June 29, 2004
”THIS…
IS…
GRAPHIC NOVEL JEOPARDY!”
Let’s meet our contestants, shall we?
Yes, folks, it’s that special time again, that time when the pile of books waiting to be reviewed has grown large, and if I am ever to be caught up, I must take a week to blow through the stack. So you get five, yes five, lovely graphic novel reviews this week.
”The answer is: the new series from Image Comics that has been blowing away the critics and fans alike, and garnering higher and higher sales every month to boot.”
THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1
Written by Robert Kirkman and Drawn by Tony Moore
Published by Image Comics
Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore’s comics beginnings were pretty humble. Their work on BATTLE POPE was lewd, crude, and hilarious, but nothing about either one’s work suggested the capacity for greatness or longevity. I guess that just goes to show you how wrong a first impression can be.
Police office Rick Grimes is wounded and left in a coma after a shootout on the side of the road in rural Kentucky. Little does he know that when he wakes up in the hospital weeks later, society will have collapsed and zombies will be walking the Earth. Thus begins his odyssey to find his family and make sure they’re still alive and his quest to normalize life as much as he possibly can. When everything else is gone, only then do people find out what they’re made of.
You’re probably saying to yourself that it sounds like ground that has been covered before. But Kirkman’s characters and situations are so vivid, so fresh, that nothing about WALKING DEAD feels stale or overused. I believe that’s because the best zombie tales have never been about the rotting, stinky bastards themselves, but about their effect on our society, and the decay they represent physically and metaphorically. Kirkman gets this. There is constant talk about things returning to “normal,” but that’s primarily a lip-service reaction to the characters’ inability to cope with the new status quo and the surroundings it has created. From there, true terror and horror are created.
Tony Moore’s art takes a dynamic step forward in this book, showing a depth in character creation and emotional presentation that I’ve never seen from him before. His people look real, and his zombies, while grotesque, never seem outlandish, allowing the story to feel organic. That organic feeling helps build the horror and claustrophobia elements, making the art a perfect partner to the script. It’s career-level work.
In the end, WALKING DEAD is as much family drama as it is horror story, and like the best of both of those genres, you find yourself eagerly awaiting the next chapter when you finish. This is one of the best books being produced today. Grade: A
SIBAM?
I don’t think I’d want to see a film version of this book. Whittling the story and drama into 105 minutes of screen time would almost be criminal. But a savvy producer would surely be able to make an excellent television drama out of it. With a small, and easily turned over, cast, and the lack of large sets for use, the primary expense would be in make-up effects. I know I’d be tuned in every week. And DVD sales of the series would likely be healthy, as most genre DVDs are wont to do.
”The answer is: the book that lacks any logical description that doesn’t make me or the creator sound really, really stoned.”
GORDON YAMAMOTO AND THE KING OF THE GEEKS
Written and Drawn by Gene Yang
Published by Slave Labor Graphics
Oh-kay: Gordon Yamamoto is a big bully, who, along with a friend of his, anoints a “king of geeks” by super-gluing a pair of tighty-whities to his head. Except this time it turns out differently; a small alien has crash-landed in Gordon’s nose, the alien needs to reach a data port in the Geek’s nose, Gordon gains the geek’s memories and befriends him during the process, and the geek’s hatred of his father grows so palpable that it escapes, animates some animal crackers, and goes on a destructive rampage that could end with his father’s death.
Got that? Because there’s gonna be a quiz later.
If you think that’s the strangest fucking thing you’ve heard in a long time, then you should try reading it. Because it is the strangest fucking thing I’ve read in a long time. It’s so full of left-field, retard nonsense, that it almost can’t help but charm your pants down to your ankles. It makes absolutely no sense, and it doesn’t really try, which makes me wonder if Gene Yang might be drawing with a bag of Cheetos next to him. Questions about possible marijuana induced comics creating aside, this is cute. Not much more than cute, but cute. Certainly a book that defies easy categorization. Grade: B-
”The answer is: the second part of the brilliant epic that has cemented Ed Brubaker as a master of bringing noir to the superhero genre.”
