Punk Rock Jesus #3

by Sean Murphy

Sean Murphy's black and white mini-series, which has now reached the halfway mark, continues to be the best thing that Vertigo is publishing right now.  The series is set in the near future, and it revolves around the cloned Jesus Christ, who is the central person in a reality TV show called J2.

In this issue, Chris, the clone, ages from toddler-hood to being a teenager, as his mother continues to buck against the J2 system, especially the show's chief executive, Slate.  She is able to negotiate so that Chris can enter a regular public school, but after Slate pays off Chris's African-American prom date, and instead sets him up with a cheerleader, and then micro-manages his appearance on Larry King (it's not called that in the comic, but come on), she finally has enough.

Murphy has taken his time setting up the series and building the characters, considering that the title has yet to apply (assuming that Chris ever becomes a punk).  It feels like we're moving towards the pay-off though, as a newly isolated Chris will have to deal with the mess that his life has been, and a surprise ending suggests that the series may move in new, and more supernatural, directions.

Murphy has established himself over the last few years as an artist to watch, but I'm really quite impressed by his writing chops.  This book is excellently paced, and has a strong commitment to character.  The cast feels very well fleshed out, and I look forward to each new issue.

Bad Medicine #5

Written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir
Art by Christopher Mitten

I'm not sure what's going on with this series.  It was launched as an on-going, and the second issue ended with a scene in South America that was used to set up an upcoming story, but which has not been addressed yet.  The thing is, there haven't been any new issues solicited past this one, and I'm not sure if the book is taking a hiatus, or if this is the end of it.

Bad Medicine is a good comic.  It chronicles the adventures of a loosely-organized group of scientists, doctors, and a police officer, who are being sent by the CDC to investigate occurrences of 'bad medicine'.  This arc involves a werewolf outbreak in a remote Maine town.

This issue finishes that arc, and does it quite well.  Dr. Horne has been the most interesting character in this series, and he arrives at a new point in his character arc this issue as he addresses some of his personal weaknesses in order to solve the current problem.

DeFilippis and Weir are strong writers of character, and they continue to put those strengths to good use with this series.  I would like to read more Bad Medicine, and so hope that the series is continuing.

The Creep #1

Written by John Arcudi
Art by Jonathan Case

The Creep is an interesting new series at Dark Horse.  Like many of their new comics, this one began as a serial in Dark Horse Presents, and then had those installments reprinted as a zero issue, before this, 'first' issue came out.  Reading those prior chapters are essential to understanding this book, which I think could be problematic for people who like to start a new series by buying the first issue...

Anyway, this comic is very good.  The titular 'creep' is Oxel, a private detective with a medical condition that has caused his body to grow to gigantic proportions, and which causes him to be wracked by headaches, uncontrollable sweating, and other discomforts.  Oxel has been contacted by a former girlfriend, who he knew only before his condition began, who wants him to look into the conditions surrounding her only son's suicide.

Curtis killed himself shortly after his only friend, Mike, killed himself.  Because of this, Curtis's grandfather, who was close with both boys, has fallen apart to the point that he is living on the streets, and Cutis's mother, Stephanie, is convinced that there was something more going on.  She sees suicide as a contagion that Curtis caught from Mike.  She's asked Oxel to look into things, and while he is, he has been avoiding contacting her.

In this issue, Oxel interviews Curtis's father, who he knew back in college, and works with the contagion theory.  Arcudi is setting the story up to suggest that there may have been more to Mike and Curtis's friendship, possibly some secret involving the grandfather as well, but he's playing it close to the vest.

Jonathan Case's art is great.  There's a cool scene towards the end of the book where he switches to a sketchier, watercoloured look when Oxel tries to imagine the boys' lives, which then continues into his own reality.  It's clear that Oxel isn't well, but to what extent his condition affects his judgement, we don't know.  This is a series worth checking out.

Conan the Barbarian #8

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Vasilis Lolos

Yes, that really does say 'art by Vasilis Lolos'.  I was pretty surprised to see his name in the Previews solicitation for this comic, as it's been a few years since Lolos has had any work published, and I'm pleased to say that his work has only improved in the interim.

This issue continues the 'Border Fury' arc, which has Conan and Bêlit traveling across Cimmeria in pursuit of someone who has been killing in Conan's name.  Conan is revelling in the opportunity to romp across the land of his childhood again, but it is difficult going for Bêlit, a Southerner who has never seen snow before now.

This issue is really an examination of the relationship between Conan and his pirate queen.  Previously, while they were together, it was in Bêlit's world, where she held all the power.  Now, in his land, she sees how much of a burden she has become, and so she has him continue his pursuit on his own.  I like the way Wood portrays their time together.

