Escalator

by Brandon Graham

I've been a big Brandon Graham fan since first learning about his work a little while after the first volume of King City came out.  This book, Escalator, collects a number of his earlier comics stories, and it is pretty fantastic from cover to cover.

When I think of Graham's work, I always think of strange and complicated futuristic cities, characters who just seem to get by living in the urban environment, and endless sight gags and puns.  All of that is represented here, and the book makes me feel like I'm watching Graham figure out a number of things as a writer and an artist.

In one story, a writer is just trying to get some work done when interrupted by a demon or something, who is trying to take his soul.  In another strip, a couple hang out on their balcony.  In another story, a young artist and his friend tag trains.

There is definitely an autobiographical feel to much of this book.  In one strip, young Graham is having a hard time making things work for himself, and can't help but realize that while he's climbing stairs to a friend's walk-up that he's crashing at, Moebius is probably dreaming of crystals.

This is a very enjoyable book, and a must-have for anyone who has enjoyed King City or Multiple Warheads (there is a MW short here too).  If you only know Graham from his amazing writing on Prophet, this is still worth checking out, as you can connect the dots from that work to this.

Prophet #34

Written by Brandon Graham with Simon Roy and Matt Sheean
Art by Simon Roy and Malachi Ward

I love Prophet, and all the work that Brandon Graham and his amazing cast of artists have done to take an utterly execrable 90s character and turn him and his story into a sweeping futuristic space epic, but over the last two months, I've not been able to stop myself from wondering if the book has fallen into a bit of a rut.

In this issue, we revisit the John Prophet who we first saw in these pages, in Graham and Roy's earliest issues.  He's the guy who woke on Earth after millennia of hibernation, and who turned on the GOD satellite, which reawakened the entire Earth Empire.  Since then, we've met a number of different Prophet clones on a number of different missions, as well as the original - Old Man Prophet, who is gathering allies to stop the Earth Empire.

This issue has John Prophet come to the Empire's central domus - a large structure that is the heart of its endeavours.  There, he discovers that some in the Empire fear him and want him dead.  Some other things happen too, as they always do in this book, that are pretty wild and wonderful in their own way.

Really, this is an excellent comic, but I feel like it's time for the story to take a few larger leaps forward. It's never been made clear just what the Empire is all about, or why we should be concerned about it.  There are portents of doom galore, but I think we might need some actual doom to hold everything together.

As always, I enjoyed Roy's artwork, and was very intrigued by the back-up story, CARE, by Matt Sheean and Malachi Ward.  Usually these back-ups are stand-alones, and aren't given enough space to grow, but this is the beginning of a serial, which gives the creators a lot more space.

Multiple Warheads: Alphabet to Infinity #4

by Brandon Graham

In the middle of the last issue of Multiple Warheads, when Brandon Graham began introducing and developing new characters, the realization dawned on me that he had no intention of wrapping up his storyline when this mini-series ended with this issue.  I don't think I have any right to complain - Multiple Warheads started as a one-shot at Oni Press in 2007, and Sexica and her boyfriend Nikolai were not heard of again until this series began.

Still, I expected to see them in this issue.  Instead, the whole thing is given over to that other organ-hunter (I forget her name, and it doesn't appear once in this comic), who has continued to track the clone bodies that she lost a couple of issues ago.  In typical Brandon Graham fashion, the plot is secondary to the strange, pun-fuelled visuals that Graham has filled his world with.  The hunter is travelling with a pair of strange guys, and they are riding a sentient motorcycle across a series of pipes in the sky.

Eventually they come to a flying whale with a city on its back, which has a tree in the centre of it that gives them information as to where their prey is headed.  There is a pirate attack, a new game is introduced, and there are a few odd conversations along the way.

Story-wise, this issue is pretty simple, but Graham has made this a visually stunning comic, much like he did for the other issues.  It's a shame that it will probably be a year before Graham has the next four issues (subtitled 'Ghost Town') drawn, but it will be well worth the wait.

