Clowes, Dan

December 18, 2004

 

You can read in an interview with Dan from the fine folks at The Onion here.Or an older one over at Tight Science right here. Here’s one over at Hermenaut, another one from Cracked Machine, and one from Salon. Hey, he did do a movie, you know. There are all kinds of interviews out there with him if you just know where to look for them.

David Boring

How does he do it? Seriously, how does he manage to top himself with each and every issue of Eightball? I remember thinking that about 8 years ago, when #13 blew me away. Every one since then has been better than the one before it. Whatever it is he’s doing, I hope he doesn’t stop. This is a collection of the story from the past three issues of Eightball called David Boring. His best work to date and right up there on the groundbreaking scale with Palestine and Jimmy Corrigan, this is something that everyone on the planet should read.

Ghost World

Soon to be a major motion picture! Well, a motion picture, anyway. Clowes worked closely on the film with director Terry Zwigoff (of Crumb fame), so I have high hopes of it being a good flick. If you haven’t read the story yet, do me a favor. Wait until after you see the movie, then if you’re curious, order the book. Tell me which one you liked better. I’m running an informal poll here. Oh yeah, it’s the story of two teenage girls and their views of the world. They drift apart and neither can seem to stop it, or to care about it. I thought it was kind of disjointed when I read it, but that’s probably because I didn’t read it in collected form yet.

Caricature

Collects some of his better shorts from Eightball. If you already bought the comics like me there’s probably no reason to get this, but if you haven’t and you wonder who this “Dan Clowes” guy is that you’re hearing so much about, this is as good a place as any to start to find out.

Pussey!

Best story of a comic book dork ever. If most of the people reading this read comics when you were a kid (a pretty safe bet, I’d think), then there’s probably going to be quite a bit of this you can relate to, like it or not.

Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron

If Lloyd Llewelyn put Dan Clowes on the comic map, then this book was what made sure that he stayed there. Kind of a mess (by his own admission he had no idea how to end it), but still utterly surreal and fascinating. A relatively quick read but one that’ll stick with you for quite a while.

Eightball #23

New Eightball out now! That’s all this “review” is really for, as how do you review somebody when you don’t have even the faintest hint of impartiality in your thoughts about their work? This book is $7, huge, and all about a man named Andy. Oh, and I found one (and only one) spelling mistake in here so, newsflash: Dan Clowes is human too!

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Posted by Kevin

Cruse, Howard

December 15, 2004

Website

Stuck Rubber Baby

I’ve already mentioned to you that this is in my top three for required reading. There’ll be a review up soon where I’ll try to get a friend of mine to convince you of this fact. Past that, the man is the pioneer for gay comix. He’s been around the underground scene forever and this is his magnum opus. Read it.

Wendell All Together

Collects the newspaper strip all in one volume.

Early Barefootz

Collects a lot of his early work in one volume.

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Posted by Kevin

Noland, Fred – Shpilkes #1

December 15, 2004

Website

Shpilkes #1

I don’t see a number anywhere, but it’s the size of a real comic thanks to the Xeric Foundation, so let’s just call it #1, OK? If I see anything different I’ll change it. Random buy, and I had really mediocre expectations for this. What can I say, they were met. This was going to be a much more negative review before I went to his website though. There are a few pages there that are pretty funny. Not that the book is bad necessarily, just kind of dull. Stagger Lee didn’t do much for me (comics about songs rarely do, even folk songs), Cracked Actor (about a washed up child actor) was a little better, but I still wouldn’t buy the book for it. King Curmudgeon was downright good though, so the book is saved! Sort of. It’s the story of a grump out with some of his trendy friends, and he decides to mess with the head of one girl who can’t stop smiling and staring at him, no matter what’s said. Funny stuff, but short. The wordless story at the end (Automaton) was OK too. Overall, this is probably something that you can live without. I like his art a lot though and he seems to be going in the right direction, so I’ll buy whatever comes out next. Until then, read the comics on his page and see what you think for yourself.

