The Best Political Theory Ever

John Rogers, writer of Blue Beetle, several short stories for Boom! and TV shows many and varied, chats with a friend about politics. And comes up with a shockingly, frighteningly believable theory about "crazification."

It's a Boy

Suzanne and I had our seismographoscan (I forget what it's actually called at the moment, so I'm using the name Lex Luthor would have used if he invented it) yesterday to find out the sex of the baby, and it turns out... it's a boy.

Truthfully, I think we both were expecting it. We would have been surprised if they'd told us it's a girl. This means a whole new set of learning challenges... we've been through a baby girl before, but a baby boy (and a toddler boy) is going to be quite a different story.

But I'm pretty happy about it. Would have been perfectly happy with another girl, I love Katy like I didn't think was even possible, but yeah, I'm looking forward to having a son, which is a whole different experience.

Now we just have to come up with a name. And no, Kal-El ain't even in the running. Neither is Zeus.

Graphic Novel A Day: Lucifer Vol. 11 Evensong

Writer: Mike Carey
Artists: Peter Gross, Ryan Kelly, Jon J Muth, Zander Cannon, Dean Ormston, Aaron Alexovich
Company: DC Comics/Vertigo
Price: $14.99 ($10.64 at Amazon)

Lucifer was never my favorite Vertigo series, and by the end, I mostly felt like I was reading out of completeness sake. But the final volume really hits some high notes, especially with Elaine's last tale, which is at once heartbreaking and uplifting and human, surprising given the godlike scale that the book always operated on. Carey's magnum opus, moreso even than Gaiman's Sandman from which it sprung, seems like a book that would reward re-reading all together, and that's something I'll have to do at some point, but even not fully remembering everything that had gone before, Evensong makes a pretty satisfying ending for a long-running Vertigo series. It also features some great art, and finally they get around to reprinting the one-shot Lucifer: Nirvana with art by Jon J. Muth which was one of my favorite stories in the book's run.

Graphic Novel A Day: Grendel The Devil Inside

Writer: Matt Wagner
Artist: Bernie Mireault
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $12.95 ($11.01 at Amazon)

I'm a big fan of Matt Wagner, I like Mireault's artwork and I enjoy Grendel, but I have to say, this was one of my least favorite Grendel stories. One of the things I enjoy about Grendel is that Wagner feels free to change up tone and style in each arc, not to mention mixing up his protagonists and antagonists, but this third generation following the original Hunter Rose feels like it's kind of losing the path. The story, in a nutshell, is that the lover of Christine Spar has been hit hard by her loss, and combining that with a growing disdain for the city, he slowly goes mad and starts killing people, eventually putting him in conflict with the cop who brought Christine Spar down. However, the story is told through several viewpoints, including the lead character's thoughts, his notebooks and the voice of Grendel, a presence which has begun to infect him. It's all very experimental storytelling, and it's an interesting experiment, but I guess I prefer Wagner a bit more straightforward in general. Solid work, but not the best chapter in the Grendel saga.

Graphic Novel A Day: Kane Vol. 6: Partners

Writer/Artist: Paul Grist
Company: Image Comics
Price: $16.99 ($11.55 at Amazon)

Picking up nicely where Volume 5 left off, Kane Vol. 6 continues to flash back to the events that caused Kane to become a pariah in the department, as well as mirroring them with a modern "devil's bargain" that his current partner has to make with Oscar Darke to find her former partner. As always, Grist mixes experimental storytelling and quirky touches with straightforward cop stories, and as always, the results are very entertaining. Partners is a weaker offering than Vol. 5, if only because the longer story format doesn't have the same "get in, get out" punch that the short stories of Vol. 5 had, but it's still a great read. When I finished, I was disappointed, realizing that there's no Kane on the horizon anytime real soon... and I think it might be time to finally go pick up Jack Staff Vol. 2, and the recently arrived Vol. 3... only then I'll have no Grist to look forward to for a while.

Graphic Novel A Day: Kane Vol. 5 - The Untouchable Rico Costas

Writer/Artist: Paul Grist
Company: Image Comics
Price: $13.99 ($11.89 at Amazon)

I enjoy Paul Grist's British-flavored superhero anthology Jack Staff, but I *love* his quirky cop procedural Kane. I'd forgotten how much until I finally got into the last two volumes I've bought, one of which was recent and one of which has been sitting on my shelf for a while. Kane has a heavy Frank Miller influence, even going so far as to have a terrific short story in this volume that references and in some ways lampoons a lot of Miller's Sin City, but if I had to describe Kane in shorthand, I'd say it's more like NYPD Blue done by David E. Kelley and Will Eisner. Sure, the gritty police procedural is there, in the form of Kane's tortured backstory about killing his corrupt partner, but there are also bizarre characters like the self-serving blowhard mayor (not far from Family Guy's Mayor Adam West), a blind hitman who's a direct reference on Daredevil and a crimelord named Oscar Darke who "speaks" with a thick phonetic Southern accent. Add in Kane's stylistic touches, like doing a whole issue in the format of a tabloid newspaper when the story focuses on a tabloid reporter, or his skewed Sin City impression in "Fwankie's Big Night Out" and you've got a terrific and unusual book.

Graphic Novel A Day: The Irregulars

Writers: Steven-Elliot Altman & Michael Reaves
Artist: Bong Dazo
Company: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $12.95 ($11.01 at Amazon)

It seems like a good mix, the kid sidekicks of Sherlocke Holmes with contemporary villain Jack the Ripper and a touch of Lovecraft. With one of the original writers on Batman: The Original Series and Gargoyles as co-writer, even! Unfortunately, The Irregulars is sort of bland. The whole side jaunt into a fantasy realm feels more like a weak L. Frank Baum riff than Lovecraft, the writers and artist never really distinguish the characters enough to get me to care about any of them and as a result there wasn't much dramatic tension. Maybe bigger Sherlock Holmes fans than I would dig this, but I wanted to like it in theory and had trouble finishing it.

Graphic Novel A Day: Hellcity Vol. 1

Writer: Macon Blair
Artist: Joe Flood
Company: Gigantic Graphic Novels
Price: $13.95 ($11.16 at Amazon)

Previous Gigantic Graphic Novels offerings, such as Rotting in Dirtville or Dead West, have been books I've really enjoyed, so I had high expectations for Hellcity. That might help explain a little bit of disappointment, that I had set the bar too high. It's not that Hellcity is bad - it's an interesting classic style noir mystery set in an urban version of Hell - but aside from the setting, the whole thing plays out like a hundred other variations on the same crime noir story, and it didn't feel as fresh as I would have liked. I was also a bit disappointed that in a whole $14 graphic novel, I didn't feel like I got a whole story. I realize this is part one of three, but I think it's a bad idea to end your graphic novel on a cliffhanger without resolving some story thread over the course of the story. Basically, this volume is all setup, and it's intriguing setup, especially the last third or so of the book, but without any payoff, it's hard to get too engaged by the story.

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.