The Secret History of DB Cooper #5

by Brian Churilla

I hadn't realized, when I started buying this series, that it was going to end after five issues.  I was under the mistaken impression that the series was an on-going, and that it would chronicle just what DB Cooper was up to following his true historical disappearance.  Instead, this just takes us up to the events that happened on that airplane in the late 70s, but no further.

I'm not really complaining though, as this is an excellent comic.  Churilla has taken a real-life mystery, and weaved out of it one of the most bizarre and original comics of the last ten years.  In Churilla's telling of the story, DB Cooper, famous airplane hijacker, was really an agent for the CIA, involved in a remote assassination program carried out in an otherworldly landscape called The Glut. 

Cooper was so good at operating in the Glut that he no longer needed drugs to access it - he was really working in both worlds, going about his life (such as it was following the disappearance of his daughter and subsequent divorce from his wife) in our world, while tracking down monsters in another.

This final issue reveals a number of secrets, such as who had been working with the Soviets to access the Glut, where Cooper's daughter has been all this time, and just what was going to happen with Cooper's having become a gateway for Glut creatures to enter our world.  It also addresses just what happened on that airplane.

Churilla did an incredible job with this series.  It's a very intelligent comic, with a new approach to historical fiction.  I enjoyed it a great deal, and will definitely be keeping an eye out for whatever project Churilla decides to follow this up with.

The Secret History of DB Cooper #4

by Brian Churilla

With each new issue, I'm more and more impressed by how cool this comic is.  Brian Churilla has taken the historical mystery of DB Cooper, and reimagined it as a story involving a monster-filled psychic plane, the CIA, missing children, and Soviet intrigue.

In this issue, Cooper discovers that he can now act as a sort of gateway for creatures trying to cross from the Glut (the name of the bizarre world where he conducts his psychic assassinations) into our world.  The CIA believes they've identified the double agent who has infiltrated their ranks, and are also trying to arrest Cooper.  Meanwhile, in the Glut, he finally meets the Soviet agent who has been pursuing him.  The issue ends with a revelation I didn't see coming.

Churilla is a master of the monster comic, coming up with all sorts of strange and disturbing creatures, but it is his character work in the 'real' world of this comic that impresses me the most here.  This is an excellently paced series, and each issue has left me wanting more.

The Secret History of DB Cooper #3

by Brian Churilla

I don't know if anyone would have predicted that one of the comic book trends of 2012 would be to appropriate real historical figures and events, and incorporate them into wonderfully wild and imaginative comics that seem to lack any pretense to following the rules of reality.  We see it in Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra's wonderful Manhattan Projects, and also in Brian Churilla's The Secret History of DB Cooper.

Churilla has taken the mysterious airplane hijacker of the 1970s and turned him into a CIA assassin who stalks his prey remotely through The Glut, a psychic world populated by monsters.  In this issue, we learn a lot more about Cooper's family, his abilities, and the Soviet reaction to his successful string of sixty killings. 

Churilla traffics in weirdness in this issue, as Cooper's hated fellow agent tries to get his project shut down just when Cooper feels close to finding his missing daughter in The Glut.  We also start to see the effect that his missions are having on his physical body, something that was not supposed to be taking place.  We also learn that the Soviets have an agent searching The Glut for Cooper, casting more suspicion on the loveable red teddy bear who is his companion in that strange world.

Churilla is really going nuts on the art in this series.  Always inventive, he gives us a monster this issue that looks like an upside-down woman, with a mouth where her genitalia would be.  I found it an immensely disturbing (and funny) image.  This is a great series, and I hope that anyone reading The Manhattan Projects is also checking this out.

The Secret History of DB Cooper #2

by Brian Churilla

I really enjoyed the first issue of Brian Churilla's The Secret History of DB Cooper, but with this second issue, really feel like I have a better grasp on where this series is going, and am pretty excited to follow it.

What we know so far is that DB Cooper, the man who would soon famously hijack an airplane and disappear with his ransom forever, is an agent for the FBI involved in remote viewing assassinations.  At first, I thought that he was able to travel to a strange monster-filled world to complete his missions, but in this issue, we learn that he is more or less always in both worlds; Cooper's psyche is completely fractured, and he no longer needs drugs or briefings in order to complete the tasks given to him.

This issue fills in a fair amount of his backstory - we know that his daughter was abducted, and that his marriage fell apart because of the guilt that he feels about it.  We also see more proof that his fellow agent hates him, but we still don't know why.  Also, questions are raised about the true identity of the red one-eared teddy bear that accompanies him on his missions.

This is shaping up to be a very original and interesting new series.  Churilla is a fascinating artist, who clearly has a master plan for this book.  I'm definitely going to be sticking with it for the long haul.

The Secret History of D.B. Cooper #1

by Brian Churilla

I really didn't know what to expect going in to this comic.  I tend not to read solicitation information for books I know I'm going to buy, and Oni Press had my interest with the title alone.  I was a bit skeptical though, because the only other comic I've read by Brian Churilla (The Anchor) wasn't really my thing, but I decided to keep an open mind and give this a few issues based on originality of concept alone.  And that's when I just thought it was going to be about one of the first successful skyjackers.

As it turns out, this book is about so much more than that.  DB Cooper is known for taking over an airplane in 1971, receiving $200 000 in cash (how quaint a number like that seems today) and a pair of parachutes, and then jumping out mid-flight and disappearing forever.  This comic takes place a week before that event, and we learn that Cooper is a Federal Agent who apparently is part of a remote assassination program.

We spend most of the issue in a strange landscape, where Cooper's only companion is a one-eared walking teddy bear.  He gets into a fight with a monster, and we see the consequences of that fight in the real world.  It's an interesting concept, and I'm curious to see how this job (he's been an agent for about three years we are told) leads to his moment in the spotlight.  I assume most of this series will take place after the highjacking, as there is only so much that can be fit into a week, even in comics.

Churilla is having a good time designing the monsters and strange landscapes of this book.  His art is a little reminiscent of Mike Mignola in his attention to shadow and use of dark colour, but is also more cartoonish and loose.  His Cooper is a pretty complicated and unlikeable guy, and it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. 

This is definitely worth taking a look at if you are in the market for an intelligent independent comic.