I would totally buy a comic based on this one page from The Sensational She-Hulk #50.
PS> Yes, I know you publish a fine She-Hulk series written by Dan Slott. It’s just fine, but this is certainly better.
Now packed with completely over-the-top villains, goofy asides, and the occasional poke at nationalistic zeal, the first Fighting American series lasted a whopping six issues. A few gags, such as Fighting American punching a thug’s head through a wall in one story and the poor bastard just hanging there for the rest of the tale, still kill me after reading them for the umpteenth time. This story, Operation Wolf, is one of my favorites. Enjoy.
Previous scans from the Archives:
The Three Foot Sleuth!
Space Cabby gets a new hoopty!
An award-winning movie star with money and fame to burn, Sarcophaga is Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Nicolas Cage (without all of that bug-eyed business) rolled into one. Where others would have only found misery at the suicide of their young mother, he tapped a drive and will to succeed that, when combined with his natural charisma, allowed Sarcophaga to climb to the top of the heap. From tragic beginnings to his mysterious death in the offices of condiment, petroleum, and tobacco magnate Hans Tsondo, the seriocomic adventures of America’s leading-est of leading men are boffo and provide a fascinating look at what makes our culture tick.
Oh, yes. Sarcophaga has a fly’s head. Literally. He’s six feet, two inches of pheromone-dripping, insect-craniumed superstar.
This jarring detail, when dropped into the Chuck Palahniuk-styled biopsy of fame and modern media that is Steven Perkins’s graphic novel Pacify, allows the reader to look at accepted entertainment tropes – the cattle-call for barely talented singers, tabloid obsession over whether or not a Louisiana tart is pregnant again, and two major movie stars having to go to Africa so one of them gets to birth without ten cameras being snuck into the delivery room – as the absurd, meaningless things that they are and get entertained at the same time.
This is where Perkins’s work really succeeds. Rarely a page goes by where a chuckle is not elicited by a bit of black humor, a perfectly awkward pause, or a joke that shouldn’t be funny takes on a new dimension. It’s Adbusters meets early MAD meets Elektra: Assassin. According to the afterward, Perkins spent years shopping Pacify around, doing it in bits and pieces as he could, concurrently developing his technique. While it’s obvious that some pages were created earlier or later in his exploration of the medium, this adds to the metatextual tone that the whole thing carries.
With something like Pacify as his opening salvo, I’m fairly sure that Steven Perkins is going to be able to rattle cages in the future. To see preview pages, click here.
Kevin: We should have one more of these.
Jim: Yes. At least one more.
Kevin: We’re like scientists. We’re doing a study.
Jim: We’re scientists studying the effects of beer on comics bloggers.
Kevin: I love science.
This latest installment of Kevin Hacks Away At This Week’s Comic Books is brought to you by: A Triple Iced Americano and a Blueberry Scone. Further promotional consideration provided by Arvo P�rt’s Te Deum.
So, as I said during the rundown, I didn’t have much in the way of comics coming my way this week. Of course, I’ve come to realize my version of “much” and others are often worlds apart. This is why I am a world-famous, globetrotting (OK, so I went to Canada that one time a couple of years ago) tastemaker and everyone else lies in relative blogspot.com obscurity.
I’ve come to the realization that caffeine really does make me a bit of an asshole.
So, here we have a stack of comics, some of which have been read. I’ll talk about those, glance at the others, and then go to work like a good helper monkey.
First up, I have to say I’m somewhat disappointed at the presentation and format chosen for Dan Clowes’s Art School Confidential. The original solicitation gave me the idea that this would be a decent, if not exactly lavish presentation with full-size art integrated into the screenplay. Instead, the reader picks up the 6″x6″ book, gets two pages of cramped character designs and two and a half pages of stills from the movie before the screenplay, which is annoyingly hard to read when you have to turn pages every two or three lines of dialogue, the original four-page strip (now in color, but near-impossible to read, even with my glasses) and three pages of “student art.” The quality of the goods presented is quite high, but it’s akin to stuffing a deconstructed Aston Martin into a Chinatown vegetable stand.
Tron is the first of the Slave Labor-Disney books I have any sort of interest in (and most likely the last, unless they do a Condorman series) and while I adore the source material to a truly stupid degree, the comic ends up feeling a little lackluster. A plot cribbing a few bits from The Matrix (yes, irony, let’s move on) and art that reminded me of that awful Neuromancer comics adaptation in the early 90s, combined with the authors expecting me to have played the Tron 2.0 video game or to feel like I am up to speed with an ugly, cramped black-on-lime green text page, left me very cold.
