One final gift suggestion, and this one is both the priciest and the least likely to fit in anyone's stocking: Rising Stars Compendium. This hardcover collects all 24 issues of J. Michael Straczynski's fascinating story of not just a world but of the world, ours, the real one, with the minor addition of 113 children born with various powers some months after an extraterrestrial wave of energy blankets the town where they're all in utero.
The characters are both highly original and completely derivative: some can fly, some have super-speed, some can control types of energy, some are telekinetic, et cetera, so very few of the powers the kids manifest actually surprise a regular reader of comics. However, the ways Straczynski holds up the warped mirror of superpowers to the world we inhabit are fresh and engaging. This series both predates and outperforms the television show Heroes, but the parallels are sufficient to make that a decent comparison. If you know someone who can't get enough of heroes in the "real" world and the way society reacts to their presence, get them this book. It is pricey, yes, but Rising Stars Compendium is the whole kit and kaboodle: the three story arcs of the comic itself plus three spin-off shorts written with Straczynski's blessing.
The story of how Rising Stars came to be and how Straczynski managed to beat a publisher at their own game is almost as interesting as the story itself: with two of the three major arcs already put to bed, Straczynski buttonholed Top Cow and said that there were three conditions he was placing on them ever seeing another script, including an apology for a previous slight and confirmation of ownership of a different work he had already created for them. Straczynski was quite forthright about this with fans, stating online and in interviews that he had placed conditions on completing the work and that when they were met he would deliver the final scripts. Top Cow saw the light of reason - and the money Rising Stars was pulling in for them - and Straczynski scored one of the few marks in creators' collective win column when playing hardball against publishers.
This isn't just a great gift for a comics lover, either. Straczynski created many, perhaps most of his fanboys in another medium altogether with the creation of the much-loved television series Babylon 5. If you know a rabid, possibly aging B5 fan who doesn't normally read or know as much about comics, get them this. You'll make them very happy.
Need a last-minute gift? Here's one that seems always to be in stock at both my regular comics shop and the big-box bookstores in my town: Superman: Red Son, a reimagining of Superman based on what might have happened had his escape craft crash-landed in the Soviet Union rather than the United States.
This is a fascinating book full of grand ideas that lend it the expansive, grandiose feel of the mid-20th-century, globe-spanning science fiction written during the time period this book uses as its setting. The idea is simple: the Soviet Union's power waxes and America's wanes when Superman's presence as a mascot causes a domino effect mirroring the one experienced in real history but run in reverse. Watching Superman struggle with questions of his purpose and identity aren't necessarily anything new even though he often seems like the superhero most comfortable in his own skin; however, setting all that against the contrasting backdrop of the Soviet bloc is an ingenious way to cast all of that in a new light without compromising the essential character of Superman: regardless of who, how and when he is, Superman is a hero and a friend to those in need, period.
The artwork in this book is absolutely beautiful. Drenched in dark blacks, steely industrial grays and the rich reds and golds of the Soviet flag, Dave Johnson's art seeks to wed the slightly gauzy, rosy-cheeked apex of Superman's kitsch potential and the overblown heroism of Soviet propaganda posters. There are times when the art consciously mimics those profile-in-ascension depictions of heroes of the republic and times when it pulls off the illusion of letting such allusions seem to happen by accident, little moments when the reader is first captivated by the heroism of Comrade Superman and then floored by the strength of their own reaction to his appeal. Ultimately, the art works overtime both to cast Superman as a hero and to question that heroism.
There are alternate versions of other heroes in the book, but really this is the story of a world protected by a Communist Superman more than anyone or anything else. The story itself never fails to surprise, winding up in a resolution I found deeply satisfying and tremendously surprising at the same time. Highly recommended. Pair it with Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) to give that special someone a mismatched set of neatly self-contained takes on Superman, visions that both celebrate and interrogate the whole question of a savior from on high.
When I read The Authority: Relentless, the first trade paperback collection of Warren Ellis' sequel to StormWatch and stronger than that title in every way, I was left practically breathless. It was so good that I was re-interested in superhero comics for the first time since my abortive childhood attempts to get engaged in the absence of material to read. It made capes interesting even though The Authority spoofed other superhero titles and so rarely interacted with the other residents of their own publisher's narrative world that they were essentially in a universe of their own.
