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Breakdowns -- Dirty Beautiful Day Gone Numb in a Moment You Can’t Beat As One

November 14, 2002

Newsarama does their usual good job reporting all the books DC just announced for their 2003 slate, and it’s an impressive list. While OUTSIDERS and TEEN TITANS sound like dutiful but uninteresting efforts to keep copyrights active, there looks to be a lot of talent involved in new projects like SOLO and a number of Superman and Batman books, and though I find it increasingly difficult to collect more and more Archives, I’m happy to see the announcement of multi-volume collections of Jack Kirby’s CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and Neal Adams’ (and Dennis O’Neil’s) BATMAN material. I do hope that poor initial orders don’t kill the Wally Wood T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS ARCHIVES, though.

Incidentally, Mike Doran brings his tenure at Newsarama to a close, taking his brand of happy-go-luck and hijink to Marvel as Marketing Communications Ombudsman, replacing Bill Rosemann, who will tarry as a freelance scribe, maybe bringing us more DEADLINE, or, considering his new Florida locale, perhaps a CrossGen stint. Good luck to both. Oh, and congrats to Ben Abernathy, last seen handing out old X-Men tattoos at the Marvel booth for the San Diego Comic-Con in 2001, now editing Warren Ellis and Alan Moore on new Wildstorm books. Let that be a lesson to you. Or me?

This week, I’m reviewing a few somewhat disappointing titles from last week, one superb one, another great Dave Cooper graphic novel, a graphic novel by famed European creator Hermann, and a very full Full Bleed, with more reviewers' tips and some bits on Scott Lobdell and Erik Larsen that aren’t what you think.

VERTIGO POP! LONDON #1 (OF 4) by Peter Milligan and Philip Bond. Vertigo/DC Comics. $2.95
Peter Milligan is enjoying his highest profile in years, with his superlative celebrity satire in X-STATIX, but more importantly, he’s on a creative roll, too, judging from the start of this new miniseries in Vertigo’s POP! imprint. From what I remember, the idea behind VP! is to give readers used to most comics set in the U.S. a glimpse of other cultures. While the previous miniseries, set in Tokyo, did just that, Milligan and Bond have chosen much less mysterious environs: modern London and its Swinging 60s incarnation. The story finds middle-aged rocker Rocky Lamont at a kind of crossroads. He has the love of a fine piece of arm candy, a great daughter, a still-active musical career, and even his ex-wife gets along with him, but somehow he feels he’s gotten off-track somewhere. The reader will see him in characterization and Bond’s design, as a more debauched, randy Paul McCartney, probably a bit closer to Rod Stewart.

Rocky remembers a short film he shot in India, visiting the Maharishi, meant only to be watched by a 60-year-old Rocky. He finds it and watches as his younger self tells him of his concern that the old boy will somehow let him down, not live up to his youthful ideals. And it’s true. The first issue essentially establishes the character as, like most rockers, a child. He’s rich and pampered, but not unlikable, and at one point, at least, an idealist. The twist at the end kicks the story into gear, with the possibility that Rocky might just have another chance to get it right, but by doing something very wrong. The murky moral realities are Milligan’s strong suit, and I’m glad he was approved to run with a story that doesn’t quite fall into the stated directive of the VP, but is compelling nonetheless. And Bond’s artwork is a treasure; hip and stylish but containing the essence of humanity in the body language and facial expressions. That he’s not completely booked up with commercial art is to the comics reader’s benefit.

FIGHT FOR TOMORROW #2 (OF 6) by Brian Wood, Denys Cowan and Kent Williams. DC Comics. $2.50
I’m giving up the fight.
This isn’t a terrible book, and as I’ve said before, it’s nice to see Cowan and Williams working, but even they’re not a perfect fit. The lead character, Cedric, looks cool but different from panel to panel, and the moody colors mute the FIGHT CLUB razzle-dazzle. The dialogue continues to be stilted and there seems to be little going on in the story besides the morose Cedric wanting to beat up nobodies on his way to beating up the big boss, so this is in essence as entertaining as a videogame tips book. For a slightly more involving and much better looking miso-splashed book, I’d take WOLVERINE: NETSUKE.

