The Shadow #1-6 (2012)

"They call me the Buffalo."

"They call me sir."

The latest comic book incarnation of The Shadow comes from Dynamite. The first story, The Fire of Creation, was written by Garth Ennis with art by Aaron Campbell. Ennis has had a string of hit series for both the major publishers as well as his recently concluded series, The Boys, for Dynamite. Aaron Campbell is a new name to me but he seems to have worked mainly on other Dynamite titles such as Green Hornet and Sherlock Holmes.

Set sometime in the 1930s, Lamont Cranston is working with US Military Intelligence to prevent an ex-crime boss turned Japanese army officer getting his hands on the "magic rocks" being auctioned among the world's super powers by a Chinese crime lord. Along the way he must escape assassination attempts by the Nazis and the interference of the Military Intelligence officer sent with him to legitimise the mission.

I gave this one a try because I like the gun-toting vigilante known as the Shadow especially the incarnation from the 80s by Andrew Helfer and Kyle Baker. This version did not live up to that mainly because writers seem to have been restricted in what they can do with the character since that time - the book was pulled from DC without warning in the middle of a storyline. As a Garth Ennis piece it also did not live up to its potential, probably for the same reason, as a lot of the signature Ennis tropes are missing - the black humour, sexual deviancy and gallons of blood and gore. So we get a fairly standard pulp thriller that touches on the origin of the Shadow and his relationship to Lamont Cranston and Kent Allard without going into too many details. The Shadow's only companion in this story, from his usual selection of sidekicks, is Margo Lane and the action mainly takes place outside of New York in a China under the control of Japan. A good enough read that retains the pulp essence of the character but I think I will stick to my Helfer back issues.

Green Lantern: 1001 Emerald Nights (2001)

"Reign of terror? I'm not sure I understand. But you've got lots of time to explain it to me. Well, at least the night."

This prestige format one-shot from DC is part of their Elseworlds series where a twist is applied to a familiar hero usually by changing their normal setting. This mash up of Green Lantern with 1001 Nights was written by Terry LaBan who is more of an underground comic writer/artist but has done some work for major companies including The Dreaming for Vertigo and a Grendel mini-series for Dark Horse. The art was by Rebecca Guay whose work I know from the Black Orchid ongoing series from the 90s and some Sandman spin-offs.

In this story, Scheherazade is a Green Lantern has come to the town of Isafakhar to end the reign of the wicked sultan Ibn Rayner. But once she insinuates her way into the Sultan's chambers, she finds that he is not the cruel ruler that she was expecting but more of a naive, misled puppet ruler. Through three tales of the reluctant hero Al Jhor Dan and his powerful genie, she tries to educate him in how a ruler show behave personally and towards his people.

A not bad story transposing the Green Lantern mythos onto the tales of the Arabian Nights. As usual with these Elseworlds tales, a lot of the elements of the superhero remain the same just subtly tweaked to fit with the new setting. So in this case the Lanterns do not have rings to start with but summon genies from lamps to carry out their will instead. Perhaps the story was a little over-moralistic but that is the nature of the originals I can live with it. Rebecca Guay's art is perfect for this tale as she specialises in fantasy illustration and it looks great on the page - especially the leading ladies.

Camelot 3000 (1988)

"But no need to stand on ceremony. You may call me King Arthur!"

This book is a collection of the first comic book maxi-series, as claimed in the introduction by Don and Maggie Thompson. The series was written by Mike W. Barr who is probably best known for his writing on various Batman titles such as Batman and the Outsiders, the Year Two story in Detective Comics and the Son of the Demon graphic novel. The art was by British artist Brian Bolland who is more often associated, these days, with fabulous cover art but also worked on early Judge Dredd stories for 2000AD and DC's The Killing Joke.

 It is the year 3000 and Britain is under attack by relentless aliens from the solar system's tenth planet. In it's hour of need, King Arthur, it's greatest defender, is reborn. His first act is to restore Merlin to his side followed by the reincarnations of his knights of the Round Table. They discover that Morgan le Fay is behind the alien attacks and so old conflicts are renewed.

I bought this book because it is one of the few examples of a comic series illustrated by Bolland whose work I love. Unfortunately the story did not match my expectations. For a comic that was DC's first for mature readers, it felt very immature - let's mix Arthurian legend with the future and an alien invasion and it'll be cool. It seemed very thin and being stretched over twelve issues did not help. This book has not aged as well as some of it's contemporaries from the mid eighties. It doesn't help that a number of later comics, such as Fables, deal with the updating of mythological or fantasy characters much better.

But I came for the art and the art was good but it didn't blow me away in the same way that his covers can do. Partly this is because it does not have the same detail as his work in black and white does - Bryan Talbot is another good example of someone whose work I prefer in black and white because so much more goes into it. I was also expecting more due to the problems that I know plagued this book as regards to deadlines however I don't feel that it necessarily shows in the finished page. So all in all a bit of a disappointment - maybe you had to be there to appreciate it.

The Joker's Last Laugh #1-6 (2001)

"Didn't figure you for the prayin' type, boss."

"Why? Because I kill people and do really rotten things to puppies and kittens?"

My first digital comics read on my new tablet is this six part series from DC. The series writers were Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty. There were numerous artists on the series: Pete Woods; Andrew Pepoy; Marcos Martin; Mark Farmer; Alvaro Lopez; Walter McDaniel; Andy Kuhn; Ron Randall; Rick Burchett; Mark Lipka; Dan Davis.

While incarcerated at the Slabside Penitentiary, the Joker is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. He reacts by inciting a riot and using the prison's own defences to "jokerize" the other inmates - may of whom are super-villains. Having created his own super-army, the Joker escapes and lets them loose upon the world hoping that he will be killed by an old friend before he dies.

The annoying thing about this series is that it is not self contained. And for a series featuring the Joker there is not nearly enough scenes in which he appears. The chaos caused by the Joker ripples throughout the DC Universe and some of the action takes place in other comics. This would be fine if the main series told its own story consistently but instead there are scene and plot changes between issues that are just not explained and so the story has unsatisfying holes in it. This is the reason I tend to avoid crossover events, and don't read too many modern Marvel books where there constantly seems to a crossover happening. I hate the presumption of publishers that either readers are reading all their books or that they will stump up the extra to follow the story beyond a central series.

As I have already stated, the story is less a story about the Joker than it is about the victims of his cruelty. Oracle and Nightwing are the ones to suffer most throughout the story. Their moral stance on the Joker and his continued existence testing them and their relationship to the limit. This could have been a great story in the vein of The Killing Joke or A Death in the Family if it had been allowed to develop within its own pages with a consistent art team but the disjointed nature of the series ruins its emotional impact for me.

As I said at the start, this is my experience of digital comics and using a tablet to read them. In general my experience has been positive. I bought a 10" Samsung tablet and the size of the visible screen is only slightly smaller than a standard comic page - which is important as I don't like the directed zoom way of reading comics that can divorce the words from the images. A big plus is the regular sales on Comixology and Dark Horse Digital and, as there is a lot of old stuff I have still to pick up, I can wait for issues to be bundled or sold for 99 cents an issue. For example, the collection for this series is out of print and I picked it up for $5.94 rather than the $30 which is the cheapest second hand copy on Amazon UK or Abe Books (once shipping is included). The only downside is the price of new comics that tend to be same price as the print version which has never seemed right to me for any digital media.

The New Deadwardians #1-8 (2012)

"One day I recall, I had to re-kill my entire platoon."

This recently finished 8 part mini-series from Vertigo was created by writer Dan Abnett and artist I.N.J. Culbard. Abnett has had a long career as a writer of prose books, most notably a large number of Warhammer 40K novels, and comics books mainly for Marvel and 2000AD. Ian Culbard has illustrated a number of adaptions of literary works including Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, H.P. Lovecraft stories and Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars.

