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Breakdowns - The Meme Generation

June 19, 2003

I’ve got a lot of little items to talk about this week, plus the usual batch of graphic novel and floppy reviews, so let’s get to it.

Oh, the “meme” thing above. That’s for you little comics reviewers out there from your old pal, Chris. Start using it in your reviews—it’s the new “widescreen”. And if you write columns or do commentary stuff, start working in “blogosphere” where you can. Don’t be left behind.

I have to say, even though I initially grumbled at the extra workload, that Fantagraphics piece A.K. cajoled me into ended up being really rewarding. Sort of an interesting writing challenge, having to be kind of the straight man / closer / lyrical waxer, plus I heard that the piece made its way around the Fanta offices and even Gary Groth liked it. So hey, if some of you read it and ordered some books, let me know. Maybe if I tally over $500 worth, Gary will call. Me, not you. You’ve got enough problems without Gary calling in that sexy voice, causing a domestic disturbance with your mate.

Speaking of A.K., well, I guess it’s about time, huh? He’s going and all. On the Poop Shoot, he’s one of the few guys I consider a friend, as I knew him before this. We’ve only met once, actually, but there’s always e-mail, message boards…Basically, I got to experience the nascent TITLE BOUT. It’s been fascinating to me to see how people react to what I feel is the funniest, most entertaining, unique comics column on the web. At the Comic-Con International: San Diego last year, we found out a lot of pros read it, kind of like a lot read Rich Johnston’s gossip column, in that it’s something many won’t admit to. And A.K. has really only gotten better. Maybe a couple off ones, but I almost always find something or three to make me laugh out loud. Better than that, though, is the amount of almost invisible care he puts into it. Look at the column and see how he strings thoughts together and finds one with a lot of mileage in it, then figures ways to return to it as the column progresses. It’s a great technique, not used nearly so well in any other columns I read. Add some razor-sharp wit, absurdity, and brutal analysis and you can see just what we’re losing when he calls it quits this month. Now, sure, I can appreciate that some people actively hate TITLE BOUT, and I also appreciate that these people will die cold and alone, not found for weeks. Thank you for doing that for me.

And in case you didn’t notice, A.K. has in the past couple weeks started to get sincere and even maudlin about comics creators like Chris Ware and others. It’s really like Johnny’s last week on The Tonight Show around here.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Turkey. Go here to check out a sci-fi comics webmag based out of Turkey. Kutsi Akilli sent me the link, and his “Troia” is one of the more visually arresting things there, though there’s a lot of talent to be found in the Gallery, including Ertug, Ozug Demir, T. Gardner, and Mehmet Siyahkalem, who paints these incredible pictures that look hundreds of years old, beasts right out of Bosch. I’m sure the translation was a problem, but I can’t say any of the stories really interested me.

As far as The News in Comics, I guess the big story as I write this is Mark Waid getting fired from writing Marvel’s FANTASTIC FOUR, with the rumor being that not only did Waid’s vision not meet Marvel’s aim of matching the upcoming wacky, suburban, “Honey, I Bombarded Us With Cosmic Rays” (I’m not taking credit for this joke, and why would I?) version in the upcoming movie, but that Marvel Prez Bill (MARVILLE) Jemas would be writing it. I’ve already seen the message board posts with the tired cries of “Fuck Marvel” that attend every cancellation, price change, late book, etc., and that’s just not me. All I can say is Waid seemed to really be hitting his stride, and he and Mike Wieringo made the book really enjoyable again. There’s still, what? Like nine issues left of the run, I think, and I’ll continue to pick them up, hoping the quality stays high—meaning let’s hope Waid doesn’t skip out after plotting and leave the scripting to Chuck Austen—and then, when W&W go, so do I, if the new team doesn’t look interesting. I do think it’s funny that the whiny net community Marvel and other publishers like to sneer at were vocal enough to scare Jemas out of writing the book, though, but rest unassured that he’ll be spreading bad memes through other Marvel books, credited or not. It’s too bad Waid is screwed by Marvel for a third time, especially when the company desperately needs a clever, all-ages mainstream writer in their employ. Who is there to inject new ideas and Waid’s level of enthusiasm for a book?

Speaking of Marvel movies, I must admit to being pleased at seeing the wide range of grocery store items bearing the likeness of the Hulk on them. I’m not even that excited about the movie but it’s fun to have comics stuff out there where everyone can see and remember, hopefully.

