Sean Maher's Quality Control

Fare Thee Well, Gone Away

2006-09-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

It ain't workin'.

No way I can balance this blog against everything else I'm juggling, and I've had too much fun doing it to just leave it lying here like the toy I'm done playing with. The velvetine rabbit, alone in the corner, watching the boy play with all his shiny new toys? No way.

So I'm closing up shop. For now.

Much love to everyone who helped me out, sent me comics to review, commented on the blog, busted my balls, linked back to me, or made good comics while I was working on this. I didn't cover nearly the monumental stack of awesome product that came out while I was working on Quality Control.

Treat yourselves well and enjoy every sandwich. I'll see y'all up the road a piece.

A few more nibbles

2006-09-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

Much love to Mark Fossen for cluing me in to Action Comics and Busiek's current run on the title. I'm so gay for Superman comics right now it's like I don't recognize myself - since when do I give two shits about feckin' Superman, for cryin' out loud?

So when I went to the Isotope this afternoon, I found no new comics (because, dumbass, Monday holidays mean Thursday comics, duh), so I caught up on Action Comics as well as nabbing the second issue of Wasteland (which I've been told was a big improvement over the first) and the first issue of Phonogram (which Ash loved so much).

*****

Does anyone else here dig The Roots?

You know you can see 'em at Rasputin Music this Saturday? That's the one over in Berkeley. One o'clock in the afternoon. It's unclear to me if they're performing or just signing, but what the hell, eh? If you're in the neighborhood...

*****

Two places to eat pizza here in San Francisco that are awesome:

Patxi's Chicago Pizza - apparently I didn't know a damn thing about Chicago-style pizza, because I never really cared for it. But when James and Jared swore up and down it would be a religious experience, I had to belly up, and goddamn, that's a nice pie. Several layers of cheese and toppings in a pizza about two inches tall, with the tomato sauce on the top (with more toppings). Awesome service, too. Well worth the money, but don't go alone, 'cause it's a shitload of food. They do have slices, but I think the fun is all in the GIANT FUCKING PIZZA they bring to your table.

EDIT: It looks like this, for Christ's sake:

and...

Milano's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant - where, last night, Molly and Ash Aiwase and Josh Richardson and his Chris French and I put away seven pitchers of beer, a huge order of garlic bread and a four-topping extra-large pizza for a scant fifty-six bucks. Tuesdays and Thursdays they sell pitchers of MGD or Weinhardt's (a personal fave of mine) for a scant $3.75 (used to be just $2.50!), and our waitress was awesome. Good times with good people, good food, good drink, good prices.

Long time gone...

2006-09-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know it for sure now: it's gonna be HARD to update this puppy on the regular now that I'm back in school. I'll do my best... but I can see already it's gonna be fuckin' rough.

*****

Much love to the dear, departed Steve Irwin. A lot of folks seem to've found it fashionable to crack on the half-crazy Australian environmentalist over the last few years, and while I'm not one to stand up and argue about whether he was batshit or not, I always found his show really damned entertaining, and I know he did a lot of good for the animals he loved so much. It's a duller world for his absence.

*****

I will buy the Punisher one-shot, People v. Castle, by Marc Guggenheim and Leinil Yu, for sure.

*****

The best comic book I read last week, which surprised me a little, was Doc Frankenstein #5. No real back-story needed, either - just pick it up and give it a look. It's really good. Newsarama's got four pages of interior art here, if you don't believe me.

*****

You know what? Actually, the best comic book I read last week was Rotting In Dirtville, which I discussed in advance over at the Civil War Survival Guide.

Don't have time now, but I'll try to put up a full review sometime this week...

Short version: you know how horror movies sometimes spend the first half of their screen time building the "normal lives" of the main characters, and it's excruciating to wait and wade through 'cause you just don't give a shit and you'd really rather just have the carnage begin? Well, what it the first half was really, really interesting instead?

Things Molly Says To Me

2006-09-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

"If you don't win the lottery, baby, I'll take you to San Quentin."

And yeah, she meant the prison.

Beyond that, the context is yours to imagine.

Thanks for bearing with the empty blog this week; I hope you enjoyed the Civil War Survival Guide, which was where I focused all my real comics love over the last week and a half or so.

I'll be back next week. Be good to yourselves.

The Best Week

2006-08-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Ugh. The comics internet is leaving a bad taste in my mouth today.

So here's a dose of my own personal mouthwash.

Ash and I are having a good time, for sure.

*****

Oh, mother of God. The best week of my whole life is coming up.

First, from October 6th through the 8th, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival hits Golden Gate Park for three days of free music, including Elvis Costello, Earl Scruggs, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, T Bone Burnett and Gillian Welch.

Then, on October 9th and 10th, Shane Macgowan rejoins the Pogues - one of my favorite three or four bands ever - for two concerts at the legendary Fillmore, one of my favorite music venues in the whole city. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me, and I can't wait to see these guys, and Shane especially.

Then, on October 12th, the Hubert Selby documentary I discovered back in may - HUBERT SELBY JR: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow - comes to the Yerba Buena Center For The Arts, and I've already got tickets for both screenings.

I mean, God damn. How often does that much cool stuff happen at once?

PSA

2006-08-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Isotopean amigo Ash and I have kick-started the Civil War Survival Guide, a seven-day jaunt into the future as we suggest ways folks can spend their hard-earned comics cash and keep up with some great upcoming reading while waiting for Marvel Civil War to get back on track. Take a look, we're already having a great time.

Soldier Forth

2006-08-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to James and the crew for an excellent party last Wednesday, and to Darick Robertson for being such a cool guy and drawing such amazing work. You guys have no idea how awesome it was just to see the super-hero beatdowns coming to life on the page right in front of me.

Anyway, a great time was had by all, due in no small part to Smoke and Guns writer Kirsten Baldock and her heavy pouring hand. Kirsten celebrated a birthday on Saturday, too, and I just wanted to throw a shout-out her way for being such a classy lass. Cheers!

*****

Keep an eye on the Your Mom's Basement forums, 'cause good buddy Ash Aiwase (he of the fabled Pete Mortensen Challenge) and I have some plans for this week, which we'll be kickstarting later today.

And while I'm thinking on it, I wanna give Steve Higgins some credit and love for bringing the comics passion to YMB like nobody's managed since the Ash & Morty days of May.

*****

Good aul John Voulieris (voo-lee-air-iss?) has a great All The Rage column this week, getting me good and excited for Peter Milligan's upcoming work, "an upcoming Wildstorm series entitled The Program, as well as a new Vertigo series called The Bronx Kill."

Somehow, the Vertigo thing in particular has me feeling all juicy and delicious. Milligan's best stuff has always been under the Vertigo banner, somehow, and I can't wait to see him off the big name property comics and back on some original concepts.

*****

Also from John's ATR column this week, how bitchin' is this cover to Boom! Studios' upcoming Ninja Tales?

The overall level of quality on the "... Tales" series of anthologies has been pretty damn high, and they've maintained a strong balance of known talent, rising stars and plucky unknowns. I was a little iffy on adding the "Ninja" concept, but now I'm more excited about this one than any of the others.

Could also help that I just read the newest Usagi Yojimbo trade, too.

Review: THE BOYS #1

2006-08-20T03:22:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't love The Boys #1.

But I'm really not bothered by it, not that much.

'Cause, see, I was describing the book to a buddy of mine at work today, and I figured out why my read wasn't as good as it could've, should've, would've been.

I expected the wrong thing.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not taking the blame, not entirely. I expected the wrong thing largely because of Garth Ennis. After all, essentially the only marketing anyone's done for this book is to quote ol' Garth saying this is the book that will "out-Preacher Preacher."

Which not only seems impossible, given the scope and complexity and grandeur that was Preacher (still among my two or three favorite comics ever, so don't take me for an Ennis-basher), but seems a bit crass, a bit self-effacing and cheap; you'd hardly expect Neil Gaiman to say his new book would "out-Sandman Sandman," would you?

Here's the thing; Ennis has never written characters of the same depth as he wrote in Preacher, and it's that element that separates it from the rest of his body of work. He's written effective, often incredibly powerful stuff (my favorites including the first run of War Stories and the recent "The Slavers" arc in Punisher MAX), but the sense of intimacy between writer and character hasn't been the same; Ennis really seemed to have his heart in Jesse and Cass, and it's dumb for us to expect he'd treat any other characters the same way. You wouldn't treat your wife the same way you treated your first girlfriend, after all. (Unless they were one and the same, but that's clouding the metaphor, unless you want to bring in a parallel like, say, Stan Sakai and Usagi Yojimbo.) It'd be nice if Ennis could approach some characters in the future with the same loving hand, and I'm counting on the mythologized City Lights collaboration with Steve Dillon to answer my prayers, but in the meantime I've got to take Ennis for what he's currently trying to do, or I'm just gonna get myself frustrated and fuck up my own reading experience.

Anyway, here's the thing: The Boys doesn't look, on the face of it, like it's going to try to replicate the emotional character depth of Preacher; right out of the gate, it's looking like a much colder, crueler animal. Little Huey's "origin", brutally and breathlessly covered in the opening issue (and spoiled in one of Zilla's panel-du-jour posts) isn't really meant to make us identify with the character; it's meant to make us do a double-take at the page and, probably, give a nasty little laugh at his misfortune. So, for me, that means taking the whole "outdoing Preacher" expectation and dumps it in the trash.

And replacing it with a new expectation. One that actually makes me a lot more comfortable and confident being excited about this book.

I think we might be looking at a series that out-punishes Punisher.

Not in terms of human darkness, which is the most recent strength Ennis has shown on that character. I'm thinking more of Ennis' Marvel Knights run on the book, which was often shaky, but when it was strong, was a gripping, exciting, entertaining read like nothing else on the stands. Why? Strategy. Frank Castle's interior monologue and battle planning, under Ennis' pen, were great reading. There was a giddy thrill to reading how Castle had planned out every aspect of an encounter with his enemy, how he'd scoped out the site, set up the traps, prepared for every possibility, and - in a pinch - improvised with canny battle prowess. Made for a really fun time.

So, now, we're looking at a book in which ordinary people decide they've had enough of the super-powered heroes' bullshit and sets out to take them down. Which means that, even more than in Punisher MK (which at its best set Castle mostly against drug dealers and street gangs), we're looking at a team that's gonna have to use their heads and come up with really innovative, entertaining ways to kick the shit out of some super-heroes. The stakes are, I'll bet, raised as high as Ennis can imagine raising them. Remember how exciting it was when you first read Dark Knight Returns and realized that normal(ish) human being Bruce Wayne had figured out how to whup Superman's ass?

I think, once we get past the formalities and have the book firmly on its way (that is, somewhere between issues 4 and 7), we're going to be getting something like that.

And a book like that just might have some legs.

Especially if it looks like this:

So, yeah, now that I've adjusted my own approach to reading this, I think it's gonna be pretty damn good.

IGN, incidentally, has several preview pages of the issue right here. Please note that the preview includes the Little Huey origin spoiler I mentioned above, and it's probably more fun to just read the fucking thing.

Flippity Floppity Floop

2006-08-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

I want to thank Zilla for, probably, the single best blog post I've ever seen.

*****

New Comics Day brings some fun books this week. Of course, Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson get The Boys started, and Arvid Nelson and Juan Ferreyra launch the Dark Horse run of Rex Mundi.

I'm also pretty curious about Phonogram #1 (from Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie and Image Comics), which Warren Ellis has called "one of the few truly essential comics of 2006." Ten pages from the first issue are up at Newsarama, but I think I'll just drop the $3.50 to see what's up.

Joe Keatinge's work as a professional writer officially kicks off with Ant #8, though his work on this arc is mostly scripting - he'll begin full writing duties (plot AND script) with issue #10. Bring the pain, Joe!

Some usual suspects in there, like Conan #31 and Fell #6.

And Boom! Studios drops Savage Brothers #1, by Andrew Cosby, Johanna Stokes and Rafael Albuquerque. I got a chance to read this a bit early, and it's fun work - imagine of a blend of the smirking amorality of John Constantine, the good ol' boys country recklessness of The Dukes of Hazzard, and the punk rock rollercoastering of Rick Remender's Strange Girl, and you're on the right track. This three-issue mini should be a lot of dark fun. Some info and artwork are at CBR right here.

*****

Ah, excellent. Christopher Guest and company have returned. Waiting For Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind are among my favorite flicks from the last ten years, so I'll be looking mightily forward to the new project, For Your Consideration - apparently a send-up of the award show mentality in Hollywood.

Can't wait.

Darick Robertson, The Boys, The Isotope, and Beat-Downs

2006-08-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Ah, there's the press release.

So, yeah - in celebration of the release of The Boys (a new 60-issue WildStorm book by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, about a bunch of surly motherfuckers who go around kicking super-hero ass), Robertson will draw a series of existing super-heroes getting their asses kicked by a member of The Boys' team.

"So Mister and Missus Comic Fan, get thinking about who your absolute favorite comic book superhero is, find the sense of humor to put their name in the sentence: (character's name) is my favorite superhero, and I want to see him or her beat down by THE BOYS! include your name, your mailing address, and send your entries by Wednesday August 16th to isotopepromotions@gmail.com."

Me, I've had a good ten or fifteen ideas already, and I'm still getting surprised with some great ideas on MillarWorld, Your Mom's Basement and the Brian K. Vaughan forum.

This is gonna be really goddamn fun.

Comics events and Event comics

2006-08-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

Those who follow me around all the time will find themselves at the Isotope this coming Wednesday, hanging out with Darick Robertson and having a generally great time, I'm sure. Can't wait; and James' idea for promoting the in-store is brilliant one, among his very best, I think; press release should be up soon about that.

*****

Just wanted to give Dan Slott the credit he deserves, for a minute.

See, so far, the promise that the "pro-registration" side of Marvel Civil War would be given just as fair a presentation and argument as the rebelious "anti-registration" side has been total bullshit. Everyone's on Cap's side and we all know it.

But - gasp! - Slott really threw a wrinkle in things with last week's issue of She-Hulk (#10, of course, and probably the best thing I read all week) when Shulkie herself stopped a super-hero and offered to help her register, explaining:

"...It's no longer enough to serve the public. We have to serve the public trust as well. They have to know we're properly trained. That we're accountable for our actions. It's what they expect from their police, firemen, and E.M.S. technicians. And as long as super heroes choose to be first responders, shouldn't they expect the same from us?"

--AAAAAAND that's the sound of inescapable logic and pretty much all the air out of Mark Millar's tires. Which is a shame, because I like his super-heroics quite a bit, but the political slant he's so often fond of including in his writing is... not for me.

Dan is the man. Best issue of She-Hulk in a while, too.

Fact

2006-08-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

Next to my side of the bed is a clock radio, set to wake me at 9am.

I don't remember setting the radio station to anything in particular, but the radio picks up a station each morning that I've never heard of. It plays strange music, guitars, unrecognizable instruments, wailing and whispering voices in English and in languages I can't recognize. It never plays a song I've heard before, never plays a song twice.

And it only plays if I'm within reaching distance of the clock. If I rise and step away, it fades immediately to static.

Dos

2006-08-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

Just a couple links, today:

Joe Casey's doing whatever the hell this "plog" thing is over on Amazon. Crass commercialism though it may be, it's just the kind of rock-star move I've learned to expect from the guy, one of the most determined and balls-out personalities in comics.

Y'see, I love comicbooks. I think it's a perfect medium for telling stories, for presenting new ideas, for general communication. And, as you can see if you click the "See All 20 Books" at the bottom of this entry, I've written all kinds of comicbooks. From big superhero franchises to creator-owned work, it's all there. Hopefully, there's something for everyone.

You can find out more, see more blogging, etc. at another groovy little website... the infamous MAN OF ACTION site. There's a whole company full of writers over there, ready to entertain you in any number of ways.

It means a lot to me that you've transferred your hard-earned credit card account numbers into this site to buy something I've written. By all means, keep buying. I promise I'll keep writing.

*****

Also, I recently got my copy of Miriam Libicki's latest, jobnik! #5. But it's not too late for you: Miriam's a class-act and a sharp entrepreneur, and you can catch five pages from the new issue right here.

The cover to issue #4 was theretofore the best in the series, but this one is brilliant; how the hell could anybody see this and not pick up the issue to take a look?:

That's right - "Theodore Herzel. State of Israel. If you will it, Dude, it is no dream." Fuck yeah!

Do yourself a favor and take a look.

*****

EDIT: Mental note - check out the album Bulletproof by the rapper Hush, 'cause that song "Rock Shit" is pretty good.

Niggaz know I'm just that nigga from the dirty Murder Mitten
Where bullshit is forbidden and haters never forgiven

Music for Months

2006-08-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

Funny; I went to double-check something on Amazon, and suddenly realized that every week for the next month-and-a-half or so, I'll be getting new music to buy that I actually want!

See?:

Tomorrow, August 8th, brings the new Slayer album, Christ Illusion. I listened to some of this on the internet with James Sime the other day, and it sounds a lot like the Slayer of the late 80's, which is no surprise since they've got back their original drummer, Dave Lombardo. Now, personally, I enjoyed the new sound on Diabolus In Musica and God Hates Us All, but I'm also a big fan of the Reign In Blood/South of Heaven/Seasons In The Abyss trilogy, too, so I'll be pretty happy either way.

Then next week, on August 15th, Obie Trice releases his second album, Second Round's On Me. Trice is still my favorite, by far, of Eminem's "finds", not so much for his skills - which are solid, but not exceptional - as for his sense of humor, his personality, his delivery and his songwriting and storytelling. He's got something of an "Everyday Joe" vibe to a lot of his stuff, which may be part of why he's glossed over so often; rap seems to subscribe more than most music genres (these days) to self-promotion and larger-than-life personas. For those who find a lot of that shit tiring and dull, Obie Trice is a great breath of fresh air, and I'm just hoping the lukewarm commercial response to his first album didn't cause him to question himself and his approach too much.

Jason Webley swears that online pre-orders for his new maxi-single with Andru Bemis, How Big Is Tacoma, will ship on or before August 16th. But whether or not that's true, I'll probably be picking it up - his previous collaborative maxi-single thing, Eleven Saints (with Jay Thompson) was great. Add to that Webley's own description of this material as "Simon and Garfunkle meets The Muppet Show," and you've got me pretty well sold.

I probably don't need to bother mentioning it, but the new Outkast album, Idlewild, comes out on August 22nd. It's the soundtrack to the new movie, right? I think Brill got a hold of an advance copy or saw the trailer or something and said it sounded really jazzy. All I care about is that they're working together again; I really enjoyed Stankonia, and Aquemini is among my two or three favorite rap albums ever. But the big double-album where Big Boi and Andre each kinda did their own album and just released 'em together - Speakerboxx/The Love Below - didn't do it for me at all. Big Boi sounds too conventional and conservative without Andre making things crazy all around him, and without Big Boi's grounded delivery and storytelling, Andre lost his fucking mind and drifted off up into the ether. So, seeing them together again has me plenty excited, 'cause they belong as a team, if'n you were to ask me.

After that comes the new Bob Dylan album, Modern Times, on August 29th. Not sure what to expect from this one, but I'm pretty curious. Not even positive that I'll buy it, but I sure have been loving his first six or seven albums.

Audioslave's last album, Out of Exile, sounded too much like something your parents would be okay listening to in the car. In spite of that, three or four songs were deadly good, and the band's first album was fucking righteous. So I'll be excited still to see where they're going on Revelations, their third album, which comes out on September 5th. Word has it there's a song or two from this album featured in the Miami Vice movie, but I don't know if that's enough to make me go see it...

On September 12th it looks like we're getting a new Elton John album, The Captain And The Kid, which title makes the album sound like it might just be a concept album, at which Elton John is generally pretty talented. I've only gotten into his stuff over the last year or so, but I really dug a lot of the stuff on Songs From The West Coast, so I'm likely to check this out.

September 19th, finally, brings a new Will Oldham album, released under the moniker he seems to be sticking with for now, Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The album's called Then The Letting Go (or just Letting Go, depending on your source) and judging by the new single, "Cursed Sleep", it might be a little too busy for me; my favorite Oldham material came on the albums I See A Darkness and Master And Everyone, which were both very quiet, intimate albums, soft-voiced and gentle, and it's my hope that he'll return to some more of that material soon; this being his first proper solo album since Master And Everyone, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

(FYI, this is the cover art for the "Cursed Sleep" single, not the album. I couldn't find the album art.)

For those interested, Oldham will be on tour as Bonnie "Prince" Billy and will be playing the Great American Music Hall here in San Francisco on October 30th and 31st (Halloween!!!).

Wood and Iron

2006-08-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

The two big announcements from Wizard World Chicago that got me excited were:

Brian Wood's exclusive contract with DC and the new project it includes: a viking book called Northlanders, under the Vertigo imprint. Now, somehow, that just sounds awesome. Congrats to Bri and DC: I'll be looking forward to what you folks can make of it.

AND...

The new Immortal Iron Fist series, written by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction. My love for Brubaker's work is no secret around here, but I've also enjoyed a lot of Fraction's work in the past.

'Course, the immediate question to follow is Who's drawing this?, right?

Eagle-eyed John Voulieris over at All The Rage picked up the artist's own announcement this week that it will be David Aja, who's worked on X-Men Unlimited, Marvel Knights 4, the upcoming issue of Brube's Daredevil, and David Lapham's upcoming Giant-Size Wolverine #1.

--which looks like good news to me. I've got sort of a "newcomer" vibe from the fellow's website and resume, but he already looks like a strong artist with just the sort of style to make this work.

The Immortal Iron Fist, I'm predicting now, is going to be very, very good.

REVIEW: The Left Bank Gang by Jason

2006-08-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've been a fan of the Norweigian cartoonist, Jason, for several years now. The good folks at Danger Room Comics in Olympia, Washington, turned me onto his stuff (after their wildly successful pitches for Stray Bullets and Lucifer, both of which turned out to be among my very favorite comics ever) with his first two American publications, Hey, Wait... and SSHHHH!, and I was really taken with his imaginative use of such simple lines, such seemingly deadpan character designs.

Hey, Wait... was about devastation, childhood mistakes and the struggle to forgive oneself in their wake, a powerful book that really hurt to read. SSHHHH!, on the other hand, was more entertaining and funny, a series of surreal pantomime shorts that spoke the language of comics with a truly innovative sense of the form. He's released a number of strong books since then, all through Fantagraphics, but I think The Left Bank Gang is his best work since those two early classics, highlighting and maturing the emotional power his characters in Hey, Wait... bore and still maintaining the sense of whimsy and imagination that made SSHHHH! so distinctive and fun to read. If this book is any indication, Jason has truly hit his stride and can now work ambidextrously, flexing all his strengths as a storyteller within the same book. It's exciting to see, and it's a blast to read.

The gist is this: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound and James Joyce are all struggling cartoonists in 1920's Paris.

Yeah.

The first half sets the stage - the focal characters really being Hemingway, impulsive, brilliant and a bit cold, and Fitzgerald, who struggles with feelings of inferiority among his talented friends and an increasingly troubled marriage. All these men are fighting tooth and nail for their art, but still feel somehow that they're running to stand still. Then Hemingway comes up with a plan to change everything, and the book launches into a caper story that leaves a trail of destruction in its wake and permanently changes its survivors. Chris Allen finds Hemingway's motivation unclear, and there's some truth to this, but my impression - both of Hemingway as a person and as he's characterized by Jason - is that he's an impulsive, reckless man, careless for the safety of others and struggling to think of himself as a tough guy, a trailblazer, and when response to his comics-writing genius isn't as reassuring as he hopes for, he has to fill this need in other ways. The fact that he chooses crime, and crime that involves all his closest cartoonist friends, says a lot about him without needing explanation. In fact, that's often been one of Jason's strongest points as a writer of characters; they're rarely given much in the way of expository dialogue, and their motivations and feelings are subtle and open to interpretation, which makes his work rich material for re-reading.

Jason describes his own take putting these characters together in an interview with Wizard:

I had read a lot of books about Hemingway, several biographies, his memoirs from Paris and also the collection of his letters. I wanted to use all this information in telling a story, but I didn't want to make it a straight biography. By making Hemingway a cartoonist I got a certain distance to the real events and characters. At the same time, by making him a cartoonist he also sometimes speaks for me.

I prefer the early Hemingway when he had trouble getting stories published and was a struggling writer. I could relate to him in this period. I also like best his earliest novels and short stories. Sometime in his 40s he changed. His letters are all bragging about punching some guy out and how much fish and animals he's captured. He's a lot less sympathetic. So it was the young Hemingway I wanted to concentrate on.

Paris in the 20s is just a fascinating period. It seemed everybody knew everybody. Left Bank Gang is sort of a fantasy of this period. I'm not trying to give a realistic picture.

Using real characters in a book is a bit problematic. I don't think I'm being fair to Fitzgerald in the story, but Hemingway wasn't fair to him in A Moveable Feast, and the story is pretty much seen from Hemingway's point of view. Making Zelda a femme fatale is also a bit unfair, I guess, but it fit in the story. Again, it's Hemingway's view of Zelda Fitzgerald.

Highly recommended work, this. In fact, for those who follow such things, this was a "first comic purchase" for a friend of mine just yesterday; I started reading it on the bus to meet him for lunch, and when I showed him the summary on the back of the book and the first couple pages, he couldn't get to the comic store fast enough to pick up a copy for himself.

Fantagraphics has six preview pages in Jason's section, but I had trouble with the formatting of that page, so here are direct links to the images:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/seanmaher1/m1.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/seanmaher1/m2.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/seanmaher1/m3.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/seanmaher1/m4.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/seanmaher1/m5.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/seanmaher1/m6.jpg

Salud!

This week's stash - I'm on my way...

2006-08-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

You know I haven't been to a comic book store in like three weeks? Life is insane.

'Course, the reason for LAST week was pretty good. Sitting in a hammock, rocking in the gentle breeze, sipping ice-cold beers to cool off from the sun, reading an ambling southern novel, munching on sliced ham and swiss cheese and potato chips when I got hungry... man, vacations are awesome.

But now I'm back and probably looking at a whole lot more shit to buy than just this week's releases:

Detective Comics #822 looks good, though I'm hoping Paul Dini will get a regular ongoing artist before too long.

The Exterminators: Bug Brothers TP has me hopeful, as I passed on this Vertigo series from the very beginning but have heard more and more positive buzz as time has gone on. This is a cheap way to see how the book's been developing and I'm happy to give it another shot.

Dusty Star #1 finally comes through from Image, and I remember Rick Remender shitting his pants over how good this was, so I'll be sure to pick it up. The subject material - cowgirls and robots? - really worked well in Kazu Kabuishi's Daisy Kutter miniseries two or three years back, so it's got a lot to live up to, but I'm enthused to give it a shot.

Emissary #2 should be fun - I enjoyed the first issue quite a bit. Plus, it's writer Jason Rand and artist Juan Ferreyra, the legendary Small Gods team, which is a lock for me.

Invincible #34 hopefully keeps up the great gust of life this book has hit over the last two or three issues. Really enjoying this book these days, a lot. Comes out with Image's other fantastic super-hero book, Noble Causes #22.

Punisher MAX #36 wraps up the Barracuda storyarc, and it'll be fun to see how we'll get to the opening scene from the arc (two words: feeding frenzy) from here.

Archaia Studio Press brings us David Petersen's Mouse Guard #4, which is probably the book I'm most excited about this week. It's no secret how much I love this friggin' series. (Also, there's an eight-page preview at Newsarama, for those interested...)

Kyle Baker's awesome Nat Turner gets its first two issues collected in Nat Turner Vol 1 TP, and while I'll be passing on it - already own this material - I'm looking eagerly forward to more of this story coming out.

Carla Speed McNeil's excellent Finder series brings out a new trade collection from Lightspeed Press, titled Finder Vol 8: Five Crazy Women TP. Is this the first collection from her internet work? A while back now I remember her saying she was ending the printed serial installments and just publishing OGNs, with the "chapters" or whatever being available for free on the Lightspeed Press website.

