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Late September - Quick Impressions

The Authority: The Magnificent Kevin #1 - Hmmm. I think this will make more sense in a few issues but with Ennis I’m never too sure.

Adventures of BioBoy #1 - Please tell me this was a throw in with my ROCKETO purchase. I really root for the independent guys, but I’m afraid this stunk on rye.

All Star Batman & Robin #2 - Crappy dialog and very little else worthwhile. (Cool Batmobile though.) I'd pull the plug on this book but I know, good, better, or bad, everyone will be writing about it come next month and I hate to feel left out. 

Breach #9 - That got a little darker than expected. Still worth reading – probably be dynamite in trade paperback.

Captain America #10 - The best House of M tie-in so far. Loved the final panel; here’s hoping they leave Cap’s role in HOM just as this.

Day of Vengeance #6 - Talk about going out with a whimper. That’s it? They lose, the Spectre is basically unscathed and Eclipso is orbiting the sun? This had such promise…And no, I won’t buy a “Shadowpact” regular series.

Desolation Jones #3 - What was that all about? We interrupt our regular scheduled programming to bring you this pornographic interlude.

Ferro City #2 - It’s silly and not particularly original but it’s fun. Black and white really works here.

The Goon #14 - Lead story is short but solid. The filler stories aren’t as interesting. Kind of expecting a little bit more.

Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #1 - Very good stuff. This captured the feel of better GL stories better than the first four issues of the other new GREEN LANTERN book put together. (And they aren't bad.) This could be a fun run.

JSA #77 - Kind of a filler issue; moving along various Infinite Crisis plot threads. 5-3 odds on Airwave dieing by the way. He’s got to be on DC’s top 20 expendable characters list.   

House of M #6 - Is eight issues a long mini-series or a maxi-series?

Iron Man House of M #3 - Weak.

Fantastic Four House of M #3 - Slightly less weak.

New Avengers #10 - This arc looked like it was headed straight for the iceberg but Bendis pulled it out a bit in this issue. Does it strike anyone else that Bendis is channeling a little Alan Moore (ca. Supreme and MiracleMan) with his handling of the Sentry?

Rex Libris #1 - I know this came out a while ago, but I just finished it! This pretty much abuses the form but you have to admit, on a $/word basis, you really get your money’s worth here.

Rocketo #2 - Excellent. Sorry I missed the first issue but I understand they’re releasing a second printing. Yeah.

Top 10 #2 - I’ll wait until the series wraps for the big write-up, but this hasn’t met my expectations so far.

Uncanny X-men #464 - Is it just me, or does it seem like -- even within the context of HOM -- Claremont is off in his own little world?

Ultimates 2 #8 - Standard misdirection stuff. Sometimes Millar’s lack of subtlety amazes me. Sometimes.

Terra Obscura Volumes 1 & 2

The TERRA OBSCURA volumes are among the more curious superhero narratives I’ve read in the last few months. They’re an extension of a two part Alan Moore story that I read in TOM STRONG BOOK 2 and I bought these books because they looked like fun, had a really cool name and had Moore’s imprint on them, although Peter Hogan performed the actual scripting duties. They were curious because I felt like I was reading Justice League or Justice Society stories and with certain modifications either volume probably could have fit neatly within the continuities of either of those two groups.

Like Kurt Busieck’s ASTRO CITY, the world of TERRA OBSCURA is purposely familiar to readers of superhero comics. But where the ASTRO CITY stories (particularly the more recent work) frequently approach the genre from an outsider's perspective -- i.e. non super-character -- Terra Obscura is insular; we are only introduced to the bare minimum of non-supertypes needed to carry out the story, although there so many costumed characters you’d hardly notice.

Stories that riff on superhero archetypes and conventions are so commonplace now, they’ve almost become their own subgenre. TERRA OBSCURA takes a similar approach to the one Moore used in SUPREME – the heroes here are analogs to the Golden Age JSA and the first volume in particular reads like an Earth Two Elseworlds offering. Despite the characters being a sort of mix-n-match JSA, the parallels are so apparent you can’t help but start transposing the originals over the top of their TO proxies. The Scarab is a reincarnated Egyptian priest – albeit with a power ring; The Liberator gains incredible strength and speed by drinking a chemical potion; Pyroman has control over electricity but has these familiar thunderbolts angling off the ears of his cowl; The Terror is a genius millionaire who strikes fear in the hearts of men, along with the help of his young ward, Tim (while many of the heroes have young sidekicks, none of these characters have superhero names - they’re simply Tim and Mike and Carol. A nice touch.);and Tom Strange is a Superman and Tom Strong analog at the same time. Although certainly more Superman than Tom Strong. (Update: Being the complete idiot that I am, I didn't realize that the Terra Obscura characters were actually resurrected from a long-past Golden Age publisher, Nedor Comics.  Moore apparently co-opted them for his Tom Strong story.  That doesn't change my opinion much since I still think Hogan was using them more as JSA/JLA analogs - but it does forgive the rather blatant Xeroxing.)     

