Blue Estate #9

Written by Viktor Kalvachev, Kosta Yanev, and Andrew Osborne
Art by Viktor Kalvachev, Toby Cypress, Robert Valley, Peter Nguyen, and Andy Kuhn

Before I even begin to talk about this comic, I want to take a moment to take in this cover, which is equal parts hideous and wonderful.  No, the characters in Blue Estate do not suddenly attend a Sci-Fi or comics convention, but Rachel Maddox does accompany Roy Blount Jr. to a pawn shop, where he is able to get his Stormtrooper helmet out of hock, but has to leave his Princess Leia slave costume behind.

You see, Rachel has to buy Roy off, because his photos of her visiting junior mobster Tony Luciano have him convinced that she was cheating on her recently murdered movie star husband, instead of going to rescue her useless brother from the mobster's clutches.

After returning from the pawn shop, Rachel and Roy Jr. are set upon by Tony's goons, and there is a shoot-out.  Poor Rachel is not having much luck these days, and quickly finds herself the unwanted guest of Vadim Razov, a Russian mobster whose money was stolen by Rachel's husband's murderer. 

Yes, this book is intricately plotted and frequently complex, and it is also wonderful.  As the series progresses, it is impossible to predict where things will be going, or how they are going to end up.  The art, by the ever-changing large team that Kalvachev has assembled, continues to be excellent as well.  I love this series.

The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 1

Written by Eiji Otsuka
Art by Housui Yamazaki

I've been a little more curious about manga of late, and was attracted to this series by the title alone quite some time ago.  When I saw it at a significant discount during an on-line Black Friday sale, I figured it was the perfect time to give it a try, expecting something very strange.

Well, there can't be much stranger than The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.  The series follows the adventures of a small group of Buddhism students who decide to pool their special talents to help relocate corpses they discover to wherever they want to go.  One of the group members, Kuro, is able to speak to the dead, and he serves as the Service's medium, taking orders if you will.  Another member, Numata, has dowsing abilities that lead him to undiscovered corpses.  Also among the group are Yata, who can channel an alien consciousness through a puppet he keeps on his hand, Makino, one of the few American-trained embalmers in Japan, and Ao, who serves as the group's boss.

In this first volume, there are four different stories that all involve the Service finding a corpse, and then going through some sort of adventure to take it where it wants to go.  The story begins in Aokigahara Forest (also the setting for the IDW graphic novel The Suicide Forest which I've been meaning to buy).  Aokigahara is a famous place in Japan for suicides, and when the group, who are there to perform Buddhist community service (praying over the bodies), they stumble upon the knowledge that the man they find wishes to be reunited with his equally dead lover.

All of these adventures involve people dying in strange ways, and they are all pretty Japanese (except for the serial killer-centred third chapter, which could be an episode of Dexter).  The second chapter involves the concept of Dendera Field, the place where Japanese communities used to abandon their old in a form of euthanasia.  Were it not for some of the explanatory notes in the back of this book, I wouldn't have been able to follow that one at all.

I found this book to be pretty enjoyable.  It was a quick read, but it provided me with some further insight into Japanese culture, and it was pretty amusing.  I'm not sure how many volumes there are in this series, but after I finish the next two on my pile, I'll be hunting down more for sure.

Thief of Thieves #1

Written by Robert Kirkman and Nick Spencer
Art by Shawn Martinbrough

There was never any doubt that I would be buying this comic.  I have been a fan of Robert Kirkman's for years, and have been avidly following Nick Spencer's career since his second mini-series.  Shawn Martinbrough is one of those artists I've always admired, although I don't often see his work these days.

Kirkman and Spencer's story is all about Redmond, a master thief who has been working with a young female apprentice Celia.  When the comic opens, Redmond is pulling off a heist on a cruise ship which only works out because of Celia's involvement.  From there, we are given a flashback to how the two of them first met, and began working together.

After that, we follow Redmond and Celia to their office, or somewhere like that.  We learn that Redmond has been planning a big job in Venice, but is now beginning to rethink whether or not he wants to go through with it.  We meet his backer and the talent he's recruited for the job, and are given an ending that makes what will happen in future issues a little uncertain.