Set in an alternate history London of 1910, a curse has spread across England since zombies (known as the Restless) first mysteriously appeared in 1861. Attracted by the living, the only cure is to become a vampire (known as the Young) an option taken up mainly by the wealthy and privileged members of society. The rest of the human race (known as the Bright) live in barricaded zones surrounded by hundreds of the Restless pressing in attracted by the living. In this setting, Chief Inspector George Suttle is called on to investigate the murder of a Young aristocrat who death is made more mysterious by not being due to one of the three ways to kill the Young. During his investigation, Suttle has to cross into a Bright zone and deal with the reawakening of long dormant desires as well as secret societies and pressure to close the case quickly without any scandal.

Abnett has taken some very old (and possibly tired) supernatural species and managed to weave a fresh story full of intrigue. The zombies are mostly background threat with a couple of incursions in the living zones of London. The most interesting relationship is between the Young and the Bright and the simmering resentment that pervades the whole series. Suttle goes through a transformative experience when made to interact with the Bright that challenges the life (or unlife) he has been leading for nearly 50 years. I liked the art by Ian Culbard and the subtle colour palette used throughout the book. Worth a look for a different take on some classic horror tropes.

John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Devil's Trench Coat (2012)

"Welcome to Hell, John ..."

With this latest collection (#283-291), the regular creative team since #250 - Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini - are just one issue away from matching the previous longest run on the series. This was the peerless run in the early 1990s by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

The book contains two related stories from the long running series - The Devil's Trench Coat and Another Season in Hell. In the first, Constantine's niece has stolen his old trench coat and sold it. But the coat being exposed to years of magic has a will of its own that it exerts on a series of new owners leaving death in its wake. Meanwhile John finds that he is more susceptible to wild magic and not as finessed in the spells he casts. All of which results in a Mafia hit man trying to gun him down while possessed by the coat. In the second story Constantine agrees to go to Hell to speak to his sister so that his niece, Gemma, can find out why she found her mother crying one day and free her soul from Hell. While John thinks he has out-smarted the First of the Fallen, the demon comes to Earth to enlist Epiphany's consent to bind her father's soul to him.

During his run, Milligan has done a good job of taking Constantine back to the basics of the character and gradually introducing a darker tone to the storyline. This book contains some of the darkest material yet with the dark magic radiated from his old trench coat to Constantine's return to Hell and his revenge on his evil twin for raping his niece. Not comfortable viewing or reading at times but a must for long time Constantine fans and horror lovers.

Dead of Night: Devil-Slayer (2009)

"They look like zombies. They're dead, right?"
"No they are undead."
"Oh yeah? Then let's see if we can make the undead dead again."

This book collects the four issue mini-series which is one of three published by Marvel on their MAX imprint in 2008/9 featuring modern versions of horror characters from the Marvel Universe - the others featured Man-Thing and Werewolf by Night. This one was written by horror author Brian Keene with art from Chris Samnee. Keene is a new name to me but has written a library full of books on his own. Samnee's work I know from Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale and Thor: The Mighty Avenger - and he is currently doing art duties on Daredevil.

Dan Sylva is returning for a tour of Iraq after leaving the army but finding that his girlfriend had left him and that there were no job opportunities at home. His first mission is to investigate a site where a captured American soldier is possibly being held. Dan discovers the soldier, and a lot of the civilians who had also gone missing recently, prey to a bunch of demons - both in demonic form and masquerading as part of the mercenary Bloodstone unit. With the help of a magi, Isaac, Dan alone escapes and learns that some demons and angels are plotting to bring about Armageddon early using war zones to hide their ritualistic murders. Dan learns that his uncle was a devil-slayer and that he is the next in line to assume the mantle and prevent hell on Earth.

The blurb on the back of the book says:

A radical re-imagining of Marvel's premier horror icon!

which is not a good start as I had never heard of the character before - which in a way is not surprising as I am much more of a DC/Vertigo fan than I am a Marvel one. I much prefer the DC/Vertigo take on horror, magic and the supernatural. The original character was created in 1977 by Rich Buckler and this series marks an updating and rebooting of the character. Gone is the cheesy superhero costume to be replaced by fatigues and shemagh.

It would appear that the reboot did not lead on to any further series which is a bit of shame as I quite liked this book. It still had a long way to go to match the rich Vertigo universe but it had some promise. I liked the grounding of the horror within the human conflict and the conspiracy between demons and angels, although well worn, could have legs if handled correctly. The last page in the book showed how the story could be expanded out to involve corporations, religious leaderships and governments - again familiar targets but full of potential if tied to current affairs. Perhaps a missed opportunity for Marvel to try and muscle in on some of DC's action.

Penguin: Pain and Prejudice (2012)

"Mr. Cobblepot, sir. I-I'm glad you brought me here so I could apologize again in person. Of course, I'd never think to be rude to someone of your ... ... stature."

This book collects the five issue mini-series of the same name and a one-shot Penguin story from the first Joker's Asylum series. The main story was written by Gregg Hurwitz with art by Szymon Kudranski. Both are new to me but Hurwitz is a thriller writer who has also done some comic book work including Batman, Moon Knight, The Punisher and Wolverine. Kudranski is currently the artist on Spawn from Image comics. The short story was by writer Jason Aaron and artist Jason Pearson.

The main story sees the Penguin doting over his frail mother and showering her with expensive gifts that have been brutally stolen from their owners. After her death, Oswald fills the lack of love in his life with the friendship of a blind woman who can love him back without judging him on his appearance. His idyll is shattered when Batman comes to call investigating the theft of various pieces of jewellery.

 These stories show some of the background to the character of the Penguin. The boy and man that loved and was loved by his mother but who was reviled by his father and teased and victimised by his brothers. Someone who just wants to be accepted for who he is despite his appearance. The main story has more detail given that it is longer but the story rambles without much logic or direction as far as I am concerned. Being shorter, Aaron's story is much tighter and tells a similar tale of teasing and abuse creating a manipulative monster in adulthood. I liked the art by Kudranski without being blown away but some of his work on Spawn, as highlighted on his blog, is truly spectacular.

Roadkill (2008)

 "Bitch, just give it up already."

"It's gotta end here, bitch."

"I don't know you well enough, but if they say you're a bitch, then I'll trust 'em on it."

This 80 page graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics was written and drawn by the Fillbach Brothers, Matthew and Shawn. This is the first work of theirs that I have read - though I do have another, Maxwell Strangewell, in my to-read pile. They also produce a web comic, with writer Ed Hawkins, called Roninspoon Theater.

When a research project to genetically modify animals for super growth is compromised by a mutated, zombie byproduct, one of the researchers escapes with a giant rabbit before the facility goes into lockdown. Unfortunately the rabbit gets loose and is run over by a truck whose occupants are looking for roadkill to augment the burger meat at a local diner. Unfortunately, again, eating the meat of the genetically modified animals turns people into the aforementioned mutant zombies. Enter Jim Kowalski who works for Illuminati Trucking Inc., a mysterious firm fighting evil and the supernatural, and is sent to investigate the incident. Jim has to fight mutated cockroaches, deal with a death cult and clean up the mess left in the local town.

This is a fun, comic story featuring larger than life characters and outrageous circumstances. The artwork is quite cartoony in style but this complements the comedic nature of the story. The characters are well worn stereotypes but the energy of the increasingly bizarre story carries all before it. I look forward to reading Maxwell Strangewell.

Spaceman #1-9 (2011-12)

"So now what?"
"We wait, we web-cast pictures of what appear to be Tara and her kidnappers, from a anom source."
"Huh? But webee staff on the show ...''
'Jesus, Bob ... it's called drama ..."

