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Breakdowns -- Ceremonious Dump

August 7, 2003

For those of you who missed the column last week and feel I owe you some sort of explanation, well, okay, Mr. Demanding and Intrusive: I was on vacation in Chicago. I return recovering from lots of fried poultry and salty meats and am immediately besieged by my boss’ boss about stuff not done before I left, making for one of the worst professional days I’ve ever had. Everything’s pretty much okay now, so let’s redirect some of that frustration and impotent rage into yet another column, shall we?

Actually, I’m not in too bad a mood but feel like I have a ton to cover, especially having missed a week, so in addition to lots of reviews, I wanted to talk a little about the new Diamond PREVIEWS--at least as it pertains to one of the “Big Four” publishers (and yes, this is not the case anymore since Tokyopop and Viz have becomes such huge forces in English-language comics publishing), Dark Horse Comics. I’ll look at the others in coming weeks.

Dark Horse Comics is a true survivor in the industry and, like Fantagraphics, finances their riskier and more artistic works from the revenues of genre work of a broader appeal. In Fantagraphics’ case, the genre is porn, but with DH it’s licensed properties like STAR WARS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ALIENS, as well as an ever-increasing array of t-shirts and collectibles from toys to lunchboxes to journals and stationery. Let’s take a look through this month’s solicitations to see what it says about what the company’s doing right, and doing wrong.

First of all, Dark Horse has the best-designed section of the Big Four, with plenty of art and generally effective copy. The first few pages are devoted to books in the new Rocket Comics imprint, and unfortunately, it’s a solid bet that GALACTIC, GO BOY 7, HELL and SYN will die quiet deaths within a year, give or take. The titles seem mostly to be an unconvincing and uninspired mix of second-tier 2000 A.D. concepts and ugly Amerimanga art stylings. LONE is easily the most 2000 A.D.-ish book, sounding a lot like MISSIONARY MAN, but I admit to having one of those Randy Landeresque “soft spots” for the apocalyptic wanderer story, rather than the pirate/monkey/spy/zombie/ninja comic.

One of the most interesting developments from Dark Horse this year has been the creation of a horror line, edited by longtime HELLBOY editor Scott Allie, and with that book and its spinoffs as the tentpole around which he and the company want a whole movement and new or additional reader impression of what Dark Horse offers. And, as new imprints go, the results have been better than average. The HELLBOY one-shots and miniseries have been enjoyable so far, and more B.P.R.D. stuff looking promising. The Steve Niles/Ben Templesmith CRIMINAL MACABRE has been light but good fun, and, well, let’s talk about Eric Powell’s THE GOON in a review:

DRAWING ON YOUR NIGHTMARES curiously got the cover of PREVIEWS, and I say curiously just because it’s merely a 32 page one-shot, three probably simple but fun stories by the likes of Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith, Eric Powell, and Brett Matthews and Sean Phillips. The Cal McDonald and Goon stories, if you skip this one-shot, would quite likely end up in future trade paperbacks of these respective series, I imagine. But I also like Sean Phillips a lot, so this looks like a good call.

THE DEVIL’S FOOTPRINTS TPB solicit sports a nice blurb from Alan Moore, but I think Al may have been possessed by Glycon at the time, because despite my feeling that Scott Allie really did have a story to tell here, he just wasn’t able to effectively play it out across just four issues. It’s a lot of scenes of people looking at each other and making cryptic comments, and then in the last issue there’s some demonic action, but no reason to care. The Paul Lee/Brian Horton art is nice for another book but too plain for this story once it comes to the supposedly “fiery climax”. This team would instead work really well filling in on GOTHAM CENTRAL or maybe that new CPA ALL-STARS miniseries where the heroes have to perform internal audits on their souls and balance their own mental books before…where was I? Dark Horse? Okay.

Allie does just fine editing HELLBOY: WEIRD TALES, though, which I’m mildly surprised to see making it to a fifth issue. I just figured on four, but great, though I’m not so excited by the thought of Ron Marz and Jim Starlin doing Hellboy. J.H. Williams III and Scott Morse should both be interesting, though. Allie and writer Fabian Nicieza should be ashamed of the ridiculous copout ending of THE BLACKBURNE COVENANT, though. Basically, instead of actually destroying this evil, age-old cabal, our hero…writes a sequel to his best-selling novel! That’ll teach ‘em! Still, this was a more successful mini than FOOTPRINTS.

THE CHRONICLES OF CONAN VOL. 2 is something I’ve talked about before, advising folks that Barry Windsor-Smith (the main reason anyone would want these volumes) is apparently getting nothing out of the deal, which reprints the old Conan stories he drew from Roy Thomas scripts. I’ll admit, though, I am curious to see the quality of reproduction and the recoloring, and since it also boasts “text corrections”, I’m wondering if Thomas was involved. These are fun stories, though.

