Hey. I'm back from a great time in Buenos Aires where my wife and I went to visit her best friend who's subletting a place for a few months down there. The weather was great, the food was even better, and the exchange rate was downright dreamy. I'm not officially "back" in that we returned yesterday and I probably won't get to CE until Friday, but thought I'd share what I gleaned about the comix scene down in Buenos Aires. This is long, and has not a comic review in it, so if you want to skip it, I won't mind. Hibbs has a great write-up about Sweeney Todd just below, so while this may not be your week to get your snarky comic reviewer fix, it's certainly content-rich.

Anyway, The Master List of Comics shops has four stores in Buenos Aires listed. I visited two of those stores, Entelquia and Punto de Fuga, as well as a third, Club del Comic, which Edi found through the Time Out Guide, while I was there.

If you know anything about Buenos Aires (and I basically didn't), five or six stores is not something to jump up and down about. Buenos Aires proper has close to three million people, and the Buenos Aires area, which includes the metropolitan area surrounding the city proper, claims more than eleven million inhabitants, approximately a third of the entire population of Argentina. While one shouldn't generalize about how many stores there actually are in such an area based on one website and one travel guide, that's a lot of people and I didn't see anything close to that in comic stores. Club del Comic and Punto de Fuga were located about two long blocks apart from each other, and both were almost achingly tiny. Club del Comic is jammed with toys and anime in the front, and then set with shelves on each side and through the center, while graphic novels and some bound volumes are set in racks that reach almost to the ceiling giving the upper walls a scaly feeling. Punto de Fuga feels even smaller, but that's probably because they also do duty as an Internet cafe, with five or six computer stations, and some sort of area where they make the coffee and the tea and the mate and stuff.

(Amusingly, whether through predilection or economic necessity, Club del Comic seemed to be more of a DC store, and Punto de Fuga more clearly a Marvel store. They both had some Corto Maltese volumes, Spanish translations of various internationally published volumes (at CdC, I was thrilled to find all of the volumes of Grant Morrison's Zenith for only 100 pesos, but discovered it was indeed in Spanish), and some neat stuff here and there, but by and large it was mainly the big two, and only the most mainstream of those works. I'm not sure why, but there wasn't a copy of Watchmen in graphic novel form to be had anywhere.)

The third store, Entelequia, was located right where you'd expect a comic store to be--close to the University (or maybe the law school, I couldn't quite tell from all the surrounding bookstores which all had legal volumes in the window)--and had the far more extensive selection of the three stores. The top floor was all non-superhero stuff, while the capes were consigned to the basement. But the stuff in the basement was all pretty current and in English--they order their stuff from Diamond and it ships once a month There, I talked to a really sweet guy who patiently answered all of my questions, and cleared some stuff up. According to him, the comics market in B.A. went through the same collapse as the market here in the mid-'90s but it suffered the additional blow of the economy's collapse in 2001. Before that crash, Entelequia had approximately 80 to 90 subscribers; now, it has approximately 40. (This is probably true for the one location I visited, and not the second location--if it still exists.) The retailer certainly had the same party line as U.S. retailers: the guys who grew up reading comic books are still buying comics, but their kids aren't; the kids use their disposable income on stuff like video games; manga is seen as an emerging force but they're not seeing as many kids in shopping for it as he'd like; and so on.

Anyway, that's the retailing side of things, but I'm no Brian Hibbs so I can't tell you what it means or how to change things up for those shops. Although if I was DC, I'd see what was up: not being able to buy a translated trade of Watchmen or Dark Knight makes no sense at all to me.

All this is lengthy preamble to what I actually did buy, pictured above at right. There are a lot of kioscos in B.A.--little shops where you buy candy, cigarettes and drinks--and I was right off several areas where the streets were only for pedestrian use and where there were kiosco de diaros on every block. These had all the current magazines, but also sometimes had terrifyingly old, torn-up comic books that were just there to fill up shelf space--I came across a copy of X-Men from early in Joe Casey's run that looked as if it'd been dug out of the ground--and at a few places, there were these cellophane wrapped books with iconic cartoon figures on the cover and a logo, "Biblioteca Clarin de la Historieta." They were thick books, over 200 pages, but I couldn't tell if they were essays or reprints or what. After seeing them briefly on our first day walking around, I became obsessed with trying to find them again and buying them, particularly Dick Tracy: Chester Gould's work is so iconic and masterful in its own right, it didn't matter if I could read it or not.

Of course, it being the volume I wanted the most, it took me forever to find it again. The next day, we couldn't find the kioscos with the volumes at all, and I didn't see the volumes until we ended up at Club del Comic, which had multiple copies of the Superman and Batman volumes, some volumes I wasn't interested in at all, and the Flash Gordon copy. The Superman and Batman volumes were marked up to sixteen pesos (as opposed to nine at the kioscos) and the Flash Gordon copy was marked down to eight. I bought it, tore open the wrapping when we hit the street, and was relieved and delighted to see that it wasn't essays (I love Raymond's Flash Gordon, but think even the staunchest academic would be hard-pressed to fill two hundred pages on the topic) but black and white reprints that was one-third Rip Kirby and, of the remaining two-thirds, one-third Dan Barry material. I was hooked. Because I didn't have a ton of space (either in my luggage or at home), I tried to keep my shopping choices limited. Of course, now I'm kicking myself for not picking up the two volumes of El Eternauta by Oesterheld and Solano-Lopez, which may well have been the raison d'etre of the Biblioteca Clarin de la Historieta line in the first place. El Eternauta is a classic of Argentinian comics. (I was kind of shocked that there wasn't more work available of Francisco Solano Lopez, one of the few Argentinian cartoonists whose work I recognized but maybe I just didn't come across it while I was there.)

In the end, I found a kiosco that had a torn and ravaged copy of Dick Tracy on the ground for cover price. Fortunately, the kiosquero took pity on me and took a less-ravaged copy out from under his glass display and also sold me a similarly well-preserved Corto Maltese volume (that has color pages!), for ten pesos each. Entelequeria had a five peso copy of El Loco Chavez that rounded out my little mini-collection--eleven hundred pages of reprints for thirty three pesos, or approximately eleven bucks. The Dick Tracy volume is the only one I've spent any time with, and it's worth all those pesos just on its own. Even the "Lunar Chica" story from 1963 is as insane and interesting as anything Ditko's ever done--if the deluxe strip collections continue to gain ground in the book market, I hope we'll see some major retrospective of Gould's work some time soon.

So yeah, that's what I've been up to the last ten days or so. Next week: some comic book reviews, maybe both old and new depending on what catches my fancy. I've also got a Wondercon pic of Ben and Hibbs and some other stuff I'll be posting in the next few days. Anyone who knows more about the B.A. scene or Eternautas, feel free to throw info or links in the comments.

Labels: Jeff

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Airplane writing on the Alpha-Smart, here (with later editing/linking now that I’m home)

I just got back from the NY con (well, the trade show, more accurately – I left back for home on Saturday morning), about which more later.

First though, let me tell you my “Only In New York” story….

I got into town on Wednesday, and went to the current restaging of Sweeney Todd that night. To be honest, I generally hate musicals, but I really really like Sweeney. Perhaps it is the dark story, which ends in horror and insanity, without a single bit of redemption – that’s not what musicals are, right?

I’ve actually seen Sweeney before on Broadway – when I was…. Hm, 10, 11 maybe, I was taken to the original production with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou

That original production was mesmerizing to me, especially because of how the sets worked. Effectively, the set was a giant cube on wheels, with one face of the cube being Mrs. Lovett’s Pie Shop, one being a street scene, and so forth, and as the action in the play moved from place to place, the extras, or sometimes the principles, would turn the cube on its wheels, creating an illusion of distance or speed or volume that a single set couldn’t possibly achieve.

Thanks to Jeff Lester doing a recent search, after I leant him my very very worn out video tape of the Great Performances telecast, I now know that the Lansbury/Hearn version is back in print on DVD. I strongly urge you to seek out that performance, just to see the masterful way they approached the technical challenges.

Anyway, back in 2006. THIS version of Sweeney has a whole ‘nother set of technical challenges to face. See, the play, as originally mounted has ten “speaking” (and/or singing) roles, easily an equal number of extras providing chorus, and of course, a full orchestra doing the score. The current version only has the 10 principals – so that the principals have to not only being their own stage hands and chorus, which would be kind of insane enough, but they top that by being their own orchestra as well.

I mean that literally – they’re carrying their instruments around the stage, each taking turns playing parts! Some fun can be had in playing “Watch how they hand off piano duties as the various actors are needed upstage”

Understand how complex this is – not only does the crew have to act and sing, but they also have to tackle a pretty damn complicated score, while also being their own stage hands. That is, frankly, insane! There’s almost always someone or something moving on stage. And while it is a very minimalist stage and dressing (Pretty much two chairs represent 50% of the physical objects in the production – set that way to be a boat, this way to be a couch, and so on), there’s a kineticism on display that I’ve never seen before.

