Weekly Round-Up #18

Capsules, Reviews

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It was hard to decide between King City or Demo for top honour this week, but seeing as how I always pick the one, and haven’t read the other in quite a while, I should spread the love around.

Best Comic of the Week:

King City #7

by Brandon Graham

I loved the original King City volume, which was published a few years ago by Tokyopop, and was not happy to hear that the book was not going to be continued.  Luckily, Image came along, made a deal with the troubled manga publisher, and have been running the title, from the beginning, in its new ‘golden age’ format.

Issue seven is the first to publish new content, and the first that I’ve picked up.  To begin with, King City looks great in this format.  Having the extra space gives Graham’s amazing art more room to breathe, and allows his little background gags the chance to be seen much better.

In this issue, our Cat Master has to break into a swank hotel to steal a woman’s brains, I think to help Beebay and her Owl army to fight evil.  As usual, plot is more or less secondary to the sight gags and word play that Graham fills the book with.

It’s great to be reading this book again, and I love that this format also allows for things like the two-page James Stokoe story at the end.

Other Notable Books:

Demo Vol. 2 #3

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Becky Cloonan

We’re halfway through the second volume of Wood and Cloonan’s Demo, and once again, the duo give us an amazing comic.  Like the original Demo, the concept of superpowers or mysticism get abandoned completely here, as the focus is on Marlo, a mildly obsessive-compulsive LA girl who relies on an elaborate system of post-it notes to make it through her day.

In the beginning of the book, it just seems like Marlo keeps the notes to her apartment, but as the story unfolds, we see that she has left them throughout her neighbourhood.  As she says after leaving her therapist, they make her happy.  But as it turns out, she’s not the only person looking at the notes, and a new element is introduced in the form of another person who starts leaving her notes.

The story here reminded me a great deal of two different issues of Local, Wood’s masterpiece comic series with Ryan Kelly.  The first was the ‘Polaroid Boyfriend’ story, where a girl communicates with her partner through Polaroid photos.  The second is the Park Slope issue, where Megan’s roommate makes elaborate lists on her computer. I don’t mind one bit that Wood is returning to the same themes over and over, since his work is so excellent, and he is adding something new with each new story.

Cloonan’s art is once again inspiring, as she works to add a cuteness factor to Marlo and her surroundings.  I really wish this wasn’t just a six-issue series…

Greek Street #10

Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Davide Gianfelice

Once again, Greek Street takes a turn towards the more understandable, as I finally feel like I have a handle on this title, and am also finding myself more and more interested in the characters and what is happening with them.

In this issue, Eddy takes a step closer to being like his namesake, while Lord Menon deals with the ex-SAS soldier he had (unwisely) tried to hire, and begins to understand the nature of his daughter’s pronouncements and insanity.

This is a book I really want to like, and I hope it will continue to improve.  The next arc appears to have a ‘war in Afghanistan’ theme, which is something I’m looking forward to.

Proof #26

Written by Alex Grecian
Art by Riley Rossmo

I have no idea what is going on with this title anymore. The story here – about Proof’s first date with Bella, was supposed to be printed in either issue 24 of 25 originally, and then wasn’t. Then there was a huge delay in the publication of this issue, and we get instead a few pages of Proof’s date, and a lot of stuff designed to move the book towards the grim ‘one year later’ new status quo introduced last issue.

Really, there’s nothing wrong with this issue. I can see Grecian trying to maintain the strong sense of character I’ve come to expect from this series, but getting a little snowed under by plot. We have the army show up to tell Leander that Obama is shutting him down, we have Leander’s wife appear, Joy moves to the big fairy tree thing, and the Dover Demon makes his last predictions for the future.

I’m intrigued by all the stuff that is going on in this book, and hope that they can return to a more regular schedule.

What’s a Pallas cat?

Sparta U.S.A. #2

Written by David Lapham
Art by Johnny Timmons

This is a really cool book. Lapham is taking his time explaining everything, as quarterback hero Godfrey McLaine tries to take on the Maestro in front of the whole town, and suffers a major beating for his troubles. He slinks back to his old house (now a museum), and is joined by an old girlfriend. Together, they start putting together a small army, and plot to overthrow the Maestro.

