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Breakdowns - The Virtue of Always Being Cool

January 23, 2003

There is a place where I sometimes must go
When I want just the green undertow
And I want to be hurt by the lead that you brought up again

Young girls they do get weary, and thirtysomething guys, too. Another big ol’ column, but it turned out well enough, with reviews of new Dark Horse manga collection CANNON GOD EXAXXION: STAGE 1; David Collier’s JUST THE FACTS; new Humanoids sword-and-sandal series DEICIDE; (a half-review of upcoming J. Torres graphic novel) DAYS LIKE THIS; EDDIE CAMPBELL’S EGOMANIA #2 (Alan Moore interview); Richard Hahn’s self-published LUMAKICK; DYLAN DOG: ZED; and best-of-the-decade-collection TRIPWIRE X 10. I’ve got Part Eight of THE GRENDEL SAGA, and a look at some interesting books coming from Fantagraphics this year, in Full Bleed.

CANNON GOD EXAXXION: STAGE 1 by Kenichi Sonoda. Dark Horse Comics. $15.95

“My default humanoid form contains adequate material stocks for any number of reconfigurations. My chest is a mass reservoir, you see, not just an exaggerated secondary sexual characteristic”

I’ve said before that the vast amount of manga overseas means that lucky Westerners are likely getting a goodly portion of the best material, with a lot of the junk never making it here. Or at least, we’re getting some of the best of the samurai and science fiction work, CGE being the latter.

I must admit, if I hadn’t received this for review, I undoubtedly would have passed it over, as I’m one of those early-thirties, grew up on Marvel guys who’s going to be quickly replaced by an eighteen-year-old who buys nothing but manga, which is after all the most successful kind of comic these days. Yeah, I love LONE WOLF & CUB; AKIRA; Tezuka, etc., but it takes a bit more doing to find the right mecha series, especially since they’re so long-running you don’t want to make a mistake.

Anyway, enough preamble. In this first collection, comprising issues 1-8, it’s been a decade since the alien Riofaldian race came to Earth. Rather than swift conquest, they insinuated themselves into society, offering their advanced technology for free and making life nearly impossible without it. Then, they attacked. When the enemy controls your weapons and your communications ability, what can you do?

Fortunately, the reclusive genius Professor Hosuke has been planning for this all along. He plucks his nephew, trouble-making high school student Hoichi Kano, out of his directionless existence and puts him in a fantastic suit of his own devising, the Cannon Gox Exaxxion. From that point on, it’s a whirlwind of devious aliens (and the sympathetic teacher Miss Kin’ba), robots with razor-sharp arms, giant robots, firearms, “gun-suits” and the wonderful android Isaka, who looks like a hot, enormously dugged nubile, but who can also turn into a jet bike. Though the story is much of the time a boy’s dream come true, Sonoda creates a strong character in the irrepressible teen reporter Akane, and also perhaps layers in a theme about the West’s fear and mistrust of Asian globalization.

JUST THE FACTS by David Collier. Drawn & Quarterly Publications. $11.95
Collier is not to my mind one who can be said to have “burst onto the comics scene” in the 90s; he more or less set up a shingle and quietly began putting out thoughtful stories and strips about himself and interesting figures from modern history. A couple standouts from each category include “My Military Career,” which details the author as a young man entering the service and keeping his wits and pacifist ideals about him. Collier is not a ramrod or overt rebel, and this story shows a man more inclined to wear down opposition like water on a rock, to lead by the example of his intelligence and compassion. The compassion extends to the story about Thomas Edison’s commercial failure with his own version of the phonograph, using a cylinder instead of a vinyl disc. The sound was in fact superior, but the cute dog with his ear cocked to the speaker in the Victor advertisement was the deciding factor for the public, and Edison compounded his error by stubbornly sticking to his guns instead of making changes.

A good deal of the one page stories are less successful, Collier being a bit too low-key and deliberate to accomplish much in that short a length. He needs to build up steam and look at the subject from various angles, and the best stories do this. One gets the feeling that much of the shorter work was done for quick money and/or to spread his name around in various anthologies, though there is some charm and value in seeing such a wide range of subject matter. He’s going to be pretty interesting whatever he’s writing about, and his art style—like a less hormonal R. Crumb—is thoughtfully composed and inviting.