The book is well-written and drawn, but there are a few things that didn't really work for me.  To begin with, the opening scene on the cruise ship is pretty unclear.  It is only through dialogue that we learned that we are on a boat - there are no establishing shots to clarify that until our main characters are flying away in a helicopter.  As well, I have no idea what it is that was actually stolen off the ship, or how exactly the ruse that Redmond and Celia pulled off worked.

The best scene in the comic is the one where Redmond and Celia first meet, as she is trying to break into his car.  The dialogue in this scene is very sharp, and gives me a lot of hope for the rest of this series.  Thief of Thieves would appeal to anyone who enjoys books like Criminal, or heist films.  It's a little rocky in a couple of places, but it's also very good, with a lot of promise.

Lost At Sea

by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Once again, I'm a little surprised at where some of the gaps in my comics reading lie.  You would think, after getting so much enjoyment out of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series, that I would have snapped up Lost At Sea ages ago.  But no, for whatever reason, I waited until now.

Lost At Sea is O'Malley's first published work, and it is a very different beast than Scott Pilgrim.  Where that comic's charm lay in its humour, this is a much darker comic, although still structured around a likeable young person.

Raleigh is an eighteen year old woman who feels completely soulless and adrift in life.  She traveling with three other people by car from California to Canada (presumably somewhere in BC).  The other people - two guys and a girl - went to the same private high school as her, but are not really her friends.  Raleigh doesn't really have friends.  She's still mourning the fact that her best friend moved away in middle school, and she hasn't really taken the time to develop a new one in the intervening years.

Instead, she prefers to just sit around and examine her own feelings of alienation.  She's managed to convince herself that she doesn't have a soul, thinking that perhaps her mother sold it away in exchange for commercial success.

I know that I'm making this book sound like a whiny self-involved teenage existentialist novel, and in some ways it is, but because it's done by O'Malley, there is a lot of charm in this comic.  The other characters are pretty likeable, and there is something about a road trip story that draws me in every time.  As the story progresses, and Raleigh confronts some of her fears, I found myself drawn further and further into the story.

O'Malley's art looks much the same as it does in Scott Pilgrim, but without any of the jokey or cute self-awareness of that title.  He shows a wide range of emotions in his art, and paces the story very nicely.

This book is a nice companion to novels like The Outsiders, or to comics like Ross Campbell's Wet Moon.  It's good stuff.

Conan the Barbarian #1

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Becky Cloonan

I think that putting Brian Wood on Conan is a strange choice.  When I think of Wood's writing, I think of the extent to which he places real locations front and centre in his stories.  DMZ and Local are obviously very grounded in their settings, but so are many of the stories in Demo, and Northlanders.  Usually, Wood is a very urban writer (I would argue that Northlanders, with its frequent themes of progress and change is full of pre-urban urban stories).

Now, I'm not terribly familiar with Conan, either in comics form or the original books, but I'm willing to snatch up anything that Wood writes.  Add to his name that of Becky Cloonan's and I'm on board for sure.  Whenever they work together (Demo, Northlanders, Jennie One), the result is pure comics gold, and Cloonan is one of about four or five artists that I would consider my absolute favourites.

This story looks terrific, and it has some good moments.  Conan narrowly escapes the constabulary of one coast town by jumping onto a ship at sail leaving the harbour, after having gotten himself in some pretty big trouble in the town.  He quickly wins over the crew of this vessel with his charm and tales of his exploits, and soon the captain is telling him about Bêlit, a dangerous and slinky pirate witch woman. 

I enjoyed this comic, but it kind of feels to me like a waste to have someone as talented as Wood work a story that is just an adaption of an earlier novel.  Not knowing the source material though, I have no idea how faithful he is being, or if he's been given the freedom to move off in his own direction.  This was perhaps not as mind-blowing a comic as I had hoped, nor as introspective and beautiful as previous Wood/Cloonan collaborations, but with these two working on it, I'm going to be sticking with this title for a while.