Prophet #33

Written by Brandon Graham with Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy
Art by Giannis Milonogiannis

To the extent that you can have a typical issue of Prophet following its rebirth at the hands of Brandon Graham, this would be it.  I don't want to suggest that this book is falling into a rut, because it remains wildly inventive and original, but there's not much in this issue that doesn't feel familiar and predictable, within the confines of the weirdness that Graham has set up for this story.

Old Man Prophet and his crew fly their ship to a rendezvous with the woman armada (it says Amanda in the book, but I think that's a typo) of the Babel-Horolegion.  These are butterfly-like creatures that travel in living ships that are "a union of thought and form".  We learn that their ship is being powered by the long-dead body of Supreme, and soon enough, they are attacked by some kind of wave of psychic pain.

One of the many things that I've loved about this series is the way in which Graham has taken his time setting up the coming conflict with the Earth Empire, and this issue continues in that vein.  This issue doesn't really further that plot, and I kind of wonder at its inclusion in the storyline.

At the same time, Graham's writing is sharp, and Milonogiannis makes use of some very cool designs.

Multiple Warheads: Alphabet to Infinity #3

by Brandon Graham

Brandon Graham can never be accused of having the most linear and clearly delineated plots, but three quarters of the way through his new Multiple Warheads mini-series (following up on an Oni Press one-shot from years ago), we are meeting lots of new characters, and are finally getting some glimpse of a greater plot.

None of this bothers me though, because Multiple Warheads is an absolutely brilliant series.  Sexica, a retired organ smuggler, and her wolf-penised mechanic boyfriend are on a road trip, and have ended up in a hotel on the Whaling Wall.  They've just been chilling, eating pastries and putting legs on their Lenin (a car).  In this issue, two of Sexica's old colleagues show up with a job for her - to break into a fabled wizard's larder; she of course takes the job.

We also check in on the other organ smuggler, who spends a few dialogue-less pages searching for the body she'd been transporting, which flew off on her last issue.  It's not clear if her story is going to run into Sexica's or not.

We also meet a couple of new characters - Moontoone, a little platypus-like creature who likes to knit hats and works as a delivery boy, and Sunshine, his dancer boyfriend.  I have no idea how these two fit into things, but again, with a book like this, that kind of thing doesn't matter in the least.

Multiple Warheads is one of the densest, most rich comics on the stands right now.  Each and every page literally drips with new ideas, clever wordplay, and numerous sight gags.  The thing is, this isn't just a psychedelic science fiction humour comic; the characters are fully fleshed-out and quite relatable. I can't wait to see how this mini-series finishes.

Prophet #31

Written by Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, and Giannis Milonogiannis
Art by Giannis Milonogiannis

I feel like, as Old Man Prophet has gathered up a group of allies to help him stop the Earth Empire, this book is getting a definite Farscape theme to it, and that is something I don't mind at all.

In this issue, John and his companions travel to the remains of the body of Ixpoliniox, a space giant whose body has now been colonized by creatures that mine his blood, muscle, and flesh.  The body parts are the site of an active trading colony, and, for some reason, are a target of the Earth Empire.

John's crew confront one of his clones, while John runs in to The Troll, another one of Rob Liefeld's characters from back in the day that I only vaguely remember (after looking at images on-line) as a bit of a cross between Wolverine, Puck, and the Beast.  He hints that another Youngblood mainstay is still bumping around the galaxy as well, but this is really not the focus of the book.

The characters are beginning to interact with each other a lot more, with the tree-alien Hiyonhoiagn providing some comic relief, and helping to add to the general Farscape feeling I mentioned earlier (this whole issue reminded me of the episode where the crew of Moya ended up on the body of a space-whale).

Graham is the master of the inventive and strange, and he uses a vastly different tone here than he does in Multiple Warheads, although both books are fantastic.

