Oh, sure, horrifically late, but I didn't think I'd be back so soon, to tell you the truth. However, I finished my writing contract (and am now sort of hanging out hoping they'll throw more my way) and have my Wednesday morning free and clear (I might have tried to write this sooner, in fact, if the IT guys at work hadn't done something at work so my web browser bombs out whenever I open two windows...) so let's see what happens when guy with no short-term memory opens up week-old whup-ass on books he barely remembers. Maybe it'll be entertaining in that "senile old fool chastises couch cushion he thinks is his cat" kind of way...

52 WEEK #20: When Lobo he put on his little hat at the end of the book, I involuntarily thought, "Hey! I want back the five bucks I spent on Devil's Rejects!" Either Lobo needs a makeover, or my brain needs a bleaching. And anyone else notice the ad count in this issue? It wasn't as bad as some of those Marvel books a while back, but I did put this book down struck by the cosmic sci-fi sweep of Rush City. On the other hand, Kevin Nowlan, $2.50, etc., etc. Highly OK.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #17: Huh. Having this come out within a month of the previous issue made it seem almost twice as good. Which is my way of saying I liked it, but, apart from that hilarious and amazing background/foreground transition, would be loathe to say exactly why any more or any less than the previous issues. And yet, Very Good.

BIRDS OF PREY #98: Kinda why I wish Simone'd stayed away from the whole Batgirl thing--it's fucked if it's Barbara and it's fucked if it's somebody else we don't know--but I do wonder if these past few storylines is setting us up to a change in the focus of the Birds of Prey team. Instead of cracking down on crime, they're going to be helping/saving/fighting young female metas that have fallen through the blabbity-blab of society's yakkity-yak. Or maybe they expressly said that four issues ago and I kinda missed it. Anyway, OK, but really only because the new Batgirl was at least amusing with her "dark justice rulez!" dialogue.

BLADE #1: Double-damning with faint praise: the best Blade book I've ever read and the best Howard Chaykin art in the last year or so. It's still underwhelming, mind you (I feel for the writer who comes up with the the big splashy moment, like the one here where Blade is facing off against nine million vampiric SHIELD agents firing guns and sliding down ropes, You Only Live Twice style, and how that writer must feel after an artist does a somehwat perfunctory job of execution (it looks like Chaykin just adapted some pages from that graphic novel adaptation of Bob Fosse's Chicago he's been working on all these years)) but, for a first issue, I've seen much worse. OK, and we'll see where it goes.

CATWOMAN #59: Has this book officially changed its name to Film Freak yet? Yeah, I can see how he could be a classic villain in the Batman Rogue's Gallery style but, dude, isn't this like the tenth consecutive issue he's appeared in? Also, I know this probably makes me come off like an uptight prude, but I don't think Selina is really the type of person who would knowingly sleep with the son of someone she's slept with (and I think knows is in love with her) just because she and the son feel they have "a connection." But, hey, maybe this is just to pave the way for the revelation that the father of her baby is Tim Drake and I'm being too judgmental. Eh.

CIVIL WAR #4: You'd think that, for my review, you could just cut to a cage full of chimps going apeshit and you'd have an accurate take of my reaction, right? Weirdly, no. I had a genuine reaction to Peter's unmasking in Civil War #2 because I felt that (a) it was a huge mistake, and (b) it at least had been well-established by the JMS lead-in stories over in ASM. For better or for worse, they had led the character to a point where the choice there seemed natural. But, despite being a huge old school Marvel fanboy, I had no real reaction to Civil War #4 (apart from "Wow, that's dumb") because everyone was just so out of character, I didn't believe any of it. Also, honestly, although Mark Millar has read enough Marvel comics to find the wiggle room in any characterization he wants to make--"Of course, Professor X was molesting Jean Grey! Don't you remember that one panel where he's thinking...."--I genuinely believe the clarion call of Millar's muse is the sound of the money truck backing up to his house. There's no real point in debating character or motivation or plausability--you either buy it or you don't. I didn't (in the suspension of disbelief sense), and I won't (in the fiscal sense) from now on.

(Sorry I didn't get to work in the "This is my face as I'm fucking the Marvel Universe in the ass" joke, but I'm sure someone else has gotten around to it by now.)

Lovely art, though. I guess I'll go Eh.

CLAW THE UNCONQUERED #4: I am docked a full letter grade in Barbarian Appreciation because I read this and not the other two Conan books this week. I'm sure they're fine, the other two books, but I have to admit, I kinda dig Claw, and I'm liking this miniseries. This issue was a little heavy on the expository blabbity-blab after the initial werewolf fight, but considering I'm the only person buying it, who cares? OK.

EXILES #86: The threat was utterly limp, but the all-Wolverine conceit was fun. I'm sure it's better than what Claremont's first story--Exiles on the Planet of Infinite Ororo Dominatrices or somesuch--would have been, for sure. Highly OK, just because I think the art, although competent, lacks a certain pizzazz.

FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #4: Back to teh suck. Whoever last issue's fill-in artist was, get that dude more work, and pronto! Awful.

GHOST RIDER #3: Ghost Rider and Dr. Strange have a sissy slapfight in a cemetery. Soothingly sibilant high concept notwithstanding, it's dumb and dull and the "Johnny Blaze is a Tool of the Devil, and we do mean Tool!" approach drives me nuts. Not worth your time. Awful.

HELLBLAZER #224: I missed Ms. Mina's first arc, so have no idea how in media res this issue is, but wow, it'll media res the shit right outta you if this is your first issue. A decent conceit, a fun take on Constantine, and a refreshingly balls-to-the-wall approach made it a Good read, but I'm not altogether sure the team can pull off the story effectively. We'll see, I guess.

IRON MAN #12: For extra credit, read this and Civil War #4 back to back and figure out how you're supposed to believe these books are even by the same publisher, much less featuring the same character. Really weird.

MOON KNIGHT #5: Home Alone, as re-enacted by the Moon Knight Community Players. I was okay with it until, I shit you not, Taskmaster got his ass shot by a butler with a blunderbuss. A staggeringly fucking stupid issue with a lot of really terrible choices made by the writer and a real misunderstanding (to put it mildly) of the Taskmaster. Awful, awful, awful.

NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #8: Probably my favorite issue since the dragon in the purple underwear left. Having a Dormammu analog get his head jammed in a toilet was positively inspired, I gotta say, and those Mindless Ones? Gold. And there was some actual characterization and shit, so I'm going with Very Good.

REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #6: Came out last week, but I wanted to mention it because I'm a big Ape-head. I thought the story kinda ran around in circles for six issues, had far too many people hollering things at each other, and tended to mistake portent for genuine drama far too much of the time. And yet, I also thought it was a lot better than most of the Apes comics projects I've seen over the last decade or so, and that last backup story in particular was exceptionally satisfying. If they release a trade of this and it's affordably priced, you could do worse than to pick it up. Highly OK.

SUPERMAN #656: I hope Superman fights the Anti-Christ ten issues from now. That'd be great. Good.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #34: It's odd. I should totally love this, since Carey not only is having the Ultimate version of the FF meet and fight a pastiche of the Forever People, but also in that Carey's alteration to his pastiche (instead of loveable hippies, his Forever People are paranoid veterans of an unending war) seems to be addressing the differences between two similar periods of American history (The Forever People were created while America was still at war in Vietnam, after all). And yet, I'm only more-or-less OK with it and I'm not sure why. It could be that Ferry's art, which I loved on Adam Strange, is so light and colorful and Euro, it just can't evoke the Kirbyness required for me to really appreciate the conceit. Of course, one of my big problems with UFF is that it swapped out Kirby for Kubert right at the beginning, thus making this book absurdly visually lackluster.... I don't know. Obviously, I could blather on for hours and get no closer to my discontent. Let's call it distressingly Eh.

WALKING DEAD #31: I was strangely underwhelmed by this issue as Kirkman makes some hard-to-believe plot choices and some odd pacing decisions (that conversation between Rick and the nurse didn't feel believable at all--even if Rick's trying to get someon on his side, I can't believe he'd take the very slow "so what's with you and the doctor? Are you guys dating?" since he knows about the threat facing his community). Guess it was Eh? Weird.

WETWORKS #1: What the fuck? I haven't read any previous iteration of Wetworks, so lemme get if I follow this--it's a covert operations team that underwent some dramatic transformation around the time it got involved in a battle between vampires and werewolves? That concept is so retarded it's almost awesome, but Mike Carey goes for a thoughtful, underplayed approach that (I think) takes that original "idea" and tries to change it up--and that would work if somebody somewhere had bothered to recap the original premise so new readers like myself weren't completely baffled. Kinda Awful, but amusingly so.

PICK OF (LAST) WEEK: ASTONISHING X-MEN #17, but there was a lot I didn't read.

