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Breakdowns -- Triumph of the Will

November 21, 2002

“It’s a force of habit
If it moves, then you fuck it
If it doesn’t move, you stab it”

“Suit of Lights” - Elvis Costello

Violence exists in all of us. It doesn’t matter how much volunteer work you do, how much meditation; just look at your reaction to someone cutting you off on the freeway. Violence is an inherent human characteristic, inescapable. The late Jack “King” Kirby once said that even dancing was a kind of violence. Essentially, it’s a way to get what we want, or a reaction when we don’t. Civilization is learning to channel our violence into generally acceptable forms, but of course, the fact that people have different desires and different notions of acceptability ensures that violence will never cease.

As I usually do prior to writing a column, I made a list of books I wanted to cover, and this time a theme emerged. While violent content is inescapable for any comics reader (even ARCHIE has some emotional violence, as our waffle-headed hero continues to punish Betty by choosing less-loving Veronica), Osamu Tezuka and Matt Wagner have explored humanity’s instincts for aggression more often and more deeply than most. That’s not all they’ve done, of course--another major Tezuka theme is man’s dangerous reliance on technology, for example—but it defines Tezuka’s ADOLF, which I review below, along with a “reprint” of a review of his PHOENIX: A TALE OF THE FUTURE I did for another site last year—and it defines Wagner’s GRENDEL saga, which he has been exploring between other projects like MAGE and SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE and the upcoming TRINITY, for all his adult life. I will begin a multi-part review of most of this material, concentrating on what is collected and currently in print from Dark Horse Comics, but hopefully getting into some of the un-collected but worthwhile material by Wagner and other creators to whom he entrusted the concept.

ADOLF VOL. 1-5 by Osamu Tezuka. Cadence Books. $16.95 ea.
God of Manga.

Wouldn’t you have loved to be called that?

Osamu Tezuka held that title, presumably humbly, until his death in 1989, and no one has come close to his impact. Being a best-selling, acclaimed creator for 50 years, with over 150,000 pages produced, Tezuka is probably known best here for ASTRO BOY (MIGHTY ATOM), and his KIMBA THE WHITE LION is widely considered to have been plundered and plagiarized for Disney’s THE LION KING. But in ADOLF, Tezuka created possibly his most gripping, unflinching masterwork.

Spanning five volumes, ADOLF is a decidedly different World War II story concerning three males with that same first name. Adolf Kamil is a Jewish boy living in Japan in the late 30s, his family running a successful bakery. Adolf Kaufmann also lives there, and is friends with Kamil, though his father is a Nazi official. Kaufmann is half-Japanese, which just isn’t enough to his schoolmates, so he and Kamil have an outsider status in common, which cements their bond. And yes, Adolf Hitler is a supporting character as well. In fact, the plot involves the discovery by a German citizen of Hitler’s birth certificate, which shows one of his grandparents is Jewish. Such a revelation would destroy the Nazi Party before WWII could even get started. Unfortunately, the man is murdered, though he left clues behind for his brother, Sohei Toge, a reporter. Toge escapes the villainous Nazi enforcer, Acetylene Lampe, whose silly name and tendency to literally burn with rage make him no less frightening a character. Toge finds the keeper of the documents, Miss Ogi, a kind teacher under whom his brother studied, and attempts to hold onto them over the course of years, only able to trust a select few people, and not getting the opportunity to expose this news to the world, as Japan’s alliance with Germany prevented such information getting out. One of those he trusts is Kaufmann’s mother, who becomes a widow after her husband dies trying to cover up a murder he committed. His son ends up separated from his Jewish friend and Japanese mother, sent to Berlin to join the Hitler Youth. Their racist dogma eventually takes hold in his mind, after a visit from the charismatic Hitler, and he is forever separated from friends and family in his heart.

At over 1,000 pages, it is difficult to go further into the plot, but suffice it to say that aside from the unending search for the documents, the lives of Sohei, Kamil and Kaufmann intertwine brilliantly, the suspense almost painfully intense at times. The childhood friends will of course become bitter enemies, due to race and a common love—a Jewish girl Kaufmann saved, though he didn’t do the same for her family. Sohei is indomitable, a man who passes many opportunities for love because of his obsession with exposing the truth and making his brother’s murder meaningful. Tezuka creates a handful of unforgettable characters here, each one so real because he is able to find so many facets in them. Kaufmann commits many atrocities, but he’s more tragic than anything, a traumatized boy trying to please his father figure Hitler even while a large part of him yearns for love and friendship and struggles with sanity. Even Hitler, who becomes a more prominent character as the tides turn against him, may be called sympathetic, to a point, a paranoid who can trust no one, who is driven mad by the realization that his own heritage should be a death sentence from the movement he created.