Contact: PO BOX 12253 Berkeley, CA 94712-5253

Or e-mail him at fred_nice_00@yahoo.com

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Miller, Frank

December 15, 2004

Listing of all his comics

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Best Batman story ever. Word is that he’s working on a sequel. We’ll see shortly whether or not that is a good idea, I guess. One of the great things about this book was that it left things open in the end for you to make up your own ending.

Batman: Year One

How Batman got started. Not quite as groundbreaking as his other Batman book but still thoroughly entertaining.

Ronin

The book that started it all for him, and to this day I’ve still only read the first three parts of this story. Those books are golden, I don’t know what happens the rest of the way.

300

I love his Sin City work, but this just blew that away. It’s (with a few liberties taken) the story of a battle between the vast armies of Persia and 300 warriors from Greece. One of the best things he’s ever done.

Sin City: Hell and Back

Ah, the first computer revolt. I had this whole thing written, forgot to save it, and me computer locked up at some point after that when I was doing something else. Oh well. This volume is the story of a man who leaps off a cliff to save the life of a young woman trying to commit suicide and what happens to both of them after that. Wallace and Esther… not exactly names that inspire fear, but Wallace is probably the most capable of all the “heroes” in these books. It’s nice to see one of these books where the lead guy doesn’t almost die half a dozen times before the series is over with. This is also the largest of the series, clocking in at 9 issues (the longest one besides that was 6 issues, and this one also had one double-sized issue to boot). As for where this story fits in terms of quality with the rest of them, I’d have to say it’s right in the middle. For a lot of series that would be a bad thing, but there’s not a volume of this that’s anything less than slightly above average, so that still makes this a pretty damned good read.

The most disturbing thing about this volume, honestly, is all the talk that’s gone on about Frank Miller lately. I’ve heard for sure that he’s doing a Dark Knight sequel (and I mention my thoughts on it somewhere else on this page) and I’ve also heard that he’s doing more Daredevil stuff. That’s all well and good for Marvel and DC, but it sucks for anybody who’s a much bigger fan of his Sin City stuff than anything else he’s done. Sure, I liked the superhero stuff when I was younger, but I’ve outgrown almost all of that, mostly because a lot of it is just bad. Granted, this stuff will be better, but these are still guys running around in spandex. You kind of lose the ability to suspend disbelief about that sort of thing as you get older. It’s his life, and I’m sure the money is fantastic, but I think he’s making the wrong call. Unless he’s only doing this so he’ll be free to do whatever he wants with Sin City for the rest of his life, then I’ll be happy. Back to this volume. It’s always fascinating to see who you can recognize from previous Sin City volumes, and that’s certainly true for this book too. All kinds of familiar faces. There’s also a “trippy” segment that has to be seen to be believed. See if you can spot all the other characters he’s ever worked with, and it’s in color too. Like I said, not the best of these volumes, but any of them can be considered more than good enough to spend an afternoon reading.

Sin City: Big Fat Kill

Dwight’s back at it again. He has a new girlfriend and the story starts off with his defending her honor the only way he knows how: by beating the crap out of everybody involved. I think Miller has a hard time drawing handsome male characters, because everybody in the book seems to think that Dwight is handsome as hell, but it’s kind of hard to tell when you look at him. Anyway, Dwight takes it upon himself to take care of the new problem that his girlfriend has, but she neglects to mention a vital fact about the guy who’s causing her all this trouble, a secret that could blow Sin City apart at the seams… don’t descriptions like that just bug the hell out of you? Anyway, it’s true, and it’s hard to think of anything destroying the “harmony” that prevails in Sin City more than the action in this volume.

It’s funny. This one has all the people that I loved in A Dame To Kill For and more. All kinds of action all over the place, Miho gets to really cut loose (although it could be argued that she gets to do that in Family Values), and it has probably the best ending of the series. What I can’t put my finger on is why this one isn’t my favorite of the bunch. It has all the ingredients, but it just didn’t completely blow me away in the way that some of the other volumes did. Which isn’t to say that it’s bad at all, as it’s a worthy edition to the Sin City story. It just seems like it could have been more. A couple of things bothered me, but they made sense in the story, I guess. Just kind of cliche when you look at the whole thing from the perspective of “all noir stories”. Saved from a bullet by a very obvious thing (not to give anything away) and the dead man having a conversation with him on a drive. I can’t see how the story would have progressed nearly as well without having the dead guy talk to him (it would have made for a dull car ride, that’s for sure), but… there’s just not anything in Dwight’s character so far to indicate that he would think he was talking to a dead man. It just didn’t ring true for some reason. All in all, a few minor quibbles keep this from being the best of the bunch. If you’re not as picky as I am (regarding what could be argued as a couple of very minor things to be picky about), then this could be the book that you like the best out of this series.

