Athos in America: Jason in transition?

Athos in America
By Jason
Published by Fantagraphics

 

All six of the stories in this latest volume from Europe's eminent purveyor of deadpan, blank-eyed, funny animals are quite good, but two of them especially seem to stand out for me. The first (or last, according to how the book is ordered) is the title story, which sees the return of the main character from The Last Musketeer as he tells his story to a New York bartender, recounting his travels across our great country. It's one of those sort of romanticized portrayals of the United States that you occasionally see from Europe or England, a celebration of the openness of the land and the possibilities available here, while still acknowledging that it's not paradise, and the cruelty of life still reigns supreme. I love the gentlemanly tone of Athos' conversation with the bartender, and with a closing montage of the sights and sounds of America, it's a nicely subdued ending to the book, whose previous stories featured plenty of violence and stormy emotions.



Of those stories, the one that really struck me as something interesting and different from Jason is "A Cat from Heaven", which I hope isn't autobiographical, even though it seems to be. In it, Jason portrays himself as an awful jerk, giving his girlfriend/wife a black eye during an argument, threatening to kill her, acting like a dick to his friends and fans, and just generally being an asshole. It's startlingly stark and emotional, making for a weird disconnect, since it's portrayed exactly the same as in all of Jason's other comics, populated with his minimalist animal characters. But just by giving the character his own name, it becomes raw and personal, like something out of an Adrian Tomine or Ivan Brunetti comic, the artist's soul being laid bare on the page. Maybe it's all an exercise, an attempt to add something a bit darker to his usual style, or maybe it's an anguished confession, but whatever the case, it proves that Jason isn't sitting on his laurels and cranking out repetitively quirky stories in his usual style; he's pushing himself to do new things and communicate through his art, and it's wonderful to watch.

Shorties: Porn, Teens, Birds, and Elephants

Chester 5000 XYV
By Jess Fink
Published by Top Shelf

Well, this is certainly a pornographic comic. Yep, it's a full-on, hardcore, penetration-and-ejaculation sex-fest, and one that does its job, at least when it comes to stimulating arousal (TMI?). But luckily, it's a really good story as well, full of nice, stylish artwork, humor, and character development. Plus, it's pretty unique, being a steampunk story about an inventor who builds the eponymous robot to pleasure his wife so he can have more time in the lab, only to see her and Chester fall in love, leading to jealousy and retribution, all with sexy complications.

As naughty as all this is (and I can't emphasize the naughtiness too much, with most of the book being taken up by sex scenes that last dozens of pages), it's great to see Jess Fink's style unleashed, as she distorts her figures in orgasmic pleasure and surrounds them with expressively decorative panel arrangements, but still making every emotion and action perfectly clear while keeping the story completely wordless (outside of sound effects, of which "Vert!" is an unforgettable addition to the lexicon). It's a lovely object, and while it's not for kids (or prudes), it's a really fun read and a great example of the unlimited potential of comics.

The comic can be read online at Fink's site, but I recommend the physical version.
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Lucille
By Ludovic Debeurme
Published by Top Shelf

Maybe it's the European tradition this comic comes from, but it takes a little getting used to. The borderless panels aren't laid out in a consistent manner, so each page has a unique arrangement of cloudlike images that do read intuitively, but are definitely different from the comics norm. And within the panels themselves, the thin, somewhat bobble-headed characters live lives of quiet desperation, such that there doesn't seem to be much going on for a fair portion of the story, at least at first. But sticking with the story yields rewards; French cartoonist Ludovic Debeurme quickly establishes his teenage characters, an anorexic girl and a somewhat delinquent boy with an alcoholic father, then, after letting readers cringe at their awful lives for a while, throws them together and lets the inevitable young romance blossom.

While it's very cute and romantic and everything, what's nice about the book is that it doesn't end with their escape from their lives. They quickly and believably connect (Lucille's appreciation of Arthur's goofy teenage antics makes perfect sense for someone who has been forced into an environment of life-or-death seriousness), and it does seem like running off together will solve all their problems, but Debeurme sticks with them and shows that emotional issues don't instantly disappear when one runs away from them, and maturity doesn't instantly bestow itself on one either. Lucille still struggles with anorexia, and Arthur is still antisocial and prone to anger, and while their attempt at a new life is appealing, it seems doomed to fail. Interestingly, the book ends on a "to be continued", so while the story does come to something of an end, Debeurme evidently still has more to tell about these characters. This thick volume is a quick read, but it feels pretty substantial, and it's nice to see such confident storytelling in a style that isn't often seen on this side of the Atlantic.
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Reunion
By Pascal Girard
Published by Drawn and Quarterly

Pascal Girard is kind of a jerk, but at least he recognizes it. Or maybe he's just exaggerating in his self-deprecation, portraying himself as an arrested adolescent still mired in popularity contests at his ten-year high school reunion. Either way, he comes off as a doofus who obsesses over his perceived coolness (both in the past and the present), starts exercising just so he can lose weight to look good to his old friends, stalks girls he used to have crushes on (even though he currently has a girlfriend), cheaps out on the beer he brings to the reunion, attempts to ingratiate himself by bringing along some pot, and almost skips out on the whole thing, even after all his frantic preparations. It's not a pretty picture, but it is a funny one, with Girard making himself look like a fool, capturing his uncertainty and worriedness through the jittery lines of his artwork and delivering plenty of comeuppance to himself as he constantly fails in his attempts to make himself look cool. It's an amusing portrait of a near-universal experience, a relatable depiction of the way returning to your roots can make you fall into old roles, even as you are trying to demonstrate how you've risen above them. One comes away from the book wanting to spend more time with Girard, even as he's endeavoring to make himself look like the worst person in the room.
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Elephant Man
By Greg Houston
Published by NBM