This is a recently finished nine issue mini series from Vertigo. The creative team is no stranger to Vertigo being Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso who have collaborated before on Jonny Double, 100 Bullets and a Batman story in the Wednesday Comics anthology title for DC.

The story is set in a post-climate change world where the water levels have risen to submerge part of an unnamed city. The affluent live in a segregated part of the city known as the Dries while every one else slum it in the Rise. Orson is a genetically modified human, standing 7 to 8 feet tall with monkey-like features, who was created, along with others, to travel to Mars but the programme was shut down due to public outrage when he was still young. He makes a living salvaging stuff from the Rise but his life is turned upside down when he runs into a crew of kidnappers who have kidnapped a young girl from the family of a reality TV show, The Ark.

Interwoven with this story is another concerning four of the genetically altered spacemen on a mission to terraform Mars. Their motivations change when a meteorite veined with gold crashes near their base and disagreements on what to do lead to suspicion and suspected murder.

I have loved the work of Azzarello and Risso in the past - especially the fabulous artwork of Eduardo Risso.(a lot of which you can buy from his web site). And this story was enjoyable too but I was confused as to how the two very different stories connected together. It is suggested in the Earth bound one that the Mars missions never took place and the situation of another of the spacemen, Carter, would suggest that the Mars mission did not take place after the story on Earth. But they are obviously connected in some way - whether the whole of the Earth story is an immersive TV show of some kind or the Mars one a hallucination - some of the sequences are triggered by Orson taking a drug - or something else I just can't decide. For me the Earth story was more interesting and losing the Mars one to add more detail into that world would have made for a more satisfying book.

A Digital Future

I am currently re-reading the recently finished Spaceman series from Vertigo by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. So that will be the next comic to reviewed here by the end of the week, hopefully.

In the meantime, I am being dragged slowly into the 21st century. Although a still buy a fair amount of CDs, I have mainly been accessing music digitally in the last few years via a couple of subscription and streaming services. Now I think the time has come to think seriously about how I access print material in the future.

I have just about filled, and overfilled, every available space that my understanding wife will allow with music, comics, graphic novels and books. So I am seriously thinking about moving to a digital platform in the very near future. Comixology always have great offers and this week I was finally tempted to lay down some cash for an omnibus edition of Project Superpowers - 21 issues for $16.99 was too good a deal to resist.

I had a look at the first issue on my Android phone for free and while the experience was not too bad (it was good enough for me to take the plunge in the first place and I have recently upgraded my phone and it has a 4.7" high resolution display) I think for prolonged reading I will want to buy a tablet so that I can see full pages more comfortably.

There are a lot of circumstances coming together that make now the right time for me. The foremost of these is the imminent release of the Kindle Fire in the UK and the rumoured release of a mini-iPad. One of these may well be my preferred option but if I am not satisfied with either then I will probably go for a full iPad. We'll see what the future brings.

Dredd 3D

"I am the Law."

I have been reading Judge Dredd comics regularly for most of my life but for all of his. Judge Dredd has been a regular feature of the influential British comic 2000AD since his first appearance in Prog 2 - which apparently coincided with my 13th birthday in 1977 - and a copy of which still resides in my loft at home.

This is his second outing on the big screen. The first, in 1995, starred Sylvester Stallone as Dredd and featured a comic sidekick and Dredd out of uniform for most of the film. While the film covered a lot of Dredd's world and characters, ultimately the film was a sad reflection of the source material.

The new film features the always watchable Karl Urban as Dredd, Olivia Thirlby as Cassandra Anderson and Lena Headley as crime boss Ma-Ma. It is a much grittier, tougher vision of Mega-City One than the earlier movie and Urban wears the helmet throughout - famously in the comics Dredd is never seen without his helmet or if he is then there is always a strategic obstruction over the upper portion of his face - and makes a heroic stab at expressing himself through his chin.

Dredd is set in a post-apocalyptic America where much of the country is a radiation blasted wasteland and the population is gathered in a few urban conglomerations such as Mega-City One which covers the eastern seaboard of America. Justice is brought to the overcrowded Mega-City by the judges who hand out instant judgement on the streets acting as judge, jury and executioner when required.

Dredd is landed with assessing a narrowly failed cadet, Anderson, who the Chief Judge wants to recruit due to her powerful psychic ability. Dredd allows Anderson to choose their first assignment together which turns out to be a gang punishment killing in the 200 storey Peach Trees block. When the local crime boss, Ma-Ma, discovers that one of her lieutenants has been captured and is to be taken in for questioning, she seizes control of the block and locks it down in war mode so that nothing can get in or out. Doing anything to protect her manufacture and distribution centre of the drug slo-mo, what follows is a graphically violent shoot-em-up as Dredd and Anderson try to keep hold of their prisoner while attempting to escape from the block.

The film's plot is fairly simplistic and does not allow Urban to exercise his acting chops beyond portraying the tough lawman which he does very well. Anderson is one of my favourite comic characters and while the rookie Anderson of this film is not the sassy, backchatting Anderson that I love in the comics, Thrilby does a good job of displaying the sensitivity and toughness that I love about the character. Headley is not given enough screen time to build up her character but she uses the time she has well to portray the ruthless crime boss. The only disappointment for me was that the plot was a bit too thin and just fizzled out towards the end rather than building to a climax.

The isolation of Dredd and Anderson from the outside world offers a very peculiar vision of Mega-City One but one that is still true, in its own way, to the spirit of the comics. In general the set and costume design is much grittier and practical than in the comics. In the comics, Mega-City One is a city of wonders with futuristic vehicles and outlandish sights. In the film the setting is much more like a decayed urban landscape that exists today and the vehicles are very prosaic. The Lawmasters, the judges' motorcycles, are very drab and disappointing when compared to the books.

The iconic uniform retains the eagle on the shoulder but is now a part of the tough body armour rather than an ornate folly.

This movie is only showing in 3D which is a disappointment. The 3D enhances the slo-mo drug sequences but is pretty much unremarkable or not needed in the rest of the movie. I wish I had the chance to see as a normal release.

So a much better effort than the earlier film but still some way to go before being described as excellent. I hope that any sequel will offer a richer story from Dredd's long history. For those who want to learn more of Dredd and his history the list compiled by io9 of essential Dredd stories is a pretty good place to start.

Fairest #7 (2012)

'You're going to slay me with a walking stick? I know I'm just a girl and all, but it's a bit far-fetched.'

I don't tend to make many posts about single issues of comics but I thought I would about this one for completeness as, together with the previous issues in the series that I have already talked about, this will be part of the upcoming first collected volume of Fairest. It is a standalone story and was written by Matthew Sturges (Jack of Fables, House of Mystery) and with art by Shawn McManus.

The story has Beast on the trail of a monstrous killer in 1940s Los Angeles. However if he wants to capture the monster alive he must beat the dapper Englishman and monster slayer Saint-George to the punch. But why is Beast so insistent on catching the killer alive and why is Fabletown's sheriff Bigby Wolf not on the case?

This is a nice standalone story some great art by McManus who colours the 1940s segment in sepia tones to match the mood of the era of fictional private detectives that is used as the setting of the tale. But the most significant development for Fables fans is that this issue shows that this is a series that needs to be followed as it looks like the stories told will relate more closely to the main series than I thought they would. I thought that the series of stories, like Legends of the Dark Knight for Batman, would be set in the universe of Fables but standing outside of the continuity of the main series. However issues 1-6 spun out of an incident in Fables #107 and this story provides some background on the relationship between Beauty and Beast that goes some way to explaining Frau Totenknder's present for their daughter, Bliss. Now this may just be because the first two writers, series creator Bill Willingham and Jack of Fables co-writer Matthew Sturges, are well acquainted with the main series and its characters. So it will be interesting to see how it develops with the next story arc and a writer new to the world, Lauren Beukes.