Neil Kleid's epic "Jewish gangsters in New York" book, Brownsville, gets a very very affordable trade paperback from NBM this week, and it's probably worth picking up. I haven't gotten all the way through the hardback I bought a while ago, but I sure liked the preview I got to read before any of this came out.

Jeff Brown really, really pissed me off with his last book, but I Am Going To Be Small seems to be a humor thing, and I think that's how he functions best - my favorite work of his is still Miniature Sulk, and this looks like it might be along those lines. But I'm definitely not buying it blind. Gonna have to read some, first.

*****

Oh, and I'm listening to a new musician I really like. His name is Bill Morrissey - I heard him doing a soft, croaking cover of a Mississippi John Hurt song and tracked him down to what many say is his best album, Standing Eight.

Now, that's an awesome name for an album to begin with, for those who catch the boxing reference. But the strength here is mostly the lyrics, which Morrissey delivers with a voice dried and drawn with alcohol and wistfulness. One of my favorite bits is the opening verse of the album, from the song "Handsome Molly":

I park my cab on Water Street
Waiting for a fare,
Watching young girls in their first heels
Step like colts across the square.
Fire on the ocean,
Thunder on the sea.
I think of handsome Molly
Wherever she may be.

Good stuff for those who like their songwriters to be storytellers.

Mel Gibson is a GENIUS

2006-07-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.tmz.com/2006/07/28/gibsons-anti-semitic-tirade-alleged-cover-up/

TMZ has learned that Mel Gibson went on a rampage when he was arrested Friday on suspicion of drunk driving, hurling religious epithets. TMZ has also learned that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department had the initial report doctored to keep the real story under wraps.

TMZ has four pages of the original report prepared by the arresting officer in the case, L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy James Mee. According to the report, Gibson became agitated after he was stopped on Pacific Coast Highway and told he was to be detained for drunk driving Friday morning in Malibu. The actor began swearing uncontrollably. Gibson repeatedly said, "My life is f****d." Law enforcement sources say the deputy, worried that Gibson might become violent, told the actor that he was supposed to cuff him but would not, as long as Gibson cooperated. As the two stood next to the hood of the patrol car, the deputy asked Gibson to get inside. Deputy Mee then walked over to the passenger door and opened it. The report says Gibson then said, "I'm not going to get in your car," and bolted to his car. The deputy quickly subdued Gibson, cuffed him and put him inside the patrol car.

TMZ has learned that Deputy Mee audiotaped the entire exchange between himself and Gibson, from the time of the traffic stop to the time Gibson was put in the patrol car, and that the tape fully corroborates the written report.

Once inside the car, a source directly connected with the case says Gibson began banging himself against the seat. The report says Gibson told the deputy, "You mother f****r. I'm going to f*** you." The report also says "Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he 'owns Malibu' and will spend all of his money to 'get even' with me."

The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: "F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"

The deputy became alarmed as Gibson's tirade escalated, and called ahead for a sergeant to meet them when they arrived at the station. When they arrived, a sergeant began videotaping Gibson, who noticed the camera and then said, "What the f*** do you think you're doing?"

A law enforcement source says Gibson then noticed another female sergeant and yelled, "What do you think you're looking at, sugar tits?"

We're told Gibson took two blood alcohol tests, which were videotaped, and continued saying how "f****d" he was and how he was going to "f***" Deputy Mee.

Gibson was put in a cell with handcuffs on. He said he needed to urinate, and after a few minutes tried manipulating his hands to unzip his pants. Sources say Deputy Mee thought Gibson was going to urinate on the floor of the booking cell and asked someone to take Gibson to the bathroom.

After leaving the bathroom, Gibson then demanded to make a phone call. He was taken to a pay phone and, when he didn't get a dial tone, we're told Gibson threw the receiver against the phone. Deputy Mee then warned Gibson that if he damaged the phone he could be charged with felony vandalism. We're told Gibson was then asked, and refused, to sign the necessary paperwork and was thrown in a detox cell.

Deputy Mee then wrote an eight-page report detailing Gibson's rampage and comments. Sources say the sergeant on duty felt it was too "inflammatory." A lieutenant and captain then got involved and calls were made to Sheriff's headquarters. Sources say Mee was told Gibson's comments would incite a lot of "Jewish hatred," that the situation in Israel was "way too inflammatory." It was mentioned several times that Gibson, who wrote, directed, and produced 2004's "The Passion of the Christ," had incited "anti-Jewish sentiment" and "For a drunk driving arrest, is this really worth all that?"

We're told Deputy Mee was then ordered to write another report, leaving out the incendiary comments and conduct. Sources say Deputy Mee was told the sanitized report would eventually end up in the media and that he could write a supplemental report that contained the redacted information -- a report that would be locked in the watch commander's safe.

Initially, a Sheriff's official told TMZ the arrest occurred "without incident." On Friday night, Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore told TMZ: "The L.A. County Sheriff's Department investigation into the arrest of Mr. Gibson on suspicion of driving under the influence will be complete and will contain every factual piece of evidence. Nothing will be sanitized. There was absolutely no favoritism shown to this suspect or any other. When this file is presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney, it will contain everything. Nothing will be left out."

On Saturday, Gibson released the following statement:

"After drinking alcohol on Thursday night, I did a number of things that were very wrong and for which I am ashamed. I drove a car when I should not have, and was stopped by the LA County Sheriffs. The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person. I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said. Also, I take this opportunity to apologize to the deputies involved for my belligerent behavior. They have always been there for me in my community and indeed probably saved me from myself. I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry. I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse. I apologize for any behavior unbecoming of me in my inebriated state and have already taken necessary steps to ensure my return to health."

*****

Please, please somebody tell me that video's on the internet somewhere...

Vacay...

2006-07-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

I'm hitting the road with the little lady for the next few days, so I'll likely miss updating for the rest of the week.

Jason Rodriguez sends me off in style with one of his best stories since Hooker Hand. Really, don't miss this one.

It's a bit of a shame, too, because I really wanna be sure and pick up Toupydoops #3 when it comes out on Wednesday. I've been having a lot of fun with the book and I seem to remember Kevin McShane wanting to use a quote from my review of #1 in the third issue, or ads for the third issue, or something...

Add to that the release of Jeremiah Harm #4 and War of the Worlds: Second Wave #5, and we've got Boom! Studios front-loading this week's releases with their very best books.

Of course, there's also the new issue of Brubaker's Daredevil, but it's not like I've been enjoying the holy shit out of that, is it?

San Diego MADNESS!

2006-07-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Image book that Joe Keatinge's taking over? Turns out it's Ant, funny enough. Erik Larsen tells us that "Joe is a bundle of energy and he has more ideas than ten writers. He's been chugging away on a top secret project for me, and I thought he'd be a perfect fit for Ant."

Curious not only about Joe's ideas for Ant, but also about his TOP SECRET PROJECT FOR ERIK LARSEN.

Neat.

*****

Image also announced some new books by Steve Niles and Nat Jones, The Tripper and Long Pig. I really enjoyed their work together on Giant Monster, so I'll be looking forward to the new stuff. I'm more excited by Long Pig, which "tells of a story set deep in the Appalachian mountains, of families who have lived, isolated from all of humanity, since the day their ship landed on the mainland," and The Tripper seems to have David Arquette and Ronald Reagan involved somehow, which leaves me less enticed, but two out of three ain't bad, eh?

*****

David Lapham on his upcoming OGN for Vertigo, Silverfish, due next June:

Silverfish is going to be a 154-page graphic novel, the same format as Dave Gibbons Eisner winning The Originals. It's an intense suspense/coming of age story about a sixteen-year-old girl from a sleepy Seaside town, who opens a Pandora's box when she digs into the secret past of her beautiful young stepmom. Ultimately she attracts the attention of a deranged killer who believes himself possessed by thousands of tiny "Silverfish" that live in his ear.

The main word here is suspense. I have a small cast of characters who spend a lot of time together trying to hide what they know and pretending to be what they're not. It's fast pace, grips you, and doesn't let up till the last page. (Well...maybe the third from last page.)

It's the first time I've done a long story like this and not had to worry about an issue by issue breakdown, so I can just run with the suspense and don't have to worry if a sequence falls in eight pages, two pages, or twenty pages. I'm trying to see what can be done in comics in terms of suspense and creating suspense even in the quiet moments when people are just sitting around talking. Comics have a different hold on you than in a film where you have no control. So the trick is to keep people turning those pages and becoming absorbed in the story.

My artwork, especially my inking, has really come alive in this book. It's by far the best looking thing I've ever done.

Color me juiced as fuck.

*****

I'm also super-excited about Mike Carey's upcoming Vertigo work. I think he's at his best working for the Vertigo imprint and the new books all sound great.

Of his new ongoing series, Crossing Midnight, Carey said:

Crossing Midnight is a Vertigo ongoing, obviously... with Jim Fern on pencils. The basic premise is you have two kids who live in present-day Nagasaki, Japan. They're twins, but one was born just before midnight and the other just after. That difference has a huge impact on their destinies, with the after-midnight twin being inducted into a world of supernatural beings and events which intersects with our own world. The aim was to produce a book where both aspects of the term horror/fantasy would apply.

...The seed of it comes from the fact that I've got twin sons myself... and I've always been fascinated by the ways in which they're alike and the ways in which they're unique and different. It was a natural direction for my thoughts to be channeled in, I guess. Just as my daughter, Louise, is fictionalized as Elaine in Lucifer. So here it was my sons, Davey and Ben, who gave me the initial starting point for Kai and Toshi.

...The reason for the setting is because we're using the folk religion on Japan as the mythological framework for the series... Actually, mythological is probably the wrong word: I'm not talking about Shinto here, but about a cluster of ideas and beliefs which is just part of the cultural background in Japan. The main strand is the idea that everyday objects are inhabited by individual spirits; [called] kami. These spirits are among our main characters, and the idea of beings like tiny gods with links to specific objects is very much our starting point. Yes, Nagasaki's relevant background. Only indirectly relevant, but we refer to it in the first issue. The narrator, Kai, says that the bombing and its after-effects have created a unique mind-set or outlook in modern residents of the city, and he ties that in to some of the decisions that his parents made. After that, we don't insist on it much, but one of the gateways into the spirit world is an arch that was ruined in the bombing and has been preserved ever since as a monument, the Sanno Shinto shrine. In the spirit world the arch is still intact. There'll be occasional references like that. It matters that this is a place where something terrible happened but people survived it.

How awesome does this sound?!

*****

Marvel had some neat announcements - nothing mindblowing, but what the hell are people expecting? They're Marvel Comics. The big announcement at any given time is just gonna be a big-name creative team on one or more of their big-name characters, right?

Me, I'm excited about Mike Carey's Ultimate Vision mini, with Brandon Peterson.

And, honestly, I'm intrigued to see what Alan Davis will come up with for Fantastic Four: The End.

*****

I really like Robert Kirkman.

And, frankly, I hope something comes of it. I'd like to see some new Todd McFarlane art and I don't think anybody's around who'd be better at writing for it.

*****

Also very excited about The Secret History from Archaia Studios Press. These guys are really landing on my radar lately - between this and Mouse Guard, I'm gonna have to start paying very close attention to their output.

Here's the skinny on The Secret History:

The Secret History (Feb 2007, bi-monthly, $5.95, 48 pages, Jean-Pierre Pécau (writer), Igor Kordey, Leo Pilipovic, Goran Sudzuka (illustrators)) is a story told in 7 chapters, each one more intriguing than the last. Four immortal brothers and sisters, four archons, are entrusted with ivory cards in the dawn of prehistory by a dying shaman. They are told never to use the cards together. These archons, four, leap through time, consumed in an epic struggle to influence and shape the history of Western civilization. From Moses’ challenge to the Pharaoh to the origin of the Grail myth; from the Pope’s extermination of the Cathars to Nostradamus’ travels in Italy; from the Spanish Armada and the Great Fire of London to Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt; and finally to the Angel of Mons appearing over the trenches of World War I: a secret occult history of the world told in seven chapters. Mature Readers for graphic violence and nudity.

How pimp does that sound?

*****

Graeme McMillan is darling. Plus he's got a picture of the Fear Agent Car.

Heath Ledger cast as Joker?

2006-07-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

Huh. You know, I think this would work.

Still a rumor, it looks like, but casting Heath Ledger as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's next Batman movie sounds like an inspired idea to me. Why? Because it's not obvious. You hear the guy's name and imagine what you've seen him in and how that could be Jokerized and it doesn't really fit exactly.

Which is exactly what these guys are gonna need. Joker's been done perfectly twice now. Jack Nicholson hit the vicious-mobster-gone-insane note brilliantly, all sing-songy and morbid and seething, and Mark Hamill took the cartoony, failed-standup-comedian, hysterical-laughing angle and ran with it with amazing creativity and commitment.

So, both of those approaches to the Joker are taken. Any attempt to use those takes on the character will immediately signal a weak impression of a previous performance.

Ledger (and Nolan) will have to do something new. And call me crazy, but I think Ledger's got the imagination and enthusiasm to do it. I wouldn't have said that before - had him more or less dismissed as a stock-character pretty boy somewhere inbetween Freddy Prinze, Jr. and Colin Farrell - but Brokeback Mountain, it turned out, was a really great flick, and rode almost entirely on the understated strength and innovation of his performance.

I'm calling it early: it will (/would) be good.

DMZ and the Future of Comics

2006-07-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

Comics internet seems a little slow lately, don't it?

Funny, I can't really remember if there's supposed to be a lot of build-up leading into San Diego, or if they hold their cards super-close and expect the internet to go batshit after the Con. Clearly at the moment we're looking at the latter, but it's funny that so many boards and blogs are down-tuning at the same time.

Ah, well. No worries.

*****

Ooh, great scan, Zilla. DMZ is quietly becoming a favorite title of mine, and certainly my favorite stuff of Brian Wood's career. This moment was absolutely brilliant - quiet and underplayed while still tense and almost horrifying.

Also does a lot to establish how Matt's changed already. Great work.

*****

Marvel and DC solicits for October are online, and I'm really starting to get confused by David Lapham. I mean, I'm a fan of his in general, and Stray Bullets specifically is among my three or four favorite comics series ever. But his run on Detective Comics was godawful, somehow, and his Marvel work has really only been good. This month, though, we find him writing Giant-Size Wolverine #1 and kicking off an eight-issue mini with Azzarello, titled Tales of the Unexpected (with a Mignola cover!) and ostensibly exploring what happens to the Spectre in the wake of the currently-running Will Pfeifer mini.

What the hell happened to Stray Bullets? And what about that sci-fi book he was working on?

Ah, hell. I'll still be getting anything with his name on it.

Also of interest is:

a new Gotham Central trade (collecting some of Rucka's best work on the title),
The resolicited conclusion of Seven Soldiers,
A shitload more titles in the WildStorm relaunch,
Part two (of four) in Kurt Busiek's Astro City: The Dark Age epic kicks off,
The return of Desolation Jones and a new Planetary (nice month for Ellis fans),
The Other Side launches at last, and I'm psyched to see Cameron Stewart doing a Vietnam book,
The Amazing Spider-Girl gets a full relaunch, which somehow I see myself giving a shot,
BKV's Dr. Strange: The Oath mini launches (and may I say, I think Marcos Martin is a great choice for artist),
Kirkman's Irredeemable Ant-Man finally hits, and I'm really amazed by how hard this book is to pin down ahead of time - I've got no idea what to expect.
Aaaaand... Marvel's MAX line expands with Hellstorm: Son of Satan #1, written and pencilled by folks I don't know at all ("acclaimed novelist Alexander Irvine" and Russell Braun, who worked on Animal Man, which I never read), but this should be interesting.

Wow, that's a huge fucking month already.

*****

I saw Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest yesterday, and fuck all y'all: that movie was awesome. I wanted to write a full review but I'm sick of sitting at the computer for now, but expect some thoughts maybe over the weekend; I'm seeing it a second time, with Molly, on Friday.

Just... wow.

*****

Oh, and one little thing I wanted to share. You know those spam e-mails that have been coming around lately with these weird series of words that make no sense? (What the hell is the deal with those?)

My favorite one came in a couple days ago, with the subject line, "graduate school irreparably".

Food for thought.

Linky

2006-07-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

Joe Keatinge is taking over writing an ongoing Image book. What book is it? We're waiting on the press release. But drop him an e-mail and he just might tell you.

I'm psyched as shit. GO JOE!

*****

Jason Rodrigues tells the story of how he managed to get one of his dream writers on Postcards.

Harvey Pekar sounds like a cool guy.

*****

Happy belated birthday wishes to Jared, the Isotope's gentle-giant Enforcer.

I felt the tremors, but most of the city still seems to be standing. He has spared us again, in his mercy.

*****

Wanna tell Marvel what to do? Well, the trade department is asking what stories we'd all like to see in the "Premiere Hardcover" format. As a general rule, I think that format is bullshit, but they're talking about classic stuff, like the upcoming re-collection of Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt, all chock-full of extras and stuff, which is a whole 'nother story.

First on the chopping block, judging by its inclusion in nearly everyone's list so far, should be the Miller/Mzzuchelli classic, Daredevil: Born Again. It'd make a nice companion book to the Batman: Year One hardcover, don't you think?

Back to Back

2006-07-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been busy. Not on the internet, exactly, but life is good.

Molly just minutes ago got a job offer for thousands more than she was asking, thousands more than the outfit was even offering before they met her. FUCK YEAH. My girlfriend is unstoppable.

*****

We saw Superman Returns yesterday, at the IMAX Theater in the San Francisco Metreon. As a general rule, I won't go to the Metreon. It's too expensive, everywhere you turn is another goddamn over-priced knock-off store, the popcorn is stale, the automatic radar flushers in the Men's Room toilets don't work. But that fuckin' IMAX thing is, I gotta admit, pretty pimp. Never been in one before, and this was the first movie there ever in 3D projection, too. It's not the whole movie (thank God), but it sure added some goddamn pepper to the plane saving scene, let me tell you.

All told, I enjoyed the movie. It was too long and too dark, but I thought Routh was charming, Spacey did more with Luthor than I'd expected (his opening scene was especially fun), Frank Langella was a lot of fun as Perry White, and Sam Huntington gave us the best Jimmy Olsen I've ever seen, really made the role his own - he really balanced the need to appeal to the "classic" Jimmy Olsen stereotype with the need for a twist of his own on the character, and delivered 100%.

You know who was surprisingly good? James Marsden. I haven't liked him in the X-Men movies at all, but I thought he was really genuinely charming as Lois Lane's new squeeze, and his moments of heroism were nearly as powerful as Superman's, especially when the ship was sinking. The strength of his character and performance kept the love triangle from getting boring. Usually they cast The Other Man as being some schmuck who doesn't deserve the girl anyway and there's no tension as a result - we're just waiting for everyone to come to their senses and for the two main characters to get together and leave the guy in the dust. As the end approaches in this movie, though, we still don't know what Lois should do. Whether or not Kate Bosworth has the gravitas to hold up her end of this, I won't bother to say, but the balance of Superman against a "normal" super-man is one of the best, most resonant parts of the movie.

Yeah, it's flawed. It's a two-and-a-half-hour Superman movie in which Lois Lane has a little kid, for Christ's sake - who didn't see some flaws coming?

So the hell what? I had fun.

*****

Jason Rodriguez drew my attention to this Newsarama preview for Empty Chamber by "the Harvey Nominated team of The Lone and Level Sands, A. Dave Lewis and Jenn Rodgers."

EDIT: Jason Copland is the illustrator on the book, so the art here is his - cheers to J-Rod for the correction and to Copland himself for dropping by!

When Mouse Guard creator David Petersen dropped by to level some praise on the book, I got even more interested. 'Course, the work stands on its own, too:

Five more pages and a cover at the link.

*****

Then Rick Spears dropped me a line to point out this Wizard preview for Rotting in Dirtville, the new Gigantic Graphic Novels book by James Callahan. Looks pretty promising, and includes an interview:

*****

Finally, while looking around for a good cover image for this week's Wasteland #1, I found several previews (this was the best). The new ONI book from writer Antony Johnston and artist Christopher Mitten looks amazing. Johnston's already proven himself as a writer on books like The Long Haul and Queen & Country: Declassified, and Mitten's preview art looks really incredible.

The first issue is out today, a double-sized 48 pages for a mere three bucks. Count on this one being good.

*****

So, aside from Wasteland #1, what else is coming? Well, we've got one bit of amazing good news:

NEW SHAOLIN COWBOY! Ah, always reason for celebration.

"But the delays are so long, I can't remember what's going on in the story!"

Uh, so the fuck what? If there was ever a book where that didn't matter, it's Geof Darrow's insane magnum opus. Just put yourself in the moment and watch him fighting a giant great white shark with a mummy head and a sword in its mouth fighting Shaolin Cowboy with a staff that's got chainsaws on both ends. Do you really need context to have fun reading that? If so, look at the pages up on Newsarama and change your mind.

All right, so there's that, the penultimate chapter of Mark Millar's surprisingly-good Ultimate Fantastic Four run, the next issue of Brian Wood's ever-improving DMZ, the first issue of new-status-quo Fables, the climactic end of the first major arc of Strange Girl, a new Walking Dead, Logan versus Captain America in Wolverine: Origins, and the first issue of Mike Carey's run with Chris Bachalo on X-Men. The first issue of Brubaker's run on Uncanny was strong enough to keep me excited for this one, even though I thought I was all done with X-Men comics.

*****

Oh, and I stumbled on a neat series of columns called Sequential Smarts, by a dude named Eric Adams. This week's column is about branding, which is what caught my eye - hanging around James Sime and Larry Young as often as I do, branding is something I hear a lot about.

As much as I've already heard about it, though, there's always somebody looking to make a unique mark on things, and while naming his publishing company Gen:Eric Publishing and his book Lackluster World doesn't exactly fire me up with enthusiasm for his comics work (marketing step one, Larry's often told me, is a salable title), I gotta say Adams' writing is strong, especially in moments like this:

Whatever you think of me - that opinion? That's my brand. It's the little piece of your cerebral territory that I've marked as mine.

Now, before you run off and start peeing in the corners of people's heads for yourself, you need to figure out who you are and what it is that you are marking as your territory.

Nice.

I want to LIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!

2006-07-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

Forgive the lack of activity here this week; I'm looking for work.

What's that, you say? I thought you already had four jobs? What the hell is the matter with you?

Couldn't say, exactly.

*****

That said, Terry Wallis is my hero. You've heard about this, right? This guy got in a car accident in 1984 and went nearly braindead - into a "minimally concious state," lying there in a hospital bed making the odd grunt now and then.

News just hit that in 2003, homeboy woke the fuck up.

This guy's brain fucking fixed itself. It took almost twenty years to do it, and he's still nowhere near 100% - he thinks Reagan is president, he can't walk - but we're talking about someone who was this close to being a vegetable and dug himself out of it.

My dad took a serious moment with me last year. I guess he felt it falls to me as the eldest son to pull the plug in the event he falls into a coma or becomes a vegetable, and he asked me not to hesitate.

It's funny - people seem really sure of what they want in this regard. Most of the folks in my life are firmly in the Pull The Plug camp.

Me? I'm convinced miracles happen. Nobody ever knew Terry Wallis had a chance. Now he's having conversations and hanging out with his loved ones again.

I'm not without qualms - I certainly don't like the idea of being retarded, or sending my family into the poorhouse so my corpse can keep its heart beating - but when it comes right down to it, being alive right now in this world is all I'm sure I'm gonna get, and I have a really hard time turning my back on that.

Especially when there's a chance. And while it's a minimal one - doctors are comparing his experience to winning the lottery, and as far as I can tell from the reporting this hasn't happened before in recorded medical science - I'll take it.

*****

Lots of fun comics coming out this week, and I'm looking forward to the Isotope's Continuity Retrogressive Art Closing tomorrow night. Of particular interest may be the live art event Josh hints at in yesterday's AiT blog post, but I'll say no more.

Battler Briton #1comes out tomorrow, a new Garth Ennis war book, and those are almost always worth checking out (somehow I passed on the recent Nick Fury mini).

Good to see more of War of the Worlds: Second Wave coming, too. I still think this is Boom! Studios' best book, and I'm looking forward to the odd addition to the cast promised by the cover.

Umbra #2 continues the intriguing murder mystery and, according to artist Mike Hawthorne, ramps up the violence element, so that should be fun.

Dark Horse has a big week. Conan & The Songs Of The Dead #1 kickstarts a miniseries by Joe R. Lansdale and Tim Truman, which editor Scott Allie calls "the most savage version of Conan you're ever bound to see." I've been enjoying most of the Dark Horse Conan stuff and will likely check this out. Then they've got the 25-cent Dark Horse Twenty Years book, which is gonna have art from Eric Powell and Mike Mignola and, I think, Joss Whedon, everyone bouncing around the licensed Dark Horse properties and doing characters they've never done before. Should be fun. And of course, a new issue of The Goon is always worth celebrating.

Almost all of my regular Marvel books come out tomorrow, too. Punisher MAX, The Thing, The Incredible Hulk, all in the same week. I'm also excited to see the final issue of Last Planet Standing, as I've been having fun with that book, and I'll probably pick up Franklin Richards, Son Of A Genius: Super Summer Spectacular because I've been enjoying the idea that Calvin and Hobbes could have taken place in the world of the Fantastic Four. This one-shots once or twice a year are also pretty much exactly right in guessing how much demand there'd be for a book like this.

Ferreyran Gold

2006-07-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Juan Ferreyra's been a "rising star" artist in my eyes since the launch of Small Gods a couple years ago, and he's working with Rex Mundi collaborator Arvid Nelson on a ten-page story for the upcoming Dark Horse Book of Monsters. Actually, they're done with it. And the story is available in its gory entirety online, thank you very much.

You see what I'm saying? This guy is one to watch.

(Also, this series has been really cool, so I'll definintely be picking up the new one.)

Man, I've been having a GREAT week.

2006-06-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

Y'know, this was just one of those weeks - they come along every two months or so - where I just plain didn't feel like blogging. I even missed Fossen's blogging birthday, and Brill's actual birthday (which coincided with his blog's second birthday, which is weird - did you start blogging on your 21st birthday, Ian? Why weren't you just out getting drunk?) What can I say? A belated "cheers," gentlemen. I'm glad to have you around.

I watched the entire first season of The Sopranos, which I hadn't seen before, and now I'm totally hooked. I thought it was a little choppy and awkward through the first few episodes, but it improved consistently and by the end I was on the edge of my seat. Also, I really like how each episode has an actual ending - most of the TV I've been watching these days is in the J.J. Abrams mode, Alias and Lost style, where it seems like the whole point of each episode is to build to the cliffhanger ending (that never gets directly addressed in the following epsidoe). Giving each episode of The Sopranos a full arc, complete with ending, makes it feel more confident, more muscular and satisfying, while at the same time leaving me no less compelled to find out what happens next. Tony Soprano is a great character, which I kinda expected, having been a big fan of James Gandolfini in films like 12 Angry Men and 8mm for a long time, but I'm also really enjoying Edie Falco's work as his wife Carmela (who really grows as a character over the second half of the season) and Nancy Marchand as his mother, who remains a bit of a mystery - I really dig the ambiguity of her manipulations and control over the other characters, the whole "is she faking Alzheimer's?" question having no clear yes-or-no answer. The first discs of Season 2 arrive from Netflix tomorrow, thank God.

Several really amazing comics came out this week, too. Invincible seems well back on track with issue #33, which highlights what happens to Mark when he's truly desperate, and Sergio Aragones is typically charming, funny and thought-provoking in his issue of Solo. Will Priefer gives us an "aye, there's the rub" moment at the end of Infinite Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre #2, bringing the mini into sharp focus and leaving me excited to see how it'll end next issue (and what the fate of Crispus Allen will be), and Wark Waid finally gives the usually-backgrounded Cham an issue to shine in Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #19, wherein I realize I'm enjoying Barry Kitson's work here even more than in Empire.