Multiple Warheads: Alphabet to Infinity #2

by Brandon Graham

I wonder if it would be exhausting to hang out with Brandon Graham.  The man crams so many ideas onto one single page of comics, it makes me wonder if he does the same thing when you talk to him.

Multiple Warheads: Alphabet to Infinity continues to tell two, so-far separate, stories.  Sexica and Nikoli continue their road trip, driving up into some mountains.  Along the way, they meet some death-obsessed druidz, survive an alligator attack, and hang out in a nice hotel.

While this is happening, the organ smuggler (her name escapes me) finds a few more clones of her target, and enjoys some noodles (in a Pol Pot, of course).

It becomes clear, while reading this, that the plot mostly exists to serve as the vehicle for Graham's next crazy idea, as he strings together strange sets and cute wordplay.  The characters feel developed however, and the book chugs along very nicely under its own set of rules.

Graham's art is always beautiful, the lovechild of Geof Darrow and Moebius, and the comic is frequently very funny.  Highly recommended.

The CBLDF Presents Liberty Annual 2012

Written by Jonathan Hickman, Andy Diggle, Howard Chaykin, Steven T. Seagle, Joe Keatinge, James Robinson, James Asmus, Richard Starkings, Chris Roberson, Chris Giarrusso, David Hine, Brandon Graham, Jim McCann, Kieron Gillen, Terry Moore, and Robert Kirkman
Art by Jonathan Hickman, Ben Templesmith, Sina Grace, Marco Cinello, Chynna Clugston-Flores, J. Bone, Takeshi Miyazawa, Ian Churchill, Roger Langridge, Gabriel Bá, Chris Giarrusso, Doug Braithwaite, Brandon Graham, Janet Lee, Nate Bellegarde, Terry Moore, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn

I'm always impressed with the line-up that Image and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund are able to put together for these Liberty Annuals.  There is an impressive list of creators involved in this book, and while the stories are all very short, there is a lot of stuff to love about this book.

First and foremost, there is a Walking Dead story featuring the Governor.  This story doesn't really fit into the book's theme of preserving free speech, but at the same time, it is so rare for there to be side-projects featuring the characters from this series, that for many, this alone should be worth the purchase price.  Basically, in this story, we learn about the origin of the Governor's collection of fish tanks (seen in last week's episode of the TV show).

The rest of this book does deal with the free speech or liberty themes, in a variety of ways.  David Hine and Doug Braithwaite preview their upcoming Image series Storm Dogs by giving us some of the history of the science fiction world it is going to be set in - this series looks like it's going to be very good.

Andy Diggle and Ben Templesmith give us a great story wherein the Devil appears in front of a trio of young people, only to learn that the people of the 21st century have moved beyond many of the concepts that once gave him entry into peoples' minds.  If only this were more true...

Jim McCann and Janet Lee tell a nice story of a conversation between an older woman and a young man who has what can be referred to as an 'unconventional family', although the theme of their conversation is that it's not all that unconventional.

James Robinson and J. Bone totally grabbed my attention with their short story of an American soldier who has come to Canada to escape something, and is being pursued by two men who are probably something other than men.  The story is tagged as a prologue to 'The Saviors'; I hope this means that these two gentlemen are working on a new series together.  Bone's art is wonderful - blocky, and coloured only in green, it doesn't look at all like his all-ages work.

Joe Keatinge and Chynna Clugston Flores share a nice little story about a family movie theatre.  James Asmus and Takeshi Miyazawa give us a great short story about the things that people do when they know that the world is about to end.  Beyond that, there are some terrific one- and two-page strips by the rest of the creators listed above, and a beautiful Gabriel Bá cover.

This book is well worth buying, even if the proceeds didn't go to support the CBLDF.  Go get it.

Prophet #30

Written by Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy
Art by Giannis Milonogiannis and Brandon Graham

Two Brandon Graham books in the same week?  What a great time to enjoy great comics!

This issue of Prophet is one of Graham's best (and that's saying a lot) as he starts to tie together some of the different threads of his story by having characters begin to meet and work together.

