Welcome to the 39th edition of Leave Your Spandex @t the Door, the Nexus’ periodical look into the world of independent and mature readers comics.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME: Sad but true, I’m wishing the B-day song to myself as I blow 23 candles on my Doop cake tonight. You’re lucky I stayed sober enough to finish this column!
DOOPSPEAK: Will Doop be appearing in the pages of the Avengers? I’ve gotten no reply off Brian Bendis so far, but the Bendis-Doop petition is still open for people who want to sign it. As I had promised, one lucky sod from the undersigned would win a marvelous LYS@D goodie bag. The winner of the unofficial draw was none other than Martin Redmond, undersigned #14, and one of my favorite artists. You may remember him from CBR‘s original Comic Book Idol contest. The goodie bag will be in the mail within the next few weeks, Martin!
LONDON CON IS BURNING DOWN: The London comics festival took place last Saturday, and yours truly was there to cover”¦ nothing. I had applauded Kev F. Sutherland’s efforts during the Bristol comics con last May, which was a truly fun experience.
London on the other hand was quite the mess, telegraphed one day earlier, when the ‘star attraction’ (Jonathan Ross interviewing Grant Morrison live on stage) was cancelled, as none of the two guests showed up: Jonathan Ross had cancelled due to family reasons, but had videotaped the questions for Grant. Morrison on the other hand waited until the last minute to announce he was passing on the festival, because Jonathan Ross wouldn’t be there.
The star guests who DID turn up at the con include Dan DiDio (Vice President – Executive Editor, DC), Mike Avon Oeming (Thor, Powers, Hammer of the Gods), Joe Pruett (Desperado Publishing, X-Men Unlimited writer), Bob Wayne (VP Sales and Marketing, DC), David Hine (District-X, Strange Embraces) and Charlie Adlard (Astronauts in Trouble). The only real highlight of the con was the pseudo-debate concerning censorship in comics, led by Comics International editor Dez Skinn. The debate was very whimperish, without a strong pro voice for censorship, but it was surely an informative review of censorship in comics.
The festival’s main focus, post-Morrison, shifted to the independent publishers from the UK and the States who had traveled to London and set up their tables and stands. I left the con carrying many bags of goodies, many of which I’ll be covering here in the coming months:
-Tozzer and Tozzer v2
-Brodie’s Law
-Just One Page v2
-Commercial Suicide v2
-Petshop of Horrors
-Saiyuki
-Grab
-Ember Six
London con photo parade:
Chatting with Charlie Adlard
Bob Wayne (DC’s VP Sales and Marketing) with Maria, my gracious hostess for the con’s duration.
It’s the dread Mr T jumper and the Greek Hat nr 4, the con’s cult highlights! In this pic, worn by yours truly and Vassilis Sakkos from the Greek COMICDOM fanzine and website. You’ll be seeing more from Vassilis in future installments of LYS@D.
Vassilis with Mike Avon Oeming (Powers, Thor)
Mike Oeming’s signing table
Tony Lee, of X-Men Unlimited and Starship Troopers (minus the aliens) fame, newly appointed PR guy for AP comics. His talents are obviously many ;-)
Rich Johnston, the Hot Gossip Hoolk (that’s Hulk in Greek for the uninitiated)
Rare photographic evidence of Rich Johnston publicly threatening me to reveal dark trade secrets. (note the highly collectible LYS@D t-shirt in the photo)
FUTURE QUAKE: Speaking of festivals, I still have some unreviewed gems from the last big con I attended, Bristol festival in May 2004. Well, better late than never, don’t they say?
The Scene: Bristol comics con, Satyrday, lunchtime. A starving young dashing Greek wanders around the festival floor looking for comics grub (and a sketch from Chynna Major, alas”¦)
Then: Suddenly he feels a strange pull, a mesmerizing man casting a spell on him.
Well”¦ actually, he was wiggling his hands in the air and chanting something along the lines of ‘C’mere’, ‘buy my comic’. This is the review of the comic I bought from the guy standing next to him.
FUTURE QUAKE is a U.K. published anthology, edited by Arthur Wyatt, who is also the main writer in the first two issues. You can read the complete first issue for free online, at the Future Quake website, where you can also order the first three issues online. Wyatt hs also made his stories available in jpeg format on his website. Whenever a title of story in the following reviews is clickable, it will link to the online pages.
The first issue of FUTURE QUAKE features 6 short stories, from the writing talents of Arthur Wyatt, Gary Wilkinson and Alex Musson, and featuring art by Adrian Bamforth, Michael Molcher, Mike Donaldson and Matt Timson.
1.1. EMIGRATION
Arthur Wyatt and Adrian Bamforth
In a future world ravaged by environmental pollution, two officers of the Emigration department hunt down illegal time travelers who seek to escape to the greener planet of yesterday.
