Wednesday Comics

DC Comics has always been willing to play with the form of its comics and characters, from those giant Superman vs The Flash books back in the 70s to the panoramic Zuda books. And over the past few years, they've experimented with weekly comics--successfully with 52, less so in Countdown, and a return to form in the more tightly focused Trinity, which finished its run a few months ago. As an encore, DC has set up Wednesday Comics for a summer run. Rather than one story serialized in the normal 32 page comic format, Wednesday Comics is done in the style of an old Sunday Supplement--modern superheroes translated to the Prince Valiant age. Each issue consists of 15 pages, each by different creators, over the next 3 months.

Wednesday Comics #1 came out this week. It is on full color newsprint, and each page unfolds to a glorious broadsheet size. So a brief look at some of the stories on offer:

Kamandi by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook

Sook (Doctor Thirteen, X-Factor) is a wonderful artist and this is one of the pages that really puts you in the mind of an Alex Raymond or Frank King. As Kamandi may be an obscure character to the wider audience DC hopes to attract, the page basically consists of an introduction to the Great Disaster and Kamandi topped off with a good old fashioned cliffhanger in the last panel.

Superman by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo

The story begins in medias beatdown with a nice panel of Superman being pounded across the Metropolis skyline towards the reader. Along with Batman and a few others, in Bermejo's painterly style this is just a good normal comics page, reproduced at a larger size.

Deadman by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck

A nicely designed page that puts Boston Brand square in the center and is able to get both Deadman's convoluted backstory and the beginning of its murder mystery out on to the table. The art was a bit like the work Darwyn Cooke did on the Spirit last year.

Metamorpho by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred

A lot of white space--almost a 3rd--taking both the top title and the bottom list of characters. Again, just setting up the background and relationships. Allred is perfect for Metamorpho as it was obvious he would be.

Strange Adventures by Paul Pope

With Kamandi, this page most successfully gives off the vintage newspaper strip vibe. It intro's Adam Strange and Alana on Rann with an attack by the Rock People of Ragathann(!) Pope's style as always straddles the line between mainstream and indie. Subtle, green-greyish coloring as well.

Supergirl by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor

On the other side of the spectrum from Strange Adventures. On first read, I thought that Wednesday Comics lacked a Sugar and Spike humor comic but on reflection, here it is. Amanda (Power Girl) Connor just has one of the most appealing art styles out there right now, a lot like Kevin Maguire way back when he was on Justice League International. And with Supergirl chasing after Krypto and Streaky the Super Cat, 'nuff said.

Wonder Woman by Ben Caldwell

This will probably be the most polarizing strip. It is incredibly dense, with easily the highest panel count that, along with muddy color (at least on my copy) and cursive lettering, makes it hard to follow. With that said, Caldwell gives us a dreamy fairy tale Princess Diana that has the potential to be my favorite of these stories.

Sgt. Rock by Joe and Adam Kubert

Joe Kubert can do anything. Here, Rock is being tortured by the SS as he tells us in voiceover that Easy Co was on a mission to rescue some french partisans.

The Flash by Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher

One of the cleverer pages. It's divided into 2 parts as though it was 2 strips sharing the same page, The Flash and the Mary Worth-like Iris West. First, The Flash strip opens as though it is at the climax of a story that has been going on for months, complete with Gorilla Grodd and a bomb on a speeding subway train. Then, in counterpoint, the bottom Iris West strip features Iris leaving Barry a Dear John letter because of his neglectful ways. And in another nice touch, Iris West is colored in that old school 4 color dot process.

Hawkman by Kyle Baker

And finally, a powerful opening here with Katar Hol ascending with a flock of birds towards a highjacked plane. I haven't been a fan of a lot of Baker's more recent work--his line getting squiggly to the point of annoyance--but his recent miniseries Special Forces was a return to form as is this.

Latest Nexus Graphica is available

The latest edition of my graphic novel column Nexus Graphica went live today albeit with a more political slant.

This morning a friend revealed his Obama presidency fears to me. While he stands firmly with the candidate, desiring a change from the Republican rush to ruin of the previous eight years, he fears the neo-Nazi racists of the extreme far right, fermented by the assertions of neo-cons and their new poster child, Sarah Palin, that the black, falsely-labeled Muslim, pro-choice, baby-eating (OK, I made that one up), Barak Obama and his "terrorist" friends will destroy the so-called "real" America of the pro-life, gun-toting, evangelical Christians. My friend worries that shortly into Obama's term, one of those nutcases will assassinate the president, and plunge the U.S. into decades of political and civil strife. This unlikely scenario lies beyond my friend's control, yet it paralyzes and consumes him.

