Weekly Comics to Come - January 24, 2007

After three weeks of lame weeks, maybe this is finally a good week for comics. It's certainly a full one.

TOP FIVE:
Criminal #4 (The first story arc of Criminal races toward its conclusion)
Damned #4 (Really loving this story of prohibition meets demons, story and art)
Fables #57 (Guest art by Allred! Bigby and his father talk history! Looking forward to this)
Mouse Guard #6 (The conclusion of the indie buzz hit)
True Story Swear To God #3 (Just as good as always at Image... more people should be reading this book)

THE REST:
52 Week #38 (Last issue was a good one, and it seems like some of the big mysteries might start to get wrapped up)
Civil War The Return (The hype worked, sort of... I'm curious to skim this and see who's coming back... but I don't care enough to read it, or to be anything but worried about what godawful thing the current stewards of the Marvel Universe are doing to it next)
Connor Hawke Dragons Blood #3 (Solid action miniseries)
Crossing Midnight #3 (Not hooked yet, but certainly intrigued)
DMZ #15 (If not for the strength of this week's offerings, this definitely would have made the Top Five... fantastic story art in one of the best ongoing series on the market)
Doctor Strange Oath #4 (Lots of limited series reaching their penultimate issue this week)
Dwight T Albatross The Goon Noir #3 (Second issue was weaker than the first, but there's still plenty to like)
Helmet Of Fate Ibis The Invincible #1 (First one-shot had some merits, I'll at least give this a look)
Invincible #38 (Honestly... don't even remember what's going on in this book anymore, the schedule is slowly killing my interest)
Legend Of Grimjack Vol 6 TP (Yay, more Grimjack from IDW!)
Love And Capes #3 (First couple issues were sweet and fun)
Lucifer Vol 11 Evensong TP (I stopped reading this except in trade, so I'm anxious to see how this Vertigo series ends)
Ninja Tales #1 (Boom! gives ninjas the anthology treatment)
Official Handbook O/t Invincible Universe #2 (First issue was just a blast, looking forward to the second which should feature Eliot R. Brown work)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #14 (Future uncertain, with original writer and artist leaving... so I treasure these last few issues even more)
Star Wars Dark Times #2 (Wow, is this late... but the first issue was good)

Graphic Novel A Day: Avengers Assemble Vol. 4 HC

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artists: Jerry Ordway, Steve Epting, John Romita Jr., Alan Davis & more
Company: Marvel Comics
Price: $34.99 ($23.09 at Amazon)

It's funny, I didn't wholly appreciate how good Busiek's Avengers run was at the time. I mean, I loved a lot of it, but I fell off several times, and I seem to recall loving some of the issues collected in here and being lukewarm on some of the others. But looking at this hardcover, which collects the Avengers vs. Intergalactic Federation story Maximum Security and the post-Perez Avengers segueing into Alan Davis' all-too-brief run, all I could think is that this is sort of the baseline I'd like for the Marvel Universe. Fun for all ages but not dumbed down, loaded with continuity and characters but not restricted to only longtime fans, packed with action and respectful of the style of the superhero genre. The heroes are heroic, but their struggles still have tension, the stories are action-packed but they don't leave out characterization. It's really the closest the Avengers got to what is to me the untouchable greatness of Roger Stern's run. I loved this book, and hope there's at least one more on the way to finish out Busiek's run on the book. The only sadness is that reading this, I realized that the type of superhero shared universe I want is probably dead and gone, replaced by the Civil War/Identity Crisis-tinged modern universe that, quite frankly, usually holds little to no interest for me.

Graphic Novel A Day: Marvel Visionaries: John Buscema HC

Writer: Various
Artist: John Buscema
Company: Marvel Comics
Price: $34.99 ($23.09 at Amazon)

I have a huge fondness for the art of John Buscema, and I like the oversized hardcover "Visionaries" format quite a bit in theory, but overall, this book didn't quite make the grade to be added to my library. The selection of stuff is interesting, a fairly complete look at Buscema's career with a heartfelt introduction by Roy Thomas, but I found that most of what I really wanted to see I already had, either in the form of trade paperbacks, original issues, DVD-ROM or in a few cases all three. The few stories I didn't have were either early work that didn't really capture why I liked Buscema so much (in the case of the EC-style stories at the beginning) or were too small to be worth picking up an expensive volume like this one (such as the Black & White story). It's a good book, and worth picking up for anyone following the Visionaries series, but since I already bought another Marvel HC (Avengers Assemble Vol 4) and the newest color Bone this week, I decided to put this one back on the shelf.

Graphic Novel A Day: Sergio Aragones' Groo Odyssey

Writer: Mark Evanier
Artist: Sergio Aragones
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $12.95 ($10.36 at Amazon)

Groo is one of those weird holes in my comics history. I know Evanier's work to some degree, and of course I'm familiar with Aragones' cartooning, but I've never sampled their comedy about a hapless barbarian, which has run through several companies, killed several companies and currently rests at Dark Horse. This was my first exposure and I have to say, given it's reputation, I wasn't that impressed. Aragones is a masterful cartoonist, but the whole thing really is one joke (look how stupid Groo is) run over and over again in multiple variations, and it's just not that funny of a joke. Maybe it's just aimed at a younger crowd, but these tales of Groo as a pirate, Groo being mistaken for a god, Groo's rampaging sister and Groo as a lawman were mildly amusing at best.

Graphic Novel A Day: Essential OHOTMU Update '89

Writer: Peter Sanderson
Artists: Various
Company: Marvel Comics
Price: $16.99 ($12.06 at Amazon)

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Deluxe Edition (or OHOTMU, as it's been lovingly abbreviated by me and some friends) is basically the bible of my Marvel Universe. It captures my favorite era, the mid-'80s, and is overseen by the best steward the Marvel Universe has ever seen, Mark Gruenwald. I wondered, when they did this Essential Volume of the '89 Update, why it was a Volume 1, not Volume 4 of the Essential OHOTMUs. Having reread, now I know why. This bears more resemblance to Marvel's modern pretender to the Handbook throne than the classic that they produced in the '80s. Gruenwald is gone, replaced by Gregory Wright and then Terry Kavanaugh, neither of whom lit the world on fire with their Marvel comics writing. The all-star line-up of artists from the OHOTMU is gone, and while big names like Walt Simonson and John Byrne do make appearances, and there's some solid art throughout, there's also some godawful art. Rob Liefeld does some art, to give you an indication. In addition, for the most part, there wasn't a need for this update. If you needed a snapshot for when Marvel went on the decline during the Tom DeFalco era, the '89 Handbook offers that. Fallen Angels? SHIELD II? Goblyn and Manikin and the rest of the late era Mantlo Alpha Flight? Artie and Leech, for God's sake! Add in some fairly weak reproduction, with lettering becoming faded and tough to read, and this is a big comedown from Marvel's three volume reprint of the original OHOTMU Deluxe.

Of Ice and Men

You know, here's a dirty little secret the cowboys don't want you to know. They're all manly men, chewing tobaccey and punching out cows and such, but if it drops below 35 degrees, they turn into big 'ol wusses.

Seriously, stores are closing around here and people are freaking out because it's 30 degrees outside and there's some ice on cars. I went out and took my dog to the vet, and there is... zero... ice... on the freakin' road. Maybe, maybe there's more on the highway. I'm willing to allow for that. But the sheer panic... it's like the clouds dropped twelve inches of snow on us or something.

Maybe I'm jaded since I lived in Colorado, where I rode my bike in the snow. Where if they shut down when it got below 30, the whole state wouldn't function for months at a time. But jeez... get some mittens and man up, people!

Graphic Novel A Day: Star Wars General Grievous

Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artist: Rick Leonardi
Company: Dark Horse
Price: $12.95 ($10.75 at Amazon)

I'm cheating a bit, because I actually read this a couple weeks back, but I haven't read any graphic novels over the last day or so, and so I'm finally giving this one a write-up. At any rate, this is a mostly forgettable although decently done miniseries tying into Episode III. My hope was that Dixon and Leonardi, both known for doing solid if rarely spectacular work, would be giving us the never-revealed origin of Grievous. That doesn't happen here. Instead, it's a story of Grievous killing Jedi and kidnapping Jedi children, and of Jedi children standing up to him. It's about some Jedi seeking revenge because the council is too wussy to stand up to him. Basically, it highlights a lot of what I didn't like about the character, as opposed to what I did, which was the stuff in the Tartakovsky cartoons. That said, there's some solid action, an interesting backstory tying in Empire Strikes Back's Ugnaughts to the Republic era and he's still a more interesting character here than he was in the movie. Seriously, George, a cough? That's the tic you gave your big bad guy? Why not have him limp and have trouble going to the bathroom too?

