Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop again this week and I got two new comics:

Berlin 13

Supernatural Origins 4

I also was back on my hardcover kick and picked up:

The Annotated Northwest Passage

That’s a collection of the series of the same name published by Oni Press. I’ve never even heard of it but it’s a comic about history. I love history and I love comics so this one is right up my alley. I had to get it.

“Berlin”, by Jason Lutes, is another comic that is about history. It takes place in the early 1930’s in, of all places, Berlin Germany. It’s about a varied group of people who live there. It’s further about their day to day lives in one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities as Germany changes around them. You only get an issue a year but it is still a favorite of mine. You can find a very nice trade of the first eight issues or so. Well worth tracking down.

I haven’t been able to read and review and comics this week so you’ll have to wait another week for more of my blinding insights.

I’m back from this week’s trip to the comic shop. I picked up five new comics and for the first time in weeks I got no TPBs or hardcover collections.

Love and Rockets 20

Buffy Season Eight 5

Usagi Yojimbo 104

The Walking Dead 39

Grendel Behold The Devil 0 (a 50¢ special)

A pretty good haul for me in a single week. I always liked Matt Wagner’s Grendel so I’m glad to see he’s back to making some more issues.

I only have one review for you this week. It was a slow week for reading comics.

The TPB – Michael Morcock’s Elric “The Masking of a Sorcerer”

I first encountered Elric as a comic book way back in the early 80’s when it was published by Pacific Comics. Or maybe the Marvel graphic novel was first? (1982 Marvel was first I just looked it up) Either way it wasn’t until the mid 90’s that I read the novels on which the comics were based. The novels are way better than the comics. As a matter of fact if the comics weren’t being drawn by P. Craig Russell they really weren’t very good at all. Still, I have a soft spot for Elric comics.

When I saw this series was actually written by Michael Morcock, the author of the novels, I was intrigued and wanted to pick it up. But the comic was printed in a square bound format that I hate so I decided to wait for a trade paperback collection. Two years later here it is. Though not drawn by P. Craig Russell I have no complaints because Walt Simonson handles the art chores.

I liked this book but I’m having a hard time reviewing it. I don’t know if someone who knows nothing of Elric will be able to get into it. The story takes place before the first Elric novel and involves him learning the lessons he needs to know by sorcerous dreaming. He lies down on a dreaming couch and goes back in time to live and have adventures throughout his empire’s (Melniboné) history. It’s nicely done involving all the characters, gods, and races of the other Elric books.

This TPB is definitely different from most comics out there today. It’s written by a prose author so there is lots to read. Especially when compared to the current “decompressed” trend in comic book writing. You won’t complain that you read the whole thing in nine minutes. Some of the language is also a little formal. This is because a lot of the characters are high born royal snobs and talk like it. I usually find this a little off putting and still do here.

Overall I have to say pick this up if you are an Elric fan or want to see want Elric is all about. If you have no interest in sword and fantasy novels then I don’t think this comic will change you mind. But I liked it.

Back from this weeks trip to the comic shop and I got one new comic and a trade paperback.

The Comic – Samurai Heaven and Earth Vol 2 – No 4

The TPB – Michael Morcock’s Elric “The Masking of a Sorcerer”

I’ll let you know how the Elric book is next week. Meanwhile here is some recent stuff I read.

Jack Kirby’s “Silver Star”

I’m a bit odd among comic fans. My favorite work by Jack Kirby isn’t his Fantastic Four, Challengers of the Unknown, Fourth World, or Captain America stuff. It’s his Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers from the early Eighties. I think that’s his best work because its is so filled with ideas that it’s bursting at the seams. I also think Kirby is a good writer. I disagree with the common notion that his work is stronger when someone else scripts it. I prefer Kirby’s writing, in general, to Stan Lee’s. So it’s a wonder that I’ve never read “Silver Star” his other early Eighties work and I’m glad Image comics choose to collect it all in a new hardcover collection.

Silver Star is the lead character in the book. Some time before he was born Silver Star’s father decided that there was a good chance that mankind was going to be wiped out by a nuclear war. So Silver Star’s father created a “genetic package” that could be delivered to babies in the womb that would make them into “homo-geneticus”. The next breed of humans who could survive after we’ve gone.