That Yellow Bastard: A Tale from Sin City

It’s funny. I remember this as being possibly my favorite in the series, but after reading it again I’m going to have to take that judgment back. Too many near deaths for my liking. You just kind of stop buying it after a while, you know? I’m willing to let Mr. Miller take me on a ride, don’t get me wrong. My disbelief has been suspended many times by that guy and it probably will be again many times, but there are only so many times per series that the main guy can almost die. If you can get past that, this is still a good one, but it was impossible for me to get past it.

This is the story of the son of the most powerful businessman in town brutally raping and killing little girls and getting away with it because of his connections. One man stands up to him and is horribly punished for it. There’s a lot more to it than that, but the fun of these series is in being taken for a ride, so I’m not going to give anything away here. Lots of sex and mayhem and the story has enough twists and turns to keep me happy, it’s just the little things that bug me here. Maybe if the protagonist wasn’t around 60 years old when the series kicks off (and a lot older by the end), then I could buy this a little more. Miller just doesn’t seem to be able to draw anybody besides the same type of male that he always has, and this guy should look at least a little different from all those people. Possibly if the series was in color, but one of the things that makes Sin City work so well is the use of black and white and a whole ton of the solid blacks. In the end, this is an OK addition to the series but that’s about it. I guess the lesson here is to never trust my memory…

Booze, Broads and Bullets: Sin City

A collection of Sin City shorts. As such, it doesn’t have the power of some of the other volumes, but it’s still good if you’ve read everything else and are just looking for more.

Sin City

Frank Miller reviews are the easiest thing in the world to write. You either love him or you hate him, and nothing anybody says is going to change that. I happen to think the guy’s a genius. If you know the names Cain, Chandler and Jim Thompson, you’ll love this series. Comic noir at its best. This is the first one in the series and is the story of Marv, a pathetic character who falls in love with a woman who is trying to get him to protect her. He gets too drunk and she is killed while she’s sleeping next to him before he even knows he’s supposed to protect her and is framed for the murder, and that’s where the fun begins. The rest of the book is him trying to find the killer and the men responsible for it. One thing I don’t get, and I didn’t notice this the first time I read it: why was the girl, Goldie, killed? Was it just a matter of getting mixed up with the wrong crowd? Maybe I missed it, and I guess it isn’t a crucial element, but it seems like a plot point that should have been mentioned somewhere along the way. One possible knock on this series is that the main characters in a lot of the books are really similar. They’re all strong, imposing types who kick everybody’s ass while they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing in the series. I don’t think that’s true of the guy from A Dame To Kill For, but I’ll have to read them all again to let you know.

So do I think you should buy this book? If you like Frank Miller, yes. He’s at his best when he’s writing and drawing, and that’s what he’s doing on this series. I don’t know if he’s just taking a break from this to do the Batman book or if he’s done with this series. There’s only so many stories he can tell about this city before it gets boring, so I kind of hope that he moves on. I should also mention, without giving anything away, that this book has one of the best finales ever.

Family Values: A Sin City Yarn

It’s strange. Turns out that a lot of my preconceptions for this series are going out the window when I re-read them. I had this one pegged as being kind of slow and boring for some reason, but that isn’t the case at all. I’d say right now that this is my favorite of the bunch, short as it is. For my money, there’s not a better character in the series than Miho. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you read this, but she just exemplifies everything that Sin City is supposed to be about. She’s quiet, beautiful and deadly.