These are pretty astonishing performances, as well – Patti LuPone, for example, brings a wickedness and sensuality to her interpretation of Mrs. Lovett… and she does it while carrying a tuba around the set! Just…. Wow! Is all you can think.

On The Savage Critic scale, I’d give the strongest possible VERY GOOD, just a gnat’s breadth from “Excellent”, which is quintessentially unfair to this cast and production, because my qualms pretty much all come down to “Huh, why’d they make THAT choice?” or “Well, that’ not what I’d do” kind of things. For example, there’s lots and lots of instances where the cast is looking at the audience, and not each other. This can be jarring when Anthony sings “Oh, look at me, look at me miss, please look at me!” to Joanna, while HE is turned away from her. The problem was, I couldn’t see a consistent pattern of when they did or did not engage each other – sometimes characters WOULD make eye contact, sometimes they wouldn’t, and I couldn’t see the rhyme or reason.

Much of the staging truly worked – even when you thought it couldn’t. How on earth could “God, That’s Good!” or “City on Fire!” work without extras?! Yet, work it did, exceptionally well. On the other hand, I KNOW the play, and I know exactly what everyone is supposed to be doing and motivations, etc. So the minimalism worked just fine for me. I do wonder if a viewer just seeing Sweeney for the very first time would think the same thing?

I was also happy that the somewhat simpler score allowed some bits -- “Quartet” might be the best example -- to fully appreciate all four vocal lines of the song. In the fully orchestrated version, the orchestra tends to utterly overwhelm the performers, but with never more than 6 instruments at any one moment, everything was much clearer.

I thought the performances were very strong, especially Lauren Molina who portrayed Joanna, and Manoel Felciano who was Tobias. Both do a lot of “background” bits and action, that really add to the mounting insanity of the story. One of the conceits of the show is that the set and setup is reminiscent of an insane asylum, where the inmates are putting on this play – rather than it being that *we’re* watching the story of Sweeney, himself, it is more that we’re watching lunatics act out the story of Sweeney, which at once makes the play more immediate and horrifying (if that were possible), and yet also slightly distancing. So, Molina and Felciano really did a lot of “selling” this conceit -- Tobias creeping around the stage, or perching up on chairs observing the action, looking bug-fuck nuts, Joanna quivering her lip in mad, nervous panic when scary actions she isn’t involved in happen cross stage. Also of note is Donna Lynne Champlin who plays Pirelli (and interestingly, the didn’t change any gender references whatsoever, so she says “…when I was just a lad”, and things like that.) starts off the play as one of the keepers of the asylum, so there are several occasions where as the violence of the play escalates, Champlin steps closer in as if to be saying “Huh, if they take it too far, I need to be able to step in and stop it.” It’s a very effective device, really.

I was less impressed with Benjamin Magnuson who played Anthony, and Alexander Gemignani who plays the Beadle. In the former case, it may simply be that my brain is far too locked in on the DVD ’82 performance of Cris Groenendaal in the role. THAT Anthony is essentially Dudley Do-Right – a big, strapping, utterly earnest, and thoroughly clueless person who has his entire life turn to shit thanks to Todd. So, my brain has a hard time accepting a much weedier guy, who looks more like an NY intellectual than a young and vital sailor, in the role. His actual performance was good, but not, I thought, fully up to the level of his cast mates. Still, this is the difference between “really good” and “really really good”, so perhaps I’m being unfair.

As for Gemignani as the Beadle, the choice was made to deliver most of his dialogue in a monotone. You can practically hear the periods between. Each. And. Every. Word. I don’t know if it was the actor’s choice, or the director’s, but I thought it was a really poor choice. Other than that he was fine – the Beadle has some really difficult lines to sing, and he acquitted them very well.

Patti Lapone was really terrific as Mrs. Lovett, bringing, as I said, a real raw sexuality to the character that once certainly never get from the Lansbury version. I was pretty iffy on some of her readings and interpretations in the SF Symphony production of the play that she participated in 2001 (also on DVD), but in the intervening years, she’s really claimed the part.

Michael Cerveris as Sweeney was a revelation. While he’s not really old enough in appearance to be convincing physically, he absolutely psychically takes upon the mantle of Todd, and sells it 100%. It’s a very challenging role, and Cerveris sticks the landing (to mix a metaphor badly)

Bottom line: this is an astounding and audacious production of a play that was always a masterpiece of its own. If you’re in the New York area, I whole-heartedly recommend you see this production if/while you can.

Anyway, back to the “Only in New York” portion of the story… So, I really like Sweeney as a play, and I know the libretto backwards and forwards. It’s pretty disturbing on my part, actually.

So, I’m… well, I’m not actually SINGING along, because, y’know, you can’t actually DO that at a play, but I’m “mouthing” along with the music, if you see what I mean. My hands are also moving in my lap with the different musical lines. In short, I’m Really Fucking Into It, and It Shows, right?

2 seats over from me (which reminds me, I owe Mark Evanier a big wet kiss for advising me that I was better to sit in the 7th row than the first or second – I had my pick of the theatre when I booked the tix, and I ended up with superb seats thanks to ME’s advice), was sitting Michael Imperioli, who was Chris on the Sopranos, right? He was with a fairly large party of people, and they, in turn, had a friendship with an artist (whose name I didn’t catch) who was doing a “live sketch” of the performance, during it. “Capturing the energy” or something.

Anyway, during the intermission, some of the women in this party start up a conversation with me, “Who are you? How do you know all the words? Where are you from?” that kind of thing. We chat all pleasantly, and the second act begins and that’s that, right?

Well, we’re getting up to leave, and I say my goodbyes, and one of the women (Eva, I think?) says, “Look, we’re going backstage, how’d you like to come along?”

Obviously, I told them to fuck off. Er…. No wait, the other way, “What? Are you nuts, of COURSE I’d like to go.” So I got to go backstage, meet most of the cast, ask several questions on the staging, and wander around the set, and examine the props and dressing close up! Totally awesome!

As they say, it was a truly magical night. There was even an after party that I could have gone to, but I thought it better to not be “a leech” and know when to leave on my own. That makes it at least a little more likely that they’ll continue to be kind and inviting to absolute stranger in the future, y’know?

(Having a reasonable amount of contact with the comics talent, and watching as people sometimes have inappropriate fangasms sometimes, I’ve largely learned to restrain myself in my own encounters with celebrities)

Anyway, how cool is that? A great night at the theater, topped off with a backstage visit just from being excited about the work. Only in New York City though, right?

Garth Ennis and Ruth Cole were gracious enough to offer to let me stay at their place during the con, not only saving me a big wad of money from the hotel, but allowing me to spend some real quality time with one of my dearest mates, and turning my experience from just “going to a con”. I don’t think I would have heard about the Paul Pope/John Cassaday party at the Slipper Room, for example, without Garth – which ended up not only being a tremendous amount of fun, but being very productive in setting up a few things in the future.

I went out to NY for 2 specific reasons: 1) Marvel, in the original plan, was gong to have a “retailer day” of some kind, which got turned into “just” a cocktail party (We were there 4-5 hours, actually) after I booked the trip. But I thought it was REALLY important to go out and support Marvel working with retailers (especially as the guy who sued them, y’know?), because Marvel is getting better and better in working with us each month, and it is good to have a closer relationship. I met Dan Buckley, and Joe Quesada and I have buried the hatchet (If there was a hatchet to begin with, really) – we did it in email a few months back, but I wanted to do it face-to-face as well. Plus ay opportunity to tell more people what a godsend David Gabriel has become to Marvel and the retail community is always welcome.

I also went out to NY because 2) the first day of the con was a trade show. We need more trade shows in this business, especially ones that aren’t directly controlled by Diamond comics. I was, I think, the only retailer from west of the Rockies to show, but I thought it was very important to support the thing.

Of course, the trade-only *day* turned into “4 hours” (noon to 4) until they started letting the fans in, so it “wasn’t much” of a trade show this year, but still, a man has to do what a man has to do, right?

The con itself was pretty impressive for a first show – attendance seemed pretty huge to me. Even during the trade show portion, there were times it wasn’t possible to move in the aisles. Once they started letting in the fans it became a real madhouse. When I finally left the Javits ~6 pm, there were STILL a couple hundred people standing in line to get badges.

I suspect Saturday is going to get ugly, and I’d lay coin that the fire marshall shuts it down at least once during the day. The aisles aren’t nearly wide enough to accommodate the NY comics community – they need to be twice what they are, really. Really really glad I’m going home and not staying for the con, proper, because it will be a madhouse.

