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Mr. Scootles graphic novel by HC Noel arrives today!
Don't forget, as I mentioned earlier last week, the incredible Mr. Scootles Volume 1: Mr. Scootles vs. The Inferno comes out today! Forgotten black-and-white cartoon character tries to escape from Hell, with Satan, angels, and psychotic film history professors all vying to use Mr. Scootles' soul for their own purposes! Really, really great new book.
Check out the review I did for it a week earlier:
PART 1
Comic Bulletin Reviews for 11/19 - X-Files #1 and Hack/Slash #15-17 ( guest-starring Herbert West, the Re-Aminator !)
My latest reviews at 
Mr. Scootles vs. The Inferno - An Inter-Review with HC Noel
The Inter-Review is BACK!
After a brief albeit solid hiatus, as I focused on other creative endeavors and, oh, life, I'm back with BROKEN FRONTIER full-force and ready to pump of a whole slew of review/interview hybrids starting with...
MR. SCOOTLES VOLUME 1: MR. SCOOTLES VS. THE INFERNO
Originally distributed online via WOWIO, now published by ALTERNA COMICS and distributed via Diamond to comic shops everywhere come November 26th!
Read the full two-part review/full interview with creator Howie C. Noel by clicking below:
READ PART 1 of the Mr. Scootles Inter-Review
READ PART 2 of the Mr. Scootles Inter-Review
Novo Volume 2: The Pride - THE REVIEW!
Well, I've banner waved Michael Bracco's epic masterpiece NOVO enough before, now here's a quite thorough review of his latest:
Novo Volume 2: The Pride (ADVANCE)
Review by Dave Baxter, posted October 23, 2008
Pencils: Michael S. Bracco
Inks: Michael S. Bracco
Colors: N/A
Story Title: The Pride
Publisher: Alterna Comics
Price: $9.95
Release Date: December 00, 2008
Bracco is back. A mere season after the outrageous beginning of his ambitious 7-volume epic, Novo (though it’s 8-volume if you include the, uniquely, published-first stand-alone prequel called Birth ), Michael S. Bracco returns with another 88-page black-and-white tome which continues the adventures of his little Earth-born sole survivor. But wait…he’s the sole survivor? Then, uhm, what is this second volume about? Hell, that was half the fun of Volume One’s climax—what was coming next? A new planet, new species, new conflict, and yet, some things feel oddly familiar….
Novo finds himself washed up on the planet Xennon, where he meets the brutal, warrior cat-woman, Xephonia, and her son, the rightful heir to the Xennon throne. But dark supernatural cat-like creatures hunt the lot of them, and Novo Volume 2: The Pride concerns itself with our trio’s desperate race to survive within an uncharted wilderness, hounded by unknown enemies wielding abilities undefined. It’s 88 pages of tension, action, chase sequences, bloodletting, and, in the spirit of the best of Roddenberry and Bradbury, a heavy-cream dollop of cultural philosophy, existentialism, and frenzied fantasy.
Heroic Kamandi-figure (yes, I just used Kamandi’s name like Christ’s) Novo, having just escaped the folly of his own stratified Earth peoples, finds himself swept up in a clash of traditions and ancient animosities which mirror the very vista of tragic casualty he’d left behind at the end of Volume One. Can Novo put things right on this new planet? Can anything ever break blood vendettas and cultivate seemingly impossible peace? These are the very questions Bracco explored, up close, in Birth, and then mused upon the ultimate consequences of in Novo Volume One , now brought into crisper focus in Volume Two by mixing up the setting and details, but even little Novo can’t miss the startling similarities.
Bracco weaves a magnificent sequel (or is it threequel?), a story symmetric to what has come before and yet, thrillingly, in effect an unanticipated plunge into whole-cloth new territory. But it’s disquieting territory as well: this is the Wizards of the black-and-white comics crowd, the innocent and cute-looking alien lad getting hip-deep in the realities of a universe wherein justice is an ideal and not a force of nature, where mortality confronts everyone, even a would-be hero. Much as with Birth, Bracco is able to go toe-to-toe with Ron E. Howard and Burroughs in blending social criticism with head-to-toe fantasy, and the mix of pulp adventure, light-heartedness, and deadly serious danger should please anyone who’s ever marveled over those classic writers’ ability to ignore all such supposed divisions in fiction.
The hand-drawn dialogue is utterly fantastic, both in content and form, funny, wry, intelligent, dramatic, and it only enhances the greatest element of any Bracco work: the art. A breif digression: my girlfriend, only vaguely comics-initiated herself, was sitting over my shoulder while I cracked open Volume Two to read, and after maybe three seconds of staring at the first page she announced: “That’s looks really incredible.” She proceeded to pace by every few minutes after that, to look at another page and then another. She had a few
more choice testimonials to give to the work before she and me were done with the book, but needless to say, Bracco’s sequential pages are like watching Picasso paint. They’re captivating, pleasing, overwhelming, and ultimately cathartic to take in. They illustrate his story with utter ease and absolute craft. Bracco is, in a nutshell, both in writing and art, Frank Miller meets Sam Kieth. If this man isn’t an Eisner winner within the next decade, I’ll eat my laptop’s cathode-ray tube. Which would kill me. So as you can see, I’m serious.Even considering the violence (there's a bit of it, true to any story that purports to peer into the depths of human fallibility), this is a fable for us all, even for our children, especially for our children to grow up with and to understand as an inherent part of their character: this is not the way we should live. Schisms between nations, bloodlines, classes, people need to end. There will forever be conflict, but never-ending? Based on past or imagined slights? Carried onto the sons and daughters of future generations? Traditions that disallow for honest evolution, either biological or anthropological? Phooey. That’s what Novo Volume 2: The Pride is all about. And more. But to tell more would be tell-ing, and believe me, you really want to check out these books and receive the surprises they have in store for yourself. They have a ton in store.
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Pre-order Novo Volume Two: The Pride now from your retailer until the end of this month (Oct. 2008) with Diamond code OCT083787
And order Birth and Volume One direct from the creator at The Birth of Novo Website
SPEED RACER - The Awesome Anti-American Anthem
Okay, so I kinda have to agree with Robert Kirkman about what a damn fine movie SPEED RACER is. It's way over the top, and super-CGI heavy, but one thing I'll grant the Watchowskis: whenever they tackle the visual side of things, it never looks like what anyone else is doing. This movie may seem, from the trailer alone, to be the epitome of brain-dead eye-candy in the shape of story cinema, but it is far from that in effect.
The story itself is classic, a coming-of-age tale with every well-loved cliche rolled into one. There's the overbearing lovable bear of a dad, the older sibling who failed before, the younger who now has to prove his mettle, the choice between the love of a thing and the corporate greed and abuse of a thing, adults that don't fight quite hard enough and youth that often acts upon overly-naive convictions, propelled by the belief that their go-get'em gumption will mass the masses to to 'em.