Anyway, after this interminable intro, it’s time for the reviews, including SIDEKICKS: SUPER FUN SUMMER SPECIAL by J. Torres, Takeshi Miyazawa, Scott Morse, Steve Rolston, Mike Wieringo, Mike Norton and J. Bone. Oni Press. $2.95
Well, it does take place in Summer, I’ll give them that. How super, fun or special it is depends entirely on a hypothetical, deep and abiding love for these characters from past SIDEKICKS stories, as you’ll get no reason to care for them here. I’ve never read the book before and hoped this special would be a nice introduction, but it’s really just a handful of episodes drawn by different talented artists in search of a story. I mean, the set-up has a little promise to it: what did you superpowered kids do on your summer vacations? And it turns out, the boys went to a concert and crowd-surfed and the girls tried on bikinis. Good heavens. Based on some of his work-for-hire Marvel stuff, Torres is a fan of the Claremont X-MEN, so maybe this is his homage to those occasional issues where the action would stop and our favorite mutants would kick back and play softball. The key differences being: 1) there was still some sort of story there; and 2) Claremont didn’t start writing these issues until years after the characters were established, even beloved. I don’t know these people. Most curious is the Scott Morse-drawn section, which is a mostly silent sequence of a cartoony wolf chasing a squirrel, then he changes back to a French-speaking man and meets his grandmother, who doesn’t know about his ability. I assume this is one of the students, but it’s never explained, and Morse’s style is so different from everyone else’s here that I can’t tell if the character appears elsewhere in the book. It’s too bad this book was allowed to see print, as any of the episodes would have been fine with an actual story running through them, and some basic background on the characters. As it is, it’s a waste of time.

Firsts

TROUBLE #1 (OF 5) by Mark Millar and Terry & Rachel Dodson. Marvel Comics. $2.99
I wasn’t actually one of the easy marks sent an early copy of this book, so I can’t tell you how I got it. What’s important is that I can warn you about this toxin before it’s too late!

Actually, I’m kidding a little. TROUBLE has at least part of its heart in the right place, but it’s also in a lot of other places, trying to please first a committee of Marvel honchos and the creative team, and then, hopefully, at least a couple of disparate demographics, teenaged girls and thirtysomething pasty Marvelphiles like you and me. In this it reminds me of the last big event, ORIGIN, where the history of Wolverine/Logan was set in some mythical storybook Canada no one’s ever seen.

In this book, the fairy land is a 1973 upstate New York where the teenaged characters of May, Mary, Ben and Richard are as attractive as one might expect from the Dodsons, and dress and talk in a contemporary manner. One guy teases the other as being “gay”, a word I don’t believe was popular at the time. I think one of the girls uses “so” the way it’s overused today. There’s a conscious decision not to reflect anything about the 70s, be it the architecture, social mores or current events. I mean, you get four attractive high schoolers working at a resort for the summer, I admit, you shouldn’t expect a lot of ranting about Vietnam, but why set it in the 70s anyway if you’re not going to make an attempt to capture a little of that period?

The answer is that in this way, the teen girls won’t get turned off by the setting, presumably, and the older readers have the gimmick of getting to see Peter Parker’s beloved Aunt May get syrup on her wheatcakes. Basic logic dictates this version would have to be the Ultimate Universe May, as she’s only about 15 here and would be 45 thirty years later, whereas the Marvel Universe May has got to be in her 60s at least. Personality-wise, the Ultimate May is spunkier and more with it, and Millar’s take on her is fairly consistent with what we’ve seen. I think this may be one to give some benefit of the doubt on, as talk of teen pregnancy suggests the randy goings-on of this issue are just set-up for a quick dose of maturity and responsibility. Right now, the problem is that it reads much like a dozen 80s teen sex comedies, down to the clichéd supporting characters, so I’m hoping Millar sharpens the writing in future issues. He has a tendency at times to embrace the tackiest of ideas—witness the “face it, tiger, you just hit the jackpot!” joke in this issue—and I think he’s got to work harder to make something that will actually strike a chord with the teen girl bookstore audience and the fanboy leery of beloved characters getting sullied.

TOKYO STORM WARNING #1 (OF 3) By Warren Ellis, James Raiz and Andrew Currie. Cliffhanger/Wildstorm Productions. $2.95
I suppose by now it’s apparent that an Ellis three-issue miniseries is the equivalent of asking a distance runner to sprint. He’s got the legs and the energy, but there’s no room to see much of it here. Still, you know you’re watching a real runner.

This, as the numerous house ads prove, is but one in a burgeoning line of attempts by DC to grab the manga readership without doing much more than appropriating the simplest aspects of it. In this case, Ellis works backwards from an Elvis Costello song title to arrive at a Japan quite used to battling giant monsters. Because it’s imperative that these Japanese have sticks in their stereotypical asses, apparently, a gauche but spunky American is transferred to take control of one of their giant, monster-fighting robots. And to really fire up that culture clash--she’s a gurl!. Pretty standard stuff, so one is happy when she gets in the big robot and starts fighting. Raiz’ art is nice, not inspired or individual but he does the work dutifully and with sensible storytelling. Myself, if I’m signing on for three issues of meaningless mecha action, I’d rather have someone more distinct and surprising even if he had less detail.

DARK DAYS by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. IDW Publishing. $3.99
I confess I had I had some mild trepidation about this book. I mean, it’s a sequel to something I liked a lot, and there’s always the concern the creators will coast and rehash the original, and with this new miniseries they have twice as many issues to do that.

Not to worry. Niles does pick up the moment after 30 DAYS OF NIGHT ends, but from there he heads in a new direction. Stella Olemaun is the lead here now that her husband Eben has died a hero. The truth about vampires is out in the public consciousness now, and she’s riding high on a best-selling book about her experiences in Barrow when the vampires came to feed. And now, every book tour appearance puts her at risk from vampire attack, but she and her crew are ready. I found this a great plot element, and the entire issue is thoroughly entertaining, with Templesmith noticeably improved as an artist since the first book.

The fact that I remembered all the above easily is a testament to how enjoyable the book is. Even those who find the price a little high should know that there’s some bonus material, such as a brief Templesmith interview and a short story excerpt from Niles’ upcoming Cal McDonald collection DIAL M FOR MONSTER.

Naphic Grovels and Paid Traitorbacks

ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL by Stan Lee, Wally Wood, John Romita, Sr., Gene Colan and Others. Marvel Comics. $14.95
It occurs to me that I don’t review that many old school superhero comics, so readers may think I’m mainly about the art-comics and dark, ironic spandex books of today. Well, the reason I picked this book up has something to do with liking the character of Daredevil, but even more to do with being a fan of the work of Lee, Wood, Romita and Colan. Back in Frank Miller’s legendary run, a company produced a DAREDEVIL COMPANION that offered a succinct analysis of the series to date, so I already knew and remembered that the early stuff wasn’t so hot. Yes, this is another classic Marvel series with inauspicious beginnings, something that feels like Lee didn’t give it nearly the same thought as he did FANTASTIC FOUR or AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, nor did he have inspired co-creators like Kirby or Ditko. The early issues, drawn by the likes of Bill Everett and Joe Orlando—neither at their best here—quickly establish the kooky premise of the blind crimefighter, and then go about making this most unusual character a perennial second-stringer with the lack of ideas in the writing. The FF had Mole Man and Dr. Doom in their first couple issues, Spidey had Elektro, the Chameleon, the Green Goblin and others in the first year. Ol’ Hornhead has to mix it up with The Purple Man, the Owl and the Masked Marauder. It would be a long time before he found his true nemeses in the Kingpin and Bullseye, certainly not in this volume. After the doldrums of the first few issues, you’ll be champing at the bit to see the first appearances of Gladiator and Stilt-Man, believe me.

A jolt of energy arrives in the second half of the series’ first year when Wally Wood takes over on art. Wood begins on an unqualified clunker of a villain—the Matador—and is generally let down on the writing by first Lee and then himself, bringing little to the table beyond some still-exciting action sequences that show DD at his most acrobatic. It’s good enough to make these issues worthwhile, especially at this price, but then Wood is gone after less than a year. The momentum isn’t lost, though, as John Romita is the new artist. He works for he first couple issues from Kirby layouts, and the results are less than impressive. The recent COMICS JOURNAL interview suggests he was a bit nervous stepping from years of DC romance comics to superhero action, but when he takes over the layouts in #14 and onward, he’s sensational.

Not that Lee gives Jazzy Johnny much to work with, either. #15’s “And Men Shall Call Him…Ox!” is a curious tale in which the musclebound former Enforcer breaks out of jail with a genius who promises to make him smarter. It’s a trick, though, and the guy ends up transferring his own personality into the Ox, while Ox goes into the genius’ puny body. Turns out Ox is happier this way, the pressure to be a thug lifted. I loved the wackiness of this one. As far as ongoing subplots, it’s the same one over and over, with occasionally hilarious moments. Blind Matt Murdock loves legal secretary Karen Page and she loves him, but neither know it. Matt doesn’t think he can offer her much, being blind. Matt’s best friend and legal partner Foggy Nelson, meanwhile, also loves Karen, but can’t get her to reciprocate. This is standard soap opera stuff, but where it gets funny are Lee’s thought balloons. Every little thing like, say, Karen agreeing to go to dinner with Foggy becomes an opportunity for Matt to lament that he’s lost her, or that he can’t find the way to tell her how he feels. Foggy is even worse, the rottenest friend one could ask for, practically jumping for joy when Matt disappears, as it removes his competition for Karen’s affections. Lee finds it increasingly difficult to do anything real with this storyline, so we soon have Foggy masquerading as Daredevil to impress Karen (making himself a target in the process, natch!), which for you continuity buffs out there is one of the first times Daredevil is connected to the legal firm of Nelson and Murdock. I think Matt’s suspected to be DD once in here as well.

Perhaps the highlight of Lee writing himself into a corner is the last issue reprinted in this volume, #25, where Spider-Man (who doesn’t appear here) has mailed a letter to Matt Murdock telling him he knows he’s Daredevil, but not to worry—he won’t tell. They teamed up in a previous issue here (oddly enough, Romita doesn’t draw a very good Spider-Man there, though he would soon be tapped to take over his book from Ditko). Seems pretty unlikely Spidey would drop that bombshell anywhere but in person, on a rooftop or something. Of course, Karen opens it, causing Matt to concoct a wild story about Daredevil being his twin brother Mike. Thus is the overbearing Mike Murdock born. Matt plays him very different, as kind of a loudmouth jerk coming on to Karen overtly, and I guess he’s good enough that neither Karen nor Foggy thinks to ask why blind Matt’s brother also has to wear sunglasses.

Like a lot of Marvel’s early stuff, the first several issues’ worth are rather conventional and corny, but with Wood, Romita and then Gene Colan handling the art, it becomes one of the more visually exciting non-Kirby books, and Lee gets more entertaining as he gets goofier.

FANTASTIC FOUR: IMAGINAUTS by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo. Marvel Comics. $17.95
Unusual timing for this review, considering Waid’s firing from the title this week, but I’d planned to do this before the news.

As much as superhero work-for-hire gets maligned as an endeavor, it’s a tricky thing to get right with characters who have been published as long or longer than the writer has been alive. There are only a handful of talents who can effectively recall what made the concept work in the first place, while adding new ideas and putting the whole thing in a valid modern context. Mark Waid is right at the top of this list. As an illuminating manifesto he wrote to get the job makes clear—included in the back of this book with Wieringo character sketches—Waid has a firm grasp on the four characters in the F.F. and how each relates to the other. An unabashed Silver Age fan, Waid is not about to dump time-honored elements like Reed’s gadgets, Ben’s temper and loving feud with Johnny, Johnny’s immaturity, and the fiercely maternal side of Sue that manifested long before she had children of her own. But Waid is smart enough to tweak and rethink all these elements to find something new and vital about them.

In the first issue, we get a clever retelling of the origin, a change in the status quo—Reed wants to maximize the team’s commercial appeal—and a thoughtful reasoning for this change and how it relates to the origin: Reed still feels enormous guilt for taking away their normal lives, so he wants to make their lives as superheroes as comfortable as possible. There’s also plenty of humor, with a sassier tone for Sue and believable sexual chemistry between her and Reed. I remember the only thing I was concerned about was the treatment of Johnny as such a child, as it seemed he’d matured since the early days. But Waid had plans.

The plans involve Sue forcing Johnny to take an active role in overseeing the business side of the F.F., which immediately leads the hapless hothead to almost losing the proprietary technology of their unstable molecule uniforms. Notably, his intentions are pure—just use the molecules for safer uniforms for firemen—but a company plot almost does him in. This storyline goes on for several issues, while the sooperdoop stuff comes in the form of the three-part “Sentient” storyline, where young Franklin Richards’ cry for attention leads to the creation of a dangerous mathematical function arriving in the form of Reed. There’s a bit of the “my father, my creator” stuff that artificial comics beings have been weeping about since Ultron, but Waid keeps it fresh with sounds-good-to-me pseudoscience and a real emotional center. I really found this arc exciting, and not merely for the structure of it but because once again I cared about these people.

“Small Stuff” is a two-parter resolving Johnny’s unstable molecule story—with an effective personal victory in problem-solving—but focused largely on Reed and Ben fighting other-dimensional giant bugs and then sending them home. I didn’t feel much about the bug story, and Mark Buckingham’s art, while fine, felt like an intrusion on the slick, fresh style of Wieringo. That does it for the Waid/Wieringo/Buckingham run in this volume, though an earlier fill-in issue by Karl Kesel and Stuart Immonen, exploring Ben Grimm’s Jewish heritage(?) is also included.

As far as Waid’s time on the book being cut short, well, it’s a shame, as I hadn’t been interested in the book since the also-brief Pacheco run (and this one’s better), and I’ll probably be staying away for a while again, especially if the series changes to match the current wacky suburban family movie in preproduction. Hopefully Marvel collects the rest of the run in trade paperbacks, because I intend on enjoying it while it lasts.

WHISKEY DICKEL, INTERNATIONAL COWGIRL by Mark Ricketts and Mike Hawthorne. Image Comics. $14.95
Listen, I hate comparing a trade paperback to a DVD as much as you do. It’s cliché at this point, right? Still, I can’t help thinking that the book in question is much like a DVD of a decent but not great film that starts to annoy and wear out its welcome the more unenlightening featurettes and justly-excised bonus scenes and alternate takes one sees.

A few years ago, Ricketts created Whiskey Dickel and featured her in a short-lived magazine, INTERNATIONAL COWGIRL. He later wrote a screenplay for an animated film with the character. The script won an award, but no film was made. That screenplay has been adapted by the talented Mike Hawthorne, and forms the backbone of this book. Having him do this after the stylistically similar J. Bone illustrated the somewhat thematically similar Paul Dini-written MUTANT, TEXAS may not have been the smartest move—is there an emerging market for sassy cowgirl stories?—but it’s a creatively sound one nonetheless, and I actually prefer Hawthorne’s style.

The story is lightweight but fun, a loopy sort of origin story that ends up a fairly convincing female empowerment tale, complete with the disapproving dad and tough female mentor, etc. Ricketts is known for a zingy way with words, and this comes through even amid all the typical cowpoke lingo like “reckon” and “pard” and the like, which is no mean feat. And Hawthorne makes her really attractive and memorable.

But if they’d just left well enough alone with this as a one-shot of $6.95, maybe even a graphic novel of $9.95 with a couple of the bonuses, I’d be happy. As I’ve written before, Image is very supportive of the idea of extras in their collections, but the problem is they want you to pay for them, regardless of their worth. In this case, after this “backbone” story, there’s a lot of fat and gristle. Rickett’s pro buddies Bendis/Oeming, Andreyko/Mack, P. Craig Russell and many more contribute one page pin-ups with lurid text, each featuring an International Cowgirl from a different country. At first it’s a fun idea, and then the fun goes away. Most of the text isn’t all that funny, and starts to detract from the uniformly good art. After ten pages or so of this, I can almost guarantee a reader will start flipping through to see if there’s going to be another, actual story.

There is a kind of story, an excerpted screenplay for a movie to have featured Whiskey as an exorcist, and I can only hope this was just a bad, elaborate joke. Some Li’l Whiskey strips are okay, but not much like the Hawthorne story in tone, and then there’s what appears to be the first of at least a two-issue story where Whiskey defends a rodeo clown or something. I don’t know where this comes from, but unfinished, it shouldn’t have made it into the book. Grinding things to a confused halt are several pages of Western-style logos and other non-content that make one wonder at just how the creators and publisher could so overestimate a reader’s interest in a breezy cowgirl story. I honestly think that with just the main story, Ricketts might have launched a little franchise on these murky seas, but he’s loaded it down with so much cargo it sinks.

GABAGOOL by Mike Dawson and Chris Radtke. Mike Dawson Comics.
I’m not someone who really wades into the waters of minicomics much. My feeling is that the cream rises to the top, so once I’ve heard of it, or read some good reviews, then I might be interested. In this case, though, I’m glad Mike Dawson didn’t wait for me to get off my ass and actually sent me a couple of his books. Though I just heard today the book has gotten downright professional, with color covers and regular comic book dimensions, these earlier issues already show great promise. Very much along the lines of Tony Consiglio’s DOUBLECROSS in the look of the art and the milieu of likeable twentysomething pop culture geeks trying to rise above it all. Actually, the Italian background of some of the characters also echoes Consiglio’s work as well, and results in broad but generally funny ethnic humor. The creators very helpfully fill the inside front cover with pictures of the cast of characters, though there is some confusion in the Super Special issue about this whole bounty hunter business. It wasn’t until reading issue #3 that I realized that lead character Christopher Vigliotti and his friends occasionally band together to search for missing objects for a few extra bucks, in this case a friend’s roommate taking his guitar. The storytelling is very clean and appealing, similar also to Alex Robinson, and the comedic timing is sharp. Nothing deep going on here, but it’s an entertaining book that should appeal to fans of the creators already mention, as well as early issues of Peter Bagge’s HATE.

JAX EPOCH AND THE QUICKEN FORBIDDEN: BORROWED MAGIC by Dave Roman and John Green. AiT/PlanetLar. $14.95
Jax is a fairly typical teenaged girl with an overactive imagination and a chip on her shoulder, both the result of being kind of an outsider in school. She wears flannel shirts and jeans and projects the attitude that everyone must meet her on her own terms. She ends up falling through some sort of portal into another dimension, where she finds an ancient magic book. She returns to find her theft of the book has apparently caused her own world to go topsy-turvy, with an evil twin further damaging her reputation. There soon follows a dragon attack on the city, and Jax also must contend with the organization who discovered this portal she fell into, who essentially want her to be their guinea pig, since none of them have been able to use the portal. I’ll give the creators credit for moving the story along and keeping the plots varied, and even at this early stage the art is fairly accomplished and the writing voice clear. I do think a bit of slowing down, world-building and character development would make this a more memorable book, though. Jax is a little too capable with the magic and with dealing with every crazy new problem, so it’s hard to identify with her. There’s a hint of a possible romance starting here with her and a young reporter, but so far no other characters have been given any dimension. It’s not exactly my thing, but a decent effort that holds some promise.

SOJOURN: FROM THE ASHES by Ron Marz and Greg Land. CrossGen Entertainment. $14.95
Not to criticize Marz, but Greg Land is the star attraction of this book. It’s a fantasy story where an old villain, Mordath, has been brought back from the dead, and since then he’s gone about, with his trolls, conquering all the Five Lands. There are few left to resist, among them Arwyn, the star of the book and a beautiful blonde who burns with thoughts of vengeance, as Mordath’s troops killed her husband and daughter. Helping her here is a handsome, one-eyed rogue archer, and a loyal dog. The issues collected here depict Mordath’s initial fall and resurrection, with our heroes attacking him, being captured, and escaping. In the quiet moments you get the background and the bonding, and that’s about it. It’s entertaining, light fare that will be familiar to fans of THE LORD OF THE RINGS and countless other fantasy epics. Marz isn’t a deep writer but he’s done a good enough job of clearly setting up the characters and their ongoing conflicts in a setting of high adventure. I can’t say the characters are alive, but they’re appealing. There’s some connection in these stories with the larger CrossGen Universe, particularly THE FIRST, but it won’t confuse you much if you’re not familiar.

Marz has also given Land fun stuff to draw. Arwyn is, let’s face it, a hottie, and one could have worse things to look at. Mordath, though, is an exceptional character design, like an anorexic Boris Karloff. He’s even managed to stamp the guy’s forehead with that silly sigil and have it be creepy, though in my opinion the belt of skulls is gilding the lily. He also takes great care in creating the world, so that the dungeons are foreboding and dank, the tall grasses lush and swaying. It’s really one of the best-looking monthly books on the market—with special credit going to the colorist—and it’s rather amazing Land can keep this up with just the usual two fill-ins a year. This is not a book one has to have, but it’s decent, unpretentious fantasy with dazzling imagery on every page.

I also checked out the TRAVELLER edition, which is in a much smaller format for only $9.95. The art reproduces well, so this is a viable, cheaper alternative to the standard trade paperback, if you’re curious but budget-conscious.

Next Week: John Layman’s PUFFED; ZOMBIES, NINJAS AND MONKEYS, OH MY!; THE BRADLEYS; GUILTY PANCAKE and other comics that sound made-up.

Chris Allen

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