tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59052965160574732942024-03-12T19:25:52.741-07:00Notes From Crime AlleyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-22344330475850709372015-10-20T19:49:00.000-07:002015-10-22T02:01:15.885-07:00The Many Fathers of Batman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Batman, as I’m sure you’re aware, has himself some Daddy
issues. Seeing your parents gunned down as a child will do that to a man. A
Freudian would say that he’s frozen by trauma at the point where he still sees
his father as a god, so when he becomes a man and hence becomes his father, he
tries to become the same. We all know how that turns out.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The main way that Bruce’s loss of a father expresses itself,
aside from the whole Kevlar Dracula thing, is in the vast collection of
surrogate fathers he collects around himself. Bat-books have been rolling off
the presses for 75 years now, and in that time Bruce has
collected a truly staggering number of older gentlemen to raise him. From Zatara
to Wildcat to Henri Ducard, each has imparted some nugget of dubious wisdom to shape the frightened billionaire child into the clown punching ninja we know
today.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;">Long Halloween, Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale</span></i></td></tr>
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I’m going to dig into three of the best-known of these fathers. These are all men who have
played an instrumental role in moulding the Caped Crusader, men he's turned to as replacements for the late lamented Thomas Wayne. Two of them have done a poor job, in completely opposite ways, and one of them is just the father that he needs. </div>
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Before we begin, let me just say – I understand that this is fiction. These aren't real people with internal worlds, and
anything that could be said about them can be immediately countered with “but
that’s necessary for the story to work” or “but that’s just comics.” Those things are certainly true, and I’ve employed them often enough myself, but let’s be
honest here – they’re not very fun. I want to take a scalpel to these
characters, and that means pretending that they’re real people whose actions
have motivations and consequences. I hope that you can come along with me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another thing – yes, this is all about fathers. It’s not
like Bruce didn’t have a mother, but unfortunately her role in most versions of
the story is to turn up and get shot. Her pearls are better known than she is.
There have been a few stories that attempt to flesh her out - Greg Rucka’s
excellent <i>Batman: Death and the Maidens</i>
and Andrew Vachss’s terrible <i>Batman: The
Ultimate Evil </i>leap to mind -<i> </i>and
you can even see the pre-nu52 Leslie Thompkins as a replacement maternal figure for
Bruce. In the end, it’s the male role model that writers have chosen to
focus on, so I’ll be following suit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Batman 686, Alex Ross</i></td></tr>
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First up - <b>Alfred Pennyworth. </b>Legal guardian and manservant to Bruce, faithful right hand to Batman.<b> </b>This former actor and British
intelligence agent comes to serve as the Wayne family’s butler after his own father passes, and adopts the paternal role after the death of Thomas and Martha. He's been there almost from the beginning, first appearing in 1943's <i>Batman #16</i>. though he was originally a rotund bumbler and comic relief before being revitalised by William Austin's slender, moustachioed portrayal in the <i>Batman</i> serial later that year. Today he serves as Batman's mission control, quartermaster and faithful right hand in his war on crime. </div>
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Alfred's role in shaping Batman cannot be underestimated. It was his strong hand that got Baby Batman through those first dark days, teaching him that there was still goodness in the world even after the most important people in his life were snatched away. Without him there would be no Batman, even if he might prefer to see young Master Bruce settle down with someone nice instead of going out in the rain every night to catch his death of cold.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;">Batman RIP, Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel</span></i></td></tr>
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A stalwart ally, and a fine father figure, it’s true, but
consider: this is a man who allowed a traumatised child to grow into a man who
spends his evenings clenching his teeth on gargoyles and falling in love with literal cat burglars. There have been many versions of the Batman origin story, but when Bruce takes on the mantle of the Bat, Alfred is usually shown to briefly protest and then go along with things completely. He’s utterly indulgent of his ward, incapable of exhibiting
any sort of control or limitation, until his entire life becomes focused
around another man’s flying-mammal-themed monomania. His initial resistance to Bruce’s obsession dissolves into little more than the occasional cutting remark and reminders to eat and sleep. He’s completely without self, a trait which reaches its logical conclusion in Frank Miller's <i>The Dark Knight Returns, </i>which has him dropping dead the instant Bruce retires from crime fighting.</div>
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Alfred might have
Bruce’s best wishes at heart, but a father needs to set boundaries, and he is incapable of doing so. Despite his wealth of personal experience,
he accepts that Bruce knows better than him in virtually every circumstance,
putting his charge’s needs before his own regardless of the cost. Don’t
get me wrong – I’m not saying that Bruce should lose the cape and get to a
therapist’s office, though maybe sticking his head in now and then wouldn’t
help – I’m saying that it’s unhealthy for Alfred’s will to be completely
subsumed by Bruce’s.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What’s at the opposite end of the spectrum to Alfred? Who is
the father that demands everything and gives nothing? Well, that would be Shirtless
Duel Enthusiast and all around bad person <b>Ra’s al Ghul</b>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;">Batman #244: The Demon Lives Again, Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams</span></i></td></tr>
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First introduced by Denny O’Neil in 1971, the man known as
the Demon’s Head is an immortal Middle Eastern (despite every live action casting choice) warrior who leads the League of Assassins, an
organisation which has variously been a cult, an army and an ecological terrorist
groups. His motivations shift from writer to writer, but generally he pursues his own brand of brutal, uncompromising justice, with no qualms about killing
thousands in pursuit of the greater good. His brilliance and resources,
combined with the belief that his personal trauma gives him the right to reshape
the world, makes him a perfect foil to Batman. Ra’s has often expressed the desire to see Batman join him in his mission,
either as his right hand or even his successor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Son of the Demon, Greg Rucka and Jerry Bingham</i></td></tr>
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More than once, Ra’s has been placed in a position to guide Batman onto a darker path. His daughter Talia is one of the Caped Crusader’s most
persistent love interests, and the Demon has regularly expressed the desire to
see the two of them mated – it’s hard to live a few thousand years without
developing an interest in eugenics, after all. He demands everything from Bruce
and Talia, and sees them as nothing more than pawns for his eternal mission. This
gets literal more than once - in <i>The
Return of Ra’s al Ghul </i>he tries to take over the body of his grandson
Damian (gross) and in <i>Batman Beyond </i>he
pulls it off with his own daughter (GROSS!). In <i>Son of the Demon </i>Batman goes to live with Ra’s in his Bond Villain
Ice Fortress for some reason, and Christopher Nolan’s version even trains him in the way of
Frozen Lake Ninjutsu. On TV, Batman stand-in Oliver Queen submits himself to
Ra’s tutelage as well - I haven’t finished season 3 of <i>Arrow</i>, but I assume that he finds
an appropriately shirtless way back to the righteous path.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Batman always pulls himself back onto the side of the angels, but it's been a near thing more than once. There's something very seductive about what Ra's offers him - a chance to truly change the world, to alter whole economies and governments instead of stopping crime one mugger at a time. The price, however, is too high. Even an indomitable will like Batman's can't take take charge of the League of Assassins without becoming a killer - after all, it's right there in the name. Ra's might see him as a son, and certainly respects him more than he does anyone else, but he cares nothing for Bruce's moral code. He doesn't even delight in trying to make him violate it, in the way the the Joker so often does - it simply doesn't doesn't matter to him. Nothing matters to Ra's except for Ra's.</div>
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So we have two fathers – one who gives too little, and one
who gives too much. One who cares only for his own will, and one whose will has
been completely subsumed. There has to be a middle ground, doesn’t there?
Someone who can provide guidance while still allowing his charge to flourish,
someone who represents a structure that Batman can press against, but grow and
learn in the process?</div>
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That’s where this guy comes in.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;">Battle for the Cowl: Commissioner Gordon, Royal McGraw and Tom Mandrake</span></i></td></tr>
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<b>Police Commissioner James Gordon</b> debuts all the
way back in 1939’s <i>Detective Comics #27</i>,
the very first Batman story. We actually see Gordon before we see the man
himself. Jim is Gotham’s most stalwart guardian, doing with a dirty trenchcoat
and a six shooter what Bruce does with a billion dollar budget and a
superpowered alien best friend. He’s a man with a strict moral code, one
that he’s flexible enough to bend when circumstances demand, and arguably the
man that Batman respects the most, excluding those who changed his diapers. In
most versions of the story, he’s the one that Batman goes to first when he
starts looking for allies, recognising that vigilante work on his scale is impossible without the help of the one good man in Gotham's corrupt police force.</div>
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Most importantly for our purposes, he’s a man of the law,
something that Batman definitively works outside of. Gordon is at first deeply
reluctant to work with this masked stranger, and Batman has to prove that he’s
on the side of the angels before the grumpy old cop will trust him. Different versions of the story show this unfolding very differently, with the Nolan version taking his side almost immediately, while Snyder's <i>Zero Year </i>gives Gordon a deeply antagonistic relationship with both Bruce and Bats before he slowly comes around. In the
process, Gordon’s moral code becomes Batman’s, or at least serves as one of its guiding lights. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Batman #0, Scott Snyder
and James Tynion III<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Gordon calls out Batman when he needs to be called out,
talking straight to the scariest man in the city. Bats might not always
listen,
at least not at first, but in the end he comes around. He needs the
structure
that Gordon provides, much as he might sometimes rage against it, or see
himself as being above it. Much like a child, he might want to be able
to do whatever he wants, but it's when placed within a set of rules that
he respects and understands that he flourishes. The Gotham legal
system, as broken and corrupt as it might be, is that structure. Batman
isn't judge and jury, and he certainly isn't the executioner - that's
why captured criminals wind up trussed up on the steps of the police
station, rather than being directly punished by Bats himself. (usually - we can talk about <i>Ten Nights of the Beast </i>another time) In both a
direct, character sense, and a broader narrative sense, Gordon
represents this truth.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;">Batman: No Man’s Land volume 4, Greg Rucka and Rich Burchett</span></i></td></tr>
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Gordon provides Batman with legitimacy. Because he accepts
Batman, working with him as closely as he can, Batman is able to operate in his
city relatively unmolested. Without that support, his mission would be
near-impossible, something we see in stories like <i>Zero Year, Year One </i>or the animated series episode <i>Over The Edge.</i> Batman ignores Alfred’s
wishes and fights against Ra’s al Ghul’s, but Gordon’s are paramount to the success
of his mission. He is the father that Bruce cannot ignore, and his is the trust that he cannot do without.. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller</i></td></tr>
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How much does Gordon trust Batman, you might ask? How
certain is he that this masked rubber fetishist isn’t going to turn on a dime
and start collecting heads? Completely. After all, he trusts him with the most precious thing in his world - his daughter. Gordon’s eldest child, Barbara Gordon, aids Batman in his war on
crime, first as Batgirl and then as Oracle and eventually as Batgirl once more.
She’s the high flying computer genius that Batman needs, and though the idea
doubtless terrifies him, Gordon lets her choose her own path.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Okay, technically, Gordon doesn’t know. But let’s be real:
he’s the second greatest detective in the city. He’s extremely close to his
little girl. He see’s Batgirl all the time. <i>He
knows.</i> Like the best sort of father, he does what he can to keep her safe,
but he lets her make her own choices. Just as he does with Batman - he might wish deep down that he'd take off the mask and pick up a badge, but he understands that his strange, growly-voiced son is doing things his own way, and he's learned to respect that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;">The New Batman Adventures, Over the Edge (episode 12)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 12.84px;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Batman: The Killing Joke, Alan Moore and Brian Bolland</i></td></tr>
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The trust between Gordon and Batman is strong, but it isn’t
unconditional, and that’s important. Gordon understands that Gotham needs
Batman, and he works as closely with him as he can, but that’s contingent on
Batman’s hands remaining clean, or at least clean-ish. Batman goes where the law can't, and uses morally grey tactics that Gordon wouldn't, but he doesn't kill. This is for his own moral reasons, of course, but it serves a functional purpose as well. Bruce knows that if he were to ever cross that
final line, he would lose his greatest ally on the spot.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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The more you think about it, the clearer it becomes that Gordon is the key to understanding Batman. Alfred and Ra's represent two possible failings for Batman - a collapse into complete self indulgence on the one hand, or an abandonment of everything that sets him above his enemies on the other. Gordon is the father figure that keeps him on the straight and narrow, letting him be himself, but not so much that he forgets the needs of others. Gordon’s guidance is healthy, and Gordon's fatherhood is the most necessary, quite simply because it leads Batman to be his best
and truest self. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic-IPm_KUTKk64ReqHAmTMG9P1OX5ZB3MbTxLlEoYThBw2krmbVVN4LVQFLato6-U3HAy5KqvX-yr2sxVia2527YpGxWP214puxxaVtXqZXuykwKseaUZBQjXUoTEZ0KKucu69we1J5e7r/s1600/tumblr_l1k9uhmHkp1qavloro1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic-IPm_KUTKk64ReqHAmTMG9P1OX5ZB3MbTxLlEoYThBw2krmbVVN4LVQFLato6-U3HAy5KqvX-yr2sxVia2527YpGxWP214puxxaVtXqZXuykwKseaUZBQjXUoTEZ0KKucu69we1J5e7r/s400/tumblr_l1k9uhmHkp1qavloro1_500.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The New Batman Adventures, Holiday Knights (episode 1)</i></td></tr>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-15082263121231412832014-07-03T20:43:00.001-07:002014-07-03T20:43:35.718-07:00I know that there's been no new content for a while, friends, but perhaps you'd like to read something that I wrote about video games? The Ladyist Experiment was kind enough to publish some of my thoughts about the new Supergiant Games release, Transistor, called <a href="http://theladyistexperiment.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/transistor-voice-agency-and-enormous-swords-a-guest-experiment-by-alex-hardison/">Transistor: Voice, Agency and Enormous Swords</a>. The rest of the blog is a great read, all about the presentation of women's narratives in all forms of art, and well worth going through when you're done with my scribblings.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-84342318336836323732014-06-13T15:43:00.002-07:002014-06-13T15:43:15.529-07:00The Conversation That Led To: Death of Wolverine's Covers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi63lZ4IDniuZyt_7KWelTtQK2ehx2kLbwech05uum2A9OVBpqFne5SUXZS-Dgkuv5_91akuFepYjoFjWui0uVfGw06CCWM8Kefys_bXPvK8JN3-6am4na4rM8iAlKe9mD_5XaWiP6OFwwq/s1600/cover.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi63lZ4IDniuZyt_7KWelTtQK2ehx2kLbwech05uum2A9OVBpqFne5SUXZS-Dgkuv5_91akuFepYjoFjWui0uVfGw06CCWM8Kefys_bXPvK8JN3-6am4na4rM8iAlKe9mD_5XaWiP6OFwwq/s1600/cover.JPG" height="400" width="256" /></a></div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> So Wolverine's gonna die.<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> Well not like DIE die, but yeah, die.<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1: </b>Should have fancy covers for this.<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 2: </b>Foil holograms?<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1: </b>NO<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1: </b>BLOOD<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 2: </b>Blood?<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> Listen. Wolverine is basically just his claws, right? He is literally just his claws<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 2: </b>I'm not sure that...<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> So the covers are his claws exploding into blood. BLAM.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn7WXfj3bZ712aDVyUu4t7yEpdp_ck0LIkNAcMjhtFQcESb5Ls6DNz0thrkd28_x-LzcCrv7ORxza_G4c_lNcGwizqLbEd4jxnW4-lRzzXY7ExyeRE0z-RpQnqlgPllH4eow7cINWP1gcR/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn7WXfj3bZ712aDVyUu4t7yEpdp_ck0LIkNAcMjhtFQcESb5Ls6DNz0thrkd28_x-LzcCrv7ORxza_G4c_lNcGwizqLbEd4jxnW4-lRzzXY7ExyeRE0z-RpQnqlgPllH4eow7cINWP1gcR/s1600/Capture.JPG" height="189" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> They explode<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> Just straight up explode. Then his hand. A new bloodsplosion on every cover. BLAM.<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> Do we see what makes them explode?<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> NO YOU HAVE TO BUY THE SERIES FOR THAT. GENIUS.<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> Ugh.<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> And we end with a metal bone fist. It's so metal.<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> It's GROSS<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> YOU'RE GROSS<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> Don't you think that that's, I don't know, a little derivative?<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> Of Terminator? I think that we can swing it.<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> No. Event books with covers that have more blood each issue.<br />
