Solstice

Written by Steven T. Seagle
Art by Moritat

Solstice first entered the world as a three-issue miniseries in 1995 that was never finished because its publisher went bankrupt.  It was completed and published as a trade paperback in 2006, but was then reworked a little, and published again as a hardcover in 2016.

I've been a fan of Steven T. Seagle for quite a while, but had never noticed or heard of it until I came across it for the first time.  Moritat is a great artist, although the original 2/3 of this book date from when he used to go by his actual name, Justin Norman.

The book is told, in an ever-shifting narrative, by Hugh Waterhouse, who has been dragged into the jungles of Chile to search for the legendary fountain of youth.  Russ Waterhouse is a truly terrible person - he's a rich bully who has dragged a number of people into his lifelong obsession, which has become more pressing since he has developed terminal (yet symptom-free) cancer.

The story jumps all over the place, as Hugh describes his childhood, and two earlier expeditions to Arctic Canada and to Siberia, both of which came with great risk to his body and mind.  The Chilean expedition is no different, as Russ barrels through, and the group attracts the attention of some (kind of stereotypically rendered) indigenous groups.

Moritat's art is pretty nice throughout.  His art reminds me a little of Tim Sale's here, which made me think a few times of his book with Seagle, The Amazon.  The real draw is just how well Seagle builds up the two Waterhouse mens' characters, adding layers as he goes to make the ending a little more poignant.

I'm glad I picked this up - I really enjoyed it.

Outlaw Territory Volume 2

Edited by Michael Woods

Reading through this anthology of western comics, I started to wonder if such a thing could have ever existed were it not for the HBO show Deadwood, which treated cursing as Shakespearean oration, but also made it okay to portray the Old West in terms of gender, race and class.

Anyway, as with any anthology of this size (almost 250 pages), there is a lot of variety when it comes to quality in this book.  Some of the better pieces belonged to Rich Johnston and Tom Fowler, who started the book off on an amusing note; Michael Woods and Rafael Albuquerque; Jeremy Barlow and Dustin Weaver (whose art is incredible, and very European); A. Freeman, M. Bernardin, and D. Lafrance; John Whalen and Werther Dell'Edera; Josh Wagner and Jose Jaro (whose art I though belonged to Skullkicker's Edwin Huang at first, it's so similar); Robert Kirkman and Shaun O'Neil; Joshua Hale Fialkov and Jeff Lemire (that's an interesting creative team); Christian Beranek and Vivian Lee (exploring the contributions of Chinese workers to the railroads); Francesco Francavilla (probably the prettiest story in this book); Moritat (with what I assume is a tribute to Moebius's Lt. Blueberry comics, as the protagonist's name is J. Giraud); and Joshua Dysart and Paul Azaceta.

One reason why I enjoy these types of books is because they invariably expose me to an artist whose work I've never seen before.  There are a few people I'd like to see more from, including Rick Lacy, Jorge Coelho, Connor Willumsen (who has a bit of a Paul Pope thing going on), and Diego Tripoli.

In all, this is a successful anthology.  

Outlaw Territory Vol. 1

Edited by Michael Woods

Now here's an example of a trade paperback that appeared without making any ripples.  This Western anthology book went pretty much unnoticed when it was published in 2009 - I don't remember seeing any reviews or promotion for it, although I do remember seeing it in Previews.  I know that there is a second volume due to be released soon, but know very little about it as well.

As someone who loves a good anthology, I was happy to settle down with this book, which contains a good thirty short stories by a ton of different writers and artists.  Most of the stories are very good, but the limited range of the Western did make many of them blend together in my mind.

Frequently the stories involved gunslingers looking for revenge, and it did become a little monotonous at times.  Still, the quality of work in this book is pretty high.  Creators whose work stood out included Moritat, Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara, Khoi Pham, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Greg Pak and Ian Kim, Christopher Mitten, and mpMann (such a treat to see his work again).  Some artists who were new to me, but who made an impression include Yeray Gil Hernandez, Christopher Provencher, Simon Fraser, and Chad Sell.

I felt like many of the stories needed more room to spread themselves out, but in all, I was pleased with this book.  Some contributor bios would have been a nice addition though...

Elephantmen #26

Written by Richard Starkings
Art by Andre Szymanowicz, Vince Lee, Moritat, Boo Cook, Axel Medellin, and Marian Churchland

I find it odd that the main reason why I dropped Brightest Day from my pull-list is the same reason why I like this latest issue of Elephantmen:  the way in which it is telling a number of different, interconnected stories, in a very episodic manner.  I find it doesn't work at all in BD, but here it does.

This issue slowly continues the recent plot about the two SIMM androids that have shown up.  Vanity Case discovers that she was manipulated by one, while Sahara, on a 'Coming to America' style walkabout, gets stalked by another.  The main characters of this book - namely Hip Flask and Ebony Hide, barely get any screen time at all, instead giving the spotlight to the aforementioned characters, as well as checking in on Miki.

The longest segment of the issue is given over to Janis Blackthorne, the new partner of our two favourite transgenics.  Blackthorne has an interesting past, and while the narrative explains her history, the artists (Moritat and Cook) show us what she was up to during the war.  It's a very nicely done sequence.

In fact, the art is pretty strong throughout this issue.  I love Churchland's pages the best, but was also happy to see Szymanowicz, Moritat, and Cook on the book.  The only artist I wasn't particularly fond of was Medellin's Sahara pages, which were fine, just a little more cheesecake-y than I usually like.

