I Hate Fairyland,v. 1: Madly Ever After

Collects: I Hate Fairyland #1-5 (2015-6)

Released: April 2016 (Image)

Format: 128 pages / color / $9.99 / ISBN: 9781632156853

What is this?: A young girl kidnapped by Fairyland tries to find her home for 27 years, trapped physically at the same age and growing increasingly violent.

The culprit: Skottie Young

I don’t know that I’m the right audience for I Hate Fairyland, v. 1: Madly Ever After.

I mean, I thought I was. I Hate Fairyland features Gertrude, a woman in her mid-30s who has been trapped in Fairyland in a child’s unaging body for almost three decades. Unable to find the way out of Fairyland and into her own world again, Gertrude gleefully takes out her frustrations on the pastel-and-spun-sugar world around her. Unremitting violence against all those fairy-tale clichés seemed like something I would enjoy.

As it turns out, the violence gets boring. Writer / artist Skottie Young doesn’t skimp on the blood, bone, or gore as Gertrude destroys anthropomorphic heavenly bodies, anthropomorphic animals, and anthropomorphic plants. (I think she has it in for things that look or act human-like but aren’t.) For variety, she also kills some giants. Gertrude’s violence on the page is mostly perpetrated against those who can’t fight back. Perhaps that’s why the mayhem’s appeal begins to pall after an issue or two. Most of the big fights — the ones against opponents who can fight back — happen between books or off-panel. Some bits of violence don’t grow old, though; I enjoyed Gertrude’s deadly attacks against the book’s narrators, especially once the narrators started to understand the peril they were in.

For many people, Young’s art is going to be the appeal. Young’s work is hyper-cartoony, with expressions and violence amped up to 11. Nothing is too small for him to exaggerate. (Young’s work in I Hate Fairyland is an amusing counterpoint to all his variant covers for Marvel, in which he draws cute versions of characters.) There’s no doubt Young is an outstanding visual storyteller; his art is clear, and he draws admirably clear battle scenes.

So I can’t fault Young as an artist at all. On the other hand, I’m more interested in the story and jokes.

Much like with Rocket Raccoon, v. 2: Storytailer, though, I have my doubts about Young as a writer. Given that I Hate Fairyland is labeled a mature book, I wish Young had done more with Gertrude’s emotional traumas. As written, Gertrude is a shallow character mostly concerned with vengeance against a world she feels wronged her. Shallow characters are fine, if the book is entertaining other ways, but I think developing Gertrude’s character would have served the book much better.

Other than her heartbreaking introduction in #1 and a moment in #2, when it’s revealed Gertrude has the sexual urges of a woman her actual age rather than her body’s apparent age, not much is done with her longings to be normal. (Later in the issue, Gertrude gives her sidekick, Larry, a long list of things she misses from her world, but that list reads as an indictment of Fairyland.) Gertrude’s story is tragic, and I think I Hate Fairyland would be much funnier if that were exploited more than the straight mayhem.

Another concern the book does not address is whether Gertrude can’t find her way home because she is incompetent or because of her attitude. There’s a great deal of difference about how we feel toward Gertrude depending on that answer. If it’s the latter, Gertrude is somewhat justified in her hatred of Fairyland. If she’s stuck in Fairyland because she can’t follow directions or figure out riddles — and that’s the way the text leans ever-so-slightly — then she’s just a violent boob, and her suffering is something she’s earned.

Certainly some of the page space could be repurposed to develop Gertrude more. A running subplot involves Queen Cloudia trying to get rid of Gertrude, who’s making a mess of her Fairyland; since Cloudia is a ho-hum villain, trimming some of those pages would improve the book. Also, Young spends eight pages on a gag where Larry lives an entire life — building a house, getting married, having kids, then getting divorced — while Gertrude is unconscious. It’s not a bad joke, but the amount of time that actually passes is unclear, and certain parts of the gag don’t land (why does Gertrude grow a beard while unconscious? why does Larry’s wife go from happy to angrily leaving him between panels?). I think those pages could have better been used elsewhere.

One joke that does not disappoint is the appearance of Happy, a girl Queen Cloudia brings to Fairyland in issue #4 to find the way out of Fairyland before Gertrude can. (Under the laws of Fairyland, this will allow Cloudia to attack Gertrude openly.) Happy is unremittingly cheerful, and her adventures show both the sickeningly sweet and childishly kind quests Gertrude is homicidally reacting against and also the way the quests should have been approached in the first place: with patience, compassion, and with childlike wonder.

After encountering Happy’s rainbows and cheerfulness, Gertrude decides she has to up her game, which is an argument that Happy (or another competent antagonist) should have appeared earlier in the book. This prompts Gertrude to approach one of the Seven Dooms and ask for his power to confront Happy. The tests he puts Gertrude through aren’t great, but what comes out of it is very satisfying.

Other than Happy and smashing the narrators, the book’s humor is hit and miss. Frequently, the characters substitute “cute” words for obscenities, but the results are more annoying than funny: “muffin-fluffer,” “hug off,” and “plush” are clunky rather than clever curse words. The violence stops amusing after the first issue or so. On the other hand, a few jokes, like Happy’s entire existence and a series of dialogue written as “blah blah blah” (she’s actually saying “blah blah blah,” not just running her mouth), are genuinely funny.

If you’re a fan of Young, you know you want this. If you are undecided about him, I’m torn over whether to recommend the book. On one hand, the plotting and pacing is mediocre, and the humor isn’t strong enough to make up for that. On the other, the book really picks up at the end, which makes for a satisfying conclusion. It’s possible Young is finding his groove, which means the next volume might be an improvement, and the experience of reading v. 1 could be improved by what comes after.

For the moment, though, I’m sticking with a dead-center, neither-approve-or-disapprove rating.

Rating: (3 of 5)

Rat Queens, v. 1: Sass and Sorcery

Collects: Rat Queens #1-5 (2013-4)

Released: March 2014 (Image)

Format: 128 pages / color / $9.99 / ISBN: 9781607069454

What is this?: The mercenaries of Palisade are targeted for death, and four female adventurers — the eponymous Rat Queens — search for answers.

The culprits: Written by Kurtis J. Wiebe and drawn by Roc Upchurch

I like fantasy settings, as everyone who has read my Conan the Barbarian reviews has guessed. (Why else would I keep reviewing them?) I like humor comics, or even comics that think they’re funny. But I am a bit of a Marvel zombie, which explains why I had yet to read Rat Queens, v. 1: Sass and Sorcery two years after it was released.

To be fair, I still wouldn’t have bought the book had I not needed something to get free shipping on an Amazon order with a birthday gift for my mother. But the price point was right, it sounded like fun, and I hate paying for shipping, so here we are.

Rat Queens is set in a low-fantasy world, and writer Kurtis J. Wiebe and artist Roc Upchurch are not interested in extensive, Tolkien-like worldbuilding. The characters and institutions are given names that wouldn’t be remarkable in our world. The world is restricted to the city of Palisade and its environs, with a few hints of the world beyond: a magical college that Hannah, an Elven wizard, attended, and … well, wherever Dee, the priest, grew up. We see four civilized races — humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Smidgens, the Halflings / Kender / Gnomes of the world — but we don’t see what makes these races different from each other. (Dwarven females can grow beards, which … OK, is not that unusual.) The non-civilized races are generics: goblins, orcs, and trolls.

The entire book feels like an RPG that the players aren’t taking seriously. The protagonists are named Hannah, Dee, Violet, and Betty; other adventuring groups are named “the Four Daves” (the members are all named Dave), “the Peaches” (they all dress in peach-colored clothing), and “the Brother Ponies” (four guys with ponytails). The humor is usually sophomoric — no complex wordplay here — and the characters concentrate on (mostly) sanctioned killings, booze, drugs, cursing, and sex. If someone had told me Rat Queens was based on a real Forgotten Realms campaign set in a city like Baldur’s Gate or Waterdeep, I would have believed it.

The humor is largely successful, even if it is unsophisticated. Being funny will make people forgive a lot of faults — just look at the women who date unattractive comedians — and that’s what happens here. Rat Queens is very self aware, knowing its fantasy RPG tropes and amping them up: gleeful carnage with grisly injuries, showing frustration rather than fear when confronted by unnecessary battles, not looking very hard at the shaky mechanics of divine spells. When the reader is laughing, it doesn’t matter that the setting looks like D&D splashed with whitewash or that adversaries are as deep as an oil slick but without the breadth. The book rarely takes itself seriously, and the jokes proceed at a healthy pace — because Anubis knows if they didn’t, readers would start looking around and wondering about the story.

