Crate Digging: Trance Planet Vol. 1

Produced by Tom Schnabel

I had given Trance Planet up for lost years ago, and was very happy to rediscover it recently in my parent's house.  This world music compilation was a favourite of mine back in '94 or so, when I'd play the hell out of it at the used book store I was working at.

Trance Planet collects music from around the globe that combines traditional, often spiritual music, with a more modern presentation format.  Much of the music here is devotional, and the tracks that aren't, easily could be.  The 'trance' in the title does not refer to the electronic sound that dominated at that time, but instead to a religious ecstasy, although that sense does not work across the whole album.

The opening track of this album is a particular favourite.  'Nwahulwana' is by the Orchestra Marrabenta Star de Mocamique, and if ever there was a group whose work I'd like to see reissued by Analog Africa or the Voodoo Funk Academy, it is this one.  The song floats, and it's beautiful tones would never lead one to believe that it is about 'fallen women'.

I also love this album for introducing me to Cesaria Evora, with the wonderful song 'Sodade'.  The title of the song means 'a longing for what once was, or might have been', and while I don't speak a word of Portuguese, that feeling comes across in her beautiful, rich voice.

Other impressive contributions to this disc include Mother Tongue's Amharic piece 'Maray Wollelaye', and world compilation mainstays Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Zakir Hussain.  The disc is quite varied, incorporating pieces that showcase the tabla, the sarod, the valiha, the oud, the al ghita, and the kanoon, as well as the choral (and throat) singing traditions of places such as Mongolia, Rapa Iti, and Lebanon.  The compilation finishes with a beautiful live recording of the Latin American singer Mercedes Sosa, delivered at a concert after she returned to Argentina from political exile.

This is a lovely album, and I can't wait to get some of these tracks into my ipod.

Green River Killer: A True Detective Story

Written by Jeff Jensen
Art by Jonathan Case

This is one book that came as a bit of a surprise.  There hasn't been much of a tradition of 'true crime' in comics; crime comics abound, but graphic novels with journalistic weight behind them are pretty much non-existent.

The writer of Green River Killer, Jeff Jensen, is the son of Tom Jensen, a detective who worked for over twenty years on the Green River case, hunting a serial killer who left the bodies of prostitutes strewn along a stretch of river in Seattle's King County.  There were something like 48 bodies accrued over the years, and this case was the focus of Jensen's, and others' careers.

Eventually, as DNA testing added a powerful weapon to the detectives' arsenal, they had enough evidence to charge Gary Leon Ridgway for a handful of the cases.  Choosing closure over punishment, the attorneys made an arrangement for Ridgway to confess to all of his crimes, providing the cops with the locations of undiscovered bodies, and the circumstances of all the killings, in exchange for escaping the death penalty.

It's hard to imagine, after hunting the man for so long, that the detectives would have to more or less live with Ridgway (who they always called Gary).  Because of the sensitive nature of this case, they moved Ridgway into their offices, fashioning a cell for him.  It was expected to only take a while to go through this discovery phase, but in fact, Ridgway was there for 188 days.

Wisely, Jensen chooses to not chronicle the entire stretch of time that was given over to interviews and 'field trips' to places where bodies were dumped.  Jensen structures the story into five chapters, each representing a day's worth of interviews.  Within each of these chapters are a generous amount of flashbacks, as the entire twenty years of the case, and their repercussions for Tom Jensen, are shown.

It's hard to imagine the difficulty of having to spend so much time on this type of case.  Det. Jensen became familiar with the victims' families, and yet only rarely discussed the case at home, preferring to work out his frustrations through endlessly remodeling his house. 

This book is as much a biography of the author's father as it is about this deranged serial killer.  When the two men sit face-to-face and discuss some of the more depraved aspects of what Gary would do with the bodies, the emotion is palpable on the page.  Jonathan Case does a terrific job of conveying those emotions, and subtly aging the principal actors in this story. 

This is a very impressive graphic novel.