Admittedly, the "evil corporation" comes across as a somewhat empty villain, seeing as how this is the Watchowskis and a huge-budget studio flick. If corporations were truly okay with having their mentality exposed as anything more biting than cookie-cutter cartoon biblical style evil, then IDIOCRACY would have been treated better. Hmmm...come to think of it, SPEED RACER didn't exactly have the right backing and promotion necessary in these entertainment-saturated times to become a hit. It just kinda came and went. The moral? America, darling, you're the enemy. The rest of the world? The wide-eyed youth that believes spirit and passion can win him everything? That's what we kill. Daily. In our pursuit of greed and gadgets. I am not talking about our corporations. I'm talking about YOU. Our corporations may be THE corporation of the film, but we're Taejo, the driver that turns a blind eye to how the actions of his family and company do away with all sportsmanlike virtues, and even, ultimately, the sport itself. America, these movies aren't doing well. We don't like them. We ignore them. I wonder why? It's no mistake the villain was American (albeit with a British accent, which I suppose was the attempt at camouflage) and the semi-villain was Japanese.
SPEED RACER is a half kid's-movie, and reminded me greatly of the Hoskins/Hopper SUPER MARIO BROS. flick in tone, but its oh-so-much fun, and every actor, especially the child actors, are so INTO the movie and enjoying what they're doing, you can't help but be strung along. On the subject of the visuals, seriously, what other movie on earth looks like this:
Maybe ZARDOZ, a choice few Boorman and Ken Russell masterpieces, but that's about it.
The CGI is wondefully artful, like a sci-fi Willy Wonka, it actually stands reminiscent of TRON, mixed with of course the more modern slow-mo stuff a la THE MATRIX and 300. Yet the charming part is that the CGI is meant to look like CGI. They make it look hyper-real and fake, and beautifully so. Unlike such rainbow colored bowel movements as 300, wherein the CGI was meant to stun, and startle, and shake, no nuance or sense of actual love or craft apparent (just manipulation), SPEED RACER is the CGI equivalent of stop-motion CLASH OF THE TITANS type grandeur. It's wonderfully unreal, exquisitely so. It's awesome to watch because for all its excessive qualities, it's NEW. It's truly DIFFERENT and something we havent' yet seen before.
So check this one out. If you're a Yank, this movie is at its heart against everything you are and do currently, but it yearns for a spirit no capitalist culture has truly maintained as its grown into the global bloated beast it stands as today. It's headier than it thinks it is, is our Speed Racer. It's mind and swirling, sizzling, streaking matter. It's bloody awesome is what it is. --Dave B.
WOLF'S HOUR by Robert McCammon - Like Stephen King writing Doc Savage!
If you're in the mood for some GREAT old-fashioned 80's pulp semi-high-literature fun, a book that's like Stephen King at his grandest writing Doc Savage - check out:
It's a werewolf hero vs. Nazis in Germany during the core of World War II. Slow-ish to start, but the second half is absolutely phenomenal. Some of the best action and thirller sequences I've read in a long damn time. The fight between the hero and a master "Great White Hunter" through multiple cars of a train is sweet, sweet fiction magic. Buy a copy HERE.
Just Read: BARR GIRLS #1 - Donna Barr does hermaphrodite porn, oh yes, ohhh yeeeessssss...
So here was a Donna Barr book I wasn't aware of until I decided to be all completest about her gluttonous, corpulent body of work. Published through Antarctic Press' adult line, Venus Comics, it's a compilation of the pin-ups and shorts that Barr doodled out over the course of coarse time, hinging on a rather interesting (if graphic) idea: what if everyone was an hermaphrodite? What if all humans were both genders at once, so that there was never any distinction? What would the new preconceptions be? The new biases and cultural divides? And what of our own cultures would be lost having never arisen in the first place?
BARR GIRLS is fancy free and graphic, in love with sexuality and in love with love in general. While there is some drop-dead accurate social criticism in these stories, mostly by what the stories leave out rather than what they contain, the lack of certain beliefs and day-to-day gender views that logically are the bathwater to the baby that gets overhand-fastballed out the window when men and women become one and the same, and so are proven cosmetic, views and beliefs that do not stand up to even this slightest of shifts in reality, and in this way spotlighted as dependent upon circumstance (wow this is turning into a long, digressive sentence, sorry, and this isn't helping, sorry again), the core of BARR GIRLS is not necessarily message-centric, or preachy, and while perhaps it is a little slap-in-the-face insofar as its outrageous subject matter in concerned, the spirit of its audacity comes across as the passion of innocence unfettered (why would I hold back? the child asks) instead of the shock value of arrogance unleashed (what's gonna make me hold back? the bastard sneers).
The book starts gentle, mostly observing the "girls" (who are referred to as girls but almost always pronoun-ed as "he" and "him"), heading to work, inviting guests over, exploring what the unavoidable assumptions of the human mind would be like in a world where gender was simply parceled out differently. Then comes the crowning, most lengthy episode of the issue, and the sex-stuff gets explicit and wild. Not for the easily offended, and not at all for anyone who thinks they already have the answers to human sexuality and gender place and position. Closed-minded asininnies need not apply.
The pin-ups are the most blink-inducing parts of the book. Mostly involving Barr dressing her girls in the looniest outfits and exploring the, uhm, anatomies of male-female adonis-amaranths. It's all jolly good fun, and you walk away feeling damn good about genitals, of either sex, which is refreshing.
This one's a tough nut to find, but right now there's copy available over at 
Just Read: Desert Peach #21 - The Good Uncle
Whoof - child molestation, murder, and desecration, generally in that order. THAT is the name of the game for this rather unexpected (can I say that? That this book is unexpected? Ever? As in "I didn't see the fact that I wouldn't see the what that came next would be coming?" Haven't I learned that this is straight-on par fer the sandy dry dessicated course?) issue #21, titled "The Good Uncle".
I thought that was Erwin Rommel on the cover (what a striking cover, too, eh?), the Desert Fox himself, but thankfully no, the cover model is a new character introduced (and exuented) in this very issue, there to basically explore a rather squirm-inducing topic. For that, it's memorable, as this is a hotter topic to fan the flames than the more general topics of war, humanity, tolerance, bigotry, sexuality, etc. I suppose that's the unexpected part, this is the first time quite so specific an issue has been raised as sole focus of an entire chapter. Which isn't to say creator Donna Barr doesn't toss in male mothering instinct, her usual up-close dissection of the differences between cultures and resolving issues even in the face of ignorance and unavoidable bigotry. But past DP books have wheeled between sub-plots and side tracks, while "The Good Uncle" travels a very straight and arrow-shaped path, as thought the subject demanded a very focused, single-child nurture.
The first half flows well, and offers readers a marvelous number of scenes involving an enlisted regiment of dirty, lonely, aimless soldiers taking care of a little leibchen, the son of Pfirsich. Then comes the arrival of Leutnant Doktor Lindemann, a pediatrician who's come to lavish special, prim, professional attention on Pfirsich's boy. Soon, however, the locals arrive crying for justice, looking for a killer of their children! A search for the suspect in on, and when they're found the question still remains of just what to do with them.
