I’ve got eight Image books to tell you about this week: a sci-fi cop thriller, a collection of newspaper comic strips, a superhero family soap opera, a Wells-ian neo-Victorian future tale, a children’s book, a modern zombie horror story, a detective drama, and a flip book that features two fantasy stories. Two weeks ago I also reviewed a gothic horror title and a superhero inter-company crossover. That’s a pretty nice variety. The quality of the books varies, but you have to appreciate the effort. Small press publishers have shown this type of direction for years, and to see it growing at Image, to see the company really rising above its roots… I really respect it. I’ve got some non-Image books below as well, but we’ll jump right in

SMALL GODS VOL. 1: KILLING GRIN
Written by Jason Rand and Drawn by Juan Ferreyra

In the near future, the police employ psychics who can determine in advance when a crime is going to take place and stop it. But this is a one-eighty turn away from the polish and glamour of MINORITY REPORT. This is a gritty, street-level tale wherein the predictions aren’t terribly specific, and the cops’ timing isn’t always so great. Just because you know a murder is coming doesn’t mean you can stop it; precognition doesn’t come with MapQuest.

Of course, there’s much more to it than that, as Detective Owen Young finds himself at the center of an enormous moral and ethical crisis after one of his busts goes haywire. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the good detective has a few secrets of his own that could burn every case he’s ever put to bed, and he has to walk a dark path in determining how far to go to protect himself and the law he serves. SMALL GODS really grabbed me from page one, doing a terrific job of setting up Young’s world and the rules he lives by; a good rule of thumb is to get your exposition out of the way early, quickly, and with the fewest distractions, and Rand executes that well. His dialogue is spare and terse; in a world of psychics and other head cases, the words said out loud are rare and count. But what elevates SMALL GODS above a simple police thriller is the knockout art of Ferreyra. I had never seen his work before, but I was astonished at how great this book looked. His people are solid and have weight, filling the environment, and they all have different body types as well. His storytelling is also pretty solid, though I’d like to see some stronger backgrounds in his panels.

This is one of those rare books that hit the scene with little fanfare and unknown creators that found surprising success in the market. It just goes to show that if you tell a great story with great art, people will find it. And now that it’s in trade paperback, hopefully that audience will grow in healthy numbers and we’ll see volume two soon. Grade: A-

SIBAM?

Are you kidding? This thing has movie written all over it. The F/X budget would be close to nil, and the story has a terrific dramatic hook. It needs a director with an excellent grasp of setting and internal tension, and if it finds one, it could well find box office gold. I’ll be keeping my eye on it.

PVP VOL.2: RELOADED
Written and Drawn by Scott Kurtz

Let’s just get it out there: I read this book and laughed out loud. Frequently. Much like John Kovalic’s DORK TOWER, Kurtz turns his pencil and ink towards the comics and gamer crowd with sometimes embarrassingly truthful results. Kurtz approaches the subject through a newspaper strip, PVP appearing in the traditional four panels and a gag format, and he’s got the beats down quite well at this point. PVP reads like a well-oiled machine, with the characters having fleshed out and defined themselves to the point that a newbie reader can jump in and not miss a beat. Kurtz, like Frank Cho, has found what he does well and stuck with it. Good for him. He gets bonus points this time out for being the only creator who will probably ever be allowed to kill THE SAVAGE DRAGON and use his body as a mannequin at The Gap. It’s even goofier than it sounds. Grade: A

NOBLE CAUSES VOL. 3: DISTANT RELATIVES/NOBLE CAUSES #6
Written by Jay Faerber and Drawn by Various

Comics’ best superhero soap opera continues with DISTANT, and as usual, it entertains nicely. Faerber really seems to gain stronger footing in this effort, as he ratchets up each and every single tension between the Noble family members, and dives head first into their sexual peccadilloes. There’s treachery, adultery, kinkiness… if the book didn’t feature folks in spandex and demons from Hell, you’d swear it was THE O.C. Plus, volume three’s ending delivers a jolt that resets the series and puts it on a startlingly different path, basically showing the reader that Faerber isn’t going to take anything about NOBLE CAUSES for granted and you shouldn’t, either. Issue six is the most recent of what would be considered the fourth volume, and it feels very free as it focuses back on Liz Donnelly and her frustrations with being the only normal person in this crazy family of super-humans. Plus, the book has a back-up story from old friend Brian Joines. That’s just good fun. Grade: B

WATERLOO SUNSET #3
Written by Andrew Stephenson and Drawn by Trevor Goring

Sometimes, front cover recaps don’t help. This is one of those times. If I have this right, it turns out that thirty years ago, London was reduced to an un-technological wasteland, and it turns out that the reason why is that a high-tech device transported the city to another planet 1000 light years away. Then a strange woman shows up in the city, some bad shit goes down, and… and… I’m not sure what, really. SUNSET is rather thick to try and penetrate from a story angle, and I definitely felt the loss from not having seen the first two issues. What I can tell you with relative ease is that Goring’s art is quite lovely, reminding me more than just a bit of Gary Spencer Millidge’s work, and I re-read the book just to appreciate it some more (which enhances its grade). I applaud the unique concept and Image taking the leap to publish it, but it didn’t hit for me as a stand-alone chapter. B-

