Attempting to kick off a new version of this as Ben’s one disappeared.
A MW tradition, and the cause of many an empty wallet!
The Trades Thread
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Moore is probably the big exception for me. I generally prefer his work before a certain period.
Yeah, like Dave says, there’s usually a period where a creator is considered at their peak. It’s the same with bands, really. I mean, Milligan is still writing comics, but he never got to be as good again as he was in the nineties, with Skreemer under his belt, Shade running on full steam and Enigma coming out.
That said, where Moore is concerned, I love LoeG as much as anything he’s ever done. But I never really got into the whole retro thing he did with Supreme and Tom Strong. And I do still wish Twilight of the Superheroes had come out in the 80s.
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This is the first time I’ve realized that DC Thompson had their own shop, so I whizzed over there excitedly…
… to find it’s not quite the kind of shop I was expecting. Clearly they’ve diversified quite a lot from comics
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This is the first time I’ve realized that DC Thompson had their own shop, so I whizzed over there excitedly…
… to find it’s not quite the kind of shop I was expecting. Clearly they’ve diversified quite a lot from comics
Ha! Can’t believe your not an avid subscriber to Peoples Friend or other such publications. I always forget they’ve a larger stable than the comics of past and present. The child asked for an Oor Wullie sannual for xmas so was checking the shop myself for the latest one (it’s a Broons year this year so shell have to make do with the 2019 one). I’m tempted to ask for the Starblazer collection they’re putting out for myself!
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You’re welcome!
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Empowered Volume 11
So, a couple of years later, one of the most subversive takes on superheroes is back. Yeah, the other collaborative series were fun but there’s just that something extra about the main series.
One of the things it does here is take aim at the ‘you got to be a hard bastard’ and then, with a shotgun to its arse, gives it both barrels. Neurospear is a pathetic, psychopathic mess, but he’s also the way he is due to the idea that he must be harder and nastier, so he edited his mind to become that. What’s particularly smart in all this is at no point does Warren use this to advance some sort of redemptive narrative – yes, it’s terrible’ yes, it’s sad; but he made the choice to basically kill himself to become a psycho shitbag, so fuck that guy.
And, even though you know the main trio probably can’t die, Warren convinces the reader a good few times that that may not be the case. There’s also a death or two in this one.
All in all, it’s as smart and excellent as ever, hopefully Volume 12 doesn’t take two years to come out.
Beasts of Burden: Neighborhood Watch
An excellent quality OHC presents this little gem of a book perfectly. There’s a Hellboy crossover, continuation of running arcs, all conveyed by a perfect mix of writing and painted art. I do want more Autumnlands, but if that’s on hold, then this is a great showcase for Dewey’s talents. -
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Ordered this last week and it arrived today.
Looking forward to giving it a read. At a glance the art looks like it benefits from the larger size, and there are a couple of short text pieces in there for context too, which is nice.
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Having read all three trades a couple of weeks ago, it’s taken me some time to work out what it all meant to me:
B.P.R.D. The Devil You Know
So, how many spin-off series do you know of where the spin-off gets to become equal to the series that sired it and even surpass? I can’t think of many, but in comics, this has to the best example of it. It’s also notable that Mignola was clearly aware of this as the two series came to play off each other, with this final act following in the wake of Hellboy in Hell. Like that story, this may have been envisaged as a bigger story than it became, instead being a more compressed affair.
Does it work? Yes, I think it does. Like the way Mignola concluded Hellboy, this series moves fast but the speed never shortchanges the significance of the plot or indeed any of the story moments. What is most remarkable about the series and the Mignolaverse as a whole is it hasn’t wavered at all in its trajectory. It even placed all its cards on the wall with that splash page map extra in the first trade that shows a devastated earth. The usual thing in stories is that there will be a recovery, a fight back somehow but when looking at that map the sense you have is that it’s all too far gone, that it’s done. In this respect, the Mignolaverse is about apocalypse and how it happens. Few stories do this preferring to jump to the post-apocalyptic.
Tell me, how will this end? In fire. True, it’s a Babylon 5 line but so very apt too for how it all plays out. It would have been all too easy for the reader to feel cheated by the final fates of Hellboy, Liz and Abe – and they are indeed final. Yet, though they each fall, each also feels about right – none of them were ever walking away from this last confrontation. That it should be with a revived Rasputin, so bringing the story full cycle works and then, after Rasputin has been killed off for good, only one thing remains – to purge the broken earth with fire, to end the cycle of humanity and clear the way for their successors. Thus it happens – Ragnarok.