It's a heady brew, The Good Uncle is, though it does a commendable job with sizing up the justifications of man's behaviors, and drawing distinctions between "deviant" ones. And the ENDING!!! With a one-two punch of horrific absurdity, Barr yanks the whole shebang to a climax and epilogue that would have immediately been rejected by any editor with content authority. Not that they're offensive (is anything, really, in a Barr book? It's her most signature talent - offensive material that never IS offensive when she writes about it), but the ending is classic Barr - entirely random and not how anyone else would have done it, but wholly fitting nevertheless.
One final thing that makes #21 stand out - A LETTER'S PAGE!!! Yes, after having nearly none for quite some time, AEON gave Donna 10 whopping pages to go all Dave Sim/Erik Larsen with her fans, printing letter after letter longer than some essays and responding in kind. It's was fascinating to get a nice lump of historical perspective, reading letters concerned with the book's hiatus (when Donna took time off to produce the DP musical) and then letters deciphering the issues much as I'm doing now on this blog. Different takes, different opinions, good to read, awesome to read in fact.
THE GOOD UNCLE is an issue I'll likely think of long into the future, one of those that may become signature when I consider the series in retrospect. But it's also, thus far, an oddity - less a pot pourri than a deliberation. But a deliberation done DP style, which makes it oh-so-good. --Dave B.
Just Read: STINZ - A STRANGER TO OUR KIND
Whoo-hoo! What a thrill to have finally read the very last (missing) installment of my Stinz collection!
A Stranger to Our Kind (Stinz Volume III, #5), the fifth and final one-shot published by MU PRESS before Stinz V.III continued on for four more issues (#6-9) and a graphic novel (New Souls, which wedged itself between issues #8 and 9) under creator Donna Barr's own company imprint, A FINE LINE PRESS.
The first two volumes of Stinz dealt with his war years, as a half-horse conscripted into the German army, his meteoric rise to war hero, thus nicknamed "The Black Major", and then also his coming home, back to a rural farmland community. There were whispers, though, of "The End of the War", and how this had somehow traumatized Stinz, changed the face of the world as anyone knew it, and yet Stinz's own township seemed unaffected. The one-shots otherwise known as Stinz V.III #1-4 slowly built-up the mystery, and revealed hints of precisely how the world changed, and began to build up a new tension: Stinz and the townfolk vs. the Baron and Baronin, who since the End of the War have apparently, officially "owned" the town, and all the half-horses became their Serfs. Half-horses are not seen to the world at large as people, with the rights of two-leggers. By and large creator Barr kept this mostly as part of the setting, rather than first and foremost in the trials of the characters. But all that changed with "A Stranger to Our Kind".
Here, the conflict between the extreme class differences as accentuated by the results of "The End of the War", come straight to the fore. The Baronin has married the Baron, and now brings her guards in to run the valley as she deems proper, which is based on an outsider's perspective of "proper". This leads to yellow-suited soldiers trotting about and demanding service of the locals, which leads to one local reacting with a fatal consequence for one of the soldiers. Confusion and outrage ensue, leading to one young half-horse soldier, Yesi, thoughtlessly naming Stinz as the most likely suspect in the murder.
Now, Yesi had been (somewhat unsuccessfully) courting Stinz' daughter, Reet, only to be rebutted by both the girl and the old war half-horse himself, so that this accusation stems from less-than-sincere impulses. Now Stinz' ex-General, Gift, along with Yesi and other soldiers who consider the half-horses little more than uppity slaves, have to bring Stinz to a ceremonial trial that no one in the valley has actually heard of or taken part of before, and mass miscommunication is the flavor of the day.
This is the story that truly kick-starts everything that comes in the FINE LINE PRESS issues. The Baron and Baronin, the carnivorous face-horse Kilan, mention of the ground zero area for the mysterious End of the War, the first story that truly centers itself around the cultural overhauls caused by said End of the War, much talk of journeying back into the world outside the valley, Yesi and Reet's relationship, the respect and love between Gift and Stinz that only two old war companions could have, no matter the most current conflict between them. It's all here, and makes, frankly, issues #6-9 seem much less sudden of a switch in tone and focus as they did before, when I tried to jump from V.III #4 to #6.
A Stranger to Our Kind is dense and jam-packed, with dozens of characters, and a whole story told on nearly every page, each page like a chapter in a book, nearly self-contained in its own right but then you get a full book-length contemplation of events should you plow through all 40+ pages of the one-shot. In a way, this is the perfect "jumping-on point" for Stinz, as everything you need to know is explored here, and then continued and brought to natural conclusions in following issues. Think of this as like the beginning of the "Twilight years" for Stinz, all past stories dealing more with youth (V.I) and middle age (V.II, III #1-4).
Barr's dialogue and pacing is in perfect control, which is to say the story tells itself without doubting its intent or direction for an instant. The art is equally as finely wrought, tight and layered but very polished. The printing is smooth and flawlessly cut and magic to the touch - crisp white paper and solid cardstock cover.
An absolutely beautiful package, with a striking cover and a story that will bloat you with ideas and characters and events as though a meal of fried chicken and waffles - it will stay with you, intermittently pleasant and otherwise.
The only place I know to order a copy of this extremely rare, hard-to-find issue, is Westfield Comics dot com - (or click here - http://westfieldcomics.com/store.cgi?sc=858151910832426433&cid=2&mid=250&P=80027620)
But it's worth it - go find it! Read STINZ!!!
For all other Stinz issues (they're all available except this one!), go to:
THE LITTLE STORE (http://donnabarr.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-emergency-website.html)
EDUCATION OF PURCHASE:
STINZ V.III #1-4 and 6-9 are sold individually.
The two Stinz collections offered: "CHARGER" collects all of V.I and V.II under one cover, and "ALL TURNED AROUND", otherwise/also known as "NEW SOULS" GN, fits chronologically between V.III #8 and 9, and collects a long run of online Stinz stories Barr published at ModernTales.com, where you can find yet more of her Stuff.
Just Read: The Desert Peach #19 & 20 Self-Propelled Target and Fever Dream
We got us a double bill today - I'm passing on reviewing THE DESERT PEACH #18 until I've had the chance to listen to the soundtrack a few more times, plus finish reading the libretto. (DP #18 wasn't a DP comic as such, but a reprint of THE DESERT PEACH: THE MUSICAL Program, plus lots of behind-the-scenes accouterments). I'll hit #18 with a proper review alongside a full review of the musical when the time comes. But for now...
The Desert Peach #19: "Self-Propelled Target"
"Self-Propelled Target" is the name of this one - the big return of the book after the huge climax/wedding-of-Udo in ish #17, and also it seems the title was shuffled from MU PRESS over to AEON STUDIOS with this installment, where it would remain until issue #25, after which creator Donna Barr would launch her own (and to this day still kicking) publishing gambit, A FINE LINE PRESS. When I interview the lady in the near future, I'll have to ask her about all the transitions and manifestations of this book, but for now, all I know is that the title changed publishing hands, and not for any discernible reason.
