tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34379777351682007682024-02-20T07:51:55.024-08:00Vanja writes (about) comicsUpdates on my comics and my general thoughts about the comics sceneVanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.comBlogger203125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-17924497418246694442021-03-12T03:25:00.001-08:002021-03-12T03:25:07.378-08:00Thor and Odin: The Uneasy Relationship of superheroes and their father figures<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXdDNBGI6xs_ZK73KC3yT-jwMzk2-3Fs9-_vdtdkECF1ebDbJfV8w0U1UPiupyCwTeXzwKw4lFqnIlv2GdNh7JMbvVwytoPPgdatTEneMm5MBVZ8mDNp8KTQOGELPHzR0Y35AgG5BRmWk/s1367/69acaad0287488f8b9badf878b039d6a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1367" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXdDNBGI6xs_ZK73KC3yT-jwMzk2-3Fs9-_vdtdkECF1ebDbJfV8w0U1UPiupyCwTeXzwKw4lFqnIlv2GdNh7JMbvVwytoPPgdatTEneMm5MBVZ8mDNp8KTQOGELPHzR0Y35AgG5BRmWk/s320/69acaad0287488f8b9badf878b039d6a.jpg" /></a></div><p>Reading
through a complete run of a title, one can see not so much a continuation but
constant reinvention, with new creative teams doing their own takes on themes
and characters that have usually been introduced early in the series’ development.
Thus, a lot of creative turns are cyclical, with characters going through
similar arcs and retracing similar steps on their way to a modern audience and
hopefully renewed interest.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="SR-LATN-RS" style="mso-ansi-language: SR-LATN-RS;">One
such trope that keeps reappearing in series such as „Thor“ and „the X-Men“ is
the return of the father figures. Thor’s father Odin has as such long been
subject to deaths and exiles, coupled with eventual returns, only to reappear
in diminished capacity time and again. Professor X’s own repeated death and
cripplings and reappearances, while revealing dark secrets chart a similar
course.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="SR-LATN-RS" style="mso-ansi-language: SR-LATN-RS;">Why
is it that these tropes keep reappearing and Marvel has such uneasy
relationships between these heroes and their mentors?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="SR-LATN-RS" style="mso-ansi-language: SR-LATN-RS;">On
one hand, early in the titles’ life, the mentor-like role of the father figure
made sense, in order to facilitate stories and provide a natural character
dynamic. Eventually, though, the constant presence of father figures lead to solutions
such as Odin undergoing periodic Odin sleeps which would put the character out
of comission briefly, in order to raise stakes for Thor and have the character
be forced to deal with the crisis of the day on his own.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="SR-LATN-RS" style="mso-ansi-language: SR-LATN-RS;">Still,
as the years rolled on, the dynamic has started to shift with Odin’s many
deaths and exiles. </span>These were regularly followed by the character’s
return and the reestablishing of the parent/son and king/prince dynamic. It
seems logical for Thor to outgrow his role of a wayward prince and become the
king that he’s meant to be, but on the other hand, the regal mantle and the
added responsibility provide a drastic status quo shift that seems to finish
the character’s arc more than provide a platform for new adventures.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dan Jurgen’s run on “Thor” of course had a death of Odin
storyline to it. The creative team actually went through and continued Thor’s
journey as a king to its logical end, in the process breaking off from Marvel’s
established continuity. Naturally, by the end of the run the old status quo was
restored and Thor’s time as a king was rarily referenced and has all but been
retconned away.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What is most interesting is that in distancing Odin from his
princely son and trying for a revionist Asgard, Marvel has started to tarnish
Odin’s image. Thus, from the stubborn father he has slowly grown into a nasty
patriarch to be deposited and forgotten about. At one point, Asgard was even ruled
by three goddesses and renamed Asgardia, but Odin always kept reappearing in
one form of another, even in this diminished capacity.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In much the same way, as the X-Men were reunited with
professor X time and again, the idea of exploring the dark side of their
founder and leader has also slowly crept in. Posing these father figures as
manipulative and untrusty worthy notably changed the dynamic once they return.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today, Marvel is once again doing a storyline where Thor has
become king and Odin is nowhere to be found. Yet, when the character inevitably
returns, he will no doubt be reset into a kind of authority figure of sorts, if
only as foil for the protagonist to overcome. <o:p></o:p></p>Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-30458148734938975942020-08-28T10:41:00.003-07:002020-08-28T10:43:08.006-07:00Where is Kiki: A Mop & Monkus Caper<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj22JxFHMcsPFnWo1RHmgduqfsbKI0s1qAvGuQuHq9N5heNgrOUHi4t9ihLPGl7j04pGw8ZYdACnFYOXh-S0YVzs_HWIAIxxT_fTrIJBWwRadHOKAb9TVe7RIuBrlrl16GcmNNuZo5_oMc/s1200/SaQY3SLFqsap33yDVXUYEWv2CRmMHjba-couv-1200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="904" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj22JxFHMcsPFnWo1RHmgduqfsbKI0s1qAvGuQuHq9N5heNgrOUHi4t9ihLPGl7j04pGw8ZYdACnFYOXh-S0YVzs_HWIAIxxT_fTrIJBWwRadHOKAb9TVe7RIuBrlrl16GcmNNuZo5_oMc/w386-h512/SaQY3SLFqsap33yDVXUYEWv2CRmMHjba-couv-1200.jpg" width="386" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This was a very strange, but a very interesting read. Basically, “Where is
Kiki” amounts to having the acclaimed veteran writer/artist Blutch revamping a
pair of old time Franco-Belgian private investigator characters for the current
audience. It was published by Europe Comics with the two characters translated
as Mop & Monkus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It’s not easy finding information in English about the background of the
book, and the two detectives even go by their French names in their Wikipedia
entry. What I was able to suss out is that over a period of several years, Blutch
and his brother Robber developed this story, along with an in-universe
companion novel refered to at the beginning of the album.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Having no personal previous experience with the characters, I was able to
follow their latest adventure by linking them to Spirou and Fantasio, the
famous Franco-Belgian characters that operated in a similar mold. And sure
enough, Mop and Monkus are a pair of best friends and colleagues, one more
serious than the other, being dragged to solve a complicated caper revolving
around the kidnapping of their friend. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Blutch and his brother seemingly bend the concept to introduce the idea of
these two characters as being non-fiction authors who document their investigations
into a popular series of crime novels. This fuels the very beginning of the
book, with a promo event for the afore mentioned tie-in novel slowly turning
into the beginning of a new case for the duo. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje3onhkbukcesoa4MWD7WrEFvYeW7lfFeVmFUaSBGVdp44iLs07httwKathotBM1JhffqYJTbETw_ayJoxZxlEibbO-1KhHjCtkBUlChqqMfRRlZBBoFMHW4XOipHmN34TBG8CFlRYdrE/s1200/SaQY3SLFqsap33yDVXUYEWv2CRmMHjba-page9-1200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="904" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje3onhkbukcesoa4MWD7WrEFvYeW7lfFeVmFUaSBGVdp44iLs07httwKathotBM1JhffqYJTbETw_ayJoxZxlEibbO-1KhHjCtkBUlChqqMfRRlZBBoFMHW4XOipHmN34TBG8CFlRYdrE/s640/SaQY3SLFqsap33yDVXUYEWv2CRmMHjba-page9-1200.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The comic pages are dense with dialogue, but the plot is relatively easy to
follow and the mystery very compelling, especially as it starts relating more
and more to Mop and Monkus themselves. They go through a series of conversations
with all sorts of personalities, punctured by brief but very memorable action
scenes featuring outsized villains and tropes that would be at home in the
characters’ original post WW2 heydey. The really over the top props appear relatively
late in the book and help propel it to its action packed conclusion, while not detracting
too far from the relatively grounded tone that preceded them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Despite the camp factor, the plotting is very solid and the action grounded
enough to work with Blutch’ style. Blutch himself of course is a master
storyteller, with a very dynamic intuitive penmanship. Thus, the reader is
treated to gorgeous and expressive characters set against life-like backgrounds
in such a way that none of the art looks stilted. Moreover, the artist’s
expressionistic style makes the characters’ caricatural faces appear all the
more pronounced in this specific context. On the other hand, the pages
providing the look into the titular Kiki’s life in captivity provide the artist
for a chance to feature a surreal break.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When viewed as a part of Blutch’s ouvre, it’s very easy to consider “Where
is Kiki” as a passion project that touches upon his childhood favorites.
Likewise, by all accounts, it seems that following this ablum, Blutch will be going
back to avantgard projects like “So long silver screen” that he’s best
associated with.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="height: 0px;">
</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As for Mop and Monkus, this revitalization will surely bring them back into
the current conversation and will potentially lead to a more traditional revamp
by a stable creative team, that would hopefully adher to some of the stylings featured
in this very entertaining album.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p style="height: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="height: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="height: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="height: 0px;"><br /></p><p></p>Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-60726023768241181012020-06-08T03:47:00.003-07:002020-06-08T03:51:06.578-07:00Marc Andreyko’s Batwoman ends #35-40<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE54rOPzhDle5WCyB_ilMHC8_L9Q7lEgNqEMcNIanUn54apgEdiHveZfQsf-moUC4aybXnVd5TRInwAfU8IuIyQmDliapm7GFW0RseXJIyKmrnrW5Cy0ibPvnoZgDLLH0LoSUyURM8Zj0/s1384/Batwoman_Vol_2_35.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE54rOPzhDle5WCyB_ilMHC8_L9Q7lEgNqEMcNIanUn54apgEdiHveZfQsf-moUC4aybXnVd5TRInwAfU8IuIyQmDliapm7GFW0RseXJIyKmrnrW5Cy0ibPvnoZgDLLH0LoSUyURM8Zj0/s320/Batwoman_Vol_2_35.jpg" /></a></div><font face="arial" size="2">It wouldn’t be Marc Andreyko’s Batwoman if the last chapter didn’t start with a flashforward and ended in an Annual. At this point, Jeremy Haun is off the book, to be replaced by Georges Jeanty. The veteran artist illustrates another over the top adventure featuring Kate, her sister and the oddball team alluded to in the Future’s end special.</font><div><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">Thus, we are treated to a second flash forward issue in a row, only this time we are flashing towards a skirmish around a sattelite. Kate and her friends, which the book still has to introduce in a proper way, battle Morgane Le Fay and her inhuman hordes over a mystical McGuffin.</font></div><div><font size="5"><br /></font></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqM9DXvk2u_wkZmdpHfyY1-O4S2-jaZ2XmyOizelQ1mJL8MajOSpxVJWwj2Bk80rTm3d8tyaKQhjDLkCTGHHMkr9haDWq5lz8Hnu9xGfC73re7f0zeDRfCkkl9K-Dhb6pObH02N_hR2w/s3840/RCO003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2952" data-original-width="3840" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqM9DXvk2u_wkZmdpHfyY1-O4S2-jaZ2XmyOizelQ1mJL8MajOSpxVJWwj2Bk80rTm3d8tyaKQhjDLkCTGHHMkr9haDWq5lz8Hnu9xGfC73re7f0zeDRfCkkl9K-Dhb6pObH02N_hR2w/s320/RCO003.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><font size="5"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">Seeing Kate and her sister in space suits is an image that intentionally breaks from the more grounded tone. Yet, despite the raised stakes, the reader accepts that contrary to the "Future’s End" Special bloodletting, all this could actually happen at some point.</font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">It’s another thing entirely to consider if this sort of action should be happening in the Batwoman title. On the face of it, it reads almost like a team book, with Kate being a clear lead, but there is certainly not enough context to go on past the intentional controversy.</font></div><div><font size="5"><br /></font></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVj9U3FvkNXgm23mdSbtj5x3nBQPu6JHrIQoLOKHyp4VBnXIhnVw3IujB_Lrobwgm6Dgxhc7KZepomwIKF_mdt0I-zplQ9yDZ-nz_BccJ8qIE7JBjmIcptRj9KCsPIdAwWGeH5Etlhf9M/s2951/RCO001.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2951" data-original-width="1920" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVj9U3FvkNXgm23mdSbtj5x3nBQPu6JHrIQoLOKHyp4VBnXIhnVw3IujB_Lrobwgm6Dgxhc7KZepomwIKF_mdt0I-zplQ9yDZ-nz_BccJ8qIE7JBjmIcptRj9KCsPIdAwWGeH5Etlhf9M/s320/RCO001.jpg" /></a></div><font face="arial" size="2">The next three issues then go back to slowly build towards this epic confrontation. The reader is thus introduced to the new incarnations of Etrigan, Ragman and Clayface, which are all fairly accessible considering that most of them are somewhat less popular characters.</font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">More importantly, Alice is also being slowly reintroduced to the title, with a more measured approach than before. <span style="font-size: x-large;">Starting out as a Joker to Kate Kane’s Bat(wo)man, the character’s return has been carefully seeded since the introduction of the idea that the two characters are twin sisters. </span></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="5"><br /></font></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrU8-MDZwli1sxKX3PRktC1L4vZYxlK2vhhIfuZg8wxbwAg2PkHKoBtpMTwA6R6Qd-OWbFc62vnd_bXooZWuYLiF-6xPFYLo9m4RjOGe3lZqUi5a8iXyys4JJ5_sfNOBj8qPkMOU2AFA/s926/s-l1600.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="926" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrU8-MDZwli1sxKX3PRktC1L4vZYxlK2vhhIfuZg8wxbwAg2PkHKoBtpMTwA6R6Qd-OWbFc62vnd_bXooZWuYLiF-6xPFYLo9m4RjOGe3lZqUi5a8iXyys4JJ5_sfNOBj8qPkMOU2AFA/s320/s-l1600.jpg" /></a></div><font face="arial" size="2">It then stands to reason that once Beth is reintroduced, she would become a more balanced character. In this guise, she is an anti-hero calling herself Red Alice, but her reckless streak is severely underplayed.</font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">This time around, <span style="font-size: x-large;">Kate is portrayed as the bloodthirsty sister, with flashes of </span>the vampiric bloodlust taking over her while in the Batwoman guise. For once these don’t read like dream sequences and actually feel directly relevant to the plot at hand.</font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">As for the broader story, it ties to Morgan Le Fay’s return and the cult involved with resurrecting her by using the philosopher’s stone.</font></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><font face="arial" size="2">There are actually some interesting bits to her return, but this is still largely a character building story. Morgan’s irredeemably evil so the writer doesn’t really deal with her motivations beyond the stereotypical supervillain megalomania. She is there to draw all of these disperate characters together, and she has enough presence to fulfill that role.</font></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKJacAgElnL_II8V5KjDOBrmLetNmFrt2sBuopYZE245U8-6x0V0yhYhXd2Da8_rW4W6L2wVEDJycqGD0sRQLpEtDTYJ9cILEz4AbNUVPw03aN1pSZ7u7PlxYfnWBiGYrL-rvxEF7pfA/s3975/RCO003+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3056" data-original-width="3975" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKJacAgElnL_II8V5KjDOBrmLetNmFrt2sBuopYZE245U8-6x0V0yhYhXd2Da8_rW4W6L2wVEDJycqGD0sRQLpEtDTYJ9cILEz4AbNUVPw03aN1pSZ7u7PlxYfnWBiGYrL-rvxEF7pfA/s320/RCO003+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">Juan Jose Ryp fills in for Jeanty in the issue featuring Morgan's return, and his highly detailed work calls attention to itself. Georges Jeanty has depicted these characters a bit looser and less imposing, which fit the book’s tone, but at this point the reader should be used to the fill ins.</font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">With the sales being what they were, it’s probable that editorial was already considering ending the run, so the artistic shifts are to be expected. </font></div><div><font size="2"><br /></font></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ogcDlNchjNRxruwMOCpd49yUbTECibb1QCvEA-F4hVUPlIAUgKEMm4861Av30QZADlz5aXUbdhXLN_WLO12sB4rUJoK3vY7s2UagL4XsqY6-R4R8TQpuXj7s28rWq_mQeCxkCXzCXLc/s3056/Batwoman_Vol_2_40.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3056" data-original-width="1988" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9ogcDlNchjNRxruwMOCpd49yUbTECibb1QCvEA-F4hVUPlIAUgKEMm4861Av30QZADlz5aXUbdhXLN_WLO12sB4rUJoK3vY7s2UagL4XsqY6-R4R8TQpuXj7s28rWq_mQeCxkCXzCXLc/s320/Batwoman_Vol_2_40.jpg" /></a></div><font face="arial" size="2">Andreyko still goes through the motions and uses #40 as the last regular issue to reunite Kate and Alice, proceeds to dismantle the former’s toxic association with Nocturna and finally brings the conflict with Morgan Le Fey to the boil.</font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">The Nocturna subplot had a mild outcry with some of the fans considering the villain’s actions as veering towards rape. And while the implication is certainly there, it’s a shame that this is why this run ended up being an object of discussion. As the character based subplots draw to a close, Andreyko saves the explosive finale for an oversize Annual.