It is a seriously ballsy resolution while being entirely true to what the series, what the Mignolaverse, was all about. That entire undertaking is probably the biggest success of independent comics. There are at least 10 spin-offs as varying length and nature from the duo of Hellboy and B.P.R.D, each of those easily exceeds 10 trades each, with B.P.R.D.‘s tally getting to be around the 30 mark! All done over the course of about 25 years!
Does this mean the end of the stories? Mignola says not and I can well believe that. What this is is him getting free of the big arc and all the expectations that those stories generate. That’s all done now, it’s been delivered in an exemplary manner so now he can tell other stories in the same worlds. I’ll look forward to them.
The Complete Toppi Volume 2: North America
Like the first volume, this is a masterclass in storytelling from a master artist. Another set of eleven translated stories, this one is built around North American folklore and myths. Using narration, characters, silent panels and just about every other technique going to brilliant effect, each of these compact tales feels utterly complete while hinting at so much more.
There’s only one flaw that Lion Forge have on this and that is no set date for the third volume. I’ll buy it when it turns up.
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The hardcover collection of Superman: Year One arrived today.
It’s not long since the final issue came out – I guess this is a big-name collection they wanted to get out in time for Christmas.
Disappointingly, it’s a fairly bare-bones collection. It includes the three issues and all the variant covers, and a couple of pages of behind-the-scenes art, but nothing else. So anyone wanting some insight from Miller into his (rather idiosyncratic at times) story is going to be disappointed. I was hoping for some commentary or at least a foreword or something along those lines.
At the end of the day, I’m a huge Miller fan and JR jr is one of my favourite artists, so I was always going to pick this up. But I wish there was slightly more here beyond just the comics.
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Apparently there are problems with the binding on this omnibus
Bollocks. I wouldn’t class it as that bad but compared to other editions from the same publisher that are better, it’s not great. Still, I think they got all the pages in the right order on this one.
Changing tack, it’s a weekend for ending stories:
Invincible OHCs 11-12
These two were rather good.
This was the weaker of the two as it had to both continue and respond to previous plots, start new ones running but couldn’t really conclude any of them. Kirkman’s sensationalist tendency comes out in the Reboot arc that, for me, didn’t really do all that much. The subsequent twists and shocks of the later issues hit quite a bit harder as did the way the arc resolved.
I do have to take issue with the way Kirkman decided to go with the Rex plot – that an amoral dictatorial bastard will be ‘good’, with various heroes falling over themselves to profess that they can’t argue with results. Er, yes, yes you can, the ‘how’ something is achieved matters. Similarly, he touches on the rape development but doesn’t do much with it.
This went in a rather unexpected direction, not a wholly successful one, but it has more successes than failures. Overall, the book concludes in a very clever fashion which ties off the run as a whole.
Evil Freddie Mercury finally gets his after numerous issues of plot armour indulgence. I can’t agree with the rationale for letting Thragg live earlier, things would have been far better if they had killed that one fucker when they had the chance. Stupidity isn’t heroic.
The introduction of Marky is Kirkman trying to be clever, it sort of works, but there’s major issues with it too, as is how he gets rid of the kid’s rapist mother Anissa. Generally, I didn’t really expect Kirkman to deal with any of that that seriously, so it proved – though the final issue had a neat moment or two that represents his best attempt to do so.
And Rex? Ends up as a brain in a jar, but I would have preferred he be entirely dispensed with, so making the point that yes, his entire MO was entirely fucked up. Where Empowered tore the whole ‘must be a hard man who makes the hard choices’ outlook a new one, this series was far too kind to it.
Overall, it concludes well enough, though it’ll always have some ‘what the hell was he thinking’ moments in it. Also, by the final volume the shock factor of the bloody super-combat has pretty much worn off. You can only play that so many times before the audience becomes immune to it. -
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Superman/Action Comics: Leviathan Rising HC
I was looking forward to this book. A revitalised Bendis paired with Steve Epting on the better of the two Superman titles? What could go wrong?
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a big disappointment.
The main problem is that the whole thing is so dull and repetitive. The basic plot is that the bad super-secret Leviathan organisation is trying to take down all of the good super-secret agencies in the DCU… and that’s pretty much it. For five issues.
Superman rarely does anything particularly heroic, instead getting dragged from place to place to yet again be amazed by a Leviathan attack, baffled by who’s behind it and generally treated as an ineffectual side-character in his own book.
I get the feeling that Bendis would rather be writing a Lois Lane book, or a Jimmy Olsen book, or even an Amanda Waller book. All of those characters take the lead at various points here, and to be honest their sections work slightly better than Superman’s.