But the real stars this week are Daredevil #86 and Lucifer #75.

I haven't written about Brubaker's run with Michael Lark on Daredevil for the last few issues, but it's a surety now: this is, without question, the best book Marvel Comics is publishing. I wondered over the last year or so what happened to the Ed Brubaker who wrote Sleeper - the guy who wrote episodic, cliffhanger single issues that still stood on their own and told their own story, the guy who could make things worse and worse for his protagonists while strengthening and exploring their character with every single issue. He's back, now. I mean, hey, I enjoyed Captain America - but I love Daredevil. Every issue seems like it's running at breakneck speed, and yet still feels like a dense, thoughtful read. It's this weird balance, the ongoing arc against the single issue, the cliffhanger against the conclusion, the action and eye-candy against the characterization, that Ed Brubaker has really mastered over the last few years. Nobody around right now writes with the same sense of craft. All of this is on display in DD #86, along with what looks to me like the best artwork of Michael Lark's already-impressive career. Truly spectacular comics.

At the same time, I need to take a moment of silence here. With Lucifer #75, there's a real sense that an era has come to an end. Comparing this series with its parent book, Sandman, is problematic, because it's always been its own beast, with its own ambitions and style, but at the end of the day I have to say I've preferred Lucifer to any fantasy comic I've ever read. The ending only solidifies this, closing with the very conversation we've all been waiting for and highlighting everything I've enjoyed about Mike Carey's brilliant characterization of Samael while at the same time drawing more shadows across him, answering some questions and making some judgements on the character and creating even more mystery and curiosity at the same time. This is the perfect coda to an unparalleled epic, and the final page of story leaves me swirling: thoughtful, excited, melancholy, satisfied, curious... somehow, though, more than anything, I feel like I'm in on something. As if, in reading the tale and truly immersing myself in the story, I've witnessed something real and profound, something of true impact and moment. Only the most potent and intelligent fiction can do this to us. And while I'm really very sad to see the series go, this is exactly how it needed to end, and I'm grateful to everyone involved in bringing this story to me.

Cheers to Mike Carey, to Peter Gross, to Ryan Kelly and Dean Ormstrom, to Karen Berger, Vertigo and DC Comics, to everyone involved in putting Lucifer together. You've brought me one of the most amazing reading experiences of my life, and I raise my glass in gratitude.

News, old and new

2006-06-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm full of old news lately, but hell - it's never a bad time for those funny comic book covers. "Superman Is a Dick", aka Superdickery.com, has really brought some light in my life and now it's time to share a couple favorites.

Jesus CHRIST! What sick fucker actually drew Spidey getting power-fisted by a villain?!

*****

I discovered another super-cool website yesterday, while searching for guitar tabs for "City Boy" by Keb' Mo' (which I found). It's the Acoustic Player Magazine online forums, full of guitar players of all shapes and sizes, asking questions and helping other folks out and just generally creating an awesome resource for anyone interested in the instrument.

In particular I wanna give a shout-out to Doug "Little Brother" Jones, who not only answered somebody's question about how to play the song with a full tablature, but made a home video (which he posted for download) that showed him giving a mini-lesson on how to play the song with a couple different picking styles.

Turns out he's got a website with a whole bunch more guitar lessons and MP3 files and such, and if any of the rest of his lessons are as righteous as his "City Boy" lesson, they're well worth the cash.

Cheers!

*****

You know, I don't care what Graeme says - Mark Millar is a hell of a storyteller. One of my favorite things about Millarworld is the occasional story from his own life, such as today's adventure punching a fox:

Okay, wife and daughter out at the pictures and I'm downstairs two mins ago on a tea-break and I look out into the garden and see a big fox on top of the rabbit-run I made for the bunnies. This fucker's been kicking around here for a while and I've seen him sloping through all the gardens, but he's literally on top of the thing I built and the rabbits are screaming this high pitched screech I've never heard before.

Anyway, I run out into the garden and the fox just looks at me, not even taking off. This ain't the cute Rufus The Fox we know and love with a nice, shiny tail. This is a filthy flea-bitten thing and it's snarling at the rabbits. Instinctively, I just punched it really hard and sent it hurling across the garden and then chased it over the back fence screaming "Get tae fuck, ye bastard!" at the top of my voice.

Man, I'd love the opportunity to punch the shit out of a small animal with total moral impunity... but around San Francisco, there's no way I'd get away with it.

CONGRATULATIONS, EVERYBODY!!!

2006-06-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

Congratulations today to Neil Kleid, writer of Ninety Candles and Brownsville, among others, on his wedding today. In the spirit of the day, I will refrain from all jokes about it, including gay marriage jokes and "I fucked your wife" jokes. None of that.

Instead, I will simply send my best wishes to a fine writer and raise my glass to the pair of ya.

*****

Congratulations also to Jason Rodriguez, who apparently is engaged to a total badass. Anybody with a story about how their best gal punched a dude in the face has done something right.

*****

Congratulations also to myself, for learning that Sean Phillips has a blog with lots of art samples all over the place. Much love to Mo, queen of the comics internet, for drawing my attention thither.

*****

Congratulations finally to Marvel Comics, for beating their own record and announcing Ultimates 4 (Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness) before the last issue of Ultimates 2 has even been solicited.

I'll go ahead and sum up the response for you:

"Ed McGuinness? That sounds great!"

"Why the fuck are they telling us about this now?"

And there you go. Me, I think it'll be good, though I'd still like to see McGuinness do maybe a short run on The Incredible Hulk in the meantime.

Happy days are yours and mine

2006-06-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

Ah, check it out - dear aul Mo got herself a blog of sorts. Looks like she's archiving her weekly reviews for now, which is worthwhile in and of itself - Mo's always got some insight to share that I'd missed in my read of one book or another.

*****

Ah, it's a happy Friday for me: many thanks to Kevin Melrose for letting me know that Futurama is returning to television. That show's a long-standing favorite of mine and I couldn't be happier to see the cast come back for some new episodes!

*****

Joe Keatinge is Hunk of the Month. Truly.

Congratulations, darling.

Pre-Order Urger: Fragile Prophet

2006-06-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

Fraghile Prophet is getting some hearty attention. You'll remember of course that I called the book Best In Show for this year's Alternative Press Expo, and it's also recently been reviewed by AICN for the "Indie Jones" column and Elk's Run writer Joshua Fialkov.

Turns out it's in solicitation for August release, with Diamond order code Jun06 3245. It's a mere ten bucks and a steal for the quality of the story, artwork and production value. It's also being put out by an independent publisher, Lost In The Dark Press, so do your comics warrior duty and lay in a pre-order with your local retailer to make sure you get a copy.

Also, incidentally, I found an old Newsarama interview with artist Stephen Buell and some slammin' artwork from his first book, Video. Observe (larger at link):

*****

Fialkov is also over at Newsarama today, talking a little about the glorious ressurection of Elk's Run.

*****

I promised some thoughts on Umbra #1, the first of a three issue mini-series by writer Murphy and artist extraordinaire Mike Hawthorne.

I had no idea what it was about going in. Now I know it's a crazy investigative murder mystery (the victim is literally a neanderthal with a soviet bullet in its spine) with some really awesome plot points and some interesting characterization. Hawthorne's art is wryly subdued here, though I'm told the violence and action ramps up next issue.

How good is this? Even Graeme McMillan liked it. His Pick of the Week, in fact. His comparison to Rucka's Whiteout is pretty sound. I don't really have a lot to say that he didn't cover, but wanted just to give a quick shout-out to a really solid new book. Looking forward to more of this.

...Batman's head on a lance

2006-06-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

I have lied to you. There is no discussion of Batman in today's post.

*****

Matt Fraction gets all pissed off at Chet Presley in this fine YMB interview, and also discusses wrasslin' scenarios and other things litrary.

Really, it's a pip. With Casanova launching today, the timing is perfect, as well.

Can't wait.

*****

X Isle #1 is out today (seven-page preview up at Newsarama, incidentally) and it's a fun read.

It's a fairly familiar concept - researchers at sea end up in a mysterious lightning storm that sinks the ship and lands them stranded on an even more mysterious island - so the emphasis here is on execution. And a few wobbly lines of dialogue aside (nobody should really be paid for writing, "I just wish for once, you'd stop being Dr. Keller and start being my dad," right?) the execution is great. We're given solid, interesting introductions to at least six major characters who all get at least one spotlight moment, the ambient creepiness I've come to expect from writer Andrew Cosby, the breakneck rollercoaster pacing I've come to expect from co-writer Michael Alan Nelson, artwork from Greg Scott that balances a sly realism for the characters and facial expressions and a more shadowy style for the elements that need it, and a cliffhanger ending that ties into the curious research these scientists were pursuing in the opening pages of the issue. Tight, enthusiastic work from everybody, and I'm excited to see where this will be going.

*****

Ed Brubaker talks about his upcoming Sean Phillips collaboration, Criminal, also at Newsarama. I can't think of anybody at Marvel more likely to really explode the creator-owned ICON imprint, and given how much I loved Sleeper (maybe the best comic I've read since I came back to the form) I'd say it's safe to call this my Most Anticipated Series Of 2006.

Really, I'm off my nut for this one.

The link also includes a 5-page PDF of the "trailer" Ed and Sean put together, which is a fun read.

A little song, a little dance...

2006-06-20T11:05:00.000-07:00

Has everyone been keeping up with the Frank Cho thread on MillarWorld? It's nice. Every now and then Cho drops in with something random, like an oil painting of King Kong.

[EDIT: Okay, I've tried like five times now and I can't get the fucking image to show up. Just click the link, would you?]

Nice little bonuses. Funny - I went to show it to Molly and scrolled down the page, for some reason speeding right by the naked-chick-on-a-cigar-smoking-gorilla statue, somehow thinking, Hey, I might get in trouble for looking at that.

"Wait, what was that?" she asked.

Shit, I thought to myself.

I scrolled back up. I held my breath. I grit my teeth.

"Wow. That's pretty cool!"

God damn, I love a woman who surprises me still.

*****

I had a great time hanging out with Jeff Lester of Comix Experience a week or two ago, 'cause he's a really cool, friendly dude with a lot of insight to share in any conversation, but God damn - when he sets his fangs to something, he's more determined and rugged than a pit bull and strikes faster and sharper than a cobra. I sure hope I don't ever write something crappy that he reads, because he's got some kind of genius for figuring out exactly why stuff that sucks, sucks, and naming it succintly.

(Actually, that might be a cowardly response: wouldn't that be a rare and invaluable talent in an editor? Ah, but that's got to be balanced a bit. As Harry Crews once wrote of teaching writing, "The teacher [and editor, as opposed to a critic] must hold up a standard of excellence to the student, and demand that he at least make every effort to meet that standard. But it has to be done in such a way that his spirit, his desire to excel, is not killed.")

Anyway, the point is that while I've kinda just been rolling my eyes over the Spidey reveal and all the fanboy rampage that's been frothing up the comics internet since, it took Jeff's recent post over at The Savage Critic(s) to really get me worked up.

If you ask me, what makes Spider-Man work in the first place is how Stan and team approached the whole Pete/Spidey duality. Unlike the relatively binary set-up of secret identities for superheroes (usually hero is lauded, secret identity is dumped on--the Superman/Clark Kent blueprint) which makes them such satisfyingly simple ego-fantasies, Stan made that duality more complex: the happier Peter Parker would be in his personal life, the more fucked up things would get for Spidey, and vice-versa.

...So, for me, the more that distance closes--as Peter's life and Spider-Man's life becomes the same--the less archetypal Spider-Man is. It doesn't matter if (for example) because of Peter's unmasking, Mary Jane gets killed and Peter becomes miserable again and the "And it's all my fault!" anguish is put back into the Pete/Spidey dynamic. Short of a big ol' reset button, a huge part of the Spider-Man mystique is toast. The only draw now is seeing if it's gonna be as big a mess as I think.

Well put, I says. I also really liked when he wrote that "Unlike House of M, this fucker moves, even if it's just from one fanboy cockpunch to the next."

Heh heh.

*****

I'm a little late to the party with this one, but have y'all read this recent Newsarama interview with Warren Ellis? Ostensibly it's about Desolation Jones, but it's got all kinds of other great stuff in there. After a while I got sick of hearing about cell phones and podcasts and took myself off his Bad Signal mailing list, but I sure loved when he talked about his artists. He puts a lot of thought into the visual end of the medium and it's fascinating reading, and plenty of it in the interview.

Also, I just love when people hate Los Angeles as much as I do.

I hate the place. Which I'm sure comes as no surprise. I hate cities I can't walk around. When I try walking in West Hollywood people in their cars slow down and stare at me. I don't think this is entirely down to my shocking personal beauty. Have you ever tried walking in Burbank? Have you ever tried finding somewhere in Burbank to walk to? Walking down Sunset is an exercise in existential horror. Santa Monica's only walkable if death is no hurdle. The air's the wrong colour. People put sunglasses on their dogs. It's a hideous place where humans are not welcome and those who stay suffer eight kinds of brain damage.

Tee hee. It feels almost like smacking around a kid with Down Syndrome, but I sure do love hearing people rip on L.A.

*****

I had a blast hanging out with James and the Isotope crew last week, as I wrote about a bit on Thursday. One thing that came up left me confused, though.

"Hey, Sean!" James said, with that glint in his eye and that slyness in his smile that always signal an idea he's excited about. "Would you go to an art closing?"

"Uh, a what?"

"An art closing."

"Yeah, sure," I said. "What the hell is that?"

(What the above response might say about my personality I leave to the reader's sensibilities.)

"An art closing," James said.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.

"Okay," James said, being patient. "You've heard of art openings, right?"

"Yeah."

"What's the opposite of an art opening?"

"Ohhhhhhhh," I said, trying to pretend that I suddenly understood exactly what he was talking about.

Turns out it's an idea spurred by Continuity, the new AiT graphic novel (advance reviewed here some weeks ago, and on sale in printed form tomorrow), which makes the whole thing come into clarity. What better way to celebrate a book that turns reality on its ear than with an event that does the same?

I've got no idea what to expect, really, but I'm pretty sure the Continuity Art Show and the closing reception on July 6th will be a good time.

*****

Good week, looks like.

In addition to Continuity, we've got the much anticipated debut of Casanova (for a scant two bucks, Fell-style, but double sized for the first issue), Giant-Size Hulk #1 (reprinting, along with the new material, Peter David's awesome The End one-shot from a few years ago), and a cool new book from Boom! called X Isle. I got a chance to read this one already and hope to get a review out tomorrow, but the short version is: crazy lightning storm strands scientists on an even CRAZIER island - cue suspense and complex character situations. Should be a good time, and I'm psyched about the three-dollar price tag.

Also, that's a hell of a nice cover, innit?

Hulk: Gray

2006-06-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

I read a number of solid books last week. Among them was the trade collection for Hulk: Gray, the most recent of the "color" series that Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale did for Marvel.

Loyal readers will remember that Hulk is, maybe, my favorite of Marvel's super-heroes. Largely, I think this is because Hulk is not a hero, at all. He's a child, a dangerous one, as given to lashing out in anger and accidentally harming his own loved ones as he is to accidentally finding himself on the "good guy" side of a brawl against the Abomination.

Somehow, this makes the Hulk a more personal character for me than, say, Captain America. The Hulk is a very psychological, emotionally-driven character concept. Bruce Banner lives with the constant fear that his emotions will become stronger than he can control rationally, something I think a lot of us can identify with; how many mistakes have we made in our lives, at just those times when we allowed our emotions reign over our reason? "You always hurt the ones you love," that sort of thing. At the same time, those moments when your heart is beating out of your chest and you're feeling something so strongly you don't even understand it... well, sometimes that's the best part of life. The delirium of feeling is a euphoria no drug can match, and it's often when we release control of that feeling that we really begin to experience life in the most rewarding ways.

And that's the real tragedy behind the character; Banner is a man of strong emotions ranging from love to anger to guilt to loneliness and more, but he's found himself leading a life where acknowledging those emotions, letting them anywhere near the surface, will literally turn him into a monster. And it's this aspect of the character I think Loeb and Sale really knock out of the park in Hulk: Gray, easily the best Hulk story I've read since Peter David's Hulk: The End one-shot several years ago (which, incidentally, is being reprinted this week in Giant-Size Hulk #1). In one particularly powerful (and strikingly quiet) scene, Hulk sits alone atop a rocky cliff in the desert holding a small rabbit, smiling softly and petting it with his finger. He thinks of the rabbit as his friend and knows, if only for a few minutes, the calmness and peace he's always wanted. But in showing his affection for the animal, he crushes its skull with his finger. "Ross say Hulk am monster. HULK NOT MONSTER!" he cries, smashing the cliff beneath him in his anger and grief.

It's heartbreaking, and it highlights another character element Loeb explores here: we've all heard Hulk saying for years that all he wants is to be left alone. But this isn't really true; Hulk wants company, companionship. In an extended scene between Hulk and Betty Ross (the highlight and emotional climax of the series), he struggles to understand why she's so upset. "Hulk protect Betty," he tells her, with no idea that it's his own actions that are terrorizing her. Of course, it's just as she's broken his heart by telling him so that General Ross shows up with guns blazing, and we see another facet of the Banner/Hulk tragedy: even when Banner falls apart and the Hulk comes out to give form and catharsis to his emotions, he still fails to achieve intimacy with anyone around him. Hulk screams into the thunder and rain that all he wants is to be left alone, but what we're realizing as his audience is that in his anger and rejection, he's confused the truth: Hulk doesn't want to be left alone. Hulk is alone. And because he is, by design, Banner's invulnerable and strong side - "Nothing can hurt Hulk," he tells Betty in a chilling moment - he forces the tables to turn, making his alienation a demand rather than a disappointment.

All of this is part of the basic Hulk concept, it seems, but I've not often thought about it in such specific terms; part of the strength of Loeb's script and Sale's haunting facial expressions is distilling these often neglected aspects of the character, and reducing the story to the bare elements needed to expose why the character should matter to the reader. It's a stylistic choice they've used on all the other "color" books as well (looking at Peter Parker's natural melancholy in Spider-Man: Blue and Matt Murdock's complex relationship to fear and failure in Daredevil: Yellow), but it's in fullest form here, making Hulk: Gray the most successful book in the series yet.

There's plenty of Hulk smashing and gorgeous Tim Sale layouts and character designs to talk about as well (why hasn't anyone ever given Hulk such ugly teeth before?), but you hardly need me to tell you about that, do you?

Friday Job, part the tenth

2006-06-16T11:46:00.000-07:00

I guess what I was happiest about in reading Civil War #2 was that Spider-Man showed up in his actual costume instead of that fuck-ugly new thing they put him in after The Other.

God is in the details, chillun.

(Also, the Patriot chase scene was pretty awesome, despite his jump from building to building being torn straight from the first Ultimates series. I'm pretty sure I like Steve McNiven's artwork even more than Brian Hitch's, honestly.

I wonder what he'll be on next?

I am a genius

2006-06-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

Oh, man, I've got it all figured out.

HOW TO HAVE THE PERFECT DAY

1. Get up early and go to work, but have it be the only day you've gotten up early for work in the last two or three weeks. Feel nice and refreshed.

2. Do a pimp-ass job at work, receiving compliments from customers/guests/etc. and management and co-workers alike. Make sure to share the love right back: remember, no man is an island, especially in a social job. Shake lots of hands, tell lots of people how cool they are, and bring morale right up through the roof.

3. Leave work at 2:30. Enjoy the sunny San Francisco afternoon.

4. Buy the week's stash of comic books. Only buy stuff you're super-excited about, or, alternatively, especially curious about.

5. Hang out all afternoon with good friends at the Isotope. Meet new people. Drink a couple beers and toast a good buddy you haven't seen in a while. Laugh your ass off at stories galore.

6. Hook up with your girlfriend and go to Chevy's. [That's right, I said Chevy's - I love that place, don't care what you think.] Eat a big fat plate of whatever your favorite dish is and share a pitcher of top shelf margaritas, listening to how said girlfriend turned things around at work today to have a great day herself.

6.5. Be sure to eat nearly to toxicity. Be full, full, full, and about half drunk.

7. Pay the check, leaving a hefty tip so the guy knows how much you appreciated the service, and take a walk up the street. Burn off a little bit of the load currently swelling the edges of your stomach. Kiss your girl on the sidewalk. Stop and realize how incredibly balls-out lucky you are. Laugh about that a little.

8. Finish the walk by arriving at the movie theater. Take out the free movie passes you got the last time you donated blood (how cool was that?). Use them to get tickets to Cars, the new Pixar movie, featuring the voices of two of your very favorite actors (Paul Newman and Owen Wilson, of course).

9. Watch an awesome movie that makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you learn, makes you just as happy as a pig in shit. Notice that Pixar is always pushing themseleves to actually do something new with every new movie.

10. Go home.

And that's about it. The rest is up to you, I suppose. But I'm telling you, as far as I've laid it out here, it's a sure thing.

I am a[n extremely lucky] genius.

*****

Lots of brilliant art previews around this week.

James Sime at the Isotope discovered that Hawaiian Dick: The Last Resort #4 is coming out next week and tracked down a good nine pages of preview art for us. My favorite is the title sequence:

*****

And Blair Marnell over at All The Rage has a few gooduns this week, including some great John Romita, Jr. pages from The Eternals, but I'm most swayed by the Phil Noto artwork he got from an upcoming issue of Jonah Hex, which may signal my return to the title. As Blair put it, "Noto is, for my money, one of the best artists not currently under an exclusive contract." Amen, Blair.

But you forgot to mention he's also doing interiors on the upcoming G.I. Joe / Scarlett: Declassified one-shot. I'm not generally one for G.I. Joe comics, but this cover may well sell itself to me come July:

*****

A big cheers to Tom Waltz, writer of Children of the Grave. Tom and his art collaborator Casey Maloney have been hitting the internet with a full media blitz for the upcoming IDW collection of their four-issue series. I'm not kidding - in addition to the Newsarama interview and art preview I linked a couple weeks ago, they've been on CBR, Comicon's The Pulse, The Paperback Reader, and recently hit a double feature on Silver Bullet Comic Books, with a glowing review here and an extensive interview here, in which ol' Tom says something mighty nice about one of his old-school supporters:

CJ: OK, so on the positive side then, how about naming a few of your favourite blogs?

TW: I tend to cruise a lot of them, but off the top of my head I’d have to mention my man Sean Maher’s Quality Control, The Great Curve, Comics Should be Good, Blood In The Gutters, Bags and Boards, Catch Da Craze... man, there’s so many that I like, I feel terrible not mentioning them all. The cool thing is, though, that most of the blogs have links to other blogs on their home pages, so if you go to any of the ones I mention above, odds are you’ll be able to find many of the others I frequent.

...

COTG is slated to hit comics stores in August, but can be pre-ordered from your Local Comics Seller now with Diamond ordering code JUN063212. COTG can be found in the June issue of Previews Magazine and is Certified Cool.

Cheers, Tom!

*****

Oh, I got a little insider gossip yesterday, and while he'd kill me if I gave away anything more, I'll just let you know that Larry's not kidding.

*****

Congratulations to Robert Kirkman on the birth of his son.

I mean, that's really cool.

But naming him Peter Parker?

It's better than Kal'el, I suppose. But I don't know any bartenders who named their kid Jim Beam, or actors who named their kid Hamlet, you know?

Ah, I'm sure you know what you're doing. Cheers, Kirkman, ya nutbar.

This Week's Haul

2006-06-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

Anybody seen the new nickels? Man, poor Thomas Jefferson.

Man, I don't know whose fault this is - whether it's the original painting by Rembrandt Peale, the design by Jamie Franki or the engraving by Donna Weaver - but I have never seen an historical American hero look so much like a sickly child molester.

*****

Looks like a decent haul coming in tomorrow.

DMZ #8 should be a blast, as I think the series has been getting better and better. Seemed weird how easily Matty got pulled out of the warzone last issue, but they sent him right back in so I guess it won't change the scenery too much.

Fables #50 brings the return of Bigby to the series, and I couldn't be happier about that.

Fear Agent #5 should be Jerome Opena's first issue, right? Looking forward to that, too!

Liberty Meadows, Vol 1 TP gets a new printing this week, and per my review of issue #37 last week, I'm definitely intrigued. I'll likely check this out.

Umbra #1 is a new project from writer Murphy with the brilliant Mike Hawthorne on artwork, and I'm curious to see what they've got up their sleeves. Not sure what the book is about honestly, but I'm pretty much a Hawthorne completist at this point.

Marvel Team-Up, Vol 3: League Of Losers TP - Yeah, why not?

Marvel Westerns: Two-Gun Kid is a Dan Slott book, which automatically throws it in my pull file. Can't wait.

Wolverine: Origins #3 - y'know, I'm gonna stick with it through the first arc, I think. It's been dumb fun so far, and even if it's not the comic I'm proudest of buying, at least I get some Steve Dillon art into the bargain. That buys a whole lot of leeway in my book.

Super Fuckers #3: ah, more Kochalka insanity. When last we saw these guys, Jack Krak had become a born-again Christian, right? This is always fun reading.

*****

Ooh, Jim Lee's Wild CATS cover (one of, uh, three):

Hee hee!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass returns!

2006-06-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars - this is my single favorite event of the year!

Ah, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Artist list for this year is "coming soon" but I already know Gillian Welch and David Rawlings will be there, and last year I also got to catch Earl Scruggs, The Del McCoury Band, Tim O'Brien, Emmylou Harris, and - get this - Doc Watson.

I missed out on Buddy Miller, Ralph Stanley and J.D. Crowe & The New South, but if they're there again this year I won't repeat the mistake.

That's October 7th and 8th, kids. Don't look for me anywhere else.

*****

EDIT: Ooh, Buddy Miller's producing the new Solomon Burke album!

And according to MSNBC, it'll include a song written by Gillian Welch! Damn, this oughtta be worth a look.

Bullet Reviews

2006-06-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

BAM! Tag #1 is pretty much the exact book I'd come to think Keith Giffen should write. He's been doing humor and horror independent of each other for Boom! over the last year, and this tale of a man undergoing a slow, painful zombification combines elements of both, though the humor isn't prominent enough to spoil the mood. Like Fossen, I've been a fan of Kody Chamberlain since seeing the Punks preview art, and while the style here is totally different I'm still grooving on the atmospherics. I'd like to see the coloring switch up styles a bit; there's a lot of full-panel washes here, and maybe they can switch to more detailed "inside the lines" colors to distinguish between Our Hero's zombifying perspective and the outside world looking in on him.

BAM! Liberty Meadows #37 was my first exposure to the series. Finally cracked after doing the Frank Cho spotlight on my Ladies Night post last week. I like how Cho takes the three-panel episode format to tell longer stories (like when Calvin lost Hobbes), but being that these are all published at once, he can also do full three-panel strips of quieter moments without punchlines, building subtle tension. Some of the big boobies get pretty ridiculous-looking in profile, but outside of that particular angle the women are gorgeous. There's a back-story here, but the thing was still totally accessible. Does that mean Cho's a great storyteller or that the previous 36 issues were really light on content and forward momentum? Maybe a little of both. At any rate, I enjoyed this. There're some cheap collections coming out (soon) and I'll be buying 'em.

BAM! Toupydoops #2 was really strong. Like Liberty Meadows, a series with a comedic gimmick that drives everything and keeps the book entertaining, while allowing the characters' more complex emotional lives a breath of air now and then to give the book a little gravity. Every bit as good as the first issue, and a bit of an improvement, actually, because we get to see creator Kevin McShane flesh out the characters a bit more.