</font></div><div><font size="5"><br /></font></div><div><font size="5"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFl-aQZfEgni9Rif_kY28fjfGJT9eIfZxzFKUfngTLm_Y6dwoh8_777F_bvazXDqV5mreLXvQkli7tq4Sm-U8bHnwFcGecoKtT67cR5OxSah0kJ2Eo7mTaVtCTeuGqjIyln_9p0oN2-Ao/s3056/Batwoman_Annual_Vol_2_2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3056" data-original-width="1988" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFl-aQZfEgni9Rif_kY28fjfGJT9eIfZxzFKUfngTLm_Y6dwoh8_777F_bvazXDqV5mreLXvQkli7tq4Sm-U8bHnwFcGecoKtT67cR5OxSah0kJ2Eo7mTaVtCTeuGqjIyln_9p0oN2-Ao/s320/Batwoman_Annual_Vol_2_2.jpg" /></a></div></font><h4 style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="2" style="font-weight: normal;">The weird symmetry of his run, which begins and ends with Annuals cannot be overstated. To make matters more complicated, once again, the action picks up not from where the series' last issue ended, but from #35, the flash forward issue which introduced the readers to Kate's battle in space.</font></h4></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">Taking all this into consideration, what to make of the Annual itself? It features Jeanty working in concert with fill-in artists, but thankfully the result isn't jarring. On the other hand, a <span style="font-size: large;">weird story with reality reshaped to have Gotham appear as a medieval hamlet lorded over by Morgana Le Fey certainly won't be to everyone's taste.</span></font></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></span></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">It does at least put all of this to rest and ends with Kate reconnecting with Maggie. <span style="font-size: large;">The smoothening out of the sore point of Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer's relationship at this late date has more or less fell on deaf ears of the reading public. </span></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></div><div><font face="arial" size="2">Thus<span style="font-size: large;">, in a way Andreyko has completed the circle by having to wrap up his own plots in an Annual. The entirety of this run, especially in such close proximity to the work of J. H. Williams III before it, certainly makes a case that the follow-up creative teams would benefit from a proper relaunch, with some distance in between. </span></font></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><font face="arial" size="2">Being in the position to directly continue the acclaimed work seemed to have forced the new creatives to scramble and try to make deadlines and enforce editorial edicts without being given enough time to truly consider the task at hand and really leave their mark with the character.</font></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><font face="arial" size="2">DC would return to Kate again a year later in the Detective comics team-up title, which ultimately spun-off a new Batwoman series. The work of Andreyko, Haun and Jeanty and the others continues to live on in collected form, tracking the development of a superhero character that was eventually given her own TV series. </font></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><font face="arial" size="2"><br /></font></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><font face="arial" size="2">It is only when looking back at these issues that the reader will be able to appreciate how truly weird they were and the lengths these publishers go through to keep their characters in circulation and development.</font></span></div>Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-21310612667543110252020-06-07T15:15:00.001-07:002020-06-07T15:16:49.248-07:00Mark Andreyko’s Batwoman #32-34<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Having finished with his introductory arc on “Batwoman”, featuring a back to basis approach, Marc Andreyko opts to slowly return to Batwoman’s supernatural adventures.<br />
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This is done in a three part story that starts off grounded, with the fatal seductress Nocturna being released from Arkham Asylum only to become targeted by a daughter of one of her former husbands. This being Gotham city, each of these women comes with their supervillain henchman, with Batwoman finding herself quickly caught in the crosshairs.<br />
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Likewise, the story begins with the precise art of then ongoing penciller Jeremy Haun, before the fill-ins start. The second issue has the looser and more energetic Scott Kollins filling in on some pages, while Moritat and Pia Guerra help out with the opening fight of the third and concluding chapter.</div>
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The three-parter teases a darker vampiric direction for Kate, characterised by her being drawn toward the villainous Nocturna and away from Maggie Sawyer. This kind of story would be harder to tell with a married Kate Kane, so at least DC was quick to actually utilize the protagonist’s single status.</div>
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Yet, they way they ultimately went about it is anything but conventional. </div>
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This issue was followed up by a Future’s end tie-in special, taking place “five years from now”. At this point, Kate is a full blown vampire, bent on destroying Maggie Sawyer. We are exploring all this from her sister’s point of view, as Alice and a group of supernatural vigilantes allied with her try to put a stop to Kate’s crazed rampage.</div>
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We are told that Batwoman herself was involved with the group, patterned on Shadowpact, but that she has since given in to the vampirism. Thus, the issue works basically as a dark future for Kate, teasing some further developments in her title by taking them to their most exciting conclusion.</div>
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I will what all this ultimately amounts to tomorrow, as we finally say goodbye to Marc Andreyko's Batwoman run.</div>
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-59876705965571228642020-06-06T09:03:00.001-07:002020-06-06T09:08:16.667-07:00Marc Andreyko’s Batwoman begins #25-31<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Once he got ahold of Batwoman, Marc Andreyko was tasked with a difficult assignment. The acclaimed creative team was leaving mid-storyline and the editorial was aiming for a change of course. The way his run ultimately ended up was anything but conventional, as can be seen from its multiple beginnings, strange interludes and several endings.</div>
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It could stand to reason to consider the Batwoman Annual as the start of Andreyko’s work. It was published just as the writer’s first storyline was drawing to a close, but it acts as the belated conclusion to the J. H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman's run. </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The Annual was collected with the beginning of Mark Andreyko’s run and placed as the first story, no doubt to try not to confuse the readers who first experienced these stories in their collected form.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Finishing the other creators’ work is obviously not an ideal situation as </span><span style="font-size: small;">J. H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman</span><span style="font-size: small;"> had a different endpoint in mind, but Andreyko does his best to draw a complicated plot concerning the D.E.O. to a close. Thus, in the space of one issue, Batwoman’s fight with Batman and the freeing of Alice are retroactively dealt with alongside other stray plot points.</span></div>
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DC was able to at least get Trevor McCarthy, who illustrated the latter parts of the Williams/Blackman run to provide the majority of pencils here, but it’s clear that most fans won’t be happy with the Annual for one way or another. </div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">On the other hand, one could also consider Batwoman #25 as the start of Andreyko’s work, being chronologically the first issue published with his name on it. Yet, it was a tie-in to the Zero Year Batman storyline, telling an adventure of Kate Kane before she became Batwoman. Curiously for such a young character, the extensive flashbacks to her beginnings have already been featured several times at that point.</span></div>
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The major difference here is that this one-off heavily utilizes the socialite cousin of Bruce Wayne part of her origin that was never really the focus of previous stories. So, looking at it as the foundation of Marc Andreyko’s Batwoman, we have a story of a military trained young woman turned vigilante in the city’s darkest hour. It notably features both Kate’s father and her future fiancee Meggy Sawyer in the supporting roles, so it provides for a nice primer on the character and her motiovation. </div>
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It also works broadly as a Zero Year tie-in, but it uses the status quo of that story so generally that it could be substituted for any other kind of Gotham city-wide blackout.</div>
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Again, this is all perfectly <span style="font-size: small;">passable for a oneshot story, albeit one marred by several artists and apparent style shifts, which have come to plague the rest of Andreyko’s run.</span></div>
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Getting through with the prologue, it is in the next issue that Andreyko’s run really starts. Paired with Jeremy Haun, the writer posits a familiar version of the Batwoman, but with several key changes. </div>
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Most notably, the title leaves the rich psychedelic trappings of J.H.Williams III and the artists who tried to fit in with his style, to be replaced by a streamlined and more functional noir aesthetic.</div>
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On the plot level, gone are the supernatural trapping to be replaced by a story of an art thief on a crime spree with ties to Gotham’s past. The new focus on Kate Kane’s socialite background helps ease the transition, but the real change comes with the cliffhanger of the storyline’s second issue. </div>
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By calling into point the wellfare of Maggie Sawyer’s child being in close proximity to Batwoman, Andreyko creates the dynamic that would ultimately split the lesbian couple.</div>
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The proposed and ultimately vetoed marriage between the two characters was the stated reason why the previous creative team ultimately left the title. Seeing their relationship thrown into dissaray in the first couple of regular issues and even straddling Kate with a psychiatrist to deal with all this certainly showcases the editorial sticking to their decision. </div>
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And while it could still be debated whether the real reason for stepping away from the lesbian marriage was the restrictions marital bonds put on the storytelling possibilities in the superhero medium, this story certainly treats it as such.</div>
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Reaffirming Kate’s focus on being a Batwoman comes in a story that is otherwise a lighthearted romp with the new villain Wolf Spider collecting the paintings and successfully evading capture. Thus, “Webs” features both Kate and her cousin Bette repeatedly failing to stop the art thief, as his targets get nearer and nearer to them, thanks to their high class background.</div>
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On the way, the Wolf Spider visits the Arkham Asylum and lets loose several villains that would reappear in Andreyko’s run, most notably Nocturna. </div>
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By this time, Bette herself is also out of her role as the costumed superhero Firehawk and relegated to being Kate’s computer helper. Having the character <span style="font-size: small;">basically take over the </span><span style="font-size: small;">role Kate’s father played as Alfred to her Batman leaves Batwoman without a Robin on her side.</span></div>
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This by itself is nothing unusual, as Robin himself is notably absent from many of the Batman stories, but it certainly provides another way that the title has changed in such a short while. </div>
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What we are left with by the time “Webs” ends is a much better paced action adventure comic that focuses on the title character to the exclusion of most of her former supporting cast, albeit saddled with much more prosaic plots when compared to her iconic clashes with Alice and the Medusa.</div>
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We’ll go over where the editorial and Andreyko ultimately took Batwoman tomorrow.</div>
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-30216813244693431432020-06-05T15:12:00.001-07:002020-06-06T09:10:23.955-07:00Batman #626-630: As the Crow Flies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Reading this 2004 Batman story after all these years was an interesting experience. In many ways, it acts as the prelude to Judd Winick's landmark Batman run, but there are definitely insights to be gained from looking at it alone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">For a start, this is a Batman story and a good one at that. It showcases the strengths of the character by building on what so many previous creators have turned his adventures into, in the process posing some interesting questions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">By utilizing his famous villains and a generic status quo, it almost seems like a more adult interpretation of the famous Batman: The Animated Series.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Interestingly, the character himself is largely relegated to the role of a detective opposing Penguin and Scarecrow, who receive most of the character development here. Penguin is by and large playing the role of a mob boss, in line with the modern interpretation of the character, while the Scarecrow is depicted as his subordinate, desperate to please him. </span><span style="font-size: small;">The story introduces another character as his assistant, but she is mostly kept to the sidelines in order to further the mystery. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">As for the central premise, it deals with the men allied with the Penguin being terrorised by fear and eventually hounded by a horrible Scarebeast. The principal antagonists are astonished that their plan to better control the mobsters has somehow turned awry, but the Batman will be the one to truly put a stop to the carnage and get to the bottom of things. </span><span style="font-size: small;">And while an attentive reader will be able to piece together the identity of the mystery villain, that only serves as a testament to the story logic at work.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Winick is very self-assured when writing this story, featuring a lot of action and pacing it to build upon and maintain the momentum. He is at every point aided by the art team of Dustin Nguyen </span><span style="font-size: small;">and Richard Friend, who provide a very brash and impactful version of Gotham city.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It may seem that an over the top detective story will be par for the course for the Batman titles, but not many of them have this level of craft attached to them. While a longtime reader has seen this type of story many times before, rarely has it been as engaging. We have seen Batman face hideous monsters before, we have seen him dealing with the power struggles in Gotham's underworld, these are all standard Batman tropes, but they are rarely this propulsive and entertaining. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGlBzrVJSGAueyKurrNo8aXb9rHSzsH_2prgBxbbjDLCpo39CxKxdS2pNyNcDex9TIYgpYjnIDR8upmtVzU-JZn8LqffAq43baJmo5rwlzUEwrUKukihXL9gdM1dyKrjnn9kEPcHAJNP0/s618/batman629art4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="402" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGlBzrVJSGAueyKurrNo8aXb9rHSzsH_2prgBxbbjDLCpo39CxKxdS2pNyNcDex9TIYgpYjnIDR8upmtVzU-JZn8LqffAq43baJmo5rwlzUEwrUKukihXL9gdM1dyKrjnn9kEPcHAJNP0/s320/batman629art4.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">As for the foreshadowings of Winick's Under the Hood mega-arc, they are subtle but effective. In a way, the whole of "As the crow flies" feels like a creator getting used to the character while preparing to tell a more daring storyline. And while acting as a forerunner to a more acclaimed story might appear to diminish the creators' efforts here, this isn't done in any way to the detriment of the readers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Without making any grand statements to the character like the famous "Batman: Hush" storyline that preceded it and in many ways set the stage for the idea of returning Jason Todd to the Batman titles, this story took Winick and a fresh off the Wildcats 3.0 Dustin Nguyen to the task of crafting a solid superhero story. They have certainly achieved this and turned "As the Crow Flies" into a story that will help new fans fall in love with the character and his mileu, and remind older readers of what "Batman" is like when it works.</span></div>