I understand the instinct to freeze when confronted with the overwhelming. I encounter a similar situation every day, albeit without the additional pressure of a potential disaster some months away.

I do go on to discuss The Man Called Nova, the Legion of Superheroes, Herbie, Stardust, and several other comics.

Vampirella

Hot on the heels of the Creepy Archives Volume 1, comes a book reprinting another Warren magazine title from the late 60s, early 70s, Vampirella. The book Vampirella: Crimson Chronicles Maximum Vol 1 (no, I can't explain the "maximum") is another in the happy flood of black and white compilations. While welcome, the book does have its problems--there's no table of contents listing the story titles and dates of publication, there aren't any repos of the covers, and the pages aren't even numbered.  Still, I suppose we take what we can get.

Vampirella had a ridiculous premise, even for comic books. She hails from the dying planet Drakulon, where the rivers flow with blood instead of water. She steals away on a spaceship to Earth. Once here, Vampi must feed on blood every 24 hours, at least until a scientist develops a serum for her in one of the early issues. And then she's doing battle against some sort of lords of chaos. And then it turns out Dracula is also from Drakulon (of course) and they might become lovers. And then Vampi might be a reincarnated Cleopatra. To be honest, I don't know if the silver age editors at DC who put out the ape stories reprinted in DC Goes Ape would have signed off on some of this stuff. And, of course, nothing explains Vampi's skimpy costume.

But here's the thing. In the time-honored tradition of comics, engaging art can rescue the lamest story. Vampirella had a spectacular artist, Jose Gonzalez, early on in the series. His art was created for black and white publication, a rich mix of pencil and pen and grey washes, all on the same page. Gonzales' art is the reason these stories were worthy of reprinting and it's worth taking a look at, even with all the nagging little faults mentioned above. 

Amazing Mystery Funnies

While researching an article, I downloaded Amazing Mystery Funnies Volume 2, Number 7 [Whole # 11] (July, 1939) from the extraordinary Golden Age Comics site. Noteworthy for the first appearance of the Fantom of the Fair, one of the earliest masked comic book heroes, the tale featured the dynamic art of creator Paul Gustavson. His work offered clean lines and sensational action. It's obvious how this character influenced the countless masked heroes to come and helped to spawn an entire industry.



Gustavson's work alone would be enough to makes this into an impressive issue, but there is also a sensational two-tone crime story from the legendary Bill Everett (creator of the Sub-Mariner and co-creator of Daredevil).



Interestingly, Will Eisner's Spirit premiered roughly one year later in 1940!

The remainder of the comic contains a smattering of mostly quality western, humor, science fiction and even prose tales. This was back in the era of the 52 page cross-genre comic book anthology!

Do yourself a favor, visit Golden Age Comics and download this gem along with thousands of other great titles.

Coming this Wednesday

Just an FYI for those of you who don't haunt your comics store every Wednesday. Marvel Comics continues its run of giving some of today's hottest crime writers the keys to its characters with Punisher Max Special: Little Black Book. The story is by Victor Gischler, author of Gun Monkeys and The Pistol Poets. I have no idea what it is about but I love Gischler so I'll be buying a copy. On top of this, Duane Swierczynski is currently writing Cable--Marvel smartly put an ad for it in the back of his (great) new book Severance Package. And Charlie Huston (A Dangerous Man, Six Bad Things) scripted the first issues of the recent Moon Knight relaunch. I'm immune to most of Marvel's stuff, but seeing these names on covers is making me pause when walking through the comics store on Wednesdays. Very smart moves by their editorial staff. 

