The Milkman Murders

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Steve Parkhouse

When opening up a comic by Joe Casey, the informed reader expects a certain amount of excess - usually some ultraviolence in the vein of a Tarantino movie, or some satire of the comics industry.  I wasn't really prepared for the degree to which The Milkman Murders disturbed me.

Casey has set his story in a nameless American suburb, where Barbara Vale lives with her husband and two teenage children.  Her husband is abusive and takes drugs with his friends.  Her daughter is sleeping with her gym teacher, and has quite a history with this sort of thing.  Her son likes to shoot neighbourhood animals and skin them in the cellar.  None of these people show her any kindness, and so she retreats into watching "Leave it to Mother", a TV show based on Leave it to Beaver.

One day, rather randomly, a slob driving a milk truck shows up at the door and rapes Barbara viciously.  After this terrifying event, she decides she has to take matters into her own hands to fix her family.  And that's where things get really violent and disturbing.

I've followed Steve Parkhouse's North American comics for years, most recently in the excellent Resident Alien, but I've never seen his work so loose.  His characters are caricatures of typical Americans, although that makes this book look less American than almost anything else on the stands.

Casey and Parkhouse's comments on American society are just left on the surface for us to see, and there is no hidden depth to this book, but so far as straight-up horror comics go, this is one of the creepiest ones I've ever read.

Dark Horse Presents #20

Written by Michael Avon Oeming, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Geoffrey Thorne, Ulises Farinas, Erick Freitas, Frank J. Barbiere, Corinna Bechko, Gabriel Hardman, Joshua Williamson, Peter Hogan, Duane Swierczynski, and Carla Speed McNeil
Art by Michael Avon Oeming, Steve Lieber, Todd Harris, Ulises Farinas, Toby Cypress, Gabriel Hardman, Pere Perez, Steve Parkhouse, Eric Nguyen, and Carla Speed McNeil

More and more, I feel like the lustre is coming off this title, as the serials are increasingly being produced in service of introducing upcoming mini-series, and the sense of getting a complete story out of this rather expensive monthly book is drastically diminished.  In addition, I'm not sure I'm happy about the increased presence of superhero-style stories.  That has never been a particular strength of Dark Horse, yet there seems to be a drive to compete in that area again.

This issue features a Victories story by Michael Avon Oeming.  The Victories is either currently running, or just finished running as a mini-series as well, so this story doesn't feel the need to introduce the characters.  When Oeming writes his own superhero stories, they tend to be pretty bleak (check out his Rapture title of a couple of years ago), and this is no different, with a scene where a father cuts off the head of a dog, and forces it over his own son's head.  This doesn't work for me.

I was enjoying the Captain Midnight story, which ends here without an ending, but instead an ad for an upcoming mini-series.  Both Joshua Williamson and Pere Perez have done nice work on this, but I don't know if it's going to be enough to get me to buy the book when it comes out.

I do know that I don't like X, Dark Horse's answer to the Punisher.  I didn't like the character in the 90s, and I'm not feeling him here under Duane Swierczynski and Eric Nguyen.

In the non-super hero category, the charm of Caitlin R. Kiernan's Alabaster continues to escape me, although I did like this chapter better than the previous ones.

Journeymen is a new series by Geoffrey Thorne and Todd Harris, and I don't really have an opinion of it.  I think it needed more space to grow, as it didn't leave much of an impression either way.

Gamma, the strange story about monsters and cowardice, by Ulises Farinas and Erick Freitas, ends on a very good note, as the story becomes one of redemption.  I feel that Farinas is a creator to watch.

Frank Barbiere's occasional series 'The White Suits' takes a very positive turn with this instalment, which is drawn by the fantastic Toby Cypress.  This time, we get a story about an FBI agent who has dedicated her life to finding her missing father, who she now believes is somehow involved with the White Suits - Russian mobsters of great mystery.  I like how Barbiere has been building the mythology of this group without really telling us anything about them, and I like how he's been working with a variety of artists.

Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman's 'Station to Station' feels like it could easily fit into the BPRD world, and it continues to work well.

Resident Alien is one of my favourite serials in this series, and while it annoys me that the last three chapters haven't even told a story, but just follow our good alien doctor through his recovery from his first mini-series, I do enjoy Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse's work on this story, and will definitely be there for the next mini-series.

Of course, the best part of this comic is Carla Speed McNeil's 'Finder', which finds Jaeger in a bad place, as he discovers that he's in a city where everyone is terminally ill, and that they are able to pass their ailments on to another person, namely him.  This is a new type of sin-eating for Jaeger to perform, and I can't wait to see what McNeil does with it.

I think I would continue to buy this book if Finder is the only story in it I want to read.  Luckily, next month we get Neil Gaiman and Paul Chadwick working together, which should be exciting.

Dark Horse Presents #19

Written by Duane Swierczynski, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Ulises Farinas, Erick Freitas, Joshua Williamson, Matt Kindt, Phil Stanford, Peter Hogan, Corinna Bechko, Gabriel Hardman, and Frank J. Barbiere
Art by Eric Nguyen, Steve Lieber, Tony Akins, Ulises Farinas, Victor Ibáñez, Matt Kindt, Patric Reynolds, Steve Parkhouse, Gabriel Hardman, and Giovanni Valletta

You know, I'm starting to wonder if it makes sense to keep buying Dark Horse Presents, since most of the stories I'm interested in, aside from Finder, are always getting collected into single issues before the mini-series that almost inevitably follow a three- or four-issue run in DHP.  I think the problem I had with this issue, more than anything though, was the lack of a Finder story by Carla Speed McNeil (which is the absolute best reason to buy this comic).

Anyway, there are still some gems in this issue.  Matt Kindt provides a Mind MGMT short story which helps showcase why his on-going series is such a wonderful thing.  This story introduces us to Duncan, an agent with the ability to predict the future by reading the minds of those around him.

Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, who have been impressing me on their Planet of the Apes stories at Boom, debut Station to Station, a new science fiction serial about a science experiment that has destroyed a small island in the Bay Area, and has somehow brought some very BPRD-looking creatures into our world.  Hardman's a great artist, so I was very happy to see him working on this.

I am becoming every more intrigued by Gamma, a strange science fiction series by Ulises Farinas and Erick Freitas.  We get a good idea of why the main character is considered a coward in this installment, but we are given a very bleak view of their fictional world, without an explanation of how society came back from it.  I hope this series is running for a while...

I also enjoyed the new chapters of Resident Alien and Deep Sea, although I got the sense that the latter story is finished for now, and not in a satisfying way.  It's been a while since we last saw The White Suits, and I didn't enjoy this chapter as much as I did the first, partly I think, because of the length of time that has passed.  I am enjoying the Captain Midnight serial.

The cover to this issue is given over to the relaunching of X, one of Dark Horse's Comics Greatest World titles from the 90s.  I didn't like it then, and it continues to read like a Punisher knock-off with a fetish twist.  Not for me.  Likewise, I'm not a fan of the Alabaster or City of Roses stories.

Here's hoping for some Carla Speed McNeil next issue.

Dark Horse Presents #18

Written by Joshua Williamson, Carla Speed McNeil, Ulises Farinas, Erick Freitas, Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Corben, Dara Naraghi, Phil Stanford, Peter Hogan, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Colin Lorimer, and Mike Richardson
Art by Victor Ibáñez, Carla Speed McNeil, Ulises Farinas, Richard Corben, Victor Santos, Patric Reynolds, Steve Parkhouse, Steve Lieber, Colin Lorimer, and Ron Chan

This issue of Dark Horse Presents is much stronger than some of the recent issues, as some new serials begin, some of the better ones continue or return, and we are given an excellent one-off memoir.