<b>MARVEL GUY 1: </b>I can't think of any others.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb0-YudKjs4_6RTQ7068fMmPra-Ne3FjlV3Y-0b0ZADdguIRJ7EfEnbh5_m6fcfMsyz9BeSomhysM3oiW9EYMGU-7cWtXOcUBKDcrdUOMsuCtStTwYdXWURoGnb-nsmMkJUDrDgL82foES/s1600/Watchmen.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb0-YudKjs4_6RTQ7068fMmPra-Ne3FjlV3Y-0b0ZADdguIRJ7EfEnbh5_m6fcfMsyz9BeSomhysM3oiW9EYMGU-7cWtXOcUBKDcrdUOMsuCtStTwYdXWURoGnb-nsmMkJUDrDgL82foES/s1600/Watchmen.JPG" height="326" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> Nobody read Watchmen.</div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> Oh. I kind of feel like...</div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 1: </b>Literally nobody. </div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> Okay well what about superhero event comics...</div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> Been plenty of those</div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 2: </b>That end in a death...</div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> BEEN PLENTY OF THOSE</div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 2:</b> WITH A CHANGING COVER SYMBOL LET ME FINISH</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz8h_rgK2nj9E91-8PgJj13JSLmcjlBAWzWtrIFhxnYduuwnf6y1ACO9BSDkgBgqHUxWsPaFo75oUv8eGFZkpXUbxC9Yav8ITbGDu2Brh04XJ8ykH6b3D4ykdoWrxz4u85iBJaVjsSTq4a/s1600/Knightfall.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz8h_rgK2nj9E91-8PgJj13JSLmcjlBAWzWtrIFhxnYduuwnf6y1ACO9BSDkgBgqHUxWsPaFo75oUv8eGFZkpXUbxC9Yav8ITbGDu2Brh04XJ8ykH6b3D4ykdoWrxz4u85iBJaVjsSTq4a/s1600/Knightfall.JPG" height="86" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 1:</b> Never with a hand, though.</div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 2: </b>Ugh. No. Never with a hand.</div>
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<b>MARVEL GUY 1: </b>So we're great!</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-34070020655709256752014-06-06T05:26:00.001-07:002014-06-06T17:29:30.945-07:00More for Less - The Best of the Comic Book Miniseries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_o1lhSgXGzrQTWTZgPwPnDwMg9sWmSqIeOem5KC7SXrVH6UPh6pa8xJi_sS5fHkq3Iv2rJw0YkzgbtmZkdR9mwAn7dRFusjl48cWGfodKCxX7Phku6HhI5awzhgtJhaakJAIUka1QEfp/s1600/private+eye.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_o1lhSgXGzrQTWTZgPwPnDwMg9sWmSqIeOem5KC7SXrVH6UPh6pa8xJi_sS5fHkq3Iv2rJw0YkzgbtmZkdR9mwAn7dRFusjl48cWGfodKCxX7Phku6HhI5awzhgtJhaakJAIUka1QEfp/s1600/private+eye.JPG" height="315" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Comics are an unusual medium, my fellow traveler. I don't imagine that I have to tell you that, as both an art form and an industry, comics do a bunch of things that you just don't get anywhere else. One of those things - and I'm primarily looking at company owned superhero joints here, though you get it in a few creator owned books as well - is the fact that these stories are meant to be indefinite. This gives rise to a lot of strange narrative tics, including the extremely temporary nature of death and the occasional reality warping reboot that only one person remembers (I'm talking about you, Psycho Pirate), most of which we consider pretty much part and parcel of comics. But what happens when you throw that out? What happens when you write comics with a limited run, comics that by their nature get to wrap things up instead of being trapped in the perpetual second act of your </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Batmans </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Uncanny X-Mens</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and what have you? </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-d3c0e059-70f0-017d-ba9d-ff446ec8cbc3" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That's all a rather convoluted way of saying: there are some really great limited run comics in the world, and I want to talk about them. These aren't reviews as such, but I would certainly encourage to check out all the titles mentioned below. I should point out that some of them are still running, though they're all far enough along that I feel confident in giving you the thumbs up to jump on board.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before we jump in - I know you're not stupid, reader. If you haven't read </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Watchmen </i>and <i>300 </i>and <i>V for Vendetta</i> and all those, I'm sure that they're on your list. You don't need me to tell you that they're essential reading. You're here because you want to find something that you didn't already know about. Lets just assume that we've already talked about those giants, and dig down into the interesting stuff, shall we?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbQUojD2FsSs1R9EkZWT2U66dSABSQPLF5yLNKS3TLWVKL8m2kbw2I3BBHDCX9kVZxEB-agmL1B1CJt-F43kheCwDGM4Z8mrFOJdDRrAhZnck95FI08b2mJWAF5QZYlUl1esoKeRCyB6iC/s1600/joe+the+barbarian.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbQUojD2FsSs1R9EkZWT2U66dSABSQPLF5yLNKS3TLWVKL8m2kbw2I3BBHDCX9kVZxEB-agmL1B1CJt-F43kheCwDGM4Z8mrFOJdDRrAhZnck95FI08b2mJWAF5QZYlUl1esoKeRCyB6iC/s1600/joe+the+barbarian.JPG" height="320" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Joe the Barbarian, </i>Morrison and Murphy</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First up is a Vertigo miniseries that pretty much vanished right after it came out, which was a real shame because I think it's a corker. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Joe the Barbarian</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">typifies a lot of the sort of thing that you see in limited runs. It’s got a unique, original premise that wouldn't really hold up for an ongoing book, but is perfect for a short run like this. In a nutshell, the titular Joe is a kid with very severe diabetes who fails to take his insulin while alone at home and promptly goes into a hypoglycemic shock and begins to hallucinate. He finds himself in an fantastical world populated by his toys and action figures, as well as his pet mouse and all sorts of other things that leak out of the real world and into the dream. The story intercuts his dreaming quest with his real-life struggle to find a source of sugar in his house. Seeing King Death closing in on Joe's dream self, and knowing that this means the end is close for him in the real world, makes for an incredibly powerful tale, and </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">the epic scope of the fantasy world combines brilliantly with the urgency of his real world danger. Morrison has name-checked <i>Lord of the Rings</i> and <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> in terms of inspiration, but the things that made me think of when reading it were the movie <i>The Labyrinth </i>and large portions of Neil Gaiman’s <i>Sandman</i>, in particular my favourite story arc, A Game of You. The art is simply gorgeous, popping with detail and expression and life - Murphy’s style is a combination of sketchy and detailed that I simply adore, and this isn’t the only time that he’ll be appearing in this list.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">The entire run of <i>Joe the Barbarian </i>is <a href="https://www.comixology.com/Joe-the-Barbarian-Vol-1/comics-series/3758">available from Comixology in a single bundle.</a></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Hard Boiled, </i>Miller and Darrow</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Hard Boiled</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is easily the oldest miniseries here - it came out from Dark House all the way back in 1990 - but I want to include it to highlight the way that a limited series like this can be a great way to introduce a new talent to the world. Then-up-and-comer </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Frank Miller </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">brings us an incredibly visceral, violent little work here, a dystopian nightmare that would easily be at home in the pages of something like Heavy Metal. It doesn’t make a great deal of sense, but it’s a hell of a ride, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Geoff Darrow </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">provides obsessively, lushly detailed images of carnage and mayhem. It's abstract in the most nightmarish sort of way, and that's something else that you can really only get away with in the short form - something that would become wearing and finally if it were to come out week after week stands as a savage, mean-spirited little kick in the guts when it only goes for three issues. The amount of detail on offer in the art is easily the best part, with Darrow making me think of greats like Moebius or Frank Quitely on more than a few occasions. There are more than a few pages that one could become completely lost in, picking out every last piece of twisted metal, shattered glass and torn flesh. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Hard Boiled </i>is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> not for the faint of heart, not by a long shot, but if you've got a strong stomach and don’t mind style coming well before substance, it’s worth seeing where one of today’s biggest stars first made his name.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Hard Boiled </i>hasn't made its way online just yet, but <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Hard-Boiled-Frank-Miller/9781878574589">you can pick up an ink-and-tree copy at The Book Depository.</a></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Private Eye, </i>Vaughn and Martin</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One that has been chugging along in between other projects from the creator is </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Brian K Vaughan’s</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>The </i></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Private Eye</i></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - he writes a little book called </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Saga </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that you might have heard of? Anyhow, it's a direct-to-web series slated for ten issues, with six out so far, on a pay-what-you-want for which the impoverished scribes at Notes From Crime Alley are deeply appreciative. There's </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a deliciously high concept, "ripped from tomorrow's headlines" setup at the core - the complete death of privacy. A few years before the story kicks off, every private detail for everybody in the world got dumped online. Every embarrassing search, every anonymous message, every secret little purchase. Everything. Now, privacy is the most precious commodity in the world, and people adopt dramatic public personas in order to protect it. The story itself is relatively straight forward - the main character is a paparazzi photographer, one of the foulest criminal occupations in the new world, and he finds himself wanted for the murder of his latest client. Nothing you're not familiar with if you've read any detective story ever, but It’s the wonderful details that go into this thoroughly fleshed out world that make it worth reading - cops are now called journalists, photographing someone without their consent is a federal offence, and the mask and costume businesses are booming. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Marcus Martin's</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> art is a touch simple for my taste, but it burns with vibrant colour that’s perfectly appropriate to the technicolor, hyperreal future. Plus, it's all formatted for the screen, in landscape view, something that not enough digital works are doing. It makes a real different to the experience of reading it, not having to scroll up and down a portrait view page just because that's how pen and ink books do it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Private Eye </i>is <a href="http://panelsyndicate.com/">sold directly by Panel Syndicate from their website</a>.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Criminal: Lawless, </i>Brubaker and Phillips</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Criminal</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, from </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">doesn’t exactly fit my established model, but I’m going to jam it in here anyway because I love it so dang much. What I mean when I say it doesn't fit is that it's not one miniseries but six, each linked in with the others to one degree or another, but also standing on their own. It's best to read them in publication order, but you could pick up whichever comes to hand and get a complete story. They’re crime books, as you might have guessed from the title, grimy and realistic stories with neither the hysterical, cartoonish pathos of your </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Sin Citys</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> nor the fantastical elements of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Powers - </i>just broken, brutal, lost people going about their lives as best they can.<i> </i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The art is jagged and rough, a snarling mix of muted colour and pitch blackness that perfectly present these savage, beautiful tales. Each of them is based around a standard crime trope, like the drug deal gone wrong or the man who goes back to his hometown to seek revenge, but these well-worn premises are rehabilitated and given fresh like by the expert craftsmanship of Brubaker’s writing. That sort of metanarrative thinking isn't necessary to enjoy </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Criminal, </i>though, as what really </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sets it apart from other crime stories is the detailed, compelling characterisation that goes into them. Too many crime stories rely on the lazy archtypes of the genre, especially once you get into the noir end of the spectrum. In </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Criminal</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, everyone is vibrant and unique, not to mention broken in their own special ways. My recommended starting point would be Lawless, but you could pick up any of them that you come across and find yourself immersed in this sleazy, provocative world.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Criminal </i>stories, as well as some deluxe collections, <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Criminal-Lawless-Vol-2-Ed-Brubaker/9780785128168">are available at Book Depository.</a></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Wake, </i>Snyder and Murphy</td></tr>
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<i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Wake</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span></i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(again) is a story with a very unusual bit of trickery involved, that I'm going to do my best to not spoil for you if you haven't read it yet. Suffice to say that it starts out as one thing, and though it gives you hints that there’s something else under the surface, it's not until you hit the the halfway mark that it turns on a dime and transforms into something else entirely. The story starts out very simple and very low key - it’s basically a horror book set on the ocean’s floor, with a ragtag group of scientists trying to survive an encounter with terrifying merpeople - very much something that James Cameron would have done back when he made good films. Just as you think you know what you’re reading, though, EVERYTHING changes, and the the scale expands suddenly expands exponentially, swapping out the tight, claustrophobic setting for a global stage. Snyder is one of the fastest rising stars in comics today, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Wake </i>is as good an example of any for why this is; he </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pulls off the transition with aplomb, and while the sudden change in cast and scenery is jarring at first, looking back it’s really the only way that the tale could have played out. It’s also something that could only have been done in this sort of limited series - an ongoing might shake things up, but it has to return to something resembling the status quo sooner or later; when you’ve got an end in sight from the very beginning, you can throw everything out and have it stay that way for the duration.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Comixology has the first five issues - everything up to that big twist I won't talk about - <a href="https://www.comixology.com/The-Wake-Part-One/digital-comic/57583">available in a great value bundle right now.</a></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosKkubHQdwT1YaP9AI5c-2NQTCk8zc1EmjcIdD48wCoqBGgR6IBgj6jYYaptruX4f9ZsgXGvwR3yOU6eTAHspiXL_1ihMlKBrk6v04Nlr_sDZN1KXMuhPHOTXjcRpGUMbpqmZxN0zBtP7/s1600/high+crimes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjosKkubHQdwT1YaP9AI5c-2NQTCk8zc1EmjcIdD48wCoqBGgR6IBgj6jYYaptruX4f9ZsgXGvwR3yOU6eTAHspiXL_1ihMlKBrk6v04Nlr_sDZN1KXMuhPHOTXjcRpGUMbpqmZxN0zBtP7/s1600/high+crimes.JPG" height="320" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>High Crimes, </i>Sebela and Moustafa</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One more and then we're done, but this is a good one. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I've talked about a few MonkeyBrains books in the past, and in many ways their creator-owned, straight-to-web model is perfect for the miniseries, allowing as it does people who haven’t quite committed to full time comics work to get their stuff out there even if it only lasts a few issues. Written by <b>Cristopher Sebela</b> and drawn by <b>Ibrahim Moustafa</b>, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">High Crimes </i>is</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a crime story (I know, another one) with a wonderfully unique setting, taking place as it does in Kathmandu and on the slopes of Mt Everest. The obvious comparison is to </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Eiger Sanction </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- yes, I really am that old - and the similarities are there, but there's a lot of unique stuff going on as well. The main character is a washed out Olympic snowboarder living in a haze of drugs and alcohol and working in an incredibly shady business, locating corpses on Mt Everest and selling them back to their families. The story kicks off when she stumbles across the wrong body, one that comes with a very suspicious diary and the obligatory roll of microfilm, and brings a team of black ops killers down on her head. Most of the story takes the form of a chase, one that rolls through the streets of Kathmandu and eventually, inevitably, up onto the slopes of Everest itself - the one place that she has an advantage. While the tale itself isn't the original thing in the world, the climbing details and Kathmandu setting are well researched and used in such a way to lend the proceedings a great deal of authenticity and originality. The art is sharp and simple, and the layouts do an excellent job of conveying the momentum necessary to keep the chase sequences taut, punchy and easy to follow. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moustafa also has a great knack for faces and facial expressions, which is important in a comic like this, with a large amount of back-and-forth banter between characters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.comixology.com/High-Crimes-1/digital-comic/36461">The first issue is free on Comixology</a>, so what are you even doing still reading this?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So there we have it! As usual, I went on for a little longer than I meant to, but at least there were pretty pictures, right? One of them even had a cow in it. Cows are cool. Have you read any of these? What did you think of them? Are there any great comic book miniseries that I haven't picked up, and if so, what are they? I hunger for your comments, dear reader.</span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-46809551308488949322014-05-08T21:26:00.002-07:002014-05-08T21:46:10.875-07:00Futures Unpleasant - The Worst Trend In Comics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqXusLetQmdQjIfvjeyPwU-10AZ8TxyzSbqf4xo7KAa5hVBvhf3227hbuc_NZ8NXEWMPizmHy9SYWZ4ZDQvQ0s5athAQoh4Bp5LHbzvJXTSzFj8ESBh0dH42I22YzJrHL9uG9ZiaOYq_l2/s1600/punisher+kills+marvel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqXusLetQmdQjIfvjeyPwU-10AZ8TxyzSbqf4xo7KAa5hVBvhf3227hbuc_NZ8NXEWMPizmHy9SYWZ4ZDQvQ0s5athAQoh4Bp5LHbzvJXTSzFj8ESBh0dH42I22YzJrHL9uG9ZiaOYq_l2/s1600/punisher+kills+marvel.jpg" height="640" width="411" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN">Can we talk about something, dear reader? I usually use this space for
