The Zaucer of Zilk #1

Written by Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing
Art by Brendan McCarthy

When I heard that IDW was publishing a two-issue mini-series by Brendan McCarthy, I immediately knew a few things about it - that it was going to be visually stunning and psychedelic, and that I probably wouldn't understand much of it.

Surprisingly, this comic was pretty straight-forward in terms of its story and plotting, even if it was completely ridiculous from the beginning.  Basically, the role of Zaucer is a hereditary one, and the current Zaucer was the bastard child of his predecessor.  The Zultan of Zilk wants his powerful wand for himself, and so he has been obstructing his cousin's heroic duties.

Enter into all of this Errol Raine, a drippy fellow who also wants the wand's powers.  He abducts Tutu, a groupie who communicates through texting, and the Zaucer has to go rescue her.  The problem is that the Zultan has forbidden interdimensional travel, leaving the Zaucer no choice but to capture himself a pair of wild fancypants, which will let him travel to other worlds.

Like I said, this book is utterly ridiculous.  I love how McCarthy and his co-writer Al Ewing make use of many of the standard features of a hero's journey, as outlined by Joseph Campbell, to tell a story that is pretty much all LSD-induced nonsense so wild that it makes Brandon Graham look like Marv Wolfman.

In terms of a comic delivering exactly what it promises, you can't find a better example than The Zaucer of Zilk.  This book is a lot of fun, and is more inventive than any five books from the Big Two put together.

Scalped #50

Written by Jason Aaron
Art by RM Guera, Igor Kordey, Tim Truman, Jill Thomspon, Jordi Bernet, Denys Cowan, Dean Haspiel, Brendan McCarthy, and Steve Dillon

For as long as I've been writing about comics on the Internet, I've been hoping to draw new readers to Scalped (it was the first comic I ever reviewed).  I have been, on a monthly basis, blown away by the quality of this comic, and it is something that I think most comics readers would appreciate if they gave it a chance.  One hurdle, though, has been accessibility.  Scalped is a sprawling, complex story that, had a new reader not started at the beginning, it would be difficult to follow.

This fiftieth anniversary issue (and congratulations - that kind of number is amazing for a book like Scalped in today's market) is a perfect sampler for a new reader to get a sense of what this book is all about.  The issue opens with a father and son scalping a Sioux man in Montana in 1876.  The father, from a long line of 'Indian hunters' is passing on the finer points of scalping to his son, and shares with him their family's story, which is basically the story of the worst aspects of American history.  Things soon shift to a Sioux father and son, whose actions and lives parallel that of the Americans'.  The Sioux son's name is His Many Bad Horses, a name with great resonance for readers of Scalped.

Later, we see Bad Horses as a man, brought to the Prairie Rose reservation in 1889 by government soldiers, after being one of the last hold-outs among his people.  Once there, he has a vision which is shown in a series of splash pages, each drawn by a different artist.  The narration of these pages reads like a tone poem, giving a new reader everything they would need to know about Scalped in terms of its atmosphere, while rewarding long-time readers with a new perspective or way of looking at most of the central characters.

It's interesting to read Scalped as a book about hope and resistance.  So often, the title feels to be more about despair, acceptance, and defeat.  Aaron is a subtle and gifted writer, and I found it awesome to see so many different artists provide their interpretations of things.  The best sequence in the book belongs to regular series artist RM Guera however, as he hand-letters his pages, and makes the old Wild West look as dirty and sad as it really was.

I also appreciate the way that Jill Thompson snuck the Beasts of Burden into the book too.

Spider-Man: Fever #3

by Brendan McCarthy

This has been a terrific little series.  McCarthy's homage to Steve Ditko has been crafted with a great deal of respect and love, and while the story doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense, it is so full of great moments and amusing lines that it's nonsensical nature becomes its greatest strength.

It's really not easy to describe or summarize the plot of this issue.  Basically, Dr. Strange works to rescue Spider-Man's soul from the Arachnix demons that are forcing him to hunt the Soror Fly, which used to be a human being, while he wears the soul of the spider that gave him his powers as a hat.  There are talking dogs and an Aboriginal sorceress.

The comic is worth purchasing simply for the last couple of pages, where Strange and Spidey have some truly inspired dialogue on the nature of The Abyss ("Imagine that you are a wooden chair and the abyss is a termite.  There will come a moment when there is more air than chair."), the tendency of spiders to end up in the bathtub, and the similarity of the way they both hold their hands when they cast a spell or shoot a web.  It's funny how I never noticed that before.

This was a great series.  I'm glad to see Marvel publishing some more experimental and unorthodox stuff like this again.

Spider-Man: Fever #2

by Brendan McCarthy

This really is a cool comic.  Spider-Man's spirit or soul is trapped in some weird spider dimension, and he has to either capture the Sorror Fly, to prove that he's a spider, or the other spider demons are going to eat him.  Meanwhile, Doctor Strange is scouring the Webwaze dimension in order to rescue him.  That's about it, except that Strange chats with some dog creatures and rescues a beautiful woman from a trap, and Spidey has a chat with the spider that bit him, giving him his powers.  Oh, and because it's a Spider-Man comic, he suffers acute feelings of guilt and helplessness.

The story is a throw away, but that's because a comic like this is all about the art.  McCarthy's stuff is always cool, but he does some very neat things with this issue.  I love Spider-Man's desert nomad look, and many of the other design touches he incorporates.  When Doctor Strange is in the dog creature house, their wallpaper is a pattern of cat heads.  Many of the pages are splash pages, and the whole thing looks fantastic.  I would love to see McCarthy do some more superhero work.

Spider-Man: Fever #1

by Brendan McCarthy

Growing up, I was never really a fan of either Steve Ditko or Doctor Strange. I felt that the former's art was often stiff and awkward, and that the latter was always ridiculously over-written and overwrought. (Granted, my first exposures to Ditko were in the later issues of Rom, Spaceknight, around the same time that the covers were by people like Mazzucchelli, Smith, Zeck, and other artists that I really loved at the time, and his stuff looked so childish in comparison. Then there was Speedball.....).

Anyway, I have liked McCarthy since I first came across his work on covers for Shade the Changing Man (the Milligan version, not the Ditko, a connection which I only just made as I typed this). I've tried to follow his work, but so little of it has been in comics. For this reason, I got excited to learn that he was doing a three-issue Spider-Man/Doctor Strange story for Marvel.

Now that I've read it, I can easily say that it's the best Steve Ditko comic I've ever read, in much the same way that Gødland is my favorite Jack Kirby comic.

The book starts with Spider-Man engaging in yet another pointless fight with The Vulture, while back at his house, Doctor Strange gets a book he ordered delivered in the mail. As it turns out, the book is booby-trapped, and he lets loose an ancient spider evil kind of thing to crawl around in the city's drain pipes. Spider-Man ends up in Strange's bathtub, where he is preyed on by an Arachnix Spider-Demon, and gets his soul taken on a Webwaze energy stream into some other dimension.

Things get pretty psychedelic at this point, in the way that McCarthy does best. The book is beautiful and kooky, and pretty enjoyable all around, and the best part is that there are still two issues to go.