Shameless Plug

My review of David Hadju's The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America ran in today's Austin Chronicle.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s, these 10-cent illustrated pulp magazines – intended primarily for children – featured stories of superheroes, teen angst, crime, romance, and horror. Many individual issues sold in the millions of copies. To the ire of many "right-thinking" adults, these tales often contained such unsavory elements as sexual innuendo, detailed crime depictions, and excessive violence. Parent groups routinely blamed comic books for "juvenile delinquency." The hysteria reached a fever pitch with the publication of Fredric Wertham's controversial vilification of comic books, Seduction of the Innocent (1954). The ensuing televised congressional hearings almost destroyed the industry, forcing hundreds of publishers out of business and nearly 1,000 people out of work.
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Kirby: King of Comics

I'd been looking forward to Kirby: King of Comics since I first heard about it a couple of months ago. I saw it over at Bookstop the other day. Most of the copies were in shrinkwrap but one was open. I don't think I'll be buying this, after all. The first sign of trouble was that it was oversized, at $40 perfect for a coffee table book. And from my thumb through standing in the aisle, that's in large part what it is, Kirby's art and the book design overshadowing Evanier's writing. I guess my disappointment stems not so much from what Kirby: King of Comics is as from the fact that it's not what I'd hoped and thought it would be: a mainstream but scholarly biography of Kirby's life. 

He's been dead over ten years and it's certainly time for such a dominant figure of comics and pop culture to get the biography he deserves, more in line with David Michaelis' Schulz and Peanuts from last year. Or Gabler's Walt Disney. Just think about what a Kirby biographer would get to play with, even in pop culture beyond comics:  the history of American animation from Kirby working as an inbetweener at the Fleisher Studios on Popeye cartoons in the 30s to his design work for television animation in the 70s. And in fine art, his work was "appropriated" by Roy Lichtenstein in the 1960s. The man grew up in a world that no longer exists, New York's Lower East Side, pretty much a real Bowery Boy, and he fought in World War II. Not to mention that his life pretty much is the history of the American comic book industry. To me, he screams out for a writer (don't laugh) capable of the depth Robert Caro has shown in his three volume LBJ biography. Funny enough, I still think Mark Evanier--who has always shown such an impressive grasp of comics history in his blogging and other writing---might be the person to tell such a big story; he worked with Kirby, and he himself has spent years in the industry, but I just don't think he had the space to do it here. 

Of course with all that said, I was just thumbing through it standing in the aisle so maybe I'm dead wrong. 

Staple Pop

I don't know if you all are already listening, but just in case, Staple Pop is a weekly podcast for the sort of person who knows that the new comics come out on Wednesday. In other words, our sort of people. 

Each episode consists of the group reviewing the comics that came out that week along with fast and funny (and Lone Star Beer aided) riffing on pop culture in general. The ringleader is Brandon from Austin Books who many of us do actually see every Wednesday. 

It's fast become one of the podcasts I listen to right after I download it. With that said, a warning. They do work blue---and I'm talking Redd Foxx I Ain't Lied Yet blue--so if that sort of thing distresses you, you might want to give it a pass. 

But they did a great show with formerly local comics artist John Lucas, so you should go to their site and download that episode at the very least. (Those of us who know Lucas know that he is the straight arrow type who can be counted on to halt any sort of foul-mouthed shenanigans.) 

Texas Book Festival: The Texas Comics Scene

This coming weekend, I am moderating a panel at the Texas Book Festival with four Texas comic book creators including our very own Paul Benjamin.

The Texas Comics Scene
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Time: 12:30 - 1:30
Capitol Extension Room E2.010

We've asked four of the state's hottest graphic novelists and comics creators - both writers and illustrators - to talk about their latest works and what's going on in the Texas comics scene. Come hear how Texas is influencing the comics world.

Authors:
Matthew Sturges
Terry Moore
Lea Hernandez
Paul Benjamin
Moderated By: Rick Klaw

If you've never attended a Texas Book Festival, you're missing out on a fun outing. Come check it out the wide array of authors including Sherman Alexie, Michael Connelly, Elmer Kelton, Joe R. Lansdale, Alan Cheuse and Jane Hamilton. While you are there be sure to drop the panel and say howdy.

Shameless Plug

My review of Comics Gone Ape! is currently available on RevolutionSF.

As mainstays of comic book literature, apes and monkeys have appeared regularly in comics since 1939. Following the 1951 publication of the first ape cover on DC Comics' Strange Adventures #8, the comics industry realized that issues with simians on the cover sold more than those without -- a truism still evident in today's supposedly more sophisticated graphic novel market. In Comics Gone Ape!, Michael Eury lovingly explores this phenomenon and assembles a cornucopia of comic book ape knowledge for gorilla lovers.
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