Man oh man, Greg Houston's comics are hilariously weird and silly, full of grotesque imagery, funny names, dumb jokes, random plots, and constant absurdity. This one takes the form of a superhero parody, but the parodic aspects are kind of weak and halfhearted (Stupid codenames! Corny catchphrases! The old "nobody recognizes Superman when he wears glasses" gag!), with the real appeal being the exuberantly odd art and humor, the book full of ramshackle storytelling that seems to consist of whatever Houston felt like drawing next, scratchy lines cohering to form crazily distorted characters (even those that are supposed to be good looking sport jutting foreheads, squinty eyes, protruding teeth, and greasy hair), word balloons and captions full of irascible, rambling text, and any chance for silliness being jumped on and flogged to exhaustion. It's a pretty unique sensibility, and Houston certainly seems to be having a ball coming up with funny concepts like a villain who is a walking punchline, being the fused-together body of a Rabbi, a priest, and a duck, or a group of girl vigilantes who sport baroquely detailed hairstyles, as if the hairstylists of the court of Louis XIV worked on the cast of Jersey Shore. It's a stupid comic, but purposefully so, with the "hero" apparently attaining his fame purely out of pity, the villains being incompetent morons who only commit crime out of jealousy, and pages filled with wonderfully detailed grime and ugliness. This is a highly entertaining bit of nonsense, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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What I Did.
By Jason
Published by Fantagraphics

Of the three books collected in this volume, Hey, Wait... is a really evocative portrait of how childhood experiences can affect one throughout his entire life, and The Iron Wagon (which adapts an early-twentieth-century Norwegian novel) is a pretty good murder mystery that makes good use of Jason's deadpan style, but it's the middle entry, Sshhhh!, that really sticks with me, immediately jumping to the top of my favorites among the cartoonist's works. It's a silent comic, making excellent use of Jason's facility with pantomime as it follows a bird-man throughout his life, taking an absurdist approach to events that somehow makes things like a baby arriving via mail or a skeleton following the main character around seem relatable and poignant. The universality of the circumstances that Jason depicts is what is so striking here, so that even though the character is inhuman and inexpressive, we recognize things like the acceptance of death's inevitability, the loneliness of lost love, or the combination of pride and sadness felt when a child leaves home. Being one of Jason's longer books, the chapters of the story accumulate until the bird-man becomes a sadly human figure, somebody scrabbling to maintain his unique person-hood under the assault of life. It's sad, wonderful, exhilarating work, a great example of how amazing Jason is at what he does, and how nobody else can do it like him.

Collection catchup: Vertigo-go

Elsewhere: I reviewed Jason's Werewolves of Montpellier over at IndiePulp, and I hope it's not a spoiler to say I liked it.

The Unwritten, volume 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity
Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross

If there's any (sub?) genre that gets a free pass (of sorts) from me, it's metafiction, especially stories in which  characters discover their fictional nature.  I don't know why, but that sort of thing really pushes my geek buttons, maybe because of the exquisite existential horror of finding out that you're not actually real, that some unseen higher power is controlling you (this might also explain my atheism).  So I'm kind of predisposed to like this series, which involves a character who was supposedly the inspiration for the hero of a Harry Potter-like series of books, but might actually be that character, somehow pulled into the real world.  There's a lot of mystery and intrigue involving the ways fiction and reality overlap (especially geographically), some violence and gore, and plenty of weirdness, like an assassin who can reduce objects down to their component words, which kind of ties into that fictional/existential horror I was talking about.  At this point in the story, there's much to be discovered and explained, but so far I'm liking the ideas being explored, especially the way a globally popular character can come close to an actual religion.  There's also a one-off story about Rudyard Kipling that establishes a centuries-long conspiracy in which powerful men use writers to reshape world history, which gives the whole thing an even more epic sweep.  So, yes, I'm liking this one, and I'm quite interested to see where it goes next.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for an appearance from Kilgore Trout.
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DMZ, volume 8: Hearts and Minds
Written by Brian Wood
Art by Riccardo Burchielli and Ryan Kelly

The chief triumph of DMZ is the way it has made the experience of life in a war-torn country relatable to Americans for whom such a notion is near-impossible to comprehend.  By placing the war zone right in one of the most familiar cities in the country, we get the shock of seeing the violence, damage, and chaos in a familiar context, rather than half a world away.  And Brian Wood has managed to keep exploring aspects of war and conflict, keeping readers on their toes.  This volume sees one of the best examples of this motif so far, in a Ryan Kelly-illustrated story that takes the foreign-seeming concept of suicide bombers and terror cells and makes it seem understandable, which is no small achievement.  Usually, we think of these people as crazed religious zealots, following an inexplicable moral code, but Wood makes us realize that all it takes to exploit people is tragedy.  Someone who has lost everything and feels that he has nothing left can be manipulated into doing terrible things, and Wood shows how through a look at an organization that gathers men whose families have died and combines a support group style of "therapy" that is actually designed to keep wounds fresh along with military training that brainwashes the men into unquestioning puppets, the perfect formula for unfeeling killing machines.  It's horrible to witness, and suddenly the thought of people so broken that they'll indiscriminately sow terror and death makes sense.  All it takes is an onslaught of death that ruins lives, and the soil of fanaticism is fertile for planting the seeds.  It's a short story that seems (so far) to be a kind of pause in the main narrative of the series, but it's one of the most powerful ones that Wood has included in the series so far.

As for the main part of the book, which seems to wrap up the ongoing "Matt works for an increasingly dictatorial political leader" plot, I'm not sure what to think.  It sees like Wood may have rushed to end it, since it all seems to fall apart at once, but that is the way of political fortune.  He does spend time on the plot involving the atomic bomb which Parco Delgado (the aforementioned charismatic leader) acquired in a misguided attempt to be relevant on the world stage, showing how this was basically just a bid for power that overrode all the pure-sounding rhetoric about peace and brotherhood.  And Matty himself follows a similar path, getting caught up in the pursuit of power rather than actually trying to help people, eventually ruining everything he fought for over the course of his years in the DMZ.  It's hard to watch, but seeing all the ways in which he has made the wrong choices, it's kind of expected.  A new character gets introduced here, a female DJ running a station called "Radio Free DMZ", and while we have yet to see her face or hear her name, maybe she's on her way to being Matty's replacement as the voice of the people, the person striving for truth and justice rather than power.  We'll see how it goes; whatever happens, I'm excited to see what happens next.