There’s actually nothing wrong with the plot, but Old Lady Bernadette does point out a large flaw: the Rat Queens (and other mercenaries) get away with too much on their violent sprees. Readers customarily identify with the protagonists, but it’s hard to disagree with Bernadette. We see them inflicting major property damage without much punishment, and we’re left to infer that they don’t pay restitution; one of the Rat Queens tries to impersonate the head of the city guard and gets a few hours in jail, while another of the Queens robs the Merchants’ Guild and gets away with it. No wonder someone’s trying to kill them, since death is the only punishment that will stick, and it will actually make Palisade safer.

Wiebe doesn’t neglect giving the protagonists depth and backstory. We get a sense of each character: Hannah, the Elven mage and Rat Queens’ leader, is vengeful and powerful; Dee is a priest who doesn’t believe in the squid god who gives her spells; Violet, a Dwarven warrior, lacks repartee skills despite her preoccupation with what’s cool; and Betty, the Smidgen thief, is an amoral mushroom addict whose real problem, according to the woman she wants to date, is her awful friends. The characterizations fit well in a world that doesn’t take itself seriously.

Occasionally, however, the story will snap to a halt for a serious character moment — Violet’s conflict with her twin brother, Dee leaving her home and faith behind — before the plot’s gears grind, and the humor slowly ramps up again. (Hannah’s more serious moments with the captain of the guard, her ex, and Betty’s attempts at romance work much better, perhaps because they aren’t taken quite so seriously.) Some characterizations are unexplained (or perhaps unexplainable). Dee, the atheist priest, somehow develops a crippling, unexplained social anxiety between the book’s beginning, when she brawls and drinks in bars, and issue #5, in which the Rat Queens host a party. Betty is extremely perceptive but still wears an awful shirt. Hannah is described as “rockabilly” on the back cover. As she has no connection to music, and she seems neither a rocker nor a hillbilly, I have no idea what this can possibly mean. (Perhaps it’s a reference to her pompadour-like hairdo? I doubt many rockabilly musicians were heavily tattooed and wore corsets, though.)

Upchurch’s battles are a mixed bag. On one hand, he never skips on the violence and blood; these battles are savage and dangerous, and his art always communicates that. However, his battle choreography is frequently confused, as it’s difficult to tell where the characters are in relation to each other or to other landmarks.

Perhaps more contentious is his depictions of the Rat Queens. Blurbs on the back contain praise for the protagonists’ looks from the Mary Sue and CBR column / tag Comics for Girls. Each admires Upchurch’s ability to make the protagonists look like real women. I’m not sure of that; they look more like real people than the women in most superhero comics do, yes, but they are still abnormally attractive females, and they wear impractical, sexualized clothes — Hannah wears thigh-high boots, a miniskirt, and a bustier into battle (and the rest of the time, but it’s not quite as impractical in day-to-day life), while Dee always wears a loincloth that exposes most of her legs. Betty wears a top more suited to clubbing than adventuring. Even Violet, the practical one, has what appears to be boob armor from certain angles. Additionally, the characters are introduced in Sass and Sorcery in a series of pin-up poses. There’s nothing wrong with the way these women look, but it’s strange that Upchurch is being praised drawing characters who always wear the same sexy clothes, regardless of the situation. Agency solves the problems the humor doesn’t, I suppose.

I enjoyed Sass and Sorcery, enjoyed it enough to read the next volume. It’s fun! It’s as deep as a mud puddle and nowhere near as reflective, but even if that doesn’t change in future volumes, the series is still worth reading.

Rating: (3.5 of 5)

Prophet, v. 1: Remission

Collects: Prophet #21-6 (2012)

Released: August 2012 (Image)

Format: 136 pages / color / $9.99 / ISBN: 9781607066118

What is this?: In the far future, a warrior reawakes on a mission to reignite the old Earth Empire.

The culprits: Written by Brandon Graham and drawn by Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, Graham, and Giannis Milonogiannis

I picked up both Hawkeye and Prophet, v. 1: Remission on the recommendation of House to Astonish. I was prepared for Hawkeye, but Prophet … I’m not sure what to make of Prophet.

Prophet gives the reader a feeling of being dropped into a world that has already been partially developed. Part of that is because Remission reprints #21-6; obviously, twenty issues came before Remission. What relationship they have to Remission is unknown, though, and when those original issues were published is unstated. (Mostly 1993-6, with one issue in 2000.) I presumed those 20th-century issues related to the stories in Remission, but a glance around Wikipedia shows the link is tenuous.

Remission is set in the far future. Earth is vastly different, the landscapes altered and overrun by alien animals and sentients. John Prophet is belched forth onto this Earth by an armored digging machine that has been buried for an untold number of years. The newly awakened Prophet is sent on a mission — to go to a satellite and send out a beacon to the remnants of the old Earth Empire — that has been prepared so long ago a city has been born and thrived at one of the rendezvous points along his route.

Prophet’s quest is excellent sci-fi. The aliens are varied in custom and appearance, and Prophet drifts through their settlements. The technology is a combination of advanced and dilapidated, with animals frequently used for power. The fractured Earth society is stagnant, not creating or innovating. Humans are not seen anywhere — unless, as one alien intimates, the ape-like creatures that are farmed for meat are human.

Writer Brandon Graham doesn’t give Prophet much character — for good reason, as it turns out, since Graham moves on to other stories after #3’s big twist ending. Prophet is an enigma, a grunting action hero one can easily see being portrayed on screen by a mop-topped, early ‘80s Arnold Schwarzenegger. There is no explanation of his past, no examination of his motives: he is born into this strange world, and his only reason for birth is his mission. He is as reflective as a brick wall, and he does not question the elaborate preparations that bespeak a long-term plan; he only acknowledges their usefulness.

Artist Simon Roy is perfect for this arc. Roy, who is also co-credited for the story, draws a world that has only tinges of the familiar. His aliens are weird, the landscapes forbiddingly strange. His Prophet is brutish and stoic. Roy’s style also has a tinge of the doodles in a high schooler’s notebook — appropriate for such an imaginative and epic work.

For the rest of Remission, Graham tells one-issue stories from elsewhere in the universe. The stories presumably arise from the events at the end of #23, but only #25 explicitly says so. Each individual story is good, but their episodic nature saps the momentum of that great first arc. The lack of continuation and continuity throws the readers’ assumptions about the series’ nature into question. What is this series about? Who specifically is it about? Will any of these stories mesh, or are they vignettes to give the flavor of Prophet’s universe? I believe they are related, and people or places in #24-6 will be important. But that’s a belief, with no real evidence to support it.

Still, they are enjoyable stories, if lacking in back story. Issue #24 features a shorter quest, in many ways echoing Prophet’s in #21-3. The best of the latter three stories is #25, which follows a robot wakened by Prophet's signal; Jaxson is a automaton veteran of the Earth Empire’s wars who now is stoically getting ready for another. The final issue is less effective, without much struggle and without any pathos. But it does introduce the Old Man, who was mentioned in #25. The art for the three issues — by Farel Dalrymple, Graham, and Giannis Milonogiannis, respectively⁹⁰ — is very good, but they lack some spark that Roy’s art possesses. Emma Rios contributes a five-page story that is opaque, both in art and story, to the point of nonsensicalness.

I enjoyed Remission, but I wonder, what is it about? Is there a larger story here? I feel there has to be, given the hints laid down during #21-3, but I cannot guess its shape or color. I am tempted to pick up Prophet, v. 2: Brothers, but as good as Remission is, I don’t know if I’m going to enjoy it as a long-form story.

Rating: (4 of 5)

Invincible: Ultimate Collection, v. 6

Collects: Invincible #60-70, Invincible Returns #1 (2009-10)

Released: March 2011 (Image)

Format: 336 pages / color / $34.99 / ISBN: 9781607063605

What is this?: The hero Invincible battles alternate versions of himself, a powerful alien, and Martian parasites while dating Atom Eve and exploring his moral limits.

The culprits: Writer Robert Kirkman and artists Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker

I like reading Invincible, although not enough to buy the hardcovers or trade paperbacks. Instead, I have been catching up on the series by using interlibrary loan. There’s a fee involved at my local library — typically about $3 — so I’ve passed up the trades and requested the “Ultimate Collection” hardcovers instead, to get more story per loan.