DEICIDE #1: RAGE AGAINST THE GODS by Carlos Portela and Das Pastoras. Humanoids Publishing. $15.95

Agon and Aldara are lovers, but her father does not approve of this rebellious youth, who openly mocks Madorak, the death god who usurped the people’s loyalty by defeating their patron goddess Nurun. Agon must prove his worth by going out and slaying a great beast. Though knocked unconscious for a time, he is able to accomplish his task, only to find Aldara has already been sacrificed to Madorak. There may be a way to bring her back, however, so Agon and the leonine warrior Beluch set out on a quest, dealing with a duplicitous procurer, an annoying virgin, and fearsome gods worshiped by other villages. The end of the quest will be an attempt to restore Aldara to life and to destroy the evil Madorak, if they can survive. The lush, beautifully strange artwork at first made me think this would be a heavier tale than it turns out to be. Really, while there is a romantic angle, it’s mostly a spirited action-adventure, with lots of fighting of fearsome creatures and some buddy comedy repartee, like CONAN with the stick removed.

DAYS LIKE THIS by J. Torres and Scott Chantler. Oni Press. $8.95
Please note that this isn’t a complete review, as I only received the first 48 pages of this 80 page graphic novel. Then again, that should be enough to get a decent feel for what’s going on and where it’s going.

Torres brings his gift for writing plucky heroines to this tale of the recording industry, circa the early-to-mid-60s. It’s a multi-character tale, featuring a divorcee starting a label to compete with her philandering husband’s, a sincere young songwriter in the mold of Carole King, and a black singer who goes against her devout father’s wishes and joins a vocal group, Tia & the Tiaras, along the lines of the Supremes. Their stories intertwine with a couple others, the theme apparently being woman overcoming the obstacles placed before them by men. All well and good, and I like Chantler’s artwork a lot, as it felt really appropriate to capture a more clean-cut, wholesome era, but I never got caught up in the characters and their desires. I mean, I can watch AMERICAN DREAM on TV for free. A graphic novel has to provide some new wrinkles, some odd but believable little quirks in the characters, a twist or two, some insight into the time period deeper than people apparently smiling a lot more and being more polite. There’s no lust, no hate, no believable human motivation other than Gal A, B, C, etc. liking music and wanting to be a part of the industry if Man X, Y or Z would just kindly get out of their way. It’s cute and sincere and inoffensive, but to me it felt underdone.

EDDIE CAMPBELL’S EGOMANIA #2 by Eddie Campbell. Eddie Campbell Comics. $4.95

“I eventually learned that magic was what Aleister Crowley referred to as ‘a disease of language’, and came to understand that magic is indeed mostly a linguistic phenomenon and was therefore what had been lying at the end of the path beyond mere craft all along…” – Alan Moore

The fact that the cover of this issue features the first new, color photo of Alan Moore in over a decade is perhaps significant indication that the interview within will be more revealing and interesting than some of his others. Not that Moore is ever uninteresting, but having a friend and collaborator like Campbell conduct it, the results are a bit more intimate and skip past a lot of the misunderstanding that other interviews have displayed. This is helpful, as it means we can finally learn a cogent and even logical explanation from Moore about his practice of magic, how he became interested in it and how it informs nearly all his comics work. Sure, I admit I also want to know what kinds of conjuring the guy can do, but I was more than happy to finally get a grasp on what magic is to him, and it makes quite a bit of sense. One also finds fascinating discourse on psychogeography, a way of more deeply understanding our streets and towns through their rich history and symbolic meaning (a technique Moore uses in FROM HELL and his music projects) and ideaspace, a rather neat theory that would explain déjà vu, zeitgeist and a number of unexplained phenomena.

And yes, there’s plenty of talk about comics as well, specifically PROMETHEA and the upcoming high-quality erotica, LOST GIRLS. Filling out the issue nicely is the third chapter of Campbell’s History of Humour, a rather necessary work; exhaustively researched but invigorating to this reader.

LUMAKICK by Richard Hahn. Lumakick Studios. $4.95

“Thirteen sheep. Thirteen Sheep. Thirteen Sheep.”

I admit, I had some trepidation about this book. It had traveled around my house pretty extensively, as I always found an excuse not to read it. That’s not a knock, by the way. Most superhero comics you can read while fixing dinner, but I could tell at a glance that LUMAKICK would demand more concentration. Like FORLORN FUNNIES, it is a book that works initially, and primarily, because of the exquisite artwork, with deeper meanings revealing themselves a little later. Hahn’s style is amazingly deliberate and precise, a fine pencil line of equal thickness for everything, whether a human head or a downpour or the floor. He merely spaces the lines differently for different textures in the fore-, middle-, and background, leaving the people refreshingly simple and unadorned. There are several silent tales of loneliness, despair and missed connections, and they are haunting and clearly the emotional core of the book. But I admit, they would be oppressive if not for the welcome comic relief of the one page “Clemenza & Tessio” strips, named after GODFATHER characters but really just a screwed up guy and his pal talking about girls over drinks. They’re funny strips with good comic timing, and they serve a secondary function of letting the reader know that even the author needs a break from the heavy stories after a while, and he’s in no danger of falling into the trap of making Art that doesn’t entertain.

