Making the Horse Drink - Why Do Fans Give Jack Staff the Cold Shoulder?

We constantly hear from people about how they want "good, old fashioned superhero comics," and yet, when Paul Grist gives them exactly that, in his excellent Image series, Jack Staff, people just do not buy it. Another Image title, Invincible, is practically a calculated effort at appealing to just those fans - and it sells 11,000 copies, less than John Byrne's not-so-well-received Doom Patrol series. However, Invincible is a roaring success compared to the sales of Jack Staff, which sells about a quarter of the copies that Invincible does. So what gives? We have led the comic reader to the water, why will they not drink?

The usual response when someone mentions something like this is, "These are great comics that should be more popular! Comic readers suck!" Which is all fine and good, but that is said while the book sells 2,679 copies in the direct market.

2,679 copies!!! That is more than 1,000 copies less than REORDERS of the parts of that lame Judd Winick Superman/Captain Marvel team-up in the Superman titles!

That is HALF as many copies as Brian Pulido's War Angel.

So how can it be? How can something of such quality that is directed almost entirely towards filling the need that superhero fans SAY that they want filled (i.e. well-written, old-fashioned superhero stories), sell so poorly?

There are two possible explanations that make some sense to me...

1. These fans really DON'T want good, old-fashioned superhero stories. They just want good, old-fashioned superhero stories starring Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, etc. Not NEW characters.

2. For some reason, fans do not appreciate Paul Grist's really great artwork. They can accept art light-boxed from a photograph in their superhero comics, but not artists who try to do creative things with shadow and layouts.

This



is great.

This



is great enough to warrant a promotion to a higher profile title.

But this



apparently is "too weird."

This is



too "amateurish" (as some people actually describe Grist's work).

I think, then, that the latter explanation is probably the BEST explanation, as it explains why Invincible, while still selling worse than titles DC is cancelling due to low sales, sells four times as much as Jack Staff. Old-fashioned superhero stories CAN be somewhat successful, but only if they contain certain styles of art.

It is too bad, because Paul Grist's Jack Staff, as Tadhg was just saying to me, is "a good throwback without pandering," or, in other words, just the kind of water a lot of comic fans SAY that they are thirsting for.

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This Comic Is Good: Fell #1

Preview: Right here.

Fell is an interesting experiment in comics format from writer Warren Ellis and artist Ben Templesmith. It's a new ongoing monthly series (from Image Comics), each issue with sixteen pages of self-contained story and a good handful of "backmatter," which, in this issue, is a behind-the-scenes text piece on the crafting of the origin and scripting of the comic. So you get a complete reading experience in twenty pages plus covers for only two dollars American. It's a "slab of culture," as Ellis calls it.

Fell utilizes a nine-panel grid for most of its pages, with some pages occasionally featuring larger panels but still holding to the basic layout. The art reminds the reader of Sienkiewicz at times; a looser, "controlled chaos" kind of style, reminiscent of some of the glory of the 80's. Templesmith also handles the colors, and he bathes the thing mostly in yellows and reds, with the occasional backdrop set in dark blues, which sets the mood immediately and fits the tone of the linework.

And then, of course, there's the writing. This is Good Ellis, not Mainstream Capes Ellis, and so, of course, it's excellently scripted. The dialogue is razor-sharp, and each character is immediately capitvating and wildly quirky, be it the lady seen in the picture above, the nun who looks like Richard Nixon, or Fell's boss, who is introduced to us with the line "I'm not crying" and leaves us with "I have to take quite a lot of pills now." My favorite bit player, however, is the department secretary, whose husband left her for the dog even after she agreed to role-play. "My throat is raw from the barking." It's all classic Ellis.

The plot hums along nicely. I realize I haven't actually said what Fell was *about* yet, so I'll get to that now: Detective Richard Fell has just been transferred into Snowtown, a hellhole with only three and a half cops (one of them has no legs). He is very good at his job, with an excellent gift at reading people, but if he's not careful, the town will eat him alive. On his way to work, he stumbles across a murder mystery in his own apartment building. The twist with how the crime takes place is brilliantly strange, but, as Ellis says in the backmatter, based on a true story. Truth, I suppose, is stranger than fiction.

Yes, the story is only sixteen pages, but I didn't even notice. There's enough story here to fill twice as much space, and that's why it works; it's a smart, dense (no decompression here) read that tells a complete story but leaves you wanting more.

Buy Fell. It's only two bucks and it'll do you good.

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Chats Should Be Good - Scott Allie

This Tuesday, I am moderating a chat at Comic Book Resources with Dark Horse's Scott Allie.

Scott, if you don't already know, if the editor of the kickass Goon comic, plus the kickass Conan comic, not to mention the editor of Hellboy and some other projects that I do not care as much about.

He also facilitated the great "Dark Horse Book of the" program, which included the Dark Horse Book of the Dead collection, which I raved about here.

If that wasn't enough, he also is a writer! He does his Devil's Footprints series, and this October is coming out with a graphic novel based on the classic John Carpenter film (which, itself, was inspired by the classic EC horror comics), The Fog.

It will be on Tuesday, September 13th, at 6:00 PM PST/9:00 PM EST.

If you are already a member of CBR, then you just have to hit "Comic Chat," and then hit "vBChat Room Change" and choose to join the room marked "Scott Allie Chat."

If you are NOT already a member of CBR, you just have have to register, which is no big deal, as it's free. Just click here to register.

It should be a good comic discussion, and good discussions about comics are always cool to see.

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When I started buying comics, I had to walk uphill both ways in the snow just to get to the one store in a 50-mile radius!

I have a stack of floppies here that I haven't read yet, so you'll have to wait to slavishly buy what I bought since I know you all do that. But sitting here with my old-school monthly pamphlets and thinking about what the crap I'm going to do with the long boxes in my garage, I began to think about trade paperbacks and why I haven't become someone who waits for the trade.


I have 20 long boxes in my garage. Okay, that's not exactly true - 2 of them are still in my old closet at home, but my parents are driving out to Arizona this Christmas and are bringing them with, so I'll soon have 20 long boxes in my garage (and I'm very excited about the new arrivals, because of two words: "Suicide," "Squad"). And these aren't those stubby boxes, either - these are your standard long boxes. I know the hip thing to do these days is to e-Bay your old floppies and pick up the trade paperbacks or not buy the monthlies at all and wait for the trades. Hell, I do it with 100 Bullets and Ultimate Spider-Man (and have done it with other titles that are no longer with us). I understand the arguments for the trades - more compact, easy accessibility, can store them on bookshelves instead of in garages - all of which I agree with. I still can't leave monthlies behind.

Why am I living in the past? I don't know. For the current stuff, I never know what is and what isn't going to be collected in a trade. That may sound lame, but I'm serious - you just don't know. If I had thought to myself, "I won't buy Automatic Kafka or El Cazador or Kiss Kiss Bang Bang because they'll be collected," well, I'm shit out of luck, aren't I? And I like all those titles. There are no guarantees!

As for the old stuff - why don't I auction off my collection and stock up on trades? Well, I don't want to spend money twice, of course, but there's something more. You can probably tell that I don't buy comics as an investment (with a couple of exceptions, one of which is mentioned below, but none of which have panned out either, so they don't count). I buy them to read them, and they have become part of who I am. I love dragging out a stack of comics and sitting down and just reading through them - pulling the tape off, occasionally tearing it because it's been so long, pulling the fragile book out, placing the mylar bag on the coffee table and making sure the tape doesn't get stuck on anything, reading the book, sliding it back in the bag and carefully smoothing it out to let the air escape. It's quite the ritual, and it's comforting.

The biggest reason for reading the individual issues is, of course, the letters columns. I still read the letters columns, even if I've read them before. I love the fact that goths with nothing better to do with their time actually wrote sestinas to Neil Gaiman because Richard Madoc mentioned one in passing. I love that Charles J. Sperling and Malcolm Bourne and Mark Lucas (where the hell are those guys, anyway?) could dissect a comic so effortlessly in such few words. I loved seeing my own name in the letters column (if any of you have Morrison's JLA run, I'm in there). I just discovered, while re-reading Avengers Forever, that Laura Gjovaag got a letter published in an issue. You can't get those cool little feelings from trade paperbacks.

Like any collection, comics for me have become ways to access my memories. I don't feel the same way about my trade paperbacks as I do about my pamphlets. There's no emotional attachment to them - they're just books. I have A LOT of books, but I rarely attach any specific memories to them - I just go into a book store and buy them, and move on (I just bought Fan Tan by Marlon Brando - it looks like a hoot!). It's the same with trades. But the individual issues - that's a different story. I have memories of certain ones - not all of them, obviously, but certain ones, and that's why I won't get rid of them. It's silly nostalgia, but we should never summarily dismiss silly nostalgia - yes, I've ranted about it before here, but I'm not against it philosophically.

For instance, when I drag out Batman #426 to read for the thousandth time, I'm reminded again that this was the first comic book I ever bought. I remember my best friend (who has collected comics a lot longer than I have) and I walking by a Waldenbooks at the Montgomery Mall in Pennsylvania and stopping at the spinner rack with the latest comics on it. He told me that this was the storyline in which they were going to kill Robin. I was interested, so I picked it up. It's very vivid to me, and I give him the credit (or blame) for hooking me into this world.

When I read Doom Patrol #19-63, I remember digging through the back issues boxes at The Comic Swap in downtown State College, PA, a cool little store right off College Avenue. The proprietor put the price of the books on a piece of tape instead of using that pricing gun thing, and when you bought it, he took the tape off. I can now pretend I bought them all when they first came out!