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-61407314218535276592020-06-04T08:28:00.000-07:002020-06-04T08:28:07.177-07:00Top Cow Talent Hunt SubmissionAnd here's the illustrated part of my Top Cow Talent Hunt submission I mentioned before. Hope you'll give it a look. Enjoy.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWd6JMAVR_bV5lBMZBJWvioeZuZNQDN87VCrzQKooVwtt_IO_VB5Y9uBuNxGWmizfDMur2l6p74-LgE-Zb92CXlzYtoos0ILZWf0cEWTud3sPRk0qsMqUHqklCjQxew0nVBhz4zFCRwHs/s3148/Lord-Darkness_page1_ink_lettered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3148" data-original-width="2074" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWd6JMAVR_bV5lBMZBJWvioeZuZNQDN87VCrzQKooVwtt_IO_VB5Y9uBuNxGWmizfDMur2l6p74-LgE-Zb92CXlzYtoos0ILZWf0cEWTud3sPRk0qsMqUHqklCjQxew0nVBhz4zFCRwHs/s320/Lord-Darkness_page1_ink_lettered.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi04-_3VcIWaDC0mzXT70JFqXbd7nfH0aUVa0eswfElzN0WMuvcRKf2Y1W8rTRCQUK9vxmQ07TcY_npCCGn9HIxet_pUovuMTpV-DnO2xMD1rhoNh4j4c6OQY5dPtVVjFGlHx_stxa9Tiw/s3148/Lord-Darkness_page2_ink_lettered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3148" data-original-width="2074" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi04-_3VcIWaDC0mzXT70JFqXbd7nfH0aUVa0eswfElzN0WMuvcRKf2Y1W8rTRCQUK9vxmQ07TcY_npCCGn9HIxet_pUovuMTpV-DnO2xMD1rhoNh4j4c6OQY5dPtVVjFGlHx_stxa9Tiw/s320/Lord-Darkness_page2_ink_lettered.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaH_XZPSf1HoJbITsLj2mFhW-cdv8e4IZiqtB8jTIHZxwTagWr8hpDOdPHPb_T1DSQSO9c_KtzeQaIAof6MgP1rrm26HeCnwgj_ZjjuKILRzfBE4K7m6MaCLg3uEqsXk-RgeO-F6wMxl4/s3148/Lord-Darkness_page3_ink_lettered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3148" data-original-width="2074" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaH_XZPSf1HoJbITsLj2mFhW-cdv8e4IZiqtB8jTIHZxwTagWr8hpDOdPHPb_T1DSQSO9c_KtzeQaIAof6MgP1rrm26HeCnwgj_ZjjuKILRzfBE4K7m6MaCLg3uEqsXk-RgeO-F6wMxl4/s320/Lord-Darkness_page3_ink_lettered.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3148" data-original-width="2074" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfKMywrcGyQZfl0OMXfOY4mzNqLbhCVME7KekVsy-C2frQUUhIeYSW_eLxyMQ3dKjhZCFUgVufUCu6Hr0_KUmla5ez2oC5anx9uf6-Hs9FEhQRXPQfSVenj-vq5gStv0Cl85faalZc4Bc/s320/Lord-Darkness_page5_ink_lettered.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbqfk6kIOaGdQ0Kd9u3_idxbjJU9g5oPV8pdCqWwOmv4xZkRPrss87BHxilRz0JXqn-x1DKLTTgWvYppRzbZVQh68HHYoYd2uo4Q_qt-ComZ5FvZSuhb10jFXq390udlg83_ZIJEgYg8o/s3148/Lord-Darkness_page6_ink_lettered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3148" data-original-width="2074" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbqfk6kIOaGdQ0Kd9u3_idxbjJU9g5oPV8pdCqWwOmv4xZkRPrss87BHxilRz0JXqn-x1DKLTTgWvYppRzbZVQh68HHYoYd2uo4Q_qt-ComZ5FvZSuhb10jFXq390udlg83_ZIJEgYg8o/s320/Lord-Darkness_page6_ink_lettered.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDgRWe4AreMolMDTjo-PNVukzLdSR9k1eEFBwWZCL4nw5NhKdU2Trnyy0Hj02Wq9kAjzwO7-_F9r-DLF26fynnIboiznfDqGs7S31Weq5KlUU_GXJsHkaGuSSDv9BL6QXxsNMVgdTpE0Q/s3148/Lord-Darkness_page7_ink_lettered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3148" data-original-width="2074" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDgRWe4AreMolMDTjo-PNVukzLdSR9k1eEFBwWZCL4nw5NhKdU2Trnyy0Hj02Wq9kAjzwO7-_F9r-DLF26fynnIboiznfDqGs7S31Weq5KlUU_GXJsHkaGuSSDv9BL6QXxsNMVgdTpE0Q/s320/Lord-Darkness_page7_ink_lettered.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjGDstneU4EcICLaw1N30VDuj16S4_2q0MUb_oEI8p8wdBcViDZtAS9pZPfDPaOcb70ikEMDcDjeOkZ2Jf-K2b7DWYHHl3nb_im3GPEZmfbGuMA9OEuZdOpGwB9etRQjoAyEBa83B2PS4/s4050/Lord-Darkness_page8-9_ink_lettered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3131" data-original-width="4050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjGDstneU4EcICLaw1N30VDuj16S4_2q0MUb_oEI8p8wdBcViDZtAS9pZPfDPaOcb70ikEMDcDjeOkZ2Jf-K2b7DWYHHl3nb_im3GPEZmfbGuMA9OEuZdOpGwB9etRQjoAyEBa83B2PS4/s320/Lord-Darkness_page8-9_ink_lettered.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-49483220602661075922020-06-03T14:18:00.000-07:002020-06-03T14:18:52.885-07:00Elsewhen: X-Men fan fiction by John Byrne<h3 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFjt63T7ktgfMRgsQFlwhUPBloynbcPUIC9O-txgrSjKV23aJSuun6ZM_UL9i9reFti2cd03iWAKrvkww9Wuxbw4RFRtUOpqX7Ja0grO8x21oSH4gVfrl3ieRCMRVRYjCXjrwcoBV7FU/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1453" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFjt63T7ktgfMRgsQFlwhUPBloynbcPUIC9O-txgrSjKV23aJSuun6ZM_UL9i9reFti2cd03iWAKrvkww9Wuxbw4RFRtUOpqX7Ja0grO8x21oSH4gVfrl3ieRCMRVRYjCXjrwcoBV7FU/s320/2019-06-12_052100_X-MEN.01.07.jpg" /></a></div>1. What is this and how it came to be</h3><h4 style="text-align: left;">This is a project that has made some waves a year or so ago when there was a possibility of Marvel actually publishing it. Since the negotiations have seemingly died down, John Byrne has turned it into a webcomic that now has eleven full issues (and formatted as such) of professional level craftmanship featuring a beloved creator working on his signature characters. Yet, I've failed to find a serious consideration of the work so far. For most readers that are aware of it, "Elsewhen" exists as a curio that they may or may not be aware of, something seemingly to be enjoyed only by the John Byrne faithful.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Still, disregarding this body of work is to be doing it a disservice, especially in view of the likeminded projects that Marvel and DC have actually published. Byrne alone has a string of very similar projects, with "X-Men: The Hidden Years" being perhaps the closest comparison. With Marvel celebrating the 80th year of their characters and their forerunners being published in comics, it would not be out of place to have "Elsewhen" stand alongside the works like Mark Waid's "History of Marvel Comics" and the like.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">In any event, it's easy to forget the significance of Byrne's X-Men run when viewed in the context of his own diverse bibliography. When compared to his then collaborator Chris Claremont, it would appear that his X-Men work, which launched him into stardom, was something that he grew out of, seeing as he dedicated himself to a swathe of different projects since. And yet, the beloved run has remained something that he is perhaps most known for and when taking into account the way that he has quit the title, it would stand to reason that he was left with misgivings and things he wanted to do had he stayed on.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Such a project as "Elsewhen" is therefore an opportunity to continue the work on his own terms and to take into account the myriad scenarios he wanted to do with the characters since. </h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">What the editorial is asking these creators when working on projects like the X-Men is to treat these characters as something of their own for the time being. Yet, once they inevitably step away, it's rarely after having fully developed their vision as they wanted. </h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Its is not uncommon to hear the creators speak that they have stayed away from following the later incarnations of the characters they previously worked on, as they just don't identify with others people's stories.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Thus, having John Byrne continue his X-Men run is a natural progression of the idea of considering the work as his own and willing to go about it as he would have wanted to. Looking at it like that, it's very interesting to see the new X-Men comics that he has produced so far.</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2Duw0KGoXV6i8OKhC10HP8WI1svwUVzkgqXHkS4U-pmeya5UX58Um_Yq896gAYxhMSpLyI4ZTE90WRqEhfNS7se1GKunxDd6hpxV_M5OLg3i9D9SmjEeWM19Ew06W5_1hNVCDEVN5yk/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1453" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2Duw0KGoXV6i8OKhC10HP8WI1svwUVzkgqXHkS4U-pmeya5UX58Um_Yq896gAYxhMSpLyI4ZTE90WRqEhfNS7se1GKunxDd6hpxV_M5OLg3i9D9SmjEeWM19Ew06W5_1hNVCDEVN5yk/s320/2019-07-08_045754_X-MEN.02.01.jpg" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">2. How does it work and what it's like</h3><h4 style="text-align: left;">The project starts with a one-off issue that was all Byrne originally envisioned “Elsewhen” as being. The first thing that strikes the reader is that these pages feature completely finished pencils, which have yet to be cleaned up and inked. They still exhibit a high level of cratfmanship synonymus with the veteran creator, though. With Byrne's stated goal of not intending to have these issues inked and colored, it looks more like a work in progress than a standard webcomic. Yet each issue is broken down to feature both a title page, an early in the story double-pager, standard subplots and of course a cliffhanger, basically lacking only in inks and colors.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">As for the plot, it starts off as a Savage Land adventure starring the cast of the X-Men. For a fan of Byrne’s work, it even brings to mind his original run on "Next-Men" for Dark Horse that ended with his superhuman cast being stranded in prehistoric times. The X-Men themselves retain much of the character they had in Claremont and Byrne's run, with the instantly recognisible artwork exhibiting much of the Neil Adams like precision and impact that he is known for.</h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">Byrne evidently found working on all this exciting enough that he quickly restructured the oneshot to add further subplots which ended up propeling an extended run on the series. Thus, in the next issue the reader is treated to the start of the main plot that has the X-Men dealing with being attacked by Sebastian Shaw's Sentinels. Meanwhile, a Dark Phoenix-related subplot simmers in the background only to gain prominence later on. </h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">It goes without saying that these are comics for readers who are fans of Bronze Age X-Men and are intimately familiar with all of these characters as they were back in 1980. <b>It is particularly attuned to the fans of Byrne’s own mini Marvel canon, calling back to everything from his work on “Marvel Team-Up”’ to the previously mentioned “X-Men: Hidden Years”. </b></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b>Yet, despite the guest stars that grow in number issue by issue, at it’s core this is a classic X-Men story, dealing with these characters as if they were fresh off the “Dark Phoenix” storyline.</b></h4><div><b>In its best moments, the result is a cast that feels both classic and new at the same time, with characters unencumbered by years of continuity and diverging takes. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Seeing a slightly edgy Wolverine run through the forest in the latest issue, pondering what he feels for Jean Grey manages to remind us of a time when reading about Logan felt uncertain and he was not the veteran superhero that has been explored inside and out in decades since.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy5rawjhBV14O2c_AawykuXBOMhAdVfEOgUpOTf9Fdw2JwG41xzTSbIPB3GA80zhpGa-zUxT0Lkqj7GhkiVOfVbDX-eM8R7kV7Qa6JCPFsE9mmK_7wBzyQJEzRpbhMhU9SebjgY5JpR58/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy5rawjhBV14O2c_AawykuXBOMhAdVfEOgUpOTf9Fdw2JwG41xzTSbIPB3GA80zhpGa-zUxT0Lkqj7GhkiVOfVbDX-eM8R7kV7Qa6JCPFsE9mmK_7wBzyQJEzRpbhMhU9SebjgY5JpR58/s320/2020-05-13_063727_X-MEN.11.09.jpg" /></a></div>3. What will become of it?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>While the story has yet to conclude, it’s pretty clear what we are dealing with here. In contrast to Marvel’s X-Men currently undergoing their biggest and arguably most successful relaunch in twenty years, Byrne’s stories feel like a throwback to a different time. Yet, they are something that fans of the classic take on these characters have every reason to enjoy. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>If Chris Claremont was allowed to have an official continuation of his own trunctated run with “X-Men Forever”, there is no reason why Byrne’s “Elsewhen” should be relegated to the status of a fan fiction webcomic.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Hopefully at some point all these pages will be cleaned up, inked and colored and allowed to stand side by side with their 1980 forefathers. Perhaps not as equal, but at least as equaly valid as countless prestige format series published with these characters since. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Byrne himself deserves no less for his contribution to these characters’ enduring appeal, and there’s no reason to think that the fans enjoying the Jonathan Hickman’s current run wouldn’t be able to appreciate these old fashioned comics that still read as strong statements in the Bronze Age superhero idiom.</b></div>Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-32204910569198036252020-06-03T00:58:00.002-07:002020-06-03T00:58:53.422-07:00Top Cow Talent Hunt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96WiiSctMfnI1BZuE5aWZGjTHzxyt0L-k1A6cfGcKR5oQsNwKr7Z0jcbdfsSYFhCQAnH9ovS6pvKL8MbU2KhJvx7Yr9iEvKwLPZw55cxqKa7hilGQevm15e-Ej1ns8tvgYDLEW6MwwhA/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96WiiSctMfnI1BZuE5aWZGjTHzxyt0L-k1A6cfGcKR5oQsNwKr7Z0jcbdfsSYFhCQAnH9ovS6pvKL8MbU2KhJvx7Yr9iEvKwLPZw55cxqKa7hilGQevm15e-Ej1ns8tvgYDLEW6MwwhA/s320/70394800_10157902018982446_8244105435938816000_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Well, the 2019 Top Cow Talent Hunt has finally drawn to a close, with the winners notified. It brings a belated sense of closure, but for me the point of the contest was never in the winning. </div><div><br /></div><div>I don’t remember exactly how I heard about the contest in the first place, but it must be either through social media or the comic portals that have worked so closely with social media for the last several years. Anyway, by joining the contest Facebook group I started thinking of the story I could submit and kept mulling it over for quite a while. I was pretty sure I wanted to do a renaissance variant of the Darkness character, but with 20 pages available I was trying to make it concise and to the point.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately at 20 pages it also felt both too long and too short for my plan. Just like with a Millarworld talent hunt the year before I was on the verge of dropping the whole idea of submitting to a contest I had next to no chance of winning and only false hope to look forward to. It was at this point that I started following the Talent Hunt Facebook group more closely.</div><div><br /></div><div>Seeing the artists come up again and again for questions and clarifications got me to email a couple of them. One of them even asked me for an 8 page script that he could illustrate and that we would turn in as a joint submission. In a manner of minutes he realized that the rules didn’t allow joint writer/artist submissions, but my mind was already made up. I could write an 8 page story and try to pass it off to one of these guys to illustrate.</div><div><br /></div><div>I guess I was still hoping against hope to have it submitted, but I think that I was really looking for the chance to have my script illustrated. Anyway, I wrote my initial draft that night, which changed very little since. It was a complete eight page story for what it’s worth but I didn’t have an artist attached to it until a couple of months later when I finally broke down and commissioned one of the pencillers who submitted their work to the Talent Hunt Facebook group.</div><div><br /></div><div>Seeing Francesco’s work on my script, first in the thumbnail form and than in finished pencils was transforming. Commenting on the layouts, making further creative decisions and finally splitting the crowded last page in two felt very empowering. Finally, contracting his friend to letter the story and making small changes until it was all on the page brought it all home. It was my first completed comics story.</div><div><br /></div><div>Except that it wasn’t, with the rules of the contest clearly saying that the writer has to submit a 20 page written story and that the artist has to illustrate eight sequential pages from one of Top Cow’s existing scripts. Thus, I had a complete short story that didn’t fit the contest criteria and a writing submission that needed eleven more pages to be complete.</div><div><br /></div><div>Francesco suggested to me to complete the script and submit it along with our collaboration, so that was what I proceeded to do. The problem was obviously that the short story worked on its own, so I had to write a prologue that used a new cast of characters. Basically, I was creating another story preceding the one we already finished. It ended up amounting to a long action scene highlighting the villainy of the titular Darkness character that was further explored in the illustrated portion of the story.</div><div><br /></div><div>I went back and forth with it and having revised the ending of the illustrated portion of the story, I was managed to complete the script in time for the deadline. Due to the generosity of the editorial, I was allowed to link the completed comic with my script, which made me happy to know that what we worked to create would be considered.</div><div><br /></div><div>After waiting a couple of months that included a horrible pandemic, the contest results are in and that’s that. </div><div><br /></div><div>Except that once again, it isn’t, since I have not stopped writing and producing comicbooks. As I said in my last post, the Talent Hunt was a start to something much more important than my submission itself, as it made me finally dare to truly get behind the idea of creating my own stories and seeing them to completion. </div><div><br /></div><div>I’ll be tracking that progress on this blog and my Twitter account, so I hope you enjoy what follows.</div>Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-74996560097862049792020-06-02T13:08:00.000-07:002020-06-02T13:08:47.550-07:00The blog that would not quit!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As you can surmise from my previous post, I've reactivated the blog after two years. It seems a shame to let the one place that I used for my writing on comics languish at a time when I'm making a concentrated effort to actually produce some comics of my own. I'm not sure what shape this blog will take, as I will start using it to write about my own comics projects along with the reviews and commentary that used to be so prevalent here back in the day.<br />