But sticking with the last two MU issues, #19 consists of a meaty 44 pages of story. Oddly, Udo's marriage isn't brought up at all, even though it was the seminal event of the book's run to date. Instead we're offered a crazy tale of pranks gone awry - Oberst Pfirsich Rommell is feeling under the weather (stomach problems that would plague him to the end of the NEXT issue!), and in his discomfort he allows himself to poorly phrase a request to Udo that yanks open a loophole to allow his nemesis, Kjars, to go at each other no-holds-barred. It begins Udo rupturing the decaying stomach juices of a deceased body while on grave-digging duty, and allowing the effluvia to douse both Kjars and (by accident) Pfirsich. This does nothing but exacerbate the poor Oberst's delicate, waning constitution. This leads him to camp out in the outhouse, while Udo and Kjars both pursue parallel schemes of trickster-like schenannigans which will once again climax with poor Pfirsich caught in the middle.
This issue is, in a word, "disgusting". I'll leave it at that, and warn that those with a low threshold for potty humor and low-brow brown humor need not apply. The pranks go WAY over the top ant he results are extraordinarily nauseating if thought upon too explicitly. Which isn't to say this isn't a WONDERFULLY entertaining thing, just that it's also quite disturbing. The Wyle E. Coyote essence of the pranks is inspired, and the sheer mechanical clockwork genius of how the story comes crashing together into a tight, horrific climax is superb. That said, this is mostly a shtick-y episode, humorous and outlandish but not really concerned with advancing or searching the intricacies of the characters. This one is throwaway, in a sense, but it's also a perfect stand-alone story, more so than usual, as nothing before or after really enters into it.
Donna art is electric, some of the best yet - the sh*tstorm of a finale is brilliantly depicted, and all the whirlwind antics impressively captured and fluidly woven panel to panel.
STORY - 7/10 (incredible execution, some things almost out-of-character crazy though)
ART - 9/10 (Really tight layout and flow, detailed and dynamic)
IMPORTANCE - (EDITED [see comments below]) 8/10 (mostly stand-alone, but Pfirsich's sickness pays off in next issue #20, AND effects Kjars in #26 in a major way! )
TOTAL SCORE - 8
And then comes...
The Desert Peach #20: "Fever Dream"
Pfirsich's health problems come to a head as he lay, seemingly, at death's door. Udo (the one most responsible with last issue's pranks) paces and frets, and has the dear ear of Pfirsich's ego-heavy lover Rosen to commiserate with. This leads to Rosen relating the day he first met Pfirsich in German-occupied France, and then Udo spinning a tale of the same, and apparently the two events happened close together. This offers creator Donna Barr the opportunity to (at last!) break out with a very, intensely graphic and magnificently choreographed sex scene. Rosen may be a stud, but he's new to the guy-on-guy stuff (the beauty of Pfirsich his sudden inspiration!) and so Barr allows the somewhat awkwardness of the two trying to literally feel the other out to coincide with an audience that hasn't yet had the pleasure of a Desert Peach comic sliding quite so emphatically into the sex stuff.
But here it be, in all its visceral, funny, eye-popping and unexpectedly heart-warming glory. In usual Barr fashion, Donna somehow depicts an explicit act of sex, and not a mainstream one at that, and manages to make it charm the pants off a Hellfire preacher. Rosen and Pfirsich never seemed so real, human, and yet larger than life as they do in this extended and brilliant flashback.
Then Udo's story waxes poetic on his hiding his Jewishness while being nonetheless bigoted toward gays, and how his first meeting with Pfirsich and the braggart Rosen slapped his hypocritical double-standard beliefs into second thoughts and serious re-thinks.
Barr's art gets a touch more refined and polished for this semi-anatomy lesson yarn, and the result is a GORGEOUS issue of DP. The story is perhaps the most character-centric of the entire run, and gives Rosen a personality he sorely needed to bring his relationship with Pfirsich into glittering light. And Udo's less enlightened past also grants his character a 3-D real world sensibility that lets the reader love him all the more.
After the lightness of substance of #19, "Fever Dream" gives readers a dense and heady package of human beings being human in absolute and definitively human ways, puritanism be damned.
STORY - 10/10 (perfect blend of daring and charming, character and plot)
ART - 10/10 (like lightening striking wood, inordinate detail and crazed energy alike)
IMPORTANCE - 10/10 (two major characters get major moments of their lives told)
TOTAL SCORE - A PERFECT 10/10
Sean Connery as James Bond - my first exposure
Okay, I admit it, I've been a recalcitrant pop-culturalist: I've never watched a single Bond film before Pierce Brosnan's GOLDENEYE. Well, I have vague memories of a Roger Moore Bond, and one Timothy Dalton Bond, both circa 1980-something, having watched a few scenes when I was a tyke and my mom had them playing in the background, but I was far too young to retain specifics and don't acutely recall a damn thing about either. So James Bond, as a viewing entertainment experience, for me, began with the Brosnan years.
I saw and enjoyed GOLDENEYE and then TOMORROW NEVER DIES, but fell off and heard far too many awful things about the third and fourth Pierce/Bond flicks. I have watched and feel happy enough with CASINO ROYALE - I'm not completely in love with what's-his-face (Daniel Craig) as the new "gritty" Bond, but it works well enough, and ultimately I realized - I had no idea what the flying $^&k I was comparing any of it to! I've never seen any other Bond!
Were any of these quote-unquote "good Bond films"? I guess I've never really been able to say. When people mention that Sean Connery is the best Bond, I can't imagine the guy without a white beard. Time I rectified that.
I saw and enjoyed GOLDENEYE and then TOMORROW NEVER DIES, but fell off and heard far too many awful things about the third and fourth Pierce/Bond flicks. I have watched and feel happy enough with CASINO ROYALE - I'm not completely in love with what's-his-face (Daniel Craig) as the new "gritty" Bond, but it works well enough, and ultimately I realized - I had no idea what the flying $^&k I was comparing any of it to! I've never seen any other Bond!
Were any of these quote-unquote "good Bond films"? I guess I've never really been able to say. When people mention that Sean Connery is the best Bond, I can't imagine the guy without a white beard. Time I rectified that.
So I've plowed through Connery's years, and here's my thought on the first three:
First came DR. NO, and it was...okay. The first half was mesmerizing in its dated, sexist, racist, but nevertheless thrilling attempts at gritty pulp fare, but the second half slipped into over the top nonesense that really did make little to no sense. The villain was ominous, but ultimately ineffectual at doing villainous thing, and the climax/final big fisticuff was slow and mostly weird, a dud - which I suppose is poetic as it was about defusing a nuclear attack. The iconic white bikini chick - the first poster Bond girl - was a simply tossed in there character, appearing at the last half hour and sporting a laughable "origin" (a seaside drop dead gorgeous [well, for the time] orphan running around crazy free? Wait, what from where and why? Brrrprrprrprrp, trill the lips of my poor overtaxed brain).
