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I thought I was pretty well inured to Previews' covers by now, but this - this is just horrid. On the back cover, we have (drum roll please...) THUNDERCATS/BATTLE OF THE PLANETS. Yes, it's a nostalgia comics crossover! And why? Because the nostalgia comic fad is fading fast and publishers are getting desperate to prolong it just a little further. There are two covers, one by J Scott Campbell, which is lively and over-the-top but messy and absurdly distorted, and one by Alex Ross, which is true to life but unimaginatively composed and sickeningly reverent. You couldn't point up both artists' shortcomings more effectively if you tried.
And on the front cover, we have a figurine from Todd McFarlane Productions of Miracleman. I hate it when they put toys on the covers, and this is a particularly hideous one, so badly gnarled that it suggests Miracleman must suffer from arthritis. And to top it off, it might be sort of, you know, illegal. Neil Gaiman has sued McFarlane and won on every count, but he chose to secure his rights to the SPAWN characters he helped create rather than his piece of the rights to Miracleman. So the rights to the character are still very much in dispute. But that's never stopped McFarlane, who announced this figurine the day after the courts upheld the original verdict in Gaiman's favour.
There it is: your comics industry, April 2003.
Oh, and did I mention the big trend of the month? It's pseudo-manga! Yes, the big Western comics companies have realised that manga, though it doesn't sell well in comics stores, sells phenomenally well in bookstores, and they want a piece of the action. So they're doing watered-down manga-derived books, in the hope of attracting new fans without alienating their old ones. Problem is, why would anybody want these hybrids when authentic manga is cheap and plentiful? And when the alien edge of it is part of the appeal?
So these four new pseudo-manga titles from Image and five new titles (the Tsunami initiative) from Marvel aren't too likely to attract that coveted bookstore audience. (Marvel has admitted in print that they don't really know what the magic formula is and that they're flinging everything they've got at the wall to see what sticks.) But there is one thing they will certainly help do in the short term - namely, flood the direct market...
On the plus side, the Short Order Form is back. So Diamond gets points for that, at least.
PICK OF THE MONTH
JIMMY CORRIGAN: THE SMARTEST KID ON EARTH, by Chris Ware, from Fantagraphics Books
Softcover: FEB03 1950, pg. 300, $17.95
Well, this is a no-brainer.
If you are a comics fan, unless you have been cut off from civilisation since before 2000, you will already have heard all about JIMMY CORRIGAN. You don't need to hear from me what an amazing book this is. What you may yet be surprised by is what an amazing deal this is.
If you didn't buy the hardcover because of the expense, you now have no excuse. This is a graphic novel that, mirabile dictu, really does have a novelistic breadth and depth. It is 380 pages long, in (perfectly executed) full colour. And now it costs no more than about five of those miserable little floppy corporate comics that you'll read in 15 minutes and forget about as quickly.
No more excuses. Off you go.
DARK HORSE COMICS
XENOZOIC TALES VOL. 2, by Mark Schultz
FEB03 0033, pg. 30, $14.95
Following right on the heels of the first one, this collects the remainder of the series, some of it for the first time. File under eye candy.
SWEATSHOP, by Peter Bagge, Stephen DeStefano, and Bill Wray
FEB03 0184, pg. 84, $2.95
Oh, yes indeedy. The first Pete Bagge ongoing series since the mighty HATE - which wasn't actually all that long ago, but by god it feels like it.
The book is a jab at the world of syndicated daily newspaper comic strips, where it's nearly impossible to break in, but if you do, you have a job for life. Mel Bowling is one of the lucky few who made it, and like a lot of ageing strip cartoonists, he's hired younger assistants to do most of the work for him, without credit. And they hate his guts. Part of the conceit is that they've got their own projects on the side, "ranging from superhero fare to alternative autobiographical comics", and these are included in SWEATSHOP, which is where the versatile DeStefano and Wray come in.
If I'm honest, this is what I read comics for. The up-and-coming small press cartoonists mostly subscribe to the New Sincerity - their stuff is heartfelt, poetic, experimental, introspective, quiet, fragile, unpolished, and wistful. I love some of it, but it's not my first love. I'm a child of MAD magazine, and I like comics that are irreverent and brash and funny and that make a noise. And Bagge has been on top of that game for a good long time.
