Right State

Written by Mat Johnson
Art by Andrea Mutti

Right State is a unique political thriller that works well, but probably could have worked a lot better.  It's set at some unspecified after the Obama administration has finished its second term, and was met with some sort of disaster or fiasco which is not explained.  At the point where this book opens, Obama's successor, also a Democrat and also black, is in the midst of running for a second term.  America has become even more divided than it is now between 'red' and 'blue', and the militia movement has gained in strength to a great degree.

The story is centred on Ted Akers, a right-wing talking head who has spent most of his life fighting for veterans' rights on Fox News like cable channels, despite having never fought in a war.  Akers gets contacted by the Secret Service when they receive word that a militia group known as Roots of Liberty, run by a demagogue named Dutton, are planning something for the President's upcoming open-air address to the nation.

The Service figures that Akers would have a better chance of infiltrating the group, especially since the agent in charge is a Muslim, and that's basically the set up for this story.  It's not terribly plausible, is it? And therein lies one of this book's two big faults.  The second is that Akers's character is not developed very well before he gets sent off to crazy-land.  It's hard to understand why he'd be working to help an administration he's fundamentally opposed to, just as it is hard to understand why they would really want him (unless you figure out where things are going pretty early into the book, as I did).

As a Canadian, I do enjoy fiction that shows just how messed up American often is (while knowing we aren't all that much better, and increasingly so), and the Roots of Liberty crowd is pretty interesting.  My problem was that because I never bought into the plot or the main character, I never got all that wrapped up in the book.  Mat Johnson's first graphic novel, Incognegro, was riveting; this one felt a little rushed, like it needed to be out before the American election, and therefore didn't get workshopped or edited as stringently as it should have.

There was definitely a lot of potential in this story, and some of the sequences near the end get exciting, but this book just never gripped me as much as it could have.  Part of the problem is with Andrea Mutti's art - he's a talented artist, but often stiff in his layouts, and it's not always easy to tell which character is which.  I hope that Johnson's next book is something a little closer to home, and therefore perhaps as strong as his debut was.

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.

Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story

Written by Mat Johnson
Art by Simon Gane

I'd been looking forward to reading this graphic novel for a while.  I have been going through a bit of a New Orleans phase, precipitated by the brilliance of things like the HBO show Treme, Dave Eggers's Zeitoun, and Spike Lee's documentaries When the Levee Broke and If God is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise, not to mention some excellent magazine reporting on the rebuilding and recovery efforts.  Also, I really enjoyed Mat Johnson's last graphic novel, Incognegro, and Simon Gane's recent issue of Northlanders.

And so, with all of this foreknowledge and anticipation, the book is pretty much destined to disappoint, right?  That's how I felt for the first thirty pages or so, as Johnson struggled to introduce his cast and get the story underway.  Once things were established though, the story kind of took over, and I ended up finishing the book in a single night, staying up much later than I'd intended.

The book is about two characters - Emmit and Dabny, both ex-cons.  Emmit once worked at an independent bank in the Lower Ninth Ward, and sees the flood that followed Hurricane Katrina as his chance to pay back the boss he felt framed him, and to be able to spread the riches his former employers had hoarded for criminals around the community.  He enlists his roommate Dabny, an ex-soldier who he thinks can hook him up with Dark Rain, an independent military contractor he hopes will help him pull off the job.  Of course, Dark Rain is run by a psychopath, who decides to run the mission without him.

Now Emmit and Dabny are rushing into the city to try to rob the bank before Dark Rain can get there.  The problem is that along the way, Dabny feels that they should be rescuing people stuck on their roofs and generally helping with the unorganized and disastrous rescue efforts in the city.

There are plenty of great character moments, and a general sense of the disarray that followed the hurricane.  Gane uses a nice clean approach to the art, and a monochromatic colour scheme that helps emphasize just how much of the city is under water.  It's a good read - recommended.