The book itself is both fun and challenging. The characters are allowed to be good at what they do, which is always refreshing. The dialogue is snappy and clever and the characters are interestingly unique: a team leader whose power over electricity is the manifestation of her role as "the spirit of the 20th century," a gay couple whose relationship answers what it would be like for Superman and Batman to fall in love, a tracker biologically adapted to urban environments. Characters are unafraid of the phrase "whatever it takes" and relish the fight as much as they savor the victory. Abilities are sufficiently varied that there's a hero for every favored archetype in the mix. If cyborg super-engineers with nanomachine blood are your thing, The Authority: Relentless is for you; same goes if you're into goth super-warriors who can calculate every possible move of a fight at super-computer speeds.
Warren Ellis is a writer I've mostly stopped enjoying, his work too scatter-shot in quality and publication for me to see him as a reliable source of the good stuff. Ignition City was everything I don't like about him right now and he ended my subscription to Astonishing X-Men by trashing its schedule and bending the cast into service of a storyline he can't stop retelling. However, The Authority: Relentless is Ellis in his unquestionable prime, buoyant and snapping in the morning breeze of a promising career. It's Ellis reminding us that the world still has room for heroes and for big ideas.
The '90s were an era that really enjoyed the deconstruction of the superhero and I could probably put together an argument that this first volume of The Authority is what happens at the other end of the same decade that saw Superman die and the Sandman conquer comics stores by claiming the world of dream-life as his own: it's a story about how fun it is to have fun again, how good it can feel to make the world a better place. It's everything I endured watching get torn down and broken apart over the decade that followed, both in comics and out.
I won't lie to you: it's a little depressing to realize it's ten years old. On the upside, that gives me room to call it a classic without sounding like I rushed to hang that laurel around its neck and I consider its persistent presence on bookstore shelves as confirmation of that status. If you have a friend who likes superheroes but gets tired of the same old same old, or if you're buying gifts for someone who thinks all superhero comics are the same, this is virtually certain to warm their hearts.
I read Incognito this year as individual issues and loved every single one of them. It's Ed Brubaker writing supervillains so one can safely assume that it will be awash in blood and dark psychology. In truth, while it's a violent comic it's never bloody. It's not a gore comic and the cover image of the trade paperback is both perfect and misleading: there aren't very many times we see someone beaten to a pulp but that impish smile on someone wearing a blood-stained shirt and tie is an excellent representation of the balanced and opposing themes of Incognito: the glory of freedom and empowerment as opposed to, and in concert with, the sadistic pleasure the main character takes from beating the crap out of people.
Incognito takes the usual closet-case metaphor found in the dual lives of supers and applies it to a former supervillain who has been deprived of his powers and left to rot in a soul-crushing desk job. When he goes out in search of trouble he finds himself inadvertently a hero and though he gets nothing out of helping people he loves the thrill of being back in action. Brubaker takes the standard loser-by-day-fighter-by-night concept and turns it into a fun, disturbing story that reveals false identities, origins and allegiances that have been nested inside one another three or four deep. He doesn't leave out the impact on civilians these characters have, either, giving us a delightfully bothersome cross-section of ways it can really screw with someone to run into a super who's feeling their oats.
The trade paperback comes out soon, though different sites list different dates for it. Reserve it now, it's worth making sure you get a copy ASAP. If you want to give it to someone as a gift, go for it, but be greedy: read it first.
I can tell you exactly when my obsession with horror began. First came the zombies in "Thriller," shambling their way into my overactive imagination. Despite a nightlight, I couldn't help but keep the covers pulled tightly over my head...I couldn't wait to see the video again. After that, my brother would always make me watch Captain USA with him at noon every Saturday. Thanks to him and the Captain, I grew up on a healthy dose of black and white classics, Hammer films, and other assorted creature features.
As I grew older, I discovered Poe, Lovecraft, and Barker. But as far as comics were concerned, I never touched a horror title. The drugstore spinner rack (which I miss) was a superheroes-only affair, so no scares for me...
Only now, after reading volume one of Creepy Archives do I realize how excited I would have been as kid if this magazine had been on the shelves at the time.
What do you do when you're a best-selling rock band who just happens to be composed of a bunch of comic nerds? Well, if K.I.S.S. is any example, you get yourselves immortalized in comic form (after sleeping with tons of beautiful women, appearing in lord knows how many films, and terrifying conservative parents everywhere, of course). Fall Out Boy, deciding to follow suit, is joining forces with Dabel Brothers Productions -famous for their comic adaptations of Anita Blake and The Wheel of Time- to publish Infinity On High later this year:
The finished project will consist of many stories told over the course of two, perfect bound 56-64 page issues due to hit stores in the third of fourth quarter of this year. As for art, Young says that a collection of artists will be pitching in, most notably, Dan Fraga.
So, as near I can tell, this is going to be a rock & roll version of Flight which is going to feature some art by Dan Fraga. Sounds cool, but I'm wondering who's going to write the stories...