Elephantmen #25

Written by Richard Starkings
Art by too many people to list here

Elephantment has reached 25 issues, and to celebrate, Starkings has brought in a pile of artists to each draw a single splash page picture.  There are some of the usual Elephantmen crowd, like Moritat, Ladrönn, Szymanowicz, Burnham, Churchill, Churchland, Cook, and Steen.  There are also appearances by artists that are some serious up-and-comers, like Brandon Graham, and Shaky Kane, and some pages by well-renowned veterans like Gibbons, Erskine, Guerra, Grist, Portacio, Rouleau, Sale, and Scioli.  The art throughout the entire issue looks fantastic, and it's very cool to see different interpretations of the same characters time and time again.

As for the story, it's been written as the perfect jumping-on point for a new reader.  The focus of the issue is on Hank Gruenwald, the executive director of the Information Agency, the organization that Hip Flask and Ebony Hide work for.  Most of the issue is recap from Grunwald's perspective, and it runs right up to the most recent events (remember, this series is often non-linear, so it's nice to see the order in which events were occurring), as well as provides a hint of things to come.

On the flip side of the comic is a five-page preview of Ian Churchill's Marineman comic, which looks to be a Sea Devils sort of thing.  I have not been a fan of Churchill's previous work, and the cover looks a little too much like an issue of the Ultraverse's Prime, but this thing looks fantastic on the inside.  Churchill is taking a more cartoonish approach to things, and his description of No-Limits Free-Diving makes the sport seem very interesting (I only learned of this sport a few months ago when the New Yorker ran an incredible article on it).

This comic is well worth picking up for it's great art, and I encourage anyone who has been curious about Elephantmen to use this book as a good excuse to try it out.

Elephantmen #24

Written by Richard Starkings
Art by Moritat, Chris Burnham, and a small army of assistants

It's been a while since the last issue of Elephantmen appeared, and it's very nice to see the book back on the stands.

In this issue, Starkings wraps up his '7 Days of Smog' arc with a big fight between Ebony Hide and Hip Flask, Hip being under the influence of an 'imperiumite', a device used to amp up the aggression of Mappo soldiers during the war. There's also some interesting stuff with Sahara and Obadiah Horn, and the secrets they keep from each other.

It's nice to see Moritat back on this book, even if he apparently needed a lot of last-minute assistance from the book's usual stable of artists. They manage to maintain a level of consistency throughout the book so it's not too noticeable. Chris Burnham provides a short back-up about the strange reporter who manipulated Vanity over the last few issues.

This felt like a largely transitional issue of Elephantmen, as Starkings sets up the book for his next big arc, 'Questionable Things'.

Elephantmen #23

Written by Richard Starkings
Art by Moritat and Chris Burnham

This is a particularly strong issue of Elephantmen. The comic is usually quite good, but often not a lot happens in any particular issue. This time around, Starkings has packed the book with some pretty big events, from Simms and Vanity's unwelcome entry to Horn's apartment, to sabotage at Sky Cab, and an attack on Hip Flask.

It's nice to see Moritat back on this comic for this issue. His art is fantastic. The back-up, by Chris Burnham, also looks terrific.

Popgun Volume One

Edited by Mark Andrew Smith and Joe Keatinge

I love the idea of melding music and comics into a 'graphic mixtape'. The concept of being able to have a diverse and varied sampling of different artists, writers, and cartoonists is a strong one, although there are some places where the mixtape analogy is also what causes my complaints about this ambitious project.

Just like a real mixtape, this has some stuff in it that doesn't really fit. There are a few stories that are clearly meant for children, yet other parts of the book contain curses and sexual material (without nudity). It makes me wonder who the intended audience for this book really is.

My other complaint is that many of the stories are too short - just getting my interest before they are over.

On the other hand, this book contains some brilliant comics. I especially liked Jonathan Hickman's short appearance, as well as Mark Sable and Rob Guillory's strange midget Jonah Hex tale. Tim Seely and Jeremy Dale contribute an excellent zombie love story, and Erik Larsen's Cheeseburger Head might be the best thing I've ever seen him do. Joe Flood's story is nice, as is Chris Moreno's Ninja Platypus. Marcus White and Ed Tadem's ghost story is good, as is Richard Starking and Phil Yeh's historical examination of Genghis Khan. Robert Love and David Walker contribute 'The Blind Monkey Style', an Afro-Samurai/Ghost Dog kind of Daredevil story, which should be a regular series.

The two stories that really seem to take the 'mixtape' aspect seriously are Moritat's excellent tale of a struggling jazz musician, and Jim Mahfood's story of unrequited love.

Parts of this book are brilliant, some are merely average, and only a few stories were distasteful. I would like to see more from some of these artists, and look forward to getting ahold of volumes 2 and 3.

Elephantmen War Toys: Yvette

Written by Richard Starkings
Art by Moritat

This month's issue of Elephantmen is actually a one-shot that returns to the War Toys era, and works to fill in some of the gaps between issues two and three of that spin-off title. It shows us what happened to Yvette immediately after the end of the second issue, where she'd fallen off a church that had been hit by a helicopter. In this issue, Yvette becomes a hardened resistance fighter, positioning her to become the inspirational figure she was at the end of the series.

This book features the return of Moritat to the title, a highly-talented artist whose work has been missed. The comic looks great, and ends with a last page both surprising and genuinely funny.