The Unwritten #33.5

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross and Vince Locke

I thought that each of these .5 issues, which are being used to fill in the history of The Cabal, the organization that has been controlling the world's literature and making life difficult for Tom Taylor in the whole number issues of the series, was going to feature artists that are not normally associated with this book.  The first .5 issue had a handful of artists attached to it, but the subsequent ones have mostly just featured art by Peter Gross. 

Now, I'm not complaining.  I've been a fan of Peter Gross since he was drawing Books of Magic years ago, and I especially like him with Vince Locke inking (giving his work a touch of a Guy Davis feel), but I was looking forward to seeing some other artists.  Plus, drawing two issues a month must not be easy on the guy...

Anyway, this issue doesn't feature The Cabal or its members, but instead tells us a story about a soldier and a young girl who plays with puppets.  It is set in Silesia in 1740, a couple of years before most of the land is taken over by Germans.  The soldier, who is billeted at the house of a prominent Prussian family, has the last name of Rausch.  That, and the sight of the girl playing with her marionettes explains just who the girl is, at least to long-time readers of this series.

The soldier takes an interest in the solemn little girl, especially after he discovers that things in that house are not right.  To begin with, strange events begin to happen, such as the self-dismemberment done by the cook.  Also, the girl's father is a monster, as the soldier discovers.

In addition to providing us with a little of Madame Rausch's history, we get a slight glimpse of her connection to The Cabal, or at least to the whale-fish (Leviathan?) that wants to hear her stories.

Carey and Gross continue to do an excellent job with this series.  I'm not sure how much longer the .5 issues are expected to last, or really, how long the series is set to run for, now that Tom is in direct confrontation with the Cabal, but this book has never been more enjoyable.

The Sixth Gun #18

Written by Cullen Bunn
Art by Brian Hurtt

I was pleased to see the news that Sixth Gun writer Cullen Bunn will be writing Wolverine after Jason Aaron leaves the title in a few months.  Bunn has really proven himself on The Sixth Gun as a writer of long-form stories that are creative in their treatment of familiar story elements and genre tropes, and, if Marvel's editors let him do his work, I'm sure we'll be seeing some interesting things happening with everyone's favourite X-Men.

This issue of The Sixth Gun starts a new arc, 'A Town Called Penance', and it deals with the missing Drake Sinclair.  When last we saw Sinclair, he'd fallen off a train after fighting a gigantic mummy.  Now we know that he was abducted by a trio of men we don't know much about, and has been held prisoner ever since, being interrogated about the whereabouts of the four magic guns he'd had in his possession.

Becky Montcrief, the possessor of the sixth gun (the fifth one is somewhere else), knows that Drake is somewhere in or around a town called Penance, and she has journeyed there to start looking for her.  Penance seems like a strange place - more desolate and scabrous than any town Jonah Hex ends up in.  The town dogs have tumors growing all over their body, and the only person who seems even a little nice, a stableboy, has the worst case of acne seen in comics this side of a Robert Crumb character.

I like how Bunn is building up mystery in this issue by playing most everything close to the chest.  Brian Hurtt has done terrific work on this title throughout, but I love his shots of the town and of the underground cavern.  This is a great series.

American Vampire #23

Written by Scott Snyder
Art by Rafael Albuquerque

I hope that all the people who are going on and on about how Scott Snyder's Batman and Swamp Thing are two of the best books coming out of DC since their relaunch are checking out American Vampire, his first on-going series.  It is similar to those two other series in that Snyder is providing fast-moving, character-driven stories that keep the reader's attention riveted to the page.

This issue continues the Death Race arc, and continues the chase across the California desert in classic cars of a vampire (soon to be revealed to be an old friend) by Travis Kidd, the teenage vampire hunter we were introduced to last month.

As the chase continues, we are treated to a series of flashbacks which help further introduce and explain Travis.  His time in a sanatorium was commented on last issue, but now we get to see a little of his experiences there, brought on by his insistence that his parents were killed by vampires.