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For now, I'd appreciate if you'd consider following me on Twitter, which I use for comics purposes only. My handle is @VanjaM19, and I'll be posting both the links to my reviews and news and previews of my own comics work, as well as hopefully fostering some dialogue, something that this platform has never really generated.<br />
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I'll be following this up with some comments about Top Cow Talent Hunt after they announce the winners tomorrow. In a way, my participation in the contest Facebook group brought all this along, but I'll be speaking about that at length tomorrow.<br />
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Thanks for reading, and hopefully you'll find the new blog entertaining. </div>
Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-44867784230210932672020-06-02T12:49:00.000-07:002020-06-02T12:53:15.248-07:00Star Wars #07-38 - the Marvel stories bridging the gap between the first two movies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Following the debut of the original "Star Wars" film, Marvel was in the well negotiated position when it comes to tie-in material. The comicbook adaptation of the movie was selling well in multiple formats, and the plans were made for Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin to continue working with the characters past the end of the movie. With Star Wars becoming a huge cinema success, the sequel was guaranteed, putting Marvel in an interesting position when it comes to their comics.<br />
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Without a clear idea of quite how George Lucas was going to proceed with the next movie, Marvel and Roy Thomas opted to focus on Han Solo and Chewbacca. The two "star-hoppers" (the term that was everywhere in these early issues) thus continue on to star in a modestly designed retelling of "Seven Samurai". As one of the earliest Star Wars stories, it's full of oddities like a Don Quixote Jedi knight wannabe and the infamous Jaxxon antropomorphic rabbit, but it's more interesting in what it sets up.</div>
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By the time the story ends, both Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin have finished with their commitment to Star Wars, and the new creative team get to follow-up on their subplots. Archie Goodwin writes and veteran Carmine Infantino chart the best selling title's course to another basically standalone space opera adventure, this time dealing with the film's whole principal cast. The story deals with two fractions warring on an ocean-based planet, and what it lacks in ambition it at least makes up in retaining the core of Star Wars.</div>
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The several oneshots that follow respectively tie up a Roy Thomas subplot, introduce an intriguing new character and finally feature the first traditional fill-in issue of the run, scripted by a young Chris Claremont. It's still early days for Archie Goodwin's Star Wars run, but glimmers of a broader shape can be gleaned while Carmine Infantino was using a break to focus on their ongoing story.</div>
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With the next extended storyline, it proves to be an extended arc featuring numerous complications set around Wheel, the space station casino. It also features the first major appearance of the movie antagonists (as seen on the cover, prophetically subtitled "Empire strikes"), teasing a Luke Skywalker/Darth Vader showdown. What the readers ultimately get is a multi-layered plot filled with intrigue, gladiatorial matches and close calls involving splitting the cast and reuniting them again, only to escape before getting too directly involved with their archenemy.</div>
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The conflict is personified by the Wheel's manager, a complex figure that fills the role of the villain, with a surprisingly well developed character arc that resolves on a very complete point. As the ex-senator enjoys his own semi antagonistic relationship with the Imperials, the role of a true antagonist is still to be filled in this group of issues.</div>
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Following another fill in issue, this one bizarrely featuring an Obi Wan Kenobi story set in the days of the Old Republic, Goodwin returns to continue his story. After their brush with the Imperials, and the first real glimpse of Darth Vader, the creative team readies an imperial fraction previously mentioned only in passing - the House of Tagge. The highly competitive family vying for the Emperor's affection ends up proving a major threat for Lucas' heroes in these stories.</div>
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Baron Orman Tagge is introduced as Darth Vader's rival, a goggles wearing nobleman brandishing his own lightsaber. The book cleverly ends up relegating the movie antagonist to a subplot that does not interfere with the already in production second movie. Vader's actions in these issues mostly stem from his trying to gauge the identity of the rebellion's Force sensitive addition, which end up introducing one of "Empire Strike Back"'s strongest thematic points, suggesting a close collaboration with Lucasfilm.</div>
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Yet, what is most interesting is how the creators deal with another part of Star Wars lore that figures in the eventual follow-up to the film's conclusion. Namely, a oneshot story calls back to the original movie, by featuring a Han Solo and Chewbacca adventure dealing with their debt to Jabba the Hutt. The character appears as depicted in the earliest Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin's issues, which featured a notably different design, based on a random Mos Eisley Cantina alien. More importantly, Goodwin and Infantino tie up the subplot involving Han's debt to Jabba, which reappears in the shooting script of the original "Star wars" movie. Thus a one-off issue relegated to being a foot-note in the larger Star Wars saga ended up creating a continuity problem, but more importantly provides an interesting look at the nature of the Marvel-Lucasfilm collaboration.</div>
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And while this string of issues introduces a solo Princess Leia story and a Chris Claremont written Annual with its own set of continuity questions, what is most interesting is the way Goodwin and Infantino proceed. The creators use the backdrop of the House of Tagge's blockade of the rebel base in the Yavin system to have Luke Skywalker return to his native Tattooine, years before the third film's iconic beginning.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8WejSo-RuBfyOqWHqSgIjDhQEHGf4PhQNku2BfeVE5eFVrIYN81HxnTUDmm0pDcu5ouniESpme13JGHuhHFLFKEfGgXAwxnv0ZKDv1EXWHSePO_RxdJub3pAApXgAwgAiE7utwpDBcVY/s1600/Mswc31cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="521" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8WejSo-RuBfyOqWHqSgIjDhQEHGf4PhQNku2BfeVE5eFVrIYN81HxnTUDmm0pDcu5ouniESpme13JGHuhHFLFKEfGgXAwxnv0ZKDv1EXWHSePO_RxdJub3pAApXgAwgAiE7utwpDBcVY/s320/Mswc31cover.jpg" width="208" /></a>The creators use the occasion to stage a small reunion with the characters eventually excised from the first movie's final cut, whose small roles could be first glimpsed in the movie's novelization. The main plot deals with another Baron Tagge contrivance, a new Empire weapon devised by his scientist brother and poised to provide the advantage in the fight against Rebels.</div>
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Compared to the striking decorum of Jabba's palace and its immediate surroundings in "The Return of the Jedi", this slight excursion feels once again like the creators returning to odd bits of the original film (much like the previously mentioned original Jabba scene), while still maintaining the through-line of Luke and his friends foiling the Tagge family Imperial plots. It culminates in the lightsaber clash with Baron Tagge, followed up a major Rebel attack at the Tagg family devised new Imperial weapon.</div>
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The final pre-"Empire Strikes Back" storyline eventually returns Vader to prominence, as he makes his play. The Dark Lord of the Sith utilizes the Tagge/Rebel conflict to further his own ends, by manipulating both sides into basically eliminating each other. The book also teases another clash with Luke Skywalker, with their lightsaber duel advertised on the final issue's cover. In a remarkable plot twist, Vader ends up fighting the duel by proxy using Baron Tagge in his place to gauge Luke's fighting prowess.</div>
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Having finally learned the identity of the Force sensitive Rebel fighter, Vader's decision to postpone the duel to effectively take place in "Empire Strike Back" may feel a bit anti-climatic, but the plot mechanics that enable it provide a miniature statement of intent. By having Tagge appear in the guise of Darth Vader to a helpless Luke, Marvel both reveals their intent regarding his status as a Vader replacement in these issues, as well as directly foreshadow the major clash with Vader featured in the then-forthcoming movie.</div>
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The second movie adaptation was delayed for an issue featuring a fill-in story pencilled by Michael Golden. Ironically, Luke and Leia's adventure in a parallel galaxy ends up sporting the strongest visual identity of Marvel Star Wars stories thus far.</div>
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What followed it was the "Empire Strikes Back" movie adaptation, featuring Al Williamson's gorgeous linework. Archie Goodwin writes using the movie's shooting script and the finished visuals as the guideline, much like Roy Thomas did before him. Following the adaptation, Goodwin has remained involved with the title mainly in the editorial capacity, his own pre-"Return of the Jedi" Star Wars stories relegated to a couple of issues preceding the next creative team. </div>
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They would have to grapple with bridging two Star Wars movies, in the face of both the readers and Marvel creators having a much firmer grasp on the particulars of Lucasfilm's cinematic vision with these characters and their universe. Yet, the stories featured in #7-38 remain charming in their own, slightly off-brand way, mapping an early Star Wars universe by trial and error that still provides aficionados with an interesting curio and a look back at the first days of what eventually became a huge franchise.</div>
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-60981029484160037622018-01-09T13:57:00.000-08:002018-01-09T13:59:25.724-08:00Best comics of 2017<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: large;">Best graphic novel</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I felt that “The Customer is Always Wrong” was the strongest piece of work published in 2017 that I read all year. The memorable and well cartooned coming of age story remained fast paced throughout and brought the narrative Mimi Pond started in “Over easy” to a sombre yet very definite end.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: large;">Best webcomic</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Until recently I was not aware of Derf hosting a new webcomic. Yet, after reading "Punk Rock & Trailer Parks" and finding it hilarious and page turning, the author's social media feed mentioned a website update. Thus, I was informed of the existence of "The Baron of Prospect avenue", a follow-up to Derf's earlier project. Sporting the same manic but kind-hearted protagonist, as of right now the webcomic's episodic structure manages to more than make up for the lack the narrative cohesion of the original. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Best manga</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness” was a suprise hit in many ways. The intimate story by a newcomer endeared many fans to her personal confession. Functioning almost like an illustrated essay, Kabi Nagata's story is both witty and heartfelt, making for a great read that exploits the mediums' potential to full extent.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Best mini-series</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The long-awaited second volume of Mark Millar and Frank Quitely's "Jupiter’s Legacy" was expected to be the final word on the ambitious project started by a pair of the superhero industry's top talents. The long gap in the publishing lead to a pair of spin-off series and further delays which saw the final issue come more than 4 years since the project was first announced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And while the story's compressed conclusion ultimately left some fans unfulfilled, with the promise of some kind of a third volume it may be that Millar and Quitely have yet to have a final word on their grand superhero epic.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Best ongoing series</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With both Marvel and DC's output increasingly failing to capture the fan's interest, and Image seemingly unable to pick up on the promise of it's supersteady 2012 and 2013, it was hard for me to really declare any of their monthly comic efforts as a favorite.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Eventually I settled on "Kill or be killed", as the series' twists and turns genuinely feel well crafted and unpredictable. Another high quality Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips collaboration, the ongoing seems poised not to outstay its welcome while maximizing the impact it makes along the way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With "Who'll stop the Reign", the latest Shaolin Cowboy story, Geoff Darrow seems to have really come into his own as a creator. His exquisite highly detailed art has finally been matched with a story so satirical that it has forced out the writer in him to try and bring out the most of the over the top social commentary running through these four issues. While still sporting it's fair share of bizarrely mismatched fights, Shaolin Cowboy seems more biting and relevant then ever, and will hopefully continue to be so for a long time to come.</span></div>
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-29450051047333364522017-12-30T02:33:00.001-08:002017-12-30T02:33:38.425-08:00Nina Bunjevac: Heartless<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJ7fZR4qNKzjBgCXmeo_4BRE2fokeUMBMIbzDrq8-OpFSxq2NR6EgOz4JEuEws6MKzU6hQGL_R9PF6XJNf8AagQmEReCC2oIicGAxXyVeRL0fB2IdXCTth31du7lMIPX0gbtZ4afm6ic/s1600/15902984.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJ7fZR4qNKzjBgCXmeo_4BRE2fokeUMBMIbzDrq8-OpFSxq2NR6EgOz4JEuEws6MKzU6hQGL_R9PF6XJNf8AagQmEReCC2oIicGAxXyVeRL0fB2IdXCTth31du7lMIPX0gbtZ4afm6ic/s400/15902984.jpg" /></a>Debutting in 2012, “Heartless” is a collection of short comics by Nina Bunjevac, a Serbian artist living in Canada. Working in stark black and white, her work veers from hyperrealism to a more caricatural look. The dialogue is minimal, with carefully worded captions blending seamlessly with the art, working primarily to capture a moment and a feeling, akin to illustrated poems.<br />
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The emotion on display is primarily longing, as Nina’s characters all seem to be in a state of quiet desperation. While hoping for a better tomorrow they reminisce at the oddities that brought them there. The opening story works as an over the top affair showing a young woman emigrating to Canada and trying to adapt to her new circumstances that on the surface seem bizarre but feel very real. It’s important to underscore the humor that permeates the telling, as it rounds out the way Bunjevac presents her subjects.</div>
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It’s especially noticable in the following vignettes which make the bulk of this collection, as they mostly feature an additional step toward cartoonishness. In creating Zorka, the cat on the verge of nervous breakdown constantly trying to raise her beau Chip the stripper on the phone, Bunjevac forms a loosely knit set of stories exploring the dynamic of a girl looking for sex and love. While approaching even such heavy subjects as abortion, the author explores the idea of a woman’s right to choose and the frolics that come with being single and trying to date in your twenties.</div>
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Leaving Zorka’s antics behind, Bunjevac follows with another well cartooned vignette, this time dealing with a couple that tries to improve on their home life in their separate ways. Again, Bunjevac goes for surrealism to underscore her female protagonist’s hopes and fears, and once more she manages a story that lands somewhere between humor and pathos. While at first glance it’s not apparent how to read the conclusion, that can’t be said for the final entry which succeeds it.</div>
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By illustrating the last letter her mother sent to her terrorist father, Bunjevac decides to complete the collection of her early work by dispensing with the fictional stand-ins and their frolics. While depicting actual events from her life, she finishes by tying her father’s radical actions to his homecountry’s conservative leanings at the beginning of the 21st century. In this way, the author introduces the themes she will go on to develop to great effect in her follow up “Fatherland”. Yet the short stories presented in “Heartless” persist in showing another side of the acclaimed graphic novellist, a softer and more melancholic outlook that gives us an intimate look how she developed as an artist and a person.</div>
