Fancy Catch-Up

So, earlier this month I vacationed in Vancouver B.C. and caught an exhibit of comic, video game, and animated art at the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG, an unfortunate or awesome acronym depending on your sense of propriety, response to 3rd-wave feminism, and maturity respectively). I’ve neglected posting about it because, there’s really not much to say that hasn’t been said about the respect/renown comics are getting from the mainstream art world and society at large. I’ve never been all too concerned about comics’ reputation, so much as I was stoked to see the original art of so many of my favorite artists. Especially with regard to the drafting process: seeing all the discarded character sketches, panel layouts, and notes.

You’ll have to excuse the picture quality– taking photos was prohibited, so I had to be sneaky to get any document of my visit at all. Okay, there was a coffee table book accompanying the exhibition, which didn’t seem all that appealing when I thumbed through it aaaaand, I’m cheap.

Click on pics for a bigger (but still grainy) image.

“Gertie the Dinosaur” wasn’t the first animated cartoon created, it introduced many innovations to the emerging medium. Created by Winsor Mckay, the visionary artist of “Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland,” the cartoon was originally part of a vaudeville act where McKay interacted with the film as it was projected.

Winsor McKay’s production notes for “Gertie the Dinosaur” (listed as “Bessie,”  text reads: “Hands Off / Leave this Book Alone / Data of Bessie / the Dinosaur”

George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, where love is expressed in the form of a brick to the head. Recently reprinted in beautiful Chris Ware designed tabloid-sized editions by Fantagraphics.

Speaking of Chris Ware, here’s an original page from a recent issue of the Acme Novelty Library. You can see some of his original layout in non-photo blue.

An abandoned page draft from Clyde Fans by Seth.

More pics after the jump

Note To The Lost

This is the only picture of Cassie Hack with clothes on that I could find IN ZEH ENTIRE INTERNETS.

One of the most frequent searches that ends up steering people to this here blog is, “hack/slash.” It’s ironic, because it’s a comic only mentioned in passing (and rather dismissively), at the very bottom of my Hembeck 100 Things I Love About Comics list– largely congratulating myself on my good taste/sense for avoiding said title. Yay, me.

So given that googling “hack/slash,” brings folks to this site, I might as well offer the barest (har har) of reasons for objecting to the comic, and maybe supply some useful information to fans of the crotch-shottiest, faux-gothiest, generally crappy soft-porn comic to ever create marketing synergy with the Suicide Girls.

Actually, I think that last sentence pretty much covers it.

P.S. Actual pornography is plentiful for those searching (because you’re obviously not reading Hack/Slash for the story), there’s decent survival horror out there worth reading, and if you want to see some Suicide Girl style punk/goth-ish ladies– why not just go to the damn site (or any of its many derivatives)?

P.P.S. I have to say I feel silly linking to available alternate sources of porn on the internet– it’s sort of like pointing out the stripes on a zebra or the (unlovely) lumps on a Fergie. Just saying, is all.

Review Revue

All-Star Superman #12 concludes what’s been one of the most moving, inventive, and just plain fun comic reading experiences of my life. I want to devote a longer post to it later this weekend, but in the meantime here’s some talk about this past month of comics…

• Batman Detective Comics #848
• Guerillas #1
• Criminal #5
• Scalped #21
• The Lone Ranger #13
• Buffy: The Vampire Slayer #18
• Ex Machina #38
• Final Crisis: Revelations #2
• Lucky #2

Reviews after the jump…

RE: Nunchucks? More Like Fun-Chucks!

So, Chris Sims the Invincible Superblogger posted an epic tale of Brave & Bold Lego Adventurin’ that was subsequently illustrated by ISB reader Kate Holden leading to more illustrations and inspiration for an ISB contest. The rules? Simply illustrate Batman wielding nunchuks made up of something that is not traditionally used for the making of nunchuks. So, here’s my entry and possibly the first in a series…

Disclaimer: Any Laffs™ associated with this post may require prior knowledge of Goddamn Batman, his sidekicks, and a more abstract and generally affable response to Nunchuku-related humours.

Band of Future Past: The Dead Science

To me, my Dead Science!

Long before they became my friends, I’ve held the opinion that the Dead Science are Seattle’s most underrated band. With feet equally rooted in jazz and experimental art influences, the trio have been honing a sound that is paradoxically forward-thinking and hauntedly nostalgic, as if from Days of Future Past.