Also on the trip, I visited Rocketship in Brooklyn, which is a fab looking store for only being open 6 months. They looked like they were doing well, and I’m really proud that I’ve been able to help them succeed.

I also spent some time up with DC at their offices on Thursday– had Lunch with Dan Didio, and an afternoon meeting with the Vertigo editors, offering up a retailer’s brain to pick. All part of the service, ma’am.

Anyway, so that’s my little travelogue. I’ve really not read much this week – ASTONISHING X-MEN #13, which I’d rate an EXCELLENT, GREEN LANTERN #9 (I think? Comics are packed away right now), which I thought was a solid GOOD, and CATWOMAN #?? Which I’d say the same. That’s all I’ve read so far, despite 11 hours of flight time in the last 96 hours! (slept a lot of those plane hours, really) So, uh, PICK OF THE WEEK is ASTONISHING X-MEN #13, PICK OF THE WEAK is “I have no idea, hurray!”, and TRADE OF THE WEEK is…”your guess is as good as mine, I have no internet 30k miles in the air here I am, and I don’t recall what shipped this week.”

I am gong to be SOOOOOO happy to see Ben when I get home, though. I REALLY missed the little guy. Tzipora, too, but it is different with the 2 year old – four days away is…what? One half of one percent of his entire life?

Suck ass part is I have to do the weekly reorders, this months ORDER FORM (haven’t even cracked it yet), and the March subscriber setups all before Tuesday. That’s gonnnnnnna suck! So If you hear noting from me next week, that’s the reason why.

-B Click Here to Read More...

Plenty of reviews below this post, if you only scan the front page...

A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #29 (A)
ALL NEW OFF HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z #2
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #529
AMERICAN WAY #1 (OF 8)
ASTONISHING X-MEN #13
ATLAS #2 (Still missing over half our order…)
BART SIMPSON COMICS #28
BATMAN #650
BATMAN JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT #7(OF 12)
BIG QUESTIONS #8
BLACK PANTHER #13
BLACK WIDOW 2 #6 (OF 6)
BOOK OF LOST SOULS #5
CAPTAIN AMERICA #15
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #18
CATWOMAN #52
CRICKETS #1
DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES #4 (OF4)
DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES KURTH CVR A #7 (OF 8)
DUEL #2 (OF 4)
EXILES #77
FANTASTIC FOUR #535
FRESHMEN #6 (OF 6)
GI JOE SIGMA 6 #3
GLOOMCOOKIE #26
GREEN LANTERN #9
I HEART MARVEL OUTLAW LOVE
IN THE BLOOD #1 (OF 4)
INTIMIDATORS #3
INVINCIBLE SCRIPT BOOK #1
IRON MAN THE INEVITABLE #3 (OF 6)
JLA CLASSIFIED #17
KABUKI #6
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #112
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #15
LUBAS COMICS & STORIES #7
LUCHA POP ONE SHOT
LUCIFER #71
MARVEL MILESTONES DRAGON LORDSPEEDBALL & MAN IN THE SKY
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT JOSS WHEDON MICHAEL LARK
MOUSE GUARD #1
NEW X-MEN #23
NICK FURY HOWLING COMMANDOS #5
NORTHWEST PASSAGE #2
ORIGINAL ADVENTURES OF CHOLLYAND FLYTRAP #1 (OF 2)
PARIS #3 (OF 4)
POLLY & THE PIRATES #4 (OF 6)
PORTENT #1
PVP #23
RISING STARS UNTOUCHABLE #1 (OF 5)
ROBOTIKA #2
SAVAGE DRAGON #123
SENTRY #6 (OF 8)
SOLO #9
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #159
SPAWN #153
SPELLGAME #3
SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE #3
STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC #2
STORM #1 (OF 6)
SUPERGIRL #5
SUPREME POWER HYPERION #4 (OF5)
TALES FROM RIVERDALE DIGEST #9
TALES OF TEENAGE MUTANT NINJATURTLES #20
TEEN TITANS GO #28
THE GIFT #14
THING #4
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #90
ULTIMATE WOLVERINE VS HULK #2(OF 6)
UNCLE SCROOGE #351
UNRULY A COMIX & LITERARY JOURNAL #1
USAGI YOJIMBO #91
VIGILANTE #6 (OF 6)
WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES #666
WARLORD #1
WOLVERINE #39
WONDER WOMAN #226
WRAITHBORN #5 (OF 6)
X-MEN #183
ZOMBIE TALES DEATH VALLEY #2


Books / Mags / Stuff
ACME CATALOG TP
ANIMATION MAGAZINE MAR 2006 #158
ASIAN CULT CINEMA #49
BATMAN KNIGHTFALL INNER CASE ASST
BATTLE CLUB VOL 1 GN (OF 2)
BECK MONGOLIAN CHOP SQUAD VOL3 GN (OF 19)
BLUESMAN VOL 1 GN NEW PTG
BOOK OF DEADY VOL 1 TP
COMICS BUYERS GUIDE MAY 2006 #1616
FOLLOWING CEREBUS #7
GOLGO 13 VOL 1 GN
GRAPHIC CLASSICS VOL 13 RAFAEL SABATINI
HE DONE HER WRONG HC
HOUSE OF M SPIDER-MAN TP
HOUSE OF M WORLD OF M TP
IRON WOK JAN GN #16
JAYSON VOL 1 BEST OF THE 80S TP
JAYSON VOL 2 BEST OF THE 90S TP
JLA THE GREATEST STORIES EVERTOLD TP
MAYBE MAYBE NOT AGAIN GN (NEWPTG)
MAYBE MAYBE NOT GN (NEW PTG)
NAOKI URASAWAS MONSTER VOL 1 TP
NEW WARRIORS REALITY CHECK TP
PREVIEWS VOL XVI #3
PUT THE BOOK BACK ON SHELF BELLE & SEBASTIAN ANTHOLOGY GN
SIMPSONS COMICS VOL 14 JAM PACKED JAMBOREE TP
SUPERMAN CHRONICLES VOL 1 TP
SUPERMAN THE JOURNEY TP
SWAMP THING BOOK 3 HEALING THE BREACH TP
THE ART OF USAGI YOJIMBO TP
TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #142
TRANSFORMERS GENERATION 1 VOL1 TP (IDW)
WARCRAFT VOL 2 GN (OF 3)
WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE INFINITE CRISIS CVR #174
ZIPPY TYPE Z PERSONALITY TP


What looks good to YOU this week?

-B Click Here to Read More...

I'm just crazy busy these days -- getting ready to go to NY for the con out there, too (Yeah: 2 cos in the shortest month of the year, good plan!) -- but I feel so lame that I'm not getting reviews up, so here are a few...

First off, scroll down a smidge and read Graeme's review of Eddie Campbell's FATE OF THE ARTIST. I very much agree with what he said there, and it is really a terrific, terrific book that you'll want for your shelves.



ACTION COMICS #836: Yeah, I don't know about this, really. A big part of it reads like "Oh, hey, we're counted wrong and need another month of SUperman comics during Crisis" -- but, even in the context of Crisis, I'm wholly unsure where this is set, or what it is meant to be. I guess it is somewhat interesting to see how the "Earth 2" Superman would have reacted to the post-MAN OF STEEL story beats of "our" Superman, but it doesn't really jibe well with Crisis. We have the multiple earths back, for the moment at least, but the multiple earths have always had multiple versions of characters -- Wally AND Jay, for the Flash-y example. If it doesn't, then "Earth 1".... well, there's not much there is there? No "big 3" yields a lot of other changes -- no Titans, for example, and so on and so forth. There's, what, maybe a dozen viable characters left? On the other hand, this *can't* be what happened to e2-Supes, because we already "know" several of these beats -- that's clearly not how Clark & Bruce met for the first time on e2. So is this some sort of an "amalgam"-style character, then? It hurts my wittle head, is all I know. Having said that, I basically enjoyed this issue (though the last-page(s) beats were pretty jarring and off) -- but it seems to me this is largely impenetrable unless you've been following Superman pretty closely over the last 20 (!) years. EH.

ANGRY YOUTH COMIX #10: I really liked Ivan Brunetti's HAW -- it was just sick and wrong and uncomfortable to read. I didn't have that same reaction to Brunetti's HEE -- don't know if it was the postage stamp size, or the relatively cleaner and more confident line working against the jarring content, or, maybe, it was just "Been there, done that". This issue of ANGRY YOUTH reads more like "HAW II" (Hm... "Oh, yes, there will be blood.... in your farts"?) than HEE ever did, and I really enjoyed it. Well, "enjoyed", you know what I mean. There's a good density of filth and wrongness here that can only be achieved by single panel gags, and that Ryan is usually unable to sustain when doing a regular narrative. I'll give it a GOOD, though I know I'm going STRAIGHT TO HELL for saying that.