This issue opens with a focus on Rein-East, an assassin sent to kill one of a ruling clan on a world we haven't seen before.  She is successful, but also captured.  This part of the comic is very cool, as once again, Graham throws a large number of strange concepts and ideas at us, which all seem perfectly normal within the world he's created.

After that, we check in with Old Man Prophet and his traveling companions.  They've come to the same planet, where Prophet once lived with his greatest love.  Their arrival reminds me of a key scene in The Empire Strikes Back, and they are soon fighting for their lives, joined by Rein-East, and Jaxson, the robotic creature we were introduced to a few months back.

Giannis Milonogiannis handles most of the art in this issue, and his work has really grown on me to where I think he is equal to Simon Roy, the artist who first worked on this book when Graham relaunched it.  Graham himself finishes off the issue with his own art, something I didn't expect and was very happy to see.

Prophet remains one of the best comics being published today.

Multiple Warheads: Alphabet to Infinity #1

by Brandon Graham

It has been years since I read Brandon Graham's Multiple Warheads one-shot from Oni Press, and I never really expected to see its main characters, Sexica and Nikoli, again.  I was very pleased to hear that Graham was returning to this title for what he promises the first of many yearly mini-series.

Multiple Warheads began its life as a porn comic, which explains the main character's name, and why Sexica, the organ smuggler, sewed a wolf's penis to Nikoli, causing him to have 'wolf dreams'.  In the Oni Press issue, which abandoned the porn angle, a spaceship crashed on their neighbourhood, spurring the couple to hit the road.

This series is set in the type of weird future world that has become Graham's stock in trade.  King City, his wonderful comic, is set in a similar world, where familiar things exist alongside weird, wonderful, and pun-based items of amusement.  Our two heroes in this book are driving across the country (world?) to travel to the Impossible City.  We see what their journey is like, as they come across strange beings (Otto Barons are people who are somehow physically attached to their cars), listen to their singing cigarettes, and bemoan the lack of high-quality pastries.

Running parallel to this story, Graham introduces another organ smuggler, Nura.  Her story feels like a bridge between this book and Graham's hugely successful run on Prophet, as this character heads out to track down a Shov Puppet, a person who is able to grow magic organs, and has to kidnap him from a castle perched atop a large walking city.

Graham is one of the most inventive and funny creators working in comics today (I love the Misogyny Parlour - where men declare their hatred of women while getting deep tissue massages by other men with porn star moustaches).  His art is terrific, and also very funny, and the best thing about this comic is that it's a solid 48 pages, with no ads, for $3.99.  This has been a wonderful year for new comics, and Graham has just made it even better!

Prophet #29

Written by Brandon Graham, Farel Dalrymple, and Andy Ristaino
Art by Farel Dalrymple and Andy Ristaino

It must be a lot of fun to write this comic.  Since Brandon Graham resurrected Rob Liefeld's god-awful comic from the 90s, each new issue has been a bit of an adventure, as Graham has introduced a wide variety of characters, settings, and strange situations.

For this issue, Graham returns to the John Prophet clone we last saw in the other issue illustrated by Farel Dalrymple.  Prophet is with a group of his clone brothers, escorting an Earth Empire Mother through space towards her home.  These Earth Mother's are powerful psychics, who control the clones.

Their route takes them through a centuries-old battlefield, and our tailed Prophet ends up being captured on a ship, where creatures control their prisoners and force them to work as slaves.  Prophet becomes involved with a group of rebels, and fights for his freedom.

Each and every page drips with creativity, as Graham and Dalrymple create a variety of races and strange creatures.  None of these are throw-aways for Graham; there's a sense that a lot of thought went into each and every story element, no matter how briefly they grace the pages of the book.

Dalrymple's work is always lovely, but I particularly like the way that colourist Joseph Bergin III's limited palette on the pages where Prophet is under mind control really accentuate Dalrymple's skills.