The story of this volume isn’t what it seems like at first, so I’m not going to give anything away. It starts off with a man looking to find out what happened at a diner the night before involving a shooting, but we don’t find out what he’s really after until much later. I like the shortness of this more than anything. I think that was a big problem I had with That Yellow Bastard: it was just too big. Too many ridiculous things happened, whereas if it has been a little bit shorter he could have told a tighter story and I probably would have bought into it a little more. This is over almost before you know it, but it’s basically just one conversation and one journey, with very little else slowing it down. I don’t know about it being the perfect graphic novel, but it’s the perfect Sin City book. Complex plot, plenty of action, and good dialogue. You sure wouldn’t know from reading these books that this is the same man who scripted Robocop 2 and 3, but the creative process is much different in Hollywood so I should probably cut the guy some slack Bottom line, this is the cheapest of the collections and, at this point in my re-reading (Sin City, That Yellow Bastard and this), the best. Hm, looking at the Amazon page, it looks like everybody disagrees with me. The hell with them, what do they know? They’re probably all waiting for Marv to come back and won’t be happy until he does. I insist that this one is tightly plotted and paced and is great. It’s a quick read, granted, but it’s good clean fun all the way through.

A Dame to Kill For: A Tale from Sin City

The best limited series in the Sin City line, bar none. It’s a more complex work than most of the other books in the series, and that’s not to say that the other ones are simple, because they’re pretty far from it. If I had one complaint about this series, it’s that the protagonist almost dies in every series. Shot to pieces, no way that he could be alive, but hate always keeps him going. It’s not a bad trick, but it would be nice if Miller didn’t use it in every series. Anyway, this one has it all: Dwight (the only character featured three times), Miho (I’ve already mentioned that she’s my favorite character in the whole Sin City world), Manute, Marv… Listen, I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who haven’t read any of these series yet and don’t know where to start. I don’t know why you’d be reading just one review, but if you’re reading this one, this book is the one to get. Or Family Values, if you want to be a cheapskate about it.

What’s it about, you say? Well, Dwight apparently went through a lot of bad shit back in the day, so these days he’s living clean and not letting “the monster” inside out. A visit from a past lover (Ava) has him rethink this plan, and finding out that she’s in trouble only makes him more convinced. After all, she tells him that she still loves him, and he never got over her. It’s one giant book of twists and turns after that, so I’m not going to spoil anything for you. One thing I really like about all these series is that there isn’t just a simple formula that Miller follows. I mean, you could read the greats of noir (like Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, James Cain and Dashiell Hammett) and, for all their brilliance, some of them got a little lazy. There would, more often than not, be a easily identifiable part of the story where you could see a plot twist coming a mile away, and that just isn’t the case with this guy. Not that I’m elevating him to their level, at least not yet. The greats of noir got to where they are in history (or at least for the people who still read books) by being prolific geniuses whose work has stood up to the test of time. It’s yet to be determined if the same can be said for this stuff, but it’s sure great to be along for the ride trying to figure it out.

Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller, Volume 1

Watch out! Frank writes precious little of this volume. If you really want to see his art style progress a little bit, then I guess you should buy this. Otherwise avoid it at all costs because the story is your typical superhero bullshit.

Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller, Volume 2

Now this one should be the absolute shit. His Daredevil stuff is probably still my favorite work of his (superhero fanboy geek that I am), and this volume has a lot of the issues that I never did manage to find. My copy should be here pretty soon and I’ll tell you all about it then, but I honestly can’t see there being anything wrong with this volume.

Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Volume 3

This should finish off the Frank Miller Daredevils. Gee, it only took them almost 20 years to get this whole thing back in print.

Elektra: Assassin

I hear that Elektra is alive again in the regular Marvel Universe. That’s too bad as I can’t imagine anybody else writing her as well as Frank Miller, and he did kill her when he was writing her. I guess that happens a lot in superhero books and it doesn’t mean much, but at least he had the common decency to leave her dead.

Hard Boiled

Gruesome mayhem. Do you need any more convincing than that?

Martha Washington Saves the World

An absolutely awful book. The first one of his (and as far as I know, the only one) that I really hated. I liked the first couple of books in this series, but this was just plain bad.

Martha Washington Goes to War

You know, after reading that last book I’m going to have to go back and read these again before I can say that I liked them. I liked them at the time, but that other book was so bad that it makes me question my response to the early works.