Connery, though, I'd admit, made a suave Bond. His cool-as-cucumber posture coupled with his alarmingly agressive, straight-on glare at everyone who crossed his path gave him menace and charm, which is what Bond is all about. The deadpan quips with just a *touch* of lift at the end - par excellance.
Then came FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, hands down the very best the Connery Bonds ever achieved, and so I was on board to stay after this one. Connery was now form-fitted into the role, which had yet to balloon into sheer ridiculousness. The villains were fantastic, while also being sympathetic, the "Girl" of the story wonderfully three-dimensional while nevertheless fitting the 2-D plot device mold which allowed the movie to still be, at its core, a simple Bond movie. SPECTER is introduced, the fighting sequences were brilliantly choreographed with rough-and-tumble "realistic" half brawling boxing, half fine-tuned martial art moves. The story itself was the most coherent and twisty; this one seemed to have the perfect blend of pulp and grit, of real and surreal. It reminded me of the BOURNE films, and truly I see a lot that BOURNE stole/was inspired by from RUSSIA. This would collapse in its entirety with GOLDFINGER.
Yes, GOLDFINGER...I really wanted to like this one more than I did. It's the quintessential Bond flick, the one that set the mold for all to come: lunatic villains with bizarre prowess (in this case a touch that turns to gold), unforgettably lethal henchmen (Odd Job!), "Girl" names that must be heard from the lips of the actors themselves to be believed (Pussy Galore!), lines quotable for decades to come ("I don't expect you to talk, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"), and action that moves waaaaaay past the realms of anything resembling "the world". And it was boring. Or, well, it was...weak.
Lots of gooniness, an admittedly great battle bewteen Connery and Odd Job at the climax, but beyond that, the movie just wanders and does little to cement itself - more in love with the brilliance of its MOMENTS rather than its whole. The great moments have already been shared via oral tradition and everything else is forgettable. Connery as well, especially when he's strapped to a table or otherwise not in motion, can literally be SEEN thinking "hmmm...I wonder what else I can do with my career...?"
Thankfully, the series picks up a bit better in THUNDERBALL and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, and even the break-from-Connery-for-a-single-movie George Lazenby as Bond ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE does some wild but inspired visual storytelling. GOLDFINGER set the standard, but mirroring the dynamic between DR. NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, what came next figured out how to do it better. I'll talk about those some day soon. --Dave B.
Connery, though, I'd admit, made a suave Bond. His cool-as-cucumber posture coupled with his alarmingly agressive, straight-on glare at everyone who crossed his path gave him menace and charm, which is what Bond is all about. The deadpan quips with just a *touch* of lift at the end - par excellance.
Then came FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, hands down the very best the Connery Bonds ever achieved, and so I was on board to stay after this one. Connery was now form-fitted into the role, which had yet to balloon into sheer ridiculousness. The villains were fantastic, while also being sympathetic, the "Girl" of the story wonderfully three-dimensional while nevertheless fitting the 2-D plot device mold which allowed the movie to still be, at its core, a simple Bond movie. SPECTER is introduced, the fighting sequences were brilliantly choreographed with rough-and-tumble "realistic" half brawling boxing, half fine-tuned martial art moves. The story itself was the most coherent and twisty; this one seemed to have the perfect blend of pulp and grit, of real and surreal. It reminded me of the BOURNE films, and truly I see a lot that BOURNE stole/was inspired by from RUSSIA. This would collapse in its entirety with GOLDFINGER.
Yes, GOLDFINGER...I really wanted to like this one more than I did. It's the quintessential Bond flick, the one that set the mold for all to come: lunatic villains with bizarre prowess (in this case a touch that turns to gold), unforgettably lethal henchmen (Odd Job!), "Girl" names that must be heard from the lips of the actors themselves to be believed (Pussy Galore!), lines quotable for decades to come ("I don't expect you to talk, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"), and action that moves waaaaaay past the realms of anything resembling "the world". And it was boring. Or, well, it was...weak.
Lots of gooniness, an admittedly great battle bewteen Connery and Odd Job at the climax, but beyond that, the movie just wanders and does little to cement itself - more in love with the brilliance of its MOMENTS rather than its whole. The great moments have already been shared via oral tradition and everything else is forgettable. Connery as well, especially when he's strapped to a table or otherwise not in motion, can literally be SEEN thinking "hmmm...I wonder what else I can do with my career...?"
Thankfully, the series picks up a bit better in THUNDERBALL and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, and even the break-from-Connery-for-a-single-movie George Lazenby as Bond ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE does some wild but inspired visual storytelling. GOLDFINGER set the standard, but mirroring the dynamic between DR. NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, what came next figured out how to do it better. I'll talk about those some day soon. --Dave B.
Just Read: The Desert Peach #17 (The Wedding Issue!)
Wow. What an issue.
"Peach" has adherred to a 33-page "standard" format up until this point, though now it overflows into 44+ pages per book, beginning with this 48 page wedding spectacular! After the complete mess our resident secret Jew (who-is-also-a-nonbelieving-member-of-the-Nazi-party!), Udo, made of the local Muslim people's black stallion in issue #16, he's forced to make amends by marrying one of their girls, who, for her part, has had her eye on Udo for quite some time. And far be it for Oberst Pfirsich Rommel not to swoon at the idea of a happy couple coming together in coupling love.
Creator Donna Barr kicks off the story with an inspired addition to the wannabe Nazi character, Kjars, a knee-jerk Aryan who's passion for music attributed to "the lower orders" (black music - jazz) comes to the fore and offers an entertaining and (god forbid) BUYABLE tug-of-war between Kjars' unsupportable political beliefs and his actual love of an art form. This broadening of Kjars' character plays heavily into the proceedings when the wedding kicks into high gear, as a malicious rumor of Udo being a Jew starts winding its way through the camp, and neither the Germans nor the Muslims are one bit happy with this!
But before it all hits the fan, two dozen pages are devoted to a whirlwind of culture clashes as a wedding is held to appease (through trial and error) Muslims and Lutherans alike (I think it's Lutherans, anyway...I dunno, the Catholic and Christian divisions confuse the beejeezus out of me - I once knew a born-again gal who I asked point blank to explain the differences and break it down like a family tree kind of thing, and her response was, I kid you not - "there's only one Chirstianity", and proceeded to blink baffled back at me. So much for going to the source...one day I'll read a history book and get it straight). As usual, Barr's play on traditions and pre-conceived notions is as whimsical as it is critical, a celebration of human fraility that doubles as a compelte jeremiad against it to boot. It's a whacktastic blend that feels more real than reality, in a way, a caricature that holds solid layers of true-blue truth behind it, all impossible to ignore the way Barr maneuvers her story through it.