reviews, for analysis, for something that at least pretends to be objective and
informative. Today, I'd like to unload some junk, to have a quick rant about
something that bothers the hell out of me.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN">I am sick to goddamn death of possible futures, alternate timelines and
dimensional whatevers whose only purpose is to show our heroes getting brutally
killed.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFy55AoyNqlNz3kB7807-DUMCB29SUDAveTMhy6F5PSQOX2VaLyKuskFdthUSdsAH18oW8QHUgn9pMzi5kprartjjroz3di8KeM_p5DFuMaUCi7uGZEy7UqqgPsFaR0uyrRlHiOPPE4Deu/s1600/kingdom+come.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFy55AoyNqlNz3kB7807-DUMCB29SUDAveTMhy6F5PSQOX2VaLyKuskFdthUSdsAH18oW8QHUgn9pMzi5kprartjjroz3di8KeM_p5DFuMaUCi7uGZEy7UqqgPsFaR0uyrRlHiOPPE4Deu/s1600/kingdom+come.jpg" height="320" width="195" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Escapist adventure in <i>Kingdom Come</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">Comics are a weird, recursive field, and this is one of the most bizarre
trends that could have come out of it. Think about it, though, and I bet that
you can name a whole bunch off the top of your head. <i>The Incredible Hulk:
Future Imperfect</i>, where the Hulk rules like a king and the heroes have all
been killed. <i>Batman: Red Rain</i>, where Batman becomes a vampire and
everyone gets killed. <i>Kingdom Come</i>, where the heroes have been
supplanted by a new breed of violent assholes and...well, you get the idea. The
worst of the bunch is almost definitely <i>Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe, </i>a
book whose title gives away the entire plot and is basically Garth Ennis
wallowing in all of his worst, most shock-tactic tendencies. Not to mention
that fact that essentially every Marvel "What If..." story can be
answered by the question "EVERYBODY DIES BECAUSE REASONS."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">What's wrong with these stories, you ask? These people lead violent lives,
surely a story that won't be a part of continuity has the freedom to show the
logical conclusion of that? That's true enough, but the fact of the matter is that the books mentioned above, as well as the rest of them (<i>Justice
League: Rock of Ages, Old Man Logan, Ultimatum, Flashpoint, Age of Apocalypse, </i>that
weird issue of <i>Spawn </i>where he goes to hell and Batman and the Hulk are
there, <i>Wanted </i>for all intents and purposes) is that they don't actually
tell a story. They're nothing but gratuitous shock-fests, catering to the
giggling 14 year old boy who wants to see Poison Ivy get beheaded or Spider-Man
get shot in the face while pleading for his life. The readers who think that
that makes comics ‘adult’ or ‘edgy’ when all they really are is gross and
exploitative. They don't take the characters in any sort of interesting,
alternative directions, and many of them (like <i>Punisher Kills...</i>) don't
even tell a coherent story. They're exercises in shock and excess at the
expense of character and story, also referred to as “THE THING MOST WRONG WITH
COMIC BOOK STORYTELLING FROM THE EIGHTIES TO NOW.”</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilZV0wGUifRPaQkzW0uvdfnclOR6iThnMGdUgaENiX5YcX28HmyNdzUboNBYG1Pa9zlQW8G_EazJORiibnN7zHLI-YiLeiBU7NVQCFjOf8lTuH1xqKXkm5VwvYwybaO1Fj36-wbBFQZfms/s1600/old+man+logan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilZV0wGUifRPaQkzW0uvdfnclOR6iThnMGdUgaENiX5YcX28HmyNdzUboNBYG1Pa9zlQW8G_EazJORiibnN7zHLI-YiLeiBU7NVQCFjOf8lTuH1xqKXkm5VwvYwybaO1Fj36-wbBFQZfms/s1600/old+man+logan.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Dead Hero Pit of <i>Old Man Logan</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">I don’t want to paint myself as some shrinking, hand wringing Pollyanna. I love
gore, and violence, and horror. I thought that <i>Animal Man</i> was one of the best new series coming out of the New 52,
precisely because it was so sticky and bloody and gross, and I love the blood
drenched pages of <i>American Vampire </i>and
<i>Locke and Key </i>alike. Thing is, those
stories have violence that contributes to the story, violence that actually
makes you feel something besides occasional disgust. The story is served by the
fangs and dismemberment and carnage, rather than existing as a delivery
mechanism for them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">There's one story that I haven't mentioned yet, firstly because it's the
story that all of these others are ripping off, and secondly because it's
actually not terrible. That story is <i>Uncanny</i> <i>X-Men: Days of Future Past.</i> Yes,
it's angst-ridden and overblown and totally Claremont in all the best and worst
ways, and yes it hasn't dated very well, and yes we see various heroes
(including the normally unkillable Wolverine) get killed. But here's the
thing: it matters. <i>Days of Future Past </i>is the most well-known appearance
of the Sentinels, the villains who best represents the mindless bigotry
and hatred that the X-Men fight. It's the origin of multiple X-Men characters
who would go on to play major roles in future comics, including Bishop and Rachel
Summers. Most importantly, though, it's a really powerful and entertaining
story, one that adds real stakes and gravitas to the X-Men setting in a way
that readers hadn’t seen before, and in a way that virtually every other story
listed here is trying to emulate. Hell, <i>Age of Apocalypse</i> is basically
the exact same thing, using the exact same characters, only in reverse, so that
it's about the bigotry of mutants and not humans which dooms the world. Way to miss the point, guys.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVcyWkPTYpK4uX3sS2sgsgnVLJIv3TnoAZ8b5O9ZOAttS4OE9WlejKV2N88eUMWXXYoPPCQm4cwr6rcI4xRgQOY-tVQWFr9YtP-5DcnWslhMYtnoQx6ha8sNR5EDnlr9wTK1MzgNAgkzeA/s1600/days+of+future+past.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVcyWkPTYpK4uX3sS2sgsgnVLJIv3TnoAZ8b5O9ZOAttS4OE9WlejKV2N88eUMWXXYoPPCQm4cwr6rcI4xRgQOY-tVQWFr9YtP-5DcnWslhMYtnoQx6ha8sNR5EDnlr9wTK1MzgNAgkzeA/s1600/days+of+future+past.jpg" height="320" width="207" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The original and still the best: <i>Days of Future Past</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">To my mind, <i>Days of Future Past </i>is powerful because it says to the
reader - "here is what happens if the heroes fail." It’s set in a
worst case scenario, a world where all the major X-Men are dead or on the run and the
foulest sort of human bigotry has taken charge of the world. Released in 1981 and
set in the not-too-distant future of 2013, this grim vision of a possible
future placed the characters under a cloud that would motivate their struggle
for years to come. All of these other possible futures - <i>Old Man Logan</i>, <i>Future
Imperfect, Kingdom Come </i>- are just things that kind of happen. Yeah, they
can be prevented by stopping Superman from flapping his wings and starting a
hurricane or whatever, but that's it. They don't provide an ongoing vision of
the terrible future for the heroes to push back against in the way that <i>Days
of Future Past </i>does, and even if they did they would just be a retread of
that great tale.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">Let’s round this out with a look at the complete opposite of <i>Days of Future Past. </i>Last weekend, just
like you I imagine, I went out on Free Comic Book Day and stood in a
ridiculously long line in order to get a handful of free comics that are
basically just ads and are definitely also available online. Some of them were
good and some of them were bad, but one of them was just bafflingly,
overwhelmingly, terrible. That book was <i>Future's End #0</i>, the setup
for the upcoming DC event where Terry McGuinness (of <i>Batman Beyond</i>)
escapes to the present day from a terrifying dystopian future where - you
guessed it - EVERYBODY DIES. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0rtdQ8BRPLoygtc-rMCOiZNvxBwjH_GoOTvSBO7e-jmtXqtBKzirX2qpUZxnjZEUU70EbfvjTcs9j4Q3b380Lu3WUFQeiE37axmxkTE-4lA3h2iwQedDWfaawHDpkbk65Nan38A9hMGh/s1600/Frankenstein_%2528Futures_End%2529_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0rtdQ8BRPLoygtc-rMCOiZNvxBwjH_GoOTvSBO7e-jmtXqtBKzirX2qpUZxnjZEUU70EbfvjTcs9j4Q3b380Lu3WUFQeiE37axmxkTE-4lA3h2iwQedDWfaawHDpkbk65Nan38A9hMGh/s1600/Frankenstein_%2528Futures_End%2529_001.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">This is a brutal, nasty book. Batman gets shot in the back. Peoples hands and limbs get chopped off. Superman is half robot and completely mind controlled, and Frankenstein HAS BLACK CANARY'S LIVING, OPEN MOUTHED HEAD IMPLANTED IN HIS CHEST. People talk about women being used as objects in other mediums, but only comics take it to such a literal, horrible extreme. I’m not joking when I say that every page in <i>Future's End #0 </i>contains a superhero dying, dead or mutilated into some new cyborg form, some of them horrible and many of them incredibly bizarre. Batgirl, for example, is now the Bat-signal from the waist down. I don't even know how to make a joke about that. There is simply nothing fun about these twenty-odd pages, just as there has been almost nothing fun about DC comics for maybe a solid decade now.<o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">Here’s the thing – none of this matters. One the last page, Terry travels
back in time to the present day (or, I guess, “FIVE YEARS FROM NOW” because
time travel stories when you use a
floating timeline are hard) with the mission of averting this all from happening. So
why did we need to see all of this brutality? Sure, we need to know that the
future sucks and we need to avoid it, but slaughter on this scale is nothing
but murderporn. It completely misses the point of what made <i>Days of Future Past </i>great, dropping all the significance and leaving us with nothing but a smear of meaningless violence that doesn’t
tie into ANY of the established themes of either Batman stories or DC in
general. The worst part, of course, is that a) this story is apparently going to tie into every fucking DC book this year, and b) this is the free book that DC is
using to draw in new readers. When you see Frankenstein
wielding Black Canary’s sexdoll-blank face as a living weapon, remember, THIS
IS WHAT THEY THINK WE WANT. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">My recommendation - don't waste your time with this issue, because even for
free, you're still only going to have so many years on this earth and you could
be reading LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE in that time. Don't waste your time with <i>Future's
End </i>the series, either - if you're hungry for some future-Batman action,
check out <i>Batman Beyond, </i>or <i>Batman Year 100, </i>or god help me <i>Batman
Digital Justice</i>. You have options, and DC will only learn if you exercise
them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: small;">I just don't need to see any more heroes get dismembered, you know?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-43953389385018614892014-04-23T03:51:00.000-07:002014-04-23T18:35:24.154-07:00Redemption and the Bat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqDDV72KXRMwj2AHsmcDHQC5o78rI8nU7PmjyXMrMX5K246DjlU3slwTyx7hQ64GjDRXWh0KG_jO3vrgfsvZMC6gO9jdazKLcyaHXlXdCq_g5kPcRMUKux_z2Q72b_sV5Hczfb5OaSQIS_/s1600/Title.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqDDV72KXRMwj2AHsmcDHQC5o78rI8nU7PmjyXMrMX5K246DjlU3slwTyx7hQ64GjDRXWh0KG_jO3vrgfsvZMC6gO9jdazKLcyaHXlXdCq_g5kPcRMUKux_z2Q72b_sV5Hczfb5OaSQIS_/s1600/Title.jpg" height="299" width="400" /></a></div>
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Today we’re going to be dealing with a reader question, from Friend Of The
Blog and all around good guy <a href="https://twitter.com/goblinpaladin">@goblinpaladin</a>: <i>“Does Batman's abhorrence of
firearms and imposed restriction of no killing mean he believes in the
possibility of redemption?”</i><br />
<br />
Good question! Let me begin by answering it quickly, and then
going into a bit more detail: Batman believes THE HECK out of redemption. It’s basically his whole deal. It’s why he’s not the Punisher. It’s why he doesn’t kill, why
he sends his villains to an asylum, a place of healing. You might also say, "but Alex, isn't Batman also kind of a suspicious guy? Can't he sometimes also be kind of an asshole?" And you'd be right, for the most part. Here's the thing: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Batman accepts the capacity for
redemption in all people as a concept, but he basically never believes in it when
he sees it.</b> <br />
<br />
There are a few caveats that I want to get out of the way before we dig into
the nuts and bolts, and the first one is that you can find a Batman story to
prove anything you like. The guy has been in print for <i>seventy five goddamn
years</i> now, often in as many as six books a month, all by different writers,
all of whom have their own idea of how the ‘real’ Batman behaves. There's gonna be done variance, and at the end of the day he’s a
fictional character, so getting at what "really" believes is always going
to be a problematic endeavour. That said, there are degrees. Let me put it this way –
there’s a difference between a story where Batman lets Catwoman come hang out
in the Batcave, which is out of character but not impossible, and a story where
he teams up with the man who killed his parents, USING THE GUN THAT KILLED HIS
PARENTS, which is totally goddamn insane. Both of these things happened (<i>Hush
</i>and <i>Year Two, </i>respectively) and both of them are terrible, but the
latter is a far greater deviation from the ‘proper' Batman, for lack of a
better word. That concept is also pretty subjective, and if you have a different perspective, well it's not like you're paying for this.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_c86KjaQvhgXadSxLPvyEduFFWLebK5L3Io5n7ypPptDL2xBqaY7uVn4NJ8Ycgj3Nvi-NJ_DCAY3c2enIilrer_xHz11V7TF20sPzZ3dePiG5M_CCoBu_mGhcXjWJ7hPF5H2suhho6mMw/s1600/Year+Two.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_c86KjaQvhgXadSxLPvyEduFFWLebK5L3Io5n7ypPptDL2xBqaY7uVn4NJ8Ycgj3Nvi-NJ_DCAY3c2enIilrer_xHz11V7TF20sPzZ3dePiG5M_CCoBu_mGhcXjWJ7hPF5H2suhho6mMw/s1600/Year+Two.JPG" height="250" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Let's just move right along...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The second caveat is that, of course, nobody who prances around the Gotham
rooftops in a fancy costume in Gotham is <i>ever</i> going to reform their ways, not even
the ones who got stuck with terrible names like Sportsmaster or Killer Moth, no
matter how long they spend in Arkham Asylum. This is for the same reason that
none of them ever stay dead, not even when they get burned to ashes and have
those ashes spread into space, as happened to Ra’s al Ghul in “Messiah of the
Crimson Sun.” It’s just the nature of serialised storytelling – one writer
might genuinely intend for a character to have a resolution, but the next guy
in line is still free to tear all that down and bring them back to status quo.
Batman doesn’t know this, though, just as he doesn’t know that his sweet cape
is actually the work of artist, colourist and inker, so in analysing his
behaviour we have to work under the assumption that it might be possible for
one of his rogues gallery to properly and permanently give up the life of
crime. There have been a few stories to dig deep into the workings of Arkham
and look for an in-story explanation for why any actual healing or reform is
impossible there – <i>Arkham: A Serious House on Serious Earth </i>and Ca<i>ges </i>(from
<i>Batman Annual #2</i>)<i> </i>spring to mind, but they’re both a little
outside today’s scope.<br />
<br />
<table 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/AVvXsEi6RFfPxvmZJABZjcPtsV1O3Rx65YvKqXpQ9x9Emy1qFH6WFktJYK7gONX3g3XiwuGX8o3vYlhifBjINcDWBYF7531_YxSQO_A2xZ5OPQDI4mKR8NrwElsGn4bJruf6t2ip7MQCdiyF1iRO/s1600/Anchoress.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6RFfPxvmZJABZjcPtsV1O3Rx65YvKqXpQ9x9Emy1qFH6WFktJYK7gONX3g3XiwuGX8o3vYlhifBjINcDWBYF7531_YxSQO_A2xZ5OPQDI4mKR8NrwElsGn4bJruf6t2ip7MQCdiyF1iRO/s1600/Anchoress.JPG" height="320" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Cages", by Scott Snyder and Marguerite Bennett</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To work, my friends, and let’s keep this simple. We’re going to look at a
single set of stories that cover the length and breadth of the Batman mythos, a
series that is consistent enough to be considered a single text but broad
enough to form a microcosm of the larger Batman universe. You know what I’m
talking about. The greatest appearance of Batman on television, <i>Batman: The
Animated Series</i>. We're going to use the series to look at how he puts criminals away, how he treats them when they're released, and even what he thinks about the nature of their incarceration.<br />
<br />
To my mind, the clearest examples in <i>The Animated Series</i> that
demonstrates Batman’s belief in redemption are “It’s Never Too Late” and
“Paging the Crime Doctor”<i>. </i>There are a lot of common threads between the
two episodes, though “Paging the Crime Doctor”<i> </i>comes later and builds a
lot on the setup of the first. “It’s Never Too Late”<i> </i>is essentially a
reworking of the <i>A Christmas Carol / It’s a Wonderful Life</i> setup, with
Batman taking an aging crime boss named Arnold Stromwell around Gotham and
showing him the fruits of his misdeeds, encouraging him to turn state’s witness
and end a destructive mob war with rival Rupert Thorne. It’s powerful stuff,
culminating in Stromwell flashing back to the childhood tragedy that set him on
the path of destruction before breaking down and vowing to change his ways.
“Paging The Crime Doctor”<i> </i>runs in a similar vein, with Batman seeking to
save Thorne’s brother instead of his rival, a doctor named Matthew Thorne who
has been compelled to operate an illegal practice for his Thorne’s henchmen.