I remember driving furiously down Warminster Road to the comic book store near the Willow Grove mall on my Friday lunch break at Sunoco, where I worked one summer between college years. Why did I drive so furiously? Because I just had to buy the new Spider-Man title, with Todd McFarlane writing and penciling. Don't be shy - you have it too! Sure, it sucks, but it makes me laugh when I think of it. Usually I waited until after work, but not on that day!!!

Whenever I drag out my 100 issues of the latest Wonder Woman series (before Byrne jumped on, after which I quickly dropped the book before picking it up again when he left), or my Garth Ennis run on Hellblazer (or even the Morrison/Lloyd issues), I think of the Sundays spent at the Portland Comic Book Convention, digging through boxes looking for the critical missing issues. I just had to have them! Portland's convention isn't a big one, but it's still a convention, and the glorious weirdness is just all around you. It's a wonderful thing.

These are just some of the things that I don't think you get if you "wait for the trade." Sure, you can still go to the store and buy the books, but it's a different feeling. The information you get from the book might be exactly the same, but the feeling is different. Unless monthlies stop coming out, I'm sticking with them. Call me old-fashioned. Hell, call me old. I don't care. I'll keep walking uphill both ways through the snow (yes, I live in Arizona) and calling those "wait-for-the-traders" whippersnappers. Consarnit!¹

¹ I'm perfectly aware I could have been reading comics the whole time I was typing this. Shut up.

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James Lucas Jones Chat Transcript

Here it is, folks.

It was quite a fun chat.

And any chat that allows for a little hyping of Brandon Hanvey's Stereos can't be that bad, right?

Viva La Weirdness: Marvel’s Whacked-Out Comics of the Seventies

Essential Defenders, Vol. 1
Essential Killraven
Essential Howard the Duck
Warlock: Special Edition #1-6

Marvel Comics in the seventies found itself in a strange place. The giants of the industry who founded the empire were gone. Kirby went to DC, Ditko left to do his own work, Lee basically got out of comics.

At the same time, underground comix emerged. Talents like R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton broke new ground in the medium, stressing the personal, the political, and the outrageous.



And, as per usual for the comic book industry, financial doom threatened.

Marvel responded in several ways. They froze the status quo on the major titles, spread into other genres (horror, sword and sorcery, science fiction, etc.), and rode an explosion of pop culture nostalgia (reviving Doc Savage, creating the World War Two retro title The Invaders, etc.). They pursued fads like kung fu, blaxploitation, and…um…the Human Fly.

This era of confusion and uncertain boundaries also gave birth to the Whacked-Out Comic. Whacked-Out Comics were those that abused or abandoned the standard superhero comic model. Frequently they were the only personal or interesting books available in the mainstream.
God bless ‘em, Marvel has finally started to put out some of their Whacked-Out Comics in the affordable “Essentials” format.


Essential Defenders, Vol. 1

Hulk not understand.
--The Hulk

The Defenders were a super-team that raised the Marvel keystone idea of “bickering heroes” to new levels. The main trio, Dr. Strange, the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner, were on each other’s nerves nearly all of the time. The Sub-Mariner hated being involved in anything not directly affecting his throne. The Hulk hated never understanding what was going on and just wanted to hit somebody. And Dr. Strange was exasperated trying to keep them in line. Keen.

Better still, it had a supporting cast of heroes unlike other comics. Valkyrie wasn’t a shrinking superheroine who gasped at the sight of violence; she went looking for it. She was neither a shrieking harpy, a “designated girlfriend,” nor was she a creepy fanboy-fantasy sex bomb.

Or Nighthawk, who wore a costume that lived on the corner of Cool Street and Goofy Bastard Avenue.



How about his superpowers: low-level super-strength at night, wheelchair-bound normal man by day? Dude, that’s awesome.

During its heyday, the Defenders were the zaniest team in comics. The Avengers fought standard-issue giant menaces like Thanos and got involved in the Kree-Skrull War. The Defenders dealt with mad scientists who placed their heads on gorilla bodies and aliens like Xemnu the Titan, a big fuzzy creature that passed itself off as a children’s show host in order to steal the children of Earth and repopulate his planet.

Originally the team began as an excuse to collect the biggest non-affiliated hitters in the Marvel Universe: the Sub-Mariner, the Hulk, and the Silver Surfer. They fought together in two issues of The Sub-Mariner, then went on their separate ways.



Fans went nuts over the ad hoc team, and lo, an ongoing series was born. (Thankfully for us all, political considerations in Marvel led to the replacement of the boring and preachy Surfer with the far more fun and well-mustachioed Dr. Strange.)

The issues written by Roy Thomas that predate the launch of the Defenders series proper are decent. The issues written by Steve Englehart, starting with Defenders #1, are a whole lot of fun. Essential Defenders Volume One contains mad magicians, angry two-headed gods, and the first big summer crossover in comics history, the loopy "Avengers-Defenders War."

What set The Defenders apart was the sense that anything could happen at any time, and often did. A mad magician powered by the smoke from “strong Jamaican incense” lays waste to the team? Sure. A fluffy kiddie-show host is actually a vicious alien? Why not?



Reading the collection, you can almost hear the creative team yelling “HEEEE-WACK!” They stomped the accelerator to the floor and steered the book right into the heart of the sun. Essential Defenders Volume One shows the Whacked-Out Comic vibe beginning to influence mainstream superheroes. And it is good.

Volume One doesn’t reach the truly Whacked-Out issues of the series, which came with the legendary Steve Gerber-scripted run. Those issues fall just outside the reach of the book. If and when Marvel publishes Essential Defenders Volume Two, you’d best not stand between me and the nearest comic book store.

What makes the Gerber run so worthwhile?

Four words, my brothers and sisters. Four simple words: "Elf with a Gun."



Essential Defenders Volume One is highly recommended for those who want light, snappy superhero comic entertainment. For those who like their comics heavy or serious, never mind.


Essential Killraven

Thank you. Thank you for buying this.
--Clerk at my local comic shop.

The clerk at my comic shop thanked me for buying Essential Killraven. Yep. Really. Her thanks were not those of a fellow fan who was pleased someone else was into the book. Nor was she being sarcastic. No, she was thankful that some damn fool would cough up the green to buy this, the quintessential inessential “Essential.” She was afraid the book was wasted money for the store.

Silly person. Who could resist? Look at what Killraven offers:

--A painfully obscure character whose series ran from 1973-1976, and whose story continued in a graphic novel in 1983, a one-shot in 2001, and an ignored miniseries in 2002. Even I, a dedicated comic book dork, had no idea who he was.

--A post-apocalyptic setting "inspired" by H.G. Wells. The Killraven stories were originally entitled War of the Worlds and took place in the aftermath of the Martians’ second invasion, which took place in 2001 (after the aliens had mastered antibiotics, I guess).

--A hero with a ludicrous "tough guy" name reminiscent of bad fantasy novels. Said hero was clad in leather shorts, suspenders and thigh boots. And nothing else.

--A ham-fisted fusion of sci-fi with sword and sorcery akin to the contents of Heavy Metal Magazine, minus the nudity.

--Exotic settings like Battle Creek, Michigan, Gary, Indiana, and the swamps of Florida.

--A drunken raccoon.

--And a giant stone head of Howard Cosell with flaming horns.

The book sells itself!

Given my love of weird seventies Marvel-iana, I had to have it.

Should anyone else buy it? Uh...

The series went through a couple of old-timey Marvel Comics hands in its first three issues. Writers Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman all had a turn at Killraven before the book settled on Don McGregor for the rest of the run (with the occasional fill-in issues by Bill Mantlo).

The first issue was drawn by the combination of Neal Adams and Howard Chaykin, had a fill-in or two, then settled into a groove with Herb Trimpe for five issues. The rest of the series, and the bulk of the Essential volume, was drawn by a young P. Craig Russell.

The early issues were standard seventies sci-fi action fare. War of the Worlds began much like a Planet of the Apes comic or other post-apocalyptic story as told by Marvel Comics: big action, lots of monsters, and the promise that Killraven was the potential savior of the world.

Once the regular team of McGregor and Russell took over, Killraven took a step…hmm…I wouldn’t call it a step forward. More of a step sideways.

I could dance around the point, but instead I’ll just say it: McGregor’s scripting was a mess. Over-written to a level seldom seen even in comics, Killraven stories never used ten words when they could use thirty. McGregor never described something as “red” when he could describe it as “the searing crimson of the Martian plains.” Imagine pages upon pages of such over-ripe prose and you’ll have a decent impression of Essential Killraven.

The captions were either purple and hyperbolic in the manner of Stan Lee or excruciating in the manner of a bad fantasy novel straining to be poetic. Moreover, the tone of dialogue shifted madly within issues, even within pages. McGregor felt the need to break up the usually portentous dialogue with “funny banter” between his characters. This “banter” must have been an effort to inject humanity into the story. Instead it felt like bad sitcom or action movie dialogue shoehorned into a “laser beams and fairies” story.

Killraven often reads like a half-thought out project. The series takes place between 2016 and 2020, and thus all of the main characters were born before the Martian invasion of 2001. Any adult in the world of Killraven would have memories of pre-invasion Earth, unless these memories were specifically wiped by the aliens. Yet throughout the series, there were stories that could work only if nobody remembered the times before the Martians.

One story set in Battle Creek climaxed with the “shock ending” that the army of zealots fighting Killraven and his buddies were protecting a horde of cereal box toys. A cheap and Twilight Zone-y standard sci-fi “twist,” right? But the story was set in 2018. The characters were old enough to have known the true meaning of a Cap’n Crunch whistle.