Low Moon: Hey, a Gary Cooper pun, why not?

Elsewhere: I've got a review of the latest Fringe up at The Factual Opinion, but I apparently missed the deadline getting my Dollhouse review in, so that one won't be up for another day or two, I think.  Also, I contributed an entry to a list of the best graphic novels of 2009 to a site called Flashlight Worthy Book Reviews.  It's a pretty good list, also including entries from blog luminaries like Jog, Sandy Bilus, Brigid Alverson, Johanna Draper Carlson, and David Welsh, so check it out.

Links, all about Dash Shaw for some reason: Shaw has apparently gotten into the world of animation after his series of shorts on IFC.com, so he's tackling a bigger project, a feature-length animated film called Slobs and Nags, which is being produced by Hedwig and the Angry Inch's John Cameron Mitchell and features the same team of animators and musicians, plus the addition of Frank Santoro.  Wow, that's cool.  Here's Shaw's announcement, with a link to more information.

And since Shaw is super-prolific at the moment, here's a neat short comic that he did for Vice, called "The Haunted High School."  I liked it quite a bit.

Low Moon

By Jason

What's better than a new story by Jason?  Why, several in one volume, of course!  This book collects the titular serial story that ran in The New York Times Magazine, along with four other stories of a similar length, making for a good deal of great material, equal to two or three of the album-sized volume in which his comics are usually delivered.  And all the better, I say; the more of Jason's weird energy and quirky, poignant storytelling that I can consume at one time, the better.

Jason's style of storytelling probably needs no introduction, so suffice to say that I'm always beguiled by the weirdly relatable inexpressiveness of his anthropomorphic animal characters, and the way that he puts them in such fantastical situations yet still makes their emotions and actions seem real and believable.  It's kind of a mystery how well he's able to do it, crafting easy-to-follow stories in such a minimalist style, but luckily, they're incredibly enjoyable, so one can easily get lost in them, forgetting questions of craft and technique because those aspects become all but invisible.

The five stories included here all traffic in the same sort of alienation and unhappiness that is his forte, with some of them going off into (or starting from) more surreal directions than others.  "Emily Says Hello" sees a hapless assassin picking off a group of men one by one at the behest of the eponymous woman, who rewards him with sexual favors, but never actually emits any warmth toward him or provides an explanation for why she wants them dead.  It's pretty dark, but fascinating in the emotions it evokes and the way the story suggests so much happening beyond its panels.

"&" is a similarly downbeat tale, alternating between two men who are similarly pursuing futile goals: one trying to steal some high-priced artwork in order to finance an operation to save his mother's life, and the other trying to get the woman he loves to agree to his proposal of marriage by killing all the other men she chooses over him.  The latter storyline is pretty darkly comic, with its hero's quest spiraling more and more out of control with each subsequent murder, and the goal becoming increasingly distant as his object of affection keeps choosing others ahead of him.  As a counterpoint, the former story goes in a completely different direction, full of slapstick comedy like something out of a Marx Brothers' movie.  Jason switches storylines on each page, so the two moods get intertwined in a fascinating manner, jumping between light and heavy quickly enough to give readers whiplash.  And then he brings it all together in a perfect Jason ending, fading out on a lasting image that sticks in the memory hauntingly.

The title story is a bit less dark than those already mentioned, but no less rich in quickly-defined but interesting character interactions.  It's a Western, starting with a man returning to a town with an apparent grudge against the sheriff.  But, in typically quirky Jason style, it turns out that the dispute between the two of them involved a chess match that the sheriff won, and now the man has come back for a rematch.  It's rather goofy, the way the characters all treat the match as seriously as if it were a pistol duel, but the real richness of the story comes through the character turns, the way the sheriff has become a washed-up drunk and has a rocky relationship with the local schoolteacher, the bruised honor of his rival, or the quiet resolve the various deputies have in preparing the sheriff for his rematch.  It's fascinating to watch Jason put this all together, creating a sort of melancholy wistfulness and tiredness through the body language and sad inexpressiveness of the characters.  He manages to convey so much so simply, whether in a pained back-and-forth:

A surprised reaction:

Or the choreography of a humorous barroom brawl:

It's a darn good entry in the artist's long line of stories that keep the reader coming back to find new layers of the work.

The final two stories, "Proto Film Noir" and "You Are Here", aren't quite as good as the others, and they suffer a bit for coming at the end after the highs of the first two thirds of the book, but they're still quite interesting and full of the same surreality.  The former sees a caveman wander into a domestic scene and begin an affair with the wife, then kill the husband, but every morning, the victim shows up at the front door, ready to eat breakfast.  No matter how many times or how gruesomely he is murdered, he wanders in with a "Good morning!" and a resolve to do some gardening.  What does it all mean? Who knows, but it gives Jason a chance to come up with more darkly comic violence.

As for "You Are Here", it sees a bickering couple argue via blacked-out word balloons, followed by the wife being abducted by a big, green alien.  The husband then spends the next several decades building a rocket which he can use to find her, while his son grows up, builds a family of his own, and then repeats his father's mistakes (signified by the reappearance of black word balloons), ending up splitting with his wife and joining his father in the search for his mother in the finally-completed rocket.  It's a strange story, seemingly metaphorical for the way a broken marriage might seem inexplicable to a child, but not really holding together as well as most of these.

But even lesser Jason stories are still like nothing else in comics, and considering the quality of the book as a whole, there's little to complain about here.  It's another great example of the strange alchemy that Jason has mastered, drawing readers in to compelling tales of people caught up in oddly familiar situations, even when they're dealing with something that's off-kilter from reality as we know it.  That's the Jason touch, and long may it continue to grace our pages.