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-57645911170893509122017-06-17T15:38:00.002-07:002017-06-17T16:06:54.827-07:00Discipline #1-6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Originally planned as a Vertigo title, the controversial "Discipline" pairs veteran writer Peter Milligan with the imprint's longtime artist and former collaborator Leandro Fernandez. With the series eventually seeing publication at Image, the whole production seems riskier than it would likely have been had the title saw print as initially announced.<br />
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At its heart, "Discipline" is an erotic thriller that bills itself as a supernatural coming of age story. It follows a young woman whose longings for escape from a passionless marriage make her a target for seduction by a sect of centuries-old sexual predators. Mellisa has little time to get used to the idea when the organization's natural enemies make her a target. </div>
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And while the basic setup seems immediately familiar, the character's coming to grips with the dangerous new world is genuinely gripping thanks to the creators' efforts. The lithe, whipsmart Mellisa could have easily come off as condescending considering her station in life, but by defining her by her limitations, Milligan and Fernandez turn her into a compelling protagonist. By not immediately losing sight of her life and family once she comes in contact with the mythology they have created, the creators make her all the more believable.</div>
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Indeed, despite featuring Mellisa in all sorts of undress, she loses none of her appeal, as her sexual awakening is part and parcel of the coming of age aspect that works in concert with the genre elements. Thus, working in reverse of a traditional superhero narrative, "Discipline" commits to both sides of the adult equation. Having the characters actually engage in sexual activity that is graphic but never gratuitous works to make the story live up to the billing of an erotic thriller. Sexuality in "Discipline" is intriguing and dangerous, but it's also at times humorous and ironic, with the creators' status as veterans in the field enabling them to imbue their story with the appropriate wit and sophistication. </div>
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Fernandez' fluid cartooning keeps up the pace throughout even when his designs for the supernatural aspects of the Discipline and their enemies might take some getting used to. The organization is sketched out in broad terms as a secret society that the creators can't help but tie to major historical figures. Thus, an extended flashback sequence set in ancient Rome features in the follow-up story featuring Mellisa going on her first solo mission in Eternal city. Unfortunately, having a break in publication with the artist continuing to work for the publisher on another title means that the readers have yet to see a definite announcement concerning the title's continuation.</div>
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On the strength of these initial six issues, it's clear that Image has grown past a superhero publisher to support a series that acts as a more mature take on "Witchblade". It's another matter entirely whether it will end up supporting "Discipline" until the title connects with it's intended audience. The extended delay may signal that the publisher is considering how to proceed with the property, and hopefully this won't be the last we see of the intriguing characters and set-up behind Peter Milligan and Leandro Fernandez' creation.</div>
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-67388902450819306452017-05-03T09:15:00.000-07:002017-05-03T09:15:05.037-07:00Loose Ends 1-4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This last Wednesday has seen the long-awaited final chapter of the "Loose ends" project, initially published to some acclaim in 2011. For the last several months, Image has reissued the Jason Latour/Chris Brunner collaboration, having finally completed the series in time for the July publication of the trade paperback collection.<br />
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At its heart, "Loose ends" is a strong early work in the neo-noir tradition, featuring a cast of broken people on all sides of a drug deal gone bad. The largely self-contained first issue introduces the sweaty, hungover people dreaming of a better life and finding only violence all around them.<br />
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As the series widens its scope, the debut issue's local thug gets replaced by his dead-ringer, a police officer helping his partner exploit the dual leads' drug connection. Of the two, the creators spend more time with Sonny, while his friend and fellow ex-soldier Rej serves more as the plot instigator.<br />
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Following the initial cliffhanger, Sonny is on the run with a girl from his past, which in Brunner's hands quickly devolves into a frantic drug binge amidst the hot neon colored Florida. Each subsequent issue sports character defining monochromatic flashbacks, with colorist Renzi completing the aesthetic. Despite its focus on the characters, the well paced series quickly builds to its action filled conclusion, where the principal cast has one final chance to escape their past and the predators looking to feed upon them.<br />
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By publishing the years in the making final issue, the creators have ensured that the audience gets a chance to enjoy the full scope of their deeply personal collaboration. Latour has already proven himself a solid mainstream comics addition as both a writer and artist, but hopefully the collected edition of "Loose ends" will lead to more comic assignments for Brunner, a natural storyteller who definitely has a place in the industry.</div>
Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-38712598739838586292017-04-30T01:21:00.000-07:002017-04-30T01:54:17.048-07:00Mayday 1-5<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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On May 24th, Image is issuing the collection of "Mayday", the just concluded Alex de Campi and Tony Parker mini-series, featuring a pair of Russian spies on the run in 1971 America. Labelled as a Codename Felix adventure, the book is slated to be the opening storyline in a series featuring the Cold War adventures with a realistic bent.<br />
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The veteran writer has made a name for herself in the industry with the spy-inspired "Smoke", and "Mayday" certainly starts off with an intelligence agency briefing before it veers off into the strange and poignant. By the end of the first issue, the protagonists' extraction mission has been firmly charted through America's counter culture underbelly, with the creators making it clear that both will stay on as a part of the story. Thus, the numerous office-based scenes don't serve only as framing devices, but the agency infighting actively acts to heighten the drama. </div>
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Thanks to Parker's contribution, these dialogue intense sequences flow well and feature distinctive character designs. The artist of "This damned band" is certainly at home when the story switches to the wild world of sweaty, Vietnam era America. Only in "Mayday", the sex and drugs and rock'n'roll gets seen from the eyes of the outsiders and punctured with horrible violence, showcasing his clean and dynamic work.</div>
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The 45 year distance allows the creators to present the Russian spies in a more balanced way, with danger coming to them from both sides. The writer is clever to portray them as victims but never shies away from the hurt they inflict back on their new surroundings. Of the two, Felix is decidedly the more active participant, with this initial series serving to set the stage for his further Cold War adventures. On the strength of "Mayday", the readers can only hope that de Campi and Parker will continue on as a team long enough to tell them.<br />
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-91165910430481520312017-04-23T05:17:00.000-07:002017-04-23T05:36:52.847-07:00Ultimate Comics: Thor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"Ultimate Comics: Thor" marked writer Jonathan Hickman's first foray into Marvel's once relevant Ultimate imprint. It lead to his taking over the core "Ultimates" title and giving him a chance to be one of the last authors that truly defined the since cancelled line of comics.<br />
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Pairing Hickman with a veteran superhero artist like Carlos Pacheco, the company seemed adamant that he starts working off Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's template. Only a year before, the penciller collaborated with Millar himself on a spin-off Ultimates mini-series that ended up as some of the writer's last work for the company. On "Ultimate Comics: Thor", Pacheco manages to work in Hitch's vein, which helps when the story constantly calls back to the celebrated artist's genre defining run. </div>
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Without being able to actually relaunch Thor in his image, the writer is thus poised to fit his story around previous continuity, resulting in a splintered timeline that gives rise to only slight innovation. The Asgard flashbacks are perhaps most noteworthy, setting up this creative team's version of the Warrior's Three. The origin story eventually ties in to the World War Two scenes featuring Baron Zemo, with the present day sequences serving as framework.</div>
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Throughout, Pacheco's clean layouts and solid figurework help maintain the brisk pace and create strong fight sequences featuring the Frost Giants. These keep the mini-series on level with some of the imprint's more workmanlike entries, but the hurried last act prevents it from being more than a prequel to the original "Ultimates" run. By relegating the present day showdown with Loki to the previous series, "Ultimate Comics: Thor" gains a barrage of scenes featuring Nick Fury and eventually the Hulk, which genuinely rob this story of its real conclusion. Eventually, both Hickman and Pacheco end up restaging Millar and Hitch's sequences with added context, which speaks a lot to the publisher's lack of confidence in their own creative abilities. </div>
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On the back of this story, the writer has gone on to have his own critically acclaimed run on "The Ultimates", but unfortunately it wasn't popular enough to save the imprint from swift cancellation. Still, it paved the way for his work on Marvel's mainstream "Avengers" titles, with Hickman eventually helping the publisher relaunch their entire superhero line, where Pacheco has remained a valuable asset.</div>
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-58950332111806159782017-04-15T14:17:00.000-07:002017-04-15T14:17:08.872-07:00Catwoman: When in Rome 1-6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In 2004, DC published "Catwoman: When in Rome", acting as a spin-off of the Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's popular "Batman: Dark victory" storyline. Released following the duo's stint on Marvel's prestige books, the mini-series acknowledges the tie-in, but exists largely to tell it's own story.<br />
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Ostensibly, the series elaborates the character's origins, but by the time of it's publication the company had already went ahead with a different version of the character. Taken as a collaboration of the two talents well suited to telling the stories together, "When in Rome" turns into a treatise on the character's appeal.<br />
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Characterized as a sexy thriller with a healthy dose of humor, the series truly reads like an artifact from a different era. The heroine looks and acts like a sex bomb, her "costume" merely a couple of curios added to her skintight leotard. That is not to say that Catwoman doesn't spent a large part of the story wearing even less, but she takes it all in stride.<br />
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The plot concerns Selina arriving in Italy with a purpose that reveals itself only later on, after she has already become complicit in affairs of a criminal don she'd never heard about before. The tone and atmosphere are seductive enough that the reader doesn't really question the many twists and turns rocking the story to and fro from the Batman universe, confident that it will all make some kind of sense in the end. Loeb is of course pedantic enough to ultimately clear up any confusion, but it's Sale's work that leaves the lasting impression.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzkySIQNbRZaglo0gprvmO0jN-Jrf0SJBZSedyRV2Q4GAdLdouahAtY8haztxwi8LtjVEtCCgm5p1Vi7vI7XYlurkiwQFyRY4D7-wpZZfKgWGgVxd77iAjFem14jEwNzLiP_fkE6C2RA/s1600/Catwoman-05-005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzkySIQNbRZaglo0gprvmO0jN-Jrf0SJBZSedyRV2Q4GAdLdouahAtY8haztxwi8LtjVEtCCgm5p1Vi7vI7XYlurkiwQFyRY4D7-wpZZfKgWGgVxd77iAjFem14jEwNzLiP_fkE6C2RA/s320/Catwoman-05-005.jpg" width="206" /></a>The whole presentation strikes the reader as very visual and gorgeous to experience, with beautiful ink washes by Dave Stewart making for a spin-off that has all the hallmarks of a major publishing project. Putting Catwoman in an idealized Italian setting, the artist pairs her with contrasting figures of a love interest and a comedic foil. It is the original character that proves the more memorable, as the Riddler's role in the story ultimately feels as shoehorned as most of the other plot elements pertaining to the story's status as a Batman spin-off.<br />
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What attracts about "When in Rome" is precisely the chance of watching two acclaimed creators enjoying themselves. Reading this well paced, politically incorrect story it's clear that the duo are having fun which has the effect of charming the reader into accepting both the goofy and the intriguing bits.<br />
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It might be a footnote in the duo's opus, but Loeb and Sale's work here should absolutely be taken into consideration by a reader looking for a lighthearted DC story with high production values.</div>
Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-58604454902357120762016-12-28T10:23:00.000-08:002016-12-29T15:58:27.474-08:00Best comics of 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Another rare update that proves that I have not given up on the blog and comics themselves, despite the lack of activity here. I have changed some of the categories to better express the things in comics that I actually enjoyed reading this year. The entries are provided with general commentary regarding the makeup of the specific parts of the industry they are born of.<br />
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<b>Best Writer - Nick Spencer</b><br />
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The year started by my getting better acquainted with Nick Spencer's work, which I rediscovered spurred by Marvel's promotion around his stint on "Captain America". The lackluster "Standoff" event notwithstanding, his stylish and meticulous work has finally managed to marry the potential shown in "The Superior Foes of Spider-Man" with some of the company's longest running characters resulting in controversial stories read by the largest audience he has enjoyed to date.</div>
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Despite his "Ant Man" run fizzling out before reaching its full potential, the maniacal glee of his early work can still be encountered unfiltered in "The Fix", an even more organic follow up to his and Steve Lieber's celebrated collaboration.</div>
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<b>Best Artist - John Romita Jr.</b></div>
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With the bulk of the promotion of DC's newest makeover going to other titles, the "All Star Batman" book has still managed to carve a large place for itself. Primarily designed to feature the former hit "Batman" scribe Scott Snyder's exploration of the Dark Knight's villains, the comic has debuted as a fun high octane book that balances the gritty themes with colorful action.</div>
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The primary reason for the title's warm welcome has had to do with the strong storytelling brought on by penciler John Romita jr. The veteran artist approached the title with a highly accomplished sense of craftsmanship, honed by decades working on Marvel's top superheroes. In doing so, he has managed to temper some of the writer's overpowering literary tendencies into a very visual story that keeps the reader on the lookout for the next well realized action set piece.<br />
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<b>Best Ongoing Title - Injection</b><br />
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When it comes to highly publicized Image titles, Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey's "Injection" is the first one that comes to mind that hasn't been hurt either by delays or the general lack of direction that has plagued much of their line. The writer's other ongoing series "Trees" has been the victim of many of the problems suffered by the publisher's hit titles after their initial wave of excitement had worn off.<br />