The back-up, by Andy Ristaino, features similar themes to the main book.  It's about a man who is the caretaker of a large colonist spaceship filled with people in suspended animation.  The ship is badly damaged, and the man has to decide what to do with his brethren.  It's a powerful little story.

Prophet #28

Written by Brandon Graham with Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy
Art by Giannis Milonogiannis

In the last issue of Prophet, the newly-returned 'Old Man Prophet', as he is called here, reunited with his old friend Hiyonhoiagn, after a thousand-year absence (the friend is a living tree).  Together, they set off to find the remaining pieces of their old companion, the former Youngblood team member Diehard.

In this issue, they've found most of that ancient android, and he has begun leading them to the rest of his body.  To find his head, they travel to Juno, where Dolmantles (the blanket-like creatures that one of Prophet's clones used in an earlier issue to help him survive) have taken over all of the inhabitants.

The issue is full of bizarre action and Graham's peculiar style of tossing readers into his strange worlds without taking any time to explain what is happening.  The level of creativity and individuality in this book is stunning, and I continue to enjoy it in a way that is different from everything else that is on the stands in the comic stores.

Now that Prophet has restored his friend, I hope that we are going to get a better idea of just why he is in opposition to the Earth Empire, and how he is going to interact with all of his offspring or clones that we have been seeing since Graham relaunched the title.

This is a very attractive book, and I guarantee it is like nothing else you are reading right now.

Prophet #27

Written by Brandon Graham with Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy
Art by Giannis Milogiannis

Since being relaunched a few months ago, Brandon Graham has given us a number of short stories featuring characters that are related to the old Rob Liefeld property John Prophet.  Most of those stories have been about clones, and their tales have taken us all over a distant future populated with bizarre creatures and inexplicable social structures.  Each issue as been fantastic - a blend of strange science fiction, strong narration, and wonderful art by a variety of artists.  A couple issues back, the original Prophet appeared, and now with this issue, we are following him on his journey.

When the book opens, Prophet is travelling on a space worm, waiting for it to take him to his destination - a pod-world populated by giant tree-like creatures called the Kinniaa.  He is looking for his former companion in war, Hiyonhoiagn.  It takes a while to find him, but when he does, the tree has kept some of his former possessions, including an arm that used to belong to Diehard, the Youngblood android.  Next, Prophet and Hiyonhoiagn go looking for a spaceship to help them find the rest of Diehard, but they are attacked by space-sharks.

There is a dream-like quality that permeates every page of this series, as Graham takes his time making clear just what this series is about, and just what is going on.  I find that I'm not too concerned with the overarching plot of this series; I'm perfectly happy to watch Prophet or one of his clones be put through the strange and wonderful worlds that Graham keeps creating.  I do get the sense that all of the various characters we've me so far are going to collide with one another somewhere down the road, but for now, I'm just enjoying the journey.

Milonogiannis's art is definitely growing on me, and that's good, as it's beginning to look like he's the regular artist on this series.  It must be difficult to come on to a book that has already featured artists like Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, and Graham himself, but Milogiannis has a style that meshes well with these other artists, and which seems capable of clearly depicting some very wild things.  I believe that the first trade of the new Prophet is coming out next month, and I cannot stress enough how much I think anyone who enjoys intelligent, odd-ball comics or science fiction should check this out, as should anyone who wants to read something original with beautiful art.

Prophet #26

by Brandon Graham and Emma Rios

Since Brandon Graham relaunched this failed and best-forgotten Rob Liefeld property a few months ago, I'd been hoping that he would draw an issue as well as write.  Despite the fact that he's worked with gifted artists such as Simon Roy and Farel Dalrymple, I wanted to see what Graham would do with the strange future he's created.  This issue gave me my wish.

After the first three issues of Graham's run, which contained a longer story, each subsequent issue has been a done-in-one story that involves a clone (or three) of the original John Prophet waking up on some strange world or other setting, and doing something that has to do with the return of the Earth Empire.  This issue is a little different, as its protagonist is a Jaxson, "one of old man Prophet's unhatched eggs, brought to life to fight along in his fight."  The Jaxson looks like a robot, although we know it has to eat to heal itself and generate energy to do things like fly.