When rumors of Udo's Jewishness finally come to light, things get hairy, and Barr seems to finally get from off her chest all that she has to say on the topic of slander, the unthinking maligning of another without regard to the full conseuqences another will suffer due to the rumor, whether it be true or not. Talk about a subject that still pertains: DP #17 may be over a decade old, and cover a time period nearly half-a century back, but if there's one thing people consistently wipe their hands of, no matter the era, its responsibility of their own actions, the consequences they could have forseen, if only they'd bothered to think it through, only they don't, and so claim they couldn't have known, or anyway it's "THE TRUTH" as though there was something inherently virtuous in spreading around a fact that was, insofar as any man can determine, a fact, and "lies" are bad while "truth" is forever worthy, it's own reward, no matter the disastrous results of utilizing it. Da liegt der Hund begraben: "Truth", in so many things, is like the aethist's God, a thing to believe in at face value and without question. It's pure, it's "good", it's "godly", while lies are the devil, evil and scandalous. Fooey.
Kjars and his music are roped in with an enviously organic twist of plot - if only my own characters could dance around a story and a comic book page as fluidly as Donna Barr's! His own internal battle between what's "acceptable" and what calls to him naturally is mirrored to the Jew/Muslim/Catholic culture issues at hand and it ALL comes to a head with drinking, covorting, and a development with Kjars at the end which makes the entire trip seem, in Barr's own words: "If there's a lesson to be learned here...it's much too confusing for me!"
This is the epitome of storytelling done solid, intelligent, and unchained - unfettered by anything so pedestrian as editorial or audience concerns. Desert Peach #17 is an issue I'd recommend to be a first of the series for anyone, as it embodies and showcases to marvelous effect the every strength the book normally wields. An all-around compelte and exhaustive package of Donna Barr and DP, in a single issue. Es ist einfach zum Schießen!
Story - 10/10 (firing on all cylinders)
Art - 9/10 (incredible detail, wild layouts, more going on in any panel than most comics have happen in an entire run!)
Importance - 10/10 (the culmination of the past 16 issues, all be told)
TOTAL - 9.7/10
Donna Barr Official Dealer Logo!
Running on my Donna Barr riff: the logo below is now to be displayed alongside any official vendor of her books. The first time you'll see this will be at BellCon, at the Cartoonist Northwest table, and Keith Curtis's Crater On The Moon, with more to follow!
On a side note, review for Desert Peach #17 coming tonight, after I finish the double-sized 48-pages-of-story-and-art bastard. It's a real memorable one though.
Anyway, THE UNVEiLING...
Just Read: Desert Peach #16
Working my way through the entire Desert Peach saga (30 issues + two AFTERDEAD GNs in total), a series that follows the exploits of The Desert Fox's gay younger brother, Pfirsich Rommel - The Desert Peach! And here I am at the more-or-less halfway point - issue #16!
First off, the cover sports a simple but utterly beautiful use of watercolor, one of the prettiest covers of the series yet - past covers offered a greater dollop of exquisite detail, but this one makes simplicity look damn good.
Inside, then, the story follows the attempted mating of Pfirsich's white purebred mare with a black pureblood stallion (the mare is a breed that boasts blood purer than humankind can scarcely fathom...well...except for the fact that people were the ones who bred them, or anyway an Arabic people did, which blow the European peoples' little brainpans).
Anyway, long story short, Pfirsich wants to work closely with the Arab folken to enact a successful mating with the mare, an event which would double as a friendly-relations event between the Germans and the natives, but then Peach's subordinate, Udo, rather fancies a mating between the white mare and some other gray speckled horse. He tries to sneak said mare out one night, to make the coupling happen the way HE wants it to, but of course it all goes horribly awry and leads to - I kid you not - a horse orgy with army men stuck in-between. The look on Udo's face as he gets tangled/tied to the white mare's rump as a black, quite erect stallion rears up for the mount, is beyond priceless and perfection itself!
It's a disaster of sexploitative length and breadth (tee hee) that leads to (a rare happenstance for this series) a direct kind-of sort-of "to be continued...", in which a particular event what's threatened poor Udo for the past six issues or so, finally looks to happen in issue #17. (Wedding bells anyone? - shotgun wedding to keep the peace!) Auteur Donna Barr begins to inch toward a looser, more kinetic style, leaving behind the smoother, more crisp pages of the early DP books. Which isn't to say that detail is lacking, but said detail becomes vastly more wild and fancy free as compared to the rigidly controlled linework of Barr's 80's work. This is the perfect story for Barr to cut loose, because horses rampaging and rutting amongst a small turmoil of human bodies stampeding to put it all under control = the very organized chaos Barr's pen-stroke evolves into.
While the social and cultural issues usually explored in a Barr story take a back seat for the situation here - a thing Barr obviously couldn't help but work into an issue-length fiasco out of sheer glee (horse sex! horse sex! army men in the middle! whoooo!) - sixteen issues in, and this is actually a breath of fresh air, allowing DP a chance to get down and get nasty not to mention funny and ridiculous before tackling the intricacies of a multi-cultural wedding in the next ish (which should have big-big cultural insights aplenty!).
Desert Peach #16 is a whirlwind ride of humor, humanity, and absolute artistry, if you like your art a fair shake on the naughty side.
Story - 8/10 (hysterical, dense, fast-paced, everyone in character, awesomeness)
Art - 8/10 (a wonderful blend of intricate and expressionistic, drop dead gorgeous cover)
Importance - 8/10 (Udo's goin' ta the chapel!)
TOTAL SCORE - 8/10
For more "Desert Peach" visit http://www.donnabarr.com/
To order copies of this Issue #16 (which is now SOLD OUT from Donna herself, Mycomicshop.com still has a few for $4.00 a pop at http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=300451
Just Read: Detective Comics #848
Looking at the next R.I.P. tie-in, this one even more inexplicably removed from anything remotely R.I.P.-ish, as Batman is whole, hale, and hearty and fighting crime like he always has in it. That gripe aside (though c'mon, saying something is something it certainly is NOT is NOT a small thing), this is thus far the most interesting of the Bat-books outside of Morrison's.
It's Paul Dini, who most people trust, though lately I've been finding his Detective pretty bland, not to mention his contribution to "Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul" was incomprehensible and a mess. Still, Dini now tackles Hush, and FINALLY it looks like someone's going to wrap this subplot up. Not since THE CLONE SAGA has such a storyline seemed so editorially mandated to remain mysterious and unresolved. Jeph Loeb started it all in his popular epynonymous 12-parter with Jim Lee that introduced the villain. But at the end it seemed Hush's identity was revealed to be (disappointingly) the most obvious (Bruce Wayne's old freind Thomas Elliot, who was always who Hush was supposed to be, so why the bizarre secrecy?), even though (big red flag here!) he escaped and was never in fact unmasked. Then came the longer serial wherein Alfred recognized the identity of Hush, an identity which was for whatever reason kept away from readers to see explicitly, and then the story ended with Hush still advertised as being the obvious doctor Thomas Elliot and possibly killed by the Joker (in any event, the Hush "mystery", which again and again was strongly suggested to exist, went unsolved).