BATGIRL #73: It's funny that both of the 2 BatBooks ending, end this week (Gotham Central was only sorta a BatBook) -- what's even funnier is that there are STILL so many BatBooks, that no one really noticed that they've ganked two of them... Batgirl was always one of those titles I never understood getting greenlit in the first place. She was a purely manufactured character, coming out of left field during a crossover, not organically, or thematically fitting with the rest of the Bat-stuff. There was never any real "fan clamoring" for the character to get her own book, and, by and large, no one ever seemed to be able to provide a real reason or motivation for the character that was, to this reader at least, especially compelling. Much more "High Concept Logline" than "This Is Interesting To Read" -- "she's the superhero who can't read"! stuff like that, you know? And, so, this ending is well overdue. Problem is, and has been with the character, that it plays the "She is SO awesome!" card -- "She's SO awesome.... she beats Lady Shiva!" Which I, personally, think largely devalues Shiva at the expense of the Company trying to sell you on a character. Oddly (see below), with a more ambiguous ending, this could have, possibly, added some threads to the DCU, but with her ending heroically, I feel that it has just taken from the bat-mythos, and didn't replace it with anything BETTER. So..... EH.

BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #74: The second "Why didn't you kill this five years ago?" BatBook ending this week, and, owie wowie, what a terrible ending it is! "Resolving" the Hush storyline as a kind of a "Lady or the Tiger" ending is sloppy, lame, and, generally as misguided as the previous editorial reign on the BatBooks have been. I mean, the whole issue underlines that, for right or wrong, Batman doesn't kill -- making the ending illogical, to put it mildly. Absolute CRAP.

BATMAN YEAR ONE HUNDRED #1: A good, solid thriller that rocketed along, with style and panache. Too bad it is Prestige format, because the economics of those books make them very hard to reprint. This'll make a good TP come September, or so... VERY GOOD.

DAREDEVIL #82: See, I can't buy that the fiction of the blind man in jail would hold up for more than 48 hours, maybe. Matt gives it away, what, 3 times this issue alone? So, really, the whole premise of the story pretty much betrays the execution in my mind. Having said that, this wasn't bad or anything... just preposterous, and preposterism gives me the EHs.

NEW AVENGERS #16: All of the Energy of All of the Ex-Mutants inanely comes down to earth and one man, who proceeds to have a lot of full page shots of shit 'sploding, and he apparently kills Alpha Flight. *shrug* To me, this is just leaping off the rails -- rails it was barely on to begin with. Yet it sells like a monster, go figure. I say: EH

PLANETARY BRIGADE #1: I like me some bwah-ha-ha, is all I can say. GOOD.

SUPERMARKET #1: Terrific little book, I found the setup and the world to be a hundred times more convincing than DMZ. Gorgeous art, too. VERY GOOD.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #27: I like a good, stupid, time-travel-changes-everything story as the next man, but given the perceived time-line of the Ultimate U (I'd say that no more than 2 years have passed, maximum?), the ending gag seemed like a pretty insane reach, really. So... OK, I guess.

X-MEN DEADLY GENESIS #4: That seems like such an odd continuity implant to make, but it sorta works OK -- the last two parts of this are really going to have to sell me the motivations, though. A lowish GOOD.


Yeah, that's short, I know -- but Ben should be back from the zoo in like 15 minutes, and I still haven't started my normal Monday morning work yet, ay yi yi!

PICK OF THE WEEK: I think I'll go with SUPERMARKET #1 -- sure hope my reorder goes through, though.

PICK OF THE WEAK: Easy choice: BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #74 was really really bad.

BOOK/TP OF THE WEEK: Sure, I could take the obvious path and say the finally-back-in-print KID ETERNITY, but, instead I will continue to recommend the simply-drawn, but very deep, KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE BUNDLE OF TROUBLE v15.

What did YOU think this week?



-B Click Here to Read More...

The drawback of being sick this week – besides, you know, that whole being sick part of the whole deal – is that by the time I got to the store this week to pick up things to read and review, the two books that I’d really been looking forward to (Brian Wood’s new one, SUPERMARKET, and Paul Pope’s BATMAN YEAR 100) were sold out already, or at least invisible to my eyes. I know, I know; if I’d preordered them then all would’ve been fine, but it’s not like I’ve ever been good at planning ahead at any point in my life up to now. I get anxious about thinking about the future, you see. I’m always convinced that, if I tell Bri that I really want Showcase Presents Superman Volume 2 in May, then I’ll somehow manage to die in April, and when I come back as the latest Spectre, I’d have to find some way to find $16.99 in ectoplasmic dollars anyway. Anyway, no Supermarket or Batman Year 100 for me this week. Sorry.

(The good thing about being sick this week? Watching Gilmore Girls on ABC Family and feeling no shame, because you’re supposed to watch shitty TV when you can’t think straight, right? Gilmore Girls has become my new guilty TV pleasure, now that Veronica Mars and The OC are both off-air right now.)

ACTION COMICS #836: Okay, I have no idea what’s supposed to be going on here (Yes, I know it’s part two of a three-parter; I didn’t read part one, I admit). It’s like the story of Superman’s past, with everything fluxing between John Byrne’s version of the character, Geoff Johns’ version of Earth-2 Superman and the Mark Waid Birthright version, with history being rewritten randomly, and some Superman (the Earth-2 self-righteous one, I think) narrating everything. I think it’s “What If Superman was a pompous dick?” but there’s nothing resembling an explanation of why this is happening or what it all means (Someone who enjoyed Joe Kelly’s previous Superman and JLA work much less than me might make a “Joe Kelly writes a confusing story? No!” joke here, but I am a finer man, above such cracks). For readers who aren’t familiar with Superman or DC comics over the past twenty years, a lot of this story will mean nothing at all to them; it’s complete fanboy continuity porn, everything that’s bad about Infinite Crisis without any of the good things (like a story in and of itself, outside of any retcons or fixes). Art for this book is split between seven million artists from editor Eddie Berganza’s tenure on the Superman books, including a cover from onetime Man of Steel writer Mark Schultz. Parts are nice – Doug Mahnke and Lee Bermejo are always nice to see – but it’s far too disjointed in terms of quality for a story that’s already pretty hard to understand… It feels like filler, like so many of the main DC titles in the last few months as they kill time before the whole One Year Later jump. It’s weird, the amount of positive buzz that DC are getting for their superhero books right now, considering how crappy those books have been recently. Awful, really.

ANGRY YOUTH COMIX #10: Hi, I’m very very old. I realized that when looking through Johnny Ryan’s latest, and thinking that it’s probably very funny and controversial and great if you have the mentality of a twelve year old, but for me, not so good. For those who haven’t seen this book, imagine really shitty unfunny New Yorker cartoons with lots of dick, fart and rape jokes. Don’t get me wrong; I have no problem with dick, fart and rape jokes – Well, maybe rape jokes – but unfunny jokes? Yeah, that’s not so okay in my book. Sadly, I’m not one of those people who thinks that pissing or farting are inherently funny things in and of themselves, so most of this book falls horrendously flat for me. That’s not to say that there aren’t any funny jokes in here (The Moby Dick one, I loved, which kind of goes any claims of highbrow or snob I may have going for me), but holy fucking Christ, please come up with some actual jokes before you try and do another “Special All Gag Issue,” Johnny. Because this one? Crap.

DAREDEVIL #82: Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark take over the Book Without Fear, and find themselves picking up on Bendis’s jail-happy conclusion: Matt Murdock is behind bars, Foggy Nelson has hooked up with obscure 80s detective Dakota North, and someone else has started dressing up as Daredevil to protect Hell’s Kitchen. Bru hits the ground running here, with what seems to me his strongest writing since Sleeper – Maybe he just works best for me in this kind of hopeless situation populated by morally conflicted characters – and Lark’s art is as good as ever, although the coloring by Frank D’Armata overwhelms it with some crazy over-rendering in places. I’m cautiously optimistic about this – this issue is Very Good, but I thought the same about the first few issues of Brubaker’s Captain America before that seemed to become bogged down in itself before it was a year old.

FIRESTORM #22: So, to recap: In Infinite Crisis #4, Firestorm died. In Infinite Crisis #5, he comes back to life. In between, there are two issues of Firestorm’s own title to fill, and this is the second one. If you’re expecting to see the reborn Firestorm by the end of this issue, though, you’re out of luck, as one of the characters admits in the last panel: “Firestorm’s back! Finally!” Stuart Moore writes this thankless task as best as he can, using the time to explain what the new version of Firestorm will be able to do when he finally comes back, but yet again, it’s obvious filler that can’t step on the toes of Infinite Crisis but also can’t do anything of interest until One Year Later. OK, at best.