Silver Star’s father gave this “genetic package” to more babies than his own and now most of them have grown up. And most of them are good but one is particularly nasty and wants to kill the rest. Especially Silver Star. Oh, and the nuclear war never happened so the world goes on as usual.

It’s not easily boiling this series down to a couple of paragraphs. They are a lot of strange super powers thrown around that have as much to do with perception as with traditional super powers. There is a fair amount physical conflict but also a lot of philosophical conflict. This is what I like about this series. The characters discuss their ideas and the ramifications of those ideas. All the while acting and being faced with unforeseen consequences. It’s simple and complex all at the same time as with a lot of Jack Kirby’s later work.

I could spend all day talking about the wild ideas in this book. Such as that all the “super normals” (as those given the “genetic package” are called) can go to an alternate space called “elsewhere” where they make all the rules. This is the kind of stuff that, at Marvel and DC, Kirby would make up and move on from and then other writers would spend years exploring the minutiae of. The entire DC Universe came to be based on Kirby’s Fourth World books and Marvel’s (to a lesser extent) on his Eternals. But I digress. If you like your comics to be the same old some old or “modern” (like there’s a difference) than this book isn’t for you. Buy if you enjoy the unfamiliar and the novel (even after all these years) check out “Silver Star”. Recommended.

“The Fall” by Ed Brubaker and Jason Lutes

Here is another comic I pulled of of my shelves to give another read too. It originally ran sometime in the late Nineties in the pages of “Dark Horse Comic Presents” but it is the 2001 printing by Drawn and Quarterly that I am reading here. It’s about 44 pages.

I remember this story being a standout when it ran in DHP. I haven’t read it since I bought this 2001 printing but it’s still a standout. “The Fall” is a mystery story of the type I wish they were more of in comics. It’s all about a normal guy who finds a purse buried in an acquaintance’s yard and gets interested in it’s contents so he starts trying to find things out about it’s owner. Thus starts the mystery.

The characters are everyday people and I find that they ring true. The pacing is good as the mystery unfolds. Even though I’ve read this before and know the answers to the mystery it is such a well crafted story that it holds up well. This is my favorite piece of writing by Ed Brubaker and I’m also a fan of Jason Lute’s work in general like his current series “Berlin”. You definitely can’t go wrong with this comic if you can find it. Recommended.

On this week’s trip to the comic shop I picked up one comic and one hardcover:

StormWatch Post Human Division – 9

Jack Kirby’s “Silver Star”

There are a whole lot of nice hardcover collections around these days. I dig ’em more than trade paperbacks and am willing to pay the few extra dollars. I’ve never read “Silver Star” but Kirby’s “Captain Victory” is a favorite of mine. They were both published by Pacific Comics in the early eighties yet somehow “Silver Star” managed to slip through my fingers. Not anymore. I’ll let you know how it is. Meanwhile here are a couple of other things I’ve read lately.

“Silverfish” by David Lapham

Since I rarely know what comics are coming out from week to week this hardcover from Vertigo was a surprise to me. I’m a big fan of David Lapham’s crime comics such as “Stray Bullets” and “Murder Me Dead”. I haven’t payed much attention to his Marvel and DC work though. I checked out the first issue of Batman he wrote but it didn’t interest me, I looked at an issue of the Punisher that he did and still wasn’t interested, and I read a couple of issues of The Spectre that he wrote. They were better than the others but not my cup of tea. That’s why I was happy to see a crime graphic novel from him.

All of Lapham’s crime stuff plays off a basic concept. An ordinary person, for whatever reason, takes a walk on the wild side and gets involved with criminals and shady characters. Before that person knows it everything goes wrong, the violence starts, and hell is coming to supper. The ordinary person is either redeemed or dragged down. Fun stuff.

This particular book is about a teenage girl who has a new stepmother that she doesn’t like so one day this girl and her friends start digging into the stepmother’s past. Bad idea. Bad things are dug up and they leave destruction in their wake. The girl has to run for her life. I dig it.