Not only does Batman rescue him from Rupert’s machinations, he also pays for a
top defence lawyer for him and testifies as Bruce Wayne, all in the name of
getting him a more lenient sentence. This is despite Matthew having endangered
the life of one of Batman’s closest friends, Leslie Thompkins, something that
would usually earn you a date with a rope and the underside of one of Gotham’s
higher gargoyles.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuUXKkz3VZpLIJpHIE-WPknMnojQnsnD0bkSMlEZDgOyDo3ggV0xdKfno7yTAqU2PTrjGgTQD5UkhcHLg8tiuAyBF45hlPuZQwwDmMK_xgjOZthUzlAUlfRoZCdD3GxRGgZwhybGf07BJD/s1600/It%2527s+Never+Too+Late.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuUXKkz3VZpLIJpHIE-WPknMnojQnsnD0bkSMlEZDgOyDo3ggV0xdKfno7yTAqU2PTrjGgTQD5UkhcHLg8tiuAyBF45hlPuZQwwDmMK_xgjOZthUzlAUlfRoZCdD3GxRGgZwhybGf07BJD/s1600/It%2527s+Never+Too+Late.JPG" height="238" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Paging The Crime Doctor"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
What’s the common thread here? Batman can tell the difference between those
who are completely consumed by evil – Rupert Thorne, in both cases – and those
who have a chance to be better people. Arnold Stromwell and Matthew Thorne have
both made bad choices and done bad things, but they still have good in them,
and Batman can see that. That’s not to say that they don’t get punished, since
both characters end up facing jail time for their crimes, but Batman
understands that if someone just reaches out a hand to them, they may well walk
a different path in the future. Within the confines of his mission to help the
helpless and bring down the guilty, he also does what he can to be that hand.
He’s here to make Gotham a better place to live, and reforming those who can be
reformed is absolutely a part of that.<br />
<br />
But what does Batman do with those who <i>have </i>reformed, or at least
claim to have done so? After all, there are several episodes which open with an
Arkham regular being released and announcing their intention to go straight.
Does Batman believe them? Like hell he does. Let’s break it down, starting with
“Riddler’s Reform.” It opens with the Riddler’s apparent cure and release from
Arkham, something that should be good news, but of course Batman doesn’t trust
him. A truck full of question mark crates seems to bear this out, and of course
Bats breaks this up, only to discover that it’s part of a shipment of games.
Not deterred, he keeps following Riddler around, threatening him, disrupting
his activities and accusing him of all sorts of crimes. He turns out to be
right, of course, because a Riddler who goes straight isn’t nearly as
interesting as a master criminal, no matter whatever comics of late oughts
might try to make you believe. The point is, a criminal tells the world that
he’s going straight, and Bats just can’t accept it. He <i>wants </i>criminals
to give up their ways, but when they try, he doesn’t believe that they have.
He’s complicated.<br />
<div class="nobrtable">
<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/AVvXsEgr8z0IgE8Qdl2Hw_XB1jcNbmsgRArmNrJe1u6Wq1MwXXBdKDuZ4uDGBqTknXo3lqbtmmXjoBU5gGnIbGVTiAIc-5Koye2dMR-O_e98_EqYm9kGQTKr1PMbRbuWXC9WLjGDLH6KrD2zOxjE/s1600/riddler's+reform.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr8z0IgE8Qdl2Hw_XB1jcNbmsgRArmNrJe1u6Wq1MwXXBdKDuZ4uDGBqTknXo3lqbtmmXjoBU5gGnIbGVTiAIc-5Koye2dMR-O_e98_EqYm9kGQTKr1PMbRbuWXC9WLjGDLH6KrD2zOxjE/s1600/riddler's+reform.JPG" height="242" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Riddler's Reform"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This isn’t the only time, either. Poison Ivy even gets married and adopts a
couple of kids in “House and Garden”, but when there’s a string of plant-based
murders Batman is right there, knocking on her door and trailing her all around
town. Another instructive example appears in “Birds of a Feather”, in which it
is the Penguin who is released and makes a try for the simple life, albeit in
his own disgusting way. Batman once again gets involved, first accusing him of
being involved in a mugging which he was actually breaking up, and later
assuming that he was stealing a statuette which he was in fact returning to its
owner. This time, Batman actually starts to come around, starting to believe
that the Penguin is genuine in his desire to go straight before the cruelty of
others drive him back to his criminal ways.<br />
<br />
Then there’s Catwoman, and I’ll be honest with you folks, it’s hard to get a
read on where she fits into the whole question of redemption. Yes, Batman looks
out for her when she’s not actively involved in stealing enormous statues of
Isis, and he even saves her from becoming a walking Deviantart at one point,
but the fact that he’s so very attracted to her means that he’s got as much
personal motivation in turning her around as he does a legitimate belief in her
capacity for good. It’s also worth noting that when she is paroled from prison
in “Cat Scratch Fever”, just as with the Riddler, Batman doesn’t believe that
she could have possibly gone straight, and sets out to keep tabs on her. Unlike
Ivy or the Riddler, though, she’s telling the truth, and when circumstances
find her imprisoned once again, it’s Bruce Wayne who pops up with bail for her
release.<br />
<br />
<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/AVvXsEiltS9Z-Vzw-cNx5C4hRl7jGj4vYw-CZz9IAK14TXdNNXpw-tsQfrwynBCCpArhgsf8RBN2Di0zC3YlTmXnpkgRWJ-oYvIinbQpBgBl2WvfFg2QZ4zV2Lf2crKEriDnbdtpUwMdBVH7eoib/s1600/tyger.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiltS9Z-Vzw-cNx5C4hRl7jGj4vYw-CZz9IAK14TXdNNXpw-tsQfrwynBCCpArhgsf8RBN2Di0zC3YlTmXnpkgRWJ-oYvIinbQpBgBl2WvfFg2QZ4zV2Lf2crKEriDnbdtpUwMdBVH7eoib/s1600/tyger.JPG" height="241" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Tyger, Tyger" - not what you'd call a "good" episode</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
One last example of a reform story before we move on, that his is a more
complex version that I want to pay particular attention to. “Harley’s Holiday”
has Harley Quinn being released from prison and goes on a shopping spree, only
to be caught up in a series of misadventures that begin with her walking her
rabid hyenas down the street and end with her accidentally kidnapping a
socialite. It’s worth noting that the whole thing stems from the people of
Gotham assuming that they know that Harley must be up to no good, coupled with
her complete inability to behave in public. She does end up causing quite a bit
of wanton property damage, and Batman brings her down and sends her back to
prison, but here’s the thing: he understands. He doesn’t condemn her as a no
good criminal, and he doesn’t say that she shouldn’t have been released. What <i>does
</i>he say, then? “I had a bad day once too.” Harley’s not a bad person here,
she’s just poorly socialised and unable to fit in. Yeah, she’s done terrible
things, but that’s not <i>who she is. </i>This episode is largely pitched
towards humour, but the producers also have something to say about ex-convicts
and recidivism, namely that those who struggle to escape from a life of crime
could do with an understanding ear, even if it does come from a grim figure of
the night.<br />
<br />
<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/AVvXsEi5Ok47B3dye73LaaegxKX3mXMIinZx-dOr6kG33acsq9DEgpESYMNzPvr7-hAlWdPcEWPSS-LTjNTh22Vjf0pPEf21b27IhqjER3zK3HMpmBRA-EmnJZyL1w0lEDzCr7WfzXss7j-eG_El/s1600/Harley%2527s+Holiday.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Ok47B3dye73LaaegxKX3mXMIinZx-dOr6kG33acsq9DEgpESYMNzPvr7-hAlWdPcEWPSS-LTjNTh22Vjf0pPEf21b27IhqjER3zK3HMpmBRA-EmnJZyL1w0lEDzCr7WfzXss7j-eG_El/s1600/Harley%2527s+Holiday.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Harley's Holiday"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So we see how Batman goes about bringing down particular criminals, and how
he behaves when they’re released, but what about the time in between? What’s
his attitude towards those who are incarcerated? For that, we need to turn our
attention to an excellent episode with a terrible villain, “Lock-Up<i>.</i>”<i>
</i>This episode is about Lyle Bolton, the brutal head of security at Arkham
Asylum. When Batman discovers the lengths that he goes to in order to keep the
Arkham inmates under control, including intimidation, beatings and torture,
he’s horrified. Under the Bruce Wayne persona he sets up a hearing into
Bolton’s behaviour which leads to his termination, whereupon he reacts like
everybody in Gotham reacts to anything that happens to them and becomes a
costumed vigilante.<br />
<br />
Now, It’s never stated precisely <i>why</i> Batman is upset about the
treatment of the inmates, especially since they’re all guilty of terrorism,
murder and abuse of theming several times over, but the likely explanation is
that he feels they’re capable of reforming. At the very least, it indicates a
support for due process and for the humane treatment of prisoners, which would
indicate a position that the prison system is there to reform, not to punish.
That might be a stretch, but seen in combination with the previous examples, it
seems to be clear proof of Batman’s commitment to reform and redemption among
Gotham’s cowardly, superstitious lot.<br />
<br />
So there we have it! Batman believes that people can reform, but when it
comes to individual criminals actually trying to do so, <i>he tends to be kind of
a dick about it</i>. Agree? Disagree? Let me know, and be sure to follow along on
Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/CrimeAlleyNotes">@CrimeAlleyNotes</a><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-44203092327254263082014-04-16T23:14:00.001-07:002014-04-17T02:37:59.896-07:00Rockers, Thieves and Ghosts - THE INDIES ARE COMING<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh29nY3UonbYUFw8AeR6_s3IpfVkn-0Z8c1hJE80-WeZldoVlffRye3YpXWpLUypdrepQHzSayWngvyUlQNJFyggoP0fvuuF1wDVkFJL5dg__maCzT0Pb9bM75fBW-Qu9uCuWBm9ouzzoba/s1600/finder-sineater05-02.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh29nY3UonbYUFw8AeR6_s3IpfVkn-0Z8c1hJE80-WeZldoVlffRye3YpXWpLUypdrepQHzSayWngvyUlQNJFyggoP0fvuuF1wDVkFJL5dg__maCzT0Pb9bM75fBW-Qu9uCuWBm9ouzzoba/s1600/finder-sineater05-02.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Finder: Sin Eater</i>, Carla Speed McNeil</td></tr>
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So I love superheroes as much as the next person, assuming that the next person also has a Batman tattoo on his arm and drinks his morning coffee from a Watchmen mug, but did you know that there are comics out there which do not feature people who dress up like lunatics and have an inappropriately close relationships with a bodysuit wearing minor? Some of them - and brace yourself for this - <i>don't even feature heroes, villains and an eternal struggle between the two</i>. Incredible, I know. It's almost as though comics are an entire medium, capable of telling any sort of story the writer might desire, that somehow got completely monopolised by a single sub-sub-sub genre due to a few fast talking hucksters who were around at just the right moment. <br />
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Joking aside, I want to take a moment to talk about a few indie comics that I love, creator owned joints that tell slightly more personal, intimate tales that the violent soap operas which usually grab my attention. I went through an extended phase of only reading this sort of comic - you may picture me with a beret and turtleneck, smoking an exotic clove cigarette, if that would please you - and it's only in the last few years that I've been drawn back into the colourful histrionics of the superhero world. I still retain a lot of love for the indie scene, though, and I want to take a bit of time to talk about them today. I'm going to run through a series of creators - not necessarily my favourites so much as the ones that I feel need more attention, and whom you would benefit from hearing about. To that end, I'm going to assume that you're already familar with the Chris Wares, Chester Browns, Luna Brothers and the Kate Beatons of the world - though if you're not, get on that - and move on to folk who are a little more obscure. I'll also be looking at them in the context of a single work, the piece that either defines them as an artist or the one that you would be best served by grabbing before diving into the rest of their output. I am, as ever, devoted to your service, o reader.<br />
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First cab off the rank is <b>Faith Erin Hicks</b>, someone who work I've just recently been getting into, who is <a href="http://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/1673/dark-horse-2014-eisner-nominees-announced">nominated for not one but two Eisner awards this year</a>. Those are both for her latest, <i>The Adventures of Superhero Girl</i>, a book that I haven't actually read as yet. What I have read is <i>Friends</i> <i>With Boys</i>, and it's great. It's a semi-autobiographical comic about a homeschooled girl who finds herself going to high school for the first time, facing off against all the usual pressures and dramas that come along with that, while also being haunted by a very unusual ghost.<br />
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All of the characters in <i>Friends With Boys </i>are enormously engaging, and the central relationship between protagonist Maggie and the ghost is compelling and real in a unique sort of way. Secondary characters like her father are immediately vivid and likable, and even though the story meanders from time to time, it's the readers engagement with the characters who make up this strange little world that keeps things interesting. Hicks has a great art style, scratchly and slightly cartoony but with an enormous range of emotion and expressiveness. There's obviously more than a little anime influence on her proportions and style, though her linework and blocking is much more western. The locations and characters in <i>Friends With Boys </i>are all extremely detailed, with a really engaging warmth. <br />
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<i>Friends With Boys </i>was originally published as a webcomic, which has since been taken down and replaced with a physical, book-like object which you can hold in your hands and give to friends and enemies alike. You can read the first 20 pages and order a copy <a href="http://www.friendswithboys.com/">from her website</a>.<br />
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<b>Kat Leyh's </b>series <i>Supercakes </i>has been coming out in bits and pieces on her Tumblr since the beginning of the year, and I predict that she will be doing big things in the comics world before long. It's set in a world with superheroes - I know, I know, but just hear me out - however the comics themselves have virtually no fighting or explosions, and nothing that looks even remotely like any of the standard tropes of the genre. Instead, we spend our time with a superpower endowed couple, May and Molly, a pair of polar opposites who just happen to also fight crime from time to time. The best place to start is <a href="http://katleyh.com/comics/?comic=pancakes">with the first story, Pancakes; </a>it feels as though it was intended as a one off, but the characters are so immediately engaging and the style so delightful that readers clamoured for more, and Leyh has been providing. The most recent story deals with an awkward, chaotic, wonderful gathering in which Molly is finally introduced to May's sprawling family, all of whom have powers of one form or another. It's perfectly observed, delightfully illustrated and just plain lovely.<br />
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All of the <i>Supercakes </i>material, as well as a lot of other work from Leyh, is available at the above link.<br />
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<i>Subatomic Party Girls </i>is one of only a few series that I'll be covering here which has more than one person behind the wheel, since indie creators tend to like to throw themselves in and handle the writing and drawing themselves. It's by bloggers <b>Chris Sims </b>and <b>Chad Bowers</b>, and illustrated by <b>Erica Henderson, </b>and it's a crazy-fun adventure featuring an all girl power pop trio who, through the machinations of their evil manager, find themselves shot to the far side of the galaxy. It's like <i>Farscape </i>but with more guitar solos and feline space pirates. There are three issues out so far, and though the release schedule is somewhat haphazard the quality is improving dramatically with each issue. The art is vividly coloured, with an enormous amount of character given the economy of linework, and all three members of Berrilym Steel burst with personality. The same goes for the writing, which hurtles along at a breathless, witty pace as the girls lurch from one hilarious disaster to the next.<br />
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<i>Subatomic Party Girls </i>comes out through Monkeybrain Studios - they're a great little outfit that publish creator owned
stuff of an enormous range and variety, eschewing traditional mediums and going <a href="https://www.comixology.com/Subatomic-Party-Girls/comics-series/10823">straight to digital via the Comixology platform</a>, and this isn't the only one of their books that you'll be hearing about on here.