WOLVERINE: NETSUKE #3 (OF 4) by George Pratt. Marvel Comics. $3.99
See above.
I made a boo-boo a couple months back, complaining about the AMERICAN SPLENDOR: UNSUNG HERO book being the same price for only black-and-white artwork, rather than Pratt’s gorgeous paints reproduced on glossy paper. And the thing is, that book stays with me. I rose and fell with the story; I felt something. I don’t mind this Wolvie story, and when Marvel puts out some sort of coffee table book it’ll look nice to reproduce panels from this, but it’s one of those books you have to think about a bit to remember what’s going on with each issue, and even then I’m a little lost. I enjoy how the feudal-era Mariko got more time in this issue, as she’s written well. There still is a feel, as often happens when Westerners attempt manga homages, of a lack of authenticity, a stiffness to the dialogue, where there should be dignified, still poetry.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #46 by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita, Jr. and Scott Hanna. Marvel Comics. $2.25
I read a review of this that called Romita’s art “sketchy” and called the design of this issue’s villainess, Shathra, “ill-defined.” Well, Romita’s supposed sketchiness is irrelevant, given Scott Hanna’s extremely tight inks, and Shathra is a wasp woman. She looks like a big black wasp, basically. I don’t know how better to define her design, you know? But he’s right about one thing—this issue is pretty weak. I’m not taken with Straczynski’s idea of Peter Parker being part of some Spider God legacy existing on some other plane, and I’m not sure who really is into it. So, there’s problems already, not to mention silly bits like Peter’s phone being turned off a day after his bill was due. At least make the real-world parts realistic. Anyway, the plot involves Dr. Strange telling Spider-Man (through his dreams) that when last he visited the astral plane, he attracted the attention of his natural enemy by straying from the path. Ridiculously, Strange makes an abrupt exit without offering any advice or assistance, and we’re treated to some pretty good action scenes with this new enemy, who we’re told is an incarnation of the spider-wasp, the spider’s most dangerous predator. After this, this primitive warrior woman takes a new tack—to ruin Spider-Man’s reputation by divulging phony sex secrets to the press, which is technically more like something the African Walking Stick would do, but…no, just kidding. It seems to me like a bad segue into a whole other story, which might actually be all right if the set-up wasn’t so poor. Probably JMS’ worst issue.

THE TOWERS OF BOIS-MAURY VOL. 1: BABETTE by Hermann. Dark Horse Comics. $14.95
Dark Horse is now underway presenting what is called Hermann’s masterwork to North American readers with this and the second volume, already out. It tells the tale of Sir Aymar, an honorable knight in Middle Ages Europe displaced from his beautiful land and its gleaming towers. In this volume, he is staying with a flawed King who presides over a rotten court of knights who abuse their power. One such knight tries to rape a pretty young girl, Babette, and Aymar kills him with a lance, setting off an investigation that leads to the apprehension and torture of Babette’s paramour, Germain, and Babette’s murder by her father out of shame. Sir Aymar remains above the fray, arousing the ire of the other knights, as he secretly attempts to help Germain escape the dungeon. He does, but the boy’s hand has been rendered useless by torture, and so his existence is a hard one, and brief. Aymar floats in and out of the tale, always honest and noble, but aware that his station prevents him defying the king outright. He’s rather an ambivalent hero in that he does not confess to the murder himself, and at one point speaks of almost forgetting about the plight of Germain, a plight for which he is responsible. He does, however, deal handily with the king’s hotheaded son, which provides a measure of catharsis in rather a downbeat story. As this is more Germain’s story than Aymar’s, one is led to believe it will be some time before we get the particulars of Aymar’s plight, and we can only hope Dark Horse continues publishing these handsome volumes. Hermann’s style has a slightly rough elegance, his textures suiting this pre-industrial era, with its wood and wool and untended grass. That Aymar can be noble and yet somewhat callous makes him intriguing, and is probably more accurate than most depictions of knighthood, given his station. Despite being a visitor, not entirely trusted, he still commands far more respect than any of the citizens of the kingdom. It’s a beautiful book, created with a great passion for the era that never lapses into sentimentality.

DAN AND LARRY IN ‘DON’T DO THAT!’ by Dave Cooper. Fantagraphics Books. $14.95
When this story was first serialized, probably only a select few people knew it to be a quite autobiographical story of Cooper’s own tumultuous adolescence and complex relationship with his friend and mentor, cartoonist Barry Blair, who at the time was relatively famous for a number of comics for publisher Aircel (now defunct) featuring elves. Cooper, just a teenager, lived near Blair and got into the industry inking backgrounds, along with his friend and fellow cartoonist Patrick McEown. Blair, many years older, apparently helped bring about the end of the relationship by making advances on Cooper. I don’t want to get into it further than that, as the Cooper interview in a recent THE COMICS JOURNAL (conducted by friend McEown) does not go into great detail, and we should consider this book as at least partially fictionalized.

But even without this background, this is another unsettling minor masterpiece from Cooper. Characterizing himself as a hapless duck, he breaks precedent by being neither cute nor wacky; as in his other works, our hero mainly reacts to the punishments of his cruel environment. There is no justice, no uplift, only the ambivalent escape of growing up and finding a new crowd and the slim hope of reinvention. Cooper works out some issues with the preposterous, unsettling design of Larry, all bulbous head, soulless eyes and malicious grin, a thin but ready excuse for every transgression. But it’s not in Cooper’s nature to leave himself unscathed, and so Dan, through trusting ignorance, weakness and an abundance of hormones participates to some extent in his own abuse. Always in his work have I found that the bizarre settings and character designs melt away to under strong, clear transmission of common experiences and a common need to connect to someone.