The Underwater Welder (2012)

And you know what...? I'm right here ... we're right here. But you're too busy chasing a ghost to notice! 

  
The Underwater Welder is an original graphic novel from Top Shelf Productions by writer and artist Jeff Lemire. The only work of his that I have read before was The Nobody from Vertigo but he is one of DC/Vertigo's hot talents having his own on-going series, Sweet Tooth, and writing several series in DC's new 52 including Animal Man, Justice League Dark and Superboy.

The story in this book follows Jack Joseph, a 33 year old underwater welder at an off-shore oil rig in Nova Scotia. He and his wife are preparing for the imminent arrival of their first baby but Jack seems distracted and is more focused on work than preparations for the new arrival. It is also Halloween, the anniversary of the death of Jack's father in mysterious circumstances. Jack's memories of his father and the night he died start to take over his life as his own doubts about his fitness as a father begin to surface. While Jack loves his father he fears turning into man who broke up his family and ultimately wasted his life. But an incident at work is the trigger for a self-examination in which the buried truth is revealed and Jack must decide how he will live his life in the future.

Given the nature of the publisher, they also published his acclaimed Essex County collection, this is a return to Lemire's indie roots and is a very different kind of book to his work on the new 52. This book is a  kitchen sink drama with a bit of a supernatural/hallucinational interlude. The imagery of the book works well with the point of view changing seamlessly between the past and the present through Jack's self-perceived transformation into his father. This is a chunky 220 page book that can easily be read and enjoyed in a single sitting but certainly worth spending more time with.

Justice Inc. #1-4 (1975)

My weapons ... the gun i call Mike and the knife Ike! Once again, They are my only friends ... my only allies ... and my hope!

Just as The Shadow series was about to draw to a close, DC released this short-lived series featuring another 1930s pulp character, the Avenger, with most of the original stories written by Paul Ernst writing as Kenneth Robeson. Like The Shadow series, Denny O'Neil handled the writing duties and had a crossover story in The Shadow #11. The art in the first issue was by Al McWilliams but what makes the series stand out is the art on the remainder of the series by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer. Jack Kirby is of course the comics legend who helped create characters such as Captain America and other Marvel staples such as the Fantastic Four, X-Men and the Hulk as well as the Fourth World mythos for DC.

The first issue features the origin of the Avenger. Richard Benson is an adventurer and explorer who boards a plane to Montreal with his wife and daughter. On returning from the bathroom, he finds his wife and daughter missing along with another passenger. Everyone else on the plane insists that they were never on it and in an ensuing fight Benson is knocked out cold. He awakes three weeks later in hospital to find that his skin and hair have turned white and that he can mold his face so as to mimic others. Benson then sets off to investigate what happened to his wife and daughter and avenge them.

All the stories can standalone but, as he picks up new members for his Justice Inc. crime fighting operation along the way with each issue, should be read in order if possible. The first story is about a hostile company takeover but the remaining stories all feature some technological or scientific discovery as the focus of the story.

The series features more pulpy goodness from O'Neil and fabulous art from Kirby. The technology based stories and face changing antics of the Avenger puts me in mind of the Mission Impossible TV series and it would be interesting to find out if O'Neil was influenced by this or if it was a feature of the original pulps. Worth a look for fans of Jack Kirby if you can find it.

The Shadow #1-12 (1973-1975)

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

I have been wanting to re-read Andrew Helfer's run on The Shadow from the 80s for a while now. But when I went into the loft to dig them out I got sidetracked by DC's first comic series with the character. The majority of issues (10) were written by Denny O'Neil with the other two written by Michael Uslan. O'Neil has worked on a vast number of titles for DC and Marvel and includes the Hard Traveling Heroes Green Lantern/Green Arrow story, a run on Batman and a revivial of the Question in the 80s. Uslan is better known as a film and TV producer and has been a producer on a number of the modern DC film adaptations including all the Batman movies. The art duties were handled by Michael Kaluta (5 issues), Frank Robbins (4 issues) and ER Cruz (3 issues). Kaluta's work I know from Starstruck and a recent run on Madame Xanadu but the other two artists are new to me - in fact ER Cruz seems to be a bit of a man of mystery himself.

Each issue is a standalone story with no overall arc so each can be read on their own. The stories are true to the pulp origins of the character and set in the 30s (when the radio serial and books first appeared). The Shadow is a vigilante dispensing, often fatal, justice to organised crime gangs. He has unexplained mystical powers to hypnotize and evade adversaries and slip into the shadows. He has a number of alter egos including a rich socialite and in some ways can be seen as a precursor to Batman. He also has a team of associates that he uses to gather information and help him in his pursuit of criminals.

In general the stories were good examples of the pulp style. However, at 18 or 20 pages long, they were a bit too short for me - a lot of the story development and detection work was skipped to fit in the action within the page limit. The art was generally fine. This early example of Kaluta's art was a bit cruder than his later Mucha influenced style but fit in well with the overall mood of the pulps. The Robbins art had more of a cartoony style but was still enjoyable to view. I probably liked the art by ER Cruz best as it was a bit cleaner than Kaluta's and a bit more realistic than Robbins'. If you are a fan of pulp writing, the Shadow or Denny O'Neil then it is probably worth your while tracking this series down.

Memories (2005)

This book is a collection of two books, Memories of Outer Space and Memories of Other Times, which are both in turn collections of short comics illustrated by Enki Bilal. Bilal is a European comic creator who was born in Yugoslavia but brought up in Paris. His best known works are probably the Nikopol and the Beast trilogies.

For all but six of the stories, Bilal is also the writer as well as illustrator. The stories all date from 1972 - 1981 and vary in length from a single page to 10 pages but with most being done about 3-5 pages in length. Thematically the stories tend to fall into three categories - space opera, near future and horror - and can be serious or comic.

As with most collections there is a variability in quality in the story telling but, in the main, the art is exceptional and a good illustration of the European style. For myself, I tended to prefer the grander SF/space opera stories rather than the horror ones in this collection but found myself frustrated by the short length of the stories and longing for a meatier story to sink myself into. But nevertheless an interesting collection worthy of investigation if you have never come across Bilal's work before.

Real Lies (2006)

"Robots will surely signal the end of the world for all humans."

Something a bit different this time. Real Lies is a collection of short stories by writer and artist Lee Si Young and is Korean Manhwa. Manwha is obviously a close relation to Japanese Manga as the styles are very similar - or at least they are in this case which is my first exposure to it.

The first story, How Martians conquer the Earth, centres around a young woman, Si-Ra, whose boyfriend has disappeared. Feeling like the world has ended she does her best to carry on  until one day out of the blue he returns. But there is something odd about him as with many other so-called Return Men. Why are the whites of their eyes blue and why do so many of them tell the same story to explain their disappearance?

In the world of Is it really impossible?, a virus has meant that no male children are born naturally only the occasional  female. Naturally born females are known as Goddesses and cloned men are either Dominants (males who can reproduce) or Recessives (men who live as women). Mi-no is a dominant who wants more from his brief relationships with the Goddesses - tired of being treated like a stud he craves female friendship.

The final story, Science Fiction Story, sees Yoon-Kyung taking delivery of a new rental robot. But she is surprised and disconcerted by how human it looks. As they are forced to spend time together, she becomes increasingly curious and frustrated by the robot and it human qualities.

This is a quite interesting collection of stories. They remind me a little of the Vertigo book Demo by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. Delicate tales of love and loss but with a slight horrific or science fictional quirk in the background. These stories are more upfront about the science fictional elements but just as interesting.  The art is a bit rough in places but no more so than in some other Manga titles. I took a chance on this book as it was in a sale and it was certainly worth a look. Although she has written other books, from a quick investigation, it does not seem like any others have been translated into English.

