Gunned Down

Written by Kako, Ricardo Giasetti, Rafael Coutinho, Pam Noles, PEOV, Fábio Moon, Jeremy Nisen, Clayton Junior, Rafael Grampá, and Shane L. Amaya
Art by Kako, Fabio Cobiaco, Rafael Coutinho, Bruno D'Angelo, PEOV, Fábio Moon, Jefferson Costa, Clayton Junior, Rafael Grampá, and Gabriel Bá


Gunned Down is a collection of short Western comics drawn by Brazilian artists.  Why did the editor, Shane L. Amaya feel the need to construct such an anthology?  I have no idea, but it's a pretty decent book, clocking in at about 175 pages, and priced at only $10 (the book was published in 2005; I'm sure it's pretty hard to find now).

In the short six years since this book was published, Brazilian artists have begun to achieve some serious recognition in the North American comics market.  Included in this book are three of my favourite current artists - Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon, and Rafael Grampá, in what I believe are their first North American comics.  Moon contributes a cool three-page story about a gunfight.  Grampá delivers a strange four-pager about a Chinese market in the Old West which sells some peculiar cuts of meat.  He draws it in his usual Geof Darrow meets Rick Geary style.  Bá works with the book's editor to tell a long story (forty pages) about a half-breed family and some of their challenges.  It's bloody and rough, but also very impressive.

The coolest thing about this book is that the stories by unknown (to me) creators work just as well.  There is a cool story about Harry Houdini foiling a bank robbery while touring the West (by Nisen and Costa) that is very generous with the ink, and a good story about a woman who ran a stagecoach (by Noles and D'Angelo).

Another forty page story, by Giasetti and Cobiaco, is a little hard to follow, but still interesting.  It looks at the lives of two people, an American Lieutenant and a Native American warrior, who met when they were young and in conflict with each other, and then met again later in life when progress had left both of them behind.  It's good stuff.

Picking this up, I wondered if there would be any one dominant 'Brazilian style' of art, expecting most of the book to look like Bá, Moon, and Grampá, but instead I've discovered a great deal of diversity in the art of that very diverse country.  If any one artist came to mind through most of the stories, it was Danijel Zezelj, whose work many of these artists resemble.

I know this would not be an easy trade paperback to find, but if you are able, you should grab it.  I hope to see more from many of these artists in North America.

Sweet Tooth #28

Written by Jeff Lemire
Art by Matt Kindt

With this issue, the three-part 'Taxidermist' arc comes to a close.  As with many conflicts and meetings between Europeans and Inuit people in the years before this story is set (exactly 100 years ago this week, I noticed), things get pretty bloody this month.

The narrator, James Thacker, has traveled to Alaska to hunt for his missing soon-to-be brother-in-law.  He finds him living with a group of Inuit, but he also finds a pretty wild story about the skeletons of gods, and the plague that they have brought.  He also comes face to face with a hybrid baby, looking exactly like Gus, the regular main character of this comic.  As is to be expected of an Englishman in the glory days of the Empire, he doesn't react all that well to things, and decides to kill everyone.

This story is very well-told, and I've really enjoyed Matt Kindt's art for the last three months.  At the same time, I look forward to next issue, where Jeff Lemire returns to the art, and Gus, Jeppard, and company, return to the pages of the comic.  This arc has raised a number of questions about just what has always been going on in Alaska, and what Gus's role in the plague that has killed so many might be.  Sweet Tooth is always an excellent comic, and I appreciated that Lemire has revealed (without ever clarifying) a few things about this series through this flashback.

iZombie #20

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Michael Allred

Sometimes this comic can be accused of being a little slow moving, or having not much happen in any given issue, but neither accusation can be tossed at the title this month.

In this issue, after spending a lot of time hiding out from the Dead Presidents (a government team of supernatural agents), Gwen is discovered.  Scott gets abducted by Amon, for reasons we don't know, and Ellie continues to fall for the mysterious Frankenstein-like creature she found recently.  She also meets the vampire that was looking after him in the university lab.

