Miracleman #9

Written by Alan Moore
Art by Rick Veitch and Rick Bryant

My Miracleman collection has more gaps in it than it does issues, at least during Alan Moore's storied tenure with the character, so I was pretty happy to see this at a reasonable price the other day.  These comics are just about impossible to find in decent condition, and with a $5 price tag, I couldn't resist.

The Miracleman story is only sixteen pages long, and, having not read (or not remembering the issues surrounding it), is hard to understand.  A pregnant woman wakes up because she is having contractions.  She walks outside to a ruined complex, where everyone still living is running away.  She is found by Miracleman, who puts her in a truck and flies away, until they find a nice safe place for him to deliver her (and his?) child.  This leads to a very explicit birthing scene which justifies the parental warning on the cover.  While watching the baby being born, Miracleman reminisces on and ponders his own life.  There is also an interlude which involve some strange creatures in human form visiting someone in a mental hospital.

Having read scattered issues of Moore's Miracleman before, I think this is a series that needs to be read in order to be fully appreciated.  Reading it like this, it's more of a trip to see some old school Rick Veitch artwork, and to try to remember just how groundbreaking this comic was when it came out (I was eleven, and definitely not buying it).

There is a back-up story, but it was unreadable.

The Big Lie #1

Written by Rick Veitch
Art by Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine

I don't understand why Rick Veitch is not more revered in the comics world.  Even setting aside his ground-breaking and extremely controversial work on Swamp Thing, he has maintained a viewpoint and set of opinions that don't fit with the mainstream, while also pushing the boundaries of comic books for years.  I fondly remember his Brat Pack as the high point of dark and gritty satire, and his Rare Bit Fiends dream journals were bizarre and inspired.

With The Big Lie (which came out a couple of weeks ago, but which my comic store only got this week), Veitch returns to ground and themes that he previously touched on in his bizarre graphic novel Can't Get No, and his Vertigo war/romance satire series Army@Love.

The Big Lie is a bit of a master class in 9/11 conspiracy theory, wrapped in a time travel story.  A scientist moves back in time to rescue her husband, who was in a meeting at the World Trade Center on the morning of the famous attacks.  When she tries to convince him that he is in danger, the husband and the risk management company he works for decide instead to grill her and examine her evidence.  Basically, this provides Veitch the opportunity to lay out any number of the unexplained facts and contradictory evidence that has accumulated over the last ten years.

As a story, this comic can be a little clunky in parts, but that's not really a concern.  I don't want to weigh in on the whole 'Truther' movement, or what I personally believe, as I don't feel very qualified to discuss it.  What I will say is that this comic provides a lot of food for thought, and does it in an easily-digestible manner.  Veitch is a comics god when it comes to forcing people to question some of their assumptions, and it's nice to see him continuing to raise his voice in such a compelling way.

Unknown Soldier #21

Written by Joshua Dysart
Art by Rick Veitch

Every month for the last two years, I've gone on and on about how much I love this title, and it has frequently impressed me with its ability to be better with each new issue.

For this month's issue, Dysart has done something completely different, moving the story away from Moses, and instead choosing to focus the whole book on one Kalashnikov rifle.  The story starts in WWII-era Russia, as Mikhail Kalashnikov comes up with the general design of this most versatile of assault rifles.  Once mass production begins, the story shifts focus, and we realize that is one particular rifle that is narrating this issue.

This particular AK is first owned by a Cuban soldier posted in Ethiopia to help fight Somali separatists.  It then is owned by a poacher in Kenya, slowly making its way into Uganda, where it is owned by a farmer, and then a number of different people before coming into the possession of a young Karamojong herder.  Eventually, the gun makes its way into the possession of a number of different children in Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, which brings it into the series' continuity.

This type of thing has been done before, but I appreciate this approach to African reality and conflict.  Dysart's research and insight into Uganda and its troubles has been one of the biggest draws of this book to me, and I like the way in which he works to develop peoples' knowledge.

Rick Veitch is the perfect choice to fill in on this issue.  This is the more realistic Veitch that we don't see that much of these days, as he eschews the lighter style he used on his incomparable Army@Love.

Army @ Love: The Art of War #6

by Rick Veitch (with inks by Gary Erskine)

I really enjoyed Veitch's two Army @ Love series. The first one was a perfect example of Bush-era satire (I love that we can start talking about the Bush era in the past tense), eschewing the war for profit mentality and taking it to its extreme.

This second series has seemed to flounder some, as it looks for a semi-credible way to resolve the various plot lines and character arcs that began in the first series, while still attempting to maintain its satiric vision. I don't really think the second series succeeded in this mission. It was still a good read, and often very funny, but I feel like it went off-message quite a bit, and in some ways, became more of a parody of DC's Crisis fixation, with its multiple realities and Big Finger provided deus ex machina.

It's still a good book, and once again, I admire Veitch for his vision and his bravery. I know that he has taken a lot of flack for this series in the on-line community (I don't remember reading very many positive reviews), but I also think that in a couple of years, when some skeletons are unearthed from the Bush's closets, historians begin to re-examine the War on Terror, and it becomes more socially acceptable to criticize soldiers again, this series will be rediscovered and praised by some of the people that gave it a pass the first time around.

Army @ Love: The Art of War #5

by Rick Veitch
Inks by Gary Erskine

I know that this series, both in this and in its original incarnation, has received a lot of internet hate, but I have always found it to be original and whimsical. I've liked the way that Veitch has poked fun at the American war industry, and at government efforts to brand and market the war on terror. I thought the idea to write a soap opera set against that backdrop was inspired, and liked that he set it slightly into the future and in a fictional country so that the satire could stay just that - there was never any attempt to make this a 'real war comic', like some of the other recent offerings from DC/Vertigo (scroll down).

This new mini-series has had two strengths in particular: the covers and the framing sequence. Every issue in The Art of War has begun with a page or two set in a Guantanamo Bay-type of detention centre, where the real Rick Veitch is being tortured (sorry - placed into positions of 'stress and duress') by American interrogators looking for some of the military secrets displayed in the comic. These are often the funniest part of each issue.

The covers have been great - spoofs on classic pieces of art, updated to Veitch's modern Afbaghistan war. This issue's is a dissapointment, although after what he did to Whistler's mother, I guess there's not much more to say.

So, I'm a fan of this series. I'm okay with Mongrolian Mothers of Mountains that are really beautiful actresses. I'm okay with drugs that can be used to access government satellite-intelligence things. I'm good with growing replacement organs on the outside of your body to eventually harvest and transplant within the body. But I think he lost me around the point that I realized that this is Army@Love: Final Crisis.

The world is a copy of another world using some strange law of physics, and is now being deleted, at least according to a message from the future that has taken 4 or 5 issues to decrypt? Actually, it's all good. I'm just sad that I don't think there will be a volume three after this.