pheagan

12:58 pm: Superhero Rec: Gail Simone
A slow superclap is due to Gail Simone. Not only is she the reason Oracle is my favorite superhero (note bene my avatar), but my money is on her as today’s best superhero writer. A lot of people would think I’m crazy for putting her above the likes of Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, or Neil Gaiman. But let’s face it, none of those writers are content with superhero storytelling. They wanted something different, whether it was mythology, or urban chaos magic, or having hallucinogenic sex with swamp creatures after feasting on them. What made those writers great was breaking open the boundaries of what superhero comics could be. What Gail Simone does is give us a pitch perfect superhero yarn, modern and readable, at the same time respecting the universe she is playing in, giving us its ideal form.

There’s no urgency to retcon characters or tweak conventions or shock you, although she does surprise you. Instead she takes beloved characters, gives them blood, and sends them on plausible, well-plotted, character-testing adventures. To read Gail Simone’s work is to fall in love with superheroes again and chastise yourself for ever growing out of them.

Take The Atom. Here we have a character I could give a shit about, a superpower that has always struck me as useless (unless you were to shrink down, enter someone’s body, and grow big again and rip the shit out of them like Shrinking Violet in Legion of Superheroes, which makes me wonder why more shrinkers don’t take a cue from her), and I was actually crowing in delight as I read it. She’s got this whole 50’s nuclear era science fiction thing as her aesthetic, although it’s suitably modernized. She peppers it with bewilderingly a propos quotes from scientists, and uses her protagonist’s innate scientific curiosity as an impetus for his adventures.

At the time she was writing for the Simpsons comics, she got famous for the website Women in Refrigerators ( http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/, which asks the question about why so many women are brutalized, killed, raped, or de-powered in comics. If you look at the author response, a lot of male writers (many of whom I like) are really dismissive of the phenomenon, saying things like, oh, well, you see it on police procedurals too, it’s all over the place and not specific to comics. And, yes, rape, brutalization, and killing women is pretty standard in a lot of places, and as many of the male writers point out it’s an easy way to work up a reader’s sympathy and shock. And it’s true that it’s not specifically a comic book phenomenon. Doesn’t make it OK, though, mmkay? Considering it’s an eerily accurate reflection in real life. Look up the statistics for the trafficking of sex slaves sometime if you think there’s no need for feminism or questioning this kind of thing. OK, rant done.

She’s most well known for an amazing run on Birds of Prey, in which she made compelling characters out of the Oracle (Barbara Gordan, daughter of the Lieutenant.), Huntress, Helena Bertinelli, orphaned daughter of a Mafia family, and The Black Canary (Dinah Lance), paramour to the Green Arrow, who I can’t stand, and who is pretty much not in the comic (thanks, Gail). She’s also worked on Action Comics, Villains United, Secret Six, and the creator-owned Welcome to Tranquility, for Wildstorm.

Most newsworthily, she is the first female writer to write Wonder Woman, another comic I’ll be picking up as soon as I return to L.A. About the only Wonder Woman comic I could ever deal with was Greg Rucka’s The Hiketia. Wonder Woman, like Superman, just doesn’t interesting to me. Omnipotence and goodness is boring, you know? Why do you think everyone falls asleep in church? But if anyone can do it, Simone can. She hits it out of the park every time.



Tags: birds of prey, gail simone, superhero rec, the atom, wonder woman

04:11 pm: Superhero Rec: Joss Whedon, but mainly Fray
Fray

Read Fray. Just do it. You finished? This book is absolutely salivating for a sequel, no? This is one of those comic books that you tear through once and then read again as soon as you finish. Really, I am aching for this series to somehow be continued. Joss Whedon says he will be returning to this world, and I am waiting with bated breath.

Taking place in a future Buffyverse, Fray is about a vampire slayer (duh). She seems to be the only one, which makes you wonder where all those chicas that Willow magically deputized went. Here, the vampires are known as lurks, there are demons of a future kind, and there are no watchers. Or they’re crazy. Melaka Fray is a thief who likes to practice her extreme rappelling skills on and off of futuristic buildings. She has a cop sister and a dead brother—a brother she kinda sorta got killed with her slayerish impetuosity. I’d tell you more but I don’t want to spoil the set-up for you. In the intro to the book I read, Joss Whedon, with typical humility, describes his version of the future as a sort of mish-mash of your typical future-stuff—flying cars, weird mutants, etc. But it is a sturdy little world, and it doesn’t feel derivative, and it supports the fantastic story very well. What more can I say? Read it now.