Fairest #1-6 (2012)

"I smell a rat! No, I smell whatever sort of vermin a rat smells when he smells a rat!"

The recent publication of issue 6 of Fairest marks the end of the first story. Fairest is the latest spinoff from Fables and will focus on the female characters in the original series. This first story was written by the main man himself, Fables creator Bill Willingham. The truly fabulous interior art was pencilled by Phil Jimenez and inked mainly by Andy Lanning with some help along the way from Mark Farmer and Andrew Pepoy. The fantastic covers were by Adam Hughes. The wraparound cover to issue 1 shown above features mainly easily recognisable characters to regular readers of Fables but there were a few I did not recognise.

The story follows on from the abduction of the Snow Queen and Briar Rose by a goblin army from the Empire's capital city in Fables #107. Ali Baba is looting the city when he comes across a minor bottle imp in a bottle. Although not able to grant him three wishes, the bottle imp promises to use his skills to guide him to vast wealth. He is led to the goblin camp where he frees Briar Rose with a kiss and both find that true love is hard to find and hold on to - even with seven fairy godmothers on your side.

This is an excellent start to the new series. Willingham has produced yet another fabulous tale from his winning formula of retelling classic fairy tales and updating the characters involved. This story focuses on true love and loss but is also a tale of revenge and redemption and is bound to be an instant hit with fans of the main series. It is also the perfect introduction for those who have missed out on Fables and don't want to play catch-up or commit to the longer story arcs.

With the conclusion of the first arc, the series is being opened out to other creators for their take on these characters. The proposed format reminds me of the Legends of the Dark Knight comic that also featured standalone tales from different creative teams. Issue 7 is to be a single issue story by Matthew Sturges and Shawn McManus which is to be followed by another six issue story featuring Rapunzel by Lauren Beukes and Inaki Miranda. While I am excited about some of the new writers and artists involved - I am looking forward to seeing more of Inaki Miranda's work after Fables #99 - I am slightly worried that the quality may vary with the introduction of writers new to the characters.

Having said that, this first arc has left me excited for the future of the series and it is worth picking up when it is collected - sometime after the publication of issue 7 which will also be included in the TPB.

Jonny Double (2002)

"You kids're talkin' about robbing a bank!"

"No, we're talkin' about goin' to get a dead guy's money."

This book collects the four issue mini-series that was the first collaboration between writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso. This was the start of a successful partnership that has since produced 100 Bullets, the current Spaceman and some Batman stories.

Jonny Double is an ex-cop turned private investigator whose latest client has just turned up dead. The down on his luck Jonny is then hired by a mysterious Mr. Hart to find out what crowd his daughter, Faith, is running with and to keep her out of trouble. Everything seems fine until he is persuaded to impersonate the son of Al Brown (AKA Al Capone) to close out his daddy's inactive bank account. However, the account is not as inactive as the Faith's crew think and instead of scoring $300,000 they lift $7 million. Jonny's world goes downhill fast as the kids start turning up dead and Jonny has to protect Faith from a legendary hit man.

This is an excellent book from Azzarello and Risso. A modern day noir crime caper with all the elements one might expect including a dumb PI falling for deadly femme fatale. Some of the parts of the story might be a bit too clichéd but the quality of the writing and art is such that you drawn along into the twisted narrative completely. There are enough red herrings to keep you guessing throughout the story and the ending neatly wraps up all the threads from Jonny's past and present. The only thing that slightly jarred for me was Jonny's speech patterns which were infused with 60s beatnik/hipster figures of speech. But otherwise this fabulous book should appeal to fans of 100 Bullets if they haven't read it already.

First published on RevolutionSF on Friday Aug 10, 2012

Steve Niles' Cellar of Nastiness (2005)

This book is a collection of one-shots from writer Steve Niles, who is probably best known for co-creating the 30 Days of Night series.

The first story, Hyde is a modern reworking of the Jekyll and Hyde story. In this version, two brothers are close to creating a new anti-depressant drug but when their funding gets cut they decide to test the latest batch of the drug on themselves. After they awake from a blackout, they discover that the man responsible for shutting them down has been brutally murdered along with his family. The drug proves addictive but each use results in a trail of bloody mayhem - but who is too blame?

This first story was pretty good but, even as one of the longest in the book, was too short for me. I would have liked more on the relationship between the brothers and their transformed characters. The art by Nick Stakal was OK on this story. It reminded me a lot of Ted McKeever but not quite as good and the quality of the art varied quite a lot from page to page.

The second story is called The Very Big Monster Show. Theo is a boy who loves the classic movie monsters but in his father's costume shop the children are all going wild for the newer horror movie monsters. Just at Hallowe'en, Theo stumbles across an old house inhabited by the classic monsters - Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, the Mummy and the creature from the Black Lagoon - who are sitting around moping about how no-one finds them scary anymore. But Theo's belief in them encourages them to have one more go at being frightening.

This is quite a heartwarming tale of belief and courage with faith being rewarded in the end. It is also nostalgic for the lost era of movie monsters and the thrills they caused rather than than the easy gore laden shocks of the modern monsters. It could almost be a children's tale if it wasn't for the content. The illustrations by Butch Adams are very nice and are in a children's picture book style.

The third part of the book was originally published by IDW as Horrorcide and features four short horror tales. The first two are stories in the same vein as the Future Shock tales from 2000AD. But the best one is a tale of revenge from beyond the grave where a repentant gang member is not forgiven by the family he helped murder. It also features some nice black and white art from Josh Medors.

As with most compilation books this is a mixed bag but I think it has enough goodies to make it worth a read.

First published on RevolutionSF on Sunday Aug 05, 2012

Kick-Ass 2 (2012)

"Again with the f-bombs! What is it with young people these days?"

This book collects the second seven part mini-series from the same creative team of Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. The thing to say straight up is that the back of this book has an infographic that states that this is book 3 of a projected 5 book Kick-Ass arc. Well thanks for the heads up on that Mark and Millarworld - the only other place it is mentioned is on the facing page to the last page in the story.

The actual book 2 of the arc is the current, and so currently uncollected, Hit-Girl mini-series. This will now have to be treated by me as a flashback. Any dramatic tension created in that story could now well be compromised since there is a likelihood that it will be spoiled by knowing the events in Kick-Ass 2. Hopefully this will not be the case but you, dear reader, may wish to hold off reading this book until after the collection of Hit-Girl.

As for the book itself, it carries on in the same vein as book one with more extreme, bloody violence and foul language. In the aftermath of the events in book one, Dave and Mindy's lives have gone separate ways. While Dave is living the dream as Kick-Ass, Mindy has retired Hit-Girl under the watchful eye of her cop step-father. Millar cranks up the tension with the introduction of super-teams and super-villains - not everyone wants to do good. While the cops seemed content to stand back in the first book when only gangs were getting whacked, the situation changes in this book when a team of super-villains cause a massacre in a quiet suburban district.

If you liked the first book then you will probably like this as it is more of the same. The depth of Dave's obsession with being Kick-Ass is tested to the full by the events in this book. Perhaps his actions are being dictated by the things that happen around him but how he must wish that he had hung up his costume after his first patrol. I look forward to seeing what Millar has planned for Dave and Mindy now.

First published on RevolutionSF on Friday Aug 03, 2012

Kick-Ass (2010)

"Would you give me a hug? My daddy just died."

This book collects the first eight part mini-series and was written by Mark Millar, the Scottish writer probably best known for the Ultimates or the Civil War event for Marvel. The art was by John Romita, Jr. who has mostly worked on various Marvel characters. 

Kick-Ass tells the story of Dave Lizewski, a high school kid who dreams of becoming a superhero like the ones he reads about in his comic books. Dave decides to act on his desires and roams the streets looking for action but soon regrets it when he ends up stabbed, beaten and the victim of a hit and run. Several months and operations later and Dave can't keep away from the streets but small successes only bring him to the attention of larger predators.