It’s appropriate then, that in a time of Final Crises and triumphant evil that these avant-rock flaneurs have released their latest album, Villainaire. Appropriate because the band themselves are comic fans obsessed with fellow sequential art obsessives the Wu-Tang Clan; also, because the themes of the album deal with the semantics of villainy and self-perception and self-mythologizing. Singer/guitarist Sam Mickens states in a Stranger interview that Villainaire is, “the idea of being rich, rich with not necessarily even evil, but rich with maybe actions that could be considered evil or decadent, and embracing those actions, allowing those energies to become your raiment, your clothes.”

In Villainaire, the dominant comic books referenced are Batman and the X-Men (particularly Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men), the idea that decadence can become a defense is counterbalanced with themes of inborn strength and mutation. Duelling Apollonian and Dionysian impulses explored alongside the ways in which our childhood fantasies manifest themselves in the identities we project into the world. Heady ideas, leavened by a theatrical lack of pretension paralleled in the instrumentation as pop R&B hooks are layered over polyrhythmic drum beats and sharply syncopated guitars and bass. Summarizing the band’s sound is difficult; imagine Chet Baker obsessing over Prince instead of Bird, performing in the practice space alongside Blonde Redhead covering Sun Ra and you might start getting an inkling for both the cerebral and visceral pleasure of their music.

On Villainaire, the band swells with additional instrumentation, orchestral strings and brass arranged by bassist Jherek Bischoff, along with layers of additional synths and electronic beats by band members and guests like Past Lives’ Morgan Henderson. Other guests like Celebration’s Katrina Ford and Evangelista’s Carla Bozulich add their distinct voices to Micken’s airy crooning. You can download the “School of Villainy” mixtapes for free direct from the band’s website and hear selections from the record (along with skits, remixes, etc.) for yourself. My personal track highlights are, “Throne of Blood,” and “Make Mine Marvel.” Both songs are a balance of baroque and progressive impulses, full of fluttering, stuttered rhythms and triumphant orchestral flourishes. As Eric Grandy pointed out in the aforementioned Stranger interview with Mickens, the Dead Science create music that communicates and converses with the past/present/future of popular culture. And it’s a culture rich with villains but only sparsely gifted with the rare appearance of a Villainaire.

All Star Goddamn Batman Recall

All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder has been Frank Miller’s self-parodying gift to bloggers, who have yet to determine whether its epic crappiness as a comic is deliberate or (probably) not. While the jury is still out on that question, in a dashing stroke of magnanimity Miller (and DC’s editorial department) have given the interwebs yet another gift. Truly their cups runneth over.

Funnybook Babylon has the scoop on an ASBARBW #10’s recall, which was caused by a botched attempt to censor Miller’s salty dialogue. The cuss words were to be printed with black bars to obscure the profanity (which maybe shouldn’t have been printed at all if they didn’t want folks to read it?) but as can be seen in the example below (also from the folks at Funnybook Babylon), you can still make out the swears. Check out their original article for more examples of the offending language, and repeated references (within 2 consecutive panels?!) to Batgirl as a “sweet piece,” and “jailbait.” Ladies and gentlemen, let’s have a round of applause for Frank Miller, keeping dialogue fresh and classy as a waft of FeBreeeeeze in your pee-hole.

Late Pass Reviews

Last week I was in the drizzly wilds of Canada doing some camping on Vancouver island as well as the city of Vancouver proper, eating some delicious food and checking out the Vancouver Art Gallery’s recent exhibition of comic art. More on comics in the VAG (eww) later in the week, but first I want to talk about some of the past week’s funny-book issues.

So in addition to being late on reviewing these titles, I’m late to James Robinson’s (Starman/JSA) writing turn on the man of steel. Superman #679 has the big blue cheese getting the everlovin’ splash pages beat out of him by Atlas with attempted rescues by Supergirl (best try: Supes tells her to run), Lana Lang (honorable mention: shutdown and fired by virtual-Luthor), Steel (pathetic: gets beat in a single panel along with some random bald dude* who’s just wearing a Superman T-shirt).