In Invincible: Ultimate Collection, v. 6, writer Robert Kirkman promises a lot of story featuring his half-alien superhero, Mark “Invincible” Grayson: a war against alternate versions of himself, further conflict with his archenemy, conflict with the Viltrumites (his father’s alien race), and the plotting of the Martian parasites known as Sequids … if there’s one thing Kirkman knows how to do, it’s keep subplots moving forward until he’s ready to make one of them the main plot. He even manages to fake out readers by briefly hinting that the Sequid invasion, which has a definite ending in v. 6, will continue as a subplot instead. Not all of these subplots are gold — I’m mystified why I need to care about crime boss Titan’s battles for control of the underworld — but the number of them means there is a lot of treasure in them thar pages. By the end of v. 6, several subplots are ready to be brought to the fore: the Viltrumite War, the Reanimators, and main plots from v. 6 that Kirkman shuffled back the background without tying off. He’s a bit like Chris Claremont, except he’s not so good with female characters, and he has more control over loose ends.

Volume 6 is all about loose ends, actually, with many of his villains repeating in this book. In the twelve issues in this collection, Invincible battles only two villains who have not been used before, and one of those is a throwaway villain named Dinosaurus, whose main purpose is to show Invincible’s state of mind. To be fair, that's not counting the alternate reality Invincibles, who were teased in the previous collection, as new. But they are weapons of Invincible’s archenemy, Angstrom Levy, and they are variants of the title character — there’s not much innovation there. Kirkman has an entire universe to himself, if he wants it. Six years is too soon to keep recycling old villains.

Not having to share a universe illustrates what’s wrong with the “Invincible War” (#60), which at times seems more concerned with showing other Image heroes battling alternate versions of Invincible than anything else. It feels like product placement for other Image houses; with a lot of space to fill, since the original Invincible was out of the fight, Kirkman and Ottley skipped creating their own off-brand heroes for the name-brand stuff. (Well, the RC of heroes, I suppose.) It might have been too much design work to create unique looks for a bunch of throwaway characters, but they could have been developed more fully later. (One Invincible’s comment to Spawn, “I've killed you before, and I’ll do it again!,” would have immediately given weight to whatever character it was addressed to.)

There’s a lot of fighting to this book — four of the first five issues are nearly non-stop slugfests — but Kirkman manages to pack in a lot of the soap-opera elements key to a story about a teenage hero. Mark as to deal with the difficulties of a relationship with fellow superhero Atom Eve, including her horrible father; his relationship with his own father and brother; the loss of a fellow hero; making a living; and learning his moral boundaries. This territory has been explored before, but Kirkman’s breathless plotting and Mark’s personality make Invincible’s journey interesting. I’m still not convinced by Invincible’s money-making plans (not without more help, either from his brother or Atom Eve), but there’s still time to convince me. Many of the quiet moments between Mark and Eve feel picture perfect, thanks in no small part to artists Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker, and the direction of the main characters’ relationship at the end of v. 6 is a relatively unexplored area, especially since Eve isn’t a throwaway character. Invincible changes his stance on killing a couple of times during v. 6, which feels abrupt, but I can believe the rapid turnaround for someone still developing their personality.

After all the fighting and death, Kirkman probably felt he needed a breather for #66. I agree, but two issues with Invincible’s father, Omni-Man, and Allen the Alien seems a bad choice, at least in the collected form. Issue #68 is the decompression story needed after all the sturm und drang — Mark having dinner with Eve and her parents — but two issues in deep space, with few appearances by the book’s hero, stops the book’s momentum in its tracks, and it doesn’t really get going again before the book ends.

Ottley, who has penciled Invincible since #8, drew #60-5, 68-70, and the main story in Invincible Returns. Kirkman calls for a lot of blood and fighting in v. 6, and Ottley gives Kirkman what he wants. Unlike most superhero books, you never get the feeling with Ottley that superhero fights are graceful, sanitized affairs. The combatants hit hard and leave marks — not necessarily permanent marks, since the toughest characters are usually fast healers — that show they’ve been through combat like pork goes through industrial meat grinders. The images in #60-4 are somewhere between horrifying and sickening, appropriate for the level of violence the characters visit upon each other and the landscape. But Ottley can still do the quieter moments — many of the scenes between Eve and Mark seem spot on, and he does a good job with Mark’s teenage-ish, slacker-y brother.

Walker, the series co-creator and original penciler, returned for #66-7 and the backup story in Invincible Returns. The former is a good choice for Walker’s return; the two-issue story prevents comparisons between the current and former artists by restricting the setting and characters to deep space. It also features Omni-Man and Allen the Alien, two characters Walker co-created. Deep space gives Walker a chance to draw all sorts of outlandish creatures and alien landscapes; I’m not sure I’d buy an 8x10 print of his work or air brush it on the side of my van, but it’s pretty good. His work on Invincible Returns, however, suffers in comparison to Ottley. His thick line and posing of characters makes his art look blockier, less fluid than Ottley’s, and Eve’s inexplicable hairstyle is distracting.

The less said of the supplementary material, in which Kirkman, Walker, and Ottley discuss the art process for the book, the better.

Volume 6 was somewhat disappointing compared to other Invincible: Ultimate Collection volumes; its plot is bloody and straightforward, with a heavy death toll for a relatively lighthearted book. Invincible himself is in danger of being a bit too grim. Still, the subplots, characters, and art lift this volume above the average comic collection.

Rating: (3 of 5)

Dark Horse, IDW, and Image July 2011 solicitations (collected editions)

Hey, Image’s solicits are on time this month! In honor of its timeliness, let’s get the show on the road:

Will buy:

Nothing this month. Sorry, independents! Might buy eventually:

• Chew, v. 4: Flambé: I’ve read v. 1, and I frequently consider picking the series back up. I haven’t done so yet, but with this price point, it’s only a matter of time. ($12.99; Image)
• Scud, the Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang!: This is a series I’ve heard about almost since it first came out in the mid-‘90s. With the whole series in one volume, I might have to give it a look. ($29.99; Image)

Might buy if the price is right:

• Green River Killer: A True Detective Story (hardcover): I am a sucker for true crime, and I’m familiar with the Green River Killer, having read Anne Rule’s Green River, Running Red. I might be interested enough to pick this up to get another perspective on the serial killer. ($24.99; Dark Horse)
• Parker: The Martini Edition (hardcover): Darwyn Cooke writing and drawing a noir adaptation is always worth a look. Not worth $75, but it is two of Cooke’s Parker tales in one volume. ($75, ISBN: 978-1-60010-980-5; IDW)

The Rest:

