Whatcha Readin'? 11/9/04

[jkcarrier]

Catching up on my mainstream purchases, as well as some minicomics and a couple things I picked up at Half Price Books...

ASTONISHING X-MEN #6: Kind of an ambiguous ending -- the X-Men basically manage to delay the inevitable, rather than win a clear-cut victory. Which I suppose is typical for them. No big shocking plot twists this time out, although they set up a bit with Emma that should be interesting to watch. Still, it's the great dialogue and character bits that carry the day. Beast's agonizing over whether to take the cure is brilliantly done. And you better believe I grinned like an idiot at the return of the "Fastball Special". The art continues to be great, the coloring continues to be overdone and distracting. Ah well, can't have everything.
"You bite, I'll heal. I pop, you won't."

BAJA: This graphic novel is the sequel to Steve Laffler's earlier "Bughouse". Jazz musician Bones gets framed for drug possession and has to flee to Mexico. While he's there, he becomes immersed in the culture, joins a new band, and falls in love. It's a breezy, pleasant little romp -- there are moments of drama and danger, but they resolve themselves without much fuss, and Bones seems to be living a charmed life (there's actually an in-story reason for this, but I won't spoil it). Not too deep or meaningful, but a lot of fun.
"Fruit my ass, this is cactus!"

BLACK WIDOW #2: All kinds of interesting twists and turns in the spy plot, plus a couple pages of Natasha in her underwear. What else do you need? But seriously, it's nice to see her step out from being a sidekick/girlfriend/supporting player and be the one in charge for a change. The bit about why she doesn't use her bracelets anymore was cute, but not particularly credible -- she's good pals with Nick Fury and Tony Stark, but she can't get replacement parts? Riiight. But anyway, the story's intriguing and the Parlov/Sienkiewicz art is rockin' (but does Natasha have to look SO much like Jennifer Garner?).
"Hey, Nat, funerals, burglary -- it's an all-purpose black."

BLUE MONDAY: PAINTED MOON #3: Shit, missed an issue. Oh well, it's not hard to pick up what's been going on. Teenagers + raging hormones = comedy gold! Everyone is so monumentally screwed up, it makes me nostalgic for my own high school days. Not. Monkeyboy gets the tongue! Lucky bastard. And what is up with Erin, anyway? I can't decide if she's genuinely trying to help, or just playing everyone for her own amusement. This book is always a blast.
"And who knows, maybe I'll fill out before then. Shit, it could happen!"

BUD PLANT'S INCREDIBLE CATALOG WINTER 2004-05: Gah! Who slipped this crack into my mailbox? I used to be a steady customer years ago... it got to the point where I was dropping a hundred bucks or more every time a new catalog came out. I finally had to go cold turkey, and eventually they stopped sending them. But now here the damn thing is again. I'm not even going to look at... ooh, Mac Raboy's "Flash Gordon"... Yoshitaka Amano... Luis Royo... you know, I really should pick up a couple of those Spirit hardcovers... argh! Get thee behind me, Satan!
"We give you a $10 credit for every $100 you buy!"

COMET TALES #13: Jim Pack continues the long-running saga of his character "Martian Cat". The theme of the misunderstood alien encountering prejudice, poverty, and other social ills on Earth is very much out in the vein of the "relevant" superheroes of the '70s. It's obviously heartfelt, but comes off as a bit cliche in this day and age. More interesting is the editorial, where Jim says that he had planned to make the strip more of a light-hearted adventure, but it kept drifting back to the grim social commentary, against his best intentions. There's also a wickedly funny prose story in the back, which shows to me that Jim should just stop fighting it and let his arch, cynical side have full rein.
"Word, homeboy, let's waste him."

DEAD END #23: I sometimes wish Jim Coon would put these chapters out in bigger chunks. He's got a fairly complicated serial going on, and after 8 pages it seems like he's just getting warmed up and then it's time for another cliffhanger. Admittedly, the pages are very dense, with a lot of panels, a lot of detail, and a LOT of dialogue. A little cramped, but for the most part it works. In this chapter, Davey (the blue-skinned, quasi-superhero lead) and his girlfriend get attacked by a KKK-style group. The biggest glitch here is that we have to be told that Jessie is black, because it is in no way obvious from the artwork (which is an odd lapse, given how good Jim's art is in general). It turns out that this is all part of a bigger plan, somehow tied in to Davey's mysterious past. And then, "To Be Continued". It's a good series, despite the frustrating format. And it does leave me wanting more, so maybe it's all part of the plan.
"They'll both be black and blue when we're done with 'em!"

HAWAIIAN DICK: THE LAST RESORT #2: The plot thickens, and we find out why the rival gangs are so hot for this particular piece of turf. I love Byrd's no-b.s. approach to detective work. After escaping his kidnappers, he turns right around and goes back to them to straighten things out, because he doesn't want to be looking over his shoulder for them. And hey, look, good coloring that actually helps evoke the setting of Hawaii in the '50s.
"Oh, hell -- if I refused to drink with anyone who ever slugged me, I'd be dry as a bone."

THE INCREDIBLE PETE #1: A really charming little slice-of-life story by Adam Hall. Pete's at a crossroads in life. He's applying to college. He's about to move away from home for the first time. There's a girl he likes, but she's seeing someone else. Outwardly he's calm and seems to have his act together, but his internal monologues reveal his anxiety. You really get caught up in the story and characters, and I'm dying to know what happens next. Adam's artwork has grown tremendously over the years, and this is his best stuff yet.
"You just switched to first person plural, you nutcase."

JACK STAFF #6: Good to see a major plotline centering around Becky Burdock. She's my fav'rit. And more cool new characters I want to know more about -- like Grist didn't have a huge, intriguing cast already. Love the "Freedom Fighters", and the generation gap between the two Brambles. And the whole "Looking for Helen Morgan" sequence reminds me of some of the more playful dream sequences in Cerebus. Nothing but good things to say about this series.
"I'm not here to warn you."