Artistically, Tezuka draws more realistically here than in any other project, but it’s still recognizably him, with the rubbery legs and the idiosyncratic touches like Acetylene Lampe. One can find an entire course in comics storytelling in these pages, Tezuka using every conceivable technique to evoke and excite. It’s a wonder that such a page-turner could have such depth, but his theme of Race and the wars it causes being responsible for the world’s misery comes through with great power.

I don’t know this publisher, Cadence Books, and the graphic novels themselves are different from most, with stylish photo covers, but I believe you can obtain them through Viz.

PHOENIX: A TALE OF THE FUTURE by Osamu Tezuka. Viz Comics. $22.95.
If the late Osamu Tezuka had, instead of being one of the most important and prolific comics creators, chosen to create his own religion, his vision would have obliterated that of L. Ron Hubbard. Tom Cruise and John Travolta would have bowed to him, literally and figuratively.

I say this because PHOENIX is a deep, complex work deserving of far more study than DIANETICS. I want to get off that subject, but suffice it to say that Phoenix is not a self-help book, but more a parable of the flaws inherent in all species—human and animal—which serve to eventually destroy us, flaws such as relying too much on technology and not instinct, and conversely, giving in too much to our instincts for violence over reason. It is also an apocalyptic science fiction thriller, an unusual and touching romance, and a compelling creation myth.

In this story, the population of Earth resides in just five massive city-states, each controlled by its own sentient computer. A proclamation to round up all “moopies”, an alien life form which can take on the shape and characteristics of any living creature, including humans, sets Patrolman Masato against his boss, Roc, and the will of the computer. See, he loves his moopie, Tamami, and can’t see living without her.

So, Masato escapes to a hidden, domed residence in a frozen wasteland. It’s the home and working laboratory of Dr. Saruta, who looks like a wizened version of Yosemite Sam. Saruta has been creating animals and even some humanoids in large tubes, but they keep dissolving when exposed to air. Tamami’s physiology represents a possible solution, a way to sustain the human race (in an altered form) through the coming apocalypse. Tamami also may represent (in his eyes) the love so long denied him.

Gripping material, and that’s only the beginning of the story, really. Disagreements among two city computers bring about nuclear annihilation, and only Roc escapes to join Masato, Tamami and Saruta, but Roc has his own dark and small-minded visions of the future. There comes a vision of rebirth, a selfless sacrifice, a selfish betrayal, and nothing less than millions of years of evolution, as the being who was once Masato contemplates the flaws of sentient beings and his own virtual godhood.

Drawn in Tezuka’s friendly, childlike style, but with elaborate vistas and machinery to spare, this is a stunningly ambitious book in itself, made all the more impressive for being the second entry in a twelve volume series revolving around the phoenix and many eras, past and future, of the destructive nature of humanity. The twelfth edition was unfinished at the time of Tezuka’s death in 1989, but I have hopes that Viz brings U.S. readers the others. This volume also includes an interview with the original translators of the material, who give important insight on the master, as well as an overview of the other eleven books.

DEADLINE by Bill Rosemann and Guy Davis. Marvel Comics. $9.95
Kat Farrell is a good reporter with a bad beat. Working at the Daily Bugle is a dream come true, but she hates covering the “capes,” the stories about superheroes and their deeds and misdeeds. She doesn’t idolize them, and has issues with vigilantism and all the legal woes and property damage their actions cause. But she needs a break—one big story—to catapult her out of this rut and into the crime beat she covets.

The story falls almost into her lap, as she’s saved from a super-powered thug’s assault by The Judge, the reanimated spirit of hardline Judge Hart, who had disappeared weeks ago. Hart used to be a defense attorney for villains, but after one of these bad capes killed his wife, he used his authority as a judge to hand down the stiffest sentences possible. And it’s not chance that has him meet Kat—she serves a purpose he doesn’t know yet, only sensing it. As the story unfolds, Kat will solve a murder, help Hart come to terms with his “life” and what he can do with it now, and gain a greater understanding of the responsibilities of those with power. And she’ll find out who stole her goldfish!