Another issue surrounded a cult that worshipped at the ruins of a giant yellow arch. Yep, it was a McDonald’s sign half-buried in rubble. Again, considering how many adults were in the cult, you’d think at least one of them would remember the most ubiquitous restaurant in the history of the human race, even eighteen years after the devastation.

It seemed more that the writers had decided that War of the Worlds was about a post-apocalyptic world and ran with the clichés of that genre, rather than stop to think about what a world less than twenty years after a planet-wide disaster would look like.

Though McGregor’s writing was poor in general, it contained a few good elements. Killraven’s supporting cast, built by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, stuck to the standard clichéd lines: The Great White Hero, the Wisecracking Black Sidekick, the Scientist Babe, the Herculean Man-Child, and the Noble Indian Tracker. McGregor’s finest achievement was taking this stock cast into unexpected directions.

For example, the Scientist Babe didn’t fall for the Great White Hero. The series’ best and most human subplot was the gradual birth of love between her and the Wisecracking Black Sidekick. As a result, said Wisecracking Sidekick grew as a man over the course of the series. Also, the Noble Indian Tracker proved to be a selfish and self-righteous jerk. The Great White Hero had no idea what he was doing most of the time beyond “I wanna kill Martians,” a flaw noted by the Scientist Babe. Not characters of Shakespearean depth, but a cut above normal action-hero fare.
What about the art?

Here we come to Killraven’s great strength. Russell did an amazing job throughout his run on the series.* The quality of the art fluctuated with the inkers, but even under poor inking, you can see that P. Craig fellow penciled some right pretty pictures. He drew all manner of fantastical things in an intricate and ornate style. Moreover, he experimented with alternative layouts and created arresting page designs.

Essential Killraven is one of the most attractive and visually-striking books in the Essentials lineup. Leafing through the latter half of the book, you can find an amazing image every few pages. The book even experimented with lettering by using a sans-serif typographical font for some of the captions. Keen.

By the end of the volume, Killraven no longer feels like a Planet of the Apes-knockoff post-apocalyptic tale. Instead it feels like a mediocre science fiction novel. It has a couple of neat ideas, a bushel of terrible ideas, and some of the prettiest comic book art of the seventies.

Essential Killraven is recommended only as a historical curiosity and for fans of fantasy-style art. Otherwise, take a pass. It’s been forgotten for a good reason.

-------------
* The art in the handful non-Russell issues was standard-issue superhero art of varying skill. The Adams/Chaykin art was excellent and exciting. The Rich Buckler and Gene Colan art got the job done. To my surprise, Herb Trimpe, an artist I’ve never liked, did a fine job on his seven issues.


Essential Howard the Duck

Waaaugh!
--Howard the Duck

Mainstream comics are designed to be made with roughly interchangeable parts. Lose an inker, find an inker. Writer becomes a pain in the butt? Replace him with someone more pliable. An author’s voice might sneak through a little bit once in a while, muted and distorted by the necessities of the medium. However, there are exceptions. In the late seventies, Marvel put out a comic where the author’s voice blared loudly: Howard the Duck.

The Essential Howard the Duck reprints the issues written by the Duck’s creator, Steve Gerber.* The book is both easier and harder to explain then most comics. Howard was an intelligent talking duck from another dimension trapped on Earth and trying to get by in modern-day (late seventies) Cleveland.

For his first few stories, back-up short stories in Man-Thing collections, Howard encountered villain parodies like Garko the Man-Frog and the vampiric Hellcow.** Once graduating to his own series, Howard and his comic became a vehicle for Gerber’s observations on society and on himself.

The series ranged from national politics (Howard runs for president in 1976 under the slogan “Get Down, America”) to personal tragedies (Howard has a nervous breakdown in a story that felt like the fruits of painful experience).



It enjoyed a healthy dose of absurdity (a giant salt shaker with the arms and legs of a gorilla appears out of nowhere and seasons Howard) and the foolishness of everyday life (the dreaded Kidney Lady, who turns up time and again, accusing Howard of trying to steal her kidneys).



The book, in short, was a lot of fun and stands as a highlight of the Whacked-Out Comic era.



Not to say the book is flawless. The primary sin of Howard the Duck was an indulgence in over-identification.

Howard described himself as having the potential to be a great scholar, but easily bored and scared of being stuck into a single category. So, he explained, he got his education on the streets. (Yes, Gerber actually used the phrase “got his education on the streets.”) The Duck maintained a superior attitude towards humanity while recognizing his own ridiculousness. He was mentally fragile and embittered towards the world. And he always stood apart from humanity, among them but never of them.

This combination of cloaked self-aggrandizement and naked self-pity exploded off the page as Gerber’s image of himself. Howard became an author proxy to a degree that was almost embarrassing at times.

Yet this intense personal flavor is most of what makes Howard worthwhile. Even when the comic dabbled in bitter-crank-railing-against-the-world territory, Howard the Duck was inventive and passionate. Few major-publisher comics are either. Fewer still manage both and remain fun to read.

Gene Colan provided art for the overwhelming majority of the volume. As was normal for Colan, the work is beautiful and fluid, capturing both motion and detail brilliantly. His style seldom seemed to fit well with super-heroes; in Howard the Duck he found an excellent outlet for his talents. (His work in another Marvel series of the seventies, Tomb of Dracula, was even more impressive. Dammit, Colan is one of the under-rated greats of the medium.)

The Essential Howard the Duck is excellent and well worth your comic-buyin’ dollar.

----------------------
* When Howard the Duck became a big success, Gerber and Marvel entered into legal fights over ownership of the character. Marvel won the suit, Gerber left Marvel, and the Duck ended up in the hands of another writer. From a reader’s perspective, the results of the suit were irrelevant. Gerber was Howard and Howard was Gerber. Once the title lost its author, it faded into obscurity and died. Yep, it was a landmark case in the issue of creators’ rights in comics.

** Yes, that’s right, Howard’s early appearances were in Giant-Sized Man-Thing. I’m resisting the urge to make a joke involving the phrase “I got one right here!” The temptation is strong.

Oh, hell with it.

“I got a number one Giant-Size Man-Thing right here, baby!”




Hee.


Warlock: Special Edition #1-6

“My life has been a failure. I welcome its end."
--Adam Warlock’s last words

Not available in an Essential volume yet, I feel I have to round out these reviews with a mention the great Whacked-Out Comic epic: Jim Starlin’s Warlock.

The Starlin Warlock stories ran through a few issues of Strange Tales, a brief revival of the series Warlock, a single issue of Marvel Team-Up, an Avengers Annual, and finally Marvel Two-in-One Annual. Phew.

They’ve been collected and reprinted a couple of times. I recently scored a collection of these stories printed as a six-issue miniseries by Marvel in the early eighties, Warlock: Special Edition. With luck, they might reprint the stories in an Essential volume. I hope.

An important variety of the Whacked-Out Comic shoots for the big topics like Life, Death, Truth, Justice, and other Capitalized Words. Warlock is one of the premiere examples of this treacherous approach.

Any book, comic or otherwise, that deals with Life, Death, Truth, Justice, and other Capitalized Words takes an enormous risk. A hint too much action and it looks like the Capitalized Words are only set dressing. A hint too much brooding and the books become dull. Too narrow a perspective makes them pompous and pretentious. To wide a perspective makes them diffuse and unsatisfying.

Starlin produced a series that skimmed the borders of insufferable pretension and reached levels of greatness seldom seen in superhero funnybooks. He combined Big Action with Big Themes to make one hell of a Big Comic.

The character Adam Warlock began in an issue of the Fantastic Four as a simple variation on the Frankenstein story. A group of evil geniuses create the perfect cosmic man in a plot to conquer the world. Said perfect cosmic man, dubbed “Him,” recognized the scientists for villains and flew off. He bummed around the Marvel Universe for a while, a character looking for a hook.

Eventually a hook was found. Through a long series of strange circumstances I won’t bother to relate, the artificial man was given the name Adam Warlock, a “mysterious soul gem” atop his brow, and protectorship of a parallel Earth on the opposite side of the sun. Warlock was also saddled with an absurd Christ parallel that culminated in his condemnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. Yes, really.

Sales on this "Jesus Christ, Superhero" comic were poor, and the character disappeared into limbo. (I hope to score a copy of this run. It’s gotta be weird.)

Jim Starlin brought the character back in Strange Tales #178 (February 1975) and immediately plunged Warlock into another story with Big Time Themes. Starlin’s Warlock stories began and ended with long story arcs defined by their villains: the Magus and Thanos.

The latter story is the most famous, as its legacy carried over into the nineties. However, the former is more far-reaching and much more worth reading.

Warlock encounters the Church of Universal Truth, a faith murdering its way across the cosmos in the name of peace and love. Shortly thereafter, the god of the religion, the Magus, appears to him. The Magus tells Warlock that the two of them are one and the same person. Warlock proceeds anyway and lays siege to the Church. Soon he discovers the Magus was right, and that in the near future, Warlock would be driven insane and changed into the mad god.

Throughout the story, Warlock had to face unpleasant truths. He came to see how his own nature would lead him to become such a monster. He had to ally himself with the arch-villain Thanos. And he confronted the difficulty of doing what was right when neither choice before him could possibly be considered "right."

When the Magus story began, he discovered that his soul gem could strip away the soul from a person and trap it forever. Worse, the gem hungered for more souls. During a desperate battle, Thanos implored Warlock to use the soul gem to steal the souls of the thousands of warriors between them and the Magus. Warlock refused, declaring the gem and its use to be evil.