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Having completed its second storyline, "Injection" remains every bit as sharp and enigmatic. Wisely choosing to focus on a single member of the scientific team that introduced the titular Injection to the larger world, the writer brandishes his modern day Sherlock Holmes with his typical kinky flourishes. Shalvey on the other hand continues to live up to his reputation as a powerhouse new creator, with a sharp line that is both expressive and wonderfully conductive to partner Jordan Bellaire's wonderful coloring.<br />
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Hopefully, the series will continue with a strong sense of its own identity, providing both creators the chance to play in their world while finding interesting ways to bring the innovative science fictional concepts to their eager audience.<br />
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<b>Best Mini-Series - Vision</b><br />
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Initially designed as an ongoing series, "Vision" was forced to confirm to the maxi-series model once it's star writer had signed an exclusive agreement with DC comics. Still, it can be said that this approach forced the story Tom King was telling with Gabriel Hernandez Walta into a more compact yet still powerful parable.<br />
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The genre of robot science fiction still remains popular thanks to "Westworld" tv-series and the upcoming "Blade Runner" sequel, but where this series differed was in the way it managed to blend the idiosyncrasies of "American Beauty" with a story of a Marvel mainstay that has long since lost his appeal as an edgy new superhero character.<br />
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Introduced as a tragedy with a wide scope of destruction in Washington DC, the eventual series has notably endured a somewhat paired down conclusion, that has still managed to bring its plot to a memorable close. Marvel would do well not to shy away from commissioning critically acclaimed work along these lines, titles that will stand the test of time and live on past the continual renumberings and shifts in the house style.<br />
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<b>Best Collected Edition - Last Look</b><br />
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Having encountered only the first part of Charles Burns' latest trilogy when it was released, I have delayed returning to it well past the the series conclusion. With the publicized debut of the long awaited collected edition, I have finally returned to the accomplished storyteller's latest opus and given it another try.<br />
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Read as a three-part story, "Last Look" functions on multiple levels along the lines of a David Lynch movie, with a surreal parallel running next to the relatively mundane plot involving a teenage romance gone wrong. Some of the phantasmagorical images fuel the the nightmarish feeling of love lost, but most of the time the book works just as well when it deals directly with the wasted potential of it's protagonist.<br />
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Burns' full color work in "Last Look", styled in homage to an Herge album works in an experimental way that shows the complex makeup of his character's tortured psyche. By utilizing all of his talent to bend the form to suit his story, the veteran writer/artist proves still capable of producing work of the highest caliber.<br />
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<b>Best Reprint - Blue Monday</b><br />
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When Image decided to reissue Chynna Clugston Flores's signature series, an interview with the writer/artist lead me to try some of her most famous work produced at various times during the last 10-15 years. Debuting as an Oni series predating "Scott Pilgrim", "Blue Monday" has unfortunately since been largely overshadowed by Bryan Lee O'Malley's popular series covering some of the similar thematic ground.<br />
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Yet, despite Flores' series starting out as a largely manga-inspired work, it slowly morphs into a look that shares almost as much with the "Archie" titles. Covering a similar high school themed territory, her stories start as very dense with a manic fanzine-like energy, which gradually becoming better paced.<br />
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Gone is the all too familiar angst typical of the self-published autobiographical titles. In the writer/artist's telling, these are young people who despite their dramatic bursts still like one another and interact as a true group of peers.<br />
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With the long teased follow-up to these initial stories officially scheduled to debut the next year, the readers will finally be able to see what these characters have been up to as well as how their creator sees them from a viewpoint a decade removed from her initial start in the industry.</div>
Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-69052992168710603732016-08-29T14:42:00.000-07:002016-08-29T14:42:35.819-07:00Huck 1-6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Announced as another in a row of Mark ("Kick-Ass") Millar's movie ready mini-series, "Huck" was marketed as a humane, lighthearted reintepretation of the Superman archetype. Teamed up with Rafael ("American vampire") Albuquerque, the writer was poised to recast the character's origin in a modern day story taking equal inspiration from Jerry Siegel and "Forrest Gump".<br />
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The result is a nicely paced, assured work of slight ambition, working in broad strokes that ultimately ends up updating even some of the jingoistic detritus carried over from the Silver Age.<br />
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In Albuquerque's angular style, Huck himself is presented more as an overgrown child than a mildly retarded young man with a heart of gold. His desire to do good forges close ties between the giant and his small and accepting community, draped in homely blues and browns. The story starts when the nostalgic town gets threatened by the outside forces and the secret of it's superhuman benefactor's existence becomes known worldwide.<br />
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The higher profile brings Huck into direct contact with the rest of the planet, as well as the people that know a lot more about his origins. The character's innate goodness and naivety are never brought into question or challenged, as the story refocuses on people trying to manipulate him for their own ends.<br />
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The drama ultimately boilds down to a pulp plot involving inhumane experiments in a secret Russian military base. As presented, the science city is an inverse of Huck's hometown, drawing directly from the Cold War paranoia, complete with the one-dimensional scientist who could not look more evil if he tried.<br />
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The creators' heavy handed approach is foreshadowed in an early sequence where Huck quickly deals away with a terrorist threat. Yet in this day and age, such portrayals can only be seen as offending.<br />
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"Forrest Gump" showed a much more nuanced and humane vision of the Vietnam conflict, and what Millar and Albuqerque present here can only be seen as reductive. Devolving serious political issues to a black and white presentation was a staple of Silver Age comicbooks, but even these were eventually called into question and largely dismissed as cheap propaganda.<br />
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Contrasting the altruistic strongman with the morally bankrupt evil genius ultimately resolves into a feel good ending that reinforces traditional American values and brings the story full circle. As told by two veteran comicmakers, the story is well told, if unmemorable. In many ways, it brings to mind "Red Son", the writer's official Superman story. The acclaimed mini-series was both more ambitious and presented a much more balanced view of the Soviet Union.<br />
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Where his early work cemented his reputation as a creator to watch, his newest effort will hardly do much to challenge his current role as the ideas man that Hollywood listens to. "Huck" succeeds in what little it tries to accomplish, but while attempting to create emotional resonance it drags the reader into a retro fantasy that can only be considered as problematic in the complex world we love in today.</div>
Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-29476896949459182452016-03-14T12:41:00.000-07:002016-12-28T10:27:52.583-08:00Best comics in 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The last year I spent largely away from the blog and the wider blogosphere, mostly concentrated on reading the actual comics and news sites. In an effort to maintain the blog, I've returned with a review and this yearly survey. Hopefully, the site will continue with more regular updates.<br />
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<b style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Best Event Series</b><br />
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In a feat that surprised all but the biggest fans of Marvel and Jonathan Hickman, the company's 2015 line wide event has managed to live up to the hype. "Secret Wars" supplanted most of the company's titles for the duration of the summer and has in turn managed to produce some fairly interesting books. More importantly, the main series has provided a very strong spine to the entire event. Serving as a coda to the writer's runs on both "Fantastic Four" and "the Avengers", the event series has maintained a strong level of craft throughout. With the exception of the first issue that should have been relegated to a prologue special, both Hickman and Ribić have provided what may well be the best superhero work of their careers. "Secret Wars" will likely remain an event to be remembered far longer than Marvel's typical summer offering and certainly longer than the company wide relaunch that succeeded it.<br />
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<b style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Best Storyline</b><br />
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It's hard to set aside a single storyline in an industry that is slowly orienting toward complete runs as definite artistic statements on company owned characters. In terms of storylines definitely marketed as something new and largely separate from the preceding issues, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's latest Batman arc comes to mind. "Superheavy" features a complete overhaul of the Batman mythos in an as of yet unprecedented move that has seen commissioner Gordon become a mecha Batman following Bruce Wayne's apparent death in the previous arc.<br />
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The ludicrous premise strayed far from the typical Batman storyline, being on the surface more akin to "Robocop" than the Bob Kane/Bill Finger co-creation. Inheriting more than just the Powers corporation from the cyberpunk "Batman Beyond" animated series, "Superheavy" has seen Gordon trying to rise up to the pressure of being a police sanctioned Batman in the city that faces new and terrible threats. That the new crime boss specifically targets Gordon and starts becoming a uniquely weird new creation only adds to the uniqueness of the setup. Also of note is the subplot involving a version of Bruce Wayne which has been increasingly relevant as the story inches towards the inevitable ending.<br />
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The end of "Superheavy" is also billed as the finale of Snyder and Cappulo's run on "Batman". Whether the two reunite on "Detective comics" following Capullo's collaboration with Mark Millar, "Superheavy" will likely remain a definite highpoint of their run of the title, following the "Court of owls" arc which stands as their best realized traditional Batman story.<br />
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<b style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Best Ongoing Title</b><br />
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In a market dominated by a large number of solid ongoing series, 2015 was a year preceding the full scope of the relaunches at both Marvel and DC, with the competing companies likewise more concentrated on branching out with new titles than maintaining the solid pace of existing books. Yet, there are still titles like "the Humans" which has started out with a very clear idea that has logically progressed in the most interesting direction.<br />
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Written by Keenan Marshall Keller and drawn by Tom Neely, best known for "Henry and Glenn Forever", "the Humans" is a comic that finds its creators eager to enjoy the atmosphere of true freedom filled with a dangerous mix of sex and death.<br />
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Presenting the reader with a motorcycle gang of anthropomorphized apes in a full on late 60-ies period piece certainly seems fresh and entertaining. The counter culture bent is never as realized as in "Easy rider", the controversy is never as pointed as authentic undergrounds, yet this Image entry really believes in its version of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll ape gangs warring with each other.<br />
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In a field riddled with high concepts trying their best to capture the attention of readers jaded by a deluge of all kinds of genre fiction, a book with a simple premise and believable characters who manage to be both silly and dangerous feels like a breath of fresh air and certainly ranks with the most solid titles every time it comes out. Hopefully, the creators will find it in their interest to continue working on a series that has yet to find its audience.<br />
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<b style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Best Mini-Series</b><br />
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When Ed Brubaker and his longtime creative partner Sean Philips were winding down their post-modern noir "Fatale" series, Image issued an announcement heralding their next project. The writer and artist were to be reunited in "the Fade out", a more traditional noir story set in the seedy post-war Hollywood scene.<br />
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Featuring a hard drinking writer harboring a secret involving a blacklisted colleague, the series started with the murder of an actress and grew to become a cynical look at the studio system. "The Fade out" draws most of its energy from its protagonist's status as an amateur detective driven to find redemption by solving the mystery.<br />
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Foregoing the over the top genre tropes associated with this kind of a detective story, the book maintains an air of style and intelligence, while never letting up the pace. A stellar effort in the duo's distinguished latter day collaborations, "the Fade out" is a triumph of first person narration and well realized modernist comic book storytelling.<br />
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<b style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Best Single Issue</b><br />
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It's safe to say that "Airboy" was certainly not a book that many fans expected to read once they heard of James Robinson's involvement. A longtime comic scribe best remembered for his "Starman" run, he has since been associated with a string of books that failed to equal the acclaim garnered by his most famous series.<br />
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Image marketed "Airboy" as a surreal comedy in the vein of "Fear and loathing in Las Vegas". Once "Airboy"#1 finally debuted, it immediately put a stop to any claim about false advertising.<br />
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In many ways, the series was a spiritual successor to "Auteur", in that it involved a frantic look into the creative process. Robinson and Hinkle's story went one step further, by presenting their work as autobiography, as it in some way featured a warped look at the writer's "lost weekend". Greg Hinkle, a relative newcomer to the field had provided a tour de force artistic presentation aimed at maximizing the comedic impact in a way that was both fresh and stylish.<br />
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And while the subsequent issues drew ire from the controversy surrounding transsexual representation, their one major flaw was the failure to continue the superb form witnessed in the debut. Seeing the fictionalized versions of Robinson and Hinkle trying to revive the Golden Age hero but getting sidetracked in a self-loathing drug bender ending with a delightful cliffhanger remains a as good a #1 as James Robinson has had in many years. With "Airboy", the venerable writer has earned a new set of eyes regarding his next creative endeavor, while providing the newcomer Hinkle with a high profile debut for his impressive artistic skill.<br />
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<b style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Best Graphic Novel</b><br />
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Working on the heels of "An age of license", Lucy Knisley has returned with an even more focused travelogue. This time, her efforts go to depict an ocean cruise she took with her elderly grandparents. Dispensing with the diary aesthetic that characterized her previous effort, "Displacement" is divided in chapters summarizing each day on the cruise ship, filled with equal times drama and comedy.<br />