Whedon wears his love of the comic book world on his sleeve. He had fanboys and girls salivating with the idea of a Whedon-penned Wonder Woman, which has since fallen through and might be the biggest tragedy in the entire history of Hollywood. Aside from X-Men 3, I guess. And the Fantastic Four, but who expected good movies out of that franchise? The closest the Fantastic Four ever came to being readable was in the Ultimate Fantastic Four.

Speaking of which, wasn’t Ellen Page a great choice for Kitty Pryde? Too bad such a good casting choice was lost in that morass of mediocrity. And speaking of Kitty Pryde (who is my favorite X-character of all time), Whedon writes her wonderfully for his run on the X-Men, Astonishing X-Men. John Cassaday’s artwork for this book is on the absolutely breathtaking range of the standard comic book art rainbow.

He also has writing duties on The Runaways, the book about a group of kids who find out their parents are supervillains. Among the original characters are a disaffected Daria-type whose time-travelling parents left her a telepathic dinosaur, a little girl who is stronger than Wolverine and insists on the name Princess Power (there’s a running joke where she keeps trying to tell the older kids about her newly emerging superpowers and they keep thinking she’s talking about the onset of her period), and a goth girl who, hilariously, has to cut herself to make her magic staff appear. Among the new characters are a super-hero obsessed robot (the truest of the true believers), who is an unwitting robot sleeper agent—shades of Boomer!, and a Skrull with some major gender issues. This is a book I started to read as a guilty pleasure. If I had read anything else by Brian K. Vaughan at the time, I wouldn’t have been surprised when it grew into one of the best books Marvel has to offer. Whedon is a worthy successor to the title. Let’s hope that he’ll continue to contribute his unique sensibility to the comic book world. He has a real understanding of the form, consistently perfect pacing, and very well-thought out action sequences. Add that to his well-known ability to create complex, ever-evolving characters, pretty much any book with Whedon’s name on it is worth a go. I’ll link to all of the Runaway books, since my favorite character is out of commission by the time Whedon got on board.


As for the new Buffy books, I haven’t read them, since I’ve been in Asia for the past two years. I was never a fan of the original ones, but they didn’t really have the Whedon touch. The curious can find them here. You know I’ll be reading them when I get back to L.A.

If you are interested in his blogosphere thoughts, you can go to http://whedonesque.com/

If you live in L.A., go to http://www.hideho.com.



Tags: astonishing x-men, brian k. vaughan, buffy, fray, joss whedon, runaways

12:52 am: Indie rec: Brendan McCarthy
I met Brendan McCarthy the other day and was thus persuaded to read his recent issue of Solo. My immediate question was: why don’t I know Brendan McCarthy? He’s highly influential, and everything in Solo is right up my alley, but apparently he’s not known outside of the U.K. The deadpan technojargon that characterizes much of Grant Morrison’s and Warren Ellis’s work comes from him. So… get to know Brendan McCarthy. Here is his site: http://www.swiminipurpose.co.uk.

Solo is an ongoing title which focuses on one creator, who gets to do his thing for 24 pages. It’s ideal for jaded readers looking to find out about artists they’re unfamiliar with, or to find out more about artists they are familiar with. It’s a title to keep your eye out for. The best part about it is that it won’t rouse the collection monster in you. The issues aren’t consecutive, so you can pick it up at any time.

McCarthy’s issue opens up with a sweet transvestite Swarzeneggar (that’s after the jelly poem-- don't ask, read), shopping at his local supermarket. He picks up a comic with a sort of goth bum emo protagonist(which McCarthy says was inspired by the bums of Santa Monica) and starts to read it, which takes us into that story for a while, only to be interrupted by Swarzeneggar’s criticism of it. A string of stories, ruminations, and indefinable beeps and bops follow, including a radically revised Flash, a Legion of Superheroes-referencing collage, the fairly psychedelic adventures of a man with no soul, a dream of a story about Batman, the death of Brendan McCarthey, and constant references to a mysterious being known only as Ditranko (Ditko and Steranko, duh). That’s as much as you’re going to get for a synopsis.