Roberson has spent a lot of time introducing and developing a number of colourful characters in this book, and has kept his major plot more or less secret.  We know that there is some kind of large conflict between Amon and Galatea (the woman who created the Frankenstein guy), but we don't yet know what it's all about, or what Gwen's role in this is supposed to be.

I've found this book to be pretty intriguing, as monster movie cliches are mashed into a hipster, slacker-ish setting.  Michael Allred is the perfect artist for this book.

Thought Bubble #1

Written by Antony Johnston, Duncan Fegredo, Andy Diggle, Robin Furth, Mark Rutter, Mike Carey, Gavin Ross, Sally Jane Thompson, Will Morris, Raymond Mak, Amy Evans, Kristyna Baczynski, Matt Sheret, HP Lovecraft, Stuart Gordon, Alice Summerscales, and Sophie Kamlish
Art by Charlie Adlard, Duncan Fegredo, D'Israeli, Frank Beazante, MD Penman, Gavin Ross, Jally Jane Thompson, Will Morris, Raymond Mak, Amy Evans, Kristyna Baczynski, Julia Scheele, Tula Lotay, Alice Summerscales, and Sophie Kamlish

I'm always a sucker for an inexpensive anthology, but picking this up at the comic store this week led to a nice surprise - this anthology of short stories by a mix of British comics professionals and prize winning-amateurs is printed on newsprint, and is folded over, making each page half the size of a page of Wednesday Comics.  This allows the storytellers more space for their work, and makes reading this a treat.

As is always the case with a project like this, the quality of the comics included ranges quite a bit.  The book starts with a one-page Wasteland strip, drawn by Charlie Adlard.  It's very cool, especially since it's only the second time Wasteland has been in colour.  It's followed by a single page by Duncan Fegredo, looking back at his career.  I also quite enjoyed Andy Diggle and D'Israeli's strip about a cop who believes a murder was committed by time travelers.

Mike Carey gives us a very cool story about Leonardo Da Vinci, outlining some of his lesser-known accomplishments, such as break-dancing and playing for FC Milan.  It's drawn by MD Penman, and is a nice companion to Marvel's SHIELD.  There's also a creepy adaptation of an HP Lovecraft story by Stuart Gordon and Tula Lotay.

Most of the rest of the book is kind of forgettable, but still a decent collection.  It's always a pleasure to be able to support projects like this, even if it ended up being published after the event it was intended to advertise.

Chew #22

Written by John Layman
Art by Rob Guillory

Month after month, Chew is one of the most satisfying comics on the stands.  This current arc, Major League Chew, is a little different from previous ones, in that the story directly continues from one issue to the other, whereas lately, each arc has been made up on done-in-one comics.  I like that, as Layman's story becomes ever more complex, that the stories are going to start getting longer.

This month, Tony is trying to figure out what has happened to his daughter, Olive, who has gone missing.  As a traffic cop now, Tony has very few resources at his disposal, so he turns to his former colleague at the FDA, Caesar Valenzano, who is being run ragged since Tony was transferred, and has to do all of the awful jobs that his boss used to dump on Tony.

Most of the issue is centred on Caesar and his new partner's investigation of a coffee shop that is believed to be influencing a crime spree.  Instructions are being given to people in the foam of their latte, and the explanation of how Casear is saved from a bad situation is one of the funniest moments in the comic.

As always, this is a great book.

A God Somewhere

Written by John Arcudi
Art by Peter Snejbjerg

The last twenty years have seen a long string of books like this, where a Superman character is portrayed as being evil.  Without giving it too much thought, projects like Mark Waid's Irredeemable, and Peter Tomasi and Keith Champagne's The Mighty (which shares an artist with this book) spring to mind, and I know there are many more.

A God Somewhere fits in this milieu, but it also distinguishes itself by being incredibly well written, and by focusing as much on the incidental characters around the Superman figure as on him.

Eric and Hugh are brothers and very close friends.  They share a best friend, Sam, who has always had a thing for Hugh's wife Alma.  One day, something crashes into Eric's apartment building, destroying it, yet also granting Eric great abilities.  He springs into action to help rescue his neighbours, and is immediately exposed to the world as its first superhuman.