John Rogers, pal of mine? You owe me a mouthful of Diet Coke that found its way into my nose after I read the phrase “Hypno-Crotch” in your remixed tale from What Where They Thinking?!: Some People Never Learn. Everyone else, of course, performed admirably in this puerile, infantile, and juvenile collection of old horror and science-fiction comics with changed word balloons.
The second issue of the retitled Hawkgirl is more of the same from the first: an understated mystery with supernatural elements that happens to feature a woman with breasts that grow by two cup sizes when she’s in costume. This is the sort of comic: I really enjoy despite my knowing that it’s a complete throwback in a couple of ways: no narration from the protagonist, instead using. thought balloons (which I really do love), and Kendra talking aloud about her situation during a fight with a mysterious beheading sort. There’s panache to the whole thing, thought, and despite Chaykin’s occasionally slight sloppiness in faces, it’s put together very, very well. Mike at the shop offered a brilliant spin on the current formula, thought: have Chaykin and Simonson alternate roles. If such a thing were to ever occur, I would most likely need to buy several new pairs of underwear.
The final issue of the Seven Soldiers miniseries, Frankenstein #4 makes me wanting more, now. More Frankenstein, more Seven Soldiers, more Doug Mahnke drawing giant, improbable deadly things, more Morrison captions like “One Billion Years Later!”, just plain more from my comics centered around punching and absurdity. Tying the entire series into the first JLA Classified arc neatly and setting up the final, time-spanning confrontation while still entertaining? This is why I love Morrison’s writing so much -when he’s on-target and has a goal in mind, there’s nobody (outside of Moore, but let’s not go there) that can keep up with his tightly orchestrated plotting and dead-on dialogue.
Paris #4 made me a little choked up. Just a little. Maybe like a slight cough before a stiff upper lip and a “well-played” to Mssrs. Watson and Gane. There’s one plot piece that’s just a little contrived, even if I called it in the second issue, but those last pages, rushing towards the payoff, couldn’t possibly last long enough. Beautifully executed.
The second issue of Giffen and Rogers’s Blue Beetle is a distinct improvement over the first, with the story starting to come together much better and the flow of time sorting itself out with a nice reveal at the en. Hamner’s art is, as always, a delight and it’s nice to see superpowered characters who owe no debt to previous continuity that still manage to capture my interest. Solid work by all involved and I’m eager to read the third issue now, which is rather the goal, I think.
Is there any point in reviewing an individual issue of Godland? People who know of it are kind of aware of how it works and readers open to the experience are, in general, converted to raving loons over characters like Freidrich Nickelhead and Maxim and the metatextual Kirby influence that is draped over the whole thing. Brill called it “Kirby as genre” and that’s, like, why I totally love him.
Time to hoof it to work and upload this. You cats and kits take care of yourself, OK?
…especially as mine is particularly shit most of the time, but this sort of activity from a certain well-regarded site is about as close to “unacceptable” as these things get. It smacks of someone spamming the search engines or maybe wanting to ensure frequent placement in the Comics Weblog Update system, even with the warning that “something new” was going to be tried. How is forcing interested people to read multiple reviews “something new” that can improve their experience?
Also there’s this glaring question: does the latest issue of The Incredible Hulk require its own entry?
The Winner? U-DECIDE!
While I’m not as up on kid’s books as, say, Tangognat is, I occasionally find myself returning to books like The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler to cleanse my literary palate. The best of children’s literature captures a sense of anarchy and embraces joie de vivre even under the worst circumstances. Maybe this is why I’ve responded so well to the juvenile-friendly work of Joann Sfar; his Little Vampire Learns Kung Fu has the sort of precis that would make logline writers around Hollywood blush yet manages to entertain the dickens out of the reader, be they ten or thirty.
His latest effort for the school crowd, Sardine In Outer Space, a collaboration with fellow cartoonist Emmanuel Guibert (who wrote the stories contained in the new paperback) is a similar joy, full of outrageous ideas and managing to outfox most reader expectations handily. Our title character, is a little girl aboard the space ship Huckleberry, on the run from Supermuscleman with Captain Yellow Shoulder and Little Louie aiding her flight. Along the way, the cast encounters space slugs and space giants, a planet that’s a giant disco ball, and even a too-kindly mother that thinks she knows best for Yellow Shoulder when it comes to romance.
