Welcome to the 19th edition of “Leave Your Spandex @t the Door!”. I’ve been accused of not catering enough to the Indy crowd, so this column goes out to you guys, with a special three-in-one review mix of Indy titles that shipped last week:
DEMO #1
Brian Wood / Becky Cloonan
$2.95, AiT / Planet Lar
DEMO is a new limited series of 12 issues, each one a self-contained story, Brian Wood’s way of venting his creative juices on the superhero genre, telling the superhero stories he wants to but the mainstream publishers wouldn’t. (remember the NYX fiasco?)
Marie is a mutant, although not named as one in the story. She has to take special medication to keep her powers in check, and reduce the strain to her body. Now, he has decided to go off the meds and run away from her suburban home, with her boyfriend Mike, and head to NYC, and freedom.
In the opening page, Marie asks Mike, (or rather, the reader):
—
Hey you ever get this weird feeling that you’re different somehow?
You know like that you have something special, an ability or special trait that sets you apart from everyone else?
But you don’t want to tell anyone, in case your family and the rest of society gets freaked out and treats you weird, all prejudiced and shit?
—
Brian Wood connects to the heart of what made the original X-men stories so memorable and popular at their time; He uses mutant powers as alliteration for the changes teenagers go through, the way their body and mind evolve. Sometimes their parents will want to suppress these changes, make their kids stay just as they know them and feel comfortable (and safe) with, just like Marie’s mother does here.
The story is built with different layers, challenging readers to look past the surface and understand the underlying notions set up by the writer. It is an engaging and dangerously alluring comic, one you can’t just read once and set aside on the stack, but one that you feel compelled to dive into again and again and again…
I hadn’t sampled Becky Cloonan’s artwork before, but I applaud her ambition; she plans to draw each issue of this series in a different art style! I say go for it, girl! Becky’s ability to draw human emotion is chilling and she uses panel structures and settings to effectively convey the mood of the scene (you have most of the issue set inside the car, it takes talent to keep it interesting).
I shouldn’t forget to mention the ‘extras’ part of the book, including a word from the creators, a letters page (i want an advance look at upcoming issues too!! -cries-), a page with the initial layouts plan for the issue, and a 4-page preview of next issue. These extras WILL NOT be included in the eventual TPB, so that’s an extra incentive for all o’youse to go out and buy the damn series! Do I say this often? RUN RUN RUN!
Story: 9/10
Art: 7/10
Overall: 8/10
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Patrick the Wolf Boy presents: the Grimm Reaper Super Special 2003
Art Baltazar
$2.95 , Blindwolf/Electric Milk Comics
The Grimm Reaper gets his own ‘super-special’, and I’m still crying over my wasted £2.15. I’ve never read any of the Wolf boy titles, but I’ve been meaning to, so I picked this special, taking into consideration my soft spot for clever Death figure interpretations (Death of the Endless, the Disk World’s Death, and Marvel Comics’ version being some of my favourites). This incarnation though is a joke, and a bad one at that.
The special is a collection of short stories and one-page gags, none of them terribly funny, original, or even mildly interesting. In summary: fishes are terrorised, neighbours are invited to BBQ, lawn is mowed, weeds are plucked, hell is visited, movies are watched and psychotherapy is indeed recommended. It was all over in under 3 minutes, and then the aforementioned crying began.
The only part of the issue I DID enjoy was the appendix with an excerpt from previous Wolf Boy issues with Death’s first appearance. I may still take a shot at one of the Wolf Boy specials, but I pray there is no Grimm Reaper in them :-p
Overall: 2/10
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SeaMonsters and SuperHeroes #1
Scott Mills
$2.95, SLG Publishing
I don’t really know what to say about this book (gee, Manolis, excellent way of starting off a review!!)
As the title ‘hints’ at, it’s an anthology title featuring stories on SeaMonsters and stories on SuperHeroes (but never both at the same time, which makes the title somewhat misleading, shouldabeen ‘SeaMonsters OR SuperHeroes’. :-p )
I LOVED this issue, for the sheer quirkiness of concept and execution. Scott Mills sets himself free, making fun at such timeless SuperHero trappings like evil clones, time travel, planet-eating aliens, and lengthy soap opera-ish dialogues in mid-battle. But mostly time-travel. And Seamonsters of course, but that goes without saying.
My favourite story was ‘Not a Fairy-tale’, because of the original format, telling two stories: one through the art and another as a narrative through the character’s dialogue balloons. I wish of course, that Mill’s artwork was a bit clearer than a jumble mess of sketchy thumbnails, to be able to better understand the story told in the art. The art isn’t a real selling point for the book, but it serves the script well, as the focus is more on words than pictures, some pages consisting more than 90% text. It still managed to surprise me pleasantly in some spots with the page layout and the overall stylishness, so I figure Scott could grow into an adequate artist with more practice.
Bottom Line: You deserve to read this book; don’t deny yourself a real treat!
Overall: 7/10
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Tune back in 411comics and “Leave Your Spandex @t the Door†on satyrday, hopefully, for a little looksie through the solicitations of the Big Three and the independents for things to look out for and things to avoid like the plague!
As always, I’m waiting for your comments through email…
Manolis Vamvounis
a.k.a. Doc Dooplove