In their first Tom Strong appearance these heroes were freed by Strange and Strong after being frozen in time for more than 30 years. A fairly convenient device that allowed Moore to bring his JSA forward to the now without having to account for all that messy aging, continuity and crisis stuff. And Hogan’s first volume of TERRA OBSCURA paces us through familiar JSA (or JLA) storytelling. As Busieck does with Astro City’s character’s, Hogan allows our familiarity with the standard superhero tropes to stand in for backstory and focuses on the plot. The book is brisk and entertaining but fails to really break any new ground.

TERRA OBSCURA Volume Two is a different beast. Where the first volume stayed true to the best Gardner Fox traditions, Volume Two is darker, meaner and, through the eyes of Tom Strange and The Terror, more focused on the Superman/Batman relationship. I don’t know if this was an intentional mirroring of modern comic book storytelling and the directions these two icons have taken, but I thought this panel spoke volumes:

In the end I give Hogan a great deal of credit for successfully expanding on Moore’s initial Terra Obscura characters and plot threads and for managing to find a happy medium between blatant Xeroxed characters and loving homage. He leverages our built-in understanding of the superhero genre just enough to get us into the stories without rubbing our noses in the often obvious comparisons or thumbing his nose at the work of other creators. These books were interesting and fun, a perfect fit for an occasional limited series or better yet, trade paperback. 

The Economics of Comics – Advertising, The Big Guys

This time around the discussion is advertising in comic books, not for or about them, which is a topic for another time. And be forewarned, as I got toward the end if this I realized I hadn’t really reached any conclusions and I didn’t really have much of a point. I’m pretty much just rambling, so read at your own risk.

If you managed to make your way through my first Economics of Comics post then you may have read commenter John’s suggestion regarding, “selling more ads in comics to help subsidize the cost…I'd be willing to flip through a bunch of ads if it meant paying less.” If you did, you may have thought, “Yep, me too.” Or, “No effen way do I want more ads in my comics.” And what if more ads equaled a lower cover price by say a fifty cents or a dollar or more?

I’m going out on a limb and say the vast majority of us would happily put up with more ads if it meant a cheaper book. But how much is too much and what are the tradeoffs?

The Economics of Comics – Price Analysis

So Zilla asks, Are Comics Too &%*# Expensive? As I responded in his comments section, I think you could certainly say that they are. But let me qualify that: Comics are expensive, but I don’t think they are too expensive, at least in the sense that we as readers are being gouged by those money grubbing comic publishers and their villainous partners-in-crime, the Local Comic Book Shop.

Now I’m talking in generalities here - not about any specific comic you feel may have knocked you down and taken your lunch money (and yes, I’m talking about you JACK CROSS) - as a whole I think comics are priced pretty close to what they are worth. I often read grumblings about the constantly increasing price of comics: “It just seems like the price of comic books has done nothing but go up and up and up since I started reading them 15 years ago and I'm sick of it,” was one message board post I stumbled across, and this wasn’t an isolated sentiment. On the surface I think we accept as an article of faith that comic book prices keep going up, but have the prices risen disproportionate to other facets of the economy? Let's find out...

Impressions (or reviews, sorta) in Brief – Mid-September

Fell #1 - Warren Ellis has been positively prolific of late. In FELL we get another of his symbolically named lead characters in Detective Richard Fell, but the real star is Snowtown -- Fell’s new assignment -- a borough that Ellis invests with its own dark persona and will. Like the first issue of JACK CROSS there’s little new narrative or thematic ground broken but on whole this is a far better effort, largely due to tighter storytelling and Ben Templesmith’s art, which is perfectly suited to the material.

As Ellis relates in the letters section, this book has an interesting back-story of its own in that it’s Ellis’s attempt to offer a decent, self-contained story at the throwback price point of $1.99. As influential as Ellis is I’m not sure this effort will create any impetus from any other corner to follow suit, as much as it may be needed. More interesting to me were the concessions to form that Ellis made to ensure the story could be told and the price could be what it is. Read the letter, it alone may be worth your two bucks.

Aside: I will most certainly be buying CASANOVA based on the back cover ad alone. What a great image.

Cable & Deadpool #19 - Filler story. Boys bonding over beers. If you haven’t bought it yet, skip it and pick up issue 20 when the new story arc begins.

