Best Comic of My Week:
Concrete: Stars Over Sand #1 – It’s so nice to see Paul Chadwick return, and bring Concrete with him. I’ve been a fan of this characters for decades, but apparently it’s been twenty years since he last appeared (which would explain why I didn’t remember that he had a child). Concrete is about a man, Ron, who was abducted by aliens, and had his brain transplanted into a large rocky homunculus body (he’s somewhere between The Thing and a golem). The book usually takes on environmental topics, as Concrete and his two friends explore and campaign to help the Earth. In this story, while driving across the country so Ron can give a speech, they stop at Sand Dunes National Park. Unable to sleep, Ron wanders out into the desert, and during a storm, is hit by lightning. Chadwick’s art is as wonderful as ever – he is a detailed artist who puts a lot of care into the smallest thing, but then Concrete himself is kind of cartoonish, making for interesting juxtapositions. There is a languid nature to how Concrete stories play out, and this quickly reminded me of many of my favourites (it was this book that introduced me to the idea of radical environmentalism, and helped shape a lot of the ways I think about things). I’m so happy that we’re going to be get to read the rest of this story, and I hope it means that Chadwick is back for more regular follow-up stories.
Quick Takes:
Absolute Batman #21 & 22 – I think that Jason Aaron might be tossing a few too many things into this, as we accept that Batman’s whole existence was planned by people who are now his enemies. The Robins continue to seek him out, while his friends lean into their new, more criminal identities. In issue twenty-two, we learn Harley’s backstory, which is interesting. This is a great series, but I find it might be moving a little too quickly now, making it harder to keep track of all the subplots. The art, by Nick Dragotta and Werther Dell’Edera, is fantastic in both issues.
Absolute Catwoman #1 & 2 – I liked the opening of this new series, which has Selina getting dragged into some nonsense due to a crew of cat burglars she used to run with. All of them are familiar names to long-time DC readers (although one involves a gender swap), and it’s interesting to see these new takes on them. I was a bit surprised that Selina’s original crew, including Bruce Wayne, is only mentioned once, and then it’s only Waylon Jennings who gets the name drop. Co-writers Scott Snyder and Che Grayson do a good job of building out Selina’s past, and artist Bengal does great work throughout both issues. This feels much more separate from the Absolute Batman book than I’d have expected, but that’s not a bad thing considering that the point of this comic is to make Selina her own character.
Absolute Flash #16 & 17 – Wally gets an idea of where Grodd might be, and he and Linda go looking for the little guy, just as the Rogues are also tasked with tracking him down to kill him. This series has been a real slow build, but I’m liking it more and more. I like that Wally finally gets a code name here; like a lot of Lemire comics, it’s a little too decompressed, but the end of seventeen was a surprise and something that is likely going to influence future issues a lot.
American Caper #8 & 9 – The excoriation of mid-West American life continues to be amusing and delightful, as more of the characters give in to their depravity and endless self-justification. This book has a large number of sub-plots which are all chugging along. David Lapham’s art looks so good with Chris Anderson’s finishes.
Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham #4 – Rafael Grampá’s long delayed Batman miniseries ends, and it’s gorgeous. Grampá is a singular artist – picture Paul Pope mixed with Humberto Ramos and a bit of Tradd Moore, and maybe you’d be on the right track – and his vision of Gotham is very unique. He has Batman facing Doctorgeist, a crazed doctor who has ‘helped’ traumatized youth into becoming killers for him. If I’m being honest, the story is a little hard to follow in places (the long delay between issues didn’t help), but this is a very different approach to Batman that beats some further exploration. I like how Bruce Wayne ends up on the side of the oppressed people of Gotham, and the way Grampá also develops James Gordon in this story. Really though, the art is the winner here and the best reason to check this comic out. Grampá has done very little in North American comics (I’m not sure if there is a trove of Brazilian comics that don’t get released here, or if he is just not very prolific), so this was a treat.