Give Me Liberty

OK, I know I liked this series. I’ll read it again soon to tell you why, but this one was good.

I hear that Elektra is alive again in the regular Marvel Universe. That’s too bad as I can’t imagine anybody else writing her as well as Frank Miller, and he did kill her when he was writing her. I guess that happens a lot in superhero books and it doesn’t mean much, but at least he had the common decency to leave her dead.

Hard Boiled

Gruesome mayhem. Do you need any more convincing than that?

Martha Washington Saves the World

An absolutely awful book. The first one of his (and as far as I know, the only one) that I really hated. I liked the first couple of books in this series, but this was just plain bad.

Martha Washington Goes to War

You know, after reading that last book I’m going to have to go back and read these again before I can say that I liked them. I liked them at the time, but that other book was so bad that it makes me question my response to the early works.

Give Me Liberty

OK, I know I liked this series. I’ll read it again soon to tell you why, but this one was good.

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Posted by Kevin

Ware, Chris

December 15, 2004

Chris at Fantagraphics

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth

This won just about every award last year, and I don’t think anybody out there had a bad word to say about it. That being said, it wasn’t until I was most of the way through it that I saw what an amazing piece of work that it actually was, so I’m going to hold off on the full review until I read it again. Thanks to my roommate for being kind of enough to let me borrow it, though. Until then, I can say with all confidence that this is one of the best things ever done in comics, and if this doesn’t bring some much-needed respectability to the field, nothing will.

Quimby the Mouse (Acme Novelty Series)

The new book by Chris Ware. I’m guessing that this is going to reprint the Quimby the Mouse strips from Acme Novelty Library (call me a master detective, but the title should be some clue). While these didn’t impress me as much as the Jimmy Corrigan stories, I’ve also never read a whole bunch of them at once, and his attention to the minutest of details has to be seen to be believed. My copy was delayed, so I don’t know if this will be out soon or what the story is. As always, when I hear something you’ll be the first to know… Here’s a website with a bunch of ordering information for Acme Novelty Library, along with a lot of old stuff. Covers too!

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Posted by Kevin

Gumprich, Chris & Rainey, Jason – Ace Fedora: Private Eye

December 15, 2004

Website

Ace Fedora: Private Eye (with Jason Rainey)

Chris seems to have a pile of people willing to do all kinds of different comics with him, which is pretty much always a good thing for a guy just starting out. This is a short one at 8 pages, and I think it mostly done so Chris could say “dame” a few times. It’s a parody of hard boiled stories. You know, James Cain, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, those types of people, which everybody on the planet should read in between comics. This one is about a private eye who’s checking on a man to see if he’s cheating on his wife, although there’s a secret behind his “wife”. It’s was an OK book, over before I knew it. It looked great though, Jason obviously took some time on this one. Contact info is up there, it’s $1.

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Posted by Kevin

Hanuka, Asaf & Tomer

December 14, 2004

Asaf’s Website

Tomer’s Website

Bipolar #1

This one is a lot more raw than the third issue I saw. You could tell that they were just getting a feel for what they were doing. Not necessarily a bad thing, as it was still a pretty good issue (and it’ll probably be even better when I can connect it with the other two when they get here). It starts the story of the afterlife where everybody there has killed themselves and has a couple of other random tales. One is about a superhero or a fantasy, and another is a random series of images strung together, unless you’re smarter than me and can make sense of the whole thing. The website is linked below, check out all the lovely samples…

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Posted by Kevin

Spielgelman, Art

December 14, 2004

Interviews:
1

Maus:
A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History/ Here My Troubles Began/
Boxed Set
The single best comic story ever done. There used to be a rant
here until I realized that most of it was based on some bizarre mood
swing where I took shots at Spiegelman for not doing comics as much
anymore. What right do I possibly have to be angry because a
grown man chose not to concentrate on the thing that he was best at
in the world? I mean, for all I know he doesn’t even enjoy
doing comics now, or maybe he only had that one great story in him
and that was it. I don’t know and I shouldn’t say anything to
take away from the one work of immense significance he has
done. Comics would be worse off if this book wasn’t around and
we should all be grateful for it.

