Haunt #23

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Nathan Fox

I suppose that long-standing fans of this comic would have been happy to see that the focus of this issue returns to the Kilgore brothers, who have always been the stars of the book, but I was a little sad to see that Still Harvey Tubman, the best of many changes that Joe Casey and Nathan Fox have brought to the series, was relegated to a supporting role again.

One of my favourite things about reading Haunt is the letters page, where people who claim that the McFarlane/Kirkman/Capullo issues of this comic were among the best comics they've ever read attempt to find some positive things to say about Casey and Fox's revamp, before declaring that it's not for them.  I can understand that - the change in tone, aesthetic, and pace of the book is pretty drastic (based on comparisons to the first trade, which is all I've read of the old guard) - but their railing against innovation is still kind of funny.  I like some pretty traditional and unoriginal comics too, but there's nothing I'd be happier with than this type of comic becoming the norm at Marvel or DC.

Anyway.  This issue has the living Kilgore, Daniel, return to the church where he was nominally a priest when the series began, only to reveal to us all that it was always connected to this strange Second Church that attacked and kidnapped Daniel when Casey and Fox came on the scene.  There are now weird bug creatures crawling around the church, and a giant fire being has been rampaging through the city, also sent by the Second Church.  I'm still not too clear who these guys are, or why Casey loves fringe techno-religions so much, but it's all making this comic a pretty cool read.

Fox's visuals continue to be nuts - so much so that it's a little hard to follow the comic at times (like when the ship crashed into the shore).  Still, this comic is very exciting to read.

Madlib Medicine Show No. 13: Black Tape

re-mixed by Madlib

A lot of my early enthusiasm for the Madlib Medicine Show waned through the months of 2010, when these Madlib CDs were supposed to be released on a monthly basis, as I found that too many of them sounded the same as one another, and felt a little rushed.

Now, Madlib has dropped one final installment in his series, the Black Tape, which is really Madlib Medicine Show No. 12, part two, as it picks up where the last one left off, making use of the same interludes (I never need to hear about the Beverly Hills Blues Festival again), and generally just remixing any number of hip-hop artists.

The difference with this disc is that it moves a little further back, playing around with music from the early 00's.  I recognized songs from Ghostface, Talib Kweli, Common, Eminem, and more.  A number of these songs are ones I am very fond of, as this represents the era when I returned to hip-hop, and was refamiliarizing myself with the underground and 'backpack' sounds.

What really makes this disc stand out for me are the two different tracks where Madlib borrows some spoken word poetry from the movie Slam, featuring Sonja Sohn (from The Wire) and Saul Williams (who closes the CD).  Every time I listen to this, I'm almost overcome by an urge to dig out my DVD of Slam and watch it again - it's a great movie.

The album contains some very disturbing cover art (kept shielded behind a black folded paper), which shows photos of digitally manipulated naked women.  Creepy.

Anyway, now that the Medicine Show is over, I'm hoping we will start to see more new output from Madlib (Seeds, his new album with Georgia Anne Muldrow is a good start).

Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka Vol. 7

by Naoki Urasawa, after Osamu Tezuka, with Takashi Nagasaki

This is the penultimate volume of Naoki Urasawa's modern classic Pluto, which reworks and reimagines a classic Osamu Tezuka Atom/Astro Boy story into a much longer manga series, which is really quite excellent.

In this volume, the focus is very much on Epsilon, the incredibly powerful robot pacifist who refused to fight in the Central Asian War, and instead has been spending his time raising and caring for many of the orphans of that conflict.  Epsilon is pretty much the only powerful robot left after the gigantic robot Pluto has been rampaging around the world destroying them all.  Now it's Epsilon's turn to face Pluto (twice), and the consequences for this story are pretty huge, especially when it starts to become clear that Pluto is a reluctant player in this drama.

Urasawa has done a very good job of humanizing these strange characters, and making it easy to care about them.  As is often the case, he introduces a new character into the story - an orphan named Wassily who, ever since the war, only speaks one word - Bora - which is tied in with the other victims of Pluto's campaign of terror.

I'm very excited to see how this story ends in the next volume.

Skullkickers #13

Written by Jim Zubkavich
Art by Edwin Huang and Misty Coats

It's been a little while since the last issue of Skullkickers was published, and I for one am very happy to see Baldy and Shorty back on the comics stands.

This issue opens with a nice, detailed recap, which makes this book very new-reader friendly.  If you've been hearing good things about this comic, now is the time to jump on board (not that it's ever so complicated that an intelligent reader like yourself wouldn't be able to figure it out as you go along).