This book features some of the trademark excesses of language and violence that Millar is known for in his creator owned work and so won't be for everyone. It is a brutal examination of the reality of vigilantism where the criminal underclass are not a superstitious and cowardly lot to be frightened by a man in a suit and the crime lords will move quickly to end anything that is interrupting their business activities. Dave finds that the high ideals held by the comic book heroes are soon abandoned in real life when he becomes associated with another pair of well trained vigilantes targeting crime boss John Genovese. The tipping point for most people I suppose will be the character Hit-Girl - a well trained 10 year old girl who wields deadly katanas to dish out bloody violence while spouting foul language. Even given the comic book nature of the story it is hard to imagine any father turning a young girl into the violent figure of revenge that is presented in this book. But if you can accept that then this is an excellent book.

First published on RevolutionSF on Wednesday Aug 01, 2012

JLA: Tower of Babel (2001)

"And as for the most persistent thorn in our side, the Detective … well … distracting him was so obvious a matter, I cannot believe I never thought of it before."

This book collects JLA #42-46 and material from JLA Secret Files #3 and JLA 80-page Giant #1. The main story was by Mark Waid who has worked as a writer on most of the major characters from both DC and Marvel. The book also features a host of pencillers and inkers but the principle story was drawn by Howard Porter and Drew Geraci, in the main.

The main story has Batman investigating the disappearance of his parents after their graves were desecrated by Ra's al Ghul who implements Batman's contingency plan to incapacitate the other members of the Justice League. With the Justice League incapacitated or distracted Ra's is free to pursue his agenda to escalate tensions in the Middle East.

The other stories in this book feature a gang trying to frame Superman for a murder in Gotham, Aquaman inadvertently revealing too much about his feelings for Wonder Woman on a rescue mission and the Atom discovering a bacterial civilisation manifesting as a tumour in a boy's brain - a civilisation doomed to self-destruction that has a deep resonance for Superman.

The main story is an examination of the paranoia of Batman and the schemes he is prepared to consider, against his friends and colleagues, to ensure that each member of the JLA can be held accountable for their actions and brought to justice if necessary. When his schemes are turned into actions against the members of the Justice League, they must consider how far they can trust a man that does not have faith in them and whether they can continue to work with him knowing that he is constantly judging them. The only slight niggle I have with an otherwise great book is that there are a lot of artists used and even the main story has an interlude with guest artists as does the final chapter of the story - is it too much to hope that a creative team can see out a four or five page story without chopping and changing. A good story that would seem to have ripples that affect not only Batman's relationship with the JLA but also those of his close companions within their respective teams.

First published on RevolutionSF on Tuesday Jul 31, 2012

Kickback (2006)

"I thought we all lived happily together, Micky … scratching each other's backs. Giving and taking … so what's up?"

This seems to an original graphic novel first published in France with this American edition from Dark Horse. The script and art is by David Lloyd who is best known, of course, as the artist on V for Vendetta but I also have a couple of Night Raven books that he did for Marvel.

The story follows Joe Canelli, a crooked cop in a crooked city. Everything is peaceful in Franklin City until one of the main gang leaders is taken out. Rather than starting a gang war, this event shatters the reciprocal agreement between the cops and the gangs with cops being taken out and violent reaction from the police on the gangs. Against this background, Canelli has to discover who he can trust as he investigates the cause of the disturbance and finds that he has to choose sides between what he thought was right and wrong.

This is a nice crime caper that I enjoyed reading. The story is not too original and parts of it reminded me strongly of the film Magnum Force. But the art is great and I love Lloyd's colour palette which is perfect for this noirish tale. The one aspect of Lloyd's art that I don't like is that the faces of characters are sometimes not too well defined and it can be difficult to recognise characters when they reappear in the story. Other than that a good little book that I am glad I took a chance on.

First published on RevolutionSF on Thursday Jul 26, 2012

Fables: Covers (2008)

"If you'll look again at any given Fables cover ... in addition to being a compelling illustration that makes you want to read the story inside, it's a story in itself."

Something a little different this time. This is a beautiful oversized, hardback book collecting James Jean's work as a cover artist on Fables. The book collects covers from the main series (#1-10 and 12-75), standalone books (The Last Castle and 1001 Nights of Snowfall) and the wraparound covers for the first 10 trade paperback collections.

The format of the book is pretty rigid. There is a double page spread for each single issue. The left hand page consists of preliminary sketches and paintings along with a relevant quote from the script for that issue and a thumbnail of the final cover as published. The right hand page is a full page reprint of the cover normally without logos, issue numbers, barcodes and other text or graphic elements unless these form an integral part of the design of the image.

The wraparound covers are treated slightly differently. These get 4 pages devoted to them. The first two have have the preliminary sketches, drawings and paintings with a thumbnail of the final cover and a short commentary from Jean himself on the cover. The next two pages is a reproduction of the cover alone without logos etc.

It goes without saying that if you love Jean's work then you will love this book. It shows which covers went through a number of iterations before settling on a final image and which seem to have been fully formed from the start. Amazing as the final covers are, some of my favourite illustrations are clean line drawings - the details are amazing and sometimes get lost in the colouring process. Visit his web site which has lots of examples of his other work.

First published on RevolutionSF on Sunday Jul 22, 2012

Fables: Inherit the Wind (2012)

"That's the trouble with prophecy. It seldom helps and often harms."

Volume 17 of Fables collects issues 108 - 113. The book was again written by creator Bill Willingham and the four issue main story, and the standalone story following it, was again pencilled by the ever fabulous Mark Buckingham with inking mainly by Steve Leialoha with Andrew Pepoy lending a hand. The final chapter in the book is a collection of short tales from the world of Fables with various guest artists such as P. Craig Russell and Adam Hughes.

Spoiler Alert: The next paragraph contains a possible spoiler if you are a long time reader of Fables and haven't read up to volume 16. If this is you look away now or skip to the end.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century (2009/11/12)

"All the love and loss. All the chaos. How do you manage it?"

"Well, it ... it's easier for me. You see, I'm really, really shallow ..."

Century is a three part story told at different points in time over a hundred year time span. Once again it sees Alan Moore teaming up with the great Kevin O'Neill. The League is in part the one mentioned in The Black Dossier with Mina Murray, a rejuvenated Allan Quartermain and the immortal Orlando also involved are Raffles and Thomas Carnacki.

Part 1, 1910, sees the team trying to track down the source of a deadly attack in the East End of London as predicted in the dreams of Carnacki. His dreams include the machinations of the occultist Oliver Haddo but these turn out to be of a time in the future. Meanwhile, a familiar killer is stalking the East End and Nemo's daughter is reappraising her life in the wake of her father's death and brutal life since running away to London.

It's good to be reading another League of Extraordinary Gentlemen story though the literary characters are more obscure than in the first two volumes but do allow Moore to focus more on the occult and some are cleverly used if you know the references. This is the first part of a trilogy of books and as such is not quite satisfying on its own. For though the various plot threads are woven together in the end, the larger picture is only beginning to be revealed.

The second part of Moore and O'Neill's Century, 1969, reduces the team to the core immortals - Mina Murray; Allan Quartermain; and Orlando. Set against a larger than life, Austin Powers style swinging sixties London, the team come together to continue their investigations into the black magician Oliver Haddo and his cult who are making a fresh attempt to usher in a new age with the creation of a Moonchild. The plot revolves around a mix of dead rock stars, sixties counter-culture, London crime bosses and the various investigations into them.