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Posted by Kevin

Prewitt, Archer – Sof’ Boy and Friends #2

December 14, 2004

Website (music-related)

Sof’ Boy and Friends #2

These are some of those “mood” comics that I talk about from time to time. The perfect time to read this one is when you’re depressed in some way or other and need something to cheer you up. This has, every time, at least for me. It’s basically the adventures of this androgynous blob of white goo that walks around with a smile on his face, no matter what happens to him. I know Archer Prewitt is a busy man (what with his musical career and all, and he’s fast becoming a favorite of mine in that field as well. What do you all think, should I put certain music on here like his too? Or what about James Kochalka’s CDs? Let me know), but the world needs more of these comics. There aren’t enough of them to be put in a graphic novel yet, but you can always buy the individual books, and you very well should.

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Posted by Kevin

Hon, Anthony – Jack and Lucky #1

December 14, 2004

Website

Jack and Lucky #1

OK, take a look at the cover. I know that giant cat thing was right there, but it still really freaked me out when I saw it for the first time. See, the first six pages were all about Jack trying to pick up a girl in a book store. When he came home for the day, without even thinking this was odd, there’s a giant cat sitting on his couch watching TV. Maybe I missed an introduction or something, or maybe giant cats are the norm in his world, but I stopped noticing by the end of the issue anyway. About the only complaint I have about the issue is that Anthony seems to to be unable to draw anything but gorgeous, buxom women, if that’s really a complaint. Other than that the art is nothing short of phenomenal and the sampler comic he sent me showed that he can draw regular women too. I don’t see how he could ever hope to put something this detailed out on a regular basis, but I’m more than willing to check it out while he does. Send him an e-mail or check out his website, why don’t you?

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Posted by Kevin

Moore, Alan

December 14, 2004

Alan Moore fansite

Watchmen

What can be said that hasn’t been said about this already? It, along with The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, changed mainstream comics forever. If you still haven’t read this because it has superheroes in it, open your mind a little bit and you’re in for a hell of a treat.

V For Vendetta

Made a little bit before Watchmen, this remains one of the great underrated comics in history. It didn’t get anywhere near the press but was just as good, if not better. This was before “Big Brother” type stories in comics weren’t totally cliche, so keep that in mind while reading this.

From Hell

The story (or at least a well-researched theory) or Jack the Ripper. This’ll be a movie I believe this fall with Johnny Depp and Heather Graham. It took ten years to make this and it’s something like 500 pages long. It’s won a bundle of awards, and deservedly so.

Saga of the Swamp Thing

His Swamp Thing run is kind of forgotten these days, but that’s what got him started here in the states. It completely changed the character and gave other writers material that they’re still using to keep what is now a miserable series going. This is the first volume and it shows what the Swamp Thing actually is: not a man who has been changed into a walking moss monster but a plant who thinks it is a man. Brilliant, groundbreaking stuff.

Swamp Thing: Love and Death

Continues the story with Swamp Thing going to hell to find the woman he loves.

Swamp Thing: The Curse

Will DC collect his entire run ever? Until they do, this is the last volume available. This probably collects up to around #42, and Alan wrote the series until #64, so there is plenty more out there to be gathered.

Swamp Thing: A Murder of Crows

Just found this on Amazon (9/2) for Alan Moore while I was looking around for covers. It doesn’t say the exact run, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s probably directly after The Curse. This is one of the better series ever until it falls apart at the end, so if you have the first three books (or some of the older issues like me) you already know that this one is going to be required reading.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1898

I’m way behind on his new stuff. Once I knew he was doing anything at all again, he was already a few issues into every series and I figured I’d wait until the collected works came out. That plan hasn’t worked very well as I’m still broke and I still haven’t bought some of them, this one included. I don’t know, I’ve heard good things about it and it’s Alan Moore. How can it be bad?

Batman: The Killing Joke

I know, I know, it’s a Batman book. But it changed the Joker forever, and that’s no mean feat.

Tom Strong: Collected Edition

Tom Strong is Alan’s take on the Superman character, or maybe it’s reprising his take on his Miracleman character. I don’t know, I still haven’t read this one yet.