Our two heroes have stowed away on a sailing ship, with the idea of getting themselves as far away from Urbia, where they've just gone through all sorts of trouble, as possible.  What they don't know is that Kusia, the elf-girl who has been the cause of so many of their problems has also snuck aboard the same ship.  It's not long before everyone is discovered by the all-female crew of the ship, who decides to put them all to work, while singing them a rather catchy song about their captain, Cherry Cutlass, wielder of the Ruby Blade.

This issue is filled with the usual Skullkickers hi-jinks, including a very funny food fight.  Really, there is no other comic quite like this - the Incredible Hercules series from Marvel probably came closest, but this is funnier.  Go check this out.

Sweet Tooth #32

by Jeff Lemire

Despite being Canadian, I've never developed an interest in hockey.  For that reason, the sight of Mr. Jeppard and his new friend/former torturer Jimmy Jacobs skating along a frozen river to rescue Gus and his friends, did not fill me with the sense of pride and excitement that it probably did for many of my countrymen, but I did think it was pretty cool.

Jeff Lemire wraps up the Unnatural Habits storyline in this issue, which has Gus and the other hybrid children affect their own rescue of Becky and Lucy from the twisted attentions of Haggarty, while Jeppard eventually talks his way out of Jacobs's custody.

It's cool to see how, over the course of the last few years, Gus has matured and moved from being more dependent on Jeppard for protection and guidance, to being an equal partner in their survival. 

Also in this issue, Jeppard learns just how sick Lucy has been, and it doesn't look like she'll be in this comic for long.  Now that the dam, with its electricity and safe housing, belongs to them, I wonder if the group will be split between their desire to travel north and find out the secret behind Gus, or if they will be more tempted to stay.

As always, Sweet Tooth is an excellent read.

iZombie #24

Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Jim Rugg

The news out of last week's Emerald City Comics Convention was that iZombie is not long for this world, with four issues remaining after this one.  I always treat news like this with two minds - I've been enjoying iZombie since it began, and am going to miss many of the characters, but at the same time, I buy way too many comics every month, and my wallet is usually okay with one or two of them disappearing.

I've been wondering for a while if the book was getting closer to finishing, as the long-promised Apocalypse has been getting started, and the end of the world always feels like the right place to finish a series (it's safe to presume that the Apocalypse will be stopped by Gwen and her friends).

Knowing all of this going into this week's newest issue of the series, I was a little surprised to find that regular artist Michael Allred didn't draw this comic, and even more surprised to find that it is another flashback issue, this time focusing on Kennedy, the zombie Dead President, and introducing a new character/concept to the series.

When the book opens, Kennedy is putting down an incursion of other-dimensional beings that have taken over the bodies of employees at a burger joint.  She is aided by Horatio, Gwen's monster-hunting boyfriend, who has either been possessed by, or is cosplaying as Strider, the fictional hero of a series of novels by writer Adam Morlock.

This all brings Kennedy back to the seventies, when she investigated a fantasy-rock band called Ghost Dance, who had connections to Morlock.  Clearly, Morlock is meant to evoke British writer Michael Moorcok, whose Elric novels hold some similarities to what we are shown here, and who was somewhat wrapped up in the psychedelia movements of his day.  It seems that this band was able to call forth Xitulu, the same entity currently threatening Eugene with Apocalypse.

This issue is drawn by Jim Rugg, of Street Angel and Afrodisiac fame, which was a nice treat. I don't see nearly enough of Rugg's artwork.

I'm very curious to see how Roberson is going to wrap up the numerous plotlines of this series in just four issues.  This book has a very large cast, many of whom have been working through their own character arcs, so giving each a complete story, while still dealing with all this Apocalypse stuff, is going to be difficult.  Personally, I'm most interested in learning what the story is with Dixie, the diner owner.

Fatale #4

Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips

Things in this series are really starting to heat up, as many of the different threads of Brubaker's story begin to tangle up in this issue.  Hank has been accused of viciously murdering his wife and his unborn son, but the reader knows he's innocent, because he was with the mysterious, ageless Jo, murdering a cultist at the time.  Also under suspicion are the two cops whose mob connections Hank revealed in his newspaper.

Brubaker has been rather slow in setting up the more supernatural aspects of this story, aside from the fact that Jo doesn't age (we've seen her in a parallel plot, set in modern days).  This issue, though, we learn that Jo's previous companion and police detective Booker has always been able to see the supernatural world out of the corner of his eyes, including the squid-like creature that graced the variant cover of the first issue of this series.