Thanos replied, "Fine sentiments, my golden saint, but has it occurred to you just who will pay for your lofty convictions? You? No! It will be the millions of people you shall enslave as the Magus, who will pay! It will be the thousand worlds your Universal Church of Truth conquers who shall pay for your high moral standards…"

Knowing that Thanos told the truth, Warlock chose the lesser of two great evils and stole the souls from the men in their way. Shortly thereafter, he destroyed his own future and killed a future version of himself to prevent the Magus from ever existing. Again and again, Warlock was forced commit evil deeds to defeat larger evils, and the toll wore on him.

The stories culminated in Thanos’s attempt at destroying the stars to appease his beloved, Death itself. Along the way, Warlock’s supporting cast is murdered by Thanos. Warlock himself dies at his own hands, exactly as shown in the earlier Magus story. Finally Warlock returns from the dead for a few moments to turn Thanos to stone, ending both of their stories forever.*

Given how superheroes and supervillains either escape death or return from the dead with such frequency as to make dying a joke, the seriousness of death in the Warlock stories is shocking and adds a rare heft to a superhero tale.

The story uses obvious symbolism to make its points, and yet despite this "rain of anvils," the story works. Warlock never fails to be entertaining as it delivers its points. Big Themes are much easier to swallow when candy-coated in Big Soopahero Action.

By the way, the Magus has the kickin-est afro in comic book history. I’m sorry, he does. No debates.





Highly recommended for any and all comics fans. Whacked-Out Comics at their finest.

----------------
* By which I mean “for about fifteen or twenty years.” I am talking about Marvel Comics here.

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Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #15!

This is the fifteenth in a series of examinations of comic book urban legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous fourteen.

As I have mentioned in the past, the impetus for this whole thing came from when I, myself, fell for a false urban legend involving Walter Simonson. Well, today I get to address ANOTHER Simonson-related urban legend!

Let's begin!

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Walt Simonson based the concept of the Time Variance Authority in his Fantastic Four run on the Time Lords from Doctor Who.

STATUS: False

Mr. Simonson addressed this here, with the following response...

Actually, the TVA had nothing to do with Doctor Who. Where do these ideas come from? Just curious. Did you read this somewhere? I've never seen any Doctor Who programs although I drew a few Doctor Who illustrations a zillion years ago for Marvel.

The TVA (Time Variance Authority) was a satire of bureaucracy in general and of Marvel at that particular time and place as the company was moving towards a more corporate model. (The initials of the TVA were taken from the Tennessee Valley Authority, one of the New Deal developments during the depression.) The point of the TVA is that it was an infinite organization and still expanding (a new desk and monitor for each new universe born out of every possible time bifurcation). The office environment was the perfect visual symbol for a bureaucracy as were all the faceless monitors. The one character with a face was middle management and his was the only face you ever saw.

Which is another way of saying that there was no upper management visible. It's possible one didn't exist. Or if it did exist, it was irrelevant to the operations of the TVA.

The purpose of the TVA was deliberately vague. Whether or not the TVA had anything to do with the actual management of time remains a mystery. It's possible it existed to serve itself and had no real function regarding the regulation of time.

Its HQ had a great clock on the front of the facade and the hands of the clock denoted a non-real time.

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Kevin Smith killed off Mysterio without permission from the Spider-Man office.

STATUS: True

In 1998, Kevin Smtih began his acclaimed run on Daredevil, with Joe Quesada on art, which helped launch the Marvel Knights line of comics (Marvel Knights was actually a separate branch of Marvel, with a separate editor in chief and everything! It was made up of the infrastructure of Joe Quesada's own company, Event Comics). The main plot of Smith's storyline was that an old Spider-Man villain, Mysterio, was dying, and decided to go out in a bang by thoroughly destroying his arch-nemesis, Spider-Man. However, at the time, Spider-Man was currently a different character (Ben Reilly), so Mysterio decided to adapt his plan to someone else, namely Daredevil.

At the end of the story, Mysterio kills himself.

The problem, continuity-wise, came when a month later, Mysterio appeared in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man...fighting Spider-Man!!

It all came down to the fact that, when Spider-Man editor Ralph Macchio was asked if they could use Mysterio, no one mentioned that they were going to kill him off! The Spider-Man editor already had plans to use Mysterio in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man a few months after the Daredevil story was to finish.

As you may recall, Daredevil ran a bit late, so the conclusion of the arc ended up coming out AFTER the Amazing Spider-Man arc had begun, so while Mysterio was dying in one comic, he was the big villain in another.

Smith later claimed that no one told him that he specifically COULDN'T kill Mysterio, which I do not doubt, actually.

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Mickey Spillane wrote comic books.

STATUS: True

Mickey Spillane is one of the most published authors living today, with a streak of seven books in the late 1940s to early 50s where each book sold in the millions.

His protagonist, Mike Hammer, became one of the most famous private detectives in literary history.

And before all that, Spillane wrote comic books.

Before World War II, Spillane began work for a company called Funnies, Inc., which instead of publishing comics, they created comics that OTHER companies would publish, mainly Timely Comics (which later became Marvel Comics). Funnies, Inc. was a pretty bush league operation, so almost all of their characters have really been lost to history.

At this same time, due to the connection to Timely, Spillane would be asked for stories FOR Timely. Mostly he was asked to write text pieces for Timely Comics that were inserted in the middle of the comics, mainly to maintain the correct page counts. This work appeared in the pages of Sub-Mariner, Human Torch, the whole Timely line basically. In addition, he did a few short stories, mostly featuring characters that have not been heard of since.

It was even rumored that Mike Hammer was originally meant to be a comic strip titled Mike Danger!

Years later, in the 1990s, Spillane's friend Max Allen Collins made Mike Danger a reality, doing a Mike Danger comic series for Tekno Comics.

Well, that's it for me this week!

Feel free to tell me some urban legends you have heard, and I will try to confirm or deny them!

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Current Comics Report for 9/8

This is a report about what I think about the comics of this week, based upon Diamond's Shipping This Week list, as reprinted below, with my (sometimes quite snarky, so be forewarned) comments.

Today's Comics Report features guest commentary from the folks at Ace Comics & Games in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, namely Ian Gould and our own Pol Rua!

Certain sections of the Current Report on the 9/8 Comic Book Week contain forward-looking statements that are based on my expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate” and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which include but are not limited to projections of books being good, writing performance, character flaws, artistic coolness and continued title stability.

Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Prognasticators Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation:

• A book being better than I thought it would be;

• A different creative team on a book;

• A different type of story than I thought it was;

• Differences in anticipated and actual performance by the writer and/or artist

All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this report or, in the case of any document incorporated by reference, the date of that document.All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to me are qualified by the cautionary statements in this section...

NOTE: P=Pol, I=Ian, and B=Brian. When there is no letter at the beginning, it is me (Brian, natch).

Shipping This Week: September 8, 2005

DARK HORSE

MAR050171 APPLESEED VOL 1 PROMETHEAN CHALLENGE TP (STAR10806) $16.95
FEB050082 AVP ALIEN CHOP FIGURE $29.99
FEB050083 AVP PREDATOR CHOP FIGURE $29.99

In China, the art of carving and engraving "chops", which are a device used to imprint a personal seal of identity, dates back over 3,000 years. Visitors to Hong Kong and other Asian cities discover a wide range of these unique items, generally carved in the shape of animals that symbolize the various birth years of the Chinese calendar.

Nowadays, seals are still widely used, and the art of seal engraving has become more, not less, popular than ever before. More note-worthy is that many foreigners are now able to appreciate this art form, which for a long time has been considered uniquely Chinese.

So....of course, let's make Alien and Predator versions!!

Nothing has ever made MORE sense!

EVER!

APR050023 CHRONICLES OF CONAN VOL 8 TOWER OF BLOOD & OTHER STORIES TP $16.95
APR050030 GRENDEL RED WHITE & BLACK TP $19.95

There is a LOT of great talent in this here collection.

DEC040056 KATSUYA TERADA THE MONKEY KING VOL 1 TP $14.95

P - Oh, are you aware of all the stuff we have to get indirectly in Australia? Titan Books, lots of Dark Horse manga, All the Viz titles...even the the DC CMX stuff!

I - And as of this month we can't get ANY of the Dark horse manga titles

JUN050027 LAST TEMPTATION 2ND ED HC $14.95
JUL050043 SERENITY MIDDLETON CVR #3 (OF 3) $2.99
JUL050045 SERENITY PHILLIPS CVR #3 (OF 3) $2.99
JUL050044 SERENITY YU CVR #3 (OF 3) $2.99

This story translates so well to the comic medium.

DC COMICS

JUL050217 AQUAMAN #34 $2.50

Aquaman fighting Tempest...and it's NOT tied into mind-wipes and/or Infinite Crisis?!?

Way to drop the ball, Arcudi!!

JUL050279 AUTHORITY THE MAGNIFICIENT KEVIN #1 (OF 5) (MR) $2.99

I think this title is funny, but I think we are stretching it a bit thin by now.

JUL050218 BLOOD OF THE DEMON #7 $2.50

I really do marvel at the ability of Byrne to work within the context of large crossovers.

JUL050266 CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY VOL 2 READ ALL ABOUT IT TP $6.99
JUL050281 CITY OF TOMORROW #6 (OF 6) $2.99

I - God I want to like Howie Chaykin. Why does he keep pissing in my eyes?

B - I think he will be good on the upcoming Guy Gardner mini-series because he will be restrained by editorial.

I - Whatever will he do if all his women (including the ones from 500 years in the future) don't wear garter belts and he can't say blow-job at least twice per page?

I - American flagg was great - but it was over 15 years ago! Move on and give us soemthing new - or did owrking on Mutant X fry every last brain cell?