NINE OF ONE #1 by Oliver Chin. Immedium. $2.95
Some books are sort of critic-proof, really. It’s hard to criticize a jam-book done for hunger relief or to help an ailing creator, or an anthology about our feelings related to the tragedy on 9/11. Falling into this last category is Chin’s book, a well-researched primer on different cultures and how several American students, of various nationalities, perceive these cultures and how they felt about 9/11. With the thick, dead inking line and structure of the book, it’s clear this isn’t a comic book, per se; it’s an educational tool. There’s no real story here, and the art is not attractive, but it might be an effective method for teachers to impart some current events knowledge, gauge student emotions and concerns, and perhaps generate compassion to people, cultures and ideologies they previously didn’t understand. A worthy goal, and more power to him. It’s just not a work of entertainment, not being a story and not written for my age group.

Full Bleed # - Very Full, Kinda Bloody

Before getting started with the rest of my pithy comments, it occurred to me some time ago that some great books were not being reviewed by me, purely because I buy them in trades or hardcovers and not the monthly issues. Or, they’re books that form one story, or several lengthy story arcs, and if the timing is off, I miss the right times to tell you about them. So, starting now, I’ll tell you each week about:

One of My Favorite Comics

This time up, it’s THE FILTH by Grant Morrison, Chris Weston and Gary Erskine, from Vertigo/DC Comics. The series is not an ongoing—it’s thirteen issues and out—and I’m enjoying it more than most comics out there. Almost a third of the way through it, I’m not so worried about making sense of it, as it doesn’t seem all that complicated. There’s a super-secret, high-tech organization called The Hand who keep the nasties of the world in check. One deep cover operative has gotten so immersed in his mundane identity as Greg Feely that it takes some doing to get him back on the job, but he’s pretty much up to speed now, taking on odd menaces like porn actor Anders Klimakks, whose black sperm is not only a novelty, but a powerful weapon in the wrong, er, hands. Some say Morrison is just repeating himself after THE INVISIBLES, but does this sound like old hat to you? Maybe they’re somewhat familiar riffs, but they’re good ones, and unlike anything else being published. Morrison having fun and coasting on style and sarcasm and sex is a good thing, as far as comics are concerned. I do think Weston’s style is a bit too straight-forward to make this a funky, mind-blowing masterpiece, but I’m still having a grand time with it.

Still More Tips for Comics Reviewers

It Just Isn’t for Me - And I am so unsuited to the task of articulating just why it isn’t for me that I am throwing in the towel. I will now prepare to be mounted by Paul O’Brien or any of the other rare breed of Alpha Male reviewers.

Labor of Love - You know, childbirth is in most cases, literally, a “labor of love.” That doesn’t make it enjoyable to watch. Labor of love indicates a visible amount of effort, generally in the art, but that doesn’t mean the results are worthwhile, so it’s a meaningless critical statement. Incredibly, I saw a columnist just last week call something a labor of love in one paragraph, apparently based just on the concept, and then follow this with a contradictory, clichéd phrase, “by-the-numbers” in the next. A hackwork labor of love, I guess. And he should know.

Perfect Blend of Story and Art - I think that while there are a lot of good comics, I can’t think of many I would call perfect. It seems antithetical to the critic’s function. And if you’re going to be the dumb-ass to use a phrase like this, you’d better get into a helluva lot of detail on just how this book achieved perfection.

Lobdell Watch

From an interview with writer Scott Lobdell, in which he outlined some of his plans as new writer of KISS, replacing Joe Casey as of issue #7:

”No offense to the Marvels or DCs of the world, but how many times can Doctor Octopus or Lex Luthor leap out of closet and shout, ‘This time you are done for!’? The fun part about KISS - from here on in - is that our characters are constantly going to be facing new threats and uncovering new exciting scenarios for the first time!”

I guess I don’t know how to take this one. The side of me who has found Lobdell’s work emphatically awful for the past decade or so could just sneer at him, but hey, the guy’s trying to climb back up the ladder and wants people to buy this book. His creator-owned stuff like HIGH ROADS stiffed, and he’s now working the licensed end, with this and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, both for Dark Horse. So I can excuse the ridiculous quote that bears no relation to reality, and the inability to other than the underlying truth that yes, things don’t really change too much in big franchise properties like SUPERMAN or SPIDER-MAN. But do we really think ground will be broken with KISS? I think a silver vinyl gauntlet has been thrown down, and I’m putting this book on watch. I will be looking for these exciting new scenarios, and if I find the book lacking, it’s punishment time.

Grand Larseny

On the other hand, Erik Larsen is due a bit of praise from me. I tried SAVAGE DRAGON a couple years ago, with the supposed jumping-on point of #76, and after about six months, dropped out. It was kind of fun, but sort of monotonous to me. Just didn’t hit my buttons, though the art was good. But I do have to give him some credit, not just for reaching #100, making his one of the longest-running creator-owned comic books ever, but for a couple other things. Reading this interview at Newsarama, I have to say, it’s very cool that he let his non-pro fans write so much of the SAVAGE DRAGON COMPANION, which is also a great value at 80 pages for $2.95, and that he is turning over more room for a newcomer, Mark Englert, to draw a strip scripted and inked by Larsen, based on an unused Gil Kane plot. Say what you want about the guy or his work—he’s good to his fans.

Next week, I’m actually quite confident we’ll have reviews of COMPLETELY PIP & NORTON, DEADLINE, and one of the greatest works of manga ever, if that whets your appetite.

Chris Allen

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