Travis is an interesting character.  He's definitely driven, forsaking the potential of teenage love for his revenge.  But then, when his girlfriend turns up in the trunk of the car he's pursuing, he does take a few extra risks to save her, which shows that he's not entirely thoughtless.

As always, Rafael Albuquerque's work on this title is phenomenal.  He handles the excitement of the desert chase particularly well.

The Walking Dead #93

Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn

Every month I talk about how great this comic is, but I usually spend more time writing about the writing than I do the art.  I notice I have a tendency to do that with most comics, unless the art blows me away.

The truth is, Charlie Adlard (with Cliff Rathburn on grays) has been doing an incredible job on this book since he joined it (one month before I did).  Early on in the series, I sometimes found it difficult to tell some of the minor characters apart, but as the series has progressed, he's really worked a lot of the character's personalities into how they look.  In this issue, when Rick turns the tables on the man that they met last issue (why is no one reacting to the fact that he calls himself Jesus?), I could see that it was coming on his face.  That's rare in comics.

Also, there is a lovely double-page spread that looks a lot like the cover, showing that Adlard is just as versatile with cityscapes and architecture as he is people and the undead.  I don't know why he's not receiving more acclaim for his work here, but at the same time, I'm glad he's not being lured over to the Big Two - this series wouldn't be the same without him.

Now that the existence of other communities has been more or less proven, Rick goes into defensive mode this month, getting the Community prepared for a possible attack.  I'm sure, after what happened at the prison, Rick is going to remain distrustful of large groups of people for some time.  It is interesting watching him work through possible paths that are open to him - in some ways, I'm sure that the Governor went through a similar decision process before he started going a little crazy. 

There's a terrific scene where Rick, scouting with Michonne and Abraham, realizes that roamer attacks barely raise his pulse rate now.  I feel like he's moved through his recent crippling insecurities, and has become more confident in himself as a leader and survivor.  But, as we've seen before, hubris is a bigger threat to Rick than zombies every time.  I'm curious and excited to see what Robert Kirkman has in store for our favourite survivors as they begin to explore the world around them.

Catwoman: Relentless

Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Cameron Stewart, Javier Pulido, and Mike Manley

I'm still not sure how I missed out on Ed Brubaker's run with Catwoman back in the early 00's.  This trade collects eight issues of that run (from #12 - 19), and is broken into two stories.

'Relentless', the longer arc, has to do with the Black Mask seeking revenge on Selina for stealing his diamonds in the previous trade.  He hatches a very complicated plan that involves freeing one of Selina's oldest friends from prison and setting her up in a Fagin-like operation.  He also hires Selina's brother-in-law at a shell corporation so that her family would have to move back to Gotham.  He then sets about dismantling Selina's world, and the good work she's been trying to do for Gotham lately. This is a pretty standard story, elevated somewhat by Cameron Stewart's art. 

The second story, 'No Easy Way Down', is excellent.  It's drawn by Javier Pulido, but in a style that is remarkably different from what I've come to expect from him.  His art is more minimalist than normal, and it looks a great deal like Darwyn Cooke's.  This story has Selina, her friend Holly, and private detective Slam Bradley (who, in Pulido's hands looks a lot like Christopher Chance, were he a boxer) all wallowing in their various personal miseries after the events of the previous story.

This part of the comic is very well-balanced, and utterly compelling.  The growing closeness between Selina and Bradley is the best thing about this trade, as they move from colleagues to something much more.  It's a relationship tinged with self-doubt and self-pity though, and it more than anything else here makes me want to read the next trade.

Elephantmen #37

Written by Richard Starkings and Rob Steen
Art by Axel Medellin and Rob Steen

It must be a lot easier to read Elephantmen in trade than it is to buy the semi-monthly issues.  This particular issue, which is the second part of the four-part 'The Killing Season' arc, has barely a single page that doesn't reference something from a previous comic.  Now, that is something I'm more than fine with.  I like series that build upon themselves, and accrue a great deal of history.