Lolos's art is a good substitute for Becky Cloonan (who, it appears, won't be returning to the book any time soon).  They've always shared similar aesthetics, although Lolos's Conan is a little more of a pretty boy.  Lolos's art has changed since his work on Last Call and Northlanders; some of his faces, especially that of the old man in the village, show the influence of Rafael Grampá and perhaps Dean Ormston.  I hope this means that we will see plenty more work from Lolos in the coming months (like perhaps Last Call Volume 2, or even, dare I say it, the conclusion to the excellent Pirates of Coney Island).

The Massive #4

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Garry Brown

I love The Massive, but Brian Wood's new post-environmental catastrophe epic is not without its flaws.  The series follows the Ninth Wave, a conservancy direct-action group who are now wandering the post-Crash world looking for their missing compatriots, and trying to continue their mission.

This issue starts the second story arc, 'Black Pacific'.  When it opens, the leader of the Ninth Wave, Callum Israel, is in Mogadishu negotiating with a local war lord for resupply of his vessel.  While walking through the city, he runs into Arkady, yet another person he knew from his time working with Blackbell PMC, a mercenary group that he quit in the late 90s.

This man was not exactly ever a friend, although he does have some ideas for how he can use Israel and his ship The Kapital.  This confrontation shows the depth of Israel's commitment to pacifism, and continues to reveal more about the man that Israel used to be.

The writing in this book is sharp, but I feel that what the Ninth Wave actually does has not been made clear.  Last issue, they were in Alaska; in this issue they are in the Arabian Sea.  By the end of the issue, they are setting off for Antarctica to find fresh water.  This is a lot of journeying around, and a lot of diesel fuel being burned, for a group that is supposed to be committed to preserving the environment, for no clear purpose.  This is something that Wood needs to clarify, and quickly.

The art for this issue has been done by Garry Brown, an artist I'm not familiar with.  He does a decent job, but I did prefer Kristian Donaldson's work.  The revelation that Callum is in his fifties is not exactly borne out by how he has appeared in this series.

The Manhattan Projects #6

Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Nick Pitarra

Considering that The Manhattan Projects is set firmly in the middle of the Cold War, it's a surprise that it is only with this issue that we see behind the Iron Curtain, and learn just what the Soviet equivalent of the Projects is.

Like the Americans, the Soviets tried to snap up as many Nazi scientists as possible, and this issue revolves around one of them - Helmutt Gröttrup.  Gröttrup had led the Nazi science base Oberammergau just prior to the Americans seizing it, as was shown in an earlier issue, and instead ran into a Soviet patrol, which was filled with unexplained squid-headed robots.

This comic follows Gröttrup's career, as he is literally branded a Nazi, and made to work in Star City, a Soviet project that involves rockets.  Gröttrup works steadily for his freedom, although personnel changes in the Soviet system make that seem unlikely.

In relation to this book's usual craziness, things are a little quieter this month.  We do learn that the Tunguska Event was alien-related, although Soviet attempts to reverse engineer the technology they recovered have not been too successful.  The preponderance of squid creatures is never fully explained, but I'm sure we'll get back to that at some point.

This issue is much more human than any of the previous ones, as Hickman shows Gröttrup as the victim of a number of unfortunate coincidences.  Visually, this comic is as good as it ever has been, as colourist Jordie Bellaire mostly sticks to a red and blue palette.

Wet Moon Vol. 6

by Ross Campbell

Having forgotten what reading this book can be like, I stupidly thought that I could read twenty pages or so starting at 12:30 the other night before going to sleep.  Needless to say, it was a late night, and the book was done before sleep took me.

Ross Campbell's Wet Moon is a completely unique comics experience.  It is a long-running series of graphic novels set in a Southern college town.  It revolves around the lives of a group of (mostly) young women (there are a few male characters) who attend school, argue, and fall in love with each other.  Most of the characters embrace punk styles, are bisexual or lesbian, and have bodies shaped like the ones that real women have, not like their comic book brethren.

Prior to volume five, which came out a while ago, Campbell's story mostly stayed in the realm of teen/early 20s soap opera, but that fifth volume had one of the main characters, Trilby, viciously attacked and left for dead in a swamp by a crazed young woman (who is also sort of in a relationship with Trilby's best friend).

This volume follows with the fallout from that attack, as Trilby lies in a medically-induced coma in the hospital, and main character Cleo and her circle of friends have to cope with mortality being thrown into their faces.  That's not to say that this is a group of people that are unused to the curves life can throw us - this book is filled with beautiful young women who are missing an arm, are 'thalidomide babies', and have facial scars (to say nothing of the sudden appearance of a pair of women who are conjoined at the head).  But still, when you live in a safe college town, you don't expect to get stabbed.