JUL050191 DETECTIVE COMICS #811 $2.50

Two months off is too much for me to get back into Lapham's Detective. I will tell you what, folks, I'll read the whole thing when it ends and I'll tell you what I think.

JUL050285 EX MACHINA VOL 2 TAG TP (MR) $12.99

P - Ex Machina TPB #2!!! *bounces*

JUL050200 GOTHAM CENTRAL #35 $2.50

I don't want this arc to ever end!

Because when it DOES, that means Brubaker is gone!

FEB050367 GREEN LANTERN AND GREEN ARROW COLLECTORS PLATE $59.99

FINALLY! Something for my fancy dinner parties that I am always throwing!

JUL050283 INTIMATES #11 $2.99
MAR050497 JLA ACTION FIGURE GIFT SET PI
JUL050236 JLA VOL 17 SYNDICATE RULES TP $17.99

I think that this will read much better in trade format.

JUL058196 JSA CLASSIFIED #1 THIRD PTG $2.50

The first second printing was a sketch of the Hughes cover. This is a sketch of the Conner cover. The next step back is to just print the blank piece of paper Hughes drew his on initially.

JUL050261 JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #13 $2.25

Why can't everyone just write the Justice League like Adam Beechen?

JUL050265 LOONEY TUNES #130 $2.25
JUN050404 MAD ABOUT THE SIXTIES TP NEW EDITION $9.99
JUL050269 MAD MAGAZINE #458 $3.99
JUL050242 OUTSIDERS #28 $2.50

The Outsiders are giving up their headquarters?!? NOO!!! Not their headquarters!! We spent so much time there! We invested so much!!!

Oh wait...no one cares about the Outsiders.

JUL050271 PIECES OF A SPIRAL VOL 1 $9.99
JUL050245 SECRET OF THE SWAMP THING TP $9.99
JUL050248 SEVEN SOLDIERS GUARDIAN #4 (OF 4) $2.99
JUL050244 SGT ROCKS COMBAT TALES VOL 1 TP $9.99

P - Sgt. Rock's Combat tales! Rawk!

P - At last, DC's doing essentials. Took 'em long enough. Now I want my essential Captain Marvel, Spirit, THUNDER Agents, Blackhawk, Plastic Man and All-Star Comics, by GAWD!

B - This is the big test. How well will these sell?

I - I wish everything was reprinted in digest format.

I - I want a pocket-sized Watchmen.

P - That'd be a Pocketwatchmen.

B - Do you guys sell more of the digest comics? You guys sell a lot more of trades period, right? Because of the exchange rate?

I - We sell a staggering numbero of manga and Sin City.

JUL050208 SHAZAM SUPERMAN FIRST THUNDER #1 (OF 4) $3.50

P - I am frightened of 'First Thunder'. Captain Marvel is my favourite superhero ever and the covers are pretty as hell, but I hate Cap/Superman stories. They always seem to end with DC reaffirming that THEIR boy is the superior product.

P - It's like "Yeah, I know you outsold us in the day, but where are ya now... huh? HUH?"

JUL050252 SON OF VULCAN #4 (OF 6) $2.99

I think we'll get some cool "behind the scenes" superhero stuff in this issue.

JUN058272 SUPERGIRL #1 SECOND PTG $2.99
JUL050213 SUPERMAN #221 $2.50

Tying in to ALL of the Infinite Crisis minis! Bold! Bold!

JUL050309 SWAMP THING #19 (MR) $2.99

Please, someone, what is going on in this title?!!?

JUN058296 TENJHO TENGE VOL 3 $9.99
JUL050254 VILLAINS UNITED #5 (OF 6) $2.50

I predict that Deadshot vs. Catman will be cool.

MAR050429 WORLDS GREATEST SUPER HEROES OVERSIZED SLIPCASE HC $49.99

This is a clever concept, collecting all the oversized Ross/Dini stories.

JUL050310 Y THE LAST MAN #37 (MR) $2.99

FINALLY! Some full frontal!!

IMAGE

MAY051545 BAD IDEAS COLL TP $12.99
FEB051634 BATTLE OF THE PLANETS PRINCESS #1-6 READER SET $14.99

I - Why buy pseudo-Japanese comics soft-core pseudo-porn. You can get Hustler for less. Or save your money and hire a hooker.

FEB051635 BATTLE OF THE PLANETS PRINCESS #1-6 READER SET SGN $24.99

I - Why buy signed pseudo-Japanese comics soft-core pseudo-porn. You can get Hustler for less. Or save your money and hire a hooker.

P - Princess was awful. I always hate it when a comic which really needs to be in colour ends up coming out in B&W.

P - And seriously, with all that Udon influenced stuff, the colouring where they get that weird inner light cel shaded look is vital.

JUN058277 BONE REST 2ND PRTG #1 (PP #684) $2.99
JUL051705 CITY OF HEROES #5 $2.99

I really believe that Hickman and Tortosa are giving it their all, but I think this is just too tied up in the machinations of the game...which I do not know at all.

JUL051696 COVENANT VOL 1 GN $9.99
JUN051759 COYOTE VOL 1 TP $14.99

P - It's so good to see this cool old epic stuff getting dug up. Hasn't it taken them awhile to get to Coyote though?

I - Haven't read it isnce it first came out. Beautiful art by Marshal Rogers who's been unfairly overooked in recent years - not that his work on Dark Detective did him any favors

P - I read a couple of issues when it first came out and it looked weird but interesting.

Brian - Yeah, what the hell was up with Dark Detective? Why was Rogers so off on that book?

P - You can't go home again?

I - Maybe cause he's been doing newspaper strips fro the last decade.

P - It's like that Iron Man miniseries that Michelinie and Layton got together and did. It just wasn't as good.

I - I loved the recent Grimjack because on both writing and art it was even better than the first Truman/Ostrander run.

JUL051609 FELL #1 $1.99

I admire the loss leader aspect of this, but really, exactly who is the comic buyer who is going to pick up a Warren Ellis/Ben Templesmith collaboration because it is 2 bucks instead of 3?

I posit that that reader does not exist.

It reminds me of (although not as bad) the time Marvel had special "$1.99" issues of certain comics.

Instead of the regular $2.25.

WOAH! GOTTA HOLD THE MOB OF NEW READERS BACK!!

JUN058278 GROUNDED 2ND PRTG #1 (OF 6) (PP #684) $2.95
JUL051693 MAGDALENA VOL 2 #1-#4 SET $9.99
JUN051795 NOBLE CAUSES #13 $3.50

Ooooh...and evil family just like the Nobles! Clever, Faerber! Clever!

APR051687 PVP #18 $2.99
JUL051660 REX MUNDI #14 $2.99

For Greg's sake...

Wow! The Holy Grail finally revealed!

APR051706 RISING STARS BRIGHT #1-3 SET $7.99
MAY051591 RISING STARS VOICES OF THE DEAD #4 (OF 6) $2.99
APR051688 SEA OF RED #4 (MR) $2.99

Remender is on FIRE right now!

MAY051576 STARDUST KID #2 (OF 4) $3.50

For Chris' sake...

This book is NOTHING like Abadazad!!

JUN051843 WITCHBLADE #89 $2.99
MAY051583 WITCHBLADE ANIMATED COMIC & TOY SET $16.99

MARVEL

JUL051888 AMAZING FANTASY #12 $2.99

I predict that some writer in 2012 will kill off Scorpion in a really disturbing manner.

JUN051996 ARANA HEART OF THE SPIDER #8 $2.50

I estimate that this is the worst I have seen of Roger Cruz's art, and I was not a huge fan to begin with.

JUL051934 AVENGERS SERPENT CROWN TP $15.99

President Nelson Rockefeller.

'Nuff said, indeed!

JUL051907 CABLE DEADPOOL #19 $2.99
JUL051933 DISTRICT X VOL 2 UNDERGROUND TP $19.99
JUL051853 EXILES #69 $2.99

This is total nerd porn, traveling to Marvel's various alternate realities...but it is good nerd porn.

JUN058285 FANTASTIC FOUR DIR CUT #527 (BOGO OF NEW AVEN #6 HITCH VAR) PI

This is just absurd.

How many copies of these freakin' Avengers variants does Marvel HAVE, exactly?!?!

JUL051850 FANTASTIC FOUR HOUSE OF M #3 (OF 3) $2.99

This reminds me of that Negation mini-series that, while not technically part of the title proper, was really neccessary for the story to make sense. I fear this is repeating itself with this title.

JUL051868 GHOST RIDER #1 (OF 6) $2.99

P - Ghost Rider looks like it's going to be impressive. I'm hoping Garth doesn't sleepwalk his way through it again.

B - It isn't Grayson/Kaniuga, how bad can it be?

JUN058249 GHOST RIDER RIBIC VARIANT #1 (OF 6) $2.99

How boring have Ribic's House of M covers been?

JUN051976 HOUSE OF M #6 (OF 8) $2.99

Speak of the devil!

JAN058165 HOUSE OF M LAND VARIANT COVER #6 (OF 8) (PP #680) $2.99

Wow...even Land is outdoing Ribic.

JUL051849 INCREDIBLE HULK #86 $2.99
JUN058266 INCREDIBLE HULK LTD ED VARIANT #84 $2.99
JUL051848 IRON MAN HOUSE OF M #3 (OF 3) $2.99

This is another one. I bet this is going to have some big story development...that will not even COME UP in House of M proper. Or if it DOES, it will be, like, a page.

Weak.

JUL051899 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #7 $2.50

Comic Book Idol 1 winner Patrick Scherberger, represent!