What makes Elephantmen such a challenging read is that Starkings is forever playing around with the timing of individual issues, and where each one fits in relation to the issues around it.  This has to be the most non-linear series ever made.  For example, this issue takes place 'yesterday' in story time, but we learn that events of issues from a few months ago, like the excellent Shaky Kane-drawn issue 33.  Out of the blue, we are back in that issue, and it is hard for the reader to remember exactly how to slot everything in order in his or her mind.

Aside from that, which always nags at me when reading this comic, there is plenty to like here.  A killer is going around killing transgenics and writing 'No Mercy' on their chests.  In this issue, we get to see that killer, who is walking around wearing Tusk's skull as a helmet.  We also learn  that Sahara is planning on having a baby, although apparently through her look-alike Panya, who may serve as a surrogate. 

There is a lot going on in this book, and the pacing feels a little bit off, but Axel Medellin's art continues to be gorgeous.  The back-up story about Dr. Nikken, creator of the Elephantmen, is creepy and atmospheric, but I find not as enjoyable as the main story.  I find my mind wandering a lot while reading it.

Mike Carey's One-Sided Bargains

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Mike Perkins and PJ Holden

This prestige format collection of three pieces that Mike Carey once published through Caliber came out in 2006, but I saw it for the first time a couple of weeks ago, with a nice $1 price tag.

I've been admiring Carey more and more over the last few years.  His Lucifer was brilliant, as is his Unwritten. I even found myself enjoying his long run on X-Men, although not always to the same degree. Anyway, this book has three parts to it.

Doctor Faustus, drawn by Mike Perkins, is a retelling of the classic story of the Professor who made a deal with the Devil to gain knowledge.  In Carey's vision, the story is told through the testimony of Faustus's young servant, who had great love for the man.  Carey incorporates modern understandings of astrophysics into the story, and it is amusing to watch someone from a distant time try to understand such new concepts.  It's a very well-told, and well-illustrated story.

The second story, Suicide Kings, drawn by PJ Harvey, concerns very similar circumstances.  A group of meat packers who play cards regularly are irritated by the fact that one of their number always wins.  He strikes them as a bit of a religious freak, so they come up with a practical joke which involves an actor dressing up as the devil and playing for the man's soul.  This is a very effective horror story.

The final story in this book is a bit of prose (with a spot illustration by Michael Gaydos) about a book reviewer who becomes the target of a writer whose work he panned.  This eventually leads to gigantic Arcade in Murderworld-style deathtraps.  It's good stuff.

Wasteland #33

Written by Antony Johnston
Art by Justin Greenwood

In my opinion, some of the best news of the New Year is that Wasteland is back, and that the creators are committed to putting the book out on a monthly schedule again.  For the first year and a half of its existence, Wasteland was just about the most reliable independent comic published at the time, but something happened that caused artist Christopher Mitten to fall way behind, and eventually leave the title.  The first replacement artist didn't work out for some reason, but now Justin Greenwood has joined the title, and it feels like things are going to work out for it again.

To celebrate getting back into the swing of things, this issue is only $1, and is well worth picking up.  It's not a perfect jumping on point (Wasteland is a complex series), but Antony Johnston does his best to welcome new readers with a detailed recap inside the front cover, and by shifting the story back to central characters Michael and Abi, who are continuing their journey to A-Ree-Yass-I, a mysterious land that has been talked about as the birthplace of the Big Wet, the event that changed the world.

They are accompanied by Gerr, who they think is a Ruin Runner, like Michael, but who we know to be an agent of Marcus, the leader of Newbegin, who wants to keep Michael from getting where he's going.