Asterios Polyp: Great graphic novel, or greatest graphic novel?

This looks cool: here are some clips from an animated adaptation of Jason's Shhh! Very nice; I'll have to try to see that when it comes out, if possible.

Also: Here are some layout sketches and process pictures from Naoki Urasawa on 20th Century Boys. It's rare to see that sort of thing from a manga creator, which makes it worth pointing out, I think.

Asterios Polyp

By David Mazzucchelli

The question here is, how to even begin talking about this book, which was being hailed as the best comic of the year before it was even released? That reputation is not unearned; it's definitely an intelligent, literate work, full of symbolism and allusion, and gorgeously put together to form a fascinating story. But even though it has only recently been released, the weight of its reputation already makes it intimidating to discuss, as if it is a shibboleth designed to expose those who cannot truly comprehend its high-minded code. Can someone who hasn't completed a masters degree in English even talk about it without coming across as an idiot?

Well, it's worth a try, at least. In terms of plot, David Mazzucchelli's work here doesn't seem all that special, akin to one of those corny indie movies in which a busy rich person moves to the country and learns all sorts of lessons about himself, life, love, etc. That's sort of what happens here, with the titular character, a "paper architect" who has never had any of his designs built (he ends up as a university professor, of course), seen wallowing sadly in an unkempt apartment, when a sudden flash of lightning burns his building down and he abruptly decides to leave his life (what little there is of it) behind, taking a bus trip to the country and impulsively stopping in a small town, getting a job as an auto mechanic, and regaining some sense of direction to his life. Chapters of this storyline alternate with flashbacks to Asterios' past, mostly focusing on his relationship with his ex-wife Hana, a sculptor who seems as quiet and reserved as he is brash and confident, until he finally realizes what's most important to him and sets out to make things right.

But while a basic description like that sounds somewhat banal, the execution is where things really take off, as Mazzucchelli pulls out all the stops to bring this story to life. He uses a lot of visual tricks, including one that is sort of on the nose, in that it's explained in the text; it sees characters depicted in a certain specific style, as if their personality and inner feelings are externalized, taking over their entire being. It's a fascinating visual idea, allowing Mazzucchelli to cut loose with various artistic styles and techniques to represent a whole range of humanity:

Asterios himself is seen as a sort of mathematically-precise model, befitting his logical architect's nature, while Hana seems completely opposite, all soft lines and tactile curves. And Mazzucchelli goes one step further, showing how people can attempt to mold themselves after somebody else, as in a moment when Asterios is tempted into an affair with a student:

But a deeper connection shows a more organic combination, as in Asterios' and Hana's first meeting:

It's a fairly simple metaphor, but an effective one, and it allows Mazzucchelli to do some really interesting visual theatrics. And he doesn't overuse it; most of the book sticks with a more cartoony style (albeit one that sees characters depicted in ways that emphasize their personalities), and the "inner state" emerges when emotions are laid bare. That cartoony representation works really well on its own; Asterios' mechanic boss Stiffly Major is a round, fat man with a small head, showing his large, welcoming nature and reticence to speak, while his wife Ursula carries herself regally, like the goddess she believes she is. And taking it one step further, Mazzucchelli gives each character their own unique word balloon shape and font, making it seem like each character has a separate "voice" in a way that seems obvious but isn't yet widely used in comics.

And aside from all the striking visuals, the characters get fleshed out wonderfully bit by bit through narration, flashbacks, or just watching their interactions; we learn early on that Asterios was a twin, but his brother Ignazio died at birth, leaving him feeling like an invisible half of himself was missing. This gave rise to a personal philosophy in which he gives everything a duality, grouping things into two warring halves. Mazzucchelli illustrates this in a variety of ways, at one point invoking Aristophanes' creation myth from Plato's Symposium, in which people originally had four arms, four legs, and two faces, until Zeus split them apart (for a more rock-and-roll version of the story, see Hedwig and the Angry Inch's "The Origin of Love"). Ignazio (who also functions as the book's narrator) is a constant presence for Asterios, leading to a series of dreams in which he plays out his survivor's guilt, imagining a present in which he is surpassed by Ignazio, or, more painfully, completely perfunctory, with Ignazio living an exact replica of his own life. The duality even extends to the book's color scheme, which limits itself mostly to two colors at a time, with present-day sequences in yellow and purple and flashbacks in blue and pink.

It's a feast for the eyes on every page, but it's not empty showing off. Everything is done with the purpose of furthering the development of the characters, most notably Asterios, but even the minor supporting cast ends up being fully realized, realistic human beings. And as Asterios goes on his journey of the soul, he opens up and realizes some things about himself as well, realizing how much Hana meant to him and how badly he treated her by being pompous, self-absorbed, and dismissive. This becomes especially clear in a sequence in which Hana gets a job designing the sets for a play and working with an even more ego-inflated buffoon named Willy Ilium, who constantly makes inappropriate sexual comments to her. Asterios does nothing put mock Willy, until things come to a breaking point, and the moment he and Hana have in which her real feelings come out is absolutely heartbreaking.

And, as ever, Mazzucchelli keeps the visual and storytelling fireworks coming, in sequences like a series of memories that start slow and then overwhelm Asterios, little physical, intimate moments that might be the most precious part of a relationship, showing that the couple feels completely open and at ease with each other:

Another bravura setpiece sees Asterios have a dream in which he acts as Orpheus, descending into a version of hell to rescue Hana, and maybe even realizing what their problem was all along. It's amazingly done, all densely-textured lines and brushes of ink, with lots of surreal touches:

And it references several preceding moments of the story, including Willy's play and some of the sights Asterios saw along his journey. In fact, that's another important aspect of the book: Mazzucchelli peppers a lot of symbolism and foreshadowing throughout, to the point that a second reading (or a lot of flipping back to previous pages) is all but necessary. There's so much going on here that it's no wonder some readers feel that they are in a bit over their heads.