JLA CLASSIFIED #1: Morrison slips back into the driver's seat, and it's like he never left. Gorilla Grodd on crack. 4-Dee editing reality. The Knight and the Squire (LOVE the Squire, she totally rules). The Nebula Man. Batman driving a flying saucer to Pluto. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I'm warming up to McGuinness' style, he pulls off some nice shots here though the action is confusing in a few spots. And the colors... I know I bitch a lot about coloring, but I honestly don't understand what goes on in these people's minds. "Let's see, I've got this splashy, over-the-top, action/sci-fi epic... I know, I'll use somber, muted colors that make it look like a moody horror tale. Perfect!" I mean, really, what the fuck?
"I'm opening the sci-fi closet, Alfred. Don't tell my friends in the G.C.P.D. about this."

MODERN MASTERS VOL. 2: GEORGE PEREZ: I wouldn't have bought this if it hadn't been half price... I like Perez's work, but I wouldn't say he's in my top ten or anything. But it turned out to be pretty interesting. It's basically a long, illustrated interview that covers his entire career, from his fanzine days to when he signed up with CrossGen (the book came out before the big CrossGen implosion, so unfortunately we don't get to hear anything about that). Perez is very candid about both his successes and his failures -- projects that didn't work out, blown deadlines, bad business decisions, etc. And there's tons of artwork -- old fanzine work (I love seeing these), layouts and pencils, model sheets, as well as a big gallery of unpublished commission pieces. It's a nice package all around.
"Janice was so happy she kissed me -- and when Dick Giordano found out about it he nearly kissed me, too."

PLASTIC FARM #7: This is a book that requires a bit of patience, and faith, to keep up with. Rafer has a big tapestry in mind, and he's jumping around, filling in spots seemingly at random. I'm not sure this is the best strategy, as it can be a little frustrating waiting for things to fall into place. And the style is all over the map, not just because of the multiple artists. Some chapters (the most effective ones, I think) are industrial-strength weirdness: The Kamikaze Kid, David Ects, the hillbilly cannibals. Then there are fairly realistic slice-of-life bits like Jack and Emily falling in love, or Sean and what's-his-name from a couple issues back. But then you get stuff like the "Eliza" chapter this issue, which reads like it was swiped from a bad tv movie. I'd like to think that Rafer is doing a parody here, it's so melodramatic and contrived ("I love you... but I must kill you! Sob!"). But unfortunately, I think it's meant to be taken seriously, and I just can't. The artwork gets better every issue, and I believe Rafer when he says that everything will make sense eventually... but man, sometimes it's torture getting there. (I should say that the backup strips have all been excellent, and "Travel" is no exception. Heartfelt, to the point, and just offbeat enough to be fun. Well done.)
"But I must insist that you go. Fuck. Yourself."

THE QUESTION #1: Not quite sold on this one yet. Sage's rambling monologues are a little too "Rorschach Lite". I'm ambivalent about tying him in with Superman, and the pseudo-superpower he seems to have acquired. But the philosophical assassin guy is pretty interesting, and I enjoyed the confrontation between them -- they spar verbally, while off to the side we see a sort of symbolic fistfight that syncs with the rhythm of the conversation. And Edwards' artwork is really stylish and attractive, which helps a lot. So I'm on board for a couple issues, at least, to see where it goes.
"What is it about guys like you and faces anyway?"

RAWBONED #1: Matt Dembicki does the "24 hour comic" idea one better with this collection of ONE hour comics. Some are little autobio vignettes, others are full-blown stories in that dark, surreal style he does so well. A few seem rushed, but most of them look way better than you'd expect working under the gun. It's a solid little collection regardless of the time limit.
"And you think you've had a tough week."

REPERCUSSION COMICS PRESENTS #0: This is a preview of an upcoming futuristic police drama called "Rip". The artwork by Randy Kintz is very nice, slick and appealing with good attention to detail. It's harder to judge the story from this teaser. So far it looks like a pretty standard cop story, which could just as easily take place in the 21st century as the 24th. Could turn into something interesting, though.
"I love it when they run."

THIEVES & KINGS #45: Boy howdy, remember when we all thought that Soracia was going to be the "big bad" of the series? The complex and sympathetic portrayal of her -- and all the characters, really -- is what makes this book so fascinating. Everything we think we know has to be re-evaluated as new pieces are revealed. Quinton remains the most elusive character (and least likeable, to me anyway): Part buffoon, part puppet master, always knowing more than he's telling. He's so smug and above-it-all, I really want someone to kick his ass. Oakley's art looks simplistic, but when you look past the doodle-y surface, you realize how well-structured it is. The pages are beautifully designed, and he gets a lot of emotion out of those simple-looking faces.
"It's just a matter of doing the work between now and then."

TOPSY TURVY: Kind of a disappointment. I'm a big fan of Peter Kuper's savage, stylish work (for World War 3 Illustrated and elsewhere). But this 2000 collection of editorial cartoons from the New York Daily News seems very timid and dumbed-down. Perhaps he felt (or was instructed) that he had to rein himself in a bit for a general audience, but the results are just weak.
"Blue period? No more!! With new Picasso brand feminine napkins."

THE WASTE #1: Jim Coon lets his freak flag fly with this one -- a baby is left on the steps of a church, and it turns out to be... well, I shouldn't say, because it would give away what is pretty much the only joke here. But it's very funny, if a little sick. I don't know if he plans on doing any more with this. I kind of hope he doesn't, because it's a perfect one-shot, and going further would just dilute the gag.
"I'll go polish the bingo balls."