I liked the story. I liked Lapham’s return to the crime genre but I didn’t like some of the choices about the production of the book. First of all it’s small: 6.5 x 9 inches. That’s a little wider but much shorter than a regular comic. I like my comics bigger than that. Some comics are okay in a smaller size (Wimbledon Green) but I think Lapham’s art should be seen bigger than this. His oversized “Stray Bullets” hardcovers are terrific.

This is also a black and white book. Not a problem for me. Lapham’s other work, that I like, is also in black and white. Except for this one they used a whole bunch of grey tones over the black and white art. Everything has a grey tone and texture. That muddies up the art for me. Flattens it all out. I’d really like to have seen this printed without the grey. I think it hurts the storytelling and is generally annoying. But not as to break the book’s back.

One more quibble. This time it has to do with the story. Whenever you see a story which has a kid with an asthma inhaler (“Signs” anyone?) you just know there will be a scene at the end in which the kid will not be able to breathe and will not have his inhaler. Oh, the predictable drama. I warn you there is a kid with an inhaler in this book. Just once I want the kid with the inhaler to not need saving and instead save the others. Hmmm… I think in “The Simpsons” Bart used a kid’s inhaler as a snorkel and saved the day. That almost qualifies.

A bigger physical size to the book and no grey tones would have made me happier. But you can’t always get what you want. Still, I like a good crime story and David Lapham’s are real good. I dig his “things spiraling out of control” take on life and I’m on board for his next one. Check this one out first.

“Supergirl – Power” Trade paperback which reprints Superman/Batman 19 and Supergirl 1-5

This is the latest version of Supergirl and I’m not even sure who all the other ones were. I’ve never read much Supergirl. This book started out slow with a whole bunch of “who am I and where do I fit in?” angst from Supergirl as she spent three issues in a row getting into “misunderstanding” fights with other super heroes. Oy! It almost broke me.

I nearly gave up on it except I was impressed by the artwork by Ian Churchill and Norm Rapmund (the coloring varied in quality but was generally okay). I’ve seen some of Churchill’s work over the years but never found it very interesting. This stuff I liked though. He’s a guy from the post-Image era of lots of useless little lines but there is less of that here and more good drawing. He’s even managed to incorporate the early nineties random pinup shot into his storytelling. Churchill’s pinup shots actually make sense here instead of interrupting the storytelling. A really solid super hero job. And his cover homages were well done.

The second have of the book is the payoff. Less whining and more good fight scenes that aren’t forced like they were in the first half. Battles in space, battles on the moon, and battles in Gotham city. The last few issues have lots of good fights and we get our questions answered about what Supergirl was whining about. Plus we get mad scientist wrapped in armor Lex Luthor back in action. I never found businessman Lex Luthor interesting at all. I’m glad he’s gone. The second half of this story saved it for me. Check it out if you’re in the mood for some Supergirl.

Just back from the local comic shop for the week and I picked up two new comics.

Supernatural Origins 3

City of Others 3

Plus I picked up a hardcover.

“Silverfish” by David Lapham. I’m a fan of his “Stray Bullets” and “Murder Me Dead” so I grabbed this new one. I’ll let you know how it is.

Meanwhile here are a few things I’ve been reading.

“Girls” 3&4 by the Luna Brothers

Last week I picked up two trade paperback collections (numbers 3 and 4) of
“Girls” by the Luna brothers. Since I already have TPBs number 1 and 2 then I obviously like the story. How are trades 3 and 4? Just as good.

“Girls” is a “survival horror” story. I don’t know who coined that term but I first read it in conjunction with video games. Now it applies to books and movies too. It basically means that the story is simple. People trying to survive a bad situation. The bad situation in “Girls” is this: in a small town in the USA a hot naked girl suddenly appears out of the woods. She finds a sympathetic young man to take her home and seduces him. Then she lays some eggs that hatch into more hot naked girls. The girls proceed to go around and try kill the women in town and seduce the men. The townspeople figure out what’s happening and try to escape only to find their entire town has been encapsulated in a giant impenetrable energy bubble. Now the townspeople just want to survive this horror. Hence the name of the genre.

