This week’s books all have one thing in common: I didn’t hold a single one of them in my hand. Instead, I was sent each of these as a PDF file from the publishers. The future is now, folks.

THE MIDDLE MAN #1
Written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Drawn by Les McClaine
Published by Viper Comics

The highlight of the week was, without a doubt, this book. And no, I’m not just saying that because Grillo-Marxuach writes for my favorite TV show (LOST).

Wendy Watson is about as far to the bottom of the employment totem pole as she can get: she’s a temp, and not a particularly good one. Her current assignment is working the phones for A.N.D. Laboratories (“Recombining Your DNA”), but that job takes a turn for the sour when a bizarre monster breaks loose in the labs and begins vomiting nuclear waste that burns the staff to death. However, the one thing Wendy has going for her is her complete unflappability, so when a mysterious man shows up to subdue the beast, she impresses him with her grace under pressure. That may be just enough to help her get another job.

If you’re thinking that the set-up sounds a bit like MEN IN BLACK, I had the same thought. But Grillo-Marxuach takes a different approach with the material. Instead of adding a hip cop to the mix, Wendy is a witty, sardonic young woman who only wants to pay her Mastercard bills. There may be monsters on the loose, but she’d prefer to play X-Box games with her roommate. Wendy isn’t exactly your traditional idea of a hero.

What sells MIDDLE MAN, though, is the consistently high level of humor to the proceedings. When Middle Man is trying to shoot the creature at the beginning of the story and Wendy is in his way, he issues orders for her to move. However, both Wendy and the creature stop to look at him in confusion, wondering which one he was talking to. It not only shows some sentience in the monster, but it provides a terrific visual joke (perfectly executed by McClaine’s art). I found myself laughing at this book quite frequently.

I’ve never seen McClaine’s art before, but he has a nice, simple style that accommodates itself to both humor and action nicely. This was really a terrific read from start to finish, and I can’t wait for the next issue. Grade: A

SIBAM?

Considering that the writer is already a Hollywood guy, I’d bet the farm we’ll see this book hit the big (or small) screen at some point in the next couple of years. And even if he wasn’t, this irresistible comedic combination of THE X-FILES and MEN IN BLACK has Tinseltown written all over it.

KARMA INCORPORATED #1
Written by David Hopkins and Drawn by Tom Kurzanski
Published by Viper Comics

Here we have another new mini-series from Viper, but it unfortunately doesn’t work quite as well as MIDDLE MAN does.

The basic premise is solid: Karma Incorporated is in the business of dirty tricks. People hire Karma for their expertise in digging up dirt and in screwing up lives. Each person working for Karma also has a special reason for being there as well; there are plenty of secrets running around.

So why does it not live up to the promise?

Good art can save a bad story. But bad art? Bad art can kill even the best writing, and the art on this book falls down like a drunk on a week-long bender.

It’s so rough, and so sketchy, that there are multiple panels where the action and characters are completely unclear. And, mind you, I fiddled with the PDF and its resolution, just to make sure it wasn’t me. There are also glaring moments that jump out and make you sigh: the man the company is hired to fuck with in this issue is married to a woman that is drawn so sexily and perfect that you can’t help but believe A) there is no possible way she married the schlub in question, because she looks about 20 and gave birth to their 10 or 12-year old son and B) that if the artist took all that time to clearly draw the woman looking hot in her underwear, he could have spent the time making the rest of the book looking that clear and defined as well.

Terrific story. Terrific dialogue. Terrific idea. Not-so-terrific looking. Your call as to whether or not it’s a trade you’re willing to make.

EL ARSENAL #1
Written by Salvador Vazquez and Drawn by Daniel Perez
Published by Arcana Studio

There’s a gem of an idea in these pages, but you have to work to find it. Set in the future, we’re dropped into the world of bounty hunters and scoundrels, a world I generally enjoy. It seems that warfare on this planet has gotten even uglier, and there’s a new weapon coming on the market that can make any faction that holds it the most powerful group on Earth.

That weapon? Cockroaches.

Stay with me. Actually, the weapon is a biological agent so deadly that only the most survival prone vermin on Earth can act as a carrier. So the roaches are being used as the delivery system for the bug, making this the one time in the history of the planet that the little fuckers are actually good for something besides being disgusting.

The problems here lie in two different areas. Like another Arcana effort, there seems to be a lack of solid (needed) exposition helping us get to know the cast of characters and more about their individual quests. There’s a brief passage about why Earth’s factions are now run by generals who were drug cartel leaders before the apocalypse arrived, but we could use a little more clarity about the people, especially the young female bounty hunter who’s only character traits out of the box are her tight body and ability to shoot guys who grab her ass in the head. The art can also be a bit unclear, choosing some odd angles and shots to convey the action (such as the shots through the head I just mentioned) and confusing the reader. Still, there’s some potential in this mini, and I’m curious to see it play out.