I could write a whole article about how great Comixology has been for
indie books, and my gut-sucking terror at its upcoming acquisition by
Amazon, but that too is a story for another day. Besides, my therapist
tells me that I'm not supposed to fly into wild panics about things
which are only happening in my head. <br />
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MOVING RIGHT ALONG, one of the most successful independent creators of recent years is <b>Becky Cloonan</b>, who has climbed to the dizzying heights of being the first woman to illustrate an issue of <i>Batman</i>.* She's put out an enormous body of work in recent years, but the one that I want to talk about is the series of self contained one-shot comics she's been self publishing under the Ink and Thunder imprint. <i>Wolves, The Mire </i>and now <i>Demeter </i>were originally available only at conventions, <a href="https://www.comixology.com/Demeter/digital-comic/38455">but can now be found on Comixology</a> as well. They're very dark, poignant little fairy tales, as grimy and bloody and straight-up frightening as the original stories of Grimm and earlier. To my knowledge, none of them are direct adaptations of particular stories, but rather exist in that world and play with those tropes, in a way that is both loving and self aware, without ever being pretentious or deconstructionist in the least. Every one of these stories has a twist in the tail that renders them at once fascinating and unbearably tragic. To be honest, I want to talk a lot more about how beautfully and elegantly constructed the three stories are, but they're all short sharp shocks that I don't want to risk spoiling for you. Trust me on this. You trust me, right?<br />
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The amazing thing about Cloonan's art is how versatile it is. When drawing her issue of <i>Batman </i>it's only slightly sketchier than the usual artist on the book, while <i>Demterer </i>is deep and moody, saturated in shadow and fur and darkness. <i>The Mire</i>, a more horror-focussed story, is different once again, rendered in much more precise detail, the better to make out every gaping socket and writhing maggot. She is especially gifted when to comes to drawing faces and facial expressions - while these tales are narrated by the characters, all the better to give them an oral history, fairy tale feel, more often than not the reader needs only to look at the illustration to tell what's going on in the character's heart.<br />
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<b>Paul Tobin </b>and <b>Colleen Coover </b>both have quite a few professional credits to their name - he's written for several <i>Marvel Adventures </i>books as well as <i>Age of the Sentry</i>, and she's contributed art to <i>X-Men: First Class </i>and the <i>Adventure Time </i>comic - but here they're teamed for the bright, indie adventure <i>Bandette, </i>another series coming out through Monkeybrain Studios. Like all of their books, it's <a href="https://www.comixology.com/Bandette-1/digital-comic/27559">available exclusively through Comixology.</a><br />
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Now, I'm someone who takes his vocabulary pretty seriously, so I really do feel like there needs to be a word for something more 'charming' than 'charming', since this book has FAR too much charm to be encompassed by those two tiny syllables. ULTRACHARM 3000, perhaps. Anyhow, the premise of this ULTRACHARM 3000 story is great: taking inspiration from Tintin and the Scarlet Pimpernel alike, it's about Bandette, the most clever, dashing and talented thief in all of Paris. She leads a scrappy band of urchins and miscreants, fighting crime when called upon by the perpetually embattled Inspector Belgique, using her roguish wiles to break up a hostage situation or steal back and return a set of missing Rembrants. Well...return MOST of them. Bandette is a character who bursts with colour and personality, an irresistible prankster who loves life and never lets even the most dire situation get her down. When the title character is having this much fun, the reader can't help but do the same. In the age of maudlin, angst ridden superheroes perpetually rending their capes and long underwear with guilt and misery, it's a real delight to read about a character who uses her skills not because they're a terrible burden but because being the greatest thief of all time is <i>awesome</i>. The art is peppy and fun, and complements the story perfectly. Bandette looks slightly ridiculous in her costume, but that's sort of the point - she's a ridiculous person, and that's why we love her. The characters all pop with style and personality, Coover's art does a great job of contrasting the bold, simple action with lovingly painted backdrops that give the whole thing that Parisian <span class="st"><i>je ne sais quoi</i></span>.<br />
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Finally, we have someone who has been around for a while but definitely deserves a mention: <b>Carla Speed McNeil. </b>Not only does she have the coolest name of any person working in comics, at least until Jake Hammerslam finally finishes his twelve part epic about nurses in the the Spanish Civil War, but she also writes <i>Finder</i>, one of my favourite indie comics of all time. <i>Finder </i>is set in the distant future, a sprawing epic that weaves a dense, multilayered story set in the enormous, decaying city of Anvard and the surrounding desert. This is a collapsed city, the relic of a lost technological age, inhabited by dozens of different tribes who do their best to coexist and make this strange, fractured place their own. It tells the story of Jaegar, a wanderer and troublemaker, and the various lives that he touches, for better or for worse. Along the way we're introduced to a vast array of troubled, broken characters all trying to do their best in this improvised, haphazardly constructed world.<br />
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It's dizzying stuff, dense and fast and smart in a way that most writers only dream of being, with aspects of mythology and cyberpunk and anthropology woven elegantly together. The sheer rate of ideas per minute is incredible, and the granular detail in the worldbuilding is spectacular - for example, the lighting dome that covers the city is breaking down, and nobody knows how to repair it, but there are festivals that kick off as soon as it goes dark. Hell, there are even godlike figures who embody that time of year. Questions of identity and gender play powerful roles as well - there are some clans in which all the members dress as women, some with strictly hierarchical gender roles, and some that bear virtually no resemblance to any human culture you can think of. Under all of these background details, the human story that rests at the heart of <i>Finder</i> is deeply powerful, with the first book detailing Jaegar's return to Anvard for the first time in years, whereupon he must deal with the complex social and moral requirements thrown up by a close friend and former commanding officer who has become violently unstable, and increasingly dangerous to his family.<br />
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This is one of the few books here that isn't online, so if you're interested in getting your hands on some, I recommend the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Finder-Library-Volume-Carla-McNeil/dp/1595826521">massive <i>Finder Library </i>editions</a>. They're dauntingly doorstop-sized, but utterly gorgeous, and heavily annotated by McNeil - something which can be invaluable in some of the stranger, more ethereal sections of the tale.<br />
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Whew. That's a lot of comics! We've barely scratched the surface, though. Honourable mentions go to Jason Lutes, whose epic <i>Berlin </i>tells the story of the great city between the wars in rich and meticulously researched fashion, Brandon Graham, whose <i>King City </i>is one of the strangest and most original sci-fi metropolises out there and Jess Fink, whose <i>Chester 5000 </i>series is smarter and sexier than an erotic webcomic about a Victorian robot has any right to be.<br />
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Which indie comics do you love? Have I missed any of your favourites? Do you make one yourself, and want to let the world know? Direct your eyes downwards to the comments section, my friend, or hit me up at @CrimeAlleyNotes on your modern Twitter Social Media Device. <br />
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*Some might say that the fact that that didn't happen until 2013
indicates that there's, I don't know, some sort of gross,
institutionalised cancer lurking at the heart of the industry we love,
but who can tell. Maybe it's just that no women asked until now. <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-46387686345140735922014-04-11T17:58:00.003-07:002014-04-11T18:01:36.282-07:00The Tragic Tale of Bill MantloI don't know how much I can say about this, but I want to say something. Legendary comic book creator Bill Mantlo is in a hospital bed after a hit and run accident, and will almost definitely be there for the rest of his life. He requires constant care, has enormous medical bills and, like so many greats of the golden age of comics, no money. Mantlo is one of the largely unsung heroes of comics, someone who produced solid, quality work at a steady, reliable rate. His run on <i>The Incredible Hulk </i>is considered one of the definitive ones, and he was also behind the launch of underground favourite <i>Rom: Spaceknight.</i><br />
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Mantlo has been injured for a long time now, and his condition has been common knowledge among fans as well. So why am I mentioning it now? Well, one of the characters that Mantlo created was Rocket Raccoon, star of the upcoming <i>Guardians of the Galaxy </i>movie. In any other industry that would have him set for life, but this is comics, and he won't see a dime for it. Unfortunately, that's not an usual story in this industry. Joe Shuster, the co-creator of Superman, suffered terribly from poverty in his lifetime, despite being responsible for one of the most iconic character of all time.<br />
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If you want to know more, <a href="http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2011/11/07/tragic-tale">this heartbreaking article</a> has the full story of Bill Mantlo's situation, and current Superman writer Greg Pak has a PayPal button for donations to his care <a href="http://www.gregpak.com/entries/002275.shtml">here.</a> Pak also wrote very powerfully about Mantlo's influence on his own writing <a href="http://www.newsarama.com/8298-greg-pak-s-centaur-crossing-2-mantlo-s-incredible-legacy.html">here</a>. If nothing else, when you go to see <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> with your friends, spare a thought for Mantlo, and maybe say something to somebody. These characters don't just appear, they're created by hardworking men and women, and we need to honour them as well.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-88904059912234041812014-04-10T20:32:00.004-07:002014-04-10T22:34:57.544-07:00Short reviews - 11 March, 2014Welcome once again to Some Stuff I Got Recently And Feel Like Talking About, or as I like to call it, SSIGRAFLTA. <a href="http://notesfromcrimealley.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/short-reviews.html">Just like last time</a>, this is going to be a quick rundown of some comics I picked up recently, what they're like, and whether or not I think that you should get them. The last time I did this it was pretty much the Image party, which isn't entirely surprising what with Image putting out some of the most unique and appealing books on the market right now, but I'm still going to cast the net a little wider this time. I'm also going to talk about a few less books this time around and go into each of them at greater length, partly because I'm still finding my "blogger voice" and mostly because this is my site and you can't actually stop me.<br />
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<b>BLACK WIDOW #5 - Nathan Edmonson and Phil Noto, Marvel</b><br />
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First up, if you're one of the many people who walked out of <i>The Avengers </i>or <i>Captain America: Winter Soldier </i>wishing for a Black Widow movie, you really should be picking up this series. Why? Well, two reasons. Firstly, if it's a success it'll demonstrate interest in the character and make a big screen solo outing more of a possibility. Secondly, THIS IS BASICALLY THE THING YOU'RE ASKING FOR, only on paper instead of celluloid and coming out every month instead of once every four to five years.<br />
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Seriously, of all the characters in those films, Black Widow is the one whose comic has taken the most direct influence from the movie. That's mostly down to the the fact that Natasha Romanov has been pretty inconsistently characterised over the years, from the comedy Russian accent of her Hawkeye appearance to the untrustworthy seductress bitch that Mark Millar made her / every woman he's ever written. This series ditches most of the character's backstory and baggage, leaving us with a enigmatic but ultimately honourable ninja/assassin type with a Dark Mysterious Past, one who can function in the intelligence and espionage community when she has to but is much happier getting her hands dirty in the blackest of black ops. She's smart, bold and tough, though far from infallible - this issue in particular ends with her finding herself in very big trouble as a result of her lack of caution. That's something that we can all relate to, though in my case it's usually more a case of overfilling my Slurpee cup rather than breaking into a top secret facility without adequate backup.<br />
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The other major influence here is Fraction and Aja's <i>Hawkeye, </i>and that makes a lot of sense, both because of the connection between the two characters as established in the movie and the ridiculous amount of success that that book has had in promoting a minor character to the top tier of popularity. <i>Black Widow</i> isn't quite as good as <i>Hawkeye, </i>though that's not saying much since <i>Hawkeye </i>is consistently among the best on the stands. It definitely has the same sort of tone, though, placing the character into a mostly-self-contained setting that looks a little more like the real world than your average <i>Iron Man </i>or <i>X-Men</i> outing.<br />
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That's a lot of waffle, I know. What you really want to know is - is it good? For the most part, yes. The art is very cool, a sort of slightly airbrushed pen and ink combination that looks beautiful in conversation scenes and dynamic in movement and combat. There's a lot of the latter in this issue, with Natasha getting into an all-out beatdown with a massive Russian assassin on an airport runway with a downed 747 spiraling towards them. It's good stuff, and even when the plotting falls into superspy tropes it's all handled with wit and aplomb. Nathan Edmonson gives the character a very clear voice, giving her a great mix of sardonicism and sadness, and Phil Noto draws her with just the right combination of European elegance and scrappy charm. I'm definitely going to keep picking this up into the forseeable future, and if you want more Black Widow in your life then you should too.<br />
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<b>LUMBERJANES #1 of 8 - Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Brooke A. Allen, Boom Studios</b><br />
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You've probably already heard a lot of the buzz surrounding <i>Lumberjanes </i>by
now - it's easily one of the most highly anticipated indie comics of
recent years, coming as it does from the enormously popular and
incredibly talented Noelle Stevenson. If you don't know the basics, they
are as follows - five badass girls in a log cabin, fighting monsters with the
power of punk rock friendship - TO THE MAX. There's more, but that's everything
that you really need to know going in, and if it doesn't hook you then I can't imagine what would.<br />
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This issue leaps straight into the action, with the girls getting into a brawl with a pack of evil three eyed foxes in the very first scene, which leads into a creepy prophecy which I suspect will drive the rest of the story. The rest of the issue is spent detailing their world and individual personalities, and it's actually quite impressive how quickly the five leads are sketched in and differentiated from one another. A lot of number one issues spend too much time setting things up and not enough time getting to the meat of the story, and the honest truth is that most writers just don't have time for that in the space of twenty-odd pages. This is a book that messes around as little as its characters, which is to say, not at all.<br />
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In this post-Buffy world, there have been
plenty of attempts to capture that sassy-girl-fights-monsters feel, most of which have ranged from the creepy to the naff, but I
really do feel like <i>Lumberjanes</i> nails it. The monsters are excellently strange (three eyed foxes, man), the girls are witty, engaging and
immediately likeable the script pops ("what the Joan
Jett are you doing!?") and the art is cartoony, expressive and utterly
joyous. Pretty much everything else that I read this month was drawn in a strictly realistic style, so it made a great change to get my hands and eyeballs on something where the art was so unabashadly cartoonish and fun. The bottom line is this: it doesn't matter who you are or what your particular tastes are, just ignore
the hype and buy this comic. You'll thank me later.<br />
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<b>MAGNUS, ROBOT FIGHTER #1 - Fred Van Lente and Cory Smith, Dynamite</b><br />
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I made the joke on Twitter a while ago that the best thing about <i>Magnus, Robot Fighter </i>starting up again was that it meant that there was a comic called <i>Magnus, Robot Fighter </i>in the world again, and while that sounds like damning this series with faint praise, I stand by it. It's a heck of a title, and so far, this is shaping up to be a fun enough book to earn it.<br />
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Magnus has a bit of history on him, <a href="http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/Gold%20Key%205.jpg">first appearing as a Gold Key character </a>all the way back in 1963, and then again as part of the <a href="http://collectingresources.com/images/repository/MagnusValiant0.jpg">Valiant lineup in the nineties</a>. He's been pretty unchanged throughout, since the premise "wears red tunic and karate chops robots" is pretty damn timeless. The latest version, this time from Dynamite, skips the macho skirt and keeps the robot beheading, which is disappointing to me but will almost definitely be good for sales. Dynamite have also managed to snag the rights for his old mate <i>Turok, Dinosaur Hunter</i>, so there's great potential for a Guys Whose Name Is What They Do crossover in the near future.<br />
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Anyway, the first issue gets things off to a pretty great start. The art is pretty solid, and Cory Smith has a great flair for drawing hyperdetailed robots and futuristic cityscapes, something the back half of the issue gives him plenty of chance to do. The story goes some way towards establishing a new status quo for the character that has a good combination of the modern and the classic, though it spends quite a bit longer than I would have liked on prologue before the story proper kicks off. I won't give too much away, but suffice to say if you gave this issue to someone in a decade they would definitely roll their eyes and say "gee, I guess those Matrix films were pretty popular back then, huh?"<br />
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Fred Van Lente has a lot of pedigree as a writer - I'm particularly enthusiastic about his <i>Action Philosophers! - </i> and he has a great knack for combining action with comedy, something that's very much on display here. There are several funny gags to go along with the robot punching action, including Magnus being subjected to a Captcha by a robot to test if he's human or robot, and restrictive Laws of Humanity that seem to correspond with the classic Laws of Robotics. At the end of the day, this is a well made comic about a man who does karate to robots, or at least the setup for one, and if that's up your alley then you should check it out.<br />
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<b>DETECTIVE COMICS #30 - Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul, DC Comics</b><br />
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For a while, life was simple. The New 52 freed me from the awful burden of having to buy so many DC books every month by the simple measure of making most of them terrible, and I was left to do whatever I wanted with my free time and bank balance. With the number of readable Batman books stripped down to one (1), I could happily read along with Snyder's Bat-ventures and not have to worry about anything else. Now, DC have had the temerity to pull the hackish Tony Daniel away from the reigns of <i>Detective</i>, put a fresh, interesting team on the book and kick it off in a whole new direction, thus FORCING me to start picking it up again. What a pack of assholes.<br />