This is not the type of thing I would usually enjoy, but I find Wet Moon to be fascinating.  Campbell has such a strong sense of his characters, and also throws them into such strange situations, that I can't put these books down.  His work is kind of trashy, but it also elevates itself beyond the confines of the genre he works in.

Artistically, Campbell's work looks a lot looser in this volume compared to the others.  At times the characters appear less solid than they have in the past; it's a nice progression.  Length-wise, I feel that this book could have had more story in it, especially given the price, but I also understand that with Glory coming out monthly (and being so good), Campbell is a pretty busy guy.

I eagerly await the next volume.

Chew #28

Written by John Layman
Art by Rob Guillory

There's nothing quite so satisfying as a new issue of Chew.  It's been a while since we've checked in with Tony and his crew - there was the Agent Poyo one-shot, and before that the second printing of issue 27, which was first released out of sequence over a year ago, and so issue 26 feels like it was a long time ago.

In this issue, Tony Chu is still in the hospital, although he has regained consciousness, even if he still needs high doses of pain medication to stay awake.  And whatever medication he's on, it causes him to see people as talking animals, which is always fun.

Anyway, Tony is needed by his former partners Colby and Caesar, who have come to him for help with their latest case, despite their each being from a rival agency.  It would seem that a scientist has learned how to weaponize meat, creating cows that spontaneously and explosively combust when they begin to decompose.  The terrorist group EGG have used this meat to bomb a fashion show wherein the models walk the runway in clothing made out of food, so both the FDA and the USDA are determined to put a stop to EGG and the scientist's mad science.

Only in Chew would this be a viable plot, and that is what makes this comic so great.  It revels in its own weirdness, as it feels like Layman and Guillory constantly challenge each other to come up with something wilder each issue.

This issue is as good as this series gets.  We learn why Tony's sister Toni is familiar to Caesar, Poyo gets to be Poyo (he's one of the greatest comics characters of the 21st Century - he's the cyborg rooster on the cover, if you didn't know), and Guillory fills each page with sight gags in addition to telling a great story.

To top it off, there is a preview of the upcoming series Great Pacific, which looks very good.

The Activity #8

Written by Nathan Edmondson
Art by Mitch Gerads

I frequently find myself flip-flopping on this comic.  I loved the last issue, but found this one to be a little off-putting.  This one picked up from the last, as the team was in Uzbekistan, working a local criminal, or terrorist funder, or something, into coming in to American custody to give up his associates.

The first issue played out very nicely, as the operatives played up his paranoia and fears by terrifying the man into thinking he was being hunted by his enemies.  This continued this issue, as they led him straight to Fiddler, one of the operatives, who was going to 'rescue' him and lead him to the American authorities.  The mission scenes worked well, but the scenes in America felt a little disjointed.

Last month, it was revealed that Bookstore had a relationship with a man named Mark, at least until she was told to end it by her commanding officer, with no reason given.  Now he suddenly shows up as a civilian who is working with the ISA, and the scenes between him and Bookstore are very awkward.  I feel like, if he was always intended to become a plot point, he should have been introduced into the series earlier; their break-up carried no emotional weight, and therefore his appearance in this issue doesn't resonate at all.

Still, I'm enjoying this comic.  I like that there is a place for an espionage comic that is well-written, has good art, and is very grounded in the possible, unlike most war and spy comics.

Myspace Dark Horse Presents Vol. 6

Written by Mac Walters, LeVar Burton, Mark Wolfe, Frank Stockton, Art Baltazar, Scott Morse, Andi Watson, Larry Marder, Stan Sakai, Ron Chan, Jaime Hernandez, Jason Little, Garaham Annable, Matt Kindt, Gabriel Bá, Mark Crilley, Justin Aclin, Simon Spurrier, Jackie Kessler, and Evan Dorkin
Art by Eduardo Francisco, David Hahn, Frank Stockton, Art Baltazar, Scott Morse, Andi Watson, Larry Marder, Stan Sakai, Ron Chan, Jaime Hernandez, Jason Little, Graham Annable, Matt Kindt, Gabriel Bá, Mark Crilley, Ben Bates, Christopher Mitten, Paul Lee, and Hilary Barta

I'll be completely honest - most of the comics collected in this book are completely skippable.  That's probably one of the main reasons why the whole Myspace Dark Horse Presents experiment failed (well, that and the fact that just about the whole world stopped using Myspace).  It was a commendable concept, and I believe it did lead to the resurrection of the monthly Dark Horse Presents, which has been a very good thing, but it's clear that Dark Horse was rarely coming through with their A-game on this thing.