BAM! Emissary #1 was awesome. Jason Rand writes some of the best dialogue around anymore. It's a wordy issue, but it feels rich, not slow. We're setting up all the pieces, meeting all our characters and getting some backstory in our pockets so we care about them going forward. Really, though it doesn't move the bigger story forward much beyond introducing some of the main issues at stake, it's a dense, brilliant issue. Juan Ferreyra's improved as an artist with every month since I first noticed his stuff in Small Gods #1, what, two years ago? Between his work there, his continuing run on Rex Mundi (re-launching with Dark Horse soon) and his stuff here, the man's a true rising star. The big spreads here - new territory for Ferreyra - are full of impact and shock and grandeur. Why these guys aren't both millionaires is beyond me. I was worried about this, not being much of a Jim Valentino fan, but I think it's gonna be really goddamned good.

*****

Happy Friday, kids. I'm off to go hang out on a yacht out in the bay, breathing the sea air and feeling the wind in my hair and calling it work.

No Time To Say Goodbye - HELLO!

2006-06-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

Just go read about Postcards today, my friends - that'll tide you over.

Oh, you also might wanna pick up Tag #1 by Kieth Giffen and Kody Chamberlain. It's about the experience of turning into a zombie from said zombie's perspective. And it's mighty goddamn creepy.

(Similar to what I understood the pitch to be for The Hunger, though I still haven't read any of that series. Word is the trade is down to under twenty bucks, though, so I'll be keeping an eye out for that puppy as well.)

Elk's Run has risen!

2006-06-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

The true seven soldiers of victory, then, are Josh Fialkov, Noel Tuazon, Scott A. Keating, Datsun Tran, Jason Hanley, Jason Rodriguez and Christopher Arundel - the fine men responsible for bringing Elk's Run to the reading public.

I've been apey over this book since well before the release of the first issue, having nabbed an early review copy and been totally blown away. In spite of a series of publishing misadventures, the book quickly established a fiercely loyal readership (comparable, I'd say, to those kids who never stop telling me to read Scott Pilgrim).

I did another big review of the third issue, loved the fourth, and eagerly waited for the rest. And just when things looked bleakest --

-- the announcement came!

New York, NY – June 5, 2006 – Villard, a division of the Random House Publishing Group, announced today that it will be publishing Elk’s Run by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon. The graphic novel will collect the complete eight-issue comic book series, and will give readers their first opportunity to finally read the story all the way through to its explosive conclusion.

For those just coming in:

Elk's Run is the story of a small-town militia. After years of peaceful insularity, the town of Elk's Ridge is rocked when a drunk driver kills one of their children while trying to escape through the only tunnel out of town. The town's brutal public revenge on the man finally spurs some of the children to reject their parents' way of life, just as the militia's war against the outside world is about to begin.

That's just the start of the story. The book's just been nominated for a staggering seven Harvey awards, and I'm psyched to see the creative team get the recognition they deserve, but I'm even happier just to see my chance to finish reading the story come around the bend.

Cash Returns

2006-06-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

Damn near crapped my pants on Saturday when I discovered this.

That's right. It's the new final Johnny Cash album. American V: A Hundred Highways. The fifth Rick Rubin production, which he says "may be my favorite of all of the albums in the American series... These songs are Johnny's final statement. They are the truest reflection of the music that was central to his life at the time. This is the music that Johnny wanted us to hear."

Get this: release date? The Fourth of July.

Goddamn right.

I think this is gonna really be awesome, too. It's built from the last recordings of his life, when his voice was crumbling, but I think that's gonna be even better. See, Cash always had chops as an entertainer, yes: the huge voice, the foot-stompin' rockabilly rhythms, the big anthems, the swagger, the blue-collar appeal. But he's not the only guy to've had those things; what really makes Cash a unique and compelling musician, what sets him right at the top of my favorite musicians ever, is the flaws. The frailty. That's something I thought the Walk The Line movie really captured - Cash made a lot of mistakes, wondered around most of his life just as lost as the rest of us. And I think he was always at his best when he was bringing that to the table, whether it was a tremble in his voice, a tearful line in a song, a sigh of relief and gratitude in a love song - it was the quieter moments that made the cavalier, shit-eating-grin-and-booming-throat Cash so powerful, because you knew he only made it to that confidence and strength by struggling from the ground on up. And it's my guess that this will be in full display on Johnny's final recordings.

So, yeah, I'm excited as holy hell for this.

*****

Joe Keatinge cracks me up.

Not only because I finally got to see him all dragged-out in 24 Hours on Craigslist ("Is that... that's Joe! Holy shit, he looks like fifteen years old!"), but also because of his Wholly Barbarian Blues blog, which kills me with posts like this one:

REAL LIFE ADVENTURES WITH REAL LIFE BARTENDERS #1

TODAY'S BARTENDER IS A CUTE GIRL.

BARTENDER: "What're you working on?"

ME: "(explain what COMIC BOOK stuff I'm working on)."

BARTENDER: "Comic books, huh? Have fun!"

ME: "(deepest sigh ever)"

*****

Wow - if Fossen made this much money off Mouse Guard, I wonder how much I could snag?

Nah. I'm keeping 'em.

*****

Heh - WildCats #1 is gonna have an alternate cover by Todd McFarlane?

Kewl.

*****

Make sure you check out Blair's column this week, over at All The Rage.

Yeah, that's Lee Bermejo’s Joker.

Pretty Ladies

2006-06-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

There's been some talk of sexualization of female characters in comics, and whether there's some element of sexism involved, etc., etc., and on and on - you know, the usual discussion, really.

But one thing I noticed was that most folks were pointing to artwork by notorious "cheesecake" artists - I'm not gonna name names, 'cause that's not what I'm about in general, but we all know those guys who draw the same boobs and the same big lips in the same pose all the time, and they do sometimes make you stop and raise your eyebrow and wonder if this is all in good taste.

But, then, y'see, there's the other guys. Men who draw women - beautiful women, sexy women, cute, pretty, glamorous, and so on - who really put some craft into it and, in my opinion, make comics with beautiful women look good. Both in an aesthetic and in a "your girlfriend won't slap you" sense. Today's post is a tribute to three such gentlemen, the integrity of their art, and the beautiful women of their imaginations.

Today's post is not entirely work-safe. It is, for the most part, but not completely.

*****

Tim Sale

Ah, Tim Sale. Nobody draws a pair of eyes like Sale. Here's one of my favorites, Selina Kyle (who's never looked as glamorous or sassy as she has under Sale's pencil) on the cover of Catwoman: When In Rome #1:

And something a little more sexual and alluring, here's a "China Girl" illustration he did for the ALBUM comic book store in fair Paris (prints available for $20 here!):

And for something a little more in the "cute" vein, here's a sketch Sale's recently posted on his forum for another upcoming sketchbook he's doing with Richard Starkings, of the character Vanity from Starkings' own Hip Flask:

*****

Frank Cho

Oh, please - like I even have to tell you. This guy is one of the most amazing artists on the scene today and his favorite things to draw, it seems, are monsters, violence, and absolutely gorgeous brick-shithouse women. All three of which are included in his Shanna The She-Devil series:

But I don't wanna sell the man's real baby short - I just picked up my first issue of Liberty Meadows this week (issue #37) and loved it. The series has at least two lady characters that I've seen so far, but far and away it seems Brandy is the woman Cho has always been in love with:

And, as you've probably already read about on Lying In The Gutters or the messageboards, there's Cho's recently-released art book, Frank Cho Women: Selected Drawings and Illustrations, the cover for which was censored for online solicitation and, if I remember right, dressed with a dust cover around the actual cover to allow stores to display the book lawsuit-worry-free. The "real" cover, y'see, was this:

*****

Sam Kieth

The classic. At least, in my life as a reader. I know the Frazetta influence is a big'n, but how could you do anything but love Julie the Leopard Queen from The Maxx?:

One thing I also love about the guy is his versatility; he seems just as comfortable drawing that pretty emo girl with the streak in her hair, that girl who's trying ta act all tough when she really just wants love - you know the one, yeah? She was in that Zero Girl book:

And on the stands this very week is Kieth's new book, My Inner Bimbo. I picked it up and - HOLY SHIT - that's a lotta pretty lady drawin's. The project looks to me like something about a fella getting in touch with "his inner bimbo" - natch - and one might guess this is how Kieth sees his own feminine side. I dunno, I haven't read it yet. That's just me guessing. But boy, the art is goddamn pretty.

*****

Happy Friday, everyone - hope the weekend treats you well.

Advance (Sort Of) Review: Continuity

2006-06-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Continuity had me worried.

Don't get me wrong - it looked pretty damn good. A girl whose dreams shape reality? So she dreams herself pregnant, and can't fall asleep again for fear of accidentally destroying the world or killing her baby? Awesome premise. Packed with potential.

But the drug thing kinda made me nervous. Blade Runner meets Fear And Loathing, was the pitch I thought I heard.

And I'm really not big on drug stories anymore; especially stories in that 2000 A.D. vein that this seemed to fit into, it just seemed like a bad idea. "Please, let the drug stuff take a back seat," I thought to myself.

Luckily, my dreams shape reality, too.

The drug thing takes a back seat.

The rest of it is really pretty goddamned good.

It's a character study, really, but dressed up as a paranoid sci-fi psychological thriller. After an opening drugs-n'-violence sequence that sets the stage for the closing scenes of the book, we're brought back into heroine Alicia's earlier days and take it from there, and it's then that the real tone and character of the story unfolds itself.

It's a book about being alone, about feeling strange and somehow wrong and dangerous, and struggling to pull out of that. Writer Jason McNamara hits on several different aspects of this challenge, addressing themes of alienation, friendship, responsibility, control, determination and invention over the course of an emotionally dense adventure story. It's a pretty relatable story, really - Alicia longs as we all do for acceptance and confidence and love, but fears that she'll be unable to control her own destructive potential if she actually gets those things. She can't let her guard down and relax (or, hell, enjoy life) because the moment she stops constantly examining her every impact on the world around her, she'll make a terrible, irrevokable mistake and hurt not just herself but those she cares for in the process. I'm reminded a bit of Spider-Man's guilt-ridden motivation as a hero and his "With great power must come great responsibility" mantra; the difference is that while Peter Parker fears the violence of others, Alicia fears herself.

Tony Talbert's artwork puts this emotionally exhausting story into entertaining relief, capturing the intense moments with gritty detail when the script needs it and adding some levity and humor when the story needs to lighten up for a moment. The action sequences are strong and the movement is easily translated, but what strikes me in particular are the character designs; looking at the page below, I think Alicia's facial expression is really sharp, and I like the almost primitive features of the drug-addled 1984 Big Brother cop, the result of an anxiety towards the police in a dream from which Alicia's just woken:

I'm also impressed with the following dream sequence, which I think includes all the necessary detail in one full-page splash without going on and on with the usual rote monologue such dream sequences often subject us to for page after page. Behold deceptive simplicity:

I'm much impressed with this one, and you can be, too: as mentioned at the end of March, the entirety of the book is online at this PDF address:

http://www.ait-planetlar.com/resources/Continuity.pdf

The "dead tree version" is out on June 21st, for those who prefer to hold 'em in their hands. If such is your way (as is mine - I read a printed out version), I'd suggest taking a look at the Jason McNamara interviews on Comicon and Newsarama; he's a clever fellow.

Cheers. I'm off to spend ridiculous amounts of money on comics today.

Holy Crap, I'm Broke

2006-05-31T11:52:00.000-07:00

Wow. HUGE week of comics this week, on top of the 5th anniversary of the Isotope.

Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre #1 (DC) - Picking this up for Cliff Chiang's stunning artwork, and also to check in on the fate of Gotham Central's Crispus Allen.

Lucifer #74 - One to go. Vertigo's best title wraps up.

Seven Soldiers Of Victory, Vol 3 TP (DC) - Ah, I'll finally get to start reading Frankenstein, which looked like the best of the seven.

Superman/Batman #26 (DC) - Don't really have any interest in this series, but the gangbang of awesome artists is enough to get me to at least pick this up and look.

Emissary #1 (Image) - Image and Jim Valentino bring back a project for the legendary Small Gods creative team of Jason Rand and Juan Ferreyra, bringing the new book I'm most excited about in a week jam-packed with exciting new books.

Five Fists Of Science GN (Image) - At long-fucking-last. Huge preview online here.

Liberty Meadows #37 (Image) - This'll be my first issue. I just can't resist Frank Cho's women anymore. This looks like the title to follow, far as I can tell, and the first two trades are getting reprinted soon, so this'll give me a nice idea of whether or not I should pick 'em up.

Books Of Doom #6 (Marvel) - Curious to see how this wraps up, though I think it's been the most underwhelming of Brubaker's Marvel work thus far. Now Daredevil, on the other hand, is blowing me away every fucking month.

Incredible Hulk #95 (Marvel) - Greg Pak continues to write a fun, back-to-basics Hulk story full of smashing and wanting to be left alone.

Punisher: The Tyger (Marvel) - Sweet Jesus, this is gonna be good.

Thing #7 (Marvel) - I shed a tear to see this one go, but at least it's been fun.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #30 (Marvel) - Millar's most recent arc ("President Thor") was, to me, the best of his entire run, so I'm looking forward to how he builds from here.

Skyscrapers Of The Midwest #3 (Adhouse Books) - Continues the excellent run of Josh Cotter's heartbreaking series; the Isotope (whose Mini-Comics award went to Cotter a few years ago) features an eight-page preview here.

Mouse Guard #3 (Archaia Studio Press) - Am I actually more excited about this than I am about Emissary? It's a close call, one way or the other. If you've been hanging out, you know how much I've been grooving on this series.

Hero Squared #1 (Ongoing, Boom! Studios) - Giffen does know how to bring the funny sometimes, so I'm looking forward to checking out his sense of humor in a super-hero context.

War Of The Worlds: Second Wave #3 (Boom! Studios) - As I've said (twice), i think this is the best book in the Boom! stable. Can't wait to see what's happening next. Michael Alan Nelson is a writer to watch, I'm tellin' ya now.

Helios: In With The New #3 (Dakuwaka Productions) - I did a double-take on the $5 cover price, but then realized the issue is extra-length. This is written by Small Gods' Jason Rand, which is the main selling point for me, but it's also been a fun superheroes-meet-SHIELD sort of concept. A new mini launches in a few months, so the story continues... excellent.

Battlestar Galactica #0 (Dynamite Entertainment) - Thanks, Fossen: I'd have missed this, not having seen the series yet, but two-bits for a Greg Pak comic sounds like a deal to me.

Uptight #1 (Fantagraphics) - Don't remember why, exactly, but this caught my eye in Previews a few months ago, and it's only $2.50, so I'll likely take a look.

My Inner Bimbo #1 (Oni) - I'll be tradewaiting this, 'cause that's how I picked up the first in this loosely connected trilogy (Ojo),

Abadazad Books 1 and 2 (Hyperion) - I wasn't big on The Stardust Kid, but this first collaboration between J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog was really goddamned promising. Glad to see it return; I won't be able to pick these up this week (Christ, look up), but they're on my list fo' sho'.

Monstrous Reading List

2006-05-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

Damn, my stack of Book I Need To Read (slash "Am Reading") is getting unwieldy.

Brownsville, by Neil Kleid and Jake Allen, hardcover version from NBM Publishing. The softcover's just been solicited, and I'm still only about a quarter of the way through. It's great stuff, just got lost in the shuffle.
Stagger Lee, the upcoming Image OGN by Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix (how cool a name is that?), tracing the musical and historical lineage of the Stagger Lee myth while at the same time retelling the story, in what Ed Brubaker calls "a masterful work of graphic inventiveness... explores the links between folklore and race with a steady hand and more honesty than you're ready for." Again, I'm only a few pages in, but enjoying it thoroughly. Production blog is here, fifteen-page preview here.
Buddha, volume 1 (of 8), softcover version, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical Inc.). This has been an interesting project on my radar for some time, but the recent softcover release finally cracked me. Now I just need to get to it. Preview and review links at the official website, though I didn't look at either before picking this up.
Jax Epoch, volumes 1 and 2, by Dave Roman and John Green, published by AiT/Planet Lar. Pitched to me this way: "What if, when Alice came back from Wonderland, Wonderland back back with her?" Which sounds fuckin' solid. Plus, I'm quoted in the press release announcing their return to print. Now I just need to get to 'em.
The Life Eaters, by David Brin and Scott Hampton, from WildStorm. I remember Hibbs making a fuss all over this one way back when it came out (and again when the softcover was released), but the price tag just kept me away. Found it for twelve bucks recently at Green Apple Books and decided to take the plunge and try 'er out. Alternate history, Nazis (uh oh) and Norse Gods (oh, okay).

Concrete volume 7: The Human Dilemma, by Paul Chadwick (published by Dark Horse). I wasn't really overwhelmed by the first two books (which felt really overwritten and saccharine), but I'm ready to accept that the fellow may have actually developed his craft and storytelling as time went on. Good buddy Josh Fialkov has his good name on the line, having sworn up and down to me that this was - what did he say? - "THE definitive comic of the modern age." Plus, a lot of folks shit themselves over this six issue mini last year, so I'm gonna give it a shot.
The first Loveless trade, by Brian Azzarello and Marcelo Frusin. Vertigo's got a series of this "first five issues for ten bucks" trades and this is the first one I picked up. I'm commited, at this point, to only read Azzarello books in trade format, but I'm still pretty curious to check this baby out and see where the series is going. I'm a big western fan when they're done well, and this looks like it's got potential.
The entire (first) run of First Second books, borrowed all from Graeme McMillan (save The Fate of the Artist, which I bought on Graeme's word) at his awesome bar-b-que yesterday. Thanks, Graeme! Damn, there's a lot of 'em: A.L.I.E.E.E.N. (cute little lost aliens pooping and stuff), Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda (sworn up and down by Graeme and Brill as being really good), The Lost Colony (hucksters, con-men and slaves on a hidden island in nineteenth century America?), Sardine in Outer Space (Ramona Quimby vs. Darth Vader), and Vampire Loves (described to me by Ian as "Uh, they're vampires, but in relationship dramas").
An American Family, by Harry Crews. That's right, kids, I read novels now and then, just to try to fool everyone into thinking I'm a "serious" reader! Wrote about this last week, and unbelievably excited to read it. The inside flap tells us the book "is Harry Crews' most savage and disturbing book yet. Readers of the author's previous 22 books [including yours truly] are in for another shocking and original treat. Make no mistake, this is araw and powerful novel. Here is Harry Crews at his cranked-up best..."
Father And Son, by Larry Brown. Amazon has been trying to get me to read Larry Brown for years, sharing a large chunk of his readership, it seems, with my man Crews. Finally cracked in my excitement over the new Crews book, and this one looked like it might be his best. Amazon says, "Brown is at his best when he writes of the tensions between one screwed-up man and another, in this case a father and son. One has just been let out of prison, and he shouldn't have been. The other is drunk and disabled and intends on staying that way. To make things worse, there is a conflict with the sheriff, who is good and righteous but who tried to put the moves on the parolee's woman while he was in prison. To tell more would be to violate Brown's mastery of dialogue and of that which goes unspoken in this sly story of father, son, and misery." I'm a few pages in, just, but enjoying it a lot so far. Also, I really like the cover:

So, this is what I'm up against. It's a happy time to have so much great stuff at my feet, but it's also a hell of a lot of reading to do.

So, time to stop writing for a few minutes and see if I can't digest a few pages, y'think?

After all, I gotta do something sophisticated before I hit up the new X-Men movie today.

Learning how to smile

2006-05-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

Garumph. Wanted to do a full post today - including an advance review for a book I'm really psyched about - but I have to go to work earlier than I thought.

Ah, hell. Still, there are things I can point to left and right...

*****

First of all, I'm famous. I've been interviewing Mark Waid, been asked for pull-quotes for the backs of books I've reviewed, I'm dead sexy, and now I've been quoted in an Ait/PlanetLar press release.

Larry, Mimi and Josh are going back to press with DEMO, Jax Epoch and Electric Girl and I get to tell you what I think about that here.

*****

I've been talking about artist Mike Hawthorne for a while, having loved pretty much everything of his I've seen. We've got more stuff coming up, and thanks to an e-mail from The Man himself, I tracked down some preview art from his forum:

From his upcoming Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue(s):

And from an upcoming project titled Salem:

More art and details at the links.

*****

More art, also, at the CBR previews for 24seven and Remender's upcoming addition to Fear Agent, "Tales of the Fear Agent".

"[24seven editor Ivan] Brandon maintains that 24seven is not simply Flight featuring robots," though that seems as effective a pitch as I could possibly need. 'Specially with art from Eduardo Risso, Mike Huddleston, Rob G and more.

Characteristically, Rick Remender is less shy, tell us "The people involved so far [in the upcoming Fear Agent back-up stories] are a mixed bag of big names and under recognized geniuses." Given a list including Steve Niles, EJ Su, Kieron Dwyer, Eric Powell and Jason Latour, I'm inclined to agree.

*****

Yes, I know there ain't no finish line, I know this never ends
I'm just learning how to fall and climb back up again...

Wells and Crews and Slott

2006-05-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

From the Used Book Store Finds File:

Peter Parker: Spider-Man, volume 5: Senseless Violence

Step One: Notice deadly awesome John Romita, Jr. cover - very classic Spider-Man image, I think. Attentive, on his toes, looking for trouble and living up to his responsibilities. EVEN IN THE RAIN.

Step Two: Look at back cover. Realize that this book collects those two Spider-Man issues that Sam (The Maxx) Kieth drew a few years ago that I totally missed somehow.

Step Three: Buy this shit as fast as possible.

Step Four: Read the Kieth-drawn story. Wonder if Sam Kieth wrote it himself, exploring as it does the different psychological elements of Sandman's personality, including his "baby" side and his "feminine" side. Double-check.

Step Five: Realize the whole thing is written by Zeb Wells, who I've kinda brushed off in the past.

Step Six: Read the rest of the book. Laugh out loud at several of the Wells-written Spidey jokes (Why you hittin' yourself, Boomerang?! Huh? Why you hittin' yourself?!) and appreciate the fine balance of action, humor and character development.

Step Seven: Go to the store and ask for more of Zeb Wells' Spider-Man, because shit, this was actually really good, classic stuff. Spider-Man is not broken, Marvel. Spider-Man is fine. He doesn't need new costumes or to move to Stark Towers or any of that crap. He needs exactly this kind of treatment; he needs to worry about whether or not he's making a difference, deal with people in his life being hurt as a result of being Spidey, take crap from the cops and everyone else, fight a wide range of super-villains who all hate him for being such a smartass, make fun of them as he kicks their ass, and at the end of the day, go home, because "That's what us heroes get to do."

If a Spidey series was running right now that featured this kind of Spider-Man story, I'd be all over it.

Good one, Zeb. Now I especially can't wait for the upcoming FF/Iron Man: Big In Japan trade.

*****

Hot damn! It's a good time to be a fan of all the writers I'm a fan of. Looking for still more news about Harry Crews, I discovered that two major films based on his books are on their way.

The Gypsy's Curse, directed by Philippe Decoufle, is gonna star Johnny Depp and Harvey Keitel. That's right. A movie based on a book by one of my favorite writers and starring two of my favorite actors. The main character is a mute cripple who does acrobatic acts with his arms with his tiny whithered legs tied behind his back. Holy shit.

The Hawk Is Dying, directed by Julian Goldberger, stars Paul Giamatti as George Gattling, "A Gainesville Florida auto upholsterer [who] attempts to subvert his mundane life by training a wild, red-tailed hawk." Ooh, baby yes.

*****

Dan Slott discusses his upcoming Two-Gun Kid one-shot with preview art at Newsarama today, and Slott's one of the few writers whose interviews I'll read regardless of whether I plan on buying the book or not. I often prefer to go head-in-the-sand style when I've already decided to follow a given project because it lets me approach the book with fewer expectations, but Slott's pretty entertaining no matter what he's writing. Example:

And let me tell ya, She-Hulk #9 is going to be awesome! Something big happens at the end of our Civil War crossover issue this week... And the repercussions of that are going to be severe! And... well... let's just say after two months of Civil War knocking your socks off... She-Hulk #9 is going to be the book that tickles your feet!

Polish Link Sausage

2006-05-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Zilla, I had some fun reading this half-penned-by-Gaiman article on Superman, even if he does close on the exact same point that Quentin Tarrantino made in Kill Bill 2.

*****

Checking in on Elk's Run writer Josh Fialkov again, I find a really cool post exposing the intelligence and insight of series artist Scott Keating, discussing his thought process in putting together the palettes for the book, which reads (in excerpt):

The colours have a bunch of purposes. Different lighting situations, etc. Times periods. All with different qualities. ...But as it gets going, what happens is that the colours start coming together. Little bits in different ’sets’. As the more and more things start happening to the town/citizens, the color spreads to them. But not the family. So, if you look at the townsfolk in the 7th issue. They’re colored as a group. They’ve become a single entity.

Much more at the link.

*****

Speaking of the Hoarse and Buggy guys, Jason Rodriguez let an announcement slip at his Live Journal today regarding three of his biggest guns in the Postcards project. It's mighty fine news, I tell ya. One fellow in particular, I just can't believe he actually nabbed this guy. A first-time publisher, working with... well, you'll have to look for yourself.

*****

Mark Millar is making the rounds at MillarWorld a lot lately, with some pretty fun results (sorry, Graeme). He's kinda hinted at coming close to confirming the Preacher-on-HBO rumor, but especially interesting reading is the Retailers-Only Thread, which is being pretty strictly moderated. My post asking whether it was okay for non-retailers to stop by with questions for the retailers was completely erased, providing a super-clear non-verbal answer.

Still, the retailers' comments have been great reading so far.

*****

Funny, appearances.

My old man is an opera/ballet/classical music fanatic. A lot of that stuff hasn't ever really penetrated my own listening habits, but I do some casual listening. I don't like full operas - but I love sopranos. I'm the perfect customer for those "collected romantic arias" compilation CDs that opera music publishers put together; I'm that disgusting philistine who doesn't care about the second act tenor crescendo in Rigoletto (that I just made up).

All I wanna hear is a pretty lady's voice.

Or, to put it more exactly, a lady's pretty voice.

'Cause, y'see, even in casual listening, I've figured out a favorite. While my old man's Favorite Soprano Of All Time is popular-choice Maria Callas:

--I've generally preferred listeing to Montserrat Caballe, a punchier, more visceral and emotional singer, as I hear her:

Now, honestly, take a look. One of 'em looks like a Guess model and the other looks like she'd be right at home hovering around the dinner table telling you that you need to eat more and slopping meatballs on your plate, sure. But which one looks like a singer?

That's right.

My girl Montserrat.

Tomorrow's Stash

2006-05-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

My list, by comparison, is really fairly small this week.

I'm still a Scott Pilgrim virgin, so I'll likely hold off on the new one until I crack and get the first volume.

(Scott Pilgrim fanatics are surely banging their heads against the computer screen in frustration, but I'll tell yez the truth right now: you've built it up too much. So I'm taking some decompression time to let the hype flow back out to sea, and then I'll read the damnded thing, swear to God.)

What I'm planning on getting, then, is:

Supergirl And The Legion Of Super-Heroes #18 - I think the series is holding up surprisingly well with the addition of Supergirl. The whole "this is obviously a marketing gimmick" thing is panning out okay, and the book remains fun and spirited.

Daredevil #85, of course. I could barely restrain myself from reading the advance copy last week in the store.

Last Planet Standing #2, per my enjoyment of the first issue. I'm just gonna keep my head in the sand, enjoying this nice, self-contained GIANT EVENT THAT LEAVES NOTHING THE SAME EVER AGAIN all by myself.

She-Hulk #8, duh.

Conan: Book Of Thoth #3, though I still want to see just how evil and dangerous this Thoth-Amon can be. Come on, Busiek, you can do it!

Then there's a few books I wanna share extra advance-lovin' for:

Image comics has Negative Burn #1 coming, the first in an ongoing return for the classic anthology series, which is going to be rolling out material from Phil Hester and Eric Powell (whose story I read in a preview - it's fucking hysterical) and Evan Dorkin and all kinds of awesome fuckin' people. Can't wait for this one.

