Scouring out the weekly singles scene … in comics!
Some say Grant Morrison’s BATMAN AND ROBIN is the best Bat-book currently on the stands. Others point to Greg Rucka’s DETECTIVE COMICS. For my money (and it is the cheapest of the three), I’ll put my $2.50 on the one spun off from the pitch-perfect Cartoon Network animated series. Although the tone echoes the campiness of the Silver Age, this Batman displays gravitas – usually as the straight man amongst less emotionally capable superheroes, especially the egocentric blowhard Aquaman, immediately the most interesting take ever on the much-maligned character. BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #13 begins as Batman teams up with the Silver Age-tastic Angel and the Ape and, after a falling tree breaks his leg (really?), Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Aquaman and Captain Marvel each disguise themselves as Batman to patrol the streets of the neglected Gotham City. It’s silly to be sure, but it’s action-packed and refreshingly free of the tired über-darkness that’s infected the mainstream DC universe over the last decade. Also refreshing is its done-in-one structure: a complete story in 22 pages with no need to buy 17 other books at the same time to keep up with its cosmic ramifications. It’s a shame that this title is ghettoized by the DC Kids label, since this is the stuff that mainstream comics used to be back in the day, and should be appreciated by 40-year-old fanboys as much as (if not more than) the targeted 8-year-old future fanboy.
After an unfortunate detour into mediocre photo-referencing from a fill-in artist in the previous issue, the better-every-issue Deal Eaglesham is back in FANTASTIC FOUR #575, giving readers massive images like Mole Man descending on the outstretched tongue of a giant underworld creature, the corpse of a dead future Galactus, the gates of the underground abandoned city of the High Evolutionary, and the massive biceps of the newly butched-up Reed Richards. Six issues into their revitalizing run, Eaglesham and visionary writer Jonathan Hickman have shaken the conceptual cobwebs off the “World’s Greatest Comic Magazine,” and breathed new life into characters who’ve been adventuring for almost 50 years. If there’s one problem, it’s the feeling that three issues of story have been condensed into its 22 pages — ironic, considering the usual glacially-paced deconstruction of modern mainstream storytelling. Hickman’s got so many big ideas going that it feels a shame for Marvel not to give them more space for exploration.
And the award for the most smartass kids comic in history goes to Chris Giarrusso’s G-MAN: CAPE CRISIS #5, which has just finished its run. G-Man is a kid superhero who’s constantly arguing with his older brother, Great Man, usually concerning the abuse of G-Man’s magical flying cape, which Great Man had been cutting up and selling as flying armbands for top dollar in a roadside lemonade stand-esque neighborhood storefront. This concluding chapter contains hysterical parents, deer whistles, a flying broomship with attached sofa chair and milk crate, and countless dangers as the brothers travel to Sky Mountain (a mountain floating in the sky, naturally) to get their powers back. Chris G. displays masterful comic timing in dialogue, as well as character beats, and his art echoes the deceptive simplicity of the linework of Scott McCloud (who, unfortunately, hasn’t produced anything this entertaining in decades). More adventures are promised, and I’m hoping we won’t have to wait too long for the next one.
SAVAGE DRAGON is THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS of the comics world, and that’s not an insult. Creator Erik Larsen has been a virtual one-man creative band for almost 20 years and is the only original Image creator who’s maintained absolute focus on the world that he’s built. Part of that focus is to keep the narrative moving and let readers decide if they want to jump on, regardless of whether they know exactly who the hell everyone is or what the hell is happening. With SAVAGE DRAGON #157, we’re halfway into the six-part “Dragon War” storyline, involving multiple Dragons (none of whom are exactly the character we know and love), bad guys turned “dragon-y” with infusions from Dragon’s blood, Dragon’s super-powered son and stepdaughter, and the public-domain superhero Daredevil, among others. It sounds confusing, and it is, but it’s also a ton of fun. As Larsen has honed his style over the years, he’s created something that defies easy categorization: elements of old-school, Kirby-esque storytelling combined with occasionally over-the-top, graphic violence and, yes, soap opera-style juggling of multiple characters and storylines. It works because his voice and brush are confident and unapologetic, and his work is never boring. —Brian Winkeler
I was apprehensive when starting the graphic novel CHICKEN WITH PLUMS, Marjane Satrapi’s follow-up to her best-selling (and movie-inspiring) PERSEPOLIS. Not only did the title come across confusing and possibly trite, but few cartoonists have avoided the dreaded sophomore slump when releasing material after such an auspicious debut.
Luckily, I needn’t have worried, because Satrapi has created a narrative that, while not containing the emotional power of her first work, in some ways improves upon it with a depth of storytelling that keeps the reader engaged throughout.
[click to continue…]
Spider-Man and Batman? Cool as hell. Superman and the X-Men? Ditto. But just because you put on some costume and fight crime doesn’t mean you’re all that. Far from it. Whether it’s in the funny pages (as old people say) or on the screens big and small, there are plenty of superheroes through the ages who don’t cut the mustard. Here are 10.
AQUALAD
As much as I always enjoyed Aquaman as a character (being a blonde, perhaps it was because he was the only high-profile blonde superhero), I’ve gotta admit that he’s pretty lame, although few others can pull off that orange/green combination. So to spare him any further indignity, I’ve decided to direct all that bad will toward his teen protégé, Aqualad. Queer name. Queer outfit. His hair always reminded me of the comic strip character Dondi. And I fuckin’ hated Dondi.