JUL051881 MARVEL TEAM-UP #12 $2.99

I have been digging this book, but I estimate that even Kirkman can not make me dig a FULL ISSUE of Titannus' origin.

JUN058267 NEW X-MEN LTD ED VARIANT #16 $2.99
JUL051906 ORORO BEFORE THE STORM #4 (OF 4) $2.99

Please, please, PLEASE Mr. Sumerak, do not have this deeply rooted in the continuity of one of the worst eras of X-Men comics ever!!

JUN058268 PULSE LTD ED VARIANT #10 $2.99

P - What the hell is the Pulse variant?

P - Is the series THAT popular they can start doing variant covers for it?

B - It's the Hawkeye cover from House of M!

B - Clearly, what happened was that folks said "Hawkeye's back!! WOOHOO! LET'S BUY TWELVE!"

B - Clearly.

JUL051911 PUNISHER #25 (MR) $2.99

Who's the artist on this issue?

JUL051865 SPIDER-GIRL #90 $2.99
JUL051926 SPIDER-GIRL VOL 4 TURNING POINT DIGEST TP $7.99

I am so pleased that this book is successful. I just love that DeFalco still writes comics regularly. And that Ron Frenz draws them regularly. My cockles are warmed by the idea.

JUN058269 SPIDER-MAN HOUSE OF M LTD ED VARIANT #2 (OF 5) $2.99
JUL051910 SUPREME POWER NIGHTHAWK #1 (OF 5) (MR) $2.99
JUL051915 ULTIMATE MARVEL FLIP MAGAZINE #4 $3.99
JUL051860 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #82 $2.50

I can't wait until this arc is over (although I am enjoying it), because it means we get Shadowcat into the books!

JUL051916 ULTIMATE TALES FLIP MAGAZINE #4 $3.99
JUL051847 UNCANNY X-MEN #464 $2.50

Davis to Bachalo...it is not quite Grummett to Jaaska...but it is close.

JUL051901 X-MEN COLOSSUS BLOODLINE #1 (OF 5) $2.99

This looks to continue the streak of X-Men mini-series that read like they belong in Marvel Comics Presents...in the later issues. I'm talking past Sam Kieth's run.

WIZARD

JUL052519 INQUEST GAMER DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CVR #126 $4.99

COMICS

JUN053119 2000 AD #1451 $4.10
JUN053120 2000 AD #1452 $4.10

P - 2000AD used to have good stuff in it... but these days it's 7/8ths crap and a Judge Dredd story. You spend your time waiting for a good story and then, at BEST, it's 6/8th's crap, a good story and a Judge Dredd story.

JUN053016 A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #19 (A) $4.99

P - Okay, here's the deal. A G Super Erotic Anthology is just plain creepy. It's creepy creepy icky porn.

P - Anyone who reads it is a creep.

JUL053053 ADVENTURES OF BIO BOY #1 $2.99
MAR052589 APCOMICS COMIC EXPO LTD ED PACK $20.00
APR053003 BAKERS #1 $3.00

P - Ooh, Bakers is in this week! Yay Kyle Baker.

P - Definitely the Bridesmaid at this year's Eisners.

P - Damn that Eric Powell. How dare he be so talented!

JUN053215 BARBIE OF SWAN LAKE CINEMANGA GN $7.99
APR053630 BATTY & BATINA YOSHITAKA AMANO #1 $24.99
APR053631 BATTY & BATINA YOSHITAKA AMANO #2 $24.99
JUN052880 CAPTAIN CANUCK UNHOLY WAR 30TH ANNIV 3 PACK $6.99
MAY052594 CAVEWOMAN RELOADED #1 $3.95

I - What consenting adults do behind closed doors is now of my business. Whatsit Saunders is a pretty talented artist though.

MAY052926 CHILDREN OF THE GRAVE #4 (OF 4) (MR) $2.99
JUN053073 CISCO KID GUNFIRE & BRIMSTONE #1 (MR) (O/A) $2.95
DEC042608 CLOUDS ABOVE HC $18.95
MAR052897 COMPLETE CRUMB COMICS VOL 17 SIGNED HC (MR) $75.00
JUL052994 CONFESSIONS OF A CEREAL EATER SPECIAL SALE PACK $9.00

What is so special about this?

It's a good story, but is this both volumes for nine bucks? That'd be pretty cool.

JUL052824 DF ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN #1 ALT CVR LEE SGN PI
MAY052722 DF ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN BOY WONDER LEE SGN #1 $29.99
JUN052944 DF COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS #1 SGN PI
APR052862 DF GREEN LANTERN #2 SGN $19.99
JUN052943 DF JUSTICE #1 DOUBLE SGN $49.99
APR052841 DF RED SONJA RUBI ALT CVR REMARKED #1 $69.99
MAR052856 DF TOP TEN FORTY NINERS HC REMARKED $69.99

P - I love Dynamic Forces. It's like a whole section I can just skip when I'm doing the orders.

MAY052929 DRACULA VS KING ARTHUR #2 (OF 4) $2.95
JUL052887 EC SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES ANNUAL PACK (O/A) $37.80
JUL052849 EIGHTBALL LIKE A VELVET GLOVE CAST IN IRON TP NEW PTG (O/A) $19.95
APR052542 ELSINORE #3 (OF 9) $2.99
JUN053048 FATHOM #1 B&W CLASSIC ALTERNATE $9.99

Ah...classic Fathom black and white.

Remember the late 80s, when Ted Turner caused such an uproar when he wanted to colorize classic Fathoms?

That was a disgrace.

JUL053193 FRANKENSTEIN NOW AND FOREVER GN (O/A) $19.95
DEC042433 GARTH ENNIS 303 #5 (OF 6) (MR) $3.99
DEC042434 GARTH ENNIS 303 WRAPAROUND CVR #5 (OF 6) (MR) $3.99
JUL052995 GIPSY SPECIAL SALE PACK $8.00
MAY052912 HIT THE BEACH 2005 $4.99
APR052834 IRON WOK JAN GN #13 $9.95
JUL053034 JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #235 $11.99
JUN052777 JUGHEAD #168 $2.25

No one ever answers me...should Jughead date?

JUN053331 KARE FIRST LOVE VOL 5 TP $9.99
JUN053287 KARMA INCORPORATED #2 (OF 3) $2.95
APR052621 LEXIAN CHRONICLES FULL CIRCLE RED FOIL CVR #1 $9.95
MAR052587 LEXIAN CHRONICLES FULL CIRCLE SGN #1 $19.95
JUN052684 LULLABY WISDOM SEEKER VOL 1 TP $9.99
MAY052429 MAGIC WHISTLE #1-4 SET (MR) $10.00
MAY052430 MAGIC WHISTLE #5-8 SET (MR) $10.00
JUN053032 MARS IDW TP $39.99
APR052803 MEGACITY 909 MARK LEE CVR A #8 $2.95

P - Megacity 909 looks like Ghost in the shell for people who don't like to read.

APR052804 MEGACITY 909 ZODDD CVR B #8 $2.95
MAY052909 MILK #48 (A) $3.50
JUL052738 MOPED ARMY VOL 1 GN (MR) $12.95
JUL053000 NABIEL KANAN SPECIAL SALE PACK $8.00
MAY052880 NORTH COUNTRY GN $13.95
JUN052744 OZ THE MANGA #3 (OF 8) $2.99
JUN053192 PSYCHIC ACADEMY VOL 1 GN & VOL 1 DVD BUNDLE $24.99
JUL053047 RUNES OF RAGNAN #1 (RES) $2.95
JUN052863 SCHOOL BITES VOL 2 GN $12.95
JUN052871 SHOCKING GUN TALES #1 (MR) $4.99
JUN053293 SHONEN JUMP OCT 05 #34 $4.99
JUL053044 SHUCK THE SULFURSTAR #2 $2.95
JUN052856 SIMPSONS SUPER SPECTACULAR #1 $4.99
JUL052785 SKETCHBOOK ADVENTURES OF PETER POPLASKI HC $25.00
JUL053064 SMOKE AND MIRRORS #1 $2.99

This is gonna be super awesome.

Or maybe awesomely super.

I get the two mixed up often.

MAY052716 SNK VS CAPCOM VOL 2 SVC CHAOS TP $13.95
JUL052655 SONIC SUPER SPECIAL #4 RETURN OF THE KING (O/A) $2.25
JUN052780 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #153 $2.25
NOV042423 SOULFIRE #5 $2.99

The cover is a woman in a bikini under a waterfall! How can it be anything BUT good?!?!

MAY052637 SOULSEARCHERS #73 $2.50
JUN053161 STAR TREK COMICS CLASSICS VOL 1 TO BOLDLY GO TP $19.95
MAY052715 STELLVIA VOL 1 TP $9.95
JUN052781 TALES FROM RIVERDALE DIGEST #5 $2.39

I wonder which market they were targetting that hates Pals and Gals but is cool with "Tales from Riverdale"?

MAY053367 TENJHO TENGE MANGA #1 (MR) (O/A) $10.99
MAY053368 TENJHO TENGE MANGA #2 (MR) (O/A) $10.99
MAY053369 TENJHO TENGE MANGA #3 (MR) (O/A) $10.99
APR052903 TIJUANA BIBLES VOL 2 (A) $14.95
MAY053102 TUXEDO GIN VOL 13 TP $9.99
JUN053292 ULTRA MANIAC VOL 2 TP $8.99
JUL052578 VAISTRON #1 $2.95
JUL052595 VAMPIRELLA BLOOD LUST #1 & #2 SET $6.95
JUL052593 VAMPIRELLA REVELATIONS #0 (NOTE PRICE) $0.25

Think of the better uses of that quarter.