Captain America #9 - I really like what Ed Brubaker is doing with the storyline, good depth with loads of opportunity for character exploration. Lukin’s diplomatic immunity was a bit pat, but I can forgive that, and I’m hopeful this doesn’t devolve into an anti-government screed simply because that tune’s worn out for me.

Ferro City #1 - “Robot science fiction pulp noir” the blurb says, and that’s pretty much it although it’s definitely taking a blunt instrument to both robot science fiction and noir fiction and bludgeoning them together. But I still enjoyed it -- maybe because it was all so familiar -- and have already ordered #2.

Green Lantern #4 - Great art and a return of several GL staples = me buying at least two more issues.

Neverwhere #3 - I’m enjoying this but I get the feeling it will read better in TPB.

Space Ghost TPB - The art is great, and ya gotta love Space Ghost, but as origin stories go it’s about the least original imagining you could conceive. But it does tie everything together nicely.  I think a monthly Space Ghost series -- or at least a periodic mini -- could find an audience, especially if it looked like this.

Superman/Shazam: First Thunder #1 - I enjoyed this; it was fun, the art was fun, there was even some unexpected humor. Almost passed it up but now I’m looking forward to the second issue.

Supreme Power: Nighthawk #1 - Eh. This one didn’t do it for me. Steve Dillon’s art is very solid but the story (or at least what’s to be the start of a story) was so contrived and unoriginal that I stopped caring after about eight pages. And silly me for expecting Nighthawk to make more than a cameo in his own limited series.

Marketing Comics

The 8-year-old son of a good friend has come up with the perfect solution for selling and marketing comics. He presented me this picture (unsolicited, mind you – he has no idea I read comics) with the explanation that this was a comic book newsstand that  could be located, “by like, a school or something.” (Click on the picture for a better view.)

Who would have thought the solution was so simple? Just stack the floppies on tables, get a few folks to stand around shilling – might not be a bad idea for one of them to wear a tie, you know, to add an air of respectability - and the people will come a-runnin’.

Oh, yes, and note the price point. Alfred Marshall would be so proud.

Grounded #2

You’ll remember I really liked the first issue of GROUNDED and this second issue is a strong follow-up - in fact it was one of the few comics I bought last month that got better with the second read. It was one of maybe three that even deserved a second read.

The premise with GROUNDED is fairly simple: Jonathan Shepherd is the son of the world’s greatest superhero but he has no powers of his own. Once his dad’s secret identity is exposed he’s shipped off to “The High” a high school for budding superheroes. Yes, it sounds like Sky High, and no, it’s nothing like that. The first issue gave us Jonathan’s backstory and culminated with his dad taking him to The High. The second begins to explore The High and its rather unique students and staff.

On first pass I read issue two as a series of vignettes designed to set the stage for Jonathan’s experiences at The High but not really addressing any particular storyline – rather than forwarding a specific plot the book seemed to be headed more towards situational material. Thankfully I read it twice. Part of the fun of a series like this is seeing how the author explores the established archetypes and the standard superhero mythos, and Mark Sable does that with gusto, but the greater plot is afoot as Sable deftly stirs in a few hints that GROUNDED is going to be more than another capes and cowls deconstruction. No spoliers here, but I respect the fact that GROUNDED doesn't hit us over the head with large, blunt plot devices - even though that would have been perfectly in tune with the superhero storytelling 1A.   

Paul Azaceta’s art continues to serve the story well – particularly in how he draws kids actually looking like kids not short, skinny 30-year-olds. Giving the flashback sequences the faded comic book look is a nice touch (among many) and, silly as it may seem, I like the way certain character's word balloons are decorated; it’s largely fallen out of vogue but this book shows how it can be used as a reinforcing character trait.

I’m going to let GROUNDED get a few more issues under its belt before I review it again but Sable’s on the right track and I think this is quickly becoming a must read for anyone with a taste for the superhero genre.

Lone Wolf and Cub

LONE WOLF AND CUB was the single most recommended manga title mentioned in response to my request (buried somewhere in the comments of my legendary manga posts) for a starting off point in to the work. So through the good graces of eBay and my PayPal account I acquired a couple of dozen of the early volumes and dug in.

The volumes I picked up were those put out by First Publishing back in 1987-88. They apparently only ran up to about issue 30 which, at roughly 60 pages per book, accounts for less than a quarter of the total LW&C run. As many of you surely know, Dark Horse began publishing five issue collections in 2000, eventually compiling a 28 volume set that covered the entire series. You can find pretty much all of these volumes on Amazon if you’re so inclined. My completist nature will undoubtedly force me down that path.