Eric is not very well-equipped to handle these abilities and the fame that they bring with them.  He starts to depend more and more on his Christianity, while also distancing himself from his friend and family.  Basically, he starts to lose it, and finds himself giving in to violent and dark urges.  Eventually, he is pursued by the Army, in a number of scenes that remind me more of The Incredible Hulk than of Superman.

I really like the way that John Arcudi explores Eric's reactions to his abilities, and how they affect his relationships.  Sam is the most interesting character in the book - he ends up working as a journalist covering the Army's hunt, but also feeling great empathy for his friend.

Peter Snejbjerg is one of the best artists working in comics today.  His figures are very expressive, and he excels at evoking emotion.  I really wish we would see his work more regularly.

Citrus County

by John Brandon

It's been a while since I've read a novel that is so straight-forward and entertaining, while also beguilingly disturbing and haunting.  Citrus County is a portrait of a forgotten region of Florida.  Too swampy to be infested with tourists, and too out of the usual hurricane path to ever get on the news, this is a dilapidated, rather hopeless region in a state that has become the poster child for the recession.

The book focuses on three people, and how their lives intertwine through the actions of one of them.  Toby is an orphan and a troublemaker in school.  He excels at getting detention, and feels very disconnected from the world around him (which consists of school and a crumbling house in the woods, where he lives with his suicidal uncle).  Shelby is a girl in Toby's class.  She's new to the County, and Toby doesn't know what to do about the fact that she's interested in him.  Their teacher is Mr. Hibma, a man who was once very much in love with his own genius, but has now slowly had to come to grips with the fact that he's a sub-par middle school teacher in the middle of nowhere.

One day, Toby decides to kidnap Shelby's little sister Kaley.  He abducts her from her own bed, and hides her in an abandoned bunker he's discovered in the woods.  This is not exactly an act of malice or deviance - he's jealous that Shelby has someone in her life that she can be close to.  Strangely, this secret act draws Shelby closer to him, but also causes Toby to begin to have some feelings for other people.

The book is pretty disturbing, but achingly funny.  I love the scenes with Mr. Hibma, who, when forced to coach girls' basketball, employs cosmetics and personal grooming as an offensive strategy.  He fantasizes about killing one of his colleagues, a complicated plot that involves first befriending her to allay any eventual suspicions.

I found that I began to really like these characters, and when things start to come together at the end of the book, I found myself rooting for all of them.  The people that fill this book are quite complex, and Brandon's casual, easy prose make the book a pleasure to read.  Recommended.

4trk Mind

by Exile

Exile is one of the best producers working in hip-hop today.  From his start as part of Eamonon, to his album-length collaborations with artists like Blu and Fashawn, he has carved out a name for himself as a producer who makes rapper-friendly beats that are also progressive.  Had he stopped there, he could have been one of the greats, but then he went ahead and released his masterpiece, Radio, an instrumental hip-hop album sampled completely off the radio.  This led to a follow-up album album that had various artists reworking or spitting over those tracks.  The path to independent stardom was assured.

And then, he gave us 4trk Mind.  Sigh.  There needs to be a law about producers wanting to rap.  A law with severe punishments.

It's not that this is a terrible album - the beats are great, and there are some decent tracks - it's just that it would have worked so much better as a beat tape.  An instrumental beat tape.  Exile continues to lay down some jazzy tracks, he just kind of ruins them by spitting over them himself.  Much of the content here is hopelessly juvenile (rapping about having three dicks), mawkishly sentimental (I don't understand the need to sample from so many children's entertainers), or kind of embarrassing (the first three or four tracks).

When Exile gets serious, as he does on 'Younger Days', '4ever (Friend Zone prt. 1)', and 'Momma Song', things are pretty bearable.  On most of those tracks, he kind of apes Blu's delivery, which could be why they were an improvement.  Blu shows up for 'When Nothings Left', and it is predictably the best track on the album.  The worst?  '2039'.

I kind of hope that Exile has rapping out of his system now.  I'd much rather see him do another album with Blu, or find us a new rapper like he did Fashawn.  I just would prefer he stay behind the boards (oh, and never work with the person who designed this cover ever again).