(click for larger size)

Renato Guedes pencils get a lot of help from Hi-Fi’s muted, well textured coloring. Some of Guedes’ facial expressions and poses have a stiffness that lends me to believe he works heavily from photo references, which isn’t a bad thing until you have that awkward stiffness in poses and facial expressions (I’m looking at you too, Tony Harris). Overall the issue is finely paced between the big fight, your standard cutaways to Lois & Jimmy, aforementioned other characters trying to do what they can to help, and has an ending perfectly tailored to ensure readers will pick up the next whizbang issue! Srsly guys, the last page is awesome– a great white hope emerges to help Supes in his time of need and it be spoilerville to tell you exactly who our awesome hero is, so get this one and read the next one!

Speaking of Supermen, Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D is some serious fun. Sure 3D’s a gimmick, but it’s used sparingly and effectively. (“I’m already searching for the source of the attack from nowhere– X-ray vision, telescopic vision, radio vision. But she was right: there’s only one way to process what I’m seeing. 4-D vision upgrade. Great Krypton!”) This is my favorite Doug Mahnke art since he and Morrison collaborated on Frankenstein for Seven Soldiers of Victory. I’m surprised Morrison stopped at giving us four separate Supermen– although tragic Nazi Superman, Overman of Earth-2, and the Dr. Manhattan/Reed Richards stand-in we’re given are thoroughly nutty and enjoyable in true Morrison style. I’ve really never been much of a Superman fan (Luthor has always been a more interesting a character), but between Morrison’s All-Star treatment (which is as brilliant as pizza is delicious), Final Crisis, and James Robinson writing him… well damnit, I guess I’m gonna read me a buncha Superman.

And and and then in Justice Society of America #18 there’s the older Superman from Earth-22 who’s been hanging with the JSA and watching to see if the events that ravaged his world in Kingdom Come, specifically the birth of Magog who really effed things up in that gouache alternate reality. And in this issue we finally get Magog, but more importantly we get to see some of the nuances in different inking styles as Mick Gray, Kris Justice, and Nathan Massengill trade off quill duties on this issue. All do a fine job, but if the credited order corresponds to pages worked (and I can discern them from what little I know about their respective styles)– then I have to say Nathan Massengill FTW on this issue. I especially like the closeup of the alternate Supes which has a real Kevin Nowlan-y feel in the lines’ weight.

Scalped remains awesome in its bleakness and issue 20 concludes “The Boudoir Stomp” storyline, not with a bang but a alcoholic whimper. Dash Bad Horse and Rachel Red Crow commisserate over their shared and separate miseries, both cracking new ground as they excavate rock bottom for a basement addition. This is not the issue to buy if you’ve never read the series before, and I imagine that as far as collected trades go– “Boudoir Stomp” won’t be winning over any new fans. But as someone who’s already well hooked, I gotta say that Jason Aaron has been doing a fantastic job slowing the action down and just letting readers stew in the miserable aftermath of the whambang-shit’s-just-getting-crazier-and-crazier first three story arcs.

Jack of Fables #25 finally gets us back to the main story, filling us in on what a hussy that Robin Page is and more examples of Jack’s epic douchery. Buuut we also get strung along with more tantalizing clues about Bookburner and the nature of Literals, Fables, the Page sisters, etc. Well we don’t really get clues, we get whiffs of clues– implied hints of the general architecture which itself is referenced but not explicated. Basically we still don’t know what the hell is going on, but the story remains breezy, snarky, and charming despite Jack’s lack thereof.

And this week’s biggest disappointment is the freshly renumbered Runaways #1 by Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos. I can’t really speak to Moore’s past work, haven’t read it although I’d always meant to (just like I’ve always meant to reread Tristram Shandy or Don Quixote). I’ve always heard Moore has a knack for believable characters rife with interpersonal melodrama but this issue was mediocre at best. The dialogue tells me that Moore doesn’t really have any idea of who these characters are. Especially egregious are Chase’s lines, punctuated more often with “Duuuudes…” than with periods.