Fatale has been an interesting read from the beginning, but I really feel that it's found its stride over the last two issues.  I'm always going to be happy buying a comic with Sean Phillips's art in it, but with each new issue, this series is becoming a more essential read.

Wondermark Vol. 3: Dapper Caps & Pedal Copters

by David Malki

Wondermark is one of the few webcomics that I actually make a concerted effort to read with regularity.  I enjoy David Malki's humour, and the cognitive disconnects between his Victorian art collages and the modern-day issues and topics he discusses in his strips.  Also, unlike many webcomics artists, he sticks to his schedule, and is consistent about producing new material.

I am, at the core though, a collector.  Part of why I don't enjoy webcomics usually is the ephemeral nature of them; just as I continue to buy all my music on compact disk, I prefer to read my webcomics when they are collected and published as books, such as this one, the third (and final - there hasn't been a new one in a very long time) of Dark Horse's Wondermark series.

As mentioned above, to construct this comic, Malki disassembles old pictures from the Victorian era, and then using xeroxes and other tools of manipulation, reassembles them into one, three, or four-panel comic strips (for the most part) that range in topic from family and relationship problems, alien (Gaxian) culture, and contemporary politics, all addressed with Malki's oddball humour.  Malki's visual creativity extends to creating some rather fanciful inventions, such as the pedal-copters of the title, or the robocall devices that have a steampunk aura about them.

There were many times when reading these strips caused me to laugh, especially when after a tough day at work, I read a strip that more or less portrays the person that made that day so difficult.  In addition to a collection of the regular strips, this volume also includes the long piece about timeshare sales gimmicks that originally saw print in a volume of MySpace Dark Horse Presents, and some ephemera.

I hope that another volume of this series is in the production pipeline...

Fairest #2

Written by Bill Willingham
Art by Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning

The second issue of Fairest still does nothing at all to distinguish itself from the parent Fables title.  Basically, I feel like Vertigo is taking a page from Marvel's book (or The Unwritten's), and is double-shipping Fables each month, and telling alternating story arcs.  Presumably, when other creators get their crack at this title once this first arc is finished, all that will change, but I don't really know.

This issue is fine - don't get me wrong - it just doesn't feel very individualized to me yet.

In this issue, Ali Baba and the recently awakened Sleeping Beauty, with their bottle imp companion, are on the run from the Snow Queen, who was woken immediately after SB.  It is clear that, despite the rousing effects of 'true love', SB cares little for Ali, who continually tries to cozy up with her.  She also doesn't much like the imp, whose incessant chatter is rather annoying.  I don't remember SB being portrayed so haughtily in Fables; really, I remember her being more noble and self-sacrificing than she's shown here.

Once the trio is captured by frost giants, the comic becomes a lengthy retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story (or perhaps the Disney movie - that's all I'm familiar with), where the various fairy godmother characters are recast as being a little more Vertigo-worthy.  This story doesn't get very far before the comic's twenty pages are up, and I'm left wondering why the Snow Queen would be interested in hearing the story continue.

Saving this book is Jimenez and Lanning's terrific art.  Jimenez always brings a highly polished look to the comics he works on, and that continues to be true here.  Andrew Dalhouse, the colourist of this book, does some very cool things to the hues and tones of each page, using the level of warmth on each page to reflect the cold temperatures that the characters are trudging around in.

Whispers #2

by Joshua Luna

Whispers is an odd series, not exactly like anything else that I've read before.  The comic focuses on Sam Webber, a young man who suffers from OCD, and who has just discovered that he has the ability to control his out of body experiences, or to remote view.

In the first issue, we met Sam, his ex-girlfriend, and her friends, who have no use for him.  We also traveled with him as he checked in on his estranged mother and his first girlfriend, who is having problems with a drug dealer.  In this issue, we see the end of his trip, which has him 'viewing' a demonic creature, which eats a baby (I know, grisly).

The next day, Sam decides not to worry about the demon thing, and instead goes to visit his ex, to prove that he really can have out of body experiences.  This conversation doesn't go well, as Sam just keeps coming off weirder and weirder.  Later, he meets a new neighbour, who seems quite open to his various quirks, mostly because she doesn't feel all that normal her own self.  Sam tells her everything, and the girl is supportive, but a little surprised that he is more concerned with patching up his relationship than he is protecting small children.