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This comic does a few things that I don't care for a lot that I do. The first three pages are basically nothing but people saying that they're getting fresh starts, or whole new beginnings, or that a new day is dawning, and yes, I get it, we're starting afresh here, jeez. Something I love, though? The cover is YELLOW AND PINK. This is a Batman book, and the background of the cover is bright, solid yellow. It's bold, it's attention getting and its fun. The story has Batman chasing down a motorcycle gang (awesome) and then doing a business deal (eh) at the Gotham X-Games (AWESOME), and while it all feels like setup for later events, the layout and delivery are all really interesting and fun to read. I also like the brief look at the good work that Batman does for Gotham out of the cowl as well as under it, though the first issue of a new run seems like a strange place to put such a focus on it.<br />
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Francis Manapul is an artist that I have a lot of respect for, and he does a really great job of combining his own slightly painterly style with the stodgy realism demanded by the DC House Style. He does great work with messy, complex images, and a sequence in which Batman tracks a pack of bikers over Gotham rooftops is perfectly suited to his talents, as are spunky teen girls doing dirtbike tricks. Batman's costume is the gross grey-with-piping thing that he's been kicking around in for a while, but that's probably contractually mandated, so while it makes me curl my lip I won't hold it against this book in particular. The rest of the story, though, is bright and appealing in a way that Batman stories rarely are. As someone who very much wants to be reading the original Batman series without rolling his eyes every five minutes, I have to say that this issue makes me optimistic. Dare we dream that DC might actually rid itself of the fixation with childishly serious antiheroes and make some more superhero books which are...<i>fun!?</i><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-26607433462126598642014-04-08T17:22:00.001-07:002014-04-08T17:31:17.184-07:00Captain Marvel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Guys, can we talk about someone special for a moment? Someone bright and powerful and unique? Someone who has toiled in obscurity for a long time, and is finally getting their day in the sun?<br />
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No, I'm not talking about the Rock Lords, though god knows we're all praying for that glorious day. I'm talking about Captain Marvel. More specifically, I'm talking about this lady:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain Marvel, reporting for duty</td></tr>
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I want to talk about the new Captain Marvel but in order to appreciate just HOW awesome she is, there are two bits of backstory that we need to scoot through,. If you're not a big continuity nerd, I promise to keep it quick and light.<br />
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Firstly, we have the schlub to my left. The original Captain Marvel. He was created by Stan Lee in 1967 with the sole purpose of messing with DC, who had their own character by the same name. This led to a copyright dispute that Marvel was pretty much guaranteed to win, on account of Marvel being the entire name of their goddamn company, and books starring DC's Captain Marvel have been called <i>SHAZAM! </i>ever since. I kind of think that they should have just taken Stan Lee's other proposal, where the entire DC editorial staff were tarred and feathered and dumped in the middle of Times Square - it would surely have been less humiliating. Anyway, Marvel's Captain Marvel is a Kree warrior named Mar-Vell and literally nobody has ever cared about him ever.<br />
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The other person that we need to talk about is Carol Danvers. Poor old Carol has been kicking around the Marvel world since 1968, usually as Captain Marvel's sidekick, originally using the superhero name Ms. Marvel. Terribly progressive for the time, even if her costume was garbage and her main plotline involved Rogue stealing her powers and wiping her mind. Comics! Anyway, she hangs out on a bunch of teams, gets brainwashed and impregnated by a guy named Marcus, gives birth to a child that RAPIDLY AGES INTO A CLONE OF MARCUS WHO SHE FALLS IN LOVE WITH, and makes a wide range of fashion choices that ranged from the dubious to the banal:<br />
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<img alt="pic name" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5POtAIEGGbDmc7jsLIkw2xg2aAhNSZI91sgF7HzqIrS0RsQlzTl3MVY3rD1nmkffWN_jetLx8vGwnOwrt9af9orj5cnhgC8Afu_uYyUKiG2NM5PuGPzqjB77xbJz9HiLXvfk4rrCRprmU/s1600/carol3.jpg" height="320" style="border: medium none;" width="192" /></a></td>
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Seriously, though, that Marcus thing was terrible. See <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_17626_the-5-creepiest-sex-scenes-in-comics_p2.html">this Cracked article </a>a breakdown of just how gross it was, though I wouldn't recommend it if you're somewhere where you can't take a shower immediately afterwards.<br />
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Anyhow. We're washing our mouths of that nastiness and fast forwarding to 2012. Captain Marvel dies, or goes to space, or just straight up pops out of existence because nobody gives a damn about him. And then something wonderful happens:<br />
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That's right, Ms Marvel steps up and becomes Captain Marvel. That costume design is by the great Jamie McKelvie, the artist behind Phonogram and Young Avengers and a great deal of other books in which beautiful women wear stylish clothes, usually along with too much eyeliner and blue streaks in their hair and a love of bands that you and I aren't cool enough to ever have heard of. He's one of the finest artists working today, and when it comes to the Captain Marvel costume he knocked it so far out of the park that we may as well not even HAVE parks any more.One part of Carol's backstory that had been neglected up until now was her military background, and he brings it back beautifully, incorporating the sash and the button up gloves while making the whole thing sleek, dynamic and powerful as hell. "Re-imagined costume" usually means "<a href="http://www.zedsjoesite.com/fun/thorline/thorcostume-5.jpg">hideous</a>, <a href="http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/14/141587/2726403-superman_energy_blue.jpg">overdesigned</a> piece of <a href="http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11112/111126230/3499285-0624296440-Batma.jpg">garbage</a>," but this is the rare exception that takes an established, mid-range character and makes them amazing.<br />
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So. Ms. Marvel becomes Captain Marvel. She gets her own book, written by the stellar Kelly Sue Deconnick. She has a major storyline in <i>Avengers, </i>called "Enemy Within." She flies around, punches bad guys, overcomes hurdles and becomes a hero. And the fanbase - especially among women - EXPLODES.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/10/18/nycc-cosplay-experience/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/10/18/nycc-cosplay-experience/" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrJW99pqS-dYRfCk_sp4WGbdiO21SP-OZq5Nc-CLNspD-zk51r8vaQYe0GNRHs8MJHKrxPxypeEjRM5tghEQJv8P6QiE9WsNMmWD_aea2bK4JI7cPU3juGDNhVn0DQes41YNKcaBZ7rMdg/s1600/lindsey+cepak.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lindsey Cepa, photographed by Geek News MTV </td></tr>
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Seriously, I've been reading for two decades now, and never have I
seen a new character be taken up with such speed and fervor. Less than a
year after her appearance, comic book convention HeroesCon held a
dedicated panel for fans of the character, a privilege usually reserved
for established titans like Batman or Wolverine. Referred to as a
meeting of the Carol Corps, it was a smash hit among fans, and even more
so among cosplayers. The event had to be moved to an even bigger room,
and even that one was packed out. Cosplayers in particular have taken ahold of the character with both hands, to the point where it became incredibly difficult to pick the right pictures for this post. One great thing about her current costume is that it's composed of several iconic elements that can easily be pulled apart and remixed to suit the individual wearing it, while still leaving no doubt as to who they're dressed as.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://multiversitycomics.com/special/big-nycc-party-photos/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="http://multiversitycomics.com/special/big-nycc-party-photos/" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-p2OuwaiJsy8oA8cyxlFmnT3afqdAEKN2lvT3mV0FtLpiUIJA9V-YuHT63mRx2m8pzi_O-roft8afYUASdfjroO2AHEh9eWPYCeUwksNffxTs5nonJ7vyvLzwl3QwJ7utptdliCIlZaj4/s1600/pair+NYCC.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Multiversity Comics NYCC Party</td></tr>
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These days, a major convention without a meeting of the Carol Corps
is impossible to imagine. Heck, this year <a href="http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/eccc-events/carol-corps-celebration/%20">Emerald City Comic Con held one at the Museum of Flight</a>,
the location of which was chosen as a
reference to the character's background as a pilot. All proceeds from
that little gathering went to the <a href="http://www.girlsleadershipinstitute.org/%20">Girls Leadership Institute</a>,
just another aspect of how
great the Captain Marvel fandom is. Writer Kelly Sue Deconnick turns up
to quite a few of them herself, to be mobbed and feted by her fans.
That's the other key ingredient in the Captain Marvel explosion -
creator engagement. Comics Alliance's Kate Leth has <a href="http://comicsalliance.com/carol-corps-celebration-captain-marvel-kate-leth-kelly-sue-deconnick-interview/%20">a breakdown of that event here</a>.
Deconnick is unabashedly a fan herself, as excited by fanart and
cosplay as any of us. She's clearly just writing stories and characters
that she would want to see as a reader, and it seems like the audience
agrees.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://review2akill.com/2013/03/14/eccc-2013-capes-cowls/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="http://review2akill.com/2013/03/14/eccc-2013-capes-cowls/" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcPS20ijTY5DqD3Wp6JtPswLRdh13gRNaIbc9by5ciKIJ2Evmh3mrIAD2lwrdJcFNfjTnnUeefEHjc6VFm4vqvMKfkAALubsl8asftAwxecyPMTJ_Lk4ymdcOv3viD5MgSfdM7T66VLIcr/s1600/04-Marvel.JPG" height="320" width="189" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ECCC 2013, photographed by Review2AKill</td></tr>
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Something else wonderful about the Captain Marvel fandom? It's inclusive. It's <i>so </i>inclusive. There's a lot of talk about fake geek girls these days, a lot of ink spilled over the concept of nerd gatekeepers and who is and is not a real nerd or geek or whatever term you want to use. Maybe it's because this version of the character is new, meaning that there's no learning curve to diving in, or maybe it's because Deconnick has been such a great brand ambassador. Perhaps it's because women in geekdom get used to being excluded, so when they become the driving force of a fandom they become more accepting of others in response. Maybe Carol fans are just inherently awesome people! I don't know. All I know is that, looking at these pictures, it really seems as though anyone and everyone can dress as Carol. There are light and dark skinned cosplayers, fat and thin. You even see the occasional guy playing her, which is extremely rare. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://watchplayread.com/eccc-2014-kicks-carol-corps-celebration/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="http://watchplayread.com/eccc-2014-kicks-carol-corps-celebration/" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcadXFaJXGLdADoxtlJ57Qvr2nW9oip9OioJOzndMuXdxIf8c0MH7tPeTaB_aVXcSMmkJ3es56bBzZkd18tqhbuuiwMENHwscjo_28N2-EaxUtPxprKMX1uRqYjhPzB_z6PniyLcKAOZEo/s1600/IMG_1013-768x1024-750x1000.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ECCC 2014 Celebration</td></tr>
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It's not just cosplay, though. Something that comes along with a female-led fandom is a wide range of nerdy, crafty goodness. Chief among them - and I'm going to admit to a touch of bias given that I live with the creator - <a href="https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/185407174/carol-corps-captain-marvel-carol-danvers?ref=shop_home_feat_1">are these gorgeous Captain Marvel pendants </a>from The Reluctant Femme. For her perspective on what makes the character so wonderful, <a href="http://brainyfemme.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/how-captain-marvel-converted-me-to.html">take a look at this great essay.</a><br />
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What's so different about Captain Marvel, though? New characters come along all the time, and existing ones get fancy new duds every month. What is is about this
reboot that's sparked so much love? It's simple. It speaks to women. There's already a built-in fanbase for any well written female character, but if you want it to be a smash, you have to get the women in as well. Carol is a bold, powerful female character, the sort that female readers
have been hankering for for decades now. She doesn't have her ass or her
boobs hanging out, she doesn't wear ridiculous heels or twist around to
face both boobs and butt at the viewer. Not that there is something
inherently wrong with sexy characters - I like both Catwoman and Power
Girl, and they both traditionally get given quite sexualised portrayals
- but I think that there's a real exhaustion among female readers (and
more importantly, <i>potential readers</i>) with the sexualised nature
of female superheroes. They want someone whose boots they can place
themselves in and feel powerful. Fearless. The way that make readers can with Batman, or Iron Man, or Wolverine, or...you get the idea. Someone who is feminine without being weak, someone who can be funny without seeming silly, or being a 'ditz.' Someone badass. And that someone is Captain Marvel.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=46032" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=46032" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEholuhJm4LlIX-aRqIFN73-kUTWKD9oYs1NP6eEEnAszCitSks2oTeCjINh7SO6gxZJPJLqwwoIA5VU3fTKNx98RP41Z8e71pHdQEK8vYgvC7ui6RoJ70z7p-MOVlNijZDJ_OM42Sg1F9tQ/s1600/1371061005.jpg" height="387" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kelly Sue Deconnick and friends at HeroesCon 2012, photographed by Comic Book Resources</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-59483243613471038042014-04-07T04:09:00.002-07:002014-04-07T19:00:30.009-07:00Batman: Blades <div dir="ltr">
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I've talked about this in the past, but from 1989 to 2007, <i>Legends of the Dark Knight </i>provided readers with some of the best and most unique Batman stories on the market. No longer bound by the constraints of up-to-the-minute continuity, writers could run free with the Batman mythos, telling the tales they wanted to tell in ways that didn't always gel with the rest of mainstream superhero comics.<a href="http://notesfromcrimealley.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/batman-snow-jh-williams-iii-dan-curtis.html"> I've already covered </a>one of my favourite story arcs from the period, <i>Snow</i>, and today I want to tell you about another, from writer James Robinson and artist Tim Sale. Published in 1992 and running through issues 32, 33 and 34 of <i>LotDK,</i> <i>Blades</i> tells the tale of a new Gotham crimefighter who goes by the name of Cavalier, one who appears just as Batman becomes immersed in an obsessive hunt for a serial killer known only as Mr Lime, one who appears to target the elderly exclusively. Is this Cavalier all he all that he appears, though, and are he and Batman headed towards partnership or confrontation?</div>
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The story appears initially simple - tales of Batman becoming obsessed with this criminal or that are a dime a dozen, and there have been more than a few about new would-be protectors of his territory. What makes Blades unique is in how well these elements come together, and what they tell us about the man himself. It's never explicitly stated why Batman is so driven to catch Mr Lime - the hunt is already well underway when the first issue opens - but the time that the narrative takes to detail the grieving children left behind by his rampage says it all. This is deeply personal to the Dark Knight, so much so that when the Cavalier comes swinging in to take up some of the slack in Gotham, he is more than willing to give him free reign. As his name would imply, the Cavalier is rakish and charming rogue in the mould of Douglas Fairbanks or Erroll Flynn, always ready with a witty quip for the media and police. Batman himself wants to believe that this new, brighter brand of justice might have a place in his city, and as a result his guard is lowered substantially.<br />
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The moody inks and occasionally grandiose writing of <i>Blades</i> are very much in the vein of darker creators like Frank Miller, but with a core of moral humanity too often missing in modern Batman stories. Something especially striking about this story is how thoroughly human Batman is depicted as being. He plays at being the dark avenger, swirling his cape before him and posing in dramatic silhouette before a confrontation, but under the mask he is just as psychologically vulnerable as anybody else. He becomes enamoured with his swashbuckling new competition, or at least as enamoured as somebody like him can allow himself to be. After all, the film that he saw with his parents on the night of their murder was <i>The Mask of Zorro, </i>so this grinning swordsman with his pencil thin moustache strikes at something deep and primal within him. The fact that he spends much of the story ragged with sleep deprivation and trying to conceal an increasing number of injuries from those around him only underscores the duality of the face he presents and the man he truly is.<br />
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Sale is one of the most highly regarded artists ever to have worked on Batman, and his collaborations with Jeph Loeb on <i>The Long Halloween </i>and its sequel <i>Dark Victory </i>have come to rightly be regarded as genuine classics, commonly listed as essential reading up there with <i>Year One </i>and <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i>. His intense, finely detailed lines and sweeping Gothic set-pieces are absolutely gorgeous, saturated with shadow and light in perfect balance. <i>Blades </i>also sees him using contrasting colours to powerful effect - a crime scene is rendered in pure white save for the jarring smear of bright red blood, and the Cavalier's colourful ensemble pops beautifully next to the Dark Knight's dour ensemble. The story unfolds in a huge series of splash pages soaked in dramatic shadows and dynamic composition, and the climactic swordfight is especially well staged, spilling out over two pages in one fluid, dizzying image. Sale's style is just baroque enough to suit a world like Gotham without slipping into the outright farce of that artists like Kelly Jones or Simon Bisely utilise from time to time. He isn't quite at his peak with this work - some faces are hastily sketched in, and most of the men in the story look a little too similar to one another - but all the elements which would go towards his being considered one of the greatest in the business are definitely already present. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't read the text if you can't stand a minor spoiler for a comic old enough to drink</td></tr>
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The best <i>Batman</i> villains are those who draw out some aspect of the titular character - Ra's al Ghul reflects his hubris, Mr Freeze his motivating tragedy - and <i>Blades </i>demonstrates that this can be the case for characters who are not directly opposed to him as well. It's no spoiler to say that the Mr Lime storyline is little more than elaborate backdrop here - the real meat of the tale is in the relationship between Batman and the Cavalier. I won't give away the final reveal, but suffice to say that the complex motivation behind the Cavalier's actions play into those of the Caped Crusader, and call into doubt his own murky motivations in his war on crime. </div>
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Ultimately, though, this is a story about lines, and what happens to those who cross them - or don't. Batman's life is full of self-imposed rules, iron clad boundaries that he holds himself to despite the greatest of temptations. The Cavalier is more flexible in his morality, more likely to go with his heart than the coldly disciplined Dark Knight. In doing so, the two of them inevitably find themselves at cross purposes, but while Batman is ultimately the better crimefighter, it could be said that the Cavalier is the better man.<br />