Seriously effed up. That's really all there is to say about Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. A creation of Jhonen Vasquez of Invader Zim fame, JTHM centers on the titular Johnny C. who is a serial killer and mass murder, but all around good guy. Through Johnny, Vasquez explores various elements of our urban-blighted, post-consumerist hell (I think he has just lived in LA too long) that we call the US. Major themes are evil, urban life, Heaven and Hell, tenuousness of personal relationships.
I was at my local book store when I came across the novelization for the mega DC event, 52. It was published last summer, so I may be rattling off info that you may already know, but my first thought when I saw this was a big...huh?
And then I realized that this was a very good, inexpensive way to catch up on your favorite comics that you may have missed. If you wanted to collect all of the 52 trades, that would cost you around $80 plus tax. This book runs around $15. That's relatively pretty darn cheap. Of course you communists can just go to the library, but I prefer a certain sense of ownership.
Now as for the quality, it seems to be above average, judging by its Amazon.com score. But this may be the first time I'd feel guilty for reading a book and taking the easy way out.
Has anyone checked this out? If so, what'd you think?
Horror movies, much like anything else associated with that genre at large, are a bit of an acquired taste. People tend to either like them or hate them, with very few standing in the middle ground. I myself have always enjoyed the genre, so long as what I'm viewing, reading, or listening to is... well, for lack of a better term, good. In order to keep me entertained, the book needs to be well-written, the movie needs to be stylishly made, and it doesn't hurt a comic to have some slick artwork to go along with a strong story and dialogue.
When 30 Days of Night was originally published as a graphic novel, it took me a while to warm up to it because Ben Templesmith's art style wasn't something I particularly appreciated until I'd had a little more exposure to it through his work on the Silent Hill comics. When I actually picked up his take on vampires in Alaska and took it home with me, I found myself falling in love with it fairly quickly.
Naturally, I was a little suspicious when a film version of the comic was announced, though my worries were lessened when I found out that David Slade was going to be directing it. While, yes, he was making a comic-based movie, his last film was the controversial Hard Candy -which proved he is a director able to make an incredibly mature movie without caring whether or not he pleases mainstream audiences- and I wondered how his directorial style would actually mesh with the artistic one of Templesmith's visuals.
The movie's story doesn't really deviate from that of the comic (vampires terrorize a small town in Alaska which is so far north that night lasts for a solid month), but the main challenge Slade faces is making the overall visual style something which the franchise's obsessive fans won't scream bloody murder over. Slade does this nicely, to be honest, largely through his command of color (oftentimes, it's his use of a lack of color, though, which makes the film look so damn good). Of course, the fact that he packed a stellar cast into the -admittedly, sometimes shallow- roles do a great job with their characters, too. My particular favorite was Danny Huston in the vampiric role of Marlow, though Ben Foster and the always entertaining Josh Hartnett are close behind with their performances, as well.
Overall, 30 Days of Night is an incredibly slick horror movie, one that manages to take the subject of vampires and do what 28 Days Later did for zombies. If you're a fan of the comic, or horror films in general, you'll most likely adore it. If, however, the supernatural/horrific genre isn't your cup of tea, then you'll probably want to give this one a pass.
Well, now, it just wouldn't be October if we didn't have a comic featuring a demonic invasion of the Earth, would it? Well, you're in luck! This week's Rough Trade Friday focuses on the sumptuous Strange Girl, brought to us by Rick Remender and Eric Nguyen.
Remender's writing tells the story of a world in which the Rapture occurs, after which God withdraws his protection from the world and leaves it ripe for a demonic invasion to occur. The invasion happens minutes after all the righteous humans are brought into Heaven, and Hell proceeds to reign over Earth for over a decade. As the comic begins, Bethany Black is working in a bar for a demon lord, kept out of the hard labor and slave trades reserved for most of humanity because she has the ability to cast magic (something which is practically unheard of amongst mankind). One day, she and her companion demon Bloato manage to piss off their patron and they decide to make a run for it in order to find a rumored gateway to Heaven. The journey takes them around the country, into the very maw of Hell, and -hopefully- to an eventual destination which involves a lot of white light and harps. Along the way, they encounter homicidal demons, homicidal hillbillies, homicidal soldiers, and a couple of other entertaining characters to keep them busy.
Remender's dialogue and plotlines manage to keep the comic moving along at a brisk pace, with sarcasm and wry humor managing to prevent the overall plot from feeling too dreary at any time. However, there are some genuinely horrifying moments throughout the series and readers are occasionally reminded that this world is a Very Bad Place indeed. Nguyen's artwork manages to serve as a near-perfect match for the comic, largely because his lines and colors are so dynamic and unique.