PLANETARY #16, by Warren Ellis, John Cassaday and Laura DePuy
FEB03 0199, pg. 86, $2.50
I had nearly lost all hope of ever seeing this again - it's been almost a year and a half since issue #15! For those of you coming in late, PLANETARY is chiefly about taking old pulp and comics conceits, scraping the barnacles off and giving them a fresh coat of paint. It's a tour though our collective fantasies of the past century, and it reminds you what anybody ever saw in them in the first place. Really very clever, and gorgeously illustrated. With any luck, the creators' private lives have settled down, scheduling conflicts have been resolved, and the next issue will be out sooner than fall 2004...
ORBITER, by Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran
Hardcover: FEB03 0227, pg. 91, $24.95
Also from Ellis, this is an original graphic novel that begins with the crash landing of a space shuttle.
The shuttle had been missing for 10 years; it returns with "its crew missing - save the catatonic pilot - with new instrumentation, new engines, and covered in something very much like skin. And with Martian sand in the undercarriage."
Ellis and Doran are both big space flight aficionados, and they worked hard to get the details right. The art samples in the recent feature on Doran at The Pulse were just stunning.
Also new from Vertigo this month: BEWARE THE CREEPER #1 (of 5, FEB03 0217, pg. 89, $2.95), written by Matt Kindt of the acclaimed PISTOLWHIP team, which is about a female Scarlet Pimpernel-type in 1920s Paris; and a new collection of the only SANDMAN spin-off with any legs, LUCIFER (VOL. 4: THE DIVINE COMEDY, FEB03 0225, pg. 91, $17.95).
THE BUNKER, by Bruce Mutard
FEB03 1197, pg. 108, $9.95
For all the books Image Central has been pumping out lately, there have been very few not firmly genre-entrenched. THE BUNKER, an original graphic novel by Australian cartoonist Bruce Mutard, is an exception, a coming-of-age story that may be partly autobiographical. I remember his story about Jesus from the most recent Small Press Expo anthology - he has a pleasing style, realistic without being overly laboured. And I quite like the composition of the cover drawing. This bears looking into. I just hope they're not hinting at the twist I think they're hinting at.
Newsarama recently did a feature on the book.
FORLORN FUNNIES #4, by Paul Hornschemeier
These are astonishing comics. And I have no time to explain why. I'll take a stab at it with the next issue, when a new story begins. For now, take my word: this book is going to catapult Hornschemeier into the forefront of the post-Ware generation of cartoonists.
THE SPIRAL CAGE, by Al Davison
FEB03 1695, pg. 226, $12.95
This, in a new edition, is an autobiographical graphic novel about Davison's lifelong struggle with spina bifida, the 'spiral cage' of the title referring to his own faulty DNA. And I'm ashamed to say that's all I know about it. Alan Moore contributes an introduction, and calls it, "an important addition to the ranks of comic books that strive to break out of the conventions of the genre". Bryan Talbot is quoted as calling it, "stylistically groundbreaking, staggering in its ambition, brutally honest and deeply moving ... [it] never descends into self-pity and is often wickedly funny".
JAX EPOCH AND THE QUICKEN FORBIDDEN VOL. 1: BORROWED MAGIC, by Dave Roman and John Green
FEB03 1697, pg. 226, $12.95
Like ELECTRIC GIRL, this is a polished kid's adventure comic with a strong female lead that AiT/PlanetLar has adopted. It's got the best tagline in the catalogue: "What if Alice returned from Wonderland... and Wonderland came back here with her?" Unfortunately, it's also got the worst title. I've never looked at the book before, mainly because I have no idea what a "Quicken Forbidden" is supposed to be, and adding the lead character's improbable name to it doesn't make it much less cryptic. However, persons less easily confused than I have noticed the book, and it's gotten a lot of good press - they adore it at Sequential Tart, for example.