But at heart, it's a very human story, full of emotion that's realistic, gratifying, and cringe-worthy. As cartoony as the characters are, their forms embody their personalities perfectly, and it's a treat to watch them play off each other and live in Mazzucchelli's meticulously crafted world. Does it live up to its lofty reputation? Maybe so; at the least, if Mazzucchelli wasn't already considered one of the greatest living cartoonists, he probably should be now. This is a work that demands to be read, re-read, analyzed, and discussed, and it's a great example of something that could only be done in comics. The medium is certainly richer for its existence.

Detroit Metal City: Doesn't everybody prefer demon blood to cheese tarts?

Linkages: I'm sure plenty of people have linked to this Art Spiegelman piece about old editorial cartoons dealing with a ship full of Jewish refugees from 1939, and how that relates to the way cartoonists deal with issues today, but I wanted to make sure I pointed it out, since I found it quite interesting.

In other news, Fantagraphics is putting together a couple of collections of some of Jason's books, which is nice. First is Almost Silent, which will include You Can't Get There From Here, Tell Me Something, Meow, Baby!, and The Living and the Dead. The second, which is tentatively titled What I Did, contains The Iron Wagon, Sshhhh!, and Hey, Wait. I'll probably pick up the second one, but I already own most of the first volume, so I'll pass on that one. Still, good values, good production, great comics, don't miss out if you haven't read them. Jason is awesome.

I'm sure people have been talking about this, but I found it interesting and worth mentioning: Longbox, a digital comics platform that seems based on iTunes. I don't know if it will take off, but it seems like a good, multi-company solution for digital distribution, finally making online comics sales something that makes sense. I'll be watching and seeing how it plays out.

I don't know if this is new or not, but you can read Agents of Atlas #0 for free at Marvel's digital comics site; it's a nice prequel to the series that's currently running, filling in the gaps between the miniseries and the ongoing. Go Jeff Parker!

Also not all that new: the official American trailer for Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo! I can't wait to see this.

And while I'm linking to videos, here's the latest episode of my main man Tucker Stone's show Advanced Common Sense. I saw some of the rough footage from this shoot when I was in New York, and it was quite hilarious. I encourage everyone to email Tucker and demand a release of the deleted scene in which he makes out with a fish.

Also, I reviewed Dark Reign: Zodiac #1 over at Comics Bulletin earlier in the week. That was a pretty good comic; Joe Casey and Nathan Fox!

Okay, actual content:

Detroit Metal City, volume 1

By Kiminori Wakasugi

Ah, the rape joke. Such a classic form of comedy. Why, I remember the nights I would sit around the campfire with my family, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins, all relating our favorite rape jokes and laughing uproariously. Such grand times.

Wait, I'm mistaken. I've been informed that rape is a subject never to be broached in comis, much less in jest! How could anyone take it lightly? Only emotionless monsters would ever consider such an outrage!

Well, obviously the truth is somewhere between those extremes, but Detroit Metal City definitely skews toward the former, seeking to make comedy out of its outrageousness. It certainly does contain more uses of the word "rape" than I can ever remember seeing between two covers, but the key thing to note is that makes it really funny. It's got that Japanese style of humor, getting a lot of mileage out of awkward situations and over-the-top silliness. And while the art isn't anything to write home about, its bare-bones stiffness manages to make the goofy antics that much more strange and humorous.

The concept: meek, gentle Soichi Negishi wants to live a chic life in the big city (Tokyo), playing indie rock, hanging out in trendy locations, and meeting cute girls, but somehow he ended up as the lead singer of the titular "evil-core" metal band, going by the name of Johannes Krauser II and dressing in a ridiculous getup (my favorite part of the outfit are the oh-so-dainty ruffles on the wrists and neck) while screaming songs about murder, rape, blood, and mayhem. He hates the music that he plays, but he also happens to be really good at it when he gets into character, and his fans can't get enough of his antics. Each chapter sees some sort of conflict between Soichi's on-stage and off-stage lives, usually to incredibly humorous effect. It usually starts small and builds to a goofy climax that has the reader laughing out loud; for instance, one chapter sees him trying to sing his cute indie songs (which are as cheesily nice as DMC's are nasty) on the street, only to be drowned out by a DMC cover band. Annoyed, he decides to show the punks how it's done, getting into his costume and showing them up as Krauser II. But when the police come to break up the disturbance, he's mortified and tries to turn himself in, only to trip and accidentally brain a cop with his guitar, thus maintaining his reputation as a menace to society.

Other stories continue along those lines, with running gags like a girl Soichi has a crush on continually getting humiliated by DMC, or the band's ridiculous manager, a woman who is constantly urging them to make her panties wet with their rock and shouting lines like "I danced till my pants turned into a bowl of clam chowder." It can get a bit repetitious if read in a big bunch, but take a break between chapters and you'll find yourself laughing at the jokes over and over. I know I did.

As I mentioned above, the art is nothing too special, but it's effective for what it is. The characters are often quite stiff, and one might not realize what sort of ridiculous antics the band was up to if fans didn't provide commentary:

As for facial expressions, Soichi-as-Krauser only seems to have one, an open-mouthed maniacal scream. Without the makeup, Soichi has a couple, usually either a placid smile or a Krauser-esque look of shock and dismay:

It works for the story though, kind of putting a minimalist style on things, tending toward something like Cromartie High School, but not quite reaching those levels of abstraction. The low levels of detail work to make the rock and roll scenes more comedic, since the fans are getting all worked up over what doesn't really seem to be that big of a deal. The goofy costumes and lyrics about "raping all women" are pretty stupid, so to hear a fan react to them by saying "It's like I'm being raped by the music!" just makes the whole thing funnier.