JUN053078 WILD #15 (A) $3.75
JUL053007 WILL EISNERS MOBY DICK HC (O/A) $15.95
JUN053049 WITCHBLADE #1-4 COLLECTED BOX SET $24.99
MAY052410 XIII #2 (NOTE PRICE) $2.99

Well, that's it for me this week!

Thanks to my guests, Ian and Pol!

Feel free to check back later to tell me how off my predictions were!

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Three 8/31 Books That I Read So That You Did Not Have To

As always, I tell you about three comics that I did not hear a lot about this week, and then I ask you all to fill me in on comics that I did not read this week.

Special "All DC" Edition!

Flash #225, Robin #141 and Batman: Gotham Knights #68 Spoilers Ahead!

Flash #225



This is the final issue by Geoff Johns, after about seventy issues on the title.

It works as a resolution to all his storylines, but as an actual comic book?

Not so much.

There is a really interesting scene where Howard Porter draws the Flash in the midst of a run, doing the stop-motion type drawing (you know, Flash at one point on the page, then Flash a little to the right, then a little more to the right, with motion lines following), and the "blurred" Flash drawing looked so much better than the rest of his drawings in the issue.

Everything is so over-rendered.

Not good to look at.

The plot of the book is that Zoom has teamed up with the Reverse Flash and just in time, Barry Allen shows up to help Wally. Another annoying thing is that Wally's costume is pretty much identical to Barry's. Johns has Barry point out the only difference (the BELT, for crying out loud), but really, you cannot tell the two apart in the story.

The whole book involves a lot of time travel using the Cosmic treadmill...not much plot going on, and then BAM - everything is over. Not the deepest of a resolution.

The cool scene where Linda Park gets her pregnancy back and delivers twins is nice, though. That was handled well. So the resolution was handled well, but the rest of the comic? Not so much.

Not Recommended!

Robin #141



I thought this was a well handled issue.

The gist of the story is that a friend of Robin's that he thought was killed in War Games has returned from the dead, now as a sort of witch. Her only goal is to kill Robin, and she TELLS this to Tim Drake. So Tim has to think of a way to resolve this situation, and it involves giving Superboy a ring.

The whole "calling on his friend Superboy to pretend to be Robin" story aspect of the comic was a lot of fun, as it was a throwback story without being over the top. The banter between Robin and Superboy was nice. Of course, this was set before the events of current Teen Titans, so we got to miss out on "evil Superboy."

By the by, the cover makes absolutely no sense, as it has nothing to do with the comic inside.

Most of the comic involves Tim trying to convince Darla that the Robin she wants dead IS dead already (pushing the "there are multiple Robins" theory on her). Meanwhile, while they are doing this, there is a lot of nice banter between Tim and Darla over the nature of evil, and how she does not HAVE to kill, that sort of stuff. When it all goes down, and Darla ultimately demonstrates a casualness to her (she thinks) murder of Robin, Tim gives her some tough talk. I liked it. It also was a way for Willingham to set up Robin's involvement in this government paranormal unit (looking to get her help...or find a way to lock her up).

McDaniel's art is not the greatest, but it gets the job done.

Recommended!

Batman: Gotham Knights #68



As bad as Gotham Knights has been recently, Al Barrionuevo's art has been improving in each issue. This issue is a slight setback for Barrionuevo, but still, it basically is the best thing about the comic.

Reading this comic, I am reminded of one of the arguments people make to defend poor work, the ol' "If Popular Writer X was writing this, you would like it." That strikes me as a sort of defense that one defending AJ Lieberman would use, because his work is very reminscient of other, better, writers. The differene is that Lieberman simply fails where those writers succeed, in that his story is not intricate and complex, it is obtuse and incoherent. The leaps in time that other writers use to good effect (I am not a fan of leaps in time period, unless there is a good purpose), Lieberman just seems to use willy-nilly.

And for what?

For what?

It seems like the last 18 issues are all leading up to SOMEthing, but we never really get to know what it is, and the ride just is not very interesting. Then again, he IS dealing with Hush, so that is a drawback right there.

The main plot involves something about a chemical that can become anything, even identical twins of other people - but it eventually breaks down. This is partially why I cannot neccessarily believe that it was Alfred who killed the guy in the previous issue - not when you have shapeshifters up the wazooo.

Finally, am I really supposed to care if Tommy Elliot WASN'T Hush? Is that really going to make me MORE interested in Hush? Hush is lame. Give it up.

Not Recommended!

Now on to the books that I did not read, so I was hoping you might have read them and could tell me what I missed out on:

Emily the Strange #1

Amelia Rules #14

Shadowhawk #4

Thanks!

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Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes' Omega and John Byrne's Action - Why These Situations Are Accepted

Yesterday, in the comments section, a reader pointed out a problem he had with Jonathan Lethem's upcoming Omega the Unknown project. RAB stated:

I'm REALLY not impressed by the idea of him writing an Omega series against the express wishes of the creators of Omega. Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes never signed away the rights to that character, but Marvel assumes it can do anything it likes because, essentially, "that's how things always worked back then" and it was just "understood" that characters were owned by the company. Lethem wouldn't tolerate it for a moment if his publisher decided to give away his characters to another author without even asking his permission...but because this is comics, he accepts that without blinking. If he loves Seventies comics so much, why does he not realize that what he treasures is the work of OTHER WRITERS, and want to do right by them?

And yes, you can say Marvel has some legal precedent on its side. But can't we ask what the MORAL question is?

Like what RAB says, it does appear as though the law is on the side of Marvel, but the moral question still remains.

Paul O'Brien had a nice piece on the topic here, but Paul ends the piece with, "That leaves the unfortunate Lethem, who seems to have had the best of intentions, caught in the crossfire between the two. Not a position I'd want to be in." The interesting thing to me is how Lethem would still REMAIN in such a position. And I think the answer lies in the recent reaction to John Byrne's pencils being (at times) drastically changed in the pages of Action Comics.

Here are some of the changes, for example.





Now here are some reactions from a comic messageboard to the question of whether this is any reason to be upset...

I don't really see why people are so upset about this. I mean Action Comics isn't exactly some personal indie comic, its a corporate product. Since Byrne posts his original pencils for anyone to see, people are free to enjoy his art unaltered, in addition to the touch-ups and alterations that Nelson has done in the published issue. Obviously Byrne is less than enthused that someone is altering his work, but he's being a professional about it, which I must commend him on...[snip off-topic stuff]...Art is altered by inkers and scripts are rewritten by editors all the time at both DC & Marvel. It goes with the territory. These are the company's characters, if they want to tweak the work of the creators working for them in order to get the product they want, they can do so.

and

Key words: "Work for Hire."

Hard to believe in these days of comic artist as rock star, but the fact is, in the work for hire world, the person writing the checks can do whatever the hell they want to your work and they don't have to inform you at all. Those are the rules going in, and Byrne knows it, and he's obviously willing to play the game. If he's cashing the checks and the books are hitting the stands on time, who cares?

Work for hire is what it is. There is no difference between work for hire as a comic artist and work for hire in any other field, except that the work for hire drones in other industries do not have a small but vocal band of loyal fans working themselves up into a dither about changes to their work. Did anybody care when some anonymous artist's illustration got altered by the art director before it was printed in an ad for some antidepressant? Did anybody care when some work for hire photographer had his work in the last Frederick's of Hollywood catalog heavily retouched without his permission?

The Work for Hire motto is "they pay me and I do what they say, and once I deliver it, it's theirs to do with as they wish." If that offends you, I suggest only buying creator-owned comics from now on.

I believe that these two quotes represent the prevailing viewpoint, which, to me, explains the main reason why Jonathan Lethem has no real problem (he may have a qualm, but not enough to NOT do it) re-doing the work of Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes and why Nelson has no problem re-doing the work of John Byrne, and why folks generally do not have a problem either, and that is the acceptance of "Work for Hire" as the universal truth of creation. If you do something work for hire, you are hereby forfeiting any say in the future of your work, and therefore, people will also not have a problem with any changes to your work.

Well, that and the SECOND aspect, which is that the prevailing thought must be that the change was a GOOD one. An acclaimed novelist doing Omega the Unknown is likely to be good (check out Dalrymple's preview art...). People feel that Nelson's changes are improvements on Byrne's work.

Therefore, I think the overall silence on the issues come from two places:

1. It is work for hire, and you can't complain about work for hire
and
2. The resulting product is good, and readers find it hard to complain about products that they enjoy.

Please note that I am not suggesting that the reaction to these events is GOOD, but I am merely addressing why I think this reaction has occurred.

Anyone agree or disagree?

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Comics are making me think again, dagnabit!

The interesting thing about Larry Young is he refuses to be pigeonholed. His company puts out intriguing, thought-provoking stuff that does not fit a stereotype. It also allows us to examine it in more detail than, say, your average superhero book.

Such is the case with Smoke and Guns, Kirsten Baldock's debut graphic novel, which I had to buy with my own hard-earned cash while others got theirs for free. After crying in my beer about that, I read the damned thing.

I'm not here to review it. I liked it, but I'm not here to review it. It has gotten some good reviews, some medium reviews, and some poor reviews. Marc Mason thinks it should be a movie. That's fine and dandy. I want to look at it in a different way.

As I said, I liked it. It wasn't the greatest book ever, but it was fun for what it was. I don't think it was worth 13 dollars, but whatever. Most of the reviews have focused on the artwork of Fábio Moon, since the story is a little weak. Basically, this book is all style, and that is what bothers me.