Graphic Novel A Day: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Vol. 1: Commencement

Writer: John Jackson Miller
Artists: Brian Ching & Travel Foreman
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $18.95 ($13.45 at Amazon)

I haven't played the Knights of the Old Republic videogame, but I've been meaning to, and reading this graphic novel just reinforces that. Miller writes a swashbuckling, adventure-laden story set in the earlier days of the Star Wars Universe that is fun (with touches of darkness in the plot) and has all the feel of a good Star Wars role-playing session. The artwork by Brian Ching and Travel Foreman is nice, the cast of characters interesting and the general plot, about an obsessive group of Jedi who commit an atrocity in hopes of preventing a larger one, pretty solid. I look forward to seeing where future adventures take us.

Graphic Novel A Day: Fallen Angel Vol. 2: Down to Earth

Writer: Peter David
Artists: David Lopez & Fernando Blanco
Company: DC Comics
Price: $14.95 ($10.19 at Amazon)

I've sort of fallen off Fallen Angel after it moved to IDW, because the 20 years later story and the artwork just didn't appeal the way the original series did. But reading this second trade of the DC series makes me want to go give the IDW series another try, as this book really reads stronger in trades, where you can see the throughlines of the stories, the mysteries and the character development so much stronger. David's moral dilemmas for the lead character can be a little heavy-handed, but it sort of works in the uber-noir genre he's created for Fallen Angel, and there's some great mystery and character bits in this trade, which features the origin of Black Mariah (the Fallen Angel's nemesis - sorta), Angel's first meeting with Dr. Juris, her sometimes lover and sometimes enemy and fallout from events in the first trade. I hope DC reprints the whole run in trades.

Weekly Comics to Come - January 17, 2007

TOP FIVE:
Marvel Adventures Avengers #9 (Jeff Parker returns, and MODOK is riding in with him. Hells yeah!)
Marvel Visionaries John Buscema HC (One of my favorite artists, I'm delighted to get a chance to pick up a hardcover collection of some of his Marvel best... although I fear it could spark the format whore in me to pick up more of these pricey Visionaries hardcovers)
Spirit #2 (Loving The Spirit... can't wait to see more issues)
Toupydoops #5 (The exceptionally fun indy comic returns with a new issue)
Y The Last Man #53 (After a disappointing last arc, I'm looking forward to less technobabble about clones and more of the last 7 issues of one of my favorite comics)

THE REST:
52 Week #37 (You killed *N*M*** *A*! You bastards! But they may yet decide *not* to kill The Question. See? Something I hate, something I like every week)
Avengers Assemble Vol 4 HC (More of the Busiek Avengers, with Alan Davis art, plus his surprisingly fun Maximum Security crossover)
Bone Vol 5 Rock Jaw Master Of Eastern Border Color TP (I'm not even reading these until I get all nine volumes in color... but I can't wait to get them and do a big reread)
Demonwars The Demon Awakens #1 (This was kinda fun fantasy when Crossgen publishes it, curious to see how Devil's Due will handle it)
Desperadoes Buffalo Dreams #1 (New supernatural/western, with art by Alberto Dose)
Helmet Of Fate Detective Chimp #1 (I'm curious... not optimistic, but curious)
Lost Books Of Eve #1 (Love Howard's art, mildly interested in the concept)
Love As A Foreign Language #6 (Hooray! Eric Kim and J. Torres return for another outing of their cross-cultural romance book)
She-Hulk 2 #15 (OK, it's *this* issue that starts the She-Hulk as Agent of SHIELD issue. Honestly, I may be over this book... but it gets one more chance to win me back)
Ultimate X-Men #78 (Guilty pleasure, as Kirkman channels the '90s X-Men. Which I hated at the time, but I'm finding his take interesting enough)

Graphic Novel A Day: Monster Vol. 6

Writer/Artist: Naoki Urusawa
Translators: Agnes Yoshida & Hirotaka Kikaya
Company: Viz
Price: $9.99 ($9.99 at Amazon)

Another great volume of Monster, as Tenma faces off with a fanatically dedicated police inspector and then takes solace with a group of dangerous men. Which doesn't help much when his ex-fiance and a deadly killer come looking for him, allowing his fiance to face her feelings and see if she can redeem herself. All the while, a pair of students investigating a lonely rich man find themselves embroiled in Johan's web without even knowing it. Tense, layered stuff as always, this is definitely my favorite manga running.

Graphic Novel A Day: Star Wars Tag & Bink Were Here

Writer: Kevin Rubio
Artist: Lucas Marangon
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $14.95 ($10.17 at Amazon)

I read the original Tag & Bink miniseries, and remember finding it very funny. I read the latest one-shots, and didn't really get much of a chuckle out of them. Reading all the Tag & Bink stories together, my opinion meets in the middle. It wasn't really laugh out loud funny to me, but I had to respect Rubio's clever script, inserting the hapless Tag & Bink into every important event of the various movies, and I really enjoyed the cartoony artwork of Lucas Marangon quite a bit. Dark Horse's Star Wars line is an impressive array of different approaches to the characters, and this parody of them, combined with a loving devotion to continuity that only a true fan could have, is yet another interesting and fun flavor. It's not the first Star Wars book I'd recommend to someone about to dive into the comics, but it's hardly the last one either.

Graphic Novel A Day: The Art of Dragon Magazine

Artists: Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, Jeff Easley, Wayne Reynolds, Brom, Todd Lockwood, Tony DiTerlizzi, Tim Hildebrandt, Daniel Horne, Dennis Beauvais, Clyde Caldwell, Kalman Andrasofszky, etc.
Company: Paizo Publishing
Price: $34.95 ($23.07 at Amazon)

OK, technically this isn't a graphic novel, but it is a really nice art book. I read Dragon from probably somewhere in the 70s (issue-wise, not year-wise) to somewhere in the early 120s or so, and then picked it up again for a while when D and D 3.0 came out. I've gotten a lot of use out of the magazine over the years, and seen a lot of great covers too. One of the things that Wizards of the Coast does better than probably any other gaming company is that they use professional artists of the highest caliber and print their work in full color, and you need only look at Art of Dragon to see what a boost that can be to a player's imagination. It was in reading this that I discovered that my favorite Dragon artist, whose images I remembered but name I never knew, was Dennis Beauvais, and they reprint a decent number of his pieces here. There's a variety, from earlier work to the latest stuff, from the classic fantasy paintings to the more comic book and anime-influenced work that we see a lot of in D and D books today from guys like Wayne Reynolds and comics veteran Kalman Andrasofszky. It's loosely organized into themes like dragons, monsters, worlds, etc. but basically the editors get out of the way and let the art do the talking. I would have liked a little more insight, maybe commentary from the artists, but I can't complain about giving the artwork full pages so that you can really appreciate the work. Any fan of fantasy art should definitely pick this one up. I found myself wishing for a DVD-ROM version with the covers of every issue of Dragon and all the interior artwork after reading through it.

Graphic Novel A Day: Manhunter Vols. 1-2

Writer: Marc Andreyko
Artists: Jesus Saiz, Javier Pina, Jimmy Palmiotti, Brad Walker, Diego Olmos, Fernando Blanco & Bob Petreccia
Company: DC Comics
Price: $12.99 & $17.99 ($12.23 at Amazon)

Last night I read the first 14 issues of the new Manhunter series. Or reread, I should say, since I've actually kept up on the book in single issue format. I have my issues with the book, as in some ways it represents the dark and gritty over-reality of DC, and the tie-in to Identity Crisis didn't help. And at first, I found Kate Spencer too abrasive, not just real and flawed like Andreyko intended but actually unpleasant and borderline unlikable. But I've come around to really enjoy the book as a densely-packed story that incorporates some of the lesser-known aspects of the DC Universe and a modern crime drama tone. It's got more than a little in common with the late, lamented Chase, including having Cameron Chase as one of the supporting cast as of the second part of trade number two, and the artwork is terrific. The book is weirdly paced. On one hand, they have a hard time finding good chop points for the trade because the plotting is sort of old school, with plenty of ongoing subplots and foreshadowing of upcoming stories. On the other, it's really kind of hard to keep up with everything in single issue format, so it reads better in trades. Ideally, this is the kind of book I'd like to see published manga style, in $10 trades every few months, but I know just exactly how realistic that is. Still, I hope that the second trade does well and that we get the rest of the series, whether it concludes with #30 or goes on after a successful "last" arc, in trade paperback form as well.