PICK OF THE WEAK: MOON KNIGHT #5, with just a few bad choices, all but destroyed the tone the entire mini had been working toward. That seems like more of a disappointment than what Mark "Do you like my hat? It's made of money!" Millar is doing, just because Mr. Millar knows what he's doing.

TRADE PICK: I don't know, to be honest. GODLAND VOL. 2 TPB, probably? Where's another god-damned volume of god-damned SGT. FROG when you god-damned need him?

NEXT WEEK (by which I mean this week): Blue Beetle, Daredevil and She-Hulk will probably make me 80% less cranky this week than I was last week. Plus, I had no idea about this Dracula vs. Capone miniseries--I'll be reading it just to see if the King of the Vampires is defeated by Capone's untreated syphilis! Nuff said, true believer!

And youse?

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Another big-ass week!

Graeme's on vacation, but he posted a review in draft form before he left, for me to post. Gonna do that in one second, but I'm not sure if it will post BEFORE or AFTER this entry. So if he's not above me, look below!

52 WEEK #21
A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #43 (A)
ACTION COMICS #843
ALBION #6 (OF 6)
ALL NEW OFF HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE A TO Z #9
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #535 CW
AMERICAN VIRGIN #7
AMERICAN WAY #8 (OF 8)
ANAL INTRUDERS FROM URANUS #3(A)
ARSINOE #5 (A)
BART SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #12
BATMAN #657
BATMAN AND THE MAD MONK #2 (OF 6)
BATMAN JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT #12 (OF 12)
BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #169
BIG BANG PRESENTS #2 SUPER FRANKENSTEIN
BITE CLUB VAMPIRE CRIME UNIT #5 (OF 5)
BLACK PANTHER #20
BLOWJOB #19 (A)
BLUE BEETLE #7
CABLE DEADPOOL #32 CW
CAPTAIN AMERICA #22 CW
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #25
CIVIL WAR FRONT LINE #6 (OF 11)
CIVIL WAR YOUNG AVENGERS & RUNAWAYS #3 (OF 4)
CLIVE BARKERS GREAT & SECRET SHOW #6 (OF 12)
CSI DYING IN THE GUTTERS #2
DAREDEVIL #89
DRACULA VS CAPONE #1 (OF 3)
ETERNALS #4 (OF 6)
FREE SEXXX #1 (A)
HARD TO SWALLOW (A)
HAWKGIRL #56
HEROES FOR HIRE #2 CW
INVINCIBLE #35
JACK OF FABLES #3
JSA CLASSIFIED #17
JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #125
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #2
LIONS TIGERS & BEARS VOL 2 #3(OF 4)
LOVELESS #11
NINJA SCROLL #1
PUNISHER #38
RAMAYAN 3392 AD #1
RED SONJA MONSTER ISLAND ONE SHOT
RUNAWAY COMICS #2
SADHU #3
SECOND WAVE WAR O/T WORLDS #6
SECRET SIX #4 (OF 6)
SHE-HULK 2 #12
SNAKES ON A PLANE #2 (OF 2)
SNAKEWOMAN #3
SOCK MONKEY THE INCHES INCIDENT #1 (OF 4)
SPAWN #160
SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE #10
SPIKE ASYLUM #1 (OF 5)
STAN LEE MEETS SPIDER-MAN
SUPER REAL #3
SUPERGIRL #10
SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #22
TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #40
TEEN TITANS #39
TEEN TITANS GO #35
TRANSFORMERS EVOLUTIONS HEARTS OF STEEL #4 (OF 4)
TRIALS OF SHAZAM #2 (OF 12)
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #100
ULTIMATES 2 #12
UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS #3 (OF 8)
UNCLE SCROOGE #358
USAGI YOJIMBO #97
WALT DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES #673
WARLORD #8
WONDERLAND #2
X-MEN #191
ZOMBIE #1 (OF 4)
ZOMBIES #4

Book / Mag / Stuff
CHICANOS VOL 1 TP
CHICKENHARE HOUSE OF KLAUS TP
COMICS JOURNAL #278
DAREDEVIL VOL 6 HC
DAUGHTERS OF THE DRAGON SAMURAI BULLETS TP
DEADWORLD DEAD KILLER TP
ENEMY ACE ARCHIVES VOL 2 HC
ESSENTIAL TALES OF ZOMBIE TP
ESSENTIAL THOR VOL 3 TP
FEAST OF CROW MMPB
GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES BOB MARLEY MUSICAL LEGEND GN
GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES MARTIN LUTHER KING JR GN
GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES MUHAMMED ALI BOXING HERO GN
GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES NELSON MANDELA AFRICAN STATESMAN GN
GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES OPRAH WINFREY MEDIA SUPERSTAR GN
GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHIES ROSA PARKS CIVIL RIGHTS HEROINE GN
HAUNT OF HORROR EDGAR ALLAN POE HC
JSA VOL 11 MIXED SIGNALS TP
JUSTICE VOL 1 HC
JUXTAPOZ OCT 2006 VOL 14 #10
KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE VOL 1 TP
LINE MANGA VOL 1 TP
LOSERS ENDGAME TP
MARVEL SELECT CLOAK & DAGGER AF
MASTERS OF HORROR TP
OTHERWORLD VOL 1 BOOK ONE TP
PIN-UP ART OF JAY SCOTT PIKE VOL 1 TP
PREVIEWS VOL XVI #10 (NET)
RAGNARS KINGS OF THE ROAD GN
SHAZAM FAMILY ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC
SHENZHEN A TRAVELOGUE FROM CHINA HC
SIMPSONS VOL 4 TREEHOUSE OF HORROR HOODOO VOODOO TP
STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL 1 PKT TP SPANISH
SUPERMAN UP UP AND AWAY TP
THOR ETERNALS SAGA VOL 1 TP
ULTIMATE IRON MAN VOL 1 TP
UNHOLY KINSHIP GN
WALKING DEAD VOL 5 BEST DEFENSE TP
WAR FIX SC
WIZARD BEST OF BASIC TRAININGADVANCED TECHNIQUES
WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE HORRORMANIA CVR #181


What looks good to you?


-B Click Here to Read More...

I've got to be quick this week, for reasons that I'll explain at the end of the column, so just one long bitchy review this week. And you know what I'm going to talk about, don't you?

CIVIL WAR #4: I don’t know if it makes me an old fogey or not, but the other day when I was talking about this issue with Brian, I actually asked the question “Where are the editors?” It was rhetorical, of course; I know that the editors are doing interviews with Newsarama where they dodge the obvious questions, but it still kind of fits my mindset with this book – With each and every issue, it gets further and further into the realms of bad fanfiction, written around ideas that sound cool but don’t really stand up to scrutiny. For example: Clone Thor. When, exactly, did Iron Man clone Thor? We’re told that he collected Thor’s hair from the first Avengers meeting (and that scene, where Hank Pym explains the origin of clone Thor, is clunky with exposition and just draws attention to its own ridiculousness: “What kind of man combs his furniture for hair follicles and skin cells?” I would’ve thought that the answer would be the kind of man who is either OCD about cleanliness or someone who is really really paranoid and a CSI fan, but according to the Wasp, the real answer is “A guy with a lot of foresight, I guess.” Oh, that’s right! We’re still doing the Iron Man as Futurist thing, aren’t we?), but not given any timeline for when he started with the whole cloning process. Or why he got the idea to clone Thor in the first place. I mean, we know why Mark Millar did it: For the shock value of the close of issue 3. But why did Iron Man do it? What made him think, “Well, I’m fighting some superheroes, so I probably need some kind of secret weapon… Hmmm… I think I’ll clone Thor.” His “side” already has Cap’s team outnumbered and out-powered (Isn’t Sentry supposed to be the most powerful person in the Marvel Universe? He’s on Iron Man’s team, even though we haven’t seen him yet), so it can’t be that, and for psychological effect, I’m sure that clones of themselves would’ve been much more successful… So… I don’t really get the reasoning behind it, in story. But that’s okay, because this isn’t really a series about story, after all – It’s a series about shock and awe, and that’s about it.