The book I would compare this to the most is “The Walking Dead”. Where “The Walking Dead” has zombies “Girls” has girls. The people in “Girls” seem a lot more mean and prone to panic than in “The Walking Dead”. Plus the gender divide of the girls killing only women makes for an interesting dynamic. It’s bloody violent too. The story is simple so it’s really about who lives and who dies.

I must warn you that I’m not really a fan of the art in “Girls”. The “no line weight” style plus the coloring remind me of a badly rotoscoped cartoon. I generally find it ugly. But the storytelling was good and the story interesting and that was enough for me to overlook my distaste for the art style. Don’t be afraid of how it looks if you’re an old school guy like me. I also recommend starting with book one because there are no real recaps as the story goes along. Book four is the conclusion of the story so you can read the whole thing from end to end right now. Give it a go.

Frank Miller’s “Ronin” issues 1-6

Here is another comic that has been sitting on my shelf since 1983. I remember re-reading it a couple of years after it came out but that still puts it at twenty years since I’ve looked at this comic. I must say that the paper it was printed on is great. It looks as crisp and white as the day it was printed. No old yellowing newsprint here.

I always think of “Ronin” as the forgotten Frank Miller work. Sure it has had a recent reprinting in a trade from DC comics to glom off of the advertising for the movie of Frank Miller’s “300” but I never hear anyone mention “Ronin”. It never comes up in conversation with my comic loving friends or any of the web sites or magazines about comics that I read. “Ronin” was published after Frank Miller’s star making run on Daredevil but before his much lauded “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns”. I decided to give it a read.

“Ronin” is the story of a samurai who’s master was killed by a demon so said samurai (now a masterless samurai a “ronin”) goes after and kills the demon. But not before the demon curses them and ronin and demon are trapped in a magic sword. Flash forward to the 21st century (which was the future when this book was written) in a dystopian, sci-fi, depressed NYC where the demon and the ronin are let loose again. Now you’ve got it.

In re-reading the series I can kinda see why “Ronin” has been forgotten. The first three issues or so of the series are quite ordinary. Everything is straight forward and all of the characters are one dimensional and act exactly like you think they will. There is not much here. But the story is designed that way. I think that part of the story is supposed to be transparent because it sets up the last three issues.

It’s the second half of the story that things get interesting. Expectations are turned on their heads and characters expand and start to do unexpected things. The story takes some twists and goes to places not evident in the first three issues. This is good stuff.

The problem is that each issue is 48 pages and that is 100-150 pages before things get interesting. I almost stopped reading with the second issue but I was enjoying the hammock I was lying in so I kept going. I imagine many a person has started reading “Ronin” only to put it down because they were bored. This can really make a work forgotten.

Overall there is plenty of nice Frank Miller work in “Ronin”. It’s an interesting story eventually and is worth checking out as long as you know that the second half is much better than the first.

The Ministry of Space issues 1-3

Another series I pulled off of my shelf to give a second read to. The first two issues came out in 2001 but it took until 2004 to get the third issue out. It’s written by Warren Ellis with art by Chris Weston and colors by Laura DePuy.

You gotta love those English and their love/hate relationship with their government and empire. Ministry of Space is an alternate history tale in which a World War 2 visionary S.O.B. English air corps officer uses betrayal and deceit to capture all of the German rocket scientists at the end of the war. With these scientists and a secret black budget he creates the British space program that far outstrips any other space program. Is that good or bad is the question that hangs in the air throughout this series.

That is about the extent of the plot but this comic is about much more than plot. It’s about the glory of the British Empire and the price paid for that glory. It’s about borderline madmen who push the empire forward despite the costs. It’s about showing in a step by step way how individuals effect history (the “Great Man” hypothesis). And it’s about the rich visuals that Weston brings to illustrate all those cool spaceships and their evolution. Hell, even the guys standing around in uniforms and suits look cool.

Everybody brings their best work to “Ministry of Space” and I like it a lot. I’m a big fan of history so this is right up my alley. It is just a lot of fun. Recommended.