BIPOLAR #4, by Assaf & Tomer Hanuka, and Etgar Keret
FEB03 1703, pg. 227, $2.95
Further experiments from the Israeli twin brothers. Assaf, whose style has always reminded me faintly of Eduardo Risso (without the Frank Millerisms), continues to illustrate Actus member Etgar Keret's 'Pizzeria Kamikaze', sort of a slacker story set in the afterlife. It turns out that, when you commit suicide, not as much changes as you might think... Meanwhile, Tomer continues to do things difficult to describe.
AMAZE INK/SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS
LIKEWISE #2, by Ariel Schrag
FEB03 1711, pg. 230, $4.95
Like I said last time: beginning in high school, Ariel Schrag has been writing about her life almost as fast as she's been living it. And she's so talented a cartoonist at so young an age that it makes my joints creak to think about it. I think I made too much of her age last time, which gets to sound patronising, like the old Dr. Johnson epigram about the piano-playing dog. It's just that lots of autobio comics, god love 'em, feel like they were done by people who got old prematurely. Schrag's emphatically don't, and that's part of what makes them so refreshing. Along with her unflinching honesty and her gleeful, fearless cartooning, of course.
In case you missed the first issue (shame on you!), it's being offered again:
LIKEWISE #1, by Ariel Schrag
FEB03 1712, pg. 230, $4.95
ANOTHER SUBURBAN ROMANCE, by Alan Moore, Juan Jose Ryp and Antony Johnston
FEB03 1777, pg. 244, $7.95
Limited edition hardcover: FEB03 1778, pg. 244, $17.95
The latest in Avatar's series of adaptations to comics of Alan Moore's short stories, poems and songs. This one comprises three songs from a play he wrote in 1976, by Moore's estimation the best and most salvageable pieces from that aborted project. It was adapted to comics by Ninth Art's own Antony Johnston (and hey, he gets credited this time!), and drawn by Juan Jose Ryp. There are some sample pages on Avatar's website, but they aren't big enough to do Ryp's busily detailed work justice.
Moore himself says about them: "I'm very, very much looking forward to seeing what Juan Jose has done with it. He's an excellent artist and I've been very enamoured of his work of late and I'm looking forward to seeing what he's done with these old buried pieces that have been unearthed. Antony's adaptations have been another source of pleasure. These were pieces that were not necessarily ever written with a mind to adaptation as comics, and those present a number of challenges for anyone trying to adapt them. I think Antony has met those challenges every time with some very inventive solutions. I think he's doing an excellent job and I look forward to seeing the future adaptations of my work as they come out." Which really ought to be all the endorsement you need.
LOUIS RIEL #10, by Chester Brown
FEB03 1902, pg. 295, $2.95
The finale of the comic about "the most violent and unstable period" in Canadian history. Which is a little like saying "the hardest-rawking of all Bryan Adams' songs". But still, this is a fine comic. In this issue: messianic half-breed rebel leader Riel is put on trial for treason.
PAUL HAS A SUMMER JOB, by Michel Rabagliati
FEB03 1903, pg. 295, $16.95
Resolicited from last summer: Michel Rabagliati follows up his well received PAUL IN THE COUNTRY with a full-blown graphic novel, PAUL HAS A SUMMER JOB. As the publisher said, "Rabagliati has an appealing graphic style that is a cross between Seth and 1950's UPA cartoons and he has a rich, clever storytelling approach that is reminiscent of Dupuy & Berberian's 'Monsieur Jean' series in D&Q". Though personally I don't find his style quite as appealing as Seth's. It's semi-autobiographical, it's contemplative, it's Canadian - in short, it's a Drawn & Quarterly comic.
Nothing, because Eddie Campbell Comics is ceasing to exist. Bugger. I blame you all.
ART & BEAUTY #1, by R. Crumb
FEB03 1945, pg. 300, $4.95
ART & BEAUTY #2, by R. Crumb
FEB03 1946, pg. 300, $4.95
GOTTA HAVE 'EM: PORTRAITS OF WOMEN, by R. Crumb
Hardcover: FEB03 2368, pg. 369, $55
For the man who knows what he likes (and is deathly afraid to ask for it), it's portraits of powerful-legged women by the world's best-known underground cartoonist, Robert Crumb. ART & BEAUTY #1 came out in 1996, but it went out of print a couple years thereafter. The solicitation says this new printing is in "a new format chosen by Crumb", though it doesn't specify what that means. ART & BEAUTY #2 is all new, and "includes portraits of tennis 'champeen' Serena Williams, Playboy's Hugh Hefner, and over 30 other women (Hugh Hefner is a woman?) who have struck Crumb's muse."