Sardine In Outer Space certainly qualifies as fun reading material that works well on a couple of levels, but the repetition comes forth much more for an adult reader than for most kids. Supermuscleman and his crony Doc Krok are too easily evaded or vanquished and the trouble the kids get in is, well, a little predictable. Still, for the younger reader, this book provides a whole new world of surreal adventure that will keep them giggling for a while, even if adults may want to occasionally put the book down for a breather – Sfar’s art is always worth a gander and his breathlessly enthusiastic art manages to carry the day when the story falls short.
If I were the grading sort. I’d give Sardine In Outer Space an 85 and encourage it to try just a little harder. It�s got lots of potential but tends to revolve around simplicity in a too-tight orbit.
DC Comics
FEB060314 AMERICAN WAY #3 (OF$2.99
The second issue just sort thudded into my reading schedule and left a remarkable lack of an impression with me. As in, I read it twice within a week and really didn’t feel the slightest twitch of deja vu the second time around. I’m dropping this.
FEB060260 BLUE BEETLE #2 $2.99
The middle portion of Rogers/Giffen/Hamner’s origin story for the new Blue Beetle, probably with the pep and verve I admire and hopefully a bit more story. I trust Rogers on this stuff, and not just because he has those photos of myself and that girl dressed as Lady Jaye.
JAN060327 SEVEN SOLDIERS FRANKENSTEIN #4 (OF 4) $2.99
While we won’t get Seven Soldiers #1 for quite a while, according to comments made by JH Williams III, I’m happy to see the series wrap up a bit and allow some digestion and reflection.
Image
FEB061779 GODLAND #10 $2.99
I read the preview this past week and if you’ve been reading this title, it’s more of the same: Kosmic Kirby Kraziness mixed with a pomo vibe. What i like about this series is that each issue, while following from the previous, tends to give you a chunk of stuff happening. Rockets are launched, family is placed in peril, villains are villainous, etc.
Other Publishers
FEB063353 COLLECTED JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR VOL 5 TP $24.95
Speaking of Kirby, I love these great giant slabs of unfiltered nerdification that explores the nooks and crannies of Jack’s prodigious output. This volume collects issues exploring Kirby’s women, oddball work, and villains and features tons of pencil art, interviews with Bruce Timm, Mike Mignola, and more. Neat stuff, says me, who is unafraid of looking like King Ubernerd of Nerd Mountain.
MAR062860 MOMS CANCER HC $12.95
This is a stunning piece of comic journalism, well worth spending some time with. By now, I’m sure you all know the story: Brian Fries documents his mother’s battle with the dread disease with a combination of humor and clinical detachment that works, ultimately, to the book’s benefit.
FEB062809 TRON #1 $3.50
Yeah, I’m buying this.
Shut the fuck up.
JAN062928 WHAT WERE THEY THINKING SOME PEOPLE NEVER LEARN ONE SHOT $3.99
Boom Studios, old comics, ha ha. The end.
…but this will do, right?
Here’s the cover and opening splash to Our Fighting Forces #152, where the emo-ist of all World War II teams got themselves trapped in a town that was chock full of Nazis. This is pure Nazi-slaughtering action from page four until the end, where a certain General with a fondness for pearl-handled revolvers informs the team that they’ve got a good heart, even if they are “losers,” and their cycle of misery begins anew.
Kirby’s work on this title is inexpensive to grab – I picked up a complete run in VG for about $2 an issue – and fine entertainment that merges his over-the-top attitude and experience in Europe during the Big One.
Publisher With A Good Reputation: Kevin, I want to you make the ha-ha on our editorial pages, maybe tying it in with our books that are popular enough to get multiple decent mentions online and with consistently good sales. Can you write a comic strip?
Kevin Church: Sure, I can write a script, but who’s gonna draw it?
Publisher With A Good Reputation: Hang on, let me see.
[Sounds of beatings in the background. Occasionally, the word "pigfucker" is heard, but the speaker is not identifiable.]
Publisher With A Good Reputation: Man, do you know how hard it is to pick teeth out of your Docs? Anyway, I’m still going to look, but if you could do some investigation as well, that’d be totally awesome. We’re talking a strip each month, four panels, maybe six or eight if you guys want to do an epic.
Kevin Church: So, something that taps into the zeitgeist of your line and the comics world in general while maintaining and irreverent tone, sort of like Penny Arcade?
Publisher With A Good Reputation: The only German I speak is “Hasselhoff,” man.
So, artists. A pittance in fiduciary recompense awaits you, along with a great amount of exposure in a well-regarded comic book line with several books. Email me ( beaucoupkevin@gmail.com, of course) if you are interested in making the funny and such.