Brian’s main problem with the issue, which I’m sure he’ll tell you himself if he gets the chance to write reviews this week, was the end of the book, where Sue writes Reed a letter explaining why she’s leaving. Not that the letter is terribly written – although, it kind of is – but that the letter explains that, even though Sue is leaving her husband and abandoning her kids, she didn’t want to be thought of as a bad mother or wife, so she made him dinner and slept with him one last time. Which, uh… yeah. That’s more than a little fucked up right there, and a kind of fascinating insight into the way that Mark Millar views the world. That might be indicative of the entire series, in a way; if we’re to believe Millar when he says that he is definitely on Iron Man’s side, then I am very, very scared of Mark Millar. As countless people online have pointed out by now, by this point in the series, Iron Man and Reed Richards are very clearly evil scientists: They have cloned their dead friend to use as a weapon, and are now mind-controlling supervillains (because that always works) to use them as weapons as well. They are paranoid – See Reed in the scene at Goliath’s funeral (and, surprise! It’s the giant who dies this issue, continuing a theme through Mark Millar’s work since, what, his first Authority arc?): “Is it just me or is Peter Parker acting very, very suspiciously?” It’s just you, Reed, because all we’re shown is Peter talk to his family and looking upset (Now, we all know that this is foreshadowing for Parker changing sides, but that’s only because of the obviousness in Millar’s writing; as soon as he said “Do you ever wonder if we’ve picked the right side here, Hank?”, you know that he’s going to jump ship. The characters in the story don’t have the ability to recognize their writer’s limitations, though, so for Reed to get suspicious, it’s either paranoia or bad writing, as he’s reacting to signs that we’ve never been shown). – and callous. This is actually flagged in the script itself, with Hank Pym asking “I just watched a new superhuman I helped create blow a hole through one of my oldest friends. Do you really think I’m so remote - - so detached - - that this wouldn’t have some kind of impact on me?” as we see Reed working on the clone Thor, clearly remote and detached and unimpacted. By contrast, Captain America becomes a bit of a zealot, but it’s hardly in the same class of character assassination… It’s unclear if we’re meant to consider Cap the lesser of two evils, or if the people behind this story are completely unaware of the morality of what they’re creating.

I know, I know. I’m overthinking the whole thing. It’s true; I definitely feel that I’m thinking about it more than the creators, which is worrying, but by this point, I’m just reading the whole thing in some weird state of shock at how unfun the Marvel Universe is these days (Compare and contrast with X-MEN: FIRST CLASS #1, Jeff Parker’s new retro X-series, which is much better than it has any right to be, the second time he’s taken a crappy concept and made something so enjoyable after his Agents of Atlas series), and how it just keeps being made darker and darker.

Ass, and don’t even get me started on the “Watcher looks sad” panel.

I’m off on vacation – I’m actually flying in about an hour and a half – so no more reviews from me for awhile (well, potentially something next week if I get a chance to write while I’m gone), but in the meantime, what have you people enjoyed lately? Click Here to Read More...

Is it just me, or is it completely INSANE that it is the 17th day of the 9th month already?

A LOT more comics this week, than the last two. Honestly, I hate this feast or famine shit...


100 BULLETS #76
2000 AD #1502
2000 AD #1503
52 WEEK #20
ANGEL SCRIPTBOOK #7
ARMY OF DARKNESS #10
ASTONISHING X-MEN #17
BETTY #159
BIRDS OF PREY #98
BLADE #1
CATWOMAN #59
CHECKMATE #6
CIVIL WAR #4 (OF 7)
CIVIL WAR AMAZING SPIDER-MAN DECISIONS
CIVIL WAR X-MEN #3 (OF 4)
CLAW THE UNCONQUERED #4
CONAN #32
CONAN & THE SONGS OF THE DEAD #3 (OF 5)
DEADMAN #2
DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #344
DWIGHT T ALBATROSS THE GOON NOIR #1 (OF 3)
EXILES #86
FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #4
GHOST RIDER #3
GIANTS IN THE EARTH #1
HELLBLAZER #224
ION #6 (OF 12)
IRON MAN #12
JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #249
JUGHEAD AND FRIENDS DIGEST #14
KRYPTO THE SUPER DOG #1 (OF 6)
LOOKING GLASS WARS HATTER M #3 (OF 4)
MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS #5
MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #16
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT STAN LEE JACK KIRBY
MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #293
MOON KNIGHT #5
NEGATIVE BURN #4
NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #8
OCCULT CRIMES TASKFORCE #2 (OF 4)
PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #106
PRINCESS NATASHA #4 (OF 4)
ROAD TO HELL #2 (OF 3)
ROBIN #154
RUNAWAYS #20
SAVAGE RED SONJA QOTFW #2 (OF4)
SCOOBY DOO #112
SE7EN GLUTTONY #1 (OF 7)
SEA OF RED #12
SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #30
SHADOWPACT #5
SIMPSONS COMICS #122
SKYE RUNNER #4
STAR WARS KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC #8
STRANGERS IN PARADISE #84
SUPERMAN #656
TESTAMENT #10
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #34
UNION JACK #1 (OF 4)
WALKING DEAD #31 (RES)
WETWORKS #1
WITCHBLADE #101
WOLVERINE #46 CW
X-FACTOR #11
X-MEN FIRST CLASS #1 (OF 8)

Books / Mags / Stuff
ACTOR COMICS PRESENTS VOL 1 TP
AMELIA RULES BOOKSHELF ED VOL1 WHOLE WORLDS CRAZY TP
AMELIA RULES BOOKSHELF ED VOL2 WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY TP
AMELIA RULES BOOKSHELF ED VOL3 SUPERHEROES TP
ANIMATION MAGAZINE OCT 2006 #165
ANY WAY I WANT IT TP (A)
BACK ISSUE #18
BATGIRL DESTUCTIONS DAUGHTER TP
BATMAN CHRONICLES VOL 2 TP
CEST BON ANTHOLOGY VOL 1 GN
CINEFEX #107 SEPT 2006
COMICS BUYERS GUIDE DEC 2006 #1623
CONAN ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SAVAGE BARBARIAN HC
FANTASTIC FOUR VISIONARIES JOHN BYRNE VOL 6 TP
FEMME FATALES MAY JUNE 2006 VOL 15 #3
FOLLOWING CEREBUS #9
FOREST KING WOODLARKS SHADOW VOL 1
FORTEAN TIMES #214
GODLAND VOL 2 ANOTHER SUNNY DELIGHT TP
HEAVY METAL NOVEMBER 2006
HEIR TO FIRE GILA FLATS GN
IN THE STUDIO VISITS WITH CONTEMPORARY CARTOONISTS TP
JAMES BOND TROUBLE SPOT TP
MARVEL MASTERWORKS HUMAN TORCH VOL 1 NEW ED HC
MS MARVEL VOL 1 BEST OF THE BEST PREMIERE HC
NOG A DOD PREHISTORIC CANADIAN PSYCKEDOOOLIA GN
PERHAPANAUTS TP
PLAYBOY INTERVIEWS THE DIRECTORS TP
QUITTER SC
SAM MARLOWE SC (A)
SIZZLE #31 (A)
SPIRIT OF THE SAMURAI OF SWORDS AND RINGS GN
THE WORLD OF QUEST VOL 1
UNCANNY X-MEN NEW AGE VOL 5 FIRST FOURSAKEN TP
WHAT I DID ON MY HYPERGALACTIC INTERSTELLAR SUMMER VACATION
X-MEN APOCALYPSE DRACULA TP


What looks good to you?

-B Click Here to Read More...

Second set of reviews this week, because, let’s face it: I should talk about the comics some more. But it's hard when BBC America is doing an Eddie Izzard marathon...

52 WEEK NINETEEN: I have no idea what it is about the “shocking” reveal at the end of this issue – It’s certainly not the shock, because all the reveal is is really just the confirmation of a fan-held suspicion for a while now – but it’s somehow made me much more excited about the series as a whole. Perhaps it’s because it feels like the beginning of some kind of second act: Now we know (one of) the bad guys, we can start to begin working out just what’s been going on behind the scenes for the last eighteen weeks. Was (spoiler warning) Skeets lying to Booster all along, and plotting his demise, or taking advantage of his cluelessness? Is time really broken, or was that just something that Skeets was telling Booster to cover his tracks? Is Skeets the one kidnapping mad scientists, and if so, is he trying to start the artificial intelligent wars that were mentioned as a future event earlier in the series? With this and the last issue, things are beginning to come together and a larger plot becoming apparent (although some of the threads seem to be being lost in this convergence: When was the last time we saw John Henry Irons?), giving the series some much needed forward momentum. Good, and interestingly-done payoff-without-being-payoff, reminding me of Lost.

AGENTS OF ATLAS #2: Jeff Parker continues to have fun in his corner of the Marvel Universe, away from Wars, Civil and otherwise (Is “War” Marvel’s version of “Crisis”? We’ve had Secret Wars, Secret War, Civil War, and next year we’re getting World War Hulk), and it shows in the dialogue here, whether it be Jimmy Woo’s 50s spy lingo or Ken Hale’s dryness (“Derek, I’m a freaking gorilla. What else can you do to me?”). There’s also a nice bit about alien toilets that sums up just how silly Jeff is prepared to be and how much of a breath of fresh air this series is in the very serious world of The Big Two these days. Very Good, and continuing to be a very pleasant surprise overall. If Parker can be kept around, I’d love to see this become an ongoing book.