And here is what really sets this book apart.  Firstly, there are very few comics that attempt to address real mental illness, so I find that the portrayal of Sam is very interesting.  There are also very few comics that star unlikeable characters though, and as much as Joshua Luna is setting up Sam's problems as sympathetic, he's just not a very nice guy; his self-absorption does make him hard to care about.  It makes him kind of fascinating, though.

Luna's art looks nice here, and I find that I'm still trying to enumerate the differences between his solo work and his previous comics, which were done with his brother.  The people in this book have more expressive faces, showing fatigue and displeasure much more clearly than in the brothers' other work, but otherwise, there aren't a lot of differences.

Whispers is a very interesting comic.  You should check it out.

Casanova: Avaritia #3

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Gabriel Bá

How nice to see that the much-delayed newest issue of Casanova shipped this week (and that the next, last issue is solicited for June).  Casanova, when the series first began years ago at Image, was my introduction to Matt Fraction, and to Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, three of my current favourite comics makers.

This current mini-series is being used to wrap up the adventures of Casanova Quinn, and those of the many people around him.  In order to stop the world (or maybe the space-time continuum) from being destroyed, Casanova, an agent of EMPIRE, has been jumping into every parallel reality to kill Luther Desmond Diamond, the man destined to become the evil Newman Xeno, leader of WASTE.  Somewhere along the way, Cass has fallen in love with Luther, so now he and his girlfriend, the time traveler Sasa Lisi are trying to save him, and still save all of space and time.

Meanwhile, Xeno, knowing what Cass is up to, has hired Kaito, a former friend to Casanova, agent of EMPIRE, and pilot of a Second World War battle robot, to hunt down and kill Casanova, alongside escape artist David X and Cass's former lover Kubark Benday.

Confused yet?  If you aren't, you will be when you read this comic, which jumps around in time and reality, and which has characters who are incapable of understanding when and where they are.

Total understanding is not necessarily important though, as the book flows well, and it's easy to just sit back and enjoy the ride.  Much of the credit for that goes to Bá, whose artwork just keeps getting better.  There are some really crazy visuals in this comic, as Fraction and Bá take us on an emotional, spatial, and temporal roller-coaster.  It's great stuff, but it will definitely read better in trade form, without the six-month waits between issues.

Chew #25

Written by John Layman
Art by Rob Guillory

I don't know how Layman and Guillory are just so good at giving Chew fans what they want (even when they don't know that they wanted it until after it happened) with each and every issue.  There are so many terrific moments in this comic, that it's difficult to list them all.

Here are some reasons to buy this comic, more or less in order:

-  The first page is chill inducing in the utter horror that it evokes, while also being hilarious.
-  There is a flash-forward to the final issue of the series (number 60) that suggests great changes in Tony Chu's future, while showing that other things will remain constant.
-  Amelia Mintz, Tony's girlfriend, is the only person who seems to notice and/or care that Tony has been missing for ages, and takes on the mantle of hero, in her quest to go find him.
-  The auction that Amelia's ex-boyfriend is holding to sell Tony and his cibopath abilities to the highest bidder is attended by some of the most visually interesting special interest groups you can imagine (and the two old guys from the Muppets).
-  Tony kicks ass, using a new manifestation of his abilities.
-  A fan favourite character makes his triumphant return (I'm not saying who, but it made me very happy) on the last page.

I absolutely love this comic.  Each issue cracks me up, but also maintains great consistency in terms of advancing its larger plot, and never gets lost in the jokes and endless asides. The next issue promises a Toni and Chow team-up.  I can't wait!

The New Deadwardians #1

Written by Dan Abnett
Art by INJ Culbard

The store where I buy comics was shorted of all of their copies of The New Deadwardians last week, so this was the first I was able to get my hands on an issue of this new mini-series by Dan Abnett (without Andy Lanning) and INJ Culbard.

The New Deadwardians is a very cool comic.  It's set in London in 1910, but this is an alternate history, where zombies, called Restless, roam many areas of the city (designated Zone-B), and where many members of the upper class have been turned into The Young, which we would call vampires.  This information is not thrust at us, but is instead parceled out over the course of the issue.

When the comic opens, our hero, Detective Inspector Suttle is laying awake in bed.  He is disturbed by noises coming from 'below stairs', and descends to find one of his maids being devoured by a Restless.  He quickly dispatches the creature, and soon after learns that another of his maids has been bitten.  The next morning, he takes her to receive 'the cure', which turns her into a Young.