As a man, I'm far from the best person to lecture anyone on how women should be portrayed in comic books. But just as I wondered, long ago, whether women would like Filler (also published by AiT-Planet Lar), I wonder if whether a woman writer can get away with somewhat exploitative depictions of women more than a man can.

Let's take a look at some of the artwork. Yes, I'm perfectly aware that the art was done by a man, but judging by Baldock's picture at the back of book, she had no qualms about the art.

Here's Scarlett, our heroine:

 

Here's Scarlett and Annie, her best friend:

 

Fine and dandy, right? Right. Typical comic book women - good-sized breasts, tiny waists, legs that go on forever, skimpy clothes. And they're packing heat! A horny guy's dream!

Is this artwork any different from, say, this:

 

I would think a lot of people out there, and a lot of women, would find this offensive. Maybe I'm wrong. This is the reason that gets cited for why women don't read comics - because comics are the realm of lonely, balding, weird men who live in their parents' basements and can't get laid. I know it's a stereotype, and it's not true, but it's still the perception. My question is: should we let Baldock off the hook because she's a woman?

Some of you might argue it's all in the context, and that Lady Death exists simply to provide those same lonely, balding weird men living in basements with a date for Saturday night, but when the cheesecake is relevant to the story, it's okay. You can make that argument. However, Smoke and Guns is nothing but cheesecake. It exists solely as an excuse to provide scantily-clad girls to shoot at each other. As I said, the story is flimsy. The book is ALL style. There is no context. If someone asked you what it's about, you'd say: "It's about scantily-clad hot chicks shooting at each other." That's its raison d'etre.

I don't really think it's all that offensive. Of course, I don't think Lady Death is all that offensive. I'm just wondering. Do we have a double standard when it comes to females writing comics, letting them get away with anything in the sex-and-violence realm because they are women and women are in short supply in comics? (Gail Simone's portrayal of violence is examined here, if you're interested.) Is Smoke and Guns at all offensive? Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. It is, after all, mindless summer-action entertainment - think Speed without the Shakespearean dialogue - and maybe that's all it has to be. What do y'all think?

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Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - A Well-Rounded Pounded

Today's "You Decide" is Scott Pilgrim's Precious Life, the first graphic novel in the series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley for Oni Press (pick courtesy of my blogmate, Brad Curran).

Scott Pilgrim, in short, is about a young 23-year-old "between jobs" who is in a band and is forced to fight (Street Fighter-style) against the ex-boyfriends of his new girlfriend (note that Scott also already HAS a girlfriend).

However, that describes the joys of Scott Pilgrim about as well as "This guy pines after this woman while he ends up marrying another woman" describes the joys of The Age of Innocence.

No, the joys of Scott Pilgrim come from two, very disparate, places:

1. The sheer insanity of the fact that this is a normal guy who also fights people Street Fighter-style

and

2. The sheer insanity of how well O'Malley captures the lives of the young men and women that he is writing about.

The first is a suprise joy, as it does not come across in the book until the first volume is almost over, but the second one is the main premise of the book - O'Malley writing about a group of young friends, and their trials and tribulations in Toronto (I mention Toronto because O'Malley makes sure that this is really SET IN Toronto, not one of those books that is set in some vague city that is called Toronto).

The comparison that I make in the title is to Brian Wood and Steve Rolston's series (also from Oni Press) Pounded, which I wrote about earlier on this blog here.

Both books are about musicians in Canada who are unemployed and have Asian high school girlfriends.

What's amusing, though, is that the lead from Pounded, Heavy Parker, is a really big jerk, but when all is said and done, I think he and Scott Pilgrim have very much the same attitude towards life, which is a sense of "the world revolves around me." The difference is, of course, that Heavy jerkily embraces this idea, while Scott is an easy-going guy who tries to avoid ever actually saying as much, as it is just implied. He lives off the kindness of his friends, he really does not think of what sleeping (SLEEPING) with another girl would do to his ACTUAL girlfriend, but he is forgiven for all of this - mainly because he is the best fighter in the area, but also because he is so nice. Where Heavy gets by on bluster, Scott gets by on friendliness.

In any event, as I was saying before, the way O'Malley handles the characterizations of all the young men and women of the book is very impressive. Scott is our slacker hero, but the rest of his band (Sex Bob-Omb), his sister, his high school girlfriend Knives, his gay roommate and Ramona Flowers, the young woman he has to fight the boyfriends over (which is the "setup" for the following volumes, in a nod to Manga conventions, which is that each first volume opens up with a goal that has to be met, whether it be collect all the pieces of some gem scattered across the world, save a relative, or whatever) are given very nice, defined, personalities.

O'Malley's Manga-inspired art adds to their personalities nicely, with the subtle touches in their reactions and facial expressions putting across a good deal of the information that we have about their personalities.

The relationship between Scott and Ramona (she is an Amazon.ca delivery girl, they have a "Meet Cute" when Scott orders from Amazon just to meet her) is rich, and believable. O'Malley has an ear for realistic dialogue, and the interactions between Scott and Knives (the high school girl) and Scott and Ramona are distinct entities, but both of them portray how Scott can be seen as apealing to both ladies.

The fighting scenes were quite humorous, and filled with nerdy references (there's a lot of that in the book, like Scott's X-Men jacket, for one), and the setup of plot and characters is so strong that Scott Pilgrim looks to be a franchise that will entertain us for many more months (or years, however long this takes) to come.

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This Book Is Good - Men and Cartoons, by Jonathan Lethem

The writer Jonathan Lethem is soon going to be writing an Omega the Unknown project for Marvel Comics, with art by Farel Dalrymple (who is really good), so I thought it would be fun to take a look at his collection of short stories from last year, Men and Cartoons.

Lethem's interest in comics informs his writing, like his notable novel, Fortress of Solitude, and the short stories of Men and Cartoons are no different (for an extra insight into Lethem's thoughts about comics, check out this top five depressed superhero list that Lethem made up, it is good stuff). I enjoyed this short story collection as a whole, but for the sake of this writing, I am going to specifically address the two comic-book related stories (as this is a comic book blog, after all).

"Super Goat Man" is a strong story about a Super Hero from the 60s who was forced to retire due to his politics. The narrator knew him, as Super Goat Man lived in the same commune as the narrator did. Everett (the narrator) encountered Super Goat Man at three different distinct points in time, as a young teen, as a college student and as a college professor himself.

The message Lethem appears to be developing in the story is that of a sort of failure of 60s radicals. The hippies of the 60s soon became the Steven and Elyse Keatons of the world, as their hopes of making relevant change fell by the wayside.

So, too, goes Super Goat Man. His politics took him out of the superhero game (not that he was a great hero to begin with, especially considering his comic book was not even made by a major company!), and this removal permanently set himself apart from the rest of the world, as a curious oddity pointed to as a reminder of times when change seemed ever possible, as possible as a man with goat powers, that is.

Everett's first meeting with Super Goat Man establishes Super Goat Man's presence as a cultural oddity, but it is second meeting, in college, where Super Goat Man's past really haunts him, as he cannot even manage to save a stupid frat kid from a terrible fall. However, it is the last meeting that is, in my mind, the most tragic, as in the present, Super Goat Man has suffered to effects of his super physiology to age much more rapidly than normal (I am reminded of the theory, proposed in She-Hulk, that age is related to ones appearances in comic books, and when you are not being published, you age much faster), and at a time when he looks to Everett for some kindness, Everett treats Super Goat Man with the same level of derision that is handed down upon former hippies, as Everett reminds the decrepit old man old of his failure to save the frat boy.

Rough stuff. Thanks to commenter Iron Lungfish, here is a link where you can read Super Goat Man for free!

"The Vision," though, is just as rough without being as over the top, in a truly impressive exhibit of characterization and character interaction.

We open in the past, as a local boy is fascinated by an older boy who comes to school AS the Vision. He wears a costume, he has red dye on his face, and he reacts to people AS the Vision!! This is quite similar to the plot of the recent comic, Grounded, from Image.

The story proceeds to the present, as the narrator encounters the Vision and his girlfriend, and gets invited to a party. The juicy secret weighes upon the narrator's mind, and it is remarkable the way that Lethem allows us to like the narrator while still realizing that, while it may be natural to desire to embarrass someone with stories of the past, it is still casually cruel.

There is some good writing about role-playing games, and how discussing ones REAL life is often even more adventurous than any role-playing game. It is here, in a game of "I Never" (Say "I Never...something" and whoever CAN'T say that they never did that has to take a swig of alcohol) that the narrator's casual cruelty is up-ended, and he is made to feel the fool, in a revelation involving the Scarlet Witch that appears to show the reality of "actual" superpowers - for the "Scarlet Witch" appears quite at ease in reversing the odds just like the comic book character, while "The Vision" appears able to control his density, and allow the situation to wash right over him, just like the android Avenger.

It is wonderfully handled.

I think that Marvel is going to have a real winner on their hands with Omega the Unknown (Dalrymple art does not hurt either...hehe).

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You Decide 2005 (September)

It is once again time for the latest edition of You Decide 2005!!

The offer, as always, is as follows:

You folks out there all pick a comic title that you think is good (let's try to keep it recent, unless it is an older story available in trade format), and I'll try to hunt down a couple of issues or a trade (no guarantees I'll find them, but I think I'll be able to do okay), read them, and put up an entry about it.

It may not be instanteous, but I eventually get around to every title (or maybe one of my fearless blogmates will do a bit on it).

So a whole entry just on one comic that you think is cool...hopefully it will bring the attention of our three blog readers (plus the 9 other blog writers, so hey, that's TWELVE possible new readers!!!).

Sound cool?

If so, then you decide!!

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