Pluto: Urusawa X Tezuka Vol. 2

by Naoki Urasawa after Osamu Tezuka, with Takashi Nagasaki

I'm starting to think that Naoki Urasawa could very well be my gateway into manga.  My previous forays into that realm have me with mixed success, but I really do love Pluto.

This series is a collaboration between Uraawa and manga master Osamu Tezuka, in the same way that those Frank Sinatra Duet albums can be considered collaborations.  In other words, Urasawa is working with one of Tezuka's most beloved stories - "The Greatest Robot on Earth", from his Astro Boy series, updating it and adjusting it to a more modern, adult sensibility.  I've never read the source material (the extent of my Astro Boy knowledge does not extend past Saturday morning cartoons when I was eight or so), but I can say that this is an incredibly impressive story.

This second volume brings Atom (Astro Boy's Japanese name) into the story. Atom is a robot, but appears to be a boy of about ten or eleven.  Inspector Gesicht is trying to track down just who is killing the most powerful robots on Earth, and warns Atom that he is in danger.  They exchange memory chips, so that Atom can be brought up to speed on the investigation, and we learn that he is more capable of feeling emotion than any robot we've met so far.

Shortly after this, the robot fighter Brando confronts the mysterious force that is destroying his brethren.  This is a pretty exciting scene, with real emotional consequences.  I like how Urusawa allows his mystery to deepen, while casting all sorts of questions about Gesicht's memory, and just who understands what is going on.  There is also a touch of political commentary introduced in this volume, as we learn a little about the 39th Central Asian War, which was apparently sparked by the belief of the President of the United States of Thracia (named Alexander, of course) that Persia was harbouring Robots of Mass Distruction (RMDs?).  Sound a little familiar?

I don't really understand how or why the society portrayed in this comic developed around having independent robots who live their own lives, renting apartments and pretending to eat food, would have developed, or why there would be such prejudice against them.  This aspect of the story needs a little more clarification, but otherwise, this is a beautifully illustrated and very compelling series.

The Finder Library Volume 1

by Carla Speed McNeil

I don't understand how it is that until this last year, I'd not been aware of Finder.  The series has been around since 1997, and while self-published, and therefore maybe a little hard to find in all comics shops, it has garnered a great deal of praise.  Perhaps I had heard of it, but I'm sure I'd never seen it before Dark Horse released the original graphic novel Voice, which I read a while back, and then reprinted the entire series to date in the two volumes of The Finder Library.

I think I've come across my new favourite comic.  This first volume contains twenty-two issues of the comic, and weighs in at 590 pages of comics, with a solid forty more pages of notes.  And trust me, you'll need the notes - this is one complex piece of work.

Finder is about the denizens of Anvard, a very old domed city.  It's so old that no one remembers who built the dome, or how it works.  Now millions of people live crammed into its space, on multiple levels (some never seeing any light) and on three shifts, so that their world can function more efficiently.  Anvardian society is divided into clans of people who share similar traits (the Llaveracs, the most prominent in this comic, all appear female, regardless of their actual gender) or similar career functions (the Medawars, of secondary importance in this comic, run the police, the army, and the medical professions).  Non-members of clans, or people of mixed parentage, inhabit lowlier levels of society.  Among the lowest are the Ascians, a nomadic group that live outside the domes, and are basically analogues to Native Americans.  The lowliest of the Ascians are the Sin-Eaters, people who take on the regrets and mistakes of others.  There is also a secretive order of Finders, who may be seen as scouts, and who are highly regarded.

The central character of this book is Jaeger, both Finder and Sin-Eater, a half-breed with no real home and an endless sense of wanderlust.  Jaeger has always been close to the Grosvenor family, who share the spotlight with him.  Emma Grosvenor is a Llaverac beauty, while her ex-husband Brigham, is a Medawar.  Emma and their children, Rachel, Lynne (a boy), and Marcie were all badly abused by Brigham, who had kept them confined for years as a method of controlling them, before they finally escaped.  Now, Brigham is out of jail and wants to find his family, and Jaeger, who feels he owes a debt to both sides, is trying to keep everyone safe.  That makes up the first half of this book, in the story called Sin-Eater.