SUNDOWN #1
Written by Jay Busbee and Drawn by Ryan Bodenheim
Published by Arcana Studio

On the flip side, this Arcana book is a fairly strong effort in all areas. A young Eastern-based reporter heads for the Old West- Arizona to be precise- to investigate the horrific murders of a number of priests. It seems someone, or something, is unhappy with the holy men, and he’d like to get the scoop. It helps that his brother is the sheriff in one of the towns where a murder has taken place, so he’s on a train and off to the wild.

A wiser man would know better.

SUNDOWN joins the horror-western genre, putting itself in a category with such books as DESPERADOES and JONAH HEX. Like those books, SUNDOWN is constructed in tight layers; we begin with a fairly pedestrian, normal situation, and then the odder, scarier elements drop into place, until we finally grasp the larger, horrific picture, and are transported to the top level of the story and where it will play out.

The script isn’t as lively as you’d like it to be, never quite living up to the sharp turns in the plot, but the art by Bodenheim is a nice surprise- he’s very good at portraying the mundane aspects of the Arizona landscape and at bringing life to the horror wrought by the vampires littering the dunes with corpses.

Full props to Arcana; over the past couple of weeks, I’ve reviewed a teen heroine book, a mythological warrior book, a space book, and a horror-western. This small publisher is doing a nice job of bringing variety out under their label.

G.I. SPY #1
Written by Andrew Cosby and Drawn by Matt Haley
Published by Boom Studios

I reviewed the Preview issue of this book a couple of months ago, enjoying it very much. As it turns out, the Preview issue contains about half of what’s in this issue, rather than serving as more of a “zero” issue. Still, the addition of more pages and a more complete issue did nothing to hamper my enjoyment of this entertaining title.

Our hero, Jack, is still an amusing novice at the spy game, and he only gets more fun to watch as we see him in action. The additional pages deal with he and his female partner’s run in with a robot operated by a Nazi bad guy, and not only does it allow Haley to cut loose with some solid action, it also allows Cosby to turn up the humor quotient as Jack treads the fine line between hero and completely useless dork in a tux.

I don’t really have much more to say this time, having covered much of my thoughts with my review of the Preview book. Any book set in World War Two runs the risk of “Nazi fatigue” setting in for the reader, but this comic has Matt Haley’s terrific art to look at, which helps stave that off nicely. Worth reading and keeping an eye on, definitely.

VAISTRON #1-2
Written by Andrew Dabb and Drawn by Boussourir
Published by Slave Labor

On any week that I hadn’t read MIDDLE MAN, this would have run away with the honors for my favorite book.

VAISTRON is a dip back into the creator-owned pool for writer Dabb, who made his initial splash into comics with one of the most underrated Vertigo series ever, HAPPYDALE. This time out, he presents an amusing science fiction reality full of sick, twisted characters, and plenty of sick, twisted humor. Vaistron is the name of the city where the story takes place, and it’s a place where TRANSMETROPOLITAN’S Spider Jerusalem would feel right at home.

For instance: the story starts as we meet a young girl, the daughter of a prostitute. Her mom works at Chickenhead’s (“Home Of The Cosmic Handjob”), and is the unfortunate murder victim of a man whom she’s just given the “full Giger” to (we never see the attachment she uses, but your imagination will fin in the blanks nicely). When next we see her, she’s grown up and living the life of a hardcore outlaw.

As an adult, she works as a hijacker, aided and abetted by her porn-obsessed robot. However, her latest job has gone wrong, so she decides to kidnap the mistress of a local asshole, but that sort of thing never works out the way it’s planned, does it? Of course not. And that’s where the fun of VAISTRON stems from.

I laughed at VAISTRON a lot, not only from the witty script by Dabb, but from the plethora of Easter eggs in the backgrounds of Boussourir’s art. Much like Geof Darrow, he fills in virtually every blank piece of the page with something to catch your eye, making the book a visual treat. The only real problem here is that, as crazy and off the rails as the story and characters go, you don’t walk away from the experience quite convinced that Dabb isn’t making this stuff up as he goes along. But what’s here, along with his previous track record, is enough to convince you go along with it and see how it wraps up. If it fulfills it’s potential, this should be Slave Labor’s sleeper hit of the year the way STREET ANGEL was last year.

See you in seven.

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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