I’ll skip ahead a little—well, wait, this is funny. Check the bullet for SPYBOY: THE M.A.N.G.A. AFFAIR TPB: “This manga-inspired SpyBoy storyline is sure to appeal to readers who have become comics readers because of their interest in manga!” Gee, this is perfect for me, because I like the manga, but would also like to retreat into my straight superhero shell again! Hey, SPYBOY now has NutraManga, which won’t rot your teeth like the real stuff. Seriously, though, with all the actual, successful, real managa DH publishes, I don’t know why they bother with the imitations like this and GO BOY 7. The title of that one alone restricts it to preteens not worrying about being cool.

Dark Horse does have a couple really promising books coming out in September: AUTOBIOGRAPHIX--true-life stories from Will Eisner, Frank Miller, Sergio Aragones, William Stout, Paul Hornschemeier, Matt Wagner, Jason Lutes and more—and Hornschemeier’s first graphic novel MOTHER, COME HOME. I’ve read the first two of three chapters when they were published by Absence of Ink Press in FORLORN FUNNIES, and this book is a lock for an Eisner nom next year, probably giving other shoe-in Craig Thompson’s BLANKETS a run for its money.

Now let me talk about three books some of you might not even know I read. BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL recently completed the wonderful “Fall Frost” storyline, which consisted mainly of a couple of long, talky, bloody and riveting battles. I just think Hiraoki Samura is amazingly talented and the book has going for it that the dialogue is very modern and edgy, very accessible to even those who fear a period samurai tale because it might be dry or too concerned with outdated virtues or something. Artists can learn a lot about dynamic action from studying a few pages of this guy. I also enjoy CANNON GOD EXAXXION and GHOST IN THE SHELL II: MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE, but they’ll work better in trades. In fact, there’s some talk of the former going to a trade-only format, the only problem being that they’re not that far behind the Japanese version in reprinting. I don’t see the big deal in that—just print one or two trades a year like you would anyway; if people like it, they’ll wait.

THE GOON: NOTHIN’ BUT MISERY TPB by Eric Powell. Dark Horse Comics. $16.95
As a reviewer or reader, it’s always a nice boost to the ego to discover a good book early on. Admittedly, I wasn’t around for the DARK HORSE PRESENTS debut or the early self-published issues, but a year or so ago THE GOON COLOR SPECIAL exploded across my retinae and the bandwagon picked up another member. This collection reprints that special as well as the first four issues from Albatross Exploding Funnybooks, now in color. If you’ve been waiting for the next HELLBOY, this is it.

Far from Lovecraftian horror, grim folktales and Nazis, however, Powell seems to be more influenced by drive-in horror flicks, Wally Wood and old Bowery Boys movies, though he shares with Mike Mignola a distinct appreciation for other lowbrow comics genius Jack Kirby. In these stories, the plug-ugly Goon slugs his way through one fight after another, with zombies and demons and mutants, as he tries to maintain the ruse that he’s just the enforcer for the reclusive Mob boss Labrazio, whom he secretly killed a while back. If the book needs improvement, it’s probably in the area of developing this plot better, focusing on a singular antagonist, and giving that little bit more dimension to the Goon. The book is a lot of fun and gorgeous to look at, but if Powell wants it to be one for the ages he could keep working on these areas. Still one of my favorite series, though.

POP GUN WAR: GIFT TPB by Farel Dalrymple. Dark Horse Comics. $13.95
In a fictional and symbolist New York City, a boy named Sinclair finds a discarded pair of angel wings and finds he can fly with them. A midget hustler makes himself grow to King Kong size to be heard, but his act still ain’t selling. A homeless man suffers the degradation of a cruel manipulator.

These are some of the characters and situations of the first five issues of Dalrymple’s POP GUN WAR (collected here with a Prologue I don’t think I’ve seen before), but plot is low on Dalrymple’s To Do List. What there is instead are characters moving in their own arcs and occasionally intersecting and colliding, like players in an old magnetic football game. This is not a criticism, as this storytelling approach fits the theme here of the entire city being made up of children. Not literal children, as only the ostensible lead, Sinclair, his sister, and some minor characters are young, but everyone here has the emotional makeup of a child. The selfishness, the inability to articulate feelings, the need to dominate or exclude. It’s been said that up to the age of seven, most children cannot empathize with another’s feelings. Addison, the homeless guy, fits some of the stereotype of street people having a sort of beatific generosity of spirit, and the simple wisdom, but he has a terrible time with a fairly simple task like avoiding a bully. Sinclair finds his wings don’t change his life much, but in the somewhat obvious but still effective climactic scene, he finds he had them all along.

