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The Friday Review: Madman: The Oddity Odyssey
Writer/Artist: Mike Allred Madman (nee Frank Einstein) first appeared in the anthology GRAPHIC MUZIK, a series that slumbered undisturbed in back-issue bins until creator Mike Allred brought Madman over to Dark Horse, and he became the Madman we all know today. Today's Madman is a very different character to his early incarnation. His lost identity - the result of a car accident wherein he died and was then resurrected - has been partially uncovered. We know his real name is Zane and he was an agent for Tri-Eye. His friends now include an alien named Mott from Hoople and sundry robots. Madman has teamed up with Superman for a hullabaloo. In short, he's become a safer character as a result of his maturity. But that's not a knock against Allred; instead it's recognition of the subtle development he's allowed his character. In the beginning, Madman was flat-out nuts. Within the first four pages of THE ODDITY ODYSSEY, he pops out a bad guys eyeball and then eats it. That moment, and its after-effects, sell the entire series. (Though perhaps the first inkling that this isn't some grim and gritty revisionist superhero tale is the tiny Madman drawn in the bottom right corner of the each page. When you flip the pages, he does a little mod-sixties dance. That's not really something you'd find in BRAT PACK, y'know.) When the story opens, Madman is disturbed from writing in his journal by two baddies sent from Mr Monstadt to pick up some of Dr Boiffard's journals. Monstadt wants the journals to uncover the secrets of life and death discovered by the deceased Dr Boiffard - Boiffard being the scientist who resurrected Madman's corpse and watched over his early development. His corpse is kept in a refrigeration unit and Madman hopes to track down Dr Flem, Boiffards old-partner, and restore Boiffard to life. On his way to find Dr Flem, Madman is distracted by a number of assholes. There's a crooked mayor, a corrupt policeman, a surly waitress, a few clones, and first and foremost a couple of goons who break down his door. Madman swings a yo-yo into the face of one of the baddies, rendering him utterly incapacitated and unable to stop Madman from scooping out his eyeball. In the next panel, Madman tosses the eyeball into his mouth signalling to the reader that he is absolutely out of his mind. After the baddies run off, Madman lifts his mask over his mouth and vomits. He's plagued for the rest of the series by the extremity of his actions. However, other than decapitating Dr Flem with an axe (for which he has very good reasons), Madman never again reaches towards nausea-inducing violence, and it's through meeting Dr Flem that Madman's lonely insanity can be tempered. THE ODDITY ODYSSEY also forms the foundation of Madman's relationship with Joe, a young woman Frank Einstein had a crush on throughout GRAPHIC MUZIK. Joe's love for Frank is unwavering. As is his love for her. She's not repulsed by Frank's green skin and sewn together limbs. She sees that inside he's not a bad person. To that end, THE ODDITY ODYSSEY begins the exploration of everything that's good about Frank Einstein. This series is a whirly-gig of ideas from the mind of a comic creator who has found his voice by turning his eye toward the rich history of superhero lore. Indeed, I've always considered Mike Allred to be the Michael Chabon of comics. Chabon being the Michael Chabon of books. Geek is the new cool in the perennially geeky literary world. Chabon, as you know, wrote THE ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY which is the Pulitzer Prize winning novel about the early days comics. The main characters were composites of the classic comic book creator duo. It's a good book. It's a respectable book. By extension, comics look somehow cooler. Why? Well, because the non-comic reading public has a new appreciation for the writer-for-hire and journeyman comics of old. Chabon wrote a novel about the geekiest thing possible. Push any comic fan in the corner and he'll tell you that most comic fans aren't like the Comic Book Guy from THE SIMPSONS, but yeah, they might know a couple guys who are pretty close. For Chabon to write about comics was pretty ballsy on his part. To make them look cool was inspired and welcome. Sure, Rick Moody paid homage to the Fantastic Four in his novel THE ICE STORM, but the book wasn't a strict telling of the story of the Fantastic Four; nor of the story of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Even Jonathan Lethem, originally a sci-fi writer and member of The Philip K Dick Appreciation Society, didn't really out himself until last month with FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE. So saying that Mike Allred is the Michael Chabon of comics isn't a redundant and semi-literate thing to say: in a time when the small press was wandering around uncertain of whether or not it had anything to say about superheroes, Mike Allred's MADMAN: THE ODDITY ODYSSEY made it cool to like superheroes again. Although he did it with a character who is less of a superhero, and more of a lunatic dressed up in white tights. Frank Smith is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Ninth Art endorses the principle of Ideological Freeware. The author permits distribution of this article by private individuals, on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice. Back. |