CASANOVA #4: I love this comic. I can’t be objective about it, for some reason. It hits all of my buttons: Humor, action, sense of its own ridiculousness but rejoicing in it nonetheless, pop cultural thievery and magically some emotional resonance as well. And that’s not going anywhere near Gabriel Ba’s artwork, which is clean and cartoony and dramatic and and and. Just like the last issue, I finished this one and thought “It’s the best one yet,” and part of that comes from the way in which each issue builds upon the last while still managing to have a plot that manages to resolve itself within an issue – Matt Fraction’s mentioned that he’s following a Buffy model of writing here, with the A plot of each episode complete within each episode, but with B through Z plots that run the length of the season, and it’s not the only Buffy influence I got here; the importance of (and strained relationship with) family felt very Whedonesque, as well. Excellent, but like I said, I can’t be objective around this.

THE ESCAPISTS #3: There’s a sequence in the middle of this issue, where the characters talk to each other through their work, revealing themselves in the work, that felt new and exciting – the way the lettering changes as the fictional characters stop speaking as their characters and start talking as themselves, and the artwork setting their conversation as chase sequence – which only underscored how disappointing the rest of the book felt (with the exception of Max’s reaction to his first bad review, which also feels honest). It’s not just that Steve Rolston’s art is still an awkward Philip Bond impression that doesn’t have Bond’s lightness, even as it suffocates what’s good about Rolston’s own style, but Brian K. Vaughan’s writing, which comes across as entirely unrealistic and forced: The hand of the writer is too obvious as the characters’ comic is critically panned (Awww!) but magically successful, being a top ten seller (Huzzah!) within a few pages, while an evil corporate publisher appears at the end of the issue, wanting the rights to the character back and wondering where his moustache is, because he wants to twirl it to be melodramatic. I have no idea what’s happened to Vaughan here, because this is all much more false than his writing normally reads, adopting the melodramatic plotting of the Chabon source novel without the smoothness of Chabon’s voice to try and hide it. A disappointing Eh.

MS. MARVEL #7: Still in the middle of Civil War, and still oddly making the anti-registration side more sympathetic despite the best attempts of the creators, I mention this Crap book just to point out that David Mack’s cover art is really weirdly half-assed in its treatment of the background characters.

MYTHOS: HULK #1: Paolo Rivera’s art is nice, if muddy – he has a really enjoyably cartoony treatment of the characters, especially when it comes to exaggeration of body language – but it’s used in the service of a very badly written story that not only begs the question “What’s the point?” but also the question “Did Paul Jenkins think that he had more pages here?” It’s a very oddly paced story, with a lot of time spent on set-up that never really pays off, and the Hulk himself spending very little time on-panel, and none of that time hinting at any complexity in the character whatsoever – This is the Hulk as destructive force of nature and that’s it. It confuses more than anything, because it adds nothing to the character or the origin story, but it also doesn’t work solely as a retelling of the origin, either, due to the loose ends: Are we really meant to end the book thinking that the real tragedy of the Hulk is that Betty Ross ends up being dumped, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear? Awful, despite how much I liked the art.

PHONOGRAM #2: So, I did end up picking up the first issue, and enjoyed it in the “Britpop Hellblazer” way that it had. But this second issue felt too referential in ways that the first managed to avoid. I got all of the references, because I was in my twenties when Britpop was happening and I bought the singles and hated the songs – Oh, boy, did I hate Echobelly, as much as I fancied Sonya Madan – that get namechecked in here, but… I’m not sure that there was enough underneath all of then namedropping; plotwise, it feels like the first half of an issue, not an issue in itself. Which may be the point, and is kind of fitting; Britpop was always concerned with style more than substance, after all – although the best bands had both – but still… I’m hoping that next issue has more explanation of what’s happening than (admittedly well-deserved) hatred of shit DJs. Eh, but the first issue was better.

A short week of “singles”, as they’re called by some, this week. But that’s because it’s all about the graphic novels this time around – Hopefully you’ve all made your trip to your comic or book emporium to pick up American Born Chinese and/or Pride of Baghdad already (ABC is still my TRADE OF THE WEEK, if you’re caring), although I was surprised to find myself enjoying this week’s JONAH HEX: FACE FULL OF VIOLENCE collection as much as I did. I’d tried the first issue (collected here with the next five issues) when it came out and more or less thought “Yeah, fine, whatever”, but either I’ve become soft in my old age or the stories here get better as they go along. Yes, Luke Ross’s art still feels somewhat plasticy and photo-referenced, but Justin Grey and Jimmy Palmiotti get to play with the “Jonah comes and makes everything alright” formula enough to keep things entertaining: Evil nuns! Almost all lawmen being corrupt! Lots of people being hanged! I’d be happier if it wasn’t on glossy paper because, well, it should be on rough pulpy newsprint and cost next to nothing (and, in an ideal world, be read by macho men in hats and pubs), but that’s just me being snotty; it’s actually Very Good, and who expected that?

PICK OF THE WEEK is Casanova, however, and PICK OF THE WEAK is Mythos. Next week: As much as I'll want to write something about Civil War #4, I’m on vacation, so anyone who knows of good places to eat in New England, feel free to offer advice in the comments. Click Here to Read More...

Yesterday, Friday, was my first day working at CE in two weeks and I gotta say: looking at the new comics rack and seeing all the issues of Julia Wertz's Fart Party next to the latest volume of MOME? Genuinely heartwarming.

In other brief not-comics-but-pop-culture news, I'd seen (almost all of) the first two Lone Wolf & Cub movies, but that restored version of Shogun Assassin is fucking great. That narration? That synth-heavy score? All the most insane parts of the first two Lone Wolf & Cub movies cut into one not-qute-coherent whole? I loved it.

But hands-down my favorite thing about it is Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Itto. Not only is he an awesome badass, but he is a fat, slobby awesome badass. There's a scene where he's half-dead and killed a dozen guys and about to kill a dozen more and, like, he's unshaven, and his hair is sticking up in weird places and there's, like, leaves in it, and it was just the coolest fucking thing ever. I know it's just an extension of the Mifune Yojimbo/Sanjuro thing but it's taken to an even higher level.

Anyway, it got me thinking--who would you say are the top five cinematic fat slob badasses of all time? My list at the moment looks like:

1. Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Itto (Lone Wolf & Cub; Shogun Assassin)
2. Toshiro Mifune as Sanjuro/Yojimbo (movies of the same name)
3. Orson Welles as Hank Quinlan (Touch of Evil)
4. M. Emmet Walsh as Loren Visser (Blood Simple; and just as you can't imagine Wakayama's performance without Mifune's, you kinda can't imagine Walsh's without Welles')
5. John Belushi as Capt. Wild Bill Kelso (1941)

Who else am I missing? (Note: All other Belushi performances are probably null and void unless they're very different from above, as is Sammo Hung unless you've got a role where he was also a slob badass, as opposed to just a fat one.) Drop me your picks in the comments.

Where was I? Oh,right. Those whattya-call-'ems:

52 WEEK #19: I was expecting to be deeply annoyed by Lobo, but the idea that he's found religion and has kinda cleaned up his act, made that storyline kinda interesting and fun. The Booster Gold stuff read a little rushed but had some cool patches and you've got two gorgeous looking pages by Brian Bolland, to boot. Highly OK, I thought.

ABANDON THE OLD IN TOKYO HC: I thought this second volume of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's work was better than the first, probably because there's at least a little more variation in the choice of protagonists--for example, the first story (whose title I can't remember because I am a dope), about a failing kid's manga artist whose interest in bathroom graffiti is a stunning piece of work, oddly reminescent of Clowes' Caricature, that succeeds precisely because of the creator's willingness to risk the reader's confusion between creator and protagonist. (It also has one of the most haunting full pages I've seen in some time, where the protagonist is shown on the street after having descended a pedestrian overpass. Tatsumi is giving us an ordinary bit of everyday life and a shockingly bluunt metaphor--the protagonist is caught in a spiralling descent--at the same time.) There's some other amazing stuff in here (the title story, and, jesus, that story with that monkey!) although your best bet is to read just a story every other day so they don't suffer from their similarity: a gorgeous hardcover for $19.95, this is Very Good if you dole it out accordingly.

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE SC: Although I only read this once, I think Graeme's review is pretty much spot-on--this is a one of the best graphic novels of the year. It effortlessly strikes that sweet spot of being hilarious, troubling, entertaining and thought-provoking all at once, and it puts you in that all-too-rare position of laughing and challenging about why you're laughing all at the same time. I understand Graeme's initial vexation at the end but I thought it kept the three storylines from being more than just variations of each other--I was reminded of the way the melodies in a canon follow and then come together--and opened not just the technique of the story but possibly the message into a new place none of the stories could have gotten to on their own. And, to put it crassly, at 240 color pgs. for $14.95, this sucker is a god-damned great deal for the money. Excellent work, worth reading and worth owning.