And another nice aspect of the comic is that over the course of the volume, Soichi seems to be growing into his Krauser persona, rather than always hating it and wanting to quit. He finds a few good off-stage uses for the character, and he even seems to be enjoying the release that the shows provide. At the same time, he's progressing in his relationship with his would-be girlfriend, which should provide plenty of humor in future stories, since she's sympatico with his metal-hating trendiness.

Even though this is only the first volume, the series is quite hilarious, always upping the ante on what sort of perversity you expect from the band and coming up with funny ways to mix Soichi's disparate worlds. It might be hard to keep raising the stakes; the antics could get predictable and tiresome, but that's certainly not the case here. I expect future volumes to only get funnier.

MoCCA 2009: Sketchy Sketchy

More MoCCA content tomorrow, I hope, but for now, here are the various sketches I got from creators, either in books when they signed them, or in my Groo sketchbook, shared because I love that sort of thing.

First up: Jason! I was surprised and excited when he said he knew of the blog, since for some reason, he was not somebody I expected to know of my existence. His new book, Low Moon, was on sale, but I decided not to buy it, figuring I can easily pick it up elsewhere and focus on buying the more obscure stuff. So instead, I had my copy of Meow, Baby! on hand, having brought it to read on the plane (and blazed through it, because it's hilarious), and he signed it and did a quick sketch:

One of the big debuts of the show was the second volume of Kazimir Strzepek's The Mourning Star, but I had yet to pick up the first one, so it looks like part two will have to wait until later. But I did buy part one, and here's Kaz's dedication:

I was also quite excited to finally get my hands on Tom Neely's The Blot, a self-published book that you had to order directly from the artist (or shop at a store that does so). I'm really excited to read it, and here's Neely's dedication, drawn around the ink blot that's printed on the page:

I've been hearing about Lamar Abrams' Remake, and Adhouse was nice enough to comp me a review copy. Luckily, Abrams was right there, so he signed it and drew a cute depiction of the main character:

Adhouse also gave me a copy of Mike Dawson's Ace-Face, and after I talked to Dawson and expressed affection for his two superpowered kid characters (who are in the book, it turns out), he drew this sketch when he signed it:

Finally (as far as books featuring signatures and sketches go), I made sure to get the second and third volumes of Templar, Arizona, since I liked volume one so much. Spike drew some cute sketches inside, with volume two sporting a cuttlefish:

And volume 3 featuring a dragon who is kind of jowly, and maybe also hung over:

And that's it for book inscriptions, but now comes the really cool part. The Groo sketchbook! I got a bunch of good entries last year at Wizard World Chicago, and this was my chance to get even more. First up: Paul Hornschemeier gets all modern art with what might be my new favorite entry:

Tom Neely goes all gory:

Kazimir Strzepek contributes the first Rufferto (but not the last!):

Becky Cloonan tries to dilute the testosterone with a female character (I'm happy to have more of the supporting cast):

Fred Chao goes for the cute (and throws in another Rufferto!):

Jamie Tanner gets meticulous (it was really cool to watch him draw all those little lines):

Matt Weigle gives us some bodily emissions:

Connor Willumsen goes for the slapstick:

Nate Powell does anger:

Scott Campbell also does cute, but throws in some dismemberment:

And one more bit of cuteness, from Lucy Knisley:

God, I love these. Thanks so much to everybody who contributed. You guys are all awesome.

This week, I'm probably too tired to make much sense

Man, MoCCA takes a lot out of a person.  But more on that later.  For now, it's business as usual.

Elsewhere: I've contributed a couple entries to The Factual Opinion's Comics of the Weak, dissing on Ultimatum #4 and Punisher: Naked Kill.  I also reviewed Atomic Robo and the Shadow from Beyond Time #2 at Comics Bulletin.

In comics news, Tom Scioli reports that he's going to have a new Myth of 8-Opus graphic novel called The Labyrinth.  I dig Scioli's art on Godland, so I'll have to try to read this.  You can check out a 28-page preview PDF of the new book here.

And: Becky Cloonan announced a new project at MoCCA, a webcomic called KGB which will apparently be about a Japanese boy band.  She's collaborating on it with Hwan Cho, and it will begin in September.  Here's a preview.  Looks like fun.

And how about this? Marvel finally announced their long-rumored "indie" book, and it's called Strange Tales MAX.  It comes out in September, and it will feature creators like Dash Shaw, Michael Kupperman, Paul Pope (who also drew the cover), Junko Mizuno, James Kochalka, Johnny Ryan, Nick Bertozzi, Nicholas Gurewich, and Jason.  Also, Peter Bagge's "Incorrigible Hulk", which they've been sitting on since around 2001.  Holy shit.  Details (including that awesome Pope cover) here.  I can't wait.

God, I am exhausted and typing most of this while waiting for my plane in the airport, so be prepared, this could get silly.

New comics this week (Wednesday, 6/10/09):

Absolution #0   

Another week, another supposedly badass superhero series from Avatar, sure to feature lots of violence and variant covers.  This one is from Christos Gage, who people seem to like.  I don't think I've actually read anything he's written, so I go by hearsay here.  Art is by Roberto Viacava.  I think it's a more low-level, vigilante-cop sort of thing, rather than the big-idea, large-scale Warren Ellis stuff from Avatar.  Probably still pretty gory though.

Anna Mercury 2 #1

Speaking of Warren Ellis, he's continuing with his "hot chick adventures in alternate dimensions" series.  I should finish reading the first volume; the first couple issues weren't bad.

Billy Batson And The Magic Of SHAZAM #5

Is this worth reading without the presence of Mike Kunkel?  Maybe; Art Baltazar and "Franco" write, Byron Vaughn illustrates. Probably still cute.

DMZ #42

More urban war zone stuff from Brian Wood and company.  I was about to read that election volume, but I'm suddenly distracted by loads of MoCCA comics.  Eh, it's not going anywhere. ETA: I just found out that Ryan Kelly is illustrated the story that starts in this issue; you can see some sample artwork here.