Video: Katy's Little Gym

Today was my daughter's Little Gym "graduation", which means there was a mini dance recital and then gymnastics demonstration. Now, these are like 3-4 years olds, so it's more like cute, mostly organized chaos than an actual recital, but I had a lot of fun and dragged the video camera out of retirement to film it. Since I have Youtube, I'm showing off the results of my shoddy, amateurish camera-work and editing there for the family, and since I have a blog, I'm embedding the videos here as well. Video editing was by Ulead VideoStudio 10, which I've got on 30-day Free Trial. I think it's probably going to be my new video editing software, as it seems easy to use and can do things like import music from my iTunes collection, which is really all I require with my limited editing ability.

Graphic Novel A Day: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Writers: L. Frank Baum, David Chauvel & Kat Amano
Artist: Enrique Fernandez
Company: Image Comics
Price: $9.99 ($9.99 at Amazon)

I've never read the original Oz books, but given the way the property has been translated into comics, I'm really thinking I ought to. First there was Shanower's fantastic Adventures of Oz, and now we have this translated graphic novel, which is a faithful enough comic book adaptation to have Baum's name in the credits. It's a wonderfully engaging tale, sweet and fun and adventurous, and Fernandez's lush painted artwork reminds me of the first time I saw Scott Morse's stuff. Oh, and $10 is an insanely cheap price for this package, which is oversized, 90+ pages and on really nice quality paper. Kudos to Image for great packaging and pricing.

Solidarity for Dummies

ComicsPro, the nascent comics retailer organization of nearly 100 members, has come up with a solution to the recent problems with Civil War mis-shipping from the Los Angeles warehouse due to weather difficulties. (If you're unfamiliar with the situation, here's a rundown at CBR.)

The organization has released an open letter, which Johanna Draper Carlson of Comics Worth Reading has reprinted at her site.

Now, I'm one of the managers for a comics shop that was not affected by the delay. And here's my thinking: "Screw this." I'm not entirely sure how my losing out on a weeks' worth of sales (and make no mistake, not getting Civil War would have cost at least half of the customer base on this particular, relatively slow-shipping Thursday) helps anyone on the West Coast out. If I get Civil War in Austin, am I going to undercut sales to someone who usually shops in San Francisco? Or is this just a "We're miserable, we want everyone to be miserable together" kind of thing?

Seriously, I have sympathy. Had things been different, and my shop hadn't gotten Civil War last week, I would have been pissed. But I wouldn't have demanded that everybody pretend like the book wasn't available anywhere. Unless it's shipping to my local competitors and not me, I don't really see a huge problem with uneven shipping. Yes, it's unfair and yes, it sucks for those in the affected region. But requiring Diamond to not ship the books to every region for a week, undercutting everyone's sales? That would be kind of like your buddy cutting his thumb off and so you cut your thumb off in a show of solidarity. It makes you a *great* friend, but kind of an idiot.

But maybe I'm being short-sighted or selfish. Or both. My initial reaction here, though, is that this is that rare comic book screw-up that is actually nobody's fault. You can stretch and say it's Diamond's fault for not having a better contingency plan in place, but beyond being willing to airlift the comics from the trucks caught in bad weather for a huge sum of money, I'm not quite sure what satisfactory contingency there could be. You could stretch really, really far and blame it on Marvel for not having the book on time in the first place... if it had shipped in December, it might not have hit the bad weather. But really, the blame lies with bad weather. Emotionally, I get that retailers who didn't get their books would be steaming... but I would think that intellectually, they would have to realize that this was an unfortunate accident, not one of the many broken things about the direct market that needs fixing.

If ComicsPro needs a cause, how about getting Diamond to ship all accounts (not just the multi-store chains) on Tuesdays so that the books can be prepared Tuesday nights for sale instead of in as rushed a manner possible on Wednesdays? That would also have the benefit of building in more lead-time if a weather delay like this happened again.

Graphic Novel A Day: Action Philosophers Giant Sized Thing Vol 2

Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Ryan Dunlavey
Company: Evil Twin Comics
Price: $8.95 ($8.95 at Amazon)

Action Philosophers is a great comic, combining witty writing and art with actual informational content about philosophy. Their off-kilter sensibilities, which re-envision philosophers through a pop culture lens, results in this volume in the memorable cross of Karl Marx with Rambo, Derrida with the Terminator and Isaac Luria, creator of the Kabbalah, with Doctor Strange. Amidst these pop-culture laden visuals is a very straightforward, heady analysis of these mens' lives and the philosophy they refined and espoused. I'll be honest, this volume gets into existentialism and such a little too heavily for me, and I found my eyes just glazing over at the deeper exploration of more complicated philosophies, as opposed to the first volume, but there's still plenty to keep the mind and funny bone occupied. And their take on Karl Marx was both informative and possibly the funniest of the bunch except for Plato in the original trade. Check them both out, the trades are ridiculously cheap and really good.

Graphic Novel A Day: Superman Up, Up and Away

Writers: Kurt Busiek & Geoff Johns
Artists: Pete Woods & Renato Guedes
Company: DC Comics
Price: $14.99 ($10.64 at Amazon)

I was disappointed in the "One Year Later" Superman when I first read it, and stopped reading after a couple issues. I wanted Superman, not depowered Clark Kent and friends. However, Superman Confidential, All-Star Superman and good word of mouth on the Busiek/Johns run had me in the mood to give the book another go, and I'm kinda glad I did. I'm still not in love with the run, and I'm not convinced that the best way to return Superman to greatness was several months of him without any powers, but... there's some damn good writing and really terrific art here. I've always liked Pete Woods, but he's at a whole new level on this trade, with some lush work reminiscent of the best of Leinil Francis Yu. I also really dug Busiek and Johns' take on Superman's rogues' gallery, particularly the work done with Luthor and the new Kryptonite Man, and to be honest, even liked seeing Clark and Lois dealing with life without Superman. After reading this trade, I want to go back and check out the rest of the One Year Later stories that have been going on in the Superman books.

Weekly Comics to Come - January 10, 2007

Light week this week.

TOP FIVE:
Agents Of Atlas #6 (Curious to see how Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk's mini concludes)
Fallen Angel Vol 2 Down To Earth TP (More of the DC run, hoping this means we'll see all of it traded)
Godland #15 (One more issue until the 60 cent jumping-on issue)
Hellstorm Son Of Satan #4 (Surprisingly fun, Vertigo-esque in some ways)
Runaways #23 (The penultimate Vaughan/Alphona issue)

THE REST:
52 Week #36 (I think the focus is on the space stuff this issue, which means I probably won't dig it much)
Batman #662 (The Ostrander/Mandrake run started strong but hasn't done much for me since... we'll see how the ending is)
Batman Confidential #2 (Good writing, weak art)
Justice Society Of America #2 (I had some serious gripes with the first issue, but there was also plenty I liked)
Meltdown #2 (Concluding the tale of a dying hero's flameout)
Thunderbolts #110 (Yeah, I'll probably hate it... but I'll admit to being curious)

Graphic Novel A Day: The Black Coat: A Call to Arms

Writers: Ben Lichius & Adam Cogan
Artist: Francesco Francavilla
Company: APE Entertainment
Price: $12.95 (Website)

I love the concept for this story, a masked adventurer fighting a slightly supernatural menace in 1775, just before the Revolutionary War developed. And I love a lot of about the execution as well, from sure-to-be-A-lister Francavilla's art to the swashbuckling, intelligent characterization of the main character and his Shadow-like band of secret operatives. I wish the story itself had been a little less convoluted by the time it ended, as it's not a terribly satisfying conclusion for a miniseries. It ends on a massive cliffhanger, the big mystery of the traitor in the group is never resolved and the sinister League is not really explained much either. As the first arc of an ongoing, it would have been more satisfying, but even then, I would like to have seen a little more closure and less open-endedness. That said, the general vibe here is cool, and recommended for fans of pulp adventure with a new, historical twist.