BECK VOLUME 5 TPB: I know, I know. Several weeks old but worth commenting on anyway, because on the one hand, the payoffs were tremendously enjoyable and yet, on the other, out of synch with the pacing of the previous volumes--it read like Harold Sakuishi had been told to wrap things up and then halfway through the editors changed their mind and told him to keep going. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was damn Good stuff and if I had my way, you fuckers would buy this and like it even if you did so at gunpoint, but I'd be a sycophantic cheerleader if I didn't admit this volume felt a little off.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #21: A little bit of trouble with that ending scene between C & B, but the rest of this was pure comic book nirvana. Very Good stuff if you're a Cap fan.

CASANOVA #4: Four issues, four months, and Fraction's work is shaping up to be a very pleasurable thing, indeed. Under an enjoyable done-in-one cosmic spy heist story is a lovely subtextual rumination on the difficulty of determining the value of what's real and what's fake in matters (largely, but not solely) spiritual. And it's not even diagrammed out, underlined or prechewed in the accompanying text piece. Really Good stuff--I quite liked it.

CLAWS #2: Far less stiff and annoying and tool-ish than I expected it to be. In fact, although maybe not quite as charming as the first issue, still very charming overall. Sadly, the larger price tag (like, $3.99 or something?) keeps in the Valley of the OK, I think.

DEATH NOTE VOL. 7 TPB: Like Beck, suffers from a sudden heaving jump of the plot but I still wouldn't trade it for the world: Death Note was becoming just a bit too complacent in its formula and the revelation in this volume were just what was needed. Could well have screwed itself, but, for now, Very Good.

DEVI #3: I know, I know. It's really just Witchblade: India and yet, between the large cast and the occasional surreal cityscape and the badass who really seems like he should look like Sanjay Dutt instead of a dude you'd find on an Old Spice bottle, I'm just the teeniest bit hooked. OK.

DMZ #11: A really lovely looking issue, but I think looking at the pre-DMZ break between NYC and the USA is a mistake--it's a concept that works as a conceit, as a rich base for satire and allegory and personal vision; trying to sell the reader on the idea that this is something that might actually ever happen is just inviting disbelief. But as a gorgeous looking issue, and another oddly moving loveletter to New York, Good.

DRAGON HEAD VOLS. 2 and 3 TPB: I'm glad this is being spared Tokyopop's "direct ordering" treatment because this book didn't get interesting to me until Volume 3. Minetaro Mochizuki's art is great--something about it reminds me of Charles Burns and, weirdly, Chester Gould--but the first several volumes push the hysteria and "descent into madness" thing a little too quickly. If you can push through that, Volume 3 does a much better job of positing the ways in which panicked and isolated people fall into patterns of magical thinking. Vols. 1 and 2: OK. Vol. 3: Good, but to be honest, if you had to pick between this and the similar Drifting Classroom, I'd steer you toward Drifting Classroom.

DRIFTING CLASSROOM VOL. 1 TPB: Seriously, this was a great first volume: an entire elementary school gets transported to a mysterious wasteland and everyone loses their fucking mind. Unlike Dragon Head, this book nails the madness lurking behind shock and trauma, probably because it shows how much mass panic contributes: some of the most shocking scenes in this volume are of panicking children trampling each other or falling to their death in an attempt to get back to their parents. If you ask me, the very retro art (the series originally ran from 1972 to 1974) makes the work all the more disturbing as doe-eyed Tezuka kids running in mid-air really heightens the sense of innocence being strapped into the front car to Hell. Very Good stuff and you should hunt it down pronto.

ESCAPISTS #3: All of my problems with issue #2 magically disappeared this issue, and I'm back to really enjoying this. On the one hand, I mourn its brevity--it's not going to explore nearly as many interesting ideas and riffs as the novel did--but I'm actually thrilled that this miniseries might now pace itself properlyand not dramatically drop the ball at the end of things. Very Good stuff.

EX MACHINA #23: On the other hand, if you must buy only one BKV dream sequence this week (and "buy" in the sense of "believe") this one has it hands down over the one in Escapists. Forced ending, but there's always something about this book that never really gels quite right for me. OK.

FART PARTY: I've enjoyed every issue of Julia Wertz's self-published Fart Party, but, to be honest, have been leery about recommending them because they're, like, $3 each. (I know, I know. I'm a cheap bastard and I suck.) So here's a great solution: go to Julia's site, read all of her strips, then give her as much money as you think she deserves. If you hate reading comix on the web, get the second issue of Fart Party either from us or from her (it's fifty cents cheaper and has a priceless Liz Prince cameo). Either way, I think you'll really like her work--the charmingly crude visuals are more than made up for by the hilariously crude obscenities--and will support it accordingly. Funny stuff.

GOLGO 13 VOL. 4 GN: I can't really review this because I still can't think about G-13 sniping a space satellite without some primordial pleasure center in my brain going off. And the English Rose story is an audaciously fucked up piece of work that doesn't care who it pisses off. Very Good stuff although if we could get just a bit less Clancy and a bit more Crazy, I'd be very pleased.

GREEN ARROW #66: It's sloppy--the captions start off omniscient, go to Ollie, then end[?] with Connor and at least half the book felt like it was set to the "Montage" musical number from Team America--but it's effective: I read it back to front, all in one go, enjoyed it and will read the next issue if it's in the store the same time I am. Quite OK.

GREEN LANTERN #13: Sometimes I wonder if Geoff Johns did intern work for Satan drafting the selling-of-the-soul documents because that guy can find the loophole in anything: Here, it's revealed that Arisa was thirteen years old on a planet where a year's rotation around the sun was equivalent to blah-blah-blah-blah, making her not underage jailbait but instead a super-hot grandma. The rest of this will either similarly entertain or annoy you, depending, but any book where planets blow up willy-nilly and giant transformer robots beat the snot out of Green Lanterns gets a Good by me.

LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #17: Most of the Beto work seemed to poised to easily understandable dramatic denouements for a change, but I'm not sure if they really worked in a dramatic sense. (I suppose they will in the trade but that doesn't do my $4.50 much good right now, does it?) But that's just me snarking. It doesn't matter because Jaime's Hopey story kicks nine kinds of ass and makes the issue worth it all on its own). And, wow, the way that guy draws kids breaks my heart (in a really good way). Very Good issue, despite my initial pissiness.

MONSTER VOL. 4 TPB: If you ever wondered what it might be like if David Lynch directed an episode of The Fugitive, Vol. 4 is maybe as close as you're going to get. Good, and maybe my favorie volume since the first.

MAN CALLED KEV #3: Is it wrong to admit I'm enjoying this much more than The Boys? It's not perfect by any means (Ennis either wrote it in a hurry or his ear for dialogue is getting a bit tinny), but as I think I said elsewhere, it reminds me a little bit of Ennis's dear departed Hitman. Good or highly OK, depending on where you stand with this sort of stuff.

PHONOGRAM #2: I thought the first issue of this, with its Hellblazer-meets-High Fidelity take on the British music scene (and yes, apparently every review of Phonogram is required to take a stab at reverse-engineering the high concept), was quite good. I'm really on the fence however as to whether this issue is better or worse--although it's admirable that the creators don't blurt out the backstory all at a go, I think I spent more of the issue baffled rather than intrigued. The art's lovely and the concept is really, really great but my enthusiasm is more guarded than I would like. A guarded Good (bonus synchronicity points for the way the Transformers screed ties in perfectly with American Born Chinese from First Second).

PRIDE OF BAGHDAD HC: Again, see Graeme. The art on this is stunning and Vaughan's characterization and eye for event tremendously affecting. If you've been wondering what to give that person who loved that copy of We3 you gave them last year, look no further. This book is not without its flaws--the book's end, a nudge to make you take that final little leap of empathy, felt a little pushier than I would have liked--but goddamn, is it a strong piece of work. Good stuff.

SAM NOIR SAMURAI DETECTIVE #1: Very very dumb--it makes Sin City look like The Dubliners by comparison--but very, very gorgeous. Not how I'd spend my cash, but hard to rank that lovely art lower than OK (although I probably should).

TRUTH JUSTIN & AMERICAN WAY #4: I have no idea if anyone's reading this but me (and honestly, I can't remember if I made it past issue #1 or not) but I'd like to sit down with all the issues of it sometime. The '80s shout-outs get old fast--avoid that fake letters page at all cost--but Giuseppe Ferrario's art is goddamned good and the story is fun. Provided there's not tentacle rape in the next few issues, a trade of this skewed to the teen market'd probably do really well. Highly OK.