(Out of interest, since I last did regular reviews, the final issues of both Gotham Central and JLA have shipped, and both of them fell into the same trap as Firestorm and Action – Nothing of value happened. Gotham Central, in particular, was a disappointment considering the quality of the previous couple of issues, with no resolution to the main plot nor to Montoya’s character arc, because the characters are needed in larger series later (Montoya will be in 52, Allen in The Spectre). JLA, meanwhile, continues the mess that was the last storyline without getting any better. You know it’s a bad sign when the most interesting thing that happened in the last six issues was the inclusion of a Flash plotline that went absolutely nowhere, presumably due to last-minute changes elsewhere.)

HELLBLAZER #217: Denise Mina continues her attempt to get John Constantine to Glasgow, and what seemed like a one-off McGuffin from last issue turns out to have greater significance than what I’d assumed. Some of the narration is overdone – The “I’m rain water running down a drain” monologue in particular felt like writing, as opposed to someone telling a story – but overall, there’s a lot that rings true in the dialogue, and the plot’s appropriately downbeat: Empathy is something that kills you. Leonardo Manco’s art reads like cut-rate Tim Bradsheet: Photo-realistic, but static and posed, and it isn’t helped by some odd coloring choices in certain scenes. It’s a Good book, but a frustrating one, because it feels like it should be better.

PLANETARY BRIGADE #1: Here’s another of my terrible secrets: While I liked Giffen and DeMatteis’s Justice League way back in the day, I don’t get why so many people are so excited about seeing them together again on other books. It’s lazy nostalgia for everyone involved, like watching the Rolling Stones at the Superbowl do “Start Me Up” for the seven millionth time, purely going through the motions (I’m probably the only person who was completely underwhelmed by their two returns to the Justice League characters, aren’t I? They both just felt so safe, smug and uninspired). Despite the opportunity provided by it being a new creator-owned book, Planetary Brigade, their new book for Ross Richie’s Boom! Studios, is more of the exactly the same: There’s the Superman analogue, the Batman analogue, the Wonder Woman analogue, the cynical aloof mystic (like J’Onn in JLA), the shallow, selfish but with hidden heart of gold woman (like Fire in JLA)… The bickering snarky dialogue is tired, the characters barely introduced, and the plot just kind of… there. For those who love Giffen and DeMatteis and what they do, this is probably great, but for me, Eh at best. I’d much rather see the two writers do what they’re more interested in, like DeMatteis’s Abadazad or any of Giffen’s many other Boom! Books. Nice to see Mark Badger and Eduardo Barretto doing some more work, though.

(I’ve now dissed Johnny Ryan and Giffen and DeMatteis – Somewhere, Kevin Church is plotting my downfall, I can tell.)

PICK OF THE WEEK, surprisingly, ends up being Daredevil. Who knew? PICK OF THE WEAK is Action Comics, because as much as I disliked Angry Youth, at least it was coherent and didn’t rely on me having read 20 years of earlier Johnny Ryan comics. I’m tempted to say that DC in general should get Pick of The Weak, because I’m getting mighty bored of the majority of DC’s superhero line being stuck in neutral and waiting for Infinite Crisis to finish. TRADE OF THE WEEK is the deeply overdue Kid Eternity trade, where Grant Morrison and Duncan Fegredo tell you that a glowing blue boy with the power to raise the dead doesn’t mean that you’re immune to late-80s “chaos magic” iconography trends.

I’m still pissed that Supermarket sold out so quickly, though. Click Here to Read More...

Sorry 'bout the tumbleweeds around here folks -- everyone's been busy (There's a WonderCon shaped whole in my life right about now....), but something of real content soon, I promise!

A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #28
ACTION COMICS #836
ALICE IN WONDERLAND #1
ANGRY YOUTH COMIX #10
ARCHIE & FRIENDS #98
ARMY OF DARKNESS #4
ATLAS #2 (Allocated on the west coast -- balance next week?)
BATGIRL #73
BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #74
BATMAN YEAR ONE HUNDRED #1 (OF 4)
BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #140
BIRDS OF PREY #91
CHICANOS #4
CONAN #25
DANGER GIRL BACK IN BLACK #4 (OF 4)
DAREDEVIL #82
DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #337
EMO BOY #5
FIRESTORM #22
GENERATION M #4 (OF 5)
GIANT SIZE MS MARVEL #1
GIRLS #10
GOON #16
HACK SLASH LAND OF LOST TOYS CASELLI CVR A #3 (OF 3)
HELLBLAZER #217
HERE COME THE LOVEJOYS AGAIN #3
HI HI PUFFY AMIYUMI #1 (OF 3)
I HEART MARVEL MARVEL AI
JACK THE LANTERN 1942 ONE SHOT
JSA CLASSIFIED #9
JUSTICE #4 (OF 12)
KEEP #4 (OF 5)
LADY DEATH ABANDON ALL HOPE #3 (OF 4)
LOSERS #32
LOVELESS #4
MAD MAGAZINE #463
MANHUNTER #19
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE ONE SHOT
METAL GEAR SOLID SONS OF LIBERTY #4
MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #286
NEW AVENGERS #16
NEW MANGAVERSE #2 (OF 5)
NOBLE CAUSES #17
PLANETARY BRIGADE #1
PUNISHER VS BULLSEYE #4 (OF 5)
RED SONJA #6
REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #2 (OF 6)
ROACH #1
ROY THOMAS ANTHEM #1
RUNAWAYS #13
SENTINEL SQUAD ONE #2 (OF 5)
SGT ROCK THE PROPHECY #2 (OF 6)
SHE-HULK 2 #5
SIMPSONS COMICS #115
SPIDER-WOMAN ORIGIN #3 (OF 5)
STRANGE GIRL #6
SUPER MANGA BLAST #59
SUPERMARKET #1 (OF 4)
TESTAMENT #3
TRANSFORMERS BEAST WARS (IDW) #1 (OF 4)
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #27
WITCHBLADE #95
X-MEN APOCALYPSE DRACULA #1 (OF 4)
X-MEN DEADLY GENESIS #4 (OF 6)
X-STATIX PRESENTS DEAD GIRL #2 (OF 5)

Books / Mags / Stuff
BATMAN WAR CRIMES TP
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL VOL 15 TRICKSTER TP
DARLING CHERI A BLAB STORYBOOK HC
DOOM PATROL ARCHIVES VOL 3 HC
ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT VOL 1 TP
GIANT ROBOT #40
HEAVY METAL SPRING 2006
HOUSE OF M MUTOPIA X TP
HOUSE OF M NEW X-MEN TP
IDENTITY CRISIS SER 1 INNER CASE ASST
KID ETERNITY TP
KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE VOL 15TP
MIRRORMASK DVD
ROSEN GRAPHIC NONFICTION AFRICAN MYTHS GN
ROSEN GRAPHIC NONFICTION CHINESE MYTHS GN
ROSEN GRAPHIC NONFICTION EGYPTIAN MYTHS GN
ROSEN GRAPHIC NONFICTION GREEK MYTHS GN
ROSEN GRAPHIC NONFICTION MESOAMERICAN MYTHS GN
ROSEN GRAPHIC NONFICTION ROMAN MYTHS GN
SPAWN MANGA VOL 2 TP
STRUWWELPETER & OTHER DISTRUBING TALES A BLAB STORYBOOK HC
ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 13 MAGNETIC NORTH TP Click Here to Read More...

So, a couple of things different about this edition of Le Critique Sauvage, neither of which involves the fact that I’m now referring to the name of this blog in its French incarnation. No, dear readers, the couple of things are about the book I’m writing about: Firstly, it’s not out yet, and secondly, I loved it to pieces. It’s the second of those that presents the most problems for me, as I’m sure you can imagine. How am I supposed to be snarky and make cheap jokes when I enjoyed the damn thing?

Anyway, THE FATE OF THE ARTIST: For those of you who took my and Jeff’s recommendations to read the last issue of The Comics Journal for the interview with Eddie Campbell, I should probably start off by telling you that his new book really is as good as it looked. There’s a book that I loved, years ago, by Michael Ondaatje (the guy who wrote The English Patient, which was the basis for the movie of the same name, but better), called The Collected Works of Billy The Kid. It was a biography of the eponymous cowboy, but not in the conventional sense – Instead, it was fictional pieces about the people and things that Henry McCarty had touched in his life, excerpts from newspapers, or people’s recollections, or poetry, all complete pieces in and of themselves that also added up into something entirely different when taken in context with each other. That’s what Campbell has done in this book, about himself. He’s following through on one of his promises/threats in the TCJ interview in a way, creating something that has the sensibility of a graphic novel without necessarily fitting into the narrow definition of what a graphic novel is supposed to be. Instead, we get a collection of prose, fumetti, fake newspaper strips (of which my favorite is easily “Angry Cook,” where Hayley Campbell fails to experience the many joys of the kitchen and swears a lot) and short comic strips that come together to tell the story of Campbell’s mysterious disappearance and suspected death. It’s a book that ties together things from his previous books. There’s the human element from The King Canute Club (and Graffitti Kitchen, which I always end up putting in with that book); not just the way that Campbell reduces emotions and events to a basicness that makes everything seem universal, but also the way that you can tell that he loves the way that people are, and act. There’s also the investigative element of something like How To Be An Artist, where the book has a framework that tries to hide the autobiographical core inside another genre, and After The Snooter gets represented as the story itself is about what happened after Campbell’s depression/midlife crisis from that book affected the one thing that he’d always had before: the ability to be creative. When I put it like that, mind you, it sounds like this terribly heavy and difficult book, and that’s entirely the opposite of what it is; despite the sleight of hands involved, this is still very much full of the humor that made his earlier work so wonderful, and even if you ignore everything beneath the surface, it’s still a very funny book. It’s just that it’s so much more complex than his earlier work, as well.