Lobrau Productions is releasing Toupydoops #2, complete with a preview at their website. I'd been looking forward to the series since its solicitation, and I'm sure you'll remember how much I enjoyed the first issue. Here's looking forward to plenty more!

Then there's Silent Devil Productions' Death Comes To Dillinger #1 (of 2) , which I've also been looking forward to for a while. The pitch? "It's the Old West. Death is a drifter, and when he rides into town, it means somebody is going to die. This time, he's parked at the saloon in Dillinger and the local banker is convinced Death is there to claim his ill daughter. The banker will attempt to stop the inevitable, even if he must confront Death himself." Plus, it looks like this:

--and has several preview pages at both Comicon and Newsarama.

So, yeah - should be a fun week.

HUBERT SELBY JR: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow

2006-05-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

What demons haunted your life? What angels sang in your heart?

Did you know the difference?

I haven't written a lot about Hubert Selby, Jr., because it's a mighty daunting task - the guy is, hands down, my favorite writer. I a huge fan of Harry Crews, Steven Jesse Bernstein, Bukowski, but nobody's got their hooks in me quite like Selby.

For the most part, I think the attraction is compassion. Selby's writing is filled with unattractive characters, ranging from in scale from overbearing Jewish mothers to megalomaniacal, psychotic murderers - people that you have no reason to care for. And yet, somehow, they're written with such an effort to understand, and their suffering is written with such rawness and unbelievably graphic, visceral pain, you just can't shut them out. Selby said once that the "real problem is separation." He connects you. Where you go with it is up to you - he's not especially preachy - but he helps make the connection, and reading his work makes me feel more alive and aware and excited and sorrowful and powerfully here now in the world around me than any writer. The colors are more vibrant. I'm happy, thrilled to be alive, and to be so lucky.

I'll be writing more about this down the line, but I bring it up today for a reason. After discovering last week that I'd somehow missed a new Harry Crews book, over the weekend I did some Googling to see if any of Selby's manuscripts may have been published since his death in 2004. They haven't. But--

--they've made a movie. HUBERT SELBY JR: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow is an eighty-minute documentary about Selby's life and writing, featuring footage of the man himself and interviews with Jerry Stahl, Henry Rollins, Amiri Baraka, Nick Tosches, Lou Reed, and a whole bunch more of his friends. Archive footage of Anthony Kiedis and John Turturro. Narration by Robert Downey, Jr. A website with the trailer and dozens of photos.

And it's premiering in L.A. next month.

I can't even describe how excited I am about this. I'm on top of the fuckin' world, seriously.

The days just get better and better.

Children of the Grave, more

2006-05-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

Big Newsarama day, it seems.

*****

Tom Waltz discusses the new IDW trade collection of Children of the Grave, which long-time readers will remember I enjoyed back in March of last year. Casey Maloney's artwork has all been touched up, and as much as I enjoyed it then, I have to say it looks really stellar now, with the digital effects adding a lot of dimension to the scenery:

Tom also teases with the cover image to his upcoming project with Maloney, The Last Fall ("The Last Samurai meets Starship Troopers"), which looks really badass:

*****

I haven't read any Scott Pilgrim at all. But I took a look at the FCBD issue, which is posted in its entirety at Newsarama. I just looked at this page, and I think I may be sold on the series now:

I'll probably talk about the book when I finally read it... unless, of course, I don't enjoy it, in which case I'll keep my fool mouth shut.

*****

Eximious means "really good," you see.

*****

Ooh, new Harry Crews book is out!

--and appears, already, to be unavailable. I tracked down a copy through Top 10 Website Ever bookfinder.com, but it seems they only printed like 2,000 of these. Weird. Publishers Weekly describes An American Family thusly:

"Set in what appears to be the contemporary South, this twisted tale of violence and passion from Crews (The Gospel Singer) focuses on the domestic conflicts facing Major Melton, a former marine and junior college professor. Melton's discovery of an unusual birthmark on his baby son's private parts leads him to suspect his wife of an affair and to a series of brutal episodes involving pit bulls and a hanging."

So, yeah - I'm all over it.

Elephantmen!

2006-05-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

So, Elephantmen? Gonna be so awesome.

Seriously.

We're talking a major new book.

Think how cool Hip Flask is. Animals genetically and surgically transformed into giant man-like soldiers, trying to pick up the pieces of their lives now that the war is over.

Now think how cool it would be if, instead of being (at best) an annual book, it was monthly.

And every issue focused on a different character's story until a bigger overarcing plot emerged.

Think how fucking cool that would be.

And, then, imagine if art from the first three issues looked like this:

More artwork orgy at Newsarama now. Samples from like eight or nine different issues. And even more artwork is up at CBR. How fucking badass is this gonna be?!

Lists Galore? No, just one real big one.

2006-05-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

Hey, Zilla - this one made me think of ya.

Haven't been big on the whole Civil War signature image things, but if I were gonna use one, it'd be this. Frankie is awesome. One of the best origin stories in modern comics... "I did it myself!"

*****

Man, I wish I had a scanner. 'Cause it's New Comics Day and Jeremiah Harm #3 is coming out, and Rael Lyra's artwork - a big selling point for the series from issue #1 - really takes a leap and a bound here.

Lyra's style - something that'd fit pretty well in the Humanoids set - gets a chance to up the ante, y'see, as the script here calls for some really insane ultraviolence. Actually, the scripting in general takes a step up here, at least as I read it. The characterizations and plotting seem stronger and more natural to the book - it's funny, because the writing is becoming a selling point just as the art is getting strong enough that it's not even necessary as a selling point.

War of the Worlds: Second Wave is still my favorite Boom! Studios series, but with this issue Jeremiah Harm makes a huge jump forward. Actually, they're a pretty smart pair of masthead books; they kinda pull a yin and yang thing on each other. Each book fills in the nooks and crannies left by the other, and taken together I think they paint a pretty brilliant picture of the kind of comics Boom! aims to publish. It's exciting, 'cause they're really energetic comics.

(There's an interview with Lyra, and some artwork, over at Comicon, by the by.)

*****

James Sime has a whoppin' 30 pages of AiT's upcoming Shatter collection, along with a full treatise on why the book matters. Between that and Fossen's love for the book, there's a lot of enthusiasm spreading for this puppy...

*****

Some advance notice on upcoming Vertigo trades over at Silver Bullet. I'm happy to see Denise Mina's opening arc on Hellblazer collected so quickly, but it also leaves me wondering if they're continuing to collect Mike Carey's awesome run. I'm juiced to know I'll be able to finish The Losers in September, and I'll be using the cheap $10-for-five-issues trades to check in on Loveless and The Exterminators.

A No-Prize for whoever can figure out how the number ten relates to the subtitle of the tenth 100 Bullets trade: "Decayed".

Actually, I just figured it out.

I love this book.

*****

Solicits are up all around, for Marvel, DC, Image.

Hmm:

I didn't realize Peter David was writing Marvel Adventures: Spiderman. Is it just issue #18? I could see him writing a could kiddie comic. Might be worth a look.

Of course, Ultimate Fantastic Four #33 marks (together with Annual #2) the start of Mike Carey's run on the book, which, as mentioned several times, I'm all cross-legged over.

I'm curious about the trade collection for Straczynski's Book of Lost Souls. When JMS is at the top of his game - Supreme Power, Midnight Nation - I enjoy his stuff, but his recent runs on Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four have left me pretty sour. Anybody wanna weigh in on this one?

Heard a lot of awesome things about Matt Wagner's Batman and the Monster Men mini, which, it seems, picks up after Miller's Year One classic and gives us Batman's first encounter with "super-powered villains." So I'll definitely pick up the trade collection, and pending my read of that, might even jump on board the follow-up: Batman and the Mad Monk.

Ooh, Peter Milligan on JLA Classified... don't know whether to be excited or depressed. Hard to tell with him these days, isn't it? I like Carlos D'Anda's artwork, but I don't know nearly enough about the DCU to guess whether Kid Amazo is a good fit for a Milligan character. Graeme?

Brendan McCarthy closes out the generally-excellent Solo series, and promises to do it with a bang. With a cover like that, it's hard to argue.

Ennis and Darick Robertson bring The Boys, that new 60-issue WildStorm series that Ennis keeps telling us will "Out-Preacher Preacher", which of course makes us all nervous. When he's on-point, Ennis is one of the best two or three guys writing comics today. When he's lost up his own ass, he's nearly unbearable. It's worth it to me to try a few issues and find out.

Winter Men finally returns with the solicit for issue five. Good news. 'Cept, I don't remember what's going on or who anybody is. When you've got a dense book like that, kids, with lots of subtleties and sly character developments, you've gotta keep things fresh in your reader's minds. I'll still try to read this, 'cause it's been really good so far.

As mentioned Monday, Rick Remender joins with new regular artist Nick Stakal for the second major arc of Strange Girl, which I think has really developed as a book. Felt kinda shaky about it for a few issues, especially in comparison to Fear Agent (still my favorite Remender book for the moment), but it's really coming into its own lately. So Stakal's debut on issue #10 should be a great spot for folks to jump on the book.

We're also looking at the last issue of Sea of Red, which Remender explained at MW: "When we got to the plot for #13 we all realized it was a perfect place to end it. Sales are great and the book is loved so we're going to go out on a high note. Issues 10-13 are the best of the series and the end will wrap everything up."

I guess I may as well just pull-list the new Negative Burn run. Issue #4 promises more of Evan Dorkin's Milk & Cheese, which is an auto-sell, so I guess it's time to stop farting around.

Funday Monday

2006-05-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ooh, some fun stuff on the comics internet at the mo' - which is funny, 'cause I thought last week was really "blah" all around, didn't see much coverage that was giving me the ADD Jitters. Either I was looking in the wrong places, or else this week's just getting off on the right foot. Either way, I'm happy.

*****

For starters, there's Blair's usual great work at All The Rage, but this time he rumours a new Azzarello / Bermejo project that tells a "parallel" story to their Lex Luthor: Man Of Steel mini. That series, as a whole, was kind of disappointing, but there were spectacular moments throughout, including what I kinda felt was a cannon-defining explanation of Luthor's hatred for Superman in the first issue. "You are my nightmare." Gave me chills.

So, yeah, I'd be on board for whatever this may be.

Plus, Blair reminds me (how did I forget?!) that the Ultimate Fantastic Four annual this year will be done by Mike Carey and Stuart Immonen, both of whom I'm balls-out for. Carey's run (with regular artist Pasqual Ferry) on UFF is something I'm really excited about and the artwork looks fantastic. Hot damn!

Much more (bigger) art at the link.

Oh, and the Brubaker / Phillips thing I've been kinda hinting at for the last few weeks?

The one that's gonna make me shit my pants?

Yeah, that got announced at Bristol.

The link.

Now.

*****

Got an e-mail today from Jason Webley, one of Seattle's great local musicians. The fellow has a new CD coming out and I'm pre-ordering now.

You can listen to Real Audio files at this part of his site, which I recommend you try doing.

Imagine Tom Waits and James Taylor reading Mother Goose rhymes to their child, and you're probably headed in the right direction.

*****

I think I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed Strange Girl #8, which I think came out two weeks ago. The guest art by Jerome Opena (who will be taking up the reigns on Fear Agent for alternating arcs with Tony Moore) was absolutely jaw-dropping - fuckin' brilliant stuff, and I can't wait to see what he does with Fear Agent.

Funny I should be thinking about the cool new Strange Girl artist, though, because writer Rick Remender had an announcement regarding just that.

Beginning with issue #10 (the beginning of a new arc, it seems), Strange Girl will be under the sound artistic control of Nick Stakal, whose work I first noticed in Fused! Tales #1, back in December. I'll be looking forward to his work on the book, especially if it keeps coming like this:

Much more art, and again, bigger, at the link.

*****

Bummer. I was really enjoying The Thing. Hopefully Slott's got more stuff in the works...

*****

From Spurgeon to The Savage Critic(s) to Quality Control, this link - discussing the 50 Greatest Marvel Characters - is really very sound work. You'd think it'd be hard to get me to agree with such a thing, but I'm telling ya, the choices are good ones.

And you have to appreciate anybody who points out that "If our world were Marvel's world, Stephen Hawking would probably be MODOK."

*****

I love Zilla's blog for a lot of reasons, but one of 'em is the daily quotes he throws up. What made me take note today was Frederick Douglass, quoted here from Battle Hymn: Farewell to the First Golden Age:

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Lord, that's fuckin' brilliant. Frederick Douglass could whup Malcom X any day of the week.

Happy Friday... It's Tequila Time!

2006-05-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

You know what might surprise me most about working in a sleazy gay dive bar in a scummy part of San Francisco one day a week?

It's not the hustlers, the druggies, the perverts, the cell-phone naked photos, the crazy homeless people taking a swing at me, the police ignoring my 911 calls, the secretly-rich-guys (it's not hard to guess how some of these people spend all day, every day in the bars), the drag queens, the trannies, the bewildered European tourists, the management asking about my cock size, the straight-but-then-they-get-drunk-and-let-some-dude-blow-'em crack fiend bartenders (and other, similar victims), my co-workers going nuts and stealing bottles of liquor and tazering the clientele, the deaf guy singing karaoke, or the fact that I seem to somehow fit in...

...it's the amazing frequency with which someone will go to the jukebox and put on "What If God Was One Of Us".

I mean, who knew?

*****

That's the cutest thing I've ever seen, Mark.

*****

So, Zilla asked if I picked up Last Planet Standing #1, and in a week where I was really only getting two other floppies (She-Hulk and Fables), I didn't really have an excuse not to. What was I looking for? Well, I knew it was about Galactus and some kind of universe-threatening peril and is written by Tom DeFalco. So, basically, I was hoping to get some jam-packed insane super-heroes-in-space adventure with everything and the kitchen sink thrown into the plot, a la all my favorite old Fantastic Four stories from the 80's.

What did I get?

Exactly what I wanted.

You remember when Marvel's big event comics weren't about changing the entire landscape of their publishing plan as much as they were about having a bunch of REALLY BIG SHIT happen?

In 22 short pages here, we get an entire universe destroyed (possibly killing Reed and Sue Richards, who were "on vacation" there), a new herald of Galactus (Dominas, who whups ass on Gladiator), a re-imagined Fantastic Five (though there are seven of them, including a grown-up Franklin Richards, Lyja the Skrull, and Kristoff von Doom), a humiliated third-string line-up of the Avengers with a rough luck past ("We lost Captain America... allowed the Hulk to demolish half the city...), the complete annihilation of the Shi'ar homeworld, Spider-Girl's re-recruitment into the Avengers just as she's beginning to doubt herself and grow tired of the ennui of fighting a bunch of hoodlums and losers, and Galactus apparently having discovered a way to "finally evolve to the next level" that involves Thor's homeworld of Asgard!

There's obviously a bit of a What If? / Elseworlds thing going on here, but it's not expressly acknowledged anywhere on the book, which makes me wonder if this is the kind of thing that, like 1601, will turn out to have existed in the same comic book universe as the "real" Marvel. The possibility certainly exists within the frame of this storyline, and that just opens the door to more fun.

It's not gonna be everybody's cup of tea, 'cause it is by definition a little hokey, but I had a lot of fun reading this. A lot more fun than I had reading Infinite Crisis or any of Marvel's recent event comics. So I'm throwing the big thumbs up, and the hell with the consequences to my reputation.

*****

The Dark Horse solicits are up, and I just wanna give the shout-out one more time to my boys Arvid Nelson and especially Juan Ferreyra for landing Rex Mundi in such a sweet spot. I mean, damn - they even got J.H. Williams III to do their first cover!

That's some hot shit. First, the series gets a blood transfusion in the form of rapidly-becoming-one-of-the-very-best artist Juan "Small Gods" Ferrayra, and now they can just sit back, let Dark Horse handle everything, and just write and draw the shit out of their comic. Let the good times roll.

Surprises?

2006-05-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

New Comics Day, and a few things I'm curious about; this week is a real crap shoot.

There's the first issue of Last Planet Standing, which could be a nice return to old-school insane cosmic superheroics, given that it's written by Tom DeFalco (who had a really underrated and fun run on Fantastic Four) and has to do with Galactus threatening the entire universe. Sounds fun, huh? There's a preview up at IGN, right here.

Then there's a couple books from First Second that I noticed in the April solicits back in February.

Cute little pooping aliens and Eddie Campbell's self-written epitaph - which way to go? Tom Spurgeon interviewed Campbell, to give us an idea what's up over that way, and there's a review of A.L.I.E.E.E.N. at M&C Books: "Evincing the cruelties, the comedies and the oft-bizarre traits of the protagonists through an inventive and unique format, Trondheim distinguishes himself as a trailblazer in the youth graphic-novel market. Readers will be delighted by the wordless tale with its endearing, yet rascally alien characters and the sometimes crude plot that encompasses a variety of motifs, from invoking compassion to scatological humor."

Images Aplenty

2006-05-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

I wanna show more pictures today. Three things.

*****

One:

I'm juiced as fuck for Casanova. Have been ever since the announcement, when they revealed the creative team (Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba) and the format (16 pages of comics in a 24-page book for $2). The first issue comes out soon and is actually 32 pages of comic for $2. Preview pages are up at Newsarama right now.

So, yeah, basically, you're an idiot if you don't buy this.

*****

Two:

Checking back in with Josh Fialkov, I notice a few things. One, he saw the stage production of The Black Rider, featuring music by Tom Waits. He thinks I'm jealous as fuck. What the asshole doesn't realize is, see, is that I'm jealous as fuck that he mentions he saw Tom Waits on the Mule Variations tour almost as an afterthought and I've only ever seen Tom Waits twice in my life, neither of them at a Tom Waits concert. Once was at a John Hammond concert, when he was touring for his excellent album of Waits covers and Tom got up to do two songs with him (a shining moment of excitement in my life - as Molly puts it, we finally understood Beatlemania). The other time is for another time, but it's a funny story. Works better in person, though, so Josh - ask me about it when next we meet.

So, the other thing I noticed was the cover for Elk's Run #7, which is deadly awesome, and his announcement that "Only the colors on 8 remain before the book is done. I got tons of exciting stuff going on with the book… none of which I can talk about. Soon though. Soon." Hallelujah!

Behold:

Josh also points out that on a recent Bad Signal, Warren Ellis has shared even MORE Fialkov love by calling Punks (along with Casanova and Phonogram) "the singles of the year so far."

*****

And finally, I just saw the recent South Park episodes where they tried to show Mohammed and Comedy Central pussed out and wouldn't let them. Now, I don't see the point in endangering innocent people just for the sake of a joke, but I sure as hell believe in defending free speech by throwing a big fat FUCK YOU in the faces of anyone who would try to scare us into censorship. The point isn't the joke; the point is the freedom.

So, here's some of those Danish cartoons. Somebody got so mad about this that they decided to murder somebody else. That's how fucking retarded some people are. So, this is me doing my small part to tell all those people to kiss my ass.

"You can't do what he wants, just because he's the one threatening you with violence."

Amen.

Mouse Guard #2

2006-05-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

Ooh, boy - lots of folks seemed pissed about last week. Lots of crybabying about how nothing good came out.

None of 'em must've read Mouse Guard #2, I guess.

The story gets richer as we're introduced to two new characters - Sadie, an innocent but determined soldier of the Mouse Guard, and Conrad, the peg-legged salty badass in charge of the beach outpost of Cagolero. We learn a little more about the plot against the mouse town of Lockhaven, and we get an awesome mouse-on-crab fight that closes the issue.

It's a fun, exciting issue, with quickly-established and charismatic characters, and David Petersen's artwork has - as if it were possible - gotten even more gorgeous.

God bless this book.

Musing

2006-05-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

One thing I love about what Brubaker is doing on Daredevil - at least, throughout the potboiling and chess-setting he's been up to over the first three issues of his run - is he's bringing powerful villains back to the book. Kingpin is the plotting silent craftsman from the Bendis run, but also a physical terror, smashing a shower room attacker's head through the tile wall. Bullseye goes from being basically humiliated, lying in the gutter with Matt's piss all over him, to being so frightening and dangerous that the whole prison holds its breath when he's brought in and taken to his cell.

See, something that frustrated me about Bendis' whole run was the lack of strong villains. Every time Matt got serious, he whupped the shit out of 'em. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't think Matt should be able to beat Wilson Fisk nearly to death and throw his body all over hell. Diminshes the Kingpin's presence as a frightening person. To an extent I think this was on purpose - part of the point of the Bendis run, to me, was establishing Matt as his own worst enemy. Did Bendis downplay the other villains, then, so they wouldn't outshine Matt's own muscle as a destructive force in his own life? The world may never know. All I know is, it seemed to throw the series kinda off balance, at least as I read it.

But what I see the Brube doing is balancing that obsessive, control freak with anger issues Matt Murdock against some bad guys with serious fuckin' presence. Makes a more satisfying, whole story to me.

'Course, we're just three issues in, and who knows where he's going with this. But I was just thinking about that and wanted to share.

Ruby Thursday

2006-05-04T11:13:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I quoted Ed Brubaker's announcement that he'd renewed his exclusive contract with Marvel and that he had "an unprecedented opportunity for new projects that I'm sure will be announced very soon."

Then, just yesterday, I discovered this interview with Sean Phillips, wherein he is known to have said (written):

Ed and I do have a new series starting in a few months. I can't say anything until it's officially announced, but I'm really excited about it. I've already started work on it, and it will hopefully be my main project for the next few years.

To reitterate my response from last week:

!!!

*****

And again: wow.

I was a touch skeptical about this project after being pretty disappointed in 1601, but this looks fucking awesome.

*****

Finished watching Bukowski: Born Into This last night, a new documentary about Charles Bukowski.

One of the best biographical documentaries I've seen, I think. The film does an amazing job making a real person out of Bukowski, who has a legacy of extremes and postures; everyone tends to think of Bukowski The Alcoholic, Bukowski The Shy Curmudegeon, The Dirty Old Man and on and on.

The film does a lot to break down these narrow descriptions of the man and actually lends nuance to his writing; I'm eager to pick up some of my old books and go through them again.

Even if you know nothing about the man, the movie is worth watching for the interviews with Bukowski's widow, Linda. She speaks with charm and wisdom and intelligence that just shines. Her description of Bukowski's death is one of my favorite moments on film ever. It's amazing; you almost envy the man. You're certainly left feeling that he wasn't just married to the best fuck of his life or to the only woman who'd tolerate him - he was married to the love of his life, and she to hers, and it's really nice to see that in real life, in all its subtlety and complexity, especially in a life as often troubled and bedeviled as Bukowski's.

Highly, highly recommend you take a look at this one.

...

Plus, you get to see Tom Waits read a poem, and say, "You are marvelous, and the gods wait to delight in you."

*****

I love Jon Favreau.

*****

It's a day for really long interviews with indie comics creating ladies I like: James used his Comic Pimp column last week to interview Danica Novogorodoff (whose name I will always have to copy-and-paste) of A Late Freeze fame, while over at Sequential Tart, Adrienne Rappaport (sometimes seen bartending at Isotope parties) chats with jobnik! creator Miriam Libicki.

Fun stuff on all accounts, but I've gotta give extra love to Adrienne for one of the best interview questions ever: What was your favorite myth growing up (or currently) and why?

Myself? After thinking on it a minute, I'm gonna have to go with Sheherazade and the 1001 Arabian Nights. Not only did many of my favorite adventures come from her stories - the voyages of Sinbad in particular being a staple of my childhood imagination - but I always thought it was kind of a cool story, Sheherazade using the art of storytelling to save her own life and, ultimately, win over the heart of a cruel king. I've always, always loved storytellers, and Sheherazade is sort of the Muhammad Ali of 'em all. Funny that they were both Muslim.

*****

So, yesterday I posted about the new AiT book, Rock Bottom, right before heading to the Isotope for my weekly stash.

Larry takes me aside and asks, "Do you wanna see that Charlie Adlard art?" The answer of course being FUCK YEAH I DO. I'm flipping through the pages (gorgeous as I knew they would be, and more detailed than any Adlard work I've yet seen) and I stop because I don't want to ruin the story for myself, but Larry's too excited - I have to see the last page.

It's a killer. The premise is rad, too - vintage Joe Casey. Larry tells me the best parts are in the middle of the story, but the ending looks pretty goddamn awesome to me. Emotional, thoughtful, bittersweet, mythic, complex, kinda funny. All the things Casey's especially good at when he's on his A-game.

Huge potential here; could end up being the most powerful book Larry's published.

*****

And today's final Big Ups has to go to Garth Ennis, for taking Brian K. Vaughan's often-irritating trivia-as-dialogue technique and making it not just hardcore, but potentially amazingly useful as well - I hope it never comes up in my life, but now I know: if I'm putting severed fingers on ice, I'd better bag 'em first or the direct contact with ice will kill the nerve endings and make reattachment impossible.

Punisher #33: home to a brutal (and surprisingly early in the storyline) fight between Frank and the main villain of the arc, and to finger-saving advice.

Bring it on back, now

2006-05-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

Whew, been a rough week so far. Apologies for the two-day disappearance. Let's quit bitching and get back to comics loving, though, eh?

*****

Lots of great stuff coming out this week.

"But it's kind of a light week, isn't it?"

Well, considering we're getting two of Ed Brubaker's very best Gotham Central story arcs in the Unresolved Targets TP, the final issue of Infinite Crisis, not just a new issue of Ennis' Punisher MAX but the trade of maybe his strongest arc yet (The Slavers), and second issues from the two best new series launches in recent months - Mouse Guard from Archaia Studio Press and War of the Worlds: Second Wave from Boom! Studios - I'd say that we're doing pretty damn well. It might not be a fifty dollar week, but how often do we really need those, anyway? The name of the fucking blog isn't Quantity Control.

I'm certainly a happy fucking man today.

*****

Speaking of War of the Worlds: Second Wave, issue the second, I've gotten an advance peek.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first issue, and the second issue keeps the pace. Michael Alan Nelson's script continues its high-density blend of characterization and plot development, as we learn some really chilling background information about Our Hero, Miles, who made a disastrous mistake in the first issue that left his wife dead. The opening sequence is especially chilling - having been really amazed by the emotional devastation of the first issue, I actually shuddered reading this.

The action stays fun, though I miss Matt Webb's coloring. The big moments are still nice and big - my only problem is atmospheric lighting (is it daytime? --nighttime?), and luckily that's not too prevalent an issue. Chee's large panels really convey a sense of power and danger, and the clifffhanger page at the end is a nicely terrifying moment.

Can't wait for more.

*****

Having lots of fun watching Pete bring the pain over at The Pete Mortensen Challenge. He's kick-started things with a full overview of DC's awesome Solo series and a look at the new Vertigo book, American Virgin.

'Course, it's just as much fun to start imagining the new Joe Casey / Charlie Adlard book that Larry Young slipped into the pre-Challenge conversation. Rock Bottom, you say? 102 pages of new Charlie Adlard artwork, you say?

Yeah, I don't really need to know much else, curious though I am. Adlard has become one of my world-champion favorite artists over the last few years, and his chemistry with Joe Casey was one of the major selling points of Codeflesh. I'm in.

*****

Big ups today to Doug Paszkiewicz, creator of Arsenic Lullaby and subject of the very first Quality Control review, way back in the day.

Why the mad props? Well, because he got MAD props. That's right, homeboy's got a strip in the new issue of Alfred E. Newman's favorite magazine.

It's a strip I've read before in the pages of Arsenic Lullaby, but for those who've yet to work up the guts to read my favorite black humor comic, this'll make a fine introduction. Well done, Doug!

*****

So throw your hands up in the atmosphere
And let 'em know the only party that was phat was here...

Happy Friday

2006-04-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

From a press release today on Newsarama:

ED BRUBAKER EXTENDS EXCLUSIVE WITH MARVEL

...