But as a Superman book, this is just dull, flat and repetitive – and after years of Bendis mystery-identity superhero plots, I just rolled my eyes at all the “who is Leviathan?” stuff.
Epting’s art is good, albeit a slightly more simplified style than I’m used to from him. But it isn’t enough to save the book, which never really feels like it goes anywhere and treats Superman almost like a side character in his own story.
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Well, my copy came today and having opened it and had a decent flick through it I think my feelings are more mixed than ever – but I feel a lot more positive about it than I did after seeing those initial preview pages.
The first thing to mention is that the linework is far better served by this new edition than it was in any previous edition. It’s very strong and clear and makes the lines in the old versions look incredibly faint and washed-out.
The next thing to mention is that there are places in which the colours have actually tried to remain very faithful to the original – so this isn’t a complete ground-up reinvention as it definitely takes its cues in a lot of places from the existing colours.
But at the same time, there are places where the colour scheme is changed entirely, and I’m not sure it’s for the better. This isn’t just about flat colour versus modern grading and modelling – the entire mood of some pages is changed through the choice of a very different palette, and in some places it’s not for the best.
That said, overall it looks like a very good book and I can’t wait to reread it in full and also check out all the commentary and original art at the back. I’ll reserve final judgement until I’ve read the entire thing, but for now I’m veering towards mixed-to-positive.
Here are a few pics that offer a good range of comparisons so you can see some of the places where the colours are similar to the originals and some where they are very different. (Comparison is with the HC collections.)
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Thanks for that, Dave. I was on the fence about this one, and I think you’ve just convinced me I should get it. (So maybe I shouldn’t be thanking you?
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De we know how many volumes this is going to be? -
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With my current omnibus backlog, it’s even possible I will have finished the first volume by next august
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Unfortunately after less than 24 hours with the book I’m starting to see the same warping and binding issues mentioned in the video.
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Middlewest Volume 1
Set in a modern fantasy world, this story introduces us to Abel, a kid with a shitbag of a father, whose life gets turned upside down in the space of a day, which in turn sees Abel leg it away from all he knows as fast as he can. Along the way he encounters hobo cannibals, mysterious strangers and circus.
To say more gives the game away but this is a very strong narrative by Young, brilliantly depicted by Corona’s art.
Hit-Girl in Hong Kong
There are times when art can sell a comic and this is one of those times. No surprise that the artist in question is Goran Parlov.
Sure Way’s story is OK and is very fun, with some sharp moments of horror. It also takes full advantage of the greater latitude of action a character like Hit-Girl has.
American Carnage
OK, so who knew Fernandez’s art could be this good? True, it’s years since his Punisher Max work but this is on an entirely different level.
The story is also one of the most ballsy you’ll ever read plunging headlong into the explosive powderkeg that is US politics, race and society. Built around a disgraced biracial ex-FBI agent, his ex black girlfriend and a bunch of shitbag white supremacists who decided to lynch a FBI agent as a way of sending a message to back off, Hill’s script pulls no punches and spares no one and nothing. As a great example of both script and art, just look at this:
As to how it all plays out, that the book invokes ‘noir’ as a description on the cover tells you it ain’t going to end happy, but it does end well. One of the characters has an especially satisfying fate, but one way or another, everyone gets what’s coming to them. -
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On Swamp Thing’s colours. Back in the mid 80s Titan Books in the UK did the first ever trades of DC material but because of cost they reprinted Swamp Thing in black and white. It was on much higher quality paper than the newsprint of the issues though and it really worked with the detailed linework that Bissette and Totleben did.
DC liked how it looked too and in the 90s released a reprint book under ‘Essential Vertigo” that also removed the colouring and presented it in black and white.
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MaestrosThis is one of those books that I picked up cheap in a Comixology sale a while back but hadn’t read until now. After finishing it, I wish I’d got to it sooner, as it’s great fun.
The real draw for me here was Skroce’s art, and it’s worth buying for the visuals alone. Skroce is one of those artists (Geof Darrow is another) who seems to have a perfect control of his line, and uses different line weights and levels of detail to create incredibly complex, visually-dense panels without sacrificing clarity or legibility. In short, it’s pretty much perfect comics storytelling, and Dave Stewart’s incredibly vivid colours make everything pop.
But even aside from the art, the story is actually pretty good too. A fantasy romp that’s half-pisstake of the genre and half-genuinely compelling multi-generational power-struggle epic, there’s more than a whiff of Game of Thrones to it – and through a clever mechanism introduced early on, the world of Maestros is actually established to be part of a sort-of multiverse that can also house all other fantasy stories ever created.
