Scouring out the weekly singles scene … in comics!
Writing this on Christmas Day, while everyone else is off opening presents and hanging with their family, I, having neither, am in bed reading comics in between sobs of self-pity. Good thing, too: I was broke last week, so when I picked up comics earlier this week, I had a massive backload of four-color treats to keep my mind off the feeling I’m destined to be a morbidly obese loser who works at Taco Bell and will be found dead under a stack of ESSENTIAL MARVEL trades.
How sad is it that on the holiest of holidays, the only company I have are comic books? My Christmas dinner? Macaroni and cheese on a pita. Kill me now, please. Or at least after you finish reading this installment…
AMERICAN SPLENDOR #4 (Vertigo) Sadly, this is the final issue of Harvey Pekar’s AMERICAN SPLENDOR series with Vertigo, and it’s a completely bittersweet ending. Pekar’s tales are like a houseguest you’re actually sad to see leave. Ironically, Pekar’s comic finally has reached the mass audience it deserves, and yet it was just a four-issue miniseries. (What’s wrong with giving the man a regular run, DC? SCOOBY-DOO is up to issue 110!) Well, SPLENDOR was great while it lasted and this one is no different, filled to the brim with stories from Pekar’s life, be it about a next-door neighbor who helps him fix his toilet, getting fired from a brewery or having a panic attack at a New York book signing – all wholly interesting and subtly hilarious slices of life. Give it another chance, DC!
ARMY OF DARKNESS #12 / DARKMAN VS. ARMY OF DARKNESS #2 (Dynamite) As I was reading this new AOD duo, I was thinking that this is what the panned BUCKAROO BANZAI comic should have been like. The team behind these series have a firm grasp on not only what the whole franchise is and should be, but also an in-depth understanding of what makes the character of Ash such a comically endearing foil. The stories are never confusing, the artwork is always crisp and colorful, the pacing never lagging, the jokes never stale. Most important, though: They never succumb to forced wackiness or whimsy. When, as in AOD #12, Ash dons a giant weiner outfit to infiltrate a Deadite cult, it’s not stupid – it works. This goes doble for DARKMAN VS. AOD, a great, super-spectacular team-up tale that perfectly captures the feel of DARKMAN and how maddening it is to deal with a dolt like Ash. Tell me you wouldn’t like to see this as a movie!
CRIMINAL #3 (Icon) Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ crime story CRIMINAL has just entered seminal territory. In the aftermath of issue 2’s botched robbery, Leo and an injured Greta take refuge at an old farm and get closer to one another, while back in the city, the gangsters who want their cut are getting closer to them. This is real edge-of-your-seat stuff, folks – brilliantly plotted, with real characterizations. You care about the main trio and, on the last page, when a gangster shows up at the door of a certain person’s house, you actually gasp because you realize the repercussions that might ensue. Regardless of whether you’re a crime fan or not, CRIMINAL is one of the five best books out there right now, and I can’t stress it enough that you need to pick this up, right fucking now.
FRIDAY THE 13TH #1 / A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET # 3 / THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE #2 (WildStorm) As the final entry on WildStorm’s troika of New Line adaptations, FRIDAY THE 13th, has some big bloody shoes to fill. Their first two books, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, stunned me, having been bored to tears by Avatar’s recent tales of stalk-and-slash mediocrity. WildStorm actually has risen these characters to new heights, giving them actual stories. So how does the Jason Voorhees entry do? It’s … alright. Not bad, by any means, but a pretty rote opening, featuring a group of kids chilling at Camp Crystal Lake, reciting the tall tales of Jason for one another, with Jason only appearing in the very beginning. But I’m willing to cut it some slack and give it an issue or two to get to the action.
On the other hand, both NIGHTMARE and CHAINSAW didn’t disappoint in the slightest. Talk about balls-to-the-wall action. This is what a horror comic should be like. In NIGHTMARE, the gung-ho mercenary dad goes into his daughter’s head and lays the smackdown on Freddy in a battle sequence that puts SAVING PRIVATE RYAN to shame – a great, paramilataristic take on the DREAM WARRIORS theme that kicks ass. Speaking of, in the last issue of CHAINSAW, FBI agents discovered an underground pit where the Hewitts have been dumping their bodies, just as a nosy crew of reporters shows up. Filled with the grungy underbelly that made the recent remakes so enjoyably evil, this comic adaptation is a worthy successor that wins points for eschewing the “teens in trouble” route.
JONAH HEX #14 (DC) / THE LONE RANGER #3 (Dynamite) Both of these Western comics are completely incredible reads that I’d call the best books of 2006. Every issue, I’m only more torn between the two. In JONAH HEX, it’s part two (of three) of the origin of Hex, which is not told in a linear “here’s what happened” way, but in enthralling, ultimately disjointed flashbacks that are harrowing as they come, as he faces child abuse and being sold to the Indians as a slave – as powerful as a Colt to the temple. Meanwhile, in THE LONE RANGER, we’re getting set up for something huge and the wait is maddening! Don’t get me wrong: They’re not stretching things out LOST-style to keep you buying with no end in sight; every single panel and word bubble in this title means something. It’s the way that serialized comics should be doing it. Gritty and ultra-realistic, this is one of the best character reimaginings, well, possibly ever.
And please, don’t forget to pick up these perennial SERIOUS ISSUES faves:
• SHE-HULK #14 (Marvel) Awesome Andy will leave you in tears as he leaves the law firm. –Louis Fowler
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