What could have been another throwaway adjunct to Marvel’s superhero books turns out to be a surprisingly well-crafted tale, a true mystery with the clues there for the careful reader. It also gives us the enormously appealing, funny and real Kat Farrell, one of the best female characters from Marvel in years. And while Guy Davis is not suited to drawing the traditional superheroes, he brings a welcome gravity to the Judge, and Gothic creepiness to the limbo world in which the Judge resides. And as a long-time Marvel fan, it’s nice to see Betty Brant and Robbie Robertson as supporting characters in a story not focused on Spider-Man. The whole thing’s a winner.

COMPLETELY PIP AND NORTON by Gavin MacInnes and Dave Cooper. Dark Horse Comics. $12.95
If you’ve been reading the past few weeks’ reviews of Dave Cooper’s other books, you know by now that they are the result of his unrestrained id. That’s also true, here, but in this case, the id belongs to MacInnes, with Cooper interpreting. The book collects the best of their strips from VICE Magazine, of which MacInnes is a co-owner, and they feature the unhinged schemer Pip, a kind of bunny far more manic and emotional than Bugs, and Norton, the straight man, who is squat and vaguely reminiscent of Cooper himself.

The short strips are amusing, but the highlights of the collection are wisely bookended here, “Spinning Buddha” and “Barbra.” The first involves Pip’s desperate quest to obtain the latest Buddha model, a handsome spinning edition. As in countless cartoons and comics, our heroes embark on a series of hairbrained money-making schemes, including dressing Norton as a “pretty lady” to attract customers to a lemonade stand, throwing a dance party, and running a car wash. All seemingly traditional plans, but still hilarious, as Pip is just fascinatingly, uniquely stupid. MacInnes has a cunning mind, and the story works as both a criticism of consumerism and modern religion, but this never gets in the way of the humor. “Barbra” is about Pip’s need to win La Streisand over, away from that damned James Brolin. And in a book full of surprises, the little creep actually gets her! Readers with offbeat senses of humor should really enjoy this, and Cooper fans will be treated to his busiest, goofiest art, and his only interior work in lush, eye-popping color.

JLA: SECRET ORIGINS by Paul Dini and Alex Ross. DC Comics. $7.95
Far be it from me to complain that comics readers complain too much, but I don’t quite understand the animosity towards this particular book. As advertised, it features brief origins for all the classic Justice League characters. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel’s origins are here reprinted from their respective Dini/Ross tabloid one-shots, but why not? Aesthetically, it makes sense to have them all here, and there’s no need to redo anything, as they’re all effective. The new origins are similarly well-executed, changing points of view to keep each one distinctive. For example, THE FLASH’s origin is told by his wife, which makes sense, given that Iris Allen was a rarity in Silver Age comics, not only knowing her man was a superhero, but marrying him. Green Arrow comes off self-deprecating but cocky and driven, quite consistent with most characterizations of him, and Abin Sur giving Green Lantern Hal Jordan’s origin is a wonderful way to convey Hal’s importance, since Sur chose to deliver this testimonial despite being dead. All this is well done. Short, yes, but figuring the tabloid size, such a book at this point would easily run six dollars. The remainder comprises tasty Alex Ross art, an enlightening interview with him about his collaborative process with Dini, his views on the DC characters, and the upcoming JLA tabloid of which this book is a kind of prequel. The Paul Dini interview is likewise good. Even better, if you’ve enjoyed their work together, the new one sounds like it will be good, if only for the fact that Ross is doing real comics-type art—movement, action, not just idealistic poses. I’m not saying this origins book is great, because there’s really nothing dramatic going on, but it’s fine, and a fairly necessary piece if you’ve got the other books.

MEK #1 (OF 3) by Warren Ellis, Steve Rolston and Al Gordon. Wildstorm/DC Comics. $2.99
In retrospekt, maybe this dekompression thing isn't all it's kraked up to be. In MEK, Sarissa Leon is an outspoken proponent of the kulture of mekanical body enhancements, a spektakularly sukcessful movement that has left nearly every citizen with kustomized limbs, eyes, tongues and more. And yet, she's something of an outkast in her old neighborhood, as some see her as komplicit in her former kompadre R.J. Koin's murder. Now, she's bak in town, and looking for klues.