See him in: SHOWCASE PRESENTS TEEN TITANS: VOLUME 1
[click to continue…]
Timed to coincide with the current Neil Gaiman-scripted ETERNALS miniseries featuring the same characters, Marvel has assembled all 19 issues (plus one special) of Jack Kirby’s 1976-1979 blast of bombastic galactic goodness in one remastered hardcover collection, ETERNALS OMNIBUS. Upon diving into this massive tome, I am 10 years old again, albeit a 10-year-old who can afford to plunk down $75 (or even an Amazon-discounted $47.25) for an oversized book whose content originally cost $6.25 total.
So what’s the book about? It’s about gods and demons and giant, robotic “Celestials” from outer space. Various cover blurbs promise, “DEVIL IN THE SKY!,” “GODS AND MEN AT CITY COLLEGE!,” “HE’S…THE KILLING MACHINE!,” “THREE AGAINST THE TIME KILLERS!” and “…TRAPPED BY THE THING IN THE BIG CITY CRYPT!” It’s about Kirby drawing big guys with big fists, sexy supergals in shiny skirts, faceless robots towering over massive cityscapes. It’s about the King of Comics at the top of his craft, shooting a whopping dose of four-color smack straight into the veins of Marvel Comics’ true golden age. Kirby Bless America.
BIZARRO WORLD is a worthy follow-up to 2001’s BIZARRO COMICS, DC’s first anthology of superhero stories written and illustrated by alternative comics creators. Though a few of the entries kill the momentum of the book, most – or least – notably, Maggie Estep and Dylan Horrocks’ “Supergirl,” which lasts 10 pages but reads like an eternity, and Ben Dunn’s “Lantern Sentai,” a manga take on Green Lantern that, basically, reaffirms my utter distaste for the unreadability of the form.
The best stories cast the characters in situations dealing with the minutiae of modern bullshit. The hilarious “Ultimate Crisis of the Justice League” has the Martian Manhunter battling his perceived lameness by cracking and incapactitating or killing the other members of the JLA; “Legion.Com” explores the horrors of corporate culture infiltrating the 30th-century Legion of Super-Heroes, and “Bring Your Kids to Work Day” is another Justice League yarn featuring the bored, tweener children of the heroes and villains who’d rather play with their Gameboys than fight each other.
The anarchic spirit of classic Mad magazine runs through the veins of these BIZARRO books, and my only hope with future editions is that they reject any stories that ain’t funny, ‘cause these indie folks spend enough time mopedly navel-gazing in their own books.
Speaking of mopey navel-gazing, my favorite publisher Drawn & Quarterly has released DRAWN & QUARTERLY SHOWCASE: NO. 4 in their series which showcases up-and-coming alternative talent. This one, like the previous three, is a mixed but gorgeous bag.
Gabrielle Bell’s lead story of an art student’s relationship with a famous sculptor and his neglected son starts moderately interestingly, but devolves into a subpar episode of SIX FEET UNDER. Martin Cendreda’s two-color “Dog Days” is a slightly sweet, slightly spooky, ultimately inert tale of kids and dogs and a Filipino barber shop on a hot summer day.
The final story is by Dan Zettwoch (who also provides art for the cover and endpapers), and he’s the true find of the collection. His two-color, historical fiction “Won’t Be Licked! The Great ’37 Flood in Louisville” combines elements of Chris Ware (densely structured layouts highlighting mechanical details), Seth (early/mid-20th-century sociology) and Joe Matt (slightly cartoonish-looking characters in realistic surroundings). Though the story does drag on slightly, it’s an engaging slice of historical fiction, expertly told, and it’s gotten me very interested in Zettwoch’s future work. –Brian Winkeler
Buy it at Amazon.
Discuss it in our forums.
MISS EARLIER INSTALLMENTS OF ‘PANEL DISCUSSION’? REGASM THESE:
• PANEL DISCUSSION >> 1.06
• PANEL DISCUSSION >> 9.05
Imagine if Cathy Guisewite got breast cancer. Then imagine that she hired a seventh-grade girl to illustrate the comic strip in her place. Then take away all the jokes. The end result will be something not unlike Miriam Engelberg’s CANCER MADE ME A SHALLOWER PERSON: A MEMOIR IN COMICS.
Full disclosure before I continue with this review: I’m probably not the target audience. I’m a man. I don’t have breast cancer. And I have a high standard for “comic” literature.
In her introduction, Engelberg name-checks Harvey Pekar, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Mary Fleener and Lynda Barry. The big difference is that Pekar knows he can’t draw, so he hires true comic artists to do the work, while the others are legitimate artists – Barry’s art is primitive, to be sure, but its power is in the storytelling and craft. Engelberg, on the other hand, is apparently someone who believes she can draw, and has convinced her publisher of this, but she can’t. Which wouldn’t be a problem if this were the riotously funny, emotionally raw comics memoir I was expecting from the title.
Instead, it’s surprisingly vanilla; a sad but safe read for those whose lives are deeply affected by Meredith Viera replacing Katie Couric on TODAY. There are opportunities for great jokes, such as her annoyance with Dina, the overly cheerful, fundamentalist Christian lab tech with a sock puppet named Cheer-Up Kitty, but you’ve already written a funnier sequence in your head than what Engelberg gives us. Perhaps she doesn’t want to offend potential readers who are just like Dina, and that, as well as her inability to set up and deliver a truly effective joke, is the book’s downfall, not to mention the vast superiority of similarly themed books, notably Brian Fies’ Eisner Award-winning MOM’S CANCER.
I’m sure this book might be an entertaining, inspirational read for those in its target (whose only experience with comics is the aforementioned Guisewite), but for readers like me, it’s Amateur Hour at the Cancer Comics Café. –Brian Winkeler
Buy it at Amazon.
Discuss it in our forums.