The story features some novel ideas regarding how the Emigration department operates and specifically how they track down would-be time-hoppers. On the one hand I appreciated the tight pacing of the story and the economy of space, (as in all of Wyatt’s stories here) but on the other hand I’d have liked to see the concepts introduced here developed further. The environmental pollution angle is an important factor in the plot’s development and the motivation of the characters, but the story would have benefited from a clearer establishment of the environmentally ravaged world, something that is often mentioned but never clearly shown on the page.
Nevertheless, Bamfort’s art is crisp and refined featuring distinctive character designs (faces, body types and clothing) and with every new reading I found myself picking up new background details.
1.2. EXTREME
Gary Wilkinson and Michael Molcher
Duncan Smith, a lowly nuclear reactor worker (and apt Homer J. Simpson analog) finds himself transferred in a parallel reality, where he rules the world’s leading corporation.
Extreme felt more like a gag than a story, it didn’t have enough space to breathe, and I wasn’t sold on the concept behind it: (spoilage=) that mr Smith would need alternate versions of himself with different abilities to strengthen his corporation. Why not just hire/abduct other people with corresponding abilities. Spartan, he ain’t”¦
Michael Molche’s art reminded me of Kelley Jones’ exaggerated style and early Chris Bachalo. The nature of the story demanded he depict all the characters the same, so there’s not to judge his artistic abilities from, but I particularly enjoyed his small pictorial explanation of alternate reality mechanics.
1.3. HAIL TO THE KING
Arthur Wyatt and Mike Donaldson
The true story of Elvis’ stint as America’s president, fits on two comic-book pages!
I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the problem was with the art here, it was quite compressed and busy-looking, but I was inclined to believe the choppiness was more due to a printing or scanning error.
Although I’m somewhat unfamiliar with Elvis’ legacy, I still enjoyed most of the hilarious gags: after all, how can you not get a kick out of seeing Elvis clad in a bell-bottom space suit kicking Nazi ass on the surface of the moon!
1.4. TALENT SHOW
Arthur Wyatt and Mike Donaldson
This was my favourite story in the first issue of Future Quake. It is by the same creative team as Hail to the King, but looks far better for reasons I can’t get.
The story is based on another novel concept by Art Wyatt: the Law of Averages, that condemns ‘anyone with physical or mental characteristics above or below the point of standard deviation’ to life in prison in order to keep society balanced.
The star of this story, Kayt Cooke is a delicious character study in dichotomy: although at first she seems superfluous and immensely deluded, she is not all innocent and surprised me with her blunt cunning, completely fueled by her above average vanity.
1.5. MYTH CONTROL
Alex Musson and Adrian Bamforth
This is Bamfort’s second story this issue, after Emigration, and it is set in another odd government branch: Her Majesty’s department of myths, fables, legends and folklore. Musson uses the familiar machine of the ‘new guy in the office’ to guide the reader through the rooms of this wondrous establishment. This machine may be a bit tired and commonplace but you can’t argue it’s always the most effective for its purposes.
After Fables, Thessaly and Smax all making strong appearances this past year, it’s difficult not to draw comparisons, yet this story manages to hold its ground against its full-length relatives with brilliant gags throughout. My favorite was, without question, the bickering between Santa and B.J. (Baby Jesus) over the X-mas period ad placements. The writer is also a stand-up comic, so I’m not surprised with the quality of the humor here.
1.6. THE RIPPER
Arthur Wyatt and Matt Timson
Although Talent Show was the most entertaining story in this issue, Matt Timson was the artist who really blew me away with his work. He is what some companies would dub their ‘young gun’, a clear artistic talent ready to make the jump to the big leagues.
He makes excellent use of shading to create slick stylized figures on the page; in this regard he takes the best aspects of the ‘masters’ of this school of comics art: Mignola, Risso and Frusin, while brandishing a cartoony distorted anatomy reminiscent of Bachalo. Quite a lot of name-dropping there, eh? In any case, he has a new fan in me, and I’ll look closely for new work by him.
As for the story itself, the plot –centering on a robotic Ripper replica let loose in the opening party of the refurbished London dungeon- is Art Wyatt’s worst effort this issue. It is only saved a bit by the slight play at ethics, with the crime against a human life balanced with the crime against culture and history. Although an interesting angle for the ending of the story, it would have saved the story if Wyatt had developed it a bit more.
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Coming up next: more FUTURE QUAKE! ULTRA! GOTHAM CENTRAL! The return of the PREVIEWSCOPE and a fond farewell to X-STATIX”¦. A
As always, I’m waiting for your comments through email or in the new official LYS@D discussion thread.
Manolis Vamvounis
a.k.a. Doc Dooplove
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