This is not for the fanboy faint of heart, and honestly, that’s a compliment. McCarthy’s work is detailed beyond the norm, with little glyphs and bits that you don’t notice right away, making it the rare comic you can read more than once. It’s self-referencing, making it a complicated Moebius strip pastiche of Golden Age Comics, Hein Eidelman, and personal quirks. It is aware of its textual form and plays with everything about the comic book form—the idea of sequentialism, paneling, and even word balloons. It also does things most comics don’t dare to do. It’s challenging, and the art is fantastical and unique, certainly not the same old boring pen and ink superhero shit that I get tired of.

Read it. Read it now. If it seems a bit beyond your horizons, expand them. If you live in L.A., go to http://www.hideho.com.


Tags: brendan mccarthy, indie rec, solo

01:30 pm: Indie Rec: Rick Vietch
Can’t Get No is many worthwhile things: an unconventional narrative whose plot includes elements of self-reflection on the nature of the medium, a rumination on 9-11 that contains none of the heavy-handedness or facile treatments that popped up in other comics, an approach to comic storytelling that wears its literary influences on its sleeves. What I find most compelling about this comic book, however, is that it approaches the story told by the text and the story told by the images as distinct elements. Its text is perhaps the most beautiful I’ve encountered in a comic and could stand by itself. But the imagistic narrative it is tied to makes it a compelling and unique comic story.

However, this can be a difficult read, which can be a bit of a slog at times. There is absolutely no definable plot, and as beautiful as the textual narrative is, it does lose steam in certain parts. Also, it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to keep up with the visually told story. The intention seems to be to disturb and provoke readers rather than entertain them with a conventionally told story. But for those looking for something new, something unusual, and something that can be taken up and re-read, this is for you. If you live in L.A., go to http://www.hideho.com.

This is the only thing by Rick Vietch I've read. He's done a lot of conventional comic book work as well, which you'd do well to research if interested.


Tags: can't get no, indie rec, rick vietch

01:25 pm: Classic Rec: Alan Moore
From Hell is famous as being the movie adaptation that got Alan Moore all riled up about comic books adapted into movies. I stand firmly with Moore on this. I despise adaptations. Of books to movies, of comic books to movies, of foreign movies into English-speaking movies. It all bespeaks the utter artistic dark age that corporations seem to think we live in. I mean, there are tons of people out there capable of writing new things, and yet time and time again corporations put their money into making simulacrums of simulacrums of simulacrums. I do except superhero movies from this. The superhero world, Marvel and DC in particular, don't belong to anyone in particular. Sure, each character was created by a particular person, but no character or team belongs wholly even to their creators. The superhero world is like jazz-- its a theme that each artist and writer interprets differently, so it's fair game for the creative teams in Hollywoodland to riff off of the superhero template as well.

But mostly I stand firmly with Alan Moore's stance because From Hell is probably the best comic book ever written. It is akin to reading a novel from the turn of the century. It is complex of plot and idea, excellently researched and executed. It isn't an easy read, especially for the kinds of readers comics tend to attract. For instance, I don't understand how people could have read this book on a monthly basis, since it can be hard to keep track of who's who and what's what even when you read it straight through, as I did. This is a pick for the literature-inclined. Buy it here.

Alan Moore, for those who don't know, is the god king of the comic book world, and he's very prolific and very good. I've just finished Promethea, which was basically Alan Moore's chance to get his theory of magic out in comic book form. I liked it very much, but it's not for everyone, and there were some definite weaknesses. For instance, the story was almost secondary to Moore's ideas about magic and art and story-telling, and didn't seem to have much in the way of internal cohesion. There were many ill-defined characters. Still, I'd recommend it for those interested in Moore's ideas, which are well-investigated and rich. Also, it has the best art I've seen in a traditional comic book outside of Geof Darrow. J.H. Williams III, Mick Gray, Jeremy Cox, and Jose Villarubia have executed startlingly inventive layouts, beautiful plot-driven changes of texture, and in Book V an absolutely stunning last issue that, when the issue is unfolded, becomes a poster. In comics, most art exists simply to serve the story. In Promethea, the art is integral to the telling of the story, reinforcing themes and structuring the pacing.