This one is on a strange, mostly abandoned planet.  He senses one of his brothers, a larger creature named Xefferson, who joins him on a trip through the 'Cyclops Rail', a system of wormholes used for travel.  Like the other issues that came before it, what is really going on in this book remains a bit of a mystery, but Graham's storytelling is so strong, I'm just happy to ride along with it, trusting that everything will make sense soon enough. This issue feels like a tribute to Moebius, with its alien worlds drawn in Graham's simplistic yet complex style.  There is a sense of wonder in these comics that is lacking from just about everything else on the stands these days, and that makes this a treat to read each month.

There is also a back-up by the incredible Emma Rios, which shows another Prophet clone engaging in some sort of congress with a spider-creature.  I think; it's a little unclear, but very lovely.  This book continues to climb to the top of my affections.

Prophet #25

Written by Brandon Graham with Giannis Milonogiannis and Simon Roy, and Frank Teran
Art by Giannis Milonogiannis and Frank Teran

Prophet continues to be one of the most creative and original comics on the stand, but I am happy to see that this issue ends in such a way as to suggest that something different is going to begin happening sometime soon.

Since the series was relaunched (after being abandoned for some fifteen years), it's been hard to predict.  The first three issues involved John Prophet reawakening on Earth after thousands of years of change, with a mission he had to complete.  Then, there was a done-in-one issue that involved a different, tailed, John Prophet waking up on a spaceship, having to complete a mission.

Now, with this issue, three different Johns (none named Prophet) are on an alien world, hunting a living tool-creature (it's not all that clear).  The story is very similar to last month's except now there's more than one protagonist, and an ending that does lead me to believe that this series will acknowledge it's god-awful roots in the 90s.  Brandon Graham (and his collaborators) continue to write this book in a Heavy Metal style, which is sometimes confusing, but also gripping.

This issue's artist, Giannis Milonogiannis, is new to me, but he's the perfect choice if the intent was to find someone who can bridge and blend the previous artists Simon Roy and Farel Dalrymple's styles. Frank Teran's back-up series Initiate continues, and it's interesting and pretty, even if not a whole lot makes sense.

I feel like it's time for Graham to start tightening up his plans for this series, but I am enjoying this series a great deal.

Prophet #24

Written by Brandon Graham, Farel Dalrymple, and Matt Sheean
Art by Farel Dalrymple and Malachi Ward

How wonderful is this comic?  I feel like, between the last issue and this one, I have a better handle on what Brandon Graham and his collaborators intend to do with this comic.  Last month, John Prophet sent some sort of signal out across the universe to wake up the Earth Empire pod ships, and so when this comic begins, another version of John Prophet (this one has a tail!) comes out of a pod to find that the ship he's been sleeping on for who knows how long has crashed into some other ships.

For some reason, he has to cross the amalgamated vessels to the other side, spurred on by a ghostly young girl.  The rest of this issue is just like the other ones, as John goes about his journey, facing environmental threats, and needing to rely on some odd science fiction stuff, like a 'star skin' that makes him look like the X-Man Armor.  Also, there's a MODOK version of the original Prophet, who is just awesome.

What makes this comic work so well is Graham's ease with such strange situations, as he describes and explains things, but without getting into too much detail.  You know he has an explanation ready for any plot point, but doesn't feel the need to hammer that information into our heads the way many lesser writers would.

The art this month is by Farel Dalrymple, of the brilliant and surrealistic Pop Gun War and the remake of Omega: The Unknown.  Dalrymple is a gifted artist, and he makes his usual style fit more in the aesthetic that regular artist Simon Roy has established for this book.  It's a very beautiful comic.