Graphic Novel A Day: Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Vol. 2

Writer: Sean McKeever
Artist: Takeshi Miyazawa & Valentine DeLandro
Company: Marvel Comics
Price: $7.99 ($7.99 at Amazon)

The newest collection of the teen drama comic set against the backdrop of Spidey's early years is as good as always. McKeever and DeLandro give us the origin of Mary Jane, with elements of Spidey's origin floating in and out as the story requires, then follows up with the terrific introduction of Gwen Stacy to Peter and Mary Jane's world. It's a new perspective on Gwen, presenting her as a diversion rather than Peter's true love (it's Mary Jane's book, so we know she's his true love) but as a sweet, likable character at any rate, and it adds another dimension to a book that keeps surprising me. My initial reaction to DeLandro's art was somewhat negative, because in my mind nobody but Miyazawa should be drawing this book, but reading it knowing that someone else will be taking over gave me a new perspective and I realized that DeLandro's art was quite good, and just as interesting a take on the characters.

Graphic Novel A Day: Vertigo

Fables Vol. 8: Wolves
Writer: Bill Willingham
Artist: Mark Buckingham, Shawn McManus, Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy
Company: DC/Vertigo
Price: $17.99 ($12.23 at Amazon)

Every volume of Fables is good, but this one holds the unusual distinction of being an ending of sorts for the series. Don't get me wrong, the book is still going, and is still excellent, but the resolution of the Bigby-Snow White story brings with it a lot of closure type moments, and so the whole thing could easily be read as the last issue of the series. It's a very satisfying resolution, with Bigby getting a number of badass moments, plenty of teary reveals and relationship turning points and, as a bonus, an issue where Cinderella goes on a spy mission for the kingdom.

100 Bullets Vol. 10: Decayed
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Eduardo Risso
Company: DC/Vertigo
Price: $14.99 ($10.64 at Amazon)
On the other hand, we have 100 Bullets, which has slowly declined in my eyes with each volume. I really think this book should have gone the 60 issues and out route, because we're on issue 75 as of this volume and I'm done. Decayed is a particularly appropriate title, as a once promising and gripping noir has become repetitive in structure, confusing as hell in terms of story and laden with way too many characters. The atmosphere is still dead-on perfect, thanks to Risso's gorgeous art and Azzarello's oftentimes filthy, distinctive dialogue, but the story... I'm at a loss. I don't care anymore about the Trust, the Minutemen, etc. etc. Maybe if I reread all the issues, it'd make more sense and I'd be back to caring, but I can't quite care enough to go back and do so. I think I'm done, leaving me with 10 volumes of a series I'll probably never reread as a result.

Blog Template Update for December

This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published.

December was a busy month, as evidenced by the slowdown of my writing, both here and on Comic Pants. Holidays, a nasty cold and various headaches related to stuff I'm doing added up to give me little free time, or a stressful, not-conducive-to-writing mood when I had free time. On the other hand, Christmas was terrific, spent the holiday with Suzanne's family the week before and my family the week of, saw all the brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, sisters, nephews and nieces and had a grand old time. Also loaded up on holiday DVD presents, plus my wife got me the hardcover slipcased Far Side collection, which is a joy to behold and an absolute monster to try and carry. It currently sits open on one of the tables in my office, so that I can read cartoons on a whim. New RSS feeds added this month were blogs from Asaf & Tomer Hanuka, Josh Middleton and Paul Pope.

Comics-wise, I seemed to be in a pro-Marvel mode. Which is weird, given that I absolutely despise Civil War and won't even read 95% of the tie-ins for the series for free. But I guess there's enough book format stuff and fringe materials to hold my interest. But 6 of my top 20 comics were Marvel, as were 4 of my top graphic novels. Of course, only one of the graphic novels is in continuity, and most of the series are well-clear of Civil War, with two of them being outside the Marvel Universe in general (Criminal and Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four). DC's universe isn't any more intriguing to me, though, with only 4 DC books on the list, only one of which (Manhunter) is even remotely in modern continuity. Three of the usual suspects from Vertigo are on there (DMZ, both Fables books), and it probably would have been four but American Virgin missed December by a week. Ex Machina returns to my favorites list with its best issue in a long time, and the rest of the slots (6, for anyone who is counting) are taken up by Image (2), Archaia (2), Dark Horse (1) and Oni (1). It's weird, I feel like my taste is so out of the mainstream, since I don't read a lot of the top-selling books, but my favorites are still from the big companies or what I feel like are more well-known indies. Is the comics market in that bad of shape, that even books from the bigger companies can feel like fringe reads?

Looking at my lists, it looks like my favorite writer for December was either Brian K. Vaughan (3 comics, 1 collection), Bill Willingham (2 comics, 1 collection) or Darwyn Cooke (2 comics). Probably Cooke, if only from the residual goodwill of last month's Batman/Spirit and Absolute DC New Frontier. My favorite artist of the month was Christine Norrie, for the excellent work on Breaking Up, although Brian Hurtt (from Damned) and Tim Sale (from Superman Confidential) are damn close.

As for TV... um, prepare for rant. 2006 just might be the year that TV started losing its hold on me. I'm completely addicted to the medium, but the greedy, often stupid bastards in control of entertainment are rapidly driving me away from its current delivery system. If I didn't have a Tivo, I would probably have cancelled my cable and gone to all-DVD in December. And that decision may lurk just a couple years in the future if things stay as they are. So I'm down to a top three for December, because most of the shows I was watching got cancelled or finally lost my interest. Daybreak got axed, as did The Nine, and I lost enough interest in Doctor Who season two to finally drop the thing off my Tivo. Daily Show and Colbert Report are always entertaining, but rarely diverting enough to get me to watch them instead of something else that I had on DVD. Same with Professional Poker Tour... I read Phil Gordon's new book in December, and I still have as much interest in playing poker as I always did, but I think watching poker may have become an occasional joy for me, rather than a regular one. No Lost in December, same for Veronica Mars. A couple eps of Battlestar Galactica and one of Studio 60, though, plus a brilliant Christmas episode for The Office. Dry month for TV, though, and here's the thing... I barely noticed. I still have so many DVDs to watch, videogames to play, comics and books to read, not to mention the diversion that is the Internet, that if TV magically went away tomorrow, I don't know that I'd actually miss it. And I am a diehard fan of the medium. This should scare the shit out of TV executives, who still seem intent on driving off what audience there is with hair-trigger cancellations of serial shows, constant rejiggering of schedules and some of the lowest common denominator programming I've ever seen. There may come a day when prime-time TV is all reality shows and gameshows, and is only watched by people who enjoy that. As a fan of the medium, I would find that very sad.

I don't really do resolutions, partly because I never live up to them. But my general guidelines are to get angry less, worry less, spend more time with my wife and daughter, cut down on spending money and enjoy what I have. My more specific goals are to reinstate the Graphic Novel A Day, try to do a Novel A Month and hopefully do more writing on Comic Pants. Speaking of, my Novel A Month for January is The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman, which I'm currently listening to as an audiobook on my iPod. Choosing an audiobook is not cheating, since I'm just starting this thing and thus I'm laying down the rules right now, and the rules say audiobooks are acceptable as Novel A Month selections. Hopefully there will be about five Graphic Novel A Day selections coming in rapid order, some of them already added to my Top 10 in December because I read them in December but didn't write them up on the blog yet.

Weekly Comics to Come - January 4, 2007

TOP FIVE:
All Star Superman #6 (Yay! A burst of Morrison/Quitely goodness to start off the New Year!)
American Virgin #10 (The beginning of a new story arc, I believe... possibly my favorite new Vertigo series, tied with DMZ)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #4 (Sales are dire... enjoy it while you can!)
Manhunter #27 (The first issue back was terrific, I'm enjoying this whether it's the last story arc or just the latest one)
Superman Confidential #3 (If not for All-Star, the Darwyn Cooke/Tim Sale version would be my favorite current Superman... as is, it's still pretty close)

THE REST:
52 Week #35 (Each week, something I like and something I hate... but nothing that pisses me off like Civil War does every time)
Brian Keenes Fear GN (New graphic novel adapting the horror tales of Brian Keene, by Austin writer Nate Southard)
Fear Agent #10 (More of Remender and Opena's science-fiction/action book)
Kane Vol. 6 TP (I'm actually one trade behind on my reading of Paul Grist's quirky cop book, but I'm still glad to see a new trade)
Iron Man Hypervelocity #1 (Mildly interested because it's Adam Warren, although I'd rather have more Livewires)
Manhunter Vol 2 Trial By Fire TP (Now that I know there's a second trade, it's time to go ahead and buy the first one as well. Hope there's more!)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 6 (Fantastic suspense manga)
Newuniversal #2 (Ellis and Larocca's first issue was pretty good... I didn't know I even *had* any New Universe nostalgia)
Other Side #4 (Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart's Vietnam era closes in on a finale)
Scalped #1 (Jason Aaron's new Vertigo ongoing... the preview hasn't wowed me, but I still want to give it a shot based on how much I enjoyed Other Side)
Scarface Scarred For Life #1 (A weird new book, with a weird but good creative team - John Layman and Dave Crosland)
Uncanny X-Men #482 (Brubaker's weakest book... but there's still plenty to recommend it, including Billy Tan's art)

Why Randy Has Been Slacking On This Blog

Being a series of excuses in ten parts. And also a way for me to keep track (beyond just in my head) of where all my free time is going.