TRIPWIRE X 10 by Joel Meadows, Gary Marshall and Tripwire Editors. Introduction by Grant Morrison. Tripwire. $14.95

“My ambition knows no bounds but I don’t think I’m actually going to offer any answers. I’m more interested in posing better questions.”

This comics magazine celebrates a decade of service with a squarebound trade paperback edition, featuring some of the best material of past issues, along with a healthy assortment of new essays and pin-ups. I’d only bought one prior issue of TRIPWIRE before, the one with the Brian Michael Bendis interview, so don’t worry about having to be a regular reader to appreciate this volume. In fact, it’s better you aren’t, because then the material all seems new.

What the magazine was apparently known for is a passion for comics that often led to a very snarky attitude about flawed comics or creators who weren’t justifying their paycheck. Some of the funniest, most scathing quotes in here, arranged in chronological excerpts from the beginning of the mag until the present, were from the early issues featuring Grant Morrison’s SON OF DRIVEL column. It should be noted that when these were written, Morrison was not the superstar he is today, so it wasn’t bullying but rather a somewhat risky move to zing the likes of Neil Gaiman and others. He does provide an all-new introduction for the book, however, which is equally hilarious but residing safely in the realm of outrageous fantasy.

Aside from decent interviews with Bendis and Frank Miller in the past couple years, TRIPWIRE has largely concerned itself with creators closer to home, and that’s probably the greatest appeal. There really is nowhere else for lengthy interviews with the likes of James Robinson and Peter Milligan, because they’re too “mainstream” for the likes of THE COMICS JOURNAL. It would have been nice for some of the reprinted material to be revised or even corrected in some places, though. An otherwise good look at the resurgence of crime comics in the last ten years recommended the SAM AND TWITCH: UDAKU trade paperback for its Alex Maleev art, despite the fact he didn’t work on that story. But a couple mistakes aside, this represents some of the best of a good comics magazine with its own unique voice, one with good, irreverent writers covering less esoteric works, and sometimes, as in the case of the off-the-wall Morrison/Simon Bisley transcripts, a genuine attempt to go beyond established magazine formats without losing professionalism.

DYLAN DOG: ZED by Tiziano Sclavi and Bruno Brindisi. Dark Horse Comics. $5.95

“My God! Your wounds are gone! And the bullet holes in your raincoat are gone, too!”

“Of course. I got shot in London, not here in Zed.”

In 1999, Dark Horse started releasing Bonelli comics to the English-speaking market, they made the possible mistake of reformatting them as multi-issue miniseries, instead of the all-in-one small format graphic novel in which the stories were originally published. I mean, this is actually called the “Bonelli” format, so why mess with it? Fortunately, this hasn’t completely stopped Dark Horse from publishing more Bonelli stories, and the error has been rectified here, with this 96 page story about the same dimensions as ASTRO BOY.

Dylan Dog is sort of a paranormal investigator, but in this tale he’s dragged in completely by happenstance, because his girlfriend has disappeared. Like your classic private eye, he’s grilled by the cops and is already notoriously unpopular with them, but this time it’s not his fault. He knows nothing about her supposed ties to the IRA.

Dog, who unlike your classic private eye is youthful and not grizzled, hooks up with a mysterious man named Scout who agrees to lead him to Zed, where the girl has gone. Zed turns out to be an alternate dimension where time and place have little or no meaning. A juicy premise, but it starts to fall apart quickly. We find in Zed the monstrous Eloi, who feed the Morlocks—the people who have entered Zed and been captured—in order to fatten them up for eating. It’s acknowledged in the dialogue as coming from Wells’ THE TIME MACHINE, but nothing new or interesting is done with it, so there really doesn’t seem to be any excuse for it but lazy writing. And that charge goes for Zed as well, because other than some fairly interesting scenes where the two realities overlap, the “real world” humans being unaware of the Zed inhabitants a la MIDNIGHT NATION, there isn’t much done with the rich concept. It starts off strongly with a feeling that anything can happen here, but doing it all in a one-shot narrowed the possibilities down to a couple thrills before the plot had to kick back in. The art is very strong, and I’m still interested enough to try some other DYLAN DOG stories if they’re forthcoming, but this isn’t a great outing.