So far I’ve read about a dozen issues and it’s quite easy to see why this was recommended. Excellent stuff. The story is simple: Disgraced Shogun assassin Ogami Itto and his infant son Daigoro travel the countryside in Edo-period Japan, selling their services to people in need while seeking revenge against the hit squad who killed Itto's wife. If this were simply a revenge tale the stories would get old quick but author Kazuo Koike uses the broader revenge and redemption themes as vehicles for a detailed exploration of the culture, history and brutality of feudal Japan. Each issue is self-contained -- often only progressing the greater plot incrementally -- and structured to strengthen our trust in Itto’s honor and ability. Each inevitably leading to a violent denouement. There’s some repetition here as every issue involves Itto spilling someone's (usually multiple someones) blood and at times it's hard to tell one antagonist from the next, but on a visceral level that’s part of the appeal.

The art of Goseki Kojima is more rugged and realistic than you might typically think of when someone says “manga” and in many places the art is all you have as Kojima’s images carry the load for pages at a time. I’ve read that Kojima has had a significant influence on Eastern and Western artists alike (particularly Frank Miller who pens the covers and intros for the first 12 issues) and while I’m not knowledgeable enough to speak to that, there are certainly some artists working today who could learn a thing or three about the value of  facial expressions and staging action scenes from Kojima’s work here.

If I was given to rating things with numbers I would give LONE WOLF AND CUB a 10 out of 12 since of the dozen issues I’ve read 10 have been very good to excellent and only two have been predictable or uninspired. (I’m not going to say which two.) If you’re looking for something different than the standard super hero fair, and yet not too far off the beaten path, you should try these out. I promise you’ll be entertained and that you'll learn something. 

Super Speed Part I - Biomechanics

If you hang around  sports long enough (or watch enough SportsCenter) you’ll undoubtedly hear the phrases, “You can’t coach height,” and “You can’t coach speed.” The former is an indelible truth, the latter is an outright lie. You can coach speed. Here’s a promise: if you are able-bodied and have never been coached as a sprinter I can make you faster – probably in less than an hour. You won’t break any world records or be able to run much faster over a long distance, but I can improve your sprinting speed so that you’ll have a faster 40 time. (And that’s what the superhero scouts are looking at anyway, right?)

How is this possible? Simple: mechanics. In all likelihood, you don’t run very well. You don’t drive your knees or use your arms correctly or your body position is wrong or most likely, all these things. And you know what? Most super-speedsters don’t know how to run right either. (Okay, to be fair, the real problem is artists who don’t know how to draw people running, but work with me here.)

Here’s a cover from THE FLASH No. 214:

Not surprisingly it’s got a picture of the Flash running – actually several. Look at the way their arms drive all the way across their bodies. Ugh. Movement like that would cause the entire upper torso to twist creating a lot of wasted  motion, in fact this movement would probably slow you down more than anything. But it’s very common to see super-speedsters depicted like this in comics. How should the arms look? More like these guys:

These aren’t sprinters but you can get a good sense of proper arm position and even knee drive by examining the various runners in this picture. When you’re trying to run fast your arms should be moving in the same plane as your legs – the object is linear momentum and velocity so driving the arms across the body is counter productive. And yet Flash does this a lot. There are times he looks more like and speed skater than a speed runner.

Body angle would be a fascinating thing to study if you had access to a real life super speedster. Typically you wouldn’t coach the kind of extreme body lean you see depicted nor it’s ramrod upright opposite that is also pretty common, but some of that has to do with fatigue. It’s very difficult for your garden variety human to maintain a 45 degree body lean for an extended period of time and it’s not particularly desirable because it limits the ability to take a longer stride – one of the big components to successful sprinting. But it’s also a postural limitation since a pronounced body lean would put stress on a number of muscles groups that are normally not very active while running. And the more muscles you fatigue the faster the body as a whole fatigues. But the Flash does not get tired so this wouldn’t be a limitation for him and there may be some aerodynamic advantages to a body lean like the one shown below, especially at the speeds at which the Flash moves.

But I suspect a super speedster would be better suited running slightly more erect. It’s a more natural position and if nothing else it would allow for greater visual awareness. How erect? Well, Michael Johnson set world records in the 200 and 400 meters and won multiple Olympic gold medals running in a nearly vertical position so I don’t suppose there’s any real limitation. Although I have to say that this doesn’t look right:

Since they already can pick them up and put them down faster than anyone else and they never get tired, what would be the purpose in teaching a super speedster better biomechanics? So there’s a little wasted motion, big deal, right? A little wasted motion multiplied over the speed and distance the Flash typically travels becomes a lot of wasted motion. And even the Flash could be faster – how many times have you seen the Flash needing to run “faster than he ever has before”? About every third issue right? So here you go Flash, just give me one hour and we’ll break a few more barriers.   