Lapham is being very stingy in giving out information. We don’t know why Godfrey is red, or why the Maestro is blue. We don’t yet know what is beyond the mountains outside of town, what all the stuff in Godfrey’s bag can do, or why the town of Sparta exists and is so football-obsessed. I look forward to finding out the answers to these questions, as Lapham has really caught my interest here.

When I wrote about the first issue, I mentioned that I wished Lapham was providing the art for this title as well. No longer though. I really like Johnny Timmon’s art, and thinks it works much better for the atmosphere in this type of story than Lapham’s probably would.

If you’re looking for an interesting, unconventional read, go pick this up.

Spider-Man: Fever #1

by Brendan McCarthy

Growing up, I was never really a fan of either Steve Ditko or Doctor Strange. I felt that the former’s art was often stiff and awkward, and that the latter was always ridiculously over-written and overwrought. (Granted, my first exposures to Ditko were in the later issues of Rom, Spaceknight, around the same time that the covers were by people like Mazzucchelli, Smith, Zeck, and other artists that I really loved at the time, and his stuff looked so childish in comparison. Then there was Speedball…..).

Anyway, I have liked McCarthy since I first came across his work on covers for Shade the Changing Man (the Milligan version, not the Ditko, a connection which I only just made as I typed this). I’ve tried to follow his work, but so little of it has been in comics. For this reason, I got excited to learn that he was doing a three-issue Spider-Man/Doctor Strange story for Marvel.

Now that I’ve read it, I can easily say that it’s the best Steve Ditko comic I’ve ever read, in much the same way that Gødland is my favorite Jack Kirby comic.

The book starts with Spider-Man engaging in yet another pointless fight with The Vulture, while back at his house, Doctor Strange gets a book he ordered delivered in the mail. As it turns out, the book is booby-trapped, and he lets loose an ancient spider evil kind of thing to crawl around in the city’s drain pipes. Spider-Man ends up in Strange’s bathtub, where he is preyed on by an Arachnix Spider-Demon, and gets his soul taken on a Webwaze energy stream into some other dimension.

Things get pretty psychedelic at this point, in the way that McCarthy does best. The book is beautiful and kooky, and pretty enjoyable all around, and the best part is that there are still two issues to go.

Sweet Tooth #8

by Jeff Lemire

This title continues to impress, as Lemire continues to split the narrative between Gus, the human-animal hybrid boy, and Jeppard, the man who sold him to the Preserve.

Jeppard is wallowing in guilt, and hits bottom this issue, as he tries to provoke people into killing him.  Gus meanwhile, ends up talking to Doctor Singh, the Mengele-like figure who has been carving up the other hybrid children.  It seems that Singh is a more sympathetic character than originally thought, and is doing his work to try to reverse the strange disease that has been plaguing the world for eight years.

The revelation at the end of the book makes it clear that Gus has something to do with the disease, and helps structure the future of this series.  As always, Lemire’s art looks great, especially the way it’s coloured by Jose Villarrubia.

Turf #1

Written by Jonathan Ross
Art by Tommy Lee Edwards

This comic has been generating a lot of buzz on the net, especially on Bleeding Cool, but the fact that the book is written by British celebrity Jonathan Ross had nothing to do with why I bought it.  What attracted me to the book was Tommy Lee Edward’s art, as he is someone who I have always enjoyed.  Secondly, the concept sounded interesting; vampires trying to muscle in on organized crime in Prohibition-era New York.

The book is pretty good, but is a drastic departure from 90% of comics on the stand today.  And that’s because it’s full of text.  Ross has overwritten the hell out of this thing.  I strongly support the idea of compressing comics again (or would that be de-decompressing?), but I do think there is still a place for editors to come along and trim out some unnecessary dialogue and exposition.

The comic focuses on Susie Something or Other, a society reporter for a New York newspaper who is desperate to be allowed to report on more meaty topics.  At the start of the book, she manages to con her way into a crime scene where the mob boss Don Bava and his men have been ripped to shreds.  From there, the story backs up a bit, and we learn a great deal about the four different families that control New York, and about the Dragonmirs, a group of vampires who have recently arrived in New York from the old country.  Also, while all these people are trying to kill each other, a spacecraft crashes into the area outside of the city (I know, it seemed strange to me too).