The back-up this month does not continue the one started previously, but instead is a done-in-one European-style science fiction story by Matt Sheean and Malachi Ward.  I liked it - it would have fit nicely in a Popgun anthology.  In a lot of ways, Graham is using this book to bring back Heavy Metal, which is very cool.  This series continues to be the most exciting thing on the stands each month.

Prophet #23

Written by Brandon Graham, Simon Roy, and Frank Teran
Art by Simon Roy and Frank Teran

For the third straight month in a row, Prophet blows me away with its high degree of creativity and terrific artwork.

Since the book began, in issue 21 (I refuse to even acknowledge the earlier issues), we as readers have been given very little information to help us understand what is going on in this comic.  We know that John Prophet has awoken in a far-off future, after human civilization has disappeared from the Earth, and instead various groups of aliens or strangely-evolved creatures have taken charge, in a scattered patchwork of settlements and colonies.

This month, after twenty-four days of travel, John arrives at the sight of his mission.  To complete it, he must scale the Tower of Thauilu Vah, and get onto the GOD satellite.  To do this, he has to go through or around a variety of strange creatures, and deal with the Xiux-Guin Blade, a creature that has been tracking him since the last issue.

Once again, every page drips with new and unique ideas.  Graham gives us crystal-blessed aliens, living missiles, and living adaptive clothing.  Prophet's world is exceedingly strange, and Simon Roy is more than up to the job of portraying it, in all its glory.  His work on this book has been remarkable, bringing to mind some of the most Surrealistic of Moebius's stories, while still making perfect sense within the logic of Graham's tale.

This issue also features the beginning of a back-up called Initiate by Frank Teran.  There's not enough here to have a clear sense of what this is going to be about, but it is very pretty.

Prophet #22

Written by Brandon Graham
Art by Simon Roy

Prophet is definitely my new favourite comic.  At the moment, I even like it more than The Walking Dead and Scalped, which are usually tied as the books I most look forward to each month.  I guess I need to give Brandon Graham and company (it looks like Farel Dalrymple will be taking over the art soon; whether that is permanent or not I don't know) a little more time to prove that this book will be consistently this excellent.

For now, though, excellent it is.  Jon Prophet is continuing his 'mission', which at this point has him walking across a desert infested by biting insects somewhere far into the future where all that remains of mankind are giant rusting war machines.  He hitches a ride with a caravan of creatures that mine some sort of mineral from the desert via gigantic lumbering creatures that excrete the refined substance, and things go fine for him until he decides to interrupt an important ritual, thinking that he is saving their king's life.

Brandon Graham is very good at writing bizarre mayhem, and he has made good use of his world-building skills to give us a book that is equal parts Conan, Moebius, and Orc Stain.  Simon Roy is one of a very select few artists who can match his penchant for weirdness.  This is easily the most inventive comic on the stands right now, and I can't wait for each new issue.

This issue has a back-up feature, which is a reprint of a comic from the 90s by Fil Barlow.  It's easy to see how this strip would have influenced Graham - it reminds me of some of his work - but I didn't really like it.

Prophet #21

Written by Brandon Graham
Art by Simon Roy

I think I may have just found my new favourite monthly comic.  By now, everyone knows the story - Rob Liefeld is relaunching his old Extreme line of comics, known for god-awful art and stories, filled with shoulder pads, pockets, giant guns, anatomically impossible women, and an utter lack of feet.  A lot of these comics were popular for a little while in the 90s, before the lack of good story and the incredible inability to publish even semi-regularly took their toll, and the books all stopped coming out.  I have some vague memories of Prophet - I think he was some kind of Cable rip-off (and yes, I know Liefeld created Cable), but really, it's not like the comics probably made sense.

Anyway, the relaunch.  This series is being written by Brandon Graham, who is a brilliant artist in his own right.  Graham is best known for King City, an amazing comic that I can not recommend enough.  He is joined on Prophet by fellow Vancouver-ite Simon Roy, who I first became aware of a couple of years back at TCAF when I bought his Jan's Atomic Heart, a short little graphic novel.  At the time, I remarked that he would be a major talent one day, and I think he may be well on the road with this comic.  (By the way - while everyone is suddenly looking to get copies of Jan's Atomic Heart, I imagine that it is easier to sample Roy's second work - stories in Murder Book, an excellent crime anthology series, which can be purchased here - it's very good).