There’s also a touch of the classic hero’s journey to the book too, with our hero Will being an earthbound young guy who’s human mother once shacked up with an all-powerful space-wizard-king, making him next in line for the throne once an evil beast wipes out the entire royal family.
It’s a book with a lot of moving parts, but Skroce turns out to be a decent enough writer to juggle the whole thing (including multiple key flashback sequences) without the reader getting lost or impatient with the diversions.
It also helps that the whole thing is peppered with humour of various types, making it clear that this is a book with its tongue firmly in its cheek. In fact, the mix of high concept, great art and unapologetically adolescent approach to sex, violence, rude jokes and swearing makes it one of the closest things I’ve read to a Millarworld book.
That feeling extends to the closing chapters too, which pull off some decent hiding-in-plain-sight twists and keep ratcheting up the action and tension and peril even when you’re convinced that they can’t be taken any further. (The fact that one issue ends with a cliffhanger that involves all of existence being destroyed should show you how keen Skroce is on painting himself into outrageous narrative corners to get out of.)
Of course, where magic is involved there are always get-outs, but despite everything in the book having an ‘undo’ button (characters are frequently revived from death or near-death, robbing the violence of some of its drama), Skroce still manages to make everything feel like it has consequences, even if they play by comicbook rules.
This was a fun read that I’d recommend to anyone who’d like a fun fantasy story that doesn’t take itself too seriously and isn’t afraid to get some violent and vulgar laughs. Oh, and did I mention the brilliant art?
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Invisible Kingdom v.1: Walking The Path
Another Comixology sale purchase, but this one turned out less well. I’d been interested to read this after reading G Willow Wilson talk about it, but as is sometimes the way with these books, what sounds good in theory doesn’t always turn out that well in execution.
The book follows a group of misfit space-delivery-guys who work for space-Amazon (think Guardians of the Galaxy meets the crew of Futurama) and a young alien who has signed up to an order of alien space-nuns with a space-religion that involves renouncing worldly possessions, and sets them on a collision course against each other, against a backdrop of both corporate and religious corruption. In space.
And… it’s ok. But it feels a bit lazy and amateurish both in writing and art.
The writing is the biggest disappointment – having enjoyed Wilson’s work elsewhere, I was surprised that the character work was so lacklustre here. And the exploration of the book’s Big Ideas – like that big corporations are bad, m’kay, and that maybe you can’t trust the hierarchical systems of religion – feel very by-numbers and lacking in depth. (There’s even a point where a character looks out of the page and earnestly starts telling us that possessions aren’t the route to happiness, and the things that we own end up owning us – or something along those lines.)
And Ward’s art is similarly bland, and often so unfinished in terms of the linework that it feels much worse than some amateurs that I’ve seen. Occasional images are good – usually the big splashpages – but more meat-and-potatoes scenes feel tossed-off and rushed, and there are action sequences where I can barely make sense of what’s meant to be happening (other than some cool manoeuvres involving spaceships in space).
Also, the whole neon/rainbow-coloured space-fantasy thing feels a bit played out now, as though the Guardians of the Galaxy movie aesthetic has become the default for a book like this.
So in pretty much every way it feels a bit off-the-peg and unwilling to try something new. Apart from The Seeds (now seemingly MIA), this is the only one of the Berger Books that I’ve tried, and it’s disappointing that it’s such a letdown.
(Also, it features one of my pet peeves – unclear lettering in the sense that some word balloons are laid out in a way that makes you read them in the wrong order. I had to read several panels multiple times to decipher them.)
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Postal Deliverance Volume 1
A sequel to Postal? Nah, that can’t work…. can it? Well, maybe it can.
Set a year or so on from the first series, this picks up where the characters are and what they are doing – the twin stories are a disruptive new arrival in Eden, while in Florida, old habits die hard for both Laura and Magnum.
What makes the book work so well is Ienco’s art, where you can see the character’s emotions without anything more needed. The other half is a latitude of action for its lead characters that other books don’t tend to have. A character can’t do something? Not in this book and that’s what makes it so good.
Erik’s fate is particularly good as an illustration of this. He rants to Maggie that he’ll kill them all, that he sees Mark’s restraint as weakness, so Maggie shoots him dead in the head. Four shots. The whole time he’s been using his emotional pain as a catch-all justification for everything and anything, very much a reflection of the time and of how perpetually angry people operate. So seeing Maggie take him at his word that yes, he will kill them all, she then takes him out instead.
Nor is that the only twist, but to see how it all plays out, I’ll have to wait until April 2020, which is more or less when the Postal OHC of the first series is due too.
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