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<i>Blades </i>is available in the now out-of-print collection <i>Batman: Collected Legends of the Dark Knight</i>, the Tim Sale collection <i>Tales of the Batman</i>, <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Tales-Batman-Tim-Sale-Tim-Sale/9781401217358">currently in stock at Book Depository</a>, or of course <a href="https://www.comixology.com/Batman-Legends-of-the-Dark-Knight-32/digital-comic/19715">via Comixology. </a> As always, you can follow <a href="https://twitter.com/CrimeAlleyNotes">@CrimeAlleyNotes</a> on Twitter to find out about blog updates as they happen and read whatever other garbage crosses my mind.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-82521521544249518252014-04-04T03:33:00.000-07:002014-04-04T03:39:10.644-07:00"The Man Who Married Lois Lane"It is a truth universally acknowledged that everybody in a Golden Age comic book is completely insane. Not a single decision is underpinned by reason as you or I might understand it, nor does anybody experience anything reconisable as human emotion. They lurch hysterically from one insane situation to the next, making increasingly baffling decisions and then suddenly shrugging and completely forgetting the whole thing when the allotted eight or ten pages are used up. By and large they resemble a lost work of Samuel Beckett, if he took a lot of really good mushrooms and had nothing but contempt for women.<br />
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Case in point: <i>Superman </i>#136 - "The Man Who Married Lois Lane"<br />
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Now, as I'm sure you're aware, comics of the period were pretty fond of wildly misleading covers. They would show <a href="http://www.comicbookdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/wf1741.jpg">Batman and Superman begging to be executed</a>, <a href="http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081228031609/marvel_dc/images/e/ed/World%27s_Finest_Comics_180.jpg">Superman about to throw Batman off a building</a> or <a href="http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/0/3125/460232-wf239.jpg">grotesquely irresponsible medical practices</a>,* which would turn out to be wild exaggerations of what actually took place within the pages.<br />
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This cover, though? The exact, unvarnished truth. Superman and Lois Lane are hanging out, talking about what a piece of dirt Clark Kent is and laughing to themselves when a UFO turns up and the green man with superpowers in it tells Lois that a) he's from the distant future and b) he has to marry her because he has tomorrow's newspaper and it shows them getting married.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the front page, no less!</td></tr>
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He then turns from a green monster into a normal man, a phenomenon which nobody looks at too closely because it is completely insane. Superman just says "welp I can't see any problem with this" and just FLIES THE EFF OFF AND LEAVES HER THERE. Lois's new suitor is named X-Plam, which seems fine, and Lois agrees to head off and become Mrs X-Plam in the distant future.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SEEMS LEGIT</td></tr>
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Let's break down the terrible decisions that have been made so far, shall we? Neither Superman nor Lois know the first thing about this guy, and literally EVERY alien race they've encountered has tried to destroy them in one way or the other. This guy waves a newspaper around, though, and they both just shrug and say things like "that's destiny" before surrendering Lois wholesale into his arms. On the other side of things, this X-Plam guy is acting on the same ridiculous information. His people have mastered time travel, but he sees one mouldy document from his distant past and that convinces him to just scoop up the woman whose name is on it and MARRY HER FOREVER.<br />
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Finally, Lois just shrugs off the question of his transformation, as well as what might happen to her when she's exposed to HIS atmosphere. YOU ARE A JOURNALIST LOIS. Think about these things for five seconds.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He still dresses like a lunatic, though</td></tr>
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Anyway, they get to the future, and lo and behold, Lois becomes a gross green monster as well. Who could have predicted that? Also, I feel like I should point out - this comic is just SUPER space-racist. For all Lois knows, she's the hottest green girl in town, but all she does is freak out with her new superpowers and smash down his house. Nice going, Lois.<br />
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Please note that the fact that these green fuckers have superpowers NEVER ONCE plays a role in the story.<br />
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Turns out that X-Plam has a TV that shows the past in what's left of his house, and he plunks his hysterical new wife down in front of it to look in on the past. You know, like he could have done at ANY stage before launching into this ridiculous plan. Lois finds Superman in his Lois Mannequin Room, and instead of being horrified by the fact that literally every man in her life is dangerously deranged, she begins to pine for him.<br />
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They work at it, though. They go to couples counselling, they open up to one another, and bit by bit they learn to build a life together, based on mutual honesty and co-operation in the face of adversity. JUST KIDDING X-PLAM FLIES TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN AND KILLS HIMSELF TO RETURN LOIS TO THE PAST. This is a woman, I would remind you, that he met literally a few hours ago. Half a day, if we're being generous. He lives with his parents, by the way, so they get to see him die. That's nice. At least the racist bitch who tore down half their house gets to go home.<br />
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Anyhow, Lois gets back to the sixties, doesn't let Superman look at her until her face becomes normal again, and life goes on as usual. Not before Superman tells her that he was too busy to be worried about her, though. Real charmer, this guy.<br />
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*Robots, mind control and actually-a-dummy-that-Superman-had-on-hand-for-some-reason respectivelyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-7784987193895177102014-04-04T02:03:00.003-07:002014-04-04T02:03:54.608-07:00Foiled by infant fingerprints<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Superman has different problems from you or I.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-37948574539771816792014-04-01T17:36:00.000-07:002014-04-01T17:36:21.742-07:00Adventures in Kickstarter<div dir="ltr">
A few days ago I posted about some comics that you might like to go and read, but today I'd like to talk about a few that you can't read just yet. Soon, though! Maybe. But only if you get involved. That's right, friends, I'm talking about Kickstarter. </div>
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There are a lot of opinions about Kickstarter floating around out there. This is the internet, after all, and passionately arguing about things that you don't properly understand is what it's for. For my part, while it's true that there have been a <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=51375">few notable disasters</a>, <a href="http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/03/james-stokoe-mark-andrew-smith-clash-over-sullivans-sluggers/">unfulfilled promises</a> and <a href="http://time.com/39271/oculus-facebook-kickstarter-backlash/">straight up nightmares</a>, I still believe that it is on the whole a noble, democratising endeavour. There is a vast wealth of untapped talent in the world, people with things worth reading, playing, or listening to that don't have the means to get it out of their heads and into your hands. As a consumer, I am very much in favour of using crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter (or IndieGoGo or what have you) to make sure that the things that I want to see in the world come to fruition. You should too - provided that you do a little research before handing over the cash, don't donate more money than you can afford to lose, and accept that every now and then campaigns just aren't going to turn out the way that you want.<br />
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Anyway, onto the recommendations! These are all current comics projects that I'm excited about, all of which I've either already donated money to or plan to in the near future. I haven't been approached by any of them, I'm not involved in any of them, they're just cool projects that I think you'll be interested in, one fan to another. I also haven't done any special research, so if one of them does steal your money and flee to the Bahamas, you can at least rest assured that they have some of my cash as well.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>MUTE</b></span></div>
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First up we have the one that I'm most intrigued by - <i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1416251461/mute-0?ref=footer">MUTE</a>. </i>It's a crime story with a unique twist - the protagonist is deaf - and it follows this through to the logical conclusion by having neither speech bubbles nor sound effects throughout. This is a very cool concept, and one which I anticipate will work better in comics than any other medium. A movie without sound would be strange and distracting, and a novel without dialogue would be indistinguishable from any other postmodern "experiment". In a comic, though, with the visual element front and center, it has the potential to be deeply and effectively immersive.</div>
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The writer, Frank Cvetkovic, has been around in comics for a while, having lettered <i>Artful Daggers, Department O </i>and <i>Kung Fu Skratch! </i>The artist Michael Lee Harris is experienced as well, having illustrated a wide range of indie books including <i>The Black Wraith </i>and <i>Spectre Spectrum. </i>They're both definitely pros, so if it does get funded, concerns about the product not being completed should be <i></i>pretty much zero.<br />
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A final note about <i>Mute - </i>it has just a few days to go and is struggling to hit the mark, so if you like what you see, don't wait, get moving!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>GAME BOSS - THE FINAL FORM ANTHOLOGY</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2113857818/game-boss-the-final-form-anthology?ref=live"><img alt="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2113857818/game-boss-the-final-form-anthology?ref=live" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80lmrnf5AOLEf1wE_WcmmAVROS5if1Nys717UH6LwcrxegP7T4OdrMZphE6u8p-ff78Twk_6gM_CGFyf96tVgu_EHx1M-pDK_2g7EztWKddg1j8flAmyWvar1rMXhCYLNz-Hl8griPUEJ/s1600/Capture.JPG" height="276" width="320" /></a></div>
I enjoy comics anthologies a lot, and Kickstarter has
seen quite a few good ones come out, and has provided a great model for
collections that would have had a difficult time being picked up by a mainstream publisher. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2113857818/game-boss-the-final-form-anthology?ref=live"><i>Game Boss: The Final Form Anthology </i></a>is
a great example of this sort of thing, bringing together a wide range of
creators and setting them the task of writing stories on the theme of
'antagonists', just the sort of broad-but-clear remit which has the
potential to lead to some great work. They describe their range as being
"from digital to traditional, realistic to fantastical...mainstream,
Manga, and European comics". Sounds good to you? Sounds good to me.<br />
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I haven't previously heard of any of the people involved in the project, but isn't that the whole point of Kickstarter? There's quite a bit of near-finished work on display on the project page, in just as many styles as promised, and all looking very professional indeed.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE WINSOR MCCAY RELAUNCH PROJECT</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1420428366/the-winsor-mccay-project-relaunch?ref=footer" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1420428366/the-winsor-mccay-project-relaunch?ref=footer " border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Y69SoAeKzDD6S91NJEVBVTxHa0O9nlycrS-MmoirOWoMgdxo_pFXLL64-NaaQLmVDkcrfaGLz7jwrwm5vlrGLKdw1N0HSej-GjRORzqeQYKwTvxL5ePOLU4Yp_CNIn0T6IECLCYcUAkC/s1600/winsor+mccay.JPG" height="270" width="320" /></a></div>
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This one is a little different, in that it's not new material but rather a repackaging of a classic, the relaunching of <i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1420428366/the-winsor-mccay-project-relaunch?ref=footer">The Winsor McCay </a>Project</i>. McCay was one of the greats of the early 20th century Sunday newspaper strips, best known as the creator of <i>Little Nemo</i>, a deeply surreal and perpetually imaginative strip that was crucial to the development of the entire form. Comics of this period are a particular fascination of mine, mostly because the medium was so unformed that creators were basically learning what worked as they went along, and produced some entirely unique work along the way, none so much as <i>Little Nemo.</i> <br />
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This Kickstarter project is taking on the worthy task of collecting and republishing the entire run of <i>Little Nemo </i>across two softcover volumes. There have been a few collections put together in the past, one of which I gave to my girlfriend as a Christmas present a few years back, but to my knowledge none have been as complete as this. Devil's Due have already produced a few smaller Winsor Smith collections, so the quality and completion of this one should be a slam dunk.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>21st CENTURY TANK GIRL</b></span><br /><br />
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/332295438/21st-century-tank-girl-a-book-by-hewlett-and-marti?ref=live" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/332295438/21st-century-tank-girl-a-book-by-hewlett-and-marti?ref=live" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj81oNzuC4E3I0QF0MyFzJo74Nuzz3z6s1CWm66x4tnt248mql-LXLIY8OFt-1fthCjl4AJgBjKqJu-FJ_52R4IGqcNjy_kynU7MU-c1kUOzp0USN88h8yj-4raKMhov3BKIHk0vcQD-bu/s1600/tank+girl.JPG" height="320" width="226" /></a></div>
<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/332295438/21st-century-tank-girl-a-book-by-hewlett-and-marti?ref=live"><i>21st Century Tank Girl </i></a>is the project that I'm most excited about, and the one that I probably need to talk about the least. It's <i>Tank Girl - '</i>nuff said<i>. </i>If you haven't actually read the comic before, you probably know the film. If you somehow missed the key dystopian riot grrrl flick of the 90s, you've almost certainly seen Jamie Hewlett's amazing artwork for rock/hip hop outfit Gorillaz. If you've never been exposed to any of those things, please let me know what it was like being homeschooled on Mars at the bottom of a well; I'm a writer and I always need stories to steal.<br />
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Anyway. These are ALL NEW <i>Tank Girl </i>stories, from the original creative team, to be presented in a glorious hardback edition with a wonderfully phallic cover. It's almost guaranteed to get funded, but come on - you know you want a piece of that action. Get on it, folks.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>SEXCASTLE</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/505163091/sexcastle-a-comic-homage-to-80s-action-movies" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/505163091/sexcastle-a-comic-homage-to-80s-action-movies" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0k-mKjyTdMmb-IHrWRd2lirZyT-MXMNxakIBqJEJY0JamRgQK8scC0GJb9OKyCE-wIS3UOck4xqJ6AVeCvV9ehtG2zB4Wk3wb0C2YftpvEF6bprrlRcYuuxu1I6KQl6UoEnW2Q2v-YsW/s1600/sexcastle.JPG" height="320" width="198" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/505163091/sexcastle-a-comic-homage-to-80s-action-movies"><i>SEXCASTLE</i></a><i>! </i>How can you not love a comic called <i>Sexcastle!? </i>This is an action packed homage to the wondrous excesses of 80s action films, featuring the adventures of former Worlds Greatest Hitman Shane Sexcastle. I have a great deal of affection for the hypermasculine fever dreams of the dying empire that is America, and this looks to plug straight into zetgeist with just the right amount of affectionate homage and parody. The only named inspiration is <i>Road House, </i>but it's pretty clear that there's a lot of <i>Big Trouble in Little China </i>in its veins as well, not to mention <i>Escape from New York </i>and the rest of the John Carpenter / Kurt Russell collaborations<i>. </i>If that doesn't get you on board, then I don't even know who you are.<br />
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In terms of project risks - it's done. It's so done that a few bloggers, most notably Chris Sims, have already read it. The creator has a proven record as well, having already produced wrestling comic <i>The Legend of Ricky Thunder. </i>If you like the look of it, and you want a book called <i>Sexcastle </i>in your house, there's no reason not to back this sucker.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>DIRTY DIAMONDS</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dirtydiamonds/dirty-diamonds-5-comics?ref=discovery" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dirtydiamonds/dirty-diamonds-5-comics?ref=discovery" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyUYdkiZaCS2od7kl0jwK-wQwZhVzwyfV3-j1_vepD_94oGyHvdj4NLTh3a2eTUEgEPL-HmBfgQwzhGPW2XBFXEEEDFQgkwLM5K6XhuipyVq1DiUHbbaU1Lz-WMHNE62JoeCuLG_4R5qwH/s1600/dirty+diamonds.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
Finally, we have an all new anthology from <i><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dirtydiamonds/dirty-diamonds-5-comics?ref=discovery">Dirty Diamonds</a></i>. If you're not familiar, <i>Dirty Diamonds </i>(not to be confused with the Alice Cooper album) is a series of all-female comics anthologies aimed at giving new styles and voices a forum to tell semi-autobiographical tales. There are more than a few collectives like that kicking around, but <i>Diamonds </i>is one of the best. They've put out four books already, and clearly know what they're doing, because number five looks great. It's a comic about comics, with the contributors detailing their best and worst experiences as fans, creators, and people who generally live and breathe paper and ink. There are already 32 creators from all around the world signed up, so the range and creativity of this collection should be epic. It's over a hundred pages long as well, so don't let the "#5" in the corner fool you, this is a more-than-decently sized chunk of emerging comics culture.<br />
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Whew. That's a lot of Kickstarter. You know, when I started writing this article, I decided that four projects would be enough. I figured that I could cover a decent cross section of Kickstarter Comics, advocate for a few good projects, and call it a day. Clearly, that did not come to pass. There's just too much good stuff out there. Don't get me wrong, most of what you'll find on Kickstarter is garbage, as is the case with anything that any Jane or Joe off the street can contribute too, but once I started looking I realised that there was far more quality out there than I expected. I also discovered more than a few projects which I just had to back myself, so if this article makes you poorer, don't worry - I'm right there with you.<br />
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Have I missed any great projects that you want to talk about? Do you have any comments, complaints or non sequitors about any of these projects? Do you have any hilarious or terrifying Kickstarter tales to tell? Let me know in the comments!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-16745150229312385502014-03-31T14:14:00.005-07:002014-03-31T14:19:49.498-07:00Batman Leg Lamp - You Know, For Kids!<i>A quick note before we begin - I've set up @CrimeAlleyNotes on The Twitters, so hit it up if you want to know as soon as a new post is up, or read jokes that we're funny enough for actual articles.</i><br />
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So you like those sexy leg lamps, right? Everybody does. They give the room a certain "Burlesque Jeffrey Dahmer" feel, and they're a great conversation starter! I mean, most of the conversations will start with "Why do you have that tacky-ass leg in your house" but that still counts, right? <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_m-2HlyFU3j_AA-KwaftqVG3NzCzzEAQnGwsnQEOsZiGExrV66IHzyUDx84ncbBOHEVll5xatpVlNKEDO2sDZ9sgUmOswGBNcixO3yhjY4jYkfAmVkuAS-dB6XpznRLQWUeFCilJ9M7Z/s1600/lamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM_m-2HlyFU3j_AA-KwaftqVG3NzCzzEAQnGwsnQEOsZiGExrV66IHzyUDx84ncbBOHEVll5xatpVlNKEDO2sDZ9sgUmOswGBNcixO3yhjY4jYkfAmVkuAS-dB6XpznRLQWUeFCilJ9M7Z/s1600/lamp.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I'll just leave this here in the window, where surely it will attract a real woman with a bulb for a torso!"</td></tr>