Dalrymple is able to put over his precious mythology with sincerity and simply top notch artistic ability. His characters have soul and secret depths, his city believably plain and lived-in to contrast with the flying boy, the spectacle-wearing goldfish, the towering giant. He keeps things interesting, shifting tones from scene to scene, mixing in some subtle humor, major-and-minor key personalities. Too early to call this series a masterpiece yet, but it’s a memorable one off to a great start.

NEVERMEN: STREETS OF BLOOD TPB by Phil Amara and Guy Davis. Dark Horse Comics. $9.95
It must get harder and harder to come up with a fresh superhero series, but Amara and Davis have managed it by going back to the lean, headlong style and setting of Golden Age comics and pulps, combined with Amara’s zingy, offkilter dialogue and Davis’ deliciously horrific character designs. In this collection of the second miniseries, the three trenchcoated, snapbrimmed Nevermen reform to stop pretty much their whole rogues’ gallery, who have been set free and put to chaotic work by the eerie, long-limbed Winterbone. It’s revenge on the city and on Winterbone’s “father”, the professor who created him, and later created the exoskeletons the Nevermen wear. It’s really just a lot of strong-jawed heroes punching out loathsome creeps and foiling the melodramatic string-pulling madman villain, but it’s extremely entertaining, and it’s nice to see Davis’ work in very tight pacing with bright colors for a change of pace. Amara tries a little too hard to keep throwing in cool villains and then finds he doesn’t have much space left to stop them, and there’s not much to the plot, but it’s a good fun series I’d like to see keep going for years.

THE BUNKER by Bruce Mutard. Image Comics. $9.95
This original graphic novel—a real departure in subject matter for Image—came out about a month or so ago without making much of a splash, and that’s too bad. While not a great work, it gets a lot right and marks Mutard as a creator to follow, and Image a company willing to take some non-genre risks now and then.

It’s an episodic story about a teenage boy, Jason, and his best friend since childhood, his neighbor Annie. When she starts sleeping over in the bunk above his every night, the relationship gets deeper and thornier for Jason, not so much for Annie, who is mainly using the bunk to avoid a family problem.

The story hit home for me not in the bunker details, but because I was one of those many naïve young men who gave a lot of myself for an attractive but disturbed girl, the kind who bounces between near-breakdowns and a reckless sexuality either unconscious or premeditated. These are people one can almost never help, as their problems run too deep and they’re unlikely to share them honestly with you, anyway. Annie is like that here, and Jason does little but listen and support her, getting little out of it. One could complain that as the lead character, he does nothing but react and stammer, but it’s understood that his feelings for Annie are so strong that he is always very careful not to say or do the wrong thing around her, because even at her worst he loves the moments he spends with her. With clean, detailed artwork and measured pacing to heighten the emotional content and subtext of scenes, Mutard does just about everything right. However, the flaw is a large one.

I had preordered this book but left it in my “Pull” box at the comic shop because I heard from a couple trusted friends that the ending was bad. Having read the book now, I don’t think it’s that the ending is bad so much as the set-up towards this ending was poorly executed. So as not to spoil things, that “family problem” I refer to above is the real reason why Annie won’t sleep in her own room anymore, not the ghost she swears haunts her every night. The problem is, this is obvious from the moment the ghost is described. It’s obviously childish sublimation, and to have the unsurprising “big reveal” at the end is almost an insult to the reader. At the very least it feels gratuitous and out of place as an ending. As a bonus, a couple excised pages are shown after this ending, and they don’t really help things. It’s still a good book, though.

BLANKETS by Craig Thompson. Top Shelf Productions. $29.95
An aptly titled graphic novel of first love, BLANKETS is about the struggle to share one’s warmth without losing it, and without smothering or being smothered. Thompson expands on the theme of lost love from the endearing GOOD-BYE, CHUNKY RICE, digging deeper and with more emotional honesty in this largely autobiographical story.

The book presents Craig and his younger brother Phil, both of whom suffer an episode of molestation that stays with Craig as guilt, as he experienced it first and did not protect his brother from the abuser. This episode resonates through the book, possibly a factor in Craig’s eventual loss of faith. His family is very religious and so he’s tormented as a child by images of Hell, and as a young adult he has to finally cast aside his faith and his guilt, and make an attempt to renew the bond with his now-distant brother.