• Angel Omnibus, v. 2 ($24.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-968-3; IDW)
• Angel: The Covers (hardcover): No. ($19.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-969-0; IDW)
• Archie: Americana, v. 2: The ’50s (hardcover): The gradual evolution of Archie Comics’s art style continues; the jokes remain the same. ($24.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-945-4; IDW)
• Bomb Queen: Gang Bang: Tasteful, as Bomb Queen always is. ($14.99; Image)
• 'Breed, v. 2: The Book of Ecclesiastes ($17.99; Image)
• Chimichanga (hardcover): One of two Dark Horse collected editions this month. This one, written and drawn by The Goon’s Eric Powell, is about a bearded girl at a circus who trades for an egg that hatches the Chimichanga. Despite the rumors, the book is not going to be a free giveaway at Taco Bell. ($14.99; Dark Horse)
• Classic G.I. Joe, v. 12 ($24.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-972-0; IDW)
• Classic Next Men, v. 1: IDW started John Byrne’s new Next Men last month, and they reprinted the original #1 last ($24.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-971-3; IDW)
• Dave Stevens: The Complete Sketchbook Collection (hardcover): If you like your girls pretty but fictional, Stevens is the man for you. Or at least one of the men for you. ($50; ISBN: 978-1-61377-037-5; IDW)
• Death Valley ($17.99; ISBN: 978-1-60010-973-7; IDW)
• Doctor Who II, v. 1: The Ripper: I watch the Doctor Who TV series, but I have no interest in original comic book stories, no matter what the plot. When the TV show is generally outrageous anyway, what’s the incentive to read a story in a spin-off medium? ($19.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-974-4; IDW)
• Edge of Doom ($19.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-927-0; IDW)
• Elephantmen, v. 2: Fatal Diseases – Revised Edition: I have heard good things about this book, but this solicitation — full of pachyderm puns — makes it seem intolerable. ($24.99; Image)
• Fallen Angel: Return of the Son: Despite what you might think, this has nothing to do with the Whedon vampire Angel. ($17.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-975-1; IDW)
• From Bloom County to Mars: The Imagination of Berkeley Breathed ($20, ISBN: 978-1-61377-008-5; IDW)
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, v. 2 ($19.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-941-6; IDW)
• Haunt: The Immortal Edition, v. 1 (hardcover; $34.99; Image)
• Infestation, v. 1: You can hire Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning to write this, but it doesn’t make a zombie crossover involving Star Trek, G.I. Joe, and Ghostbusters any less silly. ($19.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-977-5; IDW)
• Iron Siege: Nazis and monsters — but I repeat myself — are two horrible tastes that do absolutely nothing for me when put together. ($17.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-979-9; IDW)
• Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows: Joe Hill, the writer of this series, is Stephen King’s son. I didn’t know that until last night. How could I not have know that? ($19.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-953-9; IDW)
• Marineman: A Matter of Life and Depth ($17.99; Image)
• Meta 4: The Complete Series (digest): The story is full of symbols, but the title goes for a cheap, text-speak pun. The contradiction is obvious. ($14.99; Image)
• Rip Kirby, v. 4 (hardcover): The final volume in IDW’s collection of a comic strip I’ve never heard of. Comic historians, this one’s for you. ($49.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-989-8; IDW)
• Spawn: New Beginnings: A new Spawn! I … I don’t care. And I’m sure my personal yawn is echoed by most comics fans. ($14.99; Image)
• Spinecrawler ($17.99, ISBN: 978-1-60010-987-4; IDW)
• Strange Girl Omnibus (hardcover; $59.99; Image)
• The Darkness Compendium, v. 2 (hardcover): There are people out there who will pay $100 for a Darkness collection. Well, I assume there are. I haven’t met them. ($99.99; Image)
• Transformers, v. 3 ($19.99; ISBN: 978-1-60010-981-2; IDW)
• Turf (hardcover): BBC presenter Jonathan Ross’s story of Prohibition-era gangsters, vampires, and aliens. Reports I have heard ranged from fun romp to confusing mishmash. ($39.99; Image)
• Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies ($18.99; Image)
• Walter Simonson’s Thor: Artist’s Edition (hardcover): I do not share the general enthusiasm for Simonson’s Thor, but for people who do, this might be a fascinating look at the run. Or it might be an overpriced coffee table book. Who knows? ($75, ISBN: 978-1-61377-038-2; IDW)
• Witchblade: Redemption, v. 3: It is 2011, and Witchblade is still being published. Hooray! ($19.99; Image)

Dark Horse, IDW, and Image May 2011 solicitations (collected editions)

Must have:

• Usagi Yojimbo, v. 25: Fox Hunt: Always up for the next Usagi book, although it feels like the collected editions are slipping further and further behind the comics. This collects #110-6, but the series will be almost two years ahead of that by the time this comes out in July. ($16.99; Dark Horse)

Might buy if the price is right:

• Barks’ Bear Book: On the same month as DC issues an obscure Jack Kirby collection, IDW releases a collection of Carl Barks’s obscure backups featuring Barney Bear and Benny Burro. The names aren’t promising, but it is Barks. ($34.99, ISBN: 9781600109294; IDW)
• Scary Godmother Comic Book Stories: Haven’t read any of Jill Thompson’s Scary Godmother stories; is this a good place to start? ($24.99; Dark Horse)

Might check out of a library:

• Archie’s Joke Book, v. 1: A Celebration of Bob Montana: I don’t know why they’re celebrating Bob Montana, but I am mildly intrigued. ($29.99, ISBN: 9781600109584; IDW)
• Blackjacked and Pistol-Whipped: A Crime Does Not Pay Primer: Contains a few selected stories and evidently some interesting trivia about the book itself. Could be some fascinating reading. Could be a letdown. You never know. ($19.99; Dark Horse)

Manga:

• Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Lost Adventures: Good to see the M. Night Shyamalan movie hasn’t sunk the series completely. ($14.99; Dark Horse)
• Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus Book 2 ($19.99; Dark Horse)
• Magic Knight Rayearth Omnibus Edition ($19.99; Dark Horse)

The Rest:

• 30 Days of Night Collector’s Set ($39.99, ISBN: 9781600109652; IDW)
• Angel Omnibus ($24.99; Dark Horse)
• Angel Yearbook ($7.99, ISBN: 9781600109614; IDW)
• The Art of Amanda Conner ($24.99, ISBN: 9781600109508; IDW)
• The Art of Doug Sneyd ($39.99; Dark Horse)
• Bomb Queen, v. 6: Time Bomb ($16.99; Image)
• Choker, v. 1 ($16.99; Image)
• Creepy Archives, v. 10 ($49.99; Dark Horse)
• Creepy Comics, v. 1 ($19.99; Dark Horse)
• Dethklok: I wouldn’t be surprised if this were as good as the TV show itself, since it has stories written by the series’ creator and animation director. Also, it just feels like the kind of TV series that would translate well to the page. ($19.99; Dark Horse)
• Devil's Concubine ($19.99, ISBN: 9781600109485; IDW)
• Doctor Macabre ($17.99, ISBN: 9781600109157; IDW)
• George R.R. Martin's Doorways: Really? George R.R. Martin has reached this level of popularity? ($21.99, ISBN: 9781600109164; IDW)
• Guarding the Globe, v. 1: For those of you needing a Kirkman fix this month. ($16.99; Image)
• Gutwrencher ($19.99, ISBN: 9781600109362; IDW)
• Hellboy Library Edition, v. 4 ($49.99; Dark Horse)
• Kull, v. 2: The Hate Witch ($15.99; Dark Horse)
• Li’l Abner, v. 3 ($49.99, ISBN: 9781600109379; IDW)
• Pilot Season, v. 4: 2010 ($19.99; Image)
• The ’Breed Collection, v. 1: The Book of Genesis ($17.99; Image)
• Transformers: Foundation (17.99, ISBN: 9781600109188; IDW)
• Transformers: Rising Storm ($17.99, ISBN: 9781600109195; IDW)
• Transformers: The IDW Collection, v. 4 (49.99, ISBN: 9781600109386; IDW)
• Wormwood, v. 3 Deviant Edition ($24.99, ISBN: 9781600109263; IDW)

What's the story, Image?

Where are the April solicitations for Image? Is there some sort of problem at Image that has prevented them from planning three months ahead?

G-Man, v. 2: Cape Crisis

Collects: G-Man: Cape Crisis #1-5 (2010)

Released: October 2010 (Image)

Format: 128 pages / color slightly-larger-than-digest / $9.99 / ISBN: 9781607062714

What is this?: Grade-school hero G-Man is back, dealing with magic, villains, and his older brother.

The culprits: Chris Giarrusso

To make up for not posting a review on Friday, there will be two reviews this week; the first is G-Man, v. 2: Cape Crisis. I’m tempted to end this review in one paragraph, telling you to just buy it already.

I’ve expressed my admiration for Chris Giarrusso’s work in the past, rating the two Mini Marvels titles — Rock, Paper, Scissors and Secret Invasion — and the previous G-Man volume, Learning to Fly, very highly. I have been waiting for Cape Crisis since I picked up a sample copy of Cape Crisis #1 at the ALA Annual Convention, and I’m pleased to report v. 2 is no exception to Giarrusso’s usual high quality work. This time, however, the plot allows Giarrusso to explore some world building that was unavailable to him with either Mini Marvels or the first volume of G-Man, when Giarrusso was concerned with setting up concepts and characters.

If you’ve read any of the previous volumes, you know what you’re getting with Cape Crisis: pint-sized heroes who have as much trouble with older brothers and supposed authority figures as they do with supervillains. Giarrusso remembers just how unfair the world seemed — and was — as a child, and he’s able to translate that onto the page with remarkable fidelity. Unlike most of the children the readers knew, Giarrusso’s characters are able to respond with sarcasm even as the adults’ arguments spin into almost absurdist territory. Giarrusso also has a deft touch with running jokes, hitting them a couple of times and then bringing them back onto the page when the reader has almost forgotten them.

