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Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Sáu, 30 tháng 12, 2011

Number 1079Goodbye to the futureWe're winding up 2011 in fine fashion, with a couple of beautifully illustrated stories from Planet Comics. Artists Lily Renée and Murphy Anderson were two of the top artists at Fiction House.I [...]

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Review: JSA All-Stars: Constellations trade paperback (DC Comics)

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Năm, 29 tháng 12, 2011

I have not read what is probably writer Matt Sturges seminal work, Jack of Fables, or his equally popular House of Mystery. I've encountered Sturges's writing just a few times, most notably on the heels of Bill Willingham [...]

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Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Tư, 28 tháng 12, 2011

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Review: Hulk Vol. 2: Red and Green hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

Người đăng: Unknown on Thứ Hai, 26 tháng 12, 2011

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]Continuing my romp through Jeph Loeb's Hulk collections, I found the second volume, Red and Green, to be somewhat less entertaining than Red Hulk but still [...]

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Người đăng: Unknown

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Number 1079

Goodbye to the future

We're winding up 2011 in fine fashion, with a couple of beautifully illustrated stories from Planet Comics. Artists Lily Renée and Murphy Anderson were two of the top artists at Fiction House.

I told more about Ms. Renée's work and personal story in Pappy's #1015.

The future presented in the 'forties is pretty much long gone, replaced by the actual future. I love to look back on that never-to-be future. There was really a lot of optimism in it, considering the most terrible weapon in the history of humanity had been unleashed just two years earlier. Some popular magazines of the day painted a glowing future full of leisure time and personal uses of technology, others a more dystopian view of what would be left of humanity, staggering across a nuclear landscape. (Or in the case of "The Lost World" series in Planet Comics, being under the heel of the alien oppressor, the Voltamen.) A lot has happened since this issue of Planet Comics appeared and then disappeared from long-ago newsstands.

Here's to the future that will be, and to the one that never was. Happy New Year.

Review: JSA All-Stars: Constellations trade paperback (DC Comics)

I have not read what is probably writer Matt Sturges seminal work, Jack of Fables, or his equally popular House of Mystery. I've encountered Sturges's writing just a few times, most notably on the heels of Bill Willingham on Shadowpact, but those few times I've enjoyed myself (Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! being a single exception). So it was, following up on some continuity notes, watching the last hurrah of some favorite characters, and also in a conscious attempt to read more of Sturges's work, I came to JSA All-Stars: Constellations.

The second opportunity afforded to me by Constellations was to study Freddie Williams's artwork further. I liked Williams's art on Robin, but was less satisfied with the more cartoony aspects in the aforementioned Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! (Sturges and Williams re-teaming on JSA All-Stars was one reason I was slow to pick up this book, until interest in a variety of characters brought me in). Since Run!, I have struggled to enjoy Williams's art again -- "Why should I like it?" I ask, and DC Comics replies, "He draws it all digital!" "Yes," I repeat, "but why should I like it?" "It's digital!" OK, I think; maybe there's something to that.

With an open mind but some trepidation, I ventured in to JSA All-Stars.

[Contains spoilers]

I had not been in favor of the Justice Society team splitting nor DC publishing two JSA books. I didn't think the market would support it (and indeed JSA All-Stars was later cancelled, the final issues uncollected). The split essentially separated into two titles the "stodgier" (forgive me) and "hipper" parts of the Society, a combination I thought necessary to make the initial book work; the "hipper" characters, whom I'd prefer to read about, were under a creative team I disfavored; the "stodgier" characters, whom I found more interesting, were under the creative team I was more likely to try. I maintain that the Justice Society franchise is poorer for this split; I have liked a number of the Justice Society books since then, including Axis of Evil and Supertown, but not so much as I liked the original books by Geoff Johns.

But a few pages in to the second chapter of Constellations, it clicked for me where the JSA All-Stars title fit in the overall DC Universe, and this largely informed my enjoyment of the book. There is, indeed, some precedent for all of this. Though the two teams did not exist in the same time period, there was a time when All-Star Squadron presented the adventures of the classic Justice Society, while another title offered the "hipper" exploits of the Society's descendents. When Stargirl Courtney Whitmore talks about missing the JSAers on the other team, and Hourman Rick Tyler commiserates that he, too, misses his old teammates, I realized: "All-Stars," nothing; this is a new incarnation of Tyler's old team, Infinity, Inc.

In that mindset, that All-Stars is not some lesser, substitute version of my favored Justice Society, but rather a young team of legacy heroes a la Infinity Inc., I found I could let go of my expectations and enjoy the story. And Sturges makes this easy. Constellations quickly fills up with my favorite aspects of Justice Society -- Power Girl as team leader, former JSA chairman Sand and Infinity, Inc.-er Atom Smasher nee Nuklon gain membership, and the Injustice Society shows up (even as I decried their ubiquity the other day in my Supertown review, Sturges uses the Injustice Society's appearance to pick up on elements from one of my favorite JSA stories, Stealing Thunder).