The book opens with a story about Captain Midnight, by Joshua Williamson and Victor Ibáñez.  A WWII plane comes flying out of the Bermuda Triangle, piloted by the Captain, who ends up on the deck of a US aircraft carrier.  It's clear that he is lost in time.  What's not clear is if this is a new character or one that has shown up before (the title loudly proclaims that he 'returns').  All I know is that I enjoyed this story, but I'm not familiar with this character.

From there, we get a new chapter of Finder, my now-favourite science fiction comic.  Jaegar is in a city he hasn't been to before, where it appears that all the citizens suffer from something called Apex Sudden Death Syndrome.  Consequently, no one goes outside, and are instead represented by different types of holographic avatars.  This is pretty typical work from Carla Speed McNeil - it's dense with ideas and characterization, and there is a general assumption that we already know what she's talking about, even though these ideas are brand new.  I'm completely hooked on this serial.

After that comes 'Gamma', a new serial by Ulises Farias and Erick Freitas.  It's a bizarre little story that starts off being about a 'coward' who hangs out a bar all day, where people pay $50 to punch him in the face.  Later, he's asked to help a battered woman stand up to her husband, and suddenly this story is about people using holographic 'monsters' to fight each other.  Farias's art has a bit of a Brandon Graham meets Moebius vibe to it, so I'm on board.

Richard Corben gives us another adaptation of an Edgar Allen Poe poem or short story, and as is always the case with these things, it's lovely and odd.

One of the best pieces this month is Dara Naraghi's memoir of growing up on the shore of the Caspian Sea in Iran.  It's lovingly illustrated by Victor Santos, and very nicely evokes a lost time and place.  I really wish we'd see more things like this in anthologies and comics in general.

Resident Alien, which is an excellent series, returns this month with a strangely-paced story.  It opens with a dream shared between the alien doctor's assistant and her grandfather (I think?), before we move back in time three years, and see the US military men who found the doctor's spacecraft, as they investigate his arrival on Earth.  I'm not sure where this is leading, but I'm happy to see more of this story.

Alabaster returns, and City of Roses continues, but neither really grab my attention.  I feel the same about The Secret Order of the Teddy Bears, which is an all-ages story that is lacking the complexity of some of the other all-ages pieces that have run in this book (I'm thinking of Beasts of Burden, which is brilliant).

UXB, another on-going serial, continues to mystify me in its lack of narrative cohesion.  I really do not understand what is going on in this series.

Still, this is a very successful issue overall.

Resident Alien #1

Written by Peter Hogan
Art by Steve Parkhouse

It kind of feels like Dark Horse is the new Vertigo, as they are beginning to take chances on new, off-beat series with a more adult feel to them, kind of like many of the mini-series that DC's imprint used to publish ten years ago or so.

Resident Alien is a good little series.  This first issue can not be read without first reading either the stories that were published in Dark Horse Presents, or the '0' issue that reprinted them last month.  The book is set in the small town of Patience, where the local doctor has been murdered.  The town does host a retired doctor, who is pushed into service examining the body, and then taking over the deceased's practice until a replacement can be found.

The thing is, the retired doctor, Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle, is actually an alien from another planet, who crashed onto Earth years ago, and is trying to just live a quiet life.  His abilities to subtly influence the minds of others mean that no one else can see him for who he really is, although it appears that is presence gives one of the nurses a headache.

There are some standard small-town mystery things going on in this issue.  There is a suspect, who was known to have stolen drugs from the dead doctor, and who is being charged with his murder, despite his claims of innocence.  There is also suspicion that the doctor's death was not an isolated incident, but is in fact part of a pattern of unexplained deaths.

Peter Hogan fills this comic with strong character work, and Steve Parkhouse, as always, turns in some very nice art.  This is not likely to become anyone's favourite comic, but it is a well-crafted and drawn story, that is doing some interesting things with some conventional ideas.  It's worth checking out.