In this issue, we see a new aspect of society - a Cross Chains town.  Basically, this is an isolated place where Christianity is still practiced.  Most of society has become rather tribal at this point, with the Sunner religion claiming most souls, except for city people (who enslave Sunners), and groups like the Dog Tribes.  It's a surprise to see a holdover faith from the old world still existing here, and I like how Johnston has the people who live in the town revert to a more superstitious and suspicious form of the religion (they think Michael is a demon).

Also of interest in this issue is the introduction of Zakk, a brother of the church who has lost his faith after a visit by a strange man who seems kind of god-like.  This strange man has also recently visited Michael, Abi, and Gerr in their dreams.  Johnston is setting this series up to go in some interesting new directions.

Justin Greenwood does a good job with this debut issue.  I liked his work on Marc Guggenheim's Resurrection(I do wish we'd see more of that title too), but at first worried that he wouldn't be a good fit for this title.  His art lacks the rougher, shabbiness of Christopher Mitten's, which fit this world so well, but he does handle the characters quite well.  Here's hoping for monthly issues of this series all year.

Xenoholics #4

Written by Joshua Williamson
Art by Seth Damoose

Xenoholics has been a fun read, drawing a number of comparisons to Chew in terms of its brand of humour and subject matter.  This issue, I felt, fell a little flat, as it had a lot of plot to get through, and didn't have as much space for the character interactions and strange little moments that made the earlier issues work so well.

Our group of Xenoholics, the members of a support group for people who have been abducted by aliens, are in the custody of the 'Men in White' a governmental group that has been pursuing them since the professor who ran their meetings went missing.  They are interrogated, and the truth about some of their abductions (or lack thereof) are revealed, before they manage to attempt an escape. 

This series is well-written and usually pretty well-balanced, but as I said, this particular issue was somewhat lacking in the humour of the previous three.  I am looking forward to seeing how everything wraps up next issue.

Freakangels Vol. 6

Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Paul Duffield

If you set aside all of the ruined, flooded England, post-civilization trappings of Freakangels, Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield's impressive and popular webcomic turned trade paperback series, you get an interesting study of twelve friends who try to do the right thing, and have a hard time maintaining their closeness with one another.

The Freakangels are twelve immensely powerful individuals who were all born at the exact same time, and who were ultimately responsible for ruining the world (or, at the least, England) in a fit of anger and fear.  Now, in this sixth and final volume, they are reunited and trying to make things right.

The various characters (who are very hard to keep straight, as they look very similar to one another) each have their own specialties, but since 'upgrading' their 'package', or rebooting their powers to be more effective, they are beginning to come together again in common purpose, and think they can fix their mistakes.

There is a lot more talking in this volume than in the previous ones, and the book would have been boring were Ellis not such a strong writer.  Duffield's expansive panels work well with this type of story, keeping the pages turning where other artists might get bogged down in Ellis's script.  I enjoyed this series, and look forward to seeing more from Duffield, who is a very talented artist.

Fables #113

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Rick Leonardi, Ron Randall, P. Craig Russell, Zander Cannon, Jim Fern, Ramon Bachs, and Adam Hughes

Every once in a while in Fables, we get the equivalent of a clip show.  In this issue, Willingham works with a number of highly talented artists to give us a few short stories about some of the lesser-known characters that make up the gigantic ensemble cast of this series. 

We're given the classic story (drawn by P. Craig Russell!) of an adulterous princess who is transformed into a turtle, destined to always carry her homeland in a teacup on her back.  Later, we're given a story about some of the people who live on the islands that float in that cup (drawn by Ramon Bachs).

Zander Cannon and Jim Fern (a very nice combination) draw the longest story, about a sorcerer who casts a spell on Gepetto and the Emperor back in the homelands which has a long-lasting positive effect on Fabletown centuries later (and helps explain some ancient plot points in the earlier days of this series). 

Finally, we are given a short piece explaining the reason for the amorous interest of a porcupine in human women.  This story is drawn by Adam Hughes - when is the last time he drew the interiors of anything?