1. Top Secret Project - This occupies a relatively small amount of my time, but most of my mental anxiety is derived from it. I expect it to slowly shift to occupy just as much headspace and lots more real time in the next couple months. No, I can't tell you what it is. No, it's probably not exciting to you. I'm not writing a comic or anything like that. All will be revealed in a few months, at which point most of you reading this will go "Oh, I can see why that was so stressful. But I don't really care."

2. The Family - I do like to occasionally spend time with my wife and daughter. I probably still don't spend enough time with them. And the new baby is due in June. We've had some minor issues, which fortunately still look like they're going to result in healthy baby and mama. This accounts for too little of my time, really, but I do try to spend as many hours with my daughter as I can, when she's not sleeping and I'm not working.

3. Gaming - I'm running an Eberron game for one gaming group, playing in a Call of Cthulhu/Ravenloft game with the group when I'm *not* running it, playing in a Warhammer Fantasy RPG game with another group and planning a Champions game for that group when I'm not playing WFRP or running Eberron. Net result? I only spend maybe 8-10 hours a week on gaming, maybe 2 hours or so planning for future games... but when I am gaming, that's pretty much all I'm doing.

4. Watching DVDs - I got a lot of DVDs for Christmas. Which is cool. But the piles atop my DVD case make me feel guilty, like I'm not properly using my leisure time (I know, I'm a sick man), and so I try to make a point to watch at least some of them every night.

5. Reading - I'm really trying to read books again. Just finished Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book, want to finish up the Fletch series, read the Swords of Lankhamar book and finally read through the Harry Potter books. I don't think about it at all when I'm not reading, but it takes up the time that was previously allocated to graphic novels. Although I am going to try to resume Graphic Novel A Day in January. Maybe with Book A Month as well, if I'm feeling overly ambitious.

6. Sleeping - Despite really bad sleep habits like staying up too late, I get to sleep in five days a week thanks to late shifts, so I tend to get enough sleep. Maybe more than I actually need.

7. Working - 40 hours a week, more or less.

8. Writing - Both here, on Comic Pants and (probably the most time-consuming and least consequential) at various comment threads and emails around the Internet.

9. The Internet - My gigantic time sink, as I've spent four hours on this damn electronic box tonight alone, when I had three other things I meant to accomplish relating to #8, #4 and #3.

10. Everything Else - Doing a mental checklist of the above, I should still have plenty of free time. Which means it's probably a variety of other little things keeping me busy.

So in case you're wondering why I've written so little for Comic Pants or Inside Joke lately... that's why. Holidays really screwed up my schedule, especially when I was sick for a week or two, and constant anxiety (both real and imagined) has kept me distracted from getting back to the routine. I am planning on resuming Graphic Novel A Day in January, and Comic Pants writing sooner than that.

Weekly Comics to Come - December 27, 2006

TOP FIVE:
Batman And The Mad Monk #5 (More Matt Wagner Batman goodness)
Bprd Universal Machine TP (Love the BPRD series, looking forward to re-reading this one)
Daredevil #92 (Daredevil in Europe, far from Civil War... as it should be)
Killer #2 (First issue was amazing, can't wait to read the second)
Okko Cycle Of Water #1 (New series from the publishers of The Killer, so looking forward to this one as well)

THE REST:
100 Bullets Vol 10 Decayed TP (I only read this in trade anymore, but I still enjoy it in that format)
52 Week #34 (I think I'll go ahead and keep reading, at least for a while)
Age Of Bronze #24 (New issue of Shanower's fantastic story of the Trojan War)
Batman #661 (Part three of the Ostrander/Mandrake run, which was weak in the second issue but still interesting enough)
Crossing Midnight #2 (First issue was interesting enough to get me back for a second)
Hack Slash Slice Hard (New standalone from Tim Seeley, always an enjoyable read)
Hellstorm Son Of Satan #3 (Decent horror/actioner in New Orleans)
Immortal Iron Fist #2 (Mixed feelings on the first issue, but leaning toward the positive, so I'll check in on two)
Jack Of Fables #6 (The conclusion of Jack's first story arc, I think?)
Lankhmar Book 1 Swords & Deviltry Novel (Have a copy of this, want to give it a read at some point)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #13 (Still a favorite)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane Vol 2 TP (Looking forward to the re-read)
Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters #6 (I don't even remember what's happening... but I'll check in and see if I care)
Usagi Yojimbo #99 (I'm a couple issues behind on this one, but I always enjoy it when I read it)
Winter Soldier Winter Kills One Shot (Curious about this... don't much like the character, but I really like the creative team)

ABC is perilously close to dead to me as well

Daybreak Cancelled

I had mostly forgiven them for the early cancellation of Cupid, and for recent quick cancels like Eyes... but they've now killed two of their serialized dramas for the season without giving the viewers a satisfactory ending. I'm not completely sad to see The Nine go, as it was a lot of talented actors and writers on a concept that only kept my attention about 50% of the time (but it was still better than most of what's *left* on the network), but Daybreak... damn, man, I was into that show. And worse, it was only 13 episodes and then out. It seemed like a perfect thing. I would get all the answers, and if it didn't fly, then ABC could stop pouring money into it. But they couldn't even bear to suck it up for 6 more episodes and air the finale for the many viewers who had gotten caught up.

Long-term, that kind of thing is going to bite them in the ass. I know that with the death of Kidnapped, The Nine, Daybreak and Smith, I'm a hell of a lot less likely to invest in shows with serial plotlines in the future. And since I *like* those kinds of shows better than the episodic one-offs like Law & Order, that means I'm less likely to watch new shows on the networks. I'll do like my friend Dave and start waiting until they hit DVD, so I can be assured that I won't get caught up in stories with no endings.

But really, two lines from the Variety article say it all about the state of american television:

"ABC has decided to yank the Wednesday drama from its sked, effective immediately. It'll be replaced by repeats of unspecified comedies."

and, in reference to yanking Shatner's new quiz show:

"It'll be replaced by "America's Funniest Home Videos."

While that's probably a lateral move in terms of intelligence and quality, can't you just see the day when that sentence becomes a euphemism for cancellation? Seriously, how better to show the depths of lowest common denominator programming than saying that *anything* will be replaced by "America's Funniest Home Videos." Maybe Mike Judge was right in Idiocracy, maybe "Ow! My Balls!" will indeed be the top rated show sooner than we all think.

Sick

So I haven't written any of my Graphic Novel A Day reviews in the last couple days, or really done much of anything. That's because I've had a particularly vicious cold, which has been bugging me for about two weeks but came back with a fury yesterday. Hopefully it'll go away in time for me to enjoy time with the family on Sunday and Monday. If nothing else, I hope it'll be gone by the time Christmas rolls around.

Weekly Comics to Come - December 20, 2006

TOP FIVE:
Action Philosophers Vol 2 Giant Sized Thing Tp (Affordable trade of fantastic stories... the first one was great)
Criminal #3 (One of my top five favorite ongoing books)
Fables #56 (Another of my top five favorite ongoing books)
Fables Vol 8 Wolves TP (This trade has a number of interesting extras, as well as some of my favorite stories)
Y The Last Man #52 (After reading Escapists #6, my faith is shored up that Vaughan can do good endings, so Y is looking good)

THE REST:
52 Week #33 (Recently read #1-32 to prepare for a podcast, and now I'm intrigued enough to keep reading)
Bakers Meet Jingle Belle (Love the Bakers, lukewarm on Jingle Belle)
Black Coat Call To Arms Tp (Revolutionary war adventure title with supernatural flavor, glad to see this traded)
Elephantmen #5 (More gorgeously illustrated sci-fi)
Lone Ranger #3 (Enjoyed the first two issues, I'm onboard for a while longer)
Love And Capes #2 (First issue was a lot of fun)
Maintenance #1 (From Jim Massey and Robbi Rodriguez, two guys whose work in the indie world I've very much enjoyed)
Pirates Of Coney Island #3 (After two issues, I'm very intrigued by this one... great art, unusual story and characters)
Previews #27.1 (Down the Line may be delayed, both by Christmas and by minor site issues)
Shadowpact #8 (Growing disinterested in the last couple issues, but #4 and #5 were so good, and Fables is so good... I'll try at least one more issue)
She-Hulk 2 #14 (She-Hulk, Agent of SHIELD begins!)
Union Jack #4 (The action spinoff of Cap comes to a close)
Warhammer 40K #1 (Looking forward to Boom!'s take on this dark world of future war)
Wasteland #5 (Been a while, but I'm glad to see another issue)
Wonderful Wizard Of Oz Gn (After recently finishing Shanower's Adventures in Oz, I'm interested in this translated painted GN of the original novel)

Graphic Novel A Day: Fashion High - Breaking Up

Writer: Aimee Friedman
Artist: Christine Norrie
Company: Scholastic/Graphix
Price: $8.99 ($9.99 at Amazon)

In reading the solicitations for this book from Graphix, I was pretty sure it wasn't for me. And in reading it, I discovered I was right. Aimed squarely at teenage girls, telling stories of four friends whose friendships and other relationships are suffering as they grow up, all four girls were damn near impossible for me to relate to. Not a failure on the writer's part. In fact, the writing is good, keeps the story moving, weaves subplots in nicely, builds up the melodrama effectively. I believe she accurately captured the teenage existence, but give me teenage girls more like the unrealistic but interesting Veronica Mars. I was a teenage guy, and not a popular or hot one, and so I can't really relate to the trials and tribulations of cute, popular, fashionable teenage girls, who all came off a bit flighty, dim or mean. However... I still bought it, and might buy future volumes, and here's why: Christine Norrie's art. Norrie's art impressed me when I first saw it on Hopeless Savages, and it has only improved with each subsequent project. Her work here features fine, expressive cartooning and exquisite storytelling along with surface attractiveness to make it some of the finest cartooning I've seen all year. I'm not the audience for Fashion High, and I selfishly wish that Norrie was doing work that was aimed at me... but I like her work enough that I'll pick up almost anything she does, even if the story doesn't connect.

Top 10 Most Played in 2006

I'm not real good at the Top 10 music thing, because I just don't buy enough music to really put together much of a list. But Entertainment Weekly's online Popwatch recently featured the Top 10 most listened to in 2006 feature. That I can do. I don't think I've even *heard* more than one or two of the most-played in 2006 overall, but I have a "Play Count" on iTunes that will tell me how many times I've listened to a song. Now, technically this is for as long as I've had iTunes, but it's the same general idea. So, my current Top 10 Most Played List:

1. Funny Little Feeling - Rock 'n' Roll Soldiers
2. Pistolero - Juno Reactor
3. Jerk It Out - Caesars
4. We Used to Be Friends - The Dandy Warhols
5. Struggle - Ringside Rock
6. Everyday I Love You Less and Less - Kaiser Chiefs
7. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
8. Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
9. What I Got - Michael Franti & Spearhead With Gift of Gab
10. Such Great Heights - The Postal Service

This probably means little to anything, given that it's based on random plays as well as playlists, but all 10 are favorite songs for me.

Graphic Novel A Day: Punisher First to Last HC

Writer: Garth Ennis
Artists: John Severin, Lewis Larosa & Richard Corben
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $19.99 ($14.19 at Amazon)

This is the hardcover that convinced me to go back and buy the other two Punisher hardcovers. And it's the best of the hardcovers thus far, even with it being the smallest. It collects three one-shots - The Tyger, The Cell and The End - that represent the beginning, middle and end of Frank Castle's life. The legendary Severin illustrates a tale of 10-year-old Frank first learning about mob violence and vigilante justice in his old neighborhood (along with interesting glimpses of Frank's parents), the legendary Corben illustrates a dark and amazing story about Frank Castle loosed in a post-nuclear exchange to seek revenge and justice on a scale he's previously never attempted. And the not legendary, but still exceptional Larosa, illustrates a tale of Frank infiltrating a prison to get at some very big mob bosses and soldiers. Gorgeous art, compelling and dark stories, this is basically the underpinnings of Ennis's view of the MAX version of the character, and I like it. The only shame is that they didn't include Born, the Vietnam era tale that represents the other underpinning of the character, as well. Guess that ought to go on my reading list next.

TV To Watch Out For

This is mostly a note to myself on four TV shows to keep an eye out for, recommended by one of my long-time readers Karl Ruben Weseth. Hustle, the fourth show he recommended, is already on my Netflix queue. Life on Mars will be as soon as its released on Region 1 DVD, which probably won't be too long. The one I'm really excited about, though, is Black Books, a show by the creators of Spaced, one of my all-time favorite shows. Which will also probably be the hardest to find, since I don't have a region-free DVD player. Same with State of Play, a political drama/newsroom thriller that Karl calls a "must see" and which sounds pretty interesting to me.

A Dozen Christmas Songs

Skipping the familiar standards or even some of the more modern standards, here are a dozen of my favorite holiday songs this season. Note that three of them are from Santastic, a terrific mix album done last year. Not sure if that's still available, although there is a new Santastic II this year which is not quite as good. At any rate, a dozen holiday songs that I like:

Elf's Lament - Barenaked Ladies
Dance of the Sugar Fairy (Red Baron Remix) - Berlin Symphony Orchestra
Last Night (I Went Out With Santa Claus) - Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Turbo Sleigh Ride - DJ Bc
The Christmas Massacre of Charlie Brown - DJ John
Baby It's Cold Outside - Ella Fitzgerland & Louis Jordan
A Great Big Sled - The Killers
Pennies from Heaven - Louis Prima
Let It Snow/The Last Christmas Medley You'll Ever Need to Hear - Riders in the Sky
Frosty DMC - samflanagan
Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
I Pray on Christmas - Harry Connick Jr.

Graphic Novel A Day: Curse of Dracula

Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: Gene Colan
Company: Dark Horse
Price: $9.95 ($9.95 at Amazon)

An attempt to basically "relaunch" Tomb of Dracula with all-new characters but in the same vein and with the same creators, Curse of Dracula is, like most of Claremont's post-1990 work, a good example of how you can't go home again. Curse of Dracula does read a lot like Tomb of Dracula in some ways, with a cast of unusual hunters trying to take down the lord of the undead, but in the harsh light of modern comics, the approach looks a bit dated. Wolfman's self-aggrandizing intro, wherein he makes claims of writing horror and scary and that crime fiction and superhero fiction, no matter how good, can never reach such heights, doesn't help. The lead characters are interesting but a bit over-the-top, often featuring characterization that boils down to weird accents, and they don't have the likability or the depth of a Blade or Hannibal King. This Dracula is a sketch compared to the richly developed supervillain of Tomb of Dracula, where the book was as much about him as it was his hunters. And you'd think getting one of my favorite artists (Gene Colan) with one of my favorite colorists (Dave Stewart) would be fantastic, but instead it's merely adequate, and the "digital inking" style just really doesn't suit Colan's work. I'm sounding harsher than I feel, because I did actually read the whole thing, but my general feeling is that you're better off going back and reading the Essential Tomb of Dracula, when these concepts and their creators were fresher.

Graphic Novel A Day: Monster Vol. 5

Writer/Artist: Naoki Urusawa
Translators: Agnes Yoshida & Hirotaka Kikaya
Company: Viz
Price: $9.99 ($9.99 at Amazon)

I really need to write up a review of the Monster series for Comic Pants. The first volume is kind of slow, but after volume two, when the basic premise and characters are laid out, the thing gets going like a rollercoaster. The high concept is that a surgeon saves a young boy who turns out to be a serial killer, and then he goes on the run (accused of the boy's crimes) trying to find the kid and deal with him. There's a lot more to it than that, though, including eugenics experiments, conspiracies, psychological warfare, murders and mysteries and plenty more. To use a clumsy comparison, it'd be a great TV show, introducing guest stars and recurring supporting players while providing satisfying plots with closure each week. This time out, Dr. Tenma (the lead) meets up with a criminal psychiatrist he knew in prison. The story follows this psychiatrist's personal journey, including a story with his own current case that ties into Dr. Tenma's, as well as ongoing tales of Johan's sister, his followers and a clever federal agent who is tracking Dr. Tenma and doesn't seem entirely mentally balanced himself. Great suspense storytelling.