Really, this is a good comic, it’s just that there is too much text covering up Edwards’s wonderful art.  Ross needs to pare it down some; he could tell the same story at much the same pace, if he wasn’t so repetitive, or would allow the art to tell some of the story.  As far as first efforts go, this is more than decent, and I will stick around for the rest of the series for sure.

Quick Takes:

Batman and Robin #11I’m not sure what to think about this storyline.  First, I would be okay if they waited a few years before bringing back Bruce Wayne; I like the new status quo much more.  Secondly, I’m finding all the hidden tunnels and rooms under Wayne Manor to be pushing credibility, even if Morrison is careful to explain why they weren’t found in the earthquake a few years back.  In the end, it’s Morrison, and I trust that he’s going to take this someplace I’ll like, but I’m feeling cynical right now.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #34 – So Buffy and Angel have world-changing (yet still tasteful) sex while everyone else stands around shouting pronouncements of doom, getting high-resolution radar, and keeping track of global weather patterns, on what looks like an ipad.  This is all over next issue right?  I think the last two issues have pushed things a little too far…

Doom Patrol #9 – Even with the return of Crazy Jane and Danny the Street/Brick/Bungalow, I’m starting to lose interest in this title.  I was liking the way that Giffen was bringing together all the different incarnations of the Patrol, but now I’m not sure he has much of a plan beyond that, and I’m not that interested in next issue’s guest star.

The Great Ten #6 – I continue to love the writing on this comic (and to tolerate the art), but felt like this issue was letting the events sweep away the fine balance Bedard has been able to keep between explaining the characters and propelling the plot.  Ghost Fox Killer is a cooler character than I expected, and I like the way that China/Taiwan relations are now playing a role in the story.

Invincible Returns #1 – Sure, maybe this title has fallen off it’s schedule for the last few months (the days of ‘On Time in ’09’ being past), but I don’t really think we’re in a position where we need to declare that Invincible has ‘returned’.  This is a pretty blatant attempt to lure in new readers with a #1 issue, and Kirkman fills this story with recap and exposition, in the hopes that a new reader will be lured, instead of overwhelmed, by the breadth and depth of this title.  It is, for all its wordiness, still a very good comic, with some nice art from both Ottley and Walker.  The Viltrumite War promises to be excellent.

Jonah Hex #54 – This series is really becoming routine; Hex goes into a town or territory, Hex gets knocked out or taken prisoner.  Someone from his past shows up.  He is or isn’t betrayed.  People die.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  I still really like the series, but it’s becoming hard to say anything new about it.  Star Man the sheriff-killer is a cool character, I always feel like we need to see him found Opal City one of these days.  Jordi Bernet on art is always a nice treat as well.

S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 – I think I need to read this one or two more times to fully process it, but it’s a cool comic.  Hickman seems to love his underground secret science cities these days…  Dustin Weaver’s art is great in the flashbacks, but more pedestrian in the ‘current’ pages.  I had to check to make sure it was the same artist.  This is an interesting premise – a group of important people who have been saving humanity from threats like the Celestials and Galactus since the early Egyptian days, I just don’t have a feel for the protagonist yet.  I’m definitely intrigued…

Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #2 – I was hoping to be more into this, but it’s feeling a little slapped together, and a little drawn out.  It’s clear that the newly re-miniaturized Kandor won’t stay that way for long (unless everyone else gets shrunk for War of the Supermen), and I don’t understand why Princess Projectra felt that a red and gold mask suited her presence in the Legion Espionage Squad better than her regular face, since she won’t be born for 1000 years and doesn’t really risk running in to people who know her.  Time for this to end.

Uncanny X-Men #523 – Matt Fraction gets his hands on Second Coming, giving us a little more time for character, exposition, and positioning of characters for the next chapter.  Really, there’s not much time in a story like this to do much else in a single chapter.  The Dodsons are always welcome when they come on for an issue or two, so things look nice.  Question of the week:  How old is Hope supposed to be?  I find it hard to tell from the art.