Dark Horse Presents #4

Written by Evan Dorkin, Chuck Brown, Felipe Melo, Robert Love, David Walker, Peter Hogan, Steve Niles, Howard Chaykin, Ricardo Delgado, Carla Speed McNeil, and Dara Naraghi
Art by Jill Thompson, Sanford Greene, Juan Cavia, Robert Love, Steve Parkhouse, Christopher Mitten, Howard Chaykin, Ricardo Delgado, Carla Speed McNeil, and Victor Santos

Now this is a lot more of what I was expecting from the beginning with Dark Horse Presents.  This issue launches a few new stories, and misses some of the others that have been annoying me, creating a much more balanced book, which made me much happier.

Of course, there are three stories in here that make the whole thing worth buying: a Beasts of Burden story, another chapter of Finder, and The Protest, a memoir.  The Beasts are as great as always, as two of the wise dogs (of course, one is Orphan the cat) go hunting for a Goblin that has been eating chickens in the town.  Beasts of Burden is beautiful, and this story is both amusing, and a little darker than some of the previous ones.  The Finder story was a little unclear (I miss McNeil's annotations, which would have come in handy here), but reinforces that I should really be getting the Finder Library collections.

The Protest is terrific.  It is about Dara Naraghi's life in Tehran, shortly after the Revolution.  He and his friend are supposed to attend a protest march with their school, but the bully who usually tortures them helps them out.  It's a subtle and interesting work, and would work alongside Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi's comic memoir which deals with the same material.  I love the way Victor Santos drew this - it reminds me a lot of Rafael Albuquerque.

The Adventures of Dog Mendonca and Pizzaboy didn't look too interesting, until we established that the private eye main character has been around for a really long time, and is a werewolf.  The art is nice, and I'm curious to see where this story goes.

Resident Alien, by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse shows a lot of promise.  It's about an extraterrestrial who is trying to live in secret on Earth, but who has now been tapped by the police in the middle of nowhere area he lives to help with a murder case.  I'm looking forward to the rest of this one.

Ricardo Delgado's Age of Reptiles is pretty, but silent, so I found it didn't do a whole lot for me.  I think I just don't care about dinosaurs, really.

I'm continuing to really enjoy Love and Walker's Number 13, and was surprised to find myself getting more interested in Howard Chaykin's Marked Man.  The new Criminal Macabre story did nothing for me, despite having art by Christopher Mitten, and I continue to not really get Rotten Apples.

I missed Concrete this month, but was very happy to see that Neal Adams's Blood was not to be seen.  I feel like this anthology is on the right track.

The Hellboy Project: Hellboy Weird Tales Vol. 1

by too many people to list here

I've been reading a lot of Hellboy (and Hellboy-related) comics lately.  I'm trying to get caught up with the current issues now coming out, and so I've accelerated my 'Hellboy Project' a little.  Reading this was a nice way to recharge a little.

The Weird Tales books collect the mini-series of the same name.  It features stories starring Hellboy and his BPRD friends, but Mike Mignola's name is nowhere near this project (except on the logo - I just noticed that).  Instead, the stories are done by a number of different people from the comics and animation industries, and while the results are a little mixed, the book is never boring.

The highlights are stories by John Cassaday, Alex Maleev, Jason Pearson, Eric Powell (young Hellboy!), Steve Lieber, and Steve Parkhouse (w/ Joe Casey).

Perhaps the most impressive story is the one that involves Hellboy dealing with a haunted hot spring in Japan.  It is written by Randy Stradley, and features the first published work of artist Seung Kim, whose black and white pencils are gorgeous.

I'm not one for cutesy comics, so the contributions by Bob Fingerman, Roger Langridge, and Ovi Nedelcu did nothing for me, although I kind of liked Eric Wight and Andi Watsons' stories.

In all, it's always fun to see different takes on a favourite character, and the editors of this book did not disappoint.