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.

3 Story: Secret Files of the Giant Man

by Matt Kindt

Matt Kindt's 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man is a real good graphic novel - it imagines what would really happen if a person were to grow to such a height that he is three stories tall, but still live in the real world.  His story is set in the 60s, and follows the life story of Craig Pressgang.

That book came out a few years ago, but now Kindt has returned to this character for this one-shot comic, which actually collects three short stories that originally appeared on-line in the now defunct MySpace Dark Horse Presents web comic, and were also collected in the trade paperback editions that collected that early experiment with digital-only stories.

I was a little disappointed to discover that these stories were older, and that I'd already read one of them.  At the same time, I love Kindt's work, and was happy to be able to read these three stories at the same time.

These tales show three different moments during Craig's 'world tour', which was designed as a tourist event, but also served as cover for Pressgang's employment by the CIA.  None of these are 'spy stories' (a specialty of Kindt, whose Super Spy is a masterpiece of the genre), but instead just follow Craig through some rough times, like when he got appendicitis in Paris or a stomach ailment in Egypt.  Both of those stories are very concerned with the mechanics of being his size, and that leads to some humour and some uncomfortable scenes.

The third story chronicles Craig's short-lived time working for the American army during the Vietnam War.  It didn't go well.

At the back of this comic is a preview of Kindt's upcoming Dark Horse series Mind MGMT.  As I intend to buy this comic, I didn't spoil any of it by reading this preview, but did like glancing at the pictures.  Kindt is set to become a break-out creator in 2012 - he has the aforementioned Dark Horse series starting up, and is taking over the writing of Frankenstein Agent of SHADE for DC.  He is definitely a comics creator who deserves a higher profile.

3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man

by Matt Kindt

Matt Kindt is now officially the cartoonist I most wish I'd known about years ago, as I can't believe I'd missed out on such amazing comics.  His Revolver graphic novel at Vertigo introduced me to his work, and this is now the third book I've read, after the brilliant Super Spy.

3 Story is about Craig Pressgang, a giant man.  Craig grew quickly as a youth, eventually growing to a height of more than three stories tall.  The book is divided into three stories, each focusing on a different woman in Craig's life.  The book opens with his mother narrating, and we see Craig both grow up and grow away from her.  It's a sad story, and it sets the tone for the rest of the book.

The second story focuses on Craig's wife, and it tells us the most about Craig.  We see his college days, followed by his growing celebrity, ad endorsement jobs, and world tours (which were in fact organized by the CIA as information-gathering trips).  It is in this story that Kindt explores Craig's gigantism from a novel perspective - the difficulty of building housing for him, the demands of the telephone, and the health and neurological consequences of being so large.  Like a with a dinosaur, it takes some time for signals from nerves in his extremities to reach Craig's brain.  This puts him at great risk of infection, as he could damage his feet without being aware of it for some time.

As Craig continues to grow, and has a few mishaps like the one at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, it becomes increasingly clear that Craig can't remain.  The third story has his grown daughter searching for him.

This book is a touching and interesting look at a standard trope of superhero comics, but examined in a more realistic manner, except for the spy stuff, which Kindt can't seem to resist including.  I enjoyed this book a great deal, and can't understand why it didn't receive more press and buzz when it was released in 2009.

Myspace Dark Horse Presents Vol. 4

by a lot of people

My thoughts on this volume of Dark Horse's on-line comic collection are basically no different from my thoughts on the previous three.  Dark Horse is putting together a very mixed bag with this series, and while I appreciate diversity in story content and art, I don't like it when there is a lot of diversity in quality.

There are some very good short comics in this book, but there are a lot of plain old mediocre ones too.  The mix is about 50/50.  As I prefer to accentuate the positive, I should talk about what I like.

I think my favourite story in this book David Malki's 'The Catch!: A Wondermark Tale.'  I think there may have been a Wondermark story or two in previous volumes, but they didn't catch my notice the way this very funny story about a Victorian man who brings home an early computer to helps him find things, only to discover that it's part of an ingenious marketing ploy.  The story is funny enough on its own, but when you start to accept the weirdness of people dressed in Victorian clothing talking about their TV remote, the story takes on a new level of enjoyment.  Very cool stuff.

I also loved the Achewood story, and really liked Matt Kindt's Giant Man piece.  There are stories that didn't do much for me but that had some very pretty art, contributed by people like Farel Dalrymple, Jim Rugg, and Kristian Donaldson.

As usual, most of the licensed stories (Star Wars, Buffy) were weak, and the stories that were effectively trailers for minis (like The Rapture) were pretty ineffective.  I keep holding out hope for more, but am increasingly disappointed.  I am now in the market for some of the Wondermark books though...