The artwork is still the same clear, simple linework that Giarrusso brings to all of his books. It’s deceptively simple, really, as Giarrusso manages to convey a lot of emotion and action via those simple lines. As usual with G-Man, he manages to expand his style with scenes featuring slightly different techniques; the transition between the G-Man’s world and Sky Mountain, former home of the gods, is illustrated in unfinished pencils to show its weirdness and incompleteness. The godlike character of Krios “Chris” Khrysomallos — not only named after the author but taken directly from Greek myth — is also a step in a slightly different direction.

Sky Mountain is not only the former home of the gods but it’s also where G-Man and his brother’s powers come from. Giarrusso uses Sky Mountain to give the boys a quest and to introduce Khrysomallos; it also allows Giarrusso to draw all sorts of things. There are the standard talking skeletons and man-eating trees, but there are also hordes of multi-colored sentient puffballs, rock men, mummies, and robots. The incongruity of the robots and mummies, of course, is part of the fun. Giarrusso also establishes that somewhere near G-Man’s hometown is Elf Town and a community of human-eating, Where-the-Wild-Things-Are style beasts.

There are some downsides to the volume, although they’re small. Some of the running gags fall flat, which is inevitable. I was tired of the dandelions / Princess Roja / Red Girl gag before it was done, although the joke did give Giarrusso an opportunity to write an almost touching bit about Princess Roja’s reaction to an injury to G-Man’s brother, Great Man. And I know Cape Crisis is published by Image, but that doesn’t mean fellow label-mate Savage Dragon has to appear in every volume, even if you can get Erik Larsen to draw him. (Although I really enjoyed the subtle Fred Hembeck cameo.) The pacing seemed a bit off as well; the story seemed longer than just five issues. On the other hand, the plot is secondary to Giarrusso’s jokes, so that’s not a major concern.

I don’t know how to say this any clearer: you should be buying Giarrusso’s work. If you can’t afford it — although Cape Crisis is a mere $9.99 for 128 full-color pages — then find someone who has bought it and borrow it from him / her. And if you don’t know anyone who’s bought it, then bug your local library to get a copy for you.

Because you really should be reading G-Man.

Rating: (4.5 of 5)

The Quarter Bin: Proof #1

Trade paperbacks and — God forbid — hardbacks are a big risk; dropping $14.99 to $34.99 on material you’re not sure about can lead to buyer’s remorse and bitter, bitter recriminations. Why didn’t someone warn you Captain America and the Falcon, v. 1: Two Americas was so bad? A sample would have warned you, but you had to order the whole thing.

Well, I’m not made of money either. So I’m trying out that sampling approach in The Quarter Bin. Recent comics that have lower promotional prices, are Free Comic Book Day giveaways, or I have found in that holy of holies, the Quarter Bin, get a quick review and a recommendation on whether it might be worthwhile to pick up the trade. So, without further ado, we have …

The Issue: Proof #1 (October 2007, Image)

The Culprits: Written by Alexander Grecian, art by Riley Rossmo

The Hook: A government agency, whose agents include a sasquatch, investigates and contains beasts that have been “sighted” but are not proven to exist.

Collected in: Proof, v. 1: Goatsucker

Strengths: Although the idea of a government group investigating the weird has been done before, it’s been a few years since The X-Files went off the air, so there’s some room for the idea. Proof alters the concept, with one of the investigating agents being an actual sasquatch. The first issue plays well with the idea, introducing the sasquatch during a training exercise that makes it look like he’s being hunted by the government and also playing up his new partner’s reaction to a sasquatch walking into a conference room. The “cryptoid” factoids provided to explain background to the reader are amusing.

Weaknesses: We don’t really get a feel for the characters in this issue. FBI agent Ginger Brown’s determination to find out what happened in a jewelry store robbery foiled by a golem gets her into the government’s cryptid-hunting operation; other than her having a boyfriend, her lukewarm determination is all we know about her. But that’s enough for the government to let her into their secret organization, evidently. John “Proof” Prufrock, a sasquatch, works with the government’s cryptid-hunting organization. He wears a suit and is probably smarter than his colleagues. The villain for the first arc, a chupacabra, acts less like a chupacabra and more like Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

Mitigation: A villain that was just a beast, like chupacabras are generally described, wouldn’t be all that interesting, so giving the beast a familiar name while amping its threat level is probably smart. Not giving much character info in the first issue leaves a great deal of room for it in later issues. Having one character who is not human will cut the chances the series will be bogged down with weird romantic tensions, like The X-Files was. The “cryptoid” factoids will get old quickly, I fear.

Judgment: The makings of something very interesting are here, but the characters and plot didn’t excite me. This could be an entertaining series; this could also degenerate into a pile of crap. This first issue isn’t a definitive statement either way. Having no experience with Grecian or Rossmo, I don’t know if they’ll be able to turn the hook of a sasquatch agent into enjoyable stories; my feeling is that the story would be better if it concentrated on characters, which it didn’t in #1.

Hardcover, TPB, or Nothing?: The idea is good enough and the execution competent enough for me to recommend trying the TPB, although this might be a good one to get through your local library.

G-Man, v. 1: Learning to Fly

Collects: G-Man #1, Image Holiday Special 2005, and various “Comic Bits” comics from Savage Dragon (2004-5 and whenever those Comic Bits came out)

Released: June 2009 (Image)

Format: 96 pages / color digest / $9.99 / ISBN: 9781607060871

What is this?: G-Man, a grade-school hero, written and drawn in the style of Mini-Marvels.

The culprits: Chris Giarrusso

Go buy G-Man, v. 1: Learning to Fly.

Usually I go through the song and dance of considering the writing of a book, deciding if the positives outweigh the negatives, and then add my opinion of the art. I’m going to dispense with that this time: You need to read this book. If you can’t buy it, borrow it from someone who has it.

Learning to Fly resembles writer / artist Chris Giarrusso’s best-known work, Mini-Marvels. However, instead of using child-sized versions of Marvel’s iconic heroes, Giarrusso creates his own characters and settings. In many ways, this frees Giarrusso from the expectations and constraints of even a scaled-down version of the Marvel Universe. G-Man is just a normal kid who can fly. He has to deal with a bully of a brother, playground bullies, school, and the normal disappointments and problems of childhood. He has friends, such as Billy Dragon and Sparks, and an acquaintance, Skullboy, whom G-Man doesn’t realize is evil. Just as G-Man gives Giarrusso a chance to explore childhood, it also allows him to invoke more comics tropes, including one singularly DC one.

On the other hand, moving from the Marvel Universe takes away some of the comfortable background Mini-Marvels worked against. There was no need, in Mini-Marvels, to explain the Hulk or Wolverine; fans were already familiar with the facets of their quirky characters. That lack of inherent weirdness deprives Giarrusso of some of his humor even as it opens up other avenues. I think it’s part of why there’s no standout character like the Hulk in Learning to Fly: it’s very difficult to set up a character whose outlook is so scene-stealingly different from the other characters in the very short scenes Giarrusso has available.

Most of the stories are one- or two-page gags that originally appeared in Savage Dragon’s “Comic Bits” (think Marvel’s “Bullpen Bits,” only expanded). Impressively, this short format doesn’t prevent Giarrusso from weaving together continuing stories while keeping up the jokes. Other features include “Mean Brother / Idiot Brother,” in which G-Man and his brother tell stories about the same events, highlighting the other’s shortcomings, and crossovers with Jacob Chabot’s Mighty Skullboy Army. The former are throwaway jokes, and the latter feel different than Giarrusso’s normal humor — not necessarily less funny, just different.

Giarrusso’s absurdist sense of humor shines through in all of these, but especially on the longer features from G-Man #1, which shows the character’s “secret” origin, and a Christmas story from Image Holiday Special 2005. His supporting characters’ viewpoints allow no alteration by those around them, leaving G-Man to despair over their lack of logic. Giarrusso’s setups are often bizarre (the sentient Christmas tree is the best). I have a hard time figuring out whether Giarrusso or Michael Kupperman is funnier; I enjoy Giarrusso’s gentler humor more, but I can’t say who is makes me laugh harder.

Giarrusso’s art style is deceptively simple, but it makes me laugh. It’s very reminiscent of the simpler comic-strips’ art — you can still occasionally see the influence of Charles Schulz in a panel or three — but it’s rarely overexpressive. You’re never in doubt of people’s emotions or what’s happening in the story, and the backgrounds are often filled with jokes I didn’t pick up on until the second time around.

