sequential art, his covers, and those stark splash pages that would do the designers of 40’s and 50’s movie posters proud. Certainly the subject matter isn’t for everyone, packed as it is with bruiser guys, Playboy-proportioned femme fatales, and violent retribution, but there’s little denying the skill behind it. Miller is justly considered a master of black and white art, and these pages stand as a testament to his skill. Who else can so boldly define shapes with shadows and light alone, bypassing the base language of linework? Who else has found such a balance of cartooniness and realism, where Dick Tracy faces are lit with the multiple light sources of a Neal Adams or a Wally Wood? Who else draws weather so viscerally? Who else deals in murder and betrayal at the same time he’s drawing cars flying off the road like they leapt out of a Warner Brothers cartoon? And who the hell else draws such aggressively sexy babes and granite-etched manly men?
Only Miller, baby – only Miller. It’s like seeing his id on paper.
Final judgment: Much as I like the images within the book, I still have to call it out for not shooting for more. Dark Horse’s production values on the SIN CITY comics themselves have been quite good, so while I enjoy the slightly larger images of THE ART OF SIN CITY, I honestly don’t see the format as a substantial improvement over what you’d get in the source material. If you dig the art as much as I do, it’s worth considering. If you feel that your coffee table art books are overly prudish and lacking in images of hyperbolic violence, strippers, muscle cars, and rain – again, worth a thought. For the average SIN CITY fan, however, I’d suggest waiting for something better. I know nothing of the history behind the book, but while the production values are solid, there’s something about its no-frills format that suggests the project was a quickie.
FOREVER MAELSTROM
written by Howard Chaykin & David Tischman
art by John Lucas, Eduardo Barreto and Christie Scheele
published by DC Comics
reviewed by Buzz Maverik
Forever Maelstrom is the name of the hero of FOREVER MAELSTROM, a new DC mini-series. Forever Maelstrom is a guy, not a phrase that sounds cool. FOREVER MAELSTROM is one seriously crazy and funny comic book.
Our hero, Forever Maelstrom, is a big hunky guy sorta like JOHNNY BRAVO on the Cartoon Network. He's a history professor at Princeton, a time traveler, and a chick magnet. Somehow he is able to travel through the time stream, delivering pizzas to a lisping Ben Franklin and picking up babes with the Marquis De Sade. Forever's time-traveling ability may be tied to the giant, talking wolf whom he keeps on a chain and who is his indentured servant.
Forever has an archenemy named Praetor, who is a cross between Kang the Conqueror and Dr. Emilio Lizardo from THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE EIGHTH DIMENSION. In other words, we have a character who is able to royally fuck time itself, but who draws inspiration from his ceramic Elvis phone. Forever must hook up with a band of hippie teens and a warrior woman to set things right.
This book is a knowing nod to Silver Age comics such as the cool CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, as well as Indiana Jones, Doc Savage and Captain Stern from HEAVY METAL. You might find the book old fashioned because there's actually a lot going on. The excellent artwork combines a modern cartoony style with a more classic humor comic style.
And who doesn't love a fart joke? Especially when it's Queen Victoria polluting the room?
Title: THE GOON #2
Story and Art: Eric Powell
Grayscale Shading: Robin Powell & Eric Powell
Publisher: Albatross Exploding Funny Books
Reviewer: Ambush Bug
THE GOON is cool. Period. Eric Powell has created an iconic character and plopped him in the middle of a world that is a bizarre mix of LOONY TUNES and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Powell may be known as the inker to the hit Marvel MAX series, THE HOOD, but he deserves credit for this comic. Part old-time adventure serial, part newspaper comic strip, part EC comic book - THE GOON blends humor, horror, and high octane adventure and provides a comic like few others out there today.
Two issues into the current GOON series and I still know very little about the Goon himself, but I don’t really have a problem with that. Did we know Bugs Bunny’s backstory? Did we know where Popeye came from? No. The Goon is a cartoon very much like these other characters. The only difference is that he lives in a world that is much darker, much more gruesome than those rotating landscapes in Acmeland.