Comics I Would Have Bought if They Weren’t $4:

Codebreakers #1

New Avengers Luke Cage #1

Realm of Kings Son of Hulk #3

Superman Secret Origin #5

Wolverine Weapon X #12

Set of the Week:

Longbox Digging: Wildcats Version 3.0 #13-24

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Dustin Nguyen, Richard Friend, Sean Casey, Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Pascal Ferry, Sandra Hope, Duncan Rouleau, John Dell, Trevor Scott, and Eric Nguyen

A while ago, I read through the rest of Joe Casey’s various WildC.A.T.S. trades, spread over two titles, and resolved to dig out my back issues, fill in any remaining gaps there might have been, and read the series through in its proper order, which was not how I first experienced it. I hit a bit of a snag, in that it took me a few months to track down an issue of number 16, but that was accomplished the other week.

The last twelve issues of Casey’s run on the title were quite varied in their approach. The first six, which saw regular artist Dustin Nguyen get replaced by Francisco Ruiz Velasco (with a very cool semi-fill-in issue by Phillips) continued to focus on the daily operations of the Halo Corporation, and Jack Marlowe’s (aka Spartan) plans to change the business model of the free world. These issues saw the introduction of the Halo car, Jack moving to take over the internet, and him catching the attention of Washington fat cats whose interests would be better served by continued reliance on fossil fuels.

Also during this half of the run, we saw Agent Wax deal with, and eventually replace, his long-time rival in the Parks Department, Agent Downs. Wax got more ‘screen time’ throughout these issues, and was shown to be a more morally complex man than before. Also, it is during these issues that Grifter figures out how to wirelessly control Maxine Manchester’s (aka Ladytron) body.

Following these issues (which I imagine would have been volume three, had they ever been printed in trade), the series takes a definite turn back towards slightly more conventional superheroics.

This arc addresses Zealot’s on-going war with the Coda, the female assassin army she created, which has gone rogue. She gets captured, and Grifter/Ladytron has to call in all sorts of chips to assemble a rag-tag team to go to her rescue. This arc also has Marlowe and Wax confront a government assassin. That’s about it though, which is odd for a book that had previously been very compressed in its storytelling.

Of course, you can’t discuss the end of this title without bringing up the summary cancellations of both this title and its sister book Stormwatch: Team Achilles. At the time, both titles were selling poorly (by the standards of the day) and the decision was made to terminate them, despite the regular high critical praise they were receiving. It makes me wonder if the book didn’t become all action and adventure as an attempt to ‘give the readers what they want’ a little more, even if all that action did end up involving a transexual robot and a couple of large men in S&M gear…

Rouleau was a good choice as artist for these issues (with one issue by Pascal – shouldn’t that be Pascual? – Ferry), as he has a large and open style that worked very well with these action sequences.

Casey’s approach to the Wildcats was a very refreshing thing, as comics emerged from the darkness of the 90’s. It is too bad that he didn’t get to stick with the title, as I’m sure he had more plans for Marlowe and the crew. Also, whatever he wanted to do couldn’t have been worse than where things ended up for these characters, and the Wildstorm titles in general…

The Week in Graphic Novels:

Zombies Calling

by Faith Erin Hicks

I really enjoyed this book. It’s pretty much exactly what it claims to be – a fun zombie comic featuring university students who have seen enough movies to know that they have to follow the rules that have been firmly established in the movies they love. Don’t leave the mall. “Characters in zombie movies… will be transformed from ordinary folk to shotgun wielding, zombie-ass-kicking ninjas.” And so on.

At the centre of the book is Joss, a student-loan fearing girl with a bit of OCD. She dreams of going to England, and is the professed expert on zombies in her group. With her is Robyn, a kind of dumb guy, and Sonnet, her wise and smart-mouthed friend.

What adds to this book is that there is a touch of social commentary at the core of it, as Hicks uses this story to make some comments on the state of higher education and the type of students who seek it out these days.

Hicks art works well here. She has a Bryan Lee O’Malley-esque style, and a good sense of pacing. I also like the fact that the book is unapologetically Canadian, going so far as to be set at Western University (even though it’s called London University here).

This is a quick, fun read.