The only thing holding Learning to Fly back from a perfect rating is the price: $9.99 for a 96-page digest is a little higher than I think it should be, although I realize there are minimums when it comes to publishing. That being said, the price is only a drawback when you’re looking at the price per number of pages. When you look at the amount of enjoyment you get for the money — well, it’s a bargain.

So go ahead and buy it already.

Rating: (4.5 of 5)

November solicitations

What’s the deal? Spin the wheel with November’s TPB solicitations:

Marvel, soon to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney, is trying to choke you with Dark Reign, but I’ll ignore that:

• Kathryn Immonen’s first arc is put between two solid covers in Runaways: Homeschooling (if you’re into the hardcover thing). It collects #11-4 and a What If? issue, and Marvel isn’t afraid to sell it for $19.99. It can hardly be worse than Terry Moore’s run.
• The Korvac Saga? In hardcover? Really? With two different covers? Huh. On the other hand, there’s Fantastic Four: In Search of Galactus. It reprints the first Fantastic Four comic I’d ever read; I had no idea what was going on, but it had the Sphinx and Nova and Diamondhead and the Fantastic Four growing old (except Johnny) and everyone was afraid of Galactus (I didn’t know why) and oh no I think nostalgia will make me buy it even though I already have the 44 Years of the Fantastic Four DVD. It collects #204-14. $29.99 each
• A sign of the coming apocalypse: Star Comics: All-Star Collection, v. 1. Reprinting two issues each of Planet Terry, Wally the Wizard, and Royal Roy (Royal Roy?) and three issues of Top Dog. The thought of someone paying for this makes me weep. $19.99
• The Deadpool Classic line must be doing well: v. 3 reprints #9-17 (and Amazing Spider-Man #47, which Deadpool visits). Expensive, though. Still, better this than another version of The Korvac Saga. $29.99
• Relive the high point in Howard Mackie’s career (or perhaps even life): Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch Classic, v. 1. The first ten issues of the second volume will remind you of what the ‘90s were truly about: looking kewl. The art, by Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira, might be worth it, but I balk at spending $29.99 on Howard Mackie’s writing.
• One of the most unusual ‘80s / ‘90s offerings from Marvel is being rereleased in November: The ‘Nam, v. 1. It collects the first ten issues of the series as well. The price tag is almost justified — well, since it’s so different from everything else in the solicitations, it at least makes it palatable. $29.99
• The Essential for the month is Moon Knight, v. 3. A little disappointing, really. The page count looks a little light on this one too, and they advertise it as collecting stories from three monthly series but they only have two Moon Knight volumes represented. If this had been cut short to wrap up v. 1 plus some extra material, with a corresponding lower price tag, I might have bitten … $19.99

DC likes you and wants you to save money for a rainy day:

• DC is releasing a new printing of Batman: The Cult. I mention this mainly because I just read the entry on the villain of this book, Deacon Blackfire, in The Essential Batman Encyclopedia. It’s a four-issue miniseries by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson and involves Batman vs. a charismatic leader of a cult, and Batman gets to beat up the homeless. $19.99
• If you like your Silver Age in color, there’s Green Lantern Chronicles, v. 2, reprinting #4-9. $14.99
• The Showcase for the month is Wonder Woman, v. 3, reprinting #138-56 for the value price of $17.99.

For those of you concerned with your Image:

• The critically acclaimed Chew releases its first TPB, Taster’s Choice. Det. Tony Chu lives in a world where bird flu has made poultry illegal; his ability to get psychic impressions from whatever he eats makes him a hell of a detective, even if it leads, inevitably, to cannibalism. I haven’t heard a bad word about this series, and the price is astounding: $9.99
• The Omnibus craze has caught up to Spawn, and unsurprisingly, Todd McFarlane has proven too weak to fight back. Spawn Origins Collection: Deluxe Edition, v. 1 collects #1-25 in 620 hardback pages. $100

If you want to bet on a Dark Horse:

• The first half of Barry Windsor-Smith’s Conan run is reprinted in the Barry Windsor-Smith Conan Archives, v. 1. A second volume is presumably planned. Two hundred pages in hardcover for a steep $49.95.

October 2009 Solicitations

Kill the headlights and put it in neutral, it’s time for October Solicits:

From Marvel:

• Kabuki: The Alchemy: David Mack is still doing these? Huh. $24.99
• Hardcover ’80s nostalgia: X-Men: Asgardian Wars, collecting the X-Men / New Mutants crossover from around Uncanny X-Men #200, and Thing: Project Pegasus, which you can get in Essential Marvel Two-in-One, v. 2-3. These feel a little overpriced, but a) so does everything Marvel puts out, and b) I already have all this material. Both are good, although I’m shocked Project Pegasus is getting a hardcover — it’s not quite that good. $34.99 for Asgardian Wars, $24.99 for Project Pegasus
• Runaways: Rock Zombies: Find out the mystery of shock jock Val Rhymin. I can hardly wait. Side note: would it kill Marvel to put volume numbers on these things so I don’t have to remember the names to figure out if I already have the material in another format? I mean, they release old books in new formats every month, for God’s sake. $14.99
• Of all the Marvel titles for the month, X-Men Forever, v. 1 interests me the most. Nostalgia! Wallowing in past / alternate continuity! Oh, sweet Claremont, how I’ve missed you! $16.99
• The Essential for the month is Essential Ghost Rider, v. 3. The page count seems a little long for the number of issues included, but I’m too lazy to actually do a standard page count. At the old price, I would have been all over this; at $19.99, eh, I can be patient.

From DC:

• Batman: Battle for the Cowl Companion: All the uninteresting parts of Battle for the Cowl, which is a feat, since the entire story was itself uninteresting. $14.99
• DC Classics Library: Shazam! Monster Society of Evil: I’m not one for DC’s Comics Classics Library — the stories generally don’t interest me — but this one does. The story is legendary, but I don’t know if it’s ever been released in a collected form. Captain Marvel, back when he was really popular, fights a Golden Age fight (with all the logic and restraint that entails) to get to his ultimate enemy: a two-inch talking worm. That’s the Golden Age, baby! $39.99
• The Flash vs. the Rogues: Does DC do many of these pick-and-choose, best-of collections? I always thought that was more of Marvel’s game. If you want a look at the Flash’s Rogues, this one has nine Rogues stories for a reasonable price. Of course, DC is all about the reasonable price these days. For the same money, you can get four issues of Runaways in this month’s Rock Zombies. $14.99
• Shade the Changing Man: Chris Bachalo and Peter Milligan’s surreal Vertigo series is back: Shade the Changing Man, v. 1: The American Scream is being reissued, and a new volume, Shade The Changing Man, v. 2: Edge of Vision, will be released the same month. I’ve never been interested, but there was a time, on Usenet, when people wouldn’t stop talking about it. It definitely goes into Milligan’s “weird” work and Bachalo’s “readable” work. $17.99 for American Scream, $19.99 for Edge of Vision
• The Winter Men: I’ve heard nothing about it and know no reason to be interested, but something about post-Cold War Soviet superheroes catches my attention. I don’t know why. $19.99
• The Showcase for the month is Superman Team-Ups, v. 1. Pass. $17.99

Oh, Dark Horse:

• Dark Horse continues to ride the Robert E. Howard / Marvel money train with The Chronicles of Kull, v. 1: A King Comes Riding and Other Stories and The Chronicles of Solomon Kane. $18.95 each
• You can’t keep a good idea down until all the life has been flogged out of it: The Escapist started as an idea in Michael Chabon’s 2000 novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. The Escapist got his own series in 2004’s Michael Chabon Presents The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist. (Or maybe that was the Michael Chabon comic; I forget.) The Escapists is a reprint of the Brian K. Vaughan’s 2006 series, which is more of a continuation of the comics-industry parts of Kavalier and Clay. I have no idea if it’s any good, but it’s pedigree is interesting. $14.95
• Grendel: Behold the Devil: You know if you want this hardcover or not: Matt Wagner writes and draws this one, which from what I gather, has been fairly rare in the last decade or so. If you don’t know how Behold the Devil is different from other Grendel stories, the solicit says it follows Hunter Rose through a “lost period early in his criminal career.” That should be distinctive. If that’s not enough for you, “includes additional pages previously only seen on MySpace!” $19.95

Image!:

• Liberty Meadows Sunday Strips, v. 2: I somehow missed v. 1. Hmm. Well, I love Cho’s art, and I think Liberty Meadows was a fun, if often juvenile, strip. (Joke-a-day strips do hide some of his failures as a plotter.) $29.99
• Not a collection, but #3 of Chris Giarrusso’s G-Man will be out in October.
• Also not a collection: Cowboy Ninja Viking #1.
• Question: Which is more gloriously, stupidly high concept: Cowboy Ninja Viking or Batman and Superman vs. Werewolves and Vampires? Show your work.