In this episode, the tensions amongst the League come to the fore as Mina struggles to come to term with the prospect of immortality, the responsibilities of leadership and insensitivity of her lovers/colleagues. While the threat is adverted in the psychedelic haze of a drug trip, the book ends with Mina separated from the rest of the team and a flash-forward to the more drab seventies and and the nihilism of punk reflected in the increasingly sour relationship between Allan and Orlando without the still missing Mina.

As usual with these books, there is a lot going on in the background art with reference to many pop culture icons of the sixties and seventies. O'Neill also puts in some references to his other work with, for example, an image of Nemesis in the background of one panel. The book also contains some contemporary references showing a possible moment when Tom Riddle was set on the path to becoming the Dark Lord.

The third and last part of Century, 2009, opens with Orlando losing him(her)self in combat in the Middle East. On returning to London he is tasked with finding Mina and Allan by Prospero and then tracking down the Moonchild that they were supposed to have prevented being born. She finds Allan living on the streets a hopeless junkie who refuses to have anything to do with her or tracking down Mina. Turning to MI6 for help, Orlando inds that Mina has been in a mental institution since the aftermath of the events in Hyde Park at the end of book 2. Together they track down the anti-Christ and confront him in a last battle to prevent the apocalypse heralded by Oliver Haddo.

This volume contains some savage commentary apparently directed at J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter novels. In this version of reality Harry Potter would appear to be Haddo's Moonchild and anti-Christ. All in all this series has a much darker tone than the previous ones with themes of nihilism, helplesness and the decay of moral and aesthetic standards. So there is less of a feeling of entertainment and boy's own adventure but there is plenty or scholars of Moore and his work to get their teeth into. Given the high;y irregular release schedule, I am glad that I waited to read all three at once as they would have been unsatisfactory to read as standalone episodes.

For those wanting to delve deeper into the many references littered throughout the series, there are some excellent web pages by Jess Nevins gathering these and is probably essential reading for Brits as well as non-Brits. There is a page for each book - 1910, 1969 and 2009.

First published on RevolutionSF on Saturday Jul 14, 2012

The Red Wing (2011)

Who are they, he asked. What choice did you make that they would want to destroy you? Robert, what do they want? And I replied, we don't know.

This book collects the four issue mini-series from Image Comics. It was written by Jonathan Hickman who writes almost exclusively for Image and Marvel working on properties such as Fantastic Four, Ultimates and S.H.I.E.L.D. It features some pretty nice art from a new name to me, Nick Pitarra, who has worked with Hickman before on The Manhattan Projects for Image and S.H.I.E.L.D. for Marvel.

The story focuses on Dominic Dorne, a cadet earning to pilot a TAC (Temporal Attack Craft) II ship in the 23rd century. His society is at war with a mysterious invader, wearing helmets with blue visors, who are attacking his timeline in the past and ravaging its resources. Dominic is emulating his father, Robert, who went missing on a mission into the past and the story flips the usual trope and has the father trying to atone for the sins of the son.

I liked this book on a first read – though it has its flaws. A story of this nature has to be self contained but I thought it was maybe a little too short – which is a little surprising given that the plot reminded me a lot of the extremely short Future Shock type stories from the old days of 2000AD. But I whizzed through this book very quickly and another issue or two might have been beneficial to help explain the set up better.

I have to say that the (pseudo-) scientific explanation behind the story didn't quite work for me. The main problem was that the threat was never adequately explained. The only glimpse that we see of the 23rd century, outside of the ring, looks very futuristic and peaceful. The story didn't really show us the effects that the Blue invaders were having on the Reds and why there was a full blown war.

Having said that I love stories that involve time travel and the best ones always leave me with a sore head as I try and figure out what is going on. And given the impossibility of the phenomenon, it seems a bit churlish not to enjoy the story on its own merits. The tropes used might have been well worn and the surprise ending not really much of a surprise but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. Maybe I liked it so much because it is the first sci-fi comic that I have read in a while.

I liked the art in general but the design on the ships seemed a bit lazy being just blocky shapes. The art reminded me of Bryan Talbot in places and Geof Darrow in others and I would definitely be interested in seeing more of Pitarra’s work.

First published on RevolutionSF on Tuesday Jun 12, 2012

MW (2010)

I robbed the bank and killed the guard! Of course I pretended to be Miho, all tied up, and took your ransom money too! Ha ha! Isn't that a hoot?

This is the collection of a manga series from the late 1970s by Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka is probably best known for creating Astro Boy among others. This story is a much darker one than those he is more usually associated with.

The book features two main characters: the amoral Michio Yuki who spends the book kidnapping, murdering and sleeping with men and women to use them in his schemes and Father Iwao Garai who is one of Yuki's lovers and who is trying to earn forgiveness for past sins by redeeming Yuki. Their tangled history begins on the island of Okino Mafune when a young Garai is a member of a delinquent gang of youths who kidnap the very young Yuki hoping for a ransom pay out. The pair hole up in a cave high above the island and come down the next day to find that everyone on the island has been killed by the accidental release of a chemical warfare agent called MW. A grown up Yuki blames the MW for altering his brain and causing his amoral behaviour and his crimes target people involved in the cover up of the incident. Eventually he discovers that the deadly gas has been moved from the island to an a foreign military base near Toyko. Yuki is determined in his madness to steal the MW and replicate it so that he can kill the whole world while Garai trying to make up for the past tries to stop him and save his soul.

This book reminds me of the later Deathnote manga. Like it there is a dark premise, a supremely confident villain who imagines himself untouchable and an investigator who is sure of the identity of the perpetrator of the crimes but lacks the proof to bring him to justice. The book examines the complex ties that bind two very different men through a large portion of their lives. From the teenage delinquent turned Catholic priest to the young innocent boy made into a monster by the experiences of one fateful day. It is chilling to be almost charmed by a character who uses his charisma to manipulate both sexes and to inspire devotion so strong that his victims will defend him against the bigger crimes that he is accused of. An excellent read and a story that does hang around too long as some manga can do to their detriment.

First published on RevolutionSF on Friday Jun 08, 2012

Black Orchid - The Deluxe Edition (2012)

You super-people live in a world of cliches, lady. You shoulda wised up - these are the eighties! Fighting crime is like fighting city hall; it's counter-productive!

Black Orchid is a collection of the three issue mini-series from the late 1980's. It features the re-imagining of an old DC character by writer Neil Gaiman and long-time collaborator, Dave McKean. This is one of their early collaborations and their first big commission for a major American publisher.

The plot surrounds the death and rebirth of Susan Linden, otherwise known as the crime fighting heroine, Black Orchid, who is investigating a criminal enterprise that would eventually lead to Lex Luthor. When Susan's ex-husband is released from prison, his dismissal by ex-boss Luthor, sets in motion a chain of events that sees him and Luthor hunting down the Black Orchid and her immature companion.

Although the book is now published by Vertigo, it was originally released by DC and pre-dates the Vertigo imprint by four years. Gaiman delivers an unconventional superhero story that does not feature much in the way of superheroics and creates an origin story for the Black Orchid that links her into DC's other plant-based heroes and villains - Jason Woodrue, Pamela Isley and Alec Holland. The story is about loss, unrequited love and the search for identity in an unfamiliar world. And while not having the majesty and breadth of his landmark Sandman series, it is still a beautifully told tale that is worth a read nearly 25 years after it was written. The art by McKean is fabulous featuring a photo-realistic style mixed in with some impressionistic renderings of the Green and the Amazonion jungle.

The book features some extra content for this deluxe printing that consists of sketches and handwritten notes from Gaiman as well as early comments from editor Karen Berger which while interesting are probably only of interest to hardcore fans of the character or Gaiman or those interested in the publishing process.

First published on RevolutionSF on Monday Jul 02, 2012

Judge Anderson: The PSI Files Volume 2 (2012)

They caught me reading from a banned book. All I can remember from it was one line - "The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime".