"Plus, there's an unprecedented opportunity for new projects that I'm sure will be announced very soon."

!!!!

*****

Recently read Coffee and Donuts: A Junkyard Cats Comic by Max Estes.

This is a nice reminder of what all ages comics can be; simple stories with characters you can read yourself into, charmingly dangerous bad guys, and a strong moral center that neither preaches nor overwhelms but simply offers us all a chance to feel good. It's the kind of thing that, when you're done reading it, makes you want to just go out and start being nice to people.

As for the story itself, it follows a pair of down-on-their-luck alley cats who decide one day to try robbing an armored truck. Two problems with this: first, they aren't criminals and have no idea what they're doing. Second, some real criminals were already planning the heist, and these amateurs have messed up their scheme. How will these crazy kids get out of this mess they've made?

Don't have a lot more to say about it, but that shouldn't reflect poorly on the book. It's just a simple, clean experience. I'm gonna try giving this to one of my young cousins and see if there's any response. It's in black-and-white, which throws up a little bit of a barrier, but *I* read some B&W stuff when I was a kid, so what the hell? Worth a shot!

(FYI: Comicon PULSE interviewed creator Max Estes here, including some discussion of his first book and his upcoming work.)

Selling Out

2006-04-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

I try to keep this an indie-focused blog for the most part. Everyone and their mother is already out there talking about Civil War already, right? One of the things I love about Fossen, for example, is all the coverage of books I don't hear about anywhere else. I try to do the same; helping spread the buzz for Mouse Guard, letting you know about awesome books like Fragile Prophet and Burying Sandwiches that I found at APE, beating the drum for modern indie classics like Elk's Run. That's generally a big part of My Thing.

But really, My Thing is what kicks ass. Quality Control: this unit examined and approved by Inspector #1, that sort of thing. If I'm writing about it, it's cause I love it and I think you might, too.

That's the general idea.

And this week was completely owned, from my vantage point, by big-name super-hero comics. A new issue of Lucifer is always good news, of course, but on the "oh, hey, here's something I really dig" front this week are The Incredible Hulk #94 and Ultimate Fantastic Four #29.

Until now, I've been waffling a little on the Planet Hulk event. I'm a huge Hulk fan from waaaaay back, but the character hasn't been what I loved in a long goddamn time. The four-issue prelude to Planet Hulk really left me cold. The opening two issues were pretty solid, but I began to worry - the concept, the pitch for the Planet Hulk story seemed like something I've seen a bunch of times before, and not necessarily something with its hooks in me. A slave becomes a gladiator becomes a revolutionary becomes the emperor of a kinder, more powerful empire than the one that enslaved him, right?

Well, whatever. Super-heroes largely need to do familiar things. The hook is in the execution. Both the writer and the artist are there to give us big, iconic moments for the heroes, and come up with chilling, fucked-up origins for the supporting characters and villains. Stuff that's fun to read.

And part three of the "Planet Hulk: Exile" story arc brings this in spades. The Hulk takes down a big-ass "precision deathfire bomb." His teammate protests, "It's too much. Even you can't--" and Hulk interrupts, "Of course I can." Slam dunk. Pak's striking a nice balance between the limitations of "Graahhh! Hulk MAD!" and the more vague incarnations the character has had in recent years.

Then we get one-page origin stories for the brood warrior and the rock-lookin'-dude on Hulk's slave-gladiator team. Both stories are awesome ideas, squeezed down into tight little one-page vignettes, making the issue feel really dense and worth reading in this format. It's even followed up with a really excellent distillation on the Hulk/Banner relationship, the words "Puny Banner" given some real meaning within the Hulk persona's outlook on life. This is the best issue of The Incredible Hulk that I've read in probably a decade.

With Marvel putting every series it publishes into trade format these days, creators are having to really up their game to make the singles worth buying, and there's a handful of 'em rising to the challenge. Brubaker's one of 'em. Greg Pak seems to be another.

And so is Mark Millar. I'm really enjoying the hyper-dense idea pitch style he's been using in his Ultimate Fantastic Four run, but I haven't quite been grooving with his characterization of Ben Grimm. I don't like a crying Ben Grimm. Tortured, lonely, tragic Ben Grimm, sure, but crying doesn't seem like his thing to me. Which is why this issue was such a fucking explosion of cool comic book badassery.

Ben Grimm single-handedly saves the world from certain doom by being his own heroic self and making a huge personal sacrifice.

Like I said further up: it's not a new idea. It's in the execution. And the execution here is really goddamn fun to read. The big moments are huge. Grimm says "It's clobberin' time!" right as the tide turns. Usual, expected moment, right? But I wanted to jump out of my fucking chair. The build up was amazing. The rest of the issue ties in earlier stuff with some wild plotting that kinda reminds me of Superman: Red Son. A lot of people think Mark Millar is the best writer of traditional, balls-out wild super-hero action on the scene right now, and issues like this one (easily the best of his run so far) go a long way towards convincing me that's true.

Isotope Lovin'!

2006-04-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

What I've got for you today is massive, massive love for James Sime, Kirsten Baldock and everyone at the Isotope for tracking this puppy down and hooking me up on my New Comics Day with the best gift ever:

The faithful and well-read among you will of course recognize the artwork of the brilliant Mr. David Petersen, creator of my new favorite series, Mouse Guard. This is original artwork (from the cover, no less) for the sold-out Mouse Guard sketchbook! I mean: HOLY SHIT!

Words fail me. The owner of my local comics shop noticing a new favorite book of mine, tracking down the cover art, contacting the artist, buying it and having it shipped to the store all as appreciation for my patronage? Un-fucking-believable. I guess it just goes to show that when you share the love, as I try to do every day, sometimes it comes back to you even bigger than you sent it.

This gorgeous page couldn't possibly go on my wall fast enough, save that my good pals over at AiT/Planet Lar hooked me up first with the scan and a beautiful frame.

God bless America, the Isotope, Mouse Guard, and us, everyone.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Tread Forth

2006-04-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

Ugh. Expect a rough week of posts. I'll do my best to pick this up tonight and get some real content going, but on top of the rugged hangover yesterday I've got a manly cold slapping me around this morning. Work schedule's all fucked up, too. I'll do my best.

*****

Daredevil #84 continued the streak last week. Brubaker seems to've remembered how to really jam it all in with every script; there's a lot going on here, as there has been in every issue of the run so far. Best book Marvel's putting out, now.

*****

Read the reprint of Silver Surfer: The Rebirth Of Thanos last week and now I'm absolutely apeshit for more Jim Starlin's Thanos work. I then went back and re-read The Infinity War and was shocked to realize how similar I think it is, stylistically, to Infinite Crisis. Both totally full of wild, spiraling plot threads and guest appearances, many of which turn out to have little application to the story, but seem to be included anyway because (A) they're just really goddamn fun and lend a critical sense of chaos to the event, and (B) of course, they allowed a bunch of tie-ins to increase sales. I had a lot more fun with Infinity War, perhaps because I've always been more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan, in terms of the super-heros. When I see a big fight splash page with Rogue and Nova exchanging blows, it doesn't matter to me that neither of them has a single line of dialogue in the series; it's just fun to see them fight, and I already know who they are. Part of my problem in reading Infinite Crisis has been that, most of the time, I don't have the foggiest fucking idea who any of these people are. Superboy Prime coming back from the dead with the Anti-Monitor armor meant exactly zilch to me.

Anyway, my whole thing now is tracking down more Jim Starlin. Especially more Thanos.

Yo, Marvel! You've still got Silver Surfer #39 through #50 to publish in trade! Hook me up!

*****

Been having some fun building up to the Pete Mortensen Challenge, over on Your Mom's Basement, despite Pete's desperate crap-dump in the closing days of April. May should be interesting.

*****

And Fossen's back!

*****

And there's a great picture of J-Rod in his post for today.

Suffering

2006-04-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

Jesus Christ, I'm in rough fucking shape today. He's usually a good buddy of mine, but yesterday that mick fucker John Jameson just kicked the holy shit out of me.

'Course, I had it coming. He's always on about how I should enjoy the great taste of Jameson responsibly, and I guess that was more important than I realized.

The Wisdom of Conan (#27)

2006-04-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

"A kingdom? Aye, I'll have one someday," he roared. "And a better one than this!

"But it'll be my own, by Crom - and on my own terms!"

And soon the howling winds rose, and he could be seen no more.

Wolverine's SHOCKING ORIGIN and more

2006-04-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Pete Mortensen frowned when I bought Wolverine: Origins #1 yesterday. I hadn't been planning on it, especially since writer Daniel Way's four-issue run on The Incredible Hulk was so godawful, but sometimes, as they say, the spirit catches you.

"Do you really think that's gonna be good?" he asked.

"Not really."

"Then why are you picking it up?"

"Well, because I really, really liked Wolverine comics back in the day, and I'm just wondering if I still do."

I mean, it's not like I'm destitute, Pete. I can afford three bucks to check in on an old favorite, low expectations or high. Four jobs, buddy.

Plus, Steve Dillon buys a whole lot of slack, for any book he's on.

The book's not brilliant, and it's not at all what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it.

I'd imagined - from the cover, anyway - Logan back in the Canadian wilderness, wondering from town to town, wolf pack to wolverine tribe, fishing in icy streams with his bone claws, wavering between his civilized and feral selves, bringing raw animal justice wherever he may go and wrestling with his own torn psyche.

I mean, those are cool Wolverine stories, right? Didn't you always want to see more of those?

What we get here instead is Wolverine taking down the White House, looking for answers.

Which, itself, is also a pretty cool Wolverine story, even if it's not what I wanted going in. Way's script is an Ennis-lite take on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Dugan, who does some great gruff grumbling and answer-demanding, and on a mostly silent Wolverine going around being a badass. Dillon draws pissed off men better than probably anybody else on the scene today, and there are plenty of opportunities for him to draw them.

It's a really solid first issue; I'm not sure where they're going with the series, but as far as introducing the creators' take on the character, it's entertaining and tells a full, satisfying issue's worth of story.

*****

Heh heh heh... taking a quick look around Yelp yesterday, I discovered this review of Kimo's:

"Strange bar with even stranger bartenders and stranger still customers. I went to a private party held upstairs several months ago and that was cool, but their downstairs... Wow."

Monica L.

Ah, the places I go. She could well have been talking about me, I guess, but it's more fun to imagine which of the other nutjobs I work with was on shift that night...

*****

Only discovered artist and creator Mike Hawthorne's comment on my review of Hysteria: One Man Gang #1, where he links us all to a page from his upcoming The Goon back-up. It goes a little something like this:

*****

Arvid Nelson and Juan Ferreyra discuss the future of Rex Mundi - moving soon from Image to Dark Horse - with Brandon Thomas over at Silver Bullet. "No more scheduling problems," Nelson writes.

This is a recent favorite of mine, and I'm glad to see the book doing well.

*****

Ooh, pretty! CBR's got a big preview of Flight, Volume 3 up, including pages by Kazu Kabuishi and Becky Cloonan. Fuck yeah!

*****

Jason Latour begins releasing digital versions of the first four issues of The Expatriate on his website today, and while I'm getting pretty frustrated with B. Clay Moore books never coming out, I gotta say again how much I love Latour's work - it's work taking a look here for the aesthetic value alone.

Making the rounds...

2006-04-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Wow. I know I'm about a year behind the curve on this one, but Jesus, this is an awesome album:

I've listened to a little bit of Common's earlier stuff over the last couple years, having heard some buzz about his style being intelligent or sophisticated or whatever. Never really did it for me. But I kept hearing and hearing about his latest album, Be, and so I went ahead and took a copy up to the listening stations at Amoeba. The first track just completely blew me away and I had to pick the fucker up right then and there.

The present is a gift, and I just wanna be.

*****

Keith Giffen and Mike Leib did this once before, but I missed out on it. Boom! Studios grabbed a bunch of cool old artwork from golden and silver age comics and let the writers just go nuts on the captions and word balloons; the last one looked like old war pulp, where the new book, What Were They Thinking?! - Some People Never Learn, covers a lot of different genres, opening with an alien invasion sci-fi story. This stuff is best in small doses, so most of the stories here are just wisely a few pages long, though the Giffen/Leib story - the funniest of the bunch, had me cracking up at least once per page - is a bit longer. It's cool because it makes the book more dense; you can easily pick it up and just spend a few minutes reading one or two stories (this is perfect crapper reading, and loyal readers will recall I consider myself a connoisseur of great crapper reading). There is, after all, no better place to read something that might make you laugh until you pee than right there on the can where you belong.

My other favorite from the book is Chris Ward's remix, an old comic newly titled "The Bowties That Bind", in which he somehow manages to make a surfing pun funny. Skilled stuff.

The Giffen/Leib stuff is so funny - honestly, some of my favorite Keith Giffen writing from the last few years - I'll have to go back and track down the first What Were They Thinking?! and give it a read.

This should be out next Wednesday, for those with a jones for the glory days of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

*****

Of course, my readers are among the most intelligent and creative of the comics internet community, so I'd be hugely remiss if I didn't point you all to Jason Rodriguez' recent call for submissions over at the Postcards production blog. It's a fine bit of gauntlet throwing to us all, with a challenging concept - just the sort of thing that really works for a lot of writers, working within a box and coming up with creative ways to write themselves out of it. Check it out. Even if you're not a writer, I think it's a fun project to think about.

*****

Anybody else wondering what happened to Mark Fossen? I don't read a lot of blogs, but Focused Totality is one of 'em, and near the top of the blog-reading-To-Do list, too.

Come back, Mark!

*****

Ooh, check out what Josh Richardson posted!

I met this guy (the artist, not the girl-who-secretly-turns-out-to-be-a-guy in the picture) at APE and he seemed like a righteous fellow. I'm digging his art, and can't wait to see what he and Josh come up with.

EDIT: Turns out Josh wasn't happy with me spoiling his secret ending, so, sadly, it no longer turns out at the end that she's a guy. Instead - and I'm still working on convincing him this is a good idea - she should turn out to be the writer himself. I mean, I can't tell you how often I've walked in on the guy dressed just like the fierce/soft warrior-artist lady in the image above, the wig brushing down over one of his eyes while he gives me that look that makes me wonder, "Am I about to be told I'm beautiful, or killed?"

APE Decompression Wrap-Up

2006-04-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

For those who may have missed my whirlwind of APE Decompression coverage last week, here's a quick post to link you all around:

Thoughts and responses to the convention itself:

APE Decompression, Day One
APE Decompression, Day Two
APE Decompression, Day Three
APE Decompression, Day Four (includes preview art from Gone But Not Forgotten)

Reviews of my APE stash:

APE Decompression: Cry Yourself To Sleep
APE Decompression: Gone But Not Forgotten
APE Decompression: The Nearly Infamous Zango
APE Decompression: A Late Freeze
APE Decompression: Fragile Prophet (Best In Show, books I came looking to find)
APE Decompression: Burying Sandwiches (Best In Show, books I discovered at the con)

Catch-Up

2006-04-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, that was a wild week. Hope everybody enjoyed the worm's-eye view on this year's incredible APE show...

*****

New comics day tomorrow, yeah?

One of the books I got to pick up at APE and really loved was Jeremy Tinder's Cry Yourself To Sleep graphic novel, which is being published by Top Shelf with a perfectly reasonable cover price of seven bucks. Many of y'all might really enjoy this one.

Wait, are we really getting two Queen & Country: Declassified trades on the same day? I got a little lost vis a vis the difference between volumes two and three, but I'm glad to see them out anyway. They're gonna have to come home with me.

The second printing of Mouse Guard #1 comes out tomorrow from Archaia Studio Press. This book was a wild surprise hit and lots of folks missed out on their shot to get on board. Fortunately, I asked the Isotope to set aside a copy after finding some awesome preview art; check out my review here and, trust me, pick this up if you missed it before.

I'm psyched to see some creator-owned Dan Slott work coming tomorrow in the form of Big Max #1. I've talked about this twice before, so I'll lay off from this point until actually reading it.

*****

July solicits are up! Hooray!

From DC, I'm almost exhausted - I keep trying to drop DCU books, and they keep making it harder. Grant Morrison's run with Andy Kubert on Batman (#655) and Paul Dini's run with J.H. Williams III on Detective Comics (#821) both begin in July, and I'm going to have to try them both, though I'm more excited about Detective. Garth Ennis has two new series launching, and while I'm a bit tired of his work with the character and will likely pass or trade-wait on A Man Called Kev, I'm always excited by his war books and will certainly be trying out Battler Briton for the promised WWII action. Bill Willingham's long-promised Fables offshoot finally begins with Jack of Fables #1, which I'm really curious to see, if mostly because I think the idea of Jack wandering about the world, jumping from community to community, opens up some interesting possibilities for a storyteller like Willingham. I'm sure to pick up the cheap Exterminators trade, after the buzz that book's been starting to grow lately, and I'm super-psyched to see another Hellblazer trade from Mike Carey's brilliant run.

Marvel's taking it a bit easier on me. I'm pretty curious about the new six-issue mini Beyond, which seems to promise some Secret War-related crossover fun - given Marvel's trade collection policies lately, I'm pretty sure I can wait it out, but it sounds fun. I'll definitely be picking up Chris Eliopoulos and Mark Sumerak's Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius - Super Summer Spectacular, though, 'cause their take on the character (Fantastic Four by way of Calvin & Hobbes) has been thoroughly entertaining. Mike Carey's run on X-Men gets running with issue #188, and I'll be checking it out despite my mixed reactions to Carey's various Marvel work; he's earned a lot of faith from me. I'm also really excited to see Dan Slott's first eight issues of The Thing collected in The Thing: Idol of Millions TPB, which will hopefully draw some attention to the book.

Dark Horse comes surprisingly strong for a month in which no issues of The Goon are coming. We finally get a trade collection of the BMW Films thing, The Hire, with stories from Busiek and Waid among others. Joe R. Lansdale's run on Conan is instead given a mini-series with artist Timothy Truman (whose work on the main series has been awesome so far) called Conan and the Songs of the Dead, which is especially good news since it opens the door to a bit more creative team solidarity oin the main book. Brian K. Vaughan's work on The Escapist is finally on my list with a $1 first issue launching "the new mini-series" (?), but that isn't even the cheapest thing they're publishing in July. That'd be Dark Horse: Twenty Years, a scant twenty-five cents for a book containing work from Eric Powell, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Cary Nord, Sergio Aragonés, Art Adams, and Joss Whedon. Plus a whole bunch of other people, apparently. I mean, Jesus: who the hell isn't going to buy this one?

Image comes through with a whole bunch of my pull-list titles, including Casanova (following the Fell format at 16 pages of story for two bucks), Emissary (new home of the Small Gods team), Fear Agent (Rick Remender's best book, if you ask me), Hysteria: One Man Gang, Invincible, The Walking Dead and Noble Causes, and seems to be determined to add another title to my pull list with the third issue of Negative Burn in as many months, still boasting Phil Hester stories and therefore still getting my fucking money. Johnston's already pointed out that the new issue of Savage Dragon (#128) will be a Wanted crossover, which sounds like a fucking trip and a good time to try out the book again. Umbra #2 (of 3) features Mike Hawthorne artwork and promises to ramp up the violence, which sounds cool to me given the artist's talent for fight scenes. 24seven GN is my preferred of the two 200-page anthologies Image is putting out, simply by virtue of the talent list attached (Becky Cloonan, Phil Hester, Mike Huddleston (working with Hester again, maybe?), Alex Maleev, Tony Moore, Eduardo Risso and more. Jeff Amano's The Cobbler's Monster GN sounds like a potentially fascinating take on the Pinnochio story, while Doug Tennapel's Iron West GN brings to mind Kazu Kibuishi's wonderful Daisy Kutter mini from a couple years ago (and reminds me: whatever happened to Dusty Star?), combining western scenery with robot sci-fi plotting. But what I'm most excited to see - this whole month, really - is the launch of Richard Starkings' Hip Flask monthly (please) off-shoot series, Elephantmen #1! It's been a hell of a story so far and I can't wait to see where Starkings and his various artistic collaborators go with this book. My impression is that we're looking at sort of a "Forgotten Tales of..." format, which would be pretty exciting, but I'll take whatever I can get. Looks great.

*****

Some nice love coming my way from James Sime over at his The Comic Pimp column this week, in which he provides his own brand of post-APE wrap-up, including a bitchin' video from his incredible APE Aftermath party, and a moment taken to reflect on his love for the show:

...it felt just like those Christmases from long ago... only it wasn't in December, and there wasn't a snowflake to be found anywhere.

It was the Alternative Press Expo. Where the Concourse Pavilion was my massive Christmas Tree and every table held gifts, folded and stapled into little packages of fascination, carefully crafted stories for me to take home and treasure.

Amen.

APE Decompression: Burying Sandwiches

2006-04-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

See, part of why I've been waiting to review Rob Sato's incredible Burying Sandwiches is because it's easily my favorite new book of APE 2006. But another part is that I've got almost no idea what to write about it. It's just really fucking good.

Burying Sandwiches is the tale of Janice Takeda, who "from the beginning... hadn't cared much for food." The story follows her from early childhood up through her early adulthood, wrestling the entire time with here intense dislike of eating.

We get snapshots of Janice's troubles throughout childhood, a tense anxiety building and building, until finally, at the age of nine, she determines a solution: she just plain won't eat anymore. She begins burying her lunches in a hole in the ground behind some old shed, alone and desperate.

It's at this point that the ghosts show up.

Fans of Sam Kieth's classic, The Maxx, will begin to recognize some similar motifs. Janice builds her own private life all around the ghosts, who through an especially chilling sequence prove to hold the solution to her problems with food. I'm reminded of The Outback and the blind little Isz creatures in Kieth's work. There's a level of fantasy and surrealness to the solution the ghosts provide, and this lends the second half of the story an incredible feeling of uncertainty and unpredictability, which is unusual for a story that reads - as this does - so much like a fairy tale.

A big draw for me - the factor that, fortunately, compelled me to buy the book when Molly picked it up and showed it to me - is the artwork. Sato's style is completely his own and it's fascinating. It also suits perfectly the story's unique combination of innocent imagination and stark, chilling consequence.

Every single page of this story stimulated my imagination, with just enough details left out that I could read some of my own interpretations into the tale. On one level, it's a fascinating take eating disorders, a subject in which I normally have little interst. On another level, it's about isolation, about being different from other people in ways we can't help, and what we'll do when that makes us desperate. The ending leaves me with a lot of questions, but mostly it just leaves me thinking.

I don't think I've put down a book with such a feeling of interest in quite a while.

Sato's website features several preview pages and information on distribution (including a direct link to the Last Gasp entry). I cannot recommend enough that you give it a look.

APE Decompression: Fragile Prophet

2006-04-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

Wow.

I didn't realize it until I went to reference my review from last year, but Fragile Prophet has been a "Best In Show" read for me twice in a row now.

I picked up an advance copy of the first issue from the Lost In The Dark Press table at APE 2005, and reviewed it on the old Zealot's Lore site (back when I somehow thought that was a good name for a blog). I said at the time that "it was my favorite "find" – oh, I picked up a lot of other stuff I loved, like a bunch of mini-comics from the good Mr. Jeremy Tinder and the big new trade collection of Arsenic Lullaby, stuff I knew going in that I would love, but this was my favorite book to discover."

This year, they've finished the book and have put together a handsome trade paperback, complete with - get this - a quote from my review printed on the back.

Well, shit, walking up to the booth and finding that just made me feel like a million bucks. It helps, of course, that not only does the first chapter hold up as well as I remembered it (better, actually, since they've retouched a lot of the lettering), but the complete story is absolutely fantastic.

It's a great book, and I realized in describing it to Manuel that it's got a fucking wicked hook, too. Dig it:

An autistic young boy begins seeing pieces of the future, and one days sees his own; he turns to his older brother - his only family in the world - and asks, "Why do you let me die?"

I mean, bam! Sold!

I said last year that artist Stephen R. Buell "has a style that reminds me a bit of the old Aeon Flux cartoons on Liquid Television; the anatomy is slightly skewed, the faces stretched out, but there remains something very viscerally human and personal about the characters he draws. It’s just stylized enough to make the reader a little bit uncomfortable, a little bit unfamiliar, but without alienating us from the characters."

That style serves the rest of the story just as well as it did the opening chapter, only in the later bits of the book Buell mixes it up and gets a little more experimental. There are some really amazing splash pages here, for the big moments, and they all pack a punch. But the real change-ups come in the final chapter of the story, right at the same time that Jeff Davidson's script begins taking its biggest risks. It's incredibly brave storytelling, and must have been a huge challenge for the creators. I've long been fond of music producer Rick Rubin's advice to Slayer in their early days, that "the perfect take is the one that feels like it's ready to fall apart, but never does." That's much like my experience reading the end of this story. It jumps the rails, for sure - heads in a direction I hadn't expected at all - but amazingly, it all feels right. It fits the characters, and it fits the story. But it wouldn't have the same crackle if it didn't feel chancey - the roll of the dice is a big part of what makes it so exciting.

These final pages pull an amazing double-act, revealing a character arc we didn't see coming before, making a drastic change to the story, and yet a necessary one, one that feels inevitable once you've read the sequence. And the final page... it's just amazing. Kind of thing that leaves you with a big, heavy sigh waiting in your chest. As I said of the first issue, "I don’t know whether to shudder or smile as I read these pages, and if I find myself doing both, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable contradiction." Davidson and Buell keep that vibe going right to the last drop, and I haven't been so emotionally taken with a comic in a long time. See, what these guys understand is that it's kinda boring to tell a story that's only sad, or only inspiring, or a story that includes the gamut of emotions but segments each one into different scenes. Here, we get it all at once; the complexity and interaction of the emotions being evoked give the reader a feeling of fullness, and a feeling of satisfaction that isn't often achieved. It's a marvelous accomplishment.

The first fourteen pages are up at the book's website, and I urge you to take a look. The book should also be available soon from the Lost In The Dark webstore. This is fantastic comics. Seriously. I want everybody to read this.

Stay tuned Monday for my favorite discovery of APE 2006!

APE Decompression, Day Four

2006-04-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

Whew, doing a lot of writing this week.

I've got artwork posted now for Gone But Not Forgotten, which I reviewed on Tuesday. Here's a sample; click it to check out the rest.

I'm out of ranting about the con for today, and I need to take a one-day break from the reviews.

Tomorrow, I'll be looking at my two favorite finds from APE 2006. One book, I came to the con determined to find, and it not only delivered on my hopes but brightened my day considerably more than I could have predicted. The other took me completely off guard, blind-sided me with its awesomeness, and I'd never even have found it if not for Molly.

For now, I really need to go get the new Shaolin Cowboy.

But tomorrow, the Best Of APE 2006!

APE Decompression: A Late Freeze

2006-04-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

A Late Freeze, written and drawn by Danica Novgorodoff, is the winner of the 2006 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics, and should be in retail stores today*.

This mostly-mimed story reminds me of books like Kochalka's Monkey vs. Robot or some of [Norwegian] Jason's more affectionate work. It's about a family coming together in the unlikeliest of circumstances, struggling to survive in a world that won't leave them alone, suffering the consequences and ultimately keeping faith and devotion to each other.

But it just so happens, see, that the family is made up of a robot recently escaped from his factory (daddy), a bear (mommy), their baby (!!!), and an adopted frog on the run from the authorities. They all run from what haunts them and, for a while, it seems they can build their own life on their own terms, together.

Of course, living a life so free is not without its costs, and not everybody here "wins", though the book retains a hopeful, heartening feel. What really strikes me, though, is that even those whose freedom is ultimately taken from them do not give up on each other, and this point is driven home near the end in what for me is the most moving passage of the book, when Momma Bear takes up a job in the factory so she can rebuild her darling Papa Robot [characters named by me, not Novgorodoff]. Heartbreaking, but in that rare way that actually makes you feel better.