August 2009 solicitations

Is it solicitation time again? Prep the fog machines and cue the music:

For the first time that I can remember, I have no interest in buying anything Marvel’s putting out in a month. Marvel’s solicitations are clogged by “Dark Reign,” but two titles transform Marvel into the House of Dubious Ideas:

• Marvel Masterworks: Deathlok, v. 1 (hardcover): I can see it, we’re almost there … yes, we’ve just scraped the bottom of the barrel. Marvel should be pleased: I’m sure all twelve hardcore Deathlok fans will shell out the steep Masterworks price for this one. $64.99
• Marvel Bromance: No. Just … just … no. Has “Marvel Team-Up” become a code word for a homosexual relationship, so they had to use an incredibly stupid term to describe male friendship? I think this is a counterweight to Marvel-meets-Sex-in-the-City Marvel Divas. $24.99
• Spider-Man / Mary Jane: ...You Just Hit the Jackpot: Some good stories here (and a few not-so-good stories), but is there something I’m missing? Has Mary Jane — oh, she’s making her return to Amazing Spider-Man in August. Be nice if the TPB solicit had mentioned that. $24.99
• Our Essential for the month is Essential Marvel Team-Up, v. 3. Some good Claremont / Byrne stuff in there. I already have the issues, but if I didn’t, I would shell out $19.99 for it. Of course, it’s Marvel Team-Up, so I’m not sure it’s worth that much, but it will definitely be inoffensive and probably better than I remember.

At budget-conscious DC:

• The Flash Chronicles, v. 1: Flash joins Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern in getting his story retold from the beginning in color and relatively inexpensively. Are there enough Flash fans out there to make it work? $14.99
• Icon: A Hero’s Welcome: None of the other three companies on this list have anything like the Milestone imprint. Given that uniqueness, DC needs to do something with it. Keeping reprints of the flagship of the minority-heavy imprint available is the least of it. Also: Dwayne McDuffie and M.D. Bright working together. $19.99
• The Showcase is Showcase Presents Warlord: Ostensibly, this is to support the new Warlord series, especially since both are written by Mike Grell. But wouldn’t it have made more sense to release this Showcase in the month the new Warlord launched, instead of when #5 comes out? Still, Showcases have two things Essentials do not: a $17.99 price tag (up a dollar, but still $2 below an Essential) and page numbers.
• Peter & Max: A Fables Novel (hardcover): A Fables novel by Bill Willingham. An interesting idea, at least. Accompanying illustrations by Steve Leialoha. $22.99

Over at Dark Horse, where they’re keeping my interest by picking over the bones of Marvel when they’re not releasing Usagi Yojimbo volumes:

• Chronicles of Conan, v. 18: Isle of the Dead and Other Stories: Entering an undistinguished patch of the series, this book marks Conan the Barbarian’s halfway point. Weird. Roy Thomas is gone, but John Buscema and Ernie Chan are still there, they’ve got the original covers now, and it’s a decent value — 200 pages for $17.95.
• Groo Treasury, v. 1: This, on the other hand, is a fantastic value: 336 pages for $24.95. This has the pre-Marvel stuff mostly, with the six-issue Epic miniseries at the end. Also included are commentary and history. If you like sword-and-sorcery parody, this is for you. Get it.
• The Umbrella Academy: Dallas: Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s second Umbrella Academy miniseries, in trade paperback. I haven’t read anything by Way, but both minis were well received. $17.95

For Image, there aren’t any collections I’m interested in, but I want to mention G-Man: Cape Crisis #1, the first issue of Chris Giarrusso’s five-issue miniseries with his own creation, G-Man. If you liked Mini Marvels, you’ll likely feel similarly about G-Man; you can find sample pages at the Image solicitation page. At an affordable $2.99, I might pick up the single issues instead of waiting for the trade.

July 2009 Solicitations

Better late than never, they say. Of course, that’s debatable. Here are the July 2009 solicitations from the big four comic companies, minus IDW and plus Dark Horse (I kid Dark Horse, but really, it and Image fell behind IDW in sales).

From Marvel:

• Agents of Atlas: Dark Reign (hardcover): Can Jeff Parker bring back what everyone liked in the original (poorly selling) mini? $24.99
• X-Men: Wolverine / Gambit (hardcover): Reprinting the forgettable Wolverine / Gambit: Victims miniseries from the mid-’90s. The mini was published to capitalize on Gambit’s popularity, and it’s most likely reissued because of the movie. I mean, what other reason can there be to reprint this? (Yes, I know, Loeb / Sale. That doesn’t cover up that it isn’t much good.) $19.99
• Mephisto vs. (hardcover): The ‘80s miniseries that tried to cover up that it was a miniseries at all by having each issue have a different title! $19.99
• Spider-Girl, v. 11: Marked for Death (digest): Yes, they really are charging $13 for seven issues of a digest. That’s ridiculous and must stop now. $12.99
• New Warriors Classic, v. 1: It’s about time. It seems odd it would take so long for a cult favorite like New Warriors to get on the schedule, but the Classic line has been a little slow, so I suppose it makes sense. $24.99
• X-Men: The Shattering: Rumored on Amazon for a while, this one comes in at a whopping $35. Yes, it has eleven issues plus an annual, but that’s $3 an issue. And three of those reprinted issues are the Astonishing X-Men series, and I’m very reluctant to pay for those. $34.99
• The Essentials (now $20! Geez, there’s a recession on, Marvel!) are Essential Marvel Two-in-One, v .3, and Essential Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, v. 4. Both are excellent choices, especially Spectacular, which will reprint the Owl / Octopus War and its aftermath, the Black Cat / Spidey romance, and a Fred Hembeck penciled issue. $19.99 each

From DC, who believe in giving you value for your money (and really is eating Marvel’s lunch on that score):

• Gotham Central, v. 2: Jokers and Madmen (hardcover): I didn’t see v. 1, but it’s good that Gotham Central is getting a hardcover reprint that includes all the issues, not just the greatest hits. The missing issues really upset me in the TPBs. Reasonable price for 12 issues in hardback, and I bet it will have better stories than the comparably sized but more expensive paperback X-Men: The Shattering. $29.99
• Secret Six: Unhinged: Gail Simone writes another series with second-tier characters. That’s usually enjoyable, and the price is right as well. $14.99
• Tom Strong: Deluxe Edition, v. 1 (hardcover): I haven’t read Tom Strong, but the other ABC titles were all excellent, and I doubt this will be different. It is $40 for twelve issues, though, so you might hunt down older, cheaper reprints. $39.99
• Fables, v. 12: The Dark Ages: The Adversary’s gone, but the story goes on. $17.99
• The Showcases (still a reassuring $17) are Showcase Presents Eclipso and Showcase Presents The Flash, v. 3. I have to admit, DC is much more daring with its Showcase selections than Marvel is with Essentials; on the other hand, I have a real distaste for a lot of Silver Age DC, so it doesn’t do much for me. If you’re less wedded to Marvel or another company, though, you have to love DC. $16.99 $9.99 for Eclipso and $16.99 for Flash
• Not TPBs, but DC is reprinting the #1s for Green Lantern: Rebirth, Y: The Last Man, Tom Strong, and All-Star Superman and Batman #608 for $1 each. Neat, although I wonder why the first issue of Batman: Hush is being reprinted.

From Image:

• Back to Brooklyn: Garth Ennis does a violent organized crime story. This is for a certain demographic, and you know if you are in that demographic if you have the entire Ennis run on Punisher. $14.99

From Dark Horse, which is always a little unusual compared to the other three:

• Noir (hardcover): An interesting black-and-white book. It’s a collection of noir stories, with an impressive list of creators, including comics’ noir leaders, Ed Brubaker and Brian Azzarello. $24.95
• Pictures that Tick: Dave McKean’s short comics stories from the ‘90s and early ‘00s. Probably worth reading, even if you don’t buy it — McKean is always interesting. $19.95
• I would mention The Umbrella Academy, v. 2: Dallas (hardcover), but it’s a limited-run $80 edition. No thanks. The TPB will be out in October.

Anyone else got any bright ideas?

