Sex Criminals #3

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Chip Zdarsky

Sex Criminals is easily the funniest, most touching, and most surprising comic on the stands today.  Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky have found the perfect blend of humour, character development, titillation, and irreverence in this new series.

Suzie and Jon, who have only just met, have the strange ability to stop time when they orgasm.  Neither has ever met anyone else who can do this, and now that they've found each other, they are curious to see where their new relationship might need.  Which includes using their ability to rob banks, as we keep seeing in the comics' framing sequences.

Most of this issue is given over to the rest of Jon's growth and development, including his first time with a woman (his first time with a man gets some space too).  As the issue progresses, we get to see the new couple's first visit to Cumworld, the porn-store that Jon has been frequenting since his pubescent days (complete with a dildo-fight), and a musical number in a pool hall.  Trust me, the musical number, which has the lyrics to a Queen song covered by Matt Fraction's discussion of why they couldn't use the lyrics to the Queen song, is worth buying the book for alone.

Zdarsky peppers this book with hilarious little visual gags (I'd like to know how much time he's spent imagining Cumworld), while still making such a ridiculous concept feel perfectly realistic.

As great as this comic is, it's only enhanced by the best letters page in comics, since at least the early days of Powers at Image.  The readers that write in treat this book as something between a traditional superhero comic and Dan Savage's advice column.  Brilliant, disturbing stuff all around.

Sex Criminals #1

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Chip Zdarsky

If you had the ability to stop time when you orgasm, and after years of not understanding this gift, finally found someone else who could do the same thing, what would you do?  If your answer is rob banks, then Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky's new Image series is probably perfect for you.  Even if that's not how your brain works, this is a comic that is well worth checking out.

Fraction has long established that he is a writer who is not afraid of exploring new ground, but you have to wonder where the idea for this book came from.  The obvious source is Nicholson Baker's strange novel The Fermata, but the protagonist there used his time-stopping powers to masturbate, not the other way around.

Regardless where the notion came from, the writing in this book is excellent.  Fraction spends most of this issue building up Suzie, our narrator.  When she was young, Suzie's father was killed in a workplace massacre, leaving the girl very much alone, as her mother retreated into a bottle.  Suzie explored a very usual adolescent escape, and that is how she learned of her ability.  Fraction follows her through the early teen years, as she figures out how her powers work, and learns that nobody else has the same ability.

The book picks up on Suzie as a young woman, who is obsessively trying to buy up the stock of local library that is being foreclosed upon by a bank.  Surrounding herself with old books, she throws a party to help raise funds to buy more.  It is there that she meets Jon, who she later learns has the same abilities she does.  That's where the bank robbing begins, and where the issue ends.

I really like the way that Fraction is pacing this series (many of his other books are much more frenetic), and think he found the perfect partner in crime in artist Chip Zdarsky.  He has a slightly cartoonish style, but it works very well in the context of this series.  Suzie is shown at different ages, and it's easy to tell how old she is in each scene.  As well, Zdarsky, a local artist, has Suzie living in a house not far from the spot where I pick up my comics every week, which is pretty cool.

The Annotated Mantooth

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Andy Kuhn and Tim Fisher

I think most readers aren't aware of the fact that Matt Fraction was bumping around the independent circuit for quite a while before getting noticed and published by Marvel, where he has become one of their main writers.  Some of his early work, like Last Of The Independents and Five Fists Of Science are terrific, and Casanova is sublime.  And then there's Mantooth.

There were three Mantooth stories told as part of an anthology series at Image, which were later collected and published alongside their script pages and with Fractions annotations in The Annotated Mantooth.  This extra material was needed in order to justify calling this book a trade paperback; otherwise, it would be just a little longer than a regular comic.

Rex Mantooth is a talking gorilla trained in kung fu and making things 'splode.  He has a sexy human agent girlfriend, and he goes on James Bond-style missions for the US government.  In the course of these three issues, he fights an Oprah Winfrey stand-in who is training an army of beautiful lesbians, a gigantic Nazi robot called World's Greatest Grandpa, Adolf Hitler in Fu Manchu drag, and an evil scientist who turns a room full of Nobel Prize winners into zombies.  I'll admit, zombie Stephen Hawkings is pretty funny.

