It’s a start.

KANE VOL. 4: THIRTY-NINTH
Written and Drawn by Paul Grist

How good is Paul Grist? I’ll tell you how good.

Paul Grist is the most underrated and unheralded dude working in comics today. He published his crime stories and retro-feeling superhero stories through one of the five largest publishers, and you still couldn’t pick him out of a police lineup. He’s never so much as sniffed WIZARD’S “top ten” writer or artist lists. All he seems to be capable of is…

…Creating some of the most consistent, high-quality, character-driven comics you’ll find on the shelves today. Grist’s singularly unique artistic style, his innovative layouts… there is no way to confuse his work with anyone else’s. Grist is one of those rare creatures that aren’t fully aping someone else. His dialogue is terse and spare, conveying the simplest and most direct emotions to the reader. It’s perfect noir comics.

How good is Paul Grist? I’ll tell you how good. The lead character, Kane? The ass-kicking cop the book is built around? He appears on precisely one page in this huge volume, and the story and characters are so damned good that you don’t miss him. That’s how good Paul Grist is. Grade: A

SIBAM?

What kind of film could do justice to Grist’s unique style and work? There isn’t one. I’d hate to see anyone take it upon him or herself to butcher Grist’s work on screen. Leave it as it is.

WALKING DEAD VOL.3: SAFETY BEHIND BARS
Written by Robert Kirkman and Drawn by Charlie Adlard

As much as I like the individual issues, this is my preferred method for keeping up with the title. Kirkman’s cast has grown quite large, and getting them in large chunks makes it easier to keep track of who’s who. This time out, the rag-tag band of zombie survivors finds an abandoned prison with only a few inmates left, which gives them hope that they can set up stakes and have a safe place to avoid the titular characters for a while. It’s a fascinating concept, made all the more fun by the human element entering into it: what happens when humans begin killing each other again? What will the laws of this new society be? Who will be the judges, juries, and executioners?

Is anyone ever truly safe?

There’s so much wonderful stuff here, and only one huge flaw, which makes it all the more painful: Kirkman does his best to end each volume with a feeling of resonance, but this time out, he ends with a pure cliffhanger. Bad, bad call. Yes, the cliffhanger is resolved nicely in issue #19, but the reader picking this up in a bookstore is getting the short end of that one. Still, I can’t let that sway me from recommending this excellent series to you. Just be warned that this volume is… untidy. Grade: A-

ULTRA: SEVEN DAYS
Written and Drawn by the Luna Brothers

those?) in the big city, fighting to bring peace and justice to the oppressed and downtrodden. She’s also a young woman fighting to have a normal life, a life that really isn’t possible considering who she is. But one night while out with a couple of her fellow heroines, they visit a fortuneteller who predicts that Pearl will find true love within seven days. She doesn’t believe in fortune tellers, though her friends do, and when she meets a cute guy while getting a pizza, it looks like the psychic may just be right.

Unfortunately, looks can be highly deceiving.

Sex, love, scandal, product placement, nagging mothers, dangerous villains… for a young heroine, there are troubles lurking everywhere. There’s a huge amount of wit and charm to the ULTRA saga, and while monthly reading exposed the story flaws to harsher light, reading it in a full package makes it flow a bit more smoothly. The characters are still kind of shallow, and the subplot stuff with her friend Cowgirl still doesn’t work for me, but the book is more than enough to convince you that the Lunas should definitely return to Pearl’s world and let us know how she’s doing. Grade: B+

NEGATIVE BURN: WINTER 2005
Written and Drawn by Various

June, unless it’s a gag.

This is no gag.

That said, my unabashed love of NEGATIVE BURN, which I expressed when I reviewed the “Best Of” the original series book a few months ago, remains intact. This volume contains wonderful work from Kurt Busiek, Steve Lieber, Evan Dorkin, Zander Cannon, Jim Mahfood, and many more. Not every single piece in this 96-page edition is a winner; there are some surprising duds from people whose work I really like, especially Brian Bolland. And my inability to enjoy a single thing James Owen has ever done is strongly in place.

Still, any time you can get new work out of so many terrific and creative individuals, it’s impossible to ignore. NEGATIVE BURN is back, and that’s a very good thing for fans of quality comics. Grade: B+

FREAK SHOW
Written by Bruce Jones and Bernie Wrightson and Drawn by Wrightson

There are just some things in the world that go together perfectly. Peanut butter and jelly. Bacon and eggs. Martin and Lewis. Wrightson and monstrous characters are on that list. No matter how many times you see Bernie slumming it on a mainstream project, you just know what he’s really meant to do: disturb the holy living fuck out of you.

FREAK SHOW succeeds quite admirably on that account. This dark and horrific tale suits Wrightson’s gifts to a “T,” bringing the reader a story they’ll regret reading in the dark. This reprint, along with the three others in the volume, is presented with the highest possible reproduction quality, which allows you to dissect every horrific line in the creatures’ bodies. The poor wretches. The only real quibble I had with the book was that I wanted to know where the stories had originally appeared, and that information was nowhere to be found in the indicia. Still, that has no bearing on just how good this stuff is. Check it out and see for yourself… if you aren’t afraid. Grade: A

LIBERTY MEADOWS VOL.3: SUMMER OF LOVE
Written and Drawn by Frank Cho

I fall primarily in camp number one.

LIBERTY MEADOWS isn’t rocket science. Cho isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with his strip. He’s just having fun. Remember that? Fun? Comics used to have a lot more of it, before rape, disassembly, and the like took over.

What I like about Cho’s work is twofold. First, he’s created a large cast of characters, each well-defined, and that allows him to shift gears, move his focus around, and keep his stuff from getting stale. The second thing is a bit more unobvious: Cho is a romantic, and he’s screaming it at the top of his lungs, but no one is listening.

Yes, the strip has eight tons of smutty jokes shoved into it. Dean The Pig has made more bad come-ons than you can imagine. But the gag is: he is never rewarded for his misbehavior. He always pays a price for the disrespect he shows women and his crude behavior. We are meant to laugh not at his audacity, but at his comeuppance. On the other side of the strip is Frank’s unrequited love for Brandy. Frank is so terrified of how he feels about her than he can’t even speak. It’s sweet, which is the last thing many people would think about when they describe LIBERTY MEADOWS.

Not every gag is a winner, but Cho bats a pretty high average, and you have to give him credit. He stuck by his guns, kept his characters, and is still doing the work. Fun, my friends. Fun. It’s what comics need more of. Grade: B+

See you in seven.

Review materials may be sent to: Marc Mason, P.O. Box 26732, Tempe, AZ 85285. You can also find me at Happy Nonsense and The Comics Waiting Room

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