Now, we get "Heart of Hush" which looks like there IS an unsolved identity to Hush. God knows, there's no answer possible that can account for and pay off the years of build up, but at least it's here. Add to that a VERY dramatic and shocking event with Catwoman, and this is indeed a thrilling story. Dini doesn't pen a subtle or engrossing issue, save for this Catwoman event (what a motivation for Batman! - Catwoman's life hangs in the balance in a very creative way!), but this is head over heels better than ROBIN or NIGHTWING currently stands.
Dustin Nguyen, I love that he's doing a book as high profile as this, but I await a time he works on a book with the impact of WILDCATS 3.0. Dini's Detective Comics, even as a classic kind of book, is barely above average. Still, Nguen adds a skill to the proceedings, a layout and linework that bring sdynamism to a flat as hell script. It actually does make the story better!
The best Bat-book besides Morrison's right now. But yeah, that isn't exactly high enough off the ground to even be a "bar". --Dave B.
STORY - 5/10 (dead on average, great twist but otherwise generic storytelling)
Art - 8/10 (awesome layout and adds style, true panache!)
Importance - 5/10 (remains to be seen, to R.I.P. it's absolute zero, to Hush and Catwoman...hmmm...maybe quite a bit)
TOTAL SCORE - 6/10
Just Read: Nightwing #148
So I've been intrigued, if not altogether overjoyed, by the "BATMAN R.I.P." saga - the main six-part saga over in Morrison's flagship Bat-book has had its moments, a sincerely interesting approach to a major event for all that it's more or less a failure insofar as cohesive storytelling in concerned (not that THAT's a surprise where Morrison's zaniness is concerned). I was hoping all the tie-ins would really lend the grounding to Morrison's overboard-ness, make the "event" work as something more than the brief overview of Batman's downward spiral which is all we get over in the main Bat-book. Where's the steady affect on others? What psychosis preluded Bruce Wayne's ultimate mental snip-snap like a twig in half? Ah, this must be it - Nightwing, Robin, and Dectective Comics, Batman and the Outsiders, all getting in on it, two of them, including Nightwing, to culminate in a double-sized anniversary issue for their R.I.P. part to play. So a lot must be happening, a lot must stand to be revealed. Right?
Wow, nope, R.I.P. is apparently hands-off to other writers, even though the big-wigs in editorial obvious WANT all these titles to "tie-in". Batman's missing. That's the entire tie-in. Beyond that? Former comics editor Peter J. Tomasi continues his second NW storyarc, and its about as lackluster as his first. It's dramatic, but its slow and the dialogue, while not at all bad, isn't very interesting. There's too many dry, researched facts with far too little character development. And like Tomasi's last NW arc, it's not terribly apparent what the hell is going on in this one, even though it all seems to play out rather formulaically. The story is...okay. The writing is...okay. But it all feels VERY place-holding, like Brubaker's Uncanny X-Men pre-Manifest Destiny.
Rags Morales' art is as superb as it was in the much-lamented HOURMAN series, but it isn't enough to make this comic worth reading. Nightwing just doesn't feel like he has a purpose right now. He picks up the pieces of other Bat stories (League of Assassins, Talia al Ghul) and even then doesn't really move those forward, just deals with them.
Underwhelming, even as an R.I.P. tie-in, even with an anniversary issue right around the corner, I couldn't be more bored. --Dave B.
Story - 4/10 (entirely unimpressive, but nothing horrific)
Art - 7/10 (Solid, detailed, gorgeous, not much going on though)
Importance - 3/10 (Two-Face is involved, maybe it's leading somewhere, but otherwise this seems pointless)
TOTAL SCORE - 4.5/10
Just Read: Faker #1-6 (of 6) Vertigo Mini by Mike Carey and Jock
So, it's been a while since I've read a VERTIGO book, especially a VERTIGO mini-series, really I haven't taken the time since the days of Nevada and Goddess, and so it was with great anticipation and self-satisfaction ("I have a Vertigo mini, aren't I so cultured, ahem hem hem") that I sat down to consume FAKER, a six-issue saga written by Mike Carey (X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Crossing Midnight, Hellblazer) and art by Jock (The Losers, Green Arrow: Year One)
The story opens on a collegiate university, and swiftly introduces its small cast of young adult protagonists. Part of the series' premise is that each and every character is a bastard, in their way, an unlikable, self-involved, obstreperous kind of chap or chippie and while this does play into the themes and even the sci-fi/horror element of the tale, it is, as usual, exceedingly difficult to follow such characters for page after page, all the while telling yourself "there's a point, there has to be a point". We are inarguably a youth-centric culture, and youth is indeed a self-centric stage of life, more prevalently than any other. But isn't selfish to selfless kind of an uber-arc? Isn't the move from an awareness of yourself to the dawning understanding of, oh, everything else kind of a man or woman's entire life movement? Can this really be considered a fair arc for a character in a single story?
It's sort of forest for the trees: writers these days have THE great maturation process of any man double as the "character arc" for any given story, but of course in order to accomplish this everything has to be blown way out of proportion: the character has to be REALLY selfish, and then they have to magically turn REALLY out-of-character idealist at the last moment. It reminds me of the (in memorial here) David Foster Wallace quote: irony and ridicule have become “agents of a great despair and stasis in U.S. culture”, wherein he mourned the loss of engagement with deep moral issues that animated the work of the great 19th-century novelists. Deep moral issues, which FAKER certainly tries to tackle, cannot so much as be jabbed with a toe if said toe isn't drenched in insincerity, punk attitude, quips, and a complete disassociation with the very importance the issues at hand hold.
Basically, FAKER vies to showcase different levels of selfishness and social fakery, of the pseudo-emotions we adopt to get through life and interact with other fakers. Toss in a bizarre Twilight Zone-esque element of a boy who apparently doesn't exist, a best friend who only the book's central cadre of kids recall having memories about, but to the rest of the world he was literally born yesterday, and FAKER offers, admittedly, a story not found anywhere else.
Sadly, it devolves quickly into cheesy pulp stuff, as the allegorical nature of the set-up becomes solid sci-fi followed by thriller-esque action. It kind of like an X-Files episode, but with highly unlikable characters. Even worse, the message of the book gets garbled as the MOST unlikable character of them all becomes the hero, and for...very inexplicable reasons. It's another tough-to-the-point-of-bitch girl = strong woman role model who hides a strength other types of mean people don't wield. Uh...sure.
Mike Carey is hit-or-miss - I really enjoyed his HELLBLAZER run up to issue #200, though then he spun off on a very odd tack. Actually, it makes sense: his HELLBLAZER, initially, was about a mythical dark beast, and it was glorious. Then he tried for human characters in need of sympathy, and the book bombed and bombed big. FAKER is the same, the fantastical elements very intriguing, but the characters and their respective stories absolute abominations story-wise.