Because I want to stay positive though, I will focus on what is good about this collection.  Scanning the credit list above, one name should immediately stand out to anyone who knows what I like - Gabriel Bá!  He provides a short piece called Fiction that could only work in comics.  A writer appears at a festival, where he grumbles about how his readers think they know him by reading his books, but they don't.  After a few pages though, Bá pulls a switch on the reader, and we find out that that character is a character in someone else's writing.  The whole thing has a very Borgesian feel to it, and is beautiful to boot.  Easily worth picking up this book for, as so far as I know, this story hasn't been collected anywhere else.

Among the other things I liked were the Giant Man story by Matt Kindt, a companion piece to his 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man graphic novel.  I've read this before though - it was recently collected alongside two other stories in a one-shot.  It's still good though.

Likewise the Beanworld story by Larry Marder.  I think it was included in the recent Tales of the Beanworld collection.  Every day needs a little Beanworld in it though, so it's also all good.

I was also pleased to see a Bee story by Jason Little.  I read Motel Art Improvement Service a little while ago, and enjoyed it.  In this story, Bee spends a day in New York with her friend, and goes through some of the existential issues of Bá's story.

Simon Spurrier and Christopher Mitten provide a creepy horror story involving a man whose pregnant wife was killed in a car wreck, and who is visited by the fetus's ghost (in a really disturbing way).  Also of note are the collection of Brody's Ghost stories by Mark Crilley.  These aren't exactly my cup of tea, but I like the fact that Dark Horse gave over a fair amount of space to them, making them stand out a little more through sheer volume.

The rest of the book is a melange of licensed properties (Mass Effect, Buffy), children's comics (which never feels like a good fit), and stuff that just didn't resonate with me.

Tecumseh & Brock: The War of 1812

by James Laxer

It's not much of a surprise that this year would see a plethora of new books examining the bicentennial of the beginning of the last war fought on Canadian soil.  The War of 1812 was really a conflict between America and Britain, and between America and a loose confederacy of Aboriginal nations, but Canada became the setting for much of the conflict.

In James Laxer's new book, Tecumseh and Brock, he sets out to examine the two title figures - Tecumseh, the charismatic leader of the Aboriginal confederacy, and General James Brock, defender of Upper Canada.

The problem with the book is that both of these august men did not live too long once they entered into the conflict, and while they are both without doubt among Canada's greatest heroes, their influence on the war did not outlive them for long.

Laxer is at his best in the beginning of the book, when he writes about the world into which Tecumseh was born.  The Shawnee, his people, found themselves embroiled in the Endless War that began with Europeans arriving in North America.  Hounded and displaced, Tecumseh (and his brother) was one of the most influential leaders to unite his people and resist American expansionism.

I enjoyed reading this book, as it served as a good overview of the war, but the title does not match the content.  After Brock died in 1812, and Tecumseh a year later, the war and the book both carried on, through the Treaty of Ghent and the cessation of hostilities in 1815, which resulted in a reversion to original territorial holdings, a set idea of where borders would lie in the then-upopulated West, and a complete abandonment of the Aboriginal people south of the 49th parallel by England.

Laxer's writing is clear, if a little stiff in places.  He doesn't propose any new theories of the war, nor does he indulge himself in creative prose.  This is a straight-up history book, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Sweet Tooth #37

by Jeff Lemire

The pace of this comic keeps increasing as we get closer and closer to the series's finale in a couple of months.

In this issue, Gus has to deal with the accusations made by Dr. Singh about his parentage and the connection between his birth and the coming of the plague that has wiped out most humans, and the emergence of the new race of animal/human hybrids.

Gus and his friends don't have much time to let this information sink in though, as Abbot and his people are not far behind.  Abbot makes sure that Jeppard knows he's coming, and the few adults left in this title set about making plans to hold them off.

The relationship between Gus and Jeppard has been one of the most interesting things about this title, and Lemire finally places Jeppard in a position to admit to the depth of his affection for the boy, adding emotional weight to the coming confrontation.

This is an excellent series, and it's nice to just sit back and watch it get ready to end.

Thief of Thieves #8

Written by Robert Kirkman and James Asmus
Art by Shawn Martinbrough

When you watch a heist movie, things usually end with the criminals having pulled off an amazing job, and riding off into the sunset with their ill-gotten gains.  We never see what happens next. What's it like to wake up the morning after?  There would invariably be some loose ends of some kind or another that need to be addressed, some ruffled feathers that would need to be smoothed.