THE GOON #2 features the debut of a new character in the Goon Universe, The Buzzard. With a history that dates back to the Old West, the Buzzard is a two-gun-toting ghoul. He is a cursed living-deadman who eats the flesh of zombies. Lucky for him, in the pages of THE GOON, there are plenty of zombies for him to feast upon. Powell introduces us to a tragic hero whose sole purpose is to destroy the man the Goon has promised to take down. So does this issue turn into your run-of-the-mill “Two heroes meet and fight, only to team-up and fight the real bad guy” type of cliché story? Hell no. There’s too much evil in this world for the Goon and the Buzzard to face off against each other. From the get go, Powell skips the overdone comic book clichés and cuts to an equally interesting back story of how the Buzzard came to be.
The humor in this book is especially strong. Humor is a tricky thing. One person’s hilarious knee-slapper is another’s cornball stinger. I thought this book was funny as hell, but I’m a sick bastard. If you are offended by bricks to the face and lines like “The first rule of sacrificing livestock to the elder gods of the void -- don’t tell the sheriff about sacrificing livestock to the elder gods of the void,” you may not laugh at this book. But if you’re as deranged as I am, you’ll giggle with glee as the Goon and the Buzzard use Tex Avery tactics against an army of juicy zombies. You can’t spell Goon without goo and this book has plenty of goo and grue and gore and guts and gristle. There’s lots of bloodshed, but it’s so over the top that one can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.
What surprised me about this comic is that the serious parts are good too. Too many humor books overdo the laughs and leave the plot lacking. Powell doesn’t take this route. The Buzzard’s tale is a somber one. One told with subtlety and skill. The humor and the drama take up equal parts in this book. Big-time writers should take note at Powell’s ability to juggle serious and humorous themes without overdoing either (*cough*Garth Ennis*cough-cough* Sorry, something in my throat).
Powell’s art is top notch too. The majority of the issue is set in the present Goon Universe, but a big chunk of the middle of the story takes place in flashback. I’ve seen this artistic technique done before. The flashback sequences are done in a different style from the rest of the book. Where the present is made of harsh lines and strong blacks and whites, the flashback is done in soft shades and gray tones; which suggests that, like many memories, these events may not be recollected with a lot of clarity. Be it set in the present or past, the art is strong throughout. The characters and situations are cartoony, but have enough realism to make you squirm when the Buzzard bites off a zombie’s fingers or the Goon KO’s a ghoul. Great stuff.
I can’t finish this review without mentioning my absolute favorite character in this comic. Every time I see Frankie, the Goon’s sidekick, take up space in a panel, a smile comes to my face. He’s a little spindly guy who talks tough because he’s got a seven foot tall, muscle-bound Goon at his side all of the time. I love seeing Frankie’s Little Orphan Annie Eyes squint as he balls his fists and swings those bony arms of his at the zombies as if he can actually do some damage. Freakin’ hilarious. I hope to see more of this character in future issues.
Pick up THE GOON the next time you’re at the comic shop. Give it a try. Each story is relatively self contained and can be enjoyed for what it is: A rambunctious thrill ride about a big lug who punches out monsters, his loudmouth sidekick, and a world full of fiends, freaks, and most importantly, fun.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #47
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: John Romita Jr.
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewed by Cormorant
Straczynski isn’t perfect. Okay, no writer is, but J. Michael Straczynski is a writer who can be particularly vexing for me because his concepts are so strong, and individual scenes often so good, that his sometimes indulgences in corny dialogue and overwrought melodrama sting all the more. With the last two storylines in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, I was starting to get a little impatient with these flaws, but thankfully, JMS seems to be pulling out all the stops to make the series riveting again with his latest story arc. It’s a throwback to the somewhat controversial “Spider-totem” epic that began his run, and while some fans are bellyaching about mysticism cropping up in Spider-Man’s generally down-to-earth world, I say, “Screw ‘em.” Kids, you can probably find a thousand Spider-Man stories with urban villains and bank robberies and teen angst – Straczynski has directed readers down a rare side path that takes them someplace different, and it’s deserving of attention precisely because it turns convention on its ear!
The backstory: two arcs back, Spider-Man teamed up with the enigmatic (and dryly humorous) Doctor Strange. During the course of events, Spider-Man took a trip to the Astral Plane where, despite Strange’s ominous warnings, he was forced off a mystical path during his journeys. There were no immediate consequences, but Strange recently reappeared to warn Spider-Man that his little misstep got him noticed in the astral world by the mystical equivalent of a spider’s natural enemy: the spider wasp. Acting perhaps more like DC’s Phantom Stranger than himself, Strange left Spider-Man with only a cryptic warning that his mystical enemies also have counterparts in the natural world. And wouldn’t ya know it, he’s right: enter Shathra – a bizarre cross between a woman and a wasp. She’s got pitch-black skin, wasp wings, stingers on her wrists, and a primordial need to kill Spider-Man and feed him to her children…after she plays with him a bit.