It is followed by King of the Cats, a much lighter and funnier story, that involves Jaeger attempting to aid in the peace negotiations between a number of bands of his people and the Nyima, a lion-like people who are their traditional enemies.  Most of this action takes place in another domed city, Munkyland, a Disneyworld gone horribly wrong.  This story is very amusing, while it also shines a different light on Jaeger.

The final story, Talisman, is incredible.  It focuses on Marcie, the youngest Grosvenor child, her love of books and writing, and the irreparable sense of loss caused by her mother having thrown out her only book when she was young.  I think any reader would be able to relate to this beautiful story about the hazards of the creative process.

Carla Speed McNeil is a much more incredible cartoonist than I'd have given her credit for being based simply on the Finder stories being published in Dark Horse Presents.  This book is endlessly layered and textured with hundreds of madcap ideas and distractions, yet she is able to transport some very nuanced stories about human nature into her fantastical world without missing a step.  The notes in the back of the book are essential, but not because she isn't able to tell her story with the comics alone.  The notes act as a window into this fully realized world she has created, and allow her to make things as rich as she possibly can.

Reading a book this thick can become a chore at times, but instead, I found myself willfully slowing down my reading, so as to savour every panel.  I'm thankful that I have the second volume already waiting for me on a shelf, and while I'm excited to read it, I am going to give it some time, as when that is done, all that will be left to read of this series are the wonderful (but now woefully inadequate) eight pages a month in Dark Horse Presents.

Down 2 Earth (The Standard Edition)

by Ras G

Ras G is one of those artists I'm not really sure how to categorize.  I think of him as being in the same general area of music as people like Flying Lotus, a madcap experimenter with loops and breakbeats, but his work is much gentler than Lotus's.

Down 2 Earth has twenty-one tracks, but clocks in at only thirty-three minutes, making this a quick little beat tape project.  His beats are often pretty, and quite soulful.  This is a lovely album; often it's mercurial in the way in which it moves in and out of my conscious attention when I'm listening to it.

I do wish that Ras would leave out that one sample that appears on every track I've ever heard of his - the voice that shouts out "Oh Ras" in an extended Jamaican accent.  It's the equivalent of crummy old downloads that always had to have DJ Kay Slay shouting out his own name.

Fables #111

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, and Shawn McManus

I'm never very sure what to do with Fables these days.  It's always an entertaining comic, but I often feel like something is missing, and this issue is a good example of that recurrent problem.

There are two stories going on here this month.  Bufkin is a prisoner in the Emerald City, and is facing execution for his involvement in the growing rebellion against the Emperor of Oz.  This is the strongest part of the comic, as Willingham has decided to make Oz the North Korea of the Homelands.  Propaganda abounds, and the state embraces a Kafkaesque approach to justice that Kim Jong Il would appreciate.  Bufkin almost gets his hero moment, but things rarely work out for everyone's favourite former flying monkey.

Most of this issue is centred on the on-going search for a new North Wind among Bigby and Snow's children.  One of the kids, Winter (really, you'd think that name alone would be enough of a guarantee that she would ascend the throne), has discovered the Homeland of the North, where she meets Bellflower (formerly Frau Totenkinder) and Dunster Happ, who have been there since the former North Wind fought Mr. Dark.  They return to the North Wind's castle, and Winter is proclaimed King.

There are a lot of problems with this part of the book.  First, Bigby and Snow White show the appropriate concern for their missing daughter, but don't actually seem to do anything to look for her.  For three weeks, were they just sitting around the castle worrying?  Neither of them usually act like that.  When she does return, there is little in the way of emotion, and Bellflower and Happ's accompanying her doesn't warrant a mention from anyone.  It feels like Willingham had to rush through this part of the story, and so glossed over a number of things that needed more exploration.

Overall, the quality on this book is great (much of the credit for that goes to Mark Buckingham and his crew of inkers), but I think from time to time Willingham loses track of his characters and how they should be acting.