Later, Suttle goes to work, and catches his first murder case in ages (since most people in London are dead already, there's not a lot of call for a working Homicide department).  This case is used to underscore the state of class warfare in 'Deadwardian' England, and also sets up what looks to be an interesting twist on the standard murder mystery.

Abnett is one-half of one of my favourite superhero comics writing teams (Legion of Super-Heroes, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, New Mutants, and many more), but it's nice to see him working on his own, and on a project that is in such a different vein.  His approach to this alternate history is very well thought-out, and pretty interesting. Artist INJ Culbard is new to me, and I really like what I'm seeing.  His art looks like a cross between Guy Davis and the Luna Brothers.  He uses an expansive panel lay-out that works well on this type of comic, even though it doesn't look particularly Vertigo-ish.

I somehow missed the information that this was a mini-series, and I was previously skeptical about jumping on this as an on-going series.  For eight issues though, I'm definitely on board.

Mystery Society #1-5

Written by Steve Niles
Art by Fiona Staples

I picked up the five issues that made up this 2010 mini-series for a good price, mostly because I like Fiona Staples's artwork.  It's a fun series, if not particularly original or memorable.

Mystery Society of the title is being operated by Nick and Anastasia Mystery, former independent bookstore owners who won big in the lottery, and decided to begin to investigate government cover-ups and occult happenings.  When the series opens, Nick is in the process of breaking in to Area 51 in the hopes of rescuing a pair of twin African American girls with mental abilities who have been held captive in suspended animation since the 1960s.  This involves fighting an aging general in a giant battlesuit, and that in turn leads to some problems for the fledgling society.

Over the course of the five issues, they gain two more members - the brain of Jules Verne now inhabiting a robot, and the Secret Skull, a masked undead woman.  I feel like the format for this team book was heavily influenced by The Umbrella Academy, only without the madcap unpredictability of that title.

As I've said, this is an enjoyable series, made all the more so because of Staples's very nice art, but it never really moves beyond the limitations of the genre.  The B-plot concerns the Skull and Verne searching for the missing skull of Edgar Allan Poe, and their prime suspect in its theft's name is Culprit, and it turns out that he is the thief.  I never quite got the sense that this is to be read as a complete comedy, but then there were these moments that are more suitable for a Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League reunion.  I can see why there hasn't been a sequel...

Grendel: God and the Devil

Written by Matt Wagner
Art by John K. Snyder III, Jay Geldhof, Bernie Mireault, and Tim Sale

I really don't understand why it took me so long to start filling in the gaps in my collection of Matt Wagner's incredible Grendel series.  I first started reading the comics when Dark Horse published the War Child mini-series back in the early 90s, and I was blown away, but I've never made a concerted effort to read the entire saga in its proper order.  I recently read the Devils Reign trade, and it spurred me to get a few of the other Dark Horse reprints, if I could find them.

God and the Devil is the story of future Grendel Khan Orion Assante, and his quest to limit the power of Pope Innocent XLII and his minions at Vatican Ouest, which as become a central power in the year 2530, when this series is set.

The Pope is a hideous creature (with a secret that comes as a bit of surprise, if you aren't reading these trades out of order like I am) who has begun to bleed the country dry, and who has control of almost every company that helps to keep order and run things.  He runs an Inquisition that has most people terrified, and has an incredible degree of control of the media.  He is building a gigantic tower, with a goal that is incredibly comic-book bad guy, but which also fits the logic of the story.

The spirit of the Grendel has possessed one man - Eppy Thatcher, a poor genius, who begins to make a series of insane and brilliant attacks on the church, especially as it gears up for its large Easter celebrations.  Thatcher's actions get in the way of Assante's more organized and legal attack, and it's not long before things start to get very chaotic.  Add to this the agenda of Pellon Cross, the Commissioner of COP, a police force for hire, and things get really crazy.

Wagner is a terrific writer, able to juggle numerous plot threads masterfully, and with a lot of density.  The art for most of this book is by John K. Snyder III, who I've always admired.  It's not as wild as his art can often be, but I think that's because of the influence of inkers Jay Geldhof and Bernie Mireault.  Tim Sale draws the introductory chapter.

This is a very enjoyable read, which asks some important questions about the power given to the media and organized religion in our society.  It's also a very exciting comic towards the end, with a big cinematic finish.  I really wish that Wagner would return to the later days of his Grendel epic, instead of only giving us short stories that feature Hunter Rose from time to time.