Memoir #1

Written by Ben McCool
Art by Nikki Cook

I suppose the easiest way to describe this new mini-series from Image is 'Twilight Zone-esque' (Twilight Zonian?).  This reporter, Trent MacGowan, travels to Lowesville, where apparently everyone woke up a year ago with amnesia.  It seems that the world's media has left the town now, and Trent is going there to see if there is still a story worth writing about.

The town is a typical middle-American place, (except that most of the businesses downtown seem to be in operation, so I guess there's no Wal-Mart) albeit more quiet than most.  People clearly keep to themselves, and no one is too interested in talking to Trent.  Then the random weird things start happening - the town's butcher tells him not to eat meat, and generally acts like a delusional schizophrenic.  Some other dude manages to dig up a large, body-filled coffin in the middle of the street.  Oh, and some lady in the library believes that all strangers are employed by the government.

This issue is mostly concerned with setting up the plot and creating atmosphere, so it's not all that easily judged.  The e-mail exchange that closes out the issue does seem interesting, but is it enough for me to come back for?  I found that the first issue of McCool's Choker didn't do much to impress me, and that was with Ben Templesmith handling the art.  Nikki Cook's work here reminds me a lot of Ryan Kelly (I saw one on-line reviewer refer to her erroneously as the artist from Local), but many of her figures come off as a little misshapen.  I'm not sure if that's intentional or not at this point.

This is a decent enough debut, but I'm not sure if there is enough happening here to bring me back for the second issue.

Phonogram: The Singles Club #7

Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Jamie McKelvie, with Nikki Cook, Becky Cloonan, Andy Bloor, and Sean Azzopardi

This is definitely not what I expected for the end of this series. So far, each issue of The Singles Club has been showing us differing perspectives on the same night, at the same club. I'd sort of expected the last chapter to somehow pull together a number of the different threads of each character's tale, but instead, we have an almost completely wordless issue focusing on Kid-With-a-Knife, David Kohl's (previously) non-Phonomancer friend and muscle.

And it's a great issue. Kid experiments with phonomancy, pisses off some London toughs, dances, and gets the girl. It sounds like the perfect night. As usual, McKelvie's art is brilliant, and there's a cool page where all the pictures are drawn inside the lyrics to a song hook.

The back-ups are where this issue really shines though, as there is a short story featuring Indie Dave drawn by Becky Cloonan. This was a huge surprise for me, as I love Becky Cloonan. The story looks a lot like her boyfriend's issue of Northlanders, and it's awesome.

I do hope that Phonogram returns soon, and doesn't become the victim of Gillen's employment at Marvel.

DMZ #41

Written by Brian Wood
Art by Nikki Cook

This would be the best book that came out this week.

To begin with, I love the cover. I was upset when I heard that Wood wouldn't be supplying the covers anymore, but I think this is the best-looking issue of the series to date. I don't know who's decision it was to paint the logo the same colour as the rest of the cover, but it totally jumped out at me as I was going through my stack of new books, and is one of the few comic book covers I would consider hanging as art in my home. John Paul Leon should be commended for his innovation here.

Then, the story. I've liked Zee since she first appeared in the series, and so I was happy to hear that she was getting a solo-issue appearance. I was even happier to see that Wood used this issue to explore some of the things going on in the DMZ outside of Parco City, and to not focus on Zee pining for Matty through the whole thing. She's a very strong character, and she's been allowed to stay a strong character.

Nikki Cook's guest art is suited perfectly to the story, and carries the same sensibilities of artists like Kristian Donaldson and Ryan Kelly. Her look fits into the tone of the series quite nicely. I would love to see more of these one-shot issues, as I'm getting a little tired of Matty, and I feel like there is a lot more in the DMZ to take a look at.