I'd like to report that that komprised just the first five pages or so, but no, that's the komik, plus a few infodumps on the karakters via news reports, and a BLADE RUNNEReskue opening scene of seemy mek repair. As far as I’m koncerned, dekompression only works in a komik if you’ve got two things: 1) great, transportive art; and 2) the kore of a good story in an exciting setting. Steve Rolston is a fine artist, but his soft figures and their akcessories kome off as too kute, suitable for a safe sci-fi komik like LEGIONNAIRES or something, not science fiktion with any balls, and Ellis doesn’t give him or the readers much to go on. Nor is Al Gordon doing him any favors with his indifferent inking. It seems a kommon flaw with the three issue format to think it should be written like a three akt skreenplay, the first issue setting up the karakters and ending with the problem or goal being introduced. But in a film, the first akt takes up just ten to twenty minutes or so, with the sekond akt at least forty, working through all the obstakles in the way of reaching the goal. In other words, Ellis has barely begun, and since he’s a third of the way done, there’s little hope anything komplikated will okur. We should have gotten some of the sekond akt in already. The meat and potatoes. If you dekompress a steak and potato, you still get a decent stew. MEK is kind of like dekompressing Jell-O into Kool-Aid. I like Kool-Aid all right, but it doesn’t kost $2.95.

THE GRENDEL SAGA
Part One: Hunter and the Hunted
Matt Wagner exists in rarefied company with Osamu Tezuka in the scope of exploration of specific themes, but he differs in his approach. Whereas Tezuka finds qualities good and bad in both his heroes and villains, portraying violence as a tool of doctrine or desire, Wagner places the blame, essentially, on the Devil. Violence comes from evil, and evil is an entity, a virulent disease that corrupts its victims and imposes its will upon them, subverting all that was good. At least, that provides the basis for the earlier GRENDEL stories, the theme changing somewhat as Wagner moves his stories into the future. For this first installment, however, we will focus on the first Grendel, Hunter Rose. Wagner depicted the young novelist/assassin in the first GRENDEL series, an ongoing black-and-white, for the now-defunct publisher Comico. However, while Dark Horse has been Grendel’s home for a decade, most of these issues have not been reprinted. This has been by Wagner’s own choice, perhaps feeling the early attempts don’t hold up so well. What has been collected presents evidence to the contrary, but I don’t know. I will just focus on the material to which I have access.

GRENDEL CYCLE is the reader’s guide to the world of Grendel. Beginning with a primer (“A is for Assassin,” etc.) on the characters prepared especially for this one-shot by Wagner, the book covers the entire Grendel history up to the miniseries published in 1995, from Hunter Rose to the Grendel Cult of the 28th Century. Wagner reenlists most of his GRENDEL artists such as the Pander Brothers, John K. Snyder III, Patrick McEown and Bernie Mireault to depict key events, and there is even a helpful timeline. While some might argue this isn’t the best introduction, as it’s not really a story and is by definition packed with spoilers, I think it works very well. I remember when I first read it in 1996, I’d only just read the various GRENDEL TALES miniseries and knew nothing of Hunter Rose, Stacy Palumbo, Christine Spar or the rest of the contemporary characters, and it really whetted my appetite to know more. Each character’s story or era receives a different design in the book, which helps differentiate between them, though “The Incubation Years” has a hard-to-read red font. The art is excellent throughout, and the whole package acts as both introduction and companion. It also has one of the most striking, basic covers I’ve ever seen.

GRENDEL: DEVIL BY THE DEED is no longer listed with the other GRENDEL collections, but it’s worth tracking down. This is the origin of Hunter Rose, repackaged and recolored by Wagner. What’s interesting is that the story of this young prodigy, a published author at age 13, finding and losing the love of his life just a few years later, is told entirely through Art Deco designed pages and large blocks of text. It’s as if Wagner had a bit of wunderkind himself, moving beyond traditional comics page compositions. It does have a distancing effect, but adds a sense of sad grandeur, the storybook layout emphasizing the epic feel over the immediacy of comics. It’s quite effective in not just conveying the shattering loss and cold efficiency of Hunter Rose, but also the symbolic nature of his nemesis, Argent the Wolf, and the tragedy of Rose’s ward Stacy Palumbo, who loses her father and best friend in one fateful battle. And as this is framed as a book actually written by Stacy’s daughter Christine, it lays the foundation for her story as well.