This series is set in a far-off future, where the entire Earth's ecosystems have changed radically.  John Prophet suddenly appears in a drill-bit shaped hibernation pod, having been buried a long time.  He has a mission to complete, which he receives updates about through his dreams.  He travels to a jell city (more on this soon) to meet his contact and receive information about his mission.  What this mission is, or what has happened to the planet, or why Prophet was willing to mate with his slug-like contact, are all being left as mysteries for now.

Graham is one of those creators who breathe out good ideas the way we do carbon dioxide.  Every page of this comic has something new and strange on it, from the variety of wild animals that Prophet encounters (he's only awake for a few minutes before a Tulnaka attacks him) to the strange new inhabitants of the world.  We see a little of an Oonaka meat farm.  These are vaguely simian creatures being raised by some of the creatures that live in the jell city - basically a rotting living jellyfish spaceship that is inhabited by a caste society of creatures that I can't exactly describe - they're insect-ish.  Graham keeps his usual wordplay at a minimum, but I was amused by the drones that shoot live ammunition - living creatures that sink claws into their target.

I found every page of this comic a complete treat.  Roy's art reminds me Moebius, Tony Moore, Paul Pope, and David Lapham (is such a combination is even possible), with a sense that James Stokoe has had an influence on things.  The story is definitely intriguing; I imagine this as being a future Conan comic, but written by William S. Burroughs.  Handing this series to these two is the best thing that Rob Liefeld has ever done in all his years of working in comics.

Dark Horse Presents #7

Written by Mike Mignola, Andi Watson, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, MJ Butler, Stan Sakai, Tony Puryear, Brandon Graham, Felipe Melo, and Carla Speed McNeil
Art by Mike Mignola, Andi Watson, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Mark Wheatley, Stan Sakai, Tony Puryear, Brandon Graham, Juan Cavia, and Carla Speed McNeil

There are some new members to the the exclusive Dark Horse Presents library this month.

I don't know who Tony Puryear is, but the first chapter of his Concrete Park definitely has my attention.  It's set in a place called Scare City, a place beset by gangs, pimps, and protests, in what I assume is a not-too distant future.  These eight pages are spent introducing a few characters, and setting the scene, and I can't wait to read more.  This has a real DMZ meets Love and Rockets feel going for it.

There is also a Brandon Graham story, which is a huge treat.  He is moving into some more abstract territory than King City, with this tale about a man's voice who left him, returning over after the man's death.  He has to deal with the various Secrets, Ideas, and Doubts that are inhabiting the man's labyrinthine home.  Graham is working on some other level, with some of his usual puns being given centre stage, in a story that deserves to be read a few times over.

MJ Butler and Mark Wheatley give us the beginning of Skultar, a very self-aware barbarian fantasy parody that is decent, if not all that special.  There is also a Usagi Yojimbo story.  I can't ever really get into these.

Mike Mignola has a Hellboy story, recounting one of the more mysterious cases during HB's time in Mexico.  This is a very standard Hellboy story - there are monsters, bodies rising from the grave, and Hellboy falls down.  Mignola needs to shake this stuff up a little bit; it's getting a little old.

Among the established stories, the Finder chapter is the best, as Jaegar meets a person with abilities that both represent the pinnacle of his profession, and which nullify the need for someone like him.  McNeil's art is really evolving into something wonderful lately; it's much richer than before (and I like her early stuff a great deal).

Howard Chaykin's Marked Man is almost over, and that's a good thing.  I hope Neal Adams's Blood is going to be finished soon; it's unreadable.  The Andi Watson story is decent, in a Borges-for-children way, and The Adventures of Dog Mendonca and Pizzaboy is pretty sub-par.