WASTELAND #3: This, Phonogram, and Casanova all seem very similar to me, and I don't think it's just the WEF pedigree. Even though they're not done in Fell format, Phonogram and Wasteland have similarly ambitious takes on their specific non-capes genres, with black and white work and generous text sections at the end. But whereas Gillen maybe holds his milieu back a little too much, Johnston gives his too much free reign: a really iconic storyline that should move like a b-movie drags under mostly underwhelming art and an over-fastiduous eye for detail. On the letters page, Johnston mentions growing up and playing a lot of RPGs and it shows: Wasteland gets bogged down in too much flavor text too often. My hope is that both Gillen and Johnston will nail down these pacing issues as their books go on but, until then, this is really just kinda OK.

PICK OF THE WEEK: As you can see, didn't bother too much with the crappy stuff (hopefully not to the entry's detriment) so I'll leave it up to you.

PICK OF THE WEAK: See above.

TRADE PICK: American Born Chinese, and then, if you have the coin, either Pride of Baghdad or Drifting Classroom and some other manga volume.

NEXT WEEK: Not from me, amigo! I'm down to the wire this week on two separate deadlines and it's my one year anniversary on Monday. Besides, wasn't that a big ol' portion of mouthiness right there?

Please submit yr. thoughts and lists of slobby fat badasses below. K, thx, bye.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Well, I promised some kind of reviews this week, right? Luckily, I had more to review than just Mystery In Space… Don’t get me wrong; I’m more than happy to talk about last week’s weird science fiction revival from DC, but it’s more fun to get into two of the best graphic novels of this, a pretty great week for graphic novels. So, let’s get into it, shall we?

MYSTERY IN SPACE #1: Or, as the logo says, “Mystery In Space With Captain Comet,” which may be my favorite thing about the entire comic – There’s just something about that that makes it sound like some PBS show, like the DC Universe version of Jacques Costeau or something. Sadly, the comic doesn’t follow through on the somewhat kitschy promise of the title, instead offering up something that doesn’t really fit together well – Shane Davis’s jagged Top Cow-esque artwork is a bit of a mismatch with Jim Starlin’s old-fashioned and very… well, Starlin-esque writing (Not that Starlin’s own art over his writing, in the back-up, is that much of an improvement, looking oddly quaint and with some crazy coloring). It has to be said, Starlin has his niche, this weird hippie take on space opera, and he’s made it his in a way unlike any other comic writer. You’ve got to respect that, even if – like me – you find that style to be overwritten and too reliant on “cosmicness” to explain away obvious plot devices; the four page sequence explaining Comet’s death and rebirth has some terrible narration to work through (“Quantum physics I understand and can explain. The spiritual and the occult are realms I never delved into - - Complete Greek. But I wasn’t operating, at that moment, on any kind of intellectual level. Fear drove me on, and chance allowed me to spot that tiny sparkle of light. There was something different about it. Something alluring.” And that’s just one panel!), and once you get to the end of the issue, you realize that not that much has really happened in either of the two stories, outside of exposition and backstory. It reminds me of the Rann-Thanagar War, in the way that it’s amusing that DC’s sci-fi books seem to be some of the more old-fashioned books they publish, writing-wise… Not that that’s a bad thing, but it makes for a pretty Eh comic book, it has to be said.

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE: You know it’s a good sign when one of the few faults that you can find with a book is that you don’t like the font that the lettering is done in, and that’s pretty much the case with Gene Luen Yang’s new graphic novel from First Second. In the same way that Eddie Campbell’s Fate Of The Artist was, for me, the “lead” book of First Second’s launch line, this feels like the lead of the second set of releases, which (again, like the launch line) includes a lot of other strong releases; Lat’s Kampung Boy and Joann Sfar’s Klezmer being the ones that are probably most likely to attract critical attention. This, though, is my favorite of the publisher’s fall releases; a book about personal and cultural identities that manages to talk about both in inclusive and specific ways all at once, playing with stereotypes (and, in the way it tells the story of the Monkey King, mainstream comic storytelling traditions) in such a way as to take advantage of, and undermine, them at the same time. By structuring the book in the way that he does – separating the themes into three distinct storylines that come together at the end – Yang plays slight-of-hand tricks with the true intentions of the story in such a way as to undermine the scope of what he’s doing. The difference in experience between reading the book for the first time and re-reading the book is greater than you’d expect, with the re-read solving what I’d felt was the largest fault of the book the first time around… which I can’t really explain here for fear of spoiling the story (It’s the nature of the reveal of crossover between the three parallel plots, and that’s all I can say. But for those who finish the book and feel as if something was off, re-read it and see what you think then). It’s a very strong piece of writing, though, and one of the best graphic novels I’ve read in a year that was already a great year for graphic novels. Excellent, I would happily say.

PRIDE OF BAGDHAD: I think every fan of Brian K. Vaughan’s approached this with some level of trepidation, if only because it seemed so outside of his comfort zone – Where were the last page cliffhanger reveals going to be in a graphic novel? How could you get pop-cultural references into dialogue from lions in Iraq? – but that turns out to be a plus, surprisingly. It allows you to focus on everything else that BKV does well, which happens to be… well, quite a lot. Really, his characterization is still key, despite the lack of trivia titbits to be spouted; the animals have personalities that border on Disney but still ring true, and allow for the allegory to come through (although the allegory gets slightly too obvious for me at the climax of the book, but your mileage may vary). All of that is beside the point for me, though, because this is artist Niko Henrichon’s book. The artwork is beautiful, and sells you on everything that you need to believe in to work – The characters are distinct, but believable instead of cartoony, the surroundings atmospheric and the storytelling clear. Any talking animal book lives and dies on the artwork, and Henrichon’s stuff is so good that he could’ve made anyone’s script enjoyable; it’s just a plus that Vaughan’s script is pretty damn good, too. Another Excellent book, although, admittedly, I’m not sure that it’s worthy of the hardcover, $25, format. But Very Good, even at that price.

PICK OF THE WEEK, then, is American Born Chinese, which again makes you think that First Second really know what they’re up to when it comes to picking creators. PICK OF THE WEAK, well, it’s Mystery In Space, but that hardly counts, really…

This weekend: Reviews of some of them there comic books, as opposed to graphic novel books. And probably a lot more snark. Click Here to Read More...

Nearly forgot this...

Maybe, possibly, reviews tomorrow, if I can clear my plate a little more, but don't cry if I don't manage it...

Here's a mediocre week for comics, but another great week for GNs...


52 WEEK #19
A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #42 (A)
ANNIHILATION #2 (OF 6)
AQUAMAN SWORD OF ATLANTIS #44
ARCHIE #569
ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #173
BAOBAB #2
BATMAN GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT NEWPTG
BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #210
BATMAN STRIKES #25
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #117
CAPTAIN AMERICA #21
CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #5
CASANOVA #4
CIVIL WAR FILES
CLAWS #2 (OF 3)
DEVI #3
DMZ #11
ESCAPISTS #3 (OF 6)
EX MACHINA #23
FABLES #53
FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #29
GIRLS #17
GREEN ARROW #66
GREEN LANTERN #13
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #4
INCREDIBLE HULK #98
JLA CLASSIFIED #27
LOVE & ROCKETS VOL 2 #17
MAN CALLED KEV #3 (OF 5)
MARTIAN MANHUNTER #2 (OF 8)
MS MARVEL #7 CW
NEW EXCALIBUR #11
NEW X-MEN #30
NIGER #1
NODWICK #34
PHONOGRAM #2
REFLECTIONS #1
REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #6 (OF 6)
ROKKIN #3
SAM NOIR SAMURAI DETECTIVE #1
SCARLET TRACES THE GREAT GAME #3 (OF 4)
STAR WARS LEGACY #3
SUPER DELUXE HERO HAPPY HOUR LOST EPISODE
TALENT #3 (OF 4)
THUNDERBOLTS #106
TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT SHOCKWAVE
TRUTH JUSTIN & AMERICAN WAY #4 (OF 5)
ULTIMATE X-MEN #74
VERONICA #174
WASTELAND #3
WOLVERINE ORIGINS #6

Books / Mags / Stuff
ABANDON THE OLD IN TOKYO HC
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE SC
BARDIN THE SURREALIST HC
BIG FAT LITTLE LIT BOOK OF COMICS
BIKER GIRL GN
CRYING FREEMAN VOL 3 TP
DOOM PATROL VOL 4 MUSCLEBOUNDTP
DOOMED MAGAZINE #3
ESSENTIAL HULK VOL 4 TP
FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN VOL 1 DERAILED TP
GI JOE VS TRANSFORMERS VOL 3 ART OF WAR TP
HOW TO SELF PUBLISH COMICS TP
JOHNNY REPEAT VOL 1 GN
JONAH HEX FACE FULL OF VIOLENCE TP
JOURNEY INTO MOHAWK COUNTRY SC
KAMPUNG BOY SC
KLEZMER SC
LEES TOY REVIEW SEP 2006 #167
MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN VOL 4 CONCRETE JUNGLE DIGEST TP
MISSOURI BOY SC
MOME VOL 5 GN
NEW AVENGERS VOL 4 COLLECTIVEPREMIERE HC
PILLOW FIGHT GN (A)
PIRATE CLUB VOL 2 TP
PRIDE OF BAGHDAD HC
R CRUMBS HEROES OF THE BLUES T/C (NEW PTG)
SARDINE IN OUTER SPACE VOL 2 SC
SHAZAM FAMILY ARCHIVES VOL 1 HC
STRANGE GIRL VOL 2 HEAVEN KNOWS IM MISERABLE NOW TP
SUPERMAN INFINITE CITY SC
TOP COWS BEST OF DAVID FINCH TP
TOYFARE CELEBRITY MAGAZINE PARODY CVR #111
TRANSFORMERS INFILTRATION TP
ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM-UP ULTIMATE COLLECTION TP
WILDCATS NEMESIS TP
WIZARD BEST OF BASIC TRAININGADVANCED TECHNIQUES
WOLVERINE CLASSIC VOL 4 TP

What looks good to you?