GOTTA HAVE 'EM is a 224-page hardcover book, stuck down in the Books Section where nobody will see it, collecting drawings of women from Crumb's entire career. That's a whole lot of Crumb's ingrown libido for one sitting...
THE COMICS JOURNAL LIBRARY VOL. 2: FRANK MILLER
FEB03 1949, pg. 300, $18.95
In the same format as the first volume (on Jack Kirby, which even people who hate the JOURNAL liked), this collects interviews with and essays about Miller, taken from the JOURNAL's voluminous archives, lavishly illustrated and with an introduction by New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell. This ought to be interesting, as Miller has been a fraught subject at the JOURNAL from the very first. I remember editor Gary Groth going head to head with columnist and comics historian RC Harvey during Miller's breakout DAREDEVIL run, Kim Thompson dismantling RONIN, R Fiore defending Miller against all comers until finally giving up on him after the second SIN CITY ("at this point in his career I doubt if Miller would know a story if it shot him three times and threw him out of a third floor window."). Expect a few chairs to be flung and broken bottles to be wielded.
THE COMICS JOURNAL #252
FEB03 1948, pg. 300, $6.95
Features one of those Larry King-esque incongruous interview-subject pairings; long-time Marvel workhorse John Romita Jr, and original and quirky small-press favourite Ron Rege Jr.
(Yes, I know that 'quirky' is an awful word, but Rege's work is really difficult to describe...)
TERATOID HEIGHTS, by Mat Brinkman
FEB03 2001, pg. 308, $12.95
"Mat Brinkman taps into the zeitgeist of modern suburban America with Tolkien-style adventure, video-game inspired syncopation, and an endless barrage of cable-television nature films, all filtered through the reddened eyes of a marijuana-addled teenager", says the solicitation.
"Not quite Gary Panter" would work too, if you're inclined to be more concise and less charitable.
CHALAND ANTHOLOGY VOL. 1, by Yves Chaland
Hardcover: FEB03 2006, pg. 310, $24.95
The first volume of four, collecting the entirety of Chaland's comics work, which up to now has been little seen in America. (It would have taken many more than four books, if he hadn't been killed by a car at the early age of 34.) This one, like the next, collects his 'Freddy Lombard' adventure stories. Renowned in his native France as an impeccable stylist, Chaland injected some jazz into the classic Hergé-derived 'clean line' tradition. (It's not an accident that Freddy resembles a grown-up Tintin.) Those thick-lipped African savages in the ad put me off at first, but I was reassured by Rodrigo Baeza's comics commentary blog that "[Chaland's work] contains healthy doses of black humor which may contrast with the elegance of his drawings (for example, those about to discover his work in English should be forewarned that Chaland intentionally used plenty of racial stereotypes for parody purposes)."
TILTING AT WINDMILLS, by Brian Hibbs
FEB03 2018, pg. 311, $19.99
Brian Hibbs is the proprietor of Comix Experience in San Francisco, one of the most renowned comics speciality stores in America. This book is a collection of his column of the same name, which has run since 1992 in Comics & Games Retailer magazine. You might also have seen his name in the comics press recently, as he provided the impetus behind DC's Share the Risk program. This is an important initiative that has gone almost completely unnoticed thanks to a flood of Marvel press releases. The gist of it is, DC is offering limited returnability on selected titles as an inducement to retailers to order more. Because the experiments Hibbs arranged proved that - you may want to be sitting down for this - comics shops would sell more comics if they had more comics to sell.
You begin to see why Hibbs' column is titled 'Tilting at Windmills'. The comics industry is so backwards that it required years and the mighty twisting of arms just to get a common-sense move like this implemented. Another case in point: it took a lawsuit to get Marvel to honour the terms of their contract with Diamond and make late books returnable. Specifically, it took a lawsuit by Hibbs. You might also remember some news items on that, despite Joe Quesada's ham-fisted attempts to change the subject back to the success of the SPIDER-MAN movie.