When I was reading it for the second time – it really invites multiple readings; as soon as I finished it the first time, I immediately turned back to the first page and started again – I realized that it felt like nothing to me as much as what happens when Eddie Campbell gets influenced by Chris Ware. I’m not quite sure where that came from, because it’s not as if this reads anything like anything that Ware has done. It’s more in the format of the thing, which involves recreations and pastiches of past eras and storytelling techniques (There’s also a running theme of Campbell’s continuous self-depreciation written in the third person, which now that I think about it, mirrors some of Ware’s writing. Hmm) that loop around a larger story that refuses to completely reveal itself on first sitting, just as Campbell himself refuses to do in the book itself, until the epilogue adaptation of an O. Henry essay.

None of this is very pull-quote-tastic, is it? You’ve probably all fallen asleep already, or skipped to Bri’s shipping list for the week or something. If you’re still here, I’ll try to summarize: If you’re an Eddie Campbell fan, you will love Fate of The Artist. If you’re not an Eddie Campbell fan, but want something more from your comics than Infinite Crises and Wars, Civil or Secret or whatever, then this is something that will not disappoint: A graphic novel that lives up to the “novel” part of the term, something that is vast and messy and beautiful and ambitious. Never mind Comic (or Trade) Of The Week, this is easily a contender for Comic Of The Year. Excellent and then some, and highly recommended when it comes out in April.

This Sunday, by the way? Reviews of books that will actually be on sale when I post 'em. Click Here to Read More...

The newest column, on BookScan in 2005, is up at Newsarama -- alway interested in your thoughts!

http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=1629090#post1629090

OK, time to get ready to go to WonderCon....

-B Click Here to Read More...

100 BULLETS #69
2000 AD #1470
2000 AD #1471
ACTION PHILOSOPHERS WORLD DOMINATION HANDBOOK
ADVENT RISING ROCK THE PLANET #3
ARCHIE DIGEST #223
ARES #2 (OF 5)
BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #200 (NOTE PRICE)
BATMAN STRIKES #18
BETTY & VERONICA #215
BLACK WIDOW 2 #5 (OF 6)
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #110
BOMB QUEEN #1 (OF 4)
BONE REST #8
CABLE DEADPOOL #25
CAPTAIN ATOM ARMAGEDDON #5 (OF 9)
CASEFILES SAM & TWITCH #22
DMZ #4
ED THE HAPPY CLOWN #5 (OF 9)
FABLES #46
FRANKLIN RICHARDS SON OF A GENIUS EVERYBODY LOVES FRANKLIN
GHOST RIDER #6 (OF 6)
GI JOE AMERICAS ELITE #8
GREEN ARROW #59
GUNCANDY #2 (OF 2)
HAWKMAN #49
I HEART MARVEL WEB OF ROMANCE
INCREDIBLE HULK #92
INVINCIBLE #28
JANES WORLD #23
JEREMIAH HARM #1
JLA #125
JONAH HEX #4
JSA #82
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #240
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #241
JUGHEAD #171
KEIF LLAMA XENOTECH #4 (OF 6)
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #111
MAD KIDS #2
MAJESTIC #14
MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #9
MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #27
MARVEL LEGACY THE 1960S HANDBOOK
MARVEL ZOMBIES #3 (OF 5)
MASTERS OF HORROR #2 (OF 12)
NEIL GAIMANS NEVERWHERE #6 (OF 9)
NEW THUNDERBOLTS #18
NIGHTWING #117
POISON ELVES LOST TALES #1
PUNISHER BLOODY VALENTINE
PURGATORI (DDP) #4
ROBIN #147
RUNES OF RAGNAN #3 (OF 4)
SCHIZO #4
SCOOBY DOO #105
SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #23
SON OF M #3 (OF 6)
SONIC X #5
SPIKE OLD WOUNDS ONE SHOT
STAR WARS EMPIRE #39
STAR WARS REPUBLIC #83
SUPERGIRL #4
SUPERMAN #226
TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE #2
TEEN TITANS #32
TRANSFORMERS INFILTRATION #2
ULTIMATE EXTINCTION #2 (OF 5)
ULTIMATE X-MEN #67
WILDCATS NEMESIS #6 (OF 9)
X-MEN #182
X-MEN THE 198 #2 (OF 5)
X-MEN UNLIMITED #13
YOUNG AVENGERS #10



Books / Mags / Stuff
ALTER EGO #56
BATTLE HYMN FAREWELL TO FIRSTGOLDEN AGE TP
DAWN VOL 2 THE RETURN OF THE GODDESS TP
ESSENTIAL PETER PARKER THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN VOL 2 TP
FORTEAN TIMES MAR 06 #206
FREAKSHOW VOL 2 GHOSTS TP
GIANT KILLER TP
GREAT SEAL VOL 1 GN
HOUSE OF M FANTASTIC FOUR IRON MAN TP
HOUSE OF M UNCANNY X-MEN TP
LEES TOY REVIEW FEB 2006 #160
LITTLE LULU VOL 8 LATE FOR SCHOOL TP
LOVE ROMA VOL 2 GN
MIDDLEMAN VOL 1 TP
MODERN MASTERS VOL 6 ART ADAMS SC
MODESTY BLAISE VOL 8 PUPPET MASTER TP
MYSTERIES OF RED MOON VOL 3 KINGDOM OF NEVER GN
POWERS VOL 9 PSYCHOTIC TP
SCARY BOOK VOL 1 SHADOWS TP
SHOWCASE PRESENTS HOUSE OF MYSTERY VOL 1 TP
TALES FROM A FORGOTTEN PLANETVOL 1 GN
TEEN TITANS OUTSIDERS DEATH AND RETURN OF DONNA TROY TP
TOYFARE SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW CVR #104
WITCHBLADE VOL 10 WITCH HUNT TP
WONDER WOMAN LAND OF THE DEADTP


ASSHAT OF THE WEEK is GUNCANDY #2 from Image -- meant to have shipped in August!


What looks good to you this week?

-B Click Here to Read More...

Normally at this time, I come here and bitch about what books have appeared this week while trying to be funny with varying results. This week, however, I've managed to fail to get to the store, and therefore have nothing to review.

Well, nothing apart from the programming schedule for next week’s Wondercon here in Sunny San Francisco, of course. "With over 90 hours of programming over 3 days, WonderCon’s programming schedule has something for everyone," claims the official website, which means that somehow they’re adding in an extra six hours per day for your pleasure. Time means nothing to these people, I’m telling you.

I have a love-hate relationship with conventions that can best be described as "I am scared to talk to people whose work I like, equally scared to talk to those whose work I dislike and have said as much in public where they could see it and may want to hit me as a result (Greg Rucka, for example. Will it help if I say now that I really enjoy his novels and liked his Wonder Woman before it was derailed by Infinite Crisis? Probably not), and all those people in homemade outfits make me nervous”. With some love being added in somewhere, of course. Nonetheless, I’ll be headed to Wondercon like everyone else, lured in by the promise of some of the following:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10th

Amongst some of the many things that I’ll miss because of that thing I call "my job" are panels with Ramona Fradon (whose great work graced the recent DC Showcase Presents Metamorpho collection), Mike Mignola, and Mike and Laura Allred. Gerard Jones gets a panel to himself to talk about his wonderful Men of Tomorrow book, and New Yorker illustrator and Neil Gaiman favorite Gahan Wilson also has an hour of Room 2018 to fill. Being the first day, the running themes of the Con get started: Obsessive Firefly/Serenity fans, and DC’s corporate panels. The Whedon Worship gets underway with the world premiere of "Done The Impossible: The Fans’ Tale of Firefly and Serenity," a documentary about how Joss Whedon’s fans did the same as Star Trek’s fans, only about ten years sooner, and Dan Didio gets to host "Modern Architecture: The Architects of The DC Universe," with guests Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid, talking about post-One Year Later DC. That panel will be nothing like Saturday’s "DCU 2006: The Best Is Yet To Come", which also features Rucka, Morrison and Waid talking about DC post-One Year Later and is hosted by Didio, nor will it resemble Sunday’s "DC Comics’ Crisis Counselling," which has the stellar line-up of Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison and Mark Waid, all talking about post-One Year Later DC with host Dan Didio.