The Worm: The Largest Comic Strip in the World

I didn’t even know this existed until I saw it on the Amazon page, so don’t ask me to tell you anything about it. All I know for sure is that it’s written by Alan Moore and Garth Ennis, so it has to be the best thing in the world. Right?

Top Ten Book One

In a town where every person has super powers, how do the cops keep order? The first of these books that I actually read, it made me feel stupid for not at least trying to pick this series up in the middle. Much more entertaining than I thought it would be, and I don’t know why I had a bad feeling about it. Because I mistakenly thought he was working for DC again and lost a little bit of respect for him, perhaps?

Top 10 Book Two

This is the last of the books I was able to buy with my “I still have a steady job, why not get this book?” money, and I don’t think I could have picked a better one. I didn’t follow this book as it was coming out, but there’s no way that it could have come out on a monthly basis. Every panel is packed with in-jokes and references to other comics and characters, from “Vacation on Infinite Earths” to a Hawkwoman feeding little baby hawks in a nest to Kang the Caterer. It’s been said before in other reviews, but this is pretty much Hill Street Blues with superheroes. There might have been three fight scenes in this whole book. It’s all about the characters and the human side of all these fantastic figures. After all, super powers kind of stops being a conversation topic when everybody in town has some. And always, always check out the backgrounds of these panels. There’s always superheroes flying around and doing something, more often than not you’ll probably recognize them. That brings me to my only problem with the book. If you haven’t grown up on comics, you’re going to miss a lot of stuff in here. I think the average person would still get a lot out of it, but this is for the comic book fans, plain and simple. It’s $14.95 and you don’t really have to read these two books in order, although I guess it might help for certain parts. It’s some of his best work in years, definitely the best of the “America’s Best Comics” line that I’ve seen.

A Small Killing

I read this book once about 7 years ago and remembered thinking that I’d better read it again when I was older because a lot of it flew right by me. Well, I’m older now and I don’t have a clue what happened to my copy of it. All I can tell you is that I saw layers and layers there that my teenage brain couldn’t penetrate at the time.

Promethea Book One

OK, I’ve been puttering around the house for the last half hour, trying to avoid writing a review for this. I don’t know what I was expecting exactly, but this wasn’t it. I can’t say that this was bad, because it wasn’t, but I can’t say that it was very good either. I was wrong in thinking that it was his take on the Wonder Woman character. It’s a female superhero type, but that’s where the similarities stop. The story is that Promethea is, well, a story, and has been around for hundreds of years in some form or other. She’s always brought back when people write about her, usually inhabiting the body of the closest female to the writing, or sometimes to the inspiration for the writing. A college girl is researching Promethea for a term paper and ends up becoming her. Throw in an annoying friend, a superhero team called The Five Swell Guys (that part goes nowhere in this book), and a Weeping Gorilla (which is, by far, the highlight of the book), and you’ve got Promethea. If you’re looking for a bunch of good superhero fight scenes, you’re probably going to go away disappointed. There were only a couple in this book as Mr. Moore was trying to set up a history for the character. He was apparently trying to define her for the rest of the series, but he might have lost me already.

What problems did I have with this? It’s well written, sure. That’s a given with this man, so he has to throw in something to maintain my interest besides that. The man has raised the bar pretty high; he pretty much has to redefine comics every time out or the work isn’t that great. By the end of the first book, there’s nothing that hasn’t been seen before. It’s done well, but some of the dialogue is godawful (think “I’m an average person in an extraordinary situation so I’ll say ‘gosh’ and ‘but that’s not possible’ a lot” and you’re getting pretty close). Look, superhero books aren’t my cup of tea, I’ll admit that freely. It’s rare that I like one, and this doesn’t happen to be one of them, at least not yet. I’ve heard that it really picked up steam in the second half, so if I have the cash I’ll buy it and see how it went. If I don’t have the money, however, I honestly can’t say that seeing how this series continues is a priority right now. The bottom line is that this book is just mediocre and, as such, is a serious disappointment.