SLEEPER VOL. 2
Written by Ed Brubaker and Drawn by Sean Phillips
Published by DC/Wildstorm
The second half of “season one” of Brubaker’s amazing look at the nature of the undercover operative wraps up in this book, as deep undercover operative Holden Carver is offered the chance to escape his assignment and must decide whether or not he has perhaps changed sides in his heart and doesn’t want to go anywhere.
SLEEPER is one of the more intriguing and riveting books being published today. Carver is a man who is so troubled in his motives and his desperate need to survive that even the reader isn’t quite sure whether or not they should trust him. It’s wonderfully murky stuff. Time and again, Carver finds himself caught in the middle of his mission’s undercover objectives and the people he has grown fond of that he’s supposed to be spying on. It’s a delicate balance to keep Carver as someone you want to root for, but somehow Brubaker pulls it off.
He’s aided and abetted by Sean Phillips’ gorgeous art. His sense of mood and place do a fantastic job of making Carver’s world a dark place, even when the scenes are taking place in broad daylight. SLEEPER is a book that could certainly use some more sales, as “season two” is now under way. I can’t recommend it to you highly enough. Grade: A
”The answer is: the second zombie book I’m covering this week.”
DEAD FOLKS
Written by Joe Lansdale and Adapted and Drawn by Tim Truman
Published by Avatar Press
This was just the wrong week to read this book.
After the brilliance of Kirkman and Moore’s WALKING DEAD, I should have stayed away from another zombie tale. Unfortunately I didn’t, and it leaves DEAD FOLKS looking inferior by comparison.
DEAD FOLKS should have been great, honestly. Lansdale is one of my favorite writers, and it always seems like when he pairs with Truman, one of the all-time greats of the field, magic happens. But lighting doesn’t strike here. I don’t know if it’s a lack of space to tell the tale (sixty-six pages), but this book just doesn’t fire on all cylinders. And frankly, that bugs me.
The potential is there. Wayne, a bounty hunter attempting to bring in a bad guy, is waylaid by the mad scientist who originally unleashed the walking dead. He gets involved with the strangest nun ever and battles zombies. It should be… zesty. Plot, writer, and artist are all top-shelf. But it just doesn’t work.
DEAD FOLKS goes down as a rare misfire for what has been a great team. Grade: C-
”The answer is: the week’s final book.”
JOHN CONSTANTINE, HELLBLAZER: HIGHWATER
Written by Brian Azzarello and Drawn by Various
Published by DC/Vertigo
This hefty tome collects the final eleven issues of Brian Azzarello’s lengthy run on the book, and rounds out Constantine’s trip to America.
In these pages, John finds himself beset by white supremacists, an interesting prostitute, and one of the world’s wealthiest men. All of these people cross his trail as John seeks out the real truth behind his friend Lucky’s suicide and John’s subsequent imprisonment for Lucky’s murder. There’s lots of magic, dogma, and a few trips to a kinky sex club thrown in as well, so HIGHWATER contains plenty of fun for the whole family.
Azzarello was a controversial choice to write Constantine’s adventures when he took over the book, and bringing the very British trickster to America for his run on the book caused no small amount of fan outrage. But it is clear by the time that HIGHWATER finishes that not only was Azz a brilliant choice to write the book, he actually maintained the flavor of it and never compromised the character. Indeed, Constantine’s American adventure in Azzarello’s run turns out to be epic in scope in retrospect, and brilliantly so. Plot points strung over years tidy up nicely, and it’s obvious that the story was thought out and executed with a rare vision.
Along with the detail and background that Azzarello has been slowly doling out in his opus 100 BULLETS, it shows that he is a rare writer with a firm grasp on his long term vision., putting him in a club with folks like Neil Gaiman, James Robinson, Garth Ennis, and Warren Ellis. I’ll never underestimate him again. Grade: A-
That’s all for this week. I’m going to be off next week for the holiday, so I’ll see you in fourteen! Thanks for reading!
Write me from the link provided. Review materials may be sent to: Marc Mason, P.O. Box 26732, Tempe, AZ, 85285. You can also find me at The Comics Waiting Room
E-MAIL THE AUTHOR |
ARCHIVES