THE GRENDEL SAGA
Part Eight: Devils and Deaths
The introduction to this book is nearly as dramatic as the stories themselves, as editor Diana Schutz and then-Assistant Editor Jamie S. Rich explain the good fortune experienced in receiving this unsolicited submission from then-unknowns Darko Macan and Edvin Biukovic, who had produced this beautiful two issue miniseries not more than 60 miles from the horrible war going on there, in 1994 Croatia. Taking the already lettered pages and getting the future star colorist Matthew Hollingsworth to apply his new skills at painting to them, they soon had a hit on their hands, which led to a four-issue follow-up miniseries. The two would then do another Dark Horse project, STAR WARS: ROGUE SQUADRON, Biukovic did HUMAN TARGET with Peter Milligan, and then he tragically died. These then, are their salad days.

GRENDEL TALES: DEVILS AND DEATHS by Darko Macan, Edvin Biukovic and Matthew Hollingsworth. Dark Horse Comics. $16.95.
Grendel unity has fragmented, perhaps irreparably, in the wake of the Khan’s death, and the Grendel clans now fight each other over territory. They’re mostly the same types of thugs, but they invent stereotypes about the other clans, reasons to hate them and kill them. Despite the circumstances, there are still some men who preserve their nobility, and in this case it’s Drago, the best soldier in the Agram clan.

During a mission, Drago is contaminated by radiation and learns he has just a short time left to live. The thought of not being able to go out on more missions but rather to wither and die is abhorrent to him, so he volunteers for one last, nearly impossible assignment: to kill a ravenous monster that has been roaming Agram territory and killing Grendels. Drago sees this as a chance for an honorable, warrior’s death, but things turn out a little differently, as the monster turns out to be violent but childlike, able to be controlled with kindness, up to a point. Sadly, Drago realizes that this beast has no more place in this cruel world than he does.

Biukovic explodes from the first panel, arriving as a fully-formed major talent, equally adept at both action and gesture, while Macan gives him a rich story worthy of his talents. It is a tale of a warrior’s honor and his struggle to both maintain his ideals and to instill them in another.

The legacy is passed on in this story to Drago’s young nephew Goran, and we meet him again in the four-part follow-up story, DEVIL’S CHOICES. It’s ten years later, and Goran is the most skilled warrior in the Agram clan, but also it’s most insubordinate. He has legitimate reasons, however, as the clan has fallen far from the Grendel code that Drago personified. Today’s ally is tomorrow’s enemy, and vice-versa, as the Agram clan joins forces with a particularly brutish clan, where Goran meets a skilled, sharp-tongued warrior named Marica. They meet cute and fall for each other on and off missions, but facing a no hope clan like the Karantani (none of their children have been born alive) is serious business and one of them may not make it through the skirmishes alive.

Macan works on a larger canvas with this story, adding the equally compelling romance of Borna and Ivana. Borna is a warrior as skilled and honorable in his way as Goran or Drago, but he chooses love instead, abandoning the clan and the devalued Grendel code. His goal is profoundly, movingly simple: to reach the sea, there to find a place to settle down with Ivana and their newborn son Jadran, named after Borna’s father. Things don’t go so smoothly for him, either, and he is captured by an enemy and forced to further betray his clan in exchange for his family’s safety.

Either of these plot threads would make for a gripping story, but woven together they form a rich, heartbreaking work of point and counterpoint, duty and desire, honor and horror. It is brisk and thrilling, but with a gravity earned by the creators’ firsthand observation of the effects of war.

Next, the ninth episode of THE GRENDEL SAGA, as we look at Steven T. Seagle’s and Paul Grist’s GRENDEL TALES: THE DEVIL IN OUR MIDST.

Full Bleed – The Big’Uns of 2003 #2 - Fantagraphics Books

Continuing this little spotlight on some of the more notable books coming out from art comics publishers, or at least the ones that I’m excited about. Again, this is from a catalog I received, so some of these may not officially be announced until their solicitation date.

THE COMICS JOURNAL LIBRARY VOLUME 2: FRANK MILLER - Ironically, I’m sure this got the green light when DK2 was announced, despite my guess that few TCJ editors or contributors were looking much forward to that particular project. Still, though Frank has hit some rough patches, he deserves credit for following his own path, and his comics legacy was assured a long time ago. Said legacy, from DAREDEVIL through RONIN, BATMAN: YEAR ONE, GIVE ME LIBERTY, SIN CITY, 300 and the rest will be examined both in the complete TCJ interviews with Miller as well as an all-new interview with him and a career-spanning essay by Larry Rodman. 120 pgs. 18.95

THE WIPEOUT by Francesca Ghermandi - This graphic novel is described as half DOUBLE INDEMNITY and half MULHOLLAND DRIVE, with shades of Lewis Carroll and M.C. Escher…how can you not be intrigued? 80 pgs. $19.95.