Basically, it looks like that is the premise of the second arc of Thief of Thieves.  When Robert Kirkman started writing The Walking Dead, he described it as what happens after the end of a zombie movie; I feel like Thief of Thieves is now doing the same thing for its own genre.

For this new arc, Kirkman is joined by James Asmus as 'writer' (I'm curious to know how much they collaborate - does Kirkman plot and Asmus script?  Does Kirkman just provide the rough idea, and Asmus the rest?), and we see what happens after Conrad pulled the wool over everyone's eyes (you really should read the first trade, if you haven't been reading the comics - it's great).

Augustus, Conrad's son, may be out of prison, but he now has to deal with the people whose heroin he lost.  Conrad has some pretty big obligations to pay off to Arno and his colleagues, plus, his ex-wife's new boyfriend is getting under his skin.

What makes this book work (aside from Shawn Martinbrough's excellent art) is the complexity of the characters, as developed by Kirkman and Nick Spencer in the first arc.  Conrad is a very interesting guy, and it's nice to try to work through his thought process.

I was a little worried that this book may not continue moving forward as well as it did in the beginning, but I see I have nothing to worry about.

Mind the Gap #4

Written by Jim McCann
Art by Rodin Esquejo

I want to be very clear - I enjoy Mind the Gap a great deal, and appreciate what a unique comic it is.  I'm having some problems with it though.  It tells the story of Elle, a young woman who was attacked in a New York subway station, and is now lying in a coma in the hospital.

That doesn't sound like a comic in which much would happen, but Jim McCann is taking Elle's tragedy and weaving a dense and complex mystery around her - we don't know who attacked her, but just about everyone we've met, from her family, her sort-of boyfriend, a psychiatrist who is now in a coma in the bed next to her's, and possibly even the doctor treating her seem like likely suspects, or are perhaps complicit in what happened.  Working to figure things out (so far, independently) are Jo, Elle's best friend, a doctor who works at the same hospital and has been warned away from her case, and Elle herself, who is spending her time in The Garden, a place she shares with her fellow coma victims.

My problem with the book is that it's becoming a little too precious in it's "Everyone's a suspect!  Everything's a clue!" self-boosterism.  I love and appreciate the various clues that McCann is leaving for us, but I don't know that it's so necessary for him to draw our attention to them.  Personally, I would prefer it if, at some moment when a revelation is made, that it's left to me to figure out whether or not it had been foreshadowed.  Or, you know, the Internet could tell me later.  A good point of comparison would be Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  Each page is filled with allusions, nods, and easter eggs, but Moore doesn't fill half the book explaining them.  That's left to people like Jess Nevins on-line, and that works for me.

It's a minor quibble.  This book is very interesting, although I find my attention wandered this issue during the lengthy scene that takes place in The Garden (or in Elle's mind).  I prefer reading about her friends, family, and the goings-on at the hospital.

Rodin Esquejo is turning in some very strong work with this book, although I have to wonder what's going on with the art nouveau-homage covers lately - for a moment, I thought that my comic store had put a copy of last month's Elephantmen in my pull-file.

Dead Space: Salvage

Written by Antony Johnston
Art by Christopher Shy

I usually avoid comics that are video game adaptions, but the first Dead Space mini-series was written by Antony Johnston (Wasteland) and Ben Templesmith (Fell), two creators I have tremendous amounts of respect for.

And that first mini-series was excellent.  From what I can gather, Dead Space the game is a cross between Aliens and The Walking Dead, where the player works their way through a gigantic spaceship killing reanimated corpses.  There's not a lot of story potential there, but then Johnston added a controversial religion (Unitology), and its most holy relic, the Marker, which causes changes in people, and the series took off.

In Dead Space: Salvage, Johnston returns to this story.  This original graphic novel follows a group of illegal miners who have been strip mining an asteroid belt when they discover the Ishimura, the vessel on which all the Dead Space action takes place.  There are government forces looking for it, so the miners have to figure out how to strip the vessel of any value before being caught.  This causes them to board the ship, and the predictable happens, as corpses come back to life, and a lot of people die.

Johnston downplays the religious aspect in this story, which did cause my interest to wane a little, but the problem I had with this comic lay in Christopher Shy's fully-painted art.  I'm not a big fan of painted comics in general, but I found that Shy's art was unnecessarily stiff and murky.  The characters were not easy to differentiate visually, and some of the action scenes were ambiguous.  Compared to the work that Templesmith did on this series, this does not come close.

I don't know that there is anything new to say in this franchise, but that doesn't usually stop companies from producing more work.