Fables #85

Part 7 of the Great Fables Crossover.  Collection soon, please.  Hey, how about that Fables prose novel that's coming out?  I saw an advance copy at MoCCA, and even though it might not be great, I'm sure I will buy it, because I'm an addict.  Feed me your fairy tales, Bill Willingham, come to my house and read them to me as a bedtime story.  Only then will I be happy.

Fantastic Four #567

Millar, Hitch, Dr. Doom’s bosses wreck shit, etc.  Is everybody ready for this run to be over already, or is it just me?

Final Crisis Aftermath Escape #2 (of 6)

I heard this one wasn’t too bad.  Sort of a superhero version of The Prisoner, which isn’t a bad idea.  I flipped through that first issue, and there was a Wonder Woman of those freaky Build-A-Friend things from OMAC.  There’s potential for some crazy shit here.

Lockjaw and the pet Avengers #2 (of 4)

Reviewing the first issue of this, I totally missed out on the idea that it might be kind of inaccessible to casual readers, which is troubling, since it means that I’m a bigger nerd than I thought.  I don’t know if that really matters though, since even though people think this is for kids, since it features cute animals, it’s really for old (you know, like 25) superhero fans who like goofy shit.  Like Tiny Titans; do any kids actually read that?  Anyway, there’s dinosaurs here, and Ka-Zar’s sabretooth tiger pal, and no sign of gimmicky Obama cameos yet, so there you go.  Try to contain your glee.

Miss America Comics #1 70th Anniversary Special

Hey, these old-timey Marvel specials haven’t been half bad, with the best one so far probably being that Chris Burnham-illustrated thing from a couple weeks ago.  Here’s another one, by Jen Van Meter and Andy MacDonald (NYC Mech), with the title character teaming up with Rosie the Riveter (or some equivalent) and getting chained up and shit.  Looks nice, and there’s a backup reprint featuring the Whizzer, whose name always cracks me up, because I am twelve.

Resurrection 2 #1

I didn’t read the Free Comic Book Day thing for this book; was it any good?  Apparently, this new volume is in color, with a different artist from the original.  It could turn out okay; I’m always hopeful.

Soul Kiss #5

I think this is the last issue of Steven Seagle and Marco Cinello’s miniseries, and it’s one I’ll try to catch up on, if only because I dug the art.  It looks nice, is what I’m sayin’.  That’s all.

Storming Paradise #6

Hey, how about this one?  Alternate history war, with the US invading Japan instead of dropping nukes, right?  I’ve heard nothing.  Chuck Dixon wrote it.  Anything?  Anybody?  This is the last issue; I assume the Allies still win.

Thor Tales of Asgard By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby #2

More recolored reprints.  Is Marvel going to collect this?  Dumb question; they collect everything.  I’d rather read the original version; don’t spray (virtual) paint all over Jack Kirby and tell us it’s makeup. 

Toy Story Mysterious Stranger #1 

Boom! keeps rolling out these Disney/Pixar books, and they all look pretty nice.  This one’s by Dan Jolley and Chris Moreno (Paul Jenkins' Sidekick), and “The Mysterious Stranger” is the title of the story in the issue, not the miniseries itself.  It’s a done-in-one with the toys getting up to antics and whatnot, like they’re prone to do.  Wheeeeeeeee!

Uncanny X-Men First Class Giant-Size Special #1

This “First Class” thing is a whole sub-line for Marvel now, which is good news for those obsessed with certain eras that they grew up reading and want to return to in hopes that they can remember their first wet dream.  The new series is going to be about the Chris Claremont/Dave Cockrum(/John Byrne?) years, so here’s an introduction that does seem pretty fun, with stories by Jeff Parker, Scott Gray, and Roger Langridge, and art by Joe Infurnari, Cameron Stewart, Sean Galloway, and some other dudes.  Enjoy, but come on, isn’t it time to switch to big boy pants?

Unknown #2  

The first entry in “Un-“ week, it’s another installment of this series, which I think is about a girl supernatural detective?  It sure looks nice; I gotta read these and see how well they work.  Don’t let me down, Mark Waid!

Unthinkable #2

Oh yeah, this one too.  Mark Sable’s doing his thing about terrorists and getting cavity searched at airports for it, so the least I can do is give it a read.  You don’t let me down either, Sable!

Unwritten #2

There’s this one too, which seems okay.  I did get a free copy of the first issue at MoCCA (I only had to fly to New York to save that dollar. Thanks, Vertigo!), so I can see how this is.  Don’t let me down, faux Harry Potter!

Veil #1  

This one is from IDW, and it's about a woman private eye who can talk to ghosts, or see into the land of the dead, or something like that.  Sounds spooky, and maybe cool?  It's by El Torres and Gabriel "Not Gilbert" Hernandez.  Here's an interview with some preview pages.  Looks nice.

X-Men Forever #1

Did I mention people needing to grow up?  Chris Claremont is a good example; he’s “continuing” the story he left off telling way back in 1991 or whenever, because he obviously had something important to communicate about Fabian fucking Cortez.  I bet even Jason Powell isn’t all that interested in that dude.  I do like the idea of Marvel splitting up into various writer-based continuities though.  Let’s have Grant Morrison continue his run, and separately, Chuck Austen can come back and do more stupid shit, and then Joe Kelly and Steven Seagle can return and tell those stories they were obviously dying to relate before being quashed by editorial, and what the fuck, we’ll get Mark Gruenwald’s ghost to come back and do some more Captain America (Steve Rogers never died, you fuckers!), and David Michelinie can undo whatever travesties have been enacted upon Venom, and so on and so on.  That’s the wave of the future right there.  Hire me, Marvel, these are can’t miss ideas!