GRENDEL: DEVIL TALES collects four later issues of GRENDEL, comprising the stories “Devil Tracks” and “Devil Eyes,” in a nice 96 page trade. “Devil Tracks” is an astonishing police procedural, following a detective’s intensive investigation into a perplexing scam involving a diamond magnate and his heirs. Wagner sets a standard many crime comics creators have unfortunately ignored, packing details and twists into pages with as many as twenty-five panels per page. This requires a mastery of storytelling, including just the necessary information. It ends up being quite a good mystery, withholding Grendel’s bloody involvement until the very end. “Devil Eyes” is a more humorous but draining story of paranoia, something like a Jack Lemmon role. Tommy Nuncio hears a bit of men’s room gossip staged for his benefit, and he acts according to plan, telling the cops about a planned hit on a big movie producer by Grendel. A no-no in his line of low-level punk work. It leads to a career-shattering humiliation for Argent and utter delight for Grendel, not that he’s apt to forgive Tommy for spilling the beans, even if it was all part of his dark design. This time, Wagner uses a series of narrow panels, extending from the top gutter to bottom, cleverly emphasizing the confinement of Nuncio. He also changes his style to something much more basic, a lot like old Harvey Kurtzman art, but with added dark shadings similar to Frank Miller. A perfect combination of the hilarious and the harrowing, in art and story. And again, there is a framing sequence, these stories being novels from the pen of rich ex-cop Pellon Cross, who has devoted his literary life not towards stories of the Grendels he had dealings with—Christine Spar and Brian Li-Sung—but the one he didn’t, Hunter Rose. This is an essential volume. Even if one chooses not to follow the GRENDEL saga, it still holds up as a collection of two masterful crime stories.

Next time, I’ll look at GRENDEL: BLACK, WHITE & RED, which collects a series of fairly recent Hunter Rose stories written by Wagner and illustrated by a stellar group of artists.

Full Bleed: Quick Picks

I’m afraid the column is just too packed to go into great detail on any more comics, but there were some titles deserving of mention. Garth Ennis is a writer who’s done his fair share on the politics of aggression, and more often than not does a good job of balancing a cynical attitude towards armed conflict with the undeniable entertainment value of violence. PUNISHER #18 and WAR STORY: THE REIVERS are no exceptions. The former finds Frank Castle in Ireland, and Ennis explodes the myth of “The Struggle” quickly, revealing the IRA to be just another terrorist organization, with ties to Qadaffi, even. The goal of separation from Britain just doesn’t justify the means. The latest WAR STORY is a near-triumph for Ennis and the excellent Cam Kennedy. Kennedy’s gritty style is perfect for WWII comics, and he’s good at reproducing the planes, jeeps and artillery. The story itself is a mite padded, something Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert could have packed into a single issue, maybe even ten or twelve pages, not forty-eight. But it’s not a bad story, showing the folly of a leader willing to get him and his men killed on an ill-conceived mission, all for glory, fancying his battalion to be like the silent, quick-striking Reivers of auld. He’s forgotten the real goals of the War, and his responsibility as a leader, and now they all must pay the price. The fact that the battle scenes are exciting and the quiet scenes full of typical Ennis raw humor distracts from the message of the book not in the slightest.

Finally, Greg Rucka re-teams with Bryan Hurtt for QUEEN AND COUNTRY: DECLASSIFIED #1 (OF 3), a spin-off from the popular Oni series that flashes back to 1986 and a younger, greener Paul Crocker, whom we know mainly as Tara Chace’s gruff, desk-set boss. But here, he’s an agent who’s lost a bit of confidence after a botched defection. Now, another Communist agent wants to defect, and Crocker is sent to Prague to get things right this time, leaving behind a worried wife. It’s a good start, and a good idea, as it humanizes Crocker a great deal to see how he earned his stripes, and Hurtt’s more realistic (and continually improving) style provides probably the best Q&C art to date.

Chris Allen

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