Northlanders #48

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Danijel Zezelj

It really is a shame that there are only going to be two more issues of Northlanders.  I like how Brian Wood has used different time periods and locales associated with Vikings to tell stories that really explore human nature.

The Icelandic Trilogy, three three-issue arcs that examine different generations of the same family, has been a good example of the type of story that Wood excels at.  The first story was about how the Hauksson family established itself as one of the first to settle Iceland.  The second story showed how the family worked reacted to the Christianization of their culture (not well, in the case of Brida, the heroine of the story).

Now, with this opening chapter of the final tale, Wood returns to the beginning, with a story of filial ambition.  Godar Hauksson has led the family through a period of relative peace, as he did not want to seek out violence.  He preferred to consolidate his holdings, and write the family's history.  His son Oskar, however, is an angry and warlike person, chomping at the bit of familial power.

Wood is joined for this final arc by Danijel Zezelj, who has been a favourite artist of mine since he drew Vertigo's Congo Bill mini-series many years ago.  I've never understood why he hasn't been given more regular, or higher-profile work, and I am very happy to see him working on this comic.  His thick lines and ink-heavy pages work well to underscore the bleakness of life in Iceland.

It's going to be a shame to see this comic end, but I like that Wood is going out with the same level of quality that he started the series with.

Haunt Vol. 1

Written by Robert Kirkman
Art by Greg Capullo, Ryan Ottley, and Todd McFarlane

I never had any desire to read Haunt.  Sure, Robert Kirkman was involved, as was his Invincible collaborator Ryan Ottley, but the fact that this was a Todd McFarlane-driven project left a cold taste in my mouth.  Even after I began reading his Sam and Twitch issues, and was surprised that they were actually decent, I saw this series as a 90s throwback that held nothing for me.

Then, it was announced that Joe Casey and Nathan Fox would take over the comic, and my interest was piqued.  Casey is an imaginative writer who loves to mess with the sacred cows of established comics characters, and Nathan Fox is in the select company of artists frenetic and crazy enough to keep up with him.  The thing is, their debut issue (#19) did not do a single thing to explain the series to new readers, and that gave me enough of an impetus to read the first volumeof the series, to get a better sense of things.

And, for the most part, I learned that my earlier caution was highly justified.  This is not a very good comic, unfortunately.  There are kernels of a good comic, but the whole thing groans under the weight of what McFarlane and Kirkman are trying to do.

Kurt Kilgore is a super-agent for some secretive government agency that does secret government agency stuff (there's no need to really explain this stuff, because comics readers know about this kind of thing).  He is abducted, interrogated, and killed after botching a mission that involves some Dr. Mengele type German in South America.  People are looking for a notebook that he left behind or lost.

His brother, Daniel, is a crappy priest who likes to visit a prostitute (always the same one).  Suddenly, he can speak to his dead brother, and they can merge their spirits so that he wears a superhero costume, and can shoot webby ectoplasm stuff that kind of looks like sperm.  Together, they help the secret government agency deal with the people who are now attacking them looking for that notebook.  Hear that creaking?  Me too - it's on almost every page.

What amazes me is that almost no one reacts to how strange this situation is, and there is no attempt to explain why Kurt isn't really dead.  Or where the jizz comes from.  We know where though - McFarlane wanted to do some Spider-Man stuff, and some spy stuff all at once.

I will say that the combination of Greg Capullo on layouts, with Ryan Ottley penciling, and then McFarlane inking (for this volume at least) is kind of a perfect storm of unfortunate art.  All of these artists are much better on their own (well, I'm not sure about McFarlane - he's kind of the weak link these days).  Ryan Ottley's work on Invincible has been brilliant from the jump, and looking at this here, I feel bad for ripping on Greg Capullo's work on Batman - it is so much better than this.

Anyway, I was never the audience for a comic like this.  Were it not for Casey and Fox coming aboard, this series would have remained off my radar.  I must commend McFarlane and Kirkman for letting these guys take over their character - it's leading to much better comics already.  Similar to what Rob Liefeld is doing with properties like Prophet and Glory, it is nice to see people with real indie cred get a chance at doing what they want with indie titles - especially when the original issues of those comics are so bland and uninspiring.