Wasteland #32

Written by Antony Johnston
Art by Brett Weldele

Amid the usual trickle, and sometimes deluge, of announcements about new graphic novels and comics series that have been heralded over the last year, one of the ones that most caught my eye was the expected return of Wasteland to a monthly schedule.  Wasteland has been around for a while, and was at one point the most reliable of monthly independent comics.  And then it hit a few snags, as the last arc was released on a schedule that has more in common with sightings of particular comets than it does a monthly comic.

That's just about all over now, as in January, new series artist Justin Greenwood is set to arrive, and the book will be beginning a new arc.  In the interim, Antony Johnston decided to give us this one-off issue which addresses the fate of a couple of very minor characters.

The issue opens with a young woman, who we may or may not have seen in Sultan Ameer's camp (I don't remember if she was a character or not, or is just your generic escaped slave), reveling in her new freedom, and traveling to what she hopes is a city.  Along the way, she runs in to a group of Sunners going the other way, led by what looks like a familiar figure.  We quickly learn that this is the group that left Newbegin some time ago, under the supposed leadership of Golden Voice.  As it turns out, the man leading this group is an imposter, chosen a while back to make it look like Golden Voice had left the city.

The rest of the book follows this group as they face the hazards of Johnston's broken future world.  As always, Johnston provides a fully-realized science fiction environment, but keeps his story grounded in the strength of his characterizations.

Brett Weldele, of the recent mini-series Spontaneous, provides the art, so of course the book looks good.  He is a good artist to continue the minimalist aesthetic Christopher Mitten began on this title.

This issue is a nice introduction to new readers who may want to sample this series before the $1 issue next month, but it is also a reward to loyal readers on a number of levels.  If you haven't read Wasteland, you're really missing out on a terrific comic.  If you abandoned the book during its scheduling troubles, it's time to come back to it.

Spaceman #2

Written by Brian Azzarello
Art by Eduardo Risso

I don't understand why there hasn't been more discussion and hype for Spaceman.  Azzarello and Risso are an excellent team, and with this nine-part mini-series, they are doing something quite different from what they usually do.

Spaceman is about Orson, a genetically engineered or modified person who was originally intended to travel to Mars.  What we learn this issue is that the program that birthed him led to the complete shut-down of NASA amid complaints about 'playing god' and irresponsible spending.  Now, Orson makes a living running a small salvage operation.

It seems he has become embroiled in the kidnapping of a young reality TV star, as he rescues the girl and her kidnapper from a burning yacht.  This leads to an interesting and informative discussion, before things really hit the fan.

Azzarello's clearly having a lot of fun speculating on the slang of the future, having almost completely constructed a new language for this comic.  Risso is up to his usual tricks, giving us bizarre camera shots and lots of visual wizardry.  This book should have a much higher profile, as it is very good.

The Infinite Horizon #6

Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

The Infinite Horizon has been a very cool mini-series.  Sure, it's easy to just complain about how many years it's taken for the series to be completed (for the record, less than Gutsville and Pirates of Coney Island), but now that it has finished, and presumably will soon be available in trade for people who waited, or perhaps hadn't even been comics readers when the series began, it's better to take a look at the work as a whole.

This series has been a loose adaptation of The Odyssey, set in a not-too distant future, where the world has suffered from environmental collapse, and the American government has fallen.  The nameless hero, and his squad of soldiers, have been stranded overseas by a government that can not afford to bring them home.  Their journey takes many years, and places them up against a number of challenges, such as a Russian supersoldier (standing in for the Cyclops), pirates, and a dangerous cult (representing Sirens).

Meanwhile, at home, the hero's wife and child have been trying to fend off people looking to take over the family farm in the Catskills, which has the only access to clean water in the surrounding area.

Now, with this final issue, our hero has finally made it home, and is looking to free his family and his land.  It's a brutal chapter, but necessarily so.  The ending is kind of obvious from the beginning, but that does not make it any less satisfying.

I don't know if Gerry Duggan has written any other comics (am I right in thinking that he works in television?), but I would happily buy something else with his name attached to it after this.  Phil Noto has always been an artist that I admire, and while this issue may feel a little rushed in places, he continues to impress.  Get the trade for this - you'll like it.