As I write this, I realize these events probably aren’t the main things readers will take away from the novel. They add depth and color to the heart of the story, a sweet, natural and heartbreaking romance between Craig and Raina, whom he met at a church camp as a teenager. She’s everything Craig could hope for, being religious enough to appeal to his family but beautiful, tender and uninhibited for him. Their love grows and achieves a new intimacy during a week Craig spends with Raina’s family, Craig providing a new focal point away from the cloud of Raina’s parents’ trial separation while he and Raina discreetly sleep together at night. Thompson provides an excellent counterpoint to Craig and Raina’s new love in her parents’ dying love, as well as Raina’s father feeling like he’s lost his footing in life when Craig is just trying to find his.

When the week is over and Craig returns home, it’s not long before distance takes its toll on the fragile young relationship, and Craig is alone again. Anyone who’s been in a long distance romance knows the desperation, and how letters and phone calls are great at starting a love but lose their power after a physical meeting. It’s one more thing for Craig to move through and cast slowly aside on his way to maturity.

As a novel, BLANKETS would be a good one even without the art. The storytelling is sophisticated and well-structured and the scenes pack considerable weight. As a graphic novel, it’s a quietly stunning achievement among the best the medium has to offer, with a wealth of rich, evocative imagery (the Christian nightmares, the snowswept courtship, the cascading montages in the love scenes) that could not be duplicated in literature or film. It’s a superlative work that deserves to be read by as many non-comics fans as one can loan it to.

BLANCHE THE BABY KILLER #0 by Songgu Kim. Bongs Quality Meats. $4.95
Remember what I wrote earlier about how cool it is to discover a great new comic early. Well, now’s your chance, with this 72-page monster debut of what has to be the most startling, disturbing new book this year. It’s set in a bizarre, Communist China-occupied America where the bosses have incredible power over workers, because to lose one’s job is practically a death sentence. This is why Blanche puts up with the miserable gig as a chicken butcher, even when it means the occasional blowjob to the boss to keep it.

If that sounds as repellent as the book’s title, well, read on. A glimmer of hope arrives-- though Blanche’s terrifying foreshadowing dreams have little to do with hope—when a mysterious man offers her a new job. She has nothing to lose at this point, so she tries out for it, and it involves, well, shooting a baby in an apartment with a sniper rifle, also supplied to her by the benefactor. But this is no baby, but a hideous demon, and she fails to kill him. This is where things really go wrong for her, but also where she starts fighting back. Kim has come up with an exciting premise and keeps the story riveting throughout the 72 pages, helped immensely by an accomplished style and gift for unsettling images on par with Charles Burns or Dave Cooper. I have to thank my retailer for pointing this one out to me. Pick it up and let it begin warping your mind in a fun new way.

KISSING CHAOS: 1000 WORDS by Arthur Dela Cruz. Oni Press. $2.99
It’s kind of a weird predicament as a reviewer when you’re a fairly early champion of a book or creator and then you lose some measure of interest. I mean, I’m quoted on the first KC trade paperback, and it’s a quote I actually like (I’m not usually one for the “if you like BLANK, you’ve GOT to be reading THIS!” and “Like BLANK meets BLANK as directed by BLANK!”), so a year or so down the road, I’m somewhat disheartened that the sincere melodrama Dela Cruz deals in hasn’t changed or grown much, and the redundancy of it becomes more clear.

I’m honestly unclear why this one-shot was published as it was unless it’s some sort of stop-gap until the author figures out what to do with this story, or until he has the time to complete it. Essentially, the sweetly insane Angela is still on the run with criminal boyfriend Damien, and she senses that he may no longer love her. In fact, though she doesn’t know this, it appears he may be intending to sell her to someone, and is at the very least using her as a bargaining chip and life preserver.

Dela Cruz’ art is still lovely when depicting Angela, though Damien is now coarser and uglier, perhaps intentionally, but the art on him is just not as interesting to look at. And Angela and the reader don’t really get anywhere that justifies this as a one-shot. She’s as deluded about Damien at the end as she was at the beginning, and nothing external has really changed or resolved. My guess, based on Oni publishing strategies, is that this is one of several one-shots exploring characters in the KC universe, to be collected when they’re all out there. Which is fine, but the issue on its own stands as merely a nice-looking but slight character study of a disturbed but not all that interesting girl.

Next Week: I’ll let you, too, know about Damon Hurd’s and Pedro Camello’s A SORT OF HOMECOMING; Craig Thompson’s new French-only one-shot, DUVETS (okay, I made that up); Osamu Tezuka’s LOST WORLD; Jim Woodring’s THE FRANK BOOK; Peter (Artbomb) Siegel’s KILLING DEMONS and some other stuff...

If you have a comic you would like reviewed, please send to me at:
1451 River Crest Rd.
San Marcos, CA 92078
Chris Allen

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