This is a fun issue, but ultimately rather forgettable.  I suppose Mark Buckingham needed a break or something, and I'm not going to begrudge that, but I would like to get back to what is happening at the Farm, and the eventual return of our favourite Fables to New York.

Prophet #21

Written by Brandon Graham
Art by Simon Roy

I think I may have just found my new favourite monthly comic.  By now, everyone knows the story - Rob Liefeld is relaunching his old Extreme line of comics, known for god-awful art and stories, filled with shoulder pads, pockets, giant guns, anatomically impossible women, and an utter lack of feet.  A lot of these comics were popular for a little while in the 90s, before the lack of good story and the incredible inability to publish even semi-regularly took their toll, and the books all stopped coming out.  I have some vague memories of Prophet - I think he was some kind of Cable rip-off (and yes, I know Liefeld created Cable), but really, it's not like the comics probably made sense.

Anyway, the relaunch.  This series is being written by Brandon Graham, who is a brilliant artist in his own right.  Graham is best known for King City, an amazing comic that I can not recommend enough.  He is joined on Prophet by fellow Vancouver-ite Simon Roy, who I first became aware of a couple of years back at TCAF when I bought his Jan's Atomic Heart, a short little graphic novel.  At the time, I remarked that he would be a major talent one day, and I think he may be well on the road with this comic.  (By the way - while everyone is suddenly looking to get copies of Jan's Atomic Heart, I imagine that it is easier to sample Roy's second work - stories in Murder Book, an excellent crime anthology series, which can be purchased here - it's very good).

This series is set in a far-off future, where the entire Earth's ecosystems have changed radically.  John Prophet suddenly appears in a drill-bit shaped hibernation pod, having been buried a long time.  He has a mission to complete, which he receives updates about through his dreams.  He travels to a jell city (more on this soon) to meet his contact and receive information about his mission.  What this mission is, or what has happened to the planet, or why Prophet was willing to mate with his slug-like contact, are all being left as mysteries for now.

Graham is one of those creators who breathe out good ideas the way we do carbon dioxide.  Every page of this comic has something new and strange on it, from the variety of wild animals that Prophet encounters (he's only awake for a few minutes before a Tulnaka attacks him) to the strange new inhabitants of the world.  We see a little of an Oonaka meat farm.  These are vaguely simian creatures being raised by some of the creatures that live in the jell city - basically a rotting living jellyfish spaceship that is inhabited by a caste society of creatures that I can't exactly describe - they're insect-ish.  Graham keeps his usual wordplay at a minimum, but I was amused by the drones that shoot live ammunition - living creatures that sink claws into their target.

I found every page of this comic a complete treat.  Roy's art reminds me Moebius, Tony Moore, Paul Pope, and David Lapham (is such a combination is even possible), with a sense that James Stokoe has had an influence on things.  The story is definitely intriguing; I imagine this as being a future Conan comic, but written by William S. Burroughs.  Handing this series to these two is the best thing that Rob Liefeld has ever done in all his years of working in comics.

Caligula #6

Written by David Lapham
Art by German Nobile

I definitely lost faith in this mini-series somewhere in the second half, but David Lapham pulls everything together very nicely for this issue's conclusion.  Junius, called Felix, has been both plotting to kill Caligula, the mad emperor, and assisting him in his depravities.  It's been hard to say just why Felix has acted the way he has, except to suppose that Caligula has some sort of spell on the younger man.  In this issue, Felix and Laurentius, the trustworthy Praetorian, enact their plan and attempt to kill Caligula. 

Lapham, at times, has lost the balance of this series, showing some pretty twisted things as Caligula, and his demonic horse (who was in fact installed in the Senate by the real Caligula) Incitatus, have debauched their way through Rome's collected coffers. 

I was critical of this series for colouring issues earlier; that has been corrected here, with the book looking a little brighter, and the art less muddy.  In the end, Caligula was an interesting and unique mini-series, exploring a time period not often seen in comics (scroll down for another Roman-era story though), and blending fact with fiction in an interesting manner.