Were Money No Object on July 6th with Northlanders & Revolver

Books I Think You Should Buy:

Northlanders Vol. 5: Metal

by Brian Wood, Riccardo Burchielli Fiona Staples, and Becky Cloonan; Vertigo, $17.99

Northlanders is a very interesting series, set in different periods and places that comprised the ‘Viking’ days.  The main story in this volume is Metal, which was unlike the rest of the series in a number of ways.  It concerns a young blacksmith who lives in a town that has been targeted by Christian missionaries.  They are spending lavishly on a new church in the town, but, pissed off by the Christian’s treatment of a young albino girl, our blacksmith destroys the work that has been done and begins massacring Christians wherever he can find them.

What makes this story so different is that, for the first time, Wood introduces a supernatural element to things, as Erik, the blacksmith, communes with one of the old gods.  Other bizarre things happen, and it becomes difficult to tell what is ‘real’ and what may be either psychosis or drug-induced vision on Erik’s part.  It’s a good story, with nice art by Wood’s usual DMZ collaborator Riccardo Burchielli.

Also in this book is the two-part story drawn by Becky Cloonan which I enjoyed a great deal.  It concerns an old man who discovers the body of a young woman frozen in the ice near his isolated home.  He obsesses over the girl, and is determined to learn her fate.  Remember, any time Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan collaborate, you get a wonderful comic book.

Revolver TP

by Matt Kindt; Vertigo, $19.99

The hardcover of Revolver was my introduction to the work of Matt Kindt, an cartoonist I’ve come to admire a great deal.  Here’s my original review of this book, from when I read it in November:

I really enjoyed this graphic novel.  Aside from a short in a Myspace Dark Horse Presents collection, I’d never read any of Kindt’s work, although I have picked up a couple of his books since getting this one.  He has an unusual style for Vertigo – it’s much more indie, although they are increasingly moving in that direction – and is a very good writer.

Revolver is about a man, Sam, who jumps, every night at 11:11, to a different world, where things are in bad shape.  In our world, Sam is a bit of a loser – he’s stuck in a dead-end job at a magazine, working for a woman he hates.  His girlfriend works there too – she got him the job – and he hates her empty materialism as much as he hates his job.

In the other world, avian flu and terrorist attacks have crippled the United States.  Many people are dead or just missing, and Sam ends up working with his boss on a newsletter which they distribute freely to try to help people.  In this world, Sam has had to kill to protect himself and his new friend (who he still hates in the regular world).

In a very short time, it becomes clear that life in the other world has more value to Sam than his regular life does.  He learns things in the normal world, and then applies that knowledge to the ruined one.  It’s interesting how closely they mirror one another, while being so vastly different.  Eventually, Sam learns that he is not the only person who can jump in this way, and the book becomes even more interesting.

Kindt uses different colour schemes to indicate what world we are in, and each page has a CNN-style news-ticker scrolling across the bottom.  This doesn’t add much information, but we can quickly tell from the level of triviality in the stories which world we are in.  Statistics involving flu deaths or the destruction of Seattle?  Bad world.  Information about a mindless celebrity?  Ours.

Revolver raises some interesting questions about the value of our lives in our modern world, and is also a pretty gripping read.  Recommended.

So, what would you buy Were Money No Object?