Hibbs has long been arguing for better ethics and better sense in all sectors of the direct market. Note that the columns started in early 1992. Which means they covered the peak of the boom. Those boomtime columns are still up on the Comix Experience website. The industry might look very different today if more people had heeded his advice.
The foreword is by DC President Paul Levitz. Heh heh.
FINDER #31, by Carla Speed McNeil
FEB03 2041, pg. 316, $2.95
After the emotional heavy weather of the 'Dream Sequence' arc comes something very much more light-hearted: the return of the characters from MYSTERY DATE (a short FINDER spin-off from 1999). Foremost among them is the irrepressible Vary, who's something of a courtesan-in-training. (It's richer and weirder than that, as things in FINDER always are.) One of the most bizarre things about Previews is that it's stuffed with sex, but almost all of it is furtive and fetishised and adolescent and just sort of...curdled. In an atmosphere this dank and cheerless, the appearance of a bright, airy, sex-positive book like MYSTERY DATE/FINDER is an especial delight.
MONKEYSUIT VOL. 4: IN SEARCH OF MONKEYSUIT, by various
FEB03 2048, pg. 318, $9.95
An anthology by cartoonists from the New York animation scene. I'm looking forward to this, as this has been one of the stronger anthologies on the market lately, and it covers a wide range of styles and tones.
THE MAGIC FLUTE: THE P CRAIG RUSSELL LIBRARY OF OPERA ADAPTATIONS, VOL. 1, by P. Craig Russell
Hardcover: FEB03 2061, pg. 319, $24.95
Thanks to the success of Russell's recent adaptation of Wagner's Ring Cycle for Dark Horse, NBM is bringing back his other opera adaptations, starting with Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE, which was first published in 1990 and has been out of print for many years. I haven't read this, but I have just read the first RING OF THE NIBELUNG volume, and it is brilliant comics. And THE MAGIC FLUTE, one of the silliest operas ever written, must have given Russell ample space to exercise his gift for comedy.
NBM has a couple of preview pages up.
Quite a few interesting or fun-looking new books this month - the Mike Allred PLASTIC MAN pastiche MR GUM, the rootin' and/or tootin' MUTANT, TEXAS, a second collection of Jay Stephens' skewed superhero book ATOMIC CITY TALES, a new thriller by the SKINWALKER team called THREE STRIKES, and a new printing of Scott Morse's early graphic novel VISITATIONS - but I'm afraid I haven't read any of them and haven't got anything to say about them. Apologies to Oni, which maintains a high standard of quality and deserves better. Do look them up on Oni's excellent website.
RPM COMICS
RPM COMICS #2, by Rachel Masilamani
FEB03 2113, pg. 326, $4
The first issue of this sat around for ages on the shelves of my shop. I don't think I ever got past the cover, with its wispy coloured-pencil art and not-ready-for-prime-time logo.
It turns out that it was a Xeric-winner, and the comics debut of Rachel Masilamani, a Baltimore art student. And it caught the eye of Andrew Arnold, comics critic for Time Magazine's website:
"Masilamani seems to be a natural storyteller ... The best of these stories all involve a woman's quiet moments alone or with others, revealing complex emotions with subtlety and efficiency. Twice I found myself feeling like I had experienced another person's life. Twice!"
I'm starting to think I should have snapped up RPM #1 when I had the chance. And for what it's worth; the cover to #2 - of a girl lying in a near-foetal position on the floor, surrounded by glossy women's magazines- is yards better than #1.
You can read, kind of, a strip from #1 called 'I Hate Dali', along with another highly impressed review of RPM, over at Optical Sloth.