Trade Paperback Catch up

One of the nice things about having been out of comics until roughly a year ago is all the backlist stuff I get to catch up on. When I hear or read about something interesting, rather than randomly picking a jumping on point, my preference is to go to the beginning of the series and run through the TPB volumes until I catch up. Inevitably I continue reading the series in this form which means I’m perpetually behind whatever the current floppy release is, but I can live with that.

So here, in no particular order, are the some of the titles I’ve been pursuing in TPB, what volume I’m on and my invaluable opinions about the book to the point that I’ve read. 

100 Bullets – The first series I took on in this manner. The first three or four volumes have been the gold standard for me in the non-superhero genre but the last couple have been a little bogged down by the depth of the plot and the always increasing character count. I suspect the last 15 or 20 floppy issues (4-5 TPB’s?) are going to absolutely rock and it’s hard to believe we’re nearly three years away from seeing that.

Fables - My current favorite. Will I get in trouble for giving Willingham credit for something worthwhile after his latest gaffe? Nah. I think everyone has enjoyed this book. Of all the series in this rundown FABLES is probably the least original in premise and yet the most fun and absorbing to read. I’m up to volume four but will be picking up five soon. The Wolf is the lynchpin for the story and Willingham handles him deftly but he also manages to instill a huge cast of secondary characters with original voices and it's fun to see how Willingham uses each characters fairy tale roots to shape their personality and role in FABLES. The main story of the Fables -- being run out of their lands by the Adversary -- has a strong Lord of The Rings feel to it, but that's somehow appropriate given the near fairy tale status LOTR is now afforded. 

The Losers - Series most likely to be made into an unsuccessful movie. I’ve read through volume three so far and it’s very good but if you were to synopsize this for someone unfamiliar you’d end up ticking off about a dozen standard fiction clichés. It’s to Diggle’s credit that he can take those and spin a solid, intriguing story. Maybe more than any other book, the art sells this one for me. Jock’s got it down; every scene is distinctive, the angles are wonderful, the storytelling perfectly matched to the script. I can’t imagine the book being the same if he were to leave.

Powers - I’ve just read volume one so far. Not a bad story but the damn thing could be a foundation text for decompression. And, egad, Bendis’s dialogue can be distracting. Reading the notes at the end of the book revealed two things I didn’t catch as I read: the city the events are set in is actually named “Powers” which is simply pointless and Bendis was apparently trying for a Noir feel. I guess he failed. If you’re a fan of Film Noir then you know the themes and Bendis misses most of them. Just coloring the book dark and a bit moody isn’t the key, but oh well. I’ll eventually read the other volumes, but I’m in no big hurry.

Sin City - Speaking of Noir. Frank Miller does get there but he hammers you over the head with it. I’m wrapping up volume four currently and will wait to read the others some time later in the year. I give Miller a lot of credit for a visually stunning book but his scripting is unimpressive and his storytelling lacks any sentiment or refinement. I like at least a small amount of wit and elegance in these type of stories and SIN CITY is devoid of that completely. 

Queen & Country - I’ve read volume’s one and two. Probably the most intelligent read of this bunch and by far the most nuanced. I haven’t read much by Greg Rucka but I’m going to make a point to change that. Rucka does his homework and it shows in the storytelling. I prefer Brian Hurtt’s artwork to Steve Rolston, it’s grittier and – I know you get in big trouble for saying this – less cartoony. I’ll be interested to see how the other volumes play out with each apparently using a different penciller.

Transmetropolitan - Midway through the second volume on this one and unlike many of the other titles on this list, I can only take it in small doses. It’s good, but Ellis just wears me out in places. Darick Robertson’s artwork is so loaded with iconic twists and sly little winks -- at pretty much everything -- that I find myself flipping through the books just looking at the pictures. Some of it reminds me of old Mad Magazine spreads, which seems intentional but might just be my imagination.

Y The Last Man - Fun. You can see how the success of this book would take people by surprise. Yorick is a strong lead and Brian K. Vaughan has taken some care to explore feminist themes in a plausible, yet not superheated, fashion. Like 100 bullets the book has slowed down a bit under the weight of multiple characters and plot-threads, but it’s one I stay up to speed on and look forward to the next TPB release.   

So there you have it. I’m slowly making my way through and having a lot of fun in the process. I can say almost without exception that most of these writers are far more enjoyable in their own venues than they are when they write some established title. I still have several major series to undertake including Gaiman’s Sandman, Preacher and Invisibles  and would appreciate any other suggestions.