I suppose readers can be forgiven for comparing Shathra to Morlun, the scary-as-hell mystical villain who faced off against Spidey during JMS’s opening arc: both are magical, both can track Spider-Man because of his link to the spider-totem, and both seem to be borderline unstoppable. But don’t panic – as the latest issue reveals, their methods are entirely different. Morlun’s threat was purely physical, but when Shathra speaks of “playing” with Spider-Man, she’s talking psychological warfare. In service to that, she assumes the identity of a striking, black-haired woman, and heads straight for the world of tabloid television where she tells a convincingly sordid tale of her life as, yes…Spider-Man’s lover. She doesn’t paint herself as a saint, but explains that she had to go public when she became sick of his hypocrisy: staging fake battles with supervillains, working insurance scams with the companies whose buildings were damaged in his fights, and badmouthing his fellow superheroes behind their backs. JMS is clearly taking a jab here at the American public’s twisted desire to see their heroes fall, and while certain moments are a little heavy-handed, it’s an effective context to put our pal, Peter Parker, once more in a position of twisting in the wind.
My one notable gripe for the issue is that Mary Jane seemed too quick to accept the possibility of Shathra’s claims. Granted, MJ’s still estranged from Peter and experiencing a lot of emotional turmoil over him, but she’s also supposed to know him more intimately than anyone else, and after years of the Daily Bugle painting her husband as just a step or two above a serial killer, you’d think she would be a little more incredulous when a stranger makes wild claims about Spider-Man. I wondered if maybe Shathra was supposed to be holding a mystical sway over viewers, but a brief scene of the Invisible Woman commenting, “I don’t believe it. Not one word of it,” as she watches the interview with the rest of the Fantastic Four, suggests that’s not the case. Peter’s rage gets pretty over-the-top too, but that I can chalk up to his mystical link with Shathra. The pair are mystical opposites – born foes – and Peter’s violent reaction to her words clearly stems from their predestined hatred for one another.
During the course of the issue, which gets surprisingly grueling by the end, Straczynski presents many a memorable moment. There’s some clever and heartfelt interplay between Peter and one of his students at Midtown High, memorable banter from a cabbie on superhero tipping, and some damn good action sequences. John Romita Jr.’s art is typically excellent, and I submit that those readers hesitant about the story’s mystical elements should take comfort in the fact that Romita Jr.’s knack for drawing all things New York keeps events grounded in reality. I can’t figure why he’s taken to drawing the normally curvy Mary Jane as increasingly waif-like (is this going to become a plot point, or is it just a stylistic change?), but in general, Romita Jr. is as much the defining Spider-Man artist of his era as Romita Sr. was before him.
Final judgment: I’m all over Brian Bendis’ teen-angst stories in the latest ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN story arc, but I must confess, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN edges it out just slightly because I feel its action/adventure focus is more true to Spider-Man’s roots. Straczynski’s stories balance action and characterization in just about perfect amounts for an old-school superhero comic, but don’t take “old-school” to mean this is a superhero book that’s just going through the paces of tradition. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN has heartfelt characters, wild new situations for a 40-year-old character, some of the best action scenes in comics, and some of the most genuinely threatening villains Spider-Man’s faced in years. If every once in a while there are some mild characterization gaffes or a cornball joke or two, I’m inclined to forgive ‘em. It’s a terrific book, and the mystical voodoo rocks.
ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL VOL. 1
written by Stan Lee, Wallace Wood, Denny O'Neil
art by Gene Colan, John Romita Sr., Jack Kirby, Wallace Wood, Bob Powell, Joe Orlando, Bill Everett, Steve Ditko
published by Marvel
reviewed by Buzz Maverik
The Li'l @$$holes in: Reviewing ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL VOL. 1.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! "Okay, everybody, shut up! The meeting of the Li'l @$$holes Comic Book Club & Corrective Little League Team will now come to order or I'm kicking your butts. Before we get started, does anybody have any new business?"