Original Suffer Head/I.T.T. (International Thief Thief)

by Fela Anikulapo Kuti and the Egypt 80

I can't get enough of these Knitting Factory re-releases of old Fela Kuti albums.  There are like twenty-five of these things, each holding two separate records from back in the day, and I want them all.


This CD contains 'Original Suffer Head', a twenty-one minute opus wherein Fela rails against the problems of Nigeria in 1981.  What amazes me is that his list of issues (water, housing, money, electricity, food, and development) applies as much today as it did back then.  I am always impressed with the way that Fela could take a serious, solemn issue (or issues), and turn it into a danceable piece of music.

The B-side to that piece is 'Power Show', which talks about the behaviour of the rich, who feel the necessity of lording themselves over the poor.  Again, were this song being sung as part of the Occupy movement, it wouldn't be out of place.

Also on this disc is I.T.T. (International Thief Thief), a twenty-four minute attack on International Telephone and Telegraph, and its CEO Moshood Abiola, who also owned the record label that Fela was feuding with at the time.  From the liner notes that explain this song:

Fela takes this opportunity to publicly disgrace Abiola for, in Fela's eyes, becoming a stooge for the white man through his general colonial mentality, and specifically for his collusion in the CIA-led effort to dislocate Chile's democratically elected Marxist president Allende.  The lyrics also include a pointed history lesson outlining the way, in the days of slavery, the white man would find a willing African who would sell his own people into slavery.

You have to love an artist who would take such risks and push his agenda so strongly, and so popularly.  I wish we had some equivalents to Fela today...

Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka Vol. 5

by Naoki Urasawa after Osamu Tezuka, with Takashi Nagasaki

It's getting difficult to find new things to say about this series by this point.  With each new volume, there are a few less of the world's most powerful robots left alive (another one buys it in this volume, after fighting Pluto over an ocean), and we get to know our main character, Gesicht, a little better.

In this volume, Gesicht remembers what happens when he killed Adolf's brother, and has to protect Adolf and his family from an attack by the KR, the anti-robot group modeled on the KKK (if they'd had cluster cannons and flying tanks that look like the heads of Star Wars Snow Walkers).  We also get to learn more about the creation of Atom, when his creator attempts to revive him, and has a few pop psychology theories about why he's not waking up.

This is easily the best manga series I've ever read (out of a very limited pool), and I like the way that Urasawa continues to build on his characters throughout the series.  Each volume I read leaves me excited to learn what will happen in the next one.

Sweet Tooth #30

by Jeff Lemire

I think just about everyone knew that things were not above board with Walter, the man in the refurbished hydro dam who has been sheltering Gus and his friends for a little while now.  This issue, Jeppard finds out the truth about Walter and Project Evergreen, at just the same time that the girls who opted to stay behind at the dam learn the same truths, but in a much harder way.

Like I said, that part of this story was kind of predictable.  The thing is, Jeff Lemire rarely goes for the predictable in his comics, and so we have Dr. Singh manipulating Gus and playing on his worst fears as he tries to convince him to abandon Jeppard and the others and travel with him to Alaska.  We are also sort-of introduced to a new character as Jeppard races back to the dam to rescue everyone.

Lemire's kept this title interesting from the start.  He doesn't go for conventional story patterns very often, and his art is always a treat.  Reading this book, it's easy to understand why DC decided to make him a central part of their New 52 (announcing this week that he's going to be taking over Justice League Dark soon, in addition to continuing his critical hit Animal Man).  What doesn't make sense to me is why more of the people who enjoy his superhero work aren't checking this series out.

Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #4

Written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
Art by Gabriel Hardman

Boom's two Planet of the Apes comics have continued to be a pleasant surprise.  The main title is excellent, month-in and month-out.  This mini-series, Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes has also exceeded all expectations.