*: Edit, care of some info from the good ol' LCS; right now, most retail shops probably don't have the book. I took the listing from Midtown Comics' listing, which apparently is NOT an accurate gauge of the Diamond listing (and, I'm told, you can find copies of the book for a better price). So I'd recommend swinging by the Isotope, where I'm certain you can pick up a copy and a congratulations on your good taste, or else try shooting Danica an e-mail via the contact page on her website.

APE Decompression: The Nearly Infamous Zango

2006-04-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

Ah, bless good aul Rob Osborne.

Long-time fans of Osborne's work will recognize some of his best thematic material in The Nearly Infamous Zango #1, which chronicles a moment of truth (and its haphazard fallout) in the life of super-villain Zango.

Being a plain old super-villain ain't enough for Zango, who is right at home in the oeuvre of a man whose first book was about his desire to conquer the earth through comics. No; Zango shouts it from the mountain tops, "I want to be the greatest villain alive!"

The book is full of naked ambition, charismatic and convincing as much as it is ill-conceived and comedic. You never know quite how seriously to take him; Osborne's got a great poker face. You find yourself rooting for his characters: kept in check as they are by their mistakes and stumbles, they never give up. You begin to hope this guy will become the greatest villain alive, though the road be long and steep.

Osborne also begins working on building an ensemble here, and I think it's a stronger book for it - watching Zango interact with his flirty and flighty daughter, or the mad scientist who's building his army, or big-dumb-and-strong Van Freako, is a big part of the fun, as each character makes him look ridiculous in a different way and helps build the challenging framework of his life. They lend a structure to the issue, and to the potentially ongoing story, that could give the series some legs if Osborne decides to make this a longer-term project.

It's a fun goddamn book, available online at Khepri (which now features a five-page preview, containing one of my favorite sequences in the book). His other books - 1000 Steps To World Domination and Sunset City - are published by AiT/Planet Lar and should be available in any discerning comics shop.

Ape Decompression, Day Three

2006-04-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

My buddy Manuel convinced his girlfriend, Denise, to come with us to APE, after dragging her to WonderCon last month.

On the short walk towards the Concourse we began warning her.

"There's gonna be a lot of sorry sacks of shit in there, and you kinda just have to suck it up."

"It's kind of a gamble; there's cool stuff in there, but you're gonna have to wade through a bunch of shit to get to it."

"Just don't let the creepy guys get to you."

Funny thing is, she loved the show. Had a great time.

It's a gamble, yeah: but this year, everything was coming up sevens and elevens. The whole vibe was kicked off with a great start when we walked up to the Sugar Free Comics table and creator Shana Manion assaulted our senses with probably the most enthusiastic, confident, and completely insane "check out my comic" pitch I've ever seen in my life, for her 24-hour comic, Ask Miss Anthropy. It's hard to recreate - her "nerd chic" explosion of manic energy reminded me a little bit of James Sime's more insane moments of uncontrolled enthusiasm, but the comparison doesn't really do either of them justice; James is more carnival huckster where Shana was doing sort of a stand-up comic thing, all punchlines and snappy comebacks - but it sure as hell put a smile on our faces, and let me and Manuel relax: maybe this wouldn't seem so creepy to Denise after all.

She ended up telling us she liked APE a lot more than she did WonderCon, and her explanation made a lot of sense to me; at the "fanboy" cons, like WonderCon, you're always gonna see the same thing, and it's largely gonna be the comic book cliche. Jim Lee will always be there. Kevin Smith will always be there. Everyone will have their copies of Wolverine or whatever the hell it is they want signed by whoever is sitting behind a booth signing hundreds upon hundreds of books in a row. The energy is there, the excitement is there, but it's more static - not a lot of new things really going on, y'know? One major publisher shifts around some popular creators on some popular books and the machine keeps going.

APE, though, is a new beast every time, and you never have any idea what to expect. You don't even know what's at the next table because you're too caught up in where you're at right now.

I guess that vibe really came through, 'cause she had a blast.

New readers, new consumers, new blood, new comics.

*****

Well, I'll be. Rodriguez is back.

Watch out, everyone else who has a blog. We're all about to look like idiots.

APE Decompression: Gone But Not Forgotten

2006-04-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

As I walked up to the Team 8 Design table, I saw a lot of cool-looking shit (art prints, t-shirts, mini-comics...), but one book caught my eye in particular. The cover was sticking up, revealing some interior artwork, and when I picked it up and started flipping through I was amazed at the quality of it.

"I'm making another one!" somebody shouted from behind the table. I looked over and saw him bent over what looked like a paper slicer. "The cover won't be fucked up!"

Well, it was a bit of last-minute work, but I had to admire the man's gumption.

And the artwork was awesome, so I waited it out. Have to give the fellow credit: he didn't shake easy. He took his time and made sure the new copy was perfect, even with me standing there in front of him. I mean, that'll plumb rattle some fellows, won't it?

Turned out it was the writer and artist of the book, Ian Sampson. He was friendly and confident, which was a relief - this was one of my first stops and I hate to start the convention off on the wrong foot with nervous, mousy types who don't even like their own work.

Anyway, the book itself: like I said, the art is a real goddamn eye-catcher. I thought at first glance I was seeing some Geof Darrow influence, but I think that was just because of the detailed inking. Sampson does great work with the black and white format here, playing with different levels of contrast and starkness to enhance the story of a sin-eater, a ritualistic holy man of some kind, who comes to a lonely mountain shack on the occaision of a death. The family seems wary but brings him into their home and lets him do his thing; but their response to him when it's finished surprised me, and made a chilling end to what I realized was a wanderer's story, about a powerful, strong, but tortured and lonely man.

It's all done in pantomime, so a lot of this is just my interpretation. These things are fun like that, when they're not trying to point out every little thing the writer wants you to notice. This is a more subtle book than that; Sampson seems to invite interpretation.

I wish I could post some images; I don't have a scanner and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of comics content on the website. But I'll throw an e-mail at 'em and see if I can't get something for you by the end of the week, 'kay?

EDIT: Done and done. Behold!

(Click images to enlarge. There are NOT in sequence, just some pages I thought you'd dig. If you'd like to check out Ian Sampson's work, the Team 8 website's a little light; try his mySpace account, or e-mail him at ian [at] team8design.com.)

APE Decompression: Cry Yourself To Sleep

2006-04-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

Top Shelf is calling Cry Yourself To Sleep "a stellar debut," and while I'll go with the first part, this ain't his first book. Homeboy's been making really awesome mini-comics for at least three years now - his table was my very first APE experience, way back in 2004. Which is weird, because as a result I recognize all three main characters here - but more on that later. At any rate, that's just me quibbling, like one of those kids who got a rapper's first mix-tape cassette for a couple bucks way back in the day; don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years, y'see.

This book does mark something new though, and it's really friggin' awesome - he's been picked up by Top Shelf. They're really the perfect publisher for him, and in turn he seems to have put a lot of growth and thought into this, his debut graphic novel.

I said last year that Tinder's stuff was "drawn and written in a simple, crude style that should appeal to all the folks who tell me Craig Thompson and James Kochalka are great comics artists." What a cocky little shit I was!

What's funny is that I don't really see the resemblance anymore. At a glance, Tinder's style seems to remain the same here - it's simple and iconic, with nuanced emotions coming through in clean, minimal lines. I think that may be the difference; the sketchy quality is becoming more consistent and more expressive. Faces without pupils in the eyes still radiate inner turmoil of all kinds, and the dialogue invites us to read between the lines and push ourselves into the story.

S'funny, because as I said, these are all characters I'm familiar with. There's a robot, for example, who decides over the course of this book to become a better person. My read of this was probably enhanced a bit by this mini-comics (click to enlarge)--

--which I read last year. Don't get me wrong, I think CYTS stands on its own perfectly well, but the recurring characters are a nice Easter egg of sorts for us lucky APE folks.

Anyway, the story being told here is a deceptively simple one, following three parallel character arcs that all inform and reflect each other. Everybody's got a challenge - Andy Saturday is lost in his own head, talking to himself and writing fiction that only reproduces what he sees in his own life; Jim the rabbit is angry and broke, unable to hold jobs because he just can't seem to find a boss who's not an asshole and out of rent money because he's spent it all on video games and strippers; and then there's Robot, a character who'd remind us of Data from Star Trek is Data had been a callous asswipe before deciding he wanted to become more human.

All three characters' needs are different incarnations of the same challenge; all three are struggling to connect to the world and relationships around them.

There's really no point in explaining it past that; it's a sweet story, with some heart-warming suggestions and occasional poop jokes.

I love it.

APE Decompression, Day Two

2006-04-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

Ah, good - I'm not the only one writing about this year's stellar Alternative Press Expo:

Josh Richardson provides an insider's view (and a hearty recap of the festivities on Saturday night, both at Isotope and at Josh's "Aftermath Afterparty" [God forgive me]) from In The Trenches, including a spotlight on his swag (a comic based on "November Rain"? ...sounds good) and a shot of me goofing around with good buddy Joe Keatinge:

And Jeremy Nisen posts an excellent wrap-up over at SFist, including photos of some of the cool booths he checked in on.

Am I the only fool who doesn't take pictures of everything?

The real trip is, as we've been discussing on this MillarWorld thread, that everybody finds different stuff. Everybody has a different experience. It's a remarkably dense convention floor - you've got the usual recognizables like Top Shelf, Fantagraphics, AiT/Planet Lar and the mini-shop set up by Comic Relief, but once you spread out into the side lanes, it's impossible to guess what you'll see.

You can't even tell from a distance. Molly and I figured we'd end up a bit dry on what we dubbed "The Ghetto Side" (based largely, we realized in retrospect, on the presence of Aaron Farmer and the B-Minus guys), but I think my favorite "new" creator from the con was one I found over there.

*****

Which brings me to another point. I've got WAY more shit here than I'm possibly going to be able to review this week, so I'm organizing. For the rest of the week, I'm going to [try to] do two reviews each day.

One review will be something totally new. Somebody I never met before the con, whose work I'd never seen. A big part of the fun of APE is exploring new territory and seeing where strangers want to take your imagination.

The second review will be of new work by folks I'm already familiar with. I had a very different experience this year than the first time I went, after all - a number of these guys are mainstays, people I rely on seeing at APE so I can catch up on all the cool shit they've been up to since the last time I saw 'em. That's another rad thing about APE, y'see - it's like a big giant wicked cool comic book store that you only get to go to once a year. It's like going to your Local Comics Shop and looking for the new X-Men book, only I'm there to find the new Jeremy Tinder, Miriam Libicki, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, Rob Osborne or Jeff Davidson and Stephen Buell comics. Dig?

*****

The world keeps turning, though. Blair brings the pain this week over at All The Rage, with some really bitchin' new Ghost Rider pages (wow, did Texeria always look that good?), news of a really cool-sounding new Image anthology, and the GODDAMN FUCKING BUMMER news that the second issue of the Small Gods mini is cancelled.

*****

And James is back in full swing over at The Comic Pimp, with his trademark ten-page column this time interviewing Dave Ritchie and Dave Pifer, who run the Secret Headquarters comics shop in L.A., damn them both.

God, the way I go on you'd swear L.A. had done something terrible to me. Is there a repressed memory in there somewhere? Did I get slipped a roofie or some GHB and lose the memory? Did you date-rape me, Los Angeles?

APE Decompression, Day One

2006-04-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

Holy shit.

Okay, I've been going to APE for - if memory serves - three years now. It's always been a mixed bag, of course. The bright-eyed, talented, professional amateurs with amazing comics to sell or fun stories to tell have, historically, been few and far inbetween; enough of them there to make the trip worthwhile, to send me home with a big fat stack of cool stuff and a smile on my face, but not enough to completely wash out the taste of all those sorry-ass sacks of shit that didn't belong there in the first place.

I laid out a lot of my thoughts on the difference last year, launching a huge discussion on the Isotope forum about how to sell comics, but this year I don't think that's going to be necessary. I have a few thoughts - folks with business cards and websites, for example, are going to get the bulk of my attention in the future, simply by virtue of practicality - but mostly I walked away this year with one thought on my mind:

Holy shit.

That was incredible.

This year brought easily the strongest Alternative Press Expo I've yet attended. This stuff was so consistently good, y'see, that I didn't really have to bother with the sad fuckers - I was a bit more judgemental this time around, walking with a bit more swagger and determination. I didn't do it because I'm any hotter shit than I was then, or because I'm any meaner - I did it to protect my wallet. Just a few booths in, I realized it was a whole new ballgame, and the two hundred bucks I'd brought with me "just in case" was in very real danger.

I'm going to have to spend the bulk of this week just extolling the virtues of all the awesome books I've been reading ever since, but I'll lay it all out for you today, digest-sized, so you can check out any titles or names that catch your eye.

Behold:

My APE Stash, 2006 Edition:

Cry Yourself To Sleep, and several mini-comics, by Jeremy Tinder. I was super-psyched to see this one - I've been grooving on Tinder's self-produced eight-pagers for three years now, and seeing that he'd been picked up by Top Shelf for a full length book was really exciting - like seeing a kid you played ball with in high school make the majors or something.

A Late Freeze, by Danica Novgorodoff, who won this year's Isotope Award For Excellence in Mini-Comics, and asked during her acceptance speech if she could do it wearing the Doctor Strange cloak James keeps on display. According to the Diamond shipping list, this should be in retail shops this Wednesday.

Just Another Guy With A Planet For A Head and The Nomad Church #1 by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, who won the award last year. I'm a devotee now, having thoroughly enjoyed pretty much everything of the man's I've ever read.

The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft preview by Mac Carter, Jeff Blitz and Adam Byrne. These guys had a really gorgeous poster on sale for just a buck, but unfortunately they were also one of my first stops and I wasn't about to carry a poster all over hell. If you were one of the lucky ones to pick that sucker up, props.

Metro and Gone But Not Forgotten by Ian Sampson. Homeboy was actually folding and stapling copies as I stood there, which honestly impressed me more with its determination and moxie than it annoyed me with its unpreparedness. Plus, this guy's art was really excellent, so it was well worth hanging out for a minute to get a freshly minted copy.

The Nearly Infamous Zango by world-conqueror Rob Osborne, the first winner of the Isotope award. Osborne finds a lot of inspiration in the concept of ambition, so I'm looking forward to his take on a "mere" super-villain aiming for world domination.

Hip Flask: Unnatural Selection (issue #1) and Elephantmen (issue #2) by Richard Starkings, Joe Casey, and Ladronn, who ties with Quitely and Darrow for the Best Slow Artist In The World award. Spoke with John at ComiCraft about the upcoming Elephantmen ongoing series, and it sounds really cool - he said it should drop in July and I couldn't be more excited.

Red Chapel #1 and Paper Cuts by Caleb Monroe and Elk's Run artist Noel Tuazon. Small world, huh? I've been banging the drum for Elk's Run for, what, a year now? And just like that I meet one of Tuazon's early (and continuing) collaborators at a Con. Caleb was really cool and I'm looking forward to reading this.

Feed America's Children featuring Major Impact, from Wildcard Productions and featuring artwork by Darick Robertson, Phil Winslade, Scott Kolins, Brandon McKinney, Ron Lim, Keiron Dwyer, C.P. Smith, Paul Harmon, Norm Breyfogle, P. Craig Russell, Joe Jusko, Jimmy Palmiotti, and good ol' Rafael Navarro, who tried to slip Molly the tongue at the Isotope party after the con.

A free postcard from Joshua Ellingson, whose artwork was incredible but out of my budget.

Towards a Hot Jew: the Israeli soldier as fetish object by Miriam Libicki, whose jobnik! #4 I reviewed Friday. This one is described as a "drawn essay" and has a more photorealistic art style, so I'm curious to see how she switches it up here.

East Coast Rising, the first in a new manga series by Becky Cloonan and my first Tokyopop purchase ever. It was gonna take Becky to do it, to make me break down like that. A look at the original art she brought with her convinced me it was a must-buy.

Burying Sandwiches by Rob Sato. Rob's got a really wild, original style to his artwork (preview pages are up at the website) and the story I picked up from flipping through just a couple pages seemed accessible and unique at the same time, so eight bucks seemed a really fair price for this original graphic novel.

The Waiting Sun by Justin Madson, who had a really impressive spread: gorgeous framed art prints to grab my eye, trade collections of his Happy Town series, single issues for the tight budgets, and a "box set" including pretty much everything on the table for a mere twenty-five bucks. I got this done-in-one trade for five bucks because, again, Justin suffered from being an early stop in my travels, but this Kochalkaesque stuff looks great. My good buddy Joe Keatinge picked up the box set, so I'll be looking to pick his brain about how the rest of the stuff worked out.

Red Magic: Houdini's Secret by Ed Sams. These guys had a lot of interesting chapbooks for sale, and I went with Houdini because, well, I've been looking to read up on the guy for a while now and this seemed like just my chance.

Grizzled Comics featuring John Wayne Dixon, Gritty Tales of Espionage and Danger, and Girl Friday book one, all by Kyle Strahm. This guy had an awesome art style that reminded me of Kyle Hotz and Eduardo Risso, and he did something I thought was cool - you know how artists get all self-concious and have a hard time pimping out their shit sometimes? Kyle found a way to twist that to his advantage. "That's my earliest stuff you're looking at; I'm really excited about the new book [Girl Friday] because I think I've changed my style a lot and I'm a lot happier with it." See, what he did there? I'm not happy with this one quickly twists into You should really see this one! Much more effective salesmanship than simple self-criticism.

Break #6: Catch Me If and Break #7: Over and Over by Briana Miller. I picked up and really enjoyed Briana's Walk Like Tall Birds (Break #5, apparently) last year, which featured a touching marionette love story between an elephant and a giraffe. It was nice to see her return to the show with two new comics, and she seemed pretty excited about them, so they're at the top of my read pile.

The Homeless Channel #2 by Matt Silady, who you may remember won the Rob Osborne original art poetry contest I ran when I first got started blogging last march. Matt's a really cool guy and super-excited about his book; big smile on his face as he told me folks were comparing his progress between issues #1 (last year) and #2 (this year) as moving from Brian Bendis towards Tony Harris. I can see what they were getting at and I'm psyched to see where Matt's gonna go with this.

Other Days #1 by Brian Fukushima had a guy who looks like an old friend of mine and Molly's on the cover, which was why Molly picked it up and showed it to me. But I opened it and really liked the interior art style and the coloring, so it had to go in the haul. Damn coincidences.

Fistman #2: Fistman Fears Fish by Joseph Bergin III was a purchase that came from a big balls exhibitor move: as I walked past, glancing from several feet away at Joseph's table, he saw my glance at held out a copy of his book - "Would you like to take a look?" Could've come off desperate and sad, but instead came off gutsy and confident. It's all in the delivery, friends. Anyway, the book itself looks pretty funny, and the character design for Fistman is cute.

Diary of a Catering Whore by Sean Seamus McWhinny (Christ, you think that guy might be Chinese?), whose Head Trip I bought at my LCS months ago. I enjoyed that one - a book about his father's descent into Alzheimer’s - so I figured I'd check out this tale of terror in the service industry.

A zodiac calendar by Chris Koehler, just because his sketchbook - laying flat, front and center - was so awesome I wanted to bring some of his art home.

Death By Sexy version 1.2 by Evan Keeling was a cool find for two reasons - Evan's part of the D.C. Conspiracy with Quality Control amigo Jason Rodriguez, and he's got a really righteous (and ambitious) concept for the book. These are all concert posters for the band Death By Sexy, which have to include the time, date and ticket price of each show, and Evan's trying to connect all these posters into an ongoing story in which each poster is one full page. Pretty wild, huh? I'm looking forward to checking it out.

A really gorgeous postcard-sized art print by Jaime Zollars, whose stuff you should really look for. Lots of samples at the link; if Jaime ever does sequential work, this kind of thing would fit really nicely in one of the Flight books.

Arsenic Lullaby: The Donut Cometh by Doug Paszkiewicz was a highlight, of course, as was seeing Doug again. This book is essentially the second volume of "the complete" series (first was Year of the Fetus), which pretty well catches us all up on his current work. Arsenic Lullaby has been a bit slow to release lately, which Doug told me is because he's been picked up for some word in Mad Magazine, starting this month. Holy shit! I couldn't be more psyched for the guy. If you're not into baby killing or holocaust humor, this ain't for you (Ross), but if you are secretly a horrible, evil person, this will have you rolling.

And finally, the book I was perhaps the most excited to find was Fragile Prophet by Jeff Davidson and Stephen R. Buell of Lost In The Dark Press. I did a fairly extensive review of the advance of the first issue I picked up last year, and they quoted me on the back of their trade collection! The story's complete, the collection is printed (and it's beautiful, complete with adjustments to the lettering, which I'd criticized as being unclear in the first issue), and it really comes together as a story. This one's getting a full review for sure, but the short and fat of it is: fantastic.

Amazing year, everyone. The bar has been seriously raised. Thanks for it.

*****

This guy did a big college report on Cameron Stewart, and specifically his work on the upcoming Vertigo series The Other Side, and got some preview art I haven't seen yet. He's blogged it to us all here.

*****

I've told y'all to watch out for Jason McNamara - he's a dangerous conversationalist - and there's a bit of evidence now online in the form of his recent interview with Newsarama.

Clever bits like this:

Every time we want, fear or express something we shape the world. Society isn’t something prefabricated, that can be delivered to your house on top of a pizza. We’re all culpable.

And a couple really cool "how I met..." stories, including his Larry Young story:

Back in 2004 a local television show decided to spotlight the best in Bay Area Cartoonists. It featured interviews with big shots like Batman writer Judd Winick, AiT-PlanetLar publisher Larry Young and… us. We were supposed to go on before Larry Young. But Tony and I got super nervous and had to stop off for a bottle of Gentlemen’s Jack first. We showed up ninety minutes late completely hammered. I nervously called Larry Young “Larry King” like fifty times. We mumbled and cursed our way through the interview, hit on the host and then left to go to work at our day jobs.

Heh...

jobnik! and APE

2006-04-07T11:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a rough week. Did I really miss TWO days of posting? Well, you'll have to forgive me, or else beat my ass down at APE tomorrow when you see me.

*****

Several people I'm looking forward to seeing tomorrow. One is Miriam Libicki, writer and artist of jobnik!, which I've discussed before.

Issue #4 came across my eyes recently, and I think it's the best of the series so far.

Libicki's facial expressions are really becoming a hallmark of her artwork. They lend a subtext to every scene, and tell a lot about not just her characters and their "acting" throughout the book, but also about her perspective on everything; she draws herself with bags under her eyes almost constantly, weary and nervous and self-doubting and tired. Nobody else seems to get them; relative to her, they're all a very natural, comfortable part of their own environment. It seems to suggest her unique position as an outsider, an American amidst the "real" Israelis.

Another thing Miriam's really good at is making me uncomfortable. This issue contains maybe the most uncomfortable sex scene I've ever read. It's only two pages long and not too graphic, but the awkwardness of it and the relationship it builds between the two characters - again, largely through facial expression - is really striking.

The issue ends with a nice bit of cliffhanger narration - we're not so "on the edge of our seats" that the wait for issue #5 is an irritant, but we are curious and interested. I'm looking forward to where the story continues...

*****

So, who should I be looking for tomorrow? I've got no idea what to expect, but I'm pretty damned excited.

See you at APE, my friends, or at the Aftermath. Either way, it's gonna be a fun fucking weekend.

Speaking in Tongues

2006-04-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

Holy shit, APE is THIS WEEKEND.

That really snuck up on me.

Sweet.

Oh, and check out the list of who's coming. Scott Morse, Douglas Paszkiewicz, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, Kazu Kibuishi, Jeremy Tinder, Jim Mahfood, the Lost In The Dark guys, Rick Geary, Becky Cloonan, Alex Robinson... Jesus, what a list. There's even someone awesome enough to have the name Wena Poon.

*****

I got a "sneak preview" of sorts of Josh Fialkov's new comic with artist Kody Chamberlain, Punks.

The thing is apeballs. I've never read a comic quite this nuts; Josh is writing a series of characters that read like brain spasms, a series that seems to be aiming more to send electricity up the spine than anything else.

There's a certain stream-of-conciousness vibe to the style here, but it works because the damn pages are dripping with fun. Chamberlain's cut-up style and Josh's meta-dialogue combine like peanut butter and nitroglycerin.

A lot of folks will be baffled, I think, but that might be part of the point. It's the kind of book that will invite us to bafflement, and then, when we're most vulnerable, stab us in the head.

The blood will look cool.

*****

James Sime ramps up his online comics previews - after doing, what, four of 'em in the last four weeks? - with a fresh one every day this week.

One might guess he's building up to this weekend's Alternative Press Expo, the APE Aftermath party, and the award ceremony for the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics.

Or, one might just download a bunch of cool previews for new upcoming comics.

*****

Neil Kleid is really coming at it gangbusters these days, ain't he? Brownsville came out, he's got The Intimidators going on at Shadowline, the Call of the Wild adaptation... now he's got a new book coming from Slave Labor, called Ursa Minors.

Here's the pitch: "Tom, Richard and Harry are Bears One, Two and Three: gifted with
high-tech robotic bear suits that grant them incredible strength, night vision and razor sharp claws. While most would be tempted to use them heroically, the pop-culture raised/internet age defenders of Bigby City focus their strengths on comics, beer, and comics about beer."

Photobucket can't seem to handle the preview pages I got in my inbox from the good Mr. Kleid, but the pages remind me a bit of Kleid's "Take That" column, which you can sample here.

I'll die with a hammer in my hand, lord, lord...

2006-04-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hectic posts today and, likely, again tomorrow.

Tomorrow I've got a staff meeting across town at 9:30 a.m., followed by a double shift that ends at about 3:00 a.m.

*****

Funny thing to reference, but Amazon's got an awesome video up of Bruce Springsteen doing the old classic, "John Henry". Apparently he's got a new album coming out with a bunch of songs "associated with" Pete Seeger.

I've been of the opinion that Seeger was pretty much a douchebag, but "John Henry" predates him by, like, fifty years or more. So, it's an awesome song and Bruce does it fun.

*****

What looks good in this week's batch of new comics? Well, I'll be checking out these:

Ex Machina Vol 3: Fact V Fiction TP
Hard Time Season 2 #5
Infinite Crisis #6
Planetary #25
Astro GN
Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1
Punisher MAX #32

Winter Men #4 - Not sure about this one. The fuckin' thing was teased in that Vertigo X book about three years ago, and the first three issues came out months ago. Issue #5 hasn't been solicited yet, right? I might have to wait this puppy out. You've gotta come a little stronger, guys - you've got to do the work and put out the book. When you're self-reliant and publishing your own stuff, I'll be a little more patient because I know how much hassle that can be. But when you're being published by DC? Just do the fucking work. Still, this has been really good.

Adhouse Books is putting out Superior Showcase #1, a mere three bucks for some crazy awesome shit. I'll be checking it out for sure.

Then there's Streets Of Dublin (SC, $11.99) from Dublin Comics. This book caught my eye in the Previews magazine - not quite enough to convince me to pre-order, but enough for me to pick it up and take a look if I see it on the shelf this week. There's a somewhat confusing review up at Bugpowder.com; a fast-paced drugs-n-debauchery thriller set in the faithfully reproduced auld architecture of Dublin town? Well, like I said, I'll take a look.

*****

Grr. Amidst links a-plenty to overwhelmingly positive reviews, Mike Carey points out that his first novel, The Devil You Know (out this week, it seems, in the UK), will have the hardcover US version released in June 2007.

I'm really pissed about potentially having to wait that long when the fuckin' thing is out for all you limey fuckers across the pond already.

At the same time, it's really cool to hear that the book is strong - I've been excited about it for a while now.

Nice interview with Carey about the book here, by the way.

*****

That's it for today. I'll do my best to get something up tomorrow, but I should be back in full force on Wednesday. Cheers.