"First, who died and made you God? Second, since when did we start allowing girls into the club?"
"Since our moms made us. Besides, Lizzy likes independent comics. What are those again, Lizzy?"
"You know, Charlton. Gold Key. Dell. And instead of CASPER and RICHIE RICH, I read WENDY and SPOOKY."
"I always liked HOT STUFF."
"HOT STUFF sucks."
"No way! He's like Satan when he was a kid. Anyway, this week, we read ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL VOL. 1. This has the very first 25 issues of DAREDEVIL. Any thoughts?"
"Yeah, I think you smell. No. Really, how can this be the first 25 issues of DAREDEVIL. Everybody knows Kevin Smith created DAREDEVIL and then he killed everyone."
"No way. Frank Miller created DAREDEVIL and made everybody a loadie-slut back in the 1980s."
"You are such a liar. They didn't even have comic books back then. I liked it. But I wondered why DD fought Namor. Shouldn't the Avengers or Fantastic Four or The Hulk or Dr. Strange have been fighting Namor? And did you guys notice that in issue # 8, that it was Lois Lane who DD pulled out of the path of an oncoming car? I thought it was funny the way DD had Batman type weapons in his cane, like smoke bombs, tape recorders, a shotgun microphone, a bazooka! And he had a radio receiver in his mask with little antenna in the horns. Hey, DD invented the Walkman!"
"I liked where he fought that guy from Europe in the castle in Europe and the Europe guy wore armor and had a robot army but he wasn't Dr. Doom. What'd they call him? Captain Europe? And when DD fought Cat Man, why did Cat Man have a beard? Whiskers would make sense, but a beard? He looked more like Goat Man. And is it a coinky-dink that Frog Man is an ex-Navy frog man whose first name is Frog and who has a French last name? And how did the Organizer find a guy named Monk Keefer to become Ape Man? Shouldn't his name have at least been Monkey Man? I can understand why Henry Hawk become Bird Man instead of Hawk Man. First, DC could have hired Nelson & Murdock to sue Marvel for the name, and second, Carter Hall would have crossed over into the Marvel Universe and kicked Bird Man's butt. Also, Hawk Man would have part of Henry Hawk's name in it and it would be too easy to guess his secret identity. My point is, if there were a Goat Man, would his real name be Billy Bah?"
"I liked issue # 12, which was drawn by John Romita Jr.'s dad. That's where DD fought the Plunderer, a pirate who said stuff like 'Avast, me hearties, down the bilge with ye' but carried a laser gun. Turned out he was K-Mart's brother."
"That's Kazar's brother, doofus. As in Kazar the jungle boy! It was cool in issue # 14 when the Plunderer told his men that they were no longer pirates, that they were now supervillains. If they were pirates, shouldn't they have been wearing tuxedo shirts or something? And it was cool in the next issue, when DD got arrested, the cops didn't even take off his mask. If the case hadn't been thrown out of court, do you think he would have done time in prison with his mask on? They make the super villains take off their masks when they delouse them, don't they?"
"I liked when Foggy Nelson disguised himself as Daredevil to get Karen Page to like him and all the super villains kept saying, like, I didn't know Daredevil was such a fat ass, but then they still thought he was DD. Do you guys think that would work? Dressing us like a superhero to get girls? I mean, if we were like, old enough to like girls."
"The book really got good when that Gene Colan guy took over the art. He must be new. The art actually seemed to move on the page. I liked when the Masked Marauder would suck people up into the light bulbs and transport them wherever he wanted them to go. It said he was using his levitational ray, but it looked more like teleportation to me. Maybe Stan didn't know the difference between levitation and teleportation. I mean, he keeps calling the Mafia 'the Maggia'. Are the Sopranos in 'The Maggia'? And if he actually could invent a teleportation ray, couldn't he make more money that way?"
"No, stupid. The car dealers would put him out of business! Besides, guys like The Mandarin and the Leader already could teleport. The Masked Marauder probably just traded them something for one of their teleport beams."
"Okay! Great meeting, gang! That's all the time we have. Now, who brought their homework for me to copy?"
