Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child #1

Written by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds
Art by Denys Cowan and John Floyd

I really wanted to like this book.  It has a number of things going for it that make it seem like a natural addition to my pull-file list - it's set in post-Katrina New Orleans, which has become a topic of interest, and its drawn by Denys Cowan, an artist that I've always admired, and who I've felt has not received near enough praise and recognition for the work he has done in comics.  Also, the covers are going to be drawn by Rafael Grampá, one of the most exciting artists currently in the business.

Unfortunately, things aren't coming together the way I would like.  The comic is centred on Dominique Laveau, a university student who is helping to rebuild the city after the storm.  When we meet her on the first page, she is running from a werewolf creature that has just killed two of her friends.  She is able to scare the creature off by manifesting snakes out of her head (which surprises her), and then she runs to a friend, who we learn is a police officer.  Suddenly, he comes under fire from two gang-bangers, and he tells her to run to his station house.  She instead goes to a cemetery to talk to the tomb where they believe the famous voodoo queen Marie Laveau is buried, where she has a vision.  It appears (more from reading solicitation info and the previews that Vertigo has been running in the backs of all their comics this month) that Dominique is descended from Marie (shocking), and that there are some people after her for her powers, or something like that.

The reason why this didn't really work for me is that we are tossed into the action before we are given the chance to figure out who Dominique is.  After reading this whole issue, I don't know why I should care about this woman, or who she is on any level beyond the surface.  This read too much like an action comic, and not enough like a Vertigo one.  Really, this could have been a New 52 launch with very few changes, as I feel it has much more in common with, say, I, Vampire, than it does anything that Vertigo puts out.

Cowan's art is nice, but I don't know if it's enough to get me to keep coming back to this title.  I may give it another issue, because I want to support books like this, which depict something different from most of the mainstream, but I'm not sure there's enough here to hold my interests.

The Unexpected #1

Written by Dave Gibbons, G. Willow Wilson, Alex Grecian, Josh Dysart, Jeffrey Rotter, Mat Johnson, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Brian Wood, and Selwyn Seyfu Hinds
Art by Dave Gibbons, Robbi Rodgriguez, Jill Thompson, Farel Dalrymple, Lelio Bonaccorso, David Lapham, Rahsan Ekedal, Emily Carroll, and Denys Cowan

I really like that Vertigo has started putting out these random, slightly thematically-linked anthology books every few months, even if they are pretty expensive.  Like the last one, Strange Adventures, The Unexpected is a nice mix of stories by established Vertigo stars, and some up-and-comers.  This collection has a supernatural theme, but it's not one that is used in every story.

There is a lot to like in this book, but my favourite story is the one by Joshua Dysart and Farel Dalrymple, which tells the story of a Mexican laborer in 1950s or 60s Texas, who is accused of murdering the grandchild of his employer, although he knows the boy was killed by an ancient Aztec monster.  As with his Unknown Soldier series, Dysart makes good use of a particular culture's fears and legends, and Dalrymple's art is perfect.

I also quite enjoyed Alex Grecian (from Proof fame) and Jill Thompson's story about a female zombie who has retained enough of her faculties to use her feminine wiles as a way of attracting prey.  Dave Gibbons tells a great story of an escape artist who cheats on his wife, and Mat Johnson and David Lapham give us a deliciously twisted tale of a brother and sister trying to survive in post-apocalyptic America.

Joshua Hale Fialkov reunites with his Echoes collaborator Rahsan Ekedal for a story about a man who is recently deceased and finds himself haunting his wife.  Ekedal makes good use of layout in this story, and uses a pixelated approach to imply ghostliness.

Brian Wood and newcomer (to me) artist Emily Carrol contribute a nice short story about a woman who is raised in a post-governmental United States.  It's a similar vision to the one we've seen in Wood's DMZ, but this time he takes a nicer, gentler approach to the disintegration of a country.  It's pretty interesting, even if it ends a little abruptly.