-B Click Here to Read More...

I have nothing to say about this week's books, I have to admit. It's not because they weren't interesting, because they probably aren't. I say probably because the real reason I have nothing to say is that I haven't read them; I didn't make it to the store this week, so the only things that I've been reading are a second-hand copy of Essential Savage She-Hulk - which I'll probably write about at some point, but I want to read Essential Spider-Woman first, to see if it was a similarly aimless attempt at franchise growth or not - and a wonderful book called The United States of Arugula by David Kamp, which is all about the rise of "gourmet eating" in this country since the end of the Second World War. I know what you're thinking: "Why are you telling us about that? That has nothing to do with comics!" Sure, you think that now, but wait until Mark Waid's upcoming Brave and Bold series teams Green Lantern up with Adam Strange after Jacques Pepin gets caught in a Zeta Beam and introduces Rann to modern French-American cuisine.

Next week, real reviews, honest. Click Here to Read More...

Why is it that "three day weekend" holidays end up with MORE work being needed to catch up?

I'm more swamped than normal, and I've got, maybe, 20 minutes now before the truck shows up with this week's comics, and I'm oddly grumpy about everything.

First off, because I'm sure someone cares, that "3 week supply" I described last week RE: LOST GIRLS? Looks like I'm higher than a kite. We sold our last copy this morning. I've even brought back my copy from home (because I don't much care if I end up with a first printing or not) -- so, yeah, we ended up having a really good week last week, thanks to that $75-a-throw pornography.

I'm not really in much mood to review this week, sorry, but I did want to say that I was deeply weirded out by BLACK PANTHER #19, where both T'Challa and Doom tell Storm to shut up like a good girl, and, uh, she does. And gives the Panther a big kiss for it, too. Yikes.

Yeah, that's all I want to write for now. I'll try to do some real reviews for this week's books, if the loss of a day doesn't kill me...

I'd ask you what you think... but I didn't tell you what *I* did, did I?

-B Click Here to Read More...

Right. So last time you heard from me, it was several weeks ago and I was planning a garage sale. Although you might or might not care (particularly since Graeme and Hibbs have been so on top of things), I thought it'd be nice to let you know what's been up since then.

First, the garage sale. Honestly, it was great. I knew all would be well when the sale's patron saints, Joe Keatinge and Chris French, showed up early and hit those longboxes like they wanted 'em to bleed. (You can find a terrifying inventory of Joe's purchases here and a more concise summation of Chris' stuff here.) Joe and Chris were the first guys at my garage sale last year, and impressed the hell out of Edi both years with how friendly, sharp and normal they are. Thanks, guys!

But also big, big thanks to everyone else who showed up: Dave Robson, Peter Wong, Sam Phillips, Ian Brill, Steve Byrne, that guy Mark, that guy Shannon, that surly dude with the mohawk who bought well over a hundred comics, and tons of others my rusty memory can't remember at the moment. It's always great seeing stuff I like go to people who are really going to appreciate it, and to be able to clear out a ton of space, get some extra money to the Bernal Heights Seniors Center, and hang with great people all at the same time? It's the closest I'm ever going to get to owning my own comic shop (because I'd run my own shop out of business in about eight weeks) and it was great. Again, thanks.

As for why I haven't posted since--well, I don't know if you remember me mentioning Secret Writing Project X, but I actually got the gig and have been up to my eyes in it ever since. I can't give you any details at the moment (and can't even say for sure when I can) but it looks like I'm not going to be able to contribute much here until the end of September. But I'm really excited by SWPX and hope, when I'm finally able to tell you about it, you will be, too. Those of you who like my humor column for the newsletter will be pleased, I think.

Okay. Back into hiding for now. I was going to do very, very fast reviews on some good recent manga (Beck Vol. 5, Monster Vol. 4, Drifting Classroom Vol. 1) but that's not going to happen at the moment. Maybe if I end up with a few spare minutes between now and Monday...

Anyway, I'm well. Hope you are, too. Real reviews from Graeme are right below if you haven't read 'em.

Labels: Jeff

Click Here to Read More...

Is it wrong of me to be completely hooked on HGTV’s “DesignStar”? The reruns are on this morning, and Kate and I have just watched three in a row, and would probably happily watch the rest of the marathon if it wasn’t for the fact that we should, you know, leave the house and get some fresh air or something. I blame the end of Who Wants To Be A Superhero and the terrible gap it has left in my life. Project Runway just isn’t enough, as much as it tries…

Oh, wait. This is a comics review blog, not “what reality shows I waste my life on,” isn’t it? Okay, have some comics.

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #5: Dear DC, apparently you forgot to finish the cover for this issue, because the copy I have is somehow missing a speech balloon from Luthor that says “Stand back, Kent! This is a job for Lex Luthor!” and I know that there’s no way that you would’ve missed that opportunity intentionally. Mind you, it was just the first in a series of disappointments this comic brought, so maybe it’s just me. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the idea, but with the execution… Grant Morrison’s script doesn’t really put a foot wrong, but it’s too slow and so much exposition for what we already know that it drowns the action. Frank Quitely’s art is technically perfect, but it’s not right for this story, somehow… It’s too good, if that makes sense, too beautiful for something that needs a higher, more pulpish, quality (Just imagine a Curt Swan take, and the same story being told in fourteen pages, for example). I know that this is probably the best thing I read this week, and yet it still only felt like an Good book to me.

Oh dear.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #1: Except, of course, this is really issue 2. It doesn’t even offer a “story-so-far” for those who missed issue zero, just to emphasize the point, so pity the poor souls who pick this up expecting the start of a story. Quality-wise, this suffers from the same problems as the previous issue: Writing that comes so close to being pitch-perfect to the television series, before blowing it with something so offkey that it leaves you soured on everything that comes in the next few pages, and art that – while occasionally catching likenesses – is staged and definitely colored in a way much closer to your average superhero book instead of the very particular aesthetic of the show (The cliffhanger at the end of this issue is still unclear to me, and I think it’s an art thing – It feels as if there’s something in particular that I should’ve been able to tell from the double page spread, instead of just “Well, that doesn’t look good.”). Things aren’t helped by the scope of this storyline – it’s obvious that the returnees aren’t the real thing back from the dead, because there’s no way that if the dead son, brother and lover of the show’s three main characters had come back to life, that would’ve been reflected in the TV show at some point, and so the whole thing has a feel of “Well meaning but ultimately just Okay,” sadly.

THE BOYS #2: As Robson was saying to me in the store, this really should’ve been the second half of a double-page first issue – if not the first issue in and of itself, considering how much of that first issue feels wasted insofar of everything that was repeated this time around - in that it brings some humanity and attempt at subtlety that was lacking in the real first issue. Not that much, though; this is still a completely cynical book full of stereotypes and cheap humor, and still Crap for me, but at least this time it feels closer to a good version of what it’s aiming to be.