KING VOL. 3 by Ho Che Anderson - The final volume of Anderson’s intense, unsparing biography of the slain civil rights leader. I’m looking forward to reading the whole series in order. 72 pgs. $11.95

THE GLAMOUR GIRLS OF BILL WARD - The best of Ward’s illustrations of busty, stockinged lovelies from 1956-1963. Buy it, put on your robe, pour some Hennessy and feel like Hef for a little while. Hardcover. 128 pgs. $22.95

PORTAJOHNNY by Johnny Ryan - The best of Ryan’s ANGRY YOUTH COMIX before it went legit with Fantagraphics. “Dildobert,” a parody of Dave Berg’s “Lighter Side,” those should be worth it alone. 160 pgs. $14.95

KRAZY & IGNATZ 1929-1930 by George Herriman - There’s a reason a 70 year old comic strip about a cat, a mouse, a dog and a brick is being given a lavish reprinting. It’s a masterpiece, and consistently hilarious. 120 pgs. $14.95

DAME DARCY’S MEATCAKE COMPILATION by Dame Darcy - I read one issue of MEATCAKE and couldn’t make any sense of it, but I’m still interested in giving it another try, for three reasons: Alan Moore did a story with her here; and she has characters named Igpay the Pig-Latin Pig and Stregapez, a women who speaks by dispensing Pez-like tablets through a bloody hole in her throat. Hardcover. 200 pgs. $22.95

THE FRANK BOOK by Jim Woodring - Woodring was another respected creator I didn’t quite get until I read a TCJ interview with him and the ice melted. This will be one of the most beautiful, wildly imaginative books of the year. Intro by Francis Ford Coppola, of all people. Hardcover. 344 pgs. $39.95

STEVE DITKO: THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER by Blake Bell - Bless Fantagraphics for B. KRIGSTEIN and this, another long overdue look at a reclusive comics giant. Hardcover. 220 pgs. $39.95

T. OTT’S TALES OF ERROR by Thomas Ott - Third volume of shocking horror in a bleak sort of update of EC Comics. Ott’s scratchboard art is brilliant. Hardcover. $13.95

DICKS AND DEEDEES by Jaime Hernandez - Latest collection of excellent stories from LOVE AND ROCKETS and PENNY CENTURY. Hardcover. 96 pgs. $18.95

PALOMAR: THE HEARTBREAK SOUP STORIES by Gilbert Hernandez - Beto’s H.S. stories were long considered a major achievement, and now they’ve been collected as the massive graphic novel they were always meant to be. Hardcover. 500 pgs. $39.95

THE IRON WAGON by Jason - I discovered Jason’s work last year with HEY, WAIT.. and SSHHHH…, and think he’s a genius, able to make a silent funny animal story break your heart. This is a departure in tone, an adaptation of 1908 Norwegian mystery novel, but is said to share some of the same concerns. 80 pgs. $12.95

THE COMICS JOURNAL SPECIAL EDITION: SUMMER 2003 - Looking forward to this even more than the soon-to-be-released WINTER volume, as it profiles four generations of cartoonists: Al Hirschfeld (rest in peace, Line King); Jules Feiffer; Art Spiegelman; and Chris Ware. Even more interesting, these aren’t four separate interviews but actual conversations between the artists. Also features an interview with Hugo (CORTO MALTESE) Pratt and new comic strips by Ware, Crumb, Gilbert Hernandez; Arnold Roth, Bill Griffith and Jaime Hernandez. Oversized. 132 pages. $19.95

RIPPLE by Dave Cooper - A fascinating, disturbingly erotic graphic novel by Cooper, collecting the five-part serial from WEASEL. 96 pgs. $12.95

FROM CARTOON COONS TO THE BOONDOCKS: BLACK IMAGES IN COMICS by Fredrik Stromberg - A comprehensive look at the changing treatment of Blacks in comic strips and comic books, from MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN’s “noble savage” assistant Lothar to THE SPIRIT’s Ebony to BLACK PANTHER, R. Crumb’s “Angelfood McSpade”, LUKE CAGE, HERO FOR HIRE, THE BOONDOCKS and the aforementioned KING by Ho Che Anderson. 160 pgs. $15.95

Chris Allen

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