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Maybe, though, you're not comfortable with a single, disembodied female limb in your face all day. I understand, friend; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiicmoNIGwU">we can't all be Quentin Tarantino</a>. So the sexy-lady-leg is out, but you still need a lighting system that goes with your lava lamp and Route 66 road sign, preferably one that also reaffirms your commitment to costumed justice. Whatever are you to do?<br />
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Relax. I have you. It's going to be okay. Like a lonely millionaire staring out the window of his lonely manor and deciding the form of his lonely crusade against the night, your answer will come in the form of a bat.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNsS5lmKZj9QWkgAL91DqVpsx4_Kl2c5oBubsVCYIHHb6lhRjFxfCpYD28unTuokFctok7Ak_j4hpcsyDLDEQjWeXO4-a98ArnHymyRLghEqmQW2agD77LeZHomZLD9jfrfJ492NeiW0jf/s1600/590-61421_Batman_Leg_Lamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNsS5lmKZj9QWkgAL91DqVpsx4_Kl2c5oBubsVCYIHHb6lhRjFxfCpYD28unTuokFctok7Ak_j4hpcsyDLDEQjWeXO4-a98ArnHymyRLghEqmQW2agD77LeZHomZLD9jfrfJ492NeiW0jf/s1600/590-61421_Batman_Leg_Lamp.jpg" height="320" width="273" /></a></div>
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Just take a moment to drink her in. Glorious, no? <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Classic-20-Inch-Leg-Lamp/dp/B00FJMW91C">Available now at Amazon dot com</a>, this beauty was produced by the good people at <a href="http://necaonline.com/">NECA</a>, manufacturers of a great deal of movie and pop culture memorabilia which is definitely NOT targeted at the skin-eating-insane. I especially like the fact that somebody decided to stick the Batman logo in the middle of the shade, presumably to ensure that your friends don't think that you're actually celebrating that one issue of The Phantom with a printing error from the knee down.<br />
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If you prefer your leg of justice to be a little more Kryptonian in style, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Superman-Classic-20-Inch-Leg-Lamp/dp/B00FJMH21E/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1396244250&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=superman+leg+lamp">there's a Superman model as well</a>. No Wonder Woman, though, which seems like a bit of an oversight, given that it would surely be a slam dunk with the extremely large and influential Hiketeia Batman Cosplay set.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyLM7PdN8zwUlQDoCW0xLqoyL9cu6BHRKlTKBEl8qR5My-q4nuj0aXJHxoYgWxQlpB4tW3coqLDCm4TdTF7GlY4htZcNx2ahHVSvwWOnkcQqOIFWJubpzWC9VzVuTBdMwdYlBNokO7CYEu/s1600/250px-Hiketeia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyLM7PdN8zwUlQDoCW0xLqoyL9cu6BHRKlTKBEl8qR5My-q4nuj0aXJHxoYgWxQlpB4tW3coqLDCm4TdTF7GlY4htZcNx2ahHVSvwWOnkcQqOIFWJubpzWC9VzVuTBdMwdYlBNokO7CYEu/s1600/250px-Hiketeia.jpg" height="320" width="204" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seriously, just a bit of hot glue on the side of your face and you're set</td></tr>
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It's just like Adam West said to Winston Smith: "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever, and with a range of settings so that you can comfortably read without bothering your partner!"<br />
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Oh, and if you should happen to have a spare $44.99 plus shipping lying around, my birthday is in May. Just saying.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-47253418442468426732014-03-30T15:10:00.001-07:002014-03-31T01:51:26.972-07:00Short reviews This post is going to be different from the last one, since I'm new to this business of Internet Web Logs and haven't quite worked out what style suits me best. I buy a lot of comics every month, and while not all of them are worthy of an in depth review, many of them would improve your life by being in your pull list. To that end, I'm going to run through some new comics that I bought recently, focusing on single issues rather than a whole story, and tell you what I thought of 'em. These aren't so much my current favourites as an rough cross section of my current reading habits. That said, I'll mostly be saying good things, because I don't tend to keep picking up books that let me down.<br />
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We'll save the spite for my upcoming coverage of <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/comics/smallville-season-11-lantern-2014/smallville-season-11-lantern-1">SMALLVILLE SEASON 11: LANTERN</a>, which is a real thing that exists.<br />
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<b>RAT QUEENS #5 - Kurtis J. Wiebe and John "Roc" Upchurch</b><b>, Image</b></div>
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Guys, I'll be honest with you. I don't know how to describe this book without making it sound like I'm being paid by the publisher. It has the perfect setup - an all female band of hard drinking adventurers in a D&D style world - and unlike most high concept books it pays it off in spades. It's fast, it's funny, it's bawdy but also extremely sex positive, and every one of the four lead characters is engaging and likable in their own messed up way. On top of all that, art is kinetic and jagged in just the measure. The only caveat I would offer is that it's extremely violent - if you don't like the idea of the adorable rogue waving daggers with a troll eyeball skewered on the end of each one, then it might not be for you. This is the penultimate issue of the first story arc, and I'm eager to see what comes next for this band of misfit heroines.</div>
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<b>BLACK SCIENCE #4 - Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera</b><b>, Image</b></div>
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This one is a bit of an odd duck. The art is fantastic and the monster designs are extremely creative, but the premise is basically <i>Sliders With Unlimited Budget</i>, and so far it hasn't done much more than that. I get the feeling that the protagonist is meant to be a dashing asshole in the mould of John Constantine, but so far there's been too little dashing and too much asshole. I'm sticking with it for now, mostly because the dimension hopping gives Matteo Scalera the chance to draw an amazing range of creepy alien races every issue - something that he excels at - but going forward it might find itself slipping into the Maybe pile.<br />
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Also, the implied girlflesh on the cover totally misrepresents the contents of the issue, so that's a bit weird.</div>
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<b>ROCKET GIRL #4 - Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder</b><b>, Image</b></div>
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<i>Rocket Girl</i> is another comic with a deeply familiar premise - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Trax">a cop from the future </a>who <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_%28TV_series%29">comes back in time </a>to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trancers">the present day </a>- with a number of twists on the formula; chief among these are the fact that the cop in question is a 15 year old girl, and that she has no interest in a secret identity and a LOT of interest in having jetpack chases through the skies and subways of 1980s New York. The art is bright and kinetic, with a rough unpolished look that actually adds a lot character, and protagonist DaYoung is peppy and likable. My only reservation at this stage is that the series is starting to drag a little; it's four issues in and it still feels as though the pieces are being laid out on the board, when we really should have a lot more narrative momentum by now. Still a great read, though, and one I'm sticking with for the foreseeable future.<br />
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<b>BATMAN #29 - Scott Snyder and Dustin Nguyen</b><b>, DC Comics</b><br />
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I've made no secret of the fact that I love Snyder's work, both on <i>Batman </i>and elsewhere, and the Zero Year epic is my favourite entry in his run on this book so far. Nguyen's art is also among the best currently appearing in comics, the same perfect blend of dark and cartoony as Snyder's writing. I actually plan to put together a bit of a retrospective of what he's done with the old Caped Crusader once this story wraps up, but I wanted to check in here as well. Despite featuring floods, death and a man made entirely of teeth, Zero Year has wound up becoming a neon bright reworking of Batman's origin, showcasing a brash and arrogant Batman who genuinely feels younger than the character we know. This issue features both an extended flashback to The Night His Parents Die that manages to not feel shoehorned in AND some hot blimp-on-blimp action, so it's basically everything that you could hope for from a Bat-book. This story has been a heck of a lot of fun, and is proving to be exactly what the franchise needs to shake it out of its grimdark rut.<br />
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<b>VELVET #4 - Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, </b><b>, Image</b><br />
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I have a mixed relationship with superspy stories. I love tales of international intrigue, the faster and more cynical the better, but tales of a single superhuman agent tend to veer into territory which is silly, fascist, or as in the case of <i>FREEDOM CLOWNS</i>*, both. <i>Velvet </i>walks a fine line - protagonist Velvet Templeton is shown fighting her way out of more than a few seemingly impossible situations over the course of the tale so far, but she tends to end up looking pretty battered by the end of it. More importantly, the setting is extremely morally ambiguous, with the various criminal organisations and intelligence agencies portrayed as being just as ruthless and packed with bastards as each other. Velvet herself is a sufficiently interesting lead to keep me coming back - just the fact that she's a fully capable woman in her late 30s/early 40s is pretty unique in comics - and the central mystery is intriguing enough to be worth unraveling. Brubaker knows his tropes well, and enjoys playing with them, though the "secret agent at the masquerade ball" might be too well worn for even him to inject with new life.<br />
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Lets put it this way - when I'm reading <i>Velvet, </i>I only very occasionally wish I was reading <i>Queen and Country</i> instead, and that's probably the nicest thing that I can say about a spy comic.<br />
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<b>SAGA #18 - Brian K Vaugn and Fiona Staples, Image</b><br />
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Seriously, do I even need to cover this? Saga is the best comic on the stands today, across every genre, every publisher, every everything. If you're not reading it already then you're wasting your time with blogs, and if you don't like it then I don't know what to tell you. You probably ate paint as a kid.</div>
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These are all available via Comixology, or if you prefer something that
you can roll up and discipline your cat your, at Better Comic Stores
Everywhere.<br />
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* not a real comic, but I work cheap... <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02704524396559425289noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5905296516057473294.post-68365755260083372282014-03-28T18:45:00.000-07:002014-03-29T01:40:39.546-07:00BATMAN: SNOW<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the inaugural post on this blog, I want to talk a little about a Batman story arc which doesn’t get as much press as your fancy </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Year Ones </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dark Knight Returnses</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and that’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It’s a five issue, self contained story about Batman taking on a range of civilian assistants to aid in his war on crime, and what happens when they eventually come up against Mr Freeze and find themselves in well over their heads. It's one that I would recommend to anyone who considers themselves to be a fan of the character, especially the more street level, low powered incarnations of the character.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was published in 2005, in the ‘early years’ anthology series </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Legends of the Dark Knight</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, spanning issues 192-196. This was a great series, one that gave a huge range of writers and artists the change to tell short, self contained Batman stories that weren't weighed down by the need to conform to then-current continuity or the pressure of a longer run. To be honest, it’s no surprise that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">didn’t make a splash at the time, given the heavy hitters that it was up against - not just the critically beloved </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gotham Central</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, arguably the best book on the stands at the time, but also the tail end of the actually-quite-good </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Catwoman </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">series of the day. Oh, and a little thing called </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All Star Batman and Robin</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a champion in the field of Event Books Literally Everybody Hated But Read Every Issue Of Anyway. What’s more puzzling is that, despite having been issued in trade paperback a few years ago, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">still doesn’t seem to have been recognised for the classic that it is. That’s what I’m hoping to rectify today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first thing that jumps out about this story is that it is GORGEOUS. One of the freedoms that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LotDK </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">had was to mix up the visual style and get away from the DC House Style, better known as Be More Like Jim Lee, No Even More, Also Make Everyone Grit Their Teeth. The artist is one Seth Fisher, and he takes the remit for individuality and runs with it, turning in brightly coloured, almost cartoonish art which still contains detailed facial expressions and a fluid yet thoroughly human Batman. Fisher was a real up-and-comer at the time, and </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">should have been his breakout comic, but his career was cut short when he tragically passed away the following year. His clean, bold lines and hyperdetailed panels make reading the book a real joy, not to mention his exquisite backgrounds and gift for cluttered, lived-in locations. His gift for drawing technology evokes Moebius and Geof Darrow, while his goopy, organic linework makes me think of nobody such much as Frank Quitely - and that’s high praise indeed. His work is a perfect match for the subject matter - he clearly relishes the opportunity to make Mr Freeze’s suit and laboratory as complex and wonderful as he can, while never losing the humanity in those bleak, frozen eyes. He even includes little cartoonish touches like 'confusion lines' around a character's head, or enraged smoke coming out of Gordon's ears, without detracting from the gravitas of the events that are unfolding. As the icing on the cake, Fisher also drew the cover of every issue as well, something that I genuinely wish more artists did these days. For a more detailed account of Fisher’s rise and tragic end, see <a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_821511821">this article on </a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_821511821">Wizard</a></i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070626151900/http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/001455640.cfm">.</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">story is from JH Williams III, who is today known as one of the most original artists in the game, with his kinetic yet painterly style defining both the rebooted Batwoman and the new </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sandman</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> miniseries. He’s also a solid writer, and here he collaborates with DC regular Dan Curtis Johnson, with whom he had already worked on the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chase </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">limited series, another overlooked piece of DC history that I plan to cover at some stage. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> deals with one of the most compelling aspects of Batman’s character - his limitations, and the hubristic lengths lengths that he will go to in an attempt to overcome them. It begins with him pursuing a criminal, letting his guard down at the wrong moment, and being badly injured as a result. Understanding that he cannot wage war on crime alone but unable to get the unquestioning cooperation he wants from chief allies Gordon and Dent, he reaches out to a number of misfits and outcasts around the city with useful skills, recruiting them to his operation. None of them dons a spandex jumpsuit of their own, but rather become a sort of civilian consultancy for Batman, going places that he can’t and provided specialised expertise that he doesn’t have. Question is, how far can he push them, especially in the face of new villain Mr Freeze? Will they get what they need from the adventure of aiding the Batman, or will they be chewed up and spat out by his monomaniacal pursuit of justice?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a pretty unique story in that it is actually deeply critical of Batman himself. While making it clear that he is on balance a positive force in Gotham, his willingness to use others with little concern for their safety or needs is presented as being highly questionable. All five of the civilians he draws into his web are fleshed out, each with something missing from their lives that Batman is able to provide - at least at first. The fact that <i>LotDK </i>is set in the early years of Batman’s career gives it the freedom to present a more flawed, less fully formed crimefighter than mainstream Bat-Books tend to prefer, and that's definitely what you get here. Batman as written by Williams has only a limited conception of his own limits, and even less of others. Many of the ‘year one’ stories aim to depict Batman learning an important lesson on the way towards becoming the hypercompetent modern day character, but few pull it off so well as </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One final note - </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">also serves as one of many Mr Freeze origin stories, and is in my opinion one of the best. There has been little consistency over the years in the depiction of Dr Victor Fries, or as I like to think of him, The Only Ice Guy Who Doesn’t Suck. This version is far closer to the tragic figure appearing the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Batman the Animated Series </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">episode “Heart of Ice” than the wacky punster seen in the movie </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Batman and Robin</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and the story is the stronger for it. His genius and his hubris provide the perfect foil for Batman, as both characters hurtle rapidly over the edge in pursuit of what they believe is right. This is a grimy, street level Gotham, a world of pool halls and slums and beat up vans. Mr Freeze’s fantastical armaments are just as much of a shocking intrusion into this world as they should be, a contrast which works just as well as it did in the first great <i>Gotham Central </i>story arc, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In The Line of Duty.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9Ow1n25QSih0T8ExSQ2INN3WduTUHs_77r7dEPStDhRZviS23X9pOH5dD775ZwZF3pQ5iZ5WxA0i5wA3JZQx1NN756LY6jayIYk862vQ0ibym6feeeIP6Af3IjULo51PHqwNU0oUezJv/s1600/freeze.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9Ow1n25QSih0T8ExSQ2INN3WduTUHs_77r7dEPStDhRZviS23X9pOH5dD775ZwZF3pQ5iZ5WxA0i5wA3JZQx1NN756LY6jayIYk862vQ0ibym6feeeIP6Af3IjULo51PHqwNU0oUezJv/s1600/freeze.JPG" height="320" width="286" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snow</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was collected in trade paperback form a few years ago, and while it’s now out of print, there are secondhand copies floating around on Amazon and AbeBooks. Alternately, if digital comics are your bag, you can get all five issues on Comixology for $1.99 each. However you go about it, you’re in for a hell of a read.</span></div>
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