Friday Job

2006-03-31T11:47:00.000-08:00

Shit, turns out I have a lot more to do today than I thought.

So, head on over to the MillarWorld thread on the AiT-free-Continuity-PDF thing for some ranting I did last night.

Besides, all the most exciting stuff I've got on my mind, I'm not allowed to talk about yet. I'm barely holding the crap in my pants after all the news I've gotten this week from Ed Brubaker, Jason Rodriguez and Josh Fialkov (all with their own insanely cool shit going on), but I'm just not allowed to share yet.

I'll see what I can talk 'em into next week.

Invincible #30 and previews aplenty

2006-03-30T10:59:00.000-08:00

Invincible #30 came out yesterday, reminding me that - while I don't wanna go getting spoiled - it's real nice sometimes to get a big steaming dose of Exactly What I Wanted.

Mark back on Earth, bringing back some of the consequences of his Space Trip with Dad, goes from page to page and character to character, catching up and reminding us of all those cool sub-plots Kirkman had going on before the entire book launched itself into the far reaches of space.

It's back on solid home turf now, in the figurative and literal senses.

My favorite moments, though, are those that indicate a change in direction for these familiar character threads. Mark's mother gets a shot at turning things around, and the panel that finally seems to convince her is drawn absolutely expertly by Ryan Ottley, conveying humor and innocence and intelligence... just really jam-packing a lot of character into a wordless mini-scene.

I also really enjoyed Mark's reunion with Cecil, Kirkman's take on the classic Nick Fury trope. Mark's really been through the wringer over the last few issues, and he seems to have grown into a more secure and adult character as a result. Both characters are really well explored and sound very much "like themselves", if that makes sense. Kirkman's dialogue has come miles and miles since the early issues of this book.

(I did notice, in tracking down the cover image, that this was originally solicited for December. Would it not make a bit of sense, maybe, to stop soliciting issues until you catch up, so retailers don't get mad at you for being late? I mean, I don't give a shit - good comics is good comics, and Invincible comes out often enough to keep me happy - but it seems like the kind of thing that would frustrate Brian Hibbs, doesn't it?)

((Oh, and The Walking Dead looks like it's really getting fun again, too.))

*****

I first took notice of Dan Slott's upcoming Big Max book back in January - again, upon the solicitation - and now it's on it's way, complete with a preview of the first six pages (and some character roughs and rejected covers) at IGN.

(Of course, there are also some great pages up from the original CBR article, too.)

Frankly, I think Dan Slott writing a big gorilla super-hero who fights a super-powered street mime sounds really goddamned appealing.

This comes out April 5th (next Wednesday) and I'll be first in line.

*****

Brian Wood does an interview on Newsarama for DMZ, which is shaping up - I think - to be his best work.

The book manages a sort of balance, see, between Angry Brian (Channel Zero), fun-loving Brian (Couriers), and Sensitive Brian (Demo). Whenever each one of those sides has been dominant in his work, I've found that Wood's grasp sometimes exceeds his reach, and the sentimentality or revolutionism gets kinda overdone and goofy. Here, each of these elements is keeping the others in check and the book is a refreshing, colorful read as a result.

In addition to which, Riccardo Burchielli is an incredible artist, easily Wood's best collaborator aside from perhaps Becky Cloonan. I mean, just look at some of these fuckin' pages (more, and larger, at the link):

It's looking like the upcoming issue #6 is a good jump-on point - and will be caught up to by the upcoming ten dollar trade (which collects the first five issues) - so I'd advise anyone curious to take a look right soon. The iron is hot.

*****

The Michael Alan Nelson story from Zombie Tales: The Dead, that I reviewed on Tuesday? The whole thing is on Newsarama.

*****

James Sime continues to take the initiative and explore every book in Previews that grabs his attention. 'Cause if you have the resources, why just wait for the thing to come out?

Latest in his series of awesome (and really long) comics previews is Image Comics' The Red Diaries, by Gary Reed, Chris Jones & Larry Shuput - none of whom I know.

But I know 'em all, seventeen Marilyn Monroing Conspiricying Fidel Castroing pages' worth, on account of this page, right here.

Toupydoops #1 and other developments

2006-03-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

Toupydoops #1 is a book I've been waiting for since... let's see, some quick backlogging... January, when it was solicited. Creator Kevin McShane pointed me to an eight page preview, which I promptly read, whereupon I quickly pre-ordered the book.

I described the concept at the time like this: The concept here, see, is that Hollywood is the playground of the comic book industry. People don't want to be in Steven Spielberg movies; they want to be in Superman comics.

And upon reading, I see I had that just about right. Our titular hero, a charming doofus with antennae coming out of his head, is auditioning for a role as the new Superman villain, so he packs up hearth and home and moves to Hollywood.

Basically, the book delivers on everything I imagined it should. The wide array of characters introduced here is funny and interesting, playing on familiar tropes with new executions. As I expected, McShane continues to use each page as a distinct scene with its own beats and message, so the book feels like a thick read. At the same time, each of these beats does move the reader further into the developing story, without feeling jerky or formulaic.

A whole story gets told in this first issue, and it opens the series up nicely for future exploration. It's a well-crafted, funny and charismatic launch, and I'll be looking forward to future issues.

Oh, and it's not a super-hero parody. Thank Christ for that.

*****

In further evidence that he's been drinking too much (as if the puddles and stains weren't enough), Larry Young releases the entirety of AiT's upcoming Continuity graphic novel in a free, online PDF for all to see.

I've got mine.

(This'll make a nice bit of evidence for those of us who think, for example, that illegal music downloads are good for music sales, won't it? Cheers to Larry for putting his balls on the chopping block to prove a point. It's about time somebody did.)

*****

New Comics Day! Here's what I'm planning to pick up, from my post on the MillarWorld shopping list thread:

All Star Superman #3 - been a really fun read so far.
Lucifer #72 - Jesus, I can't believe this awesome series is wrapping up. "I hate to see you leave, but I love to watch you go."

Hysteria One Man Gang #2 - Really enjoyed issue #1 a few weeks ago; my full review (with artwork) is here. Fun, insane comics that would probably appeal to all you "fight comics" folks, to borrow Ellis' phrase.

Invincible #30 and Walking Dead #27 - Both books seem to have picked up a second wind lately after slow patches. Looking forward.

Books Of Doom #5 - Brubaker goodness. Not enjoying this as much as his Daredevil (which is among my favorite titles at the moment), but still really solid characterization.

Daredevil Vol 13 The Murdock Papers TP - Catching up on the lead-in the the Brubaker run, where I've picked the book back up.

Thing #5 - Another of my favorites. Issue #4 was the best yet, so I've got a feeling Slott's on a roll.

Surrogates #5 - Been following this for a while; one of the only books Top Shelf publishes in serial form, eh? Cool world-building based on an alternate history where surrogate bodies have replaced the act of leaving your home.

Or Else #4 - Curious to read this after seeing Graeme McMillan rave about the writert/artist's other work. I'll take a look.

Sea Of Red Vol 2 No Quarter TP and Strange Girl #7 - on the fence with these. I think the Sea of Red trade is the one with Paul Harmon artwork, so I'll likely check it out. But I'm getting all my best Rick Remender love from Fear Agent, which I think has really picked up in the latest issue.

Essential Arsenic Lullaby Vol 2 Donut Cometh TP - Very happy to see this one! I've got volume 1 and discussed it for my very first Quality Control review way back in July. Hysterical stuff, really, but you need a really filthy sense of humor.

And of course, there's Boom Studios' Zombie Tales: The Dead #1, which I reviewed yesterday.

*****

A voicemail reminder that, thank Christ, I'm not grown up just yet:

"I love you, bitch. Sean, I'm gonna treat your mouth like a butthole... bitch. Okay. I'm pretty wasted right now, so I love you guys. And that's the truth. I love you. *click*"

*****

The latest development in Kirkman's hand-over-foot takeover of Marvel Comics: Marvel Zombies #1 goes back for a fourth printing, with the alternate cover I've been waiting for (finally!):

That's some nice Hulk love, right there. Shit, I'd buy that poster.

*****

The latest cool-series-publisher-switch-up - why does that seem to be happening so much lately? - has Arvid Nelson's Rex Mundi moving from Image to Dark Horse. I've been enjoying the series thoroughly since jumping on board: I was waiting on trade collections until Small Gods artist Juan Ferreyra took up the book, and promptly signed up to support who I think is a major upcoming artist.

This sounds like good news to me - comes complete with a movie deal that should keep some monetary pressures aleviated for a while - and Dark Horse editor Scott Allie sounds really passionate about the book. So the creators can refocus on just producing the work while Dark Horse takes care of the business end? Sounds pretty goddamn sweet.

Zombie Tales: The Dead and plenty more

2006-03-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

Didja know I'm at 168 posts? Jesus... I totally missed my "anniversary" at 100... well, no time for sentimentality, let's just get this going.

*****

We've all been keeping an eye on Boom! Studios over the last several months, yes? I reviewed one of their first books, Zombie Tales #1, back in June of last year.

Tomorrow brings the latest installment in this unusually solid anthology, Zombie Tales: The Dead #1, and I've had the good luck to get an advance copy to check out.

Like the first one, this book features sweet Dave Johnson cover art, a perfect-bound spine, and a swell line-up including some well-established talent (Kieth Giffen, Ron Lim), but this time out the focus is more and more on those creators that, largely through their work with Boom!, are becoming established.

Michael Alan Nelson, for example, is quickly becoming a "name" writer for me. His story in the first Zombie Tales was a highlight of the book, and I thought the first issue of his recently launched War of the Worlds: Second Wave was excellent. His story, "The Miracle of Bethany", opens this volume, with a really fun and intriguing take on the "original zombie" concept. It's more an idea than a story, but in this setting that works.

Giffen and Lim's "Deadest Meat" is a more satisfying collaboration for me than their work in the first Zombie Tales. Giffen plays with the narration, which is first-person in the voice of a zombie whose brain is quickly decaying. It's a concept that got me interested in Speakeasy's The Hunger, though I never got to check out that series (the creators promise an upcoming trade collection that I will surely buy), and it's a lot of fun here. Ron Lim's gorgeous lines take on a somewhat more painted look with the able coloring work of "Rans of Imaginary Friends", whose hand is in most of the stories in this collection. I wish the fucker would just use his (her?) name instead of doing the Madonna, but good work is good work. He brings a different tone to each of the stories, which is a nice testament to his talent in a thematically consistent book like this one.

Johanna Stokes grabs my attention as a writer with "Zoombies", which drops us into the middle of the story of zoo animals collaborating to escape the coming zombie onslaught and puts them through their tragic paces. Each of the animals is given strong characterization in a very short span of time, especially the elephants and the lions. My favorite line of dialogue: "When you know better, you do better." It's all drawn with a soft-spoken gusto and personality by Cynthia Martin, and colored by Pamela (Preacher) Rambo, and the team gives a nice vibe to the whole scene.

I was intrigued by writer Jim Pascoe's concept for the story "A Game Called Zombie", but the last few pages left me confused. Could have something to do with the artwork by Don Simpson and Chris Moreno, could be the scripting - I really can't tell. But something felt unclear.

"Four out of Five" by writer John Rogers and artist Ed Tadem runs about three pages too long, but takes a fun look at the zombie concept and has a pretty funny punchline.

Andrew Cosby (whose Damn Nation mini from Dark Horse I really dug last year) brings his "I, Zombie" three-parter to a close here, with artwork from Fabio Moon, who grabbed us all by the balls with his work on Smoke and Guns. Seeing his work in color here is another revelation, and he seems to be improving with every page. I'm startled by what a talent this fellow seems to be, and the action shining off the pages here is really impressive. I'm missing part of the story, having not read the second installment, but it doesn't really hurt anything. This is about atmosphere, action, and a little grossout humor, and it brings all those things.

Enjoyed this thoroughly, I did. I'll be looking to track down the second Zombie Tales book, Oblivion, to complete the set.

*****

I was surprised. After reading the Annihilation: Prologue, which leads into Marvel's four upcoming four-issue mini-series (which then tie back into a single six-issue mini), that I was now most interested not in the Silver Surfer mini but the Nova one.

Marvel seems to've picked up the hint. There's a three page printed preview of the first Nova issue in Marvel Previews and now there are five pages up at CBR.

Hey, this whole thing could still turn out to be a screwjob, but it's been long enough that I'm happy to see Cosmic Marvel back for now.

*****

It's not the kind of thing I'll be downloading, as I'm pretty much already sold on this book and I don't want to spoil too much for myself, but if you're on the fence about Matt Fraction's upcoming Five Fists of Science OGN, take a look at the 22-page preview PDF he's got on his site. The preview's in black-and-white to reduce the size of the file, but the printed product is full color and I've seen enough of it (thanks, Lar!) to tell you it's fucking awesome.

*****

After my excited-with-qualification review of the Continuity preview last week, writer Jason McNamara dropped by to offer a response:

Thanks for the kind words for Continuity. You can rest easy knowing nobody holds their head and has meaningful drug induced visions in my book. They might destroy their home towns and kill their parents but I promise it's not in a meaningful way. I leave "meaningful" to the educational institutions and "drug induced visions" to pro's like Oliver Stone and Grant Morrison. My book will however kick you up a flight a stairs and put blood in your stool. In a good way.

I likes me the sound of that. Looking forward to picking this one up.

*****

It's been a while since I dropped in on world-conqueror Rob Osborne (though I've discussed his work a number of times), but I see he's almost ready now to drop The Nearly Infamous Zango on us, in a website exclusive.

Homeboy's been working on this one for a while; I'll be psyched to check it out.

He says parachutes are for girls.

2006-03-26T11:24:00.000-08:00

Been an exciting weekend - my e-mail got gang-banged by a number of industry folks I'm really psyched to hear from - so I'm back now with full bore comics loving this week.

Last week? Well, everybody hits a few potholes in the road now and then, right? Don't worry about it.

So.

Waiting.

I'm sick of it.

Look, I'm not saying patience isn't a virtue, but it's also a hair's breadth from sloth, that most uninteresting and vulgar of sins.

I can be a slothful guy. I don't like to clean up. I like to lay around on the couch with a beer when I get off work. I'll almost always take the hypotenuse route rather than going all the way around the corner.

But sometimes that ain't the thing to do or the way to do it, and it's important that I recognize when that is.

The Way of the Samurai is one of immediacy, and it is best to dash in headlong.

You know the thing about waiting that's really burning my ass lately? The expectation that, if you wait long enough, somebody else will do it.

There's little in this life that is wise to expect from others. You've gotta take repsonsibility for your own shit, and everything is your own shit.

Take the Elk's Run guys. You might expect them to chill out on making the book until they announce a new publishing plan, right? You might think Speakeasy shitting its guts out all over the floor might throw a little halt into their game. You're dead fuckin' wrong. Josh Fialkov stood up right in the crowd, as I cheered him for at the time, and now we have a "production update" from editor Jason Rodriguez, who tells us "[artist Noel Tuazon] is finishing issue 8 right now, [colorist Scott] Keating’s coloring 7, Jaco should be finished lettering 6 tonight... and [Jason himself] sent off the lettering script for 7 tonight."

See, that's how to do it. You don't wait for your ship to come in. You build the damn ship yourself.

If you build it, they will come, as the feller says.

'Course, that's not always enough. As Hibbs pointed out last week, indie comics have to tow their own line and that means taking on the full gamut of publishing. This sparked what had promise to be an interesting conversation at MillarWorld, though that quickly devolved into self-pitying defeatism and jizz humor.

But that's a bit beside my point. I'm talking about waiting. About letting others pick up the slack for you. This applies to a wide variety of comics folk out there.

Then there are readers who wait for their shops to take care of them. "I went in the store and it wasn't there!" The Usual Response: "Oh, man, you must go to one of those shitty comics shops!" No, fuck that on both ends. You find out about a book you like, or you want to check out? Tell your retailer. Sure, I'm lucky - I live in a city with more great comics shops than I can handle, and at least two of them are aggressively ordering books from off the beaten path, books they think I might dig and would otherwise have missed. But even those guys have budgets to deal with when they order, and they can't read my mind. I'm in regular e-mail contact with my LCS whenever I find out about a project I don't want to miss. I'm taking the initiative. That's the only way to guarantee I'll get what I want, and I might just do some good for some other folks along the way.

See, you've gotta do this stuff yourself. Like Brian Ewing. Realizes the sales for Dan Slott's excellent The Thing series should be higher, starts a thread to tell everybody about it and even makes a new signature image to go with it. You don't wait for someone else to say it and then chime in with a "Yeah, me too!" You do this shit.

Then there's guys like me. I'm off and running, on this blog every day telling everyone I can about what's got me excited. Spreading the good word, shouting it from the mountain tops. Asking about that upcoming crime series from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips I'm so psyched for. Reviewing the books I don't see folks talking about because they might be a more challenging review than the new, reliably crappy X-Men or the almost unbearably reliable (and excellent) Fables. I'm tracking down previews of cool new projects, linking thither and yon, interviewing cool people when I can, and generally trying to be the most positive force I'm able to be in the comics community.

So what's my problem? I'm not just here to wag fingers at everyone, am I? I mean, if so, what an asshole. Who the hell do I think I am?

Well, I'll tell y'all a secret. Stop me if you've heard this one.

I want to be a writer.

No, I know I'm writing right now, that's not what I meant. I want to have a book out there with my name on it. I want to conquer project after project, digging in with an unsatiable appetite and just churning out the best shit anybody ever read.

But I'm not yet. And I won't allow myself to whine to you about it, because Jesus, if there's anybody on the earth I'm tired of hearing from and about, it's whining artists. I'm not sad for myself and I'm not trying to pitch you anything. My point is this:

I haven't written anything.

I'm waiting. Why? I don't know. God knows the opportunities are there. I'm working on just blasting through that wall. I'm trying to change. But it can be grueling, I know. Just like it's grueling to make comics with no guarantee they'll sell. Just like it's a pain in the ass to be sending your local retailer a message every time you want to buy a comic.

But it's gotta be done. The longer we wait, the older we get, and the proverb that with age comes wisdom is a misnomer: it's not age at all, but experience that makes us wise.

So do something.

*****

After all, as another feller said,

it's simple: they just don't want
to do it,
or they can't do it,
otherwise they're feel a burning
itch from hell
they could not ignore
and "soon"
would turn quickly into
"now."

*****

Wheew. Sorry for the rant. Had a bit of sand in my vagina, but it's all better now.

I've got a lot of great stuff to talk about this week, so keep your eyes peeled. It was a great weekend for me, complete with a day off from work (!!!), and I'm looking to really bring it out over the next few days.

The calm before the storm

2006-03-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

I've only got about ten minutes here at the library internet terminal before I have to go - I've got a bit of a second wind, today, though, and I'm looking forward to bringing back the full-tilt Quality Control enthusiasm machine either tonight or tomorrow.

I wanna say a couple things real quick.

Brubaker's Daredevil continues to be amazing. I'm hugely excited with where this is going, and the pacing continues to bring back that incredible feeling the best issues of Sleeper gave me, back in the day.

Toupydoops #1 is out this week, and it's really funny and clever. Expect a full review coming up.

Supergirl's appearance as co-title of Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes looks like it might be fun. I'm glad to have Mark Waid back on scripts - last issue was a fill-in writer, and I didn't like it much - and Barry Kitson's back on pencils. Happy days.

Yeah, the short entries continue - but today it's just out of necessity. I'm back on the track now, I think, and looking forward to fucking you people up with some more next week.

And tomorrow.

Coming clean

2006-03-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

Blog's been a little light this week, yeah?

Few reasons.

One: Just not feelin' it. Sometimes the hype of everything just sorta wears me out and I've got to get more into my own, flesh-and-bone, non-internet thing for a minute. I'll rejuvenate, sure, but there's an ebb and flow to this sort of thing, at least for me.

Two: I'm trying to write something else. A couple somethings else. Splits one's focus a bit, doing that. Some guys - pros, all - are really good at it. I've still gotta learn.

Three:

Oh, fuck yeah. We went last night. I hope I can make it again... Nothing quite like seeing two guys pound the shit out of each other with some skill, some finesse, and some guts.

You guys gotta get out there and check this shit out. What a night!

So, yeah: I'm working on it. Right now, I wanna just get out there and buy my damned comics!

Lay down your weary tune

2006-03-21T12:27:00.000-08:00

Hmm. Sometimes it's hard to muster the bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked Quality Control vibe. I'm fuckin' beat. So today I direct you to Jason Rodgriguez for his cool Brownsville promotion (deadline this Friday), James Sime for his trifecta of cool comics previews, and these cute little buggers:

Ah, now I feel better.

WWLA Excitement Abounds!

2006-03-20T14:06:00.000-08:00

All right, Wizard World L.A., what have you got to say for yourself?

Matt Fraction proves he's got giant testicles by writing a new Punisher series to run concurently with Ennis' book and nestle itself more in the Marvel universe. People on the internet argue about whether it will be good.

Marvel tries to kick both properties in the ass a bit by announcing a crossover between Squadron Supreme and the Ultimate universe. People on the internet argue about whether it will be good.

A new Garth Ennis project is announced that, it seems, will run 60 issues and be about how super-heroes suck.

Meh.

The whole thing left me a bit dry in the pants, except for the Robert Kirkman / Phil Hester Ant Man book. I'll check that one out for sure; I like the tone they seem to be shooting for.

Whoah...

2006-03-17T16:56:00.000-08:00

...I haven't thrown up that much in years.

Food poisoning. Just in time for Saint Paddy's.

Brilliant.

*****

Annihilation Prologue, hmm? Well, the reveal at the end is a bit promising; I'm kinda psyched to see how Thanos' role in the whole thing changes as a result.

Scott Kolins is a fine, fine artist, rising fast in my book. The whole attack on the Nova Corps was just gorgeous.

...and somehow, the only one of the four Annihilation minis I'm really interested in now is Nova. Funny, how things change around like that. is this out in time for retailers to adjust their orders?

*****

Also worth pointing out a particularly interesting Tilting At Windmills column from the good Mr. Brian Hibbs today.

I live by two words: "Fuck you! Pay me!"

2006-03-16T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hmm. Is there a story here?

My regular cab driver is named Bill. I always call him when I need a lift because he knows the fastest way to get anywhere and he's always good company. He came to San Francisco from China about thirty years ago, and he told me the other day that when he graduated from Galileo High School, he got a job as a bellhop.

On the exact same ocean liner that brought him to the United States.

...hmm. Something about that just seems really cool to me. Maybe it's the context I have of knowing the guy... maybe it's just kind of a loaded idea.

Just rolling it around in my head.

*****

Ah, good news:

... and yes Mister Maher, California does indeed look like it's going to have an excellent showing this year!

My luck, though, it'll go to one of those asswipes from Los Angeles.

*****

Hmm. Listening now to the first Kanye West album, The College Dropout. Finally got convinced to pick it up by his performance of "Two Words" with Mos Def on the Chapelle Show. I'm liking it. Nice underground hip hop vibe with catchier beats and a slightly more mainstream style of rhyming...

*****

Heh, I was so busy posting this week I forgot to talk about the June solicits from Marvel, DC and Image.

The book I'm most excited about is, well, Lucifer #75. This has been among my two or three favorite books for years now, and seeing the series come to and end is kind of an emotional experience. Other epics I've followed - Preacher, Planetary, Stray Bullets, and so on - I've picked up when they were all in trades or at least a few years into their publication. But I've been reading Lucifer since issue #14, which my buddy Frank at Danger Room Comics in Olympia gave to me for free. "I think you might dig this," he said with a smile, a smile that got wider and wider over the following months as I got more and more enthusiastic about the book's development. I was hooked from that first dose, but the series developed into something far more accomplished and significant than I'd have predicted. This is the latest of the true Vertigo classics, a small handful of landmark comics, and I'm more excited than I can even say to see how it'll all come down.

I'll shoot the moon right out of the sky

2006-03-15T13:23:00.000-08:00

You know, I knew there was something I liked about American Virgin #1... I didn't really have the same read as Mark Fossen - though his criticism of modern-day Vertigo is spot-on for me, I didn't really see it as a redeeming feature that in this book "stereotyping is spread to all sides of the compass - there are right-wing money-grubbing religious hucksters, but it's balanced by the idiotic stoner youth."

Nah, that doesn't do it for me. Stereotyping both sides of an argument and situation I don't care about really just leaves me less interested. But there's something going on here.

Leave it to Jason Rodriguez to bring it home for me when all seems lost. I'm not gonna pull-quote him, just read the whole thing. That's a brilliant man, over there. Or, at least one who might be stupid in a similar way to me.

*****

Those 25 pages of Continuity I linked to yesterday? Pretty wild. The lucidity of McNamara's writing and Tony Talbert's layouts and inking have made a lot of progress since Less Than Hero, which often struck me as a bit too obscure - it's good to know that they're tempering the mind-trip aspect of the new book's premise with a more accessible storytelling style.

The opening scene presented here, as might be expected, doesn't really give away much about the book that I didn't already know from the book's description, so I'm still on the excited-but-slightly-skeptical side. The premise is dead awesome: a mind fuck with sewn-in themes of personal responsibility, self awareness and the dangers of getting what you wish for, in the vein of swell stories like the movie Memento or some of the better John Constantine adventures.

I just hope the "pill-addled" element of the book doesn't become too dominant, as often happens in stories with drug themes. The whole affair, when this sort of influence comes into play, seems more-often-than-not to devolve into characters grabbing the sides of their heads and rolling around seeing things. The story gets lost in the indulgence of the hallucination, and the writer expects this to be meaningful along the same lines as a strange dream is meaningful.

This has the potential to be a much richer and complex story than that - I hope they know it. There's nothing in the preview to suggest they don't.

*****

I've tried e-mailing him, I've tried posting silly pictures, but nothing seems to work. Poor bastard must be in trouble. I better pick up the Graeme-a-phone.

If nothing else, to console him over the results of his brilliant effort to kick DC in its web-ass.

*****

You know what kicks ass? Being quoted and talked about by other websites and publications. I found my name and a pull-quote printed on the back of Children of the Grave #4 last year and loved it. Then I had an interview published in the back of Elk's Run #3, which was a total mind-blow on account of that being, like, the best new book that got published last year.

Then just lately, I discovered that Miriam Libicki of jobnik! fame has me quoted at the very top of her Press section.

Which, of course, is a reminder that I need to talk about the fourth issue of jobnik!, which continues to impress and disturb me in varying measures.

Say, Miriam - are you gonna be at APE this year?

*****

Oh, and you know what kicks ass? Live heavy metal albums, when they don't suck. Sepultura's Under A Pale Grey Sky - which documents the last live show the band performed with heart-and-soul Max Cavalera, shortly after the death of his son - is an exciting and visceral example.

I've been rocking out to this thing for three days now and haven't slept. The performance of the tribal number "Kaiowas" in particular is just unbelievably intense and driven, combining that rare one-two punch Rick Rubin described in session with Slayer long ago, saying "The perfect take is the one that feels like it's going to fall apart, but never does." Fury and focus.

Awesome.

Stick and move, stick and move

2006-03-14T10:05:00.000-08:00

What kind of Quality Controller would I be if I found this photo of notorious comics blogger McMillan the Villain and didn't share? Beware this cagey and vicious gentleman of the night...

*****

Zilla beats me to the punch again with his review of Invincible #29, which did indeed kick fucking ass. Lots of drama in Kirkman's writing, but the show belongs to Ryan Ottley and Bill Crabtree, I gotta say. It's an intense extrrrrrravaganza, yes it is, and I'm hopeful that the story will return to Mark's life on Earth and all the cool subplots that have been building up over the last year or so. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed seeing Nolan in action again, but I miss the cast Kirkman's spent so much time developing.

*****

The Isotope Communique has a 25-page preview of AiT's upcoming Continuity, for those of you who may be having a slow comics week this Wednesday. Plenty of reading there... I'm off to check it out.