It is set long after the main title, and about twenty years before the events of the first (presumably original) movie in the franchise.  The focus of this book has been the main rules passed down by the Lawgiver - that 'ape shall not kill ape', and that all apes should 'beware the beast man'.  The story centres around Aleron, a retired gorilla general and now lawyer.  After he defended a chimpanzee who trained a human to speak with sign language, Aleron was put on trial for a long ago murder - the first ape murder recorded - and sent to prison. 

All of this was a pretext for a corrupt member of the council to try to seize power.  This final issue has Dr. Zaius learn a few things about humans and their history at the edge of the Forbidden Zone, and has all the other characters confront one another one last time, as a number of truths are revealed.

Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman have done an excellent job of crafting this story.  The plot is very tight and involved, and Hardman's art is, as always, amazing.  There is going to be a follow-up series, Exile on the Planet of the Apes starting next month by the same writers, although sadly without Hardman's art (he starts on Secret Avengers next week).  This is a series anyone who's ever enjoyed the films should read.

iZombie #22

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Michael Allred

Lately each issue of this comic has really just been more of the same.  That's not necessarily a bad thing - iZombie is a pretty cool comic, and it's been remarkably consistent throughout its run, especially for the last year or so.

Gwen is freed from the custody of the Dead Presidents by Horatio, who loves her.  Scott's boyfriend is looking for him, and ends up interrupting his grandfather (who is in a chimpanzee's body) at dinner with diner matron Dixie (about whose past we are given another clue).  Scott, meanwhile, is still a prisoner of Amon, who is also hosting a summit between the Fossor monster-hunters and the Dead Presidents, a group of government agents who are also monsters.

The book moves very quickly, and since there are so many characters, and each needs their moment or two in the spotlight, it often feels like not a whole lot has happened in each individual comic.

Michael Allred is back after last month's hiatus (covered by J. Bone).  Allred was originally the draw that got me to read the book, and it's always nice to see his wonderful art.

Fatale #2

Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips

I'd found the first issue of Fatale to be a little confusing (although still very good).  This second issue helps make things a lot clearer, as the whole issue remains in the 1950s, and makes much clearer the relationships between the principal characters.

It seems that Josephine, the femme 'fatale' of the title, has been using men to prolong her longevity for some time.  Her current 'protector', police detective Walt Booker is on the way out with her, and she's begun to manipulate Hank Raines, a reporter, into helping her dispose of Booker, and to take his place.

As is to be expected with a Brubaker/Phillips production, this is a very capable comic.  Brubaker is taking his time laying out all the groundwork for the story, introducing us to the Bishop responsible for the cult suicides we saw last issue, and giving us a few hints as to Josephine's secrets, without giving anything much away.

This is a very cool comic, although I can't help but wonder if it won't read much clearer in trade.

The Bulletproof Coffin

Written by David Hine and Shaky Kane
Art by Shaky Kane

When The Bulletproof Coffinfirst came out as a six-issue mini-series, I passed on it, despite the fact that it was receiving good reviews.  I had no real reason to pass it up, because I don't usually trade wait the titles I want to read, but the $3.99 price tag on each issue scared me off, because this was a title I couldn't get my head around based on the solicitations and reviews I'd read.

Really, this is a pretty complex comic, that brings to mind work like Grant Morrison's Animal Man and some of Alan Moore's work on Supreme.  Steve Newman (later Noman) is a voids contractor.  Basically, he cleans out the homes of the recently deceased (specialising, it seems, in the recently murdered), a good job for someone with a bit of an obsessive habit for collecting a variety of toys and comics.  He is especially fond of the output of Golden Nugget Publications, a company built around the work of two men - David Hine and Shaky Kane - which was pushed out of business by the dominant comics company Big Two.

Steve finds a cache of new issues of Golden Nugget comics in one house.  What's interesting about them is that they are all dated after Hine and Kane were bought out, and after Big Two had cancelled these titles.  Soon, Steve is reading his way through titles like 'Shield of Justice', 'Ramona, Queen of the Stone Age', and 'Coffin Fly'.  From there, he soon finds himself living through Coffin Fly's adventures in a future world overrun by zombie Vietnam War vets and dinosaurs.