However, this is one of those series which needs to be started from the beginning, otherwise you'll have absolutely no clue as to what's going on if you pick up an issue halfway through the storyline. Fortunately, the first three segments are in convenient trade paperback formats, so it's an easy task to catch up on what's been going on throughout the series.
Zombies are sort of the red-headed stepchildren of the horror industry, probably because their character development caps out pretty quickly and because they aren't so much evil as they are simply brainless and hungry. There's only so much that most writers can do with that, apparently. I've often enjoyed zombie stories, if for no other reason than for the way in which they show us how ordinary people end up reacting to the extraordinary situation of their neighbors rising up from the grave and trying to eat their faces off. If that doesn't push someone past the breaking point, I don't know what will.
Image Comics' The Walking Dead is an example of a great zombie story, probably because it has yet to reach a definite endpoint. As a result, the main characters are forced to be more than a bunch of gun-wielding badasses making their way to a safe zone because, well, there are no safe zones for them to escape to. This fact forces the characters to stay cautious and smart because they know that they are never really safe from the force that destroyed their old lives and killed so many of their loved ones.
The protagonist of the series is Rick Grimes, a small town sheriff who awakens from a coma (a la 28 Days Later) to find his world has been washed away by the tide of the Zombie Apocalypse. Originally seeking out (and eventually finding) his wife and son, Rick ends up recruiting a large rotating cast of characters in a quest to survive in this strange new world. Many of the characters meet spectacularly gruesome ends along the way, only to be replaced by others; some of the replacements themselves pass on in equally unsubtle ways, and some are still around at the time I write this... but every character in the series is monumentally changed by the things they see and are forced to endure.
Robert Kirkman's sharp writing, combined with the black-and-white art of Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard makes this bleak series an addictive read. If you can find it, I would recommend picking up the hardcover edition because it contains so many issues in one go. However, even if you can't snag the oh-so-shiny hardcover version, the individual collections are much more readily available at most bookstores. So go, my little ghouls and goblins, and kick off this October zombie style!
M*****F***ing talentless hacks!! How can anyone ruin a concept as cool as Flash Gordon? The concept stinks to high heaven of camp. Of course I've been watching this travesty since the pilot. Now I'm the sort of old fashion fella that doesn't make snap viewing decisions based off pilots. Lots of things change, they're trying to show off the concept, costuming isn't set, yada yada yada...but people its been five episodes and I am itching to tell you how bad this piece of shite really it (with one notable exception--the absolutely gorgeous hawkman from last week).
This is a re-imagining of the classic comic strip, it purposely distances itself from the 1980 movie with the most excellent soundtrack ever (God, I love Queen/queens, whatever...). It is also decidedly low-budget. Flash is an athlete still living at home, who father he believed died in a fire thirteen years ago. In the pilot he discovers that his father actually discovered "rift" technology (I so see a lawsuit coming from Jerry O'Connell) and stepped through, never to heard from again. Much like I wish for this show. Flash's motivation is to find his father. Family duty from the Mamma's boy, how shocking. The one thing I do think the get right is to capture the tribal nature of Mongo from the early comic strips, but that is obliterated by absolutely the worst casting of Ming ever. That man is no more intimidating or evil than Halo Kitty.
Look, normally I recommend something to watch for the weekend , but all I can say is RUN RUN RUN! Do your self a favour and go out and get plastered instead. You'll have less of a headache in the morning that way.
Northstar's Boyfriend Coming In January!
You guys may recall I was a bit cranky about Northstar and his lack of lovin' about a year and a half ago. In fact, at the time, I issued a challenge to Marvel to get him a kiss by June 2009 or I would declare him not really gay. I have not forgotten about this. However, when the X-men moved to San Francisco this year, we were teased with the existence of what looked to be Northstar's boyfriend (and manager), so I delayed judgment until we could see more. Since then, Northstar hasn't had a lot of major appearances, as there have been about a thousand major crossover events in the Marvel universe in the last six months, and each one tends to disrupt the normal storyline for most books, including the many X-books. So I waited. Our patience seems to have been rewarded! Artist Tim Fish revealed on his blog that his upcoming story in Nation X #2 (which comes out in Jan.) is a story about Northstar, and will feature Kyle, his boyfriend in an 8-page story. I'm not sure if an actual kiss is in it, but it's implied that there is some lovin' going on. Check out some sketches of Northstar, Kyle, and Aurora below, and we'll keep you up to date when we get closer to Jan. NATION X #2 1/6/10 [TimFishWorks]...