Another terrible movie came out of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a series I really dug. the concept is to take several turn-of-the-century literary heroes and turn them into a kind of Victorian-era superhero team. It's a lot of fun, the characters are great, the setting is great, and there is plenty of depths for a cognoscenti like Moore to plumb.

And, of course, everybody loves The Watchmen, about the dark side of superheroes, and V for Vendetta. Let me just say about the latter, the changes that were made to Edie in the Watchowski Brothers' movie say a lot about Americans and their revolutionary capability. Many people thought that movie was a good adaptation, but not me. The political discourse was really dumbed down, and I didn't like any of the changes or omissions. As for The Watchmen movie currently in production... ugh. Poor Alan Moore. I feel for you, man. I do.


Tags: alan moore, classic rec, from hell, league of extraordinary gentlemen, promethea, v for vendetta

12:44 pm: Indie Rec: Jessica Abel
Keep reading. The story isn’t going where you expect. Jessica Abel has written a story about a half-Mexican girl who goes to Mexico City in search of her cultural identity. This could be handled in a hundred bad ways. However, every easy liberal judgment, and all of the problems of cultural relativism, are eventually culled and exposed for what they are, and have consequences that undermine the good intentions behind them. Besides that, it is a very good character study. Every flaw and every commendable trait is in evidence, and the protagonist’s eventual growth and change is realistic and resonant.

If you live in L.A., go to http://www.hideho.com . If not, you can find La Perdida here . Abel is also known for her series Artbabe, which is full of nicely observed characterizations of struggling artists. If that's your thing, you can find it here.


Tags: indie rec, jessica abel, la perdida

12:29 pm: Indie Rec- Dave Cooper
Equally commendable for its art and its story, Dave Cooper's Ripple confronts conventional aesthetics and turns them on their head. An illustrator who compromises his ideas to get paid receives a grant that allows him free reign. His project is to do portraits presenting typically unbeautiful girls aesthetically. He eventually finds a girl who seems to have everything he’s looking for. But the project isn’t merely intellectual; eventually the artist’s pursuit of his vision leads him to a transcendental sexual experience that lies outside of the frames of his portraits. But his pursuit is not without its problems, and even the most transcendental of illusions are revealed as just that-- illusions.

This book is a favorite of mine because it pushes my particular buttons. It's about the beauty of the grotesque, about flawed humans and our misapprehension of other people. I recommend it mostly to people interested in that line of thinking. Ripple is part of a triplet of stories that were published under the general heading of Weasel. In my opinion, it is far and away the best and most deeply felt. If you like Cooper, though, Crumple and Suckle are worth checking out. If you live in L.A., go to http://www.hideho.com .


Tags: crumple, dave cooper, indie rec, ripple, suckle

07:58 pm: Manga Rec- Junko Mizuno
The first time I knocked into Junko Mizuno was in Secret Comics Japan , which is a great intro for those who don't know much about underground Japanese comics. There is much to say about how great Junko Mizuno is. Her schtick, so to speak, is drawing horrible, grotesque things in a cutesy way. She actually got into doing the manga thing after becoming obsessed with Sailor Moon. And pretty much every character in her comics is a woman, many of whom disrobe or are naked, but it comes off as so innocent and unsexual that it's pretty admirable. Most men in her comics are tiny little bobbleheads and indistinguishable from one another.

The first full-on book of hers I read was Pure Trance , an apocalyptic future adventure in which a sweet, good-natured nurse must struggle to help her ailing patients despite the machinations of her evil, drug-addicted Head of Hospital. One of the many great things about this book are the little footnote bits at the bottom of each page that describe all the odd little creatures and technologies that are in the Pure Trance world.