Graphic Novel A Day: Mail Order Ninja Vol. 2

Writer: Josh Elder
Artist: Erich Owen
Company: Tokyopop
Price: $5.99 ($5.99 at Amazon)

This book has received some relatively harsh criticism from friends like Johanna Draper Carlson and Don MacPherson, and while I can see where they're coming from, I kinda liked it. It's true that Elder's concept was at its best in its shorter form with its debut at Rising Stars of Manga, as the additional depth of backstory mostly takes away from the fun of the book, but that doesn't mean there's no fun to be had. Elder and Owen present a number of grade school archetypes, from the bully to the rich entitled girl to the bratty younger sister, and mixes in ninja clans and mind control for a story that reads like a younger readers' version of 1984 crossed with a Saturday afternoon ninja movie and a good war movie. Some of the pop culture references are a bit strained (the Pink Floyd one was a groaner), but some are genius (the Saturday Night Fever riff was a favorite). It's light reading, definitely skewing towards the younger side of all-ages, but there are some laugh-out-loud moments and a lot of fun ideas at work in Mail Order Ninja.

Graphic Novel A Day: Lone

Writer: Stuart Moore
Artists: Jerome Opena & Alberto Ponticelli
Company: Dark Horse
Price: $14.95 ($10.17 at Amazon)

The Rocket Comics line was pretty short-lived and, for my money, didn't really provide a lot of comics for me. But... Lone, the post-apocalyptic/western action comic by Moore and Opena, is a decent read. Opena has a really cool, Euro-influenced art style and as someone with a soft spot for both westerns and the post-apocalypse, I enjoyed the premise. Moore's story isn't quite all I'd like it to be, a little too straight to be over-the-top and a little too goofy in places to be serious and gritty, but there are a lot of neat ideas and some beautiful art that make it a good read. It reminds me pleasantly of the world of beloved computer game Fallout (although there are as many differences as similarities) and provides a solid read if you're in the mood for something in the post-apocalyptic vein.

Graphic Novel A Day: Adventures in Oz

Writer/Artist: Eric Shanower
Company: IDW
Price: $39.99 ($26.39 at Amazon)

I've never read the original Oz books, but I think I need to, if Shanower's original stories based on those books are any indications. All-ages reads, but not without a sophistication that I liked, and with a ton of imagination and fun. Adventures in Oz is essentially five graphic novels collected into a new, swanky oversized collection which really shows off Shanower's beautiful full-color artwork. Dorothy and friends get involved in adventures featuring Ice Kings, a war between trolla and wood nymphs, hidden islands, the lost Good Witch of the East, the Wicked Witch of the South and plenty more. It's like high fantasy meets kid lit, full of wild visuals and cool characters. Very highly recommended, and I wish I'd know how much I was going to like it, I would have ponied up the extra cash for the limited hardcover.

Weekly Comics to Come - December 13, 2006

TOP FIVE:
Batman #660 (First issue of the Ostrander/Mandrake arc was good, and Mandrake's art looks especially great)
Damned #3 (Very much enjoying this tale of Prohibition-era warring demon gangs and their unkillable investigator)
Escapists #6 (Can Vaughan wrap the series strong? Let's hope!)
Punisher Max From First To Last HC (I've read The End, and looking forward to reading the other tales in this hardcover)
Spirit #1 (Darwyn Cooke's relaunch of Will Eisner's classic... I wouldn't trust anyone else with it, but after reading New Frontier and Batman/Spirit, I trust him)

THE REST:
DMZ #14 (The second issue of a new, very intriguing, story arc)
Essential Off Handbook Marvel Universe Update 89 Tp (Not as good as the original stuff, mostly due to the characters covered, but still good stuff)
Ex Machina #25 (New story arc for the political/sci-fi series)
Exiles Annual #1 (Don't remember the solicited plot, but I know it's got a good creative team)
Fantastic Four The End #3 (Second issue weakened a little, but still beautiful art and fun story)
Fear Agent #9 (Always late, always a fun read)
Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #19 (Arcade vs. the FF with art by Kano and an all-ages vibe... better than the JMS FF)
Outer Orbit #1 (New outer space adventure with art by Sean Murphy!)

New Wrinkle on the Comics Advertising Debacle

Fans and retailers alike have been complaining about the number of ads in both DC and Marvel's books over the last couple months. Now I'm not generally one to take sides in the "DC vs. Marvel" debate (they both have their share of strengths and faults), but it's been accepted wisdom in the retailer community that Marvel is less retailer-friendly. That's not *always* the case (Marvel did get FOC before DC did), but it's generally true. And here's an example.

DC and Marvel have both overloaded their books with ads for the last couple months, with weighty extra pages and even (in DC's case) bound-in 3D glasses. Retailers pay for that increased weight with freight costs, but don't see extra profits from it. DC has now begun issuing freight credits for their overly heavy books... Marvel hasn't.

Graphic Novel A Day: Runaways Vol. 2 HC

Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artists: Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa, Skottie Young, etc.
Company: Marvel Comics
Price: $24.99 ($16.49 at Amazon)

Runaways is one of my favorite series, and hardcover is definitely the format of choice. This one, collecting #1-12 of volume two, had a lot to live up to, because that first hardcover was a thing of beauty. 18 issues collecting the entire first series, tons of extras including a series proposal by Vaughan, etc. Volume two isn't as good, but only by comparison to that first volume. In all other ways, this is a great read, and the perfect package for it. The stories include the introduction of Victor Mancha and the revelation of his super-villain dad, the introduction of Excelsior (former teen heroes trying to convince others to stay out of the game) and a road trip to New York to help out Cloak & Dagger. The extras are sparse compared to the last one, but they do include a script to volume two #1 by Vaughan and a few pages of sketches from Alphona. And that sweet original cover by Alphona, packed full of references to the stories, is so good that it matches right up there with the level of cover quality I've come to expect from usual cover artist Jo Chen.

Kids Do Read Comics:
There's a little discussion going on right now (and by right now I mean perpetually, but it's flared up lately from Larry Young and Jason McNamara) about whether or not kids read comics. And if not, why not. The accepted wisdom is that kids don't read comics. That comics passed them by, that they don't read them anymore, that only 20 and 30-year-olds are still reading comics. And to some extent, it's true, in that kid readership of comics is not as widespread as it used to be.

But the scenario Larry posits in his column is, quite honestly, just bullshit. I'm kinda surprised to see it coming from someone who has worked on the front lines of retail. Because I do work on the front lines of retail, every day, and kids *are* buying comics. Kids are *excited* about comics. They'd be more excited if there were always comics for them when a movie gets them excited about a character (There was no Daredevil for kids when the movie came out, and generally there isn't one for X-Men either). But I sell a pretty decent number of the Marvel Adventures digests, the Tokyopop Cinemangas, the Bone Scholastic editions, etc.

Here's the thing, and nobody wants to hear it: Kids don't want black and white, and they don't want new characters. They want characters that they recognize. They want Spider-Man and Batman and the X-Men and Sonic. Good lord, do they want Sonic. I didn't even know the character was still around until I started working retail, but every month we sell tons of Sonic comics, and thankfully Archie Comics has *finally* gotten around to doing some Sonic digests, which also are selling gangbusters.

So that's the sad truth. It's not that Colonia or Continuity aren't fine comics, but they don't have the shiny to attract the kids. Likewise, I love Clan Apis, but I have a devil of a time selling it to kids or their parents, even though it'd be perfect for some of them. And as for why Jason hasn't heard of a graphic novel by "KURT [expletive deleted because we’re still on the main blog page] BUSIEK?" and whether "comics journalism hit the Plado Ceiling?" Well, The Wizard's Tale is about 10 years old, and much as I loved it (I reviewed it and gave it a 10/10 when it first came out), it's long out of print (although available used at Amazon, and recommended) and, more to the point, it's not really what the kids are looking for either. Now, if someone were to get the Harry Potter license and do it right, that book would sell gangbusters. But the truth of the matter is, today's kids, from my observation, want characters that are familiar, they want full color and they (and especially their parents) want it cheap, or at least cheaper.