Pop Gun War

by Farel Dalrymple

I feel like I would need to read through this one or two more times in order to give an intelligent analysis of this comic, but time (and perhaps intelligence) limit this.

Dalrymple’s comic made me think of the Dadaist and Surrealist poetry and literature I read in university, but on a much more enjoyable level, because of the high quality of Dalrymple’s art. The book is a highly impressionistic affair, dipping into the varied and unique lives of a group of New Yorkers.

The book opens with an angel crashing to Earth, and having his wings cut off by some guy with a chainsaw. He dumps the wings in the garbage, where they are recovered by Sinclair, a young boy with a penchant for wearing bow ties. Eventually, his own wings start growing.

Sinclair’s sister, who looks to be about seven, is a singer in a band, and wise beyond her ears. Some of the other characters in this book are Addison, a homeless man who seems powerless to the machinations of others; Sunshine, a dwarf who is growing into a giant and whose companion is a flying talking fish (‘Da Fug?’); Mr. Grimshaw, who works for an important corporation and carries around a severed, talking head in a bag; among others.

One of the most interesting characters is Harold Dollpimple, who appears towards the end of the book, and is revealed to have been manipulating some events. That his name has such a strong similarity to the author’s can not be a mistake.

Pop Gun War has a lot of similarities to the work that Dalrymple did in his recent Omega the Unknown series for Marvel, picking up on the same themes of urban alienation and strangeness, and being even more surreal. There may not be a ton of plot in this book, but it is an interesting and thought-provoking piece of work.

Heavy Liquid

by Paul Pope

I really am kicking myself for not getting into Pope’s work sooner.  Heavy Liquid is a masterpiece of his brand of relationship-heavy science fiction.

In this book, the main futuristic element is the existence of Heavy Liquid, a highly caustic metal that has mysteriously appeared on the Earth.  Most people are trying to use it for its explosive properties, while S, our protagonist, has discovered that if cooked a certain way, it becomes a liquid that, when placed in the ear, has a drug-life effect on the user.  He is, of course, an addict.

When we first meet S, he and his partner have been found out by a local criminal organization, and his partner has been killed.  S has to go on the run, but is also expected to do a job for The Collector, a rich man who wants to own the world’s only statue cast in heavy liquid.  He needs S, who has skills as a ‘finder’ to track down the greatest living, and reclusive, artist to do the work for him.  What he doesn’t know is that S once was in a relationship with this artist, and it would seem he is the reason why she dropped out of sight.  There’s even more going on than this, but this gives you an idea of what the book is about.

Pope has a good handle on these characters and the world that they live in.  The book is populated with strange individuals, like the girl gang that S runs across as they mete out revenge on men that have wronged them.  There is also an interesting array of technology, like the ‘threads’ that people use to communicate, which also appeared in 100%.

As always, Pope’s art is stunning throughout the book, and its unique look is augmented by the blue and pink colour scheme that he has chosen.  Like his other books, this is highly recommended.

The Hellboy Project: Hellboy Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction

Written by Mike Mignola and John Byrne
Art by Mike Mignola

I’ve recently come to the realization that I should have been reading the books that make up the Mignola-universe for the last decade or so. Being a typical comics fan, with more than a touch of undiagnosed OCD, I am undertaking The Hellboy Project; the goal is to read the entirety of the cannon work Mignola has done in publication order. To that end, I am heavily indebted to a list posted on the Dark Horse forums, as the trades seem to be running stories out of their original order.

The inaugural volume of this long running series is something I read when it first came out, but wasn’t really all that interested in. To be fair, even when reading it, nothing was familiar past the very beginning of the first issue.

There is a lot of setting stuff up going on here, as Mignola establishes his central characters Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and Elizabeth Sherman. He also introduces Professor Bruttenholm, only to kill him off quickly, and some frog-like creatures which I assume are the same ones that will be showing up quite a bit in BPRD.

For a first outing, this is perfectly fine. Mignola’s artwork always look nice, and it’s especially fine in this book, as he works at establishing a visual vocabulary for the series. There is definitely enough to keep me sticking around (I don’t know what I was thinking back in the day).

Get in touch and share your thoughts on what I've written: jfulton@insidepulse.com