BIRD VOL. 2: The MASK, by Carlos Trillo & Juan Bobillo
FEB03 2114, pg. 326, $12.95
CAIN, by Richard Barreiro & Edward Risso
FEB03 2115, pg. 326, $9.95
MANHATTAN BEACH 1957, Yves H & Hermann
FEB03 2116, pg. 326, $12.95
Looks like Dark Horse is out of the Eurocomics game for now. They had had a deal with publisher Strip Art Features in Slovenia for an imprint they called Venture, under which they published for the Anglophone market the books from SAF's voluminous catalogue they thought most likely to get optioned for film or television. But SAF has pulled out of the arrangement, and, as you see, is now publishing in the Anglophone market themselves.
Are the books any good? I don't know. They look like they're firmly genre-bound, but still, the standard of craftsmanship for genre comics in Europe is much, much higher than it is here in America. MANHATTAN BEACH 1957, with its watercoloured art by Hermann (THE TOWERS OF BOIS-MAURY, JEREMIAH), looks particularly enticing.
MONKEY VS ROBOT & THE CRYSTAL OF POWER, by James Kochalka
FEB03 2174, pg. 334, $14.95
See, this is why I haven't read any of Kochalka's books yet; if it turned out I liked them, I'd have to start buying them as they come out, and he seems to now be doing, oh, 15, 16 graphic novels a year. I fully expect to hear of Kochalka-addicts knocking over 7/11s to afford their fixes no later than 2005. Anyhow, I am therefore in no position to comment knowledgeably on this book, but I have it on good authority that it will contain critters and imps acting winsome and adorable.
HAPPY #3: ZIRKUS, by Josh Simmons
FEB03 2176, pg. 334, $3.50
This reprints the acclaimed mini-comic that first got Simmons noticed, CIRKUS NEW ORLEANS, described by Tom Spurgeon in THE COMICS JOURNAL as "a near-hallucinatory first-person account of time spent with a performing traveling circus of the modern freakshow/Jim Rose variety". Spurgeon touted it quite a bit, so I hold out some hope for this. It's certainly got to be better than the last HAPPY, dominated as it was by an interminable 17-page attack on autobiographical comics, which was insufferably smug, years past its sell-by date, and not one-tenth as concise or funny or even as cruel as Dan Clowes' send-up 'Just Another Day,' or Scott Russo and Jeff Wong's machine-gunning of the Drawn & Quarterly stable.
MADBURGER, by various
FEB03 2179, pg. 334, $16.95
A new issue of the Eastern European anthology STRIPBURGER (aka STRIPBUREK), this one dealing with the many flavours of lunacy and the ramifications thereof. Which sounds like a hoot. The contributors aren't listed here (thanks, Diamond, for starting to vigorously enforce the 50-word solicitation text limit these past few months), but they are on the website; there are a few American contributors whose names I recognise, such as the brilliant Tom Hart (HUTCH OWEN), Jason Neufeld (KEYHOLE, an anthology with Dean Haspiel, and the recent TITANS OF FINANCE), Madison Clell (CUCKOO), and the unjustly persecuted Mike Diana. I also recognise the names of a few furriners, foremost among them Jason (HEY WAIT, SSHHHH). At $17 for 216 pages it's a pretty good deal, and you're certain to be exposed to something alien and new. (Unless you live in Canada, Hong Kong or the UK, in which case you can't order the book for some reason.)
BOOKS SECTION
ANARCHY FOR THE MASSES: AN UNDERGROUND GUIDE TO THE INVISIBLES, by Patrick Neighly & Kereth Cowe-Spigai
FEB03 2367, pg. 369, $19.95
Updating the first, self-published edition, this version is being published by counterculture & conspiracy clearinghouse Disinfo, sports a new cover by Frank Quitely, and contains new original art and interviews. Which cheeses me right off, because I bought the original version last year, damnit. I'd have waited for new interviews, since the interviews were the best thing about the book. The gargantuan one with series creator and author Grant Morrison especially.
As for the analysis parts, I do wish there'd been a bit less trainspotting. I really, really don't care even for a moment if the outfits the characters are shown wearing on the covers don't match those in the issues' interiors. But it's ungracious to quibble: Neighly and Cowe-Spigai have performed an impressive feat in taking a vast, recursive and sometimes deliberately baffling work and presenting it in a clear and linear way. And Morrison himself has praised them for grasping the heart of the book, which should be all the endorsement you need.
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