CIVIL WAR: YOUNG AVENGERS AND RUNAWAYS #2: With the introduction of Marvel Boy as a mind-controlled killing machine, does this mean that we can add this series to the long line of undoing Grant Morrison’s contributions to Marvel (even Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men seems to be getting into the act with its most recent two issues, depressingly)? This is Awful, which is kind of a shame, because there were parts of Zeb Wells’ script that were quite enjoyable (Especially where the two teams discuss their similarities); it’s just that the plot is entirely forced and unnatural – Why is SHIELD going after the Runaways now, when they’ve not done anything to draw attention to themselves anymore than all other illegal superheroes? Shouldn’t they be focusing on the actively anti-registration heroes? - and the art somehow both appealingly cartoony and lazily ugly, something that isn’t helped by the murky coloring. The end result is that I’m curious to read something Zeb Wells writes that he has some level of control over, and preferably a different artist, and I doubt that was the intention…

CSI: DYING IN THE GUTTERS #1: Wow. Just wow. Ignoring the procedural and murder mystery (because, surely, the murderer intended for Joe Quesada to be the victim?), this is a fascinating book just to see the axes that someone has to grind within the comic industry. Ed Brubaker portrayed as Joe Quesada’s minion! Chris Ryall as a paranoid angry editor-in-chief! And, much more interestingly, Joe Quesada as an asshole! Seriously, I have no idea what’s going on with the Joe Quesada in this book, but it’s worth picking up the book for just for his appearances, saying things like “Hey, the no-smoking thing in our comics is strictly for my image and public sympathy. Wolverine can’t smoke, but I can” while his arms around two silent smiling bimbos. Are they the TVs that he keeps on telling people he has to spare? Is writer Steven Grant trying to tell us that Joe is a transvestite pimp? Yes, I read the disclaimer that “characterizations in this story are dramatic embellishments and are in no way supposed to represent the actual people,” and I get that everyone is being portrayed as the Lying-In-The-Guttersverse version of themselves, but still, come on. There’s some crazy axe-grinding going on here from someone, whether it’s Steven Grant or someone else, and I’m going to keep reading the next few issues to see what else we’re going to see before this is done. Good, but for all the wrong reasons; if you’re going on the quality of the book instead of the strange carcrash feeling, then it’s low Eh - The set-up takes too long, the script has some very clunky “comics are cool” exposition to get the characters to the convention, and the art relies too heavily on the photo reference. That said, it has to be seen to be believed.

SOLO #12: I think my mind was melting by the time I finished this, but in a good way. Oddly enough, I think this made me realize what was missing from Mike Allred’s issue of this series – Mike loves pop, but he isn’t pop, he’s really well-done retro pastiche. Not that that’s a bad thing, but you see this and realize what the difference is: Brendan McCarthy, for all his faults, is as pop as they come, and this isn’t so much an anthology of short stories as 48 pages of freeflow pop culture remixed by the best DJ you’ve heard. Or, in this case, seen. Curt Swan meets Yellow Submarine meets Carmine Infantino meets the Bible meets David Lynch meets meets meets… It’s not to everyone’s tastes – if you aren’t a fan of random art poetry pieces, for example, you might have a problem with a few pieces here – but for me, it’s Excellent, and the best way for this series to end because, really, how do you follow this without it seeming like a letdown in enthusiasm at the very least?

THE TRIALS OF SHAZAM! #1: I don’t have the same problems with this as Brian; doing a grim-and-gritty Captain Marvel isn’t necessarily a bad idea, as such. Well, as long as the story is good, and not something that starts with children being kidnapped to be sacrificed for some black magic ritual and then jumps back in time for some exposition flashbacks that don’t really add anything to the black magic ritual plot. The art, too, has some interesting painterly touches matched to some terrible basic errors (Howard Porter, please, please, concentrate on basic human proportions). This is Eh, but hey! There’s still time for it to get better, right? I have no idea what makes me cautiously optimistic about this, but I’m hoping that it ends up hitting the promised mines of wonder and magic sooner rather than later.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #33: Who knew? Mike Carey + Pasqual Ferry = Jack Kirby. But not the Kirby of Fantastic Four, but the Kirby that went to DC and did Forever People and Jimmy Olsen, because this is “What if the Fantastic Four met the Forever People?” in almost every way that counts, making me wonder if the “God War” storyline isn’t just going to be a retread of Kirby’s Fourth World but in the Ultimate Marvel Universe. It feels… awkward, and awkwardly graverobbing, as well. Am I just getting too picky? It’s Good, and potentially better than that if it doesn’t just make you want to go back and read some real Jack Kirby. That said, Ferry’s art is still a thing of beauty, and maybe worth picking up the book for in and of itself.

PICK OF THE WEEK is Solo, because I’m a sucker for Blue Meanies that are actually yellow. PICK OF THE WEAK is Civil War: Young Avengers and Runaways, because I really liked that Marvel Boy miniseries, and would have much rather have seen the character ignored that turned into a generic “mindless deadly assassin” character that completely squanders the potential and ideas that Morrison had left behind. TRADE OF THE WEEK is a tough one; I feel as if I should give it to Lost Girls just because it’s easily the most newsworthy of the books released this week, but I personally wasn’t interested enough to want to spend $75 on it. Is that wrong of me? Probably. So, instead, Showcase Presents Batman Volume 1 wins instead, because even though I haven’t read that one either, how can you really go that far wrong with 500+ pages of Silver Age Batman for $16.99?

What else has everyone else been reading recently? Click Here to Read More...

THURSDAY comics, because of the holiday. Don't go into your LCS on Wednesday, or they'll laugh at you behind your back!!!

2000 AD #1500
2000 AD #1501
52 WEEK #18
A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #41 (A)
AGENTS OF ATLAS #2 (OF 6)
ALL NEW ATOM #3
AMERICAN SPLENDOR #1 (OF 4)
BATTLER BRITTON #3 (OF 5)
BEYOND #3 (OF 6)
BONEYARD #22
CREEPER #2 (OF 6)
CROSS BRONX #1
DETECTIVE COMICS #823
ED THE HAPPY CLOWN #9 (OF 9)
EMISSARY #4
EXTERMINATORS #9
FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #12
GI JOE SCARLETT DECLASSIFIED
HERO SQUARED ONGOING #3
HICKEE VOL 3 #2 (RES)
HUNTER KILLER LEE CVR #7
JACK STAFF #11
JONAH HEX #11
JUGHEAD #176
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #25
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #118
LOCAL #6 (OF 12)
LONE RANGER #1
LOONEY TUNES #142
MAD MAGAZINE #470
MANIFEST ETERNITY #4
MARVEL 1602 FANTASTICK FOUR #1 (OF 5)
MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #19
MARVEL TEAM-UP #24
MYSTERY IN SPACE #1 (OF 8)
NEXT #3 (OF 6)
NIGHTWING #124
NOBLE CAUSES #23
OMAC #3 (OF 8)
OUTSIDERS #40
POISON ELVES DOMINION #5
PUNISHER #37
RED SONJA #14
RUSH CITY #2 (OF 6)
SAVAGE DRAGON #128
SIDEKICK #3 (OF 5)
SILENT GHOST #1
SNAKEWOMAN #2
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #166
SPIDER-MAN SPECIAL BLACK & BLUE & READ ALL OVER
STRANGE GIRL #10
TALES FROM RIVERDALE DIGEST #14
TASK FORCE ONE #3
TOY BOX #1
TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS (IDW) #7
TRANSFORMERS STORMBRINGER #3 (OF 4)
UNCANNY X-MEN #478
X-MEN PHOENIX WARSONG #1 (OF 5)
Y THE LAST MAN #49

Books / Mags / Stuff
9 11 REPORT GRAPHIC ADAPTATION SC
BATMAN FACE THE FACE TP
BEC AND KAWL VOL 1 BLOODY STUDENTS HC
CLASSIC CRUMB 2007 12 MONTH WALL CALENDAR
COMIC ART MAGAZINE #8
CRAZY PAPERS GN
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON TIMES BLACK LAGOON NOVEL
FALLEN ANGEL GN
FANTASTIC FOUR THE LIFE FANTASTIC TP
FORTEAN TIMES #213
GEN 13 WHO THEY ARE AND HOW THEY CAME TO BE TP
GIRL STORIES GN
GRIMM FAIRY TALES VOL 1 TP
ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE #17
KRAMERS ERGOT VOL 6 SC
KRYPTON COMPANION SC
LIFE AND TIMES OF SCROOGE MCDUCK COMPANION SC
MAKING COMICS STORYTELLING SECRETS OF COMICS MANGA & GN SC
NEW ALICE IN WONDERLAND COLORMANGA VOL 1 TP
NEW AVENGERS VOL 3 SECRETS AND LIES TP
SFX #147
SILK ROAD TO RUIN HC
SPIDER-GIRL PRESENTS FANTASTIC FIVE IN SEARCH DOOM DIGEST
SURROGATES VOL 1 TP
SUZUKA VOL 1 GN
TEZUKAS BUDDHA VOL 3 DEVADATTA SC
TOTALLY SPIES VOL 1 THE O P GN
TOTALLY SPIES VOL 2 I HATE THE 80S GN
VAMPIRELLA TALES OF PANTHA TP
WESTERN GOTHIC TP & MUSIC CD SET
WILD SKETCHES #1 SC
X-MEN THE END BOOK 3 MEN & X-MEN TP



What looks good to you?

-B Click Here to Read More...