Chase hates this sandwich almost as much as I hate this art

Chase isn’t book smart, but he’s more streetwise bad-seed, than yah-brah bro-heim and the handling of the other characters is equally shallow. Ramos’ ungainly-proportioned art (and much tackier sense of fashion) is also a big turn-off compared to the clear, clean lines of Adrian Alphona (and yes, I noticed and cared that he knew how real teens dress). I really wanted to like this book, especially after Joss Whedon’s run being a bit of a let-down and I really want to see these characters in a decent ongoing title and would be more than happy to regularly pay to see them in decent stories. This is none of those things. And fuck you Terry Moore and Ramos for inserting a lame Kevin Smith reference into an already underwhelming comic. (Oh and fuck you Kevin Smith for being the KING-of-Underwhelming.)

*Who may be someone I’m supposed to recognize but don’t. Maybe he’s the homeless Superman of Zann-bey-whaff on Earth 5-26?

Catching Up On Some Sleeper

So I recently burned through Ed Brubaker’s *ahem* slept-on Wildstorm superpowered spy series, Sleeper. It has all the great plot twists and shoot-em-up action of say, Milligan’s Human Target and the high-wire tension of films like Infernal Affairs. Sleeper follows deep cover agent Holden Carver who’s been rising through the ranks of an international criminal organization to determine its ultimate plans. Placed by International Operations’ (I/O) chief, John Lynch (the Nick-Fury-also-ran you may remember from Gen13), Carver is slowly gaining the trust and attention of the organization’s leader Tao (the test-tube-baby that became a super-genius villain in Alan Moore’s WildCATS run). On the cusp of entering Tao’s inner circle and having access to his plans, all knowledge of Carver’s deep cover status gets lost after Lynch is shot in the head and goes into a coma. And the mastermind behind Lynch’s attempted assasination is, of course Tao– casting doubt as to how good Carver’s cover really is.

As far as the government and his former fiance is concerned, during Carver’s last I/O mission, he betrayed his country and stole the alien artifact he was sent to retrieve.This artifact bonded to Carver’s body (killing his teammates in the process) making him a sort of pain-battery. He’s not invulnerable but he doesn’t feel pain, and can actually absorb it and retransmit it to others by touch. And while he’s doing all the dirty work to gain the trust of his villainous overseer, Carver gets intwined with one of Tao’s other enforcers, Miss Misery a chain-smoking redhead who gets physically stronger for every bad thing that she does.

Overall, Sleeper is a sharply paced and entertaining whiplash of a story with some cleverly conceived superpowers placed on some deeply desperate and conflicted characters. The story begs to be adapted for the big screen, it clearly draws on a lot of cinematic pulp and TV influences, even titling the two 12 issue runs as “Season 1″ and “Season 2.” Enter buzzkill via The Hollywood Reporter: Tom Cruise set to star in Raimi-adapted film of Sleeper. And aside from Tom Cruise being a loon, Sam Raimi really isn’t that good a director. I love the Evil Dead stuff as much as the next geek but those Spidey films stank. There were some decent performances but overall Raimi’s strengths lie in humor (and awkwardly shoehorning in 9-11 flag-waving), but he’s pretty dull when it comes to actually shooting an action sequence and only so-so at handling the romance and drama.

And I really, really, really don’t want to see Cruise in this movie– we’ve seen him do various (the same) interpolations of his shark-grinned super spy hanging off buildings, cliffs, trains Anthony Edward’s nipples, motorcycles, etc…  For the record, I didn’t need to know he was a batshit Scientological believer in alien lava souls to dislike his acting, I just needed Cocktail. If Cruise opts to take the more challenging and off-type role of say, Tao maybe this movie has hope but, if he predictably takes the lead as Holden Carver… I’d say stick a fork in it, this turkey is done for.

Meanwhile, in a CBR interview Brubaker mentioned he’d like to see Cate Blanchett take the role of Miss Misery, while the Scotsman blogging over at Bad Librarianship, says Sleeper artist Sean Phillips favors, “Rachel Weisz, but… ‘they’re all too skinny.’” I think Blanchett would be interesting and Weisz could certainly pull off a damn flinty stare, but Mad Men ’s  zaftig bombshell Christina Hendricks would be my pick. I mean sure, Blanchett has got a whiff of Veronica Lake as Brubaker pointed out, but Hendricks has a lock on noir-apropo smoldering sass and not to get too crude, but she is like damn! And  ka-pow! By that I mean, the sound of your girlfriend slapping you for ogling AMC’s Emmy-nominated original series just a little too much. In addition to being a fine actress, she’s a handsome lady is alls I’m saying.