JOCK supplies wonderfully deft artwork, well paired to a story that grows darker and black-ops-like as it goes, but his characters all look mean, defensive, itching for a fight, which only enhances the craptacularly juvenile emotional qualities of the story.
To steal a few quotes: "whiny, narcissistic characters [suggest] a falling off of ambition and a claustrophobic solipsism" which is not surprising as the "brave new individualism and sexual freedom of the 1960s has devolved into the joyless and anomic self-indulgence of the Me Generation." (more David Foster Wallace - rest in peace, big guy) FAKER is juvenility at its worst, but tempered not at all by anything resembling a mature eye or guiding hand. It's glorification of asininity justified by the "realism" of the subject matter. It's emotional and creative pornography, defined the same as any pornography "if it is done for the sole purpose of titillation alone".
I was happy to dive back into a VERTIGO mini, but FAKER fails on every level, and is a disgrace to a once progressive company line.
Story - 3/10 (some great genre ideas, well handled, terrible everything else)
Art - 5/10 (well done, nothing inspired, adds nothing to the story)
Importance - 1/10 (best left forgotten as ever being a part of VERTIGO)
TOTAL SCORE - 3/10
Just Read - Green Arrow Black Canary #12
Just closed the covers on Green Arrow/Black Canary #12, the grand-slam finale to the "Search for Ollie - no, wait, now it's - search for Connor" story arc. First off, I gotta ask, what the &#^k has happened to Judd Winnick?!? Does he have kids now? Creative types should never have kids. It's ruined Eddie Murphey's career, and the once-incredible creator of the foul-mouthed Barry Ween Boy Genius and the sincerely affecting if sappy Pedro and Me nowadays churns out plots stolen from hollywood script-doctor index cards and dialogue so quip-happy and banal it seems lifted right out of classic Thundercats episodes (I will forever love the T-kitties, but c'mon, that show was terribly written!). This is what writing children's cartoons gets you - the inability to write otherwise. Sigh....
The final mysteries surrounding Ollie's kidnap and then Connor's is finally brought to light, and it works, and isn't a compelte wtf letdown, but neither should it have been 12 goddamn issues to get to this point. The big showdown is intensely disappointing, consisting of a bunch of heroes throwing mid-air punches at a cavalcade of faceless lackeys while the mastermind escapes bwa-ha-ha'ing all the way. Jimminy Chirstmas! but this is an uninteresting series. Green Arrow and Black Canary, finally married and together, headlinging the same title, and all the damn book's been ABOUT is everything BUT this dynamic. Is that ridiculous to anyone else but me?
Mike Norton's art is very well done, very polished, very smooth, very easy on the eyes, but his animation-esque style does little to alieviate the already unenlightened, cartoon-quality of Winnick's approach.
Story: 4/10 (icky poo)
Art: 7/10 (very good, not great)
Importance: 7/10 (a new status quo for Connor Hawke, big GA continuity events!)
Total Score = 6/10
--Dave B.
"Die, Byron! Die!" and Krumpholz Hit the Web!
Here's an interesting piece of news, and a bloody "about time" one at that: Karl Christian Krumpholz's BYRON: DIE, BYRON! DIE! has at long last made the move from a downloadabe e-comic to a totally free, effortlessly accessible webcomic!
BRYON is a comic about a Goth kid wannabe who finds himself tumblind head-first into real true-blue horror evil dark-thing Yog-Sothothery. It's charming, freaky, and funny all at the same time, which is a difficult blend to achieve. Krumpholz and his BYRON have been an intriguing new work I've championed for about a year and a half now (you can read my review of the first series "Mad, Bad, and Dangerous" HERE, and then my lengthy Inter-Review of the sequel "Die, Byron! Die!" by going HERE.
Here's an excerpt from that last review, so in my own words *ach-hem-hem-hem-hem*:
"For all those cool story beats, Krumpholz can likely be called an artist first and foremost, regardless of the strengths inherent in his writing, and Byron can stand alone as a truly visual—and a packed one at that—warehouse of black-and-white elegance. M, B, and D is a chock-a-block collection of square-shaped characters, sharp-teethed critters, and nearly panel-less pages. D, B! D! wields the same, though wherein the first series had moments of opaque action and compositions sometimes difficult to dissect, the second series shows Krumpholz already finding a far more elegant and easily sub-divided number of layouts, with clearer action, more distinctive characters, and a clean and polished line to every finished page. His style is incredibly suited to Byron's subject matter, being a cousin to Mexican folk art..."
-Dave Baxter, Broken Frontier
So take off and go read BYRON for free at http://www.slgcomic.com/Byron_ep_60-1.html It's now in duo-tone COLOR (Blue and white) and if you like what you see in the webcomic then go purchase the e-books for ony $0.89 a-piece.
Yeah, the webcomic is chapter 4 of the second series, but said second series is largely episodic and easy to jump into, even in the middle. And anyway, it's a great way to get a tast before spending *gasp!* less than a dollar for awesome small press entertainment. Not the best of all worlds (that would be totally free webcomics beginning to end that somehow, magically, the publisher and artist could earn a living from), but it's a step in the right direction, a direction BYRON and Krumpholz have needed to take for a while now.
Well, here it is! Enjoy! --Dave B.
ORCUSVILLE - A webstrip for gamers, geeks, and gods
Today I'm going to plug a buddy of mine's webstrip: ORCUSVILLE!!
Starring the arch-demon baron duke dude fiend from literal Hell, Lord Orcus, and his one secretary, Velia; his lone torturer, Vis, who's also a lawyer and eternal demon of arbitrary retribution; the only torturee of Orcus' domain, named Victor, forever strapped spread-eagle to a wooden block and suffering (in-between witicisms and/or pleas for mercy); and finally the unforgettable Doctor A. Thoth, the pan-dimensional Chaos Theory specialist of all the known multiverse!
The webstrip is updated near-daily, usually riffing on gamer-related humor, or just geek-related humor in general. Por ejemlpo:
And:
Pretty funny, n'est ce pas? Even better, Lord Orcus himself sometimes steps out from behind the black HTML'd border of his own webstrip to interview comics pros in a Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast style, such as his latest chat (read: ridiculous harrasment of) superstar artist Carmilla d'Errico, of Nightmares & Fairy Tales fame as well as her latest little diddy, Burn (see images below).
AWWWWW! Don't Orcus and Carmilla make a sweet ol' couple?
So go read ORCUSVILLE!!! There's a TON more stuff on the site (it's quite comprehensive). Written by Steve Saunders and art by Julio Falkenhagen and Freedom Drudge and, hey, for those of you who read the gods-beautiful awesome FICTION CLEMENS mini from Ape earlier this year, Orcus is co-written by that book's very author, Josh Wagner! Ah, yes, sometimes life can be so syrupy sweet... --Dave B.