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The graphic novel is a challenging read as its real world inspiration leads to a neurotic dash across the details that make for a very memorable vacation. Eventually, the well cartooned pages of "Displacement" build up to a very strong ending that stays with the reader.<br />
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The book's greatest quality is that it goes beyond the particulars of the writer/artist's relationship with her grandparents and becomes an artistic look at the process of aging, and the love tying the generations together.<br />
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<b style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Best Writer</b><br />
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Working in the capacity of a co-writer on "Grayson", Tom King has enjoyed high acclaim which he has aspired to build upon by lending his talents on books at both DC and Marvel. And while "Omega Men" has met with lukewarm sales despite the creative acclaim it accumulated, "the Vision" has grown to symbolize the company's current benchmark for quality storytelling.<br />
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The key to King's success lies in his ability to execute ambitious and fresh takes on some of the companies' most well worn characters. Recasting the original Robin as the superspy with conscience has finally enabled the character to grow from his role of the well adjusted junior Batman. The character's stealth takeover of the Batman line as symbolized by his central role in the "Batman and Robin Eternal" weekly series cements the popularity of King's makeover.<br />
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On the other hand, "Vision" serves as a finite story with a narration that is both grim and playful. Coupled with Gabriel Hernandez Walta, the writer has set out to tell a morbidly curious tale about the drastic fallout of the robot superhero's decision to start a family. As stylish as it's pretentious, the title has set out to complete its story without the crossover interruptions that have took so much away from the artist's previous run on "Magneto".<br />
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It remains to be seen how the industry's focus on King will impact on his work, but judging by the acclaim his first entries in the market have garnered him, the former CIA operative can look forward to a very successful second career as comic book writer.<br />
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<b style="background-color: #e0e0e0; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Best Artist</b><br />
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Oliver Schrauwen was brought forward from relative obscurity thanks to his late 2014 graphic novel debut. Ostensibly adapting his grandfather's colonial adventures, the writer/artist uses the canvas of a lengthy biography as a showcase for his command of comics as a visual language. Working in faux-travelogue mode, "Arsene Schrauwen" allows the author complete control of the narrative, revealing him as a master of the form.<br />
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A formalist masterpiece posing as a narrative, Schrauwen's graphic novel delights in challenging and infuriating the readers. Ostensibly a love story and a jungle survival pulp, "Arsene Schrauwen" is delightfully sincere in staying true to itself and its author.<br />
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The fact that the writer/artist has decided to stay in comics despite the meager financial rewards associated with experimental books, and has gone on to publish a new comic in 2015 speaks to the fact that he truly enjoys working in the medium.</div>
Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-2381952319110648102016-03-14T08:35:00.001-07:002016-03-14T08:35:32.238-07:00Project Superpowers: Blackcross #1-6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Long hailed as a genre innovator, Warren Ellis has recently been chosen to spearhead another superhero universe relaunch, this time concerning Dynamite's "Project Superpowers". The Golden Age characters, long since in public domain, have already enjoyed a revival, having been chosen by Diamond for a more conventional return in the previous decade. "Blackcross" comes on the heels of the writer's rejiggering of the "Supreme" mythos and in many ways acts as a companion piece to this earlier effort.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Finding a way to recast an odd assortment of characters in a setting that is decidedly not a major metropolitan city once again leads to a small-town mystery concerning ordinary citizens coming into contact with existing superhero lore. Their subsequent transformation is threatened by a serial killer trying to dispose of the group before they form a rag tag superhero unit.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Tasked with bringing Ellis' scripts to life is Colton Worley, a Dynamite mainstay that has yet to make a name for himself in the broader superhero industry. The relative novice has been fitted with the unenviable task of redesigning the characters placed in a gloomy forest setting, as well as animating a decompressed script that asks a lot of its artist.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Foregoing the captions, Ellis has crafted a fast paced story with frequent wordless action scenes followed by long conversations featuring the bedazzled characters trying to come to grips with a mystery involving a parallel universe and a hidden superhero community. Coupled with colorist Morgan Hickman's earthy crayon colors, the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">artist mostly succeeds in arriving at a view of Blackcross as a dark and hostile place, brimming with secrets and deep seated aggression. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">His work is raw and powerful, presenting an atmospheric tone that sometimes comes at the cost of clarity. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">The art certainly fits the story, whose ever expanding cast could have threatened to overwhelm the plot. Ellis wisely presupposes that the reader is unaware about much of anything regarding these old superheroes, past maybe the nicknames and assorted visuals.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Instead, he focuses on bringing their weird characteristics to the fore, crafting a horror story more in the vein of Alan Moore's "Swamp Thing" than "The Avengers". </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">The mystery regarding the transference of superhero personas past the boundaries of space and time is quickly subsumed within the conflict involving the superhero serial killer. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">In this way, the startled characters are dragged, snarking and bickering, into the fight with the antagonist before really getting to known each other. Their impromptu team-up presents a desperate skirmish where the cast gets to demonstrate the powers hinted at throughout the story.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">The focus stays stays firm throughout</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">, with Black Terror and Lady Satana providing a strong core for the series. It's hard to say that the other characters leave much of an impression, having </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">largely</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">been represented by their special abilities. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Even then, they are designed realistically with only the barest hint of their original costumes.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">If the company chooses to use the mini-series as a new start of their Project Superpowers universe, the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">hypothetical individual titles</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> will still be tasked with having to provide </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">character development and major </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">world-building. Taken on its own, "Blackcross" is a professional work that tries to provide a compelling origin story for the disparate Golden Age superheroes that have yet to endure a complete overhaul which would enable them to be presentable for a potential TV series adaptation.</span></div>
Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-55138827297339459612015-04-13T07:14:00.000-07:002015-04-13T07:15:10.701-07:00Batgirl #35-40 "The Batgirl of Burnside"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Last month saw the completion of the first storyarc of the "Batgirl" revamp, which has since been lauded as both a commercial and critical success. The revamp has attracted significant attention from the debut of the character's costume redesign and was eagerly anticipated by an audience looking for something new in DC's output. The publisher has repeatedly faced criticism for failing to bring enough innovation in its line wide 2011 makeover. When contacted to follow up Gail Simone's "Batgirl" run, the new creative team was finally given a chance to do just that, create a modern superhero title that tried to reach out to current urban audience, consisting mainly of younger people.<br />
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By specifically targeting teenage girls, the publisher has seemingly given an unprecedented amount of freedom to artist Cameron Stewart and writer Branden Fletcher. And while Stewart's other commitments relegated him to a role of breakdown penciller and co-writer, they also allowed Babs Tarr to add her own touch on the pencils. The colorist Maris Wick's completes the creative team that has cemented the image of Batgirl for a new generation of fans.</div>
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The first issue starts slowly, asking the reader to trust the creative team as it exposes them to a new cast of characters and a change in the setting. Batgirl has moved to Burnside, a Gotham suburbia that for all intents and purposes functions as an extension to a college campus. Thus, most of the characters that populate the book tend to be young, trendy people, obsessing over self image and social media. This perfectly compliments the creative team's vision of Barbara Gordon as an overachieving post graduate that is trying to find a new place in the world for herself and her crime-fighting alter ego.</div>
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The creative team's debut calls back to the character's superhero past but in a way that provides a clear break from who she was. The in-story explanation goes on to add her longtime ally Black Canary to the supporting cast and introduces the conflict between the two that they try to resolve over these six issues. It naturally deals with the changes Barbara has been going through and the new ways she uses to battle the fashion conscious, off the moment threats that begin plaguing the lives of herself and her new circle of friends.</div>
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These pages show that everyone in Burnside is taken with the Internet culture and are thus easily manipulated by dating websites, tech savvy multimedia artists and reality TV stars, which are certainly a far cry from the serial killers and Batman rogues that the character has been dealing with in the past. Nevertheless, the creative team is careful to maintain a through-line between the episodic stories, dealing with a genuine threat behind the seemingly unconnected attacks at Burnside. It strikes right at the heart of Batgirl and once again calls into question her new way of life.</div>
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Every chapter of the wider story is similarly paced, starting dense with a wide variety of characters all feeding into the eventual conflict that resolves in well staged fights and ending on a cliffhanger that maintains the reader's interest in this new creative direction. There is a variety of well dressed, wispy new characters, but Stewart and Fletcher wisely choose to spotlight the few key people in Barbara's life, while purposefully leaving out return appearances from her father and Batman.</div>
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Both are repeatedly referenced, but it seems that the creative team has deemed their presence as something that would only distract from the story they were telling. It was imperative to make sure that the new tone of the book had more to do with "Scott Pilgrim" than Scott Snyder's "Batman" and in this respect, the book completely succeeds. Yet, the Bryan Lee O'Malley's young adult sensation already feels outdated when compared to the lifestyle trends depicted on these pages.</div>
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There's no doubt that "Batgirl"'s modern hipsters will feel dated in a decade or two, but as of now, they are presented in such a way that the new, and more importantly, teen audience can sympathize with them. Thereby, it makes sense that the larger threat uniting the individual enemies would come from the character's past. The creative team themselves seem to be confronting their own vision of Batgirl with the conservative past of the well trod Batman spin-off story model.</div>
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On one side, there is Black Canary questioning Barbara's every move and criticizing her media friendly new role as the Burnside's protector. Dinah is presented as a slightly older version of the female superhero that nevertheless ultimately embraces a new role for herself. What's preventing Batgirl from doing the same is Burnside itself, which continually reshapes to fit the latest social trends, the locale's relationship to its new suburban protector as fickle as the latest Internet sensation and easily manipulated by the unseen mastermind.</div>
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That the protagonist nevertheless manages to triumph and in every way that counts leaves her past behind is inspiring in all the right ways. Despite the hardships, Barbara Gordon still manages to establish new friendships, starts her academic career and finds herself entering a romantic relationship. None of these start off perfectly for the slim, long-haired heroine, and at one point near the end she seems like she will break from the outside pressure, but with the help of her friends, she find a new strength in herself to overcome the adversities and continues on with her life, stronger for the experience.</div>
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It's strange that such a female positive, life affirming story with a diverse cast was at one point painted as ignorant to the issues dealing with the transgender experience. The creative team had clearly contrasted the problematic depiction of a villain with a positive image of a well adapted cast member carried over from Simone's run, but it was apparently deemed too subtle by some of the more sensitive audience members.</div>
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Despite the controversy, the revamp can be deemed a success in every aspect, and has already lead to the establishment of the Black Canary spinoff. In fact, it will debut as part of the company's line wide makeover, inspired chiefly by "Batgirl"'s success. It has been announced that the series will continue with Babs Tarr providing full art, sans Cameron Stewart's breakdowns and there is every reason to think that it will grow even stronger. Now that the title has successfully established itself as an entity distinct from its dark roots, and has in fact crafted the narrative around the protagonist embracing her newfound freedom, the creative team should be set to likewise continue forward with their storyline. Their audience will only grow as books like "Batgirl" and "Ms Marvel" stop being exceptions and the industry starts providing entertainment for fans of all backgrounds, having finally found a way to market beyond their existing demographic.</div>
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Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-44017473041797916642015-03-07T18:02:00.000-08:002015-03-07T18:02:49.529-08:00Best of comics in 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Due to some other commitments, I have been unable to properly focus on the blog for the past two years. Hence the lack of posting, which also lead to me skipping this feature last year. I have tried to keep up with the reading which shapes the following, using the categories for my previous list.<br />
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<b>Best Event Series</b><br />
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With both Secret Wars and Converge looming over their respective superhero universes, their 2014 event series already feel distant and fading into insignificance. This is particularly true when it comes to Marvel, who have managed to produce back to back two large event stories, the latter of which has by all means under-performed. Yet, despite its many faults, "Original Sin" felt like the better structured of the two.<br />
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Billed as a murder mystery pairing unlikely groups of heroes investigating the death of the Watcher, the series quickly dissolved into a prolonged treatise meant to excise Nick Fury from the Marvel universe in spite of his movie-like namesake. Jason Aaron has nevertheless found a way to make it reasonably entertaining, along with setting up a series of interesting tie-in stories in the company's superhero titles, based around a theme of secrets uncovered.<br />