LIONS, TIGERS, AND BEARS #1
Written by Mike Bullock and Drawn by Jack Lawrence

There’s a lot of call to produce more comics for young kids, but those cries tend to go unheeded. LT&B answers that call rather nicely, as I found myself surprised at this delightful little book. A young boy moves to a new house, and knowing he’s leaving his friends and comfort, his grandmother sends him along with a gift: a box of “protector” stuffed animals. Where it gets interesting for young Joey is that the gift turns out to be quite literal: when the monsters in the closet decide to come a calling and do bad things to Joey, the stuffed animals grow to life at full-size and stand ready to defend him. The story hits all the right notes for a young child, and Lawrence’s art sells the story to the intended demographic perfectly. You could criticize the setup as being rote, and you’d be right, but when it comes to young children’s entertainment, that’s generally what makes it succeed. Grade: B+

TWO BITS
Written by Mike S. Miller and Ben Avery
Drawn by Hector Sevilla and Mike S. Miller/Greg Titus

This is a promotional flip-book, showcasing two new series, all for the cost of a shiny quarter. On one side, we get LULLABY, the story of an Alice-In-Wonderland type character who has risen through the Red Queen’s ranks until she has enough power and influence to finally try and find a way home to the real world. Sevilla’s art is the highlight; it’s intensely detailed and has an intriguing manga flavor to it. We don’t get enough of the story to really tell us if it’s going to work. On the other side, we have THE IMAGINARIES, which gives enough of the story concept to allow you to make a judgment, but has art I didn’t particularly care for. I like the idea of the city where imaginary characters and imaginary friends “go to die,” as that opens up a wealth of story ideas. One thing: in the final preview panel, a character refers to the city as “the Imagined Nation.” That’s a helluva lot better title than IMAGINARIES. Grade: B

WALKING DEAD #15
Written by Robert Kirkman and Drawn by Charlie Adlard

I could keep screaming at you month after month, saying the same thing: WALKING DEAD is one of the ten best books being published today. Kirkman’s modernist take on the apocalypse features strong characters, unpredictable plot twists, and enough horror and gore to keep you on your toes. This time out, the survivors learn something new about how death works in this world and protagonist Rick reacts to it by going off on a very dark and personal mission that ties in to the beginning of the series. Once again, I found myself shaking my head as I marveled at how Kirkman seems to be outthinking his readers at every turn, making WALKING DEAD one of those books you never want to accidentally open to any page rather than the first. Oh, and Charlie Adlard is bloody brilliant. But you probably knew that. Grade: A

CASE FILES: SAM AND TWITCH #13
Written by Steve Niles and Drawn by Paul Lee

I admit it: I can be a bit of a snob when it comes to certain books, and stuff that comes from TMP usually passes beneath my radar in the “not interested” zone. But this took me completely off guard, yet as I went back and took a second look at it, I realized why: I hadn’t read the credits before I started reading. I had no idea that Niles (REMAINS, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT) and Lee (LURID) were behind the tale. If I had, I’d have known in advance what I was in for. The story is actually pretty basic: Sam gets a mysterious call and heads off solo to a prison to I.D. a body. But out of that simplicity comes an exploration of who Sam is, why he became the cop he became, and the events in his life that define him. It’s terrific character drama. Guess I should open my mind more often, huh? Grade: A-

BEYOND IMAGE

I hadn’t read the first two COURIERS volumes, but that turned out to be unnecessary to understand this nifty prequel. FUNWRECKER is a rousing, punk-fueled action flick put to paper, grabbing the reader and dragging him along in for a bullet and drug-riddled roller coaster ride. There’s nothing deep or thought provoking here, just a pulp sensitivity that suggests that Wood was sitting at his computer for 24 hours straight shotgunning Red Bull and sweating over the next ass-kicking he was going to script. Rob G.’s art runs with that adrenaline and flavors the New York setting with a sort of manga-meets-attention deficit disorder look. If you’ve ever walked out of a B-movie with a smile when you knew in your heart that you could never convince your friends that it was really an A-movie, then you know exactly what it felt like to blast through FUNWRECKER. Grade: B (but it’s really an A)

VIVID GIRLS VOL. 1
Written by Steven Grant and Antony Johnston
Drawn by Marco Turini, Carlos Ferreira, and Juan Jose Ryp
Published by Vivid Comix

Someone had to step up and review it. It might as well be me. Making its debut almost a year after it was supposed to, this tome presents the first parts of three separate stories that blend some of Vivid’s best known porn starlets and comics. Each story finds the actresses “cast” in a role, and the stories work in varying degrees. Grant’s story of blackmail, “Dry Heat,” features plenty of sex, but takes the time to set in motion a noir plot. Turini’s Manara-esque art is quite nice as well. Johnston contributes the other two tales in the book, and approaches the material from different points of view. “White Light” is the closest story in the book to being true, filmed porn. It nods to having a larger plot at work, but essentially sticks to one locale (a strip club) and focuses on the sex. Artist Ferreira wisely keeps the pages spare and the panels focused. Johnston’s other story, “Spellbound,” which casts mega-star Jenna Jameson as the lead, actually fell completely flat for me. It tries to open up a larger fantasy-story plot, which is enabled by the heavily detailed art of Ryp, and ends up just feeling busy and hard to follow. Oh, and there are plenty of photographs of the actresses in the flesh scattered throughout the book as well. In the end, I mainly have to question the wisdom of splitting up the three stories over separate volumes. Not sure that was the best plan. Grade: XXX

See you in seven with a special look at words without pictures.

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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