I wanted to like G. Willow Wilson's story about dogs taking over a town, but Robbi Rodriguez's dogs were just a little too creepy and odd-looking for me.  To be fair, I think that dogs are among the hardest things to draw (check out how Dan Jurgens draws them if you need a laugh), which is why I have so much respect for Beasts of Burden.  The story 'A Most Delicate Monster' by Jeffrey Rotter and Lelio Bonaccorso (neither of whom I'm familiar with) was just a little too obvious to be successful.

Finally, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds and Denys Cowan provide a prelude to the upcoming Voodoo Child series, which really didn't work for me.  I'm not sure what it is, but I feel like they were trying to cram too much into too few pages, with the effect that I wasn't drawn into the story at all.  I'll probably give the new series a try still, because I like reading about New Orleans.

Scalped #50

Written by Jason Aaron
Art by RM Guera, Igor Kordey, Tim Truman, Jill Thomspon, Jordi Bernet, Denys Cowan, Dean Haspiel, Brendan McCarthy, and Steve Dillon

For as long as I've been writing about comics on the Internet, I've been hoping to draw new readers to Scalped (it was the first comic I ever reviewed).  I have been, on a monthly basis, blown away by the quality of this comic, and it is something that I think most comics readers would appreciate if they gave it a chance.  One hurdle, though, has been accessibility.  Scalped is a sprawling, complex story that, had a new reader not started at the beginning, it would be difficult to follow.

This fiftieth anniversary issue (and congratulations - that kind of number is amazing for a book like Scalped in today's market) is a perfect sampler for a new reader to get a sense of what this book is all about.  The issue opens with a father and son scalping a Sioux man in Montana in 1876.  The father, from a long line of 'Indian hunters' is passing on the finer points of scalping to his son, and shares with him their family's story, which is basically the story of the worst aspects of American history.  Things soon shift to a Sioux father and son, whose actions and lives parallel that of the Americans'.  The Sioux son's name is His Many Bad Horses, a name with great resonance for readers of Scalped.

Later, we see Bad Horses as a man, brought to the Prairie Rose reservation in 1889 by government soldiers, after being one of the last hold-outs among his people.  Once there, he has a vision which is shown in a series of splash pages, each drawn by a different artist.  The narration of these pages reads like a tone poem, giving a new reader everything they would need to know about Scalped in terms of its atmosphere, while rewarding long-time readers with a new perspective or way of looking at most of the central characters.

It's interesting to read Scalped as a book about hope and resistance.  So often, the title feels to be more about despair, acceptance, and defeat.  Aaron is a subtle and gifted writer, and I found it awesome to see so many different artists provide their interpretations of things.  The best sequence in the book belongs to regular series artist RM Guera however, as he hand-letters his pages, and makes the old Wild West look as dirty and sad as it really was.

I also appreciate the way that Jill Thompson snuck the Beasts of Burden into the book too.

Strange Adventures #1

Written by Selwyn Hinds, Talia Hershewe, Peter Milligan, Lauren Beukes, Jeff Lemire, Ross Campbell, Kevin Colden, Paul Cornell, and Brian Azzarello
Art by Denys Cowan, Juan Bobillo, Sylvain Savoia, Inaki Miranda, Jeff Lemire, Ross Campbell, Kevin Colden, Goran Sudzuka, and Eduardo Risso

I wish that Vertigo did this type of thing more often.  This is a 75-page anthology of science-fiction themed short stories, by a nice blend of Vertigo all-stars (Azzarello, Risso, Milligan, Denys Cowan!), new comics royalty (Campbell, Lemire, Cornell, Miranda), and some up-and-comers who show that they deserve more of a spotlight.

The stories are pretty varied in their style and delivery, ranging from social commentary sci-fi through dystopian, and stopping off at alien abduction and weird alien space hero.  As with any project like this, not every story will work for every reader, but some of these stories were fantastic.

I think the Milligan/Savoia story about imaginary friends may be my absolute favourite.  It's not exactly science fiction, but it fits with the tone of this anthology quite nicely.  A pair of friends are no longer sure which of them is real and which is imaginary, and they go to great lengths to prevent finding out.


Beukes and Miranda have an interesting story about consciousness sharing and the Brazilian favelas, which is beautifully illustrated.  Jeff Lemire resurrects Ultra the Multi-Alien in a bizarre, nostalgia-twinged tale.  Cornell and Sudzuka (now there's an artist I've missed) give us a cool story about a writer who experiences alien abductions.