Hey hey! It’s Cormorant again, here to kick off our latest semi-regular feature, INDIE JONES (it’s a play on words, ya drunkards!). Indie freedom fighter, Lizzybeth, will be taking the helm, but the other @$$holes may well throw in their two cents every once in a while! Big fun! Big diversity! Big spotlight on all you up-and-comers out there! Take it away, Liz…
Welcome to the first edition of the Talkback League of @$$hole’s venue for self-published comics, INDIE JONES. In this feature, we TalkBackers will be talking about comics sent in to us by AICN readers from all over the world.
Many people (including, sometimes, me) use the term “indie” to apply to anything not drenched in spandex, drawing everything not superhero-related into an umbrella category of fantasy, crime, and true-to-life projects published anywhere from Kitchen Sink to DC Comics. “Indie comics” isn't really a useful label for the broad spectrum of non-superpowered projects out there; when distributors and comics shops will lump them together just the same, the term has really lost its context. The original notion of “independent” comics came about in the days when Marvel and DC really were the only game in town, when there weren’t venues for distribution in small press, or imprints like Vertigo, for the more adventurous concepts to find a home. The landscape has altered considerably, but there are still artists and writers out there who choose to go it alone, some of whom are using self-publishing to break into the industry, some of whom have failed to find a comfortable home for their work in major or small press, and some of whom simply prefer to maintain complete control over their artistic vision.
There are more self-published comics out there than you or I will ever know about, that have teeny tiny print runs or sell to a very select market, and most are highly unavailable to the average reader. Thanks to the Internet, creators can bring their projects to a larger stage, adapt their print projects to a regular online format, or at least distribute their work to a wider audience. Some independent publications have become extremely successful and are carried in shops across the country, even around the world; others are less fortunate. Naysayers will tell you that underground projects (in comics as in any expanding medium) will tend to be eccentric, narrowly targeted, and often not very good. Obviously my tastes run towards the eccentric, over the (to me) bland expanse of corporate comics, and your mileage may vary. But I will say that there is more quality work than you might think, and due to the wide variety of subjects and sensibilities, I think there is something out there for everyone. This feature will only be able to look at a sampling of what’s out there, but hopefully it will find some of those projects that deserve your attention and support.
The bulk of submissions I've read so far have been humor comics, parodies, satires, and the like. I’ve been hankering for some truly off-the-wall humor, and indie comics are a good place to look. Independent comics are freer to really offend, really push buttons, than a major publisher tends to allow, and some of them are pretty incendiary stuff. The comics I’m covering below come in various sizes, production values, and print quality, but in the real test for any humor comic – does it make you laugh? -- these books came through.
Someone calling himself Dick Troutman, a clearly disturbed and talented individual, sent me a whole bundle of comics ranging from the mildly oddball to the completely mental. I started off with a mini-zine devoted to Brion James, the cult-film actor of over 100 movies and dozens of TV appearances. It’s an entertaining collage of his career, with dozens of mildly manipulated replications of movie posters and photos, and nifty extras like “Brion James is Tall”, which puts the actor in an illustrated lineup with an endless variety of film figures from John Wayne, to the characters voiced by James Earl Jones, to Godzilla and King Kong. More disturbing is THE DICK TROUTMAN HANDY DANDY POCKET GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL SUICIDE (“Get it Right the First Time!”), which is exactly what it purports to be. It has many (un)helpful tips, including “Reasons to do it” and some increasingly creative ways to check out (tipping the refrigerator onto oneself with help of a complex pulley system, for example). This is exactly the sort of “oh dear god I shouldn’t be reading this” sick humor that stomps all over that line of good taste. The Christopher Reeve coloring book goes all the way over that line. You’re going straight to hell for that one, man. Seriously. Still, Troutman’s comics are the most professional of what I’ve received so far, with a wide variety of styles and subjects. One was a serious effort, an effective silent action comic called STRIKEFORCE: BIGFOOT, illustrated in starkly shadowed b&w that reminded me of Steve Lieber blended with Gareth Hines. The highlight shows one of Troutman’s “Outfitters” (basically mountain men) beating on a sasquatch with his own dismembered arm. On the flip side, there’s SUCKS, a strange Anti-Archie comic (in perfectly imitated visual style) with plenty of sex, swearing, and torture of a Charlie Brown-ish title figure. There’s something for everyone here. Uh, if everyone is twisted and depraved, that is.