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Mike Deodato Jr., on the other hand, used the series as a platform to experiment with interesting layouts, all while providing a solid foundation for the events taking place. Whether it was dealing with a large cast of Marvel's heroes or obscure Grant Morrison creations, the penciller never wavered and has produced a body of work that has brought him back to favor with readers who have since dismissed him as a solid house style professional. The company has seen its share of better executed events, but there have also been so many lackluster ones that a solid, if not unspectacular series certainly deserves to be praised.<br />
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<b>Best Weekly Series</b><br />
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DC's increased focus on weekly series has made it logical to spotlight one of the company's efforts in that vein. Compared to "New 52: Future's End" and "Earth 2: World's End", "Batman Eternal" seemed the most logical choice. Spotlighting a rich corner of DC's line and exploiting it to the fullest makes the weekly stand out from its continuity heavy contenders.<br />
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Choosing just the right mysteries to spotlight and utilizing the Bat-Family to its fullest, the creative team has managed to maintain suspension for the entirety of the series. And while utilizing dozens of pencillers was always going to make for some jarring issues, the editorial has maintained a strong grip on the story department, effectively transforming the weekly to a main Batman title.<br />
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While the core "Batman" series has spent much of the year detailing the hero's new origin, "Batman Eternal" has used the central mystery of a multipronged attack on Gotham and Batman himself to introduce new characters into this corner of the DC universe, setting up the remainder of the line for the future. It remains to be seen if the editorial will be able to make the follow-up as exciting as this major entry in their line.<br />
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<b>Best Storyline</b><br />
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Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples' "Saga" has spent most of 2014 trying to live up to the challenge set up by bringing the series into its second larger chapter. Following the conclusion of the introductory storyline contained in the first 18 issues (since collected in the hardcover), the creators have advanced the timeline to start again with a much slower paced affair.<br />
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The fourth volume of Saga mainly concerned itself with the growing strife between Marko and Alana as the relative calm has threatened to bring the new parents apart by introducing large challenges to their marriage. The added focus on the protagonists has meant the lack of space for many of the book's interesting supporting characters, at least until Dengo of the Robot Kingdom arrives to spin the series in a new orbit.<br />
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Fiona Staples' art remains the center that holds the colorful elements together, as her character designs and strong characterization continue to define "Saga". The creative team's decision to interrupt the publication between storylines to give the artist time to complete the digital artwork on her own schedule has prevented the title from digressions and one-offs and has since become a model that many of Images' series have tried to emulate.<br />
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<b>Best Ongoing Title</b><br />
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Matt ("Hawkeye") Fraction and Chip ("Howard the Duck") Zdarsky's "Sex Criminals" has debuted in late 2013 and has since produced two storylines worth of character based comics, concerned with the topics of relationships and sexuality. Both Suzie and John are made into compelling multifaceted characters by the creative team that has managed to find a way to keep a test heavy comic well paced and informative.<br />
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Keeping the focus on indie flavored storytelling and away from the high concept premise of sexual superpowers, Fraction and Zdarsky have built an online community around the series, which speaks to the honesty of their work. Despite Zdarsky using models for his characters, the series seems vibrant and playful and open to explore such difficult questions as depression and anxiety, all the while portraying the couple as adults in a real relationship.<br />
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It remains to be seen if the genre trappings and the growing mythology will take the series away from its strengths, but as of now, it presents a completely accessible comic book title ready to be embraced by a wide audience.<br />
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<b>Best Mini-Series</b><br />
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"Auteuer" was a high energy postmodern romp that presented a surreal look into a Holywood producer's nervous breakdown. Rick ("Black Metal") Spears writes a delightfully offensive series of events designed to keep the reader interested in the protagonist as he tries his best to restore his reputation and produce a horror movie in line with his aspirations. James Callahan produces highly original psychedelic artwork filled to the brim with homages and excellent cartooning.<br />
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What starts out as a gonzo comedy ends up turning into an over the top love story, with the promise of more to come. Judging by the quality of this debut mini-series, Spears and Callahan are welcome to continue to work with Oni press on any and all follow ups.<br />
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<b>Best Webcomic</b><br />
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2014 was a year that Simon Hanselmann's "Megg, Mogg and the Owl" strip has found a home on the Vice website. The stoner comedy has been brought to a wider attention with last year's Fantagraphics edition of "Megahex" and for most of the fans, the weekly installments have been a way to continue following the characters.<br />
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The webstrip started with sketches and one offs before embarking on a longer narrative, involving the witch Megg and her cat Mogg flying off to Amsterdam. Following an encounter with the insatiable Werewolf Jones, their roommate the Owl follows suite and joins them in Netherlands. So far, this is not Hanselmann's best work, but the strips are uniformly well paced and diverting, allowing the reader to stay with the writer/artist as he prepares to work on "Megg's coven", the long form follow up to "Megahex".<br />
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<b>Best Single Issue</b><br />
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2014 was also the year that finally debuted Grant Morrison's long awaited "Multiversity" project, consisting of a series of specials illustrated by different artists and bookended by oneshots featuring the current threat to the multiverse. And while a strange sense of nostalgia has found its way through most of the project, the "Pax Americana" special has remained a definite highlight.<br />
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Announced almost as soon as the end of "Final Crisis", the project has promised a Morrison/Quitely collaboration. The creative team bring the best out of each other, as evidenced repeatably through projects like "New X-Men" and "All-Star Superman" and their decision to produce a tribute to landmark "Watchmen" seemed like an interesting goal to aspire to.<br />
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Grant Morrison has maintained a controversial relationship with Alan Moore, the writer who has inspired his earlier works. It's interesting then to note that his take on Moore and Gibbons' classic is a success by all merits. In "Pax Americana", the creators produce a very ambitious work that boils down "Watchmen" and updates them to comment upon the new political realities and superhero stylings. Quitely patiently brings to life complicated layouts and character designs echoing both "Watchmen" and the Charlton superheroes that inspire them, making for what is without doubt the genre highpoint in 2014, a dense story that merits rereading and serious consideration.<br />
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<b>Best Graphic Novel</b><br />
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For the five years, Farel ("Omega the Unknown") Dalrymple has been working on a strange story involving gangs of kid superheroes facing an apocalyptic dystopia. With a highly personal style, the writer/artist turns his first mainstream success into a teenage version of "Invisibles".<br />
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The story is told in several different time zones, featuring a large cast of characters and utilizing both science and magic to make sense of the many twists and turns. Yet, where Grant Morrison stepped away from giving concrete answers, Dalrymple is adamant to provide the readers with everything they need to understand the strange journey his characters take.<br />
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It would be easy to dismiss the book as well designed and masterfully rendered genre exercise, but the writer/artist injects so much of his own hopes and fears, that "The Wrenchies" becomes a truly singular experience. It's easy to spot a number of flaws inside such a sprawling story, but none of them keep it from being less than a sum of its parts. The graphic novel deserves all the accolades it is getting and hopefully it will find a way to a large audience prepared to fall under its spell.<br />
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<b>Best Writer</b><br />
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2014 was also a year where Charles Soule begun working in earnest for Marvel. The prolific scribe has written the "Death of Wolverine" event for the company and has continued to be involved with its followup weekly series, but it was his work on "She-Hulk" that did the most to endear him to fans.<br />
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As a practicing lawyer, Soule 's job was to marry his own legal experience with a take on She-Hulk most recently seen in Dan Slott's run. Debuting as one of the books inspired by the success of "Hawkeye", "She-Hulk" paired Soule with Javier Pullido who has even worked as a replacement artist on the Fraction and Aja's quirky hit.<br />
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And while the creative team never managed to secure similar attention, they nevertheless produced a strong book. Compared to Soule's work on "Inhuman", She-Hulk never had the same editorial attention but it also provided for a much more authentic reading experience.<br />
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For those who have kept up with the book, it was apparent that the creative team had a high command of the form and approached it as a true labor of love. Pullido was adept in bringing the most out of the wordy dialogues and brought a definite retro flavor to the proceedings. The readers can only hope that Marvel will be able to re-team the two, or at least to try to pair him with another artists with such fluid layouts and a strong sense of character design, which bring out the best in his scripts.<br />
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<b>Best Artist</b><br />
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A longtime webcomic author, Emily Carrol has collected some of her previous work, which was paired with new stories and published last year as "Through the woods". Working in Edgar Allan Poe, the writer/artist presents her dark fairy tales with minimal dialogue, perfectly integrating the prose captions into artwork that is fully realized in blacks, blues, browns and reds.<br />
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And while all of the stories present capable examples of strong storytelling, "A Lady's hands are cold" stands out as particularly effective. The reworking of the tale of Bluebeard is a very strong piece of comics, working assuredly to its grisly end by utilizing a series of techniques that could easily have confounded a lesser artist.<br />
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The inventive compositions, coupled with repetitive poetic narration are by no means relegated just to this story. The book opens with "Our neighbor's house", a chilling gothic fairy tale, while "His face all red" works with same potency even when reformatted from its original webcomics format. The two longer pieces that make up the latter part of the book feel slightly less accomplished, with "The nesting place" particularly seeming overlong and unnecessarily cruel. Yet, it's hard to complain about a short story collection that is concludes with an epilogue as strong as Carroll's.<br />
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Seeing the writer/artist's take on Red riding hood work so splendidly in such a short space alloted for it, serves as one final reminder of Carroll's superior command of the comics form and bodes well for her career in her chosen field, as well as the readers who can expect much from her in the years ahead.</div>
Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3437977735168200768.post-24960994656028809482015-03-06T16:21:00.002-08:002015-03-06T16:21:29.920-08:00Men of wrath #1-5<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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2014 saw the debut of long-time Marvel exclusive creator Jason ("Scalped", "Wolverine and the X-Men") Aaron's first creator owned project. Released by the publisher's Icon imprint, reserved for the rare few talents that have previously produced a large body of work for the company, "Men of Wrath" reunites the writer with his frequent collaborator, artist Ron ("Captain America") Garney. The mini-series is the veteran artist's first creator owned project, while Aaron is concurrently publishing "Southern bastards" for Image.<br />
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"Men of wrath" is reportedly the first project the writer has begun following his long run on Vertigo's "Scalped", drawing somewhat on his own family history. A murder at the dawn of the 20th century introduces a bloody and pessimistic generational saga of a family of killers. The readers are introduced to Ira Rath as he dispatches his latest targets in a way that makes it challenging to sympathize with him. Yet, by beginning each issue with a flashback to a member of the family, the writer nevertheless tries to inform the reader of the events that have lead to the creation of the seemingly unrepentant murderer. The plot involves the terminally ill man deciding to take one last job - a hit on his own estranged son.<br />
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In many ways, this is not the book the readers could have expected from Jason Aaron. The writer has presented a much more nuanced way in his neo-noir offerings and even his escapades into mainstream superheroes have been over the top in their grindhouse influences. "Men of wrath" hues much closer to the excess of Frank Miller's "Sin City", cutting a large swathe of blood all over its five short issues.<br />
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Most interestingly, the reader is denied the filter that usually accompanies stories starring anti heroes. In Aaron and Garney's hands, the violence is not in the least sanitized, nor is it restrained to the typical dramatic moments. Both the protagonist and the antagonists are quick to eliminate anyone who inconveniences them, even when it comes to police officers and the clergy. Human lives are very cheap on these pages, but the book still retains something of a moral center in the form of Ira's son.<br />
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At first, Ruben seems like a small time criminal, but his care for his pregnant wife quickly provides the impetus for the central conflict. Contrasting with his father's towering physique, the young Rath is depicted in regular clothes, sweaty and always on the run. Unfortunately, their final confrontation is one of the book's weaker scenes, even as it covers the necessary narrative beats.<br />
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Despite this, the book maintains a frantic pacing and succeeds in most of the longer set pieces, providing several interesting twists and turns and ultimately manages to wring a modicum of sympathy for its lead character. Garney's layouts are always clear and staged well, yet the second part of a story adds to the rushed feeling of the proceedings. The pages gain a more kinetic tone, but when read together, they provide a noticeable shift, no doubt due to the scheduling limitations.<br />
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The final issue calls back to Frank Miller once again in featuring several black pages punctuated only by narrative captions. In many ways, "Men of wrath" seems an outlier in the current comic book landscape, harkening back to a style that has never left action cinema.<br />
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Taken as a whole, the book is a thematically sound, yet very aggressive work that sternly pushes the reader through a hideously bleak moral landscape before making its point. While not wholly successful, it is still an interesting mini-series that provides a different sort of story contrasted to its creators usual offerings. It may lack the style of "Sin city", yet it is likely that the readers would enjoy what it has to say about family and the manner in which it is told more than some of Miller's latter works in the series.</div>
Vanjahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02796186915343967167noreply@blogger.com0