June 2009 Solicitations

Every month they come out. Sometimes, I mention them. It’s the graphic novel solicitations for June 2009:

The Most Exciting News from DC is that the final volume of 100 Bullets, v. 13: Wilt, will be released July 8. This will wrap up the 100-issue run of the title, and despite containing twelve issues of the series, will only cost $19.99. For fans of the absurd, DC has Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves. No, really. There are two Showcase volumes for the month. The expected one is Batman, v. 4, which reprints Batman #202-15 and Detective Comics #376-90; this is still the ‘60s, so I’m not going to bother, but it’s coming closer to an era I’m interested in. The surprising title is Bat Lash, a 240-page volume for only $9.99. Still, that’s less than half a normal volume, for more than half the normal price; of course, if you’re a Bat Lash fan (honestly? huh), you’re not going to worry about the price. Those who have been waiting for the paperback of Astro City: The Dark Age, Book 1 will be able to stop waiting.

Marvel once again received the bulk of my attention. There are three Runaways volumes this month, not bad for a struggling title. The paperback of the beginning of Terry Moore’s run on the title, Dead Wrong, and a hardcover of his second arc, Rock Zombies, will be released, and those of you who have been waiting for the digest of Joss Whedon’s run, Dead End Kids, will find the wait over. I would argue that issuing the three titles in the same month would cause confusion or make readers choose one of the titles over the others because of budget reasons, but what do I know about marketing? Perhaps saturation is what the Runaways market calls for. The Essentials will be Dr. Strange, v. 4 (v. 2 #30-56), which I am eagerly awaiting, and Thor v. 4 (#167-95), which I am not. (Sorry, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby fans!) I’m also not excited about the price increase to $19.99, but there’s nothing to be done about that . For reasons I can’t understand, Irredeemable Ant-Man gets a complete-series compilation. Marvel’s take on Silver Age Superman, Sentry: The Age of the Sentry, will thrill fans of the stunning illogic of that era. The final TPB of Amazing Spider-Girl, v. 5: Maybreak, will give fans of the cancelled series something to absorb their tears. On a happier note, Marvel continues to put Walt Simonson’s Thor work back on the shelves with Thor Visionaries: Walt Simonson, v. 3.

Image: Nothing caught my eye.

Dark Horse has Gigantic, a cross of monster movies and reality TV. Despite this being the June solicits, the Dark Horse Web site says Gigantic will be coming out in September. The other titles aren’t much better; DarkHorse.com claims these will be August releases. Myspace Dark Horse Presents, v. 3, has Usagi Yojimbo, Firefly, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer stories, as well as a story by Mike Mignola in the Hellboy universe; interesting, if you like that stuff. Dark Horse is also re-issuing several Usagi Yojimbo trade paperbacks, as they had allowed them, for some nefarious purpose, to go out of print. Savage Sword of Conan is up to volume 6, covering #61-71 — the solicits helpfully add “for the complete Conan collector!” Well, yes.

That is it; anything catch your attention?

May 2009 Solicitations

May 2009 solicits are out! From Marvel, I’m looking forward to the Essential Spider-Man, v. 9 (finally past issue #200!) and X-Factor, v. 6: Secret Invasion. Can’t say I’m excited about the price of Essentials going up to $20, though.

From Dark Horse, there’s Usagi Yojimbo, v. 23: Bridge of Tears by Stan Sakai. It’s the latest Usagi TPB, collecting issues #94-102 — a good sized book. (Although the trades are way behind — the Usagi comics will be all the way up to #120.) Image has the G-Man, v. 1: Learning to Fly digest by Chris Giarusso, who wrote the Mini Marvels book I loved so much.

Nothing catches my eye from DC, though.

Although it isn’t a trade paperback, the description of Votan by John James from Dark Horse sounds intriguing. The book also has an introduction from Neil Gaiman, who selected this book to be brought back into print. This is the second of six books in the Neil Gaiman Presents line; the first will be The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales by Richard Garnett.

Anyone else see anything interesting? Requests for reviews, perhaps, or something that just catches your eye?

Jinx

Collects: Jinx v. 1 #1-7, Jinx v. 2 #1-5, various one shots and specials (1996-8)

Released: February 2001 (Image)

Format: 480 pages / black and white / $24.95 / ISBN: 9781582401799

Once there was a time when the millennium was new and shining, when all foreign and domestic policies didn’t begin with “9” and end in “/11,” when Brian Michael Bendis didn’t dictate the direction of all Marvel’s titles. During that time, Bendis wrote and drew Jinx

Jinx is the story of the eponymous female bounty hunter, who runs into a pair of small-time con men named Goldfish (who Bendis also featured in Goldfish) and Columbia. Goldfish and Columbia themselves have stumbled into The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: while Columbia is savagely beating Goldfish for abandoning their life of crime and for being better than him, a severely injured criminal crashes his car nearby, then gives half the location of a $3 million to each before conveniently dying.

Hey, it happens.

Coumbia is paranoid after Goldfish hooks up with Jinx in a wholly unconvincing romance made up of violence, vocalized pauses, and sex. Their attempts to get the Confederate gold — no, wait, stolen cash — drives the “realistic dialogue” and flashbacks … er, plot.

Bendis’s art is surprisingly good for someone who’s never had much cause to use it with the Big Two. Not that I particularly enjoy looking at it; 50 percent of the art is filled with shadow, and 40 percent is word balloons. This makes it frequently difficult to tell what’s going on. It is interesting artwork, though. Bendis admits to using models, including himself (as Columbia). It’s a valid approach, and for the most part, Bendis avoids making his subjects look stiff or posed. However, when he adds photorealistic elements — what looks like photocopied $20 bills atop his art, for instance — it’s offputting, because it looks like badly photocopied $20 bills atop comic art.

Readers’ enjoyment of Jinx is largely going to depend on their evaluation of Bendis’s dialogue. If you find starts and stops, vocalized pauses, and occasional explosive profanities realistic and engrossing, you’ll love Jinx. It is Bendis’s trademark, and it sounds like no one else. This is earlier Bendis, without much restraint or refinement, though; if you don’t really appreciate Bendis’s style, you’ll likely find the dialogue tedious and the story padded. Myself, I don’t think it would have been so bad if Bendis had hired a copy editor; missing and misplaced punctuation and misspellings changed the tedious to aggravating.

Despite the killer hook — female bounty hunter — the story fails to grab. Jinx is too abrasive to be compelling. The romance doesn’t sizzle; rather, it lies there and slowly rises to room temperature. The plot, as I said, is derivative. And f*&k Bendis for taking Lauren Bacall’s name in vain.

As a side note, David Mack’s introduction is one of the worst pieces of text I’ve ever read.

Rating: (1 of 5)

Casanova, v. 1: Luxuria

Collects: Casanova #1-7 (2006-7)

Released: February 2008 (Image Comics)

Format: 144 pages / monochrome / $12.99 / ISBN: 9781582408972

Casanova, v. 1: Luxuria is a book that is simultaneously all thriller and all filler. Casanova is filled with enough high concept to make a movie studio exec’s head explode at 20 paces. Which sounds like a complement, especially if you’ve seen Norbit, but it’s not.

Writer Matt Fraction puts explosions, spy organizations, and supervillains above likable characters. This is one of those books that doesn’t convince me to like the protagonist, Casanova Quinn, who starts out as a high-tech king of the cat burglars and is then drawn into a parallel reality. He has flexible morals, and while he tries to stop short of killing, 1) that’s not always possible, and 2) I have the feeling he’d do anything else if Fraction thought it was cool.

Gabriel Ba’s long and stylized art gives Casanova the distinct look the book needs. Ba’s Quinn looks like no one else. Impressively, despite a limited palette and a style that skimps on details for the big effects and atmosphere, all the characters remain distinct. I’m not convinced pale green, black, and white is the best color scheme for this book, but it does give the art an extra unmistakable look. Ba’s art and the color is as much a part of Casanova as Fraction’s writing, and I don’t say that sort of thing about art very often.

In many ways, Casanova is the mirror image of Nextwave: gloriously high concept, over the top, and rapid paced. But I like the cast of Nextwave; writer Warren Ellis makes me laugh. Fraction’s writing makes me think he’s in too much of a hurry to get to his next “cool” idea. Don’t get me wrong — there are cool ideas, and Fraction has obvious enthusiasm for all of them. But I don’t care enough about them to continue following this series.

Rating: (2 of 5)