If all of this sounds a little familiar, it's because you've seen it all before.  There has, over the last fifteen or so years, been a movement to develop 'awesome' as a genre.  It's where humour books like Axe Cop and Buddy Cops belong, but you could argue it also contains titles like Geof Darrow's Shaolin Cowboy.  'Awesome' comics are created by cartoonists who look for the wildest idea they can find, and mash it up with some slightly less wild ideas, irregardless of character or logical plotting.  It can be fun, but it doesn't stick with you.

If that's your kind of thing, you'd probably like Mantooth.  It is a fun read, but it out Michael Bay's Michael Bay.  You can kind of see the seeds that grew into Casanova here, and it's always entertaining to check out a creator's earlier work, but this is not a classic.

Casanova: Avaritia #4

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Gabriel Bá

I think I need to be clear from the beginning, that I'm not entirely sure what all happened in this issue of Casanova.  I've only read it once, and I think it needs to be read again, perhaps with the other three issues that make up this volume.  Perhaps I'd need to start from the beginning again.

What I do know is that the earlier issues of this series, back when it was published by Image, were also confusing, but much, much easier to follow.  Does any of this matter though?  I'd say not, because part of the point of Casanova is that it's a balls-to-the-wall crazy comic, and you're just supposed to go along with the ride.  And any comic that is this beautiful doesn't have to make sense; that's what makes this artform so freaking wonderful.

What I do know is that Sabine Seychelle tries to take over EMPIRE in the wake of the attack by Kaito's giant robot, that people are running all over the place shooting each other, that Casanova Quinn disguises himself to look like Newman Xeno but then runs into the real deal, and that Gabriel Bá is a comics art god.

Do we need more than that?  I would like to see the next arc be a little a quieter again, as I don't think the story can maintain this frenetic pace much longer without losing all semblance of sense.  Casanova continues to be the best work that Matt Fraction's ever done, and I can't wait for the next mini-series, whenever it comes along.

Casanova: Avaritia #3

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Gabriel Bá

How nice to see that the much-delayed newest issue of Casanova shipped this week (and that the next, last issue is solicited for June).  Casanova, when the series first began years ago at Image, was my introduction to Matt Fraction, and to Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, three of my current favourite comics makers.

This current mini-series is being used to wrap up the adventures of Casanova Quinn, and those of the many people around him.  In order to stop the world (or maybe the space-time continuum) from being destroyed, Casanova, an agent of EMPIRE, has been jumping into every parallel reality to kill Luther Desmond Diamond, the man destined to become the evil Newman Xeno, leader of WASTE.  Somewhere along the way, Cass has fallen in love with Luther, so now he and his girlfriend, the time traveler Sasa Lisi are trying to save him, and still save all of space and time.

Meanwhile, Xeno, knowing what Cass is up to, has hired Kaito, a former friend to Casanova, agent of EMPIRE, and pilot of a Second World War battle robot, to hunt down and kill Casanova, alongside escape artist David X and Cass's former lover Kubark Benday.

Confused yet?  If you aren't, you will be when you read this comic, which jumps around in time and reality, and which has characters who are incapable of understanding when and where they are.

Total understanding is not necessarily important though, as the book flows well, and it's easy to just sit back and enjoy the ride.  Much of the credit for that goes to Bá, whose artwork just keeps getting better.  There are some really crazy visuals in this comic, as Fraction and Bá take us on an emotional, spatial, and temporal roller-coaster.  It's great stuff, but it will definitely read better in trade form, without the six-month waits between issues.

Casanova: Avaritia #2

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Gabriel Bá

Just pause for a moment and take in that cover.  The fact that the scene it shows doesn't exactly happen like that in the book doesn't actually matter, does it?  That is one freaking amazing cover.

Actually, this is one pretty freaking amazing comic, even if reading it does lead to a level of cognitive fatigue not found in comics since Grant Morrison's Invisibles finished.