Adam Legend of the Blue Marvel TP DM ED

Hey, how about this thing, was it any good?  That guy that did the Underworld movies, writing about a secret black superhero?  Was there anything more to it than that, or did he eventually take off his mask and become the Jackie Robinson of spandex, with people spitting on him while he fought Galactus and shit?  Because that must have been relevant.

Captain Britain and MI 13 Vol 2 TPB Hell Comes To Birmingham 

Pour one on the curb, man, I can’t stop crying about this shit.  The world needed to read about Captain fucking Britain and his band of merry men.  Why do people not read good comics?  Wait, that’s not right.  Why do people not read halfway decent comics that were destined to fail from the beginning?  It’s just not fair!  Sorry, that probably sounds harsh, but after seeing all the excellence on display at MoCCA, I have no patience for that shit.  Wah wah wah, some corporate-owned superhero bullshit won’t be around; there’s always more in the pipeline.  You’ll survive.

The Color Of Water TP

I just finished the first volume of this series (The Color of Earth) by Korean cartoonist Kim Dong Hwa, and it was pretty good, all about poetic sexual awakening and shit.  Watch for a review, probably sometime this week, if I can ever stop talking about MoCCA.

Dare GN 

This isn’t the Grant Morrison/Rian Hughes thing, in case you were wondering.  It appears to by a graphic novel by (or adapted from something by) Philip Jose Farmer, with art by Dave Gutierrez.  Something about humans on another planet consorting with the natives.  Interesting?  Maybe?

Douglas Fredericks and the House of They TP

A new book by Joe Kelly, with art by Benjamin Roman, about a kid who wants to get a present for his parents' wedding anniversary, but is thwarted by all their friends and neighbors, who don't want to upset "They", whoever that is.  Ooh, spooky.  I would take a look, given the chance 

Dragenaro TP

Dark Horse has this fantasy thing about wizards and dragons and shit; I dunno, I find the description unreadable.  It's notable for being a translation of comic from Italian publisher Bonelli; I'm always on the lookout for those Eurocomics.  Here's a three-page preview.

Final Crisis HC

Maybe I can read this now, with sufficiently lowered expectations.  It certainly sounds ambitious, with Grant Morrison going crazy with the cosmic Kirby stuff and all that, but the critical reception is quite mixed, whether from inconsistent art, or random tie-ins of varying importance, or the whole thing just getting away from him, but it should at least be an interesting mess.  All right, now I can only be six months behind the rest of the world.  To the library!

Flash The Human Race TPB 

Hey, speaking of Grant Morrison, here’s a collection of some of his run on The Flash, co-written with Mark Millar.  I’ve read it, and it’s not bad, with the title story seeing him run a race across the galaxy against his imaginary childhood friend for the fate of the human race.  That sounds dumb, but it’s quite all right, if you like that sort of thing.

Four Frightened Women GN 

This is "one of comics' first graphic novels", which is always interesting to see, although the talent involved probably isn't on the level of Arnold Drake.  Amusingly, the description also says that "few collectors are even aware of its existence", which is always a good sign, right?  Still, it might be worth checking out, for historical value alone.

Red TP New Edition

This isn’t a bad story by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, about a retired CIA guy getting targeted and having to kill a bunch of dudes.  The bad thing is, it’s only three issues long, and this collection is $15, which really isn’t worth it.  It’s better if you can hunt down one of those flip-book volumes from a few years ago; I think this was paired up with Tokyo Storm Warning.

Runaways TPB Dead Wrong

It’s the collection of the beginning of Tony Moore’s run on the title, with art by Humberto Ramos?  I can’t really recommend it; Moore doesn’t do a very good job of capturing the characters’ voices or personalities.  I guess you can go for it if you’re a completist, but I can’t condone that sort of thing.  Buy a volume or two of Nana instead, please.

Runaways TPB Vol 8 Dead End Kids Digest 

I can get behind this one though, especially in the cheap digest format.  Joss Whedon did a great job at getting the characters right, and while the story isn’t anything mindblowing, it’s a fun time travel romp with some neat character designs and several good moments.  It’s a worthy follow-up to Brian K. Vaughan’s run; hopefully the Moore stuff was just a bump on the road before the series gets back on track.

Sub-Mariner Depths HC 

I don’t think I ever finished reading this, but it was a decent bit of undersea horror from Peter Milligan and Esad Ribic.  Pretty art, weird paranoia, not bad.  Of course, the ending might suck, but I’ll say that it starts out well.  There you go.

Supreme Power Vol 3 High Command HC

If I remember right, this was where the story started to get a bit stretched out in the Straczynski/Frank run on the series, although there’s at least one good issue in which a fight with a supervillain sees a bunch of civilian casualties.  That was kind of cool.  Eh, whatever.

X-Men The End Trilogy TPB

Ha ha, Chris fucking Claremont again!  This was his first attempt at revitalizing his own legacy, or whatever, taking all his storylines and bringing them to a long, ponderous conclusion or something.  I don’t know; I didn’t read it.  From what I understand though, it was fucking terrible, something like 18 issues of blah blah blah that nobody in their right mind should ever care about.  Don’t buy this, please.  Please.  I want this book to never sell a single issue, so Marvel has to pile them up in a field in Westchester and pave them over, hoping everybody forgets about them (Hah! Cross-medium nerd reference!).

Detroit Metal City Vol 1 TP  

Here’s my number one anticipated manga of the moment (unless I get distracted by something else).  It’s supposed to be hilarious and profane, about a guy who wants to be a sensitive, emo singer, but he ends up working as a nasty, raucous, makeup-wearing, constantly swearing rocker.  People have been talking about it for a while, and it’s finally coming out in the U.S., so we’ll finally get a chance to see whether it lives up to its reputation.  Don’t let me down, Japan!

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Is that everything?  Not really much of a week, but that’s okay, I’ve got lots of MoCCA stuff to keep me busy.  More about that later, so stay tuned.  And apologies for the obnoxiousness and naughty words (but not really); Tucker is obviously a bad influence on me.  What would my mommy think?