The comics begin to show scenes from his own life, and as his heroes begin to meet some terrible fates, helped along by the silent Shadowmen, Steve learns that he must find the Creators - Hine and Kane themselves - in order to make things right.

There is a lot to like about this book - the metatextual fun of the plot, the satire of the comics industry, and the kooky art by Kane.  His work is like a mix of mid-career Keith Giffen, Frank Quitely, Michael Allred, and Steve Ditko.  This is a very good-looking, very smart comic.  I may have to start picking up The Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred, the new mini-series that started a couple of weeks ago...

Dark Horse Presents #8

Written by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, Evan Dorkin, Tony Puryear, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Alan Gordon, Brian Wood, Martin Conaghan, Rich Johnston, and MJ Butler
Art by Duncan Fegredo, Jill Thompson, Tony Puryear, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Thomas Yeates, Kristian Donaldson, Jimmy Broxton, Simon Rohrmüller, and Mark Wheatley

There are a lot of new things popping up in Dark Horse Presents lately, as some of the inaugural series in this anthology have conclude or gone on hiatus.  With these new stories come some big-name creators, and some people with whom I'm unfamiliar but am very curious to see more from.

This issue starts with a Kate Corrigan story.  Kate is a central character in Mike Mignola's BPRD, and in this story she reacts to the news of Hellboy's death, after meeting his companion Alice in a cemetery in England.  Some of the emotion in this story feels a little forced, and I found myself much more interested in what was happening between Kate and her German boyfriend Bruno than I was in the death of Hellboy.

There is an excellent Beasts of Burden story by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson, involving our usual cast of animals meeting a group of strange sheep one day.  Dorkin and Thompson have just about perfected their approach to these horror stories that feature talking animals.  Normally, I'd stay away from something like this, but these two have made these characters so loveable, and their stories so sad and loving, that I can't stay away.  This is one of the best comics being made these days.

I continue to be very interested in Tony Puryear's Concrete Park.  It's a near-future gangster science fiction story, and while he's still really just establishing characters and their relationships to one another, I find it pretty fascinating.  I've always been drawn to strong world-building in comics, and I'm appreciating the level of thought and planning on display in this series.

Howard Chaykin's Marked Man ends well.  I haven't always enjoyed this story of a hired thief and assassin who, after many years of successfully anonymous crime, is exposed, and his family killed.  He gets his revenge in this chapter, and Chaykin makes some interesting choices.

There is a very strange Tarzan story that starts in this issue.  It's set in a future world where most of our world lies in ruin.  Tarzan lives in a series of hidden apartments which are also greenhouses (I think), and gets approached by some people to do something.  Really, I think I need to read this again.  I did enjoy Thomas Yeates's art, which always looks so old school and so great.  This story reminded me a lot of Arvid Nelson's Zero Killer series of a few years back.

Brian Wood and Kristian Donaldson's new series The Massive debuts here, although what all it's going to be about is not yet clear.  We do get some very cool visuals of an independent military contractor being the only survivor after an oil rig that has been taken over by eco-terrorists gets buffeted by insanely strong waves.  It's Wood, so I know this is going to be great.

Martin Conaghan (who?) and Jimmy Broxton (who I loved on Knight & Squire, and who has reached some internet notoriety of late over his involvement in the failed Kickstarter sequel to Smoke) give us a very cool done-in-one story about time travel and cloning (two things which should never mix).

Rich Johnston, of Bleeding Cool fame, starts off a new series here, 'The Many Murders of Miss Cranborne.'  This is about a little old British lady who kills men of the cloth who she believes are not pure in their intent.  With Simon Rohrmüller's art, and the doughty speech patterns of the murderess, we are strongly in Agatha Christie meets Rick Geary territory, and I love it.

There are also new chapters of Skultar, which is kind of funny, and Neal Adams's Blood, which is still god-awful.  It's a shame there isn't a new chapter of Finder this month - that would have made this just about perfect.