Casanova Quinn has stopped having to delete entire alternate timelines now, as he has instead discovered the true identity of arch villain Newman Xeno, and is instead working his way systematically through hundreds of alternates, taking him out.  Were that all that was happening in this book, it would be kind of simple, and we could just sit back and enjoy the different situations and settings that Cass finds himself in.  We could also enjoy the ways in which Fraction and Bá play around with things on a meta level.  Cass goes to kill Luther Desmond Diamond (aka Newman Xeno), the aspiring pop star, in an ancient Chinese setting with pandas, and on the next world, Diamond is signing copies of the comic he drew about that very thing.  There are lots of neat little tricks like that throughout this comic.

Where things become confusing though, is in trying to chart Casanova's feelings towards Diamond, his sorta girlfriend Sasa Lisi, and towards his compatriots at EMPIRE, the organization he works for.  There is a lot of subtle character stuff going on, made all the more difficult to follow because of the way the story is chopped up and spread across different timelines.

Fraction is putting his full brilliance behind this book, making it enjoyable on a number of levels (so unlike his recent Marvel work), and Gabriel Bá is straight killing on the art.  I may not catch everything that happens on the first read, but I am definitely loving this comic.

Casanova: Avaritia #1

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Gabriel Bá

It was pretty exciting to see that Matt Fraction and Gabriel Bá were going to publish new Casanova comics; the last two volumes of the series were reprints of the original Image Comics run of the title.  In anticipation of the new series, and with the intervention of a little bargain-hunting serendipity (although, with Casanova, it was probably part of a plan taking place at a greater scale), I reread the first two volumes over the last week or two, so I'd be caught up and in the right headspace for this book.

Of course, I'm confused as all get out, but am loving it nonetheless.  Cass is being sent into infinite mutant universes to kill himself, and then cauterize the entire timeline.  This has been going on for a while, and Cass is getting pretty tired of it, which is understandable.  He is assisted in this endeavor by Sasa Lisi, who reveals a little something behind why Quinn's father and boss, Cornelius Quinn is in such a rush to get this job done.

As always, this book is a thing of beauty, with Bá having improved his already fantastic art skills in the years since Casanova first saw publication, and having expanded the colour palette for this new series.  If you like highly intelligent comics, sophisticated plots, beautiful art, and tons and tons of casual nudity, this is the comic for you.

Casanoval Gula #1-4

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá

In anticipation of the new Casanova series starting this week (Avaritia), I picked up the second Icon series, which reprinted the second half of the original Image series.  I wanted to be brought back up to speed on the comic, as Casanova can be a pretty wild and confusing ride at the best of times.

Working through this series for the second time, and so recently after having read the first volume, I am once again struck by the level of creativity on display.  Casanova, our titular hero, goes missing somewhere in time (hence the question 'When is Casanova Quinn?' which graces the cover and gets repeated frequently throughout the story), and the entire time-space continuum is at risk of falling apart, or perhaps just resetting to the moment when Cass first entered the dimension that the stories take place in.  Arch villain Xeno Newman puts into motion a plan to secure the timeline, but to do so, he has to hire XSM (the X doesn't stand for anything, it stands for everything!) to construct a massive gun, and to kill anyone who knows about the mysterious H element.

To do this, XSM hires the newly returned Zephyr Quinn, and her and Kubark Benday, the scion of XSM (who is named after a CIA torture manual) go on a bit of a killing spree.  There's a lot more blood than the first volume, with just as many unexpected moments.

For this run, Fraction was joined by artist Fábio Moon, brother to original artist Gabriel Bá (who contributes a new back-up story).  Now, anyone who has read my stuff knows that Bá and Moon are some of my favourite comics creators (read Daytrippers!), but it's rare to be able to compare their work side by side, as they so often collaborate.  Moon's work here seems fuller than Bá's work on the first series.  It's interesting that the colour palette for this series is also much richer.  In the first volume, when it was being recoloured for Icon, the book retained much of the original monochromatic look of the Image series.  For this volume, things are much more varied.

Now that I'm up to date, I can't wait for Avaritia to start.

Casanova Vol. 1: Luxuria

Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Gabriel Bá

Back in 2006, when Casanova was first published by Image, I'd not heard of Matt Fraction (actually, I think I'd heard of Last of the Independents, but hadn't read it yet), or Gabriel Bá.  My interest in the book was purely economical - it was published in the same 'slimline' format as the brilliant Fell, and cost less than other books on the stand.  Add to that the fact that it had a very nice cover, and I thought I'd give it a try.