The other thing Mizuno does is to take Western fairy tales and turn them on their head in her own particular way. My favorite of these is Cinderalla , in which instead of royalty, Cinderalla's Prince Charming is a zombie. This isn't to say the others aren't also fantastic. Not only is Hansel and Gretel completely tubular on all levels, but it comes with stickers. Stickers, people. Also wonderful is Princess Mermaid . It's worth noting that Mizuno oversees the English translations of her books (in case you don't know, Japanese comics are read back-to-front, so English translations often just reverse the panels, compromising the artistic integrity of the Japanese versions). She reconfigures the panels recolors them especially for the prints. Her books are beautiful to look at.

I would be remiss in not guiding you to her wonderful site, http://www.mizuno-junko.com , since you can also find statues and merchandise. I usually hate merchandizing, but she has elevated it to an art form.

I should stress that I cannot recommend Junko Mizuno highly enough. American comic readers tend to be prejudiced against manga. I personally think that's ignorant-- manga had been around for a lot longer than English comic books, and it's always been regarded as literature, rather than as something for the kiddies. Also, there's just so much of it-- it's as big as the movie industry in Japan, whereas in America it's a risky business and you don't really make profits outside of Marvel and DC. You can hate manga but you will love Junko. Also, the manga world is healthily populated with female creators, even within the sphere of skebe porno comics. The American comic book world could really learn from its Japanese counterpart.


Tags: cinderalla, hansel and gretel, junko mizuno, manga rec, princess mermaid, pure trance

07:50 pm: Indie Rec: Charles Burns
1. Black Hole

If you happened to pick up stray issues of this comic before it was collected, chances are you probably didn’t realize how good the overarching story was. Set in Washington, Black Hole follows two protagonists who contract a strange, unexplained STD which manifests unique grotesqueries upon those who contract it. Often, the symptoms that the characters develop are extensions of the characters’ personalities and problems. One character rips her skin off; another has a little mouth in his throat that voices all the things he represses. As endlessly interesting as the conceit is, the story of the two protagonists (which could easily have been told without the STD) is hugely compelling. It is a level-headed and realistic portrayal of the illusions and realities of first love gone wrong and gone right.

If you live in L.A., go to Hi de Ho! http://www.hideho.com
If not, you can by it: here .

2. El Borbah

Prior to Black Hole, Charles Burns worked on some stories of a chain-smoking Mexican wrestler called El Borbah. The world Burns evokes is a playful mish mash stripped from classic horror and sci fi movies, evoked with a modern touch. The artwork is, as always, top notch. However, where Black Hole was made up of head scratching issues that added up to a whole greater than the sum of its parts, El Borbah is made up of fun stories that don't add up to the kind of genius you find in Black Hole. You can find it here

3. Facetasm

Finally, there is this amazing find called Facetasm which is the result of a collaboration between Charles Burns and Gary Panter (punk king of the indies, if you don't know). Remember those books you had as kids where you'd have various people, and the pages would be cut into sections so you could flip around and put different heads with torsos? Wll, this is like that, only with faces. Burns and Panter both excel at the grotesque, and the combination of the two is indescribable. We have this at Hi de Ho, or can order it for you! If you don't live in L.A., go here .


Tags: black hole, charles burns, el borbah, facetasm, indie rec

06:16 pm: Indie Rec: Jim Woodring
Frank was, luckily, my introduction to comics, and it remains my favorite comic to date. The best comics show instead of telling, and Frank, a comic told entirely in pictures, is particularly strong in that regard. Woodring has reduced his plots and characters to their most primitive elements. His characters act in almost childlike ways. What results, however, aren’t simple stories, but surreal narratives that are simultaneously primal and transcendental. They’re stories that are limitless in their range; they can be read by anyone and any culture, a result which Woodring intended. I recommend the “Gentlemanhog” story, and also keep your eye out for the freakiest panel in comics history.

If you live in L.A., go to http://www.hideho.com . It's at 6th and Santa Monica. If not...

The Book of Frank: Here
Seeing Things: Here
The Book of Jim: Here
Pupshaw and Pushpaw: Here
Trosper: Here It comes with a CD!


Tags: frank, indie rec, jim woodring

03:59 pm: Preliminaries
A bit of a preliminary explanation. I work at Hi De Ho Comics in California (www.hideho.com), and many people ask me for recommendations. And I make pretty good recommendations. I read everything, whether it be superhero, indie, or manga. So if you're new to comics or if you're looking for something new, this is the place for you.