I won't deny that DC and Marvel especially could do with a wider selection of all-ages material, but this whole notion of "There's all this great kids' material and nobody knows about it" and "Kids want fancy new stuff nobody is providing them" are both pretty much dead wrong. The industry did fuck up in deciding to skew older and leave all-ages behind, but that decision was made probably 20-some years ago at the dawn of the direct market. These days, the reason kids aren't reading comics has more to do with the kids than with the comics.

Graphic Novel A Day: Robotika HC

Writer/Artist: Alex Sheikman
Company: Archaia Studios
Price: $19.95 ($13.57 at Amazon)

I already wrote a full review espousing my love of Robotika at Comic Pants, so I won't repeat too much about the substance of the book, what it's about, how great the art is, etc. here. What I will say is that, as usual, Archaia serves up production values that are worthy of the high class, beautifully-drawn comics that they've published. A nice hardcover, for only $20, reproducing Sheikman's future samurai/cyberpunk epic with two forewords, one by Ron Marz and one by Ted McKeever, plus a nice little sketch section in the back. Best part of all? The last page is a black and white image that promises more Robotika in 2007. Can't wait.

By the way, Amazon says it ships this within 1 to 3 months, which is an obscenely long time. I always recommend supporting your local comics shop when possible, but in this case I especially recommend it, or maybe seeking any of the number of fine graphic novel purveyors online if you don't have a local shop. Otherwise you might be waiting months to get the book.

Graphic Novel A Day: The Expendable One

Writer: Jason M. Burns
Artist: Bryan Baugh
Company: Viper Comics
Price: $11.95 ($10.16 at Amazon)

Action-comedy-horror about a guy who can't die, his hapless sidekick/scientist best friend and a sexy, kinda slutty FBI Agent (or is she?) battling a werewolf (or is he?) serial killer. A bit of a mess, quite honestly, too many concepts, not enough focus. The sophistication is about at an all-ages level, but there's a ton of cursing and mostly un-needed sexual innuendo and sexy imagery, thanks largely to fantasy object Agent Armstrong. It's a solid enough book to read, and Bryan Baugh's artwork is nice, especially for those who dig on Viper wunderkind Josh Howard, but it's got various issues as well. Nice production values, as with all Viper books, a neat little full-color digest package for $12, and I think it's been optioned for movie development, which means it's gotten the right attention from some folks at least.

Blog Template Update for November
This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published.

November was an interesting month (in the Chinese curse sense of the word), but most of it is stuff I either can't or don't want to discuss publicly. So just take my word for it, various shit went down in November, but life here at Casa de Lander is generally pretty decent, if occasionally stressful. But then, what else would you expect from the holiday season? As I write this update, we're coming out of the first weekend in December and I've gotten 80% of the Christmas shopping done, which is a minor miracle itself and lets me check one thing off my constantly growing to do list. Thanksgiving was a great time with the Hardie side of the family, and Katy had a blast playing with all her cousins. Wizard World Texas was a little slow, but we had fun anyway, and I definitely see doing it as a one-day show in future years if it keeps on going. Anyway, the tree is lit and decorated and we're fully into the swing of the Christmas season here. All I need is to pop Elf into the DVD player at some point in the next couple of weeks and mix in some Christmas music to my iPod playlists and it'll be officially 'tis the season and all that.

There were first issues in November, but not many made my top 20 cut. In fact, November was generally a pretty disappointing month for comics. I still came in at over 20 when trying to pin down comics I enjoyed, but mostly it was the usual suspects, and there weren't any cool new surprises like The Killer, Other Side or Damned. Still, Star Wars Dark Times kicks off the newest Dark Horse Star Wars tale in fine fashion, Batman #659 is a good opener for the Ostrander/Mandrake art and Batman/Spirit was one of my favorite single issues of the year. Actually, November was probably Darwyn Cooke month for me, since this also saw the publication of Absolute New Frontier, which is a gorgeous, amazing hardcover.

Breakdown on publishers in my top 20 this month: I read the most of Marvel, which is weird since I tend to hate Marvel these days. But 2 of those books are Brubaker, 2 are Vaughan and the other two are out-of-continuity, an interesting MAX miniseries (Hellstorm) and one of the best all-ages reads in comics, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. Vertigo and Image tie with four each (the return of Godlands and the move of True Story Swear To God helped bump things up for Image), DC has only three (all Batman, all more or less out of continuity - maybe Infinite Crisis and its fallout *did* suck more than Civil War. Or maybe Marvel just has more books crowding the shelves), two from Dark Horse (another Vaughan and a Star Wars book) and one from Oni Press. I'm honestly a little disturbed at how mainstream my comics reading has become (in some respects, although none of my favorites tend to hit the Diamond Top 20 or even 30)... is it me, or are the indie publishers producing less these days? Maybe they're all going straight to graphic novel, since half of my top ten graphic novels are what I'd consider indy (Oni, Gemstone, Adhouse, Top Shelf, IDW).

On the TV front, the big news is the addition of Daybreak, which I expected to like OK at best, but it's turning into one of my favorite new fall shows. Love Taye Diggs ever since Go, and he's making a pretty good run as a new action hero. The premise about a cop re-living the day, trying to work out a case, is being written and directed really well, and I'm as jazzed to watch each new installment as I usually am to watch 24. OK, maybe just one notch lower. But at any rate, 24 junkies looking for a pre-January fix should probably give this one a look, and it's worth noting that the show, at 13 episodes, is more likely to serve up a satisfying ending than long-running serials like Lost and Heroes. Both of which I'm enjoying, the former more than the latter, and I'm bummed that the big "Save the Cheerleader" episode was so lame. But the "Six Months Later" episode that followed it was pretty strong. Also uneven: Doctor Who, which has mostly been disappointing and Veronica Mars, which has mostly been good, occasionally disappointing, occasionally great. Still better than most of the shows that are making the big ratings and being championed by Entertainment Weekly, which is pissing me off more and more with their slobbery love for Grey's Anatomy and constant bashing of Studio 60, which is uneven but always smart and usually funny. The Office has also been hilarious, at its best when the merger episode happened. I'm also generally enjoying Battlestar Galactica, although that last episode (the boxing one) mostly served to remind me how little I care about boxing. Ever since they lifted off from that fantastic Caprica story, the series has been on a bit of a downward slide. Still good... but rarely great.

New links added this month were the blog for Comic Foundry, which was an online magazine for comics and will in 2007 be a new print magazine for comics. I also found, usually through links from The Beat, new artist websites for Jen Wang and Dan Hipp.

Graphic Novel A Day: Banya The Explosive Delivery Man Vol. 1

Writer/Artist: Kim Young-Oh
Translators: Taesoon Kang & Derek Kirk Kim
Company: Dark Horse
Price: $12.95 ($10.36 at Amazon)

This is one of the new offerings in Dark Horse's manwha (Korean comics) line, translated by fan-favorite creator Derek Kirk Kim and his mother, Taesoon Kang. I should state right up front that Banya, despite the title, does not deliver explosives. Instead, that's more of an adjective describing him. How to describe Banya? Well, it's sort of Kevin Costner's The Postman meets Berserk with a little bit of manga-style slapstick humor for good measure. In what is either post-apocalypse or fantasy, there's a big war between men and monstrous Torren (think mutants), and delivering in these dangerous times and desert landscapes are Banya and his ilk, of the Gaya Desert Post Office. This is played for laughs, but it's also played in such a way to make Banya and the other two members of his Post Office look pretty badass. Really nice art, some great action sequences, an interesting premise, neat monsters and good characters, Banya is fun, stylish and action-packed.

Graphic Novel A Day: Pathfinder

Writers: Laeta Kalogridis & Marcus Nispel
Artist: Christopher Shy
Company: Dark Horse
Price: $19.95 ($15.56 on Amazon)

The first in my graphic novel a day series that I couldn't finish reading. This is a weird graphic novel, an adaptation of sorts of a movie (which either has already come out or is coming out) about a Native American tribe that battles Vikings. The artwork by Christopher Shy is in the Ashley Wood-Ben Templesmith style, which is to say it is occasionally evocative but almost completely unsuited for sequential storytelling (in my opinion), and it also doesn't really get the readers emotionally engaged. The story is built up from concept art and storyboards done for the movie, with dialogue that comes either from the director, the writer or the "producer" credited in the graphic novel. I realized it was time to stop reading when I got to the part where the vikings slaughtered the lead character's family in front of him and I just didn't care at all what happened next.