That first issue blew me away.  I was hooked by the frenetic, totally unpredictable writing, and loved Bá's minimalist art.  In sixteen pages, these guys packed in more story than Brian Michael Bendis can with a six-issue arc.  And man, was it good.

Basically, Casanova Quinn is a thief and scoundrel who gets lifted out of his home dimension by Newman Xeno, the leader of the criminal organization WASTE (acronyms are important here).  Now he is to take the place of this new world's good Casanova, meaning that he is the favourite child of his father, the director of EMPIRE (picture SHIELD, but more powerful).  Cass is working as a double agent for Newman, and trying to run his own gig through insane mission that involve an orgone-saturated town, sex robots, a meditating performance artist, an extra-dimensional island populated with doctorate-level savages, and more triple-agents than you can ever expect.

Fraction fills each page with insane ideas, and Bá more than rises to any challenge he gives him.  Since this comic originally came out, Marvel has had it re-coloured and re-printed in this new edition.  The third volume, which is of all new material, begins publication next week as a four-issue monthly, so I figured it was time to reread this series and get myself caught back up in the twisted world of the Quinn family.  I'm really glad I did, as I'd forgotten how great it is.

I would easily point to this book as Matt Fraction's best, and hope that even a small portion (I didn't want to use the word 'fraction') of the people who are reading and perhaps even enjoying Fear Itself, The Mighty Thor, or Invincible Iron Man (the only thing on this list that is good) give this series a shot.  As good as Bá is on this book, it of course does not compare to his more recent work, such as Daytrippers.

30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales

Written by Steve Niles and Matt Fraction
Art by Kody Chamberlain and Ben Templesmith

As I've said on here before, I've never really bothered with the 30 Days of Night series, and only ever bought the mini-series done by David Lapham because he's on my 'buy everything you can' list.

Well, parts of the concept interested me, so I decided to poke around through what was out there. Around the same time, I saw the solicitation for the tpb of Juarez, written by Matt Fraction (another person on my 'buy everything (non-Marvel)' list). Then, I found this on ebay, collecting both the Juarez story, and one other. Seeing as they are vastly different, I'll review them separately.

'Dead Billy Dead' is written by the series creator, and I suppose there's nothing wrong with it. It's about some guy who gets turned into a vampire, and basically falls afoul of some creepy professor. It's a good enough story I suppose, but it's not the type of thing that would ever get me into this franchise. The art is sketchy and a little hard to follow in places, but is generally serviceable.

'Juarez', on the other hand, is a mess, but a glorious mess. This is the type of Matt Fraction that I like best - where the ideas are flowing quicker than the story can handle. It's mostly about the missing girls in Juarez, and how one investigator - Lex Nova - thinks it is the work of vampires, as does the Zero Family Circus - a group of deranged vampires, looking for their lost Uncle Zero. Their stories collide, along with a faithless priest, and some Mexican whores. Again, all the elements needed for a great story.

Things don't really coalesce until the last chapter, which is really a prologue to the story. Lots of things don't make sense right until the very end, prompting the reader to turn back to the first page and start again. Things are further confused by Templesmith's art, which I always enjoy, but can't always follow.

'Juarez' made this a worthwhile purchase, and now has me interested in other writers who have dabbled in Nile's universe. 'Red Snow' is next on my to-buy list, if it's any good.

24 Seven

This anthology has a lot of my favourite creators as contributors: Spears, Lolos, Moon, Ba, Remender, Azaceta, Dalrymple, Maleev, Moore, Graham, Stokoe, Zezelj, Oeming, Cloonan, Canete, Fraction, and Irving are the ones that I admire the most.

That said, I'm not sure how well this anthology worked for me. The problem is with the central conceit of the NYC Mech series: that New York is populated by robots, and that their lives are the same as regular peoples'. This opens the door to regular stories being told, just some of the people look like robots, and others look like big action figures.

It seems like very few of the creators used the opportunity to make the stories more visually interesting because of the robot angle. Maleev's story about a blind robot comes to mind.

Even still, there are some nice stories here, and this is an entertaining book.