Neil Young's Greendale

Written by Joshua Dysart
Art by Cliff Chiang

I will confess that I'm not a Neil Young fan.  I know that, for a Canadian, I'm risking a lot in making such a statement, but his music is not my thing, and I didn't know until I read this book that he's made movies.  So there.  Why buy the comic then?  I have a lot of respect for Joshua Dysart's Unknown Soldier, which was one of the best books Vertigo published in the last decade, and Cliff Chiang is an amazing artist.

The story, which is based on a concept album and film of the same name, works as an interesting study of a young girl from a family filled with mysterious and powerful women who have a tendency to disappear.  Sun Green, the youngest of the family after whom the town of Greendale California is named, is torn up inside, trying to understand her place in the world, and the strange elemental-like abilities she exhibits.  Her female ancestors all had similar abilities, and they all have more or less disappeared.

The book explores Sun's relationship with her grandfather, who has Alzheimer's, her cousin, who is an angry drug runner, and her parents, who are artists but don't quite understand her.  Then, a mysterious man starts showing up in town, and things get harder for Sun.

There's a lot to like about this book.  The characters and their relationships to each other are fully realized, and setting Sun's environmentalism against the backdrop of the beginning of the war in Iraq helps show how America's priorities were shifting at that time.

Chiang's art is as beautiful as it always is, although the colours of the book were purposely washed out, in a way that I don't think works all that well.  I'm not sure how this material worked as an album or film, because it seems perfect for comics.

Human Target #14 - 21

Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Cliff Chiang, Cameron Stewart, and Javier Pulido

It's taken me a while to track down the last few issues of this series, but I finally got it taken care of recently, and I've enjoyed these comics quite a bit.

Unlike the rather unspectacular TV series that shared a name with this book, the Human Target is a psychological thriller that actually tries to delve into the psyche of its main character,Christopher Chance, a man who takes on the appearance and traits of others in order to protect them from danger.

This run includes a terrific story involving a small cult that is centred around a young faith healer who is basically a fraud.  I believe this is the strongest story in the run, save perhaps the last one.  Next there are a couple of one-off stories featuring some fantastic guest artistry (Cameron Stewart and Javier Pulido).

The series ended (before its time I might add) with The Stealer, a three-part tale that has Chance's former assistant, Tom McFadden return on the scene, and eventually try to steal Chance's life and girl.  This story is, in places, wonderfully ambiguous, as the reader starts to wonder who the real Chance is.

Cliff Chiang provides the artwork for most of this run, and he is, as usual, stellar in his work.  Human Target was a very intelligent thriller series, and it's a mystery to me why Milligan's Vertigo run was not collected past the first two trades.  I'm sure there is a market for these comics these days.

DMZ #57

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Cliff Chiang

Since the series began, I've liked the one-off issues featuring various supporting characters better than the main storyline, and this issue is the perfect example of why.

As with the other issues of 'Collective Punishment', Wood uses this comic to give us a wide view of life in New York under a bombing campaign by American forces ("The Liberation of Manhattan" their propaganda calls it) by examining what happens during it to one particular person.

The star of the book this month is Amina, the former terrorist who Matty rescued (and also manipulated).  She's living in an apartment that was given to her by the Delgado Nation, and is just enjoying being on her own.  On the eve of the bombings, she sees a young baby that has been abandoned on the street.  She takes her in, and finds herself opening up to people again.  Aside from the bombing, this is a quiet, introspective issue, and is the type that Wood does best.  Amina's only companion before this has been the mysterious pirate radio broadcaster we keep hearing from, who helps to provide exposition and continuity in the comic.  I would really like to know more about her one day.

The art on this issue is by Cliff Chiang, who I think has never worked on this title before.  As always, his work is incredible, although it doesn't seem instantly recognizable as his.  It seems he's channeling the aesthetic that regular artist Riccardo Burchielli has established for the title, and yet is still making it his own.  Great issue.

Human Target #6 - 13

Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Cliff Chiang and Javier Pulido
I was going to continue reading this book in trade after enjoying the first volume so much, when I came to the realization that it was never collected past the tenth issue, and have instead started to hunt down the single issues. I recently came across a small sequential pile of issues at a nice price, and jumped at the chance to dive back in to Peter Milligan's take on the classic character.

These eight issues contain four stories, varying in length from one-off to three-parters. The first story involves Christopher Chance protecting a priest with some secrets in his past. It's kind of a brutal story, but very well told.

The second story, 'Which Way the Wind Blows' has Chance get involved in the problems of some ex-60's terrorist Weathermen. One of the would-be revolutionaries killed a cop back in the day, and has been hiding his identity ever since. The task of impersonating a person that doesn't really even exist is fitting for Chance, since he increasingly is questioning his own existence.

The next issue finds Chance being contacted by an old friend who has busted out of prison to meet up with his wife, and who needs Chance to run interference for him, staying in the media's eye, and helping to restore his reputation. This story has a nice twist to it which I didn't see coming.

All of the previous issues were drawn by Cliff Chiang, who is a master comics artist. His work is wonderful throughout, and I would usually be quite sad to see him leave the book, except that his replacement for the last three issues in this pile is Javier Pulido, who is probably even better than Chiang.

Pulido's first issue, which serves as both prologue to the next story and as a mostly self-contained character piece, does not have any panel borders. One picture bleeds into the next, and between that style and the brightness of the colouring, looks a little like an issue of Hawaiian Dick. It's great.

For the rest of the arc, about Chance's girlfriend's activities with illegal immigration and Mexican child traffickers, is more traditionally laid out, but still fantastic to look at.

The stories here tend a little towards the brutal, with the sheer quantity of abused children that Milligan keeps trotting out. That however, is the only note that bothers me, the rest of the series is incredible. It's a shame that the producers of the television series didn't bother to really understand the rich psychological possibilities of this comic, opting instead for yet another mindless action show.