Highlight of the day may possibly be the mysterious "Special TRON event" that ends the night. As the blurb explains, "It’s a special TRON event! The fan-favorite, groundbreaking movie from the 80s is becoming a comic book in April, published by SLG, with story and art by Landry Walker, Eric Jones, and Louie De Martinis. This new comic series continues where the TRON 2.0 video game left off, chronicling the adventures of Jet Bradley, a talented young programmer who is trapped in a computer mainframe. Known for its incredible use of computer graphics before they were widely used in film, TRON makes the jump from movie to comics! Join us for this exciting event!" Anyone who can explain exactly what the nature of this special event is, feel free to tell me. I’m hoping that Jeff Bridges zaps all the attendees into a computer where they can fight that massive tank thing, myself.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11th

If it’s Saturday, it has to be Hollywood day! Sure enough, this is the day that holds your best chance to see clips of movies before your friends see them online that evening. Bryan Singer has a Superman Returns panel with exclusive clips, JJ Abrams has a Mission Impossible 3 panel where lots of people will ask questions about Lost, just to piss him off, and Pixar celebrate being bought out by Disney by showing clips of Cars, their upcoming movie about those horse-drawn carriages that everyone’s talking about these days. Other media types around will include Kevin Smith, Wes Craven, Lucasfilm’s Steve Sansweet, and a collection of animation writers like Paul Dini, Mark Evanier and Adam Beechen.

If it’s comics folk you’re after, then be prepared for panels starring Grant Morrison, Frank Cho, Eric Powell, Peter David, Mark Waid, Terry Moore and Greg Rucka where you can ask them whether Civil War really is Marvel’s rip-off of Infinite Crisis or whether than honor falls to Annihilation. Alternatively, you can go and see the premiere of Ultimate Avengers and have that burning question – "Why not take Marvel’s over-the-top reimagining of the Avengers and tone it down for a wider audience who have suddenly decided that they want to watch a cartoon version of the Avengers?" – answered once and for all. There’s some grooviness happening out in the fringes of entertainment, though: A panel about "The Girls of Peanuts," as hosted by the Charles M. Schulz Museum, for one (I admit it; I have a crush on Peppermint Patty). Sergio Aragones doing a panel where he answers questions with drawings, for another, as well as Scott Saavedra’s Comic Book Heaven Live (Scott Shaw!’s also doing a live version of his Oddball Comics column which should be fun for those of us who like cheap laughs at other people’s hard work). Fans of Firefly and Serenity can entertain themselves with the "Sacramento and San Francisco Browncoats Meetup," although Browncoats from anywhere other than those two cities – even somewhere closeby, like Oakland – will be shot if they try and sneak in.

This is the traditional "If you can only make it to one day, make it this day" day – All the big solo panels, with a couple of exceptions, are on Saturday, and the amount of movie-related events (There are quite a few horror things that I’ve not mentioned because I couldn’t be bothered), mean that this is easily going to be the busiest day of the three. So if you have a fear of being in an enclosed space with lots of Imperial Stormtroopers, this may not be the day for you. Just a warning.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12th

Last minute addition to the guest list Frank Miller gets his turn to shine on the last day of the con, having his panel run with no other big name guests appearing elsewhere as competition (But there is a new episode of Spongebob Squarepants premiering); the programming promises that there’ll be some Comic Book Legal Defense Fund-related surprises at this one, so place your bets about what that means. Other than that, the con does its normal Sunday winding down, which means that the panels stay interesting but will probably be calm affairs – There are panels about the future of comic retailing, how comic books can be brought into classrooms and libraries, and a bunch of robot-related nerds arguing whether Robby The Robot could kick MechaGodzilla’s ass (Hint: No). Those poor under-served Firefly fans get their own charity prize drawing as well as a charity auction, Chris Bachalo explains why he really hasn’t lost his talent after Shade The Changing Man, and there’s an entire panel about whether Star Trek is dead after the cancellation of Enterpise, or whether it lives on in our hearts and alternate universes where we all have goatee beards.

The real reason to go on Sunday, mind you, is to try and grab some cheap comics from all the dealers just before they close up for the weekend. That complete run of Kickers, Inc. is yours for the taking, dear friends… All of that said, looking into my crystal ball, I can see myself spending all of Sunday apologizing to Kate for wanting to spend the weekend before Valentine’s Day at a comic convention, but that might just be me.

So there you have it: Wondercon 2006. Looking ahead, my pick of the weekend is more than likely going to be the Grant Morrison panel, just to hear whatever he’s thinking about these days. My pick of the weakend has to be the Tron event, because, well, it’s a Tron event. For the nerdier of the San Franciscans like me, all of Wondercon may be eclipsed by Sarah Vowell doing an appearance at A Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Books this Wednesday, however...

Jeff does reviews below. Go read them, because they're more interesting than all of this. Click Here to Read More...

What happens when you take a surly, apathetic, quasi-aphasic grump and make him review comics? Let's find out, shall we?

CAPTAIN AMERICA #14: I like Ed Brubaker. I like his writing, and I like him. (He used to shop CE when he lived in the city and he was a mensch.) And considering we're both fans of the Englehart run, I should really like his work on Captain America, and I do...more or less. And, also, I have to give him double bonus-points for managing to actually bring back Bucky (barring some future revelation that he's faked us out) and successfully make his case for it in front of all of Internet fandom. Having said all that, I have to admit I put this issue down feeling kind of underwhelmed. It's probably just my whole resistance to the Bucky thing from the beiginning, or a screw-up in the precious balance of antidepressants I must take hourly, or something, but fourteen issues just to get us to this ending left me cold--so now Bucky is wandering around the Marvel Universe and we'll get to see him and Wolverine making out (err, I mean, fighting)? Now that Bucky is "in play" again, chances seem incredibly slight he won't end up devalued currency in a very short time (heading up some revival of The Champions by Joss Whedon in 2007 or taking X-23's virginity in Thunderbolts in 2008 or something). The writing's good, the art is really strong, so I feel I can't give it anything less than Good, but I found it a demoralizing Good, to be honest. You more than likely will feel differently.

DETECTIVE COMICS #816: Nothing really new here, but I thought it was comparatively understated for what we normally get from a Batman book, particularly one with Zsasz on the loose and Alfred as bait, and a police department in Batman's way. Particularly nice was that Batman's action were clear and yet they weren't over-explained: I dreaded the caption where Batman would explain he's goading on Zsasz just to draw him out, and it never came. Won't change the world, but I found it Good.

DOC SAMSON #2: It's times like this I wish Sal Buscema was still getting work in the industry. Because what we've got here isn't really that different than a weird-ass Defenders story Steve Gerber might've written in 1975. Unfortunately for writer Paul Di Fillippo, the artist here stumbles on a few choice storytelling points making the whole thing seem less like intentional kookiness and more like misguided amateurishness. Or maybe it is misguided amateurishness, plain and simple. Either way, though, it was stinky pile of Crap and that's a shame.

EXTERMINATORS #2: If any of the characters were at all likeable, would I mind such obvious ripping off from the film version of Naked Lunch? Yeah, but probably not as much (because, come on, both the movie and the novel have some pretty amazing stuff in it). Or, come to think of it, I might tolerate such a jaundiced view of human nature if it had an originaility of vision working for it. Should get an Eh, but since I had hopes for the book and I"m stuck buying the issues I signed up for, I'll go down to Awful.

FANTASTIC FOUR #534: JMS seems committed to showing us stuff we've never seen in a FF book. Take this issue, for example: he gives us a battle between Thing and Hulk that is insanely dull. Makes that recent horrible Hulk/Thing mini by Bruce Jones and Jae Lee seem like Wagner by comparison. The epitome of Eh.

FANTASTIC FOUR IRON MAN BIG IN JAPAN #4: As Heidi mentioned, Seth Fisher was one of the very few artists able to stay true to his idiosyncratic vision and still get work drawing superheroes, and it's likely the medium will be the worse for his death. If you're of the half-full approach, you can see this issue (and this mini) as a celebration of his life by the sheer dint of the playful vitality apparent in his art. If you're of the half-empty approach, you can ruminate on the unlikely chance of Marvel collecting it and keeping it in print for any extended period of time. I would've given this issue a Very Good anyway, because Fisher's art is amazing and Zeb Wells crafted a very smart, enjoyable plot. But in the wake of Seth Fisher's death, it kind of transcends all that. So if you see these issues, get 'em. You may not see their like again.