Surprisingly, Ross Campbell's story didn't work for me.  I love his work normally, but just like his recent story in an issue of Marc Guggenheim's Resurrection, this tale didn't actually end, and was therefore disappointing.  Likewise, I found Kevin Colden's story about genetically engineered creatures as disturbing as it was wordy.

Most of the attention this book draws will be focused on The Spaceman, the introduction to a new character by Azzarello and Risso.  As usual, Risso's work is brilliant, but I'm not sure I liked Azzarello's writing.  I hate stories that rely on a lot of 'future slang', so I was quickly turned off this.  Still, I'm going to be giving their new series a try whenever it comes out.  I learned my lesson by not jumping on 100 Bullets very quickly.

In all, this is a great anthology, even if DC ruined a lovely Paul Pope cover by putting a ridiculous Green Lantern banner across the top (purposely not pictured here).

The Question Vol. 6: Peacemaker

Written by Dennis O'Neil
Art by Denys Cowan, Malcolm Jones III, and Carlos Garzon

It's funny how memory can sometimes play such tricks on a person.  I have fond memories of picking up some random issues of Dennis O'Neil's run on The Question from the late 80s, although I never had anything like a complete set of the run. I got interested in the character after the series had closed, although I remember a quarterly title, with the same creative team.  When I saw this volume, which holds the last six issues of the run, on sale for only $2, I thought it would be cool to see how the comic held up.

It hasn't held up at all.  Fine, the clothing and hair styles are really dated.  There are a bunch of mullets, pleated skirts, and shoulder pads stinking up Denys Cowan's otherwise fine artwork, but that's not the problem.  The problem, surprisingly, is that O'Neil's writing is ham-fisted, clichéd, and embarrassing.  Reading this, I wonder how any fans could have been upset that Renee Montoya took over the mantle of this character.

The concept is sound - that The Question patrols Hub City, the most perfect example of urban decay and blight this side of Warren Ellis's Snowtown, and ten times worse than Detroit (not an urban farm to be found).  The problem is that Hub City is ridiculous.  If you park your car for five minutes on a main street, a gang of thugs will just randomly attack it.  People walk around with dead babies hoping to con you into lending them a dollar for milk.  Corrupt judges hire gigantic black men named Cathy to kill the mayor, and then lend them their car to drive to City Hall in.  I don't even think those are the worse examples.

And then there's the mayor.  I remembered Myra Fermin as a tough, dedicated, hands-on mayor, but the number of times that she gets kidnapped or chased after by killers is insane.  I really don't know what was going on with this book, or why DC has just recently reprinted the whole series.  It's probably best left forgotten...

Fight For Tomorrow

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Denys Cowan and Kent Williams

Fight For Tomorrow was Brian Wood's first comic for Vertigo, and if feels much less polished than his later offerings. The thing is, it feels less thought-out than some of his earlier work for AIT/PlanetLar as well. The core concept is sound - Cedric is a young man who was abducted as a child and forced to fight in illegal boxing matches until he escaped with his girlfriend, who is now missing. Cedric returns to the illegal fight scene, and discovers that she's gone back there too, starting off a huge battle for revenge and her freedom.

It's the execution that's the problem. There are too many scenes that ring false - mostly revolving around the Big Sister and Little Brother (the names drove me nuts) that live in a Buddhist temple in New York that take Cedric into their family and help him with his fight.

I think my problem with it all is that Wood is playing with Kung Fu revenge movie archetypes, but he's playing it realistically, instead of going over the top as he did in his Couriers graphic novels. This type of story has to be camped up a little, or it just seems false - especially since Cedric leaves a trail of bodies behind him, but the police are never involved (even if they were just seen to be receiving pay-offs).

It is nice to see Denys Cowan's art again, although it's a lot scratchier than I remember, and in places hard to follow.

This is not Wood's best work. What is missing the most from this comic is the strong sense of place his other titles - Local (obviously), Northlanders, and DMZ all have as their centers. It is a good action read though....