This is the second volume of collected stories featuring Judge Anderson taken from 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine. All except one was written by Alan Grant (the exception being a collaboration between Grant and long time writing partner John Wagner) and features three longer stories with a number of short tales interspersed among them. There are a number of artists involved including Arthur Ranson, Steve Sampson, Kevin Walker, Ian Gibson among others.

The first of the longer stories is called Shamballa and sees Anderson and academy colleague, Rickard, travelling to Tibet with two East-Meg 2 psi operatives to investigate the source of a worldwide spate of psychic visions of mythic creatures that are causing death and destruction where they appear. They end up travelling to the region formerly known as Tibet to track down a forgotten race of people with extraordinary psi abilities. The art on this story was by the great Arthur Ranson.

After a number of stories that slowly erode Anderson's faith in the justice system she eventually cracks and attacks a particularly brutal judge. In the second of the long stories, Childhood's End, she is sent on a mission to Mars to cool off. On the Cydonian plane, the head monument has opened a portal. Anderson is one of a number of assembled experts who make the expedition into the structure. While inside she must confront a deadly enemy of old and the return of an ancient race determined to wipe out humanity.

The third long story, Postcards from the Edge continues on from the last one and sees Anderson, having resigned as a judge, bumming round the inhabited worlds of the galaxy looking to find herself. This walkabout storyline is the most disjointed, having several different artists contributing to it, and with individual stories of variable quality and interest. Having said that I like the chapters with the distinctive art of Steve Sampson which are good to look at even if they are not necessarily good to read.

The beauty of this volume is that it allows an alternative look at the judges and the justice system of Mega-City. The sometimes brutal tactics of the street judge are questioned here by an increasingly doubtful Anderson as she struggles to get over the suicide of her friend, the empath Judge Corey, and assimilate some the spiritual experiences she goes through in this book and the philosophical questions they raise. Taken all together it is a worthwhile addition to the library even though some of the standalone stories and parts of Postcards from the Edge are not quite as good as the rest.

First published on RevolutionSF on Tuesday May 29, 2012

Cinderella: Fables are Forever (2012)

What did you expect me to call myself, Dorothy Gale, killer-for-hire? Or maybe the wicked bitch of the East?

This book collects the second six issue Fables mini-series featuring super-spy Cinderella. It was again written by Chris Roberson with art by Shawn McManus. There is also a tale set in the preparation for the war with the Adversary, from Fables 51, that was drawn by McManus but written by Fables creator Bill Willingham.

Cinderellla returns in a story set during the evacuation of the Farm because of the onslaught by Mister Dark. One of the leading witches from floor 13 has been murdered and the only clue is a silver slipper charm. Cinderella finds herself tracking down an old foe who she thought was dead and being involved with Fables from the shadow Fabletown that she has spied on in the past. But who can she trust and who is laying traps for who?

Another good standalone tale from the world of Fables. The only problem with it is that it attempts to place itself within the continuity of the main book and uses the murder of a character to achieve this. The story itself, from the time that Cinderella gets down to investigating the case till the resolution, has little impact or relevance to the main book and so the set up seems contrived and unnecessary. But other than that small niggle the story is great with lots of twists and turns and unexpected revelations both from Cinderella's past and present.

First published on RevolutionSF on Sunday May 20, 2012

Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love (2010)

Your taste in men hasn't improved, that's certain. And you never did know when it was time to leave a party.

This book collects the six issue mini-series, from Vertigo, that is a spin-off from Fables. It was written by Chris Roberson who is currently also writing iZombie for the same company. The art was by the great Shawn McManus whose work I don't seem to see nearly enough these days.

Cinderella, the apparent fashion show hopping socialite, is actually an experienced spy for Fabletown. In this story she is sent off to try and discover and eliminate the source of the flow of magical artefacts into the Mundy world from the Homelands. On the way she hooks up with Aladdin who is on the same mission. Together they uncover a plot to sell artefacts for Mundy weapons so that various individuals can make concerted assaults on Homeland territories now that the Emperor has been defeated. Cindy finds the mission turns personal when confronted with a figure from her past.

This is a fun tale from the world of Fables. The dialogue between Cindy and Aladdin is good and there is enough twists on the expectations of the character of Cinderella to keep the book entertaining throughout. It reminded me a lot of the early days of the Fables series itself when it was much more dependant on its fairy tale origins than it is currently. I love the art by McManus but then I have loved his work from the time of the Dr Fate series from the mid to late 80s.

First published on RevolutionSF on Monday May 14, 2012

Dollhouse: Epitaphs (2012)

Did I mention how much I hate this apocalypse?

This book collects the Epitaphs one-shot and the following five issue mini-series. It was written by Andrew Chambliss, Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon. All three were also involved with the writing on the TV series upon which the book was based and especially on the two season finales that were set in the same post apocalyptic world. The art was by Cliff Richards and Andy Owens with some exceptional covers by Phil Noto.

The story has two strands. The first follows Maggie, Zone and Griffin as the brain wiping apocalypse starts, turning those that answer phones into ferocious killers or docile imbeciles, how they survive and meet up and their continued fight for survival in the face of the increasing escalation of mind control from the Rossum Corporation. The second follows a young boy Trevor as his uncle is imprinted with the personality of Topher's assistant Ivy who is working with Alpha to try and raise a resistance army against Rossum. Trevor meets up with Alpha to find he is the only recruit along with some other Ivys but undeterred joins with Alpha in search of Echo and a means to resist the imprinting process. But they must fight their way to her as the Rossum Corporation is also looking for her.

I was a fan of the TV series and thought it had more high points than low, though it could be patchy at times, but when they stuck to the story arc it was generally excellent. This story is a reasonable addition to the canon without being spectacular. The best part was the return of Alpha and his struggle with his demons - but probably that has as much to do with my love for Alan Tudyk's portrayal of the character. The problem with the story is that it doesn't really add a whole extra to the mythology of the show so while I enjoyed it I hope Dark Horse commissions a longer mini-series or ongoing series that will allow the writers to go beyond the confines of the TV show.

First published on RevolutionSF on Tue May 08, 2012

Batman: Gates of Gotham (2012)

I have to admit - I'm not impressed.

This book collects the five issue Gates of Gotham mini-series. It has a number of creators involved. The story was by Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins with the dialogue by Kyle Higgins with Ryan Parrott on the last three issues. The art was mainly by Trevor McCarthy except for issue 4 where the art was by Dustin Nguyen and Derec Donovan.

Batman has to deal with a bombing campaign in Gotham targeted at landmarks associated with the founding families of the city - the Waynes, Elliots and Cobblepots. With Robin, Red Robin and Black Bat all helping, Batman discovers a vendetta that stretches back to the end of the 19th century when the expansion of the city was at its height. He must stop the bomber before half the city is destroyed by floods.

This story is set before the DC universe reboot and is set after Batman: RIP and after Bruce Wayne's return and the set up of world wide Batman franchises. So it features Dick Grayson as Batman with Bruce's son Damien as Robin. And this is one of the problems of this book for me. Yes Bruce Wayne was always going to be a tough act to follow as Batman but you would think that if anyone could pull it off it would be his one time protege, Dick Grayson. Not only did he train under Batman in his time as Robin but he moved on and became a hero in his own right. However, in this story he is almost crippled by self-doubt and would be lost without Tim Drake to help him crack the case - of course he is not helped by the bitter Robin criticising him at every turn. Also the story, despite having four writers working on it, is just not very inspiring - the plot is pedestrian and the new villain boring and formulaic. All in all a bit of a disappointment. The only real bright spot was the art by Trevor McCarthy,  whose work I have not seen before but enjoyed looking at here - though why they took an issue away from him is beyond me.

First published on RevolutionSF on Saturday May 05, 2012