FURY PEACEMAKER #1: By keeping a straight face, Ennis and Robertson pull off a much nastier and much funnier work than their first Nick Fury mini. Here, it's a relatively brutal take on Robert Kanigher cliches--every flashback to a presentation of equipment that could save the new troop's ass is a preface to the troop's torment by said equipment--that creates an unsettling atmosphere of black humor. It's a neat trick, and I hope these guys have similarly effective stuff up their sleeve for future issues. Good, and better than I expected.

FUTURAMA COMICS #23: Similarly, Boothby's tale neatly spoofs the obsessions of Weisinger's Silver Age stories while also recapturing them: I actually found myself worried about Fry and the others as they floated helplessly in "The Fandom Zone." Hibbs thought it was pretty one-note all the way through but the grumpy old fucker never posts here anymore anyway, so what does he know? Quite Good and I think Boothby's work here has inspired me to go hunt down the DVDs of all the seasons of the show I missed.

GOTHAM CENTRAL #40: I guess being a magical construct, Internal Affairs no longer exists in the DCU as a result of Day of Vengeance. Fair enough. It also would've been nice if there'd been another neat little twist once the Corrigan/red herring was shown up. But, whatevs: I'm just glad the book lasted as long as it did. OK.

GREEN LANTERN #8: The key to defeating the Black Mercy was clever, but what was with Mongul punching his sister's head off? I'm not sure why Johns keeps going for the "nacho cheese extreme" version of GL when a well-crafted regular "nacho cheese" version would work just fine. (Maybe it's to distinguish it from all the other GL titles we're going to have in a few months?) OK.

HARD TIME SEASON TWO #3: Another strong issue, all the more so because the ostensible bad guy acts so decent up until the very end. The touchy-feely liberal in me is a little antsy about where it might be going (the body-modification guy is a bad guy? The transgendered person is easily flattered and seduced? It's all very Bruckheimeresque) but Good, overall.

I HEART MARVEL: MY MUTANT HEART: There are the two Daniel Ways--the one who's crafted surprisingly strong Nighthawk and Bullseye minis and the one who seems genuinely bewildered by the basics of concise storytelling. Sadly, the latter Way is getting more work, as evidenced by the embarrassingly incomplete "Wolverine" story here. It's especially embarrassing next to Peter Milligan's story that, alhtough suffering from some of the same faults (less of a stand-alone than a riff on his other work, can see the ending coming from a mile away) but actually gets a beginning, middle and end in there (and is clever to boot). Finally, every character in the X-Men universe has slept with every other character by now, and Sam Guthrie is *still* dating the intergalactic rockstar/thief? Is it only Chris Claremont's worst ideas that hang around forever? Awful, but for the Milligan story.

LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #14: Those illustrated letters pages? Awesome. The rest of it? Good. I hope I'm not supposed to take the metacommentary at all seriously, however. (Although there was something kinda cool about a fanboy rampage being the story's turning point--I hope Graeme caught that.)

MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX: BUT HE SAID HE LOVED ME #1: I agree with Hibbs: opening with that hilarious "President Stripper" story kinda kills the rest of the book, because none of the other stories even come close. That said, they're pretty fun, the art in some cases is mighty keen, and they have their charms. But "President Stripper" blows the rest of them away. Certainly worth reading (although worth buying? Tough call). A lowish Good but "President Stripper"? Awesome.

MARVEL TEAM-UP #17: I couldn't tell if Kirkman's point is that these characters are such losers that, when given a month to prepare, they spend all their time sightseeing and starting up romances, or to give us a certain "Days of Future Past" ruefulness when the bloodshed starts next ish and the time-crossed lovers have to make a sacrifice to defeat the bad guy that means their love never existed. Either way, overly padded by half. Eh.

OUTSIDERS #33: Ironic that Outsiders feels more focused than it has in about six months and everything comes to a screeching halt for the "One Year Later" afterboot. OK, but who knows where it'll go from here.

POWERS #16: Weirdly, I saw this coming--I mean, none of the details, I admit, but the idea that Walker will get powers? Yeah, saw that one from a mile away (so much so, I hope I'm being played). But it was well-executed, and a Good read.

SABLE & FORTUNE #2: Wow, that's some biiiiiig hair. Sable really seems like she should be waiting tables in Vegas with that hair. (And did John Burns' end up doing any well-distributed collections of Modesty Blaise or something? Because as soon as I saw the work, I thought of ol' M.B., and I've never, that I can recall, read any Modesty Blaise stories in my life.) Seriously great art, an utterly predictable story, so I guess I'm going with OK. But if you've ever considered yourself a Neal Adams or Gray Morrow fan, ever, you should really check this out.

SENTRY #5: The ratio of boring/draggy/obvious stuff to cool shit is about 5:1, just enough to ensure I read every issue of this and hate myself for doing so. Yeah, that's just great. Eh.

SEVEN SOLDIERS BULLETEER #3: All the blogspot sites have been down for most of the afternoon, but I bet Jog has more interesting stuff to say about this than whatever I could come up with. So I'll just say the superhero convention commentary is trenchant and depressing and brilliant enough to make up for a relatively scattershot story. (It'd be cool if it's Morrison, not the Bulleteer, that's going here through the archetypal heroic trial pattern Jog sees repeating in all the SS minis). Good.

SUPREME POWER NIGHTHAWK #6: Obvious and flat and probably needlessly bloody, but you know what? I still thought it was pretty Good. Just about everything you'd want in a Batman analogue story (which, admittedly, is its weakness).

THUNDERBOLT JAXON #1: After being deeply indifferent to the Terra Obscura minis, I didn't think I'd care about this either, but the elegance of its first two-thirds drew me in. Something about the insistence on threes, and the understated way the kids talked to each other, and each of their burdens. It caught more of the old, strange magic lurking behind those Captain Marvel origin story than anything I've seen DC do with the Big Red Cheese, that's for sure. So I'm in for another issue, curious to see where it goes. Good.

PICK OF THE WEEK: It would've been FANTASTIC FOUR IRON MAN BIG IN JAPAN #4 even without the tragic events of this week, but now it's kinda impossible not to recommend.

PICK OF THE WEAK: DOC SAMPSON #2 becuase it gives trademark retention a bad name.

TRADE PICK: I have to say, if the MARVEL ROMANCE TPB had been $14.99 instead of $19.99? I would've grabbed it. Some of that Romita, Buscema and Colan work is heartbreakingly good. (There's a short-haired girl in one of those stories that just looks...yow.) And if all of the stories from SUPERMAN MAN OF TOMORROW ARCHIVES VOL 2 hadn't been reprinted in that wonderful SHOWCASE edition, I probably would've gotten that, too. So I'll go with GOON VOL 4 MY VIRTUE & GRIM CONSEQUENCES TPB because it's great stuff.

NEXT WEEK: Jesus fucking Christ, could they have made Wondercon any more irresistible? The only thing missing is an Allyson Hannigan kissing booth! And then after that, I'll be out of the country for a few weeks. So, uh, please understand if I go AWOL for a bit. (I may post anyway, but I wouldn't bet on it.)

Labels: Jeff

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It's been one of those months, really -- I just realized today that we still had the Christmas window display up, uh, in February. So I asked Sue if she had any ideas for a new window, and she told me she's pretty much run out of ideas after her 4 (?) year run in setting them up.

Now, me, I've been doing this coming up on 17 years now, and all of MY ideas are long since dull or uninteresting, and while, sure, I can go back to making color photocopy blow ups of covers and banging them up in the bay, honestly it's better if we have SOME creativity involved.

Comix Experience has a huge bay window -- it is (roughly) 5 feet wide, 7 feet tall, and 4 feet deep, and it is seen by thousands and thousands of people driving past Divisadero St. every day.

And I need someone to fill it.

We've had some killer and kick ass windows over the years -- a small sampling of them can be seen at http://comixexperience.com/windowdisplays.htm -- and I'd like us to return to that standard of excellence set by Chris Hsiang, David Marshall and Susan Riddle over the years.

BUT, we don't pay all that well, really (I am cheap), and I'm no longer a really wonderful generator of concepts (I am burned out), nor do I communicate all that well (I'm an asshole, really), while I'm, shall we say, "fussy" (like I said: asshole), so it might be a gig for a self-starter less than an artiste, ya dig?

So, if you're in the Bay Area, and you're an artist who can work big, and you're looking more for exposure than Big Cash Money, drop by a couple samples of your work to the store @ 305 Divisadero St., SF, 94117.

If you're a Bay Area comic book CREATOR, I MIGHT be willing to entertain one-off windows shilling just your book, too -- though I'm really looking for someone to do a regular gig. But, I am open to proposals...

-B Click Here to Read More...

Yes, this is cool Click Here to Read More...