The Birth Caul

I have to be honest with you here: I couldn’t finish reading this. I’ll read it again one of these days so I can post a proper review here, but all I can tell you now is that it bugged the hell out of me. It just seemed like wandering spoken word type gibberish that Eddie Campbell wanted to draw for some reason.

Supreme: The Return

You wouldn’t believe how long I’ve been trying to get my hands on this story. I heard about it after it came out, as I paid no attention to Rob Liefeld’s comics at all, and by then it was out of print and uncollected. Sometimes I swear that these Checker people are reading my mind with the collections they’re putting out. This is the second collection of what I’m guessing to be at least three. I haven’t seen the first one, apparently it sold out quickly but they’re putting out another printing. Surprisingly, it really didn’t affect my understanding of the story. Sure, it might have helped here or there if I knew exactly what led up to certain things, but the main strength of this series was its vast history. As this character is at most ten years old, that probably needs a bit of explanation. This character is Alan’s take on Superman, pure and simple. I thought that was the point of Tom Strong and maybe it was; I still haven’t read it. There is a world for Supreme that houses the Revisions, which are all the failed versions of Supreme that were discontinued after a few months or a few years, going back decades. Read some of the OLD collections of Batman or Superman if you’re not aware of how many revisions they’ve had over the years. It’s a perfect story device for this because there’s an automatic history for the series, no matter what point you start reading it. Rick Veitch does some flawless work when flashbacks are needed for the sake of reminding readers of “old” characters, and he does a perfect tribute to Jack Kirby as well. Sure, at times it seems like a silly superhero comic, if you’re not reading between the lines, but that’s kind of the point. The actual story here (Supreme fighting villains who’ve escaped his prison, Radar (the Supreme dog) having thousands of puppies, Supreme revealing his secret identity) is good, but it’s secondary to the dissection of Superman that is on display and the incredible ability Moore has to make the silliest things believable and interesting. This is an amazing chunk of work for fans of Moore or just for fans of the medium in general. He’ll be known as the best comics writer ever when he’s gone (I know that he already is, but people don’t truly appreciate the greats while they’re still producing), and this, surprisingly for me at least, is some of his best work. It’s $24.95 but it’s huge, in case you were wondering…

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Orman, Nathaniel – Wrong Comix

May 2, 2004

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Wrong Comix

This here is a tiny comic. Add that to the fact that I can’t find anything on the website for ordering info (although it’s entirely possible that I’m just missing it, as I can be stupid on occasion) and I’m a bit nervous about putting this up, but things have a way of working out, so I’m sure it’ll fix itself. The comic is about a phone conversation between a man who’s outside of an apartment building trying to get buzzed in and the person he’s mistakenly called who lives in an altogether different location. It’s funny and quick, definitely worth a buck.

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Posted by Kevin

Jacobson, Elizabeth & Dan – Misc. #1

May 2, 2004

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Misc. #1

This one is a collection of three stories from various other comics that these two have published. Today is more of a “random grab of a comic to review” day than a “careful search of pile of SPACE comics to see all the stuff I have from individual artists” day, so I can’t tell you much about these two past what I see in here. If I find more in the pile, rest assured, it will be up here too in the next few weeks. I say that because this issue made me want to see more. The first story, visually, is two people meeting and what happens to them during the course of the night, but verbally is some kind of advertising spiel. Works well and looks like these people know what they’re doing, which is why I was curious to see what else they had done. The second story is called Body Shop, about replacing body parts in your later years to spice up your marriage. Didn’t do as much for me, mostly because that concept raises all kinds of questions that weren’t answered because it was a quick parody type of story. Other people probably wouldn’t even notice stuff like that, so don’t mind me if it bugs me slightly. The last story is fantastic. It’s called Templates #1 (which is what lead me to believe that there was more out there) and is an account of the day of two people who are dating, but with descriptions of what they are saying rather than what they are actually saying. Not that I’ve never seen it before, but this was pretty clever. Well worth a couple of bucks, or maybe you could just e-mail them to see what else they have around if you’re looking for a more complete comic experience. As you can tell by the title, this one was meant to be more of a sampling of their work than anything else. Send them money at: Pants Press P.O. Box 10121 Kansas City, MO 64171.

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Posted by Kevin

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