Bleeding Hearts #5 & 6 – I’ve been enjoying this series a lot, but reading two issues back to back, but reading these two issues back-to-back, as Deniz Camp and Stipan Morian finish up their first arc, I can really see how brilliant this book is. Poke is a zombie going through something strange – his heart has started beating, and the idea of eating a living being is now upsetting to him. It’s Outbreak, though, the high holiday for zombies, and Poke feels he has to go through the motions at least. His friend, Mush, found Rabbit and her mom, and now Rabbit’s been captured (and her mom eaten off-panel), and is going to be part of the Outbreak ceremonies (which involve being chased by a horde through a mall). These issues are emotionally powerful, and beautifully illustrated by Morian. His zombies are brilliant, but his portrayals of humans are also very poignant. This is a really intelligent, thought-provoking series.
Captain America #12 & 13 – While the Armageddon event happens, Captain America finds himself trapped in Hell, alongside Dr. Doom. Doom wants to lead a rebellion against Mephisto, and managed to convince Steve to join his cause, albeit reluctantly. These are two good issues that also show the impact that Steve’s loss has had on his friends in the real world. Chip Zdarsky has done this Hell-trip thing recently in his Daredevil run, but this feels different. I like his use of the Red Skull in these issues too; Zdarsky writes villains well. I like the art of Ton Lima, who drew issue thirteen, but I wish Valerio Schiti had been able to draw the whole arc.
Emperor Aquaman #18 & 19 – I’m not sure how I feel about the idea of Aquaman becoming an outer space hero, as he keeps travelling to other planets with considerable oceans through The Blue, but once he returns to Earth, things improve. The Justice League is unsure of Arthur’s new abilities, but we see that all of his enemies are preparing to move against him, led by Mera’s mother. Jeremy Adams is pushing the boundaries of the traditional Aquaman story, and I like that, so I’m going to stick with this and see where it goes.
End of Life #5 & 6 – Eddie Stallion continues to slide around in the wreckage he’s made of his life, as the Menagerie continues to pursue him, and the disgraced former cartoonist who lives in the abandoned theme park based on his work kidnaps a kid because of him. Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh have made a pretty ridiculous humour comic about animal-themed killers, and it’s pretty amusing. What I think really makes it work is that they play things straight, making things a little believable. The humour reminds me a little of a Garth Ennis comic, and I’ve long maintained that Pugh is one of the best artists in the business, so this makes me happy.
Gehenna in Tokyo #1 – I enjoyed the first Gehenna miniseries, which was a nonstop violence spree worthy of a Punisher comic, and was happy to see that this one-shot landed in my pullfile. Gehenna is a woman who has devoted her life to getting mob bosses to cancel a contract on her life that keeps getting passed around. Now a Yakuza boss owns her contract, so she’s in Tokyo killing people. I like how the Japanese dialogue is written in Japanese, although that frustrated me a bit, because I thought I was further along in learning to read Hiragana and Katakana (I was able to decipher only a little). Original series writer Patrick Kindlon was joined by a co-writer, Marco Ferrari, for this comic. The art, by Atsuji Yamamoto, fit with the previous volume, but added more manga touches as well, which worked really nicely. I was a bit disappointed to see that the story will continue in another comic (why not just make it a limited series?), but I hope that will come out soon.
Imperial Guardians #4 & 5 – I’m really disappointed that this series didn’t last. It has so many of the things that I’m looking for in a Marvel book – interesting characters who don’t really have much prior history with one another, a cool set-up/rationale, some interesting subplots, and good writing and art. Sure, it lacks any big name appeal, but I’d hope that audiences would still turn up for something like this. These issues show the team in another morally dubious situation, and then, they are sent to take out a group of Skrulls, who are actually mostly ex-Avengers. They learn something about the way Maximus is operating that really could have lasted for a whole year, without them even needing to return to the subplots around the weird cult in issue four or the ongoing deal with Darkhawk trying to figure himself out. Dan Abnett is one of the best writers in comics, especially for space-based stories, and I really wish this was continuing. I guess we’re never going to see the New Exiles book that was supposed to focus on Charles Xavier and his family either. There was some promise in that as well.