I can even forgive some of the annoying bickering between characters Tomcat, Damage, and others as "youthful enthusiasm," given that this is not Justice Society but rather Justice Society by way of Teen Titans (or rather, by way of some of the better "twentysomething" teams of the past couple decades, like Devin Grayson's Titans or Judd Winick's Outsiders). As a story in which the JSA All-Stars fight the Injustice Society, Johnny Sorrow, and the King of Tears, Justice Society fans might be justified in stating they've seen it all before. But I felt Sturges successfully channeled the tone of the best of Geoff Johns's work on the original JSA in a number of the cutaway scenes with Sand and Atom Smasher, and in Sorrow's secret scheme revealed in the final pages.

I also adored the conflicts of leadership between Power Girl and Magog and their differing philosophies of battle (and capital punishment). It's a shame that Magog has to exit the title early on; I did note the similarity between Magog chiding Power Girl for saving the life of one villain, even if that villain would kill hundreds later, and new character Anna Fortune warning Power Girl that if Fortune used a spell to save the single life of King Chimera then, she couldn't use the spell to save hundreds later. Sturges seems to set up Power Girl to have to justify her "needs of one outweigh needs of many" philosophy later on down the road, and I'm hopeful he can get to it before cancellation and cancelled collections end the book.

In the end, if I thought JSA All-Stars: Constellations would be silly, campy, irreverent, or gratuitously violent (all attributes I'd ascribe to Final Crisis Aftermath: Run!), it was none of these things. I finished the book quite pleased with Matt Sturges's writing and interested to read the next book in the series.

I can't claim, however, to feel much more comfortable about Freddie Williams's art than I did before. I did not dislike it as much as I did in Run!; as I noted in my review of Run!, Williams likely tries to achieve some ugliness and distortion in that book befitting the tone of the story, that he did not in Constellations. His depiction of Power Girl, talking to Sand in the sixth issue, is downright pretty, and his supernatural Anna Fortune resembles the best costume design of Humberto Ramos. I can even forgive some distorted figures as "stylistic" (see Stargirl with pointy noggin on page three); I'm a long-time Duncan Rouleau fan, and you hardly find figures more distorted than his..

But much as I studied Williams's sketchbook at the end of the book, I couldn't quite see what advantage his digital art brought to the page; it's quite interesting, for instance, that Williams creates digital "sets" for the book's various locations, but I didn't see many unusual perspectives or panels come out of it. Perhaps when considering "digital art," I'm imagining something more like Brainiac-13 from the "Superman Y2K" storyline (Superman: Endgame); if I didn't know Williams's art was completed on computer, I'd never think so. To that end, while I can deal with a little distortion, I was disappointed by Williams re-using the same panel three times in the third chapter, or Power Girl's costume losing a certain famous element for a part of the same chapter. Williams's work in Constellations improves my previous opinion of his art, but does not necessarily make me a fan.

All in all, however, JSA All-Stars: Constellations came as a pleasant surprise, and writer Matt Sturges has much to be proud of; more's the pity that, so far, he seems to have found no place in the DC New 52. The next book, Glory Days, is the one that really has my interest, as it deals with the death of a team member and one of my favorite characters. We'll have that review here some time coming up.

[Includes original and variant covers; sketchbook section by Freddie Williams]

Barring any breaking news, this is the last Collected Editions review for 2011. Come Monday, we'll have a special guest review by Wayne Brooks, whose take on Aquaman: Death of the Prince you enjoyed; and then at the end of the week, the Collected Editions review of the long-awaited Chase collection, including all of Dan Curtis Johnson and J.H. Williams's issues, back-up stories, and more. Happy new year, and see you soon!

Number 1078

Going crazy for horror comics

Steve Stiles is an artist I first encountered in early '60s fanzines.Years later I saw his artwork popping up in underground comix, alternative comics, even Heavy Metal magazine. You can see examples of Steve's art, professional and fanzine work, at his website, stevestiles.com.

In '91 and '92 Bruce Hamilton published some black and white horror comics, Grave Tales, Dread of Night, and Maggots. There were only eight total issues of the three titles, and Stiles had stories in five of them.

Both of the stories I'm showing today are about insanity and comic book artists. "Black and White and Red All Over" combines art styles of Jack Davis, Graham Ingels and Johnny Craig in homage to EC Comics. It's from Grave Tales #2, 1991, and is written by Eric Dinehart. "Perchance to Dream," published in Maggots #3, is written by Russ Miller. Both stories are lettered by Bill Pearson.

Review: Hulk Vol. 2: Red and Green hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

Continuing my romp through Jeph Loeb's Hulk collections, I found the second volume, Red and Green, to be somewhat less entertaining than Red Hulk but still with enough to enjoy in this fairly brief (three issues) installment of the ongoing saga of the Red Hulk.