Right click here to download a 6mb 192kbps MP3 featuring the acoustic version of Erasure’s “Rock Me Gently.” It’s from their new album Union Street, where twelve songs from their back catalog get the slide guitar treatement. Recommended fairly highly if you like that sort of thing, even if there’s a dodgy flute bit that nearly derails one track.
I’ve got a short bit of time to work in reviews and impressions of the comics I picked up a short while ago, and that is what I’m going to do. The end.
Or is that….the beginning? Oh, ho! Writhe in painful delight as I use dodgy horror movie clich�s and hammer back an iced Americano because I’m a real fucking American who doesn’t want any fucking steamed milk in his espresso.
Wow. Is this what caffeine in continuous megadoses does to me? Good god, I like it!
Anyway. Nextwave: Agents Of HATE (which looks to be the official title of the thing now) is at the top of the pile and that there, that’s a comic that does what I want. Maybe, just maybe, Ellis laid on the fanboy buttons a bit much with Giant Robot Disgraced Cop, but the Man Bites Dog ending made it all worthwhile – it made my heart smile. (No points for getting that reference, I’m afraid. Quiet in the back please.)
Mike Hawthorne’s Hysteria: One Man Gang features punching and kicking in doses that grotesquely exceed the USDA recommended portions, but I have to say I wish there was just a hint of a greater story. Don’t get me wrong, this is exactly what it promises to be: martial arts comics that give nor take any quarter. but maybe I’m spoiled after rereading Kagan Macleod’s Infinite Kung-Fu. The backup story may well work for me in larger doses, but six sparse pages don’t cover my bases.
Brubaker’s latest issue of Daredevil manages to avoid too-well-handled prison fiction tropes and get into the meat of this first storyline, which I appreciate. Dialogue that rings true (seriously, I’m voice-casting this thing in my head here,) big meaty plot points starting to fall into place, and a final three pages that tells Brian K Vaughan where to stick his “cliffhangers” means that I’m in this one for the medium haul, as long as Captain America doesn’t show up to frown in this book too.
While I doubt the world needs a comic like Big Max #1, I’d be hard pressed to argue against it as a fine way to spend a few minutes. Slott’s actually fairly clever with this one; gags like a gorilla that wears a human mask as his secret identity (a man wearing a gorilla suit) and a telekinetic mime kept me entertained. I’m still not completely sold on James Fry’s art – something about his faces bothers me.
Why is there an ad for a sporting event from a month ago in the back inside cover of Bite Club: Vampire Crime Unit? You’d think the ad department at DC would flog editors for late books or something, if this book is indeed late. On-time or not, the follow-up to Chaykin, Tischman, and Hahn’s original series is, if anything, a bit better with a sympathetic (but not too much so – this is Chaykin, after all) narrator, a proper mystery established, and a fully-realized version of Miami that makes me hate the CSI series with Caruso a little bit more.
Hey, Marvel? How’s it going, man? Look, I’m just gonna put it out on the table like this: not giving Milligan a Doctor Strange series of his very own would make me sad. I really, really like the version of the character presented in X-Statix Presents Dead Girl and think that a longform series with this version of the character would be mighty nice. Also, if you can get Dragota and Allred to draw my Gwen Stacy Parties And Is Really Cute And Norman Osborn Doesn’t Sex Her Up mini, that’d be totally cool too, OK?
Joe Kubert emotionally gutted me with the latest installment of Sgt Rock: The Prophecy. Stripped to the bone and stark in its depiction of Nazi horror, this still manages to be remarkably effective despite the inclusion of someone called the Ice Cream Soldier and some heavy-handed religious symbolism.
On the other end of the World War II, Slaughtering Nazis Because They Have It Coming spectrum is Ennis and Robertson’s Fury: Peacemaker, where Nick fucks to get what he wants (at least until a bomb blows up the girl) and joins a team of supercommandos to assassinate a particularly nasty German field marshal.. Things don’t go quite to plan, but that’s where the fun lies. One of my favorite things about Ennis’s WWII books is the way he weaves history into the whole thing and makes it seem fairly natural.
While I would normally declare something like Jeremy Tinder’s Cry Yourself To Sleep self-indulgent and simultaneously bloated and meager in its observations about the life of young people, he seems to realize it, too. That’s why he’s got a rabbit and a robot to portray two-thirds of the main cast and managed to create some bleak comedy that I really enjoyed.
And that’s it. Good night, good luck, etc.