Inglorious X-Force #6 & 7 – I feel like the focus on this series is off still. It’s weird that Cable has assembled a team to protect Ms. Marvel from an assassination that is going to happen at least twenty years in the future, and no one is asking if that means they have to agree to spend decades together. Readers know that there’s something wrong with Cable, which Domino learned, but then he wiped her memory of that. I am interested in knowing a little more about Kali and her new Mutant Liberation Front, but this book is losing me quickly.
Kaya #35 – This feels like a big issue as Jin learns just what Razel has planned for him, while Kaya strengthens her ties with the new humans she met. Wes Craig’s series continues to entertain but I like it better when Jin and Kaya are together because each issue feels a little fragmented.
New Titans # 36 & 37 – Tate Brombal has the new team, which only appears to feature some of the old team still, moving into the old JLA headquarters in Happy Harbour, where of course they discover some demonic issues, while some of the team works on their own personal issues. I like the majority of this team (I think I hate Eva), and am curious to see what Brombal is going to do with them. The news that Static is going to be joining up with the next issue reminds me of how much I want to read his original series, which is very hard to find around here for some reason. Marcus To drew these two issues, so they are done well and red like classic superhero comics.
Nightwing #139 & 140 – I find the work that Dan Watters is doing here to be pretty interesting. Nightwing is in trouble with the law (something that is happening in the Batman book too, but this is handled in a way that is more logical and realistic), and is struggling with the guilt he feels after the car crash that started this arc. In these issues, he tries to work through that guilt by solving old murders that have been discovered because of the new superhighway; basically in a scene that must have been influenced by the second season of The Wire, a bunch of bodies have washed up because the flow of the river was changed by the highway’s construction. This leads to a discovery that reminds me of the old Mister X series, and its premise that architecture can be used to influence and control behaviour. I do get stuck on the notion that this massive superhighway was built so quickly (where I live, a relatively short light rail line took more than twelve years to construct), but I like how Watters is touching on gentrification, environmental racism and classism, and thinking about how cities construct the realities of its inhabitants. I’d started getting a little bored of this arc, but these two issues snap it back into focus and make it more interesting. I’m also really happy to be getting new Denys Cowan artwork.
Spider-Man: Long Way Home #1 & 2 – I saw that Jonathan Hickman and Adam Kubert were working together on a miniseries, and that’s more than enough reason for me to preorder it. I didn’t know, however, that it was an out-of-continuity series, which always kind of bothers me, because I’m never sure what their purpose is, and the more OCD side of my brain tries to figure out too much backstory. This series opens well – a black ops group that includes Frank Castle have been sent to a South American jungle to retrieve something from AIM, but have a run in with Hydra and the Incredible Hulk, who all want the same something. For some reason, in the aftermath, SHIELD recruits Spider-Man to track Castle down (he has the something). It seems that in this continuity, none of these characters know one another, and it’s very unclear why the Hulk is after the thing, who Castle actually works for, or why this is a Spider-Man story at all. It lacks the formalism of a typical Hickman story, with no diagrams or complicated organizational charts, but it reads like a decent action movie, so I can live with that. Kubert’s art is great, but it doesn’t make sense that the last few pages of issue two are drawn in landscape mode, making readers turn the book sideways to read it. Stuff like that bugs me. So this is good, but could just have easily been a creator-owned book with different characters, because nowhere is it essential that these three Marvel characters be used to tell this story.
Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #4 & 5 – I like the way this series has been setting up the Maul show on Disney+. I’m not sure if it’s out yet, as I’ve heard nothing about it, but it looks like the series will take the time to explore the underworld, which I often enjoy in my Star Wars. This miniseries has worked as an interesting look at a complicated cop and the very complicated life that he leads. It was a decent series.
Tankers Vs. Ancient Aliens #1 & 2 – I’d enjoyed the first Tankers comic at Bad Idea, and decided to come back for this follow-up series, which is going to have aliens soon. The Tankers are a bunch of operatives who got stuck back in the Jurassic period, with only their oversized weapons rigs (think of the loaders in Aliens, but with a ton of weapons) to protect them. Writer Robert Venditti is breaking each issue into smaller chapters (which have different artists) to approach this story in a bit of a kaleidoscopic way; we are slowly piecing together the knowledge that something has changed here, as our heroes keep coming across odd events or signs (like a probe of some sort that broadcasted a signal that kept the fauna away). I like this approach, and like the different artists being used, but am a bit curious to find out how long this series is, given that we’re two issues in and no aliens have shown up yet.
Transformers #33 & 34 – Now that the Autobots have split into two factions, and Optimus’s crew has decided to stay on Earth, it’s time to build their alliance with the humans, and generally prepare for the inevitable conflict with the Decepticons. On Cybertron, Elita Prime is also gearing up. I like how the Transformers from Void Rivals make appearances here, even if it leaves me wondering how long it will be before the Energon line-wide crossover that I know will have to happen eventually.
Vampirella #3 & 4 – The longer Priest’s series runs (it’s been relaunched like forty times I think), the harder it gets to keep its timeline straight. These two issues jump around a lot, and I found that I kept getting confused. I’m used to a degree of confusion in Priest’s books, but for the first time, I think this one is starting to lose me.
Void Rivals #31 & 32 – These are two excellent issues of one of my favourite series. Issue thirty-one is another Skuxxoid stand-alone issue, in which the beloved character leads a rebellion against his creator (all Skuxxoids have split off from Skuxxoid Alpha, who has not been kind to them). In issue thirty-two Solila and Daxam find their escape from the Quintessons is not without problems, as the Cobra-Las’ Leviathan crashes on an unknown world. This issue ends with a surprise that made me truly very happy, which I don’t want to spoil. I will say that a favourite character of mine makes an unexpected appearance, and while I knew that Kirkman was going to be incorporating him into the Energon Universe, I didn’t expect it to happen here like this. This series never lets me down.
Graphic Novel of the Week:
Christie Pits – This is one of my two TCAF purchases this year, and I picked this up because I’ve often gone to Christie Pits park, in an area of Toronto that is best known now for Korean restaurants and snacks, as well as some of the best tacos and gluten free pastries in the city. One hundred years ago, this part of the city was a working class neighbourhood made up mostly of Protestants, although nearby were sizable Jewish and Italian enclaves. This book tells the story of the race riot that broke out at the end of a baseball game one summer night in 1933, but it tells a lot more than that. Writer Jamie Michaels spends most of the book portraying what life was like for Jewish people in that time. They were painfully aware of the fact that Hitler was whipping up anti-Semitism in Germany, and that it was having an impact around the world, including the formation of ‘swastika clubs’ in Toronto. We see what family life was like for people who had already emigrated from Europe, often leaving behind family members, like the parents of the two main characters. We see the variety of Jewish life – there are students that face anti-Semitism in class, overworked and taken advantage of seamstresses, and a young man who looks for any opportunity to fight and use the skills he learned in the boxing gym. We also see the affinity with the budding labour movement, and the connections made with the Italian community that is close by. Artist Doug Fedrau makes the characters sympathetic, and does a terrific job of portraying life in the city. I did feel like the actual riot was given short shrift, but really, this story is more about what led to that violent night where the Jewish members of a baseball team, and their fans, decided they’d had enough when some of the local racists decided to unfurl a swastika flag. This was an important moment in the city’s history, especially given that it led to the mayor banning that symbol, and enacting some of the country’s first anti-hate bylaws. I go to Christie Pits park a few times a year, and now I appreciate having more understanding of the area’s history. I appreciate that the story was told in a fictional way that made it easier to relate to.
The Week in Music:
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet – Happy Today – The thing that I find most interesting about this album is the way that it often disappears into my consciousness until some sort of change happens, and then I’m drawn back into it. This is the third album, I think, that Jeff Parker has done with his ETA IVtet, and is perhaps my favourite. Parker, who plays electric guitar, and his three collaborators, Josh Johnson (sax), Anna Butterss (bass), and Jay Bellerose (drums and percussion), create improvised soundscapes, and kind of loop them for quite a while, making almost imperceptible shifts in the music, until something major changes, and then the pattern repeats. Parker has been having a bit of a moment lately, given that this band (swapping Deantoni Parks for Bellerose) were the backing band for Flea’s new album, and toured with him. Anyway, this is a terrific album, one of my favourites of the year, and I really hope that Parker tours his own music soon. I’m jealous of the Lodge Room audience you get to hear on this.
aja monet – The Color of Rain – I spend more time thinking about this album than I ever expected to. aja monet is a spoken word artist who has collaborated with some truly incredible musicians in creating this album. Most tracks are produced by her, her husband, drummer Justine Brown, and the legendary Meshell Ndegeocello. Brown is on almost every track, and he’s joined by artists like Josh Johnson (see above), Burniss Travis, Cory Henry, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Ambrose Akinmusire, Ganavya Doreiswamy, Brandee Younger, and more. While the music is great, it’s monet’s words and voice that are the big attraction here. Her poetry is expansive and thoughtful, touching on a number of important issues and her understanding of herself. She makes very effective use of poet voice, which usually annoys me, and while the album is a bit long for these days, it leaves me wanting more. I was fortunate enough to see her perform live, and I can’t recommend doing that enough.
Pan American – Fly The Ocean in a Silver Plane – I really appreciate ambient artists that do things a little differently, and that is why I’m drawn to Pan American. On his (their? – I’m not sure if this is just Mark Nelson making the music, or if more people are involved; only Chelsea Bridge, who sings and plays violin, gets an individual credit) records, Pan American incorporates live instruments such as the violin and slide guitar, while keeping the focus on minimalist electronic soundscapes. This is a restful, lovely album.
Nduduzo Makhathini – The Myth We Choose – There is not enough discussion of how much fantastic jazz music is coming out of the South African scene these days. Nduduzo Makhathini first came on my radar as part of the group Shabaka and the Ancestors, which had Londoner Shabaka Hutchings (who features on one track on this album) playing with some incredible SA musicians. On this album, Makhathini takes us through some varied sounds, as we get some traditional-sounding SA jazz, as well as more Western takes. His keys are lovely, as is his voice on the songs that include vocals. This album is on Blue Note, but it has no hint of what I consider the ‘Blue Note-core’ sound that is so omnipresent these days. It’s a restful and beautiful album.
Your Brother’s Keeper & Gary Bartz – Where Rivers Meet – The jazz collective Your Brother’s Keeper’s founder was in the band Maisha, which was the source of a lot of great music despite not having made all that much themselves. Now, for his group’s debut album on the legendary Brownswood label, they’ve combined forces with the equally legendary Gary Bartz and made this terrific album. Bartz, a sax player, got his start with the likes of Mingus, Roach, and Blakely, before going on to work with Miles Davis for much of his career. It feels like this is not just about mentoring a younger generation of jazz musicians; they are in conversation with one another, and clearly all benefit from it. This is a terrific record that shows that the London scene is not stagnating, but continuing to grow in new directions.
Danalogue – Teleportations – I was first introduced to Danalogue as one third of the incredible dance jazz group The Comet Is Coming, and while I’m not sure if this is his first solo album, it’s the first one I’ve listened to. I’d anticipated this would be very dancey, but it’s a lot more thoughtful and meandering than that, all in good ways. Danalogue works mostly with synths here, and has created a very interesting world to move around in. Now that Shabaka Hutchings is staying away from his saxophone, I wonder if that means we’ll never get another The Comet Is Coming project; I can live with it so long as Danalogue keeps making music like this.