In Red and Green, Hulk fans get two doses of gamma-ray action in two separate stories which originally ran as co-features but are presented here as united halves of this volume. The first, "What Happens in Vegas," is essentially the "Green" half of the book, in which Bruce Banner roadtrips to Las Vegas in search of the cannibal werewolf Wendigo creatures. Vegas unleashes Gray Hulk "Joe Fixit" as Batman Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and others join in.

Then comes "Hell Hath No Fury," in which She-Hulk and her Lady Liberators take on the Red Hulk. This "Red" half has much more in common with Red Hulk, with Red Hulk taking hits on all sides from the likes of the Invisible Woman, Storm, Valkyrie, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s deputy director Maria Hill.

The division of this volume very neatly in half is a bit jarring compared to the previous volume's single unified storyline, but it reads a lot better than I assume it did in single issues. Rather than bounce back and forth between Green and Red, the book ties up Green before picking up with Red. Unfortunately, Green's storyline -- even with the inclusion of Mr. Fixit -- is nowhere near as compelling as Red Hulk's. It's strange that this new character is stealing the spotlight so blatantly from the titular hero, a little like giving Doomsday the spotlight instead of Superman.

Maybe it's a matter of personal taste; I've never found the angsty Bruce Banner too appealing, running away from his powers in every incarnation I've seen, and on top of all that the Green story here isn't terribly compelling. Hulk chases Wendigo to Vegas, Hulk fights Wendigo, Hulk becomes Wendihulk, and other heroes join in for no apparent reason. And unfortunately the more sinewy pencils of Arthur Adams aren't as much to my liking as Ed McGuinness's work in the previous volume.

On the whole "What Happens in Vegas" feels a bit like filler; it's probably a fine Hulk story, but being thrown into the middle of a larger story accentuates the story's own irrelevance. Conversely, "Hell Hath No Fury" is exactly the kind of story arc the larger narrative needs, continuing from the events of Red Hulk and moving forward without losing sight of the main storyline. And it's more entertaining, feeling a lot like the Marvel team-up Gail Simone never got to write with enough action handled deftly by Frank Cho (whose "tough girls" work looks like a blend between Adam Hughes and McGuinness).

This volume, unlike its predecessor, features the use of Jeph Loeb's trademark "narration boxes" which step inside the head of a character and provide internal monologues for important characters. Here we're treated to the reflections of Bruce Banner and She-Hulk Jen Walters, but the narration is inconsistently deployed, often receding altogether to give the main focus to the action on the page. This is a wise choice but a distracting one; for such a stylistic mainstay, Loeb's irregular use of the narration is more puzzling than anything else. Ultimately the narration doesn't do anything for the story and so it isn't missed in its absences, but because Loeb is so well-known for it (Superman for All Seasons and the precedent set by his Superman/Batman), it simultaneously seems like more is both expected and needed.

But Red and Green's biggest shortcoming is quite literally its brevity. The trade collects three issues, a throwaway back-up biography of the late Abomination, a few variant covers, and more delightful "Mini Marvels" by Audrey Loeb (here the Lil' Hulks tussle with Spider-Man, Iceman, and airport baggage checks). At a list price of $15.99, this is a steal -- on Marvel's part. At six dollars an issue, Red and Green simply isn't worth it. While the lightness of Red Hulk was mitigated by six issues full of action, Red and Green just isn't enough. It's good, but I can't help but wonder about the collection practices at play here.

Zach torn.

In my next Hulk review, coming up in a few weeks, the return of Ed McGuinness as Hulk and Red Hulk duke it out in a cosmic game before a game-changer takes one Hulk out of the equation -- for good.

Number 1077

The Clock strikes!

Happy day after Christmas. I trust you had a nice one. I did. Today I'm being lazy, hanging around the house, my Christmas feast a pleasant memory, and the spirits imbibed now fading (the thumping in my brain is almost gone), my bloodshot eye looks to the wall behind my monitor. There is my vintage 1960 GE wall clock, and like me, still ticking. Let's hope for one more year of taking it one second at a time.

It reminds me of the stories I'm presenting on this Monday morning: the Clock by George E. Brenner. The Clock, as told in this article in Don Markstein's Toonopedia, is one of the oldest comic book heroes. He appeared in comics in 1936, before there was a real comic book industry. Here he is, early in his career, cover-featured on Detective Picture Stories #5, from 1937.

The two stories I'm showing today are two of the Clock's appearances in Crack Comics. They share some things in common: Brenner's static page layouts (common in comic books at the time), and despite being only nine issues apart, they use similar villains, gang leaders wearing hoods (common in pulp fiction, movie serials and at Ku Klux Klan rallies), and corrupt politicians (too common, even today).

George Brenner became editor of Quality Comics, which published Crack Comics, and the Clock stopped ticking in 1944.

From Crack Comics #1, 1940: