SMOKE AND GUNS
Written by Kirsten Baldock and Drawn by Fabio Moon
Published by Ait/Planetlar

The big city is divided into districts, each district serviced by a different gang of “cigarette girls” who will sell you an individual cig or a pack, and light it for you in a with rush of orgasmic flare for an extra couple of bucks. Apparently, in Baldock’s world, smoking isn’t nearly as bad for your health as a blonde with her eyes set on your wallet.

Gangs love their territory, as we all know, and these hottie dealers are no different. Scarlett has been slipping outside her territory and encroaching on another gang’s turf, and that can only mean one thing: war. Because the girls aren’t only dealing death through a filtered tip; they’re all packing serious heat, and the city streets are about to run red with the blood of a lot of chicks wearing stockings and heels.

Cigarette girls with guns. Yep, it’s another installment in Larry Young’s empire of high concept graphic novels, and it’s a dandy. If you’re looking for a graphic novel with deep characters, an exploration of the human condition, and poetry in its heart… then you’d have to be stupid to pick this book up off the stands. If you’re looking for a “shut off your brain, enjoying some graphic violence perpetrated by beautifully drawn women in fetish wear” this book is your birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas wrapped into one package.

I’ve seen some reviews of the book comment that it lacked compelling characters or sharp dialogue, and I’ll grant you fifty percent of that. I’d have liked to seen some sharper dialogue, but seeing as how this is Baldock’s first graphic novel, I’m willing to give her a decent pass on that one. Her voice will develop as she continues to write. But the character thing? Come on! Get real.

The real star of this book, either way, isn’t the story. The revelation here is Fabio Moon, working solo for the first time, without his twin brother Gabriel Ba. Moon’s art is moody, expressive, and stunning, melding a noir sensibility with a sensuality of character design that bleeds off the page. I took my time as I read the book, studying the way he lit some of the scenes and admiring how he achieved some of the storytelling. It’s very cinematic stuff.

SIBAM?

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. If this doesn’t wind up in development and on the big screen in the next couple of years, I’ll eat Baldock’s hat. A producer talking to Young at San Diego threw out the name “Lohan,” and considering her need to find adult projects (and where better to start than with an action film where she’d be in fetish wear), I suspect she’ll see the property. If not, there are a ton of other young Hollywood starlets who could use this book to jump-start a new era in their careers. It looks and smells like a box office hit from every direction you examine it.

THE RIDE
Written and Drawn by Various
Published by Image Comics

THE RIDE is a collection of stories that revolve around the 1968 Camero, which I have to admit, is a sweet automobile. Using that common thread, we get a revenge tale, a Vietnam War story, an Asian action thriller, and more. Of course, the car plays more of a bigger part in some stories than others, but the book is pretty successful in using the common thread.

However, RIDE isn’t really about the stories or the car. For a comics fan, this book is all about the artists. Cully Hamner, Georges Jeanty, and Jason Pearson each do some really incredible work in the book, but the standout is Brian Stelfreeze. Stelfreeze not only provides the provocative and eye-catching cover, but he also does a chapter of the longest story in the book (“Wheels Of Change”). His segment became somewhat infamous when the book originally shipped, as one of his pages, well, connected sexuality and violence in such an over-the-top and ludicrous way that it made some readers uncomfortable. Take my word for it, and check it out.

It isn’t rocket science, but it sure is fun. THE RIDE is more than worth your ten bucks.

PARTING WAYS
Written by Andrew Foley and Drawn by Scott Mooney
’ Published by Speakeasy

Gotta say, this one floored me. So far, Speakeasy has been making their name not only with color books, but for the most part, they’ve been solidly genre efforts. PARTING presents a fantastic diversion from the publishing path we’ve seen so far, and I’m intrigued and pleased to see it.

Peter Orbach commits suicide. For whatever reason, and we’re never really certain, he has given up on his life. So when the soul collector from Hell arrives to take him away (and it isn’t just suicides- now everyone goes to Hell), he goes along, having nothing else to say about it. But unbeknownst to him, his girlfriend arrives and saves his body, resuscitating him, leaving his soulless self alive on Earth and functioning as a passionless and screwed up Peter who suddenly finds success in financial analyst job.

You’re thinking “sure sounds like a genre piece to me” but it really isn’t. Instead, this is a very indy-feeling book, as Foley’s story revolves around the nature of humanity, the corrupt growth of corporate culture, and why people are truly afraid to admit that they love each other.

Where Foley really finds his footing is in his take on the afterlife. Hell is a giant corporation, charged with rehabilitating souls, either for reincarnation or for sending on to Heaven, and like many corporations, it’s staffed by drones who have a difficult time reconciling their personal beliefs with corporate policy, or who feel like the lack of oversight allows them to act as independently and corrupt as they feel like. Mooney’s art does a nice job of capturing the mundane aspects of both the corporate environments, but he does an even better job at portraying body language and facial expressions on the characters, making this a fine team effort.

Peter is a compelling character, both with his soul and without, because his confusion and his self-loathing feel real and relatable to the reader. There won’t be many who read this and won’t understand Peter’s emotions and examination of his life. His girlfriend, Jennie, is also a very well rounded character, adding a strong level of depth to the entirety of the book. PARTING WAYS is a mature work of surprising depth, and easily the best work we’ve seen come from Speakeasy to date.

AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS VOL.1
Written by Mark Smith and Drawn by Dan Hipp
Published by Image Comics

I’ve reviewed three of the issues contained in this trade paperback, so I don’t want to belabor things here; I like JOY BUZZARDS a great deal. These are fun comics, released into the wild in a time when comics have taken a turn for the very dark. Smith and Hipp, clearly inspired by watching reruns of THE MONKEES, have brought their own wacky rock and roll troop to graphic life.

Plus, the JOY BUZZARDS have even more going for them than their prior television counterparts. After all, Mickey Dolenz and company didn’t have a mythical Mexican wrestler they could summon to help them battle giant monsters and vampires.

The trade not only collects the first series of the pamphlets, but Smith and Hipp have added extra story pages to flesh out scenes and back story, and lots of extra artwork, pin-ups and more at the back. Like last year’s STREET ANGEL, AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS is a pure comics experience, full of energy and life. One of the year’s better surprises.

PERVERT CLUB VOL.1
Written and Drawn by Will Allison
Published by Radio Comix

For a book about perverts, this is a surprisingly sweet little exercise.

Allison’s ameri-manga is the story of young Malcolm, a cross-dresser in the process of discovering his identity. Caught by his sister while stealing her underwear, he is exposed at school, a fate that you would imagine would be social death for most children. Instead, hottie Julia takes a special interest in him, as she sees Malcolm as the first male entry into her “pervert club.” Squaring off against Julie is Malcolm’s best friend April, who has been (silently) in love with him for a very long time.

This book collects the first four issues of Allison’s series, and the one major complaint I’d offer is that very little happens in the way of plot movement. By the end of the book, we have an idea that Julia has something up her sleeve, but no clue as to what it is. We see April getting closer to telling Malcolm how she feels, but she doesn’t get there. And Malcolm’s inner feelings and emotions, and his reasons for cross-dressing, remain virtually unexplored. So there’s a lot of territory left to cover when you get to what amounts to a cliffhanger of an ending.

Beyond that, this is pleasing enough. Allison’s art is very simple and effectively tells his story, though there are a couple of recurring artistic motifs I didn’t quite grasp. I liked the group of perverts, and Allison does a nice job of making most of them very sweet and innocent, taking the edge off a story facet that would ruin what is essentially a gentle teenage love story. Fun stuff.

MORT GRIM
Written and Drawn by Doug Fraser
Published by AdHouse Books

AdHouse is rapidly becoming a well-known publishing house for beautifully packaged artistic efforts, and MORT GRIM certainly enhances that reputation. Doug Fraser’s gorgeous tale of the grim reaper working on the open road is a lovely little package that would look right at home had a longstanding company like Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly, or NBM published it. Kudos to Chris Pitzer for another outstandingly designed publication.

What makes Fraser’s work standout in this book is that it isn’t simply black and white; instead, he adds a rich amber/yellow color to the panels that provides a wonderful offset to the reaper’s work. I marveled at how simple it all seemed the first time I read it, but MORT GRIM beckoned for multiple readings, and I started to see more of the complexity of what he was trying to achieve with his storytelling and in how the human souls lost on the highway could achieve denial about their fates and how their vehicles could be a part of it. It was rather fascinating, really.

I like that there’s a new boutique publisher out there putting out projects like this one, books that have a smaller built-in audience but that deserve to find it all the same. And I’ll certainly by on the lookout for more work by Fraser, no question.

THE PIN-UP ART OF BILL WENZEL
Edited by Alex Chun and Jacob Covey and Art by Bill Wenzel
Published by Fantagraphics

Fantagraphics has become the go-to company for restoration and archival projects over the last few years. COMPLETE PEANUTS. KRAZT KAT. DENNIS THE MENACE. But I think their efforts in comprehensively collecting and putting together the works of men who filled the pages of the humor pulps in the mid-twentieth century should not be ignored. These prolific and talented men produced incredible bodies of work (non pun intended) and I appreciate that they’re getting their due so that future generations can honor and respect their creations.

Bill Wenzel’s pin-up vixens were best known for being curvier and more voluptuous than the ones you might find in a cartoon by Jack Cole or Dan DeCarlo. His sense of humor, however, was quite comparable, if perhaps a bit less bawdy. Wenzel seems to be content to let the drawings fill in the blanks for you. He presents his jokes with the knowledge that you’ll find what’s in the panel arousing, and he doesn’t seem to feel like you need the help.

Like the DeCarlo book before it, this one is printed in the original size that the cartoons themselves were printed at when first published in the humor digests fifty years ago, and that gives you the purest sense of the intent and detail of the original work. This is a superior product, and I hope Fantagraphics keeps putting out more books in this series.

CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO OF THIS WEEK’S SIBAM!

Review materials may be sent to: Marc Mason, P.O. Box 26732, Tempe, AZ 85285. You can also find me at Happy Nonsense and The Comics Waiting Room

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