On a lighter note is “Useless Meanderings #1,” a collection of cartoons and comics taken from the online comic strip BROADBAND MY ASS. Avenging tech support warriors didn’t sound all that funny to me in theory, but I suspect that if I spent enough time paying home visits to show people how to turn on their monitors, I might fantasize about reducing customers to ash with flame throwers as well. Drawn by Thomas P. Reidy III, a disgruntled tech support employee out of Austin, BMA lives out the dreams of techies everywhere - instead of answering inane questions like “how do I turn on my email?”, you could just shoot the person, or at least convince them to destroy their own hard drives. And while you’re at it, assassinate people about to outbid you on Ebay. And other bits of zaniness that show up in these somewhat rough but often chuckle-inducing strips. While it sometimes tries too hard with the zaniness (Spankachu? Spankachu vs. Action Jesus? Ummm...), I found the collection, as well as the website, to be more consistently funny than a lot of “geek humor” can maintain.
David Blumenstein of Australia sent over two issues of his NAKEDFELLA COMICS, proving definitively that the “my hometown is really, truly lame” sentiment is pretty much international. Nakedfella is a series of short, humorous depictions of Australian culture and local color such as “The Boring-Ass Adventures of the Australian Governor-General”, or the story of Chris and Bill of the Wombat Gully Plant Farm done in full “Behind the Music” style. Yeah, this comic mostly illustrates to me my embarrassing ignorance of Australia in general (there are states? there’s a governor-general?) but most of the humor translates perfectly well. Change the names in the Boy’s Own Guide to the City of Adelaide pamphlet (“Come to Adelaide: Why Not?”) and it could easily be about my hometown. Except, sadly, we didn’t have a Brown Rocks Park, or the gelato stand. We couldn’t handle that kind of excitement, I guess. But we could probably correct a few misconceptions about America, for example: Americans aren’t all from L.A, we don’t all like Neil Diamond, and we’re really sorry about
Britney Spears. Well, I am, anyway.
Joshua Edelglass’s MOTION PICTURES has only the thinnest of concepts, but runs like hell with it to make a pretty entertaining comic tailor-made for the average Ain't-It-Cool TalkBacker. In a Last Action Hero-related accident, a boy and his robot have been teleported into filmdom, using some kind of remote control to jump from one movie to the next. Being your typical uber-geeks, the first film they visit is The Fellowship of the Ring, complete with appearances by Frodo, Gandalf, a very lost Harry Potter, and the disinfected Eye of Sauron (it’s feeling much better now). As a fan of the books and the film, I enjoyed all of the inside jokes and the obvious affection that the author has for the film. I also got a kick out of the later scene where Batman advises other superheroes on how NOT to be adapted to film, and the litany of heroic battle cries, and many more extremely geeky gags. While our protagonists are drawn in simple cartoon-style, the film scenes are real likenesses of the actors and scenery, and work as both parodies and homages to the films. This is a title I want to see more of, and will be showing to my movie-geek friends.
Ordering Information:
BROADBAND MY ASSto order “Useless Meanderings”, Issue #1 of BMA, send $2.50 to:
Thomas P. Reidy III
16823 Whitebrush Loop
Austin, TX 78717
or email here (bbmyass@austin.rr.com) or here (skafunkrastapunk@austin.rr.com) for paypal-related transactions. MOTION PICTURES
to order Issue #1 (or the soon-to-be-available Star Wars spoofing Issue #2), email Josh Edelglass (Joshua_Edelglass@hotmail.com) or send $4.00 to:
Motion Pictures
C/o Josh Edelglass
24 Westland Ave., Apt. 17
Boston, MA 02115
Visit the Worldview Website for a closer look.
NAKEDFELLA
Issues 5 and 6 can be ordered online at Comics Australia, along with a number of really interesting Australian indie titles, or write to:
David Blumenstein
PO Box 77
East Caulfield
Victoria, 3145
Australia
Email (david@nakedfella.com) the naked fella himself for more information.
ULTIMATE JAMES, DICK TROUTMAN’S GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL SUICIDE, CHRIS REEVE COLORING BOOK (all $3), STRIKEFORCE: BIGFOOT, and SUCKS (both $2) can be ordered from Dick Troutman, via email (dick_troutman@hotmail.com) or at this addy:
P.O. Box 4517
Pittsburgh, PA 15205
Browse his selection of comics projects here
Got comics?
If you have a self-published comic book that you’d like to offer up for Indie Jones, email indie_comics@yahoo.com for more information.
